The A's.

The collection is light on A's. As I'm flipping through in preparation for this blog project, I find myself surprised by some gaps in what I was expecting to see. Probably a few jewel cases floating around in a milk crate somewhere in the house, still.

  • "Cannonball" Adderly, "Somethin' Else!" (1958) Classic Blue note bop, led by saxophonist Adderly and featuring fellow legends Art Blakey on drums and Miles Davis on trumpet. I listened to jazz a lot in my early adolescence, probably for the typical reasons a fey, too-smart white dude in his teens would. Not to say I didn't earnestly like it, just that it was *also* an affectation. This is a very good set. If you want to understand the bop era, give this a good close listen, but it's also pleasing and groovy enough to be background music at a cocktail party.
  • The Aislers Set, "How I Learned to Write Backwards"(2002) I have a lot of albums like this--fuzzy female-fronted indie pop. This one is a little shaggier and messier and more experimental than my usual taste, not a lot of hooks. Probably got a great Pitchfork review; I can't imagine affirmatively putting this on instead of any number of better iterations of the form?
  • Apollo Sunshine, "Katonah"(2003) A power-poppy album by a local Boston band I must have read about in the Phoenix or something. Fun, totally fine, sounds kind of like ELO or the slicker They Might Be Giants songs. At times it sounds a little like Phish. I've gotten at least one of the songs stuck in my head after listening to it. I imagine I've listened to "Katonah" more recently than any actual member of Apollo Sunshine; in my mental picture of a band like this, they've gotten well past the "regret that the band never quite made it" phase of their life and into the "I used to be in a band, that's a neat fact about me" phase.
  • Apples in Stereo, "Velocity of Sound"(2002) A uncharacteristic record from a band that was part of the Elephant 6 psychedelic scene. Compared to their earlier records, you can hear, I'd argue, the impact that the Strokes had on the rest of the indie rock world: this is a super-twee record but by Elephant 6 standards it's full-tilt rock. As such, it probably holds up better than most of the the classic-era Elephant 6 albums, which are very airy and loosely produced, with more of a hippie/British folk aesthetic. This is catchy and riffy and garage-y, but requires a tolerance for the chipmunky vocals that frontman Robert Schneider and singer Hilarie Sidney.
That's it for A. B is much denser with artists, albums, and memories.

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