Hilliard Greene and Sonic Openings Under Pressure - an overlooked gem from last year

Having become smitten with the talents of bassist Hilliard Greene lately - particulalry on last years Matt Lavelle-led Spiritual Power as well as Akhenaten Suite by the Roy Campbell Ensemble, which came out earlier this year - I was recently browsing the web for other projects he's been involved in. Turns out he has had quite a varied career.

He played on Charles Gayle's Repent from 1992, a record I own but haven't listened to in quite a while (there are some recent videos on YouTube of him playing with Gayle also). Since then he has played on records by such creative musicians as Dave Douglas (Sanctuary), Leroy Jenkins (Leroy Jenkins Live!), and notably Little Jimmy Scott, with whom he is still the bassist of choice, as far as I know.

As the above list would suggest, Mr. Greene's approach to bass is as varied as his collaborators, equally comfortable playing smooth, long notes, as well as speedier runs, while at the same time keeping strong and clear tones. One of the biggest joys of his playing, however, is his willingness to lock into grooves and plays powerful riff-like themes.



Wich brings me to Sonic Openings Under Pressure, which in addition to Greene is comprised of Patrick Brennan on saxophones and David Pleasant on drums (who replaced Newman Taylor Baker, as far as I can tell). Last year, the group released Muhheankuntuk on Clean Feed, a record I feel recieved unfairly little notice and was underappreciated. I, for one, am with Stef at Free Jazz in thinking that it's a great piece of modern imrpovisational jazz, intense and open ended at once, with the frenetic "Hardship" as some sort of centerpiece, a groovy spoken word/punky number that wouldn't have sounded too out of place on a Minutemen record. Great song, great record.

Preview/download at eMusic.
Buy the CD from Jazz Loft or directly from Clean Feed.

Songs of the Week 40/08...

...will be entirely dedicated to Robert Forster, who I went to see play at the lovely Passionskirche in Berlin last weekend. Picking a top 5 from that set-list seems unfair, however, though highlights certainly included "Surfing Magazines" ("Be the kind of people the authoroties can't reach"), "Spring Rain" (which apparently left members of the audience in tears), a theatrical/Presley-esque rendition of "Heart Cut to Tender", "He Lives My Life", and the closing "Caroline and I", of which I found a grainy and lo-fi 'tube video I've posted below.

Defective Modern Dance CDs in Norway

I recently discovered that there seem to be a batch of defective copies of Pere Ubu's The Modern Dance-reissue (Cook CD 141) on sale through the distributer of Cooking Vinyl in Norway, presumably from the same batch that was initially recalled in June 2008. I've notified David Thomas/Ubuprojex (who have put a note up on the web page with additional info). Hopefully, new faulty-free copies of the reissue should become available soon.

In additional Pere Ubu news, a 2008 remastered edition of Dub Housing will be available in November. Also, visit hearpen.com for downloadable Pere Ubu stuff.

Belated Songs of the Week 39/08 + Berlin and Robert Forster beckons

• Sonic Opening Under Pressure: "The Hardships" (Clean Feed (teasers at eMusic))
• Jesus H. Christ and the Four Hornsmen of the Apocalypse: "Liz the Hot Receptionist"
• Report Suspicious Activity: "Lipstic on a Pig"
• Dr. Dooom: "RIP Dr. Octagon" (Threshold Recordings, LLC)
• Robert Forster: "It Ain't Easy" (Yep Roc)

I'm heading to Berlin for the weekend, among other reasons to see Robert Forster play at the Passionskirche. Songs of the Week 40/08 will prbably be delayed too. In the meantime, enjoy the video for Jesus H. Christ's "Liz the Hot Receptionist".

Lipstick on a Pig

Report Suspicious Activity, who released Destroy All Evidence earlier this fall - a great and dynamic album powerful enough to give any supporter of the current US administration an aural kick in the teeth and smart enough to tell them why they deserved it - are keeping up with current events and have just posted a song on their MySpace called, appropriatly, "Lipstick on a Pig". While I don't think it's their best moment, it's good for a laugh as well as a pretty decent fist pumper.

Lipstick on a Pig

Songs of the Week 38/08

• Raphael Saadiq: "Keep Marchin'" (Columbia)
• Jay-Z: "Jockin' Jay-Z/Dope Boy Fresh" (web/Rock-A-fella)
• Hypnotic Brass Ensemble: "War" (MySpace/YouTube)
• TV on the Radio: Halfway Home" (Interscope)
  
• The Mopes: "You Look Like a Gorilla" (Lookout! Records)

Clean Feed Fest NY III + No Songs of the Week 37/08?

This coming weekend, the Portugal-based jazz label Clean Feed will host a festival to showcase some of their artists at The Living Theatre in Manhattan, New York.

Clean Feed is fast becoming one of the most intersting jazz labels to my mind, releasing records by artists, both young and old, who explore the various posibilities in modern jazz. The company has released records by among others Anthony Braxton, Evan Parker, Steve Lehman, Tony Malaby w/William Parker, Joe Morris, Ken Vandermark, and notably Adam Lane, one of my favoite up-and-coming "young" jazz composers/artists. Full catalogue here (by year).

The festival runs from this Friday (Sept. 19th) through to the following Wednesday (Sept. 24th). The program can be found here. I would recommend the double bill of Adam Lane w/ Mark Whitecage and Lou Grassi, and Michael Dessen Trio (w/ the talented Tyshawn Sorey on drums) on Friday, as well as Tony Malaby's Tamarindo (w/ William Parker and Nasheet Waits) on Monday the 22nd. But I'm sure it will be worth seeing all gigs if you have the time and the money.

No Songs of the Week as for some reason I've only been listening to two records this past week; Jeffrey Lewis' quirky, politically charged and often spot-on 12 Crass Songs (Rough Trade), which I admittedly arrived at a bit later than others, and Beyond Quantum (Tzadic) by Anthony Braxton, Milford Graves and William Parker. Both are very good records, and I could easily have picked five songs off each (B.Y. has just five "songs") and presented them as SotW, but I'm not going to.

Songs of the Week 36/08

• Conor Oberst: "I Don't Want to Die (in a hospital) (Merge)
  
• Report Suspicious Activity: "Destroy All Evidence" (Alternative Tentacles)
• Opiyo Bilongo & Extra Golden: "When I Was in U.S." (Thrill Jockey)
• Carsten Byhring as Jens Hetland anno 1913: "Erru Idiot Du'a?"
  
• Charles Mingus: "Prayer for Passive Resistance" (Live at Antibe-version) (Atlantic)
  

Random Rules: Zoilus interviews a Silver Jew

Carl Wilson has posted an interview with David Berman of Silver Jews fame - whose work I respect more than enjoy, with notable exceptions - where he among other things discusses the poet/lyricist "problem" we've touched on earlier this summer. A good read.

Songs of the Week 35/08

• Archers of Loaf: "White Trash Heroes" (Alias)
• The Wrens: "Happy" (Absolutely Kosher)
  
• The Streets: "Heaven for the Weather" (sixsevenine)
• Adam Lane: "Last of the Beboppers" (Clean Feed)
• Report Suspicious Activity: "Bush Is Brezhnev" (Alternative Tentacles/Revolver)
  

Paper Thin Walls R.I.P.

Paper Thin Walls closes down. Spreading the word on the internet isn't always easy.

Songs of the Week 34/08

• Wampire Weekend: "Everywhere" (Fleetwood Mac Cover)
• Fujiya & Miyagi: "Uh" (Groenland)
• Jenny Lewis: "Carpetbagers" (Rough Trade)
• Big Black "Kerosene" (Touch and Go)
• Jessie Evans: "Scientist of Love" (MySpace etc.)
  

Songs of the Week 33/08

• William Parker: "Lights of Lake George" (Arts For Art/AUM Fidelity)
• K'naan: "I Was Stabbed By Satan (Track and Field inc./CD Baby)
• Bottomless Pit: "Red Pen" (Comedy minus One)
• Kronos Quartet: "Marquee Moon" (Elektra, 1990)
• Spoon: "Peace Like a River" (Daytrotter Sessions)
  

Reviews

Forgot to mention I have two recent reviews at the Norwegian free monthly Plan B; Original Silence and Lars Horntveth (both are in Norwegian).

Both are interesting records, but share one problem albeit for slightly different reasons: themes.

OS is a noise/improv band, and I've often felt that noise works best live where the physical aspect of the music comes to the fore. Listening to records is a more "intellectual" excersice, so I feel the need for some form thematic structure or propulsion is necessary to keep you listening. Luckily, OS has a terrific rhythm section in Paal Nilssen-Love and Massimo Pupillo who keep the momentum going and makes sure not everything hangs mid-air, so to speak.

Horntveth's record - a 37+ minute suite of sorts - while often quite beautiful suffers from too many ideas or themes, and sometimes you don't quite know how you got from one part to the next.

Songs of the Week 32/08

(No songs this week, but a "top 5" of the gigs at Øya '08.)

• Girl Talk (Wed. 08/06/08)
• Kenge Kenge (Thur. 08/07/08)
• Sonic Youth (Thur. 08/07/08)
• Clipse (Fri. 08/08/08)
• My Bloody Valentine (Fri. 08/08/08)

Well, I must add

• No Age (08/09/08)

Also, R.I.P. to Isaac Hayes and Bernie Mac.

Need to recoup. Until then.

I Want the LP-version of Double Nickels... on my iPod. + Øya '08.

You have the CD-version. You rip it. Then you download "Mr. Robots Holy Orders", "Ain't Talking 'Bout Love", and the brilliant "Little Man With a Gun In His Hand" from the Mike Watt approved Corndogs.org. Edit in accordance with the original track-listing, and hey presto!, you're good to go.

The Minutemen - "Little Man With A Gun In His Hand" live at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC, 1984

Øya is up and running. I'm not, but I'm going anyway. Los Campesinos! and Girl Talk both put on good shows yesterday, but the area is too crowded this year with the addition of one more stage, meaning I just had to give up on Lykke Li and others. They have to consider whether this was a good move or not for next year (my money is on "not".)

Songs of the Week 31/08

Favorites lists on blogs: Wha'ppen?

A few years ago, when I started this blog, the blogosphere was littered with top/favorites lists. Lately, though, they are few and far between. Le Matos has none on his blog anymore, Tom Hull has lists from previous years, but has not started one for 2008 ('though I understand he has had family issues to deal with), and S/FJ, who removed his lists earlier this year but set up a new one for 2008, has added some strange rants at the end of his list, the final words being " some other album, fuck do i care".

Maybe there was a backlash somewhere. Perhaps a reaction to the "end-of-year-lists-are-stupid" comments that come up every year. Is it for fear of not being taken seriosly? Has somebody been calling them nerds? Sure, lists tells you fuck-all about the qualities (or lack of) of the things you like, or put it another way, why you like/dislike the album or song in the way a good review can do. But, c'mon, aren't they taking it a bit too seriously? Lists don't come in the way of longform reviews, they're just supplements.

To me, the blog lists were the equivalent of a buddy saying to you in a bar "have you heard the new SO-AND-SO? I think it's great", to which I'd might answer "no, I'll better give it a try", or "yes and I didn't like it but maybe I should give it another chance" or whatever and then have another drink. Point is, they are just tips or hints. We can have a conversation about it after I heard the song or album or seen the movie (or if I've heard/seen the thing and have a strong enough opinion about it I'll most likely discuss it then and there, but you see my point, no?). Where are the blog lists? I promise I'll read your reviews too.

Songs of the Week: 30/08

• Randy Newman: "Harps and Angels" (Nonsuch) ("Encore, Encore, You spoke French!" Gets me every time.)
• Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet: "Rosa Parks" (Cuniform)
• Moondog: "Paris" (Roof Music)
• Minutemen: "Little Man With a Gun in His Hand" (SST)
• Iron Maiden: "Can I play With Madness" (EMI)
  

Johnny Griffin, R.I.P.

More from Ben Ratliff in the NY Times.