Airing Out The Girl
Maybe it was the weather, or maybe it was a combination of that with my gradually increasing robust good health returning to me that put the streak of spring cleaning in me and lit a fire under my lazy ass to get up on the ladder and cut down the dead vines from off the trellis, pull the weeds out of my pitiful attempt at a garden, and hand-scrub the hard wood floors to get the tiniest flecks of grit out of the hair-thin crevices... okay maybe that's getting a bit anal, or anal for me at least, but I can't express how simply marvelous it feels to go through the motions of getting things done for a change, after so many weeks of exhaustion from work and bed rest from illness. Over half my weekend to-do list is nearly complete, and now I need to write a review for Damon & Hunter: Doing It Together as well as the most recent release by Papa (loooong overdue), catch up on my email, and I think I'll be about done for, well, the next time I fall behind on everything. But I'm caught up! And it's a good feeling! And I'm loving this weather! I freakin' love the New Year!!
Got some resolutions I need to make note of, but first -- last night's booty. No, not my booty (sorry, sports fans). I'm referring to the massive amounts of store credit Joe and I received last night taking advantage of our short-term "Get 20% cash and 50% credit on your next used buy-back" so after selling off a large chunk of our surplus DVD fodder we made off like little bandidos and I managed to free up some of the schtuff I had sitting on hold since, oooh, last year. Specifically:
The Rain Parade Emergency Third Rail Power Trip. Got this used, just like I originally bought the used cassette almost 20 years ago when I was in college. Ah, the old Record Exchange in Roanoke, VA. No other record store in my life shaped me into the figure that I am today like the diversity I encountered in their used bins back in my formative (and pitifully poor) collegiate years.
Joanna Newsom Ys which I have heard nothing but outrageous hype about more than any other album in 2006, although most of the hype was coming from friends and respected critics whose word I follow to the letter, so now that I am hearing it I'm thinking... okay, yeah... They're right. Me likey. Don't know what it is, specifically. Her weirdly Bjork-like voice? Maybe. Her flaky stream-of-consciousness prose? I haven't bothered with the lyrics sheet so I can only pick up words and phrases here and there, which is pretty much how I always listen to music, and I kind of like that. Anyway, she plays the harp, and I just don't have enough harpists in my collection, so home she goes with me.
Merle Haggard I'm A Lonesome Fugitive/Branded Man, part of the double-album reissue of the Hag's amazing 60's output from Capitol Records that were releases this past summer. Came in used this week, along with Hag, which I need to go back and rescue Monday if I am able.
Okay, you know how all almost CDs put out on Zorn's Tzadik label have that little black paper sleeveover the spine of the jewel case that tells you what the CD is? Well I bought this disk new thinking that it was Keiji Haino's Tenshi no Gijinka which is what it said on the sleeve. But upon removing the sleeve it was revealed that the CD was actually Mamoru Fujieda's The Night Chant, also put out by Tzadik. Normally I might have been disappointed but seeing as it was someone I had never heard of before I was instantly intrigued and to say the least his music is sparse and hypnotic, like listening in on a quiet religious ceremony taking place out in the desert. Then I go read about him over at allmusic.com and according to the reviewer there the chants are based on some Navajo sand-painting ceremony mixed with a little bit of the Orient, and that pretty much nails it right there. Fujieda has a Ph.D. in music at the University of California, and he's worked with Morton Feldman, which instantly caught my attention. Anyway, not Keiji Haino. But not bad, either. I was introduced to a new artist, and I didn't have to pay for it. Sooooo, whizbang.
Got some resolutions I need to make note of, but first -- last night's booty. No, not my booty (sorry, sports fans). I'm referring to the massive amounts of store credit Joe and I received last night taking advantage of our short-term "Get 20% cash and 50% credit on your next used buy-back" so after selling off a large chunk of our surplus DVD fodder we made off like little bandidos and I managed to free up some of the schtuff I had sitting on hold since, oooh, last year. Specifically:
The Rain Parade Emergency Third Rail Power Trip. Got this used, just like I originally bought the used cassette almost 20 years ago when I was in college. Ah, the old Record Exchange in Roanoke, VA. No other record store in my life shaped me into the figure that I am today like the diversity I encountered in their used bins back in my formative (and pitifully poor) collegiate years.
Joanna Newsom Ys which I have heard nothing but outrageous hype about more than any other album in 2006, although most of the hype was coming from friends and respected critics whose word I follow to the letter, so now that I am hearing it I'm thinking... okay, yeah... They're right. Me likey. Don't know what it is, specifically. Her weirdly Bjork-like voice? Maybe. Her flaky stream-of-consciousness prose? I haven't bothered with the lyrics sheet so I can only pick up words and phrases here and there, which is pretty much how I always listen to music, and I kind of like that. Anyway, she plays the harp, and I just don't have enough harpists in my collection, so home she goes with me.
Merle Haggard I'm A Lonesome Fugitive/Branded Man, part of the double-album reissue of the Hag's amazing 60's output from Capitol Records that were releases this past summer. Came in used this week, along with Hag, which I need to go back and rescue Monday if I am able.
Okay, you know how all almost CDs put out on Zorn's Tzadik label have that little black paper sleeveover the spine of the jewel case that tells you what the CD is? Well I bought this disk new thinking that it was Keiji Haino's Tenshi no Gijinka which is what it said on the sleeve. But upon removing the sleeve it was revealed that the CD was actually Mamoru Fujieda's The Night Chant, also put out by Tzadik. Normally I might have been disappointed but seeing as it was someone I had never heard of before I was instantly intrigued and to say the least his music is sparse and hypnotic, like listening in on a quiet religious ceremony taking place out in the desert. Then I go read about him over at allmusic.com and according to the reviewer there the chants are based on some Navajo sand-painting ceremony mixed with a little bit of the Orient, and that pretty much nails it right there. Fujieda has a Ph.D. in music at the University of California, and he's worked with Morton Feldman, which instantly caught my attention. Anyway, not Keiji Haino. But not bad, either. I was introduced to a new artist, and I didn't have to pay for it. Sooooo, whizbang.
posted by Melissa at 1:50 PM
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