Chris Hurst

2011 Listening Snapshot

2012-01-23T07:25:00.000-06:00

As I'm a slow listener, I've no idea what the best albums of 2011 are at this point. However, there was a poll of the regulars at Christgau's Expert Witness blog, and I didn't want to sit on the sidelines. So, I assembled a relistening list, and, as usual, I didn't get through all of it. Think of what's below as a snapshot and don't take the order too seriously. I don't. For instance, I think the Tune-Yards album (which won the Village Voice poll) is interesting and challenging. At this point, I don't love it, but that may come in time. Or not. I would say the same thing about Das Racist and Shabazz Palaces, which I didn't have time to relisten to. As always, I recommend anything on the list below, although you might want to start with the first two Go! Team albums before this one.

Teddybears - Devil's Music
Todd Snider - Live : The Storyteller
Buck 65 - 20 Odd Years
Terakaft - Aratan N Azawad
Lobi Traore - Bwati Kono
Bottle Rockets - Not So Loud
TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light
Pistol Annies - Hell on Heels
Jay-Z & Kanye West - Watch the Throne
Fountains of Wayne - Sky Full of Holes
Yuck - Yuck
Russian Futurists - The Weight's on the Wheels
Frank Ocean - Nostalgia/ultra
Those Darlings - Screws Get Loose
Drive-By Truckers - Go-Go Boots
Low Cut Connie - Get Out the Lotion
Paul Simon - So Beautiful or So What
Tune-Yards - WhoKill
Middle Brother - Middle Brother
Peter Stampfel & Jeffrey Lewis - Come on Board
Hayes Carll - KAMAG YOYO
Wussy - Strawberry
Eric Church - Chief
Wild Flag - Wild Flag
Stephen Merritt - Obscurities
Blaqstarr - Divine EP
Jens Lekmen - An Argument With Myself
Baseball Project - Volume 2: High and Inside
Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
Carolina Chocolate Drops/Luminiscent Orchestrii
Dave Alvin - Eleven Eleven
Garland Jeffreys - King of In-Between
Raphael Saadiq - Stone Rollin'
Withered Hand - Good News
Let's Wrestle - Nursing Home
The Go! Team - Rolling Blackouts
An Horse - Walls
Lucinda Williams - Blessed

Although I hadn't heard enough of the albums to include them in the above list at the time, I would add Miranda Lambert, the B-52s live, Tom Waits and Jeffrey Lewis to the list. There are some others I expect to add to the list, but I'm in no rush.

The following albums were not included because I couldn't figure out if I was voting for this album or the work they were an echo of (an arbitrary rule I invented for myself):

Wussy - Funeral Dress II
The Rolling Stones: Some Girls (Deluxe Edition Disc Two)
Kate & Anna McGarrigle: Tell My Sister (Demo Disc)
Rockpile: Live at Montreaux
John Prine: The Singing Mailman Delivers
Dessa - Castor the Twin

If you're asking why these are out and the live Todd Snider and Bottle Rockets are in, well, consistency is the hobgoblin of etc. I've only played the second disc of Some Girls after the first disc, and it sounds great then. Is that the proximity of Some Girls rubbing off on it? I love, love, love Wussy's Funeral Dress, so why wouldn't I love an acoustic version of it? There's another Rockpile album? Yes, please, and what do I care if they're rushing the tempos a little. I'm not a critic, just a listener, so I made some rules for the way I played the game. It's my list.

Resubscriptions

2011-12-30T12:29:00.000-06:00

Ah, Rea S. Hederman, I thought you forgot all about me, but there was another missive from my favorite pen pal in my mail box yesterday. It seems my subscription to the New York Review of Books will expire in about three months. Actually, it's five months, but I guess that's about three months to "the premier literary intellectual magazine in the English magazine". And the rates - ten dollars higher than if I resubscribe online. Thanks. Why not send me email? It's not like you don't clog my inbox as it stands. Look, Rea S. Hederman, I expect bad behavior from the New Yorker subscription office, but I thought you were somehow better. Foolish me.

I Swear This Was A Real E-Mail

2011-11-29T14:13:00.000-06:00

Dear Mr Hurst,

We would like to bring to his attention of catalogue of documentaries. We produce documentaries since 1967 and our titles have won awards in festivals around the globe. I am sending the information via we transfer.
All our titles are available in french, and many of them are also available in english.

Okay, English isn't your first language, but spend a little money to have someone proofread your copy.

Not Impressed

2011-11-28T09:11:00.000-06:00

If you want me to buy your product, there are a few points I'd like to make:

1. If your email has links, don't hard code them to use Internet Explorer. It's not my browser of choice. It only annoys me when my computer launches Internet Explorer.

2. Proofread your message. Why is your message missing spaces between words? If you can't be bothered to send me a coherent message, I can't be bothered to send you money.

Jazz in the Sixties, A Belated Postscript

2011-11-08T07:24:00.002-06:00

When I said that "In A Silent Way" was a rock album made by jazz musicians, what I think I meant was that it wasn't just a document of a group of musicians playing a particular piece of music at a particular time. It was a collage pieced together of a number of sessions. If I try to explain this any more, I'll start talking like an idiot. My uneducated assumption is that jazz musicians came to modern recording techniques after popular musicians and "In A Silent Way" was the first of its kind. But I'm not a jazz historian, just the worst kind of amateur.

If you're curious, my votes for jazz albums went to:

John Coltrane - The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
Duke Ellington - And His Mother Called Him Bill
Duke Ellington/Charles Mingus/Max Roach - Money Jungle
Dexter Gordon - Go!
Grant Green - Feelin' the Spirit
Hank Mobley - Soul Station
Oliver Nelson - Blues and the Abstract Truth
Archie Shepp - The Way Ahead

I don't honestly think the Grant Green or the Archie Shepp were among the ten best jazz albums of the decade. They're just personal favorites, and it's my list. I thought choosing that Archie Shepp album would split the Archie Shepp votes between different albums, but I was the only one who gave him any votes at all. (The full results are here.)

The next poll is back to all music in the year 1990, a fine year as I look over the contenders. I also want to think about live albums, as I try to get back to puzzling through some of my current listening.

Jazz in the Sixties, Part Three

2011-10-28T07:23:00.002-05:00

Miles Davis? I have more CDs by Miles Davis than any other musician. Do I flaunt my wealth by choosing one of those big boxes like Seven Steps or The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel? Or settle for one of the second classic quintet's studio albums. Or show my true colors by choosing one of the rock albums he made when he decided he wanted some of that world. As it happens, I'm a big fan of "In a Silent Way", but it does strike me as a rock album made by a jazz musician. Am I quibbling? Yes - this is an exercise in quibbling. I'd like to vote for the Plugged Nickel as well, but my list is running out of room after only three musicians.

Jazz in the Sixties, Part Two

2011-10-27T07:36:00.002-05:00

The next case is Saint John Coltrane. Sitting at the top of a large pile of albums is "A Love Supreme", one of the two most famous jazz albums ever recorded. ("Kind of Blue" is the other.) No one would think the less of me if I put it on my list, and it's not like I don't like the album. It's just that I'm a huge fan of the Village Vanguard sessions - the first ones with Eric Dolphy - which have a drive like no other jazz album I know. And then there's the Africa/Brass sessions. And "Ballads". And the Johnny Hartman album. You see where I'm going. There's a cornucopia here even if I'm not the biggest fan of his later questing period. How do I whittle down my choices?

Jazz in the Sixties, Part One

2011-10-25T07:13:00.003-05:00

I've been thinking about jazz albums and the sixties. Take the case of Duke Ellington. I'm familiar with 5 albums of his from the decade, which is only a fraction of his output. Any of those 5 albums is a worthy choice for any list. There's his session with John Coltrane, which really isn't either of their best work but is quite enjoyable. The same goes for his sessions with Louis Armstrong and Coleman Hawkins, although I hear the weight of history in both of those. Seriously - the weight of history. However, I'm personally a bigger fan of the Duke's encounter with Charles Mingus and Max Roach - Money Jungle - because while Mingus may have idolized Ellington Mingus wasn't above pushing his idol. And then there's Ellington's tribute to Billy Strayhorn: "And His Mother Called Him Bill". It's an album that's resonated through the last forty five years. I don't think I can choose more than one of these...

Unsubscription Blues

2011-10-20T13:01:00.001-05:00

There's a school of thought that says never click on an unsubscribe link because you're just telling the #%%$#$%$#$s that you actually exist. I'm of the other school. If I get a piece I don't want and there's an unsubscribe link, I'll click on it. I find it therapeutic. Sometimes it means I have to confirm that I'm unsubscribing (really, you thought I was kidding when clicked the link). Sometimes, I'm asked for my email address and then told I'm not subscribed to any of their lists (right...). Sometimes I'm asked for my reason for unsubscribing (stock answer - I never subscribed). And sometimes they send me a confirmation email to tell me I've unsubscribed, like they can't let me go without one last missive. There are risks. One unsubscribe link today tried to change my default web browser, and I suspect it had further evil in its heart, foiled, I hope, by Groupwise's refusal to run ActiveX. There's going to be a point where I'm just not going to open strangers' emails.

Musical Rankings

2011-10-13T07:48:00.004-05:00

Slate recently ran an article claiming the first Strokes was the best album of the last ten years and was very influential. I'm not linking to the article. The whole point of the article was to stir controversy among those who care about such things. I care in that there's no way I'll have lunch with the person who wrote the article, but I don't care what the best album of the last ten years is. Really. I'm not a music critic. I write about music here because I need the practice writing and music is a handy topic.

I participate in the ranking games at the Christgau blog because they're fun. The latest is jazz albums recorded in sixties and the rules can be found here: http://ewjazzpoll.tumblr.com. I don't know how I'm going to narrow down my choices to ten and not look like an idiot. If I have an excellent amateur's knowledge of pop music, I only have a passable amateur's knowledge of jazz. Which isn't to say that I don't have favorite albums. This is a game where the idea is to have fun. And I could use some fun these days.

Dear Distinguished Professionals Online:

2011-10-02T13:46:00.000-05:00

If your going to invite me into your little vanity scam, don't send an email on October 2nd with a deadline of August 31st. If you approved my candidacy on July 27th, why couldn't you send me an email on July 28th? Unless you're idiots. Are there people who actually respond to this nonsense?

1978 Albums

2011-10-01T14:17:00.000-05:00

The relistening club has turned to 1978. I'm not going to write about the albums individually because (a) I don't have time and (b) I was much too hard on John Hiatt the last time. I'm simply going to list them in rough descending order. I like and would recommend all these albums, even the hard-to-listen-to ones. The order shouldn't be taken terribly seriously. A more systematic approach would probably yield a different order. I just don't have that kind of time. I also know that this list could be three time as long. I also want to recommend Orchestra Baobab's 1978 Paris Sessions, which comprise one of my favorite albums On Verra Ca.

The List:

Wire - Pink Flag
Nick Lowe - Jesus of Cool
The Clash - Give 'Em Enough Rope
Joe Ely - Honky Tonk Masquerade
X-Ray Spex - Germ Free Adolescents
Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy
The Rolling Stones - Some Girls
Tom Robinson Band - Power in the Darkness
Big Star - Third
Mary McCaslin & Jim Ringer - The Bramble and the Rose
Willie Nelson - Stardust
Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food
Television - Adventure
Dave Edmunds - Tracks on Wax 4
Elvis Costello - This Years Model
Lee Dorsey - Night People
Ramones - Road to Ruin
Shoes - Black Vinyl Shoes
The Vibrators - Pure Mania
Blondie - Parallel Lines
Professor Longhair - Live on the Queen Mary
Ian Dury - New Boots & Panties
Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town
Patti Smith Group - Easter
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band - Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)
Pere Ubu - The Modern Dance
Funkadelic - One Nation Under a Groove
Rodney Crowell - Ain't Living Long Like This
Wire - Chairs Missing
Neil Young - Comes a Time
The Cars - The Cars

Who Are You, Mrs. Keller?

2011-09-28T07:53:00.001-05:00

I got an email this morning from a Mrs. Keller who says she's teaching a class in business and economics. Her class has found my LibGuide on Economics very helpful. Six members of the class have some suggestions for additions to the links on the page, if I'm interested. Five of the links look to be bland enough, but the sixth is to an online guide to trading stocks online. I'm not clicking on that link, and I'm not posting it. For the record, Mrs. Keller, my LibGuide on Economics has had all of 5 hits since the start of August (sigh), so I don't think your "class" has found it helpful at all.

Listening Notes: 1983 Part the Last

2011-09-18T10:59:00.000-05:00

The Police - Synchronicity

There's no point in denying that these are catchy songs and expertly arranged. However, even 28 years ago, I didn't need an introduction to Jung or Paul Bowles from a self-important rock star. Which goes to show that you can take GS Sumner out of the classroom, but you can never take the classroom out of GS Sumner.

U2 - War, Under a Blood Red Sky

I loved "War" 28 years ago, but I must have been listening past the filler. The hits still work for me, which is why I now prefer the live mini-album. More hits, less filler. I don't have much interest in their striving, but they work as a big rock band.

Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones

I'll admit I've never been a big fan, but this was the album where he figured out that ugly rock and roll would serve his ugly voice much better than ugly tin pan alley. Still, allow me my prejudices. His disdain for the square life is an affection, a pandering to what he expects his audience wants to hear.

Paul Young - No Parlez

Seriously, I liked this back in the day, and I'm still fond of it. It's weirder than you'd think, full of experiments that don't quite work. ("Love Will Tear Us Apart" as blue eyed soul?!?) That's the problem with trying to make everything new. I have to think his career would have been better if he'd just sung dull versions of standards.

EPs

Husker Du (sorry no umlauts) - Metal Circus: Two great Grant Hart songs surrounded by Bob Mould ravers. Minutemen - Buzz or Howl Under the Influence: None of the above. OH-OK - Furthermore What: Indeed, quite so, and charming to boot. DFX2 - Emotion: Nice stonesy songs, but emotion, I don't think so. Los Lobos - And a Time To Dance: Just getting warmed up.

Subjects for further research

Joining Pablo Moses in the one play is just not enough is Pylon's "Chomp" and Nile Rodgers' "Adventures in the Land of Good Groove". In case anyone ever reads this and wants to know what's going on, head over to Robert Christgau's Expert Witness site where the regular commenters are conducting a poll on the best albums of 1983. This was my relistening list. I didn't include Lou Reed, the Blasters or REM because I regularly relisten to them. There were another 40 albums I could've included here, but I couldn't get my hands on a legal copy in the time allotted. It's not like this is my job or I have any special expertise. This is supposed to be fun.

Listening Notes: 1983 Part 5

2011-09-16T07:27:00.002-05:00

The Go-Betweens - Before Hollywood

The first side is so austere that it tried the patience of even this committed fan. Once "Cattle and Cain" begins, I remember why I'm a committed fan. If you don't know them, this isn't the place to start, but you should find that place. Hint: "Tallullah".

Ramones - Subterranean Jungle

Also not the place to start for a seminal band, but I rather enjoy this lesser work. It's a chance to here Joey sing a bunch of covers, and he was good at that.

New Order - Power, Corruption & Lies

The band came up with three great songs in 1983, but only one is on the album. After "Age of Consent", the album is dull experiments and filler. The other two songs are the bracing dance songs "Blue Monday" and "Confusion"; they're on the second disc of the spiffy reissue.

The Robert Cray Band - Bad Influence

I think of this as an early template for "Strong Persuader", a terrific album I hope I don't have to proselytize for. This sounds quite good because it invokes the better album, but songwriting isn't the later album's equal.

NRBQ - Tapdancin' Bats

Fun for a dog's breakfast, but I am not sure if the best song was written by JS Bach or is about Captain Lou Albano.

The Replacements - Hootenanny

Not as much fun as you'd think for a dog's breakfast. The best song is Paul Westerberg solo. "Let It Be" seems a million miles away.

King Sunny Ade - Synchro System

I have no idea what a bad King Sunny Ade album sounds like, but I like "Aura" which is on the second half of my CD more.

James Blood Ulmer - Odyssey

I like to describe this as my favorite jazz album, but I'm not sure many jazz fans would accept it as a jazz album. These days you can find his CDs in the blues section, if you can find them at all. I can't even call this sui generis, because the band made two subsequent albums. What I can tell you is that I love this album from the avant-garde sonics to the violin posing as a down home fiddle. The three sung songs situate the five instrumentals perfectly.

Listening Notes: 1983 Part 4

2011-09-14T07:20:00.000-05:00

Womack & Womack - Love Wars

I feel vaguely non-plussed for liking, almost loving, these somewhat sedate but well constructed songs. At times, this seems almost more like folk music than rhythm and blues, like Bill Withers. Maybe I would be fully in love if Linda sang all the time, but I don't think Cecil's ego could live with that. Whatever happened to them?

Richard Thompson - Hand of Kindness

You know the story - good songs about the divorce and the new love, great guitar, good band. It's just not "Shoot Out the Lights". Is that a fair measure? Normally I'd say no, but Richard walked out on Linda. So think of my unfair judgement as part of the settlement.

The B-52s - Whammy!

"Hi, my name is Ricky and I'm a Pisces and I will be sorely missed"

Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues

If there ever was an inaccurate title it's this one. David Byrne couldn't speak in anything except fully formed paragraphs if his life depended on it. Having said that, I've come to quite like his control freak's version of getting gone. This album catches both him and the band at the moment when they hadn't left their art school sensibility behind. Which isn't to say that I don't prefer the album before and after.

Listening Notes: 1983 Part 3

2011-09-13T07:25:00.001-05:00

Aztec Camera - High Land, Hard Rain

The charm of Roddy Frame's precocity hasn't aged as well as I'd hoped. Or maybe the humorless yearning in the songs doesn't speak to my middle aged self the way they did to the younger version of me. Good tunes, well sung, but I'm not that guy anymore.

John Anderson - All the People Are Talking

Did you know the hit country song country off this album was co-written by Robert Altman? And it was only a hit when DJs started playing as Warners didn't think it was a single. Great singer, but he was never good looking enough to sustain a career when the material wasn't there. The material's mostly here this time.

X - More Fun In the New World

The first song declares it was better before they voted for what's-his-name, and if that doesn't sum up the bohemian attitude in 1983, I don't know what does (especially the pronoun). They're not as passionate about discovering the new world as they were about falling in and out of love. So, sure, it wasn't more fun, it was less fun. The trick was not to let it take a piece out of your music.

John Hiatt - Riding With the King

When I wish Marshall Crenshaw would show more interest in lyrics, I don't want to take up the tricks of hack songwriters - the clever lists, the tricky reversals, the borrowings from advertising. I don't want him to sound like John Hiatt. I don't hate any of these songs. Hiatt's not a terrible singer. But, by about the fourth song, I felt I was listening to a songwriter's demo tape. I used to like this album, but now I don't even try.

Listening Notes: 1983 Part 2

2011-09-12T07:39:00.001-05:00

Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Love Over and Over

This is like a pleasant enough stab at a commercial compromise between studio rock and their own sound, but if I were choosing Kate & Anna albums, this isn't the one I'd chose. I've heard too much of their first two albums (plus demos - that's "Tell My Sister" if you're visiting a record store) recently to fall in love with this.

Katrina and the Waves - Walking on Sunshine

This is going to be embarrassing. I've always been in love with the young Katrina Leskanich's singing. There, I've said it. These 10 songs aren't works of genius, but they have hooks and melodies. Katrina sings the hell out of 8 of them, including the title song you should hear without those damn horns. I loved this when it was a Canadian only release 28 years ago, and I love it now.

Madonna - Madonna

Would I be listening to this album if the singer had, I don't know, Teena Marie's career? I'm not trying to be snarky. It's a good album, but a little singleminded in its pursuit of dance floor hedonism, to the point where I'm not sure the singer understands what she's singing. Take "Borderline". Is she happy or upset that her love is going over the borderline? Or is the confusion the point of the song?

Marshall Crenshaw - Field Day

Whose idea was the drum mix? I understand why - it was a "commercial" sound. It just wound up fighting with the vocals. I'm not convinced by the songs either. For instance, in "One Day With You", I keep expecting Marshall to get specific about the travails he'll endure for that one day, but it's just ruin, pain and degradation. It makes me wonder if he puts words in his songs only because pop songs are supposed to have words. My choice of his albums has always been "Good Evening", but I'm in the minority.

DeBarge - In A Special Way

I liked El's recent comeback, but I'm still not moved by this. To my ears, it's an unpleasant double team seduction. James comes on hard, then El whispers sweet nothings, then James is back being hard, then El whispers again, then El wants you to get on with it, then James gives up on you, then Bunny consoles you. Way too harsh? Undoubtedly, but life is short.

Jonathan Richman - Jonathan Sings!

If there's a record that makes me glad I bought a new turntable, this is it. It's so good it makes me wonder why he's made such dull records since. I don't know that he worked with these backup singers again, but they are perfect here. And the songs. He finds a wide eyed way of looking at the world without being icky about it. In my favorite, he takes the perspective of a three year old.

Pablo Moses - In The Future

Is when I'll have to consider this album properly. I don't remember enough of it for one play to make any kind of judgment.

George Clinton - You Shouldn't-Nuf Bit Fish

Far be it for a white guy living in Manitoba to tell anyone where any particular work in George Clinton's oeuvre sits. I prefer "Computer Games" because, you know, of "Atomic Dog", but then I'm a white guy living in Manitoba.

UB40 - 1980-1983

I wasn't going to listen to this, but I feel guilty about saying time has diluted their politics. Isn't "One in Ten" just as relevant now as then? Yes, but not with Ali Campbell singing it. His voice is suited to mild reggae covers. At the time, their very existence gave their songs an edge, but time has smoothed that away.

T-Bone Burnett - Proof Through the Night

Before he was Grammy bedecked producer, T-Bone was an opinionated singer/songwriter. How much you care for this album depends on how much you value his opinions. I can hear why he became a producer, although I'd rather watch out for the trap door.

Was (Not Was) - Born To Laugh At Tornadoes

Nietzsche died a lonely madman - Jerry Lewis had his own telethon - until they took it away.

Listening Notes: 1983 Part 1

2011-09-11T11:26:00.001-05:00

Randy Newman - Trouble in Paradise

There's a corporate sound to this album that gives these meant to be satiric (but no one told the LA boosters who took "I Love LA" at face value) songs an extra oppressive air. I don't know, maybe that's the point. More likely, Randy simply always wanted the best musicians to play on his records and wanting anything else is some kind of folkie fallacy. It just makes it hard to believe that he doesn't secretly sympathize with the, well, overdogs in his songs.

UB40 - Labour of Love

I'm not sure this is the first of the "let's do an album of covers", but it turned out to be a marketing coup. Even if it took forever for the US to pick up on "Red, Red Wine". Now that time has diluted the band's politics by distancing us from the context, what's left is a well played, wanly sung bunch of reggae songs. Not as good as the original versions, but nice enough on their own terms.

Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual

I think one of the original charms of the album was that you didn't expect it to be so good. Take the first song, the Brains' "Money Changes Everything". She starts out singing it in a fairly low register, as if the song's been arranged for a male voice. It's only on the play out that she sings loudly in a high voice, signifying the pain involved in the song's choices. It's a nice arrangement and it wasn't even one of the big singles. The trouble is that if you're going to make pop singing a career, it doesn't show off your voice well. Or maybe I'm reading too much into a happy accident.

Listening Notes: John Lennon, Kevin Coyne, Teddybears

2011-09-06T14:48:00.001-05:00

John Lennon - Gimme Some Truth

Box sets that try to rethink an artist's oeuvre run the risk of obscuring the artist's strengths. Lennon was a terrific singer and a reasonably intelligent man. Sorting his songs into a political disc and a son/lover disc makes the songs seem too schematic. The living disc is more random. The covers disc has some awful arrangements. So, good songs, pointless box set.

Kevin Coyne - I Want My Crown

This is the box set for someone I'd barely heard. I thought I'd like it more than I did. There's too much confrontation and not enough pleasure in the songs, and this gets more pronounced the farther along in the seventies the set goes. Commercial frustration? Drink? Coyne was a social worker before he was a singer/songwriter, and in one all too memorable song he sings about a charge of his, a fat girl who committed suicide. I can understand why that would obsess him, but he wants to drag the audience into the guilt as well. Sorry, I've got enough of my own to be guilty about.

Teddybears - Devils Music

Big, dumb and fun. There isn't as good a song here as "Yours to Keep" (with Neneh Cherry, where have you gone Neneh Cherry?) from the last album, but Robyn can give me a heart attack anytime.

This Morning's Inbox

2011-08-29T08:38:00.001-05:00

I can open a Word document on how to apply for a green card. I can apply for a loan. (The offer comes from someone with a Cornell email address, no less). UPS Nigeria has a package waiting for me - my ATM Master Card parcel! RBC has an important message for me. (I'm intrigued that it's always RBC and BMO that have these important messages, never CIBC or Bank of Nova Scotia or a Caisse Populaire.) I was to submit proposals for the 2nd World Conference on Information Technology in Ankara in Novemeber. (Special arrangements at the hotel - why not combine a holiday with my family?) There was an African Dance course based in Montreal (I've two left feet and the commute is just too much).

I know, I know. Everyone gets this and worse. The university filters out the incredibly stupid, so what am I complaining about?

My Eminence Is Confirmed

2011-08-25T11:48:00.004-05:00

In my inbox this morning:

Dear Colleague,

WebmedCentral is currently inviting eminent scientists such as yourself who have interest in biomedical sciences to come forward and help us by joining our advisory board and faculty

Our existing high profile advisory board and faculty would be delighted to welcome you on our portal to join thousands of registered users and hundreds of professors from all over the world already there....

This is not a spam. This email is being sent to you because of your eminence in the biomedical field.

I'm Not Him

2011-08-23T07:16:00.000-05:00

I know I'm not the only Chris Hurst in the world. There's a politician in the United States, a publisher in the United Kingdom etc. However, when I did a vanity search this morning, I was horrified that our little fraternity now includes a lout kicked out of the BNP because he did the Nazi salute at some Austrian rally. I mean, dear God, don't we Chris Hursts have some standards? Do we just let anyone join our club? Needless to say, you should not confuse the two of us. I'm older, less good looking and not a racist idiot.

Listening Notes: Art Brut, Old 97's, Garland Jeffreys

2011-08-21T13:11:00.003-05:00

Art Brut - Brilliant! Tragic!

No. Hell no.

I had to get that out of my system. Black Francis (that's what the credits say) is the wrong producer for them. He has Eddie Argos shouting too often. Eddie Argos needs charm to get his vocals across, and you can't be charming when you're shouting. Some of the songs work though. I hope they get over the Pixies infatuation.

Old 97's - The Grand Theatre Vol. 2

I have doubts about just how good most rock songwriters are at songwriting, but I think Rhett Miller is as good as any songwriter working in the, well, tradition. This is probably not his/their best, but it sounds great to me. I'm past the point in my life where I need to evaluate which albums by my favorite bands are the best.

Garland Jeffreys - The King of in Between, Escape Artist

What surprises me about the two albums is how similar they are: lots of songs about rock and roll and race, a garage rock cover, Jeffreys' one-sided romance with the streets. And why shouldn't the albums be similar? They were both made by the same man. I didn't think I liked the new one until I caught myself humming a couple of the songs.

They're Buying a List and Not Checking It At All

2011-08-19T14:02:00.000-05:00

Another day, another unwanted, unsolicited email from some computer wholesaler/IT consultant/software vendor. These emails are just the first of many if I don't unsubscribe, which I do instantly. These aren't phishing attempts - at least I don't think so - just messages from deluded business people who think that I might be interested rather than annoyed at what they're dumping in my inbox. So who did they get my email address? My guess is that bought a list from someone. Is that how you grow a business? Buy a list, send a message to everyone on the list, hope that the bounce/unsubscribe/spam filter rate is less than, I don't know, 98%, and hope that the remaining 2% have money to spend? It sounds to me like the only person making money is the one selling the list. But what do I know? I just I get the stupid messages.

Listening Notes: John Mellancamp

2011-08-13T11:22:00.000-05:00

John Mellancamp - On The Rural Route 7609

I know I said I liked box sets, but this one is so awful that it blots out Mellancamp's modest virtues. Since he's spent the last 24 years doing his best to outgrow those virtues, it's no surprise that his hand picked songs and photos serve him poorly. He's an okay if derivative singer and a decent bandleader. In the eighties, he and his producer worked out a way to make some great sounding records. At best, he's an inoffensive lyricist; when he tries to be meaningful, he's awful or incoherent or both. Except that he decided that he was too good to make good sounding records about lust, so you won't hear "Paper in Fire" or "Lonely Old Night" or "Tumblin' Down" these four CDs. If he thinks he's recorded better songs in the last twenty years, he's kidding himself.

Listening Notes: Iceage, The Housemartins, Dave Alvin

2011-08-09T09:13:00.000-05:00

Iceage - New Brigade

I don't envy the young their certainty that what they have to communicate is vitally important. If these young men didn't believe, they wouldn't be making music. Of course, I'm much too old to figure out what it is they believe in, and I'm not sure I want to know. If they had hooks to go with their drive, I might be inclined to make the effort.

The Housemartins - London 0 Hull 4

The first time I heard them, not quite 25 years ago, I stupidly dismissed them as a cross between the Smiths and the Style Council. Now I think that's not a bad shorthand, albeit much better than either band. What is apparent 25 years on is that they were the vision of a young musical purist who stopped listening to new music in 1980. There's a let's-have-fun-in-the-studio-pretend-rap on the deluxe reissue that makes me cringe. I love some of the Beautiful South records, but the visionary in the Housemartins wound up being the replacement bass player.

Dave Alvin - Eleven Eleven

I hated this album the first time I heard it. Alvin sounded like a drunk at the end of a bar, you know, the kind that won't shut up. His lyrics used to have short lines; now they go on forever. I don't hate it so much now. It will probably sound fine when I stop comparing it to the old Blasters records.

Listening Notes: Thurston Moore, Bobby Pinson

2011-08-06T11:07:00.000-05:00

Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts

I've enjoyed every Sonic Youth rock album since Sister without giving a second thought to Moore's singing or lyrics. They serve the songs well enough, but they're not the reason why I enjoy the music. Here, the songs have to serve the singing and the lyrics, and neither the singing nor the lyrics seems worthy of that service. I wonder if this sounds much better through headphones.

Bobby Pinson - Songs for Somebody

It doesn't make sense to me that Pinson makes his living as a songwriter. These songs are full of melodrama - how many dead high school friends does he have? - that only a good singer can put across. Pinson is even better than that. Here's hoping that a major label in Nashville gives him another try as a singer.

Listening Notes: Beastie Boys, The Mountain Goats, REM

2011-08-02T15:10:00.002-05:00

Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Part Two

I'm glad they're still making rap albums, although this is only the second in the last 13 years. They've got skills, talent and, dare I say, charm. Always did, even when they played young reprobates. I give them a pass about rapping about how they're still in the game because isn't that what old rappers who stick to themes rap about?

The Mountain Goats - All Eternals Deck

When John Darnielle sings "Damn These Vampires", he's not reaching for a metaphor. He really means damn these vampires. The lyrical content of his songs depends on what he's reading, and I assume there's a vampire novel on his reading list. The album's title is taken from a tarot deck. The titles of the song include Charles Bronson and Liza Minelli, a gas mask and a scorpion squadron. Darnielle's a fine singer, but I don't think he can save all this.

REM - Life's Rich Pageant

The 25th anniversary packaging is excessive, the demos disc is an unremarkable bunch of demos, but the original album smokes. Twenty five years ago, I wanted the album to signify because I loved the band. Now that I haven't loved the band in fifteen years, I'm free to hear the album as content free hard rock. Like John Mellancamp, whose producer they used, only better. Maybe much better. Or maybe I'm overreacting because of their albums of the last fifteen years.

Listening Notes: Los Lobos, Archie Bronson Outfit

2011-07-28T10:54:00.000-05:00

Los Lobos - The Neighborhood, Kiko

I was looking to get CDs of How Will the Wolf Survive? and By the Light of the Moon (and, really, does anyone need my recommendation for either of those?) and the only way was through a cheap British import that included the first EP and The Neighborhood and Kiko. I'd never heard Kiko entirely before - it came out the year I was between degrees and mostly unemployed. It's a little too atmospheric for my taste. The surprise is The Neighborhood, which I remembered as being too much like a conscious attempt to be like The Band - Levon Helm sings on a song etc. It doesn't sound that way at all. It just seems like a natural continuation of the first two albums. (Okay, there was a Spanish language album in there, plus the La Bamba soundtrack, but you know...) The songs aren't quite as good, but they're good enough. I'll take it over Kiko any day.

Archie Bronson Outfit - Coconut

What a lot of clatter. And forget trying to figure out what they're saying - it might as well be in Finnish. Yet, when I don't think, when I let it wash over me, it's fun for minutes at a time. Then the clatter starts up again.

Is That The Fat Lady I Hear?

2011-07-27T11:49:00.000-05:00

In the course of my job, I sign the library up for electronic access to journals and magazines we receive in physical form. To do this, I have to give a an email address, so I give my work email address. Sometimes a magazine think this means that I'm the subscriber, as opposed to the library being the subscriber. This leads the magazine to appeal to me as if I care about the magazine's contents. The worst of these is Opera America. "Read by all the decision makers in the opera industry" - if that doesn't have the keening ring of desperation I don't know what does. They keep importuning me to buy ad space in their magazine. Good business model, folks. If I were a real subscriber, I wouldn't be any more.

Listening Notes: Introduction, Battles, Buddy Miller, Loudon Wainwright III

2011-07-26T14:12:00.001-05:00

Introduction

I need to write more and not be so precious about it. So I'm going to write about what I'm listening to. I don't pretend that what follows is brilliant, insightful or even clever. Some of it is going to be flat out wrong. I'll change my mind after a few weeks or months or whatever. The point is to write without worrying about being brilliant, insightful or clever. Since no one is going to read any of this.

Battles - Gloss Drop

I once called Battles Yes for the 21st century. I'm not sure I want to take that back. Gloss Drop is much better than Mirrored, but it's still art rock. There are two roughly two distinct kinds of art rock - art rock by virtue of conceptual stance and art rock by virtue of technical virtuosity and knowledge of the European art music canon. Battles are art rock in the former category, as are TV on the Radio, Roxy Music, Brain Eno and Talking Heads to name only a few. Yes have elements of the conceptual within their work, but they sold records and arenas on the basis of their technical virtuosity. God knows, some people like that endless noodling. Battles's noodling is sharper and more driving, but it's still noodling.

Buddy Miller's Majestic Silver Strings

Buddy Miller's Majestic Silver Strings is a meeting of four hot shot guitar players. Since only two of them sing, neither of them all that well, they have all sorts of guest vocalists. I have nothing against hot shot guitar players or guest vocalists, but the result just doesn't work. I mean, Dang Me is supposed to be a funny song. Taking it slow and serious is an idea, just a bad idea. Buddy's carried off decent albums both as a solo singer and with his wife, so I'm not sure what the problem was here. Was he intimidated by Ribot and Frisell? Or did he have to leave space in the music for them to solo?

Loudon Wainwight III - 40 Odd Years

Bill Frisell's best album of the last 10 years is Loudon Wainwright's Here Come the Choppers. Loudon's box set, 40 Odd Years, is both too much and not enough. His prep school Warren Zevon act is best experienced in shorter doses, but there are serious song omissions on the 3 CDs he's chosen to represent his 40 years. Which is to say that serious acolytes can assemble their own playlist. I like him almost as much as I like Zevon, which is high praise. I like the box set's disc of collectorama and love the notes. But then I like box sets...

The Long, Long, Long Goodbye

2011-07-14T08:37:00.000-05:00

I was moving earlier this year at about the same time as my subscription to The New York Review of Books was up for renewal, so I thought I'd let let the subscription lapse, buy a few issues at the local good works store and then subscribe at my new address. Big mistake. I should have realized that whoever handles the subscriptions for the magazine has no way of realizing that there's only one Chris Hurst in Brandon and he has a subscription to their magazine. The pitiful notes asking why I've abandoned them keep coming to my old address - the fourth one arrived yesterday. Worse, they now have two addresses to sell to the Economist and the Folio Society (overpriced reprints in ugly covers) and whoever else is going to clog my mailbox. Rea Hederman "writes" in the latest computer generated mailing that she hopes this is not goodbye. I should be so lucky.

A Special Circle of Hell

2011-05-26T13:36:00.000-05:00

What possesses online publishers to change the URLs for their electronic journals and databases? Do they really think that it's better branding to have the publisher name in the root of the URL, because I've faced that change yesterday and I've got a big change change along those lines coming up in the next few weeks. Yesterday's change only took twenty minutes to fix in the off-campus access file, but I didn't know about it until someone reported a problem. I have lots of warning about the upcoming problem, but I can't do anything about it until the new URLs are operational. Of course, the publishers don't think it's a problem because their servers do internal redirects of the old URLs, but it breaks the off-campus authentication. Fine, I'm old and bitter. The worst part: the company responsible for the upcoming problem claims that its doing this in response to consultation with librarians. Right.

Meanwhile, I've gotten the third piece of marketing announcing the arrival of the new version of the resource. It's a box with a picture of an arctic survey team on the cover. Orange dots decorate the package. Inside are a small pamphlet and a USB key in the shape of a puzzle piece. The computer files include tips on how to search the resource, posters for the resource (the three pictures in the marketing campaign), computer wallpaper and other marketing paraphernalia. What it doesn't have is the off campus access settings for the new version, because, naturally, a new version needs a new URL. But the USB key looks cool. And the address on the box had the postal code. Someone was paid to come up with all these puzzle pieces and orange dots. I have a request as to their eventual reward - it's at the top of this post.

Down in the Flood

2011-05-10T09:00:00.000-05:00

As I write this, the flood waters of the Assiniboine River have not quite crested but will later this week. With any luck, the damage will not be extensive, and most of the people evacuated from their homes will be able to return to them. I've been fortunate. I haven't really been affected by the flood, except that everyone in Brandon lives in its shadow. Or should that be its wake?

Seeing The Big Picture

2011-05-04T14:42:00.000-05:00

Adventures in library marketing, volume two: I get a follow-up mailing from the library resource I described in the earlier posting. The cover of the package has a photo of a man taking a sample from some body of water - a river, a lake, I can't tell. And orange dots are superimposed on the picture, sort of coming from the water sampling tool the man is holding. Inside the package are nine jigsaw puzzle pieces. When I assemble them, I get the left half of the same picture. The catch phrase here is "See the big picture without missing the smallest detail". Except that the address is on the package is missing the university's postal code. Which is why I'm receiving in May an announcement about something starting in April. Which leads to wonder if the marketing department reads their own copy. And why they have jobs at all.

YouTube Ads

2011-04-04T13:22:00.000-05:00

I just finished listening (and occasionally watching) the farewell concert by LCD Soundsystem. Not my band, but I hear why some people really loved them. What I though interesting were the three ads YouTube rotated through the three and a half hours of the concert: video production, videostroboscopy and date pretty Chinese girls. I can't figure out if that means Google's monetizing those eyeballs.

I Can't Wait

2011-03-15T09:41:00.000-05:00

I get an oversized postcard in the mail telling me that one of the library's resource's is about to be updated/upgraded/upsomethinged. I'm directed to a web site with the same pretty picture as on the postcard except the image is flipped left to right. I can sign up for alerts or to follow it on facebook (this is 2011, after all). There's a link to a video. The video is a static shot of a young woman staring wistfully out the window of a train into a green field. The narration tells me how our current busy age needs better search tools while some new age music plays in the background. Except that the video stops every three or four seconds because of bandwidth or latency problems. The postcard says look for the next piece of the puzzle in the mail soon.

My Doppleganger And My Secret Sharer

2011-01-19T09:31:00.000-06:00

There are days when I wonder why I answer the telephone.

Just before dinner last night, the caller asks for Cam Hurst. Cameron Hurst grew up somewhere in Manitoba but doesn't, as far as I know, live in Manitoba any more. I'm listed as C. Hurst in the phone book, so I occasionally get calls for him. I explain that I'm Chris Hurst, I'm not related to Cameron Hurst and I don't know where he is. Oh, the caller said. Is Guy Merke there? he asked. Guy Merke had my telephone number before I did, but that was almost thirteen years ago. For the first five years, I regularly got calls for Guy, and the callers really didn't believe that I wasn't Guy. It made me wonder Guy did for a living. I explain that Guy hadn't the number etc. The caller said he was from the Manitoba Conservative Party. I can only assume that they bought some awful call lists. I wasn't very complimentary to their organization and hung up.

Why do I have a home phone number at all? Because I don't have a cell phone.

CTV Advertising and Football

2011-01-18T13:25:00.000-06:00

I don't pretend to understand these things, but if advertising during playoff football games is so valuable, why did CTV have so many ads for its own shows during this weekend games? And such lame ads. There were faceless sort-of football people running around a generic urban landscape while billboards featured head shots from the shows in the background. Were these just to fill the space?

Notable

2010-11-25T07:35:00.000-06:00

The New York Times Book Review has its 100 notable books list up. A quick and probably inaccurate survey says that the good folks at Random House (Knopf -12 books, Random House - 8 books, Pantheon - 3 books and other books in miscellaneous lines), Farrar, Strauss & Giroux (13 books) and Simon & Shuster (Scribner - 8 books, Simon & Shuster - 5 books) are the happiest with the list. There was exactly 1 book from a university press. The NYTBR doesn't see that its mandate is to review university press books, so this isn't surprising. But, still...

Everyone will carp about omissions, so let me get in early with 2 books I've read and recommend. Where the hell is "The Big Short"? If the New York Times is telling me that there are 100 better, more timely books than Michael Lewis's book, I don't believe them. And what about Patti Smith's "Just Kids"? It only won the National Book Award. If you can find room for Keith Richards and 3 baseball biographies, why not Patti Smith?

No One Calls Me Mr. Hurst

2010-11-12T09:46:00.000-06:00

In my ongoing role as a cranky old guy, I'm astonished that total strangers start their emails with "Chris" or "Hi Chris" when they want to sell me something or do them a big favor. I know "Chris" is my name, half of my blog address etc. etc. ... but I was brought up to address strangers as Mr. Smith or Ms. Jones or Dr. Johnson. Has the web and the modern world really wiped all that out? And if it has, have we gained something? I don't know. It could be that I just too comfortable with formality.

Priorities

2010-11-07T14:26:00.000-06:00

In yesterday's Globe and Mail Report on Business, there's a story on the Federal Reserve Board's stimulus plan on pages one and two and a review on the XBox Kinect Control System on page two. If I measure, I find that the hard news story takes just a little bit more space and does, after all, start on page one. Still, if the Globe and Mail thinks that surviving in the newspaper business means running reviews about toys, even toys used by rich men, in the business section, then may be survival is all you achieve.

On the other hand, I only buy the weekend Globe and Mail, and if there wasn't a cryptic crossword by Fraser Simpson, I wouldn't buy it at all. So who cares what I think?

French Business Spam

2010-11-03T07:20:00.000-05:00

Two to three times a week, I get mail that starts something like this:

Vos projets sont plus nombreux et plus complexes que par le passé !

Yes, it's French business spam, which evades the spam filters because its written in French. I get it because my regular email has a .ca extension which means I could be from Quebec and I have received email from friends in Quebec. It's selling some conference somewhere in Quebec. I try unsubscribing and adding the addresses to my spam filters, but the messages keep showing up, two to three a week. What else do I expect? They're spam. What I don't understand: do these messages work? Are there Quebec businessmen who show up at these conferences because of these messages? There has to be some point where the cost of sending outweighs the benefit, doesn't there? In the meantime, I guess I should be grateful it isn't worse.

Classification And The Big River

2010-10-26T13:24:00.000-05:00

I'm getting together a list of Canadian books to order for the library, and I'm checking to see if there's a recent novel I've missed. I go to Amazon.ca and navigate over to Books › Literature & Fiction › Canadian. The first book there is by Margeret Trudeau. Maybe this is sly commentary... No. A quick inventory of the first 50 titles: 32 are fiction (16 by Canadians, 6 of those by Kelly Armstrong), 18 are non-fiction (7 by Canadians). So clearly, no one takes the category that seriously.

If I go to Amazon.com and repeat the survey at Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › Canadian, at least the first 50 books are fiction. 16 are by Canadians, 6 by Lucy Maud Montgomery, who apparently makes good Kindling.

I'm always amused when people tell me how much they'd rather find books at Amazon than through library tools. It's fine if you know what you want, but it's a misery to browse. That could just be a function of size or that browsing requires human input which costs money. I don't know.

P.S. The new Chapters Indigo interface: what were they smoking when they designed it?

Membership

2010-10-19T15:59:00.000-05:00

The Canadian Library Association released its proposed future plan yesterday. In it, there's this paragraph:

In the past decade, the library landscape has changed tremendously. In this context, like many other library organizations, CLA has struggled. The Association has lost focus and has not always responded effectively to member expectations. Indeed, membership numbers have decreased to half as many as in 2000.

There's little in the plan about turning this around. Sure, there's a sentence about a membership drive. They'll be creating a "Corporate Member" category and revamping the "Institutional Member" fee structure. I don't think it's a question of the organization's focus. I think it's a question of the organization's utility.

I was a member of CLA years ago when I was student and being a member was cheap. I haven't thought about being a member in years because I haven't had any interest in going to the conference. I look at other organization's job boards. Other organizations have been better advocates for my interests.

CLA has to find out why membership has halved in the last ten years. If it's because librarians are finding the services you used to provide on the web, then all the membership drives and fee tweaking in the world aren't going to help.

I wish this were less harsh. I hope I'm wrong and you find the answers you're looking for.

Civic Duty

2010-10-17T14:23:00.000-05:00

I don't pay much attention to local elections at the best of times, and these aren't the best of times. However, someone I used to work with sent me an email - not me personally, everyone in the university faculty I expect - to promote one of the candidates for mayor. So, I thought I should at least learn who were the candidates. A colleague had put up a useful site which directed to the local paper's listing of candidates.

One candidate doesn't have a web site, so I can write him off. It's 2010. If you can't be bothered to create a web site, I can't bothered to vote for you.

A second candidate wears heavy metal t-shirts on his site. He'd make the council meetings interesting. Still, if you can't be bothered to put on a collared shirt for your web site, I can't be bothered to vote for you. I'm old school that way.

Which leaves the mayor and the challenger. It comes down to: do I think the mayor has done a good job for the last eight years? I wish I had a good answer. I really do.

I don't think it's a good time to be a mayor. I'm not optimistic about the economy. The electorate is in no mood to pay more taxes and fees. I can't see why anyone would want the job. Civic duty, I guess.

Is This Any Way To Run A Business?

2010-10-14T15:30:00.000-05:00

I'm a librarian. Every so often I choose some Canadian books for our collection. About a month ago, someone from a small press I will not name sent an email to my director who forwarded the email to me. The person had checked our catalog and seen that while we had some books by one of their authors, we didn't have a book by this author from this publisher. The email suggested that we should correct that. And we will. What I don't understand is the economics involved. Someone had to spend the time to a) find our catalog, b) search the catalog, c) find my director's email and d) send the email. The goal of this effort was to get us to order a 13 dollar book. We're not going to order it directly from the publisher - because if we did that we'd drown in invoices. We'll order it from a wholesaler or a big bookstore. So the publisher's going to get a dollar for all this work. My guess: either the work was done by an unpaid intern or done by an employee whose salary is regarded as a sunk cost. I know no one runs a small press to make money, but I can't see how handselling single copies to libraries helps.

From The Top...

2010-10-14T15:02:00.000-05:00

I'm trying this again. This time it will be mostly writing with the occasional bit of linking. I've deleted all the earlier posts, although you can find them somewhere else on the internet. Nothing ever completely disappears in the realm of electrons. I will try to write regularly, but I'm not going to stick to a schedule. The two posts a day schedule simply led to the link with a smart ass headline post, which were fun in their way but reductive. I'm trying to open a bit, which doesn't come naturally to me. Have some patience - it's an experiment.