Our Dear Readers, While perusing the pages of this humble publication a couple of weeks back, we were struck by the resident rock columnist’s highlightification of some of his favorite tracks from his Spring Break trip.
It inspired us to meditate on our own Spring Break trip and the music that we heard.
Upon meditation, we came to the conclusion that our Ultimate Spring Break Mixtape destructifies his. Instead of a mere 24 hours times two, our trip was more like constant driving with a few breaks to get out and stretch our legs, or to check out a local jazz act.
After putting 4,460 miles on the car, all of it with music playing, all of it recorded for posterity in the holy tome “Princes” (our spring break journal, for princes we were), we had accumulated an amazing array of obscure and amazing tracks from which to choose for our amazing Spring Break mixtape.
You don’t know any of these bands, but hey, it can only do you good to at least read about them.
1. Peter Brtzman
This lo-fi, umlauted free kraut jazz soulster really got us rolling with his unique blend of hard-blowing and random emotiveness that combines to create a spontaneous cacophony. I especially like track two on F*ck De Boere.
You probably won’t remember him from his pioneering work with the avant-rock/free volumated jazz group Last Exit, or from his musical musings with the Die Like a Dog Quartet.
2. I’m sure you know that skinny motherf*%@er with the hiiiiigh voice. You know who I’m talking about; the Artist Formerly Known as Prince.
Well, back when he was the Artist Currently Known as Prince he recorded a follow-up to his dynamic Sign O’ the Times album known simply as The Black Album (not to be confused with Metallica’s Black Album or any of the other albums known only by the color of their covers (namely, the White, Pink (SDRE), Blue, Pink (TMBG), Green, and Coco Parfait albums).
However, the ACKAP mysteriously pulled it right before its release. It was seven years before it saw any official release. Of course, we all had bootlegs well before then, but we were able to pick it up on limited edition black vinyl (don’t you love colored vinyl?), so we decided to go ahead and get it again.
Besides, you can never have too much of the ACKAP or the AFKAP, as he is now known.
Our favorite track is Bob George. I don’t know why, but hey, it just fit the mood while driving along the Gulf Coast at sunrise. This was definitely our spring break anthem, and we would often burst into a raucous a capella rendition spontaneously-a vivacious Visuvian explosion of sonic lava from our hearts. Ain’t that a bitch.
2. Deerhoof
Although a higher-profile band than we usually prefer due to the recent glowing review of their new album, Apple O’, on NPR, the ‘Hoof really got us jumping with their J-popian, dynamic, noise-esque, deconstructionist Said-ian, post-self-Orientalizist slices.
They know how to play. We saw them live, actually, just two days ago. It was choice.
4. Speaking of live music, we had an awesome time when we crashed a basement show in Miami (we went underground for the good music… literally).
Of course, we weren’t invited, but when we heard that two of our favorite unknown bands from South Florida, AudioPastel and The Fruits and Breads of Europe, were going to be playing, we just had had to go.
We had just bought AP’s new limited-edition, individually-numbered 7′ at a little indie record store in Mobile. It just goes to show, if you guys are listening to crap, you obviously don’t know where to go.
The sonic majesty of these two twee popsters, in the tradition of seminal David-the-Gnome rockers the Blow, rang with the urgency and pure rocktuitiveness of garage giants the Garage Giants, Sproton Layer, and the Spelling Missteaks.
I think our feelings about the musical facet of our trip can be summed up best in the lyrics of that perennial favorite, Bette Midler:
“From a distance the world looks blue and green,/ And the snow-capped mountains white/ From a distance the ocean meets the stream,/ And the eagle takes to flight/ From a distance, there is harmony,/ And it echoes through the land/ It’s the voice of hope, it’s the voice of peace,/ It’s the voice of every man.