Get an early taste of Wilco’s new album Sky Blue Sky on their site where they offer the track “What Light”, an obvious reference to the Velvets. I heard a part of another song as well as snippets of the whole album on this past Thursday’s edition of All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen chats the with the infamous Robert Christgau, Will Hermes and former WFMU DJ Meredith Ochs about the new Wilco album, and latest offerings by Modest Mouse, Fountains of Wayne and Bright Eyes. I haven’t heard the new Modest Mouse album yet, which has been out for a couple weeksbut I am looking foward to as well as all of these new releases. The NPR crew also play a very funny country song by Elizabeth Cook which by the title“Sometimes It Takes Balls To Be A Woman” you can get a sense of what it’s all about.
Archive for March, 2007
Wilco New Song: “What Light”
Published by March 25th, 2007 in Random, Free Tracks and 2007. 1 CommentUp, Bustle & Out - Mexican Sessions Our Simple Sensational Sound
Published by March 22nd, 2007 in Album, Review and 2007. 2 Comments
After my long absence, one punctuated by miserable colds among the whole clan including my daughter, I find myself buried under new releases–some fifteen or so to date. So what better way to get started than diving into the latest release from one of my favorite groups.
I’ve been enamored with Up, Bustle & Out since the first time a clerk over at Other Music in NYC slipped their sublime Rebel Radio: Master Sessions, Vol. 1 across the counter for me to try. The blend of Breakbeat and Cuban music was and still is intoxicating and the respect that they approached the traditional forms was refreshing. Mexican Sessions Our Simple Sensational Sound sees them head to Monterrey, Mexico to whip up another cross-culture creation this time blending together Dancehall, Dub, Rap, and Cumbia into a languid but heated mix which is the perfect herald for warmer days.
The album lopes along in no particular rush, providing a backdrop that is slightly exotic and often trance inducing. “Mundo Insolito” is one such track with its Cumbia shuffle that makes your body just ache to slide about dancing like you’ve had five or six mojitos too many. Seamlessly that track staggers into “Cumbion Mountain” which will have you waving your arms in the air like an uncaring fool and will have you spinning around all the way to the sublime Flamenco breakdown, “Guitar Ahoy” at the album’s close.
You can get a little taste by sampling the album over at their website but really you should just go out and buy it. Mexican Sessions Our Simple Sensational Sound is just that good and makes it on to the skeletal beginnings of my Best of 2007 list. Very highly recommended.
More Excuses and 3 eMusic picks
Published by March 4th, 2007 in Random, Free Tracks, Album, Review and 2007. 4 CommentsSpeaking of excuses, yes I am still alive. But barely. I’ve been dealing with a herniated disc for the past couple months which has kept me in pain during most of my evenings, when I did have a little free time to write about music here at C-Pop. How’d it happen you ask? Funny thing is one of my last live music reviews I wrote about, could explain how I got into this condition. Back in November when I saw Spearhead I described how Franti encourages the audience to get up and jump. The entire floor was doing the pogo as was I. This most likely caused my spine to crush. I didn’t feel the effects right away and I was already experiencing the problem before I went into the show. But take note: jumping up and down on a wooden floor is not a good thing for your back. Although I’ve still been listening to and thinking about music over the past couple weeks, it has been hard to get the thoughts down as I deal with the pain. Last weekend I discovered that listening to music rather than watching TV calms my nerves and muscles down.
So bear with me as I try to make a comeback as I spell out a couple albums I’ve been playing in the past week. All of the following are recent downloads from eMusic and if you like and already heard one of them I’ll bet you’ll like the other two as well. My top favorite of this week and I predict being on my Top 10 list for 2007 is Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra - Voices and Choices. Lee a multi instrumentalist, vocalist, game soundtrack composer, combines the sounds of Ennio Morricone and Serge Gainsbourg meshes them with Pink Floyd, hip-hop and tons of other references to create a transfiguring soundtrack for your mind. If you grab the eMusic daily download you may gotten the track “Song For David” a couple weeks ago. Last week KCRW’s Podcast: Today’s Top Tune featured the same song. Both places are great sources for new free legal downloads.
Next on my list which has been in my “Save For Later” folder for a while is “Voice Of Chunk” the 1989 release by Lounge Lizards, which blends a atmospheric moody cinematic sound with boundary breaking jazz. Speaking of atmospheric if you look up the word in the dictionary a picture of Vini Reilly (The Durutti Column) should be next to it. For nearly 30 years Reilly has been building upon an ethereal canvas that evokes the movements of both punk and dance. I download two albums this month by The Durutti Column but have only had to time to listen to 2003’s “Someone Else’s Party” which isn’t a completely perfect album but still works, particularly when played with the two previous albums I just mentioned.
It can be said with great certainty that I am a man full of excuses, especially since the birth of my daughter, and my posting here has been particularly slack-assed. So what have I been up to? What am I listening to? Short answer: a pile of new stuff. The only problem is that I am wicked unfocused, more than normal that is, and all this music is sort of floating about my head like a fog, ephemeral and indistinct.
- Bodycode - The Conservation Of Electric Charge
- Etran Finatawa - Introducing
- Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
- After The Burial - Forging a Future Self
- Dosh - The Lost Take
- DJ Rap - Up All Night
- My My - Songs For The Gentle
- The Six Parts Seven - Casually Smashed to Pieces
- Booka Shade - Movements
- Cinemechanica - The Martial Arts
Now, maybe the problem is that these ten albums are all over the place from the quirky progressive stylings of Deerhoof to the grind of After The Burial and everything in between from the sparse House tracks of Bodycode and the trance inducing song cycles of Etran Finatawa. Who knows.
Anyway, while I continue to nosh on these albums for the weekend I’m hoping to get my head back in the game and knock out a couple of reviews before I am completely buried. So apologies all around for my absence and hopefully your heart remains fond of us here at Candied Pop.
