Aug 31 2008
The wonderful first album from Madeleine Peyroux, a jazz singer whose music and voice sound somewhat like Billie Holiday. This is very well-recorded and engaging music. Her two subsequent albums are also good. I like this for dinner parties, in the car and on long, sunny summer weekends (which we’re currently experiencing).
Aug 31 2008
Bookmarks for the last few days:
Aug 30 2008
This is simply incredible music. I dearly love really old, pre-bebop jazz, and Louis Armstrong invented much of it. More than a trend-setter, he was an inspiration to generations of musicians (of any genre). These British remasters of the early recordings are flawlessly done (an example of how Europe’s ‘lax’ copyright laws drive technical innovation foward and prices down, but let’s not get into politics here :)
Aug 30 2008
I think I’ll start a new type of post on Teabowl - “Today’s Desert Island Disc”. They’ll be short because I just want to quickly point out a much-loved, much-returned-to record in my collection without providing a full review. I’ll link to it on Amazon.com (the way I try to with everything here) and I’ll say why I like it.
The notion of desert island discs has a long, proud history. For instance, Desert Island Discs is the world’s longest-running radio show. A BBC Radio 4 show,
[Desert Island Discs] was first broadcast on 29 January 1942 and is said by the Guinness Book of Records to be the longest-running music programme in the history of radio. Guests are invited to imagine themselves castaways on a desert island, and to choose eight pieces of music to take with them; discussion of their choices permits a review of their life. Aside from music, they are permitted one book, excluding the Bible or other religious work and the complete works of Shakespeare, which are already present on the island to force more original choices. They also choose one luxury which must be inanimate and of no survival value, though large supplies of champagne seem to be allowed. (Wikipedia)
I won’t follow the show’s rules here. If I did, my anticipated new ’series’ of posts would be over too soon. I’ll just have to assume that I’ll have enough space on my desert island to have stacks and stacks of CDs (or an MP3 player with a really big battery).
To clarify, “Today’s Desert Island Discs” are records I would take with me on that day - there’s just no way that I could ever decide on a limited number of CDs that would become the only ones I’d take with me.
And my Top 10 from earlier is just that… “records I’ve loved the most over the course of my life.” Those aren’t necessarily my desert island discs. They’re just great records :)
Aug 30 2008
Top 10 records of all time… ready, go! It’s harder than you think. Most people don’t think of music that way, I guess. Certainly, making top ten lists is quite a nerdy thing to do. But here goes anyway.
These are my top 10 pop records of all time. I thought about including other genres, but where do you even start with that? How do you weight a top 10 across all genres? It’s a discussion that one best stays away from. Maybe I’ll do a “Jazz Top 10″ and a “World Top 10″ another time.
These are not listed in any particular order. The fact that ABBA is at the top doesn’t mean it’s my favourite record of all time.
ABBA - The Visitors
Paul Weller - Wild Wood
Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Exodus
The Beatles - The Beatles (White Album)
Roxy Music - Flesh & Blood
Kevin Rowland and Dexys Midnight Runners - Too-Rye-Ay
Electric Light Orchestra - Time
Yazoo - Upstairs at Eric’s
Michelle Shocked - Short Sharp Shocked
Paul Simon - Graceland
Peter Gabriel - So
Sting - Nothing Like The Sun
The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
Counting Crows - August and Everything After
The runners-up didn’t quite make the grade for the Top 10, but they’re spectacular and highly recommended records anyway.
And if I kept thinking about this topic any longer, it would all change again anyway.
Aug 19 2008
It’s heartening to see that there are rock ‘n’ roll acts who age gracefully. I think this is particularly (maybe a little too) important for those of us who would still like to think of themselves as a little counter-cultural, or at least open to it, not fully on ‘the man’s’ side, not quite bought in/sold out. While actually saying these things may have just caused all of them to happen to me anyway, I’d like to think of myself as someone who’s at best skeptical about many aspects of what society appears to expect from someone who’s 38 (work, life circumstances, where I live, what I wear, how I choose to spend my time, etc.). And so I search for validation for some of these choices as we all do, seeking to affirm them and understand them in the context of what I see others do. Preferably others who have something to say, show or share.
Since I’m such a music nut, looking to rock appears to be a good choice - rock has a lot to offer, continues to be a vital form of music and is filled with interesting characters. But they’re not always beacons of inspiration. I mean, Bono? He’s inimitably larger-than-life at best and wears really bad sunglasses at worst. I won’t build a list of rock musicians and pithy comments here; suffice it to say that successful musicians seem caught in an insect net of ’stardom,’ limiting genre definitions, unfortunate ‘reinventions,’ the drive to develop more-or-less useful charitable or political profiles, and so on. Speaking metaphorically, it sometimes seems that once a rock musician’s career is in full swing, there’s little discernably left of the person. It’s all been lost in a PR maelstrom. And I think what happens frequently (too frequently) is that the music suffers as a result.
Take Coldplay (okay, one more example). They seem like lovely people. Smart, likable, they write good music, support good causes and lead intelligent lives. And yet - once you get to that sort of level of exposure - some almost imperceptible thing sets in where, as Noel Gallagher put it in the August 2008 edition of Mojo, the music becomes afflicted by “the Brian Eno curse.” Why do they need Brian Eno? Is it to try and re-capture the greatness he and U2 achieved on Achtung Baby? Is that realistic? Is it even it? Another reviewer of Coldplay’s latest oeuvre said that they were trying to subtly bring ‘indie’ to major label music (don’t remember where I read this). Realizing that’s exactly what Coldplay tries to do didn’t make me admire them more (as, say, ‘revolutionaries from inside the system’) but rather less. Okay, enough with the exposé - you get my point.
Acts that do inspire, time and again, and that seem to have found a positive balance, a comfortable place in the treacherous tapestry of rock ‘n’ roll ’stardom,’ are therefore a rare and meaningful find. They’re to be cherished. Each new record release or media interview causes me slight anxiety (”Is he going to say something stupid?” - “Have they turned into a retro act?”) and palpable relief when they get it right one more time. Of course I’m fully aware of the carefully constructed nature of it all and realize that - especially when it comes to representing oneself in the media - almost everything can be carefully controlled. Yet I think that the music can’t really lie. I think I, and other listeners, can tell if it sucks. It’s that simple.
Two artists that I return to as resting poles of graceful aging are Paul Weller and Pearl Jam. Weller founded The Jam in the late 70s and, after its demise, saw out the 80s with The Style Council. Two completely different styles done with eloquence, skill and inspiration. Even his more obscure pop-jazz stylings in the 80s were never anything less than an interesting musical and sartorial exploration. Weller has subsequently developed a fabulous solo career that started in the early 90s and continues strongly today. Nine studio albums in, this is rock ‘n’ roll for grown-ups, music that resonates, grooves, makes you think, calls up references from the storied history of popular music as seen through a 50-year-old British musician’s eyes. Paul Weller, in many ways, did everything right - he’s a great and ever-maturing singer, a fabulous guitar player, a man of excellent taste. He’s also an important taste-maker, as evidenced by the many, many leading British musicians who openly acknowledge him as a revered influence (Oasis et al.).
I know Paul Weller’s latest offering has been received cautiously by the critics, but I’ll recommend it here anyway. I think that ‘cautiously’ is the only way one can receive a Paul Weller record that doesn’t immediately reveal itself as the work of rock ‘n’ roll genius… 22 Dreams is full of excellent music, though some of it may not be as accessible as, say, Wild Wood (which - if you don’t own it - you should go and buy immediately). It’s perhaps the prerogative of a gracefully aging rock musician to be ‘allowed’ to conduct gentle experiments and not lose a single follower in the process.
On to Pearl Jam. If you’re like me, you’ll remember them primarily as members of Seattle’s ‘grunge’ movement from the late 80s/early 90s. A sludgy, heavy-metalish sound, but punkier maybe, more do-it-yourself-ish. Not a bad band, but - for someone who felt that he was just emerging from the “Metal 80s” and cutting his hair for the first time in years, it felt like a bit of a throw-back. I struggled to see exactly how Ten was substantially different from some of the smarter, more mature metal bands at the time. So I mostly ignored Pearl Jam. (Nirvana, on the other hand, had what appeared to be more of a punk edge, and an outstanding singer-songwriter at the helm who then killed himself. Not a role model, maybe, but quite iconic. And great music, too.) I was vaguely aware that Pearl Jam had become one of the most popular and successful rock bands of the 90s, but that just caused me to do what I typically do with fame - I don’t go and investigate an act just because it’s famous. I wait for something else to pique my interest.
Fast forward many years to about 18 months ago. I’m not sure what made me look at Pearl Jam again (it’s not like I really needed more CDs or anything). But somehow, starting somewhere in the mid-90s, Pearl Jam turned itself into an incredible ‘alternative acoustic rock’ act with brilliant, economical songcraft, an intelligent ‘message’ profile and perfectly acceptable hair cuts. Eddie Vedder turned out to be a deeply gifted lyricist, someone who has the ability to write honest lyrics that aren’t cloying or terrible in other ways. Sure, there’s an earnestness in Pearl Jam’s music, but - if you’ve looked at my blog before - earnestness, for me, is not a deterrent (not everything has to be seen through a pop culture irony filter; that gets old very quickly).
So for every 30-something reader who’s still wondering what, exactly, happened to MTV’s Unplugged, I’ll recommend two Pearl Jam records that continue to amaze me at each listen. And, I think, I’ll also throw in Eddie Vedder’s recent solo soundtrack album from Into the Wild, a Sean Penn movie I’ve not seen. Listen to these records if you’re looking for music that won’t make you feel like you’re 16 if you’re really, well, a little bit older than that.
Aug 18 2008
It’s odd - sometimes there’s an artist who, despite my best efforts to take an inclusive view, slips through my fingers for years. I may know about them but - for whatever reason - I’ve never really listened to them. Then, something triggers a journey of discovery, and I explore what for me is a hidden gem (that everyone else has known about for years).
The Kinks recently became a case like that. A leisurely, sunny late-morning breakfast in New York’s East Village bore decent food and very pleasurable music. Neither of us knew who it was, but it was so good that we asked. The waiter, an Indian chap, said they were “Kings,” and it took several more songs (and the appearance of ‘L.O.L.A. Lola’) for the coin to finally drop. Oh, the Kinks!
A quick visit to Amazon.com resulted in this:
Fabulous music. At first, second and third listen, what I love most is how English they are. And that they’re perhaps ‘more like the Beatles and less like the Stones’ (whatever that means; I’ve never been a big Stones fan). I like the playfulness of the lyrics, the clean simplicity of the music. Theirs is definitely a catalogue I’d like to explore further.
Other major artists of rock history that are in my blind spot include The Who and The Band. I’ve started to look into The Band more actively lately. Maybe The Who’s next. (Yes, I know that’s an album of theirs. I just haven’t heard it :)
Aug 05 2008
I built a Chinese Buddhist temple out of Lego yesterday. It’s not based on an actual temple and it’s pretty free-form. It’s fun to see what you can make out of a limited assortment of bricks… I’m particularly fond of the praying minifig in front of it. I turned his legs around so that he could ‘kneel.’
