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What are you listening to?

Started by The Brain, March 10, 2009, 12:32:23 PM

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Tonitrus

#7575
January 25, 2018, 08:51:46 AM
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - I Need You

Savonarola

#7576
January 25, 2018, 12:09:54 PM
Jimi Hendrix and the Experience - Are you Experienced (1993 Reissue)

No electric sitar on this one; but more than it's fair share of acid...

Unlike "Nico and the Velvet Underground" this is in the spirit of the times; but even with all the guitar virtuosos and psychedelic experimentation of 1966-1967 this still is revolutionary.  Jimi draws from all sorts of American R&B and rock to make something that is uniquely his own.

The British and American 1967 versions of this album are wildly different in track listing.  There's been a number of attempts to merge the two albums.  This is the first where the tracks are listed in the order they were recorder.  So the album doesn't begin with either "Foxy Lady" (as the British did) or "Purple Haze" (as the American) it begins with "Hey Joe."  It's not the best way to reconcile the two, but every track is a masterpiece so that's only a quibble.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

The Minsky Moment

#7577
January 25, 2018, 12:53:20 PM
ECM finally bowed to the realities of the music marketplace and went on the big streaming services.
So last week has been lots of touring through the catalog past and present.  Including:

Charles Lloyd - Hagar's Song (2012) - duo with Jason Moran (piano).  Sax/piano duo is tough to pull off.  The pianist really has to shoulder the rhythmic burden as well as contribute melodically.  Moran, who marries contemporary sensibility with a thorough grounding in early jazz history (Harlem stride, swing), is the right choice if you want to attempt this. The mini "Hagar Suite" is the highlight.  Still like the quartet better  - e.g. Passin Thru (2017) - also on ECM.

Stefano Bollani, Joy in Spite of Everything (2014) - impressive lineup (Mark Turner on sax) but a bit too restrained for my taste.  Guitarist Bill Frisell does great work, as always.

Vijay Iyer - Break Stuff (2017) - Iyer's latest trio recording, everyone in top form.  Harvard grad Iyer likes to intellectualize his music (kind of like how Anthony Braxton released math symbols as album titles) but at the core of his best efforts is a tight groove.  Also key is the contribution from Marcus Gilmore on drums, one of the best of the business.

Gary Burton & Chick Corea - Crytal Silence (1973) - piano/vibes duo.  This is the ECM sound at its best.  Dreamy and laid back, but with superb musicianship and virtuosity.   
The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.
--Joan Robinson

Savonarola

#7578
January 26, 2018, 10:30:10 AM
The Monkees - Headquarters (1967)

The Prefab-Four were finally given creative control and the results are... pretty good, surprisingly.  They're sort of stuck between 3 minute mid-60s era pop and 3 minute psychedelic experimentation.  The avant-garde of the era regarded the Monkees at lightweights; which is fair a lot of their more experimental songs come across as weird simply for the sake of being weird.  Even so those aren't bad songs, but the Monkees are clearly more in their comfort song when singing pop.  The only big hit on the album is "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You," which is a Neil Diamond ( :Joos :elvis:) composition.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Eddie Teach

#7580
January 27, 2018, 02:44:54 AM
Primitive Radio Gods- Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth With Money in My Hand
To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?

garbon

#7581
January 27, 2018, 08:37:34 AM
Angie Stone - Wish I Didn't Miss You
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Savonarola

#7582
January 27, 2018, 06:42:21 PM
The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

Within a two month period "Nico and the Velvet Underground," "Are You Experienced," and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" were all released.  What a time for popular music.  While I'm tempted to trot out the term "Revolutionary" yet again; I don't think it really applies here.  "Sgt. Pepper's" is innovative, yes, but it has obvious antecedents in the Beatles' own "Revolver" and The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds."  "Pet Sounds," I think is the real revolution; the Beatles did it bigger and (in my opinion) better, but not first.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Savonarola

#7583
January 28, 2018, 12:27:18 PM
David Bowie - David Bowie (1967)

Mr. Jones's first album was coincidentally released on the same day as "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."  It's certainly not revolutionary, but it is... visionary. 

Bowie's manager wanted him to be a complete artist rather than just a rock 'n roll star.  So the entire album seems to come straight out of the British music hall; if they had sung songs about infanticide, cannibalism and the apocalypse at the music hall.  The most amazing song on the album, in fact one of the most amazing songs ever written, is "Please Mr. Grave Digger" a heartfelt lament for a little girl sung by her murderer accompanied only by sound affects and set in a post apocalyptic world.  Who the target audience of this album was supposed to be is anyone's guess.  It obviously didn't reach them as the album was a flop.

Critics note that there are a couple songs which do contain familiar Bowie themes, Messiahs (We are Hungry Men), Dystopias (We are Hungry Men and Please Mr. Grave Digger) and gender fluidity (She's got Medals.)  On the other hand there are also songs far afield of anything Bowie:  "Uncle Albert" is about a Mama's boy who leaves his bride when he discovers she can't cook; "There is a Happy Land" is about childhood.  The lyrics (uncharacteristic of Bowie) leave something to be desired.  My favorite from "Rubber Band":

In 1910 I was so handsome and so strong
My moustache was stiffly waxed and one foot long

The album has a few bright spots (I like "Silly Boy Blue") but for the most part has to be heard to be believed:  Here you go, don't say I didn't warn you.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Liep

#7584
January 28, 2018, 12:57:29 PM
I've heard it, or some of it, and I still don't believe it. :P
"Af alle latterlige Ting forekommer det mig at være det allerlatterligste at have travlt" - Kierkegaard

"JamenajmenømahrmDÆ!DÆ! Æhvnårvaæhvadlelæh! Hvor er det crazy, det her, mand!" - Uffe Elbæk

frunk

#7585
January 28, 2018, 11:23:53 PM
Quote from: Savonarola on January 28, 2018, 12:27:18 PM
David Bowie - David Bowie (1967)

I think there was something in the water (or they were adding something to their water) at the time.  See Giles, Giles and Fripp from 1968, which became most of King Crimson just a year later.  Fripp is known for hardly ever smiling, but you'd never realize it from this album cover.

Habbaku

#7586
January 28, 2018, 11:29:42 PM
Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense concert
The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.
-J. R. R. Tolkien

PDH

#7587
January 29, 2018, 12:15:00 AM
Gary Numan - The Joy Circuit
I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
-Umberto Eco

-------
"I'm pretty sure my level of depression has nothing to do with how much of a fucking asshole you are."

-CdM

Savonarola

#7588
January 29, 2018, 10:06:29 AM
Quote from: Liep on January 28, 2018, 12:57:29 PM
I've heard it, or some of it, and I still don't believe it. :P

Heh, I knew he had been influenced by the British music hall, and had done "The Laughing Gnome," and that album still caught me completely by surprise when I first heard it.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Savonarola

#7589
January 29, 2018, 10:07:25 AM
Quote from: frunk on January 28, 2018, 11:23:53 PM
Quote from: Savonarola on January 28, 2018, 12:27:18 PM
David Bowie - David Bowie (1967)

I think there was something in the water (or they were adding something to their water) at the time.  See Giles, Giles and Fripp from 1968, which became most of King Crimson just a year later.  Fripp is known for hardly ever smiling, but you'd never realize it from this album cover.

Wow.  I've put that on the list for 1968.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock
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