Athens, Ga., quintet Venice Is Sinking recorded its third full-length, Sand & Lines, live in an intense four-day session onstage at the legendary Georgia Theatre, which once housed shows by R.E.M., Pylon and Widespread Panic. Now, the minimalist, dream-pop masterpiece has become somewhat representative of the theater, since it burned down in a tragic turn of events last year. Venice Is Sinking immediately decided that all proceeds from Sand & Lines (out on June 15), as well as a fundraiser originally meant to help put out the album, should go to the Georgia Theatre, which is being rebuilt and will reopen in 2011. We can’t help but love a band that’s so willing to give back, especially when it makes such an awesome mix tape, like the one below.
“Falls City” (download):
https://magnetmagazine.com/audio/FallsCity.mp3
Galaxie 500 cover “Tugboat” (download):
https://magnetmagazine.com/audio/TugboatVIS.mp3
Alabama “Dixieland Delight”
Daniel: This songs reminds me of my childhood. For a time, my parents only listened to AM country radio, so there is a specific period of country music that I am a way too familiar with. The thing I’ve always liked about Alabama is that they are (and always have been) a real, functional band, which is a rare thing in country music. Also, I recently realized that their guitar player plays all of the fiddle parts on the songs, which is impressive to me. Video
New Order “Every Little Counts”
Lucas: Never has a song started so goofy and ended so majestic. Bernard Sumner’s lyrics are almost always laughable, and in this case, he actually does laugh at them: “I think you are a pig/You should be in a zoo.” What I like best about this is that it really humanizes New Order, a band that up until this point hid behind spartan liner notes, Peter Saville’s cold and beautiful artwork, and obtuse music videos. Here is a band–a very successful band–cutting up on record, letting loose on record, then rallying toward a big finish, complete with rad floor-tom fake timpani. Not many bands let themselves get silly anymore, and that’s too bad. Silliness can lead you to some pretty interesting places if it’s not forced look-at-me hijinx. Video
Odawas “Harmless Lover’s Discourse”
Daniel: Karolyn and I met these guys at a show here in Athens years ago and have been following them ever since. Their latest record, The Blue Depths, sounds like a blend between Bruce Springsteen’s best ballads, Phil Collins-style drum programming and the worst of Windham Hill’s catalog rolled into one. Admittedly, my description makes them sound like they might be kind of terrible, but their music is really incredible. I caught one of their sets at SXSW this year, and they absolutely killed it. Somehow the songs were more menacing and muscular live, and even the “meow bass” that comes in toward the end of the song sat perfectly in the mix. Video
Stevie Wonder “You Haven’t Done Nothin'”
Lucas: Daniel gets mad because I’m always playing this one, but it’s just a serious, serious jam, from the crusty analog drum machine to the Jackson 5 backing “doo doo wops” to the “Superstition”-esque clavinet work to the fact that Stevie is able to wring a ton of funk out a drum track that basically amounts to a hi-hat on the 2 and the 4. It garners bonus points because it’s anti-Nixon. I actually prefer it to “Superstition,” truth be told, and Fulfillingness’ First Finale might be my favorite record of Stevie’s “classic period.” It’s certainly in the conversation, though I feel like it’s a bit overlooked now, which I understand sounds pretty stupid, considering it had two number ones and won “album of the year” at the Grammys (remember those?). Video
Thayer Sarrano “Jump In The Water”
Daniel: Thayer is a good friend of ours and has even filled in on keyboards for James at a couple of our shows. Somehow her songs are immediately familiar and comfortable upon first listen, which is not an easy thing to accomplish. You can buy her debut, King. Video
Jeannie Reynolds “The Phone’s Been Jumping All Day”
Lucas: I feel like the unfortunate circumstances of Jeannie’s death (she killed her two kids, then herself in an apparent drug-fueled rampage) have relegated her to a footnote in R&B history, but I think it’s high time she got a reissue or a reappraisal or something. Her biggest hit, “The Fruit Song,” is a great addition to the naughty disco song canon. She had some other lost classics, but this one is my favorite, casually driven by a bouncy piano riff. Video
Okay “Now”
Daniel: All of us adore this band from California, led by Marty Anderson. We even wrote a song on our last album, AZAR, as a sort of tribute to his songwriting, and we’ve been playing a couple of his songs at our shows for years now. (Two of them were on our Okay EP.) Anyway, this is the song after which our own “Okay” is not so loosely modeled. Video
Prince “I Would Die 4 U”
Lucas: I’m currently undergoing a heavy-duty Prince-aissance that started when I saw him play a surprise charity show at Paisley Park last year. (There are no human words to describe its awesomeness.) I know it’s an obvious classic, but I can’t stop listening to it of late. It’s like I’m nine again! Like so much Prince of this era, it’s hard to figure out what kind of song it is because it sits on this strange corner of R&B and new wave. Not to impugn an entire nascent subgenre, but I think this is what “chillwave” should sound like. Video
Keri Hilson “Return The Favor”
Daniel: This is probably Karolyn and Lucas’s favorite jam on the last year’s Keri Hilson record. We all loved the song she did with Timbaland a few years back called “The Way I Are,” and I think this one might be a little bit better. It’s probably because I’m obsessed with the MIDI pan-flute arpeggio at the beginning. The song is definitely at least a minute too long, but it’s still amazing. Video
The Beach Boys “Be Still”
Lucas: Though tonally quite different, I’d like to think that Dennis Wilson did Suicide before Suicide. This is one of Dennis’ earliest compositions and besides a shot of reverb on the hippie-dippy line “life begins,” it’s just him accompanied by organ. He wasn’t the strongest singer of the group, and I think that, along with the simplicity of the arrangement, works in its favor. When you put this on, people just stop what they’re doing because it’s so … naked. See also: Fleetwood Mac’s live version of “Farmer’s Daughter.” Video
