[111.2] WEIRD WORLD

NFE's hunt for weblogs in the 'new music' area continues, with patchy success. Worthy of recent note is 'Mostly Weird, Some Normal', an intriguing collection of set lists, commentary and review in the general area of jazz, experimental and rock. Some of it is a little mainstream, perhaps, but the studied eclecticism is welcome, and there's some acute observation going on. This on Arthur Doyle from a few days ago:

"I don't always get that feeling [of premeditation] from Arthur Doyle. I get the feeling of primitivism, but not a calculated primitivism like the Art Ensemble of Chicago engaged in when the occasion demanded. I feel sometimes, when I'm listening to Arthur Doyle, that he can't play it straight. That he's not fully in control of his instrument. Maybe it's because I've never heard him play in any other way than his full-on screaming reed-busting manner (which, of course, is more than welcome around this house—there are few free jazz records as viscerally satisfying to listen to, either through headphones or blasting out of speakers, than Alabama Feeling), but sometimes I wonder if he practices. If he's ever had a lesson. Or if I'm listening to the free jazz equivalent of Wesley Willis (a schizophrenic whose ranting "songs" have been recorded and distributed by several smirking-hipster indie labels, and even by Rick Rubin at American, who should know better)."