Jim Finnigan Poop 2017



Crazy words. Crazy tunes.
Crazy times. Crazy world.
Time for this year's POOP, then.

TOP 13
Buy The World of Captain Beefheart featuring Nona Hendryx & Gary Lucas New or Used via Amazon
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1. The World of Captain Beefheart featuring Nona Hendryx & Gary Lucas
Great high-energy covers of Beefheart’s soul & pop numbers, plus some of the weirder stuff (how does one tell the difference?). Great gigs at Joe’s Pub and at City Winery too. Plus, Gary’s avant-garde psychedelic duet album with Serbian saxophonist Tóni Dezső, Gary and Toni Go Nuts!, and local solo guitar gigs at Quinn’s and Rocket99. Gary definitely deserves my Player of The Year award.

Rent Ghetto Priest Every Man for Every Man via Amazon
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2. Ghetto Priest Every Man for Every Man
An On-U Sound return to roots reggae, very smooth and conscious. Add the “Life Ain’t Easy” single for a really good CDr.

Buy Jeb Loy Nichols Country Hustle New or Used via Amazon
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3. Jeb Loy Nichols Country Hustle
More reggaeified country meets soul. Plus, he wrote 3 songs on the Ghetto Priest album.

Buy Coldcut x On-U Sound Outside the Echo Chamber New or Used via Amazon
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4. Coldcut x On-U Sound Outside the Echo Chamber & “Kajra Mohobbat Wala” single
With Roots Manuva, Lee Scratch Perry, Indian singer Hamsika Iyer and a more up-to-date On-U Sound.

Buy ALA.NI You & I New or Used via Amazon
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5. ALA.NI You & I
Quiet storm sweet soul from a singer who sounds like Judy Garland(!) & even the backing vocals sound like they come from a late ’30’s MGM musical. The 2CD version has stronger beats on the 2nd disc, plus there’s some Adrian Sherwood mixes out there if you can find them. Great down-home set at Bearsville Theater in October too.

Buy Ensemble Minisym Moondog: New Sound via Bandcamp
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6. Ensemble Minisym Moondog: New Sound
For the classical-ist lurking inside my brain.

Buy Penguin Café The Imperfect Sea New or Used via Amazon
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7. Penguin Caf&eaccute The Imperfect Sea
Amazing how Arthur Jeffes has resurrected his dad’s classical-ist sound & can write in the same manner. Nice gig at Poisson Rouge, but, what happened to the penguin costumes? Arthur’s collaboration with ex-Rip Rig + Panic keyboardist Mark Springer, APARAT, is very pretty.

Buy Laurel Halo Dust New or Used via Amazon
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8. Laurel Halo Dust
Dreamy dubstep(?!). Her gig at The Kitchen helped make sense of it.

Buy Behind the Counter with Max Richter New or Used via Amazon
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9. Behind the Counter with Max Richter
A mixtape of ambient/minimalist composers with post-rock bands such as Boards of Canada, Godspeed You Black Emperor, and Low.

Buy Frank Zappa Dance Me This New or Used via Amazon
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10. Frank Zappa Dance Me This
Late catching up with this – supposedly his last recorded work, and very out of character – Zappa goes ambient? With Tuvan throat singers and ambient skittering percussion?
Also not forgetting the Ed Palermo Big Band The Adventures of Zodd Zundgren – I love the recurring gigs at The Falcon in Marlboro, Ed’s high energy big band sounds great in that space, but the albums don’t grab me – they sound like JAZZ albums, imagine that? – but the production job on this one does bang on the drum (all day).

11. Bootsy Collins World Wide Funk
Classic P-Funk sound with a stellar guest list, but of course Bootsy (who I actually met this year) remains the ultimate star. The Funkadelic Remixed by Detroiters collection is a nice, but minor, addition to the catalog.

12. Erica Falls Home Grown – Vintage Soul
Nice down-home southern soul with modern beats, from singer who was featured at super-funky Galactic concert at Bearsville. Fits well with latest Little Axe joint, London Blues.

13. Liana Gabel Go Outside
More jazzy bluesy singer-songwriter sounds from New Paltz treasure.

OTHER FAVE RUNNERS-UP
• Bob Lukomski Höre
• Bill Brovold & Jamie Saft Serenity Knolls
• Living Colour Shade
• Wire Silver/Lead
• UUUU (Graham Lewis of Wire’s alternative group)
• Laraaji & Sun Araw Professional Sunflow
• Kevin Ayres / Lady June / Ollie Halsall The Happening Combo
• Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry & Subatomic Sound System Super Ape Returns to Conquer
• Dub Syndicate Displaced Masters
• Sherwood & Pinch Man vs. Sofa
• Major Lazer Know No Better EP
• Carl Stone Electronic Music from the Seventies and Eighties
• Dropkick Murphys 11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory
• Rodney Slater’s Parrots Parrotopia!

BEST REISSUES
• Lal & Mike Waterson Bright Phoebus (the 2 disc set with demos & outtakes)
Relics of The Incredible String Band (perfect compilation, everything you ever need from the Incredibles)
• Jon Hassell Dream Theory in Malaya (hooray for the extra track, too bad it wasn’t in the right sequence)

FAVE GIGS (besides those mentioned above)
• Los Pleneros de la 21 at Arts Westchester
• Natural Velvet at Webster Hall
• New Cicada Trio (Iva BIttova, David Rothenberg & Tim Hill) at the Howland Center
• Michael Hurley twice – with Ida at “Colony Presents” (thanks Kali!) and with Amy Rigby at the Half Moon
• Shonen Knife at Quinn’s again (they love the noodles there)
• Lara Hope & The Ark-Tones at the Rosendale Street Fest, at The Falcon, and all around
• Toto La Momposina with opening act Mariachi Flor de Toloache at Central Park Summerstage
• Soulia & The Sultans at Rosendale Street Fest
• Eric Person Quartet headlining, and also as part of Calling All Poets night, both at Quinn’s
• Angelique Kidjo’s Remain in Light at Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors
• Nick Lowe with Los Straightjackets at Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors (quel surreal visuals)
• Stew & The Negro Problem at Marcus Garvey Park
• Roochie Toochie & The Ragtime Shepherd Kings, and The Down Hill Strugglers, at the Oldtone Roots Music Festival
• Vivian Goldman at Basilica Soundscape
• Ray Blue Trio at Quinn’s
• Jamie Saft & Bill Brovold at Rocket99
• Hans-Joachim Rodelius at SUNY New Paltz Studley Theatre
• Morton Subotnick at NYU Skirball Hall (Silver Apples of the Moon is supposed to be played REALLY loud)
• The Raincoats and friends (including half of The Julie Ruin and Tobi Vail of Bikini Kill) at The Kitchen
• John Cale presents “The Velvet Underground and Nico” and about half of “White Light/White Heat” at BAM
• Hubby Jenkins at Daryl’s House
• Sinterklaas Rhinebeck

BEAR SUIT FOLLIES
And special In Memoriam to two great souls long associated with The Holy Modal Rounders: Sam Shepard, their drummer from 1967-1971 and occasional banjoist in various Peter Stampfel groups more recently, and Antonia, who “formed” the Rounders by introducing Stampfel & Steve Weber in the early 60’s, and who became one of their key songwriters, with songs like Hoodoo Bash, Voodoo Queen Marie, and one of their (two) “biggest” hits, If You Want to Be A Bird, which was used so surrealistically in Jack Nicolson’s motorcycle scene in Easy Rider.