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popular culture, lasted all weekend
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Texas Jamboree Records, 2000
The bassist in this duo was on the first two Hot Club of Cowtown records, and there are similarities between the bands. But these guys are on the rocking side- more western than swing. Fiddle and steel on most tracks, and cornpone humor keep this firmly rooted in country, even when the rhythms get going. Lots of Everly Brothers harmonies, Sun Records beats and some great honky tonk lyrics, especially on "I Always Had A Way With Women." The playing is very tight and the production authentic- this would blend seamlessly with original hillbilly boogie numbers, more than Hot Club or Ray Condo and other revivalists. The swingingest track is "Who Clipped Samson's Hair" - a jaunty Cab Calloway-like number with quaint chauvinism and a chanted call-and-response chorus. The originals aren't quite as inspired as the obscurities they dig up- which is usually the case with retro bands like this, since they're trying to evoke a genre when they write, whereas the originals are just great songs. Their "I'm Gonna Love And Leave You" and "Jack in the Boogie Box" get things hopping, though, and there is so much talent here, all tracks are worth playing. No cussin' here, this is freshly scrubbed and crewcut clean, and wearing a satin cowboy shirt.
posted Monday, February 17, 2003
Red Hot Hot Music
Redhotjazz was a labor of love that absolutely blew me away when I first found it in 1998. Since lots of early jazz in in the public domain (in some places) and is mono, he's been able to put up a huge library of early jazz in real media format and it's pretty much the original fidelity. The result is an encyclopedia of early jazz that surpasses all the dead tree versions, since you can hear the music as you're reading about it. The site still has that nifty dawn-of-the-hyperlink structure, too. There's just a few links to get you started in a the labyrinth. For me, the great discovery was Perry Bradford an early songwriter who's songs prefigure rock and roll.
And let's not forget Lonnie Johnson, who managed to be there at the creation of jazz, swing, and R&B and still found himself working as a janitor when he was rediscovered by the folk revival, and then the blues-rock world. He participated in just about every part of the American music which conquered the world.
posted Wednesday, February 12, 2003
An Essay I'm Not Going to Write
What does it say about society when the paradigmatic sci-fi story has shifted from 2001: A Space Odyssey to The Matrix? 2001 is an outward journey that ends up moving inward, and the Matrix reverses the scheme. And between these two ideals Blade Runner held sway, with technology littering the streets. All three are about our need to escape our technology, even while thier grosteque visions of artificial intellegence turn us on. All three tell us that our gee whiz response is going to kill us, and we'll barely be up to the challenge. But what made us trade outer space for inner space? The Columbia shuttle crash is going to accelerate this trend even more.
posted Tuesday, February 11, 2003
Even Better than Her Records
Bjork's videos are maybe the only example of a rock performer who's videos improve on her art. The compliation of her first dozen has a soundtrack clunker, but otherwise, I'd count it as one of the finest movies I've ever rented. The videos seem to follow directly from the songs- they don't feel grafted on. They can literally illuminate the song- like a midieval manuscript, they make her cryptic words flesh, and make the gospel more joyous. If getting creeped out brings you joy.
posted Tuesday, February 11, 2003
Best Albums of the Eighties
The pitchfork version of the top 100 was, I suppose, intended to provoke arguments. Cocteau Twins, Gang of Four and the Fall are fine bands, but eat up so many slots. I like the freshdirt list better, probably because it was compiled by folks closer to my age. It seems a closer match to what was actually listened to back in Reagan days. Not that that makes it inherently better, but it's a truer overview of what influenced people who were playing or learning about rock then. Looking at both lists, I realize how marginal hardcore punk was, even to underground types. But most of the entires on both lists had little no mainstream presence in their own time, other than, at best, a review in Rolling Stone. Never had the music industry been so removed from what the really muscially obessive kids were listening to.
Mine would start something like this: (at least this morning)
1) The Minutemen - Double Nickles on the Dime
2) The Birthday Party - Junkyard
3) The Pixies - Surfer Rosa
4) The Cramps - Off the Bone
5) Nick Cave - Your Funeral...
6) Bad Brains - Rock For Light
7) Flipper - Album Generic
8) Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
9) My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything
10) Husker Du - New Day Rising
posted Saturday, February 01, 2003
the hall of real estate agents
yinzermulletI've found new music with iRate
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