"Double the pleasure, double the fun." --Doublemint gum commercials

Because I'm a little behind, I thought I would double-up today with two of my favorite jazz saxophonists: John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman.

The first album is the Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane live At Carnegie Hall. The two sets on the album are from a benefit concert in November 1957. Monk and Coltrane complement each other very well. Coltrane's smooth solos dance over Monk's quirky piano melodies. On the faster numbers, Monk dances across the keys of the piano, while Coltrane runs up and down the range of the saxophone, leaving the listener in awe of his sheer technical skills. But when the quartet slows the tempo, Monk's unique chords and his beautiful melodies provide a strong foundation for him and Coltrane to play absolutely heartbreaking lines, rich with emotion and vibrato.

The album closes with an incomplete recording of one of my favorite tunes on the album, "Epistrophy" (a full version closes the first set). The feeling of wanting more after hearing it fade out before Monk's solo is the same feeling that the entire album leaves the listener with; one just wishes there were more of this sweet, saxophony goodness.

The next album, live At the "Golden Circle" Stockholm, Volume Two by the Ornette Coleman trio is another one of my favorites. Coleman, a saxophone player, begins the album with a violin, followed by trumpet. As the drums and bass lay down a fast, off-kilter "beat" (if it can be called as much), Coleman displays his prowess at both free jazz improvisation and two instruments he doesn't usually play. He follows "Snowflakes and Sunshine" with the beautiful "Morning Song." Coleman's sound lilts with the melody that never seems to really begin or end. On the faster numbers, like "The Riddle," Coleman shows off his technical abilities with long solos of nonstop runs.

Throughout the album, Coleman's Trio alternates between frantic, almost frenetic lines of melody and improvisation, and long, harmony-challenging melodies. This album is among my favorites because it does just that, and it defies conventional jazz thinking.

"Sometimes paranoia's just having all the facts." --William S. Burroughs

Okay, so I'm late again. Yesterday's album was As Far as the Eye Can See by People in Planes. I really enjoyed this album. It was a pretty straight-forward alternative rock album, but the lyrics are what really got me a couple of times. Gareth Jones seems to be a little paranoid when it comes to issues involving his head and machines. The biggest single from this album is entitled "If You Talk Too Much (My Head Will Explode)." In one song, he sings the line "I'm a machine, but I'm a funny colour" several times, and in the final track of the album, he repeats "There's a plate in my head, there's a chip in my head" over and over as well.

Besides the lyrics, the guitar riffs are catchy, and they have a pretty relaxed groove on the slower songs. Despite the fairly modern sound this band has, the listener can really hear the blues and jazz influences in their work. And the lyrics are just...interesting on top of it all.

"Though he would likely hate them all, white people cannot get enough of Che Guevara." --Stuff White People Like

Arular by M.I.A. is an especially appropriate album for today, considering that the civil war in Sri Lanka ended today. The album takes its title from the rapper's father's code name as a member of the Tamil Tigers, the rebel group defeated today in Sri Lanka. This album is perfect for young, white, liberal people, like myself, because we can listen to it without actually admitting we like rap. "It's her socially-conscious, revolutionary lyrics," we can say. "She's rapping for revolution and change." White people don't have to admit that they just like the beat of her songs, or the samples she uses, but they can still roll down all the windows in their dads' Volvos, pump that shit through their oversized-for-their-dads'-Volvos subwoofers, and feel like a badass.

Okay, so I guess what I'm trying to say is that I really like this album, but I have to find any reason other than the music to like about it in order to protect my reputation as a music snob. Listen to it.

“In Vegas, I got into a long argument with the man at the roulette wheel over what I considered to be an odd number.” --Stephen Wright

Today's album, Apologies to the Queen Mary, by Wolf Parade is definitely one of my favorite albums I own. The drums are always keeping time with a different pattern; rarely will the listener hear any sort of “stock” pattern. In addition, the drums meld perfectly with each song, providing a rhythmic complement to the melody, rather than just providing time. The bass is varied, holding the bottom and the tempo at some points, but often creating a countermelody of its own. These both create a firm bottom for the guitar and keys on top. The keys in Apologies to the Queen Mary provide both harmonic and melodic support. Often, in the background, the keys will repeat a figure several times, upon which the guitars build. The most prominent of the guitar figures are the lead guitar lines, which are often inventive, while staying in the style. The lead singer’s plaintive voice lends to the overall driving motion of the band’s sound. It always seems to be moving into a more and more desperate sound.

What I think I like best about this album, though, is that it doesn’t lose energy throughout the entire album. Even the slow songs have that drive to hope or desperation--take your pick. Either way, there is a feeling of progression, until the final song on the album (before the bonus track) completely disorients the listener to time by switching between 7/4 and 4/4 within the song. Overall, the album is just slightly off-kilter, which keeps me on my toes as a listener, and ultimately why I like Wolf Parade’s Apologies to the Queen Mary.

"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." --British folk song

Note: I failed to update yesterday, sorry. So I've decided to double-up today. Enjoy!

Caribou’s Andorra is, in many ways, an appropriate follow-up album to Amnesiac. The band’s sometimes-nebulous sound is reminiscent of the ambient style of Radiohead’s work, but overall, Caribou keep a fairly straightforward beat, bringing the listener of both albums back-to-back into the pop realm once again. Andorra has a very light quality; there is little bass or heavy drumming to hold it down. As such, the keys, wind instruments, and other various percussive and electronic effects, along with the very airy vocalist, create more of a “soundscape.”

I like this kind of focus on the whole of the sound, with vocals as just another part of the larger piece and not necessarily always melody. This is opposed to the instrumental works of the songs providing a vehicle for the voice parts which are always the most important, unless there is an instrumental solo. Both approaches have their merits, of course--it’s just refreshing to hear the former style, because it is somewhat rare for the pop world.

I have used the word “unique” several times in my previous posts, but, if you’ll permit me, I would like to use it again to describe Caribou’s sound. Andorra is a pleasant album to listen to, and deftly avoids enough musical cliches to set it apart from other groups, but still remains within a framework that allows for complementary listening within a library.



Antics by Interpol is an album that has the ability to keep minimalism interesting. The drum lines are fairly straightforward, holding the tempo with little deviation from the established pattern. The bass line is very similar, typically straight-eighths; at time, however the bass line is more melodic, but it repeats the pattern throughout the song, once again rarely deviating from the line. There is typically a rhythm guitar part that does just that--holds the rhythm. And over that is usually some sort of melodic guitar part that is also repeated throughout the song.

All of this presents a challenge that Interpol are able to overcome. Even though, throughout the verse, chorus, bridge, etc., these same lines may be continuing, through changes in vocal melody, adding/removing instruments, and (to a lesser extent) dynamic changes, the listener’s interest is held. The band also creates a constant sense of forward motion, even though the tempo may be slower than usual for the rhythmic and melodic style.

I really like Antics, and I am looking forward to Interpol's other albums later in my library.

"Modernism is the enemy." --Henri Rabaud

Radiohead's Amnesiac is a pretty good album. In it you can hear a lot of the influence of 20th century classical and minimalist music composers. The electronic rhythms are inventive, challenging the boundaries of conventional time, like Stravinsky or Messiaen. The keys and other melodic parts are rhythmically challenging as well, in addition to employing unconventional harmonies for a popular band.

In all, I'm impressed that Radiohead have such a unique sound and are still so popular. I enjoy hearing them combine these styles so ecletically. Even though Amnesiac is not the best album they've released, it's still one I'd listen to over Lily Allen any day.

"There's no business like show business." --Annie Get Your Gun

American Idiot is Green Day’s attempt at something between a Bush-Presidency musical diatribe and a pop-punk rock opera. Let’s just say that Green Day is not The Who and American Idiot is no Tommy (though a stage adaptation of the album is slated to open at the Berkeley Repertory Theater in September 2009). Nor are the explicitly anti-Bush lyrics terribly impressive nor influential--need I remind anyone who won the 2004 election, even after the release of this album?

The music is pretty typical Green Day--bright, fast, and loud power chords, with little deviation from a straight-eighth bass line and even louder drums behind it. Billie Joe Armstrong’s voice is just as nasally as ever (so maybe he’ll fit in well in the musical theatre scene).

American Idiot isn’t terrible, but it certainly doesn’t achieve the “grand aspirations” the band admits to having for the album. Its biggest problem is that it didn’t choose between rock opera or stinging reflection of popular American unrest. Songs like “Holiday” and “American Idiot”--two of the album’s singles--just don’t fit with the story that plays out through the rest of the work. The story attempting to be told doesn’t quite pan out as a story, which is a shame because I feel Green Day could have transmitted their overarching societal message through craftier work within the tale the album begins to sketch. Unfortunately, American Idiot falls short.

For more information about the stage production of American Idiot and citation of my quote see http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/theater/30berk.html?_r=2&8dpc