She's filing her nails while they're dragging the lake: 3/30 show

Some notes on what I played:

Ben Folds It was Eric's sister Susanne who introduced me to Ben Folds a good 10 years ago or so, by giving us her copy of the Ben Folds Five's second album, which she didn't want anymore. The trio's third album (yes, the Ben Folds Five was of course a trio), The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner, was in my opinion their finest work, and Ben Folds's finest work. Still, Folds continues to make good music. (I've seen a couple of his shows. He's a good performer, probably at his best when performing solo. The fans, on the other hand, are an irritating crowd I'd prefer not to be around. Note to any fans reading this: I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about the other ones.) Anyway, Recently Ben Folds put out a full-length album that combined material he'd put out on EPs over the past few years. Not as good as Reinhold Messner, and sort of fragmented, as you might expect from an album meshed together from 4 EPs. One of the stand-out tracks, though, is "Dog". One of the things Folds does best — that no one else I've found is doing — is catchy but complicated piano parts. He also has a (less unique) talent for clever lyrics and good hooks. "Dog" is an excellent example of this. The lyrics begin by examining what dogs do and how they relate to us, and expands from there into philosophizing. (Philosophy that is coherent if not especially deep.)

Tinariwen is a band out of the Touareg area of Mali. There's something I find very odd about the idea that Volkswagen has introduced an SUV named after a people of the Western Sahara. How do the Touareg feel about this? In any event, this is a new album and I'm just learning about it now. Like a lot of African music groups, the songs trend on the long side, which can create a dilemma for a DJ — if I play this song, that's fewer songs I get to play overall. (Generally, I welcome the opportunity to breathe for a few extra minutes and not have only a couple of minutes to chose my next song.) The Tinariwen song I played elicited a "what's this you are playing, I like it" call. And I liked it too, and I'm going to keep exploring it. I can't really explain the sound yet, because I don't know it well enough yet — but my impression is Afro-pop, but slightly different from more standard Afro-pop.

The Style Council "The Paris Match" is a song my friend Sarah J. put on a mix for me some 15 years ago or so. It's actually the second version of the song TSC recorded. The first one was recorded in French (with maybe one English verse), with Paul Weller doing vocals; it's just OK, nothing special. The second version is found on Café Bleu, at a time when Dee C. Lee was in the process of joining the group, but not officially a part of it. (She's featured on a few of the tracks on teh album.) Rather than Lee or Weller on vocals, this Paris Match features the smokey alto vocals of Tracey Thorn of Everything but the Girl. This version is transcendant. TSC created here a real smokey jazz sound that is quite unlike the jazz-inflected pop they usually made. While I enjoy their hits — "How She Threw It All Away" and "My Every Changing Moods" — I prefer their more unusual and creative work, like "The Paris Match" and "The Story of Someone's Shoe". Meanwhile, Tracey Thorn has a new solo album out, and I picked it up at the station today to review. I haven't heard it yet, but it will surely make on the air next week.

Lady Sovereign is the current darling of the British Grime scene, a style of Rap with angular, jerky rhythms. "9 to 5" is a cute song about the dark side of success: you have to work. It's also insanely catchy, with a Carribean edge more like Lily Allen than Sov. I had it in my head all day.

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song/album	label
Elvis Costello and the Attractions	Watching the Detectives / The Very Best of...	Rykodisc
Ben Folds	Dog / Supersunnyspeedgraphic LP	Attacked by Plastic/Epic
*Mess Up the Mess	Hippocratic Oaf / You Remind Me of Summer Vacation	Paroxysm
The Smoking Popes	Zing Went the Strings of My Heart / The Party's Over	Double Zero
(r)Manishevitz	Mary Ann / City Life	JagJaguwar
*!!!	Bend Over Beethoven / Myth Takes	WARP
Morrissey	The Last of the Famous International Playboys / Bona Drag	Sire
Simon & Garfunkel	Like a Bridge over Troubled Water / Old Friends	Columbia/Legacy
*Air	Mer du Japon / Pocket Symphony	Astralwerks
*Tinariwen	Tamatant Tilay / Aman Iman: Water Is Life	World Village
The Aluminum Group	Tiny Decision / Happyness	Wishing Tree
The Fiery Furnaces	Guns under the Counter / Rehearsing My Choir	Rough Trade
*The Postmarks	Summer Never Seems to Last / The Postmarks	Unfiltered
The Style Council	The Paris Match / Café Bleu	Polydor
The Replacements	Can't Hardly Wait / Pleased to Meet Me	Sire
The Andrews Sisters	Rum and Coca Cola / Greatest Hits	CURB Records
*Jo Ann Garrett	Goin' Man Huntin' / Twinight's Lunar Rotation	Numero Group
*El-P	Run the Numbers / I'll Sleep When You're Dead	Def Jux
Lady Sovereign	9 to 5 / Public Warning	Island/Def Jam
(r)Devo	Through Being Cool / Hot Potatoes: the Best of Devo	Virgin
Tricky	Black Steel / Maxinquaye	Island
*Gruff Rhys	Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru / Candylion	Team Love
Troubled Hubble	Lonesome Hawthorne / The Sun Beamed off the Name Maurice	Magic Spot
*The Melvins	You're Never Right / A Senile Animal	Ipecac
Laurie Anderson	Gravity's Rainbow / The Talk Normal Anthology	Rhino
Vyvienne Long	Seven Nation Army / Even Better than the Real Thing
Canasta	Sympathetic Vibrations / We Were Set Up	Broken Middle C
*The Zincs	Burdensome Son / Black Pompadour	Thrill Jockey

Labels: music, playlists

posted by Tony at 10:32 AM