This Tuneful Tuesday (3/1/05)

[mad rhetorik]

PJ Harvey: Rid Of Me
My first PJ album.... bought it mostly due to the raves 'round this place (Davey?). Raw, harsh, punky, with some excellent vocals and songwriting--if Nirvana and Patti Smith had a child, it would probably sound like this. The title track, "Man Size," 50ft Queenie," and "Yuri-G" all rock like a mofo. Medigs immensely. Good Albini anti-production(dynamics and big drum sound...yes!). I should probably pick up Dry now too.

Other stuff (lots of alt/noise rock/Albini stuff this week):

Sonic Youth: Dirty and Sister
McLusky: Do Dallas
The Pixies: Surfer Rosa
My Bloody Valentine: Loveless
Wilco: Summerteeth
Portishead: Dummy

[umapet97]

celebraring Halfords return to Priest with Angel of Retribution CD.Album is great,back to a little old school sound,and Halfords voice still amazing.

My music phase has swung over to the hard metal;Slipknot debut album
Lamb of God Ashes of the Wake
Fear Factory Concrete
Pantera Vulgar Display of Power
Hatebreed Rise of Brutality

Any other metal heads over here?

[-Jar-]

Sonic Youth: Dirty and Sister

yea.. Sister just does it for me every time. I still can't decide after all these years if I prefer Evol or Sister, usually I say Evol because it was my first SY album. But the tensions and harmonies and dissonaces they create with their instruments is just incredible on those early albums. Even going back to the blue Sonic Youth album. I don't know why I just don't really mesh with anything they did after Dirty..

As for my listening, been working on a new comp, think I finally got my computer fixed..XP Pro this time..hopefully it will keep up and running for me. Still can't decide what burner I'm going to use with it. Seems like almost every burner under the sun has problems with XP, at least according to some people, though others have no problems at all. Who knows. I'm going to try the Nero "express" 6 cheapie OEM cd and see how I like that. The new comp is mostly a "meta" comp with some of my favorites from the past few years. I do have some others that I have to send out.

Been listening to Meshuggah's album NOTHING for the past few weeks, giving it probably 5 spins total. I told M.R. I'd post a review.. though right now, I'm finding it kind of difficult to describe. First off, except for the dizzying solos, it sounds as if all the band members are playing basses (*).. what a thick dense wall of sound. Slabs of sound that come at you, punishingly, from the left and right, seemingly without rhyme or reason, but there is order here, it's just really tough to find it sometimes. It's rare that I say that I really haven't heard anything like this before. They're really in a class by themselves as far as extreme metal goes. I remember way way back when their first album came out, I thought they were nothing more than a Pantera rip off, and since I really didn't like Pantera, I really didn't pay them much attention. They really have come a long way. I can't say that I'm doing backflips over this stuff, they really stay inside this kind of limping groove tempo throughout the whole album, and at times I wish for more color - the guitar solos and smart drumming provide most of the "color" but the guitar and bass riffing comes off as steel grey to me.. even the vocals match the dense, rough, deep guitar sound that they have. I saw them open for Tool a few years ago and I had the same response I do as I listen to this album.. I really appreciate and for the most part, enjoy what they do, but I can't help feeling like I'm being pummeled when I hear them, and my mind grasps for a little more sense of musicality. Maybe this album needs another dozen listens, and I'm sure going to try.

On the other hand, I hear similar comments about Don Caballero, another "math rock" band. Some people just don't like them because they're really abstract and at times, pretty tunless... but for me, the texture and sound they create are very colorful, and I could listen to Damon Che drum all day. Meshuggah just slightly, misses the mark as far as making music that has the colors that really appeal to me.

(*) turns out these guys use 8 stringed guitars, which might account for the really deep growling sound they get from their guitars.. very unique.

-jar

[Olivertmc]

Ricky Fante - Rewind

Curtis Mayfield - Superfly sdtrk.

Bruce Hornsby - Halcyon Days

Built to Spill - Live, Keep it like a Secret

Mercury Rev - All is Dream

Beta Band - Hot Shots II

Manitoba - Up in Flames

Grateful Dead - One from the Vault

Keb 'Mo - s/t

Green Day - American Idiot (put off buying this one, but it has really grown on me)

The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat

Ryan Adams - Gold (SACD)

Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage

John Coltrane - Giant Steps

Medeski, Martin & Wood - It's a Jungle in Here

Chris Whitley - Rockethouse

[mad rhetorik]

Been listening to Meshuggah's album NOTHING for the past few weeks, giving it probably 5 spins total. I told M.R. I'd post a review.. though right now, I'm finding it kind of difficult to describe. First off, except for the dizzying solos, it sounds as if all the band members are playing basses (*).. what a thick dense wall of sound. Slabs of sound that come at you, punishingly, from the left and right, seemingly without rhyme or reason, but there is order here, it's just really tough to find it sometimes. It's rare that I say that I really haven't heard anything like this before. They're really in a class by themselves as far as extreme metal goes. I remember way way back when their first album came out, I thought they were nothing more than a Pantera rip off, and since I really didn't like Pantera, I really didn't pay them much attention. They really have come a long way. I can't say that I'm doing backflips over this stuff, they really stay inside this kind of limping groove tempo throughout the whole album, and at times I wish for more color - the guitar solos and smart drumming provide most of the "color" but the guitar and bass riffing comes off as steel grey to me.. even the vocals match the dense, rough, deep guitar sound that they have. I saw them open for Tool a few years ago and I had the same response I do as I listen to this album.. I really appreciate and for the most part, enjoy what they do, but I can't help feeling like I'm being pummeled when I hear them, and my mind grasps for a little more sense of musicality. Maybe this album needs another dozen listens, and I'm sure going to try.

On the other hand, I hear similar comments about Don Caballero, another "math rock" band. Some people just don't like them because they're really abstract and at times, pretty tunless... but for me, the texture and sound they create are very colorful, and I could listen to Damon Che drum all day. Meshuggah just slightly, misses the mark as far as making music that has the colors that really appeal to me.

(*) turns out these guys use 8 stringed guitars, which might account for the really deep growling sound they get from their guitars.. very unique.

-jar

Some great observations, and I have to concur that I haven't heard anything like Meshuggah anywhere. They're quite inaccessible, but trust me, with more listens you'll start to figure it out and it won't seem as insane. It took me in the ballpark of 20 listens to really crack what they were trying to do.

That robotic emotionless feel is very intentional, and gawd, is it ever heavy. Those 8-string guitars are tuned so low that the bass rattles walls even on the normal setting (and as a matter of fact, there is no bass guitar on Nothing--there was no bassist present during the session, and the lack of bass doesn't really matter since the guitars are so downtuned to begin with). The grooves and rhythm riffs seem redundant, but listen to them closely--every time the riff "repeats" something changes. A note is added, subtracted, changed etc. until it evolves into a completely different riff. The drumming is especially out-there. Tomas Haake does a one-handed 4/4 rhythm on the crash cymbal while doing some crazy polyrhythms with his feet and other hand. Very tricky stuff to follow, but very regimented compared to most "math-metal" drummers who are whirling jazz/fusion dervishes (like Chris Pennie from DEP).

Anyway, all I can say is keep trying and you'll dig it eventually. Maybe not as much as me though. Be glad you didn't start on Meshuggah with Chaosphere... imagine Nothing played at double speed. It exploded my gray matter. ; P

[nobody]

It's been a wehile since I've posted on this thread, so a little catchup in brief...

New for 2005...
New Kings of Leon, which I like but not as much as the first one...gonna go see 'em next week too.
New Beck, great release as usual from him, not sure if it's gonna rise too high in his catalog though.
New Deadulus, excellent release that surpasses last year's offering in my mind, great organic samples building up electronic collages.
New Caribu, The last Manitobo release took some time to grow on me, so I'll give this one a few listens, but it doesn't jump at me right away.
New books, I like it a lot, but can see where it may divide fans. It uses the sounds explored on their first couple releases, but makes actual songs out of 'em this time around with some actual non-sample vocals tossed in...nice.

Late to the party for 2004...
Faithless: No Roots, saw Dusty talk about this one, and I liked it too. In spots it sounds like one of the best things I've heard in a long time, and in other spots too clubby for me.
Snoop Dogg: R&G, nice tunes throughout, great production, nice more laid back and mature sounds throughout. Some opf the mysogony of the lyrics can get old real fast, so some folks may just wanna skip this, but musically, it's probably my favorite Snoop release...although his work on The Chronic with Dre will always top his stuff in my book.

Old favorites...

See my Soul Music Sunday Post for many....

Wu-Tang Clan: 16 Chambers, hadn't pulled this out in a long time and a review listen shows right away why this was such a big record. Great, smoky minimalistic beats with a host of great MCs.
Richard Hell: Destiny Streey Not as well-known as Blank Generation, but every bit its equal to me. Great, edgy poppy 70 style punk.
Junior Byles: Chant Down Babylon, another reggae classic from the production of Lee Perry, another classic.

A bunch of hardcore...
From Reagan Youth to MDC to the Adloscents and many more...

A little heavy rock...
AC/CD...Black Sabbath...Mudhoney...Guns & Roses...etc...

Some Jazz...
Particularly Jimmy Smith, Coltrane, and Hank Crawford...

OK...it's been so long since I posted I could go on and on, but I'll stop here...