Unblissfully Aware

1.

Full disclosure:  It is possible for me to be objective in this review, because Brent Miller knows that my dude-love for him transcends what I might have to say about his band, Trashed On Fiction.  So, clear your mind of the fact that, through musical and academic endeavors, Brent Miller and I have shared beds across this great nation.  In our underwear.  And my piss smelled like shrimp.  Don’t ask.

I can say, with all integrity intact, that I like Simple Sun.  Some of the tunes sound a bit incomplete, and maybe the songs are too few and too different to make a totally cohesive album, but the better songs on the album are truly pleasing.  “The Fifteen” adds some good ol’ fashioned squonk to an alt-rock tune.  “By The Buried”, a country tune with an occasional chord flourish, is my other favorite.  Those songs match the timbre and the temperament of the “Alt-Country” catalog of my collection, so my ears were pretty much prepared for this ep.

Read that last sentence again, because here comes the bad news. Continue reading “Unblissfully Aware”

Remembering Jim Randall

Eventually the question, “what kind of music do you like?”, comes out of my mouth and into the ears of all of my employees.  I can’t help it.  When Jim Randall said, “I really like smooth jazz”, I wasn’t sure if he was bullshitting me or not.  Nobody really likes smooth jazz.  Not even the musicians that play it for the various Muzak outlets.  He might have seriously liked it; he told me he liked its relaxing qualities, the same with classical music.

Then he told me that he loved The Beatles.  And hated The Beach Boys.  Our music conversations really got interesting after that. Continue reading “Remembering Jim Randall”

The First Cut: The Honeydrippers, Vol. 1

Most of my memories of the K-Mart in town stink with the smell of new shoes.  This phenomenon was caused by the toy and electronic sections sharing a wall with the shoe racks.  Maybe my mom bought me shoes there, but I certainly bought a bunch of toys there; Transformers, Centurions, GI Joe, and He-Man if you need to set your calendars.  Also, set your calendars to 1984, when on a trip with my grandma* I bought the Honedrippers album. Continue reading “The First Cut: The Honeydrippers, Vol. 1”

Gimme Five: Lakes

That’s right: lakes.  Ponds just weren’t rockin’ enough to make the cut.

1) Lake Of Dracula

 

There was a time in my life, roughly from 1994-2000, when I was both insulated from popular music and plugged into fantastic new music that could be referred to, gloriously, as unpopular.  Not just “unpopular” meaning “not on the radio” but “unpopular” as in “random people, upon listening, will most likely either question your taste in music or God’s sovereignty”(A prime example of my musical enviroment is that, in 1997, I bought Ok Computer a couple of weeks after it came out, a fantastic album, and was positively ridiculed by my friends).  The majority of this music came from two record companies: Gravity Records and SKIN GRAFT Records. It is difficult to separate a feeling of nostalgia from my love of these tunes, but they are still important parts of my catalog of albums, and, sonically, these albums remain on the fringe of what I’m currently digging. Continue reading “Gimme Five: Lakes”

Two Flumes

I should start with some words from Uncle Frank:

The Ultimate Rule ought to be: “If it sounds GOOD to YOU, it’s bitchen; and if it sounds BAD to YOU, it’s shitty.”  . . .

On a record, the overall timbre of the piece (determined by equalization of individual parts and their proportions in the mix) tells you, in a subtle way, WHAT the song is about.  The orchestration provides important information about what the composition IS and, in some instances, assumes a greater importance than the composition itself.

     — Frank Zappa, The Real Frank Zappa Book

Thought diversion number one.  Diversion number two?  Seconds Out. Continue reading “Two Flumes”