Leonard Cohen - "Waiting for the Miracle" (spotlight)

Just when you thought 2016 could not get any worse...  This time 2016 claims the songwriters' songwriter, Leonard Cohen.  I've often written here about the difference between influential and popular, and few represent that difference better than Cohen (see the lineup for 1991 tribute LP "I'm Your Fan" or the 1995 tribute LP "Tower of Song").

His most famous song, probably due to various popular covers, is "Hallelujah" but I'll choose to remember him with "Waiting for the Miracle", from the 1992 LP "The Future" as well as the 1994 soundtrack for "Natural Born Killers".

Leonard Cohen - "Waiting for the Miracle" (studio), live 1993, live 2013

Bonus link: Austin City Limits, 1998-10-31

Angel Olsen - Live KEXP 2014-03-07 (concert)

I recently found out about Angel Olsen via several people raving about her most recent LP, "My Woman", on the "Now Playing" Facebook group.  Eventually I investigated the LP and her body of work in general, and now I understand the buzz.  I'm not yet quite ready to review it, so in the mean time I'll just bring your attention to her via this KEXP concert from 2014 in support of her "Burn Your Fire for No Witness" LP. 



This is a good performance and I enjoy it more than her 2014 solo acoustic performance on NPR's Tiny Desk Concert, but 2016's "My Woman" represents a significant progression for her.  Check her out.

Metal Church - "Metal Church" (LP Review)

LP review, special Halloween edition...

On a recent business trip to Los Angeles, while working on slides in the hotel I found myself humming the opening lyrics to Metal Church's "Beyond the Black":

Negotiations are over
Troops are marching to their doom
All that I see is a nightmare
The smoke is blotting out the moon

Why?  I couldn't tell you -- I can't recall the last time I thought about this song, LP, or band.  I have a high school era tape copy somewhere (probably dubbed from Scott), but I never had this on vinyl or CD.  In the hotel room, I found a copy of the LP on Youtube and played it while I worked.

It was almost as good as I remembered it, complete with every heavy metal cliche but an umlaut.  But truth be told, I was only a moderate Metal Church fan even in high school.  And their self-titled LP (released in 1984, and then again in 1985 on a major label) is a notable point in the evolution of the Bay Area thrash metal sound, but "Metal Church" doesn't have the staying power of "Kill 'Em All" or even "Show No Mercy" (both 1983). My recent replay of this LP pretty much matched how I remembered it from 30+ years ago: the first three songs are great, the middle three are good, and the last three are just OK.  The closing cover of "Highway Star" is especially awkward and out of place.

Standout songs: "Beyond the Black", "Metal Church", "Merciless Onslaught"

Skip 'em songs: "Highway Star"

Final score: 6/10.  Good, but mostly from nostalgia.

Bonus link: full LP.

Molly Hatchet - "Flirtin' with Disaster" (forgotten song)

Happy birthday Danette!  This year Danette's song is... "Flirtin' with Disaster", to which you might reply "WTF?!"

OK, unlike previous songs there's not immediate, lyrical meaning here, it's more "meta-relevant".  There are several reasons why.

First, we both always sing along with it when comes on the radio.  It's not our favorite song or band but I'm pretty sure, owing to the time and place of our birth, we're incapable of not singing along.  It's genetic.  I should be more ashamed to admit this, but I know we're not alone. 

Second, is there a better use of a whistle in rock?  Danette and I have an ongoing commentary about the awesomeness of whistling in songs, but this has to be the very best.  It appears at about 3:26 as one guitarist trades off with another during the solos.  If you can whistle like that how come you don't do it every song, all the time?  (If I ever get around to creating songs via genetic algorithms, they will consist almost entirely of whistles like this, Bo Diddley beats, and Jamaican toasting, but that's a story for another time.)

Third, and somewhat related to the first point but slightly different, the sound and imagery connects me with my youth.  I recall the first record I bought with my own money was Molly Hatchet's 1980 LP "Beatin' the Odds", at the (now closed) K-Mart in Denbigh.  Molly Hatchet's sound was probably the heaviest of the southern rock bands, and their guitar sound was similar to the NWOBHM sound that Iron Maiden would popularize (and which would become my primary teenage soundtrack).

The imagery is equally important -- at that time Molly Hatchet exclusively used Frank Frazetta paintings for their LP covers.  You might not know the name Frank Frazetta, but you recognize his work (and his imitators) from Conan and others.  At the time of these LPs I was also deep into D&D, playing adventure games on the computer, and reading fantasy books like Robert Adams's "Horseclans" series (which featured cover illustrations by Frazetta's nephew, Ken Kelley) -- you know, all the things that young ladies find irresistible.  So with limited interaction with actual females, I probably formed some pretty unrealistic expectations about women being Amazonian warrior princesses.  But take a look at the images by Frazetta and Kelly, then look at these pictures of Danette flexing:

And it seems pretty clear that I did end up with an Amazonian warrior princess*.  Now to work on that metal bikini...

So happy birthday Danette!  I hope you enjoy our shared nostalgia <insert southern rock whistle**>.  And to teenage geeks everywhere: dreams do come true!*** 


Molly Hatchet - "Flirtin' with Disaster"


Previous birthday songs:

2015: Avett Brothers - "Kick Drum Heart"
2014: Ani DiFranco - "32 Flavors"
2013: The Green Pajamas - "Kim the Waitress"
2012: The Cure - "High"
2011: Blink 182 - "Josie"
2010:  Dead Milkmen - "Punk Rock Girl"


* No, seriously. 

** And: bomp, ba-bomp-bomp, bomp-bomp + Mikey Dread...  because I can't help myself.  

*** But not until you're about 30.  Hang in there.

Body Count - "Raining Blood" (the song remains the same)

You may be cool, but are you Ice-T, fronting Body Count, covering Slayer's "Raining Blood" cool?

Unless your name is Tori Amos, probably not.  

Body Count: rehearsal version, studio version.

Tori Amos: studio version.

Slayer: studio version, and as seen on South Park.

Kungs vs. Cookin' on 3 Burners - "This Girl" (spotlight)

I heard this on 96X in the car the other day and the song stuck with me.  The DJ said it had been "big in France" for a while but it had just arrived here. Googling the next day I found out that it requires some unpacking. The song is "This Girl", and the 2016 release is from the French DJ Kungs (aka Valentin Brunel) and it's a remix of the 2009 song by the Australian funk/soul/Motown revival group Cookin' on 3 Burners (who remind me of St. Paul and the Broken Bones), featuring Kylie Auldist. 

The original version sounds like it was recorded in the mid 70s and the Kungs version is a sped up, house version.  Both are enjoyable and worth checking out.

Kungs vs. Cookin' on 3 Burners: "This Girl"
Cookin' on 3 Burners: studio, live

Burial - "Rival Dealer" (LP Review)

Burial's (aka William Bevan) 2013 EP "Rival Dealer" has been working its way up my playlist.  I have his critically acclaimed two full length LPs (2006's "Burial" and 2007's "Untrue") which I enjoy, but not nearly at the level at which this EP has captured my attention.  Other reviews do a good job of contextualizing this EP within the rest of his canon (Pitchfork, RA, NME), but for me this EP synthesizes everything I liked about his first two LPs, as well as what I liked about Andy Stott's "Luxury Problems" and Balam Acab's "See Birds".

Bevan himself said in a BBC Radio 6 interview:

“I put my heart into the new EP, I hope someone likes it. I wanted the tunes to be anti-bullying tunes that could maybe help someone to believe in themselves, to not be afraid, and to not give up, and to know that someone out there cares and is looking out for them. So it's like an angel's spell to protect them against the unkind people, the dark times, and the self-doubts.”

And there is a definite triumphant feeling to these songs, mostly abstract but some rather concrete.  Furthermore, he samples an interview with NASA Earth scientist Melissa Dawson at various points in the EP.  Although I haven't posted it here, I've shared with friends my theory that the US space program exists mainly to provide samples for electronic music, and with "Rival Dealer" Burial only reinforces my position.

All three tracks are great, but the corner stone is clearly the closing "Come Down to Us".

Skip 'em tracks: none.

Standout tracks: "Rival Dealer", "Hiders", "Come Down to Us".

Final Score: 9/10