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6/14/2010 5:47:44 AM
What's Todd Listening to in 2010? (part 2)
6/14/2010—
Back from vacation and I brought with me:
You Am I - Deliverance
Equal parts Rolling Stones and Guided By Voices (okay maybe a little bit more Stones), this is a pretty solid album... first listen right now and it is already endearing itself to me. I like this one a lot more than the other album of theirs (Hi-Fi Way), at least at first blush. Good stuff.
Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part 2: Return of the Ankh
Just picked this up after hearing really good things about it from several folks. I've onlu given it a cursory first listen in the car, with the kids fighting in the back. However, during that first listen, the biggest impression that was made is just how same her voice sounds on every song. I'll give it a few more listens though before making a final decision on this one.
Suede - Coming Up
I think that I've written about this one before. And, I'm going against the grain again, in saying that this is right up there with their debut album as my favorite Suede album. It's less dark, sparklier than anything they did with their original lineup (feat. Bernard Butler). Sharper hooks, overall and just great, big, faggy-sounding Glam Rock.
Roky Erickson - True Love Cast Out All Evil
With Okkervil River as his backing band, Roky sounds as good as ever. No, he doesn't howl like he did on earlier records, but his always-haunting voice is more ghostly than ever, and the sympathetic band highlights this new strength and magnifies it beautifully. Maybe the best album of 2010.
Dogbowl - Flan
Frank Zappa meets Andrew Lloyd Webber on a concept album of a post-apocalyptic landscape littered with rotting corpses, human-headed dogs, flying eyeballs, and cannibal queens. A lot easier to listen to than the description might suggest.
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6/15/2010 4:51:48 AM
6/15:
Beau Brummels - Just a Little
Classic 60's British Invasion pop... but I can't remember if these guys were actually from the UK or California? Either way, there are some serious classic tunes on here: "Laugh Laugh", "Just a Little", "Don't Talk to Strangers", and a bunch more. I always forget how much I like this band until I hear them again.
Fishbone - Truth & Soul
Arguably the band's best album. (Some may say it's The Reality Of My Surroundings.) But no matter which side you're on, this is a great, great album from the late 80's and helped kickstart the punk/ska movement. It opens up with a metalized version of Curtis Mayfield's "Freddy's Dead" and the energy never let's up until the very end -- "Change" -- which is more of a coda than anything. Punk ska freakouts before it was in-fashion, and before it was overdone. Fishbone did it right.
Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run
Do I even need to begin to discuss the greatness of this album? It's kinda taken for granted now. Don't do that. Listen to this and appreciate it anew.
Brinsley Schwarz - Nervous On the Road/The New Favourites...
The last 2 albums from one of the great underappreciated bands in the history of rock. And 2 touchstones for the British Pub Rock movement of the 1970's. It's Nick Lowe before he went solo. Includes the original version of "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding".
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6/16/2010 4:46:31 AM
6/16:
The Wonder Stuff - Never Loved Elvis
Early-90's British band that doesn't really sound anything like any of the other early-90's Brit bands. There are fiddles, accordians, and mandolins here... playing jigs behind the acoustic and electric guitars. The songwriting is brilliant. And, what can you really dislike about an album with song titles like "The Size Of a Cow" and "Welcome to the Cheap Seats"?
Jim Ford - The Sounds Of Our Time
Like a countrified Nick Lowe. Which makes sense, since Jim was a big influence on Nick the Knife, and Nick even covered his songs like "36 Inches High", which is on here, and "Ju Ju Man" (which is not).
Harry Nilsson - Pandemonium Shadow Show/Aerial Ballet/Aerial Pandemonium Ballet
Harry's first couple of albums and the ones that made fans out of The Beatles. Did you know that Harry wrote "One" (the 3 Dog Night hit)? He did and it's on here. Also included are "Everybody's Talkin'" (from Midnight Cowboy) and a spectacular cover of the Beatles song "You Can't Do That", which actually incorporates elements of something like 20 different Beatles songs into this 2.5 minutes or so. Plus, you know, that voice... I could listen to him sing all day.
Tyrone Davis - Turn Back the Hands of Time
A woman that I am currently working with is the daughter of Jack Daniels (yes, his real name), the songwriter who wrote the amazing title track. This is just straight-up early-70's soul music of the highest order. Simply amazing stuff.
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6/18/2010 8:26:51 AM
6/18:
The Apples In Stereo - Travellers in Time and Space
The original leaders of the Elephant 6 collective have traded in much of their psychedelic pop influences for some cheesier early 80's sounds... some post-disco, psych. Sound more like it's influenced more by the sounds of Xanadu and the Sgt. Pepper's MOVIE than anything that actually came out in the 60's. That could be a death kiss if the songs weren't as good as they are. Bottom line is: Robert Schneider knows how to write a great pop tune and how to play. And, there still is some psych splashed around here and there, it's just in a different context: with vocoders, and synth strings. A great summertime record.
Brown Recluse - A New Paradigm
This is a downer of a record. But not in a bad way. There are shades of both Jeff Tweedy's and Jay Farrar's quieter, more pensive moments on here. But it doesn't sound like an Uncle Tupelo record, rather it sounds like a record that the two of them made together, after they had moved on to Wilco and Son Volt, respectively. Some really excellent songwriting and good hooks. A good command of dynamics and jagged guitar lines punctuate the downer melodies and themes to draw the listener in. Kinda like those two guys that I mentioned earlier. A helluva accomplishment for a project made by two guys half a continent away from each other.
Magnetic Fields - Realism
Speaking of downers... Stephen Merritt has always sounded like he's on the window ledge, ready to jump. But his wit and command of the language always made depression sound like fun. This is another typically wry Mag. Fields record and is a good listen, despite being one of their lesser efforts. This one floats along on the joys of the band's past creations. But it still gets you there... just not quite as well as albums like 69 Love Songs or The Charm of the Highway Strip.
The Sonics - Boom!
Garage rock. Period. This is loud amateurish, sloppy, loud, and just plain awesome. Like The Kingsmen, if they had come out in 1976 or 77 along with The Ramones and Sex Pistols. Pure joy in making a rock 'n roll ruckus. This is the music that our grandparents warned our parents about. And the music that inspired Little Steven to open his Underground Garage. YEAH!
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6/21/2010 5:51:22 AM
6/21:
Magnetic Fields - Holiday
A first listen to one of their earlier albums. Stephen Merritt sounds particularly gloomy on this one... even moreso than usual. The songs sound solid, although I think that this one may take a few listens to completely sink in. For those of you who are not familiar, imagine Joy Division singing Cole Porter and that's a pretty good approximation.
Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham - Moments From This Theatere (live)
Have yet to listen to this one yet, but it's (obviously) a live set from the master southern soul songwriter who birthed "Do Right Woman/Do Right Man", "Cry Like a Baby", "The Dark End of the Street", and so much more. These guys are great performers in their own right (Spooner was the keyboard player on Neil Young's Harvest album and a lot of other sessions.) I have high hopes for this one.
XTC - Nonsuch
At the time that it came out, it was a little bit of a disappointment for me. But just the fact that I could say that about an album that contains songs like "My Bird Performs", "Dear Madam Barnum", and "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead" speaks volumes about this band. Baroque pop, with twitchy tendencies that they still have not yet shed from back in the early 80's. XTC are simply one of the greatest bands in the history of rock. And one of these days, the general public should recognize that fact.
Rolling Stones - Exile On Main Street (remaster)
Um... it's Exile... the greatest album from the Stones. What else do you need to know? Oh yeah, the remaster job is miraculous.
Best Coast - Tour-Only CD-R
I only just heard about these guys recently... checking to see who was coming to town, just to catch a show. I saw their name, checked 'em out on YouTube, and was totally impressed. Their sound is kinda like My Bloody Valentine doing girl group tunes by the likes of The Supremes, The Marvelettes, The Ronnettes, and whatnot. I think that the wife and I are gonna make it a point to go and catch their set when they hit town.
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6/23/2010 5:56:27 AM
6/23:
Blur - Blur
This is the album that contains the big US hit "Song 2" (the "WOOO-HOOO!!! song). It is also the album where the boys do their best imitation of the US indie bands of the mid-/late-90's. To that end, they cannot hide their Brit roots, but on the plus side, it doesn't matter because the songs are so good. Aside from the hit, there is also the charmingly amateurish-sounding "You're So Great", with it's wonderful GBV-esque melody, "I'm Just a Killer For Your Love", and the more-typical Bluresque "Look Inside America". Just another great record from one of the best bands of the 1990s.
Mission Of Burma - Vs.
One of the early progenitors of the post-punk aesthetic. Loud, angular, grating, and visceral. Great guitar playing that is more of the anti-hero style than any grandstanding solos. Anthemic in an anti-anthem sort of way. "That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate" is probably the closest thing on here to radio material and even that is the type of thing that makes the muscles tense.
The Gerbils - Are You Sleepy?
A minor member of the Elephant 6 collective -- one of the big players in small-time American independent music in the 1990s. This is gently queasy lo-fi psychedelic pop that could have been made in no other time or space than when it was. There are some nice tunes on here. But, as I was (and am) a big fan of many of the other E6 bands, this one is a minor disappointment... I just expect more of any band affiliated with that incestous little clan. Still, enjoyable light psych pop on its own merits.
Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures
Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters/Nirvana), and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin)!!! Homme pretty much dominates the sound, which makes sense, as he is the lead singer and guitar player. But, when they hit some of those heavy blues grooves, there is no question as to who is holding down the bottom end. It took a couple of listens, but I am finally warming up to this one. Digging it. If you dig the heavy stuff, break out the shovels and spades, and get ready to dig it, yourself.
Bob Elliott - Late Afternoon Sun
Bob is a master songwriter with a uniquely soulful voice and a style of his own. It's been no secret that I have been a fanboy for a long time, now. And, this is just another excellent album from the man. While, I would still place Simple Machines slightly ahead, as my favorite Bob record, this one still scratches that itch, oh so sweetly. If you don't know what I am talking about, you should just go listen... okay?!?!
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6/24/2010 6:17:31 AM
6/24:
Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Beware
Jarvis Humby - Assume the Position
Rancid - Let's Go
Yo La Tengo - Fakebook
The Move - The Best Of...
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6/25/2010 4:50:40 AM
6/25:
Ray Davies (with Yo La Tengo) - Jane Street Theater, Aug.25th, 2000
Boo Radleys - Giant Steps
Pere Ubu - The Modern Dance
Derek & The Dominoes - Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs
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