Finally got to hear a couple of things I was quite curious about, and both disappointed me slightly. One was the Outkast double album, which a friend raved about. Speakerboxx I didn't connect with at all, really, and while I liked the Love Below much better, I still didn't think it was worth all the hype. Both are good, solid hip-hop albums, I guess, but either my standards are way too high or I've got to get the crud out of my ears. I'll have to give them both another listen, of course, but the first time around, it just didn't do it for me. I've got a copy of Aquanime, or whatever it's called, laying around also, I'll have to give that a try. I guess Andre 3000 is more to my liking than the other guy, but whatever. It just seems that Eminem remains the only guy around that can put together a rap album these days that I think is a great & inspired work from start to finish. But maybe I'm just being picky.

Then I was listening to the new Califone, something about a Heron, which I was mighty curious about since Davey's so into them. Well...my usual comments about how so much indie-type stuff I hear sounds like this or that, blah blah blah, don't exactly apply. Still, I put it on with a blank slate in terms of expectations, & it sounded like a bit of a watered-down Captain Beefheart rip. Is that a terrible description? There were moments here or there, but overall it just didn't move me all that much. There's an extended jam, and I think I hear something along the lines of Dr. John's I Walk On Gilded Splinters, but I'm not sure. Maybe I need to give this one another listen also.

I was a bit suspicious of Thrill Jockey in general after my experience with the Sea & Cake, but while the Califone rec is still definitely in my 'iffy at best' pile, there was a TJ offering that I thought was much better: Bobby Conn's Homeland. A good example of an indie-style singer-songwriter type rec that isn't all the things that all the other ones sound like to me, not so bland, not so boring. Now, just as I might listen to either the Outkast or the Califone & decide that I had rocks in my head the first time around, I might throw this one on again & wonder what it was I was hearing in it. So far, though, it made a good impression on me--even if only because, again, I had little in the way of expectations, and also because I had been let down by the others.

Also managed to throw on Miles Davis' In A Silent Way a few times. Now this I didn't really expect to like at all, but I've gotta hand it to Mad Rhetorik, he nails it on this one. Way better, less constipated, more listenable than B*tches Brew. I mean, it's not really fusion. There may not be a hardcore jazz sensibility going on, but at least there's something I can go with. Nothing here screams at me to throw the disc out the window, like B*tches Brew or even On The Corner; actually I think it's pretty good. And I get the sense I'll like it more & more as I listen to it over time. I don't think I'll ever like it as much as, say, Sketches Of Spain, but I'll tell you what, it now piques my curiosity for Miles Smiles...I used to own a copy of Nefertiti, which isn't offensive, but not what I'd call very good, either. This? This is good. Me like. And considering when it was recorded--after Nefertiti, which I thought was just lite masturbatory noodling, and before B*tches Brew, which is heavy--like lead, only lead that, uh, smells real bad, if you can imagine such a thing--I just didn't think there was any way I'd like this. But hell, stranger things have happened.

Heard the June Carter Cash album Wildwood Flower. GOOD stuff. I've got to get around to listening to that one again. In a similar vein, Cracker, with Leftover Salmon, O Cracker Where Art Thou, which are down-home country/bluegrassy sort of versions of Cracker songs. Oh, how precious. I mean, it's good, but Cracker always kind of annoyed me, in spite of some good tunes. The coy, contrived cleverness just kinda always rubbed me the wrong way. Don't know why. But Lowery started to annoy me a long time ago, when CVB was still together (they've re-formed, haven't they?). I can listen to Telephone Free Landslide Victory a million times a week & never tire of it; but the clever album titles, the 'look at me, I'm so clever' 'tude, the general glibness always bothered me. Oh, well. This is a pretty good rec all in all, even if it is gimmicky, representing that cleverness at its worst, if such a thing is possible.

Heard an advance of the Brides Of Destruction. Won't be out for another month or so. I think it's Tracii Guns & Nikki Sixx? Whatever. Hey, there are a few Motley Crue songs I actually think are good, though I could never be bothered to actually buy one of their albums. This doesn't sound all that bad, all things considered, though I only got 4 songs in. I don't think it's the next Meet The Beatles or anything, but hey, considering the relative lameness of the genre, it sounded like there was at least some decent songwriting going on. I'll have to give it another spin though. I have to say, I'm not crazy about the idea that I'd like this rec more than the Outkast rec, but so far that's the case. Surprising, but true.

Punk rock: Wire's On Returning, 1977-1979...never heard much of this band, I remember when they were around in the 80s, they were kind of techno-ish, or electronic, anyway, having gone that sort of route. All I'd ever heard of them was 12XU, on the Burning Ambitions comp. This is the sh*t. Although maf would probably tell me I'm an idgit for missing out on them for so long. Well, it was my loss. No longer. Jet--Get Born. Wow, great boogie-punk single; the rest of the album isn't spectacular, or anything, but with a single that amazing, it doesn't have to be. Probably the single best track I've heard in years, as much as I like some of the true anthems on the Strummer album. It just hit me real hard. And I heard another punk revival band, the God Awfuls, whose record will be coming out soon...considering the relative state of punk revival bands these days, I certainly wasn't expecting much. But instead of a bunch of snotnoses from Southern California who know nothing about nothing & do covers of stuff like Don Henley songs & filter their sound through Sum 41 as they filtered it through Blink 182 as they filtered it through Green Day...these guys seem to be a bunch of older snotnoses who do what they can to sound more like Social Distortion, maybe crossed with the Angry Samoans, than friggin' Suck 57 or Glop 318 or whatever the hell else these sucky bands call themselves. A yes vote, so far.

Threw on some electronica & found something I liked, a couple of songs off the new Teflon Tel Aviv album, and something I didn't, Dani Siciliano & Chachi Jones. Then there was this Curse Of The Golden Vampire Album. Har-dee-har-har. I almost p*ssed myself laughing at this crap. Just got finished listening to the first Aztec Camera album; last night found the time to throw on Beck's Sea Change; listened to a bunch of Hendrix earlier; and then I was putting together a comp for one of these 'rap is not music' guys, for which I have a wider array of choices than I did the last time I did one of these, which was probably for HYFI. Outside of that, there is no good music anymore.