The tuneage rolls on. It won't and don't, cuz it can't stop.

Bud Powell - Jazz Giant: I am still feeling my way through many of the old guard greats of jazz. I usually do this by trying to find a highly recommended compilation, and go from there. After liking the Billy Strayhorn/Duke Ellington stuff I have been working through, liking Monk in general, and admiring Art Tatum, I heard the piano sound of some Bud Powell cut somewhere and decided I needed more. I was right. I did need more. My interest in jazz has slowed down of late. I literally think my fidelity to the out stuff was forged in fever of pain. Not to be too melodramatic about it, but at the peak of my pain and at peak pain med consumption, my brain was not on the same planet everyone else's is & was. While I still listen to some Sun Ra, the late Coltrane, William Parker, Cecil Taylor, and such, I am feeling more like a human being of late and I lack the same mental itches that need a scratching. I am also a wee bit older, and perhaps have more patience for the subtlety of the master's traditional stuff. This doesn't need a ton of warming up to or a particular ear. The playing is amazing on its face. I myself love the sound of those old barrelhouse pianos, especially their sort of sour echo when played in a frenzy, and there is quite a bit of that all over this. Again - that is the sound, not the player. The player's fame is more than warranted, but there are lots of great practitioners of the piano. It is the songs, the combos, and the heart that make this work for me. I know too little to know what else Bud Powell did, but I would love to hear some of his more lyrical, moody stuff to contrast with this harder upbeat stuff. I can't imagine it is anything but spectacular. (B+)

Wolf Parade - Expo 86: Wolf Parade can mostly do no wrong in my eyes. The last album was a bit of a let down, but it had to compete with one of my favorite albums of all time. Their other projects also produce so much awesome music, I am well-aware that if this was their sole outlet, they have enough material to have already release 3 double-disc masterpieces to date. As it stands, they have only one master-work to their credit, and two very good ones. I would rank this is as my second favorite of the 3 full albums they have made. It feels a lot like the Handsome Furs stuff in that it retains more of a simple pop approach than the Spencer Krug stuff does; yet at the same time this isn't interchangeable with either of their outside projects - no small feat given the fact that it is also recognizable as being distinctly their work. If I were to complain, it would be because I have grown fatigued of anything too slavish in its 80's revivalism (not including the new Arcade Fire - see below) and this disc has just enough of that to be innocent or accidental (though I like that Gary Numan is among the obvious homages here, which is a very inspired choice.) I guess it isn't so hairy to keep at the dry teet of 80's-centric inspiration, but I am not sure they used that sound to do all that much to/with the songs, which is to say; I think it simply tethers this music to this era, and didn't need to. Even so, I am not going to complain - the little post-punk/new wave revival + Indie Rock formula has been very good to my ears over the last decade, and none better than Wolf Parade. (B-)

Beck/Wilco - Record Club 3: Oar: Mister Hansen has already released a cover of Halo Of Gold back in the day, and it has long been a favorite of mine. I knew nothing of Moby Grape or Skip Spence til I heard that, and over time I have tried to grab what I could find (reasonably priced) of the originals. I can say I totally get why Beck seems to like Mister Spence so much. The one solo album, Oar he had is one of the best "damaged genius" albums I know of (a genre I am more than a slight bit interested in.) I also tend to find "Victims Of The Man" compelling, and dood totally was that (look up the Moby Grape marketing story if you have the same predilections on this topic.) So if you take Beck - probably my favorite artist of the last 20 years - and add covers I am likely to enjoy, it is pretty tough to miss. Indeed, this "album" (it is a web-only thing as far as I know) is most enjoyable for me. There are better Beck albums, and there are even better covers elsewhere of the source material, but all-in-all, one wouldn't need to like Skip Spence to dig it. They would need to like Beck, however. When he has put these albums out, he usually has other bands in with him. This time it is Wilco. I like Wilco ok I guess. They are way over-rated and the slavish devotion lavished on them seems over-wrought, but they are certainly worthy of a listen with source material of this type. I think Beck might have made a more inspired choice of partners given the originals, but perhaps he wants to release this one day, and their is no easier payday than Wilco nerds. To each their own I guess. (B-)

Big Star - In Space: A "new" Big Star album was never going to be as good as an old one, and this one isn't - but all things considered, there are almost no albums as good as old Big Star albums, so I didn't buy this one without knowing what was likely to come from it. I got this because I am sad Alex Chilton died. He too is a master of the damaged art album; dare I say, Sister Lover's is about as good as those albums get! Given that this album is the follow-up to that one, one could be forgiven for hoping that the new would follow from the last, but with 30 years and a lifetime between them, t'wasn't gonna happen, and it didn't. Basically, this is kinda boilerplate Chilton stuff when good, if a bit boilerplate on the Alex-Chilton-Self-Indulgence end too. It is rock in the 1975 AM radio sense, but not in the good way more often than not. It is nice enough I guess, but if this were their debut, no one would have ever heard another note from them. (C-)

Roky Erickson - True Love Cast Out All Evil: Damaged genius comes in threes in this entry it seems. Anyway...Ol' Roky is among the saddest of the stories since he was genuinely victimized by the state of Texas and all the "good" people along the way who destroyed him. To have him still around, and for him to still have THAT VOICE sounding as it does is very life affirming. That he is batshit nuts-sounding at times can be profoundly disturbing to listen to, at times it even feels voyeuristic in the worst possible way. I bought this because I enjoy his voice, and even when he is singing about some f'd up zombie/monster/mental illness shit, his songcraft remains absolutely amazing. Some of his old stuff - If You Have Ghosts and Creature With The Atom Brain for example - are such well-written songs that the lyrics aren't a liability. Yes, having passion for things like Two-Headed Dogs is tough to relate to, but that is where his passion comes from, and when he channels that intensity through his music, it really is something to behold. I can't say this album is totally up to the level of his best work, but some of his best work is on this. If you can't be reached by a song like Goodbye Sweet Dreams, I don't know how if rock music would ever reach you. Thankfully, the backing work of Okkervil River isn't totally domineering. There is a little bit of over-arty sheen to some of it, but thank goodness that alt.whine of OR isn't present (don't get me wrong, I like much of Ok Riv's stuff - it is very nice, but they ain't no Roky Erickson.) I don't think there is a good compilation of Roky's stuff yet, but there really can't be a good one without at least 2 or 3 cuts from this album. It isn't end to end good, but its highlights are among some of my favorites from him, and among my favorite songs of the last few years. Since much of this stuff was written while he was locked up (or stuck at home on meds), I am surprised at how short it is. That could mean he isn't sitting on a huge backlog of material, in which case, this is as good a place to start as any. He doesn't appear to have ever been terribly prolific. I hope he gets the chance to make up more of his lost time, and hope he finds more of his voice and brain to be at his command as it seems to be here. It won't do any good to feel bad about what is missing from his body of work, so it only makes sense to focus on all the positive stuff that is there. It is a very good sign to have so much recent material to include in that number. (B-)

Band of Horses - Infinite Arms: This band is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. They make tomorrow's classic rock today! Even so, I listen to plenty of Classic Rawk (devil horns), so I don't mean that totally as an indictment. In some respects, this disc is no better or worse than their other two. At base, the songwriting feels pretty similar - always pretty good, occasionally better than that. They have dropped the echo-y and metallic sheen from a good chunk of it, making it feel a little more organic and pop, and that isn't entirely a bad thing. I really like that high school dance gymnasium sound they have, and its absence here makes me wonder a bit if I am gonna pick up their next one without hearing it first as I did with this. Again, it isn't like this is offensive or anything, but there is only so much time and money on the planet, so I can't be buying everything that feels "just nice". Sigh. (C)

James Brown - The Payback: What I like from James Brown I absolutely love. His best material is among the best material America has produced in the realm of popular music. Even the best imitations of him are among the best stuff this nation has ever produced. I have decided to try to get myself better acquainted with a bigger variety of stuff of his than I have, and this album is almost always mentioned as one of his best. I couldn't say if it is or isn't since it is my first, but as it stands, indeed it is pretty darn good. For a dude who must have jammed and/or improvised 75%+ of the lyrics in his career, this album seems a departure being a soundtrack and all. That doesn't mean its lyrics were long written down in some weathered composition notebook or anything - they seem to be a loose riff on whatever it is the film was about. That's fine, but I admit to really digging the rabbit holes and blind alleys he usually seems to get in and out of in the lyric department. I like it because his improvisations seem a window into his Soul in a way that the "good" lyrics of others can't be. Even without such things, there is enough of a jam session feel to this to deliver that incredible sense of propulsion his work seems to be able to build, plus, lyrically his mind was definitely steeped in 70s Black American culture. Righteous stuff. Dude was talented beyond imagination, and was surrounded by exceptional musicians, so even the work of his that doesn't really stick with me is still a good time, and I would say that is about half of this album. The other stuff is exactly what I hoped it would be - hot hot jams adorned by lyrics steeped in its time. This was a good place to start. From here I am not sure where I am going to go with the catalog, but I intend to wade into it again soon. (B-)

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs: I really like this album. They are now 3 for 3 (the first EP is underwhelming and kinda doesn't count), and their track record is such I am tempted to call this trio the best since the Remain In Light, Fear Of Music, Speaking In Tongues trio from the Talking Heads. I mean that as no small praise. It is rare for a band to make 3 end-to-end excellent albums, and they now have. I will say, as a note of caution, that they now need to take their talents somewhere outside the channel they have so masterfully mined to date. They are very good at what they do, and the 3 albums do have enough to distinguish them to represent meaningful progress, but I have the nagging feeling there is a step back here when I had such high hopes they would take on a much bigger role. As it stands, they have perfected the use of some very strong basic talents, and should be elevated for it. They could quit now and be great - but their potential is so great, I guess I am holding them to a higher standard. With this new album, I think it distinguishes itself from the others lyrically more than musically; and on that point, I would like to indulge myself in a bit of quasi-political grousing (here is where to leave if you would prefer the music reviews solely refer to the music.) In a thematic sense, I still think Neon Bible is the Born In The USA sequel The Boss couldn't bring himself to write. It is painful to find out that you've been backing the wrong side. Bruce still can't bring himself to deal with the fact that the underdogs of his lore ended up at least as nasty as their antagonists once given half a chance; thus he detoured toward the Woody Guthrie/Pete Seeger myths about the average working class schmo. Pete & Woody's protagonists don't watch Fox News, teabag, and vote for Prop h8 - and most importantly, they don't pull the ladder up behind them as they ascend it. It is in this regard that it is hard to get too rah rah rah about having the Arcade Fire do a nuanced and critical thinking exercise on the suburbs. Who the hell do they think is buying these albums? I am no expert on Canada (or on how Canadian they see themselves), but I have seen enough of it to have a sense of it being just as plagued with a sort of ugly burb mentality as SoCal or Texas or New Jersey can be, so I can't even give them the benefit of the doubt on their self-righteous Canuck smugness (which Arcade Fire has shown convert zealousness on here and there.) If the disc is absolution for themselves or their audience, I can't say I buy the sale. They came very close to picking up the baton from Bruce and taking the ideas exactly where they needed to go, but ultimately, I feel like they punted. Naturally, they don't owe me anything and they are no more obligated to fulfilling my desires than you are. Missing an opportunity to do something exceptional, and doing something merely excellent instead is no crime. Of the first two albums, the first hits harder and is seamless in its quality, whereas Neon Bible took a little more time to reveal just how awesome it is. I love the debut, but NB is not only a "difficult second album" that done made good, it indicated a depth of skill that makes anything possible for them (the rose to the occasion when the stress could have easily caused them to become the 21st Century's first Stone Roses.) The Suburbs is excellent, but I suspect it doesn't aspire to the brainier goals that its predecessor did so well to achieve. Again, I know it is their album to make as they please, and on its own, they made a hell of an album. In spite of this blathering, that really is enough for me. All I mean to say is that my admiration for album #2 has grown so much in the interim, I had high hopes that they could redeem rock and give it a chance to renew its transformative power beyond the earphones and concert hall. It may yet, but the need for it will only grow, and the ability to deliver on it will only become more taxing and vexatious. Worse, they now have the ear of the kiddies in the sprawl and could do more with that power than they sought to here. I think their heart is in the right spot, and they may yet make good on their turn with the thinkin' baton. Certainly, having something fun to dance to while waiting is more than one usually gets, and on that point, all is more than well here. (A-)