16 January 2013 - Another trip to the plastic crate

The night session at the Australian Open last night was fairly boring so I turned in relatively early.  As is my practice on such occasions, I fell asleep listening to my iPod.   When I woke this morning I returned to the last track I remembered hearing and completed the album whilst walking Lady.

(49) Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band – Live In New York City (disc 1)

If I can say that I have a favourite artist it would have to be The Boss, although Neil Young is closing the gap.  This is Exhibit A for any doubters, an awesome exhibition of the man and his band at full flow and throttle.  Recorded on “home” turf at Madison Square Garden, this forms part of the record of his reunion with the E Street Band in 2001.  The first disc of this two disc set stands alone practically as a mini gig and is beautifully sequenced.  The opening three tracks including Prove it All Night roar out of the blocks (or dare I say it, roar down the highway like a hotted up speed demon with pistons pumping).  Things progressively cool with versions of Atlantic City, Mansion On The Hill and a downbeat The River.  The pace starts to pick up again with, of all things, Youngstown from the acoustic Ghost Of Tom Joad which mutates into a guitar orgy with great playing from Nils Lofgren. A couple a blasts of feedback surges into Murder Incorporated and the brilliant as always Badlands.  A fun version of Out In The Street seemingly brings proceedings to a close but this simply makes may for an unlisted Born To Run, one of the three most significant songs in my musical education.  (This is a story for another day.)

Delving into the plastic crate, I take four albums with me for company on another standard day at work.

(50) Femi Kuti – Day By Day

Femi keeps things in the family through his mastery of Afrobeat as invented by his father, Nigerian musical legend Fela Kuti.  Like his half-brother, Seun Kuti, Femi pursues an even more politically charged musical vision utilising shorter tracks than the customary 10 minute plus epics of his father. Day By Day is a typically strong Femi album although he is probably best heard in a live setting backed by his exceptional band, Positive Force.

(51) The Mars Volta - Noctourniquet  

Arguably rock’s most unclassifiable band, this was the Prog/Psychedelic/Hard Rock/Alt Rock/Free Form Jazz/kitchen sink Mars Volta’s last album before a self imposed hiatus.  Using generally shorter songs, it is a massive improvement on their previous release Octrahedron and their best album since the first two.  Simultaneously, it probably explains why mainstays Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavalar felt compelled to reactivate their previous band, At The Drive In, for a series of live shows last year.

(52) Quicksilver Messenger Service – Self Titled

This is the debut album for one of the leading lights of the 60’s San Francisco Haight-Ashbury movement along with The Greatful Dead, Big Brother And The Holding Company and The Jefferson Airplane.  Along barely 30 minutes long this release, starts with a number of bright, almost pop gems before somehow finding space to include an interesting 12 minute jam titled The Fool.  They followed this album with their greatest achievement, the wonderful live album, Happy Trails.

(53) The Skids – The Saints Are Coming.  The Best Of The Skids

Come 1977 there was a host of punk bands in England, Stiff Little Fingers in Northern Ireland and The Skids in Scotland.  The album showcases the sound that was hugely influential on other young acts of the time, notably U2 who covered their best known tune, The Saints Are Coming, with Green Day.  (The latter as noted in the movie version of High Fidelity, probably being more influenced by Stiff Little Fingers.)  Also notable is Skids founder Stuart Adamson’s groping towards the guitar sound he was to unleash in his next band, Big Country.

With that, I think it’s fair to say that I’ve got on top on the plastic crate.  It is now time for further explorations of my back catalogue, starting tomorrow.

15 January 2013 - Back to the Plastic Crate

It was back to the plastic crate for today’s first two selections on a standard work day.

(45) Scott Walker – The  Drift

The follow up to TILT, 12 years in the making, I thought this might be a good choice to start the day.  I figured this would be similar to the template of previous Walker albums, alternating between slow and slightly more up tempo numbers.  The opener, Cossacks Avenue, a slow meandering tune with industrial overtones was a brilliant opening.  The rest of the album was quite a departure and made for challenging listening.  Rather than pay close attention I simply let it wash over me.  This is one that demands concentration, preferably in a quiet place with the headphones.  Memo to self: don’t let “M” hear this one to prevent Walker joining her “Music for Committing Suicide” list, an unfair fate if there ever was one.

(46) Tubeway Army – Replicas Redux bonus disc  - Demos and Early Versions

 This was a far more appropriate choice for a morning listen.  Tubeway Army was effectively a band to showcase the talents of Gary Numan, who ditched the moniker after this album’s success.   One of the first massively popular synth albums, Replicas , contained the hits Down In The Park, Are Friends Electric? and other tracks in the same vein.  Replicas Redux is a two disc set containing the album and B-sides on Disc One and these early versions on a bonus disc.  These tracks lack the sheer power and production of the final album and B-sides and don’t differ much in their arrangements.  One for the completeists.

(47) The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project – The Journey Is Long

This was a recent purchase.  Jeffrey Lee Pierce, mostly through his band, The Gun Club was responsible for delivering some of the most enduring music from the US Punk scene of the 80s.  The best way to describe his music is a hybrid of punk, delta blues, country and rockabilly that garnered many fans and friends in alternative music circles.  Although all four of the Gun Club’s studio albums are worth listening to, especially their debut Fire Of Love, but their best work was done live.  A hellraiser of the highest order, Pierce unfortunately died of a brain haemorrhage in 1996.

The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project, is an amalgam of musicians (many of them Pierce’s friends) who have recorded albums of Pierce music, most of which had not been previously recorded or released.  The Journey Is Long is the second album they’ve produced and incudes such luminaries as Nick Cave (solo and in a duet with Deborah Harry), Steve Wynn, Barry Adamson, Lydia Lunch (solo and in a duet with Tex Perkins), Mick Harvey, Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, The Jim Jones Revue and Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell.  Everyone involved succeeds in distilling the essence of Pierce/The Gun Club and as such the album has a seamless feel to it despite being recorded all over the world.  I was so impressed that I played it twice.

14 January 2013 - A Bog Standard Day

Today was a bog standard day at work albeit one without meetings.  An instrumental album kicked off proceedings.

(39) Tuatara – Trading With The Enemy

This is the second album and ,last on a major label, for the alt-rock supergroup whose membership on this album included Justin Harwood (Luna), Barrett Martin (Screaming Trees), Peter Buck (R.E.M), Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) and Scott McCaughey (The Minus 5, Young Fresh Fellows and R.E.M.’s touring band).  The album contains a variety of instrumentals using all manner of instruments and themes and using more than a dollop of world music flourishes.

(40)  Little Willie John – Complete Hit Singles A’s & B’s

So you think that James Brown was the Godfather Of Soul?  If that’s the case meet the Great-Godfather, a man that used to regularly headline over the still to be christened Sex Machine.  John recorded for King Records (one of Brown’s earliest labels) between 1955-1961 and this album contains all of the hits that reached the US R&B charts.  Three tracks in particular should be well known to the audience of today – his signature hit Fever (later a hit for loads of acts including Peggy Lee and Elvis Presley), Leave My Kitten Along (recorded by The Beatles but left unreleased until it surfaced on one of their Anthology albums in the 1990s) and I’m Shaking (another track covered by many acts, notably The Blasters). Unfortunately, the five foot two inch John was imprisoned for manslaughter and died in prison in 1969. Who knows how soul would have developed had things turned out differently?

(41) The Low Anthem – Oh My God, Charlie Darwin

In the absence of anything other descriptor I’d guess you’d call this a modern folk album mixing sparse acoustics or more up tempo numbers with vague Tom Waits or Kings Of Leon touches.  Somehow it all hangs together wonderfully.

(42) Lambchop – Nixon

Probably Lambchop’s most highly regarded album, a lovely collection of country songs wrapped up in tasteful MOR arrangements and Kurt Wagner’s distinctive part singing/mostly intoning voice that will not be to everyone’s liking.  It is sumptuous listening, particularly on headphones.

(43) Ride – Nowhere

Whenever I read a review of this debut band from the Kings Of Shoegazing, the phrase “simmering guitars” inevitably gets a spin and I’m not going to describe its main feature any other way.  I haven’t given this a spin for a few years as my preference had been for its follow up Going Blank Again which contains the brilliant Leave Them All Behind, one of the high water marks of 90s British rock.  Today’s listen reminded me that this is ultimately the more consistent and better album.  The closing brace of tracks, Paralysed/Vapour Trail/Taste/Here And Now and Nowhere is one of the better second halves.

13 January 2013 - "M", Music and Me

On weekends, “M” and I might find ourselves with periods of time between commitments together.  Sometimes we’ll spend this time by relocating to different parts of the house to do our own thing which usually involves listening to the music that moves us.  We call this “Quality Time”.  I’ve never questioned why we called it that but my motives are certainly ironic.

“M” is my soul mate.  My other half.  My better two thirds.  Or to paraphrase C. Montgomery Burns about Waylon Smithers, the soothing yin to my raging yang.  There is only one area where we are largely incompatible and that is music.  “M”’s taste, God bless her, is smack down the middle of the road but she tends to favour songs over artists.  She’s not a top 40 groupie but rather someone who likes an addictively commercial song that strikes an emotional chord. 

Despite this, we have found some common ground, even making it to gigs together.  These experiences really demonstrate our incompatible musical direction.  When we saw Stevie Wonder in 2008, I wanted to hear his classic 70’s numbers such as Living In The City, Sir Duke and Superstition; she got off on I Just Called To Say I Love You and Part Time Love.  When we saw Dolly Parton in December 2011, I loved hearing her earlier material such as Coat Of Many Colours and bluegrass gems such as Little Sparrow; she patiently waited for 9 To 5.   Like all great marriages, we compromised later on and sang along together to Islands In The Stream – a great song even if it did originally involve Kenny Rogers. 

But I have had some success.  When she heard k.d Lang’s interpretation of Halleijulah at the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Olympics, I was quick to follow up.  Later that year we were at the Myer Music Bowl together wanting to hear the same songs.  She has surprised me with positive comments on some of my listening including Television, The Pretenders and, even more bizarrely, Lynyrd Skynyrd, or as she now knows them, “You know that Sweet Home Alabama band”.   But no matter how hard I try, I know that she’ll never develop my love for feedback, Sonic Youth, Nick Cave,  Sepultura’s Roots Bloody Roots, delta blues or Rammstein among others.   Leonard Cohen will forever remain music for committing suicide.

Since “Quality Time” has no fixed time span, I usually try to find albums of vinyl album length.  I love listening to an album in a single sitting and loath having to go back to hear the last few tracks at a later time.  This has been one of the drawbacks of CDs – artists who feel that they must fill the disc with as much music as possible.  Let’s face it, apart from live albums, best of compilations and early albums by hungry young acts who’ve stockpiled a lot of promising material as they wait to be discovered and fear that they’ll never have another chance to record, have there actually been that many great albums over the 60 minute mark?  Not too many readily come to mind.  In much the same way that CDs were reason for many acts to lose quality control, I think the increasing popularity of the digital download is spearheading a return to the more tightly focused and thus shorter album.  As artists realise that they can control their release schedule and catalogues, a number have realised that they can now return to vinyl length albums.  I’m going to give the credit for this to Radiohead and In Rainbows, an album that was revolutionary in the way it was marketed and released and which impressed upon everyone who downloaded it that a great album didn’t need to be 70 plus minutes long.

I say all of this because I had time to listen to only one album during quality time.  It is of vinyl length and by the time it had ended “M” was commenting favourably about it.

(38) Cee Lo Green - The Lady Killer

As everyone should now by know, Cee Lo was part of Gnarls Barkley along with Danger Mouse.   It is not his first solo album but it is his first since GB’s St. Elsewhere, an album that maybe didn’t get the kudos it deserved.  This sounds very much like a continuation of that album except that it contains an absolute monster of a hit.  Fxxk You is one of the great singles of the last five years an irresistibly catchy number that gets you singing along despite yourself.  (The cleaned up version, Forget You, is also on the album.)

12 January 2013 - 37 and Counting

The basic idea of this blog was to record what I had listened to in the course of a year.  This morning it occurred to me that I should also keep track of the quantity consumed.  Thus, starting today, the end of each posting will contain a running total of the number of releases in their entirety.  When February kicks in I’ll also add the number of days elapsed in the year.

Today’s morning activities allowed me the opportunity to listen to only one album but it’s a beauty.

(36) Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Armed Forces

Sorry to lapse into cliché but not only am I going to do it but the one I’m going to use one that is especially lazy.  In discussing this album one is practically forced to state that Elvis Costello is the Woody Allen of rock and this has nothing to do with the choice Costello’s spectacles at the time.  Armed Forces is one of the early Costello “Angry Young Man” albums which some listeners keep hoping he’ll return to in much the same way as Allen’s “Early Funny Films”.  I’ve never understood why people would want an artist to remain stagnant – it’s the shortest route to becoming irrelevant.  Once the audience thinks they know what a prolific artist will produce with the next release, they’ll eventually stop listening.  If the artist is unwilling to change their approach, the only way to keep the audience on side will be to deliberately reduce output and release new albums sparingly.  (This, I think, is the secret to AC/DC’s success among others.)  For a prolific artist like Costello this strategy would have amounted to an artistic death and, again much like Allen’s development into a tremendous director of dramas and mysteries in addition to comedies prevented his musical diversification. 

Primarily I still love and play the early Costello albums because these are great rock and roll records.  It is a mark of the strength of this part of his career that I would rank Armed Forces behind its illustrious predecessors My Aim Is True and This Year’s Model and behind its immediate successor Get Happy!  Yet this is an album that contains such standouts as Accidents Will Happen, Olivers Army and Green Shirt.  But I also love these records because these in turn started the process that’s also led to King Of America, Imperial Bedroom, North, the country albums and the collaborations with Burt Bacharach and Allen Toussaint among others.  And with his recent albums with The Imposters, a case could be made for suggesting that he has returned, in part and certainly in spirit, to the early days. 

Later in the day, before going on to some commitments with close friends I allow the afternoon sun to shine on me as I take in:

(37) The Roots – Come Alive

There is a sticker on the jewel box of this album saying “By Popular Demand Live Music From The Roots”.  This baffles me because The Roots have allowed live performances to be downloaded from their website for quite a while now.  At least I’m not baffled by their music; a magnificent mix of hip hop and soul with hints of jazz, reggae and rock.  They have a reputation as a legendary live act and this does nothing to dispel that.  How I rue the day when I didn’t see them as a festival at the National Tennis Centre about a decade ago.  (Mind you, it was a choice between them and The White Stripes.)  Having said that, there are shows that I’m heard off their website that are better, but there’s nothing wrong with this one. 

11 January 2013 - Eight Monks A Tinkling

Another music less morning walk with Lady as I ponder the question of what to play today.  By this stage we had already seen “M” off to work because I had elected to work from home.  I am doing this in order to draft an issues paper and find that it is easier to think and write without the usual workplace distractions.  I therefore need music that will not intrude too much on the process.

My requirements for today will require long playing discs that will not cause frequent disruption through constant changing. More importantly, as I need to set aside some time for thinking, the music should ideally be instrumental as I find there is nothing more distracting than the human voice.  Long instrumental passages do not tend to distract me irrespective of whether it is a reggae dub, guitar solo, keyboard passage, electronic collage or feedback excursion.  In my experience I find this assists the thinking process.  I’m not sure how to express this but I think an instrumental passage is an exercise in abstract sound construction perfect for situations when the human brain requires a similar level of abstraction for thinking through complex issues. But add the human voice and the whole process collapses as completely and effectively as the office gossip that arrives to spread the latest scuttlebutt when you’re deep in thought.  How easy is it to pick up the thread of your thought process after the gossip has left?  Well it’s the same thing working at home if you’ve chosen your music badly except that instead of the office gossip you’ll be blaming whoever’s singing.  And if that singer has profound lyrics to work with, the disruption is magnified.  Put all of this together and it becomes reasonably clear to me that the music of the day will be jazz. 

Given that I have little interest in and no grounding or inclination towards classical music, jazz, or to slip into pedantry, instrumental jazz, is the logical choice.  Obviously there is the lack of human voice.  The second consideration is the very nature of jazz itself.  For me, the type of jazz I prefer is the sound of musical exploration.  In most instances, I sense that the artist is on a quest that starts from a mutually agreed point among the musicians and continues for as long as necessary, sometimes through darkness, until a common exit point is sensed, groped towards and eventually found.  It is no surprise to me why there are so many versions of jazz classics – to take a random example, A Night In Tunisia – which sound radically different.  In other words, I view jazz as the aural equivalent of conceptual thinking and perfect for today’s task.

But many of the classic jazz albums, at least as these were originally released, were not particularly long, even by vinyl album standards.  Even releases with bonus tracks, such as the Rudy Van Gelder Editions of the Blue Note catalogue, barely reach the hour mark, if at all.  This is where a relatively recent development is fits in.  During the last year or two, labels predominantly based in Great Britain, have been releasing 2 or 4 disc collections bringing together 3 – 8 albums by the one artist.  I’m not sure how this occurring, although I do notice that this appears to be occurring with albums released up to the early 1960’s only which makes me think that this could very well be connected to GB’s copyright laws.  (This is a complete stab in the dark and I’m not a lawyer so chances are that I’m wrong but it is interesting to speculate.)  Even more significantly, these releases, at least in Australia are sold at a very reasonable price allowing one to build up a jazz collection relatively easily.

It is to one of such releases that I’ve pulled out of my crate.  Technically speaking the title is Thelonious Monk - Eight Classic Albums.  This doesn’t necessary mean that each of the original albums were credited to him.  Two of these are another act’s release on which Monk has guested (a common occurrence in jazz circles) and a third is effectively a shared release.  Additionally, Art Blakey is the drummer on the great majority of (if not all) tracks on most of the albums, so compilers could have been justified in titling this as Thelonious Monk and Art Blakey – Eight Classic Albums.

Monk is certainly one of my favourite jazz players worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus and Keith Jarrett.  Like Evans and Jarrett, Monk is a pianist which is my jazz solo instrument of choice.  (Mingus also released an album on which he played piano.)   I’m not exactly sure why that is but I suspect that it is the instrument which is most difficult in a jazz context due to a perceived increased range of notes that could be played.  In other words, it’s the instrument in which it is easier to get lost in your exploration.  (This is more than a stab in the dark, so if anyone wants to correct me feel free.  If I’m wrong, so be it; it’s my perception, right or wrong, that I’m recording here.)

None of these albums are in the running for the title of Monk’s best album.  That crown rests firmly on the head of his seminal releases Genius Of Modern Music Vol. 1 and 2.  There is something in each of the eight albums to recommend it.  The albums are:

Monk (1954): a solid early effort on which he is accompanied on each track be either Blakey or Sonny Rollins.

Monk’s Music (1957): a great album but unsurprising given that he is accompanied by Blakely, Coltrane and Coleman Hawkins.

Thelonious Monk Plays The Music Of Duke Ellington (1955): one great of American Music plays the music of another.  This is the first of the Monk trio albums in this collection.  My preference is for Monk to play solo or in a trio because he, on occasion, could be too generous in providing room to his soloists.

The Unique Thelonious Monk (1956): once again in a trio, this time with Blakey.  Honeysuckle Rose anyone?

Mulligan Meets Monk (1957): the only Gerry Mulligan album in my collection to date with great saxophone and some nifty double bass.

Thelonious Monk And Sonny Rollins (1954): Rollins appears on only three of the five tracks on this which also boasts a who’s who of jazz drummers.

Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers With Thelonious Monk (1957): strangely enough it is neither Blakey or Monk that stars here.  The title goes to Johnny Griffin whose sax work throughout is inspired,

Thelonious Monk Trio (1957): a solid effort with drumming from either Blakey or Max Roach. 

10 January 2013 - Magazine freebies from the plastic crate #1

I raided the plastic crate again for today’s listening.  All of the items I’ve selected are compilation discs given away free with monthly British music magazines.  The discs I own have been produced mainly by Mojo and Uncut, although there have been ones issued infrequently by Q and Rolling Stone.  

Mojo and Uncut are now my preferred music magazines.  Their editorial stance concentrating on new releases and celebrated releases and acts from rocks rich history, allied with my age, place me firmly within their target demographic.  The same applies to the freebie discs.   From what I can see each month both magazines use one of approximately five types of themed discs that are allied in some way to a feature article in that month’s edition. 

The dominant form of freebie is a straight out compilation of a particular music style, label or, in Uncut’s case, albums due for release that month.  Other types are discs supposedly compiled by a muso, re-recordings of classic albums by a range of acts covering each track, or albums that are claimed to be representative of the music that inspired an act.  I suspect some of these discs are akin to old style primers put together by a record label as an alternative form of advertising; however, each disc contains a compiler’s credit.  In the case of Uncut’s disc, the compiler is inevitability it’s Editor, Allan Jones.

I’ve been collecting these discs ever since I heard an early Mojo disc entitled The Devil’s Music, Keith Richards’ Personal Compilation of Blues, Soul and R & B Classics.  It is one of about 10 that have made their way onto my iPod.  Others include good overviews of African acts, Post-Punk, Punk acts in the years before the term was coined and an inspired re-recording of The Beatles Let It Be album, that is arguably better than the original.

I like to stockpile the discs for listening as a batch.  This produces an effect that is similar to listening to a fantasy radio station or your iPod on shuffle.  Today is no different.  I start with:

Let’s Move (subtitled, A Heavy Blues Collection – Mojo December 2012 edition)

This is a superlative collection of key blues tracks including a number of the greats.  Howlin’ Wolf, Lightning Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Elmore James and the mighty Hound Dog Taylor and the House Rockers are all included.  It also sores bonus points for leading off with the now sadly departed R.L. Burnside, one of the very few old bluesmen, I’ve actually managed to see live.

Bad Moon Rising (subtitled, 15 Tracks in the Spirit of Creedence – Uncut February 2012 edition)

I’m not sure this one actually succeeded in its task.  Not many of the tracks reminded me of CCR but, ignoring that it’s a pretty enjoyable collection.

Let The Good Times Roll (subtitled, 16 Tracks of the Wildest New Orleans Soul and R’ N’ B – Uncut March 2011)

How the hell did I ignore this one for so long?  All of the tracks on this were recorded between 1947-1960  and include a roll call of the regions finest, Professor Longhair, Dr John, Allen Toussaint, Bobby Charles, Champion Jack Dupree, Heuy ‘Piano’ Smith and Fats Domino included.  I’ll probably add it to the iPod.

Tom Waits Jukebox (Uncut December 2011 edition)

A pretty good introduction to what I would imagine would be the great man’s influences including Captain Beefheart, Jack Kerouac, Harry Partch, Howlin’ Wolf, etc.

This Is Radio Strummer (subtitled 15 Brilliant Tracks from Joe’s World Service Radio Show – Uncut October 2010)

Here’s proof that some things can stay in my crate for a long time.  I love discs like this one where the compiler gets the opportunity to juxtapose a wild variety of tracks.  How else to justify a collection where the likes of Jimmy Reed, Kitty Wells, World Music acts like Amado & Mariam and Underworld appear on the same disc?

By the time this album has ended, its time for me to go home and turn off this station.  I’ll drop by again later in the year.