Drive-By Truckers – Southern Rock Opera: This has been on my “need to listen” list for ages. I spent 90 focused minutes with it this week, then played it in the background a few times. I wouldn’t give it 5-stars, but it’s a solid 4 and maybe 4.5. Three things I enjoyed about it:
- Listening on vinyl: The pauses to get up and flip/change the record enhance the experience of listening. They allowed me to take a breath, reflect on what I’d heard, and think about what’s coming next. The down side is “Moved” didn’t fit on the LP.
- A primer on Lynyrd Skynyrd: Beyond the handful of songs that rock radio beat into my head when I was a kid, I never listened to Skynyrd. This album feels like sitting with a friend as he tells me how they changed his life.
- Duality: DBT repeatedly sings about “the duality of the Southern thing.” I always like it when humans demonstrate their complexity by embracing seemingly conflicting ideas. “The Three Great Alabama Icons” is a high point in how DBT explores this duality.
Charles Mingus – Mingus Ah Um: In light of my and Bob’s discussion about Bill Evans and Scott LaFaro, I decided to revisit Mingus. Right idea, wrong album. Sunday at the Village Vanguard came out in ’61, so I need to check out some of Mingus’ later records. With that said, I haven’t listened to Ah Um in a long time and it’s absolutely bonkers.
Ricardo Villalobos & Samuel Rohrer – Microgestures: I listened in the car and none of the nuance between Rohrer’s drumming and Villalobos’ beats came through. Honestly, it was boring. Villalobos is one of my favorite electronic musicians though, and this warrants a closer listen with better sound.
Ela Minus – DÍA: I love the way the opening slowly unfolds, then ascends into the anthemic “Broken.” At times it crosses into some stereotypical gloomy cliches (“IDK”) but the production and arrangements keep even those moments interesting and exciting.
A Silver Mt. Zion – This Is Our Punk Rock, Thee Rusted Satellites Gather + Sing: I remember being introduced to “Up With People” as a kid in elementary school and feeling like its shiny hopeful message wasn’t really meant for people like me. Or maybe, even as a child, I couldn’t deal with saccharine pop. Either way, I feel welcomed by the hope at the end of “Goodbye Desolate Railyard,” as the choir enormously sings “Everybody gets a little lost sometimes.”
Big Moses feat. Michelle Ayers – Joy: A lot of what I love about electronic dance music is captured in these four mixes. The Club Mix has a bass line that sounds like an old percolating coffee pot. “C&M’s Flaujin Remix” is a progressive house mix that takes me back to ‘90s dance floors. “Moses Old School Mix” turns up the gospel flavor that I absolutely love in house. I found this in the crates at Tom’s Music Trade in Red Lion PA a few months ago and I’m so glad I brought it home!
Joey Beltram – Forklift (The Remixes): Classic mid-‘90s techno. “Damon Wild’s Subtractive Synth Mix” is my favorite due to the arpeggiated low-end synth line, but on a different day, either of the other two mixes could win me over.
Delivery – Force Majeure: I was bored by the end of the first song and gave up after three. In fairness though, I don’t like Wire, which means any band whose roots grow down to Wire probably won’t be my thing.
Grateful Dead – 10/17/72 (St. Louis, MO): Last week I wrote how tame set two felt. This week I dug into “Not Fade Away” > “Goin’ Down the Road Feeling Bad” > “Not Fade Away” near the end of the show, and I just fell in love with Keith Godchaux’s solos.
Record store finds this week: The Eva Minus record excited me so much that I ran over to my favorite store for a physical copy. After listening to Sly & the Family Stone last week and Jessie Ware over the past few months, I was excited to find inexpensive copies of a much-maligned Sly record (Small Talk) and a 12” from Lisa Stansfield (“All Around the World”), who is often compared to Ware.