...that’s me, surrounded by new music.
Today (2/2)
Purchased:
1. BOSSA NOVA LOUNGE (Madacy Special Markets)
This one may not even count. It was included in a men’s grooming gift set I picked up from the clearance table at Borders. Twelve tracks, 48 minutes of generic lounge music. Total Teflon. In one ear, out the other, and into the bye-bye box.
2. MOJO magzine with free CD, BLUE CHRISTMAS
Why Borders was selling this January issue a week after I bought February’s is beyond me, but the CD, “15 tracks of Faith, Hope and Seasonal Misery,” featuring unusual seasonal tunes by Flaming Lips. Rufus Wainwright, Marvin Gaye (“Purple Snowflakes”??), the Staple Singers and others, will be a boon to next year’s annual “Cool Yule” compilation, in which yours truly attempts to provide every CPF household with a unique 80-minute mix of merrixmasment.
Sent:
3. SOUND TRIBE SECTOR NINE (STS9) – Artifact (1320 Records)
Why did I have this group lumped in with the jam bands? The sound here is much more laid-back, experimental, vaguely electronic chill, but none of that dreaded new age aftertaste. STS9 also gets big props for a simple, but stylish press kit and a lovely CD package – letterpress digi-pack and a booklet of engaging illustrations and photography. Sweet!
4. FAIRMONT – Hell is Other People (Reinforcement/Renfield Records)
New Jersey-based band coming to DC later this month (DC9, Feb. 22). The group has an interesting track record, including dates (in a prior incarnation called Percey Prep) with the Strokes, Nada Surf and Ted Leo. The band’s third independently-released CD is a concept album, loosely based on Sartre’s “No Exit.” Not as gloomy as you might fear, thanks to strumming guitars and harmony vocals in the self-described “dark indie pop.”
Tuesday, 2/1:
Purchased:
5. CONNECT WITH MEDITATION (Genius Entertainment)
Oh, Target! Now you’ve installed those few bins of impulse shopaholic enabling known as the $1 Spot, and I’ll buy all sorts of crap I wouldn’t dream of purchasing otherwise. And this week you put CDs in there! You know my deepest secrets, dear Target. And what’s worse, this 30-minute disc of quiet sounds is not bad at all. I can only do about a half-hour of yoga before I get restless anyway (so far to go before I achieve enlightment…) I’ve heard worse (much worse) ethereal meanderings from Yanni, so Namaste to you. There’s maybe a half-dozen albums in this series, but I can resist. I think.
Sent:
6. THE GOLDEN REPUBLIC – eponymous (Astralwerks)
Good driving music, as I discovered in the car to and from the movies (“Finding Neverland” – tearful charm and hot Mr. Depp). A solid guitar rock base with flecks of danceable new wave. Best first impression: “Robots,” with Cake-like spoken verses and the Gary Numan chorus: “They make robots to do what you do.”
7. AMY RAY – Prom (Daemon)
One half of the Indigo Girls (the one I would have a thing for if I were gay), Amy’s got her own label and, far from being a vanity project, she releases worthwhile albums from other cool chicks in her estrogenically punky southern sphere. I bet she’s good and angry these days, what with Dubya back in charge. And I bet that means some righteously good rock. Will get back to you on this one. (out April 12)
8. HITCH soundtrack (Sony Music Soundtraxx)
Am I the only person getting tired of Will Smith? No denying the guy’s got talent, but he can’t make up his mind if he’s a Kickass Action Playa or Mr. Nice Family Comedy Man. This soundtrack, from the latter school, sounds like what I bet the movie is: a safe collection of the Tried and True (“Love Train,” “I Can’t Get Next to You,” “You Can Get It If You really Want”), some pleasant but not radical reworkings of the T&T (“Now That We’ve Found Love,” “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing”), and just a few “new” elements that will amuse the date night crowd, but spark no lasting emotion for the next day.
9. EL PUS – Hoodlum Rock (Vol. 1: The Bogard) (Virgin)
Actually, a second copy of this CD arrived today (I don’t know why), which tipped my hand to listen. And from the title to the Parental Advisory, and the back cover shot of tough-looking hip-hoppers, I would never have imagined that this would appeal to me. But the beats are instantly infectious and the tone is clever and playful, not boastful and aggressive. “Thing Thing” is downright uplifting, albeit with attitude. Is this really “crunk music – with amps and guitars,” as the bio says? Never thought of myself as the crunkin’ type.
And from the Still-Full Box of Music Obtained in the Recent Past:
10. JOHNNY MADDOX & HIS DIXIE BOYS – Dixieland Blues (Crazy Otto, reissue from Dot Records)
The kind of thing I don’t get called on to review but value nonetheless (thanks, Josh!). First off, you’ve gotta love a company called Crazy Otto Records, esp. when it’s “committed to the preservation and recirculation of nostalgic, ragtime and early American jazz and blues music. ” This particular title is being reissued for the first time on CD come April, but it dates back to when I was still crawling. According to his bio, Maddox’s all-piano record, "The Crazy Otto Medley,” became the first ragtime record to sell more than a million copies and, as the first artist of Dot Records, his success helped launch the label that launched some major 50’s artists. Includes some nifty computer enhancements - audio commentary from Maddox, who’s obviously a font of info about the Good Old Days, and a video that shows his amazing piano fingers flying. You also get to read about cool cats with great names, like Matty Matlock (clarinet), Mannie Klien (trumpet), Moe Schneider (trombone), Nappy LaMare (banjo), and Nick Fatool (drums).
11. LACKAWANNA BLUES soundtrack (Vanguard)
Half-way between Maddox and Hitch, this disc features new recordings (Mos Def, Blind Boys of Alabama, Macy Gray et al) and catalog tracks. For me, the action is in the oldies, like Little Jimmy Scott, Big Joe Turner, J.J. Jackson, and Etta Baker. But the new stuff ain’t half bad and has direct relevance to the film (unlike the product-pushing rosters on most film collections). In the HBO movie, set in Lackawanna, New York, during the 50’s and 60’s, Mos Def plays a bandleader at a local club, so his songs and those of Robert Bradley, playing a blind blues singer, actually mean something to the story.
Thanks for listening in with me...
No comments:
Post a Comment