Sic Semper Tyrannis

Stuff I've been listening to as of late...

I've been listening to a lot of music from the library in the car these days. Here are some highights.

Miles Davis Bitches Brew

This is one of those legendary albums that I had never heard before. Apparently it is one of the protoypical "Jazz/Rock" albums. The first time I heard it, I thought "This is just noise." I gave it a second listen, and while I can't say I LIKE it, it's a little more interesting to me, particularly what would have been Sides Three and Four on the original vinyl stuff. These are some pretty large groups of musicians on these sessions, usually a couple keyboardists and two drummers...of particular interest to me as I've been in a two-drummer band in the past. I've heard music that is both more grooving and more angular from a harmonic standpoint. Ironically, lots of the King Crimson album Starless and Bible Black sounds like this. But I was thinking, I'd rather hear "rock" musicians striving than "jazz" musicians slumming it. Also features a lot of recorded evidence of the elusive creature known as the "jazz-rock bass clarinet."

Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions

Led Zep was an awesome live act, fairly free with arrangements. It's really interesting to hear some of the proto-licks that were available at Jimmy Page's random recall that wound up set in stone on the studio recordings. Their blues influence is obvious on these recordings. I plan on buying this album at some point.

David Bowie Hunky Dory

The real gem on this album is "Life on Mars?" I can't recall a larger production-piece, sound-wise than this song. But it still sounds like RAWK. I mean, Neil Hannon uses quite a bit or orchestra and bells and whistles in his arrangements for Divine Comedy, but he will never be confused as a "rock" musician. David Bowie's doubled-vocals on the choruses give me goose bumps. I've heard "Changes" too many times to even really HEAR it now. I don't remember whole lot of other stuff on this album.

David Bowie Low

This album is a little more memorable to me. It's kind of a dual personality work. The first half is more straight-ahead pop-rock while the second half is where I really hear the minimalist, textural Brian Eno influence, which is my favorite 15-20 minutes of "new" music I've heard in the last few weeks. The Sea and Cake's cover of "Sound and Vision" prepared me for the song, but there is certainly a different groove at work in Bowie's version. They both have their charms so I'm not about to rank them. (PS- Joe, I'm returning this one to the library tomorrow...)

That's all for now.

posted by Mike @ 8:49 PM