Elephant in the Closet

Spaulding Gray had a Monster in the Box. I’ve got an elephant in the closet. Hopefully the gestation will be clear and I will be able to release more details soon.

I can say this, the writing on my new CD is 93% finished and I have started the recording process. I don’t want to say too much else other than I will be posting the track list within the next few weeks and I will be starting pre-orders in June. I will also say that there will be some special stuff available to those who preorder! All these details will be revealed in due time…they are just not yet ready to be told…and that’s all I can say.

So in the mean time, be patient, feel free to ask questions and send lots of peanuts.

Album Review - Can - Tago Mago

Ooo…I missed last week’s review and I am short on time for this one! Okay here we go – and by next week we’ll be back to my normal verbosity…I promise!

Odd, groovy, surprisingly funky, Can’s Tago Mago is a masterpiece of weird space-out fun. If you’re anything like me you’ll be wondering how you lived with out this album for so long. If you’re not like me…well that’s too bad! Ha-ha…just kidding. If you’re just like me there’s a chance that you won’t like this CD…

Next week I’ll be back on track…promise ;-)


Favorite Tracks:

They’re all good ☺!

ALBUM REVIEW - The Tuna Helpers - I'll Have What She's Having

Inspired by a web site that does CD reviews in 75 words or less I am going to attempt to be pithy in my review this week.

I believe that if Tori Amos wrote soundtracks for gothically macabre puppet shows it would sounds like The Tuna Helpers. The songs, while seemingly innocent, have a darkness to them. It makes for an interesting if not 100% satisfying listen. The recording could sound a little better and by the end of the disc the ‘gimmick’ where’s a little bit thin. But hey, it’s more original and enjoyable than 98% of the stuff that’s readily available so who am I to complain.

Gaito says: Need something different? This surely fits the bill – and it is also very fun to say, “I am currently listening to The Tuna Helpers!

Favorite Tracks:

Hold This
Oh No
Wait and See
Gather Your Children

Phrenologist

Went to phrenologist again today. Dr. Gall, once again a little tipsy, grasped my skull for further mapping. Seems I have a nice big bulge at veneration, a healthy indent at imitation and a veritable gulley at the Love of Approbation. So it’s all good so far, I guess. I asked if the softening and subsequent re-hardening of my fontanel (due to those damn Aardvark/Anteater/neither of those refrigerator magnets I got at Target) might impact the results. He looked me directly in the eye and said, “I don’t know, but what I do know is this: you are a beautiful, beautiful man with a sensitive beard, a grand sense of cheddar, and an exceptionally tall torso and I would be proud to call you friend...,” and then he added under his booze laden breath, “…or perhaps Louvre.”

Now those of you who know me know that I hear like a bat that’s lost a good deal of its upper register and suffers from mild tinnitus. So I asked him, “Do you mean the museum or the vertical blinds?”

Dr. Gall then stabbed me in the leg with the claw from a Maryland Blue Crab and began to weep in the arms of a small puppet he calls Milo.

I grabbed some gauze, my files and as many tongue depressors as I could fit and left the food court post haste.

So the moral of the story is never ever go to the mall for anything.

Weird Mood

Can't pinpoint my mood, odd and off not all together bad...lost perhaps?

Hrumph...

ALBUM REVIEW - Faun Fables - The Transit Rider

There are moments I get really frustrated and bored with music. Jaded moments where I feel as if I have heard and seen everything. These are the moments I thank my lucky stars for groups like Faun Fables. I saw Faun Fables on Sunday night and they absolutely blew me away. They played a truncated set featuring many songs from their new song cycle “The Transit Rider” along with a few selections from previous albums. I was informed that usually there is a whole stage show but their set length (opening for Pleaseessaur and Pinback) didn’t allow for the full performance. No matter, as they put on a hell of a show. I watched in awe with mouth agape and went and bought they disc as soon as they were finished!

The CD is a masterpiece, featuring Dawn McCarthy and Nils Frykdhal (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum) and was amazingly recorded on 8 Track cassette at home. It is an achingly beautiful CD, strange and comparable to very little with songs that at one moment sound like the rebirth/reprise of Greensleeves and at another like…well, I don’t know what…it is truly stunning. I am on my 10th listen since Monday morning. You have to hear it and go see them live if you can. Amazing.


Gaito says: If you haven’t gotten the point already…go buy it right now!

Favorite Tracks:

House Carpenter
In Speed
Roadkill
Fire And Castration
Questioning

ALBUM REVIEW - The Flaming Lips - At War with the Mystics

My good friend Shawn “Root” Keller just had an email exchange about this new Flaming Lips album “At War With the Mystics”. The upshot of the conversation was that although we really enjoyed the disc, the sounds that were present were somewhat dissimilar to the canon of tones that we had expected – the expectations built on the fanatical listening of the previous two discs (The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots). The conversation ended when someone overhearing Shawn’s music said “That sounds like Prince!” or something to that effect, I am paraphrasing here. That changed the listening right there. “Whoa!” was said and I wrote back some gibberish because my mind was blown by that comment (something about listening in purple and then an insular reference to a college classmate that liked Prince). That comment made me sit down and listen again. But this time I was not listening to a Flaming Lips CD. This time I was listening to the music, performance and sonics minus the expectations. (By the way, I am sharing this story without Shawn’s permission – hope he doesn’t mind ☺!) Also, there is a review coming too.

So right away we have an album that is pretty cool. Anything that is from a group that I know I like and confuses me this much on the first few listens is usually good. It is a layered and beautiful. Some of the tones annoy me, but others are big and rich, some of the organs synth and guitar tones are miraculous. Also it is best listened to straight through. Bouncing around gives the impression it is an album full of singles and it doesn’t really work too well that way.

I am not going to pretend I get the whole thing or understand some of the choices (like Wayne singing in a much lower register of his range for a good deal of the record for example). I am also not going to pretend I liked it on the first spin. But thanks to the person who told Shawn that it sounded like Prince I was able to step back from my expectations and find the brilliance inherent within. It’s a great disc, but give yourself time to listen…and appreciate the whole rather than the parts. You’ll be glad you did! Why’d you end with that? That’s stupid! – ed.

Gaito says: Buy it and don’t unwrap it until you have a few hours. Then sit down, when you’re ready and don’t analyze. It’s worth the wait.

Favorite Tracks:

The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song

The Sound Of Failure / It’s Dark … Is It Always This Dark??

The Wizard Turns On … The Giant Silver Flashlight And Puts On His Werewolf Moccasins

Haven’t Got A Clue

Goin’ On

Let’s sing the happy chimp song!

Let’s sing the happy chimp song!

Chimp, Chimpy Chimp Chimp
Hoo, Hoo, Ha, Ha
Hoo, Hoo, Ha, Ha

Chimp, Chimpy Chimp Chimp
Hoo, Hoo, Ha, Ha
Hoo, Hoo, Ha, Ha

Chimp, Chimpy Chimp Chimp
Hoo, Hoo, Ha, Ha
Hoo, Hoo, Ha, Ha

Chimp, Chimpy Chimp Chimp
Hoo, Hoo, Ha, Ha
Hoo, Hoo, Ha, Ha

Chimp, Chimpy Chimp Chimp
Hoo, Hoo, Ha, Ha
Hoo, Hoo, Ha, Ha

Chimp, Chimpy Chimp Chimp
Hoo, Hoo, Ha, Ha
Hoo, Hoo, Ha, Ha

Chimp, Chimpy Chimp Chimp
Hoo, Hoo, Ha, Ha
Hoo, Hoo, Ha, Ha

Chimp, Chimpy Chimp Chimp
Hoo, Hoo, Ha, Ha
Hoo, Hoo, Ha, Ha

Chimp, Chimpy Chimp Chimp
Hoo, Hoo, Ha, Ha
Hoo, Hoo, Ha, Ha

Chimp, Chimpy Chimp Chimp
Hoo, Hoo, Ha, Ha
Hoo, Hoo, Ha, Ha

It’s over now ‘m sad.