Newbie-Friendly Tuesday Weekly Rotation Thread -- What have you been spinning?

[DariusNYC]

(For anyone not familiar with our traditional weekly survey, on Tuesdays we post about what we've been listening to of note during the past week. Some folks add descriptions and/or thoughts about the stuff they've been listening to.)

For me:

The Strokes, Room on Fire (Just as good as their first one. Casablancas just has such a great Rock-n-Roll voice and they squeeze so much melody into their rough songs.)

The Rapture, Echoes (Been loving this one. Vocals sound like The Cure at some times and Public Image Ltd. at other times. Music underneath is electronic but very melodic. An interesting sound with, more importantly, quite strong songs.)

Outkast, Speakerboxx/The Love Below (Currently by some distance my favorite album of theirs, just because there's so much good stuff there on those two discs, and it's probably their most accessible album. Not suprisingly its been ruling the charts.)

The Postal Service, Give Up (Only heard it 1 1/2 times so far, but so far so good. Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie sings and plays some instruments with the dude from Dntel's electronic music underneath.)

Luna, Bewitched
Missy Elliott, Supa Dupa Fly
Billy Bragg, Talking with the Taxman About Poetry
The Band, Music from Big Pink
Bob Dylan, Live at Royal Albert Hall 1966
David Bowie, Scary Monsters
and a lot more . . .

Been able to listen to more music lately because I am the proud new owner of an iPod that I carry with me everywhere.

[Demetrio]

Sorry for not having enough free time today to describe these, but all them are great releases I have been listening to this past week:

- ROBBY ACETO - Code
- CONJURE ONE - s/t
- HECTOR ZAZOU - Lights in the Dark
- CARAVAN - For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night (REMASTER)
- PLATYPUS - When Pus Comes to Shove & Ice Cycles

Demetrio.

[tugmcmartin]

Absolutely nothing new. You could see my post from last week and it'd be the same. I am planning on picking up a Patty Loveless holiday CD today. Some cool bluegrassy arrangements to traditional holiday tunes. Also switching out my CD changer in my car to non-christmas stuff. My wife loves it, but i can only take so much of it and i'm about to OD. Oh... and got JDaniel's christmas comp in the mail yesterday so plan in spinning that tonight.

T-

[Mike]

Sun Kil Moon – Ghosts of The Great Highway, its laid back in most parts but really gets under your skin. I need to hear some more Red House Painters

Joss Stone – The Soul Sessions, a good R&B covers album from a 16 year old but what a tremendous voice. Only spoiled a bit by the up front recording of the vocals but a great backing band very reminiscent of a late 60’s early 70’s album.

Yello – The Collection, pull this out every now and then for a bit of wacky Swiss electro muzak

Joss Ritter – Hello Starling, destined to be a classic

Tosca – Suzuki in Dub, not heard the original but this is really good

The Strokes – Room on Fire, Funnily enough I didn’t care for ‘Is This It’ too much but I really like this don’t ask me why it’s really Is This It part two!

The Vines – Highly Evolved, they don’t seem to get mentioned much around here but a great band in the style of the Strokes but a little more versatile

The Cure – Greatest Hits, a double CD featuring some very nice newly recorded acoustic versions of the hits.

Beck – Sea Change, one of my very favourites of recent years

Cooper Temple Clause – Kick Up The Fire… some good tracks but overall I’m a little disappointed with this one.

HedKandi – Chill, a compilation of chill material from the HedKandi label

Cheers
Mike

[Digital-G]

I've listened to:

Aimee Mann - Lost in Space
McCartney - Best of Comp.
David Gray - New Day at Midnight
Moody Blues - Question of Balance
Christmas with the Rat Pack (new to me...)

[Davey.]

Wheat - Per Second
Just talked with tentoze about this one in another thread and it's really growing on me. I've actually had it for a few weeks but hadn't had a chance to really get to know it well since I got some others at about the same time. And at first I thought it was a little too slick, although it was expected as this is their major label debut. Well, maybe it is too slick, but I guess that doesn't matter to me anymore because it's just a great listen from start to finish. It does unfortunately open with a very radio-friendly single, I Met A Girl, which I was already familiar with from both download and then the Too Much Time EP (and also the Sloshy year-end comp), so I generally skip that first track since I'm kind of tired of it after hearing it about 100 times. But the rest has more subtlety and complexity so should age well. Nice album.

John Coltrane - Blue Train
Always been a big favorite and I have three versions, but the one of choice is the Classic Records DVD with 24/96 PCM audio. Beautiful album. I've heard in the past that the MONO version is the one to have since it is the only one truly cut from the masters, but this stereo one sounds great to me and is sooooooooo much better than RVG's latest CD remaster (which I also have for some unremembered reason). Haven't heard the SACD.

Okkervil River - Down the River of Golden Dreams
This was a past Snowbunny rec and a good one. I've only had it a short while and don't have a strong enough feel for it yet, but it does have a kind of Neutral Milk Hotel filtered through Will Oldham feel to it. If that doesn't make sense to you, don't even think about it.

Damien Jurado - Where shall you take me?
I called it my album of the year in Sloshy's best of 2003 thread and wrote a little description down there. It's not always my album of the year as my list is pretty dynamic in that respect. But it's been very highly regarded by me for the last few months and probably will still be in the future when some of the others I claim are my favorites have long ago faded from memory

Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom
Listened a few times to this old art rock classic. Once is never enough, just one of those albums. Made a post about it a few days ago while asking about his new one so won't say anymore here other than it is an old fave.

Listened a few times to Sloshy's year-end comp cause it's just so darn good. And also the one by tentoze which is pretty darn good too. And listened to Mike's too, which I like a lot but it certainly has a different feel. That Tosca sure gets it off to a nice start along with the Coral. Kings of Leon rule! Listened to my own year-end contribution to the pile as well, and all I can say is that I'm glad it's just for fun and not a "real" contest because I'm afraid mine wouldn't finish well against such competition. Oh well, there's always next year!

Just pulled a Sloshy semi-mystery disc from the mailbox last night and I'll probably give it a spin today. Thanks buddy. Also just got the Blue-Eyed Soul disc from jasn a few days ago and spun that over the weekend. Some great old tunes, although a few are a year or two past their shelf life and cause a slight cringe Cool comp!

Thanks for all the cool stuff guys!

[Jim Clark]

[QUOTE=DariusNYC
The Rapture, Echoes (Been loving this one. Vocals sound like The Cure at some times and Public Image Ltd. at other times. Music underneath is electronic but very melodic. An interesting sound with, more importantly, quite strong songs.).

[/QUOTE].



That's good news-I'm expecting this to show up on my doorstep this afternoon!

As for me I've been listening to Jack70's stack of Timemasheen comps. Ole Jack70 puts serious efforts behind his comps which include music from sources I've never even heard of and extensive liner notes for most. Additionally he apparently goes into even greater detail if you go online and visit his site which I have to admit I've not done just yet. Some good tunes on all but I most recently played his Guitarists-Under The Radar. For some reason most of the wanking doesn't seem to come across as such. Sadly I don't play and can't comment on the virtuosity of any of the players since I mainly judge simply by whether or not I enjoy the music and in most of the cases I do. Thanks Jackson.

Also enjoyed hearing both Davey's and Tentoze' year end comps. Davey has some more electronics and more rocking moments whereas Tentoze goes almost exclusively with the alt. country theme. both have some pleasant surprises so I'm glad to have received both.

Also busted out Mr. Midfi's Christmas comp. Nice mix of newer takes and more classic renderings. A great disc to have on hand.

Spent a lot of time with Massive Attack's, 100'th Window . Man is this a great disc, my favorite Massive Attack by a ton. Dark, menacing music featuring thundering bass lines.

Marianne Faithful-Broken English. Just heard this for the first time and like it a lot. Has an obvious tie in with the December mystery disc I sent out.

Annie Lennox-Bare. Never was a fan on Eurythmics but Annie is one of the female artists for whom I've harbored great hope that never really materialized in a way I've enjoyed-till now. This is simply the best disc she's ever put out. Now if I can get a decent disc out of Jill Sobule and Aimee Mann I'll be a happy camper.

And lots of other asst. stuff along the way.

Regards,
jc

[JDaniel]

Lots of Christmas tunes. My newest fav. is The Alligator Records Christmas Collection . Fourteen Christmas blues songs from the likes of Koko Taylor, William Clarke, Elvin Bishop, Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials, Tinsley Ellis, Clarence Brown etc.

William Clarke is Blowin' like crazy on his harp on "Please Let Me Be Your Santa Clause". Other great song titles on here "Deck the Halls with Boogie Woogie", "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus", & "Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin".

Chip, Tony, Yech - I'm sure you'd like this disc.

Also been spinning Downlocos, a new Los Lobos comp I cooked up.

Jack70's "Hillbilly Heroes" has been a regular in my changer for the past two weeks.

I revisited Chip's "Blues Deluxe 8", my 2nd favorite in the series (#2 is the best).

Lot's of Lyle Lovett.

JD

np: jasn's "Blue Eyed Soul - Vol. 1" Thanks jasn!

[Troy]

Nothing new this week, but still spinning some of the stuff I bought last week.

Yes, I did listen to both ELP discs in one sitting. 140 minutes, nonstop. It was pretty fun. Tarkus is a killer chunk of music.

That Calexico is sure a trip. I dig it's laidback tex-mex soundtrack quality.

I like that RPWL quite a bit too. Very Dave Gilmour.

That Mason and Fenn disc is sure an oddball. Nobody was making music like that at the time.

[mad rhetorik]

Soundgarden: Superunknown
Anthrax: Persistence Of Time
Pixies: Doolittle
Smashing Pumpkins: Siamese Dream

[Dave_G]

Lets see if I can remember.

Galahad - "Sleepers" I love this lush prog cd.



Kansas - "Leftoverture" The remaster, of course. Great album.



Thin Lizzy - "Bad Reputation" A great rock album. Weird sound quality though.



"The Jethro Tull Christmas Album" - This is a great recording for sure.



Jefferson Airplane - "Jefferson Airplane" - this cd was recorded when they "united" again several years ago. It's a damn fine recording. DDD and great singing and songwriting.



Dave

[-Jar-]

Big Star - #1 RECORD/RADIO CITY

Gem - HEXED

Teenage Fanclub - THIRTEEN

Goo Goo Dolls - HOLD ME UP (I was thinking of making a comp with the best tracks from this album.. but I can't decide which tracks to pick...)

Buffalo Tom - BIG RED LETTER DAY

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - SLEEPS WITH ANGELS

Pavement - TERROR TWILIGHT

Jane's Addiction - RITUAL DE LO HABITUAL

Superchunk - Sampler my friend made me from their last 4 albums.. it's very nice .. 4 songs from each album. I think my favorites are from the album THIS IS WHERE THE STRINGS COME IN, though the tunes from their last album HERE'S TO SHUTTING UP sound real good too. Been spinning this a lot..

-jar-

[MindGoneHaywire]

I've heard a ton of stuff that's new, or at least new to me, in the past couple of weeks. First & foremost...picked up a couple of Hives CDs, purchases I could justify since I'll be using them the next time I DJ at the local bar here. So far I've got just one--Barely Legal--but boy does it rock. Awaiting Veni Vidi Vicious rather anxiously. This stuff is right up my alley & truth be told I like this band better than any other I've heard for the first time in the past couple of years, & that would include the Strokes, the Electric Six, the Vines, the D4, and even the White Stripes. And I LIKE all those bands. But that's just how much I like the Hives. Completely one-dimensional garage punk, but they're probably the closest thing I've heard to the Sonics in the past...I don't know. Maybe ever.

Heard the Sounds & the Raveonettes albums courtesy of JC & both are winners. I wasn't expecting great things from the Raveonettes based on the EP, but the album is much better, I think. That they're so evocative of the Jesus & Mary Chain is a demerit so far as originality, but it's still a dang good rec. And I just didn't know what to expect from the Sounds. While the arrangements and/or instrumentation isn't 100% my thing, that's all nonsense easily overcome by the fact that this is one hell of a catchy load of songs. Highly recommended.

Borrowed Dylan's Live 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue after hearing so many great things about it. It's tough to ever criticize the material, but this is not exactly my cup of tea. It's from the era of big rock bands & big rock tours & big big big. Everything's big. And the arrangements are big to suit the big band & the big spectacle & the bigness of it all. And I don't really like it all that much. I have no problem with artists trying to breathe life into old work. But when I hear a song like 'The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll' changed up the way it is here, I ask myself, why bother? That's one particular tune that's never, ever going to be topped from its original form so far as I'm concerned. There's plenty on here that's pleasant, but I expect more from Dylan, especially from a time when he was doing great things ala Blood On The Tracks. I'll give it another chance, but so far I'd have to say that the live 1966 thing is way better, or at least a lot more to my liking--because it plays to two of his strengths when it comes to live performance, the solo acoustic w/harmonica thing & the electric bluesy Highway 61 Revisited kinda thing. What he does here is something that some people were real good at--the big stage show with all-star players (Mick Ronson & T-Bone Burnett here, among others). Hell, maybe he was even good at it. The guy who lent me the thing sure thinks so. I don't. Maybe I just don't like this sort of thing in general.

Also borrowed the Flaming Lips' Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell from another friend. A little surprising, because there are remixes & sojourns into electronica here. Nothing I have a problem with, but I suspect that some progheads who count the Lips among the current bands they enjoy might have a problem with the non-rockiness of some of it, the hint of an electronic dance groove here & there. That never bothers me so long as there's something there I can sink my teeth into. And there's plenty on this. I particularly like the first song, Assassination Of The Sun.

Then there's this collection called the Charlie Parker Remix Project. Hot damn. A bunch of remixers get their hands on some Charlie Parker loops. Sounds interesting, right? Why the hell is it that all of these potential great ideas end up just like most everything else these days--a couple of great songs, a bunch of filler, maybe one or two outright clunkers. This is WAY more interesting than it is good--which angers me, because it could've all been great. The only stuff on here that's GREAT--and it is GREAT--are the Dan The Automator remixes. THOSE are GREAT. The rest of it, there are some moments here & there, but nowhere near as good as Nakamura's stuff. Some notable names on this thing, including RZA, MeShell Ndegeocello, Garth Hudson, the Kronos Quartet, & Dr. John. I'm assuming all of their contributions were done specifically for this project, but I don't know that for sure (meaning that the remixers might've been working with already-recorded stuff that the likes of Hudson & Dr. John had done in the past). For the sake of arguments with people who are down on remixing & electronic music in general, it'd be useful to be able to say that people like this got involved with a project like this, but that's a concern for another day.

A few things that otherwise caught my fancy: the most recent Iggy Pop record, on which he has Green Day, Sum 41, & the first work he's done with the Stooges in 30 years. The Stooges stuff is great, especially the leadoff track, Electric Chair. Much as I love Green Day, & much as I don't Sum 41, I liked their contributions equally. It works. Good rock'n'roll record. Perhaps a bit long, but what can you do.

Adam Green--Friends Of Mine. A bunch of nifty little perversities. I've only heard it once, so there was plenty of novelty there. Hope it doesn't wear off. I think I heard of the Moldy Peaches, but I'm not sure. Regardless, this is interesting.

Meshell Ndegeocello—Comfort Woman. I read this insanely positive review on AMG before I gave this a spin. Go over there & take a look. It's pretty funny. Says stuff like, any reviewer that doesn't think this is the best soul rec of the year should be selling cars, or something to that effect, as well as stating that Madonna should fire her publicity people at Maverick if this record doesn't sell. So I gave it a spin & thought it pleasant, but hardly earthshattering. Kind of in a Marvin Gaye/PM Dawn kind of way mostly, but also reminded me a bit of Seal, who I can't stand. Well, I didn't really like her either. But this wasn't bad, and it occurred to me that this was the sort of record that would grow on you, that you had to listen to it like 50 times for it to really sink in. It is a good 'mood' sort of record. Then I saw a thread on the Velvet Rope that talked about some guy who wrote a blurb review for Rolling Stone writing a piece in a newspaper saying that it grew on him after he'd written the blurb, which said that the rec was okay, but not outstanding, basically. It is unfortunate sometimes that reviews of records that require more attentive care in the digestive/critical process have to be rushed by people who demand immediacy from writers who just haven't had long enough to sit with the record. Oh, well. So I listened to it again & again & again & again & a couple times more & came to the firm conclusion that it's a good record, but a flawed one, and nowhere near what AMG says about it. But I have a newfound respect for this woman--what's her name, Michelle Johnson or something like that? Good record. It's not the next What Goes On by any means, but it could've been a contender if a couple of the less-distinguished tracks could've been replaced with stuff that's up to the standard the rest of the album sets. I'd give it a solid 3 out of 4 pretentious haircuts.

Saves The Day—In Reverie. I'm sure this has been discussed around here, I've certainly seen the name Saves The Day. But this is probably the only place I ever saw that name, so I don't always pay attention to names I've never heard of. This is good stuff, me like. Harmonies, hooks, not so much indie-rock tedium of the sort that I'm always complaining about.

Dido—No Angel. Only listened to it a couple of times, but to be honest I never heard this record & only really knew of her, for a long time, through the Eminem sample. Good rec, on the poppy side of trip-hop, but I'd much rather listen to something like this than, say, Sheryl Crow. Yeah, I know they're two completely different things, but my knowledge of pop culture is limited, so give me a break, okay?

Gary Wilson—Forgotten Lovers. This is a guy who put out a low-fi, DIY rec in 1977, on the disco-y side of new wave, apparently. Never heard of him until recently, when I was poking around on AMG's Beck page & looking at 'roots & influences.' His rec was said to have been a big influence on Beck, both in the DIY aspect, & also the funk thing of the sort that's so prevalent on Midnite Vultures especially. There really was no followup to the rec, but recently this was put out, this being a collection of home demos the guy did between 1973 & 1982. Very interesting stuff, not all great, but I'd put this on 'repeat' & play it for like 3 weeks straight before I'd ever put another Stephen Malkmus record on, I'll say that much.

Then there's the recs I didn't think were all that great, but had some outstanding tracks..beginning with the Tupac: Resurrection album. Now, I have never heard a lot of his stuff. My take on gangsta rap is that when N.W.A. did it it was FUNNY & NOT MEANT TO BE TAKEN LITERALLY. Which of course is what everyone did, & everyone got REAL SERIOUS about it. I'm sorry, I can't help but laugh when I hear the first N.W.A. album, and I've always felt that way. It's hysterical. Then there was the Chronic--one record that ruined rap if ever there was one--and Snoop Doggy Dogsh*t. I suppose Tupac was the next guy that came along who really defined the genre. And while I have no use for Snoop, plenty of people whose opinions I respect have said that he was good, that he lived it, blah blah blah. Most of it sounds the same to me (does this surprise you, Troy?), so I don't pay a heck of a lot of attention. When I heard Eminem I thought he was great right off the bat, but I don't consider him to be 'gangsta' rap anyway--his range of topics is WAY too broad to be pigeonholed into that one tidy little category. But I knew one day I'd hear Tupac's stuff for myself so I could make my own determination. I like about half of what's on here. I found out only recently that he came up through the ranks of the Digital Underground...but that was after the Humpty Dance. There are a couple of real good tracks on here, but the most interesting thing I hear is a song featuring the Notorious B.I.G., whose voice is just way more interesting to listen to. I've never heard Biggie either, really...what can I say. Some good moments here, the rest I could do without. But that's easy enough.

Mystic River soundtrack--mostly just standard soundtrack fare, but it's composed by Clint Eastwood, who has a great ear for jazz, and there are a few short piano moments interspersed throughout that are actually quite nice.

The Rapture--Echoes. I liked the House Of Jealous Lovers thing, but a whole album's worth of those vocals wore on me after awhile. I suppose this is reminiscent of early Gang Of Four or something like that...and to tell the truth I never got into them all that much, either. The effect just doesn't go that far, and if I want to hear weird, quirky vocals, PiL did it best, and the Fall is just a little more interesting to my ears. The single is quite infectious, though.

The Distillers--Coral Fang. What the hell would I call this...how about Tattoocore? Straight ahead punk rock with a chick lead singer that I think was until recently married to the guy from Rancid & you just know she has to have a mohawk. She's very reminiscent of Wendy O vocally, only better. A few pretty good tunes here, and overall way better than any of the new-ish punk bands, but otherwise nothing special.

Ladytron...can't remember the name of the rec. Actually there was only one song on here that I thought was real good, and this is kind of a remix album anyway. Good cover photo, though, some might say these chicks have bodies like 12-year-old boys, but that'd be something of a harsh criticism. The one in the skull bikini's certainly attractive...

Then there's a bunch of stuff I heard & just didn't think much of, for whatever reason. Starting with the most recent Edie Brickell album...why'd I bother throwing this on anyway? Probably because I saw that Charlie Sexton plays like 40 instruments on it & maybe, just maybe I thought it was worth a listen. You ever listen to Henry Rollins talk about Edie Brickell? I think it lasted about 5 seconds in my player before I'd had enough. And to think that once upon a time I actually thought 'What I Am' was a halfway decent pop song...then there's Martyn Bennett. Celtic electronica, I guess you'd say, sorta a Scottish equivalent of what Moby did with Play or whatever the hell the name of the record is with the field recordings. But way too techno/electronic for my taste. Something Corporate--why'd I put this on? I don't know. True to their name, way too commercial-sounding, at least as far as indie-rock goes. The new Blink 182--I kinda wanted to like this, too. Don't know why, but I did. Guess what. I don't. This might have been the band that did to punk rock what Dr. Dre did to rap with the Chronic. I just wish they'd go away already. Um, there's a new Erasure greatest hits collection. I've always been concsious of them, but never really listened. I mean, I kinda dig the early Depeche Mode singles, & that Yaz rec, too, at least as far as I can throw it...almost never listen to that stuff, but there's melodies & hooks & stuff & it makes the fact that it's cheesy dance music tolerable. Not sure I'd think of Erasure as being in the same class, after hearing some of their hits. I guess I only put this on to make sure I didn't miss a pop gem that I'd heard before but never really knew who it was. No such luck. Robert Randolph & The Family Band--how upbeat! How positive! How blessedly devoid of substance! Well, maybe that's a bit harsh, but there just ain't much here for a guy like me. Not as overproduced as it could've been, and probably easier on the palate than Robert Cray or someone like that, but still, nothing I could take too much of. However, that's not a big thumbs down, just a big fat eh. Now there's this Isley-Bacharach collaboration, which started off like it could've kind of been good--Alfie--and proceeds to go straight downhill into the same sort of overall feel that the pablum masquerading as 'r&b' these days plagues ya with. I'd say avoid. Then there's some band I'd never heard of called SNMNMNM. I've still never really heard of them, though there's one real good song on the thing, nice harmonies. The rest of it is like if Ben Folds & Weezer were both way wimpier than they actually are, & got together & made a real, real, real mediocre record. Is that something you really wanna hear? Not me, except I already heard it. Then I put on this album by something calling itself Pink Grease. I guess they're sorta reminiscent of the Fever, kinda like glam-rock punky disco stuff, but not really in the same vein as the Electric Six--nowhere near as heavy. Couple good tunes. And then a real disappointment--the new Turbo A.C.'s record. This is a real good NYC garage punk band. But this is not a good record. A good cover of 'Apache,' but that's about it. And this one I DID really want to like. There you have it.

For the new stuff, anyway. Hey, I don't do this too often, so mind yr complaining. As for the old stuff:

Graham parker—Passion Is No Ordinary Word
Stan Getz/Joao Gilberto
NY—Greendale
The Kinks: EP Collection
Star Spangles--Bazooka!!!

And my comp of stuff I culled from the first few solo Beatles LPs that I'm going to be sending to some of you, whether you like it or not.

[Pat D]

I'm away from home and can't do much listening.

But I still drop by to see what people say.

[Stone]

I'm away from home and can't do much listening.

But I still drop by to see what people say.

Same here. I was home a couple days and remember listening to these:

Devo - Live
This is the 6-track promo thing they did after Freedom of Choice came out. Fun stuff and Rhino Handmade has released this, in an extended version, on CD, so I might have to pick that one up.

Orchestra Baobab - Specialist in All Styles
Incredibly good. African music that sounds like it could have come from the Carribean at times.

Dexys Midnight Runners - Searching for the Young Soul Rebels
This one's new to me, and I'm impressed. Youthful exuberance and a lot of fun.

Stone

[skewiff]

Not done this in a while, so here we go.

Muddy Waters---Anthology
Gov't Mule----Deep End and With a little Help(these are for Mike and yes Mike they will arrive).
Curtis Mayfield---Superfly remaster
James Brown---Live Apollo 2 remaster
Jefferson Airplane---Surrealistic Pillow
The Band---Music from Big Pink
Velvet Underground---ST
Brian Eno---Dave's very awesome comp
Season's Greetings2003----Another very good Dave comp

That's about it for this week, 2 more work days, then 16 days off.

Tony

[Jim Clark]

I've heard a ton of stuff that's new, or at least new to me, in the past couple of weeks.

Hey, I don't do this too often, so mind yr complaining. not.

Well you certainly jumped in the Tuesday thread with a vengence. It was fun to read your comments on such a wide range of music although I have a different take on a couple, most notably Ladytron but that doesn't surprise me in the least. I just got my copy of Rapture's, Echoes yesterday and haven't really formed an opinion yet other than it didn't grab me on first listen the way I had hoped but it wasn't a careful listen and it was only the one time. I still have some hope for this one.

I think it was you that mentioned the NRBQ, At Yankee Stadium disc. I grabbed that recently and look forward to spinning it later today. I'll know by next tuesday if it hits home or not.

Regards,
jc

[BarryL]

Been listening to, finally, Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. Not a bad album. But how these Lips not hear the god-awful compression distortion that I hear when I listen to this album. It's particularly bad on tracks 2 and 5. The Soft Bullet was the same. They must do it on purpose. It sounds like crap, and ruins what could have been a much better listen.

I also have been listening to a metal prog 2 CD concept called The Once And Future King, by some guy named Gary Hughes from a metal band called Ten. I've never heard Ten, but this rock opera also features Lana Lane and DC Cooper, ex-Royal Hunt. If you like Royal Hunt, then you'll probably like this. Very sonic and melodic prog metal stuff. No new ground broken here. Disk one is better than disk two, IMO.

[Troy]

Been listening to, finally, Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. Not a bad album. But how these Lips not hear the god-awful compression distortion that I hear when I listen to this album. It's particularly bad on tracks 2 and 5. The Soft Bullet was the same. They must do it on purpose. It sounds like crap, and ruins what could have been a much better listen.

YESSSS! Thanks for pointing this out. I've always felt that this fact has been ignored when I read comments about this band and album. It IS done for stylistic purposes (Ohhhhh, how gritty and edgy!) and while maybe it sounds ok on your cheesy computer spks or a boom box, at volume on a good system, it sounds like crap, like a mistake.

[-Jar-]

YESSSS! Thanks for pointing this out. I've always felt that this fact has been ignored when I read comments about this band and album. It IS done for stylistic purposes (Ohhhhh, how gritty and edgy!) and while maybe it sounds ok on your cheesy computer spks or a boom box, at volume on a good system, it sounds like crap, like a mistake.

Dave Fridmann's productions do tend to lean towards the bombastic, to the point of really removing a lot of the dynamic content from the music. Though I probably haven't heard enough of his recent work to know for sure, I do know that the sound of Mogwai's ROCK ACTION is just really pegged.. Though, for some reason, the recent Mercury Rev albums that he's done do seem to fare better than the Flaming Lips albums. I'd like to see the Lips take to the studio with an orchestra and lay down some decent tunes without all the studio gadgetry.. it's been pretty cool up to now, but I think it's starting to wear thin.. and it's probably why I haven't warmed to YOSHIMI that much yet. For the Lips, the Studio has always been another instrument, and it's a valid technique, I'd just to hear them make something a little more human.. And speaking of Mercury Rev, I wonder what they're up to?

-jar

[Grblgrbl]

Some recent heavy rotation cd's:

Semisonic: All About Chemistry, Great Divide - awesome, hook-laden power pop

Soundtrack of our Lives: Behind the Music - great, sometimes trippy neo-psychedelic stuff

Inner Visions: Street Corner Musicians - glorious reggae from the beautiful island of St. John

Morgan Heritage: More Teaching - more great reggae

Luciano - Serve Jah - even more great reggae

Fastball: Harsh Light of Day

Jayhawks: Rainy Day Music - probably my favorite 2003 release

[Troy]

Dave Fridmann's productions do tend to lean towards the bombastic, to the point of really removing a lot of the dynamic content from the music. Though I probably haven't heard enough of his recent work to know for sure, I do know that the sound of Mogwai's ROCK ACTION is just really pegged.. Though, for some reason, the recent Mercury Rev albums that he's done do seem to fare better than the Flaming Lips albums. I'd like to see the Lips take to the studio with an orchestra and lay down some decent tunes without all the studio gadgetry.. it's been pretty cool up to now, but I think it's starting to wear thin.. and it's probably why I haven't warmed to YOSHIMI that much yet. For the Lips, the Studio has always been another instrument, and it's a valid technique, I'd just to hear them make something a little more human.. And speaking of Mercury Rev, I wonder what they're up to?

-jar

I don't know that Barry and I are talking about "bombastic" really. Remember, you're talking to a couple of dyed in-the-wool prog-heads. Bombastic is one of progs stocks-in-trade. There's nothing wrong with using the studio as another instrument- Spector, Brian Wilson, Alan Parsons and George Martin are a few that did that, but they all kept far away from distortion caused by computer compression like what is in style these days.

It's about the distortion, not the density. In the same way that cheesy synth drums in the early 80s dates the music from that time (in a bad way), this intentional distortion is going to date today's music.

I dislike rockbands paired with orchestras. I sincerely hope that the Lips DON'T do this. Just record the albums without all the clipping.

[Davey.]

Dave Fridmann's productions do tend to lean towards the bombastic, to the point of really removing a lot of the dynamic content from the music.

Yeah, Fridmann has definitely gone way too far in recent years with the compression. I think it can be traced back to the time of Soft Bulletin because I don't think Deserter's Songs was pumped up nearly so high, alhough I don't know who was in the drivers seat on that one. But by 1999 the pop world was totally into the "make it as loud as you can when you record it and then make it even louder when you master it and who gives a fuck if it sounds like shit" mentality. I have to assume he is at least partly to blame because the same traits are evident on the last two Wheat albums, the last two Flaming Lips albums and the last Mercury Rev album. It is too bad though because some of those releases have a lot of underlying fidelity that is somewhat ruined by the compression distortion. Doesn't seem like there is any end in sight to the madness since it has gone way beyond just the majors now and is fully entrenched in the practices of many indie artists and producers as well.

[BarryL]

Yeah, Fridmann has definitely gone way too far in recent years with the compression. Doesn't seem like there is any end in sight to the madness since it has gone way beyond just the majors now and is fully entrenched in the practices of many indie artists and producers as well.

Maybe when they release the 20th Anniversary edition they'll decide to remix it to fit with the times. I still find it interesting that Alan Parsons had the balls to do it to Tales of Mystery And Imagination when it was released on CD. He remixed to bring out the electric guitar parts. Good for him.

[Troy]

Maybe when they release the 20th Anniversary edition they'll decide to remix it to fit with the times. I still find it interesting that Alan Parsons had the balls to do it to Tales of Mystery And Imagination when it was released on CD. He remixed to bring out the electric guitar parts. Good for him.

Yeah, the "Tales"CD does sound really good.