Category: Episodes

192. Tomita

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(November 2018) I have completed episode 192 of my “opus project.” This edition: TOMITA. A pioneer of electronic music in the 1960s and 1970s, Isao Tomita is most famous for his electronic interpretations of famous classical works, although he did plenty of soundtracks too. I enjoy those early period synthesized sounds, although, listening from a distance, it can come off as cheesy. Also some nostalgia here, as Tomita was the playlist to many afternoons of board game playing.

Favorite album: Snowflakes are Dancing

Favorite song: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (Debussy)

Compared to expectations: ↓

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191. Sergei Rachmaninoff

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(November 2018) I have completed episode 191 of my “opus project.” This edition: SERGEI RACHMANINOFF. Wow, could this guy put a hurt on a piano. I wonder whether they have to euthanize the piano after Piano Concerto #3 is played. But don’t discount his orchestral and chamber work too. I think of him as the last Romantic composer, capping the long, famous line of Russians in this tradition.

Favorite piece: Piano Concerto #3

Favorite symphony: #2

Favorite solo piano : Piano Sonata #2

Favorite choral piece: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom

Favorite song: Vocalise (wordless, with a melody that might have been taken by Paul Simon in Bridge Over Troubled Water)

Compared to expectations: same

sergei_rachmaninoff,_1910s

190. Franz Ferdinand

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(November 2018) I have completed episode 190 of my “opus project.” This edition: FRANZ FERDINAND. The angular rock of their first album spent a lot of time in my CD player in the mid-aughts. Stuff after that, where they trended toward this neo-disco thing, not so much.

Favourite album: Frank Ferdinand

Favourite song: Take Me Out

Best song that’s also a spot-on homage to a Kinks song: Eleanor Put Your Boots On

Compared to expectations: same

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189. Elvis Costello

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(November 2018) I have completed episode 189 of my “opus project.” This edition: ELVIS COSTELLO. I’ve always enjoyed his popular songs, but I never collected his albums. Arguably the most gifted living songwriter not named McCartney, Dylan or Simon, he is also incredibly prolific (a new release every 16 months over four decades) and diverse (rock, lounge, jazz, country, classical). He best work is in rock, and I find his crooner/lounge pop recordings to be almost unlistenable: ill-suited to his voice and soured by his tendency to melodic wandering.

Favourite album: Armed Forces

Favourite song: Veronica

Compared to expectations: ↓

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Worst album: Kojak Variety

Favourite late-period album: Momofuku

Best collaboration: Wise Up Ghost (with The Roots)

188. The B-52s

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(October 2018) I have completed episode 188 of my “opus project.” This edition: THE B-52s. I bought their first album soon after it came out — one of only two* non-classic rock discs on my shelf . I loved the retro kitsch. But the retro kitsch ran thin fast. Beyond “Roam,” Love Shack,” and “Good Stuff,” most everything after “Rock Lobster” is vacuous.

Favorite album: The B-52s

Favorite song: Planet Claire

Compared to expectations: ↓

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187. The Runaways

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(October 2018) I have completed episode 187 of my “opus project.” This edition: THE RUNAWAYS. The first all-female hard rock band, they paved the way for many others (think L7 and The Donnas). KISS may have sold out arenas but their contemporaries The Runaways were no less hard-charging and loud. They also gave us Joan Jett and Lita Ford.

Favorite album: Gueens of Noise

Favorite song: Cherry Bomb

Compared to expectations: ↑

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186. Edvard Grieg

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(October 2018) I have completed episode 186 of my “opus project.” This edition: EDVARD GRIEG. In August we were in Bergen, Norway, hometown of Edvard Grieg, so I was delighted to start this episode there. Other than Peer Gynt, I was not so familiar with his work, but I was pleasantly surprised despite my relatively low interest in Romantic era classical music. Piano is his strong suit, and the array of arranged and original Norwegian songs shows how he helped inspire Norwegian patriotism (that led to independence in 1905).

Favorite piece: Peer Gynt

Favorite chamber piece: String Quartet in G minor

Compared to expectations: same

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185. The Hives

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(October 2018) I have completed episode 185 of my “opus project.” This edition: THE HIVES. Inject this punk-inflected garage rock directly into my veeeeiiiins! Regrettably, I did not come upon The Hives until recently, because It Me. If you don’t know them, make them Your New Favourite Band.

Favourite album: Veni Vidi Vicious

Favourite song: Die, All Right!

Compared to expectations: same

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184. Motörhead

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(October 2018) I have completed episode 184 of my “opus project.” This edition: MOTÖRHEAD. Rock n’ roll to make your eardrums bleed: the way it should be. Lemmy never diverges from the core concept: loud and fast and whisky-fueled, but even over four decades it never got stale. Beauty in its purity. I came late to Motörhead, which was a mistake.*

Favourite album: Overkill

Favourite song: Ace of Spades

Worst album: March ör Die

Best later album: Bastards

Compared to expectations: ↑

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* imagine the enhancement of my musical trajectory if, in 1979, I had bought Overkill instead of Van Halen II

183. The Shangri-Las

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(October 2018) I have completed episode 183 of my “opus project.” This edition: The SHANGRI-LAS. Among the Girl Groups of the mid-1960s, the Shangri-Las have stood out to me. Perhaps it’s their “bad girl” image, or that a couple of their songs verged on social commentary. You may recognize them from “Leader of the Pack” and “Remember (Walking in the Sand).”

Favorite song: He Cried

Compared to expectations: same

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