Music Junkie June's Variations

Foreign Affairs

2010-02-14T12:50:00.002-05:00

So this marathon still is not going as I had originally planned. In cany case, I don't have much to say about this particular 1977 album. It is good. It does have some great lyrics, but right in there in the middle of his discography, it feels redundant and even a little boring, despite the surprisingly sweet duo with Bette Midler. Maybe it's my mood today. It is nice and loungy, and I suspect it would be quite nice on a lazy Sunday morning in bed, or not so lazy Saturday night in front of the fireplace. Ideally, with someone special, of course (well, like most of this discography so far anyway). For my Sunday morning workout, it did not work all that much.

And off we go to Blue Valentine.

Closing Time

2010-02-09T19:49:00.002-05:00

So I had been hoping to make this marathon a weekend thing, and make a post on each album after listening to each of them, but turns out some some of them are "betcha can't eat just one" album that I had to put on over and over again.

And by Monday afternoon, I was freaking depressed (some recently acquired Neil Young albums did nothing to help my mood, might I add). Small Change is still amazing album, despite how gloomy some of his topics are. It came out in 1976, still on Asylum with Bone Howe as a producer. Seems Tom gets wittier (and grittier, I suppose) with each album, and "Step Right Up" (a list of advertisement slogans, some of them quite hysterical) and "The Piano has Been Drinking" (an artist insisting that everything that is going wrong is someone else's fault?) are perfect example, but the melodies are just as striking as on the other previous albums. "I Wish I Was In New Orleans" and "I Can't Wait To Get Away (And See My Baby On Montgommery Avenue)" come to mind.

This time around, my favourite track on the album is "Pasties and a G-String (At the Two O'Clock Club)". It's just another brilliant (and this Rockpalast rendition may even beat the studio version) piece of work, and the lyrics just leave me speechless, so... yeah. Speechless.

Nighthawks At The Diner

2010-02-06T21:52:00.004-05:00

Tom's third, from 1975, still on Asylum, still with Bones Howe.

This was my first Tom Waits album, and it certainly did not sound like what I had expected, so I probably ended up shelving it for years before I really got into him (via Mule Variations), but after having starting this marathon, I certainly like it more than I used too.

The interesting thing about it was that it was recorded in front of a live audience. The band is in great shape and nicely tight, yet mellow and smooth (for lack of a better word). The whole album usually gets tagged as jazz, although I feel odd about tagging him as such. Good music, great lyrics again, and Tom, quite a storyteller and certainly a fascinating performer already, provinding the listeners with amusing anecdotes and his delirious introductions to almost every songs.

I still don't think that after having listened to it over three times today that I know it well enough to discuss it more than this, but this record must the best way to get a sense of what Tom was like as a live performers in the 1970s, and I can not wait to compare it more closely to the last album of this series, the new Glitter and Doom tour album.

The Heart Of Saturday Night

2010-02-06T16:41:00.006-05:00

Now, for Tom Waits's second release, which came out in October 1974, still on Asylum, and was produced by Bones Howe this time.

So this album has not left as strong an impression on me as Closing Time has, but it's nonetheless quite an exciting piece, with a string of beautiful songs and melodies. It is slightly more bluesy, jazzy (well, and there's the obvious Frank Sinatra reference), and has that irresistable smokey club feel. We can still feel the Tom from the debut album, yet he's rapidly evolving as a song-writer. His vocals are already getting grittier on a few tracks. There's less string, more upright bass, a nice amount of electric guitar, and some piano tracks are electrified too.

I'm not sure what to make of his lyrics yet, but I like them quite a bit, perhaps even more than on Closing Time. They still create all these images in your mind as you listen, and they feel a little less personal, but they sound better, as he seems to increase his use of alliterations and other stylistic devices, which makes to songs seemingly flow better. Who could resist a song with lyrics such as "I'm a pool shooting shimmy-shyster shaking my head"? (Fumblin' With The Blues)

What stuck out to me is firstly San Diego Serenade, the second song on the album, which of course is about the town he grew up in, yet you wonder listening to it if he is not talking about some woman he knew back there, "never felt my heart string until I nearly went insane". The melody of course is haunting, and the strings are back, so it's easy to think of that first album again. Shiver Me Timbers has that same kind of feels, and then, stretches sweetly into Diamond Into My Windshield, which has brilliant, brilliant lyrics, and finger snapping mood.

My personal favourite is surely The Ghost Of Saturday Night (After Hours At Napoleone's Pizza House) which has a sweet, simple melody, some double bass and piano, but some of the most playful lyrics on the album:

"A cab combs the snake,
Tryin' to rake in that last night's fare,
And a solitary sailor
Who spends the facts of his life
like small change on strangers
Paws his inside pea coat pocket
for a welcome twenty-five cents,
And the last bent butt from a package of Kents,
As he dreams of a waitress with Maxwell House eyes
And marmalade thighs with scrambled yellow hair.

Her rhinestone-studded moniker says, "Irene"
As she wipes the wisps of dishwater blonde from her eyes

And the Texaco beacon burns on,
The steel-belted attendant with a 'Ring and Valve Special'...
Cryin' "Fill'er up and check that oil"
'You know it could be a distributor and it could be a coil.' "

I mean, that says it all, right?

Closing Time

2010-02-05T20:19:00.004-05:00

All right, so here begins the Tom Waits marathon. I actually started going at it last night, trying to get ahead so I would actually have time to listen to his whole discography by Sunday night, but I got side-tracked... by Tom Waits. I put on Closing Time, then just had to listen to it 3 times in a row, and again this morning. Yeah, it is that good. I mean, the guy was seriously starting his singer-songwriter career with a loud bang, and this is certainly one of the exciting debut album I can think of. It is usually just him playing on the piano and singing, with some upright bass here and there, acoustic guitar, and quite a few songs with a neat and pretty string orchestration. It's only after listening to it now that I realised just how lovely the trumpet parts are too.

So, what you need to know about it is that is was released in March 1973 on Asylum, and was produced by Jerry Yester (a good name in my book, since the guy also produced Tim Buckley's Goodbye and Hello and Happy Sad). Tom must have been around 23-24 at the time, so yeah, he would have had some amount of life experience, but yet, I can't help but feel that the songs on that album showed a lot more maturity and insight than one would expect from such a brand new artist. If it was one of the last album I got of his, it was actually a cover of a song from it that got me into him. I had heard his name (and I think I already had Nighthawks At The Dinner too by then), usually whispered in quiet admiration, but it was really once I realised that Hootie & The Blowfish's I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You on Scattered, Smothered and Covered had been written by him that he really struck my curiosity.

Most of Closing Time are love songs, which makes me wonder how come, despite all the respect he gets from different artists, why he never made it into the mainstream realms. It starts with Ol' 55, a bittersweet song about leaving the one you love in bed in the morning "wishing the night would stay a little longer". The sort of song that should speak to anyone who ever had to hang up or kiss goodbye the person they love. I Hope That I Don't ... is a sweet little thing of beauty about falling in love, well, feeling a connection with a complete stranger, in this case, a patron of a bar you're frequenting, yet being too shy to do anything about it.

Old Shoes (& Picture Postcard) is also about love, but leaving one behind because the road calls you. So is Martha, a wonderful piece about a man calling back a woman he loved 40 years ago when "all (he) had was you and all (she) has was (him) when there was no tomorrow. Rosie, which has a dash of a country feel, is more about being left by a girl with only "a melody", and is followed by Lonely, an echoed piano thing about feeling even lonelier than one would think possible. Little Trip To Heaven, with its star and skies allusion reminded me of Blue Moon, in which the trumpet really shone.

There's also quite a few songs with a bit more of a jazzy feel, which sort of lead the way into the follow up album. Closing time is a particularly satisfying way to end an album. If I remember what I read about it correctly, it was just basically a song they wrote in the studio just for the cheer pleasure of it, to add an extra song to the record, yet it is one of the most delightful moments on the album for me personally. "Let's do this for posterity" Tom says just as they are about to start playing it. Hell yeah.

Change Of Plan

2010-02-04T07:54:00.002-05:00

So instead of discussing those previously listed albums (although I have been listening to The Handman's Beautiful Daughter a lot,planning to write about, and I took me a few listens to really get into it, but it is pretty neat), I'll will be indulging in the entire Tom Waits discography this weekend, since I finally acquired The Black Rider, the only album I was missing (won't be going into the soundtracks albums though, since I don't have those either yet).

So, Saturday morning, I'll be putting on Closing Time, and hopefully by Sunday night, I'll have reached the new Glitter & Doom Live.

Next Stops

2010-02-01T22:09:00.002-05:00

Hopefully, the next things I'll be discussing soon...

Sorcerers - Jan Dukes De Grey
Discesa agl'Inferi d'un Giovane Amante - Il Bacio Della Medusa
The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter - The Incredile String Band
The Black Rider - Tom Waits

The End

2010-02-01T21:50:00.004-05:00

So, things that have been going in my life besides starting the forum.

Somewhere in early November I reached a point where if I had to chose between my boyfriend and the forum, or some of its members, I would have, without hesitating, chosen the forum. Maybe it had to do with my dad's stroke, you know, the whole realising your own mortality and that kind of crap, who knows? Maybe it was coming home one day and catching him listening to some Leonard Cohen because his friend recommended it (what, and the fact that I've been nagging about him for 5 years did not count for anything?). The fact that it had not been going well for about a year. The French bitch incident. In any case, by November, we had no longer anything to talk about, no common interest, nothing whatsoever that could have given either of us the impression that this was worth trying any longer. Maybe I should just gotten off the computer, but turns out things on the computer, like being able to talk about the stuff I care about with people who actually care and know about it made me happier than he had managed in months and months.

So, it was time.

By mid December, after 2 weeks being completely unable to eat or sleep, I said "I no longer want to spend my life with you," and he turned off the TV with relief and replied "I know". Friendliest, most mutal break up in the history of break ups, I bet. Great.

So we called it quits. After eight years and a half. Talk about the end of an era. I spend most of my 20s with that guy, and I'm actually quite curious to see what my 30s will bring along, you know without him. I am sure it will be interesting.

Gotta find a fucking appartment now for July now.

Which suuuuucks.

Now, that's the real nightmare.

The Red House

2010-02-01T21:40:00.002-05:00

The Red House

There's my new baby, the thing that's been taking me away from blogging.

All right, it's still pretty brand new, and at the moment, there's only 68 of us on it, but it's still the biggest project I ever undertook online, and I can't help but be pretty proud of it. Started it in late October, when I decided all my other music forums annoyed me and thought I could do better. Plus, the old Brianmayzone forum had been shut down, so I was hoping to pick up some of the old members from there, to boost our numbers. Of course, things did not quite work out as I hoped, but still, I think we've managed to assembled a nice little bunch of people there so far.

In any case, it has already brought new very interesting elements in my life, including some amazing people.

This month's featured artist, voted by our members, is Guns n' Roses.

Live At The Folklore Centre, NYC - March 6, 1967

2009-10-13T19:05:00.008-04:00

Music can be a cruel, fickle mistress. How often it breaks your heart, with silly Classic Rock radios who know shit and KISS M&Ms or Mr. Potato Heads.

Yet, every now and then a record of such beauty appears almost out of nowhere and spreads such light on the industry that it give you back faith that music can lead us to pure joy and happiness.

The current object of my renewed subjugation for music is Tim Buckley's Live At The Folklore Centre. Of course, he has been dead since 1975, and has nothing to do with this new release, but it's a pleasure that some people out there took the time to show the world just how special this recording was. Hearing his marvel of a voice rise up from the grave and from Izzie Young's archives is Yyet another proof that 2009 may very well end up being the best year ever for live recording releases.

No matter how much I rant, people still don't get that Tim Buckley is one of the most beautiful forgotten voice of the second half of the 20th century, so this album comes in nicely to hopefully prove my point. At last we have a chance to hear on tape the earliest musical incarnation of his short career. His voice is already near perfect, strong and more developed than in a lot of much older and experienced singers. And the amount of soul in these renditions is simply enough to give one goosebumps.

In 1967, Tim was only 22 years old, yet he had already completed 2 solid albums, Tim Buckley and Goodbye and Hello. He eventually ventured into the near mythical New-York Folk Centre, and on the strenght on his reputation, Izzie Young asked him to do a concert there. A few dozens people were present in the tiny room during the concert, then a Nagra tape recorder, and Tim and his guitar completed the setting. As it turns out Tim didn't even need a microphone to create music magic.

He played from the first album Song for Jainie, Wings, and Aren't You The Girl. Off Goodbye and Hello, he did I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain (which apparently referred to the situation he was in with his ex-wife, Jeff's mother), Carnival song, No Man Can Find The War (written with his collaborator at the time, Larry Beckett), and Phantasmagoria In Two, which is simply one of the best songs of the world, as far as I'm concerned, so you can never go wrong with any versions of it.

There's also the Fred Neil's song Dolphins, which had became a standard in his repertoire by the time he released it on Sefronia in 1973, as well as Just Please Leave Me, I Can't See You, Troubadour, which is absolutely breathtaking, What Do You Do (He Never Saw You), Cripples Cry, If The Rain Comes, I Can't Leave You Loving Me as well as Country Boy. This one might actually be the only one that sounds a little off vocally.

That the recording managed to stay that clear after 42 years is almost a miracle. The sound on that album is near perfection, there's no other way to put it. If I play it in my car I feel like I'm actually there. That's what live albums should be made of. And that's what folk singers should have been all along: men with angelic vocals, wonderful songs and an acoustic guitars.

A wonderful album, one of 2009's best, for sure. Even if it was made in 1967.

Gogol Bordello

2009-10-09T20:45:00.008-04:00

I don't care what my boyfriend says (his exact words: "C'est n'importe quoi!"), Gogol Bordello is one of the most exciting bands in years.

I just acquired Live From Axis Mundi which absolutely strenghtens my belief that Gypsies (accordeon, violin and washing boards playing Gypsies, for that matter) have saved punk, the whole genre, from the horrible pop-punk mess Green Day's followers had turned it into. Maybe I should blame Green Day themselves, but part of me still likes Dookie, so I'll just blame everyone who utterly failed to copy them properly.

Gogol Bordello made punk edgy again. Made it arousing and purposeful again, even eloquent again, despite, or maybe because of its use of multiple languages and it's heavily accented English lyrics.

Super Taranta! is already one of my favourite album in recent history, and although I usually enjoy some orchestration differences from the original studio version of songs when they are played live on CD, especially on BBC Sessions (although I must say that their rendition of Alcohol on it is absolutely breathtaking), Live From Axis Mundi is an excellent bargain. The live CD tracks are not the things to get most excited about, but the fact that it holds a full lenght DVD of a New-York gig (their hometown) of very decent quality, as well as some extras and four videos.

If anything, the DVD absolutely reinforced my conviction that we all need to watch out for that Eugene Hutz gentleman. He is, without a doubt, one of the strongest front men to emerge in recent year, if not because of vocal prowess, definitely for the sheer intensity (all right, the whole band is this atomic bomb of energy, like they all forgot to take their Ritalin or something) he puts out on stage and the crazed charisma of his performing. He sings, he screams, he kicks the air, he jumps, he gets the people in the crowd going and they eat it all up with complete enthusiasm. A beautiful performance to watch, and even if I was really lazily laying on the couch, it was hard not to tap my feet and to suppress the urge to start thrashing along.

Eugene is this strangely fitting Ian Anderson and Frank Zappa alloy, but... you know, maniacally speeded up. Yum.

Van Der Graaf Generator

2009-10-09T20:27:00.003-04:00

This must have been the last show I saw this summer. It would have been easily the best, but apparently, the Montreal Jazz Festival is not quite clear how important that band is (or had not foreseen the amount of standing ovations the band's music would cause), so they had scheduled another gig at that same venue the same night. Which means that VdGG had to leave, most reluctantly, it seemed to me, after playing about an hour and fifteen minutes. Huge disappointment. I am really not proud of the Festival for that one.

In any case, these guys must be telepathic, because communicating tempo changes and silences lenght that well is pure magic. That was musicianship at its greatest levels. They played Interference Patterns, (In the) Black Room, All That Before, Childlike Faith in Childhood's End, Over the Hill, Man-Erg (incidentally, the guy sitting next to me was sobbing by that point, which, although it annoyed me greatly at that time, at least shows the amount of emotions the band managed to transmit the audience) and encored with The Sleepwalkers.

And the strenght of Peter Hammill's voice was purely ecstasy inducing.

TOO SHORT!

I totally should have gone and seen them in Quebec City.

Tommy Tiernan

2009-10-09T20:20:00.002-04:00

Tommy was my favourite comedian, until I saw him live. Sorry man.

Saw him at the Just For Laugh Festival, just had to see him when I heard he was coming back to Montreal.

Maybe it's just this particular show I did not like, too many sex jokes, they just get a little lame after a while. Sure, I had a few laughs, certainly not as many as I expected. And how often does one need to use the f-word to get a point or a gag across?

Next time, I'll buy his DVD, it'll be less expensive.

So, Bill Bailey and Eddie Izzard are back at the top of the list.

You just can't beat a guy who likes prog or that Death Star Cantina skit.

Fleet Foxes

2009-10-09T20:07:00.002-04:00

I did see a few gigs this summer, despite not getting down to talk about them. I suppose a few express posts will do.

Fleet Foxes at the Metropolis was one of those shows. I went there, merely liking the band, thinking that LP was a little uneven, but still very nice and showing a lot of promise.

Turns out, Fleet Foxes are a stunning live band.

Those harmonies on that album? Well, they sound even better live.

Never a flat note, a totally tight, professional, energetic band, and apparently very excited about the reception they got here.

I'd recommend them to anyone.

Face To Face

2009-10-07T21:02:00.002-04:00

Just got back from visiting my dad. Drove there watching the lovely changing colours of fall and listening to The Kinks' Face To Face on the way, then Percy on the way back. Wonderful albums, both of them, the second, in particular, being quite tragically underrated.

As for my dad, well, he has been cheating the doctor's order. Walking without his cane that is. And showing it off to the nurses. Apparently all stroke patients cheat like that. It's kinda cute actually.

Let's just not tell my mom.

In any case, he has a list of shores lined up for us already again for Thanksgiving weekend, but that's all right. The thing is, my dad had the stroke right in the middle of doing some renovations projects. We had to try our best to finish them. Then some adjustments had to be made to facilitate his coming home. Then my sister had more renovations ideas, which took even more time. Then I thought it would be nice to use the stroke as an excuse to try to have them take some control over the crazy hoarding that has become apparent over recent years in their house.

My parents haven't thrown out anything since the late 70s.

The not throwing out stuff in itself is not a problem. Re-use, recycle and re-utilise, no problem, go ahead. I just think that if you have stuff, you should use it. It you are not going to wear that brown polyester velour ski suit with beige, knitted collar and cuffs, don't keep it. Just give it away, if you have too. Maybe some high school drama class can use it as a costume or something. Do not keep the sweater in which you fits four times either. Do not keep 7 freaking broken irons or 5 also freaking broken hair dryers pretexting "I'll repair them". You won't. Do not keep IKEA ads from the 80s or 93 green flimsy plastic plant pots just in case you need them. You won't. Do not keep the busted out Commodore 64, the chess set with all the missing pieces, or any rusted lamps. Because, no, you are not going to use it.

And seriously, Elvis 8-tracks?

So we've been clearing out wardrobes and the garage, especially. So far, with the help of my mom, who now hopes to see her car finally able to stay inside for the winter, and with my dad in his chair pointing to what is good and what isn't, we have a four-hour per metre average.

*sigh*

I think the garage is scarier than the stroke.

Geese

2009-10-06T18:39:00.002-04:00

I heard them through the window. Fall is here for real this time.

Barely October 6th and they're already flying South.

The Aftermath of the Stroke

2009-10-06T18:00:00.003-04:00

I haven't been blogging.

My dad had a stroke late July and it's weird how little you care about the futile things when you see someone that close to you fighting to learn to walk again and to gain back control over their emotions. "I can never golf again," was one of the first thing I remember him saying afterward. It made him cry. For the longuest time, everything made him cry. Syaing thank you to the nurses because he appreciated their efforts. Seeing us. Seeing his grandkids, seeing any visitor at all. That may have been the toughest part, and perhaps the one he struggled the most with. He's better now. He can walk short distance with the help of a cane. His arm is still not great, but it moves. It's still not ready to club a golf ball, but maybe next summer.

I have to say, people can bitch all they want about the health system here in Quebec, but man, when people need help, they get help. And it's efficient, quick, and nice help. He's been to 3 different health care facilities since, and there's only one staff member that was a little unkind to him. A reference for doctors: "there's nothing I can do for you" is not an appropriate response to a patient who just had a stroke the day before. Find a better way to formulate it, damn.

Susan Tedeschi/Buddy Guy

2009-07-04T14:48:00.004-04:00

Saw Buddy Guy and Susan Tedeschi on Thursday night. Susan Tedeschi is a brand new musical infatuation for me. I only had a "best of" and I got her newest album, Back To The River a few days before the show knowing that she was presenting mainly songs from it. I love the album, love her voice, and was quite excited to see her at the Metropolis, despite the fact that I'm getting too old for standing up all night, huddled up against complete strangers (and in this case, one or two smelly strangers), stretching my neck hoping to catch a glimpse of anything or anyone on stage. When did people in Montreal get so tall?

But that's not the point.

Back To The River is a solid country-blues album with lovely songs with usually excellent and often yummy guitar playing (do I need to mention her husband Derek Trucks or even Doyle Bramhall II?). She performed most of it on Thursday, and I was quite happy with the whole thing, in particular with the performance of "700 Houses", yet another song inspired by Katrina, but which happen to be my favourite one on the album. We were also treated to "It Hurts So Bad" and a quite pretty rendition of "Presence of The Lord", and well, in my book, you can never go wrong with that song. She sounds actually better live, I thought, a little more raspy, and I found her guitar playing skills much improved over the short playing I'd seen her do on the Crossroad 2007 DVD (although she did seem to have hand problems in that show).

I was very happy with the show, so much that it didn't occur to me that most of the crowd present was in fact there to see Buddy Guy, who was doing the second part. Not knowing much of his work except for the big hits, I was quite surprised to see how much enthusiasm his presence generated. The crowd was simply wild. And I soon found out why. Not only is he (well, duh!) an exceptional guitarist, the man is simply an amazing entertainer, who knows how to work a crowd. He goes beyond performing and technical prowess, he also makes sure the people who paid for their ticket are having a truckload of fun. And he's a funny, funny man.

Honestly, not knowing his repertoire, Hoochie Coochie Man (after having started the show playing something quite funky, and stopping his musicians with "Wait a minute! Wait a minute! I'm here to play some blues...") and Mustang Sally are the only songs he played that I recognised, but he did spend some time entertaining the crowd (there's no other way to put) by imitating Eric Clapton (Strange Brew), Jimi Hendrix ( Voodoo Chile) and something by John Lee Hooker (can't recall the name, I'm afraid) and it all was pretty darn cool if you ask me. Not to mention the selection of body parts he played with, including belly, bum and tongue. Of course, I could have done with a few more killer guitar solos (although I should add his guitarist is also quite awesome), I was certainly entertained.

Buddy is the second artist of his age that I see performing, and I'm starting to suspect that 70 is the new 40.

The Kinks Choral Collection

2009-06-24T16:04:00.002-04:00

Well, there it is at last (in Europe that is, July 14 in Canada, according to amazon.ca, some places say August, others say September...). A nugget that should satisfy the thirst for more Kinky stuff of any rabid Kink fan, at least for a while, until they (we?) start begging for a reunion tour again.

The idea sprouts from a 2007 collaboration with the Crouch End Choir for The BBC's Electric Proms (I have no idea what the hell that is really, but I've seen some clips on YouTube and it was pretty cool), so the next logical step was an album. The selection is predictably mainly the biggest hits the Kinks have had, and almost all songs that are almost universally recognized as Ray's best work. Yet, I can't help but wonder is some of the more obscure songs might have been better suited for the choral treatment.

The choir is great, Ray is great (in particular on Johnny Thunder, I thought), but as enthused as I originally was with the idea, it works only half the time. Why? Well, mainly because, I think, these guys (that is, the combination of Ray, David Temple the conductor and Steve Marwick who did the arrangement) aren't Carl Orff yet. Some of the arrangements could afford to go a little more crazy and they sound a little too... "church choiry" for my tastes. The music arrangements, though, are quite nice and offer here and there tiny surprises that are quite pleasant to the ear, like the addition of accordion on some songs and a bit more of acoustic guitar.

Songs like Celluloid Heroes, Shangri-La, Waterloo Sunset, even Victoria absolutely work, but we're talking about such strong songs that they would probably sound great even if someone recorded them armpit farting. Days, which I love to death, is a bit of a drag. All The Day And All Of The Night and You Really Got Me, the bigger rockers, I'm afraid don't work, even if they probably have the most inventive arrangements. I suspect they don't sound that great most likely simply because they are fine examples of garage rock, a style that just does not adapt itself too well to the choir medium.

I was pleased to see Working Man's Café make the cut, and it's fair enough. The Village Green Medley and The Village Green Preservation Society are a beautiful versions that any fan of that particular Kink album should have and that actually sound pretty good with the choir. Do You Remember Walter and Johnny Thunder are great and I thought showed Ray on top of his form, like most of the second half of the record.

Interestingly, I've seen some people commenting that See My Friend did not work at all, but I personally thought it might just be one of the best bit of the album. Yes, there is that church choir feel, but in a really good way. I'd actually be very curious to hear that song without the lead vocals and perhaps even inside a church. Beautiful melancholic song to start with, but the choir added a cool extra "humpf".

Overall, well, it's not the best album of the year, but it is also not as terrible an album as I've seen some people suggest. I found it is a quite a very interesting piece, and despite the weaker elements here and there, it overall creates a pleasant listening experience... assuming you like choirs. Like any Kinks album, it will offer some splendid moments.

Le Zoo de Granby

2009-06-24T15:37:00.005-04:00

Well, the sun and I don't get along. It hates me. My skin hates it even more, which is why the "pale as a ghost" look is a good one for me. In any case, the end of school year outing involved the Granby Zoo, and despite the awful wing-shaped sunburn I now sport on my shoulders, it is a very cool place to go that deserves to be mentioned.

It is now much bigger than it was when I was young, and has since become an actually awesome place to take kids, even too big to go through in one day. Sure, you are free to agree or not with the concept of zoos, but it's only once you've seen the awed eyes of an 8-year old who got a chance to pet a shark that you realise just what a great place they are.

The place is organised in "continent" sections, and although time (and the Amazoo, which I'll be discussing in a minute) did not allow us to go through all of them (especially not Africa, to my disappointment) the sight of all the kangaroos running around in "Oceania" was worth the detour and perhaps even the sunburn. We got to see ocelots and other felines, emus, plenty of llamas, exotics birds, snakes and monkeys, like in any regular zoos, I expect. But this zoos has rides... and water slides, and pools, and a "river" you can go down on tubes.

Hard to keep children interested in the animals when you have all those options, but you're sure to keep them entertained. Big thumbs up in particular for their thrilling (well, for kids, of course)Amazonian/Central American mythology inspired wave pool complete with a vapour spitting volcano, sound and light effects and fire. Not to mention the "river", which although it might be a little boring for thrill seeking adults and teens, is fantastic for kids, who all seemed to love it, especially the few waterfalls along the sides.

The recommendation a colleagues gave me was to take the kids to see the animals in the fall instead of the summer, this way they will actually want to go and see them.

I say, don't forget your sunblock.

Listing Stuff Part Two

2009-06-24T14:12:00.002-04:00

And now, for the top albums...

1. Muswell Hillbillies - The Kinks
2. Queen II - Queen
3. Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs – Derek And The Dominos
4. First Utterances – Comus
5. Dando Shaft – Dando Shaft
6. Live In London - Tim Buckley
7. Highway 61 Revisited – Bob Dylan
8. Hero & Heroine – The Strawbs
9. Disraeli Gears – Cream
10. All Things Must Pass – George Harrison
11. Working’s Man Café – Ray Davies
12. Minstrel In The Gallery – Jethro Tull
13. Unhalfbricking – Fairport Convention
14. Lyre Of Orpheus/Abattoir Blues – Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds
15. self-titled – Quella Vecchia Locanda
16. VU & Nico – The Velvet Underground
17. Demons & Wizards – Uriah Heep
18. Mule Variations – Tom Waits
19. Song Of Leonard Cohen – Leonard Cohen
21. The Garden Of Jane Delawney - Trees
22. Basket Of Light – The Pentangle
23. I Am A Bird Now – Anthony And The Johnsons
24. Pink Moon – Nick Drake
25. Surrealist Pillows – Jefferson Airplane
26. Volume One – The Travelling Willburys
27. Paranoid – Black Sabbath
28. Raw Power - The Stooges
29. So – Peter Gabriel
30. The Hazzards Of Love – The Decemberists

I've kept it at one album per band.

Listing Stuff Part One

2009-06-24T13:46:00.004-04:00

Well, I have not been a really active blogger for a while, but with the end of the school year upon me, time has been lacking. I have acquired quite a few new albums, the most recent of which, being, of course, Ray Davies's Return To Waterloo and his Kinks Choral Collections (which I ordered especially from England because I did not feel like waiting for the August North-American release), but I promise I have also bought a few different things, from John Martyn to Tom Waits. Wait... that's not that far off, now is it?

In any case, with the summer holiday creeping up on me, and the recent news that I will be rellocated at work closer to home, I should be able to blog quite a lot more.

So I thought I should directly to the good old lists with the moment I have now. Everybody loves a list, making them, reading them, then bitching about them, so here's some of mine, starting with my current top 30 artists.

1. The Kinks (+ Ray Davies solo)
2. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds
3. Tom Waits
4. Queen (+ Brian May solo)
5. Tindersticks
6. Bob Dylan
7. Jethro Tull
8. Leonard Cohen
9. Fairport Convention (+ Richard Thompson solo)
10. Tim Buckley
11. Cream (+ Blind Faith, + Derek And The Dominos...)
12. Pentangle
13. Gentle Giant
14. Uriah Heep
15. The Stooges
16. The Strawbs
17. Humble Pie
18. Steeleye Span
19. Peter Gabriel (and no, that does not include Genesis, not even Peter Gabriel era Genesis)
20. The Decemberists
21. Quella Vecchia Locanda
22. Eric Clapton
23. Nick Drake
24. Le Orme
25. Gong
26. Comus
27. Van Der Graff Generator
28. Velvet Underground
29. Anthony And The Johnsons
30. The 13th Floor Elevators

Bitch away.

Crack The Skye

2009-05-17T09:38:00.003-04:00

Metal, except for a weird Tony Iommi fetish, is not my cup of tea. I know squat about it. I'm hardly interested in looking up bands with names like Agalloch or Mastodon, or Opeth, or Dream Theater, or Meshuggah...

But those darn music forums...

Mastodon released in March their fourth studio album, something called Crack The Skye. I thought "meh! who cares?". Then I figured I might as well look it up and myspaced them. That's when I heard a song called "The Last Baron". Gosh. A thing of beauty. As if early Back Sabbath had mated The Strawbs. It's a crappy comparison, but for a folk-prog fan who happens to like Black Sabbath, it's miraculous that such music exist. I immediately needed that album (and actually got it along Heaven & Hell's The Devil You Know)

Turns out progressive metal is awesome.

There's no point trying to review it myself, as I don't know the band or the genre. I'm not even sure what the heck they're going on about. Something about Czarist Russia and astral travels.

The critiques are there already anyway, everybody says it (except for a couple of die-hard Mastodon fans apparently who think its their worst effort): it's just awesome. Find out for yourselves if you doubt it. All the tracks are awesome. And 10:54 minutes "The Czar", with 13:01 minutes "The Last Baron" are just freaking experiments in sheer genius.

Oh, and yeah, turns out Agalloch rocks too, so they'll be one of my next venture into the world of progressive metal.

Year Long Disaster

2009-05-15T20:16:00.004-04:00

Of course, what did you expect? The first album and group I attempt discussing since my Kinks episode (which is not over, might I add) happens to be Davies family related.

Someone mentionned Year Long Disaster on a kinky forum. I myspaced them out of curiosity, and was certainly not expecting to love them immediately.

These guys are actually really, really good. Maybe there's just something about a trio, but this one happens to have a pretty great combination of intense, screaming vocals, great guitar riffs as well as a powerful (to say the least) rhythm section. And man, does it work. Soundwise, I'm talking Cream and Jimi Hendrix Experience quality trio.

What you need to know about Year Long Disaster is that they are Daniel Davies on guitar, Richards Mullins on bass and Brad Hargreaves on drums. Daniel and Richards first hooked up, then added Brad to their lineup (apparently because of a kinky coincidence: Brad had been rehearsing with Third Eye Blind to portray the Kinks on TV). The band was formed, they started touring, they got signed onto Volcom Entertainment, and released their self-titled debut in October 2007. And they have received plenty of approval since. Including being called one of 2008 best new bands by Rolling Stones Magazines, who says their formula is "Deep Purple X Pantera + Hipster-to-English Dictionary = Year Long Disaster" which I find actually pretty witty.

These guys are one of the many bands (like The Answer, for example) taking in the spirit of 70s rock into their music, and they might just be doing it much better than a lot of their contemporaries. Their sound has been compared to Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, sure, but I'd like to add at least The Stooges to that list of flattering comparisons, with the lovely "Destination" which reminds me of a couple of things off Raw Power. For my tastes anyway, this album has no weak track. It's loud, it's fast, and most importantly, it freaking rocks!

Oh, and hello? Swan On Black Lake? A beautiful piece of progressive sensitive work, complete with strings and acoustic guitar that is hinting that YLD despite all the rock has a softer, or more melancholic side, should I say (I could use "more serious" to describe the sound of that last track, but I won't, it would imply that I think rock can not be serious, and that's not true), that is just as pleasant for the ear as their edgier sounding songs. And as a minor proghead myself, I think it's safe to say we can expect even more brilliant material from this band, and can't help but wonder if we'll see them heading toward a proggier sound. It's almost been two years since their first release, so let's wait and see.

The Storyteller

2009-04-13T19:19:00.002-04:00

I have not posted in a while. The reason is simple: I loved Working Man's Café too much. Ever stopped caring about anything else but one album? One artist? One band? That's my current problem. I have lost objectivity.

Music Junkie no more? That remains to be seen...

I did get my hands on Ray Davies's 1998 The Storyteller and spent the past few weeks trying to rationalize why I love it so much, and there's just no point. This album needs no rational because it is the best gift any artist could deliver his listeners and fans. It is without any doubt one of the most entertaining and delightful live album I have ever heard. Ray Davies is giving us a glimpse into his world, supported by wonderful acoustic versions of old Kinks classics (klassiks?) and very often hilarious stories and anecdotes from his youth and from the early days of The Kinks. The album supported his sing and tell show of the era, which in turn supported his unauthorized autobiography X-Ray, which I suppose explains a little more about the whole concept behind the album. There's not much else to say about it: it is fun, it has wonderful vocals, great music, who needs more? Any Kinks fans will tell you you need it.

Working Man's Café: A Bit of Shameless Fangirlism

2009-03-14T11:36:00.015-04:00

The Kinks have been steadily climbing up my charts for about a year now, and to avoid putting all the Queen pictures and posters on my walls to shame, I now respectfully consider these two bands, as well as Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, as equal members of my top three. Along with the Kinks, Ray Davies has rapidly reached my top 5 songwriters, and let's just say that he is now officially my favourite British songwriter, which is why I got this album in the first place. I was quite eager to put on that album when I got it, and one look at that adorable smirk on the cover had me conquered. Yes, I know, it is a little pathetic, but being a girl music fan, I can't help, every now and then, to let my better judgement be clouded by style, and well, what can I say, the man has plenty of it. Maybe it is genius shining through, who knows, but in any case, now that I have been playing this record almost non-stop for 5 days, I am an even bigger fan of his and of his work.

Oh, I do not want to use the dreaded word nostalgic (everybody is using it when they are referring to Ray) to describes the songs on this album, but there is certainly an element of that present. From the first chords of Vietnam Cowboy, he starts by attacking globalization, reminding us that no, not all is well. Ray has been lifting veils for us with his music for years, and still, he is showing us how apparent grace can hide something abject, but also how murkiness can sometimes conceal a thing of beauty. This is what we have come to expect from his writing. And he is still the guardian of old values, reminding us that even though change can be good once in a while, greater things, like family, hard work, love, and, first and foremost, individualism should prime. It is pop music, perhaps, yeah, I suppose, but taken to his usual higher, exceptional level.

The lyrics, the themes are great, and I think that we as listener can relate to them, as we have all worried about the state of the world, and tried to hold to a past that seems to keep slipping through our fingers. The melodies are just as efficient as they used to be back in his Kinky days, and Ray certainly has not lost his way of creating those decidedly catchy choruses and bridges. Even songs where I felt the verse melodic lines, like in Peace In Our Time, or intros, like in Working Man's Café, were perhaps a tad weaker, still worked.

The strongest songs on the album are of course the amazing Vietnam Cowboy, which starts the album with a blast, the groovy No One Listen and The Voodoo Walk, as well as the melancholic Imaginary Man (one of those songs that almost give us the impression that he's allowing a glimpse into his mind). One More Time is just as delightful, a melodic yearning song about the "old country" but that could ultimately be applied to any relationship. The album ends with the wonderful The Real World, and I think it is safe to say that he is giving here his most amazing vocal performance.

Being completely awed by his singer-songwriter skills, my partiality is probably tinting my comment about his vocals a little too much, but I think he has never actually sounded better in studio than on this album. I'm particularly very much impressed by how appealing (well, how freaking sexy, let's admit it) he sounds when he gets into his, slightly raspy, lower register, which I've always thought he did not used nearly enough. He is, of course, sometimes a little nasal when he reaches a little higher, and I might have wondered once or twice whether or not he is hitting exactly the note where he wanted, but overall, I just think it just gives his interpretations a little more character and interest. Imaginary Man, No One Listen, The Real World and The Voodoo Walk are probably the ones that showcase that lower register the best.

I think that in many ways, the album is almost everything we would expect from a Kinks album, minus the Kinks, especially minus Dave Davies's harder rock and rolling, but it makes it very clear to me, first, how much The Kinks needed Ray, and secondly, how little Ray needs The Kinks now. He is a perfectly well-rounded artist of genius who can to confidently stand on his own. I read that The Kinks are apparently the only British Invasion band that still has all its original members, and there has been so many reunions and studio work rumours, it is all a little ridiculous. Yet, as much as it would be fabulous to have a chance to see the first line-up live, after having fallen head over heels in love with Working Man's Café, I suspect a chance to see a solo performance from Ray Davies would be just as satisfying, if not more. And I can't wait to pick up Other People's Lives, and to receive The Storyteller, which I've already ordered out of excitement.

A Dedicated Follower Of The Kinks

2009-03-10T19:56:00.003-04:00

Have I mentionned my Kinks and Ray Davies infatuation and how long I've been waiting for this order? I'll be getting into reviewing all of it, hopefully, at some point. But for now, I just had to share my elation.

Tindersticks In Montreal

2009-03-10T15:02:00.004-04:00

A thing of beauty, to say the least.

I wish I had discovered Tindersticks long ago. I should have. I always get a little cold sweat when I hear we came close to losing them before The Hungry Saw. In any case, last night was the first time I saw them. First, and hopefully not the last, because a talented bunch of artists like those should be seen over and over again. I don't see how they could ever get tiring.

I got to the La Tulipe pretty early, managing to secure a nice vantage spot and to not miss the weirdest first part ever (not Lhasa, the guys before her: I was open to the concept, but not entirely convinced by it). Sweet Lhasa De Sela doing a set of quiet songs, just her and the piano, was nice, and it perfectly set the melancholic tone of the evening, and the public loved her. But at last the band arrived, by 10pm, one member after the other to the intro to The Hungry Saw.

Not even sure we got a hello from Stuart Staples when he finally turned up for the next song, and I was surprised how much of a reluctant front man he appears to be. I wonder if he might not be a little bit shy. They played a good handful of songs from their latest release, including, the title track, Mother Dear, The Flicker Of A Little Girl, All The Love, Come Feel The Sun, Organist Entertains, and Boobar Come Back To Me (perhaps my personal favourite on the album) as well as a couple of older "hits", like Dying Slowly. The excellent performances went on one after the other, like a well oiled engine. The musicians appear to have a complete reverence for the that music they make, and are careful to play it to perfection, like it's really the only thing that matters to them. The three currently remaining members of Tindersticks (Staples, Neil Fraser on guitar and David Boulter or organ and piano) are joined for this tour by Thomas Belhom on drums, and Dan McKinna on bass. There are also multi-instrumentalists Terry Edwards and Mike Kearsey happily moving from saxophone to trumpet to cello (but don't quote me on it, I'm getting this information on the Live In Glasgow copy I got there).

Tindersticks is efficient, hardly loses time, and each songs was finished with a short and polite "thank you" from Staples. It's enough. He just had to be there. They just had to there. This is not just any band, this is one of the greatest band out there right now, whether you've heard about them or not. They have beautiful melodies, beautiful songs, but they perfectly illustrate how a lush, delicate orchestration with strings, saxophones (from alto to baritone, might I add) and trumpet can turns a simple, sorrowful tune into something purely divine. And to top it off, Tindersticks also happen to have one to be the most breathtaking and soulful vocalist of his generation singing with them.

Most importantly, there seems to be a real chemistry between all of them, as they appear to enjoy playing together, exchanging a lot of smiles throughout the concerts. Speaking of smiles, I think we got one from Staples at around the tenth song or so, and he finally seemed to grow at ease enough to utter a complete sentence by the end of their 1h15 or so set. Perhaps it's a matter of preserving his voice, I don't know, and the way I see it, when you're born with the gift of a golden voice like that, and when you put on a great show, you can do just whatever the heck you please.

Despite the relatively short set (although such quality music was a bargain for 23$), they came back for a long encore, five songs, including the beautiful My Sister, which I think the crowd was expecting (although I seriously don't understand all the woo-hooing on My Sister considering that it has to be the saddest song in history, cheering on that song would be like woo-hooing Eric Clapton in the middle of Tears In Heaven, although I do not know is My Sister is based on personal history). But we didn't have enough of 5 more songs, and clapped and clapped until they came back on stage with Lhasa and performed two songs, including That Leaving Feeling.

They were off the hook my midnight, a lovely evening it was, and I got their Live In Glasgow, which appears to be essentially the same set to keep me company until next time.

My First Prog Show!

2009-03-07T09:40:00.011-05:00

Well, it was great. Despite a couple of technical problems (including the guitar that didn't sound quite right, according to my neighbour there). I only own three albums by the Strawbs, the usual Hero & Heroine, Dragonfly, as well as Grave New World, yet I knew about half the songs being performed last night, during the approximately 2 hours show.

Got there early enough, about half an hour before the doors opened, to quickly discover I was at a show where male outnumbered female by 10 or so, which unsettled me at first, but I quickly discovered once inside that the prog audience is a friendly one. Maybe it's from years of being bashed on the head about having shitty, pretentious tastes, and an urge to be nice to people who share those shitty, pretentious tastes, who knows. The Petit Campus, is a charming, intimate venue with a capacity of about 600 which means that even on the mezzanine, I was within a few metres of the band, with a great view of Dave Cousins, which sounds, even in his mid 60s, almost perfectly the same as he did on their 1970s albums, Dave Lambert on guitar (lovely vocals too!), of Chas Cronk on bass and of Rod Coombes on drums, who delivered a great drum solo in the second half, might I add.

Sadly, I was not smart enough to chose a place that provided a good view of guest player Oliver Wakeman (yes, the son of Rick!) on keys, and only managed the odd glimpses at his right hand, sometimes an elbow, here and there. We only got one real solo from him anyway, and that was was during the encore. It was yummy, he does have some big shoes to fill for me, since I'm not familiar with his own work yet, but I nonetheless found him very entertaining. He's obviously gifted, but I found him a little demure, perhaps. I supposed that The Strawbs' sound is not all that much carried by keys, as opposed to other progressive bands, but I would have liked to see a little more of Wakeman. That mind not even be a thought on hard core Strawbs fans' mind.

I got worried when a neighbour mentioned a tendency, back in the days, to show up super late for gigs, and playing only very little time, as well as something relating to Dave Cousins's bad temper, but the band showed on stage as planned at 8 o'clock, and quickly got the crowd going with Lay Down. Apparently, Hero & Heroine was hugely popular in Montreal, and they played a huge part of it, unless I'm mistaken, Autumn (a kick ass rendition right before the break, dang that song is soooo much better live), the title track, and Round And Round. I think they played Shine On Silver Sun and Just Love, maybe even Out In The Cold, but I'm not 100% on that right now, because I have a terrible memory for these things...

I'm pretty sure I remember The Weary Song and We'll Meet Again Sometime from Dragonfly as well. They also played two tracks from their newest release, The Broken-Hearted Bride (including a very strong and energetic version of The Call To Action, as well as the slightly weak title track). They also played the very pretty Tell Me What You See In Me, in the first part, which I had never heard but loved. They played from Grave New World too, New World and Benedictus... again, I think. They came back from a two-song encore, which the crowd very much appreciated and left it at that, with some kind of promise of coming back.

Overall, it was a great show. The band seemed eager to please, and for a first experience with live prog, it was quite a successful one for me personally. These guys have an amazing (although sadly forgotten in this town) catalogue, and turns out it sounds even better live. No washed up old rock stars there at all. They have great songs, a great sound, they're lively as younsgters on stage and seem happy to be there playing great music, what more could one ask for?

Il Bacio Della Medusa

2009-03-02T22:25:00.002-05:00

I desperately need to learn Italian. I did take a few lessons years ago, but it did not stick, and I'm now going through this (horribly expensive) Rock Progressivo Italiano phase, which led me to do this insane Québec-Montréal drive today in order to visit this record store in Québec that keeps some titles of the genre. I have acquired a few things, but, right now, I'm particularly pleased at having found one of the two Il Bacio Della Medusa albums, their first and self-titled one, which was released in 2004.

I've been listening to them for a while on last.fm, but it's official: I just won't shut up about this band until I make everyone realise that this is one of the top bands of the 2000s.

Of course, I'm not optimally informed about RPI yet, but it seems to me like this band has taken the best from the past (Banco, Le Orme, PFM, etc) and has added a healthy dose of testosterone to that sound with the heavy guitar of Simone Brozzetti. They're gritty, yet incredibly melodic. They're loud, but pretty (literally, I should add). They're probably poetic too, but I don't know. But it sounds pretty darn good out of Simone Cecchini's mouth, who does have one or two weaker moments when it comes to his singing, but he never loses an ounce of his intensity, which to me is really what makes a lead vocalist great and appealing. He actually reminds me a lot of Jim Morrison.

The manly (to say the least) and sturdy rhythm section made out of Federico Caprai and Diego Petrini is nearly perfectly counterbalanced by a selection of strings and winds. It has Eva Morelli on flute, in particular, but this album also has the guest participation of Angelo Petri on sax, an instrument I usually can't stand but that works so well here that I can't help but love now. The second album even has some beautiful violin work, among others on the breathtaking Confessionne D'Un Amante.

As for this particular album, well, having previously heard all the tracks, I was not expected to be this impressed with it anyway. It's even more gratifying now that I can listen to all the tracks side by side. I might eventually get into a fuller review of the whole thing, but for now, let me just say that it was absolutely worth the 6 hour drive.

Already Free - The Derek Trucks Band

2009-03-01T17:44:00.003-05:00

All right, so after 28 years of being a music fan, this is my first official attempt at album review writing, so please bear with me: it will probably be messy, as a review from me has so far consisted of either "it's good" or "it sucks".

The Derek Trucks Band's Already Free, which came out this past January, just happens to be the lucky (or unlucky, we'll see) guinea pig.

I did not even know about this band until April 15th, 2008, when I attended a Santana concert in Montreal. The band was doing the first part, and even though I found them pretty good (progressive blues, if that's possible), it was not until Derek himself joined Santana during his set for some jamming that my jaw really, really dropped, when I fully realised I was listening to what had to be one of the best, if not the best, guitar player of this generation. By then, I had not seen the Rolling Stones Magazines 100 Greatest Guitarist Of All Time and did know that at 24 then, Derek was the youngest player to make the list. I did not know either that he was Butch Trucks's, from the Allmans, nephew, or that he had started touring at 11, and formed the DTB by mid-adolescence, joined by madly skilled Todd Smallie on bass and Yonrico Scott on percussion. Then, there was the addition of Kofi Burbridge on flute and keyboards, Count M'Butu on congas, and finally Mike Mattison's sweetly husky vocals in 2002.

The guitar generous (well, obviously) twelve tracked Already Free is the band's sixth studio release. Besides the talents of the usual band member, the DTB has enlisted the help of fellow guitar player Doyle Bramhall II (whom you may remember from you last Eric Clapton concert) to co-write and co-produce a couple of songs: the funky Something To Make You Happy, Maybe This Time, and Our Love, for which he took on lead vocal duty (both of which I'm sorry to say are probably the weakest songs on the album) as well as the more upbeat and blues-rock Get What You Deserve.

The happiest collaborations of all is from Trucks' wife herself, the wonderful Susan Tedeschi lending her voice to Back Where I Started. Besides those songs, we find the usual blend of genres this band has used made its trademark: a bit of jazz, some rock, plenty of blues, plenty of jamming, a smaller dash of raga rock here and there (oh, I could use more raga anytime, I Know has some, but not nearly enough). The album strongly starts with a very decent Bob Dylan cover of Down In The Flood (from The Basement Tapes), quickly moving into Something To Make You Happy before dropping the ball a little with the "been there, done that" mid-tempo pop ballad Maybe This Time.

Thankfully, we then get to Sweet Inspiration, an enthusiastic near gospel song that serve as a perfect frame to show off Mike's vocals. Luckily for him, in fact, because the quality of the musicians is sometimes so high that we can't help but wonder why the band thinks they need him. Don't Miss Me is also very strong, with some lovely guitar work and a catchy chorus. We then find a strong rocker in Get What You Deserve, which is followed by the weak Our Love, which mercifully redeems itself with some amazing slide guitar work. The same problems occurs with Down Don't Bother Me, which I could not help but think could have actually been better without a lead vocalist.

This last song is followed with Days Is Almost Gone, on which we find the best, most intense vocal performance my Mattison, one we nonetheless risk forgetting because we immediately get Tedeschi's amazing rendition of Back Where I Started right afterward, before moving on to the pseudo raga intro of I Know. The title and final song is a pretty, short, bluegrass and southern rock mixture that never really builds up into a climax, and end the whole album on a pretty quiet note, literally.

It's a great album, don't let a few weaker songs make you think otherwise. If the near extinction of those Eastern influences we felt on other records could be due to a desire to be a more marketable band, I'd be quite sorry. Yet knowing that this album was recorded in Trucks's new home recording studio reassures me that this was probably more a personal choice of the band than a commercially induced decision. I'll just move toward other bands to get that feel, and leave the DTB to make their own brand of jam music just the way they like it. Such skills forgive anything.

Overall, I'd give this album a nice 8 out of 10, easily awarding songs like Down In The Flood, Sweet Inspiration and Back Where I Started a perfect 10. It's a great addition to any blues and rock fan, and one any guitar fan absolutely needs.

Lentils and The Red Russian Army Choir

2009-03-01T07:15:00.010-05:00

We had my parents over for dinner last night.

I had been planning on experimenting with a lentil meal for a couple of days now, as someone from a music forum recommended me a recipe on how to cook them with sausages and vegetables. The goal of the meal was using sausages as a decoy to have my boyfriend eat lentils, but I used a kind that were too spicy for his tastes, so that didn't work at all (guess who froze the leftovers and will be eating them for lunch for a week?).

So I cooked (in this case, overcooked) the lentils with bay leaves, pepper, garlic, half an onion, a carrot and a celery branch, and I must say they tasted delicious just like that. But then, the next step was sauteing them with veggies, sliced sausages and adding a can of tomatoes at the end. Very nice, but next time, using orange lentils might make the whole meal look better.

At least, the sausage plan worked on my dad. We never had lentils at my parents' either when we were kids, as my dad is quite the conservative Norseman when it comes to food (and everything else), but he seemed to have liked the meal.

I even managed to discuss music with my parents, which is a rare occurrence, and had them listen to Le Orme because they thought "rock progressivo italiano" was bound to be something really weird, and really loud.

And in the middle of my boyfriend mocking my tastes for bass and baritone voices in singers, I put on some Tindersticks, and turns out my mother also thinks Staples has lovely vocals. And, much to my surprise, she went on an admiration filled rant about The Red Russian Army Choir's baritones vocalists.

Oh my god, I am not a freak, I just take after my mother (as I have informed my boyfriend, who insists he was already aware I eerily took after her).

Anyway, so I've been looking into this Choir, and turns out that they are not the Red Russian Army Choir, they are in fact "Дважды краснознаменный академический ансамбль песни и пляски Российской армии имени А. В. Александрова, Dvazhdy krasnoznamenny akademichesky ansambl' pesni i plyaski Rossiyskoy armii imeni A. V. Alexandrova" or the "A. V. Alexandrov Russian army twice red-bannered academic song and dance ensemble".

Now, isn't that catchy?

So apparently, the choir formed within the Soviet army in the late 1920s, with the idea of promoting amateur singing and good music, as well an entertaining the troops. Alexandr Alexandrov was the original master and conductor, and his song Boris succeeded him, right until 1987, taking the choir around the world on tours. The current director is Vyacheslav Korobko.

They are good, and I can see why my mother likes them so much, especially considering that this is an ensemble that managed to survive the end of the Soviet Union and still be a success now. They apparently have this huge repertoire of Russian folk, opera, hymns and the likes. Everybody seems to want to work with them too, from David Foster to local sensation Marie-Michèle Desrosiers.

And now I'm stuck with Kalinka in my head.

NPR.org and Leonard Cohen

2009-02-28T13:44:00.008-05:00

Listened to this twice this morning and highly recommend it:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101034642

Wait, I'd recommend anything by Cohen anyway, so I might be a little too partial to be taken seriously, but anyway, this is the next next best thing (for now, that is, right until march 31th when his Live In London DVD gets released) for anyone who has not gotten a chance to see him live. I was lucky enough to see him in June 2008, in Montreal, the first of three shows he did in there then. It was amazing. Godly. Breathtaking. 74 and more energy, more class than anyone else I'd ever seen live, and I heard notes in there that night that I never thought any human being could possibly produce.

After a year, it's still safe for me to say it was the best show of my life. Unless Freddie Mercury comes back to life, and John Deacon comes out of retirement, there are very little chances of any band or artist ever topping that night. I suspect only Tom Waits showing up in Montreal could beat it, but for now, better not count on it.

The problem with Cohen is that once you listen to his lyrics, and ultimately fall in love with them, it gets much so hard to go back to some lame, repetitive songs of the "I wanna rock and roll all night and party everyday" genre. I love his singing, but outside of his rendition of Hallelujah (go away, Jeff Buckley fans: I don't care what you say, Cohen's original version IS the best), the best part of the night might easily have been his heartfelt, intensely emotional (hot!) reading of A Thousand Kisses Deep, which I'm very pleased to say that NPR also added to their podcast.

If I recall correctly, his voice on it is not as optimal as it was in Montreal, but it's still fabulous, and the amount of soul and emotions he puts in his songs makes it worth sitting for an hour and fifteen minutes at the computer, and bare in mind that this probably isn't half the show he did. You see, Mr. Cohen is very generous with his time. We're talking about a three hour show here. The concert also includes Suzanne, Chelsea Hotel #2, Tower Of Song, The Partisan, Take This Walts, So Long Marianne, and a few more, so his very well cover his greatest hits.

7.8/10 (why so low? Too short for my tastes)

A Tindersticks Ticket

2009-02-28T12:36:00.015-05:00

Experimenting again with this whole blogging thing. I once had one, off a music forum (yeah, I'm badly addicted to them), but I supposed having an actual one is not a bad idea either. So here we go again, I guess I should be talking about myself and stuff, but since I'm more interested in music than in sharing boring details about myself, we'll... skip to the end.

Today's main interest for me (besides having just started "la relâche" as we call it in French, hence being on vacation, which was way overdue) is having just found out, thanks to last.fm (shamefull publicity, I guess, but I live for this site these days), that Tindersticks will be in Montreal on March 9th, which is an amazing news, considering that I had never expected to see this band live here. Love that band. Love the vocals. I only discovered them last summer, and have since acquired three of their albums: Tindersticks, Tindersticks II, as well as the recent The Hungry Saw, which means that I have four more to go, darn it. I plan on acquiring Curtains in particular very soon.

Some of their songs are weaker, I'm sure, but how am I supposed not to love a band with such a lead vocalist? Stuart A. Staples could be reading a freaking fast-food menu board and I'd most likely still get turned on. I remember reading somewhere on youtube comments about him: first someone said that he sounded like Leonard Cohen had mated with Nick Cave, and someone replied that it was like Nick Cave had mated with God himself, which can't be too far from the truth considering that for me, the Holy Trinity of male vocalists is these three guys. I guess that makes me a bad Catholic or something.

Crap, I forgot Tom Waits in there. Oh well, Tom Waits will take on Hades role or something then, but we'll focus on Tom some other time. And come to think of it, I'm forgetting a bunch of lovely, breathtaking vocalists too (Steve Marriot, Arthur Brown and David Byron come to mind).

Anyway. So besides the vocals, Tindersticks have these very lush, quiet, anything but pop orchestrations with lots of strings and piano, as well as brass here in there, a perfect complement to their sweet, sad melodies that seem to cover all sort of loves and sins. They're rainy Sunday afternoon, cold sunny Monday morning music, and everything in between.

So I will be seeing them, and am mighty excited about it, despite my usual worries about new venues. But 31$ for a ticket is quite a bargain for a concert these days, and it's almost laughable to think that such a quality band sell tickets so cheap. That'll be a few days after having seen The Strawbs, by the way, something I plan to comment later on as well.