Rolling country 2007 thread

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Speaking of Marv and Rindy, maybe I should check these out? (News to me; I just googled their names).

http://www.trailband.com/meettheband.htm

http://www.ghostsofcelilo.com/team.html

This is weird, too, since I could have sworn Seafood Mama was their PRE-Quarterflash band:

http://pnwbands.com/seafoodmama.html

― xhuxk, Sunday, 8 April 2007 01:29 (nineteen years ago)

Also pleasant: The Lindsey Buckingham album I bought. Which is also way too reserved, and would be better if Stevie Nicks was singing. I gather it's supposed to be whimsical or something. Could also use way more guitar, oddly enough. It's fine despite its overweening preciousness, I suppose, but it's overweeningly precious nonetheless. Then again, I'm not one of those wackos who prefers Tusk to Rumours or Fleetwood Mac. My favorite track: "Trouble," the hit single (though "Johnny Stew" is a fairly cute "John I'm Only Dancing"-alluding falsetto disco-pop attempt).

― xhuxk, Sunday, 8 April 2007 01:52 (nineteen years ago)

(I guess thinking of it as "new wave era wackiness" might make it more tolerable, though. So I will.)

― xhuxk, Sunday, 8 April 2007 01:55 (nineteen years ago)

Neil Sedaka -- New best of drifts into showtune schlock for a couple songs in the middle, otherwise I still love most of it. Lalena said that all her life she'd assumed that a woman was singing "Laughter in the Rain" -- maybe Carole King, who it really sounds like. (Also, who had the hit with "The Immigrant"? It seems quite timely!)[/i}

From Geoffrey O'Brien's review of Ken Emerson's Always Magic In The Air: "So local do things get that when, for example, the vexed question arises of whether Sedaka and King actually went out together, it is like being dropped in the middle of a spat in a high school hallway, with Sedaka claiming that King was 'a Neil Sedaka groupie... she would neglect her schoolwork to write songs and chase me from bar mitvahs to weddings,' and King responding: 'I went out on [i]one date with him!'"

― Frank Kogan, Sunday, 8 April 2007 04:10 (nineteen years ago)

Oh poo; let's try that again

Neil Sedaka -- New best of drifts into showtune schlock for a couple songs in the middle, otherwise I still love most of it. Lalena said that all her life she'd assumed that a woman was singing "Laughter in the Rain" -- maybe Carole King, who it really sounds like. (Also, who had the hit with "The Immigrant"? It seems quite timely!)

From Geoffrey O'Brien's review of Ken Emerson's Always Magic In The Air: "So local do things get that when, for example, the vexed question arises of whether Sedaka and King actually went out together, it is like being dropped in the middle of a spat in a high school hallway, with Sedaka claiming that King was 'a Neil Sedaka groupie... she would neglect her schoolwork to write songs and chase me from bar mitvahs to weddings,' and King responding: 'I went out on one date with him!'"

― Frank Kogan, Sunday, 8 April 2007 04:11 (nineteen years ago)

Listening to the new Lance Miller single, "She Really Loves Me" (which is at least a month old, and I have no idea if there were previous Lance Miller singles or who he is really, and allmusic doesn't have much more than a date of birth (1970) and a tracklist)(oh, a quick Google search shows he's a Nashville Star alumnus). Anyway, a very good voice that sounds like it would have fit in 25 years ago (when he was 12!), like Gene Watson's now* or John Conlee's then, very broad and warm and chewable w/ a rueful twist to it. His woman suggests that he have a drink with the boys after work, that's fine with her, and she's stopped complaining about his strewing his laundry around the floor, etc. and this means either she really loves him or she don't really love him anymore: "But then I really hope/I ain't gettin' all this rope/Just because she no longer gives a damn." It's close to perfect, and the accompaniment would be called traditionalist, steels and acoustics and nary a synth or a rock drum, and it's fine, though a bit of unhappiness in the back of my mind is reminding me that this kind of singing back in its day wasn't traditionalist and so could have had plenty of disco or rock in its accompaniment. (Someone with more knowledge can correct me on this.)

*Gene Watson probably sounded like Gene Watson back then, too, and I presume sounded very good, but I have no idea, having heard so little of country music's past.

― Frank Kogan, Sunday, 8 April 2007 04:58 (nineteen years ago)

Hilly Michaels LP I bought is a more fun new wave era sideman going solo album than the Lindsey Buckingham album, I'd say. The cover is very colorful, not unlike the Dan Hartman Instant Replay album he'd appeared on two years before (before 1980, that is.) Dancey beats are stolen from Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man," Blondie's "Call Me," and some minor glam-rock hit I can't place, but in a coked-up bubblegum L.A. studio pop-rock context, I guess. Though maybe Hilly was from England, come to think of it. Producer is Roy Thomas Baker; guest contributions come from Greg Hawkes, Davey Johnstone, Ellen Foley, Karla de Vito, Liza Minnelli. G.E. Smith, and Dan Hartman, among others. Rolling Stone Record Guide gives it just one star, dismissing Hilly as a "jive new waver," a "finger popper in post punk clothing," but then again so is Lindsey, who they say sings like a '50s teen balladeer and who they give three stars. Lindsey does sing better, I guess. But Hilly has more energetic hooks to pull off the zaniness. (And less to do with country music, come to think of it.)

― xhuxk, Sunday, 8 April 2007 12:54 (nineteen years ago)

Long John Baldry on now. Big bad British blooze stompage! (The roots of Count Bishops, maybe.) (With Elton and Rod Stewart helping out, no less.)

Liner notes say he had a Brook Benton/O.C.Smith-type period, in the late '60s, before returning to blues-rock roots. Might be an era worth checking out, and definitely enough to qualify him for a country thread, right? I've never listened to him before, not even once. Song credits here (Tuli Kupferberg and Randy Newman as well as Willie Dixon and Huddie Ledbetter) suggest he's no purist.

Speaking of Brook Benton, first side of that Joe Hinton (who got compared to Brook) LP was great! Hit country cover was "Funny How Time Slips Away," with crazy high notes at the end. (My chronology here may be confused, but did Ray Charles's early country crossover success inspire many proto-soul singers to make country moves? If so, who else?)

B.W. Stevenson does crazy high notes, too, by the way. I never had any thoughts about him before, either. Rolling Stone Record Guide calls him folk-rock (and likes him), but I'd be just as likely to classify him (just like BJ Thomas and maybe John Stewart by the way) as soul-country, though maybe that's only because Brooks and Dunn's cover of "My Maria" convinced me? (Whose version was bigger? And am I wrong, or did Three Dog Night or Blood Sweat and Tears or somebody have the bigger hit with "Shambala"?) Anyway, B.W. looks quite scraggly, even kinda scary, on the album cover, which makes me appreciate Brooks and Dunn's embracement of him more -- he looks like he should be a stoner rock band, or I dunno, looks like Rick Rubin or somebody. And a track or two sound like David Allen Coe. (Maybe "Sunset Woman," written by Dave Loggins, who I wonder if anybody has any thoughts about, come to think of it? "Please Come to Boston" is such a great song. His '72 Personal Belongings album seemed pretty decent too, last time I listened, in a Gordon Lightfoot type beautiful loser who can't settle down way.)

― xhuxk, Sunday, 8 April 2007 14:27 (nineteen years ago)

John Stewart by the way

The John Stewart who did one of my favorite songs ever "Gold" with Stevie Nicks (and used to be in the Kingston Trio, right?), not the more recent one on TV, that is. And I mean the album with "Gold" on it (or parts of it anyway) is sort of soul-country. I assume his Kingston Trio era stuff was less so.

― xhuxk, Sunday, 8 April 2007 14:45 (nineteen years ago)

Dullest track on that Baldry LP: "Flying," 6:50, witten by Rod Stewart, Ronnie Lane, and Ron Wood, with gospel parts. Fortunately, it's at the end.

― xhuxk, Sunday, 8 April 2007 14:50 (nineteen years ago)

Long John Baldry on now. Big bad British blooze stompage! (The roots of Count Bishops, maybe.) (With Elton and Rod Stewart helping out, no less.)

origin of elton john's name: he took elton from baldry saxophonist elton dean, and he took john from baldry himself.

― fact checking cuz, Sunday, 8 April 2007 14:59 (nineteen years ago)

Lalena on B.W. Stevenson: "Who's this grump?" Then, a little later: "He looks like a hippie but sings like a country guy."... He mostly sings in a David Allen Coe baritone, but in his two biggest (only?) hits "My Maria" and "Shambala," over hints of Latin percussion to maybe match their titles, he reaches way up into the big sky with high lonesome Western (maybe even Mexican) falsetto notes. Interesting.

― xhuxk, Sunday, 8 April 2007 16:38 (nineteen years ago)

John Stewart, on the other hand, looks like Gary Shandling! One thing that's really impressive (though maybe not so surprising if you've heard "Gold") about Bombs Away Dream Babies is how strong -- almost disco -- the beat on so much of it is. Best songs after "Gold" -- "Midnight Wind," which is great, then probably "Over The Hill" -- have a dark witchy woman propulsion that proves once and for all that Fleetwood Mac helped invent goth rock. (How was Stevie Nicks left off that list of Kate Bush influences on that best-woman-singer-of-the-'80s thread a couple weeks back? It's so obvious.) Stevie's only on "Gold" and "Midnight Wind," though Lindsey's on four cuts, including "Over The Hill" and the very dance-soft-rocky "Heart of the Dream," and you can tell.

Henry Gross's "Moonshine Alley" on Release (which I bought cheap a few months ago, see way upthread) is way better than Daniel Lee Martin's "Moonshine Mama" (which I still like.) The Gross song is more a backwoods murder mystery, like CDB's "Legend of Wooley Swamp" or Warrant's "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and sounds spooky enough to pull it off. Then, good dance rock on Side Two, after the hit "Shannon" -- "One More Time," more disco than any country would dare nowadays, and "Something In Between"'s boogie woogie rock starting out like "Spirit in the Sky." Like so much in the '70s, sounds fearless and effortless at the same time.

― xhuxk, Sunday, 8 April 2007 17:44 (nineteen years ago)

(Though "Something In Between" does start to drift into the kind of boogie woogie mush only muddy Deadheads could dance to after a couple minutes, I guess--also like so much in the '70s, which is part of the problem, no doubt. Otherwise, Gross imitates Elton better than John Miles, who does it okay.)

― xhuxk, Sunday, 8 April 2007 17:48 (nineteen years ago)

BJ Thomas, "Little Green Apples": White soul-country guy deftly covers huge hit by black soul-country guy, making what I assume must be the most minstrel-music-worthy line in any chart-topping hit in the past several decades ("when myself iz feelin low") seem even more blackface. Still sounds great regardless, of course. (He also does "This Guy's in Love With You," "Suspicious Minds," "Guess I'll Pack My Things" [who made that one famous? I was thinking it must be Charlie Rich; it's somebody I was listening to recently, but it's not on Rich's reissue CD, hmmm..], assorted Jimmy Webb and Joe South numbers whose titles don't look familiar, and of course "Raindrops Keep Fallin On My Head," which is pretty great even though as a kid I may well have hated it as much as "Candy Man" by Sammy Davis Jr [which may have had minstrel leanings of its own, come to think of it.]) (And I just now realized that I don't know if I've ever heard BJ's "Rock and Roll Lullabye," which critics have forever sworn is genius. Is that possible? Or maybe I've heard it and I just forget what it's like?)

― xhuxk, Sunday, 8 April 2007 18:22 (nineteen years ago)

Joe Stampley Red Wine and Blue Memories, 1978. Solid honky-tonk for drunks. Two best songs seem to be the first one--the title track--where a woman propositions Joe in a bar and he'd rather just keep drinking, and the last one, "Houston, Treat My Lady Good," where he loses his woman to the big city and people keep calling for her on the phone and he tells them that maybe she'll be back tomorrow even though you know she won't. I also really like "Hey Barnum and Bailey," where Joe calls himself a clown -- didn't either he or Moe Bandy have another song where whichever one called himself a rodeo clown? They were pretty clowny, with ridiculous toons like "Hey Moe (Hey Joe)" and the immortal "Where's The Dress." But apparently sometimes they were sad clowns, too.

"Hubba Hubba" by Billy Crash Craddock appears to be explicitly about cunnilingus. But I'm not positive about this and may have heard a couple lines wrong (especially the line that sounds like "giving head"), and can't find the lyrics on the Internet. But if it is, it'd give the Brooks and Dunn song about going down in memory town a run for its money.

Pam Tillis Above And Beyond The Doll Of Cutey, 1983: Promised I'd get to this, and today (last day of my vacation before returning to work, sigh) I finally did. Definitely a pop new wave album, not a country album. Hiccupping vocals over hiccupping synths (not a lot of either, but enough to get by). Like Pat Benatar in Lene Lovich mood, though probably more like Sue Saad or somebody (except not so rock, except maybe in "You Don't Miss".)...Oh wait, I know who it sounds like!
The Motels. Martha Davis, right? According to AMG (their country guide book; I assume on line too), Pam had fronted a jazz-rock band named Freelight in the late '70s; then she returned to Nasvhille in 1979 and wrote r&b songs for people like Gloria Gaynor and Chaka Khan. Then this lively new wave move with the weird title that means...who knows? Then no country album for a while after, I gather. (Now she'll segue nicely into the two Josie Cotton albums I found for 50 cents last week, won't she?)

T.G. Sheppard, I Love 'Em All, 1981. Bought this last summer; really wanted to like it, wanted it to be as cheesy and silly as its cover, where studley T.G. is being mobbed by all the fawning lipsticked ladies he loved before, but sadly it's a snooze. ("Silence On the Line" is okay, I guess, but not in a cheezy way, and not enough to justify keeping the thing.) I still want to investigate the guy more someday, though, since "War Is Hell (On the Homefront Too)" is one of my all-time favorite dance-country songs, and there's still time for a cover version. (I've heard it only on a K-Tel comp.)

― xhuxk, Sunday, 8 April 2007 22:28 (nineteen years ago)

I'm trying and not succeeding in remembering if I once took that John Stewart album out of the library back in my NYC days. Singing with the Kingston Trio Stewart's voice was gravelly; my guess is that Johnny Cash would have been a powerful influence on this.

― Frank Kogan, Monday, 9 April 2007 01:41 (nineteen years ago)

"Gold" is so great – is a mainstay at supermarket Muzak stations across the country.

The Lindsey Buckingham album I bought. Which is also way too reserved, and would be better if Stevie Nicks was singing. I gather it's supposed to be whimsical or something. Could also use way more guitar, oddly enough. It's fine despite its overweening preciousness, I suppose, but it's overweeningly precious nonetheless. Then again, I'm not one of those wackos who prefers Tusk to Rumours or Fleetwood Mac. My favorite track: "Trouble," the hit single (though "Johnny Stew" is a fairly cute "John I'm Only Dancing"-alluding falsetto disco-pop attempt

I haven't heard this in years, but I remember it disappointed me: I was expecting a really weird McCartney solo album and instead I got tracks that are rather more conservative than his Tusk tracks.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 9 April 2007 13:31 (nineteen years ago)

(commercial for Talledega 500, I think, in the next room: crashing into the stands? Maybe it's another whack Geico auto insurance commercial?)(but nice contrast with gentle soundtrack: Willie's contemplative western swing cover of ZZ Top's "She don't love me, she just loves my automobile," but no complaints cos she makes nice to him to get next to his wheel--it's from that Top trib I reviewed in Voice with the Charlie Daniels overview, "Sharp Blessed Men" the title, contrasting Top & friends' basically no-complaints Texasentializm with CD's high-strung jazz-rock-country flight to freaked-out fundamentalism--lifers vs. lifers, although not "vs." musically, since CD cranks Top covers pretty awesomely himself, in concert) Lindsay can get very wound up in concert, with Mac or solo. Although, on CMT's Crossroads, Little Big Town didn't spark each other very much, much less help him. Maybe he should always record his solo albums live, but of course he's the studio wizard etc. Someday I'd like to burn together a Great Lost Fleetwood Mac album, with the best and most compatible tracks from L.B., Stevie, Christine, Mick Fleetwood's Zoo, although I've only heard the latter very live, no idea how they were in studio.

― dow, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 05:08 (nineteen years ago)

Me and Martin talkin' (along w/ Josh and Blood and Jonathan) about Miranda Lambert's "Famous In A Small Town" over in Jukebox.

"famous" is the leak of the day on idolator.

― fact checking cuz, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 20:23 (nineteen years ago)

This bubblecountry's gal's self-released CD is sounding excellent so far. (Frank really needs to check this album out, I think.) Favorite track so far is the title track, "What U See," absolute Miranda Lambert hard rock with a "Smells Like Teen Spirit" riff; after that so far "Colours" (where she's looking for something in red gray pink yellow orange and bright green chartreuse) and "Butterfly Tattoo" (where dad's gonna kill her if mom doesn't first and nothing says she's 17 like breaking loose -- though actually she's just 14, apparently)--both songs sound really pretty too.

http://cdbaby.com/cd/brandieframpton

― xhuxk, Friday, 13 April 2007 12:10 (nineteen years ago)

new tribute to June Carter Cash Anchored in Love has some pro forma moments--cheezoid harmonica and offhand Willie-isms during "If I Were a Carpenter" (sounds like he's smoking a joint and admiring Sheryl Crow's gams during the performance, plus this song needs to be retired until after the magnetic poles reverse back in a few years). "Jackson" w/ Carlene Carter and Ronnie Dunn isn't bad. D.P. McManus shows up on "Ring of Fire"--he keeps trying to sing right but I never think he does it, I have a real aversion to his voice these days. Billy Bob Thornton does pretty good--he just talks-- on "Road to Kaintuck." Basically this is some canned shit--go back to the original June Carter Cash records and you'll find a really underrated singer.
Repeated listenings to Miranda Lambert's record convince me it's some kind of masterpiece. She really sounds like she could take care of any situation--she could probably fix the transmission she complains about in "Dry Town." The sound effects are just amazing. I'm impressed by the way she handles Susanna Clark/Carlene Carter (Routh)'s "Easy from Now On." Flawless record.
And if you want to know how Nashville once did the kind of "fusion" that now is dominated by bluegrass/stringband-meets-studio-rock, with nifty instrumentals, the newly reissued Minors Aloud by Buddy Emmons and Lenny Breau is pretty instructive. Breau spent time in Nashville giving guitar lessons and apparently doing lotsa drugs, died in '84 or so maybe 42 years old. He did some stuff with Chet Atkins here. He was the missing link between jazz guitarists like Tal Farlow and someone current like Bill Frisell or Stanley Jordan. They do Charlie Parker's "Scrapple from the Apple," and Emmons is a wonder. His work with Ray Price alone makes his place in history--check out the album Night Life. Anyway, in 1978 they did Parker when they wanted to Outreach, now it's some pseudo-Celtic bullshit, and you can guess what I prefer.

― whisperineddhurt, Friday, 13 April 2007 13:26 (nineteen years ago)

John Prine and Mac Weisman, Standard Songs for Average People. Boy, this is just so pretty, and I love the way they do Kristofferson's "Just the Other Side of Nowhere." Perfect blend of good humor and a real sadness underneath it all, as on that song. A lot like the Jack Clement record of a couple years ago, Guess Things Happen That Way, but they sing better than Clement, who's on this one and apparently was the inspiration for them to cover Al Dexter ("Pistol Packin' Mama") and "Sagninaw, Michigan" and Bob Wills and Cindy Walker's "Don't Be Ashamed of Your Age." Weisman cuts Prine's somewhat dry but to my ears just extremely funny vocals. Nice and camp-free.

― whisperineddhurt, Friday, 13 April 2007 15:32 (nineteen years ago)

"Saginaw, Michigan"

And Chuck, they do Tom T. Hall's "Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine" really nice, too.

― whisperineddhurt, Friday, 13 April 2007 15:35 (nineteen years ago)

in 1978 they did Parker when they wanted to Outreach, now it's some pseudo-Celtic bullshit, and you can guess what I prefer

But my favorite track on the Miranda is pseudo-Celtic bullshit. (But it's not pretending to that kind of reachout.)

Heard first track on the Brandie Frampton and thought Xhuxk was deluded. Next two turned me around. Don't have time to listen to the rest tonight.

Don, there are three new songs up on Hope Partlow's MySpace.

And - not that it's country (goth agony woman-scorned rock, actually) - but there's a new song up on this woman's MySpace, too.

― Frank Kogan, Saturday, 14 April 2007 03:12 (nineteen years ago)

Hey Edd, oddly enough, here's what I wrote about that album on this thread two months ago; got tired of trying to like it pretty soon after:

John Prine "& Mac Wiseman (okay, I guess I'd like just about anybody singing "Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine" and "Saginaw, Michigan" and "Pistol Packin' Mama," and these old geezers sing them real purty I suppose, but most of the other songs aren't that good and even the ones I love don't make this any less pointless I don't think);

― xhuxk, Saturday, 14 April 2007 03:24 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, I like the Prine/Weisman fine--great early-evening music. I guess the comparison would be with Bare's Moon Was Blue. Jack Clement told me sometime back that his big ambition was to do an entire record of old dance tunes done in his usual strange way, and perhaps this is what he was sort of talking about.
speaking of covers, I am overwhelmed by this new The Sandanista Project I finally got around to listening to about half of last night. The best thing on it so far is Wreckless Eric doing "The Crooked Beat," but there are some country performers here, like Jason Ringenberg and Kristi Rose doing "Ivan Meets G.I. Joe" and the Coal Porters "Something about England." Amy Rigby, and Sally Tims and Jon Langford, who should get an honorary barstool at Tootsie's at this point. But some of it strikes me like revisionist retro, and 37 songs means I'm about as likely to get thru it all as I was the original Clash record--in fact, was that one any good? I can't remember any more.
and, I recommend The Very Best of Wynn Stewart 1958-1962. Honky-tonk morphing into rockabilly and then gettin' scared off or something, and the piano part on "Long Black Limousine" is weirder than the similar piano parts I heard last night on the new Animal Colletive EP.

― whisperineddhurt, Saturday, 14 April 2007 13:54 (nineteen years ago)

Animal Collective. And boy, I've got the Wynn Stewart on right now. Got to be one of the most underrated country singers ever.

― whisperineddhurt, Saturday, 14 April 2007 13:57 (nineteen years ago)

Southern rapper Rainman does a song called "Country Girl" with Lil Flip on his new album, but it doesn't sound very country; he also does a song with David Banner called "I'm a Hustla," but that one doesn't sound country either. The first one is better than the second one, I guess, and neither is as fun as "Mr. Dougboy", where Rainman alludes to nursery rhymes like "Pattycake Baker's Man" and "The Gingerbread Man." A whole album of tracks like that song would be okay, but this isn't it. "Ghetto Gorilla" is kinda goofy, maybe. "Stop The Train" sadly does not seem to reference Scotty's "Draw Your Breaks" (which is to say it is not in the tradition of certain old Shinehad or Beastie Boys tracks, either.) So I dunno, despite Rainman's goofy name and the goofy photos of him on the album cover, I'm gonna pass on this one I think. At least I got to it before I got to Paul Wall's or Timabaland's new albums (and before I returned to Crime Mob's new album, which seemed okay when I listened to a few tracks a couple weeks ago, but which is now apparently a post-Imus Right Wing target for its reported offensiveness that slipped right by me, I think I heard.) Then again, who knows, my hip-hop hearing abilities may well be shot, so who knows? I still think that Rich Boy album is just fine, despite Jess Harvell, I think it was, calling it "shitty shitty shitty" in the Baltimore City Paper, I think it was, when I was driving through their week before last. I'm still not sure what people have against that album. Give or take a couple compilations, it's the only hip-hop album I've made it through this year.

Speaking of rapping, I didn't get much beyond Iron City Joe Gruschecky's embarrassing stab at "Magnificent Seven" on that Sandinista! tribute. The few tracks I did track through (including "The Leader," which was the original's most Joe Ely-as-opening-act-worthy track, wasn't it?) were awful, so I gave up quick. And yeah, I'm somebody who likes the original album a lot, Edd -- the Clash's fourth best (easy to remember since their first album was the first best, their second album was their second best, and their third album was their third best, on and on ad infinitum.)

The Prine/Weisman thing just ultimately hit me as bland folkie revivalism, minus the exotic open space that made that Bobby Bare album (which I still have big reservations about) a keeper. Then again, it's not like I've ever been the world's biggest Prine fan. And I already forget who the other guy was. (And some of the exoticness of that Bare album was just space age bachelor pad kitsch.)

No use for Animal Collective. Even their earlier weirder noisier records, which I kept for a few years, are outta here by now. Never got the appeal of their later attempts at being a pop-song band.

― xhuxk, Saturday, 14 April 2007 15:03 (nineteen years ago)

(Corrections: "Driving through THERE." "Mr. DOUGHBOY." And pretend I only said "who knows" once, okay?)

― xhuxk, Saturday, 14 April 2007 15:06 (nineteen years ago)

"Draw Your BRAKES." (Etc.)

― xhuxk, Saturday, 14 April 2007 15:06 (nineteen years ago)

"What U See," absolute Miranda Lambert hard rock

Okay, well, she doesn't have Miranda's voice. Which makes a difference, obviously, but then again almost no one has Miranda's voice, and no way am I deluded about this track's rockingness. I don't think. Frank will probably suggest Brandie try "auto-tune," but when people need to be auto-tuned is not something I ever notice (didn't notice it with Mary Weiss or Leanne Kingwell either), and my inclination is to believe that, just like Frank is one of the only people on earth to underrate Funkadelic, he is also one of the only people to overrate autotuneness. Not that I would know, really. (Also not sure which Miranda track Frank's referring to as containing pseudo-Celtic bullshit. I do agree, though, that Celtic bullshit is often fun.) (Especially on punk and metal records, maybe.)

― xhuxk, Saturday, 14 April 2007 15:27 (nineteen years ago)

"Dreams" also real good on that Brandie Frampton record. (Interesting cascading melody to that one; recalls some non-country pop oldie I can't place.) ("The Way It Is" by Bruce Hornsby maybe?? Hmmm...)

bland folkie revivalism, minus the exotic open space

Guess I just mean that I wish there was more music in the music, other than two old guys just singing. (But then, it's been several weeks since I put the thing on, so I could be completely offbase by now.)

― xhuxk, Saturday, 14 April 2007 16:31 (nineteen years ago)

yeah. good on the clash, chuck. although I like plenty of their later stuff like on combat rock. I would rate london calling over give 'em enough rope myself. for that matter, I love the stuff on the cost of living ep more than almost any of it. as for pseudo-celtic--yeah, it can be fun when the group's not taking it too seriously I guess. not a mode I relate to in general.
listened to the new amy lavere record again. it's cool because it's just all over the place--convincing funk, blues and country of a sort. conversational lyrics that are often charming. don't get a huge sense that she has much of anything to say or write about other than maybe she's broken up with somebody lately and she worries about being a bad girl in the past, not that those aren't valid subjects. nice enough record.
so, the miranda lambert song I come back to is "famous in a small town," which strikes me as real honest and bullshit-free on a very hackneyed subject, and to my ears the music itself is a perfect balance between the usual overkill (massed guitars, eagles-like "oohs" in the bridge, break it down with a hi-hat before killing it at the end as she anticipates burning rubber on the weekend) and something more, shall I say it, "personal," felt even, like she's maybe even thought about the trope, and as on the whole record the drummer is sort of crazy. man I like this record.
and I mean prine and weisman is a bit folkie and revivalist, and since I am not crazy about mary weiss I suppose I should apply the same standards to john prine (who I am a fan of, in a way--I do like his voice, reassuring somehow). it's the same thing I go back and forth with on any number of records right now--is it retro, what is it, and in the case of some country stuff I'm writing about now I have this feeling that everyone might be happier just admitting their ambition to be rich and famous or something, know what I mean? just get it off your chest. prine and weisman have nothing to prove, and I guess neither does mary weiss--or does she? as for bare's moon was blue, I like it and it probably does partake of bach-pad kitsch a bit. as far as a nevers production goes, I still think his louvin record is a minor masterpiece and the lone official record is great--even given the fact that on both of 'em the singer might give some listeners, perhaps chuck among them, fits.

― whisperineddhurt, Saturday, 14 April 2007 16:54 (nineteen years ago)

new amy lavere record

First impressions:
1. I wish she didn't have such a little girl voice.
2. I wish her music's attempt to be moody didn't detract so much from her songs connecting as songs.
3. She does a washing machine song that sort of sounds like a washing machine! (See also: Electric Eels, Five Royales, Traffasi, Pretenders.) Cool!

― xhuxk, Saturday, 14 April 2007 18:53 (nineteen years ago)

But as spring 2007 laundry-rock goes, Hilary Duff's new "Dreamer," which opens with her at the grocery store than picking up her clothes from the cleaners, is way way better.

― xhuxk, Saturday, 14 April 2007 19:04 (nineteen years ago)

Or somewhat better, anyway. The powerchords in Lavere's "Washing Machine" give it a real push (though when they shift into blues-rock stodge the song also threatens to turn into mere moodiness. On the other hand, the mood has some meat to it! And the melody has some of that old disco song that goes "think about you all the time, never let out of my mind" in it...who the hell was that? Donna Summer?? Not Minnie Ripperton's "Lovin You," right?)

(Favorite tracks on Hilary Duff album so far, fwiw, since I brought it up: "Dignity," "Danger," "Gypsy Woman," "Never Stop," "No Work All Play," "Between You And Me," "Dreamer"...which is, um, half of the album. The rest might even be better, time'll tell. Disco pop with trouble lurking in the background.)

And okay, Lavere track #6 is a cool polka two-step. Nicely pulls off the Slavic-rhythm Americana trick.

― xhuxk, Saturday, 14 April 2007 19:47 (nineteen years ago)

old disco song that goes "think about you all the time, never let out of my mind" in it...who the hell was that?

Diana Ross. "Love Hangover." (Duh.)

― xhuxk, Saturday, 14 April 2007 19:54 (nineteen years ago)

Edd I really like The Sandinista Project a lot, but I also really like the original album a lot too. I was very trepidacious of the alt.countryism of it all at first, I actually talked shit to the publicist about the whiteness of the participants. And I really don't like Camper Van Beethoven. But I love it after all, "The Magnificent Seven" is a lot more lovable the third time through, Stew's contribution is really weird and cool -- OMG A BLACK GUY -- and I like listening to it while driving.

― Dimension 5ive, Saturday, 14 April 2007 22:14 (nineteen years ago)

more cdbabies:

Sometimes vaguely Blasters-like rockabillies not half wild or well-sung enough to justify the retro:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/finnsharks3

Surfbillies, more energetic if not always more able vocally; in fact sometimes the guy talks rather than singing, and the Deadhead moments make me nervous. "Last Bottle of Wine" is an okay "Secret Agent Man" rip, though, and "Aztec GTO (Boss Version)" has party voices and girl chants and hot-rod rev-ups inching it towards early B-52s territory. Also, EP-length seems about right so far.

http://cdbaby.com/cd/tmrcreckoning

Popabilly gal; starts with yet another one of those always trusty "Girls Night Out" numbers (subtitled "Wanna Grab A Drink," contains a warm chuckle and a warm harmonica part); has at least one other great track in "You Better Leave Billy Alone," about a quiet kid at school who eats lunch by himself but gets revenge on a bully with "loud mouth, hi hair...retro '80s spikes...drove a loaded Hummer." Haven't listened to this much yet, but I'm really liking what I'm hearing so far. Easily the best (also least consciously "alt") of these three.

http://cdbaby.com/cd/tracydelucia

― xhuxk, Saturday, 14 April 2007 22:33 (nineteen years ago)

Yikes! Amy LaVere's inexplicably skinny-voiced and not-all-that-much-less-skinny-grooved attempt at funk "People Get Mad" just forced me to replace her in the CD changer with the new American Dog album.

And the Michael Ray Cain Reckoning's recited-like-Jello-Biafra preacher homily "Faith Train" may well force me to do something similar next time it comes up. They're starting to remind me a bit too much of all that Mojo Nixon crap I hated back in the day.

― xhuxk, Saturday, 14 April 2007 23:29 (nineteen years ago)

Ha ha, chorus of first American Dog song to come up: "Sometimes you eat the pussy, sometimes the pussy eats you...you know it's true." (With Nugent riffs, so okay, they're more metal thread material.)

What the heck though:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/americandog6

― xhuxk, Saturday, 14 April 2007 23:45 (nineteen years ago)

If I'd heard it any time in the last 20 years I might make the argument that Sandanista is better than London Calling (though I love "Brand New Cadillac" and the title tune on the latter).

― Frank Kogan, Saturday, 14 April 2007 23:55 (nineteen years ago)

But as I do with Funkadelic, I'm may be one of the only people to underrate London Calling.

― Frank Kogan, Saturday, 14 April 2007 23:56 (nineteen years ago)

fwiw (and just to even things out a little), "Kid" by Michael Ray Cain Reckoning (good sangin' and twangin' and a tasty melody) > "The Rose" by Tracy Delucia (I never even wanted to see the movie.)

― xhuxk, Sunday, 15 April 2007 00:01 (nineteen years ago)

"People Get Mad" on the Lavere record is just embarassing. But the rest of it has a light touch with swingy country that I like, and the opening song, "Killing Him (Didn't Make Her Love Go Away)" is rivetting. And I love the Dylan cover at the end. I also don't find her voice all that little girlish--at least not by current indie standards.

― Roy Kasten, Sunday, 15 April 2007 00:02 (nineteen years ago)

"Miracles Begin" by Tracy Delucia, exlplicity pro-disco semi-billy: "When I was a young girl, listening to the radio, Rondstadt, Whitney, Donna Summer, and a little Billy Joel." (Her cdbaby page also says she was once a huge Mariah Carey fan.) Both this song and "Hands of Time" also talk about being a mom, and sound nicely lively about it.

― xhuxk, Sunday, 15 April 2007 01:00 (nineteen years ago)

"Return Of The Magnificent Seven" is verbose, like many songs on Sandinista!, but Grushecky and most others on The Sandinista Project connect with the vitality, especially rhythmic, in those songs. "Return" gets itchy and scratchy, 'til the guitar cuts loose for a while, over that beat. And there's lots of good country, and countrytronica, and Sally Timms and Jon Langford do good offhand country dub on "Version Pardner." You're really missing some fun, xxhuxx.

― dow, Sunday, 15 April 2007 05:18 (nineteen years ago)

I can't remember if Roy said he's seen LaVere live but she's totally different--her records somehow edge away from what she does best, which is strictly rockabilly or something like it. Her collaborator, Paul Taylor, has made a record that is like out-of-it powerpop--very muso, very accomplished, kind of a modern Todd Rundgren one-man-band record without the vocal chops. But Taylor is an amazing musician. I too like the closing Dylan cover and her voice doesn't bother me--my take is that she's not being stretched enough and that she's a very strange songwriter who needs some sort of context Jim Dickinson and cohorts might be too set in their ways to devise for her. But she is indeed cool live, and of course extremely easy on the eye--sexy.

Reading the Johnny Bush autobiography. Really gives a sense of how difficult it was for him to compete in the very competetive world of Texas country in the late '50s, and pretty fascinating account of how he struggled to master the Ray Price shuffle beat. Great portrait of Willie Nelson in his early days, one anecdote finds the whole band smoking weed and Willie walks by and says, no thanks, that stuff gives me a headache. Bush took opera-singing lessons after he lost his voice to a somewhat rare affliction that caused him to basically be unable to sing or even speak loudly. And he describes Nashville in the early '60s, when Bush lived in town, as a place where there was nothing for a musician to do if he wasn't on the road--no openness compared to his San Antonio days. Well written enough--transcribed--and nice.

― whisperineddhurt, Sunday, 15 April 2007 14:55 (nineteen years ago)

A Taylor Swift outtake (or demo), "Come In With The Rain," is downloadable from the Rashid115 blog (scroll down the page). The rip is low quality, but the singing and song are good, gentle sadness, which she does oh so well. "I leave my window open/'Cause I'm too tired tonight to call your name/Just know I'm right here hopin'/That you'll come in with the rain." (I like the phrase "in with the rain" for not quite being a metaphor, just accompanying the sorrow that's there, whether the guy shows or not.)

Here it is on YouTube.

― Frank Kogan, Sunday, 15 April 2007 18:53 (nineteen years ago)

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