Today is the day to get all nutso about eights, or, maybe to just get nutso, if you have Olympic and/or Jonas Brothers and/or Boredoms-drum-extravaganza fever. (Woe to the person who’s suffering from all three.) All the eight-related hoopla got me to thinking about how the eighth track on many an album is a hit-or-miss proposition; particularly on longer albums in the CD era, it serves as something of a midpoint, and albums become unfocused and maybe stick their not-as-good tracks in there. For example: track eight on Appetite For Destruction, for example, is the OK-but-not-great “Think About You,” while track eight on Nevermind is the relatively irritating to my ears “Drain You.” And not to be all lazy-Google-research about this, but the phrase “track 8 is my favorite” only has 22 hits on the search engine; spell out the word “eight,” and you’re down to four.) Anyway, I decided to root through my collection and find some outstanding examples of an album’s eighth track–eight, in fact. They’re unordered, although the last one on the list is probably my favorite (and I found an amazing live version of it, to boot). Feel free to add your own!
Hey everybody! I’m running late to pick up my CMJ badge–the screaming woman Jess ran into yesterday wasn’t the only person who got all bollocksed up by the 6 p.m. registration cutoff–so as a sign-off/present to you, here’s the video for Helium’s sinewy “Superball,” which Mary Timony apparently… More »
Welcome to “On The Flippty-Flop,” where your Idolators spotlight unjustly ignored B-sides, bonus tracks, and EP cuts. Send your suggestions to tips@idolator.com. More »
Ex-Helium frontwoman Mary Timony’s sparky CMJ set on Friday had one flaw: It was too brief. We were especially excited to learn that the lineup she’s currently playing with is, like her old band, a trio that pumps out bottom-heavy arrangements, allowing her incredible guitar playing to shine. More »
