en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices http://www.last.fm/user/Kdo_Kenoute/journal The Last.fm journal for Kdo_Kenoute. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. http://www.last.fm/user/Kdo_Kenoute/journal/2013/03/07/5rn6hh_kdo%27s_live_music_mondays! Thu, 7 Mar 2013 01:45:46 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Kdo_Kenoute/journal/2013/03/07/5rn6hh_kdo%27s_live_music_mondays! 04/04/2013

Well I joined in with this live Mondays game so I may as well do it properly now. So I am dropping this journal and will try to update it every Monday. Hopefully I can keep it going. I wasn't sure if I'd listen to much this week and I ended up scrobbling 5 albums so it has started pretty well.

I will also try to keep each week within a general theme. This week began with Slayer because I've been on a thrash kick lately and you don't get much more thrash than Slayer. I then went a bit punk, thrash was influenced by punk and in truth I always thought that Danzig and Misfits straddle the two genres anyway.

1.) Slayer - Decade Of Aggression
2.) Misfits - Evilive
3.) Danzig - thrall-demonsweatlive
4.) The Damned - The Captain's Birthday Party
5.) NOFX - I Heard They Suck Live!

Live album of the week: Has to be Slayer - Decade of Aggression.


Bring on next Monday!

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11/04/2013

I wasn't sure whether to do multiple journals or to just add to this one. I think I'll try to contain this to one journal for now...

So this evening I listened to some prog rock/metal, then some doom metal. I only managed four sets but in my defence they are fairly long ones.

1.) Anathema - A Moment in Time
2.) Porcupine Tree - Warszawa
3.) Paradise Lost - Draconian Times MMXI
4.) My Dying Bride - The Voice of the Wretched

Anathema are one of the best live bands I have ever seen and I actually saw them support Porcupine Tree once so that's probably why I listened to the 'Tree' second. My problem with Warszawa is perhaps that I am less familiar with their earlier work than I'd like to be so some of their elongated tracks are slightly lost on me. The Paradise Lost one is a live rendition of their 'classic' Draconian Times (although I always thought Icon was their best). I do seem to forget that PL's albums are often very top-heavy so once they rip through four or five classic tunes it gets slightly mundane. My Dying Bride is what it is, they have basically been doing the same thing for 20 years now. Still a classic Doom band though.

Live album of the week: Anathema - A Moment In Time. No matter what 'new' songs Anathema come up with they still sit perfectly next to the older ones. Not always the same in terms of tone and style but the standard is impeccable. In this case it is a great gig spanning Eternity to A Natural Disaster (so roughly '95 to '03).

So that's me for this week. I am easing out with a set of four live tracks from Red House Painters 'Retrospective'. It's not a 'live' album as such so I'm not really counting it.

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18/03/2013

This Monday saw a switch to some live Hip Hop and two of the greatest groups ever to grace the genre, Cypress Hill and Wu-Tang Clan.

1.) Wu-Tang Clan - Live At Montreux 2007
2.) Cypress Hill - Live At The Fillmore

Wu-Tang are sound like a tremendous live act, I missed out on seeing them a couple of years ago. They rip through the songs like a punk band would, leaving little room to catch a breath but the energy on stage is palpable. Solo tracks from some of the main members in the form of Bring the Pain (Method Man), Cherchez La Ghost (Ghostface Killah) and Ice Cream (Raekwon) are all classics and sit well within Wu's catalogue.

Cypress Hill sound at their best when they are performing hip hop classics like How I Could Just Kill A Man and Pigs. Increasingly their 'rock' sounds like generic nu-metal and so an amped up version of I Ain't Goin Out Like That left me yearning for the original bass heavy hip hip arrangement. Still, it is admirable that Cypress Hill were willing to leave their comfort zone and in truth (Rock) Superstar still sounds pretty good.

Live album of the week: Wu-Tang Clan - Live at Montreux 2007.

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25/03/2013

I mixed it up more than ever this week. From punk to country via soul and ska.

1.) Bad Brains - Live at the Fillmore 1982
2.) D.O.A. - Live at the Fillmore 1981
3.) Bill Withers - Bill Withers Live At Carnegie Hall
4.) Toots and The Maytals - Unplugged On Strawberry Hill
5.) Johnny Cash – Live at Folsom Prison



Live album of the week: Johnny Cash - Live at Folsom Prison

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01/04/2013


This was a Neil Young day. I decided to work through the Performance Series discs of his that I own.

1.) Neil Young - Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House 1968
2.) Neil Young - Live At The Fillmore East
3.) Neil Young - Live At Massey Hall 1971
4.) Neil Young - A Treasure
5.) Neil Young - Dreamin' Man Live '92

Live album of the week: Neil Young - Live At Massey Hall

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08/04/2013

1.) Belle and Sebastian - Live in Belfast, 2001
2.) Black Sabbath - Live Evil

Live album of the week: Black Sabbath - Live Evil


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15/04/2013

1.) MC5 Kick Out the Jams

Live album of the week: Well...can you guess?

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22/04/2013

1.) Leonard Cohen - Live At The Isle of Wight 1970
2.) Leonard Cohen - Live In London
3.) The Roots - The Roots Come Alive

Live album of the week: Leonard Cohen -Live In London

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06/05/2013

1.) Radiohead - I Might Be Wrong
2.) Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - Ruin Jonny's Bar Mitzvah
3.) Faithless - Faithless Live In Cannes EP
4.) Bloodbath- The Wacken Carnage

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Kdo_Kenoute/journal/2013/01/09/5pv0sp_my_top_artists_and_tracks_of_2012 Wed, 9 Jan 2013 18:36:00 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Kdo_Kenoute/journal/2013/01/09/5pv0sp_my_top_artists_and_tracks_of_2012 I am a slightly late posting this but I did manage to take a record of the numbers on New Years Day so it is all accurate.

As is often the case my listening habits have been largely influenced by the live shows, once again I have been to too few but I certainly made the most of the gigs that I did make it to. In fact the top 5 in this years top artist chart are all acts that I went to see during the year. New albums by Kathleen Edwards and Anathema helped propel those two into the top 5 (in Anathema’s case they are currently top in my number one overall artist chart).

As with last years list, there aren’t many ‘new’ acts, Me First and the Gimmie Gimmie Gimmies are the best fit for that description. I notched up all 93 scrobbles for them in a single evening, their infectious pop-punk covers proved easy to enjoy and difficult to turn off. Other notable ‘new’ entries include Sun Kil Moon, their new album is one of Mark Kozelek’s best for quite some time. Frank Zappa’s appearance on Spotify has allowed me to begin working through his catalogue of work, I still have some way to go, 128 tracks barely skims the surface.

As for the top 20 tracks, well the range is narrow to say the least. Weather Systems by Anathema and Voyageur by Kathleen Edwards dominate the chart, accounting for 13 of the 20 tracks combined. A mid term obsession with Twin Peaks, in which I watched the feature length Fire Walk With Me twice and all 30 episodes of the TV show within 2 months, means that Julee Cruise claims 3 of the spots.

Ritual by Ghost is a song that I discovered on a compilation CD that my father owns and resulted in me buying their album. As a whole it is solid but Ritual seems to be the stand-out track. The top track is Leaves by The Gathering and featured on their first great album, Mandylion. The instrumental part midway through is sublime and is the main reason I kept coming back to the song last year.

TOP ARTISTS

Katatonia 480 listens
Anathema 451 listens
Bruce Springsteen 449 listens
Opeth 310 listens
Kathleen Edwards 309 listens
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band 233 listens
Sun Kil Moon 167 listens
Leonard Cohen 155 listens
Nina Nastasia 155 listens
Tom Waits 142 listens
Rancid 131 listens
Frank Zappa 128 listens
The Gathering 122 listens
Bob Dylan 118 listens
Queens of the Stone Age 118 listens
Ice-T 112 listens
Pink Floyd 108 listens
Me First and the Gimmie Gimmie Gimmies 93 listens
2Pac 93 listens
Thin Lizzy 90 listens

TOP TRACKS

The Gathering - Leaves 19 listens
Ghost - Ritual 16 listens
Kathleen Edwards - Sidecar 15 listens
Anathema - The Lost Child 14 listens
Kathleen Edwards - Change The Sheets 13 listens
Anathema - The Storm Before the Calm 13 listens
Kathleen Edwards - Empty Threat 12 listens
Kathleen Edwards - Mint 12 listens
Kathleen Edwards - For The Record 12 listens
Anathema - Untouchable Part 1 12 listens
Anathema - Untouchable Part 2 12 listens
Julee Cruise - Into the Night 11 listens
Julee Cruise - The Nightingale 11 listens
Katatonia - The Promise of Deceit 11 listens
Kathleen Edwards - Chameleon/Comedian 11 listens
Anathema - The Beginning Of The End 11 listens
Buzzcocks - Harmony In My Head 10 listens
Julee Cruise - Falling 10 listens
Anathema - Balance 10 listens
Anathema - Lightning Song 10 listens]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Kdo_Kenoute/journal/2012/11/30/5ol5m5_a_journey_through_neil%E2%80%99s_past:_part_two_1980-1988 Fri, 30 Nov 2012 03:50:58 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Kdo_Kenoute/journal/2012/11/30/5ol5m5_a_journey_through_neil%E2%80%99s_past:_part_two_1980-1988 This is the second part of what is likely to become a four part journal. The idea for this came from me wanting to listen to all of Neil Young's albums in chronological order. I began doing do in a kind of diary structure. As I got further into Young's catalogue I became less consistent in terms of the amount of time between listening to each album so I decided to do away with the original format. Here is simply my opinion of all of Neil Young's albums between 1980 and 1988. The very end of the decade ushered in a whole new era for Young so Freedom, although technically an 80s album, will be reviewed along with the 1990s.


Hawks & Doves

Neil Young's music took an abrupt shift with the advent of a new decade, not just in a stylistic sense but also interms of the standard of his work. Rust Never Sleeps, which was his final album of the seventies, was consitent with the general quality of his previous work. Rust's follow up, Hawks & Doves, was not. It is a lesser work than Rust but oddly enough it does share a similar structure. One acoustic side and one electric side. The acoustic tracks are fine although they are the sort that you might imagine Young could have written one hundred of and thought no less of it. Lost In Space and Captain Kennedy are the highlights of the opening set but in truth they are no better than the more run-of-the-mill tracks on an album like American Stars n Bars.

The second half is played with electric instruments and has more than a country tinge to it but if anything it is country-lite. Stayin' Power and Coastline are inane rubbish, they were by far the weakest songs Young had released up to this point in time. Union Man is okay in a kind of comedic sense but once again it would have stood out like a sore-thumb on any of Young previous albums, Stars n Bars included. Comin' Apart At Every Nail is the sole stand out track of the second half of the album. By the time the title track comes around it's clear that although Hawks & Doves is a (mercifully) short album it is a stark reminder that no one is untouchable. Young's vocals are now abrasive rather than evocative, the songwriting significantly less tight than it has been since his catalogue of work began. Taken with a pinch of salt it can be enjoyed but it isn't one of Young's most fondly remembered pieces of work and it was the beginning of a troubled time in his career.


Re-ac-tor

Young's second album of the 80s opens with the refrain “You were born to rock, you'll never be an opera star”. The intentions are clear from the offing, this is a Crazy Horse album and it rarely lets up. The uptempo opening salvo Opera Star and Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze form a decent start to the album. Young's voice is decidedly more ragged than on any previous Crazy Horse albums but the instrumentals make up for it. It is the third track, T- Bone that really highlights just how obtuse Young was becoming. The refrain “Got mashed potato, ain't not no t-bone” is repeated throughout the 9 minute song. It is a perplexing one to listen to and has the aura of a man who has other things on his mind rather than making music, more of that in the Trans review. Get Back On It and Southern Pacific are forgettable rock by numbers. Motor City and Rapid Transit are moderately more interesting songs concerning automotive pursuits, of all things. The lyrics of the former seemingly pay homage to the Detroit car manufacturing scene. That's rock n roll alright.

There is a song on Re-ac-tor that could be considered a masterpiece, that song is Shots and it is the one true gem on the album. It's not only one of the most coherent songs on the album but it is also the most satisfying. It certainly outdoes T-Bone on that count. The instrumentation is excellent too, the guitars sound like machine guns, they throb throughout the song giving it a haunting quality which befits the lyrics.

The best thing that can be said about Re-ac-tor is that the guitar work is solid throughout, even on a track like T-Bone, there is still some value in the Young-Crazy Horse musicianship. It is the songwriting that generallys fall short, aside from the excellent closing track. Re-ac-tor can still be quite an enjoyable album, ultimately, for the most part, it's just a bit of a frivolous one.


Trans

Trans begins with the unremarkable but generic Little Thing Called Love before it leaps headfirst into the world of electronic-rock. Six of the tracks here have Young singing through a vocoder. The cleanly sung Hang On To Your Love appears about midway through to break the monotony, although in truth it's as light as Young has ever been. By far the best use of the electronic style is displayed in a trio of tracks; Computer Age, Transformer Man and the almost proggish Sample and Hold. That is followed by an unecessarily silly version of Mr Soul which really could have been left off. Just like with Re-ac-tor, the best track on the album is the closing one, Like An Inca. It bares a resembalce to Young's earlier a guitar workout tracks such as Like a Hurricane. It is sung with clean vocals so there are no vocoders in sight on this one. The lyrics are enigmatic yet compelling, like much of Young's best work it seems to read as well as it plays and it contains perhaps Young's best chorus hook of the 1980s.

Trans was an understandably polorising album which baffled many, something that Young's albums would do throughout the 1980s. The critics were particularly cruel. Young would later say that the album wasn't just a mere genre experiment, his son has cerebal palsy and was only a child at the time of the albums release. He used various technologies to communicate due to the severity of the illness and this is reportedly one of the reasons Young recorded the songs in this way. With that in mind Trans begins to make a lot more sense. It is an undeniably challenging album which is misunderstood by the majority of people and although it's no masterpiece it was his best album of the 80s to this point.


Everybody's Rockin'

Everybody's Rockin' is a lark-about record, Young was clearly having the time of his life with it too. Perhaps the most suprising thing about it is some of the reviews that are written, even now, take this way too seriously. A few years ago I read a Q Magazine review which refused to give it any stars! The trick to this album is not to take it too seriously, Young certainly didn't seem to be doing so. Take Payola Blues as an example and the irony of a lyric such as 'I never hear my record on the radio'. Young clearly wouldn't have been expecting this album to dominate the airwaves but perhaps it is a reference to his earlier post-Harvest work such as Tonight's the Night or On the Beach or even his 80s output thus far. Either way it is entertainingly self-referential. He even manages a few swipes at then record label executive David Geffen, who famously tried sued Young, his own artist, for making unrepresentative records. Perhaps understandably he even throws a few digs at Geffen into the mix. This album was supposedly the result of Geffen demanding a rock n roll album follow the excentricities of Trans and Old Ways, which had recently been rejected by the label!

The songs themselves are a mixture of covers of early rock n roll songs and song Neil Young originals. Of the originals Wonderin' is the strongest, although the offbeat humour in Payola Blues does give it a run for its money (no pun intended). Wonderin' harks back to the early 70's, it is a song that Young used to perform live with Crazy Horse when touring around the time of Everybody Knows This is Nowhere and After the Goldrush.

Everybody's Rockin' is a short album, it is roughly 25 minutes long. The decision to keep it brief turned out to be a wise one because although it is an entertaining record if it was much longer it would begin to grate on even the most devout listener.

Old Ways

Old Ways is often regarded as Young's 'real' country album. Indeed he enlisted the help of genre pals Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. His intentions are made clear with an opening rendition of the country staple The Wayward Wind. Performed as a duet with Harris, it lends itself well to Young's style and predictably Emmylou's presence enhances its effectiveness.

The next two tracks refer directly and with intent, to country music. Get Back to the Country is an uptempo ode to the genre that Young appears to feel most in-sync with. He sings; “when I was a younger man, got lucky with a rock n roll band, struck gold in Hollywood, all the time I knew I would, get back to the country”. This kind of self referencing isn't a new to Young, Thrasher described his time with Crosby, Stills and Nash, for example. Get Back to the Country is decidedly more light-hearted though, it is about as 'fun' as Young gets without compromising the actual songwriting process.

Are There Any More Real Cowboys? May well be the strongest song in this set. A duet with Willie Nelson, the two croon about the state of mainstream country music. They refer to the seemingly materialistic aesthestic, 'diamond sequins' and perhaps even a lack of discipline within the culture of the scene “Not the one that's snortin' cocaine, When the honky-tonk's all closed”. Instead they call for a culture that returns to the hard working “cowboy” who is more concerned with more traditional pursuits. It's an impassioned song and although Young may not be a 'true' country singer, he certainly sounds more genuine that a number of the musicians who have made their permanent home within the genre. The final verse with Young and Nelson singing in unison is a sound to behold. When they grasp for the answer to the titular question for the final time there is a tangible sense that their lament is genuine, not that we ever really doubted it.

The real exception within the set is the aptly titled and enigmatic Misfits. It refers loosely to country culture, describing a loner who takes solace in a saloon and juxtaposes this brief narrative against astronauts watching a Muhammed Ali flight. It may be a song that knowingly defies analysis, the final line reads “Do you know what that means?” A sign that Young is as playfully enigmatic as ever.

Old Ways presents a solid piece of work, with a few stellar moments. The most important aspect of Old Ways is the consistency, there aren't any weak tracks, something that cannot be said for all of Young's work during the 1980s.

Landing On Water

Landing on Water is one of the most nondescript albums of Young's career. The highlights are Touch the Night, which strangely evokes the songs of Jim Steinman, and Hippie Dream, which seems to be a criticsm of ideals represented by the likes of Crosby, Stills and Nash. At its very worst the album is woefully misjudged. Having a boys choir provide the backing vocal “Have to fight to control the violent side?” for the song Violent Side, seems naïve and careless, although the intention may have been to be stark or ironic, it doesnt sit well.

Landing on Water is a hard rock album but it is a bland one and it quickly extinguished any excitement that Young was apparently putting his genre exercises to one side. If this was the result then it seemed a return to rockabilly might be a welcome one. The performances feel synth heavy and overproduced, while the songwriting is largely uninspired for Young's standards. This is towards the bottom of the pile. It would be the next millenium before Young would make an album that was quite this poor.

Life

Life would continue with the hard rock style that Young returned to with Landing on Water. The difference this time is that Young has brought his band Crazy Horse back for the ride. It goes without saying that Crazy Horse bring the raw energy that was missing in Landing on Water. This sounds more like a Neil Young rock album.

Mideast Vacation is a statement of intent. Punctuated by a military drumbeat, the lyrics concern a glorfied account of war, in fact Young name-checks Rambo at one point. Long Road Home is a heartfelt and rousing call for America to look at its own wartime past. Inca Queen is another quiet number that continues Young's 'Inca' thread from previous albums. Prisoners of Rock and Roll is an unabashedly straightforward rock song that sounds like a perfect foil for Crazy Horse. It contains one of Young's final digs at David Geffen's previous interference in his work.

When Your Lonely Heart Breaks evokes Young's love songs of the 70's and although it isn't as effective as Only Love Can Break Your Heart or I Believe in You, it contains similar themes. Tellingly, he never refers to himself in the lyrics. Perhaps he has moved on during the intervening years and is now the one dispensing advice to others rather than searching for it himself. In I Believe in You he poses the questions, in When Your Lonely Heart Breaks he puts forward the answers. Young would certainly become something of a father figure in the 90's to the younger generation. Perhaps Life was Young drawing a line under a turbulent time in his life and career before he would launch a full scale resurgence in the early nineties. Of course that would have to wait, Young was to let his hair down with his final genre experiment of the decade with his next album.

This Note's for You

Young's final album of the 80s before his critical and commercial return to form was his final genre album. This Note's For You is a blues rock album which makes use of a horn section throughout. It begins with Ten Men Working, an uptempo song which really sets the tone, it embraces blues music in a way that indicates Young's enthusiasm for the genre. The title track is brief but it is one of the strongest on the album. Young even made a music video for the track which, perhaps surprisingly, won the MTV music video of the year award, beating acts like Michael Jackson and Madonna. Incidentally these are the kind of performers the tongue-in-cheek video pokes fun at. The video ends with Young holding up a can of soda which displays the words “Sponsored by Nobody”. The lyrics share a similar tone to this. Young lists the various companys (such as Miller and Coca Cola) that he doesn't “sing” for. It is protest through self-gratification. This Note's For You is an entertaining track and like the video that accompanies it, it feels very off-kilter. In other words, very Neil Young.

For the mostpart this is a rollicking album with Young showing a profiency for the blues. The songs still aren't classic but they are perfectly fun to listen to. Particularly the uncharacteristically chirpy Sunny Inside and Hey Hey, in which Young ironically repeats the refrain “Turn off your MTV”. Twilight and Can't Believe Your Lyin' slow down the pace and at times even evoke early Tom Waits. The finest cut from the whole abum may well be One Thing. It is a down tempo lament with some nice guitar work and the kind of mournful vocals that made songs like Star of Bethlehem so effective in the 70's.

This Note's For You at least ended Young's genre albums on a relatively high note. He had now signed back to Reprise records for the forseeable future and with it would come a revival that would solidify Young's legendary status within the rock community. The 1980s would soon be a distant memory.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Kdo_Kenoute/journal/2012/01/01/59p30m_my_top_20_tracks_of_2011 Sun, 1 Jan 2012 13:52:56 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Kdo_Kenoute/journal/2012/01/01/59p30m_my_top_20_tracks_of_2011 1. The Gathering - Confusion 21 listens
2. Remembrances - Blood on the Wall 21 listens
3. The Gathering - In Power We Entrust the Love Advocated 15 listens
4. 2Pac - Pain 13 listens
5. Deftones - Diamond Eyes 12 listens
6. Gravenhurst - The Velvet Cell 11 listens
7. Anathema - A Simple Mistake 11 listens
8. Caitlin Rose - Sinful Wishing Well 11 listens
9. Belle and Sebastian - I'm Waking Up to Us 10 listens
10. The Damned - Neat Neat Neat 10 listens
11. The Gathering - Saturnine 10 listens
12. The Gathering - Nighttime Birds 10 listens
13. Paul Kantner, Grace Slick and David Freiberg - Ballad Of The Chrome Nun 10 listens
14. Belle and Sebastian - I Didn't See It Coming 10 listens
15. My Dying Bride - For You 9 listens
16. My Dying Bride - A Kiss to Remember 9 listens
17. The Gathering - On Most Surfaces 9 listens
18. The Specials - Do Nothing 9 listens
19. The Gathering - Kevin's Telescope 9 listens
20. Paul Kantner, Grace Slick and David Freiberg - Fat 9 listens


I'm not one for overplaying individual songs, many great tunes have been ruined by overexposure over the years. There are only twelve unique artists of the twenty that made it into the list and in fact 6 songs are from The Gathering who I belatedly 'got-into' last year. Their majestic, Confusion deservedly lies in the top place but it is interesting that tied for first is essentially a clone. Blood on the Wall is a song by a little known (even to me) band named Remembrances and it is clear that they were heavily influenced by bands like The Gathering. It is gothic metal really at is primitive best, what is even more astounding is they are band that I discovered on this website, the three songs of theirs that I own are last.fm downloads. I have tried to track down more of their music but so far that endeavour has been without success.

This is, in all honesty a relatively narrow cross section. Over half the list is songs from bands who are or have been metal bands. There is lo-fi and folk-rock in the form of Gravenhurst, Belle and Sebastian and Caitlin Rose. Punk band The Damned, a single Ska song by The Specials, the excellent Jefferson Airplane spin-off by Kantner, Slick and Freiberg does at least provide something in the form of classic (if underappreciated) pop-rock. Finally, the rediscovery of a 2Pac song which was a b-side on a Warren G single and also the closing credits of the rather uneven film Above the Rim. It is a frustratingly under-produced song yet still has more than enough vigour (thanks in no small part to a mind-bogglingly good guest verse by Stretch) to rank as one of 2Pac's best songs. It is the lone hip hop track in the list.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Kdo_Kenoute/journal/2012/01/01/59p16l_my_top_20_artists_of_2011 Sun, 1 Jan 2012 13:03:36 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Kdo_Kenoute/journal/2012/01/01/59p16l_my_top_20_artists_of_2011 1. Tom Waits 243 listens
2. Neil Young 230 listens
3. The Damned 213 listens
4. PJ Harvey 195 listens
5. Anathema 169 listens
6. Stiff Little Fingers 165 listens
7. The Gathering 144 listens
8. Katatonia 138 listens
9. Belle and Sebastian 136 listens
10. Bob Dylan 135 listens
11. My Dying Bride 132 listens
12. Mojave 3 127 listens
13. 2Pac 127 listens
14. Low 123 listens
15. Nina Nastasia 112 listens
16. Leonard Cohen 105 listens
17. Opeth 100 listens
18. Bruce Springsteen 98 listens
19. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band 93 listens
20. LL Cool J 92 listens


Even a glance it is clear that I have not been particuarly moved by much 'new' music recently, in fact it has been a while since a new band excited me. Perhaps Arcade Fire was that band but even then it took me until after the hype had settled to realise what a talented group they were. Whether it is due to my own stubborness or simply a lack of interesting music is up for debate. By my own reckoning only three of my top twenty artists released a new studio album in 2011, those three being Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, and Opeth, hardly spring chickens, any of them. PJ Harvey's performance in this list can no doubt be attributed to the excellent Let England Shake while Opeth's can partly be put down to me just trying to get my head around Heritage. I still haven't quite managed that one yet.

Live gigs have also had a heavy influence; The Damned, Stiff Little Fingers and Anathema are three examples of this. Perhaps the most notable though was an unlikely tussle between doom metal giants My Dying Bride and lo-fi legends Low. They both played in Manchester in the same building on the same evening last May and so a quandry of nearly epic proportions was born. Thus ensued a 'listen-off' which took me a month or so to resolve. Eventually I plumped for MDB and I didn't regret the decision.

My last.fm journal on Neil Young and finally discovering Time Fades Away bumped old Shakey up the list while a bout of nostalgia saw me revisit the two men who pretty much single handedly got me into rap music during the mid nineties, LL Cool J and 2Pac.

There really aren't any great surprises here though, even to me. It is easy to be aware of ones last.fm charts but in the myriad ways of sorting and displaying them some do creep through undetected. Others are more deliberate, such as The Gathering. This was the year that I they broke through my consciousness, particuarly their masterpiece Nighttime Birds, it was released in 1997. I keep returning to that quandry about new music. It seems as though the too few great bands that currently inhabit the edge of the mainstream like Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes are hardly 'new' anymore. Why are all the main festivals in the UK headlined by bands that really should have seen their day? Download is set to be headlined by Metallica and Black Sabbath this year. Perhaps my favourite moment ever at Glastonbury was seeing Leonard Cohen on the Pyramid stage in 2008 and my all time V Festival high point would be a toss up between Manic Street Preachers in 2007 or Radiohead in 2006.

Perhaps 2012 will open up more possibilities although I cant help the feeling that I am distancing myself further from whatever excuse for a 'scene' we have these days. The truth is I am more likely to move backwards rather than forwards.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Kdo_Kenoute/journal/2011/04/06/4bbiqy_a_journey_through_neil%E2%80%99s_past:_part_one_1968-1979 Wed, 6 Apr 2011 00:42:12 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Kdo_Kenoute/journal/2011/04/06/4bbiqy_a_journey_through_neil%E2%80%99s_past:_part_one_1968-1979 I have decided to embark on a voyage of sorts through Neil Young's back catalogue in as much entirety as I am able to manage in the coming months. The aim is to do an album a day but for one reason or another, this may not be possible. We’ll see how it goes. Also this is all just for a bit of fun so if anyone happens to read this please feel free to comment but don’t take it too seriously. This will be undeniably slanted towards my own particular interpretation of Mr Young’s (mostly) wonderful music.

*The dates denote the day I listened to a given album.

06/04/2011

First off then Neil Young’s first solo album Neil Young from 1969, and it is worth noting just what an underappreciated gem from his early career this. His voice sounded even more vulnerable and tender than the one we are more accustomed to back then and the songs are not really so far removed from his Buffalo Springfield efforts, it’s easy to imagine I Am a Child appearing in the track list, for example.

In this album Young has already begun to assert his uniqueness, even this early on in his musical development. In what would be come typical idiosyncratic fashion the album begins with The Emperor of Wyoming, an instrumental number. This eases into the classic, The Loner, which really announces Neil Young’s arrival onto the scene. The most part of the album that follows is fairly conventional however slightly folksy The Old Laughing Lady hints at a more experimental entity while the somewhat odd Last Trip to Tulsa hints at his extravagances. Personally the highlight of the album is the wonderful Here We Are in the Years. For a short song it is split into three distinct parts with the middle verse packing the most punch, both musically and lyrically.

Listening back to this album for the first time in a while it does hold up well, even against Young’s best. Of course an important piece of music was just around the corner.

07/04/2011

Hot on the heels of the first album Neil Young enlisted Crazy Horse, previously known as The Rockets, for Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. The result was a rougher and edgier album which has become one of Young’s most celebrated albums over the years since its release, I have read that it was John Peel's favourite. Cinnamon Girl with its and infectious melody has become one of his live staples over the years and one of those songs which demonstrates Young’s broad appeal. It has been covered by acts as diverse as Los Lobos and Type O Negative. Down by the River and Cowgirl in the Sand demonstrate just how comfortable Young was playing with Crazy Horse and they are each a great showcase for Neil and Crazy Horse. Although he would reprise the concept of the elongated guitar jam song later in his career with songs such as Cortez the Killer and Change Your Mind, River and Cowgirl are arguably the best songs of this kind that he recorded with Crazy Horse.

Amidst the storming electric guitar led songs are two quieter, almost lo-fi, efforts. Round & Round (It Won’t Be Long) is the first but the second of the two is the most impressive. On its surface Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets) is a heartfelt, confessional song and frankly I’ve never seen the need to delve further into the significance of it. Sometimes the straightforward interpretation is the most evocative. The vocal performance from Young is compelling but so it the inclusion of the violin part which serves as a stylistic departure but also compliments Young’s mournful performance perfectly.

The inclusion of Crazy Horse was a stroke of genius as it turned out and their contribution more than justified the joint billing.

08/04/2011

Another stylistic change would occur for Young’s third album, After the Gold Rush. He ditched Crazy Horse part way through the recording sessions, but not before they had recorded three tracks. Young had achieved considerable success with CSNY earlier in the year which, whether he wanted it to or not, seemed to change his landscape somewhat. Although After The Gold Rush is a quieter album than it’s predecessor it is still a diverse one. Southern Man is the real exception, it is a rip-roaring protest song and is a high point of the album. The guitar playing is superb and the recording really emphasises the intensity of Young’s vocals, whilst his guitar playing is every bit as frenetic. Other stand out tracks include, Only Love Can Break Your Heart which is a heart rending ballad, Tell Me Why which is lyrically enigmatic but it has a great folk-pop melody and the title track which contains some of Young’s best ever abstract lyrics.

A rarity for Young came in the form of Oh Lonesome Me, which was originally an up tempo country song for Don Gibson. It was one of the three songs recorded with Crazy Horse and the result was a wonderfully woeful down-tempo rendition, which for me surpasses the original. I Believe In You which is most similar in mood to Only Love Can Break Your Heart should in all rights be the last track on the album but with Neil Young being Neil Young this isn't the case. The record closes with a one and a half minute song, Cripple Creek Ferry which in stark contrast to most songs on the album is a lark-around, campfire song and it rounds off the album in typically eccentric fashion.

After The Gold Rush may be slightly uneven when viewed as a whole but there is no denying that there are plenty of gems within the track list.

09/04/2011

Without doubt Harvest is Young’s best known album and although for most artists this would generally be a bad thing (how mnay good tunes have been ruined due to over-exposure over the years?) the same can’t really be said for Harvest. Heart Of Gold still retains its power despite solid radio exposure even today and although the title track and Old Man are similarly styled country-rock they are both equally good songs, if not better. Young would reprise (or sequelise depending on your outlook) the Harvest 'sound' in future works such as Comes A Time and Harvest Moon and he would return back to the country intermittently in between. Perhaps the best of the ‘country-rock’ songs on the album is the opener, Out On The Weekend. The elongated harmonica intro is a fine mood setter and it provides a suitable opening to the album as a whole.

The two musical departures are A Man Need’s A Maid and There’s A World, both recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra and too admittedly differing degrees of success. A Man Needs A Maid is a sometimes misunderstood ode to loneliness, the achingly beautiful lyrics and vocal performance are only accentuated by the orchestral arrangement. On this evidence alone it is a bold move which works, however There’s A World is less effective and this is even more evident listening to live recordings played with the piano as the sole instrument. The lyrics to There’s A World are less personal so there feels like less of a connection already but the orchestral arrangement rather than bring the performance together, pulls it further apart. The performance at Massey Hall, for example, is a much more intimate and as a result the song rings rings truer in a more stripped down setting.

The penultimate track, The Needle And The Damage Done is as sparing as anything Young had put on record to date. Recorded live and with only his acoustic guitar this account of the effects heroin abuse is as much harrowing as it is beautiful and although it is only two minutes in length it is perhaps the most memorable piece of music on the album. It was in fact much more in the mould of what was soon to come from Neil Young.

25/04/2011

Right then well it’s been a while since my last entry however in my defence I thought it prudent to allow the next album time to sink in, after all until recently I’d never heard it in its entirely. I am of course talking about Time Fades Away. Still snubbed by its creator, it is one of the most singular experiences in Young’s catalogue. It was mainly new (or unheard, at least) songs all performed live at various venues and it documented a tour which Young embarked on during a turbulent time in his life. The pivotal events being the commercial success of his career and the death of Crazy Horse member Danny Whitten to a heroin overdose.

The album opens with the frantically up-tempo title track. Journey Through The Past follows and is more familiar, notably from the Massey Hall and the Harvest sessions. I liked the country-rock version recorded previously but there is no doubting that the song works well with just Young and his piano. Even after the first two or three tracks what is so immediately noticeable about Time Fades Away is how similar the feel is to Tonight’s The Night, which of course had not yet been released. The ‘ditch’ reference when applied to Time Fades Away seems to be more related to the mood of the album than anything else. Young doesn’t overtly reference specific events. One criticism of his early albums is that his lyrics emphasised self-pity. There is little, if none of that here; instead his songs are performed with discord, anguish and at times, anger. The result is music that isn’t as instant as say that on Harvest but it has more depth.

The blues inflected Yonder Stands The Sinner has young wailing through proceedings and it one of the strongest songs on the album. Amongst the frenetic numbers it is the quieter moments make the album’s dynamics work. Love In Mind, although recorded two years prior to the other songs on this set is one of Young’s most tender songs ever and although it is slight, it is resonant. Dont Be Denied feels like a lost Neil Young classic which as much as any song on this set documents where he was at the time. Towards the end he observes that he has become “a millionaire through a businessman’s eyes”. This sentiment paired with that of L.A. and also later songs like Revolution Blues and On The Beach demonstrate Young’s unease with fame. The Bridge which is the penultimate song is the weakest of the eight songs but it does at least deliver hopeful lyrics before it gives way to the 8 minute Last Dance. It is a song which quite aptly showcases the discord, anguish and anger that I referred to, pretty much at once all in one track.

It is a sign perhaps of Young’s gift that he can almost freewheel his way through these songs, singing out of tune and at times playing out of tune, and for it to still sound so appealing. Hopefully one day this will get the full release it deserves.

26/04/2011

On the Beach was recorded after Tonight’s The Night however it did get a release before that album. It is quite easily the best produced of the three ‘ditch’ releases. On The Beach opens with the defiant Walk On which really wouldn’t have sounded out of place on any Young album prior to Time Fades Away. See The Sky About To Rain is one that Young plucked from his Harvest era. This time accompanied by what sounds like a pump organ and steel pedal guitar rather than the straight forward piano arrangements that he had previously aired. It’s one of the best songs on the album and doesn’t feel out of place despite its slightly unconventional arrangement.

One of my favourite characteristics of On The Beach is that it is a diverse album. Until this point After The Gold Rush was Young’s most diverse work but it felt a bit choppy, On The Beach flows much better. In addition to this the mood of On The Beach feels a lot more sober than on Time Fades Away and Tonight’s The Night. I’ve seen it written that young wasn’t being consumed by anguish on the album but that he had come to terms with the recent events in his life. It certainly feels like an album which, although still in a bad place senses that there is somewhere to move on to. In a sense that sentiment is true but I also think that this album is a lot more about what was happening on the outside rather than on the inside. This coupled with the array of ‘topics’ he deals with seem to lend it added importance. On the rocking number, Revolution Blues he is inspired by Charles Manson, On The Beach is Young dealing with fame and Ambulance Blues appears to have a different topic for each verse. It’s the longest song on the album and is a slow paced acoustic song which contains some of the best lyrics he ever recorded.

The title track is perhaps in my top 5 Neil Young songs ever, in fact it almost certainly is. It is the most downbeat of all the songs on this set, lyrics like ‘the world is turning, I hope it don’t turn away’ indicates a man who is in a bad place but doesn’t want to stay there. It’s achingly poignant and demonstrates that wonderful ability Young has to be succinct but still to be tremendously effective. In a funny way though, On The Beach is a hopeful song. My reference earlier to Young not being consumed by self-pity and anguish is affirmed by the line ‘though my problems are meaningless, that don’t make them go away’.

All in all this is a more collected Neil Young than the one who let everything hang out, musically and lyrically on his next album. On The Beach may be Neil Young’s best album for more reasons than I have written about here. It’s one for the ages and hopefully in time it is one that will get more recognition than the Harvest's and the Rust Never Sleeps of this world.

11/05/2011

Tonight's the Night is one of Young’s most famous albums and it says a lot about his own idiosyncrasy that this would be the case. The album is one of virtually no commercial appeal. The vocals are out of tune, the recordings are rough almost as if live (there’s little distinction between the sound on this and Time Fades Away) and the subject matter is perennially on a downer. Even the cover art is ‘lo-fi’.

Bookended by two different versions of the title track the opener is a classic but the closer pales in comparison. It feels like a bit of an after thought. The superb Tired Eyes would have made a better closer. One of the strengths of Tonight’s the Night is that there is an ambiguity to much of the lyrical content. That this leaves more to interpretation works in the albums favour. Borrowed Tune is one of Young’s most delicate piano ballads. Mellow My Mind is a shockingly convincing lament. Rockers World On A String and Lookout Joe are highlights but even they don’t compromise the mood. World On A String, although it sounds like a drunken blues sing-a-long, is an outstanding two and a half minute burst.

The Danny Whitten number Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown is a welcome change of tone. Although it is filled with poignancy listening back, the feeling of the recording is that at the time it was feel good. It is certainly better version than the one which features on the Crazy Horse album.

In terms of the recording I am always intrigued by the account of Nils Lofgren as described in Jimmy McDonough’s biography whereby he describes the recording process of the album. He would be getting to grips with a song thinking that he might nail it on the next take or two only for Young to announce that that was it, that was the take that he was going to stick with. Perhaps this is the way music should be made. Too often albums sound overproduced, evermore so these days. Music is ultimately a raw form and so often that is when it is at its best.

24/07/2011

So I have been shockingly remiss over the last couple of months and in fact while I sit wriiting this I am in fact listening to Codeine’s Frigid Stars album. It fits quite nicely though because the gravelly tones of Codeine may well have taken root in songs like Dangerbird and Cortez the Killer. In fact it is hard to imagine bands like Sonic Youth existing the way they have done without the influence of this album. I have of course, of course, returned to the music of Neil Young and in fact my next port of call was his second Crazy Horse album, Zuma. I’m not going to deny it, Zuma is one of my favourites. I might even say that it is joint number one with On the Beach.

Zuma opens with Don’t Cry No Tears which is almost effortless up-tempo rock number and it’s one of Young’s catchiest songs. That is followed by the superb Dangerbird, one of my favourite down-tempo guitar tracks of Young’s. One of the things that makes Young stand out from your average rocker is the combination of complex lyrics and complex musicianship, I love the imagery he conjures up and both aspects contribute equally. Both are present in Dangerbird and to glorious effect. Pardon My Heart is the kind of song that Young has specialised in it’s a delicate and tender song which segways nicely into Lookin’ For a Love, a hopeful ode to the love of his life, of course he hasn't met her yet.

Barstool Blues is another one of those great rockers that Young has which reads about as well as it plays. The lyrics, much like Dangerbird, conjure vivid images and a has a combination of melody and Young singing in that anguished wail that was so prominent on Tonight’s the Night. Drive Back stands as one of Young’s strongest no-nonsense rockers. Cortez the Killer is so famous it hardly feels necessary to discuss it and Through my Sails is a fittingly calmed way to complete a rip roaring album. Even if Stupid Girl is relatively weak, Zuma is still an excellent album with little or no pretence. It’s just Neil Young and Crazy Horse doing what they do best and to great effect.

13/09/2011

American Stars 'n Bars is an odd entry in Young's catalogue. The main reason being that by quite some way it was his most uneven album up to this point. The opening 4 tracks sound are a country rock sound which is more Gram Parsons-lite than Harvest. I say Gram Parsons-lite, Old Country Waltz and Hold Back the Tears are still effective but they were the kind of songs you imagine Young could have recorded in his sleep.

Bite the Bullet is a fairly straight rock song but the central refrain sounds inane by Young's standards and it is the weakest song on the album. Star of Bethlehem on the other hand is vintage Young and although I've listened to it many times it still retains it's power. It's a simple yet astoundingly effective number.

Perhaps the oddest song on the album is Will to Love, which is a 7 minute metaphor for love, of fish swimming up-stream. As odd as it sounds the melody is pleasant and it somehow works. The most famous song on Stars 'n Bars is the majestic Like A Hurricane which is perhaps the finest combination of sheer hard rock, soaring melody and lyrical accomplishment that Young had managed thus far. Homegrown is a take it or leave it effort which is built around the repetition of the phrase 'Homegrown is alright with me'. It's neither here nor there.

03/10/2011

Comes a Time was a return to the so-called ‘Harvest’ sound and although that is a correct assertion, this is also a less spectacular album. That isn’t intended as a criticism though, there are no over-the-top orchestral arrangements (A Man Needs A Maid) or overt ‘political’ statements (Alabama) or indeed any major hits (Heart of Gold). It is also a lot more mature in a lyrical sense than Harvest. Neil is now singing about what he has and the fear of losing what he now holds dear. Previously the emphasis was on what he perhaps didn't have or what her might be missing out on. It's ultimately a more poignant experience because of this and is a sign of his own growth as an artist, and perhaps even as a man. Songs like Already One seem to incorporate these sentiments effortlessly.

I personally think that the opening trio of songs are the strongest. Goin’ Back is Young at his wistful best, while the title track is a great country rock number and Look Out For My Love perhaps beats the lot. It begins as a tender folk-ballad but builds slowly and the overdubbed electric guitar riff makes the song.

My thoughts of Comes A Time in the past were that it is a patchy album with a great opening trio, then a dip, then a good start to ‘side 2’ then a dip then a great version of Four Strong Winds. It turns out I was wrong because I do think this is one of Young’s most fully formed albums which flows way better than Harvest, which is in fact a bit up and down. Hell even Motorcycle Mama makes sense to me now.

03/10/2011

Rust Never Sleeps was split into two parts; one acoustic and one electric and bookended by two equally compelling versions of Hey Hey, My My. The opening, acoustic, rendition of said track finds Young in perhaps his finest voice to date and that riff is just as majestic in an acoustic setting as it is electric.

Thrasher is Young at his autobiographical best and in many ways it reminds me of Ambulance Blues, although he sang about just about everything else in that song Thrasher is just as evocative for being more succinct in it's subject matter. The other favourite of mine from the acoustic set is Pocahontas. Like Thrasher, the themes of travel are prevalent and also in a hopeful yet still, somehow filled with pathos.

The electric set begins with perhaps my favourite Neil Young song of all time. Powderfinger is one of those songs that continues to amaze me. It is a perfect continuation of the more folk-inflected songs of the early part of the album. The lyrics are folk storytelling at its best. Add to that the great instrumentation, that superb riff and possibly the most fearsome guitar playing Young and Crazy Horse had managed to this point (perhaps Ragged Glory would have a say later in his career). The story Young tells is painted beautifully and is accentuated by the instrumental parts. Welfare Mothers is en enjoyable romp but nowhere near as monumental, as is Sedan Deilvery before the album concludes with one of Young's most famous songs, and to my mind still one of his best.

Rust Never Sleeps marked the end of Young's great zenith, which lasted for a pretty much ten years, with the odd exception. This era has stood the test of time and even on its own merits alone is the kind of canon that Ryan Adams, despite his own considerable talent, wishes he could possess. Young had already shown great range both musically and lyrically but the next ten years would be a much bumpier ride in which he would stretch his own boundaries with varying levels of success.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Kdo_Kenoute/journal/2010/01/21/3ctsje_my_favourite_albums_of_the_2000%27s Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:39:18 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Kdo_Kenoute/journal/2010/01/21/3ctsje_my_favourite_albums_of_the_2000%27s Well it was a relatively depressing decade for music but here's my favourite's as selected by, er, me. There were some reasons to be cheerful though.

20. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Lyre Of Orpheus/Abbatoir Blues

19. Jurassic 5 - Power In Numbers

18. Mojave 3 – Puzzles Like You

17. Manic Street Preachers - Send Away the Tigers

16. Anathema – A Natural Disaster

15. Lady & Bird – Lady & Bird

14. Manic Street Preachers – Journal For Plague Lovers

13. Sufjan Stevens – Illinoise

12. Mojave 3 – Excuses For Travellers

11. Opeth – Blackwater Park

10. The Decemberists – Picaresque

9. Opeth – Deliverance

8. PJ Harvey – White Chalk

7. Ghostface Killah – Fishscale

6. Queens of the Stone Age – R

5. Kathleen Edwards – Asking For Flowers

4. Nina Nastasia – On Leaving

3. Belle & Sebastian – Dear Catastrophe Waitress

2. Queens of the Stone Age – Songs for the Deaf

1. Katatonia - Last Fair Deal Gone Down]]>