CD Club June 2013

Brian - The Pastels - Slow Summits
             Beach Fossils - Clash the Truth
             Mikael Cronin - MCII
             Kate Nash - Girl Talk



Marc - Francis Poulenc - Dialogues of the Carmelites (played from the COC website)
            Seals & Crofts - Diamond Girls / Summer Breeze
            Christian Scott - Christian aTunde Adjuah
            Jonathan Edwards - Honky-Tonk Stardust Cowboy / Gram Parsons - Grievous Angel



Derek - Jon Hopkins - Immunity
             Ola Podrida - Ghosts Go Blind
             Kingsbury Manx - The Bronze Age
             OMD - English Electric



Kyle - Foxygen - We are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic
           Unknown Mortal Orchestra - II
           My Bloody Valentine - m b v (not available on Rdio)
           Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
   

I am sure you all know Nick Drake, but even for those in the know , this is a fascinating interview with the great Joe Boyd, producer of most of the iconic late sixties , early seventies folk rock masterpieces.... Well worth a listen...This is also my favorite music blog show.....

I cant not play my hand at this point (before Dereks gig) as I am too enamoured with this disc to not rave..Definitely the best album of the year for me...I cant claim it is ground breaking or a bold new find, and maybe it shows how I have fallen behind in my music courses , but Kurt Viles new disc wont get out of my bloody cd player.....its the same kind of sound as his last album but generally a more electrified, long winded endless jam session of that sound... granted that sounds like the crappy last disc of All things must pass...but its not... the grooves are endlessly listenable, never tiresome and if anything I want the long songs to go on even longer.....the whole disc works as a single piece of music that endlessly varies twists and turns with underplayed / understated emotion that rings superbly real and true with hooks that pile on hooks...its as if he has deconstructed his sound into its base elements and then he sits back and grooves on it....perhaps the sound of the summer of 2013 for me....

Your opinion please - An Appointment with Mr. Yeats

A while ago I suggested a mechanism to encourage more participation in our blog, whose pulse has grown weak.  The concept is that we take turns selecting an album to put before the group and inviting comment.  Your reasons for selecting any particular album are unconstrained - an old favorite, something new and different or something that you believe to be overlooked or misunderstood.  Tell us about your choice and offer your own thoughts about it.  Each of us is then asked to listen the album in its entirety and post our own thoughts - short or long, positive or negative.  That was the original concept - it is open to improvement.

Brian responded in the classic management style - supporting the idea, and then assigning me with the action item to actually implement it.  So I'm going to give it a whirl - the album I've chosen to kick this off is "An Appointment with Mr. Yeats" by the Waterboys.  I don't know whether any or all of you are familiar with this album, but I was not until recently, though it was released in 2011.  I discovered it in February while searching for a birthday present for my brother.

I have been an enthusiastic Waterboys fan since I first heard, This is the Sea.  I particularly love Mike Scott's dramatic lyrics, with his "murderous skies" and his "sea of lights sparkling on the face of a pearl".  This particular album is a departure in that respect, as the concept is to put music to Yeats' poems.  Scott had already done this once, with "The Stolen Child" on Fisherman's Blues; not my favorite track from that album, but one that I quite liked.  That album is a good reference point for this one - the music is much more consistent with the Celtic folk inspired songwriting than with the more rock-influenced writing that he displays on albums like This is the Sea and A Pagan Place.  The Yeats lyrics lend themselves well to Scott's musical treatment - the resulting songs sound very natural and cohesive.  Having stumbled across this record years after its release, I was worried that it would be a weak album that had faded into obscurity deservedly.  On the contrary, I think it deserves a place among the top Waterboys albums - and a little research shows that I am not alone in rating it highly.  I don't know how I missed it when it was released!

The music is passionate and energetic, and, as I said,  it fits the poetry beautifully.  Particular favorite tracks for me are "The Hosting of the Shea", "Before the Worlds was Made" (with guest vocalist Katie Kim, whose distinctive voice I really like) and "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death".  The rest of the songs are also strong - I like it from start to finish.  I also found this cool link to a blog post from Mike Scott himself, with track by track notes on the album.

So there we have it - an opportunity for all of you to listen to something you might not otherwise have played, and a chance to voice your opinions.  I look forward to hearing your thoughts about An Appointment with Mr. Yeats, and to listening to the albums on which you choose to shine the spotlight.

Yet another artists RIP.... Richie havens , whom some of you may only know by the iconic woodstock performance "Freedom"    is an artist of greater depth then I originally thought. I bought a double album from the 60's recently on the advice of Bert (owner of Vortex records ...still around at Yonge and Eglington....) ...this album is a really fine slice of 60's pop/folk/psych    A mixed bag of covers and originals.it hangs together due to great songs and lovely arrangements......I love it.....worth well more then the 3 stars here

For those of us still checking this blog space, a question from young Oliver (who is developing a taste for capital r rock music), which I thought worthy of group input:

What is the best / coolest / greatest guitar rock riff of all time?   Points for obscurity and depth of knowledge.....no points for Smoke on the Water.

Monsieur Gaines, looking forward to a post on an artist we should all dive into, and trusting that the bed rest isn't too horrible.

Also, one listen in mind you, I am thoroughly enjoying the new Steve Kilbey record (not sure if that link will work, but it's on Rdio is the point).   The man should be more renowned than he is.

I do recall the conversation Brian, however, you were, at the time, wrong!

I may have gone on record as saying they were "done" after Is This It.   Hmm, I can't recall.  Stu, Derek, do you recall? 

I'm liking the new Beach Fossils quite a lot.  Real ear-candy for those of us of an age where The Cure meeting mid-period Sonic Youth is sweet bliss.   

Also enjoying the new Bettie Serveert, under-recognized since their brief period of popularity in the grunge era, though they've put out a lot of solid records since.  The new one has four or five excellent songs.

What’s with the Strokes ....Comedown Machine? ....more like LetDown Machine! ...Tap Out? ....Tapped out indeed! 

you can find Suuns on rdio, I see they just came out with a new album on the 4th ...fuckin intense live show ...check out Gaze and Arena from Zero QC ...not sure how it translates if your first intro to the band was not through the live show.  Turn it up loud and make your ears bleed!

In response to Brian...yes all the music i see live sucks and yes of course I did not pick this show.....because all the music i choose to see live...................well they suck.....

twas my friend who knew of them.....The band Marc is the Savages ... We did not stay to see the Suuns...

Just learned that another beloved artist has passed away...jason Molina; AKA magnolia electric co.  also aka songs ohio  has died at the WTF age of 39...mainly due to booze     his music certainly reflected a disturbed guy and his heartfelt music will be sorry missed... he has a neil young acoustic and a contrasting crazy horse feel to it...but his music is perhaps even more wothout hope then mss Young...as is evidenced  most definatively here

Fill me in ...i'm confused ...the show looks like it was billed as Suuns and Savages ...is this the Suuns out of Montreal ...were the Suuns opening for Savages or vice versa? were they playing together?   (Savages are not a very unique name as a web search reveals but Suuns is a little more so)  ..the music sounds pretty similar from description.  I saw the Suuns a little over a year ago at the Silver Dollar and brought the CD to a spin session we had ...if it is the same band i'd be interested to hear what you thought of them as well.

I don't often say this about music events that you go to Stu, but that looks kind of cool.   I'll check them out.

P.S. Did you discover this band yourself?  he asked skeptically?

Granted i am usually a little on the hyperbolic side, but Saturday night at Lees palace i saw the best live show since Arcade Fire.... Im not sure whether that will translate to their soon to be released album and they may well crack under the pressure of being the perennial  next "greatest band out of the UK"...but The Savages hour long set was loud , raw, extremely angry, but also with great songs with hooks and with a suitably captivating if creepy lead singer who had the kind of stage presence I have only seen rarely in bands like Arcade fire..  The lead guitarist also had this manic anger that  makes you wonder if they will eb around for long or are they too disfunctional......
...dont miss them when they return to tour the first album.....which i know nothing about as they only recently finished recording it.....
here is the only review i can find but it has a photo that kind of captures the moment ......

I like the idea too Mike.    If you're up for it, why don't you kick it off and we'll see if there's any life left in this thing.  

I like the idea Mike. 

Stuart, thanks for the post.  Not always my cup of tea but it's always enjoyable to be nudged to listen to something that someone else digs.  Ergo, my liking Mike's proposal.

Thanks for that, Stuart.  I had never heard of Kevin Ayer.  Reading the description of his work in AllMusic, he sounded a bit like Stephin Merritt.  I'm listening to him as I type this and I wouldn't say that comparison is particularly apt.  Less whimsical and musically much more rock and roll.  I can't help marvelling at the amount of music that is out there.  AllMusic lists 20 albums from  between 1969 and 2007, and in all the time that I've been listening to music and associating with people like you whose combined knowledge of popular music history is truly vast, I can't remember his name ever coming up (I confirmed with a search of Metabeats that had but a single result).  And I like what I'm hearing.  This is clearly the kind of music that I should have come across by now, given my preferences and predilections.

I've also been thinking of posting something for a while - for the interminable period that Brian's challenge for us all to produce our 2012 lists sat there at the top of the pile while the virtual crickets chirped.  So I've developed a concept designed to compel us all to contribute a little more regularly, and also (hopefully) to benefit more directly from this forum.  Here it is for your consideration and refinement (or rejection):

I suggest that each month, on a rotational basis, one of us is responsible for choosing a single album that we want everybody to listen to.  It could be something familiar that we want to create a discussion around, or it could be something more obscure that we want to introduce.  Either way, that person must identify the album  early in the month along with some reasoning for its selection.  The rest of us must commit to actually listening to the album in its entirety at some point during the month and then sending in our own comments.  We can simply say why we like it or don't like it very succinctly, or we can offer a track-by-track review.  But we all have to commit to writing something honest about our reaction to the chosen album.

I'm not suggesting that the blog be limited to this concept - any and all posts about music should be welcome as before.  But this will drive at least 6 posts each month, and more importantly, it will force us all to actually listen to each other's recommendations, and collaborate in a shared experience at least once a month.

What do you think?

I was looking up Kevin ayers on Allmusic to see what other records of his might be worth exploring while listening to joy of a toy.   Somehow I got an alt site stating that he died feb 20.  A shame. He was a true eccentric from the Canterbury music scene that spat out mike old field and Robert Wyatt. He was a founding member of soft machine and he released a fantastic quirky late career cd a few years back that I play a fair bit.  R I P.