Down to the Promised Land: Five Years of Bloodshot Records
(Bloodshot)
First, the nicknames: alt-country, insurgent country, y’allternative, honky-skronk, country punk, Americana, whatever you call it, this bastard offspring of Country and Western is a genre and if it has an pin-pointable home, it’s Chicago’s Bloodshot Records.
Since Bloodshot began with a 1995 various-artist sampler, (For A Life Of Sin: Insurgent Country Volume One) this magnificently packaged two-disc compilation/celebration brings the label full circle. Stalwarts like Jon Langford (Mekons, Waco Brothers, Three Johns), Robbie Fulks, Handsome Family and Moonshine Willy who have been there all along anchor the set and, even though the jaunty hot-swing of Fulks’ “Bloodshot’s Turning 5” kicks off the second disc, his witty mini-history of the label is the ideal starting point.
Once inside, it’s clear that, like the label’s output as a whole, everything works. For sheer across-the-genre reach, however, the 40 previously unreleased tunes are near flawless: Sample the homemade bluegrass of Split Lip Rayfield, mountain a Capella from Texas Rubies, The Supersuckers dueting with Willie Nelson’s daughter, alterna-country-pop from the Old 97’s and Jason and the Scorchers-style country thrash from Bare Jr. Additionally, there are a plethora of thrilling cover versions, including Red Star Belgrade dissecting AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell”, Caitlin Cary (Whiskeytown) tackling George Jones’ “Please Take the Devil Out Of Me”, Trailer Bride doing the Gun Club’s “Ghost on the Highway” and The Unholy Trio’s hilarious bluegrassish swipe at Public Enemy’s “Bring the Noise. Perhaps the tip-top moment comes from Langford and his Wacos-- who (collectively and individually) act as the Bloodshot house band across the two discs, they even back Graham Parker (!) on one cut-- with their incisive reading of The Who’s “Baba O’ Riley”.
Despite such sprawl, the lasting sense of this collection is unmistakable: Bloodshot has given the notion of modern country music such a solid crack on the noggin that the possibilities leaking out like so much gray matter now seem endless. The next five years might even be better.
Time Out New York, 2000
Showing posts with label Various Artists. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Various Artists. Show all posts
7.3.08
Various Artists
Doob Doob O’ Rama: Filmsongs from Bollywood
Doob Doob O’ Rama 2: More Filmsongs from Bollywood
(Normal)
2000
No place in the world cranks out more films annually than India’s Bollywood, and the essential nature of the industry’s movie music is bluntly laid out in Renu Thamma’s liner notes for the first Doob: “...film songs became a self-complete unit...creating an emotionally satisfying world which required no dramatic context...often even saving a deplorable movie from near-extinction.” Judging from these two wonderfully surreal collections, this indispensable music was made from threads from any style1 of popular music interwoven into a magically madcap melange that factors the term ‘non-sequitur’ beyond the nth degree. For example, “Doob Doob Jata Hoon” by Kishore Kumar, a percolating pop number, contains 11 seconds of gargling--complete with expulsion of mouthwash--- this is presumably Kumar preparing to hit the song’s final note. Currently gaining increasing numbers of US converts, (insert sound of NYC’s Other Music swooning here) once you slide either of these beautifully packaged discs into your player, it is easy to understand the fascination. Every one of the 37 tracks conveys a disarming sense of naiive wonder at the endless possibilities of pop-music crossbreeding. One might complain that there are no recording dates or track information beyond the singer’s name (including nine appearances by “Brimful of Asha” Bosle), but these songs are so untouched by trend that giving them a date seems pointless. 1945? 1973? 1989? All of the above. And as if we needed another reminder of the stale hollowness of the majority our own country’s popular and film musics, Doob Doob is the most convincing yet, as well this year’s most refreshing artifact.
*a partial list of descriptions/artists jotted down in preparation for this review: Dick Dale, K-Tel’s Best of Orgasmic Panting, Vol. One, Residents, Sun City Girls, championship of jamming on casios-with-battieries-dying, hot jazz played by Manhiem Steamroller, Willie Wonka’s Oompa-Loompa’s backed by Ravi Shankar, Cyndi Lauper, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Mia Farrow sings to the Maharishi, Roy Rogers, Winnie the Pooh, Spike Jones, sound of bathing a cat, Don Ho and Shirley Temple--the Complete Recordings, Brief Weeds, Rogers and Hammerstein, NRBQ plays the best of Enoch Light, Shonen Knife, Empire State, Uncle Dave Macon.
Unpublished, 2000
Doob Doob O’ Rama 2: More Filmsongs from Bollywood
(Normal)
2000
No place in the world cranks out more films annually than India’s Bollywood, and the essential nature of the industry’s movie music is bluntly laid out in Renu Thamma’s liner notes for the first Doob: “...film songs became a self-complete unit...creating an emotionally satisfying world which required no dramatic context...often even saving a deplorable movie from near-extinction.” Judging from these two wonderfully surreal collections, this indispensable music was made from threads from any style1 of popular music interwoven into a magically madcap melange that factors the term ‘non-sequitur’ beyond the nth degree. For example, “Doob Doob Jata Hoon” by Kishore Kumar, a percolating pop number, contains 11 seconds of gargling--complete with expulsion of mouthwash--- this is presumably Kumar preparing to hit the song’s final note. Currently gaining increasing numbers of US converts, (insert sound of NYC’s Other Music swooning here) once you slide either of these beautifully packaged discs into your player, it is easy to understand the fascination. Every one of the 37 tracks conveys a disarming sense of naiive wonder at the endless possibilities of pop-music crossbreeding. One might complain that there are no recording dates or track information beyond the singer’s name (including nine appearances by “Brimful of Asha” Bosle), but these songs are so untouched by trend that giving them a date seems pointless. 1945? 1973? 1989? All of the above. And as if we needed another reminder of the stale hollowness of the majority our own country’s popular and film musics, Doob Doob is the most convincing yet, as well this year’s most refreshing artifact.
*a partial list of descriptions/artists jotted down in preparation for this review: Dick Dale, K-Tel’s Best of Orgasmic Panting, Vol. One, Residents, Sun City Girls, championship of jamming on casios-with-battieries-dying, hot jazz played by Manhiem Steamroller, Willie Wonka’s Oompa-Loompa’s backed by Ravi Shankar, Cyndi Lauper, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Mia Farrow sings to the Maharishi, Roy Rogers, Winnie the Pooh, Spike Jones, sound of bathing a cat, Don Ho and Shirley Temple--the Complete Recordings, Brief Weeds, Rogers and Hammerstein, NRBQ plays the best of Enoch Light, Shonen Knife, Empire State, Uncle Dave Macon.
Unpublished, 2000
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