Movies We've Just Watched discussion
LISTS, LISTS, AND MORE LISTS
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Stuff We've Just Listened To
would be utterly bizarre if they didn't
Jealous...but what's with Kim Deal? Are they fighting again...she with her sister again, and no Joey Guitar? Too bad. That's one of those totally alchemical bands that needs the right mix to make it work. My daughter saw the original reunion. I never got to see the Replacements either...
Tracy wrote: "Jealous...but what's with Kim Deal? Are they fighting again...she with her sister again, and no Joey Guitar? Too bad. That's one of those totally alchemical bands that needs the right mix to mak..."Agreed. Kim Deal is doing only Breeders stuff now, I believe. She was replaced by Kim Shattuck, former singer of The Muffs. Not sure what Joey Santiago is up to. It was pretty disappointing, as I had never seen them and I consider them one my "pantheon" bands. But just no energy whatsoever, just going through the motions.
I had the great pleasure of hearing our own Left Coast correspondent Phillip perform some of his own compositions in NYC last night. Some splendid pieces based on maps (the scores themselves are lovely works of art -- Phillip generously gave me his own copy of his score for ANTARCTICA) and two remarkable improvisations with himself and a drummer.A marvelous evening's listening!
thanks, tom! how nice of you to post. i will send you a recording of me playing ANTARCTICA at the center for new music in san francisco this past september on solo clarinet, which is how it was originally conceived ... i really like how that performance came out. if i were to do that concert over again, i would perform it solo and use the other two works as group pieces - and have claudia "read" the poems and allow the other instruments to play the work in a purely instrumental context - works a lot better that way.can you receive MP3s?
i'll send via email when i get back to oakland.
listening to some von freeman this afternoon, a iconic tenor player who spent most of his life living in chicago - i've mentioned him before - one of my faves.
Well, I should be at the Queens of the Stone Age concert tonite, but instead I'm an old flu-ridden bag of rag…youth is wasted on the wrong people.
I've been helplessly caught in the cast album to NATASHA, PIERRE, AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812, an original musical play based on a sliver of Tolstoy's WAR AND PEACE, and one of the most thrilling, moving and entertaining pieces of theater I've yet experienced. The album contains the entire show, all two odd hours of it. The sung text is taken almost directly from Tolstoy in a sort of Story Theater way, so characters will often sing what they're doing, as when Natasha sings "I blush charmingly."This kind of thing can go very hideously wrong, but here it doesn't. I've seen the show three times and will find a way to grab one more viewing before it closes, and that's just not something I do, see a play more than once.
Tracy wrote: "Well, I should be at the Queens of the Stone Age concert tonite, but instead I'm an old flu-ridden bag of rag…youth is wasted on the wrong people."i like them - sorry you weren't up for the show.
i've been in the midst of a big blues bath ... here are the records that have been at the top of the queue lately:big mama thornton - hound dog: the peacock recordings
big bill broonzy - good time tonight (lots of old never before released vocalion label recordings) ... outstanding!
junior wells - calling all blues
muddy waters - complete chess recordings
sonny boy williamson - complete chess recordings
howlin' wolf - complete chess recordings
son house - the original delta blues
charlie patton - spoonful of the blues .. the recording quality on most of the charlie patton stuff is dicey, they were made in the 1920's ... but still. dang.
these are all essential records for anyone interested in exploring the medium. there are countless other records, of course, but this stuff has been in constant rotation the past few days.
Well, I hope you listened to my favorite Hound Dog Taylor song: "Gimme Back My Wig". It's about a man breaking up with his woman, and he wants the wig back that he bought her--she can let her " head go bald".And I know it's not Christmas, but I love Sonny Boy Williamson's "Santy Claus"--bout a man who almost gets arrested for trying to find his "Santy Claus" in his baby's dresser drawer.
Guess I like the ones with a good story.
re:hound dog taylor - this reminds me of one of my favorite lightnin' hopkins tunes: "i can't have no woman, if her hair ain' longer than mine." he goes on to describe her hair products, etc ... talk about storyline!and while i love lightnin', i beg to disagree.
on a similar vein i picked up a king curtis box set that features seven LPs worth of material. oh my god this stuff rules!
it's like dirty back door r & b stripper music for tenor saxophone with groovy 50's rhythm section ... like some elvis dream band, but on drugs and the musicians soloing on top of it are all virtuoso blues cats ... so the stakes are high all around and these guys are delivering it party style.
trust me, you want this box set for your next party
($19.95 from the real gone jazz label - i think it's possible these cats are pirating, but i'm not sure - they have a growing catalog of crucial sides)
Name me a tune--I gotta source for listenin'..;)
There's a new release of John Adams music -- CITY NOIR and Adams' Saxophone Concerto.I like this new recording of CITY NOIR very much. The previous live recording (of the world premiere performance) still has a lot to recommend it, but so does this one. I don't have the audiophile vocabulary to describe it, but this new recording sounds "fuller" if you see what I mean. I like it a lot, I've listened to it a few times, the piece itself has grown on me over the last couple of weeks.
The Saxophone Concerto I'm rather less taken with on a first hearing -- I'm sure that familiarity will breed affection.
Check em out.
yum. i wonder who plays the saxophone on that recording. i think i told you that my teacher - back in my usc days - worked with adams and liked working with him very much. (they were playing excerpts of NIXON IN CHINA) at green umbrella in los angeles and he adams kept saying, "boy those saxophones sound great! - i have to write more music for saxophone".
i'll look for it, or have gail over at amoeba order it for me.
Tracy wrote: "Name me a tune--I gotta source for listenin'..;)"god, there's so much here to recommend! i mean, seven LPs ...
loved MIDNIGHT RAMBLE off the album HAVE TENOR SAX, WILL BLOW. his recording of the workhorse NIGHT TRAIN off the album OLD GOLD, and well, anything off the album MUSIC FOR DANCING THE TWIST, and probably my favorite is PEPPERMINT TWIST ... so good. i mean, he does a 'twist' version of HONEYSUCKLE ROSE for gosh sake. THE HUCKLEBUCK also put a smile on my face.
Thx--great stuff!! Bonus--recorded year of my birth))
Just came across a new Natalie Merchant song/video, "Lulu," that pays tribute to Louise Brooks. Looking forward to listening to her new cd.http://youtu.be/DYRyD-_iyQw
Tracy wrote: "Thx--great stuff!! Bonus--recorded year of my birth))"yeah - same here!
some motherfucker is parked outside my apartment blasting smooth jazz on his car stereo.WHO DOES THAT?
so i had to put some johnny guitar watson sides from the 50's on, just to, you know, block out the poison.
note to any of you: if you want to be friends, don't pull up outside my crib and blast smooth jazz. on sunday. before 10 am.
or, maybe, like, ever.
John Coltrane ASCENSION -- there are no words. Even on a first listen (the first of many, no doubt, I can't imagine anyone ever getting to the bottom of it) it impresses.
Phillip wrote: "some motherfucker is parked outside my apartment blasting smooth jazz on his car stereo.WHO DOES THAT?
so i had to put some johnny guitar watson sides from the 50's on, just to, you know, block ..."
Ewwwwwwwwwшшшшшьь .....
I actually think it should be part of one's permanent record that you ever listened heart-feltly to smooth jazz.
Tom wrote: "John Coltrane ASCENSION -- there are no words. Even on a first listen (the first of many, no doubt, I can't imagine anyone ever getting to the bottom of it) it impresses."we need to talk about this at some point. ASCENSION is an amazing recording, and there is a very precise form they are playing.
my friends in the ROVA SAXOPHONE QUARTET have been playing the work for several years now, and they call it ELECTRIC ASCENSION, because they use electronic musicians as well as acoustic. it's really something to hear their version - and a local film-maker filmed one of their performances of the work last year at guelph, using several cameras and apparently did a great job of capturing it. i will let you know when the film is released.
but back to coltrane's seminal recording ... it was one of those things that overwhelmed me when i was a young saxophonist digging into coltrane's work. as you may have noticed when you visited, i have practically everything he recorded on CD, and every every every thing he ever recorded on vinyl. i played with his wife, alice, back in the late 80's and it was an amazing experience. in short, i have spent a lot of time listening and thinking and studying his work.
all of that aside, this recording, along with MEDITATIONS, his last recorded work, kind of haunted me for a long time, the music they were playing didn't seem possible for human beings - it seemed to transcend the boundaries of human capabilities. but it had this element of surprise and mystery that pulled me in and made me want to know more and more about his music.
over time, of course, the music made more and more sense and now it seems a kind of standard of post-jazz mastery. but what still compels me is the kind of searching that coltrane was up to in this period and how far he stretched the forms of jazz, starting in 1965. yes, there are times when i'm still in awe listening to it, that it even happened, you know? i mean, that a record company said, oh, sure - let's put that out. it's fantastic that bob thiele over at impulse gave coltrane so much creative freedom when he signed him in the early 60's, and all of those impulse recordings are just pure gold. i can't think of one that isn't outstanding. it's the same with monk's relationship at columbia. for both of them, it was just so wonderful that during their mature period they were allowed to go into the studio as much as they wanted to and record their work. super thankful for that.
if you haven't seen it, i would highly recommend, ASCENSION: JOHN COLTRANE AND HIS QUEST - eric nisenson's great study of the master saxophonist's work and life. it's one of the better books written about a musician that i can think of, and it's about coltrane, so ... what's not to like?
finally, so happy you're getting into this music. it's an incredible period of creative expression - all happening in the midst of the civil rights movement - that recording must have scared a lot of people back in the day.
P, many thanks for the Coltrane words. I'll be picking up MEDITATIONS next.The only Coltrane I knew was his work with Monk, and I had BLUE TRAIN and A LOVE SUPREME on my ipod for a long time without listening to them.
I think I'm on to something here.
i don't think even A LOVE SUPREME could prepare you for these ... this statement doesn't diminish my love for BLUE TRANE, or any of the earlier atlantic recordings from the 50's, or the stuff he did with monk or miles. it's just a totally different musical universe.whoa ... MEDITATIONS ... make sure you're sitting down when you listen to that one. it is the classic quartet, plus rashied ali (additionally) on drums and pharoah sanders on tenor (who also plays on ASCENSION).
i would also recommend stuff like AFRICA/BRASS, if you like ASCENSION. there is another recording called FIRST MEDITATIONS (FOR QUARTET). that was my introduction to trane, and i still adore that record. and, sorry to load you up, but if you haven't heard coltrane's seminal MY FAVORITE THINGS, that is probably my favorite of all the recordings he did for atlantic.
Whoa. MEDITATIONS. What can be said? And the first cut of LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD.At the gym, no less. Happiness has been mine.
wow! at the gym. you are a brave man. did you pick up one of those box sets?LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD (with dolphy!) is a classic. i don't know how many times i've listened to that record.
been listening to 40 greatest hits by hank williams all morning.
Phillip wrote: "wow! at the gym. you are a brave man. did you pick up one of those box sets?"Nope, I either got them off iTunes or snagged them from your CD collection. I'm digging the later stuff -- there's a much later Village Vanguard album I'm looking at...
yeah, there is that "LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD ... AGAIN!" record on impulse that is also good - and it has pharoah saunders instead of eric dolphy. i like both - but may have a preference to the first recording, maybe just because i have listened to it so many times. i think i'll put it on now.
I'll be picking up some Coltrane at Amoeba in a couple weeks.
yes! we look forward to your west coast visit and stocking up. let me know if we can go record shopping together.
As promised, but perhaps not wanted))) Always good for stupid debate...http://www.salon.com/2012/07/11/the_t...
i might take early R.E.M. off the list - but like, the first three records. the rest of those hacks can go to hooliganland.in addition to all the bands mentioned in this post, here are the ten bands (composers/musicians) i will be forced to listen to in the inferno:
paul simon (not s&g, just the man alone)
sting (sorry to repeat, i will refrain)
ethel mermen
culture club
kenny g/dave koz (could i just have one smooth jazz column?)
damn, i'm not awake enough for this. here's another 5
milli vanilli
vanilla ice
vanilla fudge
james taylor
similar to R.E.M., anything U2 has done since BOY. i saw their first american tour and they were so raw and amazing. what the hell happened to them??? and don't blame it on brian eno. he's one of my heroes.
Put Dave Matthews Band on the list for my eternal damnation.
Whoa -- no love for the Beach Boys? Consigning them to your Eternal Damnation Playlist? My oh my.Mine, well, let's see...
Christian Contemporary
Contemporary Christian Country
Britney Spears
Or is that all the same thing?
Hee heee glad to start a thing!! I really sorta liked the guy's list--and loved that silly comment, "all testost and no terone"!!I have never had a great love for the Beach Boys and always sort of zone out when I hear them--that wall of sound sounds nothing like the Beatles' to me. Many of my musician friends tell me I am wrong--but, I gotta go with my own ear. There's a lot of intellectual, technically well-done music that I just don't like.
I think I still like R.E.M. up to the GREEN-album-- I like "Orange Crush", and "My Crush With Eyeliner" I think is their only really sexy song. See, my criteria is that a good song, regardless of it's skill-level, is it has to bring the sex. Or at least be sensual?? I think maybe that's what's wrong with almost everyone on the guy's list, including Sting the Tantric Sex man.
I mean, look at all the awesome 3 and 4 chord rock songs that I can teach a kid in 5 minutes, but are just built to last...T.Rex's "Mambo Sun" , "Cosmic Dancer" or Iggy Pop's "Passenger"? No skill needed, but.
Steve--I am also with you on Dave Matthews--my bro and I part ways on this band, and one of my good friends once convinced me to see, not DMB, but A Dave Matthews TRIBUTE band--granted it was at a cool venue, but I did the ultimate rude thing and laid down on a bench and went to sleep--was hoping someone just thought I was too high and went to sleep so there would be no hurt feelings.
Some musicians apparently don't age well? Seems quite the trick to keep it up. I say this as an aging, amateur musician.
And now I go way on the limb and add, like one of the dudes in the comment section: The Grateful Dead. --not sexy, although I can play Tennessee Jed and Devil is A Friend of Mine..
Credibility Sacrifice Time: I like OUT OF TIME and AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE, and I don't care who knows it.Bands go through phases, I guess. Pink Floyd after Waters' departure is just plain embarrassing, and Queen became unlistenable after THE GAME.
Yeah. Queen. I like Queen. Jeer away, you jackals!
Tom wrote: "Credibility Sacrifice Time: I like OUT OF TIME and AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE, and I don't care who knows it.Bands go through phases, I guess. Pink Floyd after Waters' departure is just plain emba..."
Who doesn't like Bohemian Rhapshody?
Steve wrote: "Put Dave Matthews Band on the list for my eternal damnation."seriously
Tom wrote: "Whoa -- no love for the Beach Boys? Consigning them to your Eternal Damnation Playlist? My oh my..."again, growing up in LA - the beach boys, whose music i like ... but mostly the stuff that comes from brian's pen, is pure gold. but the social scene associated with that music brings up a lot of bad memories.
PET SOUNDS, on the other hand is amazing.
Tom wrote: "Credibility Sacrifice Time: I like OUT OF TIME and AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE, and I don't care who knows it..."the lost trio recorded STAR ME, KITTEN, which i think was on AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE .... i like that song.
the thing is, i think i probably don't even know most of their albums past the 5th or 6th release .. so consider my comments totally ill-informed and perhaps even blasphemous.
Tom wrote: "Yeah. Queen. I like Queen. Jeer away, you jackals! .."i saw queen in 1974 (?) right around the time BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY was released and a totally unknown band called aerosmith opened for them. that concert blew my mind, from start to finish.
sitting in a cafe in seattle, where they have been blasting all sorts of 70's uber-pop: kansas, foreigner, electric light orchestra, christopher cross ... is it any wonder most of us spent that decade in a narcotic-induced stupor? it's kind of a chicken or the egg question: were we fleeing the culture by using drugs or does the mindless music reek of the drugs we were using?
Phillip wrote: "sitting in a cafe in seattle, where they have been blasting all sorts of 70's uber-pop: kansas, foreigner, electric light orchestra, christopher cross ... is it any wonder most of us spent that dec..."Go back five years and it was all beautiful. I think it was the spiritual death of the 60's that caused the seventies to be so mindless in music. That, or the fact that someone decided they could make "big" money off kids, and sucked the guts out of the whole thing. But there's always Jimmy Page and Zeppelin??? Christopher Cross--yug!! Haven't thought of him in forever...I kinda like some ELO, though---Strange Magic, the cello...
So, are they being ironic, or what's the take? They could at least play Ozzy..
of course, you're right. people say the same about the 80's, that it was shite for music. there's always lots of crappy pop music being flushed down the pike for the masses, and equal amounts of brilliant stuff. it was just this cafe this morning was playing all the crappy pop stuff.
Reportedly a fan asked Westerberg about that, and he said something like "Yeah, I'm sure we'll do something there..." But no confirmation yet.