RIP David Bowie

Bigger and better writers will be waxing poetic about the legacy of David Bowie. Instead, I offer the weirder end of his music for your listening pleasure!




 




 

Best of 2015 #9: Conduct - Fear and Desire (Public Tone)

Winnipeg's Conduct hit me like a suckerpunch. Fear and Desire seems to come out of nowhere and floored me upon first listen. With a hefty pedigree behind it (an American record label and the legendary noise-monger Steve Albini behind the boards), this band is poised for something huge. Conduct are a behemoth of sound, mixing part of noise-rock, post-punk and industrial into their wall of sludge. The songs are alternately brutally short to punishingly long. This band demands you to pay attention to them, and you will until Fear and Desire ends, and your brain feels like it's been pulverized to powder.

DNTTA Playlist for January 8, 2016

Artist - Song - Album (Label)  * indicates Canadian Content 

Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca 

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John Hornak* - Tarsand Lullaby - A Needle, a Feather and a Rope (Independent)
Paul Bley* - Walk Home - Basics (Justin Time)
Ben Monder - Zythrum - Amorphae (ECM)
Spike Jones - I'm Getting Sentimental Over You - Spiked! The Music of Spike Jones (Catalyst)
Pugs and Crows with Tony Wilson* - Under Water - Everybody Knows Everybody (Independent)
Harris Eisenstadt* - Let's Say it Comes in Waves - Canada Day IV (Songlines)
Ibrahim Maalouf - Elephant's Tooth - Red and Black Light (Impulse!)
Raoul Bjorkenheim and eCsTaSy - OLJ - Out of the Blue (Cuneiform)
Soul Coughing - Bus to Beezlebub - Ruby Vroom (Slash)

RIP Paul Bley

Canada and the music world in general lost a giant on January 3rd. Canadian jazz pianist Paul Bley was a major influence and musician during the 60s free jazz movement, and had over 100 recorded albums to his credit, both as a solo artist, and as part of a band and as a sideman. He was also a composer, producer and concert promoter. He was 83.

Bley started his career forming the Montreal Jazz Workshop in the early 50s, recording and playing with Charlie Parker and Lester Young, among others. His first album, 1953's Introducing Paul Bley, featured the legend Charles Mingus as part of his band

In the 60s, he joined Jimmy Guiffre's trio, the Jimmy Guiffre 3, for several albums. He also appeared on Sonny Rollins' legendary Sonny Meets Hawk album, with was a collaboration with free jazz giant Ornette Coleman. The late 60s saw him becoming one of the first jazz musicians to incorporate the Moog synthesizer into jazz ensembles.

The 70s saw him working with musicians like Paul Motian, Lee Konitz, Pat Metheny, Gary Peacock and Steve Lacy. He also began a long run with the influential ECM label, where is most recognized work was produced.

His biography, Stopping Time, was published in 1999. In 2008, he was awarded the Order of Canada.

Best of 2015: #10 - FFS - FFS (Domino)

We start this years countdown of my favourite music of the past year with two great tastes that taste great together. FFS is a collaboration between modern new wave band Franz Ferdinand and veteran new wave legends Sparks. At first, this seems like a collaboration that won't gel, but the more you think about it, the more it make sense. Apparently, this project had been in the works since 2004, when the Mael brothers of Sparks wrote "Piss Off" for Franz Ferdinand, and then sat on the backburner until 2015. "Piss Off" finally sees light on this album, and it's pretty spot on in terms of how the bands would come together. Sparks brings a lush, quirky and melodic weirdness to Franz Ferdinand's spiky and punchy new wave/dance rock stylings, and FF chop up the smooth and rounded edges of Sparks' style of orchestral new wave. No one band takes precedent over the other, with both bands pitching in equally on the sound, the lyrics and the music. The Maels shine early in the album, with "Johnny Delusional" and "Call Girl" having the Sparks piano-driven style of new wave, and the Maels more high-pitched and poppy vocals. "Police Encounters" has Franz Ferdinand's muscly punch and angular vocal style. The tongue in cheek, self-referential "Collaborations Don't Work" is a fun send up of people who thought the team up between bands wouldn't come together. It would be great to see these two bands continue with FFS, but even if it's a one-off collaboration, it's still worth the time to dig into this album and enjoy it!

Who We Lost in 2015

Little Jimmy Dickens
Curtis Lee
Tim Drummond (Bob Dylan's band)
Kim Fowley
Ward Swingle
Edgar Froese (Tangerine Dream)
Thom Wilson (producer)
Sam Andrew (Big Brother and the Holding Company)
Steve Strange (Visage)
Gavin Clarke (UNKLE)
Lesley Gore
Clark Terry
Chris Rainbow (Alan Parsons)
Leonard Nimoy
Daevid Allen (Soft Machine)
Mike Porcaro
Bruce Crump (Molly Hatchet)
Andy Fraser (Free)
Michael Brown (The Left Banke)
AJ Pero (Twisted Sister)
Scott Clenemin (Death)
Preston Ritter (The Electric Prunes)
Dave Ball (Procul Harum)
Rob Burns (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
Percy Sledge
Jack Ely ("Louie Louie")
Ben E. King
Craig Gruber (Rainbow)
Errol Brown (Hot Chocolate)
B.B. King
Tranquility Bass
Ray Kennedy
Archie Alleyene
Jim Ed Brown
Ornette Coleman
Chris Squire (Yes)
Red Lane
Dan Joyce (Negativland)
Lynn Anderson
Stephen Huss (Psyche)
Sam Price
David Shelley
Hal Willis
Dennis Greene (Sha Na Na)
Bryn Merrick (The Damned)
Gary Richnath (REO Speedwagon)
Martin Kearns (Bolt Thrower)
Phil Woods
Keepsta Knicca
Steve Mackey (The Stooges)
Smokin' Joe Kubek
Cory Wells (Three Dog Night)
Leon Bibb
Andy White (The Beatles)
Allen Toussaint
"Philthy" Phil Taylor (Motorhead)
P.F. Sloan
Ron Hynes
Scott Weiland
Gary Marker (Captain Beefheart)
Rainer Bloss
Mick Lynch (Stump)
William Guest (Gladys Knight and the Pips)
Steve Wright (The Easybeats)
Lemmy Kilmiester
John Bradbury (The Specials)

Top 10 Albums of 2015

1) The Soft Moon - Deeper (Captured Tracks)
2) Faith Healer* - Cosmic Troubles (Mint)
3) METZ* - II (Sub Pop)
4) Tacocat - NVM (Hardly Art)
5) ttwwrrss* - ttwwrrss_2 (Maisonnevue)
6) Viet Cong* - Viet Cong (Flemish Eye)
7) Shamir - Ratchet (XL)
8) Girl Band - Holding Hands with Jamie (Rough Trade)
9) Conduct* - Fear and Desire (Public Tone)
10) FFS - FFS (Domino)

Honourable Mentions: Sleater-Kinney - No Cites to Love (Sub Pop), Purity Ring* - Another Eternity (Last Gang), White Reaper - White Reaper Does it Again (Royal Mountain), Foals - What Went Down (Transgressive), Ought* - Sun Coming Down (Constellation)

I'll be counting them down Friday, January 15th 8-9 PM.