3/2 new arrivals
An acoustic blues master pays tribute to the most important country artist of all time and a handful of other notables.
Mississippi John Hurt: One of the worst album/album cover pairings ever (obviously an error), these recordings are still pretty damn great. Hurt is my favorite blues singer — his version of “Candyman” was the second song I ever learned how to play on guitar (thanks dad!) — and “Waiting for a Train” is my favorite Jimmie Rodgers song ever. What’s great about this album in particular is how relaxed Hurt is; clearly the recording session was a very loose one (unlike his even-better Okeh sessions), and it’s wonderful to hear him playful and coy. That’s slightly disingenuous as Hurt always sounds coy thanks to his very particular way of enunciating (it sounds like his lower jaw is always pushed forward and his lips are pursed), but he’s almost goofy here. In the opening banter to “Waiting for a Train” the engineer asks him to play the Rodgers classic, and Hurt answers with a snicker, “But I can’t yodel!” He can do everything else.
Thief: Very Scottish, an obvious ancestor to Belle & Sebastian, with a hint of ’60s garage as well.
Death in Vegas: The generally great UK DJ duo’s not entirely successful Krautrock album.
The Fall: These World Bewitched volumes one and two are complete mysteries to us here, and we don’t even recognize most of the song titles (we consider ourselves pretty big Fall fans). Probably worth sampling around, but know that we do have better Fall best-ofs.
EDITED TO ADD THIS COMMENT FROM ALT/PUNK COLUMNIST/ALL-AROUND SMART EFFING DUDE DOUGLAS WOLK:
“The deal with “A World Bewitched” is that the first disc is album tracks (”4 1/2 Inch” is particularly excellent–crank it up loud–and the cover of “Strychnine” is very good too), and the second disc is B-sides and Mark E. Smith collaborations with other bands (”The Heads of Dead Surfers” is Long Fin Killie, “Plug Myself In” is D.O.S.E., “I Want You” is a surprisingly awesome collaboration with Inspiral Carpets of all people, etc.–and “Kimble” is a Lee Perry cover from a Peel session, and “Ed’s Babe” is a very odd non-album single).”
So there you have it.
The Chameleons: I don’t think I’ve ever heard the Chameleons, but we did get two comeback records from them today. Pretty sure both Joe and Michael are fans. Anything to say for these?
The Alarm: Six original, prime-era recordings from the Welsh ’80s rock band.
St. Moose live recordings: We got a number of live records from Marvin Gaye, Dionne Warwick, the Everly Brothers, Dazz Band, etc., and the sound quality is good, but it’s difficult to tell when these were actually recorded. (I should note that the recording of Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up,” maybe my favorite song of all time, is pretty dire.) Just a heads up.
those chameleon reunion records are both totally solid, and probably the closest people in america can get to the actual What Does Anything Mean and Script of the Bridge without paying import prices. I saw one of the reunion shows in Philly, and it was one of the best rock shows I’ve ever been to — the band was absolutely on fire, the tiny club was packed, and the sound of a roomful of people yelling “BROTHER CAN YOU HEAR MY VOICE” on “Intrigue in Tangiers” raised gooseflesh. Just after that tour Mark Burgess and Dave Fielding got into a huge, stupid fight and the whole band imploded again. Also worth mentioning is Why Call it Anything?, which has been on the site for a while. Not all-the-way-through good, but surprisingly sturdy.
The deal with “A World Bewitched” is that the first disc is album tracks (“4 1/2 Inch” is particularly excellent–crank it up loud–and the cover of “Strychnine” is very good too), and the second disc is B-sides and Mark E. Smith collaborations with other bands (“The Heads of Dead Surfers” is Long Fin Killie, “Plug Myself In” is D.O.S.E., “I Want You” is a surprisingly awesome collaboration with Inspiral Carpets of all people, etc.–and “Kimble” is a Lee Perry cover from a Peel session, and “Ed’s Babe” is a very odd non-album single).
Also, for the electronic lovers in the house — the Philpot label (named after Larry Levan’s real surname!) has been trickling in the past two days. Bruno Pronsato’s We Were… is excellent, particularly “All night blahblah… (Original).”
wow, this sounds amazing — thanks for the info, Douglas!
I can’t believe you let the long-overdue debut of Seks Bomba to eMusic slip through the cracks. Granted, there’s nothing about their work that advances the evolution of pop music, but they make great soundtracks to the best/worst 60s spy movie you never saw.
I’ve gethered a bunch of their MP3s from various places over the years and have always wished they were on eMu. Can’t wait til my downloads refresh tomorrow.