XTC — English Settlement

XTC -- English Settlement

• Artist: XTC
• Title: English Settlement
• Year: 1982
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 8
• Owner: Mary
• Acquired: “Later… maybe, like, ’84… something”
• Keeper: Yes

I went to a hardcore punk throwdown last night with Double Negative, and got to meet my new buddy Kevin, singer of the band. More about that and their new album next Monday.

Today’s record is English Settlement by XTC. Regular readers of this site will know that I’m no card carrying member of the XTC fan club, but this one is better than most. Which is a good thing because it’s a double album. If you’re going to release a double album please put in the extra effort. Otherwise… the obvious. My favorite song is the first one, “Runaways.” This is Mary’s record and I defer to her on the rating.

Sorry about the slightly out of focus album jacket, but I did throw in a pic of one liner sleeve at no extra charge.

Wikipedia has more info about the album and Andy Partridge’s breakdown while touring in support of it.

Randy Weston — Bantu

Randy Weston -- Bantu

• Artist: Randy Weston
• Title: Bantu
• Year: 1960/1957, 1976 Reissue
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 9
• Owner: Tracy and Bob
• Acquired: 2005 – Bob Bobala Jazz Heritage Endowment
• Keeper: Yes

Bob Bob’s left-behind record collection is the gift that keeps on giving. Tonight’s album is a double from Randy Weston. Bantu comes in a nice gatefold cover complete with a lengthy article about these reissues and more significantly, the original program notes and lyrics by the late great poet Langston Hughes. Hughes collaborated on the first LP in this reissue. The second record was originally released in 1957 and consists of more straightforward, but excellent, jazz. The first LP contains “Uhuru, Afrika” which the album notes describe as his masterpiece.

“This four movement suite was one of the first acknowledgements of African roots among Afro-Americans and one of the first major jazz works to absorb that influence and use it honestly and creatively.”

I think that says it all.

Randy Weston
Langston Hughes

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble — In Step

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble -- In Step

• Artist: Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble
• Title: In Step
• Year: 1989
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 7
• Owner: Tracy and Bob
• Acquired: 2005 – Inherited from Bob Bobala
• Keeper: Yes

In Step is the last album to come out from these boys before Stevie died in a helicopter crash. It’s also his first album after he had sobered up. The album definitely has a more upbeat vibe than the earlier records. But positivity and the blues don’t really go together. In Step seems to be missing the grit of the first three records, but if that’s the price of being sober please stop killing yourself. All that said, I do like the whole record. Surprisingly, my favorite song is the nine minute jazz instrumental “Riviera Paradise” that closes the album. It’s blissfully smooth and low-key, not what you expect from Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble.

U2 — The Joshua Tree

U2 -- The Joshua Tree

• Artist: U2
• Title: The Joshua Tree
• Year: 1987
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 10
• Owner: Mary and Tracy, two copies
• Acquired: Mary? Tracy’s copy is a promo.

The Joshua Tree by U2 came out in 1987. That’s the same year I met my wife. Our 17th wedding anniversary was yesterday. Instead of doing something special with my lady I spent the entire day finishing a web project I had committed to do. Fortunately, to know me is to love me and she continues to put up with that kind of silliness. Of course, I love her completely. We’re just getting started.

In addition to my sentimentality about the year 1987, I have other reasons to really like The Joshua Tree. I didn’t enjoy the recent playing of The Unforgettable Fire that much. So, I was not expecting to love this one. And I was wrong. This album is incredible. I even like the hits despite hearing them thousands of times. I have to wonder if there was an inside joke around the first two songs being “Where the Streets Have No Name” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” My favorites are “Bullet the Blue Sky” and “Red Hill Mining Town.”

Another memory I have attached to this album is from the live tour. I didn’t go see the band this time, but I did sell tickets. I was working at a small chain called Mother’s Records in Hampton. We sold tickets there. U2 came to the Hampton Coliseum in December for two highly anticipated shows. People were coming at me from everywhere in an attempt to score tickets. I remember a guy from the shoe store down the way trying to bribe me with something like $50. The concert promoter made sure that kind of thing would not happen. They sent agents to stand watch over every ticket machine until the shows sold out. Even our employees at the store who wanted tickets ended up sleeping in the long line overnight. I had just recently been made Assistant Manager at this store and for some reason the higher-ups thought it was a good idea to let me be the manager to open the store the morning the tickets went on sale.

I got to work early and saw the fattest, longest line of would-be ticket holders line I have ever seen. As I walked closer to the store some people in line began to recognize me and started yelling and clapping. I felt like I was the rock star, but that didn’t last long. Once tickets went on sale and other stores opened it seemed every other store in the mall was complaining to mall security and the police about the chaos. I was only 21 years old and really had no clue what everyone expected me to do to solve the problem. In the meantime, every time the promoter’s watchdog turned his head or talked to someone the teenage staff at the ticket counter were printing extras and squirreling them away as fast as they could. I think it took about two hours to sell out, but it seemed like an eternity. The next year the mall wouldn’t renew the store’s lease, primarily because of that one day with the rowdy U2 fans.

A few weeks later Mary and I went on our first official date. It was not a rock concert.

10,000 Maniacs – Blind Man’s Zoo

10,000 Maniacs - Blind Man's Zoo

• Artist: 10,000 Maniacs
• Title: Blind Man’s Zoo
• Year: 1989
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 5
• Owner: Mary
• Acquired: 1989?
• Keeper: No

There’s no way I will be fair to this band and record; I apologize for that. For those about to not rock… I salute you. And speaking of not rocking, Lee Gomes at The Wall Street Journal wrote a great article about how the iPod and MP3s are killing the sound of music. The hills are alive with crappy-sounding over-compressed music tweaked to sound better for the “lowest common denominator”, iPods.

With that rant out of the way, let us now whine about 10,000 Maniacs. I don’t know what it is about them. It may be Natalie Merchant’s voice, and probably the overall tone of their music. I’ve always found them annoying, and Blind Man’s Zoo is no exception. Mary got a couple of their records way back and now even she doesn’t want to hear them anymore. Not hatin’, I just can’t take it.

Scatterbrain — Here Comes Trouble

• Artist: Scatterbrain
• Title: Here Comes Trouble
• Year: 1990
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 5
• Owner: Tracy
• Acquired: 1990 – Promo at a store I owned with my brother.
• Keeper: No

I love metal and comedy, just not combined. At least that’s true when the comedy is not so subtle, which is the case here. Scatterbrain are a group of tremendous musicians, and I’m sure their live shows were pretty fun. Here Comes Trouble is full of intricately arranged songs that no lazy bunch of slackers could ever produce, but the over-the-top jokes end up making it all seem trivial. Take a look at the liner pic below of the guys in Groucho Marx glasses. That pretty much sums up this album.

Possibly the most noteworthy thing here is the Robert Williams painting as cover art.

More about Scatterbrain.

R.E.M. — Eponymous

• Artist: R.E.M.
• Title: Eponymous
• Year: 1988
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 9
• Owner: Tracy? Mary?
• Acquired: 1988 – Mother’s Records in Hampton, VA
• Keeper: Yes

I hope everybody is watching UFC 75 right now. It’s free tonight! Cro Kop and Kongo are between rounds, and it’s the first fight tonight to make it past the first round. The main event between Jackson and Henderson is sure to be exciting.

Anyhow, Eponymous is a compilation of singles from R.E.M.’s first five albums. I like to pick on the band but of course they are great, and any sort of “best of” is especially great. I don’t have any memories or attachments with this one, but I was reminded of something when I was listening to it during dinner. The year Eponymous came out, 1988, is about when Mary’s sister Jolly was running track for the University of Georgia and living in Athens, GA. Somehow Jolly ended up walking Michael Stipe’s dog(s) when he was on the road. I think it was a regular gig for a while there, and I’ve always found it amusing.

Cro Kop just lost by decision to Kongo. Cro Kop looked like didn’t even want to be there. Downer…

More about this album at AllMusic.

Lenny Picket with The Borneo Horns — Self-titled

• Artist: Lenny Picket with The Borneo Horns
• Title: Self-titled
• Year: 1987
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 6
• Owner: Tracy
• Acquired: ?
• Keeper: No

I really want to like this record by Lenny Picket with The Borneo Horns. And I do in fact like some of it, but I know it’s something I’m never going to play much. It’s been 20 years; if it’s never been heavy rotation before, it probably never will be. Lenny Pickett is probably known as Mr. SNL. He’s been in the SNL band since the mid-1980s and leading it since 1995. The first side of this album is pretty enjoyable, but I have to say that I find the second side a bit too “artistic.” Guess I’m just low brow.

There’s more about Lenny Pickett at Wikipedia. I didn’t know he was in Tower of Power. My dad had a record by them…

New Order — Technique

• Artist: New Order
• Title: Technique
• Year: 1989
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 6
• Owner: Tracy
• Acquired: 1989 – A promo at our store
• Keeper: Yes

If I have any attachment to this record, New Order’s Technique, it’s that I got it when my brother and I had a record store in Norfolk, VA. And that’s about it because this is not an album I played a lot. I’m not a huge New Order fan, but I love some of their stuff. Technique is a little bland and maybe too pop for me. My favorite song by far is the last one, “Dream attack.” And the lower case “a” is how they spell it.

The second pic is from the liner. The back of the jacket is the usual NO minimalism with just a bar code in the center.

Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers — Conscious Party

• Artist: Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers
• Title: Conscious Party
• Year: 1988
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 7
• Owner: Mary
• Acquired: 1988 – Mother’s Records?
• Keeper: Yes

I could use a “conscious party” right now because I’m feeling a little loop-ay. Too much going on. So, I didn’t realize that there were a lot of guest stars on this album, including Lenny Picket and Jerry Harrison on a number of songs, and Keith Richards(!?) on what is certainly my favorite: “Lee and Molly.” I think this album was a big seller and to be honest it sounds a little like it was meant to sell, if you know what I’m saying. I believe the word is “cross-over.” That said, I do like Conscious Party overall, even the hit “Tomorrow People.” This record is almost 20 years old. I think Ziggy Marley may be getting better with age.