[batreleaser]

i like boxsets. they make good christmas presents because i am too poor to buy them. my five favorites these days are:

1. albert ayler-holy ghost box (seriously, this thing is crazy. besides the 8 discs of incredible barely or never heard before ayler tunes from when he was just having fun playing in the navy to being the king of free jazz squeal, theres tons and tons of amazing stuff to read. pictures of ayler when he was young. of and that flower thing, does anyone even know what that is? id like to think its a rare hallucinogen ayler used to communicate with the gods through his sax. anyways, this box is the best testament to the genius of albert ayler. i like the quote he has, "trane was the father, pharoah was the spirit, i was the holy ghost".)

2. captain beefheart-grow fins rarities (a bajillion songs of rare as hell van vliet, nuff said)

3. stooges-fun house box (like 6 hours of fun house, nuff said)

4. miles davis-on the corner (on the corner is tied for my fave miles album of all time along with "nerfetitti". out all all his electric albums, he got it down with this best. even more so than the perhaps more praises "bitches brew", its like crazed free funk with crazy splices of noises and freakouts. the most psychedelic album he ever made, and if you ask me, there aren't many better records to lay back with and just smoke yourself to oblivion. and this boxset compliments that notion wonderfully. 6 discs of miles and mclaughlin and crew going to war with funk and re-establishing miles as one of the most unique and innovative jazz composers in history. and the artwork fucking rules.

5. kinks-picture book boxset (my mom rules this christmas when she got me this. it literally every song the kinks recorded and then some. ive always been a kinks fan, but if you listen to every disc in thi box song for song you see that the kinks almost NEVER made a bad song. even the songs that sound like they were recorded in a dumpster shine through with songwriting that was never mathed in this genre again. ray davies is a musical genius, and i dont feel thats an understatement. i listened to this entire set in one day before, and its remarkable to hear the band evolve from the anthemic, crunchy-chord proto-garage of thier early career to a band recording records like "the village green preservation society" and epic rock and roll masterpieces like "shangri-la", to this day one of the greatest melodies ever written, the kinks' "gimme shelter" if you will.)