A Brief History of the Twentieth Century by Gang of Four

This CD really took me back. Way back. To the 80s. Big hair, big shoulder pads. I was only 4 then so I barely remember it but it sounded like people were having a good time back then. Ok, just a little lie on the age, I was closer to 14 but who's counting? I love this CD. There is only one song on here that I truly recognize but I recognize the sound. If you don't know who Gang of 4 is they are a punk/post punk band. Their sound is definitely punk from what I remember of punk. I am not the best person to talk about punk since I was never a punk rocker. Sheena was, I was not. In my mind, it's not your standard punk rock though, even though the singers aren't singing in the conventional sense they aren't completely screaming like the Sex Pistols. I am not looking forward to listening to that one by the way. Gang of Four's songs are heavy in the guitars and drums. I like the guitars; they sound angry, sometimes they even sound like they are growling. But you can still dance to it and that's important. Sometimes their sound reminded me a little of Devo and other times they reminded me of the B-52s, Planet Claire B-52s, not Love Shack B-52s. Hope that helps give you some background on the music.

Favorite songs are many. This is kind of a best of CD so that is not surprising. I love "Damaged Goods" and the way they keep repeating "the change will do you good" and then later "damaged goods, send 'em back, ... open the till, give me the change you said would do me good." I also like "Return the Gift," "Womantown," and, of course, "I Love a Man in Uniform." The link below is to an old video of that song, you have to fast forward through about a minute of inane talking by some people but then you get the original video of the song. Love the outfits and the hair. Also, how can you not love those words? I love a man in uniform. Takes me right back to my days at The Wave (Hawaii's version of First Ave) in Waikiki. I think that is where I heard that song for the first time.

I only met Ross after he had cut his hair short, taken out his earring, and stopped wearing tie-dye shirts and moccasins. I know though that he always liked his music loud and was not against a good thrash song. I am sure back in the day he was quite the punk rocker in many ways. It's not surprising that I found this in his collection. I just wish I had heard this one earlier. I wouldn't have turned the volume down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_Ea4loI7xQ&feature=related

Transparent Things by Fujiya & Miyagi

This is one CD I do not care if I keep or not. If someone can provide a good home for it, I can part with it, email me if you are interested. When I first heard the name of the band was Fujiya & Miyagi, right away my mind went to, the owner of a sushi restaurant in Uptown and the old guy from Karate Kid. So what kind of music would two old Japanese guys make? Not this music, that is for sure. These are actually English guys from what I could gather. I purposefully try to not to find out much about the band, including reviews of the album. It would only prejudice me in one way or another so I try to go into the CD pretty blind. The music is mostly instrumental, a lot of bass, synthesizer, and drums. I guess you could call it electronica but I am not completely convinced. It did have some good beats in some of the songs but they are so weird. Most of the songs also sound surprisingly similar. There is the one song that the Current plays called "Ankle Injuries." I never knew that was the name of the song because for a great deal of the song, they just repeat the words "Fujiya Miyagi." I always thought that was the name of the song too. If you listen close enough to the words though, they say "ankle injuries" during the song. That's another thing with the CD that I wasn't super thrilled with, it felt as though the singer wasn't really singing. It felt like he was reading a poem, perhaps an Emily Dickinson or e.e. cummings poem, because the words never seemed to make much sense. Ok, I probably need to step back a little. The CD is not as bad as I am making it out to be, it just isn't my style.

My favorite song was Collarbone. The guy says the whole bone thing towards the end of the song, you know, the neck bone connected to the collarbone, etc. At the beginning of the song too, he says "Got to get a new pair of shoes to kick it with her, not kick it with you." Wow, that's pretty cruel but sometimes that's the way it goes. I also liked the beats in that song. You could feel the groove and dance with that one. I don't always have a deep meaningful reason for liking a song, it just needs to entertain me a little.

Why in the world would Ross buy this you ask? I did ask that. As I have said before though he had extremely eclectic tastes. He might have been attracted to the CD by the song on the Current but he also did like electronica music when it came to dancing. I remember one of the first times I went out with him. He invited me to go dancing with him and some of his friends. We went to First Avenue for Danceteria. He and his friends danced for hours. I couldn't keep up! I think that is one of the things I found most attractive about him. He was a man who liked to dance and was good at it, none of that white man's overbite with him. He could thrash with the best of them but he could also groove with the best of them.

I am going to try something here. Here is a link to a Youtube video for the song Collarbone. It's kind of a cute video. Let me know if this works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMBndXAaPrw

We'll Never Turn Back by Mavis Staples

So I go from pop music to reggae to local "folk" music now to gospel music. Before I go any further, I have to admit I cheated a little with this CD. I already have "99 and 1/2," one of my favorite songs from the CD, on my iPod. Ross, Christine, and I heard the Sensational Joint Chiefs do a cover of it at a reunion show of theirs last year. It was such a great song that when I found out it was on this CD I downloaded it right quick. However, I never listened to the rest of the CD so I didn't totally cheat. I'm glad I listened to it now though. It is amazing what you find sometimes when you listen to a whole CD, little hidden gems, or in this case a message that bears repeating. Mavis Staples is from the Staples Singers singing group. Their CD, "The Best of the Staples Singers," is another CD I enjoy. I won't review that one though because I have listened to it too many times. Mavis, as well as her sisters, is known for R&B, soul, and gospel music. In the liner notes she call the music on this particular CD "freedom music." I like that description. The music is inspiring, its meant to make you want to take a stand, or at the very least remember all of those people who did take a stand during the Civil Rights Movement. The songs sound kind of like spirituals but modern day versions of them. She sings about things that happened back in the day and how things now are still a long way from where they should be. I found it ironic that this was released in 2007 and now here we are in 2009 with Barack Obama as our president. We are moving a little way on that road.

My favorite songs are "99 and 1/2" and "I'll be rested." I almost wonder if Ross didn't buy this CD for "99 and 1/2." Although I am sure he had heard it before our night at the Uptown with the Joint Chiefs and there is probably some other CD in his collection with that song on it. Anyway, it has this great guitar sound on it and a great beat. I think you could even dance to it. The best part though are the words
"I'm runnin', runnin' for freedom y'all
Cause 99 and 1/2 just won't do
Now, if your God won't help you
You better try mine"
and
"Lord, I'm tryin' to make 100,
cause 99 and 1/2 won't do."
How cool is that. The mathematician in me just loves that. The other song "I'll be rested" is very mellow. She repeats the words "I"ll be rested when the roll is called" throughout the song and then she says names of different people that were involved and died fighting in the Civil Rights Movement.

I think that Ross bought this CD, like I said, partly for "99 and 1/2," but I think he bought it for the message the CD had as well as it being Mavis Staples. She is a pretty extraordinary singer and the songs on this CD are pretty powerful, not only because of her voice, but because of all of the meaning behind those lyrics. Another great CD, with a great message, gotta keep it.

Lure the Fox by Haley Bonar

I'm keeping this one. (Don't worry I will get to ones that I am not keeping!) The CD was perfect to listen to on a gray, cold day like today. It is definitely mellow music. Someone called it folk music. I don't think I would go that far. I always think of folk music as stuff from the 50s and 60s. She is most definitely from this century. She reminds me of Emmy Lou Harris and Lucinda Williams. Most of the songs are pretty spare, just Haley and her guitar. On some of the songs you can even hear the strum of the guitar strings and the squeak of her acoustic guitar as her hand moved up and down the guitar neck. Her voice is haunting and her songs all seem really dark. It seemed appropriate for my mood today.

My favorite songs are "Hawaii" and "Us." I had to like Hawaii, the first line is "Take me down to Waikiki." From there it kind of degenerates into this song about a couple who seem to be enjoying a horrible marriage. Hmm, odd I should like it. I think I was more taken with the fact that it named my home state. I liked Us because it just stuck in my head all day. There's a line in it that just gets to me "Calling all the dirty liars, they can deal with us." I have listened to this CD for a few days now and today was my final listen before I wrote about it. I like to do that, it kind of gets me thinking about what I am going to write. After I listened to the whole CD a few times, I just listened to those two songs over and over again for the rest of the day. What I should do is just burn those two songs and then give away the CD, but never fear Mark, I won't do that, not yet at least!

I think Ross bought this CD for a couple of reasons. We saw Haley Bonar play a few times and he liked her sound. I also think he bought it because he would always read those articles in the paper about the best local CDs of the year. Hers was on there a couple of years ago and he liked to support local music so he bought it. Sometimes I think he bought CDs never hearing a song, if someone said they liked it, he was willing to give it a try (an expensive habit I learned to tolerate). No deep meaning or message there.

Yell Fire! by Michael Franti and Spearhead

This was a weird CD to find in Ross's collection. Its not like he was a big reggae fan. He has the prerequisite Bob Marley CD but I have one too. So when it came to reggae I couldn't figure out why he bought this one. At first I thought it was the new one that the Current has been playing songs from but I didn't recognize many of these songs. I liked the CD though, it really didn't seem like a huge reggae record, it has its share of reggae beats and stuff but Michael Franti's voice is a lot smoother than Peter Tosh or Bob Marley's. I also could understand all the words he was saying unlike some other singers from reggae bands. I may seem like I am stereotyping, which I probably am, but growing up in Hawaii I heard lots of reggae. My little brother Marty also went through a reggae period when I was living at home (in the mid 80s) where all he listened to was reggae and most of those bands I haven't heard from since. Anyway, his voice is easy on the ears. I was also surprised at some of the songs on this CD, they were kind of polished and there were ballad-type songs without a reggae beat to be found. My favorite songs were "Time to Go Home," I talk about it below, and "Hello Bonjour." "Hello Bonjour" has a dance beat but a message of loving people from all over the world no matter how they greet you.

I struggled with whether this was a keeper or not. My gut reaction the first time through was yes, then today, I was thinking, how will I define a keeper? What if I keep every single CD? (Those who know me know I am not a keeper of a lot of stuff.) The answer I had was it has to be a CD that I will listen to over and over again. I had this revelation this morning that this was not that kind of a CD for me. Then I was discusing this CD with a coworker, who also owns it, and telling him I probably wouldn't keep it. He asked if it was because it was political. That woke me up a little. Even though I could hear every word Michael Franti was saying I wasn't really listening. I spent the rest of the day listening harder. I also found the lyrics tucked in a little pocket of the CD. From what I could tell this CD's inspiration was Franti's trip to Iraq. Then it all kind of fell into place. This is why Ross bought this CD. The first song in the CD, "Time to Go Home," starts with the words "Those who start wars never fight them and those who fight wars never like them." Then later in the chorus he sings, "Don't take our boys away no, don't take our girls away no, it's time to go home." The CD ends with the saying "Believe in coexistence." Ross was a big peacenik, I know everyone is surprised by that. What Franti is singing about was right up his alley and he would have bought this CD for that reason alone. It got me thinking, maybe I should keep a CD if it has a message I can believe in. This one sure does. I am keeping it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSeuLsNV4CA

Bring It Back by Mates of State

This CD is definitely a keeper for me. I just bought their latest CD, Re-Arrange Us, a few weeks ago. I was struck by how similar they sound but I like the Bring It Back CD better. There are more songs on it that I like and there is more variety in the types of songs on their older CD. I love the man and woman's harmonies together on the songs, her voice is really pretty too, and I love how catchy the songs are. They tend to repeat phrases in their songs a lot which make them really catchy and also help old people like me remember the words because I hear them over and over.
I have 3 favorite songs. The first one, not in any kind of order, is Fraud of the 80s, why the song is called that I couldn't figure out. It has a cool sound though that might be derived from old 80s songs so maybe that is where it came from. The next one is Like U Crazy. The main phrase in this song is "I like you crazy." which you have to say is always a good place to start when liking a person. It also has a really catchy beat. Finally Nature and the Wreck is a short, sweet song with just the piano in the background. I think at the end of the song you can hear a baby cooing. How can you not like a song like that? I'm a sap sometimes.
I couldn't figure out why Ross bought this CD. It sure isn't his normal brand of music. Knowing him though he heard a song by them on the Current and just had to have it. That was his usual M.O. He heard a song, liked it, then bought the CD. No wonder he had so many CDs. Thank goodness he got into iTunes and started buying 1 song at a time. I think he kind of missed his junkets to Electric Fetus where he would come home with a stack of 8 to 10 CDs that he had bought. After awhile I had to cut him down to less than or equal to 5 CDs. I was pretty heartless.

How it started

When Ross died he left me with many wonderful memories, tons of t-shirts, baskets of fleece pants, and a grip, as he liked to say, (meaning, in 1990s Minneapolis Public Schools-speak, a lot) of CDs. Remember he wasn't always the hippest with his lingo.

I wasn't quite sure what to do with them. Should I keep them even though I didn't know what half of the CDs sounded like or even who some of the musicians were? Or should I just sell every single one of them on eBay, not caring that there might be gems amongst all those CDs. Now, you may ask exactly how many is "a grip of CDs"? I don't think I can answer that with a mathematical term for the number in a grip but I can say that he bought enough CDs that if I listen to one CD every day for a year, I will still have CDs of his I haven't listened to. Thus came the idea for this blog. I would listen to one CD a day for the year, blog about it and come to a decision on whether to keep it or not.

There were some topics that came up though after thinking of this idea. Which CDs should I listen to? I own a lot more CDs than 365 so I decided to limit it to CDs that Ross bought for himself and for which I had nothing to do with the purchase. Lucky for you we won't be talking about my "Best Of Def Leppard" CD he bought me for my birthday a couple of years ago. They will always be my "no apologies" band. It just conjures up high school memories. But I digress. I also wasn't sure what to write about this CD. Would it be just a free form entry? Would I have some kind of theme? I could write all kinds of drivel unless given a direction and even then it is probably still drivel. I was given some direction by friends as to how to make this easiest on me. I would answer 3 burning questions: What is my favorite song? Why do I think Ross bought the CD? and Is it a keeper or eBay all the way? I know he would just be turning in his grave thinking I may be giving away some of these CDs so as I talk about them if it is an eBay one that interests you, let me know and I will pass it on to you. I think more than anything he would want to know his music was going to a good home. Finally the big question, how in the world could I listen to one CD a day and make a decision about it that quickly? I am busy enough as it is! As another friend advised, I needed some time to sit with each CD. Thus I decided that I can't listen to one a day. I find there are some CDs that grow on me the more I listen to them so I will probably do one CD a week. However the blog name wouldn't sound as catchy though if it was "52 CDs and counting." I'm sure someone could easily do that. That's how this all started. Let's see how far I go with it. Feel free to post your comments on the CDs I talk about as well. I love to talk about music even though I am no expert and even better I love to listen to all kinds of music.

One thing Ross did was open my eyes to all kinds of music I had never heard before. I didn't always like it but I listened to it all with an open mind and an open heart. Sometimes I learned to love a CD, even singing along to most tracks, and sometimes I just asked him to turn it down. But I sure did learn a lot from him and for this I will always be grateful.