Music for 11/30/18!!! Jeff Tweedy, Chris Carter

@@@ Jeff Tweedy: Warm (dBpm, 2018)  When I hear the simple rock basics of the opening tune and Tweedy’s world weary voice it sounds to my ears that he’s channeling John Lennon (or aspiring to).  He’s going for that straight ahead shot to the heart.  I get that Tweedy has been in the game for a long long time and people love him but I find his music to be pretty pedestrian and his lyrics and singing not enough to overcome that.  I’d rather listen to Tom Petty, he’s more interesting to me.  It’s not awful music, it’s just very typical, something you might hear in a doctor’s office and it’s a mystery to me how or why people flip out over this musician.  He’s ended up as a late ’70s classic FM slack country half rocker — that’s not a personal attack, that’s what he is.  Maybe people remember what he was like way back in the day when he first started out and they hold that close to them but I listen to the record as it exists in this moment in time without all the footnotes or history.

@@@ Chris Carter: Disobedient (Self-released, 2018)  I saw this musician mention on the All Music notable release email and saw this record just came out when I went on the Apple Music.  I can’t tell if this is a new record or a re-issue so I gotta head over to All Music and verify.  It’s a reissue of a 1998 record and it sounds it.  The synths have a dated sound to them, I don’t really care one way or the other.  The record sounds a bit sci-fi and a little undercover rock ‘n roll as it maintains a tempo without being a fully abstract piece of music.  I like the pieces but like some of the more out pieces more.

YTD recordings listened to: 664
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 360
Not good music: 260

Best: 11
Honorable Mentions: 8

Possibles: Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, Slidhr, The Chewers, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Janelle Monae, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Satoko Fuji, Moken, Juan Atkins, Lantern, Twin Peaks, Djelimady Tounkara, The Oh Sees, Denny Zeitlin, MILF, Unfun, De La Soul, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes, A Tribe Called Quest, Noname, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, Oddisee, RAM, Fiver, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Converge, Open Mike Eagle, Criolo, Billy Strings, Flowers of Sulphur, Tal National, Portal, Hernan Sama & Marcelo von Schultz, Lawaii, Etran De L’Air, Ruby Karinto, Elysia Crampton, Parquet Courts, Orlando Lopez, Moskus, Kendl Winter, Tkay Maidza, Gouge Away, Barro, Daniel Khan, Vaudou Game, Tallawit Timbouctou

Beware the music/fashion/lifestyle packages!

From the Guardian here:

These are my two obsessions — music and politics. When you sort people into ‘these people like this music and clothes’ you can manipulate them politically.

And as a rabid music blogger I’m constantly amazed at how the music business has sorted people into categories and demographics and has never made any attempt to get people to listen to as many different kinds of music as possible. Wouldn’t it be more profitable if suburban housewives put on Converge records or if Puerto Rican kids were into African music as well as urban Latino music? Variety is the spice of life, no?

Not only is it politically dangerous to keep all the rednecks listening to country music and all the hipsters listening to vapid indie music it is so fucking boring! How boring will America become in the hands of corporate pimps and lifestyle creators?

What is after boredom? Death I guess, it’s a partial death when people give up on expanding their minds and their personalities and checking shit out. And when they’ve stopped thinking for themselves and don’t decide what they like and what they don’t like for themselves you can see how that can turn into political manipulation.

Only people who smoke weed listen to reggae!

Only stinky metalheads listen to metal!

Only bearded hipsters listen to indie!

A colossal load of crap and not good at any level once these lines are drawn.

Music for 11/29/18!!! Earl Sweatshirt, Pangaea, Dan Habarnam

@@@ Earl Sweatshirt: The Mint (Columbia, 2018) I started listening to Mr. Sweatshirt because of his name.  Earl Sweatshirt is a stylish moniker.  This is a mellow track with not outright dub reggae vibes, but it has a certain blunted feel within its hip hop construction.  It’s got a relentless and amorphous bassline that’s punctured by some sharp piano figures.  I’m not sure what the lyrical point exists for this tune, but there’s more than a bit of 40s being drunk and some blunt smoking.

@@@ Pangaea: Bone Sucka (Hessle Audio, 2018) I got to this via the experimental section at Apple Music (which is a joke as far as I’m concerned).  This is a slightly weird electro/techno track but nothing particularly experimental.  After about 90 seconds it starts to lean in (Sheryl Sandberg style!) on a groove — bringing up the drums, putting a vocal exhortation sample and some synth grooving.  I actually would consider this more a funk track than a techno track.  I like the groove — it’s not breaking records but it’s happening.

@@@ Dan Habarnam: Draw Your Pattern (Idle Hands, 2018)  Also off the Apple Music experimental section.  It’s a more standard techno beat with some kraut-y bits but it’s pretty trippy sauce layered over it.  It crystallizes into a piano hook and classic unt-tss at about 2 minutes.  It’s a decent dancefloor banger, nothing to get too hung over.  The second tune, Draw Your Pattern, opens up with a more interesting beat.  A tad funky and a bit chopped.  It dubs out a long ass sample that smooths out the chopped groove.  I feel this tune.  It has a unique groove and interesting weirdness that keeps me engaged. This track is pulling me in and introduces new ideas to itself at a fresh but not overwhelming pace.  Shoulda put this one first!

YTD recordings listened to: 662
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 360
Not good music: 260

Best: 11
Honorable Mentions: 8

Possibles: Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, Slidhr, The Chewers, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Janelle Monae, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Satoko Fuji, Moken, Juan Atkins, Lantern, Twin Peaks, Djelimady Tounkara, The Oh Sees, Denny Zeitlin, MILF, Unfun, De La Soul, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes, A Tribe Called Quest, Noname, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, Oddisee, RAM, Fiver, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Converge, Open Mike Eagle, Criolo, Billy Strings, Flowers of Sulphur, Tal National, Portal, Hernan Sama & Marcelo von Schultz, Lawaii, Etran De L’Air, Ruby Karinto, Elysia Crampton, Parquet Courts, Orlando Lopez, Moskus, Kendl Winter, Tkay Maidza, Gouge Away, Barro, Daniel Khan, Vaudou Game, Tallawit Timbouctou

Music for 11/28/18!!! Vulcain, Cauldron, Flatbed

@@@ Vulcain – Vinyle (Season Of Mist)  Some old school classic hard rock/metal a step down in sludge from Motorhead but very similar.  Let me Google the language of the singer – they’re French.  I don’t think of the French as a heavy metal people — is that racist?  Also a few Motley Crue pubic hairs up in this here record as well but its DNA is aligned with Lemmy.  Yikes!  Fast with not a lot of guitar shredding and a fair number of riffs.  Not my thing, this is more for the cucumbers in the leather pants crowd.

@@@ Cauldron – New Gods (The End)  Singing in English but also with the classic metal vibes, this time the Scorpions.  I think I might enjoy not knowing what Frenchie was on about in the last pocket review.    Get a load of the cover art below.  It looks like a booger with fangs, that’s fucked up.  I’m not sure there’s a ton to say about this record — it’s pretty standard hard rock/classic metal. 

@@@ Flatbed – Drug Mom (Arachnidiscs)  Uh oh, we’re switching gears to the decidedly rougher lo fi, brain scraping business.  Oh Jesus,  it sounds like somebody trying to dry hump a chainsaw.  A barrage of guitar static, tribal drumming and it looks like no singer.  That could be fine.  Krikey, this will pickle your brain pronto.  I appreciate the devotion to dirty ass sounds.

YTD recordings listened to: 659
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 358
Not good music: 259

Best: 11
Honorable Mentions: 8

Possibles: Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, Slidhr, The Chewers, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Janelle Monae, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Satoko Fuji, Moken, Juan Atkins, Lantern, Twin Peaks, Djelimady Tounkara, The Oh Sees, Denny Zeitlin, MILF, Unfun, De La Soul, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes, A Tribe Called Quest, Noname, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, Oddisee, RAM, Fiver, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Converge, Open Mike Eagle, Criolo, Billy Strings, Flowers of Sulphur, Tal National, Portal, Hernan Sama & Marcelo von Schultz, Lawaii, Etran De L’Air, Ruby Karinto, Elysia Crampton, Parquet Courts, Orlando Lopez, Moskus, Kendl Winter, Tkay Maidza, Gouge Away, Barro, Daniel Khan, Vaudou Game, Tallawit Timbouctou

Music for 11/27/18!!! Natalia Clavier, Meek Mill, Anchorsong

@@@ NATALIA CLAVIER: Trans (Nacional, 2018)  I got to this world rock record via the WRIR weekly playlist email.  It is slotted as Rock y Alternativo but to me this first sounds much morel like a smooth jazz/soul mash.  The second tune is even less rocking, it’s got a distinctly electro soul vibe with vocals in Spanish.  This third tune does have a slightly rocking texture to it but let’s not get too bogged in genre tags.  The production is pretty lush, the tunes are solid without grabbing you by the shirt.

@@@ Meek Mill: Oodles of Noodles Babies (Maybach/Atlantic, 2018)  Meek Mill is larger than an MC now as he became a symbol of unjustified overincarceration.  As much as I support him I haven’t loved his track.  He brings a lot of energy to this track which is sonically uses old r&b sounds to make a track for him to rhyme over.  He’s got some really good lines in this track and I like this a whole bunch more than what I’ve heard to this point.  He’s got a great line about how young black males go from playing video games to carrying guns.

@@@ Anchorsong: Cohesion (True Thoughts, 2018) A Japanese born musician living in London inspired by Indian Bollywood and Indian classical percussion.  This first tune is super grooved out so it’s not going to delve into the polyrhythmic complexities of Indian classical.  There’s also a guitar player so we’re looking at a stylistic mash of sounds.  There’s a lightness to the first two tracks I’ve listened to which some people might find really enjoyable.  I prefer my grooves to be more developed and harder.  I like it well enough but I was left wanting more.

YTD recordings listened to: 656
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 356
Not good music: 258

Best: 11
Honorable Mentions: 8

Possibles: Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, Slidhr, The Chewers, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Janelle Monae, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Satoko Fuji, Moken, Juan Atkins, Lantern, Twin Peaks, Djelimady Tounkara, The Oh Sees, Denny Zeitlin, MILF, Unfun, De La Soul, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes, A Tribe Called Quest, Noname, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, Oddisee, RAM, Fiver, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Converge, Open Mike Eagle, Criolo, Billy Strings, Flowers of Sulphur, Tal National, Portal, Hernan Sama & Marcelo von Schultz, Lawaii, Etran De L’Air, Ruby Karinto, Elysia Crampton, Parquet Courts, Orlando Lopez, Moskus, Kendl Winter, Tkay Maidza, Gouge Away, Barro, Daniel Khan, Vaudou Game, Tallawit Timbouctou

Music for 11/26/18!!! System, Spontaneous Overthrow, Dispatch, Bille Ellish

@@@ System: Plus (Moor Music, 2018) We open up today’s listening session with an ambient electronic record.  Not roots dub but lots of big sounds wrapped around some simple keyboard playing.  I like the span of it, it’s huge like Melania Trump’s empty cooch.  How could she let the foul cretin inside her body?  Yikers!  You get a little glitch, a little static noise, a little ambient action tastefully ladled out.  These shits are taking their time so this is some post-turkey listening action, don’t get all up in these if you’re looking to bang out a job for work or if you’re a night time long haul trucker.  It’s not a crowded sonic field, it’s sounds like you’re sitting at the 50 yard line of a football field watching the sounds in the end zone.  Okay that’s enough Thanksgiving flavored metaphors with a little Melania cooch thrown in for holiday spice.  Yup, that’s right I did it.

@@@ Spontaneous Overthrow: All About Money (Numero Obscuro, 2018) This record looks to be some spaced out r&b/soul — not slicked out, computer neo-soul but somebody that owns a space organ and loves to put a lot of reverb on their tracks.  It’s got a quaint funkiness to it but the extensive use of reverb drains the music of its energy a bit.   A lot of these tunes push 6 minutes so they have a jammy feel to them.

@@@ Dispatch: Local 13 (Bomber Records, 2018)  I got to this Sublime reggae/rock record via the CFUV weekly playlist email.  The second tune busts out the banjos so this could be a sprawling, bit of all over the place kinda thing.  You don’t often get the reggae and banjo explosion in the space of two tunes.  The singer is super friendly and a tad frat boy sounding.  The third tune gets into an acoustic guitar ballad so my suspicions are confirmed.  Not really for me, but it may appeal others out there.  As always check for yourself.

@@@ Billie Ellish: come out and play (Interscope, 2018)  The #1 fully pimped track on Apple Music.  It opens up small and intimate with breathy vocals, acoustic guitar, a little simple hand drumming and an organ swell tucked back in there.  At about 2 minutes you get some large electronic garnish with a string section and it looks like this might explode as a cheesy song comet crossing the sky.  C’mon do it, hit us with the cheese!  Alas it was a fake buildup as it died back down to the opening vibe.  Well, they get points for not turning it into a summer blockbuster by showing some restraint.  Otherwise it’s an undercover Disney self-empowerment kinda track.

YTD recordings listened to: 653
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 354
Not good music: 257

Best: 11
Honorable Mentions: 8

Possibles: Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, Slidhr, The Chewers, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Janelle Monae, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Satoko Fuji, Moken, Juan Atkins, Lantern, Twin Peaks, Djelimady Tounkara, The Oh Sees, Denny Zeitlin, MILF, Unfun, De La Soul, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes, A Tribe Called Quest, Noname, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, Oddisee, RAM, Fiver, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Converge, Open Mike Eagle, Criolo, Billy Strings, Flowers of Sulphur, Tal National, Portal, Hernan Sama & Marcelo von Schultz, Lawaii, Etran De L’Air, Ruby Karinto, Elysia Crampton, Parquet Courts, Orlando Lopez, Moskus, Kendl Winter, Tkay Maidza, Gouge Away, Barro, Daniel Khan, Vaudou Game, Tallawit Timbouctou

Fat tracks of the week!

Fucked up electrified lute playing and hand drumming.

Music for 11/20/18!!! Vaudou Game, Ras Medy, Tallawit Timbouctou

@@@ VAUDOU GAME: Otodi  (Hot Casa, 2018)  I got to this record via this week’s WRIR playlist email.  Vaudou Game is a top flight African funk outfit.  This is some Trans Atlantic James Brown shit for sure.  Fatness at all positions — chicken scratch guitar, tighter than a well digger’s ass drummer, funky bass player, and swinging horn section.  What more can you ask for?  I’m not going to go on and on as this is the internet age and you can peep music for yourself but this is the shit.  The record sounds great and I’m on the third tune and they’re all funky as fuck.  This will make my list for 2018 for sure.

@@@ Ras Medy: All I Want (Thr33land Enterprises, 2018)  Modern dancehall also off the WRIR weekly email.  Smooth sounds in the arrangement as well as the vocals.  Think a couple shades darker than Drake, naimsayin’?  Drake flirts more with dancehall while this guy is swimming in the pool.  It’s not my favorite style of Jamaican music but I will take this over Drake in a hot minute.

@@@ Tallawit Timbouctou: Hali Diallo (Sahel Sounds, 2018)  I was combing through the WRIR playlist email to replace a record that I had put up for review but I had heard it before.  So down the bottom of the page there was this record and it’s happening.  I often write about super clean African music and how I don’t prefer it and here we have an electrified lute and it’s the opposite of that.  It’s got a bite to it that I find invigorating.  After the 7 minute opening jam they get into the title track (clipped below) and it is the same hand drumming, monster lute and trance style singing.  It most definitely have jam band vibes to it but this guy shreds up one side and down the other.  It is rare for me to find two bangin’ records in one day, but here we are.  I’m going to swing back for the full show but this is happening African music for sure and folks should check it out!  If you compare this to white boy psychedelic music this stomps it.

YTD recordings listened to: 649
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 352
Not good music: 255

Best: 11
Honorable Mentions: 8

Possibles: Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, Slidhr, The Chewers, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Janelle Monae, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Satoko Fuji, Moken, Juan Atkins, Lantern, Twin Peaks, Djelimady Tounkara, The Oh Sees, Denny Zeitlin, MILF, Unfun, De La Soul, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes, A Tribe Called Quest, Noname, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, Oddisee, RAM, Fiver, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Converge, Open Mike Eagle, Criolo, Billy Strings, Flowers of Sulphur, Tal National, Portal, Hernan Sama & Marcelo von Schultz, Lawaii, Etran De L’Air, Ruby Karinto, Elysia Crampton, Parquet Courts, Orlando Lopez, Moskus, Kendl Winter, Tkay Maidza, Gouge Away, Barro, Daniel Khan, Vaudou Game, Tallawit Timbouctou

Music for 11/19/18!!! Daniel Khan, Smashing Pumpkins

@@@ Daniel Khan: The Butcher’s Share (Oriente Musick, 2018) I got to this political klezmer music record by an American who formed a band in Germany.  If the lyrics aren’t openly political they are metaphorically political.  The lyrics are literate and coherent but the delivery is energetic and entertaining.  I like a bunch of tunes on this record though I think a few of the songs in Yiddish limits the audience a bit.  I’m a New Yorker and we are balls deep in Jews all over the 5 boroughs so it sounds very familiar to me.  Great playing and this might make it onto my best of 2018 list.

@@@ Smashing Pumpkins: Shiny and oh so bright…. (Napalm Records, 2018) Off this week’s All Music notable release email.  Shiny and oh so bright as Billy Corgan’s hairless pate??!!  No, too soon?  They come out of the gate full 1970’s power ballad rock.  There’s a fair amount of cheese sauce on this sandwich.  They’re gonna ride the rainbow, you dig?  And there’s a violin part so you know how it’s going down.
The second tune, Silvery Sometimes, sounds like a more typical Pumpkins track and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.  This is a catchy rock track, I’ll give the Bald Vampire that much.  The third tune, which will be my last tune, is back to a cloying arena rock thing.  This shit could be on Broadway for sure, it rocks but it’s well it’s bright and shiny like a bald head.

YTD recordings listened to: 646
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 351
Not good music: 254

Best: 11
Honorable Mentions: 8

Possibles: Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, Slidhr, The Chewers, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Janelle Monae, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Satoko Fuji, Moken, Juan Atkins, Lantern, Twin Peaks, Djelimady Tounkara, The Oh Sees, Denny Zeitlin, MILF, Unfun, De La Soul, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes, A Tribe Called Quest, Noname, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, Oddisee, RAM, Fiver, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Converge, Open Mike Eagle, Criolo, Billy Strings, Flowers of Sulphur, Tal National, Portal, Hernan Sama & Marcelo von Schultz, Lawaii, Etran De L’Air, Ruby Karinto, Elysia Crampton, Parquet Courts, Orlando Lopez, Moskus, Kendl Winter, Tkay Maidza, Gouge Away, Barro, Daniel Khan

Single of the week!

J.I.D. & J. Cole: Off Deez (Interscope, 2018) The combination of both MCs’ super quick flow and the needly guitar playing raise this trap single above the rest. Currently J.I.D. is one of my top hip artists along side Open Mike Eagle and Shad in 2018.