Albums of The Year

•December 16, 2013 • Leave a Comment

jonathan-wilson-fanfare-300x300I have finally gotten around to make a list of my albums of the year. I must confess that I have eagerly looked at the lists in all of my favorite publications to see if I have missed something outstanding. I have not. No amount of accolades could pursuade me to either listen to or buy Kanye West’s recent album with the worst “non” cover in history. I am also a little ambivalent about Arctic Monkeys turning into Giant Sand, but I still enjoyed their album. I have re-listened to all of these recordings over the past few weeks. Those marked with * will enter my all time favorites lists. The remainder will likely become forgotten in the mix.

Rock Pop

1.       Jonathan Wilson – Fanfare*

2.       Steve Mason – Monkey Minds in the…*

3.       Ron Sexsmith – Forever Enedeavour

4.       Roy Harper – Man & Myth*

5.       Bill Callahan – Dream River

6.       White Denim – Corsicana Lemonade

7.       Suede – Bloodsports

8.       Steven Wilson- The Raven that Refused*

9.      Queens of the Stone Age – Like Clockwork

10.   Palma Violets – 180

11.   Devendra Banhart – Mala

12.   Neko Case – The Worse Things Get

13.   Low – The Invisible Way

14.   Wolf People – Fain

15.   Miles Kane – Don’t forget who you aree

16.   Duke Garwood & Mark Lanagan – Black Pudding

17.   Matthew E. White – Big Inner

18.   Artic Monkeys – AM

19.   John Grant – Pale Green Ghosts

20.   Turin Brakes – We were here

21.   Iron and wine – Ghost on ghost

22.   Danny & Champions of the World – Stay True

23.   Israel Nash Gripka – Israel Nash’s Rain Plan

24.   Jason Isabell – Southeastern

25.   I am Kloot – Let it all in

26.   Electric Soft Parade –“Idiots”

27.   Lord Huron – Lonesome Dreams

28.   Christopher Owens – Lysandre

29.   British Sea Power – Machineries of Joy

30.   Caitlin Rose – The Stand In

31.    Electric Soft Parade –“Idiots”

32.    Goldfrapp – Tales of Us

33.    Jason Isbell – Southeastern

34.    Prefab Sprout – Crimson/Red

35.    Smith Westerns – Soft Will

36.   Cate Le Bon – Mug Museum

37.   Mazzy Star – Season of your day

38.  Endless Boogie – Long Island

39.  These New Puritans – Field of Reeds

40.  Julia Holter – Loud City Song

These are not in any great order. The John Grant album is in there because I loved half of it, and hated the Icelandic electronica: but it reached my top 30 criteria by being purchased on Vinyl (after the CD). There are a number of albums that I enjoyed but am not sure about:  “Mechanical Bull” by Kings of Leon, “Trouble Will Find Me” by the National and Vampire Weekend – “Modern Vampires” – I am just bored with them. Wise Up Ghost by Elvis Costello was fun, but perhaps lacking in depth. “Do you love the Sun” by Scud Mountain Boys, “The Silver Gymnasium” by Okkervil River and “Alone Abroad the Ark” by Leisure Society should have been favorites, but didn’t grab me at all. I may have enjoyed the Daft Punk album, but got so overexposed and over irritated by “Get Lucky” that I didn’t unwrap the vinyl. “Reflektor” by Arcade Fire would probably have been a fine single album, but aside from the dreadful cover, I didn’t have the patience for it. I never got into Foals’ “Hold Fire” (maybe next year), nor “Silence Yourself” by Savages, I fell out of love with “Howlin'” by Jagwar Ma and could not generate any real interest in the Nick Cave, MBV, Haim, Laura Marling or David Bowie albums. All of these are sitting in a box in the attic. They may grow on me some day. Steven Wilson’s “Raven” was the prog album of the year, and he was everywhere – as a writer and producer. Most disappointing album of the year – definitely “The Terror” by Flaming Lips; I think the Lips and I have reached the end of the road.

Jazz albums of the year:

1.  Ahmad Jamal – Saturday Morning

2.  Marius Neset – Birds

3.  Joshua Redman – Walking Shadows

4. Daniel Herskedal – Neck of the Woods

5. Wayne Shorter – Without a Net

Live Album:

1.       Rolling Stones – Hyde Park

2.       Elbow – Jodrell Bank

3.       Muse – Paris

4.       Neil Young – Cellar Door

Reissues:

1. Suede – Vinyl Box Set

2. Waterboys – Fisherman’s Box

3. XTC – Nonesuch (CD + Blu-Ray)

4. Van Morrison – Moondance (Deluxe Edition)

5. The Clash – Sound System

I’m sure that the John Martyn box set was fabulous, but it contained no vinyl and was priced about 100 euro above it’s value. Having paid for all of the CDs and all of the deluxe editions already, I could not justify the expense. I will probably drop €50 on Miles Davis’ mono box, because I am a sucker for that kind of thing.

Posted in Albums of the Year

Vinyl Woes – bad overpriced reissues

•December 6, 2013 • 7 Comments

I don’t have a huge vinyl collection – about 1000 LPs purchased over 35 years, half of which I bought since 2009. So it was time, using music collector and discogs to catalog it. The major reason for creating a catalog of records is to avoid duplicates, which appears to be a bigger problem for me with vinyl records than CDs (don’t know why). Also, there are many, many different versions of records out there, and some are better than others. Music collector is a great way of creating a versatile database of your collection, which can be then exported to your iPhone or android device. It has 3 problems: you cannot have tabbed libraries – I need to have separate libraries for vinyl, cds, cassettes and 24 bit files. But I can only have one on my phone, so I have had to use the export solution to create excel files of each of my collections. Discogs, is, obviously, awesome – although an iOS app would be the bomb if it existed. You cannot catalog your collection without it. One would think that collectorz and discogs would be fully compatible. But they are not. In collectorz you have to search for an album by artist and title, and then clumsily work your way through the 20 or so versions that it finds to find the correct one. I usually don’t bother, I find the correct titles and album art and then edit the information from discogs. It would be SO much easier if you could search by (OBVIOUS) catalog number (as you can in discos – and then it is a piece of cake). I think that the collectoz subscription thing is a bit much, as most products offer you lifetime upgrades for a premium up front (the exception is the annoying but excellent J River Media Centre).

What has been illuminating about the catalog process is just how variable my vinyl collection is. The majority of the old and second hand stuff were original or early re-press UK releases of relatively popular albums. I also have lots and lots of new release records, as I don’t really see the point of buying CDs if you can get the (more valuable) vinyl for a couple of euro more (and they often throw the CD in for free) and I have piles and piles of vinyl re-issues. The quality of these is, to say the least, Variable.

I have bought a good few duds over the past few years, mostly jazz. The con works like this: you go into a record shop (principally for me Tower records in Dublin) with a list of albums that you want to buy: for example Ahmad Jamal at the Pershing Lounge. You find a copy of the album at a reasonable price (19.99) and a big sticker boasting 180g premium vinyl, direct metal mastering jazz classics 180getc. and the original artwork. Most newbies would be easily deceived into believing that this was an official reissue by the original record company derived from the original master tapes. This could not be further from the truth: the majority of these reissues on Jazz trax or Jazzwax etc. are copyright expired recordings presumably from CD sources. Anything released prior to 1963 in Europe is off copyright and can be re-issued by anyone (including me): however, these record labels don’t and won’t have access to the original masters, or even high resolution digital files (unless downloaded from HDtracks or equivalent. Anyway, many, although not all, sound poor. Given that they cost 4 times more than the CD that they are derived from, can anyone spell “sucker”. One of the reasons that I stopped buying vinyl in the 1990s was poor pressings and dire sounding compilation albums.

Of course, not all reissues are bad – the majority indeed sound good, and they do of course provide you with a big lump of plastic and appealing album art. Its just that – I seem to have a number of warped and off center records, which seems to be a little at odds with the idea of premium products. It appears that the music industry and record shops have discovered that there is significant profit to be made from vinyl, but don’t pay much attention to quality assurance. Having spent a bit of time of Steve Hoffman’s music forum and other sites, I am now prepared to provide you (and me) with a list of good and bad re-issue labels. Hope it helps.

Vinyl Reissues Labels to AVOID:

  • Jazz Wax Records
  • Jazz Tracks Records
  • Jazz Beat
  • 52nd Street Records
  • Doxy Music
  • Vinyl Lovers
  • ZYX

Vinyl Reissue Labels that I’m not sure about

  • 4 men with beards
  • Abraxis
  • Simply vinyl

Vinyl Reissue labels that I trust but are high res digital sourced (but from original masters at least)

Vinyl Reissue Labels that are trustworthy (but may be high res-digital sourced unless otherwise stated)

Vinyl Reissue Labels that are trustworthy (but likely not sourced from original analogue masters – all analogue nonetheless)

Vinyl Reissue Labels to TRUST (original analogue masters and analogue processes)

round about midnight

Here is an example of 2 versions of the same LP: on the left is a (excuse the glare) copyright free version of “Round about Midnight” which is probably CD sourced and retails for €22.99. On the right is a music on vinyl audiophile mono reissue that retails for €24.99 with the original artwork – and an original analogue source. For £30 on Amazon UK you can get the really high quality Mobile Fidelity version. Realistically, the copyright free version is worth around the price of a CD (€9.99 or less). How much is the MOV version worth, considering that is is likely digitally sourced from the mono CD boxset (likely 24/192 off the original master tapes)? Who knows. Stunning quality for €20 – €26 and numbered – so likely to have long term value.

Posted in Vinyl

Current Listening

•November 24, 2013 • 1 Comment

I realize that I haven’t blogged for ages – been busy with various things, including cataloging my vinyl collection (about more anon). Just to remind myself, I am currently listening, on heavy rotation, Jonathan Wilson – “Fanfare” – a superb double album that is an entire 70s record collection in one recording, and the Grateful Dead’s “Blues for Allah” – I am amazed that I have never heard it before. Also listening to Arcade Fire “Reflektor”, Jake Bugg “Shangrila”, XTC “Nonesuch”, Happy the Man’s two albums, Flat Earth Society, Cate Le Bon and others. Really enjoying my new hi-res Sony Walkman (review to follow).

Posted in Uncategorized

2013 – Albums of the Year (so far)

•July 25, 2013 • 1 Comment

So, we are halfway through 2013 and I was pondering the albums that I have most enjoyed that have been released this year (or thereabouts). Here is my list, in order, as of today (July 25th):

Best Albums 2013 Part 1

  1. Ron Sexsmith – Forever Endeavour
  2. Steve Mason – Monkey Minds in the Devil’s Time
  3. Suede – Bloodsports
  4. Marius Neset – Birds
  5. Lord Huron – Lonesome Dreams
  6. Joshua Redman – Walking Shadows
  7. Palma Violets – 180
  8. John Grant – Pale Green Ghosts
  9. Matthew E. White – Big Inner
  10. I am Kloot – Let it all in
  11. Miles Kane – Don’t Forget Who You Are
  12. Christopher Owens – Lysandre
  13. British Sea Power – Machineries of Joy
  14. Caitlin Rose – The Stand In
  15. Richard Thompson – Electric
  16. Eels – Wonderful Glorious
  17. Jagwar Ma – Howlin’
  18. Queens of the Stone Age – …Like Clockwork
  19. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories
  20. Steven Wilson – The Raven That Refused to Sing and Other Stories

20 SW 19 DP 18 QSA 17 JM 16 EELS 15 RTer 14 CR 13 BSP 12 CO 11 MK 10 IAK 09 MEW 08 JG 07 PV 06 JR 05 LH 04 MN 03 Suede 02 SM 01 RS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have many albums that haven’t quite grabbed me yet (the National, Vampire Weekend, Villagers, Editors, Animal Kingdom, Steve Earle, David Bowie, Dawes, Atoms for Peace, Peace, Mark Lanegan, My Bloody Valentine, Nick Cave, Son Volt, Stornoway, Leisure Society, Singing Adams, These New Puritans. I expect that by the end of the year, at least some of these will be listed among my favorites.

 

Posted in Albums of the Year, Current Listening, Digital Music, Music Lists

Greatest Album Covers

•July 25, 2013 • Leave a Comment

Ok – so now I’m obsessed. Having decided on what I thought were the worst album covers I thought I would assemble my list of best covers. To me a great album cover would be ICONIC, immediately recognizable and something that you would like to frame and put up on your wall (as art). I googled “Greatest album covers of all time” – and the result was SO disappointing: everything was so obvious. For example, the Beatles’ White Album appears in most lists: this is not a cover – it is a fudge. The complete package – including booklet and pictures was great, but c’mon. Other album covers that I cannot abide – such as “Candy-O” by the Cars, “Koo Koo” by Debbie Harry, “Nothing’s Shocking” by Janes’ Addiction, “Playing Possum” by Carly Simon, “Blind Faith” by Blind Faith and “See Jungle” by Bow Wow Wow – make the Top 30 of Rolling Stone’s readers poll.

Of course, any discussion of great album covers should include ECM, Blue Note and Impulse Records, but that’s for elsewhere. Here is my list of the greatest album covers of the Rock ‘n’ Roll era (excluding jazz, blues and classical). Some of these are fairly obvious, for obvious reasons, the rest are pure personal opinion.

  1. Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd
  2. Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band – Beatles
  3. Sticky Fingers (zipper version) – Rolling Stones
  4. Physical Graffiti – Led Zeppelin
  5. Never Mind the Bollocks – Sex Pistols
  6. London Calling – The Clash
  7. Deep Purple – In Rock
  8. In the Court of King Crimson – King Crimson
  9. Velvet Underground and Nico – Velvet Underground
  10. The Stone Roses – Stone Roses
  11. Bringing it all back home – Bob Dylan
  12. Laughing Stock – Talk Talk
  13. Bat Out of Hell – Meat Loaf
  14. Layla – Derek and the Dominos
  15. Born in the USA – Bruce Springsteen
  16. The Freewheelin Bob Dylan – Bob Dylan
  17. Parallel Lines – Blondie
  18. Breakfast in America – Supertramp
  19. At Filmore East – Allman Brothers
  20. Caravan – In the Land of Grey and Pink
  21. Time Fades Away – Neil Young
  22. Nuggets – Various Artists
  23. Achtung Baby – U2
  24. Traffic – Low Spark of High Healed Boys
  25. Cheap Thrills – Big Brother and the Holding Company
  26. Screamadelica – Primal Scream
  27. Nick Drake – Pink Moon
  28. Abbey Road – The Beatles
  29. Oxygene – Jean Michele Jarre
  30. Nevermind – Nirvana
  31. The Nightfly – Donald Fagen
  32. Animals – Pink Floyd
  33. Out of the Blue – ELO
  34. What’s the Story (morning glory) – Oasis
  35. Unknown Pleasures – Joy Division
  36. East of Eden – Mercator Projected
  37. Like a Virgin – Madonna
  38. Ok Computer – Radiohead
  39. Rising – Rainbow
  40. The Royal Scam – Steely Dan
  41. Fragile – Yes
  42. Pure Cane Sugar –  Sugarman 3
  43. We’re only in it for the money – Frank Zappa
  44. On the Beach – Neil Young
  45. Battles – Mirrored
  46. Through the Window Pane – Guillemts
  47. If You Want Blood – ACDC
  48. Some Girls – Rolling Stones
  49. Robert Plant – Mighty Rearranger
  50. Little Creatures – Talking Heads
  51. Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
  52. Mars Volta – Frances the Mute
  53. Lemon Jelly – Lost Horizons
  54. Scissor Sisters – Scissor Sisters
  55. Worlds Apart – Trail of Dead
  56. The Back Room – Editors
  57. Band on the Run – Wings
  58. Calexico – Carried to Dust
  59. Brian Eno – Lux
  60. Steve Wilson – Monkey Minds
  61. Lateralus – Tool
  62. Brain Salad Surgery – Emerson Lake & Palmer
  63. The Unforgettable Fire – U2

Posted in Uncategorized

Worst Album Covers

•July 25, 2013 • Leave a Comment

While browsing my collection looking for the worst album titles, I became aware of several covers that made me feel physically sick. The worst, beyond doubt is “Two Virgins” by John Lennon and Yoko One (I cannot bring myself to put up in this blog). Undoubtedly, Scorpions are guilty of the Band with the worst covers in history, and Prince – the single most offensive artist. Anyhow, here are the worst covers that I have come across in record shops (yes there are worse out there) or have in my collection. Note – there are two contenders for absolutely worst cover and worst title (together). In second place is “Enema of the State” by Blink 182. In first place is Eric Clapton: can you imagine the scene – “Mr Clapton, we need a title for your new album?” – <<Crikey, can’t think of any (looking at feet) — how ’bout “Old Sock”>> “Er, ok, we also want to arrange a photo-shoot for the cover” – <<er – I couldn’t really be arsed – how ’bout you take a shot with your mobile phone – there’s a camera on it isn’t there? – No don’t get up take the picture from your seat.”
Amongst the others – my all time least favourite album cover is another Clapton mess – “Blind Faith”. Ben Kweller could have been a megastar – but he was too busy brushing his teeth. Herbie Mann, Ted Nugent and Prince are not sexy – and the less that is said about Kevin Rowland and Marilyn Manson the better. I have no idea what Interpol were getting at; and let’s face it, the partial nudity of Lady Gaga, Cher, Roger Water’s album and Maroon 5 is just sad. Special awards to the dog with the wig (WTF? isn’t rock and roll supposed to be sexy?) and of course the ridiculous wiener cover by CSN.  The last 5, only have to be seen to be believed.

blind faith Born_This_Way cher Claptin-Old-Sock crosby-stills-and-nash-Live-it-up-300x300 herbie mann kevin-rowland Lovesexy-Prince Magical-Mystery-Tour-the-Beatles-300x300 scorpions scream-dream-300x300 whitesnake Blink-182 kweller watersinterpol maroon 5 mechanical animals mhsbuddy guy Johnny guitar watson millie jackson orleans rudy the moore

Posted in Music Lists

Crap Album Titles

•July 23, 2013 • Leave a Comment

Adam_AntBands may spend anywhere between 6 months and 15 years putting together an album, painstakingly layering sound upon sound, mixing, remixing, a guitar riff here, a bell there. Major edits, minor edits. Hours, upon hours upon hours. Then they release their masterpiece and plonk on it a crap title. This beggars belief: U2 spent 3 years constructing an album and then called it “How to dismantle an atomic bomb.” Why not call it SAT (shit album title), or “Man” (24 years after boy). In fact all U2 albums have crap titles. They are not alone: flicking thru this month’s Record Collector Magazine, aside from the eponymous titles, or the cop out “Vol 2” or “13” (Back Sabbath) – most albums have lousy titles. Here is a selection: Stress – “The big wheel;” Snyper – “Manifestations;” Lloyd Cole – “Standards;” CS Crew – “Funky Pack;” John Fogarty – “Wrote a Song for Everyone;” Dexgter -“The Trip” and finally, my favorite – Primus – “Sailing the seas of cheese.” And I thought “Regatta de blanc” was a crap title.
‘Twas not always so: think of the great Pink Floyd titles “Obscured by Clouds”, a “Saucerful of Secrets”, “Dark Side of the Moon,” “Atom Heart Mother.” These were titles that you could not forget.
A great album title, even if you don’t like it, should be specific to the artist: if you went into a record shop and asked for “Thriller” or “Off the wall” – you got what you wanted. Can you imagine going into to a vinyl store and asking for “Volume 2?” Also, you shouldn’t have to be embarrassed when asking for a record: “Do you have Artic Monkeys’ Suck it and See (the album title nearly as bad as the band name).” Do modern bands spend more than 30 seconds thinking up an album title, or does it come from the marketing department of the record label? In fairness to Prog – at least they made an effort: “Tales of the Topographic Ocean,” “Phaedra,” “Brain Salad Surgery,” “Selling England by the Pound.”

Rules for a great album title and examples:

  1. Use one word: “Low” “Heroes” “Destroyer” “Thriller” “Rumours” “Hysteria” “Ascention” “Harvert”
  2. Used two contrasting high impact words: “Scary Monsters.””Closer” “Dare”
  3. Something that is memorable: “Ghost in the Machine”, “Three feet high and rising”, “Billion Dollar Babies”, “Close to the Edge”, “Off the Wall”, “License to Ill”, “Appetite for Destruction” “In A Silent Way” “Back in Black” “Song for My Father” “Dancehall Sweethearts” “Wish you were here” “Lust for Life” “Travelling without Moving” “unknown Pleasures” “Feats don’t fail me now” “Heart of Saturday Night” “Weasels Ripped My Flesh” “Frampton comes alive” “A Night at the Opera” “Parallel Lines”
  4. Something with cultural impact: “Never mind the bollocks”, “It takes a Nation to Hold Us Back”, “Shut Up and Play Your Guitar”, “Bitches Brew” “Highway to Hell” “Nothings Shocking” “Mechanical Animals” “Oracular Spectacular”
  5. Make sure that your fans can spell the title:  “Definitely Maybe or Definately May be or Defnitely Maybe?” “In an Aeroplane over the Sea”; all Sigur Ros albums are a problem but WTF is this: “()” – an abomination %&*£@
  6. Avoid using a title that somebody else has used before: “Everything must go” “Change of Heart” “Under the Influence”
  7. Avoid using the first thing that comes into your head: “Do you like my tight sweater?” (Moloko)

 

Here is a selection of  title that don’t work from my collection:

“Hey Ma” – James

“Bellybutton” – Jellyfish

“Rabbit fur coat” – jenny Lewis

“The Beautiful Untrue” – Jerry Fish

“HoboSapiens” – John Cale

“Yerself is Steam” – Mercury Rev

“Brewster’s Rooster” – John Surman

“The Hissing of Summer Lawns” – Joni Mitchell

“Yours Truly, Angry Mob” –Kaiser Chiefs

“West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum”

“Aha Shake Heartbreak” – Kings of Leon

“Smart Flesh” – The Low Anthem

“Southpaw Grammar” – Morrissey

“Vulnerabilia” – My Computer

“Passive Me, Aggressive You” – Naked and Famous

“From the Muddy Banks of the Wiskah” and “In Utero” – Nirvana

“Stankonia” – Outcast

“Kisses on the Bottom”, “Give My Regards to Broad Street”, “Ram” & “Memory almost full” (sounds like ideas almost run out) – Paul McCartney

“Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix” – Phoenix

“One word extinguisher” – Prefuse 73

“Pablo Honey” – Radiohead

“Just enough education to perform” – Stereophonics

“Sonik Kicks” – Paul Weller

“The Brutalist Bricks” –Ted Leo

 

Honourable Mentions:

John Coltrane – virtually all of his album titles are memorable:

“A Love Supreme”

“My Favourite Things”

“Ascension”

“Expression”

“Soultrane”

“Bluetrane”

“Lush Life”

“Giant Steps”

 

John Martyn:

“Solid Air”

“Grace and Danger”

“Sunday’s Child”

“The Road to Ruin”

“Bless the Weather”

“Glorious Fool”

“Stormbringer”

Neil Young

“After the Goldrush”

“Harvest Moon”

“On the Beach”

“Tonight’s the Night”

“American Stars & Bars”

“Chrome Dreams”

“Journey through the Past”

“Rust never sleeps”

“Ragged glory”

“Prairie Wind”

“Zuma”

….hardly a clunker among them (“Le Noise”)

I can’t make up my mind if I like or hate all of Nick Cave’s album titles. Honourable mention goes to Frank Zappa for effort: “Uncle Meat”, “Lumpy Gravy”, “Weasels…” “Overnite Sensation” “Broadway the Hard Way” “Tinsel Town Rebellion” “Zoot Allures” “Burnt Weeny Sandwich” “Chunga’s Revenge”  “Roxy and Everywhere” – I don’t know if they are good or crap – full marks for making an effort (although “Waka Jawaka” is appalling).

 

All time worst album titles:

You Can Tune a Piano but You Can’t Tuna Fish – REO Speedwagon

Adam Ant Is the BlueBlack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner’s Daughter – Adam Ant

Posted in Uncategorized

Ah – Summer – Prog Catalogue time

•July 18, 2013 • 1 Comment

progWhen July rolls around, suddenly there are no new albums worth buying being released. The world has gone on vacation, and it’s time to explore the back catalogue. Each year I develop a summer obsession to guide me through the season. Two years ago it was Frank Zappa. It works like this – read the biography, see the documentaries, listen to all of the albums. Except, with Zappa, there were a lot of albums. And I listened to ALL of them. It didn’t help that this spawned to simultaneous obsessions – a Sun Ra addiction (collossal back catalogue) and an emerging interest in Progressive Rock, manifest initially by an obsession with Soft Machine. Indeed, I think the Soft Machine thing  preceded the Zappa thing.
“Summer” of 2012 struck, the weather stunk, and I listened relentlessly to ECM jazz, until the autumn new release calendar drew me back in.
So, what about summer 2013? For a change the weather is good, and I have been listening more to audiobooks than music, but it looks like Prog time again. The advantage this year, is that I already have a relatively abundant Prog collection, much of which I have not listened to in the last 2 years.
Although many believe Prog to be an exclusively 70s phenomenon, derived from Psychedelia as an alternative to blues or boogie rock, Prog has survived and, in fact, thrived over the past 3 decades. Many of us are, unknownst to ourselves, Prog fans.

What is progressive rock? Popular music generally is structured around simple structures, call and response, verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus, often derived from the blues. Frequently 3 to 5 chords are used. Progressive rock includes complex song and chord structures, with variable (though usually not syncopated) rhythms, often without choruses, incorporating elements of classical music, jazz, folk and “world” music (other people’s folk). Often songs are very long – 20 minutes (or a side of vinyl), may be instrumental (with lots of improvisation), and may be wrapped up in an “overarching concept” (the “concept” album). As Prog emerged during the vinyl era, LP artwork is highly valued – usually gatefold LPs with detailed illustrations. The double album is common. Well known Prog albums are “Dark Side of the Moon”, “Wish you were here” and “The Wall” by Pink Floyd, “Tubular Bells” by Mike Oldfield, “Ok Computer” by Radiohead, “Out of the Blue” by ELO, “Pictures at the Exhibition” by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, and myriad others. Many Prog acts emerged in the Psychedelic era, and often in record shops they are found in the Psychedelic section – principally because that term is considered “cooler” than “Prog” which acquired a bad odour due to publications such as the NME, Sounds and Record Mirror, in the 1970s.

Growing up – I was brainwashed to believe that “Prog” represented a small series of overpaid, overdressed, over-hyped, stadium acts singing about gnomes and fairies, consuming lots of drugs and generally being self indulgent. As a young punk, I was led to believe that the ability to actually play your instruments polluted the message of “sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll”. In reality, by 1967, pop music had gone as far as it could using basic song structures and artists needed to branch out and develop to push the boundaries. What resulted was Psychedelic/Progressive Rock – Sgt Pepper  was one of the first Prog albums. Abbey Road, side 2 is classic Prog. The punk-new wave ‘revolution’ of the late 70s and 80s was revivalism-retromanic for 60s era garage rock (Rubber Soul Beatles) which devastated the development of ‘serious’ rock music for more than 20 years. Or, maybe, the kids just moved on. I find it interesting that critics often talk about “20 minute self indulgent instrumental noodling” by Prog bands, while continuing to rave about bands such as Led Zeppelin – 30 minute drum solos and Neil Young and Crazy Horse – 30 minutes of mind numbingly feedback. Indeed, anybody who has ever gone to a concert featuring real musicians have been exposed to extended jams, solos or instrumentals. The 3 minute pop song exists 1. because that is the duration of a 78/45 rpm single, 2. radios only want short songs, 3. pop musicians run out of ideas. The arrival of LPs and subsequently CDs allowed for long musical passages and was a tremendous advance in musical recording. That is why there were so many great jazz albums were released in the 1950s. Further – the majority of Prog acts made sod all money, they were journeymen musicians, mostly in the UK, who never found fame and fortune, never played stadiums or threw TVs out of hotel windows.
There are many types of Prog: The Canterbury Scene – describes a series of interconnected bands that sprung up around Canterbury in the late ’60s principally Caravan and the Soft Machine. There have been many many off shoots (Gilgamesh, Henry Cow, Matching Mole, National Health, Soft Heap, Gong etc. I confess, I love virtually everything derived from this scene. Then there is Symphonic Prog (ELP, Yes etc), Jazz Rock Fusion (Weather Report, Return to Forever, In Cahoots, Al Di Meola etc), Prog Folk (Grateful Dead, Incredible String Band), Crossover (Supertramp, ELO, Radiohead, Muse, Elbow), Prog Metal (Tool), Prog Electronic (Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream), Space Rock/Psych (Pink Floyd), Math Rock (Tortoise), Krautrock (Can, Magma), Italian Prog (Le Orme), and eclectic or undefinable Prog (King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Van Der Graff Generator). I figure that there is a type of Prog for everyone.

For what it’s worth, here is my list of current prog favorites, not in any particular order:

1. DSOM – Pink Floyd

2. Third – Soft Machine

3. Hot Rats – Frank Zappa

4. Nucleus -We’ll talk about it later

5. Isotope – Isotope

6. Little Red Book – Matching Mole

7. Book of Invasions – Horslips

8. Asleep at the Back – Elbow

9. Red – King Crimson

10. Valkyre Suite – Collosseum

11. Atom Heart Mother – Pink Floyd

12. AJA – Steely Dan

13. Land of Pink and Grey – Caravan

14. Aqualung – Jethro Tull

15. Grand Wazoo – Frank Zappa

16. Oxygene – Jean Michele Jarre

17. Snow Goose – Camel

18. Hatfield and the North – Hatfield and the North

19. National Health – National Health

19. If – If

20. Egg – the Polite Force

21. Magma – Mekanik Destrukti w Kommandoh

22. Phaedra – Tangerine Dream

23. Le Orme – Felona E Sorona

24. Steve Hackett – Beyond the Shrouded Horizon

25. Fish Rising -Steve Hillage

26.  Space Shanty – Khan

27. Pictures at the Exhibition – ELP

28. Aqualung – Jethro Tull

29. Lateralus – Tool

30. WYWH – Pink Floyd

31. Ok Computer – Radiohead

32. Per Uno Amico – PFM

33. On and On – Syd Arthur

34. Another Green Earth – Brian Eno

35. Feels good to me – bruford

36. Tango Mango – Can

37. Out of the Blue – ELO

38. Chris Squire –

39. Ocean – Eloy

40. Collateral – Passport

41. Ninesense – Elton Dean

42. In Cahoots – Phil Miller

43. Centepede – Centepede

44. Brain Salad Surgery – ELP

45. Bundles – Soft Machine

46. Fields – Fields

47. Focus – At the Rainbow

48. No Pussyfooting – Fripp & Eno

49. A trick in the tail – Genesis

50. In the Court of King Crimson – King Crimson

51. Close to the Edge – Yes

52. Lark’s tongue on aspic – King Crimson

53. Get the Blessing – Get the Blessing

54. Absolution – Muse

55. Another fine tune – Gilgamesh

56. Ginger baker’s Airforce – GBA

57. Pierre Moerlen’s Gong – Espresso II

58. Greenslade – Greenslade

59. Unrest – Henry Cow

60. The Tain – Horslips

61. King Kong – Jean Luc Ponty

62. Eleventh House – Larry Coryell

63. Mahavishnu Orchestra – Inner Mounting Flame

64. Tubular Bells – Mike Oldfield

65. Elastic Rock – Nucleus

66. The End of an Ear- Robert Wyatt

67. 2112 – Rush

68. Lotus – Santana

69. Sigur Ros – Med Sudi Eyrum

70. John Barleycorn Must Die – Traffic

71.  Solar Fire – Manfred Mann’s Earth Band

72. Io Sono Nato Libero – Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso

73. Area(zone) – Area

74. The raven that refused to sing – Steven Wilson

75. Selling England by the Pound – Genesis

76. Small craft on a milk sea – Brian Eno

77. Birds of Fire – Mahavitsnu Orchestra

78. Fields – fields

79. Returns – Return to Forever

80 Five Piece Band – John McLaughlin/Chic Corea

81. Metallic Spheres – the Orb featuring David Gilmour

82. Sleep Dirt – Frank Zappa (LP or 2012 CD not the one with the crappy vocals!)

Posted in Current Listening, Music Biography

History of the Eagles

•July 18, 2013 • Leave a Comment

The Eagles must be the world’s most uncool band. Recently a budget box set of their albums was released and every reviewer in the music press felt compelled to preface their review with “love em or hate them” or some other perjorative comment. The Eagles have sold over 100 million albums of soft AOR and country rock. I like their music; always have – it is very inoffensive to listen to on a long car drive. Hotel California is one of the great guitar tracks. For many years I felt it too uncool to admit to liking the Eagles’ music; but my wife bought tickets for a concert a couple of years ago and I really enjoyed it.
Music biographers have always portrayed the Eagles as manufactured syrupy commercial country rock riding on the coattails of the (more important) Laurel Canyon artists – Jackson Brown, CSN, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell etc. In addition, they have been portrayed as nasty money grabbing businessmen with no sense of altruism. So, a couple of years ago I bought a biography of the band, but shelved it in case reading the book made me dislike the band so much that I would be turned off the music. Last week: Showtime’s “The Story of the Eagles” was shown on the BBC; I couldn’t resist hitting the DVR button.
So, for the past 2 nights, having nothing better to do, I reclined in my lazyboy to hear the (official) truth.
Part 1 recounted the story of the Eagles from 1971 to 1980 and it was tremendously entertaining, if a little obviously sanitized. You got a great sense of who was who: the ambitious Frey and Henley, the old pro Bernie Leadon, the reluctant hippy Meissner, Joe “the madman” Walsh, the slick Felder and the nice guy Schmidt. And then there was the classic 70s manager Azoff and of course David Geffen (who defies description).
The band generously credited their collaborators – JD Souther, Linda Ronatadt, Browne etc. The Glyn Johns thing was nicely explained, along with the cowboy nonsense of Desperado.
While the UK basked in Prog glow in the mid 70s, America went all AOR and the Eagles anticipated this by bring in Felder (who played a mean Clarence Whyte style guitar. As things became heavier – out went Meisner and in came Joe Walsh (which was a little like Slash joining Coldplay).
The break up came in 1980 and wasn’t really explained. Clearly nobody particularly liked Felder, Henley was a little paranoid, and Frey – well he was toxic. It was a good time to split: AOR was on its last legs, but soft rock radio was in its infancy. The band managed to survive the entire 80s with its reputation intact, by not releasing overproduced albums with drum machines that sound like whips and banks of synths.
I should not have watched episode 2: the return. A tightly choreographed store featuring lots of concert footage, Walsh going into rehab and Felder getting the shaft. So, Henley Nd Frey had successful solo careers after the Eagles and this entitled them to more money than the rest of the band: if Felder doesn’t like it – he’s out. I would think that very few if the teenyboppers who bought the awful “heat is on” or “boys of summer” had any idea that the artists involved were in the Eagles. Certainly the solo careers did nothing for the Eagles reputation (does anyone believe that Ian Brown’s solo career enhanced the reputation of the Sone Roses – “hey Reni you’re getting less money.” I would have though that the publishing differential would have been enough for Henley and Frey. Nevertheless, they would argue tht they writ the songs and sang the songs, and they could have Kermit the frog on stage with them and most of the audience would not notice. Hence David Gilmour can be Pink Floyd as it is his voice and guitar that everyone recognises.
At the end of the day you feel sympathetic for Leadon, Meisner and Felder. Geffen is exactly as you would expect.Irving Azoff escapes with his reputation enhanced. You feel relieved that Joe Walsh is alive and Tim Schmidt has a job. Henley comes across as gruff and grumpy and Frey – not a sympathetic character. Arrogant, insulting, a touch – unsavoury.
As a footnote: in 2007 the Eagles release “Long Road into Eden”. It received good reviews, so I went down to FYI in Philadelphia to buy a copy. I couldn’t find it in the store – and it was new release Tuesday – so I was expecting a big display and a discount. The clerk behind the counter gave me his best Jack Black (you tasteless jerk) before informing me that FYI were not carrying that album. It turned out that the album was being “exclusively” sold at Walmart.
In the documentary, the Eagles present Thais as a great deal for the middleman (13 bucks for a doubler album). I’m sure all of the struggling mom n pop record stores were delighted. After all, who do they think sold their 100 million records? The Rolling Stines pulled a similar stroke with DVD sets of their tours, sold exclusively at Best Buy (at least BB was a store that I was likely to visit).
So, at the end of the day, how do I feel about the Eagles. Perhaps it’s a middle age thing, but I sort of understand all the money grabbing (when you think o Alex Chilton dying because he had no health insurance). Don Felder go his settlement and scored a kiss and tell bestseller. Like many nostalgia acts, the Eagles are now struggling to fill the stadiums that they sold out during the early reunion years. I admire the band: they have a great repertoire, their concerts are a great mixture o hits and fresh material (keeping fans happy unlike my recent experience with Neil Young), and “Long Road” was a pretty good album: with a little editing they cold have released 2 single albums. It was good value, though.
So I think I’ll dig out that Eagles biography as part if my summer reading.

Posted in concerts, live music, Retromania, Vinyl
Tags: ,

What do Artists Owe Their Audience?

•June 18, 2013 • 1 Comment

25 years ago I went to a big outdoor concert in Slane, near Dublin in Ireland, to see David Bowie. It was the big outdoor concert of the summer in Ireland and 60,000 turned up to see Bowie, supported by Van Morrison and Big Country. That was the “Glass Spider ” tour and Bowie played a set that consisted almost entirely of songs from his most recent album – Never Let Me Down (it did). At the concert, there were fans from the Ziggy era, the Berlin era, the Scary Monsters (mine) era, the Let’s Dance era – I’m pretty sure that there was nobody present that came to Bowie from Never Let Me Down. The Glass Spider Tour with its dancers, circus performers etc was a disaster. The show was mindnumbingly boring and the only song that received a cheer was “The Jean Genie”. It took me a decade to forgive Bowie his hubris.

Music critics often complain of “event tourists” – individuals who go to concerts for the fun, the crowd and to hear the hits. The ARTISTE is entitled to play what they want for however long they want. Put up and shut up you tasteless buffoons. I consider this attitude to be despicable. If you have forked out half a weeks wages to see on of your musical heroes, the least that they can do is play a few familiar tunes.

Blur turned up in 1999 or 2000 at the Point Depot and played 2 hours of songs that roughly nobody in the audience recognised. They tried to sound like the Clash. Again – folly – the individuals in the crowd paid high prices for tickets because they liked “Parklife” and the “Great Escape” and – hell they wanted to hear a few hits before the encore. There is a very simple way of dealing with the tug of war between artistic development and the fandom: tell the audience that your are going to play songs from the new album first, and, after  the intermission, you’ll be back with the hits. This is important, because, for most bands, by the time they are playing stadiums and large arenas, they have often become nostalgia acts that are trading on reputation: can you imagine the Stone Roses turning up at the Phoenix Park and playing nothing but the new album? An alternative approach is for bands to book smallish venues and advertise in advance that they are playing esoteric or limited popularity music: hence I saw Steve Earle a couple of years ago on his Townes tour, and new that I wasn’t going to be treated to a greatest hits session.

Last Saturday night, I went with my son and brother to see Neil Young in Dublin. It was a cold and wet evening, and despite being a major Neil Young fan (on this tour he was playing with Crazy Horse, his garage band), I found the concert more than a little disappointing. The band were playing from a large stage in a rugby stadium (albeit to a relatively small crowd). They huddled together, almost to the point of invisibility, at the center of the stage, and played to each other. The sound (“Pono” anybody?) was shocking. There was no video screen, no light show, and absolutely nothing interesting about the staging; zero stage craft. But big deal. NY started off with a couple of stonkers – Love and Only Love and Pocohontas: the crowd got into it. They then followed with two new tunes – Psychedelic Pill and Walk Like a Giant. The two songs were endless (strange – as I enjoyed them on the album), there was loads of indulgent (often out of rhythm and out of tune) jamming during the songs, and we were all relieved when Walk Like a Giant appeared to be ending. But No…..cue 15 minutes of Neil dicking around with his guitar aimlessly, trying, fruitlessly, to obtain feedback from his amplifier: it was stupefyingly boring (and believe me I can tolerate boredom). The crowd around me became restless and began to jeer – I have never come across this at a concert before: but you know what – they were right. It was a cold windy evening, and the crowd needed something uptempo to warm them up. NY then strapped on his acoustic guitar and treated us to “Comes a Time” and “Blowing in the Wind”. Just why an artist with NY repertoire needs to play an obvious Bob Dylan song as one of his two acoustic numbers baffles me. He must know that the audience would rather hear something from one of his 70s acoustic albums or evnyen Harvest Moon.  Just when I thought I was beginning to enjoy the concert again, out came old black for another 20 minutes of monotonous jamming (Ramada Inn) and NY-CH had lost most of the audience. I have been to see NY several times (my brother who was with me had gone to see him at Slane 20 years ago), and never felt a sense of dissatisfaction before. Frankly, I did not enjoy the gig. And it cost me a lot of money.

Following the concert, there has been a lot of online discussion, between the die hard (Neil can do no wrong) fans and those of us accused of being event junkies (i.e. those of us who didn’t really enjoy the gig). People pay good money to be entertained – a bunch of old guys huddled together jamming 100 yards away on a stage with no audience interaction is not really entertaining. That is probably why the stadium was less than half full; the “event junkies” didn’t really see this as an event worth going to – and went to see Bon Jovi in Slane instead (who played a greatest hit selection to the delight of the crowd).

Anyway – bands tour to sell merchandise and their latest LP – fans who enjoy the gig buy lots of overpriced T-shirts, and if they haven’t got it already, run out and buy the album. Low, whose new album is one of my favorites this year, managed to piss off the entire crowd by playing one obscure track for the entirety of their 30 minute set at “Rock the Garden”. They thought that this represented a manifestation of artistic integrity – I would consider this business suicide. Interestingly, Glen Frey, in the recent Eagles History documentary, made the point (something like): “the fans pay good money to hear you singing their favorite song – you are obliged to sing it even if you hate it – otherwise you are letting them down”. That is why Deep Purple have played Smoke on the Water 1515 times (and counting). I’m sure Ian Gillen hates the song, but the punters expect to hear it.

Neil Young needs to understand that he is a nostalgia act. Can you imagine the Rolling Stones or U2 not pandering a little to their audience by playing their favorites. Perhaps that is why the RS and U2 can fill stadiums around the world, whereas NY isn’t able to half fill the RDS. He does need the money to finance his train sets, portable music player and electric car. Perhaps someone should tell him that it has already been done: see here and here.

Posted in concerts

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