Sonic Youth, Sonic Nurse, Sonic Sonority

Originally posted on August 21, 2008

Sonic Youth have been around so long that the “Youth” part of their name may be a misnomer. Yet they continue to produce music worthy of hearing. Sonic Nurse (Geffen) from 2004 is a case in point. Like Pink Floyd in their prime but in a totally different aural universe, they come up with seemingly simple guitar chord sequences that do not sound at all cliché.

There’s a noise element, they thrive on longer cuts and the vocals are distinctive. I read a pan on this album a while ago. What was the point? Either you like them or you don’t. They keep the candle burning in an otherwise dark area of the music. Sonic Nurse wears well, like a broken-in pair of jeans. It takes a few listens to get on their wavelength, then all is well, at least for me.

Don Cherry Live During A Peak Period, Montmartre

Originally posted on August 20, 2008

When the late trumpet player, avant jazz leader and conceptualist Don Cherry brought his current quintet into the famed European Jazz club Café Montmartre in 1966, he was in many ways at the peak of his powers. Leaving his mentor Ornette Coleman towards the beginning of the decade, he co-lead a number of groups.

By ’66 he had established a definitive group identity with an international coterie of avant players of the first rank. Notably on board were tenorist Gato Barbieri and vibesman Karl Berger, both unique voices and masters of inventive improvisation. A radio broadcast captured the band in great form on Live at Club Montmartre (ESP). The entire set of tapes eventually surfaced in three separate volumes and have now been reissued. Today we look at Volume Two.

The sound is good, the players energized. This is avant music with a large component of sheer JOY. Great compositions, a few oddities (like a version of “Taste of Honey”), and the kind of inspired moments you can get at a live club date—it’s all there. Very good music indeed!

Early Fleetwood Mac Live

Originally posted on August 19, 2008

Fleetwood Mac. They are a household word (or, actually two words). Perhaps no band except the Stones has had such a long and varied history, from a heavily musically endowed blues band to rock titans.

There is a CD lurking around, cheap if you can find it, that documents the original band rather well. Fleetwood Mac Live—Early Recordings (MBH) does not list the personnel, date or location of the recording on the disk, and the sound quality is not first rate, but it shows off the early incarnation at their raw best. This is electric blues at the core, and what sounds like Peter Green is doing some great lead work. It is nice to hear and time has been kind to this lineup. Nothing sounds dated.

Mahogany Frog Does Not Sound Wooden

Originally posted on August 18, 2008

The Canadian prog rock unit Mahogany Frog pushes forward in their 5th release DO 5 (MoonJune). Carrying a lineup of two guitars, bass, drums and the addition of two trumpets, with the former musicians doubling on keys, they rock out on nine selections that show a compositional and instrumental edginess that is obviously the product of plenty of woodshedding and thought.

There are ample musical reasons to place the unit at the forefront of bands that do not play a diluted form of jazz-fusion, but rather continue to build on the prog rock legacy. DO 5 should be heard by anyone with more than a passing fancy for what can be done today.

The Complete ESP Pearls Before Swine

Originally posted on August 15, 2008

One of the better bands of the mid-sixties in the nascent realm of folk-rock was Pearls Before Swine. They were an early and solid manifestation of bands that survived (or didn’t) through an underground following, never really breaking into the mainstream. Listening today to their two albums for ESP, re-released on a single CD as The Complete ESP Recordings, one regrets the neglect they have suffered over the years.

These disks are filled with intelligent, memorable songs, performed with sincerity and some of the spirited panache of the era. I would place both albums at the top of forgotten rock masterpieces of that period.

Sade's First Still Sounds Fresh

Originally posted on August 14, 2008

Sade the band and Sade the singer were/are such stylists that it may be easy now to take them for granted. Instantly recognizable, sometimes a little redundantly so, no one put a sensuously musical spin on R&B/Funk the way they did.

So now I am finally getting around to listening seriously to their first album (from the eighties), Diamond Life. It sure sounds good today, 2008, an August late summer morning. Nothing can top “Love Deluxe” for the songwriting and execution, but this one comes pretty close. [And now I look forward to her new album!] More classics and some interesting new releases coming up.

John Butler's "Sunrise Over Sea"

Originally posted on August 13, 2008

The John Butler Trio manages to combine acoustic-blues related instrumentals with contemporary rock vocals and songwriting with a social consciousness, personal reflections, solid jamband episodes, some nice arrangements and flowingly funky rhythms. Oh, and some really decent electric guitar leads.

All this is true of Butler’s 2004 release Sunrise Over Sea (Lava), which is getting a focused listen over here in my listening station. He grows on me, I find. That’s the best sort of experience musically, I have found.