Meet Me In The Dollar Bin

Soul is a Hamhock in Your Corn Flakes

2007-03-08T21:52:00.000-06:00

Shit's been pretty hectic around the dollar bin. My Van Halen post is taking much longer than originally thought possible. So I've decided to post a little public service announcement for all you music lovers out there. It's pretty simple: LISTEN TO PARLIAMENT. The Parliament albums have recently been reissued and they pretty much all rule. I've gotten the first 3 albums and they're pretty much all gold. Maggot Brain lives up to it's billing as one of the great guitar albums of all time. The self-titled album rules as well. Highly recommended.

Boys are Back in Town

2007-02-15T22:01:00.000-06:00

Based on the two songs that Thin Lizzy is best known for, The Boys are Back in Town and Jailbreak, I have always imagined this scenario. I am going to the same high school as the dudes in Thin Lizzy. I guess that this high school must be located in Ireland during 70's. Thin Lizzy would be dudes two years older than you that have mustaches and drive vans. I would desperately want to hang out with them and be their friend. They know how to score with the ladies and they have access to beer. In short they are cool but are kind of are dicks. Eventually one of them has sex with a girl that I have a crush on and for this I hate the entire gang. In the interim I conspire to sabotage their van. I later come to realization that this scenario was unavoidable because Phil Lynott is much cooler than I am. A year later when I have grown out of my awkward phase and they have graduated, I share a 12 pack of beer with them and we have a laugh about it.

It was on the basis of those two songs that I purchased Jailbreak by Thin Lizzy some years back. It was a bit beat up but a pretty good find for the dollar bin. My copy has a bit on noise during Jailbreak but that's vinyl right? Up until last week I haven't really listened closely to the rest of the album. I was pleasantly surprised at how good the rest of it was. I can see why they've been name checked more often in the past couple of years. I can't think of any other 70's hard rock bands that do that type of storytelling song writing like they do. They also have that cool dueling lead guitar thing going on along with the whole Celtic music influence on the guitar playing. Ted Leo is an artist that I've always liked and listening more closely to this album has helped spell out the Thin Lizzy comparisons I've always heard written about him.

The album ended up being a lot better than I expected. I've always liked Jailbreak and The Boys are Back in Town despite the fact that they are pretty over the top. They are just really bad ass rock songs. Cowboy Song is a tune I never really liked but I changed my mind on that one. Despite the fact that the subject matter is pretty cliché, I think that it's kind of like the Eagle's Desperado, except that it doesn't suck. The other song that surprised me was Romeo and the Lonely Boy. I just didn't expect to hear that kind of storytelling coming from them. There are some missteps but it's a pretty cool album overall. I might actually now be on the lookout for other Thin Lizzy albums. Any suggestions anyone?

Panda Bear

2007-02-12T00:29:00.000-06:00

Here's a pretty amazing live performance from January 2005 of Panda Bear performing the song Bros. In case you don't know, Panda Bear is Noah Lennox from the band Animal Collective. My best description of his music is a Brian Wilson transmitting headphone music from underwater. There are some very beautiful vocals and melodies found in his songs and they are often wrapped/muffled in a blanket of sound. The effect often times is like listening to a song within a song. The single for Bros has been out for almost a year and he has a new album called Person Pitch coming out sometime in March. From what I've heard of this album, it's shaping up to be one of the year's best. Here's some info about the record from his label Paw Tracks

Lennox also recently appeared on Sérgio Hydalgo's Má Fama radio show. He performs a bunch of the new songs and there's an interview at the end of show. Pretty cool stuff. The show can be downloaded at Má Fama's website, http://mafama.blogspot.com.

Love Supreme

2007-02-07T00:15:00.000-06:00

All Things Must Pass by George Harrison is an album whose greatness catches you off guard. It accomplishes much by having a bit of a homespun low key feel to it. That is about as low key as you can get by a former Beatle recording with Phil Spector and an allstar cast.

Even though it is now my favorite Beatles solo record, I didn't really have high expecations for the record when I bought it. At the record store I was pretty much swayed by the fact that it cost only four dollars, had My Sweet Lord on it, and came in a box set. On an interesting side note, when I was a kid my father would once in a great while take his guitar out of hiding and play. He had learned to play by ear and he no longer played as much as he would've liked. There were a couple of songs that he would always bust out and play and one of them was My Sweet Lord.

As the third primary songwriter in the Beatles, George Harrison's songs were often left of albums in favor of John Lennon or Paul McCartney's contributions. Despite the fact that All Things Must Pass is a 3 record set made up stockpiled songs, it stil has a quite cohesive feel to it. Much of the album can be taken as George Harrison's mediatiation on spirituality, love, and kindness. Some of those songs on the album echo the same type of sentiments that are found in a work like John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. Harrison's repeating of the title lyrics to I Dig Love parallel Coltrane's monastic recital of the words A Love Supreme. My Sweet Lord is another song that is almost hymn-like in quality. Others like Apple Scruffs and Wah-Wah are upbeat and provide a levity that keeps the album moving. Now the only part of the album that I don't find compelling is the third lp Apple Jam. The main reason this stuff is interesting is because he had famous friends like Clapton and Ginger Baker playig with him.

Make it a point to check out All Things Must Pass. It truly is worth listening to. Now I'd love to leave you with an mp3 of My Sweet Lord but instead I'll leave you with Built To Spill covering What Is Life.

Built To Spill - What Is Life

The Jump Off

2007-01-31T00:22:00.000-06:00

I don't think anyone listens anymore, including me. I blame my iPod. Don't get me wrong, I love my iPod, but I've seen my music listening habits turn to shit in the past year since I finally received one. I'm certainly not the only one. Everyone's music habits have been changed by these things.

I used to be the guy that listened to albums in their entirety. Skipping tracks was for the weak. Now hand me my video iPod and I become completely ADD with my listening habits. The convenience of the iPod really has become a double edged sword in the way people listen to music. In a way it really is too much of a good thing. It is truly amazing the amount of music you can carry with you, but when I have that amount of options set before me I often find myself unable to make a decision as to what to listen to. This results in me jumping from song to song and spending an inordinate amount of time scrolling around like an idiot.

It used to be that people's music listening routine was pretty well set. You purchased your cd or lp at the record store and when you got home you sat down and listened to it while reading the liner notes or looking at the album cover. You really don't get the same experience looking at the cover art of your iPod screen and chances are you downloaded a bunch of stuff and you probably didn't even listen to half of it right away.

Now all mediums (cds, records, mp3s) have their pluses and minuses but for me you can't beat the charm of a record. There is really no contest aesthetically when comparing the appeal of a record to the other choices out there. When looking at music as artifact the record truly trumps all other forms.

So I've decided to stop the bleeding and get back to listening. I have a large vinyl collection that has been gathering dust. So I've been making it a point to sit down and listen to albums, really listen. You should all try it sometime; there is something meditative about it. It really all makes sense, even the flipping of the record. So as I'm doing this I'll be sharing my thoughts and feelings on what I'm spinning. I hope you enjoy it.