Music Library: Paul F. Tompkins, Paul McCartney, Paul Wertico, Paul Westerberg, Paulo Bagunça, Pavement, Peaches and Gonzalez, Peanut Butter Wolf, Pedro The Lion, Pee Wee Fist

Paul F. Tompkins - Impersonal (2007), Freak Wharf (2009), and Sir, You Have Fooled Me Twice (2010). While in the early 00s I would not have selected Mr. Tompkins as the Mr. Show alumni most likely to turn into the funniest damn standup comic in the world, he has defied my hypothetical bet against him, and in the most delightful way, too.



Paul McCartney - McCartney (1970) and Ram (1971). Light, but fun.

Paul Wertico Trio - Don't Be Scared Anymore (2000). Okay, I won't.

Paul Westerberg - 14 Songs (1993), Eventually (1996), Mono/Stereo (partially as Grandpaboy, 2002), Folker (2004), 49:00 (2008). Sumbitch can still write a song, but he has no natural ability to distinguish between his good work and his half-baked stuff.

Paulo Bagunça - Paulo Bagunça e a Tropa Maldita (1973). Minor tropicalia.

Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted: Luxe and Deluxe (1993), Westing (By Musket and Sextant) (compilation, 1989-1993), Crooked Rain Crooked Rain: LA's Desert Origins (1994, mostly), Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition (1995ish), Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition (1997), and Terror Twilight (1999). Pavement is the Platonic ideal of indie-rock: obscurant, hooky, noisy, genre-bending, funny, fun, equally rewarding as mindless car jams and serious drunk bullshittery fodder.



Peaches and Gonzalez - "Hot Pink Hot Sex." No idea where this came from. Catchy, though.

Peanut Butter Wolf - My Vinyl Weighs A Ton (1999), The Jukebox 45s (2002), Peanut Butter Wolf Presents Chrome Children (2006). PBW is a producer who uses the studio and the often-nameless artists who record on his albums as instruments.

Pedro The Lion - Control (2002). I do not like this. Wish I did.

Pee Wee Fist - Flying (2001). An offshoot of sorts from Clem Snide, this band featured my pal Jon on theremin, and I would praise it even if it weren't so great. But it is.

Music Library: Parliament, Dolly Parton, Parts & Labor, Patsy Cline, Patti Smith, Patton Oswalt, Paul Ansell, Paul Bley Trio

Parliament - Up For The Down Stroke (1974), Chocolate City (1975), Funkentelechy Vs. The Placebo (1976), Mothership Connection (1976). George Clinton's other outfit. So great that it is unnecessary for me to point out that these are truly great albums. The first and last of these are among the best damn funk albums ever made.

Dolly Parton - Just Because I'm A Woman (1968), Just The Way I Am (compilation, 1972), and Jolene (1974). I first wrote about Dolly when I went through the Ds, but I have subsequently transferred these from vinyl to mp3s. Like so many country albums of the day, these have super-high highlights but also lots of filler.

Parts and Labor - Stay Afraid (2006) and Mapmaker (2007). I used to quite like Parts and Labor's glitch-rock, but I've lost interest over time.

Patsy Cline - 12 Greatest Hits (1957-1963). Phenomenal.

Patti Smith - Piss Factory 7" (1974), Horses (1975), Easter (1978), Wave (1979), and Land (1975-2002). Horses burrowed its way under my skin when I was 16 and remains one of my favorite albums, its raw punk ferocity and Smith's ultra-romantic song-poems out-Doorsing lame ol' Jim Morrison any day of the week. While I love the rest of these, I've been much less enthusiastic about Ms. Smith's later output, although considering my tendency to re-evaluate, I'll probably fall head over heels for them in another five years or so.



Patton Oswalt - Werewolves And Lollipops (2007). While I find Oswalt's subject matter appealing, his execution often has a rather ugly edge to it. There's some Ain't-It-Cool-News nerd-first bullshit that crops up in unappealing places.

Paul Ansell - "Tear Joint." A Brit about whom I know little, Ansell had the good taste to hire my buddy Matthew to play drums on this track.

Paul Bley Trio - Closer (1965). This was probably the 1965 jazz version of glitch-rock, but I connect to Bley's noise and lyricism much more.

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.

A Statement of Purpose, Slowly

My listening project began in February 2008 (link) and continues today. The idea was simple: listen to everything in my music library and review it on my blog. I was faithful about the concept until 2010, when a big move and a long period of unemployment left me in poor emotional state to muster the blog reviews. I have kept the music appreciation side, though. As of this morning, I have listened to 53,140 tracks out of the 72,340 in my library. I have spent just over 150 days—five whole months!—in the last five years listening to my music alphabetically. That is 3,600 hours. This does not include new tracks, repeats, ephemera such as podcasts, little obsessions, and deletions. If I were to add nothing new to my library, I would have 19,200 tracks left with 50 solid days of listening before me. My current rate of listening (1 solid month per year) indicates that this will take another year and a half to complete the project.

Today I rarely update my blog. Perhaps my job and family are more demanding, but in truth, my creative reserves are too often just empty. I work. I parent. I play music and tinker with electronics. I try to keep up with interesting TV shows and movies. This stuff takes time, and I’m uncertain that the ramblings of a middle-aged man are worth anyone else’s time but my own. So the blog is a low priority.

This project was about looking at the world differently. I intended to slow my consumption down and try to appreciate the music I love on its own level. This year I am 41 and appreciably slower than I was when I began this project at 36 (actually I was 35, with my birthday still some months away). Anyway, my point is that I am more in tune with the act of slow listening and I am unsure whether this is more because of the influence of the project or the inevitability of time.

I have an enormous and growing backlog that lives in a folder on my iTunes called “To Review.” It is at 16,363 songs and just over 45 days of music. Just shy of what I have left to listen to, and a little less than a third of what I’ve covered thus far. In the interest of reaching the end, I have threatened in the past to do faster, more perfunctory posts, even if it violates the spirit of this project. But I have balked at this. Without its animating spirit, what is the project? If I get annoyed and simply rush to the end, am I not cheating myself, breaking my own rules for instant gratification, despite the fact that delayed gratification was the point from the beginning?

So I will give it another go. Because five years is far too long for a project to be unnamed, I hereby call this The Slow Music Library Project.

Music Library Catch-Up!: Can, Cardinal, Cat Power, Nick Cave, A Certain Ratio, Chaise Lounge, James Chance

Can - Lost Tapes Box Set (2012, recorded 1968-1977). A boatload of studio outtakes and demos compiled, mastered, and generally overseen for release by Can keyboardist Irmin Schmidt, the Lost Tapes is occasionally brilliant and sometimes illuminating for showing how certain songs were completed. It's a must for a Can fanatic, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone before picking up a copy of, say, Tago Mago or Future Days. Studio Can. Live Can. I wrote those posts almost four years ago. Geez.

Cardinal - Hymns (2012). The great supergroup of Richard Davies and Eric Matthews join forces in the studio after a 15-odd year hiatus. This album is lovely but unfortunately missing something. I've never quite grasped what, though, and hope that it will grab me at some point. Because I wanted to love it straight out of the gate.  More on Cardinal.

Cat Power - The Covers Record (2000). The stripped-down cover album can be done right. Much in the vein of Mark Kozelek's radical reinterpretation of his covers, Chan Marshall turns the songs inside-out and makes them her own. Usually. Sometimes not. Anyway, this is half-great and half-dull. More Cat Power.

Nick Cave - Tender Prey (1988), The Good Son (1990), Henry's Dream (1992), Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus (2004), B-Sides And Rarities (released 2004), Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! (2008). It's only been a little over a year since I started getting into Nick Cave, but I definitely still dig the guy. The best of these is Henry's Dream, which works in an extended reference to John Berryman's Dream Songs, but that's only by a hair. The worst is the B-Sides collection, but even that has some striking gems among the misses. Excellent stuff. I'm saving the Grinderman albums to the Gs. Here's a little more on Mr. Cave.

A Certain Ratio - Early (1981-1985). This is an interesting compilation of early singles from the English post-punk band. I had only heard a track or two from them before and found it rather striking.

Chaise Lounge - Symphony Lounge (2010). A swing + symphony album. I'm so not the target audience for this, although my wife likes it. Seems a little out of date, even for the swing fad of the 90s.

James Chance/James White and the Blacks - Off White (1979). No-wave punk provocateur makes racially-charged impossible-to-dance-to dance music. Cool.

At the AV Club: Ken Jennings's Fun New Book On Received Parental Wisdom

Check it out!

At the AV Club: Penn Jillette's new booklike object, reviewed

I haven't written for them in a while, so here's my first piece for the AV Club since April or so.

Music Library Catch-Up!: Blakey with Monk, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Boredoms, Boris, Bowie, Briggs, Broadcast, Brokaw, Built To Spill, and Butthole Surfers

Art Blakey – Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk (1958). The game-for-anything Blakey and the speed demon Johnny Griffin (soon to join Monk’s quartet full-time) with the sublime Monk himself on piano playing five tunes by Monk and one by Griffin: how could this be anything but utterly brilliant? Previous Blakey here.

Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Blue Lotus Feet (1998). Does anyone call Will Oldham “Prince?” This is a 14-minute EP full of Oldham’s usual lovely songs. More Bonnie “Prince” here, here, here, here, and here. Not linking to any Palace albums, though. What, were you planning on reading this stuff all day?

Boredoms – Chocolate Synthesizer (1994). Like all Boredoms albums, this one sounds like a headlong attack of schizophrenia. Rocks like crazy. More Boredoms.

Boris – Golden Dance Classics (split single with 9DW, 2009), BXI (EP with Ian Astbury, 2010), Live At The Republik, Calgary AB, August 19, 2010 (bootleg), Variations (2010), Klatter (EP with Merzbow, 2011), Attention Please (2011), Heavy Rocks (different album than previous album of the same name, 2011), New Album (2011). Boris continues to confound expectations at every turn. The split single is an electronica/shoegaze thing not unlike My Bloody Valentine. The EP with Ian Astbury sounds like, as you may guess, The Cult with a heavier vibe. I like it, but it lacks the insanity of Boris’s best music. The live bootleg lacks the great sound quality of Rock Dream, but it has unofficial fourth member Michio Kurihara on guitar in place of Rock Dream’s Merzbow, and Kurihara is a far more conventional (and palatable) psychedelic guitarist. Variations is a greatest hits collection, Boris-style, meaning that it intentionally fucks with its audience. The first track is an edited version of Akuma no Uta’s “Introduction.” Tracks 2, 6, 7, 11, and 12 are all re-recordings of earlier tracks with Kurihara. There are a few tracks from Pink, one of which has a longer edit, a track from Rainbow, two tracks from the Japanese version of SMILE, and a B-side. Crazy, but not as much as what comes next. First, there’s the Klatter EP with Merzbow, released in February 2011, which has re-re-recordings of three tracks from Akuma no Uta, a cover of a song named “Jane” by a German prog-rock band named Jane, and a Merzbow noise-boogie jam. Then in May, Boris released in the US the electronica/dance album Attention Please with the lovely guitarist Wata on vocals on the same day as the heavier, but still electronic-dominated, Heavy Rocks, which is a completely different album than the 2002 album Heavy Rocks, even though both share covers that are extremely similar. Confusing, right? Well, it could be even more baffling. About two months before the US albums dropped, the Japanese market got New Album, which combines tracks from both Attention Please and Heavy Rocks with an alternate mix that blends the dance and the metal. And the thing about Boris is that they are so incredibly talented that they can pull this crazy shit off. All three 2011 albums are fantastic. More Boris here, here, and here. I was trying to find a video to capture the dichotomy of sound on display in 2011, but Boris did it for me. Thanks, Boris! You are the best.

David Bowie – Young Americans (1975), Let’s Dance (1983), and Tonight (1984). These arrived at different stages in Bowie’s career, but these albums seem more of a piece than not. In all three, Bowie is trying to hit pop marks with a nod toward R&B. More Bowie.

Amy Briggs – Tangos For Piano (2010). I am so not the person to judge a pianist playing tangos. It ain’t my favorite, but for all I know, Briggs is the best damn tango pianist out there.

Broadcast – Work And Non-Work (1997), The Noise Made By People (2000), Haha Sound (2003), and Tender Buttons (2005). Somewhere between Stereolab and the Monks, Broadcast plays organ- and vintage-keyboard-dominated indie rock. They are excellent.


Chris Brokaw – My Confidante Plus 3 (2004). An EP by the dude who has played with everybody: G.G. Allin, Liz Phair, Come, Consonant, Codeine, Rhys Chatham, Steve Wynn, you name it. Great songs! More Brokaw.

Built To Spill – There’s Nothing Wrong With Love (1994), Center of the Universe EP (1999), and Live (2000). Built To Spill is one of the greatest indie-rock guitar bands. On the first of these, they are still working towards their signature sound. The EP has a track from Keep It Like A Secret, a B-side, and some interesting acoustic versions of two of their songs of the period. The Live album showcases the band’s Crazy Horse-esque guitar ecstasy, with the two guitars constantly circling around each other and the influence made explicit with a 20-minute version of Neil Young’s “Cortez The Killer.” More Built To Spill here and here.

Butthole Surfers – Humpty Dumpty LSD (2002). A collection of outtake, demos, and compilation tracks, this album, like many of its type, has gems scattered among the junk. More Butthole Surfers.