best albums of 2014: #11

 ryan joseph anderson – the weaver’s broom  (self-released)

i picked this album up in even more of a serendipitous manner than any other of the top 14 albums. anderson appeared with kory quinn and the comrades in an early december, for a sweaty party of a concert. anderson did his own opening set, and it was hard to gauge him. he only had about fifteen minutes to perform solo in the terrible acoustic venue, though he smoked some lead guitar parts with the comrades. he did approach taboo waters by trying to cover tom waits, though he picked a most excellent choice, cold water, that was lost on the audience.  two swing dancers found that song their reason to finally get off their feet, which seemed as odd then as it does thinking about it. anderson said that fans of tom waits would be pleased with his new record. covering tom waits is one thing, but it is audacious for a young artist to compare themselves to such a legend. it takes a confident person and anderson surely delivered the promise without hesitation.

i paid the $20 and took anderson at his word, only to be damned to find out he wasn’t pulling any punches. side one is certainly worth the price of the record alone. the first song, crooked heart, did have a sort of heart of saturday night/blue valentine vibe and song two, when the bees went mad, probably would fit on an album like black rider or mule variations, but beyond fruitless tom waits comparisons, each song has a it’s own persona seemingly matching a different 70s acoustic superstar stylistically. not that this sounds remotely close to some k-tel late night infomercial compilation album, and i certainly don’t want to take away from the conceptual efforts, but it does present as though it could be someone’s greatest hits album. whether that sounds like a compliment, i don't know, but it should.

side two is a bit sleepier than the rock tempos of side one. that’s not a bad thing, and seems to be the intent. it’s an interesting choice of sequencing that has not been the norm on albums this year. though it was released in april, my find is new, and experience with it so brief that i haven’t nearly been able to digest it. they are great stories from gifted songwriter and instrumentalist.

the more amazing this is that this album is self-released. i am not sure there was a better album out of nashville this year, except for maybe that country legend that appears a few spots higher on the list. the nashville music industry has made its net worth known many times over, and i have to give this guy credit to trying to survive the cutthroat bs of it all, but he is a chicagoan with some real bravado. nonetheless, some nationwide record label should be paying this guy money to make music.

best albums of 2014: #12

michael eaton – individuation (destiny records)

i am in no way qualified to talk about much of anything, much less jazz. i certainly should not be allowed to put a jazz album on the list. i’d be inclined to say things like songs without lyrics are too hard for me to understand.  and how silent movies and mimes intrigue me endlessly, but i can never figure them out either. something doesn’t really need to be figured out to be enjoyed. 

            

michael eaton, a tenor and soprano saxophonist, is a relative newcomer and his debut album individuation is apparently a play on words for his graduating into becoming his own band leader. he is accompanied by a few other fresh faces, and one legend. brad whiteley, who also released his debut album earlier this year, is eaton’s main cohort on piano and “prepared” piano.  no idea what a prepared piano is, but i gather that it uses a certain collection of nails and screws in the strings.

           

individuation is basically a four-parter. section 1 (tracks 1-4) features a good amount of sax and piano interplay. tracks one and three, bring in trumpeter jon crowley, who provides some beautiful harmonies with eaton.  it’s a bit hard to tell who the track guru refers to because it probably should refer to the world renowned soprano saxophonist david liebman who comes in on the track alter ego for some interesting sax exchanges. section 2 (tracks 5-7) are more or less duos. liebman and eaton trade off sax lines on prickly, and then crowley comes back once more for some hot trumpet leads on centrifuge. you’re my mystery is a short eaton showcase backed by whiteley. section 3 is the title section individuation, five tracks that merge together, eaton testing himself with whiteley backed by the drum and bass section. individuation 1, 2 and 3, build up a certain sense of urgency, which really takes off on part 4 and part 5, the most excellent parts in which the piano and sax trade stops. lifecycle is the album’s highlight, for bringing back liebman and kind summing up the album up with all the band back in one cohesive six-minute track.

all the tracks are particularly tight arrangements, which musically blows away most of other albums on this list. that’s probably what happens in a world where musicians have to intern under masters and finally individuate in their 30s. compelling stuff that begs for replays.  you can’t take your mind off the music to stare at the cover photo either.  graphic art without words is an entirely different matter.  you’ll get caught up in trying to find out how many rings are in the tree, or whatever the cover is that starts with an atomic yin yang, until realizing it’s eleven minutes later and the CD is on part 4, so you have to keep going back to the beginning. 

best albums of 2014: #3

anna tivel – before machines (fluff & gravy)

one of my biggest criticisms of humans is the attempt to simplify life by implementing technology that only further complicates life. anna tivel’s before machines can be put into the category of concept albums of being serious about simplicity. not sure if there are other albums in that category, so consider this a one-of-a-kind.

before machines is about the basics of survival. it’s about escaping trouble, which is discussed in map of the stars. it's not about running from trouble, but about having already escaped it, somewhat effortlessly. the album itself has a feeling of effortlessness, but getting across complex ideas with basic words and arrangements is a painstaking task, kind of like living a basic, yet complex life. don’t expect any five-dollar words from anna, much less acknowledgements of things like smart phones. anna seems to have read through the entire “urban dictionary” finding only highway and satellite as the most modern concepts of any use.

in an era when folk music is about to implode on itself, anna tivel is the freshest voice in, probably, forever. still, this album is orchestrated a bit more than a “folk” album. anna has written songs, cleverly layered with sparse, musical accompaniment just present enough to give the few breaths needed to complement the subject matter, such as the soft, dark bass of midnight on a monday, the dancing fiddle on the free, the disparate, electric guitar searching on map of the stars, or the fiddle-singing-lullabys winding the album toward its closure on for emily asleep. while the music is superb, it’s merely an eerily quiet backdrop to the masterful vocalist. anna’s delivery is one that leaves the listener enraptured. she sings with a fiery conviction, yet an innocent tenderness – at the same time, compelling the listener, as much as forcing them, to keep listening.

the album starts with a *pop* song, five dollar bill, that shows a playful, sassy persona that walks into a creaky old house and gleefully lies down a welcome mat. the only other song that resembles pop music is grace and gasoline. still, it only takes about three spins until the listener is trying to sing back all of the album’s lyrics more guiltily than any michael jackson song. by about the thirtieth spin, the listener realizes that, though they may know all the words, they can never catch up with the depth of the literary content. so much for simplicity. just for fun, pick out any random stanza, from the middle of the album, such as…

“and this is just a motel, with a bell in every room,
where they speak in only riddles, yeah the speak in unison.
i hollered out i’m lost here, on a hunt without a kill,
a thousand people moving, but you are standing still.”

the entire album is so considerate of the basic concept. it’s only the genre that changes from song to song. topics flow from plain truths, to finding strength and the way to redemption, to longing for more beyond one’s reach. surely, as much life is considered in before machines as in the tao te ching.

the album closes with a goodbye song, i’ll be home, that shows a stubbornness to ever change from the roots that created the album. though the singer gives some suggestions of vulnerability, she is comfortable in own skin, loves her creaky house, and needs nothing more than what she has.

of all the albums on the top 14 list, this figures to be the most enduring. grandiose in its simplicity, before machines has a timeless quality that is beyond being one of the best albums of the year. i’d take this if i were banished to a 110-year-old house in the middle of nowhere with only ten albums, but that may be a small step since i already live in a 110-year-old house in the middle of nowhere.

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i’ve seen many musicians live three, four times in a year. i’ve seen several musicians on back to back nights. anna tivel (along with moorea masa) must certainly be the first musician i’ve seen play three nights in a row. i’ve no idea which one was the best, but if she did a residency in la grande for thirty straight days, i would attend every one and if anyone tried to utter so much as one word of distraction, i would have them bound and gagged. that’s probably why the show at LG brewskis with moorea masa and foster haney (10/17) was the best. the house was packed, but the silence was so haunting throughout the performance that a pin could be heard – the day after it was dropped. but the show she did with gregory rawlins at the deep (8/26) was probably the most lively and entertaining. however, it's hard to forget the opening set she and moorea did for test audiences and finn riggins at BGB (10/18). whatever type of scene suits you, anna can fit snugly into it.

14 best albums of 2014

these are the 14 albums that moved me the most in 2014.
they are quite complete in the stories they tell. they are not best suited for background music. they are best heard with headphones in solitude and contemplation. and a few of the *major* artists probably should have appeared on other year-end lists, but for some reason were totally overlooked.  enjoy listening.

 1. hallowed oak (happy family)
 2. pontiak - INNOCENCE (thrill jockey)
 3. anna tivel - before machines (fluff & gravy)
 4. run on sentence - feelings (hush records)
 5. black lips - underneath the rainbow (vice records)
 6. willie nelson - band of brothers (legacy recordings)
 7. strangled darlings - boom stomp king
 8. james dean kindle & the eastern oregon playboys - many splendored things
 9. thurston moore - the best day (matador records)
10. clarke & the himselfs II  (curly cassettes)
11. ryan joseph anderson - the weaver's broom
12. michael eaton - individuation (destiny records)
13. the evangenitals - moby dick; or, the album (fluff & gravy)
14. knobtown skiffle band - knobtown rag

here's a longer list of some of the albums that very well could have made the list, but just did not.

pink floyd – the endless river   

ty segall – manipulator

various artists – self group mixtape  (a lot of krist kreuger projects)  

afghan whigs – do the beast 

jeff bridges & the abiders – live

lee bains III & the glory fires – deconstructed 

balvel – ten hand band

kentucky knife fight – hush hush

edmund wayne – tape no. 1

mehldau & cuiliana – taming the dragon

tune-yards – nikki nack 

moon hooch – this is cave music    

the miami dolphins – feeler

moondog – boogieland 

bill frissell – space age 

space raft 

everyone is dirty – dying is fun

dear rabbit – in a dessert without a book

arjun – core

daniel amedee – climbing

stoney spring – right on heliotrope

blisses b – sea level astronomy

samsel & the skirt – shoebox  

mutts – fuel your delusion part 4

kris bowers – heroes & misfits

takuya kuroda – rising son

andre cymone – the stone

tinariwen – emmaar

the new basement tapes

brushfire stankgrass – microclimates  

levi weaver – your ghost keeps finding me

gunash – same old nightmare

chad vangaalen – shrink dust

jefferson hendricks – given time

sick of it all – last act of defiance

pat metheny unity group – kin

string cheese incident – song in my head

secile mclorin salvant – woman child

holmes brothers – brotherhood

trita – the narcoma

cutthroats 9 – dissent 

spanish gold – south of nowhere

faded paper figures

morgan treni – the dreamer

neomythics – more protection

blind willies – everyday is judgement day

ontologics – something to needle over

memoir – there is a fire in me

various artists – ruckus in the boonies

ruckus in the boonies happens one day every mid summer in heppner, oregon. a listen to the comp makes it seem to be one of the more unique fests in cascadia.

november rabble rousers!

90-year-olds making waves!  literally & figuratively.

november's rabble rouser of the month:

arnold abbott (fort lauderdale, florida)

photo: joe raedle (getty)

late last month, fort lauderdale passed a law that makes it effectively illegal for this 90-year-old man to help feed the homeless. he has received three citations so far this month, with more on the way.  since 2012, fox news reports that 13 u.s. cities have passed ordinances on public food sharing.  fox news further reported the specifics of the newest law to allow no two indoor feeding programs to be within 500 feet of each other or on the same block; outdoor feeding programs require both a permit and port-a-potties and cannot be within 500 feet of a residence. supporters of the ordinance have been on record saying they wish to discourage feeding homeless people.

since winning two purple hearts as an infantryman in world war II, arnold has poured his energy into fighting for civil rights and community betterment.  his wife helped poor and homeless also before she died in a car crash 23 years ago. in her honor, he set up love they neighbor, inc, as a way to not only help feed the homeless, but to offer culinary training programs. he feeds the homeless of the city in a park every wednesday.  however, his good deeds don't seem very welcome in the city of fort lauderdale.  he says he has tried to abide by the new laws, but the portable toilets are beyond his abilities and he believes the city should be responsible for that end anyway.  arnold has been cited every wednesday so far this month, along with two local church pastors.  with the growing media attention supporting his cause, however, the police have backed off of giving him citations in public. on november 19, police did not show up, but the sun-sentinel reported that he would be receiving his fourth citation in the mail.  he plans to receive a fifth citation the day before thanksgiving and joked that "when i was a kid i collected stamps...now i collect citations."

arnold says he is not the least bit worried about the police, has been seen hob-nobbing with the mayor on television recently and harkens his newest cause back to 1999 when he sued the city and won in a similar case.  he makes his robin hood, rabble-rouser case very clear, "i'll go to court again and sue the city. they are doing the bidding of the very wealthy and they are trying to sweep the poorest of the poor under the rug."


november's inductee into the rabble rouser hall of fame:

"doc" paskowitz (1921-2014)
"god will surf with the devil if the waves are good."

doc graduated from stanford medical school in 1945, spent two years in the navy and then became a public health officer in hawaii.  he gave up medical practice to return to surfing after he was turned down trying to join the israeli military during the 1956 war with egypt.  instead, he rode the waves of tel aviv until he was arrested when his surf board was confused as a cleverly disguised missile. that was the seed for the surfing 4 peace organization he started during a 2004 trip to israel, in which his primary objective was to donate surf boards to promote a settlement between israel and palestine. 

photo: independent.uk

doc knew what it took to remain young and healthy.  diet was one thing, surfing well into his 90s another, and a love for humanity really fueled him.  he made international headlines trying to carry surf boards to gaza surfers. soldiers tried to prevent him from entering gaza, until he gave the guard a hug and a kiss. the guard yelled, "don't hug me, i'm a soldier!"  doc was persistent and the soldier relented.

he and his family (nine children) lived in a convoy of station wagons/motor homes all over the u.s., venezuela, and israel.  in 1972, he opened a surf school in san orofino, california. this brought major media attention to his cause and brought the outside world into his sheltered family.  the tribulations were documented in a film called surfwise, which he refused to watch and his children claimed did not show even a small percent of how bad life was.  he believed that "staying hungry was one key to a long and healthy life," literally and symbolically.  he fed his children his own gruel of various grains that he believed to keep people healthy and strong and allowed no fatty foods.  though the children's lives were hard and even harder as they abandoned their parent's way of life, most that have been interviewed in recent years have admiration for what he had taught them.  riding the waves allowed doc to live a boisterous life, until a hip surgery earlier in the year led to declining health. he passed away at the age of 93 on november 10.

doc had numerous philosophical quotes throughout his lifetime, many excellent ones contained in the tribute article in surfer magazine, which also has several great links including a short biography. 

"after my 18th birthday, life began to get complicated. fun became a calculation, rather than just plain instinct. ambition and selfishness helped kill fun. eventually, i looked at fun as, not just wasteful, but downright wrong. i was saddled with that delusion for 18 years. if there is no fun, there is no health. god loves happy people."  so, at the age of 36 and for the next 58 years, doc did what made him happy, rather than what made him wealthy...

photo: paskowitz.com

cheap yellow beer: coming to KEOL & the stage door theatre

coming up next sunday, november 9, the sunday shindig at stage door theatre: gregory rawlins, travis ward and cheap yellow beer to perform, starting at 7pm.  gregory and travis are no strangers to la grande, but this will be the first appearance of cheap yellow beer.  cheap yellow beer, consisting of spike coggins & tylor bushman, have played together for the past year in central idaho and toured around the region.  spike coggins did play an opening set for old death whisper at the stage door in may, 2013.   on, their way thru eastern oregon to play a festival in helix last may, they stopped in KEOL studios for an hour and a half.  hear or download that performance here:



tracklist:
tylor: lyin' is a sin
tylor: just don't know
tylor: judgement day
spike: company man
tylor: storyteller
spike: war cry
spike: way up on the road
tylor: good times
tylor: things you only notice when you're broke
spike: devil woman
spike: city of trees
tylor: need it or not
spike: mary jane
tylor: chalice

cheap yellow beer will return to KEOL for another in-studio performance at noon on sunday, november 8.

angela brown :: october 2014 rabble rouser of the month ::

rabble rouser of the month :: october 2014

angela brown, trey brown photo:  HNLTV

angela brown, gave her son cannabis oil to treat the effects of his traumatic brain injury. this medication worked to a level nothing else could.  those in the community were amazed and asked     why her son was doing so well.  she told them about a product she picked up in colorado at the recommendation of several doctors.  then the cops sent a social worker to her door.  she is now facing jail time on charges of child endangerment for making her son better.  so, now, perhaps trey has to suffer not only without medication, but without a mother.

late in august, charges were filed, and fox news reported that she could be facing up to two years in prison and $6000 in fines from the misdemeanor charges.  angela admitted to the social worker that she was using cannabis oil and handed it over to authorities.  what's less convenient still is that minnesota has allowed for various forms of medicinal marijuana to be implemented in july 2015, at which time it is possible that trey would apply for benefits under the new law.  last may, when the new law was signed by governor dayton, he said, “i thank everyone who worked together to craft and pass this legislation...i pray it will bring to the victims of ravaging illnesses the relief they are hoping for.” as for the eventuality of the law and the bold move of angela just going for the relief now that it has been acknowledged to be beneficial and recommended, in the words of trey's father david brown, "why would you wait?  why would you wait a year?" instead, the family plans to leave minnesota for colorado.

according to collective evloution, "cannabis oil has been making news and headlines for a couple years in ways we may not expect: cancer and alzheimer treatments, helping to reduce seizures and replacing potentially harmful medications for many people.  cannabis, although holding a negative stigma, can be seen as a natural miracle substance in a way.  it may hold the power to treat and potentially cure a lot of people’s serious diseases ... are we really that disconnected as a society? sure one could argue we don’t have the necessary data to state whether or not cannabis oil could have negative effects over time, but the crazy thing is we do have the data that states our medications we so often prescribe have nasty side effects, even after short periods of use.  so why is one illegal and the other not?  the easy answer is due to social conditioning and stigma." and profit, the article goes on to add.

despite the supposed bias and stigma of marijuana, a poll on the HLN website in advance of angela's appearance on the dr. drew show october 6, showed that 96% thought angela should not be charged with any crime.  the brown's have a donation page on gofundme.com for people wishing to contribute to their legal bills.

video: angela brown calls in to an incensed dr. drew.