Music Library: Ventures, Verbena, Verlaines, Vernon Wray, Versus, Vetiver, Vic Chesnutt, Victoria Williams

Almost three months! I am really losing steam with this damn all-encompassing project. I think I'm going to post some terse posts for a while in an attempt to catch up.

The Ventures - Ventures In Space (1963), Walk Don't Run '64 (1964), and Play Guitar With The Ventures, Vol. 2 (1965). Excellent surf-guitar. The last one is an instructional album that breaks down four of their songs for lead guitar, rhythm guitar, and bass. Very cool.



Verbena - Souls For Sale (1997). Great moody rock from Alabama.



The Verlaines - Hallelujah All The Way Home (1985), Bird Dog (1987), Juvenilia (1987), Some Disenchanted Evening (1989), Ready To Fly (1991), and Over The Moon (1997). One of the best kiwi-pop bands, the Verlaines stand on the line between post-punk noise and power-pop. Highly recommended stuff.



Vernon Wray - Wasted (1972). Fantastic outlaw country album by Link Wray's brother with more than a touch of Townes Van Zandt in his lyricism.



Versus - Secret Swingers (1996) and Shangri-La EP (2000). Essentially great indie-rock band. I thought I had more of their albums.



Vetiver - Vetiver (2003), To Find Me Gone (2006), and Thing Of The Past (2008). Lumped in with the  freak-folk semi-genre, but more of a 70s-style Laurel Canyon thing.



Vic Chesnutt - Little (1990), West Of Rome (1991), Drunk (1993), "The Night The Lights Went Out On Georgia," Is The Actor Happy? (1995), WFMU 1995 (bootleg), About To Choke (1996), The Salesman And Bernadette (with Lambchop, 1998), Merriment (with Mr. and Mrs. Keneipp, 2000), Silver Lake (2003), Ghetto Bells (2005), Extra Credit EP (2005), Christmas At The 40 Watt (bootleg, 2005), North Star Deserter (with Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, 2007), Dark Developments (with Elf Power, 2008), At The Cut (2009), and Skitter On Take-Off (2009). Chesnutt was one of the greatest songwriters of our time. His lost is a devastating black mark on the backwards-ass American health system.









Victoria Williams - Happy Come Home (1987), Swing The Statue! (1990), Loose (1994), and Musings Of A Creekdipper (1998). Ms. Williams, like Mr. Chesnutt, was the beneficiary of one of the Sweet Relief albums, but I like her music much less these days. Too much twee. There are a few good songs here and there, but her eccentricities just haven't aged well for me.