May 2020 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency

My opera compulsion continues. I’ve taken in streams of 68 productions in the last 67 days.  The following albums, songs and livestreams balanced my maximal intake of ostensible high culture this month.

Top Five Albums
1. Bad Bunny- Las Que No Iban a Salir
Even the Puerto Rican’s discards are thrilling.
2. Sleaford Mods- All That Glue
My review.
3. Future- High Off Life
Chart-topping nihilism.
4. Aaron Parks- Little Big II: Dreams of a Mechanical Man
Fusion lives.
5. Dinosaur- To the Earth
Laura Jurd’s lawless group careens into the center lane.

Top Five Songs
1. Little Simz- “Might Bang, Might Not”
Oh, it bangs all right.
2. 6ix9ine- “Gooba”
I know, I know.  As the hooligan suggests, I must be “dumb, stupid or dumb.”
3. Shirley Collins- “Wondrous Love”
Selah.
4. The Magnetic Fields- “Favorite Bar”
Gloriously droll.
5. Hot Country Knights- “Then It Rained”
A gut-busting Garth Brooks spoof.

Top Five Livestreams
1. Bang on a Can Marathon
The online version of the canceled festival featured appearances by luminaries including Meredith Monk.
2. KC Bands Together
Full disclosure- I’m listed in the closing credits.
3. Bill Frisell- Blue Note at Home
The guitarist’s apartment has a better vibe than the venue.
4. Century Media’s Isolation Festival
Dead Lord was among the metal bands bringing the vital noise.
5. Molly Hammer- Jazzy Jamdemic
Classic Kansas City.

(I conducted the same exercise in April, March, February and January.

(Screenshot of the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Nico Muhly’s "Marnie" by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Bad Bunny- YHLQMDLG

The range of intoxicating thrills available to sober vegetarians is limited.  That’s why I’m mainlining Bad Bunny’s deliriously heady Yo Hago Lo Que Me Da La Gana.  Beginning with the opening track’s hilarious send-up of “The Girl from Ipanema,'' the twenty-song set makes me feel as if I stopped at a dispensary on my way home from a liquor run.  The relentless application of giddy production effects on sugary pop-oriented reggaeton jams like “Pero Ya No” makes me dizzy.  Here’s actual footage of me dancing to “Yo Perreo Sola” in my bedroom.


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I recently resumed management of The Kansas City Jazz Calendar.

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I write weekly concert previews for The Kansas City Star.

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I reviewed Pat Metheny’s From This Place at Plastic Sax.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)