Playlist Week of 3-13-10

* Uccellini: Sonatas (Romanesca) (Harmonia Mundi CD)
* Rebel: Violin Sonatas (Manze/Egarr/ter Linden) (Harmonia Mundi CD)
* Vivaldi: Cello Sonatas (ter Linden/Mortensen) (Brilliant Classics 2CD)
* J.S. Bach: Cello Suites (ter Linden) (Harmonia Mundi 2CD)
* J.S. Bach: Violin Sonatas (Manze/Egarr/ter Linden) (disc 1) (Harmonia Mundi 2CD)
* Berio: Sinfonia/Ekphrasis (Göteborgs Symfoniker/Eötvös) (Deutsche Grammophon CD)
* Stockhausen: Kontakte (Tenney/Winant) (Ecstatic Peace! CD)
* Stockhausen: Aus den sieben Tagen (Ens. Musique Vivante/Masson) (Harmonia Mundi CD)
* AMM: Taktlos Festival, Zürich, Switzerland 3-31-90 (AUD CDR)
* Sun Ra: Helsinki 10-14-71 (d.2) (FM 2CDR)
* Sun Ra: Aarhus, Denmark 10-19-71 (AUD 2CDR)
* Sun Ra: Paris, France 11-29-71 (AUD CDR)
* Sam Rivers’ Rivbea All-Star Orchestra: Inspiration (RCA/BMG CD)
* Anthony Braxton 12+1tet: 9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006 (d.1) (Firehouse 12 9CD+DVD)
* Marilyn Crispell: Vignettes (ECM CD)
* Mary Halvorson: Barbès, Brooklyn, NY 12-02-09 (AUD CDR)
* David Torn’s Prezens: Congress MainStage, Saalfelden, Austria 8-24-07 (FM CDR)
* Ronnie Laws: Friends and Strangers (United Artists LP)
* Herbie Hancock: Newport Jazz Festival 8-15-08 (FM CDR)
* Jimi Hendrix: Band of Gypsies (Experience Hendrix/MCA CD)
* Jimi Hendrix: Jazz Stuff (fan/boot CDR)
* The Mothers of Invention: Freak Out! (Verve 2LP)
* Grateful Dead: Road Trips: Vol.2, No.4: Cal Expo ’93 (GD/Rhino 2+1CD)
* Grateful Dead: Road Trips: Vol.3, No.2: Austin 11-15-71 (GD/Rhino 2+1CD)
* Grateful Dead: Kaiser Convention Center, Oakland, CA 2-08-86 (SBD 2CDR)
* Grateful Dead: Sullivan Stadium, Foxboro, MA 7-14-90 (SBD 3CDR)
* Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Broken Arrow (Reprise 2LP)
* Yo La Tengo: West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, England 3-04-04 (FM CDR)
* Guided By Voices: Under the Bushes, Under the Stars (Matador LP+12”EP)
* Guided By Voices: “The Official Ironmen Rally Song” (side B) (Matador 7”EP)
* Guided By Voices: Plantations of Pale Pink (Matador 7”EP)
* Guided By Voices: Sunfish Holy Breakfast (Matador 12”EP)
* Guided By Voices: Tonics and Twisted Chasers (expanded edition) (Rockathon CD)
* Boston Spaceships: Camera Found the Ray Gun (Jackpot CDEP)
* Beck: Mellow Gold (Bongload Custom LP)
* Beck: Sea Change (Geffen/MFSL 2LP)
* Sigor Rós: Ágætis Byrjun (PIAS America CD)
* Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino CD)

Commentary:

The first Grateful Dead: Road Trips release of the year, featuring the complete show from the Municipal Auditorium in Austin, Texas on November 15, 1971 (my eighth birthday!) is a real corker. For me, this period is when the Dead start to get really interesting. In October, Keith Godchaux had joined the band as the first really full-time keyboard player, bringing the rich, percussive tones of an acoustic piano into the ensemble sound for the first time. His timing couldn’t have been more perfect: drummer Mickey Hart had quit the band in January and, while the stripped down quartet managed to reach a peak of shoot-em-up bar-band music in the spring, by autumn, Pigpen (who was at best a functional keyboardist) was in the first throes of a slow decline -- he was too sick to make the tour and, while he enjoyed a last hurrah on Europe ’72, would be dead by March 1973 at the age of twenty-seven. Conveniently, Godchaux’s deft touch and catholic musical sensibility meshed well with the recent quasi-country-rock direction the band was moving in, while also bringing jazzy chops and edgy inventiveness to the still-spacey improvisations. Both Garcia and Weir were writing scads of great new songs which clearly benefited from Godchaux’s creative accompaniments and you can hear the band really starting to come together at this concert. While the focus is on tight renditions of relatively short songs, a rare first set “Dark Star” easily moves from dreamy psychedelia to nightmarish noise to the cornball “El Paso” and back into the depths of “Dark Star” over an intense twenty-five minutes and the second set’s “Not Fade Away>Goin’ Down the Road>Not Fade Away” segment is as elaborately jammed out as any other version I can think of. Recorded by roadie Rex Jackson, the sound quality is, unfortunately, a little murky, with Godchaux’s piano slightly buried and Billy’s drumset is weirdly balanced; but it’s still an enjoyable listen. The (annoyingly) limited-edition “bonus disc” contains a good chunk from the previous night’s show at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, featuring an absolutely incredible “Truckin’>The Other One>Me & My Uncle>The Other One” sequence that must be heard to be believed; even Phil Lesh takes a funk-fueled bass solo -- but you better hurry as these things sell out quickly. The Road Trips series can be a little hit or miss, but this one is just about exactly perfect. Only available at Dead.net.

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You might have noticed that I have been making my way chronologically through the Guided By Voices discography over the past few weeks. I am, of course, a huge fan of Robert Pollard’s work; but if I could only own one GBV record, it would probably have to be their 1996 album, Under the Bushes, Under the Stars. That was the album where I first “got it” and it remains my very favorite for more than just sentimental reasons. Leaving behind the trusty 4-track cassette recorder which had produced the breakthrough album, Bee Thousand, and their Matador debut, Alien Lanes, the band’s new-found success allowed them to start working with outside producers, first down in Memphis with Kim Deal and later on in Chicago with Steve Albini. Apparently dissatisfied with the polished studio sheen that resulted from these sessions, Pollard & Co. added layers of noisy overdubs to the tapes, resulting in a unique sound, at once high-fidelity and low-fi, casting a magical vibe that serves the songs well. And Pollard was pouring forth great songs at an incredible pace, adding six more to the album at the last minute, long after the artwork had already been readied and necessitating an extra twelve-inch EP for the vinyl release. Two seven-inch EPs, another twelve inch EP, and Pollard’s first solo album, Not in My Airforce, would follow in the next twelve months (not to mention the ultra-quirky, fan-club-only LP, Tonics and Twisted Chasers) – much to record collectors’ delight. However, Matador was (perhaps rightly) concerned that all of this product would dilute the market for the main album and they severely restricted Pollard’s output in the following year, contributing to his (temporary) departure from the label in 1998. While I unequivocally love all of their records, Under the Bushes, Under the Stars is the one GBV album I wouldn’t want to be without.