Greetings from room 330 at the Hampton Inn in Ukiah California - Gateway To The Meth Country. I keed. Willits is the Gateway to the Meth Country. Since sleep will not come, CD reviews shall:
Martha Wainwright - Martha Wainwright: One of the first records my mom bought for me was Loudon Wainwright's Dead Skunk, a song I still love. I can't say much else from him turns me on like Dead Skunk, but the man knew how to write. That he produced two children (with Kate McGarrigle, a woman just as talented as he is - if not more) generally leads one to expect much from the offspring. So far, her brother Rufus doesn’t blow me away, but I understand why others really dig him - he clearly is talented. I never heard a thing from Martha until I just happened upon the song Bloody Motherfucking Asshole and really really liked it. The song itself, while I am not sure it required that title, lyrically is something I liked (I kinda go for the confessional stuff from artists these days, especially when it ends with a kiss-off for those who don’t like it, though I will say that Yoko Ono's Yes, I'm A Witch is the best of the bunch I have heard in recent years.) Liking that cut as I do, I waited til I could get my hands on the album it came from at a reasonable price, and I finally did. It is a nice find. While musically it sits pretty square between classic solo Neil Young and Dylan of recent vintage, she makes this well-worn sound work for her. She may not end up being the sibling that time is kindest to, but if she just came outta nowhere, I think this disc sits way atop the crop of women playing acoustic stuff these days. Of that bunch, time could end up being quite kind to her. (B-)
Jane – Berserker: I am more interested in hearing all the stuff Panda Bear has done outside of Animal Collective than I am hearing all the Animal Collective stuff. If that makes me a music-blog-bandwagon-schmuck, than I guess I plead guilty. To date, nothing I have heard comes within a country mile of Person Pitch, but by the same stroke, nothing has been a bad purchase. In fact, of all I have heard to day, this is closest to what I am looking for and is likely to gain the most ear time with me. The disc itself is 4 cuts, 3 of which are quite long, but it is that sorta hazy-sunny hybrid he does and done with the kind of repetition that it rightfully deserves. It is like a Beach Boys meets Spiritualized with a kinda narcotic overtone thing. It won't make it into heavy rotation, but it will definitely make my Panda playlist, which I do spend a goodly amount of time with. (C+)
El Perro Del Mar - From The Valley To The Stars: I have been waiting what feels like forever for the new El Perro Del Mar album to come out. I hesitate to call the first one a guilty pleasure because I think it is actually really good, it just sounds kinda light - at least at first. It does have that syrupy Jens Lekman veneer to it (which also seems light at first, but isn't), but not only are the songs there, but the arrangements are woven with deceptive heft to them. Since this is really just one artist and not a band, and her music is largely just her, the fact that this new disc is also really good means she has to be the real thing. I saw her show when she came to SF last time, and I left that show convinced she was incredibly talented, and I was very curious as to how this new album would turn out. The live show she was doing really let go of the affectations of early rock-n-roll and played it almost like it was really more to do with the first VU album, and I suspected the new disc might come with that flava as well, but I was wrong. There is still retro all of over this, but she has moved forward a good 5-10 years and borrow heavily from the classic Burt Bacharach, with a little VU, some early Soul and R&B stuff, and a dash of small-service hymnal for good measure. For an amazon Swede woman named Sarah Assbring, even listening to R&B could be a total disaster, but it actually has the effect I think she would have it have (at least on me.) The mopey “woe woe woe” thing is still a part of the music, but it feels a little less like teen-angst and more like the product of the heavy personal stuff that makes old soul ballads and Dionne/Burt stuff into something that almost anyone can identify with when they been done wrong by that wicked woman/man of mine (or the "Listen At Work Station" fan in their lives as it were.) Will the world over trade their old soul classics, country hymnals, Nico, or Dionne Warwick discs for this album? No. But for a customer of SPF90, Ms. Assbring avoids the horror that can often occur when that crowd tries this stuff; she avoids (very) pale imitation and instead uses the language of that sound and mostly succeeds in trying to say things her way with it. It is still kinda mopey, but more adult, more sparse, yet heavier. I think she is gonna pull off something massive one day, and even if she doesn't, she's done way more than her share. (B)
Jeffrey Lewis - 12 Crass Songs: I know next to nothing about Jeffrey Lewis' comic books, but I can easily imagine he is quite good. I heard a few of his old nerd-talking-folk-blues things and thought they were entertaining enough (Don't Let The Record Company Take You Out To Lunch is actually more of a nerd affectation thing than his what I have now found of his, and the lyrics are actually quite a good/fun listen.) I happened to get a cut, Systematic Death, from this disc on a sampler I bought and I totally was hooked by it (It makes “Birth-School-Work-Death” seem optimistic, but not in a one-dimensional way or with any precious teenage nihilism to it.) I ran out an bought a Crass disc when I bought this thinking that, since Mr. Lewis' cover hooked me, then I had to hear the original. As it has ended up, I like the covers more than the originals (at least so far.) I now can see why he did an album full of their stuff, and his point (that they are criminally overlooked) is well made with me. I am not sure they rank as poetry in the purist sense, nor would they work as a manifesto or anything, but as performed here, I like quite a bit of it. I wasn't a punk when I was young, and I am not now. I am not going to be one either. This stuff would have been lost on me if I had heard it when Crass did it. I didn't (and don't) like 99% of punk music, and one need read only a page or two of Maximum Rock-n-Roll to see that any fidelity to a punk ethic makes one an ass if they retain it after their seventeenth birthday. At the same time, for me, a manager at a large advertising agency, to imagine that I am THE GOOD kind of crew slut is something I once had a hard time getting over (I have been out of high school for almost twenty years!) It is precisely discs like this why I have a hard time with these things - I still think much on here makes total sense. Moreover, I don't believe that “settling down” with wife and child is going to make it any easier for me to accept the things this disc reacts to. I am not “an outsider” and don’t have any particular desire to be one, yet also, I find much of what is considered normal to be evil and perverse (and becoming more so at that.) This isn't Punk Rock Lullabyes with words or anything; it is a re-statement of ideas that a group of incredibly smart and observant people made, and it absolutely needs restating. It has nothing to do with punk or that ethic, it just so happens that it came from that movement. The ideas work just as well arranged this way. This disc is going to set back any “just get over it and settle down” efforts I may eventually undertake. I hope I can find enough such stuff to put that off permanently. I don't want to let my brain and soul die, and I am convinced that that’s what awaits me if I don't fight it. I knew that before I heard this disc, but I am very happy to have it reinforced as this does it. (B-)
Minders - Hooray For Tuesday: I got to this album because it has the original version of Pauline, which I had heard first as an awesome cover by Of Montreal. I am not sure I would want to hang out with Kevin Barnes from Of Montreal, but he has impeccable taste in cover material, so I bought this disc without hearing anything else on it. Indeed, it was a good find. It is a little more pop than I go for, especially of the Rubber Soul/Revolver variety, and everything worships at the alter of the Kinks these days, so that isn't avoidable either. The disc is quality because I can hear that they actually have material worthy of trotting the old stand-bys one more time. I will not become a Minders completist anytime soon, but I can see this helping me while away the summer highway time nicely enough. (C+)
Black Keys - Attack & Release: I can’t get over how this band looks, and they keep insisting on putting photos of themselves on the covers dammit! It is better for me to not look, and just listen, and I enjoy this stuff way more. I am sure they hate the comparison to The White Stripes; I would guess they think of themselves as being more of a blues purist thing than Meg & Jack. What-Evs. They are more pure as far as electric blues in an academic sense I suppose, but that is because they insist on imitating the kind of blues music that came out on Chess Records and such back in “the day”. I could more easily accept the weary bluesman done wrong thing if I didn't know they look like the white bread on the side of the BBQ they serve has the crusts cut off by their moms. This is shallow, I know. I like this disc much more than Magic Potion. Much much more. It is a return to what they are good at, but it isn't as good at Chulahoma and the stuff that came before it. It is fun to drive to and I have at least half of it on my Black Keys playlist, which for me means I dig it. (C+)
Microphones - It Was Hot We Stayed In The Water: There is a Karl Blau album that is all covers of Phil Elverum songs, and I really like it. I don't like the band they have together, D+, but I like Karl Blau a ton, and what I have heard of Phil Elverum’s stuff, I have liked it. I saw a cheap copy of this disc, and since it had a song on it called Karl Blau, I took a chance. Ding Ding. I dig it. Yeah, it is another K Records self-indulgence exercise, and at times it tries to hard to be so, but you can't deny this guy’s talent. He may sabotage some of his songs, but loads of artists do that and I can understand how that stuff can happen, so it is easily forgiven. Overall, I am encouraged enough by this to seek out whatever else I can find of his Microphones stuff. I have read much to suggest that it is quite good. I have every reason to believe that this is indeed the case. (B-)
Elvis Costello - Kojak Variety: I got quite a bit of the music I have of his based on the input of people who really really like him. I don't really really like him, but he definitely has his moments. Of the billion albums and trillion songs he has put out, I think I went out and bought 3 or so. I got this because I like the two Dylan covers and I saw it had a cover of the Kinks’ Days on it. There is some good stuff on this, there is some boring crud, and there is - with the bonus disc - entirely too much of it. Someone please talk to Elvis and have him stop issuing so much, and then reissuing each album ten times! It isn't needed and I can't imagine there is anyone who listens to all of it. If there is, they need help. I find I like his covers more than his originals (my playlist for him is at least a third covers) because he comes off as such a girly-man. I can't imagine he has any vocal cords left to sing with since he must be having epic heart-to-hearts with woman every single day in order to have this many songs about said epic sob-sessions. It is maddening! (C)
Radiohead - In Rainbows: Radiohead is not really as great as people lead on. They are good, and they can be counted on to do really really good stuff on each outing, but they are so derivative it is tough to get super excited over for me (admittedly, they're derivative of quality stuff to begin with – and their synthesis is better than it is unique.) OK Computer does deserve the accolades, and it still sounds as good as it ever did, but what I have heard after seems to tail off gradually in quality. Moreover, the idea of them being experimental genius is something that just never passed the smell test with me (I hate to be a snob, but I think they are considered progressive by those with conservative tastes, much like Pink Floyd, who Radiohead owe much to.) Since I spent New Year's in the loser bunker (my house, alone – I was illin'), I watched their TV special in which they played this album live, and I really liked it. I think they do better as a rock band than as alt.anything. They are a really good rock band with an open mind, and they don't need to be more. This album makes the case that they really should stop trying so hard to be “out” or “prog” or all think-piece or whatever their “experimental” stuff is working at. (B-)
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Mas luego cabrones.