Brian James's Blog, page 6

We All Dream of Human Hybrid Mutations

 

"We all Dream of Human Hybrid Mutations"

 

Iridescent fins sweep the sea . . create the waves

and spread the disease of imaginary beings.

We are better than pure in our new forms . .

we are free . . through the act of creation

we reproduce and get dirty

creating a new race of alterations.

Some Heavenly Theme of angels with butterfly wings . . 

of boys with horse half things and girls with scaly fins . .

of cyborgs and other contolling beings.

 

Rejoice!

 

But know you've done a very seriously bad thing.

You dared to dream.

You dared to dream.

You dared to dream.

You dared to dream...

Weekend Music Roundup

 

Welcome to the holiday weekend...a double holiday with Valentine's on Sunday and President's on Monday. One way to celebrate love and politics is through music. This week features a few good new releases and a handful of past albums from lots of different genres and time periods. Hopefully there something here you'll want to check out. Enjoy.

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings: The sixth album from the Montreal neo-psychedelic band with the most fantastic of esoteric album titles, is perhaps their best literary titled effort. It's been five years since their last album, a brilliant "Green is the Colour"-eque record. They've gone next level with this one, into the depths of shoegazer psychedelica. "Raindrops," "New Revolution," and the tile track are personal favorites.   

Fox Face - The End of Man: The second album from the Milwaukee garage rockers is high energy. There's been so many great punk bands led by women recently, L.A. Witch, Le Butcherettes, etc. All children of the pioneering riot grrl bands, no longer feeling the need to ape those who came before and just scream into the void with a psychedelic abandon. Kurt would have been proud. "Luminol," "SWF" "Haunt You," and the title track are standouts.  

The Zombies - Begin Here: The second album from the iconic UK band was released in '65. Their third album, Odessey and Oracle is a revered psychedelic pop record, but this is my personal favorite of theirs. I've had this on CD for decades, but recently picked up a vinyl copy.  Their version of "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" is next level stuff. So many great tracks on this, making it an essential album of the period in my opinion. 

Superheaven - Ours is Chrome: Released in 2015, this is the second album from indie rock band that was known as Daylight on the debut album "Jar".  The band hails from suburban Philly, which was one reason why I decided to pick it up when I saw it at the local shop. They don't try to hide their '90s alt rock influences, and they are clearly inspired by an endless string of early to mid-90s bands. That's not a bad thing in my opinion, especially when it's done right. "Next to Nothing," "Dig Into Me," and "Blur" are favorites of mine on this solid album. For me it's a nostalgic listen, and makes me want to check out some of those bands from that era that I haven't played in years.

 

Lee Michaels - Barrel: The fourth album from the L.A. psychedelic blue eyed soul artist was released in 1970. I'd gotten a copy of 5th, the album that followed this one, about two years ago and found it to be pretty decent, kind of American version of early Elton John. I found this one in the 4 for $10 bin at the local shop and decided to pick it up. This is a better album, with a great early 70's folk rock sound that reminds me of my childhood. "What Now America," "Uummm My Lady," "Murder in My Heart," and "Games" are personal favorites on this really enjoyable record.  

 

The Coon Creek Girls - Early Radio Favorites: Though recorded in the 30s, this compilation wasn't released until 1982. I found a Ledford Family (relatives of Lily May from this outfit) record years back and loved it's old timey sound, so when I saw this for sale in the local shop, I had to pick it up. This is a collection of old time Appalachian music out of Kentucky. This is the kind of music that when you're in the mood for it, there's nothing finer. A great find of an uncommon record.

Hymns for the Living...

 

  I've been working on a book alteration project over the last few weeks. It's been therapeutic to work on a creative project that isn't just writing. But that's not to say it isn't writing. I conceived this piece as a scrapbook of ideas that the main character of a project I'm working on might create.  The themes are themes that run through the manuscript. Hymns for the Living. Hymns for the Dead is his view of the world as he descends into the madness of his own imagination. I hope to share more of these over time, but wanted this to serve as an introducion. 
 

Weekend Music Roundup

 

The weekend has returned and so has my consistency in posting my ramblings about music that I'm listening to. This week there's a few things that I recently listened to, things that were holes in my collection...albums by bands that I love but somehow missed a release. There is also my first 2021 release, and it's awesome. Hopefully there's something in here that you'll want to check out. Enjoy.

Lightning Dust - Spectre: This album came out in the Fall of 2019, and I'm not sure how I missed it. This is Amber Webber's (Black Mountain) indie folk band's forth album and the previous three have been among my favorites of the 21st century. After putting out a new single this past fall, I discovered that I missed this album and quickly corrected that oversight. There's a consistent brilliance displayed by this band over four albums, creating a catalog of indie folk music that few have equaled. "Competitive Depression," "A Pretty Picture," and "When it Rains" were personal favorites. 

Black Pistol Fire - Look Alive: Ten years after their debut, the Austin, via Toronto duo released their sixth album in January. It was one of those early treats, and one of the first 2021 releases I've listened to. It picks right up where they've left off. Pure garage blues rock. It's nothing new, for sure, but these boys do it right. It opens with the solid title track and then explodes in the next track, solidifying their Black Keys meets Death From Above vibe that straight up rocks.

Elf Power - Elf Power: One of the original Elephant 6 bands out of Athens, GA along with Neutral Milk Hotel in the mid-to-late 90s, this is the band's 2010 album, their 12th. Though I was really into the Elephant 6 bands back then, and saw these guys, this was one of the bands in the collective that I didn't gravitate towards until much later. This album is one that I hadn't heard, but saw a used copy at the local shop and snatched it up. It has a wonderful 70s psychedelic folk pop sound that is thoroughly enjoyable. Fantastic stuff and I highly recommend checking out pretty much any of their catalog.

Nazareth - Rampant: Released in 1974, a year before their breakthrough album, Hair of the Dog, this is the UK hard rock band's fifth album. It's just as solid as the record that followed, and most likely laid the groundwork for that album's success. Not quite as outrageous as Slade and not as blues based as others, these Scottish rockers were one of the bands that pushed the changing sound of rock into a sound of excess. "Glad When You're Gone," "Jet Lag," and "Shapes of Things" are standouts on this solid record. 

Rilo Kiley - Rilo Kiley: The 1999 debut EP from Jenny Lewis' former band has recently been re-issued. I've always had mixed feelings about this band, and Lewis in general. This is a slimmed down record and it sorts them well. It's also very late 90s, a simpler time in indie pop and one that was more bent on folk and indie rock than 70s pop rock as it seems to be these days. "Papillon," "Teenage Lovesong," and "Asshole" are personal favorites.

Steve Riley's L.A. Guns - Renegades: So, despite the logo and the name, this is not really L.A. Guns, at least not the Tracii Guns / Philip Lewis L.A. Guns that made a killer record last year. This is the debut of Steve Riley's (former L.A. Guns drummer) incarnation. So there are currently two bands out there, not at all confusing. Actually, I was confused because I was psyched for this album and as it played, my first thought was "oh no! Philip Lewis left again!" and so I did some research and got the full story of two bands, one name. So this is decent. It sounds more like Alice in Chains "Facelift" era than the sleaze rock of Guns.

 

Fiction Friday (125)

 

There are certain books in everyone's life that it puzzles them that they had not already read it. For my entire adult life, I've explored the catalog of Grove Press, have been inspired by novels that tear away convention, and devoured books that examine the taboo thoughts that we all conceal in our minds. Yet somehow, I'd never read one of the pillars of all three of those criteria....I have now.

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller(Grove Press, originally published 1934)

There are few works of art that one could call revolutionary. This is one of those. Part autobiographical, part philosophical diatribe, part fiction, and pure brutal honesty, this novel was considered dangerous when it was published in Paris and was banned in the U.S. for nearly 30 years. 

Deemed pornographic, its publication was forbidden in the land of the free. But this is far from pornographic and the real reason was probably due to the way it rips open the idea of America to examine it from the inside out. It is a response to Whitman, a precursor to Ginsburg's "America", a raw description of what it means to be American, what the ideal of freedom means to one man living in Paris between the wars and exploring the underground world of ideas and art that were born from conflict and destruction. 

But it's also about the soul, the darkness that festers there and the beauty that can be illuminated even in that darkness. This novel is the the birth of Post-Modernism, the birth of the Beats, the birth of the French new novel. It is a big bang in the world of literature that spawned ideas and creativity that would dominate the literary world for more than half a century.

In short...it is a masterpiece.

Weekend Music Roundup

 

It's the weekend...though these days, it all kind of feels like one long week that's never going to end. In that spirit, I missed a few Roundups, something I never like doing because this is a post that actually gets read. Not by many, but by a few. And a few might as well count as many during a pandemic plagued by internet insanity. Smaller internet connections make them meaningful. Conversations instead of shouting. Coffee shop chatter, the kind of thing we all started using this stuff for in the first place. One way to do that is to share some thoughts about things that intrigue us. Music intrigues me. Enjoy.

Ryan Adams - Wednesdays: Released in December last year, with little or no indication that it was coming, this is the indie artists' first album in three years. After his last album, 2017's Prisoner, Adams had reached new heights of fame and recognition. Though he'd been a indie favorite for decades, he was finally enjoying main stream success. Allegations of some very bad things put a pause to all of that and Ryan disappeared for a few years. He returned quietly with this album, but this album is too much of a masterpiece of sorrow, forgiveness, and ultimately hope, that it's anything but quiet. If nothing else 2020 was a year about truth and honesty. This is one of the documents of that. Absolutely stellar. 

Slash featuring Myles Kennedy - Apocalyptic Love: Released in 2012, this was Slash's first pairing with Myles Kennedy and the two of them certainly have chemistry. I'm familiar with some of Myles' solo work, which is solid, but I have to say, the marriage of his voice with Slash's guitar is next level. For a long time, I'd been sort of down on Slash solo efforts, but this feels like a real band effort, and a real exploration of the classic GNR sound. Is it GnR? Nah. But even GnR related is something I can dig. 

Ryan Martin - Gimme Some Light: The 2018 album is the debut record from the NY singer songwriter. I'm not sure how I missed this when it came out, but I did. He is the musical descendent of artists like Neil Young, Jackson C. Frank, and Tim Buckley...the musical sibling of contemporaries like Rylee Walker, Ryan Adams, and many others. Those are lofty comparisons, but the promise shown on this record earns them. There is a desperation and a sadness the lies in these songs that makes them timeless. 

 

Gnidrolog - Lady Lake: The second (and last) album from London prog rock band was released in '72, the same year as their first. This is heavy prog rock, and the perhaps one of the few albums that remind me of Jethro Tull in their peak years. The guitar on this is wonderfully heavy, and mixed with the wind instruments, the combination is pretty dynamite. It opens with the epic "I Could Never Be a Solider," and from there establishes itself as one of the lost gems of the genre. "A Dog With No Collar," "Same Dreams," and the title track are also standouts on this fantastic record.

Psyched Up Janis - Vanity: Released in '96, this is one of the earlier singles from the Danish grunge band featuring Sune Rose Wagner who would go on to be part of The Ravonettes. Only two songs, with another two live songs on the flip side, this is brief, but wonderful. There are a handful of 'grunge' bands that never made the big time, and most of them are the better ones of the genre. This reminds me of Michael Pitt's Pagoda and other Nirvana influenced bands that were influenced by tracks like "Something in the Way" and "Hairspray Queen" and not songs that would make them 25 million copy radio friendly unit shifters.

Cannonball Adderly - Know What I Mean?: Released in '62, near the end of his prolific era that began in the mid-50s, this is shows the mellow side of Hard Bob and often slips into cool jazz. This is equal parts Cannonball's alto sax as it is Bill Evans' piano. The two of them play against each so well, and the back and forth is pure beauty. They had both been in the Miles Davis Sextet and their familiarity shows. The give and take is seamless. This is a fantastic album and one that has recently been remastered. 

Fatima Dunn - Waiting for Landfall: This album by the one woman orchestra out of Zurich is a soundtrack of original songs. I loved her 2018 Birds and Bones album and was excited to see this. Originally released in 2013, this album was just re-released. This album is even better. It's an eerie chamber folk album with gothic undertones and reminds me of early Holly Miranda. There's a beautiful sadness to her voice, something that I always enjoy and it blends so well with her music that it creates something special. "Cross My Heart," "Hopeless for Infinity," "This World is Not My Home," and the epic "The Mountain" are standouts on this thoroughly enjoyable album. 

Elton John - Here and There: This live album was recorded in '74, side A in London and side B in NYC. I'm not sure why this hadn't been in my collection, but it was an oversight that was corrected when I saw if for a few dollars at the local shop. This era of Elton is some of my favorite work by any artist and these sets are both fantastic. If I had a concert time machine, seeing Elton in '74 would be high on my list.

 

Fiction Friday (124)

 

After reading a few heavier titles, I wanted to take a quick swing through some Middle Grade. Having finished my last book on a Friday, and knew I'd be in the library on Monday, I went through my To-Read shelf and pulled out a book that's been there 17 years. I figured it sort of fit with my Alice readings from last year. I was glad I picked it up.

Alice in Blunderland by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor(Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2003)

Alice is 9 years old, and one thing she knows for sure is that being in fourth grade is very, very hard. Having an older teenage brother that tells you lies because you are gullible and trusting is also very hard. Having lost your mother when you were too young to remember isn't hard, it's just unfair.  If all of that wasn't difficult enough, being prone to making embarrassing mistakes makes being 9 years old practically impossible.

Best known for Shiloh, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor has been a fixture in Middle Grade fiction for decades. This book is one of several prequels to her beloved Alice series. I wanted to read it as part of my Alice in Wonderland exploration, though I knew this was related by title only. But like "Alice", Naylor's Alice is an intelligent, curious, and wonderful character. 

For younger readers, this book is an affirmation that the difficult and embarrassing things that happen to you, happen to everyone. For adult readers, especially parents, it's a reminder of how trying it is to grow up and what a struggle it can be to come to terms with life. 

Weekend Music Roundup

 

The first week of 2021 has ended, and many of us have tried the 7-day trial and would like to exchange it for a different version. In the grimness of this week, take comfort in music. As Mad Richard once said, "Music Saves." This week I have a bunch of 2020 albums that I wanted to share before the albums from this year start to be released. Two of these were actually on my best of list, but never got proper reviews...now they have. Hopefully there's something on here that you'll want to check out. Enjoy.

Liar, Flower - Geiger Counter: The new album from KatieJane Garside and Chris Whittingham is their first release under this name, though the duo has released many albums under the Ruby Throat moniker. I'm never quite sure what to say when I review her work because there's always this instant connection that is made between her music and myself, and has been ever since I heard "Love Your Money" back in '91. A lot has changed since Daisy Chainsaw, but I feel that I've changed in similar ways. KatieJane is one of those artists who has helped shaped my creative life and continues to. This was on my Best of 2020, even though I only got it on Christmas. 

 

Kadavar - The Isolation Tapes: The seventh studio album from the Berlin psych rock band came out in the Fall. I've enjoyed every single one of their previous albums, some slightly more than others. On this new record, there's a Floyd space rock vibe that sounds real nice. They've always had a bit of that in their sound, but this album really brings it out. I'm not sure if this is a great album, or just an album that feels really right for me at this particular time. I honestly believe that our connection to an album is strongly decided by the time and place we encountered it. The vibes have to mingle with yours. Any space rock fan is pretty sure to dig this album.

Patricia Lalor - Covers EP: The new EP from the 14 year Irish artist is an indie dream pop gem. Though she has a few EPs out, this is my first introduction to her and her voice is mature beyond her years. This has a Ruby Throat vibe, an acoustic-y eeriness that is just stellar. "Present Tense" (Radiohead) and "My Kind of Woman" (Mac Demarco) are both unbelievably good. I'm really looking forward to checking out some of her other work, very impressive.  

 

Three Queens in Mourning / Bonnie Prince Billy - Hello Sorrow-Hello Joy: Released in July, this is the debut project of three iconic Glasgow indie folk artists. Alasdair Roberts, who I've followed since Appendix Out's debut in '97. Jill O'Sullivan, from Sparrow and the Workshop whose 2008 debut was fantastic. Alex Neilson who was in Trembling Bells, which was another band the Prince teamed up with in the past. Together these guys cover the hell out of Will Oldman songs. There was this movement back in the late 90s and early 00s of Scottish and English folk artists who made albums in the same vein as I See a Darkness, and there were albums from right before that clearly influenced that classic record. These guys were all part of that movement and this feels pretty epic. 

 

Mad Hatter - Pieces of Reality: This is the second album from the Swedish metal band. Anyone who knows me is aware that I'm a sucker for anything Alice related, so when I saw this pop up, I had to give it a shot. This is pretty by-the-numbers power metal with blistering guitar and screeching falsetto. The real draw-back for me was the drums which sound completely mechanical. There are moments on this record that caught me, but they were few and far between. At it's best, it reminds me of Avenged Sevenfold. 

 

Dead Quiet - Truth and Ruin: The third album from the Vancouver stoner metal band is a collection of fast tempo riffs and growly vocals that are melodic, not screaming. I enjoyed their first album about five years back and I enjoy this one too. It's nothing earth shattering, just good heavy rock. "Of Sound and Fury," and "Forever Unsung" were personal favorites.

 

Fiction Friday (123)

 

The first book finished in a New Year is typically a good one for me. It's usually a book that I've wanted to read all year, and I'm counting on those holiday days (especially the 2020 kind) to let me read. Though this wasn't my first choice, this was the book I needed to read for my book club. It was cool though, because I've read some of Erdrich's work and really respect her writing. Love Medicine was a book I had to read in AP English in High School back in '93. It was unlike any book I had read before. I read The Antelope Wife when it came out and loved it. It seemed a more than fitting time to catch up.

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

(Harper, 2020)

 

In 1953, a Reservation and its people were facing termination in the US Senate. It was given names that made it sound like a good thing, calling it emancipation and elevation, trying to cover up what it really was by wrapping it up in shiny paper. This is a document of how they saved their lands from extinction and protected what was rightfully and lawfully theirs.

Through a host of varied characters, the reader is brought into their lives like an observing spirit. You spend time with them, sometimes doing only ordinary things, but things that feel important. The reader feels connected, feels the pain inside each character, and knows they are strong enough to survive. That's what great books do. Great books create shared experiences between the reader and the fiction. This is a great book.

Weekend Music Roundup (Best of 2020)

 

There's no denying that it's been a long strange year, but if there was thing that was normal about 2020 it was that there was a ton of good music. As I get older, it seems that many of my favorite albums are from artists that I've been familiar with for some time, but there are always some new ones the pop in and impress me.

Liar, Flower - Geiger Counter

Jason Molina - Eight Gates

 Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters

Big Blood - Do You Wanna Have a Skeleton Dream

Cut Worms - Nobody Lives Here Anymore

The Flaming Lips - American Head

Man Man - Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between

Elvis Perkins - Creation Myths

The Sonic Dawn - Enter the Mirage

Matt Berry - Phantom Birds

Honorable Mentions

Black Ends - Stay Evil

Little Kid - Transfiguration Highway 

Green Seagull - Cloud Cover

James Dean Bradfield - Even in Exile

Bright Eyes - Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was

 Hum - Inlet

Fantastic Negrito - Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?

 Le Butcherettes - Don't Bleed

Jyoti - Mama, You Can Bet!

Muzz - Muzz

My Morning Jacket - Waterfall II

Alexander Savior - The Archer