Today's CDs (1/7/04)
 

Okkervil River - Don't Fall in Love with Everyone You See
The Kinks - Muswell Hillbillies
Justin Timberlake - Justified
Robbie Fulks - Let's Kill Saturday Night
Hella - Hold Your Horse Is

QOTD: Bringing back an old one...Comment on what you're listening to...

Okkervil River: Been wanting to check these guys out for a while and finally purchased this yesterday. I love it...so beautiful and sad. Somehow soothing at the same time. "Listening to Otis Redding at Home During Christmas" is an almost perfect song.

The Kinks: By far the best Kinks album. I love it.

Timberlake: I dig this album...a lot actually. The slow songs get a bit cheesy, but the uptempo numbers (particularly the singles) are as good as pop music gets today.

Fulks: Yes, it's his most commercial album. Yes, the title track is generic and "classic rock" sounding. However, it's my favorite disc of his...particularly the tracks "Take Me to the Paradise," "Little King" and "God Isn't Real". Also, how can you beat his duet with Lucinda Williams on "Pretty Little Poison" where he sings "My love, push my head between your knees" and she responds "Oh love, press my lips to your disease"?

Hella: Not for everyone but wonderful nonetheless. The most ferocious drumming I've ever heard.

Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
Hot Hot Heat - Make Up The Breakdown
Hem - Rabbit Songs
v/a - Jazz For When You're Alone
Neko Case - Blacklisted
Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
Ludwig van Beethoven - String Quartets Op. 18, #s 1 & 5

AOTD...

Shins: First listen for me, and I can already hear why it got such great reviews. Nicely expands on "Oh, Inverted World." I think this will get many more spins on my player.

Hot Hot Heat: Our public library seems to have reenergized its new music purchasing, and this album is one of the results. Nothing that really grabbed me about the album, though I liked the last song, "In Cairo," which doesn't really sound like the other songs.

Hem: Very relaxing, somewhat sad. The lead singer has a wonderful voice.

v/a jazz album: Sometimes you just want music as background. This is one of those times.

Neko Case: I adore her voice. "Outro With Bees" is just a wonderful song.

Flaming Lips: I like the album, but that's about all. "Do You Realize??" is quite nice, though.

Beethoven: His string quartets are definitely my favorite type of work from Beethoven, though Symphony #6 might be my all-time favorite Beethoven piece.

Coldplay- A Rush of Blood to the Head
Incubus- Morning View
Deftones- Deftones.

Richard Thompson - Strict Tempo
(A tour-de-force of what this man can do with a stringed instrument.)

Sam Phillips - Fan Dance
(What a welcome return to greatness. Her best since "Martinis and Bikinis".)

Fermata - Huascaran
(What day of music listening is complete without some '70s Czechoslovakian fusion-prog?)

Gary Moore - Scars
(Rockin' Gary is back, but Blues Gary still lingers. His best album in years.)

House of Freaks - Tantilla
(My nominee for greatest completely overlooked album of the last 20 years. No one who loves great songwriting and kick-ass roots rock can deny the brilliance of this masterpiece.)

White Willow - Ignis Fatuus
(What day of music listening is complete without some Norwegian folk-prog?)

Trip Shakespeare - Lulu
(Listen to those vocal harmonies and try not to get goosebumps. It's the Byrds, the Beatles, and the Beach Boys mixed into an alternative-rockin' blender.)

Tytan - Rough Justice
(Gotta have some obscure British metal. Actually at one time or another Tytan had ex-members of Judas Priest, AC/DC, and Angel Witch.)

Animal Collective, Here Comes the Indian (Paw Tracks)
-For people that are looking for the aural equivalent of The Lord of the Flies. Basically it's 4 guys w/ crazy names making even crazier sounds. Part woodland adventure, part dissection of sound, part smeared energy. A hard disc to penetrate in one listen, but the returns are some of the best of the year.

The Unicorns, Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? (Alien8)
-Kinda like a journey through pop music. The two leading men so efficiently refuse to stick to one discernible path, they can't help but shift from surf guitar to country rollick, Pet Shop Boys to Spoon, and Ben Gibbard to Rivers Cuomo. I could talk about this 'un for a long time, but one of the most striking parts is where the two men keep grabbing for the last word on "Child Star" and end up ironically dueting "I hate yoooooou" in canted-but-complimentary harmony before launching into a doo wop trade over merry-go-straight-to-hell bells. S'nice.

Deerhoof, Apple O' (KRS/5RC)
-They've made a career out of straddling the line between innocence and insanity for five wonderful discs now, but this one is definitely their most accomplished. And that's saying a lot because last year's Reveille was about as delicious as I thought they'd get. Anyway, Satomi Matsuzaki sings about every kinda love -from paternal to romantic to lost- with pinched vocals but it mainly rides on barbed guitar hooks and a very obvious passion for just making some ****in' music.

Fennesz, Endless Summer (Mego)
-If I were to soundtrack a deserted island, this'd be the first disc I'd list. Not necessarily because it's one of my all time favorites (even though it has become one), but because it sounds like a Post-Impressionist painting the beaches of his/her childhood. Warm tones and crackling layers that perfectly approximate beaming sun & sand collecting between yr toes. *Not for everyone*

Circulatory System, Circulatory System (Cloud)
-Dreams seems to be the catch-word when talking about this disc. 60s-psych inspired pop from former Olivia Tremor Control members doesn't stray too far from the path, but adds some darkness to it. William Hart sighs his vox a lot more than Bill Doss, which adds to the above quality (though it gets a little tiring over 22 tracks).

The Microphones, It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water (K)
-Man, I really love this guy. Phi Elvrum is definitely the beacon of K Records, even though a veteran like Calvin Johnson is on the same label. This 2000 disc is almost better than The Glow, pt. 2 - if only it was a little longer. There's this sprawling track called "The Glow" that uses production to actually sound like fading light. (I think someone is actually taking the recording equipment OUT of the room and walking down a hall, or something.) Anyway, he's really fascinated with sound and isn't afraid to explore it, but he also grounds his musings with musical conviction and accessibility. This is about ground-zero for me since it's pretty much everything I love about music and sound rolled into one artist.

Magnetic Fields, 69 Love Songs (Merge)
Hey, look at this. I had a late Christmas with my grandparents and was shocked -for a number of reasons, just guess one- that they bought this for me. The set is actually pretty bloated -I've grown fond of my program button- but the highs are incredibly high. *I have yet to get to the third disc* Faves: "Sweet Lovin' Man", "Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits", "Fido, You're Leash is Too Long", "No One Will Ever Love You", "If You Don't Cry", "You're My Only Home", "Long-Forgotten Fairytale" (THE BEST), and "Papa Was a Rodeo." After reading the interview with Daniel Handler insert, I'm convinced that Stephin Merritt is a genius.

Billie Holiday (Direct Source)
-This doesn't have a title, as far as I can tell, but it's a 2xCD collection of a number of her more prominent songs. It does say "The Greatest Jazz Singer of All Time!" on the cover. I'd be pressed to disagree if I didn't think Nina Simone already held that honor.

Wow, those entries are really long. Sorry.

Rammstien "RAMMSTIEN"