Music Notes
By 
Well this was cool. I have been in Eugene the last few weeks with family and this is not a great music town. In fact, Bend has significantly surpassed Eugene to be the second best music town in Oregon, behind Portland obviously. This despite Bend being 40% smaller than Eugene. Well, if you like Dead cover bands, Eugene is your place. But sometimes someone good comes through and I have to say that I did not expect that person to be T-Bone Burnett. Now, I don’t actually know Burnett’s music that well. He hadn’t released an album of original music in a very long time and he hadn’t toured in 20 years. What I know him for is primarily his amazing soundtrack work, including for the Coen Brothers. I also know him for his astounding record of album production, which includes Los Lobos’ How Will the Wolf Survive?, Elvis Costello’s King of America, Sam Phillips’ Martinis and Bikinis, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ Raising Sand, and so many others. What I knew is that he would surround himself with the best possible musicians and that is exactly what happened. He first started playing with the violinist/mandolinist David Mansfield when they both playing in Dylan’s band on Rolling Thunder and let’s just say that Mansfield is absolutely astonishing to hear live. Colin Liden is on guitar, who has effectively played with almost everyone over the last 45 years. Dennis Crouch, his bassist, is quite a bit younger but has also played with everyone since the early 90s, from June Carter Cash to Robert Plant. Basically, you aren’t going to see a better band of session guys ever. You might hear bands you like more. You aren’t going to hear one more fundamentally solid. Now, Burnett is no great singer, but who cares. He has solid songs and again, that band. It was super cool to see him and you should do so if he happens to come around your way.
Also, I was probably the youngest person at this show and I am 50 years old. That’s….impressive? Disturbing? Sad? Not sure. But it was something.
Hey, the Big Ears first schedule drop happened this week! My God….MY GOD. So we have Yo La Tengo with the Sun Ra Arkestra, a bunch of Wadada Leo Smith stuff, a 50th anniversary performance of Philip Glass’s Music in Twelve Parts, some Jonny Greenwood project that is probably cool as hell, great songwriters and performers such as Waxahatchee, Mary Lattimore and Marissa Nadler; the dude from Neu and Harmonia, and SO MUCH JAZZ. See you there, unless you have bad taste, which means you won’t be at the greatest music festival in these here United States of America. Oh, there will be more schedule drops too.
The Times’ 5 Minutes to Make You Love Some Kind of Jazz series continues with a great selection of big band music, with suggestions from all over the map, including Grammy award winning composer/conductor/friend of LGM Darcy James Argue, the great saxophonist Anna Webber (who of course selects some Anthony Braxton, God bless both of them), Christian McBride, Gary Giddins, and the brilliant and challenging pianist Satoko Fujii. Great set of recs here. Check them out.
Beyoncé is done with making music videos
Jack and Meg White are suing Trump for using White Stripes music in rallies. Evidently, Trump actually picks his own rally music?????
Album Reviews, mostly some nice releases:
Bill Frisell, Orchestras
I talk a lot about Frisell in this series it seems, and the reason is that for 15 years he was my favorite musician in the world and then he started making incredibly boring music and it made me sad. But there’s been some recent better albums, especially the Bill Frisell Four, which I got to see at Newport Jazz and really enjoyed. Now there is this an album of his trio with the Brussels Philharmonic on the first disc and the Umbria Jazz Orchestra on disc 2. This actually works really well, revisiting a lot of Frisell’s compositions in a completely different direction that reminds one what a great composer he is, as well as of course a great guitarist. Doing this with two different orchestras is also super fun. Mostly it is his compositions, but there’s Ron Carter and Ellington covers and then they end the whole project with “We Shall Overcome.” Very cool project.
A-
Marisa Anderson/Jim White, Swallowtail
Listening to this right after the Frisell was a little weird because Marissa Anderson sounds a lot like Frisell. She plays more notes than he does, but still, they have similar tones. Also, watching Jim White perform up close at Big Ears two years ago was one of the most remarkable things I’ve ever seen, because he holds his sticks so loosely, like he is barely holding them, and yet is in total control of his art the entire time. One of the damndest things I’ve ever seen and I have seen a lot of music over the years. So here you have two absolutely fantastic musicians doing a project recorded way out in the Australian countryside and very much imbibing the feel of such a place. It’s spacey and meditative and yet completely holds your attention, which is not that easy to do. This is a good album. I am interested in doing more Anderson explorations to get more at this Frisell-esque sound. Maybe they should collaborate!
A-
Mandy, Lawn Girl
Yummy new slightly experimental punk. I don’t know Miranda Winters, but evidently she’s been part of the Chicago music scene forever, most notably with Melkbelly, the noise-rock band. It’s hooky and poppy and noisy. For this, she recruited a superband of hot shit Chicago women rockers. They sound like it too. This is a lot better played than your usual punk band. Incidentally, she released a Spotify list of the songs that most influenced her. Also, it is 23 minutes long, which this old man appreciates as his time winds down.
A-
Will Hoge, Wings on My Shoes
Solid if not truly exceptional folk/roots rock. Quite literate. If you like Chuck Prophet, Will Hoge is your guy. “John Prine’s Cadillac” is an absolute banger to start the album and from there, the songs mostly remain solid though I suppose some are better than others. Oh, he also promoted the album by teaching a peloton class. Do those still exist or have we moved on to some other exercise technology that is supposed to be the best. Anyway, I thought this a solid if not excellent set. And I do like Chuck Prophet.
B
Sarah Shook & The Disarmers, Revelations
Sarah Shook evidently goes by River Shook personally now as they continue their gender exploration, Well, fine, whatever. The far more important thing for me is that they continue evolving as a songwriter. It’s still music about being a woman fucking up her life in bars and with horrible other women (or men, most of the songs work either way), but this is quite a bit deeper songwriting that the early albums. At just a tiny bit softer, at first, I was like “is this kind of going a bit lame” but nope, these are simply deeply felt songs. Also, if Farley doesn’t see this band in Lexington tonight, I am disowning him.
A-
The Serfs, Half-Eaten By Dogs
There are a lot more good bands out of Cincinnati than one would expect. Wussy, of course, yes. But The Serfs are pretty good too. I probably like this a bit more than it deserves–it’s a synth punk thing that really channels some krautrock too and maybe not in the most original way and like a lot of Cincy bands, it really wears its influences on its sleeves, but if you like these influences, hell, why not check it out?
B
As always, this is an open thread for all things music and art and none things politics, which as we get closer to the election, I will be enforcing harshly. Just don’t do it. Unless of course it’s about Trump choosing his music, which I find bizarre because I cannot imagine the man listening to music more modern than Sinatra.