Music Notes
By 
Having spent a week in Ireland, I was curious to figure something out. To what extent is traditional Irish music (or “trad,” which is a word I hate for reasons I can’t quite pinpoint) is something that the Irish still listen to or is it for the tourists? That was pretty heavily answered being around my extended in-laws, who knew where the good music was every night and came out to it themselves whether they knew we were going to be there or not. So I thought that was a good thing. There’s little question of course that it some bars it is all about the tourists and it’s hard to separate the tourists from the locals anyway in Ireland, especially given how many tourists are actually family members from the U.S.
What I can say is that even in the small but well-known town where I was, there is real talent there. There was a German guy who was in love with Irish music that has become beloved in the town for his interpretations, which is an interesting thing. There’s some great local talent, both on vocals and on instruments.
But you might be asking, if the lead tonight is Irish music, what’s up with the image of Slade, of all the damn bands that I’ve probably haven’t thought of in many years? That’s because one of the members of Slade lives in the town and performs with the local musicians. I happened to see said person and his keyboards the first night I was there. We were discussing the music with others in the town and they were like, oh yeah, that’s the guy from Slade. None of them knew which guy from Slade. But he’s just the guy from Slade. So I guess I saw one of the guys from Slade perform live. Mind blown.
The biggest LGM music news is already known to all subscribers to The New Yorker, or at least those that have opened it–Elizabeth was featured in Talk of the Town for the new Paranoid Style album, her amazing Tweets, and the asshole “reply guys” that try to take her down on the hellsite. I have to say that this is the first person I’ve ever personally known in Talk of the Town and I retain the position that she is far too good at everything to spending time at any site where I write. She even got one of those cool little New Yorker drawings of her!
Is CCR underrated? Oddly, the answer is pretty clearly yes. I’m not totally sure what The Band was doing is any greater than what Credence did, and I really love The Band. There’s a lot of similarities actually–great little songs about America from a band with just a couple of good albums and then long careers of nothing interesting from any of the members. The Band stayed together for longer and the two first albums are better than any CCR album, but the total number of great songs is probably about equal given how little first-rate material is on anything after Stage Fright for The Band. What The Band does have that CCR does not is the Dylan connection and the Scorsese film, both mythologizing influences, then and now. Anyway, David Cantwell has a good New Yorker piece on CCR and how maybe they are finally being appreciated properly.
Mitski doing whatever she can to reject the exploitation artists face in the music industry. Fame is not a lot of fun it turns out, especially when your fans think they own a piece of you just because they bought a ticket. I can easily see her just walking away, a la Bill Withers, and never recording again.
I dunno, maybe I’d play a video game based on Stop Making Sense
I will say this for Robert Plant–of all the big rock musicians who made it huge in the late 60s, few if any remain more searching and less nostalgic or interested in just cashing a big check than he does. Sure I’d probably pay a lot of money to see Led Zeppelin play a reunion show. Plant’s disinterest in this, minus that one tour fifteen years ago or so, is admirable as he keeps going in different directions.
A few losses of note. Paul discussed the most significant to me, Lamont Dozier. So read that if you haven’t. Other losses include the always interesting cellist Abdul Wadud, Wrecking Crew guitarist Bill Pitman, and, of course, Olivia Newton-John, who I don’t think received a thread here of her own, though I doubt many LGM writers listen to her much.
Playlist from the last two weeks, quite limited due to travel but did the best I could:
- Kasey Chambers, Barricades and Brickwalls
- Drive By Truckers, Southern Rock Opera, disc 2
- Parquet Courts, Light Up Gold
- Drive By Truckers, The Big To-Do
- Gil Scott-Heron, Pieces of a Man
- Chris Knight, self-titled
- Albert Ayler, Love Cry
- Lydia Loveless, Real
- Cupcakke, Ephorize
- Vijay Iyer Trio, Break Stuff
- Fred Frith Trio, Another Day in Fucking Paradise
- Steve Earle, Train A Comin’
- John Moreland, Big Bad Luv
- The Highwomen, self-titled
- Drive By Truckers, Welcome to Club XIII
- Jim Lauderdale, Time Flies
- Emmylou Harris, Luxury Liner
- Chuck Cleaver, Send Aid
- Elizabeth Cook, Aftermath
- Girlpool, Powerplant
- Jason Isbell, Reunions
- The Paranoid Style, Rolling Disclosure
- Chris Stapleton, Traveller
- St. Vincent, Masseduction
- Mbongwana Star, From Kinshasa
- Lydia Loveless, Somewhere Else
- Taraf de Haidouks, Of Lovers, Gamblers, and Parachute Skirts
- Fontaines D.C., Skinty Fia
- The Internet, Ego Death
- James McMurtry, Complicated Game
- Lydia Loveless, Daughter
- Wussy, Attica
- Joe Ely, Honky Tonk Masquerade
- Neil Young, American Stars n’ Bars
- Sonic Youth, Dirty
- Merle Haggard, Live from Austin, 1985
- Mississippi John Hurt, Live
- Fairport Convention, Full House
- Alejandro Escovedo, A Man Under the Influence
- Waylon Jennings, Dreaming My Dreams
- Dolly Parton, Jolene
- Palace, Viva Last Blues
- Tom Russell, Rose of the San Joaquin
- Dominic Duval/Joe McPhee/John Heward, Undersound
- Conway Twitty/Loretta Lynn, Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man
- Willie Nelson, Country Willie Sings His Own Songs
- Ornette Coleman, New York is Now
- Parquet Courts, Sunbathing Animal
- Frank Ocean, Channel Orange
- Buck Owens, Sings Harlan Howard
- Iron and Wine, The Creek Drank the Cradle
- Dick Curless, Travelin’ Man
- Ashley Monroe, Like a Rose
- Richard Thompson, Mirror Blue
- Miles Davis, Porgy and Bess
- Smog, Dongs of Sevotion
Album Reviews:
Dave Douglas, Overcome
Interesting political album from the white trumpeter, in which he attempts to place his work in service of the Black freedom struggle. And if covers of “We Shall Overcome” may seem passe to some today, it works with the excellent vocalists Fay Victor and Camilia Meza. “Good Trouble” is a tribute to John Lewis. Other songs are intended to invoke the pandemic and its challenges. Meza is also the guitarist. The rest of the band is Ryan Keberle on trombone, Jorge Roeder on bass, and the great Rudy Roylston on drums. The rhythm and vocals are the real stars on this solid release.
A-
Hayley Williams, Petals for Armor
The former Paramore singer had a real breakthrough with her 2020 solo album. Pretty easy to see why. The opener “Simmer” is a real banger of electronic pop. She sure has a knack for the catchy line. I don’t think every song is great, but they all have good hooks. I am not a dance hall guy at all but I can’t imagine that extended mixes of this album haven’t been popular since its release.
B+
Roscoe Mitchell, Distant Radio Transmission
The history in the last fifteen or twenty years of jazz legends composing modernist orchestra works is actually pretty substantial. Many have moved in that direction. Roscoe Mitchell is one of the few real old-timers who has embraced this and this is a fine example of the genre. There really isn’t anything “jazz” about most of this. It’s full on atonal classical. It’s also pretty brilliant, especially the second track, “Nonaah Trio.” This isn’t easy listening, but it’s also something akin to an out of body experience, with music taking you places regular life would not. Whether that’s something you want or not, I don’t know.
A-
Hank Williams Jr., Rich White Honky Blues
Why listen to old man Hank Jr do a blues (mostly) cover album? Because I want to try and strip away his horrendous politics and general dumbassery and at least give his music a certain listen as a clean slate. Is Hank Jr. his father? God no. But he is an important figure in country music history? Yes. And he’s not a fully terrible one either. Basically, no one listens to his albums anymore and I don’t really blame them for that. His redneck fans turn on the greatest hits and everyone else shuts out the old asshole. But his 70s albums do have value and if most of his 80s and 90s releases sucked, well, that’s not much different than Hag or Waylon or Willie or Dolly.
So what if you strip away the bullshit and then just listen to a new Hank Jr. album? In this case, it’s fine. It’s an unnecessary but completely acceptable set of blues covers by a white guy who basically doesn’t think these artists should have political rights, but who likes their music. Well, that’s not so different than the entire history of whites covering Black music. I’m not telling you to put aside your disdain for this guy and listen to the album. It’s probably not worth it. He certainly doesn’t need or deserve your money. But the album itself is alright. Yeah, he leans into the misogyny at the heart of a lot of blues. Not surprising. He references dad a couple of times, just in case you forgot who he was, not that Jr ever would let you. The band and production (Dan Auerbach’s studio) is tight. The sameness does wear over time, which I often feel with contemporary blues albums.
C+
Darcy Copeland, Veil
Fascinating release by this young Seattle-based composer. She’s so new it’s hard to find out too much detail about her except that she seems to make a living working in some job for the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and she’s studied with a lot of great composers, including Chaya Czernowin. I’m not even sure how I found out about this release, but I found it a compelling listen from a very skilled new artist.
A-
Tones and I, Welcome to the Madhouse
OK, here’s a bit of an experiment. What happens when you listen to an album that critics and users both widely loathed? Is it deserving of that loathing or did it end up being a bunch of people ganging up on someone? Toni Watson, an Australian singer, had a huge hit out of nowhere a few years ago with “Dance Monkey.” How to follow up on this? Are you a one hit wonder or do you have something else to offer? Normally I wouldn’t do this, but I think I read one of the few good reviews of it and so I put it on my list when it came out last year. Figured I’d go through with it.
It’s not thaaaaat bad. It’s cliched pop music with some bad songwriting that includes a lot of unearned bragging. This doesn’t make it that much worse than most pop music. It’s not better than replacement level churned out of the production machine. It’s not too much worse than most of it either. Like lots of pop albums these days, it’s also way too long at 14 songs (there’s a 20 song expanded edition which is really ridiculous). Cut this down to a 10 song/32 minute album and this is probably less bad. But yeah, it’s extremely forgettable. In any case, I can’t feel bad for someone popular enough to get 287 million plays of “I’d Fly Away” on Spotify, for which I assume she made about $5.
C
Mitski, Laurel Hell
It’s funny listening to this after the Tones and I album. First is the generic crap and now there is the singular voice and you are like, oh yeah, this is what taking pop forms and making good music is like. Now, every Mitski album treats me the same way. I am always impressed upon first listen. But it always takes me several listens to get what she is really doing and then I move from respecting it to loving it. I am sure that is going to happen here. This is lyrically and musically interesting, a voice from the darkness to try to deal with all the crap we have in our lives in the twenty-first century. But I can only evaluate the album as I feel about it right now and not how I am going to feel about it in six months. So right now, I think it’s a very good album. But I might think of it is as great soon enough.
A-
Kevin Morby, This is a Photograph
My critique of Morby in the past is that he’s a good songwriter, but has sometimes struggled to get out of the bland musical tropes and up his vocals to the point that it sounds like something. Well, “This is a Photograph” sure as hell blows that critique up. Something like when Iron & Wine released The Shepherd’s Dog, you can finally hear what he can do other than strum. Plus Morby is a better writer than Sam Beam, who has the single theme of pastoralism in his writing. Maybe working out songs his glorious partner Katie Crutchfield (Waxahatchee) took him to a new level. Even a few old-school pop moves here. Mostly, this is smartly written almost rock and roll. Good stuff.
A
As always, this is an open thread for all things music and art and none things politics.