Brian James's Blog, page 16

Weekend Music Roundup

The weekend has arrived. This week I'm sharing with you all a bunch of records that I'd been jamming to of late. Most are not from this year, with the exception of the first one, which was certainly well-timed for release and is quite fantastic. This is a big mix of jazz, rock, and hip-hop, which every list probably should be in my opinion. Hopefully there's something here that you'll want to check out. Enjoy.
Billie Eilish - Live at Third Man Records: Recorded in November, before Billie swept up at the Grammy's and exploded into mainstream fame, this beautiful acoustic show demonstrates a different side of the teen phenom. Anyone who doubted her talent from her incredible album needs to listen to this and it should be undeniable that she is destined for more huge things in the future. Jack White has always had his finger on the pulse and once again scored big by bringing her in to do this show and record it to vinyl. 
Antipop Consortium - Arrhythmia: This was the third album from the NYC hip-hop group, released in 2002 and recently re-issued. This was a time in hip-hop when everything went back to commercial after a period in the '90s when the underground took over. Because of that, I soured a bit on hip hop in those days, the days of Puffy and 50 Cent and the like...but I should have been tuned into these guys who were working hard to keep it real for my hometown at the time. The rhymes are strictly east coast hard rap, and the beats are quirky but grooving. Altogether a really good album made in a really down time for the genre. Definitely should have been bumping this back in the day. But I guess it's never too late. 
The Litter - Wretch: This psychedelic rock band from Minneapolis released three albums from '67 to '69 before disbanding. Having recently re-formed, this archival release of previously rare and unreleased tracks emerged. I'm certain encouraged to search out any of their three albums as this is a fine example of late 60's heavy psych. This was a few years ahead of its time for sure and the kind of band than people like me love to discover and wonder what the hell was wrong with people at the time. 
Miles Davis - My Funny Valentine: Recorded in 1964, at the peak of his popularity, this is one of the best Miles live recordings I've encountered. I picked this up in the $5 jazz bin at the local shop, and it's a bargain and twice the price. This is a tight performance, and though a lot of people like Miles when he wanders, I happen to appreciate the tightness captured in this performance. This finds him on the cusp of his hard bop career before he moves into modal jazz. An excellent record. 
Big Country - Steeltown: Released in 1984, this the UK rock band's second album and my first introduction to them. This could be considered early "alt" rock, along the lines of R.E.M., or early U2, or The Triffads, but this has a bit of a new wave edge to it, though it's clearly rock. There are also obvious Peter Gabriel influences. Very political, and still sounds pretty solid. "East of Eden," "Girl with Grey Eyes," "Where the Rose is Sown," "The Great Divide," title track.
Lower Slaughter - Some Things Take Time: The second album from the British sludge metal band was released this past spring. I'm always interested in hearing heavy music fronted by women and they always bring something different than the usual slew of bands. That said, this album is aptly titled in that I feel there is some development that needs to take place. It has all the right elements, just lacks that spark that is really for it settle in and become more memorable.

Enter the Dragon

I've recently taken the plunge into the world of Dungeons & Dragons. Now, this is a world that interested me back in Middle School, but one which I didn't truly explore until a few months ago, and it began with a project for work. One of the great things about my job is that I get to research and participate in things that I otherwise would avoid. This certainly falls into that category.
After hearing about other libraries having success in creating D&D clubs for teens, I decided to pursue it. I put up a flyer soliciting basic interest and had a few kids add their names. When we held our first meeting to create characters, I was expecting four people...fourteen showed up. Needless to say, having never played, let alone been a Dungeon Master, I felt a bit overwhelmed. But never one to back down from a creative challenge, I went ahead. After all, I figured if children can play it, so can I.
After many YouTube tutorials and extensive reading, I held our first dungeon crawl about a month ago. Although I was winging it, I pretty much nailed it. Tomorrow, I'm holding our first campaign (the group has since been split, so I have a manageable number of players).  I feel prepared, and by that, I feel prepared for the unpreparable as D&D often becomes.

Weekend Music Roundup

It's the Super weekend, but as you are busy stuffing yourself with snack foods and beer, you might want to take a break from the bad music and think about some good music. As promised last week, I've listed some 2020 albums from bands I'd been looking forward to hearing new material from. I've also put some albums that I've recently picked up, mostly new, but one old jazz record. Hopefully there's something that scores with you today. Enjoy.
Wolf Parade - Thin Mind: It seems like just yesterday that these guys released their comeback album, but it has been almost three years. Their fifth album follows the same established sound that they've been pursuing for years, with Dan and Spencer playing off each other's strengths and alternating songs. This has always kept their albums fresh and interesting throughout and this is no different. It's funny though, it clearly has a "00's - '10s" indie sound to it. Strange how that can be pinpointed now. Another solid album by a band that has always been solid. 
Monoski - Pool Party: The second album from the Swiss duo was released in 2015 and was gifted to me from my Mother in-law in Switzerland. She picked this album out with the help of the shop owner in their town, a shop I've visited many times. They did a fantastic job as this is a wonderful noise rock album in the vein of Death From Above.  It's chaotic in ways, but maintains a structure, which is the best kind of noise rock in my opinion. You can listen to some of it on their Bandcamp site (linked above). 
The Frights - Everything Seems Like Yesterday: The fourth album from the San Diego indie band was released early in 2020. I really enjoyed their second record, You're Going to Hate This, but missed their next one that came out in 2018. So I'm not sure what the sound of that one was, but this is a departure from the second record. More introspective, more acoustic, this is feels very different, but not in a bad way. A very solid effort from a band that I will continue to watch.

Myles Kennedy - Year of the Tiger: This is the 2018 solo album from the Alter Bridge singer and Slash collaborator. The Washington native has that Seattle sound to his voice that reminds me of Mark Lanegan. There's a clear blues influence on here that works great, giving the entire album this haunting should. The title track is my favorite, and is one of the best songs of its type that I've heard in a long time.
Johnny Hartman - I Just Dropped By to Say Hello: Released in '64, in the peak of the jazz vocalist's career, this is one of his signature records. He captures the sound of late night loneliness better than anyone. Unlike a lot of the standards singers of the time, Johnny is accompanied by outstanding jazz musicians. "Charade," "In the Wee Small Hours," "Don't Call It Love," and the title track are standouts on a fantastic record.
Czarface and MF DOOM - Czarface Meets Metalface: For the past six years Wu Tang founding member Inspectah Deck has been releasing albums under the Czarface moniker, and collaborated with MF DOOM on this 2018 release. It's kind of a dream team of East Coast Hip Hop and it doesn't disappoint. Typical of the genre, it has incredible beats, hard hitting lyrics and kicks from start to finish. Excellent album for NYC hard core fans.

Succession

I recently began watching HBO's Succession and have found myself completely enthralled. I feel like it's been quite some time since a drama has captivated me to this extent. It's been mostly sci-fi or fantasy shows that have dominated my interest. This show gets everything right, starting with the excellent cast and terrific acting. They really make the intricate dynamics of family life feel real, while also entertaining.
The show follows the Roy family, a fictional combination of every powerful family in America. The family empire is a part Rupert Murdoch's FOX, part Disney. Logan, the patriarch and builder of the empire, is right bastard who finds himself at odds with his grown children who are poised to take his place.
While the show incorporates the intrigue of wealth and business, at the core it's about generational gaps, sibling competition, and dealing with parents when you are no longer a child. 
I absolutely love every flawed character on this show, and that quite a rare thing. None of the characters get short changed when it comes to their plotlines, and none of the actors shortchange the viewer with their delivery.
Given that I'd heard very little about this show, I felt the need to share my thoughts.

Weekend Music Roundup

The weekend is here and so is the Roundup. Last week I did a 70's theme, so this week I decided to mix it up as much as possible. We got some new albums, so recent re-releases, and a cult classic. There's a couple of country inspired albums and some lo-fi gems. I'm about to start my first swing into 2020 albums and should have some of those for next week. Hopefully there's something here for you to check out. Enjoy.
Bear Hands - Fake Tunes: The forth album from the Brooklyn indie band, released last spring, is kind of the album I've been waiting for from them. I've heard all their previous records and thought they were getting better with each one. This album sees them further develop the style they've been working on and it all comes together to produce songs that are catchy, interesting, and thoroughly enjoyable. 
Elvis Presley - The Hillbilly Cat!: While initially released '82, this album was reissued last year. The original album was a bit of rip-off with very little music. The newly remastered album cuts all of the talking and replaces it with 18 tracks, some of Elvis best rock-a-billy tunes. I've always found Elvis best when he embraces his country side.

Guided by Voices - Warp and Woof: As is typical of Robert Pollard, his relatively new incarnation of the legendary lo-fi band released three albums last year. Having already hear "Zeppelin Over China," I delayed listening to this one and "Sweating the Plague" for a few months. I like to space my listening to the band more than they space their releases. Part of the reason for that is because their albums are all very similar, and all consist of basically song fragments that can take a little longer to sink in. Due to the high output, there have a few albums that have suffered from being too long, but this was not one of them. This is actually a great example of the band's blueprint and the first in some time that I would like to add to my permanent collection on vinyl.
Nirvana - "The Red Album": Released n 2017, this limited edition bootleg features mostly old radio broadcasts of pretty frequently bootlegged unreleased tracks. But it opens with a Courtney Love demo of "Live Through This" with Kurt on vocals, a track I hadn't heard before and was the deciding factor in my decision to purchase it...not to mention that I'm a sucker for Nirvana bootlegs and have tons of them. This is great stuff, and a beautiful package with, you guessed, red vinyl.
Lee Hazlewood - 400 Miles From L.A.: This archival release features recordings from '55-'56 from the country pop crooner, recordings made a full 7 years before his debut, "Trouble is a Lonesome Town." Many of the recordings here are demos of songs that would later be on that spectacular debut. This is country in the old style, think Johnny Cash if you don't know Lee. This is a wonderful collection of country folk stories about a little town called Trouble.

Fleetwood Mac - Kiln House: This the 1970 album, the band's first without founding guitarist and vocalist Peter Green, but unlike the few albums that followed, this one kept to the blues format of the Peter Green records. It actually has an early Beatles feel to it, especially when they try out old fashioned Buddy Holly type tunes. This was album that I'd been wanting to hear for a while, having really enjoyed the transitional albums of the early '70s. This is better than the two that followed, and up there with the best of their early work.

(Non)Fiction Friday (98)

Those who follow my blog know that I don't typically read non-fiction. There are several reasons for this. The first is that I have limited time to read and what time I do have, I choose to spend in the imagination. I've always said that the world of the imagination is far more interesting to me than the world we live in. However, every now and then, I do pick up a book that is based on the real world. This was one of those occasions.
The Secret of 1945: Memoir of an American Girl Held in a a French Prison by Barbara Freer
(Binnewa Publishing, 2017) 

There has been so much written about the second World War that it's hard to imagine there are still segments of that period in history that have yet to be uncovered. But when you think about the scope of that event and its impact on our world, I suppose it's not all that surprising that there are still stones left to be turned over. Bobbie is a young girl living in Germany when the war ramps up. Though she is an American, born in New York, she is living with her grandparents while her parents are establishing their lives in America. She was never meant to stay there, but once the war started, it became impossible to leave. 
History has always been dictated by the victorious side in any conflict, and because of that, the experience of people in Germany is often overlooked in favor of stories of the victims who suffered at the hands of the Nazis. However, it is important to remember that there were millions of non-Nazis in Germany who were caught under the wave of a fascist government. Bobbie's family is one such family, a family that did what was necessary to survive, a family that was extremely lucky to make it through the war intact. Intact but not unscathed. 
The real horror for Bobbie comes after the Allies reclaimed the disputed Alsace Lorraine region where her family had relocated during the war, believing it to be safer than the cities which were devastated during the war. Upon liberation, her entire family was imprisoned by the French. And despite being an American, Bobbie, as a ten year old girl, was imprisoned for months, forced to live in horrid conditions that nearly killed her. 
The effect of this memoir is to force readers to think about how innocent people on both sides are punished for the acts of those in power. As we continue to demonize groups of people based on the beliefs of few, this story remains important and powerful. When we look at families on our own border forced into prisons, everyone should ask themselves, what crimes did these children commit? The crime of wanting a better life? The crime of wanting to escape peril? Their story is similar to Bobbie's and when we stop to actually think, we should all know better.

Weekend Music Roundup

Welcome to the first music round-up of the new decade. Sorry I missed last weekend, but I did want the albums of the year and the decade to sit with people for awhile. However, the result is now that I have a ton of albums to review and a ton more that I'm dying to listen to. Since I've spent most of the last few months focusing only on new releases, I've decided to slip into the past for this Roundup and put together a collection of albums from '70s that I've been rocking out to lately. Lots of glam and hard rock on here. Enjoy.

Brett Smiley - Sunset Tower: This 2019 Record Store Day release was limited to 1000 copies, 200 random red vinyl mixed with 800 black, with no way to know which you have...I got red. The hype sticker says that Brett was handed $200,000 in 1973 to make a glam rock epic. He succeeded, but sadly the album was never released (until 2003). Some of these recordings are from that album, others pre-date it. This is long last gem of the glam rock era. "Space Ace," "Queen of Hearts," and "Lying in the Sun" are my personal favorites.

Budgie - Squawk: The second album from hard rocking Welsh band was released in '72 is one of the pioneering albums of heavy rock. I was turned onto this band early last year and I can't for the life of me figure out why they were never as big as Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath. While the first album, the self-titled release from the prior year, was solid, this album is blistering. Definitely belongs in the collection of anyone into '70s heavy rock. 

T. Rex - T. Rex: The 1970 album sees Marc Bolan transforming from the folkish Tyrannosaurus Rex moniker to the better known glam name of T.Rex. This is one of the earliest glam albums and it's pretty killer. As with Bowie's early glam albums, there's still the folk style holdover, but the mixture with glam guitar is something that at the time was new and special. Over the past few years, I've been converted to the genius of Marc Bolan and this was an album that had been missing from my collection.
Ian Hunter - You're Never Alone With a Schizophrenic: Released in 1979, this is the fourth solo album from the Mott the Hoople singer. This album also features Mick Ronson on guitar, John Cale on piano, and Max Wienberg on drums. It's a brilliant record that perfectly mixes his glam roots with the emerging New Wave sound. It definitely has a E-Street Band feel, but fronted by Bowie instead of the Boss. "Just Another Night," "Cleveland Rocks," "When the Daylight Comes," "Life After Death," and "Bastard" are brilliant tracks...but basically, every track is kind of brilliant.
Stories - About Us: Released in '73, this is the second album from NYC pop rock band. This has the '70s groovy jangle sound that was the upbeat side of rock at a time when rock was growing darker. It's a continuation of the late 60's hippie sound and quite good. They are definitely a glam-lite band, existing in a lesser realm than Mott the Hoople and T.Rex. "Hey France," "Changes Have Begun," "Top of the City," and "Brother Louie" are stand-outs.
Silverhead - 16 and Savaged: The second and final album from the London glam rock band was released in 1973. They play blues rock influenced clearly by the Stones, but have more of the bar sound of The Faces. There is definitely a glam sound that shows through mostly on the guitar work, with blues based rhythms and vocals. A real nice find for a few dollars. "Hello New York," "Heavy Hammer," "Cartoon Princess," "This Ain't a Parody," and the title track are standouts. 
Bad Company - Straight Shooter: The London hard rock band's second LP was released in 1975 on Led Zeppelin's Swan Song label. Despite being British, there is something incredibly American about this band's hard blues rock sound. It reminds me a lot of Lynyrd Skynyrd minus the obvious Southern connection. This is solid 70's rock and roll with lots of quality tunes on it.

Stealing Trinkets...

I first heard about this Netflix original series over the summer through a YA book blog service that I belong to through work. Based on a YA novel, I thought it would definitely be worth a look. After all, Netflix has positioned itself as one of the leaders in translating kid and teen lit into quality television.
The story follows Elodie as she moves to Portland from New Mexico after her mother tragically died in a car crash, a car driven by Elodie. Oh, and if that wasn't enough, and in YA it rarely is, Elodie also has a bit of a shoplifting problem. 
It turns, there are two other girls in her new school with a similar problem, two girls who Elodie would probably never be friends with if they hadn't found comfort in this shared problem.
The show starts off pretty slow, and pretty catty. It feels a little too formulaic in the beginning, but once the story brings these three characters together, it really begins to click. The story of their friendship is stronger than the story of their problems, which is the way it should be. 
A solid show that got better over time. A second season is already in the works.

Fiction Friday (97)

I've always been fascinated to me how different things in life connect in odd ways. I recently wrote about the film Yesterday which imagines a world where The Beatles never existed, and at the same time, I started reading this book which imagines a journey John Lennon would take in 1978 and a resulting album that he would make from it. Out of nowhere, I was engulfed in historical Beatle fiction, and it was a nice place to live for a bit.
Beatlebone by Kevin Barry
(Doubleday, 2015) 

It's 1978 and John Lennon is on a quest to find a small uninhabited island in Clew Bay that he'd purchased a decade before with the intention of making it a paradise of isolation. Having abandoned those dreams years before, now he's simply looking for a place to be alone for a few days so he can scream until he empties his soul and can start anew. As with all things in life, John's plan doesn't turn out according to plan. The existential experience he was search for on the island turns into an existential journey to get there. Hiding from the press, getting lost in the confusing maze of islands, he ends up traveling through the stages of his life, and fighting off the stages of insanity, to come through clean on the other side. 

The star of this story is the language and the writing. Kevin Barry's style is reminiscent of other writers that I've admired in the past. He breaks convention, finds lyricism and rhythm in the words, and engulfs the reader in a beautifully fragile world that feels like a thin bubble that could burst at anytime.

His Dark Materials

When Game of Thrones ended last year, like most, I was wondering what HBO would come up with to replace their epic series. To my surprise, they came up with two brilliant ideas that peaked my interest. The first being Watchmen and the second being a full adaptation of Phillip Pullman's fantastic Middle Grade fantasy series, His Dark Materials.
The first season of the show follows the plot of the first book, The Golden Compass. It's been more than 20 years since I read that book, but from my recollection, it follows the plot pretty faithfully. 
My expectations for this show were sky-high, as opposed to lower expectations for Watchmen. This is probably due to the movies of each that came out several years ago. I disliked the Watchmen film, but enjoyed The Golden Compass. That meant, this had more to live up to. 
I'll admit that the first two episodes were a little slow. And for anyone unfamiliar with the books, they were a little confusing (as my Missus can attest to). But come the third episode, things started to pick up and the show found its footing. The results are a stunningly visual fantasy with pretty great acting.

I really like how this show captures the darker aspects of the books. Unlike the film, which rarely made you feel Lyra was in danger, this constantly makes you believe that she faces threats far greater than she truly understands. And the casting of Lyra, surely the hardest role to cast, turned out to be great. She feels real. So many adaptations of children's books make the character feel like a movie version of a kid, while the books do not. They got this right, and thereby got the series right in my opinion.