Popol Vuh – Hosianna Mantra (SPV)
This 1972 classic predates the entire “world music” category and sounds like DEAD CAN DANCE a decade or so beforehand. It’s pure ambient bliss! The 2004 reissue also tacks on “Ave Maria”, which was originally credited to a Korean pop singer!
Infest – 1987 demo (no label)
Lately, I’ve been downloading some stuff from the great Blogged and Quartered site and among the stuff I’ve obtained is this part two of the incredible Infest collection that he’s amassed. All of the stuff on here, including a rehearsal and several live and radio shows, are worthwhile for fans, but the ’87 demo takes the cake. It features songs that they never recorded along with even rawer versions of songs familiar to fans.
For those who don’t know, Infest were one of the progenitors of “power violence” and in the late ’80s, rewrote the book on extreme music. Imagine a mix of mid to late ’80s straight-edge hardcore sped up even more along with bits of MELVINS-style sludge and you’re almost there. Obviously, this stuff isn’t for the faint of heart and has been much imitated, but rarely equaled.
The House of Love – The House of Love (Fontana)
While many prefer the first, also self-titled album on Creation or the fine 86-88 The Complete Creation Recordings compilation, I think that I prefer this, the second, self-titled album and their debut on Fontana. A bit better recorded than its predecessor, this album (also known as the “Butterfly Album” due to its cover) has bona-fide classics like “Shine On,” “I Don’t Know Why I Love You” and “The Beatles and the Stones”. Sure it doesn’t have “Destroy the Heart”, but that’s about its only drawback.
Lydia Lunch – 13.13 (Ruby)
A little-known record in Lunch’s vast discography, this is notable for all sorts of reasons. First of all, like just about everything release on CHRIS D‘s Ruby label, it’s a great record. Vocally, it’s somewhere between the primal scream therapy of her TEENAGE JESUS AND THE JERKS days and the more nuanced vocal approach of its predecessor, Queen of Siam. Musically, however, it’s post-punk/goth firmly in the vein of a much more restrained version of THE BIRTHDAY PARTY or perhaps SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES and fans of those bands will definitely enjoy this. It’s also notable in that it features DIX DENNEY and CLIFF MARTINNEZ of THE WEIRDOS, though it sounds nothing like them!
The Joy Formidable – “Greyhound in the Slips”
This song, a single released this past October and not on their mini-Lp A Balloon Called Moaning, is absolutely pummeling. Our own JACK RABID compared this London band (by way of Wales) to MY BLOODY VALENTINE, SWERVEDRIVER, HUSKER DU and PIXIES. To my ears, though, this song sounds like MIKI BERENYI of LUSH singing for Swervedriver circa “Never Lose that Feeling”. The Pixies feel is there on other tracks I’ve heard (particularly the great single “Cradle”), though I don’t get the HUSKER DU comparison at all. For a more modern comparison, I can imagine fans of METRIC‘s latest album Fantasies or ASOBI SEKSU‘s Citrus really enjoying this band, but they’re heavier and more intense than either.
You can watch the video for “Greyhound in the Slips” here.
“Fela!” – Eugene O’Neill Theater (New York) – Saturday, January 16, 2010
Trevor Schoonmaker – Fela: From West Africa to West Broadway (Palgrave MacMillan, 2003)
Released to coincide with a 2003 exhibit that I saw at a museum in Soho, I picked up this book a few years ago at a store in Lambertville, NJ and now I’m just starting to read it. It consists of pieces written by different journalists, many of who knew Fela personally. As such, it makes fascinating reading, though obviously some pieces are better than others here.
The Prisoners – A Taste of Pink_ (Big Beat)
Listening to the 1982 debut of this great mod-revival band makes me wonder if THE STONE ROSES were fans, though more obvious parallels are to contemporaries MILKSHAKES (featuring BILLY CHILDISH) and modern day mod revivalists like the amazing LEN PRICE 3.
Joey Ramone – Don’t Worry About Me (Sanctuary)
I recently decided to fill in the gaps in my Ramones collection and though I’ve still yet to spend time with Brain Drain or Adios Amigos, I’ve now heard just about everything else “The Bruddas” ever did. Thus, I can recommend Mondo Bizarro but tell folks to stay away from Subterranean Jungle unless they’re hardcore fans.
I know that technically this was Joey’s only solo Lp, but let’s be honest here. Although every song features a different lineup (one even features CAPTAIN SENSIBLE on backing vocals), the presence of MARKY RAMONE on drums on some tracks and the overall feel virtually guarantees that this basically sounds like a Ramones album with Joey singing and writing all of the songs (save for the two covers, a great rocked up re-working of LOUIS ARMSTRONG‘s “What a Wonderful World” and a faithful rendition of THE STOOGES‘ “1969”).
This Lp was released posthumously and even almost 9 years after his death, it strikes a nerve for those of us who loved and still love The Ramones growing up. At least he went out with a great album!
David Byrne – Academy of Natural Sciences (Philadelphia, PA) – February 4, 2010
This wasn’t a concert, but rather a forum on sustainability that featured Byrne, Philadelphia Bicycle Coalition director ALEX DOTY, KATHERINE GAJEWSKI (the director of the mayor’s sustainability office for the City of Philadelphia) and IGNACIO BUNSTER-OSSA, a landscape architect.
As such, Byrne, who autographed copies of his new book (the excellent Bicycle Diaries), look a bit nervous and out-of-breath during his presentation and Bunster-Ossa seemed to rush through his, too, even though both were fascinating.
Doty and Gajewski, on the other hand, were both calm, cool and collected, both presenting excellently and gracefully handling questions from the audience during the Q&A session.
In any case, I think it’s fair to say that many folks in attendance learned something about the future of bicycling and sustainability in Philadelphia on this evening.
