659. Dave Brubeck

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(June 2025) Episode 659 is DAVE BRUBECK. This was a welcome learning experience because I didn’t know him beyond “Take Five” and “Blue Rondo à la Turk.” His music is a rare mix of brainy and popular. These famous songs are representative of his group’s experimentation with unusual time signatures, following a visit to Turkey on a global tour. His West Coast jazz comes off as an urbane version of cool jazz. His playing and compositions often seem to have classical piano as a substrate; in fact he later composed pieces for classical orchestra. He let his style evolve, such as the recordings with his sons in a fusion of jazz, rock, and blues. I enjoyed his late-career solo piano recordings.

Favorite album: Time Out

Favorite song: Take Five*

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: His quartet years in the late 50s, early 60s, with Paul Desmond on sax, are the classic period, but check out Two Generations of Brubeck for something different.

* written by Paul Desmond

658. Boris

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(June 2025) Episode 658 is BORIS. There isn’t a single term that aptly describes the music of this Japanese trio, although “noise” might be the closest. It’s sludge/stoner metal, drone, noise rock, dream pop metal, or experimental, depending on their phase or the album. They can do long drone noise like their debut, Absolutego, or pick it up into thrash mode, like Akuma No Uta. They also go pop, like on New Album or Attention Please. Vocals are selectively employed, and I’m not a fan of the men’s vocal style used on non-thrash tracks, which I label “dream pop metal.” Their output is voluminous, with an abundance of collaborations, notably Merzbow, so there are plenty of options to choose from.

Favorite album: Pink

Favorite song: Blackout

Favorite album-length song: Absolutego

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: Best albums for heavy doom and thrash are Akuma No Uta, Pink and NO, as well as the Heavy Rocks trilogy. For drone/sludge try Absolutego, Amplifier Worship and Feedbacker.

657: Etta James

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(June 2025) Episode 657 is ETTA JAMES. One of my favorite voices. Powerful but not overpowering. Gentle, but sometimes coarse and bluesy. She recorded across a range on genres: R&B, gospel, jazz, pop standards, blues, soul. Her best stuff was in the 1960s, starting with trad pop and moving to soul. Substance abuse and financial difficulties affected her career, although she did have some good funky numbers in the 1970s. A comeback in the late 80s finally earned her emerita status and many late-career albums, although they lacked in originality.

Favorite album: Tell Mama

Favorite song: I’d Rather Go Blind

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Etta James Top Ten compiles her early silky songs; the 1965-68 trio of Queen of Soul, Call My Name and Tell Mama are her best.

656. Lush

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(June 2025) Episode 656 is LUSH, among the top-tier of bands whose name describes their sound. That was from the first part of their career in the early 1990s, when they helped introduce the shoegaze sound of ethereal, sweeping guitars, represented on several EPs and their first album. By their third and last album (1996’s Lovelife), Lush has turned to the prevalent Britpop sound. (Their second album was a transition between the two.) I like both styles, but kinda favor the shoegaze and Miki Berenyi’s floating vocals.

Favourite album: Spooky

Favourite song: Sweetness and Light

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: Each of the three albums are good, but check out the several EPs that preceded the first.

655. The Chiffons

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Episode 655 is THE CHIFFONS. This enjoyable New York girl group had several hits in the early 1960s, including “One Fine Day” and “He’s So Fine.” The latter was the subject of the successful (and legit) plagiarism suit against George Harrison for “My Sweet Lord.” Their recordings for the rest of the decade were rather derivative.

Favorite song: One Fine Day

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: A playlist of the top singles is sufficient.

654. Bill Withers

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Episode 654 is BILL WITHERS. Even if he recorded only “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Lean on Me,” “Lovely Day” and “Just the Two of Us,” that would be sufficient to secure Bill Withers’ fame. But these came on several quality albums in the 1970s that applied his smooth yet textured baritone voice to a relaxed style of soul that contrasts to the chrome and flash of contemporaries. Also a great songwriter. He got a late start to his recording career, and (thankfully) declined to allow himself to be fully dragged into 80s synth R&B, so his nine albums (all but one in the 70s) stand as a consistent solid career set.

Favorite album: Still Bill

Favorite song: Ain’t No Sunshine

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: The first two albums (Just As I Am, Still Bill) are the best, but all are decent.

653. Amyl and the Sniffers

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Episode 653 is AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS. If Courtney Barnett fronted a punk band, it might sound like Amyl and the Sniffers. Maybe it’s Amy Taylor’s talk(scream)/sing vocal style in an Australian accent. They bring a lot of energy (from their live shows reportedly) to the recordings, especially on the first album, which brings a good punch of throwback-y punk/garage rock.

Favourite album: Amyl and the Sniffers

Favourite song: Starfire 500

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: The first eponymous album.

652. The Grass Roots

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Episode 652 is THE GRASS ROOTS. You will recognize the songs “Let’s Live for Today,” “Midnight Confessions” and “Sooner or Later” as AM radio staples, but you probably didn’t know the band behind them. That’s the Grass Roots. Music fans will know that songwriter P.F. Sloan got his start here. And fans of The Office may know it as the band Creed Bratton was in in the 1960s. They offered some decent LA-style late 60s pop, but with changing lineups and sounds, they come down to us in some obscurity.

Favorite album: Let’s Live for Today

Favorite song: Let’s Live for Today

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: A greatest hits record is more than you’ll need.

651. Tower of Power

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(May 2025) Episode 651 is TOWER OF POWER, the horn-driven funk/soul band out of the East Bay, California, and expressively proud of it. They reached their peak in the mid-70s (with Lenny Williams on vocals) but have kept up to the present day, in part because the horn section has had its own life backing up many famous artists over the years. When they get funky, it’s good funk. But the soul pop and ballads don’t quite bite, so I can’t put them on my A-list of 70s funk/soul acts. Horn aficionados will love them though.

Favorite album: Urban Renewal

Favorite song: What is Hip?

Favorite instrumental: Walkin’ Up Hip Street

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: The four albums from 1973 to 1975 (Tower of Power to In the Slot)

650. Carcass

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(May 2025) Episode 650 is CARCASS. An extreme metal band from Liverpool that influenced grindcore and melodic death metal. Their early (late 80s/early 90s) albums are punishing affairs (the best in my opinion), cultivating a certain image with song titles like “Vomited Anal Tract,” “Mucopurulence Excretor,” “Crepitating Bowel Erosion” and “Embryonic Necropsy and Devourment.” They reunited in the 2000s for a couple decent but not distinguished albums.

Favourite album: Symphonies of Sickness

Favourite song: Corporal Jigsore Quandry

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: The first three albums: Reek of Putrefaction, Symphonies of Sickness and Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious.