Snowpony - The Slow-Motion World of Snowpony

rocky says: Claudia of Homotiller Industries gave me a promo copy to review in 1998.
Here's what I wrote then:

I kinda liked this record until I figured out the lyrics. Now, I simply fucking ADORE it.You see, I’ve realized that the themes of many (if not all) of the tracks involve some meditation on drinking and drugging-related states of dis/illusionment. And Good Lord, but it is just sooo seductive to hear a fine female throat croon the dis/pleasures of the Narcoticized Life. Just think Billie Holiday, Edith Piaf, Nico, et al., then forget them. Ah, but you can’t, see? And therein lies the sirenic allure of Snowpony’s celebratory dysfunction. Because Naturally, (or is it Culturally?) there’s no real fun without a Good Healthy Dose of Guilt, and Snowpony’s lexiconography is Lush-ly Laden with Lyrics of Remorse Redemption and Relapse.

Yow. Hey, I apologize. I was in grad school for Lit and doing far too much drinking and drugging myself to be able to refrain from such textual over-indulgence. But, Ten Years After, I still love this record for all the same wrong reasons. This album is downright dark. And catchy as all get-out. Plus, the production is Total Tits.

allmusic: The atmospheric electronic-pop trio Snowpony was an alternative British supergroup of sorts comprising vocalist/keyboardist Katharine Gifford -- a former member of Stereolab and Moonshake -- as well as onetime My Bloody Valentine bassist Debbie Googe and ex-Quickspace/Rollerskate Skinny drummer Max Corradi. A number of singles announcing the group's arrival appeared in 1997, among them "Evil Way Down" and "Chocolate in the Sun." The full-length Slow-Motion World of Snowpony followed a year later.

The Slow-Motion World of Snowpony is the full-length debut from Snowpony, which features ex-members of Stereolab and My Bloody Valentine. The band's drone pop sound comes from a live rhythm section mixed with looped and sampled guitars and keyboards. Merged with Katharine Gifford's smooth, ennui-filled vocals, the result is strong, dark melodies with an edgy groove.

The sound is very tight, which is most likely the result of producer John McEntire of Tortoise. The album ranges from the light-hearted "Love Letters," with its teasing vocals and flirtatious lyrics [rocky says: this is wildly obtuse and inaccurate -- the lyrics are just fucking dark], to the somber "St. Lucy's Gate." Many of Gifford's lyrics have a cryptic quality.

On first listen, they seem innocent and simple, but then the darker aspects and double entendres surface. For example, "3 Can Keep a Secret (If 2 Are Dead)," which features sampling from Sonic Youth's "100%," sounds semi-cheerful, but the lyrics hint at something sinister and mysterious. This mood carries throughout the entire album, which helps to make The Slow-Motion World of Snowpony one of the most intriguing electronic pop albums of 1998.

HeaR

Various Artists - Velvet Goldmine OST

Worship Todd Haynes. Love this movie. Adore this soundtrack.

allmusic: Glam rock was all about style as substance, finding truth through image. Todd Haynes realized this, constructing Velvet Goldmine, his ode to glam, as a hallucinatory experience where the surface means as much, if not more, than the underlying meanings. Which means, of course, that Haynes' view of glam was based on the artier inclinations of David Bowie and the sinister cabaret and full-blown dementia of Brian Eno-era Roxy Music.

Bowie refused to have any of his songs in Velvet Goldmine, possibly due to the anti-Bowie slant of the script, and the filmmakers squeezed their way out of a potentially fatal situation by hiring Shudder To Think and Grant Lee Buffalo to write Ziggy soundalikes. They work smashingly, as Shudder To Think's "Ballad of Mawell Demon" captures the sweeping ballad feeling of "All the Young Dudes," while Grant Lee Buffalo's "The Whole Shebang" is an uncanny recreation of Hunky Dory's skipping vaudevillian pop.

Their contributions stand out on the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack, which is primarily devoted to songs from the era, either in their original incarnations or in newly minted covers. It's actually a risky move to stand Roxy Music's classic first single "Virginia Plain" next to a wealth of Roxy interpretations by the Venus in Furs, yet their recreations are stunning, enhanced by Thom Yorke's remarkable imitation of Bryan Ferry's vocals. Similarly, the Iggy Pop tribute band, Wylde Ratttz do an admirable job with "TV Eye."

The other covers don't fare as well, yet the other new songs are first-rate (particularly Pulp's stomping, horn-driven Slade extravaganza "We Are the Boys") and all the original recordings are terrific, highlighted by cult items as Eno's fantastic "Needle in the Camel's Eye," T. Rex's "Diamond Meadows" and Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel's British hit "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)."

The soundtrack, like the film itself, may be more of a collection of moments than a coherent experience, but those moments are pretty spectacular.

01 Needle In The Camel's Eye - Brian Eno
02 Hot One - Shudder To Think
03 20th Century Boy (T. Rex cover) - Placebo
04. 2HB (Roxy Music cover) - The Venus In Furs
05. TV Eye (Iggy Pop & The Stooges cover) - Wylde Ratttz
06. Ballad Of Maxwell Demon - Shudder To Think
07. The Whole Shebang - Grant Lee Buffalo
08. Ladytron (Roxy Music cover) - The Venus In Furs
09. We Are The Boyz - Pulp
10. Virginia Plain - Roxy Music
11. Personality Crisis (The New York Dolls cover) - Teenage FanClub feat. Donna Matthews
12. Satellite Of Love - Lou Reed
13. Diamond Meadows - T. Rex
14. Bitter's End - Paul Kimble & Andy Mackay
15. Baby's On Fire (Brian Eno cover) - The Venus In Furs
16. Bitter-Sweet (Roxy Music cover) - The Venus In Furs
17. Velvet Spacetime - Carter Burwell
18. Tumbling Down (Steve Harley cover) - The Venus In Furs
19. Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) - Steve Harley

HEAR

sampler of teenbeat sampler

Hey! Look at Me! I'm on Froxx and I'm blogging and a 1-2-3!

So there are a bunch of tapes and odds-n-ends that I've been plotting to post on this majestic blog, but I just have too many unfinished projects laying around to actually follow thru on anything. I'm hoping this baby step gets me rolling in a snowball's fury toward total execution. See, I'm a fatso, so I gotta get the metabolism and momentum kicking before I can blast out of any given gate.

So here's the sitch with this inaugural Froxx post: i'm hoping that this is my toe in the water before I tuck all 230 pounds of myself into a hurling, spinning mass toward a bombastic cannonball splash that soaks a lot of t-shirts. 

Well, I was working on mixing something today when I thought of that heady Tortoise remix album that came out in the summer of 1995, which took a bunch of songs off the colossal "Millions . . ." and made them virtually unrecognizable. I actually thought that was a very cool artifact at the time and when I took a very stoned two-week road trip to Vegas with many pit stops camping in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado deserts that season, this tape was on heavy repeat, seeping through the valleys as my traveling companion and I melted off to sleep in sage and sand each night. 

  

I'll categorize that one as a semi-extreme remix treatment for the style of music. But that next year, as a DJ at the University of Kansas college radio station, it seems we were bombarded with Teenbeat releases and Mark Robinson remixes. I was open to the dude as I'd seen Unrest play a few times, and reportedly, I witnessed their last show ever, which was at the Hideaway in the winter of 1994. It was good, but I wasn't crazy about it. Cute girls went to the shows. 

In 1997 we got a Teenbeat compilation delivered to the station with two great songs on it, one of which is a Robinson remix of his own song, "Dolphin Expressway," from his own band, Air   Miami. I like this remix because it highlights the finer brush strokes of the composition. Shit, it's a linear pop song -- he really just buries a few tracks, drops some percussion here and there and piles on some thick plate where it doesn't do any harm. Links to the original song and the cautiously cool remix are below. I love the background vox.

I couldn't help but also include the first track on the compilation, "White Power Porch," by Versus. Now, I've never been a huge fan of their recorded output, but I saw a mind-blowing Versus show in the upstairs bar at the old La Luna in Portland in 1998 or so. It was just amazing and unexpected for a random $5 Tuesday night show up the block from where I lived. That night, after the show, I went home and revisited this song and it has been one that I frequently go back to when I want to feel the unexpected joy of that time and place again -- the surprising ecstasy that just gets sprung on ya when all you want is to get out of your apt to escape static and boredom and the sound of Brazilian film school neighbor pricks fucking. All you expect is to maybe leer at some obnoxious hipster chix and drink away your last 10 bucks in the world. But the band that booked a last-minute Tuesday night gig in a secondary room actually pins you against a dark wall with the heavy and slow, proprietary sounds that only people who know the smell of each others' blood can make together; a special interlocking of very loud composed pieces, each capable of occupying individual real estate in your head with eyes closed, but at times it all comes together in unison to rattle everything to your elbows. And the next day you still hear it, but you don't really remember any specific song or lyric, just the feeling of the sound and how it was perfect on that one night. It sticks with you for days and months and years. So you buy a record and can't believe it's the same band. Two asian dudes on the cover: can't be too many 90s indie rock bands called "Versus" with two Asian brothers. 

Maybe they were just hot that night. Or having an allergic reaction to mold. All I can say is it's too bad that all their records don't sound as cool to me as they did that one night. But this song is close. Still looking for "Secret Swingers." I hear it is a good VERSUS LP.

Anyhoooo...I know that most Froxxx posters post whole albums, but frankly, I only like two songs on this compilation. What I really want you to check out is Mark Robinson's subtle remix skills on the 'Dolphin" tune. It's easy to go apeshit on production when you have the master tapes, but this dude knows restraint.

He's a also a pretty badass designer, so I sincerely apologize to him for shitting all over his gorgeous map artwork with my bad clip art dolphin geek and Miami hot rod. 

Here's a sampler of the Teenbeat Sampler from 1997:

Dig it.

Broadcast - Four LPs

Cute with a menacing edge. Darling with a little bitterness. Torchy with some growl.

JW turned me on to Broadcast a few years ago via Tender Buttons and I've been crushin' ever since. Take a chance on these four and you'll see what I mean. They got groove, cool, detached minimal arrangements, some cold electronics and the ever breathy vocals. Dreamy and cozy then distant and alien. Really just nicely composed records that don't try too hard to outdo anyone ( ahem Stereolab )


I always thought they would've been a better choice to do the Virgin Suicides OST, but Sofia Coppola has a thing for French dudes (and who can blame her!).


Listen to them all day/all night.

_____________________________







Allmusic.com: Space-age pop collagists Broadcast formed in Birmingham, England, in 1995; comprised of vocalist Trish Keenan, guitarist Tim Felton, bassist James Cargill, keyboardist Roj Stevens, and drummer Steve Perkins, the quintet came together out of a shared affection for the psychedelic cult band the United States of America, a primary influence on their subsequent work as a group. Debuting in 1996 with the Wurlitzer Jukebox label single "Accidentals," Broadcast immediately won favorable comparisons to Stereolab for their sample-heavy, analog, synth-driven sound; the comparisons continued when they signed to Stereolab's Duophonic Super 45s imprint for their next effort, "Living Room." After the icily atmospheric Book Lovers EP, the group moved to Warp Records to release 1997's Work and Non-Work, a compilation of their existing singles tracks. The much-anticipated full-length The Noise Made by People finally appeared in early 2000 and the Extended Play Two EP was issued that fall. Ever the studio perfectionists, fans had to wait until 2003 to hear any new material from the band, when the Pendulum EP arrived that spring and Haha Sound appeared that summer. In fall 2005, Broadcast -- pared down to the duo of Keenan and Cargill -- issued the America's Boy single and Tender Buttons full-length. 2006's Future Crayon collected the group's numerous rare tracks and B-sides.


Hear Ha Ha Sound


Hear Future Crayon


Hear The Noise Made By People


Hear Tender Buttons

Clarence White - Assembled, Assorted Works

Maybe you've heard of Clarence White; maybe you haven't - but I guarantee you have heard what he did. And you've heard his influence for the past 40 years. And I also guarantee you that all those guitar gods that have dominated music for the past 30 years owe more to him than a whole host of the usual suspects, whether they know it (and the good ones know it) or not.

He laid out all the tricks: nut pulls, hammer ons and pull-offs, flatpicking, rolling fingers. He changed the sound of music and created, with a little help, an entirely new genre - country rock. He was fluent in any form - he could rock harder than many, twang better than anyone, swing in his sleep, and flatpick like no one before or since. Not that it's any measure of artistry, but Clarence White could also play amazingly - dazzlingly - fast. He choose notes that surprised, phrases that broke conventions, hollowed out patterns and filled them with space before bubbling up from below to leave the listener and his fellow musicians in awe. He has been called the guitar's Charlie Parker and others have noted that even in his early days the things he did probably drove guitar-playing audience members to sell their axes the next morning out of depression. If there's a pantheon of guitar gods, it's not hard to imagine him as Zeus.

Though he did not "invent" it, the B-bender or string-bender (not the wammy bar) was his alone. He wanted his telecaster to sound like a pedal steel. He turned to band-mate Gene Parsons, who was also a machinist, and asked him to make something that would allow that. Parsons created the B-bender, a tight, spring-loaded device routed through the guitar body that attached to the neck-side post for the guitar strap. When playing, the guitarist pushes the neck away from his body which in turn pulls that post and bends the B string. It's a magical effect that is so much a part of our musical psyche now that we take it for granted.

He came from a bluegrass background that began at age ten with his brothers in the Burbank-based Country Boys (often appearing on the Andy Griffith show). He learned his chops with them (though his greatest influence was Django Reinhardt) and they eventually became what many claim was the greatest bluegrass band ever, The Kentucky Colonels. Their popularity and gigs dried up with the British invasion however, and that's when Clarence bought his first electric guitar - a telecaster. He did session work for a couple of years recording with the Monkees, Ricky Nelson, and Gary Paxton, among many. He also hooked up with an emerging Bakersfield twang scene. That's when he began to shine.

The rules and conventions began to take a beating and genre walls began to tumble from his sheer insistence. He experimented with technique, sound, tone. He got away with it because he was just so good.

When the Byrds came a calling they were still a psychedelic-folk band. His session work for them became full time membership. He changed them. He gave them real twang - made them take their tongues out of their cheeks. He started something.

Then there's Gram Parsons, and Sweetheart of the Rodeo, and The Flying Burrito Brothers, and the Bluegrass "supergroup" Muleskinner (with David Grisman and Peter Rowan), and Jackson Browne and Joe Cocker, and Linda Ronstadt, and the list goes on and on. The session work and touring gave him little time for anything except playing. But that was all to him.

Early on the morning of July 15, 1973, while loading up gear from a spur-of-the-moment reunion gig with The Kentucky Colonels, he was hit by a drunk driver and killed. He was 29 - just fucking 29. Gram Parsons sang at the service, but broke down mid-song - a complete wreck. Parsons never recovered from the loss and overdosed three months later.

There is so much to this story - so many fine details. I urge you to find out more. The best place to start is The Adios Lounge, which admirably contains a much longer, much more in-depth, accounting of his life.

Most of these tracks were pulled together by Adios Lounge and offered individually, so they should be thanked immeasurably. They run the gamut from The Kentucky Colonels all the way to the end. They vary in quality. There will be familiar items like the Byrds and the Arlo Guthrie classic, Coming into LA, that achieves it's majesty through White's soaring guitar. There some alternative takes as well. Some of these will be obscure to all but the most intrepid of fans, but all of them bear witness to White's immense talent and artistry. There are missing items - too little bluegrass - but if you search for that you can find it.

When you listen - and if you don't you do yourself a horrible disservice - remember that so much of it has been copied or mainstreamed that the sounds and techniques will seem familiar. In context, however, White went places no one had ever gone. Regardless of tricks or licks, his artistry is unparalleled and is grand magic.

Hear pt1

Hear pt2

Hear pt3

tracklisting:
Sorry but I'm not listing all of em. There are 63 or 64 and they're labeled - that'll have to do.

If you want a taste - here's two different songs from The Byrds. White devastates on both.

Byrds - Playboy after Dark - You ain't going nowhere / This Wheel's on fire


And from a BBC doc about The Byrds, bassist John York describes the fans who came to the shows just to watch Clarence. Geeky guitar boys.



a couple of quick notes about awe and reverence:

Virtuoso flatpicker, Tony Rice, owns Clarence's original D-28 - he cherishes it.

Master guitarist, Marty Stuart, owns Clarence's Telecaster - he too, cherishes it.

Ok, one more addendum.
I've put together 3 songs that demonstrate White's versatility and talent. The first is The Byrds live at Fillmore West doing King Apathy (a song that could be a template for half of Uncle Tupelo's act) - Clarence is frightening. The second is The Kentucky Colonels doing Fire On The Mountain in less than a minute - Clarence is too fast for words. The last is the overlooked Gosdin Brothers doing Tell Me on which Clarence was a very young hired gun. It's White's masterpiece - listen as he takes a simple but tasty moon, spoon, june song and explodes it, especially the last 50 seconds, with (to use an old bebop term) bomb after bomb after bomb.

Sly And The Family Stone - Bootleg, Live, Fillmore East, October 1968

Now I'm in a mood. Another soul man, another funkmeister, another junkie, and another live boot.

Sly and posse recorded October 5, 1968 at the Fillmore East. The quality is sharp and as funky as it is, this thing rocks hard too.

Get your Sunday groove on.

Hear

tracklist

01 - M'Lady (4:55)
02 - Color Me True (3:03)
03 - Are You Ready? (7:59)
04 - It Won't Be Long (7:46)
05 - Color Me True (6:22)
06 - Dance to the Music (11:18)
07 - Love City (5:34)
08 - Turn Me Loose (5:11)
09 - Outro (1:56)

Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson - Bootleg, Live At The Bottom Line, August 1977

And what's up with this man making such a late appearance in the Forest?

Recorded live, out of the board, at The Bottom Line In NYC, August 20th, 1977. I have a real fondness for Gil and Brian. Soundtrack of my Youth thing, blah, blah, blah - but more. The soulful anger is mixed with bittersweet humor like few others ever mastered let alone attempted.

This recording finds them at their peak as performers, before Gil got buried in the 80's by thankless mother fuckers, the start of a bad crack habit, and finally HIV. It's tight and groovin. This may be the find of all my internet hunting. Make sure you get a taste.

It's in three parts - hey, it's a two hour show - so be patient. You will be rewarded.

Simply stunning.

Hear pt1

Hear pt2

Hear pt3

tracklist

01. New Deal - 10:19
02. Gumbai - 5:05
03. Intro to Race Track In France - 1:22
04. Race Track In France - 8:06
05. Band Intros ~ Lead in to 95 South - 2:45
06. 95 South - 4:49
07. Intro to Hello Sunday, Hello Road - 1:02
08. Hello Sunday, Hello Road - 3:45
09. Intro to It's Your World - 0:38
10. It's Your World - 6:59
11. Home Is Where The Hatred Is - 15:29
12. Almost Lost Detroit - 5:59
13. Intro to Vildgolia - 1:36
14. Vildgolia (Deaf, Dumb & Blind) - 12:24
15. Winter In America - 6:54
16. Under The Hammer - 5:12
17. The Bottle - 15:07
18. Intro to Johannesburg - 0:53
19. Johannesburg - 5:37

musicians

Gil Scott-Heron - electric piano, vocals
Brian Jackson - piano, electric piano, clavinet, synths, flute, vocals
Allan Barnes - flute, tenor sax, synthesizer
Reggie Brisbane - percussion, drums
Siggie Dillard - bass
Tony Duncanson - timbales, percussion, djembe
Delbert Taylor - trumpet, electric piano (on "95 South" & "Home Is Where the Hatred Is")
Barnett Williams - djembe, congas

thank you - never enough rhodes

Consolidated - The Myth Of Rock

If you prefer your politics far left and your music to bleed those politics, then radicalize yourself. Their first release, this was by no means a masterpiece, but it was the best they'd ever produce. It feels almost quaint now, especially their righteous anger - an anger all too common in youth that comes from the right place but never listens. When they sample an interview from NPR, for example, about a company that was taking advantage of the "frictionless economy", they get pissed as all get out at "the man", failing to realize that the original interview was an April Fool's joke and the contemptuous company never existed.

It's pissy enough and beat heavy enough to keep you jamming, though.

George Will would never play this.

allmusic:

Love them or hate them, you have to respect Consolidated for having and sticking strongly to political views generally considered unfashionable in the mainstream music world: MTV demeans women, meat is (still) murder, rock is a myth, and America treats its black community with contempt. This album is where it all started for Consolidated, and there's more than a bit of influence-on-the-sleeveitis going on here (you can hear Gil Scott Heron and Last Poets in the lyrics, and Public Enemy both lyrically and musically, but the most overwhelming influence overshadowing the whole affair is Tackhead). It's more musical here than it would be on subsequent releases, which skewed far more heavily toward rhythm and spoken word and away from funky dub-influenced hip-hop. It's still in your face and very leftist, though, so Ayn Rand fans beware.

Hear pt 1

Hear pt 2

Richard Davis & Elvin Jones - Heavy Sounds

A thick and mystical, thumping offering. As a bass aficionado, this is a true inspiration - top of the mountain type shit. True chalice.

Davis's CV

________________________



Some more on Davis via Allmusic: A superb bass technician who doesn't have as extensive a recorded legacy as expected, Richard Davis has a wonderful tone, is excellent with either the bow or fingers, and stands out in any situation. He has been a remarkable free, bebop and hard bop player, served in world class symphony orchestras, backed vocalists and engaged in stunning duets with fellow bassists. He does any and everything well in terms of bass playing; accompaniment, soloing, working with others in the rhythm section, responding to soloists, or playing unison passages. He combines upper register notes with low sounds coaxed through the use of open strings. Davis studied privately nearly 10 years in the '40s and '50s, while also playing with Chicago orchestras. He played with Ahmad Jamal, Charlie Ventura, and Don Shirley in the early and mid-'50s, then worked with Sarah Vaughan in the late '50s and early '60s, as well as Kenny Burrell. Davis divided his duties in the '60s between recording and performing sessions with jazz musicians and freelance work with symphony orchestras conducted by Leonard Bernstein and Igor Stravinsky. He recorded often with Eric Dolphy, including the unforgettable dates at the Five Spot. He also worked with Booker Ervin, Andrew Hill, Ben Webster, Stan Getz, Earl Hines, and the Creative Construction Company. Davis teamed with Jaki Byard and Alan Dawson on sessions with Ervin, and others like Rahsaan Roland Kirk. He also played with Van Morrison. During the '70s Davis worked with Hank Jones and Billy Cobham, and he was a member of the Thad Jones - Mel Lewis Orchestra in the '60s and '70s. Davis left New York in 1977 to teach at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he remained into the mid-'80s. He appeared at the Aurex Jazz Festival in Tokyo in 1982, playing in a jam session led by trombonists J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding, and at the 1984 Chicago Jazz Festival. Davis was featured in the 1982 film "Jazz In Exile." He's done relatively few recordings as a leader, though three Muse sessions are now available on CD. The superb The Philosophy Of The Spiritual which matched Davis and fellow bassist Bill Lee is not in print or on CD.



Hear

Glenn Branca - Lesson no. 1/Symphony no. 2

Perhaps the genesis of that shimmering Renaldo/Moore SY guitar sound. A real beauty. Building and building to an ecstatic spurt, like Steve Reich on Mountain Dew.

_________________________


Allmusic: Lesson No. 1 was Glenn Branca's first release as a composer. Originally issued as a 12" EP, or mini-album, it featured two tracks, the beautiful and accessible title track -- composed as a response to listening to Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart," and the frenetically assaultive "Dissonance," which has lost none of its power. The players on this date were organist Anthony Coleman, drummer Stephen Wischerth, F.L.Schroder on bass, Branca and Michael Gross on guitars and, on the latter track, Harry Spitz on Sledgehammer. This compact disc reissue on Acute contains "Bad Smells," an unreleased track from the Ascension sessions that came two years later. The band here features five guitarists: Branca, David Rosenbloom, Ned Sublette, Lee Ranaldo, and Thurston Moore, as well as bassist Jeffrey Glenn and Wischerth. There is also a QuickTime video movie of "Symphony No. 5" included. One of the most compelling things about this release is how fully developed Branca's ideas were even at this early juncture. His micro- and over-tonal notions as overlooked visceral elements in rock & roll prove worthy mettle here, and even on "Dissonance" with its catharsis and knotty harmonics, rock & roll is never far from the fore in his method. "Bad Smells" has a different, more complex dynamic, especially from the outset, but the sense of urgency is there, along with the shimmering, barely hidden melodic frames that keep the entire thing evolving on the axis of its pulse. Guitarist Alan Licht provides a fine critical history and appreciation in his liner notes, making for a historically relevant package. But in spite of its obvious contribution not only to vanguard music, but to Sonic Youth's sound, the music here is actually pleasant and compelling to listen to, and does not sound like a relic out of time and space, or a curiosity piece from long ago. Lesson No. 1 is a powerful, wrenching, transcendent piece of rock guitar classicism that, if there is any justice, will get a wider and more appreciative hearing in the new century.



Hear

Tishoumaren Sampler

Pause for a moment and let me get all WOMEX on you. I'm fairly topical in the realm of Peter Gabriel, but I can think of no music that better conveys the promise of hope after a long struggle than the tishoumaren music of the Tuareg nomads of Northern Africa. When the colonial grip faded from Africa these people struggled against lands grabs, drought and starvation. Born in refugee camps in the 80s, tishoumaren music became the rallying cry for resistance against the encroaching countries. There was a time when just possession of a Tinariwen cassette was a crime in Mali and Algeria. The music primarily consists of draping clean guitar jams over a rhythmic framework based on the gait of a camel. I've compiled a little sampler of my fave tracks from a few albums.

Tinariwen

Etran Finatawa

Toumast

Hear a tishoumaren sampler

Lori Carson - House In The Weeds

Per curry's request to de-testosterone this place.

Simple, elegant, beautiful.

allmusic:

Lori Carson has always approached her music from the standpoint of telling the truth as she sees and hears it at the moment. No matter how that music has subsequently been judged either by critics, the public, or the artist herself, this fundamental element has been consistent. Carson has never made music in a vacuum it's true, but neither has she made music with an ear or an eye for the marketplace. Hers has been the long, lonely road of listening to the human heart as it encounters, accepts, and learns to live from its brokenness; she reflects that in various nuances, styles, and in a singular elegance that is graceful and eloquent no matter how elusive or powerful the emotional, mental, or spiritual state she is trying to give voice to. House in the Weeds is a thoroughly homemade affair; it's a set of demos and first takes that have become a record that's not even for sale apart from her website — and may not even be repressed once it has sold out of its initial print run. But Carson's vision has never been clearer or unfettered in its view that life and love are indeed messy, and that's why they are so precious. This gorgeous record can be praised in the same way one can praise a razor—or the fineness of its slash. The softness here, the heartbreaking tenderness and acceptance in the grain of her voice are given weight by quietly shimmering guitars and the minimal intrusion of percussion, basslines, or swelling keyboards. This music is imperfectly performed; it was recorded for the sake of the immediacy of emotional and poetic accuracy. It's wonderfully imbalanced; it doesn't feel mixed and certainly not mastered. There are ambient sounds that haunt its close spaces: birds, the sound of wood scraping on a floor, perhaps a chair, singing that foregoes any notion but approximate pitch, and the sound of guitar strings squeaking under slippery fingers. On these ten songs, Carson discusses the tentative hope that happiness, a fleeting gamble anyway, may indeed be present every day if only for a few moments. She acknowledges the important part brokenness plays in the making of a life, and especially in the life that makes art and a life with someone. On "Dream of the Oceans" she speaks of dreaming as both an abstract reality and the very thing that is missing, the thing that informs the subtler actions in life and the very thing that allows people to risk their hearts on the long shot. There is no point in discussing the music here, or the kinds of songs that appear here. These are all love songs, they are all heart songs, if fact, these songs are more like kisses, brief as snapshots: they're eternal, but barely there. Their fragile beauty is nonetheless tensile, marvelous, full of the wonder of looking through the window and knowing that the world is still there, waiting for everyone to get up and take it in. On the last track the most profound truth is spoken, though it may have passed Carson by in the recording process. In the refrain of the last track, she sings repeatedly, "I'm always on your side." But it isn't her voice or the voice of the song's protagonist (who may be one and the same, but the jury's out there) that is speaking. The voice that speaks though Carson's instrument is that of the heart speaking back to Carson, echoing its sentiment as if in prayer. The music here on House in the Weeds, simple as it is, defies categorization; it isn't any specific kind of music as in rock or folk or pop, but is a music made up of all of those and more, and exists as none of them in any given moment. It is one that instructs morally, emotionally, and spiritually, simply because it doesn't desire to, it just reports — it takes things in and allows them the freedom of a poetic, gentle utterance that carries in its subtle colors, textures, and happenstance atmospherics the transference of feeling and psychological notions so big, so vast, and so sensual in what they communicate that all they can do is whisper.

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Holy Modal Rounders - Indian War Whoop

Truly freaked out, wigging yee-haw git you high folk/psyche. Get your loin clothe and free love on. Friendly and fuck'd up contemporaries of the Fugs but with bigger hugs and a mightier stomp. The definitive freak folk. Makes you wanna give the violin a shot.

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Allmusic: Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber obviously loved American folk music as much as any of the kids who had their head turned around by Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music in the 1950s, but unlike the many musicians who paid tribute to America's musical past by trying to re-create it as closely as possible, as The Holy Modal Rounders Stampfel and Weber opted to drag the music into the present, shrieking and giggling all the way. Even by the standards of The Holy Modal Rounders' first two albums, 1967's Indian War Whoop is a thoroughly bizarre listening experience; loosely structured around the between-song adventures of two seedy vagabonds named Jimmy and Crash, side one veers back and forth between neo-psychedelic fiddle-and-guitar freakouts and free-form (and often radically altered) interpretations of traditional folk tunes such as "Soldier's Joy" and "Sweet Apple Cider," while side two is devoted to like minded originals (including a couple songs from their friend Michael Hurley, who would later join the group). Most certainly a product of its time, Indian War Whoop sounds rather dated today, but its buoyant good humor and chemically-altered enthusiasm remains effective, even when the Rounders' reckless pursuit of inner space sounds like it was more fun to create than to observe on record. The Calibre CD reissue features expanded liner notes, and while no bonus tracks have been added, the digital remastering sounds terrific.


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The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms

I've never been able to spell 'rhythms' without referring to something. Crazy. I always want to put an 'n' in there.


And speaking of rhythm, according to the title, this record A) has them and 2) they are crazy. I don't know so much about the crazy part put certainly this is an exceptional record with an exceptional driving rhythm section... but not driving rhythm section in that machismo Zoplin/Shellac vain. The Feelies were more about establishing a geeky groove in the same way Mo Tucker was the VU fuel and then the layers got tossed on top like rock n' roll nachos.


Perky/feel good/spastic/jangly - all that and some french onion dip.

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Allmusic: Even the cover is a winner, with a washed-out look that screams new wave via horn-rimmed glasses, even more so than contemporaneous pictures of either Elvis Costello or the Embarrassment. But if it was all look and no brain, Crazy Rhythms would long ago have been dismissed as an early-'80s relic. That's exactly what this album is not, right from the soft, haunting hints of percussion that preface the suddenly energetic jump of the appropriately titled "The Boy With the Perpetual Nervousness." From there the band delivers seven more originals plus a striking cover of the Beatles' "Everybody's Got Something to Hide" that rips along even more quickly than the original. The guitar team of Mercer and Million smokes throughout, whether it's soft, rhythmic chiming with a mysterious, distanced air or blasting, angular solos. But Fier is the band's secret weapon, able to play straight-up beats but aiming at a rumbling, strange punch that updates Velvet Underground/Krautrock trance into giddier realms. Mercer's obvious Lou Reed vocal inflections make the VU roots even clearer, but even at this stage of the game there's something fresh about the work the quartet does, even 20 years on -- a good blend of past and present, rave-up and reflection. When the group's later label, A&M, finally got around to reissuing the album for the first time stateside, a curious bonus was included: a version of the Rolling Stones' "Paint It, Black," recorded by the later lineup of the band in 1990. Mercer's voice is noticeably different from his decade-old self, but it's an enthusiastic rendition not too far out of place.



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Bettye LaVette - I've Got My Own Hell To Raise

She sang at The Inauguration.

(with Jon Bon Jovi, even!)

and she's on Fresh Air today.

So Now, Without Further Ado,

Let's Welcome Bettye to The Forest...

allmusic: What can be said about Bettye LaVette that hasn't already been said? Like James Carr before her, LaVette has toiled behind the smoke and glitz of the limelight for decades. Her last regular recording contract was in the 1980s, and she hasn't cracked the R&B Top 20 in over three decades.

The 21st century has seen LaVette's activity increase, but it is this recording, produced by Joe Henry — who did wonders with Solomon Burke — that once more unveils to a large audience LaVette's singular gifts as a singer.

She's backed here by a wondrous slate of musicians including bassists Dave Pilch (acoustic, stand-up) and Paul Bryan (electric), Lisa Coleman on organ and piano, and guitarists Chris Bruce and Doyle Bramhall II.

I've Got My Own Hell to Raise begins innocently enough with an a cappella read of Sinéad O'Connor's "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got," radically reinterpreting the song as a gospel number. It's chilling. But it kicks right into a hard soul version of Lucinda Williams "Joy," and careens into another hard soul, straight-from-the-gut interpretation of Joan Armatrading's "Down to Zero."

One will be tempted to take the disc off right here; these three cuts are enough to take the listener into the small, unspeakable spaces in the mind and large terrains of the heart where emotion becomes nearly overwhelming. But there's so much more, like the hard, guitar-drenched, Southern-fried funk roiling boil of Rosanne Cash's "On the Surface"; the dark, edgy groove of Dolly Parton's "Little Sparrow"; the gritty, rusty-edged knife funk of "Only Time Will Tell Me," and the glorious closer, a radically re-imagined take on Fiona Apple's "Sleep to Dream," with its deep tom toms, loose-wristed snare, and wah-wahed guitars.

LaVette is fortunate to have found a producer with Henry's guts, vision, and sensitivity. He gets a lot of credit here, not only for presenting LaVette in a stripped down and directly emotive context, but also for his arrangements of these songs that feel almost like cinema in their dynamic and dramatic settings.

In each case, the constructive reworking of these cuts from the ground up — everything begins with rhythm here — finding and embracing the angularity hidden in them and putting them in front of a singer who can roll and shapeshift while remaining true to herself is simply wondrous. Hopefully, the attention this garners will lead to more than a one-off collaboration between Henry and Lavette.

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The Carpenters - The Singles, 1969 - 1973

The place needs a woman's touch.

You think you know all about this... but you don't.

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Allmusic: There's a certain inherent sadness listening to this concise 12-song collection of the Carpenters' early hits, especially as it opens with "We've Only Just Begun," with its hopeful, dreamy lyrics -- for it was never supposed to be definitive, just the first of at least two such collections. But changes in the public's taste and a slackening (though never a disappearance) of hits for the duo, and Karen Carpenter's death in 1983, made this the first and only real mass choice for a Carpenters collection. Ten of the duo's dozen Top Ten hits are present, from "Close to You" to "Top of the World," with their gorgeous and original slow ballad interpretation of "Ticket to Ride" and their cover of Carole King's "It's Going to Take Some Time" thrown in to offer a slightly wider perspective. Listening to this material, it's easy to accuse the Carpenters of being hopelessly retro even in their own time -- bear in mind that "We've Only Just Begun" and "Superstar" being contemporaneous with the Allman Brothers' At Fillmore East and Eat a Peach and you get the idea. But the lush melodies brought out in Richard Carpenter's arrangements and Karen's singing are justification in themselves. [The 1999 reissue in A&M's Remastered Classics series (#82839-3601-2) has a closer, toughened but warmer sound. Yes, the strings are brighter, to the point of glistening, but the rhythm section (Joe Osborn on bass, Hal Blaine on drums) has more impact as well. Moreover, the full original notes from the insert are now included, explaining how each song came to be discovered and recorded.]


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Animal Collective - Sung Tongs

In honor of the release of the AC's latest and greatest, "Merriweather Post Pavilion" - a big & stunning, revelatory/unique chunk of music - I provide this contributor's favorite Animal Collective effort prior to MPP.


This is the stuff that defines the Animal Collective to me - strums and drums and tribalrhythms in the days before they discovered samples and grime. Not that samplers and grime are bad, especially in the hands of the innovative --- oh oh oh not at all -- but old world acousticity in the hands of the innovative too can be just as world-opening as the bleepblop of samples and drum machines.

This is my faaaave.

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Pitchfork: Since their first release, Brooklyn's Animal Collective have soundtracked the surreal, manic experience of "immature" euphoria. In fact, the Tare/Bear duo responsible for Sung Tongs is the same that issued 2000's Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished, a singular, idiosyncratic take on fairy tale folk and starchild pop. Fairy tales and star-children: These are impressions of 'The Beyond' for imaginative children, and it's this mentality that Animal Collective explore and evoke. It might seem whimsical or silly, but only in the sense that these perceptions are the birthrights of all children, and this band have such facility with their musical environment that they manage to turn something primal into something almost timeless. Rather, grace is wasted on the elegant.


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Pissed Jeans - Hope For Men

Shit has been mellow around here lately. And things certainly have been heavy on the testosterone. So to maintain one theme and to defy a trend I humbly offer a sensitive male slab of aggro. Humorous, smart, intense and well-composed, Pissed Jeans single-handedly brought me back to bigger rock, borderline hardcore.

Clever. A gem among a bushel of turds.

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Pitchfork says: Now signed to obscure boutique label Sub Pop and already on their second album, the brand new Hope For Men, Pissed Jeans' rock is sourced in the early-80s loose-booty sludge of Flipper and Black Flag, the tightly wound treble-spray of late-80s/early-90s noise-rock such as Drunks With Guns and the Jesus Lizard, and a maxed-out Paypal account's worth of hyper-obscure hardcore nobodies who put out one awesome 7" before permanently taking that job at Orange Julius. It's an ugly sound-- sometimes frenzied (the sawn-off boogie of closer "My Bad") and sometimes totally entropic (the glue-huffing feedback-dub bummer "Scrapbooking")-- that I can't get enough of. Unlike so much music in 2007, whether it's Justice or the Arcade Fire, Pissed Jeans doesn't want to inflate your sense of euphoria. They want to stub out enthusiasm like a cigarette on a forehead.


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Pecker - 21st Century Dub

From the Brain aka PlanB247 aka DJ Plan B


I got this on a trip to NYC (before I lived there) back in 2000 or 2001 at the great Jammyland , which is now homeless except for the internet. I also once posted it to an infamous FTP music sharing network that I believe a handful of Roxxers were on, but I wanted to spread the love a little more... possibly to make up for drunken, post-Obama celebration, Mark E. Smith-type comments I left recently.


Anyway, it's one of the strangest albums I own, with a little avant garde jazziness thrown in with some great dub. For my money, "Kylyn" and the cover of "Concrete Jungle" are heartbreakingly beautiful, though Reggae Reviews has a slightly different take:


East meets West on this masterful set too often overlooked when considering the best dub albums of all time. Japanese percussionist Pecker (often a collaborator with the Yellow Magic Orchestra) approached none other than Bob Marley with the idea of doing a dub/reggae album, and although Marley doesn't appear on this album, he hooked Pecker up with some of the best musicians in Jamaica (including Sly & Robbie, Augustus Pablo, Rico Rodriguez, Mikey Chung, Carlton and Aston Barrett, and Earl "Wire" Lindo), culminating in this stunning showcase....


Though largely performed by Jamaican musicians, I'd have to attribute the one-of-a-kind sound -- slow and brooding with jazz/funk overtones and an off-kilter sensibility -- to the quirky Pecker. Despite the occasional eccentricities ("Dr. Dr. Humanity" and "Pecker Power Pt. 2" can't really be classified as reggae, but rather avant-garde percussion mumbo jumbo), 21st Century is surprisingly restrained and pensive -- this is music for cloud watching or cross country trekking.


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The Fall - Live at the Witch Trials

(Brain calls and we answer)

One of the more notable, scathing, abstract-invective-filled Fall releases which immediately pops into my head when the words "Mark E. Smith" are uttered. Categorically regarded as in the top 30 of Fall releases. And as it tends to go, the first is the best...

We'll be back-a with more Fall!

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Allmusic: That the first Fall album in a near endless stream would not only not sound very punk at all but would be a downright pleasant listen at the start (thanks to Yvonne Pawlett's electric piano on "Frightened") seems perfectly in keeping with Smith's endlessly contrary mind. His inimitable drawl/moan and general vision of the universe (idiots are everywhere and idiotic things are rampant) similarly sprawls all over the music -- there's no question who this is or whose band it is as well. That said, most of Live at the Witch Trials is co-written with Martin Bramah, whose guitar work here is noticeably much more inclined to chime and ring instead of brutally scratching away like Craig Scanlon's awesome work would soon do. Bramah's not just there to sound tuneful, though, and the killer Marc Riley/Karl Burns rhythm section both keeps up the energy and provides surprising grooves. On chugging tracks like "Two Steps Back," it's not hard to tell Smith's Krautrock fandom is coming into play. With Pawlett's keyboards providing a pretty garage kick on top of it all, the result is an all-around treat. Brilliantly scabrous tracks are everywhere, one of the most memorable being "Rebellious Jukebox," simultaneously one of the most tuneful and aggressive songs from the early lineup, Smith pouring it on along with the band as a whole. The driving funk of "Music Scene," meanwhile, redefines misanthropy (and more) with a particularly central Smith target in mind. "No Xmas for John Quays," meanwhile, almost establishes the Fall formula on its own -- Smith chanting and yelling over a quick, semi-rockabilly shamble and attack punctuated with unexpected stops and starts. Note -- the Cog Sinister CD re-release of the album, in keeping with similar perverse reissues in the Fall's back catalog, is mastered directly from vinyl, and more than once sounds it.


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John Frusciante

Here's a little special episode. John Frusciante. A pretty special mind, guitar prodigy who plays in a mediocre arena rock band known for wearing socks on dongs and fighting like braves. And he's a great story.


Here's a film by Johnny Depp near the last days of Frusciante's Hollywood Hills home before it burned down. Frusciante at the time was eyeball deep in heroin & coke addiction.





Wikipedia:...an article published by the New Times LA described Frusciante as "a skeleton covered in thin skin" who, at the pinnacle of his addictions, nearly died from a blood infection.^[30] His arms became fiercely scarred from improperly shooting heroin and cocaine, leaving permanent abscesses.^[22] Frusciante spent the next three years holed up in his Hollywood Hills home, the walls of which were badly damaged and covered in graffiti.^[31] During this time, his friends Johnny Depp and Gibby Haynes went to his house and filmed an unreleased documentary short called Stuff, depicting the squalor in which he was living.^[31] The house was eventually destroyed by a fire that claimed his vintage guitar collection along with several recorded tapes of music and left him with a few serious burn injuries after he narrowly escaped.^[32]



More of the extensive bio HERE



Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt (1994) HEAR



Smile From the Streets You Hold (1997) HEAR



A Sphere in the Heart of Silence (2004) HEAR (password: afterallhewassad.blogspot)

More Frusciante here

Francis Lai - Vivre Pour Vivre

Fall in love all over again for the first time once again just lied you did the last time. More lovely Francis Lai soundtrack meat. Truly the only accompaniment when preparing and enjoying a delicious meal with the object of your desires and the mother of your babies, or just one of the above or if they are one in the same... or not.

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Allmovie: French director Claude Lelouch followed up his hit A Man and a Woman with this tale of a love triangle set against the background of late 1960s political unrest. A French television reporter, Robert Colomb (Yves Montand), on assignment in Kenya, has an affair with a young fashion model, Candice (Candice Bergen). He returns to Paris and tries to reinvigorate his marriage to Catherine (Annie Girardot) by going on a second honeymoon. But Candice follows him to Paris and they resume their affair. Many more romantic entanglements follow. The movie was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film.


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