College radio with more asssignments

Is it a second childhood if it starts in college?

The community station CHIRP Radio has a robust playlist, analyzed and reported to the North American College & Community Top 200 chart, and a robust DJ database of programming notes. While reviving my student radio experience as an unpaid DJ, I contribute album reviews to the studio database the Wisconsin campus station never had.

Aspiring media practitioners, who need work samples to get a job, should have an easier time of it now: They can blog or vlog their passions, and it might just lead to paid gigs. I'm happy with my day job, though, so these backlist album reviews are done for fun. Writing forces the critic to think more deeply about the performance they're evaluating. Some releases are old friends and others first impressions, but the listening always reveals surprises.

Odessa | The Handsome Family | Carrot Top | 1995

Guitarist Brett Sparks and lyricist Rennie Sparks were Chicago singer-songwriters searching for their style on their first album, with Rennie on bass and Mike Werner on drums. Named for Brett's Texas hometown, "Odessa" takes backroads from hillbilly Americana to punk and grunge. The Handsome Family website describes the album as "written by young kids trying to find a pathway inward to find the old, lost songs." One tradition they reclaim is the frontier murder ballad, updated in "Arlene" (2★) with a truckstop stalker as narrator—plan to lead in to this one, it’s a scary place. The Sparks are empathetic chroniclers of infantilism with “Pony" (3), depression in “One Way Up" (4★) and pseudoscience in "Everything That Rises Must Converge" (7). "Water Into Wine” (5) is a country drinking song with Steve Thomas on pedal steel guitar. The world is scary awesome in "Giant Ant" (6), "Gorilla" (8) and "Big Bad Wolf" (12), a theme the Handsome Family will revisit after their move to Albuquerque, New Mexico. "Moving Furniture Around" (11★) is a dose of Wicker Park apartment angst, "She Awoke With a Jerk" (13) a morning-after wake-up call and “Happy Harvest" (14) a children's folk lampoon. RIYL: Andrew Bird, Robbie Fulks, Violent Femmes. Chicago classic

Twilight | The Handsome Family | Carrot Top | 2001

Brett and Rennie Sparks in 2001 were busy touring with Wilco and moving from Chicago to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Yet the couple’s Gothic themes as the Handsome Family were still tied to Wicker Park’s vanishing pigeons and parking lots. The duo were more confident musicians: Brett’s baritone grew more resonant and his guitar and keyboard arrangements more adventurous in the studio, and the post-9/11 landscape had not tempered Rennie’s mordant lyrics. Life goes on in “The Snow White Diner” (1★) as a car and corpse are winched from the lake. What follows are more alt-country studies in urban isolation, where birds have fled the park (“Passenger Pigeons,” 2★) or nested in phone kiosks (“A Dark Eye,” 3) and artificial light hangs over the night sky (“All the TVs in Town," 5). A tremulant organ and musical saw send “Gravity” (6) into low orbit. “Cold Cold Cold” (7★) follows a prairie road “where sometimes at night people disappear.” “I Know You Are There” (9) presents a litany of haunts. Animals are close at hand: “Birds You Cannot See” (10) are everyday guardians and “A White Dog” (11★) is a ghostly guide to the netherworld. “So Long” (12) gives ill-fated pets a sendoff. “Peace in the Valley Once Again” (13) finally arrives when nature reclaims the last shopping mall. RIYL: Gram Parsons, Jeff Tweedy, Wye Oak. Chicago classic

Roland Kirk Quartet | Rip, Rig, and Panic | Limelight | 1965

Rahsaan Roland Kirk played everything, everywhere, all at once. The late multi-instrumentalist could do soul (with Quincy Jones) and 1920s hot jazz (sampled by Mocean Worker for "Right Now”); here he leans into post-bop and free jazz. Kirk introduced Charles Mingus’ raucous "Haitian Fight Song" to Ed Sullivan's TV audience and gave the Austin Powers movies their kitschy flute theme. Appearing onstage with multiple horns around his neck, he used two or more at once, a vaudeville show that gave him striking harmonies. The uptempo “No Tonic Press” (1) is Kirk’s avant flex of a Lester Young (Prez) tenor sax riff with no tonic note. After some self-accompanied sax foreplay, he launches into a sultry tenor stroll through “Once in a While” (2★), ending on a high note. “From Bechet, Byas, and Fats” (3) is a celebratory callout to his influences, with Kirk bringing big Don Byas energy to the woofing low tenor. On “Mystical Dream” (4), Kirk opens with a soldiers’ march fit for “The Wizard of Oz"—tripling on oboe, tenor and alto with a whistle for good measure—before switching to flute. The title track (5★) freely combines feedback effects from Kirk and bassist Richard Davis, taped natural sound at different playback speeds, shattering glass and a wake-the-dead Elvin Jones percussion finale at 6:33. “Black Diamond” (6) is a bright soprano-sax dance in 6/8 time, pianist Jaki Byard playing it Dave Brubeck-cool. Tape samples return with electronics, sirens and Byard stride on “Slippery, Hippery, Flippery” (7). Recorded within weeks of John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme,” this session mapped jazz’s path ahead. RIYL: 8 Bold Souls, Nicole Mitchell’s Black Earth Ensemble, Roscoe Mitchell.

Stills & Collins | Everybody Knows | Cleopatra | 2017

Stephen Stills and Judy Collins met in 1967; at Ravinia 50 years later, they opened their first tour as a duo. This crowdfunded studio album features nine songs from their set, plus Collins' wistful reprise of “Who Knows Where the Time Goes" (9★). Collins is in fine voice at age 78; Stills at 72 provides solid vocals and elegant electric guitar breaks. Russell Walden leads a propulsive backup band with bluesy piano and organ. Stills & Collins makes a fair case for the Traveling Wilburys pastiche "Handle With Care" (1), Collins leading. "So Begins the Task" (2) is a Stills standard from 1972’s Manassas” and his "Judy" (4) dates from when the two were an item in 1968. Collins solos on her nostalgic "River of Gold" (3★) and dreamy “Houses" (6). The title duet (5★) is more bittersweet than the Leonard Cohen original, considering the pair’s history of sex, drugs and rock and roll. (Collins has been in recovery since 1978 and Stills finds drugs "no longer fun.") Stills leads on Tim Hardin's "Reason to Believe" (7) and Bob Dylan's "Girl from the North Country" (8). The set ends with Buffalo Springfield's "Questions" (10), which Stills recycled as "Carry On" for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. RIYL: Neil Young's "A Letter Home." 

Thelonious Monk | Monk’s Dream | Columbia | 1963

In 1963, when jazz was stirring the cocktail circuit, pianist Thelonious Monk was the hard stuff. Despite notice as a composer, Monk's percussive hard-bop style, surprising voicings and manic stage presence were an acquired taste. "Monk's Dream" gave mainstream label exposure to an accessible Monk setlist. The title tune (1) is a modal retooling of "I Got Rhythm" and "Bright Mississippi" (3) spins out from "Sweet Georgia Brown." Monk solos on "Body and Soul" (2★) and "Just a Gigolo" (6), abstracting two jazz standards with a harmonic and rhythmic complexity that would complement hip-hip or prog-rock tracks. Charlie Rouse is a soulful tenor sax complement on "Bolivar Blues" (5★) and the uptempo "Bye-Ya" (7★) could launch Outkast's "Hey Ya!" RIYL: Robert Glasper, Khruangbin, Radiohead, Tame Impalas, Vampire Weekend.

The Soft Machine | The Soft Machine | Probe | 1968

The UK psychedelic scene emerged from London’s UFO Club, where Soft Machine and Pink Floyd were house bands. The Soft Machine taped its debut album in NYC on a tour with Jimi Hendrix, who inspired Mike Ratledge to run fuzzbox and pedal effects through his Lowrey Holiday Deluxe organ. This edition of the band had Kevin Ayers on bass, Robert Wyatt on drums and Daevid (DAH-vid) Allen on guitar, replaced on tour with Andy Summers, later of the Police. (The reviewer owned a vinyl copy with a peekaboo photo-wheel cover, as on Led Zeppelin III.) Songs run together but can easily stand alone with quick fades in and out. “Hope for Happiness” (1) starts with cosmic chants in each channel, then breaks into an anarchic 6/8 march, interrupted by “Joy of a Toy” (2), a Haight-Ashbury guitar solo, before a reprise of the original theme (3). Similarly, the odd narrative of “Why Am I So Short” (4) leads into a jam, “So Boot It at All” (5), with organ, bass and drums each getting a solo turn, then shifts to “A Certain Kind” (6★), a sweet ballad over churchy organ. “Save Yourself,” “Priscilla” and “Lullaby Letter” (7-9) is a ragtag suite opening side 2, the last cut being the most fully realized. “We Did It Again” (10★) is a fun ostinato groove, with the title phrase repeated through a fuzzbox. The sequence builds to the proto-prog “Why Are We Sleeping?” (12★); Ayers relates a dystopian nightmare, or maybe a political platform: “It begins with a blessing/And it ends with a curse/Making life easy/By making it worse.” RIYL: Robert Fripp, The Nice, Vanilla Fudge.

Sally Timms | Cowboy Sally | Bloodshot | 1997

When Chicago’s fabled Loop nightclub Bar Double-R Ranch introduced British art-rockers the Mekons to country and Western, vocalist Sally Timms developed a taste for the genre’s bittersweet notes. Cowboy Sally, a character Timms voiced in TNT’s mid-‘90s cartoon block, re-emerges on this solo EP and later alt-country outings as a roadhouse crooner. John Anderson’s Everglades lament “Seminole Wind” (1★) is firmly in folk territory, featuring fiddler Jessica Biley and Jon Langford’s Waco Brothers band. Brett and Rennie Sparks, aka the Handsome Family, join Timms in their ode to failure “Drunk By Noon” (2★) (“Sometimes I flap my arms like a hummingbird/Just to remind myself I'll never fly”). Harry Trumfio of the Pulsars gives “Tennessee Waltz” (4) a Caribbean steel-drum pulse. Brendan Croker, Steve Goulding and Langford, fellow Chicago transplants from the Mekons collective, back Timms on Merle Haggard’s “Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You” (3) and Lefty Frizzell’s “Long Black Veil” (5★). As in later projects, Timms is drawn to the relationship songs of wayward men. RIYL: Gillian Welch, Lucinda Williams, Lainey Wilson.Chicago classic

Sally Timms | Cowboy Sally's Twilight Laments for Lost Buckaroos | Bloodshot | 1999

Timms and Mekons collaborator Jon Langford (Waco Brothers) throw a pity hoedown, recorded in three days in Chicago with an ace alt-country assemblage featuring Grievous Angels’ Jon Rauhouse on banjo and pedal steel and Hawaiian guitars. “Dreaming Cowboy” (2) sets the melancholy vibe: Timms’ sweet voice carries dark undertones in Guy Lawrence’s song about Texas freedom at the bottom of a glass. Andrew Bird is on violin here, Jessica Biley on most other tracks. “The Sad Milkman" (3★), with Harry Trumfio on steel drums, bemoans the fate of those who reach for the stars; “Snowbird” (7), with fiddler Steve Ropsen, is another Handsome Family cover but in Carter Family style. Timms and Langford’s “Dark Sun” (4★) suggests mutual assured destruction, from a night doing shots if not a nuclear blast. Other Timms-Langford originals are “Sweetheart Waltz” (6) and “Cancion Para Mi Padre" (10), the latter with Latin percussion from Fred Armisen, Timms’ husband at the time. Robbie Fulks accompanies Timms on guitar for his faux-17th century broadside "In Bristol Town” (5). More covers add to the sadness: Johnny Cash’s “Cry Cry Cry” (8★), Jeff Tweedy's "When the Roses Bloom Again" (9) and Jill Sobule’s “Rock Me to Sleep” (11★). The first and last tracks are spoken, casting the set as a sort of distant “National Barn Dance” broadcast. RIYL: Ryan Adams, Avett Brothers, Hoyle Brothers.Chicago classic

Matt Ulery's Loom/Large | Festival | Woolgathering | 2016

Chicago jazz bassist Matt Ulery stretches out in two pieces with a 27-piece Large orchestra featuring Snarky Puppy violinist Zach Brock. Jimmy Rowles' iridescent "The Peacocks" (1) and Ulery's time-shifting "Hubble" (2★) recall the 1970 big-band rhythm experiments of Chicago Symphony Orchestra percussionist Dick Schory. Ulery pushes forward in the next half-dozen arrangements for his smaller Loom ensemble. "Canopy" (6★) gives his ideas their best airing, with Rob Clearfield laying down a minimalist piano foundation for byplay with Geof Bradfield's clarinet, Russ Johnson's trumpet and Jon Deitemyer's drums. Clearfield switches to pump organ with Ulery on tuba for the last five Festival songs. Ulery's spooky daybreak lyrics for "The Silence Is Holding" (9) and eldritch harmonies on "Depth of Winter" (10★) make this Festival section closer to a New Orleans funeral parade without the second line dancing. RIYL: Derek Hodge, Liberation Music Orchestra, Miles Mosley, Maria Schneider Orchestra, Esperanza Spalding. Chicago classic