Those curious about what makes Gram Parsons a country-rock legend would do well to check out his 1969 live album
Another collection of music that slipped through the cracks
For all the talk out there of the demise of the music industry there’s certainly no dearth of releases. Inevitably a few slip through the cracks. In our ongoing efforts to chronicle the best of what’s out there we’re happy to present another batch of re-releases compilations and albums we missed the first time around.
TEXT BREAKER: Old and notable
GRAM PARSONS WITH THE FLYING BURRITO BROS – Archives Volume One: Live at the Avalon Ballroom 1969 (Amoeba)
This one’s been a long time coming. As the man who turned The Byrds into country-rockers on the classic Sad Sweetheart of the Rodeo Parsons’s legacy has never been in question. Still his other band The Flying Burrito Brothers have remained sadly under-documented. Amoeba aims to rectify this with their Archives series presenting Parsons’s concerts with the band in full. The audio is a little muddy at times — what 40-year-old live recording isn’t? — but the liners are extensive and the concert is essential for anyone curious about the origins of alt country. Shame about the packaging though — it’s gorgeous but next to impossible to actually get at the discs.
VARIOUS ARTISTS – The Sound of Philadelphia: Gamble & Huff’s Greatest Hits (Legacy)
VARIOUS ARTISTS – Conquer the World: The Lost Soul of Philadelphia International Records (Legacy)
Just like Motown defined the sound of Detroit in the ’60s Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff engineered the sound of Philadelphia in the ’70s. With hits like “Love Train” and “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” the songwriting duo built on a foundation of lush string-heavy grooves and syrup-smooth vocals. These two collections capture the hits and the misses respectively but the quality of the misses really serves to illustrate just how arbitrary musical success is. The sound quality on both compilations is immaculate but the liners are almost nonexistent — pick it up for the sweet Philly soul not for a history lesson.
TEXT BREAKER: Through the cracks
BAUHAUS – Go Away White (Bauhaus)
Reunion albums by once-iconic bands are dicey at best. When the band hasn’t put out an album in 25 years skepticism quickly turns to dread. Yet somehow the band that kicked off the goth movement with “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” have defied the odds and returned with an album that’s honestly genuinely good. Sure “Too Much 21st Century” rips its groove from Television’s “Friction” but the blasé vocals and deathly bass on “Saved” are pure Bauhaus. It’s appropriate that rock’s original undead would pull off a successful resurrection.
DAWN LANDES – Fireproof (Cooking Vinyl)
A knack for turning a phrase can go a long way. Dawn Landes unquestionably has this knack — her songs are built around clever metaphors and sly turns of phrase that could make any singer-songwriter jealous. Yet somehow Fireproof’s standout track is the one with lyrics so simplistic that they’re beyond ridiculous — “la la la la lollipop la la la la make it stop/ la la la la life’s a gag la la la la you’re a fag” on the absurdly catchy off-key lounge-pop tune “Picture Show.”
SILJE NES – Ames Room (FatCat)
Norwegian multi-instrumentalist Silje Nes plays with all the usual singer-songwriter elements on Ames Room but like Joanna Newsom she does it in a way that totally defies convention. Her songs roam from bouncy pop to barren ballads peppered with found sounds like the typewriter percussion on album closer “No Bird Can.” While it was far under the radar at the time in a revisionist history of 2007 Ames Nest would be a strong contender for album of the year.
WHITE BLUE YELLOW & CLOUDS – Introducing… (I & Ear)
It’s tempting to call White Blue Yellow & Clouds doo-wop revivalists but this would do them a disservice. The group isn’t trying to revive anything — they simply are a doo-wop group. Opener “Moonlight” in particular seems like a treasure-trove of ’50s-style innocence. Introducing… doesn’t quite hit those heights again settling into a far mellower groove but aside from an ill-advised take on the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” any song on the album would fit perfectly on the soundtrack or Robert De Niro’s A Bronx Tale .
