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The Effigies with EDP and False Prophets – Maxwells (Hoboken, NJ) – July 26, 2008
I missed False Prophets’ opening set, but both EDP and headliners The Effigies, playing one of their first East Coast shows in 20 years, were absolutely terrific. Absolutely worth the 2 hour drive from Philadelphia!
David Browne – Goodbye 20th Century: A Biography of Sonic Youth (Da Capo Press, 2008)
This is a terrific new SONIC YOUTH biography written by the author of Dream Brother, the similarly great biography of both TIM BUCKLEY and his son JEFF BUCKLEY. Virtually no important detail is spared here, though Browne manages a mix of just enough detail for most fans. It never feels like the comprehensive but overwrought CLASH biography Last Gang in Town. In fact for hardcore fans and even for those just interested in the band, this will be a definite page turner. You’ll get a sense of Sonic Youth’s roots, what was going on around them at the time, the inspirations behind much of their best-known (and least-known) work and personal (though not too personal) insights into the marriage of THURSTON MOORE and KIM GORDON. Highly recommended, though I am a bit disappointed that Thurston’s time in EVEN WORSE wasn’t even mentioned despite much detail about his long-running obsession with hardcore punk.
King Khan & the Shrines – The Supreme Genius of King Khan & The Shrines (Vice)
The title isn’t too far off the mark. Having never heard KING KHAN until seeing him live at the Pitchfork Festival a few weeks ago, I picked up this “greatest hits” comp (his 1st full length release in the U.S.) afterwards and I’m glad I did. Although not quite as earth-shaking as Khan and his Shrines are live, this comes damn close and I recognized many of the songs. Highlights include “Torture,” “I Wanna Be a Girl,” “Took My Lady Out to Dinner” and “Welfare Bread”, just to name a few. If this comp has any flaws, it’s that for a garage rock record, it’s a bit too long at 16 songs and over 50 minutes. Still, with material as good as this and with a singer as charismatic and talented as King Khan is, this is clearly just a bit too much of a good thing which in the end, isn’t a bad thing at all. This will be a year-end Top 10 album for sure.
Public Enemy – Fear of a Black Planet (Def Jam)
Seeing Public Enemy perform their classic It Takes a Nation to Hold Us Back at Pitchfork (review here) made me dig that great album out, but it also made me re-evaluate the rest of their early catalog in recent weeks. I’ve also rated this follow-up as a great and essential part of their ouvre, but still inferior to their landmark 2nd album. Do I still agree so many years later? Well yes and no. It’s less consistent, with many more skits and the like (surely the influence of records like fellow Long Island crew DE LA SOUL’s 3 Feet High and Rising and NWA’s Straight Outta Compton was felt here). However, when this album it’s on, it’s really, truly on. The best material here is harder, faster, more lyrically fluid and ultimately even more powerful than many of their previous album’s best moments and that’s really saying something. Just listen to “Brothers Gonna Work It Out,” “Welcome to the Terrordome,” “Burn Hollywood Burn” or “Fight the Power” (initially recorded for the soundtrack of the SPIKE LEE movie Do the Right Thing the year before), perhaps their finest and most definitive moment. FLAVOR FLAV even gets in more material here with “911 is a Joke” and “Can’t Do Nuttin’ for Ya Man”, surpassing his sole contribution to their previous album “Cold Lampin’ with Flavor”. In the end, which album fans like best isn’t as important as acknowledging that this is a terrific piece of work that holds up so many years later (as do many of its themes, sadly) and that it’s like their previous album on steroids. Plus, take CHUCK D’s admittedly limited contribution to Sonic Youth’s “Kool Thing” that same year and you could argue that 1990 was his (and PE’s) year of wonders and consequently his and their artistic peak.
Rogue Wave with Neil Halstead – Johnny Brenda’s (Philadelphia, PA) – Friday, August 8, 2008
This was a last-minute show scheduled in between appearances opening for JACK JOHNSON (owner of Brushfire Records, the label of both acts here), including an appearance at the All Points West festival several days later. They wanted to schedule a real show, as in one where they would get their audience and not Johnson’s, and this was the absolutely perfect setting for a quiet, mellow acoustic show. Halstead came out first and boy was he great. Playing mostly solo (though accompanied by an additional guitarist and bassist on occasion) for about an hour, I could’ve listened to his sad, mellow tunes for another hour. Then Rogue Wave came on, opening with “Love’s Lost Guarantee” (the best song from their sophomore album Descended Like Vultures) and it just got better from there! Playing material mostly from their last 2 (and best) albums, this was the sound of an indie-pop band at its absolute peak and in a stripped-down setting to boot. After being joined by indie a cappella group THE SILVER AGES for “Lake Michigan” and “Chicago X 12” (their finest moment, I think) towards the end of their set, they came back out to cover THE SMITHS’ “What Difference Does It Make”, changing the arrangement to make it sound like one of their own songs. Superb!
David Byrne and Brian Eno – “Strange Overtones”
This track, from their upcoming album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (their first collaboration since 1981’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts), is more similar to a middle-aged version of the early TALKING HEADS records that Eno produced as opposed to the instrumentals/found-sound collage found on the sole previous collaboration credited to both of them. If this track (available for free download here) is any indication, the album should be good.
A.P.P.L.E. – Plutocracy = Tyranny & Exploitation (Broken Rekids)
This 1988 album from the recently reunited New York City peace-punk band, is their swan song and probably their strongest work as well. They always stood out from the pack by having a more ‘70s-rock based sound than most of their contemporaries. The opening track “Plutocracy” starts off with a mid ‘70s style BLACK SABBATH riff, for instance, and singer JAE’s voice is more female, late ‘60s/early’ 70s blues belter (think JANIS JOPLIN or GRACE SLICK) than say, the guttural vocals of female singers like MANDY from HEALTH HAZARD or AMY MIRET from NAUSEA, for that matter. Make no mistake, though, this band combined oodles of melody and riffs with a very punk attitude and politics firmly in line with the long-running peace-punk/ABC NO RIO scene.
Rob Dickinson – Nude (Sanctuary)
Just to alleviate any confusion, this disc isn’t sold separately. Instead, it’s a six-song bonus disc that comes with the new reissue of his excellent debut solo album, 2005’s Fresh Wine for the Horses. These are all re-recordings of CATHERINE WHEEL songs, all done to attract more attention to the album and at the urging of his label, by Dickinson’s own admission. Nevertheless, whatever the intention, the results are stunning. Songs like the title track (from 1993’s great Chrome), “Show Me Mary” (ditto) and Ferment’s “I Want to Touch You” and “Black Metallic” are re-invented as acoustic ballads showcasing Dickinson’s powerful and expressive voice. Initially, I didn’t take that well to the live versions of some of these songs when we saw him play here a few months ago. Perhaps this was because of the shock of hearing them in this format or perhaps they’re just more powerful on record. Either way, getting this new version of his solo album is worth it for this disc alone, even if you already have the original version.
Richard Hell and the Voidoids – Blank Generation (Sire)
We caught a film called Smithereens recently and to be honest, I’d never even heard of it. Since the film stars RICHARD HELL and his “The Kid with the Replaceable Head” is heard in the film as well, it made me pull out this timeless classic. I won’t review other than to say that in an alternate universe, “Love Comes in Spurts” and the title track would be massive hits and that if you don’t have it, you should. It’s as essential as anything by the other great mid to late ‘70s New York punk and proto-punk bands.
Spiritualized – Amazing Grace (Sanctuary)
I bought this album on the day it came out back in September 2003, listened to it 3 times in a row that day and since I didn’t like it then, until a few days ago I hadn’t listened to it since that day. Looking back on it, I like it much more now and I understand what they were trying to do. Responding to the then pervasive trends in the UK music scene, they cut down on the orchestral bombast (which I love, so don’t get me wrong) of Let It Come Down and made their version of a stripped-down “garage rock” (in the early ‘00s sense) album somewhat akin to bands like BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB who were influenced by Spiritualized and other noise-pop (I don’t wanna say shoegazer, though I just did) bands that emerged in the early ‘90s. Thus, it’s a response to what was happening around them, but it was very much their own thing as well, harkening back to some of the heavier moments on their first 2 records as well. Only Spiritualized’s JASON PIERCE (aka J SPACEMAN) (or maybe his SPACEMEN 3 collaborator SONIC BOOM) could write a song with a title of “She Kissed Me (It Felt Like a Hit)”, a nod to THE CRYSTALS’ quite creepy (although in retrospect many things about that song’s producer PHIL SPECTOR are quite creepy) “He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)”. Elsewhere, “Cheapster”’s title is a nod to T REX’s classic “Jeepster” and “Hold On” (which I’ve heard DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE’s BEN GIBBARD cover at one of his solo shows) slows down the pace of this raw, lean album.
