Cold Hard Steel
July 15, 2012 8:05 AM   Subscribe

Tell me about your favorite indie rock songs that have steel drums.

"Indie rock" in the broadest, vaguest sense of the term. "Heart it Races" by Architecture in Helsinki is a great example (not to be confused with the excellent Dr. Dog cover).

To be clear, I'm not talking about steel drum band covers of awesome songs, even if they are also awesome.
posted by benbenson to Media & Arts (21 answers total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
Response by poster: [That last link was supposed to go to here.]
posted by benbenson at 8:06 AM on July 15, 2012


Carrie Anne by the Hollies is the original.
posted by Rash at 8:21 AM on July 15, 2012


David Byrne used them on The Catherine Wheel album. Not at all recent and arguably not indie, but an excellent use of steel drums.
posted by mamabear at 8:42 AM on July 15, 2012


Best answer: Jane Says by Jane's Addiction.
posted by Crane Shot at 8:51 AM on July 15, 2012 [2 favorites]


Lottery Winners on Acid, by The Crimea.
posted by jeffamaphone at 9:18 AM on July 15, 2012


Islands - Jogging Gorgeous Summer
posted by carsonb at 9:30 AM on July 15, 2012




The Sea and Cake - Fuller Moon, Down in the City, and Mirrors, all from Car Alarm.

The Lonesome Organist is a one-man-band project by Jeremy Jacobsen, who occasionally pulls out the the steel drum. I don't have any specific tracks for you, but here's a video interview.
posted by hydrophonic at 9:47 AM on July 15, 2012


Future Islands - Tin Man
posted by nathancaswell at 10:35 AM on July 15, 2012




Best answer: If it's the sound of steel drums and not the materiality of them that is of interest then Battles' Gloss Drop album has several songs that to my ears have the sounds of steel drums on them. Personally I think the track "Inchworm" is representative with those sounds more present in the mix, but for something with a more indie feel I'd recommend a track with a guest vocalist like "Sweetie & Shag" which has Kazu from Blonde Redhead singing (the steel drum sound is more buried though) or Sundome which features Yamantaka Eye and has those sounds upfront but is maybe too long and stretched out / dubbish to feel sufficiently indie-rock for you. My favorite track on the record with a guest vocalist is actually Ice Cream with Matias Aguayo but I think those sounds only appear in a gated or truncated sounding way. Also, apologies for not knowing if they're samples or just some plugin or what but when I heard the record I thought to myself it was the most interesting use of the steel drum sound I had heard in a longtime regardless of their source.
posted by safetyfork at 11:16 AM on July 15, 2012




Flake - Jack Johnson
posted by wsg at 11:31 AM on July 15, 2012


Ween - Bananas and Blow

I'm pretty sure several Tue Yards songs have them, but I'm not digging through right now.
posted by cmoj at 11:49 AM on July 15, 2012 [1 favorite]


Clash - let's go crazy
(from Sandinista)
posted by philip-random at 2:49 PM on July 15, 2012


Best answer: The Knife - Heartbeats I really love it because the steel drums feel sinister to me which is not usually the case for such an instrument.
posted by andendau at 5:06 PM on July 15, 2012


For Your Love by Marching Band
posted by stravinsky at 10:05 PM on July 15, 2012


World Domination Enterprise's cover of Funkytown.
posted by jonathanbell at 11:07 PM on July 15, 2012


Northern Lites by Super Furry Animals
posted by minifigs at 1:36 PM on July 16, 2012


Better Than Ezra - Juarez
posted by carlypennylane at 4:32 PM on July 16, 2012


Bingo
posted by carsonb at 11:05 PM on December 1, 2012


« Older Gave her gas and cash, is that the end of this...   |   more music like this, please Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.