It's customary to try and whip up some interest by delaying the inevitable, so here are some fun facts and figures about the top 100!
22 albums are debuts.
13 albums are 2nd albums.
There are a further 28 records by artists who debuted in the 1990s.
12 albums by artists who debuted in the ‘80s.
11 albums by artists who debuted in the ‘70s.
9 albums by artists who debuted in the ‘60s.
3 albums by artists who debuted in the ‘50s.
2 albums by artists who debuted in the ‘40s.
There are primary artists of 16 nationalities in the top 100, and furthermore 4 records so intercontinental I couldn’t determine a nationality. All but one continent are in there (must try harder, Antarctica!).
48 – USA
18 – UK
6 – Brazil
6 – Canada
4 – France
3 – Japan
2 – Iceland
2 – Ireland
1 record each from Sweden, Finland, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Australia.
Intercontinental:
US / Japan
Jamaica / Various African nations / UK
US / Brazil
Czech Republic / China / Taiwan / Hong Kong
51 albums are by solo artists (though usually accompanied of course) – 38 male / 13 female solo artists.
49 albums by bands – 11 duo’s / 11 trio’s / 27 bands with four or more members (including one orchestra).
Enjoy!
zaterdag 31 oktober 2015
What I like about Kevin Ayers
LC: So I discovered the beats and started reading poetry in Montréal coffeeshops...
KA: I was busking in the south of France with David Aellen of Gong, thinking about dadaism...
LC: ...wrote my first novel, Beautiful Losers, which got some good reviews, you know...
KA: I was on this wild tour of the States with Jimi Hendrix...
LC: ...but now I want to set these poems about the human condition to music, score some more Judy Collins covers...
KA: I'm drinking all the wine, and we'll see what happens next!
LC (gets out Spanish guitar): So I wrote this song about Janis Joplin. It's kinda my showstopper. 'Giving me head on the unmade bed / while the limousines wait in the street'.
KA: Today the town seems like a tomb / Everybody's locked up in their room / Making love or taking love / Who cares?
LC: Right, but what about the tying to the kitchen chairs, the crack in everything? That's how the light gets in...
KA: Now you come and tell that you're sad / But you never talk about it when you're glad / You criticize and you shut your eyes / That's too bad.
LC: Like a bird on the wire / Like a drunk in a midnight choir / I have tried in my way to be free?
KA: Don't let it get you down, Lenny. So let's drink some wine and have a good time / But if you really want to come through / Let the good times (good times) have you.
LC: I'm not sure I follow.
By dawn, Kevin had set off with all the wine and Leonard's wife. Twelve years later, Leonard finally finished the song about their meeting, a ditty called 'Guts' ('The bugger in the short sleeves fucked my wife' and so forth). John Cale covered it on the Shrek soundtrack and the rest is history.
---
A lot of things can happen
As you're walking down the street
But it never fails to amaze me
The people that I meet
They all say see you later
And I just answer how
How will you see me later
If you can't see me now
Sure, at times there's some mild fingerpointing. He's not shy pointing out the divide between those that think they are free and those that are.
People say that they want to be free
They look at him and they look at me
But it's only themselves they're wanting to see
And everybody knows about it
But you see, it's only those clinging to fashionable freedom that need to feel threatened. Everyday square life is a vat of absurd possibilities waiting to happen. I always feel he's on my side and I'm as square as they come. No train commuter should be immune to the thrill of Joy Of A Toy's 'Stop this train (again doing it)' – an endless surrealist fever dream of train misadventures.
---
---
Now did I mention the man can write some melodies! Here are four of my favorites – you may have some of your own:
Whatevershebringswesing
8 weightless minutes of perfection. The chord progression (cyclical, you almost don't see the wheels turning) and arrangement (a floating layer of bass, organ and backing vocals over which Mike Oldfield plays the most lyrical guitar of his career and Ayers and Robert Wyatt harmonize into the horizon) are made for each other like watching the sun set over the sea. I see a scene somewhere on some Greek isle, a gathering of friends eating and drinking into the night, time suspended. But it's a memory – it's also a very sad song. That time is long past.
I'll sing to the island, that sings in your head
Cause I know you'd much rather be there, my friend
But you won't find the answer, even when the wind blows
cause the answer my friend, is in front
Right there in front of your nose
So let's drink some wine and have a good time
But if you really want to come through
Let the good time (good times) have you
Decadence
Another 8 minutes (I like long songs) but of something more nervous and uncomfortable. Over spiralling, echoing guitars and synths, Ayers sings an ode to a most uncomfortable woman, Marlene (but really Nico). It's got those seagul/guitar noises that sound like 'Tomorrow never knows'. At four minutes, bass, guitar and drums kick loose in a great groove. Makes you wonder why Bowie still had to go to Berlin a couple years later.
Stranger in blue suede shoes
Better add a pop song too. This is your standard Western storyline transplanted to the '60s. Ayers, the stranger in blue suede shoes, is refused entry to a bar on account of his hip attire. The stranger offers the bartender one of his cigarettes. At 1'13” the drugs kick in. 'Take whatever you like, stranger. I'm tired of filling the boss's bags with bread. I want to feel the sun and rain. I want to be out in the wind. And by the way, thanks for that cigarette. Thank you very much.' Dig that swinging piano illustrating the hip experience.
Religious experience (Singing a song in the morning)
To conclude, a personal favorite (I've never met anyone yet who agrees). 'Singing a song in the morning', a stand-alone single isn't one of my favorites, but this early take is. There's nothing more to it than a chant:
Singing a song in the morning
Singing it again at night
I don't even know what I'm singing about
But it makes me feel I feel alright
(x10, I counted!)
But the groove is just right, and the lead guitar by Syd Barrett is absolutely astounding. It may just be me but after a while the simplistic words start to sound like the secret of life itself. String theorists will understand, as will ancient Greek astronomers.
It's always like that with Kevin Ayers.
Now did I mention the man can write some melodies! Here are four of my favorites – you may have some of your own:
Whatevershebringswesing
I'll sing to the island, that sings in your head
Cause I know you'd much rather be there, my friend
But you won't find the answer, even when the wind blows
cause the answer my friend, is in front
Right there in front of your nose
So let's drink some wine and have a good time
But if you really want to come through
Let the good time (good times) have you
Decadence
Another 8 minutes (I like long songs) but of something more nervous and uncomfortable. Over spiralling, echoing guitars and synths, Ayers sings an ode to a most uncomfortable woman, Marlene (but really Nico). It's got those seagul/guitar noises that sound like 'Tomorrow never knows'. At four minutes, bass, guitar and drums kick loose in a great groove. Makes you wonder why Bowie still had to go to Berlin a couple years later.
Stranger in blue suede shoes
Religious experience (Singing a song in the morning)
Singing a song in the morning
Singing it again at night
I don't even know what I'm singing about
But it makes me feel I feel alright
(x10, I counted!)
But the groove is just right, and the lead guitar by Syd Barrett is absolutely astounding. It may just be me but after a while the simplistic words start to sound like the secret of life itself. String theorists will understand, as will ancient Greek astronomers.
It's always like that with Kevin Ayers.
Capsule review: Air - 10.000 Hz legend (2001)
Capsule review: Blind boys of Alabama - Spirit of the century (2001)
I'm racking my brain if this is the only great Real World album there ever was. If today's veteran artists are venerated for showing up at the studio awake and unhooked from the oxygen machine, it's because of records like this, on which true veterans showed us just what experience can do to capable artists. Something frightening. And it's not just the vocal quartet (combined age 678), but David Lindley, Danny Thompson, John Hammond, Charlie Musselwhite... A man's band.
vrijdag 30 oktober 2015
Listening to Bobbie Gentry... part 4
Bobbie Gentry and Glen Campbell (1968)
Side one
1."Less of Me" (Glen Campbell)
2."Little Green Apples" (Bob Russell)
3."Gentle on My Mind" (John Hartford)
4."Heart to Heart Talk" (Lee Ross)
5."My Elusive Dreams" (Curly Putman, Billy Sherrill)
6."(It's Only Your) Imagination" (Campbell)
Side two
1."Mornin' Glory" (Bobbie Gentry)
2."Terrible Tangled Web" (Billy Mize)
3."Sunday Mornin'" (Margo Guryan)
4."Let It Be Me" (Gilbert Bécaud, Mann Curtis, Pierre Delanoé)
5."Scarborough Fair/Canticle" (traditional, arranged by Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel)
Local Gentry didn't bring the hoped for success, so more desperate measures were needed. I'm not a fan of this album, it aims for a steady mediocrity and stays there. 'Let it be me' is the only one I'd remember.
First, it's not a Bobbie Gentry album. There's one of her songs, but she doesn't play on the album, doesn't arrange. She just shows up on each song to sing a few lines and leaves the rest of it to Glen Campbell and his band. And her singing doesn't sound completely interested to me either, just professional.
Second, it's not a top class Glen Campbell album either. He did a lot better.
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: 138 - 2014
138
20140226, Bowery ballroom, New York, NY
Chartjunk
Scattegories
Lariat
No one is (as are I be)
Brain gallop
Rumble at the rainbo
Shibboleth
Cinnamon & lesbians
Out of reaches
Tigers
Vanessa from Queens
The janitor revealed
Houston Hades
J Smoov
Baby C'mon
Surreal teenagers
Father to a sister of thought
Kite in a closet
Five days later at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC, the Jicks play another strong set. Even more heavily centered on 'Wig out' (10 out of 18 songs) and to a lesser degree 'Mirror traffic' (only 3 songs), they add a couple of strong songs 'No one is (as I are be) an especially the rare 'Surreal teenagers'. The 3 older Jicks songs are less noteworhty: 'Out of reaches' is held over, but is joined by 'Vanessa from Queens' (also rare, but in this case I don't mind) and the definitely not-rare 'Baby C'mon'. The encore is only two songs, but two great ones: a version of 'Father to a sister of thought' (along with 'From now on' the Pavement sogs the Jicks have the tightest grip on during this tour), and the first new original since 'Wig out': 'Kite in a closet'.
For the first half of the set they almost equal the Englewood show. A string of short, snappy songs that proves irresistible. It doesn't have that urge (or the wild guitar) of Englewood, but it's so good natured, there's such happiness in it. And hey, as far as I can hear, this 'Out of reaches' never stumbles – something of a first.
After 'Out of reaches' they slip into the mire for a couple of songs, lose that spark, but they hit back at the end with a beautiful 'J Smoov' (sounds like all the marrow's been sucked out and it's just the skin hanging in the wind – in a good way), a freewheeling 'Surreal teenagers' (Stephen has to dig deep to remember the lyrics, some of the cues get crazily extended). 'Father to a sister of thought' works great – it's dawning on me that the Pavement songs Stephen chooses to play with the Jicks are not the same as the ones he chose to play with Pavement.
'Kite in a closet'
– firstly, are we sure it's an original? They don't announce it as such, but I assume it is. What does the first new original in the run up to the next album tell us?
- when the first new song appears 16 months after the recording of the last album, they're either working hard behind the scenes or don't hold your breath, this might take a while.
- The song is a VU-style strummed groove ('What goes on' crossed with' Foggy notion'). It could go on forever and I wouldn't mind. It's all in the main riff. No chorus in sight, a little bridge leads the verse into a snappy turnaround riff.
More groove, still very poppy, still fun, even more accessible, ever more like those late '70s pop/rock nuggets they cover all the time. If that's the signpost for the next album, I'm hopeful.
20140226, Bowery ballroom, New York, NY
Chartjunk
Scattegories
Lariat
No one is (as are I be)
Brain gallop
Rumble at the rainbo
Shibboleth
Cinnamon & lesbians
Out of reaches
Tigers
Vanessa from Queens
The janitor revealed
Houston Hades
J Smoov
Baby C'mon
Surreal teenagers
Father to a sister of thought
Kite in a closet
Five days later at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC, the Jicks play another strong set. Even more heavily centered on 'Wig out' (10 out of 18 songs) and to a lesser degree 'Mirror traffic' (only 3 songs), they add a couple of strong songs 'No one is (as I are be) an especially the rare 'Surreal teenagers'. The 3 older Jicks songs are less noteworhty: 'Out of reaches' is held over, but is joined by 'Vanessa from Queens' (also rare, but in this case I don't mind) and the definitely not-rare 'Baby C'mon'. The encore is only two songs, but two great ones: a version of 'Father to a sister of thought' (along with 'From now on' the Pavement sogs the Jicks have the tightest grip on during this tour), and the first new original since 'Wig out': 'Kite in a closet'.
For the first half of the set they almost equal the Englewood show. A string of short, snappy songs that proves irresistible. It doesn't have that urge (or the wild guitar) of Englewood, but it's so good natured, there's such happiness in it. And hey, as far as I can hear, this 'Out of reaches' never stumbles – something of a first.
After 'Out of reaches' they slip into the mire for a couple of songs, lose that spark, but they hit back at the end with a beautiful 'J Smoov' (sounds like all the marrow's been sucked out and it's just the skin hanging in the wind – in a good way), a freewheeling 'Surreal teenagers' (Stephen has to dig deep to remember the lyrics, some of the cues get crazily extended). 'Father to a sister of thought' works great – it's dawning on me that the Pavement songs Stephen chooses to play with the Jicks are not the same as the ones he chose to play with Pavement.
'Kite in a closet'
– firstly, are we sure it's an original? They don't announce it as such, but I assume it is. What does the first new original in the run up to the next album tell us?
- when the first new song appears 16 months after the recording of the last album, they're either working hard behind the scenes or don't hold your breath, this might take a while.
- The song is a VU-style strummed groove ('What goes on' crossed with' Foggy notion'). It could go on forever and I wouldn't mind. It's all in the main riff. No chorus in sight, a little bridge leads the verse into a snappy turnaround riff.
More groove, still very poppy, still fun, even more accessible, ever more like those late '70s pop/rock nuggets they cover all the time. If that's the signpost for the next album, I'm hopeful.
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: 137 - 2014
137
20140221, Ferndale, MI, The loving touch
Cinnamon & lesbians
Tune grief
The janitor revealed
Tigers
Out of reaches
Lariat
Shibboleth
Animal midnight
Brain gallop
Senator
Scattegories
Houston Hades
Church on white
Forever 28
Independence street
1% of 1
J Smoov
Chartjunk
From now on
Range life
Brandy, she's a fine girl
Compared to Englewood the show in Ferndale is the opposite: in Ferndale the encore covers are kinda safe and unexciting, but the main set is a feast. The composition of the set is roughly the same: 14 out of 21 songs are from the last two albums, 3 covers in the encore, 4 older Jicks songs ('Out of reaches', 'Animal midnight', 'Church on white', '1% of 1' – a more promising selection than Englewood for sure). But here, driven on by an enthusiastic crowd (Stephen alludes to it being the first time he's ever played this region) the Jicks launch into it. The cries of 'We're playing three sets tonight, so get in!', 'You're in for the ride of your lives' and also 'You guys have got a weird smoke machine in here' are no put-on. Stephen is less demonstrative in banter, but all the more in playing. To get right down to it, the reason this is my favorite of the recorded shows from 2014 I've heard is the guitar. Stephen's guitar is up high in the mix, it's got amazing tone, and Stephen is into it and plays wildly off-the-cuff, all sorts of fills and ornamentations, sometimes subtly woven into the songs, sometimes he steamrollers right over everything in his path. I mean, it's no coincidence they pull out '1% of 1' at this show. Stephen knows he's in that zone to do it justice.
Some highlights (but the main set is one long thrill ride): 'Tigers' – the first moment where Stephen really goes off the track, he nearly totals the song in the process. That's the sign for me – this is getting exciting! 'Out of reaches' – I'm ready to proclaim this the best live version of the song ever, when just at the end 'the tides will turn', they botch it up (this time it's Joanna, but damn, will they ever play this song without getting lost in it? It must be the most difficult song in their repertoire.) No matter. 'Shibboleth' with some crazily pronounced vocal echo. 'Animal midnight' and 'Brain gallop' both really urgent and raw (and raw is not a word I use a lot to describe the Jicks). Lovely 'Church on white' too, like meeting it again for the first time in a long while. Long jamming on '1%'. Perfect smoldering and boiling over on 'J Smoov'. Heck, let's just say the entire set!
By the time of the encore, it hardly matters 'Brandy' doesn't catch fire, or 'Range life' is curtailed after the first chorus. Actually that's just long enough to be a pleasant addition to the set. It wouldn't have added more if it'd been thrice as long.
20140221, Ferndale, MI, The loving touch
Cinnamon & lesbians
Tune grief
The janitor revealed
Tigers
Out of reaches
Lariat
Shibboleth
Animal midnight
Brain gallop
Senator
Scattegories
Houston Hades
Church on white
Forever 28
Independence street
1% of 1
J Smoov
Chartjunk
From now on
Range life
Brandy, she's a fine girl
Compared to Englewood the show in Ferndale is the opposite: in Ferndale the encore covers are kinda safe and unexciting, but the main set is a feast. The composition of the set is roughly the same: 14 out of 21 songs are from the last two albums, 3 covers in the encore, 4 older Jicks songs ('Out of reaches', 'Animal midnight', 'Church on white', '1% of 1' – a more promising selection than Englewood for sure). But here, driven on by an enthusiastic crowd (Stephen alludes to it being the first time he's ever played this region) the Jicks launch into it. The cries of 'We're playing three sets tonight, so get in!', 'You're in for the ride of your lives' and also 'You guys have got a weird smoke machine in here' are no put-on. Stephen is less demonstrative in banter, but all the more in playing. To get right down to it, the reason this is my favorite of the recorded shows from 2014 I've heard is the guitar. Stephen's guitar is up high in the mix, it's got amazing tone, and Stephen is into it and plays wildly off-the-cuff, all sorts of fills and ornamentations, sometimes subtly woven into the songs, sometimes he steamrollers right over everything in his path. I mean, it's no coincidence they pull out '1% of 1' at this show. Stephen knows he's in that zone to do it justice.
Some highlights (but the main set is one long thrill ride): 'Tigers' – the first moment where Stephen really goes off the track, he nearly totals the song in the process. That's the sign for me – this is getting exciting! 'Out of reaches' – I'm ready to proclaim this the best live version of the song ever, when just at the end 'the tides will turn', they botch it up (this time it's Joanna, but damn, will they ever play this song without getting lost in it? It must be the most difficult song in their repertoire.) No matter. 'Shibboleth' with some crazily pronounced vocal echo. 'Animal midnight' and 'Brain gallop' both really urgent and raw (and raw is not a word I use a lot to describe the Jicks). Lovely 'Church on white' too, like meeting it again for the first time in a long while. Long jamming on '1%'. Perfect smoldering and boiling over on 'J Smoov'. Heck, let's just say the entire set!
By the time of the encore, it hardly matters 'Brandy' doesn't catch fire, or 'Range life' is curtailed after the first chorus. Actually that's just long enough to be a pleasant addition to the set. It wouldn't have added more if it'd been thrice as long.
Capsule review: Antony & the Johnsons - I am a bird now (2005)
Have you heard of Antony and the Johnsons?
Have you heard their music?
Is it the bee's knees?
Is it a big cheese?
Does it offer release?
Or is it just a tease?
Do you want more, please?
When it ends, is it a relief?
Have you heard their music?
Is it the bee's knees?
Is it a big cheese?
Does it offer release?
Or is it just a tease?
Do you want more, please?
When it ends, is it a relief?
Capsule review: Annie - Don't stop / All night EP (2009)
Five years later not much of the debut's 'Come together'-ism remains. A brash and cynical sound that's all about wanting and taking. Nightlife as a jungle in which greedy packs of glamorous predators prowl the innocent. Too much of it is calculated or pointless, but parts of Don't Stop reveal themselves as slickly irresistible. Accompanying EP is all the more frustrating for revealing she had at least a couple of tracks up her sleeve to lift Don't Stop out of the slop.
Capsule review: Air - Virgin suicides (2000)
360 records from the year 2000: 105 - 101
105. Will Kimbrough: This
In case you haven’t gleamed it from the cover picture, the first song tells you everything you need to know about the album: it’s pure powerpop, made by a guy in his first phase of aging, holding on to the certainties ‘classic’ guitar pop can offer. The Byrds jangle, the Beatle harmony, the Tom Petty whine… He’s pretty good at it, sure, but you know this stuff. BUT…after the first track (with which there is nothing wrong) he delivers three back to back songs of such classic rightness – you know, those songs that sound like they’ve always existed but they really didn’t. Take for example ‘Chimayo’, a verse melody that reminds me of Prince’s ‘Paisley Park’ in a good way gives way to a gorgeous strings and horns section and then it repeats itself – it doesn’t need to do more, it’s just right. My mind is filled with all the heartbreak and inner strength in the world. Who cares that after those three tracks it lands back on hard soil and continues in good-but-not-stellar style? He almost lifts off again in the beautiful closing track ‘Goodnight moon’.
At its best: Chimayo, Need you now, Dream away, Goodnight moon
104. Marc Teamaker: Ping
A throwback to a pop/singer-songwriter sound that’s very early ‘90s to my ears: oversaturated with melody, polished and polite. Marc Teamaker is utterly infatuated with the popsounds of yesteryear, almost too respectful if he wasn’t so melodically gifted. As an artist he’s a bit of a cypher. Then again, he could be you or me, or any music message board poster making his own album. I’m usually not a fan of the genre (Jellyfish, Eric Matthews, that sort of thing), but I like this guy’s melodies a lot. Yeah, it’s not going to change the world, or even the music world. But it’s a lot of craft, a lot of love of music, a little bit wet. It sounds like a random person’s obsessive project. It probably was.
At its best: All good things, Can’t say why, No big surprise, King quiet, Wear & tear, Low tide
103. Neko Case & her boyfriends: Furnace room lullaby
That this record is almost emblematic for the indiecountry trend in the early 2000s shouldn’t distract from its excellence. Just lend your ear to ‘Porchlight’, an absolutely fantastic song on this set: the pining pedal steel on the intro, the heart melting pure country harmonies, that falsetto, the meaning of the words she sings ‘I long to be forgiven’ is fully captured in the music before drifting back into the fantasy of the chrousline ’So far away’, the duet between baritone guitar and pedal steel. I’ve been listening to this song on repeat, and if you dig it too, you will love this album.
At its best: Set out running, Porchlight, No need to cry, Thrice all American, We’ve never met
102. McCoy Tyner: Jazz roots
In 2011 I finally got the chance to see McCoy Tyner in concert and it was a wonderful experience. He played with a quartet but also a couple of solo numbers, in which he stretched out slowly and beautifully, as if he was considering every note for its beauty before he pressed the keys. So it was with some expectation that I listened to this album, a solo piano work dedicated to the great piano players in jazz history. And I didn’t get it. What was McCoy Tyner seeking in these early bebop, almost swing arrangements of old chestnuts? But gradually I found it, and this album keeps climbing higher in my estimation. It may start off on old fashioned, gloriously carefree form (which I now love), but it’s a voyage through the history of jazz, moving swiftly through the early stages but reaching high altitude on the central section, ‘You taught my heart to sing’, ‘Happy days’ and ‘Rio’, three self-written compositions that are classic Tyner, every bit the equal of the stuff I saw him do in concert – the first title is, I guess, Tyner’s own theme song, the second dedicated to Keith Jarrett, the third to Chick Corea. And finally, four more standards, some of the most classic songs in jazz, ‘Summertime’, ‘St Louis blues’, ‘Ain’t misbehavin’’ and ‘Misty’, but these aren’t done old fashioned, but rather completely re-imagined as classic McCoy Tyner material, full of the history of jazz and yet filled with the possibilities of tomorrow. It may not be one of the most fashionable records of the year, but that doesn’t diminish its grace, vision and beauty.
At its best: A night in Tunisia, Don’t get around much anymore, You taught my heart to sing, Happy days, Rio, Summertime
101. Sea & cake: Oui
One for us highbrow Chicago post-rock diggers. We like to listen to this overly polite melding of supple ‘ripple on a pond’ style drums, jazz chords, nearly inaudible electronic humming with song titles which bear no relation to the tracks which all sound the same anyway. And oh, do I detect a bit of African highlife in the guitar there?
I love this record.
At its best: Afternoon speaker, You beautiful bastard, The leaf, Midtown, Seemingly
104. Marc Teamaker: Ping
103. Neko Case & her boyfriends: Furnace room lullaby
102. McCoy Tyner: Jazz roots
101. Sea & cake: Oui
I love this record.
What's Bob Dylan doing today?
It's a shame Andy isn't with him anymore though.
I really liked Bob & Andy.
donderdag 29 oktober 2015
Listening to Bobbie Gentry... part 3
Local gentry (1968)
Side one
1."Sweete Peony (Gentry) 2:26"
2."Casket Vignette (Gentry) 2:34"
3."Come Away Melinda (Fran Minkoff, Fred Hellerman) 3:21"
4."The Fool on the Hill (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) 3:44"
5."Papa's Medicine Show (Jamie Horton) 3:50"
6."Ace Insurance Man (Gentry) 3:33"
Side two
1."Recollection (Gentry) 2:10"
2."Sittin' Pretty (Gentry, Kelly Gordon) 3:19"
3."Eleanor Rigby (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) 2:27"
4."Peaceful (Kenny Rankin) 2:51"
5."Here, There and Everywhere (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) 2:28"
(This LP tracklisting is from Wikipedia. It's always sounded to me like 'Ace insurance man' is the beginning of side 2, but I could be wrong.)
Patchy. An uneasy mixture of her own originals which continue the line from the previous album, and covers from recordings with London sessioneers - three Beatles songs which veer dangerously close to supper club territory (of course Bobbie was no stranger to the supper club scene, but still).
This is not a great album. 'The fool on the hill' and 'Papa's medicine show' are the two worst recordings of her career and when you hear 'em back to back, it sure drags the album down. 'Here, there and everywhere' is better, but forgettable. The only Beatles cover I do quite enjoy is 'Eleanor Rigby'.
But it's a real shame for two reasons. First, there is some great stuff on the album. 'Casket vignette', 'Come away Melinda', 'Recollection'... for my money she actually betters 'The delta sweete' on these songs. She's still trading in wonderful story songs ('Casket vignette' about a mortuary saleswoman!), she's still radiating that sweet sensual thing, but the arrangements are less fussy, she's learned to put in exactly what the song needs. And as a result it's more immediate, more direct. She's still growing as an artist.
Second, the great 'What if' stories in pop... There's some 1968 recordings floating around that could easily have bettered the album. I've heard six 1968 recordings which didn't make the cut. 'Hushabye mountain' was a standalone single at the time, and is gorgeous, the singing is wonderful. 'Stormy' and 'Skip along Sam' are two outtakes which were finally released on the 'Ode...' comp. Of these 'Stormy' is worth looking out for, a slow whispered take on the song. Then there were two songs recorded for a V/A Christmas album, 'Scarlet ribbons' and 'Away in a manger'. Both are good, but 'Away...' is very Christmassy. 'Scarlet ribbons' on the other hand is a drop dead beautiful performance, which should have been on the album. Lastly, there was a Spanish language version of 'Here, there and everywhere' - another failed commercial move.
In conclusion, replace 'The fool on the hill', 'Papa's medicine show' and 'Here, there and everywhere' (would have made a good b-side) with 'Hushabye mountain', 'Stormy' and 'Scarlet ribbons' and this would have been some album.
1."Sweete Peony (Gentry) 2:26"
2."Casket Vignette (Gentry) 2:34"
3."Come Away Melinda (Fran Minkoff, Fred Hellerman) 3:21"
4."The Fool on the Hill (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) 3:44"
5."Papa's Medicine Show (Jamie Horton) 3:50"
6."Ace Insurance Man (Gentry) 3:33"
Side two
1."Recollection (Gentry) 2:10"
2."Sittin' Pretty (Gentry, Kelly Gordon) 3:19"
3."Eleanor Rigby (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) 2:27"
4."Peaceful (Kenny Rankin) 2:51"
5."Here, There and Everywhere (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) 2:28"
(This LP tracklisting is from Wikipedia. It's always sounded to me like 'Ace insurance man' is the beginning of side 2, but I could be wrong.)
Patchy. An uneasy mixture of her own originals which continue the line from the previous album, and covers from recordings with London sessioneers - three Beatles songs which veer dangerously close to supper club territory (of course Bobbie was no stranger to the supper club scene, but still).
This is not a great album. 'The fool on the hill' and 'Papa's medicine show' are the two worst recordings of her career and when you hear 'em back to back, it sure drags the album down. 'Here, there and everywhere' is better, but forgettable. The only Beatles cover I do quite enjoy is 'Eleanor Rigby'.
But it's a real shame for two reasons. First, there is some great stuff on the album. 'Casket vignette', 'Come away Melinda', 'Recollection'... for my money she actually betters 'The delta sweete' on these songs. She's still trading in wonderful story songs ('Casket vignette' about a mortuary saleswoman!), she's still radiating that sweet sensual thing, but the arrangements are less fussy, she's learned to put in exactly what the song needs. And as a result it's more immediate, more direct. She's still growing as an artist.
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: 136 - 2014
136
20140212, Gothic theater, Englewood CO
Tigers
Planetary motion
Rumble at the rainbo
No one is (as I are be)
Cinnamon and lesbians
Spazz
Shibboleth
Lariat
Jenny and the Ess-dog
Senator
The janitor revealed
J Smoov
Scattegories
Animal midnight
Houston Hades
Independence street
Forever 28 >
Come sail away (Styx)
Asking price >
Stick figures in love
Father to a sister of thought
Swingtown
Box elder
Baby C'mon
Dreaded first night of the tour leg ('Wig out across America' is what Mike calls it). The Jicks deliver an enjoyable set, but they're only gearing up. They're a little rusty, so they play it relatively safe. Nothing embarasses, but not much made me sit up and marvel either.
Noticeably, the Morris-era Jicks define themselves by their own repertoire, not so much as a continuation of 15 years of the Jicks. 17 out of 24 tracks here are from the last two albums. Of the 7 others 4 are covers (two by Pavement). Only three songs ('Jenny', 'Animal midnight', 'Baby C'mon') date from earlier Jicks times. It works remarkably well. Listening to this show, it struck me how rich that core repertoire from the last two albums is. I mean, 17 tracks from two albums, that's an enormous amount of songs. And I don't hear any weak spots. AND they manage to not play a bunch of my favorites from those albums as well ('Long hard book', 'Gorgeous Georgie', 'Fall away', 'Chartjunk', 'Surreal teenagers'). It's impressive when you think about it. The material from 'Mirror traffic' and 'Wig out' goes together well, the 'Wig out' songs lighten up the mood considerably.
But it's only when 'Forever 28' segues into a chanted jam on 'Come sail away' that the first unexpected moment of the set occurs, and that's 15 songs into the set, right before the encore break. The encore covers include a credible take on 'Father to a sister of thought', a ramshackle 'Box elder', but mostly an intriguingly messy jam on 'Swingtown'. It's not that good, but it's a most welcome 'off the beaten track' intrusion on an otherwise safe evening.
20140212, Gothic theater, Englewood CO
Tigers
Planetary motion
Rumble at the rainbo
No one is (as I are be)
Cinnamon and lesbians
Spazz
Shibboleth
Lariat
Jenny and the Ess-dog
Senator
The janitor revealed
J Smoov
Scattegories
Animal midnight
Houston Hades
Independence street
Forever 28 >
Come sail away (Styx)
Asking price >
Stick figures in love
Father to a sister of thought
Swingtown
Box elder
Baby C'mon
Dreaded first night of the tour leg ('Wig out across America' is what Mike calls it). The Jicks deliver an enjoyable set, but they're only gearing up. They're a little rusty, so they play it relatively safe. Nothing embarasses, but not much made me sit up and marvel either.
Noticeably, the Morris-era Jicks define themselves by their own repertoire, not so much as a continuation of 15 years of the Jicks. 17 out of 24 tracks here are from the last two albums. Of the 7 others 4 are covers (two by Pavement). Only three songs ('Jenny', 'Animal midnight', 'Baby C'mon') date from earlier Jicks times. It works remarkably well. Listening to this show, it struck me how rich that core repertoire from the last two albums is. I mean, 17 tracks from two albums, that's an enormous amount of songs. And I don't hear any weak spots. AND they manage to not play a bunch of my favorites from those albums as well ('Long hard book', 'Gorgeous Georgie', 'Fall away', 'Chartjunk', 'Surreal teenagers'). It's impressive when you think about it. The material from 'Mirror traffic' and 'Wig out' goes together well, the 'Wig out' songs lighten up the mood considerably.
But it's only when 'Forever 28' segues into a chanted jam on 'Come sail away' that the first unexpected moment of the set occurs, and that's 15 songs into the set, right before the encore break. The encore covers include a credible take on 'Father to a sister of thought', a ramshackle 'Box elder', but mostly an intriguingly messy jam on 'Swingtown'. It's not that good, but it's a most welcome 'off the beaten track' intrusion on an otherwise safe evening.
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: 135 - 2014
135
20140118, Paris
Janitor revealed
Shibboleth
Animal midnight
Harness your hopes
Beginning to see the light
Two days later the cobwebs are off, and it sure feels good. Leaning heavily on some 2013 concert highlights, most of all the Crystal Ballroom show. Same covers for starters, the sound is a notch below, but the fun is flowing freely. By now the Jicks sort of own 'Harness your hopes'. Let me tell you, 'Stairway to heaven' is still the most belabored penis joke of the 20th century, but leave it tot the Jicks to have me looking forward to its (truncated - thank God) appearance. 'Beginning to see the light' is messy, but that's the risk when you're playing spontaneously.
In contract, the Jicks originals from the main set glow with the thrill of the new, faithfull to the album version, but vibrant. 'Animal midnight' - lovely version in line with the 2nd night in Brisbane 2013.
Not essential or unique, but to witness the Jicks on a good night like this, one of life's pleasures.
20140118, Paris
Janitor revealed
Shibboleth
Animal midnight
Harness your hopes
Beginning to see the light
Two days later the cobwebs are off, and it sure feels good. Leaning heavily on some 2013 concert highlights, most of all the Crystal Ballroom show. Same covers for starters, the sound is a notch below, but the fun is flowing freely. By now the Jicks sort of own 'Harness your hopes'. Let me tell you, 'Stairway to heaven' is still the most belabored penis joke of the 20th century, but leave it tot the Jicks to have me looking forward to its (truncated - thank God) appearance. 'Beginning to see the light' is messy, but that's the risk when you're playing spontaneously.
In contract, the Jicks originals from the main set glow with the thrill of the new, faithfull to the album version, but vibrant. 'Animal midnight' - lovely version in line with the 2nd night in Brisbane 2013.
Not essential or unique, but to witness the Jicks on a good night like this, one of life's pleasures.
360 records from the year 2000: 110 - 106
110. Kylie Minogue: Light years
Two thirds of a great, breezy and swirly pop record. The singles at the front have a little bit of that annoying thumping production, common for late 90s R&B pop. Shame, as they’re good songs. Singles out of the way, the production settles into an excellent 70s disco-pop sound. The songs are fluffy as hell (Disco down, Loveboat, Koocachoo, I’m so high), but irresistible. There’s some excellent slower songs too (So now goodbye, Please stay, Bittersweet goodbye). In the end, it’s just a little too long and there’s a couple of awful moments (Your disco needs you, Butterfly, Kids). But fuck, I haven’t heard a record like this since Abba’s ‘Waterloo’. And I wanna play it again.
At its best: So now goodbye, Love boat, Koocachoo, Please stay, Bittersweet goodbye, I’m so high.
109. Jimmie Dale Gilmore: One endless night
I’ve been listening to these records from 2000 for months to the exclusion of my other records, so forgive me if I get a little weak hearted every time I hear the melody of the Grateful Dead’s ‘Ripple’ ring out on One endless night. It’s a beautiful version too. This is, as far as I can tell, a tribute to Texan roots songwriters (Hancock, Van Zandt, Willis Alan Ramsey, Jesse Winchester, Garcia AND… Kurt Weill). Anyway, Gilmore is great, and this is a supremely relaxed roots record, ‘Stardust’ for Texans. Check out the ‘One too many mornings’ on steroids melody of ‘Darcy Farrow’ too… I’m almost sure Dylan himself lifted it to light up his live shows of the early 2000s.
At its best: One endless night, Banks of the Guadelupe, Ripple, Darcy Farrow, Mack the knife
108. Big leaves: Pwy sy’n galw?
Ah Wales, where bands put their fax number on the back of their records.
Big Leaves sound impossibly young and they’re storming out of the gate like some mad, giddy combination of Supergrass at their youngest and Super Furry Animals when they started. What you get is: 3 minute pop songs, loud guitars, bass and drums hanging in there, harmonies, no frills, just nail them on tape, preferably live. In Welsh. There’s one electric ballad and one (very pretty) British folk influenced acoustic ballad – the rest is pop!
No matter how many times you hear it, the smell of youthful exuberance, bands made up out of school buddies, talented against all odds, getting ready for the ride of their lives (even if it never happens) – it never gets old, does it?
The production is barely there – it’s like a rough demo waiting to become their debut album. I found a contemporary interview where they said they were preparing their first English-language album. Did it ever happen? I found no further evidence of their existence.
I guess I’d have to fax’em.
At its best: Dily dy drwyn, Whistling sands, Synfyfyrio, Byw Fel Ci, Seithenyn
107. Madonna: Music
William Orbit – I just don’t like his beats. Pounding away like some kitchen appliance he forgot to turn off when he started recording.
He comes damn close to ruining this record, even with just the three tracks he’s allowed free rein on.
But the rest is exactly what I want from a Madonna album – pop at the frontier of the new, with no kabbalah prayer interludes. At the heart of the record are six collaborations between Madonna and Mirwais Ahmadzai that brim with excitement. The intervening 13 years haven’t dulled the edge. You can feel the push and pull between Madonna’s pop sense and Mirwais’ urge to push everything into the red and pull the rug out from under it. It’s too messy to be perfect – the vocoder on ‘Nobody’s perfect’ is just too much, though it’s soon redeemed by an out of control distorted bass synth line, a pretty acoustic mid-section, and after that, the fall of a juggernaut beat resembling the awkward steps of a giant. Who needs perfect? For state of the art pop, this has got the raw edge.
And if you do want perfection, there’s always the guest production on ‘What it feels like for a girl’.
At its best: Music, I deserve it, Don’t tell me, What it feels like for a girl
106. Claire Martin: Perfect alibi
109. Jimmie Dale Gilmore: One endless night
108. Big leaves: Pwy sy’n galw?
Big Leaves sound impossibly young and they’re storming out of the gate like some mad, giddy combination of Supergrass at their youngest and Super Furry Animals when they started. What you get is: 3 minute pop songs, loud guitars, bass and drums hanging in there, harmonies, no frills, just nail them on tape, preferably live. In Welsh. There’s one electric ballad and one (very pretty) British folk influenced acoustic ballad – the rest is pop!
No matter how many times you hear it, the smell of youthful exuberance, bands made up out of school buddies, talented against all odds, getting ready for the ride of their lives (even if it never happens) – it never gets old, does it?
The production is barely there – it’s like a rough demo waiting to become their debut album. I found a contemporary interview where they said they were preparing their first English-language album. Did it ever happen? I found no further evidence of their existence.
I guess I’d have to fax’em.
107. Madonna: Music
He comes damn close to ruining this record, even with just the three tracks he’s allowed free rein on.
But the rest is exactly what I want from a Madonna album – pop at the frontier of the new, with no kabbalah prayer interludes. At the heart of the record are six collaborations between Madonna and Mirwais Ahmadzai that brim with excitement. The intervening 13 years haven’t dulled the edge. You can feel the push and pull between Madonna’s pop sense and Mirwais’ urge to push everything into the red and pull the rug out from under it. It’s too messy to be perfect – the vocoder on ‘Nobody’s perfect’ is just too much, though it’s soon redeemed by an out of control distorted bass synth line, a pretty acoustic mid-section, and after that, the fall of a juggernaut beat resembling the awkward steps of a giant. Who needs perfect? For state of the art pop, this has got the raw edge.
And if you do want perfection, there’s always the guest production on ‘What it feels like for a girl’.
106. Claire Martin: Perfect alibi
First impression: In the worst way, this artist can be expected to make an Elvis Costello cover album soon. It’s so subtle it sounds crass.
These are undoubtedly good songs (most of ‘em), but so what? It doesn’t seem to make a case for its existence.
Later on: a pleasant listening experience, old fashioned nice pipe and slippers moment. Am I scared to start enjoying this? ‘Strangers now’ almost sounds like it could fit on one of Joni Mitchell’s underrated 90s albums (say, ‘Turbulent Indigo’ or ‘Taming the tiger’). Is it getting subtler or am I getting more crass?
Even later: It’s so good to come home to an old friend. Beautiful songs sung well by a singer sensitive to the nuances of meaning but unafraid to take a stand. Well done.
At its best: How can I be sure?, Man in the station, Strangers now, More than I can bear, Wailing wall
These are undoubtedly good songs (most of ‘em), but so what? It doesn’t seem to make a case for its existence.
Later on: a pleasant listening experience, old fashioned nice pipe and slippers moment. Am I scared to start enjoying this? ‘Strangers now’ almost sounds like it could fit on one of Joni Mitchell’s underrated 90s albums (say, ‘Turbulent Indigo’ or ‘Taming the tiger’). Is it getting subtler or am I getting more crass?
Even later: It’s so good to come home to an old friend. Beautiful songs sung well by a singer sensitive to the nuances of meaning but unafraid to take a stand. Well done.
Capsule review: Jim O'Rourke - Simple songs (2015)
People say he keeps emotions at arm's length, but sardonic people are just the same as you and me, baby. No one translates that brain frequency like Jim. On the surface a successor to 2001's Insignificance, this is way deeper into '70s art song. The piano is central, the guitar tone is pure early wave progressive rock. Jim is still Jim and no one does it better. Side B ('Last year' / 'End of the road' / 'All your love') is so perfect it's almost sleazy. He's lucky the thought police is busy with less subtle perpetrators.
Capsule review: Boris - Smile (2008)
'Fraid the songs are indistinguishable when they switch to Sabbath Youth modus, but I like the slow and hazy ones, atmospheric noise. They go on for a long time. I like that too.
Capsule review: Burt Bacharach / V/A - The songs of Burt Bacharach (1952-62, 2013 released)
Triple disc of out-of-copyright early endeavours. I really need Buddy Clinton's 'Take me to your ladder (I'll see your leader later)' - about loving 20 feet women on the moon. Sane people may not. Cause nothing on the moon could be greater.
woensdag 28 oktober 2015
Listening to Bobbie Gentry... part 2
The Delta sweete (1968)
Side One
1."Okolona River Bottom Band" – 2:57
2."Big Boss Man" (Luther Dixon, Al Smith) – 2:56
3."Reunion" – 2:35
4."Parchman Farm" (Mose Allison) – 3:00
5."Mornin' Glory" – 2:57
6."Sermon" – 2:41
Side Two
1."Tobacco Road" (John D. Loudermilk) – 2:50
2."Penduli Pendulum" – 2:55
3."Jessye' Lisabeth" – 3:00
4."Refractions" – 2:20
5."Louisiana Man" (Doug Kershaw) – 2:35
6."Courtyard" – 2:58
The first of her three 1968 albums. This is the album she was trying to make with 'Ode to Billie Joe'. An incredibly ambitious work, musically, thematically and in the arrangements. It's nearer to Southern literature (your Faulkners etc) than any music I know. The quality of the groupplaying is exceptional and then the whole thing gains an extra layer of meaning through the strings and horns. The more I play this, the more I find in it. Sample some highlights on Youtube: 'Courtyard' is my favourite, but other songs like 'Mornin' glory', 'Jessye Lisabeth' and 'Refractions' are just as good and the cover songs are wonderful re-imaginings too.
Still, the album bombed. The single 'Louisiana man' crawled into the lower reaches of the charts and quickly disappeared. And with that, Gentry's period of carte blanche recording the music that she wanted to, ended. To be honest, you can see why it wasn't a succes. It's not remotely poppy. At times (the weakest parts of the album) it kind-a reminds you of stageshows ('Reunion', 'Sermon') which was not a hip thing, I guess. On those two songs, she falls short of her ambitions. She doesn't so much get into the skin of her characters ('Reunion' stages a familyreunion, 'Sermon' a sermon - obviously), as on my nerves. From then on the search for pop succes was on.
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: 134 - 2014
134
20140116, The Forum, Kentish town, London
Lariat
Planetary motion
Tigers
Cold son
Cinnamon and lesbians
Scattegories
J Smoov
Forever 28
Harness your hopes
Shibboleth
(Do not feed the) Oyster
Out of reaches
Houston Hades (fragment)
Baby Cmon
Independence street
Chartjunk
The first recorded show of the tour, at the Forum in London, is a perfectly amiable stroll. I can't honestly say anything exceptional happens, but if this is an average 2014 Jicks show, the batting average will be quite high. It takes a little while to get going, but from 'J Smoov' onwards they're in a groove. The recordings quality is average but you can hear what's going on.
There are a couple of songs we haven't heard in a while: 'Cold son' and 'Out of reaches' from 'Real emotional trash', '(Do not feed the) Oyster' from 'Pig lib'. 'Harness your hopes' has been held over from the Crystal Ballroom set two months earlier. Mostly, it's a pretty standard set though. It's a short recording, there may be parts of the show unrecorded. 'Houston Hades' breaks off after the intro, and possibly the show ran longer than the final recorded song 'Chartjunk'.
20140116, The Forum, Kentish town, London
Lariat
Planetary motion
Tigers
Cold son
Cinnamon and lesbians
Scattegories
J Smoov
Forever 28
Harness your hopes
Shibboleth
(Do not feed the) Oyster
Out of reaches
Houston Hades (fragment)
Baby Cmon
Independence street
Chartjunk
The first recorded show of the tour, at the Forum in London, is a perfectly amiable stroll. I can't honestly say anything exceptional happens, but if this is an average 2014 Jicks show, the batting average will be quite high. It takes a little while to get going, but from 'J Smoov' onwards they're in a groove. The recordings quality is average but you can hear what's going on.
There are a couple of songs we haven't heard in a while: 'Cold son' and 'Out of reaches' from 'Real emotional trash', '(Do not feed the) Oyster' from 'Pig lib'. 'Harness your hopes' has been held over from the Crystal Ballroom set two months earlier. Mostly, it's a pretty standard set though. It's a short recording, there may be parts of the show unrecorded. 'Houston Hades' breaks off after the intro, and possibly the show ran longer than the final recorded song 'Chartjunk'.
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: 133 - 2014
133
20140110, Live at WFUV
Houston Hades
Lariat
Scattegories
Shibboleth
A slightly longer session at WFUV – the sound is more boxed in, but it sounds just fine when you turn it up. And why wouldn't you? The Jicks are doing fine. Once again, the rewards for fans who look for special occurences are few. 'Houston Hades' has a slightly longer noise intro section. 'Lariat' has a weird choreographed solo section tacked on to its end. 'Scattegories' is a little more stripped back. They just play 'em well.
The highlight of the day is the last song, the first live version (I'm aware of) of 'Shibboleth'. Chock full of keyboard weirdry, it can stand next to the album take proudly. Not greatly different, but with added live performance urgency. It rocks.
20140110, Live at WFUV
Houston Hades
Lariat
Scattegories
Shibboleth
The highlight of the day is the last song, the first live version (I'm aware of) of 'Shibboleth'. Chock full of keyboard weirdry, it can stand next to the album take proudly. Not greatly different, but with added live performance urgency. It rocks.
dinsdag 27 oktober 2015
Listening to Bobbie Gentry... part 1
(I wrote this career overview for one of my favourite artists back in 2013, just so you know.)
A wonderful artist and well worth a complete career overview. I've spent a couple of years tracking down as much of her music as I could: first through compilations (The 'American quilt' comp on Raven is the best one, IMO. You can't really go wrong, but the Shout! comp focuses a little too much on the first two albums and glosses over the rest of her career, and 'Ode' has got too little of her own songs, which is a big oversight), then copies of the original albums until Raven Records reissued the albums (except for the Campbell-collaboration).
There are 7 albums and a couple of stand alone singles:
Ode to Billie Joe (1967)
Side 1
1."Mississippi Delta" – 3:05
2."I Saw an Angel Die" – 2:56
3."Chickasaw County Child" – 2:45
4."Sunday Best" – 2:50
5."Niki Hoeky" (Jim Ford, Lolly Vegas, Pat Vegas) – 2:45
Side 2
1."Papa, Woncha Let Me Go to Town With You?" – 2:30
2."Bugs" – 2:05
3."Hurry, Tuesday Child" – 3:52
4."Lazy Willie" – 2:36
5."Ode to Billie Joe" – 4:15
A hurriedly recorded first album after the success of the single (actually 'Ode to Billie Joe' was the b-side to 'Mississippi delta'). At this point there was clearly some mileage in the idea of Bobbie Gentry as a succesfull writer-singer. Apart from 'Niki Hoeky', all the songs are her own. (I still don't put too much stock in the Jim Ford rumors, and in the meantime I've heard some of his own songs. Nope, can't see it.)
Gentry herself complained later that she wasn't ready, and I hear it. I mean, this is an introduction to an artist capable of greatness, who already has a grasp of her own writing style, very literate, very Southern, very much concerned with parts of women's life experience that had not been voiced in songs much before. Many of the songs on the album are good to very good (I really like 'Sunday best', 'Papa won't you let me go to town with you' and 'Hurry tuesday child' a lot), but only one is great. Gentry always prided herself on the fact that she (co-)arranged her own records, but she's not nearly ready on that front: some nice touches, but many songs share the same mood and occasionally the 'interesting' arrangements cross over into quirky touches.
So, this record is certainly worth your time, but she got better - fast.
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: 132 - 2014
132
January 2014, BBC 6 Music radio session
Chartjunk
Lariat
One difference between the 'Wig out' promotion and previous albums, this is a band promoting their album. I've seen a higher number than usual of interviews with all of the Jicks present. Now, if they get enough attention from the interviewers, that's another question. And all of the radio sessions have been with the Jicks, not solo acoustic. I take it as a sign of 'band awareness' running high at the moment, which is good. The one thing all the sessions (there are a couple coming up) have in common, is that they lack surprises. The Jicks play selections from their latest album in arrangements similar to the album. They play'em really well, on the whole, but is it too much to ask to drop a cover in there, or a re-arranged old song, a new song... It seems not so long ago, when that would be the order of the day.
Anyway, here at 6Music on BBC Radio they play a version of 'Chartjunk' that smokes the album version as far as I'm concerned. It rips, it's got that excitement, the gut missing from the album. There's urgency in Stephen's vocal. And those guitars on the final minute. My goodness. 'Lariat' takes a while to gather momentum. Stephen hesitates here and there, both the vocal and the guitar line. It's good, but only comes alive at the very end of the take. Don't worry, they play the song at 3 of the 5 2014 radio sessions in this list. They'll get it right.
Btw, the BBC confirm their excellent reputation in radio sessions. The sound is superb.
January 2014, BBC 6 Music radio session
Chartjunk
Lariat
One difference between the 'Wig out' promotion and previous albums, this is a band promoting their album. I've seen a higher number than usual of interviews with all of the Jicks present. Now, if they get enough attention from the interviewers, that's another question. And all of the radio sessions have been with the Jicks, not solo acoustic. I take it as a sign of 'band awareness' running high at the moment, which is good. The one thing all the sessions (there are a couple coming up) have in common, is that they lack surprises. The Jicks play selections from their latest album in arrangements similar to the album. They play'em really well, on the whole, but is it too much to ask to drop a cover in there, or a re-arranged old song, a new song... It seems not so long ago, when that would be the order of the day.
Anyway, here at 6Music on BBC Radio they play a version of 'Chartjunk' that smokes the album version as far as I'm concerned. It rips, it's got that excitement, the gut missing from the album. There's urgency in Stephen's vocal. And those guitars on the final minute. My goodness. 'Lariat' takes a while to gather momentum. Stephen hesitates here and there, both the vocal and the guitar line. It's good, but only comes alive at the very end of the take. Don't worry, they play the song at 3 of the 5 2014 radio sessions in this list. They'll get it right.
Btw, the BBC confirm their excellent reputation in radio sessions. The sound is superb.
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: 131 - 2013
131
20131108, Crystal Ballroom, Portland, OR
Senator
Cinnamon & lesbians
Animal midnight
I've hardly been
Asking price
Stick figures in love
No one is (as I are be)
Planetary motion
Houston Hades
Forever 28
Spazz
Dark wave
Lariat
Independence street >
No more shoes >
Real emotional trash
Baby c'mon
Harness your hopes
Stairway to heaven
Beginning to see the light
Up on the sun
Way back, I mentioned my top 5 Jicks shows – and you may have wondered why there were only 4 shows in the top 5:
2001 Sydney
2003 Emo's
2005 Crystal ballroom
2007 Portland
I was saving a seat for at least one Jake-era show. But I hadn't found it yet. The edited 2012 Granada Theater show is pretty great. The Brisbane duo is nearly there. But your favorite shows shouldn't be determined by elimination. They should be self-evident. Every minute of the show affirming that, yes, this is one of those rare occurences where everything alligns just the way it should. This is show five.
Now, ask me why, and it's harder to explain. A favourite show should have some unique moments. Check: an amazing version of the rarely played 'I've hardly been' (man, those one-fingered synths are Prince-worthy, the beat is on, the bass is unshakeable, the guitar solos are chaos), a long jammed medley 'Independence street / No more shoes / Real emotional trash' which brims with purpose and four great covers during the encore (Pavement, Led Zeppelin, Velvet Underground, Meat puppets).
A favourite show usually captures some momentum. That's definitely the case here. Sometime after the Brisbane shows the Jicks have finished the 'Wig out' recordings, determined the final tracklist, title and release date of the new album. They can still move fast. The five songs from the new album here all sound joyous, they're really happy just being ready for the world. All the kinks have been worked out. And these songs are in a way made for the stage, made to be enjoyed by a lot of people at the same time, having a good time.
A favourite show, looking at my list, has a better than average chance of happening in Portland, before a home audience. Check. It's the third of the top 5 shows at Crystal Ballroom. And here on the occasion of its 100th birthday. Stephen's cousin's in the audience, Joanna's mom. That's part of the extra special feel.
A favourite show needs a great recording. I can listen to all sorts of hissed up audio but to be transported... This one sounds wonderful.
But mostly it's a feeling I can't explain – just that everything is right.
The set opens with 'Senator'. I really like the song, but it's not in my top tier of Jicks songs. They follow with 'Cinnamon & lesbians' which is nowhere near my favorite Jicks song. But in this set, I love them. A favourite concert is not just the set where they happen to play most of my personal favourite songs – on the contrary, it's a set where they manage to shed new light on everything, my favorites and not-so-favorites, making them all sound essential. A favourite concert is in the details: In the way Jake counts off 'Stick figures in love' – lost in the moment. It's in Stephen's off the cuff Morrissey impersonation in 'Forever 28', which crack him up. When the band falls in on 'Lariat', someone (Jake?) yells 'wooh' and it sounds so damn exciting. It's in the improvised last chorus to 'Animal midnight'. Stephen sings a new lyric and vocal melody, and amazingly Jake (again!) follows right on his heels with the harmonies. The set is full of those little moments which sound like pure magic to me.
20131108, Crystal Ballroom, Portland, OR
Senator
Cinnamon & lesbians
Animal midnight
I've hardly been
Asking price
Stick figures in love
No one is (as I are be)
Planetary motion
Houston Hades
Forever 28
Spazz
Dark wave
Lariat
Independence street >
No more shoes >
Real emotional trash
Baby c'mon
Harness your hopes
Stairway to heaven
Beginning to see the light
Up on the sun
Way back, I mentioned my top 5 Jicks shows – and you may have wondered why there were only 4 shows in the top 5:
2001 Sydney
2003 Emo's
2005 Crystal ballroom
2007 Portland
I was saving a seat for at least one Jake-era show. But I hadn't found it yet. The edited 2012 Granada Theater show is pretty great. The Brisbane duo is nearly there. But your favorite shows shouldn't be determined by elimination. They should be self-evident. Every minute of the show affirming that, yes, this is one of those rare occurences where everything alligns just the way it should. This is show five.
Now, ask me why, and it's harder to explain. A favourite show should have some unique moments. Check: an amazing version of the rarely played 'I've hardly been' (man, those one-fingered synths are Prince-worthy, the beat is on, the bass is unshakeable, the guitar solos are chaos), a long jammed medley 'Independence street / No more shoes / Real emotional trash' which brims with purpose and four great covers during the encore (Pavement, Led Zeppelin, Velvet Underground, Meat puppets).
A favourite show usually captures some momentum. That's definitely the case here. Sometime after the Brisbane shows the Jicks have finished the 'Wig out' recordings, determined the final tracklist, title and release date of the new album. They can still move fast. The five songs from the new album here all sound joyous, they're really happy just being ready for the world. All the kinks have been worked out. And these songs are in a way made for the stage, made to be enjoyed by a lot of people at the same time, having a good time.
A favourite show, looking at my list, has a better than average chance of happening in Portland, before a home audience. Check. It's the third of the top 5 shows at Crystal Ballroom. And here on the occasion of its 100th birthday. Stephen's cousin's in the audience, Joanna's mom. That's part of the extra special feel.
A favourite show needs a great recording. I can listen to all sorts of hissed up audio but to be transported... This one sounds wonderful.
But mostly it's a feeling I can't explain – just that everything is right.
The set opens with 'Senator'. I really like the song, but it's not in my top tier of Jicks songs. They follow with 'Cinnamon & lesbians' which is nowhere near my favorite Jicks song. But in this set, I love them. A favourite concert is not just the set where they happen to play most of my personal favourite songs – on the contrary, it's a set where they manage to shed new light on everything, my favorites and not-so-favorites, making them all sound essential. A favourite concert is in the details: In the way Jake counts off 'Stick figures in love' – lost in the moment. It's in Stephen's off the cuff Morrissey impersonation in 'Forever 28', which crack him up. When the band falls in on 'Lariat', someone (Jake?) yells 'wooh' and it sounds so damn exciting. It's in the improvised last chorus to 'Animal midnight'. Stephen sings a new lyric and vocal melody, and amazingly Jake (again!) follows right on his heels with the harmonies. The set is full of those little moments which sound like pure magic to me.
360 records from the year 2000: 115 - 111
115. Eminem: Marshall Matters LP
It’s a shame Eminem got drawn into the same media narrative as Fred Durst and those nu-metal eggheads. While Limp Bizkit couldn’t help their stupidity, Eminem offers a far richer, more intelligent and disturbing critique of contemporary cultural stupidity. There’s real substance to his caricature. Moreover, there’s very little in pop-lore to compare to the way Eminem imagined a persona and let his life and his persona intermingle. Not just himself, but his wife, kid, mother, producer… they all play parts in the storylines he sets out. It’s way more involved than Bowie being Ziggy. And nobody comes out looking good. In that way he’s more like an Andy Kauffman than any musician. It’s no surprise the media (every bit as thick as Eminem portrays ‘em) couldn’t see the difference.
But anyway it’s supported by great, catchy songs – hip hop as ultramodern pop music (for 2000 that is). And Eminem is a great rapper – I say this as something who knows nothing of the form and mainly hears hip hop as great instrumentals with somebody talking all over them. But the wordplay, the humor, the insane train of thought juxtapositions – I really dig it. To me the closest relative to something like ‘The real Slim Shady’ is Dylan on ‘Bringing it all back home’.
Edit: What I’m saying is, Eminem controls this record and its characters like a novelist. When they’re being whiny or obnoxious, it’s in the script, and when the whole thing skips out of control on ‘Kim’ – a brutal script of partner violence, Eminem succumbs to the same crimes as Stan at the beginning of the record -, it’s a really effective, chilling climax. I find it genuinely unsettling.
At its best: Stan, The real Slim Shady, Amityville, Kim, The kids
114. Ian Anderson: Secret language of birds
I don’t suppose anyone would suggest this as your first Ian Anderson album, but it happened to be mine (and still only). It actually worked well. Anderson’s folk is miles more folk than other British rock/folk artists. I swear I can smell the medieval modes. But that’s not the overall impression you take with you. It actually sounds much like its cover: a wildly colorful travel diary from some tropical/imaginary land. More like journalism or adventure story, than your average singer-songwriter spilling his guts. I’m all for it.
At its best: The secret language of birds, The little flower girl, A better moon, Sanctuary
113. Ghazal: Moon rise over the silk road
At the beginning the kemantche (a stringed instrument played with a bow) and sitar circle around each other, each taking time to formulate long melodies while the other recedes or provides a drone. After a couple of minutes they start adding to each other’s sentences. At five minutes all of a sudden they lock in. There’s a very brief, wonderful, fiery passage and then we’re into the song. A voice (one of the two instrumentalists, a third musician?) sings one verse of what sounds like a song that must’ve always existed. Then they improvise instrumentally on the melody. Another couple of minutes later, the tabla falls in and it’s off into another dimension. Out of meditation follows something ecstatic, like an out of body experience. The music eventually slows way down and disappears. Those are the dual moods (meditative, out of body) that inform the two long songs that make up the bulk of this album (both 20 minutes+). One invariably leads to the other.
I don’t know my Indian music from my Persian music (do you?), so I don’t know if this is true to traditional music (as some reviews claim) or actually a daring meld of two traditions in a contemporary, exploratory vein. It’s more traditional than ‘Within you without you’, but it sounds like an adventure to me. I first got interested in this kind of droning, endless Eastern music, from reading the late Robert Palmer’s (the music critic, not the musician) articles (there’s a great collection called ‘Blues and chaos’ which has been a recent eye-opener for me). Yes, I know he writes mostly about Jajouka and Morocco which is nowhere near India (so actually I don’t know my Indian from my Persian from my Moroccan), but all the time reading it, without having heard any Jajoukan music, it made me think about the very few Ravi Shankar performances I’ve heard. It seemed to me that all of the descriptions could easily be transposed to fit Indian music. And that’s the music it made me want to open myself up to.
The length of the tracks matters, it’s music to really give yourself up to, let yourself dissolve into its patterns. That’s why the other track on the album (in between the two long excursions), at barely 8 minutes, feels like a throwaway jingle, I can’t get into it. ‘Besh’no az Nay’, the other epic, is structurally almost identical to the first one. It begins with a long, meditative duet between the two stringed instruments. The two musicians, if that’s possible, seem even more telepathic this time round. After about 8 minutes the percussion (a tombak this time, it says in the credits) drops in and adds a rolling current. Shortly after there’s singing again, a lone, stately voice that sings with authority and dignity. He’s deeply immersed in the drone and the rhythm. The pauses between sentences grow longer and longer until you can’t really tell where the instrumental improvisations take over again. There’s no build up like the first epic, but it’s also like leaving your body. Twenty minutes pass like no time at all.
At its best: Fire in my heart, Besh’ no az Nay
112. Emmylou Harris: Red dirt girl
Writing her first album of originals, Emmylou Harris used the opportunity to create an album of hushed songs of longing and regret, but mostly of memories. Memories of the life she’d led, of the lives she hadn’t lived, memories of her family and loved ones and of herself. What all of this musically has to do with country anymore is a valid question, with those folk and singer-songwriter chord structures and the familiar ‘hollow church’ production of Lanois student Malcolm Burn. But spiritually, it’s all about redemption and what could be more country than that?
At its best: The pearl, Michelangelo, J’ai fait tout, Hour of gold
111. Spring heel jack: Disappeared
There are a number of records in this style in the list, a mix of electronica, jazz and other exotic musics. What can I say? I like it and it was a good year for the genre. For Spring Heel Jack electronica means surprisingly heavy beats and pulsing bass lines (the first few seconds I always wonder if I haven’t put on that industrial record by mistake – then I remember I don’t have any), jazz means electric Miles echoing trumpet and the other exotic musics betray a love of spy movie soundtracks. It’s an aggressive mix at times – though the trumpet on ‘Trouble & Luck’ is very ‘It’s about that time’, mostly this stuff is running the voodoo down in the 21st century. But as the record progresses, they allow subtlety to seep in here and there – a wise decision. It makes for a well-balanced record, disorientating adrenalin at the start and still life later on. Of course, last track ‘Wolfing’ pulls out all the stops again for a surprise ride through the outer regions of noir excitement – it works marvellously.
I don’t think the genre lived very long after 2000 (maybe I’ll find out for sure in a future project?), but at its best it showed a genuinely new place, a combination that certainly sounded ‘different’ to me, that both jazz and electronica could go. But maybe it was too much, a real head on collision between the two with neither side giving an inch. I’ve heard a lot of jazz with subtle electronica touches since, electronica has gone in different directions (folktronica, new ambient music…). There’s been great music on both sides, but this is something else still. Well, I like it a lot.
At its best: Mit wut, Disappeared 1, Trouble & Luck, To die a little, Disappeared 2
But anyway it’s supported by great, catchy songs – hip hop as ultramodern pop music (for 2000 that is). And Eminem is a great rapper – I say this as something who knows nothing of the form and mainly hears hip hop as great instrumentals with somebody talking all over them. But the wordplay, the humor, the insane train of thought juxtapositions – I really dig it. To me the closest relative to something like ‘The real Slim Shady’ is Dylan on ‘Bringing it all back home’.
Edit: What I’m saying is, Eminem controls this record and its characters like a novelist. When they’re being whiny or obnoxious, it’s in the script, and when the whole thing skips out of control on ‘Kim’ – a brutal script of partner violence, Eminem succumbs to the same crimes as Stan at the beginning of the record -, it’s a really effective, chilling climax. I find it genuinely unsettling.
114. Ian Anderson: Secret language of birds
113. Ghazal: Moon rise over the silk road
I don’t know my Indian music from my Persian music (do you?), so I don’t know if this is true to traditional music (as some reviews claim) or actually a daring meld of two traditions in a contemporary, exploratory vein. It’s more traditional than ‘Within you without you’, but it sounds like an adventure to me. I first got interested in this kind of droning, endless Eastern music, from reading the late Robert Palmer’s (the music critic, not the musician) articles (there’s a great collection called ‘Blues and chaos’ which has been a recent eye-opener for me). Yes, I know he writes mostly about Jajouka and Morocco which is nowhere near India (so actually I don’t know my Indian from my Persian from my Moroccan), but all the time reading it, without having heard any Jajoukan music, it made me think about the very few Ravi Shankar performances I’ve heard. It seemed to me that all of the descriptions could easily be transposed to fit Indian music. And that’s the music it made me want to open myself up to.
The length of the tracks matters, it’s music to really give yourself up to, let yourself dissolve into its patterns. That’s why the other track on the album (in between the two long excursions), at barely 8 minutes, feels like a throwaway jingle, I can’t get into it. ‘Besh’no az Nay’, the other epic, is structurally almost identical to the first one. It begins with a long, meditative duet between the two stringed instruments. The two musicians, if that’s possible, seem even more telepathic this time round. After about 8 minutes the percussion (a tombak this time, it says in the credits) drops in and adds a rolling current. Shortly after there’s singing again, a lone, stately voice that sings with authority and dignity. He’s deeply immersed in the drone and the rhythm. The pauses between sentences grow longer and longer until you can’t really tell where the instrumental improvisations take over again. There’s no build up like the first epic, but it’s also like leaving your body. Twenty minutes pass like no time at all.
112. Emmylou Harris: Red dirt girl
111. Spring heel jack: Disappeared
I don’t think the genre lived very long after 2000 (maybe I’ll find out for sure in a future project?), but at its best it showed a genuinely new place, a combination that certainly sounded ‘different’ to me, that both jazz and electronica could go. But maybe it was too much, a real head on collision between the two with neither side giving an inch. I’ve heard a lot of jazz with subtle electronica touches since, electronica has gone in different directions (folktronica, new ambient music…). There’s been great music on both sides, but this is something else still. Well, I like it a lot.
Capsule review: J Mascis - Several shades of why (2011)
Do you suppose the title is a play on that fem-lit blockbuster 50 Shades Of Grey? You know, white/why. J's always been sly like that. It's not all acoustic, but no rhythm section. Any lexicographer could tell you the words that appear most are still 'I don't know'. The songs are top notch. Try sticking a pin between 'em, you can't. Being this good 30 years into your career, in the '60s they'd chop off your hands. Could any other pain feel this good? I don't know. We'd have to ask mr. Grey.
Capsule review: Bob Dylan - Shadows in the night (2015)
You know who likes to sing Sinatra too? Vlad III stalking the halls of his castle at twilight. Momma, take this homage off of me.
Capsule review: Brad - Shame (1993)
Brother, please stop slapping the bass that way. You know it's unseemly. Anyway, 'Shame' - is there no end to Washington's culture of guilt? Is it a religious thing? Back to the record: too many jams. The slow and sensitive ones work best ('Buttercup', 'Screen').
maandag 26 oktober 2015
Hey Hey we're listening to the Monkees... part 13
The Rhino best of zips by like a train. Having gone through the album experience, it feels completely one-sided, but it's a great side anyway. And by the end it gets pretty weird - 'Goin' down', D.W. Washburn' somebody made these singles? That's what I love about the late '60s.
There are a couple of standalone singles too. Some extremely poppy 'A little bit me...', 'The girl I knew somewhere'. Some mindboggling (see above).
Anyway, I've gotten to like these guys, and a Greatest Hits alone ain't enough for me, but it complements the albums nicely. (Well, I might not play the first album that much anymore, that part gets covered well enough here).
According to the liner notes, 'Listen to the band' points the way forward to Chicago (the band), and they meant it as a good thing. This surely contradicts all I've learned about rock history. What do you think, a band I should discover?
The end
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: 130 - 2013
130
2013/09/26, Brisbane, Spiegeltent
Tune grief
Spazz
Brain gallop
Animal midnight
Senator
Independence street
Stick figures in love
Share the red
Forever 28
Jenny and the ess-dog
Pick up the spare
Lariat
Dark wave
Houston Hades
Long hard book
Tigers
Us
Stephen: 'Gareth, can you turn up the vocals in the monitor a little... Bring 'em all up.'
Joanna: 'Blast their faces off.'
Stephen: 'I would never do that.'
…
Stephen: 'Alright, this one's called... 'Face burner'.'
Cue 'Brain gallop'.
Four songs into this set, as promised and after an a capella first verse, the Jicks break into 'Animal midnight'. It's a definitive performance of the song and it lifts the set up out of ordinary real good-ness into awesome. That's how fast it can go – one rehearsal and into it. Everybody plays with great attention to the details (listen to the synths!). They breathe life into the song.
Again...a beautifully captured recording. The sound is perfect. I can hear every nuance.
In the first half of the set nothing extraordinary or rare happens, but it's a joy to listen to such fine performances in such nice sound. Captures a real friendly mood – like a Cheers episode, 'where I know the name of every song'.
Second half is more event packed. 'Jenny & the ess-dog' starts off piano and vocals (charmingly clumsy). From the bridge onwards Joanna and Jake fall in. It's that perverted Billy Joel feel, indierock Joe Jackson?
'Pick up the spare' in a perfectly rolling version. I can see the song might've upset the balance on 'Wig out', but it deserves better than to be forgotten.
Both 'Lariat' and 'Houston Hades' are examples of what I wrote about yesterday's show: lyrics and vocal melodies are anything but finished. Time to hit the studio and finish this record already.
'Us' ends the show on a jammy note. They break into a familiar other song halfway into it. I just can't put my finger on it – what's that song?
I can recommend this show.
2013/09/26, Brisbane, Spiegeltent
Tune grief
Spazz
Brain gallop
Animal midnight
Senator
Independence street
Stick figures in love
Share the red
Forever 28
Jenny and the ess-dog
Pick up the spare
Lariat
Dark wave
Houston Hades
Long hard book
Tigers
Us
Stephen: 'Gareth, can you turn up the vocals in the monitor a little... Bring 'em all up.'
Joanna: 'Blast their faces off.'
Stephen: 'I would never do that.'
…
Stephen: 'Alright, this one's called... 'Face burner'.'
Cue 'Brain gallop'.
Four songs into this set, as promised and after an a capella first verse, the Jicks break into 'Animal midnight'. It's a definitive performance of the song and it lifts the set up out of ordinary real good-ness into awesome. That's how fast it can go – one rehearsal and into it. Everybody plays with great attention to the details (listen to the synths!). They breathe life into the song.
Again...a beautifully captured recording. The sound is perfect. I can hear every nuance.
In the first half of the set nothing extraordinary or rare happens, but it's a joy to listen to such fine performances in such nice sound. Captures a real friendly mood – like a Cheers episode, 'where I know the name of every song'.
Second half is more event packed. 'Jenny & the ess-dog' starts off piano and vocals (charmingly clumsy). From the bridge onwards Joanna and Jake fall in. It's that perverted Billy Joel feel, indierock Joe Jackson?
'Pick up the spare' in a perfectly rolling version. I can see the song might've upset the balance on 'Wig out', but it deserves better than to be forgotten.
Both 'Lariat' and 'Houston Hades' are examples of what I wrote about yesterday's show: lyrics and vocal melodies are anything but finished. Time to hit the studio and finish this record already.
'Us' ends the show on a jammy note. They break into a familiar other song halfway into it. I just can't put my finger on it – what's that song?
I can recommend this show.
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