Morton Feldman @ Spectrum Culture

Now this was interesting! Check out my review of Morton Feldman: Crippled Symmetry: At June in Buffalo over at Spectrum Culture.

Robert Pollard @ Spectrum Culture

My Robert Pollard obsession continues over at Spectrum Culture.

Playlist Week of 10-13-12

* Morton Feldman: Crippled Symmetry: At June In Buffalo (Frozen Reeds 2CD)

* Anthony Braxton: GTM (Iridium) 2007 Vol.4 Set 1 (New Braxton House FLAC)

* Anthony Braxton: GTM (Iridium) 2007 Vol.4 Set 2 (New Braxton House FLAC)

* Henry Threadgill: Song Out Of Our Trees (Black Saint CD)

* Henry Threadgill Zooid: Tomorrow Sunny / The Revelry, Spp (Pi CD)

* Joe Morris/William Parker/Gerald Cleaver: Altitude (AUM Fidelity CD)

* Veryan Weston/Ingrid Laubrock/Hannah Marshall: Haste (Emanem CD)

* Ingrid Laubrock Anti-House: Moers, Germany 5-26-12 (FM FLAC)

* Ingrid Laubrock/Olie Brice/Javier Carmona: Catatumbo (Babel CD)

* Mary Halvorson Quintet: Saalfelden, Austria 8-25-12 (AUD FLAC)

* Grateful Dead: Dick’s Picks Vol.20 (9-25-76 + 9-28-76) (d.2, 4) (GDP 4HDCD)

* Grateful Dead: Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ 11-24-78 (d.3) (Pre-FM 3CDR)

* Joni Mitchell: Hejira (Asylum HDCD)

* Deep Purple: In Rock (Warner Bros. LP)

* Deep Purple: Who Do We Think We Are! (Warner Bros. LP)

* Soft Machine: Het Turfschip, Breda, Netherlands 3-14-71 (SBD 2CDR)

* Soft Machine: 4 (Columbia LP)

* Soft Machine: 7 (Columbia LP)

* Gentle Giant: Acquiring The Taste (Vertigo LP)

* Gentle Giant: Three Friends (Vertigo/Alucard CD)

* Gentle Giant: Octopus (Vertigo/Alucard CD)

* REM: Document (IRS LP)
* REM: Green (Warner Bros. LP)

* Sonic Youth: “Simon Werner A Disaparu” (Original Soundtrack) (SYR LP)

* The Flaming Lips: Embryonic (Warner Bros. 2CD/DVD)

* The Chills: Kaleidoscope World (Normal/Flying Nun LP)

* Robert Pollard: Jack Sells The Cow (GBV, Inc. LP/MP3)(†)

* Porcupine Tree: The Sky Moves Sideways (KScope 2CD)†

* Storm Corrosion: Storm Corrosion (Roadrunner CD/BD)

* Opeth: Heritage (Roadrunner CD/DVD)†/‡

* Katatonia: Dead End Kings (Peaceville CD)†

* Agalloch: Pale Folklore (The End CD)†

* Agalloch: The Mantle (The End CD)†

* Agalloch: The Grey EP (Agalloch/Bandcamp FLAC)†

* Agalloch: The White EP (Agalloch/Bandcamp FLAC)†

* Blut Aus Nord: 777 – Sect(s) (Debemur Morti CD)

* Blut Aus Nord: 777 – The Desanctification (Debemur Morti MP3)†

* Blut Aus Nord: 777 –Cosmosophy (Debemur Morti MP3)†

* Tortoise: Beacons Of Ancestorship (Thrill Jockey LP)

* Six Organs Of Admittance: Ascent (Drag City LP)

* Grails: Deep Politics (Temporary Residence CD)†

* Russian Circles: Empros (Sargent House CD)†

* Metz: Metz (Sub Pop MP4)†

†=iPod

‡=car

Commentary:

Last weekend was the annual SoundCrawl here in Nashville, which coincided with the monthly ArtCrawl in downtown Nashville. I took a bunch of pictures, some of which you can check out on my Flickr Photostream.

On Saturday, Brian Franklin set up his interactive installation in the Arcade downtown. Consisting of a modified keyboard which controlled old-school videogames while emitting dulcet piano tones, it was fun to watch people get into it, battling it out onscreen while simultaneously generating frenetic, minimalist music. Later, electric violinist Tracy Silverman played duets with drummer Roy Futureman Wooten at the Brick Factory, a late night of trance-y looping and occasional rocking. Their cover of Hendrix’s “1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)” was quite effective, with Wooten’s supple timekeeping and Buddha-like presence keeping it from getting too spaced out.

On Sunday was “Art of the Future,” again at the Brick Factory with electro-acoustic performances from Mark Zanter, Timothy Harenda and Sally J. Williams, Adam Vidiksis and a computer-generated work by Jason Fick for dancer Ilana Morgan. Franklin’s videogame piece was set up and there were video and audio installations from a variety of artists worldwide. It was a fantastic evening, but the highlight for me was Harenda’s  “Absence,” which combined variegated electronic sounds with Williams’s virtuosic violin figurations (and the birds chirping en plein air) for an unpredictably enticing six minutes. Spiky, dissonant and totally enrapturing, I wish it had gone on longer than it did.

I also went with my nephew to the semiannual record convention at the Holiday Inn on Sunday morning—we just couldn’t resist. After some digging, I found a few choice platters, including Soft Machine’s 7 and the semi-rare three-LP live collection, Triple Echo (which I have yet to listen to); plus a couple white label promos, including a nice clean copy of Deep Purple’s Who Do We Think We Are! Other selections turned out to be irredeemably trashed (despite a thorough cleaning) but so it goes with these things. Used vinyl is a crapshoot: you win some, you lose some.

Unfortunately, all this activity (and miserable weather) wore me out and I wound up getting sick—so I missed out on the rest of SoundCrawl and Indeterminacies as well. I’m just not as young as I used to be—and obviously, not physically fit. Thankfully, this is a stay-at-home weekend—my favorite kind!

YOKOKIMTHURSTON @ Spectrum Culture

My review of the Yoko Ono, Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore album, YOKOKIMTHURSTON, is up at Spectrum Culture. You can read it here. The rumors are false but the record is good!

+++

This week's "List Inconsequential" topic is "Cover Songs That Are Better Than The Originals." My pick? The Grateful Dead's cover of Bonnie Dobson's "(Walk Me Out In The) Morning Dew." Check it out here.

Playlist Week of 10-06-12

* Reger: The String Quartets/Clarinet Quintet (Drolc Quartet/Leister) (d.3) (DG 3CD)

* Cage: Complete Piano Music Vol.9: Etudes Australes (Schleiermacher) (MGD 3CD)

* Dusapin: Quatours à cordes & Trio (Arditti Quartet) (æon 2CD)

* Henry Threadgill: The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings (selections) (Mosaic 8CD)

* Henry Threadgill Very Very Circus: Spirit Of Nuff..Nuff (Black Saint CD)

* Henry Threadgill: Flutistry (Black Saint CD)

* Pat Metheny Group: Pat Metheny Group (ECM LP)

* Bill Frisell: Nashville (Nonesuch CD)

* Grateful Dead: Coliseum, Greensboro, NC 4-30-81 (selections) (SBD 3CDR)

* Big Star: Keep An Eye On The Sky (selections) (Ardent/Rhino 4CD)

* Sonic Youth: Whitey Album (Blast First/Geffen CD)

* Sonic Youth: Goodbye 20^th Century (SYR 2LP)

* Sonic Youth: “J’Accuse Ted Hughes”/”Agnès B Musique” (SYR LP)

* Yoko Ono/Kim Gordon/Thurston Moore: YOKOKIMTHURSTON (Chimera MP3)†

* Robert Pollard: Jack Sells The Cow (GBV, Inc. LP)

* Steven Wilson: Get All You Deserve (KScope BD/DVD/2CD)

* Opeth: Deliverance (Music For Nations/KOCH CD)†

* Opeth: Ghost Reveries (Roadrunner HDCD)†

* Opeth: Watershed (Roadrunner CD)†

* Opeth: Heritage (Roadrunner CD/DVD)†

* Katatonia: Dead End Kings (Peaceville CD)

* Anathema: Falling Deeper (KScope CD)†

* Anathema: We’re Here Because We’re Here (KScope CD/DVD)†

* Anathema: Weather Systems (The End CD)†

* Blut Aus Nord: 777 – The Desanctification (Debemur Morti/Caroline MP3)

* Blut Aus Nord: 777 – Cosmosophy (Debemur Morti MP3)

* Baroness: Yellow & Green (Relapse 2CD)†

* Grails: Deep Politics (Temporary Residence CD)

* Pelican: “March Into The Sea” (Hydra Head EP)

* Pelican: City Of Echoes (Hydra Head CD)

* Pelican: What We All Come To Need (Southern Lord CD)

* Pelican: Ataraxia/Taraxis (Southern Lord EP)

* Pineapple Explode: Pineapple Explode (Pineapple Explode CDR)

* Pineapple Explode: A Bushel & A Barrel (Pineapple Explode CDR)

* Pineapple Explode: Skye’s Christmas Card (World Trade Center CDR)

†=iPod

‡=car

Commentary:

Last Saturday, we went to the 2012 Circuit Benders’ Ball, an annual celebration of cracked electronics hosted by Theatre Intangible’s Tony Youngblood. This was our first time at the ball, and I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. According to Roth Mobot (whose late-night set we unfortunately missed) “circuit bending” is defined as “the creative recycling of common discarded technology, often children's toys, by opening the device and soldering in new connections to create unique musical and video instruments.” Of course, there was plenty of low-bitrate bleeping, buzzing and screeching going on—but the sheer variety of approaches made for a fascinating and fun evening. Mostly it was serious-looking guys crouched over modified toys, archaic synthesizers and cheap mixing boards but there were still moments of sublime music. Opener Posthaste added loud rocking drums to his pulsating drones while set closer Pimpdaddy Supreme brought over-the-top theatrics to his set, with costumes, props and nightmarish makeup added to his darkly danceable DJ/electronica act.

But by far the most impressive act (at least to me) was Nashville’s own Pineapple Explode, who brought actual musicianship and instrumental skills to bear on the proceedings. While Marcus Sisk weaved luxurious blankets of electronic sounds, Steven Roy sang in a sweet tenor, played banjo and occasionally beat on an enormous Slingerland bass drum. Demonstrating remarkable control of these humble resources, each song was emotionally riveting, even if the subject matter was indecipherable. After fifteen blissfully transcendent minutes, it was all over, leaving me wanting more—a lot more. Fortunately, they were selling hand-made CDRs and I bought them all—hey, for the ridiculously low price of a buck a piece, how could I lose? Their brief set hardly prepared me for the music found on these EPs. Pineapple Explode creates experimental avant-pop music, cinematic in scope yet deceptively simple and direct in its execution. The recordings are deliberately lo-fi yet utterly engaging, a rare feat matched only by classic-era Guided By Voices (or the inimitable Sun Ra). Meanwhile, the oblique poetry of the songs never quite resolves, leaving you floating in a tantalizingly ambiguous sea of sound. I’ve been listening to these discs over and over again, hearing new enticing things with every spin. Pineapple Explode has quickly become my new favorite band and I cannot understand why they are not signed to some label like Merge or Matador or Drag City or Thrill Jockey—they would fit right in!

So, I’m doing my part to spread the word: these guys are great! An exclusive NuVoid interview with Pineapple Explode is in the works!

+++

It’s “Artober” here in Nashville: SoundCrawl starts this weekend with events at the Arcade downtown and at the Brick Factory over in “The Gulch”—plus Indeterminacies continues with the legendary improvisers LaDonna Smith and Davey Williams at Zeitgeist Gallery on Thursday October 11. See you there!

John Cage @ Spectrum Culture

My review of John Cage Shock Vol.1-3, a three-CD compilation of previously unreleased recordings from Cage's first tour of Japan in 1962, is up on Spectrum Culture and you can read it here. This was definitely one of the more interesting and obscure things I've had the opportunity to review for the website. Good stuff!

Election 2012

I try to avoid politics on the blog, but this is too funny. Via Adrian Carrasquillo.

Playlist Week of 9-29-12

* J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos (AAM/Egarr) (Harmonia Mundi 2SACD)

* John Cage, et al.: John Cage Shock Vol.1 (Omega Beat/EM CD)†

* John Cage, et al.: John Cage Shock Vol.2 (Omega Beat/EM CD)†

* John Cage, et al.: John Cage Shock Vol.3 (Omega Beat/EM CD)†

* Miles Davis: The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions (selections) (Columbia/Legacy 4CD)
* Miles Davis: We Want Miles (Columbia 2LP)

* Henry Threadgill: The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings (selections) (Mosaic 8CD)

* Sonny Sharrock: Black Woman (Vortex/4 Men With Beards LP)

* Sonny Sharrock: Monkey-Pockie-Boo (BYG/Actuel LP)

* Paradoxical Frog (Kris Davis/Ingrid Laubrock/Tyshawn Sorey): Paradoxical Frog (Clean Feed CD)

* Veyran Weston/Ingrid Laubrock/Hannah Marshall: Haste (Emanem CD)

* Ingrid Laubrock/Olie Brice/Javier Carmona: Catatumbo (Babel CD)

* Tom Rainey Trio: Camino Cielo Echo (Intakt CD)

* Rodger Coleman & Sam Byrd: Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, TN 9-06-12 (CDR/24bit WAV)(†/‡)

* King Sunny Ade & His African Beats: Bobby (Sunny Alade LP)

* Mandingo: Watto Sitta (Celluloid LP)

* Royal Band de Thiès: Kadior Demb (Teranga Beat CD)†

* Shakti: A Handful Of Beauty (Columbia LP)

* Tabla Beat Science: Tala Matrix (Axiom/Palm CD)

* Merl Saunders & Jerry Garcia: Keystone Companions: Complete 1973 (Fantasy/Concord 4CD)

* Emerson Lake & Palmer: Emerson Lake & Palmer (Deluxe Edition) (d.3) (Razor & Tie 2CD+DVDA)

* Emerson Lake & Palmer: Tarkus (Deluxe Edition) (d.3) (Razor & Tie 2CD+DVDA)

* Black Sabbath: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (Warner Bros./Rhino LP)

* Black Sabbath: Sabotage (Warner Bros./Rhino LP)

* Patti Smith: Banga (Columbia CD)

* Bad Brains: I Against I (SST LP)

* Thurston Moore: Demolished Thoughts (Matador 2LP)

* Lee Ranaldo: Between The Times And The Tides (Matador LP)

* Yoko Ono/Kim Gordon/Thurston Moore: YOKOKIMTHURSTON (Chimera MP3)†

* Robert Pollard: Mouseman Cloud (GBV, Inc. LP)

* Robert Pollard: Jack Sells The Cow (GBV, Inc. LP/MP3)(†)

* High On Fire: Death Is This Communion (Relapse CD)†

* High On Fire: Snakes For The Divine (Relapse CD)†/‡

* OM: God Is Good (Drag City LP)†

* OM: Advaitic Songs (Drag City 2-45RPM LP)†

* White Hills: White Hills (Thrill Jockey CD)†

* White Hills: H-p1 (Thrill Jockey CD)†

* White Hills: Frying On This Rock (Thrill Jockey MP3)†

* Dusted: Total Dust (Polyvinyl CD)

†=iPod

‡=car

Commentary:

No comment.

Royal Band de Thiès @ Spectrum Culture

While I have not been writing much on the blog, some stuff has appeared over at Spectrum Culture. My review of The Royal Band de Thiès: Kadior Demb can be found here. This one was particularly difficult: while I love African music I am in no way an expert. A delightful record, anyway.

+++

In addition, my pick for the "Monthly Mix Tape" is "Sinai" from OM's latest album, Advaitic Songs. I've been meaning to write about this record for a while, but haven't had the chance. You can read my 200-word blurb here.

Playlist Week of 9-22-12

* Scriabin: Complete Symphonies, etc. (selections) (Deutsches Symph-Orch/Ashkenazy) (Decca 3CD)

* Cage, et al.: John Cage Shock Vol.1 (Omega Point/EM CD)

* Cage, et al.: John Cage Shock Vol.2 (Omega Point/EM CD)

* Cage, et al.: John Cage Shock Vol.3 (Omega Point/EM CD)

* Feldman: Crippled Symmetry: At June In Buffalo (Feldman Soloists) (Frozen Reeds 2CD)†

* Herbie Nichols: The Complete Blue Note Sessions (d.2-3) (Blue Note 3CD)

* Henry Threadgill: The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings (selections) (Mosaic 8CD)

* Henry Threadgill Sextett: You Know The Number (RCA/Novus LP)

* Mary Halvorson Quintet: Bending Bridges (Firehouse 12 CD)

* Rodger Coleman & Sam Byrd: Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, TN 9-06-12 (CDR/24bit WAV)

* John McLaughlin: Devotion (Douglas LP)

* Mahavishnu John McLaughlin: My Goals Beyond (Douglas LP)

* Mahavishnu Orchestra: Visions Of The Emerald Beyond (Columbia LP)

* Royal Band de Thiès: Kadior Demb (Terranga Beat CD)(†)

* The Pyramids: Otherworldly (Disko B CD)†

* Isaac Hayes: “Shaft” (Original Soundtrack) (Enterprise/Stax 2LP)

* Jimi Hendrix Experience: Are You Experienced (Experience Hendrix/Sony LP)

* Jimi Hendrix Experience: Axis: Bold As Love (Experience Hendrix/Sony LP)

* Jimi Hendrix Experience: Electric Ladyland (Experience Hendrix/Sony 2LP)

* Jimi Hendrix: First Rays Of The New Rising Sun (Experience Hendrix/Sony 2LP)

* Yoko Ono, Kim Gordon & Thurston Moore: YOKOKIMTHURSTON (Chimera MP3)†

* Grateful Dead: Road Trips Vol.2 No.1: MSG September ’90 (GDP/Rhino 2+1HDCD)

* Van Morrison: Astral Weeks (Warner Bros./Rhino LP)

* Van Morrison: Moondance (Warner Bros./Rhino LP)

* Roseanne Cash: King’s Record Shop (Columbia LP)

* Robert Pollard: Jack Sells The Cow (GBV, Inc. MP3)†

* Earth: Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light II (Southern Lord 2-45RPM LP)

* OM: Advaitic Songs (Drag City 2-45RPM LP)†

* Opeth: Blackwater Park (Music For Nations/Sony CD/DVD)†

* Opeth: Deliverance (Music For Nations/KOCH CD)

* Opeth: Damnation (Music For Nations/KOCH CD)†

* Katatonia: Brave Yester Days (Avantgarde 2CD)†

* Anathema: Weather Systems (The End CD)†

* Animal Collective: Centipede Hz (Domino CD)†

* Russian Circles: Empros (Sargent House CD)†

†=iPod

‡=car

Commentary:

Sorry for neglecting the blog lately—it’s been a busy couple of weeks and I just seem to get busier.

I’m still buzzing from the performance on the 6^th and last Saturday Brian and I spent all day mixing the thirty-four minutes of music. The plan is to put out a CD and pursue more performing opportunities. Why not? I think the music is good!

What little writing I’ve done has been for Spectrum Culture (blurbs for “Best Books About Music” and “Best Songs Over Ten Minutes”). Not surprisingly, I’m falling a bit behind on some record reviews due not just to my busyness but because—well let’s put it this way: I need to be more careful about what I choose to review. I have to hack out a couple of, um, challenging assessments before getting to some really juicy stuff, including a couple of fairly high-profile interviews.

Oh, and I was just asked to photograph an event next month—for money! Now, isn’t that a kick in the pants?

So, yeah, I have a lot of work to do—on top of forty-plus hours per week at my day job (and five more of commuting). There is only so much time in a day and I have to admit: I’m having a hard time balancing it all—particularly the writing part, which is a long and arduous process for me. Playing, recording and listening to music is fun; writing about it is not.

Obviously, the blog has been the first thing to go by the wayside and it will continue along like this for the time being, as I pursue these other opportunities. But I do hope to resurrect Sun Ra Sunday and write more substantive pieces on the playlist in the near future. I may not enjoy writing very much yet I still feel compelled to do it anyway—I just need to be more disciplined about it. So, please stay tuned; there’s exciting stuff ahead!

+++

About the photograph: Listening to the mix-down in high-resolution 24bit/48kHz via SanDisk Cruzer 16G thumb drive plugged into my Oppo BDP-95—sweet! 

Playlist Week of 9-15-12

* Schmelzer/Muffat: Sonatas (London Baroque/Medlam) (Harmonia Mundi CD)

* Biber: Rosary Sonatas (Manze/Egarr) (Harmonia Mundi 2CD)

* Rebel: Violin Sonatas (Manze/Egarr/ter Linden) (Harmonia Mundi CD)

* Miles Davis: Kind Of Blue (Columbia/Legacy SACD)

* Miles Davis: The Complete In A Silent Way Sessions (Columbia/Legacy 3CD)

* Miles Davis: Bitches Brew (Legacy Edition) (Columbia/Legacy 2CD/DVD)

* Herbie Nichols: The Complete Blue Note Recordings (d.1) (Blue Note 3CD)

* Anthony Braxton: Quartet (Willisau) 1991 (d.1-2) (HatArt 4CD)

* Mary Halvorson Quintet: Firehouse 12, New Haven, CT 5-18-12 (alt.) (AUD FLAC)
* Rodger Coleman & Sam Byrd: Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, TN 9-06-12 (mixdown)

* Bob Dylan: Tempest (Columbia 2LP/CD)

* Grateful Dead: From The Mars Hotel (GDP/Rhino/Friday Music LP)

* Grateful Dead: In The Dark (GDP/Rhino/Mobile Fidelity LP)

* Grateful Dead: Built To Last (GDP/Rhino/Friday Music LP)

* Deep Purple: Machine Head (Warner Bros./Rhino LP)

* Deep Purple: Stormbringer (Warner Bros./Friday Music LP)

* Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath (Warner Bros./Rhino LP)

* Black Sabbath: Paranoid (Warner Bros./Rhino LP)

* Black Sabbath: Master Of Reality (Warner Bros./Rhino LP)

* Black Sabbath: Vol.4 (Warner Bros./Rhino LP)

* Shellac: Terraform (Touch & Go LP)

* Shellac: 1000 Hurts (Touch & Go LP)

* Shellac: Excellent Italian Greyhound (Touch & Go LP)

* YOB: The Illusion Of Motion (Metal Blade CD)

* Opeth: Still Life (Peaceville CD/DVD)†

* Opeth: Blackwater Park (Music For Nations/Sony CD/DVD)†

* Opeth: Deliverance (Music For Nations/KOCH CD)

* Katatonia: The Great Cold Distance (Peaceville CD)†

* Katatonia: Dead End Kings (Peaceville CD)†/‡

* Anathema: We’re Here Because We’re Here (KScope CD)†

* Anathema: Falling Deeper (KSCope CD)†

* Anathema: Weather Systems (The End CD)†

* Agalloch: Pale Folklore (The End CD)†

* Agalloch: The Mantle (The End CD)†

* Agalloch: The Grey EP (Agalloch/Bandcamp FLAC>CDR)†

* Agalloch: The White EP (Agalloch/Bandcamp FLAC>CDR)†

* Aglloch: Ashes Against The Grain (The End CD)†

* Agalloch: Marrow Of The Spirit (Profound Lore CD)†

* Agalloch: Faustian Echoes (Agalloch/Bandcamp FLAC>CDR)†

* Mastodon: Leviathan (Relapse CD)†

* Mastodon: Blood Mountain (Reprise CD)†

* Mastodon: Crack the Skye (Reprise CD)†

* Baroness: Yellow & Green (Relapse 2CD)†

* Pelican: The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw (Hydra Head CD)†

* Pelican: March Into The Sea (Hydra Head EP)

* Pelican: City Of Echoes (Hydra Head CD)

* Pelican: What We All Come To Need (Southern Lord CD)†

* Animal Collective: Centipede Hz (Domino 2LP/DVD)

* Astra: The Weirding (Rise Above/Metal Blade CD)

†=iPod

‡=car

Commentary:

Mixing.

Playlist Week of 9-08-12

* Uccellini: Sonatas (Romanesca) (Harmonia Mundi CD)

* Schoenberg, et al.: Piano Concerto, etc. (Cleveland Orch./Boulez/Uchida) (Philips CD)

* Messiaen: Trois petites liturgies…, etc. (Orch. National de France/Nagano/Loriod) (Erato CD)

* Boulez: Répons, etc. (Ensemble InterContemporain/Boulez) (Deutsche Grammophon CD)

* Boulez: Sur Incises, etc. (Ensemble InterContemporain/Boulez) (Deutsche Grammophon CD)

* Cecil Taylor: Air Above Mountains (Buildings Within) (Enja CD)

* Cecil Taylor: In Florescence (A&M CD)

* Mary Halvorson Quintet: Firehouse 12, New Haven, CT 5-18-12 (AUD FLAC)

* The Beatles: Beatles For Sale (2009 stereo) (Apple/EMI CD)†

* The Beatles: Let It Be (2009 stereo) (Apple/EMI CD)†

* The Beatles: Abbey Road (2009 stereo) (Apple/EMI CD)†

* Grateful Dead: Workingman’s Dead (Warner Bros./Rhino LP)

* Grateful Dead: American Beauty (Warner Bros./Rhino LP)

* Grateful Dead: War Memorial Auditorium Rochester, NY 9-02-80 (d.3) (SBD 3CDR)

* Grateful Dead: Civic Center, San Francisco, CA 12-31-84 (SBD/FM 3CDR)

* Grateful Dead: Spring 1990 (selections) (GDP/Rhino 18HDCD)

* King Crimson: Live In Argentina 1994 (d.2) (DGM/Inner Knot 2DVD)

* Talk Talk: The Colour Of Spring (EMI LP/DVD)

* The Flaming Lips: The Soft Bulletin (Warner Bros. HDCD)

* Radiohead: In Rainbows (TBD CD)†

* Radiohead: The King Of Limbs (TBD/Ticker Tape CD)†

* Porcupine Tree: Lightbulb Sun (KScope CD/DVD)

* Porcupine Tree: Recordings (KScope CD)†

* Porcupine Tree: In Absentia (Lava/Atlantic CD)†

* Porcupine Tree: Deadwing (Lava/Atlantic CD)†

* Opeth: Deliverance (Music For Nations/KOCH CD)

* Opeth: Heritage (CD/DVD)†

* Katatonia: Brave Yester Days (Avantgarde 2CD)

* Katatonia: Night Is The New Day (Peaceville CD)

* Katatonia: Dead End Kings (Peaceville CD)

* Animal Collective: Strawberry Jam (Domino 2LP)

* Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino 2LP)

* Animal Collective: Centipede Hz (Domino 2LP/DVD)

* Six Organs Of Admittance: Ascent (Drag City LP)

* Mastodon: Remission (Relapse 2LP)

* Baroness: First & Second (Relapse LP)

* Baroness: Red Album (Relapse 2 45-RPM LP)

* Baroness: Blue Record (Relapse 2 45-RPM LP)

* Baroness: Yellow & Green (Relapse 2LP)

* Pelican: What We All Come To Need (Southern Lord CD)

* Holograms: Holograms (Captured Tracks MP4)†

†=iPod

‡=car

Commentary:

Thursday night was AMAZING! We were written up as a Critic’s Pick in the weekly Nashville Scene—and a standing-room-only crowd showed up! Sam played his ass off (as usual) and inspired me to really go for it. At one point, I looked up to see interpretive dancing going on in front of the audience. How interesting, I thought, and kept playing. I had no idea this was going to happen—part of the whole Indeterminacies thing, you know, "expect the unexpected"—but it was very, very cool and added a whole other level of artiness to the proceedings. Stan Link asked great, probing questions which prompted quite an outpouring of insightful comments from the audience. An older, rather conservative-looking woman said that she was at first “scared to death” but as the music went along, she could start to appreciate that we really were playing together rather than against each other—and almost came to enjoy the experience. Nearly brought me to tears, it did. Many folks had never heard anything quite like this, but responded really positively. It was possibly the highest musical moment of my life and an affirmation that this life-long obsession with music has been worthwhile.

Huge thank you to Lesley Beeman and Lain York of Zeitgeist for inviting me to do this; to Sam for driving nine hours each way to join me (I couldn’t have done it without him!); to Steinway Piano Gallery of Nashville for generously providing the instrument; and to my nephew, Brian Totoro, who professionally recorded the event—I can’t wait to hear it!

Holograms @ Spectrum Culture

My review of Holograms' self-titled debut album is up over at Spectrum Culture. You can read it here. Frankly, I didn't care for it.

Stefan Prins @ Spectrum Culture

My review of Stefan Prins: Fremdkörper is up over at Spectrum Culture. It's another screed about improvisation and composition and you can read it here.

+++

The Monthly Mixtape is also up. My choice? Storm Corrosion - "Drag Ropes."

Playlist Week of 9-01-12

* Scriabin: The Complete Piano Sonatas (Laredo) (Nonesuch 2CD)

* Stefan Prins: Fremdkörper (Sub Rosa 2CD)

* Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley: 26.Jazzfestival, Saalfelden, Austria 8-28-04 (FM CDR)

* Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley: Teatro Communale, Modena, Italy 10-11-07 (FM 2CDR)

* Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley: Auditorium, Strasbourg, France 10-02-09 (AUD 2CDR)

* Anthony Braxton: GTM (Iridium) 2007 Vol.3 Set 1 (New Braxton House FLAC)

* Anthony Braxton: GTM (Iridium) 2007 Vol.3 Set 2 (New Braxton House FLAC)

* Terje Rypdal Trio: Sendesall, Bremen, W. Germany 4-04-73 (Pre-FM FLAC)

* Ingrid Laubrock Anti-House: Moers Festival, Germany 5-26-12 (FM FLAC)

* Grateful Dead: Spring 1990 (selections) (GDP/Rhino 18HDCD)

* Pink Floyd: Animals (Pinkfloyd/EMI CD)

* Pink Floyd: The Wall (Pinkfloyd/EMI 2CD)

* Genesis: Three Sides Live (Atlantic 2LP)

* U2: The Unforgettable Fire (Island/Universal 2CD)
* New Order: Power Corruption And Lies (Factory/Rhino 2CD)†
* Talk Talk: Laughing Stock (Verve/Polygram CD)†

* Helios Creed: Galactic Octopi (Transparency 2LP)

* Thurston Moore: Demolished Thoughts (Matador CD)†

* OM: God Is Good (Drag City LP)†

* OM: Advaitic Songs (Drag City 2-45RPM LP)

* Steven Wilson: Grace For Drowning (KScope BD)

* Opeth: Still Life (Peaceville CD/DVD)(†)

* Opeth: Blackwater Park (Legacy Edition) (Sony/Universal CD/DVD)†

* Opeth: Deliverance (Music For Nations/KOCH CD)†

* Opeth: Damnation (Music For Nations/KOCH CD)†

* Opeth: Ghost Reveries (Roadrunner HDCD)†

* Opeth: Watershed (Roadrunner CD)†

* Opeth: Heritage (Roadrunner CD/DVD)

* Storm Corrosion: Storm Corrosion (Roadrunner CD/BD)

* Katatonia: Last Fair Deal Gone Down (Peaceville CD/CDEP)†/‡

* Katatonia: Viva Emptiness (Peaceville CD)†/‡

* Katatonia: The Great Cold Distance (Peaceville CD)†/‡

* Anathema: We’re Here Because We’re Here (KScope CD/DVD)

* Anathema: Weather Systems (The End CD)(†)

* Baroness: Yellow & Green (Relapse 2LP)

* Holograms: Holograms (Captured Tracks MP4)†

†=iPod

‡=car

Commentary: "Composition vs. Improvisation: A False Dichotomy"

On Thursday, September 6, I will be playing improvised piano/drums duets with my friend and former bandmate, Sam Byrd, at the opening Indeterminacies event at Zeitgeist Gallery. This will be first time I have performed in public since the dissolution of UYA in 1995 and the first time on piano since…when?...1984? I can’t remember. I’m a little bit nervous—not so much about the music (Sam always inspires me to play beyond my abilities—which is why I insisted he travel from Richmond to join me)—but more concerned about the discussion segments, which will be led by Vanderbilt professor, Stan Link. Stan is a good friend and I’m sure he’ll go easy on me, but he is a brilliant and articulate composer with deep suspicions about the whole notion of improvisation as a legitimate artistic practice. Of course, this is what makes Indeterminacies unique: these are not concerts per se; they are investigations into the phenomena of performance and reception, critical thinking and audience participation. The result is unscripted, deliberately indeterminate and always challenging. We will be required to explain and, perhaps, justify and defend whatever it is we’re doing from rhetorical attacks from Stan and a potentially hostile, disapproving audience. Maybe not, but I’d be disappointed if we weren’t.

Consequently, I’ve been reading and re-reading some of the foundational texts regarding improvisational music in order to buttress my argument that improvisation is not only a legitimate practice but the basic expression of our innate human creativity. In Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening (Wesleyan, 1998), Christopher Small helpfully insists that “music” is not a noun, but a verb. “There is no such thing as music,” he writes: 

Music is not a thing at all but an activity, something that people do. The apparent thing “music” is a figment, an abstraction of the action, whose reality vanishes as soon as we examine it at all closely. This habit of thinking in abstractions, of taking from an action what appears to be its essence and giving that essence a name, is probably as old as language; it is useful in the conceptualizing of our world but it has its dangers. It is very easy to come to think of the abstraction as more real than the reality it represents, to think, for example, of those abstractions we call love, hate, good and evil as having an existence apart of the acts of loving, hating, or performing good and evil deeds and even to think of them as being in some way more real than the acts themselves, a kind of universal or ideal lying behind and suffusing the actions. This is the trap of reifications, and it has been a besetting fault of Western thinking ever since Plato, who was one of its earliest perpetrators (p.2).

Small concludes that this kind of thinking is what led to the “privileging of Western classical music above all other musics” (Id. p.3) and the denigration of improvisation. But, as Derek Bailey points out in Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice in Music (Da Capo, 1992), it is “musicking” in its purest form: 

[M]ankind’s first musical performance couldn’t have been anything other than a free improvisation...it is a reasonable speculation that at most times since then there will have been some music-making most aptly described as free improvisation (p.83).

In the context of human evolution, the development of notation and the arrival of the sovereign composer is a comparatively recent event. Bailey explains how idiomatic improvisation was a vital skill cultivated by musicians of the Baroque era, where the continuo parts were generated from skeletal notational symbols, the figured bass functioning like the chord symbols of jazz or the "Nashville Number System." He also reminds us that the virtuoso soloists of 19^th Century were expected to improvise their own cadenzas or deliver an off-the-cuff set of themes and variations as an encore. These skills were gradually lost in European tradition with the rise of the “heroic composer”—yet improvisation remains an essential element of Indian music, flamenco and, of course, jazz, rock and every other form of “popular music” around the world. What we call “classical music” is no longer an integral part of a living culture—something people do—it is the realm of professionals: trained specialists who administer the “great works” of long-dead composers for a passive audience of self-selected elites. The truth is: improvisation—especially free improvisation—is something anybody can do, a concept antithetical to “professionalism” with its concomitant barriers to entry. As Bailey points out: 

Its accessibility to the performer is, in fact, something which appears to offend both its supporters and detractors. Free improvisation, in addition to being a highly skilled musical craft, is open to use by almost anyone—beginners, children and non-musicians. The skill and intellect required is whatever is available. It can be an activity of enormous complexity and sophistication, or the simplest and most direct expression: a lifetime’s study and work or a casual dilettante activity. It can appeal to and serve the musical purposes of all kinds of people (Id. pp.83-84).

It is the “dilettante” or “amateur” that is necessarily disparaged and devalued in a musical culture that is administered from above by elite professionals and specialists. But I proudly accept my role as an amateur—that is, a lover of music—and an improvising dilettante. I do not hold myself out as a “musician” but rather “musicking” is simply something that I do—whether it is “good” or worth listening to is beside the point. And I celebrate the fact that, yes, anyone can do it—they are just discouraged by a dominant culture that tries to tell them can’t unless properly vetted and credentialed. Like Small, I believe “musicking” is an innate ability, like speech, but it is deliberately suppressed by the gatekeepers of “professionalism”: 

[I]f everyone is born capable of musicking, how is it that so many people in Western industrial societies believe themselves to be incapable of the simplest musical act? If so, and it seems that many genuinely are, it must be either because the appropriate means for developing the latent musicality have been absent at those crucial times of their lives when the nervous system is still in the process of formation (those who are deprived of speech opportunities at that crucial time also never fully develop their speech capacities) or more often, I believe, because they have been actively taught to be unmusical (Small p.210).

The metaphor of speech or language goes only so far with regards to music, but the absurdity of our musical culture is obvious: it is as if only professional writers and paid speechwriters were allowed to speak and be heard. Like the child who abandons the joy of finger-painting when told by teachers and other authority figures that her drawings do not resemble their subjects, “[i]ndividuals are assumed to be unmusical unless they evidence to the contrary” (Id.)—that is to say, willing and capable of channeling their innate creativity to meet the demands and needs of professionalism. Everyone else is rendered illiterate and mute. It could be argued that this “de-musicking” of our culture is partly responsible for (or at least reflective of) society’s larger ills.

Now, don't get me wrong: I am not suggesting that Stan Link, as a professional composer and credentialed academic is an agent of oppression—far from it. His pedagogy focuses on advanced 20^th Century compositional techniques and the critical analysis of film soundtracks while his electroacoustic music is radically subversive of the musical status quo; frankly, he is barely tolerated in a conservatory culture that worships Beethoven above all else. But his suspicions about improvisation are sincere: improvised music oftentimes lacks the rigor and formal coherence of a thoroughly planned composition. However, improvisation is, for most improvisers, not an ideology: there is not an inherent conflict between composition and improvisation. Some of its greatest practitioners are also fine composers, from Duke Ellington to Andrew Hill to Cecil Taylor and Anthony Braxton and they bring a highly developed sense of structure to their improvisations. Moreover, even in free improvisation, a structure or form, however rudimentary or amorphous, is the inevitable result of performance. A common criticism of improvisers is that they are only capable of recycling familiar material. That is true enough, but you can always add new words to your vocabulary. As Joe Morris puts it in his new book, The Perpetual Frontier: The Properties of Free Music (Riti 2012), “you can only play what you know how to play, but you can learn something new instantly in the process of making it” (p.40). Morris lucidly catalogs an ontological array of techniques and methodologies available to the improviser and describes how “synthesis, interpretation and invention” inform the processes of improvisation. At its best, free improvisation eschews schema and clichés to create what Jack Kerouac called, “deep form,” a spontaneous composition.

Theodore Adorno’s vicious attacks on jazz may appear wrong-headed on the surface, but a close reading shows that his real disagreement was merely with its false declarations of originality and its failure to live up to its own promise. In his 1941 essay, “On Popular Music,” Adorno gets at the heart of his criticism: 

Even though jazz musicians still improvise in practice, their improvisations have become so “normalized” as to enable a whole terminology to be developed to express the standard devices of individualization…This pseudo-individualism is prescribed by the standardization of the framework. The latter is so rigid that the freedom it allows for any sort of improvisation is severely limited. Improvisations…are confined within the walls of the harmonic and metric scheme. In a great many cases, such as the “break” of pre-swing jazz, the musical function of the improvised detail is determined completely by the scheme: the break can be nothing other than a disguised cadenza. Hence, very few possibilities for actual improvisation remain (quoted in Peters p.78-79, emphasis added).

In The Philosophy of Improvisation (Chicago 2009), Gary Peters rightly points out that this passage “is not a rejection of improvisation any more than it is a rejection of individuality.” He goes on to say: 

Indeed, the issue for Adorno is precisely that the language or jargon of free individuality alone cannot be actualized when it is spun around a standardized framework that gives it the lie. No, the above amounts to a defense of “actual improvisation” (Id.).

Adorno’s criticism was, for the most part, accurate, at least up through the Bebop era, which, despite its harmonic sophistication, continued to base its improvisations on the cyclical chord changes of standard show tunes. But while he might have been loath to admit it, the music of Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, Cecil Taylor and Anthony Braxton clearly allow for “actual improvisation”—and contemporary free improvisation, with its reveling in the hyper-chromatic, dissonant counterpoint of his heroes, Schoenberg and Webern, should be seen as the realization of his dream of an autonomous, dialectical music, the actualization of true freedom in an un-free world.

For me personally, composition and improvisation are simply different means to different ends. Sometimes they work together and sometimes they are in conflict. But, as an amateur—a lover of music of all kinds—I embrace them both equally. I love to listen to classical music and play it on the piano for fun. I love abstract, difficult music as well as the joyful release of a perfect pop song. I love the visceral thrill of loud electric guitars and the ecstatic tribal beat of dance music. I love the loose improvisations of the Grateful Dead and the tightly controlled fury of Opeth. “Horses for courses,” as they say down here. As for what Sam and I will be doing on Thursday, it is, in essence, music as seismograph: what Vyacheslava Ivanov would call the “cryptogram of the ineffable,” or the “hierograph of lived experience” (quoted in Leeman p.35). Our long shared musical history has built up the trust and affection which allows us to telepathically communicate our most personal, inchoate thoughts and feelings in an unmediated, free improvisation. The results may or may not meet the criteria of “good music” as conventionally defined, but the “musicking” will be intimate and honest. 

For Small, the meaning of music is about expressing ideal relationships:

The act of musicking establishes in the place where it is happening a set of relationships, and it is those relationships that the meaning of the act lies.They are to be found not only between those organized sounds which are conventionally thought of as being the stuff of musical meaning but also between the people who are taking part, in whatever capacity, in the performance; and they model, or stand as a metaphor for, ideal relationships as the participants in the performance imagine them to be” (Small p.13). 

In the band, we used to talk about going to “that other, better world” which was only accessibly via improvisation. We hope go there again on Thursday—you can  come too! Please join us on September 6 at Zeitgeist Gallery, 1819 21^st Avenue, Nashville from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. The event is free and open to the public--who will be encouraged to challenge us with probing questions and insightful comments. Indeed, an ideal relationship as I imagine it to be.

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Special thanks to Steinway Piano Gallery of Nashville for generously providing the gorgeous piano.

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You can download music Sam and I have recorded over the past few years in my home studio over at The Internet Archive.

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Bibliography:

* Derek Bailey: Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice in Music (Da Capo, 1992)

* Richard Leeman: Cy Twombly: A Monograph (Flammarion, 2005)

* Joe Morris: Perpetual Frontier: The Properties of Free Music (Riti, 2012)

* Gary Peters: The Philosophy of Improvisation (Chicago, 2009)

* Christopher Small: Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening (Wesleyan, 1998)

Six Organs of Admittance @ Spectrum Culture

My review of the new Six Organs of Admittance record, Ascent, is up at Spectrum Culture. You can check it out here. It's another great record I probably would never have heard if not for this "gig" -- I liked it so much, I bought the LP. Woot!

Playlist Week of 8-25-12

* Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd: Jazz Samba (Verve CD)

* Ike Quebec: Heavy Soul (Blue Note LP)

* Miles Davis: Pangaea (CBS/Sony 2CD)

* Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley: Moers Festival, Germany 5-12-08 (FM CDR)

* Stefan Prins: Fremdkörper (selections)(Sub Rosa 2CD)†

* Steve Tibbetts: Safe Journey (ECM LP)

* LTJ Bukem: Drawn Inward (Good Looking/Kinetic 2CD)

* Grateful Dead: Formerly The Warlocks: Hampton 1989 (d.5) (GDP/Rhino 6HDCD)

* Grateful Dead: Spring ’90 (selections) (GDP/Rhino 18HDCD)

* Deep Purple: Concerto For Group And Orchestra (Warner Bros. LP)

* King Crimson: Live In Argentina 1994 (d.1) (DGM/Inner Knot 2DVD)

* Fleetwood Mac: Fleetwood Mac (Reprise/Warner Bros. 2-45RPM LP)

* Supertramp: Breakfast In America (A&M LP)

* This Mortal Coil: It’ll End In Tears (4AD HDCD)

* Aphex Twin: Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (R&S CD)

* Wilco: Summerteeth (Nonesuch 2LP)

* Opeth: In Live Concert At The Royal Albert Hall (selections) (Roadrunner 3CD/2DVD)

* Storm Corrosion: Storm Corrosion (Roadrunner CD/BD/2LP)(†)

* Anathema: Falling Deeper (KScope CD)

* The Mars Volta: Frances The Mute (Gold Standard Labs/Universal CD)†

* The Mars Volta: Amputechture (Gold Standard Labs/Universal CD)†

* The Mars Volta: The Bedlam In Goliath (Universal CD)

* Agalloch: Pale Folklore (The End CD)†

* Agalloch: The Mantle (The End CD)†(‡)

* Agalloch: The Grey EP (Agalloch/Bandcamp FLAC)†/‡

* Agalloch: Ashes Against The Grain (The End CD)†

* Mastodon: Crack The Skye (Reprise 2-45RPM LP)

* Six Organs Of Admittance: Ascent (Drag City LP)(†)

* Pelican: The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw (Hydra Head CD)†

* Pelican: “March Into The Sea” (Hydra Head EP)

* Pelican: What We All Come To Need (Southern Lord CD)†

* Pelican: Ataraxia/Taraxis (Southern Lord EP)

* White Hills: White Hills (Thrill Jockey LP)

* White Hills: H-p1 (Thrill Jockey 2LP)

* White Hills: Frying On This Rock (Thrill Jockey LP)

* Russian Circles: Empros (Sargent House CD)†/‡

* Holograms: Holograms (Captured Tracks MP4)†

†=iPod

‡=car

Commentary:

Well, look what arrived in the mailbox today: this year’s big Grateful Dead box set, Spring ’90!  Unlike last year’s mammoth Europe ’72 box, this one does not contain every show from the tour; instead, there are only six—one night from each venue—totaling just eighteen CDs.  Do I wish all sixteen concerts had been included? Of course I do! Nevertheless this is a gorgeous box set—and a welcome reminder of why I still cared about the Dead in the 1990s.

Spring 1990 is widely considered to be the Grateful Dead’s last truly great tour. The band was definitely on an upswing after Jerry Garcia’s miraculous recovery from a near-death coma in 1986 and, after abandoning the recording studio for nearly a decade, the Dead’s 1987 album, In The Dark, yielded an unlikely hit single with “Touch of Grey” and a solid follow-up album, Built To Last, was released in 1989. On stage, the band was as energetic and cohesive as ever—almost slick at times—mostly as a result of Garcia’s renewed health. But keyboardist, Brent Mydland, had finally come into his own, writing songs and taking the lead far more than he had in the past and his enthusiasm seemed to inspire everyone (particularly Garcia) to bring their A-game night after night. This upward trajectory continued through the summer, but ended with Mydland’s tragic death in July 1990. The Dead soldiered on, quickly hiring Bruce Hornsby and ex-Tubes keyboardist, Vince Welnick, to fill his shoes for the imminent fall tour and this version of the band managed to keep the momentum going into the summer and fall of 1991. Hornsby left in 1992 and while Welnick never quite totally fit in, the spring tour of ‘93 was excellent, in my opinion. But, in retrospect, it seems clear that Spring ‘90 was the pinnacle of the Dead’s long, strange career.

All of the fall ‘89/spring ’90 shows were all recorded for a live album, Without A Net, which came out in September 1990 and the rest of this material has been mined for several other archival releases over the years, including Dozin’ At The Knick (1996), Terrapin Limited (1997), Nightfall of Diamonds (2001), and Formerly The Warlocks: Hampton 1989 (2010). With the exception of Terrapin Limited, the original multitrack tapes were remixed (with variable results) but for Spring ’90, recordist John Cultler’s original two-track reference tapes, mixed “on the fly” in the recording truck are used instead of remixing from scratch. This could be a cost-cutting measure on the part of GDP and Rhino, but Cutler’s “rough” mixes actually sound quite good:  well-balanced and dynamic, with a spacious soundstage and pleasing (if artificial) ambience—far preferable the flat and over-compressed sound of the Formerly The Warlocks box. I’ve only listened to a handful of discs but they sound great cranked up to “realistic” volume levels.

Once again, the packaging is over-the-top: a thick, twelve-by-twelve inch box containing the “25^th Anniversary” program booklet, a hardcover book of liner notes and essays, a black-and-white promo-photo of the band circa. 1990, mail-order flyers, facsimiles of tickets, backstage passes and other tchotchkes, along with triple-disc digipacks containing the six shows (Capital Centre, Landover, MD 3/16/90; Hartford Civic Center 3/19/90; Copps Coliseum, Hamilton, Ontario 3/22/90; Knickerbocker Arena, Albany, NY 3/26/90; Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY 3/30/90; and The Omni, Atlanta, GA 4/2/90). I would have rather had more music and less “swag,” but it is exquisitely well executed, a genuine limited edition object d’art. The only problem is: where am I going to put it?

Close readers of my Playlist may have noticed a steep decline in Grateful Dead listening since the arrival of last year’s Europe ’72 box. Well, I have to admit: that 73-disc behemoth kind of burned me out (I never want to hear “Mr. Charlie” ever again!) and the first three volumes of the new Dave’s Picks series have left me nonplussed so far—not to mention I’ve been on this prog/metal kick lately. But Spring ’90 reminds me of why I loved the Dead so much and why I used to go see them as often as possible: they were a hot-shit band with a vast, wildly diverse repertoire, which made every show different—at the time, the possibilities seemed endless. And Garcia will always be one of my favorite guitar players, so fluidly melodic and endlessly inventive and with such gorgeous tone, I could listen to him all day—which is just what I did today. Spring ’90 is limited to 9000 copies, most of which are already sold, so if you want it, you better hurry! Only available from dead.net.

Playlist Week of 8-19-12

* Dowland: Complete Lute Works, Vol.1 (O’Dette) (Harmonia Mundi CD)

* Hesperion XXI (Savall): Istanbul: Dimitrie Cantemir 1673-1723 (Alia Vox SACD)

* J.S. Bach: The Works For Lute (Kirchhof) (Sony Classical 2CD)

* Handel: Concerti Grossi, Op.3 (Academy of Ancient Music/Egarr) (Harmonia Mundi SACD)

* Stefan Prins: Fremdkörper (d.1) (Sub Rosa 2CD)

* Anthony Braxton: GTM (Iridium) 2007 Volume 2 - Set 2 (New Braxton House FLAC)

* Henry Threadgill Zooid: Parco della Music, Rome, Italy 5-04-10 (FM FLAC)

* Paul Bley: Solo In Mondsee (ECM CD)

* Royal Band de Thiès: Kadior Demb (Terranga Beat CD)

* Paul McCartney & Wings: Wingspan: Hits & History (selections) (Capitol 2CD)†/‡

* Grateful Dead: Dave’s Picks Vol.3: Chicago 10-22-71+ (selections) (GDP/Rhino 3HDCD)

* Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Broken Arrow (Reprise 2LP)

* Joni Mitchell: Hejira (Asylum HDCD)

* Caravan: In The Land Of Grey And Pink (Deluxe Edition) (Deram/Decca 2CD/DVD)

* Fleetwood Mac: Rumours (Warner Bros. 2-45RPM LP)†

* Elvis Costello & The Attractions: Imperial Bedroom (Columbia/Mobile Fidelity LP)

* New Order: Brotherhood (Deluxe Editions) (d.1) (Factory/Rhino 2CD)†

* Los Lobos: Colossal Head (Slash/Warner Bros. CD)

* Los Lobos: This Time (Warner Bros./Mobile Fidelity SACD)

* Beck: Sea Change (Geffen/Mobile Fidelity CD)†

* OM: God Is Good (Drag City LP)

* OM: Advaitic Songs (Drag City 2-45RPM LP)(†)

* Porcupine Tree: Deadwing (Lava/Atlantic CD)†

* Porcupine Tree: Fear Of A Blank Planet (Atlantic CD)†

* Porcupine Tree: Nil Recurring (KScope CDEP)†

* Porcupine Tree: The Incident (Roadrunner CD/CDEP)

* Opeth: Blackwater Park (Music For Nations/KOCH CD)†

* Opeth: Deliverance (Music For Nations/KOCH CD)†

* Opeth: Damnation (Music For Nations/KOCH CD)†

* Opeth: Heritage (Roadrunner 2LP)

* Katatonia: Last Fair Deal Gone Down (Peaceville CD/CDEP)†

* Katatonia: Viva Emptiness (Peaceville CD)†/‡

* Katatonia: The Great Cold Distance (Peaceville CD)†/‡

* Katatonia: Night Is The New Day (Peaceville CD)†

* Anathema: We’re Here Because We’re Here (KScope CD/DVD)†

* Anathema: Weather Systems (The End CD)†

* Tool: Lateralus (Volcano/Tool Dissectional HDCD)†

* Tool: 10,000 Days (Volcano/Tool Dissectional CD)†

* A Perfect Circle: Mer De Noms (Virgin CD)†/‡

* A Perfect Circle: Thirteenth Step (Virgin CD)†

* Baroness: Yellow & Green (Relapse 2CD)†

* The Mars Volta: Tremulant EP (Gold Standard Labs/Universal CDEP)†

* The Mars Vola: De-Loused In The Comatorium (Gold Standard Labs/Universal CD)†

* Six Organs of Admittance: Ascent (Drag City MP3)†

* Pelican: What We All Come To Need (Southern Lord CD)

* Xibalbal: Hasta La Muerte (Southern Lord MP3)†

* Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes (Sub Pop CD)†

* Fleet Foxes: Helplessness Blues (Sub Pop CD)†

* Holograms: Holograms (Captured Tracks MP4)†

†=iPod

‡=car

Commentary:

Busy weekend!