Brandon Burke

Well, there's worse places to start than this...

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it's enough to slap you in the face or anything. But when you think about it, no one really gave other than a passing damn about either of those bands until they started to employ jagged, cut-and-paste, "blip-bloop" post-production. And -- at the expense of generalzing, of course -- you can pretty much thank Gastr del Sol for turning anyone under the age of 35 (who wasn't already a music threory major) onto that stuff. Which is to say nothing for the fact that most people under the age of 35 probably "discovered" John Fahey in the mid-90's as a direct result of O'Rourke...

Yes and no. Clearly, it is foolish to write off an entire genre of music (or film, or style of food, etc) without even giving it a try. At the same time, though, there's only so much effort one can put into that familiarization before the process becomes tedious and, frankly, a waste of time. For example, it doesn't matter how many times I hear your examples, Wilco and Radiohead, I simply don't think there's anything that special abouyt them. I'm sure they're nice guys and all. And I by no means think they're terrible or anything. But I just don't find anything particularly groundbreaking or innovative about either of them. Normally that wouldn't be a legitimate criticism -- of anyone. I mean, as I see it, it's not everyone's job to push boundaries. But that seems to be the only thing anyone ever talks about when either of those bands is the topic of discussion. Radiohead and Wilco both sound like re-hashed Gastr del Sol to me; albeit with echoes of their former selves. Brit Rock in the case of Radiohead and Roots Amerciana in the case of Wilco. This would be all well and good if Gast del Sol themselves weren't re-hashed Morton Feldman, Derek Bailey, Luc Ferarri, John Fahey, etc....

ahem...... Gal Costa - India (great record, by the way)

That's a good read. I enjoyed it. Currently reading: The Journalist by Harry Mathews

Shows began in SF tonight but my show Friday....

What about the classical stuff? I love those records....

Absolutely beautiful. By the way, I'm sitting in the basement of this tower as I type. Fortunately, I'm not so far underground as to not have windows. B-)

I'd hardly say revolutionary but they're enjoyable dates. For the record, I find I play the Curtis Fuller Jazztet sides on Savoy more than the Farmer/Golson material, though I very much like the two Mercury dates with Moncur .

That box set rules! Only problem is no Husbands.

Today it appears to be Dolphy's clarinet solo from "Warm Canto" and Tyner's solo on "Ole".

Previous thread.

Billy Higgins appears on two Sandy Bull LPs....

Every time I leave my offifce to go to the Archives or Preservation it seems my default action is to whistle something, usually a jazz head. I don't even think about it. Often it's Monk or Herbie Nichols. "Lonely Woman" comes up a lot too. This week I've fallen back on Freddie Redd "The Thespian." Mostly the first half of the head, the slower part. By the time the fast part is supposed to kick in I'm usually where I need to be. Besides, I can't whistle cleanly and in tune that fast. B-)

1958 Topps Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams ......autographed. Both.

yup. that's a good'n alright.

Yup. I just listened to that Millennium record the other day. But did you know that it came out on 8-track....?

My friend Tim sent me a link to some of his recent artwork. Among them is a painting he donated to a Chicago organization that was raising money to buy kids musical instruments. No, it's not the AACM, but the subject matter made the subject of the painting something of a no-brainer....

I think you're right about the Atlantics being Rhino. That not only makes sense because Rhino has licensed much of this material on CD, I also seem to remember very small decals in the rear corners of the backs of the jackets. [EDIT: The ones we bought for KJHK (This is Our Music, etc) were like that.]

This is something I have always enjoyed about Mary as well. In fact, I want to say we've had this conversation before, Lon. I don't, however, tend to associate those ressonances with Mary Lou's Mass. But then again it's never been one of my favorites. Obviosuly, I need to hear it again. It's been a while.

Well I have a fair bit of his Atlantic stuff (as well as his Prestige dates) but I find his sound later more 'manageable' (obviously, that would be up to a ceratin point!). Plus, the group 'sound' with Tyner et al is quite unique. Seriously man, go for Ole if you don't already have it. Really amazing stuff. I love this record so much that I've probably blown through ten or eleven copies over the years. Every time I get a new one a end up giving it to a friend. B-)

I think you misunderstood me, wolff. I'm not saying I buy them. I don't buy reissue LPs at all. The whole scene is pretty ridiculous if you ask me; that it unless the remastering job is AAA. Anything less than that is a simply CD on wax. My point was that you'd think Scorpio (or whoever it is) might want to make their identities known so folks could buy their products. Most consumers, remember, are not audiophiles. The Atlantic and Columbia reissues in particular seem to be marketed to people who either (1) think that anything on vinyl is going to sound better or (2) appreciate the bigger artwork and just think records are more fun. In any case, I hardly think that it's because they're (deservingly) embarrased of the fidelity. It must be a licencing issue.

This brings up an interesting point. Why is it that the folks who fund certaon jazz LP reissues -- usually the cheap ones -- don't credit themselves on the jacket? The ones I'm thinking of, mostly Atlantic and Columbia, don't have stickers on the shinkwrap either. There are several titles currently in print with exact reproductions of the original artwork (albeit with glossy jackets). I've never been able to figure this out.

I was not aware of the clues in the DVD insert but I've not seen it since it was in the theatre. Funny story: When Mulholland Drive was up for an Academy Award, my mother, who hosts an Oscar party every year and as such feels obliged to see everything that's up for a big award, said she wanted to see it. I remember my brother and I looking at each other as if to say, "Errrr...maybe not this one, Mom." (Understand that my folks' idea of a "weird" movie is Groundhog Day.) Even funnier was my father piping up during the same conversation saying, "I saw it." This was especially interesting since his idea of a good movie is something with Bruce Willis or Will Smith, car chases, and a lot of one-liners. Again, my brother and I looked across the dinner table at one another. "So what did you think?" I asked. "I thought it was good," he replied. To this day, I have no idea how he could have possibly liked this film. [side note: I dragged him to see Rushmore when that was still in the theatres. Something of a selfish act. I didn't think he'd like it but I felt like Max Fischer in high school and I wanted him to see what that was like. About 30 minutes into it he leaned over and said, "This is pretty f*cking weird".] To again state the obvious, I have no idea how he could have possibly enjoyed Mulholland Drive. I need to bring this up next time I talk to him.