Quirky and accomplished progressive rock from Crack the Sky

Years ago, my brother turned me onto a somewhat obscure band from Wierton, WV that flirted with fame in the late 70s but never quite broke through. They are called Crack the Sky and they played a quirky brand of progressive rock. I’d have to say the band they most remind me of is Phish but with less of a jazz influence. I make the comparison for two reasons. The topics they pick for songs are every bit as odd (take “Robots for Ronnie,” which is two parents deciding to buy “a stainless steel group of chums” for their son who is a loser). Also, the songs are full of complex bridges and disparate movements that are amazingly well played. Trust me, these guys are cool as hell and very accomplished players.

Still at it in 2008, 33 years after their debut.

I had a couple of their albums on vinyl years ago and one of their songs popped into my head the other day so I started going to back to find the old songs I loved. I thought they had broken up in the 80s, but discovered they are still at it and have released no fewer than 22 albums since their self-titled debut in 1975. This gives me a happy amount of work to do since I only ever heard 3 or 4 of their albums. I may have more to report down the road after I have delved a bit into their catalog, but for now I want to recommend a handful of songs from 2 of their early albums.

First, their 1975 debut “Crack the Sky.”

• She’s a Dancer – I wanted to start with my favorite. You know I’m a sucker for horns and though this song opens as a straight-ahead guitar rock tune the horns kick in toward the end. It’s about a guy who finally must admit he’s attracted to a transvestite dancer (“Alright. I like the way he moves.”).
• Sleep – It opens as a ballad, but gets more energetic. It’s pretty the whole way through, with great harmony vocals and beautiful acoustic guitar.
• A Sea Epic – Here’s an odd one about a sailor begging in vain for mercy not for himself, but for the captain, admiral, and ultimately the ship’s cook. It’s a stirring song of several different passages all of which are musically more serious than the funny lyrics.
• Ice – I don’t know how they remember all of the weird little turns of musical phrase they throw in the corners of songs like this. This song about doubt in relationships darts all over in a complex arrangement.
• Hold On / Surf City – The chorus of ‘Hold On’ has a bit of a halting feel to it, but I love the verses and ‘Surf City’ is funny and cool all the way through with lots of that 70s masturbatory soloing sprinkled in.

And from their 1978 release, “Safety in Numbers.”

• Safety in Numbers – Such a product of the times, but it has aged well, I think. I love the wide variety of feels they were comfortable in. This one is alternately oozy and anthemic.
• Lighten Up McGraw – The intro is cool and the groove they build after is a smooth rocker.
• Nuclear Apathy – This 8 ½ minute epic has a beautiful acoustic intro that patiently builds for 2 ½ minutes to a complex arrangement of alternating crushing rocker, delicate lullaby, and math rock.

The band has only ever had moderate success and has seen many line-up changes as guys have left the band, done other work, and returned. They’ve even had some success with their other projects (remember ‘Vitamin L’ by B.E. Taylor?) but they keep coming back to write and perform together. As I said, they never quite broke through, but they have put out some cool music. I hope you’ll enjoy these. I’ll let you know what I find out about the rest of their stuff I find.

(The Beatles + Jay-Z) x Dangermouse = Musical Genius / Legal Trouble

Today I want to recommend an album that you may have some trouble laying your hands on. You may well have heard of it because it was a big deal at the time and there was a legal battle and press coverage. Here’s what it is. In 2004, one of my favorite producers/performers, Dangermouse, took just the vocals from Jay-Z’s powerful Black Album and mashed it up with unauthorized samples from The Beatles’ psychedelic White Album to create an entirely new project: The Grey Album.

I got 99 problems and a cease and desist order due to copyright infringement is one.

The idea is pure genius and it is as cool as you think it is. Sadly, EMI, who holds the rights to The White Album, didn’t see it that way. Jay-Z had commercially released an a capella version of his Black Album for this exact purpose, hoping artists would take his raps and create mashups and remixes. EMI, on the other hand, had no such plans for their tightly held and valuable Beatles music. They had never given permission nor were they paid for use of the material so they served Dangermouse and retailers with a cease and desist order. Distribution was halted.

Copies are still available. You can get actual copies of the CD from Amazon for $50 and up, if you’re a purist. Or you can still find BitTorrent links or scan news groups. A protest called Grey Tuesday was organized on February 24, 2004 on which hundreds of websites hosted the album for free download as a form of electronic civil disobedience. Over 100,000 copies were downloaded that day and so there are still many copies floating around. You can find it if you really want it.

As for the music itself, it is unbelievable. Check out these 10 of the 12 on the album.

• Public Service Announcement – Beautiful samples from “Long, Long, Long” behind track #10 from The Black Album. Great opener.
• What More Can I Say – Dangermouse slows down “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and makes it sound like it was written to back Jay-Z. Amazing.
• Encore – Someone (not Dangermouse, I think) put together a video for this one using footage of The Beatles and Jay-Z. It’s kind of cool, but the song is better.
• Lucifer 9 – What else are you going to do with samples of Revolution #9 but make the weirdest song on your own album?
• December 4th – Again, Dangermouse makes the sample – this time the acoustic lick from “Mother Nature’s Son” –  sound like it was written for this rap.
• 99 Problems – So how’s this for random? The rest of the links to this album work just fine, but there is a note at the bottom of this one on YouTube that says, “This video contains an audio track that has not been authorized by all copyright holders. The audio has been disabled.” It’s too bad, too, because this might be my favorite track on the release. Samples from “Helter Skelter” back Jay-Z as he tells us “If you’re having girl problems I feel bad for you, son. I got 99 problems, but a bitch ain’t one.” A little nasty maybe, but it sounds like a funny song possibly written after a relationship went south.
• Dirt Off Your Shoulder – This is the hardest “Julia” has ever rocked. I don’t like the rap all that much, but the song is undeniably cool.
• Moment of Clarity – This one uses “Happiness Is a Warm Gun,” but the genius of Dangermouse’s use of the sample renders it hard to recognize. He creates a new rhythm with the muddy guitar and a new melody with the vocals.
• Change Clothes – Here some George Harrison weirdness – “Piggies” – and a little bit of “Dear Prudence” is turned into a great groove.
• My 1^st Song – The main Beatles sample is the “Can you take me back where I came from?” end of “Cry Baby Cry.” Dangermouse also uses “Savoy Truffle” and “Helter Skelter,” but I’m not sure I hear them.

I can see both sides of this argument. This mashup is almost an entirely new project and people want art like this to be made available on the grounds of free speech and freedom of artistic expression. This puts us on a slippery slope, though. What Dangermouse did here is complete deconstruction. He broke The Beatles’ music down to building blocks and made something new with them. Not everyone would, though. How close does it have to be to the original before it is simply ripping off an artist’s work?

Stephen Colbert appears to be on the side of the free speechers. In 2006, on the Colbert Report, he called for a mashup of “The White Album” and Christmas songs to be called “The White Christmas Album” and added, “Dangermouse, I know you’re watching.”

Old school bluesy Alt Country from Deadstring Brothers

Turns out they DO make 'em like they used to.

Did you like “Exile on Main Street” by The Rolling Stones? Want more? This is as close as you’ll come to that vintage Stones sound and it is a brand new album from Deadstring Brothers. I reviewed this for AltSounds, so you can check it out there: http://hangout.altsounds.com/reviews/112890-deadstring-brothers-sao-paulo-cd.html

The Friday mix: More of my favorite female artists

Today I’m going to continue making my way through some of my favorite female performers. I pulled 16 songs from the letters G through J in my iPod so I got artists both popular and obscure. I hope you like them.

1. Goodness – Electricity, Electricity
   I don’t actually know anything about Goodness nor do I have any other song by them. However, they contributed this winner to the “Schoolhouse Rock Rocks!” album. It’s an energetic (no pun intended) cover of the great cartoon song. Her delivery of the “Electricity Eeeeelectricity” lyric has this great liquid sheen that I love and since she sings it in every measure of the song, I love the song.
2. Helium – The Revolution of Hearts
   They were never a huge band, but there is an interesting story attached to their front woman Mary Lou Lord, if Wikipedia is to be believed. For my part, I just like their songwriting. Towering and complex guitar parts paired nicely with simple and pretty vocal lines.
3. Holly Golightly & The Greenhornes – There Is an End
   Holly Golightly pops up in some unexpected places. In addition to her own voluminous solo career, she has collaborated with acts like Rocket from the Crypt and The White Stripes. This is a collaboration with The Greenhornes that wound up on the Broken Flowers Soundtrack.
   

   Something about that is just sexy as hell. Don't stop playing those instruments, ladies.

4. Hope Sandoval & Warm Inventions – On the Low
   Of course, I loved Hope Sandoval’s work with Mazzy Star, but this is a song you may not have heard by her. In addition to being drop dead gorgeous, she has great patient melodic sense and a smooth, smoky voice.
5. Inara George – No Poem
   OK. So this is cheating. I already wrote up Inara George as part of The Bird and Bee. But in addition to her work with them (with whom she still works), she has released some solo work. I really like this sweet, twisted love song. The gist is he is no poem when he opens his mouth, so she tells him, “If I were you I wouldn’t talk. I’d just keep on dancing.”
6. Ingrid Michaelson – The Way I Am
   I couldn’t decide between this song and ‘Die Alone.’ Ultimately, I picked this one because my daughter loves it. The simplicity of this song reminds me of Feist but it’s funnier than Feist.
7. Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan – Saturday’s Gone
   Cellist and singer Isobel Campbell used to be a member of Belle & Sebastian. I’ve got to say I’m glad because I like her solo stuff better than I like B&S and on this one she gets to work with Scream Trees founder Mark Lanegan. This is a pretty, dreamy song like you might expect from someone hip deep in the Indie scene but maybe not from someone with roots in the grunge scene.
8. Janis Joplin – One Good Man
   The one and only. I always really liked this one, perhaps because she was able to convey so much emotion with her voice. It was made for the Blues.
9. Jefferson Airplane – Volunteers
   Grace Slick is one-of-a-kind. Radio murdered most of their songs for me. This one never got as much airplay. The whole intergenerational tension thing seems silly to me now – perhaps because I wasn’t there – but the song rocks, make no mistake.
10. Jem – They
    Jem has a few songs I really like, but again I had to go with this one because it is one of my daughter’s favorite songs ever. It is quite possibly the best updating of a Bach song ever (Prelude in F from The Well Tempered Clavier).
11. Jesca Hoop – Summertime
    Born to strict Mormon parents, Jesca Hoop ran off to be a homesteader in the wilds of Northern California before becoming a nanny for Tom Waits’ kids. He describes her music as “going swimming in a lake at night.” This song makes me smile every single time I hear it.
12. Jill Cunniff – NYC Boy
    I love Jill Cunniff most for her brilliant worth with Luscious Jackson, whom I will be writing up next time. Since their breakup, though, she has done some solo work, which I also like. This is poppier than the LJ stuff of the past, but it’s still good.
13. Jill Scott – It’s Love
    I suppose I need to listen to more Jill Scott. This was the only song on “Who Is Jill Scott?” that I really liked, but what an unbelievable song. I also really like her collaboration with Lupe Fiasco, ‘Daydreamin’.’ I should check out the rest of her catalog.
14. Joan Osborne – Right Hand Man
    Joan Osborne is an amazing talent. I was always rooting for her to become huge. She has collaborated with everyone from The Dead to Michael Franti to The Funk Brothers. I’ve seen her perform on a few occasions and she has such a great voice and exudes such a powerful sexual energy. She is absolutely riveting. This song was from the same album as the unfortunate ‘One of Us’ but this song has sprit and soul and electricity.
15. Jonatha Brooke – How Deep Is Your Love?
    I’ve been a fan of Jonatha Brooke since her early days with The Story. Ms. Brooke is a fabulous songwriter. This song comes from my favorite record of hers, Steady Pull. Also check out the title track, a collaboration with the aforementioned Michael Franti.
16. Julie Dexter – Ketch a Vibe
    I don’t know who selected this clip, but it’s from the intro. Once this song gets going, it’s huge and energetic. You can get a sense of it from this live performance, but the sound sucks.

That’s it for this week. Enjoy with a bottle of some really good wine, because she’s worth it.

Surprising organic Rock from a young Robert Palmer

So I was walking through a store and I heard this song. I didn’t know who it was, but it was quick and funky with cool lyrics. I also don’t have a phone with an app that lets you hold your phone up to a speaker and it will ID the song for you. It took a few weeks to determine that the song I had been grooving to was an old Robert Palmer tune, “Looking for Clues.”  (Try to ignore the silly video. Remember, they were all this bad in 1980.) The song hit #7 in Canada and #33 in the UK when it was released in 1980, but had never been a hit here, so I had never heard it before.

I always thought Palmer was a damn good looking man. Now, I'm not gay, but if I was...

Now anybody who lived through the 80s probably remembers Palmer’s work with The Power Station in ‘85, certainly remembers the inescapable ‘Addicted to Love’ in ’86, and possibly recalls ‘Bad Case of Loving You,’ which hit # 14 in the US in 1979. I was never a huge fan of that stuff, but I was intrigued with this unknown (to me) Palmer tune that was really cool. I decided to do a little digging and see what I could turn up.

Turns out Robert Palmer was really cool back in the day. He had an organic, rootsy sound that I hadn’t expected, given the songs of his with which I was familiar. I ordered his greatest hits, “The Best of Both Worlds,” and there’s a bunch of great music on it that never charted anywhere and I had never heard it. Check these out.

• Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley – This Blues/Funk tune has some fat vocal harmony and spidery keyboards that Stevie Wonder would be proud of. Not to mention the idea behind the song and the lyrics are cool. Love this song.
• How Much Fun – A sunny groove and carnival piano back Palmer and some ladies singing about finding out how much fun they can get into life.
• Man Smart (Woman Smarter) – Not written by the Grateful Dead, as you might think. This is an old Harry Belafonte song.  Palmer swings this one with some piano, guitar, steel drum, and penny whistle. I think this is the studio recording synched with footage of a live performance.
• Sailin’ Shoes/Hey Julia – The first half of this is a funky and celebratory tune with his signature guitar sound and female backup singers. Then it turns into this cute and clever love song. “Hey hey, Julia. You’re acting so peculiar. I know I’d never fool ya in a million years. A horn section your resemble and your figure makes me tremble and I sure would like to handle what’s between your ears.” My daughter loves this song.
• I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On – This was from “Riptide,” the same album as ‘Addicted to Love.’  It’s a cool song and one I hadn’t heard but a handful of times on the radio. The video is exactly like the ‘Addicted to Love’ video.

After the success I had with “The Best of Both Worlds,” I decided to go looking for some more Palmer. There was another track I found.

• Pressure Drop – When you think of Robert Palmer, you think of – say it with me – Reggae! Why didn’t you say it with me? I was surprised at this, but it’s a pretty good Reggae song. I like it anyway. I got this from a collection called “The Roots of Rock: Rock ‘n’ Reggae.”

Any fans of Robert Palmer will probably be surprised at the songs of his I didn’t know, but his last hit outside the UK was 15 years ago and he only had a handful of minor hits before his run in ‘85/’86. Anyway, he had his hip youth, his huge wave of success, and his period of waning popularity. Maybe it’s time for the comeback…

One of my all-time favorites: an absolute classic from Stevie Wonder

Every now and then I like to recommend an old album. This one was never obscure, but my wife and I both commented on how much we both love one of these songs and it made me want to write it up. If even one person who never heard this album before goes out and gets a copy, it will be totally worth dedicating a post to this classic.

Stevie Wonder is a national treasure.

The album I’m referring to is Stevie Wonder’s 1976 masterpiece, “Songs in the Key of Life.” The album went to #1 in the U.S. (between “Frampton Comes Alive!” and “Hotel California”), charted in 5 other countries, and spawned a handful of hits. No fewer than 130 musicians and engineers worked on the album, including George Benson, Herbie Hancock, Deniece Williams, Minnie Ripperton, Michael Sembello, and many more.

This double album has 21 songs on it. He probably could have squeezed these songs onto a single album – or at least most of them – but a bunch of the songs have an extra minute or three of soloing. He really takes his time with all of the songs. The music is joyous and/or moving and almost every song is a winner. 16 of the 21 have a permanent home on my iPod. I won’t say much more about it except go buy it. Or at least listen to some of these.

• Love’s in Need of Love Today – This song aged well and the message never gets old. Joan Osborne does a pretty good cover of this song, but the original is still much better and I’m sure Miss Osborne would agree with me.
• Have a Talk with God – This is one of my enduring favorites on this album. I love the positive message, though I’m not much of a religious man myself. I didn’t learn until today that Stevie plays every single instrument on this song. It’s all Stevie.
• Contusion – A crazy, instrumental Jazz piece. Are you freaking kidding me? It’s hot, too, with the full compliment of musicians on this one.
• I Wish – Good Lord this song is funky. The guitar and bass work are irresistible and the horns will knock you back on your heels. I defy you to not get up and dance when this comes on. It can’t be done. I still dance in my living room when this comes on, swear to God.
• Knocks Me Off My Feet – This may not have aged particularly well, but it is still a laid back, beautiful love song.
• Pastime Paradise – Coolio famously sampled this song, but he made it neither deeper nor cooler than Stevie’s brilliant original version.
• Summer Soft – The warm piano riff is a great background for Stevie’s honeyed alto voice. The verses are sweet but the chorus gets really big.
• Ordinary Pain – It’s 1976 again whenever this song comes on. Very much a product of the musical times. It’s a pretty and timeless Pop melody, though.
• Isn’t She Lovely – This was the one I remember hearing on the radio when I was a kid. Stevie’s done singing 3 minutes into this song, but apparently loved the groove so much he added 3 ½ minutes of harmonica solo at the end. The crying baby is his daughter Aisha Wonder (counted among the 130 who contributed to the album).
• Joy Inside My Tears – The lyrics are so heavy and the melody is gorgeous. He presents the whole musical idea within the first 3 minutes, but then hits it over and over, making bigger and funkier for 3 more minutes.
• Black Man – OK, the 2 minutes of shouting at the end gets tiresome, but the groove on which this song is built is so busy and funky I had to have it on my iPod.
• Ngiculela – Es Una Historia – I Am Singing – I wish I could sing along to this song, but between the Swahili, Spanish, and incredibly high parts, I just can’t. What a joyful song. Listen to the overwhelming buoyancy of the third chorus 2 minutes in. You just want to raise your hands to the sky.
• As – This was the song that inspired me to post on this album today. It is my wife’s favorite Stevie Wonder song and it is a powerhouse that comes in at over 7 minutes. The vocal performance Stevie puts in on this is positively awe inspiring. He growls, he croons, he wails, and it’s all perfect.
• Another Star – Again the full complement of musicians joins him on this 8 ½ minute epic. Horns, flute, broad backing vocals, lots of percussion and they have to fade it out at the end. It sounds like they may have just continued for another half hour but they cut it off.
• All Day Sucker – This groove is just nasty. The dirty keyboards and dripping guitar wallow around in this oozy love song. Fantastic.
• Easy Goin’ Evening (My Mama’s Call) – I think of lazing around in a grassy field on a sunny day when I hear this. Stevie was apparently thinking of evening, but it sounds sunny to me.

‘If It’s Magic’ is another great song, with just Stevie’s voice and a harp. I removed it from my iPod, but now I’m not sure why. ‘Sir Duke’  is on this album too, but I’ve heard it so many times and it was never my favorite track anyway.

“Songs in the Key of Life” is a masterpiece by a brilliant artist at the height of his powers. If you’ve never heard it, do yourself a favor and pick it up. It will live in your CD player for weeks. If you haven’t listened to it in a while, dig it out again. You’ll find a lot of the music still sounds fresh (I believe ‘I Wish’ would climb the charts if it were released today for the first time) and even the dated songs are great.

The Friday mix: Spooky and cool music for Halloween

Halloween has been my favorite holiday since I was about 9. Maybe it’s because October is such a great month in NE Ohio. Maybe it’s the brazenly pagan nature of the holiday. Maybe I was just a macabre little kid. Anyway, this year I put together a mix of songs some of which are creepy, some of which just have Halloween themed titles, but all of which are cool. I hope you like them.

1. This Is Halloween – Marilyn Manson
   Manson’s version of this song is fantastic. They never made a video that I know of, but here it is synchronized with the original footage from Nightmare Before Christmas.
2. Black Feather Wings – Bourbon Princess
   I first heard this song on the Respond benefit compilation CD. It’s a bass-heavy, oozy song with a cool lyrics and a great feel.
3. Scarecrow – Beck
   “Guero” was a great album, but then, Beck hasn’t put out a bad album that I’ve heard. Typical funky Beck groove, lots of effects, great vocal melody, and engaging lyrics.
4. New Killer Star – David Bowie
   Bowie continues to put out cutting edge music year after year. He has never lost his ability to write catchy melodies and has reinvented himself more times and more successfully than Madonna. I like this song and it is nearly impossible to look away from this video.
5. Vampires and Failures – Grandpaboy
   The solid Pop guitar riff, dark lyrics, and vocal delivery give this track kind of a vintage Rolling Stones feel. I found this on “Not the Same Old Blues Crap: Vol 3,” and indeed it is not.
6. Pretty Girls Make Graves – Dada
   Not The Smiths’ version. This one is an entirely different song and it’s much cooler. The Amazon sample only has the quiet intro, but about 10 seconds after this clip ends, the guitars kick in and it turns into a rocker.
7. See You Dead – Helmet
   True Halloween fare here. “I’d like to see you in two pieces. You won’t be walking. Barely breathing.” It’s actually a love song, believe it or not. A stalker love song. Ah, Halloween, when a young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of decapitation.
8. Necromancer – Gnarls Barkey
   If you thought “See You Dead” was creepy, wait ‘til you get a load of this one. What could be better than a little “naughty necrophilia?” The lyrics to this are truly disturbing.
9. Little Death – +44
   

   I sent this mix to my brother on CD with this cover art and the title "The Horror."

   I’m not actually a big fan of a lot of +44, but this song reached me. I like the quiet acoustic groove at the beginning with the verses sung in two octaves and then the slamming chorus. This track is well produced too. In particular pay attention to what they do with the percussion. It even has good lyrics.

10. Invisible Man – Joe Jackson
    Joe Jackson has put out over 20 albums since “Look Sharp” came out in 1979. I came upon this one and was stunned to find several really good tracks on it, including this one. I say stunned not because I thought he would suck, but just because he hasn’t had a Billboard hit in the U.S. since 1984. I hear this and I’m not sure why not.
11. Grey Ghost – Mike Doughty
    When Doughty was with Soul Coughing, they were the coolest band in the land, in my opinion. Since then he has largely left that sound behind and does the singer/songwriter thing these days. That said, he’s still a talented songwriter and this is a cool acoustic song.
12. Devil’s Pie – D’Angelo
    A little D’Angelo goes a long way for me, but this is one of my favorite songs of his (Spanish Joint is better). A funky groove, almost eerie keyboards, and deep lyrics. Good stuff.
13. War Pigs – Cake
    They screw up some of the lyrics, but I still love this version. Every time this song comes on my iPod, people are intrigued and want to know who it is.
14. House of 1000 Corpses – Rob Zombie
    More good Halloween fare. The movie was a bit ham fisted, but I suppose it was exactly what it set out to be. This song, on the other hand, is great. The guitar hook is inescapable and Rob Zombie’s gravelly vocal delivery works really well. Shrieking background vocals and some movie sound bytes add some nice texture.
15. She Said – Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
    This song is about becoming a werewolf. I love the song, but I’m not sure what the hell is going on in this video.
16. (Antichrist Television Blues) – The Arcade Fire
    These guys have listened to a lot of Bruce Springsteen. I’m just saying. Nothing new here, but I still like the song. Plus it has “antichrist” in the title, so into my Halloween mix it goes.
17. Monsters Lead Such Interesting Lives – Mel Torme
    I can’t believe this entire song isn’t on YouTube (except for a dreadful version of some woman dressed as a witch singing it karaoke style [shudder]). This is from Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters and is one more reason Mel Torme is one of the coolest singers ever.

Enjoy with a Bloody Mary and have a great Halloween, everyone!

The Friday mix: Can’t get enough women

For the Friday mix this week I’m returning to my exploration of some great female artists I have found. The first week I got a meaty mix out of just the letters A and B. Volume 2 required only C and D. This week I was able to get a baker’s dozen from E and F. It’s a good crop this week too. I hope you like it.

Yeah! Play that... whatever the hell that is!

1. Edie Brickell – Oo La La
   Guess what song you find 50 versions of if you search for Edie Brickell on YouTube. Well, Edie has done a lot since ‘What I Am’ (including marry Paul Simon). This cool track is from her 2003 release, “Volcano.”
2. Elaine Summers – The Real Low Down
   Summers got her start backing up Pete Droge, and they still collaborate today. She has kind of a Sheryl Crow meets Shelby Lynne folk-rock thing going on. I love the lyrics on this song. “You thought that you were truly rare, but there’s a lot of folks like you out there and I’ll be damned if I didn’t meet another one today. The real low down.”
3. Eliza Gilkyson – Twisted
   This song is heavy. It’s oozy sound and honest lyrics are typical of Gilkyson, whose father and brother are famous musicians too. She plays cross-over Country and is an amazing songwriter. Here she is doing this song live.
4. Ella Fitzgerald – Body and Soul
   I could have picked almost any song at random from Ella. I’ve got over 30 of her songs on my iPod. The liquid sheen of her voice, the flexibility to move from jumping joy to melancholy hopefulness, and her amazing improvisation and phrasing abilities made her perhaps the best female vocalist ever. If you don’t have a bunch of Ella, do yourself a favor and go purchase the first disc you come across. She could literally do no wrong.
5. Erykah Badu – Other Side of the Game
   Badu is my favorite R&B artist right now. I saw her at Bonnaroo this year. She was really, really weird and incredibly talented. It was a riveting show. This track is about the anxiety she feels because a guy she’s madly in love with deals drugs for a living. Check out ‘Soldier’ too. Another great song.
6. Esthero – We R in Need of a Musical Revolution
   If you’ve heard anything from Eshtero, there’s a good chance this is it. I would call it radio-friendly, except the whole song is about how she’s “sick and tired of all the shit on the radio.” This is the title track to an album you should add to your collection if it isn’t there already.
7. Etta James – At Last
   My understanding is that James was pissed that Beyonce was asked to perform this instead of her at Obama’s inaugural ball. I was too. Her long, brilliant work in Blues and Soul earned her that spot. Not to mention her improvised version of this Gordon/Warren song is the one we all know – the one, in fact, Beyonce was imitating.
8. Evanescence – All that I’m Living For
   Amy Lee has a great voice and I love it when they do the metal thing. When they do the quiet ballads, not so much. This is a cool song and again, probably the one you’ve heard if you only know one song by these guys.
9. Everything But the Girl – Troubled Mind
   Tracey Thorn gets around. By which I mean she collaborates with a lot of other artists. I’m always happy when she lends her voice to a song. EBTG is her own project with her husband, Ben Watt.
10. Feist – Mushaboom
    In spite of its having been used in perfume and mattress commercials, covered and remixed multiple times, and put on movie soundtracks, I am not tired of this pretty song about a simple life in the little Nova Scotia town of Mushaboom. Feist has a remarkable ability to write little irresistible ditties like this one, God love her.
11. The Fiery Furnaces – Worry Worry
    I wrote this album up some months ago. One of the highest compliments I can pay these guys is they don’t sound like anything else on my iPod. Maybe PJ Harvey meets Gogol Bordello? I don’t know, but lead singer Eleanor Friedberger is amazingly creative and they are fearless in creating grooves.
12. Fiona Apple – Paper Bag
    I have to confess I thought Fiona Apple was going to be an enormous, enduring star. She’s still at it, but after her debut, ‘Tidal,’ went triple platinum, ‘When the Pawn…’ went platinum, and ‘Extraordinary Machine’ only went gold (which is still 1 million copies). She is a great songwriter and I hope she can put together another record that resonates with more people. I never stopped liking her. This track from ‘When the Pawn…’ got picked by Zach Braff to be on the Last Kiss soundtrack.
13. The Fugees – Fu-Gee-La
    I absolutely respect Hill’s decision to quit the music industry. That business has exploited, chewed up, or killed countless talented folks. I respect the decision, but I don’t like it. She was the complete package:  great voice, songwriting talent, beautiful… Her departure is all our loss. This is my favorite performance specifically from Hill from The Fugees seminal album, ‘The Score.’ What a great rap.

Enjoy with a wine cooler. You know. Cuz girls drink wine coolers.

Updated classic Disco from Horse Meat Disco

Do you miss Disco? Well, OK. Me neither. But, if you ever find yourself feeling nostalgic or think a disco vibe might be good for your party for a bit, this is a hand-picked, well-mixed collection from a few hot DJs from the London scene. I am from America and had never heard of Horse Meat Disco so Brits, please allow me to take a minute and bring the rest of the world up to speed a bit.

It's like actual horse meat, only gayer.

Horse Meat Disco is a regular disco party held on Sundays at The Eagle, a nightclub in London. The vibe is gay friendly – or perhaps I should say the vibe is hetero friendly gay, and the music is…well, fabulous. DJs James Hillard, Jim Stanton, Severino, and Luke Howard dig up some true gems, update the sound a bit, and keep the room moving with superior mixing skills. The party itself has grown quite a reputation.

‘Horse Meat Disco’ is the first compilation CD released by the group and though you can hear a variety of house, rave, and electronic music at a Horse Meat Disco, this collection focuses on the main staple of the outrageous Sunday night parties: Disco.

To be honest, I’m not usually a fan of house party discs. If you’re not actually dancing in a nightclub, the groove usually gets tiresome. I need the full experience to make the energy work. I’m also not a big fan of disco. I was a kid when this stuff was on the radio and I don’t think the sound aged well. That said, I can see how this disc would definitely work in the right kind of party. The music is danceable, the production is top notch, and the flow is uninterrupted. This is two full scoops of disco, so you really have to be in the mood for it, but there are a couple tracks that you might want to listen to if you missed them when they were new.

• “I Depend on You” by The Two Tons [sic] (This song was released by Two Tons O’ Fun, who eventually became The Weather Girls and released the gay anthem “It’s Raining Men” in 1982) is a great song with which I had previously been unfamiliar.
• “And I Don’t Love You” is a mostly instrumental piece featuring some light vocal samples from Smokey Robinson. The MP3 isn’t available from Amazon and it’s not on YouTube, but it’s a good track.
• “Let It Flow” is an oozy song from Tamiko Jones that displays a patience and evolving groove you might expect from a modern jam band.

I can’t get terribly excited about a disco revival, but “Horse Meat Disco” does this about as well as it can be done. If you want to immerse a room in 1975, this is a perfect disc to do it.

Irrepressible new genius from Phish

As you surely have heard, Phish is back. The Hiatus, which was actually their way of letting fans down easy, since they never intended to get back together, was truly just that. They returned to the road this summer. I was lucky enough to see them at Bonnaroo. I have to say, they sounded fantastic. A couple of other Phishheads and I kept looking at each other wondering if they truly sounded as good as we thought or if we were just so happy to see them after all these years we were just listening with a more forgiving ear. The consensus was they really were that sharp. Personally, I think the difference is that front man Trey Anastasio is clean these days.

I like these songs more each time I listen to them.

At any rate, they toured this summer, they have a festival on the calendar for Halloween, and they have released their first studio album since “Undermind” in 2004. I was particularly excited because they went in to the studio with one of my favorite producers, Steve Lillywhite, who produced “Billy Breathes” in 1996 (Perhaps my favorite Phish album. Probably that or “Farmhouse”).  The first thing I’ll say for it is it’s good. Is it as good as “Billy Breathes?” No. Is it as good as “Lawn Boy?” No. It is as good as “Rift,” however, and it’s better than “Undermind.”

There are a few tracks that I didn’t like at all, though they may grow on me with repeated listens. ‘Kill Devil Falls,’ for example, sounded a little flat to me. It’s a familiar-sounding melody and I’m sure Trey could make one up just like it every morning in the shower (or however often Trey showers). ‘Time Turns Elastic’ is a 13-minute epic that has moments that positively sparkle and others that are a little cheesy. I would love to lift the 7 brilliant minutes and leave behind the 6 drab ones.

7 of the 11 tracks on the album are great and got ripped to my iPod. Give these a listen.

• Backwards Down the Number Line – This is a nostalgia trip that looks back over the many years of a friendship and talks about how the fundamental nature of some relationships never changes.
• Twenty Years Later – This song also looks back, but it’s less of a nostalgia trip than it is a “Wow. Look how far I got. And I’m still standing” The tempo is slow, but everything about it – the vocals, the instrumentation – is towering and it has a good rock feel, particularly the bridge near the end.
• Ocelot – Trey loves creating characters and telling their stories. A playful song like this would be right at home on Hoist, or maybe Story of the Ghost.
• Sugar Shack – Not the old Jimmy Gilmer classic, but a song from Mike Gordon. Like Trey, I love it when the other guys bring songs to the band. This has a great feel.
• Joy – As beautiful a song as I’ve ever heard written to one’s daughter. And the melody is as sweet as the lyrics.
• Stealing Time from the Faulty Plan – I heard someone theorize this is Trey’s song about his drug years. It fits. It’s a great wailing rocker too – a good vehicle for some towering solos from Trey live. He cuts it up pretty well in this studio version, for that matter.
• Light – It took me a couple times through to make up my mind about this one. Ultimately, the joyful nature of the lyrics and triumphant chord progression won me over.

I have a friend whose musical opinions I very much respect who feels that this is Phish’s best album. I have to disagree, but I do agree that it is very good. I’ve seen them do a couple of these live. One of the songs I didn’t like on this album, ‘Kill Devil Falls,’ was pretty damn good live, so even the weaker material comes alive when you’re in the room with them. On the whole, I like this album a lot and hope they can keep it together for many more years, albums, and shows to come.