Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band - Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) 1978

Rest in peace, Mr. Donald Glen Vliet. Thank you for all the music you've left behind. I'm gonna go ahead and plug a bunch of your records.

I'm gonna give you my favorite of his later period stuff, and that's 1978's Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller). It's accessible but still arty as all hell; the band is a tightly knitted sweater of weird grooves, the Captain retains his trademark growl- it's considered his comeback album and has a bunch of leftovers from his more (dare I say) commercial attempts (Bluejeans and Moonbeams, etc...) that existed as instrumentals and snippets of songs that were given a full-on re-model here.

I'm gonna up his duet record with Zappa (Bongo Fury) in the next few days as well; it's probably the greatest record from the mid-70s (that gets better and better upon every listen). So without further ado; here's the Captain. 

Wherever you are, you are loved everywhere by music nerds like me...

Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band - Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) (1978; Warner Bros. Records)

Ween - The Mollusk (1997)

Direct musical descendants of Frank Zappa; Gene and Dean Ween offer more styles per album than just about anyone in the history of popular music. 

Except calling Ween popular is just weird, unless your taste is strange- then they're already in your catalog. 

If not, come get strange with Mickey and Aaron.

Ween - The Mollusk (Elektra Records, 1997)

The United States of America - The United States of America (1968)

A psych rock album with no guitar? Upon first listen I didn't believe this record was made in '68; outside of the production quality there's really nothing that ties it to the decade (except the spirit of the times, maybe). With its arty pretension, courtesy of Joseph Byrd's musical expertise and virtuosity (by 1967 he already had a vast knowledge of both electronic instruments and musique concrète) and singer Dorothy Moskowitz's icy cold vocal delivery, it literally sounds like it belongs in the early oeuvre of Stereolab.

So how'd they get away with creating a rock record with no guitar? Easy- heavy use of the violin (courtesy Gordon Marron), sublime bass lines from Rand Forbes and Byrd's work with the organ, calliope and electric harpsichord. Throw in Craig Woodson's electronic drums and here's an excellent psychedelic-meets-art pop/rock record that for some reason has been lost to the sands of time.

This is the 2004 version from Sundazed; re-mastered and with bonus tracks...

The United States of America - The United States of America (1968; Columbia Records)

David Bowie - Low (1977)

When I first heard Low a few years ago, I didn;t know what to make of it. I was fresh off a serious early-era Bowie jag; the more glammy period starting with 1969's self-titled (re-issued in '72 as Space Oddity) up to the awful covers album Pin Ups from 1973. Then there's the next era, where Bowie transformed himself into a soul crooner called The Thin White Duke, experimenting with funk and R&B on Diamond Dogs through Station to Station.

This album is the start of the Berlin trilogy (Low, "Heroes" and Lodger) when David up and shipped himself off to Germany to rent a flat with Iggy Pop and get straight from the piles of coke he'd been snorting for most of the 1970s. It was a great idea, Bowie would not only put out two of his best records, he worked with Iggy on The Idiot and Lust For Life. 

Enter Brian Eno as well, he worked alongside Bowie with the second half of the record on the more ambient-based tracks (here as a musician and consultant to his friend, the actual producer role fell to Tony Visconti); this album is the synthesis of the whole Krautrock movement, listen to Tangerine Dream's Phaedra or Klaus Schulze's Timewind to get Bowie's inspiration.

So here's David Bowie's Low from 1977, an album totally ahead of its time...

David Bowie - Low (1977; RCA Records)

Brian Eno & David Byrne - My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts (1981)

Take Brian Eno's penchant for electronic experimentation and David Byrne's Afro-beat leanings and what you have is one of the more innovative records of the early '80s, it wasn't the first commercial music album to feature sampling, but it is considered landmark in its achievements. When asked if he invented sampling, Eno said in an interview:

"No, there was already a history of it. People such as (Can's) Holger Czukay had made experiments using IBM Dictaphones and short-wave radios and so on. The difference was, I suppose, that I decided to make it the lead vocal on the album My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts..."

(from Q Magazine, July 2001)

So there you go, an album that's both funky and ground-breaking. This is the 1990 re-issue, and missing from it is the track "Qu'ran" which was considered offensive to Muslims because it used real samples of recitations of the Islamic holy book, recorded in an Algerian mosque. In its place is the B-side to single The Jezebel Spirit, titled Very, Very Hungry.

Brian Eno & David Byrne - My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts (1981; Sire Records)

Pulp - This Is Hardcore (1998)

The more I listen to Jarvis Cocker's solo work, the more I realize the man is a genius. I've always sided with Morrissey on such matters (I know there's a faux "running feud" between these two men in the British press) but I'm starting to think that Mr. Cocker is almost up to snuff with His Mopeyness. Where Moz insulates himself prior to being hurt and against any and all human interaction; Cocker's lyrics are the words of a man that at one time had been a joyous and free soul but in order to protect himself from the calamities of life, has started to retreat away from such comforts. Or, I may just hear the two all wrong and I'm projecting my shit on to them.

Anyway, Cocker's old band, Pulp, was the springboard for his witty lyricism and black English humor, delivered either with a dry affectation or with that over-the-top theatrics that opera divas have. This album is a chronicle of Cocker's descent; grappling with a serious cocaine addiction as well as the dissolution of a long-time relationship, the album has a darker tone than any of the previous five. Cocker assumes the role of a lecherous douchebag in a few of the songs, suffering from the fallout of trying to keeps himself on the cover of the British tabloids.

So, if things like porn (or this album cover), drugs and fame are bothersome to you, don't download this record... 

Pulp - This Is Hardcore (1998; Island Records)