What's New?: 9.20.2012

So far behind.  Still.

Terence Trenty D'Arby — TTD's Vibrator (1995)

*long sigh* When TTD flirted with more traditional rock textures in his first two albums, it felt very natural; a genuine extension of his style. But the gratuitous wah wah and distortion pedals all over the guitars throughout this album just sound cheap and contrived. That's not more apparent than on the otherwise good ballad 'Holding On to You.' Just completely unnecessary. I'm not that crazy about a "soul rock" sound in the first place, but this album just takes it that extra step. The drum loops and horn samples all over 'C.Y.F.M.L.A.Y.?' sound almost cartoony at points. But similar things a few songs later on 'Surrender' work exceedingly well, achieving a point of resonance that the rest of the album seems to be pretending it's capable of. Very next song 'TTD's Recurring Dream' is lush and dreamy. Truly the best this album has to offer. The last few songs end on the similarly overwrought note that the album began on and overall, it strikes me as an overproduced, overly ambitious work that only occasionally reaches its potential.

Bix Beiderbecke — Volume 2: At the Jazz Band Ball (1927/1928)

Early swing collection from one of the architects of the sound. As these sorts of things go, these are recordings in which Bix was a featured soloist. He was the leader of a few of these sessions, but the goofy vocal numbers with Willard Robison are pure fun on their own, without the Bix connection, just because they are so timely. Elsewhere, pure awesome occurs on the title track and 'Since My Best Gal Turned Me Down.' A scattershot collection of stuff, but when it's good, it's really good.

Billy Bragg & Wilco — Mermaid Avenue Vol. II (2000)

While this volume doesn't have the obvious standout that volume one had, it does hang together better as an album. Billy Bragg sings his whimsical heart out on the more playful numbers My old friend Natalie Merchant even stops by here for a tune (and it's great!). Wilco pretty much steals the show with their tunes. The building 'Remember the Mountain Bed', the eerie 'Blood of the Lamb' and the album closing beauty 'Someday Some Morning Sometime' all make for darn fine listening. Overall, I missed it at the time, but the influence of Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes looms large over this one. Pretty nice stuff. And fun.

The Jesus and Mary Chain — Automatic (1989)

I've had this one on vinyl for years, but in true late 80's anti-vinyl propaganda, it's missing two songs! The two extras were among some of the first things I ever purchased digitally and that is also when I learned my lesson the hard way: digital media sucks too, because it gets corrupted and they count on you just saying, "Enh, it's only a buck" and buying it again and again and again. . . But, finding this CD for 50¢ finally ended my bitterness towards this album (and made me realize that the things I didn't like it for were not its fault). It's a much more rockin' affair than Darklands (which I still say is their best album), but it's just so relentlessly catchy! The big, crunchy guitars and cheesy drum machines on 'Head On' have become something of a holy grail by this point. It deserves whatever praises it receives. The sludgy textures on 'Gimme Hell' predict grunge, without falling prey to the pompous tendencies (the jay ay emm see were always brilliant songwriters anyway). This never has been my favorite JaMC album, but it's definitely right up there with their initially brilliant 80's run. Really nice to finally have hard copies of the two extra songs.

Stereolab — Sound-Dust (2001)

Some very David Axelrod-esque textures in this album that I hadn't noticed when I heard it before (about seven or eight years ago). After a floaty one minute intro vamp, 'Baby Lulu' breaks into one of the best breaks in modern times. Although I've moved on, my inner-MPC glutton is potentially drooling. The dreamy atmosphere that permeates through the songs, the heavy reliance on vibes. Yeah, I get definite vibes of Axelrod. The arrangements handled by Jim O'Rourke really shine on tunes like 'Nought More Terrific Than Man' and 'Suggestion Diabolique' (really conjuring Seriously Deep here). An oft-neglected Stereolab album. But a unique one, just on the basis of John McEntire and Jim O'Rourke's participation (the material is decidedly unfamiliar for the Groop, as well). Awesome.

The Dukes of the Stratosphear — Chips from the Chocolate Fireball (1985/1987)

In which, our friends XTC masquerade as a Nuggets-inspired retro band. This is actually just the EP 25 o'Clock and the full length Psonic Psunspot collected together on one disc. They totally nail the Electric Prunes with the title track on the EP. And that's the fun thing here: try to figure out who they're copying. But, to even say that they're "copying" feels like it's a shot at them. When in fact, they're just really inspired by the 60's bands they grew up with. 'What in the World?' is obviously straight out of obsessive Sgt. Pepper listening, but it's a darn catchy tune on its own. 'Vanishing Girl' is obviously a 60's-influenced gem, for instance, but it doesn't really have any of those major touchstones and feels more like the real XTC playing what they wanted to play. As great as Skylarking is, the material the band recorded in the immediate aftermath seems more closely pointed towards the direction that they were focused on all along. It's one case in the history of rock music where the band members were probably all much more dedicated to the side project than they were the main gig. For that, it just emits awesomeness.

Lou Reed — self-titled (1972)

Most of Lou Reed's debut album consists of songs that the Velvet Underground had tossed away. The recordings of the Velvets' versions of these tunes are now rock and/or roll history, but when this album came out in 1972, nobody knew them and few knew the Velvets in the first place. This album was recorded in England. Indeed, between a break from Yes recording sessions, Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman played on this album. I can't even conceive of the hilarity and awesomeness of that meeting of minds. The versions of the songs that were initially done by the Velvets are generally not as good as what they initially were. The cheesy psuedo-soul background vocals on most of the album are mostly to blame. However, the decidedly more folky take on 'I Love You' is much more interesting than the stock Velvets sound applied to previous takes. And, I have to say, while that initial Velvets version of 'Ride Into the Sun' is pastoral and very resonating, Lou's version here just sounds so much cooler. Maybe I am rockist after all. Lou attempted 'Ocean' here as well and it's still a good song, just didn't pan out with the overproduction. I would say that, in retrospect, this album does play as the next Velvets album, after Loaded. It's just not as good (which merits the question: what is?). This UK edition from 2000 (the only version currently in print) is worthwhile, if for nothing else than the liner notes, which go into very close detail about the surroundings of the album's recording sessions. Certainly Lou at the crossroads, but definitely of interest to Velvets fans.

Fran Healy — Wreckorder (2010)

Jeez, has it really been almost five years since the last Travis album? I am a whore for their brand of MOR jangle, so I have no excuses for just now getting hipped to this mini-masterpiece. I am a big fan, obviously. That this album reminds me of Travis, but hints at a specific mood that I don't feel like Fran's band could have accomplished as well, is a very important sign. Tracks one and two are very Travis-esque, if Travis were a bit more subdued. 'Sing Me to Sleep' then pops up —unforeseen Neko Case cameo and all— and just realigns the entire mood of the album. The otherwise whimsically gloomy 'As it Comes' features somebody named Paul McCartney on bass (who?), while 'Shadow Boxing' is one of Fran's best songs and easily the album's highlight. The piano line and chord progressions are just about too close for comfort, I might venture to say. Absolutely chuffin' brilliant, mate. 'Rocking Chair' is the epitome of the underlying folky aspect of this album, while the closer 'Moonshine' catches a glimpse of Fran as the melodramatic synth and drum machine pop star he so wishes to be. He even hits those excellent falsettos. Of course, it's all much too earnest to be any of what I've just said. And that's what makes it so good. My expectations for the next Travis album are officially in the stratosphere.

~Austin

What's New?: 4.24.2012

Leo Kottke — 6 and 12 String Guitar (1970)
 
Cool budget priced, nice quality vinyl reissue of Leo's first album that really grabbed people's attention.  This one is entirely instrumental, so I course am into it completely.  The album opens with the sort of progressive bluegrass of 'The Driving of the Year Nail' but then goes straight off into left field immediately afterwords.  With a cursory listen, you'll not hear much outside of strummy pickins' and whathaveyou, but the melodies on this thing are just from another world completely.  Songs like 'Jack Fig' and 'The Fisherman' have a sort of playful introspective tone to them that just sounds like nothing else.  The liner notes are excellently absurdist, written by Leo himself, completely devoid of anything resembling sense (this is where he infamously describes his voice as sounding like "geese farts on a muggy day").  Hilarious with a heart.  Really can't lose with that approach, as far as I'm concerned.

Chris Kando Iijima, Joanne Nobuko Miyamoto, "Charlie" Chin — A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle by Asians in America (1973)
 
Complete blind purchase on this one, but also one of the best arguments I've come across in a long time in favor of the blind purchase.  Because this thing kicks butt.  Here is the official word.  It has that definite protest music vibe to it, but filtered through a stripped down early 70's folk pop approach.  Lightly strummed nylon strings and big, harmony-filled choruses.  The content is inherently political, but the tunes being top tier certainly doesn't hurt things.  There is a sort of dark introspective tone to the whole thing — and that fits because the crux of the album's subjects is being displaced.  Feeling like you don't belong, unintentionally unfamiliar with your past and unsureness about your future; it's all tackled here from a really unique point of view.  This is best exemplified on 'Something About Me Today' — arguably the album's defining song.  'We Are the Children' is a darn catchy little angry folk song, while 'Warriors of the Rainbow' approaches epic status within the first minute.  Overall, reading up on the group's creative center, Chris Iijima, I had no idea of just how juicy of a find this actually was until I truly sat with it for a day or two.  The reason I keep scouring vinyl bins.  As a fancy unintended bonus, the previous owner of this album bought a 7" 45 rpm single by this same group when they were calling themselves Yellow Pearl and funking it up a little more (complete with a full band backing them).  The 45 has a funkdafied re-recording of 'Yellow Pearl' and the otherwise unfamiliar song 'I'm Alright Jack.'  As if the package couldn't get any sweeter.

The Velvet Underground — Loaded deluxe edition (1970)
 
Totally cliched to say so, but as a proper anti-social music dork, I love the Velvet Underground.  It's too far into the debate, at this point, for anyone to objectively say whether or not they're overrated.  I just love the songs.  It's one case where I can honestly say that the date of when the material was released doesn't really matter to me.  I'd still like the songs, no matter when they were recorded.  Loaded has always been my favorite.  It's low-key, it's strummy, it's jangly.  How could I not love it?  I was fooled, for years, into thinking that the proper ten song initial version of this album was the only real version that should ever be acknowledged.  Wrong again, stupid me.  Of course, that initial ten song version of the album kicks off disc one, and it's just as excellent as ever.  Classics abound: 'Who Loves the Sun', 'Rock and Roll', 'Sweet Jane' and et cetera.  The bonus material is obviously the big reason for my enthusiasm for this particular version.  Loaded was famously VU's "mellow" album (perhaps explaining why I like it so much) and it does not disappoint in that respect, as the first two extras after the initial album are 'Ride into the Sun' and the far superior finished version of 'Ocean' (seems Slowdive digs the tune as well).  On disc two, you get an entire alternate version of the proper album, with some of the songs bettering their finished counterparts (especially on the Bob Dylan aping demo of 'I Found A Reason').  More outtakes and, when it's all said and done, you get as many songs that didn't make the album as ones that did — and they're all of equal quality.  It's given me a lot to reassess about one of those classic albums that I've known in one form for so long.  Not all the demos and alternate mixes are completely necessary, but it's not like I mind hearing that stuff either.  Totally worth it.

Simple Minds — x5 (late 70's/early 80's)
 
I've been waiting for this one since it was announced late last year.  I've always been a big fan of the early Simple Minds material.  They were such a prolific, unpredictable band in those years.  From the undeniable Roxy Music ripoff of their first album Life in a Day through the chilly synth-pop turnaround New Gold Dream and all the odd and artsy things in between, this box set chronicles the first four years of the band's recorded output across six discs of pure new wave pleasure.  The big draw here for me, having all these albums on vinyl previously, were the bonus tracks; most of which were previously vinyl-only things that were never released in America in the first place.  It's hard to sum up six albums in one short write-up like this, but I guess I should say this as the single most important thing: if all you know is 'Alive and Kicking' and 'Don't You Forget About Me', you have been grossly misinformed about this band.  The closest they come to that sort of big sound on this material is on the 1982 album New Gold Dream and, specifically, its leadoff single 'Someone Somewhere in Summertime' but one listen to that song and I don't think I need to detail just how different it is in just about every facet than their more well known material.  Previous to that, they were even more experimental and, sometimes, just plain old weird for weird's sake.  However, they were responsible for some totally undervalued new wave classics.  Have a listen: 'Changeling', 'Celebrate', 'Theme for Great Cities', 'The American', '70 Cities as Long Brings the Fall.'  Many more gems to be discovered within.  I've long thought they were one of the more neglected new wave bands because their later success eclipsed the quality of their initial output (especially here in America).  This set just confirms that in my mind.  Totally brilliant.  Totally essential.

Andrew Bird — Weather Systems (2003)
 
In which the template for the Andrew Bird, as he is now known, is created.  An idiosyncratic, violin playing alternative folky that likes to whistle.  As I've come to discover with him lately, he hones songs, sometimes for years, before actually finishing them.  This album contains the songs 'I' and 'Skin' — later to respectively be resurrected as 'Imitosis' (in 2007) and 'Skin is, My' (in 2005).  Of course, this sort of thing only gains extra clout in hindsight.  The title track, and its album closing reprise, strike me as one of his defining works right away.  Sure, it can be asserted as simply a stepping stone in his evolution in hindsight, but it has works and pieces to his puzzle that are entirely unique, even in that context.

Andrew Bird — Fingerlings 4 (2009)
 
Hard to see this spine in the above scan, but I scored it at the merch table at the show and it only came in a cardboard sleeve, so that's just the way it is.  This was a solo Andrew live performance from 2009 and he plays a lot of material from Useless Creatures (which, at that point, not a lot of people outside of hardcore fans knew).  I'm more of a fan than ever of his loop station violin noodlings, and this one has a lot of that, so I'm into it right away.  The big thing of note, especially after hearing this after familiarizing myself with Break it Yourself first, is that it contains no less than three early sketches of Break it Yourself tunes — those being 'Danse Caribe' (retitled 'Danse Carribe' and playing up the fiddle aspect of the tune), 'Sifters' (retitled here 'The Sifters' and playing up the intimacy of the tune) and 'Eyeoneye' (retitled here 'Oh Baltimore' and just appearing in the most polite rendition of the tune you could possibly imagine).  He's just so insanely good at what he does.  I can't even think about it on anything except fanboy terms right now.  Most unique and self-sustaining talent in music since Vini Reilly.  This is just proof.  And it's excellent music, too.

Andrew Bird — Norman OST (2011)
 
Late on this one, but oh well.  It should just be subtitled "Sketches for Break it Yourself."  Outside of solo Andrew instrumentals that meander around now familiar themes from his latest album, you get blatant demo versions of 'Lusitania' (retitled here 'Arcs and Coulumbs'), 'Sifters' (retitled here 'Night Sky') and three incredibly intimate variations of  'Desperation Breeds' ('The Kiss/Time and Space/Waterfall', 'Epic Sigh/The Python Connection' and 'The Bridge').  'Desperation' was already my favorite song from the new album, but sheesh, he was toiling over that thing.  His work paid off.  I have no interest whatsoever in the film.  There's no way it can be as good as the soundtrack.

~Austin