Various Artists – Stroke: Songs For Chris Knox (Music Review)
By Andrew Duncan • Jan 28th, 2010 • Category: Indie Pop, ReviewsVarious Artists
Stroke: Songs For Chris Knox
Merge
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Links:
Chris Knox: http://www.chrisknox.co.nz/
Merge: http://www.mergerecords.com/stroke/
Chalk it up to the warm weather and sunshine, Chris Knox taught us how to love and love life. Punk at heart, Knox discarded pop convention and made music his way that inspired many and helped secure a name for the New Zealand music scene. We experienced it through his band Tall Dwarfs and with his solo work.
The dawn of the new millennium, Beat was the album that made U.S. audiences look up and pay attention with his powerfully personal approach. The song “It’s Love” also landed him in a Heineken commercial.
The man who has spent years showing a happy face and saying that it’s all allright is putting his philosophy to task. Earlier in 2009, he was hospitalized for suffering a stroke. To help celebrate the musician, a genuine human being and to help raise and contribute money for his rehabilitation, Merge Records gathered a laundry list of artists to contribute covers of Knox’ music.
Bill Callahan makes “Lapse” sound like a Nick Drake song with its contemplative acoustic atmosphere. Jay Reatard reaches for a more Tall Dwarfs minimal effect to “Pull Down The Shades,” which is a special song not just for the fact that Reatard passed away earlier this month, but that Reatard was to collaborate with Knox just before the stroke. Fellow New Zealanders The Verlaines surface to do “Driftwood” like it was The The playing the back end of a bar.
Yo La Tengo, The Mint Chicks, Lambchop, The Mountain Goats (giving a personalized message to Knox on recording), The Tall Dwarfs themselves, there is so much incredible talent that give love to Knox’s career work.
This is not a memorial to the man, this is a helping hand and a strong-armed salute to one of the greats in the independent scene.
Andrew Duncan is a journalist who has migrated to the forces of academia. He has written for various publications including Chord, Heckler, Readyset...Aesthetic, and a vast array of alternative press contributions. When not roaming the streets of Indianapolis, he is either addicted to KXCI, making music, or striving to watch every film listed on IMDB.
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