Bulletins From the Easy Chair

My recently reunited good friend, former roommate, and fellow Peoria native bedheaded is taking his noisereview project to new heights—first with the nsrvwblog, and now with nsrvwpod. His inaugural podcast is a splendidly diverse 33:20, running dub into pop into jazz into indie into skronk just the way I like it. The song selection is stellar, not a misstep to be heard. Features an excellent (and rare) Deerhoof song and a killer Go-Betweens number I hadn’t heard before, some Augustus Pablo, Sun Ra, Elf Power, Canyon, and more. Bedheaded’s in-between song banter lends a human touch to the proceedings—it was good to hear yr voice again, my friend. Long live Frink!

I read a post on some blog a few weeks ago, I can’t remember where, but it was all about Depeche Mode’s 1987 record, Music for the Masses, which just so happens to be one of the two DM records in my collection. I’ve never been a big fan, never played it that much back in the day, and hadn’t heard it in years, but that post inspired me to dust it off. When I first threw it on the turntable again, I was so totally unprepared to be blown away by how great it is! This record sounds so huge and orchestral and wonderful, you know, in a Depeche Mode-kinda way. Seriously, though, dust this off if ya got it, or pull out yr favorite eighties synth record tonight—do it for me.

A few weeks back I quote started to get unquote Richard and Linda Thompson. Sometimes it just takes awhile for this kinda stuff to hit ya the right way—and you have to be in a certain place in your musical wanderings to fully appreciate it. On a similar note, last week at Twist & Shout I came across one of those cheap 20th Century Masters comps—The Best of Sandy Denny: The Millennium Collection—for only $5.99, a deal, of course I could not pass up. Smart move. For some reason, this disc, featuring Denny’s solo stuff alongside a handful of Fairport Convention and Fotheringay tracks, was what I needed to really stoke an interest in her material. It definitely whets my appetite for more Denny, and serves nicely as an introduction, of sorts, to her work. (All I’ve heard thus far was Fairport’s Liege and Lief, featuring both Denny and Richard Thompson—this, too, I think I’m starting to "get".)

N/P Fairport Convention – Liege and Lief