Pretty Goes with Pretty

My Listening Hours: August

August was another month of doldrums, listening-wise, much like June. Despite not really enjoying the one album I got this month—in fact I think I only listened to it once!—my lack of new acquisitions hasn't spun me into any sort of malaise. Actually, I feel like I listened to a lot of music this month—just not new-to-me albums. Rather, I spent a lot of time with instrumental and ambient records while writing and doing some freelance work, and going back to some old favorites/musical comfort food in the mornings and evenings. I've also managed to stay on top of some of my favorite music blogs, downloading more stray mp3s this month than any other so far in 2011. Also, I'm learning the pleasures of Spotify, which lessens the need to import every album I want to hear into my hard drive.

Kluster: Zwei-Osterei
On the news that Conrad Schnitzler had passed away earlier this month (great obituary by Geeta Dayal, by the way), I was reminded that I had yet to check out any Kluster-with-a-K—i.e., the period in the early 1970s when Schnitzler was part of the group with Roedelius and Moebius (without him, they switched to Cluster-with-a-C; and now, apparentyl Roedelius has a new outfit sans Moebius, Qluster-with-a-Q!). I've learned, via the earliest records by Kraftwerk, Klause Shulze, Ash Ra Tempel, and Tangerine Dream, that the primordial krautrock albums are generally not really my thing. They tend to be exceptionally long improvisations with only sparks of inspiration here and there, and are otherwise ominous/brooding/aimless/noisy/meandering space-outs that might've been fun to experience live, or are sometimes worth listening to straight through once or twice. Ultimately however most of these albums are worth hearing for the sake of understanding the context in which the larger genre existed and evolved from, but not really for pure pleasure. Zwei-Osterei falls into that category, and actually ranks among the worst of those early krautrock albums. The spoken word on the opening track, even though I can't understand a word of it, feels dumb. As for the music, nothing here gives the sense that Soweisoso or Zuckerzeit (or Con) are in these guys' future.

This Week's Soundtrack

Flying Saucer Attack: Distance
Brian Eno: Before and After Science
Tom T. Hall: Country Songs for Children (2)
Vampire Weekend: Contra
Les Paul and Mary Ford: Best of the Capitol Masters
The Lovin' Spoonful: Anthology
Obits: Moody, Standard and Poor (2) and I Blame You
Belle & Sebastian: Dear Catastrophe Waitress
Dr. Dog: Shame, Shame

The highlight of the week, musically speaking, was seeing Disappears and Obits at the Satellite on Wednesday night. Ever since leaving the concert promotion business ten years ago, I really don't go to shows very often—even a decade later I'm still feeling the burn of seeing a show four or five nights a week for two or three years straight. Happily this show didn't disappoint. Disappears seem to have added a second guitarist, which enhanced their live show considerably; and Obits... well, after being a fan of every band Rick Froberg has ever been in for the last twenty years, it felt great to finally see one of them live. All these years later Froberg still has one of the greatest punk voices going.

• Obits: No Fly List

This Week's Soundtrack

Andrew Bird: Noble Beast
Fishwife: Snail Killer
Pitchfork: Eucalyptus (2)
The Beach Boys: Greatest Hits
The Everly Brothers: 20th Century Masters
Rocket from the Crypt: Paint as a Fragrance (2)
Akron/Family: Set 'em Wild, Set 'em Free
The Third Eye Foundation: The Dark (2)
Tortoise: Standards
White Rainbow: New Clouds
Superchunk: On the Mouth
Dr. Dog: Fate
Wooden Shjips: Dos
Obits: Moody, Standard and Poor (2)
Disappears: Lux (2)
Eleanor Friedberger: Last Summer
Paul Simon: s/t
Simon & Garfunkel: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme (2)
Mission of Burma: Signals, Calls and Marches (2) and Vs.
Photek: Modus Operandi
Radio Dept.: Clinging to a Scheme and Lesser Matters
Actress: Splaszh

A couple of days late, here's my soundtrack for last week, which felt like it was two weeks long.

• Mission of Burma: Devotion
  

This Week's Soundtrack

The Sea and Cake: The Fawn
Sharon Jones & Dap Kings: 100 Days, 100 Nights
She & Him: Volume One
Shearwater: Rook
Broadcast: Haha Sound
Kluster: Zwei-Osterei

Most of this week was spent shuffling aimlessly through a few different playlists, rather than spending time with any albums. The top row of albums were all listened to on Sunday—I didn't really select the She & Him or Shearwater records, so much as allow my iTunes to keep playing alphabetically once the Sharon Jones album was done.

• She & Him: Sweet Darlin'

This Week's Soundtrack

Simon & Garfunkel: Bookends, Bridge Over Troubled Waters, and Greatest Hits
Willie Nelson: Teatro
Four Tet: Rounds
Harry Belafonte: Calypso
Iron & Wine: Our Endless Numbered Days and The Shepherd's Dog
Kings of Convenience: Declaration of Dependence and Quiet is the New Loud
Josh Rouse: Nashville and Under Cold Blue Stars
Arp: The Soft Wave
Loscil: Submers
Air France: No Way Out and On Trade Winds
Low: C'mon
Cat Stevens: Greatest Hits
Wilco: Summerteeth
Scud Mountain Boys: Pine Box

For whatever reason, I'm not sure why, this week was all about the songwriters. Here and there I put on some electronica and ambient during a couple of writing projects, but all my pleasure listening was mostly all about the acoustic guitar, and more specifically songwriter records that I know inside and out. It was a comfort listening week.

• Willie Nelson: I Never Cared For You

Favorite Downloads: July

This month's favorite downloads skew toward songwriters, as opposed to electronica or ambient (though there's still a little of that too). As usual, this mix is best experienced in the order given. Starting this month I'm also going to begin sharing these mixes via Spotify (if they carry the songs), so follow me over there if you're on the site—my username is scottpgwp.

Credit where it's due: three of these tracks come courtesy of Rawkblog—Lia Ices and Chad VanGaalen come from the same mix that yielded the Little Scream track I mentioned yesterday, while the Geotic track came from this mix. I heard "Bells of Harlem" on the radio one night this month and immediately knew who it was, despite not knowing that Dave Rawlings ever put anything out under his own name. Coincidentally I came home that night and found a great introductory mix to Gillian Welch on tumblr, and it included this track. Also on tumblr, the always excellent Singing in the Wire posted a nice intro to Francoise Hardy. As for the rest: Acquarium Drunkard pointed out the Millenium track, the ever-dependable For the Sake of the Song posted the wonderful "Hello Sunshine," and my buddy Swan Fungus posted the Terry Riley track. Finally, I don't recall where I came across the Wooden Shjips track—it's from their new album.

• Lia Ices: Love is Won
• The Millennium: I Just Don't Know to Say Goodbye
• Relatively Clean Rivers: Hello Sunshine
• Geotic: Beaming Husband
• Dave Rawlings Machine: Bells of Harlem
• Francoise Hardy: Pas Gentille
• Chad VanGaalen: Sara
• Terry Riley: In the Summer
• Wooden Shjips: Lazy Bones

My Listening Hours: July

July didn't see a huge haul of new-to-me music, but I certainly felt more connected to what I was listening to this month than I did last month. Here's the rundown, in chronological order of their acquisition.

Loscil: Submers
Loscil is an act that found its way onto my radar toward the end of last year, and I've been randomly downloading tracks from various blogs as they've come across my RSS feed. After adding a track to last month's favorite downloads mix, I decided it was time to get a full album. Based on a few different people's recommendations I went with 2002's Submers, and it hasn't disappointed.

• Loscil: Mute

Eleanor Friedberger: Last Summer
One of my favorite albums of the year so far. Aside from Low's C'mon, and some ambient records which sort of fall into a different category in my mind, I think this is the only 2011 album I've felt compelled to return to over and over again for the simple pleasure of listening to it from beginning to end. In other words, I'm able to shut off the critical part of my brain—something that is often hard for me to do, if I'm being honest. More thoughts on the record here.

• Eleanor Friedberger: Scenes from Bensonhurst

Wooden Shjips: Dos
Like Loscil, this is a group I've liked for a long time via random mp3 downloads but I've never heard a full-length all the way through. In anticipation of their new album, West, I decided it was time to delve a little deeper into their catalogue. I chose Dos somewhat at random but I'm under the impression it doesn't really matter where you start with this band. Their formula is easy to grasp: heavy, repetitive psych jams. Dos is only five songs long, though two of them pass the ten minute mark. And frankly if you ask me there ought to be a law that says no song by this group is allowed to end before the seven minute mark. The longer the band goes on, the more impressive their songs become.

• Wooden Shjips: Down by the Sea

Little Scream: The Golden Record
At the beginning of the month Dave Rawkblog put up his mix of favorite songs of the year so far, which included Little Scream's (aka Laurel Sprengelmeyer) "The Heron and the Fox" (among others, some to be featured in a mix I'll post tomorrow). This song has fazed me hard. I think I've listened to it at least once every day since downloading it. It's so simple and modest—refreshing for its lack of ornament. I'd almost forgotten that it was possible to create a song this perfect without adding layers of reverb and synths or other affectations. If anything it underlines how lacking in actual tunes so many other current bands are. That's not to say that the rest of The Golden Record lives up to that standard. For better or worse it is a more varied affair—a little atmosphere here, a rocker there, and some stripped-down beauties in between. It's a fine album with plenty of nice songs, but through no fault of its own I just can't get beyond the perfection of that one song. I wish and hope and pray that her next album can hone in on her strengths, because it feels like a breath of fresh air amid all the mostly awful trends happening in contemporary music right now. Who knew that quiet, unadorned songwriting would be a niche that needed filling? And yet it does.

• Little Scream: The Heron and the Fox