Weekend Music Roundup

I'm doing a slightly abbreviated roundup this week, not because I'm lazy, but because I've got a novel to write, leaves to rake, furniture to move, etc. etc. etc. Though I do realize that five albums is probably plenty for the average music fan, so I guess I don't feel so badly about it. Well, possibly a little. That's why I'm throwing in a single for some level of atonement.

Oasis - Falling Down (A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in your Mind): I hadn't heard about this limited edition vinyl until I saw it at the Princeton Record Exchange. The song, taken from the latest album, is reworked into a double sided 12" clocking in at over twenty minutes long. I was intrigued because as Oasis fans back in the day, my friends and I always hoped the band would expand into something more experimentally psychedelic. Though far from perfect, this is definitely worth the listen. It's very much just a remix, but it does have an expansive feeling to it that adds new life to the song and adds something to the bands already impressive catalog.

Omar Rodriguez Lopez - Old Money: For the last several years, Omar (half of the creative force behind Mars Volta) has been releasing these prog-jazz solo albums. Some have been more interesting than others. Some have been more Mars Volta while others have been more jazz fusion. This one is kind of in between. There are elements of both. The music is always fascinating and there's always a story within it...if you have the patience to listen for it.

Sebadoh - Rebound EP: Part of my ongoing rediscovery of Sebadoh, I've been listening to this five song EP version from '95 (there's also a just an A/B side single version). All the tracks on here are examples of the Sebadoh sound that I love, that being the acoustic Lou Barlow sound. A great talent, he was really doing things that didn't become popular for another decade.

Country Joe & The Fish - Electric Music for the Mind and Body: This one blew me away, which is saying a lot because after loving their later I'm Fixin' to Die album recently, I had very high expectations. It surpassed them all. A blistering psychedelic record, this album is like listening to an artifact from some other place.

Lou Reed - Transformer: This is one of those revered albums that has always been on my "I Need To Check This Out At Some Point" list. Though, I must admit, I was always skeptical. It just didn't appeal to me for whatever reason. But, I've been surprised in the past, so I gave it a shot. My verdict: What does everybody hear in this album that I don't? I mean, it's certainly not bad, but it's certainly not amazing. It's a slightly above average singer/songwriter album by a musician and lyricist who is obviously feeling a bit bankrupt creatively. Listening to this is the equivalent of listening to the worst Velvet Underground album...I'd rather listen to the better VU albums.

Television - Marquee Moon: This one falls under the same category as the above...one I always was told to listen to but it never appealed to me. My thinking was, ehh another New York late '70s CBGB's band, heard it. The difference from this and the above album is that I couldn't have been more wrong. WHAT A FANTASTIC ALBUM this is. It doesn't sound like those other bands, it sounds way, way ahead of it's time.