Music Library: Boris, Dirty Projectors, Dylan, Fiery Furnaces, Frank Sinatra, F**ked Up, George Jones, Griftegård, Harvey Milk, Ithdabquth Qliphoth

A few purchases and gifts to catch up with:

Boris - Japanese Heavy Rock Hits, Vol. 1 - 4 (2009). Almost immediately after my last Boris post, eMusic made Vol. 1 - 3 of this single series available for download (and a kindly friend hooked me up with a track from Vol. 4, available only for those who had bought the vinyl directly from Southern Lord). So we're talking about a single per side for the first three - six songs - plus one extra.  Each album of the series proper features a member of Boris on the cover and that member provides the lead vocals on the two songs therein.  I think.  I wonder if this is meant to mirror the famous Kiss solo albums.  The music throughout is more along the lines of the experimental noise-pop from Smile, although there's frequent stabs of pure metal stomp and thrash.  Interesting!  Which you can pretty much always say about Boris!

Bob Dylan - The Bootleg Series Vol 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964 - Concert At Philharmonic Hall and The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs - Rare And Unreleased 1989 - 2006. I picked up the former from eMusic without realizing that for some godforsaken reason, they had cut all of the celebrated stage patter.  Which was the main reason I wanted it.  I mean, the performances are great, but the early folky Dylan isn't my favorite to hear playing live.  The latter was a Xmas gift (thanks to my in-laws!) with outtakes from the most recent stage of Dylan's career.  And it's pretty revelatory, better than some of the actual albums from the last few years.

Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca (2009). This band's Talking Heads-esque afropop-influenced indie rock has grown on me quite a bit at the latter part of the year.  I didn't rank this all that high on my Best Of 2009 list, but I think it may be more of a grower with more time.

The Fiery Furnaces - Take Me Round Again (2009).  I bought this with my last set of eMusic downloads for 2009, which was too late for me to include it with my best of the year.  Which is kind of a shame because I like it more than I'm Going Away, their proper release for 2009.  These are re-workings of the songs from I'm Going Away with each of the Friedberger siblings recomposing the songs solo. And it's not just interesting for fans, but pretty great music, too.

Frank Sinatra - "Nature Boy." One of my kids' favorite songs. I almost always stick to the Alex Chilton cover or Nat King Cole original, but I had an extra download from eMusic and thought it would be fun to hear the Chairman's take.  Which is half-great and half-overdone.

Fucked Up - Year of the Dog EP (2006) and Year Of The Rat EP (2009). These are the first and third in Fucked Up's series of EPs based on Chinese astrological signs. The other one is Year Of The Pig, which I reviewed several months back. Presumably Year Of The Ox is on its way. Year of the Dog is pretty good, but it can't hold a candle to Year of the Rat, one of the best Fucked Up singles yet.

George Jones - Burn The Honky Tonk Down (1965). Another best-of, although this one opens with the title cut, one of my favorite of his songs that I've never been able to get ahold of in the past. The Meat Puppets do a killer cover of it, but the original is unstoppable.

Griftegård - Psalmbok EP (2007). Swedish doom metal band performing one song named for Charles Taze Russell, the father of the Jehovah's Witness faith, and one for the engraver Paul Gustave Doré.

Harvey Milk - The Bob Weston Session (1993), Special Wishes (2006), and "In The Ground." The first is the unreleased demos for Harvey Milk's first album as recorded with Bob Weston in 1993.  Many of these tracks were re-recorded elsewhere in their catalog. The second is the band's comeback album, and it's fantastic, full of the super-creative metal/indie/psychedelia that make the band so damn interesting and fun. The last is a single from a split in 2009, but it's more repetitious than their best work.

Ithdabquth Qliphoth - Funeral Spirit Of Holy, Holy And Holy Trance-Formation EP (2009). Black metal from Russia that flirts with ambience before erupting into the pounding stuff and then back to the ambience. Evil!