Big Star- Keep an Eye on the Sky (2009) Box Set (4 Discs) MP3 & FLAC

"Caught a glance in your eyes and fell through the skies."

It is very difficult to suss out fact from legend when it comes to a band like Big Star; as a result, it is understandable that many wonder if the few records Alex Chilton & co. managed to produce during the brief life-span of the band could ever actually measure up to the level of critical devotion directed their way for the past twenty-five years or so since being "re-discovered." Often, these Big Star skeptics claim that the band lacked originality, that they were, more or less, simply derivative of mid to late sixties Brit-Rock. While it is true that bands such as The Beatles, The Kinks and The Who are prominent touchstones, particularly on Big Star's debut, #1 Record, such critiques tend to ignore the fact that Big Star not only transformed these influences into something entirely their own, but at the time they were doing so- the early-seventies- Jangle-Pop could not have been more out of step with the music mainstream. Rather than looking backward, a better reference point for the artistic credibility of the band is the enduring influence their three albums continue to have nearly four decades later. Keep an Eye on the Sky, which contains 55 previously unreleased tracks, constitutes a worthy addendum to Big Star's original releases, and delivers on decades-old rumors that this consummate studio band left behind some forgotten treasures. Chief among these are "Motel Blues," Chilton's cover of the Loudon Wainwright III song and several demos from the ramshackle recording sessions for 3rd, many of which feature Chilton alone on acoustic 12-string; these are simply stunning. Perhaps the highlight of the set is a live show, presented in its entirety, that was recorded in Memphis in 1973. In contrast to the pristine studio recordings, Big Star as a live band was a more informal (sometimes shambolic) affair, but no less brilliant for it. Despite its considerable focus on rarities and alternate mixes, Keep an Eye on the Sky also functions as an effective career retrospective, which makes this an essential listen for the curious and the converted alike.

Orange Juice- "Rip It Up" Video (1982)

just a taster in advance of an avalanche

Paisley Underground Series, #5: The Dream Syndicate- The Days of Wine and Roses (1982) MP3 & FLAC

"It's not fair to put you against all the years behind me."

One of the most enduring and darkly brilliant albums to emanate from the Paisley Underground scene, The Dream Syndicate's The Days of Wine and Roses takes up residence in the fertile and far too infrequently explored intersection between the darker side of late-sixties psych-rock and the brooding atmospherics of Post-Punk. Drawing on diverse influences such as The Byrds, Jimi Hendrix, Television, Velvet Underground, Joy Division and The Clash, the original incarnation of The Dream Syndicate were very much a band out of time and place in the early-eighties; as such, their debut, full of Karl Precoda's striking feedback-drenched guitar-work coupled with Steve Wynn's deadpan vocals, was quite a contrast to the synth-heavy approach many Post-Punk bands were adopting at the time. The Days of Wine and Roses begins with one of the most memorable songs of the Paisley Underground: "Tell Me When It's Over," an anthemic piece of dark Jangle-Pop featuring some great guitar interplay between Wynn and Precoda and Wynn's vocal approximation of a young Lou Reed. Another standout is the insistently sprawling title track, a White Light / White Heat-style epic, which gives Precoda plenty of room to stretch out and coax some amazing sounds from his notoriously cheap guitar. Neo-Psychedelia doesn't come much finer than this- one of the truly essential Paisley Underground albums.

Portishead- Numb EP (1994) / Sour Times (Nobody Loves Me) EP (1994) MP3 & FLAC

"'Cause nobody loves me, it's true, not like you do."

The Numb and Sour Times (Nobody Loves Me) EPs house the first two singles culled from Portishead's stunningly original debut, Dummy. Comprised of both non-LP tracks and significantly different versions of the title tracks, these EPs provide an interesting and often rewarding addendum to the album proper. On the Numb EP, "Numbed in Moscow" treats the title track to a cooler, more emotionally detached mix, while "A Tribute to Monk & Canatella" takes Portishead in a noir-jazz direction; the results are mixed, but it's never anything less than intriguing. The clear highlight on the Sour Times (Nobody Loves Me) EP is "Theme from 'To Kill a Deadman'," one of the best non-LP tracks Portishead has lingering in the backwaters of its discography.

Portishead- Dummy (1994) MP3 & FLAC

"Love don't always shine through."

Seventeen years and countless imitators after the fact, Portishead's debut, Dummy, still sounds as fresh as the day it was released, which is a testament to the album's originality and stark emotional depth. Something of a unique mash-up of Hip-Hop-inspired beats and samples, singer-songwriter pathos, psychedelic overtones, and electronic-based sonic manipulations, this unapologetically moody classic, while categorized as "Trip-Hop," is actually genre-defeating from start to finish. Dummy also marks the first appearance of one of the most hauntingly beautiful voices of the past thirty years, and it is Beth Gibbons' contributions to Portishead's sonic palette that consistently allows the music to transcend the sum of its parts. Nowhere is this more in evidence than on "Glory Box," a seductive slow-burner, which combines Gibbons at her soulful best with sampled strings and distorted guitar to create an indelible melodic effect. Gibbons oscillates between several vocal styles during the course of this song, while showing the ability to express myriad emotions through the simplest of inflections. Truly, one of the most stunning releases of the nineties (a decade not particularly known for stunning releases).

Ride- Smile (1990) MP3 & FLAC

"And when I see you sliding past, I make my plans, and then my plans slip through my fingers just like sand."

While My Bloody Valentine is often cited as the pinnacle of the Shoegaze movement of the late eighties and early nineties, Ride's first smattering of EPs and their debut full-length, Nowhere, are nearly as good, with the added bonus of pushing the "wall of sound" approach into regions more visceral and less fussed-over than their contemporaries. On Smile, a compilation of the band's first two EPs for Creation, the influence of Psychocandy is palpable, and like The Jesus and Mary Chain, Ride are careful to wrap their layers of distortion around sugar-sweet garage-pop gems. For example, on one of the album's obvious highlights, "Chelsea Girl," Ride tap into a mid-sixties garage-psych sound but take it somewhere new with heavily distorted guitar squalls and Loz Colbert's manic drumming. While "Silver" heads into darker neo-psychedelic territory, "Furthest Sense" nods in the direction of My Bloody Valentine, but whereas that band buries melody in layers of guitar refraction, Ride pushes the song's pop structure to the foreground. Though Ride's debut album (and masterpiece) is more fully-formed and better recorded, the EPs comprising Smile should by no means be overlooked.

Talk Talk Series, #5: Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man- Time Out of Season (2002) / Live Barcelona (2003) MP3 & FLAC

"If only you had told her the words to unfold her long ago."

During Portishead's interminably mysterious ten year hiatus, Beth Gibbons collaborated with ex-Talk Talk bassist Paul Webb (aka Rustin Man) on something approaching a solo project, which musically is quite a departure from her better-known work. In the context of Portishead's sample-heavy musical approach, Gibbons vocals, while serving as emotional catalyst for the music, really only comprise one treated element among many in the mix, which is, of course, one of the things that make their sound so distinctive. In contrast, on Time Out of Season, Gibbons' vocals step out front and center, something which accentuates their trademark pathos but adds a fragile nakedness not heard from her on previous recordings. The mood of the album is one of ethereal desolation, as Webb and Portishead's Adrian Utley provide a mostly acoustic backing that moves back and forth between folk and jazz inflected arrangements. For example, on the haunting lead track, "Mysteries," Gibbon's heartbreaking vocals are accompanied by a simple acoustic guitar arpeggio; however, it is Gibbons' multi-tracked backing vocals that take the song to another level, giving it an eerie nursery rhyme-like feel. "Drake," true to it's title, sounds like a lost track from Nick Drake's Bryter Layter, with Gibbons' laconic delivery and the funereal Jazz arrangement tapping in to Drake's unique brand of despair. It's truly a shame that (so far), Time Out of Season stands as a one-off collaboration because the album is brimming with intriguing possibilities that could have only been pursued to more stunning results on a second go-around. Quietly devastating indeed!

Gang of Four- Entertainment! (1979) MP3 & FLAC -For reindeer man-

"The past lives on in your front room, the poor still weak, the rich still rule."

Nowhere is the ethos of Post-Punk better summed up than on Gang of Four's iconic debut, Entertainment! Sonically speaking, Andy Gill's razor sharp staccato guitar attack seems out to destroy every conventional assumption about what a lead guitarist can do in the context of a rock song. His is a trebly untampered sound that eschews both cock-rock excess and Punk-Rock minimalism while exploring a dynamically rhythmic approach that remains influential to this day. Lyrically, Entertainment! is subversive through and through, and I mean this in the best possible sense of the term. Always more interested in informing through ideology critique than in converting, Gang of Four reject the nihilistic anti-political stance that had come to be a Punk-Rock cliché by 1979, instead focusing their lyrics on the ideological constructs of late capitalism. For example in "Not Great Men," the band critiques the "personality theory of history," in which historical events and their causes are interpreted through the actions of those in power rather than taking into account the role of the working class as a force for historical change. In "Guns Before Butter," the target is the ideology of nationalism, a topic perhaps even more relevant today than it was in the late seventies, for what better way to describe the mood of post-911 America than the line, "Just keep quiet, no room to doubt"?  Entertainment! stands as the masterpiece of one of the most innovative and uncompromising bands of the rock era, and if you haven't heard this, better now than never.

Jesse Sykes and The Sweet Hereafter- "The Air Is Thin" Video (2007)

An absolutely incomparable voice that too few people have heard. Let's fix that...

Paisley Underground Series, #4: Various Artists- Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop: May 24, 1987 (1994) MP3 & FLAC

"It's just the wasted years so close behind."

Although it is rarely mentioned, the thriving underground music scene in Athens, GA. during the late seventies and early eighties was, in many ways, a guiding inspiration for L.A.'s Paisley Underground. The Athens scene, much like the L.A. underground at the time, was comprised of an eclectic and closely-knit mix of groups, many of whom were instrumental in bringing, among other things, Jangle-Pop and Big Star-style Power-Pop back into vogue in America. One of the most influential of these bands was R.E.M., who had released what is arguably the holy grail of American alternative music, the timeless Murmur. Throughout the eighties, it was not unusual for bands from both scenes to find themselves billed together on tours, which is how Steve Wynn of Paisley Underground legends The Dream Syndicate and Peter Buck of R.E.M. struck up a friendship. One of the fruits of this artistic cross-pollination is Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop: May 24, 1987, an informal acoustic concert featuring Steve Wynn, Peter Buck and Michael Stipe from R.E.M., Natalie Merchant, and Kendra Smith from Opal. There are many gems to be had here, chief among them are R.E.M.'s contributions, which are early versions of songs that would appear on their soon-to-be released breakthrough album, Document. For example, "The One I Love" is presented as a gloomy acoustic 12-string dirge, while "Disturbance at the Heron House," here in acoustic form, provides Stipe plenty of aural space to work his esoteric magic. Steve Wynn's material seems a little more "off the cuff," but a true highlight is his collaboration with former band-mate Kendra Smith on "Too Little Too Late."  Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop: May 24, 1987 is by no means the place to start with any of these artists, but it does capture an interesting, and occasionally beautiful, moment in time. Wish I had been there (not sure why I wasn't since I was living in the area at the time).

The Fall- Live at the Witch Trials (1979) Expanded Edition (Bonus Disc) MP3 & FLAC

"He spits in the sky. It falls in his eye, and then he gets to sitting, talking to his kitten."

Misanthropy can be a compelling form of artistic expression when it avoids taking itself too seriously, and nowhere is this more in evidence than on The Fall's sprawling, ironically titled debut, Live at the Witch Trials. Falling somewhere between the aggressive anti-aestheticism of Punk and the dark artiness of Post-Punk (and somehow embodying the best traits of both), while also verging into the experimental excess of Kraut-Rock, The Fall, in their original incarnation, were a shambolic, frightening, convention-flaunting enigma masquerading as a Punk band a year late to the party. All of these elements are clearly on display on one of the album's standout tracks, "Two Steps Back," with its strange, simplistic keyboard part juxtaposed to the ominous atonal guitar tearing through the mix, and then there's Mark E. Smith chant-singing through what sounds like a bored sneer. Also well-worthy of mention is "Music Scene," a funk-based song that anticipates Gang of Four's early eighties material, and features Smith lyrically skewering- you guessed it- the music industry. A deserving target if you ask me. Live at the Witch Trials is not for the faint-of-heart, but if you have even a passing interest in the UK Punk movement of the late seventies, this iconoclastic gem is essential listening.

The Flying Burrito Brothers- "Christine's Tune" (1969)

The holy grail of country-psych...

The Church- Untitled #23 (2009) MP3 & FLAC

"On our way to crush the revolution, camp by a lake in the blackened lands, dealing out love and retribution, dealing out the deadman's hand."

While The Church's recent creative resurgence had certainly produced some good albums, most notably Uninvited Like Clouds and Forget Yourself, no one could have suspected that the band had an album like Untitled #23 in them, a psych-rock masterpiece as essential as anything else in their brilliant and expansive discography. Since reforming in the late-nineties, The Church had been slowly moving into more proggy territory and away from the pysch-laced Jangle-Pop of their best known work. While the results were always intriguing, there was a lingering sense of sameness about these albums. With Untitled #23, something of a balance has been struck by returning to the gauzy psychedelia of albums such as Priest=Aura, while integrating the sonic innovations of more recent albums. For example, on "Operetta," Steven Kilbey offers up one of his trademark nuanced vocal performances, treading, as always, the fine line between detached beauty and sublime narcosis, while the band paints a soundscape of restrained yet yearning psychedelic grandeur. This is a song an earlier incarnation of the band wouldn't have been able to pull off quite so evocatively. Conversely, "Dead Man's Hand" sounds like classic Church, catchy, dynamic, and cathartic, though it must be said that the famed guitar interplay between Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper is far more subtle in nature here, going for texture over serpentine exploration. A wonderful surprise from a criminally under-appreciated band.

Paisley Underground Series, #3: The Long Ryders- State of Our Union (1985) MP3 & FLAC

"I was thinking about the late Tim Hardin (looking for Lewis and Clark)."

Integrating country music and psychedelia was nothing new in the early eighties; after all, the late sixties bore witness to the Gram-era Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and Country Joe & The Fish to name but a few, and fifteen years later, the Paisley Underground scene followed suit in equally fine fashion. While there were a lot of bands attempting to resurrect the ghost of Gram Parsons, none came closer than The Long Ryders whose mix of cowpunk, country, Jangle-Pop, and Psychedelia set the stage in every conceivable way for the "No Depression" movement of the nineties. State of Our Union was the band's second full-length and first major label release. While there is a palpable production sheen cast over the proceedings, it ultimately lends this brilliant set of songs a certain punchiness that serves the music well. The album kicks off with a stone-cold classic in "Looking for Lewis and Clark," a powerful political anthem that sets out to punch a few holes in Reagan's "morning in America" myth. Another standout is "Here Comes That Train Again," a gorgeously spacious piece of Jangle-Pop that virtually embodies Gram Parson's vision of cosmic American cowboy music. State of Our Union is one of the most beautiful and enduring albums to emerge from the Paisley Underground scene as well as one of the most eloquently progressive albums of the eighties. Not to be missed.

The Go-Betweens- Before Hollywood (1983) Expanded Edition (Bonus Disc) MP3 & FLAC

"In the dark when the shadows have their way, a finger's a chimney and the moon's on fire."

Arguably one of the greatest bands of the Post-Punk era, The Go-Betweens hit full creative stride on their second LP, Before Hollywood, an uncompromising, beautiful and consistently inventive slice of darkly-lit anti-pop. Headed by two gifted songwriters, Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, each of whom pulled the band in different thematic directions, one of the most striking things about Before Hollywood is the way it all coheres so seamlessly together, achieving, in the process, a sustained and unconventionally melodic attack on pop music paradigms. While "Cattle and Cane," is certainly deserving of all the attention it gets as one of the best songs of the decade, it makes it easy to overlook just how consistently brilliant the entirety of Before Hollywood actually is. For example, the title track, with its spiky, spidery guitar figure and Forster's "Tom Verlaine but the words make sense" vocal delivery is a reminder of how melancholy this band could be. Conversely, on "That Way," the band unleashes some first-rate Jangle-Pop (complete with a swirling psychedelic organ in the background) that rates with anything The Church were doing at the time. Before Hollywood, as the title ironically suggests, is the sound of a hungry, impossibly talented band about to scale some great artistic heights.

FL33t Foxes- H3lplessness Blu3s (2011) MP3 & FLAC

"I was raised up believing I was somehow unique, like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes."

While a cursory listen to the Fleet Foxes' long-awaited and much-delayed follow-up to their brilliant debut album suggests that not much has changed in terms of the band's sonic approach, those who dig beneath the ornate surface of Helplessness Blues will discover a journey into darker, often existential, territory. With Phil Ek once again manning the production booth, Fleet Foxes inhabit an even more expansive reverb-drenched soundscape than before, lending both a bottomless and timeless feel to their meticulously constructed baroque-folk compositions. Whereas their debut album tended to be a bit abstract lyrically (which put a lot of responsibility on the music itself to convey the album's emotional power), Helplessness Blues finds Robin Pecknold venturing into singer-songwriter territory; for example, in "Blue-Spotted Tail," Pecknold ponders humankind's greatest yet utterly unanswerable question: "Why in the night sky are the lights on?"  On "Helplessness Blues," one of the most powerful songs the Fleet Foxes have yet recorded, a similarly reflective existential theme emerges, as Pecknold peels away the illusions we cling to in order to give a vestige of form to our lives in the face of inconceivable randomness: "If I know only one thing, it's that everything I see of the world outside is so inconceivable, often I barely can speak."  While Helplessness Blues does depart occasionally from the soaring harmonies that have become the band's trademark (there are several tracks with Pecknold playing lone folk troubadour), overall, their sophomore album manages to improve on one of the best debut albums in recent memory. Go out and support this band.

Talk Talk Series, #4: Talk Talk- It's My Life (1984) MP3 & FLAC

"If I could buy my reasoning, I'd pay to lose."

After touring their debut album, The Party's Over, Talk Talk fell silent for more than a year except for the stand-alone single, "My Foolish Friend." During this time, Mark Hollis was busy laying the groundwork for the band's unprecedented journey into artistic iconoclasm, which would yield some of the most progressive music of the rock era and lead the band, ineluctably, toward its commercial demise. Hollis' first step was to dismiss keyboard player Simon Brenner (ostensibly to move away from synth-based pop of the first album) and bring in Tim Friese-Greene, who had an impressive engineering and production pedigree. Friese-Greene and Hollis quickly developed a writing partnership that would produce some of the best songs on It's My Life, including the title track and "Dum Dum Girl." Just as important, however, was Friese-Greene's influence on the band's studio sound; while ample use of synthesizers is made on It's My Life, acoustic instruments begin to play a much larger role, something that would only increase with each successive album. In addition, it is clear that Hollis learned a thing or two from Roxy Music's Avalon in the intervening time between albums, as his vocals have taken on a laconic Bryan Ferry-inspired croon in places. Perhaps Talk Talk's most distinctive sonic innovation during the It's My Life sessions is the subtle use of World Beat elements to give some of the songs a unique hybrid feel that makes them quite memorable. An obvious example of this is the title track, which, on the surface, is about a love affair gone bad, but the various synth-based sound-effects and Hollis' remarkable vocal performance give the song a far more universal connotation. While It's My Life is a transitional album through and through, it represents a significant step away from the thin new-romantic veneer that hampered the debut album and also sets the stage for an even bigger artistic leap forward on their next album, The Colour of Spring.