March 2005

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There's a fairly new Kathleen Edwards album out

Filed under: Imported

And I have reviewed it.

Posted by Dylan Hicks at March 29, 2005 3:45 PM

 

Update

Filed under: Imported

From now on I'll be doing most of my blogging on one of our new group blogs, Culture To Go, which is the arts complement to The Blotter. Both of those columns will soon have a print version as well. I'll continue to keep my running tally of 2005 music favorites on this blog. And I'll still use this forum to recount my many nightlife escapades. Last night, for instance, I did a bit of reading, listened to a record, and then fell asleep early.

Posted by Dylan Hicks at March 23, 2005 5:22 PM

 

2005 Favorites

Filed under: Imported

Here's a survey of the recorded music I've been enjoying during 2005. All rankings are subject to change until Jan. 1, 2006.

Albums

(This list is made up of the albums I've been coming back to over the year, even after I've fulfilled my professional obligations to them. I have complaints with most of these, since I usually find something to complain about, but all have improved the quality of my '05 life on some small or mid-sized level.) 

1. M.I.A., Arular
2. The Hold Steady, Separation Sunday
3. Mannie Fresh, The Mind of Mannie Fresh
4. The David S. Ware Quartets, Live in the World  
5. Parry Gripp, For Those About to Shop, We Salute You
6. John Doe, Forever Hasn't Happened Yet
7. Busdriver, Fear of a Black Tangent
8. Mike Jones, Who Is Mike Jones?
9. The Perceptionists, Black Dialogue
10. Feist, Let It Die
11. William Parker, Sound Unity
12. Missy Elliott, The Cookbook  
13. Hal, Hal  
14. Stephen Malkmus, Face the Truth
15. Sleater-Kinney, The Woods
16. Happy Apple, The Peace Between Our Companies
17. Queens of the Stone Age, Lullabies to Paralyze
18. John Prine, Fair & Square  
19. Drunk Horse, In Tongues
20. Jeff Parker, The Relatives
21. Dwight Yoakam, Blame the Vain
22. Antony and the Johnsons, I Am a Bird Now
23. William Parker, Luc's Lantern
24. Clem Snide, End of Love
25. Dalek, Absence
26. various artists, Run the Road 
27. Annie, Anniemal
28. Meat Beat Manifesto, At the Center  
29. Spoon, Gimmie Fiction  
30. The Ponys, Celebration Castle
31. Rahsaan Peterson, After Hours
32. Hella, Church Gone Wild/Chirpin' Hard  
33. Kathleen Edwards, Back To Me
34. Common, Be

Honorable and Somewhat Honorable Mentions

(In order of preference. I've gotten various degrees of enjoyment out of all of these, here and there. None are wholeheartedly recommended, but all contain some very good music. Entries near the top might sneak into the above list of '05 favorites.) 

• Beck, Guero
• John Legend, Get Lifted
• Jason Moran, Same Mother  
• Out Hud, Let Us Never Speak Of It Again
• Ol' Dirty Bastard, Osirus, the Official Mixtape 
• various artists, Greensleeves Rhythm Album #66: Bomb A Drop
• Mint Condition, Livin' the Luxury Brown
• Los Super Seven, Heard It On the X
• Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Naturally
• The Chris Stamey Experience, A Question of Temperature
• The Hacienda Brothers, [self-titled]  
• The Forty-Fives, High Life High Volume 

I'm inclined to endorse (mildy, enthusiastically, it depends), but should spend more time with:

• The Letters Organize, Dead Rhythm Machine
• Chariots, Congratulations
• Fat Kid Wednesdays, The Art of Cherry
• The Deathray Davies, The Kick and the Snare
• Anthony Hamilton, Soulife
• Eddie Palmieri, Listen Here! 
• Go-Betweens, Oceans Apart  

Singles

1. Hal, "Play the Hits"
2. Interpol, "Evil" 
3. Mike Jones featuring Slim Thug and Paul Wall, "Still Tippin'"  
4. Amerie, "1 Thing"
5. Akon, "Lonely"
6. 50 Cent, "Disco Inferno"
7. Van Zant, "Help Somebody"  
8. Fisher, "Beautiful Life"
9. Gwen Stefani, "Hollaback Girl"
10. T.I., "Bring Em Out"
11. Gretchen Wilson, "Homewrecker"
12. Bowling for Soup, "Almost"
13. Will Smith, "Switch" 
14. Brad Paisley, "Alcohol"  
15. Fantasia, "Baby Mama"
16. The Game featuring 50 Cent, "Hate It Or Love It"  
17. Ciara, "1,2 Step"
18. Destiny's Child, "Girl"
19. Green Day, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"
20. Ying Yang Twins, "Wait (The Whisper Song)"
21. R. Kelly, "Trapped in the Closet"
22. Usher, "Caught Up"

Honorable Mentions

Collections/Reissues

• Various Artists, World Psychedelic Classics 3: Love's a Real Thing--The Funky Fuzzy Sounds of West Africa
• Clifton Chenier, Louisiana Blues and Zydeco (debut album with some previously unreleased stuff)

Notable album cuts:

Thievery Corporation, "The Heart's a Lonely Hunter" and a few others from the rarely out-of-this-world The Cosmic Game

Brazilian Girls, "Pussy" and a few others from the enjoyable enough but problematic Brazilian Girls

Mark Geary, "Beautiful," from the othewise not terribly haunting Ghosts

Urban Sun, "Shine Like the Stars" from Guilty of Dreaming

Fisher, "Biggest Fan," "Beautiful Life," and a few others from The Lovely Years

Sole, "Sin Carne" and a few others from Live from Rome

Doris Henson, "A Dark Time for the Light Side of the Earth," from the probably-not-worth-your-money Give Me All Your Money

The Mountain Goats, "Song for Dennis Brown," "Dance Music," and a few others from the not-quite-my-bag Sunset Tree

Omarion, "Never Gonna Let You go (She's a Keepa)" and a few others from O

2004 Albums I didn�t hear or fully appreciate until 2005
(A few late 2004 releases are included in categories above, mostly stuff that didn't arrive in my mailbox until January '05.)

• Dave Douglas/Loius Sclavis/Peggy Lee/Dylan van der Schyff, Bow River Falls
• Mos Def, The New Danger
• Daddy Yankee, Barrio Fino  
• Neko Case, The Tigers Have Spoken
• The Gift of Gab, 4th Dimensional Rocketships Going Up  
  

Posted by Dylan Hicks at March 20, 2005 7:58 PM

 

Cleaning House

Filed under: Imported

I found this Dylan Hicks band newsletter, written around St. Patrick's Day 2002.

Posted by Dylan Hicks at March 18, 2005 12:46 PM

 

Cheese It--it's the Fuzz

Filed under: Imported

 

Various Artists

World Psychedelic Classics 3: Love�s a Real Thing: The Funky, Fuzzy Sounds of West Africa

(Luaka Bop)

 

The �fuzzy� in the subtitle refers to distorted guitars and bell-bottomed bass, and also to the (sometimes) murky sound quality, and also to the Ping Pong of influences heard on all of these early �70s dance sides. West Africa is where the slaves of the Americas came from, and it's thus the cultural fountainhead of most New World pop. Hearing how musicians from Mali, Senegal, Nigeria, and all over the polyglot region studied and refracted James Brown or Santana or Cuban jazz or �Hang on Sloopy� is one of the great pleasures of modern music. In other words, the Bo Diddley beat heard on Sorry Bamba�s �Porry,� a slab of desert salsa from Mali, might sound so good because its returning to its old stomping grounds.

While not all of these rare-till-now records are classics, everything is seriously funky with post-colonial optimism and disappointment. A few tunes are in English, and they don�t miss the chance to sing across the waters. �America, do you ever think this world is yours?� asks William Onyeabor on the slinky �Better Change Your Mind.� He follows up the question with a sly �eh?� that says, Of course you do, but billions of people, including the members of this smokin� little band of mine, know you�re wrong.

Posted by Dylan Hicks at March 11, 2005 5:20 PM

 

New Jersey Is Revolting

Filed under: Imported

Dalek

Absence

Ipecoc

 

Abrasive, humorless, and nearly horrific, Absence is black-power metal, though the New Jersey-based trio that made it can be properly filed in the hip-hop racks. Antarctic beauty surfaces fleetingly, but the album is most characterized by sheets of whooshing noise that sound something like My Bloody Valentine�s Kevin Shields playing a poorly maintained industrial floor sweeper. Over the din, MC Dalek �swallows razor blades to keep [his] vocal chords sharpened� (from �Distorted Prose�) and rhymes about racist war pigs with a timbre and ideology similar to largely forgotten rapper Paris.

Like a cash-strapped action movie that keeps using the same explosion shot, Absence can be tedious, but it begins and ends with arresting force. It will either amplify or mute your anxiety, possibly both. This is not dystopian music, because the world it envisions is this world, as perceived by the permanent underclass and prisoners on whose behalf it shouts at the devil.

Posted by Dylan Hicks at March 11, 2005 5:19 PM

 

Busdriver

Filed under: Imported

Yeah, this new Busdriver album, Fear of a Black Tangent, is really good. Review to come in next week's CP.

Posted by Dylan Hicks at March 4, 2005 2:14 PM

 

2005 Favorites Update

Filed under: Imported

I continue to update my 2005 favorites (below), but I�ve turned it into an all-positive or at least mostly postive list. Someone pointed out that, especially for independent artists, it�s nice to get a negative review that�s actually a review--not just a snap judgment (snap snap?). Plus, I�d rather the list be useful for folks looking for good new music. Soon, I�ll try to turn the �05 Faves into a separate page and include links to reviews.

Posted by Dylan Hicks at March 3, 2005 3:55 PM

 

Here's my review of Mannie Fresh's solo album

Filed under: Imported

Read it here

Posted by Dylan Hicks at March 1, 2005 12:40 PM

 

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