Guilty pleasures. Everybody's got 'em. Nobody wants to admit to it (or at least talk about it). I had lots of them back in high school..but I never told anybody. Right in the middle of the disco (or should I say "disco sucks") era, I would go home at night and secretly tune my radio to the local disco station to catch Amii Stewart's "Knock On Wood" or Chic's "Freak". This isn't to say that I loved disco. Nope. A lot of it was way too shallow and self-referential (most of disco was about disco...no thanks). So...I was still a rock guy...with a secret.

A similar thing happened to me with Madonna. Being at first a creature of MTV, she was omnipresent. And except for the videos and an almost shocking appearance in a wedding gown during a Grammy Awards telecast, I really had no use for her.

But then there was the tune "Crazy For You" from the mid-80's movie Vision Quest. Just a simple pop ballad. I loved it (but gees, dont' tell anybody! I bought the soundtrack record for Red Rider's "Lunatic Fringe"...yea, that's it!)

Skip forward to the release of "Justify My Love". Written by Lenny Kravitz with some additional lyrics by Madonna, it had a nice deep & slinky bassline that was tough to ignore. So I had to go out and buy The Immaculate Collection. Listening to this greatest hits package made me realize (read: admit) that I actually like a lot of these songs.

Now that I'm older and basically no longer have these guilty pleasure hangups (I started a great email war once on the John Zorn mailing list when I brought up Pink) I listen to the stuff right out in the open. That's what I did for Ray Of Light, which I thought was a cool blend of electronica and spirituality (ok, we're not talkin' the Dalai Lama here...but still....).

Somehow I misssed out on Music but then out comes American Life. So much controversy spinning around what with the associated video pullback and the anti-download "WTF" flap.

I'll ignore all of that.

So what's American Life like? Even without the title-as-hint I would have had the same thought: this is Madonna's folk album. Strip away the blurpy electronic noises, the reverb, the deep bass and the vocal pitch-shifting^* and you've got a folk record (again...no Bob Dylan, but still....). It's her commentary on life in this country, Hollywood, fame, love and religion. I can see this material being done live with just a guitar, bass and percussion. Then, after the intermission, maybe we can get the full-blown electronic dance extravaganza treatment.

American Life may not be as good as Ray Of Light...but, hey...life isn't a competition.

* Please,please,please!!! Put that danged pitch-shifter vocal thing in the back of the recording studio janitor's closet. Preferably under the stinky old string mop. Cher used it a couple of years ago...now it's growing like a fungus.

yes, yes...my eyes are watering. my nose is itchy. sneezing occurs uncontrollably on the drive to work. the black flies are out.

and ya know what? i don't care! that winter was toooooo long.

Song X - Pat Metheny/Ornette Coleman

Pat Metheny, Ornette & Denardo Coleman, Jack DeJohnette and Charlie Haden make a big, beautiful, messy noise.

John Zorn's Masada is an interesting group. The way I've come to describe them is "Ornette Coleman-listens-to-klezmer". While that's not the only way to get there, it'll do. Pick any recording from the Masada series and you'll hear some fine interplay between Zorn's sax, the trumpet of Dave Douglas and Greg Cohen's bass. All of this supported (and sometimes shattered) by the fricken' exquisite drumming of Joey Baron.

So what to make of Masada Guitars? Pretty cool stuff. Guitarists Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot and Tim Sparks put their own stamp on tunes from the (huge) Masada catalog. This drastically transforms what Masada usually brings to the table. While some of that familiar off-kilter energy is gone, it is replaced by a kind of introspection that reminds me of Jerry Garcia's improvisations on the Zabriskie Point soundtrack.

So if you're looking for some solo guitar that's outside of the mainstream (not too far...we're not talking Derek Baily here) then you've come to the right place.

I just discovered that the entire recording of Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots plus some of the Flight Test EP material can be streamed by following this link. There are also a bunch of videos there as well.

I'm still not sure I get this band.

so, so dreary outside. fog. drizzle.

...sleepy....

must keep eyes op....

The Flaming Lips are an odd band. A pretty unique blend of art rock and nearly bubblegum pop. When I first heard The Soft Bulletin it made me stop to wonder: just what is this stuff? What struck me immediately was the nearly John Bohnam-like drumming...odd in this context.

So when I found out that they were to be the backup band for Beck I got pretty excited. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to the Boston-area show....so when I first listened to their live cover of Beck's "The Golden Age" on this EP I thought...well, I don't really want to say what I thought 'cause it wasn't very nice. I bet the shows were spectacular.

In any event, this little EP is a gem. In addition to "Flight Test", it's got bizarre ("Can't Get You Out Of My Head" - Kylie Minogue) and not so bizarre ("Knives Out" - Radiohead) covers, a couple of new tunes (including the hilarious "Thank You Jack White(For The Fiber-Optic Jesus That You Gave Me)). There are also a couple of videos: "Flight Test" and the trailer for the Flaming Lips movie "Christmas On Mars". But best of all is the cover of "The Golden Age". Very cool.

Reich Remixed - Various Artists

All sorts of Steve Reich material put through the electronica grinder. Great stuff (though if you're unfamiliar with Steve Reich it would be better to check out either Music For 18 Musicians or maybe Different Trains).

Fleetwood Mac's Rumours is one of the truly iconic records of the seventies. Like Led Zeppelin's Led Zeppelin IV, Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon and The Eagles Hotel California, Rumours spent a lot of time spinning on turntables everywhere...including those of FM radio. I don't think I ever owned a copy of it back in the day...and yet somehow I knew all of the songs. You could call this phenomenon "pop music osmosis".

Along with radio and 'scene' dominance , Fleetwood Mac, like their 70's colleagues (cripes, is it ok to use the word 'colleague' when describing a rock band? it feels kinda weird) was a textbook case of the collective whole being far greater than the sum of its parts. Something just clicked for them in that final 'classic' lineup.

So now I fast forward to the year 2003. Fleetwood Mac has just released Say You Will. It's many years down the road and the classic lineup has changed. Christine McVie has retired. What will this do to the sound? The chemistry? The balance? With no sunny McVie tunes in the mix will this record be too dark? Too weird?

As it turns out, Say You Will is neither too dark nor too weird. What it is is a great pop record. Things are certainly different though. With McVie gone the songwriting is now evenly split between Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Also, Buckingham's guitar moves forward to take over as the main instrument of texture. This is a good thing. Lindsey's playing here is amazing. Pick a style and it's there: from silky folk fingerpicking to sometimes jazzy fills to blistering lead work to near metal riffing....all of this wrapped around Stevie Nicks' still gorgeous voice.

What's not different? The songwriting is still definitely quite strong. And Stevie and Lindsey are still referring to each other....or maybe they're not. See...the thing is, with Fleetwood Mac's soap-opera history, we'll always think that Stevie's talkin' about Lindsey. Also not changed is that signature vocal harmony. One of the funny things about the after effects of "pop music osmosis" is that you tend to hear 'phantom' voices. So even on the tunes where Christine McVie is not guesting on background vocals, you hear them anyway. Your brain just wants them there.

Oh, I forgot to mention John McVie and Mick Fleetwood. Maybe they'd prefer it that way...because as both members of the less-is-more club they accomplish what they always have in the past: laying down a solid base over which each tune rides.

Can Say You Will take a place next to the "great" Fleetwood Mac records (in my mind that would be Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, and Tusk)? I think so. In some ways it is every bit the transitional record that Tusk was...but without the baggage of the heavy expectations caused by being the followup to Rumours.

It'll be interesting to see if Fleetwood Mac has anything left in the tank after Say You Will. They've started yet another new phase of their career...and the first step is a solid one.

Superfluous. Meaningless. Pointless. Redundent. Obligatory.

No, I haven't been playing with my thesaurus. These are just some of the words that are often used to describe live recordings.

Me, I've always loved them. Way back in high school and college I was gripped by the rawness and urgency in some of my favorite concert albums...an electricity that sometimes rendered their studio counterparts, well, superfluous.

(By the way...this isn't to say that there haven't been some superfluous, meaningless, pointless, redundent and obligatory live records. There sure have. But that's another day's topic.)

So here are some of my favorite live records (and they were indeed records when I first bought 'em). No special order here. This ain't a competition. And they're all from the era of so-called Classic Rock...because that's when I fell in love with them.

Rolling Stones - Get Yer Ya Ya's Out/Love You Live

Get Yer Ya Ya's Out might have been the first Stones record I bought. It was a leap of faith, really. Up to that point most of the music I'd been listening to had that "chainsaw" sound (Black Sabbath, Ted Nugent, Led Zeppelin (but only the loud tunes...none of that strummy acoustic guitar crap!)). But I had spent a lot of time injesting every rock magazine I could get my hands on. With years of Rolling Stone and Creem under my belt I was bound to run across something about the Stones. So I took a chance and was rewarded with a record that definitely expanded my (narrow) horizons. This is the Stones at their loose-yet-tight best. I've included Love You Live here because, being so enthused about my new discovery, I went right out and got some more. It's not as cohesive as Get Yer Ya Ya's Out, and certainly a little sloppier, but the El Mocambo side is a load of fun.

The Who - Live At Leeds

This one makas a lot of folks' top ten lists. It should. The Who at their most ferocious. At times coming close to metal on a blistering My Generation. Then getting a little loose on a trippy Magic Bus.

Little Feat - Waiting For Columbus

Many years after my chainsaw-only phase had passed, my cousin turned me onto Little Feat. Wow. How did I manage to not hear about these guys? I might have heard "Dixie Chicken" on the radio (but of course ignored it..I mean..where's the slammin' power chords?!) but that's about it. This record yet again opened me up to the possibilities of blues, maybe a little jazz and even a little country. Damn, I wore that thing out....and replaced it not too long ago with a nice new 180gram vinyl copy.

Grateful Dead - Dead Set

Not the typical Dead choice. Most people rate Live Dead or Europe 72 above this. But I always thought that the playing, while less 'experimental', was just so tight and funky (plus, the version of Samson and Delilah is, as Ferris would say, so choice).

Jimi Hendrix - Band of Gypsies

Two words: Machine Gun.

Lynyrd Skynyrd - One More From The Road

If you leave out the southern rock Stairway To Heaven, Free Bird, this record is full of great dixie-fried rock. All those guitars, all that hollerin'!

Cheap Trick - Live at Budokan

Just about everybody I knew owned a copy of this one. Even though we were all sick of "I Want You To Want Me", we could never get enough of "Surrender".

J. Geils Band - Blow Your Face Out/Full House

While Full House is sorta the more bluesy cousin of Blow Your Face Out, I lump them together for the same reason as the aforementioned Stones records: I bought them back-to-back. Blow Your Face Out was first. I had been looking for a copy of the song "Give It To Me". My local record shop didn't have a copy of Bloodshot so I had to "settle" for Blow Your Face Out. Screw "Give It To Me"! Now I've got "Musta Got Lost", "Detroit Breakdown" and a cool cover of "Where Did Our Love Go". After listening to it a couple of times a day for a few weeks (I was a relentless bastard back then....gees, my poor parents!), back to the store I go to get Full House. "First I Look At The Purse", "Whammer Jammer"...I'd hit the mother load.

Foghat - Foghat Live

Dave Marsh likes to berate stuff like this by labelling it "boogie rock". And ya know what? It is boogie rock. It's also loud, excessive, and fun.

The Tubes - What Do You Want From Live

"A poke in the eye with a blunt stick?"

No, just a weird rock record. Full of sexual inuendo, great guitar playing and crazy lyrics. "Don't Touch Me There", "Mondo Bondage" and the anthemic "White Punks On Dope".

Ted Nugent - Double Live Gonzo

Ok, this one breaks a lot of my own rules. For one thing, it's not a particularly good recording....and the sequencing is kinda messy. But there was just something else about it. Raw. Nasty. And defintely loud.

(Maybe I just thought titles like "Yank Me, Crank Me" were cool---shit, I was just seventeen!)

Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive

The albums from which Frampton never recovered.

This was a huge record. It sold a boatload of copies. Hits were all over the radio. Everybody owned it. (Cripes, even my dad, who is 80 years old, likes this record...even now!)

We all rooted for Frampton after this. But there was that Sgt. Pepper thing...and also I'm In You.....yikes!

Kiss - Alive!

My first exposure to Kiss was via the record Rock and Roll Over (remember that Peter Criss-does-Rod Stewart tune "Hard Luck Woman"?). A buddy of mine had it on 8-track. I thought that the music was pretty cool. Lots of crunchy rhythm guitar. Kinda agressive, etc. Then I see the photos and see all of the makeup, bloodspitting, firebreathing...man, now I just love it!

Then I get a copy of Kiss Alive. This it it. Loud, loud, loud. I maintain that I would have loved this stuff without all of the gimmicks. They did write some great rock tunes (and yes, some stupid ones too...but, hey, this is the 70's we're talkin' about here!).

The Big Gundown - John Zorn plays the music of Ennio Morricone

Times are tense. Times are dark....and definitely weird.

This one practically leapt off the shelf. This is Morricone after Zorn applies his alternating funny and nightmarish twists.

Don't worry though....I may listen to something big and stupid on the way home.

Had myself a little adventure last night...on a mission to find a decent book on .NET programming.

So after a stop for dinner at the Red Arrow Diner, we hit the local Barnes & Noble.

It's truly amazing: there are so many poorly written software titles out there. Page after page laden with only-in-high-school-allow-me-to-repeat-myself-in-a-slightly-different-way paragraphs. Gotta pad out the content.

As in most genres, the quality runs the spectrum from great to kinda OK to stink-a-rama. After becoming quite frustrated I stumbled onto a pretty decent book, paid the more than slightly shocking price of $59.99, and left for home.

After all of that psychic noise, I needed some brain candy. The remedy turned out to be reading a couple of chapters of Kerouac's The Town And The City...while listening to Stan Getz and Chet Baker.

phew!!

i had to shovel my driveway today. i mean, it's april 8th!. what the hey?!!!

The Power To Believe - King Crimson

A little more hopeful than Black Sabbath...but the edge, uncertainty and fright is still there.

In the future, where we "know" that all music will be delivered digitally ( you know...no actual objects you can touch...just downloadable stuff (I don't thing this will really happen, but that's just me)), will anything go "out of print"?

A related issue: access to 'historical' (read: "old") recordings. Since there will be no "record" stores, how will a person discover older music? Heck, this really does apply to new music as well.

I started thinking about this stuff yesterday after listening to an interview with King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew. In particular, the segment on reaching new and younger audiences. Adrian points out that he's had a recording career for over 25 years....and how does he make his music known to the younger audience that he just knows is out there?

Similarly, how will a person in our perfect, digital future discover music that's new to them? Web (or whatever it is by then) searching? Online browsing?

I do know people who don't have much use for cd stores. These are definitely not your typical "RIAA enemies" who pay for nothing (oh please, oh please...may we be talking about the RIAA in the past tense in our "perfect future"). They just aren't all that interested in in-person browsing. Most of their music is purchased online (Amazon, etc).

I may be showing my age here (and please, don't let me get started about vinyl!) but this just doesn't work for me. "Browsing" for cd's on the internet is so...uhmm...unfulfilling...compared to flipping through stacks of cds at a store. It reminds me of those "dinner pills" the Jetsons used to swallow. A nice, convenient idea but....no thanks. I mean, there have been so many recordings I've stumbled across while doing a record/cd "troll" at the store. This is possible (I guess) online....but...hmmm, I dunno.

I've got no answers here. We don't even really know how the current recording industry mess is going to shake out.

Ideas, anybody?

I Will Do As Simon Says!