Music Meridian

Starfish and coffee
Maple syrup And jam
Butterscotch clouds
A tangerine
And a side order of ham!

Today's obscure album that's getting me through the crazy workday is Alarum's "Eventuality"

Alarum is an Australian band that plays a mix of death metal and jazz fusion not unlike Cynic.

Their drummer is absolutely amazing. Super-techincal and precise.

The only downfall is they have a song called "Cygnus X-1"...and it's not the Rush song...it's just a 1 minute guitar solo. Ah well, they can't all be gems.

But the rest of the disc smokes. Fans of Cynic should take note.

(P.S. hopefully this weekend an "In Rotation" feature will be added to the site so all the contributors can list what they've been listening to lately...stay tuned!)






I must be a genius....Read the article

You can stop all your lame "dumb drummer" jokes now. Thanks.

So I've been up to my ears in work today, but I've been listening to U-Totem's self-titled debut over and over and over. It's fantastic.

It's a mix of prog-rock, Rock In Opposition, and 20th-Century Classical that works better than what you might think. The pieces are complex, yet catchy. Plus, they have an outstanding female vocalist that ties all the proceedings together. While not pop music, it certainly is kind of an ear candy and has been worth the repeated listens.


LIVE MUSIC UPDATE:

An Albatross will be in Chicago at the Bottom Lounge this Friday. They're an absolutely insane band that runs through a gamit of changes at high speeds, yet it remains catchy and danceable! In fact thier stuff is so blindingly fast, their current CD blows through 11 songs in 8 1/2 minutes.

I had an opportunity to play drums with them late last year and it was fun to do...plus they're a great bunch of guys. Be sure to check out their show on Friday. I'll see you there.

I went to see Paul Wertico at Martyrs last night. First off, I love the club. The sound is usually great and the place is laid back. Last night was no exception. Wertico, keen on the fact that the sound is optimal there, chose to record the show for a possible live album.

It was quite a performance to save for prosperity! Wertico's band has a new bass player. Eric Hochburg is out and Brian Peters is in on electric bass and effects (effects including a theramin!).

I liked the new addition. Peters brought a heavier, funkier bottom end to the proceedings and gave it an extra rock-oriented edge. Plus did I mention he doubled on theramin? While he was playing tapping parts on the bass? Pretty cool. Plus he wore a Limozeen T-shirt!

They pretty much played selections from Don't Be Scared Anymore and last year's Stereonucleosis (which made my best albums of the year list, by the way) Egads! You can get it used at Amazon for $2.26!!.

An oldie that they played, Cowboys & Africans, started out with a drum solo that was nothing short of mind-boggling. Blazing speeds. One-handed rolls. Wild rimshot patters. Melodic sections. The works.

Sadly, the attendance was poor last night. Maybe 20-25 people witnessed the musical goodness. It blows me away that this continues to happen in Chicago. Amazing musicians who play high quality music continue to get slighted. I think this town needs a wake-up call.

Make up for the fact that you missed them last night by checking them out when they play the HotHouse on March 9th. You won't be disappointed.

It seems to me that everyone who has ever picked up a guitar or sang into a microphone is joining up for a tsunami relief concert of some sort or another. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for charity and using what you have to do something good. However, lately (post 9/11 for instance)the cause celeb has gotten out of control. Madonna? check. Maroon 5? check. Elton John? check. Bjork? check. I'm sure that the allure of doing something positive for mankind melded with the perfect public relations opportunity is irresistable. The idea has been spoofed time and time again in pop culture. Helen Fielding's book "Cause Celeb" for instance, or Coldplay's scene in "Shaun of the Dead" poke fun at the concept of a celeb for every cause. I hope with all my heart that a shitload of money is raised for these poor victims. Cause that's the real reason these publicity whores are doing this, right?

Most people probably haven't heard of Attila. It was a band that Billy Joel was in before he became the soft-rock "piano man" he's renown for today. It was a two piece noisy rock band from 1970, with just Joel on organs (run through distortion pedals!) and a drummer.

AMG wrote a scathing review of the album. Probably one of the most brutal reviews I've ever read on that site. Taking that as my cue, I HAD to hear this album. I was morbidly curious.

By the way, look at that artwork. Just look at it!! Can you believe it? What in the name of all that is holy were they thinking? Viking clothes in a meatlocker?? This rivals The 10 Most Ridiculous Black Metal Pics Of All Time.

It's also interesting that this is how Billy Joel started his career. It was such an interesting discovery to me. Like learning about Kenny Roger's First Edition or something.

Finally, at long last, I found a copy of the infamous album, as a two-fer with songs from another of Billy Joel's early bands called The Hassles. Apparantly The Hassles came first, then Joel and the drummer left to form Attila.

When I put it in the player, I expected the worst. Instead, I was blown away! It was like 60's boogie-rock. Think bands like Canned Heat or Ten Years After. Except it was stripped down to just nasty-distorted organ and a heavy hitting drummer. Plus Joel yelps over it like a madman (no "New York State Of Mind" crooning here!).

Every song sounded better than the last. There's even a song broken into movements with a feedback solo (pre-dating the feedback organ solos of Keith Emerson in the 70s) that's badass. Not only that, the song is called "Amplifier Fire"...how cool is that?

My suggestion is to ignore the AMG review and seek this out if you're at all curious. If you're into noisy garage/boogie-rock then hunt it down. I think you'll be surprised.

for the record, i acquired 332 cds in 2004. of those, only 84 came out in 2004. these include cds i made, copies of cds friends gave me, promo cds, and a couple of spoken word gifts received for contributing to my college's endowment fund. so make it 53 actual commercial releases. then the question is, what about the reissues? two of my favorite albums from 2004 are reissues: 'the downward spiral' and 'three imaginary boys' both in deluxe edition. these hardly seem fair to include since they have a long history already, so they don't count either. take out the compilations and full-length label samplers too and i have 36 cds from which to choose. some of those are clearly not top-ten material, while others are fun but either too derivative or not engaging enough to qualify. remove those and here's what's left (in order of acquisition)

1. fantomas - delirium cordia
2. lairs - they were wrong so we drowned
3. murs - murs 3:16 the 9th edition
4. squarepusher - ultravisitor
5. clouddead - ten
6. the standard - wire post to wire
7. miss kittin - i com
8. upsilon acrux - volucris avis dirae-arum
9. tv on the radio - desperate youths, bloodthirsty babes
10. !!! - louden up now
11. shannon wright - over the sun
12. the orb - bicycles and tricycles
13. the dillinger escape plan - miss machine
14. various artists - trax records - the 20th anniversary collection
15. mastodon - leviathan
16. bjork - medulla
17. electric masada - 50(4)
18. green day - american idiot
19. elliott smith - from a basement on a hill
20. madvillain - madvillainy
21. mclusky - the difference between you and me is that i'm not on fire

hey, that's twenty-one, not ten. what's that all about? well, a word or two on each and then i'll narrow it down again.

1. delirium cordia is a difficult release, one long track with a lot going on. i can't say i play it a lot, because of the length, but it rewards you for attention so i care when i play it.
2. they were wrong so we drowned got mixed reviews this year. it got mixed reviews because it's self-consciously arty, lacks hooks, and is lazy, pretentious, or both. i happen to like lazy pretension, so like this album. the lack of hooks and melody mean i don't listen to it often either, but when i want abrasion and songs about witches, that's where i go.
3. murs comes out of the def jux stable with a commercially viable release produced by the 9th wonder that stands head and shoulders above most hip hop of 2004. the album is shorter than i would like, but that means no filler, no stupid skits, and i get to hear it all again sooner.
4. a few years ago aphex twin released drukqs, a two-disc album that sounded all the world like a career retrospective or best of, except it was all unreleased material. i'd like to say new, but knowing him it was probably a vault-clearning exercise instead. squarepusher's 'ultravisitor' has the same unreleased greatest hits feel as drukqs, but it sounds fresh and developed. squarepusher has covered all this ground before, but this time he pulls it together into one cohesive unit. critics complained it was too long, and maybe so, but the quality doesn't waver and i'm always cool with too much of a good thing.
5. phil didn't like 'ten' as much as i do. i don't remember why not, but he wasn't impressed. me, i like the nurseryrhyme delivery, the dense sound collages, and abstraction worthy of an el-p album. it's not as catchy as it could be, but it generates a feel i find comfortable.
6. i bought 'wire post to wire' because i'd read amg's review of it and thought hey, that sounds cool. it turns out i was right.
7. miss kittin was an electroclash babe (slut?) and a hip french dj living in berlin when she dropped this cool blast of droll techno (need i say more? yes? how about the last track is a tribute to david bowie?).
8. i saw upsilon acrux at a show inshi played, and damn was i blown away. the common comparison is king crimson, and maybe so. i always think of prog being played in stadiums in front of huge (usually european) audiences, but this is where it begins, this is where it is its most adventurous, and dammit, this is awesome.
9. another disc i bought because of amg and a general reputation as a good album. because of that i lump it with the standard, but it's very different. in fact, tv on the radio sound like no one else out there, combining post-rock, loads of barbershop quartet-style vocal harmonizing, and intelligent lyrics about the state of the nation and complicated relationships.
10. i saw !!! at the empty bottle in 2003 and they blew me away. i danced and sweated, but the singer did it more and better--and still sang. the album is a disappointment after that experience--it doesn't carry the live feel very well--but the singer's rants are fun and the beats are certainly there. i recommend you see !!! live every chance you get. and wear your boogie shoes.
11. i put 'over the sun' in the cd player on shuffle with pj harvey's 'rid of me' in there also and started wondering how i could have heard 'rid of me' so many times and still missed this song or that one. steve albini recorded both, and shannon wright's dry voice conveys a desperate and bitter melancholy that is the flipside to harvey's burning rage. 99% of the world missed this album, once again proving no one has any taste.
12. pretty much everyone has taken a swipe at this disc, saying it should have had more thomas fehlmann involved, or fewer samples, or less nostalgia. i say it helps me forget the agony of 'cydonia' and points to a potentially brighter future as the orb pull their early sound into the progressive electronic future.
13. inshi bassist joe told me once he hated the artwork for this album. after having a chance to study it, i disagree. i also say regardless of the artwork very little sounds this difficult and this amazing. every time i worry that rock is dead or the music industry is collapsing under the obscene weight of pornographic pop, i put in this album and find myself again totally blown away.
14. if you like house, or you want to know where techno began, or how disco became dance music, get this set. i say this not just because the guy who runs the studio where i intern co-created the first chicago house tune (fantasy), but also because the other tracks tell the rest of the story. this is the start of house.
15. i like moby dick, it's a good book. long, a bit difficult to read at times, but good. mastodon has returned with an album about the white whale and it's every bit as good. if the new york times says 'leviathan' is the future of metal, mastodon is doing something right.
16. almost all vocally supported, bjork manages to break new ground, experiment wildly, and still put out an accessible album. in fact, this could well be the best album of her career.
17. phil got me this for my birthday, and though i know john zorn by reputation i don't really have much experience with him. then i got blown away. thanks, phil.
18. i'm one of those guys who hated green day when they broke. not because they were selling out or turning punk into pop music, but because i don't like music that gets popular quickly (though sometimes i later change my mind about it, as i have with green day). now, many years later, they've managed to keep their pop-punk sound strong, undiluted by the current crop of too-poppy punk bands, and release what will probably be the pinnacle of their long career. it's hard to see where they can possibly go after this album.
19. he stabbed himself in the back and left unfinished what would become his final album. whatever the debates over what he might have wanted and what actually got released, this is still a powerful, emotional album. plus, the last song is very true.
20. i like underground hip hop. i like inventive, layered, complicated music. i like abstract rap. i like guys who wear metal masks all the time.
21. take all your british post-punk albums, wrap them in razor wire, and set the bitch on fire. record the screams and release it as mclusky's third album. burn.

does all that make sense? here's my top ten of 2004 (again in acquisition order):

1. squarepusher - ultravisitor
2. the standard - wire post to wire
3. upsilon acrux - volucris avis dirae-arum
4. tv on the radio - desperate youth, bloodthirsty babes
5. shannon wright - over the sun
6. the orb - bicycles & tricycles
7. the dillinger escape plan - miss machine
8. mastodon - leviathan
9. bjork - medulla
10. madvillain - madvillainy

because this entry isn't long enough yet, i'm going to add here another fifteen cds i acquired in 2004 that were released prior to that year (one per artist, in acquisition order).

1. elvis costello - my aim is true
2. the rolling stones - let it bleed
3. neil young - on the beach
4. tori amos - little earthquakes
5. the allman brothers band - eat a peach
6. bad brains - bad brains
7. ornette coleman - the shape of jazz to come
8. james brown - live at the apollo
9. johnny cash - at san quentin
10. bruce springsteen - nebraska
11. van morrison - astral weeks
12. derek and the dominoes - layla and other assorted love songs
13. bunny wailer - blackheart man
14. talking heads - talking heads: 77
15. the smiths - the queen is dead

Ok, I couldn't narrow it to 10, so here's my top 15 releases of 2004 in alphabetical order:

1. Bjork - Medulla
2. Bohren And Der Club Of Gore - Black Earth
3. Elvis Costello - Delivery Man
4. Electric Masada - Zorn's Birthday Celebration Vol. 4
5. Mike Keneally - Dog
6. Mastodon - Leviathan
7. Pig Destroyer - Terrifyer
8. Probot - s/t
9. Prince - Musicology
10. Secret Chiefs 3 - Book Of Horizons
11. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - Of Natural History
12. Squarepusher - Ultravisitor
13. Tom Waits - Real Gone
14. Paul Wertico -Stereonucleosis
15. Wilco - A Ghost Is Born

And a couple notable re-issues:

1. Talking Heads - The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads
2. Cynic - Focus

I finally saw the Ray Charles bio-pic "Ray" this weekend. I gotta say, if you haven't watched it yet: GO! GO! GO!

Even if you're not a fan of Ray's work, or unfamiliar with him, it is a very engrossing document of an amazing man.

Jamie Foxx is stunning in the starring role, for most of the movie I forgot I was seeing an actor at all. I was convinced it was actually Ray Charles on the screen.

While it breezes over the 80s-00s of his life, the viewer still gets to see the rise of a poor boy from Florida to worldwide superstar, and the struggles along the way. Drug Abuse! Adultry! Blasphemous fusions of R&B and Gospel music! This movie has it all.

My mind drifts back to a few years ago when my brother and I went at the crack of dawn to get amazing seats to see Ray Charles at Chicago's Blues Fest. It was a great performance, a great day and a great memory. Thanks Ray.