Nick Cave and Warren Ellis

I've really been diggin' on The Assassination of Jesse James...soundtrack, by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis (violinist from Dirty Three).  I don't know if this is a proper, formal soundtrack; the album says "music from the motion picture."  This is another good wintery, rainy day selection.  Very sparse instrumentation, some piano, some strings, minimalist and melodic.  I'd say this album was "haunting" if it didn't make me sound like an idiot.

I also just picked up Dig Lazarus, Dig!!!, with the Bad Seeds.  I know this made a lot of top tens at year end; a couple of listens and so far so good.  I haven't quite wrapped myself around the vibe yet, but this is the first album in a while that I want to listen to twice in a row.  It's kind of amazing how Nick Cave has transformed himself into this grand old ambassador of musical craftsmanship, and is now in the Tom Waits/David Byrne sort of pantheon - the old school guy who is constantly able to reinvent and stay way beyond relevant.

right now and generally

What's up everybody, I'm listening to Coltrane right now and drinking a beer and it feels really good. I've also been listening to the following lately:

UNKLE: War Stories

Andrew Bird: The Mysterious Production of Eggs

Holy Fuck

Kings of Leon: Aha Shake Heartbreak

Johnny Cash: American Recordings

Autolux: Future Perfect

... and I saw a really cool band Saturday night at the Living Room, on the Lower East Side (which one musician friend said to me was "the best stage in NYC"), Renaldo the Ensemble with Aldo Perez. Crazy circus hilarity that includes costumes, sound effects, comedic banter with the audience, mixed with Tom Waits/Nick Cave style songs with surreal lyrics like "even his goldfish are insane" (sung by a woman in a French maid outfit). 

NOMO: Ghost Rock

These guys are from Ann Arbor, and I was tipped to it by someone from Ann Arbor, so I don't know how far they've come your way. I just got it so I've only spun it a few times but it seems to touch on a lot of things most of you hold dear; Fela, Sun Ra, Congotronics, Thrill Jockey, etc., all with a subtle rock underpinning, kind of like a super modern version of Demon Fuzz. It's Good!

I Bought Records

I was over in SoHo getting my hair cut at Rocco's barbershop on Spring Street, and it was so nice out I decided to take a stroll over to Other Music and buy records:



They re-released that Muslims joint I blogged about a while back, with three extra tracks, and a free download. Two records I got came with the free download feature. I love that, throwing in the free download to sweeten the pot of buying it on vinyl. The first pressing of this is long gone, but they did the same thing to these where they shot each cover with a Magnum .44, so there are three bullet holes.



Got this joint by "The Browns" as well, on the same label as The Muslims. The little blurb said "If you are feeling that Muslims joint, you'll love this" and that was good enough for me! Cover is, uh, brown but there is some flavor inside with a photograph taped onto the inner cover to show it has that handmade TLC. It's good rock and roll...



I got this new record by "Mountains" (Thrill Jockey) on iTunes earlier this week and liked it enough to get it on vinyl, because I am a retard who doesn't have anything better to spend $15 bucks on (like my fucking mortgage). I don't know, you put the words "acoustic/electronic", "Thrill Jockey", "Vinyl", and "Limited Edition" together and it's a Pavlonian response... I'm pulling out my credit card. This is good shit, though, ambient electronic sounds with acoustic guitar, kind of like "The Monastics" but less awesome, but I'll save that for another post.




Whenever I'm over at Other Music I always like to get at least one record that I know nothing about based on cover alone. I've gotten some of my favorite records of all times that way. It feeds my gambler instinct as well, I recon. So I got this joint by "Wavves". I think I have heard of them, but no idea of the music. It is Williamsburg/Bushwick Brooklyn bug out shit, some "songs" but mostly weird noise. I like it but I won't push it on you guys.



Lastly, I got this for you Gabino! For $6.00! If you have a way to listen to it I'll send over to you tomorrow as a belated Christmas gift.

Stay up, homies.

dc looch, keeping the economy going in these troubled times...

Fucked Up -- The Chemistry of Common Life

Maybe I've been listening to too much Bon Iver, okay there's not a doubt I've been listening to too much Bon Iver, Andrew Bird, PB&J, M.Ward and lots more seriously "pretty" rock/folk lately. So when I first heard about Fucked Up (on a pitchfork best of '08 list I believe) as a punk/hardcore outfit with early smashing pumpkins-esque guitar overdubs (allegedly fu averages something silly like 70 per track) with loud/quiet/loud bossanova-era Pixies Rawk with Cookie Monster/Motorhead vocals screaming lyrics like "it's hard enough being born in the first place/why would I want to be born again?" I thought to myself holy shit! and was not disappointed.
This is my new favorite shit to rock out on a crowded f train or am otherwise in danger of like a commuter robot in a suit . Highly recommended when you need some RAWK.

Rolling Stone Top 50 of 2008

These are the top 20, I didn't want to copy the whole list and make this entry too long. I used to read RS all the time years ago, it's probably been 4 years since I looked at it until today. This list is written by more than one person; which may explain Guns n Roses and No Age being on the same list. Steve Malkmus is still making records? AC/DC?
1 | TV on the Radio: Dear Science
2 | Bob Dylan: Tell Tale Signs — The Bootleg Series Vol. 8
3 | Lil Wayne: Tha Carter III
4 | My Morning Jacket: Evil Urges
5 | John Mellencamp: Life, Death, Love and Freedom
6 | Santogold: Santogold
7 | Coldplay: Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
8 | Beck: Modern Guilt
9 | Metallica: Death Magnetic
10 | Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend
11 | Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes
12 | Guns n' Roses: Chinese Democracy
13 | Blitzen Trapper: Furr
14 | Ryan Adams and the Cardinals: Cardinology
15 | The Black Keys: Attack & Release
16 | Randy Newman: Harps and Angels
17 | B.B. King: One Kind Favor
18 | Lucinda Williams: Little Honey
19 | Erykah Badu: New Amerykah: Part 1(4th World War)
20 | Kings of Leon: Only by the Night
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/24958695/albums_of_the_year/31

Naked Raygun

I just got a bunch of old classics from my youth (pre-california high school, like '87-'90) like Big Black, Generation X, Jesus Lizard, Dead Kennedys and this Naked Raygun joint.

Not sure if this is a great album or if it is nostalgia talking, or both, but I've been rocking this back-to-back-to-back. What a great band! Not sure if you guys are hip to them... were Naked Raygun "local" to Chicago? I thought they were pretty big.

Holler at me and I'll spread the nostalgia trip for you old schooler Chicago guys.

dc

Of Montreal-Skeletal Lamping

OK, so I'm the library trying to find that The Good, The Bad The Queen CD when I come upon this. I remember seeing something about this group in Rolling Stone in some waiting room somewhere. They were being compared to early '70s David Bowie. So I borrow it and check it out. Now, this isn't normally my thing, but I think I dig this cd. I really like the way the songs are multi-tiered and switch up tempos 2 and 3 times in a track. And the lyrics? Pretty ah...entertaining as well. After a few listens, I checked out some of their other stuff on iTunes. These guys have quite a bit of output. Does anybody have any of their other stuff they'd like to share/trade/recommend?

The Good, The Bad and The Queen

This isn't new, I think it came out a year (or two?) ago. This is a super group... Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz fame (he also runs a killer record label out of UK called Honest Jon's, I believe), the guitarist of the Verve, the bassist from the Clash (!) and fucking Tony Allen of Fela Kuti fame on drums?!?!?

Really good songs, mellow, moody, good cohesive album all over. I'm pretty sure I have seasonal affected disorder (code name: S.A.D., boo hoo hoo!) so i've been bummed out, and this has been perfect fit.

If you missed this the first time, check it out again, really great album.

dc

Just listened to the Sound Opinions Podcast. This week they've interviewed the good people at the label Numero Group. Good stories on how they put those Eccentric Soul comps together. Check it out. And thanks DC for putting me up on those a few years ago.

Clara Rockmore and Tallest Man on Earth

DC gave me like 8 gigs of avant-electronic stuff, which was a really good hook-up. A lot of it is weird vintage stuff, early experimentation with electronics, some of it pretty accessible and melodic actually. I've been listening to this Clara Rockmore album a lot, 2 songs, each about 25 minutes long. I thought it was vocals and piano but then DC pointed out that it is actually a theremin and a piano. If you don't know what a theremin is (which I didn't) check it out on youtube, it is pretty cool. Clara Rockmore was a Lithuanian violin prodigy but due to some malady resulting from malnutrition she couldn't play the violin at some point. She met the guy who was developing the theremin and helped him perfect the instrument. It is spooky the way when you listen closely it sounds like a human voice, and her control is amazing. The music is dark and sounds classical, great for late at night with a last drink.

I'm also listening to Tallest Man on Earth, a folk singer from Sweden. The guy sounds just like Bob Dylan when you first listen, and while that impression lingers he definitely stands up on his own, really worth checking out.

UO - Exit the Dragon

A criminally overlooked almost-masterpiece, or just a great 70-twinged rock album, or probably a bit of both..... I couldnt get into this when it first came out; probably guilty of buying into all the shitty reviews it got, but looking back this album seriously owns. Its out of print now, so look around for this some time in the clearance bin at your local record store, because it could be the best $1.99 you spent in a long time! Or if you already own it, dust it off and give it another shot, b/c "Exit the Dragon" is definitely a slow grower..... either way, you gotta give UO props for doing the glam rock shit when everyone was flying the flannel and listening to "Tad". Theyll probably be remembered as a one-hit wonder from the 90s, but these dudes seriously had it there for a while...

Dead Man - Euphoria

I've been listening to this record for a few days now.  The internet tells me it came out in March, and I wish I realized that then, because I could have been listening to its retro proggy goodness all this time.  When I refer to proggy goodness I mean it in the early seventies krautrock kind of way, not the Dream Theatre Berkelee College sort of way.  You should check it out.  You can listen to a bunch of tracks on their myspace page >>>  http://www.myspace.com/deadmansweden

that very same page says they'll be playing in Brooklyn at a place called Union Pool on Thursday for you New Yorkers.    

Psychic Ills "Mirror Eye"

I got the new Psychic Ills joint, "Mirror Eye". Who even knew there was a new Psychic Ills CD?

It kind of sucks, though. Their album "Dins" (great album you need) was combo of weirdo sound passages grounded with solid rock/psych jams with over-effected vocals that were cool. This one is just weirdo stoner droney bugg out with no real rock to speak of and no vocals at all.

I mean, i'd take it for free to listen to it once or twice, but not worth $7.99 of your hard earned money on iTunes. Or rather, wasn't worth $7.99 of MY hard earned money on iTunes.

D-Nice