Saturday, November 30, 2002
New review! My bit on that terrible Good Charlotte album has appeared. The more I hear this pile of garbage, the more I hate it. One of the worst albums of the year.
Interesting setlist from the George Harrison tribute last night...
Appearing tomorrow: my big year-end list!!!
Tuesday, November 26, 2002
Things have slowed down considerably since my crazed, Dylan-obsessed weekend...
I have been ginving the new Flaming Sideburns album a listen recently. A Finnish band fronted by an Argentinian singer (of course), they're labelmates of Sahara Hotnights (a band I like very much), sounding a little like The Hives, but with more of a heavy Stooges influence.
The album, called Save Rock 'n' Roll, is pretty good, lots of straightforward, distorted garage rock, but one song stands out above all the rest. "Flowers" is one of those miraculous moon-shots that make you think, "why can't they sound like this on the entire record?" I've had this song playing constantly for the past half hour...it sounds like an outake straight from the Velvet Underground's Loaded sessions, with an absurdly simple three chord progression, with layers of lush, wispy-light solo accents throughout, much like "Sweet Jane". The singer (don't have his name handy at the moment), totally nails the Lou Reed voice circa 1969. It's a knockout tune...so if you're looking for a real cool song to download, try this one.
Again, the rest of the album is harmless fun (though Sahara Hotnights are the better band), but I think I'm going to give it only a marginal recommendation. For three tragically short minutes, however, The Flaming Sideburns sound like the Next Big Thing..they might not have completely succeeded at saving rock music, but at least they're trying, which is more than I can say for most North American bands out there.
Saturday, November 23, 2002
Managed to finish my big Dylan review late last night...er, make that early this morning. I rarely prattle on about my actual writing experiences like some self-centered college student, but I have to say, after constantly listening to it and writing about it for three days, it was more effortless than anything I've written in ages. It just felt goooood, plowing away, Bobby D in the background. My love for this album knows no bounds, and I'm very happy with the review. It should be up very soon, since it's an ultra-high priority review.
Also on the subject of Bob, the latest Dylan Pool concluded last night. And boy, what a rude awakening for yours truly, who took quite a tumble after placing second back in September. Goes to show how incredibly tough the pool is. The next leg of Dylan's ongoing tour will reportedly begin sometime in January in New Zealand...
Friday, November 22, 2002
Whew. For the past day I've been totally immersed amongst the flotsam and jetsam that is the Rolling Thunder Revue. Spent four hours watching Renaldo & Clara for the third time (I think)...it's an ungodly mess, a mishmash of pretentious drivel, but, wow, are the performances ever great, and they helped me visualise the whole Live 1975 album. Still, despite the fact that I was sitting there, following along in my printed-out copy of the synopsis, the stupid plot makes barely any sense. But it was never boring, which always baffles me. And I have to find an mp3 of that song that Ronee Blakley sings...
I also gave a listen to my copy of the November, 11, 1975 Waterbury, CT performance. It was recorded ten days before the Boston area shows that are represented on the album, and you can really hear the sloppiness, especially on 'Hard Rain' and 'Romance In Durango'. It's amazing; not two weeks later, that massive band was absolutely smokin'.
I have to mention Mick Ronson...Bob Neuwirth's decision to hire Ronson was an odd one, but a real stroke of genius. Ronson's style is usually much too flashy for someone like Dylan, but amongst everyone else in the Revue, it seemed to make some kind of demented sense. So there he stood, in the background next to T-Bone Walker, with his glam rock mullet and his Les Paul, shredding away some of the fiercest lead licks ever heard on a Dylan recording. Along with Rob Stoner and David Mansfield, Ronson's contribution contributed greatly to the incomparable sound of that band. But as for his acting on Renaldo & Clara, well, he was no David Bowie.
Wednesday, November 20, 2002, some 12 hours later...
My week was completely made today when I went out to get the mail. I've been expecting review copies of some big albums, ranging from Dylan, to Harrison, to McCartney, and even Metallica, so when I found a padded envelope that had a Sony address label, I freaked, grabbed the package, and sprinted like a blithering idiot back home.
My intuition was indeed correct, as I tore open the package and found my promo copy of Dylan's Live 1975. Complete with dvd! (most review copies don't come with bonus dvd's) So, I slapped the first disc into the cd player, and I've been in bliss all afternoon. Take it from me: you'll never listen to the Hard Rain album again.
First off, I never was a big fan of live albums that are compilations of performances from several shows. Most of the time, the feeling is totally lost, whereas all the best live albums are from one specific show (obvious case in point: Live 1966), but Live 1975 is still a very solid document of the Rolling Thunder Tour, despite the slightly annoying fadeouts after nearly every track. It's also great that the producers didn't just haphazardly throw in every good performance they could find...when I found out that both discs were only fifty minutes long, I was initially disappointed, but that feeling vanished when I read that the songs were compiled in a relatively similar order as the sets of the shows.
The sound on the album is spectacular (completely blowing away my old Worcester bootleg). It's extremely crisp and clear (sheesh, I sound like a 7-Up commercial), and the audience is audible, yet unobtrusive, and never distract from the performances. Out of all of Dylan's ragtag group of minstrels, the ones that leave the biggest impression are Scarlet Rivera (of course), multi-instrumentalist David Mansfield (the 1975 version of Larry Campbell), and especially bassist Rob Stoner. Dylan has worked with great bass players over his career, most notably Rick Danko and Tony Garnier, but Stoner's phenomenal playing during this tour is the duct tape that holds the rickety jalopy together.
But what about the songs? There are three types of songs on the album: solo acoustic, Bob's wacky reinventions, and the Desire tracks: the solo acoustic tunes are gorgeously done, undertstated and heartfelt (see 'Love Minus Zero', 'Tangled Up In Blue', and 'Simple Twist of Fate'); the reinvented songs from this tour are amazing, as we've known for years (especially 'Hard Rain', 'It Ain't Me, Babe', and 'Train To Cry'). However, the people who will come away from the listening experience totally ecstatic will be the Desire fans (myself included)...the band's musicianship is searing, and Bob sounds utterly indestructible, or as Allen Ginsberg described, "an emperor of sound." To hear such well-produced live versions of 'Hurricane', Isis', 'Romance In Durango' (bot 'Isis' and 'Durango' are different performances than the ones on Biograph), 'Sara', 'One More Cup of Coffee', and 'Oh Sister' (oh man, does that one sound great), is a great thrill, and makes you wish even harder that Bob would play those songs on his current tour. His collaborations with Jacques Levy are too great to go ignored for so long.
The bonus dvd is good, a real treat especially for those who haven't seen Renaldo & Clara, and the sound on the three tracks is excellent, but the picture quality is subpar, which has to be because of the shoddy quality of the original film, which mustn't have aged well. There's slight pixellation on 'Tangled Up In Blue', and the clip of 'Isis' (with our Bob flailing his arms like a psychotic preacher) is in poor condition, with film scratches visible for its entirety. Still, for some of us, it's a step up from our umpteenth-generation tapes converted from that old Channel Four telecast! Also, the audio track of 'Isis' is the one from Biograph, but mixed for Dolby 5.1 sound.
I haven't read the liner notes yet, so I can't comment on those, but the booklet is gorgeous, with tons of great photos by Ken Regan. One of Regan's pic in particular caught my attention: a beautiful photo of Dylan & Ginsberg sitting in front of Jack Kerouac's grave in Lowell, Mass. (the three greatest poets of the 20th century together, in a way), with Ginzy pointing out to Bob a passage from Kerouac's Mexico City Blues. I absolutely have to have this photo enlarged and framed on my wall...
So anyway, I'm going to put together an extensive review in the next few days, which should be up in the next couple weeks. Think I'll dig out Renaldo & Clara, the two Hard Rain tv specials, and the John Hammond tribute to get in the right frame of mind...as if I'm not already. This album is great fun.
Wednesday, November 20, 2002
Egads. Over the next two weeks, I have to get my Best of 2002 list assembled, and I have no idea how it's going to turn out. I have to somehow sift through my 25 top contenders and put together a top 20 list...and out of that group of twenty, there are about fourteen legitimate contenders for my top 10. My top 6 is 95% definite, so that makes eight that are on the bubble. Out of all the albums, there are two that I deem perfect (if you've been reading my stuff, you may know these), but one's more perfect than the other, if that makes sense...
I think that starting on December 1st, I'll do the same daily countdown that I did last year, but it'll be a top 20 instead of last year's top 10.
I knew I couldn't do a year-end list without picking up one more cd (I'm such a hopeless addict...there's always "one more"), and a place in town had it for a low price that I know I won't come cross anytime soon, so I grabbed it. I'm talking about The Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, of course...another reason I waited so long was to get to know The Soft Bulletin better, seeing that I was so tragically unhip for not owning it three years ago. Anyway, Yoshimi... is not quite the album that The Soft Bulletin is, but it's still a wonderful piece of work. It reminds me a lot of Super Furry Animals' Rings Around the World from last year, in that they employ a big techno influence to go along with their traditional pop style, and like the great, endearingly imperfect Rings... the fact that The Flaming Lips dared to try such a thing is admirable in my books. There are a couple of small bumps, but overall, the album is wondrous to listen to, a real feast for the ears.
I got a pile of nine cd's in the mail yesterday...some good, some awful, just filler to keep me busy when I run out of high priority cd's to review. I'll have more on those albums later on, when I get around to listening to them in full.
Monday, November 18, 2002
I had no idea how tough it is to write an extensive review of a comedy album, let alone two. You can't give any real funny bits away, so if you quote anything, you have to be really careful. Still, I managed to get over a thousand words down for my Bill Hicks review. Hope it does the job.
Still on the Bill Hicks subject, a found a great web page with an excellent assortment of Hicks audio clips...it's worth a look.
I continue to be completely blown away by The Essential Leonard Cohen...it's absolutely perfect, with the emphasis being placed on his three best albums: five songs from his first album, seven of I'm Your Man's eight tracks, and five selections from The Future, as well as classic songs from his other albums, like 'Chelsea Hotel #2', 'Famous Blue Raincoat', 'Hallelujah', and 'Dance Me To the End of Love' (surprisingly, the four tracks from Cohen's most recent album hold up very well). Simply put, this is one of the best albums I've received all year, the best Best-Of compilation I've heard since The Best of Blur. For once, an "essential" album that lives up to its title.
Last night I finished watching the six hours' worth of extras on the Fellowship of the Ring Special Edition dvd, and I have to say that there was never a dull moment. Usually, most 'making-of' dvd extras are pretty self-indulgent and tedious, but not here. It was endlessly fascinating, especially the documentary about all the prop-making...the detail they put into all the stuff is unbelievable. Along with the astounding extra goodies, the extended version of the movie totally blows away the theatrical release, and there are a couple of really cool hidden features. All in all, this is the single greatest dvd I have ever seen, hands down.
Friday, November 15, 2002
Two nights ago, Bob Dylan played a cover of George Harrison's 'Something' in New York City, dedicating it to George and saying he wouldn't be at the big tribute later this month. Needless to say, Bobfans have been going loopy over this cover, and at last, the mp3 has surfaced. And what a performance it is...one of the best Dylan performances I've heard in a long time.
A new cd arrival...in the form of The Essential Leonard Cohen. Superb all the way through, it's a phenomenal compilation, chosen by the guy himself. More thoughts on this later...
Tuesday, November 12, 2002
Picked up the new special extended edition dvd of The Fellowship Of The Ring today...I took a quick look at the thing (can't wait to watch the extended movie), and it looks spectacular. Looks like it'll take days to watch all the extras.
Today's cd arrivals were the two new Bill Hicks cd's. LoveLaughterandTruth is a compilation of best moments from unreleased performances, and Flying Saucer Tour Vol. 1 is a live recording of a wicked 1991 Hicks performance in front of an unusually apathetic audince. Both discs are very funny, of course...as for which one is better, the Pittsburgh recording is really great: very confrontational, and very misanthropic. Gotta love it.
Last night in New York City, Bob Dylan played 'Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread' for the first time ever. Unreal. I need an mp3 of this!
Saturday, November 9, 2002
I have the cutest niece in the whole wide world...
I just finished reading Irvine Welsh's new novel Porno, and I loved every single bit of it. True, a sequel to Trainspotting wasn't really necessary, but it's so much fun to revisit all the memorable characters ten years later It has some real moments of high comedy, and there were times I was killing myself laughing, but it's also really heartbreaking, how all four protagonists (and also a new main character) still have yet to sort their lives out, and the last 100 pages are enthralling, as you desperately want these guys (and girl) to get what they deserve, be it good or bad. Porno doesn't pack the same wallop as Trainspotting, but it has more of a heart, and is an immensely satisfying reading experience. With his previous book Glue, and this one, Irvine Welsh has settled really nicely into a real groove...after Trainspotting, his output was really up and down, but with two stellar books in a row, he's on some kind of roll. I just love this book to bits.
Thursday, November 7, 2002
Well, here it is, my huge review of The Streets' Original Pirate Material. What an album this is...though it took a while to win me over. I downloaded "Has It Come To This?" way back on the week it was released as a single in the UK, which, much to my surprise last week, was back in October of last year. Everyone was raving about the song at the time, so I gave it a listen, but it had no effect on me whatsoever. The album was released in the UK back in March, but I didn't feel compelled to pay any attention to it. It wasn't until I downloaded the thing in its entirety that it started to get its hooks in me. Upon hearing it in full for the forst time, I was very impressed. However, when I sat down and followed the lyrics closely, I was absolutely floored. Every song is pretty good on its own, but when working together on a full album, it's spectacular: it's a simple theme, a 'day in the life of a geezer', as Mike Skinner leads you on a tour of his world. It's funny, tragic, and heartfelt. It's also a bit sloppy, but urgently so, as Skinner concentrates on the here & now, and any slight mis-steps actually contribute to the powerful vibe of this cd. Anyway, for more on my take on this fine, fine cd, read on...
The record label's bio of The Streets describes the sound as a combination of the Chemical Brothers, Eminem, and the Neptunes...this description couldn't be more way off. His two-step beats are far more minimalist than the Chemical brothers and is more spoken word than hip-hop. And as for the Eminem comparison, Mike Skinner shows the foul-mouthed, hateful Mr. Mathers how to tell a compelling story creatively.
This is one of those rare albums that have such an effect on yours truly that I can't wait until I hear the thing again. It's something special, and if I still haven't convinced you, go listen for yourself (free registration required...but it's worth it!!!).
Wednesday, November 6, 2002
Another new arrival today, in the form of The Sadies' new album, called Stories Often Told, and it's a pretty good one. Yeah, one is tempted to call it alt-country, but there are also heavy doses of psychedelic, The Band, Flying Burrito Brothers, and even Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western instrumentals. I've never been a fan of Blue Rodeo, but Greg Keelor has done a great job producing this album. Tight, moody, and a neat 'n tidy 35 minutes long, this has to be The Sadies' best album yet.
Wow, that was quick: my Stereo Total review has appeared. Like I just mentioned, it's a fun little cd to listen to. Not exactly groundbreaking, but charmingly kooky.
Tuesday, November 5, some 14 hours later...
"Look at the craziness!"
So how's the new Badly Drawn Boy album, Have You Fed the Fish? Decent, but a bit disappointing, considering the four or five home runs Damon Gough smacked on the About A Boy soundtrack. It has considerably more focus than the Bewilderbeast album, but like About A Boy, Bewilderbeast had a handful of phenomanal songs, and I only count a couple on the new record, most notably, the wonderful 'I Was Wrong/You Were Right'. Don't Get me wrong, the rest is good, but judging by the expectations I had for this album, it falls disappointingly short. Good, not great.
I also got the new Good Charlotte album today. Like the Riddlin' Kids cd I got yesterday, this is more catchy, faceless punkpop, but these guys try waaaaay too hard, when, essentially, they're Poison with punky hairdo's, and they hide their minimal musical talent behind loads of excessive studio trickery. Plus, LiveOnRelease did a better job bashing Britney & Christina two years ago than these twerps attempt on 'Riot Girl'. Both Good Charlotte and Riddlin' Kids are not overly good, but I'll take the Riddlin' Kids' clean-cut, unpretentious image over Good Charlotte's pretension.
So that's four reviews to do, and counting. Gotta get 'er in gear now...
Also, I finally got my promo copy of The Streets album today, so I can stop whining now. Yay.
Tuesday, November 5, 2002
Well, the November insanity has oficially started.
On Friday, my long-awaited copy of Stereo Total's new album arrived. Technically, it's their old album...Kill Rock Stars has rereleased it in North America a year after its original release. It's good that a label like that is handling the record, because it's a real pleasure to hear. It's light, extremely catchy synth-pop, sung in French, German, English, Japanese, and, erm, Turkish. Its bonus trakcs are very cool, and include a French interpretation of the Velvet Underground's 'Stephanie Says', and a really cool cover of the theme from Astroboy! My review has already been written, so hopefully it'll be up soon (remember, there's a two-week hiatus starting this week).
Then in the mailbox yesterday were three more cd's. Riddlin' Kids' Hurry Up and Wait album came...I don't know why I volunteered to do this one, figuring it's just another Blink-182 rip-off, but while the 45-minute album does grow a bit repetitive, this band is quite good at times, and are able to write some good, wholesome, American punkpop. The album is about four or five songs too long, and the band really kill the momentum with an abysmal cover of REM's 'It's the End of the World As We Know It' that completely lacks the energy and studio polish that all the other tracks possess. Still, this is good, clean fun, and I give it a marginal recommendation.
Skeleton Key's album called Obtainium also arrived, and this is quite the bizarre, eight-headed beast of a record. Picture a group of emo kids recreating Tom Waits' Bone Machine, and you'll be on the right track to knowing what I'm talking about. Truly bizarre, with tons of junkjard percussion, but with some memorable melodies as well. It's mercifully short (35 minutes, not counting the useless bonus track), and surprisingly enjoyable.
Lastly, there's the electroclash compilation Electro Nouveau...I was a bit interested in this one, because of the inclusion of Chicks On Speed, Ladytron, and Miss Kittin, but sadly, what this double cd proves is that it's pretty much impossible to create a 'definitive' retro synth-pop album that one can listen to in its entirety. Like all other synth-pop, it has its moments (I especially loved Laptop's 'Greatest Hits'), but after hearing two hours' worth of this type of music, you wind up yearning for something more pleasurable than aloof art students woodenly reciting lyrics in faux-Krautrock fashion. Do I like it? Parts of it. Do I recommend it? Don't know yet.
Also, I finished my massive, 1800 word review of The Streets' Original Pirate Material, but my stupid review copy of the album hasn't arrived yet!!! I don't get paid to do this, I'm just in it for the free cd's, so it gets me a bit ornery when I have to review a great album based solely on the mp3's I download. Hopefully it'll arrive soon...
Friday, November 1, 2002
My page looks bare? Well, the past two months have been archived. The link's over there on the right...
I finally read Daniel Clowes' David Boring yesterday. And yes, it's brilliant. Typically funny and heartbreaking at the same time, with a small touch of sci-fi thrown in, and in typical fashion, manages to work towards an emotional, uplifting conclusion. Again, this isn't just a comic book, it's storytelling at its purest.
Also, it was nice to watch the Special Edition dvd of True Romance...I hadn't seen the whole thing in a long time. The horribly cropped tv version was the only one I had seen these past nine years, so it was great to see the thing the way you're supposed to. The movie's nothing but brainless fun, but good enough at being brainless (Tony Scot...need I say more?) to be the only big dumb movie I'd care to own on dvd. As for many other people, it's Tarantino's writing that ultimately makes it worthwhile.
