SOUNDTRACK: fIREHOSE-“fROMOHIO” (1989).
After the punk of The Minutemen, you wouldn’t expect the sound of fROMOHIO to come from Mike Watt and friends. This is fIREHOSE’s second album and the opening song, “Riddle of the Eighties” is quite poppy, but with a countryish flair. In fact, much of the beginning of the disc sounds like Meat Puppets-inspired-southwestern punk. Track two, “In My Mind,” has a wonderful latin/Mexican feel to it (singer Ed Crawford has that whole southwestern vibe down quite well, even if they are from Pedro).
The disc also has what I’ve learned is that peculiar SST Records sound–almost nonexistent bass, despite what Watt is accomplishing. Actually the bass is there, and it’s mixed fine but it’s lower than you might expect for what the kind of punk they’re playing.
Even track three “Whisperin’ While Hollerin'” which is all about the bass (with funk bass and cool blasts of guitar over the top) doesn’t have a lot of low end in it. The bass sounds crisp and clear (which is good), just not very deep. “Mas Cojones” is a weird one. Funk bass with disco guitars over the top and some odd spoken word from Watt.
The highlight is “What Gets Heard,” a great funky fast bassline with angular guitars and vocals by Watt. Near the end of the disc, “Some Things” is another solid song, really typical of this period: great bass, great guitar work and yet still a lot of punk. There’s also some fun, unexpected bits. There’s a pretty acoustic guitar solo called, “Vastopol” and two (!) drum solos: “Let the Drummer Have Some,” and the wonderfully titled, “‘Nuf That Shit, George.” Finally, “Liberty for Our Friend” is a great folk singalong, and I dare you not to singalong by the end.
Its all packaged in really short songs (most around 2 minutes, with later songs running longer). fIREHOSE was a successful SST band that burnt out rather quickly.
[READ: October 22, 2010] “My Father’s Brain”
This is a story about, yes Franzen’s father’s brain. But it’s not in any way what I imagined it would be like. As the piece opens, Franzen receives an autopsy report about his father’s brain from his mother. It comes in a package with other items, and the occasion of the package is, hilariously enough, Valentine’s Day. (And the darkly humorous anecdote of his mother sending this on Valentine’s Day is spoken quite often to friends and really anyone who will listen).
We pull back from the incident to look at Franzen’s family in toto and the story becomes a far more personal/familial story than I imagined it would. We learn about his parents’ unhappy marriage and all of the complaints that his mother had about his father. Franzen’s mother would regularly send Jonathan letters bemoaning her husband’s lack of concern/empathy/sense of humor. And then soon enough, the letters started expressing fear that Franzen’s father simply couldn’t be left by himself–for his own safety and the safety of the house. Frazen’s father was eventually diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
The bulk of the middle of the article is given over to the science of brain study. Although this article is 10 years old I was surprised that I thought they were just learning about the brain were evidently known back then (for instance, how faulty our memories are). He also gives an argument that I have felt–not about Alzheimer’s specifically but about the “diagnosing” of people in general–that science or the medical community wants to quickly label people to make it easier for them. He feels this way several years before his father is diagnosed and is a bit resistance to the initial diagnosis; however, when he finally sees him, he agrees with the assessment. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: THE BEATLES-A Hard Day’s Night (1964).
Despite my CD player trying to eat this disc, I still managed to listen to the whole thing.
SOUNDTRACK: A CAMP-Colonia (2009).
This is the second album from the side project of The Cardigan’s Nina Persson. This disc was created with her husband Nathan Larson from Shudder to Think. Their first album had a country flair to it, but this one eschews that entirely for a pop feel that is entirely different from The Cardigans’ two main styles: the “cheesy” happy pop of “Lovefool” and the bitter guitar pop of their later discs.
SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT–Blue Öyster Cult (1972).
Craig Ferguson mentions that the only concert he saw as a teen in America was Blue Öyster Cult. My guess is that it would have been around the Agents of Fortune or Spectres tour (ie, around “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”) so that must have been a killer show.
SOUNDTRACK: LES CLAYPOOL-Of Fungi and Foe (2009).
Claypool was asked to score a video game called The Spore Wars and, at around the same time, to score a movie called 
SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS–Static Journey Volume 2: Melville (2008).
At this stage, I realized just what the fine creator of this box set has set out to do: he is basically recreating the Rheos’ discs with live tracks, demos and other cool things. Initially I assumed that everything would be chronological (live concerts only from that tour, for instance). But he has gone beyond that simple task and is selecting the best version he can find. So a concert from, say, 2007 which features an awesome recording of a track from 
Mark Barrowcliffe wrote a very nice comment about my review of his book. But he made me aware of some things that I thought about saying then but which I didn’t.
SOUNDTRACK: KISS-Alive! (1975).
This was the first Kiss live album and was the album that broke Kiss worldwide. I’m not entirely sure why a live album of songs that didn’t sell very well would do better than the original studio albums, but so it was.
I Just Read About That... 