Praxis was the name of an experimental rock project, led by prolific producer/bassist Bill Laswell and featuring guitarist Buckethead and drummer Bryan "Brain" Mantia in nearly every incarnation of the band.
The group worked with many other artists such as Serj Tankian from System of a Down, Iggy Pop, DXT and DJ Disk.
Recorded at Knitting Factory, NYC Friday, June 30, 2000
2004 - Faces - Five Guys Walk Into A Bar (4CDs) @320
There has never been a better box set than the Faces' Five Guys Walk into a Bar.... There has never been a box that captures an artist so perfectly, nor has a box set taken greater advantage of unreleased and rare material, to the point where it seems as essential and vital as the released recordings. Simply put, there's never been a box set as necessary as this, since it tells the band's entire tale and explains exactly what the fuss is all about. Unfortunately, some explanations are in order, since the Faces never made it big, resigned to cult status in America and Britain alike. Nevertheless, if you love rock & roll with an all-consuming passion, you may consider the Faces the greatest rock & roll band ever. And you'd be right. Other bands were certainly bigger and plenty wielded a stronger influence, but the Faces were something unique, an endearingly ragged quintet that played raw, big-hearted rock & roll as hard as the Rolling Stones, but with a warm, friendly vibe that would have sounded utterly foreign coming from the Stones. At the turn of the '60s, that warmth was unusual in rock & roll, since most of the big bands were larger than life; even the Kinks, the quaintest and quietest of the titans of the late '60s, had a theatrical bent that lent them a mystique.
In contrast, the Faces were utterly without mystique. They were unpretentious to a fault, coming across like the lovable lads from the neighborhood who were always out for a good time, whether it was before, during, or after a gig. They were unassuming and mischievous, with their raggedness camouflaging a sweetness that flowed throughout their music; they were charming rogues, so endearing that even the infamously cranky, trendsetting British DJ John Peel had a soft spot a mile wide for them. That raggedness resulted in exhilarating music, but also made the Faces inconsistent on-stage and in the studio. At their peak, nobody could touch them, but even their greatest albums were sloppy, never maintaining their momentum. They would also throw away great songs on non-LP singles, and their live performances -- including BBC sessions for Peel -- often had a raucous energy not quite captured on their albums. All of these elements taken as a whole add up to a great band, but no single album, not even the first-rate 1999 compilation Good Boys When They're Asleep, captured each of these elements.
Five Guys Walk into a Bar... does. Produced and sequenced by their keyboardist, Ian McLagan, the set throws all conventional rules of box sets out the window. It's not assembled in a chronological order. A grand 43 of its 67 tracks are non-LP cuts and rarities, including a whopping 31 previously unreleased tracks. It has all the B-sides never released on CD. Several songs are repeated in alternate live or studio versions. Such a preponderance of rarities would usually mean that a box set is only for the devoted, but that's not the case here -- these rarities are the very reason why Five Guys Walk into a Bar... succeeds in a way none of their original albums do, since they fill in the gaps left behind on their four studio albums. This does mean that it features several Rod Stewart solo cuts that worked their way into the Faces' repertoire (partially because the band backed him on his solo albums, too), but that was an important part of their history (plus, the BBC version of "You're My Girl [I Don't Want to Discuss It]" is blistering hot), and while this showcases Stewart at his best -- he never was better than he was in the early '70s, whether it was fronting the Faces or on his solo records -- he never overshadows his mates on this box.
The focus is on the band as a whole, which means that the spotlight is shone on the late, perpetually underappreciated Ronnie Lane numerous times on each of the four discs, and that Ronnie Wood has his turn at the microphone on a wonderful live "Take a Look at the Guy." McLagan's song sequencing may appear to have no logic behind it, since it doesn't group recordings together by either era or scarcity, yet his seemingly haphazard approach makes musical and emotional sense, flowing like a set list yet remarkably maintaining momentum through its four lengthy discs. While it may sound like hyperbole, there's never a dull moment here, not a bad track among these 67 songs -- it's consistent in a way the Faces never were when they were together. It's a joyous, addictive listen, too. It sounds like a party, one where everybody's invited and where the music doesn't stop playing until the break of dawn. That makes a perfect tribute for a band that never got the respect they were due, and never made the great album they should have made. With Five Guys Walk into a Bar..., the Faces finally have that great album and not just that, they have a box set that's as infectious and satisfying as any classic rock & roll album and a box set that's quite possibly the greatest box set ever made. Plus, it's just one hell of a good time. (AllMusic)
2024 - The Cure - Songs Of A Lost World (Deluxe Edition) @320
Robert Smith starts at the end for The Cure's first album in 16 years. 'This is the end / Of every song that we sing' is the cheery opening line, and a repeated refrain of 'nothing' closes things some 50 minutes later (the full line is 'Left alone with nothing / The end of every song'). It's safe to say that the godfathers of gloom haven't altered their disposition in the intervening years, and we're all the better for it.
Songs of a Lost World is a true return to the desolate beauty of their 80s heyday. The opening pair of songs, Alone and And Nothing Is Forever, could've fit neatly onto Disintegration with their lengthy introductions (vocals rarely appear earlier than two minutes into any song), the cinematic sweep of the keys and guitar, Smith's languishing laments, the way beauty is eked out of the darkest corners.
Smith wrote, composed and arranged the whole album, something he only did previously on The Head On the Door. And though Songs may be lacking an earworm like In Between Days, the sonic blueprint is just as cohesive as the 1985 classic. The band's collective strengths are brought to the fore on each perfectly constructed ode to grief, memory and impermanence; the plaintive piano of I Can Never Say Goodbye, the screeching guitars of Warsong and Endsong, the martial percussive bounce of Drone:Nodrone.
These songs were written against a backdrop of family bereavement (I Can Never Say Goodbye is as poignant as it is heartbreaking), but Smith's reckoning with time and mortality is never self-pitying. Rather, he can view his nihilistic tendencies in the fullness of experience; love may be a fragile thing, but it's ultimately worth the pain it can cause. (TheSkinny)
Andy, look what I found in my Flac store on the HD (was looking for something else), it's the only one I have, will check the 320 just in case I have anything at 320. Am going to drop the Flac in Vibes Private Club. The 320 here on Vibes.
Another double CD, that's been sitting in the to post (need's a bit of work) folder, well just a bit of editing to the tags was all that was required. Anyway it's posted now. Maybe I'll dig the albums out and post them!! We will see!!
The funny thing is I thought I had posted this, maybe was while I was posting in Bob's Basement? Do I don't remember, well here it is now!!!
Joolz Denby (born as Julianne Mumford on 9 April 1955) is an English poet, novelist, illustrator, painter and tattooist based in Bradford, Yorkshire (UK). In 1975, at age 19, she married Kenneth Denby and took his family name. She first came to prominence touring as a spoken word performance poet. She began recording music and spoken word recordings in 1983, often in collaboration with New Model Army members or with Jah Wobble. She also wrote record and concert reviews for the UK magazine Spiral Scratch, and has on started publishing poetry collections and novels from 1986 onwards.
2014 - Shuggie Otis – The Very Best Of Shuggie Otis
- 1969-1974 @320
2014 collection from the Rhythm & Blues singer/songwriter. This release spans the years 1969-74 and includes 'Strawberry Letter 23', 'Ahut Uh Mi He'd',' Hurricane', 'I Can't Stand to See one Die' and many more. This a great value compilation of Shuggie's work recorded between 69-74. Strawberry Letter 23 would go on to become a massive hit in 77 for the Brothers Johnson produced by Quincy Jones. Shuggie's original version is awesome. This 18 track compilation comprises the majority tracks featured on his first three albums. The quality is awesome and still sounds great today. The albums must have sounded cosmic when originally released! Unfortunately Otis recordings dried up following this initial burst of creativity recorded in his late teens and early 20's and we can only imagine the stellar career he might have had. A terrific album from a terrific artist at a terrific price. (Desertcart)
Cowboy Junkies - 2022 - Songs of the Recollection @Flac
When the Cowboy Junkies released their first album in 1986, Whites Off Earth Now!!, eight of the nine songs were covers, and their second, the 1988 breakthrough hit The Trinity Session, introduced them to a larger audience with their interpretations of Lou Reed's "Sweet Jane" and Patsy Cline's "Walkin' After Midnight." Recording other people's songs and giving them a sound of their own is deeply ingrained in the Cowboy Junkies' working method, so it's no great surprise that they've chosen to release an album devoted entirely to covers. 2022's Songs of the Recollection features five new recordings of tunes from artists they admire, along with four previously released tracks that appeared on EPs (Vic Chesnutt's "Marathon" and the Cure's "Seventeen Seconds") or tribute albums (Gram Parsons' "Ooh Las Vegas" and Gordon Lightfoot's "The Way I Feel"). This is very much in the tradition of what we've come to expect from the Cowboy Junkies in the year 2022, and that is not at all a bad thing.
As a singer, Margo Timmins has learned to adapt her understated murmur to a wide range of moods and melodic frameworks, and she's consistently lovely here, especially in her rueful takes on David Bowie's "Five Years" and Neil Young's "Love in Mind." Guitarist Michael Timmins has a gift for weaving expressive dissonance and electric accents into the folky vibe common to their performances, and the overdriven finale of "Five Years," the sudden showers of fuzz in Neil Young's "Don't Let It Bring You Down," and the reverb-enhanced feedback on "Ooh Las Vegas" attest to his status as an unsung hero of noise guitar. And the rhythm section of bassist Alan Anton and drummer Peter Timmins are reliable in their excellence, knowing when to rise and fall with the mood of the songs and giving Margo and Michael just the right sort of musical support.
In many respects, the Cowboy Junkies have changed very little over the course of 35-plus years, but Songs of the Recollection presents that as a virtue. This band have maintained a creative vision that's served them beautifully, and their commitment to the power of dynamics and finding the details of a song by leaving room to ponder the details and textures has led them to write some great material and also find unexplored landscapes in the work of other tunesmiths. Songs of the Recollection captures them doing the latter with grace and intelligence. (AllMusic)
