Friday Arts

Some new additions to the Menick's Tab Room playlist:

Trans-lsland Skyway, Countermoon; Kamakiriad, Donald Fagen Steely Dan is a notoriously controversial entity in the rock universe. Some folks revile them because—oh no!—they were primarily studio musicians. And way too jazz-inflected for some ears. Kamakiriad is Fagen's second solo album, with Becker producing. To tell you the truth, for me most of it goes too far over the line into dreaded "smooth jazz," but there are these couple of tracks I like. "Florida Room" came close to making it, but, well, didn't.

Red Bubber Ball, Turn Down Day; The Cyrkle — For the bubblegummy, nostalgic side of the list. Everyone knows that Paul Simon cowrote "Ball," unless you didn't, in which case you do now. The rest of the album, a collection of greatest hits, is neither great nor hits,

7 cuts from Badly Bent, the Best of King Biscuit Boy — For a few months when I was in college, I managed a small record shop. In addition to new albums, we traded in used LPs. There was one, Official Music by King Biscuit Boy and Crowbar, that was both totally enigmatic—I had no idea who or what these people were—and really lively fun to listen to. So it ended up in my collection. Later I copied it over to cassettes. Later than that, I copied it over to mp3s. Later than that, I have not found that album on Spotify, but I found much of it on this album, plus some other works. As the lead cut of the album says, Hoy, Hoy, Hoy!

5 cuts from the eponymous Brian Wilson album — No, the album isn't great, but some of the work on it is fine. I get the impression Wilson was in full Smile mode when he went into the studio on this one, armed with nothing but a lot of Brian Wilsonness. Some of the tunes are catchy, like "Love and Mercy," which became the title of the (really good) biopic. Considering that I think Orange Crate Art is one of the best albums of all time, I make no apologies for following Wilson wherever he goes.

3 cuts from Jumpin' Jive, Joe Jackson — Jackson apparently was a little too early for the swing revival in which folks like Setzer and Voodoo Daddy have thrived. The band here isn't quite as good as one might like, but it's not bad at all.

No cuts, Youngblood, Carl Wilson — I guess the moral of the story is to pick the right brother. I've listened to Dennis's big album numerous times without being moved, and this one joins that one. At least Carl wasn't involved with Charles Manson. I'll stick with Brian.