Ronnie James Dio and the dragon that got away

[RocDoc]

Maarts, MAN are you at an advantage in being able to cherry-pick rock and non-rock(ESPECIALLY so-called 'world' music)artists, owing to your work!

Amistades Peligrosas, Mamonas Assasinas and Chico Cesar?? Who the fuck?
Shee-it, the best for us Chicago-folk was when we were turned onto a great Columbian band called Bloquè several years back, by a great review that I read by a local reviewer and were so taken with them that my birthday present that year was going to their show at the House Of Blues here. Knocked us OUT!
MUCH as I suspect Ozomatli would also do. THIS disc(Street Signs?)is pretty much irresistable. And totally agreed that it's the salsa/merengue touches which drive this disc.

_{Editorial plea:} People! STOP complaing about music being 'stale/boring'....buy Ozomatli!
CHANGE!
YOUR!
MUSICAL!
LIVES!

But beyond that en espanol for us was basically Los Lobos...and favorites for years.

And then perhaps Al DiMeola's Iberian leanings...tangos from him, were a particular revelation!

Flamenco and me were like _this, since I saw Carlos Montoya give a performance at my Uni yeeears ago.

The libraries now have turned me onto more and more variants on those forms(especially in Hispanic 'rich' Chicago, heh.)...but the rock bands, like Os Mutantes(only from a coupla samplers unfortunately) and Cafe Tacuba are(until recently)a very new unproven quantity, which I very much enjoy. So those 'seminal' discs are unheard by me...so far.

The 'en espanol Radiohead' label on Cafe Tacuba has some basis because they do all sorts of unexpected off-kilter avant-ish stuff during their last 2(Quatros Caminos and the 2CD, Reves/Yosoy...w/Kronos Qtet guesting even!), tho the 'electronic side' disc which Tacuba did on the 'Reves..' set left me cold.

I do think the new one would impress ya, maarts....

~

In the meantime...THIS has been on the player on 'repeat' for like 72 hours...I've been in and out of the office here, but this is at the same time a very calming(tho rawk)disc and just simply haven't seen a need to take it off....til putting on...Thank you my Auzzie brothers and sisters!
Which was good for a coupla spins...

Now...
The mellow side of Ryan Adams...and the incomparable Caitlin Cary...anyone heard her 'Tres Chicas' yet?

[Meursault]

Don't know if you caught it ekul, but for halloween my roomate and i are going out as H20.

[maarts]

Yeah, I am lucky indeed RocDoc. I have been working in the music business for up to 12 years now and, before the internet really got off the ground, my position was the most ideal to gain information and listen to as much music as I do like...

When I started at Fame Music in Amsterdam all those years ago, I was a salesperson on the Alternative/Metal-department. Fame is a huge music store with 6 different departments. Later I had an opportunity to move up and become a buyer on the World Music section. I took it because I always had a passing interest in the genre (I bought albums by Bopol, Cheb Khaled and Bob Marley at the time too), which not only encompassed world, but also reggae, Dutch music, country and new age.

In the few years I been buyer there we established the largest Latin section in Holland. I imported bucketloads of goodies from Miami- we had a large group of people interested in salsa and we did the kind of sales on bands like Grupo Niche, Buena Vista Social Club, Iligales, Africando, La India, Oscar D'Leon, Grupo Gale, Orchestra Guayacan, Juan Luis Guerra, Charanga Habanera, Marisa Monte, Olodum and Timbalada that most stores do for, say, the latest Britney Spears-album..
For me it also meant discovering hundreds of new great bands and artists: Ruben Blades, Jimmy Lafave, The Congos, La Bottine Souriante, Aterciopelados, Chico Cesar, Ricardo Lemvo, Habib Koite, Huun-Huur Tu, Yat-Kha, Hedningarna and Daniella Mercury, to name a few. Some of the concerts I've seen from some of these unknown world-artists have proven to be some of the best I have ever seen, blowing most of your average rockgigs away in a flash- to this day I will still call La Bottine's gig at a Belgian folkfestival the best I've ever seen.

Finding someone who at least had heard of some of them is a challenge and sometimes you feel like a shouting man in a desert...good to see that here at least are people who have their ears wide open!

So for the people who find me a know-it-all and find that I'm butting in on a lot of conversations and think 'jeez, I wish he'd fucking shut the hell up'- I'm sorry but if you had my job and loved it as much as I do, you'd never stop. I realise too that I like too much stuff so people don't read my messages anymore when I do like something....perhaps if I was the Bear and lurked more about here it'd impact more....hmmmm....

RocDoc- I support your cal to buy more Ozomatli- and Echolalia on your diet's good for you.

[JesusLooksLikeMe]

A little C-86 today:-






(We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Gonna Use It - Bostin' Steve Austin)

[phil]

People interested in Salsa/Latino grooves
would do themselves a favor in checking
the SPANISH HARLEM ORCHESTRA's
Across 110th Street Libertad Records
featuring a great contribution by Ruben Blades ...

Lots of percussions, trumpets, trombones and sax
highlight that 16 piece orchestra.

The group's debut album Un Gran Dia in el Barrio
released two years ago was nominated for a Grammy and this sophomore release is even better ...

[luke]

I saw that, Shane, you'd best put up some pics. I'm going as Ric Flair, m'self- girlfriend's mom is making me a robe, and the girlfriend herself will decorate it. Prolly gonna put some temp blond stuff in my hair...WOO!!!

Man, there's, like, this totally fuckin' cool radio station out of Baton Rouge with this awesome DJ chick who plays nothing but 80s metal- from Maiden, Slayer, and Anthrax to Poison, Motley Crue, and Winger to stuff you never hear anymore, like Krokus and WASP. And not just the old radio stuff- I've actually heard Loverboy B-Sides on her show. Seriously, it's the coolest radio station on Planet Earth.

Anyway, yesterday evening, she was playing several songs off of the new Dio. Man, that shit is HILARIOUS. It sounds JUST like old drama queen Dio. It's like nobody told Dio that he couldn't make another record because he's dated and he sucks, so he just made another one like it was just perfectly acceptable to make the follow-up to his last shit heap from the 80s. I'm seriously considering buying this thing for pure, solid schtick value.

[RocDoc]

Dio made a habit of always having a good guitarist playing for him tho...whether it was Richie Blackmore or Tony Iommi....

~

I absolutely love a couple of series of samplers for getting myself exposed to these wonderful and VERY different strains of 'world' music....you get to hear sometimes 15-20 or MORE different bands from Africa, Scandinavia, ALL of the Hispano-Portugese lands...with some Celtic thrown in, absolutely.
I pick and choose who I like the best, then I go AMG them...and try to track them down, IF I already hadn't grabbed something by them from one of the libraries here.

Putumayo(largely Hispano-Portugese-African)

Rough Guide(everything)

BBC3 World Music Awards series

Nordic Roots(#s 1, 2, & 3....the Minneapolis-based NorthSide Records sampler of simply the BEST Scandinavian 'product')

~

That Spanish Harlem Orchestra sounds like a great tip, Phil. And with Ruben Blades!
The latest Ruben Blades disc is likewise fantastic...

Where do you pick up your tips on this type of music, Phil?
Out of genuine curiosity...

~

...and I can thank you 2 guys for getting me out to see La Bottine at the Celtic festival here!
IN-fucking-CREDIBLE band, incredible musicians, incredible show!

Phil, have you ever seen Natalie McMaster?

Same Q to you maarts, tho w/her being a Maritimer I'd think would make it easier for Phil to have seen her fantastic show...

[phil]

RocDoc ~ The Montreal Gazette has a few music critics whose opinions I know I can trust ...

There is also that small independant record store where the owner knows my tastes(and my ever shrinking music buying budget)and will always have a few obscure bands or artists he makes me listen too ...

The summer "Festival d'été de Québec" always makes a point of inviting little-know musicians from all over the world ...

I've also got a few friends from Europe and Africa who occasionaly will send me CDs of their favorite non-mainstream artists ...

I've never seen Natalie McMaster in concert but then artists from the "Other Solitude" or rest of Canada(ROC) rarely ventures outside of Montréal ...

Good thing I don't live there because it would cost me
a fortune to go see all the bands playing small venues there ...

[tuneschick]

RocDoc - I actually saw Natalie MacMaster at my hometown's big folk festival - oh, must have been seven years ago now. I'm not the fan of Celtic music that I once was, but she did put on a fantastic performance.

But my most vivid memory of her isn't from her performance up on stage at the open-air theatre at all. Y'see, this is a festival that runs the first weekend in July every year, and is a really big deal to a not-huge city. It's played host to tons of very, very cool little-known and bigger name acts over the years.

Anyway, every year all the artists stay together at the local university... and after the last performances on Sunday night, there's a giant party at the university with all the artists and selected workers from the festival.

So I have very cool memories of her because that year, I happened to be the head of artist hospitality, and was given two invitations to the big afterparty. This is a party held in a rather intimate, rustic room - big wood tables, 25 cent beer (!), getting to chat with the artists who entertained you all weekend. I remember well, later in the night, having her start a huge jam session in the middle of this little room with a bunch of musicians from various bands while we milled around and sang and clapped and danced and drank... the perfect end to that festival.

So that's what I think of whenever I think of her - that she was really just a master on that fiddle.

(of course, I'm also reminded of getting home at 6 a.m., still drunk, and having to be at work at 8:30, but I'm still trying to forget about that.)

[RocDoc]

Not a fan of Celtic music?? Aaaack!

Well, explain the 'bagpipe love' then? Eh?
This is RocDoc's 'Corollary To Genre Appreciation':

'As Goes Wichita So Goes Wichita Falls'

Confusing, huh? Well I was hoping so...heh. ;D

~

But WHAT a great party/story!
She's truly a person who lives and breathes that Cape Breton music...and she's TINY! She's probably 5 foot tall! Little petite very cute Scot/Irish/whatever blonde.
I stood next to her when she was coming out for an aurograph session after one of the shows we saw her do....like chest high to me.

I want to cure you of this 'Celtic-ho-hum' foolishness....IF you guys have nothing by this progressive Celt band(all-acoustic and incredible! W/another woman singer whom I consider TOPS!) named Solas...then I WILL send you a couple of theirs.

A Neko/Simon&Garfunkel/Bagpipe-loving non-Celtic fan?
Balderdash!

~

So Phil's got a 'bird-dog network' for his music...excellent.
Having a record store guy who knows your tastes a bit definitely is a help....plus like-minded(or as much as someone can possibly be 'like-minded' with such a walking enigma as you, Phil )music-loving friends from other countries is a wonderful thing...

My brother-in-law and I exchange all sorts of metal, basically...because that's where most of his musical tastes lie, besides the fact that it's great drinking music when we get together.
Tho he got ahold of some Lithuanian pop-rock by this guy named Mamontovas(great musician with a bit of a Elvis Costello-ish spin)for me when I expressed an interest...and I actually had everyone in my wife's family trying to track down Georgian folk accordion dance music which I'd been blown away by when I'd heard it in live performance once...and across the former Soviet Union, all they could find me was MORE choral music which I already had several CDs of. Which ALSO is great, nonetheless.

The music programmer at the Chicago Cultural Center, a performance space under a Tiffany glass dome in the old Public Library building is programmed by a guy named Mike Orlove, who's simply got THE greatest taste of ANYone....putting together 2, 3, 4 shows per month which cost nothing to attend...mostly variations on jazz, but usually very off-kilter stuff...

We saw a jazz cellist from NYC named Erich Friedlander simply KILL with his band....likewise NYC pianist Jason Moran duetting with 80 year-old jazz icon, Von Freeman...The Bad Plus did their Chicago debut with this series...then the rest...bands from:

Bulgarian(Cimbalom music actually ROCKS)
Trinidad-Tobago(Steel drums in a jazz band...Liam McTeague)
Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish(basically the whole Northside Records label! Hedningarna? No not yet...)

~

Hey ! just found the Montreal Gazette....and it's in ENGLISH! Cool... ;D

[maarts]

Unfortunately I have never seen Natalie McMasters live, although I believe she has been in Australia at one time or another. I know that she toured Europe several times and played at the Dranouter-festival in Belgium (a celtic and world music festival I used to frequent yearly before I left for down under).
But I have got a reasonable idea what she sounds like for I have listened to several of her CDs including the live-disc which was released (I believe) last year. Really liked it! There's some good fiddlers about- I also enjoy Ashley MacIsaac, a fellow Canadian, if I'm not mistaken?

The tragic thing is that most of the interesting world/Celtic gigs are either in Sydney or, even further away, in a big Gaelic club up in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. I don't have a car and the train takes a mighty long time to get from Sydney to Newie (3 hours and 33 stations at night, to be exact )- Katoomba is another 90 minutes extra. I sincerely wanted to go out and see Lunasa who performed there (their latest disc, The Kinitty Sessions is a delight!) but I had to work the next day....

I hear you on the samplers, RocDoc and they are indeed a fantastic way to get in touch with new music. Through my work I have a subscription to FolkRoots, a fantastic in-depth world music and folk magazine who, once every three months add a sampler for free to their publication. Virtually every corner of the world they cover, introducing me to anything from Madagascar soul to Arab blues....plus very interesting reads and articles about various sections of world music, interviews, historical information and the biggest batch of reviews, shaming Q, Mojo and RS with their in-depth knowledge and writing. Well worth chasing down a copy of!

Last world disc I picked up was the Festival In The Desert-compilation! Man, those nomads can sing the blues. Great chanting, lovely guitarpicking and a nice diversity of styles.

And Phil- I believe I have that Spanish Harlem-disc in the store- I'll have a listen to it as soon as I'm back at work!

[maarts]

Tunes- that story was the best! Wow, how I wish I was there! That must have been so much fun, for nothing beats the enjoyment of a live gig than spontaneous combustion between a bunch of talented players- which is why I love so much Celtic gigs for a lot of these people are so capable of hooking up with fellow musicians, get up on stage and start something live that is intoxicating and exciting- feeding off the crowd and the kinship with your newfound friends!

I remember seeing the Chieftains live in 1996 in an Amsterdam Trade Hall and they were awesome, but the crowd were seated and couldn't jump up and dance...I had some inside gossip that they would take up their instruments and go to the local Irish and play some more- so after two hours of gigging, just after midnight, they strolled into O'Reilly's at Dam Square in front of a packed house, started playing and brought the house down in an amazing fun atmosphere- tears and Guiness were a'flowing aplenty! Free of charge and the patron even allowed some genuine pretty ladies to dance on the bar....

Phil- nothing beats a record store guy who knows what you're into and give some good recommendations- I know I spent fortunes at several stores in my student time because some people working there knew I'd be interested in hearing something new. Thank God my student allowance was pretty good at the time!

[Proud]

when i first heard this album, i was not impressed. "red hot moon" seemed like mallpunkrockrap. the title track just seemed... nonindestructible. but the infectious rhythms have me hooked.

standout: "memphis". beautiful stuff. love the lyrics. not sure what they're getting at though... just seems beautiful.

standin: "ivory coast". feels way too forced. and by then (track 17) the album gets a tad repetitive. but only a tad.



yeah, i'm aware i already mentioned this... but i can't stop listening to it. maybe i'm just a sucker for "mainstream" punk with any sort of meaning or feeling behind it that isn't "my girlfriend of 2 days left me, just like the last one". mm, social and political topics...

standout: "olympia wa". i don't know what a solo or a riff is, but i'll tell ya what... whatever that guitar thing is at the beginning of the song, it's beautiful. people love the beginning of "smells like teen spirit"... i love the beginning of "olympia wa".

standin: "time bomb". it's not bad. at all. but the chorus and the rest of the song seem out of sync to me, for whatever reason. *shrugs*



maybe it's because i'm a nerd. maybe it's because i'm lonely. maybe it's because i love catchy music that's both simple and ingenious. ... but i think this may be the best mainstream album of the 90s. it's kinda emo. but not. *insert more "but"s and "maybe"s here*

standout: "only in dreams". what's this, 8 or 9 minutes? it's slow, and unlike many other mellow tunes by the bands that came and went in rock history, mellowness is used as an ADVANTAGE. "but when we wake/it's all been erased". just the way rivers sings it. it's gorgeous.

standin: "undone - the sweater song". a bit too silly. but still entertaining.



oh, c'mon. it's london calling (which i probably mentioned earlier as well). 19 freaking tracks of pure musical genius, with instruments like... whatever the hell they're playing. best. punk album. ever.

standout: "koka kola". i know everyone says the title track, and i don't blame 'em... it's quite the anthem, and not just for londoners. i guess it's the fact that koka packs a political punch in less than two minutes. nothing like sounding nasty and friendly at the same time.

standin: there is none.

[Meursault]

Ekul: Good work with Ric Flair, that's really amazing. As for Dio, you should check out Holy Diver, that's THE Dio album to own.

[JACkory]

I've invested a lot of time the last week in the following albums:


Krishna Das Breath Of The Heart


Ravi Shankar Chants of India


Philip Glass The Photographer


Philip Glass Two Pages/Contrary Motion/Music In Fifths/Music In Similar Motion