Perfect Sound Forever
Digital JukeJointBox
by Jason Gross and David Manning
(circa summer 2003)
Gina Villalobos Beg From Me (Kick Music) - If you admired but didn't love Kathleen Edwards and wondered why her songs, her 'tude and such didn't go all the way, here's where it comes together. The only explanation I have for why Edwards is a media darling and Villalobos ain't is that the former must have better PR.
Sole Man's Best Friend Pt. 2 - No Thanks (Sole) - Damn shame that his latest one didn't come NEAR to matching 2001's Learning To Walk. Even more puzzling is why this Anticon-crowd rapper put together these odd's and end's on the fly and came up with a worthy follow-up. Is that some sort of underachieving or what?
Rebuilding the Bridge (Typical Girls) - I admit complicity here, maybe pushing this along to be created and I'm proud of it. Gadfly Douglas Wolk lovingly put this together to honor the long-gone Rough Trade records post-punk summit Wanna Buy A Bridge? No, I can't think of anyone ever making a tribute record to a compilation either but it happens to be a great comp and credit Wolk for finding a bunch of wonderful loonies to honorably honor this totem.
Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues (Columbia/Legacy) - The TV series remains to be seen but this great storyteller and obvious music nut is definitely the type of guy you want to take a stab at explaining and documenting this great American artform.
Dallas Turner Border Radio Favorites A to Z (Dallas Turner Archives) - Hopefully coming soon to a store near you, the legendary border radio personality claims he's penned hundreds of songs and he's a truckload of them, evoking the West much more convincingly than most of what comes out of Music Row nowadays. Even better, another compilation of his hair-raising radio ads (the finest snake oil around) is being prepared too.
Richard Thompson 1000 Years of Popular Music (Beeswing Music) While the recent The Old Kit Bag is an decent outing, this cover record from the noted singer-songwriter, done on his own label and available online and at his shows, is the real prize. From medieval ballads you've never heard of to the Beatles and Britney, he still makes them all his own. Understandably, he leans more towards the modern stuff (and reveals himself as a music theatre fan) but jeez, what fun...
Busdriver Temporary Forever (Temporary Whatever) - His word-per-minute are way over the speed limit but that's part of the entertainment he provides along with nursery wisdom, junk-culture samples and Del-type smarty-pants crooning.
Faceless Werewolves Faceless Werewolves (Already Gone) Lone-star grrl band who deserve to get a wider hearing- a damn good grunge band who digs metal or vice versa. At the very least, they should open for L7 or Courtney, if they're in fact still playing out. Think their handle scares some off?
Tom Verlaine Tom Verlaine (Collectors Choice) - Done right after he ended Television (which he's regrouped again now), this neglected classic represents what might have been TV's 3rd classic album. "Grip of Love" and "Reigning In My Heart" beat just about everything on Adventure and would have fit in just swell on Marquee Moon.
Wild Dub (Select Cuts) - English punks get their skank groove on and it's about time we had a good compilation of this. Not just the Clash and PiL (who would make a huge, gaping hole if absent) but also great echoes from the void from Basement 5 and the Pop Group. No XTC though? They did a whole dub album, right?
Rock City Rock City (Lucky Seven/Rounder) - Before Big Star was Big Star, this Memphis crew (with half the membership of that storied band) echoed the swinging sound of '60's London. Because Chris Bell wasn't the lead guy, it didn't hit the dizzy heights of BS but definitely makes a nice historical marker for all the other underground pop bands who also couldn't sell enough records to break even.
Warren Zevon The Wind (Artemis) - After chuckling at the Grim Reaper for years, he gets to report from the front for real. As much as he says that his impending doom isn't the over-riding theme, it is- from the sweet cracks in his voice to his now-appropriate gallows humor that he can now turn on himself, he gets his last laugh.
Snow Petrol Final Straw (Black Lion/Polydor UK) - They give up trying to be Belle & Sebastian so that they can be Pulp. Kind of depressing since they did the lithe pop thing so well but they're still primo song-smiths who, like Pulp, are a little too Brit to break Stateside and us Yanks are all the poorer for it.
DJ Woody Bangers & Mash (Woodwurk) - A mix CD of English rap isn't exactly what the world was waiting for but damn if it doesn't work, even if you don't know who the hell all these crews are.
The Capricorns Go the Distance! (Banazan) - If you can get over the cheesy keyboards and drum machine, you can appreciate the high drama pop that this duo goes for and gets. In fact, after a while, you hope that they never get a 'real' band.
Neil Young Decade II (Reprise) - Still ain't out, is it? Rumors are swirling around this will be finally coming out about 10 years after our great grand-kids are dead. For the time being, this long-time curmudgeon offers his 'ambitious' Greendale project (which actually worked pretty well in concert where he has stage sets, movie clips and actors) and a spate of CD reissues of a bunch of under-appreciated parts of his catalog. Fine but not great albums is what they are including Hawks & Doves (sweet stuff but notice how the songs don't run together a little too well), re-ac-tor (all of which he's sadly abandoned in his shows for years now), American Stars N' Bars and especially On the Beach. OTB has a bunch of quotable blues tunes, bizarre (even for Neil) guitar solos and the lovely/cranky "For the Turnstiles." Still, it doesn't hold a candle to his real full-blown meltdowns like Time Fades Away and Tonight's The Night, itself a powerful meditation on the price of addiction than beats Trainspotting anyday.
Oh No, It's More From Raw (Damaged Goods) - From Raw, one of the original DIY UK punk labels, this comp originally came out in '78 and now the original 45's will get you a nice profit in collector's shops and E-bay. If you're an old school fan of rabid raves, you'll need this. These were the unknown spiritual daddies to Rancid and Green Day. If you don't buy the punk/mall-punk/pop connection, be aware that hidden in here is a great single by a young Kevin Rowland, later of Dexy's Midnight Runners (remember "Come On Eileen"?).
Allen Ginsberg New York Blues (Locust Music) - the Beat icon didn't just influence Dylan, after a while he wanted to BE Dylan and started his own recording career. If you think Bobby had an off voice, Ginsberg's howls going to give you problems. After punk did away with a singer's need for technical niceties, AG doesn't sound that troubling. Plus, you can easily appreciate his heart-felt chants and poetry, appropriately recorded by fellow mad genius Harry Smith, in a hotel room no less. A minor classic which extends blues into the realm of avant-garde music as surely as La Monte Young did.
Down In the Basement: Joe Bussard's Treasure Trove of Vintage 78s 1926-1937 (Old Hat) - Now these are REAL oldies. Digging up material roughly from the same time period as Harry Smith did for Anthology of American Folk Music, Bussard makes no grand claims of history, just the pursuit of good times many of the artists here tried to put across. Along with Gene Autry and Uncle Dave Macon are glorious unknowns with songs like "The (New) Call of the Freaks," "Hot Lips," "Old Hen Cackle" and How You Want It Done!" Ripe for sampling and doesn't deserve to be horded only by your grandparents. Also, the sound is considerably better than most Yazoo reissues.
Bhangra- The Best Asian Beats from the Street (Manteca) - Western ears pick up on Indians chanting over dance beats as exotica but Bhangra shouldn't be that strange as any 'world' music is rip for some kind of modernization, just as it's always been (from the inside no less). Admittedly, not an expert, other than the Dum Dum Project, this is the best, most consistent, grooveful collection I've heard of this music.
Alan Watts OM- The Sound of Hinduism (Collector's Choice) - Sadly, not a recording of one of Watt's lectures, which is a shame because you need to this humorous, rationalist philosopher. Instead, this is Watts unfurling guided imagery over Indian drones. Still, the music and Watt's voice is very soothing. And his messages are much more reasonable, sensible than your average guru. One complaint though: he's a little stiff here, lacking the looseness and joys of his later work.
The Essential Igor Stravinsky (Columbia) - In a series that also includes the Clash, Willie Nelson, Heart, Kenny Loggins, Journey, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Miles Davis, here's a real dark horse for you. True connoisseurs of classical won't dig this greatest hits format but this ain't for them- for the rest of us whose knowledge of classical mostly comes from Bugs Bunny cartoons, this is an ideal introduction. Since you've probably also heard the music in the background of numerous car commercials and elsewhere, it should be familiar instead of being daunting but rest assured that this guy ruffled many a feather back in the day. He was the new wave in classical music before Schoenberg, Cage and the minimalists. And since the music goes from sweeping grandeur to delicate intricacies to frolicking fun in seconds, it really is ideal cartoon music, must as music snobs hate to admit it.
Gravy Train!!!! Hello Doctor (Kill Rock Stars) - Feminist electro-punk isn't exactly a wide field and beyond Le Tigre, who has the stomach to find out if any of electro-clash crap actually has anything worthwhile that approaches it? This crew does have it (the stomach and something worthwhile), even if it doesn't always have the astutely confused politics of Kathleen H and company. Then again, what do you expect from a membership like Chunx, Drunx, Funx and Hunx except for a few laughes? Thankfully, they got that too.
Heartworn Highway (Snapper Music DVD) - A long-lost '75 film about the supposed re-emergence of roots country music happening then, it was just a great excuse to capture the beginnings of the alt-country movement. You get to witness Townes Van Zandt touring his mini-farm, an old Nashville hand speaking of the good ol' days and opining that "Johnny Cash has shot his wad," Larry Jon Wilson recording an album with a great pick-up band and Steve Earle and Rodney Crowell in the infancy of their careers. Any one of which is worth seeing.
24 Hour Party People (MGM DVD) - If you have to chose between the truth and a legend, print the legend, quotes Factory Records head Tony Wilson from director John Ford. Wilson's story is mostly legend with smart bits of 'truth'- he's campy, self-serving, disgustingly cheeky, too smart for his own good and overblown many times. He's also entertaining as all hell. The recent Pistols documentary The Filth And the Fury faced a similar problem- no matter how accurate it might have been, it wasn't half as fun as the story told by Malcolm McLaren (and similarly directed by Julien Temple) in The Great Rock and Roll Swindle.