Saturday, April 29, 2023
Royal Crescent Mob - Something New, Old and Borrowed: liked
Land of Sugar EP, some okay live tracks, a single, and an alternate version. If you're so snobby, where's the Oxford comma?
Royal Crescent Mob - Spin the World: 7 (B+)
Too expensive used. Probably more of a "liked" anyway. Update (July 2026): Actually, found a nice CD copy for a ridiculously good price and went for it.
Ron Wood - I've Got My Own Album To Do: 7.5 (high B+)
Only available at import prices from expensive boutique reissue label. This should still be in print and selling for $10.
Graham Parker - The Real Macaw [Arista, 1983]: 8 (A-)
Unavailable at reasonable prices. Update (July 2026): Found a copy of the 1991 re-release on Razor Edge (an early division of Razor & Tie, apparently) for a good price. Turns out it was digitally remastered, unlike a lot of early CD reissues, probably because it's basically a reissue label. I'm sure it would have been a straight analog transfer if Arista had done it. Upped a notch upon further listening. I think I read somewhere that it is the favorite album of all time of one of the session musicians, I think it was.
Charlie Christian - Genius of Electric Guitar [placeholder]
All songs on here are on Solo Flight, other than "Grand Slam." Solo Flight has these extra tracks, so this is what I will listen to:
Benny Goodman Sextet– Boy Meets Goy 2:50
Benny Goodman Sextet– Good Enough To Keep (Air Mail Special) 2:54
Benny Goodman Sextet– I Can't Give You Anything But Love (Baby) 3:20
Benny Goodman Sextet– Gilly 2:33
Benny Goodman Sextet– On The Alamo 3:23
Benny Goodman Sextet– Memories Of You 3:06
Benny Goodman Orchestra– Honeysuckle Rose 3:01
Charlie Christian Quintet– I Got Rhythm 5:46
Charlie Christian Quintet– Stardust 5:30
Charlie Christian Quintet– Tea For Two 4:28
Metronome All Star Nine– All Star Strut 3:10
John Coltrane - Ascension: X (X)
Owned this once and sold it back. I realize that it has four stars in the Penguin guide etc. However, I note it's one of the least popular of the Coltrane classics with Allmusic users, and Tom Hull doesn't give this a full A (he gives it an A-). I listened to Edition II once again in making this post.
Janis Joplin - Janis: [grade to come after final listen]
This box contains all of the following albums, except as indicated. I listened to all the omitted songs three times. I will not be rating these works separately.
Big Brother & the Holding Company [1970 Columbia release] - "Call on Me" and "Women Is Losers" and "Blindman" and "Caterpillar"
Cheap Thrills - "Summertime"
I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! - "Maybe"
Pearl - "Cry Baby" and "Buried Alive in the Blues"
Friday, April 28, 2023
Catalog Scrubs Complete 2023
Lush
Black Merda [Mer-Da]
The Julie Ruin
Bikini Kill
Ray Parker Jr.
Sinead O'Connor
Gram Parsons/Flying Burrito Brothers/International Submarine Band
Baaba Maal
Gregory Isaacs
The Itals
Young Fathers
Mofungo
Linx
Scritti Politti
Ace of Base
The Moldy Peaches/Kimya Dawson/Adam Greeen
Janelle Monae
Momus
Alison Krauss
Spiral Stairs [Scott Kannberg]/Preston School of Industry [that was hard]
Yoko Ono
Stephen Malkmus
Alexander O'Neal [would listen to self-titled debut, if available]
Change
John Phillips
Blood Orange
Alex Chilton
Sufjan Stevens
Diplo
Depeche Mode [would listen to Singles 81>98 if I could; won't re-create]
Philip Glass
Sisters of Mercy
George Strait
The English Beat
John Prine
Placebo
The Klezmatics
The Jungle Brothers
Crowded House
Muse
Charli XCX
The Naysayer
Napalm Death
Justin Warfield/One Inch Punch/She Wants Revenge
Saul Williams
A Certain Ratio
Chet Baker
2Pac/Tupac
Lyle Lovett
Ornette Coleman [that was not easy]
Cheap Trick
Albert Ayler
Morrissey
Jinx Lennon
Quasi
Electronic [Sumner/Marr]
Bernard Sumner/Bad Lieutenant
The The
Johnny Marr
Taana Gardner
Deee-Lite
Deftones
Palace [and variations]/Bonnie "Prince" Billy/Will Oldham
Queen
Queens of the Stone Age
Karate
Marky Mark
Emperor
Dinosaur Jr./J. Mascis
Lou Barlow/The Folk Implosion/Deep Wound/Sebadoh/Sentridoh
LL Cool J
Plug [Luke Vibert]
Noname
Lukid
Two Fingers [Amon Tobin]
Francis Bebey
The Dandy Warhols [double scrub]
Delta 5
Wayne Shorter
Grandaddy
Common
Clams Casino
Public Image Ltd.
Pretty Girls Make Graves
Andy Fairweather Low/Amen Corner/Local Boys
The Cult
New Model Army
The Go-Betweens [I'd like to hear The Able Label Singles if it ever pops up]
Teenage Fanclub
Big Stick
The Flesh Eaters [Flesheaters]
The Leaving Trains [might try Amplified Pillows [live] one day]
The Minutemen
Husker Du
Descendents
Cypress Hill
This Kind of Punishment
Frank Black
The Pixies
Ian Hunter
The New Pornographers
Thomas Mapfumo
PJ Harvey
The Meditations
Saint Etienne
Arto Lindsay/Ambitious Lovers
David Behrman
Warren Zevon
Nick Cave/Birthday Party
Jad Fair solo [would listen to Great Expectations if streamable anywhere]
Freedy Johnston
Tom Robinson
Jon Langford/Waco Brothers/Skull Orchard/Pine Valley Cosmonauts/Men of Gwent/Killer Shrews
Dim Subooteyo [?]
Misfits
Pogues
Modest Mouse
Tapper Zukie
Nine Inch Nails/NIN
Ice-T/Body Count
Lene Lovich
The Fall [double scrub]
Joan Jett/Runaways
Royal Crescent Mob
Malcolm McLaren
Graham Parker
L7
Max Romeo - Holding Out My Love to You [liked]
:-) [Almost bought a nice used vinyl copy because of Keith Richards’ involvement, but I really need to cut down on that kind of obsessive purchase.]
Sonic Youth - SYR series - batch review
Not sure what I would rate these. Probably all 7 (B+), except for SYR4, which would be a negative. I have 1-3, all of which are EPs.
SYR1: Anagrama [EP]
SYR2: Slaapkamers met slagroom [EP]
SYR3: Invito al cielo [EP]
SYR4: Goodbye 20th Century [3.5 listens]
The Pitchfork review which gives SYR4 an 8.5 (high A-) is pretentious twaddle. On one hand it describes it as "music that is not supposed to be enjoyed so much as to be endured." WTF? And then it ends with this insufferable, cliched, completely contradictory and self-congratulatory condescension: "But if all you hear is dissonance and feedback and Kim Gordon's hot, ghostly musings, you're not listening." Right, the problem is ours if our "tastes" don't match yours? [The half listen is a final listen, after three full listens, where, when an annoying, stupid song starts and has a 10 minute running time, I would skip to the next one at the halfway point. This is something I've never done before, but since this is 1:45 long (!)....]
Foamola - May I Take a Bath?
:-( [I was able to identify 4 out of 5 of these songs and stream them online. They are horrible. Listening three times was torture.]
James McMurtry - Too Long in the Wasteland [Columbia, 1989]: 8 (A-)
It's #country, but I got it anyway, because it's McMurtry. Update (June 2026): And then upped it a notch anyway upon repeated additional listenings. Very good album. I wish I had been appreciating it at the time it came out.
Sunday, April 23, 2023
Double Nice [Buck 65/Birdapres] - The Last Dig: 7.5 (high B+)
Cassette-only. Gets really good towards the end.
Saturday, April 22, 2023
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