Listening Log: June (the When and the Why, and sometimes the Where)

Why, specifically, do I listen? ....

I attended Animal Collective's performance at the State Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Florida, June 8; in the weeks beforehand, I listen to their music. Of course, I seek to enhance the eventual experience. Knowing the recorded versions better, I'll better recognize the differences in the live versions.

Michael Jackson's death, like my getting to know early Genesis earlier this year, brings to mind the music I was exposed to as a kid: in this case, Thriller. Yes, and I'm even thinking of downloading the awful Bad. Illness certainly comes to mind, but not addiction. Instead, tuberculosis. Young wanna-be "King of Pop," wherever you are (The Mickey Mouse Club? Getting molested in a trailer park?) is this what you want to do? INFECT children at a young age, as they innocently watch television, wanting something fun to do?

Working on an essay about Punk/post-Punk brings out Wire's 154; I'd finally bought the reissue from their own Pink Flag label. And then Colin Newman's A-Z, previously neglected. Nice!

And Buzzcocks... and thus Pete Shelley's Homosapien.

The neverending plentitude of "sharity" blogs brings the simple pleasures of The Desperate Bicycles, a band indispensable to any appreciation of the Punk years in Britain.

Other reasons include: giving Dan Deacon's new album a chance following his fine performance a few months back in Athens at the Secret Squirrel, but finding it lacking - it's like Animal Collective, yes... and Olive Garden serves Italian food;

Nico's Desertshore calms me;

some selections are meant to intrigue or amuse a lover, some to annoy her;

I'd wanted to hear Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's version of Nirvana's Nevermind for years, and finally got around to it;

I'd assumed someone out there in neverWebland must've made a good stereo version of Zaireeka, easily the best Flaming Lips album as far as I'm concerned, had not gotten around to looking for it, only to come across it randomly - a happy occasion indeed!;

Circulatory System's new album Signal Morning makes me happy for a dear old friend;

another friend makes me a copy of Spoils of War; I'd not heard of them. Just a few months ago, I'd also heard Touch's eponymous L P for the first time. Both are late-1960's classics in the same vein as The White Noise's An Electric Storm or The United States of America.

With The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms and Bill Dixon's Papyrus, I arrive at a heightened state of appreciation not reached before with those artists.

Finally... Excepter and Throbbing Gristle while driving: "good times, great oldies," as a now-defunct radio station in Atlanta used to say.

6/1:
Dan Deacon - Bromst;
Animal Collective - Feels;
Polwechsel and Fennesz - Wrapped Islands;
Frank Pahl - Songs of War and Peace;
Neu!;
The Monks - Black Monk Time;
Pavement - Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition (disc 2).

6/2:
Avey Tare and Kría Brekkan - Pullhair Rubeye;
Nico - Desertshore;
Nico - The End;
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Stimmung;
The American Analog Set - The Golden Band;
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam;
The Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall;
The Los Angeles Free Music Society - The Lowest Form of Music (discs 3 and 10).

6/3:
John Cage/Stephen Drury - In a Landscape;
Olivia Tremor Control - Explanation II: Dream Sequences and Themes;
Circulatory System - Signal Morning;
Throbbing Gristle Bring You 20 Jazz Funk Greats.

6/4:
Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza - Azioni (disc 2);
Wilco (The Album);
Fleetwood Mac - Tusk;
The Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall;
Robert Wyatt - Solar Flares Burn for You (tracks 1-4).

6/5:
Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley - Soho Suites (disc 2);
Gastr del Sol - Upgrade and Afterlife;
Thuja - We Walk the Young Earth;
Excepter - STREAMS 01 (disc 2);
The Kyoto Imperial Court Music Orchestra - Gagaku: The Imperial Court Music of Japan;
Supersilent - 6.

6/6:
Grouper - Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill;
Cecil Taylor - Student Studies;
Meet the Residents;
Sun City Girls - Carnival Folklore Resurrection Radio One;
Sun City Girls - Static From the Outside Set;
Ramon Sender - Worldfood (track 1);
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion.

6/7:
Roscoe Mitchell - Duets With Anthony Braxton;
Anthony Braxton - New York, Fall 1974;
Trevor Watts, Derek Bailey, and John Stevens - Dynamics of the Impromptu;
The Fall - Perverted by Language (+ "The Man Whose Head Expanded," "Ludd Gang," "Kicker Conspiracy," "Wings," "Pilsner Trail");
Sync or Swarm: Improvising Music in a Complex Age (track 1).

6/8:
The Flaming Lips - Zaireeka [stereo-mix bootleg];
Animal Collective - Water Curses;
Animal Collective - Sung Tongs.

6/9:
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Etude, Studie I, Studie II, Gesang der Jünglinge, Kontakte;
Sync or Swarm: Improvising Music in a Complex Age (tracks 2-7).

6/10:
Nirvana - Nevermind;
Bill Dixon and Tony Oxley - Papyrus (disc 1);
Grouper - Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill.

6/11:
Smegma - Pigs for Lepers;
Nirvana - Nevermind;
Cluster 71;
The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms;
D O A: The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle.

6/12:
Malcolm Goldstein - Sounding the New Violin;
The Fall - Extricate;
Brian Eno - Thursday Afternoon;
Brian Eno - Neroli;
Ché-SHIZU - I Can't Promise;
De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising;
Henry Flynt - Hillbilly Tape Music.

6/13:
Duke Ellington - The Blanton-Webster Band (disc 1);
Bill Dixon and Tony Oxley - Papyrus (disc 2).

6/14:
William S Burroughs - Real English Tea Made Here (discs 1 and 2);
Acousmatrix: History of Electronic Music VII: Berio - Maderna;
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam.

6/15:
Cecil Taylor - Nefertiti, the Beautiful One Has Come (disc 1);
Derek Bailey - Solo Guitar;
Autechre - L P 5;
Spoils of War;
Pere Ubu - The Art of Walking;
Pere Ubu - Song of the Bailing Man;
John Fahey - Red Cross, Disciple of Christ Today;
Miles Davis - Filles de Kilimanjaro.

6/16:
Caetano Veloso [1971];
The Desperate Bicycles - New Cross, New Cross + "Smokescreen," "Handlebars," "The Medium Was Tedium," "Don't Back the Front," "Occupied Territory," "Skill," "Grief Is Very Private," "Obstructive," "Conundrum";
Pink Floyd - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn + "Arnold Layne," "Candy and a Currant Bun," "See Emily Play," "Apples and Oranges," and "Paintbox";
The Raincoats - Odyshape;
Unrest - Imperial f f r r;
Charalambides - Likeness;
The American Analog Set - The Golden Band.

6/17:
Eugene Chadbroune and Sun City Girls - Country Music in the World of Islam (tracks 1-6);
Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady;
Nico - The Marble Index.

6/18:
Genesis - Selling England by the Pound (tracks 1-4);
Throbbing Gristle Bring You 20 Jazz Funk Greats;
Anthony Braxton and George Lewis - Elements of Surprise;
The Desperate Bicycles - New Cross, New Cross + "Smokescreen," "Handlebars," "The Medium Was Tedium," "Don't Back the Front," "Occupied Territory," "Skill," "Grief Is Very Private," "Obstructive," "Conundrum."

6/19:
Pink Military - Do Animals Believe in God?;
Eugene Chadbourne and Sun City Girls - Country Music in the World of Islam (tracks 7-12);
Pete Shelley - Homosapien;
Roscoe Mitchell - Hey Donald;
Talking Heads - Remain in Light;
Excepter - Self Destruction;
Excepter - Sunbomber;
The No-Neck Blues Band - Letters From the Serth.

6/20:
Milford Graves and Andrew Cyrille - Dialogue of the Drums;
Pete Shelley - Homosapien;
Circulatory System - Signal Morning;
Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady (tracks 1-12);
Cabaret Voltaire - Methodology '74/'78. Attic Tapes; (disc 1);
Cat Power - Moon Pix;
The Fall - Perverted by Language + "The Man Whose Head Expanded," "Ludd Gang," "Kicker Conspiracy," "Wings," and "Pilsner Trail."

6/21:
Wire - 154;
Eugene Chadbourne and Sun City Girls - Country Music in the World of Islam;
Only a Mother - Riding a White Alligator;
Evan Parker and Lawrence Casserley - Solar Wind;
Phil Collins - No Jacket Required;
Keiji Haino - The 21st Century Hard-y Guide-y Man: Koitsukara Usetaitameno Hakarigoto

6/22:
Wire - 154;
The Second Annual Report of Throbbing Gristle;
Pete Shelley - Homosapien.

6/23:
Soft Cell - Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret.

6/24:
Soft Cell - Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret;
Pete Shelley - Homosapien;
The Fiery Furnaces - Widow City;
Liars - They Were Wrong, So We Drowned;
Lou Reed - Transformer;
Phil Collins - Hello, I Must Be Going;
Derek and The Dominos - Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (tracks 1-7).

6/24:
Wilco - A Ghost Is Born (tracks 1-6);
The Fiery Furnaces - Widow City.

6/26:
R E M - Murmur (tracks 1-6);
Buzzcocks - Another Music in a Different Kitchen;
Alan Spelt and David Lynch - Eraserhead;
Colin Newman - A-Z;
The Fall - Totale's Turns (It's Now or Never).

6/27:
Grouper - Cover the Windows and the Walls;
Soft Cell - Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret;
Sparks - Kimono My House;
The American Analog Set - From Our Living Room to Yours.

6/28:
Alvarius B [1998];
The Fiery Furnaces - Widow City;
Excepter - Debt Dept. (tracks 1-4);
Alan and Richard Bishop, New York Knitting Factory, 22 June 2008 [bootleg].

6/29:
Sparks - Kimono My House;
Blur - The Great Escape (minus "Charmless Man," "Top Man," "Mr. Robinson's Quango," "Globe Alone," "Dan Abnormal");
Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping;
Charlemagne Palestine - Four Manifestations on Six Elements;
Colin Newman - A-Z.

6/30:
Michael Jackson - Thriller;
Art and Language and The Red Crayola - Corrected Slogans;
Nico - The Marble Index;
John Cage/Malestrom Percussion Ensemble/Peter Pfister - Imaginary Landscapes;
Robert Wyatt - Live at Royal Drury Lane 8th September 1974.