A thread for random thoughts about music (Volume 2, Electric Boogaloo)

I hereby declare the banjo as the instrument of the '00s.

Much like the accordian became the bane....erm, instrument of the 80s (what with the whole roots rock revival, zydeco mini-craze, Weird Al, etc.) the banjo is now appearing in a band near you: Iron & Wine, Sufjan Stevens, Broken Social Scene, Bright Eyes, Modest Mouse....don't make me go on.

Now, in honor of this instrument of the inbred, I give you a celebratory haiku:

Moon-faced and Be-pluck'd,
Oh Banjo, Who Knew Your Fate?
Only Steve Martin.

 

Hmmmm... what album is that on? I'd like to hear it, I love that song.

 

it's on the major leagues single as well as on or two matador compilations.

 

is there a more satisfying yet offensive song than "Bullet" by the Misfits? Love that one.

 

My latest purchase, The Hong Kong's Rock the Faces, has eight songs and is a little under 25 minutes long. For me, that's perfect. So, I'd just like to take a brief moment to praise the "short LP." I'm not talking about the four or five song EP. I'm talking about the album that has eight to ten songs and clocks in at around 30 minutes. Perhaps I suffer from ADHD, but I'm tired of artists feeling that they need to fill up an album with 70 to 80 minutes worth of music with half of the songs being mediocre to terrible.

 

You'd love the Elefant Disc. Ten songs, just over 32 minutes. Not one poor song on it.

 

Mine's always "Last Caress".

 

When I was driving home last night from the Nats game I heard Chumbawamba's "On eBay" -- who gave them the right to have a second decent song?

 

I started off the radio show I did yesterday with two songs off Gram Parsons' GP/Return of the Grievous Angel. Which got me thinking: is Emmylou Harris still one of the most preternaturally beautiful women around, or what? And what a voice. She's been around longer than I've been alive and I just don't know where to begin with her stuff.

 

http://www.thewebshite.co.uk/fish.htm

 

The gray gives her an attractive "wild child" look, like she weathered the storm and came out stronger as a result.

 

I don't know how in the hell there was ever an argument about which Shins album is better.

"Oh, Inverted World" is good....but "Chutes Too Narrow" absolutley blows it away.



That is all.

 

It amazes me that Love Spit love really only had one great song. "Am I Wrong." The rest is pretty much crap.

 

This is a week old, but I think Donald Leslie -- the man who gave the whirrr to the Hammond B-3 -- deserves a shout out:


Donald Leslie, creator of the Leslie keyboard speaker, dies at 93

LOS ANGELES - Donald James Leslie, who created and manufactured a speaker that refined the sound of the Hammond organ and helped popularize electronic music, has died. He was 93.
....

Leslie was captivated with the sound of the Hammond organ when he heard it at a Barker Bros. furniture store in downtown Los Angeles, where he worked repairing radios. In the store's large showroom, the organ introduced in 1935 sounded much like a theater or church pipe organ.

However, Leslie, was unimpressed with the organ's sound quality in the confined spaces of his home.

He began tinkering with devices to make the instrument sound more like labyrinthine pipe organs....




The magic ingredient? The spinning speakers . . . .



Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff, Joey DeFrancesco, Richard "Groove" Holmes, Lonnie Smith, Medeski Martin & Wood and millions of others say "Thank You, Mr. Leslie."

 

I'll be damned if "The Different Story (The World of Lust & Crime)" by Peter Schilling doesn't sound one hell of a lot like "True Faith" by New Order.

 

I must be desperate for the verve to reunite. Why? because Waiting for the Sun by The Shore is one of my favorite songs of the moment. And it sounds like nothing more than a watered down Urban Hymns outtake.

 

I can't remember a year like this where I've heard so many new acts that I loved -- Franz Ferdinand, The Killers, M83, Secret Machines, and now the new Radio 4 are all insanely good. And to top things off, we get the Patron Saint of the BSMTVM Board, Ted Leo, with a new album in October. None of it is particularly original but I couldn't care less.

About the only thing that's been disappointing this year are the cuts I've heard from the Mooney Suzuki's Alive and Amplified, but I'll probably still buy it eventually.

 

Add to that list for me; the delays, elefant, and a triumphant return by trash can sinatras and I have the same feelings as you bout 2004.

 

Couldn't agree with you more. 2004 has been a banner year so far. I'd add Ambulance Ltd., The Hong Kong, The Cardigans, and Federico Aubele to your list. And don't forget -- we have the new Interpol album coming at the end of the month.

 

Deal. What do you want on what I send you, considering you own everything already?

I forgot TV On The Radio on my first list, and I wasn't even getting into music from established artists -- the Loretta Lynn album is incredible, as is the final (?) GBV album.

But man, I'm listening to the new Radio 4 right now, and it's drop-dead great. "Shake The Foundation" is another song of the year candidate -- there's a bit of Gang of Four, a bit of Joe Jackson. Butt-shaking rock all around. When I saw them a few years ago opening for The Shins at Maxwell's, I thought they were pleasant enough but nothing like this.

 

For the first time in what seems like ages, I bought CDs, like the kind that already has music burned on it, from an actual brick and mortar store where cash is exchanged directly from customer to store employee, and credit cards are physically read by scanners. That was quite a rush.

Got the Garden State soundtrack and the new Northern State (neither was available in full form at the iTunes store). Both $10.99+tax, both excellent.