Posts from — February 2008

Chez (recently canned from CNN) wrote about what a great year 1992 was for music.

I couldn’t agree more. 1991,92,93 was unbelievable. Maybe my brain is skewed because those were formative end-of-high-school beginning-of-college years for me. Either way … I love a ton of these records.

Here’s his list of “the albums that were either released or broke wide open in 1992″

Absolute Classics I Can Vouch For, The First Several Are Among My All-Time Favorites

• U2 - Achtung Baby
• My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
• REM - Automatic for the People
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magick
• Smashing Pumpkins - Gish
• The Lemonheads - It’s a Shame About Ray
• Beastie Boys - Check Your Head
• Nirvana - Nevermind (duh)
• Faith No More - Angel Dust (me says an underrated masterpiece)
• Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
• Dr. Dre - The Chronic (hells yeah)
• A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
• Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend
• Ministry - Psalm 69
• Pixies - Trompe le Monde

Other Good Records I am familiar with

• Stone Temple Pilots - Core (me says, just OK)
• Nine Inch Nails - Broken (whoa)
• Alice in Chains - Dirt
• Pantera - A Vulgar Display of Power
• Singles - Original Soundtrack (kind of sums up this era)
• Living Colour - Time’s Up
• Tool - Opiate
• Cypress Hill - Cypress Hill (to be followed up with Black Sunday in 1993!)
• Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger (to be followed up with Superunknown in 1994!)
• Pearl Jam - Ten (THE album in ‘92, I can vividly remember walking around campus and hearing it blasting out of EVERY fraternity … personally I’ve heard this record enough, I’m kind of done with it)
• Guns N’ Roses - Use Your Illusion I Use Your Illusion II
• Toad the Wet Sprocket - Fear
• Seal - Seal
• Jesus Jones - Doubt

Records from His List That I Am Not So Familiar With

• Del tha Funkee Homosapien - I Wish my Brother George was Here
• Hole - Pretty on the Inside
• Sepultura - Arise
• Fugazi - Steady Diet of Nothing
• House of Pain - House of Pain (Obviously I am aware of the fun anthem “Jump Around”, but I am not familiar wit the album)
• Ice T - O.G. (Original Gangster)
• Mudhoney - Piece of Cake
• Death - Human
• Ice Cube - The Predator
• White Zombie - La Sexorcisto

So go out and get any of these that you don’t have! (at least the ones from the first chunk!)

I love this record more and more. I got it when it came out and I liked it, but it’s been in my car CD player for the past week, and I just can get enough of it. Nearly perfect.

Update Listened again after not listening for 6 weeks or so … man this record is good!

Rounder

Our Rating:

Thoughts/Words/Reviews:
The musical collaboration of the decade, Raising Sand is the sound of two iconic figures stepping out of their respective comfort zones and letting their instincts lead them across a brave new sonic landscape. Despite hailing from distinctly different backgrounds, Alison Krauss and Robert Plant share a maverick spirit and willingness to extend the boundaries of their respective genres. This spirit, expertly honed by producer T Bone Burnett, has resulted in an album pitched three steps beyond some cosmic collision of early urban blues, spacious West Texas country, and the untapped potential of the folk-rock revolution. Supported by the unparalleled musicianship of Marc Ribot, Dennis Crouch, Mike Seeger, Jay Bellerose, Norman Blake, Greg Leisz, Patrick Warren, and Riley Baugus, Plant and Krauss — as both solo and harmony vocalists — tackle an intriguing selection of songs from such tunesmiths as Tom Waits, Gene Clark, Sam Phillips, Townes Van Zandt, The Everly Broth! ers, and Mel Tillis. Raising Sand finds Robert Plant and Alison Krauss exploring popular music’s elemental roots while still sounding effortlessly, breath-takingly contemporary.

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Joni Mitchell

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Thoughts/Words/Reviews:
45tunes.com says: Joni’s Blue is an absolute masterpiece. Alanis, Tori, and a lot of other great artists owe a lot to this nearly perfect record …

Joni Mitchell would go on from this ‘71 recording to make more popular, more ambitious, and more challenging albums, but she’s never made a better one. Working with minimal accompaniment (Stephen Stills and James Taylor are two of the four sidemen), the Canadian thrush summoned an involving song cycle of romance found and lost. Though Blue is an uncommonly intimate representation, it’s also astonishingly open and gracious. Songs such as “All I Want,” “Carey,” “California,” and “A Case of You” work equally well as poetry and pop music. –Steve Stolder

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Gorillaz

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Thoughts/Words/Reviews:
45tunes.com says: “Demon Days” is one of the funnest records of the 2000’s.

Gorillaz Photos

More from Gorillaz

Gorillaz	G-Sides	Spacemonkeyz Vs. Gorillaz: Laika Come Home
Gorillaz - Phase One - Celebrity Take Down	Gorillaz - Phase Two - Slowboat to Hades	Demon Days Live

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Cowboy Junkies

Thoughts/Words/Reviews:

On their sophomore effort, Canada’s Cowboy Junkies manage to make a one-day recording session in an old church one of their most satisfying listens. Featuring the sultry voice of Margo Timmins, the precise musicianship of her brothers Peter (on drums) and Michael (on guitar), and bassist Alan Anton, The Trinity Sessions is a spare, evocative, countrified-rock classic. Their inspired reworking of both “Blue Moon” and “Working On A Building” reveal the Timmins family to be talented interpreters and insightful neo-traditionalists. Mixing the ambitious songwriting of Margo and Michael Timmins with subdued covers of Lou Reed’s “Sweet Jane” and Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” The Trinity Sessions is an exquisite collection that holds up quite well under repeated listenings. –Mitch Myers

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Herbie Hancock

Thoughts/Words/Reviews:

45tunes.com says: Herbie Hancock’s grammy-winning album of the year featuring reworked Joni Mitchell songs

On paper, River sounds like a match made in several versions of heaven. Legendary pianist Herbie Hancock re-imagines Joni Mitchell with his hand-picked, star-studded band–including saxophonist Wayne Shorter–in tow. Luminary guests lend vocals to a song apiece: Norah Jones (”Court and Spark”), Tina Turner (”Edith and the Kingpin”), Corinne Bailey Rae (”River”), Luciana Souza (”Amelia”), Leonard Cohen (with an unsettlingly sanguine version of “The Jungle Line”), even Mitchell herself (”Tea Leaf Prophecy”). In the event, though, a few fundamental elements go awry. Hancock plays with almost saccharine understatement throughout, and even Shorter’s seminal “Nefertiti” and Duke Ellington’s “Solitude” fall into the album’s presiding, somnolent surface, though to a lesser degree does the instrumental version of Mitchell’s “Sweet Bird.” But girding, and in some measure, saving, the proceedings, the lyrics here testify to a subtler wisdom guiding Hancock’s set list. The mix includes a continuum from intrepid classics to dusty, fans-only fare, but a distinct reverence for Joni Mitchell the Poet threads them together, and, in the end, this album works best as a sleepy window into one fan’s giddy and particular love affair with his source material. Fans of Hancock win out. –Jason Kirk

View More about River: The Joni Letters (with Bonus Tracks) - Amazon.com Exclusive

Buckethead

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Thoughts/Words/Reviews:
45tunes.com says: Buckethead records can be hit or miss, there are great ones and there are other ones that are “not so much”. But the song “Pin Bones and Poultry” from “Somewhere Over the Slaughterhouse” is one of the funkiest, whackiest grooves ever. I’ve never really head much buzz about this tune, I don’t know if it is universally loved, but it should be.

If you don’t have anything by Buckethead, make sure you check out the sorta-supergroup album Praxis: Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis)

View More about Buckethead’s Song “Pin Bones and Poultry” from Somewhere Over the Slaughterhouse

(((Powerhouse Sound)))

Thoughts/Words/Reviews:
Awesome project from Ken Vandermark.

View More about Oslo/Chicago: Breaks