Bad Plus Live Anticipation Playlist

This weekend Lady Ribaldry and I are going for our second overnight, out of town date since Schmaltzy Junior was born. So of course we're going to see one of the Saturday Bad Plus sets at the Regatta Bar in Cambridge. This is my plastic sack stuffed to bursting with Halloween candy.

The power, joy, and depth these three bring to music pretty much distills everything we stand for here at Ribaldry and Schmaltz. I daresay if you assembled every track and playlist I've thrown up here over the years and squeezed them into the shape of a piano trio, the Bad Plus would result. So yes, for the next few days I am the barreled fish, happily anticipating the shots to be fired.

In related news, Do The Math, the blog primarily penned by pianist Ethan Iverson, is a fun resource for well-considered but unassuming discussion on music, literature, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in addition to being a dangerous gateway drug to fantastic piano playing in other genres.

This year's fine PROG isn't in Rhapsody, so for today's anticipatory sampler, we'll recruit two tracks from Blunt Object Live in Tokyo.

Bad Plus Live Anticipation Playlist - [Rhapsody Online version]

We Are The Champions
Silence Is The Question

Out To Lunch With Katerine Friday Playlist

Here's another gold mine of great songs I stumbled on because of a goofy album cover on the Rhapsody Just Added list. I'm talking of course about French superman Philippe Katerine. The best source of information I found was his translated entry from the French Wikipedia. It's verbal chop suey, but the facts are in there, and they're pretty fascinating.

8ème Ciel (2002) is the most immediately rewarding and accessible record Rhapvailable. It's an opulent, breezy love letter to the eardrums from start to finish. Also of note, Katerine is aided on this album by the Recyclers (with French jazz heavyweights Benoit Delbecq and Steve Arguelles).

L'Homme à Trois Mains (1999) and Robots Après Tout (2005) stretch out for opposite ends of the spectrum musically from there. L'Homme à Trois Mains strips down to voice, acoustic guitar and occasional sound effects, but I certainly wouldn't call it a folk record. It's more like bittersweet diary entries written looking out over a ragged post-apocalyptic landscape.

In the extreme other direction is Robots Après Tout, with its comic urgency, technicolor chorus, and skintight short shorts.

Here's a sampler playlist of three tracks from each of those albums for the curious. Well worth a spin.

Out To Lunch With Katerine Friday Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Inutile (8ème Ciel)
Des étoiles
Saint Vierge
Mr Patrick (L'Homme à Trois Mains)
Le Simplet
Petit Philippe
Borderline (Robots Après Tout)
Louxor J'Adore
Après Moi

P.S. For some reason, I watch this video and imagine this is what everyday life must be like for emigrants like R Crumb and David Sedaris:

Robyn Hitchcock Reissues Sampler Playlist

Here's one of the most promising combinations of seven words one could string together: "Yep Roc begins Robyn Hitchcock reissue series".

"Reissue" means that in Rhapsody right now you can listen to Black Snake Diamond Role (1981), I Often Dream of Trains (1984), and Eye (1990) in expanded editions.

"Series" means that Fegmania (1985), Gotta Let This Hen Out! (1985), and Element of Light (1986) are scheduled to follow in "Early 2008".

"Yep Roc" means there's a free stream on their Web site of the eight-LP box set "I Wanna Go Backwards", that includes the first three reissues, along with fifty tracks of b-sides, outtakes, and home demo recordings selected by Mister Hitchcock himself.

Here's a celebratory sampler playlist of three songs from each of those first three reissues.

Robyn Hitchcock Reissues Sampler Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

It Was The Night
Acid Bird
A Skull, A Suitcase, and A Long Red Bottle of Wine
Ye Sleeping Knights of Jesus
Autumn Is Your Last Chance
I Often Dream Of Trains
Queen Elvis
Beautiful Girl
Clean Steve

Friday Fresh Catch Playlist

Today, not so much Out To Lunch Friday as a down-home fresh catch playlist of lovely poppish bits appropriate for gearing into a thoroughly promising Octoberfest weekend [Hyland Brewery].

Sunshine, friends and family, a bit of rock, pygmy goats, well-crafted beer, the smell of apples in the air, and the not-quite-dead-yet Red Sox for dramatic wallpaper. Them's the fixings for an auspicious October weekend if ever I've seen them. Have a happy one, everybody!

Frisky Fresh Catch Friday Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

I'm Henry the VIII I Am - Herman's Hermits
Til I Kissed You - The Everly Brothers
Think It Over - Buddy Holly
At The Zoo - Simon and Garfunkel
Show Me - Pretenders
We Walk - REM

Update:

A Quick Note of Gratitude

A few weeks ago I whined about diginoise troubles in the recently added Supagroup release Fire For Hire. This is just a quick note of gratitude to the person at Rhapsody who pulled that album out for a little while and put it back in 100% healthy. Now that's service. Cheers!

It's not an overall classic, and their sound is significantly tamed in a studio, but Roll in Smokin' and Jailbait are both far out and solid from start to finish.

Jailbait - Supagroup [Rhapsody Online Version]

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist

So I marinated all day yesterday in the six discs of the recently released Miles Davis Complete On The Corner Sessions. By late afternoon, a vaguely sentient, Lovecraftian gasoline rainbow was sloshing around my skull where my consciousness used to be. Not a bad way to spend a workday, really.

If you don't already love this sound, jumping into this box set headfirst probably won't make you a convert. But if you're at all curious, What They Do is one of the previously unreleased tracks that has a little bit of everything.

Out To Lunch today, we'll sandwich that representative track amongst some complementary flavors.

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist - [Rhapsody Online version]

Resignation - Richard Nixon
What They Do - Miles Davis
Ap Ke Baras - Tabla Beat Science
Very Small Rock - Happy Apple
Nowhere Nothin' Fuckup - Built To Spill