Saturday, April 7

My brother handed me a CD today and said that he thought it my by "up my alley". The album, Grandaddy's The Sophtware Slump, is apparently one of the more hyped-up "indie" releases of the year. In essence, it's ambient pop (though not quite "ambient") with a clear Radiohead influence. They also at times reminded me of Stereolab, with digital sequencers in place of Stereolab's twinkly vibraphones. Imagine the Radiohead songs on OK Computer and Kid A where Thom Yorke comes the closest to actually "singing", and add distorted guitar (occasionally math-rock like) and the sequencers, and that's pretty close to this album. My biggest complaint is that the singer will just not shut up. The best moments on the disc are easily the ones when he's not singing. On some tracks, he's pleasant, but mostly I'm annoyed. I do have to say that I'm pleased with this in terms of how it applies to my brother - musically, it's far more substantial than Blink 182, Limp Dickz, or pretty much any of the bands mining the leftover ruins of grunge. It's also not 5 seconds of the same snippet of music repeating (as found in much of what's called "techno"). Pitchfork Media's review of the album was a little more positive than me (mostly they just bitched about it being similar to Radiohead - which is only partially true).

Hmm, this final track of the album sounds like it has mellotron on it. Probably a synth with a "strings" patch, but the mellotron effect is nice regardless.

Actually, it just got better. This last track, "So You'll Aim Toward The Sky", is probably the best one on the disc. I'm hearing a mellotron in the left channel (as well as perhaps some real strings? Maybe another synth effect), and a cello in the right. I doubt that either are "real" (though the cello sounds fairly authentic, although it's a bit low in the mix to tell), but it's an excellent effect regardless. The vocalist isn't overpowering the "mellotron" and "cello" in the mix, thus making him much more bearable. :)

Anyway, onto my new stuff. Species Being's Orgone Therapy is a 52 minute album consisting entirely of improvised instrumental prog-rock. Despite being entirely improvised (no overdubs, either), the music is very tight. Surprisingly, the band never treads into overly-wanky territory (too often the result of extended improv - see Liquid Tension Experiment's "Three Minute Warning"). It's a guitar/bass/keys/drums quartet from San Francisco, and I'm watching their show schedule for SF show dates. An improv band this good has to be amazing live.

Mogwai's Young Team, of course, is outstanding. Not that this is news, as I've had the entire album as MP3s for some time. But I had to have the album itself. While EP+2 is still my favorite Mogwai release, this one's not far behind. I look forward to the new disc, Rock Action.

And Miles, well, Miles owns. The first two discs of this Complete Bitches Brew Sessions box set are phenomenal. They contain most of the original Bitches Brew album, and the rest appears on the last two discs along with a bunch of stuff that was recorded along with the original album. It's wonderful. I haven't felt quite that strongly about the other two Miles Davis discs I just got, but then again, I've only heard each of those once (and I had Complete BB Sessions as MP3s for a while - though only listened a few times). Where once there was not a jazz collection, now there is one. I can only imagine what trying to listen to the 8 CD Coltrane set and the 6 CD Miles Davis set will be like. That'll probably happen over a period of months, which is just fine by me. It's going to be a mass swirl of jazz, progressive rock, and post-rock on my CD changer and car deck.

Oh, and while this isn't related to new CDs of mine (but I'm typing it here anyway, because this blog is written in stream-of-consciousness, whether you like it or not), Kenso's Ken-Son-Gu-Su is nothing short of amazing. The performances are incredibly tight, and the band does so well in tinkering with their compositions live. They'll take them on the edge of getting "out of hand", and then come slamming back. Very similar to their ProgFest 2000 performance (basically the same setlist, and this was recorded only a few months before the ProgFest show - and was first released domestically at that show). I'd kill to see them live again. I was completely unfamiliar with their material at ProgFest and it still knocked me on my ass and continued to kick me while I was down. This CD was easily worth the hefty $25 it cost.


Being a music collector makes the daily trek to the mailbox an adventure. Heck, these days when I go to the mailbox, the first thing on my mind is "any new music arriving today?", leaving "did I get accepted to (insert college here)" as a secondary concern. :)

More new stuff today:
Mogwai - Young Team
Species Being - Orgone Therapy
Miles Davis - The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions

I bought the Mogwai at Borders... I was very surprised and happy to see most of the band's catalog (including the earlier Jet Set Records releases) there. They lacked the new Rock Action album, but oh well. On a similar note, the new Tortoise album (Standards) was not only available at Borders, but was one of their featured albums... up on the top racks and hooked up to one of their headphone sets. Go post-rock!

Music moment of the day: Driving through a very heavy rainstorm, listening to Young Team. Mogwai, or at least early Mogwai, could be thought of as a metaphor for a rainstorm... the calm, serene drones juxtaposed against the fierce and violent climaxes. Oooh, there are the pretty clouds overhead... just passing by, no rain falling yet.... but uh oh, there's a drop... and now here's the dounpour! But eventually the downpour ends and the clouds still remain, and it's back to calm.

Currently listening to the Miles Davis - Disc 1. It's wicked cool. The packaging for the box set is similarly cool. The "box" is actually a sleeve for a mini-book, which houses the CDs as well as a ton of information and pictures. The booklet seems quite sturdy (hardcover, metal binding, etc), so it should last. I'm pretty pleased. Clearly, this set earned the Grammy that it won.

Thursday, April 5

Music moment of the day: Pulling out of my driveway on my way to go workout, Thinking Plague's "Dead Silence" (from In Extremis) playing their oddly dissonant-yet-beautiful sounds that seem to have something in common with the gray clouds over my head (yes, another cloud-related moment). On a side note, I can't imagine an album having an album cover that more accurately depicts what's on the CD than In Extremis's cover: a desert twister over a dull (and not clearly defined) landscape. To download an MP3 of Dead Silence, click here: Thinking Plague - Dead Silence (4:00, 3.84MB)

A few new BMG arrivals today:
Miles Davis - In A Silent Way
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch

Only listened to In A Silent Way so far, but it was very nice. I'm also chewing my way through that four-disc Coltrane Complete '61 Village Vanguard Recordings set, and some of my Djangos order (particularly the Cuneiform discs: Birdsongs of the Mesozoic's Petrophonics and Volapük's Polyglöt, as well as the not-on-Cuneiform-but-the-band's-later-albums-are Thinking Plague's In This Life). Good stuff. Also revisiting some of my older Cuneiform discs (Univers Zero's 1313, Thinking Plague's In Extremis, Miriodor's Jongerlies Élastiques (Elastic Juggling), Djam Karet's The Devouring, and Boud Deun's The Stolen Bicycle). Cuneiform tends to focus on "avant-rock"... the more cutting-edge progressive rock bands. A lot of Cuneiform's bands are RIO (rock-in-opposition) bands, which often features dissonance, unusual instumentation, complex/unconventional song structures, and everything but the kitchen sink (and the best of it manages to stay beautiful and even melodic). Not all of their stuff is RIO, though... Djam Karet is more like instrumental Pink Floyd but with better players, and Boud Deun is strictly fusion. One thing that Cuneiform is almost universally, however, is "good". I can't think of another prog label that is as consistantly good as Cuneiform. Musea has a lot of good stuff, but lots of crap too. Inside Out and Magna Carta have more crap than good stuff. Mellow Records is probably in the same boat as Musea. Cyclops... I think Cyclops is 100% dreck. Maybe there's some good unknown bands on there, but the flagship bands are bleh. Hmm.... Vinyl Magic re-issued a lot of good Italian stuff, but re-issued some things best left untouched. Laser's Edge is underrated, but not quite Cuneiform. Hmm.... that's about it, everything else I can think of is either independant releases, big-label releases, or labels that only carry a handful of bands (and a good number of prog bands fall into one of those three). Regardless, Cuneiform deserves praise. I'm confident that I could buy random Cuneiform discs and not get something that was utter crap. Undoubtably I would like some more than others, and some I might not like at all, but nothing would be wretched. Way to go, Steve Feigenbaum (Cuneiform label head).

Wednesday, April 4

Music moment of the day: Driving home from my night class (well, more like late afternoon/dusk class since the time change), I was listening to Birdsongs of the Mesozoic's Petrophonics. As I drove on the rather light-traffic freeway, I noticed the clouds in the distance were a purple hue, and the few slivers of clear sky not obscured by the clouds were a light orange-ish color. Remarkably beautiful. In my rear-view mirror, I saw the clouds coming down over the mountains in the east - these clouds were much more darkly colored. As I turned off the now-somewhat-rural highway and headed back into town, I noticed the sky to the north was something of a balance between the two - moderately dark, blue clouds. The key to this whole light vibe was the Birdsongs music. Had I been listening to Yeti or Magma, I would not have been in the frame of mind to notice the colorful skies. What I would give to have some of those images captured and turned into a couple of small posters...

Tuesday, April 3

Yay! Lots of stuff arrived today!

New arrivals:
John Coltrane - The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings (4 CD)
Soft Machine - Volume 2
Birdsongs of the Mesozoic - Petrophonics
Faust - Faust IV
Faust - Faust / So Far (2-on-1)
Thinking Plague - In This Life
Volapük - Polyglöt

The Coltrane is, of course, the first of my BMG CDs. I'm listening to Disc 1, and so far it rocks (jazzes?). I think I'm really going to dig this. Haven't listened to the other new acquisitions yet. I'll have lots of music listening notes in the next few days. :)

Monday, April 2

OK, I've figured out my BMG plan of attack (items that have already been ordered are in italics).

Account #1:
First 7 free:
  • John Coltrane - The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings (4 CD)
  • Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
  • Miles Davis - In A Silent Way
  • Eric Dolphy - Out To Lunch

    Pay for one:
  • Cream - Those Were The Days (4 CD)

    Last 4 free:
  • Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin Remasters (4 CD)


    Account #2:
    First 7 free:
  • Miles Davis - The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions (4 CD)
  • Chick Corea - Light as a Feather
  • Charles Mingus - Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus
  • Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come

    Pay for one:
  • Deep Purple - Made in Japan (2 CD deluxe edition)

    Last 4 free:
  • Led Zeppelin - Boxed Set II (2 CD)
  • Deep Purple - Machine Head (2 CD deluxe edition)


    Account #3:
    First one free:
  • Miles Davis - The Complete Birth Of The Cool

    Pay for one:
  • The Who - Who's Next

    Last 9 free:
  • John Coltrane - The Classic Quartet: Complete Impulse! Studio Recordings (8 CD)
  • The Who - The Who Sell Out


    Account #4:
    First 7 free:
  • Alice Cooper - The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper (4 CD)
  • Jeff Beck - Beckology (3 CD)

    Pay for one:
  • The Who - The Who By Numbers

    Last 4 free:
  • Eric Clapton - Crossroads (4 CD)


    Account #5:
    First 7 free:
  • Miles Davis Quintet - The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings (6 CD)
  • The Who - Live at Leeds

    Pay for one:
  • Jethro Tull - A Passion Play

    Final 4 free:
  • The Police - Message in a Box (4 CD)


    You'll note that in one of my purchases, I'm actually buying the Cream box set instead of a single CD. Why? Well, the set is only $22.49 - a few bucks more than a $16.98 single CD selection. Rather than have the Cream set take up four "free" selections, why not pay $5 more and retain those free selections for something else? Likewise, I saved an additional "free" selection by making one of the Deep Purple 2CDs a "purchase". I could save an additional selection by making the other DP 2CD a "buy", but I'm very much stretching my budget as it is. But the end result will be a music collection that's 63 CDs larger. Hopefully, no unexpected price changes or changes in availability occur over the course of this. I'm going to swiftly order everything, make those purchase selections, and order the final freebies, in hopes that I can pull it off as outlined here.

  • Sunday, April 1

    Upon further research, it turns out that the 4 CD Led Zeppelin Remasters set and the 2 CD Boxed Set II include all of the studio material that appeared on Zeppelin's albums. This would provide a wonderful alternative to getting each album individually and in less-than-excellent remastered forms. Sadly, these do not have the songs in the original albums' track orders. However, Jimmy Page claims that he put a lot of thought into the track orders and made the songs flow smoothly like an album. It turns out that BMG carries the Boxed Set II as well as the 4 CD Remasters set. Sooooooo.... I think I'll get these.

    Ooh, BMG also has the Cream Those Were The Days 4CD box set! That set is like the ideal box set. It features each of the albums in their original order, with non-album singles ("Wrapping Paper") and some alternate and unreleased tracks splitting the albums up. This strikes me as an interesting way of doing a box set. I'm not sure if it's preferable to just putting all the bonus material at the end, but as long as the original albums are presented in their original (complete) form, I don't have a problem with it.
    The first two CDs present all the studio material from the band's albums (and also the bonus material). The second two CDs are live tracks segued together to, as AllMusic put it, "attempt to recreate the "ideal" Cream concert". Sounds interesting to me! I almost picked up this box set from Wal-Mart once, but lacked the cash. I'd say this is now one of my top BMG box set priorities.

    Hmm... what else might BMG have to offer? They have the Santana 3CD box set, but I already have that baby. BMG has the 2CD deluxe editions of Deep Purple's Made In Japan and Machine Head..... hmmmmmm..... those would be cool. Oh, and they also have the excellent Jeff Beck Beckology 3CD box set. There are a couple of Doors box sets, but The Complete Studio Recordings is 7 CDs (too much - I won't dedicate that much of my BMG resources to the Doors) and Box Set is 4 CDs but mostly made up of "rarities" and live tracks - in other words, for completists only. The Grateful Dead What a Long Strange Trip It's Been 2 CD set looks cool, as does Europe '72. No Beatles or Hendrix sets, which is a total bummer. I thought for sure that The Jimi Hendrix Experience or The Experience Collection 4 CD sets would be available, but noooooo. The Moody Blues Time Traveller 5CD set is available, but not good enough for devoting 5 freebie selections to. I would like a good Moodies 3 CD set but there does not appear to be one.

    Hmm... do I really want the Journey Time 3 3 CD set? Hmmmmm.... maybe, despite the fact that the 3 CDs are not in fact 180 minutes of alternate takes of "Open Arms".

    I think I want the Cream, Beck, and two Deep Purple sets (and maybe one of the Dead), in addition to the ones I listed in my other entries for today. I'll get them all between the rest of my BMG memberships at this address, and the ones I'll get when I move. These box sets - not to mention the LPs I'm buying - will give my classic rock collection a much-needed shot in the arm.
    Hmm... looking more closely at the Who box, I think I might do better getting other Who items instead. Who's Next, The Who Sell Out, The Who By Numbers, A Quick One, Live at Leeds, Live at the Isle of Wight, and even the BBC Sessions, among ones I already have (Tommy, Quadrophenia, and a compilation) and ones I am not super interested in (Who Are You, etc).

    Getting The Who Sell Out, Live at Leeds, Who's Next, and The Who By Numbers would probably be a better 4 CD snag than the box set. Maybe A Quick One (Happy Jack) instead of Numbers, or perhaps in addition to. I could do a lot worse than filling out any extra single-CD needs with Who material.

    Led Zeppelin is a different story. As it turns out, there have not been Zeppelin albums that have been given the quality of remastering that the "Remaster" 2 CD and 4 CD box sets have. I quote someone from r.m.p.:

    "There's another advantage to the two boxed sets (4 and 2 CDs
    resepectively): they have the best sound of any of the Zeppelin CDs.
    The subsequent 10-CD "complete studio recordings" box have been
    further compressed and dicked about with, and have a ragged edge to
    them. I've not heard the individual remastered CDs, but my
    understanding is that they are the same as the 10-CD set. The problem
    this leaves is that the 4 and 2 CD sets don't have the correct running
    order, and there are very subtle cross-fades between some of the
    tracks that make it impossible to properly reconstruct the original
    albums onto CDR. In other words, you can't get the original album
    layouts in the best available sound. Scandalous."


    Getting the 10 CD box set is out of the question - I can't get that by using free CD selections from BMG (you have to have enough free CDs to get the whole item, and the BMG deals never give you 10 free CDs at one time). I could get some of the individual albums... but the sound quality issue concerns me. I pulled out my copy of IV, and "Black Dog" most certainly sounded muddier than it does on my friend's 2 CD Remasters set. It doesn't sound terrible, but I have to wonder: will the entire Zeppelin catalog end up getting the top-notch remaster treatment that the 2 CD and 4 CD box sets got? If so, getting all of these (comparatively) inferior remastered albums would not be a prudent move. I'm thinking perhaps the 4 CD remasters set would be a nice "for now" alternative until the entire album catalogue gets a serious remaster job. I'm listening to IV right now, and it's definitely not as clear as it ought to be. I have some small-label foreign 1971 releases that are clearer than this. Some company is doing new remasters in LP format, and charging a boatload for them. No thanks. I just want a quality CD remaster.

    I started thinking about what else BMG music club might have to offer me. After all, I have three accounts open right now. I'll need to choose 5 more CDs for each of the first two, and 2 more CDs for the last one (actually 10 more CDs, but I've decided on 8 of them in the form of Coltrane's Classic Quartet - Complete Impulse! set). Plus I could open up two more accounts from this address. So, I figured I should check out what box sets BMG has. I was pleasantly surprised to find a bunch of ones that I would want. Check these out:

    Rock:
    The Police - Message in a Box (4 CDs)
    Eric Clapton - Crossroads (4 CDs)
    Alice Cooper - Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper (4 CDs)
    Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin remastered (4 CDs)
    Lynyrd Skynyrd - Lynyrd Skynyrd (3 CDs)
    The Who - 30 Years of Maximum R&B (4 CDs)

    Jazz:
    Miles Davis Quintet - Complete Columbia Studio Recordings (6 CDs)

    Classical:
    Complete Works of Bach Vol. 1 (5 CDs)
    Beethoven, The Five Piano Concertos (3 CDs)
    The Complete Chamber Music Of Claude Debussy (3 CDs)
    Brahms, Piano Trios Nos. 1-3; Piano Quartets Nos. 1-3 (3 CD)
    Dvorák, Stabat Mater (2 CDs)
    Godowsky, The Complete Studies On Chopin's Études (2 CDs)

    I need to check on the quality of the performances of the classical sets, but the rock ones and the Miles Davis one are definite "wants". For my first two accounts, I now need to buy one CD and then take four more free. So I'll find a couple of single CDs to get, and then pick two of the 4 CD sets (I'll probably start with the Alice Cooper and The Who sets). Then, I could start a 4th account with the Skynyrd and Police sets as my first 7 free, then buy one CD, and then get either the Clapton or Zeppelin box sets as the final 4 freebies.

    The classical sets are interesting. Some of them actually sell for less than $20. So, instead of buying a single CD to meet the requirements for my other accounts, I could buy one of these sets instead for only a few dollars more. Why take up 3 freebies for the Debussey set when it only costs $16.99 (the same amount of money I would spend for a single CD to meet my membership requirements)?

    BMG kicks ass.

    While they have a 5 membership per household per address limitation, I could soon do 5 more accounts. Why? Well, I will be moving during the summer as I transfer to a university. New address = new memberships. Woohoo!

    Yeah, they scalp on shipping. But look at it this way. Each CD costs about $2.50 to ship. Plus you have to pay full price for one CD (which ranges from $13-17, let's just say $17 for a conservative estimate). So:

    $2.50 x 12 CDs = $30
    $17 x 1 = $17
    $30 + $17 = $47 approximate grand total for 12 CD shipped and the one required non-freebie paid for.

    If I could walk into a store and pay $47 and walk out with the Who, Cooper, Skynyrd, and Debussey box sets, would I? You bet your arse! This is exactly the same thing, except that you have to wait a week or three (or five) to get them. So what? I'm not impatient (of course, I'm constantly getting new music, as you can see here in my near-daily entries). What a deal. Most of these box sets eclipse $30 each.