"mystery space element"

Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra - On Jupiter (listen) Someone reccomended this CD to me at the record store this weekend. Not quite the interstellar journey the cover might imply, this is the fusion groove side of Sun Ra, a hazy lopey funk slowly dipping like a line string from here to Way Out There, the line bending off into darkness with its terminus merely assumed. The frayed end of the line might be floating out in space, or it might be forever uncoiling, OR it might be attached to a post belonging to our mirror selves on the other side of the universe and the line gets more and more taut as the universe expands. When it reaches the tension limit, it is hard to say what will happen. Will the universe stop expanding, held in check by the line, or will it cause a dimple in the continuum, forming the basis of a wormhole through which we will one day travel the spaceways?

I don't know if I've heard Sun Ra and his fellow voyagers get this funky before. It is like listening to Earth, Wind, Fire & "mystery space element"

UFO - Sun Ra And His Arkestra

The Commodores - Caught in the Act (listen) One needs no special occasion to jam on some Commodores, but the group reformed and reportedly tore the roof off the Superdome at the Essence Music Festival this weekend.

801 - 801 Live (listen) Much as I love Brian Eno in his many guises, I've avoided the 801 material over the years fearing it to be a prog mess, and fears resolved! It is a prog mess! But a good one! A 1975 progressive supergroup covering "Tomorrow Never Knows" seems the most terrible idea ever, but they kinda pull it off. Brian Eno was such an engaging lead singer then, so calm and bemused against the big architecture being erected behind him.

TNK (Tomorrow Never Knows) - P...

Should this half-hearted but earnest endorsement pique your interest, a super-expanded edition of this comes out in August.

Liars - Drums Not Dead (listen) Ages ago, back in 2007, this somber little angst-grinder of a record was all the rage, but I couldn't really get into it. It felt like it wanted to be something it couldn't reach, and was bummed about it. Listening to it is not unlike watching a kid continually jumping, failing to get a hold of his kite stuck in a tree. It still sounds like that a little, but there is a sub-ironic zeal to it that sounds perfect after the 801 crew raged through Eno's "Third Uncle"

Third Uncle - Phil Manzanera

Let's Not Wrestle Mt. Heart At...

Reuben sandwich at the LSU Faculty Club

Reuben sandwich at the LSU Faculty Club, originally uploaded by real_voodooboy.

A recurring complaint among Baton Rouge diners is the curious elusiveness of a good Reuben sandwich, a complaint now resolved by the classy yet affordable environs of the LSU Faculty Club. The kraut is tangy and just vaguely sweet, piled on with rich not-too-briny corned beef on thin panini-toasted sourdough. In my mind, rye is the proper bread for a Reuben, but that may just be my imagination, since, like I said, they are a rare thing around here. The dipping sauce tasted like Thousand Island dressing, which again, I believe to be appropriate. If they want to Loosianny it up a bit, they could make it a Raisin' Canes crossover item and serve it with Cane's Sauce, take things up a notch. But I'm generally thankful to be eating lunch in a place that in no way resembles a fast food place for a change.

The LSU Faculty Club is a genteel respite from the slopping of the student herd that usually typifies lunch on campus and is truthfully only a couple bucks more than the Blimpie's at the Union across the street. My sandwich with vegetable of the day was $7.50. The linens and desert cart and table service will thrill those that are into that sort of thing.

owe my life to Facebook

Queen - Queen II (listen) I've had Queen in the back of my mind all weekend, perhaps because it would be the perfect music with which to watch fireworks, and then this morning in the Facebook arrives this most charming wedding video.



then, just I was typing this I got a Facebook chat message saying "Mr. Music Critic, you haven't lived until you have heard 'Girls in Cars' by Robbie Dupree"



and so now I live, and by watching, so do you!

The Promise Breakers at Chelsea's, Baron Rouge, LA

Free association doofus comedy rawk in the mood of Ween and Circle Jerks, and as a bonus, actually funny most of the time. Illustrative detail: they just did a cover of the Adult Swim "Sealab" theme, and did it well.

Lil Dave Thompson at Teddy's Juke Joint

Lil Dave Thompson & Big Love

Dave hits just the right balance of smooth and raw jumping back and forth in each phrase pouring out of his guitar.

summer jam written all over it

Sa-Ra Creative Partners - The Hollywood Recordings (listen) Some how I missed this soulambient groove radiation cloud the first time around it blew through, and based on this, am dying to dig into their recent double CD. Summer jam written all over it.

Hey Love - Sa-Ra Creative Part...

Prince & the Revolution - Parade (listen) In slowly going back through the Prince catalog, I forgot how much I like this record. Besides Around the World in a Day, it might be my favorite. "Kiss" remains omnipresent to the day, a micro-genre of quark-level funk unto itself, and 'Mountains" is a pop music science project demonstrating momentum. Plus, like all the great Prince material, it is not a little bit totally schizoid bananas.

I Wonder U - Prince

Maxwell - Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite (listen) I am mesmerized by the new Maxwell single "Pretty Wings" (YouTube) in a way that slow jam soul doesn't usually hit me; I think its the weird tinny gamelan business under the hood of this track, but it has sent me gleefully to roll around with his back catalog. Michelangelo Matos offers up a great primer on Maxwell in the most recent OffBeat, in conjunction with his appearance at the Essence festival in New Orleans.

Dancewitme - Maxwell

LSU Museum of Geoscience

Maya came up to work for lunch and we took a spin through the LSU Museum of Geoscience which is scattered throughout the Howe-Russell Geoscience building. Diorama and OG science fair-tastic. I love (sincerely) that this is less a formal museum than it is displays lining the hallways of actual laboratories and classrooms. Also, true to Baton Rouge form, I have been working on campus for a year and been up around campus for 20 years, and I had no idea there was an Allosaurus (means "different lizard") just hanging around but 100 yards from where I go get my coffee in the afternoon.




Dig this groovy diorama of a burial mound against Van Gogh skies, with skeleton details. I love dioramas and super soothing orderly taxonomies of minerals. It made me want to drop everything and become a geologist or anthropologist or at least the guy whose quiet profession it is to make kickass vintage teaching displays of Science!