Music Library: Johann Sebastian Bach, John Browning, John Cage

Johann Sebastian Bach - from The Complete Works (date unknown): The Art Of The Fugue, Sechs kleine Präludien, Suite In F flat Major, Präludium & Fuge in A minor, Fuge in C Major, Präludium & Fuge in G Major, Präludium & Fughetta in D minor, Präludium & Fuge in E minor, Suite in A minor, Präludium & Fuge in F Major, Menuet in C minor, Menuet in E flat Major, Präludium & Fuge in A minor. Performed by Menno van Delft or Jan Belder on harpsichord. I'm always up for The Art of the Fugue, but I think I prefer a performance on piano or organ (a la the Glenn Gould performance in my collection) better than harpsichord. These represent about three discs of that megazillion-disc set that came out a few years back.

John Browning - Mozart: Concertos for Piano Nos. 9 & 23 (1995) and John Browning Plays Mozart Sonatas (2003). Browning died in 1997, so the latter is a compilation. Anyway, yes, Browning plays piano beautifully. And that Mozart guy sure could write. And, with that, I hope that I am bottoming out on worthless comments about music forms that I barely grasp. Incidentally, I should mention that I am hereto recategorizing classical music under the composer's name (keeping the performer as the artist, but using the composer as the "album artist," so to speak), which I think will make it easier for me to find the music I want.

John Cage - Indeterminacy (with David Tudor, 1959), John Cage Meets Sun Ra (1987), Cage: In A Landscape (performed by Stephen Drury, 1994), Cage: Complete Piano Music, Volume 8 (Hommage à Satie) (performed by Steffen Schleiermacher, 2002). From the formal compositional style of Bach and Mozart to Cage's experimental pieces influenced by Buddhism and chance and then back to proto-minimalism. Cage is well known for his composition of rests, 4'33", which, among other things, serves to remind listeners that they are part of a performance, too. To listen to Indeterminacy is to touch the ineffable. In this composition/performance/lecture/sermon, Cage tells stories about his life or people he has known or stories from Eastern literature (especially the Chuang Tzu) while David Tudor, in a separate studio and unable to hear Cage, plays piano and manipulates electronics according to an indeterminate score. Cage sometimes rushes and sometimes sloooooowly drawls the story according to his own indeterminate score. Often there are sudden silence punctuated by rushes of sound, and Tudor's noise manipulations work surprisingly well with Cage's tales. Take some time and read a few of Cage's stories. Extraordinary stuff. John Cage Meets Sun Ra is a public domain album (find it on ubunet or through a mere Google search if you dare) that documents a live performance which alternates Sun Ra improvising on synthesizers with Cage expressing the meaningless syllables of his composition Empty Words. The two come together at the end of the performance in a joyful way. The latter two albums are Satie-esque minimalist compositions performed on either piano, a prepared piano, or harp. They aren't anywhere as challenging as the prior two works, but a welcome respite from transcendence back into near-ambient music.

November Mixtape: Sad Hulk's Car Jamz

HULK: HULK VULNERABLE! PUNY LADY SMASH HULK HEART! HULK MAKE MIX CD TO LET HEALING BEGIN! YOU COME ALONG FOR RIDE WHILE HULK VENT HURT FEELINGS! HULK'S SMARTCAR HAVE PLENTY OF ROOM! HULK SAVING PLANET! BUT WHO SAVE HULK?

Song #1: "Who Is The Silliest Rossi?" - Bird Nest Roys
HULK LOVE UPBEAT SONG. PUT HULK IN GOOD MOOD! LA LA LA LA!

Song #2: "Sea Of Heartbreak" - Don Gibson
Song #3: "Goodbye Baby" - Jack Scott
HULK NEED MOMENT. (SIGH) HULK LYING WHEN HULK SUGGEST HULK CAREFREE. HULK IN PAIN, PUNY HUMAN. HULK-SIZE PAIN.

Song #4: "Life's Little Ups and Downs" - Charlie Rich
Song #5: "Withered & Died" - Richard & Linda Thompson
HULK NEED HUG. BUT HULK CRUSH ALL WHO TRY TO HUG HULK. HULK FACING CONUNDRUM.

Song #6: "Please Don't Leave Me Lonely" - Kelly Hogan
Song #7: "Love Letters" - Ketty Lester
PUNY WOMAN NEVER LIKE HULK CALL HER PUNY. HURT HER PUNY FEELINGS. THEN SHE, SHE HURT HULK MIGHTY FEELINGS. NOW HULK PUNY! ONLY ON INSIDE! STILL MIGHTY ON OUTSIDE! HULK STILL MIGHTY HULK WHERE IT COUNT! NOT TALKING ABOUT PENIS!

Song #8: "I'll Always Know" - Merle Haggard
Song #9: "Who's Been Talking" - Howlin' Wolf
Song #10: "Crazy With Love" - George "Bongo Joe" Coleman
(SIGH) HULK NOTHING BUT FARCE. SONG TELL HULK ABOUT UNIVERSAL PAIN. HULK WANT TO SMASH! BUT HULK CANNOT SMASH WHAT IS WITHIN ALL OF US. HULK MAY READ 'DIANETICS.' HULK FRIEND THOR ALWAYS GOING ON ABOUT IT.

Song #11: "Bicycle Built For Two" - John Fahey
Song #12: "Fater" - Richard Buckner
HULK WEEP MIGHTY TEARS! NOT PUNY TEARS LIKE HUMAN! HULK NO CRY LIKE BABY! DON'T LOOK AT HULK RIGHT NOW!

Song #13: "Blue" - The Jayhawks
Song #14: "Revenge" - Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse with The Flaming Lips
HULK REMEMBER WALKS ON BEACH, SWEET NOTHINGS AT BEDTIME. HULK THINK OF WORDS OF JAMES WRIGHT, WHOM HULK STUDY WHILE WORKING ON MASTER'S FROM NEW COLLEGE: "DEAD RICHES, DEAD HANDS, MOON/DARKENS,/AND I AM LOST IN BEAUTIFUL WHITE RUIN/OF AMERICA." HULK VERKLEMPT.

Song #15: "How Will You Love Me?" - Nina Nastasia & Jim White
HULK GROW WEARY OF WHINING. BUT HULK NOT READY TO HULK UP AND FACE REALITY. HULK WANT PUNY LADY BACK, BUT HULK ALSO WANT TO SMASH HER! BUT HULK NO WANT COURT-ORDERED AGGRESSION COUNSELING AGAIN!

Song #16: "Am I That Easy To Forget?" - Lee Hazlewood & Ann-Margret
AAAARGH! THIS SONG MAKE HULK ANGRY! HIT FAST-FORWARD BUTTON! YOU REALLY WOULDN'T LIKE HULK WHEN HULK ANGRY!

Song #17: "Isn't Life Strange?" - The Clientele
NOOOOOOOO! AAAAARGH!

Song #18: "Bright Side" - The Soft Pack
Song #19: "Touch Senstitive" - The Fall

Banner: Hey, I'm Bruce Banner. That whiny bitch Hulk still going on about what's-her-face? What a pussy, huh? What's he playing here, his mix tape of crybaby shit? Big green pussy-whipped bitch. I swear, one day I'm going to toss this thing and load this stereo up with some real music. By which I mean hair metal from the 80s. 'Cause, who doesn't love a power ballad, am I right? Jesus, listen to this shit. Hulk is such a Pitchfork wussyboy.

Song #20: "Love Goes On!" - The Go-Betweens
Song #21: "How Can You Be So Beautiful?" - Club Wig

Anyway, my plan is to hit all the right clubs to get into some strange tonight. You ready for the nonstop action that comes with being my wingman? I have picked up a few tips on how to make the ladies go crazy for you from that tv show about how to make the ladies go crazy for guys. Only one rule! But it's a firm one: no fucking Arabs. I hate those terrorist camel-lovers, am I right? We should have let Cheney bomb that place back to the Stone Age when we had a chance! Ha! That would have been totally awesome. Hey, I heard this hilarious fucking joke about wetbacks on Jeff Dunham the other nigh---- AAARGHH, NO! NOT YET! NOOOOOOOO!

Song #22: "I Remember Me" - Silver Jews
Song #23: "Can You Whoop It?" - The Dexateens
HULK: HULK SORRY ABOUT THAT! BANNER GO CRAZY AFTER 9/11. WATCH FOX NEWS ALL DAY AND BUY GIRLS GONE WILD VIDEOS! HULK FEEL SORRY FOR BANNER! BUT HULK ALSO HATE BANNER! BANNER RACIST! CALL HULK 'BOOGER JOCKEY'! WHAT THAT ABOUT? HULK NOT EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!

Song #24: "Love, Love, Love (Everyone)" - Akron/Family
HULK TREAT HEARTBREAK AS LEARNING EXPERIENCE. HULK FRIEND CAPTAIN AMERICA SAY WHAT DON'T KILL HULK MAKE HULK MORE MIGHTY. NOTHING KILL HULK! THAT WHY HULK MIGHTIEST OF ALL! HULK SMASH PUNY FEELINGS!

Song #25: "Bein' Green" - Rowlff The Dog
WHY HULK END WITH THIS SONG? IT SADDEST SONG OF ALL! HULK SO STUPID SOMETIMES! WHY HULK HOOK UP WITH PUNY HUMAN LADY IN FIRST PLACE? HULK NO NEED WOMEN TO BE ANGRY-HAPPY! HULK JUST NEED SUMMER DAY AND PUNY THINGS TO SMASH! HULK PERSPECTIVE ALL SKEWED! THIS MAKE HULK ANGRY! HULK SMASH PUNY SMARTCAR! HULK SMASH PUNY MIXTAPE! HULK--- AAAAAARGH! NOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOO!

Banner: Hey, I'm back! And I brought spray-on tan for everyone!

Bonus disc: SAD HULK'S BONG HITS

1. "Message" - Boris
2. "Divinations" - Mastodon
3. "Godspeed (Edit)" - Earthless
4. "Holy Tears" - Isis
5. "Death Goes To The Winner" - Harvey Milk
6. "Rise To Glory" - Earth
7. "Sun Stoned" - Spirit Caravan
8. "Spaceship Broken-Parts Needed" - Pelican
9. "Healer" - Torche
10. "Holy Mountain" - Sleep
11. "Bhimas' Theme" - Om
12. "On Form And Growth" - Turing Machine
13. "Wailing Wintry Wind" - Baroness

Music Library: Jody Harris & Robert Quine, Jody Reynolds, Joe Ely, Joe Jackson, Joe Maphis, Joe Strummer, Joel Plaskett, Joey Ramone

Jody Harris & Robert Quine - Escape (1981). Two underappreciated guitar greats make some spidery, skronky, and creepy instrumental pseudo-funk. Among the appropriately titled tracks: "Flagpole Jitters" and "Termites of 1938." Hard to find, but pretty worthwhile for fans of no-wave or Quine.

Jody Reynolds - "Fire Of Love." Killer rockabilly tune that was later re-recorded by The Gun Club.

Joe Ely - Honky Tonk Masquerade (1978). This albums is between Ely's time in the Flatlanders - the great band with Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, and a singing saw - and his tour with the Clash that brought him to a greater audience. It's a pretty definitive version of Texas country music, with elements of the Tex-Mex sound that influenced so many songwriters from here and an emotional gamut that runs from "I'm sad, so let's dance" to "I like this song, so let's dance." Ely has a great delivery and I especially love Butch Hancock's songs, so it's nice to hear them and "Tonight I Think I'm Gonna Go Downtown" in this context.

Joe Jackson - Look Sharp! (1979). Like Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe, Jackson wrote great pop songs with enough snarl to be fashionably punky (some folks call this the genre of "new wave," but I don't really trust that term). All of the songs on this album are smart, economical, literate, and witty. Highly recommended.

Joe Maphis - Fire On The Strings (1957). After reviewing Jimmy Bryant the other day, it seems appropriate that Joe Maphis would come up so soon (and not just because I'm going alphabetically through this). Like Bryant, Maphis is a fast-as-greased-shit player who brought bluegrass variations to the electric guitar. These are all instrumental tracks that are as much about a virtuoso having fun as they are about speed and precision. Maphis isn't quite as witty a player as Bryant (probably because the latter listened to much more swing and, in particular, Django Reinhardt), but he's pretty amazing, anyway.

Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros - Global A Go Go (2001) and Streetcore (2003). Ah, we miss you, Joe. The former of these starts with the excellent "Johnny Appleseed," which I can't hear now without picturing the fantastic opening credits sequence from John From Cincinnati. Other than that, it's ok folk-rock with elements of different world music. Streetcore is a posthumous release with more rock and reggae than the prior album. It's ok, but I could go the rest of my life without hearing anyone, especially a white guy, covering Bob Marley's "Redemption Song."

Joel Plaskett - "Powerful Lights." Great little indie-folk song that abruptly turns into a rock song about 2/3 of the way through. I might have gotten it as a free download from eMusic. This was the first time I'd listened to it, though.

Joey Ramone - Don't Worry About Me (2002). Jeez, another posthumous release from a punk rock legend. This one is more focused than the later Ramones releases (and make no mistake, it sounds like the Ramones), but almost unbearably poignant given the circumstances of its release.

Music Library: Jimmie Rodgers, Jimmy Bryant, Jimmy Reed, Jimmy Rushing, Jimmy Smith, Jimmy Strong, JJ Cale, Joanna Newsom

Jimmie Rodgers - The Essential Jimmie Rodgers (recorded 1927 - 1931). As Allmusic points out, his plaque in the Country Music Hall Of Fame identifies the Singing Brakeman as the one who started it all. That's right. Rodgers, born in Meridian, Mississippi but son of the railroad, played a music that blended all of the folk music sounds he heard while riding the rails and the result is basically the Rosetta Stone of 20th century popular music. That's a little simplistic, but mostly true. Rodgers's yodelling blues can be heard in country, nascent rock & roll, blues (Howlin' Wolf was, legendarily, attempting a version of Rodgers's yodel when he came up with his trademark growl), and folk music. And music so old and primal (relatively speaking) has no cause to be as enjoyable as it is, but it's absolutely brilliant.

Jimmy Bryant - Frettin' Fingers: The Lightning Guitar of Jimmy Bryant (recorded 1950-1967). Man, what a pleasure these discs were! Jimmy Bryant, perhaps best known as a country session guitarist from the 50s and 60s, was a guitarist of unsurpassed skill, speed, and inventiveness. Seriously. He's faster than Yngwie Malmsteen when he wants to be, but lo and behold, he never let his speed impede the flow of the song. About half of the 75-odd tracks from this utterly amazing 3-disc set are from his collaboration with pedal steel virtuoso Speedy West in the 50s (and we'll hit those again when we get to the letter S), while the other half are from his solo albums in the late 60s. Every track is mindblowing from a technical standpoint (when I listen as a guitarist, that is), but as in the music of Bryant's muse Django Reinhardt, they freakin' swing like hell and you could play them for anyone without worries. When playing with West, Bryant and West tend to trade off of each other in the style of Bob Wills's Texas Playboys Eldon Shamblin and Leon McAuliffe, who pioneered the pedal-steel-and-electric-guitar attack a decade before. Both were significantly more flashy players than Shamblin and McAuliffe, though, and the music feels less like Western Swing than something harder to define. On his own in the late 60s, Bryant tried on a number of styles, including exotica, surf, and Link Wray-style rock & roll, and the man just killed at all of them. I don't think I can rate this stuff highly enough. Fan-freakin'-tastic. Recommended for people with ears. Oh, side point for guitar geeks: Leon Fender built his first guitar for Jimmy Bryant. Or so I have read.

Heck, here's West and Bryant playing off each other on live tv:

OK, here's another. Not live, just the studio version of "Stratosphere Boogie" with images of the two. That awesome guitar effect is achieved with a 12-string tuned in 3rds.

Jimmy Reed - Jimmy Reed Plays 12 String Guitar Blues (1963). Jimmy Reed is best-known for his simple and direct blues songs and vocal style, but this album is unlike the typical Jimmy Reed style. Here, the man plays lead before a cooking rhythm section on an acoustic 12-string guitar and accompanies himself on overdubbed harmonica. It's actually wonderful, although so out of character that I really should have an album of Reed doing his thing the usual way. Because the typical Jimmy Reed song sounds exactly like what most people think of when they think of the blues. This isn't because Reed was a generic blues artist, but a definitive one.

Jimmy Rushing - 1930-1938. Known as Mr. Five-By-Five, Jimmy Rushing was a jump blues shouter who had a great career with Kansas City swing jazz pioneer Bennie Moten in the 1930s. When Moten died suddenly, Rushing hooked up with Count Basie and sang lead for Basie's Orchestra for the next decade or so. This is great stuff, perhaps not as much up my alley as what immediately precedes it in my library, but still fun as heck.

Jimmy Smith - Walk On The Wild Side: The Best Of The Verve Years (recorded 1962-1973). The greatness keeps humming! The king of the Hammond organ, Jimmy Smith made the instrument a viable lead in jazz. This 2-disc compilation captures his forays into big band music and tight little funk-jazz combos. Excellent!

Jimmy Strong - This Is How The Bee Bops (unknown). My awesome in-laws heard Strong do his skat-violin bee-bop thing whilst on vacation and they brought me a CD. I don't know anything about Mr. Strong, but this is pretty entertaining.

JJ Cale - "Call The Doctor." The music to this sounds like the music to "Summertime." That's about all I know to say about JJ Cale. OK, one story: not long after moving to Austin, I auditioned a drummer who answered my ad in the Austin Chronicle that mentioned the Velvet Underground. He didn't know any Velvet Underground songs or any other songs by artists I mentioned (except the Kinks, but he wanted to do "You Really Got Me" instead of my choice, "Shangri-La"). But he kept trying to convince me to play some JJ Cale. I told him I didn't know any JJ Cale. He asked me how I could be a Velvet Underground fan and not know JJ Cale. I was baffled. Finally, I asked him what in the world JJ Cale had to do with the Velvet Underground. You have probably figured this out by now. Drummer dude: "He was their bassist, man! Don't you know anything?" He seemed so smug about it that I didn't have the heart to defend poor ol' John Cale's honor.

Joanna Newsom - Walnut Whales EP (2002), Yarn And Glue EP (2003), The Milk-Eyed Mender (2004), "What We Have Known," Ys. (2006), and Joanna Newsom And The Ys Street Band EP (2007). I sure like Ms. Newsom's music. I think her idiosyncratic voice is a national treasure, and her songs are drop-dead amazing, structurally, lyrically, and in performance. She's definitely mining a vein of folk music that seems completely American and yet weirdly ancient, too, as if the current American civilization had the long, storied history of, say, Great Britain. I mean, to some extent, yes, it has the exact same long, storied history as Great Britain, but the folk music of America is a different beast. And somehow she does it on a harp, which makes it sound like sometimes she's playing piano and sometimes like a fingerpicked guitar. And seeing as how she's all of 27 as of this writing, I honestly can't wait to hear what she comes up with next. So, the two EPs were limited release, but some kind soul posted them to a blog. The songs are mostly complete versions of the tracks from Milk-Eyed Mender, but she re-recorded those tracks for her first full-length album. That album is stunningly great. The single was the b-side of the "Sprout and the Bean" single, another re-recording from an EP. It's ok, but best as a b-side. Ys. is an amazing work, a collaboration of sorts with Van Dyke Parks named after a mythical French city. I want to unravel the lyrics at some point, but I've never taken the time. The Ys Street Band EP is a 3-song live album with a new song, a reworking of "Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie" from Milk-Eyed Mender and a fantastic reworking of "Cosmia" from Ys. that is my favorite thing she's done.

Music Library: Jim Carroll Band, Jim Hall & Pat Metheny, Jim Henson, Jim O'Rourke, Jim Reeves, Jim White, Jimi Hendrix, PLUS Clean, Destroyer

The Jim Carroll Band - Catholic Boy (1980). He just passed away to the tune of a million refrains of his best-known song, so you probably know the most salient facts about Jim "The Basketball Diaries" Carroll. This is the debut album of his band, featuring the song that cemented his reputation, "People Who Died." It's still a killer track. Carroll was inspired by Patti Smith to form a band, and it's hard not to hear her influence on these tracks (complete with a Blue Öyster Cult connection!). But her work is better, which is not to say that this isn't good. In fact, it is pretty good. But outside of the title track and "People Who Died," it sounds like the filler parts of Patti Smith's early albums.

Jim Hall & Pat Metheny - Jim Hall & Pat Metheny (1999). Snoozy effort with two notable jazz guitars improvising around themes. It should be apparent by now that I'm a guitar nut with high tolerance for self-indulgent noodling and highly focused theatrics and other flashy wheedla wheedla wheedla. There is none of that here. This is restrained to the point of irritation.

Jim Henson/Rowlf The Dog - Ol' Brown Ears Is Back (1993). Recorded in 1984 but not released until three years after Henson's death, this is an album of Henson in character as Rowlf The Dog doing Muppet songs and standards. With all the jokey asides and long (please forgive me for this) shaggy-dog introductions, casual listeners to this album might fool themselves into believing that they were listening to some lost Tom Waits live album from his early Tin Pan Alley-esque stage. Being a child of the 70s, I'm very fond of Henson and the Muppets as well as the Tom Waits crooner albums, so this is pretty fun for me.

Jim O'Rourke - Bad Timing (1997), Eureka (1999), Halfway To A Threeway (1999), I'm Happy And I'm Singing And A 1, 2, 3, 4 (2001), Insignificance (2001), and "Pictures Of Adolph Again" (with Glenn Kotche). You might think, upon listening to all of the different sounds on these albums, that you had achieved a full understanding of O'Rourke and his music. But you would be wrong. At the most basic level, O'Rourke is a composer and avant-noise aficionado with enough sympathy for pop music to synthesize all of the disparate sounds that appeal to him in such a way that he can make sounds that are interesting to fans of the avant-garde without alienating a more mainstream audience. Which is how he has come to produce some of the most innovative pop & rock albums of the last decade while maintaining ties to a more difficult artistic community. So I admire the guy. Who doesn't? Upon seeing him and Richard Thompson in the studio together for the sessions that led to the soundtrack to Herzog's film Grizzly Man, I got my hopes up that he would produce an album for Thompson. Not to be, at least so far. But a man can hope. I mean, I know many of Thompson's fans hated Mitchell Froom's production on his 90s albums, but I think O'Rourke has a more sensitive ear than Froom, one more friendly to folk music and how it can intersect with avant-noise. So, my fantasies of a better Richard Thompson album aside, let's talk about Jim O'Rourke's albums. At least, these Jim O'Rourke albums. Bad Timing is a mostly-acoustic John Fahey-esque album that combines fingerpicked acoustic guitar with some light electronics, not unlike some of Fahey's later work. I love it. It has some affinity with the Gastr del Sol music that O'Rourke was making around the same time with David Grubbs, but it's a different animal. Eureka is a decent orchestrated pop album, and Halfway To A Threeway (an EP) blends the acoustic feel of Bad Timing with the some of the same sounds as Eureka, but the songs actually seem a little stronger than either. I'm Happy etc. is laptop music of minimalist compositions. Insignificance, which features Wilco's Jeff Tweedy and Glenn Kotche (the three of them comprise the group Loose Fur) and avant-jazz guys Rob Mazurek and Ken Vandermark, is a straight-up rock album with all sorts of surprising flourishes. It's fantastic. The single with Kotche is a piano-driven Elton John-esque pop song. Surprise!

Jim Reeves - "He'll Have To Go." God, could Jim Reeves sing. I keep meaning to drop the $20 that will buy me a two-disc career overview, but I haven't done it yet. This song is the 50s country version of a booty call in which Reeves plays a drunk calling his lady to ask her to ditch her beau so that he can talk with her the way he wants to. Awesome.

Jim White & Aimee Mann - "Static On The Radio." Less awesome. Jim White's an alt-country songwriter from Pensacola, FL with a bent towards odd sounds. I saw him play a bunch of years ago and was blown away, but I've never heard any studio recordings that threaten to move me nearly as much. This song, a duet with Aimee Mann, is so-so at best.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced (1967), Axis: Bold As Love (1967), and Electric Ladyland (1968). I thought that overexposure would have limited my appreciation for these albums, but boy was I wrong. These are still stunning, amazing, awestrikingly great albums: sonically rich, experimental, beautiful, abrasive, moving. Songs from these albums are often used in movies to signify "the late 60s," but I can't for the life of me think of another artist from the late 60s that had the creativity to sound like this.

Catch up!

The Clean - Mashed (2008). Live Clean album that's unreleased in the US. Camper Van Beethoven called one of their live albums Greatest Hits Played Faster. Also true here, but I love the Clean, so that's okay by me.

Destroyer - Streethawk: A Seduction (2001). I'm doing Destroyer wrong, working my way backwards like this, because instead of hearing Dan Bejar grow as an artist, I'm hearing him devolve. But I can't unring a bell. This is still excellent, and if I weren't so besotted with later Destroyer albums, this would be one I would recommend to everyone.

Music Library: Jesse Sykes, Jesu, Jesus & Mary Chain, PLUS Arthur Russell, Caetano Veloso, Fall, Godflesh, Harvey Milk

Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter - Like, Love, Lust and the Open Halls of the Soul (2007). Sykes has an interesting voice, a brassy-yet-breathy low instrument that is strangely genderless. While her music rooted is rooted in folk and country, she and her collaborator Phil Wandscher (formerly of Whiskeytown) bring in elements of jazz and psychedelia that leave this album feeling unstuck in time. Further complicating matters is that her label is Southern Lord, the metal juggernaut run by Sunn 0)))'s Greg Anderson. And Sykes sang on the Sunn 0)))/Boris collaboration Altar. So, yes, she's hard to pigeonhole, but that is not a bad thing by any means.

Jesu - Heart Ache EP (2004), Jesu (2004), Conqueror (2007), Lifeline EP (2007). Led by Justin Broadrick, formerly of Godflesh and Napalm Death, Jesu is one part Black Sabbath, one part My Bloody Valentine, one part Swans, and two parts so elusive I can't put my finger on them. Definitely interesting music, even if I don't know what it all means.

The Jesus & Mary Chain - Psychocandy (1985). Killer, killer, killer. Big pop hooks with layers upon layers of howling feedback guitars. I mean, the Ramones had this idea first, but they only took it so far. With the Jesus & Mary Chain, the guitars are so overdriven that it's sometimes hard to hear if they're even playing chords or just letting their guitars turn into a wall of squelchy, squalling sound. Fantastic.

Catch-up!

Arthur Russell - Tower Of Meaning (1983) and World Of Echo (1986). The former is a minimalist compositional work with patterns that swell and abruptly cease. Lovely stuff. But the latter, a collection of songs and demos, is breathtaking. I reviewed the other Russell albums I have (Let's Go Swimming EP and Calling Out Of Context) back in 2008 when I was far more terse than I am now, but these are a reminder of just how astonishing his talent was.

Caetano Veloso - Caetano Veloso (1969). This is the 2nd of Veloso's five self-titled albums, and it was also, not-so-coincidentally, his second solo album. I wrote about the other Veloso albums in my discography back in April. The basic tracks for this album were recorded while Veloso and Gilberto Gil were imprisoned by Brazil's military dictatorship. The Tropicalia elements were added in-studio later. Veloso and Gil were exiled from Brazil later in 1969, and they spent the next few years in London, where Veloso recorded and released the third of his self-titled albums in 1971. This one is a sadder and more desperate-sounding album, as befits its circumstances.

The Fall - Imperial Wax Solvent (2008). I reviewed the Fall's catalog in early August. And a few weeks ago, I discussed a couple of newer acquisitions. I've finally picked up the most recent Fall studio album, and hoo boy, it's a great one. The album starts with "Alton Towers," driven by bass and electronics, which could be the work of any top-notch new band of the 00s, and quickly segues into the punk-slash-burn of "Wolf Kidult Man," another track that stakes out the Fall as vital and exciting as they ever were. These claims to youth lead into "50 Year Old Man," which is 11+ minutes of sonic exploration (seriously? a banjo solo?) with Mark E. Smith hammering out the lyrics, including the refrain, "I'm a 50 year old man/what are you going to do about it?" Awesome. Following this is a song by keyboardist Eleni Polou (and MES's current wife), "I've Been Duped," which she sings with a great call-and-response from the rest of the band. The Fall covers The Groundhogs' "Strange Town," meaning that the Groundhogs have now been covered by both The Fall and Earthless, a unique honor. The remainder of the album includes one Kraftwerk-esque electronic track and a bunch of songs that sound like, well, The Fall. Which is great, because The Fall rocks.

Godflesh - Streetcleaner (1990) and Messiah EP (1994). Seemed appropriate to mention these in the same post as Jesu. Godflesh is both more metal and industrial-sounding than Jesu, with much less of a shoegaze-y wash of sound. There's a lot more Big Black and Throbbing Gristle in the sound than I had expected before hearing it. I wish I'd heard this band when I was younger. Where I'm at now, I prefer Jesu's headier sound.

Harvey Milk - My Love Is Higher Than Your Assessment of What My Love Could Be (1994). Jesu's labelmates Harvey Milk have become one of my favorite art-metal bands. This is their first release, a mix of extra-slow Sabbath-y riffs, sudden shifts into silence or quietly played intricate guitarworks, and aggressively weird twists and turns. Dramatic, powerful music, even if it is not as strong as 1995's Courtesy And Good Will Toward Men or 2008's Life... The Only Game In Town.

Music Library: Jellydots, Jellyfish, Jenny Hoyston, Jenny Lewis, Jennyanykind, Jens Lekman, Jerry Garcia & David Grisman, Jerry Lee Lewis

The Jellydots - "Hey You Kids" (2006). As a parent, I know how tough it is to find children's music that both you and they can enjoy. I mean, it's great that my son loves Black Sabbath sometimes, but he's not always in the mood for doom metal, being, y'know, a four-year-old and all. The Austin band the Jellydots play music that's straightforward power pop, always a good thing for my kids. And the songs work as children's songs but make a few nods to the adults listening in. Not so bad!

Jellyfish - "The Ghost At Number One." Decent power-pop. This band is beloved by many people, so I know I should probably listen to them more often.

Jenny Hoyston & William Elliott - "First of a Thousand Beasts." I think this alt-country track was a free eMusic download. It's pretty good. I like the singing saw.

Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins - "Rise Up With Fists!!!" This was on a mix I got way back when that was broken up by iTunes when my library crashed in 2007. I like how Jenny Lewis looks, 'cause hot damn! is she a looker, but I find her music sorta tepid.

Jennyanykind - Revelator (1996). Fantastic Chapel Hill band with a bluesy, sometimes piano-driven sound. This was their major-label album, and I think it went nowhere. Which is a shame because it's pretty great music. My friend Cliff was in the band at one point, but that was after this one. Anyway, I suspect the lyrical focus on religion and struggle did not work in their favor, because the song titles make it like the listener is in for some hard-core proselytizing, instead of the Dylan-esque questioning that one finds herein.

Jens Lekman - Maple Leaves EP (2003), When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog (2004), Oh You're So Silent Jens (2005), and Night Falls On Kortedala (2007). Lekman's Wikipedia page mentioned Jonathan Richman, Belle & Sebastian, and Stephin Merritt right at the top, and that seems pretty damn accurate by my ear. Lekman's music has Richman's timelessness and humor, Belle & Sebastian's 60s-pop sensibility, and Stephin Merritt's way of burrowing into the jokey premise and blowing it up. He's one of my favorite musicians out there right now. The Maple Leaves EP, with the extraordinary title song ("when she said we were just make-believe, I thought she said maple leaves/I never understood at all/and when she talked about the fall/I thought she meant Mark E. Smith/I never understood at all"), is repeated on the collection Oh You're So Silent Jens, which compiles most of his EPs to that point. The standout on When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog is the utterly gorgeous "Higher Power": "In church on Sunday making out in front of the preacher/you had a black shirt on with a big picture of Nietzsche/when we had done our thing for a full Christian hour/I had made up my mind that there must be a higher power." DAMN. Night Falls on Kortedala is a tour-de-force through baroque pop, doo wop, rockabilly, and hip-hop beats but with an overreaching feel that transcends genre. My favorite song here is "A Postcard To Nina," which uses doo wop and R&B horn samples to propel a story in which Jens pretends to be the boyfriend of a lesbian pal with an intolerant father. There are hijinks galore as their stories clash, but Lekman caps it all with an beautifully heartfelt suckerpunch.

Jerry Garcia & David Grisman - Not For Kids Only (1993). I've had this forever. It's not good. It's not bad. It's just there. These are pretty much all traditional songs (with one by Elizabeth Cotten), and I have far better versions by other artists. Both of these guys sound like they're just messing around, and the songs, unfortunately, rarely rise above jam-session recordings. Not my cup of tea. But I can't really convince myself to get rid of it either.

Jerry Lee Lewis - "What's Made Milwaukee Famous" and 18 Original Sun Greatest Hits (1984). That's better! The Killer brings it, regardless of what "it" is. The single is, of course, Lewis's amazing country track from 1968. The collection, with its name that just keeps going on, is full of his classic Sun tracks from the late 50s. Which means that it is indispensible. Rock music doesn't get much better than this.

At Dog Canyon: Loud & Rich at the UT Ballroom

This is my first post for Dog Canyon, in which I review the Loudon Wainwright III/Richard Thompson show from last Saturday. Check it out!

Music Library: Jean Shepard, Jean-Paul Sartre Experience, Jeff Buckley, Jeff Mangum, Jeff Tweedy

Jean Shepard - "Twice The Lovin' (In Half The Time)." Awesome fun country song with Speedy West's amazing steel guitar all over it.

The Jean-Paul Sartre Experience - Love Songs (1986). Later renamed the JPS Experience! This is a kiwi-rock band with the classic kiwi-rock trappings (angular post-punk approach, catchy guitar-pop hooks, lo-fi sound). The JPS Experience was definitely on the poppier side of the equation, with a sound not too unlike that of Felt or early Belle & Sebastian at times.

Jeff Buckley - Live At Sin-e (Legacy Edition) (1993) and Grace (1994). Not a fan. Both of these were gifts, both meant to sell me on Jeff Buckley, but I'm just not into it. Yes, he had a lovely falsetto. But it don't move me. Yes, he had decent taste in covers. But it don't move me. Yes, it is tragic that he passed away so young. And that, that actually moves me. But not enough to enjoy his music.

Jeff Mangum - Live At Aquarius Records (1997), Live At Jittery Joe's (1997), and XFM Radio Session May 1998. Two bootlegs and one official release, although I confess that I first picked it (Jittery Joe's, I mean) up when it was still a bootleg. I've since bought the official release. Mangum is, of course, the voice and brains behind Neutral Milk Hotel, and these albums all consist of Mangum playing acoustic. I love Mangum's music, and I love these albums. The unreleased tracks "Oh Sister" and "My Dreamgirl Don't Exist" are highlights for me.

Jeff Tweedy - Music From The Film Chelsea Walls (2002). With Tweedy messing around on piano and guitar for incidental music and actors like Robert Sean Leonard singing Wilco songs, I don't know if there's much here to care about. It seems like Tweedy was trying to emulate Neil Young's excellent soundtrack to Dead Man, but Young's score is anything but restrained. Jimmy Scott's version of "Jealous Guy" is pretty cool, though.

Music Library: Jad Fair & Daniel Johnston, Jane's Addiction, Jarvis Cocker, Jay Bennett, Jay Farrar, Jay Reatard, Jayhawks, Jazz Composer's Orchestra

Jad Fair & Daniel Johnston - It's Spooky (1989). Fun little collaboration between a couple of certified oddballs. They cover a bunch of songs, adding their own twist (on "Tomorrow Never Knows," for instance, Fair insists that the listener not turn off his mind) and perform new versions of a number of their originals. They sound like they're having a blast, but it certainly makes this listener weary when heard all at once. This album is a bit out of order, as I had it listed under "Jard Fair" for some reason. I'm sure that most Farmer's Markets carry Jarred Fair.

Jane's Addiction - Jane's Addiction (1987), Nothing's Shocking (1988), and Ritual De Lo Habitual (1990). This dates me, but I bought all of these albums in their year of release. I even had one of the banned cover versions of the Ritual CD, as pictured at right. Saw them in Birmingham in 1991. So yes, this is the music of my youth. I find it a little too bombastic now, but man, did I love this psychedelic metal-tinged indie-rock stuff when it first showed up on the scene.

Jarvis Cocker - "Don't Let Him Waste Your Time." Half-decent song from the former Pulp frontguy.

Jay Bennett - Whatever Happened I Apologize (2008). Lots of talented people have passed through Wilco over the years, but I think Bennett deserves the greatest credit for pushing Jeff Tweedy out of his comfortable alt-country kitchen and into the great wide world of experimental music with big, huggable pop leanings. Bennett came on board for Being There, which opened doors that weren't apparent in Tweedy's music prior to this. Then, with Bennett producing, they made Wilco's most Bennett-like album Summerteeth, which is still a strange and beautiful document, all these years later. Bennett wanted to produce and engineer Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, too, but as the documentary I Am Trying To Break Your Heart shows, Tweedy was growing increasingly threatened and annoyed by Bennett. Tweedy gave the tapes to Jim O'Rourke, who radically modified the sound of the album. As people may recall, Wilco's record label dropped them when they turned over the tapes. I'm pretty sure this was pre-O'Rourke, based on the documentary, because drummer Ken Coomer had been dropped right before the documentary started. A few years later, Wilco was picked up by Interscope - a different subsidiary of the same record company, actually - and the band released the O'Rourke-ified Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. And as soon as it was released, Wilco fired Bennett. Bennett put out a few albums afterwards, but this was his last. He filed suit for breach of contract against Wilco in early May 2009, probably spurred by hip replacement surgery that his insurance wouldn't cover. Then, on May 24, 2009, he overdosed on pain pills in his sleep. That's a goddamn shame, and that's on his insurance company. Anyway, this album was his fifth. It's mostly acoustic, but with lots of the keyboards and organs that mark his work. Great songs, but almost too sad, given the circumstances, to listen to.

Jay Farrar - Terroir Blues (2003). Another guy named Jay who didn't get along with Jeff Tweedy, Farrar and Tweedy fronted the legendary Uncle Tupelo. When that band split in 1994, Tweedy formed Wilco and Farrar formed Son Volt. I thought Son Volt's first album was great, but lost interest with subsequent releases. Farrar's solo career has a similar interest for me. This album is fine in small pieces, but a little dull as a whole, even with the short sonic studio noise tracks that Farrar interjects throughout the album.

Jay Reatard - Matador Singles '08 (2008). Offensive name, but not a bad songwriter. These are pretty damn catchy, and I hear that his previous Matador singles collection was even better. So I'll eventually pick that up. His cover of Deerhunter's "Fluorescent Grey" is quite peachy. And that may be all I have to say about Jay Reatard.

The Jayhawks - Blue Earth (1989), Hollywood Town Hall (1992), and Tomorrow The Green Grass (1995). This progression from an ok folk-rock band to a top-notch classic rock-style band is breathtaking. Blue Earth is alright, but Hollywood Town Hall is pretty great ("Settled Down Like Rain" in particular) and Tomorrow The Green Grass is a stunner. At least half of the songs are so timeless that it's hard to believe this album only came out in 1995: "Blue," "I'd Run Away," "Miss Williams'Guitar," "Two Hearts." Man, that's some great stuff.

The Jazz Composer's Orchestra - Communications (1968). Freakin' amazing. Besides the two-part piece written specifically for Cecil Taylor, here's a partial list of the personnel on this album: Gato Barbieri, Carla Bley, Ron Carter, Don Cherry, Larry Coryell, Richard Davis, Beaver Harris, Charlie Haden, Reggie Workman, and Pharoah Sanders. DAMN! Amazing stuff.