Review: Bob Mould, District Line

Bob Mould has had a long, varied and rich musical career.  He broke out with the influential post-punk band Husker Du that was one of the defining alt rock bands of the ’80s.  When Husker Du split up he released solo albums in the guises of both a sensitive singer/songwriter and a guitar rocker.  He then disappeared for awhile before returning with a new interest in electronic music.  He has been DJing in my town of Washington DC for awhile and has released at least one dance-oriented album.  With District Line he returns to guitar-based rock and shows no signs whatsoever of coming anywhere close to creative stagnation. 

With the exception of drummer Brendan Canty and cellist Amy Domingues, Mould plays all the instruments on District Line along with writing all the songs.  The CD falls into the small category of albums that addresses human relationships from an adult perspective (Mould is in his mid-40s) without coming across like a twenty-something trying to sound all grown up or a middle-aged loser straining to hold on to his youth.  Mould is simply a talented musician and songwriter who continues to make vital music.

The music on District Line is driven primarily by Mould’s strong guitar and Canty’s muscular and varied drumming.  Electronics are used to nice effect as accents and flavoring (as on “Shelter Me” for one example) without being prominently featured.  On the evidence provided here, Mould’s personal life has not been so good lately as many of these songs are concerned with the difficulties of maintaining – and ending – long term relationships.  “Again and Again” is a particularly good example.  Over a rolling melodic hook Mould sings “I never found the trust I needed from you / Everything you did was making me wonder / My biggest mistake was taking you back / Again and again.”  If you’ve been there, you can hear that he has too.  It’s like a dagger in the heart.

District Line is adult rock of the best kind, sung from an adult perspective without attempting to fit into the musical straightjacket of what the record company suits think adults want to hear.  It’s just a good rock record and that’s just fine.

Review: Various Artists, Summer of Love, The Hits of 1967

The Summer of Love, The Hits of 1967 is a two CD +  one DVD collection released by Time-Life to comemorate what was an extraordinary year in music.  The DVD is entitled “My Generation” which is Part 6 of Time-Life’s 10 DVD The History of Rock ‘N’ Roll set.  The CDs are labeled AM and FM and are supposed to capture the different types of music being played on the two radio formats at the time.  The collection comes with a booklet that contains an introduction by Jorma Kaukonen the lead guitar player for Jefferson Airplane and fluff paragraphs on each of the songs included on the two CDs.  As a set devoted to the music of 1967, there’s good news and bad news here.

The good news is that the collection contains a lot of good music that people who were into rock and pop music at the time will remember and enjoy.  Although the set is called “The Summer of Love”, it doesn’t focus on either the San Francisco music scene or tracks released in the summer.    Anything released in 1967 is fair game.  (See the Tuned In To Music podcasts on 1960’s San Francisco Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 for a more thorough coverage of the SF music scene.)  The AM set includes often collected songs such as “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)” (Scott McKenzie), “A Whiter Shade of Pale” (Procol Harem), and “Happy Together” (The Turtles) along with some less common, and therfore more enjoyable to hear again tunes like “Talk Talk” (The Music Machine), “Sunday Will Never Be the Same” (Spanky and Our Gang), and “Little Bit o’ Soul” (The Music Explosion).  Other tracks on the AM disc include “Darling Be Home Soon” (The Lovin’ Spoonful, a personal favorite), “Creeque Alley” (The Mamas and the Papas), “Gimme Some Lovin’” (The Spencer Davis Group) and “Let’s Live for Today” (The Grass Roots). 

Splitting the collection into AM and FM discs was a good idea in that it was around this time that FM radio became a home for exciting music programming that featured album cuts and few if any ads.  As you would expect, the FM disc is more varied but it’s also more hit or miss.  Among the hits are “I Feel Free” (Cream), “Friday on My Mind” (The Easybeats), “(We Ain’t Got) Nothin’ Yet” (The Blues Magoos) and “So You Want to Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” (The Byrds).  Among the misses are “It’s a Happening Thing” (The Peanut Butter Conspiracy) and ”Paper Sun” (Traffic, a miss considering the great ”Dear Mr. Fantasy” is on the same album).  In general, the FM disc is a disappointment as many of the tracks such as “Somebody To Love” (Jefferson Airplane’s biggest selling single) and “Brown Eyed Girl” (Van Morrison) should have been on the AM disc or that cuts like “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” (Vanilla Fudge) are presented in the sub 3 minute radio version rather than the 7+ minute version that was regularly played on FM stations at the time.

The bad news comes when you realize the extraordinary music that was released in 1967 that is not included in the collection.  It is almost certainly the case that legal barriers prevented the inclusion of almost all of this music.  Still, when you take into account what is missing, The Summer of Love, The Hits of 1967  looks weak indeed.

Soul music and R&B are particularly poorly represented.  We get “Reflections” (Diana Ross and the Supremes) and “I Was Made to Love Her” (Stevie Wonder).  Which sound fine until you realize that Aretha Franklin released “Respect”, “(You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman”, “I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You”, and “Chain of Fools” all in 1967.  In addition, “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” (Gladys Knight and the Pips), “Funky Broadway ” (Wilson Pickett), “I Second That Emotion” (Smokey Robinson and the Miracles), “Soul Man” (Sam & Dave), “Tramp” (Otis Redding and Carla Thomas) and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough (Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell) all came out in 1967.

Other genres of music don’t fare any better.  On the AM side of the equation 1967 saw the release of a number of important singles that are not in the set including “Ode to Billie Joe” (Bobbie Gentry), “The Beat Goes On” (Sonny & Cher), and “Groovin’” (The Young Rascals) among many, many others.  And, of course, there’s that 800 lb gorilla we haven’t mentioned.  The Beatles released “Penny Lane”, “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “All You Need is Love” and “Hello, Goodbye” as singles in 1967.  Yikes!

When you look at albums, the omissions in The Summer of Love, The Hits of 1967 become even more apparent.  1967 saw the release of debut albums from The Grateful Dead, Moby Grape, Buffalo Springfield (“For What It’s Worth”), David Bowie and The Doors (“Light My Fire”).  The Doors and Buffalo Springfield also released their second albums in 1967.  Other important and unrepresented 1967 albums include Disraeli Gears (Cream), Forever Changes (Love), and Days of Future Passed (The Moody Blues).

All of this pales into insignificance , however, when you realize that three of the most influential albums of the modern era were released in 1967 and none of them are represented on The Summer of Love, The Hits of 1967 .  In 1967 we were treated to Jimi Hendrix’s debut album Are You Experienced? (as well as his second, Axis Bold as Love), the Velvet Underground and Nico’s self-titled debut album and perhaps the most important of them all, The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.  All those iconic singles and Sgt. Pepper’s?  The Beatles alone made 1967 a watershed year.

We found the DVD mildly interesting.  It focuses more on the American counterculture symbolized by the term “Summer of Love” than the CDs and, although shallow, it attempts to provide some social and political context for the music.  There is some brief but great footage of Jimi Hendrix.  You can also watch Keith Richards throw a TV off of a hotel balcony as a stunt for the camera and Pete Townsend be a belligerent whiny asshole if that’s the kind of thing that turns you on.  I don’t expect I’ll watch it a second time.

1967 may well have been the most extraordinary year for recorded music of all time and it’s hard to fault The Summer of Love, The Hits of 1967  for not doing it justice.  Even if you were able to get all of the necessary releases, there’s no way this unbelievable year could be effectively surveyed on a two disc collection.  The Time-Life set is likely to have the most appeal to listeners who were listening to AM and FM radio at the time and who will find almost every track in the collection familiar.  Listeners who were not there and want to hear what was current in 1967 would do better to seek out the material that isn’t in the set.  I’m not an “oldies” listener who is mired in the music that was current when I was young, there’s too much good music coming out every year for that.  However, to this day, I return to many of the songs and albums of 1967 on a semi-regular basis.  But almost all of the ones I return to are the ones left out of The Summer of Love, The Hits of 1967 .

Review: Ghostland Observatory, Robotique Majestique

The worlds of rock and dance music have been coming together of late.  Dance has led the way and releases from Daft Punk, Justice, Digitalism and the groups heard on the Rock the Disco collections (Vol.1 and Vol. 2) rocketed 2007 into the dance stratosphere.  Movement has been slower on the rock side but it’s happening with !!! being a notable practitioner.  Ghostland Observatory are another band that approach the dance-rock fusion from the rock side.  They’re a duo out of Austin Texas composed of Aaron Behrens (vocals and guitar) and Thomas Ross Turner (drums, keyboards).  Robotique Majestique is their third album.

With one notable exception, Robotique Majestique welds most of the trappings of dance music to a fundamentally rock base.  Digitally constructed beats, layered production, synth effects and keyboards zooming in and out, it’s all there.  So far so good.  However the exception is a pretty important one.  Robotique Majestique is notably lacking in groove.  The rhythms are dull and plodding and the tempos are off.  Turner bashes away in monotonous, clunky tempos that bludgeon the listener.  This is a major problem because dance music is first and last about groove.  Dance music has to make you want to get up and move, Robotique Majestique makes you want to get up and put something else on the CD player.  Ghostland Observatory took the sound of dance music but left out the dance. 

Behrens’ vocal style doesn’t help matters.  He adopts the screeching falsetto that was popular among the hair-do bands of old.  This style is popular with some listeners who won’t mind it.  To me he too often sounds like a shrill 12 year old girl having a temper tantrum.

Listening to Robotique Majestique over and over again trying to find something good to say about it leads to the conclusion that this is dance-oriented music made by people who can’t dance.

Review: Lyrics Born, Everywhere at Once

Lyrics Born is a Japanese-American MC out of San Francisco who has made a modest career out of going his own way in the face of hip-hop convention.  Rather than team up with a producer who creates beats in the studio, Lyrics Born plays with a band.  His tunes also place a heavy emphasis on singing and most of his guest artists are singers rather than rappers.

In some respects Everywhere at Once is the polar opposite of the Roots’ Rising Down reviewed in the previous post.  Lyrics Born is deeply into funk and R&B and in terms of musicianship his band is leagues beyond the members of Roots.  Everywhere at Once is also better recorded than Rising Down which makes listening to it a more pleasant experience at the basic sonic level.  On the other hand, the Roots challenge their listeners with thoughtful observations on American social, political and economic life while Lyrics Born doesn’t have much of interest to say.  Most of his raps are about his latest infatuation or how proud he is of overcoming whatever he thinks he’s overcme to be as wonderful as he thinks he is.   Everywhere at Once also includes two tedious skits and if you’re really out of shape you can burn some extra calories racing to the CD changer to skip past them whenever they come on. 

Everywhere at Once shines musically.  First song “Don’t Change” rides on a funk groove that is so solid that it’s almost imposible to sit still while it plays.  Lyrics Born also has a deep feel for this music so the rhythm of his rap is tight with the groove.  It’s a an outstanding track.  The rest of the album presents a survey of ’80s and late ’70s funk and R&B.   “Cakewalk” combines a Cameo bassline with an Off the Wall-era Michael Jackson chorus.  Another good track and those are only two of many.  Lyrics Born has a first-rate funk band with Uriah Duffy a standout on bass. 

If you like funk and R&B melded with hip-hop Everywhere at Once is more than worth a listen.  In fact, it’s a good album to use to introduce people to hip-hop who don’t know very much about it and say they don’t like it, but who enjoy funk.  If you want challenging and thoughful lyrical content you’ll have to look elsewhere but if you want to dance and have a good time, it’s here.

Review: The Roots, Rising Down

The Roots are a rap group out of Philadelphia with a reputation for ignoring rap cliches and going their own way.  Long before it was popular they made music by playing their own instruments instead of relying on samples as was the standard practice in most rap and hip hop.  Rising Down, their ninth album, has received a good deal of critical praise as a thoughtful tract on politics, social and economic inequality and, of course, racism.

Whatever its worth as social commentary Rising Down has a significant flaw.  It’s unpleasant to listen to.  The CD opens with a very bad live recording of two people having an argument that immediately descends into almost unitelligible shouting and screaming.  It may be making an important point but it’s so unpleasant that it’s easier to just skip over it and start with track two.  The recording quality throughout the album is not very good.  “75 Bars (Black’s Reconstruction)” is an interesting case in point.  Black Thought’s vocal is either so badly recorded or recorded with such extreme effects processing that it sounds like shit on good equipment.  Again, the temptation is to just skip the track rather than suffer through the ugly sound.  Listening on high quality headphones through a computer is another story.  The vocal sounds fine because the system can’t reproduce the unpleasant frequencies that can be heard on a better system.  The target audience for this music is more likely to be listening through earbuds so the crappy recording is not likely to be an issue but it’s foolish to send a message you want people to hear in a format that that may lead people to turn you off when the alternative of competent recording is available.

Roots may play their own instruments but they don’t do very much with them.  Track after track features an unrelenting and simple drum and bass track with little snippets of embellishment here and there.  The tracks are sufficiently different but each one tends to be monotonous. 

One of the enjoyable characteristics of rap music is that it can take some time for the lyrics to become clear.  Rapid-fire delivery, atypical prosidy and mixing the vocal deep in the music tracks can produce a situation where the message slowly becomes clear over repeated listens.  The beats hook interest in the early stages and the track continues to provide a sense of discovery as the meaning comes together.  This slow growth can be enhanced when the message asks the listener to think about social and political issues instead of the drivel of self promotion favored by popular hip-hop titans.  In order for this to work, however, you have to want to listen to the CD multiple times.  The poor recording and bland musical accompanyment on Rising Down don’t encourage further listening which is a shame because Roots have important things to say.

These criticisms are not likely to present problems for the committed rap fan who is practiced at trading musical for lyrical content and patient with the time it may take to draw the lyrics out.  People who listen to rap rarely or occasionally are less likely to stick with Rising Down long enough to think about the issues discussed on the CD.  This raises a question for Roots and and anyone else who has something important to say that they would like other people to consider.  You can preach to the choir and constrain your ideas to the limited audience that’s familiar and comfortable with your means of presentation or you can embed your rap in a musical context that encourages people outside the rap niche to listen to what you have to say.

Review: Plants and Animals, Parc Avenue

Plants and Animalsare hard to categorize.  They hail from Montreal and, like many of the bands from that city such as Arcade Fire and Malajube, they ignore musical genre in favor of playing whatever type of music suits the needs of the song.  Parc Avenue opens with a warbly falsetto accompanied by solo piano that leads you to think you might have mistakenly bought an album by another self-absorbed singer-songwriter who thinks his insecurities typify the human condition.  However, the song quickly morphs into a multi-instrument, vocal choir driven anthem.  When the second song opens with a big-sky western lope that has almost nothing in common with the song you just heard you know you’re in for a wild ride.

At one point or another over the course of Parc Avenue we get wah-wah guiter leads, whistleing, exuberant jump-rope chants a la’ the Go! Team, string, brass and reed sections and several choirs.  No matter where a song starts, it ends someplace different.  Although instrumentation can change radically, Animals and Plants seem to have a fondness for propulsive driving jams ( “Feedback in the Fields”, “Mercy”, “Guru”) and they do them well.  They also like big choruses sung by a lot of people. 

Plants and Animals’ wide range of musical styles has its drawbacks.  The band doesn’t have a clearly defined sound that makes them instantly identifiable.  More damaging is that at times the variety seeems forced as if the goal is more to stick something in the song that’s different than to make coherent music.  In addition their varied sonic palatte puts high demands on their sound engineers and at times the recording is muddy and cluttered.

Plants and Animals’ reach exceeds their grasp but if a band’s going to make a mistake, that’s a good one to make.  They’re not trying to be another one just like the other on that moved lots of units at Best Buy last month and they’re not endlessly exploring a tiny space where they feel comfortable.  They’re exuberant and fearless.  Not everything works but listening to them try out this and that is never less than interesting.  If you’ve got open ears and don’t demand consistency of style in an album, you might well like Parc Avenue .