File under: Don't know why, these tears in my eyes
vrijdag 16 september 2016
Capsule review: Queens of the stone age - Queens of the stone age (1998)
It's on Loosegroove records, but it's nothing of the sort. Music from a lab.
Capsule review: Charlie Parker - with Strings (1949-52)
There's no romance in this time, and right now this record's driving the point home.
zaterdag 10 september 2016
Capsule review: Roger Nichols and the small circle of friends - Roger Nichols and the small circle of friends (1967)
The world is filled with soft pop masterpieces, and can't someone sing slightly out of key sometime?
Capsule review: Roy Orbison - At the Rock house (1961)
Roy Orbison without the pathos is like a party without booze, a hot day without ice cream. It's just wrong.
Capsule review: Harry Nilsson - A little touch of Schmilsson in the night (1973)
Wise guys polishing their conscience by appreciating Rodgers & Hart. It's a very 1970s thing. You see it in The Godfather. Sounds tawdry now.
donderdag 8 september 2016
Meanwhile back in 2016...
Cave Man - Never going back
File under: Never going back to sweet nostalgia
File under: Never going back to sweet nostalgia
Capsule review: Willie Nelson - Red-headed stranger (1975)
Quietly creepy folk parable about murderous preacher. Music is minimal, Willie's singing is all there is.
Capsule review: Rick Nelson - Album seven (1962)
Some artists are only just hitting their stride by their seventh album. Particularly when they're on the record company treadmill and have little say in how the records turn out. No singles or classics here, but Nelson reaching ever nearer to being a one man Everly Brothers, which you gotta admit is a pretty tough act. He thanks his darling not just for the broken heart but for the sweet memory.
woensdag 7 september 2016
Meanwhile back in 2016...
Ryley Walker - The halfwit in me
File under: Chicago post-rock for dummies
File under: Chicago post-rock for dummies
Capsule review: Parquet courts - Sunbathing animal (2014)
Like holding on to a cactus. Let's do it again.
Capsule review: Thee oh sees - A weird exits (2016)
Mantric gnome rock. Overloads so many senses it only makes sense as colours. Purple, green, orange, deep space black.
dinsdag 6 september 2016
Meanwhile back in 2016...
Cat's eyes - Chameleon queen
File under: That ole care/don't care conundrum, with background opera.
Capsule review: Ezra Furman - Perpetual motion people (2015)
Finally, someone whose life was saved by rock'n'roll (not nu-rave or new minimalism). Heartbreaking and funny. And some great retro Jonathan Richman pop songs. I just gotta love the guy.
Capsule review: Sonic Youth - Spinhead sessions 1986 (2016)
Impressionist guitar soundscape. Might be the lost 40 minute 'Expressway to your skull' interlude. Aural honey for those who like that shimmering, jarring jangle. Home sweet home.
maandag 5 september 2016
Capsule review: Mott the hoople - The hoople (1974)
The original Goodnight To The Rock 'n' Roll Era statement? Exasperatedly grand rock'n'roll stomp. Sounding out of time already and it was only the early '70s. Ian Hunter was born old. What comes after rock'n'roll, he ponders. 'I'm in love with her / and she's in love with me'.
Capsule review: Mystery trend - So glad I found you (1965-67, 1999 released)
Dubbed a mystery cause they couldn't very well get their pictures printed looking like they did. Obscure San Franciscan nuggets band, but 'we didn't take acid, instead we were all drunks' and 'we were all adults'. They soon spluttered out. 'Johnny was a good boy' the lone legacy. 'We were also completely drunk all the time'. Diverting though.
zondag 4 september 2016
Capsule review: Mudhoney - My brother the cow (1995)
Great unheralded rock and roll record. You knew they had it in 'em. Bonus track is the entire record backwards.
Capsule review: Mudhoney - Piece of cake (1992)
Imagine if Neil Young had toured with these guys instead of Sonic Youth. Sleeps With Angels would've been 12 'Piece of crap''s.
Capsule review: Morphine - Good (1993)
If only more records were titled so self descriptively. Apart from this one, Michael Jackson's Bad and Tom Petty's Mediocre, it's a trend that never caught on. Sandman is a barroom zen philosopher. Life is empty but the glass is half full. The tunes would get better, but the mood is set.
Capsule review: Van Morrison - Veedon fleece (1974)
Communing with a wood spirit on sunday morning. Van directly plugged into the bucolic subconscious. Cultivates small wheatfield on his head.
Capsule review: Van Morrison - Bang masters (1967, 1991 released)
Van's the train conductor of rock, always showing up to remind us we've not nearly paid enough to be on this ride. Also would soon morph into (briefly) the Marcel Proust of guitar strummers. All of which raises the question if Proust had been a train conductor instead of a hypochondriac, would he have found the lost time between Brussels North and Central Station?
Here he's on the cusp and what a messy, thrilling place to be. Between 'Brown eyed girl' and 'T.B. sheets'.
vrijdag 2 september 2016
Capsule review: Joni Mitchell - Dog eat dog (1985)
Different times, but it's still a little sickening to hear those cavernous Wall Street drums and a singer lamenting Ethiopia. Hey singer, you're part of the military-industrial complex now.
Capsule review: Joni Mitchell - Wild things run fast (1982)
Wild things run fast, unlike this record. I tried throwing it out several times but it doesn't fly any faster than other records.
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