June 20, 2005
new releases 06.21
It's a rootsy new release day with new ones from John Hiatt, Laura Cantrell, and reissues of the 1st and 3rd Bob Dylan discs which were missing from the last round of perfect-sounding remasters . . . although, tellingly, these are not in hybrid SACD format, which means SACD is dead. Glad I didn't spend the extra $200 for a new player a couple years ago when I was thinking about it. Dylan novices: you don't need the first one, but you do need The Times They Are A-Changin'. "Boots of Spanish Leather", "With God on Our Side", "Only a Pawn in Their Game", "Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll". Yep.
The Engineers disc is interesting shoegaze stuff from England.
Laura Cantrell :: Humming by the Flowered Vine (free mp3 here)
John Hiatt :: Master of Disaster
Engineers :: Engineers (some videos and tracks here)
Bob Dylan :: Bob Dylan (remaster)
Bob Dylan :: The Times They Are A-Changin' (remaster)
Next week is dominated by the new Missy Elliott. There's also a Posies reunion album and new Longwave.
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April 22, 2005
q magazine :: may 2005
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Just about the only redeeming feature of the latest Q besides the reviews is the accompanying "Rule Britannia" CD, featuring a wide selection of Brit rock and pop from The Kinks and Small Faces through The Jam and Only Ones up to The Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party. This kind of thing has been done a thousand times, but this looks like a particularly unusual selection.
Otherwise, uninteresting Green Day and Mariah Carey pieces plus two inane stories on the role of booze and crack in rock and roll. Let's get straight on to the reviews.
5-star reviews
None
4-star reviews
Hot Hot Heat :: Elevator
Eels :: Blinking Lights and Other Revelations
Do Me Bad Things :: Yes
Kathleen Edwards :: Back To Me
Tom Vek :: We Have Sound
The National :: Alligator
Hal :: Hal
Rachel Yamagata :: Happenstance
The Go-Betweens :: Oceans Apart
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti :: Worn Copy
Orange Juice :: The Glasgow School (compilation)
Kurtis Blow :: Kurtis Blow (reissue)
Dire Straits :: Brothers In Arms (reissue)
June Tabor :: Always (box set)
Free :: Chronicles (compilation)
Yo La Tengo :: Prisoners Of Love (compilation)
New Thing! Deep Jazz from the USA 1970-80 (compilation)
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April 02, 2005
mojo :: april 2005
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Mojo is slightly disappointing in April (and, as I write, the May issue is probably very close to out). There's big coverage on Joy Division and New Order on the 25th anniversary of Ian Curtis' death, which is a bit troubling since Mojo's sister mag, Q, has a similar story in the same month. However, there's a great inset story about the cover artist responsible for the classic Joy Division/New Order sleeves.
There's also a story on Count Ossie and the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, progenitors of roots reggae. I don't know much about this area, and the article got me interested in learning more about this early Jamaican music. There is a new album on the way.
Not too much else of note. Let's get straight on to the reviews . . .
5-star reviews
Antony and the Johnsons :: I am a Bird Now
Dinosaur Jr :: You're Living All Over Me (reissue)
Rod Stewart :: Reason to Believe (The Complete Mercury Studio Recordings (box set)
Brian Eno :: Apollo (reissue)
Brian Eno :: Thursday Afternoon (reissue)
4-star reviews
Queens of the Stone Age :: Lullabies to Paralyze
The Mars Volta :: Frances the Mute
Phantom Buffalo :: Shishimumu
Brendan Benson :: The Alternative To Love
Atomic Hooligan :: You Are Here
Daft Punk :: Human After All
Psapp :: Tiger My Friend
A Guy Called Gerald :: To All Things What They Need
VA :: World Traveller Adventures
Rufus Wainwright :: Want Two
Arcade Fire :: Funeral
Blaze Foley :: Oval Room
Paolo Conte :: Elegia
Woodbine :: Best Before End
Mia Doi Todd :: Manzanita
Bap Kennedy :: The Big Picture
Iron & Wine :: Woman King EP
Blood Meridian :: We Almost Made It Home
Hazy Malaze :: Blackout Love
Golden Shoulders :: Friendship is Deep
The Frames :: Burn the Maps
Deathprod :: Morals and Dogma
The Endrick Brothers :: Built To Last
Al Green :: Everything's OK
Damien Dempsey :: Shots
Dälek :: Absence
Edan :: Beauty and the Beat
High On Fire :: Blessed Black Wings
Mary Gauthier :: Mercy Now
Many 4-star reissues such as Dinosaur's "Bug", the Hip-O Motown Singles box set, the David Bowie live reissues, and the Jimmy Webb box set
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March 24, 2005
uncut magazine :: april 2005
The Band cover Uncut's April issue, with a main biographical feature in the run-up to this fall's big box set. The issue's CD is interesting - a collection of music by or inspired by The Band that ranges from Little Feat to Mercury Rev and Sufjan Stevens. I know about half of the songs on it, and it seems like a pretty nice compilation.
The story on the Band is thorough as well - it's a great synopsis of the gestation and glory years of the Band, and really illuminates how radical their sound came across even to their peers - apparently, Eric Clapton broke up Cream as a direct result of hearing The Basement Tapes and Music From Big Pink, and then actually showed up in Woodstock to try to join as a 2nd guitarist.
Coincidentally, there is a short story on the formation of Cream - a small education in the early English rock scene - in anticipation of their summer reunion tour.
There are also excellent features on two parts of British music about which I am woefully underinformed: Postcard Records and Scritti Politti. Postcard (key bands: Orange Juice, Aztec Camera) was the first label to push the kind of reactionary post-punk jangle-pop that has come to define an entire school of indie rock; it's tough to imagine The Smiths existing without the 12 discs that Postcard put out in its brief existence. I must admit to only glancing knowledge of this stuff, and it's a subject for serious research.
Simon Reynolds' article on Scritti Politti makes me want to pick up the new compilation of their first art-punk sides, Early, since I only remember them as a synth-pop band from my teenage years in England.
5-star reviews
Tom Russell :: Hotwalker
Annie :: Anniemal
The Bravery :: The Bravery
Judee Sill :: Heart Food (reissue)
Brian Eno :: Music For Films (reissue)
Basement Jaxx :: The Singles (compilation)
The Fall :: The Complete Peel Sessions (box set)
4-star reviews
Rufus Wainwright :: Want Two
Alasdair Roberts :: No Earthly Man
Queens of the Stone Age :: Lullabies to Paralyze
Marissa Nadler :: Ballads of Living and Dying
Daft Punk :: Human After All
Beck :: Guero
The Necks :: Mosquito/See Through
Asian Dub Foundation :: Tank
Black Mountain :: Black Mountain
Alex Smoke :: Incommunicado
Out Hud :: Let Us Never Speak of it Again
Antony and the Johnsons :: I Am a Bird Now
Kaiser Chiefs :: Employment
Iron & Wine :: Woman King
Seasick Steve & the Level Devils :: Cheap
Kathleen Edwards :: Back To Me
Brendan Benson :: The Alternative To Love
Lil' Jon & the East Side Boyz :: Crunk Juice
Vic Chesnutt :: Ghetto Bells
John Doe :: Forever Hasn't Happened Yet
Duran Duran Duran :: Very Pleasure
Mark Mulcahy :: In Pursuit Of Your Happiness
Tons of 4-star reissues. Highlights include the second round of Eno ambient remasters (Films, Apollo, Thursday Afternoon), Os Mutantes, John Renbourn, and more.
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March 16, 2005
q magazine :: april 2005
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Continuing our updates of new music magazine issues . . . it's the UK's big alternarag, Q.
Both Q and its cooler sister Mojo are running Ian Curtis (Joy Division) biography features. I haven't had the time to thoroughly read either of them.
Nothing much else notable in the features - Q is really about lots of lists and reviews. This month's big list is the "Ultimate Music Collection", a list of over 400 albums and singles, segregated by genre, that you apparently must own. There are also a few lists of 20 favorites from various alterna-heroes . . . we find out that Johnny Borrell of Razorlight has an unexpected taste for smoky cabaret, lounge, and jazz music running from Ella Fitzgerald through Tom Waits and Nick Cave to Edith Piaf. Jeff Tweedy thinks Loaded is the best Velvet Underground record (I think Loaded is unfairly maligned, myself). Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand picks a Fall track from Slates, which is a small shock.
You get to tick little boxes next to each album/song and find out how cool Q thinks you are. I was too frightened to follow through.
5-star reviews
None
4-star reviews
Queens Of The Stone Age :: Lullabies to Paralyze
The Bravery :: The Bravery
Antony And The Johnsons :: I am a Bird Now
Engineers :: Engineers
Martha Wainwright :: Martha Wainwright
Nagisa Ni Te :: Dream Sounds
Patrick Wolf :: Wind In The Wires
Brendan Benson :: The Alternative To Love
The Arcade Fire :: Funeral (just hitting English shores)
Tarwater :: The Needle Was Traveling
Rolling Stones :: Singles 1968-1971 (compilation)
Basement Jaxx :: The Singles (compilation + 2 new tracks)
Brian Eno :: Music For Films (remaster)
Brian Eno :: Apollo (remaster)
Funkadelic :: The Whole Funk & Nothing But The Funk (compilation)
Bunny 'Striker' Lee :: The Bunny 'Striker' Lee Story (compilation)
Nine Inch Nails :: The Downward Spiral (remastered + expanded)
Various :: Soft Rock Anthems (compilation)
Various :: Soul Gospel (compilation)
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March 13, 2005
the wire :: march 2005
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This marks the beginning of a new feature on Borrowed Tunes: synopses of new issues of our favorite music magazines. Here, we start with the new issue of The Wire, the world's pre-eminent out-there music periodical (it is to magazines what New York's Other Music, SF's Aquarius Records, and Boston's Twisted Village are to record shops).
Highlight: Rob Young's interview/career overview with Bill Fay, who proves the case that there are unending 70s music treasures still to be unearthed. You'll be reading our take on Bill Fay soon, as there are some more reisssues coming after last year's stunning release of From The Bottom Of An Old Grandfather Clock.
Also worth noting is Hua Hsu's interview with MF Doom, the full transcript of which can be found here. It's heavy on Doom's personal and early musical history, light on insight into current projects.
There's a piece on Japan's longest running and most notorious all-vomiting noise unit, Hijokaidan. No thanks, but if you're curious, there's some mp3 action here.
A short piece on M Ward gives some background to his latest disc, reviewed here.
Spotlight reviews:
Konono No. 1 Congotronics
Archives GRM (musique concrète box set)
Posted by borrowed_tunes at 06:33 PM | Comments (2390) | TrackBack