It puts the lotion on it's skin . . . .

"Wonderful Radio London..."

Listening to Petra Haden Sings The Who Sell Out. As is well advertised around these parts, I hold this Who record the most exemplary of rock and roll records. Reading Mike Watt's liner notes it's heartening to know that he and d. boon had the same opinion of Sell Out. (Though God, it just breaks your heart knowing that Mike still lives in daily conversation with d. boon, though boon's been dead 19 years now. That's a wound that'll never really heal for him.)

So, Watt loved Petra's musicality and voice. He gave her an eight track and put The Who Sell Out on one track, and told her to sing along to the various parts filling out the other seven tracks. High Concept!

Still curious how she'll handle Keith Moon's drumming on "I Can See For Miles" (an orchestrated avalanche of percussion). "Tattoo" is pretty, and I love the radio ads.

eta: ...and she handles "I Can See For Miles" by staying away from the drums, lowering her register to catch the menace of the lyrics, and building a lot of drone into it. Which works very well.

...and also, the songs that seem to work best are the ones built around the Who's own harmonies. So songs which are sort of tossed off originally, like "Silas Stingy" and "Relax" really benefit from her close attention. Her lead vocal on "Sunrise" (aside from all the instrumental bits she's singing) is really gorgeous and felt.

Brian Wilson is going to fucking flip out when he hears this.

Anyone here used yourmusic.com? Every CD is six bucks, with free shipping. The only catch seems to be you have to buy at least one CD a month, and the selection is a little wonky (they have all four major Massive Attack releases but have nothing by Interpol and are missing American Idiot ). Is there something sneaky I'm missing? Cause it definitely seems like a good way to get some cheap CDs when I have money.

What's the penalty for not buying a CD for one month? That may be where they plan to make most of their money. Or maybe they're only selling cut-out (overstock) CDs?

RE: Petra Haden, I forget if I or anyone else linked to this article in the Boston Globe a couple of weeks ago. [link]

Some wonderful quotes from Pete Townsend about her project:

"I was a little embarrassed to realize I was enjoying my own music so much, for in a way it was like hearing it for the first time," Townshend said in a lengthy e-mail interview. "What Petra does with her voice, which is not so easy to do, is challenge the entire rock framework: the traditions, the processes, the decor, the accessories, the entirety of the established dynamics of traditional pop-rock. 'I Can See For Miles' is powerful not for the restrained electric guitars and suppressed and distant thundering drums of Keith Moon but for the torturously sustained vocal harmonies that John Entwistle added over my fairly conventional four-part. Petra is the first analyst who heard the vocal harmonies as they were written and reproduced them properly. When she does depart from the original music she does it purely to bring a little piece of herself -- and when she appears she is so very welcome. I felt like I'd received something better than a Grammy."

What's the penalty for not buying a CD for one month? That may be where they plan to make most of their money.

Six whole dollars. All you have to do is keep a CD in your queue, and it gets shipped to you at the first of the month. You pay six dollars whether or not you have a CD in your queue.

Thanks for the link, Jon. I'm really loving the album. I'll probably have to get Petra's Imaginaryland now too.

Saw the video for Michele Shocked's "When I Grow Up" on The Alternative. I forgot how much I love that song, and the video is funny too. Apparently she's got three new albums coming out this year, one of which is Disney songs done western swing style.

Anyone here used yourmusic.com? Every CD is six bucks, with free shipping. The only catch seems to be you have to buy at least one CD a month, and the selection is a little wonky (they have all four major Massive Attack releases but have nothing by Interpol and are missing American Idiot ). Is there something sneaky I'm missing?

Yourmusic.com is an alternate marketing strategy for the BMG Music Club (the "12 CDs for the price of 1" people). They don't manage to get the rights to reproduce everything, which is the reason that the selection is wonky.

If they have things that you want you can do a little better on price by joining (and immediately quitting) BMG a few times a year.

I was in BMG for a year or two in college and really enjoyed it. The selection and prices were both fair.

Amazon apparently has some sort of CDNow club -- the number of things you have to buy is much less and I don't think that there is a regular selection. You get about 20% off of their regular prices though. (Or so I understood it when I read the rules. I haven't joined yet.)