Longtime part-time I-94 Bar scribe

1)    Boris – Smile. A band for 16 years now, recording for 12, but I’m slow on the pickup, so I only got hip to ‘em when a friend pulled my coat five years ago, Boris represents proof positive that Japanese rock is now the equal of anybody’s. They cover a lot of bases: drone-y stoner sludge, pummeling punk thrash, languid spacey psych. The 2006 addition of psychedelic axeman supreme Michio Kurihara (White Heaven, Stars, Ghost, Damon and Naomi) to their touring lineup took them to another level entahrly. Their destruction of Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studio in Denton, whose owner had his ear bitten off (true story – it’s in a jar behind the bar) at a Boris show in another venue last year, was undoubtedly the best live show I’ll see for many moons. And this album, in its many different forms (different tracks/sequence/mixes for U.S. and Japanese CD and double LP versions) is maybe the best thing they’ve recorded so far.http://homepage1.nifty.com/boris/top.html

2)    Stumptone – Gravity Finally Released. A kind of local avant-garde supergroup whose lineup now includes musos formerly associated with legendary experimental outfits Mazinga Phaser, Mandarin, and Sub Oslo, singer-guitarist-trumpeter Chris Plavidal’s band Stumptone has been kicking around North Texas for a decade now, and this year they dropped this, their magnum opus, on gorgeously packaged green marbled vinyl with accompanying CD-R for the digital-only slaves. Incandescent psychedelia with indie roots touches; referent to conjure with: the Roky Erickson cover. And in keeping with the Barman’s U.S. election riff, they posted a versh of our “Pledge of Allegiance” on the day President Obama was elected that brought a tear to my eye when I heard it. www.myspace.com/stumptone

3)    The Great Tyrant – “Candycanes” 7-inch. Another confluence of North Texas underground heavy hitters (ex-American Idol contestant frontman from the Pointy Shoe Factory, riddim boyzzz from Yeti) release their offering on vinyl with accompanying CD-R (in this case, a four-song EP including a Magma cover). Dark, theatrical, and proggy, the Tyrant are kind of a heavy band that uses Daron Beck’s keyboards in place of guitars, while Tommy Atkins and Jon Teague play complex, knotty time signatures aggressively. So far this year they’ve released this package, recorded a still-unreleased full-length (There Is A Man In the House) that’s even better, and they’re getting ready to go into the studio again in November. Busy guys. Every live show I’ve seen by them has been different. The most creative act going in my neck of the woods, and they show no signs of stopping. www.myspace.com/thegreattyrant

4)    Lou Reed – Berlin DVD. Being the kind of fella he is, Uncle Lou isn’t gonna wait for posterity to re-evaluate his canon; he’ll do it himself, thank you. So he records a “cover” of Metal Machine Music with German ensemble Zeitkratzer, and revives this, his initially reviled 1973 “masterpiece,” with a crack band of his most sympathetic accompanists, backing singers, horn and string sections, and a youth choir, performs it in a church in Brooklyn, and has the whole extravaganza filmed by director Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) before taking the whole shebang on the road. And guess what: It is great; maybe not “the greatest rock film of all time” that he claims it to be, but definitely an estimable piece of cinema, the music in the fullness of time sounding majestic rather than tawdry. Now if he can just do the same forMagic and Loss… 

5)    Sonic’s Rendezvous Band – The Second Chance. Proof positive (as if any more were needed) that Dee-troit rawked in the ‘70s. The Masonic Auditorium set took a slice of the Easy Action box set and made it generally available to people who couldn’t afford the ticket for the high dollar item, but this is better if only because it’s twice as long. Captures the band at a moment when Scott Morgan was still the dominant force, before Fred Smith hit his writing stride and went on to eclipse him. As I wrote in my review, this is rock ‘n’ roll as trance music.

6)    Matt Baldwin – Paths of Ignition. Got hip to this via Julian Cope’s estimable Head Heritage website, whose “Album of the Month” feature has pulled my coat to loads of righteous noise. A mainly acoustic Bay Area guitarist, Baldwin starts out in John Fahey “American primitive” territory but transcends it with covers of Krautrock titans Neu! and Pommy metalers Iron Maiden and face-melting electric psych overlays.

7)    The Fellow Americans – Debut No. 3. Praised to the skies by Stairway to Hell author/ex-Village Voicerockcrit supreme Chuck Eddy for their last outing (Search for Numb), this Weatherford, Texas-based outfit shed their stand-up singer and cut this collection of quirkily splenetic rawkers – equal parts Sex Pistols, Stooges, and Motorhead – as a three-piece. (Guitarist-singer Matt Hickey even mastered it in his backyard shed!) Unfortunately, I just learned that they’re planning on folding the tent. Hickey and bassist Hal Welch have been pounding together since Hal joined the Rio Grande Babies at the ass-end of Y2K, and these days Matt hasn’t been feeling it. Good luck to ‘em in their future endeavors, and for Godsakes buy a CD so that Matt doesn’t have to sleep on ‘em! www.thefellowamericans.com

8.)    Various Artists – Miles from India. The concept: Put a bunch of ex-Miles Davis sidemen together with Indian musicians for a go at the canon (three each from Kind of Blue and Big Fun, two each from In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew, one from Miles’ post-’81 comeback). Worthwhile if only for the presence of Chicago avant-gardist turned Chess sessionman Pete Cosey, who applied the sting on guitar to some of the Master’s most challenging music (Get Up With It, Agharta Pangaea).

9)    Dennis Gonzalez Jnaana Septet – The Gift of Discernment. Gonzalez is a Dallas trumpeter, poet, graphic artist, and schoolteacher who performed and recorded with the cream of the jazz avant-garde between 1978 and 1994, then retired from music for a few years until his teenage bass-and-drum-playing sons (who play together as a grindcore duo called Akkolyte) arm-twisted him out of retirement to form Yells At Eels in 1999. This latest outing teams the Gonzalez family with ex-Sun Ra/Art Ensemble of Chicago drummer Alvin Fielder, pianist Chris Parker, a percussionist and female vocalist. Like everything they play, it sparkles with creativity and the thrill of discovery.

10) Dan McGuire – Funambulist. This arrived in the post the day before the Barman made his call for “best-of” submissions and while it’s not been released yet, I had to include it. McGuire is, of course, the “poetry-rock” guy from Ohio who’s released two albums with the Unknown Instructors (ex-Minutemen and Saccharine Trust musos; third one’s in the can) and two “collaborative compilations” of his verse over heavy psych tracks from everywhere. This time, he got together in the studio with friends from the Ohio experimental outfits Fuzzhead and Terminal Lovers and cut a record that, to these feedback-scorched ears, is even more immediate and alive than any of his others. Wait for it.

Ken Shimamoto  is over half a fucking century old, lives with the love of his life and works in a grocery store in Fort Worth, Texas, Where the West Begins. This year he gained a son-in-law and two new grandchildren (that makes five!). He blogs at stashdauber.blogspot.com, contributes toiloveftw.com, plays guitar in Stoogeaphilia and PFFFFT! , and is plotting another musical project for 2009. While he doesn’t believe that Obama’s election will solve all of America’s problems, he thinks it’s a step in the right direction – maybe the first one in 40 years – and is guardedly optimistic about the future for the first time in a long time.

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