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  • FORTY-FIVE REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE #17: Elephant’s Gerald

    KILKENNY CATS  “Attractive Figure” b/w “Of Talk”  (Coyote Records COY111, 1984)

    Back in 45 RPM #6, I wrote about the magical impact of the 7-inch on ’80’s indie rock.  Well here’s another great artifact from that time period.  Even though I was lucky enough to witness their live set a few times, Athens, GA’s Kilkenny Cats have always held great mystery for me.  Even to this day not much is widely known about them, which makes this single all the more fun and entertaining.  So I won’t bore you with silly details about my underage beer-soaked nights at the 40-Watt Club, I’ll just let these Cats’ sexy vibe speak for itself.

    A VU-influenced ode to the joys of taking speed, side-A’s “Attractive Figure” introduces us early to the KC’s ratatat drumming and steel-rake guitars, then propels us head-first into its stop-start verse and soaring chorus.  Great music for shaking off a hard day’s work, or more likely a long week’s finals.  And when the band stops and singer Tom Cheek does that little thing where he breathes in?  Pure sex.

    The disc’s longer B-side, “Of Talk,” sounds like it could be an outtake from the Steve Wynn/Dream Syndicate 1982 classic Days Of Wine & Roses LP.  Walls of distorted guitars bury Cheek’s low Lou Reed-like mumble, creating a dreamy atmosphere perfect to smoke pot (or shoot heroin) to.  Or just kick back & let the music be your drug, which I think is the idea here.

    Unfortunately my little lo-fi YouTube uploads failed this week.  Probably too many grandmas at once trying to upload shots of cats chasing string.  Anyway, there’s virtually no extensive footage of Kilkenny Cats anywhere on the internet.  A travesty if you ask me, but you can catch a quick blink-and-you’ll-miss-it glimpse of the band in this trailer for the film ATHENS, GA INSIDE-OUT from 1986.  A great film if you can find a copy, AGIO serves not only as a stellar indie-rock time-capsule, but also as a snapshot of how and why so much unusual and influential music could emerge from such a quiet little Southern college town.

    NEXT WEEK:  A double A-side from what I imagine would be Marvin Nash’s least favorite band.

  • Christmas Music That Won’t Kill You – Part 3: Christmas Future

    Here are some albums you would see on the shelves if I ran the zoo.

    Beatles – The Beatles Christmas Album
    Let’s get a legitimate issue of the annual Christmas recordings the Beatles made for their fan club.  You should hear these.  They are so much fun.  Bonus track would be the Christmas record Paul made for the other three.

    John Coltrane and Jimi Hendrix – Winter Spirituality
    Neither Coltrane nor Hendrix seemed all that “Christian” but it’s clear from their music and interviews that they thought about God a lot.  They both searched for ways to express themselves.  Maybe they could have found it together.  I’d want Jimmy Garrison on bass, but I’m torn between Elvin Jones and Mitch Mitchell. 

    Various Artists – Harry Smith Anthology of Christmas Music
    Compilations of scratchy old blues and country Christmas songs already exist.  I just think Harry Smith could have done it better.  He’s dead so maybe R. Crumb could pick the tracks. 

    Stephen Colbert – A Colbert Christmas
    Take the songs from this year’s holiday special, write a few more, and put them out. 

    Audience participation would make this a lot more fun.  Ideas, anybody?

  • The New U2 Album is “On the Horizon”

    U2. Photo by Zachary Gillman

    There was a collective sigh of disappointment among U2 fans when the Irish supergroup announced that they were not going to put out an album this year, although the reasoning behind it (“umm…we’re not ready”) was sound enough. At any rate, our patience has been rewarded, as it has recently been confirmed that the band’s upcoming album, entitled No Line on the Horizon, will be released in the U.S. on March 3rd. New Line will be the followup to 2004’s multi-Grammy winning behemoth How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. As a longtime U2 fan who is grateful that they got their mojo back after a couple of mediocre 90s albums (Zooropa and Pop), I’m certainly looking forward to this release, although this Billboard article states that one song will feature will.i.am. Groan. Also according to the article, this album will be available in five different configurations-including one that carries a $96 price tag. What? Bono, don’t you know we’re in a recession?