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01.14.2009

My Starting Five, For Now

As you know, I write a few lines now and then about music. Old habits of former reviewers die hard, but I admit to more selfish reasons: It's damn near impossible to keep up with the latest and greatest, and by mentioning my playlist I hope to attract feedback on what to check out.

So I'll start a more obvious forum, or what the kids these days call an open music thread: every couple weeks or so when Giantland is sleepy I'll present a new rotation, five pieces of music, some new but mostly not so much (perhaps albums, perhaps songs, soundtracks, bootlegs, what have you) that I've been listening to intently. Feel free to comment or to add your own.

The inaugural rotation:

Aimee Mann, Lost in Space: I have a sneaking suspicion Mann is a songwriter's songwriter. What comes across as unassuming, a bit bland, to most listeners might be astounding for  those who try to write songs for a living. I don't know. This is just a guess; I'm no songwriter. But like a lot of early Beatles stuff, the songs on Lost in Space play like simple pop tunes then get richer, not poorer, with every hearing, which makes me think she's doing something really clever (besides making every lyric seem a parable for heroin addiction). Musicians, feel free to weigh in. 

Echobrain, Glean: Cleaning up one night after Malita Monkeypants, who loves pulling all my CDs off the rack and sitting on them until the jewel cases crack, I saw this one and put it on. I hadn't heard of the band and had no idea where I got it; perhaps an ex-roommate's collection that got mixed in with mine. In the liner notes I recognized one name, Jason Newsted, the former Metallica bassist, and prepared myself for an aural assault. Instead...I'm not sure. It's like being trapped in a room with a really smart parrot. Several songs made me double-take, thinking I'd put Radiohead, Soundgarden, even The Beach Boys in my CD changer. It's rather shameless, but some of it is quite good.

The Wiggles, "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes": My senior year in college I babysat for a two-year-old kid. Great kid, great job, lovely family, but all the kid wanted to do was watch a tape of Raffi, the children's singer. Over and over and over and over again. I still have nightmares. Leading up to parenthood, I dreaded the inevitable: kid's music. And I was right, mostly. I have already vetoed a Disney-branded disc another family burnt for us. (The sickeningly cheerful rendition of "Dixie" sealed the deal.) But I admit I walk about the neighborhood humming "Head, shoulders knees and toes" in an Australian accent. Here's another kid's song that will never go out of style, especially if you like to smoke joints and listen to Sergio Mendes.

Elvis Costello, Live at the Cleveland Agora, Dec. 5, 1977: Why young Elvis and his Attractions were considered "New Wave," whatever that meant, is beyond me. It was more or less straight-ahead rock and roll, more early Who than Ramones, or Sex Pistols, or Talking Heads, or whoever else Costello was lumped with in the late 1970s. I guess anything that wasn't grandiose or layered with synths or backed by giant stacks of amps wasn't really rock in 1977. Elvis wasn't punk, either. In fact, he says "Thank you" quite a bit and even thanks the crowd for coming out to see him in such terrible weather. (Not according to this.) Such a nice young man, and such a tight young band. The Attractions: Best backing band ever?

Buena Vista Social Club presents Omara Portuondo: Maybe you loved the whole Buena Vista thing, maybe you thought it got out of hand, maybe you have no idea what I'm writing about. If the latter, here's a synopsis: long-ago stars of Cuban music were "re-discovered" by Ry Cooder, or at least he put his stamp on the project, and re-assembled to record an album in the mid-1990s. Said album turned into a runaway worldwide hit and a documentary film. After the group album, a few solo efforts by the individual players came out, and the ones from singers Portuondo and Compay Segundo were better than the flagship album. In Portuondo's case, much much so. Sumptuous, sinuous, spare: the slower the songs, the better.