My Culture Clashes With My Shirt.

Yay! I am back in lovely Pittsburgh. I missed my apartment. I missed my quietly-confused Chinese roommate. I missed my goldfish. I missed my computer and my mess of a computer desk. And I missed my happy hard drive full of music and the pile of vinyl sitting next to it begging to be recorded. Luckily while I was trapped in Northwest Ohio I was able to pick up some quality stuff, most of which I’m getting out of the way by posting tonight.

If anyone ever accidentally winds up in the greater Toledo area you can make you stay a little less depressing by heading down to 4020 Secor Rd., home of The Culture Clash. Risen from the ashes of Toledo mainstay Boogie Records, The Culture Clash is a bitchin’ record store full of awesome rarities, imports and the latest indie-releases. Sometimes you can even pick up a sweet little bonus exclusive single or poster also. The place even smells cool. I’m glad The Culture Clash picked up the slack left when Bowling Green’s resident awesome record store The Mad Hatter turned all metal.

The Arcade Fire
Broken Window
I’m not that into The Arcade Fire right now. Don’t get me wrong, I love Neon Bible and still listen to Funeral now and then, but I’m kind of in a “fuck you” mood right now and need something a little heavier. My only complaint with the Canadian indie-rock scene (other than the fact that you can nearly trace every band in Canada to Dan Bejar) is that it’s not really bringing the rock. If someone in the middle of this scene deciding to crank up the tempo and really jam on their axe then I might get more behind the scene. This track is the B-side to The Arcade Fire’s single for ‘Keep The Car Running.’

Patti Smith
Perfect Day
Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect
Pitchforck Media called Patti Smith’s Twelve a “pointless misstep”. And while I am not a huge fan of cover albums I figure that if Patti Smith wants to records an album entirely of other people’s music we should probably let her. The album isn’t great (I’d probably give it 3 or 3.5 stars) but it has some great cuts on it. Highlights for me include her down-home blues rendition of The Allman Bros. ‘Midnight Rider’, a surprisingly faithful take of ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’ and her insane bluegrass reworking of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. And while the world didn’t really need another version of ‘White Rabbit’ it’s nice to hear it sung by a woman who isn’t a heartless drunken whore. These two additional covers are from a 7” promo that was given to certain independent record stores (including The Culture Clash). ‘Perfect Day’ has been covered by everyone from Duran Duran to half of Europe all at once, but Smith’s haunting and heart-breaking take on the song is probably the best since Lou Reed’s original (although I’m still a sucker for the glossy Duran Duran version). ‘Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect’ is a cover of a Decemberists song, the original unheard by me.

Nine Inch Nails
Survivalism_opalheartclinic_Niggy_Tardust (Escaped… (Featuring Saul Williams)
The Hand That Feeds (The Ruff Mix)
The Hand That Feeds (Dub Instrumental)
When I first heard With Teeth I didn’t like it that much, but it really grew on me over time. Considering the strength of that album I was surprised that Trent returned so quickly with his latest record. Year Zero was released just two years after With Teeth, the shortest time period between NIN album releases (Downward Spiral and Broken came out two years apart as well, but Broken was just an EP). Unlike With Teeth I’ve embraced Year Zero from the get go, and I think that Survivalism is his best single since Hurt. This remix of that track is off of the 7” single. The odd spelling, punctuation and parenthesis in the song title is exactly as it appears on the record. For those of you who don’t know, Saul Williams is a great poet/rapper and is worth checking out if you get the chance. The remixes of ‘The Hand That Feeds’ are off of a promo 12” I picked up, and are not on the Everyday Is Exactly The Same EP that featured two other remixes of the same song.

One Response to “My Culture Clashes With My Shirt.”

  1. Drain says:

    keen nin mixes there. for me those are among the hardest to find to complete my collection. you can also find those 2 mixes of ‘the hand that feeds’ on 2 other sources. the ‘ruff mix’ can be found the japanese import version of ‘with teeth’. it can also be found with the dub instrumental on the photek remixes 12”. but still, great stuff.

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