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Fri, 18 May 2007 |
| The Orphans / Kristeen Young | |
| If I hadn't just read that Kristeen Young was raised in a repressive home, I think I'd have figured it out. I always wanted to rebel, but my parents just didn't give me much to work with. Kristeen was luckier, a word I use in the most ironic way possible. And she's making the most of her rebellion, with her distinctive voice and her well earned anger. Think Kate Bush with a switchblade and you'll get the idea. |
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| [ Category: Alternative | Add a comment | Link ] | |
Wed, 16 May 2007 |
| Winter in June / Lucy | |
|
Five seconds into I Don't Know a Thing and I was hooked. And if the rest of the tracks on Winter in June didn't have the same effect, well, Lucy's awfully young. She has plenty of time to knock my socks off again. |
| [ Category: Pop | Add a comment | Link ] | |
Mon, 14 May 2007 |
| We Just Burned This for You / Time for Three | |
| I'm about to demonstrate yet again my bias against, and likely my ignorance of, classical music. Although this isn't entirely classical; the three classically trained musicians (two violins and one stand up bass) throw some bluegrass and some classic rock in among the more traditional classical selections. And it all sounds great, in a lively toe-tapping kind of live recording way that surprises me, given their training. But that's just me again, letting preconceptions get in the way of a good listening experience. I'm sure you won't make the same mistake. |
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| [ Category: Classical | Add a comment | Link ] | |
Fri, 11 May 2007 |
| Page McConnell / Page McConnell | |
|
I just hate it when a good joke almost comes my way. Case in point: this first solo effort by McConnell, formerly of Phish. Looking over his Wikipedia page, I discovered that his father was on the team that developed Tylenol. Which would have given me such a great "What the son giveth, the father taketh away" line. Except that there's nothing headache-inducing here. It's all very pleasant more-pop-than-rock. Which means that, being the unforgiving sort I am where blown punchlines are concerned, I have nothing good to say. You'll have to find somebody else to compliment your music; me, I'm still sulking. |
| [ Category: Rock | Add a comment | Link ] | |
Wed, 09 May 2007 |
| Seeds / Martin Sexton | |
| It's not that I'm feeling lazy, although I am, but I'm betting thirty seconds of Thought I Knew Ya'll tell you more about Martin Sexton than I could in a coupla hundred words. Bet he kicks ass in concert. |
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| [ Category: Rock | Add a comment | Link ] | |
Mon, 07 May 2007 |
| Dreams: The Ultimate Corrs Collection / The Corrs | |
|
Back around the end of the dotcom bubble, I found myself working with
the classic Ugly European. Not that I mean he was literally ugly; he
was, don't get me wrong, not that I've been turning down modeling
contracts myself. No, I mean ugly in the sense of The Ugly American:
deriding anything that wasn't the way he had it at home. Which was
England, although Ugly Brit doesn't trip off the tongue nearly so
well.
Anyway, one of his many examples of American inferiority, which included our unwillingness to buy new cell phones every six months, the rarity of multiformat VCRs and our lack of understanding of Brown Sauce, was the fact that The Corrs hadn't caught on here. Which comment didn't exactly impress me. I mean, I like The Corrs. Heck, what's not to like? Three incredible looking women, and their brother (if you care about that sort of thing) sing easily accessible original and cover songs with sweet voices, nice harmonies and an Irish influence that goes from subtle to in your face from one track to another. It's hardly a sign of sophistication to enjoy The Corrs' performances. And the fact they hadn't taken America by storm (yet, anyway) didn't say anything at all about music buyers on this side of the Atlantic. Well, maybe it did. But with this clown, I wasn't about to give him the slightest credit, know what I mean? It would only encourage him. |
| [ Category: Rock | Add a comment | Link ] | |
Fri, 04 May 2007 |
| Fighting Naked / HUMANWINE | |
| How to describe HUMANWINE? (They insist on the upper case; says so on their MySpace page.) They sound almost operatic, or like one of Andrew Lloyd Weber's better theater scores, combined with maybe traditional Middle Eastern. And with a touch of the Tiger Lillies for seasoning. Or maybe they're just the Dresden Dolls's weirder cousins. Or is it the other way around? Suffice it to say that I like them. A lot. And that whatever expectations I may have had before I listened, I didn't mind having them blown to bits. |
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| [ Category: Alternative | Add a comment | Link ] | |
Wed, 02 May 2007 |
| Go From Here / Hiram Ring | |
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Let's change tempo, shall we? Go from the ridiculous to the sublime, as my mother might have said if she was feeling particularly clever. Sublime is a good word for Hiram Ring's music; it has a property of smoothing things out, of improving your mood. Mine can certainly use some improving. How about yours? |
| [ Category: Folk | Add a comment | Link ] | |
Mon, 30 Apr 2007 |
| Look What I Made! / Ken Turetzky | |
| I'm guessing Ken Turetzky doesn't get invited to many debutante balls. From his album cover, with the little girl proudly holding up (what he claims is fake) poo, to a set of track names that promise your baser delights, we aren't looking at Dallas's upper crust here. Even a superficially upbeat title like Today Was a Very Good Day, with its faux Cat Stevens vocals and cheery tone, delivers a message that would be out of place during National Brotherhood Week. Turetzky's a disturbed individual, or at least he plays one on radio. Which leads to the only question that matters: can you relate to his kind of disturbed, what I've decided just cries out to be called Turetzky's Syndrome? Much as I hate to admit it, I certainly can. |
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| [ Category: Comedy | 1 comment | Link ] | |
Fri, 27 Apr 2007 |
| Trauma / Laura Jansen | |
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You know what sucks? Five track albums, that's what sucks. It's like having appetizers with no main course. Although when the appetizers are this good... And at least I get to listen to the rest of Bells on Laura's MySpace page. Those 30 iTunes seconds are barely a taste. (And, I'm sure you're pleased to hear, that's the end of the overused food metaphors for today.) |
| [ Category: Pop | Add a comment | Link ] | |
Wed, 25 Apr 2007 |
| On the Drift / Bedlam Bards | |
| The iTunes Store classifies On the Drift as folk, although filk is probably more accurate. Filk, as most every SF or fantasy con-goer knows, is what happens when folk meets fen, which may or may not be the plural of fan. And the Bedlam Bards are clearly fen, for who else would produce an entire album of f*lk music based on the Jossverse. And not even the whole Jossverse; just the parts we know as Firefly and Serenity. Of course, how much you like On the Drift depends greatly on how you feel about the Big Damn Heroes. Unless you haven't made up your mind about them or, can it be true?, have yet to encounter Cap'n Mal and his motley crew. In which case I'm sure there's somebody willing to share their Firefly DVDs. After all, can't have them Scapers being more generous than Browncoats, can we? That would be wrong. (But true.) |
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| [ Category: Folk | Add a comment | Link ] | |
Mon, 23 Apr 2007 |
| CéU / CéU | |
|
And now for something rather different. (You thought I was gonna say "completely", didn't you? As a matter of fact, I was.) CéU comes to us from Brazil, which even I could figure out from about five seconds of Vinheta Quebrante, which Altavista's Babelfish translates as Vignette Breaks, not that that helps me any. But not knowing what she's singing about doesn't stop me from enjoying every moment; her voice is like that. Soothing and seductive. Makes me want to pay another visit to her homeland. |
| [ Category: World | Add a comment | Link ] | |
Fri, 20 Apr 2007 |
| The Bottom Half / Umphrey's McGee | |
|
There's one of those imponderables, which seems worth discussing when
guys get together, at least after several beers have been consumed.
Given a chance to encounter a mermaid, would it be better to have one
that's top girl and bottom fish, or the other way around? Then again,
there are implications that are better not considered sober.
What brought this to mind are the lovely but appallingly bottom-heavy models on the cover of this album. And which are easier to discuss than is Umphrey's McGee's music, which defies easy categorization or even description, or maybe that's just me. Still, in two CDs-worth of material there's plenty to explore, to wonder at and to enjoy, sometimes all at once. And if nothing here is quite as profound as that mermaid question, well, what is? |
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| [ Category: Rock | Add a comment | Link ] | |
Wed, 18 Apr 2007 |
| Don Ho's Greatest Hits / Don Ho | |
|
To television viewers of a certain age, Don Ho was Hawaii.
Okay, maybe he places behind
McGarrett,
but he's right up there. In fact, any show that did a special
episode1 in Hawaii had a cameo by
Mr. Ho, playing himself as the lounge singer he was. So it should
come as no surprise that when I found myself in Hawaii on business, at
the same hotel where Mr. Ho had his show, I had to indulge in this
symbol of island kitsch. Which was everything I could have imagined,
and one thing more. This guy was bored. Sick of the whole thing.
Going through the motions doesn't even describe it. Plainly, he hated
doing the same tourist crap night after night, and he was making
little effort to hide that fact.
So is his performance here merely languid? Or is it supremely bored? I'll leave it to you to judge. My only hope is that in the two decades between my experience and Mr. Ho's death this past week, he found a little bliss, or at least a little comfort in his place in life. I mean, how awful can it have been to be successful, and beloved, and in Hawaii for all those years?
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| [ Category: Pop | Add a comment | Link ] | |
Mon, 16 Apr 2007 |
| He Had a Hat / Jeff Lorber | |
|
There's this joke, you see. About a camper who falls out of a boat
and is drowning. And the counselor jumps in and rescues him. Takes
the kid up to his parents, expecting a reward or at least a "thanks for
saving my child from death". And the mother says, "He had a hat".
Which may or may not have anything to do with the title of this album. But that's what got me to listen to it, so I thought I might as well share. |
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| [ Category: Jazz | Add a comment | Link ] | |
Fri, 13 Apr 2007 |
| The Scarlet Pimpernel / Original Broadway Cast | |
|
I love The Scarlet Pimpernel, both for its importance as
the first of the "hero with a secret identity" stories that
inspired comic books and much else I hold dear (it predates Zorro by
more than a decade) and for the troubled romance that is at its
heart. So when I learned it was being staged as a musical on
Broadway, I couldn't wait. And I wasn't disappointed; it's full of
action, danger, laughs and that romance stuff.
Unfortunately, the critics didn't agree with me; they were savage in their lack of appreciation. And what they say goes, at least in this case. The play got rejiggered, which didn't help, and closed before long. I saw the not-really-improved version in a touring company version, and can't say I was impressed by the changes in the book, the music or the cast. But I still love the Pimpernel. Especially the music, which ranges from stately (my ring tone, by the way) to heroic to obsessive to wistfully and desperately sad to the kind of dopey that screams of aristocratic inbreeding. Great stuff, no matter what the critics may have thought. |
| [ Category: Soundtrack | Add a comment | Link ] | |
Wed, 11 Apr 2007 |
| Tour de Charme / Patricia Kaas | |
| I discovered Patricia Kaas quite by accident. It was on a vacation trip to New Zealand, a experience I recommend heartily by the way. Anyway, I caught an ad on television for an album called Piano Bar, noted that it included a cover of If You Go Away, a song I've always liked, and set out to find a copy. Which I did, on a stop in Rotorua. And then I heard it again in a Thai restaurant in Christchurch; apparently I wasn't the only one influenced by those ads. Anyway, on returning home I was excited to tell a jazz buff friend about my discovery, only to learn that he already knew about Ms. Kaas and had her other albums. So we made a little trade, to the enrichment of all concerned. And now it's your turn. Sadly, this is the only one of her recordings available here. But it's a start. |
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| [ Category: Pop | Add a comment | Link ] | |
Mon, 09 Apr 2007 |
| Decoder Ring Theatre | |
|
It's been almost three weeks since my last podcast review, which was
also my first podcast review, and since no one seems to have objected,
I thought I'd do it again. Actually, no one remarked on it at all.
Did it actually go out? Is this thing on? Hello?
Okay, existential episode over. Anyway, since this is all about me sharing my discoveries and my alleged taste with you, my discerning reader, I want to talk about my very favorite podcast of all, that I'm not involved with. Oh, who'm I kidding? It's my absolute favorite; just don't tell the gang at The ScapeCast. The gang at Decoder Ring Theatre have reinvented radio drama for our more ironic age. Every two weeks they deliver another episode of either Black Jack Justice, noir detective with a heart to match his square jaw, or the Red Panda, Canada's Greatest Superhero. Justice is serious with a side order of whimsy, while the Panda reverses the formula. The arrival of a new episode is a reason to celebrate the combination of clever storytelling and energetic voice performances. The folks at Decoder Ring clearly love what they do. And so, I think, will you, if you're anything like me. And if you are, well, I'm just sorrier than I can say. |
| [ Category: Podcast | Add a comment | Link ] | |
Fri, 06 Apr 2007 |
| Chasing Yesterday / Cheri Magill | |
| There's something nice and throwbacky about Cheri Magill's songs, a jazziness that brings to mind the Squirrel Nut Zippers. It isn't often I'm smitten midway through a thirty second sample. But Bulletproof Dress pulled it off. (In a nice way.) And her cover of Time After Time is the best I've heard since Eva Cassidy, still sadly underrepresented on iTunes. Definitely someone to watch. Or listen to. Or both. |
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| [ Category: Rock | Add a comment | Link ] | |
Wed, 04 Apr 2007 |
| Better / Amy Loftus | |
|
According to the liner notes
on her website,
Better was recorded live. Well, of course it was. I mean,
what's the alternative? But no, it doesn't simply mean she and the
musicians were there, and breathing, at the time the recording was
made. It's a promise that what we're hearing is just what they
recorded. Kind of like those "filmed in front of a studio audience"
sitcoms, but with less of a safety net. And no laugh track to tell us
how we're supposed to feel.
Which gives the performances on Better a little more immediacy, a lack of filtration. Could've been a disaster. Heck, we only have her word that it wasn't, that what we're getting really is the original, unadulterated performance. I'm just cynical to acknowledge the possibility I'm being flimflammed, even as I don't believe it for a second. Besides, with country-tinged pop this sweet, does it really matter? (Only to the degree it lets me use a word like "flimflammed". That was worth the whole digression.) |
| [ Category: Pop | Add a comment | Link ] | |
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