Music Library FINAL Catch-Up: Ts, Vs, Ws, and Ys

Teenage Fanclub - The King (1991). Uncharacteristically heavy-rockin' album from the indie pop maestros that was deleted on the same day it was released. It's actually really good, although it doesn't sound like Teenage Fanclub at all.

Thee Oh Sees - Dog Poison (2009), Singles Collection Vol. 1+2 (2008-11), Moon Sick EP (2013), Singles Collection Vol. 3 (2013), Drop (2014). These guys are so damn good. The last two of these are among the finest things they've done.

They Might Be Giants - Flood (1990) and Here Come The ABCs (2006). My wife and kids love TMBGs much more than I do.

Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak (1976) and Bad Reputation (1977). There's a certain critical consensus about the greatness of this band and these albums that led to me picking them up, but, y'know, while I like this music just fine, it's not a revelation to my ears or anything.

Richard and Linda Thompson - Shoot Out The Lights (Rhino Homemade Edition) (1982). Because I cannot stop buying copies of this album for some odd reason.

Throbbing Gristle - 20 Jazz Funk Greats (1979). I'm have more interest in hearing the roots of electronica and industrial music than I have in actually listening to it.

Through The Sparks - Invisible Kids (2014). I've talking about how much I like this Birmingham, AL band before, but I think this is the best thing they've done, a slightly psychedelic take on 70s-era Laurel Canyon cocaine-rock.

Throwing Muses - Red Heaven (1992) and University (1995). I enjoyed these albums back in the day, but just recently got around to getting digital copies.

Tindersticks - Tindersticks (1993) and Tindersticks [II] (1995). I wish I had listened to these guys back in the day, but I didn't pick these up until recently. Just lovely chamber-pop that's absolutely besotted with Scott Walker's late-60s albums.

Toots and the Maytals - Toots In Memphis (1988). The reggae master mostly playing Memphis soul music.

Traffic - John Barleycorn Must Die (1970), The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (1971), and Shoot Out At The Fantasy Factory (1973). I liked these albums a lot when I was a teenager, so when my friend offered me copies, I said yes. And it was interesting hearing them again, especially in light of some of these musicians' later connection to the late-70s (read: lousy) Can albums. But I was overall kind of bored by them.

Sharon Van Etten - Are We There (2014). This was a great recommendation from a friend. I like this a ton.

Versus - The Stars Are Insane (1994) and Dead Leaves (1995). Versus was such a great band. I only saw them once, opening for Yo La Tengo, but they were on fire. Since some of their albums are out of print, I have a standing policy to pick up any used Versus albums I find.

Dean Wareham - Dean Wareham (2014). While Wareham has been sorta out from behind his bands with all of the Dean & Britta releases, this is the first time he doesn't even have his wife for a crutch, but he still rocks.

Doc Watson - Doc Watson (1964). Love these Doc Watson albums from the 60s.

The White Noise - An Electric Storm (1969). Experimental bands from the 60s may be great and may be terrible and sometimes are both on the same album, as this album proves.

Webb Wilder - Hybrid Vigor (1989) and Doo Dad (1991). Man, I had both of these on vinyl back in the 90s. Wonder what happened to those? Anyway, Wilder is a hoot, as always.

The Wondermints - The Wondermints (1996). These guys became Brian Wilson's backing band on the Pet Sounds and SMiLE reboots, and they sound like Wilson acolytes here.

Wooden Shjips - Back To Land (2013). Typically excellent release from these guys.

Wussy - Wussy (2009) and Attica (2014). Attica was my number one album for last year and Wussy, if I had owned it at the time, would have been my number one album for 2009, because I think it's even better. These guys are so fantastic, and I intend to keep building my collection of their work.

Dwight Yoakam - dwightyoakamacoustic.net (2000). Interesting all-acoustic re-recording of Yoakam's best songs. Makes a very strong argument for the strength of the man's work and legacy.

Music Library FINAL Catch-Up: Rs and Ss

Continuing with the brevity in service of finishing this damn project for once and for all.

The Ramones - It's Alive (1979). Somehow playing the songs even faster gives them an extra edge of immediacy. One of the best live albums ever.

The Red Paintings - The Revolution Is Never Coming (2014). Very enjoyable album with the bombast of Titus Andronicus, but like that band, they never cross the line into bombast for its own sake.

Charlie Rich - The Complete Sun Masters (1958-62). The man was a genius from the very beginning.

Terry Riley - Copenhagen 1970 (with Don Cherry), Koln 1975 (with Don Cherry), Shri Camel (1980), and Songs for The Ten Voices Of The Two Prophets (1983). Although none of these are among my favorites of Riley's work, they all are quite interesting and full of surprises.

Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels 2 (2014). One of my favorite hip-hop albums of last year.

Doug Sahm/Sir Douglas Quintet - Together After Five (1970). Man, I love Sir Douglas's ability to blend Tejano and conjunto music with 60's garage and soul.

The Seldom Scene - Long Time... Seldom Scene (2013). I had thought this was going to be a career overview, but it's a new recording. Modern-day bluegrass generally sort of bores me with all of its infinitesimal variations on the same formula, but this album was very listenable due to the excellent song choices ("Hickory Wind" in particular) and the easy familiarity of the musicians with each other.

The Sex Clark Five - Strum & Drum (1987). By all rights this should be a stone classic in every music lover's collection. Garage, power pop, Southern jangle, and noise rock all swept up together.

Shudder To Think - Ten Spot (1990), Funeral At The Movies (1991), and Pony Express Record (1994). I had always heard that these guys were interesting, but I never confirmed this until recently.

Silkworm - L'ajre (1992). Those moments when these guys let loose and play some damn dramatic guitar are the best.

Silver Scooter - Orleans Parish (1999). From Austin's underappreciated power-pop underground.

Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds In Country Music (2014). Another favorite from last year. Simpson doesn't completely overhaul the formula, but he tweaks it in fascinating ways.

Sonic Youth - Confusion Is Sex (1983). Replacing a very old, worn-out cassette.

Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch (2004). Spektor can do no wrong.

Splitsville - The Complete Pet Soul (2001). There's a few good songs on here, but mostly I thought this was overmannered.

Spoon - They Want My Soul (2014). And another favorite from last year, one of the best Spoon albums in a long while. I may say the same thing with every release, though.

St. Vincent - Actor (2009), Strange Mercy (2011), Krokodil 7" (2012), 4AD Session EP (2012), and St. Vincent (2014). She's an amazing talent, and her increasing rock star status is well-deserved.

Sun Kil Moon - Benji (2014). This is such a weird album, a work of intense mystery. Mark Kozelek may be more confessional here than anyone has ever been, but he achieves it by throwing away line meter and rhyme and delivering the lyrics as if they were emerging fully-formed from his head. Which should be awful, but he somehow makes it work. I listened to this more than any other album last year.

Sun Ra - Other Planes Of There (1964). Another Sun Ra album to drink deeply from.

Music Library FINAL Catch-Up: Ms, Ns, Os, Ps, Qs

Further into the abyss.

Madness - One Step Beyond (1979). Most excellent ska.

Mastodon - Live At Brixton (2013) and Once More 'Round The Sun (2014). I like these, but I can't help but think about how I like how Baroness is doing basically the same thing, but better.

Melvins - The Crybaby (2000), Tres Cabrones (2013), and Hold It In (2014). All very fun. If I'd gotten to Hold It In in time, it would have been one of my top albums of 2014.

MF Doom/JJ Doom - Keys To The Kuffs (2012). As always, a very enjoyable album. Doom is the best.

Roger Miller - Roger And Out (1964). Roger's getting wacky!

The Minders - Hooray For Tuesday (1998). Pretty good Elephant Six-related psych-rock.

Juana Molina - Wed 21 (2013). Molina blew me away when I caught her on NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts, and now I want to hear everything.

Moonlight Towers - Like You Were Never There (2005). Found used in a store in LA. This is a band I like from Austin, although I felt quite ripped off when I heard them cover "Marquee Moon" at the Carousel one night. That's a Trouble Down South trick, poseurs!

Bob Mould - Beauty & Ruin (2014). I loved his last album, too. This was my favorite and most-repeat-listened album of the year.

The Mountain Goats - Transcendental Youth (2012). I like it and yet I'm not as moved as I used to be.

My Dad Is Dead - Out Of Sight Out Of Mind (2014 Remix) (1993) and Engine Of Commerce (2012 Remix) (2002). Mark's tinkerings with old albums sound phenomenal.

New Radiant Storm King - Hurricane Necklace (1996). Never listened to this guys back in the day, but I wish I had.

The Obsessed - The Church Within (1994). Wino! Heavy!

Roy Orbison - Sings Lonely And Blue (1961). Geez, the man could sing.

Pelican - Forever Becoming (2013). More Pelican is never a bad thing.

The Quintet - Complete Jazz At Massey Hall (1953). Bird in flight.

Music Library FINAL Catch-Up: Js, Ks, Ls

Burning on and on.

Bert Jansch - L.A. Turnaround (1974). Mr. Jansch in rare form. Includes "Needle of Death."

Jennyanykind - Mythic (1995), Big John's (1998), I Need You (2000), and Peas And Collards (2003). Killer Dylanesque Chapel Hill band that should have been bigger than they were.

The Kinks - Kinks (Deluxe Edition) (1964), Face To Face (Deluxe Edition) (1966), Something Else (Deluxe Edition) (1967), Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire) (Deluxe Edition) (1969), Lola Versus Powerman And The Money-Go-Round, Part One Plus Percy (1970-71), Muswell Hillbillies (Deluxe Edition) (1971). Already had the big edition of The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, so I needed to catch up with the others.

Rahsaan Roland Kirk - I Talk With The Spirits (1964). Mr. Kirk kicking out the jams.

Kraftwerk - Autobahn (1974), Radio-Activity (1975), Trans-Europe Express (1977), and The Man-Machine (1978). These are the 2009 remasters to replace/augment my original copies.

Fela Kuti - Live! (with Ginger Baker, 1971), Open & Close (1971), Why Black Man Day Suffer (1971), Na Poi (1972), Roforofo Fight (1972), Shakara (1972), Afrodisiac (1973), Alagbon Close (1973), Everything Scatter (1975), Kalakuta Show (1975), Excuse O (1976), Ikoyi Blindness (1976), Monkey Banana (1976), Upside Down (1976), Fear Not For Man (1977), Opposite People (1977), Sorrow, Tears and Blood (1977), Stalemate (1977), Unknown Soldier (1979), Authority Stealing (1980), Coffin For Head Of State (1980), I.T.T. (International Thief Thief) (1980), Music Of Many Colours (1980), Original Suffer-head (1981), Perambulator (1983), Army Arrangement (1985), Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense (1986), Beasts Of No Nation (1989), and O.D.O.O. (Overtake Don Overtake Overtake) (1989). This increases my Fela collection by about 10,000 percent, and it's still not enough!

Lambchop - Mr. M (2012). Another fine outing.

Led Zeppelin - In Through The Out Door (1979). I hold onto some teenage fondness for this album and quite a bit of embarrassment at its excesses.

Nick Lowe - Pinker And Prouder Than Previous (1988), The Old Magic (2011), and Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection For All The Family (2013). The former is pretty-good-to-ok, the second is quite enjoyable, and the last is now an integral part of my holiday season.

Loretta Lynn - The Definitive Collection (1964-79). I had a few Lynn albums, but not enough of her hits.

Music Library FINAL Catch-Up: Hs

Yeah, I'm going to keep rushing through this. Wouldn't you? Continuing with brief mentions of albums bought in the last year or so.

Tom T. Hall - Homecoming (1969). Oh, heck yeah. Hall's so much fun.

Mitch Hampton - Hard Listening (2014). This looks like a groovy jazz/funk album circa 1972, but it's more like an avant classical composition about listening to groovy jazz/funk albums circa 1972.

The Handsome Family - Through The Trees (1998) and Twilight (2001). Yeah, great songwriters.

Grant Hart - Good News For The Modern Man (1999). I love Hart's Husker Du songs so much, but his post-Du stuff leaves me a little cold.

Hartle Road - Hartle Road EP (2014). Top-notch Southern garage-soul band.

PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love (1995), Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea (2000), and White Chalk (2007).

Hawkwind - In Search Of Space (1971) and Quark, Strangeness and Charm (1977). I like, but I do not love.

Levon Helm - Levon Helm and the RCO All-Stars (1977) and American Son (1980). A little bland without the rest of the Band.

Kristin Hersh - Hips and Makers (1994). Almost as good as the Throwing Muses albums she was making around this time.

Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks - Original Recordings (1969). Groovy.

High On Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis (2012). Super-enjoyable.

Robyn Hitchcock - Fegmania! (1985), Gotta Let This Hen Out! (1985), Globe Of Frogs (1988), Queen Elvis (1989), Eye (1990), Perspex Island (1991), Respect (1993), You & Oblivion (1995), and Moss Elixir (1996). Man, I never regret picking up more Hitchcock albums.

The Hold Steady - Teeth Dreams (2014). My least-favorite Hold Steady release. Yawn.

Buddy Holly & The Crickets - The "Chirping" Crickets (1957). So damn great, so damn fun.

Patterson Hood - Heat Lightning Rumbles In The Distance (2012). Mr. Hood getting down-home and personal.

Husker Du - Land Speed Record (1980). Replacing a long-dead cassette.

Music Library FINAL Catch-Up: Es, Fs, and Gs

Keepin' on truckin', minimal-style.

Dave Edmunds - Get It (1977) and Tracks On Wax 4 (1978). Yeah, this is great stuff.

Eleventh Dream Day - Lived To Tell (1991). Much love for this band, written about elsewhere on this blog.

Endless Boogie - Long Island (2013). I picked this up a long time ago and just now am getting around to mentioning it. But it's great stuff, in keeping with the other Endless Boogie albums.

Exuma - Exuma II (1970). Really, really good. A worthy successor to the first Exuma album.

Tav Falco - Sugarditch Revisited (1985) and Deep In The Shadows (1994). Much love for Mr. Falco, a true original.

The Firesign Theatre - The Giant Rat Of Sumatra (1974) and In The Next World, You're On Your Own (1975). Mostly harmless, sadly.

The Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action (1976), Now (1978), and Jumpin' In The Night (1979). Why have I never picked these up until now? Amazingly great.

Eleanor Friedberger - Personal Record (2013). Continuing her evolution into a pop star circa 1977-88-99 or something like that.

Max Frost And The Troopers - Shape Of Things To Come (1968). Very enjoyable and coherent, especially considering that this wasn't a real band, but a collection of studio guys cashing in on the psych-garage fad.

Fucked Up - Glass Boys (Deluxe Version) (2014) and Year Of The Dragon (2014). I always think the most recent album is one of the best, and weirdly, I'm always right.

Game Theory - Blaze Of Glory (1982) and Distortion EP (1984). RIP, Mr. Miller.

Gene The Southern Child - Southern Meridian (2014). Free offering from [adult swim]. It's pretty good. Might even be priced a little low.

Allen Ginsberg - First Blues (1975). The sound of a genius fucking around.

Jay Gonzalez - Mess of Happiness (2012). Heavily power-poppy SoCal Laurel Canyon sound from the heavily talented Drive By Truckers guitarist.

Davy Graham - Folk, Blues, and Beyond... (1964). He's sort of the British Doc Watson, I think.

The Grateful Dead - Fillmore West 1969. I think I may be brain-damaged. This was thoroughly enjoyable at times, even though it is approximately 900 million hours long.

Guided By Voices - Sunfish Holy Breakfast EP (1996) and Live From Austin, TX (2007). The former is more enjoyable than the latter, but the latter sort of gets me all choked up.

Music Library FINAL Catch-Up: Cs and Ds

I'm only going to single something out if I haven't written about it before. More new purchases/downloads from the last year:

Glen Campbell - Greatest Hits (1967-2008). Because I love the man's music.

Can - Ogam Ogat (Tago Mago Studio Outtakes, 1971), Flow Motion (1976), Saw Delight (1977), Out Of Reach (1978), Can (1979), and Rite Time (1989). Figured I should pick up the rest of Can's studio output, even if I know I don't much care for later Can. Turns out that I don't much care for later Can.

Captain Beefheart - It Comes To You In A Plain Brown Wrapper (soniclovenoize reconstruction) and I'm Going To Do What I Wanna Do: Live At My Father's Place 1978. Both excellent. Still much love for soniclovenoize's work.

Cardinal - Cardinal (Remastered) (1994). Fifth time I've bought this?

The Cars - The Cars (Deluxe Edition) (1978), Panorama (1980), Shake It Up (1981), and Heartbeat City (1984). I thought that I really liked these guys, but it turns out that I really like their hits.

Carlene Carter - Carlene Carter (1978) and Musical Shapes (1980). Lousy production, but pretty great songs and performances.

Nick Cave - Live Seeds (with The Bad Seeds, 1993), No More Shall We Part (with The Bad Seeds, 2001), The Proposition Soundtrack (with Warren Ellis, 2005), The Abattoir Blues Tour (with The Bad Seeds, 2007), The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford (with Warren Ellis, 2007), Live From KCRW (with The Bad Seeds, 2013), Mermaids EP (with The Bad Seeds, 2013), and Give Us A Kiss 7" (with The Bad Seeds, 2014). No More Shall We Part and Live From KCRW in particular are bad-ass.

Alex Chilton - Electricity By Candlelight: NYC 2/13/1997. Even when the power was out, Chilton was the coolest guy in the room. RIP all over again.

Gene Clark and Carla Olson - Silhouetted In Light: Live In Concert (1990). As with Clark and Olson's studio work, there is good and there is lackluster, but overall it is good enough.

The Clash - Rat Patrol From Fort Bragg (soniclovenoize reconstruction) (1982). Interesting thought-experiment. I honestly like this a little more than Combat Rock.

The Clean - Boodle Boodle Boodle EP (1981). I have these tracks on the Anthology, too, but I can't say no to the Clean.

Alice Coltrane - Journey In Satchidananda (1970). Fantastic, heady stuff.

John Coltrane - Lush Life (1959) and Offering: Live At Temple University (recorded 1966, released 2014). The former a favorite from when I was first getting into Coltrane and the latter a badass find.

Elvis Costello - Trust (1981), Punch The Clock (1983), Mighty Like A Rose (1991), Brutal Youth (1994), Kojak Variety (1995), and All This Useless Beauty (1996). Trust is the only one of these I love, but I realized I had never picked up a digital copy and thought I might someday, I don't know, want to remind myself why I don't care for Punch The Clock or Kojak Variety?

Rick Danko - Rick Danko (1977). Sounds like Danko, which is a plus, but it doesn't sound like the Band, which is a minus.

Miles Davis - Miles At The Fillmore: Miles Davis 1970: The Bootleg Series Vol. 3 (1970). Lost quintet! I have a number of bootlegs by this version of Miles's band, which I've covered elsewhere, but an official release is most welcome. Excellent.

De La Soul - De La Soul Is Dead (1991), Buhloone Mindstate (1993), and Stakes Is High (1996). Jumped on the chance to get free copies when DLS made them available to fans and I'm glad I did.

Delta 5 - See The Whirl (1981) and Singles And Sessions 1979-81. Leeds punk band that deserves more attention than they get.

Devo - Duty Now For The Future (1979), Dev-O Live (1980), Freedom Of Choice (1980), New Traditionalists (1981), Oh No! It's Devo (1982), and Shout (1984). Somebody dumped their Devo cds at the record store. Their loss, my gain, although the post-Freedom Of Choice albums get pretty dire.

James Luther Dickinson - Dixie Fried (1972). The late, great Jim Dickinson wasn't just a phenomenal producer and pianist, but a real, live Southern wild man.

Drive-By Truckers - The Fine Print: A Collection of Oddities And Rarities 2003-2008, The Big To-Do (2010), Go-Go Boots (2011), and English Oceans (2014). Finally caught up with some of the more recent albums.

Don Drummond - Jazz Ska Attack 1964. This is an attack you will not want to miss.

Bob Dylan - Infidels (soniclovenoize remix) (1983). I like it better than the original mix, but that's not saying much.