Album Review: Shannon and the Clams- Year of the Spider

The Black Keys never did much for me.  I’ll turn on television sports programming if I want to hear beer commercial jingles.  The music made by Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney often sounds like the calculated product of a boardroom committee rather than the earthy brilliance of the artists who inspired the duo.

Nonetheless, Auerbach played an integral role in some of the fun I’ve had in recent weeks.  He produced Yola’s glorious July 30 release Stand for Myself, a throwback roots album that’s intensified my late-night revelries.  Thanks to Auerbach’s steadying influence, Shannon and the Clams’ Year of the Spider may be even better.  The producer balances the band’s proclivity for sloppy mayhem with the professionalism characteristic of the Black Keys.

Shannon and the Clams outdo the Black Keys by occasionally improving on the classic sounds of their primary influences.  Hearing the Black Keys makes me long for the likes of R.L. Burnside and Creedence Clearwater Revival.  Year of the Spider songs including the title track and "All of My Cryin'" rival the timeless glory of Del Shannon, the Shangri-Las and Little Eva.

Auerbach is on a roll. Based on the Velveteers’ stellar advance single "Motel #27" from the forthcoming album Nightmare Daydream, Auerbach’s hot streak doesn’t seem as if it will stop anytime soon. And should songs by Yola, Shannon and the Clams or the Velveteers wind up in beer commercials, I may require an intervention.

Joan of Aria

August 9 came and went without the compulsion to make an outlandish investment in opera tickets.  The date individual tickets for the 2021-22 season of the Metropolitan Opera went on sale had long been circled on my calendar.  I’d hoped to wheel a trip to New York City around Lise Davidsen’s appearance as Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.  It’s not a great role, nor is it my favorite Wagner opera, but Davidsen was my lodestar during my quarantine-era immersion in opera.

A bit of good news temporarily prevents me from making definitive plans in 2022.  Instead of pouting about the likelihood of missing Davidsen, I’ve taken consolation in the work of one of her most famous antecedents.  Since making the boxed set my default soundtrack in recent weeks, all but three or four of the twenty hours of Joan Sutherland’s Complete Decca Studio Recitals have enlivened and uplifted me.

After coming to my attention through a handful of vintage operas I streamed last year, Sutherland came to mind as I read Willa Cather’s The Song of the Lark.  Thea Kronberg, the heroine of Cather’s novel, is an unlikely opera star.  Sutherland’s ascent was similarly implausible.

Dissociated from the stage, the Australian’s renderings of arias are entirely ingratiating in spite of her staggering vocal athleticism.  The extensive documentation of Sutherland’s welcoming approach nullifies opera’s unfortunate reputation as a difficult discipline meant to be appreciated only by ostentatious aesthetes and prosperous patrons of so-called high culture.

Album Review: Abstract Mindstate- Dreams Still Inspire

The soul-soaked Chicago sound that captivated me at the opening of the millennium is still my favorite form of hip-hop. Abstract Mindstate’s 2005 release Chicago’s Hardest Working Mixtape Vol. 2: Project Soul a lesser-known companion piece to Kanye West’s game-changing 2004 debut College Dropout and Common’s 2005 hit Be. Lovingly produced by West, Dreams Still Inspire, the reunion of the duo of EP Da Hellcat and Olskool Ice-Gre, is a spot-on recreation of Project Soul. Olskool accurately raps: “We protected thе vibe, it's still intact. That Yeezy sound, it’s like a welcome mat.” I’m home.

Album Review: Bleachers- Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night

As an avid Bruce Springsteen fan forty years ago, I dutifully acquired every project affiliated with the star. Springsteen’s imprimatur compelled me to buy albums by the likes of Gary “U.S.” Bonds, Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers and Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes. Some were good; many were forgettable. Springsteen’s winning appearance on Bleachers’ Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night helps makes the new album superior to those bygone projects. Even though I’ve long been skeptical about the output of Bleachers mastermind Jack Antonoff, I’m finally won over by the unabashedly bombastic effort. Not only does the album rekindle the overwrought emotions behind the decisions I made as an incipient adult, it seems to momentarily resurrect a few of my departed friends. Springsteen insisted “I don’t want to be just another useless memory” on The River, an obvious touchstone for Antonoff’s unexpected stroke of genius. Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night is a spellbinding conduit for curative recollections.

Book Review: Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music by Alex Ross

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

An amusing reference to Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung is made in the 2021 zombie saga Army of the Dead.  I watched the irredeemably trashy flick because I’m an uncultured rube.  Or at least I was prior to the pandemic. As sporadically documented at this site, I dedicated much of the quarantine to an immersion in opera.  My nascent fascination with Wagner led me to Alex Ross’ deliriously dense Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music. Ross documents and analyzes Richard Wagner’s immense influence on music, cinema, visual art, literature, philosophy, politics and other aspects of contemporary society.

I treated Wagnerism as a textbook.  Although I have a firm grasp of history and read Thomas Mann’s doorstop The Magic Mountain for the first time last year, I was woefully ignorant of many of the intellectual and academic concepts Ross examines through the lens of Wagner. My cultural illiteracy forced me to pause every few pages to get up to speed.  The methodical process lasted four months.  I’m not entirely to blame.  Ross occasionally writes unfortunate sentences like this: “He proposes an ontology based on the rational operation of mathematics, at the same time, he stresses the infinity of being, defining it in terms of multiplicity.”

Just as taking in Die Zauberflötein last year allowed me to see layers of significant subtext that had previously been invisible to me, Wagnerism heightened my capacity to experience life more meaningfully.  The Wagner joke in Army of the Dead would have sailed over my head a few years ago.  I’m still a pitiful excuse for a scholar. Yet given enough time, this country bumpkin might manage to transform his life into an admirable Gesamtkunstwerk.

July 2021 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency

Screenshot of Bahar Pars in the trailer for En man som heter Ove.

Top Ten Albums (released in July, not including July 30 titles)

1. Lise Davidsen and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra- Sibelius: Luonnotar, Op. 70 & Other Orchestral Works

Finnish fever dreams.

2. Cochemea- Vol. II: Baca Sewa

My review.

3. Rey Sapienz and the Congo Technical Ensemble- Na Zala Zala

African footwork.

4. Les Filles de Illighadad- At Pioneer Works

Tuareg trance.

5. Rodney Crowell- Triage

The truth hurts.

6. Maya Beiser- Maya Beiser x Philip Glass

Transparent cello.

7. Attacca Quartet- Real Life

My review.

8. Drakeo the Ruler- Ain't That the Truth

Truth to tell.

9. Alasdair Roberts and Völvur- The Old Fabled River

Scottish/Norwegian freak-folk.

10. Leon Bridges- Gold-Diggers Sound

Bridges’ best album by a country mile.

Top Ten Songs (released in July)

1. Little Simz- “I Love You, I Hate You”

Decisive.

2. IDK with the Neptunes, Swae Lee and Rico Nasty- "Keto"

On sight.

3. Snow Tha Product- "Que Oso"

Agua bendita.

4. Big30 featuring Yo Gotti- "Too Official"

Outlawed.

5. Lolo Zouaï- “Galipette”

Candy store.

6. Willow featuring Cherry Glazerr- “¡Breakout”

Ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb!

7. Kevin Abstract featuring Snot and Slowthai- “Slugger”

“On my Lauryn Hill ish.”

8. Tinashe- “Bouncin’”

Elastic.

9. Billie Eilish- “NDA”

Creep.

10. Lorde- “Stoned at the Nail Salon”

Pure heroine.

Top Ten Concerts (attended in July)

1. Pistol Pete- recordBar

The rapper was accompanied by the rock band Various Blonde.

2. Te Deum- St. Mary's Episcopal Church

Latin vespers.

3. Eddie Moore, Ryan Lee and Zach Morrow- Charlotte Street Foundation

My review will be published at Plastic Sax on August 1.

4. Kyle Hutchins, Aaron Osborne, Seth Davis and Evan Verploegh- Charlotte Street Foundation

My review.

5. Summerfest- Atonement Lutheran Church

My notes.

6. Trinity Jazz Ensemble- Rolling Hills Church

My review.

7. Jackie Myers, Matt Hopper and Ben Tervort- Market at Meadowbrook

Fresh readings of jazz standards.

8. Granger Smith- KC Live 

Yee yee!

9. Rod Fleeman, Gerald Spaits and Ray DeMarchi- Green Lady Lounge

Spare the Rod, spoil the month.

10. Big Spin- 1400 Union

Explosive Fourth of July punk party.

Top Ten Films (viewed for the first time in July)

1. Z (1969)

Grotesque political thuggery in Greece.

2. The Steel Helmet (1951)

War is hell.

3. Der blau Engel/The Blue Angel (1930)

L-o-l-a, Lola.

4. Fruitvale Station (2013)

Oscar Grant III.

5. En man som heter Ove/A Man Called Ove (2015)

Saab story.

6. Journey into Fear (1943)

WWII noir.

7. Summer of Soul (2021)

So much talking.

8. Mahler (1974)

Wut.

9. The Wrath of God (1972)

Proto-Tarantino bloodbath.

10. The Hunt (2020)

Deplorable!

June’s recap and links to previous monthly surveys are here.

Time Keeps On Slippin’

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

My favorite cousin died this week. My aunt and uncles raised lots of wonderful kids, but I shared a birthday and an excessive predilection for the proverbial wine, women and song with the deceased. Our age disparity- he was five years my elder- wasn’t our most significant difference. He was a giant. I’m a relative shrimp. Although his taste in music ran to Blue Öyster Cult and the Steve Miller Band, he was nice enough to escort me to Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson’s area nightclub show in 1979. I was underage, but my gargantuan cousin intimidated the doormen on my behalf. I’ve since treasured that night. In a painful form of familial affection, he regularly subjected me to abusive roughhousing. With his unexpected death, he knocked the breath out of me one last time.

Jerry Granelli: A Middleman’s Memorial

My appreciation for A Charlie Brown Christmas is different from most people’s.  I moved truckloads of the unlikely Fantasy Records hit through Walmart as a commissioned sales representative in a previous lifetime.  Initial orders each year were in the five figures, quantities that facilitated many happy holidays in my home.

Jerry Granelli, the drummer on the timeless classic released in 1965, died this week.  But his role in making money for a middleman isn’t his only contribution to my life.  Granelli played an inadvertent role in helping me avoid becoming as jaded as many of my mercenary colleagues.

Another Place, Granelli’s adventurous 1994 release on Intuition Records, was one of my favorite albums of that year.  Highlighting the exquisite tandem of saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom and trombonist Julian Priester, Another Place kept me company in rental cars and motel rooms on countless sales trips.

While it took no more time to sell 30,000 units of A Charlie Brown Christmas to a box store behemoth than it did to place three copies of Another Place in a discriminating mom-and-pop shop, my obvious appreciation for the non-commercial recordings I represented almost certainly enhanced my standing among the retail buyers I courted.

Album Review: Cochemea- Vol. II: Baca Sewa

Daptone Records’ illustrious history of promoting artists with a knack for avoiding the threadbare clichés that vex most soul revivalist acts is integral to the label’s success. Cochemea, a go-to Daptone saxophonist, extends the tradition with Vol. II: Baca Sewa. Rooted in percussion, the new celestial soul album is ideally suited for listeners who believe bacchanal summertime parties and introspective spiritual ruminations are two sides of the same coin. Emphasizing his indigenous North American ancestry, Cochemea’s incantatory hymns, sultry grooves and loose-limbed funk workouts manifest the breadth of human experience.

Album Review: Attacca Quartet- Real Life

Original image of Summerfest concert at Atonement Lutheran Church by There Stands the Glass.

I was among the youngest of 60 devotees of chamber music at Atonement Lutheran Church for the final concert of the annual Summerfest initiative on Sunday, July 11. A rendition of Daniel Bernard Roumain’s String Quartet No. 5, Rosa Parks was among the vital works performed. The tiny audience was dominated by geriatric- albeit admirably enlightened- nonconformists. In naming its 2019 collaboration with Caroline Shaw my #9 album of the year, I verified Attacca Quartet’s exceptional ability to resonate with relative newcomers to the classical tradition. Its latest release Real Life highlights the work of electronic-leaning composers including Flying Lotus and Tokimonsta. Only the tacky opening track “Electric Pow Wow Drum” sounds contrived. Squarepusher’s distinctive contribution “Xetaka 1” is an auspicious culture clash. The album’s best track, a relatively conventional treatment of Anne Müller’s “Drifting Circles,' subtly fiddles with studio dynamics. Classical music will limp along with or without the help of Attacca Quartet. Even so, Real Life is further proof that the artistic and social constructs preventing timid people from enjoying the style should be ignored.