Upsetting The Apple Tart IV - Long Songs

This is my dedication to the lost art of getting lost in music. Early morning train rides half asleep, long songs keep the continuity, black out the gaps and allow you to drift off into or out of. Whatever you want. Anything which offers a bolthole, when the only visual distraction is the garbage strewn gravel banks of Ballyfermot seen through windows fogged up by morning breath, is to be heralded and I've chosen the time honoured medium of the mix tape to pay my respects. There's a risk with long songs. What results can generally be categorised as triumph or tragic waste of time. Longs songs have a tendency to get skipped more often than not, especially on compilations like this where they hog and squat the valuable optical real estate of a CD or the valuable bits in a zip file which needs to squeeze through the pipes. Just as the wise old schoolboy saying goes - more than 3 shakes is a wank - so too in music, more than 3 minutes is also considered onanistic (except maybe in classical music). Elvis got business done in 2:30. Minor Threat in a minute and a half. And I love and respect them for it. Not to the point where I'd fashion myself a quiff or get a blade1 - you can respect the King without trying to be him and if it takes you 2 hours a day to look like a punk you've missed the pony completely. But sometimes you need a bigger canvas. And from a man who's just upgraded from a 4man to a 8man I know all about the need for bigger canvas (the bigger living room will come later).

So here's to journeys, wallpaper, soundtracks, and not knowing whether you're half asleep going clickety clack through Adamstown or half way through a 7 minute drum solo by some band you've never heard of. See? I didnt use the word progressive once.

My 3 minutes are up.

1. Of Montreal - The Past is a Grotesque Animal [11:53]
I've no idea what's going on here. This is unlike anything I've heard from these guys - in fact I haven't liked anything I've heard from them before. But this is interesting and at almost 12 minutes, it'll do to kick us off with the long songs.
On three........."Let's tear our fucking bodies apart."


2. Wolf Parade - Kissing the Beehive [10.52]
Ahh now. If this aint progressive. "If you like Can then I guess you know music".

3. Don Caballero - The Peter Criss Jazz [10.36]
Controversially, this long song is on here mostly because of the the great drumming in the first 2 minutes. Damon Che and Ian Williams (now the guitarist and guiding sound of Battles) were the basis of this incarnation of Don Cab (Pittsburgh) and fuck me. These guys are the muso's musician and while they can deviate into utter noodling, when they hit a groove it's time for the wet ones. Their mostly instrumental songs allowed them to produced some great song titles (pulled straight out of their ass). In The Abscence Of Strong Evidence To The Contrary One May Step Out Of The Way Of The Charging Bull | My Ten Year Old Lady Is Giving It Away | Mmmmm Acting, I Love Me Some Good Acting | Let's Face It Pal, You Didn't Need That Eye Surgery | and my personal favourite Pantsuit, Uggghhh

4. The Wedding Present - Take Me [9:21]
I bought this album when I was about 15 having seen them on Top of The Pops doing Brassneck and I ran up to KFM records in the arcade in Newbridge on my lunchtime, my toes sticking out of my oxblood docs in expectation. The closest you'll get to guitar trance. The rythym guitar is hec-tic...the original guitarist in the Wedding Present was of Ukranian and Irish descent (he later released a Ukranian folk music record and is currently teaching in some Ploytechnic in the UK) so that's where he's getting his crazy intricate rythyms. Joyful.

5. Slint - Washer [8:50]
More memories - these ones are based in bedsits though. What a dark and scary song. I love the guitars on this (and most of Slint's stuff) but the hook on this particularly makes my eyes glaze over. Goodnight My Love.


6. The Wrens - 13 Months In 6 Minutes [6:50]

7. Animal Collective - For Reverend Green [6:35]
The best you've ever played it.

8. Kevin Drew - Gang Bang Suicide [6:22]

9. The Old Believers - Granny's Song [5:10]
Portland OR. Bust. This squeezed on here cos it was the right length. Number 35, Number 2, Number 9, Number 5, 1501 699. and 43. very obvioulsy the wrong album cover but that's OK.

More III|II|I to come next week.....