OUR FAVORITE NEW MUSIC & MOVIES! - Amoeba Music

28 MUSIC WE LIKE H Spring/Summer 2011
SAN FRANCISCO
AARON h.
I mostly listen to electronic music.
Sorry…
Gold Panda – Lucky Shiner
(gHOSTLY INTErNATIONAL)
A repetitive mess of blips, beeps, beats, and
countless other weird textures that works so
well it hurts. Turn out the lights and boogie
down.
John Roberts – Glass Eights
(DIAL)
Deep House golden-boy John robert’s debut Lp.
Don’t fuck around with this record — it’s serious
business. perfect for 3am bike rides.
Efdemin – Chicago (DIAL)
Everything I want to say about this record can
be summed up by a direct quote from one of the
few vocal samples it uses: “Oh my god… Oh my
god, oh my goodness… Oh my fucking god!”
Big Boi – Sir Luscious Left Foot:
The Son of Chico Dusty (DEF JAM)
I think this is the first hip-hop record to make
it into one of my “Music We Like” entries. That
probably says more about me than it does about
this record though. In all seriousness, this record’s
a winner — a real fun time. On the downside,
it’ll make you yearn desperately for a new
Outkast release.
Tip:
My friend and I have a podcast where we put other
people’s music online and then take credit for it. If you’re
into that kind of thing, visit http://physicsengine.podomatic.
com, or iTunes search Physics Engine.
AllEN
Some of us still call them “albums.”
The term was outdated even then.
Metropole Orkest/John
Scofield/Vince Mendoza – 54
(EMArCY/DECCA)
In the last few years there’s been a growing number
of (mostly) jazz musicians who are getting
the opportunity to have their music arranged, orchestrated
and performed by European big bands
and orchestras. randy Brecker, Joe zawinul and
Maceo parker, among others, have all received
this deluxe treatment, with exciting results. It was
a kick to hear zawinul’s keyboard parts expanded
to a larger palette, played by a large ensemble
that’s comfortable in all sorts of contexts. Now
it’s John Scofield’s turn, and arranger Mendoza applies
54 musicians (hence the title) to Scofield’s
slithery, groove-elated tunes, adding surprising
textures and twists along the way.
Jason Moran – Ten (BLUE NOTE)
There are less sonic tricks than his last trio CD,
The Bandwagon (with the same lineup), but his
approach to the format is still so fresh, creative
and well-executed that he makes you wonder
why no one else ever thought about doing the
same thing. I think the answer is, he just makes
it look easy.
Frank Zappa - The Torture
Never Stops (1981)
I remember very distinctly the first time I saw
this Halloween concert on videotape. It was my
first exposure to Zappa’s exhaustively rehearsed
ensembles, as they played two hours of nonstop
oddball songs, dense instrumentals and,
of course, toilet humor. I was overwhelmed. I’ll
never forget the sight of percussionist Ed Mann,
running back and forth between his numerous
mallet instruments, and clanging a pair of marching
cymbals when he wasn’t. And with a band
that included Steve Vai and Chad Wackerman,
Mann wasn’t the only virtuoso worth watching.
Thirty years later, this performance still amazes
and amuses. Ahh, those were the days.
Weather Report - Live in
Germany 1971
One wouldn’t expect a 40-year-old television
show to look and sound this good, but it’s some-
thing of a revelation. We all knew that Weather
report, in its earlier incarnations, was an improvisatory,
ethereal (yet still earthy) beast, but
the video of this german TV show beautifully
captures the band in feisty, restless form, with
original drummer Alphonse Mouzon still in tow.
This is not the groove/funk machine of the late-
’70s; this is the abstract offspring of Bitches Brew,
when fusion wasn’t a dirty word yet.
Perfecting Sound Forever:
An Aural History of Recorded
Music - by Greg Milner
(FABEr & FABEr, INC.)
recording music is always a compromise.
Whether it’s etching a groove on a wax cylinder
or converting a signal to ones and zeros, there’s
no way a machine can reproduce exactly what
the human ear hears, so decisions have to be
made as to what stays or goes. Usually, the job is
done well enough so that we can live with, and
perhaps even enjoy, the results. But who makes
those decisions, and what gets left along the
wayside? The telling of this story reveals absorbing
details. Was there really a time, as early as
1908, when people could not tell the difference
between a live singer and an Edison phonograph?
How did the invention of magnetic tape alter
our view of time? Why did we go from an ambient
room sound in the ’50s to a close, choked
sound in the ’70s, then to a boomy gated sound
in the ’80s, to a mix-in-the-box sound of today?
What price are we paying for compressing the
sound of CDs to make them more punchy? And
by breaking up a sine wave into digital bits, are
we letting the music affect us in physical and
mental ways? Author Milner focuses on the stories
and personalities of the people who made
these discoveries and decisions, for better or
worse, and describes how and why we listen to
recorded music the way we do. It’s a fascinating
read and it will make you ponder and question
every aspect of the music you hear.
AUdRA
WOlFMANN
A.k.a. Odessa Lil: available for
weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, séances,
and home foreclosures.
Black Sabbath: The Secret
Musical History of Black-Jewish
Relations – Various Artists
(THE IDELSOHN SOCIETY FOr MUSICAL
prESErVATION)
The Idelsohn Society for Musical preservation is
always hitting homeruns as far as I’m concerned.
This time, they’ve put together a compilation
of legendary African-American artists’ versions
of Jewish songs. There’s amazing contributions
from Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway,
and Johnny Mathis amongst others. The Idelsohn
Society refers to this tradition as the “secret
musical history of Black-Jewish relations,” but
there’s no secret at all when you look into the
roots of Jazz. As Cab Calloway says in “Utt Da
zay”: “Oh, do you dig, dig, dig? Do you chop,
chop, chop? Are you hep to this jive that I’m laying
to you?”
People Take Warning! Murder
Ballads & Disaster Songs,
1913-1938 – Various Artists
(TOMpkINS SqUArE)
A three-disc set covering Man vs. Man, Man vs.
Nature, and Man vs. Machine. There were really
a lot of songs written about the Titanic!
Board to Death:
The Complete First Season –
Directed by Jonathan Ames
Writers will do anything to avoid writing. For
instance, instead of working on my various
neglected projects, I’ve chosen to become obsessed
with this show about a writer avoiding
his writing. Smart, neurotic, and hilarious.
Deadwood: The Complete
Series [Blu-ray] – Directed by
David Milch
Ok, I don’t even have a Blu-ray player, but I just
wanted to use the Blu-ray release of Deadwood
to point out how AWESOME Deadwood is!
Tip:
Better on VHS: 1. Blood & Concrete: A Love Story, 2.
One Crazy Summer, 3. UHF, 4. The Linguini Incident,
5. Fresno (TV miniseries), 6. Ski School, 7. Ferocious
Female Freedom Fighters.
MUSIC WE LIKE H Spring/Summer 2011 29