Kurt Vile Makes Snotty, Repetitious Music. That's Good!

Sometimes bands lose sight of part of what makes rock work. Now there’s more than one way to skin a drum, but repetition has been an important aspect of the music since its evolvement out of blues and jump in the ‘50s. Kurt Vile (not to be confused with German composer Kurt Weil, obviously), picks interesting musical hooks and then hits on them with a burning presence, varies them, and adds a nicely raw vocal style. Now if you think all of that is easy, listen to much of the music made in the name of rock for the past 20 years. Many artists either avoid grooving repetition or just don’t have the knack to get the right ones and hit on them with style. Subsequently the music doesn’t always rock out the way it could.

Vile’s latest, Childish Prodigy (Matador) rocks out. Listen to “Freak Train” and you’ll find yourself sinking into the groove. It’s hip and it’s hypnotic. Compared to some music, it may be simple, elemental, but that’s deceptive. This is rock that has the kind of smoldering energy of classic urban blues. And the music has contrast. A song may center around an acoustic guitar figure for Mr. Vile, or there may be a bigger wall of tone and a more electric ambiance. And the vocals are just snotty and impolite enough to speak truth.

Kurt Vile has the kind of regenerative balls that rebirths the alt scene, or whatever term one might want to use. Categories are just convenient pigeonholes, shorthand ciphers to indicate what to expect. Expect solid, heartfelt rocking on Childish Prodigy. Kurt goes back to elemental roots to recharge the music. Listen and you’ll understand that we're not talking about something simple or limited. Approach his music on its own terms and you’ll see that everything lays out just right. He has it.

Blazing, Melodic Metal From Mastodon

Originally posed on November 19, 2008

The metal band Mastodon has a new album coming out next year. Now a few weeks ago I would have met that fact with some indifference. That was before I was sent their 2006 disk Blood Mountain (Relapse). This is no ordinary metal album. The group has worked hard on their arrangements and songs. They are very good musicians. It’s not just speed metal and/or power chords; there’s more here. More variety and innovation in the music itself.

Guitars, bass and drums are all meshed into a playing octopus and each limb is indispensable for the group sound. And each player plays some great things on his instrument. Vocals have the emotion-wrenched angst you would expect from such a band, but they also can zero in on a more classic rock style, more melodic. The CD comes with a DVD disk that documents the making of the album and is one of the better such videos. You get a clear picture of the rehearsal and recording stages at various points in time, and it helps you understand the exceptional musical talents involved.

If I hadn’t stumbled on this one a year late, it would be at the top of my rock records of the year list. What the hell, I mentally put it there anyway. Nice production job too. Mastodon may give you a respect for metal you didn’t already have, if you are a skeptic. Fans of the genre probably already know them and I preach to the converted. Well, I am impressed. I look to the new album with anticipation!

Brad Lubman's Muscular Avant Garde Music

Originally posted on November 18, 2008

One more in the contemporary classical mode and then it’s on to other things. Brad Lubman cannot be said to be a household name. He is a prominent conductor in new music circles and Tzadik recently put out a disk of his compositions called Insomniac. As with some of the previous composers discussed recently, his music combines in various ways instruments in real-time along with electronically altered and pure electronic sounds. He gives you dramatic contrasts and reference to machine-like tapestries as well as sounds more conventional to the modern concert arena.

He tends to grab the listener a little more aggressively than some of the other composers we’ve been reviewing. His music is a little in-your-face and in the end it makes for a memorable program. This is more muscular material, less involved in dreamscape weaving. The music decidedly will not accept relegation to a background role. You either listen to this music or you turn it off. It demands to be accepted on its own terms. If you agree to that, you get a program of music in a whirlwind. Music for an age where our machines still create infernal clatter out there. It’s consequently more of an urban thing, more industrial in the many ways one could use that word. Good for us when there can still be drastically differing approaches to organizing sound. Here’s one of them—a completely valid way to go about things, executed with a good ear for melding the unusual and the familiar in a personal blend. It will give your ears a workout and you might just like it. Give it a shot.

Lafayette Gilchrist Takes Funk Into A New Zone

Originally posted on November 17, 2008

Lafayette who? Lafayette Gilchrist. He’s a pianist-bandleader-writer-arranger out of Baltimore. His fourth album Soul Progressin’ (Hyena) cooks up jazz-funk with a magic charm laid on it. It has a roots funkiness with a very quirky and cool approach to avoiding the usual funk-drek ho-hum sort of thing. He writes long sprawling lines for the horns, reminiscent slightly of George Russell’s later work, and those horn cats play with a real spirit not born out of session work or other must-be-polite situations. They play with a raunchy liveliness that has that acid tinge of the Art Ensemble of Chicago in their classic serious-making-fun sorts of moments. Gilchrist plays an interesting piano too.

The eight-piece band has obviously worked to get these results, an out-of-the-ordinary group dynamic. It is one of those records that you might at first pass off as a commercial foray if you don’t listen to it with some attention. It may be welcomed by plenty of people, but it won’t be because Lafayette is trying the slip one by them on the way to the bank. This is music from his inner sanctum of sounds, Lafayette’s soul. No kidding it’s good.

Berangere Maximin and Her Narrative Soundscapes

Originally posted on November 14, 2008

Another electro-acoustic offering forms today’s focus. It’s the debut CD of a Paris composer, Berangere Maximin, Taint que les heures passent (Tzadik). First off there is a bit of recitation in French in the middle, not long, with electro-acoustic background. If you don’t know French, this will be a slightly dead zone of the disk for you. But it’s pretty short, she certainly recites well, and the rest of the program is filled with interesting soundscapes with all kinds of textural combinations, atmospheric sculptures of aural sensuality. Her own music, found snatches of music and sounds heard in the world make up her arsenal of means and she juggles them with dexterity and aesthetic insight.

The new generation of avantists has arrived. They are not out to shock, but to tell a story. This particular program brings a master of sound storytelling to the international public, and I believe those who open themselves to the new will be pleased. If this isn’t your cup of tea, we’ll be looking at all sorts of other things in the coming weeks, not to worry.

Danny Brill and the "Golden Age" of Prog Rock

Originally posted on November 13, 2008

I once was hanging out at a used record store not far from the Iron Building in downtown NYC. (The store was a great place for obscure bargains, probably gone now.) I overheard a conversation that sticks with me today (this was around 18 years ago). The salesman was trying to interest a customer in an RCA recording of the Golden Age of Opera (a reissue of opera 78s by famous stars of the Met in the ‘20s and ‘30s). “Golden Age?” the customer responded. “When anyone starts talking about the ‘golden age’ of anything I start getting suspicious.” He didn’t buy the record and we all went on our way in life but he had a point. There is no golden age. Every moment is a golden age if you are alive, no matter how tarnished that gold seems. Because it’s YOUR life.

So when I tell you that the CD for today will appeal to anyone who likes the “Golden Age” of Progressive Rock (1968-73, I guess), I do it with all the qualifications above. Yet I am serious. This is a tiny release by Danny Brill on his Danny Brill label and it is appropriately titled Better Late Than Never. He’s a guy who saw Emerson, Lake and Palmer at the Fillmore East in 1971 and was entirely entranced with that sound. He kept on playing keyboards, now more in the ELP style (along with influences like Yes, Gentle Giant, and etc.), but eventually gave it up to form a musical instrument rental company.

Now here it is 2008 [or it was when I wrote this]; he is at last playing again seriously and has made this album. It isn’t going to blast forth on MTV’s playlist, I imagine. So what? It actually has some real charm. There’s the great Tony Levin on bass, Nick Moroch on guitars, and a program of progressive music that sounds good to me. It has humor, depth and variety. It has a retro feel but is clearly made in the world we live in today. He deserves your support. And don’t forget to savor every moment of your life. Revel in your Golden Age today and every day.

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.

Originally posted on November 12, 2008

So what about some music? Today’s CD is not something I would have sought out on my own. It’s a songwriting-making-music entity called Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. This is at least their second album, I think, and it’s called The Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager (Atlantic).

I assume from that title and the sound of the disk that it is geared to the younger folks. But the consistently musical quality of the CD means anyone who wants to check out some current sounds can appreciate it. These are real songs of an unhappy young fellow and how he feels. There are some nice acoustic guitar moments and good arrangements. I am glad the song form has not died and these people show you how that is the case. So long until the morrow.