Music Library: Cluster, Coachmen, Col. Bruce Hampton & Aquarium Rescue Unit, Colin Meloy

Cluster - Zuckerzeit. Electronic krautrock similar to the early Kraftwerk albums, with Cluster's spacey electropop over driving motorik drumming. Excellent!

The Coachmen - Failure To Thrive. This is an EP by Thurston Moore's first band (which is the only release they made during their original run, but they have reformed in the last few years with a few new musicians), and it's a great garage-y Velvet-y affair.

Col. Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit - Col. Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit. Col. Bruce Hampton has been around the avant-music scene since his stint in the Hampton Grease Band in the early 70s. This is from a brief foray into jam-band music, as the name "Aquarium Rescue Unit" should tell you. I really liked them when I saw them back in 1992, but I've grown a considerable aversion to jam-band music since. I should point out that most of the members went on to play in other jam-bands of various quality. The best would be The Allman Brothers Band, which bassist Oteil Burbridge (who pops up as a thuggish youth, incidentally, in Being There) joined in the 90s. There's also Widespread Panic, which guitarist Jimmy Herring joined in the 90s, and a number of Leftover Salmon/Butch Trucks/Phish-offshoot types of projects, too. And Bruce Hampton is still plugging along in weirder and far more interesting bands.

Colin Meloy - Colin Meloy Sings Morrissey, Colin Meloy Sings Shirley Collins, Colin Meloy Sings Live!. Meloy is, of course, the lead singer and songwriter for the Decemberists, and these albums feature him playing the songs of his influences and, on the latter, a mix of covers and some of his own tracks done up all acoustic-style. Which I like better than that proggish monstrosity the Decemberists released this year. Because the Decemberists are talented stylists of folk-based music, but they most decidedly do not rock. Anyway, the first two of these are EPs, which I enjoy more than the full-length latter album, just because they're more thematically concise and fun than Meloy's live acoustic show.