Archives

Purchase log, 2019-08-20

[Sleater-Kinney - The Center Won't Hold]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

New releases

CD
  • Sleater-Kinney, The Center Won’t Hold

Catalog

CD
  • Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jesus Christ Superstar (Original Broadway Cast)
  • Bill Frisell, Good Dog, Happy Man
  • Branford Marsalis Quartet, Requiem
  • Bruce Springsteen, The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle
  • CHVRCHES, The Bones of What You Believe
  • Devo, Greatest Hits
  • Don Byron, Bug Music
  • Information Society, Peace and Love, Inc.
  • LFO, LFO
  • Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, Spanish Fly
  • Los Amigos Invisibles, Arepa 3000: A Venezuelan Journey into Space
  • Mr. Lif, I Phantom
  • Queen, A Night at the Opera
  • Wye Oak, Civilian
Vinyl
  • Béla Bartók, Mikrokosmos, Vol. 6 / Out of Doors / Sonatina (Stephen Bishop-Kovacevich)
  • Fugazi, End Hits
  • George Crumb, Makrokosmos, Vol. II (Robert Miller)
  • George Crumb, Music for a Summer Evening (Makrokosmos III)
  • Grizzly Bear, Shields
  • My Bloody Valentine, Isn’t Anything
  • Nico Muhly and Teitur, Confessions
  • Re-Flex, The Politics of Dancing
  • Run DMC, Raising Hell
  • Ryan Stout, Touché
  • Sting, 57th and Ninth
  • The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds

Reissues

Vinyl
  • Explosions in the Sky, How Strange Innocence
  • Explosions in the Sky, The Rescue
  • NUMBER GIRL, NUM-HEAVYMETALLIC
  • NUMBER GIRL, SAPPUKEI
  • NUMBER GIRL, SCHOOL GIRL DISTORTIONAL ADDICT

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Purchase log, 2019-07-02

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

[The B-52's - Cosmic Thing]

Catalog

CD
  • Atmosphere, Lucy Ford: The Atmosphere EPs
  • Bob Mould, Bob Mould
  • Branford Marsalis, Renaissance
  • Duran Duran, “Electric Barbarella”
  • Fantastic Plastic Machine, The Fantastic Plastic Machine
  • Front 242, Front by Front
  • Ingram Marshall, Three Penitential Visions / Hidden Voices
  • Jay-Z, The Black Album
  • Snoop Dogg, Doggystyle
  • Sonic Youth, Confusion Is Sex / Kill Yr. Idols
  • William Orbit, Pieces in a Modern Style

Reissues

CD
  • The B-52’s, Cosmic Thing (Anniversary Edition)
Vinyl
  • Masada, Sanhedrin: 1994-1997 Unreleased Studio Recordings

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The ones that nearly got away: Branford Marsalis Quartet, Crazy People Music

[Branford Marsalis Quartet - Crazy People Music]

Here’s a case where I really didn’t know what I was giving up when I let it go.

In high school, my perception of jazz was shaped by the repertoire we played in jazz band, the bulk of which stemmed from the music’s early era. We played your Glenn Miller, a bit of washed-over Duke Ellington, something Stan Kenton-ish and even a Spyro Gyra cover.

But my music program wasn’t sophisticated enough to introduce anything like John Coltrane or Miles Davis, so Ornette Coleman was completely off the radar.

At the end of my high school career, I encountered the intersection of modern classical music and jazz known as “downtown New York”. I didn’t understand the traditions from which either came at that point, but I loved the noise it produced.

Before there were online streaming services, there was the music press, and back then, I would read about all kinds of interesting music more than I would actually hear it. That meant taking some leaps for faith based on something somebody wrote in a magazine.

I took that leap with John Zorn and Kronos Quartet, and I liked where I ended up. I took that same leap with the Branford Marsalis Quartet, and Crazy People Music didn’t last long in my collection.

The press around the album, as I remember it, described the album as forward-thinking and ground-breaking. It went as far as winning a Grammy Award. I went into Crazy People Music thinking it would be another Naked City.

It sounded pretty standard, which was to say it didn’t stray too far from the kind of jazz pieces we played in band. The heads on Crazy People Music maybe sounded a bit off-kilter, but they sounded nothing like what I could find on Kronos’ Winter Was Hard or White Man Sleeps.

For an album called Crazy People Music, it didn’t sound, well, crazy enough. I played through my cassette copy of the album perhaps once, then went straight back to my Nonesuch albums.

I picked up a CD copy of the album at the Friends of the Seattle Library book sale, about 28 years after I first encountered it. By then, I had learned how to listen to jazz, and I had a better sense of history about the music than I did in high school.

I like it way more now.

And within the confines of Marsalis’ idiom, the album actually does have its moments of craziness. I first went into the album thinking it would structurally crazy. Rather, the crazy stems from the performances themselves. There are some hot takes on this record.

But I think what I missed the most about Crazy People Music is the cover. The quartet looks like they’re having a blast, but it’s a fun rooted in mania. The back cover of the album jumbles the text in a manner where you can’t tell which is up. Fishbone employed a similar effect on the cover of In Your Face.

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Purchase log, 2019-05-21

[Soundtrack - Macross: Ai Oboete Imasu Ka?]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

I traveled to Austin for the record convention this past weekend. I didn’t find much of what I wanted, but I did find a lot of what I didn’t know I wanted. This list includes purchases at Waterloo Records and End of an Ear.

New releases

CD
  • Jamila Woods, Legacy! Legacy!
  • Kronos Quartet with Masha and Marjan Vadat, Placeless

Catalog

CD
  • a-ha, Hunting High and Low
  • Bill Frisell, Before We Were Born
  • Dwight Yoakam, Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room
  • Grizzly Bear, Shields
  • Johnny Cash, At Folsom Prison
  • Joy Division, Closer
  • Robert Palmer, Pride
  • Robert Palmer, Some People Can Do What They Like
  • Shovels & Rope, Swimmin’ Time
  • Tomita, The Planets
  • Witold Lutoslawski, Symphonies / Concertos / Vocal and Choral Works
Vinyl
  • Branford Marsalis Quartet, Crazy People Music
  • Everything But the Girl, Everything But the Girl
  • Franz Josef Haydn, Streichquartette, op. 20, 2 & 4 (Quarteto Esterhazy)
  • Giovanni Palestrina, Pope Marcellus Mass / Stabat Mater / Three Motets (Pro Cantione Antiqua, Bruno Turner)
  • Janet Jackson, Janet Jackson
  • Johnny Cash, At Folsom Prison
  • Kacey Musgraves, Same Trailer Different Park
  • Marilyn Manson, Antichrist Superstar
  • Megadeth, So Far … So Good … So What!
  • Olivier Messiaen, La Nativité du Seigneur (Jennifer Bate)
  • Olivier Messiaen / Toru Takemitsu, Messiaen: Turangalîla Symphony / Takemitsu: November Steps (Toronto Symphony, Seiji Ozawa)
  • Seawind, Seawind
  • The Old 97s, Too Far to Care
  • Soundtrack, Macross: Ai Oboete Imasu Ka?
  • Soundtrack, The Iron Giant
  • Various Artists, Brown Bags to Stardom
  • Various Artists, Boulez, Messiaen & Koechlin
  • Various Artists, Music by Busoni, Franz Schmidt and Lutoslawski

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Purchase log picks, March 2019

[Branford Marsalis Quartet - Crazy People Music]

Branford Marsalis Quartet, Crazy People Music

I bought this album back in high school, before I had any inkling of how to listen to jazz. I didn’t understand it and sold it for cash. Now that I’ve had rudimentary schooling in jazz, I picked it up again at the library book sale. I get it now.

Johnny Cash, American Recordings

I remember the accolades heaped upon this album at the time of its release, but I hadn’t gotten into country music yet. So I had no interest in Johnny Cash. Now that I know more about his life and music, I see what all the fuss was about.

Justice, Cross

This album was listed in the book 1,000 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. I found a copy of it at the thrift store. I liked it enough.

PJ Harvey, Rid of Me

To Bring You My Love gets the highest praise among PJ Harvey’s albums, but I couldn’t get into it. I much prefer Rid of Me.

Pop Will Eat Itself, This Is the Day … This Is the Hour … This Is This!

This album got good reviews in all the magazines I read as a teenager, but I hesitated on getting it. I would eventually find a ratty vinyl copy selling for cheap decades later. Teenaged self should have been the one to take that plunge.

Sly and the Family Stone, Stand!

Too many tracks on this album have been licensed to sell products, but somehow, that doesn’t seem to diminish them. Or maybe we’re just more chill about music licensing these days.

Tom Tom Club, Tom Tom Club

I totally forgot that “Wordy Rappinghood” was a Tom Tom Club track. I dug that track so much as a kid, I annoyed everyone around me by singing it.

Weezer, Weezer (Teal Album)

The meticulousness this covers album takes in reproducing the originals is ridiculous and admirable.

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Purchase log, 2019-03-19

[Pop Will Eat Itself - This Is the Day ... This Is the Hour ... This Is This!]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

This past weekend was the Friends of the Seattle Library Book Sale, which usually provides a few weeks’ worth of listening.

Catalog

CD
  • Aretha Franklin, Aretha’s Best
  • Atmosphere, Overcast!
  • Beck, Mutations
  • Billy Idol, Idolize Yourself: The Very Best of Billy Idol
  • bis, The New Transistor Heroes
  • Björk, Drawing Restraint 9
  • Bon Jovi, Slippery When Wet
  • Branford Marsalis Quartet, Crazy People Music
  • Daniel Lanois, Acadie
  • David Bowie, Pin Ups
  • Dawn Upshaw, Voices of Light
  • Einstürzende Neubauten, 80-83 Strategies Against Architecture
  • György Ligeti, Ligeti Edition 5: Mechanical Music
  • Jane’s Addiction, Nothing’s Shocking
  • Joanna Newsom, Ys
  • John Zorn, The Gift
  • Johnny Cash, American Recordings
  • Josquin des Prez / Giovanni Palestrina, Motets / Masses
  • Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II
  • Lizz Wright, The Orchard
  • Lovage, Nathaniel Merriweather Presents … Lovage: Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By
  • Mazzy Star, So Tonight That I Might See
  • Mike Patton, Adult Themes for Voice
  • Oingo Boingo, Dead Man’s Party
  • Osvaldo Golijov, Ainadamar
  • PJ Harvey, Let England Shake
  • PJ Harvey, Rid of Me
  • Pop Will Eat Itself, This Is the Day … This Is the Hour … This Is This!
  • Queen Latifah, Nature of a Sista
  • Robert Palmer, Addictions Volume 2
  • Roberta Flack, First Take
  • Sonic Youth, Washing Machine
  • Soundgarden, Louder Than Love
  • Spice Girls, Spiceworld
  • Stephen Sondheim, Putting it Together (Original Cast Recording)
  • The Beatles, Yellow Submarine
  • The Mars Volta, De-Loused at the Comatorium
  • The White Stripes, Get Behind Me Satan
  • Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane, At Carnegie Hall
  • Tom Tom Club, Tom Tom Club
  • William Grant Still, Africa
  • XTC, Nonsuch
  • Yaz, You and Me Both
  • Various Artists, Stay Awake
  • Soundtrack, Pride and Prejudice (BBC Television serial)
  • Soundtrack, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away)
  • Soundtrack, Sense and Sensibility
Vinyl
  • Dead Or Alive, Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know
  • Eleanor Steber, Barber: Knoxville: Summer 1915 / LaMontaine: Songs of the Rose of Sharon
  • Millions Like Us, Millions Like Us
  • Olivier Messiaen, Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum / Couleurs de la Cité Celeste
  • Olivier Messiaen, Petites Liturgies de la Présence Divine
  • Olivier Messiaen, Tashi Plays Messiaen – Quartet for the End of Time
  • Robert Palmer, Clues
  • Robert Palmer, Double Fun
  • Robert Palmer, Maybe It’s Live
  • Robert Palmer, Pride
  • Robert Palmer, Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley
  • Stephen Sondheim, Pacific Overtures (Original Broadway Cast)
  • William Schuman, Symphony No. 3 / Symphony for Strings
  • Yvonne Elliman, Yvonne
  • Soundtrack, A Room with a View

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