I’m Drawing Lines, I’m Drawing Lines on Paper
This Zoilus post about art-themed rock & roll made me think of Savage Republic and their great Tragic Figures album. Was going to mention “Next to Nothing” (about drawing, painting, sculpting) in the comments box, but then it occurred to me, what do I have this blog for if not times like this?
The song’s probably one of Savage Republic’s smoother & friendlier ones, though I think the rap they sometimes get as being harsh & abrasive is a little overstated. Here’s another track from the same album, more jittery but strangely majestic:
Fittingly enough in this context, Savage Republic were known for their lavishly packaged records. I have Tragic Figures on both vinyl and CD, each of them ooh-worthily encased in folding-out letterpress cardboard. (I also had a duller conventional CD version at one point, but I think I gave it away.)
As that second song indicates, Savage Republic were also known for African motifs. And now (cue the go-go dancers and turn on the SEGUE sign), from the Mali singers Amadou et Mariam, here’s a fantastic song that did make it onto the Zoilus playlist:
You know when you listen to an album and the whole thing’s great and all, totally solid, and yet there’s one song that’s so clearly the standout that it almost seems unfair to the rest of the album to have included it? For me, “Artistiya” is that song on the last Amadou et Mariam album. So propulsive and urgent, yet also warm & arms-wide-open.
Saw Amadou et Mariam live on the weekend (they did a free show at the Harbourfront stage, and in fact I think I glimped Mr. Zoilus in the crowd too) and funnily enough “Artistiya,” while excellent, didn’t stand out so much from the rest of their material. Which was all good, in a warm evening breeze coming in off the lake kind of way. The backing band supplied most of the energy & the funk-workout chops, but A&M's singing and A's guitar playing provided all the personality.
Buy Tragic Figures here and Amadou et Mariam’s Dimanche a Bamako here.
Oh, and right now this is my new favourite mp3 blog.
- Savage Republic, “Next to Nothing”
The song’s probably one of Savage Republic’s smoother & friendlier ones, though I think the rap they sometimes get as being harsh & abrasive is a little overstated. Here’s another track from the same album, more jittery but strangely majestic:
- Savage Republic, “The Ivory Coast”
Fittingly enough in this context, Savage Republic were known for their lavishly packaged records. I have Tragic Figures on both vinyl and CD, each of them ooh-worthily encased in folding-out letterpress cardboard. (I also had a duller conventional CD version at one point, but I think I gave it away.)
As that second song indicates, Savage Republic were also known for African motifs. And now (cue the go-go dancers and turn on the SEGUE sign), from the Mali singers Amadou et Mariam, here’s a fantastic song that did make it onto the Zoilus playlist:
- Amadou et Mariam, “Artistiya”
You know when you listen to an album and the whole thing’s great and all, totally solid, and yet there’s one song that’s so clearly the standout that it almost seems unfair to the rest of the album to have included it? For me, “Artistiya” is that song on the last Amadou et Mariam album. So propulsive and urgent, yet also warm & arms-wide-open.
Saw Amadou et Mariam live on the weekend (they did a free show at the Harbourfront stage, and in fact I think I glimped Mr. Zoilus in the crowd too) and funnily enough “Artistiya,” while excellent, didn’t stand out so much from the rest of their material. Which was all good, in a warm evening breeze coming in off the lake kind of way. The backing band supplied most of the energy & the funk-workout chops, but A&M's singing and A's guitar playing provided all the personality.
Buy Tragic Figures here and Amadou et Mariam’s Dimanche a Bamako here.
Oh, and right now this is my new favourite mp3 blog.
posted by DW | 5.7.06
1 Comments:
Next to Nothing is a lovely bit of sardonic despair. Ivory Coast is a favorite of mine; on the whole, I prefer their instrumentals to their vocal songs. I think my absolute favorite on Tragic Figures is the cover of Mikis Theodorakis' O Andonis (main theme from Z), which apparently made them very popular in Greece. Great band, unfortunately underappreciated.
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