R.I.P. Rowland Howard

Damn. One of my favorite guitarists of all time is gone. This is a nice little treatment.



I personally believe These Immortal Souls was one of the most underrated bands of all time.

It was a good year to be a Flaming Lips fan

Besides releasing the great, return-to-the-weird Embryonic a few months ago they've just covered Dark Side Of The Moon in it's entirety. I'm sure there will be a few people dismayed by the propensity of an another artist attempting this feat. Personally, I think it's got some great moments. Not end to end perfect but some great moments. The Great Gig In The Sky is probably my favorite. It's got that Peaches chick doing all the whoa-whoa-whoa shit. Definitely worth a captain crawl search.

Best of 2009

This might piss some people off, but the biggest thing for me musically in 2009 was moving totally away from file-sharing services like Soulseek to just getting all my music from blogs. Captaincrawl is the greatest thing since, uh, not sliced bread... how about porn? Yeah, that works. I can find almost any album with a little digging and it's amazing to be able to experience so much music. Right now I'm on a quasi-working from home/staycation here in NY and will be downloading my face off (finally got the Rapidfire premium service...) all week from the "best of" lists off Pitchfork, NY Times, Time Out and elsewhere.

In terms of my picks from 2009, no surprise that EJ and DC captured a lot of what I've really like this year. I'm not going to list Black Moth Super Rainbow or Tobacco, or Kurt Vile, but I gotta include Mountains. I don't think the following list is any particular order, just some observations on my favorite albums this year or artists I discovered this year.

Mountains, "Choral": Great album, captured a lot about how I feel about music right now, the title track is a kind of perfection, by the end of it if you close your eyes it sounds like God breathing. Heavy, and beautiful.

Jim O'Rourke, "The Visitor": So hard to pin down what this album is, just one 38 minute long track, it's elusive and amorphous, and I don't get tired of listening to it. He recorded it in his apartment in Tokyo.

Juana Molina: I got hip to her music this year and listened to her non-stop basically all through August, massive crush on her, love her story about how she was a huge comedian in Argentina and then started playing original, inventive music, she's a true artist.

Tortoise, "Beacons of Ancestorship": These guys just get better and better. One of my favorite bands, I hope they stay together and make music for years to come.

Bonnie "Prince" Billy, "Master and Everyone": I like most of his albums, but this one is my favorite, dark, anti-social and mysterious.

Dirty Projectors, "Bitte Orca": A totally original, wild indie-rock album, you can hate on them if you want but this is a great record.

Grizzly Bear, "Veckatimest": Another great record, I liked their first few albums but they have really grown as a band this is a great listen all the way through.

Colombia! The Golden Age of Discos Fuentes

Oye mis amigos! My Latin musica adventure continues with this release from Soundway Records. 20 tracks of Cumbia, Gaita, Fandango, Salsa and Champete. All tracks are from 1960-1976. The standout track for me is Fruko y sus Tesos, Improvisando. Champeta is a style native to Cartegena and is a hybrid of Calypso, Reggae and West African sounds. Yo pienso este disco es 4 out of 5 guitars for the rating. Latin percussion and brass all over the place. Viva Colombia!

I Won't Play Sun City!

Little '80's joke for y'all. Okay, very little.

Anyway, Bigfatsatanist just put up a shitload of skronk from the Sun City Girls, including the ol' posse's fave, Horsecock Phepner. You have GOT to check this out.

Happy New Year!

MMW

FILE THESE UNDER NEW THOUGHTS ON OLD CLASSICS:







Let's not forget Medeski Martin and Wood. Everybody in this band is a fucking monster. Medeski is downright nasty on the organ. One of my fave bands.

dc

Very nice score for $1 at a flea market. Recorded Sept 9th 1958 in Washington, DC.

My favorite releases from 2009 are:

Afrikan Simba - Power in the Word / Protect I 12"

I love this record a little too much. Nice rootsy release from Afrikan Simba. Jahtari is putting out some great reggae music right now. I have about three more Jahtari 12"s and LPs in the queue for my next purchase.


The Orb - Orbsessions Vol. 3: Baghdad Batteries

A nice balance of Fehlmann and Paterson on this one. The second half of this CD really shines. The best orb album in a while.

Spider and the Flies - Something Clockwork This Way Comes

Something about this release really appeals to me. Nice mellowish electronic music.


Paint it Black - Surrender 7"
Paint it Black - Amnesia 7"

Someone I know is into this kind of hardcore and buys a bunch of it on vinyl. He doesn't have a record player so I transfer them for him. I've grown to like this band. The lyrics can be dopey at times and the singer kinda sounds like Henry Rollins but I enjoyed these 7" a lot and their 2008 release "New Lexicon."


Liquid Wicked / Twisted - The Governor / The Superpowers

Dubstep. I'm kinda new to the style but love the bass on this one. The B side is especially nice.

That's all I've got. I tried to listed to new music in 2009 and succeded for the most part.

Cheers! Happy Holidays and all that....

Souled American

One of the great unsung Chicago bands. A big fave from back in the day and something I always enjoy immensely whenever I revisit it. A definite must-check-out for anyone with any Alt-Country, Roots, or Outsider leanings.

They're kind of hard to describe, some people mention acoustic Dead when talking about them, but I am not the person to make that call. The word deconstructed was also used a lot in press. They seem to be John Prine fans, and somewhere I heard they started out as a reggae band. It features some very peculiar bass playing that sticks in my head for days after I hear it. If that piques your curiosity you can get all their stuff here, Their debut "Fe" is my personal pick for nostalgia but "Flubber" and "Around the Horn" are also very, very good and perhaps better starting points. You'll know pretty quick whether you're in or not, and if you're not you'll probably be mortified.

On their last three LPs "Sonny", "Notes Campfire", and "Frozen" the music gets purposefully sparse and even slower, and the atmosphere gets worked to an almost post-rock like quality, which I think is a pretty fucking cool thing for a band that covers "Rock that Cradle Lucy" and "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain". I would be curious to hear what you guys think of it.

Year End

Been so busy at work i'm barely listening to music at all lately.

I went back through the blog and here are my 2009 recaps:

*Album of the Year:
1) Kurt Vile "Constant Hitmaker" on Woodsist
2) FIrst runner up, Mountains "Choral"
3) Second runner up, Merriweather Post Pavilion

*Best Funk Blog Score: Tie between Roger and Human Body and Madhouse

*Best YouTube clip of the year: That Carl Sagan Remix. I watched that a million times.

*Best thing i experienced on the internet in 2009: http://thru-you.com/

*Best Catch Phrase: Keep fucking that chicken

*Best Album downloaded by me in 2009: Colin Wilkie and Shirley Hart, that just really is an amazing cd to me and has become all time classic.

*Best tip-off from a blog member: Goes to............ TJ River tipping me off to Black Moth Super Rainbow.

Check you in 2010 fellas.

dc

too good to not share....

http://decrepittapes.blogspot.com/

gentlemen, start your downloads

JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound

Finally going to post something, sorry it's taken me so long. Here's a great find out of Chicago that I've been listening to lately... Old school soul and r&b... Finally something fresh that makes me wanna dance!!!

The debut by JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound. The record definitely begins on a high-note with the title track "Beat of our own Drum", and perhaps the only track that comes close in intensity is "Baltimore is the new Brooklyn" still the record is worth a solid play through.

Recommended viewing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8HRTTUiko4

It's for some kind of tv program called "chic a go go" and while it's absolutely ridiculous, it's also totally perfect in the sense that it's in keep with the whole throw-back vibe of the band as it evokes the videos of "Ready, Steady Go" programs Otis Redding was featured on numerous times. Hilarious!


It's old-school but it's fresh... definitely wanna catch them when they come to europe.

Buddy Miller "The Best of the Hightone Years"

Don't know if Buddy's been discussed here before, but if you're not familiar with him I recommend you become so. I've seen him a few times, but finally downloaded a record "The Best of the Hightone Years" from emusic. He writes tons of songs with his wife Julie that are recorded by just about every "country" act of note--generally good country, not crap country. His own performances are, I think, much better. He's also kind of character and half (check out the Townes documentary). As I age, I develop a soft spot for some of this high-brow country shit (Miller, Lucinda, even Dolly Parton's more "authentic" records).

Jack Rose-RIP

I've been away for a few days and my man EJ let me know the bad news that Jack Rose died. Before I say anything about that, WTF? I have the last two posts up here, then DC , then EJ, it's like a Monastics forum, I hope some other people chime in.

Anyway, just gotta give a shout out to Jack Rose who was one of my favorite guitar players, a guy whose albums I would listen to late night; you can't go wrong with "Opium Musick" or "Raag Manifestos"; I could listen to those albums every day, they are as natural as breathing, just an idea of music. He is from the Jack Fahey school of open-tuning guitar music that is frequently improvised off of a general idea, not unlike some of the jazz I like best, and with elements of eastern music mixed in. I've always hoped I would be around one night when he was passing through NY, I wanted to see him do what he did, but I guess that ain't happening, dude's dead at 38 from a heart attack. I heard Thurston Moore attended his memorial in Phily the other day (JR was from Virginia). Life's too short and the good die too soon.

Miles electric: a different kind of blue

Watched a great documentary on Miles Davis' electric period last night. It featured interviews with with many of the players and some key critics about the period when Miles shook the jazz world with "Bitches Brew" and all those crazy albums that followed. Really cool commentary by Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock and, in particular, Carlos Santana. The documentary culminates with most of Miles' unbelievable set from the Isle of Wight festival, when Miles' band played for around 600,000 people, calling it the zenith of jazz popularity. Highly recommended if you're into this era of Miles' catalog.

Brendan Benson (Here We Go Magic)

Going to put together a "best of" list some time, but had to post about the show I caught Friday night, another really good one at Le Poisson Rouge. Brendan Benson, who plays in the Raconteurs, has a good solo career going and there was a really good buzz about his show. Some fired up Asian girl told me when I was trying to get a beer that "he's like all the Beatles rolled into one!" I don't know about that, but he writes good songs, and if you like some of the Raconteurs stuff, you'll probably dig him. I was actually thinking through-out the show about who the music sounds like and I came up with Elvis Costello, Elliott Smith, Wilco, and then they came out and did "American Girl" as encore with opening act Cory Chisel joining on guitar and vocals and the place went nuts, great time. I know Bill Z. was looking for a good indie band fix, captaincrawl him and check out "Alternative to Love" and "My Old Familiar Friend".

BTW, anyone check out Here We Go Magic, dumb name, but good band from Brooklyn, kind of the Animal Collective tip, really cool actually, I think I got it on Radiobutt.

records

while i was repairing my tapan (Macedonian folk bass drum) i got my hands on some Balkan records (mostly on the Balkanton label) and checked them out for Balkan-y inspiration. Here are two of my favorite covers:



Oh then I checked out this gem:

Elvin Jones at the peak of his polyrhythmic powers, 1972, the band's on fire!

Dubious Honor

Hope it's cool, but I'm calling out my main man and sometimes WWALT contributor Matty Varnish for designing an album cover on Pitchfork's 20 Worst Covers of 2009. Hahaha,

The only reason I can joke about that is because Varnish is actually a bad ass with a Grammy under his belt who has designed shit like this:



But then again, he did this!



OH FACE! Hahaha, Feel you Matthew.

Later everybody.

dc

p.s. I picked up the Gaslamp Killer 10", it's pretty dope. I'll digitize it.

2009 recap

fine, i will be the first to post their "best of 2009" lists:
(keep in mind some of these might have been released before 2009...but my list reflects things i first heard in 2009)

records:
1. Merriweather Post Pavillion - Animal Collective
2. Eating Us/Fucked Up Friends - Black Moth Super Rainbow/Tobacco
3. Ambivalence Avenue + The Apple And The Tooth EP - Bibio
4. Dem - Murat Salim Tokaç
5. Choral - Mountains

tracks:
1. Aquarium - Nosaj Thing
2. Ambivalence Avenue - Bibio
3. Kaini Industries - Bibio (Boards Of Canada song, Bibio remix)
4. Moneypenny Goes For Broke - Cal Tjader (Burt Bacharach song)
5. Cordova - The Meters

shows:
Brahms Symphony 4 at Carnegie Hall. Sounds high-brow, but the shit was amazing.

New Scoobie Brothers Joint

Oh damn! Over Thanksgiving my cousin got me hip to the new Scoobie Brothers video that dropped on the YouTube. It's dope, 5 out of out five guitars.

dc

I Don't Get It

You know I try. I keep an eye on Pitchfork to try to keep up with what the kids are listening to these days. I have a Rhapsody subscription so I can try the new hotness without ponying up twelve bucks or so for each CD. Every so often, I get a good tip: Black Dice, the latest Mos Def, the first Lupe Fiasco, etc. But more often than not, I'm confused.

So it is with Real Estate (the link is to the review, not the album). I mean, really? I've listened to it twice, I don't hear anything. There is more depth and texture to white noise. Or not . . . can someone tell me what I'm missing?

Apropos the hip hop discussion here recently, I went outside my normal hip hop comfort zone and checked out the new Lil Wayne mixtape No Ceilings (again, the link is to the review . . . my link to the mixtape is dead, though I'm sure it would be easy to dig up). I don't get it. I'll try it a couple more times, but I can't see it hanging around my house until the spring. Maybe someone can tell me different.

I'll try to come back soon with something I like.

The Grodeck Whipperjenny

Did I post this already? David Matthews (not Dave Matthews), arranger for James Brown, did this psych LP in 1970. The story is James Brown said "go make a psychedelic album" to try to capitalize on the hippy flower children scene, and David Matthews went off and did this. It's pretty awesome.

Here is a place to download it:

http://musicalschizophrenia.blogspot.com/2009/11/grodeck-whipperjenny-grodeck.html

DC OUT!

Metropolis Ensemble & Sergey Kuryokhin

Caught a pretty amazing show Friday night at Le Poisson Rouge, on Bleeker street in the west village. Before I say anything about the show, first what a cool place LPR is, they have such an eclectic mix of music. Prefuse 73 did a free show there recently, they had a night of doom metal also recently, and the other show I had seen there was James Blackshaw; I'm always hearing about shows I want to check out there. Whoever curates the place has a great vision. Anyway, a friend of mine told me about the Metropolis Ensemble, he knows the conductor, and I was glad I heard about it. They premiered 4 new pieces by different young composers, each one was amazing, though a few went on a bit too long. Lots of experimentation--the first piece was by a female composer who added vocals that reminded me of a Brian Ferneyhough album I have--and the music often transcended genre incorporate elements of Brazilian percussion, Balinese folk music, and jazz. One of the most interesting shows I've seen in a while.

Still going strong pouring through seventeen green buicks, so deep. I've gotten so much killer jazz the last week or so it is ridiculous. One strange and very cool find has been this solo piano record by Sergey Kurokhin, who I guess was a Russian actor who also produced experimental music. This album, Some Combination of Fingers and Passion, is odd and amazing, swinging wildly from boogie-woogie to avant-garde classical to more traditional, Chopinesque sonatas, to free-jazz. It's challenging but not too much so, if you've liked Cecil Taylor or Charles Ives' Piano Pieces you should check this out.

Cymbals Eat Guitars

I know I'm lame. I stopped listening to James Blood Ulmer decades ago. I don't own anything by Frank Zappa. When a cLOUDDEAD tune pops up on the 'ol iPod I tend to give it a knock to check that it's not busted... Yes, I return to the same well again and again and... Sadly, I'm risk adverse.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12826-why-there-are-mountains/

Just got their one and only off of emusic. Pretty awesome stuff in the vein of Pavement via Abe Vigoda via Built to Spill. I don't feel guilty for liking the music of my people: upper-middle-class white boys/men of the early to late gen x period (which, to be honest, probably makes this particular act a revival one).

Great Weekend

Moving to the suburbs has hurt my game considerably when it comes to digging for records... but this weekend was a score:



ALL KINDS of John Cage, Stockhausem, my man Morton Subotnik on the Buchla Synth, if you feel that, Charles Wuorion, avant composers and early synthesizer music. You don't understand, that shit just does NOT HAPPEN. You just don't stumble on records like that for $1 or $2 a pop.



Sweet OG Liquid Liquid 12" in really good shape. This was just reissued I think.



All kinds of soul, funk, Al Green shit, and this Eddie Kendricks record is a major stand out. J Dilla sampled this on "Donuts".



A bunch of latin stuff, Joe Bataan, Joe Cuba, SalSoul, a bunch of great stuff. It's all scratched up and the covers are trashed but they still play.



OG Melvin Van Peebles joint?!? Are you kidding me!>!



Like six or seven Ravi Shankar and other Indian musician LPs. This is actually what I have been listening to since i bought all these records. Really getting into it. Also got the sounds of Bali, the Japanese Kyoto Flute or some shit, as well as "Field Guide To Bird Sounds" and "How to Speak in Radio Code" and bug LPs like that.

ALso like 10-15 jazz LPs, an old Blue Note and an old Prestige joint, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock Man Child, Larry Coryell, etc. etc...

One of those rare, awesome record digging weekends! DC!!! DC!!!! DC !!!!!!!!!

really cool jazz blog

Found another killer blog--there are so many now--with great jazz albums called seventeen green buicks. Unlike My Jazz World, which has tons of cheesy stuff on there along with some good finds, this dude has great taste and I've wanted most things on there. I've been on a flurry of downloading and found some killer Paul Chambers and Paul Motion albums in particular. I would actually like to start a blog like this where I could just randomly upload albums to share, give a line or two about what they are like, etc. But I'm wary of the record companies, though I wonder if you could do it on a members-only basis, kind of like posting on WWLTN, where you need to get the approval of DC the grand pooba before you can post.

What I'm currently rockin...

http://lucidmedia.blogspot.com/

is where I found it.

Random

This is one of the reasons why I like collecting records. You wind up with stuff like this on your shelf after a few years. Totally random. I never ever would have googled or Captain Crawled this shit. A lot of it sucks. Every once in a while it is amazing. Who cares? Most of these I got for $.25 cents at a Salvation Army or something.

Some have the sweet 5 second sample for a music project. Some have a great jam for a mix tape. Some have a funky cover that brings a smile to my face. It's stumbling upon stuff like this randomly in your life. And, straight up, it's nice holding a "thing" with the music on it. It's a different experience.

DC OUT

Ghana Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds and Ghanaian Blues 1968-1981

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=V7HEJ0O9

Too lazy to type much but you know the vibe here, a fresh comp of Afro Beats. I probably have way too much of this kind of stuff already but you know that's not going to keep me from grabbing it. Listen for the Santana lick on the Barbecues cut.

Tobacco

Tobacco is the mastermind behind the band Black Moth Super Rainbow, an amazing group that I've posted about in the past.

Tobacco has made a record called Fucked Up Friends that basically sounds just like Black Moth Super Rainbow, which is a good thing. Every track is raw psychedelic goodness.
Basically, the anatomy of Tobacco and BMSR tracks are as follows:
1. distorted, fat drum beats
2. fat, crunchy (but sometimes round and smooth) synth bass
3. poppy synth melodies, usually catchy as hell
4. mellotron flutes
5. sometimes some acoustic guitar thrown in for good measure
6. vocoder robot vocals with hard-to-distinguish lyrics. when you can decipher the lyrics, they're usually about the sun melting, death and decay, and eternally blossoming blissful flowers. yeah!

DC LOOCH MEGA POST

Hey bros. It's been a minute since I rapped at ya. Here are a bunch of records i've gotten lately.

Everybody should know by now that i am totally on Numero Group's jock, but their latest is crazy.

Deluxe 2 LP set of amazing funk jams from Chicago in early 70's, plus a god damn coffee table book of amazing black and white photographs from the same era, taken in seedy funked out night clubs. All comes packaged in a gigantic case like an inch and a half wide that looks great next to all the other records on a shelf. This thing is beautiful. Plus I pre-ordered so i got a limited edition 45, AND a limited edition print by the photographer.






Speaking of Numero Group, I got hip to this LP on their blog. It is a limited edition joint called "This LP Crashes Hard Drives" that was sold at Record Store Day last year. I never realized what Record Store Day was all about until this year, and even then I missed it. So, when I hit up Other Music two days later, this was long gone. Anywho, I scored it on eBay $19.99 "Buy It Now". It's a comp with tracks from Numero, Now Again, Jazzman, Daptone, Honest Jon's, etc. Great comp, plus came with some promo shit including a CD comp from Light in the Attic records out of Seattle that is really really dope. Plus when you put it on your record shelf it gives the illusion of being a full shelf, which has helped my game considerably.




I was going to drop a massive Kurt Vile post because I was jocking his LP from last year "Constant Hitmaker" on Woodsist so hard (my entry for best album of the year, which is going to be a thing on the blog next month), but then the new one came out which is great. A little more polished than the first one, but that ain't saying much because the first is like 4-track demo quality with a Frusciante "Niandra Ladies" level of bedroom intimacy, if you feel that. But the new one is more of just a rocking good time. Kurt Vile, ladies and gentlemen, great stuff.



Speaking of Woodsist, here is the sweet "Boat Trip" LP on Woodsist from my new fave band, Sun Araw. This is a eBay score as well, but a Captain Crawl search should get you this or "Heavy Trip", both of which are the greatest fucking music you have ever heard in your entire life. After a few beers and whatever else you are into listen to this on 11 and it is the best music you will ever experience.



I got this Norman Connors joint for $1.00 from some lady on Eighth Avenue, it's good, it has Herbie Hancock, Gary Bartz, a bunch of those type of dudes, Cecil McBee, Stanley Clarke, etc. Still in shrink wrap! DC!! DC!!!!



Speaking of which, Norman Connors is the drummer on this Pharaoh Saunders joint which is also becoming an all time fave:



All right, let me wrap this shit up. I found these at the Flea Market in Park Slope and got as a part of a three-for-$5. "Muhammad Ali Defeats Tooth Decay" classic beat digger joint, funky jams with Muhammad Ali doing his thing on top. Any old school heads, if you remember the old school Money Jackson All Star track with a sample that goes "Oh.. the name sends chills up my spine!", that is from this record. Anywho, I got that and "DOPE! The Fall of the Dope Pusher" which has a bunch of killer samples and funky wah wah jams on it. Both are apparently from the JImmy Carter collection. The red vinyl on dope LP just looks cool as hell, and the white vinyl with picture of Evil Dr. Tooth Decay is pretty tight:






Here's the last one. This is a shitty 80's 12" called "Krayzay" or something, but I thought it was note worthy that it featured Sly Stone... wasn't he deep in hiding in the 80's? Or did that happen later?




DC OUT!