1. JAMIE CULLUM – Catching Tales (Verve/Forecast)
I have this already, but not the deluxe set, with the DVD extra.
2. MILES DAVIS – Porgy and Bess (Columbia)
I’ll pass this off as a present to Terry, but it’s really for me.
3. BLUR – 13 (Virgin)
Another present for Terry; this time for real. I wasn’t fond of the album when I originally got it on cassette, but I’ll give Damon and co. a second chance. Maybe they were ahead of their time.
4. LYLE LOVETT – My Baby Don’t Tolerate (Lost Highwy/Curb)
Picked up at an earlier visit to a Borders store in the lovely little town of Saratoga (horse town):
5. VARIOUS ARTISTS – Uncut magazine sampler for July 2006
Dupes:
6. EASY STAR ALL-STARS – Radiodread (Easy Star Records)
Worth having two – one for the car.
Out: August 22.
7. JOHNNY CASH – American V: A Hundred Highways (Lost Highway/American)
8.THOM YORKE – The Eraser (XL)
Love the graphics. Trouble is, within the first few times of opening it to remove the disc, the cardboard ripped. I bought the official copy right away since we’ve been enjoying the leaked advance so much. Still, I object again to the Target Extra concept - this time, a downloadable interview with Yorke. But the download requires no special code and is stickered on the front cover shrinkwarap anyway, so no big deal. (I’d pass it on, but I lost the sticker).
Pitches:
9. ELI COOK - Miss Blues Child (self-released)
Pitched for the Post, tied to his show at the Birchmere on July 21st.
10. DAVID POE – Live and Solo at the Artists Den (self-released)
Was at Jammin Java Thursday (July 22nd).
11. ANGIE APARAO – El Primero Del Tres (self-released)
Coming to Jammin Java on August 19th.
Purchased:
12. ZERO 7 – The Garden
Downtempo groove stuff, featuring vocals by Jose Gonzalez and Sia.
13.VAROUS ARTISTS – free Best Buy Tour Sampler
Angels and Airwaves, Taking Back Sunday, the Subways and someone I forget.
14. JOHNNY CASH & JUNE CARTER CASH – 16 Biggest Hits (Columbia/Legacy)
I swim weekly with a group of special needs kids, one of whom is a tiny little autistic boy named Jackson, so I had to know all the words to the song that bears his name. And, ever since seeing “Walk the Line,” I’ve wanted more Johnny and June, so this one went to the top of my list at mymusic.
15.VARIOUS ARTISTS – Mojo Magazine Presents Revolver Reloaded
Like “This Bird Has Flown,” which channeled “Rubber Soul,” this CD recreates a classic Beatles album. But all of the contemporary artists here seem to feel that the best way to honor a song is to slow it down, which makes for a very samey, rather boring end result.
16.VARIOUS ARTISTS – New Music Monthly
CMJ was really the magazine to reintroduce the idea of enclosing a CD with each monthly issue – at least here in the U.S., but the selection sometimes veers into hardcore fringes that I don’t care much about. Still, a cheap and easy way to hear some people I wouldn’t otherwise encounter.
Present:
17. SANDI THOM – Smile…It Confuses People (RCA/Viking Legacy)
A friend who recently returned from London brought this as a souvenir for us, and we’re getting into it. Thom got tired of driving all over the U.K to play for small audiences, so she set up a webcam and started broadcasting shows from her home, building a fan base that way. Her “hit” is called “I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (with Flowers in My Hair)” which is quite catchy, but really – when was the last time you saw a punk rocker who wore flowers?
Requested:
18. The MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO. – Hard to Love a Man (Secretly Canadian)
Nice cover of Zevon’s “Werewolves of London,” but the rest is kinda mopey.
19. RICHARD SWIFT – The Richard Swift Collection: Volume One – The Novelist/Walking Without Effort (Secretly Canadian)
Saw Swift open for Josh Ritter in LA and was impressed. Terry said he sounded like a heterosexual Rufus Wainwright, and I heard bits of Randy Newman, and both of those are fine by us.
20. ANDREA BURNS – 100 Stories (Toucan Cove/Universal)
A pretty generic disco-dance tune.
21. GRANT-LEE PHILLIPS – Nineteeneighties ( Zoe)
What sounds like a great idea – acoustic covers of classic tunes originally recorded by R.E.M., Psychedelic Furs, Echo and the Bunnymen, etc. – falls flat, for the same reason that “Revolver” tribute does. Phillips slows every tune down to a snail’s pace and, after about three tracks, it gets very dull indeed.
22. JOLIE HOLLAND – Springtime Can Kill You (ANTI-)
23. SIERRA SWAN – Ladyland (Interscrope)
Planned to see her in LA, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, where they host a faboo hipster late night noise and drink party each Saturday night, but our dinner ran late and we got there just after she finished her set. Since the publicist gave us guest list, I feel I owe him a good listen to this one.
24. DENGUE FEVER – Escape from Dragon House (M80)
Another LA adventure, but this one we made it to on time. Early, in fact, since we booked a dinner at the restaurant, Tangiers, which hosts a tiny club room in the back. Great show – sweaty and crowded and filled with friends of the band who shouted along in Cambodian to the band’s exotic yet familiar (80’s new wave dance rhythms) sound. And Terry was immediately smitten with the beautiful lead singer.
Sent:
25.BARBARA TRENTALANGE – Photo Album of Complex Relationships (Coco Tauro)
Great title, and nice delivery – the CD was mailed in a small cardboard box with cotton lining, as you might use for a piece of jewelry (though I’ll confess that I was hoping there was additional swag content in such a box, and there wasn’t; just a folded bio sheet).
26. The SLEEPY JACKSON – One Was a Spider, One Was a Bird (Astralwerks)
27. DAMON McMAHON - Mansions (Astralwerks)
28. SYSTEM and STATION – Here is Now (Latest Flame)
Out September 12th
29. HO-AG – The Word from Pluto (Hello Sir Records)
30. KULTUR SHOCK – We Came to Take Your Jobs Away (KoolArrow Records)
The cover makes me nervous - tattooed guy with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, sticking a plunger in a toilet – and I don’t wanna know about the red stains on the top of the john. If I saw just the titles – like “God is Busy” and “Gino Loves You” – I’d be more curious.
Older things that I missed along the way:
31.The MILES DAVIS QUINTET – The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions Sampler (Prestige)
32.WAKING ASHLAND – Eponymous (Immortal)
33.VARIOUS ARTISTS – Wonka Vision Everlasting Sampler, Vol. 7
34.VARIOUS ARTISTS – Paste magazine sampler #23
R.I.P. You Crazy Diamond
I’d been wanting to hear “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” ever since I heard about Syd Barrett’s death, and the only CD I found in my collection was a 25th anniversary CD edition version of “Dark Side of the Moon.” Came thisclose to buying “Wish You Were Here” at Best Buy for $14, and then thought ‘hey, how much would these 5 tracks cost on iTunes? Turns out the key tracks were only available with the full album purchase, and then I found my vinyl – WYWH and The Wall. I listened to the former in full, for Syd.
My last full day upstate, I found a used copy of the 2-CD greatest hits set, with “Shine On…” and “Wish You Were Here” (the songs I most wanted) . It was also fun to reconnect with other old favorites (“See Emily Play”) and hear a few from the albums, I’d missed. So this entry ends with:
35.PINK FLOYD – Echoes (Capitol)
YTD: 446
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