What are you listening to?

[Josephus]

Pink Floyd...The one about the eclipse

[Josephus]

Taylor Swift. Dead Poet's Society, or whatever it's called.

yeah...no. I started listening to this. Thought it was Ok, at first, but by the time I got to like track 10 of the 31 it was a bit chalkboard scratching. 

I appreciate what she does. She's obviously very talented and has a good sense of the business, but I'd rather listen to Lana Del Rey over her any day.

[Savonarola]

Mott the Hoople - Mott (1973)

From what I've read, a lot of people wondered if Mott could survive without David Bowie.  They did, and came back with an even better album than "All the Young Dudes."  I'd put this as one of the masterpieces of Glam (admittedly not a huge category) along with "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust" and "Electric Warrior."  They couldn't survive success, though, and Mick Ralphs would leave to form Bad Company after this album.  Ian Hunter would go solo shortly thereafter. 

It seems like there shouldn't be so many songs about loss innocence and regret after just one successful album (All the Way to Memphis, The Ballad of Mott the Hoople); but that is what Ian Hunter did best. 

[PDH]

Boz Scaggs - Lido Shuffle

It is only in the second half of my life that I have begun to realize how much the songs of my youth impacted me.  This was a timestamp of my life in the second half of the 1970s as a kid.

[Josquius]

Random discovery this week. Rachel Chinouriri. Kind of black Lilly Allen. One song is really catchy.

[Sophie Scholl]

TTPD

[Savonarola]

George "Pops" Foster - George "Pops" Foster and Art Hodes (1968)

Recorded shortly before George "Pops" Foster's death; this is a conversation between Pops and pianist Art Hodes with an occasional break for songs.  It's interesting in that Pops seemed to know all of the first generation of recorded Jazz musicians from New Orleans (I mean the good ones, The Original Dixieland Jass Band doesn't show up in any of his stories) and he just casually mentions Louis Armstrong, Kid Orly, Sidney Bechet or King Oliver as he's going along.  They are fascinating tales of brothels, rotgut, goat-carts and losing his band in New York City (I mean they wandered off and didn't know where they were.)  The music isn't bad; but not as interesting as the stories.

[Savonarola]

The New York Dolls - The New York Dolls (1973)

No, I don't think it would actually be a crime to fall in love with Frankenstein; although you may want to check your state and municipal law.

Three chords, no talent, the New York Dolls were punk before we had a word for it.  Unfortunately, at the time they got lumped in with the Glam movement (largely because of the way they dressed) and I have my doubts a lot of Mark Bolan's fans would appreciate this. 

I came across a factoid that they were named both the best new band and worst new band in the readers poll of Creem magazine.  They do sound like they're carrying on the torch for Iggy Pop and the Stooges or the MC5; but at the same time they seem too weird for Detroit.

[Savonarola]

The Georgians 1923-1924

This is a series of singles by the "Hot" subset of a larger dance hall band (the Phil Specht Orchestra.)  It's surprising to me they had so many singles in such a short time (there's 19 songs on the album, although I guess some of them could be the B-sides.)  It's also surprising that there are songs sung from a woman's perspective sung by men.  That could have been more common in the 1920s, but I haven't encountered it yet.

[Barrister]

The Georgians 1923-1924

This is a series of singles by the "Hot" subset of a larger dance hall band (the Phil Specht Orchestra.)  It's surprising to me they had so many singles in such a short time (there's 19 songs on the album, although I guess some of them could be the B-sides.)  It's also surprising that there are songs sung from a woman's perspective sung by men.  That could have been more common in the 1920s, but I haven't encountered it yet.

Just shooting from the hip - in that era women weren't allowed in bars or taverns, so you had to have male performers?

[Savonarola]

Just shooting from the hip - in that era women weren't allowed in bars or taverns, so you had to have male performers?

In America of the 1920s no one was allowed in bars or taverns.   

(They did have women singers on a couple of their songs, (and they were a dance hall band,) so I don't think that's it.  Though the tradition could have come from an earlier era.)

[Savonarola]

Stevie Wonder - Innervisions (1973)

I was recently reading the Michelangelo part of Vasari's "Lives of the Artists," he described Michelangelo's (relatively few) completed sculptures (with typically Vasarian hyperbole) as done so that if a single grain were removed the entire work would fall apart.  I thought of that when listening to this album; changing a single note might not destroy the album, but nothing could have improved this.

I think this is Stevie's best album; just raw straight ahead funk interrupted, just long enough for the listener to get his breath back, by the occasional wistful ballad.  It's also a large influence on hip-hop (for better or worse) with the introduction of skits.  He'd have several more great albums, but nothing as tight and together as Innervisions.

[The Brain]

I never realized the similarity between Michelangelo's sculptures and the Trabant.

[Syt]

I guess this collaboration was inevitable: Baby Metal x Electric Callboy. 

Top comment:

[The Brain]

What's wrong with Girls und Panzer?