Prop shop!

Amy and I are doing Prop Shop tonight on 88.3 WCBN (.org).

Listen live on teh intarweb for Old Skool Hip Hop.

Long time, no see...

I'll be back to regular blogging soon.
In the meantime, maybe you could enjoy this leak of Thom Yorke's Eraser.

I'll talk about it in some, I'm still listening to it. And the nice thing about Radiohead fans is that they can be trusted to buy the album after they've downloaded it...

I've been lax.

Have a job at a record store now, but an online one. Creating a website. Should be interesting. Rare vinyl stuff.

I've got a new computer that I need to fix, and decide what to do with the computer that I have... Probably semi-cannibalize it. Maybe put it on the network as a purely storage computer.

Interesting discussion at Metafilter about Sasha Frere-Jones and Stephin Merritt.

I started thinking about the discussion in terms of the arguments about pornographic taste. I mean, that's one of those things that's assumed to have root causes, yet has a very powerful sensory reaction. Does your taste in music stem from exposure, disturbances, whatever?

Ed Sanders

Well, I got a request for the Ed Sander's Truckstop album, and in particular two songs (which took me forever to find when I first looked for 'em since the requester and I made the same mistakes about what should be named what). But, with little ado, and minus a few songs that wouldn't fit on the 25mb storage space that I have, here's Truckstop. If you want the other songs, get ahold of me...

The Plaster Song

Popularized by Red Dorkus and his band, this is the tragic lament of the deliterious effects that plaster casters can have on a relationship.

Jimmy Joe the Hippybilly Boy

The awful tale of a boy misunderstood by his neighbors, but lauded after death. It also drives Amy up the fucking wall, and so I secretly enjoy it.

Maple Court Tragedy

Better known as "Polaroid Spread Shots," this is a classic of love and loss.

Heartbreak Crash Pad
Who hasn't had a special place that becomes impossible to return to due to the weight of memories?

The Illiad, a theme for America, would go here, but I had it up for a while and no one seemed to want it. Maybe I'll put it back up and take down some of these other ones soon.

The ABM Machine

Better known as "Are you a vampire, Melvin Laird," this song questions the evil within all of us.

Homesick Blues

Ed Sanders tackles the problem of the recently released poet prisoner returning home with his characteristic delicacy.

Banshee

An Irish love song.

Breadtray Mountain

A sequel to "Hardrock Candy Mountain"? The plaintive fiddle sets this apart...

They're Cutting my Coffin at the Sawmill

Pretty self-explainitory.

Pindar's Revenge

The old country school is now a crashpad. If that doesn't break your heart, nothing will.

The Yodellin' Yippie is the other missing track that would prevent you from assembling the full album. It's another that I've put up before, but might be convinced to re-up.

PWNED!

Look to the bottom for my new soundtrack to video game playing.
(The delightfully silly 'PWNED' by Baby Boy.)

Nature's Hated

So, I'm vaguely curious about Romo, after hearing it described in glowing terms on ILM, and I'm listening to Nature's Hated by Orlando. I think it's OK, a little too Manic Street but no big deal.

Amy comes in and "What the hell is that SHIT? I can't even think, it's that bad!"

So... take it as you will.

1977

It's been a classic MOR day here at the Honest Engine pagoda. What does that mean? Well, it means that I've given my first listen (ever!) to two albums widely reputed to be "classics" that somehow my punk affinities had led me to overlook— Aja by Steely Dan and Hermit of Mink Hollow by Todd Rundgren.

First, the Steely Dan. I found a vinyl copy of Aja in my girlfriend's crates and stuck it on.

Maybe the problem is that I'd been listening to real jazz right before it (Archie Shepp's brilliant Choral Rock), but the smoove was overpowering. Pleasant, and I don't have any hate for it, but like baby food. Like jazz pre-chewed.
I liked Deacon Blues OK, and I thought Josie was pretty cool. I like the bass sound that they've got, warm and mid-'70s. But things like the disco-ish beat on Black Cow and the endless vapid crooning (I know, I know, everyone loves the lyrics. But Home At Last is pretty damn empty, at least to me). Too much pretention in this yacht rock. If I'm going to listen to smoov, I want something a little more fun and a little less late night AM radio. Too much REO Speedwagon. Too much Hall and Oates ballad. And I know, I know, those guys didn't do it as meticulously (or something). And Steely Dan passes on the practical scale— you can tell that they succeeded at putting out albums that sounded like they wanted them to sound, even if that meant saxophones so slick that they glisten like slug trails. And if the argument is going to be that you simply need to be a musician to comprehend their consumate skill, well, I'll cop to feeling a little more populist on that front (while acknowledging the contradiction between that and eschewing 'smooth,' 'accessible' music).
I'm not even going to bother with the real/memorex distinction about whether or not the crushing on Steely Dan that I see a lot of places is genuine/backlash, except to say that the endless hype did make me expect something more. Sorry, I'll take my Sex Pistols album over Aja any day, and rating the other way seems to be more contrarianism than conviction (and I've seen a lot of people now rate it the other way).
Weirdly enough, the "slick disco" isn't as much of a problem for me as the slick jazz. I've been tussling with my dad over Donna Summer and my growing appreciation for her this last week, but he loves Steely Dan in a way that I don't get. It sounds too much like the theme from 'Taxi.'
And, given the choice of studio lunacy, I'll take 10cc any day. At least they seemed like they were having fun, rather than placing a coke-fueled chrome polish onto Randy Newman song suites. Out of 10, I'd put it Aja at 5.5 or so, a bit above "I'm Your Captain." Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe I'll listen to it again in five years.

As for Rundgren, I'm a big Nazz fan but never really knew anything from his solo career outside of Bang on a Drum... Hermit of Mink Hollow is apparently about his breakup with Bebe Neuworth (or whatever her last name is), the relationship that spawned Liv Tyler (kinda). But listening to it really just crystalizes why punk must have been so exciting, and why saxophones have totally dropped out of the rock lexicon. It's not that the sax is a bad instrument, or unsuited for rock, it's just that folks like Rundgren used it as a patina of soulfulness over extremely white licks. Of course, I hate the E Street Band, so whaddo I know? But this album is so packed with self-indulgent pap that it makes Steely Dan sound positively lean and populist. The tortured rhymes of "Lucky Guy" ('And when there's pain he never minds it/ when it's lost he always finds it') sound like they were written as theme songs for angsty tv shows about blondes with teased hair. Despite the Big Star theme of That '70s Show, this is the MOR shit that sums up their aesthetic. For anyone reading, I'm listening so you don't have to. Even the 'rockers' like "Out of Control" sound more like wanky Paul Sabu than, say, KISS. Where did the Rundgren that was so beautifully psychadelic in The Nazz go? When Rundgren threatens to go 'totally out of control,' his rampage means having a couple of beers and maybe letting the air out of his neighbor's tires. And the ballads are one of the strongest arguments for that now-dismissed canard that 'music sucked during the '70s.' If I heard this on the radio, I can only imagine that heroin, safety pin jewelry and nihilism would seem like the only acceptable answer.

So, today's score is two "classic" albums that I'd never heard and now vaguely wish I hadn't. At least the Steely Dan seems like it might be worth listening to again, sometime when I'm going to have totally shitfaced sex with a girl I don't like very much. I can't imagine ever having sex to Rundgren.

Mixology

Jon Moody, a pal of mine, challenged me to make him a mix that was only 25% guitar rock.
Here's what I came up with:

Moody (Spaced Out) ESG
Handclapping Song The Meters
spin the impossible dreamers
Deep Soul Pt. 1 Ron Buford
Mama Too Tight Archie Shepp
Trance Space Flying Rhythms
Oui Oui Pulsallama
Chinese Black The Neon Judgement
The Rat Kissed the Cat Funkadelic
stand on the word the joubert singers
It's A Nice World To Visit (But Not To Live In) Ann-Margret
break the ice at parties tesco bombers
'Guys are not proud (7'') (Red Sweater) The Anemic Boyfriends
up and above dub P1/E
Good As Gold - Flexible Skulls Tiga
They Don't Want Your Corn They Want Your Kids Liars
Second Song Afrirampo
The Taster Wild Man Fischer
No You Can't Take Them Stuart Hyatt
College Grad The Mutants

Only one of the tracks is guitar rock per se, but there's a fair balance there... His mix was pretty good too.
Lemme know if anyone wants this posted as a .zip

They sing the news so you don't have to

Topical ditties in doggerel from The Aural Times, including a barbersop quartet about Isaac Hayes's departure from South Park and a lovely triffle about Stanislaw Lem.
Look it up, folks.
Similar, but with better musical sense, to Songs to Wear Pants To.

I stumbled on to it it it it it it it it it...

Some of you may know that I'm an inveterate dope smoker. Which is OK, but too much dope smokin' music tends to be pretty fucking boring (jam bands, I'm looking at you).
But... A good dub out does everyone good. Check out Hearwax for some amazing dub sides. Yeah, it's another one of those intermittently updated rapidshare blogs, but his Perry A to Z is a tight mix, and he's got good taste.
So get on already!

Found

I got this promo from the band The Destroyed, who were a punk band in Boston that reformed. The new album's pretty worthless, as it's guitar/drums/vocals (no bass) freeform jam sorta crap. Occassionally, it gets interesting in an antimusic way, and the drummer really does sound like a drunk Keith Moon (though arguably no records exist today with a sober Keith Moon).

But by digging at their site, I found a couple of really great old chaotic punk tracks. I particularly enjoy We Got It and War Planes.
There's also kinda noisey electronic/new wave My Dad is Dead with Anti-Socialist.

Bringin' Back that ol' Hardcore Rap

Cloak N Dagga— Def Con Zero: The Last Tour On Earth (Head Trauma, 2005)
headtraumarecords.com

Canibus, one half of Cloak N Dagga, might best be remembered as the also-ran MC who dissed LL Cool J with “Second Round K.O.,” which LL answered with “The Ripper Strikes Back,” way back in 1998. He’s done more since then, but Canibus has failed to make any music worth owning after going down as one of the first rappers to have their solo debut ruined by a post-Fugees Wyclef.
With that being the last noteworthy blip in his career, it’s fitting that Def Con Zero starts with a loudspeaker announcing the rules for existence in a post-apocalyptic bomb shelter. Those three diktats, that the sex in the shelter is for procreation only, that no rhymes from outside their jurisdiction will be recognized, and that it’s “not about who sells the most albums, but who sells the last album” explain all of Def Con Zero.
First off, while there are occasional tracks that celebrate the pimpin’ proficiency of our protagonists ancillarily, this is a strictly hardcore album with the blunt, flat beats and compressed cymbal hits that requires. This album is not for cruising strip clubs so much as strip malls and looking hard. Occasionally exhilarating, rarely exciting.
Second, while there are undeniably good moments in rhyme (“I’m the walkin’, talkin’ Stephen Hawkins”), there’s no doubt that the lyrics are dated. On the last track, there’s even another dis on LL. By refusing to recognize rhymes from outside, Cloak N Dagga handily insulate themselves from both being called out and having to justify their fairly monotonous flow.
Which brings us to the third point— there doesn’t seem to be any forward motion on Def Con Zero. There’s a lot of hardcore posturing, some deft boasting, and that’s about it. The theory seems to be that by remaining unchanged, they’ll sell the last album and thereby vindicate their long sojourn in the bunker.
Too bad that by remaining sequestered, they’re only likely to sell those albums to each other.

The High Strung

Part of what I like about the '70s in rock is that there's this great sense of future and purpose in the music of bands like Big Star and Mott The Hoople. Even at the downturns, even when the girls are September, even when hangin' out is a chore, there's this sense of motion forward. Perhaps it's because there's such longing, and any longing you have has to be connected with a future, possible or impossible. But how can All The Young Dudes promise anything other than a better future?

There's enough of a connection between The High Strung and '70s power pop that when I first started listening to the album Moxie Bravo, I thought of all of the places that I loved '70s rock, the places where it fit and comforted. And I kept thinking of places like the long drive down Washtenaw, out of Ypsi, back to Ann Arbor, where at night it's an endless spread of chrome dealerships under halogen, where everything is blue-lit and harsh. I think back to working in restaurants, and turning on the classic rock radio as I drove home, and how it was always a call to get the hell out.

What makes this work is the immaculate sense of flourish over fundamentally good structures— the drum roll that runs alongside the verses in "Seems it's One Thing" gives singer Josh Malerman the room to create a long-suffering character without feeling like you're suffering through a message set to music. Their predecessors in power pop should be known for this too, especially one that gets too much ink for the wrong reasons. Malerman can hit an alto that's not too far away from Jack White's, and Jack should probably be better known for his fantastic pop chops than his blues vamping, but we'll leave that aside. (We'll also leave aside how much of a kiss of death it can be here in Southeastern Michigan to invoke White in any comparison). Still, for the traditional X-meets-Y of rock reviews, you could do worse than "Pop Jack White" and "Big Star."

This isn't to discount the rest of the band. Malerman's a major factor, but one of the High Strung's strengths is their economy. In this post-Arcade Fire world of indie rock, I see bands like the Descent of the Holy Ghost Church and Canada (on the indie rock tip, Coke Dick Motorcycle Awesome on the pop metal tip) with enough members to staff a White Castle up on stage, but without the ability to write a single decent melody line for any of them. There's this belief that by mass of numbers, somehow an interesting song can be clumped together out of shifting dynamics. Instead, the High Strung are a trio, and a robust trio at that. Derek Berk's drumming is a high point of "Seems It's One Thing," with thunderous rolls like hilly giants falling down a flight of stairs. And having a bassist in Chad Stocker who's able to both play unobtrusive rhythm and provide a hook as thick as Rocky's forearm. Mallerman trust the rhythm section enough to give them the space to make a great song.

And more than anything, the virtue of Moxie Bravo is that it's infectious. I couldn't get to sleep last night because I had "A Real Mealticket" stuck in my head. It was three, maybe four in the morning before I finally dozed off. With great power pop comes great responsibility?

Anyway, there are three mp3s up on their site, the aforementioned mealticket, "N over C," a glammy single that's about the middle of their album quality wise, and "Truce," which is really about as influence-laden as they get. It's vaguely a shame that they're not putting some of my favorites up for free (like "Deck The Boy" which is going on every mixtape I make for the next year or so), but in contrast to my general demeanor, I'd like you to buy the goddamned album, you yobbos.

Anyway, I know that I get about 12 readers a day. About half of those should be random googlers who I frustrate by taking songs down even as I remain the top google hit. The rest of you? Well, take a listen. I really like this band. Would it kill you to comment?

From the google-ad gutter

Man, this is an example in how not to make a music site.
Not only is the color hideous, but the mission statement is long and convoluted (and you should be able to tell what the mission of a site is without having to read a goddamned statement), the links a poorly-rendered (here's a hint- if it says mp3 link, I don't want a .asf file asking me how to open it), and the overall thrust of the site is too broad. It's lovely to dream of changing all of the music industry, but I'd rather read a well-written niche site than one that's trying to do everything and succeeding at nothing.

(There were a couple of decent songs there though).

Which one of the Osmonds was a little bit country?

When I was a kid, I remember with a little bit of shame, I hated country music. I, frankly, blame my mother. Well, and society. I had this image of country music as something backwards and retarded, something that would somehow make me physically inbred just by playing it. If I wasn't ever vigilant, I'd end up sodomized on some rafting trip yet enjoying it. Anyway, in those days I was all about industrial music anyway, even to the point of refering to myself as a "rivethead."

Right. Well, I'm glad I got over both of those preoccupations. The country thing might have had something to do with Billy Ray Cyrus and Garth Brooks, or with my mom's combination of strong opinions and narrow taste, but I was an ass, and I've grown out of it (well, with regards to country, anyway).

With that in mind, here are a handful of tracks that I've learned to love over the years that I would've loudly decried had my dad put 'em on the stereo as a kid. They're still not proper Country, per se, but hell, you get enough of that with the Cash movie, right?

Lawn Dart by Ed's Redeeming Qualities.
A powerful ballad of love and loss, from ukelele-slingers to the K-Mart. I first heard this song on a CMJ Certain Damage comp back in the early '90s, and I spent years looking for it. The album showed up randomly on the internets, so I downloaded it and couldn't be happier. I've since bought it (though used, so the band still didn't get any money off me. You should buy it to make me feel better).
I swear that if you play this song during the summer, you will think of it every time you play any lawn game. Even croquet.

We Will Retake Saigon by Buddy Holocaust.
Great name, innit? Buddy Holocaust? Just the one guy, and this is one of those songs that no one knows whether it's a parody or not. Buddy died in a car crash that might have been a suicide soon after it was recorded. I think it's tongue in cheek, but I think that even if it were serious it would be hilarious.

The Illiad by Ed Sanders
As the astute can tell, Ed Sanders was part of The Fugs, one of America's most uplifting bands. But he was also a writer (of terrible poetry, really) and a recording artist in his own right. For some reason, his solo album Truckstop has never been reissued, despite it being, well, awesome. I had a hard time deciding what to upload, but I finally went with 'The Illiad,' which gives a pretty good indication of the tone of the album— funny, weird, but well-played. My father used to quote lines from this all the time while I was growing up, and I'm glad that I tracked it down.

Bad Blood by the Bonzo Dog Band
In fact, a lot of what I'm putting up today is stuff my dad used to sing to us, even though he'd lost his copies years ago. This one's the Bonzos, who should be known to everyone who likes Monty Python or Death Cab for Cutie. I like how far back the vocals are in the mix, it gives it an ominious feeling, even as he's singing about eggstains. Luckily, this is one that is pretty easy to find, if you look for it. It's also a song that for some reason my FTP program refuses to upload, so that's why it's a YSI link today.

Monkeys versus Donkeys by Wildman Fischer
And closing us out is another rarity, from the album "An Evening With..." which hasn't ever been reissued. There's kinda an epic disagreement between Frank Zappa, who recorded it and whose label issued it (and who was a famous asshole) and Wildman Fischer (who's crazy). There's even an apocryphal story about WMF pulling a tampon out of Frank's wife (who now controls the back catalogue) in a bathroom. You're unlikely to see this anywhere else, really. I had to go looking all over to find it last Christmas, and finally ended up patching together a bunch of different versions of vinyl rips into a cohesive album's worth. Still, it's so incredibly catchy that you can't turn away...

The handsome structure

Supersystem's New Album.

When Amy and I were just first dating, she made me these great mix tapes that had a couple of tracks from El Guapo's Super/System on 'em, and I loved the music. It was, in fact, one of the big reasons that I fell for her— she had great taste. And people with great taste have to be awesome, right? Well, in her case, that worked out. El Guapo was even going to play live in Detroit, and we thought about going to see 'em for our third date. Instead, we stayed here and she took me to her room to show me her 'zines. I maintain that it was a cunning plot to lure me up there, but she doesn't like it when I talk like that.

Anyway, she moved away for a year, and while she was gone, El Guapo put out a pretty mediocre follow-up called Fake French, which played into the worst tendencies of the nascent electroclash "movement." I picked up an older album, which had some of Super/System's songs done without the electronics, and really liked 'em. We've since seen them live a couple of times and found out that their very first album is a pretty boring emo-core drudge. So, it seems like they're a group that's only going to have one great album ever.

Anyway, a thread on Metafilter comes up, and I mention 'em. Somebody else lets me know that they've changed their name and some of the personelle. I track down the whole album, streaming, which is above. It's, well, y'know how they kidna jumped the electroclash bandwagon? Yeah, well, they're kinda at the tail-end of the post-punk/dancing-indie wagon now. Which is a shame, because the album is decent but not spectacular, and the weirdness is pretty well relegated to side corners. Which, honestly, should make them as popular as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, but whatever. I give it a 6/10. Good, but not great, and not really worth buying.

Anyone wanna disagree?

Rock 'n' Roll

I'm a huge fan of Led Zepplin, and found this set of songs that influenced them pretty interesting. A lot of it I'd already heard, but some of it was new to me. Included is the fabled original Dazed and Confused.

New music!

If you've been following the audioscrobbler scrawl above (and I know that all of you have what I listen to on your RSS feeds), you'd notice that I have a LOT of new music right now. Woo.

Partial List:
Erkin Koray— The Electronic Turkuler
EK's the big man of Turkish psych, and I'm looking forward to this album. All I've heard from him have been comps, but this looks pretty solid and is supposed to be his most psychedelic album.

Nautical Almanac— Rejerks vol. 1
Nautical Almanac are part of the second wave of noise artists, and this is a set of "songs" that were pulled from their albums as not being up to snuff or whatever. Still, it's pretty great stuff, with heavy Nurse With Wound overtones and a fair amount of random bleeping. Much less abrasive than most noise, this is more skittering and thudding.

v/a- Simla Beat
Indian Psych comp. Haven't listened to it yet, but looking forward to it.

v/a- Garage Beats Vol. 1-4
Once you start down that Nuggets rabbithole, it's hard to stop. There's always more and more and more and more garage stuff, and this seems like a fairly good collection of it. Lots of the same songs that appeared on the Nuggets comps, but with shittier recording usually. What I do like is that there's a lot more trippy weird shit, and there are a lot more women represented.

Lady Sovereign— Vertically Challenged
I've heard good things about this 19(!)-year-old grime MC, and I liked The Broom and Cha-Ching (and the reply song to Bad Ass Stripper that she did). I like that she's unafraid of dis tracks, and usually has good production. Still haven't heard this one.

Nation of Ulysseus— The Embassy Tapes
I was in Wazoo with a limited amount to spend a couple years ago, and was wondering whether I should get the Young Liars ep or Plays Pretty For Baby. The clerk looked at me and said, "Well, TV on the Radio's pretty good, but Ulysseus are a fucking weapon, man." I went with the Ulysseus (though I later picked up the ep), and I haven't been disappointed. I haven't gotten around to this, a later recording made at the "Embassy," but I'm looking forward to it.

Six Finger Satellite— The Pigeon is the Most Popular Bird
I had been hearing about these guys, well, since a classmate had a poster in his locker of them in high school (though I later found out that he didn't like their music at all, just the silver poster, and that it came with a Zumpano album in mail order). But I finally got around to finding one of thier albums, their first one, and I love it. Totally the missing link between Gang of Four and Brainiac. Spazz guitars, angular funk bassline, squalling electronics. I really need to find the rest of their albums, and I feel like a schmuck for sleeping on them the first time around.

Destroyer— Your Blues
In seeking to write some interview with Dan Bejar for Current (which, becuase of deadline stuff, never came through) I got a copy of Rubies, their latest album, and really dug it. So the next step was to go one back, to an album referenced on Rubies, Your Blues. I've only listened to it once, and vaguely liked it (though not as much as Rubies), but will give it another shot sometime soon.

Metal Urbain— Anarchy in Paris
More weird-ass electropunkery, this time from French anarchists. I had loved their track Ultra Violence for a while, having found it on some sampler or another, but this album throbs and thrumms in all the right places. God bless 'em. I look forward to listening to this again.

Red Krayola— Fingerpainting
Red Krayola— God Save the Good Ship...
While at 'CBN, helping with their fund drive, I burned this and another Red Krayola album outof curiousity. I've heard their Hurricane Fighter Plane and liked it, heard their 'singles' album and thought it was OK, and was willing to give them another shot (you know, since I was basically getting 'em for free). Haven't listened to Fingerpainting, have listened to God Save. I expected a little more 13th Floor Elevators on God Save, but it's really quiet, quick pop tunes, more a template for 1/2 Jap than anything else. I did find out that Frederick Bartholme, the author, used to play with them. He's the brother of one of the best metafiction authors, Donald Bartholme.

Dog Faced Hermans— Hum of Life
God, I had no idea. I have an Ex singles comp and thought of them as kinda bland political hardcore, but this side project from the mid-'80s is fucking fantastic. Skronk sax, post-punk bass, yelping, cooing. Yes! Have to get more.

Dead C— Trapdoor Fucking Exit
I've been curious about these noise folks for a while, and liked the album a lot. Fairly flush and drony, but well-balanced. I'll have to give it a few more spins to sink in.

Asa-Chang & Junray— Jun Ray Sung Chang
Asa-Chang is apparently the #1 tabla player in Japan, an honor that no doubt makes his parents very proud. In addition to being the studio musician to call if you're recording in Japan and need tablas, he also has released a couple of solo albums of him and electronic programming. Odd, open and spacy, I've put the song Hana on mixes before and really enjoy the sparse percussion married to the heavily treated vocals.

Animal Collective- Sung Tongs
Animal Collective- Feels
I could only hear so much hype about this band before breaking down and erm... burning their record from 'CBN. Why? Because while I had heard plenty of things that intrigued me (like comparisons to psych workouts from the '60s and Faust), I mostly heard them from jerks who only like indie rock. I've listened to Feels and enjoyed the first half a lot, and by the middle was wishing that I'd actually paid for the album and bought it sooner, but then the second half of the album was pretty boring. Maybe my high was wearing off. I'll get to Sung Tongs later.

Sly and the Family Stone— There's A Riot Goin' On
Sly's dark and drugged out album seemed to be a good enough place to start, and I like it a lot. I can see how it might be disappointing for fans, as it's a lot denser than some of the other stuff I've heard from him, and it does rework a fair amount of material that he'd already recorded, but I've liked it on first listen. I'll give it another shot later.

Dr. John— Gris Gris
Really, just look a little below. I already covered this. Jeez.

The Ethiopians— Stay Loose
Amy's parents wanted some reggae because they're going to Jamaica for vacation. Well, I don't really like much reggae (though I like a lot of dub), as the production tends to be bright and cheesy, and I had too much Bob Marley in the home growing up. But it meant raiding my dad's collection, and so I picked up this and a couple other albums that I vagely remembered being good. I know that somewhere, there's supposed to be a good African Head Charge album, but I keep finding the mediocre hit and miss ones.

Broadcast— Tender Buttons
Another album that I had heard about with psych and krautrock overtones. Except that this one sounds like a glitchy Stereolab, which is OK, I guess, but kinda boring for a full album.

Guru Guru— UFO
Now, this is what I'm talking about. Huge, explosive krautrock with a fuzzy feeling. I'll listen to this more in a bit.

Jay Dee— Welcome to Detroit
I'd been meaning to pick up more from Jay Dee, including the new Doughnuts album. Then he died. Ahh well. Great production album, you can tell that Jay Dee really took a lot from Prince Paul, but some of the rhymes are weak. Still, a lot of fun.

Magma— Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh
Fuckin' prog frogs, with their choirs and their rounds. Good stuff. A lot like Gong, which makes sense.

Slick Rick— The Great Adventures of Slick Rick
His first and best solo album, apparently. Kind of a disappointment, especially because I didn't look to see if La-Di-Da-Di was on there, which is my favorite track from him. Still, some good stuff (Child's Story), some stuff that'd be good if it weren't so fucking misogynist (Treat Her Like A Prostitute, Indian), and some stuff that's just boring. Ahh well, they can't all be perfect.

Delorean— some ep that I forget the title of
Apparently Delorean are usually an alt-country band, but these are mostly remixes that dance it up. Decent stuff, and I'll give it another listen later. Hopefully, I can figure out exactly what it is...

Disco Inferno— DI Go Pop
Along with Dog Faced Hermans and Six Finger Satellite, I really dig this album a lot. It's in Amy's car now, otherwise I'd be playing it. Described by the 'CBN review as "boring Kraftwerk-meets-Blur," it's lucky that I had already been looking for it otherwise I would have missed a great album. Too bad the reviewer had no frame of reference outside of those two, as it's really a lot closer to post punk or a poppier version of 6FS.

There are a few more, but I can't lay my hands on 'em right now. And soon enough, I'll update this with music from these albums. Lemme know if there's anything you're curious about.

Dr. John

What I like about Gris Gris, an album that I'm listening to for the second time right now, is how spacious the arrangement is for all that's packed in there. The drums are spaced back, and while there is often more than one melody line running, they rarely step on each other. It's a direct antidote to the compressed sound of a lot of rock, especially rock from the last 10-15 years.

I like how open this all sounds, and how weird it gets. I've grown up with Dr. John as one of those canonical figures that I never really get around to listening to, but can pluck from midair without expending any energy. He's turned into a phone-it-in type, who if I recall without thinking I have a hard time telling from Wolfman Jack.

Another part of why Gris Gris feels so successful is that Dr. John stays the hell out of most of it, or at least his voice does. It's so distinctive that it's like tumeric or cardemom, exotic and instantly recognizable but something that requires a fair amount of dish around it to make worth eating. The weakest moments, then, are ones like "Jump Sturdy," which is lots of John and some backing singers. The best moments are ones like "Danse Fambeaux," a roiling swamp of flutes and bongos, ehtereal voices and funk bass. It's something that if done by lesser musicians, like jam bands or even Dr. John later on, would be fucking interminable.

But instead, it's spacy and relaxed and has the feeling of somewhere dark and moist.

What it makes me think of is the difference between swamps in the North and swamps in the South. Most of Michigan is fucking swampland, or was before it was drained, and swamps here bring to mind the clammy feeling of a dead hand or the sweats you get after vomiting, on your way to shivering. The swamps in the South feel fecund, lush and rich. Sure, there are horrible animals that will kill you with poisons that make you feverish and the blood explode from your eye sockets, and if you die you'll be either eaten or rotted under in a day, but they also feel like out of control fertility. I remember once standing on the side of a road, next to the rusted-out hulk of a car, taking a piss. While I was standing there, the kudzu that I was knee deep in clung to my jeans and felt like the grasping invasion of alien vegetation.

That's what Gris Gris makes me think of.

We all know Dick Cheney has a soft spot for the rock of the Upper Midwest. Four brief selections from his huge collection, reflecting his current state of mind— Or 'Dick Cheney's Ann Arbor EP'

All My Friends Must Be Punished by The Dirtbombs

Beast with a Gun by Animal

Shotgun Cain by Dabenport

Boom Bang by Cornish in a Turtleneck.

Anyone got any others?