Monthly Archives: February 2018

542. tonight’s the night [1]

Posted on by
Reply

“The title track of Neil Young’s sixth studio album is completely concerned with heroin and the damage done, souls consumed, lives ended way too soon. It says 1975 on the cover (and it was actually recorded a couple of years earlier) but I didn’t find it until at least ten years after the fact, yet grimly perfect timing nevertheless, such is junkiedom — it never goes out of style. Which isn’t to say Tonight’s the Night is all one sustained dirge – the album that is. But that said, it never forgets what it’s about, always more shadow than light, always more nasty than nice.” (Philip Random)

NeilYoung-1973-home

543. Africa talks to you [the asphalt jungle]

Posted on by
Reply

Sly and Family Stone’s There’s A Riot Goin’ On is one of the best albums period, from any genre, any era. A seamless flow of barely post-1960s truth-telling, most of it rather grim. Africa Talks To You [the asphalt jungle] is the strange dark heart of it – not a song so much as an excursion, a side trip to a multi-dimensional galaxy that’s equal parts heavier than a planet, lighter than air. And yes, that is a drum machine keeping things in line, a good decade before it was the hip thing to do.

SlyStone-71

544. censored

Posted on by
Reply

“Viv Akauldren were from Detroit, I think. I seem to remember hanging out with the guitar player one day, wandering the sidewalks of downtown Vancouver, mid-80s sometime. He was overwhelmed by how peaceful it all was – how safe. They were gigging in town that night. The booking agent was a friend. So I guess I was being hospitable. Anyway, it all speaks to how lost so much of that era is. So many great indie outfits coming and going, cranking out powerful stuff, leaving little or no trace. Of course, I did manage to hang onto a copy of one of Viv Akauldren’s albums – Old Bags + Party Rags – which was nicely paranoid, political, psychedelic, and entirely relevant, then and now.” (Philip Random)

VivAkauldren-oldBAGS

545. political world

Posted on by
Reply

“I pretty much gave up on Bob Dylan in the 1980s. Yeah, the old songs were mostly still gathering no moss, but ever since he’d stumbled out of all the Jesus stuff, nothing fresh or necessary seemed to be happening. Everything overproduced, voice way too thin, barely cutting the mix at all, and it kept getting worse. But then, from out of nowhere, right at the end of the decade, the man suddenly delivers Oh Mercy, with Political World the lead off track, telling no lies, taking no prisoners. Like he’d been undercover the whole time, pretending lame, but always taking notes, and now here he was, filing his report, and deep and rich it was. It may even have brought down Soviet Union.” (Philip Random)

BobDylan-1989-tophat

546. Jesus + Tequila

Posted on by
Reply

“As the story goes, first the party ran out of wine. Jesus took care of that. And then he invented tequila, just to show off. But I wouldn’t know. I wasn’t there. But I was there for the Minutemen, Double Nickels on the Dime in particular. Have I raved enough about that? Probably not. Their best album, though who knows what might have been? Three guys with enough heart and soul and rage for a f***ing revolution, cranking out no less than forty-five tracks spread across four sides of vinyl. Jesus and Tequila was one of the longer ones.” (Philip Random)

Minutemen-1984-live

547. Squarer for Maud

Posted on by
Reply

“I mostly hated so-called jazz-rock fusion at the time – so many of my fave Prog heroes getting caught up with showing off or whatever, forgetting to actually make interesting, astonishing music. But National Health (straight outa Canterbury) seemed to mostly get it right, keeping it sharp, innovative, fun. And in the case of Squarer For Maud, it even gets epic, particularly once the cello cuts loose toward the end. And then there’s that rap about numinosity (a word I’d never heard before). Of or relating to a numen; supernatural. Filled with or characterized by a sense of a supernatural presence. Now that’s my kind of music.” (Philip Random)

NationalHealth-live78