Music

A Pleasant Find: An Endless Sporadic

February 17, 2011
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A Pleasant Find: An Endless Sporadic

Not being much of a gamer I’ve never played the now defunct Guitar Hero, although I’ve seen, and heard, my children play it. Think of my surprise when I overheard my nine year old in the basement playing to a song that sounded, well, interesting to me. It wasn’t your typical classic rock Guitar Hero song, but something more appealing to my admittedly more sophisticated ears. Being a fan of what is known at progressive rock it actually had a little prog vibe. Asking my son what the name of the band was didn’t come out so clearly, as I realized why shortly. The band’s name, An Endless Sporadic, is a bit of a mouthful for an aspiring nine year old rocker. I was soon to be pleasantly surprised by the output of this very talented young duo that plays instrumental music not to dance by. I’m not used to twenty-somethings playing progressive rock music, but there it was, passed on to a new generation. Their music has a number of influences. You’ll find rock, jazz, prog, metal, Jaco Pastorius base vibes, old school fusion, and even Star Trek atmospherics. Back in the late 70s to mid 80s I found

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Metheny’s ‘Orchestrion’ Is Truly a Tour de Force

January 27, 2011
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Metheny’s ‘Orchestrion’ Is Truly a Tour de Force

I’ve just gotten around to listening to Orchestrion, the latest album by the jazz guitarist Pat Metheny, and I’m extremely impressed. It’s one of the best new jazz albums I’ve heard in quite some time, and it’s a highlight of Metheny’s distinguished career of more than three decades. The album is an ambitious endeavor in the process used for composing and arranging the songs: Metheny employs an orchestrion, an update of a nineteenth-century gizmo that enabled a keyboard or piano roll to control several musical instruments and even a wind orchestra, simultaneously. Metheny uses one controlled by his guitar, and the results are stunning. These are brilliant, complex songs that don’t sound gimmicky at all, thanks to Metheny’s skill as both a guitarist and a composer. The result is a compositional style that combines elements of jazz and classical chamber music in a truly exciting and replicable way. The title song is largely allegro and dominated by quick arpeggios on piano and other keyboards and tuned percussion. It features a very distinctive melody theme which is introduced by guitar and piano, leading then to a long passage featuring a rhythmic foundation of intricate, staccato arpeggios led by piano and tuned

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Gerry Rafferty, RIP

January 5, 2011
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Gerry Rafferty, RIP

The late Gerry Rafferty, who died today at the age of 63, was known for two classic rock songs–”Stuck in the Middle with You” and “Baker Street”–but he was a superb singer and songwriter responsible for quite a few excellent compositions. Unfortunately, Rafferty had a long battle with depression, alcohol, and drug abuse, to which he finally succumbed. We’ll miss him and listen to some of his albums today in remembrance. Story here.

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Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, RIP

December 18, 2010
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Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, RIP

The growl, the rasp, the Dada-esque lyrics, the music that ping-ponged between primal blues and the wildest experimental jazz is an admittedly weak description of the sonic assault of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. And now the voice and creative genius is forever silent, at the age of 69. If Jim Morrison was rock’s self-proclaimed Rimbaud, Don Van Vliet (Beefheart’s alter ego) was its Artaud, Gide, Mallarme, and W.C. Fields . Add a dash of Howlin’ Wolf and psychedelicize some Robert Johnson, a penchant for absurd yet somehow astonishing wordplay, and a host of brilliant musicians playing brilliantly and you might just skim the iceberg of the wonderment of the music created by Beefheart. He was much, much more than a footnote in Frank Zappa’s obituary — a true artistic visionary, often difficult, but always worthwhile. RIP, Captain.

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Vulgarity, Cultural Influence, and the Left

December 17, 2010
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Vulgarity, Cultural Influence, and the Left

By Mike D’Virgilio For some reason that we can’t quite figure out, Rolling Stone magazine started showing up at our house in my 18 year old daughter’s name. She had no interest, but I enjoy music and popular culture, so I’ve been browsing through a few issues and reading things that interest me. One thing about the magazine that I find interesting (other than how much popular music I can’t relate to anymore) is the use of vulgarity, most prominently the “F” word. I’m no prude. and I’ve been known to throw around my fair share of impolite language, especially when I’m practicing or playing golf. But even then it’s limited and I take care who might hear me. And there are very few people in my life who I know well enough and who I’m comfortable enough around to use the occasional swear word. And that is the operative word, “occasional.” I always wonder about people who swear habitually. Not that my virgin ears or sensibilities are offended. For instance, I have no problem hearing vulgarity used in movies, as long as it’s not gratuitous. Sometimes life is vulgar, and such words are not out of place, but what

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‘Cage Against the Machine’ – Buying Silence as Protest

December 15, 2010
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‘Cage Against the Machine’ – Buying Silence as Protest

British pop music fanatics are a cranky bunch. They just don’t like Simon Cowell and his perceived “manipulation” of England’s pop charts. So how do they respond? With a protest urging people to buy, from Amazon UK or Amazon USA, John Cage’s infamous 4’33′ – a “composition” that is nothing but dead air.  All in an effort to show Cowell that he doesn’t control pop music during the Christmas season. All this began in 2009 when attempts were made to push Joe McElderry to the top of England’s pop chart with “The Climb,” a rather Disney-esque tune that premiered on Simon Cowell’s British show, “X Factor.” It isn’t a necessarily deep song, but is earnest as it works on your emotional heartstrings. Unfortunately, McElderry’s bit of lite pop didn’t sit well with the trolls who despise anything that might lift people out of the muck and mire. In protest, a Facebook page appeared urging people to buy one of Rage Against the Machine’s horrid Left-wing hate-fests; a steaming pile titled “Killing in the Name.” A thing (associating this trash with the word ‘song’ sucks that term dry) that includes the lyrics, Some of those that work forces are the same

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A Stoic’s Anthem

November 28, 2010
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A Stoic’s Anthem

By Larry Kaufmann Shmuel Ben-Gad’s review of a book about an underappreciated stoic here on The American Culture inspired me to visit my neighborhood Border’s the next day to see if I could find a copy. It wasn’t there, but my search did acquaint me with other Stoic texts and other interesting books in a section of Borders (Philosophy and Linguistics) I rarely inspect. Afterwards, I headed to the gym for a light workout. I got on the step machine, put my iPod on shuffle, and soon began to work up a sweat. Maybe it was the Stoic philosophy still running through my mind, but eventually a song shuffled onto my playlist that seemed like a near-perfect reflection on the Stoic life. The singer is wise to the ways of the world but remains calm. He has seen more than his share of trouble but is free from anger or regret. There is also a sense of equipoise, an acceptance of events he cannot change—coupled, ironically, with a strong will to chart his own course. Perhaps most surprisingly, he has found happiness, as he sings, “My heart is not weary/it’s light and it’s free/I’ve got nothing but affection for those

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Review: Barton Creates Simple, Moving Album

November 17, 2010
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Review: Barton Creates Simple, Moving Album

By Warren Moore Review of Projector, by Steve Barton (Sleepless Records, 2010, available exclusively through iTunes) From his days with the Beatlesque New Wavers Translator to his power-pop-tinged solo career, Steve Barton has been a spiky, energetic songwriter, combining memorable turns of phrase with slightly eccentric hooks and plaintive vocals. Much of his work has included an element of surprise, with accents falling unexpectedly and dissonances that can turn candy-coated at the drop of a downbeat. Consequently, it both was and wasn’t surprising to discover Barton had released a new album with almost no prior notice to his fans. The album is Projector, and it covers both the familiar ground of songs of love and lust, and several songs dealing with the death of Barton’s father, Dan, last December. The album was recorded and mixed on tape by Marvin Etzioni (formerly of Lone Justice), and the result is correspondingly raw—the music of raw nerves and truth. Moments of surpassing beauty such as the opening, “Elegy in D Barton,” are juxtaposed against the slightly chaotic immediacy of “These 4 Walls” and “Bowie Girl” (which is also available in a radio-friendly edit.) The overdubbing is far from seamless throughout—Barton provides all the

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Pennies for Your Thoughts

November 2, 2010
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Pennies for Your Thoughts

Review of Pennies in the Karma Jar, by Salem Hill (The Lazarus Group, 2010) By W. S. Moore III Peter Meaden, an early mentor of the Who, once described the group’s Mod ethos as “clean living under difficult circumstances.” Although they have nothing in common with the Who’s pill-popping self-destruction, the Nashville-based progressive rockers Salem Hill could use the same motto. Their new album, Pennies in the Karma Jar, is a work of personal and musical integrity, which is enough in itself to make it stand out in a world in which the cast of Glee has had more hits than the Beatles. Fortunately, it also rocks like daredevils on a Ferris Wheel. Salem Hill has occupied a spot at the intersection of Christian and progressive rock since the band’s eponymous debut in 1993, along with bands such as Glass Hammer and Morse-era Spock’s Beard. The lyrics of the songs on Pennies, however, foreground Salem Hill’s faith–and the struggles that accompany that faith in our modern world–to a greater extent than some of their more recent albums. But that shouldn’t scare off anyone, because the music is as brilliant as ever. First, the lyrics. “Carry Me”, the album’s opener, is

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Captain Fantastic and the Master of Space and Time Unite

October 31, 2010
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Captain Fantastic and the Master of Space and Time Unite

By Bruce Edward Walker The Union, a collaboration between Sir Elton John and one of his earliest idols, Leon Russell, is more than retro-cool. Yes, it sounds like the best album of 1972 you’ve never heard, and it features lyrics by Bernie Taupin and sepia-toned photographs in the liner notes of the principals wearing old-timey garb in rustic settings, but it resonates far beyond the too-easy Americana appellation. If you were alive and listening to music in the early 1970s, you may recall the giddiness of the era. As Sir Elton noted in a recent Entertainment Weekly interview, 26 albums were released each week and you simply had to own each and every one of them. Nowadays, he stated (and your author concurs) you’re lucky if there’s 26 albums released each year considered must-haves – and I would contend that most of those 26 are reissues. A little historical background: After the Beatles closed up shop in 1970, it was doubtful for some if pop music would survive the onslaught of bubble-slummers. Remember the top-selling 45 rpm record of 1969 was “Sugar, Sugar” by the Archies – a studio group based on cartoon characters also notable for sparking the careers

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‘Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin’ Is Likeable Though Short of Genius Work

October 28, 2010
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‘Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin’ Is Likeable Though Short of Genius Work

Brian Wilson, co-founder and main songwriter of the Beach Boys during their glory years, is rightly considered by many to be a musical genius. Alongside the Beatles, Wilson mid-’60s showed that the rock-’n'-roll form was capable of expressing sophisticated thoughts and emotions with a consistency never previously attempted, much less achieved. The Beach Boys album Pet Sounds, which Wilson put together pretty much as a solo album, using the rest of the band largely for vocals only, moved rock music into a whole new realm that other artists such as the Beatles and Bob Dylan took to new heights—which were then topped by others. Wilson suffered a breakdown shortly after releasing Pet Sounds, however, falling into a downward spiral of drug abuse and indolence caused, it seems, by genetic brain chemistry problems, long-term emotional abuse by his father, being led astray by friends, and simple cowardice. He stalled on the groundbreaking follow-up to Pet Sounds, the unfinished SMiLE album (finally completed nearly four decades later, and brilliant), and retreated to his bedroom for several years, emerging only for the occasional brilliant song (such as one of the greatest Beach Boys songs of all, “This Whole World,” from Sunflower) or to

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Waters’ ‘Wall’ Doesn’t Hold Up

October 25, 2010
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Waters’ ‘Wall’ Doesn’t Hold Up

Certainly, The Wall exhibits many examples of brilliant composition and virtuoso playing one had come to expect from the architects of such ‘70s era concept album classics as Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and Animals. Lyrically, however, the rock opera is a hodgepodge of self-indulgent whining, bombastic pronouncements, misogyny and a subjective obscurantism that would make Ezra Pound scratch his beard in confusion.

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