the best virtuosic guitar album of all time

back in the day, i played a lot of guitar solos. i mean a lot, and i listened to a lot of music by people like jimi hendrix, duane allman, john mclaughlin, wes montgomery and all kinds of people who could just play their asses off. like vernon reid. and every once in a while i get nostalgia for blazing and unself-consciously gratuitous riffery. if you're like me, you should check out 'temporal analogues of paradise.' it's usually filed in jazz under jonas hellborg's name (who's the bassist) but the stars of the show are really shawn lane on guitar and jeff sipe aka apt q258 on drums. this was a power trio built to do one thing, and that thing is tear the ever-living stuffing out of modal improvisation. to the best of my knowledge, lane hasn't really ever done anything else worth listening to (although two other discs with hellborg ('time is the enemy' and 'abstract logic') are worth getting if you find out you like this one), but this one is the sine qua non of rock-jazz wankery. in much the same way that outkast is worth listening to even if you don't like hip-hop because they transcend it, this group managed to make an incredible live album which surpasses mere technique in the search for something higher. lane doesn't play guitar like malmsteen or other wankers: his approach is more akin coltrane's "sheets of sound" approach where he's playing so many notes so close together that it becomes something between a note and a chord and shifts the whole tonality of the song around. all that, plus, he fills in a lot of texture when sipe or hellborg are going at it (yeah, unfortunately there are bass solos, but what are you going to do). most albums like this evoke nothing. they're just displays of technique, but with only two tracks, each clocking in at 25+ minutes, the trio meanders through so many different sonic realms that you really get to feel like you're going someplace. the beginning of the second movement in particular always makes me think of the hazy summer afternoons of my youth in massachusetts. anyways, i have to get back to things like hot tickets, but if you appreciate master plying their craft, you gotta check this disc out. not available on itunes, i don't think, but i ordered it from amazon here:

temporal analogues of paradise

crystal skulls update

hey all: i just got an e-mail from yuuki matthews from crystal skulls saying that he's trying out for spoon, but is not actually in the band or anything. best of luck to matthews, as i think he'd be a great addition to spoon. i'll let you know what else i hear.

breaking news!

all right my lovelies: i'm busting this one wide-open. crystal skulls has broken up. who are crystal skulls you say? here's my review of their disc:

review of outgoing behavior

they were one of my favorite new finds this year, and i really can't recommend outgoing behavior highly enough. they played a great show with minus the bear back a couple months, and i'm quite sad to hear of their passing. unconfirmed reports say that bassist yuuki matthews is going to be holding down the low end with spoon, while their drummer (who's either named casey foubert or ryan phillips) is heading off to play guitar with sufjan stevens. go figure. still and all, two great albums in a little over a year and a half is a cream-like number, worthy of the best bands from the sixties, so let's applaud 'em and send 'em on their way.

in other news: zibra zibra won the battle of the underage underground last night at first ave.