Children and geniuses

A combination of fatigue, lack of money, and bad timing led me to miss two gigs this week. Martha Wainwright played this Monday, and Eirik was left unimpressed. Yesterday, a crew from Stones Throw Records, including one time (or current, who knows) Lootpack MC Wildchild rocked their mikes and spun their records, but alas, they suffered the same fate as Martha and were unlucky not to have me in their audience.

Rhino Records released two (at least) large box sets this week. Children Of Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The Second Psychedelic Era 1976-1995 compiles bands inspired by the first wave of psych/garage bands. There are some cracking tunes here, like The Lyres' "Help You Ann", The Hoodoo Guru's "I Want You Back", and contributions from good acts such as That Petrol Emotion, The La's and The Nerves. Unfortunately, the Nerves song included is not their original of "Hanging on the Telephone". As with many of the Rhino collections, it is equal parts fun and frustration. Many of the best acts and songs included I already have on better discs, either original albums or superior compilations. Some of them are currently unavailable, though, so this will surely bring them out to a larger audience. The lesser acts are hardly worth owning, much less hearing, but that's part of the beauty of Rhino's box sets I guess.

They also released a Ray Charles box set, Pure Genius: The Complete Atlantic Recordings (1952-1959), which looks amazing, but is probably overkill. Great artist that he was, you'll probably get by with a couple of his albums, such as the lovely Modern Sonds in Country and Western Music, plus a singles collection. I could be proven wrong, as I am yet to listen through the behemoth.