Sunday, December 30, 2007

other stuff we've been listening to

gustav mahler, symphony no. 9 -- the 1938 recording by bruno walter and the vienna philharmonic, because reggie rueffer said that's the _good_ one, and because we were so moved by hearing the fw symphony play der mahler's lengthy rumination on death earlier this yr. this recording is of historical interest because not long afterward, the anschluss came and the conductor and many of his musos had to unass the country, kinda like the trapp family singers.

destroy all nels cline -- on this, his best alb, the wilco gtrist and frequent mike watt collaborator demonstrates as much compositional acumen as he does improvisational smarts. echoes abound: zappa, king crimson, mahavishnu, nirvana, and much more.

husker du, warehouse: songs and stories -- when i got out of the airforce in '92, having spent the years from the death of "new wave" to the birth of grunge guarding freedom's frontier, i went to john bargas and asked him, "what did i miss?" his reply: "the minutemen, the replacements, and husker du." he wasn't wrong. on this, their second sprawling double elpee as well as their swan song, the huskers reach for the moon, sun, and stars and frequently grasp them. the schism between mould and hart is terminal (kinda like the white album beatles) and the roar of mould's gtr is reduced to transistor radio fizz. this stands with zen arcade, workbook, and copper blue among his finest achievements.

leslie west, mountain -- mountain, the poor man's cream and a seminal influence on lawn guyland bar bands of my snotnosehood, was best known, of course, for climbing, which bore both the cowbell-intro'd radio hit "mississippi queen" and "theme for an imaginary western," on which ex-cream producer felix pappalardi (r.i.p.) profitably borrowed jack bruce's operatic tendencies, but i prefer this nominal leslie west solo album that preceded it. especially "blood of the sun" (whence a certain early-'70s redolent foat wuth hard rock outfit took their name), "dreams of milk and honey," "southbound train" (which my idiot college band usedta play), and a great cover of "this wheel's on fire," which _almost_ makes me wanna check out the ceedee of all dylan toons mountain released this yr.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just snagged a 2006 Mahler 9th (plus a bit of Strauss) by Giuseppe Sinopoli on the IODA label (my apologies to Mr. Reg but eMusic doesn't appear to have the 38 Walter rec) .. this is some good stuff here.

12:19 AM  

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