NP: 4/19 to 4/25

PopTodd · **Posted:** Mon Apr 19, 2010 8:42 am

Robert Pollard - From a Compound Eye
The Boo Radleys - Giant Steps
Caesaria Evora - Rogamar
Richard Davies - Telegraph
Tenpole Tudor - Swords of a Thousand Men: The Best of...

Kingfish · **Posted:** Mon Apr 19, 2010 11:15 am

e-stone · **Posted:** Mon Apr 19, 2010 3:13 pm

ipod on random album, so far this morning:

np:

not sure i've ever listened to this album in full

discostu · **Posted:** Mon Apr 19, 2010 4:11 pm

The Sight Below - It Falls Apart.

RIYL - ambient, Slowdive - Pygmalion (instrumentals)

Kingfish · **Posted:** Mon Apr 19, 2010 4:19 pm

John Phillips - Wolf King of LA

Dick Meatwood · **Posted:** Mon Apr 19, 2010 5:12 pm

Arthur Russell - Calling Out of Context
Red House Painters - Down Colorful Hill
Retribution Gospel Choir - 2
Tom Waits - Heartattack and Vine
Wedding Present - George Best Plus
The Libertines - Up the Bracket
The Kinks - s/t
Harry Nilsson - Pandemonium Shadow Show/Aerial Ballet/Aerial Pandemonium Ballet

Stone · **Joined:** Wed Aug 22, 2007 9:27 am **Posts:** 1562

Bob Marley & The Wailers - Uprising (alternate version)

It's getting warmer, so I'm getting an itch for some reggae. I saw this posted on a blog and it piqued my interest. It was an interesting listen, but despite the statement on the blog about the sound quality being good, it's really not very good. There's a ton of tape hiss to be found here, and the versions for this "alternate version" did not wow me enough to come back to it any time soon.

Titus Andronicus - The Monitor

This is one I will be coming back to. If you like teh rock, you should definitely check it out. While the vocals are sometimes reminiscent of Bright Eyes, do not let that stop you from giving this a listen. I sometimes hear some Dinosaur Jr. here and at other places hear a strong Mats influence (although TA's tunes are longer and typically more sprawling than anything Westerberg and Co. ever did). So far, this one's a keeper.

paper · **Posted:** Mon Apr 19, 2010 9:33 pm

Stone Wrote:

Titus Andronicus - The Monitor

thanks again, man.

thisotherkingdom · **Posted:** Mon Apr 19, 2010 9:41 pm

I'm really liking that Alberta Cross.

Yail Bloor · **Posted:** Mon Apr 19, 2010 11:08 pm

thisotherkingdom Wrote:

I'm really liking that Alberta Cross.

I"m LOVING that album. It's getting a ton of car play.

thisotherkingdom · **Posted:** Mon Apr 19, 2010 11:36 pm

Yail Bloor Wrote:

thisotherkingdom Wrote:

I'm really liking that Alberta Cross.

I"m LOVING that album. It's getting a ton of car play.

Definitely, same here.

PopTodd · **Posted:** Tue Apr 20, 2010 10:13 am

Meat Puppets - Too High To Die
Sybris - Into the Trees
Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose
The Cars - Candy-O
Wilco - Being There

discostu · **Posted:** Tue Apr 20, 2010 12:14 pm

Stone · **Joined:** Wed Aug 22, 2007 9:27 am **Posts:** 1562

paper Wrote:

thanks again, man.

Hey, you earned it, and you earned it the old fashioned way: winning it by gambling.

PopTodd · **Posted:** Tue Apr 20, 2010 2:08 pm

Just acquired and np:

Roky Erickson - True Love Cast Out All Evil

This is so much better than I anticipated.
:cheers:

e-stone · **Posted:** Tue Apr 20, 2010 5:14 pm

been on a bit of a delgados kick lately...played earlier:

with this sandwiched in between:

i'm not sure there will be a better album released this year...this thing is good.

Stone · **Joined:** Wed Aug 22, 2007 9:27 am **Posts:** 1562

Van Halen - 1984

A bit of background: I bought this on cassette when it came out, and was a fan of it (along with the other VH albums), but shortly thereafter was introduced to punk and alternative, so I sold my VH albums and tapes. Yesterday, I listened to 1984 in its entirety --because I saw it mentioned on some blog or in a magazine-- for the first time in over 25 years.

My conclusion after yesterday's listen: this album is almost unlistenable.* It was clearly a stab at commercial success. While it has some VH trademarks, such as some Eddie VH solos, the push of keyboards to the forefront on a few songs, along with the non-party non-dark lyrical content employed on those same songs, really make this a boring album (see, for example, "Jump"). I do still like "Panama," but outside of that, the songs didn't do much for me, and even those that are guitar-based lack something to make them really enjoyable.

For my money, VH hit their musical peak with Fair Warning, and everyone should have seen the end of VH as we knew it with the mishmash of styles, both musically and lyrically, that ended up on 1984. The transition from rock to pop ended up as sounding like a band without a direction and the result is a lackluster album.

Also, I don't think Erlewine and are hearing the same album:

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Wrote:

(1984) places an emphasis on the songs, and they're uniformly terrific, the best set of original tunes Van Halen ever had. Surely, the anthems "Panama" and "Hot for Teacher" grab center stage — how could they not, when the former is the band's signature sound elevated to performance art, with the latter being as lean and giddy, their one anthem that could be credibly covered by garage rockers?

*I have bought the first four VH albums in the past few years (finding them used for cheap), and do enjoy them somewhat, but they are certainly not in regular rotation, not enjoying them nearly as much as I did in my early teen years.

e-stone · **Posted:** Tue Apr 20, 2010 6:48 pm

nobody · **Posted:** Tue Apr 20, 2010 6:55 pm

Dum Dum Girls: I Will Be

Seems a bit of hype for this one. Have a drummer that used to be in the Vivian Girls and they get compared a lot. I hear 'em called a garage band and it is lo fi, but I think it's more fuzzed out Jesus & Mary Chain influenced than what I would call garage rock. Still, I do like this one quite a bit. Not sure if it will have staying power, but so far so good. Reminds me a bit of the Crocodiles from last year and a guy from that group makes a cameo for a duet.

Finch Platte · **Posted:** Tue Apr 20, 2010 6:59 pm

Coheed and Cambria are one of the greatest live acts today. Claudio and Co. don't let their lofty concepts and penchant for progressive flair hold them back. In fact it was their live show that made me a fan some six years ago. Having never even heard of the band, I stood in awe of the beastly figure that stood at center stage. Veiled behind a mass of hair and wielding a Gibson Explorer, Claudio Sanchez looked like the modern incarnate of some 70's rock god and his distinctly high pitched vocal delivery cemented it. Although Coheed and Cambria were stuck with an opening slot that night, their short opening performance managed to bleed more emotion and give off more energy than any of the bands that followed (With those bands being Thrice and Thursday, that's no small task!).

On October 22nd, 2008 Coheed and Cambria unveiled their Neverender concert series at the Terminal 5 club in New York City. For four consecutive nights, they treated a hometown audience to the retelling of "The Amory Wars", the unifying concept behind all of Coheed and Cambria's work, by performing their entire discography one album at a time, starting with their 2002 debut The Second Stage Turbine Blade and eventually ending with Good Apollo I Am Burning Star IV Vol 2 : No World For Tomorrow. While the Neverender tour eventually moved on to Chicago, Los Angeles and London, the band chose to document the New York performances in the form of the aptly named Neverender DVD set. The DVD set comes in two forms, the standard 2 disc set that contains just the concerts, and the 9 disc Children of the Fence limited edition that contains both CD and DVD versions of the New York Neverender along with a bonus DVD that includes the documentary The Fiction Will See The Real, a short Q&A session, and clips from the opening "performances" including former Death/Iced Earth drummer Richard "I'd rather piss myself than miss any of Coheed's set" Christy, bassist Mic Todd's verbal history of the band, and guitarist Travis Steever's Davenport Cabinet project.

The performances on Neverender not only document the entire vision that singer/guitarist Claudio Sanchez has manged to mold his music around, they capture the band doing what they do best: tearing up the stage. The abundance of camera angles and the crisp production do an astounding job at capturing how the audience feeds off of the band and how the audience in turn reciprocates that energy back to the band. Furthermore, every note on Neverender is exactly how it was played on the night of the performance. Unlike many current concert DVD's, Coheed and Cambria resisted the temptation of doctoring their performances with studio overdubs. As Claudio describes in the liner notes "Though of course these recordings were mixed, there were no overdubs after the fact... These are the shows as they were played, and yes there are mistakes, but we wanted it to be authentic and we are proud of what we achieved." The occasional crack in Claudio's voice or missed note only help to add to the personality of the recordings.

Throughout the performances, Claudio gives the crowd insights to his creative process and how he fits into the story of his prog-pop opus. During the performance of In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 he makes a special mention of the character Al the Killer. Just before the Velourium Camper series is set to begin, Claudio notes how the creation of Al the Killer was spawned from a short but nerve wrecking relationship, and that it was the first time that he tried to write what was currently happening to himself into the storyline. Claudio opens up further during the performance of Second Stage Turbine Blade as he talks about how the concept of Coheed and Cambria was created during a trip to Paris and was intended on being based off of his experiences in a foreign land, but as the story progressed he realized that it was no longer about just him and that the characters of Coheed and Cambria were his parents. He delves even further when he describes how their debut got it's name. "The Second Stage Turbine Blade might have this sci-fi kinda name, but it was actually a part my dad worked on at a factory" mentions Claudio right before he thanks his family from the stage.

For the DVD's of the Good Apollo... series, the encores are included providing some of the greatest moments to be found on Neverender. The encore for Volume 1 includes one of the hallmarks of Coheed and Cambria's live performance, the Everything Evil/Devil In Jersey City medley. The band stops short of the climax in "Everything Evil" for a blistering cover of Iron Maiden's "The Trooper". Claudio and Travis trade off verses before jumping right in to Devil In Jersey City. Just as it seems that it's over, Claudio kicks in with the thundering closing of "Everything Evil" as you can hear the entire crowd singing along "I wish, god dammit! We'll make it if you believe!". The biggest treat comes at the end of Volume 2. Gov't Mule mainmain Warren Haynes joins the band for a cover of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" sung by Travis Steever. Hayes sticks around to close out the show, and the DVD, by adding some of his tallent to a flawless performance of "Welcome Home". A fitting way as any to end on.

Neverender brings the story of Coheed and Cambria to a fitting close. With only the beginning of the Coheed and Cambria saga yet to be released, it makes you wonder, what's next for the band? Whatever it may be, with all four of their album's performed live for this set, Neverender may very well be the defining moment of Coheed and Cambria's career.

Yail Bloor · **Posted:** Tue Apr 20, 2010 9:52 pm

Stone Wrote:

Van Halen - 1984

A bit of background: I bought this on cassette when it came out, and was a fan of it (along with the other VH albums), but shortly thereafter was introduced to punk and alternative, so I sold my VH albums and tapes. Yesterday, I listened to 1984 in its entirety --because I saw it mentioned on some blog or in a magazine-- for the first time in over 25 years.

My conclusion after yesterday's listen: this album is almost unlistenable.* It was clearly a stab at commercial success. While it has some VH trademarks, such as some Eddie VH solos, the push of keyboards to the forefront on a few songs, along with the non-party non-dark lyrical content employed on those same songs, really make this a boring album (see, for example, "Jump"). I do still like "Panama," but outside of that, the songs didn't do much for me, and even those that are guitar-based lack something to make them really enjoyable.

For my money, VH hit their musical peak with Fair Warning, and everyone should have seen the end of VH as we knew it with the mishmash of styles, both musically and lyrically, that ended up on 1984. The transition from rock to pop ended up as sounding like a band without a direction and the result is a lackluster album.

Also, I don't think Erlewine and are hearing the same album:

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Wrote:

(1984) places an emphasis on the songs, and they're uniformly terrific, the best set of original tunes Van Halen ever had. Surely, the anthems "Panama" and "Hot for Teacher" grab center stage — how could they not, when the former is the band's signature sound elevated to performance art, with the latter being as lean and giddy, their one anthem that could be credibly covered by garage rockers?

*I have bought the first four VH albums in the past few years (finding them used for cheap), and do enjoy them somewhat, but they are certainly not in regular rotation, not enjoying them nearly as much as I did in my early teen years.

I dunno, "Hot For Teacher" and "Drop Dead Legs" are pretty fucking awesome. I haven't heard this album in it's entirety in a long ass time though and could go the rest of my life without hearing "Jump"

two guns holla · **Posted:** Wed Apr 21, 2010 2:12 pm

Harlem - Hippies
Free Energy - Stuck on Nothing
LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening

PopTodd · **Posted:** Wed Apr 21, 2010 3:00 pm

e-stone · **Posted:** Wed Apr 21, 2010 5:52 pm

PopTodd · **Posted:** Thu Apr 22, 2010 10:35 am

Deee-Lite - World Clique
Brian Eno - Before and After Science
Willie Nelson - To Lefty, From Willie
Harry Nilsson - A Little Touch of Schmilsson In the Night
The Sonics - BOOM!

NP: 4/19 to 4/25

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