CD Monday

CD Monday

/ You Hear That?!? / 2 Comments

Mudcrutch

On loan from a generous coworker. (He also loaned me a DVD copy of Runnin’ Down a Dream, the four-hour Tom Petty documentary Peter Bogdanovich made.) This is the first I’ve heard of Mudcrutch, but wouldn’t you know it, the rejuvenated Petty project just released an album last Friday. Wild, eh?

Tom Petty called the band’s name “really terrible.” I call it “really fitting” because it won’t stop raining and there’s mud everywhere and I can never remember to take off my shoes before I go in the house and Toddler YHT is laying waste to my backseat by grinding her adorable and sparkly but also muddy Crocs into the fabric opposite her rear-facing car seat.

Mudcrutch — “Orphan Of The Storm” [Spotify/iTunes]

CD Monday

/ You Hear That?!? / 1 Comment

Asthmatic Kitty

Asthmatic Kitty threw this sampler in with a record I had delivered, and I grabbed it this morning not knowing that Pitchfork had posted a review of Helado Negro’s Island Universe Story: Selected Works this morning. Neat coincidence.

I really enjoy Helado Negro and am very interested in hearing Island Universe Story so I can get a more complete picture of his music and how it’s changed over time. I’m most familiar with Double Youth, which is the album the song on this sampler comes from (the Pitchfork review actually mentions it — “Invisible Heartbeat”), and while I’ve seen him perform, I only caught a few minutes — at Gallery5 during 2013’s Fall Line Fest. But those few delightfully weird minutes left a strong and positive impression. I remember thinking how cool it was that just a little time in the same room with a band or artist can be enough to form a lasting connection. It’s also reassuring. That was before my daughter was born, but I often think back on that night when it looks like I’m going to be late to a show or have to leave in the middle so I can wake up early the next day.

Here’s “Invisible Heartbeat” — I’ll check in about the rest of the sampler on Friday!

Helado Negro — “Invisible Heartbeat” [Spotify/iTunes]

CD Monday

/ You Hear That?!? / 1 Comment

Masabumi Kikuchi Trio

My mom sent me this a few years back (I’d guess she heard this NPR story) and my daughter grabbed it on the way out this morning. The outer sleeve made it hard to pull out of the tower, but she was resolute.

So often, when I think of free jazz, I think of chaos. Screeching saxes and dissonance. The feeling of being overwhelmed. (Side note: I read this article about Albert Ayler over the weekend and would recommend it.) By contrast, Sunrise is slight and delicate, like you could break it if you looked at it wrong. Yet these performances are built on the sturdy connection between drummer Paul Motian and pianist Masabumi Kikuchi — two jazz outsiders nearing the ends of their lives. Given how sparse these tracks are, and how close to the end these two men were, tones and sounds carry so much more weight than they would in other settings. When I’m listening to more upbeat jazz, single tones can seem cheap, because the big, impressionistic picture is really what matters. Here, every note is impressionistic. The whole is almost irrelevant.

Funny story — my daughter just started trying to sing actual songs (“Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” is taking shape nicely), but for a while, I’ve been repeating random tones she blurts out to see if she’ll respond with the same note and how long we can go back and forth when she does. She gets a kick out of it and I like to think I’m planting musical instinct seeds here and there. That’s just what we ended up doing on this morning’s drive to daycare, and I bet Kikuchi and Motian would have approved.

Masabumi Kikuchi Trio — “Short Stuff” [Soundcloud/iTunes]

CD Monday

/ You Hear That?!? / Leave a comment

Record Store Day

Rolling around this week with this sampler I got on my way out of BK Music on Record Store Day. I haven’t listened all the way through yet, but I already love it, because it serves as a reminder of a very fun and fruitful Saturday.

What I got:

Matthew E. White — “Cool Out” B/W “Maybe In The Night”

Matthew E. White

This was my one must-get item this year. Y’all’ve already heard me freak out about the A-side, but I’m just as psyched for people to hear the B-side, “Maybe In The Night,” which has a fantastic singalong chorus that climbs right into White’s falsetto wheelhouse. And it was mixed at Abbey Road, which is neat. I’ll update this post whenever that one makes it online.

Matthew E. White — “Cool Out” (feat. Natalie Prass) [Spotify/iTunes]

–

Charlie Parr — I Ain’t Dead Yet EP

Charlie Parr

This was a leap of faith, but given how much faith I have in Phil Cook (who recorded a cover of Parr’s “1922 Blues“), I shouldn’t be surprised that it paid off. Parr has such a great, whip-smart writing voice, with a dry humor I’m really enjoying. You can get a taste of that deadpan humor at the start of this video of Parr doing the EP’s title track.

Charlie Parr — “I Ain’t Dead Yet” (live) [YouTube/Discogs]

–

Allen Toussaint — Live in Philadelphia 1975

Allen Toussaint

Gonna have to report back about this one. I’m waiting for just the right cooking situation — something that involves lots of chopping — so I can get a good listen.

Allen Toussaint — Live in Philadelphia 1975 [YouTube/Discogs]

–

BONUS: Ryan Adams — Live at Carnegie Hall

Ryan Adams

So BK does a raffle before the store opens on Record Store Day, and by some glorious stroke of luck, Bandmate 4eva Doug and I had the first two numbers, giving us first crack at a bin full of box sets, t-shirts, and other fun stuff. My adrenaline was off the charts when I was walking up to see what the choices were, and it reached Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction levels when I saw this 6-LP Ryan Adams set was there. I love these big, career-spanning live albums — Doug actually got something similar, the one Drive-By Truckers put out last year — in part because they function as greatest hits albums as well. I’ve listened to Ryan Adams a fair amount, but I don’t have physical copies of many of his albums, so Live at Carnegie Hall fills in gaps that would have gone unfilled for who knows how long.

This particular situation feels almost star-crossed, because the album of his that I’ve listened to more than any other isn’t an official release — it’s just a download of the live set he did before his 2011 Letterman performance. I love Adams in that setting, where he can tell discursive stories and jokes and jump between eras of his career. Many have said that Adams needs to self-edit more, but the flexibility of the solo acoustic environment suits him well, I think, and I love having two full nights of his music and storytelling at my fingertips. One hell of a raffle prize, that’s for sure.

One more note before I go — BK Music continues to amaze me with their customer service, from the good-natured way they approach the chaos of Record Store Day, to their willingness to go above and beyond to help you find what you need. If you haven’t been to BK, I recommend going and getting to know the nice people who work there. Such a great place.

Ryan Adams — “New York, New York” (live) [Spotify/iTunes]

 

 

 

CD Monday

/ You Hear That?!? / Leave a comment

Woodie Guthrie

Baby YHT has been sleeping much better lately. We’d fallen into the trap of going for walks and drives to get her to go down at night, and once those drives passed the hour mark, it became clear we’d have to go back to letting her cry it out. She was a trouper though — after one very angry night she got back in a groove and hasn’t had problems going to sleep since.

As frustrating as those drives were, it was comforting (for me, and for Baby YHT too, I’m sure) having a backup plan that worked 100% of the time. And she was so sweet and docile when we’d get back.

Woodie Guthrie — “(Take Me) Riding In My Car” [YouTube/Discogs]

CD Monday

/ You Hear That?!? / Leave a comment

Johnny Cash

Found a copy of the San Quentin live album last week at Goodwill. It’s a little on the dirty side, but I got a thing of Titebond II and I’m gonna try the wood glue trick on it.

Did you hear the thing about how Merle Haggard was in the audience for one of Johnny Cash’s San Quentin shows? Apparently it was more than a decade earlier than the one they recorded there, but still — pretty wild.

I’ve never actually heard that album, I don’t think, but this one’s a favorite.

Johnny Cash — “Folsom Prison Blues” [Spotify/iTunes]

CD Monday

/ You Hear That?!? / 1 Comment

Hush

Gifted by my mom, picked this week by Baby YHT. Fitting, given that this is the time of year when I get to reunite with my paralyzing fear of bees…

Yo-Yo Ma and Bobby McFerrin — “Flight of the Bumblebee” [Spotify/iTunes]

 

CD Monday

/ You Hear That?!? / Leave a comment

Orchestra Baobab

All Styles is right — did you see about the new Grateful Dead tribute album that The National organized? Guess who has a couple tracks on there! These guys! I haven’t heard them yet, but Courtney Barnett’s version of “New Speedway Boogie” is excellent.

Rolling around with this in the meantime.

Orchestra Baobab — “Bul Ma Miin” [Spotify/iTunes]

CD Monday

/ You Hear That?!? / Leave a comment

Daniel Bachman

A much longer thing needs to be written about the relationship between Daniel Bachman’s style of composition — how he introduces themes and variations on top of a drone — and springtime, in all its genetically varied, ground-splitting, frost-fighting glory. For now, I’ll just say this: Bachman’s music is excellent company on a cold, early spring morning.

I got this handmade CD-R album at an in-store performance a few years ago, and while I can’t provide a sample of any of the songs on it — don’t see any on the interweb — here’s “Won’t You Cross Over To That Other Shore,” from his recent River album.

Daniel Bachman — “Won’t You Cross Over To That Other Shore” [Bandcamp/iTunes]

CD Monday

/ You Hear That?!? / 2 Comments

Thin Lizzy

This one’s for Baby YHT, whose 18-month sleep regression makes just about every lyric in the title song applicable. More like “Cribbreak,” but you get the idea. “Tonight’s the night all systems fail” indeed.

Thin Lizzy — “Jailbreak” [Spotify/iTunes]