Eggs and Sausage and a side of Toast: April 2009

I just read an article in The Atlantic about the rare-earth metal neodymium: "the pixie dust of green tech - necessary for the lightweight permanent magnets that make Prius motors zoom and for the generators that give wind turbines their electrical buzz."

Apparently, our current dependency on Middle Eastern oil may be replaced by one on Chinese neodymium. Nearly all of the world supply of rare-earth oxides comes from China, which has a huge abundance of them and it's cheap to extract there (no environmental regulations, etc.)

Monday, April 20, 2009

Just like a champagne bubble, pop pop pop...

Ah, it's been a full week since my Vegas trip and not a beep from me. Booo! Shame on me.

I flew up this time...normally I drive. The flight is right around an hour, but all-in the trip is about 3 with airport craziness on both sides. Driving takes just over five hours, so the difference isn't huge, but the Southwest flight was so cheap I couldn't resist: $49 there and $69 back. So, I worked pretty much a full day Thursday before taking the 5 o'clock hop. Had beer #1 at the airport and #2 in the ridiculously long hotel check-in line. A good start to the weekend. Jasonwas on the same flight so he went on a beer run while we were waiting to check in.

I've stayed in the Luxor pyramid before - with my parents a few years back. It's ok, but not great. You can tell it's an older property, the hallways are narrow - you can't walk two people side-by-side, and it's beginning to show some wear-and-tear. Several elevators were out of service, etc. But, at the price we got it ($45 for the first night and $68/night on the weekend) I shouldn't complain. I don't think I'll go back, though, unless I find another ridiculous deal.

Lotus of Siam: me, Jennifer, Adam, Jason, Dan and Keri

Thursday night Jason and I met up with Dan and Keri - and found out it was their 13-year wedding anniversary. I did know, however, that they eloped and got married in Vegas, so this was a fitting way to celebrate. They got their room upgraded to the spa suite, which meant that they had a corner room (windows leaning in from two directions - very odd), with an extra room and a hot tub next to the bed. Klazzy!

Anyway, Jason and I had walked over to New York New York and sat down at Pour 24, a bar with a solid selection of American micro-brews right next to Coyote Ugly. We met Dan and Keri there and walked downstairs to Nine Fine Irishmen for dinner, live Irish music and some Riverdance-style dancing. Dan Lord of the Ganse was right at home. Like many places in Vegas, loud and overpriced, but fun.

For afterhours - ok it was only around midnight, but it was Thursday! - we ended up atAurora - a lounge at Luxor with a live, female 80s band, complete with 80s haircuts and, strangely enough, a rather large tuba player. After a round of drinks, Jennifer S and Adam met us there for another round. Jason ordered an amaretto sour that showed up withwhipped cream and four maraschino cherries, while he tried to entice our waitress and a few other passers-by with repeated promises of Dan and Keri's hot tub.

Dan and Keri in their Spa Suite

Friday the six of us went to Lotus of Siam (the place I mentioned in my last post) for lunch. The place indeed gives an underwhelming first impression, but the food was really good. I don't know if I'd go as far as some of the accolades but it's clearly a couple of steps above your typical Thai fare. And, for the price, in Vegas, I give it my wholehearted recommendation. The wine list has a lot of gems, especially in the higher echelons, but since it was lunch and my friends aren't wine geeks like me we shared a straight-forwad, but nice German riesling that complemented the food well: a 2007 J.J. Prüm Graacher Himmelreich Spätlese.

Jenn and Alex arriving Friday night

Friday night game-time started in Dan and Keri's party suite. Dan and Keri had picked up cheese and crackers at the grocery store and I'd brought two bottles of Aubert chardonnay (the 2006 and 2007 Ritchie) from home. People make fun of me for traveling with high-quality Austrian 24% lead crystal wine glasses so I didn't bring my Riedel stems and we had to drink from the sad excuses for glasses found in the hotel bathroom. I should have known better. So, the wines didn't show very well but we still had a great time. Jason had brought his iPod speaker-set so we had entertainment and around 8 pm Jenn F and Alex arrived directly from the airport. And there was much rejoicing.

All of us at Giorgio's

Around 9 we decided to head out for dinner. As nobody wanted to walk far we picked a mid-priced Italian restaurant called Giorgio's next door at Mandalay Bay. Here comes the funny part. Jason was still in shorts so he headed back to the room to change and would meet us at the restaurant. Well, Jason forgot that there's a walkway connecting Luxor and Mandalay Bay so he tried to take the tram over. One of the two tracks was out-of-service, so the tram at Luxor only went north to Excalibur, and from there he could stay on the tram for express service back south to Mandalay Bay. So, two tram rides later, Jason walked through Manadalay Bay onto the walkway back toward Luxor and found us about 50 yards from where he started. What happens in Vegas does not stay in Vegas!

Dinner was fun but the food was only so-so. Vegas is kind of like that - either you should go really cheap and expect nothing or splurge and get something nice. There's almost no middle ground. After dinner we ended up at minus5 Ice Lounge at Mandalay Bay, seemingly very similar idea to the ice bar in Stockholm. The concept is that there is a bar made out of ice where the temperature is kept at -5 degrees Celsius (23 Fahrenheit) and you pay $30 for entrance, a warm coat and a drink served in a glass made out of ice. We didn't feel like it so we only had drinks in the regular bar outside.

Jenn being served by the ice-babes in a shot-glass made of ice

Saturday morning we spent some time at the Mandalay sportsbook - placed some bets on my Celtics, Red Sox and Patriots (all to win their Championships). Then we walked upstrip...Jenn and Alex ordered Margarita-yards and later regretted it. That's a lot of cold liquid to get down in the middle of the day. We checked out the remodeled Planet Hollywood, the under constrution City Center, had lunch at Paris and walked over to The Bellagio to check out the fountains and the conservatory.

The Fountains at Bellagio

Alex and Jenn at the Bellagio Conservatory

Watering jugs pouring

Sat night we went out pretty late. Dan and Keri had gone to see Jersey Boys - a musical about Frankie Vallie at The Palazzo (the newish expansion to The Venetian) - so we met up with them at one of the fun, trendy bars there: Lavo. Then we had dinner at Sushi Samba - a Brazilian sushi-joint. Very typical Vegas - over-the-top and showy - but well done and the food was good. I had a drink with plum sake, muddled plums, daikon radishes and beer. Sounds crazy, right? Well, it was actually a very subtle drink, with no discernible beer flavor and a nice radish finish.

Palazzo atrium outside Lavo

Alex, Jason, me, Jenn, Keri and Dan at Lavo

Finally we walked over to The Wynn and their new expansion Encore where we sat down in the Eastside Lounge for drinks. A few of us split a bottle of Vincent Girardin white burgundy (chardonnay) while Alex decided to try a Campari on the rocks. If you've never tasted Campari, it's a very bitter aperitif that most people don't care for unless it's mixed into a drink - frequently soda water or OJ. (I'd been told it was made from artichokes, but that doesn't seem to be true.) Well, Alex did not care for it at all, and neither did anyone else except for Jason and me. Score!

Sushi Samba

Spicy Tuna, Freshwater Eal and Salmon (top to bottom)

Sunday I met up with my old friend Dylan Rivas who had just arrived in town with his mother, aunt and grandmother. Now there's a party waiting to happen! Dylan and I walked up from Flamingo, where they were staying, to Caesar's Palace and had brunch outside at Serendipity 3. Then, some ice cream at Sugar & Ice at the Wynn with a nice view of the waterfalls. Then, off to the airport and home!

Dylan and I under a red awning - Serendipity 3

Dylan at Sugar & Ice

Whew - that was long and a lot of boring details. But, I wanted to document it for myself...

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

You're so money and you don't even know it

Going to Vegas tomorrow!!!

Vegas has become quite the holiday vacay spot for me. I've been there for Christmas twice, went there Thanksgiving week last year, and now going there for Easter. This time there's a group of eight of us, which should be fun. Five people from work and three significant others...we've got four rooms in the Luxor pyramid.

Not much planned, except that I want to make sure I make it to Lotus of Siam this time. LOS is basically legendary is food-and-wine circles and I've almost gone several times but never actually made it happen. While Vegas is known for high-falutin' big-name chefs opening high-priced high-end restaurants in amazing spaces, LOS is an inexpensive unassuming Thai restaurant in a dumpy strip mall about a mile away from the strip.

Most courses are about $10 and there's nothing special about the menu, but the food is supposedly top-notch. Gourmet Magazine called it the "single best Thai restaurant in North America".

And, then there is the wine list.

Asian food is notoriously wine-unfriendly, but tends to work quite well with German rieslings and Alsatian gewürztraminers and pinot gris. Most Thai restuarants generally avoid the issue altogether by serving a couple of house wines, a handful of beers, and sodas. LOS has a 34-page wine list filled with wines from all over the world, but heavily focused on German rieslings, all sold at more than reasonable prices.

I just learned that a friend and former co-worker, Ellen Kane, will also be in Vegas for the weekend. Her sister's getting married there on Friday, but we're going to try to meet up at some other point during the weekend. And, my old friend Dylan Rivas is arriving Sunday - just a few hours before I'm heading back - so we're going to try to meet up as well.

Should be a good weekend...

Saturday, April 4, 2009

More Theresa...

Starts slow but gets pretty amazing once the singing starts and the violin kicks in:

She will be performing at The Rhythm Room in Phoenix on May 11 - I'm planning on going.

Friday, April 3, 2009

What's spinning now? (April Edition)

Last Month Revisited

Heartless Bastards - The Mountain

I liked this quite a bit - several good songs made even better by Erika Wennerstrom's great voice. (7/10)

Loney Dear - Dear John

Some fairly subtle stuff that continuous to grow on me. I have a feeling that this is going to look even better when I look back at it in the future. If this were a wine it'd definitely be old world. (7/10)

Morrissey - Years of Refusal

Hm. I was more excited about this a month ago than I am today. Good album, but not as much of a standout as I thought. (6/10)

Neko Case - Middle Cyclone

Solid album but I liked Fox Confessor Brings The Flood better. (7/10)

Passion Pit - Chunk of Change (EP)

One fantastic song (Sleepyhead), one good song (Better Things) and four bland tracks. (5/10)

U2 - Line On The Horizon

I have to say I'm disappointed with this one. There are a number of very good songs on here, but what's unusual for U2 is that it also has a few songs that I don't like at all. I don't care for the opening title track and several songs in the middle of the album, including the first single Get On Your Boots. But, there are also great songs like Magnificent, Moment of Surrender and Cedars of Lebanon. (6/10)

Female Tribute to Tom Waits (Vol 1-3)

Too many songs (121) for a single score to be meaningful (but this won't stop me.) Some great renditions, a lot of solid ones, and also a good number of terrible ones. (6/10)

Dark Was The Night

Again, too many ups and downs for a single score to really make sense, but I'm still giving one. Several great collaborations: Feist doing duets with Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie lead singer) and Grizzly Bear, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) and Aaron Dessner (The National), Buck 65 (Canadian hip hop DJ/MC) and Sufjan Stevens... (7/10)

War Child Heroes

Cool artists doing covers of cool songs (see March post) with mixed results. (6/10)

This Month (in alpabetical order)

Bat For Lashes - Two Suns

The last album Fur And Gold had two great tracks (Trophy and What's A Girl To Do?) but was fairly bland outside of those. Also, check out this great video.

Her (Bat For Lashes is the pseudonym of singer Natasha Khan) new release Two Suns seems like a more even effort from the opening track Glass to the beautiful closing track The Big Sleep (with guest vocals from Scott Walker, with whom I'm not familar.)

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Beware

Will Oldham began recording under the name Palace Brothers and Palace Music throughout the 90s, but for the last decade he's adopted the moniker Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. I've been following him since I heard Johnny Cash's fantastic cover of his song I See A Darkness on American III. He's made a lot of great music over the years, but the album I See A Darkness is probably his strongest so far. It also contains the great song Black which Trost made an inspired cover of last year.

His new album is called Beware and seems to be less dark than previous records. We'll see how that turns out, becoming happy has signaled the doom of many an artist.

Buraka Som Sistema - Black Diamond

I found this sound system from Lisbon, Portugal, by listening to the M.I.A. Kala bonus disc, which contains the joint track Sound of Kuduro. According to Wiki, Kuduro is an "uptempo, energetic and danceable" music style from Portugal that originated in Angola.

Watch this and if you tell me it doesn't make you want to dance you're dead inside:

Death Cab For Cutie - The Open Door (EP)

Have just started listening to this, but it's hard to go wrong with Death Cab.

The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love

I got their 2002 album Castaways And Cutouts about a year ago and have really been impressed by Colin Meloy's distinct voice, great melodies and storytelling lyrics. Since then, I've also been enjoying Picaresque and The Crane Wife.

In these times of digital downloads and iPods set to shuffle, with the increased focus on individual tracks and the diminishing importance of albums, it is refreshing to see one band going in the opposite direction and making a concept album. The Hazards of Love is basically a 17-track rock opera meant to be played from beginning to end with a story arc and characters: Shara Warden (of My Brightest Diamond) and Becky Stark (of Lavender Diamond) provide great vocals for two of the female characters.

On their upcoming tour the concerts will be in two acts: the first act being the entire album from end to end (Warden and Stark are touring with them) and the second act being their older material.

Depeche Mode - Sounds of the Universe

This was just leaked so I haven't had a chance to listen through all of it yet, but I like the new single Wrong and the opening track In Chains so far.

Grizzly Bear - Yellow House

Don't know much about this Brooklyn-based band, other than having seen their name float around for a while on the indie music scene. I liked their two tracks on Dark Was The Night so I got this.

Lavender Diamond - Imagine Our Love

I was very impressed with Becky Stark's voice on The Hazards of Love so I got this album too. Too early to say much about...

Martina Topley-Bird - Quixotic

Martina is familar to any Tricky fan as she's provided the female vocals on several of his albums. I just learned that she's released three solo albums. Quixotic is her first. Sounds good so far.

PJ Harvey & John Parish - A Woman A Man Walked By

John Parish has been closely involved with a few previous PJ Harvey albums, most notably Dance Hall at Louse Point. I saw PJ Harvey live a couple of times in college and quickly bought Rid of Me and have been a fan since.

Sara Lov - The Young Eyes (EP)

This first solo effort from Sara Lov (of Devics - a band I'm not familiar with) is quite impressive. A couple of interesting covers (Timebomb by Beck and My Body Is A Cage by Arcade Fire) and the standout Seasoned Eyes Were Beaming (presumably from the upcoming LP with the same name.) I like it.

Theresa Andersson - Hummingbird, Go!

Swedish-born Theresa Andersson is a DIY one-person-performer who tours with two loop pedals to sound like a full-fledged band. I was intrigued by the youtube clip below (and the Swedish connection) so I had to get her album.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

My 25 most influential albums

Ok, so this one went around Facebook some time ago, but I didn’t get to it now.

First, this is NOT a list of my 25 best albums. This is a list of the albums and artists that have had the biggest influence on me. Actually, it’s really a mix of that and my top artists and their most important albums (for me.) Here’s my list – in alphabetical order:

Tori Amos – Boys For Pele

I’ve liked Tori Amos since Little Earthquakes but this is the album that I couldn’t stop listening to for years. To me, Tori falls into the category of artists that truly brought something new to music. When people speak of musical genius this is the kind of artist I think of. I would also put Beck and Björk in this category, but neither of them had one single album that was strong enough to make the list.

Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison

What can I say that hasn’t been said before? It’s a classic that holds up incredibly well 40 years later. And, I generally don’t like country music. His American III, IV and V are a bit uneven, but contain a number of incredible covers: U2’s One, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s I See A Darkness, Nick Cave’s The Mercy Seat, and of course Nine Inch Nail’s Hurt.

The Clash – London Calling

Almost universally lauded as the best album of the 80s, even though it was released in late 1979. Just incredible all the way through.

Elvis Costello – Spike

Ok – here I have to admit that I (sort of) cheated. Spike is a very good album, but not necessarily an outstanding album. Heck, it’s probably not even Elvis’ best album. But, I had to put him on the list because I’m a huge fan of his career, and this is the album that made me discover his talent. (Bought it in high school.)

Throughout his 20+-album span Elvis has created an incredible amount of great music, and a lot of it has been in interesting collaborations: Burt Bacharach, The Brodsky Quartet (classical string quartet), Anne Sofie von Otter (Swedish opera singer), Allen Toussaint (New Orleans R&B), etc. But, his greatness is spread over so many albums I didn’t know how to pick one.

The Cure – Disintegration

I was pretty late to appreciate The Cure. Through high school I never gave them a chance because of the goth image, but once I listened to Disintegration I was sold. Great, incredibly tight album, and it is just as good now as it was 20 years ago.

Depeche Mode – Black Celebration / Music for the Masses

Ok, I’m cheating again. This time by picking two albums. Black Celebration may be the better album, but I listened sooo much to Music for the Masses when it came out I can’t leave it out. Their follow-up studio album, Violator, is their most commercially successful album, and it contains some great tracks, and I often return to it now, but at the time I felt that they had sold out and I couldn’t get behind it.

Ani DiFranco – Not A Pretty Girl

It’s difficult to pick a favorite Ani-album. I’m picking this one because it was my first one. Strangely enough, I bought it at HMV in London – they had a listening station for new music and I was hooked from the start.

In my opinion, Ani is one of the greatest lyrical talents of our time, and her songs simply kick ass. I caught two of her shows last year (LA and Phoenix) and she’s an incredibly engaging performer. If you ever have a chance of seeing her live in a small venue, don’t hesitate to get tickets!

Dire Straits – Brothers In Arms

Not much to say about this one – just a classic album.

Nick Drake – Fruit Tree Box Set (1986 release version)

Yeah, I’m cheating yet again by picking a whole box set. But, first, I need to thank my great friend Lisa for finding Nick Drake for me. Nick Drake only released three albums before he died from an overdose of antidepressants in 1974, at the age of twenty-six.

He never achieved fame during his lifetime, but over the years his music has increasingly been given critical acclaim, he is often cited as an influence to other artists, his songs have been covered and used in movies and commercials (most notably Pink Moon in the US in a VW commercial in 2000.)

Fruit Tree is a 4-disc box set containing all three of his albums and additional unreleased material compiled on the fourth disc. The reason I’m including the entire box set on my list is because that’s how I bought it – sometime in the mid-90s – and I can’t separate the albums from each other.

Guns N’ Roses – Appetite for Destruction

Not really my kind of music then and not really my kind of music now, but how can you argue with Welcome to the Jungle, Paradise City and Sweet Child o’ Mine?

I saw them live in 1993 at the Stockholm Olympic stadium (built for the 1912 Summer Olympics) and have to say the show rocked. I had worked my way up the field to within 15-20 yards of the stage and when they opened with Welcome to the Jungle my feet didn’t touch the ground again for the remainder of the song. Scary and exciting at the same time.

Can’t say that I listen to this much now, but looking back over the years this certainly earned its place on this list.

Jane’s Addiction – Ritual de lo Habitual

I was a huge Jane’s Addiction fan for about five years (late high school / early college years.) I don’t listen to them very often anymore, but whenever I do it takes my right back. My favorite song – Jane Says – isn’t on here, but this album is the strongest overall.

Massive Attack – Blue Lines

I got this album right when it came out because I liked the song Daydreaming. For some reason, I didn’t listen too much to the rest of the album at the time. It wasn’t until I started getting into Tricky in the mid-90s (after seeing him live at the Hultsfred Festival in Sweden in ’95) that I went back and really gave this a serious listen, and I’ve been addicted ever since. It’s one of the few albums that I’ve had in heavy rotation for well over a decade and I’m not the least bit tired of it.

On a related note, for fans of The West Wing, go back and watch the last two episodes of season four for the amazing use of Angel (from Mezzanine) in the scene with Zoey at the night club after her graduation.

Sinéad O’Connor – The Lion And The Cobra

Like many people, I discovered Sinéad O’Connor watching the stunning video of Nothing Compares 2 U; almost entirely consisting of a close-up, ending with two genuine tears streaming down her face. I quickly bought I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, and shortly thereafter her debut album The Lion And The Cobra.

Both albums are very good, but the debut displays a rare level of honesty and raw emotional intensity. Both the arrangements and her voice are much less polished than the follow-up, but that’s also what makes it so great. While the album is admittedly uneven, the heights of songs such as Troy, Never Get Old and Drink Before The War make the album so memorable.

Finally, do check out the live recording of Troy from Pinkpop 1988: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeIHZvZTJTg. You’re in for a spine-chilling experience: solo on acoustic guitar on a giant outdoor daytime stage and she keeps the entire audience completely captive for the duration.

Beth Orton – Central Reservation / Trailer Park

Again, I have to pick two albums because I bought them at the same time. I was a bit late to the game here so I missed her debut album Trailer Park when it came out in 1996 but have been following her closely ever since I picked it up a few years later along with the follow-up Central Reservation.

Orton’s music lives in the strange land between folk and electronica. Early on she collaborated with The Chemical Brothers and William Orbit, but over the years the acoustic singer-songwriter side has become increasingly prominent.

Pearl Jam – Ten

The so-called grunge explosion hit during my senior year in high-school and I was a part of it through my first couple of years in college. While most people herald Nirvana’s Nevermind as the pinnacle of the movement I always enjoyed Ten more. Sure, Smells Like Teen Spirit is a fantastic song that captured the collective consciousness of my generation at that time better than anything else, but Ten is, in my opinion, a stronger album overall.

The great song Alive is commonly misunderstood. The song is partly autobiographical and very dark; about how Eddie Vedder found out as a teenager that the man he thought was his father was actually his step-father and that his biological father was dead, leaving him confused and feeling that being ‘alive’ was a burden. However, most people interpret the howling chorus as inspirational, and in a recent interview Vedder said that performing the song over the years “lifted the curse. The audience changed the meaning for me.”

While there are many other great songs on the album (Once, Even Flow, Why Go…), the other clear standout is Jeremy and its harrowing video with a climax that to this day makes me shiver and shake every time I watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gskAeWgEExk. The song is based on a true news story of a 15-year old boy named Jeremy who brought a gun into the classroom and shot himself in front of his classmates.

Pink Floyd – The Wall

Another classic that needs little explanation. Dark Side Of The Moon is obviously also a great album, but growing up my dad had The Wall on vinyl and I would listen to it all the time.

Portishead – Portishead

If I were stranded on a deserted island and could only choose 10 albums to listen to for the rest of my life, two or three of them would be Portishead albums. Over the last dozen years or so, no discs have gotten more Mattias-play than Dummy, Portishead and Roseland NYC [Live], all released in the four year span of 1994-1998.

I’m sure I’ve listened to other artists as much or more over the years, but they have all had huge bodies of work (Ani DiFranco, Elvis Costello, Morrissey/The Smiths, U2, Tom Waits…) but until last year, Portishead only had two studio albums and one live album (with no new songs), and I simply never grow tired of them.

Along with Massive Attack, part of the trip-hop movement of the mid-90s, Portishead came on the scene with one hit song (Sour Times) and a revolutionary new sound: Beth Gibbons’ simultaneously despondent and haunting vocals, floating on top of a hypnotic atmosphere of smoky lounge and film noir, accompanied by hip-hop beats, scratching turntables and retro tape loops.

Somehow, I mostly missed this when Dummy came out, but once I got into the follow-up album Portishead I was hooked for life. At the time I assumed that this was a studio-only band and that they would never go on tour: how could you possibly perform this music live without having all of it pre-recorded? Well, you get the string section from the New York Philharmonic orchestra to join you and you go to town, that’s how! The live-disc Roseland NYC is absolutely amazing; with the exception of Radiohead, I’ve never seen anyone do anything like this live. I don’t have words to describe it, you have to experience it for yourself.

Queen – A Kind of Magic

A surprising choice? Perhaps, but when I was 14 I loved the movie Highlander and listened to the soundtrack A Kind of Magic for a long time. I rarely make the conscious choice of playing this album now, but whenever Princes of the Universe comes on I rock my heart out, and when I hear One Year of Love or Who Wants to Live Forever I well up a little inside.

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Blood Sugar Sex Magik

This is just a great album. I enjoy both the earlier and some of the later RHCP albums too, for different reasons, as their style has evolved over the years. But this is the one that best combined the raw power and energy of the early years with the engaging hooks of the later years.

The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead

Not much to add about this classic that hasn’t been said already. Not a single weak track and it has held up incredibly well over the years. If I had to limit this list to my Top 5, this might make the cut. And, it contains one of my favorite songs of all time: There Is A Light That Never Goes Out.

Sting – Nothing Like The Sun

This is the first CD I ever bought. Growing up I had records and tapes, and in 1988 I spent the money I had made at my first summer job on a CD player and this disc.

The The – Dusk

Don’t have much to say about this one, except that it’s a really solid album from beginning to end. Not as pretentious as some of Matt Johnson’s earlier work (which I enjoy in its own right) but still very ambitious.

Tricky – Pre-Millennium Tension

Tricky began his career by rapping on Massive Attack’s Blue Lines but shortly after left for a solo career. I almost picked his debut album Maxinquaye (named after his late mother Maxine Quaye), but ended up choosing Pre-Millennium Tension instead. Why? They are both about equally good, but PMT gets the edge because it has Tricky Kid on it and “everybody wants to be naked and famous”.

I’ve seen Tricky live twice – the second time was at a club on South St in Philly. For the first three songs he sang with his back completely turned against the audience. Strange move, for sure, but it elicited a huge reaction when he finally turned around.

U2 – The Unforgettable Fire

I could go on for a long time about U2. They have been my favorite band for most of my life. I’m still a big fan although I don’t think their material after Achtung Baby has been up to the level of their previous albums. Many people consider The Joshua Tree to be their greatest album, and it surely is phenomenal, but I’m picking The Unforgettable Fire. I think it is just as strong and it was the first U2 album I bought.

Here is my embarrassing U2 fact: I bought The Unforgettable Fire by mistake. I was 11 years old and had just heard the song Dancing With Tears In My Eyes and got Ultravox mixed up with U2. Oops.

Tom Waits – Rain Dogs

If you change the desert island question so that you’re allowed to bring the complete works of one artist I would pick Tom Waits. He’s made 20+ albums over the years and I consider him to be perhaps the greatest lyricist and one of the greatest songwriters of the last 40 years.

He started out in the early 70s as a piano-playing singer-songwriter. In 1983 Waits turned a new leaf with the release of Swordfishtrombones where he began experimenting with different instruments: bassoons, bagpipes, waterphones, etc. The album also contains In The Neighborhood, one of the first Tom Waits songs I ever heard, which has a great video of Waits in top hat and cane, leading a freak show parade of musicians through a neighborhood: http://www.myvideo.de/watch/4236007/Tom_Waits_In_The_Neighborhood_1983

His follow-up Rain Dogs contains elements of New Orleans funeral brass, polka, blues, Kurt Weill, country, and so on, and out of all of these pieces Waits has created a unique experience with several of my all-time favorite songs: from the opening track Singapore to Tango Till They’re Sore to Rain Dogs.

In the 90s Waits got more involved with theater, musical and film projects. He made movies with Jim Jarmusch, Robert Altman, Terry Gilliam and Francis Ford Coppola; he worked with William S. Burroughs to set up the theatrical production Black Rider in Hamburg based on a German folk tale; he collaborated with Primus and Gavin Bryars; he wrote and recorded the music for Alice (a play about Lewis Carroll); and he made a couple of regular albums and won two Grammys.

For the past decade, Waits has continued to work across several genres and has been involved in too many collaborations to mention, most recently on the latest N.A.S.A. album where he contributes vocals on Spacious Thoughts. I was fortunate enough to see Tom Waits perform live for the first time last year (at the Orpheum in Phoenix), and it was a truly incredible experience.