January 2004 Archives

A lot of the time I can take or leave the LRB, although Terry Castle's think piece on Art Pepper was really good. I almost had one of those fab musical experiences where I read the piece in the Square and went right over to Planet and found a used copy of the Pepper CD she wrote of so well, but it turned out to be an empty case. But whatever your take on it, the personals are always uplifting.

Allman Brothers, LIVE AT THE ATLANTA INTERNATIONAL POP FESTIVAL 1970 (Epic/Legacy)
I haven't yet done a side-by-side comparison, but this strikes me as better than the more notorious Fillmore set, from guitar solos down to double-drumming grooves.

Simon and Garfunkel, BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER (Legacy)
If the planets line up just so, hoping to boast a new SACD/DVD-A player soon, but these current remasters are trippy enough. I'm a detail man, and little things like the pedaling to the title song of this overplayed, overhyped, overwhatever record can get me going. Except for Halee's determined SCHLOCK factor (mostly strings), this holds up nicely, especially the out-of-the-way numbers like "Keep the Customer Satisfied," "Baby Driver," "Why Don't You Write Me" (HORNS!). And with this purview, you gotta like Simon's international forays (like "El Condor Pasa") better than what came later. But are they worth the expensive ticket price? Could be...considering his lawyer showed up in court.

Flaming Groovies, "She's Falling Apart," from FLAMINGO
This came on my iPod at random today, and it put me in the mind of Consonant's LOVE AND AFFLICTION (Fenway), which is inexcusably missing from my 2003 list.

Conley's old-schoolers, Burma, have a new CD coming out right about the time Fever hits the stands. Koinky-dink?

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Roger Ailes, in the New York Daily News: Lloyd Grove dines with Al Franken at Michael's, where they run into Fox News chairman Ailes--who offers a variety of lame excuses for the network's embarrassing lawsuit from last summer that helped make Franken's book a big bestseller.

Excuse #1: "I can tell you that it was August, and I was on vacation. I think I said, 'Let's send this over to the legal department,' and somebody there must have thought that meant sue. That's not what it meant."

Excuse #2 (on whether it was all Bill O'Reilly's idea): "Let me put it this way: It wasn't my idea - and it wasn't the legal department's. Listen, talent always wants to sue about everything. ... It's the sort of thing that happens in August."

If you check this page at all, you should click on over and buy Dick Waterman's BETWEEN NIGHT AND DAY, which will provide you with the best blues screen saver you could ever hope for. But now there's more: ebay is hosting a page of Waterman prints that would make perfect gifts for any music hound in your family. This guy got around, and had great taste.

Elsewhere: Kevin Philips has found a great theme, and if this radio interview is any indication, lit a book's fuse that should scare the bejesus out of any Bush holding office. Like O'Neil, he's a Republican who simply catches a whiff of something very distasteful and isn't shy about going public. These folks do more damage than any liberals ever could. Wouldn't it be great if they let Philips -- or someone who's read his book -- into a press conference?

The Bunch, ROCK ON (Fledg'ling)
Besides containing the ultimate Buddy Holly cover of all-time, Sandy Denny singing "Learning the Game" (as well as swanky readings of "That'll Be The Day" and "Love's Made a Fool of You"), this remastered collection of standards by various strands of the Fairport Convention from 1972 has long been among the great out-of-print cover albums. Here it is all gussied up with extra tracks like "Twenty Flight Rock," "High School Confidential," and "La Bamba." There are no obvious tracks: Thompson solos on a revelation, Dion's "My Girl the Month of May," and Denny's "Loco-Motion" is both funky and tart. All fans of The Band's MOONDOG MATINEE should pony up; this is the British antecedent.

Whilst grocery shopping this afternoon, I blissed out to THE MEADOWLANDS by the Wrens (Absolutely Kosher).

OH, and there's this.

Inevitable, yes. But definitive? TAPPED reports that the noise in the hall was overwhelming, so what the mic picked up was dramatically different than what it actually sounded like: "So it's worth noting for the historical record that I -- and others -- could scarcely hear what Dean was saying on the stage from the press section in the back of the room because several thousand Deaniacs were making so much noise (Dean wasn't the only one screaming) and the acoustics in the room weren't very good. From inside the room, it seemed that he was feeding off the energy of a crowd that was cheering him on, and that they got louder and louder in concert with each other." Me, I always thought Fiona's 1997 "Go with yourself" speech was the great unset outburst.

Choice cut: Harry Shearer turns in such funny stuff week in and week out it's tempting to link to him every time out. This week, 43's call from 41 yields O'Brien's nickname (St. Pauli Girl), and some words o'wisdom: "One thing you don't want to have to worry about this year is… COLIN'S book."

AT FIRST LISTEN: Phantom Planet (Epic/Daylight). I'm smitten.

Today I filed my Grammy preview for NPR with Renee Graham from the GLOBE, and here are the notes I took looking over the nominees this morning:

MODEST PROPOSALS for NEW CATEGORIES:
BEST TOUR, or LIVE ACT
LIVE DVDS
BEST REMASTER
OUTSTANDING PROGRESSIVE RADIO CONTRIBUTION (DJ or producer)
BEST REMASTER INTO DOLBY DIGITAL 5:1 (PET SOUNDS, anybody?)
Best Comeback
Best Marketing Campaign

MOST EGREGIOUS OMISSIONS:
Willie Nelson's CRAZY: DEMO SESSIONS
Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, COME POOP WITH ME, not nominated for comedy album

SIGNS OF LIFE:
Dave Holland Quintet nom for EXTENDED PLAY, Jazz
Yeah Yeah Yeahs FEVER TO TELL for Best Alternative
White Stripes ELEPHANT for Best Alternative
David Cross nominated for Comedy

MOST INEXPLICABLE NOMINATIONS:
George Harrison: BEST POP VOCAL?
Dave Matthews: BEST ROCK VOCAL?
Shania Twain UP!: BEST COUNTRY?
Fountains of Wayne, WELCOME INTERSTATE MANAGERS: BEST NEW ARTIST?

SHUT-OUTS:
Rosanne Cash, RULES OF TRAVEL
Steely Dan, EVERYTHING MUST GO
Strokes, ROOM ON FIRE
New Pornographers, ELECTRIC VERSION
Nada Surf, LET GO
Bruce Springsteen, LIVE IN BARCELONA
Dwight Yoakam, POPULATION ME
Neil Young GREENDALE (+DVD)

MISSING IN ACTION:
Sheryl Crow
Dixie Chicks
Nelly
Beck

RANK TOKENISM FOR THE DECEASED:
George Harrison, Warren Zevon (like the Grammies ever gave a hoo-hah about either of these guys before they died)

BEGGING TO BE SHOT:
Barbra Streissand, Kenny G, the Eagles, Steve Vai, Earth, Wind, and Fire, The Oak Ridge Boys

MORE TITLES FOR JIMMY'S SANDINISTA PROJECT:
1) BLANDINISTA
2) GO STRAIGHT TO HELL BOYS
3) LET THEM SING IT FOR YOU

HEADLINES: MJ PLEADS INNOCENT (New York Times)
MY EDIT: IF YOU WERE A GLOBAL POP STAR CHARGED WITH CHILD MOLESTATION, WOULD YOU SHOW UP 15 MINUTES LATE BLARING YOUR OWN MUSIC FROM YOUR VAN TO YOUR BUSED-IN FANS AND BLAME THE TARDINESS ON YOUR SELF-ORCHESTRATED CIRCUS?

Even on 60 MINUTES, Ed Bradley asked him if he thought it was still all right to sleep with underage boys in the same bed, MJ replied "Of course." His lawyers have got to be telling him this is an absurd way to conduct a PR campaign. I can picture a jury finding against simply for saying that even if there's reasonable doubt around this particular case. But like you, I look forward to WALLOWING in coverage.

We've gone "cuckoo-crazy" in our house for the "silent" quote routine from AUSTIN POWERS SPY WHO SHAGGED ME. My "buddy" Jimmy Guterman is starting up a tribute project to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of SANDINISTA! He's launching sandinistaproject.com in the spring, and already has "major" artists donating studio time and creative efforts in that direction. I haven't listened to Sandinista in years, and I've never listened to it...ALL THE WAY THROUGH. Which is not to say I don't "think" it would make a nice sprawling mess of a tribute record. During a time when "new" releases by the Eagles and (egads) Rod Stewart punch it out in the top ten, anyone covering the Clash is at the very least pointed in the "right" direction. Oh and two tribute CD stood out for me last year: The Louvin Brothers tribute (with a drop-dead gorgeous duet from James Taylor and Alison Kraus....JAMES TAYLOR: I always said he should go country) and that Dolly Parton title.

But I'm BUMMING because only one day after bopping around the basement to Springsteen LIVE IN BARCELONA with my gleeful my three-year-old, our DVD player (Panasonic RV22) has died. So until we get some more clams, I'm gonna watch DVDs and listen to CDs through my laptop and call it "luxury." If anyone out there knows of a decent DVD/DVD-A/SACD unit for under $150, I'll barter for half a dozen piano lessons.

THERE'LL ALWAYS BE A NEW YORKER: Katha Pollitt's "Webstalker" (not online) is the kind of lifestyle piece Shawn would NEVER have run in a zillion years, and I think it would be difficult to argue that the magazine is better because such pieces are now routine. Shawn knew such characters, even lived such a life, was certifiably beyond neurotic about drawing his line between the two. But the subtext of Pollitt's piece is: "Revenge is sweet cause I get to unmask you in the prestigious pages of the most lofty publication in the world, a mag you will NEVER write for!" But like the Stones's "Beast of Burden," it's WAY more revealing than it's intended to be, and not nearly as funny as Nora Ephron's classic howler, HEARTBURN (book not film). And I LIKE Katha Pollitt.

IBID: Sometimes you hear the quote of the day in unusual places, sometimes the quote's banal but the source is the punch line. Guterman quotes from "Spongebob," but that's SO LAST MONTH in our house. This entry's QUOTE OF THE WEEK comes from ED, EDD AND EDDY (Nick), and I don't know who said it, it just wafted over the tube to my ears while I was working: "No more free-range soybeans before bed for me..." Rose was DEFINITELY "in the running"...

Although this Jones review of String's memoirs is a month old, the second graph has a pretty good summary of what's wrong with Sting overall, nicely detailed:

"Broken Music" isn't smarmy or pompous. Sting is a likable narrator, neither falsely modest nor proud beyond merit, and he writes with a self-deprecation that works. In the end, though, the book fails in a very familiar pattern: Sting starts strong with undeniable chops, then loses nerve and hires the strings. And the wind machine. And the voiceover.

Couldn't you make the case that since String wallpapers our lives via tv, Disney movies, and radio, that his memoirs are redundant. I mean, what would it be like if we had to READ that guy's music? Anyway, I had long passed on that book, it was an easy call, hope Jones got a nice fee for having to take notes on it. Once I saw that, though, I got to clicking. I never finished Kempton's book; Jones articulates why.

And everybody is linking to these ads, but they deserve to be popular. Here are my favorites.

There are critics who think no rock sensibility would be caught dead watching MASTERPIECE THEATER. Feh. One great reason to tune into the current serial, FORSYTE SAGE, is Damian Lewis as Soames, who most will recognize from his roles as Maj. Richard D. Winters in Spielberg's BAND OF BROTHERS. I had no clue this guy was British until I saw FORSYTE, which is a remake of MT's first great mini-series success in the early '70s (the public television event that spawned ROOTS and kept Richard Chamberlin in mutton chops through his difficult post-Kildaire years.) In fact, FORSTYE soars on its modernist airs, and its social breezes have a rock sensibility: in this rendition, our sympathies are completely with Jolyon (Rupert Graves), the one Forsyte who's not so full of respectability anxiety that he runs off with his governess for a happier life. Geoffrey Burgon's dry yet witless score will leave you wanting something more like the Kinks, but the pace never lags, the close-ups are riveting and almost every performance a wonder. We thought Ioan Gruffudd not weighty enough to pull off Bosinney's tirades, and his sudden misfortune just before his trial is simply too convenient a plot turn. But when the statuesque Gina McKee comes home to Soames, her husband the unrepentant rapist, you want to rescue her, just like Jolyon can't.

Here are my entries to the Voice poll, with a couple new additions and some order juggling. Every year at this time I'm grateful I'm not obligated to listen to everything, and these lists help me keep in touch with stuff I might not otherwise chase down. I was dumbfounded to see Pareles pick the Yeah Yeah Yeahs as his number one CD of the year, but as Milo miles said, "He's in New York, he'd get lynched if he didn't pick them…" The New Pornos swept me away early on, and kept me coming back all year. Cash's set was early, bound to get overlooked, so I put her way up to earn her more points, she's easily our most consistent, as well as most affecting, working artist. Ride is an abiding passion, a sound that can't be beat, and everything they did for the Beeb sounds as mysterious and foreboding today as it did when it was played, over ten years ago. Almost-rans include Basement Jaxx's KISH KASH, which I snagged over the weekend, and is giving me my Prince fix; and Fountains of Wayne, WELCOME INTERSTATE MANAGERS, a set I respect more than admire. The reluctant cool of Nada Surf tugged at me more in both cases. White Stripes are definitely to be reckoned with, and they almost made it on attitude and presence alone. Otherwise, I look forward to hearing the Drive-By Truckers in about two records, they get edged out by the Bottle Rockets, who have earned their way into my heart in ways not entirely bound up with reason. And from melancholy Dublin, the Thrills create their own melodic California utopia (bombin' title: "Your Love is Like Las Vegas") in a season that reveled in atrocity, moral and physical, near and far.

1. New Pornographers ELECTRIC VERSION (Matador)
2. Rosanne Cash, RULES OF TRAVEL (Capitol)
3. Ride WAVES (The First Time Records)
4. Dave Holland Quintet, EXTENDED: LIVE AT BIRDLAND (ECM)
5. Chris Smither TRAIN HOME (Hightone)*
6. Nada Surf LET GO (Barsuk)
7. Johnny Cash UNEARTHED (American)
8. Bottle Rockets, BLUE SKY (Sanctuary)
9. Thrills, SO MUCH FOR THE CITY (Virgin)
10. Willie Nelson CRAZY: THE DEMO SESSIONS (Sugar Hill)

OH YEAH:
Dwight Yoakam POPULATION ME (Reprise)
Jon Langford** and the Pine Valley Cosmonauts HE EXECUTIONER'S SONGS VOL. 2-3 (Bloodshot)
The Flaming Sideburns SAVE ROCK'N'OLL (Jetset)
Sahara Hotnights JENNIE BOMB (Jetset)
Mike Ireland & Holler, TRY AGAIN (Ashmont)
Various, LIVIN' LOVIN' LOSIN': SONGS OF THE LOUVIN BROS (Hightone)
Soundtrack, AMERICAN SPLENDOR (New Line)
Warren Zevon THE WIND (Artemis)
Warren Zanes MEMORY GIRL (Dualtone)*
Fountains of Wayne WELCOME INTERSTATE MANAGERS (S-Curve) Liz Phair LIZ PHAIR (Capitol)
Shania Twain UP! (Only Half Facetious)
White Stripes ELEPHANT (V2)
Neil Young GREENDALE (Reprise)
Amy Rigby TILL THE WHEELS FALL OFF (Signature Sounds)

REISSUES: [best category by far]
The Allman Brothers ATLANTA POP FESTIVAL 1970 (Sony Legacy)
The Byrds SWEETHEARTS OF THE RODEO (Sony Legacy)
Bloomfield, Stills, Kooper SUPERSESSION (Sony Legacy)
Bob Dylan [CATALOG] (Sony SACD)
Neil Young ON THE BEACH (Reprise)
The Beatles LET IT BE...NAKED (EMI/Capitol)
Television MARQUEE MOON, ADVENTURE, LIVE (Rhino)

BOOTS:
Nick Lowe RADIO DAZE (Five Dolar Records)
Buddy Holly APARTMENT TAPES (private)
Rolling Stones NOW TO THEN (Blue Moon Records)
Rolling Stones BEGGAR'S REAKFAST (Invasion Unlimited)
*sent to me by the artist, on friendly terms
**workaholic

Where have I been? Jess Harvel RULES, especially love his piece on Zep, where he dubs Robert Plant "a praying mantis in a fright wig."