Music Spring has apparently sprung–although I’m not yet hearing anything that will knock most people’s socks off; for that matter, the only two records I’ve been addicted to are (no surprise) #1 and (ranked “low” because I have a strong Ornette Coleman bias) #5. Also, 14 out of 50 (*) are jazz recordings, none of them that straight-ahead; however, lest you suspect me musically anhedoniacal, I would classify seven of them FUN (!). I’m catching on! Maybe I’m catching back on. In other news?

POETRY is in the house (#s 22 and 25–the former a must for all you trad Brit Lit majors, the latter pretty fucking FUN itself, but just remember what the lit-heads in your life consider fun)…

I just dove into the Doomed & Stoned series (honoring a silent pledge to my metalhead friend Vance, for whose sake I will try 4-5 metal albums a year, though this collection might be more accurately described as “stoner rock”), fished its Scottish entry out of the loch, and found it consistently satisfied my riff requirements and seldom repelled me with overly ugly singing…

I think I got a bit overexcited about the Julien Baker album simply because she was coming forth with more energy, but she remains an attractively sullen writer, to me at least, because that’s been my usual attitude du jour lately…

I am fucking hooked on Roisin Murphy. Anything you wanna serve up, even if it’s “just” a remix.

OK, kids, keep in mind that this coming Friday (May 7) is the (reputedly) last Bandcamp Friday. Many of the links below go straight to these records’ Bandcamp page. Put your money where you ears are, ’cause we know you’re streaming your ass off.

(Items which are new to the list are bolded; also, the order–always a touch whimsically arrived at–has shifted significantly from March. Items followed by an # are either reissues, fresh compilations of older material, or archival finds).

1. JuJu: Live at 131 Prince Street*#
2. Julius Hemphill: The Boyé Multinational Crusade for Harmony*#
3. James Brandon Lewis: Jesup Wagon*
4. Neil Young and Crazy Horse: Down in the Rust Bucket !#
5. Miguel Zenon: Law Years—The Music of Ornette Coleman*
6. R.A.P. Ferreira: Bob’s Son !
7. Ashnikko: Demidevil !
8. Various Artists: He’s Bad!—11 Bands Decimate the Beat of Bo Diddley !
9. Dax Pierson: Nerve Bumps (A Queer Divine Satisfaction)
10. Gimenez Lopez: Reunion en la granja*
11. Penelope Scott: Public Void !
12. Paris: Safe Space Invader
13. Byard Lancaster: My Pure Joy*#
14. Jazmine Sullivan: Heaux Tales
15. Hamiet Blueitt: Bearer of the Holy Flame*#
16. Dawn Richard: Second Line !
17. Various Artists: Alan Lomax’s American Patchwork#
18. Peter Stampfel: Peter Stampfel’s 20th Century in 100 Songs
19. Hasaan Ibn Ali: Metaphysics—The Lost Atlantic Album*#
20. Various Artists: Doomed & Stoned in Scotland
21. Genesis Owusu: Smiling with No Teeth
22. Marianne Faithfull (with Warren Ellis): She Walks in Beauty
23. Lukah: When the Black Hand Touches You
24. Damon Locks / Black Monument Ensemble: NOW
25. Various Artists: Allen Ginsberg’s The Fall of America–A 50th Anniversary Musical Tribute
26. Various Artists: Indaba Is
27. Wau Wau Collectif: Yaral Sa Doom
28. Yvette Janine Jackson: Freedom
29. Jason Moran & Milford Graves: Live at Big Ears*
30. Nermin Niazi: Disco Se Aagay !
31. Billy Nomates: Emergency Telephone (EP)
32. Madlib: Sound Ancestors
33. Joe Strummer: Assembly#
34. Julien Baker: Little Oblivions
35. Archie Shepp and Jason Moran: Let My People Go*
36. Roisin Murphy: Crooked Machine !
37. Robert Miranda’s Home Music Ensemble: Live at The Bing*#
38. Ensemble 0: Performs Julius Eastman’s Femenine
39. Vijay Iyer, Linda Han Oh, and Tyshawn Sorey: Uneasy*
40. Alder Ego: III*
41. Shem Tube, Justo Osala, Enos Okola: Guitar Music of Western Kenya
42. Steve Earle: JT
43. Jinx Lennon: Liferafts for Latchicos
44. The Hold Steady: Open Door Policy (Hey–buy this album played live as cheap as you wanna!)
45. Omar Sosa: East African Journey
46. Alton Gün: Yol
47. Various Artists: Edo Funk Explosion, Volume 1 !#
48. Hearth: Melt*
49. Floating Points & Pharoah Sanders: Promises*
50. serpentwithfeet: DEACON