The Ear Hole

boo

Happy Halloween, everyone.

I'm celebrating in Chiloquin, OR, which is a little confusing, as every day is sort of like Halloween around here. Email me if you need help with your Crystal Meth Seth costume.

But it looks like the townsmen did arrange for a nice Trick-Or-Treat table to be set up across from the landmark Shell station, Chiloquin's undisputed cultural focal point. The kid-friendly exhibit is skirted with a large, yellow banner that reads, "Jesus Loves You." What a relief.

I actually did have a pretty exciting day in town. Went to the grocery store to find that all employees were in costume! Let's see, the jewelry department gals were unhappy pirates, the checkout folks had a pajama theme going on (thankfully no lingerie) and the ladies behind the deli counter showed up as "fat." Funtastic!

Not to be outdone, I bought the new Meat Loaf album.

Meat Loaf's homo-erotic alter ego tames a wild hell beast

I came across Bat Out Of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose (title of the year?) on the New Releases rack in the entertainment department (Fred Meyer entertainment employees too cool for costume theme). Looking for a laugh, I scanned the case through the listening station.

And laugh I did. Think Dio meets...well, Meat Loaf. The lead-off (sub)title track swiftly knocked me on my ass; straight-up metal. And not just metal, Meat Loaf metal. Hysterical.

Next up is "Blind As A Bat," your generic Meat power ballad, not without laugh-out-loud moments of its own ("Love is blind/Blind as a bat...").

Then it's the token duet, a remake of Jim Steinman's "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" with Marion Raven. Celine "Malnourished Chicken" Dion made it famous, but this tune was apparently written for the Meat (I love saying that) in the '80s. I guess he decided to save his version for a truly special collection of music...like Bat III.

Anyway, you get the idea: Cheesy glam metal, power ballads, duets...all garnished with a robust layer of the Loaf's operatic prose ("...The cold will cut us like a knife in the dark/And we may lose everything in the wind/But the northern lights are burning and they're giving off sparks/I want to wrap myself around you like a winter skin...").

But I have a soft spot for track titles like "In The Land Of The Pig, The Butcher Is King", "If It Ain't Broke Break It" and "If God Could Talk."

Scary.

Please enjoy a free sample of our fresh-baked Meat Loaf:

"In The Land Of The Pig, The Butcher Is King" by Meat Loaf.

Purchase Bat Out Of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose
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Speaking of storybook careers, your ipod could use some more Slick Rick. Here's the title track from the epic Behind Bars record, which Rick did, in fact, write in prison.

"Behind Bars" by Slick Rick

Purchase Behind Bars

Happy Halloween.

Spanky

Spanky Wilson's new joint with the Quantic Soul Orchestra is fresh, soulful and funkier than Grandma's red pantsuit.

Not to lazily lump Wilson in with Sharon Jones, but the association is inevitable; two soul-funk journeydivas generating some hard-earned buzz in their golden years, thanks to hot labels -- Ubiquity and Daptone, respectively -- solid collaborations and a young fanbase.

But Wilson & the QSO come with a little more "song" and a little less low-fi jungle funk than what you'll hear from Jones & the Dap-Kings. Laid-back grooves, spacey horns and a big chunk of smooth soul complement a foundation of J.B.'s-style funk.

Here's the title track from I'm Thankful.

"I'm Thankful"by Spanky Wilson & The Quantic Soul Orchestra

Purchase I'm Thankful

In other news, All Music Guide has a nice obituary on CBGB. You will be missed.

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I hate to admit that I'm actually watching Saturday Night Live, but it's worth the discomfort to be able to express how painfully unwatchable this show has become. Wow. Does anyone actually sit on their couch and laugh at this? What a mess. Well, at least My Chemical Romance is...a heinous collection of no-talent assholes.

And please tell me Bud Light does not actually have an advertising agency, and that these nauseating spots come straight from the minds of the entry-level marketing coordinators at A-B. That would make so much more sense. Same goes for the Coors Light "coach press conference" campaign.

That is all.

nycd, pt. 2

The new NYCD weekly newsletter is up. Check it out: NYCD NEWSLETTER #33.

I've plugged these guys before, but I think they deserve a second nod. This newsletter has become my bible for new releases and miscellaneous goings-on in the industry. Tony, Sal and Rob do a very nice job of boiling down each week's releases to a handful of concise reviews that are equal parts wit, savvy and cynicism; and they do so without taking themselves too seriously, which is refreshing.

And though they are a team of just three, the net they cast tends to be a bit wider than than those of the more reputable music think tanks out there. Pitchfork is no doubt a deep, fertile well of outstanding reflections from cats who really know their music, but most of their eggs do tend to wind up in the indie rock basket. Rightly so, as there is a ton of interesting stuff going on there. That said, if you're on an exclusive Pitchfork diet, some fantastic new jazz or soul releases, or maybe a great reissue, could have just slipped under your radar.

The NYCD gang serves up a reliable, well-informed weekly prognosis of the good, the great, the bad, the really bad, and the really weird across all genres; even some you may not have known existed.

These guys have been around the block, and thus far have given me no reason not to trust their ears.

Anyway, you can sign up here to receive that weekly newsletter. Don't worry, it comes with no addtional spam or anything...just one email a week.

So visit them and soak them in. They'll make you a better music fan...and maybe a better person, too.

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Track of the day, 10.14.06

Andrew Bird - Measuring Cups (Live)

This from his new Fingerlings 3, third in a series of independent live releases. A nice mix of old and new, including some new material that will appear on Armchair Apocrypha, due out this spring.

Buy Fingerlings 3
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Finally, I know this has been floating around out there for a little bit, but it needed to be posted. Genius. Note the face-melting terror transpiring on Dio's cover.

Album Cover Apocalypse

reloaded

If pressed to name something that doesn't suck about dial-up, I suppose I could credit this short bus-slow connection for my rejuvenated appreciation of the full-length album.

Stripped of the ease and frequency with which I was heretofore able to raid the mp3 blogosphere (thank you Hype Machine and Elbo.ws), I've taken a step back in time and am actually buying CDs again. Remember when people used to do that?

And save for the money thing, I must say I am enjoying myself. I've missed music as a tangible medium, and it's been fun to revisit some of my new-CD idiosyncrasies; like the How-Many-Discs-Can-I-Unwrap-Between-The-Register-And-The-Car game.

In all seriousness, the internet will never keep me or any real music fan away from the record stores. Albums are albums, and are recorded to be absorbed as such. But when one can instantly shave the meat off any brand-new release with nothing more than a high-speed connection and some well-pointed search savvy, it can also be easy tempting to use the instant gratification of cyberspace as a crutch.

But now I'm on dial-up. Gone, for the moment, are the glory days of lazily snagging one or five free mp3s of a new release and telling myself I've heard the record. Instead, I'm driving to the store, buying the sumbitches and listening to them straight through, in their entirety. No ipods, no song shuffle, but albums. I love it.

Anyway, here are some quick, vague notes on my latest crop...with sample mp3s, of course.

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Amos Lee - Supply And Demand

Soulful folk crooner's second release on the Blue Note label. I'm still not quite sure how he's on that label, but somehow it makes the songs on this disc sound even cooler. Especially impressed by the balladry on this record, where he sounds like a down-to-earth Ryan Adams with some soul. This is one of the more upbeat tracks.

Amos Lee - "Sweet Pea"

Buy Supply And Demand

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John Butler Trio - Sunrise Over Sea

Great guitarist. Funky Australian folk/rock. Somehow his music just sounds Australian...and it's not his accent (he doesn't really sing with one). Men At Work?

John Butler Trio - "Treat Yo Mama"

Buy Sunrise Over Sea

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The Black Crowes - Amorica

When this first came out in 94, I remember being pissed off that it didn't sound like the Black Crowes I had grown to love on Shake Your Money Maker and The Southern Harmony And Music Companion. To me, at the time, it was simply "that shitty new Crowes album with the controversial cover." Recently -- thanks to the new Lost Crowes release -- I revisited it with a more mature ear. Brilliant.

The Black Crowes - "Nonfiction"

Buy Amorica

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G. Love And Special Sauce - Lemonade

G. Love is finally starting to sound a little more like his early-90s self again. The sometimes-cheesy Jack Johnson/Ben Harper/Donavon Frankenreiter consortium is still sort of in effect, but he makes up for it with tracks like this one.

G. Love - "Thanks And Praise"

Buy Lemonade

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The Scissor Sisters - Ta-Dah

Not as many hits as on their debut, but still a fun, funky, genre-defying throwdown. This song is humorous; in a strange way.

Scissor Sisters - "I Can't Decide"

Buy Ta-Dah

bar 17

Last week, in what must have been a moment of boredom, I pre-ordered the new Trey Anastasio album. I rarely pre-order CDs, and I'm not that huge of a Trey fan (Trey's solo albums, that is...I do like Trey the guitarist). Marco Benevento and Joseph Russo's involvement was a factor; plus, the pre-order extras included a free full-length bonus album and a sticker.

So I ordered the sumbitch.

Anyway, Bar 17 arrived today, and upon the first couple spins, I kind of think it's poop. I'll stop there, as I haven't given it enough of a listen yet. But so far it's just sort of annoying me.

I will say that the bonus disc, 18 Steps, is a hell of a lot less poop. From what I understand, it's basically a thrown-together batch of tracks that didn't make the album. Well, they should have made the album. They're better.

A couple great songs on the actual record, but I think he's trying too hard. Christ, his contributing musician credits span the entire height of the CD liner notes -- in 8-point font. There must be about 50. How do you make a cohesive-sounding record with that many knuckleheads? Trey, you whore.

But again, I'll stop there for now. Here's one of the good ones:

"Let Me Lie" by Trey Anastasio

Click here to buy Bar 17

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And now for something completely different. .

Yours truly covering The Beatles (instrumentally)...

"For No One" by Disembodied Tentacle

opening day

I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. The puck drops on the 2006-07 NHL season tonight, and I'm giddier than a congressman at a boy scout convention.

While the general, sane population begins to cower and pout as summer draws to an end, we hockey fans perk up and prepare to greet the cold with open arms. That winter nip in the air smells as sweet as blooming spring flowers, and we dig for our sweaters and beanies with the glee of a teenage girl shopping for a new sun dress in April.

Even when the worst month of the year, February, rolls around, the budding playoff push numbs us to its cold, dull, holiday-less misery (president's day doesn't count, and valentine's day is sort of like a negative holiday).

Anyway, hooray for hockey.

So the season launches with three games tonight, two of which will be nationally televised on the home of the NHL, Versus (formerly OLN). OLN did a decent job in its debut season last year, picking up the exclusive NHL broadcast rights after ESPN dropped them like a glass of wine at a Parkinson's convention amid well-founded post-lockout viewership concerns.

OLN/Versus veteran Ted Nugent (top) melts Buffalo Sabres RW Maxim Afinogenov's Russian face with a bodacious American hunting riff.

Yes, the National Hockey League on the Outdoor Life Network, your go-to crock pot for rodeo, hunting, fishing and all sorts of other redneck fun. Bull riding at 7; Hockey at 8, Ted Nugent's "Wanted Ted or Alive" at 11. Talk about a match made in heaven. How many folks do you suppose subscribe to both The Hockey News and Field And Stream? Minnesotans and Canadians don't count.

But even if the league's exposure and legitimacy was a fraction of what it was with ESPN, OLN's '05-'06 game lineup was surprisingly pretty good, and Bill Clemente, Pierre McGuire and Keith Jones did an okay job picking up the slack in the studio. OLN's ratings, of course, went through the roof (which may be why they felt compelled to change their moniker to something a little less, well, outdoorsy).

That said, the NHL on OLN did feel sort of like a retarded NHL 2Nite; dumbed-down hockey for the OLN psychographic. Buccigross, Melrose and Ferraro: you are missed.

So anyway, now it's the NHL on Versus, and it all starts tonight with Buffalo vs. Carolina at 7pm ET, followed by Dallas vs. Colorado at 10. And if you sprung for the NHL Center Ice package, the game of the night should be Ottawa at Toronto at 7:30.

Better go get my work out of the way; maybe pick up some Labatt.

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Two tracks today:

While drummer Moore's solo records have found him setting aside the Nawlins swamp funk of his Galactic day job and flexing his jazz chops, this project leans a little more toward the former. Perhaps that's because his lineup on III is a little funkier than the more straight-ahead jazz support he had enlisted on his first two solo ventures. Robert Walter on keys and Will Bernard on guitar, with some sax and trombone help from Skerik and Mark Mullins, respectively. Walter penned most of these songs, including this one, which would fit on any of his Twentieth Congress discs.

Stanton Moore: "Poison Pushy"

Click here to purchase III

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And, appropriately, the New York Rangers Goal Song.

msmw

When avant-garde jazz guitar troubadour John Scofield first teamed up with three-headed jazz/jam monster Medeski Martin & Wood in 1998, the by-product was an instant classic. A Go Go found both parties lending their respective -- and not totally dissimilar -- sounds to an unadulterated, funky jazz cauldron that had fans wondering what the hell took them so long to collaborate.

Eight years later, Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood is back with Out Louder, the long-awaited follow-up to the debut (what the hell took them so long to do it again?). And while the sound is still unmistakably MSMW, this batch of tunes finds the quartet digging a little deeper and reaching a little further.

For the most part, this is a good thing. But while the beefed-up experimentalism here does showcase some outstanding musicianship, it may also be the one thing setting this set apart from A Go Go, which might be as close to perfect as this supergroup gets.

The original compositions on Out Louder are fun and organic, and the covers -- New Orleans traditional "Tootie Ma is a big fine thing", The Beatles' "Julia" and Peter Tosh's "Legalize It" -- truly bring out the "band" in this collaboration.

Scofield and Medeski are, well, Scofield and Medeski. Dissonant and brilliant. So much so, in fact, that their chemistry on Out Louder at times seems almost combative. Sco's noodling twang versus Medeski's undulating organ sustains. "Telegraph" and the swingy rocker "What Now" serve as examples.

True, that's what we expect from these two inherent bandleaders. But their dueling comes occasionally at the expense of the tightly-packaged riff-jazz groove they found and milked on A Go Go.

That said, the groove is still very much there, courtesy of the air-tight pocket that is drummer Billy Martin and bassist Chris Wood. Martin's sticks are busy but focused, as usual, and at times conjure the rocked-out Shack-Man sound. His album-opening beat on "Little Walter Rides Again" is reason enough to own the record.

Wood is exceptional throughout, shining particularly on the New Orleans traditional "Tootie Ma" and the jammed-out "Down The Tube," on which he sets down his signature upright for an electric bass.

Again, to compare this to A Go Go is simply not fair. Out Louder grooves and rocks and perplexes and awes just as much, if not more than any MMW or John Scofield record. And while there are sprinklings of both outfits' most recent work ("Cachaca" would fit right in on MMW's recent End Of The World Party) the whole of this record is certainly more raw than these guys, on their own, have been in a while.

Here's the opener, "Little Walter Rides Again"

Purchase Out Louder by Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood

Vexings pt. 2

Entities and organisms without which I could survive:

Coors Light ad campaigns (current in particular)
Capers
Jared
Mormons
Kurt Warner
Wind chill
david caruso*
Squirrels
Dr. Scholl's ads (all)
February
Bam Margera
Skunks
John Gruden
FreeCreditReport.com
New Jersey Devils fans

*punctuation intentional