Music Meridian

You'll notice a couple changes to the site today. First, we have a new contributor! George Bowles will be bringing his insight to the blog. Welcome, George!

I also trashed the "headlines" section of the site. It hasn't been updated in months so this site is now offically all blog!

Enjoy!

The new Psyopus album ("Our Puzzling Encounters Considered") is streaming over at AOLMusic.com. I don't believe it either, but it is. It'll stream all week for free.

Click here and then select the album to check it out. It's a totally mind-bending album. It hits stores tomorrow.

I've been immersing myself in a bunch of new releases that could be deemed "Brutal Prog". You should too. Here are the highlights:
miRthkon - The Illusion Of Joy
Amazing CD from bay-area proggers. Nice horn section and jazzy rhythms...reminds me a lot of Henry Cow or Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. Ron Pumpelly plays and composes with this band and he's now in some way affiliated with The Flying Luttenbachers.
Visit miRthkon's Official myspace page.

Mick Barr - Octis: Lohargh Wended
The Orthrelm guitarist has really outdone himself this time. All new mostly non-repetitive compositions for Guitar and Drum Machine. There's also a bunch of solo guitar songs that are like the "Anoint" record from last year, but taken to entirely new heights. Mick Barr keeps getting more and more astounding. Plus there's a new version of Mithring-1 on it (only available on a 3" record previously...which I have as well). It's available on Zorn's label Tzadik so maybe Barr will get much wider recognition for his amazing work.
Visit Mick Barr's myspace page.

Zs - Arms
The brand new full-length from Zs! Amazing interplay between saxophones, guitar and drums. This easily blows away anything they've released before. Very complicated riffs that somehow are catchy. Nice vocal work on a couple tracks. They're on tour now and this CD is only available on their tour at this point, so go see their amazing show and pick up the CD!!! I also bought their "4 Systems" CD and "Magnet" CD and while they're great too, this one is totally killer.
Visit Zs' myspace page.

So I watched the entire Grammy telecast last nite. I was lured in by The Police reunion and stayed for the rest. Here are some quick thoughts:

- The Police performance was just so-so. A plesant but not totally engaging run-through of Roxanne. I would have liked a couple more songs or at least a medley, but no dice. Stewart Copeland still kicks ass. Sting is still Sting.

- I loved the fact that Ornette Coleman was THERE! He was a presenter and wore a crazy ass suit. Most people in the crowd looked confused. It was awesome. Later in the show when the Red Hot Chili Pepppers played (which was pretty bland) they had a big banner up behind Flea that said "Love To Ornette Coleman". The camera tried hard to not have it in focus, but that's what it was. Probably the coolest thing they've ever done.

- Another pleasant surprise was hearing Carrie Underwood singing "San Antonio Rose" by Bob Wills. The band included members of Asleep At The Wheel and a fiddle player from Wills' band, who looked about 150 years old and barely able to move. The performance was great and helped dilute the cheesy Eagles songs that followed.

- Christinia Agularia absolutely RIPPED through the James Brown song "It's A Man's World". Man, she has an incredible voice.

- I love that James Blunt was totally shut out of any awards for his crappy song. Even though he played it on TV anyways. And it still sucks.

- Prince ran an advertisement thanking his fans for watching him during the Super Bowl. A classy, if kinda confusing, move.

- Dixie Chicks swept the awards (5 Grammys) for their Anti-Bush song "Not Ready To Make Nice". A fine statement. But Neil Young's "Living With War" would have been better.

Everything else in the show was pretty forgetable. In fact, I've pretty much forgotten it already.

LiveMusicBlog has a report that The Police are most likely scheduled to play at Wrigley Field this summer July 5-6!

If this is true, it will make my summer.

i was hanging out with a friend the other day and we saw this commercial featuring sheryl crow singing buddy holly's 'not fade away'. my friend, he's a buddy holly fanatic, right down to the glasses, and it made him uneasy to hear sheryl crow butchering a classic song like that. i suppose she's paying tribute to buddy, though it's also the name of her tour sponsored by some hair dye product that guarantees to last a long time. she's updating a classic song to make some cash.

at some point someone in the sergio mendes camp posed the question: how do we update classic brazilian pop for today's generation? these guys, whoever they were, brainstormed possible solutions. who has a finger on the pulse of this generation, is churning out hits, and could transform anything into record sales? i know, let's give it to will.i.am!

wrong answer. not that he's not a commercial machine at the moment, but the black eyed peas, um, i wouldn't call him a mastermind but he seems to be the one with the ideas, such as they are, mangles and butchers old sergio mendes songs in a vain attempt to hip hop-ify brazilian music. i suppose that where the originals keep their rhythmic spine they do ok, but when will takes bossa nova and turns it to hip hop everything goes in the crapper.

i don't know much about sergio mendes, or his music. i don't know the originals, but i know any one of those songs will last longer than this album ever could. i don't know what they mean by calling this collection of songs 'timeless', because it most certainly is not.

i told my friend, after the sheryl crow commercial, that i'd rather live in a world where buddy holly inspired such insipid songmaking as sheryl crow than live in one without buddy holly at all. the same can be said of this album. i'd rather have to endure 'timeless' than not have mendes' timeless music at all.





i borrowed a bunch of cds from my parents while they're out of town, more to put on the computer than to listen to at work. one of them, the first one i've played, is the new bob dylan album 'modern times'. i am very impressed. i'd heard some of it on podcasts and always felt it sounded thin and rough, but the cd makes it sound pretty good. it's gotten good reviews, though a large minority has complained that a) he's stolen a lot of stuff from other people and b) it's not as good as his classic work. i'm a led zeppelin fan, so frankly that first complaint holds no sway over me. one could even argue it's dylan's take on hip hop's samplefest, but i'm not going to go that far. instead i'll point to the tradition in blues and folk to cop licks and lines from those gone before--and with a hundred years or more of this music dylan has plenty of room to gather ingredients.

i can't claim to be a huge dylan fan, though i do have some of his classic work (i haven't even heard his last two discs) and eventually i'll get the rest, but i don't think this falls very short of the high standards set for bob dylan. certainly if any other artist put this out, especially someone new or regional, it would be well received if underexposed. not many artists release albums this good these days, and for dylan to pull out a great album towards the end of his career suggests that people aren't even trying anymore.

on 'modern times' dylan has put together a crack band and jack frost uses detailed, just-rough-enough production to capture the sound of an aging genius lamenting the state of the world, both personal and public. frankly, i never would have expected a man his age to release anything half this good, but this album deserves to be lauded with his best work. yes, it's that good.

Sir Millard Mulch has started up some sort of alternate-altnernate ego. He calls himself Dr. Zoltan now and tells you about what he thinks are problems with the music industry through a series of videos. It's pretty hilarious. His main website is http://www.drzoltan.com, but it doesn't seem to be updated with all his latest videos.

You can find his videos if you do a search for "Dr Zoltan" on YouTube. Here are two of my favorites:









I've been to quite possibly hundreds of concerts. The 3 Prince shows I've been to remain THE best shows I've ever seen. Last night's Super Bowl halftime show with Prince gives you a glimpse why.

It's pouring rain, and Prince is kicking all ass known to mankind.

What a great setlist too! The Proud Mary/All Along The Watchtower/Best Of You was quite an amazing segue of different songs you wouldn't think would work together but does. How about that show-stopping version of Purple Rain???!? It doesn't get any better.

And Shelia E was pounding the drumkit. This even blew Cirque De Soleil's massive show out of the water, and they probably rehearsed that thing for a year.

2 of the guys in Dillenger Escape Plan have a new side project called "Prada Killers". It's a really interesting sound....you might say "Atmospheric Grindcore". Check out the youtube:



I like it!

i've come a long way from this time last year. no, this isn't another 2004, when i bought 300 cds. in 2006 in only acquired another 180, and as usual some of them were CD-Rs and promo discs. those don't count for this list, since they're generally only a song or two.

as usual, the first list is the top 10 i bought in 2006, and then the top ten that came out in 2006. these lists have overlaps, but will not be the same.

the top 10 i bought in 2006 (a bit of a cheat, since i bought some classic albums).

honorable mention: john mayer trio - try!

10: the jesus and mary chain - psychocandy
9: the format - dog problems
8: squarepusher - hello everything
7: venetian snares - rossz csillag allat szuletett
6: rachel's - systems/layers
5: amon tobin - supermodified
4: andrew hill - point of departure
3: the decemberists - her majesty
2: vladislav delay - multila
1: bob marley - exodus [deluxe edition]

top 10 albums i got that were released in 2006 (i do not include re-releases that came out in 2006. as usual, since i can't rate albums i didn't hear, i won't be listing some that i'm sure are awesome. what i heard of neko case's cd and thom yorke's album was great, but i haven't had the opportunity to hear those albums in full. give me time.):

honorable mention: rodrigo y gabriela - rodrigo y gabriela

10: daedelus - denies the day's demise
9: the go! team - thunder lightning strike
8: eagles of death metal - death by sexy
7: aphex twin - chosen lords
6: starlight mints - drowaton
5: muse - black holes and revelations
4: sufjan stevens - the avalanche
3: the format - dog problems
2: squarepusher - hello everything
1: the decemberists - the crane wife

any questions?