Tuesday Spin Mommas

[BradH]

'Cause somebody's gotta do it.

Strawbs - Grave New World....A good but depressing 1972 outing from Cousins & Co....Silly Strawbs fans think it's about Wakeman leaving the band but non-silly Strawbs fans think it's about the Troubles in N. Ireland. I'm a non-silly Strawbs fan. As far as you know.

Tangerine Dream - Electronic Meditation...Kinda cool in a freak out, psychedelic kind of way. I don't know what it all means and I'm sure they didn't either. That's okay, I didn't pay full price for this. The synths came in w/ the next album. Stuff like this and early Kraftwerk is what the British press meant to disparage as "Krautrock".

Frank Zappa - Cucamonga Years...This Japanese import has the best sound of all the Cucamonga era cd's. So now you know. Interesting to hear the entire surf song which appeared as a snippet on Lumpy Gravy. I like this stuff.

Blind Faith...New Japanese import. An SHM disc, Super High Material, whatever the hell that is. Sounds good though. Knowing what I now know I can hear Gretch painfully trying to play jazz during Baker's solo. Otherwise a perfect gem. Clapton plays well with others.

Moby Grape '69...Amazing how such utter filler can sit side by side with tracks of pure magic. Not as solid as the earlier releases but a definite keeper nonetheless. Unlike most 60's Bay Area bands, these guys could sing. Harmony, even.

Boogie With Canned Heat...The most learned and schooled practitioners of the blues from anyone who ever put mouth to bong. They specialized in North Mississippi Delta blend. Smooth...

Gentle Giant - Octopus...Another Japanese SHM import. Holy cripes this sounds good. I've never heard it better unless maybe it was the vinyl on my uncle's rig in the 70's. But I don't really remember that.

Sick of classic freaky retro hippie stoner music? Roll yer own & post it here!

[Auricauricle]

Nice collection, BradH! Like you, I am a Strawbs-Head. Always hated that Wakeman left, and still get po'd whenever Antiques and Curios is pulled outta the shelf. Still, Grave New World is a pretty decent album, with Benedictus leading off, it's pretty relevant even today. Like you, I wasn't crazy over the TD. Big fan there as well, thinking that Zeit or Alpha Centauri were better albums--more polished, more cohesive.

Just a few words from the unseen choir.

[3-LockBox]

I just got the new Pure Reason Revolution: Amor Vincit Omina, or something like that. They've gone electronica...not kidding. Actually, I like it. Hell, Jim Clark would like it. I'm a little remiss that they've abandoned the guitar driven space rock element, or at least the element that gave them a Floydish feel. Now they've got Secret Machines/NIN kinda sound. I guess you can't accuse them of resting on their laurels.

Speaking of dance music, wazzup with Chris Cornell teaming up with Timbaland? Cornell's new hip-hop/rock album Scream is gonna make his fans do just that...right after they vomit. Heard it tonight; wished I hadn't.

I be liking the The Pains of Being Pure at Heart album, though its a tad young at heart; its just good shoe-gazer pop/rock, not unlike older Teenage Fanclub.

[MasterCylinder]

I spent Tuesday listening to Dream Theater - A CHANGE OF SEASONS and IQ - EVER.

Nice selections Brad.............I forgot about that Canned Heat album..........I had that back in the early 70s and played that thing all the time.

[BarryL]

Today's spins:

Flower Kings - Retropolis "There is more to this world than we see with our eyes..."

Daedalus - The Never Ending Illusion - this showed up yesterday as the latest selection from Shawn Gordon's ProgRock Records' CD club. No comments yet after the first spin.

Steve Wilson - Insurgentes - I'm liking it, but it feels a bit "throw-away." The good news is that Wilson's low-end is greater than almost anyone else's high end. It sounds really serious and dark - mostly layers of guitar-based riffing backed by sonic layers of hypno-trip for the post-grunge age.

Keith Emerson Band - still spinning this one. It sounds great! He should have discarded with the polyphonic moog after Works Vol. 1.

Pat Metheny Group - This Way Up - Metheny and Mays masterpiece. Probably the best jazz album in 40 years. Stellar listening, over and over again! A funny story here: I was in the hospital a few years ago for an operation and they encouraged patients to bring music to relax to while undergoing the procedure. I brought This Way Up. About ten minutes into it the doctor told the nurse to turn it off! I hope it didn't affect his handiwork!

[Auricauricle]

Pullin' out this fave, now...

[richmon]

Wobbler -'Afterglow'. Good revisionist keyboard driven prog, much better than their first album Hinterland. A bit short at 35 minutes, but if you count the notes, got my money's worth.

Julian Priester 'Love Love' - been exploring this cosmigroove vein, it's funky jazzy spacey.

Pat Metheny 'Watercolors'. something about his CD's are spirit brightening.

Jane's addiction 'Nothings Shocking'. This rocks, so much better than ritual de la habitual.

Pentange 'Light Flight' - some nice songs, but not the definitive Pentangle collection.

[3-LockBox]

Wobbler -'Afterglow'. Good revisionist keyboard driven prog, much better than their first album Hinterland. A bit short at 35 minutes, but if you count the notes, got my money's worth

I've been wondering about that one. Where did you hear of this band? I like about half of what I hear on Hinterland. They definitely have a handle on the Anglagard sound. Not terribly original but engaging nonetheless.

Better a tad short and remain engaging than over stay the welcome.

[richmon]

I've been wondering about that one. Where did you hear of this band? I like about half of what I hear on Hinterland. They definitely have a handle on the Anglagard sound. Not terribly original but engaging nonetheless.

Better a tad short and remain engaging than over stay the welcome.

Originally, I heard two sample songs on the Nearfest website prior to their 2006 appearance. Those songs were great, full of great keys work but didn't make it onto Hinterland. Hinterland sounded alot like White Willow to me prolly cause they shared some of the same band members.

So they reworked those two demo's for their next release 'afterglow' and they're the meat of the album. Afterglow has alot of the Anglagard sound imo.

So to summerize, Hinterland's ok, but afterglow is most excellent.

[3-LockBox]

So to summerize, Hinterland's ok, but afterglow is most excellent.

I'll have to check it out then, thanks. The few samples I hear over at MySpace sound really good.

[MindGoneHaywire]

The Rafael Saddiq album is the best Marvin Gaye record I've heard in a long time.

[BradH]

The Rafael Saddiq album is the best Marvin Gaye record I've heard in a long time.

As good as Sons of Soul?

If so then I'm buying. This was one of the best discs of the 90's. Hell, of all time.

[Troy]

Umphrey's Mcgee's "Mantis."
Proggy/jazzy/complex/ambitious/arty/sinister. Possibly their best release

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61OTMmMim1L.jpg





They Might be Giants "The Else / Cast Your Pod to the Wind"
Best thing they've released in 10 years. A throwback to the sound of their first 4 albums.

http://www.hung-truong.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/the-else.jpg

[Ex Lion Tamer]

I spent some time with Bloc Party's first album, in advance of there show at Metropolis in MTL. The show was very good - I can't say that I liked all or even most of the songs I was unfamiliar with, but the tunes off of Silent Alarm were excellent. And this was as enthusiastic a crowd as I've seen at a concert in a very, very long time. And the band fed off of the energy very nicely, commenting several times about the crowd. The Singer/Guitarist, Kele Okerele is actually a very engaging frontman, with a good sense of humour - not shy to talk to the audience between tunes and there was also some nice relaxed, humorous banter between he and the drummer. This is a quality I have found sorely lacking in most of the young bands I've seen in the last few years, and I think it really adds a nice dimension to a show. I would very much recommend seeing them, they are a very good live act.

Other listening...

The Clean's Anthology (disc 2) has been in near constant rotation in the car for the last week or so - great stuff from David Kilgour's original band.

Nick Cave - Dig Lazarus Dig has gotten a few spins on the ol' vitrola in the main room; it's the usual high-quality Cave -stuff, maybe a slight step down from The Lyre of Orpheus, but still gets the ELT seal of approval.

And my vinyl recording odyssey continues - but the pace has slowed, here's the one's from last week (that I remember),

B-52s
Chet Atkins & Les Paul - Chester & Lester
Bob Marley - Exodus
X Ray Spex - Germ Free Adolescents

[Auricauricle]

One o' my all time favorites...