Led Zeppelin In Through The Out Door
Peter Green End of the Game
Gown For the Maples CD
Gown Preserved & Shared CD
Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
Tony Allen "Ole" (Moritz Von Oswald remix) mp3
Kyuss Sky Valley
Keith Jarrett Koln Concert
Muddy Waters various songs
LOST season 4 episode 2 "Confirmed Dead"
Dettinger Oasis

Leadoff song "In the Evening" came up on the shuffle while walking to the train so I decided to just let the whole album play. Zep always played hybrid music but this album is just strange, recorded in December 1978, combining clashing elements like 1950s-style rockabilly goofing, a seasoned and subtle awareness of punk and new wave, John Paul Jones's elegant keyboard schmaltz, Robert Plant's angst over losing his young son to a respiratory illness a year before, some of Jimmy Page's grossest lead guitar playing ever, and quite a bit more - how else can you explain epic hybrids like "Fool in the Rain" and "Carouselambra"? The Peter Green album came on next so I let that roll too and MAN, like I've said before, what a monster rhythm section performance by Alex Dmochowski on bass and Godfrey McLean on drums. This album makes me think of punk too, because despite this rhythm section going off, Green just kind of hangs out over the top, intermittently spitting out these weird guitar leads, which reminded me of a review someone wrote that called this album "surly and indifferent" or something like that, and hey, that's punk! In 1970! I mean it's no Stooges or MC5 but still... (Actually it was allmusic.com and they called it "bitter and rambling"...eh, close enough.) Okay, now listening to the CD version of this new LP by Gown called For The Maples (it's one of those vinyl releases that comes with a free CD version as well, on the Three Lobed label). The backing band on here is Sunburned (I think they call themselves that now instead of Sunburned Hand of the Man), and I thought this album might follow End of the Game nicely, what with Sunburned's 'dark funk' past and Gown's shredding guitar capabilities. Not really, though - the style is more 'windswept dirge' than 'avant blues', and the first track has vocals that sound somewhere in between Alan Sparhawk and Matt Valentine. The rest of the album is instrumental, all of it moody heavy/washy psych not unlike the most recent Trad Gras och Stenar stuff or a rambling Bardo Pond style. It's good, I'll give it some more listens. Three Lobed has also released this solo Gown album called Preserved & Shared, currently available as a bonus for preordering For the Maples. It's a solo guitar album, maybe no overdubs, not sure, quite a bit noisier, pretty heavy but I don't remember much beyond that..... I'm officially done paying any attention to new Flaming Lips happenings but I love a good 4 or 5 of their albums and this Yoshimi album really is so good, their last great one... Thanks to a reader tip I checked out this Tony Allen track remixed by Moritz Von Oswald - he's one-half of the greatest band of all time, Rhythm & Sound, and Tony Allen you might know from the second greatest band of all time, Fela Kuti's Africa 70. So odds are pretty good, and once you get through the 'world music' sheen and the bassline and groove get a chance to sink in, oh yeah, it's more Basic Channel bliss.... the Kyuss album has a couple great extended instrumental workouts - I might start listening to this band again, I haven't for over 10 years.... it's been that long for the Koln Concert too. I had this on vinyl way back when and I thought it was kinda great, but years later, as bright and brittle mp3s, it's sounding a little corny and schmaltzy and far too ornate for where my head is at... whoah, now coworker is playing some Muddy Waters and jesus this is some punk music. Who's the lead/slide guitarist? Is that Muddy himself? Talk about a machine that kills fascists, this guitar is just brutal and tearing right out of these songs and jabbing you in the eye, ears, heart, mind, ego, essence, soul.... good LOST episode (purchased for $1.99 and watched on iTunes a whole week after airing, I never get to see it live because the kids are still up at 8PM and they don't get to watch violent TV shows), I'm liking these new characters, the producers/writers are confidently throwing a lot on the table for Season 4 and I'm looking forward to watching it play out.... So yeah, in my neverending quest to hear more music that sounds like Basic Channel, I usually end up listening to, well, something on Basic Channel. I certainly don't listen to Echologist, but here's something non-BC that fits the bill much better, Oasis by Dettinger. As minimal as say Pole and Pan Sonic or whatever, but I hardly ever listen to them either because, I don't know, it's just not quite house enough. I've gotta have at least some string patches and soul smears in there, the more subtle the better, and Dettinger obliges just about right...