This weekend is the solstice and I will be celebrating (suffering) it by running the Green Mountain Relay, a 200-mile team run from Burlington Vermont, way up near Canada, to Bennington, Vermont, which is all the way down by Albany. From what I hear, the relay legs are mostly in the 4-6 mile range and everybody does 3-4 of them depending on how many people you have. (I assume, since they let me in, that my team is a little short.) The race starts Saturday morning and runs all day and night and most of the next day. Am I looking forward to those country jogs at 3 a.m.? Yes, I am, you bet, thanks for asking. So those are my weekend plans, which may well spill over into Monday…at least in terms of sleeping in afterwards.
Other news, my son Sean has completed 7th grade…highlights:
* Most improved XC skier…he took about ten minutes off his time in one race.
* Starring role in local production of “Tom Sawyer”…very amusing southern accent.
* Most improved award in track, too…did a personal best of 6:25 in the mile, which is faster than I can run…yeah Sean!
* Reasonably good academic performance, but not the all-As that would get him an X-Box or possibly into Yale or Dartmouth
* Selected for advanced algebra next year
* Will play Diesel this summer in a New England Youth Theater production of “West Side Story”.
Okay, and music…
My interview with David Berman of the Silver Jews went up today at PopMatters:
Clearer Vision: An interview With David Berman of the Silver Jews
In between his fifth and sixth albums as Silver Jews, David Berman underwent eye surgery that both physically and metaphorically extended his range of vision. He explains, "The changeover to sight, for me, is accompanied by a larger agenda -- being able to take on more, being able to see farther, but also having more confidence about any number of things because I can see."
More here:
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/features/article/59536/clearer-vision-an-interview-with-david-berman-of-the-silver-jews
Here’s David performing “What Is Not But Could be If” from the new album:
Also, today, Dusted picks its favorite records so far:
http://www.dustedmagazine.com/features/744
Mine is Big Dipper. Here they are playing “Ron Klaus Wrecked His House” fairly recently:
And “Man o War” in their prime”
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
What a firedrill!
On Friday, I threw caution to the wind and pitched three album reviews for Philadelphia Weekly, all for albums that I didn’t at that exactly moment possess in my hot little hands. Come 5 p.m. when assignments were made, I found that I needed to obtain both Alejandro Escovedo’s Real Animal and Bardo Pond’s Batholith immediately. The reviews were due Monday at noon.
So I asked everybody I knew, and my friend Michael came across with the Bardo and my editor at PopMatters with the Escovedo. Both have been an absolute joy to listen to…and I think Alejandro has just knocked Big Dipper off its #1 slot. I haven’t actually reviewed the Bardo yet, but I’ve been listening to it all morning and just about ready…
Meanwhile, a couple of new reviews up today.
Wonderful, totally over-my-head avant-classical/jazz piano from a lady who has worked with Anthony Braxton and a whole bunch of other high profile jazz guys.
Marilyn Crispell, Vignettes (ECM)
Pianist Marilyn Crispell, according to her bio, trained at the New England Conservatory and played nothing but classical music until she was 28. Then, transfixed by Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, she turned towards jazz, playing over the next several decades with Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, Barry Guy and the Reggie Workman trio, and, most recently Paul Motian and Gary Peacock. Here, in the solo album Vignettes, Crispell brings together both sides of her experience, in a series of 17 mostly improvised pieces that tread the line between contemporary classical and jazz, compositional structure and improvisation.
Seven abstract “Vignettes” frame the album, brief distillations of moods and ideas that are, perhaps, the most challenging elements of the CD. The longer, named pieces are, in general, more lyrical, “Valse Triste” moody and full of searching pauses, “Time Past” awash in romantic longing, the extended “Sweden” jazz-like in its thoughtful exploration of themes. Crispell improvised most of the tracks, but a few were based on existing pieces. “Stilleweg” follows a composition by Arve Henrikson, the trumpet player from Norway’s Supersilent, while the melody of “Cuida Tu Espirito” comes from a piece written by flutist Janya Nelson. The whole disc is surpassingly beautiful, full of clarity and shimmering with melancholy introspection. It would be a shame if only the jazz cognescenti or the classical avant-garde took notice of Vignettes, because has a elegiac loveliness that any music fan can appreciate. [Amazon ]
And a not-so-overwhelmed review of the Lodger…a Leeds-based pop band that sounds a bit like Orange Juice.
The Lodger, Life is Sweet (Slumberland)
The next gig that Leeds-based the Lodger has listed on its MySpace page is something called "Rip It Up: Edwyn Collins Night," so it's probably fair to infer that any similarities between this band and the late, lamented Orange Juice are not exactly accidental. And indeed, there are lots of similarities––the scrambled, jangling guitar flourishes, the almost disco-funk of the bass, the wistful smiling-through-discouragement pop lyrics. The problem is that the Lodger gets many of the elements of Orange Juice's sound exactly right, but ignores its angsty melodic soul.
As an experiment, try listening to OJ's "Blue Boy," then the Lodger's "My Finest Hour." The Orange Juice song starts in a flurry of martial drums, a tangle of hasty, manic guitars. Collins' voice, when it comes, pushes hard against the pop contours of the song, as if effort could (and perhaps did) transform easy melody into something weightier. Now, take "My Finest Hour" with its cracked-dry drums, repetitive keyboards and Ben Siddall's off-toned, wistful voice. It drifts rather than grips, glides rather than catches you short. It's like Orange Juice, but in the way a line drawing is like a sculpture of the same person, flattened, simplified, an allusion rather than a full-body experience.
More here: http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/4355
You can do your own comparison test with these two videos:
The Lodger
….and Orange Juice
Also saw the movie Son of Rambow, which was wonderful, sweet and very funny…reminded me a little of My Life as a Dog, which is one of my all-time favorites.
Oh, and I can highly recommend MOJO’s current giveaway CD, a Class of 1977 punk compilation which ends with my friend Robert Lloyd’s old band, the Prefects, playing “things in general.”
Now for that Bardo….
So I asked everybody I knew, and my friend Michael came across with the Bardo and my editor at PopMatters with the Escovedo. Both have been an absolute joy to listen to…and I think Alejandro has just knocked Big Dipper off its #1 slot. I haven’t actually reviewed the Bardo yet, but I’ve been listening to it all morning and just about ready…
Meanwhile, a couple of new reviews up today.
Wonderful, totally over-my-head avant-classical/jazz piano from a lady who has worked with Anthony Braxton and a whole bunch of other high profile jazz guys.
Marilyn Crispell, Vignettes (ECM)
Pianist Marilyn Crispell, according to her bio, trained at the New England Conservatory and played nothing but classical music until she was 28. Then, transfixed by Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, she turned towards jazz, playing over the next several decades with Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, Barry Guy and the Reggie Workman trio, and, most recently Paul Motian and Gary Peacock. Here, in the solo album Vignettes, Crispell brings together both sides of her experience, in a series of 17 mostly improvised pieces that tread the line between contemporary classical and jazz, compositional structure and improvisation.
Seven abstract “Vignettes” frame the album, brief distillations of moods and ideas that are, perhaps, the most challenging elements of the CD. The longer, named pieces are, in general, more lyrical, “Valse Triste” moody and full of searching pauses, “Time Past” awash in romantic longing, the extended “Sweden” jazz-like in its thoughtful exploration of themes. Crispell improvised most of the tracks, but a few were based on existing pieces. “Stilleweg” follows a composition by Arve Henrikson, the trumpet player from Norway’s Supersilent, while the melody of “Cuida Tu Espirito” comes from a piece written by flutist Janya Nelson. The whole disc is surpassingly beautiful, full of clarity and shimmering with melancholy introspection. It would be a shame if only the jazz cognescenti or the classical avant-garde took notice of Vignettes, because has a elegiac loveliness that any music fan can appreciate. [Amazon ]
And a not-so-overwhelmed review of the Lodger…a Leeds-based pop band that sounds a bit like Orange Juice.
The Lodger, Life is Sweet (Slumberland)
The next gig that Leeds-based the Lodger has listed on its MySpace page is something called "Rip It Up: Edwyn Collins Night," so it's probably fair to infer that any similarities between this band and the late, lamented Orange Juice are not exactly accidental. And indeed, there are lots of similarities––the scrambled, jangling guitar flourishes, the almost disco-funk of the bass, the wistful smiling-through-discouragement pop lyrics. The problem is that the Lodger gets many of the elements of Orange Juice's sound exactly right, but ignores its angsty melodic soul.
As an experiment, try listening to OJ's "Blue Boy," then the Lodger's "My Finest Hour." The Orange Juice song starts in a flurry of martial drums, a tangle of hasty, manic guitars. Collins' voice, when it comes, pushes hard against the pop contours of the song, as if effort could (and perhaps did) transform easy melody into something weightier. Now, take "My Finest Hour" with its cracked-dry drums, repetitive keyboards and Ben Siddall's off-toned, wistful voice. It drifts rather than grips, glides rather than catches you short. It's like Orange Juice, but in the way a line drawing is like a sculpture of the same person, flattened, simplified, an allusion rather than a full-body experience.
More here: http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/4355
You can do your own comparison test with these two videos:
The Lodger
….and Orange Juice
Also saw the movie Son of Rambow, which was wonderful, sweet and very funny…reminded me a little of My Life as a Dog, which is one of my all-time favorites.
Oh, and I can highly recommend MOJO’s current giveaway CD, a Class of 1977 punk compilation which ends with my friend Robert Lloyd’s old band, the Prefects, playing “things in general.”
Now for that Bardo….
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Ends, beginnings and, oh screw it, middles, too
There's a scene in Tom Sawyer where Tom and Huck have run away to an island and sneak back into town just in time to attend their own funeral. They are surprised, as I suppose most people would be, at all the nice things people say about them.
I had a similar experience this week, after flushing my MOG page. I'd sort of meant to go quietly, because MOG can be a very dramatic place...and anyway, the new site enhancements meant that I couldn't post or comment anymore without driving ten miles into town for WIFI. I've been kind of bored with MOG lately, to tell the truth. There are people I like on there and people who post interesting stuff...but there's a lot of commercial dreck on there, and the site seems to value it more than the good stuff. (The main page is particularly, aggressively awful.)
Anyway, I had been unable to upload music from home for a year and a half, since an upgrade that timed you out of the system if you were inactive for more than 10 minutes (uploading a song counted as inactive for some reason). Another upgrade a few months ago made it impossible to listen to music clips (you couldn't let them load and listen to them later). The last upgrade cut me off from even posting text. So it was time to go, and I went.
And then my friend Cody did this: http://www.mog.com/Cody_B/blog_post/167343
It's the nicest obituary anyone's ever written about me, and I didn't even have to die for it. Thank you Cody.
I've had two experiences recently, which illustrate both the up- and downside of not being on an active social site (this one doesn't count because as far as I know, no one reads it).
On the upside, on Friday, during the time I might have been screwing around on MOG, commenting on clips I can't hear, videos I can't see, etc., I listened to about an hour of an WFMU show by (sometime MOG-ger) Lou Ziegler and heard about six bands/records that I want to check out.
In order of appearance:
Allez Allez -- Belgian synthy dance punk, sort of like ESG or Delta Five
Battant -- also in the crevice between punk and dance, but more current and more punk I think.
Future of the Left -- Here we go all the way over to the punk side...this could be classic late 1970s stuff, but I think it's not...
A.H. Kraken -- super distorted garage punk from France on the can-do-no-wrong-ever In the Red Label.
Bardo Pond's Batholith...which my friend Michael already sent me, which I am reviewing for tomorrow morning for Philly Weekly and which is pretty mind-splitting great, if you ask me.
You can listen to this show, too, if you want, by clicking on this link:
http://wfmu.org/listen.ram?show=27545&archive=43361
So in terms of hearing new music, I think MOG has been a bit of a sinkhole, and it's good, no strike that, it's downright exciting to be out there foraging for new experiences again.
The other thing, also on Friday, was that I went to an open mic with to meet my friend Ann's new boyfriend, who plays guitar. His bass player has a washtub bass, something I had never really looked at up close, but it's kind of cool how you can move the stick around to tighten/loosen the string and change the note. As a joke -- oh yeah, this is fairly pathetic -- I asked the guy if he could play any Pere Ubu songs. I mean, it was a ridiculous thing to say, but the idea of "Final Solution" on washtub bass kind of tickled me. My friends' new boyfriend never heard of Pere Ubu, to the extent that he asked what kind of music they played. So this is the lonely thing about not being on MOG...that no one will know the what the hell I am talking about when I talk about music and I will have to learn to shut up about it again, at least around people that I want to stay friendly with.
As for new stuff, here are some links:
Thalia Zedek interview in Philly Weekly
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/?inc=article&id=358&x=thalia-zedeks-tragic-muse&_c=music
Review of Grand Archives/Sera Cahoone show in Blurt-Online
This has utterly disappeared from the index of the website at www.blurt-online.com...so the only way anyone can ever see it is by following this link:
http://www.blurt-online.com/concert_reviews/view/14
Sigh.
Review of Bishop Allen/War on Drugs show in PopMatters
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/reviews/article/59619/bishop-allen/
Review of a totally insane a-capella-on-steroids, art-freak record by Lexie Mountain Boys
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/reviews/article/59475/lexie-mountain-boys-sacred-vacation/
Oh, and the new Alejandro Escovedo record is freaking brilliant, way more rock than the last one and a kick in the ass all the way through. I'm reviewing this one, too, for tomorrow, for Philly Weekly, and I might be interviewing him for Popmatters.
I think I’m going to do this about once a week, to keep track of what I'm doing for my own purposes at least.
I had a similar experience this week, after flushing my MOG page. I'd sort of meant to go quietly, because MOG can be a very dramatic place...and anyway, the new site enhancements meant that I couldn't post or comment anymore without driving ten miles into town for WIFI. I've been kind of bored with MOG lately, to tell the truth. There are people I like on there and people who post interesting stuff...but there's a lot of commercial dreck on there, and the site seems to value it more than the good stuff. (The main page is particularly, aggressively awful.)
Anyway, I had been unable to upload music from home for a year and a half, since an upgrade that timed you out of the system if you were inactive for more than 10 minutes (uploading a song counted as inactive for some reason). Another upgrade a few months ago made it impossible to listen to music clips (you couldn't let them load and listen to them later). The last upgrade cut me off from even posting text. So it was time to go, and I went.
And then my friend Cody did this: http://www.mog.com/Cody_B/blog_post/167343
It's the nicest obituary anyone's ever written about me, and I didn't even have to die for it. Thank you Cody.
I've had two experiences recently, which illustrate both the up- and downside of not being on an active social site (this one doesn't count because as far as I know, no one reads it).
On the upside, on Friday, during the time I might have been screwing around on MOG, commenting on clips I can't hear, videos I can't see, etc., I listened to about an hour of an WFMU show by (sometime MOG-ger) Lou Ziegler and heard about six bands/records that I want to check out.
In order of appearance:
Allez Allez -- Belgian synthy dance punk, sort of like ESG or Delta Five
Battant -- also in the crevice between punk and dance, but more current and more punk I think.
Future of the Left -- Here we go all the way over to the punk side...this could be classic late 1970s stuff, but I think it's not...
A.H. Kraken -- super distorted garage punk from France on the can-do-no-wrong-ever In the Red Label.
Bardo Pond's Batholith...which my friend Michael already sent me, which I am reviewing for tomorrow morning for Philly Weekly and which is pretty mind-splitting great, if you ask me.
You can listen to this show, too, if you want, by clicking on this link:
http://wfmu.org/listen.ram?show=27545&archive=43361
So in terms of hearing new music, I think MOG has been a bit of a sinkhole, and it's good, no strike that, it's downright exciting to be out there foraging for new experiences again.
The other thing, also on Friday, was that I went to an open mic with to meet my friend Ann's new boyfriend, who plays guitar. His bass player has a washtub bass, something I had never really looked at up close, but it's kind of cool how you can move the stick around to tighten/loosen the string and change the note. As a joke -- oh yeah, this is fairly pathetic -- I asked the guy if he could play any Pere Ubu songs. I mean, it was a ridiculous thing to say, but the idea of "Final Solution" on washtub bass kind of tickled me. My friends' new boyfriend never heard of Pere Ubu, to the extent that he asked what kind of music they played. So this is the lonely thing about not being on MOG...that no one will know the what the hell I am talking about when I talk about music and I will have to learn to shut up about it again, at least around people that I want to stay friendly with.
As for new stuff, here are some links:
Thalia Zedek interview in Philly Weekly
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/?inc=article&id=358&x=thalia-zedeks-tragic-muse&_c=music
Review of Grand Archives/Sera Cahoone show in Blurt-Online
This has utterly disappeared from the index of the website at www.blurt-online.com...so the only way anyone can ever see it is by following this link:
http://www.blurt-online.com/concert_reviews/view/14
Sigh.
Review of Bishop Allen/War on Drugs show in PopMatters
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/reviews/article/59619/bishop-allen/
Review of a totally insane a-capella-on-steroids, art-freak record by Lexie Mountain Boys
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/reviews/article/59475/lexie-mountain-boys-sacred-vacation/
Oh, and the new Alejandro Escovedo record is freaking brilliant, way more rock than the last one and a kick in the ass all the way through. I'm reviewing this one, too, for tomorrow, for Philly Weekly, and I might be interviewing him for Popmatters.
I think I’m going to do this about once a week, to keep track of what I'm doing for my own purposes at least.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Another Muxtape
I’m putting this up at jennythek.muxtape.com, and also there’s a download link in the comments if you want to listen to the songs over an over until you’re sick of them. (IMO, it will take a while.) Anyway, as usual, it gets a little weird at the end. If you’re squeamish, you might want to stop after Shearwater.
Elvis Costello, “American Gangster Time”
During the MOG strike, I had a fairly extended last.fm conversation with Cody about this album, the gist of which ran like this. Momofuku is fun because it sounds just like Elvis Costello, even down to the keyboard parts (check the Vox on this track and see if it doesn’t take you back, say, 25 years), but especially the voice. However, even the first three tracks, which are quite good, are probably not as good as classic EC, or even the better songs off When I Was Cruel. None of these tracks would stop you cold like the first time you heard “Watching the Detectives” or “Mystery Dance” or “Alison”or “Red Shoes” They just remind you of them…so really what we’re buying here is nostalgia, good nostalgia but still.
Thalia Zedek, “Do You Remember”
This is the 9/11 song off Thalia Zedek’s fantastic new album “Liars & Prayers.” I just finished writing up an interview with her for PW, which gives the background on the 9/11 experiences that inspired this song…suffice to say that she arrived in NYC that morning without any idea of what was going on. The cool thing about this record is that Thalia has a full band, so it’s a very strong, very rock, very guitar-oriented sound, and I like it a lot.
Lights, “Break, Run, Fly”
Another in a string of very cool, female-centric, rock-leaning freak folk records from Greg Weeks’ label Language of Stone. This one reminds me of PF’s “Interstellar Overdrive,” but with pretty harmonies added.
The War on Drugs, “Taking the Farm”
I went to see these guys about a week ago, and they blew their monitor about five minutes into the show, so kind of disappointing…but I do really like this song.
Julie Ocean, “#1 Song”
Really good power pop, a la Big Star or, ahem, the Undertones (from whence the band name) or even Jim Spellman’s old outfit, Velocity Girl.
The Church, “Hotel Womb”
I was writing a show preview for Marty Willson-Piper’s solo gig in Philly, and ended up listening to Starfish again a couple of times, and man, what a great album.
Shearwater, “Century Eyes”
Also went to see Shearwater a few weeks ago, and they were selling the new CD Rook that night for the first time ever…so of course I bought one, and it’s rather lovely. This is the rocking-est song.
Sun City Girls, “Mr. Lonely Viola”
From the Mr. Lonely soundtrack to Harmony Korine’s new movie. Sun City Girls, who have as much claim to inventing freak folk as anyone, did half the tracks. J. Spacemen (from Spacemen 3) contributed the other half. And there are some clips from the movie, a nun declaring her faith as she drops out the window, Werner Herzog decrying man’s filthy nature…good stuff, but this cut is my favorite. Isn’t it lovely? (Oh, and we have entered into the weird part of the mix, hang on.)
Stars Like Fleas, “I Was Only Dancing”
This band sits at the intersection of organic and electronic, improvisation and melody…sort of like Akron/Family’s first album and very, very beautiful. It’s from the album The Ken Burns Effect, so you might want to look at old photos while it’s on.
Make a Rising, “Your Karmic Obstacle”
Another freaky, multi-instrumented extravaganza…typically performed in costume. (See the video from a couple of days ago http://mog.com/jenny/blog_post/161385)
Nalle, “Alice’s Ladder”
Extremely left-of-center improvisatory folk from a Scottish trio, led by a Finnish singer and kantele player (apparently it’s like a zither).
Charlemagne Palestine, “Tritone Octave 1/2: Part 3”
This is cool…minimalist composer Charlemagne Palestine discovered a one-of-a-kind instrument called the doppio borgato, a kind of double piano with the lower 37 keys repeated on a ground-level keyboard played with the foot, and recorded a double CD set on it.
Elvis Costello, “American Gangster Time”
During the MOG strike, I had a fairly extended last.fm conversation with Cody about this album, the gist of which ran like this. Momofuku is fun because it sounds just like Elvis Costello, even down to the keyboard parts (check the Vox on this track and see if it doesn’t take you back, say, 25 years), but especially the voice. However, even the first three tracks, which are quite good, are probably not as good as classic EC, or even the better songs off When I Was Cruel. None of these tracks would stop you cold like the first time you heard “Watching the Detectives” or “Mystery Dance” or “Alison”or “Red Shoes” They just remind you of them…so really what we’re buying here is nostalgia, good nostalgia but still.
Thalia Zedek, “Do You Remember”
This is the 9/11 song off Thalia Zedek’s fantastic new album “Liars & Prayers.” I just finished writing up an interview with her for PW, which gives the background on the 9/11 experiences that inspired this song…suffice to say that she arrived in NYC that morning without any idea of what was going on. The cool thing about this record is that Thalia has a full band, so it’s a very strong, very rock, very guitar-oriented sound, and I like it a lot.
Lights, “Break, Run, Fly”
Another in a string of very cool, female-centric, rock-leaning freak folk records from Greg Weeks’ label Language of Stone. This one reminds me of PF’s “Interstellar Overdrive,” but with pretty harmonies added.
The War on Drugs, “Taking the Farm”
I went to see these guys about a week ago, and they blew their monitor about five minutes into the show, so kind of disappointing…but I do really like this song.
Julie Ocean, “#1 Song”
Really good power pop, a la Big Star or, ahem, the Undertones (from whence the band name) or even Jim Spellman’s old outfit, Velocity Girl.
The Church, “Hotel Womb”
I was writing a show preview for Marty Willson-Piper’s solo gig in Philly, and ended up listening to Starfish again a couple of times, and man, what a great album.
Shearwater, “Century Eyes”
Also went to see Shearwater a few weeks ago, and they were selling the new CD Rook that night for the first time ever…so of course I bought one, and it’s rather lovely. This is the rocking-est song.
Sun City Girls, “Mr. Lonely Viola”
From the Mr. Lonely soundtrack to Harmony Korine’s new movie. Sun City Girls, who have as much claim to inventing freak folk as anyone, did half the tracks. J. Spacemen (from Spacemen 3) contributed the other half. And there are some clips from the movie, a nun declaring her faith as she drops out the window, Werner Herzog decrying man’s filthy nature…good stuff, but this cut is my favorite. Isn’t it lovely? (Oh, and we have entered into the weird part of the mix, hang on.)
Stars Like Fleas, “I Was Only Dancing”
This band sits at the intersection of organic and electronic, improvisation and melody…sort of like Akron/Family’s first album and very, very beautiful. It’s from the album The Ken Burns Effect, so you might want to look at old photos while it’s on.
Make a Rising, “Your Karmic Obstacle”
Another freaky, multi-instrumented extravaganza…typically performed in costume. (See the video from a couple of days ago http://mog.com/jenny/blog_post/161385)
Nalle, “Alice’s Ladder”
Extremely left-of-center improvisatory folk from a Scottish trio, led by a Finnish singer and kantele player (apparently it’s like a zither).
Charlemagne Palestine, “Tritone Octave 1/2: Part 3”
This is cool…minimalist composer Charlemagne Palestine discovered a one-of-a-kind instrument called the doppio borgato, a kind of double piano with the lower 37 keys repeated on a ground-level keyboard played with the foot, and recorded a double CD set on it.
Friday, April 18, 2008
My muxtape
It's at http://jennythek.muxtape.com
Check it out if you're so inclined.
1. Functional Blackouts "Kamikaze"
2. Peg Simone, "I'm Calling"
3. The Friggs, "Bad Word for a Good Thing"
4. Experimental Aircraft, "Stellar" (This is my favorite on the whole thing.)
5. Ecstatic Sunshine, "Herrons"
6. Unwed Sailor, "Copper Island"
7. Ian Matthews, "Reno Nevada" (pretty sure that's Richard Thompson burning up the guitar)
8. The Chapin Sisters, "Let Me Go"
9. Helvetia, "The Fever"
10. The Botticellis, "Up Against the Glass"
11. The Accidental, "Knock Knock" (Tunng/Memory Band offshoot...worth checking out if you like either.)
12. Vetiver, "The Swimming Song" (A Loudon Wainwright song and my fave non-Bert Jansch song on the Squid and the Whale soundtrack.)
I'll probably change it in a month or two.
Edit Delete
Check it out if you're so inclined.
1. Functional Blackouts "Kamikaze"
2. Peg Simone, "I'm Calling"
3. The Friggs, "Bad Word for a Good Thing"
4. Experimental Aircraft, "Stellar" (This is my favorite on the whole thing.)
5. Ecstatic Sunshine, "Herrons"
6. Unwed Sailor, "Copper Island"
7. Ian Matthews, "Reno Nevada" (pretty sure that's Richard Thompson burning up the guitar)
8. The Chapin Sisters, "Let Me Go"
9. Helvetia, "The Fever"
10. The Botticellis, "Up Against the Glass"
11. The Accidental, "Knock Knock" (Tunng/Memory Band offshoot...worth checking out if you like either.)
12. Vetiver, "The Swimming Song" (A Loudon Wainwright song and my fave non-Bert Jansch song on the Squid and the Whale soundtrack.)
I'll probably change it in a month or two.
Edit Delete
Friday, March 28, 2008
Pacific UV
I think this record is awesome, but I can't get anyone to listen to it.
Here's a short review posted yesterday in PopMatters.
PacificUV, Longplay2 (Warm)
Incandescent landscapes of drone and fuzz rise and subside, recalling the lulling, static lands of Spiritualized, the Cocteau Twins and Slowdive. Athens’ PacificUV, five years on from their debut and two years past an intermediary EP, stretches out in this second full-length, guitar tones left to float like dust motes in a sunny window, words stretched to codeine-furzed dreaminess in the cuts with vocals. Best here is “Need”, all luminous, intersecting guitar notes and whispery (Calla-ish) vocals, but “Tremolo” comes close, borrowing Carolyn Berk for slow-moving, angelic vocals a la Mazzy Star (or, more recently, Isobella). Soft, nostalgic piano, merged with wistful post-rock guitars in epic-length “Arson” make the connection to Mogwai, and the keyboards return, augmented with cello, in the limpid, lovely “Ljiv”. Still there’s not much “loud” in PacificUV’s loud-soft continuum. Instead, graceful, spacious grooves carve otherworldly spaces, cresting and falling but never blowing the walls out. They’re gorgeous spaces, though, if you’re in the mood for a daydream. [Amazon ]
Here's a short review posted yesterday in PopMatters.
PacificUV, Longplay2 (Warm)
Incandescent landscapes of drone and fuzz rise and subside, recalling the lulling, static lands of Spiritualized, the Cocteau Twins and Slowdive. Athens’ PacificUV, five years on from their debut and two years past an intermediary EP, stretches out in this second full-length, guitar tones left to float like dust motes in a sunny window, words stretched to codeine-furzed dreaminess in the cuts with vocals. Best here is “Need”, all luminous, intersecting guitar notes and whispery (Calla-ish) vocals, but “Tremolo” comes close, borrowing Carolyn Berk for slow-moving, angelic vocals a la Mazzy Star (or, more recently, Isobella). Soft, nostalgic piano, merged with wistful post-rock guitars in epic-length “Arson” make the connection to Mogwai, and the keyboards return, augmented with cello, in the limpid, lovely “Ljiv”. Still there’s not much “loud” in PacificUV’s loud-soft continuum. Instead, graceful, spacious grooves carve otherworldly spaces, cresting and falling but never blowing the walls out. They’re gorgeous spaces, though, if you’re in the mood for a daydream. [Amazon ]
Head of Femur flirts with -- no marries -- excess
Mog is fucked again, so I'm going to put my stuff up here. Here’s another entry in the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink brand of sunny day pop from Chicago’s Head of Femur, reviewed yesterday in PopMatters
Head of Femur
Great Plains
(Greyday)
US release date: 25 March 2008
UK release date: 28 March 2008
by Jennifer Kelly
Too Much? No Such Thing.
Head of Femur, the Nebraska-and-Chicago-based baroque pop outfit with three core, eight satellite and seemingly hundreds of cameo players, has never had much interest in minimalism. Its first album, the intermittently sublime Ringodom or Proctor, shoehorned three or four songs into each multi-instrumented cut. This debut CD was ushered into the world in its entirety by a band of 24 musicians on a tiny Chicago stage. And following Hysterical Stars, when Head of Femur toured with equally populous Architecture in Helsinki, they could have rented the Partridge Family bus and still jostled elbows and knocked knees. More is always more rather than less to these guys—more people, more instruments, more song ideas, and more joy. With their fourth album, Great Plains, the parts all fit together in a seamless, logical way that finally drives home, I think, what Head of Femur has been going for all along.
Essentially, this is a caffeinated, giddy melodic pop that is bristling with intelligence, but softened by whimsy. Their first album included an Eno cover, “The True Wheel” from Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, and this still seems like a very solid reference point for pop that is still pop no matter how convoluted it gets. You will hear bits and pieces that remind you of all the challenging pop bands—the Beatles, the Beach Boys,ELO, the Move, and the Elephant 6 contingent—but filtered through an exuberant, band-geek sort of competence. This is not the kind of band where you can get away with half-assing your instrument. Every tone rings out bright and clear and assured.
More here: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/55474/head-of-femur-great-plains/
I’ve been writing about Head of Femur for a long time. Here’s a link to my Splendid interview (notable because not only did we insert silly arrows into the photos pointing out interview subject, Matt Focht, we also got the wrong guy. It’s fixed now, apparently.)
http://www.splendidmagazine.com/features/head/
And here’s a live show review of Head of Femur and Hockey Night:
http://www.splendidmagazine.com/departments/liveline/headhockey/default.html
Head of Femur
Great Plains
(Greyday)
US release date: 25 March 2008
UK release date: 28 March 2008
by Jennifer Kelly
Too Much? No Such Thing.
Head of Femur, the Nebraska-and-Chicago-based baroque pop outfit with three core, eight satellite and seemingly hundreds of cameo players, has never had much interest in minimalism. Its first album, the intermittently sublime Ringodom or Proctor, shoehorned three or four songs into each multi-instrumented cut. This debut CD was ushered into the world in its entirety by a band of 24 musicians on a tiny Chicago stage. And following Hysterical Stars, when Head of Femur toured with equally populous Architecture in Helsinki, they could have rented the Partridge Family bus and still jostled elbows and knocked knees. More is always more rather than less to these guys—more people, more instruments, more song ideas, and more joy. With their fourth album, Great Plains, the parts all fit together in a seamless, logical way that finally drives home, I think, what Head of Femur has been going for all along.
Essentially, this is a caffeinated, giddy melodic pop that is bristling with intelligence, but softened by whimsy. Their first album included an Eno cover, “The True Wheel” from Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, and this still seems like a very solid reference point for pop that is still pop no matter how convoluted it gets. You will hear bits and pieces that remind you of all the challenging pop bands—the Beatles, the Beach Boys,ELO, the Move, and the Elephant 6 contingent—but filtered through an exuberant, band-geek sort of competence. This is not the kind of band where you can get away with half-assing your instrument. Every tone rings out bright and clear and assured.
More here: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/55474/head-of-femur-great-plains/
I’ve been writing about Head of Femur for a long time. Here’s a link to my Splendid interview (notable because not only did we insert silly arrows into the photos pointing out interview subject, Matt Focht, we also got the wrong guy. It’s fixed now, apparently.)
http://www.splendidmagazine.com/features/head/
And here’s a live show review of Head of Femur and Hockey Night:
http://www.splendidmagazine.com/departments/liveline/headhockey/default.html
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