Author: philovereem

Music monomaniac, retired English teacher, resident of Columbia, Missouri, former correspondent for ANOREXIC TEENAGE SEX GODS, READY TO SNAP, HITLIST, SUGARBUZZ, THE WAYBACK MACHINE, ROCK THERAPY, and THE FIRST CHURCH OF HOLY ROCK AND ROLL, co-lead singer of the non-legendary Wayne Coomers and the Original Sins of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

We’re Halfway There–But to Where?: 100 New Records I’ve Enjoyed (June 27th, 2018, Columbia, MO)

 

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Good golly, folks–it’s a good year in pop music when after 12 months you can get behind almost a hundred records you’ve enjoyed. It’s still a few days shy of July, and I’ve listened to 95 I’d give a B+ (or 7.5–grade inflation if that’s equivalent!) or better. It would have been 96, but somehow I lost one in the text transfer that I cannot ferret out. The bold-faced albums are in priority order from the ones I love most to love a whole lot; 25-50 are jockeying for position; and the rest are kind of in grab-bag, I’m-too-mentally-tired-to-deal formation.

I think I mentioned it last time, but 2018 has been a fantastic year for female artists. Also, guitar bands are starting to wake up (no pun intended) and address the shit-show we have on our hands. The jazz world is asserting itself, especially the free improvisors who have feet inside. Reissues: hard to keep up with, especially Atlanta’s Dust-to-Digital, who just released two terrific and typically well-appointed boxes that repay concentration and multiple listens. Personally, falling under the spell of Apple Music has vastly increased my, um, unique listens (at the expense of old faves I’ve always played a lot), and the exploration of electronic music and r&b fellow fanatics have pushed me to continues to pay dividends as far as picking beauties is concerned.

I wish I could link all these, but goddam you can copy and paste into a browser, can’t ya? Just try to pay an artist as much as possible if you can.

  1. Tracy Thorn: Record
  2. Nona Hendryx and Gary Lucas: The World of Captain Beefheart
  3. CupcaKe: Ephorize
  4. Mary Gauthier and Songwriting with Soldier: Rifles and Rosary Beads
  5. Sons of Kemet: Your Queen is a Reptile
  6. Janelle Monae: Dirty Computer
  7. Bettye LaVette: Things Have Changed
  8. JD Allen: Love Stone
  9. Berry: Everything, Compromised
  10. Joe McPhee: Imaginary Numbers
  11. Chloe x Halle: The Kids are Alright
  12. Superchunk: What A Time to Be Alive
  13. Young Fathers: Cocoa Sugar
  14. Parquet Courts: Wide Awake!
  15. Sly & Robbie and Nils Petter Molvaer: Nordub
  16. Orquesta Akokan: Orquesta Akokan
  17. Sidi Toure: Toubalbero
  18. Quelle Chris & Jean Grae: Everything’s Fine
  19. No Age: Snares Like a Haircut
  20. Grupo Mono Blanco: ¡Fandango! Sones Jarochos from Veracruz
  21. Elza Soares: Deus É Mulher
  22. John Prine: The Tree of Forgiveness
  23. Zeal & Ardor: Stranger Fruit
  24. Dave Holland: Uncharted Territories
  25. Toni Braxton: Sex & Cigarettes
  26. Nidia: Nídia É Má, Nídia É Fudida
  27. Wynton Marsalis & Friends: United We Swing–Best of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Galas
  28. Jonghyun: Poet / Artist
  29. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever: Hope Downs
  30. Halu Mergia: Lalu Balu
  31. Jeffrey Lewis: Works by Tuli Kupferberg
  32. Bombino: Deran
  33. Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids: An Angel Fell
  34. Rapsody: Laila’s Wisdom
  35. Sarayah: Feel the Vibe
  36. Anelis Assumpcão: Taurina
  37. Jinx Lennon: Grow a Pair
  38. Nas: Nasir
  39. Speedy Ortiz: Twerp Verse
  40. Courtney Barnett: Tell Me How You Really Feel
  41. Peter Brotzmann and Fred Lonberg-Holm: Ouroboros
  42. Car Seat Headrest: Twin Fantasy
  43. Evan Parker, Barry Guy, and Paul Lytton: Music for David Mossman
  44. Salim Washington: Dogon Revisited
  45. Angelika Niescier: The Berlin Concert
  46. Jon Hassell: Listening To Pictures (Pentimento, Vol. One)
  47. Charge It to The Game: House with a Pool
  48. JPEGMAFIA: Veteran
  49. Various Artists: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun…and Rights!!!
  50. Apolo: Live in Stockholm
  51. Mdou Moctar & Elite Beat: Mdou Moctar meets Elite Beat In a Budget Dancehall
  52. Willie Nelson: Last Man Standing
  53. Wussy: What Heaven is Like
  54. Meshell Ndegeocello: Ventriloquism
  55. Kamasi Washington: Heaven & Earth
  56. Cardi B: Invasion of Privacy
  57. Shopping: The Official Body
  58. Young Mothers: Morose
  59. The Thing: Again
  60. Ebo Taylor: Yen Ara
  61. Alice Bag: Blue Print
  62. Dana Murray: Negro Manifesto
  63. David Murray (featuring Saul Williams): Blues for Memo
  64. Pusha T: Daytona
  65. Shame: Songs of Praise
  66. Low Cut Connie: Dirty Picture, Pt. 2
  67. Henry Threadgill: Dirt..and More Dirt
  68. Hot Snakes: Jericho Sirens
  69. Ceramic Dog: YRU Still Here?
  70. Van Morrison & Joey DeFrancesco: You’re Driving Me Crazy
  71. Various Artists/Sahel Sounds: Field Recordings
  72. Marc Sinan & Oğuz Büyükberber: White
  73. Kendrick Lamar, et al: Black Panther—Music from and Inspired by the Film
  74. Jay Rock: Redemption
  75. MC Paul Barman: Echo Chamber
  76. Kris Davis and Craig Taborn: Octopus
  77. Tal National: Tantabara
  78. Wilko Johnson: Blow Your Mind
  79. Rodrigo Amado (with Joe McPhee): History of Nothing
  80. Rich Krueger: Life Ain’t That Long
  81. MAST: Thelonious Sphere Monk
  82. Silvana Estrada: Lo Sagrado
  83. Big Freedia: Third Ward Bounce
  84. Tallawit Timbouctou: Takamba WhatsApp 2018
  85. Amy Rigby: The Old Guys
  86. Busdriver: Electricity Is On Our Side
  87. Dr. Michael White: Tricentennial Rag
  88. Migos: Culture II
  89. Angélique Kidjo: Remain in Light
  90. Parliament: Medicaid Fraud Dogg
  91. Yo La Tengo: There’s a Riot Goin’ On
  92. The Carters: Everything is Love
  93. The Del McCoury Band: Del McCoury Still Sings Bluegrass
  94. Superorganism: Superorganism
  95. Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet: Landfall
  96. Sleep: The Sciences
  97. Teyana Taylor: K.T.S.E.
  98. Ibibio Sound Machine: Eyio
  99. Various Artists: I Only Listen to The Mountain Goats
  100. Princess Nokia: A Girl Cried Red

OLD MUSIC NICELY REPACKAGED

  1. Sonny Rollins: Way Out West (Deluxe Reissue)
  2. Neil Young: Roxy—Tonight’s the Night
  3. Various Artists: Voices of Mississippi—Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris
  4. Various Artists: Listen All Around: The Golden Age of Central and East African Music
  5. Gary Stewart: “Baby I Need Your Loving” / “Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yester-Day”
  6. Various Artists: Outlaws and Armadilloes
  7. The Revelators: In which the Revelators perform live renditions of selections from the Billy Childish songbook
  8. Against All Logic: 2012-2017
  9. Grant Green: Live at Oil Can Harry’s
  10. Entourage: Ceremony of Dreams—Studio Sessions & Outtakes 1972-1977
  11. Kuniyuki Takahashi: Early Tape Works 1986 – 1993 Volume 1
  12. Camarao: The Imaginary Soundtrack to a Brazilian Western Movie
  13. Various Artists: Africa Scream Contest, Volume 2
  14. Wussy: Getting Better
  15. The Beginning of the End: Funky Nassau

How It Works ‘Round Here (June 25th, 2018, Columbia, MO)

Here’s how music goes viral in our house.

Yesterday, Nicole shared a video with me on Facebook: Dwight Yoakam, Steve Earle, and Lucinda Williams, who are on tour together, singing “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke, and Loud, Loud Music, impromptu and backstage. I’d share it here, but I can’t access it–if you follow Dwight on Facebook you can see it yourself. It’s delightful and soulful.

Dwight, Steve, and Lucinda were on very, very heavy rotation for us during the first decade of our marriage. Nicole dug Dwight from her teen years–I think her grandma loved him and had his records–and I pledged allegiance to him because he pledged allegiance to Lefty, Buck, and Kain-tuck. Steve knocked our socks off with his post-rehab, post-death flirtation comeback–we yelled those songs aloud, and I used “Ben McCullough” in class at every opportunity. And Lucinda? When we started going out, Lucinda Williams was more or less the soundtrack of our life, and I still hold dear her story of playing “I Just Want to See You So Bad” over and over in order to get back home on a solo road trip. From there to Sweet Old World and Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, she was royalty.

Then…well, in artists’ careers shit happens. Steve we continued to enjoy, kinda, but even though we agree with his politics, neither one of us (but especially me) was convinced it did much for his music and songwriting–much of the time, his gift sounded marred by the force of his ideological desires. Dwight, bless his heart to the end, and like fellow artists such as Robert Cray or Tom Petty, has been so damned consistent as to sound somewhat boring–or to be taken for granted. Lucinda? Far more complicated and damning, but post-Car Wheels (though you can hear it creeping in even there) the self-consciousness of both her writing and singing–especially the loss of that golden lightness that balanced the blues in her darker, sadder tunes–just made her unlistenable for us.

Back to the present: it was pouring down rain here today, and after a second look at that video, we slotted Dwight’s This Time, Steve’s I Feel Alright, and Lucinda’s Car Wheels in the CD carousel and let it rip. The thunder, lightning, strange mid-morning darkness, and rain blended with that great stuff to put us in a terrific mood. So we bounced from that to records by three artists Williams evoked on that album: Robert Johnson, Blaze Foley, and –oh yes she did–ZZ Top. Just digging the selections we chose (The Complete Recordings, The Dawg Years, and Deguello) gave us some deeper insight into Lucinda than we already had, which was, I think, plenty ’nuff. And those rekkids inspired us toward wine and Canasta, always an ecstatic combination when we get to spend time together.

I usually get killed in Canasta, but I’d like to think that the next three records in the changer fueled me with better luck. We bounced back to that time-tested trio, with Dwight’s very soulful Gone, Steve’s I-can-too-make-another-great-album-while-sober So You Wanna Be an Outlaw?, and Lucinda’s incandescent Sweet Old World (oh that lightness that will never return to battle the dark). Playing cards with the person you love has never been more fun, and one of the big reasons is how much humanity and warmth (warmth, yes, even with Dwight–it’s in the drawl) and compassion and worldly wisdom these greats can generate. Full disclosure: the two glasses of wine a piece from Rocheport, Missouri’s excellent Les Bourgeois Vineyards should be credited with an assist. I need to get back up stairs, because here’s the score.

Score

Short-shrift Division:

Hands down, one of the very best jazz albums of the year, which I squeezed in when Nicole had to run out to school. Courtesy of Detroit’s JD Allen, who’s been on fire this past decade, with a great assist from guitarist Liberty Ellman, who I’ve previously heard as too proggy but plays with amazing sympathy and invention here, a stunning ballads album:

The Ten Days (June 25th, 2018, Columbia, MO)

On Facebook these days, a kind of game’s going around where you tag people who are insane and will take the time to share their 10 favorites movies or albums, once a day for ten days. On the face of it, it’d seem anyone who’d participate would only be doing so to show off their fabulous taste, and who needs that? It’s already been shown that the ‘book’s great at making folks feel like they’re not measuring up, and I must confess complicity in that process. But I’d like to think there is also an aspect of gifts being paid forward: I can’t really imagine what I’d be like if people hadn’t recommended particular artwerx to me that deflected me into betterment.

I’m plagiarizing myself yet again, but one of the better students I’ve taught who is a passionate fan of music asked me to play, and (as usual) I tweaked the task so I was striving to share albums I loved that few people I know know much about, and albums that spanned genres, just to encourage folks to by God open up a little bit. I thought I’d put ’em all in one place because, upon looking back, I think I met the challenge.

Day 1: Jean Grae–Jeanius

I have been a big rap fan since I heard “Rapper’s Delight” in Carthage, Missouri, in ’79–I had a friend who’d moved there from NYC and brought the single with her–and that condition shows no signs of changing. One of my favorite MCs is Jean Grae, and my favorite Jean release is JEANIUS. Great beats, amazing bars, and hilarious album art. She’s still in the game, and a more underrated female rapper there is not. Enjoy!

Day 2: Willie King–Jukin’ at Bettie’s

I dig juke joint blues as frequently captured by the Fat Possum label, but this ain’t exactly that. First, King’s from Alabama; second, his kit bag’s a bit bigger than the average North Mississippian’s. Not saying he’s better — saying he’s different. He can lock you into a boogie trance, but the occasional keyboards and steadier beat take nothing away from a sweaty good time.

Day 3: Horace Tapscott–The Giant Has Awakened

Horace Tapscott was a great Houston-born, L.A.-based bandleader, composer, pianist, teacher and community activist. Besides being staggeringly effective in all those roles, he planted a tree the branches of which stretch to Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, and Kendrick Lamar. The album from which this, the title cut, comes should be in the jazz canon, and features a frighteningly talented and intense band.

Day 4: The Power of the Trinity–Great Moments in Reggae Harmony

Today’s choice is in the reggae field. Reggae’s produced some KILLER compilation albums: The Harder They Come, Rockers, Tougher Than Tough are just a few. This gem spotlights an era in the music’s development that in its way stands with the glory days of southern soul and the blossoming of doo wop. Great harmony singing, messages of inspiration (we need those now)…and the riddims! Informative notes from Randall Grass if you buy a physical.

Day 5: Johnny Gimble–Texas Dance Party

If you claim to be a country fan and you DON’T know the great fiddler Johnny Gimble (he played other instruments, too), I am sorry–you are not much of a country fan. Gimble played with everybody, from Bob Wills to George Jones to Merle Haggard to Guillermo Nelson. However, he also made his own LPs, and the one from which this track comes is a dandy that you will have no choice but to swing to. Unfortunately, it’s hard to find; I guess that’s what YouTube is for. Dedicated to all my Texas friends and family, and, as always, specifically, to Mr. Walter Daniels!

Day 6: Zeal & Ardor–Devil Is Fine

This act has a new album out, but for me the jury’s still out on it. THIS ONE, however, has rocked our house numerous times. Its combination of metal explosions, slave chant effects, and blues feeling speak to the times mighty well. Don’t be afraid of the devil.

Day 7: Dead Moon–Trash & Burn

It’s odd that it’s taken seven days for me to share my favorite record by Clackamas, Oregon’s greatest punk/garage/ROCK AND ROLL band! A stripped-down, three-piece, three-minutes-and-a-cloud-of-smoke attack that lives up to its title, once you sample this, you’ll want more. Also: to my mind, the most amazing husband and wife combo in American music history–hands down. This goes out to Weeden, Ingrid, Shane, Amanda, and Toody today–you continue to be an inspiration in our household!

Day 8: Bo Dollis Jr. and The Wild Magnolias–We Come to Rumble

New Orleans music is certainly in my wheelhouse. A great subgenre of the NOLA sound is Mardi Gras Indian funk–even when it is simply in chant form, it’s usually got the funk, and it can be argued that funk itself sprang from Indian ritual. Here, the son of a great chief, and now head of one of the most famous tribes, fuel-injects the tradition with a different kind of juice than it’s used to. The lead track, “We Come to Rumble,” serves notice. Mighty kootie fiyo, and get out the way!

Day 9: Lynn August–Sauce Piquante

When most folks think of zydeco, the infectious, accordion-driven dance music of Louisiana and Texas, they think of Clifton Chenier and Buckwheat Zydeco. Mr. Lynn August merits your attention for his love of articulating the r&b basics of the genre as well as reaching wayyyyyyyy back into its furthest past (here, to the juré). The resulting sauce IS piquant!

Day 10: Julius Eastman–Unjust Malaise

It is now in fashion to be singing the praises of classical composer, pianist, and singer Julius Eastman, and I just learned about him two years ago myself. But he worked largely out of the wider public view while he was alive, experienced a tragic and lonely final set of years on this turf, and those circumstances were certainly at least partly due to his being black, gay, and a challenging artistic creator. This collection of many of his best compositions is a powerful introduction. Think about giving it a shot.

Short-shrift Division:

Jon Hassell: Listening To Pictures (Pentimento, Vol. One)–Is anyone as effective in creating ambient music that is soothing yet disruptive, grooveful yet interruptive? I think not. Think for yourself:

The Beginning of the End: The Beginning of the End and Funky Nassau–Seventies fonk from the Bahamas, re-ished by Strut! Records, who still haven’t taken me off their exclusive subscription service, even though I ain’t paid. Vocals not the most inticing, but rhythms and guit might put a hook in yer ass.

Speedy Ortiz: Twerp Verse–No twerp.

The Carters: Everything is Love–Perhaps, but mountains of money helps maintain the illusion if it ain’t. In addition, this couple’s venture into trap soundz is extremely awkward, but they’re daring you not to say so. “No more kings,” saith Bob Dorough.

 

 

Unsteady as She Goes (June 18-24)

Well–I missed a day. I guess I should be excused, as we went on a day trip to Kansas City to attend a Buddhist service with local Tibetan monk and former member of the Dalai Lama’s circle, and rode to and from the city with one of our fondest friends who is also a driver of the Jordan Baker variety. When we returned home, we were drained from sheer fear and relief, and I barely had time to get in my required reading (50 pages plus of Attica Locke’s terrific and East-Texas-musical crime novel, Bluebird, Bluebird) and Marvel’s Luke Cage (Season Two) viewing. So I apologize, but suspect you may not have not have noticed.

Sunday’s customary Spotify Playlist wrap-up of my last week’s aural adventures (quite a bit different from June 23rd’s Apple Music playlist):

Aaaaaand…this week’s awards!

Plucked from History’s Dustbin (best recent purchase of an old record): Ricky Nelson’s Legendary Masters Series aka The Glory of James Burton–ripped from vinyl for me by my pal in New Orleans, Cliff.

Grower, Not a Shower (old record I already owned that’s risen in my esteem): This dude called the Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready to Die…

Encore, Encore! (album I played at least twice this week): Sarayah’s Feel the Vibe.

Through the Cracks (sweet record I forgot to write about): Wilko Johnson’s Blow Your Mind.

Sunday’s Children (this day’s listening that shall be addressed later): BLACKFIRE!

Oh, and a final, critical comment, buried (intentionally?) all the way down here, re: The Carters’ Everything is Love: The titular sentiment may well be true, and more power to them, but a) I’m just not in the mood to attend royalty of any kind, and b) the couple’s attempts to fit into the production zeitgeist of Atlanta sound forced and a little embarrassing to me. For what it’s worth. I kinda like the lead video for its in-your-faceness, but that initial objection still applies.

Head Down, Headphones On—One-liner Edition (June 23rd, 2018, Columbia, MO)

Frustrated at not tending to my vast responsibility to, um, someone, I donned the headphones and powered through some new slabs. Fortunately, they were all at least good.

Mdou Moctar Meets Elite Beat in a Budget Dancehall–The star of the Saharan Purple Rain ducks out of the desert and into a club, and things get looser than they tend to on the sands…not a bad idea at all.

Dave Holland: Uncharted Territories–Two septuagenarian vets of European improvised music join two American youngsters for a two-disc creation session, and the kids’ ideas win (as does the listener, in one of the best free records of 2018).

The Young Mothers: Morose–The latest work starring a product of Texas’ House of Gonzalez (one brainstormed by a Norwegian) melds free jazz, rap, punk, metal, and maybe other stuff in a furious attempt to change that mood–be it in us or the musicians themselves.

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever: Hope Downs–Seems like folks are struggling to describe this Australian act (they’re not a jam band to my ears), but they seem a more straightforward version of The Feelies to me, and that’s a good thing.

Nidia: Nídia É Má, Nídia É Fudida–Just as I’m wondering when JLin going to deliver another package of EDM even a Southwest Missouri boy can love, I find out a Portuguese wizard damn near matched Black Origami with this quirky jam (there may be hope for me yet).

Bonus Bounce:

An Apple Music playlist of some my recent wanderings in that streaming world.

Feelin’ the Vibe (June 22nd, 2018, Columbia, MO)

For the past week, Sarayah’s Feel the Vibe has been throbbing in the lab (aka my ’93 Ford Ranger’s cab). Nicole spotted the album in Louisiana Music Factory, NOLA’s stellar Frenchman Street store, checked it out at the listening station, and placed it on my already-towering stack. The young lady is a product of the Crescent City, with Caribbean roots that blend beautifully with that status, and while she doesn’t quite live up to Basin Street Records’ promotional claim that she weds Rihanna, Ariana Grande, and Kehlani (each of whom are backed by big bucks and state of the art writers and producers), I prefer her to all of the above except Ri, and even then I prefer her half the time. Why? I am no aficionado of club music or modern r&b, but I sense in the tracks and lyrics of Feel the Vibe that they might be a shade generic or corny. However, there is a sweetness and innocence to her commitment to the material, to her belief in herself, to the humility of her offering that’s irresistible. Trappings are few: her island-tinged delivery and exotic presentation on the album cover are about it. Otherwise, she’s naked, especially so without the bells and whistles of a zeitgeistian roll call of beat-finders and knob-twiddlers, and as a result I feel I’m getting a direct and sincere shot from the kid. I don’t club much at 56 in mid-Missouri, but I can easily picture Nicole and I getting the backs of our shirts wet to tracks like “Blaze It Up” and “Start to Finish”–and she can nail a slow one, too, as she proves on “Fire and Ice.” Late in the album, she takes New Orleans music back to its roots on “We Party,” perhaps the track that most suggests her potential. Saràyah: give her a shot. I hope we get to see her live one day.

Short-shrift Division:

A morning spent with the greatest country-soul singer of them all is a morning fully redeemed.

Sweet Birds of Youth (June 21st, 2018, Columbia, MO)

An industrious day of exercise, reading, trip-planning, pretending we were on Bourbon Street, and enjoying rain, breeze, and 70-degree weather (it’s been hot here in Misery). But I had enough time to check out two new live recordings from the vaults, capturing two great acts in their late-girlhood, early womanhood.

Nicole and I always wonder, “Why don’t we listen to Bonnie Raitt more?” A great singer and guitarist, a class act, pretty good quality control, a sense of humor–what’s not to love? To some extent, maybe, she’s so damn consistent she’s either a bit boring or taken too often for granted. The above set, recorded on my tenth birthday, finds her delivering a combo of blues and pop covers, most of which eventually found themselves on her early records, with astounding maturity and command. Her guitar playing is still a shade rough, but it’s passionate. All in all, it might be my favorite Raitt recording, because it’s more alive than her studio output.

I have to admit, I’m not a huge Bangles fan. Their terrific debut, All Over the Place, conveyed garage toughness, featured fetching harmonies and melodies, and exhibited neat rock-historic savvy. For me, though, aside from two great singles and one good-plus corny one, it was all downhill from there. I admire this ’86 live set because it puts all the good-to-great stuff in one place, on a decent night, with just a touch of the toughness gone.

Short-shrift Division:

Revisited two old YouTube playlists from our faux-NOLA frozen-drink cloud:

Funkadelic, Mayfield, Redding, and Gaye Day (June 20th, 2018, Columbia, MO)

One thing I’ve noticed about this listening diary project is it makes me feel too responsible. Specifically, responsible for playing new releases, and even new acquisitions (not the same thing anymore)–sometimes months will pass before I actually slap a mailman’s present on the turntable. The deal is–by this time in a normal year I’d have probably listened to Professor Longhair’s Crawfish Fiesta five times by now, or had a couple-three “Dylan Days” or “Wills Weeks.” I feel like I’ve neglected many time-tested goodies.

Not today. National news got to my ass yesterday, so I needed medicine today–proven medicine.

I thought listening to Marvin Gaye’s evolution might be healing, so I journeyed with him from “How Sweet It Is” through Here, My Dear. Speaking of which, a recent reissue tagged on an extra disc of alternate takes, extended versions, and disco mixes. That usually translates to crap, but in this case, the alternates, arrayed in the same running order as the official version, is superior–more grooveful, more funky, and better balanced against the subject matter (divorce). It was good to me!

Good to me? The way to keep that buzz going? O-T-I-S! Stacked up the fantastic Dictionary of Soul, the underrated duet album with Carla Thomas (they were never in the studio at the same time, BTW), and a cherry-picked Dock of the Bay, with this deep-cut fave:

They say two martinis are perfect, no need for a third. Not true with a soul record shakedown, but I needed a little mescaline in my grits, so I moved on to my three favorite Funkadelic albums, Let’s Take It To The Stage, the accurately-titled Hardcore Jollies, and, of course, One Nation Under a Groove. In some ways, the group’s extraterrestrial/subterrestrial (get me?) fusion was even more of a balm than Marvin’s yearning and Otis’ good cheer–I was reminded that, as Hunter Thompson wrote, “when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” Evidence?

(I used to skip this song; now, I never miss it)

(Even more righteous 40 years later!)

At present I’m rolling behind some Curtis Mayfield pickin’ and persuadin’, specifically We’re a Winner and The Fabulous Impressions, which features the incandescent “Isle of the Sirens,” simultaneously the greatest pop song ever written about The Odyssey and one of Mayfield’s greatest patented encouragements to The Movement:

It felt so good to be irresponsible today. I think I’ll make a week of it.

Literary Notes:

I finished Chris Weingarten’s 33 1/3 series venture upon PE’s Nation of Millions. 4.3 outta 5: consistently interesting, witty a bit more than intermittently, and, most important, informative. You’ll learn much about the construction, contents, and context of the record, including a bounty of detail about records sampled and simply influential. In case you decide to read it, here’s a completed musical companion–you’ll be delighted and surprised. Put ‘er on shuffle for best results!

What’s the Matter with Me? (June 19, 2018, Columbia, MO)

I don’t have much to say. The national scene is so ugly I actually thought today, “What if two years from now I look back and say, ‘This is when it started’?” I also took a second to reflect on Tim Snyder’s 20 lessons (about totalitarianism) from the 20th century, and you can draw a line through quite a few here in the USA…he didn’t even really mentioning taking children from “the other” and stashing them away. Then, I read about civil rights being struck from high school history books in Michigan–and the current administration leaving the UN Human Rights Council (what–a bit over a week after mugging around with and flatteting a full-blown totalitarian dictator?). It’s fucking depressing, I couldn’t focus on reading, and for the most part didn’t even want to listen to music. Ever felt that way?

Anyway, some exceptions.

Poolside during 10:45-11:45 am “adult swim” (not as great as the man’s sessions w/Sonny Clark, but loosey-goosier):

Fighting off full-on rage with a new purchase of an old record that fits the moment damn well:

Celebrating Juneteenth in my head (Peter Stampfel is always good for joy in the face of the void):

And celebrating my friend David’s 71st birthday in his classical music lair:

Also discussed in the lair (over Moscow Mules and gage): Korn…or gold?

Good night. May tomorrow bring some justice.

P. S. Piano man at Murry’s? That was a DAMN fine “Jitterbug Waltz”!

Road Riffin’ (June 18th, 2018, Highways 62, 37, I-44, 5, 54, 63, 70)

On our way up Arkansas 62 to Missouri 37, trying to figure out what Carter Family tune purloined the melody from Dick Justice’s “Henry Lee”:

Answer?

Roaring up I-44, trying to keep Nicole awake, I sprung something on her that she’d gotten a few seconds’ earful of Saturday. I am not unerring in matching new stuff with her very refined taste:

Response: “My face hurts!”

Staying revved on MO-5, -54, -63, and I-70, with iced tea, Redmon’s candy, and selections from such illustrious releases as Wanna Buy A Bridge?, 1977 Roxy London Live, Dangerhouse Complete Singles, The Best Punk Rock Album in the World Ever, and Rhino’s D.I.Y. series–a yell-along, slap-yer-dashboard, punk-rock party:

Short-shrift Division:

Exit Through the (Crystal Bridges) Gift Shop…