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To frequent readers of Revolver, and dear friends and family of mine, it is clear that I am an avid music fan. I get specific about what I'm listening to with my contemporary (yes, there is only one) and tell people like my mother that "I'm [currently] listening to a lot of [literally] noise." Here, for your benefit, are Eric Marth's Top Eight Records of Right Now, and the Two Worst.
Eight best:
8. New Order--"Power, Corruption and Lies." I was recently turned on to New Order by a string of events. My good friend Bob and I were in the Blue Dog store. One of the store's friendliest clerks was working, and we asked him for a record recommendation.
In the used bin was "Power, Corruption and Lies." The album cover (with its flowers and unappealing gray slate background) was an immediate turnoff. Bob checked the album out and had me do the same. This is '80s synthetic pop at one of its finest moments.
7. Max Tundra--"Mastered By The Guy At The Exchange." An electronic pop record that feels like it's ahead of itself at all times. Somehow, despite its ridiculous speeds and propulsion, it remains on mark at all points start to finish.
"Merman," a short pop tune from Tundra, features the artist singing coolly over a stumbling and epileptic beat.
Something you must experience to understand.
6. Joy Division--"Unknown Pleasures." After being introduced to New Order, I backtracked to the band New Order had formed from.
Joy Division came to an end with the suicide of its singer in the early 1980s. But before that end came this, their first album. Joy Division helped pave the way for many significant British artists of the 1980s, including My Bloody Valentine and Ride.
I first gave Joy Division a thought when I heard that local band Skywave had covered their tune "Ceremony."
5. Sonic Youth--"Murray Street." I'll admit that I didn't give Sonic Youth a listen until Jim O'Rourke joined the band. And I'll also admit that listening to the latest album from a band that is 20 years old and has long passed its heyday is a bad starting point.
Now, having examined much of Sonic Youth's catalogue, I can safely say "Murray Street" is the band's strongest album in years. Jim O'Rourke brings a shine back to the band's intensity and is surely responsible for helping craft the album's finest moments.
One of the best records of 2002.
4. Christian Fennesz, Jim O'Rourke and Peter Rehberg--"The Return of Fenno'berg." In addition to being a producer and a musician capable of holding his own with a multitude of instruments, Jim O'Rourke also crafts electronic music with an Apple computer.
On "The Return of Fenno'berg," the experimental electronic team of Fennesz, Rehberg and O'Rourke present an album comprised of six live and improvised electronic music tracks. After the three men performed and recorded the music in shows at different locations in Europe, they took the recordings and manipulated them further with computers.
It's a surprising album, containing lovely orchestral flourishes buried deep beneath layers of noise, that sometimes pop their heads up to briefly and clearly say, "Hello, I am a beautiful orchestral flourish."
3. Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers. Another recommendation from Bobby. He told me a story of strolling around his college campus and walking in on some mod-looking guys in turtlenecks, mop tops and heavy jackets spinning this record.
New England rock 'n' roll from the late 1970s with songs about Pablo Picasso, ice cream and secretaries just smiling.
2. John Cale--"Paris 1919." Before John Cale departed from the Velvet Underground, he helped the group record its two albums of its most brilliant material. This is his solo masterpiece.
"Paris 1919" finds Cale turning from the blistering noise utilized on "The Velvet Underground and Nico" and "White Light/White Heat." Here, Cale takes a seemingly more relaxed approach to music.
"Paris 1919" is an experimental album with a more traditional sound. The album contains a number of beautiful love songs rich with intriguing orchestral arrangements and innovative lyrics.
1. Wilco--"Live at the 9:30 Club, Washington, October 15, 2002." I know of only one copy of this recording in existence. And it's on a tiny 120-minute cassette tape in my friend's bedroom.
We went and saw us some Wilco on October 15 and it was, simply, incredible. Never before had I seen a group of artists--a group of geniuses--so on top of their game perform live.
I have a great amount of love, respect and other positive emotions for Wilco. It was like seeing the Beatles play a show with songs from "Sgt. Pepper" (although they never did so). Like being there in 1967 to hear The Velvet Underground tear through "Sister Ray."
It was like seeing Wilco with your best friend and being so happy, bewildered and overcome that your entire face goes numb.
Two worst:
2. The Get Up Kids--"Four Minute Mile." The Get Up Kids have been categorized in an array of ways. Some call them "emo," others "pop punk." Still others call them "rock 'n' roll."
I call them bad.
What's worse than bad lyrics, muddy production and lame guitar duels? Perhaps only the up-and-coming bands that strive to re-create their sound.
If you're looking for ferocious, "emotional" music with a guy shouting 10 feet away from a microphone, check out Cap'n Jazz. They're tight, they're intense and they succeed where GUK fails in emulation.
1. Godspeed You! Black Emperor--"Yanqui U.X.O." The latest record from Godspeed You! Black Emperor has not yet been released. "Yanqui U.X.O." will be available in stores in November of this year.
As a fan of the group's previous work (all of its proper albums) I was very excited when I first heard of this record. In listening, however, it was a huge disappointment. The nine-piece collective crafted profound and intense works on their earlier records.
In combining an interesting mix of cello, xylophone, keyboard and tape sampling with the traditional guitar, bass and drums (all played unconventionally) the group fashioned a compelling and unique sound.
Tracks such as "Static" from their 1999 release "Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven" provided listeners with an engaging soundscape.
With "Yanqui U.X.O.," the band lays much of the orchestral groundwork that typically leads to the explosion of progress and ideas it's known for--but fails to follow through. The movements here don't reach the innovative and emotional heights explored on previous records.
Absent, too, is the engaging tape sampling and manipulation. I can and do suggest any of their previous recordings on Kranky Records.