Wow And Flutter

Long and short pieces on music you should listen to; audio gear; and pop culture.

Category: New releases

Record Store Day Part 1 releases, part 2

June 18, 2021 /

Happy Friday, everyone.  I hope you’ve had a happy and healthy week.  Here in Massachusetts, we’re in a very good place for the time being (and hopefully much longer than that), but other parts of the country (never mind the world) are not as fortunate.  So think of them; and if you can do something about it, do something about it.   

Let’s listen to some more finds from the first 2021 RSD: 

Al Green – Give Me More Love: The Orchestral Greatest Hits (Hi/Fat Possum) 

(Hi/Fat Possum) 

Winner of the first annual Wow And Flutter “Least Essential RSD Release.”  Al Green’s Hi recordings are legendary and essential American music, equal in stature to any of the great American vocalists.  Now, I’m not one to say a recording can NEVER be improved – look at what Giles Martin has been able to do with the Beatles remasters.  But taking Willie Mitchell’s perfect production, overlaying strings over it AND de-emphasizing the original instrumental work subverts one of the great beauties of the original recordings, which is the SPACE, or ‘holes’ that exists in those arrangements, that let Reverend Al’s delivery breathe.  To boot, a crappy paper inner sleeve is included.  It’s on pink vinyl, if you find that important.  Give Me Less. 

Donny Hathaway – Live (Atco/Rhino) 

(Atco/Rhino) 

This is a storied live album that regularly makes its way into lists of “best live albums.”  I don’t know if it makes my top 5, but it’s a wonderful, soulful set.  Hathaway, who was taken from us too soon at age 33, shows his estimable skills and beautiful voice in this VERY live set recorded at the Troubadour in Hollywood, and the Bitter End in the Village.  It sounds almost like a very, very good audience taper recorded it – you can almost smell the smoke and whiskey.  (This is not a complaint.)  Made up of mostly – well-chosen – covers and originals like his classic The Ghetto, the rapturous audience has every right to be rapturous.  John Lennon’s Jealous Guy is a highlight.  And the band COOKS, notably on the closer Voices Inside (Everything is Everything.)  Another carefully made Rhino reissue – wonderful gatefold jacket and a proper poly-lined inner sleeve.  

Toots and the Maytals – Funky Kingston (Island) 

(Island) 

Another classic, the definitive reggae album.  Yes, more than anything by any of the Wailers, or The Harder They Come.  Aside from the fancy white/blue split vinyl pressing, nothing fancy here packaging-wise (and yet another shitty paper sleeve!)  This is not remastered, but it’s a decent pressing, though nothing special.  At the end of the day though, it’s just fabulous and uplifting reggae.  If you don’t own this yet, please fix that immediately. 

Working From Home, day 1,345

April 7, 2020 /
the jon madsen movie commentary podcast: Episode 12: Sixteen ...

Well, no. Not that long.  It’s only been four weeks now that I’d been sent away from my office to work from home (WFH), and thankfully I’m still working.  Zoom is my absolute lifeline to the outside world, along with Roon+TIDAL.  If you haven’t heard of Roon yet, you will (mainly because I’m going to write about it in an upcoming post.)  But with all of my traditional, brick-and-mortar, touchy-feely record places shut tight for the foreseeable future, TIDAL is my musical lifeline.

One of the absolute killer features of Roon is its music discovery capabilities (think a much more sophisticated Pandora) that suggest music based on what’s in your library AND what you’ve listened to.  It misses some times, but when it hits, it’s creepy how good the suggestions are.  So, having set up a more permanent office in Wow and Flutter HQ (i.e., my old music room), I connected my Roon server to my vintage Harman/Kardon Citation Receiver and spend the first 5-10 minutes of my work day setting up an 8-10 hour queue of music for the day.  Here are some new-to-me discs I’ve played over the past couple of days. Check ’em out:

[enoshop.uk]

Mixing Colours, Roger Eno and Brian Eno
Of COURSE I’m going to start with an Eno disc.  This was just released as I was starting to settle in to my forced solitude, and it arrived at exactly the right time.  The Brothers Eno have uncorked yet another beautiful collection of ambient music, this one having music Roger created as long as 15 years back, to which Brian added his sonic treatments. 

[Superior Viaduct]

Prati Bagnati Del Monte Analogo, Raul Lovisoni/Francesco Messina
This one came out of left field (actually, from one of a bunch of artist lists in a Pitchfork piece.  This is a 1979 bit of “occult esoterica” from two Italian ambient music pioneers.  Although it gets ever-so-close to ‘aromatherapy music’, it never goes over the line into Windham Hill territory.  Recommended.

Future Nostalgia, Dua Lipa
OK, I listened to this at the END of the day.  This entire disc is a JAM, full of smart, danceable pop.  This is her second studio album, and was planned to be released as part of a huge rollout, with a spot on the Glastonbury roster, and a big tour (all of which were, obviously, scrapped.)  So, they took a chance and put it out.  I think their gamble paid off. Highly recommended.

A Holiday Surprise from Courtney Barnett!

December 8, 2019 /

Hi everyone! It’s been a while between posts – the usual holiday rush has been compounded by record acquisition for Wow And Flutter Live! (my table-and-mortar vintage vinyl venture.) Sorry! I’m making a pre-New Year’s resolution to get back on the blog more often. Starting. Right. Now.

Every week I scan the new releases on Tidal on Fridays, and one which came out of left field (at least to me) was a live disc from the amazing Courtney Barnett – not just a live disc, but an MTV Unplugged set that was recorded in October with her band in Brunswick, Melbourne. I had no idea that Unplugged was even a thing anymore! Much less, anything this fantastic!

Image result for courtney barnett mtv unplugged
[http://www.courtneybarnett.com.au/]

True to form, Barnett’s set is wide-ranging, interesting and certainly not ‘pedestrian at best.’ There are a couple of performances which can be slotted into the typical laid-back Unplugged sound (complete with cello and subdued band execution), like the rearranged Depreston and Avant Gardener, but the song selection doesn’t shy away from her edgier (but always honest) work, like Nameless Faceless from her last studio album Tell Me How You Really Feel. Which is really, let’s say it, is not your typical crowd-pleaser; but it’s not supposed to be. In that sense, the artistry here is at the same level as Nirvana’s classic MTV Unplugged In New York, (the undisputed champion in the series.)

One of the things I love about Courtney Barnett is that she’s pretty fearless and true to herself. Her interesting song selection here is made richer by the guest artists/friends she generously shares the stage with here – Paul Kelly, Evelyn Ida Morris, Marlon Williams – who are not as well-known on these shores as Courtney is, but whose performances enrich the proceedings immensely. And, there’s a Leonard Cohen song! And a previously unreleased Barnett song!

My weekly Friday listens on Tidal are a great way to “try before I buy.” I’m a firm believer in buying music I’m really invested in, because folks, artists make their money from selling discs (and touring of course) – nobody’s getting rich from streaming revenues. I’m definitely buying this one once it’s released in physical form. Very highly recommended.

Summer of Stereolab

May 30, 2019 /

Before they called it quits/went on hiatus in 2009, Stereolab were one of the towering giants of Post-Rock, releasing an incredible volume of innovative singles and non-album work – enough to fill four compilation CDs worth – in addition to their ten studio albums. The inclusion of Lo Boob Oscillator as a pickup line in (and on the soundtrack of) High Fidelity should be enough for you to check them out.

[image credit: Stereolab]

But last year, the core of the band (Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier) and their longtime manager Martin Pike, announced plans to reissue their classic run of albums from their Duophonic label, from 1993’s Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements to 2004’s Margerine Eclipse in remastered (triple) vinyl, digital and CD versions, including tons of unreleased bonus material. The first two discs, Transient… and Mars Audiac Quartet (the latter including the song whose title that inspired this blog) came out a couple of weeks ago, and people let me tell you, they’re worth every dollar. The vinyl pressings are fantastically quiet and lovingly remastered, the price includes FLAC/WAV/MP3 downloads of everything, the packaging is top quality, and each disc includes a pull out poster sized lyric sheet and extensive liner notes from Tim Gane.

Best of all, the band is mounting a huge tour this fall! Dates will include a run of the big festivals (Primavera, Pitchfork) and club dates INCLUDING BOSTON THAT I MANAGED TO GET TICKETS FOR! Watch this space over the summer for more ruminations on one of my favorite bands of the past fifteen years.

Record Store Day 2019 Review: Bingo Hand Job (R.E.M.), Live at the Borderline 1991

April 25, 2019 /

One of the more anticipated releases from this year’s rich Record Store Day trove was a widely-bootlegged March 1991 almost impromptu live set from R.E.M., playing under the hilarious pseudonym Bingo Hand Job.  There are a couple of reasons I was stoked to get a copy: 1) the fairly limited number of copies pressed (3000 in the US); 2) R.E.M. was a band I sadly never got to see live, and 3) at the time, the band was not quite the biggest band in the world, though they were sure on their way.  So the chance to hear them in a really loose, mostly acoustic setting (they cover Love Is All Around, for crying out loud) was too good to miss.

[Craft Recordings]

The Borderline is a pretty legendary London club – holding only about 300 people, it’s pretty intimate.  You can get a sense of the room from the acoustic space generated from this recording.  For a bootleg recording, it’s not too bad.  I honestly don’t think they’ve cleaned it up at all, but it doesn’t matter: muddy sonics didn’t hurt Murmur, after all.

R.E.M. in 1990 (JA Barratt/Photoshot/Getty Images)

This is still the early R.E.M. I love so much – the songs on this two-disc set span their entire catalog up to that time.  The band is clearly loose and having a great time (as is the well-lubricated crowd), and the fun extended to the band members’ pseudonyms (Michael Stipe =“Stinky,” Peter Buck =“Raoul,” Mike Mills = “Ophelia”, Bill Berry = “The Doc,” as well as guests Spanish Charlie (Peter Holsapple of the dBs), Conrad (Billy Bragg) and Violet (Robyn Hitchcock).  As Mike Mills said recently, “” too concerned about being a professional band.”  Thank god for that.  If you can track down a copy of this at a not-insane price, (copies are going on eBay right now for about $75(!)) get it. 

Tracklist:

Side A

1. “World Leader Pretend”

2. “Half A World Away”

3. “Fretless”

4. “The One I Love”

Side B

1. “Jackson”/”Dallas”

2. “Disturbance At The Heron House”

3. “Belong”

4. “Low”

Side C

1. “Love Is All Around”

2. “You Are The Everything”

3. “Swan Swan H”

4. “Radio Song”

5. “Perfect Circle”

Side D

1. “Endgame”

2. “Pop Song 89”

3. “Losing My Religion”

4. “Get Up”

5. “Moon River”

Record Store Day!

April 13, 2019 /

It’s 6:30 in the morning at in Buffalo, New York. Where else would I be?

Revolver Records, Buffalo NY

It’s the happiest day of the year! It’s Record Store Day, the day where music lovers everywhere get to celebrate the great culture that is the record store, and get the chance to score some great new, often previously unavailable music from, well, everyone. Often the list includes a lot of limited edition, just-for-Record-Store-Day discs, but the real attraction is in the music itself.

This year’s list was really rich and diverse. Each of the past couple of years have offered one or two discs I was really interested in, but this year’s list was an absolute treasure trove of great stuff. Best yet, I managed to get everything I was looking for – I can’t wait to get these home and get them on the turntable!

This year’s RSD haul

Top to bottom, left to right:

  • Bingo Hand Job (a/k/a REM), Live at The Borderline 1991: an oft-bootlegged set from REM, now (presumably) sonically tidied up for the masses
  • Fleetwood Mac, The Alternate Fleetwood Mac: same track order as the classic first album of the pre-Rumours lineup, but all alternate versions/takes
  • Mission of Burma, Peking Spring: first vinyl release of the influential Boston band’s 1998 compilation/rarities disc
  • Courtney Barnett, Everybody Here Hates You: 12″ single B/W “Small Talk”
  • Elvis Costello & The Imposters, Purse EP: four track disc with Elvis collaborating on the songs with Burt Bacharach, Paul McCartney, Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan
  • Bob Dylan, Blood On The Tracks (NY “test pressing” version): do I need another version of this record? No! But the record we all know wasn’t the one Dylan originally recorded in NYC in 1974. Right before Columbia was going to release the record, Dylan decided to re-record a bunch of it in Minneapolis. This is the complete NYC version.
  • Lou Reed, Ecstasy: one of Lou’s last albums first time on vinyl, from 2000, featuring the great Fernando Saunders on bass (limited edition, this one.)

By the way, Buffalo is a GREAT vinyl town, and Revolver is an amazing story. The owner, a great guy named Phil Machemer, got his start selling vinyl for a couple of years in popup locations around Buffalo before opening Revolver in another part of the city a couple of years ago. In December, he opened a second (!) location in Elmwood Village (the college-y part of town, where I went this weekend.) I can’t think of a better example of the strength of the vinyl resurgence than this! A must-visit if you’re up this way.

“Good music is good no matter what kind of music it is.”  – Miles Davis

 

Shoutouts and Credits

  • Coming Soon!

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