Come Down by The Dandy Warhols

The Dandy Warhols are probably best known for their infuriatingly ubiquitous ear worm of a hit Bohemian Like You, but fortunately this album from 1997 is a different kettle of fish. Much more towards the psychedelic stoner rock end of the spectrum than I was expecting, I enjoyed it rather a lot.

Top marks also for the song Cool as Kim Deal which I can relate too. I’m something of a Johnny come lately Pixies fan since starting listening to this list and it’s nice to hear that the Dandies are too.

Quail, Coat

Quail before the might
Of dread Nyarlathotep!
Er, I’ll get me coat

Catfish, Eggs

Deep in the old creek
Patiently guarding her eggs
Whiskers are twitching

Elvis Presley by Elvis Presley

Elvis has to be the ultimate rock and roll cautionary tale. At heart, he was a simple country boy who just wanted to play music and make a few records, but he quickly fell into the grasp of a greedy manager and an entourage of moochers living off his money. This album opens with a blast of Blue Suede Shoes which certainly got white American teens jiving, but for every rock and roll banger there’s a bunch of maudlin torch songs or plodding country numbers.

A bigger problem is that the version of Tutti Frutti on this album doesn’t have any of the in-your-face energy and attitude of Little Richard’s original. Adding it all up, you are getting less than half an hour of cover songs that are not quite as good as the originals, but they just happened to catch the zeitgeist and open the door for rock and roll to reach the predominantly white mainstream audience.

Blue-suede-shoes-tastic!

Mist, High

I’m pretty sure that
Frank Darabont was high when
He changed King’s ending

Sunday At the Village Vanguard by Bill Evans Trio

A great live jazz album from three musicians at the absolute top of their game. Bill Evans takes the lead on piano, with drummer Paul Motian keeping time and Scott LaFaro laying down a solid bass line on top. Each of them complements the others perfectly and listening to the different versions of the tracks recorded over several sets included here shows how effortlessly they improvised around the basic structures of the composition.

Sadly Scott LaFaro was killed in a car accident just eleven days after this recording, and by all accounts the loss was devastating to Evans who was also struggling with his own personal demons of heroin addiction at the time. This makes listening something of a bitter sweet experience.

Moon , Friend

Cunning Cavorite
Craft carelessly crashes
Captured by moon friends