Oh, to be Young Again!

He was a child.

When I think of songwriting genius, names like Bob Dylan, Neil Young and John Prine come to mind first. And I use the word genius especially because they have managed to create brilliant music and lyrics over a sustained period of time, from a pretty limited set of chords/melodies/vocabulary/instrumentation.

When I think of powerful rock n roll, names like Neil Young, the Stones, the Clash are near the top.

As you can see, one name appears in both groups, so as you might imagine I find myself looking for newer artists who emulate artists like Neil Young, who, using a limited palette, somehow infuse their music with both great power and beauty nonetheless.

During the early 70s everyone was looking for the "New Dylan". Now we may be looking for a New Neil Young without even knowing it. We should have started a while ago, but here we are.

The following three artists have gotten me thinking of them as possible new Neil Youngs. Here are my thoughts on their latest albums:

MJ Lenderman: Manning Fireworks (2024)

I'd run into this guy a couple of years ago as part of Wednesday, which, if anything, sounds more like Neil Young than he does alone. And while their guitars delivered an overwhelming intensity, the melodies were less forthcoming. Neil wouldn't make that mistake. 

MJ himself has put out five solo records, and this is his latest. He's more laconic and more country than Wednesday. His singing style makes Neil seem like one of the Three Tenors. The lyrics pretend to be about nothing much, which makes them interesting. He almost dares you to not like him.

He plays a rudimentary style of lead guitar, much like Young, but doesn't make it a central part of his performance. The songs aren't as immediately catchy as Young's, either, but they do grow on you. 

Overall, less assaultive and more tuneful than Wednesday. Instead of a bunch of drunks in a bar fight, there's just one drunk minding his business. But he is still drunk.

B+

Wussy: Cincinnati Ohio (2024)

With both a male and female vocalist, Wussy covers Neil Young's vocal range. Their first album, Funeral Dress, was ragged, with electric guitars up front, interspersed with beautiful songs, and one of the best albums of the aughts. I thought of it as the Neil Young comeback album he never quite got around to making.

My next Wussy album was Attica! It was a bit more polished while simultaneously leaning even more heavily into droning guitar noise. Like Funeral Dress, it contained at least two or three masterpieces, but here they stand apart from the noise.

This time, the tone is hushed, in keeping with the sudden death of guitar player John Ernhart in 2020. Atmospheric and reverential, with vocals that no longer snarl, it captures the loss of a comrade in all its shock and confusion, and unlike certain other people they don't use it as an excuse to drown themselves in drugs and alcohol doing it, even if a better album came out of it.

Wussy now appears to have chosen a different path and is, thus,, less likely to be compared to Neil Young. And that's okay. Ultimately, it's about quality, and Wussy provides that in spades.

A-

Waxahatchee: Tiger's Blood (2024)

Meanwhile, this "band" (really just Kate Crutchfield and whoever she's playing with at the moment) doesn't have such aspirations or obvious similarities to Young. However, where she matches him most closely is her knack for tunes. I held off a while on getting this one, thinking, because I'd already loved Out in the Storm and liked the later St. Cloud, her songwriting might not keep up the pace she set for herself, especially since she's also done other records in addition to her solo stuff.

But that's not the case at all. I was pleasantly surprised that this one is a melodic rebound from St Cloud. The vocals are stronger, too, as is the production.

She did rock n' roll proud on Out in The Storm, and did the same for folk/country on St. Cloud. Now, with Tiger's Blood, which occupies a middle ground between those two records, she may have outdone herself. God only knows what I've missed on her other albums.

In songwriting, hooks, singing, simplicity, and most of all, consistency, she comes closest to Neil Young in spirit if not actual sound. 

And that's good enough for me.

A

Fifth Annual Jaybee-bies, or, 2015, I Want My Money Back

Looking for My Receipt:

I’m finally getting around to my 2015 round up. Just before people forget there was a 2015, I hope.

It was a long, frustrating year, where I got about forty albums and very, very few of them managed to bowl me over. I was beginning to think I was losing my taste for music.

And other things. It took Mrs. Jaybee to remind me of that wonderful trip to Italy and Son Michael’s graduation (more on him later) that it wasn’t such a bad year after all.

But still, musically, I’m left a little less than ecstatic, and I’m looking for my receipt for 2015 so that I can return it.


My Ears Are Bigger Than My Head (Literally True!)

Dear 2015, it’s not you, it’s me.

You see, I’m in a cycle that goes like this:

I buy a lot of music.
I lean towards exploration instead of the familiar.
Then I complain that nothing hitd me right away.
So I go and get more music to make up for that.

This is dumb. (And may be a poem, too.) I mean, what did I expect?

But then I think about an individual song or album I have that I feel very lucky to have. Then I think about how many records I have that fit that description. You’d think there would be enough of it by now. Apparently not.

And really, how much do I need? I still haven’t answered that question satisfactorily. And even if 2015 was disappointing, I can’t imagine not getting new music in 2016.


Lack of Resolution:

So How Did I Do with My 2015 Resolutions?  Great, because I didn’t make any, having so resoundly failed on my 2014 ones. I even repeated those failures in 2015:  More new music than ever, 75% of it CDs (thanks to my amazon.com boycott) which now having taken over the CD rack completely, are expanding blitzkrieg-like into the bookshelf,

I did manage four records from 2015, two of them thanks to son Michael. One he bought and one he made!

So, no resolutions. They - along with self improvement in general - are way overrated.


Second Thoughts, or Regrets? I’ve Had a Few:

I gave all my 2015 records another listen to see if I’ve changed my mind about anything. Especially the ones that disappointed me. Mostly no.

Ex Hex: Rips - Expertly played punk/hard rock I could swear I heard before and probably did so why bother?

The Smiths: The Queen is Dead - Thanks guys, but I had all the good songs already. link

The Clean: Anthology Almost ditto link.  Every (well, almost every) cut is unique and worthwhile, but by the middle of the second disk I feel as though I’ve been left to wander the wilds of New Zealand without a guide. It can be fun, but there may be better things to do. (Ocean of Sound is kind of like that too, but since the whole point of that record is to get lost, it wouldn’t be fair to criticize it for that).

Music from the HBO Film As You Like It - A lovely main theme sprinkled repetitively throughout “movie music”. I probably would have been fine with getting the individual track. (An idea whose time has come, by the way. Buy more individual songs, thus avoiding disappointing albums. Hey, I've got a resolution after all!)  Not bad, mind you. Just nothing I’d reach out to because I’m never in the mood for it.


Top Tens(e):

While patting myself on the back that I managed a handful of actual 2015 albums this year, it’s still pretty paltry compared to Nutboy’s list. He to 2015 and managed seven (7. Josh Ritter - Sermons on the Mount, 6. Blur - Magic Whip, 5. Craig Finn - Faith in the Future, 4. Wilco - Star Wars 3. Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit, 2. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie and Lowell, 1. Bob Dylan - The Cutting Edge . Vol.12)

He did the same with movies, too.  (10. Inside Out ..  9. Sicario  8. Love and Mercy  7. Steve Jobs  6. Creed  5. Spotlight   4. Amy   3. The Revenant  2. The Big Short  1. Mad Max - Fury Road)

I only managed to see two movies this year. (Another resolution. Get out more!)

I’d hit back with a top ten list of books (none from 2015 though) but I suspect he just didn’t bother to show off. The man really ought to have a blog, but he’s too busy with current year music and movies (ie, having a life, hmmm, another resolution here?)

Anyway, here are my albums of my 2015:

1. Sufjan Stevens: Carrie and Lowell  (2015)  
2. Various Artists: Ocean of Sound (1996) 
3. Howlin’ Wolf : Howlin’ Wolf  (1962)  
4. Aretha Franklin: I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You (1967) 
5. Courtney Barnett: Sometimes I Just Sit and Think…. (2015)  
6. Michael Burns: Mountain Mover EP  (2015)
7. Yo La Tengo: And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out (2000) 
8. Brian Eno & John Cale: Wrong Way Up (1990)  
9. Howlin’ Wolf: Moanin’ in the Moonlight (1962)  
10. and tied for tenth place Various Artists: Music from Shutter Island (2010), Yo La Tengo: Fakebook (1990), Withered Hand: New Gods (2014), Brian Eno/Harold Budd: The Pearl (1984), Wussy: Attica! (2014), Brian Eno/Daniel Lanois/Roger Eno: Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks (1983)

Top Songs:
Mike Burns: “Mountain Mover”
Sufjan Stevens: “The Only Thing”
Sufjan Stevens: “Fourth of July”
Coutney Barnett: “Debbie Downer”
Courtney Barnett: "Nobody Really Cares If you Don’t Go to the Party”
Brian Eno/John Cale: “Lay My Love”
Brian Eno/John Cale: “Been There, Done That”
Dinah Washington/Max Richter: “This Bitter Earth/On the Nature of Daylight” 
Yo La Tengo: "The Summer"
Yo La Tengo: "You Tore Me Down"
Yo La Tengo: "Deeper Into Movies"
Massive Attack: "Hymn of the Big Wheel"
The War on Drugs: "In Reverse"
Patrick Doyle: "Violin Romance"


Some Observations:

Familiar music suffers in comparison to new music simply because it can’t have the same impact on me any more. Otherwise Aretha and Howlin Wolf might be all over the top of the list.

Very good music in my favorite genres (pop, rock n’ roll) outdoes obviously great music in other genres (R&B), again impacting Franklin and Wolf.

I’m getting more and more music for less and less money, but have a sneaking suspicion that the musicians themselves are getting less and less a share of it..

I’ve prided myself on opting for the new - getting an album by a new artist rather than one by one I’m already familiar with. This is educational, and leads me to new discoveries. But dang it, it’s not always as much fun.


The Year of What?

So what was 2015 the “year of” for me?

In a way, it was the Year of Music to Go to Bed To. Not Music to Have Sex By mind you. Music to listen to while reading in bed and about to go to sleep. There was a ton of stuff that fit this category : Ocean of Sound, The Pearl, And Then Nothing…, Stuff Like That There, Neu!, As You Like It, Shutter Island The list goes on.

The Year of Aretha? You’d think so.  I got five Aretha Franklin albums in a single shot. (For $10 no less) They range from classic to very good.  That’s pretty good, right?  But those first two observations above knock her down a bit.

The Year of Yo La Tengo? Three albums ranging from nearly great to very good. And an almost transcendent show.  Christ, I even met them. But not quite.


The Year of the Tribute Band? 

Here’s my original take on why I find tribute bands - in principal - appalling.

The bottom line is, why would I want to pay to hear something like the music I like when I could listen to exactly the music I liked for free? If you want to hear a band, go put the record on. (Oh, come on, I know you have them!)

But I was underestimating the communal aspect of things. How better to enjoy music than with other like-minded people?

And besides, in two instances it inspired me to get more music by the artist. Once with a happy ending and once not so much. But the good more than made up for it.

• The Smiths - A cover band that inspired me to get The Queen is Dead. Good show. Disappointing record.
• PJ Harvey - Various artists did a tribute to Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea - A great album to hear played live, but since Mrs. Jaybee can’t stand Harvey I had to see this one alone. 
• The Beatles - The Fab Faux at the City Winery on New Years Eve. It could have been a big let down and even boring, but it was neither. A very emotional musical highlight of the year. And let’s face it. Every year since 1963 has been the Year of the Beatles, as far as I’m concerned. So that wouldn’t make 2015 unique, would it?
• Brian Eno - Music for Enophiles, covering Eno’s semi-poppish 1974-79 period.  Me and Mrs. Jaybee had a great time at this show. We were hearing songs live that we hadn’t heard even on record for years. And it inspired me to go even deeper into Eno’s catalogue.

Which made 2015 the Year of Brian Eno, of course.

We'll talk.

I Shall Be Relieved!

“I like this one better”, says Mrs. Jaybee.  Sacrilegious! But I’ve already gotten ahead of myself.


It was the low point of the year. When I was huddled up inside the house because the weather was so oppressive and I was suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder.

The Summer.

I was grudgingly enjoying the music I was listening to but nothing was hitting me over the head immediately. And by this point I was now sort of desperate to get to something that would hit me in my bones. All I wanted was something that would grab me from the very first listen. Was that so much to ask? Why can’t I ever just put a new record on and get blown away from the get go?

So I went with a band that had done exactly that back in oh, 2006, with their last decade's almost best debut album Funeral Dress.

Alas, this one is barely in the top ten of this year.



Wussy: Attica! (2014)

This is a very good record, but a disappointment in the way that a band that’s made a great album in the past can disappoint you when they only make a very good one.

Funeral Dress was an obviously great album from the very first listen. This one isn’t and as such I was very disappointed. But over time it’s showing it’s strengths, which are many. And there are even a couple of new classics. It just took time to believe they were genuine. They are.

So back to Mrs. Jaybee.

It had been a couple of months since I got Attica!. I was liking it by now and giving it another perfunctory try so that it might move from like to love.

That’s when she told me she preferred it to Funeral Dress. I mean, what the f*ck? I know we’re in this “for better or worse”, but I wasn’t counting on a musical difference of opinion of this magnitude!


So, who are these guys, anyway? Allmusic.com is no help, with barely a bio or an album write up.

But what I do know is that Chuck Cleaver came from a 90s rock band called the Ass Ponys, and Lisa Walker sprung from the head of Zeus for all I know. But she sings and writes like vintage Neil Young.

And herein may lie my problem. Funeral Dress managed to be simultaneously rough and beautiful a la the aforementioned NY. But Attica! ups the ante with the rough - the guitars are even louder than before - and it takes time for the songs to catch up.

But I have no doubt that someone who gets this record without having heard anything else by Wussy will be quite happy with it.

And with Neil Young no longer in his prime, we could do a lot worse than Wussy.

Lisa would do him proud. I hope he gets to hear her.

A-

"Home"

The 00s, or, Why I Aughtta...

Delayed Reactions:

At family gatherings, my dear old dad had the curious habit of reviving topics that we had finished discussing the hour before. At 4pm, let’s say, we would be discussing how the local football team sucked, but by five we’d have moved onto how the local baseball team sucked. Just as we’d be ripping into an overpaid leftfielder dad would bring up the overpaid quarterback again, and suddenly we’d all be back on football.

Well I’m getting more like my dad all the time. Young folks listen to music, decide what’s a hit, and move on to the next thing. With radio being the big waste of time it is, and me with my so-called adult life, I don’t even hear about that music until the next year when the annual-best-of polls come out. (But now, thanks to metacritic.com, I at least know what people think when it first comes out.)

It’s that time lag that kept me from getting a CD from this decade until late 2001. So there I am, pretending to be cool by advocating music that the target demographic has long since finished with, and that my demographic couldn’t care less about.

Now add to that the fact that I’m still catching up on other decades (not to mention centuries), and it means that a lot of my musical highlights came from other decades:

• The 90s: The Magnetic Fields’ “69 Love Songs”, Randy Newman’s “Faust”, Luna’s “Penthouse” and Belle and Sebastian’s “Tigermilk”
• The 80s: Nothing. Screw you, 80s.
• The 70s: Richard & Linda Thompson’s “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight”, Nick Drake’s “Five Leaves Left” and “Pink Moon”
• The 60s: Brian Wilson’s “Smile”, The Zombies’ “Odyssey and Oracle”
• The 50s: John Coltrane/Thelonious Monk Quartet - Live at Carnegie Hall

Then there is my lifetime self improvement project, resulting in my getting some great compilations of Hank Williams, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Johnny Cash, Scott Joplin, Louis Armstrong, and Igor Stravinsky. And let’s not forget “Nuggets”.

My reactions to music outside of my favorite genres – rock/pop – can sound more appreciative than enthusiastic. Sorry, it just takes me more time to learn the new territory. Here are ten records - jazz/hip-hop/world/classical - that I’ve probably underrated out of sheer density.

• Jazz: Benny Goodman’s “Famous Carnegie Hall Concert”
• Hip Hop: Kanye West’s “The College Dropout”, Burial’s “Untrue”, De la Soul’s “Three Feet High and Rising”
• World: “The Music In My Head”, “Rough Guide to Youssou N’Dour and Etoile Dakar”
• Classical: Mozart’s and Brahm’s Requiems, Mahler’s Second Symphony,
• Country: James Tally’s “Got No Money, No Bread, But We Sure Got a Lot of Love”

If you care to know all the dirty details of my musical decade, check out these posts: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009.

Quick Jaybee, Before It’s 2019:

If I winnow it all down to just those records I got this decade that actually came out this decade, and that I love without reservation, they are, no particular order:

Old 97s - Satellite Rides

Good old alt-country-ish rock and roll from start to finish. The voice and lyrics are a bonus.

Fountains of Wayne – Welcome Interstate Managers

Perfect pop songs, about real life.

Shins – Chutes Too Narrow

Tunes up the wazoo, with a couple of the decade’s greatest songs.

Sufjan Stevens - Illinois

Ditto with the tunes, but more orchestration. And at least three of the best songs of the decade.

Arcade Fire - Funeral

So full of passion, you don’t quite believe it. But they mean it, man.

Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

What a voice! And how beautiful is that spare sound.

The Go Betweens – Oceans Apart

Getting older, looking back, just in time.

Badly Drawn Boy – The Hour of Bewilderbeast

A White Album for our decade.

PJ Harvey - Stories of the City, Stories of the Sea

“I feel immortal when I’m with you.”

Wussy - Funeral Dress

“And if they offered I would take it, a free ride out of this place…”

Honorable Mentions/Bronze Medals/Ms. Congenialities:

These records are great! but maybe not GREAT. That’s okay. We’d all like to meet Abe Lincoln, but we probably don’t want to spend the whole party with him:

The Wrens “The Meadowlands”, The Flaming Lips’ “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots”, Orlando Lopez’s “Cachaito”, The Red Hot Chili Peppers “By the Way”, Modest Mouse’s “Good News for People Who Like Bad News”, Orchestre Baobab’s “Specialists in all Styles”, The Streets “A Grand Don’t Come for Free”, Radiohead’s “Kid A” and “In Rainbows”.

And just to give this some context, here’s a sampling of what some major news outlets said:

Rolling Stone

Paste Magazine

Robert Christgau
Metacritic

NME (if you want to hear what's going on across the pond)

Going Forward:

There was a hell of a lot more to this decade than just music. Not all of it good, by any means. But music is my safe haven where magic happens - just a simulation of life’s real joys, which unfortunately can’t be burned onto a CD to be played at will. Music can, however, reminder me that those joys do exist. Sometimes I forget.

Sometimes music lets me down. It happens when I’ve asked more from it than it can possibly provide. I begin to think that I’m done with it, and that in the new decade I’ll be looking elsewhere (Books? Art? Other human beings, perhaps?) for magic. But then those decade-end polls just whet my appetite all over again.

It’s good to be alive, for any number of reasons. Music is definitely one of them.

Decade: 2008 - Highway '08 Revisited

Why look back? After all, I got everything exactly right, of course. But one could add:

Modest Mouse turns out to be the weird friend (from Seattle, not the Midwest) who you just can’t help but like. They’ve got staying power.

My Morning Jacket wore me down a little. His voice isn’t as annoying when he isn't straining.

My first impression of Wussy was right on. The guitars, singing and songwriting come together to make for a powerful record.

Which, in sum, makes the 2008 pantheon look something like this:

Loved:

Wussy

Liked:

Modest Mouse

Charlie Parker

Nuggets

New Pornographers

Django Reinhardt

Le Tigre

Now, let's get ready for '09!