22269. (James Brown) Greatest Hits
22270. (Drowning Pool) Desensitized
22271. (Philip Glass & Allen Ginsberg) Hydrogen Jukebox
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Category Archives: C - LISTENING - Page 19
First-time listening for June, 2013
Posted by Phil Paine
on June 30, 2013
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Bombay Bicycle Club
Posted by Phil Paine
on June 13, 2013
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The first I heard of Bombay Bicycle Club was the song “How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep?” from their third album A Different Kind of Fix (2011), which got some play here in Canada. But other songs I heard, from an earlier album, didn’t sound very similar, and I didn’t connect them in my head until, searching for the EP version of “How Can You…”, I acquired all three of their albums. We are in an age in which musicians are much less tribal than they used to be. The bands that make the strongest impression today tend to be eclectic, drawing on many sources for their style, and changing their style as the mood suits them. They cannot easily be classified. This London band exemplifies the trend. A Different Kind of Fix is Read more »
First-time listening for May, 2013
Posted by Phil Paine
on May 31, 2013
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22259. (George Frederick Händel) Trio Sonata in F for 2 Recorders & Cello
22260. (Dandy Warhols) Dandys Rule, OK
22261. (Screaming Trees) Clairvoyance
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Ponemah Chippewa Singers: Chippewa War Dance for Pow Wow
Posted by Phil Paine
on May 5, 2013
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Ojibway communities straddle the border between Canada and the U.S. In Minnesota, where they are often called “Chippewa” there has long been a little goldmine of musical vitality at Ponemah, a small settlement on the long peninsula that separates Upper and Lower Red Lake. It’s an area, unusual in the U.S., that closely resembles to wilder, remoter, more traditionalist Canadian side of the border. This is where some of the earliest recordings of Ojibway music were made, when Kimiwun’s puberty dreamsongs were recorded, a hundred years ago. Those songs are mostly still alive, though they have evolved in both style and the context in which they are sung. The Ponemah Chippewa Singers carried on the tradition in the 1970s.
I was playing this old tape when my friend Isaac White walked into my apartment, and he immediately recognized the style. He had heard another recording from the region, and taken a liking to it, though he’s a born-bred-and-buttered Torontonian who knows nothing about native music and had never been to a pow wow. I was astonished that his ear was keen enough to spot it, without any preparation. It just goes to show how distinctive the Minnesota / North Western Ontario style is, and how it can speak to an audience outside its backwoods origins.
First-time listening for April, 2013
Posted by Phil Paine
on April 30, 2013
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22215. (George Frederick Händel) Violin Sonata in A
22216. (George Frederick Händel) Violin Sonata in G minor
22217. (George Frederick Händel) Oboe Sonata in B‑f
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Elgar’s Two and a Half Symphonies
Posted by Phil Paine
on April 6, 2013
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Edward Elgar fell out of fashion after World War I, and his existence was barely acknowledged by music historians for the next fifty years. He was so firmly associated with British Imperialism, that his music became the subject of sneers. This is particularly sad, because Elgar himself was a gentle, sensitive soul whose primary inspiration was nature, and he grew to loathe every performance of “Land of Hope and Glory”, the bombastic anthem that had been made from one of his marches. In the 1890’s he had been a very patriotic Empire booster, along with everyone else. But he was bitterly disilusioned by World War I and sought solace in his beloved English countryside. He never much cared for his role as Britain’s Official Composer.
But despite all the scorn heaped on him, the First Symphony, the Cello Concerto, and the Enigma Variations continued to be performed in serious concerts, while the Pomp and Circumstance Marches lived on in the Pop Classics repertoire. The Second Symphony, not at first successful, slowly came to be played as often as the first. At his death, he left sketches for a third symphony, and in 1998, these were transformed into a complete work by the respected composer Anthony Payne. Read more »
Gruntruck
Posted by Phil Paine
on April 6, 2013
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Gruntruck was a short-lived, but important band in the Grunge scene that brewed in Seattle in the early nineties. Ben McMillan and Scott McCullum, both previously from Skin Yard, Tommy Niemeyer from The Accused, and Tim Paul, from Napalm Beach formed the lineup at the time of their greatest impact. I have a tape of their second album, Push (1993), but I would better recommend the first, Inside Yours (1990), which I’ve only heard scraps of, but which sounded better to my ear. Their sound, in the second Album, at least, is very similar to Alice In Chains.
First-time listening for March, 2013
Posted by Phil Paine
on March 31, 2013
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22194. (Oscar Peterson) Oscar Peterson I [Verve Jazz Masters #16]
22195. (Vaccines) Come of Age
22196. (Dozer) Call It Conspiracy
22197. (Spiritualized) Sweat Heart Sweet Light
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Grasshopper
Posted by Phil Paine
on March 4, 2013
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Born Loser is a five-song tape given to me by the lead singer, Derek Madison, back in 1992. Not great production quality, but the energetic thrash still holds up well to a jaded ear. Derek obviously had some staying power, because Grasshopper still exists, sixteen years later, under the name Grasshopper SoundClash, Their MySpac.e page offers four songs to download, with a more melodic sound. “Magnetic Super Blue” is catchy, and could easily find a broad audience.
First-time listening for February, 2013
Posted by Phil Paine
on February 28, 2013
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22182. (George Frederick Händel) Concerto a due chori in B‑f for 2 Oboes, Bassoon, Strings &
. . . . . Basso Continuo, HWV.332
22183. (George Frederick Händel) Concerto a due chori in F for 2 Horns, 2 Oboes, Bassoon,
. . . . . Strings & Basso Continuo, HWV.333
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