ALBUM OF THE DAY: Ai+BAND “Hello! We Are Ai+BAND”
Ai+BAND
Hello! We Are Ai+BAND
(Life/Warner Japan)
Available on CD, but now out of print
Shopping link: eBay
I can’t believe this fine slice of powerpop has been taken out of print sometime in the past two years. It’s a shame – it’s a great album by a great band that sadly, seemed to have disappeared off the face of the planet after dropping this album and two others afterward.
Soundcloud was being douchy and Grooveshark for some reason didn’t have widgets reactivated at the time I first posted, so I originally had to resort to uploading directly to the server here at TGML – and even then I had to rename the sound files so that the plug in could recognize them. Now that Grooveshark is back to normal I’ve put up a more manageable widget. As per our policy, this stream will only be up for a week – kiss it goodbye on May 6th.
Sorry, too many problems with this stream. We had to take it down early.
ALBUM OF THE DAY: Whiteberry “After School” EP
WHITEBERRY
After School (EP)
(Pot Artist/Sony Japan)
Available on CD, but now out of print
The roots of the band that gave us “Natsumatsuri”, “Tachiiri Kinshi”, and many other pop-punk classics. This was their first EP, issued in 1999 but already starting to drift inexplicably out of print by the time their first album was out. “Tsuugakuro” would later be slipped into the track sequence of their first album Hatsu, and “Akubi” would get a remake in the wake of “Natsumatsuri”‘s becoming a smash hit, but the rest of the EP would remain part of this EP for eternity.
This stream was removed on May 5th, 2011, pursuant to this website’s policy as stated here.
ALBUM OF THE DAY: Black Flag and The Minutemen “Minuteflag”
BLACK FLAG & THE MINUTEMEN
Minuteflag
(SST Records)
Available on 12″ EP, but now out of print
Shopping link: eBay
For our first Album of the Day here at TGML, we present a rare, out-of-print more-than-curiosity from Black Flag and the Minutemen.
While Black Flag was finishing up their 1985 masterpiece Loose Nut, they invited the Minutemen over to Total Access for a little jam session. The end result was these four tracks, which were edited, mixed, and then deliberately shelved after the two bands made an odd tontine: The recordings would not be released until at least one of the bands had disbanded.
Unfortunately, the wait was short. D. Boon would die in a van crash right before the Minutemen’s final studio album 3-Way Tie for Last came out in stores in December of 1985, and Black Flag would break up eight months later.
It’s unlikely, for whatever reason, that the album will be reissued by SST. Downloadable versions seem to abound, but being a more legit outfit we’ll settle for sharing a stream:
This stream will be removed at midnight on May 4th, 2011, pursuant to this website’s policy as stated here.
Apparently, sometime late in 2011, SST Records elected to reissue Minuteflag strictly as a digital download. iTunes, AmazonMP3, and eMusic all have it for download, while a stream is available at Spotify. Dig it.
IN LOVING MEMORY: Poly Styrene (1957-2011)
From The Guardian:
Poly Styrene, best known as the frontwoman with 1970s punk group X-Ray Spex, has died. Styrene was receiving treatment for an advanced form of breast cancer when she passed away yesterday (Monday 25 April). She was 53.
News of her death spread across Twitter this morning, with fans expressing sorrow at her passing. “Hearing reports Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex has died. If so that’s very sad. An absolute heroine to me as a kid,” wrote mdlachlan, while PaulGardner123 wrote: “Sad news about Poly Styrene. Germ Free Adolescents and Identity are regularly played in my car.”
A spokesperson for Styrene confirmed her death this morning, saying everyone around her was saddened by the news. A full statement is expected later today.
Styrene, who was born Marian Joan Elliott-Said, shot to fame in 1976 with X-Ray Spex, and was immortalised in punk history with the song “Oh Bondage, Up Yours!” “Little girls should be seen and not heard,” Styrene would say to introduce the track. X-Ray Spex released one album, the acclaimed Germ Free Adolescents in 1978, before Styrene left the group.
Despite her relatively short stint with the band, Styrene’s overt feminism and mixed-race heritage marked her out among her punk contemporaries and won her legions of fans for generations to come. Beth Ditto, singer with Gossip, said: “Poly Styrene [was] so ahead of her time. She recreated punk.”
In a biography of the singer, Billboard.com said: “She sang in a raw, untutored scream that quavered and shook when she looked to extend her range, a vocal style echoed by riot grrls like Kathleen Hanna and Corin Tucker.”
Styrene went on to release a solo record in 1980, Translucence, but a series of traumatic incidents stalled her career. The singer was sectioned after being misdiagnosed with schizophrenia in the 80s, and was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder. In 1995, she survived being hit by a fire engine.
Styrene was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year, and was told it had spread to her lungs and spine. Despite undergoing treatment, she gave numerous interviews in recent months to promote her latest solo album, Generation Indigo. In an interview with the Guardian in March, she was described as “ironically upbeat” in spite of her health.
She told the Guardian: “You remember that old song ‘Que Sera Sera, Whatever will be, will be, the future’s not ours to see’? I’ve always felt that. It’s been a rollercoaster ride, but I wouldn’t change a thing.”
REVIEW: ROBERT JOHNSON “The Centennial Collection”
The Centennial Collection
(Legacy/Columbia)
Available on 2CD set and on iTunes, AmazonMP3 and eMusic
Rating:
By all accounts, I shouldn’t have to try to sell anyone on Robert Johnson. The man’s legend has loomed large since Columbia, under John Hammond Sr.’s auspices, assembled 16 of the long-dead Johnson’s recordings under the title King of the Delta Blues Singers. If you’re interested at all in early blues music, the roots of rock and roll, or early American music in general, you probably already have a copy of King of the Delta Blues Singers or the Complete Collection box set from 1990 (a surprise platinum-selling release – especially in the eyes of Columbia, who only expected to move ten or twenty thousand copies) in your collection. If not, any interest you may have had in the man’s music may have been slowed down by just one thing: “Ugh! Recordings from when they only made 78’s? There’ll be a fuckton of scratches. Important or not, five-star essential listening or not, I’m not listening to music under that bad of a sound source.”
Thankfully, technology has progressed to the point where a good sound engineer could take a scratchy 78, program the clicks and pops out of it, and make the recording sound as crystal clear as possible, as a late 90’s overdue CD edition of the first King of the Delta Blues Singers album proved in comparison to the Complete Collection box.
Of course, even Johnson devotees might whine, “Another reissue of the same bunch of tracks? Jesus Christ, Columbia, why don’t you just dig Robert’s body up and poison him to death again?” upon hearing of the release of The Centennial Collection. But that’s where technology comes into play again. Digital audio archiving has evolved so much that Centennial makes the previous edition of Johnson’s recordings sound less than optimum. I’ve heard Johnson’s recordings on everything from a cassette to the original box set to the 1998 CD edition of KOTDBS to a 180-gram LP. The fact is, these classic tracks are sounding as CLEAN as they have always deserved to be. There is a little high-end hiss that the sound engineers could not remove without compromising the original sonic fields that were recorded eighty years ago, but Johnson’s singing and guitar playing, his signature sound – are ringing clearer than ever. You couldn’t make these recordings sound any better unless you built a time machine, went back to the late 20’s and patched a MacBook Pro with ProTools into producer Don Law’s disc cutting machine.
And that, dear Virginia, is what this release of all of Johnson’s recordings is all about. If you can’t appreciate Robert Johnson’s music under these newly optimum conditions, then there’s something wrong.
Recommended Surfing: TheCompleteRobertJohnson.com
Happy Birthday To The True King and Heavyweight Champion of Rock and Roll!
James Newell Osterberg, Jr. – better known to all and sundry as Iggy Pop, the true king and heavyweight champion of rock and roll – celebrates his 64th trip around the sun today. I hope he lives another 64 years, and then 100 more years after that.
If you don’t know who Iggy is after his surprise American Idol appearance two weeks ago, well, downloading the A Million In Prizes compilation from iTunes or AmazonMP3 should help you on your way to discovering and appreciating this man’s wide body of work with the Stooges and as a solo artist.
REVIEW: MEAT PUPPETS “Lollipop”
MEAT PUPPETS
Lollipop
(Megaforce/Red Ink)
Available on CD, LP, iTunes and AmazonMP3
Rating: 
I welcomed the return of the Meat Puppets ever since Curt Kirkwood polled fans as to whether they wanted to see a reunion of the original lineup through his MySpace page. The first result of that question’s aftermath, 2007’s Rise To Your Knees, was the indie-rock equivalent of Star Trek: The Motion Picture: It was great to see/hear from some old friends again, even if the end results didn’t fully live up to the anticipation built up from years worth of passing time even before a return to action became reality.
With that seemingly odd comparison having been made, it’s not a stretch to suggest that the follow-up, 2009’s Sewn Together (which made TGML’s Top 10 Album list that year) is the Meat Puppets’s Wrath of Khan. Fully recharged after the test run that was Rise To Your Knees, Curt and Cris Kirkwood and then-drummer Ted Marcus had delivered in Sewn Together a long-playing effort that was (and is) fully worthy of standing up with the best albums (II, Up On The Sun, Mirage, Huevos, Too High To Die) of their classic back catalog.
Now, two years later, comes Lollipop; While they’ve had a major personnel change – Shandom Sahm, son of the late Sir Douglas Quintet/Texas Tornados leader Doug Sahm and also a former Meat Puppet back in the short-lived Golden Lies period, replaces Marcus behind the trap set – they not only haven’t lost a step, they’ve progressed nicely without losing an ounce of what makes the Meat Puppets who they quintessentially are, be it Curt Kirkwood’s lead lines or his and Cris’s brotherly harmonies. Much of the material could have fit nicely on Up On The Sun or Mirage, but there are also a few welcome twists and turns, like the reggae/ska rhythms that propel the verses “Shave It”, or the almost Coldplay-esque piano chords that open “Orange” only to get near-obliterated by “My Sharona” drums and some nasty fuzz bass from Cris Kirkwood. All of it works.
So, if we’re going to fool around with Meat Puppets/Star Trek comparisons, does that make Lollipop their Search for Spock? Well, put it this way: Search was a must-see flick back in the day. Lollipop is a must-hear album. Enough said.
(Hot tip: Advance order customers who ordered Lollipop from the band’s website – your humble reviewer included – initially received a high-quality digital download of the album with the songs in their original, pre-manufacture sequence [but accidentally labeled with the final sequence’s song titles] – an error long since corrected and rectified by the band’s management. To emulate the original sequence, program your CD player or iPod playlist in the following order: 2, 3, 11, 10, 9, 5, 6, 7, 8, 4, 1, 12.)
Stream: Meat Puppets “Damn Thing”
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Five Years of Blogging!
Yep, five years. I am, admittedly, quite amazed by that headline. Five years of blogging here and at this site’s predecessor, MotokoAoyama.com. It’s a milestone that I am very proud of. Not as proud as what took place last June 26th, but still very worthy of commemoration, and with my favorite way of commemorating things: A list of what has been accomplished, experienced, or just plain witnessed in the past half-decade:
Two webhosts (only one of which I recommend, Bluehost)
Four laptops (Don’t get me started…)
Three iPods (I finally upgraded to a 120GB model!)
Morning Musume and AKB48 both making their American concert debuts – and way fucking overdue to return to these shores on a regular basis… no excuses, please, just book the dates and get on the plane!
Sixteen Morning Musume singles
Fifteen personnel changes in Morning Musume
Two personnel changes in C-ute
No personnel changes in Berryz Koubou
More personnel changes in AKB48 than anyone can keep up with… (and I’m not even going to bother trying to anymore!)
Seven and a half Morning Musume albums (the “half album” being the 7.5 Fuyu Fuyu EP) Continue reading
NEW MUSIC: JANE’S ADDICTION “End to the Lies”
Their new album The Great Escape Artist isn’t going to be out until August (no exact release date has been stated yet), but Jane’s Addiction are already starting to stoke the fires in preparation by issuing the first single, “End of the Lies”, through their website. Apparently, a leak of the rough mix came out last week, so Perry, Dave and company decided, “Fuck it, let’s release the final mix for free ourselves.” All one has to do is sign up for the band’s mailing list through the website – or stream it below:
Stream: Jane’s Addiction “End of the Lies”
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This Week’s Entry In The Totally Fucking Unexpected Department…
I did not see this coming…
Yep, the true King of Rock And Roll, Iggy Pop, was on American Idol* tonight, doing “Real Wild Child (Wild One)”, something to tie in with the fact that yesterday the Idol contestants did repertoire from Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame inductees (of which Iggy and The Stooges have been since last year). Nice move, AI producers.
*As you may have noticed, I didn’t do my customary “re-spelling” of the show’s title. When this season’s over, I may elaborate further.
