- I admit I am powerless over the guilty sonic delights of Queen, E.L.O., Elton John and The Alan Parsons Project—that the musical life I am currently living has become unmanageable.
- I have come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves, namely rock and roll recorded in this century, can and will restore me to sanity.
- I have made a decision to turn my will and my musical life over to the care of a Higher Power, such as The Flaming Lips, My Morning Jacket, Nick Lowe, The Super Furry Animals and The Pet Shop Boys, as we understand Them.
- I resolve to make a searching and fearless moral inventory of my iTunes library and swear to purge it of such musical folly.
- Admitted to Jeff Lynne, the ghost of Freddie Mercury and to Alan Parsons himself the exact nature of my musical wrongs.
- I am entirely ready to have modern bands remove all these defects of my musical character.
- I have humbly asked Him, front man and chief songwriter of The Flaming Lips Wayne Coyne, to remove my musical shortcomings and to remove my guilt.
- I pledge to make a list of all the persons I have harmed by playing the above rock bands, and am willing to make amends to them all by burning “mixed tapes” of bands with street cred .
- I further pledge to make direct amends to my fellow music snobs wherever and whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
- I will continue to take personal inventory of my iTunes library and selected playlists and when I err again (which I know is inevitable) I shall promptly admit it.
- I have sought through prayer and meditation to improve my conscious contact with my fellow rock music snobs, as I understand them, praying only for knowledge of their will for me and the power to carry the legacy of more current bands to a higher level.
- Having had a musical spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, I will try to carry this message to other afflicted rock snobs carrying similar sonic burdens, and to practive these principals in all of my daily affairs from this point forward.
Uncle E’s 12 Step Program To Musical Recovery
Hope I Die Before I…oh, never mind.
So The Who (or, what’s left of them anyway) are set to play at this year’s Superbowl halftime show. Fer Chrissakes, guys, STOP F’ING WITH YOUR LEGACY!!!!!!!
You can read the whole, sad story HERE
Uncle E’s Top 85 Albums Of The Past Decade
| Well, for what it’s worth…here it is, Uncle E’s Top 85 Albums Of The Decade. Why 85?
Because, quite frankly, that’s all I could come up with. Alphabetically, ’cause a) it was too difficult and time is precious and, b) because I’m a coward and fear the backlash. Naw, actually I did do them in order and at the end of this post you’ll find a sneak peek at my personal top 10. When I began this task my initial feeling was that I thought the decade was a little lacking in outstanding album selections, but put them all together in a list like this and it makes a pretty decent argument that this was a pretty fantastic decade for music. Perhaps not as great as the 60’s or 70’s, or even the 80’s, but maybe equal to the 90’s. Did anyone else notice that there was no clear cut “movement”, or “style” this decade? The 60’s had psychedelia, the 70’s had metal, punk and “soft” rock”, the 80’s had new wave, the 90’s had grunge, house and electro, but what about the naughties (or whatever the hell you call this decade!)? I’d like to know. As always, this list contains no greatest hits, live albums, EP’s, singles or comps of any sort…just pure albums. Comment, argue among yourselves, or enjoy. It’s all subjective. A Ghost Is Born, Wilco |
| Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds |
| Action Pact, Sloan |
| Agaetis Byrjun, Sigur Ros |
| American Idiot, Green Day |
| American III: Solitary Man, Johnny Cash |
| And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, Yo La Tengo |
 At My Age, Nick Lowe |
| Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, Eels |
| Boys And Girls In America, The Hold Steady |
| By The Way, The Red Hot Chili Peppers |
| Caribou, Andorra |
| Country Club, John Doe and the Sadies |
| Daisy’s Of The Galaxy, The Eels |
| Dark Days, Light Years, Super Furry Animals |
| Demon Days, Gorillaz |
 Dig, Lazarus, Dig!, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds |
| Discovery, Daft Punk |
| Elephant, White Stripes |
| Embryonic, The Flaming Lips |
| Exterminator, Primal Scream |
| Figure 8, Elliot Smith |
| Franz Ferdinand, Franz Ferdinand |
| Funeral, Arcade Fire |
| Further Complications, Jarvis Cocker |
| Gagagagaga, Spoon |
| Gimme Fiction, Spoon |
| Girls Can Tell, Spoon |
| Gold, Ryan Adams |
| Goodnight Oslo, Robyn Hitchcock |
| Hail To The Thief, Radiohead |
| Heartbreaker, Ryan Adams |
| Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?, Of Montreal |
| Hold Time, M Ward |
| Hot Shots II, Beta Band |
| Howdy!, Teenage Fanclub! |
| Illinois, Sufjan Stevens |
| Is This It?, The Strokes |
| Kid A, Radiohead |
| LCD Soundsystem, LCD Soundsystem |
| Life On Other Planets, Supergrass |
| Lost Souls, Doves |
| Love Kraft, Super Furry Animals |
| Melody AM, Royksopp |
| Merriweather Post Pavilion, Animal Collective |
| Microcastle, Deerhunter |
| Modern Times, Bob Dylan |
| Mwng, Super Furry Animals |
 Never Hear The End Of It, Sloan |
| Nixon, Lambchop |
| Okema And The Melody Of Riot, Son Volt |
| Ole Tarantula, Robyn Hitchcock |
| Or Give Me Death, Aqueduct |
| Other People’s Lives, Ray Davies |
| Paul Weller – Heliocentric |
| Phantom Power, Super Furry Animals |
| Post War, M Ward |
| Primary Colours, The Horrors |
| Rated R, Queens Of The Stone Age |
| Rings Around The World, Super Furry Animals |
| Road To Rouen, Supergrass |
| Rockin’ The Suburbs, Ben Folds |
| Roots And Crowns, Califone |
| Sea Change, Beck |
| Since I Left You, The Avalanches |
| SMILE, Brian Wilson |
 Sound Of Silver, LCD Soundsystem |
| Spooked, Robyn Hitchcock |
| Streetcore, Joe Strummer |
| Talkie Walkie, AIR |
| The Convincer, Nick Lowe |
| The Crane Wife, The Decemberists |
| The Hour Of Bewilderbeast, Badly Drawn Boy |
| The Information, Beck |
| The Life Pursuit, Belle and Sebastian |
| The Sophtware Slump, Grandaddy |
 The Transfiguration Of Vincent, M Ward |
| The Warning, Hot Chip, |
| Together Through Life, Bob Dylan |
| We Love Life, Pulp |
| White Blood Cells, White Stripes |
| Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco |
| Yes, Pet Shop Boys |
 Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, Flaming Lips |
| Z, My Morning JacketUNCLE E’S TOP 10 OF THE DECADE
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, Flaming Lips Exterminator, Primal Scream At My Age, Nick Lowe Dark Days, Light Years, Super Furry Animals Blinking Lights And Other Revelations, The Eels Z, My Morning Jacket Sound Of Silver, LCD Soundsystem Never Hear The End Of It, Sloan The Sophtware Slump, Grandaddy Dig Lazarus, Dig, Nick Cave |
Top 50 Albums Of The Decade
…coming soon. Not an easy task, let me assure you.
This ought to piss some people off…
Best Albums Of 2009
#1. SUPER FURRY ANIMALS, Dark Days/Light Years
#2. THE FLAMING LIPS, Embryonic
#3. ROBYN HITCHCOCK, Goodnight Oslo
#4. JOHN DOE AND THE SADIES, Country Club
#5. JARVIS COCKER, Further Complications
#6. EELS, Hombre Lobo
#7. BOB DYLAN, Together Through Life
#8. M WARD, Hold Time
#9. WILCO, Wilco (The Album)
#10. PET SHOP BOYS, Yes
#11. THE HORRORS, Primary Colours
#12. ELVIS COSTELLO, Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
#13. SON VOLT, American Central Dust
#14. GLASVEGAS, Glasvegas
#15. FRANZ FERDINAND, Tonight
#16. THE MARS VOLTA, Octahedron
#17. ANIMAL COLLECTIVE, Merriweather Post Pavilion
…and now for the best re-issues/re-mastered, live album and compilation stuff:
#1. The entire Beatles Re-masters
#2. BEASTIE BOYS, Paul’s Boutique Re-mastered
#3. BIG STAR, #1 Record/Radio City Re-mastered
#4. DUKES OF STRATOSPHERE, 25 ‘O Clock expanded Re-issue
#5. MILES DAVIS, Kind Of Blue Legacy Edition
#6. NICK LOWE, Quiet Please…The New Best Of Nick Lowe
#7. THOMAS DOLBY, The Golden Age Of Wireless Re-issue
#8. THOMAS DOLBY, The Flat Earth Re-issue
#9. VAN MORRISON, Astral Weeks: Live At The Hollywood Bowl
#10. FUZZTONES, Lysergic Legacy
NOTE FROM “E”: As always, please tell me what I’ve missed. Also, “The Monsters Of Folk” (great name!) album probably would be up there but I’ve yet to purchase it.
Embryonic
Tusk, by Fleetwood Mac. The Final Cut, by Pink Floyd. Jazz, by Queen. Phantasmagoria, by the Damned. The Great Rock & Roll Swindle, by The Sex Pistols. Out Of The Blue, by E.L.O. Sandinista, by The Clash.
Embryonic, by The Flaming Lips.
Seemingly bloated, pretentious works at the time they were released, cherished over time by hard core fans. Embryonic is no different and it is already polarizing casual and hardcore fans alike. The way Pitchfork has been peeing their pants over this album was enough to get my defenses up, but coupled with the fact that the band itself was comparing this to Miles Davis’ late 60’s/ early 70’s fusion excursions was making me downright nervous.
I previewed the album on Tuesday, giving every song at least 30 seconds and my initial reaction was the band took the sonics of the At War With The Mystics psychedelic instrumental fuzzy freak out”The Wizard Turns On” and made a double album out of it. But then I listened to it again at home in it’s entirety, and then again driving from the Tahoe area back to Redding, and I started to hear the cohesiveness in the thing. Sure, there are no real pop hooks like the previous three albums, but in no way is it comparable to the punky dischord of In A Priest Driven Ambulence, either. It’s a concept album, musically speaking if not thematically, and that’s a good thing. 2006 broght At War With The Mystics and that particular album is still considered sub par, almost universally. I disagree, but I will say that At War…is very much a collection of songs as compared to Embryonic, which is an album in the old fashioned sense of the word, even more so than Yoshimi or The Soft Bulletin. While those albums had Wayne Coyne and co. waxing about Pink Robots, Spider Bites and Superman, this album has shades of Joy Division angst and a much darker musical atmosphere.
Embryonic is held together by weird little electronic instrumentals based on the signs of the zodiac, which sounds very proggy on paper but musically it works to break up the album into four distinct “sides”. Convinced Of The Hex and Silver Trembling Hands are the instant standouts, but equally as stunning are The Sparrow Looks Up At The Machine (very similar to Yoshimi’s “One More Robot/ Sympathy 3000-21″), the maniacal The Ego’s Last Stand and perhaps the centerpiece of the album Powerless. This is an album driven by the rythm section, where fuzz bass and compressed drums are allowed to roam rampant, but repeat listening sessions will reveal the fact that there are actual songs here, and they are as good as anything they’ve released. It’s not a 5 star album, but it’s a very solid 4 stars, maybe even a 4.5 depending on what the listener has ingested or inhaled. It’s also a perfectly sequenced album not meant for the IPod shuffle mode.
Embryonic is an album for the fans, and for themselves. They are a band again, and this is one of the best albums of the year.
Flaming Lips
I think I’m finally at a place where I can resume posting on this here little blog and I think I’ll start with a review of the Flaming Lips new double album, Embryonic. Later, but I will say at first blush it sounds like they’ve made their “Jazz Odyssey” a-la Spinal Tap Mach III.
The Beatles
So I’m in my car with the iPod in it’s “shuffle” mode, driving the 3 hrs it takes to get back home each weekend, and my musical mindset is not jivin’ with what’s shufflin’. I’m fast forwarding so much I almost run off the road and then “Help” by the Beatles comes on and I stop my finger twitching long enough to listen. I mean really listen. I enjoy it so much that I stop the random shuffle and go directly to a Beatles mix that I created when I first got my iPod a couple of years ago that, albeit very edited, lists selected tracks from this amazing group in chronological order. Kind of like my very own “Red” and “Blue” comps.
“MY GOD, was there ever a band that evolved so fast in so little a time frame and will there ever be another?” I ask myself. Everyone reading this knows the answer to that question. If you don’t then you’re either a Menonite or a deaf mute. Just listen to Love Me Do, Paperback Writer, Tomorrow Never Knows, A Day In The Life, Helter Skelter and Hey jude all in a row sometime. It’s freakin’ evil that’s afoot, I’m tellin’ ya! Was it the competition between McCartney and Lennon (and George and Ringo to a lesser extent), or was it something else, that made this band so special? Was it George Martin’s production? A combination of all the above coupled with excellent timing? What did these four lads have to sign over to the devil in order to become…well…what they became? I don’t know and quite frankly I don’t care, but what I do know for certain is that I don’t make a point to listen to them nearly enough. That’s possibly due to the fact that I am so overly familiar with their body of work that it just slips my mind. It’s tough to really appreciate their influence and brilliance when you’ve heard it so many times, but every once in a while I can pretend that I’ve never heard the White Album and be absolutely blown away. Again.
This is why the new remasters are so welcome. The liner notes and additional photos aren’t anything to really write home about, but the improved sound quality is audible and a real treat. I’ve only purchased Revolver, The White Album and Rubber Soul thus far but the that’s enough to get me through a few weeks.
Pop Music Is Evil
Just trolling the web and came across this article by the author of the terrific blog “3 Minutes, 49 Seconds”. Here’s a brief snippet:
“One day I was enjoying pizza at a local establishment. On the placemat, I read about scientific study in the “Odd Facts” section. It said that in the 1970s, experiments proved that plants relentlessly exposed to pop music died quickly. That was all the proof I needed. No way was I going out like a plant. So I went home, disconnected my stereo, packed up my CD’s, and sold them away.”
He’s (I only assume he’s a he) currently plugging away at his multi-part series on “So you wanna be a rock ‘n roll critic?” series and it’s very compelling. Read more of this wonderful entry and much more HERE
“Old man take a look at my life, I’m a lot like you…”
I walked into Dimple Records to do a little trading today. I had gathered up about 15 cd’s that I either didn’t listen to anymore or that I had grown out of and was excited to do a little bartering for some new ones.
So I come up to the counter, hand the clerk my bag ‘o’ music and he tells me he’ll be a few minutes evaluating the contents and why don’t I go browse for a while?
Cool.
I figured I should have about $50 in trade from my stash and go about the business of finding some music. I grab the New York Dolls debut, the Repo Man Soundtrack, Pet Shop Boys special edition of Introspective and the DVD of Boogie Nights.
The clerk calls me over to tell me he’s done and my store credit comes to $49.77. Not bad, and my new stuff comes to $51.75 total, so I owe the man a whopping $1.98 which I put on my debit card.
“Hey man,” says the clerk as he’s ringing me up. “This is a pretty damn cool collection of stuff you brought in…”
(here it comes)
“Is it your son’s, or…”
“No, it’s mine. I’m older than I look. You know, the newspaper business is a bitch.”
“Sorry, no offense, I just figured that…” he stutters.
“None taken.” I respond as I grab my way-too-cool-for-an-old-cat-like-me goodies and slowly, sheepishly walk out the door.
