The Loon by Tapes 'n Tapes

I have this theory: if you listen to a CD for long enough, you will grow to like it. This is the second CD with which I have had that experience. I listened to this CD for the first time a few months ago and hated it. Maybe it was my mood. Maybe it was all of the expectations I had for this CD. This is Tapes 'n Tapes first CD, the one that everyone raved about. It even got them on Letterman. There was huge buzz about this CD when it came out. If you don't know anything about the band, they are a local band, alternative/indie rock. One of the members of the band was from my favorite local band, The Hopefuls. I freely admit I am a groupie of that band. Anyway, I had such high hopes for this CD since I love the Hopefuls and their music. The Hopefuls' music is pop music, its catchy, and they believe in the well placed "whoa, whoa, whoa" or "bop, bop, ba-da." Tapes 'n Tapes' music is nothing like that, its dark, with lots of guitar, although, I can attest to the fact that there is still something catchy about the songs, even though they aren't happy songs. I can now say with conviction, I am keeping this CD. I can't believe that I would ever say that after that first listen went so horribly.

Ironically, I now like the CD so much that I can not pick a favorite song. Every time I listen to it I think I have found a favorite but then the next song will come on and I will think, "I like this song better." If I was forced to pick a favorite I would pick "Insistor" because it was the first song that I liked from the CD. It has a cool beat to it, it starts out sounding a little like an old fashioned western, and then the chorus is more rocking. I put the link for it down below.

I can tell you that Ross bought this because its local and he saw them on Letterman and bought it based on those two things. This was one of his favorite CDs, he kept it in his car, with the other ones he wanted to have on hand. He never saw them live but I know he would've liked them.

By the way, I will soon be truly testing the "Margarita" theory above as I am working my way up to listening to Jethro Tull. If I like that CD, I am publishing my theory and findings in the "Journal for Music Heads." (I'm sure you've heard of it.) Can anyone else cite experiences they have had with my theory? Agreeing with my findings or refuting them?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5g2eUh7TWE

20 All Time Greatest Hits by James Brown

I have spent the last two weeks with some funky brothers; first, Maceo Parker and then the band leader, Mr. James Brown. What can I say about James Brown that everyone doesn't already know? There is more to him than just "I Feel Good." I can attest to that. I have to admit that I wasn't one of his biggest fans before listening to this CD. I don't think I truly could appreciate him from the two songs that I knew him for, the song I mentioned earlier, and "Get Up (Sex Machine)." After listening to this CD to the exclusion of all others, I feel like I have a different perspective. Here are some thoughts on the man.

1) He was much more intelligible when he was younger.
2) He finds a groove with most songs and works it hard. I think that is part of what made his songs successful.
3) Most of his songs have 1 to 5 words in them that he just repeats over and over again. Nothing wrong with that. It just makes it easier for us older people to sing along. Don't have to remember so much.
4) Besides not being overly wordy, he also takes good advantage of sounds, hunh, unh, ow, heh. I only wish I had some kind of way for you to hear what I just wrote.
5) He had more than 1 part for many of this songs. Not sure why you need two parts for a song, why not just start a second song?

My favorite songs were "Think" and "It's a Man's Man's Man's World." I just love the beat in "Think." That one is a great one to do that dance to where you just twist your hips a lot. I love the second song because he says that even though its a man's world, it would mean nothing without a woman or a girl. You got that right, Mr. Brown.

Everyone needs to have some James Brown in their collection and I am pretty sure that is why Ross bought this. I'm keeping this for my collection.


This is James Brown doing "Think."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR2jWRaGuIM

Funk Overload by Maceo Parker

This CD is the epitome of old school funk. For those of you who don't know who Maceo Parker is, and you could've included me in that list a year ago, Maceo is a saxophone player who is most well known for his work in James Brown songs. This isn't James Brown music though. It is funk, not soul. I don't know how you separate the two, but this one is full of horns and even rapping. In it Maceo's son, Corey, does a few raps but nothing like the hip hop you hear now. All of his songs on this CD have a lot of horns, of course, but they also have the back up singers doing the "la, las." Most of the time it is Maceo with back up, sometimes it is Corey, and in one song Maceo does a duet. His sax though plays center stage for most of the songs. I am not a very good writer when it comes to describing music, as you may have noticed, but I can tell you when you hear this music you will want to dance. We saw Maceo Parker about a year ago at the Dakota. They played almost everything from this CD and people in the audience were literally getting out of their seats and dancing, which you don't see at the Dakota very much. They are, in general, a very mellow crowd that likes to appreciate their music sitting down. Well that night it was pretty impossible for people to stay in their seats.

My favorite songs are all of the songs on this CD. It is really hard to pick one. I do have a special place in my heart for "Elephant's Foot." After we went to the Dakota for that show, Ross would play this song all of the time. I thought it was so hilarious. In the song, Maceo teaches a herd of elephants to dance to raise some money. But then the inevitable happens, "Elephant stepped on my foot, you must give elephant a dirty look." What do you do when an elephant steps on your foot? Sing a song about it, naturally. Towards the end of the song the elephants get hungry so he feeds them some of his sax. It is just crazy but that is what music is all about. Suspending your beliefs for just a little while and traveling to a different world.

As you can tell, I am keeping this CD. I am sure Ross had this CD long before the show at the Dakota but after that show he would play it a lot. This is the one of the kinds of music he really enjoyed, jazzy, soulful, and danceable. Music you could get down with your bad self to. I never really listened to the CD when it was on, except for the Elephant song because I couldn't get away from it. It was fun to listen to the whole thing and really appreciate the fun(k) in it.

I couldn't find a YouTube of Maceo doing "Elephant's Foot" but this is he and his son doing "Maceo's Groove."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCQGYp_i2i0

Phantom Blues by Taj Mahal

After listening to the previous Taj Mahal CD, I didn't want to go away with a bad taste in my mouth for the blues and Taj Mahal. So I am doing a two-fer tonight. I looked through Ross's collection and found another CD to listen to. I hoped this would be more of what I was looking for. I was very pleasantly surprised. This CD was what I thought the blues should sound like; harmonica, guitar, sometimes a horn or two, rollicking piano, and some really sad songs about love. That other CD was too happy to be the blues. When I listened to this CD I felt like I was in Famous Dave's at Calhoun Square. Just kidding. I did imagine myself in some dark blues bar, lots of smoke, and a guy with a guitar. That's what this sounds like. All of the songs are really good and I got to the point where I had almost internalized this CD. I woke up one morning and one of the songs was in my head and I couldn't get it out of my head. That's a good thing, I think.

My favorite songs are "Lovin' in my baby's eyes," which is the link at the bottom of the page, and "(You've got to) Love her with a feeling." I like how they talk about love and are a little more respectful about it than in the last CD. That second song is one I have heard before somewhere else but I like this version. I also like the song "Cheatin' on you." It's about this guy who is cheating on his wife and then finds out that the woman he is cheating with is cheating on him. Great irony there. That's what the blues is about too. If you don't treat people right, they aren't going to treat you right. I also like the way all of the songs don't have a "g" at the end of the gerunds. Very ungrammatical of him, almost rebellious. Another thing I like about the blues!

I don't know what it was about the blues that Ross liked. He was never that specific with me. Listening to this CD though I can understand it. It is a kind of music that lends itself to smoky bars and being sad (i.e. blue) but yet there is love and redemption in the songs. People get what they give. I am keeping this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fPVC1Fs58Q

Like Never Before by Taj Mahal

There had been some complaints by one of my followers that he didn't recognize any of the bands I have blogged about. So this is in response to those complaints. You can't say that I don't try to make you all happy. He suggested that I dip into Ross's blues and jazz collection, the music that Ross had turned him on to. I don't know much about either so Taj Mahal was a suggested place to start when listening to the blues. I picked this CD out of the stack and started listening to it. I was a little disconcerted when I first started listening to this CD. It sounded like something from the 80s. That is always a bad sign in my opinion, when you can tell the era a CD came out. I like my CDs to transcend the time period they were recorded in. That may sound like a contradiction of my other reviews but if it is punk music from the 80s, it better come from a band that is known for punk.

This CD sounded like a mix of Billy Ocean (the guy who say "Caribbean Queen") and Randy Newman, and that is not a good mix. There was even a song that sounded like a reggae song, yes, horrors, reggae. I was a little surprised by all of this. This was not what I expected the blues to be at all. Then I looked at the copyright year, 1991. That explained a lot. I am thinking Taj Mahal was going through an experimental stage, trying to ride the 80s wave. Thankfully he didn't try his hand at grunge.

My favorite song on this CD, "Take all the time you need," is the one that I think sounds most like what I think the blues are supposed to sound like. I attached a link to the song on YouTube below. It is about a guy telling his woman to come back to him when she is ready, even though she may have hurt him, he is willing to take her back. Can I say there were a lot of songs that I didn't really like on this CD? I know its the blues and they tend to say what they want but having a song called "Big Legged Mommas are back in style" just irritated me. I am sure he meant it in the nicest way because he likes his women like that but it was a CD killer for me.

I really don't know why Ross bought this one. He probably bought it because it was Taj Mahal but then I wonder what he thought after listening to it. Did he still like it? Really? I wanted so much to like this CD but it just wasn't for me. If anyone would like to give this CD a try, let me know. It's yours.

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

Jubilee by Charlie Parr

We saw Charlie Parr the summer of 2007 at Macy's Day of Music. He played in Orchestra Hall. It was kind of cool because the hall was filled with people. Ross and I were really impressed that he has been able to bring in that many people. We sat down to listen and he was great. I loved the stories he would tell before each song. It was just he and another guy. Charlie played guitar and the other guy played guitar and washboard. The sad thing we later realized was that people were waiting for the orchestra to come on after him. I think he may have won over a few people though. I had thought it curious that so many old people were into him!

Charlie Parr sounds to me like old fashioned country but I have also heard him be described as traditional folk music. As I listened to this CD though I think you could also say that his music sounds like the blues. In fact there is one song on the CD called "Riding Mower Blues." That is one of my favorite songs on the CD. More because it has great lyrics than anything else. It's about this guy who is a drunk and they have taken away the keys to his car so he plans to go to the liquor store on his riding mower (John Deere).
"You can't stop me from drinkin',
took the keys to my Lincoln,
you know I'm gonna get there anyway."
Classic. I have never felt that way but I can imagine there are some people that do. I also like "Jubilee." His wife, or maybe it is his daughter, sings harmony on that song. It's real nice, imagine me saying that with a southern accent.

After we left Orchestra Hall that day in July we got a bite to eat and were heading back to Peavey Plaza. As we were walking Ross spotted Charlie Parr standing next to the WCCO TV studio building. He was just sitting there staring at the people. Ross walked up to him, introduced himself, and started talking to him about how much he liked his set. They talked for a few minutes and then we went back across the street. Ross was so thrilled to talk to him and I think that is part of the reason he bought this CD. He just thought the guy was cool and liked his music.

I, too, liked his set. In fact, I think I like him better live than recorded. I don't know that I need to keep this CD. So if someone would like it and will take good care of it, give it a good home where you listen to it a lot, I would be happy to give it to you. Let me know.

If you haven't noticed I have started to add YouTube videos to the end of my entries. I went back and added one for Michael Franti and will try to add one for the others. This one is Charlie Parr singing "Jubilee." Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlF0aOxANFo