The cover art is ridiculous, the guitar solos are garish, the vocals are generic and the production is flat. I adore Exmortus’
Ride Forth anyway. The band's standard-issue metallic riffing scratches one of my recurring itches.
”For the Horde” is exactly what I need to get me through this dark month.
---
I
reviewed G-Eazy's sold-out concert at the Midland theater.
---
I featured Jay McShann in an episode of KCUR’s weekly
Local Listen and
reviewed a centennial birthday concert in his honor.
---
I can’t keep up with the spate of notable deaths. The careers of
Phil Everly, Paul Bley, Long John Hunter, Pierre Boulez, Clarence “Blowfly” Reid, Red Simpson and Glenn Frey may or may not be examined in this space in the weeks to come.
---
As the first genuine soul man to drip sweat on me while I was on a dance floor, Otis Clay had a more profound impact on me than any of the men listed in the item above. I first saw him pour it all out at a blues club in Chicago in the 1980s. I also recall the late George Myers, a co-owner of the Grand Emporium, playfully delivering a nickel and a nail to the stage of his bar during a Clay performance. Clay died on January 8. Here’s
footage from
Soul Train.
---
I asked McClain Johnson an “uncomfortable question” after I heard 3,000 white kids yell a racial epithet during A$AP Ferg’s performance at the Midland. Here’s his
response.
---
Blackstar is solid. Had David Bowie released the album a month earlier,
Blackstar would have ranked #15 on my
Best Albums of 2015 list.
---
Charles Lloyd & the Marvels’
I Long To See You is dreamy. RIYL: Bill Frisell, folk-jazz, Greg Leisz.
---
Halsey’s excruciating
”New Americana” makes me want to summarily dismiss her entire generation.
---
Bill Stewart’s
Space Squid is RIYL: Seamus Blake, modal jazz, Paul Motian.
---
Charles Bradley’s cover of Black Sabbath’s
”Changes” is a revelation.
---
I’ll gladly buy a ticket to see Hinds perform, but I’ve already heard all the sounds on
Leave Me Alone too many times. RIYL: The Blake Babies, enthusiasm, Burger Records.
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The Spirio Sessions, a virtual piano duet between Uri Caine and Jenny Lin, is RIYL third stream, Keith Jarrett, high concept.
---
I may grow to love the album, but my initial reaction to Anderson Paak’s
Malibu is that it’s precisely one-third as good as
To Pimp a Butterfly. Here’s
”Come Down”.
---
Why didn’t any of you jerks tell me about Judith Hill’s Prince-produced 2015 album
Back In Time? I would have missed the fine R&B project entirely had the bots at Spotify not insisted that I hear it. Here’s
”Cry Cry Cry”. RIYL: Etta James, Prince media blackout, Alicia Keys.
---
Moments on Baaba Maal’s wildly inconsistent
The Traveller are rapturously beautiful. RIYL: Salif Keita, production tricks, Peter Gabriel.
---
I’m not disappointed that Esperanza Spalding has turned to psychedelic funk-rock. Instead, I’m disappointed that she’s turned to
pedestrian psychedelic funk-rock.
(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)
