Music Notes
By 
I’ve seen two shows recently. I’m going to talk about one this week and one next week. I saw The Tubs play at Deep Cuts in Medford, Massachusetts on September 28. This was a lot of fun. The Tubs, as I have stated when describing their albums, sound exactly like Richard Thompson in a post-punk band. This is because the singer sounds like Richard Thompson and the rest of the band is a post-punk band. This is exactly what the world needed. This is really part of a larger collective in Cardiff that has formed a bunch of critically acclaimed bands over the last decade or so, including Joanna Gruesome, Ex-Void, and Sniffany and the Nits. They are all pretty good bands to really great bands. This sounded so good and fun live. The drummer–who I assume is also from Cardiff but unlike the rest of the band leans way into the local lingo that makes him almost impossible to understand but also really funny at the time, is a total comedian. He made a lot of Harvard jokes–a lot of bands do this when playing the Boston environs–and at one point was “I was in the class of 0…0, uh” and someone yelled from the audience “Class of O Shit!” which was pretty funny and which the band enjoyed for the rest of the night. They played for about an hour or a touch more, mostly from the new album and a few of the best songs off their initial album. It’s also a good space to see a show. First, if you need a reminder that paying attention to some smaller bands so you can see them with 150 or 200 people instead of 2,000, this venue works. It simply is better seeing a band in a club than in a concert hall. Second, it also functions as a brewery and while not all the beers are great, the pilsner I had was really first rate, something I would drink anywhere.
In other news:
The great English folk scene bassist Danny Thompson has died. He was one of the great ones, working a lot with Richard Thompson and so many others. He was older than a lot of these folks and was 86 when he died and here’s a nice remembrance at the Guardian. The Industry album he and Richard Thompson did in the late 90s is a good intro to his work, as RT wrote the lyrical songs about industrialization and deindustrialization and DT filled the songs in between with instrumental compositions that of course RT was great at playing too.
I mentioned last time I did one of these columns that I had seen Mary Halvorson’s Amaryllis band play in Cambridge and this is a really good summary of that show. Jazz is hard to write about so it’s going to be tough to be more comprehensive about what makes a show like this great than what you have here.
Viv Prince, certifiable lunatic and one of the drummers who helped associate the instrument with crazy people, died as well.
Zach Bryan can be pretty douchey and has said pro-Trump things in the past, so I’m surprised he has released an openly anti-ICE song. Good for him.
In case you need a ranking of all 286 Taylor Swift songs. Sounds like her new album isn’t particularly well-received, though I’ve always found her music pretty boring.
Pitchfork has a Top 100 Rap Albums list. This ought to have some spicy and poorly defended takes.
A new book on the origins of the Texas punk scene.
A list of underrated jazz albums from 1975
Burning Ambulance on the Hungarian composer Tibor Szemzo
Nate Chinen on George Wein, on what would have been the latter’s 100th birthday.
Playlist for the last two weeks:
- U.S. Girls, In a Poem Unlimited
- Jake Blount, The New Faith
- Soccer Mommy, Clean
- Kevin Morby, Sundowner
- Talking Heads, More Songs About Buildings and Food
- Margo Price, All American Made
- Jade Jackson, Wilderness
- Jessica Pavone, Lull
- Red Hot Org & Meshell Ndegeocello, Red Hot, & Ra
- Buck Owens, Buck Em, Volume 2: The Music of Buck Owens, 1967-1975
- The Paranoid Style, The Purposes of Music in General
- Old Crow Medicine Show, Live at the Ryman
- Justin Townes Earle, Harlem River Blues
- Eric Dolphy, Out to Lunch
- Waxahatchee, Out in the Storm
- Die Spitz, Teeth
- Priests, Nothing Feels Natural
- Hurray for the Riff Raff, The Past is Still Alive
- Solange, A Seat at the Table
- Run the Jewels, RTJ4
- Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt, Made Out of Sound
- Loretta Lynn, Van Lear Rose
- Chouk Bwa & the Angstromers, Vodou Ale
- Kate Bush, Hounds of Love
- Mary Halvorson, Calling All Portraits
- Rhiannon Giddens, You’re the One
- Mestre Cupijo e Seu Ritmo, Siria
- Doc Watson, self-titled
- Julia Jacklin, Crushing
- Greg Brown, One More Goodnight Kiss
- Waco Brothers, Going Down in History
- Vijay Iyer Trio, Break Stuff
- Meridian Brothers, Salvadora Robot
- London Sinfonietta & Oliver Knussen, American Classics: Elliott Carter
- Helge Antoni, Frédéric Chopin and John Field
- Liszt: Howard, Liszt Hexameron: Un Portrait – Symphonie Fantastique
- Townes Van Zandt, self-titled
- James McMurtry, Where’d You Hide the Body
- The Freight Hoppers, Where’d You Come From, Where’d You Go
- CTMF & Wild Billy Childish, Where the Wild Purple Iris Grows
- Eric Taylor, Resurrect
- Lorelle Meets the Obsolete, Balance
- Robbie Fulks, Georgia Hard
- Marissa Nadler, For My Crimes
- Marika Hackman, I’m Not Your Man
- Richard and Linda Thompson, Hokey Pokey
- Conway Twitty, 25 Number Ones
- Natalie Hemby, Puxico
- Amanda Shires, Down Fell the Doves
- Dave Douglas, Convergence
- The Beths, Future Me Hates Me
- Laura Veirs, Found Light
- Melba Montgomery/Charlie Louvin, Something to Brag About
- Buck Owens, Together Again/My Heart Skips a Beat
- Willie Nelson, Stardust
- George Jones, A Picture of Me (Without You)
- George Jones & Tammy Wynette, Golden Ring
- Rodney Crowell, Triage
- Margaret Glaspy, Before We Were Together
- Derek Bailey/Fred Frith/Sonny Sharrock/John Zorn/Bill Laswell/Charles K. Noyes, Improvised Music New York 1981
Album Reviews:
Misha Tsiganov, Misha’s Wishes
Look, this is a very nice album of new jazz. On the other hand, if I wanted to hear Bill Evans, I would just listen to a Bill Evans album and not a 2022 version of Bill Evans. So sure, this is nice as background music and pleasant enough to hear. But it is also basically an imitation of the 60s, as it way too much mainstream jazz these days. So again, why wouldn’t I just listen to Evans or Art Blakey or so many others who already basically did this?
B-
Lean Year, Sides
There is a whole genre of slowish art-pop out there and it never captures me because it feels like nothing happens, even though there’s actually quite a bit going on since it is so mannered and intentional. But that’s mostly how I feel here about this Richmond couple and their friends. It feels like a lot of projects like this are dealing with grief and that’s what these songs do too. Depending on your aesthetic, I can see where someone might find this kind of nice, but I can’t imagine ever wanting to hear this again. It’s fine, but limited for me. I need more than atmosphere.
B-
Joshua Redman, Words Fall Short
It was interesting to listen to the new Redman release shortly after not being too impressed with the Misha Tsiganov release above. It’s not as if Redman isn’t pretty firmly in the 60s jazz tradition too. And sure, I don’t find this the most compelling work based on that vision of something that used to be rather than something new. But boy does Redman sound great. His compositions remain interesting and even if he is mining the mid-60s too, his mine is better.
B+
Doug Richards Orchestra, Through a Sonic Prism: The Music of Antonio Carlos Jobim
You don’t see a lot of big bands these days because the economics of it is terrible. Hell, it was terrible in the old days too. So many people to pay! Our old LGM friend Darcy James Argue has one of the only big bands out there that plays much and even then it’s pretty limited, though I was able to see them at Big Ears a couple of years ago. Doug Richards is another guy keeping this tradition going. This cover of Jobim tunes does exactly what you want it to do and no more and no less. It’s more than capably done. Laura Ann Singh sings well in Portuguese. The orchestra is filled with skilled players. The tunes are tight. I don’t know that this is a great album per se, but it’s a fully realized project at least.
B
Night Moves, Double Life
I found this pretty overwrought, overproduced, and cheesy. I guess that makes sense–the obvious influence in arena 70s pop-rock. The clearest comparison is War on Drugs and I am mixed on that band too, but tend to like them more than this. The difference, I think, is that War on Drugs can be a bit ridiculous at times but ultimately they don’t let the production overwhelm the guitar-rock at their core. Here, while the songs are quite confessional about problematic relationships and the like–an eternal theme of songwriting, as it should be–the production is just too much for my tastes. Strip it down a bit boys!
C+
Turnpike Troubadours, A Cat in the Rain
A solid if not spectacular album from a couple of years ago by this veteran band of Texas country. This was Evan Felker’s comeback after years away due to a lot of bad personal errors and a lot of drinking. But he got it straightened out and that’s great. This is a welcome album (and they have a new one I hope to get to soon). There’s nothing wrong with it at all, it’s just a very standard country album in their style, which makes it a positive addition to my life and probably not the album to convert someone to the band with. But with this album, just be happy the band was back together (and was good at Newport Folk Festival that summer too).
B
The Nightingales, The Awful Truth
This is an unusual album, a sort of chamber rock with theatrical influences and a big sound, the kind of thing I am often a bit skeptical of, but this works pretty well. Lots of glam, but also lots of British punk class based anger and a lot of hate of the British far right. A little bit like the Brecht era Tom Waits but more political but also not really. I don’t know, it’s unusual and welcome. Just check it out.
B+
Die Spitz, Something to Consume
Jesus…..these young women rock like few other bands in years. I’ve seen them as an opening band twice and was totally blown away. Then I heard their EP and was really impressed. This is their full-length debut. My god, the energy here is next level. This is right at the edge of being too hardcore for my tastes, but as the vocals are more screamed from the heart rather than the mannered vocals of so much of that music, while also modulating from more traditional singing with enormous (and I mean fucking enormous riffs) and then moving toward that blast of raw fury, it really fits for me. The incredibly angry feminist lyrics don’t hurt either. If rock and roll maybe isn’t going to invent anything new, at least I wish more artists would channel this kind of emotion–whatever the subgenre is–into the music in such a pure and raw way. Like the early Sleater-Kinney records, just sit back and enjoy the ride.
A
Amaia Miranda, Mientras Vivas Brillas
This is a lovely guitar and voice album from the Basque region of Spain. It’s just strikingly beautiful, both vocally and instrumentally. Atmospherically too. The guitar work is absolutely next level. This is like listening to Bert Jansch play and Amalia Rodrigues sing and I don’t make comparisons like that lightly. This release got almost no attention in the U.S., except that one person at NPR loved it so much that they made sure it was on the NPR Top 50 list last year. Otherwise, there’s almost nothing about this album in English. Extremely glad I pay attention to these lists. Sure, you are going to find Beyonce on all of them and deservedly so, but there’s so much wondrous music being released every day around the world and it’s hard to get access to it and so you have to look and this justifies the search.
A
Angel Bat Dawid, Requiem for Jazz
This is one of these shots you see from the jazz world at the supposed death of jazz, which means people aren’t paying attention to the amazing work happening in the music and are just listening to the same ol’shit from 1962. Dawid is a clarinetist based out of Chicago and an interesting player. She created a big band for this, making fun of the death and holding a sort of funeral to take the piss out of the concept, while also talking about how critical jazz has been for Black America. That is itself hardly a new concept, but one always worth making. Obviously there’s a serious Sun Ra influence here, but she’s not just copying Ra and the Arkestra. But the show ends with the appearance of Marshall Allen too, in case there was any question about the point. At the minimum, it’s a super fascinating listen.
A-
Brown Spirits, Cosmic Seeds
If Farley was in a band, this is what he would have named it. He probably wouldn’t play this album of jammy instrumental rock with a lot of electronics in it. In fact, knowing our friend as I do, I can guarantee he would find this the worst brown spirit ever, unless perhaps we are talking about Canadian whiskey. Other than putting it on as not entirely bad background music, I am struggling to see what the point of his music is.
C
Sparklehorse, Bird Machine
I never got super into Sparklehorse, always respecting the work more than loving it. I still feel this way on 2023 album, after not thinking about Mark Linkous for a long time. This comes out of some 2009 recordings with Steve Albini that finally saw the light of day and you know, they are pretty good. Unfortunately, Linkous was a mess at this time and would kill himself soon after, but his attempted to move toward a more punk sound worked pretty well to speed up his work a bit and make it a bit dirtier. As always, I don’t love everything, but he was a very fine artist and the musical world is worse for him not being in it.
B+
As always, this is an open thread for all things music and art and none things politics.