months ago I tried to find "Julia" on youtube but ended up finding an interesting demo version by Lennon that I quite liked.

bingo!

Why would they be there to be found? Because everybody else's shit is? NOT everybody's — plenty of artists keep their stuff off YouTube, as best as their wishes can be enforced, anyway.

weirdly enough I think you can find the White Album all acoustic demos on youtube still. at one time I preferred those over the originals. but it's not I think copyrighted.

if you want beatles you better buy. unless it's the solo albums. weird again.

Cultural significance. Think of the children.

They're way too busy catching Pokémons, the fuckers.

like you defy what they do you Nazi.

Beatles are not on youtube because the conglomerates that own Michael Jackson's estate still make millions re-releasing the same old tired 1960's bullshit....

AND selling the limited right to a few bars of a Beatles song to the occasional commercial or whatever. Great marketing, that. Sure to grab attention when "Come Together" plays in an iTunes ad or what have you. Deplorable, but smart from a marketing standpoint.

I'm personally not all that bothered by Beatles reissue projects, being a pretty major Beatles fan. I just shelled out some bucks last night for the remastered Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl on vinyl. Yay!

The Bad Plus Joined By Wendy Lewis
For All I Care
2009, Full disclosure: more often than not I dislike vocal jazz. I mean there are exceptions, but not a lot of them. For All I Care is one of those exceptions. I'm not sure if it's because this is a collection of covers of rock and pop songs rather than jazz standards. Or maybe it's because Wendy Lewis really doesn't have some kind of jazzy show-off vocal style? Whatever it is - it works. Opening with Nirvana's "Lithium," should come across as overwrought but the shifting changes in tempo immediately make it clear that we will not be in autopilot mode on this record. Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" and Wilco's "Radio Cure" are soul-crushing here. The Bee Gee's "How Deep Is Your Love" and The Flaming Lips' "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate" are full of hope, while "Barracuda" just plain rocks. Peppered throughout are a few instrumental covers and really the whole thing just hangs together really well. This album serves as an easy entryway to introduce non-jazz fans to modern jazz.



Donald Byrd
Stepping Into Tomorrow
1974, I don't know if this album is super well-known. It's definitely not one that I hear people referencing very often. So if it is a bit of a hidden gem then what a gem it is! Stepping Into Tomorrow is an essential jazz-funk record. Basically this one feels like a hip hop record with no rapping. There are some chorus vocals here and there, and honestly I'd be happier without them, but nothing that totally turns me off. This is straight head nodding music, though and a high point in Byrd's discography, at least in my opinion. The title track (written by Larry Mizell) is a must-hear as far as jazz-funk goes. Surprisingly, the only Byrd original here is the closer, "I Love The Girl." This record is highly recommended.



The Heliocentrics
Out There
2007, The Heliocentrics seemed to come out of nowhere with the release of Out There and pretty much introduced themselves as a band that wasn't going anywhere. They had already found their sound by the time their debut hit. It's that of a sort of future soul-jazz that is equal parts spacey Sun Ra and tight hip hop beats. (Of course this makes total sense when you realize that their first high profile gig was working on DJ Shadow's The Outsider.) Out There is a totally epic way to introduce a band. It is a sprawling playful mess with reverb-drenched guitars dripping all over Malcom Catto's anchored drums. If there's any complaint I could have here it's that sometimes the record can feel a bit too long. While its twenty-four tracks are all relatively short, it still comes across feeling like two records rather than just one. But that's not exactly a dig. There are so many great tracks here such as standouts like "Distant Star" and "Sirius B." Although this may not be quite as envelope-pushing as some of their later albums, Out There is a fantastic debut and certainly a hint of the greatness that The Heliocentrics would begin to flood the market with in coming years.



Madlib
Advanced Jazz
2010, Volume 8 in Madlib's Medicine Show series was effectively a mixtape of some of his favorite jazz. However this isn't a collection of songs - rather moments - all stitched together to create new pastiches from tiny snippets. There's no real tracklisting here and even trying to identify any of the many samples is a game of its own. With track titles being little more than names of jazz masters ("Miles," "Ra," "Herbie" and so on) and the usual Madlib talent of fighting the most bizarre non sequitur pieces of stray dialogue, spoken word poetry and absurd comedic skits this album plays out like some kind of hazy jazzy daydream where legendary musicians from varying eras all just blur together in some kind of fantasy jam session that never was. Drum solos give way to drum solos while beat poetry is recited and a bassline can be played for what feels like eternity. It's easy to call this collection aimless - because truly it is. Just not necessarily in a bad way.

Madlib
Shades Of Blue
2003, This album honestly should have been credited to Yesterdays New Quintet, because really that's what it feels like - a YNQ album of Blue Note covers. But fine. I'm sure the label felt like 'Libs name was more recognizable than his fake-band's was at the time. Anyway this is one of those absolute desert island discs for me. It is one of my constant go-to albums. It is brilliant. It opens with "Distant Land," where Ahmad Miller showcases some new vibes. We get a "Mystic Bounce," which is a recreation of "Mystic Brew," which means that this is the closest we may ever get to YNQ performing A Tribe Called Quest. The take on Donald Byrd's "Stepping Into Tomorrow" is incredible - I hate to say I probably prefer this version - thanks to the amazing vocals on the chorus that were somehow left on the cutting room floor of the original sessions. We get a take on Hutcherson's "Montara" which has long been a favorite of mine - all the way back since The Roots covered it on the New Groove compilation in the mid-90's. And there's more: "Song For My Father," "Footprints," "Dolphin Dance"... honestly every track is worth talking about. This record is totally essential.



Kendrick Scott Oracle
We Are The Drum
2015, I really feel like We Are The Drum was overlooked in 2015. I'm not exactly sure how considering the backing of Blue Note. It's a fantastic record though. It opens with the stunning title track and flows naturally from there. I always say that there needs to be more drummers as leaders - and Scott does a wonderful job of leading. That is, he never gets in the way nor allows showing off his own skills to come at the sacrifice of the song. He clearly respects his music and his band. Lizz Wright stops by to deliver a lovely vocal performance on "This Song In Me." And really there's plenty to recommend here. But the real highlight for me is Scott's take on "Never Catch Me" originally performed by Flying Lotus and Kendrick Lamar. I mean the original song would have been easy to just play the main piano part and riff on from there. It would pretty much be an instantly great jazz track, right? But Scott begins by experimenting on his kit for a while before giving way to those heartbreaking keys and then the band quickly shifts into almost unrecognizable territory while only sporadically bringing the main melody back into the fold. It is utterly gorgeous. And so much of this record is full of prettiness that manages to obscure its more daring tendencies. More ears need to hear this one.

why is everyone named kendrick now?

That's it huh?

I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on all of those albums NR, even though I haven't heard 2 of them (the first and the last). But I don't really have much to say on the topic of Jazz these days. Last time I bought a truly new jazz record was The Epic. When I do listen, it's to really fucking old ass shit.

That will probably change once fall hits and winter starts to creep in. Jazz is good for those seasons. But maybe not. I dunno. I've been impatient and in a general shit mood lately. Anyway, thanks for sharing. Sorry I'm not up to contributing more.

listening to michael gordon's timber because this sounds dope as shit: http://www.tinymixtapes.com/news/fen...gordons-timber

gotta say: this has been the best year for new music since 2011.

I dunno man. I had 50 album best of list in 2013, and a Fucking 100-album list in 2014, though in '14 there was just a lot of really good releases, with few world beating classics. This year I've purchased fewer albums than any other year this decade. But I think I've missed some things too. I'be done a lot of streaming, and then forgetting about the albums I streamed that were so good.

Definitely a damn good year though. There have been a handful of complete mindfuckers this year, like Elseq, and some nice surprises.

I was really shocked by how good the new Wilco is. I was not expecting much from that, but it's a really strong record. A nice delicate folk album with some fuzzy bits. I like it more than The Whole Love, though maybe not as much as Star Wars.

Anyone listen to Ian William Craig's Centres yet? Bit of a sleeper. Hasn't received a ton of buzz, but I'm quite impressed.

new Wilco is really good, yeah. I maybe like it more than Star Wars? Maybe? Nto sure yet. But these last couple surprise records have been really really solid and have sort of renewed my love of the band.

Sometimes they drop an album and it gets me right back into them like I was back when Being There came out. Sometimes they drop albums that for whatever reason I find sort of unlistenable. Sometimes they just drop solid records that lack pretense and just plain sound good.

Wilco (The Album) was one of the ones that temporarily got me super fired up about Wilco again. The Whole Love was one of the ones that I just couldn't really deal with. So morose... if I want to hear twitchy morose jam-band Wilco, I'll listen to A Ghost is Born.

The last two records have both been the last kind of Wilco album. Nothing mind-blowing, really -- nothing revolutionary that signals a new era. Just good old rock and pop albums full of high quality songs. Schmilco is the band just comfortably kicking out fun tunes, just like Star Wars. Only while Star Wars was powered by the band's garage and kraut influences, Schmilco is the other side entirely. More of the tuneful folky stuff. But top notch!

It won't be my favorite album of the year, but it doesn't need to be. It's just a nice record. And yeah, it reminds me of how good they really are, and pretty much always have been.

I'm much more happy with Schmilco than I was with the new Dinosaur jr.

I don't dislike it (Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not, that is) and I like it when the individual songs pop up on shuffle. But I have tried listening to the whole album, and it just feels like a pointless exercise. It's not great when you know going in hat you're not going to be surprised by anything on an album. It's not that it's bad, because it's not, but Jesus, it's like, "Why am I doing this?" Listening to just about any other new release would feel more productive. Like I was at least learning something, however stupid and trivial, just by receiving that new information. Even if it's total shit, it would be a more fruitful endeavor than listening to Dino play long crunchy rock songs and shredding.

I've been listening to J Mascis shred since I was in middle school.

I'm sure I'm being too hard on the album, and I'm sure there will come a time when I happily play it all the way through and enjoy it thoroughly. But right now, there's just SO MUCH music out there, all the time. It's time I could be spending learning about some new artist on SoundCloud, or playing one of the thousands of different mixtapes and self-releases that slip through the cracks.

I only have so much time to listen to music. If I'm not just totally enjoying it, and having my brain stimulated, or at least learning how I feel about something, and having a new experience, what's the point?

Anyway, a million words later, Schmilco works because it makes my brain feel good, even if the information I'm receiving is not entirely new. They're a gifted enough band that they always come up with ways to capture ones attention with subtle studio tricks, or well placed, intricate mood shifts.

Dinosaur jr. seems to be just going through the slow motions. If that's what Sonic Youth had done in their twilight years, they probably would have stopped being my favorite band. I'm way too distractable and ADD for the same tempos, song structures and chord changes to hold my attention over the long haul.

:( I feel guilty for saying all of this. Dinosaur jr. was one of my first loves of indie rock. Actually, I think they *were* my first. So I don't love the fact that their new albums bore me stupid.

Nvanliforp is back on YouTube doing acoustic SY covers after a hiatus of several years:https://youtu.be/OQ739Ckb9WM
He should open for Lee, Thurston, and/or Kim

yeah the new Dino Jr came out and I was like "OMG SO GOOD!" and then a week later I was like "just sounds like Dino Jr... I've heard this all before." Shrug.

the mono version off the 40th anniversary of the first Ramones. one of many things that made my weekend.

must play this loud!!!

severian dude you're literally critiquing dino jr for the exact same reason you're lauding wilco? at least dino are operating in the very comfortable confines of a style they personally created and one that they are very much nailing the sound of still now, albeit with more developed song structures and a balance of voices. on the other hand, wilco are tepid coffee-shop wank who somehow sustained a career on the basis of overhyped critical response to a record the better part of two decades ago where they pulled the trick of appropriating vaguely interesting styles, neutering them of their vitality and lifelessly injecting them into their own utterly fucking dull work so as to give the impression of inventiveness (the radiohead technique).

I don't get how you can listen to such banal rap and then demand some sort of artistic integrity from rock? it's a bit rich...

Wilco blow dicks and spit dribble spunk. im pretty sure I've never heard their albums along with the arcade fire. no reason why I mention both. I just remember that Wilco vid where they jumped out of a plane and me hoping their chute malfunctioned and they all slammed to their death head first.

Sev is anti art pro pitchfork high art, hip hop anti hipster pro pop new-hipster art high art, hipster fart art. put louder, rob and every one else in the same category non category drone mainstream high-low art category. these people are fake futurist with a non linear futuristic scope to rely on. popist. brainwashed by 21st century media and culture. gave up and gave in individuals. ignore them with every chance you get.

never liked Wilco

It's really not the same thing.
Dino is just doing the exact same then over and over. That doesn't mean it's bad, but it doesn't do a lot for me. There are no surprises to be found.

Wilco has only made 3 truly great albums in my opinion, but they've made a bunch of different kinds of pretty good to good albums. They've done the alt country thing, the big messy opus, the Beach Boys thing, the Can thing, the Neil Young & Crazy Horse thing, the Dino thing, the R.E.M. thing, and bits and pieces of Sonic Youth are scattered throughout. They're not on the same kind of treadmill that Dino is. Wilco may be done doing really interesting things musically, but they're still not phoning it in, or remaking old albums.

I'm not saying Schmilco is genius. In fact, I'm really saying the opposite. It's super basic and low-stakes. But despite that, it still hits the ear nicely, and I find myself thinking about the music and enjoying the album, and want to keep listening. The new Dino is a completely different kind of old guy music. It's just the same exact thing I've heard so many times. Sounds monochromatic and a bit sad.

I have nothing against Dino, and I don't consider myself a big Wilco fan (saw them live a few times and they bored the crap out of me). I'm fact historically I'm much more of a Dino fan than a Wilco fan. But I feel like Dino is one of the most limited bands out there, and I also think they're kind of stuck in a cycle of trying to recapture their classic sound... which they've already done. Their new album is just fine, but you can't really go "back to basics" when you never left basics. There's something a bit desperate about their whole post-reunion schtick that I just don't like. "Hey doesn't this sound super late '80s?" Yes. Why do you think that's what anyone wants?

Hey, let's pretend this makes sense and works as an insult for a sec.
Why are you insulting me? And louder and rob? At least I think you were insulting Louder and Rob and lumping us all together. It's hard to say. But why are you in dick mode?

because he likes Blur and Oasis and is trying to hide the fact that his fave music is tepid AOR friendly adult-contempo for the middle aged soccer-mom set.

so wilco doing low-stakes in a style which they didn't invent is completely fine, but dino jr should be castigated for establishing a sound with enough depth to be plied for 30 years? do you not see how ridiculous that is? at least dino jr had the gall to create a new paradigm for themselves, they didn't strive to interpret antiquated genres for credibility the better part of half a century after the fact as wilco did. all those things you're referencing for wilco, a "messy opus" etc., do you really not understand that these are journalistic narratives concocted in tandem with PR teams to sell otherwise diluted, redundant content?

at least mascis, barlow & murph aren't so egotistically frail as to try to cling to any shreds of credibility by making records that fit into these narratives, these guys have a sound when they play together and they simply milk it for all that's worth. it's comfortable music but not through a lack of inability, more so this is what these guys are good at and so they're doing it.

it's the same conversation I was having with you re: the dead c, who by the way have been making the EXACT SAME RECORD for 30 years and merely capturing it with minor deviations on record yet you laud them (because it's "noise" I'm guessing and you're compartmentalising because you don't get it and project these ridiculous, unfounded value systems onto different styles of music instead of seeing them as organised sound which they are) and I mean if you have to have this sort of thing explained to you I'm not really sure why you bother listening to music in the first place?

What a queer response to my saying that while I love Dinosaur jr., their new album doesn't do much for me. More than queer. Absurd and silly. If you want to talk about music we can talk about music. If you want to, like, fight about music, I'm not your guy.


I'm not castigating Dino, or praising Wilco. As I said, I'm a bigger fan of the former. I just happen to be more inclined to listen to the new Wilco than the new Dino. This has nothing to do with me not understanding things or needing things explained to me. It seems to have more to do with some beef you have. It would be a massive waste of time to engage with you further on this.

Dinosaur was awesome 2 weeks ago in concert. Their new tracks fit right in and are much more abrasive and DINOSAUR live than on record. I am a HUGE Dino fan but I do not spin any of the last 4 records on the reg. They are laying ion wait until I become an old dried up feeb inside, which is also when I will listen to Trees...Academy, Chelse Moving Light, and all of Lee's new stuff....


ha!

the new album by Preoccupations (ex-Women, ex-Viet Cong)
It's very good.

I've been gnawing on this one too. How do you think it compares to the Viet Cong s/t?

Yeah, they still kill live. There's no question that they are an extremely vital band on stage. I'm sure the new songs fit right in with the older stuff. No Dino hate here or anywhere. But I just don't feel a burning desire to listen to these albums. It's not that I don't appreciate them, but I'm usually not in a big guitar rock headspace anyway. When I am, I prefer to throw on something that's been done to death a little less. I still bought the album though, just as I've done with every other Dino album. Its time will come.

Dude, come ON, just STOP FEEDING THE MOTHERFUCKING TROLL.

Hah.
Peppper's weird though. Sometimes he actually participates in discusssions and good times are had by all, then he'll start talking shit about those very discussions.

yr a funny guy. guy. im more of a Incubus, 311 fellow. but whatever.

all I'm saying is that I just think you need to look way more critically at the way you engage with pretty much all music as it's pretty ridiculous the way you make everything conform to really narrow ideas and only apply these ideas discriminately, that's it.