Rock - what are you listening to?

[cybot]

Got a call from my local record shop yesterday to see if I was interested in this from 2015 RSD, resurfaced randomly. Needless to say I bought it...haven't listened to it just yet but on tonights list.

Nice! BTW have you listened to Rory's RSD French Connection Lp yet?

Hi Dermot, it's vintage Rory and sounds really good to my ears anyway. The Irish Tour EP was unexpected and also relatively expensive. It was on the expanded cd set from a few years ago but only on vinyl for RSD '15.
Still haven't had a chance to listen to the Allmans set yet :-(

I love the EP but, for some strange reason, I'm not too gone on the French Connection set. He seems slightly stifled,hesitant and just going through the motions. I know it's in Mono but that's ok. I have the Allman's set on CD and to this day I still haven't listened to it. So.....you're not alone lol!

[tweber]

I love the EP but, for some strange reason, I'm not too gone on the French Connection set. He seems slightly stifled,hesitant and just going through the motions. I know it's in Mono but that's ok. I have the Allman's set on CD and to this day I still haven't listened to it. So.....you're not alone lol!

Blasphemy!! :-)
Doesn't have the same level of intensity as Irish Tour but what does? I thought the performance was good but not sure about the mono recording-first one I've listened to though.
Must compare it to the Live in Europe version of Pistol Slapper Blues

[Derek]

I know, I know, but such great craic.

[cybot]

I love the EP but, for some strange reason, I'm not too gone on the French Connection set. He seems slightly stifled,hesitant and just going through the motions. I know it's in Mono but that's ok. I have the Allman's set on CD and to this day I still haven't listened to it. So.....you're not alone lol!

Blasphemy!! :-)
Doesn't have the same level of intensity as Irish Tour but what does? I thought the performance was good but not sure about the mono recording-first one I've listened to though.
Must compare it to the Live in Europe version of Pistol Slapper Blues

Just seeing this now. Aye must do the same re: compare the two live guns

[markof]

Frank Zappa Complete Discography (so far)

I've just finished listening to a 6 part podcast series on Zappa's "One Big Song".

It's a bit up and down but this kind of overview is rare and for me, makes it worth sticking with.

It's at: https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/04/ ... at-a-time/
If you're interested.

Mark

[Fran]

I know, I know, but such great craic.

[markof]

Another fine live set from this bunch of OAP's.

[mcq]

Listening to Juliana Daugherty's recently released debut album, Light, this evening.  She possesses a gorgeous voice, deeply affecting and achingly resonant, evoking haunting and wounding traces of grief, hurt, anguish.  In these songs the overwhelming impression is of a mind wounded and abstracted and disconnected from its surroundings and mired deep within itself and gazing out at life with mute incomprehension.   It takes a great many listens to peel back the layers and expose the emotions buried within but every passing listen reveals something new, something disquieting.  I hear echoes of Sharon Van Etten and Kath Bloom here but Daugherty is her own woman, articulating her very personal pain with an understated intensity, phrased with tenderness and fragility but which cuts deeply with a precision that is almost brutal in its cumulative emotional impact.  An exceptional album.

[mcq]

Angels of Death is Jennifer Castle's fifth album but my first confrontation with this remarkable artist.  My interest was piqued earlier this year by the following lines written by Greil Marcus who has been closely following Castle's career since 2011:

"You might bet against the notion of anyone other than Lana Del Rey calling an album Angels of Death and not drowning in her own pretentiousness. With the Toronto singer Castle, you’d lose. The first song is last night’s dream you can’t remember; Castle remembers it for you, and as the songs roll on she stays on that path. The action is all in the interstices between the melody and the cadence, the voice and the instrumentation. The melody seems called up by the cadence, the instrumentation feels like a reflection of the voice, and you can find yourself listening for those tiny lifts, the suspensions in the songs replacing the songs themselves."

I have spent many late nights over the past week in the company of this album, playing it over and over on repeat, and have found myself utterly infatuated and beguiled by its simple beauty, its tender anguish and its tranquil repose which has cut straight to my heart.

This cycle of songs is an eloquent and heartfelt meditation on death, the nature of grieving for lost ones, the transience of life and, above all, the necessity to endure and to become ever more resilient in the face of life's vicissitudes.  These songs have been rolling around my head for the past week and sunk deep in my soul and I can't shake them out.  These are songs which are suffused with a purity of emotion which is intoxicating and infectious and overwhelming to the spirit.  There is a truthfulness here which is particularly affecting, songs told simply and directly.  Her voice is a transformative vehicle for her songs, naturally tender and affecting without a trace of artifice.

The greatest song here is Grim Reaper, a song that directly addresses the presence of death in Castle's life (the Grim Reaper is almost regaled like a friend) and the comfort she derives from her songwriting which provides her with meaning and purpose in her life. 

It's not that I'm afraid at night
To meet the one who holds the scythe
Who makes me kneel before the pew
Him, the bearer of bad news

It's not that I can't face the void
It's not that I can't find the joy
He sits with me, I hang my head
He touches me, and like I said

Even if it's all illusion
And things aren't dire as they seem
Interrupted is the union
Fabric fraying at the seam

Such a task that has the morning
Such a job to bring the light
And the dawn gives knowledge of
The middle world that I've been sowin'

I wrote upon the page with scratch
With pen I tore along the line
Defiled, as I tried to hatch
And justify my earthly time
And, there, the quality of my longing
And, there, the colours of my life
And, there, the majesty of turning
Flesh into the storyline
Flesh into the storyline

Tomorrow's Mourning:


Grim Reaper:


Stars of Milk:

[cybot]

Paul, I don't know what motivates you to continually post here to the usual deafening silence. But, I for one, am so glad you do. I've never heard of her but one read/listen of the song Grim Reaper and I was enthralled. She says exactly what each of us feel but never find the time to stop and think especially as we go on through the forest of life and get lost time and time again. Looks like I've discovered something very, very special indeed........and, for that, I thank you.......