Ou Où: Rhythm & Blues #1

Minimal drone music from a couple local St. Louis fellas. You can take a listen and even download for free a trio of EPs from these guys at their Bandcamp site. They tend to follow a pattern of ambient swaths of synths in the beginning with the slow addition of rhythms as they progress. They are actually quite good live as well as live they tend to emphasize the more beat oriented bits so it's not just staring at two guys twiddling knobs as the crowd nods off. But the recorded stuff is pretty damn good too so if you'r into this sorta thing, worth a listen. Not entirely sure it is accurate of their recorded work (the latest one linked to and that I am listening to know is more ambient based than this insinuates), but probably the description I came across in a local mag describes their shows pretty well:
Sounds Like: Four Tet having an LSD-fueled staring competition with the introduction to "Baba O'Riley" by the Who.

Don't ask how I jumped from DW to bluegrass to MONO...I have no idea.

Tricky: Angels With Dirty Faces

I pretty much think any Tricky album outside Maxinquaye is pretty much underrated to one degree or another, although I admit from Blowback on they do have there share of filler even if they all have at least scattered outstanding tracks. For me, this would be one of the best of the bunch. It's dark, moody, claustrophobic and sounds like it is about to fall apart at any second. Yet, it all holds together and just keeps churning forward. If nothing else, this is one of the more singular albums he has released. All the clanging and banging rhythms with the guttural vocals almost sound a bit to me like this is close to what it would sound like if Tom Waits decided to make a trip hop album.

Bonus materials on there?
Love that record.

np:

Thanks for the inspiration, Rodney!

Lotus Plaza - Spooky Action at a Distance
Deerhoof/Of Montreal - split
Captain Beefheart - Legendary A&M Sessions
Blonde Redhead - Fake Can Be Just as Good
Chrome - Half Machine Lip Moves + Read Only Memory EP
Chrome - Red Exposure
Hannibal Buress - My Name Is Hannibal (just got this from a coworker, never heard him afaik)
Mclusky - Do Dallas
Cymbals Eat Guitars - Lenses Alien
Archers of Loaf - Icky Mettle (Deluxe)
Guided By Voices - Under the Bushes Under the Stars/Sunfish Holy Breakfast

no i dont think so. its the one you burned and mailed me...i probably got the wrong cover art there.

During my move, I eyed a copy of this and it's been lurking there waiting for me to listen. I will soon.

That FEAR record always sounds so damn good. Now I'll have to drag it out too pretty soon. Anyway, right now...


Jack White: Blunderbuss

I have always been an unabashed White Stripes fan. I admit I think they called it quits at a good time as the quality slide was creeping in for my tastes, but I really liked everything they put out and De Stijl and White Blood Cells remain long term favorites and I do still from time to time play pretty much their whole catalog. On the other hand, I have found Jack's other projects/collaborations underwhelming. Decent, listenable but in no way inspiring any sort of excitement for me. So this solo album has had me really curious. Would it be another White Stripes or another ho hum post Stripes effort? For my money it lands somewhere in-between. I prefer this to any of his other non-Stripes projects, but I think by unraveling the self-imposed limitations (or maybe it was the limitations of Meg's drumming, which I always felt helped way more than anyone liked to admit), he gets a bit overly ornate and is more interested in following his flights of fancy than making really memorable songs. The simpler he keeps it the better the record comes across. Oddly enough for a guy who built his reputation on revitalizing rock 'n' roll, I think often times the ballads come across better than the uptempo numbers. Love Interruptions may be the best thing here. So, this is something I'll listen to and enjoy for time to time and it will get plenty of spins this year, but I can't say I necessarily expect to come back to it in five years when I wanna hear Jack White. That will likely be the time I instead just pull out my old White Stripes records instead. Then again, there is a lot to like here so maybe it will be more of a grower.

I've been listening to old albums like this just to see how the revisit goes. For some stuff it's been ages. This one is a keeper.

I was really late to the party on that album. I heard bits and pieces of Wire and wasn't into it, but within the last handful of years have revisited and Pink Flag is a pretty damn amazing album.

Pink Flag is a top 20 OAT record for me. Back in the record store scavenging days I remember reading about it as an influence of another band I dug, and looking for it. Took months to find it in a record store.

Me too. Maybe top 10.