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May 21, 2013, 11:50am

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Topic: Album Of The Week (Read 13,067 times)

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Abominable Snowman

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Re: Album Of The Week
« Reply #240 on Aug 25, 2011, 4:32pm »

I'm really digging the hidden track at the end of Destroy All Astromen!

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Re: Album Of The Week
« Reply #241 on Aug 25, 2011, 4:41pm »

I have one Man or Astro-Man? record that I bought in high school based on the fact that they wrote the theme song for Space Ghost Coast to Coast but I haven't listened to them in probably more than ten years. This should be fun.

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Re: Album Of The Week
« Reply #242 on Aug 25, 2011, 11:08pm »

I have to say I was pretty shocked when I pressed play on the Man or Astro-man? record and it was surf rock. I don't know why (probably the cover art) but this was not what I was expecting at all. This should be a fun listen.

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Re: Album Of The Week
« Reply #243 on Aug 25, 2011, 11:15pm »

Regarding Teenager of the Year, the first listen it didn't "click" with me at all. On the second listen I still found the first three tracks on the album abrasive, though the rest started to sound better.

On a third listen... still the same. I enjoy it somewhat but it's not knocking my socks off. I can see listening to it as background music (for instance, when driving) rather than something I would explicitly sit down and listen to. I wasn't sure what to expect from this as I don't generally enjoy the Pixies' work either. Ultimately, it's not above the threshold for me to purchase a copy.

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Re: Album Of The Week
« Reply #244 on Aug 26, 2011, 9:01pm »

Gimmeh one little flip phoooone an I totally flip/ Ohh ohh yehhhhh
Say it's nothin but sky an I'll be one lonely guyyyyyy...

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Dec 8, 2011, 9:44pm, know ID yuh wrote:

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Re: Album Of The Week
« Reply #245 on Aug 26, 2011, 9:05pm »

Con-fee-daw-haaaunce

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Re: Album Of The Week
« Reply #246 on Aug 28, 2011, 12:56pm »

Time to start catching up...

Down at the Khyber... Wow. Prior to this point, I had never listened to the album from start to finish. I do remember hearing True Patriot Love on the radio, but aside from that I somehow missed this.

In reality, this is also about the same time I started buying electronic / trance albums by the truckload (BT, Antiloop, Tiesto) which is probably part of why I didn't catch this out of the gate.

And to echo WOMP's comment about how Canadian it is, I have to agree and not just for the lyrical content. There's something else about the record that makes me think CanCon although I can't identify exactly what that something is yet.

The stand-out tracks for me are, interestingly enough, Waiting to be Discovered and Cry Together. I somewhat disagree with WOMP that True Patriot Love is a weak song on the album - I think it stands pretty well on its own, although I do agree it's not the best track on here. It does stand out as being the most accessible to commercial radio; whether that's a virtue or a vice depends on your perspective.

2 listens in and I'll give it a few more for sure. For me, Joel's voice isn't a negative, but I do understand the criticism of it. I suspect either you like it or you don't.

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Re: Album Of The Week
« Reply #247 on Aug 28, 2011, 1:53pm »

Just listening to My Life in the Bush of Ghosts right meow, it is just delightful, thanks J-Dawg. I'm going to start writing some reviews soon, I'm almost at 5 listens for every choice... except Down at the Khyber I cringe when I think of Joel Plaskett, due to his horribly overplayed and excruciatingly annoying song, 'Snowed In' , I'm willing to check it out, just a little apprehensive. Snowwwwwwed in, Snowwwwed in , Snowwwwwwwwwwwwwwed in, for reals that song blew, but I have heard good things about his other output.

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Re: Album Of The Week
« Reply #248 on Aug 28, 2011, 5:38pm »

Sorry I haven't participated lately. Catching up to do. Starting with:

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts: What a compelling name for an album, and a compelling duo of songwriters. This album has to be good, right? It's also regarded as groundbreaking by a lot of people (including, apparently, David Byrne, of course), and it might be, but I'll be honest, I just can't get into this. I had it in my library and I had listened to it once, four or five years ago. Apparently I didn't like it enough to listen to it again until now, and I can see why. I've tried three times to get into it, but it just sort of bores me. The preacher/chant thing is interesting for a track or two, then monotonous. I love the drums, but that's about it. I'm just not really compelled by this one, unfortunately.

I can't track down Down at the Khyber right now, so I'll have to put my thoughts on that one on hold. Listening to Destroy All Astromen! right now, and Teenager of the Year is one I'm familiar with, so I'll dig it up and give it a few more listens.

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Re: Album Of The Week
« Reply #249 on Aug 28, 2011, 7:10pm »

Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat! Picking one and only ONE album is goddamn hard. Like, Sophie’s Choice hard! So I will slightly cheat and let you know that for months I have been dead set on Raymond Scott’s Reckless Nights and Turkish Twilights, but have decided to change my mind at the last minute. Though I would like to suggest we all check out Reckless Nights and Turkish Twilights at some point in our very busy lives (I know when our very busy lives do finally take that needed break from being very busy with Sophie’s Choices, what’s happening in the Mid East, and maybe even work to a degree, the last thing we are likely to do is fill that much needed repose with a suggestion from that guy from the internet. First thing, you should! Second thing, stop being so busy!) Scott’s album was going to be my “cool” pick as I haven’t heard any talk about him on this board and haven’t got any responses when I’ve put him on my “Now Playing” list or littered my Board Mix CD (remember those?) with his stuff. In short the man was like a crazed Captain Beefheart in the obsessive and meticulous orchestration (Scott abhorred improvisation) of his demented jazz cuts which were given wonderfully bizarre titles like, “Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals”. The compilation features songs from 1937-39 and has been used to score cartoons from the very first Looney chunes to Ren and Stimpy. Scott also wound up becoming obsessed with creating an A.I music machine which lead him to employing a man by the name of Robert Moog to join his mission. Moog acknowledges Scott as his primary influence in creating his own Moog synthesizer. Scott would also attract drop ins from curious folks such as Bruce Haack, all while maintaining prestigious positions as the head of CBS’s Music Department and the head of Motown’s Electronic Music Research Department. But that is all for another time…

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TOM WAITS - MULE VARIATIONS

In light of Tom Waits announcing the Oct. 25th release of his new album Bad as Me, I have decided to do Mule Variations. While musically it’s not my favorite Waits album, it is probably my favorite album of his for reasons that expand beyond the music, least of all are the things I’ve learned from this very board that have enhanced both my understanding and approach to the album. More on that later. I’m a huge fan of an album’s back story and its recording process, as well as all the things that cause an album to continually interact with our own lives (which is why I think Gramma’s Record a Day reviews are the best and most unique music writings I’ve come across).

First, I think it’s worth mentioning that previously to recording Mule Variations Waits was in the longest break between albums of his career, had supposedly been involved with the AA program for almost 4 years, was in the middle of writing music for a Robert Wilson production that was full of murderous demented carnival themes (the music of Wilson’s Woyzek would come out as the 2002 Waits album, Blood Money), and was spending a lot of his spare time jamming with some Californian musicians, in what was dubbed the Gatmo Sessions, where everybody was playing their own homemade musical devices such as the Waterphone or reed instruments made from seaweed. An album heavily steeped in Americana was the obvious next step, I guess?

Secondly, I’d like to point out, to those unfamiliar with Waits’ recording approach, a couple of things that may or may not impact the way you hear this album. Since Swordfishtrombones Waits has been removing as much traditional (or even conventional) types of percussion from his songs as fast as he could. By the 90’s all typical drums and percussion had been completely laid to rest. What we hear on Mule Variations may at times sound like a tom, a kick drum, a snare, or a cymbal, but it is most certainly not any of those. What we are hearing are homemade percussion instruments that vary from the elegantly constructed Waterphone to old wooden dresser drawers and metal desks having the (un)living shit beaten out of them. The instruments were also extremely vintage in year, but not necessarily of the same quality we would normally associate with vintage gear. They were beat the fuck up, basically. He used an old up right piano, pump organ, an optigan (which also served for percussion) and other decaying instruments. Waits was also very particular about achieving a natural sound for the album. By natural he meant, as it sounded to his ears when it was being played in the moment. The album was recorded in a rural studio that resembled a warehouse and would easily allow noises in from the outside. Some of it was even recorded outside in a field next to the studio. Two main rooms were set up in the studio. One large room served to capture a particular echo Waits loved. All of the percussion was recorded in that room. The other room was almost too small for comfort and was where the piano and Waits’ vocals were recorded. Waits demanded that his musicians show up for recording sessions at 10am sharp and that they come in “clean”. He also told them they were not allowed to listen to any music during the short recording session.

When I first heard Mule Variations (a couple of years after its release) I loved it! Though I thought it to be a very different album than I do today. The opening two tracks contain some wild and insane looped percussion that sounded way more “trippy” than any of Waits’ usual stuff. “Big in Japan” features most of Primus (Les Claypool would continue to work with Waits on Real Gone) and “Low Side of the Road” even contains an unbelievably demonic lo-fi groove, which I’d never heard any type of on beat groove in Waits’ stuff before ( “Low Side of the Road” is probably one of the most intoxicating songs I’ve ever heard. If you really give it your full attention it completely feels like it has the power to slow down time and your mind, turning everything around you into syrup). Combined with what I believed, at the time, to be studio manipulation on his voice and instruments I felt like this was indicative of a “druggy” feel he was going for. And man did he ever achieve it! Or so I thought. It wasn’t until years later, through gathering snippets of interviews, writings, and books on Waits that his whole mad calculating world was revealed. I eventually read that Waits had worked with an artist in the mid 90’s on a 74 minute looped piece of music. This resulted in an almost obsessive compulsion for Waits to carry around a tape recorder at all times and create loops out of anything he deemed loop worthy. Apparently he did this for years. The looped percussion on the opening tracks is actually being played directly off of his tape recorder. He also sang his vocals through the very same recorder in the studio. This, along with finding out he was sober at the time, really put Waits’ craft in a whole new light for me. The looped song he worked on in the 90’s was always unknown to me until I found out through this board (by Drew, I believe) that it was Gavin Bryars’ Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet. Thanks Drew!. A side note, Waits’ obsession with looped oral percussion soon gave away to him creating a series of live loops ( “live” as in he maintained the same repeated oral percussion rhythm for up to 10 mins at a time) in his bathtub. Some of these found their way on to Real Gone. If you ever want to put yourself in 4 minutes and 55 seconds of Headphone Heaven, I urge you to listen to Real Gone’s opening track “Top of the Hill”.

Another way this board has impacted the way I hear Mule Variations has been through my coming to be more familiar with the work of The Residents. Before the board I was aware of who they were and even had a couple of their albums, but still had very surface knowledge about them. Mule Variations was initially going to be called The Eyeball Kid (like 3 years before it was ever made)*. The Kid, described by Waits, was a human with a gigantic eyeball for a head which had no eyelid. This is all conjecture on my part, but it sounds very familiar to the iconic “eyeball” theme of The Residents. After learning more about The Residents (and seeing them live), specifically where they hail from, it makes me wonder if one of them wasn’t in or at least associated with those homemade instrument Gatmo jams held in the bay area. Either way, after starting to familiarize myself with their material I find it very hard to believe Waits has not been influenced to a large degree by them (in manners beyond his music too). The only info I know of Waits and the Residents being officially associated with one another is through Terry Gilliam’s upcoming short film The Monster of Nix. Despite no evidence, I can not hear any of Waits’ albums from Swordfishtrombones and on without hearing some very Resident-esque features. I believe it was Gramma who introduced us to the Residents on the board? Right? I think he likes them? I could be wrong, but I’ll just say, “thank you Gramma!” anyways. (* The album eventually took its name from the sticker on a box full of demos for "Get Behind the Mule" labeled, Mule Variations)

Mule Variations was written and produced by both Waits and his wife Kathleen Brennan. They stated they were attempting to create an album of “Surruralism” inspired by the field recordings of southern rural blues musicians by Alan Lomax in the late 1930’s. The crazy thing is, to my ears, Mule Variations almost sounds like the lost artifact which inspired people like Charley Patton. “Get Behind the Mule”, “Chocolate Jesus” and “Black Market Baby” are so thick with atmosphere, characters, and organic feel it almost sounds surreal to think the music could be coming from any electrical device in your home surroundings and that the more probable scenario is that you are asleep in some Matrix type dream pod with Waits and his band osmosis-ing into your pretend world. “Black Market Baby”, as well as “House Where Nobody Lives” and “Cold Water”, marked the return of one of my favorite guitarists, Marc Ribot. Ribot, who was heavily featured on Waits’ 1980’s output, had not played on a Waits album since 1988. His presence on “Black Market Baby” is absolutely the best thing ever! Ribot is actually the only remaining person from as far back as 1983 to continue recording with Waits.

Kathleen Brennan once described Waits’ music as “Grim Reapers and Grand Weepers”. Some of my friends have complained that a few of the “Grand Weepers” on Mule Variations are a little cheesy, in particular “House Where Nobody Lives”. I suppose a song which is about, “home is not a home unless it’s built with love” is rather cheesy, but in the context of the Waits World I find it very moving and unpretentious. He was once, after all, a man who spent 9 years in the same room of the seedy Tropicana hotel in L.A. I also think that it is very telling that it is one of the few tracks on the album solely written by Waits. Although knowing this information and allowing it to affect the way I hear the song is something Waits has been sort of contradictory about. On his VH1 Storytellers show he said something to the effect of “it’s like someone whispering into your ear at a movie, “this is based on a true story you know”, does it really matter?” I find it sort of funny seeing that almost all of his music is filled with real life characters and events he has experienced. So I take it like he is just fucking with people.

Going back to Kathleen Brennan, I’ve read a lot of critics refer to her as Tom Waits’ “Yoko Ono” (anytime anyone refers to somebody as “their Yoko Ono” it strikes me as just plain stupid and sounds like they are an old stuffy white man writing the misogynistic “Garden of Eden” chapter for the Bible. Fuck you old stuffy white guys!). Call me sentimental but I think the story of Waits and Brennan is sweet and a true testament to the unbelievable bond love creates when a couple can consistently foster creativity within one another (opposed to a person falling off the rails into self absorbed addiction and assholness that would have surely of been the fate of many a musician had they not succumbed to the so called “Yoko Ono syndrome”). Anyways, where I was going with this is that the Waits/Brennan written chune “Take it With Me” is very beautiful and I am glad for the happy couple! Although Waits has often written songs about his wife, such as “Jersey Girl”, Mule Variations contains the first time he refers to her by name in a song. “Filipino Box Spring Hog” was inspired by the neighborhood BBQs the two would attend when they were living in L.A. Apparently there was a Filipino family on the street who had cut out their floor boards in a back room and constructed a in-ground BBQ pit. They laid a box spring (only its wires remaining) over the coals and would throw meat on top of it and invite the whole block over for a party. Judging from the song, it all sounded like a very funky drunken time that would perhaps end with “Kathleen sittin’ down in Little Red’s Recovery Hall, in her criminal underwear bra”. Whatever that means? Love, right?

I will just briefly touch on “Georgia Lee” so I can include one of my favorite Tom Waits quotes. Georgia Lee was girl not far from the Waits’ home who was found murdered on the side of the highway in 1997. The song deals with mortality, once when being asked if he was porpoisely trying to touch on the theme Waits responded, “How do you avoid it? We’re decomposing as we go. We’re the dead on vacation. It’s not a theme I pursue. It pursues me.” We’re the dead on vacation!

“What’s He Building in There?” seems to be the most hated sentiment Waits has about our present culture. (It may also seem like a simple spoken word song, but ho man, if you pay attention to all the noises, electronics, and vocals going on, it's actually quite something). On a personal level Waits has always been leery about the media and his privacy. He is perhaps the most guarded and private well known artist. The media has never seen his house and he only allows trusted acquaintances near his home. There has never been any authorized publication by Waits into his life. In fact, when he hears about someone trying to write a biography on him, he has gone through great lengths to call as many friends, family and musicians as he can and asks them to refuse any interviews with the intended biographer. In the teaser for his new album he is still addressing the same themes of “What’s He Building in There?” in regards to being helpless to offer his fans the private listing experience they deserve as a result of advancements such as the internet. He has a great quote regarding respected artists who have succumbed to the Reality Show Generation, “It’s the culture that’s sick, we just end up catching the flu as a result”. What stops him from sounding like a crotchety old man is the humor he infuses into his very real feelings. What’s He Building in There’s message of people’s incessant need to poke there nose into people’s business is practically delivered like a Bill Hicks sketch. If you watch the Bad as Me teaser you can see he is serious, but giving us a laugh at the same time. I guess what I’m trying to say is he is able to get his point across without alienating people, which is not all that bad for someone who claims to be so anti-social. If you can get a hold of the wonderful live version of “What’s He… ?” on VH1’s Storytellers you can get a good glimpse of the waterphone in action as well as some other nifty percussion, not to mention a stellar performance by Waits where introduces the song with “It’s about the guy who tells you he’s from Florida… but has Indiana plates? Or the guy who says he’s been in the service for the last 20 years… but is only 20yrs old?”

Another reason I love Mule Variations so much is the poetic lyrics and beautiful phrasing that is subtly stuffed in every nook and cranny. In his previous albums it often felt to me like what Waits was saying and the voice he was using to say it always took front and center stage. This is not a bad thing. Mule Variations was the first album where I really felt the music and Waits were fully intertwined with one another. It was the first album that I had not paid attention to his voice primarily and after many listens in I realized I barely knew any of the lyrics to the songs. It’s strange because the music of his previous stuff (’83-’92) was a lot more experimental compared to the more traditional sound of Mule Variations, yet nothing was ever able to over shadow Waits himself. I feel this happens because despite making a distinct transition in musical styles from his Asylum years (70’s) to Swordfishtrombones, he had been doing a gig that was basically “Tom the Entertainer” for more than a decade. The music, the live shows, and the albums were completely carried by his stories, charisma, characters, jokes, and showmanship. Even though the music changed I’m sure it was harder to tone down his personality and ability to be at equal parts with the music. The great thing with Mule Variations is that it’s almost like hearing the album for the first time when you’re solely paying attention to the lyrics while it’s playing. Songs like “Hold On” are nice and have a beautiful guitar echo, but it wasn’t until I listened to the album while reading the lyrics that I fell completely in love with the song. It doesn’t say anything particularly special, but it has such a unique comfort to it, almost as if the simplicity of the song’s music and lyrics are a result of the bulk of the attention being put into its ability to telegraph real emotions through the stereo speakers. I would seriously recommend listening to the album with the lyrics in front of you at one point.

Okay, I think I’ve yammered on long enough, I hope you enjoy the album!

http://grooveshark.com/#/album/Mule+Variations/118291

« Last Edit: Aug 28, 2011, 10:21pm by Friendly Destroyer »

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Re: Album Of The Week
« Reply #250 on Aug 28, 2011, 9:12pm »

Awesome write up Friendly. I learned a lot about Tom Waits reading that, and I'll read it again. I have this album memorized, so reading your take on it before I re-listen to it is great. I'm sure it will be much different on my next listen.

PS: I'm big in Japan.

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