Frank Zappa - Philly '76 (2009)

Never underestimate Frank's ability to squeeze the maximum amount of talent out of his musicians- this album, recorded in a transitional period off the heels of the Zoot Allures album stands as a testament to his workmanship and passion for his craft. 

Bringing in Bianca Odin for vocals and keyboards and a stripped down backing band (Ray White on guitar, Eddie Jobson on violin and keys, Patrick O'Hearn on bass and Terry Bozzio on drums) it's an interesting filler and most likely only truly appreciated by hardcore Zappa fans. 
Frank Zappa - Philly '76 (2009; Vaulternative Records)

Gastr Del Sol - The Serpentine Similar (1993)

Extremely experimental in scope; an avant-garde folk project that meets a glossier post-rock aesthetic head-on, a winding snake of guitar arpeggio noodling and piano scales run up and down your spine.
Gastr del Sol - The Serpentine Similar (1993; Teenbeat Records)

Gene Clark - No Other (1974)

SoCal folk legend Gene Clark, late of The New Christy Minstrels and The Byrds nails it here on one of the finest yet weirdly obscure country rock gems this side of Bakersfield. 
Gene Clark - No Other (1974; Asylum Records)

Ott - Blumenkraft (2003)

Ambient psychedelic dub. You might hear this in the chillout lounge.
Ott - Blumenkraft (2003; Twisted Records)

The Beta Band - The Three E.P.'s (1998)

Combining their first three EPs into a single compilation was a brilliant idea for these Scottish indie rockers dabbling in neo-psychedelia and electronica. 

One of the finer releases on either side of the pond of the late 90s.

The Beta Band - The Three E.P.'s (1998; Astralwerks Records)

Julian Cope - Krautrock Sampler (1995)

Here's a PDF version I found of Julian Cope's 1995 definitive tome on the genre of Krautrock in all its glory and splendor; mad props to whomever scanned and upped this in the first place. 

This thing is way out of print and copies are starting at $175.

Julian Cope - Krautrock Sampler (1995; Head Heritage)

Cocteau Twins - Treasure (1984)

It really doesn't get any prettier than this one- vocals from the one and only Liz Fraser (if you aren't familiar with her yet try out Massive Attack's Mezzanine, an album she sang on a number of songs- most notably the excellent Teardrop), with guitars/production from Robin Guthrie and bass by Simon Raymonde; the Cocteau Twins' brand of ethereal dream pop is replete with lilting beauty and lush melodies, plain and simple.

This might be the best example of "bad" mid-80's production values; cheesy-sounding Casio drums with washed out synths over delayed guitars and layered vocals- I realize that description makes this record sound awful but in fact it's ridiculously beautiful. A confluence of pop, ambient textures and sort of a proto-shoegazer thing going on here, it's an absolute "must listen".

Grab it now...

Cocteau Twins - Treasure (1984; 4AD Records)

Archie Shepp - Fire Music (1965)

Archie Shepp was one of the cats back in the early-60's doing that "new thing" and earned his stripes playing with Cecil Taylor's band. He would go on to play with the New York Contemporary Five alongside Don Cherry and ultimately catch the attention of some of the vanguards of the new school; most notably Ornette (Shepp would play a Coleman composition on his first "solo" record, credited alongside the Bill Dixon Quartet) and Coltrane (playing on the Love Supreme sessions but not making the final cut- he would appear on the 2002 out-takes of that record), playing on John's Ascension album as well as a split with the 'Trane titled New Thing at Newport from 1965.

Shepp's finest moment would be this record, Fire Music; cut at a time when his political consciousness and burgeoning Afrocentricity was reaching a fever pitch- Archie would include an homage to Malcolm X as well as a Duke Ellington standard and the premier bossa nova song of all-time (The Girl from Ipanema). Considered groundbreaking as well as erratic, it showcases a legend at the height of his creativity- done right after his Four for Trane sessions (revolutionary reworkings of some Coltrane tunes from earlier in the decade).

Archie Shepp - Fire Music (1965; Impulse! Records)

Guru Guru - Dance of the Flames (1974)

A guitar-driven Krautrock record from the Mani Neumeier-led Guru Guru; which is notable because Neumeier was one of the better drummers in the Kosmiche scene so for him to sort of step back and allow his supporting cast to shine here makes this record altogether more special.

This was the only record guitarist Houschäng Nejadapour recorded with the band, and his contributions are pretty spectacular- his playing borders on spine-tingling fusion jazz a la John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra before giving way to straight up Krauty motorik and world music excursions.

Prepare to have your faces melted. Off.

Guru Guru - Dance of the Flames (1974; Atlantic Records)
-links to YouTube-

Yeasayer - Live at Ancienne Belgique (2010)

Holy shit this is so good. If you haven't hopped on the Yeasayer bandwagon yet, stop fucking around and get on it. Seriously. Not only are they one of the most interesting bands of the last few years in terms of experimenting with sound, they're also one of the most listenable (I know that word "experimenting" can be a huge turn-off for ears, but trust me- totally accessible).

The sound quality of this show is pretty amazing and the fans are respectful and attentive as well. 

Here's some live Yeasayer- check out some of the re-worked versions of the songs from both All Hour Cymbals and Odd Blood.

Yeasayer - Live at Ancienne Belgique (2010; self-released)

Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart - Bongo Fury (1975)

This is beyond "required listening". Two legends; one at the apex of his career, one at the nadir. Zappa was selling out arenas and Beefheart couldn't get anyone to play with him (the entire Magic Band up and quit on him in '74, due to his "abusive behavior"). Needless to say, Beefheart couldn't get a gig at a dive bar and Frank felt he owed him (they've been friends since high school). The two geniuses had a pretty strained relationship around this time; they were both on "ego trips" says former Zappa drummer Jimmy Carl Black, with Beef mostly drawing sketches on-stage of Zappa and Frank in turn hating the Captain's work ethic (Zappa was a notorious workhorse).

This album is notable also for the lineup featured; it's at the intersection of two of Frank's greatest bands- blending the early 70's incarnation with Napoleon Murphy Brock and Chester Thompson with the late 70's era band with Terry Bozzio and the Fowler brothers.   

One of my favorite records of the mid-1970s; listen to the Captain ramble nonsense over fantastic Zappa art rock compositions. Enjoy!

Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart - Bongo Fury (1975; DiscReet Records)

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)

El Guincho - Alegranza (2007)

El Guincho is the moniker of one Pablo Díaz-Reixa of the Canary Islands. First time I ever heard this (early '08) I was in the fabled San Francisco institution Aquarius Records. I always feel weird asking the clerks at record stores what we're listening to (I don't wanna out myself as a n00b, that's what I do to you all with this blog here) but the dudes that work there are mad chill and not pretentious at all, so I was like, "uh, is this another Panda Bear record? Cuz I thought he just had one last summer..." and was met with, "no, this is some Spanish guy, El Guincho."

El Guincho - Alegranza (2007; Discoteca Océano)

Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque (1991)

Teenage Fanclub are a fine example of power pop in all of its sickening glory- set right in the crossroads of old and new and owing as much to earlier 1970's bands like Big Star as well as the illustrious work of Todd Rundgren and the jangly sensibilities of 80's mainstays The Smiths and R.E.M., not to mention the influence they've had on an entire generation of indie popsters (Belle & Sebastian, et. al.) 

Fans and critics alike seem to point to their 1995 record Grand Prix as their finest moment; I think it doesn't have the same urgency as Bandwagonesque and plus; I got this one on a whim when I was in high school- the album cover art coupled with the fact that the CD was $1.99 (the main impetus being that awesome track they did with De La Soul on the Judgment Night Soundtrack).

Anyway; this is something I listen to when I want to remember my senior year of high school; it's inextricably wedged in between going stoned out of my 16-year old mind to football games on Friday night, then awful golf course keg parties on Saturday night to staying up late on Sunday nights to watch 120 Minutes...

Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque (1991; Creation 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)

Clive Tanaka y Su Orquesta - Jet Set Siempre No. 1 (2010)

I can find literally no info on Clive Tanaka; his website has March 2nd as the release date for this (originally in cassette-only format! The digital will be released on January 11th of next year) and then there's nothing of a personal nature at all. Very rarely do I read about a record and feel implored to seek it out, download it, listen to it three times in a row and immediately post it here, but there's an undeniable charm to the sounds on this album and the gravity that's pulling me to it.

All I can say is that this is going to be at the top of (or at the least one of my three favorite records this year); it's a chill-wavey lo-fi electropop synth-funk hot mess.

Sort of like Daft Punk meeting Toro y Moi in 1987 to audio track a Jazzercise VHS tape. 

Clive Tanaka y Su Orquesta - Jet Set Siempre No. 1 (2010; Tall Corn Music)

The National - Alligator (2005)

I can listen to this album over and over again under the covers in a dark room for days at a time (I will never, ever be able to put into words what this record means to me; that one sentence is the closest thing I can offer you).

Maybe you'll have an Earth-shattering experience from it, too...

The National - Alligator (2005: Beggars Banquet)

Björk - The Classic Years

Dear Björk Guðmundsdóttir,

I love you.

I really do.

I love you for all your weird, quirky and inventive songs. I love your half-elf, half-Icelandic lyricism. I love your cute little pixie self. I love the production values on all your records, too- you have both the piece of mind and sense of purpose to work with some really out-there folks, although I guess that's like calling the kettle black, no?

I love that we almost have the same birthday, only three days away. And I get along really well with Scorpios, both my brother and sister are Scorps. That's tight.

Holler at me.

I must also say that your videos by themselves are truly all works of art. I used to have your DVD, Greatest Hits: Volumen 1993-2003 but it was crushed in a box in my trunk when I moved to California so I sold the damaged video to Amoeba Records in Berkeley and some poor chump bought it and later realized that the three videos for Hyperballad, Possibly Maybe and I Miss You were all pixelated and fucked up and the sounds skipped and sounded like glitchy shit.

You're in me, Björk. You're a part of me- and not like that time I washed my clothes with a bag of weed in one of my pants pockets, and then I even dried it and it like totally baked the smell into that entire load of clothes for like ever, not like that. You're like, here.

Right here.

I love you so much, Björk. I'm going to prove this to you by putting three of your best albums up for "sharing" purposes. Yeah, I know, it's really stealing, but whatever, I love you, Björk.

I. Love. You.

Sincerely,
Jimmy Mac

Debut (1993; Elektra Records)

Post (1995; Elektra Records)
Homogenic (1997; Elektra Records)

Benga - Diary of an Afro Warrior (2008)

It's taken me a while to come full circle and embrace the genre of dubstep; you could say this is the third time I've tried to accept it (false starts in '06 and '08); I guess I either wasn't listening to the "right stuff" or my head wasn't in the right place- any way you slice it I wasn't getting it, which is disheartening considering my love for all things British.

So here we go; attempt number three- and it's sticking, finally.

Digression: I think dubstep's main problem (as most electronic music for that matter) is that it's somewhat rare for a specific vibe or a particular energy to hold up over the course of a full-length; since it's aimed at the club-goers, a five-to-ten minute slab of beats and synths is usually all that's needed and an artists' worth is measured from week-to-week as far as getting asses out on the floor. I think that's why I've never given most electronic music it's fair shake- I've always been an "album-oriented" kind of listener; give me a cohesive collection of songs packaged together as a statement of the performer's vision at a specific time and date rather than a jam or two. Anyways; I'll be mining the internets for more electro-based music from now on.

The obvious choice and the man that's done the best job at selling dubstep to the masses is Burial; both of his albums are considered the gold standard in the genre and the most representative of both where it's come from and where it can go- but for all its sheer determination, I'd offer you Benga's Diary of an Afro Warrior as a great place to start; it's meditative and funky, got those wonky bass lines throughout.

Give it a try, folks...

Benga - Diary of an Afro Warrior (2008; Tempa Records)

June of 44 - Four Great Points (1998)

I have no idea what "post-rock" really means, I think we throw it around way too much these days. The term was coined by critic Simon Reynolds in a review of the record Hex by Bark Psychosis in an issue of The Wire back in May of '94 as a way to describe what he was hearing, he's quoted as saying post-rock is "using rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes, using guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures rather than riffs and power chords", but that's not really saying a whole lot about bands with such disparate styles like Mogwai, Slint or Sigur Rós, who are all usually lumped in with the post-rock crowd.

A reductive way of describing post-rock could be as follows: bands that employ in their music such diverse influences like space rock, Krautrock, ambient, experimental rock, jazz, shoegaze, minimalism, math rock and tape music; then forcing it into the neater, all-encompassing sphere of "alternative rock". That's my definition and I'm sticking to it.

That brings us to June of 44- a more emo and math-based version of Slint; but more melodic in the post-hardcore vein of bands from the mid-90s (think Unwound or Fugazi) but with really, really awesome drumming (courtesy of Doug Scharin); the instrumentation is also stellar- mellow and lazy yet shiny and bright guitar work from Jeff Mueller and Sean Meadows and dual duty on bass and trumpet from Fred Erskine.

Check this shit out, post-rocker...

June of 44 - Four Great Points (1998; Quarterstick Records)

Autechre - Tri Repetae (1995)

The duo of Sean Booth and Rob Brown have been making music together for almost 25 years, hooking up over a mutual love for graffiti, hip-hop and electro music, trading mix tapes and eventually collaborating under the guise Lego Feet. Their first release under the Autechre (pronounced aw-tekk-urr) moniker would be 1991's Cavity Job, and the rest, as they say, is history.

This 1995 release, Tri Repetae, is a decent barometer of Autechre's ouevre; it's right in the mid-point of their earlier, more accessible work (the LPs Incunabula, Amber and the Anti EP) and their move towards a freer, more experimental approach (the albums LP5 and Confield, as well as the arc of their trajectory until present day).

Their advancement of glitchy, techy and ambient soundscapes has contributed to the growth of IDM as well as influenced many imitators- I'm almost kicking myself for not discovering this wonderful music earlier.

Autechre - Tri Repetae (1995; Warp Records)

Ancestors - Neptune With Fire (2008)

If you like your sludgy metal with generous helpings of prog rock, this is the record for you. Los Angeles-based Ancestors blend stony psychedelia with doom metal riffs to create one of the most satisfying listens of the last few years within the genre; this two-song, 38-minute monolithic magnum opus from '08 called Neptune With Fire.

It's a huge album, an immense and crushing sonic journey to the center of the cosmos and back; although it predates Mastodon's Crack the Skye by a good year, it's cleaved from the same esoteric stone.

Metal heads, psych rockers, stoners, sludge aficionados; listen to this record right now!

Ancestors - Neptune With Fire (2008; Tee Pee Records)

Squarepusher - Hard Normal Daddy (1997)

Behold! I have heard the sound of the future, and it sounds like... wait... what?

This record is thirteen years old?

Oh.

Well, where the hell have I been?

Seriously, what have I been doing that was so important that made me miss this album; this sublime record with some of the best and fastest beats ever made on this planet with some of the most insane robo-jazz ever recorded?

Damn, I'm sorry Mr. Squarepusher. I'm going to let everybody in on this little secret that turns out wasn't a secret at all...

Squarepusher - Hard Normal Daddy (1997; Warp Records)

Mastodon - Leviathan (2004)

What can I say about this record that a swift punch in the neck wouldn't convey that much quicker? It's fucking Mastodon; some of the best, most powerful sludge metal to crunch its way out of your speakers in years- add a love for 70's prog and these four Atlantans (two by way of Rochester, NY) have basically paved the way for a massive prog-sludge avalanche that has no doubt wrecked the shit out of your little crap town.

Guitarists Bill Kelliher and Brent Hinds, bassist Troy Sanders and drummer Brann Daillor all met at a High On Fire show in 1999; they bonded over their mutual love for bands like Neurosis and Melvins as well as Thin Lizzy. After trying another singer, they chose to remain a quartet and released Lifesblood in 2001 on Philly's Relapse Records and Mastodon was birthed.

Listen; words fail here big time- just listen...

Mastodon - Leviathan (2004; Relapse Records)

Main Source - Breaking Atoms (1991)

First off, these beats- considering this album is almost 20 years old, these beats still sound as incredible to my thirty-something ears as they did to my teen ears. And then there's the rhyming, that archetypal early-90s rap flow done to perfection; and oh, let's not forget the samples- James Brown, Donald Byrd, Ike & Tina, Sister Nancy, Bob James, Lou Donaldson, Kool & The Gang, Miles Davis, MFSB, The Meters and Funkadelic (among many others; it's like walking into the Soul section of a record store and just grabbing all the best shit).

One of the first "international" hip-hop releases; two Toronto natives (K-Cut & Sir Scratch) hooked up with Queens-based Large Professor to give you the Main Source. Listen for the first verse ever from a very young and very hungry Nasir Jones- later known as Nas, as well as some of the most socially conscious and relevant lyricism on any hip-hop release, now or then.

Another insanely overlooked album from the Golden Age of Hip-Hop...

Main Source - Breaking Atoms (1991; Wild Pitch Records)