The Other Music Update

Having trouble viewing this email? Go to othermusic.com/2008may7update.html



	May 7, 2008


	FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD		PORT O'BRIEN I Woke Up Today (Shawnee Music) Other Music Digital is offering a free download of "I Woke Up Today," an Exclusive Advance Release from Port O'Brien's upcoming full-length debut, All We Could Do Was Sing (out Tuesday, May 13). The Cali foursome, whose members have spent past summers in Alaska working on fishing boats and in canneries, recorded their new album in a proper studio, the results of these sessions wonderfully capturing the band's spirited, rawkus energy that their earlier home recordings only hinted at.


	FEATURED NEW RELEASES Cheap Time Van Duren Matmos No Age Animal Collective John Cale & Terry Riley Terry Riley Solomon Burke Earles & Jensen The Long Blondes The Last Shadow Puppets Kria Brekkan On Vine Street (Randy Newman comp.) Gene Clark Awesome Color Bill Cosby		Good God! Soul Messages from Dimona J.D. Emmanuel Tokyo Police Club Ilyas Ahmed Byard Lancaster Don Adams Nicola Conte Tetine Lykke Li ALSO AVAILABLE The Death Set Shy Child

MAY

Sun 11

Mon 12

Tues 13

Wed 14

Thurs 15

Fri 16

Sat 17

BRITISH SEA POWER & DIZZEE RASCAL GIVE-AWAY
Representing separate ends of the UK music spectrum, Other Music is giving away tickets for two upcoming shows on May 11th: England's mighty British Sea Power at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, and grime king Dizzee Rascal, who'll be performing across the river at Webster Hall. One pair of tickets is up for grabs for each show; the two winners will be notified on Friday, May 9th. Good luck!

SUNDAY, MAY 11
BRITISH SEA POWER @ MUSIC HALL OF WILLIAMSBURG: 66 N. 6th St. Williamsburg, Bkln
Enter by emailing: contest@othermusic.com

DIZZEE RASCAL @ WEBSTER HALL: 125 E. 11th St. NYC
Enter by emailing: tickets@othermusic.com

MAY

Sun 11

Mon 12

Tues 13

Wed 14

Thurs 15

Fri 16

Sat 17

Josh Roseman

WIN TICKETS TO "SEARCH & RESTORE THE TRILOGY"
Other Music has two pairs of tickets to give away to each of these upcoming installments of the Search & Restore Jazz at the Knit series. To enter, send an email to enter@othermusic.com and please list the show(s) you would like to register for. We'll be picking two winners per night, who will all be notified via email on Friday, May 9th.

MONDAY, MAY 12:
JEAN-MICHEL PILC TRIO (with Francois Moutin and Billy Hart)
THE NEW MELLOW EDWARDS (Curtis Hasselbring, Tony Malaby, John Hollenbeck, and Trevor Dunn)

TUESDAY, MAY 13:
TODD SICKAFOOSE'S BLOOD ORANGE (with Shane Endsley, Alan Ferber. Brian Coogan, Mike Gamble, Simon Lott, Viola Boldt,)
BILL MCHENRY QUARTET (with Duane Eubanks, Ben Street, RJ Miller)

WEDNESDAY, MAY 14:
BRAD SHEPIK TRIO (with Mark Ferber, Drew Gress)
JOSH ROSEMAN'S CONSTELLATIONS (with Jacob Garchik, Curtis Hasselbring, Mark Shim, Josh Roseman, Ambrose Akinmusire, Shane Endsley, Peter Apfelbaum, Nir Felder, Chris Lightcap and more)

KNITTING FACTORY (TAP BAR): 74 Leonard Street NYC
$10 students / $13 everyone else / $12 in advance gets you into both sets
Doors at 8PM sharp / All Ages / No Drink Minimum

MAY

Sun 11

Mon 12

Tues 13

Wed 14

Thurs 15

Fri 16

Sat 17

JUN

Sun 08

Mon 09

Tues 10

Wed 11

Thurs 12

Fri 13

Sat 14

Tony Conrad

UPCOMING OTHER MUSIC IN-STORE EVENTS
TONY CONRAD & BRANDEN JOSEPH: WEDNESDAY, MAY 14 @ 8PM
A conversation and listening party of rare, unreleased material as well as a book signing by Tony Conrad and Branden Joseph, the author of Beyond the Dream Syndicate.

MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND: MONDAY, JUNE 9 @ 8PM
Shara Worden and Co. stop by the shop to perform an in-store in support of their forthcoming new album, A Thousand Shark's Teeth, out June 17, on Asthmatic Kitty. Download the first single, "Inside a Boy," off of Other Music Digital

OTHER MUSIC: 15 East 4th Street NYC
Free admission / Limited capacity


	$13.99 CD $9.99 MP3		CHEAP TIME Cheap Time (In the Red) "Too Late" "Over Again" Originally formed by Tennessee native and Rat Traps member Jeffrey Novak (with a little help from Be Your Own Pet's Jemina Pearl and Nathan Vasquez), Cheap Time debuted a little while back with "Spoiled Brat," a pretty great single of catchy, skuzzy garage pop. Pearl and Vasquez departed after a spell, and Novak started to move his tunes out of the garage and into territories marked by vintage power-pop tunefulness and acerbic punk energy. Building on the strength of this year's excellent "Handyman" single, Cheap Time thus arrive with their self-titled debut, an album that gives Novak the space to fully explore his prodigious and blossoming songwriting talents. Taking equal cues from the likes of Sparks' early, idiosyncratic glam pop, Milk 'n' Cookies' sugary sweet hooks, and Hubble Bubble's pitch perfect sneer and swagger, the album showcases not only Novak's increasingly confident songwriting, but also his bandmates' capable thump and grind. Opening with the exultant "Too Late," Cheap Time wind their way through fourteen grubby tracks dotted with monster choruses and snotty vocals, imbuing "People Talk" with some scorching guitar leads, while "Tight Fit" stomps along as hard as it possibly can. Elsewhere, the band twitch their way through the starts and stops of the nervy "Back to School," and close out on "Trip to the Zoo" and its slow build to a pure pop payoff. As fast and loose as music like this ought to be (and rarely is), Cheap Time's debut finally gives the band the larger introduction it so deserves. [MC] Best record of the year. [AK]


	$15.99 CD		VAN DUREN Are You Serious? (Water) "Chemical Fire" "So Good to Me (For the Time Being)" What a spring it's turning out to be for power-pop lovers! After the insanely good Ardent compilation (Thank You Friends), Water reissues the severely underheard and underappreciated debut album by Memphis native, Van Duren. While many bands and artists have been hyped as carrying the Big Star torch, and most of them couldn't even light the match (with the exception of the Scruffs,) Van Duren is the real deal. Turns out he even auditioned to join Big Star, and later played with Chris Bell and Jody Stephens. Originally released in 1977, although Duren had started working on demos (with Andrew Loog Oldham!) as early as 1975, Are You Serious? is a thirteen course pop feast, with heaping piles of irresistible melodies, catchy choruses, and shimmering guitar work. It's a perfect mix of Todd Rundgren, Emitt Rhodes, Badfinger, Raspberries, and Big Star. No faint praise but would I lie to you? Comes with extended liner notes featuring an interview with the man himself, including a track-by-track rundown. Now, where's the reissue of Tommy Hoehn's Spacebreak? [AK]


	$12.99 CD $18.99 LPx2 $9.99 MP3		MATMOS Supreme Balloon (Matador) "Rainbow Flag" "Exciter Lamp and the Variable Band" Arp, Korg, Roland, Waldorf, Moog, Electro-Comp, Doepfer, Akai, Suzuki Omnichord, Coupigny, EVI/Electronic Voice Instrument: all synth brands the very mention of which make those stricken with vintage gear fetishism begin to salivate. These also happen to provide the sole sound sources for Matmos' new album Supreme Balloon. That's right, no contact mics (or any mics at all) on scalps, mollusks, or the CNS for these recordings -- scandalous! Kind of like a rock band making a record using only guitar, bass, drums and vocals. Never known to follow rules, Daniel and Schmidt have most likely set for themselves another sufficient challenge, this time working within the typical electronic group framework. Not to fear though, the same sensibility is behind the manipulation of these pre-synthesized sounds into a tasty and distinctly Matmosian dish. As usual, the sounds are bent to the will of the group rather than the other way around. Not any easy achievement, particularly when working with so much sonic cultural baggage, perhaps why they have put off attempting until now. There is something playful and catchy about the tunes on Supreme Balloon. There are jumpy jams meeting at the intersection of Mouse On Mars and mid-'70s to mid-'80s Herbie Hancock. There is a cover of Couperin's "Les Folies Francaises," sounding very baroque (duh) meets Wendy Carlos. The center-piece and namesake of the album is a long, drone-y Tangerine Dream or Vangelis-style soundtrack number which aptly floats up, up and away. As with much of Matmos' output, Supreme Balloon contains a fascinating blend of repellent and soothing sounds, used in a calculated recipe to create something that is neither. Guests this time around include regular Matmos cohorts, Jay Lesser, Jon Leidecker (a/k/a Wobbly), and Keith Fullerton Whitman, as well as Marshall Allen of the Sun Ra Arkestra, and concert pianist Sarah Cahill. The vinyl version comes with three bonus tracks, one of which ("Hashish Master") features a solo synth improvisation from minimalist superstar Terry Riley. The world's a nicer place in Matmos' beautiful supreme balloon. [KC]


	$13.99 CD $13.99 LP		NO AGE Nouns (Sub Pop) "Teen Creeps" "Sleeper Hold" In just over a couple of years, No Age has gone from a bright light in an all-ages Los Angeles scene littered with them to one of the brightest stars in an international oddball punk night sky. Formed out of the remains of hardcore band Wives, No Age reunited guitarist Randy Randall and drummer/vocalist Dean Spunt with a new eye towards replacing their previous band's grit and gristle with a boatload of hooks and newfound emphasis on iridescent noise pop. Building on the success of Weirdo Rippers, their 2007 collection of EP and single tracks, No Age now returns with Nouns, their first full-length for the Sub Pop label. Following up nicely on the ideas explored on their first few singles, Nouns finds No Age firing away on all cylinders, bounding from the catchy, propulsive punk of "Sleeper Hold" to the manic thump of "Here Should Be My Home" with barely a second given for these guys to catch their breath. And though the album breezes by in just over a half-hour, it's not all furiously manic. Spunt and Randall still find time to explore glorious, lo-fi ambience on tracks "Keechie," and mine loose, cathartic distorto-jangle on "Teen Creeps." Fully backing up the heaps of accolades laid on them in the past months and yet still spry and unassuming, Nouns is the confident work of a duo just starting to hit their stride. [MC]


	$6.99 CD-EP $3.99 MP3		ANIMAL COLLECTIVE Water Curses (Domino) "Water Curses" "Cobwebs" Unpredictable though they are, each new album from the Animal Collective seems to form a trajectory towards further group cohesion in the studio. Strawberry Jam left me with the impression that they had left the slow, epic sprawls of yesteryear's Animal Collective to their live shows and side projects; the album was a less abstract affair in contrast to the droned-out unfolding of Panda Bear's Person Pitch, or the troupe's shape-shifting live sets. Although a majority of Water Curses was culled from the Strawberry Jam sessions, the understated presence on that LP of the Animal Collective's patented polymorphous "slow jams" is offset by the fact that the Water Curses EP measures three-quarter down-tempo, satisfying my thirst for that type of patient harmonic drift that lent such a dreamy bent to previous recordings (e.g. "Visiting Friends," "Daffy Duck"). Before arriving at that point though, Water Curses opens with one of their finest "pop" songs to date, the joyful and energetic title-track that seems to graft elements from over the course of the last two LPs, with bubbling guitar melodies and elastic vocal arrangements that are Feels-esque, but with the compressed momentum and oozing textures of last year's Strawberry Jam. From there things become a little more oblique; the fleshy guitar that undulates endlessly underneath "Street Flash" leaves so much space for the listener to appreciate all of the sound-scapes swirling about, led by Dave Portner's emotive vocal stylings, here layered, warped, and intensely focused. "Cobwebs" has an ongoing, delightfully clunky, near-tabla beat that forms a loose center, allowing for a mass of microcosmic and uncanny melodies to appear, expand and then vanish, cob-webbing out of the percussive and vocal base of the composition. And perhaps because it was recorded at the Rare Book Room studio in Brooklyn (where Feels was made,) EP-closer "Seal Eyeing" is definitely Feels-esque, featuring Portner's gentle, abstract crooning over glowing piano that is purely blissful. As Portner's vocals have become more frequently featured as melodic and narrative guides, the Animal Collective are, in a sense, writing more accessible songs; but at the same time, each record they put out sounds more experimental than the last. Water Curses is a very promising EP which follows that path to great effect, highlighting the Animal Collective's ever-growing command of their own abstract musical vocabulary at the service of their ever-growing ability to write enigmatic and evocative, well-crafted songs. Though its title track may be the only one immediate enough to convince the unconvinced, Water Curses is a warm reaffirmation (as if we needed one) of why they are making some of the most exciting music out there. [JW]


	Church of Anthrax $14.99 CD Last Camel in Paris $14.99 CD $9.99 MP3		JOHN CALE & TERRY RILEY Church of Anthrax (Wounded Bird) "Church of Anthrax" "The Soul of Patrick Lee" TERRY RILEY Last Camel in Paris (Elision Fields) Track 2 Track 7 One-two punch this week from our favorite minimalist, Terry Riley. First up is Church of Anthrax, his 1970 collaboration with major-label mate John Cale, a man who surely needs no introduction. We carried import copies of this years and years ago before it went OOP, but I don't believe it has ever been issued as a domestic CD. Which frankly seems insane. Hard to say how much thought went into the creation of this album, as it definitely has the feel that they were pretty to content to just jam away together. That said, it's a pretty perfect distillation of both men's tendencies at that point, and it remains compulsively listenable, cause lets be honest, dudes know how to jam. Poppy Nogood+VU=Church of Anthrax. What's not to like?!?! Next we have a never before released archival recording of an hour long solo organ piece tuned in just intonation from 1978. Riley had been giving performances on solo organ manipulated with his "Time Lag Accumulator" for a decade in 1978, and the best recorded documentation of these is probably Persian Surgery Dervishes from 1972. This concert finds Riley with a relatively new set-up for him at the time, a Yamaha portable organ with an additional two tracks that could be used to manipulate the tape delay. The tempos are much quicker than on an album like Persian Surgery, giving the piece a greater sense of urgency and a much more virtuosic sense of Riley's skill as a performer as he conjures a beautiful arabesque quilt of sound. [MK]


	$11.99 CD		TOMMY JAY Tall Tales of Trauma (Columbus Discount) "I Was There" "Dreamland" Tommy Jay appeared on the seldom-seen but well-loved Columbus, Ohio "all-star" recording by Ego Summit, joined by Mike Rep, Ron House, Don Howland and the late Jim Shepard. He'd also played alongside Nudge Squidfish and as a member of Mike Rep & the Quotas. But outside of that, his work has been sorely under-documented, until now. This reissue of a cassette, released in an edition of a few dozen copies almost twenty years ago, reveals Jay as a secret weapon from a place already teeming with an underheard arsenal, the same voices who recognized the early genius of Guided by Voices and pushed that group reluctantly into the spotlight. It's remarkable that virtually none of this music -- not anything by Jay's late '70s outfit the True Believers, not tracks recorded in 1974 that predate the comeback of Roky Erickson in sound and spirit, not solo ruminations that recall Mayo Thompson's desert island classic Corky's Debt to His Father -- has reached a wider audience until now. Sheltered from view, Jay's body of work grew wild and unkempt, from anxious experiments with drum machines and Casios to beautifully shook, engagingly strange parlor ruminations on the unknown, windblown psychedelia, beer-bottle slide blues, and much more, all evincing a deep-seeded loneliness that carries across the twelve years represented in this collection. Fans of outsider music, Dead Moon, Roky, the Velvets (wait'll you hear Jay's expansive cover of "Ocean"), and the enduring legacy of Ohio rock as it turned to punk and new wave, your ship has come in. Easily one of the most remarkable archival discoveries in years. CD version contains eight bonus tracks for a full 70 minutes of stun. [DM]


	$15.99 CD		SOLOMON BURKE Proud Mary (Rev-Ola) "Proud Mary" "Uptight Good Woman" Although he's most famous for his early recordings with Atlantic Studios, soul pioneer Solomon Burke still churned out stellar sets towards the end of the '60's soul era and Proud Mary, Burke's first record for Bell after leaving Atlantic, is evidence. Recorded at Fame Studios in 1969, the album is a stellar mix of songs that blend a hint of laidback, yet elegant country and Southern gospel-charged R&B. And while the titular track, Burke's cover of the famed Creedence Clearwater Revival tune, sets the bar high from the onset as his delivery is flawless, the rest of the album lives up to it, showcasing Burke's power and versatility vocally as well as his skilled interplay with his all-star back-up musicians -- the well-known Muscle Shoals band, Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham. Given free reign by Bell, Burke handled all the arrangements, co-producing with partner Tamiko Jones; thus, the instrumentation here is leaner and more stripped down, perfectly complementing Burke's undeniable vocals and arguably roots-ier takes this go around. His recreations of country classics like "That Lucky Old Sun" were undertaken carefully, with reverence; and his originals like "How Big a Fool" and "Uptight Good Woman," a collaboration between Burke and back-up musicians, should be classics. And, as "Proud Mary" proved, Burke has an ear for recasting tunes: Marvin Gaye's "I'll Be Doggone" and Otis Redding's "These Arms of Mine" both tease and allure the listener with their slow, bluesy tempos. This is a definite peak for the so-called King of Rock and Soul. Digitally remastered by the folks at Rev-Ola and nicely packaged with in-depth liner notes by Tim Tooher. [PG]


	$12.99 CDx2 $9.99 MP3		EARLES & JENSEN Just Farr a Laugh 1 and 2 (Matador) "Barbara's Husband Clears the Air" "Ed Asner-related Strongest Idea on CD, Part I" A double CD of prank calls? What is this, 1993? Some of us have actually been waiting for this, so rejoice: here's a public service reissue of the first Just Farr a Laugh collection, along with a full disc of brand new, unreleased calls by master pranksmen Andrew Earles (esteemed rockwriter and American humorist) and Jeffrey Jensen (raconteur from Kansas, currently the co-owner of the taco truck on Bedford Avenue). Truly some of the most genuinely funny, inventive, and mind-bending prank calls ever delivered, and done so without any of the abject cruelty of the Jerky Boys or Longmont Potion Castle. Get ready to "throw logic out the window" as 4'10" lardo "Bleachy" tackles Army enlistment, as Christopher Cross berates the Sun Studio tour, as a religious teen and his burnout father spar with a confused Christian youth minister, and as Ed Asner smoothes over a strange request made on his behalf at a barbecue restaurant. Forget $4 gallons of gas -- this is the real fuel behind touring bands, made for those long drives where everyone's sick of each others' voices and just want to feel like human beings again. Recording budgets were forsaken in lieu of a heavily illustrated, semi-impermeable 64-page booklet, and photos of Andy and Jeff being pinned in the ring by Jerry Lawler. Over two and a half hours of material, and they only break into laughter a handful of times. You'll fare much better. [DM]


	$12.99 CD $13.99 LP $9.99 MP3		THE LONG BLONDES Couples (Rough Trade) "Century" "Here Comes the Serious Bit" Wait a second...did I put in the right disc? The Long Blondes' new album opens up with a slow-building cascade of vintage synths and singer Kate Jackson repeating the refrain "Catch me when I'm falling, Century" with the breathy croon of a Studio 54 diva, before the song finally struts into its disco stride. The Sheffield five-piece appear to be the next group of art-punks to get bitten by the Moroder bug, and while it's not as drastic of a reinvention as Glass Candy, whose recent music is far more Italo- and cosmic-influenced, the evolution between last year's Someone to Drive You Home and Couples happened a lot faster and is, perhaps, a lot more unexpected. Here, the Long Blondes more often than not slow down the tempos with slinkier grooves, eschewing much of their wiry guitars of past for shimmering synths; it's not that we shouldn't have seen it coming though. Erol Alkan stole the producer's chair from Pulp's Steve Mackey (Someone's knob-turner) and, like Alkan's earlier b-sides for the band, he does put a lot more space in Couples's production. It allows Jackson's glamorous touch to be more, well, glamorous, as she effortlessly blends sexy with smart, cleverly sprinkling pop references into the lyrics, even naming a song after British supermodel Erin O'Connor. You can almost hear an English Deborah Harry during tracks like "Guilt" and "I'm Going to Hell," and over the slow, minimal ESG-like funk of "Too Clever by Half," Jackson channels her inner Donna Summer. It's not all mirror balls and strobe lights, however, and the Long Blondes show that they still have a little (punk) rock stuck in their sock, dropping a couple of back-to-back stompers with "I Liked the Boys" and "Here Comes the Serious Bit." [GH]


	$13.99 CD $19.99 LP $9.99 MP3		THE LAST SHADOW PUPPETS The Age of the Understatement (Domino) "The Age of the Understatement" "My Mistakes Were Made for You" I'll admit, the idea of an Arctic Monkeys side-project, led my AM's 22-year-old voice of the disenfranchised youth, Alex Turner (and his pal Miles Kane of the Rascals), purportedly as an ode to '70s orch-pop icons like Scott Walker and David Axlerod, seems a bit preposterous. I mean, really, how could it be any good? Well, it could be, and it is, built on the strength or Turner's hooky, witty songwriting, unapologetic British affectations, and top-notch arrangements and orchestrations likely paid for by the Monkey's worldwide success. This is not an album of syrupy ballads, but instead propulsive, dramatic pop songs that truly do capture some of the magic of the aforementioned Walker (and Jaques Brel) and Axlerod, as well as early Bowie and late Pulp, and elevates the band far above the typical side-project standard. The Last Shadow Puppets succeed precisely because of their narrow ambitions; they don't try to reinvent the wheel, but instead simply invite you along for a fun ride. Sometimes solid songwriting, top-flight production and a dynamic frontman is all you need! [JM]


	$4.99 45		KRIA BREKKAN Wildering (Afterhours) Wonderful first solo release from Kria Brekkan, formerly of Icelandic group Mum, and last heard in collaboration with Animal Collective's Avey Tare on 2007's controversial, but nevertheless beautiful, Pullhair Rubeye. The three songs featured on her debut 7" chart a totally different course from previous endeavors, however, with curiously woozy songs that occupy a pretty singular headspace. Low-key detuned acoustic guitars enveloped in a spectral haze provide the backing for Brekkan's lovely and idiosyncratic vocals. They almost sound as if they were lifted from an ancient Edison cylinder documenting some obscure far-flung culture. There's a mysterious combination of elements at work here that make this one of the best "bedroom" recordings these ears have heard in a long while. Very recommended. [MK]


	$18.99 CD		VARIOUS ARTISTS On Vine Street: The Early Randy Newman Songs (Ace UK) "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" Dusty Springfield "Mama Told Me Not to Come" The Animals These days, most Americans know Randy Newman as the cuddly, affable author and gruff-voiced singer of the theme songs from all of your favorite Pixar films of the last few years. Or the guy who sang and wrote "I Love LA" (a/k/a "We Love It!"). Or that singer who penned "Short People." Newman is all of these things, but as ubiquitous as his songs are, most people are unaware of just how deep and amazing his catalog is, and that he is perhaps one of the best living lyricists on the planet. Newman's uncanny ability to write about the perils of human connection, loneliness, sex and longing with humor and grace was what gained him an audience for his solo releases in the late '70s. But this collection proves his songwriting ability was always great, it just took a while for the rest of the world to recognize it. All of these tracks are from the time period of 1962 to '70, when he was writing songs for others; it collects killer Newman tunes sung by many of the greats including Dusty Springfield, Fats Domino, the O'Jays, Scott Walker, etc. There's a variety of styles represented here ranging from girl group pop and country rock, to northern soul and doo-wop. The constant, though, is Newman's sardonic, witty lyrics which cover subjects like the loss of one's virginity ("Biggest Night of Her Life" by Harpers Bizarre), getting dumped on Christmas (Beverley's "Happy New Year") and imaginary friends of lonely people (Alan Price's "Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear" -- check out a live clip of Price performing this song on my Splendid Disarray blog). This is probably one of the best reissues we have in the store right now and it's an amazing way to document the rich songwriting prowess of an American master. It should serve as a wake up call to all young aspiring songwriters and is quite an emotional listening experience to boot. Essential! [DH]


	$13.99 CD		GENE CLARK Silverado '75 (Collectors Choice) "No Other" "Train Leaves Here This Morning" It's truly great to have so much Gene Clark coming into print, it seems people are finally getting hip to the fact that the man was one of the greatest singer-songwriters that the sixties produced. A friend gave me a bootleg of this live performance from 1975 last year and I listened to it excessively for weeks and weeks, now I'll finally be able to talk it up to whoever will listen. It was recorded not too long after his masterpiece No Other, but it's a whole other ballgame from that LP, and really quite unlike anything else in his catalog. Gone is the grandiosity; his touring band consisted of just Roger White on guitar and Duke Bardwell on bass, the three singing in close harmony in a near Appalachian style. They totally transformed familiar songs, with soulful and ragged arrangements that get to the heart of the material. If you ask me, they even one up Clark's old band the Byrd's with their version of "Set You Free This Time" -- we played it in the shop a couple of weeks back and I swear grown men were crying. [MK]


	$9.99 CD		AWESOME COLOR Electric Aborigines (Ecstatic Peace) "Come and Dance" "Burning" Raucous and riled-up riffage abound, Electric Aborigines finds Awesome Color stomping around much treaded ground, rocking out like they've been touring arenas for thirty years, rather than being the young trio out of Brooklyn that they are. In many ways, they are the antithesis of what many people associate with these days when they think of music from Brooklyn -- Awesome Color sounds like they might be more at home playing to past generations at bars in Bay Ridge then playing kids' lofts in Bushwick (the latter of which they've done -- the research team is still out on the former). Yet their fist-pumping Midwestern stomp (they are originally based out of Michigan), whiskey-fueled feedback, and smoke-stained solo's were handpicked by Thurston Moore for his Ecstatic Peace label, and if you bend your ear past bent 16th notes, the sheer noises that play out are enough to push this out the backdoor of your local bar and into sketchier territory. I kept this in my mind while listening to Electric Aborigines, knowing also that they've toured with Sonic Youth and Dinasour Jr. In some ways, Awesome Color seems to have accepted from the latter's J. Mascis the idea that rock 'n' roll is best when you just push start and let your excitement carry your fractured but powerful musicianship wherever it may go until maximum overload. However tried and true their rock postures come off, Awesome Color's ragged faith in rock 'n' roll is rewired as a chaotic sonic assault that is far too haywire for some of the more canonical forbearers of their rocking ways -- need I mention Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, the Stooges (and MC5 perhaps), and even the latter generation of Soundgarden, Urge Overkill, etc. Throw all of these teenage rock idols into your leather gig bag, throw in some beastly and vaguely experimental feedback howls, and you're ready for a date with some of the heaviest rock 'n' roll this side of the '90s. [JW]


	$12.99 CD		BILL COSBY Badfoot Brown and the Bunions Bradford Funeral and Marching Band (Dusty Groove) "Martin's Funeral" "Hybish Shybish" Having won two armfuls of Grammys, starred in the series "I Spy" and "The Bill Cosby Show," and revolutionized the world of comedy by the early '70s, the Cos signed a new recording contract with Uni Records, and jumped out of the frame with two albums far different than the stand-up recordings he'd cut in the '60s for Warner Bros. One of these records, Bill Cosby Talks to Kids About Drugs, is a rare, self-explanatory cut-out bin classic. Badfoot Brown is the other title, and while it's not the first time he'd drop a musical effort, this would mark his debut as a composer. I got turned onto this one by John Allen at a WFMU Record Fair years back and have held onto it ever since, and it's great to see that Dusty Groove have stepped up to release it once again. Two side-long, expressive instrumental jazz-funk cuts make up this album, both composed by Bill Cosby and ostensibly played by a crack session of studio musicians, including drummer Big Black. "Martin's Funeral," written as a remembrance of Cosby's participation in the funeral march for Martin Luther King, Jr. in Atlanta, is a fifteen-minute journey through emotional pain and perseverance, kept alive by the martial beat of the drum and a four-note blues that washes away the hurt. The track changes wildly through its runtime, and you'll likely recognize part of it as having been sampled by A Tribe Called Quest years back. "Hybish Shybish" is an equally unpredictable, uptight jazz-funk vamp that stretches out over 20 minutes, and works on similar repetitive themes and soul structures, shifting groovily to the whim of the players. Highly recommended! [DM]