CD Project Thing #18 - Belly, Ben Folds Five, Jay Bennett

Belly - "Star"
Belly - "King"

Two albums (the only two, I think) from mid-90s alternative group "Belly". If I recall correctly, one was Marisa's, one was mine (from BMG), but I can't remember which is which. They're decent enough, but just the greatest hits would have been enough. Sadly, these are basically totally unsellable (I even have an extra sealed copy of one that I can't even give away), so I guess I'm stuck with them.

Ben Folds Five - "Ben Folds Five"
Ben Folds Five - "Naked Baby Photos"
Ben Folds Five - "Whatever and Ever Amen"
Ben Folds Five - "The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner"

Another band that I generally quite like, but I really can't distinguish the albums enough to really write full entries about each of them. "Ben Folds Five" is their debut. "Naked Baby Photos" is a live/rare/unreleased album that's basically just a big cash-in for their original label, but I can't deny that it's interesting. "Whatever and Ever Amen" is their first major label album, and their biggest hit. I have the reissue of it, which tacks on some rare tracks, some covers, and a Japanese version of one of their hits. Finally, "The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner" is their last album and in my mind their weakest, but I still think of "Army" every time Chick-Fil-A comes up. Mmm, Chick-fil-A.

Jay Bennett and Edward Burch - "The Palace At 3:00 A.M. (Part 1)"

Jay Bennett is ex-Wilco, Edward Burch is some guy, and together they are Jay Bennett and Edward Burch. This is their first album (and only "real" one), and it's pretty decent. They do 3 Wilco songs (2 from the YHF Demos and "My Darlin'"), and two songs with Woody Guthrie lyrics that I assume are leftover from the "Mermaid Avenue" project. If I had to compare the sound to anybody, I'd probably say Elvis costello, and that's not really a bad thing.

Jay Bennett and Edward Burch - "Palace 1919"

Acoustic versions of the entire "The Palace At 3:00 A.M. (Part 1)" album, and then two John cale covers tacked on at the end. It's a mixed bag, with some versions better than the originals and some worse, but I'd have to say overall I think it's the better of the two versions.

Jay Bennett - "Bigger Than Blue"

Ditching Edward Burch (although not really, since he still shows up on a few tracks), this is Jay Bennett's first true solo disc. And, again, it's pretty Elvis Costelloish and pretty good. There's another YHF demo on here, and another Woody Guthrie song. Possibly my favorite Jay Bennett album?

Jay Bennett - "The Beloved Enemy"

The second Jay Bennett album of 2004 (and there were supposed to be 3, but the third never came out), it's much more bleak and depressing than the first. Apparently he was going through a divorce and some deaths at the time, which is why this is how it is and why the third never came out (which sucks, because Elizabeth Elmore had recorded some vocals for it). It's not a horrible album, but I've got to say I prefer the more upbeat stuff.

CD Project Thing #17 - Belle and Sebastian

Belle and Sebastian - "Tigermilk"

What does one say about probably his favorite album from probably his favorite band? I guess by saying that it's a really amazing album, at the very least the greatest debut album ever (even though almost nobody heard it at the time), but nothing I say can really do it justice. It was originally recorded quickly and cheaply (using the budget for a single) and released only on 1000 vinyl copies. Luckily, their next two albums did well enough that this got a re-release on CD afterwards.

The album is really just astoundingly good, I think. Some of Stuart Murdoch's best songs and production that's lo-fi (but not TOO lo-fi) just makes it hard not to fall in love with this band (of course, somebody not in love with this band might have a different feeling on it). Pretty much everything they've ever done is great, but I don't think they ever topped this.

Belle and Sebastian - "If You're Feeling Sinister"

For their second album, Belle and Sebastian switched to a new label (Jeepster, my favorite label ever), added a member (Sarah Martin), and upgraded the production level a bit, but besides all that it's really like a second volume of "Tigermilk". Once again, it's all Stuart songs, and they all sound, for lack of a better term, like Belle and Sebastian songs. I think many people consider this the best B&S album, and it's really good, although I don't quite think it has the charm of "Tigermilk".

Belle and Sebastian - "Push Barman To Reopen Old Wounds" (Disc 1)

The summer after "Sinister", Belle and Sebastian released 3 4-track UK only EPs. Later on, they'd be collected into a box, and still later they'd comprise the first disc of this 2 disc collection. If you want to divide Belle and Sebastian history into three phases (and I'm writing this, and I do), these EPs are the link between the first Stuart-dominated phase and the second democratic phase. The majority of the songs still sound like old-school B&S, but there are songs like "Lazy Line Painter Jane" (which features very unB&S guest vocals from Monica Queen) and "A Century Of Elvis" (where Stuart David tells a story over the backing track to a song that would come out on the next EP) that serve as a sign that things are about to change...

Belle and Sebastian - "The Boy With The Arab Strap"

As far as I can remember, the first time I ever heard Belle and Sebastian was seeing the video for "Is It Wicked Not To Care" (sung by Isobel Campbell) on 120 Minutes. I fell right in love, but while doing research was very surprised to find out that most B&S songs had a guy singing. I didn't know it at the time, but this was the beginning of the much-debated "democratic" phase of the band. On this album, Stuart Murdoch loosened his control of the band and other members started doing some writing and lead singing. This album ended up still being mostly Stuart songs, but about a third of it consisted of songs by Stevie, Isobel, and Stuart David. And while these aren't necessarily bad songs, they didn't sound just like Stuart's, and thus this album doesn't have the same consistent sound that people loved from the first two. That said, I do still like it and have a soft spot in my heart for it as my first B&S album ever, but I'm long past thinking it's their best.

Belle and Sebastian - "Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant"

My choice for "worst B&S album" (although it's still better than the best album of many bands), "FYHCYWLAP" continues the democratic thing from "Arab Strap", but with songs that aren't near as good (including the Isobel/Stevie song "Beyond The Sunrise" that's often considered the worst B&S song ever). The band was in some turmoil at this point, Stuart David quit, and most of Stuart Murdoch's songs sound like B&S-by-numbers, the kind he seems to be able to do in his sleep, with no real spark or innovation. It later came out that the band was close to breaking up, but luckily they didn't, since some of their best days were still ahead...

Belle and Sebastian - "Push Barman To Reopen Old Wounds" (Disc 2)

But before we go ahead, we have to go back, at least for half a disc. Disc two of "Push Barman" consists of the last 4 Jeepster EPs. The first, "This Is A Modern Rock Song", came out a few months after "Arab Strap" did. The title song, which was apparently considered for "Tigermilk" before being held off, is one of my favorite B&S songs, and the EP is also notable for "Slow Graffiti", the first song they did for a soundtrack. The second EP is "Legal Man", which came out just before "FYHCYWLAP" (and which will always make me think of my trip to England, because it came out when I was there). It was their biggest chart success up to that point, but it's a very weird release, the only one ever not to have a real Stuart song ("Legal Man" is a 60s-pop sounding song with a ton of people singing, and the other two tracks are a Stuart David song and an instrumental). Finally, "Jonathan David" and "I'm Waking Up To Us" (the meanest song ever) followed the next summer and are both pretty excellent, a nice comeback after the previous sub par album.

Belle and Sebastian - "Storytelling"

This was meant to be the soundtrack to the Todd Solantz movie of the same name. However, the movie ended up being horrible, as it seems Belle and Sebastian's experience did, too - he ended up only using 6 minutes of Belle and Sebastian music in the movie. Not being ones to let good music go to waste, they came up with this, which was mostly songs that were supposed to be in the movie, although at least one is apparently more about the experience of making it. I hesitate to call it an album, despite it's 18 tracks, because if you think of it as an album it's a clear disappointment - only 6 of the tracks have vocals (and 2 of those are very short), and the rest is filled out my instrumentals (some basically different versions of the same songs) and dialog clips. What I do is is, instead of thinking of it as a weak album, I think of it as a really strong EP, which it is. It's the end of the democratic era, so you still get songs by Sarah and Stevie among those 6, but they're some of their best ones. "Scooby Driver" is one of the most fun and energetic Belle and Sebastian songs, and you wish it was longer than the minute it is. Despite not being a major addition to the catalog, it's nice to have, especially since Belle and Sebastian haven't really sounded quite like this since.

Belle and Sebastian - "Step Into My Office, Baby" (UK Import)

It's the start of a new Belle and Sebastian era! New label, new producer, new sound, and (the reason this release exists) new policy on singles. On Jeepster, the band never released album tracks as singles. Once they signed to Rough Trade, I guess they started to play the game a little more, and so non-album singles became a thing of the past. The A-side sounds pretty unlike any B&S song to this point, but I'll get to that with the album. The two b-sides seem to have been recorded just for the single (since they have different production credits than the album) and are decent, but nothing to write home about. I guess it's a little better in retrospect, but at the time I was pretty disappointed by this - I guess there really is a difference between a "ep track" and a "b-side", at least for B&S.

Belle and Sebastian - "Dear Catastrophe Waitress"

Through most of the first two phases, Belle and Sebastian basically had a reputation of being shy, sensitive dorks who played music for other shy, sensitive dorks. It wasn't really totally true, but it's true that the music DID sound like that, and they didn't really give interviews or tour much at all, so it stuck. Then, bam, everything changed. They'd lost two members (who, it turns out, were the reason they didn't tour much), they got a new label, they decided to give interviews, they decided to issue singles, and they got a new producer, Trevor Horn, who'd previously been known for, like, Tatu and other pop crap. People were scared.

And it's true, the album sounds very little like old Belle and Sebastian. This is somewhat due to the production style, but it also seems like the band is just having fun for the first time in a long time. It's poppy, it's playful, and while I don't like it as much as the heights of the first era, it's quite good. It's probably not a coincidence that at the same time, Stuart seems to have taken some control back. You still see 1 or 2 songs an album sung by somebody else, but it's not a third of the album like it was on the previous ones. Different voices are fine, but a band needs a front man, and Stuart fits that bill.

Belle and Sebastian - "I'm a Cuckoo" (UK Import)

The second single off the album, the b-sides here are a decent brand new song, a Stevie song that was cut from the album at the last moment, and the first-ever B&S remix - "I'm A Cuckoo By The Avalanches". It does exactly what my favorite remixes do - the vocals are basically left untouched, but the music is changed, in this case to African tribal instruments. I'm not going to say it's better than the original, but it's certainly interesting.

Belle and Sebastian - "Books" EP (Japanese Import)

This gets called an EP, although it's really just a "Wrapped Up In Books" single, the only difference being that "Books" is the second track instead of the first. The song that DID get the a-side spot is "Your Cover's Blown", called in the NME "an indie Bohemian Rhapsody", and it's not far off. It's one of their longer and stranger songs, but it's very entertaining, and was pretty stunning when they did it live on their last tour. The two other tracks on the normal version of this ep are a pretty good new track and a mostly-instrumental dance remix called "Cover (Version)"

This was the first ever B&S release to be different in different markets - the Australian version had 1 extra track, and this Japanese one has two: a Japanese version of "I'm A Cuckoo" and a slow version of their cover of "Final Day" which was originally released on a comp. Neither is earth shattering, but, hey, I had to get it, that's what makes me a completist.

Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit (With Bonus DVD)

The most recent Belle and Sebastian album, it's a little more rocking than DCW (and there's a bit of a 70s sounding influence to some of the tracks), and there's almost a complete lack of strings (which is a big change for a band that used to have 2 string players in the band itself (and used a ton of guest players)). Overall, though, it follows the DCW formula - poppy, fun, Stuart-heavy. And like DCW, it's hardly my favorite B&S album, but it's not half bad, either. I'm working on it now, but it's almost sure to hit near the top of my "best of 2006" list.

Belle and Sebastian - "The Blues Are Still Blue" (Australian Import)

This is an Australian-only cd that combines all the tracks from the "Funny Little Frog" and "The Blues Are Still Blue" UK Singles. This wouldn't be that big a deal (although I'd like it anyway, since I'd always take a 8 track cd over two 4 track cds), but starting with this album the band put different tracks on the 7" singles than on the CD, which means there were two tracks on here that are really rare to have on CD. Of the 6 b-sides on here, 1 is the song they recorded for the "Help: A Day In The Life" comp, one is a cover of "Whiskey In The Jar", and 4 are outtakes from the album. 3 are not too impressive (including a Stevie song and a Sarah song), but "Meat and Potatoes", the band's very first song about kinky sex, probably should have made the album...

Belle and Sebastian - "The White Collar Boy" (UK Import)

Third and final single from "The Life Pursuit", and most recent B&S release to date. There are two b-sides, one by Stevie and one by Sarah. Seems pretty clear that there's been some sort of realization about where songs by them belong, eh?

CD Project Thing #16 - Beck

Beck - "Mellow Gold"

I've never been what you might call a huge Beck fan. Oh, sure, I liked the singles well enough, and saw him put on two good shows (one at a radio festival, one with The Flaming Lips), but all the albums we own are Marisa's. Actually, I think I did briefly own a used copy of this, his major-label debut, back in high school, but I promptly sold it back. Why, you might ask (but probably won't)? Well, besides "Loser", it's just really not very good. Much of it is so lo-fi it sounds like a demo, and it's just not at all interesting to me. I'm pretty sure it's my least favorite of the 6 Beck albums we have.

Beck - "Odelay"

Beck's big commercial breakthrough, and while it's a better album than "Mellow Gold", I'm still not sure how much I love it. The production is way better, and the singles are pretty great, but, eh. I guess I just have to accept the fact that I'm at most a marginal Beck fan and deal with it.

That said, this album is supposed to be re-released as a deluxe edition soon, and I'll probably buy it if it includes the different re-recordings of "Jackass" and one of my favorite Beck songs ever "Deadweight". Don't mess this up!

Beck - "Mutations"

Every few albums, Beck strips down, drops most of the hip hop and the beats and hooks up with Nigel Godrich (best known as Radiohead's producer) for a quieter, more low-key alternative-type album. These tend not to have the big hit singles that his others have, but I tend to like them a lot better. I like this one, although I have to be honest, I listened a few days ago and I can already hardly remember it. It still probably slots in as #2 among Beck albums, though.

Beck - "Midnight Vultures"

Beck's next album was this, which mixed the hip-hop type stuff with some R&B/soul/funk. It works decently well, although parts of it are very cheesy (perhaps deliberately, since it's hard to imagine he intended "Debra" to be taken seriously).

I need to make this longer, so I'll mention the annoying tendency of most Beck albums to include a (typically annoying) hidden track. Why the hell does he do this? Who actually likes crap like that?

Beck - "Sea Change"

My favorite of all Beck albums. It's another Nigel Godrich album, this time about a breakup from a long term relationship. The whole thing is kinda sad and melencauly, but also just very pretty and excellent. This proves that Beck can write great songs without all the hip-hop crap, I just which he would do it more often.

Beck - "Guero"

The last of the Beck albums we have (and the end of the first shelf of cds!), "Guero" basically sounds like "Odelay pt. 2". Which isn't the worst thing in the world, I guess, but it's not super exciting, either. Once again, I like the singles a lot, the rest is pretty eh. It's probably most notable (to me, and I'm the one writing this, so ha) for having "E-pro", which was A.J. Pierzinsiki's batting music for most of the last two years.

CD Project Thing #15 - The Beautiful South, The Beauty Shop

The Beautiful South - "Welcome To The Beautiful South"
The Beautiful South - "Choke"
The Beautiful South - "0898"

Have to admit I don't know much about The Beautiful South. They're British, they have guy and girl singers, some good wordplay in the lyrics, and they're kind of jazzy. These are their first three albums, the first and third were Marisa's, and I got the second for her cheap on eBay. I actually think they're all pretty good, but I really can't find anything to separate the three of them in my head, so they're lumped together here. After these albums, apparently they changed the girl singer, and I guess they got pretty popular in the UK. While I like them, I can't imagine ever really needing any more than this, and Marisa doesn't care, so 3 remains the magic number.

The Beauty Shop - "Grief" EP

I'll get into who The Beauty Shop are and how I know them in the next entry. For now, know that this is their first self-released EP (on a CD-R, but since it's an official release it makes the list) which I bought on eBay a few years after discovering them, and that I just confirmed with the band themselves that it's totally pointless because all the songs are also on their first album. Interested in buying it from me?

The Beauty Shop - "Yr Money Or Yr Life"

Normally, when I really really like a band, I can remember how and where I fell in love with them. The Beauty Shop are an odd exception, since I can't remember at all when I first saw them or got this cd. They're a local C-U band, so I'm guessing that I saw them somewhere, but I can't remember where (and I seem to recall being disappointed that I'd skipped them many times before, so maybe I'd read about them?) And I also have a vague feeling I knew them before this cd came out, but I don't know if that's true. In any case, The Beauty Shop are probably in my top ten favorite bands (although only #3 on the list of "favorite bands from Champaign). They're kind of a 3-piece acoustic Americana/folky/Johnny Cash thing, and are just really good. For whatever reason, they have a slight following in the UK (compared to their complete lack of following here) and play there way more than here. Lucky Brits.

The Beauty Shop - "Monster" (UK Import)

By the end of my time in Champaign, The Beauty Shop were going through some changes. Drummer revolved a bit (including, briefly, a friend of a friend who I'd driven to Indy for a Zwan show a few weeks earlier), and they had a ton of new songs but no apparent plans to record them. Then word came of a breakup, and it was really depressing. I don't quite know the details, but it turns out the breakup wasn't a breakup at all, and a few years later they came with this UK only single. 3 tracks, including a Misfits cover. Not bad, not bad at all...

The Beauty Shop - "Crisis Helpline" (UK Import)

And then came this, the second album, also a UK only release. Right off, I knew many of the songs from the shows years before, and it was great to hear them. The one thing that was kind of surprising was how amazingly amateurish the whole package was. Well, I guess it wasn't THAT surprising, since their first album wasn't the most professional thing either, but this looked like they'd spend about 5 minutes in Photoshop. Even the CD itself looked weird on the bottom, like it was a bootleg or something. This fact made the cd act weird in some of my players. It's not as good as the first album, I don't think, but since I never expected it at all I'm not complaining.

The Beauty Shop - "A Desperate Cry For Help" (UK Import)
The Beauty Shop - "Paper Hearts For Josie" (UK Import)

The band then switched to a new label (still UK only, though) and continued releasing singles off "Crisis Helpline". Except, they weren't considered singles off "Crisis Helpline", because the new label decided to release "Yard Sale", which was a mishmash of tracks from the first two albums. Hardly the most thrilling stuff ever, so I never got it. The singles were both really cheap, though, and each had one new cover on it ("Breakin' The Law" by Iron Maiden and "Gouge Away" by the Pixies).

They released a third single, too, a re-release of "Monster" with what I think is a new song, but I never ordered it, since it came during a "no cd buying" era. I did just order it for a few dollars the other day, so I'll update then.

To make the whole tale of strange marketing even stranger, now they're going to go and re-release "Crisis Helpline", apparently still on the UK label (but at US domestic prices), with the two covers from these two singles as bonus tracks (but not any of the tracks from the two "Monster" singles). So, the plan is to sell these two singles and "Crisis Helpline" and get the reissue (and hope it's actually somewhat professional looking this time).

A Note on The Beatles

You might be expecting to see The Beatles up next, but you won't, because I don't own any. This isn't because I don't like them - I actually quite like a lot of Beatles songs, and at one point I owned most of their albums. They were sold during one of my purges, though, under the theory that if there's one band in the world that really doesn't need my money, it's The Beatles. So, I have cd-rs of all their albums. I've always vowed to buy them again when they've been reissued and they're not all late-80s anymore, but now that this is soon upon us I don't know if it will be possible right away, due to lack of funds. It'll happen one day, though.

CD Project Thing #14 - The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys - "Pet Sounds"

This is one of those albums where it's pretty hard to really see what all the fuss is about, because while it's good, it doesn't seem "Greatest album ever" good or whatever. That's probably just because it doesn't sound as unique anymore because everybody's copied it so much and some of the songs are so familiar, but it's still a pretty impressive album.

I have a reissuie version with good liner notes, and mono and stereo versions of every track, and I pretty much can't tell any difference at all. I guess that's why I'm not an audiophile, eh?

The Beach Boys - "The Greatest Hits - Volume 1"

When I was a kid, my mother tended to listen to the oldies station on the radio (and my dad would usually listen to classic rock). Therefore, while I was always out of the loop on current music (hell, there's still 80s stuff that Marisa can never believe that I haven't heard), I heard a lot from the 60s. I'm not sure I'd say that I'm a fan of the Beach Boys exactly, but I heard a lot of it and it's pretty decent. This cd is chronological and has good liner notes, both good things. It ranges from the very beginning of the band all the way through "Kokomo" (ugh) (with a large gap between "Good Vibrations" and "Kokomo", though). There are some parts that are just way too cheesy, and I don't need the few "Pet Sounds" songs on here, but there's enough to make it worth while to keep and listen to every once in a while.

The Beach Boys - "The Greatest Hits - Volume 2"

A second volume of Beach Boys greatest hits, it again is chronological and goes from the beginning until they left their original label in the 70s (I believe there's a third volume that covers more of the 70s stuff, but I'm pretty sure I can do without that). Most of these songs were not big hits (at least not as much on the first one), but I know a few of them from covers ("Little Honda") or quasi-covers ("Don't Worry Baby"). A few of these songs that weren't hits are better than the big songs on the first album, although most of the 70s stuff here is pretty embarrassing. Then again, it's my theory that almost all 70s stuff, especially early-to-mid 70s American stuff, is really horrible, so that's no huge shock.

CD Project Thing #13 -Bananarama, Barcelona

Bananarama - "Greatest Hits Collection"

I bought this CD because Marisa wanted it, and I've got to say I'm not super familiar with it or the band. I know a bunch of the songs ("Venus", "Help!", "Cruel Summer", "Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)"), but mostly from commercials or versions by others. It's decent enough for an early 80s girl group, I guess, but it's no Go-Gos or Bangles.

Barcelona - "Simon Basic"

I first saw Barcelona opening for Wolfie at the High Dive in Champaign around 1999, the time of the release of their debut album. Especially on this album, they sounded a LOT like Wolfie, except with lyrics that made a lot more sense (and more often than not were about computers, being a geek, or childhood, or some combination of the three). Obviously, I fell in love. Who wouldn't?

Barcelona - "Robot Trouble"

The first of two singles Barcelona released as a preview of their second album (and the only two singles they ever did, actually). There's the single, two remixes, and two b-sides (one being a cover of "Pop Goes The World" by Men Without Hats that's one of my favorite Barcelona songs ever). That's just about all I have to say about that.

Barcelona - "Studio Hair Gel"

The second single, following basically the same format as the first (except without a cover song).

Barcelona's (excellent) second album "Zero-One-Infinity" should be next, but I don't currently own a copy. It's out of print, but scheduled to be reissued with bonus tracks (some of these b-sides, I'd assume, which might make it possible to sell the singles). It must be pretty rare, because used copies go for quite a bit, and I couldn't pass that up, especially knowing I could replace it soon. I wouldn't have had much to say about it anyway - it moved a little away from indie pop towards more electronic and new wave, but it's still quite good. Hopefully I'll be able to add a supplemental entry on it soon.

Barcelona - "Transhuman Revolution"

Third (and sadly, last) album from Barcelona. It's basically a New Wave album with some electronica, if an album from 2001 can possibly be considered New Wave. It's probably most notable for having been sequenced by Cameron Crowe (who gave them a mention in "Vanilla Sky").

I really don't know why they broke up after this album, but I have a hunch that there was some issue with the female member, because the lead singer went on to form the equally excellent Sprites, and he's worked with the other two members but not her. Also, their debut album has a song called "Do It Yourself" that seems to be a long list of complains about an unnamed band member. You'll here more about them when we get to S in, oh, a few years or so...