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May's playlist
That naughty ol' Luke has got me into
alt.country as you will see by this month's rather eclectic mix of
listenable stuff. Y'all.
- Sonic Youth Washing Machine
Geffen DGCCD-24825. ...only this isn't country.
Lots of wailing guitars and gnashing vocals. Some wicked noise
here.
- Pan American 360
business/360 bypass Kranky krank 041. Labradford's
Mark Nelson paints beautiful landscapes with added help from guest
Rob Mazurek's points of light coronet work.
- Stereolab Refried Ectoplasm
(Switched on Volume 2) Drag City DC82CD.
Collected earlier works from the Anglo-Brit funky lounge music
combo. There's also a new platter just out and on order from
the nearly broke CDNow.
- Palace Music Lost Blues and
Other Songs Drag City DC110CD. I had a blitz
on the Drag City catalogue recently. This is an odds and sods
album from the prolific Will Oldham, one of those Americana boys
from Kentucky.
- Vic Chesnutt West of Rome
Texas Hotel Texas Hotel 21. Quirky Vic from Athens,
Georgia. Grief, I'm getting countrified.
- Vic Chesnutt Is the Actor
Happy Texas Hotel Texas Hotel 24. Vic wearing
a funny Robin Hood hat on the back of the CD. Inside, lots
more off beat, fragile tunes from Vic's "skiffle group"
featuring the excellent "Gravity of the Situation".
- Jeff Buckley Live at Sin-e
Columbia 44K 77296. EP featuring the angelic voiced one
at the Sin-e cafe in NYC. Superb version of "Mojo
Pin". Not got the "new" live album.
- Mouse on Mars Niun Niggung
Domino (import) WIGCD70. Excellent in their 9:30 club gig
earlier this month. I owe you a review. Koln's finest
electro-dance beat duo.
- to rococco rot cd
Kitty-yo EFA 55201-2. Palindromic Germans dumpin' some
vibe directly into yer brain. Fine sh*t.
- Kronos Quartet Caravan
Nonesuch 79490-2. A smorgasbord of ethnic tunes performed by
this veteran avant garde outfit. Comes with a fresh and funky
take on Misirlou Twist (you saw Pulp Fiction, didn't you?)
- Howe Gelb Hisser
V2 63881-27028-2. Weird sh*t. Gelb is the
directeur of alt-everything Giant Sand. This is his recorded
at home effort, an odd take on just about everything. Comes
with squeaky toy (his dog) and hilarious interruption (from his
kid). Yikes!!
- Tele:Funken/Flying Saucer Attack
Distant Station Drag City DC117CD. Er, I
owe you an apology. I said in an earlier review that FSA were
no more. Well, the geezer who is now FSA has had a nervous
breakdown or something. Meanwhile, from 1996 here is
Tele:Funken, the remainder of FSA, sampling FSA to produce slabs
(and I mean slabs) of drone.
- The Rolling Stones Sticky
Fingers Virgin 7243-47863-2-8. You can hear
the echo-enhanced radio announcer now: "[insert city-state
here]'s Classsick-RrroKK, Nighteee-ate point whaddever."
- King Crimson Live in Central
Park, NYC 07-01-74 The King Crimson Collector's Club
CLUB10. Last ever concert by the "heavy" KC line-up.
Culled from bootlegs, the sound's sometimes awful, but the vibe is
fantastic.
- Sonic Youth nyc ghosts &
flowers Geffen 069490650-2. SY's new album
which seems to look back more than forward, but coalesces some of
the ideas bubbling over in their recent experimental series.
- The Allman Brothers Band s/t
Capricorn 314531 257-2. I grew up in the 70's listening
to lots of the Allman Brothers Band. This platter contains
launched their unique cross-stylistic sound and included classics
such as "Dreams" and Gregg Allman's cathartic
"Whipping Post".
- The Allman Brothers Band Eat
a Peach Capricorn 314531 261-2. More ABB.
Duane Allman got killed in a motorcycle accident during recording.
Eat a Peach is a collection of live tracks and some of those
last session. Another Gregg track "Melissa" stands
out as does the blusey live version of "Stand Back".
- Built to Spill Live
Warner Brothers 9 47616-2. Christ they were loud live.
Live covers recordings from last year's tour including long
guitar rambles such as "Broken Chairs" and Neil Young's
"Cortez the Killer".
- Red House Painters s/t
4AD GAD 3008. Antidote to Doug Martsch and BtS.
- Trans Am Who do we think you
are? Spunk URA 006. (Australian tour EP) Trans
Am were also loud - there's a loudness problem at the 9:30.
This is a strange collection of evil beats and guitar freakouts.
Live in support of Mouse on Mars they were strange.
- Yoshinori Sunahara Pan Am
The Sound of '70s Bungalow bung 070. ... according
to some Japanese studio wizard. A fine example of that ilk.
- Calexico Hot Rail
Quarterstick Qs62CD. Absolutely fabulous. There's
no other way to describe this eclectic south-western concoction.
Mariachi bands, field recordings, accordion, pedal steel and what-nots.
This is alt.country at its finest. Calexico are Giant Sand
minus Howe Gelb apparently.
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