Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare

You can tell the Arctic Monkeys are British because they spell "favourite" with a "u." And everyone knows that British rock is always top.

Cheers.

Supergroups

Here are a few supergroup CD's for your retro listening pleasure. First we have Blind Faith -Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Rick Grech, and the great Steve Winwood. Next we have 4 Way Street (live album)-Crosby Still Nash and Young. Finally a collaboration between Brian Eno and John Cale, Wrong Way Up. Enjoy

SPOON Password

Hey Everyone.

The password for the Spoon album is

nodatta.blogspot.com

SPOON- Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

The amazing new SPOON album. For previous fans, it sounds like a mix of Gimme Fiction and Kill The Moonlight.

As a whole, the album works incredibly well. The songs all sound very different alone, but when listening in the correct order, they really seem to lead to the next.

This album will definitely grow on you and could easily be on the Top Ten of 2007 list come December.

Check out Cherry Bomb, Rhythm and Soul, Finer Feelings, and the whole fucking album!!

The Traveling Wilbury's

Supergroups have been something of an odd side note in popular music. A collection of stars playing music often for fun, and releasing a only handful of albums/songs. The first true supergroup was probably Cream, but some could argue it was The Million Dollar Quartet, a jam session with Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Carl Perkins. The strange thing about Supergroups is that it there is always one guy with in the group that seems to be out of place. This is the case with the Traveling Wilbury's. Jeff Lynne though an accomplished musician and producer always seemed out of place in the Wilbury's.

The Traveling Wilbury's were a collection of some of the most important musicians in the 60's and 70's. Comprised of George Harrison (The Beatles); Bob Dylan; Jeff Lynne (ELO); Roy Orbison; and Tom Petty. They all originally got together to record a B Side for George Harrison. The song ended up being "Handle with Care." Their contributions eventually lead to the group to record a full album of original songs. Recording under pseudonyms (a ploy used by another supergroup) they released Traveling Wilbury's vol 1. With the death of Lefty Wilbury (Roy Orbison) vol 2 was never relased, though often thought of as Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever. A third an final volume was released in October of 1990. I have managed to gather from the internets, both official studio releases (vol 1 and vol 3) as well as a collection of outtakes, b-sides, and various performances which have been labeled as vol 2 and 4.

Musically the Traveling Wilbury's isn't that great. The albums are more about the musicians and the fun and joy they have playing music together. On many of the Dylan parts, one wonders if he is trying to sound like if he eats gravel and has lost the ability to enunciate any word in the English language. But he is puts all that he can in Crime/Cop drama of "Tweeter and the Monkeyman." The highlights are always those songs where the group is trading vocal lines, and vocal jabs, such as "Handle with Care," and "End of the Line."

If anyone has any interesting supergroups, I would love to have them posted to the iDisk.

***This post updated while listening to "Overkill" by Colin Hay"***

Coachella 2007 Videos

A little something different. These are some videos I took with my digital camera at Coachella this past weekend.

The first couple are of Jarvis Cocker. Please note I was extremely drunk at this point so the videos are pretty shitty. Fun though, cause Jarvis is great on stage.

The video of the green computer screen is from Bjork. The DJ would put different blocks on the screen, with each block making a different distinct noise. He would then move, twist, replace and generally fuck with them to make the beats. It was pretty amazing. I only wish I had taken a video when he had at least 10 blocks on the screen and was drawing lines between different ones.

The last few videos are from Rage Against The Machine. It truly was an amazing experience. They sounded like they should have, played the greatest hits, didn't preach too much and then rocked the place to the core. Screaming FUCK YOU I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME over and over was exactly how I hoped it would be. Ohhhh so much fun.

Enjoy. If you want to see some photos from the weekend, as well as from SXSW, check out

www.flickr.com/photos/cderekj

Elliott Smith - New Moon

To say Elliott Smith was an under appreciated artist until his untimely death in 2003, is a misnomer. Smith found marginal success with albums such as Figure 8, XO, and Either/Or. Most notably he found true recognition with Miss Misery, the Oscar nominated song from Good Will Hunting. His genius as a musician and a song writer had been widely acclaimed by many in the business. Smith life is truly a strange one. For an interesting read check out Smith's wiki page. Because I would much rather have you read something that can be edited by anyone, rather then my insane ramblings.

It was however his suicide on October 21st, 2003 that really brought him to my attention. His self vocalizing, dark haunting lyrics really hit me. Though I knew about him before his death, but it was the mystery around his death that made me listen to his music. The first album I got was the one finished after his death, From A Basement on A Hill. Probably not the album Elliott would have finished, but a good indication of his style. From that point on I made it my mission to get everything from Elliott that I could get my hands on.

Kill Rock Stars Records will be releasing New Moon. A collection of 24 songs recorded between 1994-1997, the most prolific in Smith's career, which saw the Kill Rock Star Elliott's Self Titled and Either/Or releases. Like many demo and out take albums this has some very familiar songs. However what is great about this is that the audio quality is much better then most of the demo albums floating out there. And the producers made the double album flow like a true Elliott Smith album.

If you are not an Elliott Smith fan, or do not know much about his music, New Moon is probably not the best place to start. For those of you know Elliott's music New Moon is a great listen and really brings his music full circle.

For my next post I will take a vote. Should I post:

1. Traveling Wilbury's - Vols. 1 through 4
   
2. Fountains of Wayne - Traffic and Weather
   
3. Eef Barzely - Bitter Honey
   
4. Ben Folds - 1990 Demos
   

Let me know in the comments and I will post the album in about a week or so, of course with my clever insight and choppy prose.

****This post updated while listening to Rain Delay Theatre on WGN Radio****

Icky Thump - White Stripes

Don't get excited boys, it is not the The White Stripes forthcoming album of the same name. It is just the single, and not a great copy of that. It is from some XM radio show, it has annoying intro and outro from some DJ with a fake, or seemingly fake British accent. If you want the a good quality single I suggest going to the iTunes Music Store (normally I would give you all the single but with the stupid DRM it was too much of a pain in the ass.)

It will give you a good idea of what the song is all about. In my humble opinion this song kicks all kinds of ass. It is a return to the pre 2005 Stripes. It is just Jack's circling guitar licks and and Meg literally thumping on the drums. The only thing I am not sure about is the lyrics. they fit the song, but towards the end there is a weird part about America or something. It doesn't make much sense to me.

So enjoy.

****This post updated while watching That 70's Show*****

Rufus Wainwright - Release the Stars

2007 is the year of the crappy album title. From Arcade Fire's Neon Bible to The Shins' Wincing the Night Away artists have had a lot of trouble coming up with a decent album title this year. Rufus Wainwright's 5th studio album is no exception. Release the Stars is a horrible name. It conjures up an image of Rufus shooting stars out of his genitals (which would have been a pretty cool album cover, though). Why? I don't know.

The album itself rises above the terrible name. Rufus is a master of blending a a lush operatic style with pure pop sensibilities. It is not quite as lush as the disappointing Want Two but not as pop as Poses or his self titled effort. The album produced Neil Tennant (of the Pet Shop Boys) and Marius De Vires, at times suffers from the layer upon layer effect, muddling the song into a mass of orchestral movements and lazy enunciation. And really parts of some songs are wholly unnecessary. (ie the part from Andrew Lloyd Weber's Phantom of the Opera.)

The biggest complaint of the album as a whole is Rufus' enunciation. I think lyrically Rufus is one of the best song writers out there, his songs have a sly wit which make you think, laugh and cry. Most notably on this album is, Between my Legs, which suffers from over production, is lyrically a master peice. If I casually listen to the album I am hard pressed to understand what the hell he is saying half the time. This album demands several listens. Each time you will pick up nuances each time.

It is nice to see Rufus return to the more pop of his earlier work. I think many Rufus fans were afraid that he might turn his back on pop entirely and try to make it big in the Met's revival of La Boheme. All in all a nice solid effort by "The Tit Man".

This post updated while listening to Icky Thump by the White Stripes and Release the Stars by Rufus Wainwright.

Wilco-Down at the Dust Bowl

Here is one for all the Wilco fans out there. A friend of a friend gave me a copy of Wilco-Down at the Dust Bowl. I can not find out anything about it on the net. Maybe one of you know more about it. It is mostly live recordings of familiar tunes.

THIRTEEN SENSES-Contact

Thirteen Senses follows in the suit of Coldplay and Travis. A British band that gets a bad rap in the states for sounding like the others.

The new Thirteen Senses is a lot of Coldplay, but they really branched out with their sound from their debut. Not so many radio friendly hooks and choruses, rather well thought out songs that really focus on the instruments and lyrics to pull the heart strings, not some cheesy video and a montage on Grey's Anatomy.

I actually did a little experiment with Thirteen Senses new album here at work. I gave it to 3 women and a gay man who hate most of what I like musically, but love soft singing cheese dick music like Gavin Degraw or James Blunt. They are a little mixed on the album. They love his voice, but will probably not be putting the disc back in the rotation any time soon.

Either way, check out CONTACT, FOLLOW ME and SPARK.

GOLDEN SMOG-Blood On The Tracks

I figure a few of you (ALL) would want this album. Havn't listened to it yet, but I was told that Jeff Tweedy was not involved with this album. Bowie's Starman is excellent.

TRAVIS-The Boy With No Name

Finally, a new Coldplay, wait, scratch that, TRAVIS album!! I think some of Travis is much better than Coldplay, but to each their own.

I am on my yearly Britpop phase right now, and am loving the new albums from The Rakes, Arctic Monkeys, Thirteen Senses and now Travis.

The new Travis is less like 12 Memories, and more like the radio friendly sound that got them some coverage here on this side of the pond with Invisible Band and The Man Who.

Wilco - "Hate It Here"

When you pre-order Wilco's new album, Sky Blue Sky, you get to download a video. It's basically Jeff, Nels, Mike, Glenn, and John performing the song "Hate It Here" in their practice space. No sign of Pat in this video, maybe he's the one behind the camera. Anyway, there is a version of the album that comes with a bonus DVD of the guys playing and talking about songs from the new album. I would gather that this is a taste of what the DVD will be like. I've posted the video for your viewing pleasure, check it out in glorious Quicktime (MPEG4, h.264 @ 627kbps). Enjoy.

Finally, somebody not going to rehab

I finally managed to procure a copy of Amy Winehouse’s newest, “Back to Black” and have uploaded it to the site.
I am told in certain circles that she is quite well known and was quite the child-prodigy, but her music is new to me.
If you haven’t heard her before, think Sara Vaughan or Macy Gray, only tiny, Jewish, anorexic and covered in tats.

The singles are “rehab” and “you know I’m no good”.

Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True

My iPod loves Elvis Costello, it always lands on his music when I shuffle songs. Maybe that's because I have more than 10 hours of Elvis Costello's music in my library mostly thanks to my brother. This album is a classic (1977) and a good introduction to his great story telling and pure rock n' roll style. I'll let some of the more hardcore Elvis fans like Kevin weigh in on the importance of this album. Enjoy.

Wandering Sons

A fellow Wisconsinite slid this on my desk the other day. Worth a listen--a bit bluesy and reminiscent of Elivs Costello (thanks, Kyle). They come around every now and again and their live shows are supposed to be worth the cover. Enjoy.

Bright Eyes-Cassadaga

Bright Eyes' new album, Cassadaga for your listening pleasure.

Again, no time to listen to it, but wanted to post for you this weekend.

For those who don't know them, they are led by Conor Oberst, who is a lively, well dressed, handsome man, and likes to sing about rainbows and ice cream.

The National-Boxer

One of my favorite bands as of late, The National, are fantastic on album, but not so hot live.

2005's Alligator was one of my favorite albums of that year, along with many of the all powerful bloggers. They have 3 previous albums on their first label, The National. Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers, and Cherry Tree.

I have not had a chance to listen yet, I wanted to post it as a little weekend present to you'all.

The first single is Fake Empire.

Plague Songs

Probably the weirdest "concept" album I have ever run across. And this is coming from someone who who knows the driving force behind Frankenstein The Rock Opera.

The concept is straight forward and interesting. It is a collection of 10 songs done by various artists each interperting one of the ten bibical plauges as described in the Old Testament book of Exodus. I am not going o pretend I know why or try to pointificate on the meaning of why. I will direct you to allmusic.com's telling.

What I will tell you is that there are 10 very peculiar songs, by pecurlar artists. Some of them you may know some of them not. It is something you can listen to when you need to have something to go along with the bible.

Also as a side note if you start this album right when the MGM lion roars in the beginning of Cecil B DeMille's The Ten Commandments you are in for a trip and a half.

This post updated while listening to Stranger's Almanac by Whiskeytown.