What other music are you listening to? #9

[Steve Reynolds]

Giant Sand: Long Stem Rant

[john williams]

Wire: Pink Flag

Pere Ubu: Why I Hate Women

I love both of those. New Ubu imminent.

np



Just got this. Shouldn't really play it on my work PC but I couldn't wait. Great so far.

[john williams]

[Pete C]

[Jeffrey Wozniak]

Got this in the mail this week. This guys command of the instrument should be the model for any aspiring musician.

Then again, it may also cause aspring musicians to throw their axes in the lake knowing they will never be that good no matter how hard they try.

[Steve Reynolds]

The Fall: Your Future Our Clutter

[baksheesh]

stoney - they are ahead of now - the last half of Tago Mago is beyond any time, I think.

even Monster Movie from the late 60's which has a more dated sound is so damn great who really cares??? - try Father Cannot Yell at full volume about 3 or 4 times in a row....

but the drumming on the classic Yoo Doo Right is soemthing I have never heard any other drummer approximate or even try to imitate - pre and post techo electronica all at once?

For me those 4 recordings - Monster Movie, Tago Mago, Ege Bamyasi & Future Days (as well as parts of Soundtracks and Delay 1968) are as great a run as any rock band has ever made. And they are all unique from each other.


me - Radiohead - King of Limbs....

Couldn't agree more there steve!
What's your take on the new Radiohead by the way? I haven't got around to acquiring it yet...

[baksheesh]

Ali Farka Toure - Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 - wonderful boots, of very early Toure, not sure if the distortion is deliberate, or just a result of the lo-fi recording but it sounds wonderful - very hard edged and in your face. The cat could groove his ass off when he wanted, and of course that wonderful sounding Arabic style percussion - probably a tabl (the ancestor of the tabla as some would have it, though I doubt that somewhat, thinking it more likely that it was just the pakhawaj chopped in two, as the Indians tell it)

[john williams]

[Steve Reynolds]

can I say non-plussed by King of Limbs?

lack of grit that made parts of In Rainbows my favorite Radiohead CD

[john williams]

King of Limbs is ok and does reveal its charms over time. However, I think it sounds more like a Thom Yorke solo album than a Radiohead album - See Eraser.

Played yesterday:

The Fall : The Unutterable

[baksheesh]

can I say non-plussed by King of Limbs?

lack of grit that made parts of In Rainbows my favorite Radiohead CD

Interesting take on In Rainbows - but it fits exactly my current take on 'Hail to the Thief' which has some of my most favourite 'head songs on. 'In Rainbows' is one I haven't listened to hardly at all, I don't really know why except it fell through the cracks of a 'not listening to Radiohead period'. One of the things that makes them so exceptional as a band is that ability to keep coming out with stuff that you often have to make an effort to engage with - never the same album twice.

King of Limbs is ok and does reveal its charms over time. However, I think it sounds more like a Thom Yorke solo album than a Radiohead album - See Eraser.

Played yesterday:

The Fall : The Unutterable

I really enjoyed 'Eraser' and the 'Spitting Feathers' EP, and I read more than most into remarks that Thom made before Kid A about rating Autechre's 'Chiastic Slide' as one of the great albums OAT. It's influence on their subsequent releases has been profound - which is a damn good thing, given how extraordinary Autechre are.


P.S. - Funnily I was listening to The Unutterable last week - thanks to you! - and really digging it. Chock full of great songs - 'Cyber Insekt', 'Hands Up Billy', 'W.B' - a stomping good riff, and 'Octo Realm/Ketamine Sun' a piece de resistance (at least the second half, after all the faffing about). Pretty much disproves the old saying 'can't teach an old dog new tricks'.
Wonderful, ballsy sound, a world away from the early stuff. Imagine the state of the mosh pit when this crew was touring!

[baksheesh]

Got hold of this whole series a while back thanks to a SoulSeek find with an extraordinary collection. Sublime music, wonderfully - to these ears - played. I plan on listening to the whole thing while reading The Glass Bead Game'.

[john williams]

Interesting take on In Rainbows - but it fits exactly my current take on 'Hail to the Thief' which has some of my most favourite 'head songs on. 'In Rainbows' is one I haven't listened to hardly at all, I don't really know why except it fell through the cracks of a 'not listening to Radiohead period'. One of the things that makes them so exceptional as a band is that ability to keep coming out with stuff that you often have to make an effort to engage with - never the same album twice.




I really enjoyed 'Eraser' and the 'Spitting Feathers' EP, and I read more than most into remarks that Thom made before Kid A about rating Autechre's 'Chiastic Slide' as one of the great albums OAT. It's influence on their subsequent releases has been profound - which is a damn good thing, given how extraordinary Autechre are.


P.S. - Funnily I was listening to The Unutterable last week - thanks to you! - and really digging it. Chock full of great songs - 'Cyber Insekt', 'Hands Up Billy', 'W.B' - a stomping good riff, and 'Octo Realm/Ketamine Sun' a piece de resistance (at least the second half, after all the faffing about). Pretty much disproves the old saying 'can't teach an old dog new tricks'.
Wonderful, ballsy sound, a world away from the early stuff. Imagine the state of the mosh pit when this crew was touring!

Yeah, I quite like Eraser too and King of Limbs reminds me of it quite a bit. I prefer KOL though. Nothing really shone through until about the third listen however.

Yep, The Unutterable is great. That album really stands out from those around it. There is something really bright and shiny about it. It's a very consistent record too, production and song quality wise. Many Fall albums tail off or have odd song orders. In many ways I prefer the previous two, The Marshall Suite and Levitate, but The Unutterable is finely crafted in every way. "Finely crafted" and "Fall albums" don't usually appear in the same sentence. RNFLP from 2003 is a bit like The Unutterable quality wise. The Fall did well in the 2000s. Their latest, Your Future, Our Clutter is ridiculously good too.


A blast from the past. Still makes me smile, even the naive politics.

[Steve Reynolds]

since I got a bad cold and couldn't make the Ehrlich-Anderson Quartet tonight I ordered a whole bunch of Pere Ubu today - Datapanik Box + Ray Gun Suitcase, Pennsylvania and St. Arkansas. I got the 2009 re-issue of the box set.

Did I do good, John?

also got Images by Brotzmann Tentet plus Ballad of a Thin Man and Purge and Slouch by Giant Sand and Chairs Missing by Wire.

all for $98 delivered.

[john williams]

since I got a bad cold and couldn't make the Ehrlich-Anderson Quartet tonight I ordered a whole bunch of Pere Ubu today - Datapanik Box + Ray Gun Suitcase, Pennsylvania and St. Arkansas. I got the 2009 re-issue of the box set.

Did I do good, John?

Oh yes. I hope you like them Steve. The Datapanik box is superb. It contains, amongst the first three albums in particular, their early singles which are indispensable. The fourth and fifth albums are a bit more difficult but I still like them. Terminal Drive is a really good intro to Cleveland Ubu related bands of the time. Ray Gun, Pennsylvania and St Arkansas is one of my favorite three album runs of all time. Fantastic. What I like about the first albums and the newer ones you picked is the use of the analog modular synths (and theremin on the later records). the mid period Ubu albums have more conventional keyboards by Eric Drew Feldman which are good in themselves, but Ubu's sound for me is somewhat defined by those analog blasts and theremin. I particularly like the theremin use on Ray Gun Suitcase.

[john williams]

Oh and I like Chairs Missing too. It's a toss up between that and 154 for my favourite Wire album. The new one Red Barked Tree is a nice return to form after the relatively bland Object 46.

np:



Earlier:

[Quiet One]

Other music I've also been listening to a little include: 2002, Enya, Seal and Des'ree.

[Steve Reynolds]

Pere Ubu: Ray Gun Suitcase & St. Arkansas


"I've Got a Vacuum Cleaner in My Head"


yeah baby

[Steve Reynolds]

Pere Ubu: Ray Gin Suitcase for the 3rd of 4th time - when I can stop playing the first 5 tunes...

David Thomas is my singer my guy my mind, I think...


at least the first 5 tracks are classics formerly unknown by me and unknown by most of the world


opener is an all-time tune - I wanna be your suitcase...I wanna be your ray gun....

louder louder louder

me needs a new car stereo


waiting for the Camaro or Mustang next Spring, I guess....

[john williams]

Yeah, it's great isn't it Steve? Pennsylvania is damn near perfect too.

However, Ray Gun Suitcase really grabs you by the throat. Folly of Youth is one of the great openers of all time.

Ray Gun Suitcase was a magnificent comeback after three comparatively mainstream pop records. I still enjoy all the mid period albums but after 1995 there was a serious return to form matching the quality set down on The Modern Dance and Dub Housing.

The Tenement Year is the only mid period album that comes close to matching the first two or three albums or Ray Gun Suitcase through Why I Hate Women. I actually listen to the later albums more often these days rather than the classic early records.

I love them all though - there's not a single Pere Ubu album I could part with.

[Steve Reynolds]

first few tracks from the Datapanik box...gonna take my time with this one


Giant Sand: Purge and Slouch

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

[john williams]

[Sergio Zamora]

[john williams]

[Steve Reynolds]

Pere Ubu: Pennsylvania

Giant Sand: Ballad of a Thin Line Man

[Steve Reynolds]

Big Star: Record # 1

[john williams]

US Maple : Long Hair in Three Stages

[john williams]

Hey Steve, Pennsylvania is one of my favorites.