Quick Hits, Vol. 27 (Courtney Barnett, Rhiannon Giddens, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Bob Marley, Aphex Twin)

Courtney Barnett - The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas.  I read a recent write up of Barnett talking about her being the next great songwriter.  This is not her newest album, but that was not yet available on Spotify, so I went with the old disc that got her hype in the first place.  Lo-fi tunes, with wordy, conversational singing over the top.  Reminds me of the soundtrack to Juno.  I think my favorite is Avant Gardener, which I could swear I have heard before, but by someone else?  Weird.

Love Aussie accents.  Can't think of how I've heard this before but I swear I have.  A lot of this music is almost rap - she is less singing and more spitting out rhymes of brainy text over the sloppy, basic rock rhythm.  Then other tunes sound like 90's alt rock.  Pretty cool, but I feel like I'll need to be in a mood to hear this.

Rhiannon Giddens - Tomorrow is My Turn.  Bluesy bluegrass gal with a great voice.  She was part of that group doing the old Dylan lyrics I reviewed the other day, but she just put out this solo album of her own, also produced by T. Bone Burnett.  It's kind of a weird sound - her voice is strong and southern and sounds like it should be in a different style of music, but the tunes bounce between gospel-soul, bluegrass plucking, or slow-torch-sashay.  She rolls through Patsy Cline's "I've Got Your Picture" like a bluesy soul singer, but then puts a light touch on others.  "Angel City" is a beauty. Nice album.

Ol' Dirty Bastard - Return to the 36 Chambers.  Why do I keep coming back to trying this guy out?  "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" is about the best on here, or the ones that have his Wu familia on them, but the only reason this album has any attraction to me is that the beats are pretty salty.  Ominous and Wu Tang-esque with some cool twists.  But ODB's rapping is just plain annoying.  I get that he had a shtick, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.  RIP anyway, big guy.

Bob Marley - Easy Skanking in Boston '78.  Hells yeah.  I love some old school Bob Marley action.  Like every other dude my age, I was brought up listening to Legend and believing that Marley was the start and finish of the reggae sound.  Legend is a damn classic for sure.  Later in life, I found Kaya (my favorite of his albums), Uprising, Burnin', etc., including the kick ass three disc box set that my sister Sharon had and I made tapes of in high school.  That box set had an acoustic version of Stir It Up that was flipping amazing - totally makes you realize that it is a love song and should be an intimate plea to your woman to get things going.  Anyway, this is a live album from two shows in Boston in 1978.  According to that website, there is a DVD coming out with this that has concert footage from just feet away.  Here is the trailer.

Enough about the history, just know that this is fantastic, classic stuff with near perfect sound.  This does not sound like a crap bootleg, this sounds like studio quality (from the 70's).  Cool renditions of Easy Skankin', No Woman No Cry, Jamming, Them Belly Full - its really excellent.  Just go throw on "Rebel Music" and try not to groove.  Hot stuff.

Aphex Twin - Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2 EP.  Nope.  Want to be cool and like this stuff, but after a few tracks that got my head bobbing here and there, this is kind of boring jazzy electro.  Now, if Ghostface was rhyming over the top?  C'mon, someone get Pusha T on the phone and pitch an Aphex Twin collab-O!