Big Big Train – The Likes of Us

I don't really like or dislike the new singer. He's just there and does a good job. But the band's typical pastoral retroprog is in full swing again. Very positive and sunny but always suspenseful and arguably even better than on the last two or three albums with the great David Longdon (R.I.P.) at the mic.

Omega - Gyöngyhajú lány

The intro alone almost made me cry. What a gorgeous melody.

I'm really, really getting into Lamp again since 2022. Mood Romantica, A Summer Vacation, and Raindrop City are some of my personal favorites from them, they're just so calm and whimsical and refreshing to listen to, especially after a long day

Cool.
I've yet to hear/buy this but certainly will. Love this band.

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme

This is like water skipping over rocks. Miles Davis seems to have this more heavy, measured way of doing it. John is more like this thing just born naturally and easily. Music so intrinsically good you couldn't imagine him doing anything else.

Coil - Horse Rotorvator

Friday Night in San Francisco - Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, Paco de Lucia

Legendary live set from 3 awesome guitarists!

Midnight Mushrumps - Gryphon

Fantastic English medieval-inspired rock from the 70s. I've been going back to this album a lot lately, and many of its melodies are stuck in my head throughout the day.

It's in need when an album's opener and outro fail to live up to goals, but the balance of the album is excellent. Sometimes ordering tunes improves the overall listening session.

Miles Davis - On the Corner

This is pretty wild actually. Groovy.

Many years ago, when I was in college, this album was a popular topic at my workplace. A guy had brought a woman back to his place and put this on to get her "in the mood". It did not work.

I've been revisiting a lot of 80s stuff I've been neglecting for years, and in that listening project, I ended up reading about Greg Ginn, listening to some associated mentions, eventually arriving at Rollins Band, and reading an interview or two with Rollins. I don't particularly like the guy; but sometimes, my indifference drops, and I can just get on with it. And of course, one of his mentions was On the Corner. If you've heard The End of Silence, it makes perfect sense (and Black Flag's The Process of Weeding Out). That band was on fire. It took me years and years and years to even get interested in jazz, but I also don't have any strong recollection of everyone and their brother constantly dropping Miles Davis in conversations. I either managed to skim right over it every time, out of my total disinterest; it took until the last decade when everyone has become comfortable enough to talk about jazz playing such a strong role in their musical interests; or I'm just now particularly cued into it and have distorted that Miles is everywhere. I know this is wrong, but my only clear recollection of people talking about Miles all the time are from the Grateful Dead members (also one of Ginn's big influences).

There are many recordings from that Miles period. They loved to broadcast him in Europe. Depending on how big your appetite gets for him, there's lots to explore beyond the official recordings. That group was amazing. Check out the recent posts on the right:
https://theheatwarps.com/

https://theheatwarps.com/2023/10/29/liv ... ecordings/

Total old-school late 90's. If you ever played many EA sports back then, this was everywhere and this song is really awesome.

May have worked better with almost any of his other albums... or maybe she wasn't into jazz...



Interesting - yeah jazz is just one of these things that you can really get into, it's very musical. I haven't heard any Black Flag in ages. Maybe another act to go back to.

Telemann - Ino & Late Works by Akademie Fur Alte Musik

I loved it. I listened to everything but Ino because I was not in the mood for vocal music.

Promethean - Somber Regards

Progressive rock, sometimes rather folky, from Finland's Lapland. If you like Noekk, I bet this will make you feel cozy. If you like Amorphis, you'll hear lots of similar folk bits here. But what really matter are good songwriting and performances.

Screeching Weasel - My Brain Hurts

Catchy poppy melodies, sneering punk attitude. Love it. Still one of my favorite albums.

The Rolling Stones - Hackney Diamonds

A few months' distance and it still sounds really good. Honestly shocking how on point this is. Nonstop catchy, driving rock and roll just like they just released Some Girls yesterday. Production's maybe a bit loud. But the leads sound so juicy and great.

C.P.E Bach: Symphonies from Berlin to Hamburg Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin

Excellent as always.

Olivia Jean - Raving Ghost

Light surfy rock and roll. Nice and garage-y. A good sense of the upbeat.

Van Halen - 1984

Fucking lightning-rod quality... thundering, eclectic playing and energy.

Julia Holter - Something in the Room She Moves

This is what I needed right now. Breezy, easy and free-flowing tunes from one of my favorite non-metal songwriters. Better than Taylor Swift!

Coheed and Cambria - God Send Conspirator

I like most of their albums but I prefer the more raw post-hardcore sound of their debut over everything else.

Nirvana - Nevermind

Interesting to get into them way after the initial popularity. I never really got caught up in the "controversy" about them killing metal or whatever. These are good tunes.

Paul Damian: How to say Llanfairpwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantisiliogogogoch

Throbbing Gristle - 20 Jazz Funk Greats
John Zorn - The Painted Bird

Some truly strange shit over lunch today... just sonic bleeps, bloops and some twisted soundscapes. Good mood setters actually.

Sun Ra & His Astro Infinity Arkestra - Strange Strings

I tried this once a while ago at work but wasn't concentrating fully. But I figured it would be worth a deeper listen and was right... this is a bunch of real mavericks who bought string instruments from a series of ramshackle roadside antiques shops and then did a whole weirdo jazz album with them. I think there's really something fascinating and teeming with life about it all. Something that almost breaks but then somehow keeps it together. Noise and dissonance, but it finds some way to be totally enthralling. It's been a crazy few days. This is what I fuckin needed.

Throwing Muses - In a Doghouse (early collection)

I first came across this group with the great and seminal Lonely is an Eyesore 4AD compilation. Their track is really interesting and stands out amongst a more post-punk and "gothy" lineup. It's dark in its own right, but it is high energy in a truly frenzied way. If you've ever seen, or read, an interview with Kristin Hersh, the main songwriter and vocals/guitarist, you're aware of how odd she is. A genuine artist who is not entirely mentally well and is merely tethered to the ground like a hot air balloon. And she can write an album in a couple days, like a Woodie Guthrie type, which is also an appropriate comparison because her style is folky in rock form (also a bit like Neil Young). Albums with 40 songs and probably had another 40 that someone else made her cut, because she has better things to do than kill her own tracks...just keeps writing songs. And when her songs get really angry, while they're still clearly feminine, the anger is palpable. Pissed off punk kids can often only dream of being that successful with expressing their anger. She went solo after being with the same band members for decades, and even her new work is interesting and worth hearing. She's been doing this since 1981.

Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us

Thought it was good on my first listen but something kept compelling me that there was even more to it... sounding good. Layered, sensitive, not really much else like it. Gonna have to read the lyrics later. This one seems to be a little denser than their old work. Father of the Bride had a really expansive sound and this one goes a little deeper with the melodies and songwriting choices.

I've been nearly embarrassed by how many punk bands are in lockstep with the narrative of genocide in Gaza. I wish it was limited to dipshit US bands, but it isn't.

Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us

Better every spin, likely just as good as the previous album... wonderful twists and turns, subtle hooks, interestingly cynical, poetic lyrics.

Portishead - "Portishead"
It's a shame this band's output has been so limited...such a dark, unique vibe/sound.

Narrative ?

Atomic Kings - self titled '24 debut
New bluesy hard rock band featuring Greg Chaisson from Badlands (the late 80s "super group" featuring Ray Gillen, Jake E Lee, & Eric Singer). This is not as 'hard egded' as Badlands but pretty awesome in its own right.

Crass - Penis Envy

This is so fucking cool. Just brash and full of attitude and life. Lots of bounce and verve.

I'm told by old Crass heads (not necessarily anarcho types, but those who were fanatical about the experimenting of the time across the board) that the new remixes are awful and fly in the face of what made those albums so special and new. They jacked the guitars, lowered the vocals, and pretty much made them sound like every other new recording of today. I haven't paid super close attention, but I think the Crass Collection remasters are when that happened. I personally haven't compared, but as I've read these complaints, I understood them right away. I can't imagine the vocals not being annoyingly out front, the guitars somewhat buried in the background, etc. Even if you usually don't care about remix/remaster arguments, it would probably be worth hearing original mixes of Crass albums. The way Penny made those albums was so fucking abrasive, so to tame them for a modern ear is really unfortunate. Gotta pay the bills though.

Haven't tried the remasters...

Fountains of Wayne - Traffic & Weather
Fountains of Wayne - s/t

Going through all their stuff. This was a seriously polished, on point fucking band. Excellent, snappy songwriting.

Assumptions bad. Like with Black Sabbath's Black Box, it seems like for a few years now that a lot of people think that's how those Crass albums always sounded, and that's just not the case. Sorry if it seemed like I was coming at you.

Fugazi - Repeater + 3 -- End Hits

"Repeater" into "Brendan 1" is such a progressive powerhouse sequence; "Brendan 1" could have turned into longer jam, almost feeling like when Rollins Band really let loose circa 1992; listened to "Brendan 1" maybe 5 times in a row; drummer is on fire, and as I was listening to this today, this is what Kylesa with two drummers tried to achieve and didn't - "Two Beats Off" also sounds very much like what you would have heard from Rollins Band at the time. I'll go way out on a limb and say this is what you get when 90's post-punk/hard rock meets jazz like electric Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock fusion.

End Hits isn't all that far removed, but there's less hard rock and more psychedelia, electronica, and even industrial effects. The rhythm section is again a force of nature. It's crazy how good these two players were together.

*fixed some grammar to make better sense

Steely Dan - Kid Charlemagne (and Royal Scam at large)
Incredible song—based on a true story. Those chord changes are intense, with two sizzling, tasty jazz solos to boot. The "gas in the car" line describes how the drug dealers got caught, they'd have gotten away with it, if not for neglecting to check their getaway car's gas tank. Kanye (in his prime) wrote the band a letter imploring them for the sample, which was used as the refrain in his song, Champion.
My personal favorite on the album is Caves of Altamira, but you really can't go wrong with any of the first three tracks. After Haitian Divorce, I think the album loses some steam, but 90% of Royal Scam is god-tier.

Yep, "Kid Charlemagne" is such a great song.

Like most of their songs I have pretty much no idea what they're talking about, so thanks for the info you gave about the lyrics.

I love Kanye's old music. It's too bad his music turned into such garbage. 808s and Heartbreaks was unlistenable IMO. That was the end for me.