Let me know what local band in your city/town is really flipping your switch now. Who's two-stepping in Sioux Falls? Who's creating the gnarliest mosh pit in Louisville? Who's fueling the all-night rave in Detroit? Who has the hippies spinning in Tallahassee? Send me a link to the band or just give me their name and I'll check it out. Each week I'll post a review of your city's local favorite.
Musically, Germany is known mainly for its Krautrock (Can, Neu, Faust, Amon Duul) and Hard Rock (Scorpions, Michael Schenker, Accept, Rammstein), but this 1995 compilation of post-punk and alternative pop songs gives us a glimpse into the underbelly of a vibrant music scene. It's sung mostly in German and one track is produced by a non-German, David Lowery of Camper Van Beethoven. You gotta give the Germans credit because I wouldn't want to figure out what to rhyme Geschwindigkeitsüberschreitung with.
Buy this record for folding laundry into perfect squares while eating hazelnut truffles.
This 1961 Blue Note release finds Donald Byrd performing as a bandleader at the height of his powers. These were also the de rigueur days of bebop jazz , before the evolution of free jazz and fusion. His trumpet playing is more measured than Miles Davis, but it's hard to compare Byrd with a man who was consistently performing at such spectacular levels. Before going solo, so to speak, Byrd worked the jazz circuit as a featured player for Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, and Thelonious Monk so his pedigree was clearly established. Byrd moved on to R&B in the 70s and produced a lucrative catalog of recordings for Blue Note while also receiving not one, but two masters degrees from Columbia University.
"Shangri-La", with its military-style drum beats and dueling trumpet/sax solos is a definite highlight. "Requiem" provides a rousing and fitting end to the set. This era of jazz goes down so damn easy that I just may break out a Cohiba cigar and my foot massager.
Buy this record for that country drive you plan on taking when the weather's nice and you don't care where the kids will be.
Note: Above video is from Babe Rainbow's previous Shaved EP.
From the Warp label comes another one-man ambient electronic laptop band out of Vancouver, BC. Canadians seem to be proudly insulated from any modern trends. I remember meeting a rugby team from Edmonton, Alberta in the mid-90s and they were just getting into Twisted Sister. This record reminds me of that meeting. Could easily work as library music (see my Various Artists: Space Oddities review) for sci-fi movies and it's only 6 songs long so it wasn't a big waste of my time. You may impress a few electrical engineers with this?
Buy this record if you don't like hockey but need a Canuck fix.
This review is for Elon Musk. When he's not zip-lining through the woods of Northern California or building rocket-ships, you can find Elon relaxing by the campfire to the sultry Rap-dance sounds of The Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer). It's a comedy record from the SNL player Samberg and his schoolyard buddies that features cameos from Justin Timberlake, Akon, Beck, and a host of other chart topping celeb types.
If Matisyahu wrote a sex column for the Village Voice about a three way between the Beastie Boys, Will Smith, and Eminem at an all-night rave this would be the first reader response.
Buy this record if your home ec project didn't work out and you need a few yucks to help you forget about it.
Another damn band named after someone that isn't in the band. It's confusing, and annoying. This is reaching the Wolf and Bear named bands level of absurdity. Anyway, the music is unassuming and generally pleasant, for the first half of the record. By the second half you've been over-saturated and you're ready for it to end. They should have made an EP and fans would have been left itching for more, rookie mistake.
Buy this record if you plan on entertaining the in-laws but need an excuse to cut the dinner party short.
