What are you listening to? December 2025

[axolotl]

Gonzalo Rubalcaba ~ The Blessing (1991)

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Camper Van Beethoven - Telephone Free Landslide Victory (1985)

 

[Ojai Sam]

Guillemette Laurens, Capriccio Stravagante (Skip Sempé, cond.) – Lully: Divertissements I, II, III (1990)

Alexa now connects to Spotify but I can never get her to play this album. She always passes it by due to the conductor's unfortunate choice of nicknames.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Water From Your Eyes - It's A Beautiful Place (2025)

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Ranges - Sin (2025)

 

[Ojai Sam]

Clark Terry, Paul Gonsalves, Joe Gordon & Art Mardigan - The Jazz School (1955)

Vinyl Spin of the Day.

This album has an unusual concept: the four named artists are actually acting as "teachers" for a total of "sixteen young men whose grades are impeccable, whose studies have clearly qualified them for a successful and distinguished career."

These newcomers include such now familiar names as Al Cohn, Junior Mance, Chubby Jackson, Charlie Rouse and, wait for it, Art Blakey! The Jazz School amounts to a final exam for which I award...

on the Sam-O-Meter.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

With holiday music season finishing, this week listening to the music of 1962
(usually yearly playlists for me is a Thursday thing, but hey it was Christmas)

What a Year!
The debut of singles by Beatles, Beach Boys and Marvin Gay
Ray Charles' Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music
Sam Cooke, Frankie Valli
The Drifters "Up on the Roof", Little Eva's "Locomotion"
Early Motown. The Isley Brothers, The Contours
Surf Music - "Pipleline", "Miserlou", "Wipe Out"
The Crystals

How beautiful are "Love Letters by Ketty Lester and "Any Day Now" by Chuck Jackson!
How fun are Freddy Cannon's "Palisades Park" and The Marvelettes "Beechwood 4-5789)
And Tony Bennett's "(I Left My Heart) In San Francisco

 

[Ojai Sam]

Tina Mason - Tina Mason Is Something Wonderful! (1967)

Yes, she certainly is.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Joey Forman - The Mashuganishi Yoga (1968)

Vinyl Spin of the Day.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Nels Cline - Concentrik Quartet (2025)

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Gwenifer Raymond - Last Night I Heard The Dog Star Bark (2025)

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Elvis Costello - This Year's Model (1978)

 

[Ojai Sam]

Various Artists - Down From The Mountain (2001)

If you liked "O Brother, Where Art Thou?", this special live show from the stage of the Ryman Auditorium is indispensable.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Kinski - Alpine Static (2005)

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Sunn O))) - Life Metal (2019)

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

The Cars - Complete Greatest Hits

 

[Ojai Sam]

Woody Guthrie - Dust Bowl Ballads (rec. 1940, RCA Victor Vintage Series 1964)

Vinyl Spin of the Day.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Oliver Messiaen - Saint Francois d'Assise (Halle Orchestra/Arnold Schoenberg Chor et al)

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Talking Heads - Talking Heads '77 (1977)