Belbury Poly - The Willows (listen)
The Focus Group - We are all Pan's People (listen)
Mount Vernon Arts Lab - The Seance at Hobs Lane (listen)
Alex V. Cook - Author, Journalist, Critic, Teacher
Friday, March 20, 2009
Ghost Box
For your and my "library music, folklore, vintage electronics and haunted television soundtracks" listening pleasure, I present selections from the Ghost Box label
Belbury Poly - The Willows (listen)
The Focus Group - We are all Pan's People (listen)
Mount Vernon Arts Lab - The Seance at Hobs Lane (listen)
Belbury Poly - The Willows (listen)
The Focus Group - We are all Pan's People (listen)
Mount Vernon Arts Lab - The Seance at Hobs Lane (listen)
teeth of the hydra upon me
T. Rex - Electric Warrior (listen) Of course, I've heard the strings on this record before, but I've never heard them so distinctly. Perhaps this is a remastered version. Whatever, though, I love the way the skeletal beat and disembodied voice floats against the deep lush background on "Cosmic Dancer" with only a noodly guitar line strung like the tightrope between worlds, beckoning us to cross it.
Roy Wood & Wizzard - Wizzard's Brew (listen) Stephen Thomas Erlewine, in his AMG review says "the record plays like sonic terrorism -- a bizarre blend of boogie riffs and old-time rock & roll, spiked with traces of British psychedelia and music hall, all filtered through sheer white noise" which is pretty on the money. It sounds like the whole album is double tracked, or perhaps playing a racquetball court, to great effect, mind you. I bears mentioning that Roy Wood was one of the original architects of ELO before bouncing out after the first album over a rift with Lynne. "Meet Me at the Jailhouse" is a thing to behold, it's like the history of The Stooges enthusiastically misinterpreted by Sha Na Na, getting them confused with the Byrds at one point, during a violent thunderstorm.
Kim Fowley - Good Clean Fun (listen) The delirious mess of a record makes Wizzard seem contained. This concatenation of doo-wop fragments, dense orchestration and dissociative narration might be the legendary producer's answer to Frank Zappa's and Captain Beefheart's similar but more successful ventures in culture pastiche happening in the late 60's. Or this might be the inside of Fowley's fevered brain captured on tape.
Swiss BLT on rye, add red onions and sprouts from Louie's, Baton Rouge, LA
A prince among sandwiches
the upside and downside of grand pop ambition
The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love Live from SXSW on NPR (listen) performing the whole of their new rock opera The Hazards of Love. There are those in my circle that exhibit contempt for The Decemberists and their fussy "lit-rock" but I don't know, it hits me square where I live as a somewhat lit-oriented fussy obsessive. I might be projecting my obsessiveness into theirs, but I am hearing a little Pearls Before Swine in this; Colin Meloy and Tom Rapp both are hampered and helped by their respective idiosyncratic enunciation ticks.
That said, there is also a marked Zeppelin aspect to the album, or at least the live presentation thereof, and I think that's a smart move for The Decemberists. They are one of the few band around with the chops to pull something like that off, even as they are dismissed for having too many costumed nerds on stage. The NPR commenters aren't helping in masking the dork-factor; they sound a little like golf announcers during the wait for the encore. Whatever, the music sounds great, like their music always does, and geeks shall once again inherit the earth.
Scott Walker - Scott 2 (listen) I've never understood the widely-held appeal of Scott Walker's more difficult modern records Tilt and The Drift - I like them and all, but I like willfully difficult things; I would think Walker's creepy baritone, plodding dirge rhythms, and the abrasive soundscapes would hit most people like Komar & Melamid's art project seeking the statistically worst song possible (listen). Thanks to the Pretty Goes With Pretty, I have forced myself finally to explore the earlier Scott Walker records in earnest, and that is the stuff. His misanthropic lyrics placed against string-fatted lush schmatlz, like Tom Jones in Brecht opera, it is world's weirder than The Drift. Experience the full-sensory onslaught of "Jackie"
P.J. Proby - The Savoy Sessions (listen) Now, if you are looking for some perverse torture tape fodder, drop faded yet resilient pop singer P.J. Proby's good-time-rock'n'roll version of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and win the hour.
and for the Phil Collins lover...
and those are the less weird parts of the record. Dig if you will this reading over the "Gone With the Wind" theme.
This album only gets better/worse depending on how you approach things.
More info via Perfect Sound Forever
Thursday, March 19, 2009
[The Record Crate] We Don't Need No Stinking Badges
The next two weeks are a great time to be a concertgoer in Baton Rouge. As every band in the universe makes their way down to Austin for the massive SXSW industry showcase cluster, they are all looking for shows on the way there and the way back, and while the prospect of spending a long weekend seeing any band you can think of, there is no scramble for VIP badges or guest list additions. No hotel rooms to reserve, sets longer than 30 minutes. Adequate parking. It’s practically being handed to you. You’re welcome.
There is plenty of fresh newness to absorb this week. Asobi Sesku flutter in on the gossamer wings of their just-released album Hush, a gorgeous mix of old school Cocteau Twins glimmer and modern indie intimacy. Seasoned Americana homerun hitters Paul Burch and Jason Isbell are both appearing at Chelsea’s. Post-everything disco ingénues YACHT and Mochipet are on deck to support any and all rump shaking needs. Even the iO Theatre: The Improvised Musical, fertile ground that introduced Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to the greater public will be doing two nights at The Varsity. Your bases are covered.
All said, the best bets in town this week are locals. Generationals, formed by former members of the Eames Era, will be playing the infectious pan-genre pop bliss form their debut Con Law, one of the smartest albums I’ve heard yet this year. The Junior League (http://www.myspace.com/juniorleague), New Orleans’ most loveable power pop explosion will be on hand this week supporting their second record Smile Shoot Smile. Blues powerhouse Luther Kent will be on hand at Phil Brady’s for the release of his latest album, The Bobby Bland Songbook. And while Greenwood, Miss., may not be exactly local, their favorite son Lil Dave Thompson will be tearing it up at Teddy’s. All this and no badges required.
Wednesday, March 18
Mochipet, CLP and DJ Otto at Spanish Moon
iO Theatre at The Varsity
Thursday, March 19
Streamline, versa Nova, and Leaving Brightside at Chelsea’s
Bright City Lights at Click’s
Damon Fowler at Boudreaux & Thibodeaux’s
iO Theatre at The Varsity
Friday, March 20
Paul Burch and the Junior League at Chelsea’s
Bright City Lights at Click’s
David Borne and Diamondback at Boudreaux & Thibodeaux’s
The Chee Weez at the Varsity
8 Days in the Making at Phil Brady’s
Lil Dave Thompson at Teddy’s Juke Joint
Saturday, March 21
Jason Isbell and Hoots and Hellmouth at Chelsea’s
Pandemic and Falls from Grace at Click’s
The Beau Young Trio at Boudreaux & Thibodeaux’s
Luther Kent at Phil Brady’s
Selwyn Cooper & the Sharecroppers at Teddy’s Juke Joint
Sunday, March 22
Big Al & the Heavyweights at Teddy’s Juke Joint
Monday, March 23
Asobi Sesku, Tyvek, & Generationals at Spanish Moon
Tuesday, March 24
YACHT and Chairlift at Spanish Moon
cycles of newness
Port O'Brien - All We Could Do Was Sing (listen) This sounds nice and hungry and rackety like I like the kids to be.
Yeah Yeah Yeah's - It's Blitz (listen) The problem is, this is what they want to do - rehash the things we did back when we thought we were hungry when in truth, we were all a little overfed.
Wavves - Wavves (listen) So to counteract that old is processed to sound new, and covered with enough crust to make it sound freshly really old, and in that it kinda works.
it's still no "Chocktaw Bingo"
James McMutry - Where'd You Hide the Body (listen) I made this contribution to the chat-mosphere* yesterday
and was immediately pointed to Mr. McMurtry's 1995 album Where'd You Hide the Body? for reconsideration of my position. So OK, maybe he has more than one song, "Levelland" is nonstop epic
but the album as a whole strikes me the way many singer-songwriter albums do - too much ornamentation blotting out the songs. It's a delicate balance; there is only so much one-man-and-a-guitar that a body can listen to (I guess, I can listen to a lot) but the artists who excel at this tend to lay it on too thick or don't stop a well meaning producer from doing so. This album is good though, reminding me of one of Lou Reed's finest (and equally overwrought) solo moments.
Lou Reed - Magic and Loss (listen) Lou Reed's meditation on having two friends die from cancer in the course of a year lies relatively unheralded among his more salacious recordings, but I love this record. Listening to it now, I think it might even be better than New York, which I've long held as his solo nadir. The songs are nakedly about his anger at a disease, with a defiant optimism borne aloft by an ever-present rage kept mostly in check, which I guess is the only way you can deal with things like cancer. Worth tangential exploration thanks to this record is the singular vocalist Little Jimmy Scott, who offers startling backup vocals on "Power and Glory"
"Sword of Damocles" almost blows it with Reed's drug swagger, but the song as a whole always gets me. About chemo: to kill you they must kill you - it captures that futility one feels fighting something unfightable
oh man, and this song too! the cold black sea, it waits for me.
OK, I guess this is my favorite Lou Reed album.
Paul McCartney - Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (lala) I'm not the world's biggest Paul McCartney fan in the world, but this little undersung record of his is rather charming, largely lacking the hokeyness that, for me, undercuts a lot of his solo material. Producer Nicgel Goodrich, who shaped Radiohead for OK Computer and Pavement for Terror Twilight, might be just the thing he needed, what all geniuses need - a good editor. Or maybe he listened to decades of XTC perfecting his own sound and decided to see if he could come up with something on par.
* I call chat-mosphere if it hasn't been coined already
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