Music Library Post: Beat Happening Plus Catch-Up: Able Tasmans, Air, Alec Bathgate, Archers of Loaf, Ariel Pink, Avengers, Band, Bats, Battles

Some more delving into my music library for your mildest pleasure.

Beat Happening (Crashing Through box set):

• Beat Happening: Pretty rough going at times, but there's some great stand-out songs. Reminds me a bit of Daniel Johnston albums.
• Jamboree: Where Beat Happening hit their stride. "Indian Summer" in particular is so great that this album could be forgiven for anything.
• Black Candy: Beat Happening tries to be the Cramps with mixed results. "Cast A Shadow" is sublime.
• Dreamy: This one has a bunch of fantastic songs and blends the innocence of Jamboree with the darkness of Black Candy to an amazing result.
• You Turn Me On: The perfect Beat Happening album. They would have been a great band without it, but with it, they are one of the all-time best-ever bands.
• Music To Climb The Apple Tree By: B-sides and EPs. Fun for fans, but not essential by any stretch of the imagination.
• Crashing Through 7: Audio + Video: Four live tracks and the videos. The videos are fun, but the audio is only okay.

Catch-up: lotsa kiwi-pop plus a few extras.

Able Tasmans - A Cuppa Tea And A Lie Down, Somebody Ate My Planet, and Store In A Cool Place. If the NZ guitar-pop universe is one in which the Feelies were like unto the Rolling Stones' influence on UK and US post-punk, the Able Tasmans are the Speed The Plough of the universe. By which I mean that they're lighter and more willing to engage in woodwind-heavy twee-ness. That's okay by me, but might need to be culled down for a non-fan.

Air - The Virgin Suicides soundtrack. I always thought of Air being on the bleep-and-bloop electronica side of things and didn't realize they were so T. Rex-ish.

Alec Bathgate - Gold Lamé. The Tall Dwarf who is not Chris Knox. Strange that it should come up first of all of their albums. Anyway, this solo album shows that Bathgate has songwriting chops of his own.

Archers of Loaf - Icky Mettle. I like this a lot, but it makes me wonder: did anyone ever feel that Archers of Loaf was their favorite band? I mean, their influences are so clear and, for the most part, were contemporaries of the band. Why would someone love the AoL over, say, Sonic Youth?

Ariel Pink - "Everybody." Blah. A cover of a Madonna song, I think. But it's awful. I have a few other tracks by Ariel Pink on collections, but I can't really think of what they sound like offhand. I know some people love the hell out of him, but this song doesn't make a good case for the guy. Deleted.

The Avengers - 4 Song 12" EP. I'm surprised that this is the only Avengers I have. I like them, but apparently only on compilations. This one's different than the 3 Song 7" EP, by the way. Starts with "The American In Me". Awesome.

The Band - a handful of tracks plus The Last Waltz. Those tracks include a few favorites from post-Stage Fright albums, such as "Ophelia," "It Makes No Difference," and their cover of "Don't Do It." It's The Band. The Last Waltz actually wears on me somewhat, as most live albums do, but I love the source movie and The Band, and I forgive it when it tips into tedium, especially when accommodating boring guest vocalists (ahem, Van Morrison).

The Bats - 4 Song EP, Compiletely Bats, Silverbeet. Man, I love The Bats. Even when they're not at their best, which they rarely are on any of these, they're wonderful. The Compiletely Bats album collects a bunch of early EPs. I have two early EPs and there's no overlap. So I dunno what's going on.

Battles - EP C. The last EP from this math-rock band that I didn't have. Yay!

UP NEXT: The Beatles. Man, for someone who's sorta tepid about the Beatles, I sure have a lot of their music.

Music Library: Beach House, Beastie Boys, Beasts of Bourbon, Ayler, Aereogramme, Always August, Angst, April March, Au

Plus some supersexy Catch-Up at the end!

Beach House - s/t. Breezy and slight. No dynamics at all. These songs make a nice, whispery interlude when they crop up in the shuffle, but as an album, they're dull as hell.

Beastie Boys:

• Licensed To Ill. I haven't owned copy of this in a long, long time. A friend gave me a burn of it, but it's been edited for Wal-Mart or something. There's lots of odd gaps where the Beastie Boys are saying dirty words. Thanks, Wal-Mart, for protecting my virgin ears! Unfortunately, it's unlistenable now. Small price to pay to avoid hearing adult language.


• Paul's Boutique. Now that's more like it.


• Check Your Head. Always a great time. Sounds like the early 90s to these ears.


• The In Sound From Way Out! All-instrumental Beasties. S'alright. Not great. Best if mixed in a shuffle rather than listening to it all at once. In fact, I started getting bored with the very first song.


• Jimmy James single. A few b-sides ranging from merely-ok to godawful.


• So What'cha Want single. Much the same as above. The different versions of the title song are okay, I guess.


• Ill Communication. I was 22 when this came out. Is it possible that someone my age doesn't love it? I think not. Maybe it's a little long, maybe a notch too self-indulgent. I don't care.


• Root Down EP. Ugh. That's it. All of these singles suck. They're gone tonight.


• Hello Nasty. Not up to the high-highs of the best stuff nor the low-lows of the singles, but, y'know, it's the Beastie Boys. It's pretty good.


• The Mix-Up. More funk instrumentals. More interesting the The In Sound, but a little wearying all at once.

Beasts of Bourbon - "Psycho." A cover of the great Leon Payne song by an Aussie alt-country band.

Plus catch-up albums! Some SST and other acquisitions. I have a few new catch-up albums to cover, mostly from two music blogs: one dedicated to never-released stateside indie rock albums from New Zealand, and one dedicated to out-of-print albums from SST. Others are from eMusic or friends. I haven't quit gotten to the kiwi-pop contingency yet, but I'll get to them before the next post.

Albert Ayler - Live In Greenwich Village: The Complete Impulse Recordings. After reading that I didn't have the whole album, a friend was kind enough to hook me up with it. Thanks! Ayler kicks all kinds of ass.

Aereogramme - Sleep and Release. I searched out a copy of this because I like the In The Fishtank album they made with Isis. It's strongly influenced by the Pixies and Smashing Pumpkins, the former a favorite and the latter very much not. There's also a distinct post-rock feel that's somewhere between Sigur Ros and Mogwai, which again: the former is a favorite and the latter very much not. Anyway, I haven't given it as much time as I should because it sometimes sounds brilliant and messy and sometimes it sounds contrived and annoying, and I don't know which way I lean on it.

Always August - Largeness With (W)holes. An SST band that also has its ups and downs. Sometimes they sound like indie rockers emulating Rahsaan Roland Kirk (an obvious inspiration) and sometimes they sound like Widespread Panic working a couple of chords into an early grave. My friend and former housemate Mike bought this - as he bought many things on the SST label back in the day - and I remember thinking how out of character this album seemed at the time. Now, they remind me a bit of contemporary fake-jazzers like Mushroom and Cul De Sac, but I definitely prefer those over this.

Angst - Lite Life, Mending Wall, and Mystery Spot. It's hard to believe that this SST band has been so overlooked. They're quite the little gem of post-punk creativity, reminiscent of the Meat Puppets but with a guitar player a bit less of a genius than Curt Kirkwood. Still, they have solid songwriting chops, a healthy mix of silliness and profundity, and a great sense of pop melodicism filtered through post-punk skronk.

April March - "Cet Air-La". Apparently a cover of a classic French pop song. I like it okay, but I like the cheesecake photo of Ms. March on the cover of her album quite a bit more.

Au - Verbs. The most half-lidded hypnogogic psychedelia outside of Animal Collective.

LA recap

So, I've been meaning to recap my trip to LA for a while. I put up a post about the reading at the Shoot Out The Lights blog.

So, the Tom Waits bus tour was great fun. That's the way to see LA: riding on a tour bus while knowledgable people tell you about the city and take you to some of its landmarks, especially those landmarks related to Tom Waits. My hosts-Gary, Kathy, and Penelope-were both delightful and game for far too many late-night scotch-driven conversations. I got to meet in person a number of wonderful people I knew only through the Internet: Dana K, Paul & Heather H, Shauna M, David Smay, Kim Cooper, Sean K, Robin F. I also had the pleasure of meeting a number of likewise wonderful people for the first time. I spent too much scratch at Amoeba. I gawked at some of the large houses, which I assume were full of swimming pools and movie stars. I ate some expensive-and-delicious food. In short: hooray for LA.

A Dairy Queen on another planet...

I dreamt last night that a friend of mine (Tom Block, if you're curious) was explaining to a group of us how Blazing Saddles was the most relevant movie to the American political landscape of 2008. I woke thinking: hey, maybe he's right. The townfolk were terrified of the competent sheriff because of his race. He converted the washup gunshooter into a formidable sidekick. The other side is more problematic. Is McCain the equivalent to the governor and Palin the Snidely Whiplash character? Or is McCain the Whiplash and Palin the guy played by Slim Pickens? And who's Lili Von Schtupp in all of this? Or Mongo? I should have questioned dream-Tom about this better. And real-Tom is, I'm sure, mortified that I attributed this dreck to him. Sorry, man!

Upcoming reading + meaningless list

Have I reminded you lately that I'm reading in LA this weekend? Because I am. At Metropolis Books on Saturday, August 30 at 6 pm with Kim Cooper and David Smay. Both Kim and David are 33 1/3 authors ("In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" and "Swordfishtrombones," respectively), virtual friends, and awesome people, so I'm very very very excited about this.

Plus! I'll be returning to LA on October 29 to read again at the Hammer Museum at UCLA with Kim Cooper and Scott Plagenhoef ("If You're Feeling Sinister"). This one will include multimedia craziness! I owe a word of thanks to the 33 1/3 series' kick-ass publicist Claire Heitlinger for setting that up, because it is one of the most mindblowing opportunities anyone has ever offered me as an author.

Finally, my friend Joe Gross mentioned the "pick an album for every year you're alive" meme that was going around while I was on vacation from the Internet. He said 1979 was his toughest year. I got stuck on 1988 and 1989 and finally just quit trying to decide.

• 1972 Can - Ege Bamyasi
• 1973 Richard & Linda Thompson - I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight
• 1974 Eno - Here Come The Warm Jets
• 1975 Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
• 1976 Modern Lovers
• 1977 Television - Marquee Moon
• 1978 Big Star - 3rd/Sister Lovers
• 1979 Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Rust Never Sleeps
• 1980 Talking Heads - Remain In Light
• 1981 Mission of Burma - Signals, Calls & Marches
• 1982 Tie between The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour & Richard & Linda Thompson - Shoot Out The Lights
• 1983 Meat Puppets II
• 1984 Minutemen - Double Nickels On The Dime
• 1985 Mekons - Fear & Whiskey
• 1986 Feelies - The Good Earth
• 1987 Dinosaur Jr - You're Living All Over Me
• 1988 (3-way tie) Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane, Pixies - Surfer Rosa, and Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
• 1989 (3-way tie) Camper Van Beethoven - Key Lime Pie, Mekons Rock N' Roll, and Pixies - Doolittle
• 1990 Galaxie 500 - This Is Our Music
• 1991 My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
• 1992 Tom Waits - Bone Machine
• 1993 Pavement - Crooked Rain Crooked Rain
• 1994 Cardinal
• 1995 Sparklehorse - Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot
• 1996 Neil Young - Dead Man Soundtrack
• 1997 Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One
• 1998 Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over the Sea
• 1999 The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
• 2000 Bedhead - What Fun Life Was
• 2001 Spoon - Girls Can Tell
• 2002 Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
• 2003 New Pornographers - Electric Version
• 2004 Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat
• 2005 Animal Collective - Feels
• 2006 Joanna Newsom - Ys
• 2007 Akron/Family - Love Is Simple
• 2008 Boris - Smile

Over at Shoot Out The Lights, I've posted audio & pictures from the reading & performance at Grimey's Records in Nashville last Thursday, August 14. Enjoy!

Nashville and the Dampness of the Southeast

Back from our trip to the Southeast. We rented a cabin at Cheaha State Park in Alabama for a week. Cheaha is the highest point in Alabama, basically the bottom peak of the Appalachian Mountains, and the park is utterly gorgeous, a little slice of the Smokeys surrounded by hundreds of miles of the Talledega National Forest. I'll post a few pics when I get a chance. All the kids' grandparents rented cabins, as well, plus my sister and some delightful friends from North Carolina who we hadn't seen in far, far, far too long.

I took a side-trip to Nashville last Thursday, too, to read from Shoot Out The Lights at Grimey's Records. Let me first say that Grimey's is an incredibly fantastic place, with a killer selection of music and a supercool, super-knowledgeable staff. Let me also say that Will Kimbrough, who is a great guy, tore the shit out of some Richard Thompson songs. And I stammered my way through a reading somehow. I have a recording that I'm thinking I'll post when I get the chance! Let me also say that John Dougan, the scribe behind the awesome 33 1/3 book on The Who Sell Out, also showed up, and he is also a super-cool guy, and I very much enjoyed comparing notes about the writing of our respective books.

I'm not going to be online often over the next week to 10 days, so I just wanted to mention that I'll be reading from Shoot Out The Lights in Nashville a week from Thursday, 8/14, at Grimey's New & Preloved Music at 6 pm with the incredibly awesome Will Kimbrough joining me to play some Richard Thompson songs. If you're in Nashville or thereabouts, come on down!