Leica M8, Summilux 50, Mount Moran seen from Oxbow Bend, Grand Teton National Park.
In Anticipation Of The Pink Mountaintops’ “Outside Love”
Posted in Music with tags Pink Mountaintops, Tulip Frenzy on April 24, 2009 by johnbuckley100Will The Pink Mountaintops “Outside Love” Be The Album Of The Year?
Posted in Music on April 23, 2009 by johnbuckley100Sure sounds like it’ll be in contention. Due out May 5th, it defintely has the best album cover — Outside Love as a 1940s-era first edition novel, wrapped in blue velvet. It sounds nothing like their earlier work, and a forensic examiner would be hard-pressed to find even trace elements of Black Mountain’s DNA. Good Lord, far from the PM’s early Pere Ubu skronk, the synth-driven precursor to Black Mountain’s “Angels”, their MySpace page reveals Stephen McBean and company sounding far closer to Matthew Camirand’s Blood Meridian. This is a Gastown hoe-down, or the Felice Brothers with good voices and something to say. I’ve thought of McBean’s ensembles as music from urban lofts, but on this one, you can see mist lifting off fields pressed against the Vancouver Straits. Sure seems like a week after we get to listen to the new Dylan album, our earbuds will be cranking Pink Mountaintops.
(Wanna hear it? See that Pink Mountaintops link over there. Yeah, that’s the one.)
Update: iTunes sez April 28th’s the day. Yippee.
King Khan Conquers The Steppes With “What Is”
Posted in Music with tags King Khan And The Shrines, Tulip Frenzy on April 23, 2009 by johnbuckley100The arrival of King Khan and the Shrines’ What Is makes a lad think of that first time he ever heard The Fleshtones, of Sun Ra being draped with his multicolored cloak, of Mitch Ryder shifting into overdrive. If through some magic spell, King Khan was transported back in time to witness the Beatles’ first tour of America, he’d be the guy who left after the Sonics opened for them. So it’s basically a reissue of a 2007 German album, and some of the songs — like the amazingly boss “(How Can I Keep You) Outta Harms Way” — already showed up on the compilation The Supreme Genius of King Khan and The Shrines — this is still the garage rock platter of the season. The very hip know the band’s showing up at the 930 Club in DC next week, and from there are expected to levitate to wherever it is that Sun Ra’s Arkestra went after they left this mortal coil. Life’s waaay too short to miss this one.
Getting In A Tulip Frenzy
Posted in Uncategorized with tags Leica M8, Summilux 21mm on April 19, 2009 by johnbuckley100Leica M8, Summilux 21, At Glen Echo Park.
Brian Jonestown Massacre Live At Hi-Fi Bar Album
Posted in Music with tags Brian Jonestown Massacre, Live At The Hi-Fi, Tulip Frenzy on April 19, 2009 by johnbuckley100It was recorded in Melbourne in late August 2008, following a long flight from the European festival circuit, punctuated only by that great set at Terminal 5 in New York, a convenient layover. Anton apologizes for being jet-lagged, but he needn’t have. It’s a great performance, virtually identical to the one Tulip Frenzy witnessed at T5. As with the BJM live these days — maybe moreso on the current tour, what with Matt Hollywood adding another axe to the Branca-esque guitar army — the band’s mostly about the mid-tones, the upthrust from the drums and organ through the four or five layers of guitar. Maybe it’s the choice of songs, but the album is a reminder of the band’s folk-rock core, the strumming middle.
H0w to obtain this rarity: have to go to the BJM website (eyes right, people!) and follow the links to the Hi-Fi store in Melbourne. Took a few tries to make the kludgy website work, but about five days after I ordered it, the unsuspecting USPS dropped this little letter bomb right in my mailbox, which only exploded when I loaded the CD in my computer. Absolutely worth it, not just for completists, but anyone who’s seen the band on this tour and wants to recapture the magic. Note: it includes the as-yet unreleased “Prefab Ambulatory Device,” a future gem.
Song list:
Whoever You Are
Yeah Yeah
Nailing Honey To A Bee
Here It Comes
Vacuum Boots
Who
Hide and Seek
When Jokers Attack
Sailor
A New Low In Getting High
Evergreen
Prefab Ambulatory Device
How Bob Dylan’s Different From His Peers
Posted in Music with tags Bob Dylan, Tulip Frenzy on April 16, 2009 by johnbuckley100Oh, this is bloody perfect, from the 67th Volume of the Bill Flanagan interview, this time excerpted in the HuffPo.
BF: A lot of the acts from your generation seem to be trading on nostalgia. They play the same songs the same way for the last 30 years. Why haven’t you ever done that?
BD: I couldn’t if I tried. Those guys you are talking about all had conspicuous hits. They started out anti-establishment and now they are in charge of the world. Celebratory songs. Music for the grand dinner party. Mainstream stuff that played into the culture on a pervasive level. My stuff is different from those guys. It’s more desperate. Daltrey, Townshend, McCartney, the Beach Boys, Elton, Billy Joel. They made perfect records, so they have to play them perfectly … exactly the way people remember them. My records were never perfect. So there is no point in trying to duplicate them. Anyway, I’m no mainstream artist.
The Tulip Frenzy, 2009
Posted in Uncategorized on April 12, 2009 by johnbuckley100Leica M8, Georgetown, midafternoon, alas with the ISO at 640. 35mm Summilux.
Easter Morn, Tulips Approaching Frenzy
Posted in Uncategorized on April 12, 2009 by johnbuckley100Leica M8, Summilux 21, Cropped.
Getting Closer
Posted in Uncategorized on April 12, 2009 by johnbuckley100Leica M8, 35 Summilux. ISO 640, f/1.4
Tulip Frenzy 