Interesting you should mention John Adams, Brian, as Yvette and I saw his Dharma at Big Sur last night,performed by the TSO....and I really liked it, (Yvette didnt).
It was sort of a violin concerto, but the soloist performed on an electric violin , which reminded me a bit of Hugh Marsh's work for Bruce Cockburn back in the eighties, Im sure you all just cringed but deal with it. (Its too bad that the only John Adams cd I have I lent you Brian , you you $#@!, and you have the gall to bloody well $%#$%^&&%^!!!, ) Im ok now.... I too loved the Berg opera, and found it far more accessable then I was expecting, I dont think it would scare any of you off....

Yes, it was all atonal, but I think that word has nasty connotations which this particular music tends to explode. Or maybe not...Stuart? The nine-year olds were amazingly good-natured about the whole thing.

And thanks for commenting. Nothing like a blog on atonal music to not incite fervent debate.

On another topic, I came across this blog (friend of mine did actually)
http://www.popnarcotic.com and will recommend it for a quick perusal because (a) the guy writes pretty well about pop music (b) he has a top twenty list for 2005 a little ways down the page which discusses some unfamiliar but interesting sounding music, and most importantly (c) he rants on and on about Novillero (a current fave of mine), which he chose as his number one disk for the year.

The whole blog space concept, and the increasing availability of unsolicited opinions (and the credibility or lack of that can accrue to a good/bad writer of one) makes me return to a question I've raised intermittently in the past. Given the (impressive) talent we have in the CD Club, and the mix of preferences and areas of expertise that we collectively bring to the table within the realm of music (as well as Kyle and Derek's HTML/Java etc skills), why are we not banding together to create an e-presence of some sort (Pitchfork style) that allows us to pursue our passion for listening to and critiquing music in a more public forum. Eh?

Haven't listened to any of this music but am curious and will investigate. Is the entire opera atonal? Was it well-received by a room full of 9-year olds?

On a more low-brow wavelength, some band-name chuckles at the onion .

Stuart was good enough to invite me to see the final dress rehearsal of Alban Berg's opera Wozzeck last night. A fantastic piece of art, I thought - visually, narratively, and sonically. Highly recommended. Atonal (rather than purist 12-tone) music, in the right hands, can be incredibly evocative of modern life and emotions. I would tend to point to Berg and his cohort Anton Von Webern as the most successful to my ears, rather than Arnold Schoenberg, the forefather of the movement and Webern and Berg's teacher.

Anyone else listened to much of this music and care to sound in?

It also made me wonder what happened to our high-minded idea to choose a "classical" piece of music for each music club. I think John Adams signalled the death of that (and rightly so....apologies to whoever proposed him). I think we should should start it up again for the next meeting.

thanks fopr the input, marc Ill take you up on that offer next time I see you.
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Funny you should mention the Libertines Stuart, I picked up their self titled 2004 release at Vortex just the other day...you are free to borrow it, i think i'm done with it!

As you said Stuart the Libertines are a fairly fun listen a few times through but then eminently forgettable in the long term. I've heard a few Babyshambles tracks and they stick in my head much more than any of the Libertine tracks ever did. The tracks "Fuck Forever" and "Albion" are pretty good. Apparently there is another spin-off band from the Libertines called "Dirty Pretty Things" and as usually happens in the UK they're selling out everywhere they go. Which means they're probably a lot of old tosh.

the libertines / babyshambles...Pete Doherty seems to get all the press re: his Kate Moss doings, yet I was streaming some stuff this morning and it sounded pretty good in a derivitive strokes meets the clash kind of way. Do any of you have any of this stuff, and what is good / bad ??

Brian, i'd love to agree with you but i'm afraid i can't. It's all part of my my new persona as an asshole. I'm going to try it on for a few days and see how it feels...might even get me some work that actually contributes towards my retirement!

But really, i find that we have preciously few sessions that i am trying to bring in new stuff that people might get excited about. I do like the idea of the mass re-listening, if only for the reason that there is bound to be at least one person in the group who is totally unfamiliar with the artist or album in question (usually me)!

Perhaps we should keep our vows to meet more often.

btw... Currently listening to Mingus' "II B.S." on ckln brought to us by Sharon McLoed and may i say that that mofo can distort my monitor as thoroughly as Ladytron!

I might have brought both of Matthew Shipp's 2003 discs, the Anti-pop collaboration as well as 'Equilibrium', which I actually like better than the collab, probably because I prefer Shipp's music to the rapping/lyricism of the Antipop folk.

As for disc-bringing strategies, I usually try to bring discs I feel that nobody else has heard, ostensibly with the goal of getting out the word on underappreciated musicians but secretly craving accolades for 'being in the know'. While we should be bringing all the music that we're currently enjoying, regardless of whether the disc languishes in obscurity or presently rules the pop charts, I think we also enjoy surprising each other (use of the word 'exposing' here would have been much gayer than your abandonned use of 'share', bri) with heretofore undiscovered gems . The solution would be to bring all the music that you've enjoyed, and if we've heard it already, we can either play, agree that it rocks and move onto something new, or harshly ridicule your taste in music with razor-like sarcasm dismissive hand waves and/or simultative jerking off gestures, as the case warrants.

Since the sun is peaking through the clouds, I suggest Marc that you scan over to 'White Light Generator', which is more of a shoe-gazing, My Bloody Valentine/Lush-ish, it's a cold day but it's getting warmer and isn't that the sun peaking through the clouds kind of track.

Hang on, I just listened to "Destroy Everything You Touch" and it's this sort of ear-candy-neo-Goth-danced-up-New-Order-meets-The-Human-League track! (quite nice actually) I'm confused.....Marc, you metro-comfy rogue.

Marc you radical hard rocking sonofabitch. Yeah. I'm going to stop listening to anything with a violin in it from now on. (looking up Ladytron on allmusic....)

(OK, I was going to comment on the Okkervil River CD which I finally got around to listening to, but it has some (shudder) violins, and even a couple of cellos I think in the (grimace) emotive sections. Still, I'm (I mean, I was) liking it a lot. Pretty great songwriting and big space-filled (read: major pansy territory) sounds. Also really loving the Dianne Reeves songs from Good Night Good Luck, outstanding vocals and sympathetic (damn it! sorry Marc) backing band. Also really liking the Antipop Consortium vs. Matthew Shipp record from 2003....did one of you bring this to a CD club and I completely missed it, or did we just stop talking about Matthew Shipp, other than to mention him playing the night of the last CD club...he is consistently interesting and experimental, and incredibly prolific, maybe the best guy to point to when someone asks about the current direction of jazz).

(Enough with the brackets). I am formally putting forward those three decidely un-rocking disks as my early picks for March.

Aside: It occurs to me that often at CD club we play everything other than the disks we are currently listening to / obsessing over. Am I right? I, for example, didn't bring Animal Collective or Deerhof to Stuart's, despite them being two of my January faves.....no doubt subconsciously because I know many if not all of the group has heard the music already, but as a result we're often not group-listening (I didn't use the word "sharing" as it felt a little homo, but is "group-listening" really any better?) to the music we think is the best, and getting everyone's viewpoints. Maybe I'm the only one guilty of this.

fuck the ipod and your pansy little ear buds!

Favourite thing to do on a grey Tuesday morning in March? Crank out Ladytron's "Destroy Everything You Touch" in the office, loud enough that it distorts the magnetic field of my monitor standing 36" away.... may also, incidentally, distort certain synaptic fields of the listener; but fuck it, that's what rock and roll is supposed to do!

Nice.

Hey I finally looked at "emusic", nice downloading option. A generally better selection than itunes and at a quarter of the price. Was able to find the Clientele record there for example, which wasn't on itunes, and which is $26.99 at HMV (of course, I haven't been to Soundscapes where I'm sure it 15.99).

If I could imposed upon the more technologically inclined in our group to keep me in the loop on good sources for this stuff. Derek, I think you mentioned Limewire the other day for free/illegal downloads. Tell me a bit more....good selection? less "noise" than Kazaa? Any technical issues at all? Are there other options out there that a neophyte downloader should be aware of ?

Best new band name? Not a bad song either.

hey stuart,
thanks for a great job hosting saturday and for cataloguing the evening's selections. think you may have made a mistake with my list, though. that's right, you forgot to include diana krall's christmas album.

Cd Listings:
Derek;
Claude Lamothe - "Vivace"
Monks-"Monks"
Lula Cortes & Zeramacho- self titled
Belle & Sebastians latest

Marc;
bell orchestre self titled
Gil Scott Heron-"very best of"
Kim Hiorthay-"live shet"
Electronic Noire

Stuart;
Destroyer'"Rubies"
Glen campbell Capital years 65-76
Damien Marley- Jamrock
Carla Bruni

Brian
Novillero-"aim right for the holes in their lives"
matt Pond PA -" the green Fury & "emblems:
Alice Coltrane- "ptah the el daoourd cadd setti la youterl ben cabin"
Sagitterius- "present tense"

Kyle
Nickelback- "the long road"
Styx- "Equinox"
Eccentric Soul oo7 on deep city label
The ladies & gentlemen -"small sins"
Miotaur Shock -"maritime"
patrick watson- "just another day"

Much appreciated for the heads up on this saturday's cd club. Almost forgot about it, though I'm sure mr. doyle and mercer would have reminded me at book club demain soir. Shall we order chinese?

Kyle, its just because they are playing in China, that it bugs you, you know its that race issue again .....har har har....

by the way the pandorabox site has its problems...I tried the beatles expecting to get mersybeat grooves ie peter and gorden... et al...and up came mid 70's fleetwood mac ...it seems better with current music...

On another note, can everyone remember to bring loaned cds to my place for the cd club this weekend (ie I think you still have my Jurado and my John Adams ...brian , and I have loads of your stuff Derek)