393. THE JAYHAWKS - Rainy Day Music An album I thought was okay when it first came out. 2 years later, it's growing on me more and more with each listen. There are some fine tracks on this disc. Their last studio album. At least they went out strong unlike a lot of groups.
394. ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST ORTHODOX CHURCH CHANTERS - Byzantine Hymns in Arabic The title pretty much says it all. Arabic is a very powerful sounding language and hearing these hymns in Arabic in the Byzantine tone system (a powerful music theory) makes for some awe inspiring music. Great stuff. This church is in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
395. JACK JOHNSON - Brushfire Fairytales Jack gets quickly dismissed by a lot of people for having some radio-friendly hits. The "deep cuts" on his albums are quite thoughtful, chill, have good lyrics and have some very interesting acoustic guitar work. There's some great songs on this disc.
396. JACK JOHNSON - On and On A lot of people don't like this disc as much as the first one, but to me, it's every bit as good. The songs seem a bit more focused to me and the super chill vibe is just awesome.
397. JACK JOHNSON, DONOVAN FRANKENREITER & G. LOVE - Some Live Songs Acoustic EP featuring three guys that are all friends with each other playing on each other's tunes. They play together in various combinations on the tunes.
398. JACK JOHNSON - In Between Dreams New album that's only been out a few weeks. I've only listened to it a handful of times. It's good, and will probably grow on me, but I prefer to two previous one so far. The songs are a bit shorter and more pop-ish at times.
another out of alpha one.... 399. GRATEFUL DEAD - Dick's Picks 21: Richmond, VA: 11/1/85 While the 80s weren't my favorite period of the Dead's music, I'm getting a newfound appreciation for it. They did some really interesting stuff in the 80s improv wise and they introduced some amazing tunes into their repertoire. Disc One: Dancing In The Streets (6:52) Cold Rain and Snow (7:31) Little Red Rooster (8:22) Stagger Lee (5:56) Me And My Uncle (3:04) Big River (6:19) Brown-Eyed Woman (4:55) Jack Straw (5:25) Don't Ease Me In (3:14) Disc Two: Samson and Delilah (7:35) High Time (8:44) He's Gone (11:07) Spoonful (4:55) Comes A Time (8:26) Lost Sailor (7:28) Drums (9:03) Disc Three Space (11:27) Saint Of Circumstance (6:53) Gimme Some Lovin' (4:28) She Belongs To Me (7:54) Gloria (6:52) Keep Your Day Job (4:11) filler: Community War Memorial - Rochester, NY 9/2/80 Space (8:33) Iko Iko (7:46) Morning Dew (11:06) Sugar Magnolia (9:14)
Ok, I just went through the whole thread and it had my wallet whimpering with the thought of so many CD's being added to my wish list! Overlap count = 15 Overlap count including different recordings of same classical works = 23 Anyway, this is a wonderful, eclectic collection. Keep the posts coming -- I like the reviews! Oh, and no more stories about taking hot classical musicians out to dinner. I'm envious enough just looking at the CD's!
400. DAMIEN JURADO - Water Ave S. "Urban-folk" is a tag I've seen put on Jurado before and I've also seen him branded a shoegazer. He's got an interesting mix of sad introspection and light-heartedness. I guess he's kind of like a real person with a full range of emotions. This is his debut record. Good, but only a glimpse of the greatness that was to come.
401. DAMIEN JURADO - Ghost of David This is the album most people hold up as his best work, but I'm not drawn to it as much as I am more recent work. Still quite good though.
402. DAMIEN JURADO & GATHERED IN SONG - I Break Chairs Jurado teams up with some pals to make this record. Lineup also includes David Bazan of Pedro the Lion. This is the first record of his that I picked up and it was probably an odd place to start since it's a collaboration project. This is my 2nd favorite of the stuff I own and I dig it mucho.
403. DAMIEN JURADO - Where Shall You Take Me? My favorite Jurado disc of the ones I own. Most of the songs are pretty slow, and lyrically quite intense. An album I listen to again and again and again. The one disc of his I've heard so far that I would qualify as amazing.
In some kind of unexplainable stupidity, I left four CDs out (bound to happen I guess with the quantity.) Time to add those in....
404. NORAH JONES - Come Away With Me 405. NORAH JONES - Feels Like Home Both contributions to the collection are my wife's. She likes Norah a lot. I tolerate her because it's not so bad and Norah's kind of hot and her voice is pretty good. It's good "rainy day music" and good "sleeping music." By "sleeping music" I mean music to lounge in bed to, not that it puts me to sleep, but if it does, it's more in the lullaby sense than the "it's boring" sense. I think the second album doesn't sound terribly different from the first, but I like the first one better.
406. PAUL "WINE" JONES - Mule Gritty, nasty Mississippi blues. I saw this guy in Birmingham shortly before moving to Florida. It was one of the loudest shows I've ever seen. The guy nearly blew the dang doors off of the venue with both volume and intensity. It was one of those weird, late night Birmingham shows. Jones came on about 1 AM (it was a Tuesday I think...basically not the weekend) and played well into the night. The crowd wasn't big, but all in attendance were entranced and just lapping it up. Jones apparently used to be a welder that would only play as far away as he could be sure of being able to get to work the next morning. I think he's full time musician now and has put two records out that don't even remotely capture the intensity of the live show. This record has some good tunes on it though. Do all in your power to see him live if he's in a town near you.
407. PAUL "WINE" JONES - Pucker Up Buttercup This record is a little more modern and even rawer than Mule. It's his newest disc and it's six years old. Hopefully he'll put another out one of these days. I can't state it emphatically enough, see the live show if you can. My wife, who doesn't get all geeked out about music and concerts and stuff still talks about this one to this day.
408. LED KAAPANA - Black Sand Hawaiian slack key guitar music. A lot of Hawaiian music is cliche and tacky, but there's also guys that are doing the real thing. Kaapana is one of them. Good album of instrumental stuff.
409. LED KAAPANA & BOB BROZMAN - In the Saddle You have to get past these bad album covers. The guys can play. Good stuff. Slack key guitar and slide stuff. Brozman just about never fails.
410. KARSH KALE - Realize Indian electronic music. So much of this stuff is cheesy, but Kale's doing some good work. I think he lives in San Francisco and DJs at a lot of the South Asian clubs in addition to doing his own band's stuff. He plays with Zakir Hussain, Tabla Beat Science, Bill Laswell and others. This disc took me a while to get into, but I dig it now. edit: just realized the Golden Gate Bridge in the background for the first time. I'm reaaaaaaaaaaaally observant sometimes.
411. KARSH KALE - Liberation Karsh's second full length of new material. Good also, haven't listened to it as much as the first. I really miss being on this label's promo mailing list.
412. KAYHAN KALHOR - Scattering Stars Like Dust Kalhor plays the kemencheh, which is a spiked fiddle native to Persia. Hauntingly beautiful music. Great player, one of the most incredible discs I own. Promoted a show he took part in. Nice guy with a reserved, but good sense of humor. Loves Chinese food too. Wanted it just about every meal.