(December 2019) Episode 241 is AARON COPLAND. I admit my first exposure was through Emerson, Lake & palmer. He is deservedly dubbed the “Dean of American Composers” for incorporating American themes and landscapes in his compositions. I like those, but I prefer his more abstract, modernist works.
Favorite work: Symphony #3
Favorite short piece: Fanfare for the Common Man
Favorite chamber piece: Quartet for Strings
Favorite ballet: Appalachian Spring
Compared to expectations: same
(November 2019) Episode 240 is GUSTAV MAHLER. He composed only songs and symphonies but, wow, what symphonies. Each one is a full course meal with several helpings — like a final culmination of the recipe refined by Beethoven (including the vocal elements), or an opera of his idol Wagner condensed into 75 minutes (without the theatrics).
Favorite piece: Symphony #5
Compared to expectations: same
(November 2019) Episode 239 is NAZZ. This psychedelic-tinged group out of Philadelphia enjoyably touched the sounds of the late 60s. As the launching pad for Todd Rundgren, Nazz also, not surprisingly, previewed power pop and soft rock.
Favorite album: Nazz
Favorite song: Open My Eyes
Compared to expectations: same
(November 2019) Episode 238 of the “opus project” is ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE and its various emanations.* In all my project, there is no greater gap between the love I have for a group and the revulsion that others have of it. I adore Beautiful Noise, and they are masters — feedback, distortion, psychedelic, freakouts, weirdness. AMT is a Japan-based collective of musicians with Makoto Kawabata at its center, producing prolifically (80 studio + 48 live albums). They humorously honor their inspirations (Zappa, Hendrix, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Terry Riley, etc.) with clever word-play album and song titles.** A-E-D-A-G-D
Favorite album: Crystal Rainbow Pyramid Under the Stars
Favorite song: The Tales of Solar Sail ~ Dark Stars in the Dazzling Sky
Best psychedelic: Crystal Rainbow Pyramid
Best acid rock: Cosmic Soul Death Disco
Best space rock: Pink Lady Lemonade
Best ambient: The Holly Mountain in the Counter Clock World
Best drone: In D
Compared to expectations: ↑
* Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O.
Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Inferno
Acid Maso Temple
Acid Mothers Afrirampo
Acid Mothers Gong
Acid Mothers Guru Guru
Acid Mothers Guru Guru Gong
Acid Mothers Kaidan
Acid Mothers Temple & Space Paranoid
Acid Mothers Temple & The Pink Ladies Blues
Acid Mothers Temple SWR
Tsurubami
Yamamoto Seiichi & Acid Mothers Temple
** Top 20 punny AMT album/song titles
(November 2019) Episode 237 is THE CRYSTALS. Another fine girl group from the early 1960s. Their song “Then He Kissed Me” is famous from the long tracking shot as Henry and Karen go into the club in Goodfellas.
Favorite song: Da Doo Ron Ron
Compared to expectations: same
(November 2019) Episode 236 is THE RONETTES. I normally eschew acts that don’t write their own songs or perform their own instruments, but I have a thing for the 60s girl group sound, and The Ronettes were among the tops.
Favorite song: Be My Baby
Compared to expectations: same
(October 2019) Episode 235 is THE KNICKERBOCKERS. I did this on the strength of their 1965 song “Lies” — the song that sounds more like the Beatles of that era than the Beatles themselves. This New Jersey outfit had a few other groovy recordings as they responded to the sounds of the British Invasion, although outnumbered by their tepid covers.
Favorite song: Lies
Compared to expectations: same
(October 2019) Episode 234 is THE CRAMPS. Eventually, someone had to fuse a punk attitude onto a rockabilly sound, and Lux and Ivy get the credit. But the concept of psychobilly is better than the execution, IMHO; it can get redundant. The Cramps is, however, one of the greatest band names of all time. Don’t recall if they were every included on a Tarantino soundtrack, but the growl and reverb would make it a natural fit.
Favorite album: Songs the Lord Taught Us
Favorite song: Human Fly
Compared to expectations: ↓
(October 2019) Episode 233 is DANIEL JOHNSTON. Oddly, I knew nothing of him, but the obituaries compelled me, and I discovered his pure songwriting genius. His tinny voice and no-fi cassette recordings make it hard to listen in anything but small portions, but once he went into the studio, it solved the latter (but not the former). His struggles with mental illness are a part of his story, but at its heart are a bunch of fun and wistful songs that are much covered and emulated.
Favorite album (solo): Fun
Favorite album (collaboration): It’s Spooky (with Jad Fair)
Favorite song: Favorite Darling Girl
Compared to expectations: same
(September 2019) Episode 232 is R.E.M. How did a band so central to my generation slip to #232? It may be heresy to my peers, but I find R.E.M. … boring. Yes, the premier college radio band had 10-12 great songs that were the soundtrack of our college years, and their stripped-down jangle rock was a welcome antidote to 80s synth. But I find most of it limp and listless. R.E.M. greatly influenced alt-rock, but unfortunately that led to limp-rock acts like Gin Blossoms and Toad the Wet Sprocket.
Favorite album: Lifes Rich Pageant
Favorite song: Superman
Best late-period album: Accelerate
Compared to expectations: ↓
Opus Project 