Music To Do the Bills To

So far that street fair used record bin was turning out to be a big disappointment.  So I turned to my third choice, expecting the least.


Massive Attack: Blue Lines

Ah, the sound of 1990s Brits getting high and playing slow. Quiet storm, kind of, only on drugs with hip hop added in. (I can totally relate to all this!) Well, good luck to them.

Every heard of trip hop? It more or less starts here.

It’s not the best trip hop I’ve ever heard. That’s Tricky. So I was all set to dismiss this one based on my first listen, but these (no longer) young men won me over. They’re more fun, more funky and less arty than Portishead. And when they’re not fun, their misery is well earned. They’re also more tuneful than Burial. And not as scary as Tricky. Tricky can be very scary.

It’s ironic that music that’s most likely meant to be heard at night while in a trance in a dance club sounds better to me in the morning. Especially on a crappy day when I’m not in a good mood, like when I’m doing the bills. I’m sure they’d be appalled.

At first I thought there was no song here as good as “Protection” from their second record. But I take that back now. “Hymn of the Big Wheel” here is just as good. And despite it’s downer lyrics, the music is quite hopeful.

So these (no longer) young Brits with whom I have almost nothing in common made that time spent in the used-CD bin worthwhile.

B+

“Hymn of the Big Wheel”

X: You Are Here

There’s no telling what you’ll find in a used-CD rack at a street fair. It’s a great time to pick up those records that you’ve always been meaning to get but didn’t want to spend the bucks.

Sometimes you get disappointed with an overrated British band. And sometimes you get disappointed by a good American one.

So is the lesson to skip those street fairs? If so, I haven’t learned it yet.




X: Los Angeles

X reminded me of a punk version of Jefferson Airplane. At least the singing made them seem so. The John Doe/Exene Cervenka harmonies sound a hell of a lot like the Paul Kantner/Grace Slick ones. Except it’s John Doe singing the melodies and Exene adding the punk edge.

And that, of course, is where the similarities end.

They also have a tight, tight, tight guitar player Billy Zoom. (Jorma’s great, but Billy punches things home in a very powerful and concise manner. How about that? The punk guitar player is the sharper one, and the older guy a bit sloppier) And the well named drummer DJ Bonebreak keeping things moving real fast.

This debut album came out to great acclaim in 1980. I missed it at the time, but then did catch up with X with their next record, Wild Gift (also included on this single CD! So by definition it's a bargain.) which might be the greatest punk album ever.

But album one does suffer in comparison.  It’s not a bad record. It’s just that everything here sounds like a run up to Wild Gift.

And what the hell is the organ doing there, anyway? Ah, but I already know why. X hails from Los Angeles, which is also where the Doors were from. And guess who’s playing organ here? Yep, Ray Manzarek.

Now, I think it’s great that Ray appreciated X enough to want to produce them, and that X respected him right back enough to have him play on the record. (They also do a punk version of “Soul Kitchen”.) But it’s a nice gesture that adds nothing to the music. It takes the edge off, and turns what would have been a fine punk album into pretty good hard rock one.

Wild Gift, again, does it better. They keep Ray in the control booth this time, only referring to the Doors, rather obliquely, at the end of the last song: “...waiting for the son, for any son to come”, bringing the whole record to a perfect ending.

But there are good songs here. And who knows how I’d feel about it if I heard it first? Those that did prefer it to Wild Gift.

It just goes to show it all depends where you start. And where is that?  Right where you are.  And where is that?

X - You Are Here

B+

By the way, Wild Gift is an A, verging on an A+.

“The World’s a Mess, It’s in My Kiss”

So Normal, It's Weird

The musical year hadn’t been going so well. Oh, I’d been getting plenty of good, weird music but not so much good fun music. Good music that is both weird and fun at the same time seemed out of the question.

But I wasn’t even shooting for that. After Carrie and Lowell (good but definitely not fun) and Shutter Island (pretty much anti-fun) I just wanted a to have a good time. And I started to get a bit desperate about it.

I’m not exactly sure what drove me to go back to a couple of weirdos who got together to make some definitely-not-weird pop music.

While I’ve loved the Velvet Underground for a long time, I only checked out John Cale solo set a couple of years ago and found him to be a very talented if not brilliant.

I’ve been a fan of Eno’s for quite a while, too, but doubted that I’d find a lot of differences among his many, many, (many) ambient albums. And while often brilliant, you won’t play him during a party.

But together, who knows what they’d come up with?



John Cale and Brian Eno: Wrong Away Up

No ambient here. And after producing a few U2 records, Eno probably decided it was time to try his hand at pop music again. Hey, he thought, if they can do it, why can’t I?

So the rock and roll band isn’t that much of a surprise, but the singing sure is. The best you could usually hope for from Eno was a soft murmur, and Cale - a loud scream. But right off the bat, Eno projects on “Lay My Love” and several others, too.

And while Cale does hide behind a couple of quiet tunes here, he more than makes up for it by belting out “Been There, Done That”.  And he’s clearly having a good time. As anyone would be after having worked on a project with Lou Reed, which he had done shortly before this.

Another surprise is how tuneful the songs are. You usually get a lot of atmosphere from Eno and psychosis from Cale, but here it’s all about hummable tunes.

And after a whole bunch of fast bouncy songs, they have the wisdom to end on a quiet note.

So I finally get my fun. But it took a bit of time to sink in because I found the utter normality of it all to be kind of, well, weird.

So I ended up stumbling upon my holy grail of music - weird and fun together!

A-

“Lay My Love”

Smithstory Lesson

Back in May, Mrs. Jaybee and I caught a Smiths/Morrissey cover band at the Bell House and had such a nice time I decided it was time to finally break down and get a Smiths record.

Oh, we already had a couple of compilations that I later found out were not considered representative of the band’s best music.  

So which record would I get? How about the one that topped the 2013 NME 500 Greatest Albums of All Time poll? Seriously. They beat out the Beatles! (fill in your own favorite artist there if you like, but you’d be wrong. It's the Beatles.) Hilarious.

Those Brits are really weird sometimes, and it’s for such differences that we fought for our independence. Well, that’s how I remember it. Yes, I was there.


The Smiths: The Queen is Dead

And it’s okay. Kind of uneven, actually.

The Smiths were a tight - if a bit fussy - little band. With the bass and drums more than adequate, and  Johnny Marr’s guitar sterling all the way through, they stand or fall on how well Morrissey fits his words/voice/melodies into this scheme.

And, well, some tunes are better than others. Once I get past the songs I already know from the compilations, there’s only one or two others that even remotely compare to them. And Morrissey is more annoying than interesting.

So my supposedly lame compilations seemed to have pulled all the good songs from this supposed masterpiece. Maybe I should just stick with them.

So in the wars with the Brits, we kicked ass in 1776, happily surrendered in 1964, and somehow beat them in the 1980s when they managed to produce even worse music that we did.

Now that’s saying something.

B

“The Boy With the Thorn in His Side”

Having an Awful Time, Wish You Were Here

Just when I think I’ve driven Mrs. Jaybee to distraction with all the weird sounds I drag in from outside, she goes and out-weirds me.


Shutter Island: Music from the Motion Picture

Turns out Shutter Island is one of her favorite movies (that’s an entire post by itself, but never mind) and she particularly loved the closing theme.

Almost a sister record to Ocean of Sound in its ability to unnerve with unexpected sounds, it’s ultimately sadder (what a surprise!) and prettier (ditto, but without the sarcasm).

It even shares a cut with that record, which I’ve now listened to at least 30 times and still don’t quite hear, but that’s Eno for you). But whereas that record left you feeling weirded out but vaguely thrilled about the sounds our world can create, here the general tone is of dread about the worst this world can do to you.

So this record is Not Fun. Not at all.

It’s a put-it-on-and-go-read-or-something record. Otherwise, don’t blame me that you end up digging out the razor blades.

It starts with an ten minute piece called “Fog Tropes”, which makes sense if you’ve seen the movie. It’s the sound of a ship entering a harbor through the fog, somehow created through the use of several wind and brass instruments playing at a very low register. It’s perfect for the film, providing the right amount of foreboding, and manages to be an interesting piece of music, too.

There are several other modern classical pieces whose selection for this soundtrack seems based on their ability to unnerve you and provoke anxiety. They subtly vary the overall mood from fearful, resigned, desolate, and occasionally sublime.

Also mixed in are period hits from Johnny Ray, Kay Starr and Lonnie Johnson that keeps things from getting too cerebral. But don’t be fooled. They only intensify the mood.

The peak may be the beautiful “On the Nature of Daylight”, which is sad enough by itself, but when, at the end, it's combined with Dinah Washington’s “This Bitter Earth” with all the hope removed from it - the effect is devastating.

So if you’re the kind of person, like me, who is willing to dedicate a couple of precious hours on something that will ultimately make you feel awful (what? doesn’t everyone do that?), skip the TV for one night and listen up.

You’ll be sorry, but glad, you did.

A-

“This Bitter Earth/On the Nature of Daylight”

Geezer Goes to Rock Show, Gets Money’s Worth

When we last left off, Old Geezer Jaybee (a doubly redundant appellation if ever there was one) had a less than great time at a rock show. Less than great is still very good but Old Geezer Jaybee (heretofore labeled OGJ) spent good money on those seats and, dammit, he’s going to get his money’s worth. Every. Single. Dollar.

And woe be it to him or her that gets in his way, like that couple who were sort of necking (is that what the young folk call it these days?) and thus theoretically blocking Mrs. Jaybee’s view. Mrs. Jaybee was fine with it but that’s not the point! “Money’s worth” encompasses any and all members of the attending party. Luckily Mrs. Jaybee persuaded OGJ that she had an unobstructed view, thus preventing a scene.

The main problem, of course, was that OGJ hadn’t (notice how I’m talking about me like it’s some other loser?) familiarized himself sufficiently with the artist’s latest release. Plus, he had a beer, which, at his age means he’s going to fall asleep shortly. or get very cranky.

Even though he’d already spilt half of it on the brand new carpet at the beautifully restored Kings Theatre (even without going there you can tell it’s nice by the fancy way they spell theater) trying to navigate those elongated steps that no one can walk down gracefully to begin with,

This time around, he got water, and navigated those steps by avoiding them altogether. And most importantly, getting sufficiently familiar with Yo La Tengo’s latest album, as well as the earlier record it commemorates, and another one from 2000 for good measure.

And Yo La Tengo didn’t let him down.

But first, let’s talk about opener Nick Lowe.

It’s been about thirty five years since Nick first burst upon the scene. Oh, he’d been around far longer than that as part of Brinsley Schwarz. That’s when he wrote “What’s So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding”.  He made some classic solo records, like Pure Pop for Now People
and Labour of Lust, play with Rockpile and produce several Elvis Costello albums.

But since that time, he’s moved away from the fast, witty pop music he’s known for, opting for a slower, more acoustic sound.

And although his new music is less compelling than the old, Nick was always a charmer and could have gotten by on that alone. Luckily he mixed in new versions of some old songs, and was more than good enough. He was the perfect opener, actually.

And how about Yo La Tengo?

They were wonderful.

I was afraid that going acoustic might mean that everyone would be sitting down in a circle. It sounds nice and intimate, but it gets boring real fast.

But there they all were, standing right at the front of the stage. Even drummer Georgia Hubley, with the simplest drum kit possible - a la Maureen Tucker of the Velvet Underground. But unlike Tucker, tonight Georgia would be using brushes more than sticks, and singing.

I’m beginning to think Ira Kaplan only owns one T-shirt, since he seemed to be wearing the same one from the release party and the bio picture on allmusic.com. His noise guitar was totally absent this night. He was content to stick to acoustic and let Dave Schramm do the electric heavy lifting

And Dave Schramm - the prodigal son returning - was brilliant, providing the touch that would give these acoustic songs reach depth and punch.

Bassist James McNew - like he told me at the release party - played stand up bass and managed to sing fantastically while doing so. He was worried about doing both. You did great, James!

You don’t expect such great music from such down to earth people, but the band was totally committed to both the sound and spirit of the new record, About 75% of the show came from either Fakebook  or Stuff Like That There. I wasn’t familiar with the other 25% but it all sounded really good.

The highlight was “Deeper into Movies” - a rouser from I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One - done with quiet intensity. I could tell they were loving what they were doing. The crowd was loving it too.

I spent the whole time grinning like an idiot. I even knew it, but didn’t care.

The show ended with Nick Lowe joining YLT for a two-song encore. Nick picked one, and YLT the other. Ira dared the crowd to guess which was which but that was easy.

First came a slow mournful “Walk Away Renee”, which had to be Nick’s pick. Modest to a fault, of course he’d do someone else’s song. One that fit his current style well.

And the closer, picked by YLT?  Why, a Nick Lowe song, of course. “The Rollers Show”. Not done in the ebullient style of the original. It was slower, but joyful nonetheless. It was like a great big thank you to Nick for all the inspiration he’s given over his career.

The crowd walked away very satisfied.

And Old Geezer Jaybee, for once, was one with the crowd.



“The Roller Show”

Tengo!

Tengo!

Okay, so And Then Nothing..  is excellent and Fakebook is very good.

How’s the new one?

Stuff Like That There  

This is Yo La Tengo’s Harvest Moon. And in the same way that record commemorated Harvest, this one commemorates Fakebook, which brought together covers, remakes of Yo La Tengo songs and new originals.

It’s more muted and consistent in tone though. There’s nothing very fast or loud. The production is better because even though they sing and play quietly, the sound is sharp and clear.

It lacks the highest highs of the former. The difference between these two records is youthful exuberance vs. older contentment.  

The covers range from Hank Williams, Sun Ra, the Cure, the Lovin’ Spoonful and the Parliaments. Is that enough for you? And they manage to bring all of the disparate styles of the originals together into this very unified sounding record.

One of the weaknesses of Fakebook was Ira’s vocals, which sometimes weren’t up to the beauty of the songs. Here, Georgia is front and center and it works great! She sings just as softly, but it’s still singing, not whispering. She’s smooth as silk. Sort of like Astrud Gilberto.

I’m just now noticing now that the originals sprinkled throughout Fakebook are pretty great. The originals here are more of a piece with the overall tone and can fade into the background.  

And the highs of Fakebook were a little higher that the best stuff here, but that’s okay. There are no clunkers here.

And "Deeper into Movies" - a remake of one of their pounders from Heart is brilliant.  

Here are both of them:

Then vs. Now

Is this the same band? Is this the same song??  Yes and yes!

So you can choose which record to listen to based on your mood. I’ll probably choose Fakebook a little more often, especially in the morning. But that’s okay. I’m still glad this one’s around. And it’s better at night time.

If you picked up any of these records you could get a skewed idea of who YLT is and what they can do. I’m not sure myself anymore since I’ve only got five out of the sixteen or so albums I counted on allmusic. And aside from this one I’ve got nothing by them from the last fifteen years. But you can be damn sure I’ll be looking into it.

So aside from getting all those records (a very worthwhile idea in itself, I think) I’m as ready for the show as can be.

B+

“Friday I’m in Love”