Tag: music

Record of the Day – 5-12-2020 – Ocean Songs – Dirty Three

Dirty Three might be my favorite post-rock rock band.  I’ve never been 100 percent sure where the category begins and end or when a band is considered an instrumental progressive rock band instead, but when you category includes Mogwai, Tortoise, and Sigur Ros competition to be the best in the small genre is pretty fierce.  Warren Ellis’s violin is so diverse in it’s sound and range you don’t miss the notion of a vocalist.  His composition skills have been on display on display via his scoring of numerous movies (with Nick Cave with whom he is one of the Bad Seeds) and any given Dirty Three record is pretty cinematic on it’s own.  I’ve listened to the Dirty Three records Horse Stories and Ocean Songs the most and they are both terrific.  I guess I give Ocean Songs the edge as my favorite, but it is close to a draw.   Ocean Songs attempts to evoke of the sounds of water and echos and beat of the Pacific Ocean.  As a band that comes from Australia where almost everyone lives by the water this seems like a task that would be intriguing, but daunting to them as a goal.  The record achieves good results.  I think for me the thing I like most on the record (compared to other Dirty Three records) is Jim White’s (of the currently very popular Xylouris While) drumming. On many of the songs with the looping sounds of the violin and the rhythmic sound of Mick Turner’s guitar the drums come to the forefront as if the ocean were speaking it’s mind through crack of the waves.  Oddly Ocean Songs is in many ways a less calming record than Horse Stories despite it’s approach and subject material.  It makes you pay attention a bit more, is a bit less like a soundtrack and more like the plot itself.  The drums in the forefront make the record a bit more present and a bit less passive than Horse Stories.  I’ve never seen Dirty Three live, but their a band I’d like to.  They seem liked they be the kind of band that was like a storm coming in from an ocean, something that would build up and they drench drench everything with sound.

–BeardedRiffRaff

D3-albumart-oceansongs

Record of the Day – 5-11-2020 – Anathema – Distant Satellites

I listened to the record Distant Satellites by Anathema many times in 2014.  I also listened to 2012’s Weather Systems almost as much that year, but Distant Satellites gets the edge for most played I think.  I am not sure how to describe the music Anathema makes.  It is definitely progressive rock, but there is a very romantic melancholy easy listening element to it also.  The music is emotional, but never saccharine.  This record is similar to their others of the past 12 years or so has two lead singers Vincent Cavanagh (male perspective vocals) and Lee Douglas (female perspective vocals).  The song cycle acts a sort of loosely related dialogue between the two vocalists.  The pacing of the record almost borders on rock based musical theater.   I don’t actually know if it a type of music that will work for all listeners, but for some reason it was a direct hit for me in 2014.  I think you could listen to any of their recent work and it might evoke the same experience, but it might just be the familiar case of its what you listen to first from an artist that impacts you the most.  For whatever reason like many Kscope label artists Anathema has never really caught on in the United States.  It is possible the sincere emotional nature of the music doesn’t translate for the American audience.  I hope they are able to continue to grow their fanbase because for a certain type of progressive rock devotee their music is wonderful.

-BeardedRiffRaff

Distan_Satellites

Record of the Day 5-10-2020 – Separation Sunday – The Hold Steady

The record Separation Sunday by The Hold Steady is a record about being a not quite middle class young man somewhere in the American Midwest.  As a kid you probably went to Catholic school (maybe to about 6th grade), but your parents couldn’t afford one of the good high schools so you went to public school.  You smoked your first cigarette in 7th grade and had your first drink soon after.  You parents noticed, but they were working doubles so they ignored it.  You were not bad at school, but you didn’t pay attention as well as you should have and were more interested in reading On the Road or skipping school to go to the Ramones show.  Sometimes on Saturday night you went to church like you told your parents, but sometimes you sat on the bench outside and smoked cigarettes and read Spin magazine.  When you shop lifted or sold weed you felt slightly bad about it.  As you got older your friends started to diverge, but when things went sideways they really went sideways.  You made friends who always had some idea that was suspect (you went along with it anyway) and you loved girls that loved maybe a little too frequently (weird loves better than no love as they say).  You got some habits that were easy to start, but hard to quit.  Despite that Jesus was something to you still and you felt low sometimes about the way life going.  Things have their own trajectory though and they have to play themselves out.  They work out or they don’t.  It’s all in the dice throw.  Then you come up for air and you see what the world looks like.  Separation Sunday are the songs of that trajectory.

–BeardedRiffRaff

The_Hold_Steady_-_Separation_Sunday_cover

Record of the Day 5-9-2020

In the 1980’s I liked rap, but it was one of those things I didn’t pay close attention to until the 1990’s when a friend gave me a tape with the with Tribe Called Quest, Black Sheep Squadron and Main Source on it.  I realized there was more to the genre than just Beastie Boys, Fat Boys, and Run-D.M.C.  There was the top selling tier of rap royalty that was on MTV, but there was a second tier that was maybe better than the first (although not much is better than King of Rock or Paul’s Boutique).  I woke up to the idea that rap was record based art form succeeding on a broad scale.  The 2019 record Psychodrama by the rapper Dave (full name David Orobosa Omoregie) is a concept album and it is a good as any of the classics I loved in 1991.  The concept is a man facing down his demons in London talking to his therapist for one hour.  The record follows the trajectory of a therapy session with intros and segues from the psychotherapist and is broke up in sections Environment, Relationships, and Social Compass.  Some of the songs are searing, some are introspective, and some are just realistic depictions of the life as the child of Nigerian immigrants in modern London.  The poetry and flow of the record are amazing.  Dave is an eloquent and insightful MC.  The music is low key, more constructed to match the lyrical content than vice versa, but Fraser Smith’s implementation of it is perfect.  For me, the highlight of the record is the 11-minute rap epic Lesley a sorrowful tale of domestic violence, but almost every track is great.  Dave is a rapper at the height of his powers and this record is a window into him working on growth as a man and self-awareness of the world around him.

–BearededRiffRaff

Dave_Psychodrama

Record of the Day 5-8-2020

Bars of Gold record Shelters is a straight up rock record.  There is no cleverness attempted and no frills.  It is definitely a record that is in the tradition of Detroit rock legends the MC5 and the Stooges.  I like to listen to it when I move because the record itself never stops moving.  I find it even encourages dancing while walking down the street.  Luckily I trained in Russia at the Bolshoi in the 90’s so it looks really good when I get down on the sidewalk.  I don’t know too much about the band aside from some articles online.  The drummer and lead singer were in a band called Bear vs. Shark and the other members were in an instrumental rock band called Wildcatting and they united to create this band 10 years ago.  Apparently in 2018 before making this record they thought they might drop one of their three guitarist, but instead decided it would better to add a fourth guitar instead.  That direction is represented in the record.  They are all in with a big sound and big songs. Honestly it is record you probably know if you like immediately from the first song.  Shelters might not be the best record for sheltering in place though.  Maybe take a run or walk if you listen to it.  Maybe even dance a bit while doing either.

Bars of Gold Shelters

Record of the Day 5-7-2020

If you were to recommend the record Ys by Joanna Newsom to someone they might ask you to describe it.  You would say, well it is folk music with lots of harp and orchestral arrangements by Van Dyke Parks.  That might not convince them.  You might say there are only 5 songs, but the record is 55 minutes and one song is 17 minutes, but it all seems compact and not too long at all.  That definitely might not sell them on it.  You’d tell them the vocals might be considered odd by most people, but they fit the music perfectly.  That probably would not work either. You could also tell them that maybe it was the most compelling record of 2006.  That there was nothing else like it put out that year or in the years since even by Joanna Newson.  That she has put out good records since, but nothing quite as otherworldly or ethereal as Ys.  Maybe that would peak their interest.  You could get more specific then and tell them when you listened to the record many times over one winter and you used to think it sounded like a fairy tale put to music.  That it sounded not like a child’s fairy tale, but one about the realm of the fae where the stories are about when someone’s husband disappears and comes back after 10 years and looks exactly the same, but has purple hair and speaks a different language.  That you used to wonder while listening to it on the train who around you might be one of the fair folk trying to trick you.   The tales where the world is shown to you by one of the fairies through a door that is in the middle of a forest and the world you see is beautiful and glimmers brightly.  It pulls you toward it.  Yet you can tell everything has sharp edges and just going through the door might cut you and you’re allergic to the most beautiful of the flora and if you go there you better bring your EpiPen.  You are glad you can see it through the portal, but you don’t really think you want to go there.  You’ll just sit back and admire from a distance.  After that they might want to listen to it or maybe not.  I suppose it all depends on well you sold it.

Ys_cover

Record of the Day 5-4-2020

The last concert I saw before everything shut down was Hiss Golden Messenger. Over the last twenty years I have always had a southern rock band that I went to see a bunch of times over a few years. Some years it was Drive By Truckers, some years Gov‘t Mule, some years Lucero. Whiskey drinking bands where you sit outside the club after the show with your new best friend from West Virginia or South Georgia. The last few years it has been Hiss Golden Messenger. MC Taylor writes Americana songs at a high level like Jerry Garcia or Will Oldham. The songs are evergreen. Folklore anthems in the present day. Phil Cook can play just about any instrument well and the rest of the band is always excellent They also have a devotion to the cause of public education which is a soft spot to me. I like all their records, but I think my favorite by them is Heart Like a Levee. It is full of sing along’s and crowd pleasers. For whatever reason they play small venues like Cat’s Cradle or Orange Peel still, but so do Drive By Truckers and Lucero so what do I know. Go see them when it is possible to see anything again.

Heart Like Levee

Record of the Day 5-5-2020

There were many Elephant 6 records that were popular in the late 90’s and there were a bunch I listened to on heavy rotation. Apples in Stereo, Beulah, Elf Power, Of Montreal, Olivia Tremor Control all made great pop rock records. There is only one that is as perfect and odd as any ever made that is Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. The lyrics of the record have been interpreted by obsessed fans for years so I will not bother. I know after a while Jeff Mangum got sick of talking about the record and what the meaning was behind it so I will honor him by saying I am not interested. I just went to genius.com and there are 7 people mulling over the lyrics right now. Good luck tireless annotators! The lyrics are beautiful no matter what they mean. I have no idea what the song Two Headed Boy is actually about, but damn does it pack a wallop. Jeff Mangum sing marvelously. Scott Spillane’s horns are perfect. Julian Koster makes random sounds with various instruments which seem completely necessary. Like many Elephant 6 records it is under 40 minutes and they didn’t need a minute more to make a classic record.

In_the_aeroplane_over_the_sea_album_cover_copy

Kendrick Lamar – DAMN

I am not a music critic and don’t have the best language for this, but I am going to attempt to tell you why the new #KendrickLamar album is so remarkable. Imagine when you are 16 years old you try something. You are a natural and over 10 years you become the best in the world at it. At some point in the future you are 29 and you learn all the success in your life is based on one choice made 25 years ago. This choice had nothing to do with you. It was arbitrary. You realize there were different possible versions of you based on this choice. Permutations that existed, but didn’t come to be. You decide to undertake an exercise of extreme empathy and make a record based on a version of you who had to deal with the opposite of the choice that was made. The record you make #DAMN represents how narrow the window of possibilities is that we slip through is and how many other possible versions of us exist. For some they are better for some they are worse, but they always exist. In my own life I sometimes feel the echoes and reverberations other versions of me would have dealt with, but I never did. Those tales become coiled in my head despite their non-existence. It is powerful to hear one such tale recorded over 80 minutes.

– Gene Mclaughlin May 2017

That Crusoe Must Have Thunk/version 2

I have the kind of

Knowledge you get

From spending days and years alone

Books existing as my solace

When I am lonely to the bone

I am a dreamer

I am a drunk

I am thinking all the thoughts

That Crusoe must have thunk

I have the kind of old soul

That runs away from pain

I know all about the price of love

And its small and subtle gains

I am a dreamer

I am a drunk

I am thinking all the thoughts

That Crusoe must have thunk

I might have misgivings

Gathered up along the way

But the train’s already moving

And the fare has been paid

Some come on now

All you words and songs

Give me that substitute

For that which my soul longs

Gene G. McLaughlin 2015