Okay, as I've been gone for a while, here is some music I've enjoyed recently.
Van Lear Rose by Loretta Lynn & The Soul Sessions by Joss Stone. A comeback and a debut, both fueled by Jack White. Loretta Lynn is one of country's greatest, and with the help of producer Jack White and his garage band mates from Detroit she's crafted one of the best country albums I've ever heard. Joss Stone is a teenage soul singer from Britain with an amazing voice. With the help of Betty Harris & a swag of Chicago soul greats, she's come out with a great album of (mostly) soul standards; the single was a funked-up version of Fell In Love With A Girl by The White Stripes (the Jack White connection).
Vampyros Lesbos came out on dvd here. The movie is a surreal, spare lesbian retelling of Dracula set in present day (well 1970 anyway). The soundtrack is a mesmerising blend of lounge, jazz and experimental noise. Track down the CD.
Rejuvenation by The Meters contains the track Just Kissed My Baby, one of the sweetest, sexiest funk tracks I've ever heard. Kudos to Mike for turning me onto this one. Mick Jagger once called The Meters "the best motherfucking band in the world" and they're one of the best-kept secrets in music.
The Cure's new album is okay. The hard-rock sound is good, but the songs are just average. I wonder what Robert Smith would look like if he washed off his makeup & cut his hair short - probably just a pudgy middle-aged geezer.
Baby Snakes is a documentary/concert film by & about Frank Zappa. He bills it as "A movie about people who do stuff that is not normal." At 2 hours 44 minutes it's at least an hour too long, but the live footage (from Halloween 1977) is superb and there's some amazing, surreal and somewhat disturbing claymation from Bruce Bickford.
Posted by pearce at August 31, 2004 9:48 AM