Kurt Pankau Dot Com

Kurt is going through his favorite records.  Read the  explainer  or view  the master list . Artist: The Shelters Title:   The Shelters Released:  2016 Genre:  indie garage rock Closing out the year with a very cut-and-dry straightforward indie rock album. The Shelters are a throwback to 60s rock with a slight skew towards British Invasion--they even cover The Kinks' Nothin' In The World Can Stop Me Worryin' 'Bout That Girl . They got studio time when Tom Petty heard a previous incarnation of the band and gave a couple of the members the keys to his home studio. He co-produced the self-titled debut from The Shelters and gave them creative feedback on the follow-up. The Shelters  bops along at a light and easy pace. It's got a few out-and-out rockers like the opening song Rebel Heart , but even slower jams like Surely Burn  are constructed around solid hooks and strong pop sensibilities. It's a good time. And that wraps her up. ...

Kurt is going through his favorite records.  Read the  explainer  or view  the master list . Artist:  Lerner and Loewe, various Title:   Paint Your Wagon Released:  1969 Genre:  Lerner and Loewe, who are a genre unto themselves Why does this even exist? The 1951 Broadway musical by Lerner and Loewe was not a success. So why would anyone try to adapt it for film nearly two decades later? Why cast Clint Eastwood--a white dude--as a character named Julio? Why cast Lee Marvin--who is not a good singer--as the lead in a musical at all? The adaptation might as well have been a complete re-write. In addition to changing Julio's name to "Pardner", songs and characters were added and removed, the ones that remained were moved around and given to different characters. Notably, the stage show's biggest hit They Call The Wind Maria  (pronounced Mariah--I don't know why) was taken away from the lead and given to a tertiary background character n...

Kurt is going through his favorite records.  Read the  explainer  or view  the master list . Artist:  Doctor Octoroc Title:   8-Bit Jesus Released:  2008 Genre:  holiday chiptunes Merry Christmas, those of you who partake! Because I miscounted, you get an extra post this week, and since today is Christmas, we're going to look at my favorite holiday album, Doctor Octoroc's chiptune holiday opus, 8-Bit Jesus , wherein Levi "Doctor Octoroc" Buffum re-imagines holiday classics in the style of various music from the hit games of the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Feast your ears on Carol Of The Belmonts  ( Carol Of The Bells  in the style of Castlevania ), Kraid Rest Ye Merry Mother Brain ( God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen  a la Metroid ), and Icarus! The Angels Sing  ( Hark! The Herald Angels Sing  a la Kid Icarus ). And my personal favorite, linked above, Have Yourself A Final Little Fantasy . Not all of ...

Kurt is going through his favorite records.  Read the  explainer  or view  the master list . Artist:  Korn Title:   Issues Released:  1999 Genre:  nu-metal If you ever wondered why so much of the early aughts rock scene was dominated by bass-y guitar crunch while dudes whined about their childhoods, blame Korn. Not that they should be held completely accountable for spearheading a movement that was largely implemented by lesser acts, but a lot of the aesthetic and subject matter of nu-metal was pioneered by Jon, Head, Munkee, Fieldy, and Dave. They were a gimmicky band to start out with--they played seven-string guitars with an extra low string (and a five-string bass, although that is already far more common) that were detuned an extra step, making the lowest string of the guitars and bass a fifth lower than a standard-tuned guitar. Detuning is already a thing hard rock bands to make their sound a little chunkier, so the idea here was t...

Kurt is going through his favorite records.  Read the  explainer  or view  the master list . Artist:  Curtis Harding Title:   Soul Power Released:  2014 Genre:  soul power One of the sources I go to for new music is the Next Music podcast hosted by Chris Bro, and a lot of what he features are new artists whose sound is a deliberate lo-fi throwback to older styles. Curtis Harding is squarely in that camp. He was born in Michigan but lacked a permanent home until he was 14 and his family settled in Atlanta. From there, he became part of the local music scene, backing CeeLo Green and forming a touring rock act before striking out on his own as a soul singer. Soul Power  is another one of those records where what you get is exactly what it says on the tin. It's an old-school groove. The one exception is the song I Don't Want To Go Home  which is a garage punk song that's been adapted to Harding's voice. The standout on the record...

Kurt is going through his favorite records.  Read the  explainer  or view  the master list . Artist:  The Presidents Of The United States Of America Title:   Love Everybody Released:  2004 Genre:  power pop The Presidents Of The United States Of America burst onto the 90s rock scene with Lump , an up-tempo number that was just weird enough to sit neatly in second-wave grunge. They were goofy punk with a gimmick: the entire band only used five strings. The singer/bassist plays a "basitar"--a guitar that only has two lower-gauge strings (read as: bass strings) and the guitarist plays a "guitbass" which has three guitar strings. There's a sense of punk minimalism that I admire in that, although their songs have some remarkable underlying complexity. They only use five strings, but they really use  them to their fullest extent. Love Everybody  is the album the recorded after a brief hiatus in the early aughts. It's a little less s...

Kurt is going through his favorite records.  Read the  explainer  or view  the master list . Artist:  Collective Soul Title:   Hints, Allegations, & Things Left Unsaid Released:  1993 Genre:  singer-songwriter alt-metal kind of By 1992, Ed Roland had all but given up on being a musician. He'd studied composition at Berklee College Of Music and been active in the Atlanta club scene for the better part of a decade. He'd worked in a studio engineering and producing for local artists. He'd formed and dissolved two separate bands. His bands had been staples of the club scene. He'd been featured in a movie-of-the-week and even profiled on local television, but he just couldn't get any traction. Frustrated, he decided to shift his efforts into publishing. He got some friends together to record a quick-and-dirty promotional demo in a basement and started shopping the songs around for other artists to cover. The lead song Shine  was an i...