Thursday, March 17
Top o’ the evening to you. I’ve got Irish blood from the Gillis clan (grandmother) and spirit from the Sweeneys (hubby’s mom), but I wore no green today. Leprechauns need to stay undercover. I’m playing Celtic rock, though. U2 to start, then Raindogs.
Feels like I’m a student, behind on my homework. No new music arrived today, but there’s a pile on the desk of things I’ve yet to catalog. Behind, behind, behind…
Wednesday,
Tuesday, March 15
1. PORCUPINE TREE – Deadwing (Lava)
Monday, March 14
2. AQUALUNG – Strange & Beautiful (Columbia)
First off, he’s gotta change that name. I’m old enough to remember Jethro Tull, and the name association is not a pretty one. Mr. Lung, however, (real name Matt Hales) is quite the cutie in his press photo. On first listen, it’s more sweet-voiced British balladry of the Coldplay school and while that sort of sound is pleasant enough, Aqualung’s breathy ramblings make Keane sound positively nasty, and that’s too twee and a third.
3. LONG VIEW – Mercury (14th Floor/Columbia)
First listen brings a sense of ho-hum leading to a maybe…there’s a bit of old-school progressive rock and a touch of bombast, but with pop smarts. Too early to tell, but this band is playing with Phoenix and Dogs Die In Hot Cars later this month, so I’m coming back for another round.
4. JONATHAN EDWARDS – Cruising America’s Waterways (2000, Media Artists)
Yes, it includes “Sunshine.” Just wrote a preview piece about JE for the Post and listened to that first eponymous LP (the phonograph still works for the collected vinyl) and was reminded that he was a sweet-voiced hippie dude – and he sang a song called “Emma,” which I must play sometime for my daughter of the same name. But – maybe I’m just fighting against my own aging here – that Kumbaya vibe doesn’t grow better with time and this new CD, a soundtrack of sorts from a PBS TV series, literally put me to sleep when I played it during an early morning lie down.
5. JOHN BUTLER TRIO – Sunrise Over Sea (Lava)
Put this one on earlier today while I was working on some ad copy for a chocolate company web site, and it passed the passive listening audition with the proverbial flying colors. Periodically, I would come out from my writing coma, drawn to something I heard happening on the stereo behind me and ask myself “which CD is that? That’s good.” The capper was the hidden track that came up after the last song – not so much another song as an ambient soundscape that snuck up on me. When a first, casual listen calls to me like this one did, I look forward to another listen soon. I’ve got a long drive tomorrow; this CD’s coming with me.
6. GIRLYMAN – Little Star (Daemon)
(out May 24)
Sunday, March 13
7. THE MERCY SEAT – S/T (West Pier Records)
Previewed this trio in the Post, along with getting-to-be-a-pal Essie Jain, and went to the show, where I was mightily impressed. The guys looked very tired while Essie sang and her slow tempo sounds looked like they might put them to sleep. But they perked considerably when I showed them a copy of the story. (They gave me the CD at the end of the set.) It’s nice to give some attention and encouragement to a band like this on a long, hard haul of a tour that lands in tiny, no cover bars, where the only thing you make are new fans and some beer money from merch sales. A bracing live performance and a fine, taut CD as well – a cross of Tom Petty’s southern slur (the group is from Gainesville, Florida) with some dry Tom Waits style narratives, and a stand-up bass to boot. A nice new discovery.
Saturday, March 12
8. The BRAVERY - 3-track free sampler
The video for this band’s song (something like “My Mistake;” it’s not on this sampler) is fabulous, except for all the annoying shots of the band that get in the way of the real action – the amazingly contorted Rube Goldberg-ian chain reaction of things, starting with lines and lines of falling dominoes and then moving on to lots of other things rolling and bouncing and setting off fires and knocking down stuff…so, so cool. The band looks annoying, the song hard British pop cliché, but the video could make it a hit just so we can watch that cool shit happen over and over again.
9. JOHN DIGWEED – Fabric 20 (Fabric Records)
10. FORTY5 SOUTH – We’re Country So We Can (Tilo Records)
11. CELTIC FIDDLE FESTIVAL – Play On (Green Linnet)
Oh, no. Just read the accompanying press release to discover that this is a tribute by the Green Linnet artists to fiddler and founding member Johnny Cunningham, who died in December 2003. I’m 99% sure this is the same Johnny Cunningham I interviewed way back in the days of the Raindogs. It was one of my first short artist profiles for Rolling Stone, and took place in the band’s dressing room at the Beacon Theatre in NYC. I remember being nervous and I remember the band being a bunch of kind, friendly guys, especially JC. I’m listening to the Dogs’ “Lost Souls” right now. And it’s still just barely (almost midnight) St. Patty’s Day. Johnny was a Scotsman, but I still think it has a bittersweet appropriateness. Here’s to ya, JC.
12. THE METHOD AND THE RESULT – The Things You Miss (Losing Blueprint/KiraKira Disc Records)
Thursday, March 10
A visit to the Thrift Store almost always yields some good buck-fifty CDs.
13. US3 – Hand on the Torch (Blue Note, 1993)
14. BBC MUSIC magazine – Live from the Proms
Walton Symphony #1 and Takemitsu, From Me Flows What You Call Time
15. FARGO – soundtrack music by Carter Burwell (1996, TVT Records)
16.MORNING BECOMES ECLECTIC – KCRW compilation (1999, Mammoth)
Sign of a music addict – buying a CD that you’re not entirely sure, but you may already own…but at $1.50 with acts like Beth Orton, Air, Lyle Lovett and Pink Martini in rare live spots from LA’s hippest morning radio show, how can you not take the chance?
17. MANDY PATINKIN – Experiment (1994, Elektra Nonesuch)
A 50 cent cassette for my mom. Tho’ I love Patinkin’s voice, and he will always be a god for having starred in Sunday in the Park with George, perhaps the greatest musical I’ve ever seen, his arrangements can border on the treacly (one of the reasons he’s best doing Sondheim; no unctuous sentiments there). I’ll listen once and pass it on. My tape player’s pretty much a reference tool these days, like a microfiche reader.
18. U2 – Wide Awake in America (747 Music)
Another 50 cent cassette, tho’ not for mom. Despite the lowly cassette’s position on the food chain of music-delivery devices (even the 8-track fares better, with a kind of kicky vintage charm), there are albums I find in the format that I don’t have otherwise. Death Cab for Cutie recently released Transatlanticism on cassette so that fans who were driving in their parents’ car would have something cool to listen to! Anyway, I bought this U2 cassette ‘cause it looked like something released in another country and now, with a magnifying glass, I can see that it was made in Singapore. (The Japanese cassettes I have are cooler.)
Oh, and I did eat a green bagel....
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