Staff Picks for December 2012
December 31, 2012
Various Artists
Released in 1997, the first volume in Tzadik's Great Jewish Music series features a plethora of musicians performing Gainsbourg's music. Some of the contributors include Marc Ribot, Robin Holcomb and Wayne Horvitz, Mike Patton, Eszter Balint, Cibo Mato, Shelley Hirsch, Eyvind Kang, Medeski Martin & Wood and Ruins.
December 30, 2012
Although perhaps best known for his work with Ani DiFranco, bassist Sickafoose is a major presence in creative jazz as well. You need only hear the ingenious rhythmic layering of opening track "Future Flora" to realize his 2008 album Tiny Resistors is something special. It's special from beginning to end.
December 29, 2012
The earliest album's by Portland artist Liz Harris as Grouper were sub-aquatic affairs so dense with reverb they often drowned under their own layers. This 2008 breakthrough illuminated some of the pop structure hidden beneath the waves, sounding like the best of the early 4AD catalog playing with enormous amounts of dust on the needle.
December 28, 2012
On this 1967 Impulse release, Archie Shepp unleashed his 18-minute tour de force "The Magic of Ju-Ju," combining free jazz with frenetic African drumming played by five percussionists. The remaining tracks, somewhat overshadowed by the title piece, are quick flourishes of free bop "Shazam," "Sorry Bout That," and the waltz-paced "You're What This Day Is All About."
December 27, 2012
Sometimes, you just get a song stuck in your head for no good reason. This happened this week with me and Fats Domino's "Sick & Tired," a 1958 single that isn't one of his biggest hits--it's not on his 2007 Greatest Hits--but it is one of my favorites of his, largely due to that seriously funky New Orleans rhythm. How it got in my head I do not know but I'm glad it's there.
December 26, 2012
One of the lesser known bandleaders of the 1940's swing scene, Kay Kyser's unassuming presence, keen phrasing and sheer likability help make this two-disc collection a must have for fans of the genre and gamers who spent a lot of time killing radscorpions to "Jingle, Jangle, Jingle" in Fallout: New Vegas.
December 25, 2012
John Hartford's two early 1970s albums for Warner Bros, 1971's Aereo-Plain and 1972's Morning Bugle, were a kind of alternative folk before anyone even had the notion of such a thing.
December 24, 2012
Our review of it is a bit, um, harsh, but in Jamaica, the attitude isn't really "it's so bad, it's good" but rather, "it's so fun, it's fun". From "Breadfruit Roasting on an Open Fire" to "Santa Claus Never Comes to the Ghetto", this is one is a riot.
December 23, 2012
So many comebacks, so many reunions...so few worth caring about! These old-timey noise poppers somehow manage to magically escape sucking on this 2012 album of covers of obscure female-fronted tunes from the 60's. Ingredients for success = good songs and good performances with the bare minimum of nostalgia.
December 22, 2012
One of the best albums by the perennial '80s underdogs, Tim finds lead songwriter Paul Westerberg at his peak, spinning yarns of alienation as though he and you were the only two disaffected people left on earth.
December 20, 2012
The most solid album the krautrockers ever recorded, Neu! 75 features the former members of Kraftwerk at their most motorik and melodic. It's an amazing listen, where the seascape changes from a synthesized wash to early-era punk rock over the course of a song. If your favorite Can album is Future Days, this is the next logical step.
December 19, 2012
Jason Palmer's Songbook is an impressive, forward-thinking debut that showcases the trumpeter's knack for harmonically challenging, yet soulful post-bop and modal jazz.
December 18, 2012
This set combines Ritchie Valens, Valens' first album for Bob Keane's Del-Fi label (essentially the only truly finished work Valens recorded), with his second, Ritchie, which was cobbled together from demos, rehearsal sessions, and other odds and ends, then adds in eight additional tracks. Virtually everything is here.
December 17, 2012
The Hot 8 Brass Band's potent mix of marching music, funk and hip-hop has made their reputation solid not only around their New Orleans home base but throughout the world. The Life & Times Of... is a solid and recommended release.
December 16, 2012
Tired of falling asleep with visions of sugar plums dancing in your head? 2007's Fiction, the bleak, broken and often beautiful eighth album from Swedish death metal legends Dark Tranquillity, will help to remove any and all yuletide clich�s from your candy caned brain.
December 15, 2012
A wicked mix album from the Prodigy leader Liam Howlett, The Dirtchamber Sessions, Vol. 1 feels entirely live, whipping through its block rocking beats in a pre-laptop style as faders and turntables do the heavy lifting. Watch out when Babe Ruth's "The Mexican" drops because it's the freaking bomb.
December 14, 2012
Interstellar jazz composer Sun Ra and his arkestra appear to have come a little closer in to Earth's orbit with this 1978 album. While there's still a fair amount of spaced out chanting, the wobbly title track and other key moments of the album sound like seasick soundtracks to urban blight, mournful and hopeful at the same time.
December 13, 2012
Adderley's group on this 1974 date features Nat Adderley, Hal Galper, Walter Booker and Roy McCurdy. They are augmented by guests including Phil Upchurch, and George Duke. They are in solid funky soul jazz form as displayed on the three part "Suite Cannon."
December 12, 2012
Composed and improvised chamber music featuring Horvitz on piano and electronics along with cellist Peggy Lee, trumpeter Ron Miles, and bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck. This is one of Horvitz's most beautiful, expressive, and nuanced projects in his lengthy and multifaceted career.
December 11, 2012
A crate-digger's mentality isn't required to enjoy the Chicago chamber-soul group's great (and occasionally freaky) Christmas album, a mixed bag of originals and traditional numbers produced and arranged by the late genius Charles Stepney. Physical copies are out of circulation, but it's available through some download retailers and streaming services.
December 10, 2012
Daisy-Fresh from Hawthorne, California (The Best of the Dunhill Years) Emitt Rhodes During the early '70s, few solo artists made pop music as sparkling and catchy as Emitt Rhodes, and it's easy to see from this compilation how he earned so many favorable comparisons to the first few Paul McCartney albums.
December 9, 2012
Various Artists
Trains were a prominent image in American music early in the 20th century, and there are countless 78s floating around with trains serving as the central metaphor. This 100-track set collects some of those American train songs in an expansive litany of motion, giving off a powerful panoramic feel.
December 8, 2012
Having chased the perfect guitar pop melody for years, Sloan let rip with a heavier, hard rock sound on Action Pact. While still infectiously melodic, tracks here like, "Nothing Lasts Forever Anymore," and "Backstabbin'," are sultry, menacing cuts that stick with you like a sock to the gut.
December 7, 2012
One of the best bands to rise out of one of metals most forgettable periods, Deftones have continued to flourish and innovate after evolving into an art metal band with White Pony. Their latest effort, Koi No Yokan, finds the band returning with a sound that owes as much to dream pop and shoegaze as it does to heavy metal, creating a compelling album with an atmosphere that's both drifting and driving.
December 6, 2012
Arriving at the height of grunge, Seattleites Flop opted for revved-up power pop that was a breath of fresh air from their peers' crushing angst. Regardless of when or where it came from, this album is packed with songs that uphold the traditions of Cheap Trick and the Buzzcocks.
December 5, 2012
Cannonball in Europe! is a live album by jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley recorded at the Comblain-la-Tour in Belgium and released on the Capitol label featuring performances by Adderley with Nat Adderley, Yusef Lateef, Joe Zawinul, Sam Jones and Louis Hayes. Adderley is in excellent form on this live date.
December 4, 2012
Named after the protagonist of a 1953 Saul Bellow novel, picaresque alt-rock/baroque-pop Aussies Augie March landed a knockout blow with their second studio album, the brutal and ornate, mad and idyllic Strange Bird.
December 2, 2012
This little known NYC band was overshadowed by the burgeoning punk uprising of their late-70's genus, but while the Ramones and Television spun torment and aggression at CBGB'S, Milk N' Cookies created essential power-pop in a glam vein, grinning goofily through tunes like "Not Enough Girls In The World" and "Rabbits Make Love".
December 1, 2012
One of Leven's finest, this albums displays the inseparable connections between Celtic and British folk traditions and those from North America. Leven is a superb storyteller; he reminds us of that fact on the riveting, haunting, "Men in Prison," "Lammermuir Hills," and "By the Sign of the Shattered Star."