The Kinks Lola versus Powerman and The Moneygoround, Part 1, 1970

The Kinks continued their string of top-notch work with Lola....

The riff-rock of The Contenders kicks things off in style, followed by Dave's sweet melancholia Strangers. Only the Kinks can make rock music as English as Denmark Street (tip of the hat to the publishers) and Get Back In Line, a lament of the stark choice between union card and dole. Then Lola rolls around, and although it's a tired old warhorse now, it still is a great guitar riff, and Dave's harmonies are spot on. And it's just the classic transvestite story, told with Ray Davies' perfect mix of bewilderment and sympathy. Top Of The Pops tells the tale of the first big hit, and does it with a perfectly derived You Really Got Me riff and more of recently-added keyboardist John Goslings' great organ fills. Side one ends with the music hall stylings of The Moneygoround, in which everyone gets their proverbial slice of the pie.

Side two falls off just a bit, but still has some juicy bits. This Time Tomorrow's great building rhythm and tale of the road are classic rock, and the sweet ballad A Long Way Home is a gentle reminder that we all have much to learn. Ape Man became the second hit, and it's a fun need-to-escape rocker with driving piano and guitar. Rats is a bit overstated by Dave, and Powerman and Got To Be Free are just not up to the quality of the rest of the record, but that's only three weak ones.

It's their I-hate-the-record-business record, and that's not usually the best news. The whining of rock stars gets old real fast. But Ray comes through with a bunch of great songs, and the recording gives them the fattest sound they've had on record yet. Mick Avory is a great drummer, and Gosling's organ and piano make sure you won't miss that other guy (Nicky Hopkins) too much.

At the time of its release, it was their best selling record (in the US) since their first, a big commercial comeback.  Retrospectively, coming between Arthur and Muswell Hillbillies makes it hard to be seen in a fair light. It is almost as good as those two. And that's a big deal.

The other Kinks album reviews:
Face To Face
Something Else By The Kinks
The Village Green Preservation Society
Arthur

The Cleveland Orchestra, Herbert Blomstedt conductor, Nielsen Symphony 3, Beethoven Symphony 7, February 16, 2013

Saturday night in Cleveland rocked! The theme of the evening was rhythm, and it was clearly and precisely enunciated. Herbert Blomstedt was all smiles as he lead Cleveland in these two classic pieces, written 100 years apart, and yet brimming with similar rhythmic excitement. And for an orchestra and conductor to pair such dynamic pieces together was sheer brilliance.

I wasn't familiar with Nielsen's work, but that is about to change. The hard-charging Symphony #3 "Sinfonia Espansiva" was expansive indeed, on several levels, and Blomstedt's joy in pushing the work forward at all times was very much contagious.

Beethoven's 7th is another fast-paced cooker, and again Blomstedt never let up. The slow passages were brief and added needed relief from the powerful force of the piece.

The crowd went wild. The 85-year-old Swede led the orchestra with verve and drive, and the normally refined orchestra responded with a performance of, at least for them, near abandon. It was a special night at Severance Hall indeed.

Tubes vs. Solid State

I've been a tube amplification convert for at least a decade.

That's when I bought a nice tube amplifier and preamp, an Anthem Amp 1 and Pre 2L. Tubes sounded warm and rich, easy to listen to in a way I had never experienced with solid state. To be fair, I never really owned particularly high quality solid state equipment. I replaced the 35-watt EL34 Anthem Amp 1 a few years ago with an 8-watt single-end triode (SET) 300B amp from Granite Audio that I love even more than the Anthem.

 I'm like Mr. Tube Guy.

Bryston 4B 250 watt amplifier

A few weeks ago my friend brings over his early-vintage (late eighties?) Bryston 4B, a 250-watt per channel solid state amplifier, and we hook it up. This sucker grabs on to the bass from my speakers and won't let go. Tuneful, articulate bass that lets you really distinguish every note. This is a big deal in comparison to anything these speakers have ever been handled by.

And of course, the bass from the 8-watt SET amp is not so well defined. It's there, and it's not bad, but the actual notes are a little wishy-washy. On the flip side, the Bryston cannot open up the midrange and highs with the delicate detail and finesse of the SET amp, especially at lower volume levels. Up loud, the solid state amp rocks effortlessly, and has more dynamic headroom than the tube amp.

I had become a true convert of the sound of tubes done right. And now I am equally enthralled, albeit for different reasons, with a big solid state amp.

So now it's time to put the tube amp back in and see what things sound like after living with this high power solid state amp for a month...

 Granite Audio Aspen 800 8 watt amplifier

I wrote that a few days ago, and then reinstalled my tube amp. To make a long story, er, less long, the solid state amp is going back to its owner. The midrange and treble of the tube amp have a certain magical, expansive, expressive quality that the high-power amp just couldn't match. Call it bloom, a spatial "size" of the auditory image, openness. The bass control of a muscular solid state amp was impressive, and the overall sound of the Bryston was much better than I expected by quite a bit. I liked it, and I could live with it.

So I'm less of a tube nut than before. I can see both sides of the coin, and I can understand that most people don't want to be bothered with a stereo that requires some significant measure of regular maintenance, and maintenance costs, that naturally accompanies tubes.

And my friend whose 250-watt amp had been replaced in his system with even more watts several years ago? He's building a tube amp kit in his basement right now.

More on the equipment here.

Buffalo Springfield

Two years. Three records. Remarkable stuff, especially within the context of its times. And it holds up quite well. Folk-rock-country-Americana-soul-psych.

So how to enjoy it? If you've got a turntable and can collect the three original LPs, who'd blame you? You could download them, too, if you want. There's also the 1969 Retrospective single LP that's a joy, and available in all the usual formats. The four-CD box is just overkill.

But the 1973 double-LP Buffalo Springfield, which takes the original three records down to two, is just about the right amount of editing. Never available in CD or any other digital format. I suppose you could look up the track listing and then build it yourself, but that's a drag.

This was a great band. Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Richie Furay and Jim Messsina would go on to produce tons of great music after this. This was before all that, and just as good. 

M. Ward A Wasteland Companion 2012

I bought this record a while back and I've thought about writing it up for a while. I have a couple of other M. Ward records, and I enjoy them when I listen to them. But here's the thing: I never know what to think of them, and although I enjoy them, I can never really recall why. One or two songs stick out as memorable, but I'm never sure which ones those were. The entire experience is enjoyable and yet I'm left with almost no impression. I sat down to take notes and figure this one out.

Let's go straight to the overall impression. This is a fine record filled with well-crafted songs and skilled performances. For my taste, there's not enough rocking and too much mellow folk-styled songs. But... the slower songs are really very good. So as long as you know that it's going to be laid back (especially side two), no problem. In fact, you might find this record particularly good late night fare.

Clean Slate is a soft acoustic ballad featuring Ward's high register, and it's a fine start. Primitive Girl is a nice light piano-driven rocker with a funky, echo-y vocal effect. Zoey Descantel, Ward's partner in She and Him, joins in on Me And My Shadow, a folksy song that recalls some of Josh Ritter's recent work, and Sweetheart, a perfect folk-rock with a sweet melody and matching lyric. The shuffling rock of I Get Ideas and the gentle acoustic of The First Time I Ran Away end side one nicely.

Side two opens with the title track, and it is another quality acoustic ditty. The psychopath of Watch The Show is fun to meet, and the guitar-heavy rocker has a quick tempo that's welcome. There's A Key is simple, sweet and lovely, as is Crawl After You. Wild Goose is mostly instrumental, and excellent. And Pure Joy is just that- a beautiful love song. That's only one of the last five songs with a tempo.

M. Ward's strength as a producer makes a big difference. The arrangements are simple but very well chosen. Piano here, string section there, small rock combo, solo acoustic, whatever the song seems to need. His plaintive vocals make the quieter songs carry more weight. 

Sometimes you don't realize how good something is until you pay some attention.

Bob Dylan Tempest 2012

You might not have noticed, but Bob Dylan's been on a bit of a roll the last ten years.

Dylan's work in the 60s and 70s was mostly laudable with only a few ill-chosen missteps (Self Portrait and 1973's Dylan come to mind), and many outright classics. Too many to name. A remarkable consistency overall.

Then throughout the 80s and early 90s he managed to follow one weak record with another. Of course there are some gems (songs, not whole albums) in the mix, but not enough.

Then in 1997 he released Time Out Of Mind to rave reviews as his return to great work. I'm less enthusiastic about that one, mostly due to Daniel Lanois' production, but Dylan was clearly getting his groove back.

In 2001 and he self-produced Love and Theft. This time there's no hesitation on anyone's part, Dylan is firing on all cylinders. And Modern Times in 2006 is equal to its predecessor. Full of blues, rock, country, and old-fashioned vaudevillian story songs, both are really very fine work, equal to his best. If you have any interest in Dylan, they are both must-hear.

Together Through Life 2009 didn't quite sustain the same high water mark, but it had its moments.

And now there is Tempest. This one's not quite Love and Theft or Modern Times either, but it's a good record, and it shows another side of Dylan. It's mostly a dark side. Duquesne Whistle kicks it off, a fast bluesy shuffle. Narrow Way and Early Roman Kings rock basic blues a la Highway 61, and Pay In Blood is a classic mid-tempo Dylan song structure with interesting changes. Dylan explores aging in the country-folk ballad Soon After Midnight and the hypnotic riff of Long And Wasted Years. Tempest is a fourteen-minute rolling rhythm that recalls 1978's Changing Of The Guards while telling the story of the Titanic on its way down.

Tempest can be challenging. Scarlet Town and Tin Angel are 7- and 9-minute dirges that a talented band tries, and almost succeeds, to keep interesting. Tin Angel has a lyrical darkness of biblical proportions. The closer Roll On John is a slow ballad that has a nice chorus and little else. Hey, 7 out of 10 is pretty darn good.

These last four records since 2001 have been recorded by his touring band, with Dylan producing. There's been personnel changes, but they are always tight, and the band includes some serious talent. Dylan's voice is little more than a rasp these days, but he can still write a lyric, and he's still got something to say.

Erin McKeown Beachland Tavern, January 24, 2013

I saw Erin McKeown last night at the Beachland. The 12-degree weather kept a few folks home, but fifty or so hearty souls made it, and the show was a delight.

McKeown was promoting her stellar new record, Manifestra, which had been released nine days earlier, and she did quite a bit of it. The record explores politics, both national and personal, and Baghdad To The Bayou (which she wrote with Rachel Maddow), Histories, Proof, The Politician ("If nobody knows, Tell me what's the crime?"), Manifestra and The Jailer were consistently good. This new one might just be her best yet.

She did plenty of older material as well, going all the way back to Distillation 2000 for Queen Of Quiet. Slung-lo and Lucky Day from Grand 2003, Aspera and We Are More from We Will Become Like Birds 2005, and Santa Cruz, You, Sailor, and The Lions from 2009's Hundreds Of Lions, all done with cool arrangements and a super tight band.

Everything was great. Her voice was perfect, her minimalist band (Marc Dileo on drums and Matt Douglas on alto and baritone sax and keys, and her own guitar and keys) made unusually full arrangements out of everything. The baritone sax filled in so that you never missed a bass player. The mix was great, the PA wasn't too loud, and most of the crowd shut up and listened. A fine songwriter, singer, and guitarist gave her all, and gave a highly entertaining performance. 

Go see her if she's coming your way- her upcoming shows in Scotland, the UK, the US midwest and west coast are listed here. You can listen to lots of her music at that same link. And you can buy Manifestra, there, too, available in CD, vinyl and download formats. It's wonderful, trust me (go listen).

I suppose there's plenty of fine artists that should be bigger stars than they are. Erin McKeown is a perfect example.