Ah musooklub, the pressure of a weekly review...it's good to be back!
I live in Brisbane (Australia) with my wife and two daughters (nearly 4, nearly 1). As with Jieun, once the kids came along music listening became less of a priority and more of a rare luxury. I recently signed up with google music and have found that a fairly cheap and very easy way to find new music (yes, I realise I could have been drinking the Apple Kool Aid years ago) so in the past six months I've purchased more albums than I had in the preceding five years!
I play trumpet in a jazz band so I tend to focus on the instrumental side of music rather than the vocals. Appreciating the words as well as the quality of the instrumentation is something I am actively trying to learn...but I am an engineer so there is probably limited room for growth in this area ;-)
I met Raman while I was studying at the University of Alabama. We tend to meet up every five or six years, each time in a different country. We're undoubtedly due for another catch up pretty soon but since I'm the one with kids and he's the dink, it's only fair he comes back to the land down under. Anyway, enough waffle...
My album this week is "Bringing it Home" by Bonerama. I first heard these guys on Treme (David Simon's next series after The Wire), a show that regularly features Louisiana musicians and bands. The name "Bonerama" comes from the fact that the band is fronted by three trombones and does not bare (ha) any relationship to a certain LA industry.
I don't usually prefer live albums but I think this one works pretty well. The songs aren't complicated, basic changes and blues riffs, but I enjoy the energy of them. I would love to see these guys live but something tells me they're not heading to Australia any time soon!
This is a 4.5 for me.
link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/c8t76mlufbu696m/MrfKE_kGJ4/Bonerama%20-%20Bringing%20It%20Home
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First, I am happy to listen to some piece of music that is not pop rock in the Musiklub. Then, I am even happier to read about Treme, that I have followed with a great interest, and definitely, yes, Bonerama reminds me Treme.
ReplyDeleteNow, I must say that I am not a big fan of it. I like jazz a lot. I like funk ok. But I get quickly fed up by the constant sound of the trombones, that I find a bit repetitive. In Treme, Antoine Batiste, asks himself (I am paraphrasing badly), "God, why I did not chose the sax when I was a kid and I chose the bone?" Well, Antoine, I believe that is the right question. I believe that the sax is much nicer!
2.5 and not 2.0, for me, because it makes me listen other stuff than the kind of music I listen too often
You prefer sax more than trombone? I'm afraid I don't own any Kenny G so won't be uploading that next time ;-)
DeleteTreme is all done now. I was sad to see it go, but happy they had a chance to end the series instead of it being cancelled.
Don´t worry, I am not a Kenny G fan. More into Coltrane
DeleteWho doesn't like trombones? If you can't get behind a trombone band well, first of all you're going to get real moist when those cats release the torrent of their spit valve, but second of all you must have a frozen, solid lump where your heart should be. I mean, they're trombones!?! These are the guys that have dedicated their lives to learning and mastering what is, essentially, a giant slide whistle that you make fart sounds into! They have to get at least a 4 for effort!
ReplyDeleteAs for the album, I love listening to songs in isolation but I can't get through the entire thing. I had a few of their albums on rotation a few months back and they have some wicked, funky tunes and some rip-snorting (literally) bone solos.
I'm going to nominate Bap Bap (nice bone soli and sousaphone solo), Blues For Ben (pure boney self-indulgence) and Freddie as some of my favourites.
A 3 from me.
You nominated three songs that aren't even on that album...
Deletei give Rohan's diatribe on trombones a 4.
ReplyDeleteWill Riker played the trombone, btw.
DeleteJean Luc Picard could pull off the bass in a funk band.
Deletebut in all seriousness. a solid 3.
ReplyDeleteit's bc of Ben + his love of big band music that i even have a real appreciation here (before that the classic standards of Miles and his pals were as far as i could get with anything too...horny?).
but there's something about big band energy that doesn't translate for me via headphones. maybe i should be blaring it in my apartment/office? i can see how this would be amazing live, but it just didn't translate beyond that.
hearing it as a "live album" (vs a studio one), knocked it down a peg for me. i don't need to hear the audience, or the band interacting with the audience. the more lyrical tracks towards the end didn't do much for me either. i prefer the Beatles version of "Helter Skelter" =)
what can i say, i'm becoming a curmudgeon.
A 1.
ReplyDeleteI can really only listen to live albums for artist I've seen live. Just a general rule.
At the beginning I knew this was getting a 1. I didn't necessarily think the music was bad, though I didn't understand it. Sometimes when someone doesn't like something, it says more about the persons ability to appreciate things than it says about the something.
Then it went downhill. I started to recognize songs or pieces of songs I knew and love. At that point, I'm comparing them to the originals and not hearing enough of a fresh angle to justify their inclusion on an album.
I just shoveled seven inches of snow off of a 70 yard, gravel driveway.
I also think there is something lost without being present... I would say stand alone, some songs are energetic and at times refreshingly different from I usually listen to. I was hoping there would be some intimate aspects of live performances - like a solo or small intro anecdote to draw you in. I give this one a 3/5.
ReplyDeleteThis may violate the musooklub's emphasis on 'new' music, but since it's new to me, I'm OK with that. Sounds like a solid, fun, New Orleans night out. Nothing earth shattering, but having fun is never a bad thing.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of musical talent in this band, and I can appreciate many aspects of the music (whether original or covering other songs). However, the combination of it being a live CD and also just not being the kind of music I regularly listen to has me rating at only a 2.5.
ReplyDeleteI like it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, isn't their sound a little Galactic like?
ReplyDelete