Recent CD Purchases

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 8:14 pm

Was overcome with a fit of weakness while passing a Virgin megastore, and picked up the new Decemberists' and the Dears, for $10 each!

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 4:59 am

Received my signed copy of Billy Bragg's Volume 2 boxed set this morning.

Also this week have bought:
Fast Man Raider Man - Frank Black
Lowedges - Richard Hawley
& a Fats Domino collection

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 8:48 am

I have some Virgin vouchers to spend from my birthday so I may go on a spree tomorrow.

I hope you enjoy the new box set SoLack. Personally I think Volume 1 was better.

Mr. Average · Post by **Mr. Average** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 4:45 pm

Thievery Corporation: The Outernational Sound.

Mostly a compilation of trip hoppy jazz soul rock fusion. Easy to categorize.

That said, somehow this wild montage of sounds works wonderfully. It is worth a listen. More of a background stream of conciousness piece. No top 40 hits here, although the Alan Lorber Orchestra reprises the Beatles "Within You and Without You"...but doesn't do much to the original melody.

I like it, but if you don't know this sound then I would not recommend it. Definitely an acquired taste.

Mike Boom · Post by **Mike Boom** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 7:24 pm

..and if you get this direct from Merge you get a free Live album "Moon".
Really looking foward to getting a chance to listen to them both.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 4:00 am

Â£6 for these three in one box. I've wanted Astral Weeks and Moondance on CD for a while, and didn't have His Band at all, so this was an unmissable prospect. His Band has his moments, but clearly not in the league of the other masterworks that came around that time. The first 5 songs of Moondance are simply unbeatable, especially Crazy Love, well, and And It Stoned Me, and Into The Mystic. Astral Weeks still works its timeless magic, we played it driving around the stunning scenery of Connemara in the wild west of Ireland last week, and it worked perfectly.

There's a series of these trilogies for Â£6 in Fopp. Another one I mentioned before that I'd like to also get is Miles Davis Tutu/Amandla/last LP. Also in the multi-pack range:

Had never really heard Fiona Apple, but again, this was about Â£6, so why not? Played Tidal also driving in Ireland and thought it sounded really impressive. Ain't got as far as When The Pawn yet. Looks like she's only made the 3 CDs, so this is two thirds of her output. Again, Fopp had several others packaged and priced like this, Â£4 less than Amazon, for example. Damien Rice supported her in the US recently, would have been a good night out.

strangerinthehouse · Post by **strangerinthehouse** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 7:35 am

This finally came out last week and I've been listening to it ever since. Its a great double album, I can't figure out which disc I lke the most. There is no way to easily peg her music in any particular genre- there's classical piano, punk guitars, banjo solo's, some south american sound, showtunes, french pop and slight yodeling.

its an amazing record, "Cupcake" is the most wonderfull song about gay marriage I've ever heard. "The Big one" easily combats any rap song with a piano driven beat.[/list]

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 6:47 pm

Damien Rice's 9. Seems to be getting bad reviews, e.g. in The Word. 'If you liked O, you'll love this.' I loved O to death at the time and played it to bits. Sort of LP you then need a break from, so I ddidn't listen for months, and then returning to it find nearly all of the songs still sound wonderful. Very good songrwriting, and lovely voices. I doubt it will have things to match the awe and wonder of Blower's Daughter (which I seriously overplayed at the time, but can now get madly back into), but it's sure to impress me. His appeal is a bit obvious, and the deadly serious intensity can be a bit laughable, but if the music's good, I'm game.

Joanna Newsom's Ys. Bought this on the strength of hearing one track on Hype Machine and the rave reviews, which had me salivating, e.g. this. Am playing now, and indeed it is stunningly original. Batty as a fruitcake, but engrossingly beautiful, with eccentric but very impressive singing. The Van Dyke Parks arrangements are fabulous, the harp playing too. The 5 songs run to 55 mins, the lyrics require 24 pages. I love the idea of a record it's going to take ages to really get my head around, especially when it's so unique and hard to categorise.

Who will like this? Lots of people, it seems, but probably the people here who go for a combination of Kate Bush and Bjork would get very excited, and maybe a sprinkling of Anthony and the Johnsons. So, eccentric, individual and very good singing, intense, personal world view struggling to express itself through very original music. Having jsst listened to the end, my first thought is 'I want to hear that again!'

And 'Boo will want to look at her:

invisible Pole · Post by **invisible Pole** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 7:51 pm

Couldn't resist the bargain at a mere Â£ 2.5.
Moz in excellent form throughout from the opening How Soon Is Now to closing Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me.

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 4:02 am

Otis Westinghouse wrote:And 'Boo will want to look at her:

Looks like quite the cutie. Here's a better picture:

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 8:37 pm

You big tease!

Astonishing record. I'm trying to get my head round it, and that's just the voice and harp. Next up, the humongous lyrics book.

invisible Pole · Post by **invisible Pole** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 10:41 am

Raving review of Joanna Newsom's album here :
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/r ... _Newsom_Ys

and even more so here :
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/revi ... newsom-ys/

Will have to check her out. Thanks for the tip.

oldhamer · Post by **oldhamer** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 3:33 pm

Heat Treatment by Graham Parker and the Rumour came through the letterbox today. Any Graham Parker fans here? I only have Howlin' Wind and Squeezing Out Sparks, but liked these enough to try and complete my Parker collection.

Chrille · Post by **Chrille** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 3:54 pm

I too only have Howlin' Wind and Squeeze... let me know how you like Heat Treatment!

Mike Boom · Post by **Mike Boom** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 6:39 pm

Dont forget to get "Stick to Me" , another classic GP record you need!

oldhamer · Post by **oldhamer** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 9:14 pm

Chrille wrote:I too only have Howlin' Wind and Squeeze... let me know how you like Heat Treatment!

I really like it! The playing seems much tighter that Howlin' Wind. Parker says in the liner notes he thinks it's one of his weaker efforts. Don't know where he gets that idea from. Only listened to it a couple of times, so can't comment much on the songwriting, but the music is nice, tuneful and poppy. It's better than Howlin' Wind, probably as good as Sparks, I recommend it.

Stick To Me is next on the list of CDs I willbuy when I have a rush of blood to the head...

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 9:16 pm

oldhamer wrote:Stick To Me is next on the list of CDs I willbuy when I have a rush of blood to the head...

Not Coldplay? *boom tish*

oldhamer · Post by **oldhamer** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 9:18 pm

No......think I already nicked that album from a friend anyway!

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 4:58 am

invisible Pole wrote:Raving review of Joanna Newsom's album here :
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/r ... _Newsom_Ys

and even more so here :
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/revi ... newsom-ys/

Will have to check her out. Thanks for the tip.

The Pitchfork summary is probably very true. A real love it or hate it experience. I have to confess to not having spent enough time with it. The lyrics are truly daunting. It's amazing listening, and her amazing voice (Olive Oyl is a good ref!) fascinates me. The harp and orchestral arrangements are all fabulous, but I don't think you can really get to grips with it without long periods with the lyrics, which are frequently stuffed with words I haven't seen since reading Edmund Spenser or Milton as a student! I haven't quite got past the 'this is amazing because it's so unlike anything you've heard before' stage into the simply 'this is amazingly good' phase, but imagine I will.

I wouldn't buy without sampling from somewhere like the Hype Machine. If you play a track there (e.g. the opener Emily, which is tuneful and immediately grabbing) and think 'I need to hear more', then this is for you.

Mechanical Grace · Post by **Mechanical Grace** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 9:16 am

I allow myself one new Christmas record a year, cause I love Christmas music, and it's best to have a decent selection in a variety of genres or it starts to sound trite otherwise. This year it couldn't really be anything other than this:

My beloved Newbury Comics had it on sale for $13, which is amazing considering everything that's included (5 E.P.s, an essay, some stories, a comic, an animated video, etc.) in this beautiful little box set-style package. Will rip to iPod and listen during my long drives to Philly and back over T-giving.

pophead2k · Post by **pophead2k** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 9:29 pm

The Beatles: Love. Love or hate the concept of this, it is an entertaining listen, just to hear the juxtaposition of songs and to play the "now where did that bit come from?" game.

Emotional Toothpaste · Wed Nov 22, 2006 10:48 pm

Tom Waits - "Orphans" 3CD set.

Got it today. Love it. Like Thanksgiving, its a lot to digest.

Here's what Tom says about it on the ANTI site:

When I was small I always thought that songwriters sat alone at upright pianos in cramped smoky little rooms with a bottle and an ashtray and everything came in the window blew through them and came out of the piano as a songâ€¦and in a weird way that is exactly what happens.

Whatâ€™s Orphans? I donâ€™t know. Orphans is a dead end kid driving a coffin with big tires across the Ohio River wearing welding goggles and a wife beater with a lit firecracker in his ear.

At the center of this record is my voice. I try my best to chug, stomp, weep, whisper, moan, wheeze, scat, blurt, rage, whine, and seduce. With my voice, I can sound like a girl, the boogieman, a Theremin, a cherry bomb, a clown, a doctor, a murdererâ€¦I can be tribal. Ironic. Or disturbed. My voice is really my instrument.

Kathleen and I wanted the record to be like emptying our pockets on the table after an evening of gambling, burglary, and cow tipping. We enjoy strange couplings, thatâ€™s how we got together. We wanted Orphans to be like a shortwave radio show where the past is sequenced with the future, consisting of things you find on the ground, in this world and no world, or maybe the next world. Whatever you imagine that to be.

If a record really works at all, it should be made like a homemade doll with tinsel for hair and seashells for ears stuffed with candy and money. Or like a good womanâ€™s purse with a Swiss army knife and a snake bite kit.

Orphans contains songs for all occasions. Some of the songs were written in turmoil and recorded at night in a moving car, others were written in hotel rooms and recorded in Hollywood during big conflamas. Thatâ€™s when conflict weds drama. At any rate these are the ones that survived the flood and were rescued from the branches of trees after the waterâ€™s retreat.

Gathering all this material together was like rounding up chickens at the beach. Itâ€™s not like you go into vault and check out what you need. Most of it was lost or buried under the house. Some of the tapes I had to pay ransom for to a plumber in Russia. You fall into the vat. We started to write just to climb out of the vat. Then you start listening and sorting and start writing in response to what you hear. And more recording. And then you get bit by a spider, go down the gopher hole, and make a whole different record. That was the process pretty much the last three years.

Then we met Karl Derfler, a wizard engineer who works at Bay Side Studios in Richmond, CA, in the science fiction part of town. A battlefield medic, he did a Lazarus on a number of the songs and recorded all the new material.

On Orphans there is a mambo about a convict who breaks out of jail with a fishbone, a gospel train song about Charlie Whitman and John Wilkes Boothe, a delta blues about a disturbing neighbor, a spoken word piece about a woman who was struck by lightening, an 18th century Scottish madrigal about murderous sibling rivalry, an American backwoods a cappella about a hanging. Even a song by Jack Kerouac and a spiritual with my own personal petition to the Lord with prayerâ€¦Thereâ€™s even a show tune about an old altar boy and a rockabilly song about a young man whoâ€™s begging to be lied to.

I think you will find more singing and dancing here than usual. But I hope fans of more growling, more warbling, more barking, more screeching wonâ€™t be disappointed either.

Tom Waits
August 2006

crash8_durham · Post by **crash8_durham** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 11:50 pm

I bouught Mindy Smith's new cd. I like her voice and writing a lot. It quite good.

new song and video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejGtkJhZpts

oldhamer · Post by **oldhamer** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 8:09 pm

Has everyone run into financial difficulties recently or something?!

I bought Tom Waits' Bone Machine and Black Rider a week ago, still haven't played them yet! Where are my weeks going?!?

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 8:10 pm

I got Tom Waits' Orphans today. Looking forward to spinning it.