For the Record: Bob Dylan, Gym Class Heroes, Deerhoof
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Sometimes I try to listen to Bob Dylan as if he weren't a living legend, but some obscure old guy who was just magically discovered on the scene.
It all leads to the same conclusion: His command of his art borders on the supernatural.
The latest evidence is "Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006" filled again with discards better than some artists' treasures. What singer-songwriter in his right mind could cast aside a song as beguiling as "Dreamin' of You"?
The 27-song, two-disc set gathers outtakes, alternate versions and live tracks from this latter period -- running from "Oh Mercy" through "Modern Times" -- during which Dylan rediscovered his command after losing it in the '80s, returning with his vision darker, his voice wearier and more seasoned.
This restless spirit is famous for reinterpreting his own work, usually on stage.
Here, we get an acoustic reading of "Mississippi" that turns it from rollicking folk-rock into a lament: "Every step of the way, we walk the line/Your days are numbered, so are mine/Time is pilin' up, we struggle and we scrape/We're all boxed in, nowhere to escape."
There's a mournful "Someday Baby" that works without the swing, and a strummed "Most of the Time" that is stripped of its Daniel Lanois production and sounds like it could have come from "Blood on the Tracks" or "Planet Waves." In each case, the emotions are subtly shifted.
How "Red River Shore" was scratched from "Time Out of Mind" is anyone's guess, but it's not the first time Dylan's held back such a gem.
Jim Dickinson, who played on the session, said they left the best song off the album and he might be right about this tender seven-minute narrative about a love's longing set to a gentle Tex-Mex backdrop. Disc One, which plays like a cohesive album, very even in tone, ends with the live apocalyptic blues of "High Water," Dylan never sounding more scary.
Disc Two is scattershot: there are live tracks, his first-ever cover of a Robert Johnson song ("32-20 Blues") and a spirited foray into bluegrass with Ralph Stanley on "The Lonesome River." On the downside: an uneven rock version of "God Knows" with overbearing guitar work, an unfinished-sounding "Dignity" and an unreleased 2005 song "Can't Escape From You" where he actually sounds like he's doing Tom Waits. In the case of the stripped "Series of Dreams," less really is less.
Three songs on "Tell Tale Signs" are compiled from soundtracks, the best being the cinematic closing track " 'Cross the Green Mountain," a tragic Civil War ballad that has Dylan delivering the beautiful benediction: "Let them say that I walked/in fair nature's light/And that I was loyal/to truth and to right."
That he's still writing music this powerful 40-some years after his first songs -- and after so many songs -- is truly staggering. Keep the bootlegs coming.
-- Scott Mervis
As the title suggests, "The Quilt" is a colorful patchwork project.
The hip-hop darlings of the Warped Tour, Gym Class Heroes are a biracial band from upstate New York that proudly wear their rap identity on their sleeves.
But they keep pulling choice pop influences out of their pockets. "Blinded by the Sun," for instance, quotes extensively from Corey Hart's 1984 hit, "Sunglasses at Night."
The ballad "Like Father, Like Son" sounds like the Temptations meet Dr. Hook.
Even the most white-bread song on the CD, "Live a Little," suggests a mash-up of Fountains of Wayne and the Beach Boys. Gym Class Heroes are like House of Pain with serious musical chops.
Superficial but pleasing, this offering is best consumed in small doses.
--David Hiltbrand, Philadelphia Inquirer
The key to appreciating Deerhoof is shelving any expectations. Because whichever way the tricky San Francisco outfit decides to veer will translate to chiming art-pop once you get used to it.
In fact, listen long enough to the prolific band's ninth album and you can detect traces of classic rock and other familiar genres in their skewed riffs and jaunty rhythms.
There's even an unexpected twinge of folk to the twisted title track. Scaled back to a trio on last year's "Friend Opportunity," Deerhoof is again a quartet with the addition of guitarist Edward Rodriguez, who admirably keeps up with his newfound bandmates' stop-start jaggedness.
And bassist Satomi Matsuzaki's singing remains weird, cute and repetitive, especially on the fun "Basket Ball Get Your Groove Back."
--Doug Wallen, Philadelphia Inquirer
First Published October 9, 2008 12:00 am
