CIVL Station Manager Aaron Levy is excited for Art Battle to come back to Abbotsford on Jan. 18 (next Friday) at the Abbotsford Arts Centre’s Arts Addition, and in honour of this glorious event, here are four battle songs!
Battles – “Rainbow”
A sprawling eight-minute epic, this experimental group paints the colours of the titular unicorn of our natural world. Featuring a slow-building, minute-long intro that ascends into tightly wound yarns of synthetic shaded bends and rolls as counterpoints softly cascade off of the rainbow’s curvature dripping into golden pots.
Led Zeppelin – “The Battle of Evermore”
My least favourite song off of the fourth installment of that classic incarnation of the Yardbirds that late The Who drummer Keith Moon famously claimed would sink much like its namesake might, this is also one of the most LOTR-y sounding of any one from the 10 on this keeper.
Rage Against the Machine – “Guerrilla Radio (from The Battle of Los Angeles)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZul_mSFczs
I remember driving through L.A.’s famed massive highway network in 2004 with my father and brother, slowly, obviously, or in gridlock, hearing this song play frequently enough to wonder if something was wrong with the playlist, and wishing that it were the Godzilla soundtrack penned “No Shelter” I’d hear instead.
The Flaming Lips – “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots”
I’ve seen this song performed four times, and perhaps I’ve shuffled about the experience more than that over the years, but the title, nonetheless, lends itself perfectly to this week’s shuffle, “‘Cause she knows that it’s demanding / To defeat those evil machines / I know she can beat them / Oh Yoshimi …”
