Get This Album!

The best compliment I can give Big Boi's Sir Lucious Left Foot is that it totally holds it's own even in the long shadow of the Outkast discography, and even in the complete absence of Andre 3000. (Although a couple of songs featuring Andre have leaked separately from the album, and are also very awesome.

As an added bonus, listen through to the end of this great new song, and be treated to a description of the most avant garde sex move since Soulja Boy introduced us to the superman.

Summer Jam Time = Phish Time

It's summer, and the #1 band of that portion in my life when I saw most of you folk on a daily basis is doing their thing. That's right - let's talk Phish.

Because of the changes in mobile technology during their absence, the new Phish is a whole lot more accessible than ever before. Gone are the days of waiting for tapes - I know have pretty much all of the summer tour. And while I often am against this kind of relentless hoarding, which I think leads to collecting music, not listening to it, I have to say that I am indeed listening to an awful lot of Phish.

I won't get too into details, except to say that they are absolutely, 100% back, and sounding as good as they ever had. Some highlights for you:

An absolute destruction of Zep's "The Rover" that makes me wonder why they never covered this before:


Bizarrely, a cover of "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea." Weird, and didn't do a ton for me, but thought it might be of interest:


"2001" played on the anniversary of Michael Jackson's death, and man is it a blast (I sacrificed video quality for sound quality on this one):

Hip Hop Hooray!

It's summer! And I finally have enough free time to be excited about new music again!

If you didn't already know, it's shaping up to be an great summer for hip hop:

To start with, The Roots just released a new album. I've only had a chance to listen to it a few times so far, but I definitely like it a lot. Maybe not as much as their last couple of albums...but then again, those two albums were both major growers, so I suspect that the true greatness of this new one may only gradually reveal itself.

Also, these guys are probably the only compelling reason to go see a Jimmy Fallon taping. They're really incredible in their role as house band, and when I went we were also treated to a pre-show performance of "The Seed 2.0".

And, Big Boi's new album is apparently actually for-reals coming out in a couple of weeks!! This may be the only album in a long time I'd describe myself as "eagerly anticipating", and there's every reason to hope that it's going to be very, very good.

Big Boi may just prove himself to be the underestimated Jeff Tweedy of the Outkast songwriting team.

I also have to say that from what I've heard of his stuff, that Drake kid actually appears to be pretty good. He's been mentored by Lil Wayne, raps about himself with the like-ability of Kanye West circa 2004, and is as Canadian as Neil Young! I haven't actually purchased any of his music...something about him makes me feel old. Maybe it's the fact that I've more than once had Drake lyrics shouted at me by defiant middle schoolers in Harlem, as if to say to me "this artist raps how I feel, and you couldn't understand, old man". But whether I actually end up trying to get into his album or not, you can't deny his talent. (Also, one could make an argument that Drake is greatly helping Kanye's 808's and Heartbreak production aesthetic seep further into the mainstream...which could be good or bad depending on your perspective.)

Hell, even Eminem appears to have released a solid new album! Now all we need is for Lil Wayne to give up on his dream of being a cross-over rock sensation. (Lupe Fiasco recently fared slightly better than Wayne, turning in a rap/rock song that's only mediocre. Maybe if Lupe were able to wed a radio-rock hook to his usual lyrical complexity, he could put something together that wasn't even half bad, but probably the New Moon soundtrack isn't the place to expect him to pull that off.)

Finally, on two not-entirely-related notes:

If you haven't seen it yet, check out this highly readable evisceration of M.I.A. by the New York Times.

Also, let me be the first to say on this blog: despite how much I'd like to resist this idea, Lady Gaga is addictively entertaining.

Who is this actor...

...and when is somebody going to give him his own TV show for real??


Semi-Literate Former Gold Prospector Given Own Cable News Show

More Joni

Well I have to say I was thrilled when Quinapalus shared his newfound Joni Mitchell appreciation with me. As I said in my comment to his post, she is truly among select company at the top of my all-time list. While Court and Spark is my favorite, I do want to share two others from later records:

First is "Coyote," off Hejira. This song is pretty famous; Jaco Pastorious's bass playing is legendary. It also just conjures up a beautiful "western" image for me. Montana or Wyoming or (more likely) Alberta.

The second is "Don't Interrupt the Sorrow" from The Hissing of Summer Lawns.

What's interesting for me about Joni Mitchell is that while she's forever singing about either California or Canada (and occasionally Detroit), I truly got into her while living in Boston. And almost all her music puts me back in that city, usually on my bike, out on a weekend ride. This song places me back at a specific intersection in Cambridge, about a half-mile north of Harvard Square. It's got nothing to do with the song, but Joni Mitchell will be indelibly associated with Boston for the rest of my life. (So will Jackson Browne-- ironically another Californian, but the second I hear "Late for the Sky," I'm on a hill in Roxbury.)

My Joni Mitchell Phase

For years I resisted liking Joni Mitchell. I wrote her off as a hippy-dippy, self-absorbed 70s throwback...which she sort of is. But then I started listening to bits of Blue on YouTube and LaLa, not even really liking it at first--I'd even say finding it annoying on some level. But something made me keep wanting to come back for more despite myself. The complex wordplay, the loping unexpected melodies, the moody piano songs like "River" and "The Last Time I Saw Richard" that suddenly seemed to explain the basis of Tori Amos' whole career... before I knew it I had bought a copy and was listening to it obsessively.

Then I went to LA for week--which somehow put her music in an even better context for me, and where Drischord recommended a few of her jazz-influenced 70s albums. And now I'm all tangled up in 1974's Court and Spark, which I'm listening to about twice a day, and there seems to be no turning back. Count me a full-on fan, despite my years of resistance. There's even something in her mid-70s work that starts to remind me of Townes Van Zandt...but I think I could (and may) save that for another post.

Rest In Peace, Alex Chilton

Oh man, this is another bad one. Alex Chilton dies at age 59.

There's almost no music in the world that I love more than the first 2 Big Star albums. You almost couldn't dream of a better fusion of the Beatles and the Stones. And even though Alex Chilton hadn't written a particularly great song in about 30 years, it still feels like he died way too young.

I saw Chilton on stage once. He was opening for the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion at Roseland back when I was in high school. (Talk about a headliner unworthy of its opening act.) The audience was largely ignorant of Chilton's music and talked through much of it. And as a solo performer, he wasn't particularly compelling on stage. But it was still pretty cool to be in the presence of a giant. (At least by my estimation, he was one.)

To quote Paul Westerberg: "I never travel very far/ Without a little Big Star."

My Chick Bad

Ludacris continues to be (in my mind, anyway) something roughly analogous to the Aerosmith of his generation. He doesn't take himself too seriously, he's obsessed with sex and partying, and he can write a really solid pop song.

Jaydiohead

Well, what the heck, here's yet another rap/rock mashup. There's actually something about mashing up "99 Problems" with Radiohead's "National Anthem" that really works.

It's coming...

I hope that at least Via Chicago is as pumped as I am. Despite the disappointments of last season, I'm always ready for more.

PS22 Strikes Again!

Doing Collective favorites, Phoenix!

Pavement's "Kennel District"

Been listening to a lot of Pavement lately in anticipation of seeing them at Pitchfork this year (anyone else seeing the Pavement reunion train?) and discovered this previously overlooked gem:

"Kennel District" from Wowee Zowee


I've always found Wowee Zowee to be the unfairly overlooked album in Pavement's catalog. Something about it's bizarre song fragments really appeals to me for the same reason I have an irrational love for Todd Rundgren's A Wizard A True Star album. And it's highs (Rattled by the Rush and Grounded primarily) are just so, so good. But somehow I've overlooked this song in the past, and I am the worse for it.

I love the combination of My Bloody Valentine-esque guitar with (dare I say) almost Wilco-style poppiness. It sounds very un-Pavement to me, but is just fantastic, and helpd remind me why this band still holds up, and why I can not wait to see them.

She needs cash, to buy asprin for her pain

On a friend's recommendation, I went back and listened to this song off of Live's 1994 smash hit Throwing Copper. The album as a whole is pretty ridiculous (even if I did enjoy it in earnest as a 15-year-old) but there's something about this bizarre song that's kind of great. I leave it to you to draw your own conclusions...

Field Music is back!

Field Music is back together after a brief hiatus in which they became The Week That Was and School of Language, both of which at one point Drischord and I were heartily in favor of. The new album is pretty stunning, if a little bit hard to digest, coming in at 20 tracks. Sounds like XTC meets Big Star.

I'm Just Gonna Keep Posting Vic Chesnutt Songs

I'm officially still mourning this man's passing, so I think the best thing I can do right now is keep posting his hauntingly* beautiful music and let it speak for itself.

This is "Supernatural" off his aforementioned Drunk album, which everyone should own.



* apologies for using the adjective/adverb "haunting(ly)" in consecutive posts

Bob Dylan Live at the White House

His range isn't even what it was in 1964, but this arrangement of "The Times They Are A-Changin" sounds like so much of his recent output... haunting.



Just part of a larger White House concert to commemorate music of the civil rights era.

The Mercy Seat

Man, this song is good. I loved it when Johnny Cash sang it, but this version is just one more thing that tells me I need to get into Nick Cave at some point.

The Unsung Insanity of Crispin Glover

Clowny Clown Clown! Oh dear God, I can't believe there's a video on YouTube of this Crispin Glover spoken-word train wreck! I can't express how amazed and delighted I was to come across this after all these years!



It even contains references to Glover's bizarre alter ego Rubin Farr, mentioned without explanation so that you'd have to make an effort to dig deeper into the Glover canon to find out what the heck he was talking about.

I'm tempted to go on for a long time, but really, I think the material speaks for itself.

An Surprising Example of Well-Produced Music

Yesterday I stumbled across a slice of mid-'90s esoteria-- The Crash Test Dummies' random hit "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm." And I had two reactions:

1. The song holds up remarkably well. I actually really like it.

2. It's really well produced. The instruments are wonderfully clear and precise, the stereo mix is excellent, and while it is definitely compressed, there are still dynamics within the track.

Unfortunately I have to upload a compressed .mp3, so it's not going to sound as great in this stream. But check it out. I'm really impressed and would be interested to hear what some of the more discriminating audiophiles in our collective think.



I'd also welcome other examples of great production.

Press Time Update: Right before posting, I went to All Music Guide to see just who the hell produced this anyway. And I guess I wasn't alone in my opinion:

"Thanks to Jerry Harrison's remarkably clear and focused production, Crash Test Dummies' second album became a surprise hit."

Production mentioned in the first line of the review... and it's a "celebrity" producer no less! Yay Talking Heads! (sort of)

Quinapalus Does a Few Year-End Summations

I'm afraid I don't have a top ten list in me this time around. I was kind of on my own pop-cultural planet all year. Here is a quick summary:

Album of the Year:
Nirvana: Live at Reading. This was one of the very few albums released this year that I actually got a copy of, and I've listened to it nearly every day since it came out. Listening to it now gives me a new appreciation of what a fucking tight band they were.

Album from last year I've unexpectedly grown to like:
Bon Iver: For Emma Forever Ago. I resisted liking this for a very long time, but ever since Drischord's post a couple of months back in which he mentioned how much he liked the last song, I've been listening to the album via YouTube quite often, and in the end may even have to get a real copy of it. It has really grown on me.

Concert of the Year:
Wilco, on Coney Island. Quite seriously, my concert of the year, in that I literally don't think I went to a single other concert all year long. And in fact, I didn't get off my ass to buy a ticket even to this one, Tex just had an extra ticket and convinced me to go. Don't get me wrong: it was a GREAT concert, and I can't think of a band I would rather have been the only one I saw all year. But I am officially an old man now, and I just don't get off on loud noises the way I used to.

Semi-retraction of the year:
I'm afraid I went too far in my condemnation of Mos Def's newest album. It's not up to the level of his classic material, but not all of it is abysmal either (even if some of it is abysmal). It's not something I listened to very much in the end, but my initial review was the knee-jerk reaction of a once-devoted fan, who is being much too hard on an artist for not living up to his past glory.

YouTube find of the year:
Perhaps the most brilliant example you'll ever find of a once-devoted fan being extremely hard on an artist for not living up to his past glory. I tuned in to this sprawling dissection of all that is wrong with Star Wars: The Phantom Menace simply out of curiosity, expecting to watch about 2 minutes of it. Before all was said and done, I had not only watched all 70 minutes, but was truly awed by the talent it took to put together such a hilarious and damning essay, and held a new appreciation for just how terrible and disappointing that movie truly was.

Writer I always underestimated before this year:
J.K. Rowling. Those Harry Potter books are actually quite entertaining, especially starting with the third installment. The later books in the series are also pretty marvelously structured, and I could (and maybe someday will) write a whole essay on the unique, very contemporary, tongue-partly-in-cheek way she has chosen to meld together the myths and fantasy stories of the past into her Hogwartsian universe. (I would probably title that essay either "Identity Politics and Demi-Giants" or "Myth and Multiculturalism"). I may have more to say when I finish the series (I've got 1 and a half more books to go) but so far you can color me impressed.

Overall theme for the year:
Getting into material I can't wrap my head far enough around to post about yet. Musically, I've been on another planet this year for some reason, and one of these days I will learn enough about the Baroque period, and jazz fusion, to write competent posts on both topics. For the moment though, I'm still in the phase of just getting my mind blown, and have nothing worth sharing to say about either of those things yet. I've also been trying to learn French, and am getting much much better at reading it (if not speaking, writing, or listening to it), and the richness of the French literary tradition is in some ways only really starting to dawn on me. It's also very freeing to be able to read something, and feel basically OK that there are sentences that I can't make heads or tails of, paragraphs I have to spend an hour on to understand, and subtleties that are beyond a doubt going way over my head. It reminds me of being a kid and discovering British literature for the first time, and having a great time just entering into this vast, unexplored world, without it being necessary to understand it all: the newness and the mystery were part of the allure, and I knew I'd understand more with time.

I think I'd nearly forgotten how much fun it was to run up against something totally new that you couldn't quite wrap your head around. It can be quite rejuvenating!