September 2012 PotM: Ben Folds Five "The Sound of the Life of the Mind"

I apologize that I haven't had the time to listen to as much music as I'd like and do a write-up on it, and I apologize that this post is so late. I've just started a new position and am working crazy busy hours. That being said, here's my pick of the month.

Pick of the Month: BEN FOLDS FIVE: The Sound of the Life of the Mind (E)
This might come as an extreme shock to many of you, but I actually struggled mightily with this pick. The reason being is that Ben Folds Five was almost sacred for me. They were kind of my band version of the '90s Chicago Bulls teams. When they were together everything they did was awesome, but it came to an end and nothing any of them did afterwards could even come close to touching what they did when they were together. This isn't to say Ben Folds didn't have any success, but let's face it, nothing he did in his solo career sniffs the magic that was the Ben Folds Five albums (pre Ben's solo career).

All that being said I had extremely mixed reactions to the announcement of Ben Folds Five getting back together. I had a perception in my mind of what Ben Folds Five was and I didn't want that tarnished, but really, who would want to watch Michael Jordan right now in the NBA, he's probably still ok, but not what we all came to know.  That being said, it's still Ben Folds Five and this isn't basketball. I was filled with hope that the main thing missing from Ben Folds solo career were Darren Jesse (drums) and Robert Sledge (bass), aka Ben Folds Five.

So, what did I think about the album..... Starting with "Erase Me" you have to get immediately excited because the first sounds are Sledge's iconic distorted bass carried over from the grunge era of the early '90s. It's easy to hear the difference between Ben's solo work and Ben Folds Five and I will say that Ben Folds Five is better than Ben Folds.

Before I get to far ahead of myself I must say that it's not all good. There's actually quite a bit that bugs me. First, I don't know when it happened, but when did Ben start using so much falsetto? It's not falsetto in general, but his own falsetto that actually tends to urk me, I'm not sure why though. A couple of tracks it becomes a little much, see "Michael Praytor, Five Years Later" and "Hold That Thought". I actually really enjoy Robert's and Darren's falsetto's as a compliment to Ben's and it's obvious when it's their voices as compared to his own voice in the background.  As a group they have a magical blend that can't be reproduced by Ben himself.

The other thing that didn't take me as long to figure out is that it comes out as over produced. Everything is nice and crisp and manipulated. Which makes sense and gets you a nice pure sound and everything, but the other Ben Folds Five albums didn't have this kind of money and technology behind them.  Now, to be fair, I am making some assumptions here, but it still comes through in the sound.  To contrast, if you listen to the song "Steven's Last Night in Town" off of Whatever and Whatever Amen you'll hear a phone ringing in the background during a break towards the end of the song. The reason is because they were recording the album in a house in North Carolina, not a studio in Nashville. When the production quality went up the music lost some character.

Lastly, the songs just aren't what they used to be. As is the norm when people return to making music after years off (the way Ben Folds Five has), the sound of the group just sounds more mature, and there's nothing wrong with that, but part of the appeal of Ben Folds Five was the fun/immaturity of the music. It was careless, raw, and fun. The group had much more of an aura of joy that came out through the music. Some of the songs on this album hint towards this: "Erase Me", "Draw a Crowd", and "Do it Anyway", but as a whole the album is missing this.

The reason it's my pick of the month is admittedly partly because of a since of obligation, but also because it's the one I've been coming back to the most. It might seem like I've been pretty harsh on the album/group, but it's relative to their previous work.  I still think this album is better than most of what you hear on the radio, not all of it but much of it. So if you get the chance check it out.

*Disclaimer: This album does contain adult content, not too much though, most notably on "Draw a Crowd"
I hope you enjoy the music. Let me know what you think.

August 2012 Pick of the Month: JANELLE MONAE "ArchAndroid"

DAVE MATTHEWS BAND: Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King 

Dave Matthews Band has always produced music that I've enjoyed, however, it wasn't until my time in Japan in which I really began appreciating their music.  I played with some colleagues, the groups name is "High Maintenance" (because it was comprised of maintenance/facility workers), and the number one tune to jam out to was the Dave Matthews Band tune "#41" off of the album Crash. This prompted me to go back and check out the album in it's entirety. I had listened to the singles from the album on the radio, but had never listened all the way through the album. I had no idea what I was missing. The band comes off as a close group of friends who truly understand each other and love to make music with each other.  I'd be remissed if I didn't give special mention to the drummer, Carter Beauford. He's an exceptional drummer and has an incredible feel for the instrument.  If you haven't heard the album you should check it out as it may be the bands best work. That being said Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King may challenge it for that distinction.

In August 2008 LeRoi Moore, saxophonist for the Dave Matthews Band, died as the result of an accident while four wheeling.  A year later the band released this album as a memorial to Moore.  The album actually goes beyond that already strong emotional pull and deals with questions of the afterlife and struggles of understanding death and God. Tracks such as "Shake Me Like a Monkey" and "Why I Am" contemplate their departed member. Even the closing track "You and Me" seems to be a love song with two purposes, almost as if it was rewritten from a standard love song to incorporate additional meaning for LeRoi Moore. Other tracks such as "Lying In the Hands of God" and "Time Bomb" show the struggles the band has faced in dealing with the death of their comrade. "Time Bomb"  especially is an emotional venting session for Matthews where, towards the end of the album, he begins exclaiming in an almost yell:

Baby when I get homeI want to pick up those piecesHammer in the final nailAnd lean me up against Jesus
Baby when I get homeI want to believe in JesusHammer in the final nailHelp me pick up the pieces
Baby when I get homeHelp me pick up the piecesHammer in the final nailI wanna believe in Jesus

The album is an experience. Each member of the band does exceptional work, but what stands out the most is easily the memorial to LeRoi Moore and the emotions surrounding it.

PETER TOSH: Legalize It

For those of you who don't know, I've got brothers and I'm pretty sure each one would be fairly disappointed that I'm not more familiar with Peter Tosh and his body of work.  This summer while visiting my brothers I was reminded of Peter Tosh and how much I enjoy reggae music. Peter Tosh was one of the original members of THE legendary reggae group Bob Marley and the Wailers along with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer.  While Tosh found success with the group, it only lasted until 1974 at which point he began focusing on his solo career and produced this album, Legalize It.  Tosh's death came in 1987 at the hand of gunmen who had been in some sort of dispute with Tosh's girlfriend. In total six people died that day.  Throughout his career Tosh had become an outspoken person on political and social issues and rarely held his tongue when faced with injustices he saw in his homeland and abroad. It was announced this month that he would be awarded Jamaica's third highest honor, the Order of Merit, along with former band member Bunny Wailer.

The album, Legalize It, isn't just what one might assume if unfamiliar with reggae music.  Yes, there is album gets it's name from the first track on the album and yes, it has become the marijuana anthem, but there is much more to the albume to it then that.  As you listen through the album a couple of things become apparent. One, Peter Tosh is deserving of his title as a legendary reggae musician and two, he's very direct with his messages in his song and isn't hiding anything. He is a Rastafarian and that message comes through very clear throughout the whole album. Legalize It is well produced and a nice change of pace from everything else I've blogged about so far. It's worth your time.

ROBERT GLASPER: Black Radio

For those of you who have ever listened to rap/hip-hop artists like: Talib Kweli, Q-Tip, Kanye West, Erykah Badu, and Common and thought to yourself "That's some solid keyboard on that track" then  you were referring to Robert Glasper.  Technically I first heard Glasper on Kanye West's Late Registration, but I didn't have that moment of revelation until I heard Q-Tip's album, Kamaal the Abstract, which is fantastic by the way. The work on the album was amazing and when I recently found out it was Glasper on the album and that he had a new album coming out, I had to check it out.  

Black Radio, while categorized as a jazz album, is not a jazz album in the purest since, and that is what Glasper wants. In a downbeat article you can read here he says, "I've gotten bored with jazz to the point where I wouldn't mind something bad happening. Slapping hurts, but at some point it'll wake you up. I feel like jazz needs a big-a** slap." Those are some pretty strong words that are very important to understand before listening to the album. The title of the album has dual meaning. First is a reference to the black box in airplanes that survive the crashes and tell the story of how the plane went down. The second is more of what you probably assumed in that it's a reference to the black artists featured throughout the radio across a variety of genres.

You won't here much technical playing or solos on Black Radio. Glasper and his bandmates, the group is called Experiment, instead choose to operate in a more ambient manner that interacts with the vocalists and highlights the music surrounding the lyrics. To this effect they show great ability and just how good of jazz musicians they are.  The ability to play around a soloist (a vocalist in this case) and still express yourself is a difficult one to grasp, and especially difficult to master as is displayed on this album.  

In the aforementioned article, Glasper mentions that the greatest jazz musicians of the past haven't been complacent with their jazz. Instead they've been the black boxes of jazz, being different survive the crash of the other musicians around them and carry the music on to something new.  Glasper hopes that Black Radio is a black box for jazz. In all honesty I don't think it will be, but then again, I'm not psychic.

Pick of the Month: JANELLE MONAE: ArchAndroid

This is another artist I've been delayed in becoming acquainted with. My brother played her for me while driving in the car this summer and it made enough an impact that I remembered the hours later when I was finally able to look into the album for myself.  Janelle Monáe is an immense talent that I think is maybe plagued by two things: first is her desire to cover a wide genre of music, and second is pop music itself.  I'll come back to this.

The album itself is rather....diluted with random influences and a track order that can be a little jarring. Let me break it down for you. The first track, "Suite II Overture" is a continuation in an idea from her first EP entitled, Metropolis: Suite I (The Chase). It's not at all what you might be expecting, but it's well written, mystical, and a little exciting which is perfect for an opening track. It sets the stage for the next three tracks which are much more of one might expect in a Hip-Hop/R&B/Dance fusion album. (For the record I place those labels very hesitantly and would rather not do it). However after those three tracks we're thrown into the indie alternative, 1950's reminiscent track "Sir Greendown". This track, like the whole album is well produced, but it's still a jarring contrast to the rest of the album up to this point.  The next track, "Cold War" is yet another shift of direction for the album that stirs up thoughts of Gnarls Barkley. It's not done poorly, but still a shift from the previous song with out much warning.

I could continue on going through the rest of the album in such a manner, but there are twelve more tracks to get through so I'll just bring up the few tracks that stand out. The single from the album, "Tight  Rope" is one of the better songs on the album (the video is below) and features Big Boi laying down a solid verse. The song is good, the video is better, so check that out.  One song that just drives me up the wall is "Make the Bus", which features Of Montreal, an indie psychedelic pop rock band. The track is such a juxtaposition to everything else on the album that it makes it hard for me to listen all the way through. In the context of an Of Montreal album it would make sense to me, but not on this album.

Finally, I've come to the one song that I've been addicted to since I heard it, the last track on the album, "Babopbye Ya". The track is orchestrated for full orchestra, which I absolutely love, and is well written for the orchestra. On the track Monáe shows us just how great of a voice she truly has.  She encapsulates her inner Ella Fitzgerald and unleashes a level of diva not shown on the rest of the album. The track is classy, sexy, seductive, edgy, anxious, mesmerizing, smooth, and confident.  It doesn't hold back. It takes you for a ride and you love every minute of it.

That'll do it for this months picks.  September has got some album releases that I'm really looking forward to including: Lupe Fiasco, Mumford & Sons, and No Doubt on Sept. 25th and Ben Folds Five the week before! I'm excited.

If you have any recommendations or comments please don't hesitate to let me know what you think.

Until next time, take care and God bless.

July 2012 Pick of the Month: OF MONSTERS AND MEN "My Head is an Animal"

P.O.D. (Payable On Death) - Murdered Love

I go way back with P.O.D. The first album of theirs I bought was Satellite. It's their most popular album and I would guess has outsold all their other albums combined.  That album is great and a solid place to start if you're not familiar with their work.  Since that time I've continued to follow what they have produced and delved into the music that came out prior to Satellite. If you were to do the same you'd find that their earlier music definitely is much heavier and has a niche crowd. The more music the band produced, the more introspective the music became. This maybe culminated with the self titled album, Payable On Death. The album itself marked a change in guitar as well the music as guitarist Jason Truby joined the band when Marcos Curiel left. (He left because he has lost his faith in Christ. He has since returned to the band although I haven't read anything about where he stands in aspect to his faith.)  Jason brought lots of soul to the band, and I'm not talking R&B soul, more of the getting lost in your inner thoughts almost ethereal at times. He remained for a second album with the band, Testify, before Marcos returned to his spot for the record When Angels and Serpents Dance.  There is an obvious difference in the sound of the whole band with each guitarist.

P.O.D. has for the most part remained consistent with the elements of what you will find in their music.  Even from the early days you will here reggae, rap, and even ska undertones in their music (that I would characterize as hard rock although some of their songs on their first album Snuff the Punk may breach the border of heavy metal). This album has Marcos' handiwork all over it. I'm not the biggest Marcos fan, but I did enjoy some of his earlier work in the band and he approaches that sound here.

All in all Murdered Love is a quasi-return to form for the band. It's nothing terribly exciting, but if your a fan of the band, especially their earlier stuff, then you'll enjoy the album. For me I listen to it every once in a while when I'm feeling nostalgic but it probably won't get any more play than that.  If you want to check out P.O.D. your best bet is Satellite, although I would also suggest Payable on Death.

PHANTOGRAM - Nightlife EP

I heard of them and this album courtesy of Relevant Magazine. Their debut album, Eyelid Movies, came out a couple of years ago, but I'm just hearing them for the first time.  The group is a duet with Sarah Barthel on vocals/keys/synth and Josh Carter on guitar.   From what I could find there aren't any super interesting stories about them except that they are from Saratoga Springs, New York and apparently Saratoga Springs is a tourist town. (I had no idea) Either way the music is what it's all about anyway, so let's get to it.

The EP is aptly named as Barthel describes the groups sound as "Beat-heavy pop with kind of dreamy, swelling guitars, spacey synths and emotional lyrics; honest lyrics." The product of this is not for everyone, but if you are open to electro-pop I believe you enjoy the album. The EP has only 6 songs on it, but it makes the most of each song. The single, Don't Move, takes a simple and catchy beat and puts you in a comfortable place where you don't feel like doing anything to exciting, but you also don't feel like being home. This is very much the mood for the whole album. Another way of putting it might be walking down the street at night and feeling safer under the street lamps, this EP puts you into the light of the street lamps. It's dark, but not. That is, all except the last track, Dark Tunnel, which takes a step into the darkness with some hope of making into the next street lamps.

RANDY WALDMAN - Wigged Out

This album is great. I heard one of the tracks, Beethoven's 5th Symphony, on the radio on the way home  a couple of weeks ago and spent the next 2 days trying to find out who it was. After I finally figured it out I got the album and have been extremely happy with it. The album came out in 1998 and is a different type of Third Stream Jazz. Waldman takes a number of famous classical and arranging them for a jazz ensemble. For the most part the group consists of a trio: piano, bass, and drums. However there are tracks where a sax or a trumpet join the group, and the aforementioned Beethoven's 5th Symphony incorporates strings and big band (I'm guessing there). John Patitucci is on bass, and Vinnie Colaiuta on drums.  The guest artists include Freddie Hubbard, Arturo Sandoval, Michael Brecker, and Bob Berg. It's a star studded list that produce awesome performances on the album. I love how they take the classical songs and use them in solos, and then as a sort of joke every once in a while you'll here them quote a traditional jazz tune like Now's the Time.

Here's what you need to know, the ensemble is tight, the arrangements are well done, and the solos are solid.  This was a very surprising album for me to find and I HIGHLY recommend it.

Pick of the Month: OF MONSTERS AND MEN - My Head is An Animal

I was going to have Wigged Out be my pick of the month, but I find myself playing this album on repeat. The album came out last year in Europe, but made it's American debut this past April. The band is a sextet with a female lead singer (Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir), an overweight male counterpart ( Ragnar “Raggi” Þórhallsson) to the female lead, and occasionally features a female trumpet player. I'm all about female empowerment and the promotion of overweight individuals in pop culture.

Anyway, the band hales from Iceland which makes me think that if you ever hear of a band coming out of Iceland you must check them out.  I'm actually not super knowledgable about the subject, but I do know that Bjork, Sigur Ros, and now Of Monsters and Men have come from Iceland and they are all very good.

Now to the music. Their sound is very much playing off of the success of Mumford and Sons last year. Much of the album has a driving folk beat behind it. It's upbeat poppy folk music and you can't help but  feel a little more peppy as you listen to it.  As I mentioned the lead singer, , is a female and she's solid. She doesn't have a dominate or over powering voice, but it will draw you in. Another nice feature reminiscent of Mumford and Sons is how the full ensemble will join in to provide deep and full harmonies that are not too common in pop music.

The single off of this album is Little Talks and for good reason. The trumpet I mentioned makes an appearance on the track and the back and forth between Nanna and guitarist/singer Raggi. The song itself tells the story of a woman having a conversation with her departed lover. This is common in their music as they'll admit they enjoy telling stories with their music and it comes more natural to to them. The best songs come on the first half of the album, highlighted by King and Lionheart, Mountain Sound, and Little Talks. That's not to say the second half of the album is a slouch, it just doesn't carry the same energy and force as the first half.  There are some very nice moments in the second half, maybe my favorite coming in the chorus of Sloom.

It's a very good album and really enjoyable to listen to. If it tickles your fancy you'll find yourself listening to repeatedly and that's not a bad thing.

That will do it for this post. Let me know what you think and please feel free to recommend music of your own!

Take care and God bless.

All Time Favorites and June Pick of the Month

Since this is the first post I'll detail a number of my favorite bands along with some of their albums and in the end I'll give my pick of the month (which will be a new release).

BEN FOLDS FIVE
When people ask me who my favorite artists are my default answer is Ben Folds Five.  It might be one of the only times I remember where I was when I first heard their music. I was 13 years old and home schooled (read as sheltered), and for some random reason I stole my brother's copy of "Whatever and Ever Amen".  I took it to my room and put it in my cd player and immediately fell in love with it.  The first track on the album cracked me up as the chorus goes: "Now I'm big and important, one angry dwarf, and 200 solemn faces are you, if you really want to see me check the papers and the tv, look who's telling who what to do...kiss my ass." It was like a forbidden fruit as such language was unacceptable in our household. Since that point, I've garnered more and more of their albums and turned into a quasi-super fan (as much as I can be being that I'm always broke).   

The music of Ben Folds Five is amazing, almost all of it (with some exceptions on Naked Baby Photos that I don't particularly care for). They are a piano rock trio with piano, bass, and drums.  What makes them so good is not just their ability on the instruments which is excellent (not the best), but their harmonies.  Not only where they one of the first bands to rock out on an acoustic piano in a time that was just regaining consciousness from the grunge era, but they did so with solid harmonies from all three members. (see here)

Their most iconic work is without a doubt, "Whatever and Ever Amen", but my personal favorite is their first and self-titled album, "Ben Folds Five" the musicianship displayed on that album wasn't touched again in any of their later albums. This is not to dismiss "The Unauthorized Biography of Rheinhold Messner". That may be their most complete album as a whole.  In a Q&A they disclosed that they had originally written the album as one giant song which comes as little surprise when you listen to it all the way through.



RADIOHEAD
I shamefully did not hear about Radiohead until my Sophomore year of college which was '06/'07.  I'm not sure what it was that finally got me to listen to them, maybe it was everyone around me telling me how good they are. Needless to say everyone around me was absolutely right.  The first time you listen to Radiohead you probably don't mind the music and some other's "won't get it", but give it another chance, maybe two. I promise the more you take it in the more it gives.

So why is Radiohead so good? If you listen to their collection from beginning to end you'll see something extremely unique in today's musical world, variety, growth, and change.  I know other bands "grow" but they don't really change. They may get better at the music they're playing, but change is hard to do, and even harder to do well and Radiohead has done it the best. Not only have they changed but, they've changed musical expectations so much that many people don't even compare them to anyone else anymore, as in they have their own category of awesomeness that no one can touch.

Alright, enough of that, I don't want to overstate, getting on to their music. So, where to start?  Pablo Honey (1993) would seem like a nice place since it's their debut album, but to be completely honest, I don't know if I've ever listened to the whole album all the way through. (I'm doing it as we speak just for this post) It's a standard early/mid 90's alternative rock album...moving on. I think the two best places to start are either The Bends (1995) or In Rainbows (2007) These albums are the least volatile of the remaining seven.  Starting with "The Bends" will allow for a natural progression as you hear the band grow and transform through their music.

The two heaviest hitters from Radiohead are OK Computer (1997) and Kid A (2000). I once had a discussion with a friend that said that OK Computer is widely regarded as the best album of the 90's, which isn't any stretch at all. We went on further to say that being it's the best album of the 90's it could be argued it's the best album of the century depending on who you talk to. (For the record I wouldn't argue it ahead of Thriller or a few other albums). As good as Ok Computer was, Kid A was undoubtedly a better album, so it could be argued that Kid A was the album of the 2000's.  What we decided was that at the time was that Radiohead arguably had the best album in to millennia.

All that being said, you must listen to these two albums at some point in your life and decide for yourself.

CHARLES MINGUS
I love jazz music and you'll see a fair amount of jazz on this blog and my favorite jazz musician is Charles Mingus. Mingus like so many of the other greats was the trifecta of a player (Bass)/composer/band leader. The reason I like Mingus so much is because his music isn't about the technical and doesn't just satisfy the surface.  He conveys his life story of struggles, questions, and difficulties through his music, maybe better than anyone else I've ever heard, jazz or not.  Mingus himself was a fiery but loving personality and that comes through in his music. He had a very specific idea of how the music was supposed to sound and wanted it done right.  There might be no better example of this then his album, Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus, where he says:

Good evening ladies and gentleman, we'd like to remind you that we don't applaud at the show place. So restrain your applause and if you must applaud wait until the end of the set because it won't even matter then. The reason is because we are interrupted by your noise. In fact, don't even take any drink or no cash registers ringing, etc...

How awesome is that! Anyway, I won't go on too long about Mingus since I've already rambled on long enough. The afforementioned album, Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus, is definitely worth a listen. However the best place to start with Mingus has to be Mingus Ah Um. This is Mingus's most prominent album and produced so many standards including two of my favorites: Fables of Faubus and Boogie Stop Shuffle. Other albums to check out are: Three or Four Shades of Blue, Mingus at Antibes, and Tijuana Moods.

The one album that is a must for Mingus is The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. This isn't the easiest album to engage in but it definitely is one of the best.  It's one that will appear on many peoples all time greatest jazz albums.  The ensemble is a group of eleven wind players with instruments ranging from tuba to flamenco guitar, a very unique instrumentation. What makes this album so good is that it has form, but doesn't. As each piece goes on you can hear just how choreographed the music is, but at the same time it sounds almost as if each person is improvising within the music but sounding like it's not improvised.  In other words, it is what jazz should be, a conversation, a continuous interaction between each of the members of the ensemble.  The reason the album is heralded as one of the greatest of all time is because it is the epitome of what jazz means for so many people.  Now, not only does it do all that but it also conveys Mingus' spirit with the inner turmoil and confusion that comes from growing up as a person who doesn't fit in (he was half black/half asian lighter skinned and grew up in Watts) and lived in a broken home. So, go check it out, it's well worth your time.


PICK OF THE MONTH: ESPERANZA SPALDING, Radio Music Society
Esperanza Spalding is darling of the jazz scene.  She went to Berklee in Boston  in the early 2000's (with one of my friends) and has since taken the jazz world by storm.  She won the Grammy for best new artist in 2011 over Justin Bieber, which gives me some hope in the Grammy's. She herself is bass player/vocalist. She's excellent at both and utilizes both throughout her music. I also have to say she's my first jazz crush, well maybe second after Anita O'Day(who shares my birthday).

The album is solid, very solid. Not life changing but very enjoyable. It's a lot to live up to after the other groups/albums mentioned in this post, but it's not supposed to. I actually first heard about the album on "The Colbert Report" where they played a few selections from the album on the show.  In the pre-performance interview she says that pretty much anyone who wanted to was able to join the ensemble. While I imagine it wasn't a completely open invitation the album does sound like it would be fun for anyone to jump in and jam along with. The song I remember them playing is, Black Gold, which is beautiful song the implications of which you can probably assume.  Like most of the album it establishes a nice groove that gets your head nodding from the start.  The horn section provides solid backgrounds and hits/licks.  There are actually some really awesome licks on this album that the ensemble have. The improvisation on the album is not always as prominent as I'd like, but that's because I'm an instrumentalist. What improvisations there is is well done and enjoyable, but nothing that will cause you to stop and think.

All in all it is a solid album that just about any one can pick up and enjoy the first listen through. Let me know what you think about it!

Until next time, take care and God bless.