Recent CD Purchases

[Otis Westinghouse]

I was going to comment on the Turn Me Up aspect, all the more reason to crank the volume up, WSS! I do notice the difference - I need to play it close to full volume on the iPod, but it does sound great.

[miss buenos aires]

Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple
Vampire Weekend - s/t
The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely

[Otis Westinghouse]

Am wondering what your verdict on Gnarls is.

Borders mailed a rather impressive 40% off books and 20% off CDs/DVDs at full price offer for this weekend, so headed down, to be annoyed by the fact that almost all their CDs have a full price of £13 though they sell them for £10, so the offer is more expensive than the normal price. Modern life is rubbish! Then I saw the above for £8, so a happy £6.40 for a highly rated 2 CD set. Have been loving the Mali sounds of Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate (who was playing his kora beautifully on Later this week, what a musician, how does he play all those notes with just 4 digits?), now for Ethiopia.

Costello's championing is on the cover here, whereas mine had 4/5 star ratings from various mags. Costello is in the booklet, dismissing the complaints of 'spoilt children' in western music compared to the suffering inflicted upon Ethiopians, a suffering that spawned some magnificent music. Can't wait to check this out!

[johnfoyle]

Costello is in the booklet, dismissing the complaints of 'spoilt children' in western music compared to the suffering inflicted upon Ethiopians,

More here -

http://www.elviscostellofans.com/phpBB3 ... thiopiques


Recently I've been listening to two U.S. lady singers.

http://www.liztormes.com/et/



Liz Tormes opened for Teddy Thompson ( Ted excellent as always, if a little distracted 'n nervous) in Dublin recently and on just one listen I was hearing all kinds of new things in her songs. Her Limelight album has repaid much listening, highlights being Maybe You Won't ,and Better Days. Vocally she sounds a little like Aimee Mann but with a little more texture in her tone. The instrumentation ranges from rock-out to minimal - definitely a grower of an album.

http://rubyjames.com/



Desert Rose - Ruby James.

This album really brightened a Monday morning for me. Groovetastic guitar sounds with splendid vocals, especially When I'm Gone. Nice take on Wicked Games , bringing out a sultriness not so obvious on Chris Isaak's original. I'm going to be playing this a lot.

[pophead2k]

Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! - Nick Cave. Love it.

[miss buenos aires]

Otis--am very into the Gnarls. Pop music done right.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Dark and depressing lyrical content?

[miss buenos aires]

Check and check. Pop songs should have depressing lyrics and music compelling enough that you have no idea what you're singing along to!

[BlueChair]

Check and check. Pop songs should have depressing lyrics and music compelling enough that you have no idea what you're singing along to!

There was a great NPR story (it's here, btw: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... d=89723681) where All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen compares Gnarls Barkley's "Who's Gonna Save My Soul" with Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You Too Long."

I love the opening line to the Gnarls Barkley tune: "I got some bad news this morning / Which in turn made my day."

[ice nine]

If I Should Fall From Grace With God

Fiesta is a great song. What is the translation to the Spanish lyrics where Cait and Elvis are reffered to?

[Otis Westinghouse]

I recall this was discussed some time ago. A site gives that verse as:

El veinticinco de agosto
Abrio sus ojos jaime fearnley
Para el bebe cinquante cincampari
Y se tendio para cerrarlos
Y costello el rey del america
Y suntuosa cait oriordan
Nor vompere mis calliones
Los gritos fuera de las casas

It's a bit of a linguistic mess, but it's something like:

The 25th of August [Elv's birthday!]
James Fearnley opened his eyes
For the baby, 50 'cinmpari' ['cinquante' is French, I guess 'cincampari' is Cinzano + Campari]
And he lay down to close them [amazingly, the verb is correctly conjugated!]
And Costello the King of America
And the sumptuous CO'R
I won't break my balls [This is a totally mangled version, I guess, of 'no romperé mis cojones' or rather 'los cojones']
The shouts from outside the houses [eh?]

'Learn Spanish with Shane' it isn't. It's hilarious, though.

[mood swung]

I'd like to learn Spanish With Shane. Beats the heck out of los dias de la semana!

[so lacklustre]

This is quite good

[johnfoyle]

Earlier on I enthused about Liz Torme's new album . I saw her doing a support slot in Dublin a few weeks ago. She's written a at times hilarious account of her time in Ireland -

http://www.venuszine.com/articles/music ... ary_Part_I

http://www.venuszine.com/articles/music ... ry_Part_II

https://venuszine.com/articles/music/fe ... y_Part_III

(extract)

Monday, April 14, 2008 — Blowing up in Galway

I got up at 7:30 a.m. to catch the four-and-a-half-hour bus to Galway. I was playing the Roisin Dubh club that night, which has a two-story, three-bedroom, two-bath apartment that touring bands can stay in. It was a welcome surprise, especially after being in a place which was low on creature comforts.


The house I had been crashing in was very much a bachelor pad and chaotic at times. There were no working lights in the bathroom or my bedroom, save for a tiny candle in each. It was still very cold for April and the house was — from an American perspective — freezing! Forget about jumping in the shower at a moment’s notice. The water needed to be heated up about 30 minutes before it would work, as did the heating for the house. It makes for hilarious stories when you get back home but can be pure misery while you are living it.

I had a look around Galway, stopped by an Internet café so that I could get free Wi-Fi, and then took off for soundcheck. Afterwards, I went back to the apartment to take advantage of the shower and wash my hair. Later, as I unpacked my hairdryer, I realized the adapter was at the venue with my effect pedal. Crap! I threw on a hat and ran to the venue to get it. In the middle of drying my hair, there was a big spark and the dryer cut off; I had blown the adapter. Double crap! I thought, of all the things I needed the adapter for: two cell phones, the laptop, the effects pedal, and my hairstyling appliances, I knew it would be very difficult to find another one. Thankfully, the venue had a U.S.compatible power strip for my pedal, so the gig was not affected. Not so, my hair.

[Who Shot Sam?]

Picked up at Borders today...

[strangerinthehouse]

While on my way to radiohead in Tampa, I persuaded my friend to make a stop at http://www.vinylfevertampa.com probably the one of the best and last record stores in Florida.

Since I live in Southwest Florida, this is the only place I could get new vinyl without ordering it. Of course they had Momofuku and it was cool to see it in the store, they also had a 180 gram copy of My Aim is True but I only had about $60 to spend and wanted to get something new So I bought these:


Strongly recommended it, a mix of Folkloric French music and indie rock. haunting and celebratory at the same time.


I wanted to get his newest but it was kind of expensive and had a third side( I hate it when they do that, couldn't they just have filled the other side) but this is in the same vein, less psychedelic.


I been listening to Crass and Kimya Dawson mentioned him at her concert here. It's a cool record, makes Crass' lyrics more accessible.


I had to get this, it was $12 and its James Fucking Brown!

[StrictTime]

Momofuku

Bone Machine (Waits)

The Jesus of Cool re-issue, finally.

[bambooneedle]

Great Waits buy there StrictTime, one of my very favourites. First one I'd waited for to be released after I'd discovered him.

[Otis Westinghouse]

It's very extreme, that and Real Gone. I love all of Waits from Swordfish Trombones on, even more than the earlier stuff, but I've struggled with Bone Machine. I'd personally settle sooner for the fabulous Mule Variations or Alice, but it's all good.

[bambooneedle]

"He's got the fire and the fury at his command!" - that's from Down In The Hole from his previous one, Frank's Wild Years, but he kept playing with the foreboding fire and brimstone preacher type voice further on BM, I love it when he uses it.

There are a few 'grim reapers' whose ('whose' sounds weird, but hey, I learnt it from you, Otis) in-your-face screechy nature some may find a bit testing at first, eg. Earth Died Screaming, but I love how vivid most of them are and how they conjure up a sense of the absurd. In terms of more tender numbers, or 'slow weepers', I consider A Little Rain and Whistle Down The Wind every bit as good as Take It With Me or Georgia Lee from Mule Variations.

Thinking of Down In The Hole I'm reminded of Marc Ribot's guitar work on it (some of his most indelible for me) and I'm surprised that I don't miss him on BM, but somehow I don't notice, probably because of the cacophony of strange sounds and the rhythms on it.

[Otis Westinghouse]

('whose' sounds weird, but hey, I learnt it from you, Otis

Then you know it must be fine! Glad to be of linguistic service, so it is in my work, and in my cyberlife! Grammarian arsehole sticklers like Frank MacNally will probably tell you a song isn't a person and therefore 'whose' is unacceptable, but they would be wankers. Language should be good quality, but not prescribed.

Gonna revisit BM. The songs you cite are excellent, I just didn't find it as lovable as I'd wanted. I suppose I was hoping it might be in the same sphere as Rain Dogs.

I must get a box set of The Wire a) because people describe it as the best series they've seen and b) cos every series has a different rendition of 'Down In The Hole' as programme opener. Cool. One was on a recent Word comp, Blind Boys of Alabama.

[pophead2k]

I think the opening pair- The Earth Died Screaming and Dirt in the Ground had me hooked from the first listen. Terrifying, dense, bluesy music that could only come from Tom Waits. Love it, love it, love it. And 'A Little Rain' is one of the saddest songs I've ever heard.

On a completely unrelated note, I picked up Neil Diamond's Home Before Dark. I am a non-ironic Neil fan. My mom was a huge fan back in the early 70s during my very young and formative years, and I've always enjoyed his 60s and 70s output. Rick Rubin is producing, trying to work his Cash-magic here again. The first in the collaboration, 12 Songs, was pretty good. This one, I can't tell yet, but I'm not crazy about it so far. Its loooooong. Several songs clock in at 5, 6, and even 8 minutes. The lyrics are heartfelt, but trite in many cases. We'll see.

[Otis Westinghouse]

I got 12 Songs as it was £2 in Fopp and quite like it. I'm not a fan and it hasn't converted me, but I'm happy to have it.

[bambooneedle]

('whose' sounds weird, but hey, I learnt it from you, Otis

Then you know it must be fine! Glad to be of linguistic service, so it is in my work, and in my cyberlife!

I've picked up a few things. I encourage any linguistical or grammatical corrections of my posts! I still don't know how best to place commas. In fact I've got something you can probably clarify for me - I was reading Bob Dylan's Chronicles again last night, on pg21 when Bob meets Dave Van Ronk:

Van Ronk looked at me curiously, was snippy and surly, asked if I did janitor work.
I told him, no, I didn't and he could perish the thought, but could I play something for him? He said, "Sure."

I'm pretty sure that he was telling him to forget the thought about him (Bob) being a janitor, but I had slight doubt - he could be saying that Van Ronk actually was able to forget it. What do you think?

Btw, it's actually Way Down In The Hole, sorry to mislead.

[Otis Westinghouse]

It's an odd use of 'perish the thought' which is used as 'may the thought perish' not as an active verb. He's saying Dave could forget all about that idea,