Toploader - Dancin In The Midnight [britpop]

The story continues where the last entry, with “Dreams” by ohasiTrio, had ended. After sharing the song with a few other friends, one of them asked if I had listened to the “Dancin In The Moonlight” cover (originally by Toploader), which is in the same album as “Dreams”. I hadn’t heard it before and was glad my friend brought it up because it was a good listen.

As an aside, it seems I have a bit of a deficiency when it comes to more upbeat music. Granted, “Dancin In The Moonlight” wouldn’t be characterized as “exuberant” or “ecstatic” but it is at the very least cheerier than the vast majority of my current playlist.

Anyway, the next day, I’m with a few friends, enjoying a sunny late-summer afternoon with a circulating guitar. Eventually someone asks what to play next and someone asks, as one could guess based on the entry so far, “Do you know ‘Dancin In The Midnight’? You know, the one by Toploader”.

But, there is no moral to this story, no greater meaning to be derived, just a pleasantly strange, however transient, sense of cohesion in the backdrop of an otherwise mundane weekend.

Toploader themselves are an English band. "Dancin In The Moonlight" was on their 2000 release Onka's Big Moka. The band went on an extended hiatus following the release of their second album in 2002 due to the disbandment of their label S2. They reconvened to release their third album in 2011 Only Human and since then have continued to be active.

ohashiTrio (大橋トリオ) - Dreams [jazz, folk]

Covers aren't just about replicating a song that one likes, it's about infusing something you like with your own interpretation. I remember hearing Fergie covering "Sweet Child o' Mine" on Slash's solo album a few years ago. I don't really remember if Fergie sang it well but I do remember that she just completely replicated what Axel did on the original, down to the "Ohh"s and the "Yeahheh"s. And that's not a good cover. You can do that in karaoke. Heck, and this is not to disparage Fergie in particular, but you could definitely hear better renditions if you went to karaoke. Although, come to think of it, this probably wouldn't be the best comparison since ultimately it was the same original guitarist playing (i.e. Slash).

So anyway today I heard a cover of "Dreams" originally by The Cranberries, way back in the 90's. It was a mellow re-imagining of the song that still preserved the harmonic bits that made the original so memorable (to me anyway). Well anyway, after a search on YouTube that brought up a lot more covers than I thought existed, I think I found the right one.

The cover is by ohashiTrio (大橋トリオ) who is, I guess ironically, a solo Japanese artist whose musical influences span from jazz to soul to folk to rock. The "Dreams" cover can be found on his 2010 release Fake Book, a cover album. He has since, along with his non-cover work, released two other cover albums, conveniently named Fake Book II and Fake Book III.

Stella Luna - Stargazer [shoegaze, space-rock]

I guess after I do make the periodic entries, I always wonder why I even bother keeping this up. I'm pretty sure very few people visit this site and the majority of the music does very little for them. Still, part of me feels like I should have some record of my encounters with music, perhaps to document somehow the progression of my taste in music; certainly, it is much different than it was a year ago (well maybe not a year anymore because I'm pretty sure that was about when I started to really get into the shoegaze thing).

Anyway, here's the second shoegaze/space-rock entry with the airy/spacious song that you can lose yourlsef into (blah blah blah etc etc etc). Stella Luna is an American band from Florida. Their bio page doesn't say much beyond their focus on creating an atmospheric spacey sound, which is definitely apparent in this linked song. This is "Stargazer" from their Stargazer EP (2002). It doesn't seem that Stella Luna has released anything since then.

Guitaro - Ace Faded On The Scene [shoegaze]

Oops, I did that thing again. The thing where I don't post for almost a month. This seems to be a recurring pattern. Perhaps it's because I go through phases of finding a bunch of new music and allowing the songs to simmer for a while until I find the ones that I really like. I seem to have been posting in bulk more in the past few months.

Anyway, the next two entries will feature both a shoegaze and space-rock feel. I find both the tempo and the instrumentation produce a really airy and spacious atmosphere, one in which you can really lose yourself.

Guitaro is a Canadian shoegaze trio from Abbotsford, British Columbia. They formed back in 1997 and released their first full-length album Futura Black in 2002. Since then, they have released another album in 2010, JJ's Crystal Palace. This particular song is "Ace Faded On The Scene" from their 2002 album (apparently the version on their earlier EP was slightly different, though I've yet to hear it).