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Art Brut – Bowery Ballroom (New York) – April 5, 2006
I wish more bands would be as much pure fun to see live as Art Brut. They transmit so much energy and enthusiasm that it’s really contagious. They had the normally fairly sedate Bowery Ballroom on their feet with everyone singing along, not to mention the requisite fist-pumping and even a small mosh pit up front. They’re playing here next week at Southpaw and next they’re doing 2 shows next month at Knitting Factory. If you haven’t seen them yet, don’t miss them!
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Jefito blog
This is a great music blog with special interest to fans of all things Wilson. In the past week, I’ve found the BRIAN WILSON
Landylocked bootleg on there for download as well as other non-BEACH BOYS related things like the 1st 2 discs of JELLYFISH’s rare and out-of-print
Fan Club box set. For these goodies and more, go
here
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The Beach Boys – Sunflower/Surf’s Up (Brother/Capitol)
I can’t stop listening to these 2 early ‘70s classics.
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Roxy Music – For Your Pleasure (EG)
This is my favorite Roxy album by a mile. “Do the Strand” and the incredible “Editions of You” are 2 of their greatest almost “pop” songs while “In Every Dream Home a Heartache” is notable for being the best song ever about a plastic blow-up doll other than THE POLCE’s awesome “Be My Girl/Sally’ or DINOSAUR JR’s sad lament “Severed Lips” from their great, self-titled first album. “The Bogus Man” is a 9-minute plus gem and “Beauty Queen” personifies the Roxy ethic with the line “what we share is an ideal of beauty.” The production on this record is exquisite and so far ahead of its time that you can hear them lay the groundwork for punk, new wave, post-punk and the New Romantics all on one disc, yet no one’s ever quite sounded like them since. Absolutely essential.
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Bryan Ferry – Street Life: 20 Great Hits (Atlantic)
This now unfortunately out-of-print single-disc compilation nicely summarizes Bryan Ferry’s career (both solo and with ROXY MUSIC) up to 1985 by including 1 or 2 songs from each album. Thus, it’s a perfect starting point for potential fans.
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Brian Eno – Before and After Science (EG)
This is my favorite of Eno’s 4 ‘70s vocal albums. It nicely combines his more “rock” side on side 1 with the more ambient leanings of side 2. Although I prefer side 2, this album doesn’t have a dull moment on it. Just listen to PHIL MANZANERA’s otherwordly guitar solo on “Here He Comes” and be transported to another, more beautiful and more ethereal world.
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Voxtrot – “Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, Wives” EP
I can’t wait to see them play these songs live on Monday!
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Jellyfish – Spilt Milk (Charisma)
One of the best albums of the ‘90s, Spilt Milk combines the best aspects of late ‘60s BEACH BOYS (the opener “Hush”), BIG STAR (“Joining a Fanclub”), QUEEN and SQUEEZE without sacrificing any aspects of their own identity. “New Mistake” is so catchy that it’s sick.
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Squeeze – Argybargy (A&M)
Including the hits “Pulling Mussels from the Shell” (one of their most well-known songs), “Another Nail in My Heart” and “If I Didn’t Love You”, this 1980 classic is augmented by great album tracks like “Vicky Verky”, “Separate Beds” and “Misadventure”. While not quite as great as their preceding album Cool for Cats or the follow-up East Side Story, this is still one of their best albums and an essential Squeeze release.
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John Morthland – Mainlines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader (Anchor Books, 2003)
Edited by JOHN MORTHLAND, this is a companion piece to the previously released Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung anthology of LESTER BANGS’ writing for such publications as Creem, The Village Voice and others. Simply put, I think that Lester Bangs is the one of the greatest rock and roll writers who ever lived and this book ably demonstrates why. If you’re interested in his work, this or the previous anthology is the place to go, though you may want to ease into it by reading JIM DEROGATIS’ excellent biography Let it Blurt first.
