various artists - Bad Seeds - Nick Cave: Roots & Collaborations (Mojo Presents A 15 Track Celebration)

I'm worn the fuck out, having spent all my writing time this past weekend repacking 500 square feet of storage space. So you're not going to get much insight from me about this 2009 Mojo compilation.

Regardless of how one might feel about Nick Cave (editor's note: I'm a'fer 'im), the dude has always had style and taste. All that is reflected here. There's not a skippable track on the entire disc. When I first heard this, it had me seeking out Karen Dalton, a name I knew but have never listened to. The Saints, Johnny Cash, John Lee Hooker, Lydia Lunch, Mississippi John Hurt? Know them all, love them all, love the songs compiled here. It's one of the front to back good ones, kids.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Island Folk (An Acoustic-Led Celebration)

This one called to me from a darkened shelf in a Monterey record store last winter. It was the pink spine that caught my eye first. It's something I associate more with the Pagans' "Pink Album" reissue than anything associated with Chris Blackwell. Yet here it was, a comp of British folk, recorded by Joe Boyd and released initially on Island Records. I had to have it. My tastes have expanded greatly since the first time I heard Nick Drake (who, oddly, doesn't appear here), and I've grown to love the records Richard & Linda Thompson made together, the music of Sandy Denny, the songs of John Martyn. I quit giggling about how poncy the Incredible String Band looked, and started humming along when I listened to them in the car.

I ultimately paid $5 for this one, more than I typically would for a Mojo free CD. And I still won't fuck with Jethro Tull.

Discogs

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various artists - Monitor This! April / May 09

This comes to us courtesy of the Missus' record collection. She brought some truly exceptional recordings to our now-shared collection. And some pieces like this, a freebie that came with purchase of an associated title. I would hope that she purchased Doves' "Kingdom Of Rust"; I fear it was instead Rocco DeLuca & The Burden's "Mercy".

So why share something I mostly don't care about? Well, in the course of researching this series, I uncovered that this was the audio giveaway from the Record Exchange, a branch of which was the first record store I ever spent my hard earned dollars. I bought my first Fugazi record from the Record Exchange in Roanoke, along with demo tapes for a bunch of mostly-forgotten alternative and punk bands from south-western Virginia. "Music Monitor" was just as important a source of information as "Rolling Stone", "HeartattaCk", and "Maximum Rock & Roll". So this sampler, headlined (for me, at least) by Doves, Diana Krall, and Lady Sovereign, brought back a few fond memories of well-spent youth, digging in the crates and discovering a world I knew little about.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: New Harvest (A Compendium Of Modern American Song)

The last seven days have been rather challenging, what with about 90% of a BestFile upload suddenly disappearing, then being diagnosed with pneumonia. When I asked the doc in the box if it was a combination of rockin' pneumonia and the boogy-woogie flu, she grunted and gave me a script for antibiotics. Doctors are no fun.

It's hard to believe this comp, with a cover date of August 2009, is old enough to drive. It reminds me that my wife and I have been around 16 years as well, that there was a time when Father John Misty was just the dude from Fleet Foxes that went solo, and how apeshit the world went over a record named after the outdoor venue that we used to sneak into to watch bigger concerts. "Indie folk" just got bigger around this time; Bill Callahan could tour under his own name, and bands that, a few years before, you used to be able to watch in dingy 60-person barrooms now played the biggest rooms in town. The grandsons of Neil Young were getting their due, and it was a pretty good time in retrospect.

There's a lot here that I'm still messing with, and it kind of surprises me that I didn't get around to ripping this until this past summer, because it's a pretty solid mix, as one should generally expect out of Mojo. It reminds me to go find those Yeasayer records I know are in a box somewhere and give them a spin. If nothing else, this will serve an acceptable substitution.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Africa Rising (Essential Mindblowing Summer Grooves)

It's been a month away, moving about 20 miles closer to the Canadian border, concurrent with my country taking a sprint right into fascism, and the best most anyone near me can offer is "it is what it is." Were it a drinking game, I'd be dead or pickled.

But I cannot lose hope, because thre[s still worlds of music to uncover, and uncover it, I shall.

My mom came in from the East Coast to lend a hand on the unpack, and I played this for her as we headed north from the airport. She liked the Farka Tourés, felt ambivalent about the rest of it, but said it was nice to hear something she'd never heard before. "You have such interesting taste in music," said the woman who played me Smokey Robinson, Juice Newton, and Pink Floyd as a kid.

My point is, it doesn't have to be what it is. Spring is coming, and we will be renewed.

Discogs

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various artists - The Man Machine: Mojo Presents The Electronic Revolution

It's a jolly good giveaway, this comp. Chock full of synthesized sounds ranging from the ambient to the caustic. There's even something that was written to be played whilst you run with your iPod attached to your bicep. Thanks, Nike.

Looking back at 2009, I wouldn't have given this a second thought. OMD and the Orb were artists I just skipped over on my way from Oasis to Oxes. I fucked with LCD Soundsystem, but most of those dudes had been in punk bands in the 90s, so they couldn't be all bad, could they? Sometime around then, Kraftwerk did some dates in NYC, and a dude offered me a ticket and a ride. I shrugged.

Now? Now this is all I really want to listen to. I want to fall into a K-hole with Tangerine Dream as the soundtrack. I'll buy all the Ultravox vinyl I find abandoned at a thrift store. I'm going to track down all those Flying Lotus productions, using the Discogs production tab as my lodestone. This is the future, circa 2009. Filled you with hope back then, dinnit?

Discogs

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various artists - Reggae Chartbusters Volume Four

So this is where the series gets interesting.

Trojan didn't release a fourth volume of "Reggae Chartbusters" back in 1972 or 1973, opting instead for continuing the "Club Reggae" series and kicking off "Trojan's Greatest Hits". That didn't keep Trojan from surveying from 1971 to 1973 in this 2009 release.

You see where JA reggae and UK reggae are diverging during this period. There are a pair of Bob Marley & the Wailers tracks on this (leftovers from their pre-Island output) and a Dennis Brown cut, but that's it for roots reggae here. The rest of is that pop reggae ilk that was pretty safe for English folks in the early 70s, but was out of step with the soon-to-be dominant sound coming out of Jamaica.

None of that is to imply this is bad, to be clear. There's music from Dandy Livingston, Joe Higgs, Toots Hibbert, Desmond Dekker; all heavyweights. But the tell here is the presence of Judge Dread's "Big Seven". I love his schtick, but his appearance maintains the theme. This was a series made for white audiences, with a minimum of nasty Rastafari or politics. Groups like Greyhound and Blue Haze wouldn't otherwise stack up to the likes of Sound Dimension or the Supersonics.

It's still pretty good, tho. Better than a sharp poke in the eye, to be sure.

Discogs

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various artists - Oxford American 11th Edition Southern Music (Southern Masters/Arkansas Masters)

Have I been screwing up, not having a subscription to The Oxford American all this time?

Setting aside the free annual sampler, O.A. is up there with Texas Monthly and Gun and Garden as sources for really good contemporary writing on the American South. You can take the boy out of the South (and put him in the Pacific Northwest), but you can't entirely get the South out of the boy.

The 11th annual edition of O.A.'s Southern Music series was a double disc, and the first of their state-focused surveys, focusing on Arkansas. And that, to me, is the reason to give this an extended spin. What I know about music from Arkansas is mainly related to bands and people who left the state: Econochrist, Ken Sanderson of Prank Records...um, that's it. But now I've heard the Esquires, Sister Ernestine Washington, and Sleepy LaBeef, sounding like a branch of Dixie that I've not yet encountered. It's enough to make me curious about the branch of Mrs. Mummy's people who hail from Little Rock, to experience the Ozarks, to learn more about what it's all been about and where it's going.

Discogs

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various artists - Reggae Chartbusters: Volume Three (Extended Edition)

This the last of the extended editions in Trojan's 2009 reissue series of "Reggae Chartbusters". Trojan moved on to different titles and themes for their sampler records after 1971. So after this one, it's all imaginary samplers.

The Pioneers' version of Jimmy Cliff's "Let Your Yeah Be Yeah" leads off this, and it's alright. The rest of the original release is pretty mediocre; there's a post-heyday Desmond Dekker track, a pair of cuts from former Technique Bruce Ruffin, and fukkin' Greyhound. Not great stuff. Where some of the classic artists from the JA explosion from '67 - '71 embraced Rastafari and a more rooted approach to reggae, this is more representative of reggae-pop. Which I can't stand.

But this one is worth it for the classic two-fer from Dave & Ansel Collins of "Double Barrel" and "Monkey Spanner". These are two of my favorite tracks from this era, going back to the first Trojan CD samplers I bought in the mid-90s. "Small Axe" is also one of the few Wailers songs I like, due in great part to killer production from Lee Perry. The additions of Eric Donaldson, Delroy Wilson, and the Slickers in this expanded version lead me to ask, "Why weren't they on the original?"

Discogs

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various artists - Reggae Chartbusters Volume Two (Expanded Edition)

I busted my ass to find a copy of this.

See, getting Volumes 1, 3, and 4 were pretty easy. All three came from a seller in the UK with very reasonable shipping costs. I think I paid around $20, shipping included, for all three. But Volume Two was, for most of spring and into summer, a white whale. Sellers were asking $25.00 to ship a copy from overseas. The few US shops who had a copy were similarly asking WAY to much for a 15-year-old reissue of a budget comp from 1971. But, luckily, a Japanese store that I've bought records before had a cheap copy, the yen is weak against the dollar, Bob's your uncle, a copy way mine for $10.

And it was worth it, goddammit. Worth it for the seventeenth record I own with these Desmond Dekker songs on them. Worth it for a pair of my all-time favorite Maytals tracks. Worth it for Bob & Marcia's "Young, Gifted, And Black", which got me a native nod in traffic last week. And worth it for the eight bonus tracks appended to the original release. This is a perfect record for the hot season here in the PNW, chock full of slower jams from the first years of JA music transitioning from the rocksteady beat into reggae and creating one of the finest bodies of pop music ever created.

Discogs

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various artists - Reggae Chartbusters Volume One (Expanded Edition)

 This, my friends, is a bona fide banger.

Set aside your knowledge of reggae for a second, if you can. Imagine being 15 again. It's summertime 1969, and the sounds of rocksteady are just starting to simmer down. It's been less than a year since the Maytals taught us how to do the reggay. You take a couple quid down to the nearest stockist, and you see this on the racks. Twelve tracks, for the same amount you'd pay for a couple of 45s? You're sold.

And what a lineup! On the A side, it's Jimmy Cliff, Symarip, Dandy Livingston. On the flip, Lee Perry's Upsetters, Tony Tribe, Boris Gardiner. Both sides showcase Desmond Dekker and the Pioneers. Can you imagine hearing this all together for the first time? This isn't a stack of singles playing on a jukebox; it's the best value compilation you're probably ever going to buy.

55 years on, I still encounter folks whose first experience with reggae was this comp. One of the first full-lengths released by Trojan, it's up there with "Flex Your Head" or "C86" or the "Easy Rider" soundtrack as the sort of collection that shapes lives. This version, expanded to twenty tracks in 2009 and featuring Max Romeo, the Ethiopians, and the Maytals, gives an even more robust view of the first year Trojan licensed a monster lineup of JA labels and producers for the UK.

No wonder reggae became the sound of working class youth in the early 70s. You take great art, you focus on getting it in as many hands (ears) as you can, as cheaply as possible, and nature takes its course.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Red Hot & Regal (Kings Of Leon - Roots Friends & Influences)

First things first: how's Kraken working for everyone? I don't ever have issues downloading Kraken-hosted files, but I'm but a singular man. Drop a line in the comments if you have a suggestion for an alternativel The homies have spoken! I'm starting to move over to a new host. Hang tight, friends!

I think Kings Of Leon are corny as hell, but if these are indeed the artists that shaped them, then they have some pretty good taste. There's a lot to like here, and the best part is that "Sex On Fire" won't sneak up on you. I'm partial to the Band and Woody Guthrie; this also got me to drag out/seek out Soledad Brothers records.

And that's how I feel about that. You're welcome to your own opinions, as always. I'M NOT TRYING TO TAKE YOUR POWER AWAY, LISA!

Discogs

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various artists - Dark Was The Night

I've been thinking a fair bit about the phrase "can't be arsed" recently.

It's not just that you don't care, it's that you really don't care. It has that English charm not present in not giving a "shit" or a "fuck" or a "good Goddamn". It's a really fun expression, perfectly evocative of your current level of concern.

The Red Hot Organization is the opposite of that. For 34 years, the Red Hot + series has created 25 benefit releases, benefiting public health, raising awareness, and supporting humanitarian causes. It led off with the likes of Tom Waits, U2, the Jungle Brothers, and Neneh Cherry performing Cole Porter songs. The latest releases came in 2023 with a trio of (brilliant-looking & sounding) Sun Ra tributes. Want contemporary takes on Fela Kuti, Tropicalia, George Gershwin? Look no further than Red Hot +.

"Dark Was The Night" was produced by the Dessner brothers, they of the National fame. Hosted by the National's label, the esteemed 4AD, this double CD/triple LP is a great snapshot of Western indie rock circa 2009. There are the old stalwarts (Yo La Tengo, Arcade Fire, the Decemberists), some (at the time) up & comers (Beirut, Yeasayer, Bon Iver), and some cool one-off collabs (Conor Oberst & Gillian Welch, Anohni & Bryce Dessner, Feist & Ben Gibbard). My personal fav is Cat Power performing with Jim White, Judah Bayer (JSBX), and Gregg Foreman (Delta 72), but, you know, there's something for everyone.

This is a good opportunity to mention that, if yoi like this, swing by Red Hot's Bandcamp and throw them some coin. While "Dark Was The Night" isn't available via Red Hot's or 4AD's Bandcamps, contributing to their mission by copping a digital version of that Sun Ra tribute, or 2022's deluxe reissue of "Red Hot + Riot" is a great way to pay back the enjoyment you get out of this one.

Discogs

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Edward R. Murrow's This I Believe: Selections, Volumes 1& 2

I think I pulled both of these from a Half Price Books "Fill a Bag for $25" sale.

Some very cool folks on these compilations: Jackie Robinson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Helen Keller, Margarets Mead & Sanger, Martha Graham.

I'm not sure how I would react to living in a world where one could trust a Walter Cronkite, much less Edward R. Murrow. Hell, I'm not sure how I'd react to living in a world where people's personal "brand" was to work towards the betterment of the place they lived, or the people they lived with. I'd probably faint.

Discogs (Volume 1)

Discogs (Volume 2)

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Discobelle - Scion CD Sampler V. 24

I found this in a "Friends Of The Library" 25cent bin, so I decided to cop a 13-year-old electronic/dance sampler promoting a defunct car brand.

I continue to stand impressed at the marketing team that managed to talk Toyota into funding a record label for a decade plus.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Blood On The Flat Track: Soundtrack From The Documentary

I was futzing about immediately following an interview (the first in-person one I've had in eight years) when two things happened. I got an e-mail from a prospective employer, telling me that I would not be hired for a gig I've interviewed for three times. It really bummed me out. I got out of the car and strolled into the chain thrift store, hoping to take my mind off the disappointment of a small rejection. And then the second thing happened.

I stumbled across a small vein of WA state indie CD and weird hip-hop on the shelf. Any time I do so is guaranteed to cheer me up immensely. The hip-hop was a bust; none of the CDs had the right discs in them, so I wouldn't be bringing home those Rhymesayers or Rawkus releases. But there was a bit of gold sitting up there, in the form of the soundtrack to "Blood on The Flat Track". I didn't even know a soundtrack had been released, but there it was, in all its physical glory. It looked to be a CD Baby pressing; a CDr with a barcode, a basic layout, some artwork...just a step up from what you could do with a home computer.

"But the sounds, man, tell me about the sounds!", I hear you hollerin'. There's five Dirtbombs tracks here, compiled from a wide range of sources. That, right there, is worth the price of admission, especially when that price is just a buck ninety-nine. The Kent 3, Bellingham garage rockers of some renown from 20+ years ago, also a quartet of tracks from their catalog. A Frames did a record from Sub Pop about 15 years ago that I remember digging; they contribute a pair of cuts. All in all, there's 18 tracks here, all of which are pretty great, standing proudly alongside any comp of PNW punk rock that Estrus, Dirtnap, Super Electro, or Empty released in the past 20 years.

Whoever put this together provided a pretty great soundtrack to an equally great documentary about roller derby. And whoever dropped this off at the Everett Value Village has my thanks, because it's what I've been listening to for the past few days.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Thorns of Life - live at 924 Gilman St., 31 January 2009

Thorns of Life, live at 924 Gilman, 2009 (photo by Chris Shary)

I'm happy that Jawbreaker is a band again, although I really doubt I'll ever go see them. They were the Bucky Barnes of punk rock; they had died, and were never coming back...until they did. Which, you know, mazel tov. But I cannot separate my expectations with ready availability. Call it a moral failing. Who knows?

Instead, I revel in the static nature of old Jawbreaker records, and following the bands that each member went on to play in. Whether it was Chris in Horace Pinker, or Adam playing with the Baluyut brothers in Whysall Lane, it was fun seeing what happened as people moved on, but still made art. The first Jets to Brazil record, made with Chris from Texas is the Reason a few years after the breakup of Jawbreaker, remains one of my favorites from that era. But then Blake quit making music publicly. Was he still teaching English at Hunter College? Was he writing video game reviews? Did he publish poetry under a pen name? Was he on a lobster boat out in the Grand Banks? This fella, who'd soundtracked so many years of my life and carried so many expectations, was now a cipher, a riddle.

And then I read on the .org that Blake, Aaron Cometbus, and Daniela from the Gr'ups are playing music together. The hope is that they'll make it south (at least to Philly); instead, they play a couple times in Brooklyn, then head out west to California for a short tour. They play a week's worth of shows, reviews are suitably hyped, they return home, they break up by summertime. They left behind a song on a Silver Sprocket comp and this, the only live recording I've ever heard of them. Pretty good looking show, too; I'd pay $8 just for Thorns of Life. Off With Their Heads and Comadre are a great bonus.

Look: if you're a Jawbreaker or Crimpshrine fan, you're probably going to be 100% down with this. It's not a hard sell, as we say in the biz. It bums me out that most of these songs never got their day in the studio; "O Deadly Death" and "Ribbonhead" ended up on the Forgetters' full-length in 2012, and sound outstanding with J. Robbins' in the engineer's seat.

Click here to download.

Daniel Striped Tiger - Certain Stuff

When my now ex-wife and I split up after San Diego ComicCon in 2009, I moved back in with my best friend and former roommate, and immediately reconnected with old friends at Charm City Art Space. While there were plenty of bands that I'd kept up with during my marriage, I'd somehow missed out on screamo becoming skramz, and this whole scene of kids of playing freaked-out post-hardcore with such abandon and heart. I'm not sure why it grabbed me so hard as I neared 30, but I think it had something to do with the sincerity I saw onstage and heard on records.

Somehow, I'd missed seeing Daniel Striped Tiger each time they played the Art Space. I was fully aware of who they were: one of those Clean Plate bands that'd come down from Massachusetts or New Hampshire, blaze through for 25 minutes, eat a plate of food, then blow through, only to return three months later. I just took it for granted that they'd be back. And, of course, they didn't. Because disappointment was something I was at peace with, and the cosmos knew I could hang.

"Certain Stuff" collects all the non-LP releases from DST in one handy-dandy 5" optical media disc for their 2009 tour of Australia. At the time, it was the only way to get the tracks from their split with Teenage Cool Kids. I got a rip of this in 2011 from a fellow Art Space member. I've probably listened to "The Great Bust On Antarctica" and "Never In A Million Years" 200 times since getting this. It slaps. It's a shame these folks didn't last another few years, or record for labels that lasted until the Bandcamp era. Bands like Daniel Striped Tiger run the risk of falling into the cracks, being lost to all but the few with deep Discogs pockets. They were fucking magic. Maybe magic should fade away...

Fun fact: one of the guys from DST is in Parquet Courts. I learned this trivia in the course of writing this post, and I...well, I don't feel any more compelled to listen to Parquet Courts.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Boot Power Vol. 4 - 1970-1979

One of the fun things about the "Boot Power" series is how many awesome songs one discovers over the course of 100+ tracks. When would I have heard the Gorillas, or Protex, or the Sensational Alex Harvey Band? Possibly: my enthusiasm for seeking out music I don't know anything about hasn't waned as I've gotten older. I'm not sure, however, if I'd come across a track like Supernaut's "The Kids Are Out Tonight" if I would have been able to put it in a similar context that this curation provides.

That said, my favorite here is, and will always be, Cock Sparrer's "Trouble On The Terraces". Recorded in the same sessions that produced their self-titled 1978 debut, but not released until 14 years later, "Trouble..." is a perfect football anthem, as well as a great example of how pub rock transitioned into punk in 1976 and 1977. It's hard to believe that "Cock Sparrer" only came out in Spain, and wouldn't come out in England until it was released as "True Grit" in 1987. An OG pressing is rarer than hen's teeth, so, you know, now you know what to get me for my birthday.

As with the other collections in the series, there's some real cheeze amongst the rockers. That's fine, because they make a track like "Tired Guy of the Road" by Blood Chains really pop. Speaking of: don't let corny-ass band names sway you from listening. Some of the best cuts across the series come from bands like Giggles and Bilbo Baggins.

Click here to download.

various artists - Boot Power Vol. 3 - 1970-1979

There's a part of me that counts "Boot Power Vol. 3" as the weakest of the four volumes I've heard. I suppose that should tell you something about the quality of the whole series, because there are wall-to-wall rippers here. Maybe it's the sequencing; it just doesn't flow for me. But, damn, if that's the worst thing I can think to say...

The one-offs here really make this comp. I'd never heard Darren Burn before downloading this, but "Quick Joey Small" is just a killer song from a child singer who really didn't make any other records. Bilbo Baggins is easily my favorite Tolkien-inspired glam band of 1974. The Rebels featured Gaz from Angelic Upstarts, and have a fantastic proto-Oi! cut in "All Hate". The best of all of these is Hector's 1974 track, "Bye Bye Bad Days". Label mates of Elton John, they only released two singles as a band before they disappeared in 1976. This is the one that I find myself singing all the time. It's an ear worm in all the best ways.

Click here to download.