Hey it's Tuesday, what you listening to?

[JDaniel]

Is this her new one? Is it any good? I have Failer and think that it's a pretty decent CD. I haven't heard anything about her new one yet.

FA,

Yes this is her new one. IMHO, it leaves Failer in the dust. This album is much better. More rootsy, bordering on alt country at times. I'd say Roots/Americana, except she's Canoodian isn't she?

I'd recommend it, or I could send you a preview.

JD

[Troy]

Boots....

Jethro Tull - Live In L.A. (Strange. Troy's making music and I'm making covers.)

I'm making covers too . . .

http://www.designshed.com/toonage/YouOnlyLiveTwice.mp3

[Pat D]

I like Diana Krall, but she seems to have a hit/miss pattern in releases...the new one's okay.

I've been spinning:
Tori Amos - The Beekeeper - I like just about everything by her including this one, but it seems that she's moved from a solo performer with back-up to playing as part of a band...a bit jazzier than previous releases, a nice change
Porcupine Tree - Signify....Coma Divine rules.
Mastodon - Leviathan - just picked this up on a whim...damn wicked metal - where have I been?
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral - listening in multi-channel is like hearing it for the first time.
B.B. King - Live at the Regal - The man, the legend...
Beethoven - 7th Symphony (Kleiber) - spent last week on the 5th, the 7th is often overlooked
Dream Theater - Images and Words
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon (SACD) - that time of year again?
Symphony X - The Odyssey - Iron Maiden on steroids
Opeth - Blackwater Park - Symphony X on steroids

That's about it.

Not everyone has to like DK. Skokhead finds her slow, but I think she's just my speed.

When I'm in the mood for a dramatic Beethoven symphony, I go for the Eroica (no. 3) or the 7th much more than for the 5th, usually Leibowitz on a Chesky reissue. The Seventh really is an extraordinary work. The Kleiber recordings sounds better on our new speakers than it did on the old ones and the performances really are very fine. I keep thinking of getting Kleiber's recording of Brahms 4th Symphony because everyone seems to like it, but I am so satisfied with the old Reiner reissue on Chesky that I haven't so far.

But I really listen to Beethoven's Pastorale Symphony (no. 6) most often--I guess that goes with liking DK, eh!

[Woochifer]

Wertico - StereoNucleosis

Please tell me more about this -- I wrote it down while in the store as one to investigate, but couldn't listen to it.

It's an adventurous album, not exactly jazz, or instrumental rock, or "world music" either. For lack of a better term, it's a "fusion" of all of the above. Among the albums that I own, it reminds me of stuff from Ronald Shannon Jackson and the Decoding Society, and some of the mercurial Bill Laswell's group projects like Last Exit and Material, though it's more restrained and less "free jazz" influenced than those projects. Some of it also has a bit of the folk influence that you often see with Pat Metheny's work, which makes sense since Paul Wertico spent 18 years as the PMG's drummer. Sprinkle in a bit of Larry Coryell, John McLaughlin, and John Scofield for good measure.

Some of the songs are stripped down duo and trio arrangements, while others are sonically dense with a lot of overdubbing. As expected, the percussion gets highlighted quite a bit, but it's not just a drummer pounding away, a lot of the songs feature a huge variety of percussion sounds that I rarely hear. Given how jazz has split has largely split into traditional and smooth camps, neither of which advance the art particularly well, albums that defy these easy categories are a very welcome sight IMO.

[MindGoneHaywire]

My rave of the week is Sweet Apple Pie & their album Between The Lines. I don't think anyone's mentioned them here? I could see DBI liking this a lot. Kinda Beatle-y, Big Star sort of thing, but my first impression was that it's more sorta Matthew Sweet without guitar players like Quine/Lloyd/Julian & therefore more poppy. Very melodic, way better than most stuff I hear in this vein (blows Les Sans Culotte away). This one's a keeper, definitely.

Checked out some Keren Ann. The albums are Nolita & Not Going Anywhere. The last one I'd spun last year & was a bit indifferent as I was checking out the Eleni Mandell album & liked that better on first listen. Now I'm not so sure. Very good. And I have the new Marianne Faithfull album but haven't checked it out yet, really, but P.J. Harvey & Nick Cave were involved in it so I'm eager to get to it. As well as the Rhino best-of on Marshall Crenshaw.

Didn't actually sell that 45 yet, Brad...haven't gotten to it. But...soon. Along with that my agenda includes a package for you & something for Troy the progboy as well. As soon as I can get to it.

Good to see Tug back! That's a good rec, isn't it, that Ray LaMontagne? Keep an eye out for a guy named Amos Lee, that might be up yr alley, also. Welcome back.

[BradH]

I'm making covers too . . .

http://www.designshed.com/toonage/YouOnlyLiveTwice.mp3

Oh, I like that a lot. You've got a musician's ear to hear all the different parts.

Can you do Freebird?

[Dusty Chalk]

Can you do Freebird?

(Pictures BradH at a concert, holding a lighter in the air.) "Free Bird!"

[tugmcmartin]

Here's what my mostly spent brain can remember:

Eva Cassidy - Imagine
Eva Cassidy - American Tune
Eva Cassidy - Songbird
Sonny Landreth - Grant Street
Kathleen Edwards - Back to Me
Neva Dinova - The Hate Yourself Change
Red House Painters - Retrospective
Blue Merle - Burning in the Sun
Mike's "Up All Night - Best of 2004 so far...)
Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway

JD

Hey JD...

How's that Blue Merle??? They've been getting some airplay out here, can't remember the name of the song (maybe the title track?) and i really like it. Sounds like something i'd really be in to. Worth checking out? Them and Low Millions are two i've been meaning to check out.

T-

[ForeverAutumn]

I'd recommend it, or I could send you a preview.

JD

Thanks for the offer JD, but I'll buy this one eventually.

[Mike]

I'm making covers too . . .

http://www.designshed.com/toonage/YouOnlyLiveTwice.mp3

Hey Troy that's so cheesey and loungey but so good you should do more, John Barry would be proud of you. It reminds me of those albums you could buy in supermarkets where it would say 'not featuring the original artists' Love that drum sound.

Cheers
Mike

[Gav_2000]

Been on a Flash and the Pan kick -- Flash and the Pan, Lights in the Night, the under-rated Headlines and the even-the-filler-is-killer-filler Early Morning Wake Up Call.

Wow, Flash & the Pan, I haven't heard of them since 1983 when Waiting for a Train was in the UK singles charts. I somehow have it on 7" and 12" singles but I've never heard anything else by them. Are they still around, what is their stuff like (I only know 1 song!), what would be a good first purchase I wanted to hear more.

Oh yeah, I've been listening to;

Ted Nugent - Cat Scratch Fever

Yo La Tengo - Summer Sun

Sparklehorse - It's a Wonderful Life

Yes, apart from Ted it's been a very laid back week as I've been ill and my head hasn't been up to hearing much.

[Swish]

Been working my arse off lately. My wife pointed out that today is one year to the day that my bosses at my last job canned me. We're going out to celebrate a year away from that ****ehole and the movings on to a better job and life.

On a musical note, also been putting all my CD's on my new computer and will soon buy a media reciever so i can retire my CD player. Finally got a highspeed internet connection so hopefully will be frequenting this place more than the four times in the past 12 months. Since i've been loading my CD's onto the computer, i've been spinning pretty much everything i own lately. A couple of my favorite new listens though:

Ray LaMontagne - Trouble
Jamie Collum - Twentysomething

Both of these are fantastic albums with serious jazz influences. Collum does a really sweet cover of Hendrix's "Wind Cries Mary".

Haven't had time or energy to purchase much lately. Hopefully that will change here in the near future.

Good to see everyone still posting.

Tug

I had all but forgotten about you until I saw this post. I guess I'm so busy and wrapped up in my own life (daughter got married last October, son's Army Reserve unit got activated and he's now in Baghdad) that I just didn't do a whole lot on the board for the last 6 months or so, much less remember who's posting or not. I remember that mess you went thru last year, so it's good to know you landed on your feet. I really like that Lamantagne record, even though Davey thinks it's a POS . Never heard of that Collum dude, but perhaps I need to check it out. Listen dude, I have tons of newer stuff, so if you're in need of any promotional/previews etc, etc, and so on and so forth, just give me a holler. You can PM me, although I think you still have my e-mail addy, don't you?

Regards,
Swish Baby

[Ex Lion Tamer]

Yeah, this is probably the best thing Lanegan has done. Very diverse, even though a lot of it does have that stoner rock foundation. I really like the Chris Goss production too, but I also really wish they would've used less compression and let it open up a little more like on those old Masters of Reality records. I don't really understand why some of these veterans go for the highly compressed sound. Makes it sound like crapola. Don't they remember how much better recordings used to sound?

I agree with you on the compression, but you gatta admire the crystal clear midrange that make the vocals from Lanegan and others sound wonderfully vivid and present. I can almost reach out and touch he and P.J during both their duets.

[Dusty Chalk]

Wow, Flash & the Pan, I haven't heard of them since 1983 when Waiting for a Train was in the UK singles charts. I somehow have it on 7" and 12" singles but I've never heard anything else by them. Are they still around, what is their stuff like (I only know 1 song!), what would be a good first purchase I wanted to hear more.

Well, I love all four of those albums. "Waiting for a Train" is from Headlines, I believe, which is the weakest of those four, but still good. I would start with any of those four, but I have Flash and the Pan/Lights in the Night in a two-pack, so I'd recommend getting that. Lights in the Night is a favourite. It starts with the chanty "Media Man", with some nice sarcastic lyrics. Follows is the Eastern-influenced "Headhunter", then the edgy "Restless". Side one winds up with the epic "Welcome to the Universe", which alone is worth the price of entry. "Make Your Own Cross" is a nice rip on people with martyr syndrome, and "Lights in the Night" is one of the most depressing songs I've ever heard -- not to listen to if you're suicidal. Winds up with "Captain Beware" and "Atlantis Calling", both typically good catchy power-poppy tunes.

From the first album, you may know "Hey St. Peter" (...Before you ring your bell...Just been down in New York town...Done my time in hell...). It's another classic, with the wonderfully dark "California", the ambientish "Walking in the Rain" (kind of a predecessor to the superior "Lights in the Night"), and a bunch of great hooky pop tunes.

They did an album or two after Early Morning Wake Up Call, but I kind of lost track of them after that. I have at least one of them, and it's not as good as those four. I think they've since retired.

EDIT: Hey, I went a-googling, and didn't find anything about those singles -- I'd be curious to know what was on the B-side (though I suspect it's from the album, as I have the 12" of something of theirs, and that's what I remember about that. I think it was "Midnight Man"...

[Davey]

I agree with you on the compression, but you gatta admire the crystal clear midrange that make the vocals from Lanegan and others sound wonderfully vivid and present. I can almost reach out and touch he and P.J during both their duets.

I assume you must have the LP because I don't remember Polly or Mark in the room with me. If so, glad to hear they didn't screw it up as much as the CD, but vinyl almost always sounds better on vocals and it's not entirely because it's inherently better. I've always believed that the constant noise on even the best pressings does bring the music into the room better than any of the digital formats. Just listen to the sound between tracks on a record and the room still sounds kind of alive as opposed to a CD where it's the same as turning it off. And I think SACD benefits some from the added high freq noise because it sure sounds a lot less alive when you increase the filtering.

But they definitely do master many of the CDs hotter than they do the vinyl release, and that means more compression and clipping. I tossed in a copy of my last Monkey Bones comp so you'll be able to hear what the CD sounds like too, although I did reduce the level a bit so it's not exactly what's on the CD. But probably close enough to notice there's no "crystal clear midrange". Hmmm, then again, maybe I haven't listened closely enough lately on my halfway decent system in the bedroom.

But regardless of the sound q, great album!

[Slosh]

Snip, Snip . . . . but I think I really need to get Blue Screen Life too. Slosh is usually a decent barometer for me, even though he despises Interpol. S.I.A. still gets regular spins from me, so if B.S.L. is similar, I think I'll like it just fine.

It's different enough from Summer to keep things interesting but not enough to sound like a completely different band or anything. Blue Screen Life is a bit more jangly, with even more of an early Police influence. It took me a little longer to fully appreciate but well worth the effort (effort? ). Both albums are equally good but different.

NP: The Decemberists - Picaresque

[Davey]

A few from me mainly from the UK indie pop scene

The Bravery, Bravery

Hey Mike, what is that Bravery like? I noticed it's getting one of those big Snow Patrol-like pushes over here. They've got it featured for $6.99 at the big box stores. Probably be a big seller at that giveaway price.

Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire - The Swimming Hour. Pulled this out after hearing his new "the Mysterious Production of Eggs" a few times. Still like this one better, but we'll see!

Wayne Robbins & the Hellsayers - The Lonesome Sea. I'm not as high on this as some of the others, but it's very good and growing on me.

Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (remastered). This thing is two discs with all the originals plus ton of other tunes from various EPs on Disc 1, 24 tracks in all, then 25 unreleased tracks on Disc 2. A must for Pavement fans.

Yeah, I think The Swimming Hour will always outshine the new one because it just has so much more diversity and charm, though it's hard to deny the new one has much more focus. Guess I also fall toward the messy side, if given the choice.

Don't you just love some of those quirky stories on the Hellsayers disc? I mean, Sarah's Lament is a riot, with the insects having their babies inside of you, and they're building their cities between your toes, and vacationing in your nose, and all the rest. Fun stuff. That one's a bit too heavy on the bells, but still a great song. I wonder if Cole has a link to the lyrics? Can't find them anywhere.

So, Crooked Rain was a pretty nice sounding CD to begn with. Did they crank the volume way up for the remaster or just add extra tracks? I know they added a lot of compression to S&E to get the volume up.

[mad rhetorik]

Meshuggah - NOTHING (damn knotty stuff, there's this kind of wood called Iron Wood. At least that's what my dad called it.. you'd whack your maul into it and it would just sink. You'd need like 4 wedges just to get stump-sized piece apart. The grain just twists on itself and really makes it difficult split, pretty soon you just get out the chain saw and slice it up like bread.. well, Meshuggah makes me think of Iron Wood)

-jar

Heh, clever description, and I definitely concur. Hope you haven't taken a chainsaw to your copy yet, though. ; P

Anyway, some crap (term applied extremely loosely) spinning over the past week or two:

Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
Minutemen: Double Nickels On The Dime
Joy Division: Substance
Ac/Dc: Powerage
Mr. Bungle: California
Sepultura: Chaos A.D.
Fear Factory: Obsolete
Pantera: Vulgar Display Of Power

BTW, I'm going to be on obner.org now too, if I can get my friggin' username + password to work.

[Gav_2000]

EDIT: Hey, I went a-googling, and didn't find anything about those singles -- I'd be curious to know what was on the B-side (though I suspect it's from the album, as I have the 12" of something of theirs, and that's what I remember about that. I think it was "Midnight Man"...

The UK 7" single had an instrumental version of Waiting for a Train on the B side. The 12" single also had an extended version of the song as well. Both came in black generic sleeves with no photo or information.

I bought the 12" version at the time and found the 7" version in a batch of singles that I bought of ebay.

I had the 7" in my jukebox for a while but have just noticed that I've swapped it out since seeing your post. I don't play singles normally as there's too much getting up and down to change them so I'll look out for some of their CD's.

[audiobill]

This past week has been relatively "light":

Giant Sand -- Chore of Enchantment

Loretta Lynn -- Van Lear Rose

Massive Attack -- Mezannine

Bob Marley vs Funkstar De Luxe Remix (includes atb remixes)

Elton John Rare Masters (3-disc set)


Great week in movies: Million Dollar Baby, Sideways, The Incredibles, Polar Express, and Being Julia

Spring is here.............means only two things for me: Mountain Biking and Roadster top-down weather............ wooooo hooooo!!

Cheers,
Bill

[Olivertmc]

Bloc Party - Silent Alarm

The Decemberists - Picaresque

Pedro the Lion - Achilles Heel

Bob Dylan - Bootleg Vol. 5 (The Rolling Thunder Revue)

The Postal Service - Give Up

Yo-Yo Ma - Obrigado Brazil (SACD)

Willie Hightower

The Beatles - Let it Be . . . Naked

The Jayhawks - Smile

Josh Rouse - 1972

[DarrenH]

Went on a superb Marillion listening spree:

Fish period:
Script For A Jesters Tear
Fugazi
Misplaced Childhood

H Period:
Seasons End
Brave
Afraid Of Sunlight

It was a tough call but me likes the H period the best. I ordered Anoraknophobia, Marbles and marillion.com the other day.

Motorhead - Ace Of Spades. Good ol' fashioned no frills heavy metal. Great stuff. I'll be needing more of this please.

Dream Theater - Two officially licensed bootlegs from Ytsejam Records:

Images And Words Demos - DT was looking for a new lead singer at this time and this cd includes the demo tapes from the various hopefuls. Pretty cool. Of course, we all know who gets the job.

The Number Of The Beast. Yup, the classic Iron Maiden album performed by DT in it's entirety. Once again, pretty cool.

Los Lobos - Live At The Fillmore. A most excellent live show. Los Lobos fans should run to the store for this one.

There was other things but I'm drawing a blank right now. I'll update later if I can remember.

Bob Marley and the Wailers - Rastaman Vibration and Burnin'. Weather is starting to get nice.

[-Jar-]

The Number Of The Beast. Yup, the classic Iron Maiden album performed by DT in it's entirety. Once again, pretty cool.


You know, I'd be real curious to hear this.. considering that I probably know NUMBER OF THE BEAST better than almost any album in existence. It seems there is a glut of bands doing Iron Maiden covers, and I don't think I've heard more than a few songs here and there. I guess what it does is really solidify Iron Maiden's status as being one of the most influential metal bands in history.

-jar

[Davey]

Mostly a bunch of shambolic (love that word ) shoegazer pop stuff with big drums (but not big hair) by bands like Lockgroove and Voyager One and Autolux and Pinback and .... also spent wasted way more time than I shoulda with my latest comp, which I obviously really like. Even made a little cover for it that you can see here but it's nothing that special. Still kinda silly to make a cover for less than a handful of copies, but that's what goofballs like us do, right? I mean, you guys would do it too, right?

Hey, speaking of my silly comps, does anyone have a copy of my old Twilight comp they'd be willing to send me? I'll trade you for something. I made a new cover to give it to someone but then realized I don't have a copy. Please? Hehehe, no big deal. If you do, I'm at the Sunnyvale addy. New cover here.

Also spun some other stuff that I already mentioned during the week, mostly things recently sent to me by some of you great people. Mike's latest comp and a couple from newtrix an Sloshy's last one and a coupla others. Thanks all.

And some Pinback Blue Screen Life and some new Decemberists. Also listened to some of the new album by The National called Alligator over at their label site at http://www.beggars.com/features/thenational/ but was a bit disappointed in it. It does include All The Wine from the EP (sounds like a slightly different mix) and a couple other good ones, but overall kind of lackluster. The single (Abel) is pretty cool, though. Real upbeat sounding with lots frenetic drumming and a real celebratory chorus that turns to near yelling toward the end, kind of like Springsteen when he was born to run. Not sure yet whether I'll buy it when it's released since I still don't have Sad Songs.

[Woochifer]

Currently shuffled up on my playlist ...

Saint Germain-des-Pres-Cafe Volume 5
Kevin Yost - Abstract Funk Theory
Ronald Shannon Jackson - What Spirit Say
Freddie Hubbard - Goin' Up
Frankie Knuckles - Welcome To The Real World
Metallica - Ride The Lightning
Blue Note Revisited
Jazzanova - ...Mixing
Hi-Fidelity House Imprint 4