Get a crew!
Monday, April 2, 2007
I’ve been remixed by my friends and the result is here. The audio comes from an i312 lecture, phone messages, jam sessions, studio fun house free styling, and any other surreptitious audio they were able to get out of me.
Being reformulated and mediated by audio software and the creativity of those you love is like hearing your life in dream form. Except these dreams are carefully crafted by your friends and you get to remember everything. I wince at my own ridiculousness, delight in the sax duets I have with myself, and more than anything else, feel sheer joy at being recreated by those closest to me.
We start off the new year with more Kingfish. This is the first Kingfish as I understand it and it includes Bob Weir of Grateful Dead fame. The only song that jumped out at me for its timeliness and silliness was Asia Minor.
Yay a sci-fi concept album. This record made quite a splash and is seen as a trail blazer in experimental and glam rock. We listened to it over dinner one night and it got a thumbs down as a family dinner time jam album, but I liked it. I didn’t get to spend a whole lot of time listening intently to it so I’ll need to come back to it. Nature’s Way was a semi-big hit from this record.
Now this is a dinner jam time album. The whole family rocked out to the classics on this. This is a band and album best summarized by Youtube videos. Purposely sloppy music intended to be played at 117db’s with amps on 10 or 11 if you got it. Cleveland!
This dude is a piece of work and this album is a piece of crap. At one time a prominent rock musician, he’s long been an evangelist-style spokesman for the Lord. Check out the drinks for two the Love Rustler has left out by the chair. No idea if he’s related to Brett Favre.
This is a pretty strong rock record. Let in the Light, the first song is really pretty good. It’s a little schmaltzy at times, but I really kind of like the vocals and the songs are all really richly orchestrated. It was hard to find much out about this album quickly, but the best way I can explain this music is to point out that Dennis Tufano co-wrote the theme song for Family Ties 
I grew up on James Taylor and never really cared for him all that much. He was a staple at family pickin’-n-singin’ events. I recognize that he has written some great songs, but for someone who is able to get the whole world singing along, he seems remarkably unmoved by it all. I just find his music kind of passionless, albeit catchy and memorable. This album sounds great, has some classic songs and sweet baby james wraps you around his finger. I guess I can be accused of not really trying to get into this one too much, and that would be fair. I’m far more interested in things that I haven’t heard as much of before.
This album is really good. The opening guitar tone is as good as it gets for me. Lake and Palmer are really great on this record. I can safely say at this point that Emerson is the thing I like least about ELP’s music. He’s revered by a ton of people, but to me, he carelessly tramples on the work of the rest of the ensemble. I was working a lot while listening to this so I’ll definitely be revisiting it. 
It’s hard to be objective about this record because a) the album’s covers make me happy b) his nicknames were the Ox and Thunderfingers and C) I love the Who. If there isn’t already a Godwin’s Law like rule for song lyrics with overt drug references then I would like to make one. Try me, the first track is filled with them “Powder y’nose” don’t mean what you suppose, In this town it’s inside not out.” Nice. This album has Joe Walsh on guitar (and I’m headed for some James Gang in this collection real soon) and the musicianship is pretty good all around. The songs aren’t that memorable so far. The track Lovebird has weird (purposefully?) out of tune sections and Talk Dirty is pretty awful. As side B rolls on I have to say that mostly this album won’t give me much more than the covers to enjoy.
I really hate this record. When Tomorrow Comes is one of the worst songs I’ve ever heard. It’s just boring 80’s poo.
This isn’t a horrible rock record. It’s not a good one though. Very boring. I’m starting to sense a trend here.
Kind of bland Bay-area blues weenie rock. I can’t find much online about this album in under 5 minutes of searching. It’s on Jet records. I gather that Mathew Kelly is of some significance due to Grateful Dead connections. Trident is again representative of the tendency in this collection towards bands with clearly a high degree of musicianship, but that just didn’t really succeed in making consistently great or even good music. This songs on this record are pretty sappy, the playing is good, but nothing to write home about and it just is generally pretty forgettable to me. Maybe it was great for its time, but just doesn’t make the highlight reel of history. Or maybe it’s just not for me. Come on thin mints box, move me.
This collection is loaded with prog rock so it’s no suprise I hit the real ELP quick. I’ve read that this isn’t gold standard ELP, but it is, according to some, the most listenable. I gather that Emerson is a genius at the keyboard(s). Hmmm, OK. I really like Greg Lake’s voice and vocals. I hate the way this album is produced. Carl Palmer’s drums sound deader than dead and the whole thing just comes across as kind of flat. Whoa, the Sheriff was supposed to be the throw away tune on this record, but I think it’s great. Oh my God, Hoedown, it’s the “Beef, it’s what’s for dinner” tune. I get that these guys can play, but they kind of waste their abilities I think. I would take Keith Jarrett over Keith Emerson any day or for that matter, sticking closer to home, King Crimson. Chick Corea’s Now He Sings Now He Sobs rocks a million times harder than anything here. I’m not sure you’re really progressive when you jam genres together, throw in a synth, rock out in 15/8 and close with a classical figure. But, I guess the prog-rock label doesn’t actually require that you make progressive music. It is pretty great to hear Carl Palmer match Keith Emerson line for wankerific line. Oh my, Abaddon’s Bolero is a track every DJ should have on hand to clear a bar.
Stopped with the A side so started this listening period with the next side. This record is really good. It’s very Steely Danesque, very funky and I like the production quite a bit. I have so much more Little Feat to go, but I gotta say this record is solid through and through. This actually gets even more into straight up fusion than a lot of Steely Dan. Kenny G. is a noodler, this is not noodling. I realize that this is a departure from folksy feel good country rock, but fans who dismiss this aren’t tuning their ears into it. Great drumming on this as well.
The follow-up to Dixie Chicken, pre-noodling. So far it’s still that well-oiled boogie woogie kind of shuffley rock thing. Lowell George is kind of an interesting guitarist who I would describe has having a signature sound. Kind of light and tinny with lots of note bending. long distance love grooves pretty hard.
Ugh, what I said before.
Post Palmer super-sythned prog rock from 1986. This is just terrible. I hate the sound of the snare drum on this and the synths are caricaturely bad. If you were living in ‘86 and starving for more prog-rock, i guess you’d be happy. I find this music way over dramatized lyrically (a la Rush) and well worthy of being parodied in this is spinal tap. Boo.
Captain Lou Albano! This record is not new to me and it’s still really good. Her packaged image was so much more goofy than she comes across on this record. I never noticed the weird building she stands in front of on the album cover with the name “Roberto Clemente” carefully stenciled above the door. When You Were Mine is so sedate on this album though and the opposite of funky. All Through the Night is super sappy, but still really good. Hmm, She Bop is about masturbation. Didn’t catch on to that when i was 9. Wow, Yeah Yeah has one of the most odd saxophone solos ever by Eric Bazilian, who also plays hooter on the album. It’s way out of tune and has the kind of flourish that someone short on musicality and time makes. I definitely have to learn the Bazilian break for sure. I bet Gwen Stefani heard some Lauper in her day.
We’re off to a rocky start with this 1983 release from Carole King. Someone needs to study musical decision making in the 1980’s. For any woman who’s ever fallen for an engineer or some other brand of egghead, track 1 has you and your android anguish covered with Computer Eyes. Actually this makes listening to this album kind of worth it.
Computer Eyes sits in a thin mint box staring at this classic and that’s pretty funny. This album doesn’t need any commentary from me. These songs are the grist for the American Idol audition mill, but her naked foot on the cover is gnarly and she’s totally digging for her gat under that blanket and the cat knows it. The gat reach remark is borrowed from Pee who insinuated that Barbara Jordan was doing the same thing (’cept from her handbag) in the ultimately 1st place statue in a Barbara Jordan statue contest that took place in the UT gym.
I’m sure a lot of people get into this relaxed shuffley rock. I find most of it pretty boring. This is pre-Dixie Chicken and supposedly marks an important transitional phase for the band and their genre. I can appreciate that this is viewed as an important contribution to the genre, but it still isn’t my cup of tea. I have a feeling that a lot of the stuff in this collection is music that has a) rabid fans who b) feel the artist(s) didn’t get enough attention. The track Willin’ from this album is a notable exception. It seems to be played with far more care than the others and has a stoner’s anthem feel [it probably is and I'm just late to this party]. I also liked Got No Shadow and Texas Rose Cafe mentions Austin in kind of a funny way.
Hmmm, maybe I should have shuffled these before I started. I’m relying on Amazon user reviews to get some back story since I’m not a Little Feationado. I learned that this was the last album to include Lowell George, which is something that I am lead to believe is pretty significant if you understand which member’s feats were most appreciated. Ugh, I can see why people like Little Feat, but I just don’t care them that much. They’re pretty strong musically and lyrically, but there’s not much to latch onto for me. Who knows though, I see that Dixie Chicken is next, and like the reviews said, this is no Dixie Chicken.
roll um easy is a terrific song and this album is waaay better than the other two. I’m reading up on the whole Mother’s of Invention history behind Little Feat and it at least validates my comments about the song Willin’, which has two competing and not all that interesting legends behind it revolving around Frank Zappa. I am into the Neon Park cover art on these Little Feat records (RZZZZZ!).
Thank God! This album rules. Again, I’ve never been an active Kinks listener, but this album makes me want to get right on that. There’s tons written about this album online.