Even if I know I’ve made a mistake, I’ve arrived at some sort of conclusion. [On “L’Autre Cap”], I wanted to make an album to encapsulate this.
-Tori Kudo
You all knew it was coming soon or later.
The new Maher Shalal Has Baz album has been out for about a month now and I’ve been giving it pretty religious listening; trying to figure out what it is about it that makes it so hard to describe (Tori Kudo in general, not this album specifically). Personally I blame Tori Kudo for having to transcend so many genres simultaneously.
In places it’s reminiscent of the hard blues from the nearly 30 year old La Consumption/Atlantic City sessions, other places it’s got that weird Return Visit… shimmering.
It’s nearly a continuation of Faux Depart, only not. Both were recorded stateside at Dub Narcotic (this is the album he was recording when I made the trek to Portland to see a live set back in June. edit: there was a small rant here, but I removed it at the last second in the name of civility). Where Faux Depart rocked with wild abandon L’Autre Cap swoons with adolescent naivety.
How Long Will You Forget Me? (yeah, he’ singing through a drum…)
Dove (you’ll probably want full volume for this…)
Moving Without Ark (this one nearly made me cry the first time I heard it…)
(my friend Esther (the saw virtuoso of the Rocky Mountain region) plays some amazing saw and flute on here; listen carefully to how especially amazing that sawing is on How Long Will You Forget Me?)
Out of my roughly 400 “blind blues” songs, this is the only one by a blind woman; from the amazing and oft referenced Goodbye, Babylon box set.
Honey in the Rock - Blind Mamie Forehand
I saw/first heard Guitar Wolf more than ten years ago in Dallas, they opened for the Demolition Doll Rods who were opening for The Cramps; by the time the Guitar Wolf set ended no one in the place was even able to move much less hear the rest of the show. In the middle of about every other song they’d suddenly STOP! and in complete silence they’d pull out these greaser combs and quickly re-style their mock-Elvis hairdos and then just as suddenly pick right back up where they left off damaging their equipment. My ears never stopped ringing after that show.
Summertime Blues - Guitar Wolf
The Skillet Lickers were one of the most fantastic and talented hillbilly string bands of the 20s; playing with a much more civilized style than say Prince Albert Hunt’s Texas Ramblers. Originally formed to back up some kind of comedian (or some such) they quickly outgrew all that noise and began cutting their own sides which garnered them enough fame to become a household name in both the north and south despite the occasional blatantly racist track. The fact that they were beginning to incorporate blues and hillbilly styles with their own take on jazz and pop in the 20s, plus their inventive arrangements went along way to cement their status as “influential” as early as the 30s. Their rendition of “John Henry” is one of the best you’ll find performed by white folks.
John Henry - The Skillet Lickers
I’m not totally positive but I think these guys might have been relatively popular on college radio back in the 90s; at least that’s when I heard about them and I doubt I was the only college kid in the 90s listening to college radio. I’m pretty sure too that they never really had any commercial success; probably because they never made a video for MTV.
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