slow down

In DominoLand, summer is well and truly upon us. The temptation is to keep it upbeat but, y'know, really morose and slow music can communicate the heat just as well. So lay back and soak up the misery!

Codeine - Pickup Song



That elephant-like guitar sounds like that crazy heat-haze you get off really hot roads - and if anyone can explain to me exactly what causes that, please leave a comment. I'd appreciate it.

Codeine - D



My favourite fact about Codeine is that their first recording was a NINE MINUTE version of Harry Nillson's "Without You", slowed down to Codeine speed. I'd love to get hold of that! Oxbow and I once did a Codeine-ified version of Bryan Adams' "Everything I Do...", which also worked well.

I think I bought Frigid Stars, Codeine's classic study of angst and sloth, in the early summer of 1991 - maybe that's the link with sunny good times? Okay, you got me - despite my tongue-in-cheek tone, "Frigid Stars" blew me away when I first heard it and it's still a mighty powerful album.

Idaho - Skyscrape



Idaho were one of the many slowcore bands to come out after Codeine. They didn't create that much interest, possibly because they sounded too clean? Despite that, they must have had a fairly decent following as they're still going. This is a great song and a graet sounding song: ace feedback (that wobbly heat-haze again!), a distant relative of Mark Lanegan on vocals and that barely-arsed tempo. Was there a lot of really heavy drugs around at this time?

Can't have a discussion about slowcore without referencing Galaxie 500, can we? The band who taught me that it didn't have to all be dissonance and angular guitar riffs, and that it was sometimes ok to listen to songs based around G and E minor chords. I'm assuming you have all the Galaxie 500 albums, so get yer lugs 'round this if you haven't heard it before.

Pierre Etoile - Nineteen Sixty-Nine

Pierre Etoile was the name that was given to the demo recordings that Damon and Naomi of the band put together for the fourth Galaxie album, before Dean Wareham broke up the band. They got released on Rough Trade just before the label went under for issuing too many Butthole Surfers side-project albums. A lesson for us all, there.

Buy - Codeine, "Frigid Stars"
Buy - Idaho, "Year After Year"
Buy - "Pierre Etoile" by Damon and Naomi (reissue) on Elefant records

Visit - Codeine fansite
Visit - Idaho
Visit - Damon and Naomi
Visit - sadcore on Wikipedia