All Around Al's World of Sound: Hunter 08
Back in third grade, my friend Al liked music and baseball. Al is still my friend, and he still likes music and baseball. He was a breakdancer in high school. We used to look at his dad's Playboys after school sometimes.
SALAMI
October 13th, 2008 There seems to be a lot going on with everything BUT music these days, considering politics, the economy, Iraq, etc. Music just seems like such small beans in comparison to the current state of the nation. But with some pretty bleak stuff happening all around us, you can count on this: strife leads to some interesting, provocative, and exciting art. It's almost boring to cite the late 60's (Beatles, Stones, VU, Richard Pryor, A Clockwork Orange) and the mid-to-late 70's (The Clash, Apocalypse Now, Taxi Driver, SNL, and um, The White Shadow) as evidence of this point, but if you need more to go on for proof of this theory, all you need to do is turn on the latest incarnation of SNL, which hasn't been this funny in years. Watch Tina Fey send up Sarah Palin - pure genius! And what's funnier is that she doesn't even have to do change all that much with Palin's given verbiage. Hilarious!
You may also want to check out TV On The Radio's latest, Dear Science, for further evidence. Dear Science seems to be a refinement of their sound - much more polished than their debut, Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes, and perhaps a bit more accessible than their second effort, Return To Cookie Mountain. "More polished" and "more accessible" are terms that usually don't go well within the punk/alternative/indie ethos but in TVOTR's case, it works very well. However, I'm coming dangerously close to writing an actual review - something I said that I would try my best to avoid - so I will stop right here. I'll just finish up by saying that I enjoy this disc very much. And if you like your music to combine elements of punk, soul, hip hop, and art rock, but you're unable to classify it in any of the aforementioned genres, then this band and this disc is for you.
What else can I write about... Off the top of my head, here's a list of 10 debut albums that I really dig:
R.E.M. - Murmur
Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted
Iron & Wine - The Creek Drank The Cradle
De La Soul - 3 Ft. High and Rising
Tom Waits - Closing Time
Prefuse 73 - Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives
The Smiths - The Smiths
Portishead - Dummy
NIck Drake - Five Leaves Left
Morphine - Good
No real point in that list - it's not definitive in any way. But if I had to live with only 10 discs for a year (I know, a year isn't all that long), this selection wouldn't be a bad way to go.
I will leave you with a few videos to wrap up this little entry:
Satisfaction 1969
Police and Thieves 1977
Radio Free Europe 1983
Summer Babe 1994?
Wolf Like Me 2006
Tina Fey 2008
Have a good evening.
HARVEST MOON 2008 Stuffed Up
STURGEON MOON 2008 Eraser
STRAWBERRY MOON 2008 PB & J
FLOWER MOON 2008 The Helicopter
PINK MOON 2008 Hooks
WORM MOON 2008 iPod and I
SNOW MOON 2008 All Around Al's World of Sound 101
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