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Saturday, November 17th, 2007
Janis gave me a copy of Before the Flood a while ago and I just recently spent some time really listening to it; and I gotta say I think it is not such a great album. That surprised me because I've been listening more and more to The Band lately and really loving their sound, and especially loving The Basement Tapes -- so I was expecting and hoping for that kind of sound. Instead this record sounds like weak Dylan. Guess they couldn't get it back together.
posted evening of November 17th, 2007: Respond
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Monday, November 12th, 2007
So I was listening to the new CD from Truman Sparks this morning, and trying to come up with a theory about how something had gone slightly wrong in the mixing booth -- based on how great and together the music is, but how some of the vocals sound like they were poorly overdubbed -- but before I work on that theory any more, I just want to point out that the final track, "Enter TROG", is just magnificent. Everything about it is right on. (And that is billed as a remix, so clearly the producer had something on the ball.) And, because my CD player was on repeat, the next song was track 1, and I noticed all over again what a great opening the record has, until a minute or two in when the vocal strangeness kicks in.
posted afternoon of November 12th, 2007: 4 responses
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Sunday, November 11th, 2007
I saw their show last night at Piano's, on Ludlow Street. Sweet -- it took them a couple of songs to really get it together but once they were in the groove, they rocked hard. I wish Adam's voice (or the amplification of his voice) were a little clearer though -- as it was I have absolutely no idea what the lyrics were. I was unexpectedly able to stay for the whole set and I'm glad, because the last two songs were the best thing about it. Got home kinda late though. The opening act, Cheyenne, was pretty great too -- I was sorry only to see their last couple of songs. Instead of watching most of their set, I stood with Adam outside the venue and listened to this French maniac raving about Baudelaire. Which was good at least for a laugh.
posted morning of November 11th, 2007: 1 response
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Saturday, November 10th, 2007
Listening to The Basement Tapes today, I was thinking about how the opposition between immersing oneself in the experience of listening and retaining one's identity through analysis, is a good framework for thinking about art and the creative process. I've been listening to this record pretty frequently over the last couple of weeks and thinking about writing a blog post concerned with how it is different from Dylan's other music that I like, and similar to The Band's other music that I like, or along those lines -- but then there are moments (especially during "Bessie Smith") where I'm suddenly singing along and identifying with the music instead of thinking about it. I love those moments.
posted afternoon of November 10th, 2007: Respond
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Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
Truman Sparks has two shows in NYC this weekend -- one in Bushwick, one in Manhattan! Go check 'em out.
posted afternoon of November 7th, 2007: Respond
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Saturday, November third, 2007
I've been listening to various tracks from the Apostropher's latest mix tape here and there for the past week or so; this morning I gave it my first deep listen, listening to all the tracks in order, and really paying attention. Verdict: good stuff, a productive use of your time. This is fantastic music for walking around, it would be great for working to (like house cleaning, woodworking, gardening kind of thing I'm talking about, not office work -- it would be difficult to keep your mind on your spreadsheet.) I have never heard a lot of this music -- highlights for me were "Little Walter Rides Again" by Medeski, Scofield, Martin and Wood, the Memphis Horns, the Bill Frisell tracks, and Bettye LaVette who to my ear sounds uncannily like Janis Joplin. (And what d'ya know, her latest album is called Take Another Little Piece of my Heart.)
posted evening of November third, 2007: Respond
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Friday, November second, 2007
Belle inspires me to figure out where my iPod is and listen to some random songs so I can post them here. I'm getting lots of blues and lots of Robyn tonight.
- "Alma Waltz", Mississippi Mud-Steppers
- "Singin the Blues (Till My Daddy Comes Home)", Fletcher Henderson Orchestra
- "Broken Bed Blues", Kansas City Blues Strummers
- "Flavor of Night", Robyn Hitchcock -- this shares the quality of many of the songs on I Often Dream of Trains, where the song totally sounds like it's going to be amazing, fantastic, you can't miss its potential greatness, but somehow it doesn't quite make it.
- "Hard Way", Taj Mahal -- Janis gave me this CD in an effort to make me see how great Taj Mahal is; but I'm afraid his greatness eludes me. The instrumentals are occasionally awesome.
- "Sometimes a Blonde", Robyn Hitchcock. A solo acoustic performance at Maxwell's, in the catastrophic month of November 2004. I like this a whole lot. After the song, patter about waitress Desirée.
- "Terrapin", Robyn Hitchcock. From the second set of the April 2007 Games for May concert. With cellos!
- "I Miss You More", 13 Scotland Rd. I don't think this is my favorite song of theirs but after the long instrumental at the beginning finishes, it might be their best vehicle for Bill's voice.
- Medley of "Good Morning" and "In the Midnight Hour", by Robyn Hitchcock, who so much should not try to cover the Beatles. Oh man, this is a train wreck. What the fuck's going on Robyn? You have a really amazingly good singing voice when you're not trying to sing like John Lennon. (Though the cellos are a nice touch.)
- "Sittin' on Top of the World", Taj Mahal. Nope, still not getting it.
posted evening of November second, 2007: Respond
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Sunday, October 28th, 2007
When we moved into this house 5 years ago, I set up my stereo temporarily on the floor in a corner of the living room. And there it has been these 5 years, until yesterday when in a fit of organizing, I moved it into a more permanent-seeming location, on a wire rack in the next room, which I am currently thinking of as the "music room" (before it was the "play room", but Sylvia is doing most of her playing these days in her own room). The problem had always been my perceived lack of a suitable shelf. But Friday night while I was turning over various stuff in my mind, I realized that the wire rack in the garage would be just right. So yesterday morning, I sponged the cobwebs off it, brought it inside, and moved everything around. Well: my records have a home now, on a shelf where you can thumb through them instead of stacked on the floor! You don't have to crouch down to put in a CD or record! I threw out my non-working cassette player! And best of all, the sound is much, much clearer with the speakers off the ground. Spent last night with Bob, listening to old Robyn Hitchcock and older Pink Floyd. (Bob, a longtime Floyd fan, had never heard of Piper at the Gates of Dawn or indeed even known there were any records before Atom Heart Mother -- it was a privilege to introduce him to Syd Barrett's music.)
posted afternoon of October 28th, 2007: Respond
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Saturday, October 27th, 2007
My favorite thing about I Wanna Go Backwards, on first listening, may be the inclusion of "All I wanna do is fall in love" as a bonus track on Black Snake Dîamond Röle. I was not aware of that song before this afternoon but it is now one of my favorite Hitchcock songs. So I was glad to hear it -- all of that record was really nice to hear again, as was Eye (except I remembered how "Queen Elvis" kind of turned me off to that record -- but the good tracks more than make up for that). Also I was happy to see some key tracks from Eaten By Her Own Dinner on the bonus material for BSDR -- including the majestically weird "Happy the Golden Prince". ("So that's who I am!") The record of unreleased demo tapes, While Thatcher Mauled Britain (fantastic title), is going to take a few more listenings before I decide how worthwhile it is to me; most of the versions of songs I knew did not seem as good as the album versions, and I didn't listen that closely to the songs I did not know from elsewhere. But seriously, "All I wanna do is fall in love", what a magnificent song. Other extremely good things about listening to this collection: "Executioner", and multiple versions of "Raining Twilight Coast"....also: remember how I said that "She Doesn't Exist" doesn't do bitter as well as "Positively 4th Street"? "Nowhere Girl" is not aiming for quite the same thing as "4th Street" -- but it sure is bitter, and it sure is a fantastic song.
posted evening of October 27th, 2007: Respond
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Friday, October 26th, 2007
O happy day! Robyn Hitchcock's box set I Wanna Go Backwards is published and arrives on my doorstep. Looks really good -- tomorrow I am going to spend some time savoring it. There is Black Snake Dîamond Röle, his first solo record, and which was the one album of his I got to know by heart when I was a teenager -- this print also includes nearly a whole nother record's worth of extra tracks, ones I love off of Eaten by her own Dinner, and ones I have never heard of -- I Often Dream of Trains, which a lot of Hitchcock fans seem to list as their favorite record; and Eye, which I love the songs that I'm familiar with but don't really know the record as a whole. Jer told me that when Eye came out he had started getting disillusioned with Robyn and the record reminded him of why he thought Robyn was a great musician. (I wasn't really listening to new records at that time because of not having a CD player.) And, and that's not all -- rounding out the set is a double album of demo tapes from the '80's titled While Thatcher Mauled Britain. Looks like this is going to be my afternoon activity tomorrow -- I had been planning to march against the war, but this fair-weather patriot is put off by forecasts of 100% chance heavy rain.
posted evening of October 26th, 2007: Respond
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