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Expert Witness: July 2013
Odds and Ends 031
Alt-rap also-rans
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Kanye West: Yeezus (Def Jam)
Sign spotted on church in the wild: Death Grips--Be Like Them ("New
Slaves," "Hold My Liquor") ***
J Cole: Friday Night Lights (free Roc Nation download)
The good tracks keep on coming, but the irresistible ones total, well,
one ("Blow Up," "Farewell") ***
Oreo Jones: Betty (Rad Summer)
Naptown indie-rapper runs Frankie Lymon and Jackson Pollock through
his beat-pumped emotional wringer ("Option Control & the Spirit,"
"Needy") ***
Young Fathers: Tape One (Anticon)
Compositionally, one crucial twist short of what they have in them
("Romance," "Rumbling") **
Fat Tony: Rabdargab (HomeSkool Rekordz)
Smart funny goodnik learns to see past his dick, with beatz ("Not
Now," "Bad") **
J Cole: The Warm Up (free Roc Nation download)
He's so talented you can hear how much he wants it, so talented you
wince every time he shoots himself in the foot, e.g. "Put some chains
on my niggaz like I own slaves" ("World Is Empty," "Get By")
**
Serengeti: Saal (Graveface)
Singsong raps or vice versa on brand new marginal themes over basswise
chamber-pop beats ("Accommodating," "Karate") **
P.O.S.: We Don't Even Live Here (Rhymesayers)
"I don't want to think about it I just want to get down," only neither
turns out to be in his control ("Fuck Your Stuff," "Weird Friends [We
Don't Even Live Here]") *
Bobby Bland
A find and some bookkeeping
Friday, July 5, 2013
Bobby Bland: Blues and Ballads (MCA '99)
Even though the parent corp owns Duke-Peacock, where Don Robey held
Bland in servitude while compelling him to record Robey-copyrighted
crap by the fictional Deadric Malone, Bland's catalogue is the usual
mess. I estimate that anyone who chooses to own MCA's two early-'90s
Duke double-CDs, I Pity the Fool and Turn On Your Love
Light, can add the one-volume Greatest Hits Volume Two: The
ABC-Dunhill/MCA Recordings and stop there. I also estimate that
the use value of his most renowned original-release album, Two
Steps From the Blues, is significantly diminished by all the
duplications on almost any Duke-era best-of one might chance upon. But
this surprisingly intelligent 16-track comp is different. Half Duke,
half MCA-etc., it showcases the Bland I've never trusted: the schlock
adept, the midtempo crooner-groaner who dug Texas-sized horn sections
and was fine with strings, the lover who played in the same league as
jazz status symbol Billy Eckstine and citified rivals Lou Rawls and
Brook Benton. And it convinces me I prefer Bland to any of them. Never
flaunting his virtuosity like Eckstine or conflating smarm and cool
like Rawls or clinging to Nat Cole's coattails like Benton, Bland
begins by nailing two Malone songs too dull for anyone else to sing,
reminds you what a mother he is with "Ain't Nothing You Can Do," and
then goes cornball commando, claiming a Malone trifle Aretha Franklin
took over in 1969 as well as "If Loving You Is Wrong," "Georgia on My
Mind," and "I've Got to Use My Imagination." Tossing in the occasional
signature growl, he relies on his midrange like a veteran fastballer
working the corners and never cracks the ice as he skates the
groove. Insofar as these songs can be killed, he does the
deed. A MINUS
Bobby Bland: The Anthology (Duke/Peacock/MCA '91)
Since it costs the same per track as the matched 1998 Duke and Dunhill
Greatest Hits collections I recommended back in the day, my
review is mostly discographical bookkeeping. Although it includes all
of the Duke disc's tracks, it goes rogue on Bland's Dunhill years
while retaining the half dozen or so essentials. But in the wake of
the big man's death, more is more, and by doubling the Duke picks,
most of them uptempo, this accesses some major work--"Little Boy Blue"
and "Ain't Doin' Too Bad" discoveries for me, "Poverty" and "Ain't
Nothing You Can Do" (!!) conspicuous omissions from GH. So if
you're just getting started, it's probably the right choice. If you
aren't, do the math yourself. Docked a notch on general
principles. A MINUS
Sing Me the Songs/Anais Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer
The old ways have their good points
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Sing Me the Songs: Celebrating the Works of Kate McGarrigle (Nonesuch)
The ritual passing of the songbook from tart old folkies to
sweet-and-sour showbiz kids worked better as theater, where we don't
get to re-examine the performances, than it does as recorded music,
where we're able to ponder just how the kids remodeled the house and
put in that piano-shaped hot tub. But though Rufus's and especially
Martha's oversinging stretches some of Mom's songs well beyond their
limits, it's a hell of a songbook, and in the end it's the lesser
material that fares worse, not the less experienced performers. Aunt
Peggy Seeger is no more impressive than the youngish gender mixers
whose names you'll forget again without the credits, and it's a shock
to realize that a youngish gender mixer whose name you know delivers a
"Go Leave" more heart-wrenching than Richard and Linda
Thompson's. Almost as shocking is that the next best thing isn't a
Kate song. It's Chaim Tannenbaum and the gang's "Travelling On for
Jesus." A MINUS
Anais Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer: Child Ballads (Wilderland)
The 305 canonical English and Scottish ballads are obviously good
tunes--time-tested, one might say. And these seven are pretty much
unchanged, too. Yet subtle fiddle, accordion, pump organ, and
especially bass liven up the acoustic guitars just a touch, and both
Mitchell's fluting, childlike lead and Hamer's mellower follow avoid
purist sanctity as well as modernizing pizzazz. If only I could swear
the presentation is so beguiling I keep the plots in mind. But I will
say that the two about mean parents thwarting true love speak more
directly to my spirit and conscience than the one about the fine lords
going down on their very own Titanic, and point out that what saves
the princess-laying Willie of Winsbury is he's R-I-C-H
rich. B PLUS
Odds and Ends 032
Dance dance convolution
Friday, July 12, 2013
Frikstailers: En Son De Paz (ZZK/Waxploitation)
Buenos Aires freakstylers claim cumbia and baile, retain
temperate-zone electrocool ("Mueve La Cuchi," "Los Originarios")
***
DJ Koze: Amygdala (Pampa)
German collagist claims Sgt. Pepper, provides magical mystery tour
("Marilyn Whirlwind," "Homesick") ***
Foals: Tapes (!K7)
Dully danceable Britpoppers sound better cherry-picking other people's
weirdness than showcasing their own competence (Condry Ziqubu,
"Confusion [Ma Afrika]"; Marshall Jefferson Vs. Noosa Head, "Mushrooms
[Justin Martin Remix]"; Tony Allen, "Kilode [Carl Craig Remix]")
***
Future Sounds of Buenos Aires (Waxploitation/ZZK)
Quite a little pan-Latin electro scene they have going down in
Cosmopolis (Frikstailers, "Guacha"; La Yegros, "Viene de Mi"; Fauna,
"Hongo x Hongo") **
Major Lazer: Free the Universe (Secretly Canadian)
Accused dancehall will.i.am wannabe Diplo proves unequal to that
worthy quest ("Get Free," "Scare Me") **
Fac. Dance 02: 12" Mixes & Rarities 1980-1987 (Strut)
Amid the self-important proto-acid house and -EDR aridity and
obscurity, trance-worthy grooves, gripping weirdness, and the
occasional diamond (Fadela, "N'Sel Fik"; 52nd Street, "Can't Afford
[Unorganised Mix]"; Section 25, "Knew Noise"; Kalima, "Land of
Dreams") *
Disclosure: Settle (Cherrytree/Interscope)
The Lawrence brothers are the form, their all too varied samples and
cameos the content--which never again rises to the standard of the
Eric Thomas (??) bit that opens ("When a Fire Starts to Burn,"
"Stimulation") *
Daft Punk: Random Access Memories (Columbia)
The Black Eyed Peas they ain't ("Lose Yourself to Dance," "Get Lucky")
*
Ezra Furman/Daniel Romano
High anxiety
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Ezra Furman: The Year of No Returning (Bar/None)
Rather than lyrics, the text accompanying this solo debut features a
lengthy statement of principle: the Chicago folk-rocker (sorry, but
that brutal shorthand reveals more than the one-sheet's "dark chamber
pop, tough-guy garage rock and sad, gorgeous balladry") aims for "real
protest" against our "globally pervasive culture." Or as Furman puts
it in "American Soil": "I'm a Jew through and through and I'm about to
write you a Bible." Fortunately, he sets his sacrilegious writ to
muscular melodies that get more fetching as they speed up, accompanied
by his admittedly garageish guitar and musicians admittedly more
chamber-pop than were his helpers in the Harpoons. Taken by the style
of anxiety built into a voice that rises in pitch as a matter of
well-calibrated habit, I wish I could report that it sang of global
contradiction more and romantic frustration less. But for now it's
global enough. Furman is right to believe that too few of his cohort
risk this kind of pretension, a/k/a the good
kind. A MINUS
Daniel Romano: Come Cry With Me (Normaltown)
Displaced Canadian "middle child" cultivates honky-tonk misery so
extreme it dallies with the absurd--misery that all began when his
mama sent him away and kept his sister and brother. In a voice that's
sometimes so deep it serves as its own mournful echo chamber, he
counts pillows, balances obligations, takes on an acting job to keep
his ex guessing, detaches his heart from his chest, and declines to
reveal the true story of Chicken Bill, leaving us wondering whether
it's Bill or Daniel who fools around with the gender instability of
"When I Was Abroad." B PLUS
Jeffrey Lewis & Peter Stampfel/Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti
Weird birds
Friday, July 19, 2013
Jeffrey Lewis & Peter Stampfel: Hey Hey It's . . . the Jeffrey Lewis & Peter Stampfel Band (self-released)
To borrow a keyword from the "Mule Train" finale, you could complain
that this clippety-clops. Presumably the revised version the liner
notes promise will move at a smarter clip, because the drummer who
spent a single weekend recording 13 songs she'd met a week before will
since then have spent long sticky nights with them on tour. But that's
only if the revised version materializes, which cannot be counted a
certainty even though 37-year-old stripling Lewis is the least
occasional of Stampfel's life list of weird birds. And however
shambolic the songs are or aren't, you'll want to hear almost every
one anyway. Where to begin? "All the Time in the World" redefining
immortality? "Indie Bands on Tour" redefining folk culture? "Do You
Know Who I Am?! I'm %$&*?in' Snooki!!" celebrating a reality Stampfel
has never really encountered? The Tuli parody, the Stampfel remake,
the Patti Page rewrite, the Tommy Jackson lyrics-added, the one that
has the 74-year-old Stampfel apologizing that he doesn't "yet have the
skills to write a '64-'65 Beach Boys song"? Put it on shuffle and
decide for yourself. A
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti: Mature Themes (4AD)
After myriad albums of which I've heard half a dozen, 2010's
mysteriously well-regarded non-DIY debut Before Today all too
prominent among them, Ariel Rosenberg sneaks in a good one. By cult
say-so a no-fail songsmith denied his place in the stratosphere by his
lo-fi principles (cf. Daniel Johnston, Robert Pollard, Kurt Vile), he
gears up his factory to roll out a line of relatable tunes, many with
relatable lyrics attached, adding up to . . . songs! These tend silly
whether stubbornly kinky (the betesticled statement of musical
intentions "Kinski Assassin," the "symphony" for a "nympho at the
bibliotech") or proudly ridiculous (the late "Houdini do this, do
that" whereby a middling track escapes the doldrums, the Descendents
joke Ariel's fans aren't old enough to get). The tunes are also
silly. Singing and arrangements too. Mature my patootie--and that's a
good thing. A MINUS
Odds and Ends 033
Women of the world
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Bettie Serveert: Oh, Mayhem! (Second Motion)
One of our finer big-guitar bands--and without a hint of macho,
including the "ironic" kind in which cred-hungry young horndogs
camouflage their ignorance of history ("Mayhem," "D.I.Y.")
***
Mariem Hassan: Shouka (Nubenegra)
Sahrawi powerhouse finds new Sahrawi guitarist and rides the haul
music they share as hard as she can--for non-Sahrawis, maybe a little
too hard ("Maatal-La," "Haiyu") ***
Kiran Ahluwalia: Aam Zamen: Common Ground (Avokado Artists)
Pan-global chanteuse clothes her fine sentiments in grooves that hail
from Islamabad and Timbuktu too, and picks up momentum along the way
("Mustt Mustt [Extended]," "Zindagi") ***
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Mosquito (Interscope)
Compelling sound, constricted souls, Kool Keith, and cash flow
("Mosquito," "Sacrilege") ***
Anaïs Mitchell: Hadestown (Righteous Babe)
Classically-themed new-folkie operetta lets Mitchell warble her some
Euridice, Greg Brown dig deep into Hades, and Justin Vernon spare
Orpheus his falsetto ("Wedding Song," "Way Down Hadestown")
**
Nikki Lane: Walk of Shame (IAmSound)
Greenville, South Carolina, rebel learns what she means by country
music in LA, NYC, and at long last Nashville ("Walk of Shame," "Gone,
Gone, Gone") **
Bahar Movahed & Ali Akbar Moradi: Goblet of Eternal Light: Maqams of Kurdish Tanbour Music of Iran (Traditional Crossroads)
Ayatollahs or no ayatollahs, she will too sing these devotional love
songs ("Beloved," "The Desire of Union") **
Lana Del Rey: Paradise (Interscope)
Continues to project a hedonistic lassitude and desperate edge you
wish you could warn your buddy off ("American," "Body Electric")
**
Lil Green/Dionne Warwick
Seventy years ago, and also fifty--do the math
Friday, July 26, 2013
Lil Green: Why Don't You Do Right? 1940-1942 (Historic '96)
Even more than Bessie Smith, this later as well as lesser blues
singer--born 1919, recorded mostly pre-WW2, pursued sketchily
documented r&b touring career until she died of pneumonia at
34--suffers from formulaic recording, and fortunate though she is that
her formula included Bill Broonzy on guitar, she lacked melodic
outreach even though she preferred pop structures to ye olde aab. Her
signature is a sexuality that's sly and lascivious rather than hearty
and lusty, put across by a willowy soprano that's ready for
anything. Often anything means just what men hope it does, those
dogs. But it can also mean patient affection and, if "Just Rockin'"
says what I think it does, a thrilling night of self-gratification
should her dog be out chasing pussy. If there's an ace compilation
hidden in her catalogue, no one's talking, but this equally
downloadable old French job beats the recent Lil's Big Hits (on
K-Tel, I swear)--even improves on 1971's Romance in the Dark,
assembled by the discerning Don Schlitten for RCA. By my count, about
half its 23 tracks distinguish themselves as songs. The rest
distinguish themselves as style only. B PLUS
Dionne Warwick: The Dionne Warwick Collection: Her All-Time Greatest Hits (Rhino '89)
Still in print, as is the label's shorter and proportionately cheaper
2000 Very Best Of, which among lesser sins omits three classics:
"You'll Never Get to Heaven if You Break My Heart" (7/64), "I Just
Don't Know What to Do With Myself" (9/66), and "(There's) Always
Something There to Remind Me" (8/68), the dates of which establish the
limitations of the Alfie- and Valley of the Dolls-fueled theory that
she got schlockier as she got older, which she certainly did after she
moved on from Bacharach-David to Clive Davis in the '70s. Warwick had
a voice that you admire like many or love like me--pop velvet with a
gospel nap, the epitome of walk-on-by reserve except when amped by
commitment to craft, romantic disputation, existential indignation, or
her hurting heart. In the first great heyday of rock guitar, her feel
for Brill Building baion enabled another kind of beat music:
traditional pop with a Latin difference. Her breakup with her two
mentors crippled all three for life. A
Gogol Bordello
Multi kontra kulti
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Gogol Bordello: Pura Vida Conspiracy (ATO)
Although half the old band are gone, the first two songs resume their
crusade with undiminished bravado and a new melodicism that never
quits. "Dig Deep Enough," Eugene Hutz half implores and half
commands. Why should we, old-timer? Because "We Rise Again." Just as
powerfully, the next two dabble in both lyricism and the nostalgia
Hutz has mocked so adamantly. And although thereafter the songwriting
dips from world-historic to merely excellent, this tension powers a
revitalization that had damn well better incorporate some change,
because without it the "living and loving" Hutz insists are the
ridiculously simple yet damnably difficult secret of human existence
will stiffen and die. No other band worth caring about risks the
cosmic like Hutz's immigrant tatterdemalion. Re-examining his past, he
imagines a future you can hum in your mind. A
Gogol Bordello: Multi Kontra Culti Vs. Irony (Rubric '02)
Recorded with Ori Kaplan still providing Gypsy brass and Eugene Hutz
still learning to write melodies and speak Roma, this prophetic effort
peaks twice: with the long-vanished debut single "When the Trickster
Starts a-Poking (Bordello Kind of Guy)" and "Baro Foro," a six-minute
faux-Roma romp keyed to the more-more-more Sergey Rjabatzev violin
riff that has anchored their climax ever since. But down from those
peaks isn't so damn far. "Let's Get Radical" and "Punk Rock Parranda"
are as disruptive as trans-everything trickster ideology-poking
gets. A MINUS
MSN Music, July 2013
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