Mid Year One Word Reviews

Long time no speak.  Just exactly like Bradley Cooper meeting the Dali Lama, I have learned more this year about everything in the world than in 47 years.  Then I forgot all of it and just listened to some albums and thought very little about a thing.  I am Baby Spice.

My 2014 collection is overflowing. One wurd associations only this time (please listen to all of them) because I'm sick of too many wurds.  This is a great year for music blah blah .  .


Purpose: Against Me - "Transgender Dysphoria Blues"  Fuckmylife666

Parafolk: Angel Olson - "Burn Your Fire For No Witness"  Forgiven/Forgotten

Pretty:  The Antlers - "Familiars" Hotel

Drive: Cloud Nothings - "Here and Nowhere Else" I'm Not Part of Me

Tone: The Delines - "Colfax"  The Oil Rigs at Night

Shatter:  Eagulls - "Eagulls" Tough Luck





Jiffy:  Horse Thief - "Fear in Bliss"  Devil

Mesmeriiiize:  Hundred Waters - "The Moon Rang Like A Bell"  Murmurs

Shack:  Little Hurricane - "Gold Fever" Sheep in Wolves Clothes

Cabbie:  Mac Demarco - "Salad Days" Passing Out Pieces

Retread:  Mads Bjorn - "How to Giggle And Give In" White Trees  (this is a trick. my fav song from Monolith)

Sluggs: Parquet Courts - "Sunbathing Animal" Sunbathing Animals

Sol:  Paulo Nutini - "Caustic Love" Iron Sky

Angulls:  School of Language - "Old Fears" Dress Up





Melding:  Smoke Fairies - "Smoke Fairies" Shadow Inversions

Bossasnazzy:  Thievery Corporation - "Suadade"  Depth of My Soul


Looper:  Todd Terje - "It's Album Time" Inspector Norse

Instant: Toy - "Join the Dots" It's Been So Long



Incinerate:  Tom the Lion - "Sleep" Every Single Moment

Epicured:  The War on Drugs - "Lost in the Dream" Red Eyes

Stylists:  Wye Oak - "Shreik"  Glory


     

Todd Terje - It's Album Time

Todd Terje - It's Album Time

I literally cannot wait to get this vinyl.  Ah, the best of the disco era.  Freshened up to the modern era.  Really, what is there not to love here?

Todd Terje is the stage name for Norwegian DJ multi instrumentalist Terje Olson.  Terje has described his music as danceable elevator music.  What could be better for me - a kid who grew up forced to listen to MUZAC and choosing to listen to disco.  Perfection really.  You can feel yourself getting out of your Deloreon as this music is playing in the background.  Oddly the track from this album "Delorean Dynomite" is exactly the track I would want playing in the background as I got out of my Deloreon - Wolf of Wall Street style.  Or maybe my favourite track - "Leisure Suit Preben"

I'm not planning on going into depth on this one, it would ruin the mood of the whole deal.  But there is a truly deeper, introspective side to this music if you are listening carefully.  A snapshot of what it means to be lonely - buried in the dance floor of your mind.

Roxy Music does come to mind as an immediate comparison.

Here's the very fun, sad and absolutely deeply brilliant "Inspector Norse" video (I actually believe this is the best music video I've ever watched):  Terje

Minutes after describing this music as similar to Roxy Music, I ran across this video: Terje and Bryan Ferry

About the making of this: Bryan Ferry - Alphaville (Todd Terje remix)

And then realised Bryan Ferry is the vocalist in the song "Johnny and Mary"

Doh

What does poetry have to do with a music blog?

Nothing and everything.  Every song is a poem.

I was reading about Jack Kerouac today and it inspired me to take a walk through the Hampstead Heath.  If you've never done this in London, I highly recommend it.  As I sat down after about 3.5 hours of stumbling around and spraining ankles on muddy back trails, I wrote something that just made me actually cry.  If you know me well, that would not surprise you at all.

This poem was ostensibly about someone special to me.  But then I realised it was really about everyone.  I thought I'd share it even though it's obviously personal. I hope you don't mind.  I usually keep my poems to myself and my iPad.  But I'm not going to do that forever.

(And for my drinking mates, no I'm not crazy or anything.  And I'm completely sober at the moment.)


Thoughts on Kerouac

The world we see is just a movie
The rock does not see
Our thoughts are irrelevant
Our equations zero sum games

All we have is love
All our gifts to the world are love
So we must give and give
And withhold nothing

We must sound love's call
And we must love receiving it
And ignore the world of chemistry
Of neurons firing and biology

And forget our bodies
They are nothing
Self is of no importance
It and they have no future

This movie will end
Credits will scroll the page
Teardrops will fall and organs play
But true love once given remains

For every single part
Where you have a role here with me
I am thankful and remember my friend
I will love you


Well since this is still a music blog, not a tear inducing poetry blog, I just wanted to post a wonderful video to remind my normally musically literate friend Paul who Jack White is.  Frankly, this song sticks in my brain every single time I think about the importance of being present in anyone's life. Such a critical thing.

White Stripes - Doorbell: White Stripes - Doorbell

An Ode to Big Star's #1 Album

Albums in 1972.  The probable best album by all accounts was David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust.  You have Exile from the Stones.  The top selling Harvest from Neil Young . . .

But still my favourite hidden gem by a Memphis mile, Big Star's #1 Record. Ziggy was an extension to something new, fresh and different from literally the most interesting artist of my lifetime and a classic in its own right that I refuse to dismiss.  It's right there and I'm certainly not going to dismiss it.  But Memphis musicians/songwriters Alex Chilton and Chris Bell were quite a pairing.  Alex was the original anti-star - making the bands name a bit of a farce to begin with.  The album captures the mood and essence of the late 60s.  A bit of Stones, a bit of Byrds and a lot of Beatles but distinctly its own record and clearly 70s and edgy rock pop - when you consider Neil Young to be pop. The vocal harmonies are stunning. The lyrics at times joyous and other times ironic to sad - but always beautifully written - and directed to every single one of us. Proving to me that simple thought is always more meaningful.  Every song standing perfectly on its own as its own expression of feeling in time.

"Feel" is the perfect opener - how great to start an album with the lyric "it's getting very near the end"about a relationship dying on the vine. Then there's the "Ballad of El Goodo"- a great song about individuality and dealing with your own faults.  "Thirteen" is a big time favourite or nearly everyone that hears this album.  A bit of sexy lyrical coaxing. "Won't you be an outlaw for my love?"  It's the start of anything romantic really. Then "Don't Lie to Me" comes in with a harsh message to don't fuck with Alex's heart.  Lol. How quickly the tides turn. Towards the end, the song "Watch the Sunrise" captures something for me that's hard to describe - that moment of sudden optimism after life's little disasters which we cyclically experience.  "St 120/6" follows with such a heartfelt sigh - a simple sad plea - shortly stated. 57 seconds of perfect expressed desparation.  A second more would have been a waste and simply intrusive. This is the ebb and flow of Big Star's first and greatest opus. And departing from much before it or after - each song clearly just intended to convey one simple thing - a feeling in a moment.  Maybe the only thing that matters in life in many ways.

Highly acclaimed by the critics and even more so years later when artists like REM and the Replacements brought the album back to the forefront of the music world. Originally not available in stores, it sold less than 10,000 copies. Today, it sounds just as great as the first time I heard it and it strikes me in exactly the same way. If you are a fan of classic rock at all, this should be in your collection today. I'm still surprised how many people never heard of the band or this album.  You should own it and, in fact, in more than one format.  Spanning an era of media from 8 track to record to cassette to CD to MP3, you should have bought it at least 2 times -- assuming you could find it.

Recording footage: Big Star recording footage

No real videos available so how bout some Big Star covers for fun (from this album and others):

Elliot Smith Nighttime: Elliott Smith Nighttime
Elliott Smith Thirteen: Elliott Smith Thirteen
Wild Things 13: Wild Things Thirteen
Dum Dum Girls - September Gurls: Dum Dum Girls cover September Gurls
Adam Duritz - Ballad of El Goodo: Adam Duritz - El Goodo
Christopher Elam - Blue Moon: Christopher Elam - Blue Moon
Sivert Hoyam - Holocaust: Sivert Hoyem - Holocaust
The Autumn Defense - You Can't Have Me: Autumn Defense - Can't Have Me
Lovely Sparrows - Take Care: Lovely Sparrows - Take Care

Serious Treats From Denmark and Iceland - Courtesy of Johnny Vic

I have some serious treats for you.

I really like the trend of artists coming out with playlist suggestions.  I can't tell you how much interesting music I've found this way.  The latest list I stumbled across was a list of favourite tracks from Johnny Vic a/k/a Satellites.  Johnny's a brilliant musician of his own right.   He's also an Englishman living in Copenhagen and he's certainly run across some interesting indy music.  Johnny's song list is strung with some more common choices - M83, the National, Talk Talk - all brilliant - and one pretty cool guilty pleasure (dome) - Frankie Goes to Hollywood.  But he also lists 3 artists I've never heard of and frankly I'm not sure I've heard better than the three albums I stumbled across from Johnny's list:

Alcoholic Faith Mission - Ask Me This

This is such a terrific album.  I love the collective vocals.  The interesting thing about this band is that they have a recording rule - namely they can only use the instruments that happen to be in the room in making each song.  I have a hard time describing this music other than it's what I always hoped Arcade Fire would become.   Really fantastic, creative music.

Alcoholic Faith Mission video - Into Pieces: Into Pieces

Olafur Arnalds - For Now I am Winter

I'm shocked I missed this one in many ways.  Is there only room for one amazing act from Iceland?  There should be more room.  In retrospect, this is likely one of the best albums of 2013 hands down.  Just immerse yourself here.  Such emotionally powerful music.

Olafur Arnalds gorgeous video - Ljosio: Ljosio

Mads Bjorn - Monolith

I didn't make any kind of music list in 2012.   If I made a 2012 best albums list - in retrospect - Monolith would most certainly be on it.   Just superb from start to finish.

But no need to stop there.  Mad's new album may well go right to the top of my 2014 list.  "How to Giggle and Give In" is a trek through some killer disco with a real 80s flair and then taken up a notch.   You have to have love a guy that puts a Rick Roll in the middle of his album.  Not your normal Rick Roll, but the actual Rick Astley on a track with lyrics written by . . . Charles Bukowski??  Jesus Fucking Shit a Duck that's amazingly cool.  Again, go back to the Monolith album and then decide how much you can handle of the new album.  It's growing on me by the moment.  Please watch the video below.   He just blows up the stage at the end.  Fantastic.   Only my best friends and family know what a disco freak I am.  And this is disco that really rocks.

Mads with Fallulah live (from the new album): Mads Bjorn/Fallulah

Not bad for a random update on a Monday night

Best Pop Songs and Non-Pop Songs of the 90s

My friend Paul Hurdlow, a fellow music fan, challenged me to name the best pop song of the 1990s.  Well, that's a challenge for me as: 1. Not a huge fan of pop music, 2. Really, the 90s? Was this really a great decade for music? the era of Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer? and 3. I'm lazy and haven't written in awhile.  Well, then I got into it and was actually quite surprised.  I'm sure anyone could do a list of sorts but it's fun to play in the familiar world and I hope others might chime in with some that I missed.  It's Saturday, it's sunny in London and I'm a bit hungover.  So as I sit on my ledge overlooking the lovely park below, here's my best attempt at finding and locating the top 20 songs of the 90s (with honourable mentions as well).  And then of course because I'm from Houston, I had to remake the list - chopped and screwed for ya'll.

TOP 20 POP ROCK OF THE 90s

20.  Kid Rock - Bawitdaba.   The ultimate hip hop/metal mash up.  Still love the beginning.

19.  Cake - The Distance.  It's a fun song and not as annoying as other songs.  Not much else to say.

18.  Garbage - Queer.  Garbage is just cool and I really like the vibe of this song.  Could have picked any of 3 from this album, but this one's my favorite.

17.  New Radicals - You Get What You Give.  I really dig this song, the silly lyrics and the even goofier video.  One hit wonder for certain.

16.  Oasis - Wonderwall.  A classic alt rock song that everyone will know forever.

15.  Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the Name.  I just couldn't leave off one of the most significant bands of the era.  This is probably their best song.  Protest music at its best.

14.  U2 - One.   Such a classic song with an amazing message.  Overplayed, but it was a song that just struck me the second I heard it.  Beautiful

13.  Nirvana - The Man Who Sold the World.  This is arguably the greatest cover I've ever heard in my life.   I'm not sure it qualifies as a pop song.  But I just couldn't bring myself to put Smells Like blah blah in here.

12.  Butthole Surfers - Pepper.  The Surfers were such a cool band.  Were they better than U2?  No.  Not a chance.  But I love this song.  It's funny and weird and just what creative music is about.

11.  Cranberries - Linger.  Not even close to my favourite of their songs but it is beautiful.  Her voice is just so perfect.

10.  2 Pac and Dr. Dre - California Love.  I can't get away from this song.  The 90s was all about cool laid back rap and nothing beats this collaboration.  I could listen for hours.

9.  Blind Melon - No Rain.  I just love this song and its story of a mentally ill person being misunderstood.   Very powerful really.

8.  Portishead - Glory Box.  There is literally nothing that I don't like about Portishead.  I saw them in Austin years back.  Unreal.

7.  Beck - Loser.  I chose Loser over the other Beck tracks.  Yes, it's overplayed.  But this was the coolest thing in the planet when it came out.  Sometimes too much airplay keeps us from realising how great something really is.

6.  Flaming Lips - She Don't Use Jelly.  I know.  It's not really a hit.  But it was!  Such a weird freaking song.  More later.

5.  Verve - Bittersweet Symphony.  The opening of this is just so, so great.  Great music written about great music.  His voice is spectacular here.

4.   Elliot Smith - Independence Day.  Well I could pick many Elliott Smith songs, but this really was his only hit in the US.  And it was so good that while its' probably his 10th best song, it's my fourth favourite pop song of the era.

3.  Depeche Mode - Enjoy the Silence.  There's just something about DM from this period.  So freaking elegant and otherworldly.  It's become familiar to us, but really such a beautiful song.  I never knew they could be this great when I met them back in 1992 with my friend Todd Eckert.  Just seemed like young dudes having a good time and partying a lot.

2.  Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye.  It's just his searing voice and even greater on this track than almost all others.  I know that's blasphemy to those who prefer the better known "Hallelujah", but take another listen to this gorgeous song.  I love the introduction.  So powerful.  He had such talent.

1.  Ben Folds Five - Brick.  Honestly I'm not a Ben Folds Five fan at all. I find him too geeky for my taste.  Kind of like Weezer.  But god is this a well written song that holds up the test of time.  For me, it gets better and better.  Just so well done.

Link: Ben Folds - Brick

Honorable Mentions:
House of Pain - Jump Around
Back Street Boys - Everybody
Mazzy Star - Fade into You
Breeders - Cannonball
DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince - Summertime
Radiohead - Creep
Beastie Boys - Sure Shot
New Order - Regret


NOT SO POP BEST OF THE 90s

Chopped and Screwed now.  I'm done with the Paul Hurdlow challenge and on to the Paul Wall Challenge.  It feels great taking off the fucking slime of radio pop shyte for a second and get to what interests me - hidden tracks and gems.  My top 20:

20.  Paul Weller - Sunflower.  For my UK friends, ignore the fact for a second that Weller is a UK pop sensation.  Because most Americans do not know him at all.  They don't know the Jam, Style Counsel or Paul's solo work at all for the most part.  For my American friends, let me assure all of you that it is impossible not to love the album Wild Wood and its lead in track is just so strong.

19. The The - Dogs of Lust.  I realised I had met a kindred spirit when this song came over my friend Mitch Agan's iTunes mix while playing pool and slamming margaritas back in Texas.  

18.  Pixies - Is She Weird?  This song is just cool punk rock stuff from the coolest band of the late 80s.  It's not particularly better than their other work.  But I hated the thought of not having the Pixies on my list.  Why?  Because they inspired much of alt music in the 90s.  Truly a band ahead of their time.

17.  Massive Attack - Dissolved Girl.  This song is beautiful, scary and quasi danceable all at the same time.  It hooked me right into the Massives.  Brilliant band, amazing album.  So many great tracks to chose from on Mezzanine.

16.  Jonathan Richman - I Was Dancing at a Lesbian Bar.   Jonathan Richman is such an eccentric freak.   His lyrics are just so, so cool.

15.  Tricky - Hell is Round the Corner.  So I gave you a Massive Attack and now raise you a Tricky.  Freaking one of the coolest songs I've ever heard.

14.  Jesus and Mary Chain - Far Gone and Out.  Everyone knows the band, but only us nerds know this song.  To me it's their best and far removed from the earlier better known work.

13.  Sonic Youth - Dirty Boots.  Sonic Youth was my favourite band of the late 80s/early 90s.  I'm sure they would still be my favourite band today - if they could have frozen in time.  Much better live, and even better live and in the 90s.  So get your time machine out if you ever want to experience the greatness of Sonic Youth.  

12.  Dinosaur Jr - Feel the Pain.  Love the lyrics.  A classic indie song that never goes away.  Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth were all part of the same cadre of bands - pre-Nirvana.  As you can tell by my lists I have somewhat of a limited tolerance for Nirvana.  To me, post-punk was cool, Seattle sound was a bit less cool in many respects.

11.  Paul Westerberg - Good Day.  Just had to get him on the list.  This song reveals the greatness of Paul, his plain spoken way - the genuine nature of an imperfect man with amazing perspective.  If I had a personal theme song, this might be it.  This one admittedly is not going to be everyone's cup of tea.  The Replacements were the band that nobody wanted you to go see.  The best band that never really fully made it.  And Paul's solo career kind of slotted in the same way.  But in the end, a good day is any day that you're alive.

10.  R.E.M. - New Test Leper.  Following the theme of non-hits from big time bands, REM did some amazing work on New Adventures in Lo-Fi.  To me it was some of their most interesting songwriting.  And I like that the recordings aren't too stylised.  To me this is REM stripped down and its brilliant.

9.  Pavement - Spit on a Stranger.  The band Pavement was such an influence on current indie rock that they are almost unavoidable.  Most people will not like the vocals.  But I would suggest you give this more than one listen.  Acquired taste for sure, but just really cool.  And on the album Terror Twilight, really well produced.

8.  Pavement - Shady Lane.  Pavement double down for me.  The lyrics here are fantastic.  "Oysters and dry Lancers".  Many of these references will shoot by the kids.  But they are really funny and cool.  This song is a perfect sketch of modern American suburban-mania.  

7.  Bjork - Human Behavior.  Bjork is just so lovely and her voice is stunning here.  Hard to pick a favourite Bjork song really, but I've always liked this one for whatever reason.

6.  Depeche Mode - Home.  This is by far my favourite DM song.  Fans will recognise it instantly especially if they have seen DM live.  Such a great message.  Martin returning home from alcoholism essentially.  It's beautiful to see his joy in singing this live. It's not a hit because it doesn't really fit into the normal formatting of most radio stations.  But one of their best.

5. Ben Folds Five - She Don't Use Jelly (cover from Lounge-a-Palooza).  I know I said I don't like Ben Folds that much but this redo of the very cool She Don't Use Jelly is worth a listen.   Very fun and not on everyone's automatic list.

4.  Elliott Smith - Bottle Up and Explode!  Such a cool and exciting song from Elliott Smith.  Maybe one of his biggest departures from his normal self.

3.  Flaming Lips - Feeling Yourself Disintegrate.  I'm not sure anyone in the world but me would put this at the top of their list.  But I've always loved this song.

2.  Elliott Smith - Angeles.  Elliott Smith is obviously one of my favourites from the decade and this is my personal favourite of his songs.  There's a really cool video of him performing this song on youtube.

1.  Mercury Rev - The Funny Bird.  This song is colossal - on so many levels.   Be patient with it.  I first became fascinated with this song listening with a my friend Mark Harris at his beach house in South Padre.  The guitar is just so freaking haunting.  The song really explodes and the end like very little I've heard before or since.  On the same album, check out as well the brilliant "Goddess on a Highway".

Link: Mercury Rev - Funny Bird

Honorable Mention: Paul Wall - Sittin Sideways.  Lol.

Brilliant Singer Songwriters - 3 Modern and 1 Pre-Modern

You know what I like - listening to a good folksy singer/songwriter on a Sunday.  This week, after a bit of a post-holiday hiatus, I've selected 3 modern singer/songwriters for introduction and 1 pre-modern singer/songwriter who have had my attention for the past month or so.   Take them in on a Sunday or whenever.  The artists include Angel Olsen, Damien Jurado, Sun Kil Moon and Jonathan Richmond.   All of these artist are clearly in the family of brooding genius.  None of them are exactly like you and I.  Now I've taken a bit of liberty calling Damien Jurado and Sun Kil Moon "modern".  But as reincarnated version of guys that have been around since the early 90s I find them new.  And unless you are super hip, you've probably (like me) not heard much about them before this year.  

Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire for No Witness

If there were Olsen triplets, Angel Olsen would be the somewhat neglected, extremely artistic and wonderfully individualistic Olsen middle child.  The one with the brains and the looks and all the seriousness.  As it is, she is unrelated apparently.  Olsen is from Chicago - home to several great modern acoustic artists.  I gather being stuck inside with -60 wind chill outside can result in a lot of studio skill.    

On the recently released "Burn Your Fire for No Witness", Olsen exhibits several influences - Roy Orbison meets Siouxsie meets Neko Case meets Leonard Cohen.  Ok, so she's definitely more Orbison/Cohen than Banshee.  She's old world.  My favourite songs include "Hi Five" and "High and Wild".  But it's really all good.  Simple lyrics, old world instrumentation but with the modern alt/indie edge.   This is a lyrically emotional album, if anything, and admittedly the emotion is typically a bit, to a lot, on the dour side.  Not a great deal of comedy although her dark lyrics are really quirky.  There's explosive and tossed around body parts - tears blowing out of her eyes on "White Fire", bodies turned inside out on "Iota" and even shadows being thrown around in "Windows".  There's also a persistent and wonderful theme of loneliness when not being truly alone expressed on several tracks.  "Unfucktheworld" (great name) gives us the foretold lonely lyric "I am the only one now, you may not be around . . .", "High Five" has "Are you lonely too? Hi Five!  So am I!" and a favourite moment of mine with the line "I'm stuck with you".   And there's the image of dancing alone in your own era in "Dance Slow Decades" - arguably the most interesting musical track.  To understand my references to Cohen - try "White Fire" or "Enemies".   I adore the final track, "Windows" where Angel asks us to "open a window sometime" and consider "what's so wrong with the light?"  Such an emergent lyric and track.  Maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel in Angel's world.

Angel Olsen - Hi Five Video:  Hi Five

Damien Jurado - Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son   

Thanks to whomever or whatever higher being created Damien Jurado.   Such an amazing artist.  This album just burns right in, right in step with an opening track that just steals you to a different, more fantastic time.   Psychedelic at its core, but in such a way that its nearly impossible to compare to the old artists.   I can't get him totally on influences.  Yes, there's a Neil Young influence to his vocals.  But the instrumentation is just not Neil at all.  There's very little that's direct here.  There's also very little, extremely little, that's not immensely enjoyable to listen to, artistically intense, and vocally brilliant.   In the old world terms, if you like Yes, CSN, Young, Santana . . . you are going to love Jurado.   No crap, don't even bother thinking twice before buying. 

Jurado's most recent album "Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son" is a fantastic follow up to 2012's "Maraqopa".  This is his third collaboration with Richard Swift (recording engineer responsible for mixing some great psychedelic - e.g Foxygen, Stereolab, the Shins). On "Brothers" Jurado is much edgier, using tons of modern keyboard bits - really space age stuff - reminiscent at times of Bowie or Pink Floyd.  There's a bit of that Bowie futurism here that's quite fascinating.  Again, mixed with the Spanish rhythms.   Jurado is from Seattle Washington and has actually been recording since the 90s.  I have to admit, I'm a bit embarrassed that I did not know him before this year.  

Maybe my favourite track here is "Metallic Cloud".   Such a great futuristic vibe and while I'm not sure I fully understand the lyrics at all (actually I'm sure I don't), I would put this track right by Space Oddity on my spaced out futuristic tracks.  Another song to which I have no idea what's being discussed or even conceptualised. 

"Jericho Road" sounds like a track that should have been sung by the Spiders from Mars.  I love the swirling background noises here - everything from choir bells to swirling space copters.   

The Santana influences can clearly be heard on tracks like "Silver Timothy" and "Silver Donna".  For CSN fans, check out "Suns in Our Mind" and "Plains to Crash".  I haven't actually figured out how you crash a plain yet.  

When done with this record, please go back and listen to the absolutely stunning "Maraqopa" album.  And please know that, according to its title track, "all are welcome in!" I'd be surprised if anyone who likes music would not find something to grab hold of here once inside.

Damien is playing in Shoreditch in early March.  Can't wait to see him live.

Damien Jurado - Silver Timothy video: Silver Timothy

Sun Kil Moon - Benji

Could 2014 have started out any better musically?  I really don't see how.  Earlier in the month of January, I'm thinking we're headed into a real modernish continuation of the hip hop influenced modern rocker, only to be struck by 3 newish old school folk American rock artists who are redefining American rock again in just the space where many of us raised on so called "classic rock" have been dying to go back.  Welcome then the third and maybe best release of them all - Sun Kil Moon's  "Benji"

Sun Kil Moon aka Mark Kozelek comes from San Francisco California.  The former lead man for the band Red House Painters has released a few albums more recently un Sun Kil Moon which have received nearly universal praise.  His latest album to me is by far his best work to date, a truly American story book much like Sufjan Stevens work.  Classically inspired, but lyrically amazingly honest.  Freaking great stories and thoughts told carefully and without artistic pause or prevention whatsoever.  

Harsh honesty may not suit everyone.  Here there's the added uncomfortable combination of honesty and death on a personal level.  Several tracks here concern family - in"Carissa", Moon is "paying respects to his second cousin" who died in her 30s in a freak household accident.  On "I Can't Live without My Mother's Love", Moon speaks to the soul of many of us - that we are hurt and beat by the world outside and could not survive without our mother's love.  In that case, Moon is very personal in speaking to his need for his mother to continue to live beyond 75 - "when the day comes for her to let go, I'll die off like a lemon tree in the snow."  I know the feeling having lost my mom several years ago.  So accurate really even if uncomfortable to discuss. "I Love My Dad" is a song where Moon recounts memories with his Dad - everything from listening to Edgar Winter to his dad's advice not to listen to gossip and to "learn to pick your punches."  Much of it good, but as Moon says, his Dad was not a perfect man.

"Pray for Newtown" is a significant song for our times.  In it, Moon goes through several recent modern horror stories - everything from the Norway killer, the Batman killer to Newtown.  He describes his thoughts and experience which must in many ways be all of our experience including the way we all take the news personally - "I felt it in my bones" - even if we aren't related to the people who were killed. " Best of all is the call for us to "take a moment of pause for the kids who died in Newtown" and further to realize that these children are heroes - that they died to make us think of how to do things right.  What have we done though.  Moon repeatedly implores of us to remember these kids, but have we done that?  There's a reason he keeps asking us to do this.

Then there's  the elegant coolness of "Richard Ramirez Died Today of Natural Causes" another song about death made familiar by the news.  Here the victim is the opposite of the Newtown kids which is stark in and of itself.  Really cool song and not really something I had heard before.  The song is ADHD in action, news reports, memories of current and past events mixed in with his own situation in just a confusing and somewhat troubled mess.  It's as if the artist just cracked open everything going through his mind on a scattered day - but with the premise that these stories of killers, death cults (James Jones), drug overdoses (James Gandolfini) and everything leave marks in our psyche and are just plainly too many.  You could here him reference Ramirez pentagram tattoo - obviously an image carved on all of our brains if you grew up in that era.  There's a very cool musical raw blues vibe here.  Just a likeable track all the way around.  I know its not right, but the track makes me think - did we really want Richard Ramirez to simply die of natural causes?  I'm not sure about that but his existence as a scar in my psyche as well.  He is the representation of my nightmares quite often.  

Not all is death.  There's "Dogs" a very funny song about his love life and the games people play in relationships and just the general weirdness of it all.   "Ben's My Friend" is a humorous take on being middle aged and out of touch with being cool.  

To call these songs unique is probably a bit of an understatement. They are so detailed and lush.  

Sorry, but no vids yet

Sun Kil Moon - Richard Ramirez Died of Natural Causes - Richard Ramirez

Jonathan Richman - Vampire Girl - Essential Recordings

Well its time to move from the modern and take a step back.  I've been infatuated lately with the songs of the highly eccentric Natick, Massachusettes native Johnathan Richman.   So I picked up "Vampire Girl: Essential Recordings" and have not been disappointed at all.   This is just a great collection of great songs by what now sounds like a very modern day musician - no longer as eccentric when heard nearly 20 years or more after written

Songs like "Vampire Girl" (1995), "I Was Dancing at a Lesbian Bar" (1992) and "Let Her Go into the Darkness" are just so freaking classically funny.  That poor little vampire girl,  "Is she in heaven?  Is she in hell? Is she a sex industry professional?"  Lol.   And who wouldn't rather be dancing at the hip shaking lesbian bar rather than the uptight bar Richman first visits - "at the first bar things were stop and stare, at this bar things were laissez-faire."   And yes, you must take the sheets to the laundromat after your girlfriend cheats on you and you "let her go into the darkness" with her new boyfriend.  "Laundromat! Laundromat! Laundromat!"   Just sooooo cool!

There's old Modern Lovers stuff too like the odd fairy tale of "Harpo Plays his Harp", the comic gold of the California Desert Party ("backpacks and petroglyphs and kit fox and pack rats) and everyone's experience of "Dancing Late at Night" ("I can smell that falafel stand . . . dancing' dancin' late at night")  Every lyric is rich enough to remind us of how silly modern life really is.

And there's of course Jonathan's country phase with the track "Since She Started to Ride"(1990) and "You're Crazy for Taking the Bus".   Some of these tracks remind me of lyrics my friend Todd Eckert used to pen as a joke.  There's - "She'd live out in the pasture, if she only had a tail, no I don't see her much she see started with horses." And there's the ethos of the bus rider - "They don't want my name, and I don't want their baggage claim."  Freaking great.

In "I East with Gusto, Damn you Bet" Richman goes straight up bohemian poet - as he apparently eats with so much gusto that people die and stuff.  Reminds me of the old comedy of Steve Martin.

The compilation is rounded out by Richman's ode to Boston "Twilight in Boston".  Really a nice song in many ways reminiscent of Lou Reed's tunes on New York - run at the pace of "Coney Island Baby."   Still wondering how crummy it would be if Win Butler did one of these tunes on growing up in Houston ("around the corner from River Oaks" - lol).

Jonathan Richman - I Was Dancng at a Lesbian Bar (Live - Connan Obrien): Lesbian Bar

Jonathan Richman - Let Her Go Into the Darkness (Live): Laundromat!

That's it for now.  Hope you enjoy!