Jun 192009
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Featuring Ray Manzarek on keys. For reals.
What’s on your list, baby? C’mowww!
Feb 232007
There’s something in the way that you’re talking.
7 Responses to “All-Star Jam”
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Nick Drake? Really? I know this is probably blasphemous in this neck of the woods, but I gotta say that Elliot Smith, to my ears, is a disciple that outdoes Messiah Nick Drake. Go ahead and let me have it… everybody must get stoned.
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Great clip! Hm. I can’t say that anyone outdoes Nick Drake, even Elliot – but Elliot does his own thing and I love his material/songs. Even closer than Elliot Smith to Nick Drake is Glasgow’s Alexi Murdoch (http://www.myspace.com/aleximurdoch) who recently played at North Star to a sold out crowd. Now that similarity, is quite insane, live he’s amazing as well.
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Can anyone recommend a good Status Quo album to start with?
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How long into the ’70s did Nick Drake live and record? It’s funny, I think of him more of a late-60s singer-songwriter.
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How long into the ’70s did Nick Drake live and record? It’s funny, I think of him more of a late-60s singer-songwriter.
According to Wikipedia his first record came out in 69 and he died in 74. I’m one of those who voted for him in the poll over there…
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Ms. Cinnamon: it totally depends on what flava of SQ you seek. If you’re looking for the real early psych/pop stuff, there’s a cheap and all-too-inclusive CD set of their Pye material (think “Pictures Of Matchstick Men” and suchlike). If you’re an aficionado of their 70s-00s mindless boogie, that LP with the hot plate on the cover is supposed to encapsulate that vibe as well as anything else.
I’d be happy to play deejay and burn you a CD with the best of the Pye comp if you want. E-mail me offlist if that interests you.
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I did not know that… (re: Nick Drake) Thanks.
The new Elvis Costello is really good. I can hardly call it “country” or “bluegrass” as some have labeled it, but I can call it an acoustic Americana record. It’s very much in the vein of Dylan’s recent material. All this recent talk about accents got me to thinking about my biggest problem with E.C.’s Almost Blue: He just doesn’t sound country to me. But this record works for me based on the strong material. In addition to the autentic T Bone Burnett production, the songs themselves are good. Maybe I’m just a sucker for this kind of stuff, but I think Elvis’s stint opening for Bob Dylan did the boy some good.
Oh, and I want a Rickenbacker bass…
TB
Missing on the current poll is “pissing in the sink” or “pissing in the trashcan” both of which I’ve done many times when the line is of a kidney-threatening length. I can’t be the only one?
I like that Elvis Costello record, too. Other things I’m spinning: the new Iggy Pop, Preliminaires, which essentially put aside his increasingly age-inappropriate badass punk schtick and recasts him as a gallic crooner; and Yours Truly, the Commuter, the new solo disc by Jason Lytle of Grandaddy.
Oh, and here’s some sad news concerning Bob Bogle of Ventures fame:
http://www.comcast.net/articles/music/20090616/Obit.Bogle/
TB
This Weird Al sendup sounds almost like Zappa.
Saturn, have you heard Al’s “Genius In France”? It’s oneof his “style parodies” amd he nails it.
My 11-year-old daughter is old enough that she is really appraciating (and digging) some Weird Al. what’s funny is that she appreciates his stuff as funny songs as opposed to whatever it is he is parodying. In other words, she has no point of reference. Weird Al had transcended the songs he makes fun of.
TB
latelydavid: POODLE! POODLE!
I’ve been digging on Inspiration Information 3, the collaboration between the Heliocentrics and Mulatu Astatke, the guy whose music was featured in the Jim Jarmusch film Broken Flowers and who was the star of Ethiopiques vol 4 (Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale, 1969-1974):
http://www.inspiration-information-3.com/
Groovy.
Sammy, pissing in the sink would have been a runaway winner. I was trying to structure a tighter battle in the poll. This is really a poll that needs the old write-in vote option. Maybe folks will share their “other” experiences here.
I’m a little confused here. I thought it was universally understood that Costello’s creative juices stopped flowing after Imperial Beroom was in the can. The best thing Costello’s done since that LP has been his interview show, which could be improved if he opted not to perform.
I found Costello’s episode with the Police especially entertaining and actually felt bad for Costello, who handled himself like a gentlemen, asking questions about Sting’s songwriting technique, especially when he clearly believes that Sting is inferior in that area.
Costello’s James Taylor interview reaffirmed the fact that Taylor is the world’s most boring human being.
Your friend,
E. Pluribus
I’m not even sure “Imperial Bedroom” should be included in the Costello keepers pile. Every year, that album gets more and more irritating to me. Mind you, it’s Bruce Thomas’ shining moment, and that counts for something.
Maybe it’s just because I’m a young ‘un ’round these parts, but I wasn’t able to discover E.C. when he was an angry young man, so most of *great* material was available to me through history. I wasn’t able to witness his first great failure, so all I’ve got is a wealth of varied recording with varyinng degrees of success.
Maybe the man has floundered through the past 20 or so years, but I know what records I enjoy by him and some of those came after Imperial Bedroom. I like Blood and Chocolate. I enjoy King of America. I think Brutal Youth is okay. I listen to The Delivery Man quite a bit. I even liked Momofuku. And I’ve listened to this newest disc a few times and I can already tell that it will get multiple plays.
I adore everything from My Aim Is True through Get Happy. Those are as solid a run you can get. Some (perhaps many of you) might say that run goes longer through Trust or Imperial Bedroom. I feel like Almost Blue was his first misstep, although I think it could have been a much worse record. I think I know how most of you feel about Mighty Like A Turd. I just don’t see how any major talent can have a lengthy career and NOT have some bumbles and falls.
Time will only tell how this latest will fall, but I get the sense that E.C. has rediscovered something in his writing and perhaps this will begin a new level to his career. I don’t know if I can say that The Delivery Man is a strong as Armed Forces. Maybe not. I’ll have to get back to you on that. What I do know is that it’s statement from a different person that recorded that album so many moons ago. And I think there is a quality to the writing and performance to these newer recordings that will help them hold up.
I’ll be the first one to call him out when he makes a bad record, but I just can’t call this newest one “bad”. Maybe I’ve got cotton in my ears.
TB
That Astatke/Heliocentrics album is fantastic, easily one of my favorite albums from this year.
I’m taking your suggestions on this Astatke/Heliocentrics album as we speak. It’s in the process of downloading from eMusic. I’ll report back in the coming week.
Hey, Gergley — I listened to that Kenny Loggins LP you recommended. Still not sure what you see in the guy. “Hooks,” yes; “pop songcraft,” I suppose; but in general… huh?
Here’s a WTF kind of video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtV3lx4eT5w
I’ve been digging this UK music website The Quietus lately. Here’s their reconsideration of the works of Paul McCartney and Wings
http://thequietus.com/articles/01922-paul-mccartney-the-beatles-wings-the-best-of
I disagree with a lot of the conclusions drawn (except that “Back Seat of My Car” is amazing and that McCartney is far weirder than he is ever credited to be), but I’ve been predicting this era of reconsideration for years, Oats.
I am musically vindicated once more!
I was most disappointed in their dismissal of the bulk of Back to the Egg. The Rockestra was a most excellent example of Ridiculous Rock.
I have long wanted to couple a cover of the Rockestra Theme with the long-promised RTH get-togerher, Mk II. Would that not totally kick mo-fo ass? Sure it would!
I’ve always felt that the best Macca solo material was just about as good as it ever gets. It’s just when he’s bad, he seems to be really bad. Perhaps the expectations that he set was too high. I think George’s solo output is mostly good and underrated, but his best stuff doesn’t match Sir Paul’s. He just stays entrenched in the middle of the road. Aside from the glorious unleashing of that backlog, George Harrison released a string of decent albums. Paul just knocked back and forth between horrible and brilliant. John laid many a turd, too, but John’s turds are at least interesting to me.
TB
The curiouser and curiouser case of Styx.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/24/styx-crash-white-house
Tommy Shaw being allowed to freely wander around the halls of the White House is exactly the kind of thing that will lead to the dystopic future that Kilroy Was Here tried to warn us about.
I do like that the article makes it sound like Styx has a liberal Canadian keyboard player and what may be a fiercely conservative American drummer these days. That’s Tommy Shaw for you, always trying to achieve perfect balance in Styx.
Are you guys fucking CRAZY?! The results of the RTH Big Choice Poll are wrong, wrong, WRONG. What, just because a song (and a mediocre one at that) has the words “Warmth Of the Sun” in the title, that makes it a “summer-y” tune? Pshaw! “Good Vibrations” is the clear WINNER here, if for no other reason than the fact it was the theme song for those awesome, beach-location Sunkist orange soda commercials in the 70s. Those ads were econd only in pure bikini-clad goodness to the eye-popping Juicyfruit ads of my college years.
Sheesh!