Am I the only one into Stan Ridgway ? Surprise me.
the only songs i know are mexican radio by wall of voodoo, and camouflage. there's a few mp3's on http://www.stanridgway.com/downloads/ will check out later
"Mexican Radio" was a single and is widely known, but it is pants and an unfortunate thing for him to be known by. Camoflague was a memorable novelty single; it was good and came from a great album, "The Big Heat", his first by his own name. By the way his second album "Mosquitos" is just sublime. Stan Ridgway IMO is the most underknown/underrated artist around. His work is often a bit strange but always engaging. His voice has an eerie quality to it that often suits the music well. A lot of his stuff isn't immediate, but can really grow on you. His lyrics are fantastic. I've seen him cited as America's best song lyricist. In terms of sound for your hifi, most of his albums are good. He also did an amazing thing called Blood , an eerie instrumnetal thing with Pietra Wexstun, which is great for your hifi. There is a website www.stanridgway.com , watch that spelling. Maybe buy his latest "Snakebite" only after you become a fan. Maybe give Songs "That Made the Country Great" a miss at first. The Wall of Voodoo stuff is his earlier band, intensly electronic with drum machines of the era etc, yet kind of folky/cowboy like tunes at times ! Look into Stan Ridgway. Cloth-Ears has spoken.
One standout track (lyrically at least!) on "The big heat" is "Drive, she said" - rather impressed with that
And don't forget, "Walking Home Alone". Now, if you buy "Mosquitos", the second album I think you'll find there are several stand out tracks. My favourite is the last one "Mission in Life"- slow, very grand and moving, that builds and builds.
I'll have to look for that in a record fair (September ) - I got this one along with the first Timbuk3 album and some other randoms off of a colleague of Lhatkins' - gotta love getting the Sugarcubes album for £2
I don't know what you heard but I wouldn't o by the downloads. He does draw on what I would call "Americanna" rather than C&W as such. Sometimes he'll do a very cowboy sounding thing overlaid heavily with electronic sounds. Strange. Recently he has done a lot of obscure folksy sort of songs e.g. from the depression era, and that may be among the downloads. But don't think Stan Ridgway is a country artist, lol no. Just try an album or two, e.g. "Mosquitos" and "Anatomy".
