Music Notes
By 
Paul noted Dylan’s 80th birthday with a couple of covers. That got me to thinking of what I think are 5 of my favorite Dylan covers. Starting with the best Dylan cover ever.
Also, this Rolling Stone list of their Top 80 Dylan covers isn’t nearly as bad as I figured it would be.
Here’s a good Q&A with Jason Isbell about his career.
Julia Jacklin’s 2019 album Crushing is just astoundingly good. This Australian singer-songwriter was breaking out internationally and then the pandemic hit. Here’s a story about her with a good interview where she addresses all this. Can’t wait for her next album. Here’s a studio performance from her in 2019 on her U.S. tour that’s a good intro to her work.
There’s nothing we can really call an Asian-American musical tradition in the U.S., or at least I don’t think there is. But here’s an interesting exploration of the history of Asian-American music.
I would definitely have a very different list of Dolly Parton’s Top 11 songs, but I appreciate this one breaking tradition and going for real opinion instead of just standard choices. At least “I Will Always Love You” isn’t on there.
I can’t as say I thought Death Cab for Cutie’s Codes and Keys was a memorable enough album that anyone would even be thinking about it 10 years on, but not only that, there’s even a retrospective discussion of it!
Looks like concert halls are finally receiving some federal relief as they figure out how to reopen.
I am not sure what surprised me more: 1) that NPR would run an entire story on current Oregon indie bands, 2) that said story would actually leave Portland and discuss bands in Astoria and Bend and other random places, or 3) that none of the listed bands are bad Eugene jam bands.
I’ve heard a few of the albums from the Jazz is Dead series, though not the latest. This is a good story on the series, which brings together jazz, R&B, and hip-hop artists in order that these mutually reinforcing genres can build on each other.
80 years since Charlie Christian’s legendary performance at Minton’s.
Sleater-Kinney has a new album coming out and if the first 2 singles tell us anything, it’s that they’ve at least corrected the errors of The Center Won’t Hold and released a Sleater-Kinney album. Not that it is going to bring Janet Weiss back, sadly.
Recently acquired albums:
- Sleaford Mods, Spare Ribs
- Guy Clark, Dublin Blues
- Conjunto! Texas-Mexican Border Music, Vol. 1 (this is from the great Smithsonian series of this music put out in the late 80s. I have several of the albums, but oddly not volume 1 until now)
Album Reviews:
Bruce Springsteen, Letter to You
I’ve never been on the BRUCE train. The love for him is simply beyond me. Some of it is regional–I literally knew not a single Springsteen fan in high school or college in Oregon, whereas every kid who grew up in the 80s on the East Coast seems to love Bruce more than life itself. What he is to me is a solid songwriter who sometimes over-sings his material. The best albums are very good, most are a step below that. His album from last year is firmly in the second category. It’s fine. There’s some good songs at the front of the album. There’s a good bit of filler as well, especially the longer songs on the second half of the album.
B
The Chicks, Gaslighter
I wasn’t a big fan of the Dixie Chicks back in the day. They might have had good politics, but they still operated in the bombastic pop stylings of mainstream country music. Now that they are back as The Chicks, they still have good politics, but I found this album not very satisfactory. They are still pretty determined to stick in the pop stylings, though with a banjo that makes it all a little more musically interesting. The songs are pretty by the playbook breakup songs. I’ve just never thought this was a remarkable band and still don’t.
B-
Sun Ra, Celestial Love
Another Ra archival release, from material recorded in 1982. Here, the great one goes deep into his love of Ellington, with a couple of covers (“Sophisticated Lady” and “Drop Me Off in Harlem”) and a lot of Duke-inspired material. Overall, this is definitely on the accessible side of Ra. Is it his most compelling release? No, probably not. But it is certainly a pleasant one, especially for those of you who are a lot more interested in older forms of jazz than his experimental side.
B+
Bonnie Prince Billy/Matt Sweeney, Superwolves
When Will Oldham and Matt Sweeney teamed up for the Superwolf album in 2005, no one really thought it would do much. It didn’t seem like an exceptional pairing. But it became a real underground classic, a set of some of the best songs of that decade. There’s a real beauty to that album that neither frequently get on their own. Sixteen years later, they decided to release a sequel. Superwolves mines some of the same type of material, but with a few more guest musicians, including Mdou Moctor, who surprisingly doesn’t overwhelm the proceedings, a sign of his own maturity as a guitarist. I need to hear the songs a few more times, but this feels like another great collaboration.
The sad thing about not buying CDs anymore (or albums) is that Superwolves is unlikely to present those of us who bought the 2005 album with a special pullout celebrating smoking weed.
A-
Khruangbin, Mordechai
I don’t live this band as much as so many people. Like the excellent largely instrumental soul bands of the 1960s such as Booker T & the MGs or The Meters, this can sometimes operate better as background music than just listening to it straight through at attention. That’s not really a slam on it–those other bands are great too. There’s a bit more of an attempt to write a few lyrics here and it helps some. It’s good music, just not the OMG level that the attention this Texas band got when it first appeared justifies.
B+
X, Alphabetland
I was curious what this would be like. Nearly four decades after their heyday, Exene well down the road of crazy conspiracy theory politics, etc. But the original band got back together and this is actually a quite worthy album. I’m not saying we are talking about another Los Angeles or Wild Gift here. But there are some real highlights on this album. It’s good punk music, even if the punks damn near need canes to get around these days.
B+
Sharon Van Etten, Remind Me Tomorrow
Like a lot of her ilk, Van Etten is a lot easier to take with some rock and roll. When she goes acoustic, it goes sad folkie real quick. And the thing about sad folkie is that the songwriting really needs to be A+ to not let it get into the weeds of banality. Van Etten is a good songwriter. But she’s not a truly great songwriter. Luckily, this, her last release from a couple of years ago, mostly does have some rock and roll at its heart. It helps a lot. Creates a solid album.
B
Mitski, Bury Me at Makeout Creek
I’ve learned to love Mitski, even though it took me awhile. So I’ve been slowly going back through her catalog and finally got to her 2014 album Bury Me at Makeout Creek. More than Be the Cowboy or Puberty 2, this one stood out to me at first listen, with very sharp lyrics and very noisy guitar. Of course, those other albums are really amazing too, but they just took a few more hearings in order to really sink in, especially lyrically. She’s just so smart and such a good indie rocker. Hope there’s a new album soon.
A
Chris Corsano/Bill Orcutt, Made Out of Sound
Corsano/Orcutt’s first collaboration as a duo was the well-titled Brace Up! This is noise jazz at its finest, a guitar/drums duo that reminds one of the best of Sonny Sharrock. The follow-up has fewer but longer tracks, remaining another fantastic example of what noise jazz can do and how it might actually appeal to rock fans more than a lot of other forms of free jazz. At least that’s my theory. Anyway, these guys are awesome.
A
Rat Columns, Pacific Kiss
Real solid Australian indie pop band from Perth. This is one of those albums where the influences are obviously on the sleeve and often veer from song to song. While nostalgic type acts can limit one’s patience though, the hooky guitars and good pop lyrics and vocals pull this through with plenty of room to spare.
B+
Matthew Shipp Trio, The Unidentifiable
Oh hey, another utterly astounding album by the greatest jazz pianist, and possibly the greatest jazz musician period, of his generation. It’s hard to keep up with the prodigious Shipp. I review about one album a month and still fall behind! Whether one wants to think this is too much material or not is up to you. For those of us who love modern improvisation, it’s impossible to have too much Matthew Shipp in our lives. As is well-established around here, I am not a huge fan of piano trios generally, but Shipp, working with Michael Bisio on bass and Newman Taylor Baker on drums, just surpasses the cliches of this set-up and produce instantly arresting, constantly changing, and never less than fascinating improvisations. Great stuff.
A
As always, this is an open thread on all things music and art and none things politics.