Bau - Silencio (Lusafrica)
Beachy bon-bons from off the coast of Africa where Cesaria’s nest lies. Non-stop groove of multiple string strech-outs by the Rufi no and group. Lots of big and small acoustic stringed stickplay for joy! A bellringer.

Joe Zawinul - Zawinul (Mosaic Remaster)
All time classic back in action re-masterstroked. Joe’s oft-forgotten chamber-fusion template with delicious dual-Rhodes (Herbie) dialog, double-drums and Miroslav,Woody and Wayne to boot. I can see Joe’s head bobbing and ducking thinking “is this THE shit or what?” See where Miles got it?

Emerson, Lake, & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery (Shout Factory Remaster)
Searing prog gemstones re-aroused by Factory du’ Shout. The boys make haste to blow out any clogged neo-classical-rock arteries in this scorching testament to squelching Moogs , sword-snapped snares: the power... the glory. Lake’s pre-nasal drip propels the sensitive oblique lyricism past Yes’ territory in this archetype never equaled.

Hector Zazou - Quadri & Cromie (Materiali Sonori)
The man. Favorite “electronica” in years. Deeply interesting structures of telematic kisses, elusively elaborate tones, clicks, phrases, un-loopage, sonic framework, composition, focus. With a DVD of digital painting by Bernard Caillaud. Wow.

Mark Isham - Film Scores: In the Valley of Elah, Reservation Road (Focus,Varese)
Reverb-drenched atmospheric backgrounds that say what they mean. Harmonic flowers fill out the narrative of drony strings, bubbling bass, and trumpet time-travel. Brooding and mischievous decorative art.

Denis Smalley - Sources/Scenes (Empreintes Digitales)
Fascinating blend of organic electroacoustic tones and manipulated natural sounds, rubbed the right way. Syn- symphonic chronicle in effect. Massage your cones with these woofs of wow and swell tweets aplenty.

Chris Herbert - Mezzotint (Kranky)
Moody drone beds and washes that ebb and flow with great reposing and instinctive introspection. Harmonies come and go in the otherworldly home base of safe and stoic. Could be way-good.

Alan Pasqua - My New Old Friend (Cryptogramophone)
Masterful piano trio jazz of the highest order, with ol’ Derek Oles and everlovin’ Pete Erskine. Must be one of the all time great trios. I now trumpet the regal rewards that I reap with each listening. Bill Evans’ seed-pods have matured and taken over the world.

Daphne Oram - Oramics (Paradigm)
Nutty and nice early BBC radiophonic maternal royalty. Great micro-euphonious electro-library thematic nutmeats composed with her own “Oramics” tools and techniques. Innovations like none before.

Christopher Willits/Ryuichi Sakamoto - Ocean Fire (Avex)
Piano/Guitar thrum/Laptop jewel of many layers, like staring into the candle. Sodium brominates for the brain and ticker. Tenstrike.

Bennie Maupin - Jewel in the Lotus (ECM reissue)
Reissue of one of the best neo-chamber jazz nougats of the 70’s or ever. Blended beauty of winds, pianos and percussion dialed into the third eye. Subtle sophistication satiates our whimsy to fly on the ground.

Glenn Gould - Brahms : Piano Intermezzi (Columbia/Sony)
Gorgeous Brahms piano puffs by master Gould. Takes me deep into thought while letting me be free of it. Luscious, pensive studies of some staid science. A monument.

The Shield DVDs
Start with season 1 and don’t stop until you’re all the way through season 6. I love Vick Macky.

Departed DVD
Action drama thriller & a lot of violence. Jack is back again!

Rambo DVD

Lots of action and violence! I think it was the best of John Rambo. He doesn’t get old, he just gets better!

Rocky Balboa DVD
The Rock proves you can still do what you want to do even when you get old…if you have the heart and desire to do it!

No Country for Old Men DVD
It’s a really good movie! I enjoyed this movie a lot, but I don’t think it was the movie of the year.

Tip: Music, sports, cold beer, & hot girls. Big Wangs & the New Spot! Happy Endings where the pizza is great!

Airbourne - Runnin’ Wild
Check out these Aussies! AC/ DC junior. Fun, beer drinkin’, ass kickin’, good time rock!

Flower Traveling Band - Sartori reissue
Amazing early ‘70s Japanese band. Take the best elements of psych, acid, prog & hard rock, add some wasabi and the result is this epic masterpiece. There is nothing wilting about these flowers!

Sucking the ‘70s: Back in the Saddle Again - various artists
Small Stone Record’s compilation of amazing bands doing 70’s covers. Check out: Sasquatch doing “Are You Ready?” (Grand Funk), Puny Human rocking “Crazy Horses” (Donny Osmand - honest!), and Valis tearing-up “Dreamweaver” (Gary Wright).

Kaiser Records Presents: Real Boss Hoss International Stomp-o-Lation - various artists
A compilation of some of the greastest garage rock and roll from the past and the present. Goes well with steak and Newcastle. Featuring the Downliners Sect, the Flakes, Memphis Morticians, the Wilde Beasts, the Masonics, the Boars, and Mondo Topless. Put together by the geniuses at Kaiser Records and the king of L.A. garage rock shows “Real Boss Hoss”.

Cosmic Voodoo - Vertigo
The pioneers of So-Cal psychobilly blast a nasty album of psycho punk-o-billy a decade too late. Featuring ex-Tiger Army bassist Jeff Roffredo on bass and vocals by Mike Hansen. Early year “Doll- Hut” residents will tell you scary tales of this band.

The Memphis Morticians - Primitive Trashman and 13 Other Love Songs
A throw back, Lo Fi garage and roll must have. Memories of the Mummies, come flooding back when the New York 4 combine one of my favorite albums of all time.

Kaiser Records Presents: Soundtrack to Oblivion - various artist
21 cuts of psychobilly mayhem. From Barnyard Ballers, Evil Devil, Asmodeus, Gutter Demons, and the legends themselves… Batmobile. Keep Yer ears open for the caravans and Willie Vanilli tracks… you will be reborn.

Bamboula - Guilty Pleasures
14 tracks of the new kings of California psychobilly. The Miller brothers tear this album a new hole. If you’ve ever hit yourself in the shin with a hammer, this record’s is for you…it hurts people!!!

tip: Real Boss Hoss & the Eye Booking Shows, Kaiser Records, and Edmonton Oilers hockey.

Burial - Untrue
If the heart makes a sound when it breaks, this is it. The hauntingly tender tweakedout vocals, massive basslines and stark two-step beats & clicks stick in my mind
forever… The album is best listened to as a whole from beginning to end. This is the soundtrack to a rainy day in London, spent staring out the window & wondering why she’s gone.

M.I.A. - Kala
This album is the perfect example of how any setback should be seen as a possible blessing in disguise. M.I.A. was supposed to make this entire album with Timbaland, but since our moronic government deemed her some sort of terrorist threat and wouldn’t let her in the country, instead she took her advance money and used it to travel, collaborating with different artists all over the world on each track. Although I normally love Timbo’s production, the lone track she made with him is the least interesting song on this album. The rest of the tracks are so fresh and different, incorporating so many world sounds, from Bollywood with a crazy bird squawk to Africa with an AK to Australia with a freakin’ didjereedoo. And yet it still sounds like M.I.A., it’s still bangin, on every track she’s still the booty-shakin revolutionary, talkin bout third world democracy, still pullin’ up the people. If you love M.I.A., also check out Rye Rye (myspace.com/tharealryerye) and Santogold (myspace.com/santogold)

The Hood Internet - The Mixtape Volume One
When my friend Jessy told me to try eating fruit with hot sauce all over it, I was like, “Girl, you CRAZY.” But then I tried it and it’s great. You can get it from street vendors here in L.A. The Hood Internet is kind of like that – it sounds crazy at fi rst, but: ghetto gangsta hip hop + indie rock = DELICIOUS. How they do that? Some favorite tracks: “Some Cut Like a Knife” (Trillville feat. Cutty vs. The Knife) “That’s That Whirlwind” (Snoop Dogg feat. R. Kelly vs. Architecture in Helsinki) “its E.S.P. Bitches” (Swizz Beats vs. Deerhoof)

Girl Talk - Night Ripper
I know this is so last year but it’s still killing me. I call him DJ ADD: The undisputed heavyweight champion of Mashup. He takes mashup to another level – not just
combining two songs together, but blending ten different pieces of songs all together to form one. And he never loses the fl ow of the beat. I’ve heard other artists try to do this and it sounds disjointed & dissonant. But Girl Talk fl ows from beginning to end. This is the disc you want if you have a jello shots party & no DJ. Press play, Get Crunk!!

Last.fm and Pandora
I TOLD y’all about www.last.fm and www.pandora.com, but you keep sleepin. Stop doubting me and get on it!! Not only have I discovered all kinds of great music I never heard before, I’ve also made friends in six different countries. Did I mention it’s free and there’s no frickin commercials? What you waiting for?

Dubstep !!!
Although it’s been around in the UK for years, I just discovered this music, & it’s killing me!!! Crazy modulated SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE BASS lines, 2-step
& stutter-step beats, dubby synths, glitchy bits, Sci-Fi samples… I think I died and went to heaven!! It sounds like the future… like Robot War!!! Darth Vader on your ass! Ask me for a mix CD! Some favorite compilations: “1O Tons Heavy”, “Dubstep Allstars Vol.05”, “FabricLive.32: Tayo”, “The World’s Heaviest Dubstep, Grime & Bass”. Dubstep links: www.smogla.com, myspace.com/purefi lthdubstep, myspace.com/goldensoundz, www.last.fm/group/DubStep

Documentaries
Documentaries have become my favorite form of film. You can find so much information in documentaries that is not reported anywhere else. These filmmakers are going out there and covering the stories the corporate controlled “mainstream media” is failing us on. If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself... Of course you already know about “Sicko” and “An Inconvenient Truth.” But there’s more: watch these now:

• The Corporation
• Loose Change (2nd Edition)
• Favela Rising
• Maxed Out
• Life+Debt
• The Future of Food
• Enron: The Smartest Guys
• in the Room
• Who Killed The Electric Car?
• Control Room
• Why We Fight
• The Big Buy:
• Tom DeLay’s Stolen Congress
• Born Into Brothels
• Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers
• Wal Mart: The High Cost of Low Price

tip: Are you registered to vote yet? Are you registered at your current address? Do It NOW!!! Pick up the form here at Amoeba, we’ll mail it for you!!

There Will Be Blood DVD and soundtrack by Jonny Greenwood
I had an ‘adequate’ context in prepping myself to enjoy the fi lm, despite my hesitations regarding PT Anderson’s filmography. Daniel Day Lewis being the main attraction, for one, and then there was my new-found obsession with all things California, having recently transplanted myself here from New York-via-the- Midwest. Then, as a sidenote, there was the existential crisis I was experiencing in the actual space of the theater, having braved seeing the movie all by my lonesome. It was just me and the empty rows surrounding, which had quite an interesting impact in the dialogue of experiencing the film. Ha! Anyway. Anderson’s past work has honestly been a drag to me, with the exception of Boogie Nights, really. But he succeeded in lending to the fact that an artists’ past work has little to no relevance in the weight and outcome of a new endeavor. As a movie director more so than any other genre of art I feel that that’s a bit more complex to accomplish. Everything about the film is so primitive and minimal - yet truly exquisite - from the raw acting to the aesthetics of the historical period detailing. Almost shocking next to something like Punch Drunk Love... which was indeed stylistically eccentric and unique but kinda silly for my taste. But if anything, seeing BLOOD has actually moved me to appreciate his other films in a roundabout way.... not in content, but in concept. Anderson’s mania with California the Concept and his highly abstracted metaphor of the age-old gesture of ‘going West’ is truly remarkable and rather downplayed in the critics’ world in my humble opinion. Lewis’ Plainview character embodies American ambition and this ‘manifest destiny’ in its symbolic relation to death and decay, recalling many epic legends in which, mythically speaking, the sun “descends westward into a country of the dead from whence there is no return.” Anderson’s movies are the Cult of California visualized in all its overblown chimercial glory. Destinal promise which has yet to come. Kafka’s penal colony in which the oil derrick is the torture device. Donner dinner parties with Tom Cruise at the head of the table. Chaplin’s Gold Rush without the Humanity. Like Mark Twain’s ‘Californian’s Tale’, which is about pioneers hanging on to their dreams after the gold rush. Twain writes that “Round about California in that day were scattered a host of these living dead men-- pride-smitten poor fellows, grizzled and old at forty, whose secret thoughts were made all of regrets and longings--regrets for their wasted lives, and longings to be out of the struggle and done with it all.” Also, existential matters of integrity (stance against corporate monopoly), sincerity (questioning matters of religion) and authenticity (disdain for a man who claims to be Plainview’s brother) drives Lewis’ character into the inevitable mental and physical violence that the fi lm leaves us with - which leaves us not only wondering if this grizzly old Daniel Daniel Lewis is actually a BAD man despite his morally frowned upon behaviour.... but also the lingering question to whether these values matter and actually transcend into truth, in face of an inability to love...... it is in this light that Anderson has truly rendered a new fi lm classic. And Jonny Greenwood’s sonic accompaniment. A masterful sense of composition. Disciplined-yetavant modern classical soundtrack masterpiece. With all the looping and the obsessive dissonant strings, one could imagine Madlib if his preoccupation was integral serialism, continuous repetition modes, and fi bonacci sequences as opposed to...uh.... an MPC. Ambient and industrial is the sonic order of the day, also, with the mimicking of machinery and oil drilling. Inspired modern figures like Stockhausen and Gyorgi Ligeti come to mind, channeling the occasional dark and dissonant vibes of the likes of Polish composer Henryk Gorecki. An accomplished soundtrack for an accomplished film.

Voice of the Seven Woods - self-titled (B-Music/Finders Keepers)
For those of you who want to hear the heart-wrenched ramblings of another bearded finger picking twat you might as well move along. But if the heaviness of Six Organs of Admittance, beer drenched vintage ramblings of Welsh crooner Meic Stevens, veracity of Turkish psych-fuzz queen Selda, musical accompaniment of Sergei Paradjanov’s visual masterpieces, and superiority of the likes of Os Mutantes and Ash Ra Tempel appeal to you, all filtered and regurgitated into something totally new and splendid .... then this is certainly the ultimate album you’ve been waiting for.

Heliocentrics - Out There (Now Again)
Malcolm Catto is the brains behind DJ Shadow’s live shows with a backing band (drummer extraordinaire), and many of the Jazzman Records funk compilations. His latest output as Heliocentrics takes those experiences along with the kindred relations of 90s favs Brand New Heavies and UNKLE, melded with Middle Eastern ethnic grooves (a la Salah Ragab) and futuristic Sun Ra-isms. Given this may sound like a recipe to backfire...... but look, just because something aint original it doesn’t mean it aint valid. With that in mind, it makes it A LOT easier to let go and enjoy.

Erykah Badu - Honey 12” (Universal Motown)
Ive two words... she’s back. And Im definitely singing along.

Heavy play and here to stay: INTERPOL : Our Love to Admire (Capitol) and DJ
SHADOW + CUT CHEMIST doing the HARD SELL live Feb 2008 in Los Angeles.

Great Lake Swimmers - Ongiara
Almost every day since its release I awake to the first track “Your Rocky Spine” whispering out of my CD alarm clock. It begins with a haunting banjo line and the words: “I was lost in the lakes and the shapes that your body makes,” ...and I wonder ‘Where am I’? It’s that guy again with the intimate vocals and a love song to the wilds of a northern Canadian landscape, (Tony Dekker, i.e. the band, is based in Toronto). The CD as a whole is sublime, but this track is the one under my skin and in my imagination.

Iron & Wine - The Shepherd’s Dog
Finally, a pulse is discovered and it’s perfect for open roads with stunning scenery.

The Sadies - New Seasons
Think of it as a box of assorted chocolates where some are indescribably delicious.

Stephen Stills - Just Roll Tape
Sparse and soulful.

Band of Bees - Octopus
Completely fun.

The Trailer Park Boys - DVD series
Six volumes of insidious comedy. Either you’ll love it or feel you’ve stepped in something...

Grinderman - Grinderman
Just when we thought that Nick Cave was on track to easing further into middle age becoming the Australian Scott Walker, he throws down the Grinderman album, reminding us once again that he used to be NICK CAVE of THE BIRTHDAY PARTY, the hellion front man of a group that threw together scraps of blues, garage rock, soundtrack jazz and industrial scunge to fashion a sound that continues to reverberate through music. Grinderman are the Bad Seeds broken down to the shock troops of Warren Ellis, Jim Sclavunos and Martyn Casey, and along with Mr. Cave they’ve fashioned a stripped back, fuzzedout sound that blasts out of the speakers with the force of a monster truck driven by meth-addled art school dropouts. Find it, listen to it, and get right with it.

The Good, the Bad and the Queen - self-titled
Yet another project from Blur’s Damon Albarn, but on this one he brings in the fluid, electric backbeat of Fela’s skins man Tony Allen and the crucial depth-charge bass of Paul Simonon from the Clash. The result is an album of darkly hypnotic pop that resonates somewhere between later Blur, Portishead and the Specials second album.

Blonde Redhead - 23
I’ve been a fan of Blonde Redhead since their skronky beginnings as Sonic Youth’s more Euro offspring, and I feel on this album they have really come in to their own with a newer sound that mixes both their older, more aggressive side with a more polished sound they’ve been working with on their two previous albums. The production is wide screen and the songs are some of the best they’ve ever written.

Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
OK, a band that is over 25 year’s old still putting out vital music this far down the road? They’re back down to a 4-piece after the departure of Jim O’Roarke and seem to have taken stock of their sound and boiled it down to what they know they sound like, while still moving forward and writing songs that still make your head twirl. Just as good is the solo album Thurston Moore put out this past year, Trees Outside the Academy. I love how he has brought acoustic instruments into his soundworld, especially the cello.

Savage Republic - 1938
A return of the L.A. Post-punk art-rock band that time seemed to have forgotten. SR’s weird amalgam of metal percussion, detuned guitars, Morricone drama and screamed vocals should have been more influential, (their first album Tragic Figures should be in everyone’s collection), and this album may go towards setting things right. It wanders a little on a couple of songs, but when it hits, it hits hard and is good as anything in their catalog. Just to hear the Savage Republic “sound” back on an album is reason enough to be hopeful about the future. I can’t wait to hear what they do next.

tip: No matter if its vinyl, a CD, a digital fi le or seeing someone perform live, keep music around you and inside of you. We can only bring more love and beauty to this world that desperately needs it.