Category: Music

Boston Globe: Levine, Mahler triumph at Tanglewood. On the positive side, I can be assured that, unlike other groups in which I have sung, our concerts will almost always be reviewed. On the other hand, all our preparation, hard work, and ultimately ecstatic performance was summed up by the reviewer as:

The music is so tightly wound that it explodes — it lasts 25 minutes or so, but it passes like a flash of lightning, a noisy one. Levine and his orchestra, the soloists, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and the American Boychoir fired it like a cannon — it was noisy and exciting, it was hectic, and the temptation to scream offered by the vocal writing was not avoided.

Ah well. I can only hope they were talking about the soloists, not us.

Funniest moment of the night: One of the sopranos, who had the most sublime vocal line of the night, delivered it from high above the shell for dramatic effect. When the applause came, due to some misunderstanding—or worse, some mishap—she never came down, and there were three bows taken for the rest of the soloists before Levine realized she was still up there and waved up to acknowledge her contributions.

Least funny moment of the night: I had hoped that, since it had rained the whole week, it would stop for the performance. And it did, but only about half an hour before curtain, and it rained more or less continuously on us all the way home.

This recording of Elvis Costello on Marian McPartland’s long running jazz interview show will surprise only those of his fans who haven’t been paying attention. For the last 20 years, Elvis has made a career of confounding expectations and sneaking popular music and standards into the unlikeliest of places. This latest recording, featuring EC singing a mix of standards, ballads, and a few of his own tunes and discussing his career with the indefatigable McPartland, is the purest fruit of his long labor in the vineyards of the American songbook.

If you’re unfamiliar with the format of McPartland’s show, which is typically interview material alternated with a joint performance between host and guest, the chatty bits between the songs may throw you. For those who prefer not to hear the chatter, the songs are thoughtfully on separate tracks. It would be a mistake to skip the interview, though, as Elvis discusses his early influences (his dad the jazz musician, his mom’s record collection, British R&B singers), his approach to performing, his early 80s collaborations with Chet Baker, and other bits of interesting ephemera.

How about the songs? The performances are clean: I don’t think Elvis has ever turned in a purer rendition of “My Funny Valentine” than on this disc, his Little Jimmy Scott-esque vibrato on the final phrase notwithstanding. “At Last,” which Elvis dedicates to his dad who performed it many years ago, is understated and touching, as is “The Very Thought of You.” He takes a turn to the darkness with “Gloomy Sunday” and “You Don’t Know What Love Is” (and notes in an aside to McPartland, “I can make ‘On the Sunny Side of the Street’ sound dark—I’ve had this face for 48 years now, there’s nothing I can do about it!”).

Of the EC originals on this disc, the closer (“I’m in the Mood Again,” from his underrated North) is the better performance. With Elvis playing “composer’s piano,” the melody is effortlessly spun into a gentle reverie that, to my ears, betters the album performance. Alas, no such luck with “Almost Blue.” McPartland hangs back a little too far and the flow of the piece is lost; I also miss the coda of the piece.

To my ears, the highlight of this disc is “They Didn’t Believe Me,” a forgotten Jerome Kern jewel from 1914 that sings in this version. It narrowly bests Elvis’s other recording of the song with the Brodsky Quartet, available only on a promotional sampler from the Juliet Letters tour.

Based on the chronology of this session (Elvis mentions he’s in the process of recording North), this recording was made around the time that his relationship with Diana Krall began. The performances show it. This is a man in love, and the performances of these ballads benefit from it: gentle, sensitive, and optimistic in a way that is unusual in EC’s massive catalog. Highly recommended.

(Also on Blogcritics.)

My first Tanglewood rehearsal is over. Yes, already. We had a brief piano rehearsal with James Levine, who went over a few potential trouble spots in the Mahler, complimented our tone, and wished us a good evening. Completely unlike what I had anticipated based on my past experiences with famous conductors. Where Robert Shaw always gave an impression (amplified, to be sure, by his various ailments) of desperately contained passion and fury, and Sir David Willcocks was acerbic, dramatic, and understatedly witty, Levine strikes me as brisk, unassuming, and subtle.

I came away from the first rehearsal better understanding what I had started to gather from the first few rehearsals of this piece: nearly everything that I have done for concert preparation before has been work. This is making music.

Blogging will be intermittent this week (I know myself too well to say it will be light). I am currently in Pittsfield, MA, getting ready to head over to Tanglewood for my first rehearsal there with James Levine.

More notes to come. (Ba-da-bum.)

I’m reluctant to give the Funky16Corners blog any more press, especially after it got well-nigh BoingBoinged into non-existence last weekend. But the music he posts—MP3s of funk, R&B, and soul 45 sides from the 1960s—is just too good not to rave about. The author, Larry Grogan, takes garage sale hopping for vinyl and turns it into something beautiful. And he is apparently also involved in a group blog, Funk and Soul, covering much the same ground.

I was going to write about my own garage sale vinyl experience from this week (a bunch of 80s sides—about a jillion early Elvis Costello albums, a David Byrne 12″ from the Catherine Wheel, the Cure’s Japanese Whispers, Big Science—along with Bob Dylan’s debut and a few tasty jazz recordings), but Larry has put me to shame. Perhaps I’ll be able to give my finds their proper due later today.

According to his web site, überproducer and occasionally brilliant ambient-roots solo artist Daniel Lanois has regained ownership of his first album, Acadie. It’s available from his site as well as from eMusic.

Lanois seems to be focusing some attention on his solo career after a long hiatus, punctuated only by his uneven 2003 release Shine (I liked the track “Fire,” which I included on my 2003 mix cd A page I was meaning to send her, but Lanois-does-reggae can only be described as a disappointment). He also released an instrumental album this week called Belladonna. I’m listening now; it strongly recalls the early 80s instrumental work that he did with Brian Eno and Harold Budd, which is in my opinion a Really Good Thing.

Boing Boing: Weird Tales covers 1923-1942 gallery. When I read this post, I immediately thought about the album Weird Tales by alt-country supergroup Golden Smog. I wondered: did that mean that the oddly evocative cover of that album was derived from the magazine?

A little spelunking through the cover archive found the answer. Golden Smog’s album cover is based on the cover of the October 1933 issue of Weird Tales, and is an illustration by Margaret Brundage for the story “The Vampire Master” by Hugh Davidson. (The Golden Smog album cover hides the bat head on the woman’s mask.) No word on who in Golden Smog was the pulp fiction fan, though.

Thanks (or no thanks) to Greg for this one:

He beat it (beat it!) / beat iiiii-i-i-i-iiiit (beat it!) / Nooo-o-o-o-ooo one wants to be-e-e-e-eeeeee de-fee-e-e-e-eeee-ated!

Of course, we’re talking about yesterday’s news. And Tony has an interesting take on the jury vs. the media in the trial.

Sometime in the mid 1990s a lot of bands stopped feeling good. Blame the rap-metal bands, blame Radiohead, but good old fashioned rock party music largely disappeared from the airwaves. If there is any justice in the world (a dubious proposition at best), the new record from Tsar should bring back the heyday of window-open singalong guitar party rock in a way it hasn’t been heard since that album that the guys from Guns ’n’ Roses never recorded with the kids from Green Day.

Tsar are very good at a very old rock and roll tradition: exploring someone else’s sound and making it your own. The band has been kicking around LA since 2000 (and has been a darling of the blogosphere for at least that long, thanks to Tony Pierce’s tireless hype), and releases its first album for TVT this month. So the big question is: does the band live up to the hype?

Do they ever. Band Girls Money is a straight-ahead high octane dose of jet fuelled ear candy. Tsar claim to be descended from glam idols T. Rex and sugar poppers the Archies (and they work the glamdrogynous look in the cover art), but there are equal parts John Lennon and Cracker-era David Lowery in Jeff Whalen’s insanely fluid vocals, and the guitars simultaneously recall the high points of pre-Thin White Duke Bowie, the Ramones, and the Jesus & Mary Chain.

Incidentally, if this reads like a critics’ game of “List the Influences,” that’s because every track invokes a different set of very specific rock references. “Superdeformed” is the most explicit, checking the Beatles in both the chorus (though this writer would dispute the claim that “the Beatles never got you high”) and in Whalen’s Lennonesque “all riiiight,” which sounds like an alternate take of the chorus for “Revolution.” But other tracks hit different reference points: “Straight” plays like the Ramones doing a “One Tree Hill” soundtrack song (in a good way), “Wanna Get Dead” has the aforementioned JnMC vibe (specifically, “Coast to Coast” from Automatic), and the rhythm section intro leading into the sustained guitar note that opens “The Love Explosion” plays for all the world like a sped-up version of the opening to Radiohead’s “There There.” But the songs are all clearly original—the reference points are there as hommages, not as imitations, and for the most part if you blink you miss them. You know, aside from the part where Tsar are reinventing the whole glam genre.

Then there’s Whalen’s lyrics… They aren’t deep, mostly cocky cock-rock (“He’s got the band, the girls, and the money”, “It’s hard to stand up with all the girls on your lap”), but they would probably be a lot of fun to sing along with if the band included a lyrics sheet.

Which is one of my only two complaints about this disc. The other, the DRM on it that prevented it from going on my iPod so I could take it with me everywhere, is a little less forgivable. But the rock is so good, I’m almost over that. And if you know me, you know that’s saying a lot.

If Spoon’s Gimme Fiction is this summer’s party album choice for the intelligent indie pop fan, Tsar’s Band Girls Money is this summer’s party album choice for everybody else—and for the intelligent indie pop fan when he thinks no one else is looking. This band is some serious rock’n’roll fun.

Originally posted on Blogcritics.

As a (former) professional online behavior analyst, when my own online behavior changes, I take notice. So when I realized that I am waiting for albums to become available on eMusic rather than buying them on iTunes; regularly buying several 50-tune booster packs per month; and now have a “Save for Later” list containing 47 albums, I conclude that I have developed a preference for eMusic.

What’s changed? Two things: selection and currency. eMusic has added a ton of labels recently, including Merge, Sun, Vice Recordings, the always excellent Bloodshot Records, Misra, Thirsty Ear… a bunch of indies releasing some great music. (Many of these are available on iTMS as well; more on that in a minute.) Second, new releases are now being made available through eMusic on or very close to the street date. Take a look at my purchase of Spoon’s Gimme Fiction. On the old eMusic it might have taken several months to make it there; not any more.

eMusic also, I reluctantly conclude, has a substantial navigability advantage over the iTMS. The iTunes store sometimes feels shoehorned into the iTunes interface: no browsing options other than big column lists and search; live hyperlinks for artist browsing, but not label or year; no user reviews; and so on. I’ve found more good music by browsing at eMusic in the last month than I had for the previous few on the iTMS, primarily by browsing by label, then the artist list.

Other advantages of eMusic: high bit rate MP3s (no DRM); ability to re-download purchased tracks; and price. Yeah, did I mention price? Sure, buying by the track is sometimes no bargain, but when the price is 50 tracks for $14.95, I almost don’t care, since buying the equivalent 50 tracks in the iTMS might cost me $50. If the iTMS had the songs, the convenience of buying a la carte instead of in a monthly subscription or booster pack might make it likely for me to buy there, but it’s not a lock any more, not by a long shot.

I’m not giving up on the iTMS. It’s still the only place for me to find music from most of the majors, for instance. But more often than not, I’m looking for the minors instead.

One final thought: eMusic is even gaining the edge in the “delight” factor for me. This is the technical marketing term for what happens when a business not only fulfills a customer’s expectations and requirements but surpasses them in a big way. I was trying to find a song by the Ukrainians that I had gotten on a mix tape (from Fury, as it turns out) about twelve years ago. I knew a transliteration of the title (“O Sweet Girl”) but not the original Ukrainian title, so Googling it seemed difficult. Eventually I gave up, deciding that while I might be able to find it on a peer-to-peer network, it probably wasn’t worth it. I then Googled another artist, 3 Mustaphas 3, and found a hit to them on eMusic. While it wasn’t the album I was looking for, the description of the album talked about … the Ukrainians. Sure enough, eMusic had the band, and amazingly had the exact song (“Oi Divchino”) I was looking for, which I verified by listening to the sound clip. I purchased it there, of course.

The odds that I could find the Ukrainians at the iTMS? Slim.

Hey, Apple: there’s Long Tail style profit to be made in increasing your depth in some of these indie labels. Why are they listing digital content on eMusic and not on you? And why don’t you make it easier for me to experience serendipity on the store? Is it really helpful for me to know that “Hollaback Girl” is still #1 in Today’s Top Songs? eMusic gives me tailored recommendations, not a top 10 list. Guess which one I’m more likely to buy from?

New mix, decades longer than you, posted at Art of the Mix and the iTunes Music Store. Extensive song-by-song notes and a bonus illustration, shamelessly cribbed from Questionable Content, are at AotM.

Salon.com: iTunes free download: M.I.A.’s “Galang”. I downloaded this today and was rocking it all the way into work—a good forty-minute drive on a wet windy day like today. If, like me, you were too lame to download Maya Arulpragasam’s debut album illicitly when it was all the buzz, at least check out the free single.

In happier music news, Sleater-Kinney released their seventh album (wow!) (and their first on Sub Pop) yesterday. In checking out the publicity for the release, I made my way to their official page, where I found the Sleater-Kinney blog. Yep, all three members of the band writing about touring, Revenge of the Sith, breaking feet (get well, Carrie), being interviewed, and other fun stresses of the road. No comments, alas, and no RSS, but it’s definitely a start. Notes on the album when I actually get a chance to listen to it. (I love my new company, but the open floor plan isn’t the most conducive to rocking out.)

I somehow missed this, but Low’s Alan Sparhawk wrote on the band’s forum at the beginning of the month that the band has cancelled its shows for May and June (and probably beyond) because he is coping with undiagnosed mental distress, probably depression. As much as it hurts to see someone go through this, I’m really glad that it’s playing out this way and not with a police report, as it did for Elliott Smith. Alan, take all the time you need to get well. We can wait to hear the music.

Man. I wish the iTunes Music Store folks would get their acts together and consistently update the New Releases and Just Added pages. As a music addict, I generally await Tuesdays like I await my first cup of coffee in the morning, and I just can’t get going without my fix. So it’s a good thing that the store’s banner ads at least are up to date; they advised me that the new release from Spoon, Gimme Fiction, is available.

I was looking forward to the release because the lead single, “I Turn My Camera On,” was excellent—a bit like an indie white boy version of Prince, only more swagger-y. But after the disappointment with the new music listings, I thought, I wonder if it’s available at eMusic instead? Sure enough. And buying a fifty-song booster pack let me download the album, plus recordings by Ali Farka Toure, Gene Ammons, Red Garland, and Material for just a few dollars more than the Spoon album by itself would cost at the iTMS.

Also available, and according to Fury worth hearing, is the new recording of Pierre Boulez conducting his own Le Marteau Sans Maitre. (And thanks to Fury for hipping me to the Gurgling Cod, which just got added to my list of favorite Boston area blogs.)

Finally, I happened to be in our local indy record store (okay, chain) this weekend, and found a copy of Godspeed You Black Emperor’s F#, A#, (∞) on vinyl, about which the band’s official discography page says it best:

initially limited to 500 numbered copies, then repressed. hand-made jacket, with one of three actual photographs glued on to the front. comes with a bag of goodies, including a penny flattened by a train. each track fills a side, and is made up of different pieces. side b runs out into a locked groove.

It is not a knock against the recording to say that last night, in a somewhat exhausted state, it took me about ten minutes to realize that the album runs out into a locked groove; the musical effect is quite consistent with the rest of that side. F#, A#, ∞, indeed. But what a cool album (even without the bag of goodies). And apparently, the only way to get the experience is on vinyl, since the band remastered and re-recorded portions for the 1998 CD release. (See the aforementioned discography page for some MP3 samples of the CD version.)