Last Day of April/Led Zeppelin

Very nice day today.

In terms of music stuff, I have some goodies to share. Tomorrow, going into the studio with S::S, getting drum sounds all right and tight, should be great fun. In terms of reviews etc., I have a bit of a treat. If you like rock. Here we go!


Quick rundown of grading:

0.0 - 2.0/10 - Shit Purchase
2.1 - 4.0/10 - Poor Purchase
4.1 - 6.0/10 - Average Purchase
6.1 - 8.0/10 - Good Purchase
8.1 - 9.0/10 - Great Purchase
9.1 - 10/10 - Excellent Purchase

Led Zeppelin - Discography

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So I'm just going to assume people know the story here with the group, there's nothing really that I can share that would be much more insightful than a quick wiki and internet dig. So, Led Zeppelin (1). Everyone remembers when they first heard this album, such a unique musical sound to the whole thing. Heavy but wholesome, so many nuggets of awesomeness and modest displays of musical ability. Essentially there's not a bad song on here, and I realise even doing this review is extremely cliched. But I haven't listen to Led Zep properly for a good couple of years, and when you actually sit down and listen to the albums objectively, you can really fall in love with them all over again.

Speaking of love, and a lotta love, this brings me to Led Zeppelin II (2). Pretty bad-arse, thick guitar tones, wicked drumming, very sexual lyrics and imagery, I remember blushing when I listened to this all the way back in grade 7 or something. The whole album exemplifies Zep's 'tight but loose' approach to live performances, especially seeing as this was recorded on the road during 1969. Some of these songs are blogs in themselves, Heatbreaker, Ramble On...all classic. Basically, all the live versions of these songs shit all over the studio ones, just because they don't sound as proper and are so much more raw and energetic, not to say that there aren't moments of brilliance, of course. The most bizarre track is surely Living Loving Maid (She's Just A Woman), which should have come about 5 years before this album did. Drums sounded better on Led Zep I, in my opinion.

Led Zeppelin III (3) is a tough one, but at the same time an easy one. Let me just say very quickly that I was never a fan of their acoustic stuff save for a couple of songs. And let me say that Friends, Hats Off To (Roy) Harper, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, Gallows Pole aren't among them. I respect the idea and of course they are quite good songs, but Since I've Been Loving You has got to be the highlight. This is one of the ultimate sad songs for me. It brings you down with the start, then by the guitar solo something is definitely brewing inside you, resulting in one of the greatest climactic guitar solos I've ever heard. Plant's delivery is flawless, the drums sound amazing, the organ is so moody it's unreal. Out On The Tiles could probably be my theme song. Unless it was Houses Of The Holy, but we'll get to that.

Led Zeppelin IV/Zoso/whatever (4). Don't really need to say anything about this one, other than that if Going To California wasn't on there the album would be perfect in every way. I wish they would've fucked off the acoustic stuff onto one album so they didn't have to screw up my enjoyment of the finest-crafted heavy music on the planet.

Houses Of The Holy (5), I thought this was probably their most consistent album since the debut, no lame acoustic pandering, just all prog and rock. This album sounds like fun. And it is fun! The opening double of The Song Remains The Same/The Rain Song couldn't have been done better, atmospheric and powerful, I've listened to these songs on repeat many many times. Over The Hills And Far Away sucks compared to what it became live, a grooving, heavy beast of a tune, here it just sounds too tame. Bonzo's drums are too low in the mix, too much acoustic guitar...blah blah.... The Crunge is on par with Eddie Murphy in terms of humourous tribute to James Brown: "I'm just trying to find the bridge!". When I heard the drums I made sure I learnt it straight away and could play it perfectly by the next week's band practice back in grade 11. So great to hear musicians having fun, especially as seeing Robert's crooning and uber dorky keyboards may not be to everyone's tastes. No Quarter is the best track on here by a mile. I can't believe they had to resort to ripping of Sean Kingston for D'yer Mak'er though, really guys, I expected more. The Ocean is a fun song, much more powerful live though.

Ok. Let's talk about some real shit. Physical Graffiti (6). From the fuzzy guitar and clavinet opening of Custard Pie, it's clear something epic is about to happen. Basically the first 7 songs are absolute classic (this includes Kashmir, In My Time Of Dying, Trampled Underfoot, Houses Of The Holy), that has to be some kind of streak. If you ignore Bron-Yr-Aur and Down By The Seaside I personally don't think you'd be missing much. Ten Years Gone is every bit sad and moving as Stairway, The Rain Song or Since I've Been Loving You. A great story combined with watery guitars and excellent songwriting makes this an absolute treat. Night Flight sounds like it could have been sung in Motown by someone like Clarence Carter. I really like what they've done with it. The Wanton Song is a favourite of mine, particularly because of the chorus, that chord progession is amazing, nothing comes close to comparison or describing what I feel when I hear it. Forget Boogie With Stu and Black Country Woman, Sick Again is a solid rocker which was a great staple in their sets from '75 - '77. Despite some interesting experimentation, this album is solid gold, the only one being heavier or more bad arse being.....



Presence. (7)


Achilles Last Stand is probably one of the greatest songs ever written. Epic in every way, an extremely complex and difficult song, you can't pause or stop this song once it plays, it's instantly captivating and the perfect way to start off Page's guitar swan song (no pun intended). For Your Life is a fantastic song and ridiculously heavy, bluesy romp. Royal Orleans/Hots On For Nowhere/Candy Store Rock are good songs and feature impressive riffing, but unfortunately not as strong as Achilles or Nobody's Fault But Mine or Tea For One. The former is a phaser-heavy guitar-glory jam, the latter, a heavy-starting shimmering desert blues. Brilliant. Have to be in the mood for it though.

The movie mostly sucked, but the performance pieces are where it's at, and that's just what the Soundtrack To The Song Remains The Same (8) is all about. I think it's superior to the reissue mainly because of the version of No Quarter, featuring one of Page's best solos (live or studio) without a doubt, which is chopped and changed on the reissue. A shame. The recording does sound a bit dated but does keep the theme of the film and having heard the bootlegs it's a fair representation of their fabled performances at the Madison Square Garden in 1973.

Led Zeppelin Vs. Impending 80s doom. In Through The Out Door (9) is the venue. How do they fare? Well if you were listening to the album for the first time and heard In The Evening, you'd be chuckling to yourself gleefully. However after South Bound Saurez starts up you find yourself in unfamiliar territory. Not in the sense that they're having a bit of harmless fun with a boogie down, but it actually seems like a lot (too much) serious thought went into this song. A shame. Fool In The Rain is great for two reasons: 1. The drums. 2. That octave/fuzz pedal Jimmy uses for his solo. Not a huge fan of the street-party fiesta break down, but I can live with it with all the other incredible musicianship on display. Hot Dog. A turd. A Turd Hot Dog. I actually quite like Carouselambra, I mean, if I was limited to the number of presets on a synthesizer that John Paul Jones probably was back in 1978, I would've thought the opening sounded pretty cool. It seriously dates the recording though, which sucks, because you don't have that problem with almost all of their other work. The bridge is amazing though, a suitable reward for listening to 10 minutes of keyboard work most bands would imitate nowdays to be funny. If you just cut to 4:05, you'll be fine, that's where the glory starts. Trust me. All My Love is a great song, but it suffers from the god awful synths again. Everything else is fine. Closer I'm Gonna Crawl is a track I nearly always skip, and I can't find any justification to reverse that decision.

Coda (10), you really either love or hate this one. I personally think the new songs that they were working on fucking sucked, I'm kind of glad they appeared on here rather than squeezed out as the turd-twin to In Through The Out Door. It's good for a couple of old rarities and Bonzo's Montreux, but not really essential. Which makes sense because it's not really an album. Sigh.

The first disc of BBC Sessions (11) is great; a collection of various early radio spots for the BBC in 1969 (mostly, I think). Some hot and not-so-hot versions of classics such as You Shook Me, Communication Breakdown and my favourite The Girl I Love She Got Long Black Wavy Hair (which would later become Moby Dick). A good document of the early bluesy live sound of the band if you're not keen on straying from the official releases. Disc 2 is a concert from 1971, warts and all. A very raw and revealing recording, probably didn't help that Robert's voice wasn't in great shape. It has its moments though.

How The West Was Won (12). I'm not saying anything about it. Discover it yourself, then see what happens.

Finally, The Song Remains The Same reissue (13). Now, you can't have the reissue and not the original, so you really should get both, because they're both great in their own ways and together they form a more complete document of the performances. I'd still go the original over this any day, but I've got both so it doesn't really matter. Yay!



I do realise I've left a lot out about the albums, but I'm leaving it to you to discover them and enjoy them in your own way, that's the best part.


Ok. So how do Zep Score? (I'm scoring them relative to each other)

(1)::: 10/10 - Excellent Purchase - Led Zeppelin
(2)::: 9.4/10 - Excellent Purchase - Led Zeppelin II
(3)::: 8.9/10 - Great Purchase - Led Zeppelin III
(4)::: 9.7/10 - Excellent Purchase - Led Zeppelin IV
(5)::: 9.5/10 - Excellent Purchase - Houses Of The Holy
(6)::: 9.6/10 - Excellent Purchase - Physical Graffiti
(7)::: 9.7/10 - Excellent Purchase - Presence
(8)::: 8.5/10 - Great Purchase - The Song Remains The Same Soundtrack (Original)
(9)::: 6.8/10 - Good Purchase - In Through The Out Door
(10)::: 5.9/10 - Average Purchase - Coda
(11)::: 8.0/10 - Good Purchase - BBC Sessions
(12)::: 28/10 - You can't not have this. - How The West Was Won
(13)::: 8.0/10 - Good Purchase - The Song Remains The Same Soundtrack (Reissue)

Thanks for reading, go forth and listen!


- James

Recent purchases and reviews

I love amazon. Without it I'd be stuck paying $150.00 for a Miles box set as opposed to just over $40 on amazon. Sweet sweet amazon. Anyway, a decent and compact summation of my basic musical tastes. Been on a bit of a Miles binge for a good year now I think, reaching a head soon I think, really love the period that these box sets represent. Kind of weird to see why everyone was so excited about Bob Dylan when this shit was being recorded, phenomenal stuff.

Quick rundown of grading:

0.0 - 2.0/10 - Shit Purchase
2.1 - 4.0/10 - Poor Purchase
4.1 - 6.0/10 - Average Purchase
6.1 - 8.0/10 - Good Purchase
8.1 - 9.0/10 - Great Purchase
9.1 - 10/10 - Excellent Purchase

So from front to back, L-R, row by row:

Flying Lotus - 1983

His first album, pretty good, Los Angeles shits all over it though. In between making this album and LA, I think he learnt that ambient dusty instrumentals aren't really designed to go for 6 minutes and that sometimes it is possible to be too minimalistic in his beats. At only a few listens, it has some great ideas and the sound that everyone loves about FlyLo is definitely there, but not flourishing as it has later on. 6.5/10 - Good Purchase.

"1983" by Flying Lotus



Miles Davis - Filles De Kilimanjaro

One of my favourites. The second electric outing of Miles' Second Great Quintet. Tony Williams is amazing on this album, but when isn't he, really? Released in 1969, preceding both In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew, the themes that started on Miles In The Sky return for a more rhythmically free exploration of early jazz fusion. Not that fucking distasteful Weather Report synthy shit, or anything Chick Corea did after about 1972. No way, genuinelly innovative and captivating, a great listen. 8.5/10 - Great Purchase.

*Note: I did have a copy of this previously that I bought second hand in NYC, but upon further inspection the CD was a bit scratched, so I thought I'd order another copy to fit in with my pristine Miles collection. So there.

"Frelon Brun" by Miles Davis



Miles Davis - Water Babies

Haven't really had enough of a listen to this one to give it a rating. Basically it's a collection of B-Sides from the period of Filles De Kilimanjaro/In A Silent Way etc., will report further upon further listening. Not expecting amazing things, but who knows.


Various Artists - African Scream Contest

Sub-title reads: "Raw & Psychedelic Afro Sounds from Benin & Togo 70s". Probably one of the greatest album/compilation titles of all time. Basically this guy (can't be stuffed to look up his name now) travelled to Africa a couple of years ago to investigate some of the music of this period, and actually met with and interviewed the artists whose tracks he wanted for this compilation, some very interesting stories inside. So he got personal permission from the dudes who wrote and played this music and then just puts it out for the world to see, very cool stuff. The music is an eye-opener, the opening track is killer. You hear the western influences of James Brown etc etc, but the whole sound is totally unique and infinitely listenable. I can't speak African, but the music seriously speaks for itself. A great collection of otherwise certain-to-remain-unheard tracks from the continent that gave us humanity, AIDS and Fela Kuti, also the liner notes would've been a total mission to compile, and the music is fucking rad. 9.2/10 - Excellent Purchase.

"Mi Kple Dogbekpo" by Lokonon André & Les Volcans



Eddie Kendricks - The Motown Solo Albums Vol. 1: Keep On Truckin'/Vol. 2: The Thin Man

Former Temptations frontman Eddie Kendricks. You know he must've been cool when the liner notes start by saying how handsome he was and how it was basically inescapable that he pulled bitches above and beyond what the rest of Motown was capable of at the time. Having a distinctive falsetto voice, maybe a little less earnest than Curtis Mayfield, it's interesting to see what Eddie's albums actually contained. The results may shock you. For being famous for that one voice, he has a great range of timbres and a strange affinity for male back-up singers on quite a number of his songs. An odd choice, or so I would've thought. I basically bought this for three songs: My People....Hold On, Intimate Friends, and Girl You Need A Change Of Mind. Also because I thought that the rest would be quite decent. I was mostly right, but again, if you're presented out of the blue with about 5 CDs worth of Eddie Kendricks (88 Tracks), 85 of which you've never really heard before, there's going to be some dud, standard Motown-filler material. Aside from all the baby-missing and sugar-loving and mind-changing there's a real talent in Kendricks himself, a versatile and honest voice that is entertaining and convincing. Definitely would not recommend this to anyone who has no idea what the fuck I'm talking about, but if you like your soul smooth, and your voices high, and your heart on the verge of breaking, you clearly need these. Vol. 1 is marginally better than Vol. 2 because from about 1975 onward Eddie does just a little too much blow and gets caught up in the disco thing. Inevitable really, but quite good. Overall though.... 8.0/10 - Good Purchase.

"Intimate Friends" by Eddie Kendricks



Miles Davis - The Complete In A Silent Way/Bitches Brew Sessions

Quick and easy review. If you know and love the two albums which these are documents of, then the purchase is essential. But if you decide to buy these on a wing you'll be severely disappointed. Here's what's on them: All, or nearly all, of the complete takes of the recording sessions which produced both albums. Lots of experiments, some work, some don't, some 3 minutes long, some 26 minutes long. This is Miles Davis in transition. The best thing about these is you can actually HEAR the transition, you can hear the band figuring out what to play, exploring new musical territory. The finished products (aka album cuts) are included here too, so you can again hear what innovation sounds like. Not to mention read about it in the gorgeous and extremely detailed booklets that come with each set. It will tell you when what was recorded, where it was recorded, who played on it, where it appears in the final album and general notes and awesome photos from the sessions. A blow by blow account of how Miles changed jazz forever. You'd be hard pressed to find more innovative albums in the world of jazz (relative to the time period, of course) and to have them documented in their (almost) entirety is such a great treat and worth the price, which still isn't that hexing. 10/10 - Excellent Purchase.

So yeah. That's about it for this round of purchases. Let me know what you think, I have a ton of other music to sift through, which I'll no doubt get to at some point.

Til next time -

Blog the first

Welcome, this is new and will probably be great. This blog has been created under similar circumstances to which I'm sure countless others have, having taken a nodoz while attempting to write assignments, but dedicating time to far more important things.

So where does this leave us? I suppose I'll just put up music I have and like and share with people who want to listen, but also call out shitty bands and other stuff as I see fit. I'm not really expecting anyone to read this so we'll see what happens. I play drums, mostly, in two arguably shitty bands, one more so than the other, or so I hear, so maybe expect some news from there. I live in Brisbane which is not too bad at all, it's not New York, but then, not many places are. First post proper will be up soon, hope you find me as interesting as I do.

Cool.