Wow And Flutter

Long and short pieces on music you should listen to; audio gear; and pop culture.

Month: May 2019

Summer of Stereolab

May 30, 2019 /

Before they called it quits/went on hiatus in 2009, Stereolab were one of the towering giants of Post-Rock, releasing an incredible volume of innovative singles and non-album work – enough to fill four compilation CDs worth – in addition to their ten studio albums. The inclusion of Lo Boob Oscillator as a pickup line in (and on the soundtrack of) High Fidelity should be enough for you to check them out.

[image credit: Stereolab]

But last year, the core of the band (Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier) and their longtime manager Martin Pike, announced plans to reissue their classic run of albums from their Duophonic label, from 1993’s Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements to 2004’s Margerine Eclipse in remastered (triple) vinyl, digital and CD versions, including tons of unreleased bonus material. The first two discs, Transient… and Mars Audiac Quartet (the latter including the song whose title that inspired this blog) came out a couple of weeks ago, and people let me tell you, they’re worth every dollar. The vinyl pressings are fantastically quiet and lovingly remastered, the price includes FLAC/WAV/MP3 downloads of everything, the packaging is top quality, and each disc includes a pull out poster sized lyric sheet and extensive liner notes from Tim Gane.

Best of all, the band is mounting a huge tour this fall! Dates will include a run of the big festivals (Primavera, Pitchfork) and club dates INCLUDING BOSTON THAT I MANAGED TO GET TICKETS FOR! Watch this space over the summer for more ruminations on one of my favorite bands of the past fifteen years.

The only five R.E.M. albums you need

May 27, 2019 /

My piece on the Bingo Hand Job (a/k/a R.E.M.) 1991 concert disc got me thinking about this band that’s been part of my musical DNA since they wormed their way into my brain in 1983, with the release of Murmur, their dark, mysterious, poppy and pretty fantastic full-length debut album. That disc sat on my turntable for a good solid month while I listened, headphones on, trying with all my might to figure out just exactly what Michael Stipe was actually singing about. And once I thought I had the lyrics figured out, I had to reevaluate that opinion the next time I listened to those songs. It was like they were a living being, constantly changing their shape and identity; but that’s what made those early songs so beautiful. Their meaning is what you want to believe it is. It’s like the ending of Lost In Translation: what is Bill Murray whispering in Scarlett Johansson’s ear in the last scene? Doesn’t matter: write your own poetry.

Which R.E.M. albums do you need to have? That your life will be entirely empty without? Well, let’s be honest: you need ALL of them, but if you had to pick only five, they are:

  1. Murmur (1983) Where it all began. Jangly guitars, and mood that mirrors the kudzu vines growing on the cover. Song You’ll Play On Repeat: Radio Free Europe.
  2. Reckoning (1984) Their followup, but deftly avoids the “let’s make another one like the last one” trap. Their lyrics are a little clearer, and the sound punchier. Song You’ll Play On Repeat: Don’t Go Back To Rockville.
  3. Document (1987) The album after Lifes Rich Pageant. NOT produced by John Mellencamp’s producer Don Gehman, but goddamn if “Strange” isn’t the spitting image of vintage Mellencamp. Side two gets murky (but worth the trip) after “The One I Love,” but side one is killer, including the song-for-our-current-times “Exhuming McCarthy.” Song You’ll Play On Repeat: It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine).
  4. New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996) A recent addition to my collection, and so fricking good that it kicked Out Of Time from the top 5 list. The last album with Bill Berry behind the drum kit, and the band playing (most of the tracks were recorded live, during their tour behind Automatic for the People) as if they knew it were the last time they’d all be together. Song You’ll Play On Repeat: The Wake-Up Bomb.
  5. Automatic for the People (1992) Saved the best for last. In fact, if you only had room for ONE R.E.M. album on your shelf, this would be it. There is not a single song on this album that is not a classic. Despite the album’s overall theme of (as guitarist Peter Buck noted) “mortality, the passage of time, suicide and family,” it’s inspiring, moving and (yes) funny. And it rocks hard (“Ignoreland.) Song You’ll Play On Repeat: Nightswimming.

New release: Bill Evans Trio on MoFi

May 12, 2019 /

I’ve been a big fan of Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab‘s half-speed mastered releases since they opened everyone’s ears in the early 80’s as to how GREAT vinyl could sound (and, how crappy the major label pressings were.) They’ve been on a roll lately, tearing off a new bunch of Miles Davis discs, and they’ve started to dip into the Stevie Ray Vaughn catalog, remastering his first two classic discs.

[Mobile Fidelity]

For about three years now the company has been issuing select releases, at a higher price point, that have been pressed using the company’s “Ultradisc One-Step” (UD1S) pressing process. Single albums are spread over two discs, at 45RPM, leaving more room for the grooves and higher fidelity. They come in a fancy box and super heavy-duty packaging, with reproductions of the original artwork and liner notes. Recent releases have been pressed on the company’s “Supervinyl,” which is a new version of the really pure vinyl compound used in the company’s earlier JVC Japanese-pressed discs. Bottom line: this is the best sounding vinyl you’ll find – super silent where it’s supposed to be, and clear as a bell. They’re pricey ($125!) but well worth it.

The latest release is the landmark 1960 release by the Bill Evans Trio, Portrait In Jazz. This is one of my favorite jazz records, and it features the groundbreaking trio of Evans, Paul Motian on drums, and the transcendant bass playing of Scott LaFaro. Up until this time (if you can believe it) the full melodic potential of the bass had never really been explored the way that LaFaro did on this and the subsequent Trio releases. His solos here are just astonishing.Orrin Keepnews’ production is incredibly crisp and clear, one of the best engineered and “real” recordings you’ll hear. Of all the MoFi discs I’ve listened to, I’ve never been as blown away with the sound quality as I was with this release. It really does justice to the source material. These are limited releases (6000 in total) – if you already love this record, order one now before they’re gone.

The Flash of (Soundtrack) Recognition

May 9, 2019 /

I love the movies. More to the point, I love going to the movies. When I was a kid I loved seeing movies, but I really started going to the movies in college (the scene of so many discoveries, I know.) Everyone at the U had a writing requirement in their first year – everyone took the same course first semester, but you got to pick the second semester course. So, I picked “Rhetoric of Film.” NOT a gut course, I assure you. We had to write a lot, but the fun part was that we got to see a different film/program every week to write about. One week was Persona. Another week was a bunch of Max Fleischer cartoons (“Popeye”, the Superman shorts.) But every week was awesome, and I grew to love and appreciate every aspect of great film – the cinematography, the writing, and the music.

Music has always been a key tool of the filmmakers’ craft, used to create mood or convey thoughts without dialog. In the mid-70’s filmmakers (starting pretty much with Saturday Night Fever) began incorporating more popular music in their soundtracks, and relying less on traditional, original musical scores. (TV, too – The Sopranos was masterful in its music selection.) Blockbuster movies especially leaned heavily on pop music. It’s become a game of mine to rate movies based on how awesome the song selection is. High Fidelity, of course, gets top marks.

But I was very pleasantly surprised when I went to see Avengers: Endgame opening weekend and found that the filmmakers were totally on their music game, capped with a scene where two of the Avengers visited another (don’t worry, no spoilers here!) to the backdrop of The Kinks’ Supersonic Rocket Ship. Whaaaaat?

“SRS” is on Everybody’s In Show-Biz, the half-studio, half-(drunkenly) live followup to the Kinks’ classic Muswell Hillbillies, and the track is often overlooked by the titanic song that is Celluloid Heroes, a legit Kinks Klassic. But Supersonic Rocket Ship is a classic in its own right. It channels the same tropical vibe as Apeman, but spools out some of the well-honed Ray Davies social observation in a way he wouldn’t do this skillfully for quite some years later. So, Marvel: well-done! If Avengers: Endgame wasn’t great enough already, including this song pushed the movie into the stratosphere.

“Good music is good no matter what kind of music it is.”  – Miles Davis

 

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