Lost In Translation

33 1/3: Some Girls

Some Girls by Cyrus R. K. Patell is another welcome edition to the excellent Continuum 33 1/3 series about one of the Rolling Stones latest great albums. I think one interesting aspect of this book is that Patell discusses the album in terms of it being a New York album and a reflection of the cultural historical markers of the day. Thus the decline of the city along with the violence, energy, and decadence that was seen in the crime, the disco scene as represented by Studio 54 and the emerging punk scene at CBGB. But I also like how Patell starts and ends the book with his own personal connection, emotions, and history with the album. The discussion of the sessions and the personal history of the what the band members were going through gives insight into the album as well, Jagger was on his way to leaving Bianca for Jerry Hall, while Kieth Richards faced drug charges in Toronto that had very potential serious repercussions. Patell's song by song analyses are informative and fairly comprehensive. It is another great addition to a great series.

In The iPod: April 2012

The Shins (or should I say James Mercer has) have returned to form with their latest Port Of Morrow (2012). "Simple Life" is one of those classic like "Turn A Square," "Gone For Good," or "Turn On Me." There are several standout tracks including: "September" and "For A Fool." All in all a strong album all around and probably one of the year's best.

I was a huge fan of Wire's seminal punk album Pink Flag, so I tracked down the follow up albums 154 (1978) and Chairs Missing (1979). Both of the albums have strong points and show the growth of the band, but neither lives up tot he brilliance of the debut. 154 has a droning sort of mood to it and my favorite tracks are "I Should HAve Known Better," " Map Ref. 41º N 93º W," and The 15th." I think I may like Chairs Missing more. One of my favorite bands, Luna, did a cover of "Outdoor Miner" and there are several other standout tracks like "Practice Makes Perfect," "Another The Letter," "I Am The Fly," and "Mercy," however, both albums are worthwhile.

I recently saw a film, Young At Heart, about a chorus of old people who did covers of unusual songs and I was intrigued by their cover of Sonic Youth's "Schizophrenia"-which has a great drum line throughout and is from the 1987 recording Sister. I remember my college room mates playing this one a lot as well, and I also really like "Tuff Gnarl" and "Kotton Krown."

In preparation for the Contiuum 33 1/3 book on The Rolling Stones 1978 album Some Girls. It is considered by many to be last decent Stones album, however, I have a soft spot for 1981s Tattoo You. Of course I was already familiar with hits like "Miss You" and "Shattered," but "Beast Of Burden" was always my favorite. The deluxe version has plenty of extra tracks as well.

Wong Kar Wai is an auteur who has excellent choices in music for his films, so recently I got his soundtracks for Chungking Express and  Fallen Angels, when I decided I also needed the soundtrack for In The Mood For Love (2000). There are two great Nat King Cole songs, "Aquellos ojos verdes (Green Eyes), bolero for voice" and "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps (Quizas, Quizas, Quizas)." I also like his use of "Yumenji's Theme" from Seijun Suzuki's film Yumenji. There are some other traditional 60s Chinese songs that work as well as original scoring from Michale Glasso.

2011 Year In Music

My favorite albums for the year 2011 are:

    1. Decemberists The King Is Dead

    2. Ryan Adams Ashes & Fire

    3. Wilco The Whole Love

    4. Beastie Boys Hot Sauce Committee Part 2

    5. Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues

    6. Tom Waits As Bad As Me

    7. Radiohead King Of Limbs

    8. The Head & The Heart The Head & The Heart

    9. Drive By Truckers Go Go Boots

    10. The Strokes Angels

I was really disappointed by Bon Iver's new record,which I felt relied too heavily on effects and technology and killed what was distinctive about the band's sound. I missed out on a few albums from artists like Death Cab For Cutie, Old 97s, Nick Lowe, Dolorean, and Jesse Sykes. Did I miss out on any other good albums? 

In The iPod-December 2011: Tom Waits, Ryan Adams, and More

Tom Wait's new album Bad As Me (2011) is one of the year's best and one of Waits' best albums in years. Waits reunites with Keith Richards and Marc Ribot who also worked with him on The Bone Machine (1992). The best tracks are buried near the end with the apocalyptic "Hell Broke Luce" and "New Year's Day." Other standout tracks include "Chicago" and the bonus track "Tell Me."

I always look forward to the next Ryan Adams album and you always know there will be one since he is so prolific. He tool a few off and came back with a sparse singer/songwriter vibe on his latest Ashes & Fire (2011). I am still processing this record, but so far like the title track and "Invisible Riverside" are my standout tracks, but the whole album seems pretty solid to me.

After seeing the film Carlos, I was impressed by the soundtrack that was made up of several post punk songs by a variety of bands. One of them, "Dreams Never End" was off a New Order album that I had never owned before, Movement (1981) that also has a bonus disc of different versions of several classics. Some other impressive tracks include, "ICB," and "Truth."

Apparently director Oliver Assayas wanted to do a whole soundtrack with The Feelies songs, but they declined saying that they didn't want to be associated with terrorism. However, there were a few songs from them on the soundtrack which led me to get Crazy Rhythms (1980) with great songs like "The Boy With Perpetual Nervousness," " Fa Ce la," "Raised Eyebrows," and the title track. I had another album, Only Life (1988) from way back with great tracks like the title track, "Higher Ground," and "Far Away."

I was inspired by another film, Pedro Almodovor's Broken Embraces, in which a DJ is spinning Can's "Vitamin C" from Ege Bamyasi (1972). It still sounds very contemporary to me. Especially "Pinch" and "Spoon" in addition to "Vitamin C."

I also went and unearthed Mudhoney's fine second release, Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge (1991). I was always more of a Nirvana and Mudhoney fan than Soundgarden Pearl Jam fan. It has several classics like "Good Enough," "Into The Drink," "Let It Slide," and "Who You Drivin."

33 1/3: Marquee Moon

Marquee Moon by Bryan Waterman doesn't seem like a typical 33 1/3 book, mostly due to its length, 210 pages. However, it is a thoroughly researched book that is as much about the CBGB scene, and the media's relationship with the band as much as it is about the seminal album. And perhaps that is one of my criticisms. Waterman doesn't really talk about the album itself in length until p.156, that being said I am a huge fan of that time and place in that I also a huge Patti Smith, The Ramones, Blondie, N.Y. Dolls, and Talking Heads fan and there's a lot of good stuff about these people and bands. I'm inspired to read a couple of his sources: Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain (which is on my shelf) and Patti Smith's memoir Just Kids.  

Wilco: The Whole Love

Wilco's new album, The Whole Love, seems to be a departure from the last two releases, Blue Sky Blue and Wilco (The Album). Both of which I happened to like, but they retreated from their experimental sound that started with  Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. This album may have something to do with a more solid line-up. "Art of Almost" is the most progressive sounding tune on the album. The more conventional sounding and radio friendly tracks are "I Might", "Standing O," and Dawned On Me." I always think it's a pleasure to hear a new Wilco album. I have yet to be disappointed.

In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

In The Aeroplane Over The Sea written by Kim Cooper about the critically acclaimed second Neutral Milk Hotel album is fairly new to me. I listened to it for the first time prior to reading the book after hearing so much fanfare about the record. I do think it is a great album, but I found that the book spent too much time discussing the band history and recording session for the album. I would have liked to have seen a longer and a more exploratory analysis of each track since I know the songs better than the band. It was also disappointing that the main songwriter Jeff Magnum refused to participate in interviews for the book. I can see how this album influenced bands like Arcade Fire and The Decemberists.

Dean Wareham Sings Galaxie 500 Songs

Last week I saw Dean Wareham (former front man for Galaxie 500 and Luna) play at the Liquid Room in Ebisu. It was great to finally see one of my favorite rock artists finally perform. I've been a huge Luna fan for years and on their last tour for their final album, Rendezvous, I found out after the fact that they had played just down the street from where  lived in Harajuku a few days after. Since Luna's break up he formed a new band with his wife Birtta Phillips: Dean and Britta, which has put out three excellent records: the latest was 13 Beautiful Songs: For Andy Warhol's Screen Tests. (Which I picked up at the concert as well) They played most of my favorite Galaxie 500 songs: "Blue Thunder," "Tugboat," "Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste," "Temperature's Rising," and "The 4th zof July." During the encore they did a cover of "I'll Keep It Mine" (a song that was recorded by Nico) and New Order's "Ceremony." I would be happy to see them perform Dean & Britta tunes, but it's not likely that Luna will reunite any time soon unfortunately.

In The iPod: October 2011

I've really been enjoying the new Decemberists album, The King Is Dead. It is very much a departure from the equally impressive, but different prog rock opera The Hazards of Love. My favorite tracks are "All Arise,""Don't Carry It All" (which features Gillian Welch as does "June Hymn" and "Down By The River"), and Peter Buck's guitar is easily recognizable on "Calamity Song" (he also plays on three other tracks). It is a paean to the folk/country rock pioneered by the likes of REM and others. It's likely to be my favorite recording for the year.

I'm also impressed with Seattle-based Fleet Foxes second release on Sub Pop Helplessness Blues. It is a bit of a departure from their debut with a more melancholy sound and fewer harmonies, but still very listenable. My favorite tracks are "Helplessness Blues," "Lorelei," and "Bedouin Blues."

I had also been hearing good things about Fleet Foxes label mates and Seattle-ites, The Head and The Hearts eponymous debut. It doesn't exactly break any new ground musically, but it is competent and solid with impressive harmonies from dual lead singers Josiah Johnson and Jonathan Russell. My favorite tracks are "Cats and Dogs" and "Honey Come Home." There are some other standout tracks like: "Couer D'lene," "Down In The Valley," "Sounds Like Hallelujah" and "Winter Song."

I have to say that I'm really disappointed with Bon Iver's second album Bon Iver, because For Emma was one of my favorites from 2008. I would have been happy with a "For Emma Part 2." But the haunting sparse, intimate sound from that album has given out to an overblown sound that relies too heavily on effects and too many musicians. It sounds a lot like Peter gabriel and I don't mean that in a good way.

Daydream Nation

Daydream Nation (1988) recorded by Sonic Youth, and written about by Matthew Stearns, is one of those seminal albums that led to the modern rock explosion. Or as one documentary, "the year that punk broke." It's funny but I didn't realized that it was a double album, since I had it on CD, but that seems significant as they were playing with classic rock traditions in their conception of the album as Stearns points out. There are Led Zepplin-like Germanic symbols on the sleeve and contains a song trilogy, but was more in the vein of double albums from the likes of SST bands like The Minute Men (Double Nickels On The Dime) and Husker Du (Zen Arcade).  Pitchfork called it the best album of the 80s and in 2006 the US Library of Congress added it to the permanent archives of the National Recording registry deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important," and which "informs or reflects life in the US." Stearns does a good job of providing background information and clues about the genesis of the songs as well as their meanings. "Teenage Riot" is famously about J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr., but I had no idea that "Silver Rocket" was inspired by Andy Warhol and is so oblique in its lyrics. It was interesting to hear that "Sprawl" was said to be influenced by Kim Gordon's reading choices, which included Southern gothic writer Harry Crews and William Gibson's tech-punk Sprawl trilogy: Neuromancer (1984), Count Zero (1986), and Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988). And "Eric Trip" was inspired by a character in an Andy Warhol film, Eric Emerson in Chelsea Girls. "Hey Joni" was inspired by Joni Mitchell and Jimi Page ("Hey Joe"). And the complete phone message from Mike Watt (The Minutemen and firehose) and back story was recounted for "Providence." Again I enjoyed revisiting the album and learned to appreciate it more for the experience.