What are you listening to right now?

[jsaliga]

I would like to do something a little different with the balance of this weekend.  I'd like to play a little game with my fellow AN members.  Let's call it...

The Unofficial AN 4th of July Weekend Vinyl Challenge

The rules are simple.

1. Must be vinyl.
2. Must be something that has not been on your turntable in a while.  I want people to dig a little into their collections.
3. Original pressings only.  No reissues or audiophile pressings.
4. The more rare or obscure the better.  So please, don't dust off your copy of Wish You Were Here.

The last one should be easy for Bill.  Practically every record he plays is from a band I never heard of.    Either that speaks very highly of the depth of Bill's record library or very poorly of my knowledge of music.

Let me start things off.  I really hope you guys will join me since this could be a lot of fun.



I'm a huge fan of the Minutemen and consider D. Boon one of the greatest punk songwriters and guitarists since Mick Jones of The Clash.  I don't much care for punk rock that brings nothing more than angst and rebellion to the table, it needs to do something interesting musically as well.  Not many punk bands did that.  The Clash did, the Ramones did, X did, and so did the Minutemen.

This record is an EP issued by SST records in 1983.  It was pressed on a 12" 45RPM LP and included 8 songs.  That might sound like it's close to LP length but most punk rock songs were short, typically clocking in at around 2 minutes or less.  What makes this particular record special to me is that I picked it up 5 years ago at a record store in Cambridge, MA (don't recall which one).  It was an original SST pressing that was still sealed.  I bought it for $5.  The first time this record has been on my turntable is...just now.  Great record, great music.  Now I'm off to the basement to dig up something else.

--Jerome

[jsaliga]

What a great record.  I feel a little guilty that I haven't played it in a few years.  I think that Michel Petrucciani was one of the most gifted jazz pianists of his generation.  This performance with Jim Hall and Wayne Shorter at the Montreux jazz festival is stunning.  Great music and incredible musicianship.  If you don't have this record you should make some effort to find yourself a copy.  This LP and 100 Hearts are two records that belong in every jazz lover's collection.

--Jerome

[jsaliga]

I can't even remember the last time I spun this record.  I had completely forgotten how much I like this band, especially Thalia Zedek.  I've followed her career rather closely, from her time in Uzi, Live Skull, Come, and her solo work.  She's an extremely talented artist.

--Jerome

[jsaliga]

This album is from Jim O'Rourke and is titled Eureka.  I think he's close to a musical genius.  He's a great composer, skilled songwriter, superb guitarist, and something of a visionary.  He's closely associated with indie and post-rock, and has close ties to the rock avant garde.  Eureka is not an experimental freakout.  On the contrary, it is a delightfully relaxed collection of chamber pop tunes.  Great stuff.

--Jerome

[jsaliga]

Did I ever have one helluva boyhood crush on Judy Garland.  I'm sure I wasn't the only one.  It would be years later that I would explore her musical talents in depth, and now I have every recording she did for Capitol records.  Original pressings of this LP are getting pretty scarce, though reissues are still fairly abundant.  This 1957 record is all about aloneness, as the title suggests.  Gordon Jenkins is the arranger and conductor.  There is a lot of great music here, but the tune Just A Memory has some special appeal.  The only other recording of this song that I have was done as an instrumental by Johnny Hodges on the record Side by Side that he did with Duke Ellington.

--Jerome

[jsaliga]

Watertown, a 1969 release on Reprise, is a major departure from what most of us have come to expect from Frank Sinatra.  It's a concept album that tells a story, with lonliness and love lost as its central themes.  I first heard this record about four years ago when I found a sealed copy on eBay.  Despite the album receiving critical acclaim I didn't much care for it.  For me it was too much of a detour from what I had come to appreciate in the music of Sinatra, and Watertown is a depressing record that fills the listener with a sense of hopelessness.  The arrangements don't particularly work for me either, and strike me as a failed effort to marry Sinatra's vocal style with contemporary light pop along the lines of Burt Bacharach.  I used the vinyl challenge to give this record a second chance, and my impressions of it haven't really changed.  I doubt the album will ever get another spin on my turntable.  If you want storytelling in a pop/rock music wrapper then look to Harry Chapin for that.  Sinatra's best music was in the late 1940s on Columbia, in the 1950s and early 1960s on Capitol, and a handful of his early records on Reprise in the mid 1960s.

--Jerome

[jsaliga]

The name of the group is Labradford.  The title of the album is Mi Meia Naranja.  This is ambient post-rock at its best, cut from a mold similar to that of Explosions in the Sky and Godspeed You Black Emperor.  The languid droning guitars create a serene, contemplative soundscape.

--Jerome

[eleazar]

Fields
Have you heard of this Jerome ??



I haven't played this one in awhile

[eleazar]

These Two Will Be Up Next

Sky Sunlight Saxon Universal Stars Peace Band – Masters Of Psychedelia



The Zodiac Cosmic Sounds



This one Lonewolf is familiar with   

[jsaliga]

Music just doesn't get any more aggressive than Swans.  Their noise-drenched industrial grind even outdoes Throbbing Gristle.  This record is a 12" single.  Side one is cut at 45RPM and side two has two tracks cut at 33RPM.  It's really wild stuff, and I won't even play Swans while the wife is in the house.  She's at work this morning, and as I was thumbing through the shelf on one of my vinyl racks I came across this record and decided now was a good time to revisit it.  In small doses early Swans is great...but I wouldn't want a steady diet of it.

--Jerome

[jsaliga]

Fields
Have you heard of this Jerome ??

Nope.  I must be easily stumped.

--Jerome

[Triode Pete]

Watertown, a 1969 release on Reprise, is a major departure from what most of us have come to expect from Frank Sinatra.  It's a concept album that tells a story, with lonliness and love lost as its central themes.  I first heard this record about four years ago when I found a sealed copy on eBay.  Despite the album receiving critical acclaim I didn't much care for it.  For me it was too much of a detour from what I had come to appreciate in the music of Sinatra, and Watertown is a depressing record that fills the listener with a sense of hopelessness.  The arrangements don't particularly work for me either, and strike me as a failed effort to marry Sinatra's vocal style with contemporary light pop along the lines of Burt Bacharach.  I used the vinyl challenge to give this record a second chance, and my impressions of it haven't really changed.  I doubt the album will ever get another spin on my turntable.  If you want storytelling in a pop/rock music wrapper then look to Harry Chapin for that.  Sinatra's best music was in the late 1940s on Columbia, in the 1950s and early 1960s on Capitol, and a handful of his early records on Reprise in the mid 1960s.

--Jerome

Here's my favorite Sinatra:

[Triode Pete]

I would like to do something a little different with the balance of this weekend.  I'd like to play a little game with my fellow AN members.  Let's call it...

The Unofficial AN 4th of July Weekend Vinyl Challenge

The rules are simple.

1. Must be vinyl.
2. Must be something that has not been on your turntable in a while.  I want people to dig a little into their collections.
3. Original pressings only.  No reissues or audiophile pressings.
4. The more rare or obscure the better.  So please, don't dust off your copy of Wish You Were Here.

The last one should be easy for Bill.  Practically every record he plays is from a band I never heard of.    Either that speaks very highly of the depth of Bill's record library or very poorly of my knowledge of music.

Professor Longhair --- however this one is a 1974 Blue Star Recording, Barclay Records, Made in France.

[evan1]

Vinyl Record LP

The Partridge Family Album

Bell Records 6050

Included:

Brand new me
Point me in the direction of Albuquerque
Bandala
I really want to know you
Only a moment ago
I can hear your heartbeat
I'm on the road
To be lovers
Somebody wants to love you
I think i love you
Singing my song

[jsaliga]

Then Play On is the last Fleetwood Mac album with Peter Green.  I think it is their best early album, though English Rose is a close second.  This record was issued on the Reprise label in 1969, and it's getting a little expensive on the collector market.  I bought my minty copy years ago for a just a few bucks.

--Jerome