365 Days of Records

I listen to a record a day and post about it.

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The first time I heard about the Living Legends was in the late 90's I believe. My friend Ian discovered their website and went nuts for them and told all of us.  He wasn't wrong. They were guys selling albums out of their trunks at that point I believe.  I never owned this album though, probably due to there just being too much from this crew.  This was the Vinyl Me Please hip hop album of the month for November though, and I was definitely excited to get to listen when I found out.

I have given this record quite a few spins since I got it and the truth is it's ok. Well, it's better than ok but I am having a hard time working up a ton of passion about it.  I think it is because it just feels almost like a greatest hits record.  Not in that this is full of hits but in that there is no unifying theory or force to it. Which again, feels like it makes sense. For those who don't know, the Living Legends crew is a collection of as many of as 9 rappers.  They all have solo work.  They have duos and trios and they are very prolific.  The Grouch was always probably my favorite and he has 16 solo albums.  He had 10 solo albums but the time this came out, the band's 4th record together.  Sunspot Jonz has 12 albums.  Eligh has 23.  Some of these guys put out more than one album a year.  Which I think might be the basic flaw in this record.  That's too much.  And I don't mean it in a "I am sick of this" sort of too much.  Though the number of records out there are probably why this was never on my radar at the time, I only needed so much of them in my life.  I mean more that nothing on this record is a true stand out.  I perk up for certain verses but it really feels like some guys went into the studios and laid down some verses and didn't even bother to talk in advance.  Entire songs seem to have no actual theme or reason, it's just guys laying down unrelated rhymes.  The record feels even less unified.  All of this probably sounds like I don't like it.  The truth is I enjoyed it.  But it kept fading into the background.  It was a fun album, a pleasant album and I don't mind owning it.  But it is not great.  And it's not great because it could essentially just be some skilled rappers free styling with better production value than you get in a basement party somewhere.  I don't hate it but it could be so much better.

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I am still working on birthday records.  Which is pretty inexcusable but I like letting stuff breathe now that I don't have to do this every day and also shit has just come up.  A lot honestly.  This was for me at least Sleigh Bells break out.  It's the album that made me sit up and take notice.  I know some people loved Treats and I liked it but this was just so good front to back.  My brother Keith got me this for my birthday and I have had it on and off since then but never sat down to write about it.

Sleigh Bells actually came up among my friends recently and I can't remember exactly what was said except that people were fans.  In general because in the right mood this stuff is perfect.  I have a friend Kat who dismissively said Sleigh Bells sounds like 13 year old boy music once.  She isn't wrong but I don't think that's an insult.  Sometimes it's nice to have something that just rocks.  Sleigh Bells, at their best, just rock.  And they rock hard.  This album is still my favorite of theirs because it is front to back good.  There isn't a low point, it just flows from one fake arena anthem to another.  It's like Arena rock made in someone's garage.  Of course, it's more than that.  There are a lot of small things that work together to make it all work as well as it does.  This is more bombast than drone, it's more about getting you excited than oppressing you.  Part of that is for an album that doesn't feel poppy it certainly seems to borrow heavily from a lot of pop music.  It has a pop sensibility hidden under a lot of heavy guitars.  I guess I would say this is a very loud album but being loud isn't it's only trick.  I feel like Alexis Krauss also adds something most stuff like this is missing and that's a female voice.  Her voice is largely sweet sounding.  It's not abrasive.  It gives everything a different feel than if you have a gravely voiced dude screaming.  I guess that's the real trick here, Sleigh Bells evokes a certain feeling, it's music to get you to sit up straight and to wake you up but it's really a combination of more factors than you think at first.  Which is what makes it good.  Not just that combo but the fact that you don't really notice unless you sit down and think about it.  It also occurs to me this is a hard record to write about because I am not sure there is anything deeper than the fact that it is full of fist pumping anthems and sometimes that's what you really, really want in life. Sometimes you just want to cathartically bang your head without a double bass.

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This is the record whose sound has filled a million dorms over the years.  It’s one of those staples that if you didn’t already own it is just handed to you along with your roommate assignment.  In my case Joey Colantoni and I used to listen to this together in either his basement or my dad’s living room while doing whatever we did while hanging out.  Talking about how deep it was.  I got this as a birthday gift from my little brother primarily because it’s colored vinyl, which is pretty to look at for certain.

This album is an odd one to talk about.  It’s one of the more popular and prolific greatest hits albums of all time.  Everyone has heard this and quite obviously the music on here is good.  Perhaps the greatest disservice we have done as a culture is to boil Reggae down to just Bob Marley but it’s not hard to see how that happened.  The cultural canon is a constant exercise in condensing and to say Bob Marley was the most famous and more influential Reggae artist for American Culture would be vastly understating things.  The result is he simply became Reggae over time.  I am guilty of this as well.  Reggae is a pretty large hole for me knowledge wise.  I know the Upsetters.  I know Jimmy Cliff.  I know there was a Rastafarian villain in a Steven Seagal movie and it ended when the dude fell down an elevator shaft onto a big pole that punches his heart out of his chest.  And that last part sounds like a joke but it’s about as close as I can get on expansive knowledge of Jamaican culture.  And one of my best friends as a kid’s mother was Jamaican.  So it’s mainly fascinating to me that every song on this record is etched into my brain.  I am actually not one of the millions of people who owned this record.  My dad did.  Joey did. It was just so ubiquitous that I have probably heard it more than most albums I know. I feel painfully ill equipped to talk about it musically besides saying everything here is good.  Obviously.  What I can say is that this is just one of the few pieces of the culture that feels universal.  Everyone knows this record.  Even if they don’t know that they know it they know it.  You have heard it all.  Maybe your friend owned it.  Maybe someone kept playing No Woman No Cry on acoustic guitar in the quad to seem sensitive, maybe your woke friend went on and on about Buffalo Soldier or Redemption Song got played at the end of a party.  You definitely heard I Shot the Sheriff on the radio at some point.  It is just worth noting that something about this album has been part of your life many times over. And it likely has completely shaped your idea of an entire genre of music and the culture that surrounds it. Mine, too.  That alone feels special.

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This has been on my wishlist of things to grab for a long time for a lot of reasons and it just so happens my step father got this for me for my birthday. Not because he's painfully cool or anything but because he figured out how to use people's amazon wishlists last year and basically just clicks the first thing he sees on them.  It is just a happy coincidence that this album has more relevance now than it would have a couple a years ago.  Or unhappy I suppose but you get it.

So the song that has brought this record back into the the public consciousness is Nazi Punks Fuck Off.  Which got it's moment in the sun in Green room and then has become more popular with the new Nazi movement in America that becomes increasingly more prevalent.  I remember this song when I was a kid but it wasn't the one that hit us when I was a kid in the late 80's listening to it (it speaks volumes about Jello Biafra's song writing that this was already ancient when I started listening to it but still felt essential and relevant). For us the big stand out at the time was Religious omit and We've Got a Bigger Problem Now but then I went to a Christian School.  Part of it though was in the 80's while Punk did indeed have a Nazi Problem the rest of the US didn't.  Neo Nazi's were largely a punch line.  Walking cartoon villains who marginalized themselves though ludicrous looks and ideology and as far as most of use were concerned existed only on Daytime Talk Shows for us to laugh at.  They weren't real, they did a good job of make sure no person could take them seriously, a lesson sadly white nationalists have learned and moved on from since.  It is probably telling that the single did better in the UK than it did in the US, where they had a serious skinhead problem.  Nazi Punks Fuck Off is a pretty good intro to this album though.  After all it opens with the lines, "Punk ain't no religious cult/Punk means thinking for yourself".  It sums up the entire album with is a punk manifesto played fast and loud.  Punk is anti-authority in all it's forms.  After all We've Got a Bigger Problem Now rails Reagan but is just a rewrite of a song that was against a Democratic Governor in California and basically claims he wants a hippie-fascist state.  Which sounds odd to a lot of people I am sure but it strikes me as the difference and flaw in the modern political landscape.  Not that the Dead Kennedy's were mainstream political discourse in their time but Bernard Crick the famous Political Scientist is famous for arguing that the back room deals of politics are healthy for democracy.  People see them as shady and suspicious but it is what allows the peaceful coexistence of differing beliefs.  A liberal democracy exists in a state where no one gets everything they want but everyone has the freedom to lead the life he or she chooses.  The modern world seems more involved in the idea that your side has to win at all cost.  Compromise and those who engage in it are great evils, to be smote at all cost.  I am not sure that Jello Biafra would have then or would now phrase it in such a way but it was important to stand up to authority, not just pick a side and follow that one.  It's why Nazi Punks Fuck Off existed.  Not because Nazis suck, which they do, but because Nazis were being tolerated in the punk scene and they are the least punk rock thing in the world.  Punk is about a giant fuck you to authority, questioning power, Nazis literally worship it.  This album is fast and loud and owes a huge debt to my beloved HarDCore scene from my home town but what make it truly great is how strongly the Dead Kennedys took a stand how it was so well done that it all resonates today.

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This was the Vinyl Me Please record of the month for October.  I am just now getting around to it because it was October and I was more focused on horror movies but also in the week this came I got like 5 records in 2 days on my doorstep.  I have wanted to take the time to digest each of them in turn.  The advantage to not doing this daily now.  I was not excited when this came out.  In general I don't like when VMP just does some new release as their record of the month (my hypocrisy here will be on full display when November's record arrives).  It feels a little like I am paying to be marketed to rather than get a record, like some label reached out and was like, "Hey, choose this and we'll give you some kickback".  I don't know that that is what is happening but it is usually how it feels to me. So I won't say I was upset by this or anything but in general I didn't care.  Which is why Common got played first.

I don't know what to make of this record.  In that I mean I am not sure how much I like it.  I guess I should start off by saying it is certainly not bad.  Like, I have a very hard time imagining anyone listening to this and declaring it garbage.  I really can't.  I guess you could be out there but it's hard for me to imagine that. It's too well done but also I am having a hard time imagining it eliciting that kind of passion.  Which might be the problem here.  But again I am having trouble trusting myself.  I have been listening to this yesterday and today and I think I am on my 6th time through.  It keeps fading into the background as I work. Good Background music can sound a lot like an insult.  It isn't often praise.  But the thing is it is quite pleasant.  It has a very lonely feel to it but in a good way. Maybe that is what makes it good for working alone with it on in the background.  I think the part that I am struggling with is do I ever listen to this again once it's on my shelf?  I am not sure I will ever pull it back down.  Maybe I am wrong though.  It's hard to say but right now I am finding this album pleasant but unexciting.  It's hard to argue against Sumney's skill here.  I like his falsetto. He has created a pretty complete sound and mood here for the album.  I am just not sure that is enough for it to stick with me.

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So this is the second ever Vinyl Me, Please Rap and Hip Hop selection.  I missed out on the first month because I didn't sign up in time.  It's been a while since I have posted here basically because the last two months records from VMP were records I already owned and have posted here and I haven't bought anything else.  I was a little mixed on this one.  I wanted to be part of the new Hip Hop club and get what they have but I had mixed feelings on this album, an album I now realize I probably haven't listened to in over a decade.  At the very least since all my CD's were stolen once in about 2006.

So I remember this album's release.  I remember it because at that point I was working at Tower Records and closing on Monday nights, which meant we sold new releases as soon as it hit midnight on Mondays.  This often meant we were working an extra hour on big release nights (Weezer's triumphant come back was the same night as an Insane Clown Posse release and it was a shit show). Anyway, I was really looking forward to this record and it might be hard to remember in today's modern world but I hadn't actually heard anything off of it. It was a symptom of the world we lived in.  Radio was essentially dead to me and no radio actually played rap music.  There were "urban" stations that dabbled but it was mainly R&B stuff.  There was no Spotify.  No YouTube. Sometimes albums leaked and you could get them off of Kazaa or Limewire or whatever was the flavor of the month in 2002 but it wasn't a sure thing.  So it meant a lot of times you were basically going in blind.  Stuff would get buzz, especially if you worked at a record store and a lot of times we'd get stuff a couple of weeks early and crack them open in the back and listen before putting them back in shrink wrap for release.  But all of those were if you were lucky.  I didn't know what to expect here I just knew I loved Common.  Sure, I wished his name was still Common Sense and thought maybe I liked him a little better then but that wasn't that long ago at this point.  Actually, when this album came out we were closer to 1992, the start of Common's career, than we are to today.  So I was excited, I liked Like Water for Chocolate a lot and was ready for an epic album.  I heard rumors of epicness but I don't know where they were from.  It was just a thing I knew.  Then I got the album and... was disappointed.  It wasn't bad but I think after a week or so I stocked it away and pretty much never purposefully sought it out again.  I felt let down.  In retrospect, I think this is because it wasn't what I was expecting. Now, years later, I am finding I really like it.  It's just not what Common had been previously.  I mean, he still raps but in a lot of ways this doesn't feel like rap to me.  Even still it feels like something slightly different.  It's hard to put my finger on but now I see he sited things like Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix as influences and that makes a lot of sense actually.  Both in the sound and how he was trying to expand things.  It also makes sense from the era as Neo Soul was a recent phenomena and you can see how he'd want to expand.  On top of that, it's just fantastic.  The beats are great.  Maybe they were jarring at the moment.  Maybe I just waned I used to love H.E.R. over and over again and this isn't that.  It sounds great though, in a way I don't even remember now.  So I don't know if it is distance from my expectations or age and maturing taste but I like this record a lot.  A whole lot actually.  So I am glad it's the first one I got from this new club because I am glad I got to give it a second chance.  

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I backed it on Kickstarter because I did like a fair bit of her early work and it was kind of on a whim but I figured why not, I am a big fan of things like Kickstarter or Patreon or whatever allows you to toss some money at artists you have enjoyed.  I almost see it as a tip jar that sometimes you get something back for. I forgot about this record (and thank god, apparently some people were just furious and convinced she had run off with the literally thousands of dollars she raised and was living on a tropical island).  Then suddenly I started getting emails about it a couple of weeks ago and it was delivered to my door this afternoon.

One time I was in the car and wanted to play a song for a friend because it was a throwbacky grungy song that I thought he'd dig but the guitarist and singer was a girl and afterwards he said, "I don't know, it always kind of feels like a gimmick to me".  I asked him what feels like a gimmick, and he said, "A band fronted by a girl".  I was pretty stunned and said, "So if literally half the world makes music it's a gimmick?"  He looked liek I had slapped him and back pedaled but I knew what he meant before he did.  There are two types of music, serious music and stupid frivolous music.  Serious music is the sole dominion of men.  I experienced a similar thing when Kitty (then known as Kitty Pryde) became a minor sensation with Ok Cupid.  A friend was like, "A little girl rapping is such a gimmick".  I pushed back because I am not sure someone making music in their bedroom can ever be a gimmick, even if you think it's gimmicky.  For it to be a gimmick someone has to be benefiting.  Like a label or something.  But besides that his core argument was she was a teenager rapping about high school and boy problems and that is not serious stuff.  I would point out he loves Action Bronson who raps mainly about getting high, drunk, and how many girls he can pull.  AKA very serious business.  But it does address a natural bias that is in music, we praise personal bits of artistry that can be naval gazing and specific when they are introspective, but we largely only praise this in a certain type of artsy, introverted white guy.  Kitty had her supporters but there was always a lot of hate because she was a teenage girl and there are few things old dudes like to complain about more than teenagers and girls.  So anyway, that's a long way towards describing the arc of Kitty Pryde, who was part of what was once refereed to as tumblrcore, a name that has largely been relegated to the dust bin of history at this point, but as the poster child for it she was both praised and hated to a degree that far outstripped any other bit of notoriety she had.  The internet is a strange place and 2012 feels like a million years ago now and this album has been a strange journey.  Her music has changed a lot.  This is to be expected.  Artists always grow and you know, that's a good thing.  It's funny, I have been part of it for sure, sometimes you hate a new direction a band takes and you just want the old stuff but when you just get rehashes the returns diminish so quickly that you are worse than angry with the band, you just don't care at all any more.  Indifference is the worst.  But also I really fear the person who is the same in their mid 20's that they are at 17 years old.  That is just flat out scary to deal with, those people are the worst and very sad.  So if I were just to listen to her first stuff I ever heard and then heard this I probably wouldn't recognize it as the same artist.  Some of that is a shame, in some ways this record really isn't for me.  It sits in a strange middle ground, she doesn't rap a lot in it.  I like a lot of the beats but there are none I love.  Some of the songs are not bad and there is nothing terrible but there is nothing that I connect with.  I guess what I am missing is not an old style but the feeling of personal confession in this.  It feels less personal.  Maybe it isn't, maybe the artist she was is just someone I connected better with.  But hey, I definitely was missing a pink album from an artist who was once categorized as Tumblrcore in my collection.

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I don't usually like soundtracks.  I have a weakness for scores (I have tried so hard to get a copy of the score to the Umbrellas of Cherbourg you guys don't even know, they barely exist and I would probably settle for even the cut up versions that are out there but for some reason my indie record stores don't have a lot of 1960's French Musical soundtrack albums.  It's weird, right?) but soundtracks feel a lot like greatest hits records without actual hits.  Or like, I knew a guy who had America's greatest hits cassette and the fact that it was a cassette and not a cassingle made it a lie.  But Scott Pilgrim vs the World is a little different, in part because Edgar Wright knows how to incorporate music but also because it has songs from the fictional bands in the movie and I frankly would listen to a Sex Bob-Omb album if it existed.  I don't know why this is getting a colored Vinyl release now but maybe no one else does either, it was $10 for a reason I guess so I snapped it up.

So this is one of those pieces of media in general that I annoy people with.  So buckle in I guess.  I liked Scott Pilgrim but found it overall disappointing.  There are a lot of reasons for this and none of it is the style or tone.  I read the books long before there was a movie (by long I mean a couple of years.  It didn't really exist that long before the movies) and I know that's douchey but the books are way better.  And I found the books disappointed because it was a great concept that clearly didn't have an end in mind when it started and they dropped the ball.  The movie had to deal with that as well as it was being created when there was no end yet in sight with the comics.  But also, you just can't compress 6 large books into 2 hours.  Converting one book to one movie requires a lot get left aside and a meandering story that is more about the journey than the destination was going to suffer.  It meant I never bought the Romance at the core of the comic because a thing that took a year to develop in the original story felt like maybe it was a week in the movie and I just don't buy epic love in a week.  Or I didn't in this case and if you don't buy it the entire thing falls apart.  But I know lots of people love it and I feel bad I guess that I don't love it as much as them and that I secretly am judging each and every one of you when you tell me you love it.  Also, just life advice for a lot of guys out there, since the first volume of the comic came out I have seen countless guys talk about how they are basically Scott Pilgrim.  They seem to think this is a good thing.  I promise you, it is not.  Though I do believe that you are just like Scott Pilgrim in that you think he is someone to emulate.  He's not, he's immature, self involved, and willing to hurt others to find his own happiness and then play the victim when that happiness isn't achieved.  He is very immature and he is the bump on the road a woman has to take towards adult hood and learning what man children to avoid.  Just an FYI.  If you think you are just like Scott Pilgrim it might be time to look at your life.  This is a lot of talking without talking about the music.  I guess what it serves as a prelude to is the fact that I have a complicated relationship with the property which is Scott Pilgrim but I bought this on CD without hesitation when it came out.  Now I bought it on Vinyl without hesitation as well.  Edgar Wright can pick songs.  As well, the songs created for this are overwhelmingly perfect.  If there is a single thing about the movie I can unequivocally recommend it is the music.  It doesn't just fit well, it isn't just good music, the band sound exactly like they should.  You don't know what Crash and the Boys should sound like when you read the comics.  I had some ideas what Sex Bob-Omb should sound like.  Then I heard them in the movie and I was like, "Oh, right, that's exactly what they sound like".  It was pretty perfect and that is an amazing trick. Am I surprised people like Beck could perfectly mimic a made up Toronto band full of early 20 somethings?  No, not at all.  Do I still love that Beck and Broken Social Scene et all managed to make this whole thing fit perfectly?  Yeah, I do.  The simple truth is this is pretty disposable, there is no reason for most people to own this and I get that.  But for a certain type of person this is pretty great.  I guess I am that type of person.  I just wish they included all the original songs and skipped the songs you can get elsewhere.  But hey, colored Vinyl, right?

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This has long been on my list of albums I want to pick up but until recently I didn't hold out a lot of hope for.  Ever 90's stuff that gets rereleases can be a pain to get, probably because of the general age of most vinyl collectors these days.  But last weekend late at night I was unable to sleep and I saw a post online about this album being it's lowest price ever on Amazon.  It was $14.  So I jumped at the chance because I have never seen it physically anywhere and yeah, that's a pretty good price.

This is of course a classic and is old enough that I can confidently say that.  At the same time, it feels more old than timeless when I put it on now.  That is not a critique or praise, just a statement.  I think it has to do with the sound of the record, which represents a very specific moment in time.  Now, I know a lot of records do but this one of the two or three records that represent Neo Soul to the public at large.  And Neo Soul reminds me a bit of stuff like Trip Hop.  Not in it's sound but in it's public arc.  For this brief moment it reached ascendancy but was gone from the public eye in a flash.  It means that the very idea of the genre is essentially forever stuck in amber, this feeling and look of 1996 to 1998.  So this album feels like 1998 in a lot of ways, probably because it is representative of that time in a way it never intended.  So it's a credit to the power of the record that it is also still effective at what it really was at the time, the testament of a woman who felt the pull of multiple expectations.  Of the many surprising things about this record is just how young Lauryn Hill was when it was made.  I am tempted to say she was just a kid but she very much was not, at 22 years old she was very much a woman and that's very clear here.  She faces the pressures of stardom, motherhood, the expectations and reality that come with being both a woman and black.  I think that is why this record was successful at the time and still works so well today.  It gives a perspective that is sorely lacking.  It was a woman in hip hop speaking specifically to her experiences.  It's really hard to explain it beyond that.  There are so many influences here from all sides of black music history, though Reggae plays a very prominent roll in those influences, she's even carrying Bob Marley's grandchild after all, but it seems to draw from all sides.  It distances her and compliments her Fugees work at the same time.  And what my mind keeps going back to is this terrible cop out of, well people should just listen to the record, it's all there.  Which would have made this blog a lot easier if I had thought of that when I started it.  I think mainly this record stands out to me by retaining it's power without sounding timeless to me.  I know there is so much I could go into about Lauryn Hill herself, from who she is to the fact that we're all waiting on a follow up but that feels superfluous.  This album exists and is still powerful.  It sounds very much of it's era yet somehow that hasn't diminished what it is.  

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I got this at on of those summer clearance sales labels and online stores tend to do.  They call them Garage Sales or something to just ship out the stock they can't move.  I guess Jerry Lee Lewis was part of that and I get it, there can't be a lot of demand for 70 year old records.  I got it because it was really cheap ($8 I think) and because I could use some more old fashioned Rock n Roll in my life.

So this record is interesting.  It is indeed Jerry Lee Lewis' first every record and it was put out at the height of his fame and uh... they left his biggest hit off of the record.  Great Balls of Fire is not on here and it seems like that is so they could issue a greatest hits record of his a year later with Great Balls of Fire on it.  Man, those small labels like Sun in the 50's, they sure knew how to milk it. This album is fascinating.  The whole time is fascinating.  But the album just reeks of a desire to reach some level of respectability.  Or approval.  It's hard to imagine but Rock and Roll was such a young and insecure genre in 1958.  The Liner Notes tell us that Jerry Lee Lewis is so much more than Great Balls of Fire!  He is so much more, look at how versatile he is.  And so it strips out some rockers for more low key numbers, for old standards, for Hank Williams tunes, for show tunes, for anything that might add a little respectability to this who enterprise.  And the thing is, it isn't wrong, Jerry Lee Lewis was not a one trick pony but it's funny how trying to prove you are valid is the worst way to do so. Rock was desperate to though.  We think about the Day the Music Died and indeed Rock lost a handful of stars that day but you know, the real nail in the coffin was Little Richard finding God, Elvis joining the Army, and Jerry Lee Lewis marrying his 13 year old cousin.  I mean, I don't think the last one is a grasp at respectability but Elvis joining the Army was absolutely an attempt to cast him as a good young man and to make sure he had a career after this fad died down.  I guess it's fitting that the only guy who didn't get the note was also Rock's biggest asshole, so of course he shot himself in the foot instead.  Of course it was his third marriage and there are questions about the legality of most of his marriages as they happened before he was divorced from the previous marriage.  This album came out right after the marriage became public and Jerry Lee Lewis saw his career disappear in moments.  It's a shame because he was a big talent.  But you know, there is a reason people couldn't wait to be done with him.  This is a good album for what it is.  There are a few great tracks on here that really highlight the fire that likely made Lewis so unbearable and lead to a guy being 7 times divorced.  But it makes for good music and I am glad to have it for the moments Rockabilly is what I need in the moment.

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This is an album I love and has been on my want list for well over a decade. Despite being a massive hit I have never seen a used copy for sale.  It's really strange.  It means I broke my rule about buying stuff online (and my one where I tend not to buy reissues of 70's albums).  This was also in the VMP store and I jumped on it because I have wanted this record forever.

It can be hard to know where Nilsson exists in the cultural landscape as a performer because I like him but for me the only album I have ever really gone deep into is this one.  It's just strange how the cultural canon works.  I don't know anyone who hates Nilsson because I don't know anyone who ever talks about Nilsson.  For a successful singer songwriter from the golden age of singer songwriters, he's not exactly forgotten but also not really remembered. Yet his songs, especially from this album are everywhere.  It's one of those records where if you have never heard it, you'll be stunned when you put it on that you have heard all of these songs.  I mean, you would be forgiven for thinking this was an album of covers or something the songs are so familiar.  I mean, ok, this is like the 5th or 6th version of Without You in my collection but in fairness that song has been covered by like 200 people.  But for the most part these are NIlsson written songs, things like Coconut and Jump into the Fire are just that well known.  My favorite tracks though are probably Gotta Get Up and Down.  Down because it is just good, Gotta Get Up because it does a remarkable job of evoking a mood.  I had it set as my custom alarm for a long time, which was pretty on the nose but it worked.  This is honestly just a fun record, it's good rock pop and there are deeper parts to explore but there is also a lot of time to just sit back and listen to pleasant music. It's just a perfect little bit of a day in the life with a mix of hope and despair in equal parts running through everything.

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So this was um... hard to get on Vinyl for a while.  I feel like the only vinyl edition for a while was an autographed one through his website and you know, I am not so sure I felt like paying for that.  Especially because of the hilarious fiasco with To Pimp a Butterfly where people weer introduced to the wonderfully minimalist world of Kendrick Lamar's autograph and felt cheated.  Anyway, I got this with my Vinyl Me Please order but didn't know it would be in this package cause they said something about it being delayed.  But it came.  This is good.

So obviously I happen to like Kendrick Lamar as I purchased this album and have posted other albums of his on this very blog.  I like him.  I think he is very good.  I always feel self conscious because I don't think he is the greatest artist of all time and I don't think any of his albums have been my favorite album of that year.  And it seems that kind of gradation is not really acceptable anymore. I mean, let's be honest it's because of the internet.  The internet is a machine that destroys nuance and subtlety.  So I like Kendrick Lamar enough to buy his records and listen to them and enjoy them but not enough to declare any record the best of all time.  It's a strange place to be, to feel defensive about only saying an artist it really good.  So you know, that has been my experience with Kendrick Lamar.  All that said, this album is flat out amazing and is a masterpiece.  Bar none I consider it his best work so far and as much as I like To Pimp a Butterfly and Good Kis, m.A.A.d City, his growth as an artist is remarkable.  Like, I think about Sing About Me, I'M Dying of Thirst, and I consider that a great song but it hardly feels like it is from the same person. His work has just moved so past that.  It's just damn impressive.  I mean, I am a sucker for a twist ending and this record certainly has one.  I assume we all know it by now and I think it ends up defining this record because how could it not?  But even if it wasn't there this record would be such an impressive piece of work.  Just monumental.  The beats are amazing and Kendrick's work as a lyricist has grown to a level that I feel like he's currently unmatched.  He's just so good.  And so much of this is so good.  You know, I was going to post this yesterday because obviously I have heard this before, the vinyl is just nice to have.  But the truth was I didn't feel like it.  I just wanted to listen and didn't feel like dividing my attention because it is just so much fun to listen to.  It's so good.

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This was the Vinyl Me Please record of the month for July and mine finally arrived today.  I was pretty excited when I saw what it was because it was a thing I know of but didn't know.  Largely because Betty Davis is more famous for who she is than for her music.  She is indirectly the reason Jazz Fusion exists, in that she dated and then married Miles Davis and introduced him to things like Psychedelic Rock and Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone and Davis sites it as why he ended up making Bitches Brew.  Which is why if you know her you probably know her.  Like most Vinyl Me Please releases it is pretty to look at and a sharp package.  I was excited to finally dive into this.

So, this is my second full listen through on this record.  It's funny, this is considered a funk classic but it's also not a well known Funk classic, likely saying more about the genre than anything.  I happen to quite like funk and have always been open about that but always found it a difficult genre to deep dive into because there are the few things you know and then so, so much no one does and I kind of always wanted someone to guide me and never found anyone.  And there is a lot of music.  So while I enjoy funk, a lot, and certainly am well versed in the places it intersected with soul, this is a record that passed me by.  My first reaction upon hearing it was, wow, who is backing her up because they are amazing.  Looking into it the answer is everyone ever.  It isn't surprising at all when you see the collection of talent behind her.  You have members of the Family Stone, Tower of Power, various famous studio and backing musicians.  It's a real murderers row and it shows.  That alone would make this not just a classic but well worth my time.  Betty Davis is... man, she sings like the most openly sexual dude ever.  Which is a strange sort of way of putting it that her lyrics are openly sexually aggressive and reverse the typical gender dynamic.  I'd imagine that stood out even more in the early 70's.  I have seen a fair bit online about the harshness of her voice but I am someone who saw basement shows for a genre called Screamo and have loudly proclaimed a noise rock band to be one of my all time favorites on this blog, so I likely wouldn't have noticed.  Of course, I feel like I wouldn't have noticed because she has made a good choice here.  I like what she has done with her admittedly limited range, it's all grows and screams and aggression.  It probably lends to that feeling of sexual menace and power.  She seems slightly dangerous, she certainly seems like someone not to fuck with.  She seems confident and assertive and well, music isn't all technical skill.  It's an art and sometimes it's about feel and it nails it here.  This record feels right and to be honest it feels unlike anything else in my collection.  It's why I am glad I have it.  Now, I know it will probably get yanked off the shelf less often than some others VMP has surprised me with.  Wells Fargo gets played at least once a month still but that's hard rock and just a direction my brain naturally goes.  I am not sure it will occur to me to play this as often but I am so glad it's an option for when I do think of it.  For when I am in a funk mood I have this to help sate me because I really dig it.

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So this is the Vinyl Me Please Record of the Month for June.  I actually got it last night but put the package down on the couch and forgot it existed until I saw it pouring my coffee this morning.  Wait, that was sloppy, I was pouring myself coffee and I saw it.  The package was just laying there like some kind of lazy asshole.  This is among my favorite kind of Vinyl Me Please releases in that I don't know the music, don't know the artist, and probably never would have on my own.  Sometimes it happens and the album isn't for me but most of my favorite releases have been things like this and I really cherish them.

So this is a fascinating album and maybe I should wait a day or two to write about it because it's a new artist and a new record and I have listen to it exactly once but I decided to go ahead and write.  It is pretty good, certain tracks have really grabbed my attention.  The album starts with a track called Come to me Now which really I found enjoyable and am going to have to listen to a few times.  It is a really eclectic album though, as soon we're on to 1234 which is a really crunchy rocker apparently about the Ramones.  But the title track will probably be the crown jewel of the record because it almost encompasses the entire album in one song, it starts slow and then slowly builds into something completely different.  In the end, it's all about a celebration of just living in the city, how it feels different.  I think that's this entire album really, it's trying to capture the feel of the city.  As someone who lives in a city I think I get what he is trying to go for with that, there is just a different feel to life.  This is why I am writing right now, I thought it might be fun to see what I think with a snap judgment as opposed to a week from now.  Right now I am really enjoying this but will I ever put it on after a week?  Will different themes jump out at me?  I don't know. But once again I am glad this exists and I am always thrilled when VMP surprises me with something new.

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So this is a new purchase from a garage sale this morning.  I went for a walk and the church parking lot down the road has a few people selling their stuff and there was... a record from 2012.  I don't know why.  I sure hope I didn't steal some kid's record or something.  These kinds of things always worry me because I know that must happen.  Like my brother Keith was obsessed with making money from the time he could talk.  He tried lots of ways.  Like a Bake Sale that he proudly proclaimed he made $36 on.  My mom spent $40 on ingredients.  It's a business model that will make you rich if you can make it work.  When he was 5 he had a garage sale where he sold a bunch of my brother Brett's toys.  He explained this was great because he didn't care if Brett didn't have toys and it made him money.  So you know, sometimes family members might sell your shit without asking.  Anyway, I like the record so I figured it was a nice pick up for me.

This album is an album I like parts of but overall I think is just ok.  The high points are very high though.  It feels near impossible to discuss this album in a bubble, even 5 years on it is too charged with outside factors that have seeped into the very fabric of the record.  I feel like it has impacted too many opinions on the actual music involved with it.  Some people couldn't wait to tear this down as the worst thing in the world fueled by the sort of rage that betrays a deep insecurity.  See, Lana Del Rey did the worst thing to a group of people you can imagine, she exposed them as posers.  She didn't mean to but she did. Videos started popping up and people praised her as this remarkable DIY indie talent who came out of nowhere and the hipsterati couldn't help but fall over themselves with talk of her style and swagger and the authenticity of her everything.  It is embarrassing to even think about in retrospect that someone who cribbed her look from a 1940's movie star was praised as authentic but that's the problem with authentic, it doesn't exist and it's the only term some people know how to use to mean good while trying to sound smart.  When it came out that she didn't spring fully formed from the skull of Bob Mould those same people couldn't turn on her fast enough.  The result was the same songs they praised they tore apart.  They couldn't wait to crucify her for an SNL appearance.  It was the same music but it exposed a truth about music that makes most people uncomfortable.  It's largely a fashion statement.  I saw someone once say everyone likes music.  A few people love music.  And there is a difference.  But further than that people who prescribe to what they consider more legit genres probably consider themselves the music lovers and the unwashed masses and their more commercially viable music are the ones who just like music.  The truth is, in my experience, it distributed pretty evenly across genres.  Most people are there for the part.  Music and the music you proclaim as yours is as much about forming an identity as it is about what makes your ears feel good.  It's why the vast majority of people you meet will argue that music peaked when they were a teenager, even if they don't know that's what they are saying.  So those people couldn't wait to rip this album a new one.  That left people like my buddy Ron who were, to their credit, not going to jump on that bandwagon, he liked it when no one knew about her sordid past of trying to make a record previously, and he liked her after.  But it meant he defended this record too much.  Lots of people did.  It's not great.  It's also not bad.  The problem is once you miss the big tracks on it, the ones that made her famous in the first place, it gets pretty dull.  Not all of them are misfires but a lot of them just kind of sit there.  Of course, on the other hand I will always love Video Games.  It betrays a wit and a deep truth that cuts through the veneer of artificiality.  It is rare to find a song that manages to sound romantic and seems to romanticize a relationship that is so brutally honest about how shitty and lame most boyfriends can be in your early 20's. Most songs want to go one way or another, super romantic or super angry. This almost reminds me of Elvis Costello.  Well, not quite, she doesn't seem mad at the guy, kind of resigned, but it is pretty savage about what a shit head he is.  It just seems to embrace that that's the way it is and she's just going to accept it. My point is, the good on here is very good.  I prefer Ultraviolence more though because it's a more complete work.  This almost feels like practice for what comes next.  This is a pretty good first or 3rd of 5th or whatever effort you choose to think it is, though.  And it shows why she has been enduring popular. Also why she has something that is honestly better than mass praise, a devoted fan base.  She taps into something that is sadly under represented across almost all media.  It's hard to say exactly what that is other than maybe a sad girl who doesn't want to seem sad, who has draped herself in the trappings of excess and the American dream but deep down has found being the embodiment of male fantasy to be a unfulfilling.  Or maybe that doesn't quite nail it but she has found a mix of things that clearly unsettles plenty, pisses off more, but deeply connects with some others.  

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I mostly disdain buying records online but as Vinyl gets trendier and trendier with new releases I really care about it's the the only way to make sure I get them.  So I am always going to preorder the new records from the Mountain Goats as a result.  The nice thing about preorders is it's like a present you got yourself in the past.  I bought this months ago and then this arrived Wednesday.  It was nice especially because my phone crapped out Tuesday and I was having a lame week.  I have a phone again, thus I am posting it now.

This album is a thematically appropriate follow up to Beat the Champ since in the core they are really about the same thing that John Darnielle has always been fascinated with but his fascination seems to be growing.  Outsiders and losers.  People who don't fit in and are part of some lesser known, lesser loved subculture but also the people who didn't make it big there for the most part. For every Chavo Guerero on Beat the Champ there were multiple people working high school gyms for no name promotions and just hoping to earn gas money.  Here for every Sisters of Mercy there is a Gene Loves Jezebel and the only guy left in town from the scene.  Now, I was not into wrestling but I had a bit of knowledge about it almost from osmosis.  Goth stuff though, it's completely out of my wheelhouse.  Especially the era this seems to be talking about. Which is ok, it's a thing John Darnielle is very good at, creating empathy and telling stories about people you never thought to notice before.  For most of my life Goths mainly existed as a pop culture punchline.  Here the Mountain Goats are delving into a time period when I and many didn't even know Goths existed.  In the 1980's.  Probably the song that stood out to me on the first listen and continues to is The Grey King And The Silver Flame Attunement.  I would say I am not alone because I have already seen other people mention it in the few places I have seen this record talked about.  So, my one sorta brush with Goth culture was very much second hand.  I knew the one Goth girl at tower who was friends with some of my buddy Adam's set of Goth friends.  I never really trusted any of them.  Not in the they might steal your baby sort of way. These were 90's goths so lots of eye liner and fishnet sleeves and disquieting pancake make up.  What I didn't trust was that we were in our 20's and some of these people were in their 30's and they were still way, way into playing dress up as Goths.  It felt very teenage to me and even by like 24 it didn't make them seem to me like they were hardcore, it made them feel like they suffered from a case of arrested development.  I distrust anyone who cares too much about anything like this.  Which sounds cynical but this was the pre-internet version of "fandom" that people love to express now and I also distrust.  I have concerns about people who create an identity out of external likes and dislikes.  I guess essence follows fashion.  It seems ultimately hollow and I feel like that kind of insecurity leaves people ready to turn on others just to feel good.  Anyway, as a result, my buddy Adam's Goth friends seems to be a flash point of high drama almost constantly.  This is why I didn't trust them because of course a 30 something that still seemed to think that dressing like that gave them identity instead of who they are is a drama queen.  It was all wrapped up in making people look at them.  Attention.  Be wary of those types is my point.  Which is why I love this song because it has the extremely John Darnielle line in the chorus of "I'm Hardcore but I am not that hardcore".  I might not have a good place to latch onto what it's like to be a 1980's Goth but I do get the strangeness of growing up in a scene.  What brought you there, the music, maybe the general feeling of it still exists, but you've outgrown a lot of the trappings. It's a strange sort of place to be in, where you don't want to give up on the stuff you love and it is still important to you but you can't begin to understand how some people have made it the most important part of their life and who they are.  Which is the magic of John Darnielle's writing in general, even if you can't directly relate to the people in this he makes everyone human enough that you can relate.  This is another good album though I am having a harder time latching on to a lot of it than some of his past subject matter, just because I have so little knowledge of any of it.

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This is the May album of the month from Vinyl Me Please and I couldn't have been more pleased with this pick.  It has never before been released on Vinyl in any form, so that alone is exciting.  On top of that it's an album I happen to quite love and the 90's are the biggest hole in my collection.  I know VMP has a waiting list now so I'd imagine this is quite in demand, I was looking forward to it and it finally arrived this afternoon.

So my introduction to Fiona Apple came as a 17 year old college Freshman who was depressed and couldn't sleep and most of the time alone in his dorm room.  She was on an episode of 120 minutes that the internet tells me aired on October 27, 1996.  I don't know if I saw it that day or not, well, the 28th at the earliest because I used to catch 120 minutes when MTV would show it at 2 AM. I never slept.  So I do remember I was on my computer playing civilization 2 because I did college right and she was being interviewed and I didn't pay a lot of attention.  She was soft spoken and so it was always startling when Matt Pinfield spoke up it would almost startle me because his voice was such a stark contrast.  I paid almost no attention and then it went into a video for her first single, Shadowboxer.  That caught my attention and I turned around and paid attention and loved it.  I wanted more but there was no more.  I actually tried to pay careful attention to see if her video popped up at any other point on MTV. It never did again.  I fell asleep and woke up to a song I wasn't even sure was a dream or real for months that ended up being Weezer's El Scorcho.  I didn't identify that one for like 3 or 4 months.  See, the world was really different back in 1996.  I had the internet but there weren't MP3's and there wasn't the obsessive cataloging like there is today.  You couldn't find out who had been played on 120 minutes.  You couldn't figure out the name of Fiona Apple's album if you didn't catch it in the bottom left corner at the start of the video. And even if you did you're at college with no car and nowhere that sells music.  You have to kind of just keep it in the back of your head until you go home at some point.  What I am saying is it was a strange, weird thing that there was a point where this album was hard for me to get on CD, not just on vinyl.  Of course, about a year later Criminal was released as a single and this album went from obscure unknown to one of the biggest hits in the world.  And everyone totally just talked about the music rather than the person behind it and examining if it was ok for her to sell sexuality, if she was selling sexuality, if she was a terrible thing or a great thing.  Honestly, the main thing Criminal makes me think of is GIRL POWER! and how it was decidedly not.  It didn't fit in with the popular conception of what a woman was supposed to sing about in the wake of Lilith Fare and the Spice Girls, or at least not the kind of video someone was supposed to make.  What's funny is I haven't listened to this record front to back in ages and it's a little surprising to me that Criminal was the hit.  Maybe I am just too familiar with it but it is not the song that stands out.  It probably isn't even like my 5th song on the record.  It's a good song and addresses a pretty natural part of teenage dating, the thing where you are figuring yourself out and what you want and so you treat people like shit sometimes.  And you know, if you're a decent person you end up feeling really guilty about that.  But 21 years later it doesn't really sound that fresh to me.  Other songs feel more vital and feel like they are... I don't know, they just feel more like they still resonate. Maybe that is because I am old.  Maybe it's because I have heard them so much less because my CDs were all stolen in 2006 out of my car and I don't think I have actually listened to this album as an album since then.  Sure they have all come up on shuffle at some point but not like that.  I am very pleased with this release though because Fiona Apple is amazing.  This was a great choice for record of the month.