15 May 2013 (Day 135) - Euro Rock

It’s nearly time for my favourite TV long weekend of the year – the Eurovision Song Contest. 

I’m not entirely sure why I love it.  Yes, it is a relic of post war Europe sensibilities.  Yes, it is often a tacky exhibition of truly horrid music to which I wouldn’t ordinarily listen.  Yes, many of the lyrical concepts are truly hysterical.  Yes, the voting process is a shambles dominated by regional favouritism.  Perhaps it’s a combination of these and many other factors.  Who knows?  Ultimately all I can say is that I find it funny, fascinating and hugely entertaining.

I can take this attitude for a simple reason.  Europe has produced more than its share of great artists who have contributed greatly to the development of the music I love.  So far this year, I’ve already played a sampling of these acts including Neu! And other 70s German experimental bands, Serge Gainsbourg, Slovenia’s Lailbach, the Irish U2, Sigur Ros from Iceland, Soulwax from Belgium and Norwegian lunatics Turbonegro.   As such I know that Eurovision is not a showcase for the kind of acts I’d be interested in hearing. 

It’s a knowledge that has developed slowly over the years going all the way back to the start of the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), fittingly the network that has always shown the contest.  30 years ago, they put to air a regular music program called Rock Around The World which almost exclusively showcased the best rock from around the continent and, I think, Japan.  Whilst I cannot claim to have become a fan of any particular act because of the program, it did make me realise that great music is to be found anywhere and not just in the UK, USA and home.  It was as great a personal realisation as the discovery that Top 40 radio did not necessarily play the “best” music available.  From that point onwards I never judged an act based on their country of origin.

And so for the next few days I’ll be playing a range of albums by acts from various European countries, starting with:

(# 360) dEUS – Worst Case Scenario (1994)

Belgium is home to a number of eclectic bands including Soulwax/2ManyDjs, Dead Man Ray  and The Evil Superstars.  But ultimately all roads seem to lead back to dEUS, probably the first Belgian act to make an impact outside its borders.  This was their debut album and the opening track Suds & Soda the perfect introduction with its combination of great playing, violins and feedback.  The remainder of the album is a superbly judged collection of fractured songs with vocals and music that recall Tom Waits (on Great American Nude and Divebomb Djingle), Pavement (Jigsaw You) and Camper Van Beethoven (Secret Hell).

(#361) Cato Salso Experience – A Good Tip For A Good Time (2002)

Garage rockers from Norway, the opening track to this album, Listen To Me Daddy O, is a killer note perfect approximation of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion complete with dirty bass and theremin.  Incredibly this is topped by the very next track, the flat out rocker So The Circus Is Back In Town.  Time To Freak Out is aptly named and Move On proved that the opening track was no fluke. A bonus track on my copy of the city, Got Soul If You Want It, is an infectious tune that sounds like an organ based version of The Beatles Day Tripper.

(#362) The Raveonettes – Chain Gang Of Love (2003)

A male/female duo from Denmark, this was their debut album (a mini album preceded it) with each track recorded in the key of B flat minor.  The net effect is an enjoyable set of concise songs that don’t sound all that dissimilar to The Jesus And Mary Chain albeit, for the most part, without the fuzzed up guitars.  Let’s Rave On and The Truth About  Johnny epitomise this approach and on The Love Gang they leave the fuzz in to great effect.

(#363) The Hives – Barely Legal (1997)

This was the debut album for these great Swedish rockers, one of the most dependable live acts going round.  It’s short (only 27 minutes long) but full of exciting short, sharp shocks to the system.   In an album without let up, a.k.a. I-D-I-O-T and, especially, Here We Go Again stand out and Automatic  Schmuck and Closed For The Season are not that far behind.

14 May 2013 (Day 134) – Recent Purchase Update

Like yesterday, today doesn’t afford much time for listening other than two recent albums by some of my favourite acts.

(# 358) Patti Smith - Banga (2012)

I know that so many people idolise Patti’s early albums such as Horses and Easter.  I do too but also maintain that the albums she has released since her comeback, especially Gone Again and Gung Ho, are just as strong.  Banga might very well prove to be the best of any album save for Horses.  It is an immaculately produced and sounding album; her voice in particular has never sounded better and the rough edges smoothed to no detrimental effect.  Amerigo is an intriguing opener which gives way to the wonderful April Fool.  The next two tracks are laments for the victims for the Japanese tsumanui (Fuji-San) and Amy Winehouse (This Is The Girl) and the remainder ploughs familiar themes.  I’m not sure everything works (especially the 10 minute Constantine’s Dream, which appears to lack something I just can’t just seem to put my finger on) and it ends on an odd note with a cover of Neil Young’s After The Gold Rush dominated by the voices of her children.  But these do not detract from what is a major work.

(# 359) Boris – New Album (2011)

Boris is a Japanese three piece that usually plays a loud, brutal and uncompromising form of droney rock that resulted in their being signed up by US label Southern Lord, the home of supreme noise merchants Sun O))).  This might be the closest thing the band will ever release to a commercial album.  That is, of course, depends on your definition of commercial as on this album, the band appears to put away most of their own inspiration in favour of tracks that seemingly borrow from other acts.  These include Dinosaur Jr (the seeming inspiration for opening track Flare), Smashing Pumpkins (Luna) and a sped up Depeche Mode (Jackson Head).  Pardon? vaguely hints at Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain.

At home, and with very little on offer on TV, I opt for another DVD, this time going with:

(Audio Visual 9) Drive-By Truckers – The Dirty South Tour. Live At The 40 Watt (2005)

This is a fairly straight forward rendering of the first two shows that started their Dirt South Tour on 27 & 28 August 2004.  One of the attractions of the DVD is that it allows me to look inside one of America’s mythical band rooms, The 40 Watt Club in Athens, Georgia, a venue often associated with the early years of R.E.M. (Once again, all the DVD reveals is just how similar are most of these venues.)  Naturally a fair chunk of the then new album is played.  Indeed, the first five tracks from that album are the first five tracks on this.  Given the band’s reputation as a fearsome live act, it comes as little surprise to find that the power behind these performances renders the studio album irrelevant.  The only drawbacks to the DVD are the insertion of talking pieces to band members between a number of tracks which disrupts the natural flow.  In addition, the encore portion is separate from the main set and even the Play All feature doesn’t link them together. 

13 May 2013 (Day 133) – Acquired Musical Tastes

I’m always on the lookout for new musical experiences.  By that, I don’t necessarily mean that I want to hear the latest rock, punk or blues sensation.  Given a choice, I tend to choose something different as you can never tell where this will eventually lead you.  Sure, sometimes you find yourself at a deal end, but this is infinitely better to just hearing increasing quantities of the same type of material.  This, I fear, results in stagnation and eventually, irrelevancy. 

It’s also lead me over the years to never dismiss something completely out of hand on first listen.  From what I’ve learnt, you sometimes hear material a long time before you’ve acquired the knowledge, framework, context, call it what you like, necessary to appreciate it.  There are acts and musical styles in my collection that I positively used to hate but quite like now.  I’ve also realised that there is something great to be found in the catalogues of every artist and genre, if you’re prepared to dig for it.  Whether you’re prepared to spend a considerable amount of time, effort and money delving through such things as, in my instance - 70s disco, boy bands or today’s auto tune acts - though, is a completely different issue.

And then there is the acquired musical taste.  To my ears, this is something that presents a potential challenge because you’ve obtained or chosen to listen to something with the very real possibility that you’ll hate it. Then having listened and not completely dismissed it, you’re left with a dilemma.  Should I pay it again?  Buy/listen to more of the same in the hope I’ll like it?  My attempts at reconciling that can take years and so, for me, the key is never to sell, donate or delete the music.  You’ll just never know when you’ve acquired that taste.

(# 356) Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – The King Of Sufi Qawwali (compilation 2006)

My first exposure to Khan was when he appeared on Peter Gabriel’s soundtrack to The Last Temptation Of Christ and later on when he performed two tracks with Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder on the Dead Man Walking soundtrack.  On both of these collaborations Khan, or more appropriate his expressive voice, was used to provide an Eastern flavour to Western musical constructs.  Listening to him in his original context – Qawwali Sufi - is an entirely different affair.  From what I can make out, this is music associated with Islam and is played mostly on harmoniums. Lyrics to all the tracks are translated into English in the accompanying booklet relate to recognisable to anyone such as love and faith and do not appear to be associated with any extremist teachings.  This two disc compilation is said to represent some of his very best live and studio recordings, but I’m in no position to judge the quality of the material against other acts in the genre.  To me it is the juxtaposition of his voice against the instruments that creates an droning quality that is quite effective, although I’d doubt whether I’d need to buy any more of his releases.

(# 357) Stanley Clarke – School Days (1976)

Jazz rock fusion.  Now there’s a phrase that strikes fear into the heart of many a listener.  On the surface you’d think that these two genres would “fuse” quite well.  After all, a lot of the best rock is improvised on the spot either live or in the studio just like jazz.  And yet, for so many, the equation jazz + rock = wankery.   This is the album that marks the border consisting of 6 fairly disciplined tracks, Clarke eschewing most opportunities to turn his electric bass into the main soloing tool. (If anything, the album is dominated by the keyboards of David Sancious, Roy Bittan’s predecessor in Springsteen’s E Street Band.)  The first half of the album – the title track, Quiet Afternoon and The Dancer – is pretty effective being more rock than jazz with the emphasis reversed for the remainder.  Whether it inspires me to get more music in the same vein is debatable bit it’s definitely worth the odd listen.

11/12 May 2013 (Days 131 & 132) – My Dilemma That Is U2

The weekend afforded a chance to recharge, catch up on a few DVDs, muse on why John Cusack chose to appear in something as unintentionally funny as the end of the world disaster movie, 2012 and attend the footy.  For the most part my pre game optimism was well placed.  The Dogs really took it up to North for most of the match before falling away badly in the last quarter – effects of the travel to and from Perth? -  before losing by an undeserved 50 points. 

(The PA at Etihad Stadium was hard to pick up on Saturday which made identifying tracks difficult and, during breaks, impossible.  The pre game tracks I heard were:

1.       Coldplay – Speed Of Sound
2.       Bruno Mars – Brand New Day
3.       The Black Keys – Lonely Boy)

Sunday was probably the last of the warm weekend days we can expect before Winter sets in and but are ability to hit the Botanical Gardens was hit by a charity fun run/walk around it that made parking anywhere near it impossible.  Then it was back home for more DVD’s.

One of these was music related and it caused me to muse about one of the great mysteries of my music life.  I have every U2 album, most of their concert DVDs and seen them on four different tours of Australia…….and yet, I cannot definitely say that I love the band.  I haven’t felt the need to buy their collector’s editions of their albums, have never been in rush to get concert tickets (except for their very first tour way back in 1984) and I’ve bought the concert DVDs usually years after their release.  The only exception to the latter has been the DVD of their most recent 360⁰ Tour only to be disappointed by the band’s performance.

But U2 are a band that I respect and value highly.  They have been responsible for a few classic albums (most definitely in my book, The Unforgettable Fire, The Joshua Tree and All That You Can Leave Behind), back up their beliefs with a commitment to genuine action and have always been passionate, charismatic performers live.  And that’s before you factor in the elaborate staging of just about every one of their tours from ZooTV onwards which is more than worth the price admission alone.   

Not only that, but they have accomplished this with what might be termed modest ingredients.  The only truly elite band member in their number is Bono, unquestionably one of the great front men rock has ever produced.  The Edge is a reasonable guitarist who, I suspect, has never really flexed the true extent of his abilities on record and the rhythm section is solid but called upon to do little more.  In other words, U2 is a classic case of a band that is greater than the sum of its constituent parts.   

So How to explain this? I suspect it goes back to their catalogue.  Only three classic albums (and my view about All That You Can Leave Behind does change from time to time) isn’t a great return.  Although their debut Boy was extremely promising, Zoopropa a solid, experimental effort and War just short of classic status, but there have been a number of less than impressive albums.  October was less than adequate, although I know there are reasons explaining this.  The “I love the USA” songs on Rattle And Hum seriously disrupted the flow of that album, Pop was an intriguing though ambitious failure and, however, much I play them, can barely remember more than a couple of tracks from each of the last two albums.  Plus, I’ve never been that much of a fan of the great reinvention album Actung Baby.   Although it has a number of great tracks (especially Zoo Station and The Fly), I’ve never felt that it represented as great a change in direction as has been claimed.  Mysterious Ways, One and Even Better Than The Real Thing, for example, all strike me as “traditional” U2 numbers  - in construction not all that differenet to those that were to appear on Behind - simply dressed up in different clothes.  Zooropa is much more of an experimental album than its predecessor but never seems to have been promoted or hailed as such. 

Having said all of that, I was tremendously impressed by recent 360⁰ Tour performance I saw at Etihad Stadium a couple of years back.  The amount of passion the band put into their performance was really impressive and this one factor alone more than justifies their continued existence.  It was also something I also spotted on my only viewing over the weekend:

(Audio Visual 8) U2 – Go Home Live From Slane Castle Ireland (2001/released 2003)

Off the top of my head, I can’t think of too many live performance DVDs where the act performs in or near their home base. This is an exception, taken from the tour supporting All That You Can’t Leave Behind.   The setting is an impressive one with about 80,000 fans neatly set out in what appears to be a natural amphitheatre at the base of the castle.   The set list is pretty close to a U2 Greatest Hits and the energy never flags from the natural feeling opening of Elevation and Beautiful Day.  A combination of New Year’s Day, Boy’s Out Of Control and Sunday Bloody Sunday, maintains the momentum only for a lame version of Angel Of Angel to eventually interrupt the natural flow of proceedings. The run home and encores – Where The Streets Have No Name, Pride, Bullet The Blue Sky, With Or Without You, One and Walk On is flawless.   Most importantly, by performing on a bare bones stage without the extravagant stage set that was the norm for tours before and since, U2 convincingly demonstrates that it is their music that is responsible for the large crowds that continue to flock to their shows,

By the time the DVD has ended, I experience the same sort of sensation as I did after the Etihad Stadium gig.  It’s a sense of wonder mixed by a reminder of the number of great individual songs the band can rely on over the course of a long uninterrupted career.

Who knows, maybe its love after all.

10 May 2013 (Day 130) – Light And Shade

Another day at work but my listening today has no real discernible theme.  Initially it looked as though I would be concentrating on mostly instrumental works but this progressively broke down as the day progressed.  Ultimately, I realised that my listening invoked images of varying shades of light ranging from bright sunny days in the Caribbean Sea to the blackest of imagined horrors. 

I’m reasonably sure none of this reflected my day or my mood today.  It wasn’t as thought I had a mixture of good news and bad news, praise and criticism, happiness and sadness or even love and hate.  I’m looking forward to a full weekend, a relaxing evening with “M” tonight and a nice autumn day in the Botanical Gardens on Sunday. Hell, I’m even reasonably optimistic the Dogs will do well in their match against North Melbourne tomorrow.

So how do I explain this schizophrenic selection? I don’t know but it sure made for an interesting day.

(# 351) Fantomas – The Director’s Cut (2001)

Colour spectrum = blacker than black.

The Fantomas is an alternative supergroup (members include Melvins’ guitarist Buzz Osborne and former Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo) and another of Faith No More’s Mike Patton’s projects.  This album contains covers of movie (mostly horror flicks or thrillers) or television drama themes rendered, for the most part, in a loud, heavy and aggressive manner.  The template is set by the opening track, an awesome version of The Godfather theme which ultimately disappears into a squall of what can only be described as country flavoured thrash.  How much you enjoy the rest of the album might very well depend upon how well you know the source material but for me, the highlights come from positively evil interpretations of the themes for Cape Fear (the original movie), Rosmary’s Baby and, most of all, The Omen.  Charade ends the album on a distinctly unusual note.

(# 352) Augustus Pablo – King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown (1976)

Colour spectrum = the sunniest of sunny summer days.

This is one of the most celebrated dub albums ever released and with good reason. A cast of celebrated players – Bob Marley’s rhythm section of the Barrett Brothers, guitarist Earl Smith and renowned bass player Robbie Shakespeare – joined Pablo to produce an album of instrumentals featuring his distinctive melodica (This is a keyboard that is played whilst blown into like a woodwind instrument.) all wrapped up in some inspired King Tubby dubs.  The title track, Each One Dub and Satta Dub stand out in an otherwise very consistent album.

(# 353) Massive Attack – Mezzanine (1998)

Colour spectrum = dark grey, fading to black.

This is one awesome album of electronica/trip hop/call it what you want.  Set against a backdrop of crackles and other found sounds, this is an album of barely supressed menace.  On this album’s centrepiece and best track, Dissolved Girl, that menace explodes in short and highly effective bursts that it barely comes across as a release.  Tension is everywhere, with Teardrop, Inertia Creeps and Man Next Door all standing out.  It is unquestionably Massive Attack’s finest album and how its predecessor Protection still gets the majority of plaudits is simply mystifying.

(# 354) Rowland S Howard – Pop Crimes (2009)

Colour spectrum = mourning black.

Unfortunately his final album due to his untimely death due to a liver disease, this is very much in the same vein as his previous album of ten years previously, Teenage Snuff Film  His buzz saw guitars and gruff voice are to the fore in a batch of mostly dark songs.  In an album of only seven tracks, the title track and Ave Maria stand out.  The opener, (I Know) A Girl Called Johnny, a duet with Jonnie Standish provides some light.

(# 355 ) Belle & Sebastian – Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003)

Colour spectrum = a bright white indoor light.

Just the notion that, of all producers, Trevor “Buggles” Horn can take these Scottish folkies and create such a rich, warm, and engaging sound is enough to make me smile all the way home.  Some killer tunes such as the title track, Asleep On A Sunbeam and If You Find Yourself Caught In Love help too.

9 May 2013 (Day 129) – Old(ish) And New(ish) Albums To Blow Your Mind

It’s often said that to truly appreciate psychedelic rock you need to take some form of hallucinogenics.  I’ve never felt the need.  I find that listening to and identifying the swirling or fractured melodies, sudden tempo changes,  sound effects, tape loops, drones, jams and disjointed lyrics is quite a stimulating experience in its own right.  It’s even better when these elements are brought together to form actual songs with discernible beginnings and ends.  I suspect this might be a major reason why so many music fans rate The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s as one of the greatest albums of all time although personally I don’t agree.

To my mind psychedelic music is all that much better if the acts that produced the music in a studio can convincingly reproduce it in a live environment. Even better still is when the act actually improves on the original recordings live.  I’m sure that’s why, for example, the Deadheads followed The Grateful Dead for all those years and why the Syd Barrett Pink Floyd was so revered.   It certainly explains to me why I think two of the all time best gigs I’ve ever experienced were the Primal Scream shows on their Xtrmntr and the original Screamadelica tours.    

Anyway, psychedelica is what binds together today’s listening matter.  On a work day that I really needed to feel inspired and break on through my thought processes on a couple of issues that demanded my attention, these albums really did the trick.

(# 347) The Flaming Lips – Transmissions From The Satellite Heart (1993)

This was the album that turned The Flaming Lips into stars for a short while, thanks mainly to the most unlikely hit She Don’t Use Jelly.  It was also the first of their albums that I had heard but I didn’t even get to that track before I became a fan.  Opening track, Turn It On, starts with the sound of radio dial being moved and is a catchy track before seguing into the lyrically weird Pilot Can At The Queer Of God and its irresistibly catchy “She likes Helli-copters/I think she does” refrain.  The aforementioned single, Be My Head and Superhumans are equally catchy but the band still kept room for inspired lunacy that is Moth In The Incubator and album closer, Slow Nerve Action.

(# 348) Mercury Rev - Yerself Is Steam (1991)

Transmissions From The Satellite Heart was the first album the Flaming Lips made after the departure of guitarist Jonathan Donahue to form Mercury Rev and the release of this debut album.  The opening cuts here, Chasing A Bee and Syringe Mouth sound like they’ve come straight off a Lips album but it wasn’t long before Donahue found his stride and sound.  With Frittering he created a 9 minute epic, a stately island of sanity still played frequently in their live shows today and which also anticipated the future masterpiece that was Deserters Songs.  My copy of the CD also contains the classic Car Wash Hair as a hidden track.

(# 349) MGMT – Congratulations (2010)

With all of the catchy, singalong numbers such as Kids that littered their debut album Oracular Spectacular and received mass airplay on JJJ here, I thought that MGMT were destined to be one of those acts that would flame out quickly.  Indeed, the first few tracks of this follow up being more of the same suggested that this might happen.  Then something quite miraculous happens as the record makes a massive turn to the experimental that is truly inspiring.  The 12 minute Siberian Breaks, Brian Eno, Lady Dada’s Nightmare and the closing title tracks are the sort of things that give experimental guitar driven music a good word.  If only even band could challenge their audience like this.

(# 350) Tame Impala – Innerspeaker (2010)

For reasons that are beyond me, their most recent album Lonerism is being feted all over the world.  Don’t get me wrong, it is a fine album, but the real mystery is why so many missed this.  This is arguably the finest album released by an Australian act since The Avalanches Since I Met You.  To these ears, Kevin Parker has created an album of simmering beauty that recalls the blissed out sounds of classic 60s psychedelica but utilising the benefit of modern recording techniques. (It’s a revelation on headphones.) Just about every track sounds like a potential hit with It Is Not Meant To Be, Solitude Is Bliss and especially Why Won’t You Make Up Your Mind standing out. 

8 April 2013 (Day 128) – Recent Purchase Update

It was just another day at work.  There is nothing much of interest to report from work and a quiet night at home with “M”.

As such, it was a perfect day and night to get through a few recent purchases from the last couple of weeks, starting with:

(# 344) Aphex Twin – Come To Daddy (1999)

This is a 32 minute release that brings together two 4 track EPs that were originally released to promote the Come To Daddy single.  There are three versions of the track on the disc, the first being a harsh industrial version.  However, for the most part this, I suppose, mini album is dominated by gorgeous electronic melodies complete with vocals.  This is not something you normally associate with an Aphex Twin release and is something I hope Richard D James would attempt more often.

(# 345) Danzig II –Lucifuge (1990)

On paper this shouldn’t work.  After all Glen Danzig doesn’t have the strongest voice in the world – he sounds here like an out of tune Ian Astbury – for the traditional metal fare offered early on.  Yet somehow, Rick Rubin’s production turns this into a disciplined and tuneful modern metal album complete with some surprises.  I’m The One appears to channel Elvis Presley’s Sun Sessions, slide guitar is included on 777 and the final track, Pain In The World, ends with what can only be described as something approaching AC/DC’s patented boogie.

(# 346) Destroy All Monsters – Silver Wedding Anniversary (1996)

I bought this hoping that this version of the band would contain the then former Stooge Ron Asheton on guitar but alas it was not to be.  This is a live recording from their 25^th Anniversary Runion Tour in 1995, hence the title.  After the introductory organ version of Roy Orbison’s In Dreams, I was expecting an album of fired up Detroit rock much in the same vein of Dark Carnival where lead singer Niagra had teamed up with Asheton.  Instead, the music was very much in British post punk mode being sonic landscapes with random words and sound effects and vocals on only a handful of tracks.  One of these is a version of Killing Me Softly but otherwise most of the tracks very much blend into each other.  It’s not what I expected but its an interesting listen nonetheless.

(# 347) Sonic’s Rendezvous Band – The Second Chance (recorded 1977; released 2008)

Sonic is Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith, guitarist with the MC5 and the late husband of Patti Smith.  This was the band he formed after the demise of the 5 but they never got round to recording a studio album.  A number of live albums of different performances have been released over the last 10 years or so and this is the second one that I’ve bought.  It is a double CD that sounds like an audience recording of a show in Ann Arbour, Michigan, in February 1977.  On the earlier tracks, the band sounds like it is in second gear when compared to the other CD I have, Sweet Nothing, recorded at the same venue 14 months later.  Towards the end of the first disc, they attempt a pretty good version of Dylan’s Like A Rolling Stone and this seems to open the floodgate.  It’s followed by a blistering version of Do It Again (a song covered by our very own Celibate Rifles) and a rousing Hearts.  Disc 2 starts with You Gotta Suceed (If You Really Try), a rocking number modelled on The Stones Little Queenie and after this, the band doesn’t look back.  Sweet Nothing still gets my vote due to its clearer sound but this would be a corker too if the earlier tracks were discarded.