Music Library: Augustus Pablo, Painted Willie, Palace, Palestrina, Palomar, Panda Bear, Pantera, Pao com Mantiega, Graham Parker

I'll be terse to get through the next series of posts.

Augustus Pablo - King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown (1976). The firstest of first-rate dub.

Painted Willie - Mind Bowling (1986). I rather like this SST 2nd-stringer album.

Palace - There Is No-One What Will Take Care Of You (1993), An Arrow Through The Bitch EP (1994), Days In The Wake (1994), "For The Mekons et al.," Hope (1995), Viva Last Blues (1995), Arise, Therefore (1996), Lost Blues And Other Songs (1997). Ignoring the nonexistent difference between Palace Brothers, Palace Songs, Palace Music, and Palace releases, Will Oldham's mid-90s output is varied and excellent. The earliest albums are spare and almost Jandek-esque (although Oldham's willingness to tune his guitars into standard tuning and compose songs with recognizable structures is not so Jandek-y). The songwriting is stunning throughout. The best of these are Days In The Wake and Viva Last Blues, but I must make special mention of Arise, Therefore, which uses cheap keyboards to hit the same spare emotional notes as Days In The Wake, only with a far spookier effect.

Palestrina - "Sanctus" (1999). Early music is the worst.

Palomar - Palomar (1999), Palomar II (2002), All Things, Forests (2007). Great NYC band with a dynamic borrowed from The Slits and The Raincoats much like Sleater-Kinney.

Panda Bear - Young Prayer (2004), Person Pitch (2007), and Tomboy (2011). The drummer and occasional singer from Animal Collective makes Animal Collective-ish albums on his own. He focuses more on the Beach Boys style of singing. The first of this is interestingly wordless, although Panda Bear sings throughout.

Pantera - Cowboys From Hell (1990) and Vulgar Display of Power (1992). It's no Slayer, but it's all right.

Pao com Mantiega - Pao com Mantiega (1976). Decent Brazil bubblegummy garage-pop.

Graham Parker - Howlin' Wind (1976). Delicious vitriolic blues-pop.