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.)

What I Learned From Having Died

I’ve watched streams of entire operas for 61 consecutive days.  I finished a hideous three-hour-and-43-minute 1986 production of Richard Wagner’s “Lohengrin” this morning.  The strenuous process altered my ears.  Out for Stars, a challenging album by an Amsterdam based octet overseen by the Slovenian pianist Kaja Draksler, would have almost certainly have struck me as overly precious and exceedingly cacophonous just two months ago.  The scratchy recording sets the poems of Robert Frost to avant-garde chamber music.  While vocalists Björk Níelsdóttir and Laura Polence mimic operatic singing on “The Silken Tent,” their approach is more often in line with experimental folk ensembles.  Based on Robert Frost’s “A Passing Glimpse,” “Danas, Jučer, Sutra” reduces my opera-traumatized psyche to a puddle.  But don’t mind me- I’m so intoxicated by the European-steeped Kool Aid that even a woefully inept and horribly out of tune saxophone solo on “Away!” pleases me.


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Hearing Jah Wobble’s opening bass line on “Public Image” in 1978 was among the most transformative musical moments of my life.  I had a friend who sprung for Public Image Ltd.’s Metal Box a year later.  Corrosive songs like “Poptones” also modified the way I experience sound.  Almost every song by Sleaford Mods catapults me back to that era.  All That Glue, a 72-minute compilation of the group’s most popular songs and odds-and-sods, is a thrilling career summation and logical extension of PiL’s legacy.  Here’s the excellent video for “Second”.

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I lament the conservatism of the Folly Jazz Series’ forthcoming season at Plastic Sax.

(Original image of smoke near the entrance of Churchill Downs by There Stands the Glass.)

The Sickness

An ongoing battle with the flu has left me feeling like a desiccated bird.  The following loose ends are all I muster at the moment.


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I reviewed Karrin Allyson's concert at the Folly Theater.

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The Kansas City Star published a few dozen top album lists.

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Deborah Brown is Plastic Sax's Person of the Year.

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I participated in a Best Music of 2014 program on KCUR's Up to Date.  I also contributed Local Listen segments about BCR and Oleta Adams to the show.

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I lost my mind over The Gobots' D-Boy Era in 2010.  What Happened to the World, the Jacka's new album, is the best thing he's done since then.  RIYL: Mac Dre, crack, Too Short.  Here's "Gang Starz".

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I had to stop listening to Beautiful Life, Jimmy Greene's tribute to his late daughter, when a children's choir entered on "Ana's Song."

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J. Cole's 2014 Forest Hills Drive is entertaining radio rap.  RIYL: Wale, rappers rapping about their careers, Kid Cudi.

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I regret not listening to Sunny Sweeney's Provoked sooner.  It may be the best contemporary country album of 2014.  RIYL: Miranda Lambert, cheatin' songs, Kacey Musgraves.

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Orange Goblin's Back From the Abyss is RIYL: Motorhead, beer, Black Sabbath.

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Sleaford Mod's Divide and Exit is a hoot.  RIYL: Art Brut, getting yelled at, The Fall.

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The hilarious Stromae demonstrates his great taste in a "What's In My Bag?" segment.

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I respect the fact that a lot of my friends adore TV on the Radio's Seeds, but the album is not for me.  At every turn I expect the band to break into "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway."  RIYL: The Mars Volta, punk-prog, The Police's Synchronicity.  Here's "Happy Idiot".

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)