Saturday, June 16, 2007

(some of) The Week That Was…

On Wednesday, I was working all day on my upcoming Post previews. The Fairfax Extra will be getting a three-act CD release party featuring Virginia-based performers:
1. PAUL CURRERI – The Velvet Rut (City Savage)
2. DEVON SPROULE – Keep Your Silver Shined (City Salvage)
This one’s my favorite of the three – she has a lovely voice – kinda Rickie Lee Jones – and a folk/jazz style that’s sweet but not too.
3. DREW GIBSON – Letterbox (Cragmont)

Alexandria/Arlington, meantime, will hear about a free concert by a local favorite, Jennifer Cutting’s Ocean Orchestra, an 8-piece ensemble that plays with a Celtic lilt. Cutting used to be in another favorite local group, Brit-style folk/rock revivalists, The New St. George. Among the members of her new band, some of whom were in the old band, they have over 60 “Wammies” (local area music awards).

And it was a good day lots of puffy envelopes, though I don’t know much about most the artists here, the obvious exception being:
4. BILLY BOB THORNTON – Beautiful Door (New Door Records/Ume)
Includes “Always Countin’” – a song about Obsessive-Compulsive disorder, which will, no doubt, go on my mix CD for sentimental reasons. And Graham Nash sings harmony of three tracks.
Out July 24th
5. ALINA SIMONE – Placelessness (54 40 or Fight)
Out August 21st
Ukranian girl moves to Boston suburb, then to Austin and records with spare guitar, minimum drums and cello. Her voice hearkens back to one of our “back in the day” favorites – Deborah Iyall of Romeo Void – with smatterings of modern Bjork-ittude, but you can’t dance to the songs and the whole affair gets kinda drony.
6. ART IN MANILA - Set the Woods on Fire (Saddle Creek)
CD sticker says it comes out August 28th; press sheet says August 7th. You’ll have to guess when you can pick up this new work by former Azure Ray member Orenda Fink, who formed a new band from the “cream of the crop of her touring crew.”
7. ARIZONA – Fameseeker and the Mono (self-released)
Compared to Deerhoof and Grizzly Bear, this originally NYC-based band is now hunkered down in North Carolina, working on the full-length follow-up to this pleasing 7-song introduction.
Out September 11th
8. ANGEL and the LOVE MONGERS – The Humanist Queen (Rocksnob)
“Have you ever wondered what it might sound like if Jeff Buckley had met John Lennon and they had formed a band with the members of the Cure?” Those are mighty lofty aspirations this PR sheet is tossing about and, though the album is pleasant, I don't hear them. Co-produced and mixed by the (once) legendary (where’s he been?) Mitch Easter.
Out September 4th
9. ANGELA LANSBURY – Legends of Broadway (Masterworks)
This one I ordered ($6.99) through the mymusic auto subscription service. It’s a compilation of all her big Broadway tunes, many of them Sondheim classics, and a reminder of how much of Broadway music has suffered in recent years due to Webber-ization.

Took some bags of unwanted household items to the local thrift store and scored two adorable “Where the Wild Things Are” mini-stuffed toys. In the CD section, some classical collector seems to have recently dumped dozens of well-kept albums, but I held back, having many of my own that I haven’t yet absorbed. (One day, when I am housebound by illness or a rash of bad weather, I am going to give myself an education on all that collected jazz and classical). So, I picked out just a few:
10.GORECKI – Symphony No. 3, et al. (NAXOS)
Still sealed, and marked as a $7.99 Borders purchase – a gift, perhaps, that its recipient didn’t want?
11. GRIEG – Piano Music Vol. 10 (NAXOS)
Terry loves solo piano pieces.
12 .CLAUDE BOLLING & JEAN-PIERRE RAMPAL - Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio
Two guys listed as the performers, two sidemen given credit on the back cover, but it’s an album of trios. No wonder I don’t understand classic music.
This is pop-lite classical, to be sure. The series was a mainstay of Sunday afternoon college dorm hangs, back when we were trying to prove that we had Taste by dipping into non-rock genres. If it wasn’t a discount pressing of Carmina Burana or Chuck Mangione, it was these brunchy classical jazz albums. Second time around, it’s all rather lightweight and yuppified (as I said to Terry, “this is jazz that doesn’t smoke”) but it’s kinda like a happy, friendly dog that you like despite its slurpy eagerness to please.
And for the family singalong:
13. POCAHANTAS – original soundtrack (Walt Disney)
Alan Menken writes catchy melodies, but Stephen Schwartz is not half the lyricist Howard Ashman (R.I.P.) was. “Just Around the River Bend” may be the only real keeper here.

More of my own cash money:
14 .VARIOUS ARTISTS – Sound Response (Warner)
In the clearance bin ($3.78) at Target. Live tracks collected to benefit New Orleans relief. Great cause but not much here to get excited about. I’ll burn off copies of tracks by Green Day, Cold Play, Radiohead, Ben Folds maybe Jason Mraz and Annie Stela but the other half includes stuff I never have to hear again from James Blunt, Staind and other haunters of modern radio.
15. FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE – Traffic and Weather (Virgin)
Actually, I’ve had this one in the house for a long time, since maybe only a week or so after its release. FOW is a band that I buy whenever they have a new album but this one slipped by without my knowing it was coming. At first listen, I worried that it was less clever than prior CDs but the more I listen, the more I’m sucked into their (seemingly) simple (but not!) genius with three-minute pop gems. The title track is a favorite, and “I-95” is, of course, the perfect soundtrack for those drives between DC and NYC.

Other recent promo deliveries:
16. DEBBIE HARRY – Necessary Evil (10th Street Entertainment)
Out August 7th
Most of the tracks here, on first listen, don’t do justice to Harry’s iconic stature and unique voice. But she’s earned the right to another go-round, so I’ll revisit, reconsider, retype (if necessary).
17. PIETASTERS – All Day (Indication Records)
DC underground ska legends, though I confess I don’t know the scene very well. Here’s the pitch- “skankin’ punk rhythms and raucous vocal rumblings slowed down and sticky thick with the sounds of early Motown and Jamaican soul.” Nicely put!
18. A BAND OF BEES – Octopus (Astralwerks)
Back home (Isle of Wight), they’re known just as the Bees, and have a buzz (couldn’t resist) for mixing funk, psychedelia and Northern soul among other styles. This one has harmony-heavy folk bits, too. Reminds me of the happy guys of Gomez.
19. BLACK BEFORE RED – Belgrave to Kings Circle (I Eat Records)
The kind of happy discovery that makes doing what I do such a nice paying hobby (no, it’s not a job). An Austin-based band that combines some fine influences. You might swear you were hearing the Shins, Paul McCartney, the Kinks – that kind of catchy, melodic pop. Terry says they sound too imitative. I say it’s a great start for a young band.

We Report, You Decide.
Listen for yourself and see if you like this:
20. ARKS – The International (Highwheel Records)
Arks is a band from Chicago. PR says the CD a “jumpy, jittery, frenetic post-punk whopper in the vein of Gang of Four,” and says they formed in 2002, in the back room of a Chicago Ukrainian Village apartment (another Ukranian!)
Whattaya think of "Stator/Asymptote"?
Out August 14th.

O/CD YTD Total: 255

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