R. Crumb- Hot Women: Women Singers from the Torrid Regions of the World (2003)

http://www.mediafire.com/?b54hzi52x8dshtr
or
http://www.mediafire.com/?nj3r6d9neneeq49

There have been a few times that I have purchased an album based on the sheer promise of the artwork and song names on the back cover. HOT WOMEN was a very memorable one.


It was compiled by illustrator R. Crumb (and his under-credited wife Aline Kominsky-Crumb) from an impressive group of 78s.


The music is all "traditional," as iTunes calls it. Women, sometimes with their children, all singing around the mic, hisses and all. After being bombarded by Rebecca Blacks and Lady Gagas, i love to hear the flawed crackle of outdated recording technology and the additional talent that performers had in order to adapte to the medium. As a result, the album is beautiful and diverse.


The main reason to purchase the cd is to hold the fantastic artwork in your hand. But the music is good, too.

Complaint: A few of the titles are listed as "Title in Hindustanese" or something similarly lazy. If you're going to put out a compilation, why not bother to ask someone who reads a language to translate it for you??
Big pet peeve. Crumb probably thinks it's part of the charm, but i call it lazy at best (and culturally arrogant at worst). Your call. 

Carolina Chocolate Drops- Genuine Negro Jig (2010)

http://www.mediafire.com/?1u2i0wcccphlg45

Nothing defines Knoxville, Tennessee like folk music, specifically bluegrass and old timey music. When i first moved to Knoxville, i was blown away by the attention that people paid to folk music-- live, on the radio, in record stores, on tour, etc.

For a west coast kid who equated old time music with the "O Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack (and don't laugh-- a lot of us did), it was a revelation to find out that young hipsters in the South liked folk music, and that young kids were MAKING folk music.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops are pretty badass in that they are probably the only African American group doing folk music right now. They're not only great, they're finally getting a lot of commercial and critical attention (they won a Grammy for this cd). I actually feel a bit guilty about putting this up-- i love this cd, but i also want them to continue to make music!

Americans forget that folk music is an umbrella term that brought in music from different backgrounds (since America is a country founded by immigrants [oh, and forcibly taken from the native inhabitants. Had to add that!}). So musical traditions from French, the Caribbean, Africa, Latin America, Ireland, Scotland, etc all got lumped up into the limp category "Folk" music.

As Margaret Kilgallen loved to point out, the banjo was an African instrument. People nowadays associate the banjo with uber-white musicians, but traditionally, this sucka came from Africa! Percussion instrument, bitches!!

Michael Hurley, the Unholy Modal Rounders, Jeffery Fredrick and the Clamtones- Have Moicy! (1976)

http://www.mediafire.com/?oguumtfftdt

Do you like songs about stealing hamburgers, robbing banks, getting it on by the moonlight, washing dishes, and taking shits?

OF COURSE YOU DO!!!!

That is why you want to hear the most amazing and certainly most unique country/bluegrass/folk/pop cd of the entire 1970s.

This is what you get when a rubbertramp, psychadelic bluegrass musicans, and depressed folk singers get together and make an album. This is absolutely the most interesting record I heard during my year in Knoxville, TN. Which is saying a lot!

Have Moicy continues to be one of the most influential albums of the 70s and have given props up and down and all over. Yo la Tengo covered "Grizelda" and blah blah blah. I think you just might really love it.

Michael Hurley + Ida: Ida Con Snock (2009)

http://www.mediafire.com/?zzzgzzzezw5

Call me a mindreader, because i know what you're thinking: "Based on this weak drawing of birds singing on telephone poles, this cd is gonna suck." I would tend to agree with you, if the words "Ida" and "Snock" didn't also appear in the title.

Snock, aka Michael Hurley, has been making weird folk records since the mid 1960s. His first record came out on Folkways, and his last came out on Devandra Barnhart's label, Gnomonsong. Tell me that's not street cred.

But mostly, this cd is my favorite Hurley record since the amazing "Have Moicy!" collaboration extraordinaire of 1974. I have at least 6 cds by Hurley, and i'll be honest-- they're pretty interchangeable. Each cd basically sounds like a continuation of the one before it. Or more bluntly, they all sound the same. Which isn't necessarily bad...

But, from the first bar in Ida Con Snock, you can hear the difference. Ida brings an incredible warmth and focus to Hurley's songs, grounding them and supporting them with an incredible musicianship that his other cds don't have. You've never heard drone, sweet harmonies, and thoughtful arrangements on a Hurley cd before. 

If you haven't heard Michael Hurley before, you might not be startled in the same way that I was. It might just sound like a nice, understated folk record. And that's okay, too. But keep in mind that this dude is around 68. At this point, Ida Con Snock sounds better than anything that Neil Young or Bob Dylan puts out (contemporaries of Hurley who proudly live up to the title "Washed Up").

For fans of early Low, Emmylou Harris, Crazy Horse, etc

Luke Temple- Snowbeast

http://www.mediafire.com/?k0ls0vv8izwrhkc

You know you have a good friend when they email you to write, "Hey, this cd makes me think of you. I think you'd like it."

Luckily for me, when someone does that, they're often right. Luke Temple was recommended to me by a good friend and I ended up really being drawn by it. I really got hooked on it when i was riding my bike downtown on the way to see Camera Obscura play live. This is an amazing "Hot-summer-night-on-a-bike" cd-- lots of swirls, loops, ambiance, textures, and great vocals. The songs are simple and catchy, and they fade and wash into each other, so that the whole of the album is greater than the parts of it.

Snowbeast (nickname for yeti) made me think about songwriting and recording differently. Luke Temple sings in this great haunting register, and layers his vocals at parts. There is a strange absence of low end stuff-- hardly any bass, etc. But it's really the high, lonesome vocals that do it for me. Plus the gurgling synth textures and "less is more" approach. The tracks are eerie, pretty, and haunting, which is like icing on the cake.

Give it a chance, listen to it a couple of times, and I bet it'll grow on you.

By the way, this image was taken from the Daytrotter Sessions site (which you should look into, if you haven't). Luke Temple with an armful of Yeti.  Wacky.

Josh T. Pearson- Last of the Country Music Gentlemen (2011)

http://www.mediafire.com/?mxhwsl5d6xrh04l

Some musicians achieve this cult status that will elevate anything they do to a place of legend. I wonder if Josh T. Pearson isn't approaching that place. I sense that the hype surrounding this record--not the record itself--smacks of hipsterdom. You can be sure that Josh Pearson's first record in ten years is a huge deal. MOJO and The Times already gave it 4/5 stars. Hmm.... So how is it really?

I was and remain an enormous fan of Lift to Experience, but was less than convinced by Pearson's acoustic output following the band. I know the legend, the stories of the bassist's wife dying while on tour, the drummer getting mailed an actual boot as a way of being kicked out of the band, the singer's dad being a preacher who refused to work since God would give him the means to live as a test of his faith. Et cetera, et cetera.

But when I first saw the album art for Last of the Country Music Gentlemen, i realized just how at risk Pearson is of becoming a media pawn. Why does he need to be seated with a shotgun next to hot models who contrast greatly with his "authentic" image? For someone who has notoriously shirked from fame, this is either a good omen or a bad one...

As for the music, it's all acoustic finger picked guitar and a voice. The lack of instrumentation works in his favor and makes it sound huge and powerful, even at its quietest. It goes from being as beautiful and transcendental as Jeff Buckley to reaching the dirtiness and unforgivingness of Vincent Gallo. I can't decide if it's beautiful or repulsive, which I guess is a good thing. It's definitely an uncomfortable listen-- I keep imagining Mark Kozelek listening to it, sulking, feeling out-emo-ed.

"I'm Josh, and this is my band."

The first song, "Thou Art Loosed," is an intensely beautiful song that sets the rest of the album up deceptively, so that when i listen to it start-to-finish, I feel this immediate rush followed by a long letdown (comedown?).In a way, LotCMG doesn't feel that out of the ordinary, and it's not anything that any old washed-out, unrecognized country singer couldn't have made. And then in a way, when you listen closely, you wonder how someone could make you feel so beautiful and filthy at once.

* * * *
This interview excerpt is from My Old Kentucky Blog:

My Old Kentucky Blog: Are we hearing mostly first takes?

Josh T Pearson: The first three are on Last Of The Country Gentleman are. You know, the songs are so goddamned long. Once you get up over ten minutes, I wasn’t about to do it again. But if you get to minute five and it’s not working, just do it again. I agonized over the takes, rather than the recording process or the mic setups. Being such a personal record, I’m not going to lie, it was tough. Sometimes it would take ten minutes just to recover from a take, sometimes a few hours. I hope I don’t have to go through that again. I actually went gray overnight.

MOKB: Now that it’s done, and it met your standards, how do you feel about the record?

JTP: I don’t know, man. It seems like a terrible thing to do…to be happy about such a sad record. This record is definitely for other people. I can’t listen to it. I think it’s a good work, but I hope I don’t have to look at it for a very long time. It’s just too personal. If I was outside of myself and heard it, I’d think the guy was a real dick for doing it because it’s just too bare and honest.

Latin Playboys- Dose

http://www.mediafire.com/?nrcaenr7cbwbzpz

You may have heard of Los Lobos, who hail as California's longest-lasting full rock outfit. They're good and all, but their recent Disney cd makes most people reach for one of those airplane barf bags preeeeeetty fast.

But back in 1999, they put out a second album under a side-project pseudonym Latin Playboys (which has to be one of the coolest band names ever. Do you notice that i get fetishistic about names? I can never come up with a cool name!). The legend has it that Dose was recorded entirely with instruments bought from thrift stores, and it shows. The guitars are wonky and out of tune, and the instruments sound terrible; however, since Los Lobos are practically the most talented musicians who have ever walked the face of the earth, the playing is incredibly solid and it comes across as a revelation.

It turned a lot of Lobos fans off since it's a) abrasive as all getout and b) not really a group of songs as much as weird sketches. It almost sounds like an early Ween record, but with a huge Mexican influence. For me, the rough aesthetics plus the Mexican sabor plus the inconsistency makes this one of my favorite early Summer records.

I first heard this at a house party in Knoxville and realized--in an exaggerated epiphany-- that the music i had been listening to was really lame, and that there was tons of incredible music i hadn't discovered yet. 

Damien Jurado- Saint Bartlett

http://www.mediafire.com/?detxkj8swulzk17

When people think of Damien Jurado, they probably think of a sensitive northwestern singer/songwriter who likes to play lots of acoustic guitar and have women sing with him. I, for one, have thought that his last few cds just seemed like a blurring of one continuous album that never really stuck out to me. That's probably not a fair assessment.

Saint Bartlett, which was produced by Richard Swift, really caught me off guard. It's a very solid record: the songs are catchy, haunting, and distinctive. But the thing that really sealed it for me are the great idiosyncratic percussion and doo-wop sensibilities. It's still a Damien Jurado record, but it sounds like one that would be playing in the background of an episode of Twin Peaks.

His songs always seem confessional, but they're often from the point of view of others. This record was apparently made while several friends were going through divorces, in hospitals, etc. The different points of view make it "read" like a collection of stories by Ray Bradbury.

It's a really affective record. I have some days when I pull in to work on my bike and all i can think of is the endless loop that he sings on the first song: "Trying to fix my mind, trying to fix my mind." This has been one of my favorite records of the past year.

Filip Zelway- Phamilial (Twilight Edit)

* NOTE: This is the first link i have posted that was removed due to "copyright infringement. I translate this as: Nonesuch Records (or Mr. Zelway himself-- the band he plays for has a sharp dislike of not making money) has a stick up its collective arses about sharing digital music. Hence, the vehement misspelling of Mr. Zelway's name (which is actually cooler than his real name! You paying attention, Fil?). You'll get the drift, no? I am reposting the link with a different title. 

http://www.mediafire.com/?oojevqqczlxrif9

Hey dude- have you heard of this really cool band that no one has ever heard of called "Televisionead" (actual name revoked: see note above)? Well, it turns out that their drummer, Filip Zelway took a page from James Iha's book and put out his own cd of songs that sound as far as possible from the chaotic behemoth of exacting sound that probably weighs on his shoulders every day.

Basically, think NICK DRAKE. This cd is so quiet, so acoustic and finger picked that it gets poo-pooed like young hipsters (Pitchfork) and embraced by aging yuppies (NPR). But it deserves a little more credit than that: it's basically just a really pretty record, packed with songs about his family members (hence the title). Musically, it's the equivalent of eating macaroni and cheese on a rainy day: it's really simple yet satisfying.

It's not groundbreaking by any means, but it just might grow on you. A very good early morning Sunday record.


*(Note: I omitted my least favorite songs which are borderline cheesy. For that reason, i call this the Twilight Edit-- not after the vampire franchise, but after the time of day when this record seems most appropriate).

Baden Powell & Vinícius de Moraes- Os Afro Sambas (1966)

http://www.mediafire.com/?n27a8bd4tbzs35i

Against my better judgment, I'm going to share with you a record that I searched five years for. But let first explain.

I used to be crazy into a fringe hip-hop/keyboard/j-pop/sci-fi duo called Cibo Matto. They rapped about sending pet chickens to college, comparing your ass to a that of a horse, and eating white pepper ice cream, but would make them sound weirdly aggressive or sexual.

When that band split up, one half did her own strange jazz/dance cd and a collaboration with Yoshimi from the Boredoms/OOIOO that they recorded on a mountain in Nara. That's Yuka Honda, and she's as awesome as she is hard to totally "get." She was maybe the brains of the outfit (she is also on again off again with Sean Lennon). The other half (the soul?) of Cibo Matto was Miho Hatori, who went on to make her own equally strange jazz/pop cd that was a concept album about insects in the future carrying secrets between machines and humans. (This is getting way off topic... are you still with me?) Before that, though, Hatori teamed up with Smokey Hormel (who played with Beck and Tom Waits) to release a collection of Brazillian songs (some covers, some self-penned). They followed up with a cd of Baden Powell covers, which really blew me out of the water. Hatori said they were songs that she listened to as a kid so many times that her tape melted in her tape player. Who was this Baden Powell, and what were the Afro Sambas?

Smokey and Miho live, 2005.

I ended up purchasing THIS cd of Os Afros Sambas, which Powell re-recorded in the '90s. Just how bad is the re-recording? Think of how awful Brian Wilson's version of SMiLE feels compared to the original 1967 Beach Boys bootlegs. Now multiply it by 5. Blech. At the time, cds and LPs of the original recording of Os Afro Sambas were selling on eBay for upwards of $100. Way too much for me to spend, and before people like me were "sharing" files like this.

So years later, i was in Tower Records in Japan when I saw this cd. The best part-- in a store where the average cd costs $35 (!!! and Americans think our cds are expensive!!!), this one was selling for 800yen (US $8). After i cleaned up my pants (after sh*tting in them), I promptly purchased it.

Powell and de Moraes

The original Afro Sambas was recorded (apparently) on a TWO track, and it definitely shows in parts. It's rough in spots, not completely balanced. But it has so much soul, the sexiest saxes you've ever heard, enough percussion to light a church on fire, at least four people singing at all times, and this total pagan jubilation. It's absolutely amazing. It contrasts Vinicius' deeper, aged voice with Baden's youthful eagerness, and the playing is dead-on.

Unlike a lot of Samba and Bossa Nova music being churned out in 1966, Os Afro Sambas had lyrics and music that connected to the Afro religion and beats in Brazil. It was very much out of Africa, very pagan, very sensual, and deeply spiritual to listen to (Apparently, Powell changed some of the words on a later recording to be less Afro as he became more of a devout Catholic, which seems like another nail in the coffin for the re-recording). At times, it is jubilant, funky, and dance-able. At others, it is slow, meditative, and pulsating. It still stands as being truly special in a sea of Jobim/Gilberto clones.

Powell had an upbringing in classical guitar training, and he liked to crank out the Bach. This cd is amazing since it combines that reverence for the musical with a reverence for the spiritual, which is much easier said than done.

Easily in my top 10 of all time.

Ho Lan- Echo From Deep Valley

http://www.mediafire.com/?yp3mr2ox4oi3n21

Okay, so picture this: a female singer-songwriter from Taiwan in the 1970s who has a penchant to classic Spanish and Mariachi songs, a "thing" for yodeling, and a super-husky voice (one that she strengthened by learning to sing over the roar of a waterfall in her native hometown).

Meet Ho Lan:
part Zhou Xuan, part Nina Simone, and part Lucha Reyes.

The songs are split into solo guitar accompaniment (with multi-tracked vocal harmonies) and big band orchestrations, but Lan's voice always stands out. In addition to some really striking tunes, she sings some songs that could normally strike a very cheesy note with many listeners-- "Palmoa," "Hawaiian Wedding Song," and even {ick} "Home On the Range"-- but I can nearly guarantee that you won't mind.

This is my idea of folk music at its most bare and most satisfying: pure talent, no pretense, engaging voice, wonderful simplicity, versatility of styles, and MASSIVE TALENT. My friend Eric, who has immaculate taste in music, said that this is his favorite recording I have shared with him. That might mean something?


Here is Ms. Lan yodeling on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap6MKABAKoA

Grouper- Dragging a Dead Deer up a Hill

http://www.mediafire.com/?4okmxp57rcvmxoy

Grouper is apparently the work of one woman, Liz Harris, who has made a few other albums. This is my introduction to her. The songs are disarmingly quiet, reverb-y, and slow. But they don't necessarily feel sad or disdainful as you might expect. They tend to feel warmer, maybe even indifferent, and always pretty far off. It's a great soundtrack for feeling a bit introspective or kind of "off."

Recommended for a good mid day nap with the windows open and a good breeze.