I’ve been dabbling in Bluesky (as mentioned previously). Thought it would be fun to share a selection of recent posts as they give an insight into what my ears have been seduced by in the listening room.
As always, love to hear responses to any of these.
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When some Matthew Sweet vinyl re-issues appeared a while back I grabbed a couple. Love this 1993 follow-up to Girlfriend; it’s harder and edgier. When I pulled this a couple of weeks ago I had no idea that Matthew had experienced a major health crisis.
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Staying with coloured vinyl… Reading about the 50th anniversary of King Crimson’s brilliant live album USA was interesting but not really tempting, given I have the massive boxed set of this period, and of course the original LP. Then I saw a picture of the Milky Way spangled evening sky vinyl. Oh my.
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Yesterday I had a yearning for krumhorns. That means one thing: Gryphon. This was the first album I bought by the English baroque and roll outfit and it’s a corker.
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The 1980 LP by Bauhaus is an edgy, sometimes abrasive debut. Part of a crate of albums gifted by friends, I’d not spent much time with it. Quite bracing for those (like your correspondent) whose intro to the British Goths was “Bela Lugusi’s Dead” on 3RRR.
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A few interview snippets with the master drummer popped up in my fb feed. He really does seem a lovely chap and it’s great that he decided to come out of retirement purely for the joy of playing music. This 1979 LP features the marvellous Allan Holdsworth on guitar.
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While only a modest Bruce fan, I do like this spare, desolate album very much. And I like Mr Springsteen’s socio-political voice even more. Here is a public figure unafraid to call out corruption and deceit. Hope America is listening.
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Watched a video about Matthew Sweet’s slow and painful rehabilitation just now. What a journey. It was clearly a major stroke and a consequently long, hard road back. Hope he continues to get the support he needs.
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And that’s a week’s worth.
vinylconnection.com.au 
You’ve been a busy boy. There’s some very nice ‘packaging’ around this music.
I’ve pretty much stuck to FB recently and have gotten very lazy because of two sites with heaps of fifties – sixties jazz, taro cross and BlueNote 33RPM. Old fashioned radio (which I think Internet radio can now safely be called) is my main source of ‘Wildcards’.
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Internet radio is old fashioned? Love it.
When we’re away from home I sometimes plug in to ABC jazz (201 or whatever channel it is). Quite a mixture, but no announcer so not easy to determine what one is hearing. Does the Blue Note site provide artist info?
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Yes, the BlueNote site puts subtitles up for personnel etc.
If you are not boycotting Russia, Radio Caprice app for your phone has a massive choice of music stations. I’ve avoided them the last few years.
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Good stuff, Bruce. Your eclectic taste is fascinating. I can only comment on two of the artists you picked.
Matthew Sweet – my goodness, I missed the news about his stroke. This sounds really rough. Based on what I’ve heard, Sweet’s power pop is right up my alley. I also think his collaboration albums with Susanna Hoffs are fun. I hope he’ll be able to recover! Lucinda Williams largely came back from her stroke, though of course not all strokes are the same!
Springsteen – for many years, I couldn’t warm to “Nebraska” and had a hard time understanding some fans consider it his best album. While I still prefer the “more traditional” Boss and albums like “Born to Run”, “Darkness on the Edge of Town”, “The River” and “Born in the U.S.A.”, I think I’m slowly coming around on “Nebraska.” I now better appreciate the power of these stripped back songs and their cinematic vibe.
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Great hearing you are a Matthew Sweet fan too, Christian. I think he is rather an under-appreciated writer of stonkingly good power-pop-rock songs. Like you, I’m hoping he can tread the long road back from what sounds (and looks, if you watch the Madonna clinic vid) like a catastrophic event.
Again (grin) pretty much same story for me and the Boss. Tend to arc towards the obvious, but have spun Nebraska a little more, recently, and enjoyed that sparseness.
As always, thanks for sharing your thoughts.
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I hadn’t heard about Matthew’s stroke. I just listened to Girlfriend a couple of weeks ago for the first time in years. I hope he makes a decent recovery of it. I saw Lucinda Williams in concert this year (also recovering from a stroke) and while she has mobility issues, her performance was strong as ever.
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That’s really encouraging to hear. Christian mentioned her too.
If you ever feel curious about other MS albums, I’d confidently recommend “100% Fun” (try the track ’Smog Moon’) and the less well known “In Reverse”.
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I keep meaning to check out Gryphon.
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‘Treason’ is a later album that is less, er, medieval but has the full flavour of Gryphon. Good rock orientated entry point, G.
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You know that I’m on board for a few of these. I’ll pick on the other Bruce. I’m from that country where he picked up a lot of his inspiration for the record. I was just back there and you can feel something going on. Part of it is the “Big Sky” for me. Note to this Bruce. I watched a local newscast way back when a music critic smashed this record on his segment, he liked it so much.
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It’s quite a different album, compared to the barnstorming bar band sound of his most popular work. But that sparseness is part of its potency, isn’t it?
Broad horizons, CB.
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“Broad horizons” Bruce!
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[…] KC live album has been periodically documented in these pages; here, for example, and briefly here. The material on USA was drawn primarily from a June 28 concert at Asbury Park, NJ, with some […]
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