Album Review: Electric Needle Room- It's Getting Personal

Electric Needle Room missed an opportunity to perpetrate a great hoax. 

Had the Kansas City band anonymously posted a few songs from the new album It's Getting Personal and claimed they were home recordings from Brian Wilson's lost years, disheveled material like "Please Don't Forget To Take Care of Yourself" and "We'll Make It" might have become internet sensations.  The endearingly amateurish lo-fi songs contain the sort of melodies and song structures associated with Pet Sounds. 

Other guileless Electric Needle Room songs bridge the divide between untrained anti-folk and geeky nerdcore hip-hop. "Maybe Not" is like a dismal rebuttal to the Flaming Lips' "Do You Realize."  "The Colic Song" resembles a Ben Folds Five outtake. 

While it's only going to appeal to listeners receptive to its unprocessed aesthetic, It's Getting Personal is a brave little record.


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I reviewed the Winter Jam festival and a Stone Sour concert last week.

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Stan Kessler is Plastic Sax's 2013 Person of the Year.

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"So long, it's been good to know you."  I never acquired a taste for the music of Pete Seeger.  Even so, the subversive "What Did You Learn In School?" and "Little Boxes" reflect my world view.  Here's my friend Dale W. on the Weavers- "These people were reviled in their time ... the biggest pop stars and a threat to the establishment that made Johnny Rotten look tame."  Amen, brother.  Seeger died last week.

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The Marr Sound Archives posted an essay about the late Anne Winter's donation to its collection.  (Via Mark Manning.)

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Kansas City's Mime Game has a video for the Evan Dando-esque "Do You". 

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The video for Matt Pryor's "Kinda Go to Pieces" is hilarious.  (Via I Heart Local Music.)

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"Fed Up" is the latest video from Kansas City rapper Beama.

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I don't know why I expected to be bored by Helen Sung's Anthem For a New Day.  It's tasteful but not tedious.  RIYL: Chick Corea, eclectic swing, Ingrid Jensen.

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I feel like a number.  Business Week examines the demographic mining that fuels the commercial aspirations of the revived Okeh label.

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Too True, the new album by the Dum Dum Girls, doesn't contain a single original idea.  I like it anyway.  RIYL: The Jesus and Mary Chain, unvarying formulas, Siouxsie And The Banshees.

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Metal Albums With Googly Eyes is genius.  (Via Mike Stover.)

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The ballyhooed electronic elements of Mogwai's Rave Tapes are fine, but it's really nothing to write home about.  RIYL: Loud new age music, Explosions In the Sky, sterility.

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Morgan Delt's self-released spot-on recreations of kaleidoscopic psychedelia were recently re-released.  RIYL: The Dukes of Stratosphear, paisley, Red Krayola.  

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I didn't smash a single thing as I auditioned Throwdown's Intolerance. RIYL: Cro-Mags, rage, Hatebreed.

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Curtis Harding's "Keep On Shining" is an advance track from his forthcoming Soul Power album.  RIYL: Aloe Blacc, the ghost of Curtis Mayfield, Charles Bradley.

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I was initially thrilled to discover Get the Blessing.  Yet I've decided that the band is less concerned with forging a new direction for jazz than with updating the Canterbury scene.  RIYL: Soft Machine, jazz that's not really jazz, Pink Floyd.

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I'll be spending a lot of time with Mutations, the forthcoming album by Vijay Iyer.

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The Hold Steady used to be my favorite rock band.  Here's a trailer for the band's forthcoming album.  (Fingers crossed.)

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Kansas City Click: My official picks are published here.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Bruce Springsteen- HIgh Hopes

I introduced my friend J. to alcohol and Bruce Springsteen when we were juniors in high school.  J. could never get his fill of booze or Bruce after that fateful year.  He caught Springsteen over two dozen times as he drank himself to death.

We imbibed before a 1981 concert in support of The River at Kemper Arena, the first time either of us saw Springsteen perform.  The River was among the handful of Springsteen CDs I delivered to J. while he was on his deathbed three years ago. 

J. would have loved his hero's new album High Hopes.  "Harry's Place" is far too melodramatic and polished for my tastes, but I'm pretty sure it would have been J.'s favorite track.  It's easy for me to imagine J. singing along while pouring himself another cocktail. 

Listening to High Hopes objectively is extremely difficult, but it's almost certainly my favorite Springsteen album since 2002's The Rising.  The fresh versions of "American Skin (41 Shots)" and "The Ghost of Tom Joad" are excellent.  I like Tom Morello's contributions.  And- are you serious!- Springsteen covers songs by The Saints and Suicide.

"Got a special sin, mister, you can't quite confess," Springsteen groans on "Harry's Place." 

Well, J., this untoward confession will have to do for now.  I take responsibility for my role in killing you. 


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The Deli published a list of my ten favorite locally-released albums of 2013.

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Beama's Growing Pains is RIYL: Rich the Factor, thug life, Berner.

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Stik Figa raps over Keith Sweat's "Make It Last Forever."

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Kyle James' Finally Off Papers is RIYL: marijuana, molly, pills.

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The video for Sauce Remix's "Gunshots" is tough to watch.  (Via Tony's Kansas City.)

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I almost fell out of my seat at the Folly Theater in November when Kenny Barron mentioned that his former employer Yusef Lateef was still alive.  I had no idea.  Lateef died on December 23 at the age of 93.

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I have yet to process the death of Phil Everly.

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Jazz trumpeter Al Porcino has died.

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Jaimeo Brown's Transcendence was one of my year-end discoveries.  RIYL: Don Cherry, high concept, Charlie Haden.

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The Marc Cary Focus Trio's Four Directions is refreshing.  RIYL: pre-fame Robert Glasper, relevant piano trios, Herbie Hancock.

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Texas Monthly's lengthy profile of Guy Clark is worthwhile.  (Tip via There Stands the Glass reader Tom.)

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I appreciate Hopsin's Knock Madness in spite of myself.  RIYL: Eminem, constant references to genitalia, Tech N9ne.

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Drew Williams' Live at Pianos is RIYL: Gil Evans, brainy jazz, Matt Otto.

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Joe Boyd is featured in a "What's In My Bag" segment.  His picks, not surprisingly, are great.

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Anyone who appreciates the early solo work of T Bone Burnett will adore Cass McCombs' "Big Wheel".

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I can't wait to hear Sabougla Voices, a wild-and-wooly effort by blues man Leo Welch.  RIYL: R.L. Burnside, old men, John Lee Hooker.

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Snoop is back! 7 Days of Funk is the shiznit.  RIYL: Doggystyle, pre-laughingstock Snoop, Tha Doggfather.

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I started a Spotify "radio station" based on the Gap Band's "You Dropped a Bomb On Me" in the hopes that it would serve as a genial soundtrack for the low-key New Year's Eve celebration at my compound.  It turned out to be a stroke of genius.  The robot-generated playlist featured the likes of Barry White, Cheryl Lynn, Ice Cube, Heat Wave, LL Cool J, Newcleus and even Wham.  The multi-generational revelers were delighted. 

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Kansas City Click: My official picks are published here.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)