Members Weekly Music Recommendations-April 14

[thebes]

Now the way it's working at present is that tomorrow the government takes a huge chunk of your change and for some obscure reason, next month it will send a chunk of it back to you. Sorta like some sort of demented food group that "repeats" on you. Can't claim to figure it out but I like the repeat idea as far as music goes, since most stuff is worth listening to more than once.

Now let's take Motown, for instance and let's narrow it down to the Four Tops, one of the great pop groups of my youth. My major gripe with Motown has always been that those cheap bastards always had extremely poor recording quality on their albums because those cheap bastards were too cheap to buy decent recording equipment even after they had a few millions in the bank. So much to my surprise Motown came alive for me in the oddest corner of the world:

Barry White, "Greatest Hits", lp soul/pop , 20th Century Fox. Don't get me wrong I really do like Barry White but the greatest song on his greatest hits collection is "Standing in the Shadows of Love" which sure sounds to me like the original 4 Tops is singing on it. Confused? So am I but I'm too lazy to read the liner notes to figure it all out. Who cares, get if for putting you girl in the mood and the really get it for yourself so you can listen to this cut.

You'll thank me.

So what do you have to share this week?

[Doc Robin]

Neal Young: Heart of Gold. Been watching the DVD off and on for the last 2 weeks; just cant get enough.

One of these days I am going to sit down and write a long letter. Later Bill

[BigStewMan]

I will recommend two very different songs: (1) My Guitar Lies Bleeding in my Arms by Tuff Darts. Not a whole bunch of people have heard of them, but this is a nice rock-n-roll song. (2) My Melancholy Blues by Queen. This gem can be found on their News of the World album. I think it is the only Queen song without any vocal harmonies. Powerful vocals by Freddie Mercury and the piano.

[oldbuckster]

Well, here we go again .................. from the Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the WORLD ..... don't let the Old Dawgs bite you in the A$$, let them show you how it's still done after all these years ................. Age has nothing to do with Rock and Roll ..... It's an Attitude, a feeling, for some, it's a way of life :

SHINE A LIGHT : THE ROLLING STONES ................. CD deluxe edition, 2 disc set ................ 2008

What can one say about a 40+ year career, never have retired and returned, like some do, over and over again, just playing their music, puttin' on their Concerts, and just carrying on. These guys have it down pat, and don't seem to have any problem with slow ticket sales anywhere in the World, pretty amazing.

What we have here is, a film shot over a 2 Concert set at the Beacon Theatre at Madison Square Garden, the greatest stage in the world, this is where they belong. Enter Martin Scorsese and his film crews to capture this on film, as only a master like Scorsese can do. This is the soundtrack to that film, and a classic it is. Some hits, some Classics, and some you might have forgot about, all the good stuff is here, and it all sounds FRESH. My favorite is, "Just My Imagination", an old Temptations song, worth the price of the disc by it's self, what a great song. There are other gems on there like , "Far Away Eyes","Some Girls","As Tears Go By", and "She Was Hot", just to name a few, never been recorded in Concert before. The Band is right on the money, Mick sounds good, Keith and Ronnie swap the leads, Charlie bangin' away, never skipping a beat, and the rest of the Band doing what they do best, supporting the Stones as they rip through their set. God I love this stuff .............

This is the World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band rediscovering how great they are. You either like them or you don't, I can't change that, but give this set a chance, you might find your foot tapping, or even worse, you might even sing a long, it's cool, I won't tell anyone. I read how Old and washed up these guys are, horse-hockey ................ Many groups wish they could just stand in their shadows, but they can't ....... I wish I could have aged as well as the Stones have, but I am also very lucky to have lived through their whole career, only one change in the band, Brian Jones, and that had to happen. I am a Rolling Stones Fan, and I will die a Rolling Stones Fan ............... "You can't always get what you want, but You get what you need" ... Shine a Light !!!!!!!!!

[musiclover]

Picked up REM's new CD, Acclerate. One of their best in sometime. Highly recommended.

[seti]

COMBUSTIBLE EDISON

If you enjoy the sounds of Juan Esquivel, Henry Mancini, The Transistors, Matin Denny, and other Space Age Bachlor Pad bands than Combustible Edison are not to be missed. The band sadly broke up in 2001 but not before they left us with four incredible albums. I listen to the Four Rooms soundtrack and I, Swinger the most but love most of their music. The recording quality is also very good.

Here is what one review had to say.

Simply
put, Combustible Edison is a modern-day Lounge band who has faithfully
recreated the sounds of the 50s and 60s. Their debut album, I,
SWINGER covers a wide variety of lounge music, including
Exotica, space-age pop, some great covers, beautiful vocals, and a few
other surprises as well. It has a pretty authentic sound to it, fitting
in quite nicely with authentic 60s lounge music. It appears to use a lot
of the same instruments, recording techniques, and musical styles of the
original space-age scene.

Two
years later, Combustible Edison turned up on the FOUR
ROOMS soundtrack, producing the original score for the
movie. The sound was definitely inspired by Esquivel's music, and uses
an amazingly large collection of instruments, sounds, and musical styles
in the process. The only downside is that, as move scores go, it was written
for the film, and thus many of the tracks are quite short. Still, the
music is very fine.

Their
second full album, SCHIZOPHONIC!
continued the sound, but progressed it, adding electronic sound effects
and synths to mix. With this release, Combustible Edison really started
to show that they were moving out of emulation mode and into defining
their own style. My favorite track is Solid State, which is a perfect
blend of newfangled electronic gimmickry and classic Bertolt-Brecht-inspired
kitsch.

In
1998 Combustible Edison released THE
IMPOSSIBLE WORLD On this one, Combustible Edison has all
but shed their space-age roots, instead delivering a heavy electronic
sound closer to today's dance music. The intriguing thing about it is
that it is still unmistakably Lounge. While it might seem a world apart
from I, Swinger, The Impossible World CD can be put on shuffle
along with their other discs and provide an amazingly listenable, seamless
experience.

Listen to some sample.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000035G8/tikiroomcom

Not just Combustible Edison but also Esquivel.

http://www.amazon.com/Four-Rooms-Original-Picture-Soundtrack/dp/B000002HKQ/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1208270253&sr=1-4

http://www.amazon.com/Schizophonic-Combustible-Edison/dp/B0000035H9/ref=pd_sim_m_img_4

[Daddy Dee]

Tom Waits -- Nighthawks at the Diner.

From Raphael's Silver Cloud Lounge:

Emotional Weather Report.... until you come back to me baby, it's high tonight and low tomorrow.and precipitation is expected.

full lyrics below:

late night and early morning low clouds
with a chance of fog
chance of showers into the afternoon
with variable high cloudiness
and gusty winds, gusty winds
at times around the corner of
Sunset and Alvorado
things are tough all over
when the thunder storms start
increasing over the southeast
and south central portions
of my apartment, I get upset
and a line of thunderstorms was
developing in the early morning
ahead of a slow moving coldfront
cold blooded
with tornado watches issued shortly
before noon Sunday, for the areas
including, the western region
of my mental health
and the northern portions of my
ability to deal rationally with my
disconcerted precarious emotional
situation, it's cold out there
colder than a ticket taker's smile
at the Ivar Theatre, on a Saturday night
flash flood watches covered the
southern portion of my disposition
there was no severe weather well
into the afternoon, except for a lone gust of
wind in the bedroom
in a high pressure zone, covering the eastern
portion of a small suburban community
with a 103 and millibar high pressure zone
and a weak pressure ridge extending from
my eyes down to my cheeks cause since
you left me baby
and put the vice grips on my mental health
well the extended outlook for an
indefinite period of time until you
come back to me baby is high tonight
low tomorrow, and precipitation is
expected

[gonzp]

I recently discovered a new (to me) band from Arizona called Calexico. They are kind of dark, small town Arizona, with some dang fine musicians. I came upon them while in a record store in Denver Colorado, Twist And Shout, they were playing a DVD video. I purchased the DVD and have since purchased all of their recordings (on vinyl)!! Very differant stuff if you are adventurous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3RIgXIdhaA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VshN9YnHeSY&feature=related

Van Morrison~Keep It Simple (LP). This is typical Van Morrison. (Very good)

Willy Nelson ~Moment of forever (LP) This album is produced by Kenny Chesney and Buddy Cannon, it is recorded on the Lost Highway label and it is Willy stripped down acoustic. Very good album.

[askbob1]

calexico has a performance on one of the austin city limits festival dvd's. just in case you are interested. they have a pretty cool tex-mex sound.

[synthfreek]

Calexico came from a few members of the band Giant Sand whose first album came out at almost 25 years ago. The first Calexico album came out around '95 or so. They did an album with Iron & Wine a few years ago that is really good. That one's called In The Reins. They also had a band called Friends Of Dean Martinez in between Giant Sand and Calexico that were great. They sounded like a modernized Ennio Morricone spaghetti western soundtrack. Another Giant Sand member Howe Gelb has moonlighted with a bunch of bands including Neko Case and one of my girlfriend's favorite M. Ward. Giant Sand is kinda Neil Young, Built To Spill & Pavement-ish. I sound like an encyclopedia.

[colterphoto1]

OB- great review. I can't believe we both used the term Horse-Hockey when referring to the 'washed up' theory about the Stones. That is too funny.