What's in your CDP tonight? the minority report

ghosthouse, you make some interesting picks. keep 'em coming.

nice to hear bill lloyd get a shoutout--his first solo lp, feeling the elephant, is a power pop classic--i just reheard it on spotify and some of the songs remained in my head from 25 years ago.

the robert forster mention inspired me to go back to the go-betweens "before hollywood," a fantastic example of that that mopey/melodic 80s thing (smiths/church, etc.). very poetic

also digging tv on the radio's newest, seeds. you can hear a little bit of lodger-era bowie and a little bit of prince, but they don't really sound like anyone else.

thanks all for the interesting picks.

ghost, i'm a big freedy johnston fan, though i wouldn't put him in the same genre as bill lloyd--fj's more the thoughtful folkie. "this perfect world" is essentially a perfect album, and sonically incredible (butch vig production). the title track is the saddest damn song ever written. his guitarist, kevin salem, also records in his own name and is well worth checking out. "never home" is also great.
haven't heard smash palace before, but got 'em cued up--looks from their influences that they're right up my alley.
check out the verlaines, "just too obscure" and lemme know what you think.

ghosthouse, i gave smash palace a few spins--i wanted to dig 'em more but they didn't quite grab me. they seem to be betwixt 80s new wave and power pop without the sonic sheen of the former or the melodic hooks of the latter. i do appreciate the rec, as well as your other picks--keep 'em coming.

my current rave is hiss golden messenger, "bad debt"--just a guy and a guitar, with great (no kidding) spiritual-themed tunes that sound somewhere between nick drake and elliott smith. really haunting stuff. his later, fleshed-out discs with a band aren't nearly as good.

final pick is tresspassers william, "cast", a near-perfect mazzy star knockoff with vg femme vox and songs. good late night music.

two more, then i'll shut up for awhile:
even, "salthill"-- obscure, fantastic aussie power pop somewhere in the realm of badfinger. huge hooks; the principal's a great guitar player.
liquor giants, "one day at a time"--ward dotson, who used to play guitar in the quite forgettable gun club, is one of the greatest unknown songwriters in the universe--he has seemingly endless ability to crank out perfect pop gems. the s/t "liquor giants" is also great.

ghost, hiss golden meesenger's definitely mood music--not something you'd put on at the gym, more like something you'd listen to before a solitary peyote trip.
i did listen to the jo johanasson--it's sort of a less electronic take on the ethereal sigur ros thing. also moody and somber as hell, but i dug it a lot--made a long playlist of his stuff for tomorrow at work. i like kelly jo phelps, too--he seems to be less an acoustic bluesman these days and more ambitious in his sound/writing

bark psychosis--hex (criminally underrecognized, electro newwavy postrock; in the same vein as talk talk)

absolute grey--greenhouse

steve earle, terraplane. this isn't radically different than his other records, or necessarily better, but what strikes me is how he can crank out songs at such a high standard over such a long, prolific career. for consistency, tom petty' the only other to come to mind, and right now i'm digging earle more. check out "go go boots are back"

smashing pumpkins, cherub rock. billy corgan's voice is definitely a tolerate it or hate it proposition, but there's no denying the guy knows his stuff, and this song kicks beyond description. the compact little guitar solo towards the end is an all-timer.

dead can dance, aion--for the goth in all of us
freedy johnston, live at mcabes guitar shop
the who sell out
social distortion, hard times--highly underrated longrunning l.a. senior punks

matt keating, killjoy--literate, tuneful singer/songwriter from sf somewhat in the vein of freedy johnston and paul westerberg, tho he also channels leonard cohen at times. a bit more vocal oomph and studio polish and folks would be calling this a masterpiece; i like it just fine.
joan armatrading, how cruel ep--four perfect tunes ranging from folky to reggae. i never understood why she wasn't a huge star.

dm3, west of anywhere--world class powerpop by one dom mariani, an aussie whose prior bands like the stems and someloves are also revered by fans of this generally unpopular genre

bevis frond, example 22--the 587th album from my favorite eccentric guitar shredder/english folkie--this guy seems to have a limitless supply of great tunes. "waiting for sinatra" is the best song i've heard this year.

the beatles, rubber soul--good songwriting; quite underrated 60s pop
the byrds, preflyte--rudimentary production values aside, indisputable proof of gene clark's singular genius
kinski, alpine static--hypnotic, intense instro rawk in roughly the same vein as the equally great mogwai and neu. music to have pleasant dreams by. acquire it pronto. 

motors, dancing the night away. one of the great lost classics of the 80s--swelling, tight  epic british rawk with that great lighter-lifting intro. i think cheap trick covered this.

sam phillips, martinis and bikinis--i was always a little surprised she wasn't bigger--she's very musical. impeccable production, i assume by her ex-husband.
bobby sutliff, allsorts--an oddball covers album by the more somber guy from the jangle-pop gods, the windbreakers. absolutely crushes  nick drake's "northern sky"

bdp, i'm with you on her wide-eyed innocent look.i looked up jerry scheff's discography--he's on an astronomical number of classic pop records (ron sexsmith, crowded house, richard thompson). also mink deville, whose best-of is my pick for the week.

nice to see the bottle rockets get some love...
a couple of overlooked lps i've heard of late:
santana, caravanserai--much spacier/more ethereal than their earlier salsa/funk and thus as immediately engaging, but a great headphone listen
quicksilver, shady grove--a very strange, trippy record which is likewise much different than their bo diddley/bluesy stuff. it's dominated by nicky hopkins' piano, rather than by guitar--his instrumental "edward the mad shirt grinder" is a classic deep track, but the real standouts are the slow ballads like "flashing lonesome"

terry reid, superlungs--incredible 60s/70s era singer--sounds like the template for jeff buckley, while his songwriting reminds me somehow of amy winehouse. his later, more-acoustic stuff shows him to be an estimable guitarist as well. pretty obscure now (tho cheap trick covered his "speak now" on their first record), but he was almost famous once--he turned down the jimmy page slot in led zeppelin and later deep purple.

not a cd, but rather a book-- "rocks off" by bill janovitz. the author (whose band, buffalo tom, had a couple of great tunes) closely analyzes 50 of the stones' significant songs (most of the classics, but also some relative obscurities) and intersperses a lot of musical history and biographical data. it's very good rock criticism--he's obviously listened to these records obsessively and really knows what he's talking about.

the records, smashes, crashes--everyone's heard "starry eyes," but the rest of their oeuvre is just as strong--these are great songs which hold up remarkably well.

elvis costello/attractions, this year's model--listening to this thru really good headphones i grasped how sonically excellent this record is. ec's got a lousy voice, though he knows how to sing, and his guitar is merely functional here, though he's smart enough to underplay. his band, however, really kicks it. steve naive (who tended to overplay badly on subsequent records) sounds great and the drummer swings. the real mutha here is bruce thomas on bass--he's front, center and everywhere else. the bonus tracks are just as good as the main album--"big tears" may be his best ever.

paul griffin, a blowing session--at first blush just another 50s blue note date, but listen closer and you'll hear some of the best drumming ever on record. no great revelation, i suppose, but art blakey isn't human--he's simply on another plane. i once saw a video of him in a "drum-off" with ginger baker and it was like watching michael jordan play one-on-one with herve villechaize.

ghost, you can find the video on youtube  (also a duel with elvin jones)--let me know if i've exaggerated. btw, i like ginger baker alot, but he's no blakey or elvin jones.

that's the one--there's also a jones/baker battle (just type in ginger baker elvin jones on the youtube site). let us know what you think...

gh, thanks for checking it out. i don't really disagree with your analysis--my own sense (not being a drummer either) was that baker tends to default to that same sorta tribal/african rhythm while blakey shows a much wider dynamic range and in general, seemed to have supreme mastery--i.e. he  shifts from cool to frenzied in a heartbeat. i was probably being unfair to baker earlier--he's still a great rock drummer--but since he's generally regarded as the spawn of satan i won't apologize in person.

by all accounts, no one cared for ginger baker--he seems to have been exiled from several continents. if you haven't already, check out his documentary on netflix, beware of mr. baker, which is a real hoot.

bdp, must have been quite an experience to play with john wicks--his was a songcraft which you rarely see anymore (maybe teenage fanclub and matthew sweet). i do find the lyrics of "teenarama" deeply disturbing, however.

speaking of sociopaths and songcraft, i was just listening to "hold on to me" by courtney love. it's always irksome when horrible people are blessed with some form of genius, but this is a fantastic song off the much-maligned america's sweetheart.

bdp, i only know emmitt rhodes' first record, but i got the new one queued up. also the wondermints first (curiosly not on spotify), which i haven't heard for a long while. you obviously lead a more interesting life than i do...
in the same vein, check out cotton mather's kontiki, which is something of a masterpiece of the genre--tuneful and really, really smart

bdp, what bands were you in?
i did listen to the emmitt rhodes on spotify--it's quite a bit removed from the mccartney-ish stuff i remember, and sorta downcast/sad--his divorce record? also the chewy marble (i remember them from my not lame period)--vg, much more straightforward power pop than the wondermints. not sure, of course, which tracks you played on, but i like the drum sound

keith richard, talk is cheap--it's not that the stones' classic lps weren't great, but they're so fussed-over and produced as to be ultimately exhausting. this one, by contrast, is unfussy and spare--mostly guitar, baass and drums, with horns and keys deployed only sparingly. songwrting is quite eclectic and impressive here; "locked away" and the al green rip "make no mistake" are awful purty.

fountains of wayne, sky full of holes--i don't generally like this type of "clever pop," but these guys do it very well, with a real sense of the melodic hook. their guitar player is surprisingly great.
tinted windows, nothing to me--sort of supergroup with the auteur from fountains on wayne, the drummer from cheap trick and the kid from hanson, who wrote this surprisingly great song.
neil finn, try whistling this--tamer than my typical fare, but immaculately played and produced

nutty, glad you enjoyed it.
dpatterson, i listened to the bob moses on spotify (also some of the "related artists" like the acid and kiasmos)--not sure what you call the genre?, but i like it--it's trippy without being soporific--will check out more
my completely incongruous fare today:
til tuesday--coming up close--the synths are undeniably horrible, but the songs are superb and in many respects better than aimee's recent work. i actually think this stuff is highly underrated.
badfinger--straight up--maybe it's the tragic backstory, but for some reason, pete ham's voice always brings me to tears.

as much as i respected the cratsmanship, i never really embraced that grays/jellyfish genre, mainly because it's more pop than power. i did like jon brion's solo record, meaningless (you can find it on youtube), which is looser; you might also dig redd kross, who are tons of fun.

Ghost: re:nels cline
You cant blame a guy for wanting to feed his family, but freakin wilco? His freejazz stuff is fantastic, albeit wholly uncommercial: where does art transcend commerce? Right now im listening to "coward" on really good headphones.

ghost--can't find the eric von essen on spotify--is it worth tracking down on cd?

ghost, thanks for following up. the carles benavent is excellent btw--very 80s fusion throwback. which is a good thing.

fig dish, that's what love songs often do--replacement-ish chicago band that had a brief major label fling in the wake of smashing pumpkins. massive, crunchy guitar hooks, great dynamics and a lot of fun.
arab strap, red thread--dour, poetic lyrics chanted over thick, lush guitar textures; somewhere in the neighborhood of nick cave or tindersticks, but somehow more engaging than either. very highly recommended.

quicksilver, happy trails. john cippolina was a vastly underrated guitar god, here doing bo diddly for an hour or so

a place to bury strangers

ron wood, i've got my own album to do. i literally haven't listened to this disc in 20 years, but was surprised at how almost-uniformly strong the songs were. "mystifies me", later covered by son volt, is something of a lost classic.

ruebent, i'm with you on electric rock music--it's brilliant. "hey grandma" might be the best song ever written. (ok, a little hyperbole)

i've heard wussy, who robert christgau praises irrationally, but don't like them as much as the ass ponys--too dark and less melodic. the great thing about "electric rock music: is the genuine affection the singer has for all the freaks and losers he sings about--they all keep their dignity. plus the melodies are always there.
from the same era, check out "united kingdom" by american music club, which is quite brilliant in an angsty sorta way.

bdp24, thanks for the twilley post--i'm a massive fan of sincerely and twilley don't mind. his  third record, "twilley," which is almost impossible to find except on vinyl, was also pretty great, with a couple of his best tunes. his later stuff was honorable but i never got into it.

fleetwood mac, "future games" and "bare trees"--for my money the best iteration of the band
polvo, "today's active lifestyle"--unique, challenging, ultimately rewarding

ghost, i'm never offended by (and always welcome) reasoned dissent--it keeps me from getting too full of myself...

fully agree with you on danny kirwan, who dropped off the map precipitously (booze/lsd, i think)-- for me the albums he played on were far and away mac's best and his songs were the best thing on them, green's "o well" and "closing my eyes" (incredible tune) excepted. i did own a couple of his solo records, which were terrible and were eventually used to kill zombies.

as for ron wood, i can see why "own album" didn't connect--he's a non-singer, tho unlike other non-singers (david lee roth, joe jackson, etc.) he doesn't deign to sing, which makes him a good non-singer. also, there's a deliberately tossed-off quality to the record--he's going for a barroom groove, not trying to make a major statement, which is the same reason i like the faces' records more than most of rod stewart's or the post-who's next who. yet however uncompelling you find the performances, i still think the songs are there--take another listen to "feel the fire" and "sure the one," only this time crank it up and have a couple whiskeys first; also listen to son volt's cover of "mystifies me."

agreed on straightaways, even moreso on their debut, "trace"--for some reason "ten second news" always makes me cry. i've always thought farrar was some sort of a genius, though his range is fairly narrow and his records do get somewhat monochromatic. i did read that wilco (who had just released their ok-but-unspectacular debut) was so blown away by hearing "trace" for the first time that they became obsessed with upping their game in order to match it.

pokey, i think tweedy's a smart guy and a good writer, but i tend to respect wilco's craftsmanship rather than genuinely embrace its soul--there's an overly-clinical and cerebral quality to it, whereas farrar, albeit less musically ambitious, is all heart. likewise richard buckner.

with respect to new music, it's inevitable that most stuff starts to sound like a retread/rehash of influences. to which end i was disappointed in the latest from aimee mann and rela estate (two artists i much admire), although the latest by robyn hitchcock (s/t) and wire were surprisingly good.

here's a new find: asteroid #4, windmill. very melodic leaning acid/folk/pop--a lot of these songs sound like lost summer of love classics 

he's decades past relevance, and was never hip in the first place, but tumbleweed connection is unarguably a great record--just pulled it out to listen to with my jaded ex-skatepunk bride, who wholly agrees with the foregoing.
also in queue is steven wilson--hand,cannot, erase--highly recommended prog rock for people like myself that don't especially like prog rock

liquor giants, every other day at a time---the auteur, ward dotson is a fantastic, oddly overlooked pop songwriter whose previous band, the pontiac brothers, was also great in a stonesy/replacementy vein.

notorious byrd brothers--their best by a margin, despite the near-absence of gene clark (who according to mcguinn did write the miscredited "get to you") and losing crosby halfway through (he supposedly felt slighted at the inclusion of the carole king songs). i always had an issue with the production, which sounds over-compressed to me, but the songs are unfailingly great + you can hear a lot of clarence white in the background.

pernice brothers, "dimmest star" --one of the purtiest (and certainly saddest) songs of the last 20 years.
chris whitley, "terra incognita"--a lot of this reccord drifts off into the ozone (i prefer his tighter acoustic stuff), but "weightless" is an incredible song. rip

nutty, you're right about chris stapleton--the guy's gotta lotta soul. his more trad stuff is generic but he's a real way with a stripped down ballad. this is a country record for people who don't like country