Neil Young - Re-ac-tor - 1981

Re-act-or:  the beginnings of Neil Young's awesome and much maligned 80's albums, a noisy precursor to Trans, and recorded with Crazy Horse.  What's not to like here?  Re-ac-tor is loaded with heaps of fuzzed-out electric guitar, from Frank Sampedro, ridiculous percussion from Ralph Molina, and thudding bass from Billy Talbot.

There's "a story of Surfer Joe, who caught the big one and let it go" that exemplifies Young's folky, storytelling talents.  This is only to be followed by the bold and brash, "T-Bone," where Neil sings about mashed potatoes and T-Bone steaks.  Yes, you read that right.  It's a pretty silly track, but who cares?  It's fun to listen to and very few lyrics.  Literally, "Got mashed potatoes, Ain't got no T-Bone" repeats endlessly over this nine-minute jam session with the Horse.  Yes.

Side-B is full of trains and cars.  The train-track, "Southern Pacific," sounds like it could fit easily on Neil and Crazy Horse's retro covers album, Americana, due to its rootsy pace, dark lyrics, haunting back-up vocals, massive guitar mashing, and bass line.  Some people might listen to "Motor City" and think it's strange how Young sings so crankily about his car, but seeing as cars are a giant part of his life the song makes total sense.  It's a funny and simple 50's style track with a great sing-a-long "who's driving my car now?"  From reading his autobiographical book, Waging Heavy Peace, you would know how driving huge, old cars on the open road is just about his favorite pastime (after making music and playing with toy trains).  "Rapid Transit" is prescient of his yet to come Landing on Water, not sure why.  His vocals are playful; he's scatting a bit, and doing some lip drum rolls, and yowling too.

Album closer "Shots" could make a guest appearance on Le Noise, Young's recent album that sounds like a "feedback drenched apocalypse."  "Shots" is far ahead of its time.  It's grungy.  Really gritty.  All kinds of machinery sounds are made here with nasty guitar feedback.  Stunning.  Young's singing laid on this backdrop is spot on.  Neil and the Horse are in an intensely focused jam till the end of this track when it just crumbles in chaos.  Total destruction.

Re-ac-tor has howls, kazoos, oohs, ahhs, wood block, cow bell, hand claps, whubba whubbahs,  and the occasional whooh.  As an album it's brimming with reckless abandon.  It's messy at times and frankly lacks in musical focus.  It's Neil and the Horse possibly well loaded and joyously jamming out.  Crazy Horse brings out ripping sounds and fiery intensity on each and every one of these tracks.

Seems like a lot of the music here could perfectly fit into other great Neil Young albums that he later created.  Was this album ahead of its time?  Then why is it that Re-ac-tor is not highly regarded by the general public?  These VVer's don't care about that kinda stuff and like what they like.  It has been in their collection for quite a few years and there it will remain.

Louis Armstrong Plays W. C. Handy

Louis Armstrong Plays W. C. Handy - 1954

Starting off this stellar record is "St. Louis Blues."  You won't be able to get enough of this rendition.  We play it again and again.  The horns churn up a rocking tempo for this dusky number.  Clocking in at nearly nine minutes it is full of frequent back-and-forth vocals.  Jazz vocals usually don't make the cut for the VVers, especially not female vocals.  However, the W. C. Handy classics played by Louis Armstrong and his band set the scene for some flawless bluesy-jazz singing.  Besides Armstrong's always-pleasing, grizzly voice and distinct personality, credit must go to frequent collaborator, Velma Middleton.  Her rich old-timey voice (it probably didn't sound "old-timey" then) is the perfect accompaniment for Armstrong's tooting trumpet.  Although it's "the blues," it sure does sound like these two singers are having a grand time.  Speaking of Armstrong's trumpet, it is powerful enough to provide a narrative in most of the songs; lyrics aren't needed.

"Yellow Dog Blues" follows with a slow start that gradually morphs into a closing "Cha cha cha chaaaaaaaaah, tooot!"  A swinging version of "Loveless Love" is about as "oldie but goodie" sounding as they get, reminiscent of "When the Saints Go Marching In."  There are some slower tracks as well to even out the tempo like "Aunt Hagar's Blues" and "Beale Street Blues" (seven of eleven tracks on this albums have "Blues" in their title, so you know it's the blues).  What is clear in these songs is that every piece of the music is played with purpose.  Bleating horns or piano flourishes are integral parts of the whole, not just there just to fill out the songs.  "Long Gone" is just a fun one, full of story-telling and even laughing during the lyrics.  You can hear the rest of the band in the background "Whoo-yeah!" -- the modern equivalent of getting juiced for a guitar solo -- when Louis and company are set to rip into a finale.  These guys are pumped up!  There's an up-tempo, walking bassline that leads into a drum solo on the quick and tight "Ole Miss" that is about as catchy an anything these VVers have ever listened to.

Back cover notes, by celebrated producer George Avakian, are solid.  They are dense.  Possibly even printed in 4 pt font.  Regardless, if you have to use a magnifying glass, the back cover gives exacting back story of the songs that Armstrong chose from Handy's collection.  It's good stuff, but not for this blog.

Hard to believe this record is 60 years old this year.  The recording has aged extremely well -- sounding just a lively as when it was first committed to wax.  Full disclosure is that we haven't knowingly heard any of Handy's music before.  We are really just taking this album for what it is.  A masterpiece of composition, talent, and energy.  It is a joyous blues classic.

This Forest and the Sea

Scott Key - This Forest and The Sea 1976


Picked up this obscure guitar record for fifty cents at the Montgomery County Thrift Shop.  I was initially drawn to the black and white cover art.  The lone nerdish looking hippie sitting with his guitar in a remote western landscape has a silverish tint to it.  The feel of the print is like something from the turn of the century and would still seem that way if not for Mr. Key's 70's jeans, thick modish glasses, and hang glider collared shirt.  Back cover is also in black and white; a white line drawing (or maybe it's a woodcut?) of a Japanese looking pine tree on the edge of a hillside.  This was all eye catching, but what really sold me (and at fifty cents it usually doesn't take much) was the odd poem/story at the end of the track listing.

Elroy snuck into the zoo one night and abducted a baby

antelope from its cell.  Whereupon, he proceeded to strangle

it to death and stalk away into the darkness dragging the

carcass behind him.  A few days later, the police came to

Elroy's apartment and soon discovered the deceased critter

cut up into bite-size pieces and stuffed inside a few lidless

jars in his cupboard.

Menacing enough for you?  Mind you, the poem seems not to be related to any specific track. When the needle gets to work I hear much of the same menace lurking through the spare minor chords.  Just the loner and his guitar.  He doesn't strike me as evil, more so intensely purposeful and introspective.  Tuned down with cycling chord progressions, most tracks take on the feeling of an Indian mantra or some sort of spiritual ceremony.  There are slow blurry string bends, playful chuckling strums, bottleneck slides, and plenty of tempo shifts.  "Goon Lagoon" has all of these jammed into under three minutes.  It's a standout track on an album full of bold and compulsively energetic tales.  I can't quite put my finger on how to classify the sound here.  It has moments that remind me of early Pink Floyd and others that remind me of the soundtrack to a trippy western.  He tends to keep it acoustic but when he plugs in it is seamless.  Parts of tracks have a sound like proto-alternative circa 1989.  Dark and looming moments in "Buzzard Blues" have a slacker charm that can be just a little spooky.

Key sings on just three tracks on the record.  His voice is somewhat atonal and the tunes suit a certain dark mood. Lyrics seem to be ruminations about alienation from the ways of the modern world of football players and politicians.  "It's a stone's throw away, today.  And it may just be your last."  Doom with a hint of optimism that better days must be a ahead.  Sounds like the 70's to me.

I've only found just a couple of mentions of this record on the internets.  A few bidding sites describe it as "Psychaedelic Folk" and I've seen one listing of a proposed rerelease.  I've asked the local record store guys as well as a gentleman who helps organize the massive collection of a local thrift store and nobody has ever heard of Mr. Key.  It seems that most of the world outside of Colorado never noticed the man, but those lucky enough to get a listen seem to be quite smitten.  I'd put myself in the category.  It's spare and perfect for contemplative days.


P.S. in the liner notes "Guitars recorded in Rush's sauna and elsewhere".

Lenorable - The Prince - 2012

Picked this little disc up at the most recent incarnation of DC's "everything and the kitchen sink" art happening - Artomatic 2012 (full disclosure, VVer Eric has a show of paintings and sketches in Artomatic on the 11th floor).  Got to see the second half of this duo's set while stumbling around after a semi-chaotic "meet the artist" night.  I had been sketching portraits up at my art space for three straight hours, and after an hour or so of wandering and cheese sampling, I got to the stage area to check these guys out.  Exhausted, I fast became mesmerized by what I was experiencing and broke out the sketchbook for a little while longer.

This 7" (on clear vinyl!) has a full sound and is played at 33 1/2 speed not 45, which quickly became obvious once chipmunk vocals ensued.  The two tunes here are apparently based on Edgar Allan Poe stories ... have you ever heard that Alan Parson's Project album, Tales of Mystery and Imagination?  You might check that one out.  Hey back to the review over here! The lyrics don't make me think about lit much at all and I don't think I would have picked up on this fact at all if not for them mentioning it during the show and for the liner notes on the album sleeve.  This is not a slight on Lenorable; just a noting that this VVers literary knowledge might need some brushing up.  Maybe I should spend less time listening to records and more time reading literary classics?  Naaaaahhhh.  Lyrics here sound more to me like despondent laments of heartbreak from a very smarty arty lady.  That's three y's in  a row by the way.  "Follow me my prison lovelies, ... We will dance into tomorrow while your eyes grow gray."  Vocalist Lisa and guitarist Ian join forces to create a pulsing sonic bummer drone. Pulsing drum machine and low tone bass chords rumble menacingly underneath slightly off kilter, pop-ish moans on the b-side track "Ligeia."  The tune has a driving, march to the end of the world glory that just hits the spot.  It is already in heavy rotation on my 45 stack.  I can't help but to think of early Ladytron tunes while listening to The Prince. Lenorable is more sonically spare in their style, and I think that is to their benefit.  As much as I love Ladytron's gothic, multi-synth approach; sometimes it's just a bit too much layering.  Lenorable creates a lot of haunting echo in the spaces between and I like that I can actually distinguish the instruments from one another.  Spare should not be mistaken for plain.  Crunchy guitars, church bells, woodpecker drum loops, and multiple variant synth effects kick in at various points during this tight little death ditty.  The sound is straight ahead, powerful, and honest.

Aqualung

"Aqualung, my friend..." [must be sung with a squished up face and lower jaw jutted out]


Well, this purchase was indeed all inspired by the silliest of silly movies, "Anchorman, The Legend of Ron Burgundy" (for Ron's inspiration in the movie listen to Side B "My God" which features a disturbingly powerful flute solo with mad trillos).  Expectations for this one were pretty low and yet, there was a glimmer of jazz flute that induced hope.  Found in an egg crate bin at Gerosa Records in a VV's hometown of Brookfield, CT, this album got dusted off to travel back to DC with us.  


Jethro Tull's masterpiece is a rocking, epic, profane mess of bluster, theatre, and hooky jams.  More guitar and rhythm section than flute (though the flute is certainly well featured), this record gets the head bobbing in an appreciative "satan is the master" sway.  It is truly a rocking album mostly about a hobo.

Kurtis Blow, 1980

I've been waiting on writing about Kurtis Blow's self titled 1980 album because I wasn't sure where to take it after this, it could go to his second album Deuce, Run DMC, or the Fat Boys.... So now that I've given a preview of upcoming reviews.... THESE ARE THE BREAKS!

The Good: "Rappin Blow (Part 2)", "The Breaks", and "Way Out West", which is all of Side A. Blow's lyrics encouraging the listeners to interact with the music is kinda revolutionary. This might be the first time we hear "Throw your hands in the air, and wave em like you just don't care", "Somebody scream!", and "Just do it just do it just do it do it do it." The single, "The Breaks" is epic, especially with the drum solos, which I'm pretty sure is actually someone playing the buckets. You really cannot listen to Side A and not get up and dance.

The Bad: SIDE B. Its really not good. In fact, you really have to ask what he was thinking recording "All I Want in this World." The lyrics are ridiculous: "A cute one, a shy one, a slim one, a sly one, a big one, a small one, a real off the wall one, all I want in this world is to find that girl." I don't believe I actually just listened to this song twice to write these lyrics down. His cover to "Takin Care of Business" is a clear display that he should stick to rapping. It's fucking horrendous! It's kind of great awful, but you should probably not be sober for it.

The Ugly: Back Cover. Do not look at it. In fact hold it very far away from your face when trying to read the track titles. Pretty sure Kurtis Blow's face is larger than life size, unless he is a giant. Not attractive.

This album is really a bridge between funky 70's disco and 80's rap and hippity hop. The catchy flows and sweet lyrics really make this album, whether they are good or bad (mostly good). He seems like he's not really all that interested in making any particular type of album, he's experimenting a lot. Dangerously bad results ensue on side B, but the good stuff cannot be ignored and is pretty damn funky. Although Blow's "The Breaks" is often mentioned with Sugar Hill Gang's "Rappers Delight" it's sort of amazing that Blow laid the track as a solo rapper instead of a group. These singles are cited as being the birth of modern hip-hop. Pretty boogaloo awesome.

Folk of the 80's

Men Without Hats - Folk of the 80's 1980

I know I mentioned a Devo album as the next review, but this one has been stuck in my head lately and it's a true winner. We picked this up at a record fair at the Black Cat on Valentine's Day, so romantic. I think we both were hesitant about picking this album up. This four song EP, their first ever release, has four songs, one of which (Antarctica) is on the bands full length album "Rhythm of Youth" (A great album). So why drop five bucks for three songs that could be total crap? We were likely propelled by the fact that "Rhythm of Youth" was such a good album, but really I have no idea why we bought it. The first song, "Modern(e) Dancing" is such an ear-worm that it's been locked in my head from listen one. It has goofy bleeps and bloops, an extremely catchy chorus, and some strange yelps from singer Ivan Doroschuck. The band is French Canadian, known as great yelpers... did you not know that? "Modern(e) Dancing" also features the line "with 60's hairdo's and 90's eyes", which seems incredibly futuristic for an EP put out in 1980. The other three songs; "Utter Space", "Antarctica", and "Security (Everybody Feels Better With)" are strong, memorable, and worth serious repeats.

"So where can I get one?" Turns out this is another hard to find album. Strangely, only "Antarctica" shows up on compilations and the other three songs are impossible to locate. I suppose people heard "The Safety Dance" and just assumed that anything else these guys put out was ignorable. Well,however you track this record down, it'll be worth it. At $1.25 per song in the current digital age of music, I feel we got a great deal.

TRANS

Neil Young - Trans 1982

We were recommended this record by reliable source, Rob of Smash records. He was working a record fair at Comet Ping Pong and noticed me eyeballing this oddball album. I'd be told that Neil Young went on several uncelebrated musical tangents in the 80's and that his foray into electronica was the most odd. My assumption was that Neil was tired of being a country rock music darling and wanted to expand his musical horizons. Either that or he was really, really freakin' high.

Before I say any more about this album, I feel it's important to note that Neil Young has been a favorite of mine since my undergrad years. I got sucked into the image of him as "The Godfather of Grunge" that the music press of the early 90's billed him. Hey, the music was good and some of it did sound pretty grungy... those reporters must be onto something! Well, it was a little longer till I started actually listening to Neil's larger catalogue. This guy had pretty wide range and tastes. Slow folky ramblings, rocking souther style epics, and everything in-between. Still, I was warned to stay away from the early 80's stuff. Neil went weird...

Trans is a weird album. Very weird. The first song on the album is generic southern, folk rock, and cheesy too. It could easily throw anyone off the idea that Neil was experimenting sonically. Everything else on the album is pure electronic synth odd freakout pleasure. I'm pretty sure he liked to dance the robot while writing this album. On record he makes frequent use of the robotronic voice altering microphone device, the vocoder. Think "auto tune" but not shitty. So what possessed Mr. Young to go from tunes like "Needle and the Damage Done", "Old Man", "Harvest Moon", "Southern Man", "Ohio", etc. to this type of computerized strangeness? Turns out that using the vocoder around his son (who has cerebral palsey) elicited an improved response in communication. Pretty nice, eh? Finding a better way to communicate with your ailing child is a much better story than being really, really high. Ultimately, none of that matters if it sounds like hell, which it absolutely does not. It sounds amazing. It's catchy, well written and has a good deal of surprises. He even says "yippee ki yi yay" several time in full on robot talk. Pure gold. Standout tracks; "Like an Inca", "Computer Cowboy", "We R in Control"

Seems the only way you're getting this album is on an import CD or a bootleg rip. We got lucky and found the vinyl version. Love it so much that the album sleeve is framed and adorns the top of our stairwell. Beauty. Also, it should be mentioned that portions of some of the songs appear in the movie "Human Highway", that Young directed. It's a comedy that he made with New Wave band Devo... It's purported to be incredibly bad and also, it's impossible to find. Maybe we review a Devo album next...