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Archive for the ‘The Beatles’ Category

Danko Jones–I’ve Got Something to Say: 10 Years of Rock and Roll Ramblings (2017)

Posted in Ace Frehley, Adele, Alice Cooper, Amon Amarth, Away, Black Sabbath, Blackmore's Night, Bono, Burning Guitars, Can, Candlemass, Captain Canada, Chrome, Close-Up Magazine, Cop Shoot Cop, Cult of Luna, Danko Jones, Death Angel, Deep Purple, Dio, Doug Hennig, Duff McKagan, Dungeons & Dragons, Earth, Emperor, Eraldo Carugati, Essays, Etiquette, Fiona Smyth, Foo Fighters, Fu Manchu, Funkadelic, Gary Dumm, Gene Simmons, Ghost, Ghost B.C., Hella, Hellacopters, Helmet, Hockey, Ian Gillan, Iron Maiden, Jeff Buckley, John Coltrane, Johnny Cash, Killdozer, Kiss, Lemmy, Lemmy Kilmister, Leonard Cohen, Manowar, Marben, Mary Fleener, Mötley Crüe, Metallica, Motorhead, Mule, Mutes, Nation of Ulysses, Neil Peart, Neil Young, Opeth, OutKast, Ozzy Osbourne, Paul Stanley, Peter Bagge, Peter Criss, Peter Pan Speedrock, R.E.M., Ramones, Ravi Shankar, Richard Comely, Ritchie Blackmore, Rock Hard, Rock Star, Royal Trux, Rush, Sacrifice, Saxon, Shakti, Slayer, Slint, Tad, The Backyard Babies, The Beatles, The Huffington Post, The Melvins, The Rolling Stones, Thin Lizzy, Thrill of a Lifetime, Turbonegro, Unsane, Valient Himself, Vision, Whitney Houston, Wu-Tang Clan on November 14, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: DANKO JONES-Garage Rock! A Collection of Lost Songs From 1996-1998 (2014).

Danko Jones has released nine albums an a bunch of EPs.  Back in 2014 he released this collection of songs that he wrote and recorded before his first proper single (1998).

This is a collection of raw songs, but the essential elements of Danko are in place. Mostly fast guitars, simple, catchy riffs and Danko’s gruff voice, filled with braggadocio.  With a cover by Peter Bagge!

He describes it:

Back in the 90’s,the Garage Rock scene, as I knew it, was a warts-and-all approach that favoured low-fi recordings and rudimentary playing over any modicum of musical prowess in order to glean some Rock N’ Roll essence. However, once a band got better at their instruments, songwriting and stage performance, the inevitable crossroads would eventually appear. Deliberately continuing to play against their growing skill would only evolve into a pose. There were a lot of bands who did exactly this in order to sustain scenester favour. We did the opposite.

What you hold in your hands is a document of what we were and where we came from. We didn’t know how to write songs and could barely play but we wanted to be near to the music we loved so badly. We ate, slept and drank this music. We still do. That’s why we have never had to reunite because we’ve never broken up. After 18 years, we’ve stayed the course, got tough when the going did and, above all else, we have never stopped. This album is the proof.

The first two songs are the best quality, with the rest slowly deteriorating with more tape hiss.

1. “Who Got It?” a big fat bass sound with lots of mentioning of Danko Jones in the lyrics. [2 minutes]
2. “Make You Mine” is 90 seconds long.  With big loud chords and rumbling bass Danko says “one day I’m going to write a book and let everybody know how to do it.  Seems to me there a lot of people around who want to see if I can prove it.  I been a rock prodigy since the age of 20 and my proof… my proof is right now.”
3. “I’m Your Man” is a bit longer.  The quality isn’t as good but the raw bass sound is great.
4. “She’s Got A Bomb” is good early Danko strutting music.
5. “Rock And Roll Is Black And Blue.”  He would name an album this many years later.  This song is fast and raw and only 90 seconds long.
6. “Dirty Mind Too” This is a fast stomping one-two-three song that rocks for less than a minute.
7. I’m Drinking Alcohol? This is funny because later he says he doesn’t drink.  I don’t know what the words are but the music is great–rumbling bass and feedbacky guitars with lots of screaming.
8. “Love Travel Demo” and 9. “Bounce Demo” are decent demo recordings.  “Bounce” has what might be his first guitar solo.
10. Sexual Interlude” “ladies it’s time to take a chance on a real man.  I’m sick and tired of seeing you women selling yourselves short, going out with a lesser man.
11. “I Stand Accused” Unexpectedly he stands accused of “loving you to much.  If that’s a crime, then I’m guilty.”
12. “Best Good Looking Girl In Town” a fast chugging riff, “oh mama you sure look fine.”
13. “Payback” This one sounds really rough but it totally rocks.
14. “Lowdown” Danko gives the lowdown: “You want a bit of romance?  I got you an bouquet of Flowers and a box of chocolates.  Why you crying for?  That ain’t enough?  Me and the fellas wrote this song just for you.”
15. “One Night Stand” garage swinging sound: Danko is a one woman man and you’re just his type.
16. “Instrumental” is great.
17. “Move On” is a long, slow long bluesy track about love.

It’s not a great introduction to Danko, but if you like him, you won;t be disappointed by this early baby-Danko period.

[READ: August 10, 2019] I’ve Got Something to Say

In the introduction (after the foreword by Duff McKagan), Jones introduces himself not as a writer but as a hack.  He also acknowledges that having something to say doesn’t mean much.  He has too many opinions on music and needed to get them out or his insides would explode.  He acknowledges that obsessing over the minutiae of bands is a waste of time, “but goddammit, it’s a ton of fun.”

So this collection collects some of Danko’s writing over the last dozen or so years. He’s written for many publications, some regularly.  Most of these pieces are a couple of pages.  And pretty much all of them will have you laughing (if you enjoy opinionated music writers).

“Vibing for Thin Lizzy” [Rock Hard magazine, March 2015]
Danko says he was lured into rock music by the theatrics of KISS, Crue and WASP.  But then he really got into the music while his friends seemed to move on.  Thin Lizzy bridged the gap by providing substance without losing its sheen or bite.  And Phil Lynott was a mixed race bassist and singer who didn’t look like the quintessential rock star.  What more could Danko ask for? (more…)

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Richard Ford–“Issues” (New Yorker, September 18, 2000)

Posted in Death, Domestic Violence, Humiliation, Marriage Trouble, Nick Hornby, Raccoons, Radiohead, Richard Ford, Sex, Sexism, Soul Coughing, The Beatles, Violence on September 11, 2019| Leave a Comment »

indexsep18SOUNDTRACK: RADIOHEAD-“Paperbag Writer” (2004).

I had recently read a review of Radiohead’s Kid A by Nick Hornby.  he really did not like the album at all.  He bemoaned their lack of musicality and, I gather, catchiness.  The bass line in “Is Chicago” reminded me a tad of this song and I thought it would have been a funny dig at him to include this modern Radiohead song that is almost a Beatles song but in fact nothing like a Beatles song.

Washes of strings and jittery quiet percussion open the song as Thom Yorke quietly mumble/sings:

Blow into this paperbag,
Go home, stop grinning at everyone.
It was nice when it lasted,
But now it’s gone.

After about a minute a bass comes in.  A series of two notes followed by the one main melodic moment of the song–a bass line that ascends a scale.  The song follows this pattern–strings, clicks and this bassline.

There’s a middle instrumental section which is just the strings and clicks.

Then Yorke returns, muttering “Blow in to this paper bag,”

The end of the song is pretty much all this bassline, now modified to not include the melody part just a repeated Morse code kind of sequence.

It’s not always easy to know what Radiohead are playing at. But the title of this song is strangely funny.

[READ: September 10, 2019] “Issues”

It’s hard to read a story about a man who hits a woman.   Even if he feels badly about it. Even if the woman doesn’t seem all that perturbed by it.  Even if he does get his comeuppance.

The story begins with Steven Reeves and his wife Marjorie driving to a party.  This observation about them was interesting: “They were extremely young, Steven Reeves was twenty-eight, Marjorie Reeves a year younger.”  Twenty-eight is “extremely” young?

As the story opens, Marjorie confesses that she had an affair with George Nicholson, the man of the house they are going to right now.  She doesn’t confess that the affair went on for a while–until they got tired of it.

I liked that the women in their neighborhood didn’t care for Marjorie.  They thought she was a bimbo who wouldn’t stay married to him for long and that his second wife would be the “right” wife. (more…)

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Nick Hornby–“It’s a Mann’s World” (New Yorker, June 12, 2000)

Posted in 'til Tuesday, Aimee Mann, Bob Dylan, Duke Ellington, Elvis Costello, Essays, Fiona Apple, Greil Marcus, Hanson, Magnolia, Marvin Gaye, Mojo, New Yorker, Nick Hornby, Paul Thomas Anderson, Sergei Prokofiev, Sheryl Crow, The Beatles, Tori Amos, Wu-Tang Clan on June 21, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: AIMEE MANN-Bachelor No. 2 or, the Last Remains of the Dodo (2000).

Aimee Mann writes really pretty (often sad) songs.  From seeing her play live (in person and on video), she is very upright when she plays.  And I feel like this uprightness comes forth in her music.  She is very serious–not that she isn’t funny, because she can be–but that she is serious about songcraft.  Her songs, even when they are catchy, are very proper songs.  I don’t know if that makes sense exactly.

It also means to me that most of her music sounds similar.  She has a style of songwriting and she is very good at it.  For me, it means that a full album can start to sound the same, but a few songs are fantastic.

“How Am I Different” opens up with a super catchy melody and a guitar hook that repeats throughout.  “Nothing is Good Enough” is a bit slower and less bouncy.  But “Red Vines” brings that bounce back with a super catchy chorus (and backing vocalists to punch it up).  The piano coda is a nice touch.

“The Fall of the World’s Own Optimist” starts slow but adds a cool guitar riff as the bridge leads to a catchy, full chorus.  “Satellite” slows things down as if to cleanse the palette for “Deathly.”

Now that I’ve met you
Would you object to
Never seeing each other again

The chorus is low key but the verses have a great melody.  It stretches out to nearly six minutes, growing bigger as it goes with a soaring guitar solo and better and better rhymes.

“Ghost World” has some wonderful soaring choruses while “Calling It Quits” changes the tone of the album a bit with a slightly more jazzy feel.  It also adds a bunch of sounds that are unexpected from Mann–horns, snapping drums and in the middle of the song, the sound of a record slowing down before the song resumes again.  It’s probably the most fun song on the record–unexpected for a song with this title.

“Driving Sideways” seems like it will be a slower downer of a song but once again, she pulls out a super catchy intro to the chorus (with harmonies) as the rest of the chorus trails on in Mann’s solo voice as we hang on every word.  It ends with a tidy, pretty guitar solo.

“Just Like Anyone” is a quiet guitar song, just over a minute long.  It’s a surprisingly complete song and shows that not only can she pack a lot into less than 90 seconds, she should do it more often.

“Susan” is a surprisingly boppy little number that bounces along nicely on the two-syllable rhythm of the title character.  “It Takes All Kinds” slows things down with piano and gentle guitars and “You Do” ends the album with Mann showing off a bit of her falsetto.

This is in no way a party album, it’s more of a quiet autumn day album.  And it’s quite lovely.  Thanks, Nick, for reminding me of it.

[READ: May 20, 2019] “It’s a Mann’s World”

Nick Hornby wrote High Fidelity and became something of a musical expert because of it.  As such, he wrote a half a dozen or so musical review sections for the New Yorker.

This was his first and, as one might guess from the title, it is about Aimee Mann.

He begins by talking about the British magazine Mojo and how every month they ask a musician what he or she is listening to.  He says that many musicians of a Certain Age seem to have abandoned rock and roll and are listening more to jazz or classical.  They are doing this “for reasons I can only guess as: Prokofiev! Ellington! Take that Hanson and Wu-Tang Clans fans! ”

These performers seem to suggest that pop music is dead.  Much in the way that people say fiction is dead.  Meanwhile good, talented musicians continue to make albums that people continue to listen to and good talented authors continue to write novels that people continue to read. (more…)

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Nick Hornby–“Alternative Earle” (New Yorker, July 10, 2000)

Posted in Aerosmith, Bob Dylan, Essays, Gram Parsons, Kevin Devine, Marah, Matthew Sweet, New Yorker, Nick Hornby, R.E.M., Son Volt, Stacey Earle, Stephen King, Steve Earle, The Beatles, The Jayhawks, The Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, Wilco on June 18, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: STEVE EARLE-Transcendental Blues (2000).

I’ve never really liked Steve Earle’s music.  For some reason I always thought of him as a kind of outlaw country.  But the review of this album from Hornby made me want to check it out.  And while there are certainly country music trappings, this is a solid fun rock record.

Earle’s voice isn’t what I thought it was (or wasn’t was it is now)–it’s much softer and much higher than I imagined.  So what’s going on on this record?

“Transcendental Blues” has a great distorted guitar riff running opposite the throbbing bassline.  Earle’s voice sounds like a cross between Dylan, Petty and (anachronistically) Kevin Devine.  “Everyone’s in Love with You” sounds like a rocking R.E.M. song with a very 90s vocal style and even a reverse guitar solo.

“Another Town” sounds like a song that I’ve heard a million times (but I haven’t).  It’s a simple pop song with a crazy catchy melody and it’s barely 2 minutes long.  “I Can’t Wait” slows things down a bit with a real poppy Matthew Sweet-vibe.

“The Boy Who Never Cried” is a dirgey song, slow and story telling.  It has strings with a slightly Middle Eastern feel.

“Steve’s Last Ramble” is a stompin’ song with full on harmonica introduction (which makes it seem even more Dylan).  “The Galway Girl” is a mandolin-based stomper while “Lonelier Than This” is a quiet, sad song.

“Wherever I Go” is only two minutes ling and has a country feel, even though it’s not that different from the other songs.  The guitar solo is totally early Beatles, but the lyrics are pure country:

I could drink corn whisky ’til my brain goes soft
I could run this highway ’til my wheels come off

The harmonica returns on “When I Fall” the start of a trifecta of country songs.  His drawl really comes out here, possibly because of his duet partner (Steve Earle’s sister, Stacey Earle, a country singer in her own right).  It’s a shame this song is so long as it’s my least favorite.

“I Don’t Want to Lose You Yet” is a simple country pop song (the twang remains).  Although “Halo ‘Round the Moon” is a softer song with a gentle shuffle beat.  “Until the Day I Die” continues with the old school country/bluegrass style with a big ol’ banjo intro, close harmonies, and a fiddle solo.  You can imagine a jug solo, hand clappin’ and a hoedown in a live version.

“All of My Life” rocks out again, with some loud bass and distorted guitar, which I desperately needed after those last few songs.

The disc ends with “Over Yonder (Jonathan’ Song).”  From songfacts:

This song is about the execution-by injection of Jonathan Nobles, which Steve Earle witnessed. The alt-country star told Mojo magazine May 2008 about it: “I don’t recommend it. I befriended Jonathan for several months beforehand. Then I saw the execution and later brought his remains to England for burial according to his wishes. But the execution was incredibly toxic to me. It’s hard. You can’t believe it’s really happening. I remember afterwards I thought, ‘did I black out and miss it? I let Jonathan down.’ Then the blank filled in… it was the shock… I realized exactly what I’d seen. I can’t see myself doing it again. I’ve absorbed enough death. And I still work hard against the death penalty.”

So I’m still on the fence about Earle, but I did enjoy this record much more than I thought I would.  Thanks, Nick.

[READ: June 15, 2019] “Alternative Earle”

I am aware of Steve Earle and I really like his lyrics.  I don’t love his music though–too much country in the alt-country.  Although Hornby describes it as Nashville folk and rock n roll hybrid.  But man, his lyrics are great.  I wish I liked him a bit more especially after reading this review.

Hornby is a passionate music lover and anything he likes sounds great when he describes it.

The album in question is Transcendental Blues (and in the photo Earle’s beard is much shorter than it is now).  As of 2000, Earle has been married and divorced six times (to five women–4 and 6 were the same person). In 1994 he was imprisoned for possessing narcotics.  This sentence ending years of heroin addiction. (more…)

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Jonathan Lethem–“The Ecstasy of Influence: a plagiarism” (Harper’s, February 2007)

Posted in Bob Dylan, Brian Eno, Charlie Parker, David Byrne, David Foster Wallace, Dizzy Gillespie, Essays, Free Speech, Harold Bloom, Harper's, Heinz von Lichberg, Jonathan Lethem, Lewis Hyde, Mary Shelley, Michael Maar, Muddy Waters, Museum of Modern Art, Nazis, Negativland, Robert Boynton, Robert Johnson, Robert The, Saul Bellow, Siva Vaidhyanathan, Son House, The Beatles, The Monkees, The Simpsons, Thomas Jefferson, Vladimir Nabokov, William Gibson on May 4, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: DAVID BYRNE AND BRIAN ENO-My LIfe in the Bush of Ghosts [Remix website] (1981, 2006).

I’m stealing the bulk of these comments from a Pitchfork review of the album reissue because I have never actually listened to this album which I’ve known about for decades.

When Eno and Byrne released My Life in 1981 it seemed like a quirky side project.  But now, Nonesuch has repackaged it as a near-masterpiece, a milestone of sampled music, and a peace summit in the continual West-meets-rest struggle. So we’re supposed to see Bush of Ghosts as a tick on the timeline of important transgressive records.  Nonesuch made an interesting move that could help Bush of Ghosts make history all over again: they launched a “remix” website, at www.bush-of-ghosts.com, where any of us can download multitracked versions of two songs, load them up in the editor of our choice, and under a Creative Commons license, do whatever we want with them.

The only thing is, at the time this review was written, the site was not up yet.  And as I write this in 2019, there’s nothing on the site except for a post from 2014 about Virgin Media and Sky TV.  Alas.

[READ: May 1, 2019] “The Ecstasy of Influence”

Back in the day I was a vocal proponent of free speech.  It was my Cause and I was very Concerned about it.

It’s now some thirty years later and I don’t really have a Cause anymore.  It’s not that I care less about free speech, but I do care less about the Idea of free speech.

Had I read this article in the 1990s, I would have framed it.  Right now I’m just very glad that people are still keeping the torch alive.

Lethem begins this essay about plagiarism by discussing a novel in which a travelling salesman is blown away by the beauty of a preteen girl named Lolita  That story, Lolita, was written in 1916 by Heinz von Lichberg.  Lichberg later became a journalist for the Nazis and his fiction faded into history.  But Vladimir Nabokov lived in Berlin until 1937.  Was this unconscious borrowing or was it “higher cribbing.”

The original is evidently not very good and none of the admirable parts of Nabokov’s story are present in the original.

Or Bob Dylan.  He appropriated lines in many of his songs.  He borrowed liberally from films, paintings and books.  Perhaps that is why Dylan has never refused a request for a sample. (more…)

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Manil Suri–“The Seven Circles” (New Yorker, February 14, 2000)

Posted in AC/DC, Bebu Silvetti, Brick, Bruce Springsteen, Bryan Adams, Cancer as plot device, Carol Douglas, Death, Eurhythmics, Funny (ha ha), Guinness Book of World Records, Joe Tex, King Floyd, Manil Suri, Michael Jackson, Minnie Riperton, Mungo Jerry, Natalie Cole, New Yorker, Ozzy Osbourne, Prince, Raat Hamare Milan Ki, Short Story, Talking Heads, Tavares, The Beatles, U2, Weddings, Zapp on April 26, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: NEGATIVLAND-Helter Stupid (1989).

Helter Stupid was the follow-up to Negativland’s “smash hit” (maybe 10,000 copies sold?  I have no idea) Escape from Noise.

It is a concept album based on a hoax that they perpetrated.  Wikipedia summarizes:

In 1988, the group released a mock press release to suggest that the song “Christianity Is Stupid” was connected to murders by David Brom, and that the group was forced to cancel a planned tour in support of Escape from Noise. However, there were no connections with the murders, and the tour was cancelled only due to shortage of funds and free time. Their next album, Helter Stupid, made use of the event by sampling news reports of the controversy surrounding Negativland.

So they generated their own controversy and then made art from it.  Can you imagine the attention that would get in 2019 compared to the minor coverage they got in 1989?

The first half of the album is composed of the tracks “Prologue” and “Helter Stupid” which form an extended piece lasting over 22 minutes. The concept, and some of the sampled material, came from a San Francisco television news program that was taken in by the media hoax. Other samples used included those from Rev. Estus Pirkle (further samples from the same sermon used in “Christianity Is Stupid”), an interview with Charles Manson, and “Helter Skelter” by The Beatles.

The disc opens with a man reciting lewd(ish) rock lyrics.  Then comes clips of ads for murder movies–murder, mayhem, marauding!

The prologue continues with extended samples of the news reports that talks about them being connected to the murder case.  At the end of the track a phone rings.

Song 2 begins with a call from Rolling Stone asking if there is any backward masking on “Christianity is Stupid.”

The rest of the 18 or so minutes is a mashup of all kinds of samples, spliced and cut up.

we don’t have enough data ; S-I-M-P-L-O-T ; murder and music–this isn’t the first time controversial music has been linked to tragedy.  A lengthy quite from Charles Manson and one from John Lennon

There is section where engineers hear something on a tape when you run it backwards–play it backward and you hear (rather amusing) evil messages.

Then comes the riff of Helter Skelter with The Beatles singing Helter and then “Stupid” sampled over “Skelter.”  The middle of the track goes on to emphasize how stupid the controversy is by continuing to use the “stupid” sample in all places

It’s believed night stalker suspect Richard Ramirez was influenced by AC/DC’s Highway to Stupid album. Ozzy Osborne song “Stupid Solution” became the focal point of an actual stupid case involving a Southern California teenager

And then a clever splice to create: “Christianity is triggering the murders.”

It’s intense and thought provoking and sometimes funny.

Side Two is completely different.  There’s 7 tracks all called “The Perfect Cut” with different parenthetical names after each one.  It’s introduced as Dick Vaughn’s Canned Music Moribund Music of the 70s, brought to you in authentic 70s stereophonic format with music, news reports, contests, and more.  The tracks contain samples from “The Winning Score”, a 1977 presentation by TM Century, producers of radio jingles and imaging.

“The Perfect Cut (Canned Music)” talks about short IDs and promos for radio and loops the phrase “execute a perfect cut.”

“The Perfect Cut (Rooty Poops)” features someone talking about being the greatest radio personality in the world.  He then says he spins the dial and finds nothing good–what a bunch of rooty poops.  There’s lots of samples from 70s funk and the absurdly high note of “Loving You.”  There’s also a bit of Casey Casem.

“The Perfect Cut (Good as Gold)” is all about “staying power and the announcer wondering who will still be around 7 years from now in 1992.  Their list: Bruce Springsteen will not burn out’ Prince (unless he gets a whim and decides to drop out of music) ; Michael Jackson ; Lionel Ritchie ; U2 ; Bryan Adams ; Talking Heads; Eurhythmics.  [That list was about half right].   There are samples of : Fragmentation and standardization.

“The Perfect Cut (Piece of Meat)” mostly features a sample of someone growling “I’d like a piece of meat.”  And the admission that the music industry suffered from denationalization but it became big business.  All of this over disco bass and strings.

“The Perfect Cut (White Rabbit And A Dog Named Gidget)” opens with a high school student saying “I’d like to become a lawyer and go to UCLA.   I hear it’s got nice weather and lots cute guys.  I’d like a white rabbit convertible a dog named Gidget.  The most important thing in my life is to go to heaven when i die.”  There’s more Casey Casem talking about learning to appreciate new music.

“The Perfect Cut (11 Minutes)”  A Top 40 listener’s average listening span is only 11 minutes.  Jingles need to be shorter and more frequent.  A shotgun intro with accents on each of your call letters.   I enjoyed hearing this promo.

LPs sale priced at $2.66. 8-track tape $4.44 including this Billboard toppers: The Jackson 5, The Carpenters, Elton John, Neil Young,Cat Stevens, Black Sabbath, James Taylor, Ike & Tina Turner.

There’s also this news headlines for Dec 1978–the average price of gas soars to 76 cents per gallon (!).

Dick Vaughn–From Jan 1, 1970 to Dec 31, 1979, we’ve got your moribund music.

“The Perfect Cut (48 Hours)” is inspired by an ad “You’ve got 48 hours to save a lot of money.”

Someone says it’s so annoying I used to shut the radio right off.  Then there’s silence for 10 seconds followed by, “just when you thought it was safe to turn on your radio.”  And the promise/threat: “Nothing happens until someone buys something.”

The Weatherman shows up to talk about “sewer mouth.”

And then there’s this gem: Take 2 high quality stereo LPs, put them in a full-color jacket, add a beautiful sexy gal on front and candid photos of the KQ jocks inside and you’ve got a bombshell [EXPLOSION].

This is a fun and interesting experiment.  Some tracks do actually bear repeated listening to hear just what they’re trying to do.

Personnel: Richard Lyons (credited as “Dick Vaughn”) ; David Wills (uncredited) ; Don Joyce (uncredited) ; Mark Hosler (uncredited) ; Chris Grigg (uncredited)
Musical Samples The Beatles – “Helter Skelter” ; King Floyd – “Groove Me” ; Carol Douglas – “Doctor’s Orders” ; Minnie Riperton – “Lovin’ You” ; Tavares – “Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel” & “It Only Takes a Minute” ; Zapp (unidentified) ; Brothers Johnson – “Strawberry Letter 23” ; Brick – “Dazz” ; Natalie Cole – “This Will Be” ; Joe Tex – “I Gotcha” ; Donna Summer – “Love to Love You Baby” ; Bebu Silvetti – “Spring Rain” ; Bill Summers & Summer Heat – “Jam the Box” ; Mungo Jerry – “In the Summertime”

[READ: April 20, 2019] “The Seven Circles”

This story started as one thing and then turned into something else very dramatically.

It begins with Vinod completing his B. Com and being told by his parents that he should get ready for marriage.  They had the girl picked out and since he had no objection to her, they went ahead with the plans.

He found himself at his future in-laws looking at the gifts that his bride-to-be, Sheetal, would bring with her.  He glanced at her during this surveying of the gifts and he was sure he saw her looking back at him with distaste.

He desperately tried to get her to look at him over the next few weeks, but even during the ceremony she would not look him in the eye.   He thought about running away during “the seven circles” of the ceremony, but he went through with it.

That first wedding night was awkward as they slowly got to know each other.  The had a little, but not much, in common.  And he didn’t even consider doing anything physical.  He did manage to get one kiss in before the night was over. (more…)

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Simon Rich–Hits & Misses: Stories (2018)

Posted in Barenaked Ladies, Blue Rodeo, Books about writers, Death, Fantasy, Fears, Fiona Apple, Foosball, Funny (ha ha), GQ, Guster, Hitler, Humiliation, Live at Massey Hall, Luke Doucet, Melissa McClelland, Morality, New Yorker, Religion, Sarah McLachlan, Sex, Short Story, Simon Rich, Sloan, The Beatles, Thomas Edison, Tom Hanks, Tom Waits, Whitehorse, Woody Allen, Yuck! on January 25, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: WHITEHORSE-Live at Massey Hall (December 8, 2017).

I saw Whitehorse open for Barenaked Ladies a few years ago and they blew me away.  I really want to see them again.

When I saw them it was just the two of them and the magic of their interplay was what really impressed me the most.  For this special Massey Hall show, they have a full band.  But as Melissa McClelland explains:

This is the first time playing the Massey stage with a full band.  We wanted to … finally invite some friends on stage with us and play music.

Those friends include John Obereian on drums, Ryan Gavel on bass, guitar and backing vocals and on keys and bongos and guitar, the second best singer in this band Gregory MacDonald.  He replies, “Thanks to the second best guitar player in the band.”  I have seen MacDonald on tour with Sloan a bunch of times and he is awesome.

As to why they are a duo, she says

we knew that Whitehorse was always going to be just the two of us and that everyone would know that we are equal partners in the band.  But we didn’t want it to be a folk duo so we started brainstorming and bought looping pedals and a kick drum and a stomp box and we  found new arrangements and once we got it we were like Yeah!

The show opens with hand clapping from the band and the audience and then Melissa’s slinky bass intro to “Baby Whats Wrong.  Then comes Luke Doucet’s echoing Western guitar. Their voices are wonderful together and I love when Doucet sings in that weird telephone microphone.  He also plays a ripping guitar solo.

Luke introduces “Tame as the Wild Ones” by saying they needed to write a sexy song so “Melissa kicked me out and said she’d do it alone.  I go to the bar to get drunk and when I come home, she plays me this song.  And nine months later our son Jimmy was born.”  I love the way the bridge (or is it a chorus) builds and settles–that melody is just gorgeous.

“Pink Kimono” has a simple rocking riff and the two singers singing at the same time.   Doucet’s soloing is on fire in this song.

“Die Alone” is a showstopper.  A slow moody piece in which Melissa sings over a wash of synths.  The music so much build as just unfold as first Luke sings with her and then the band kicks in.  Wow can Melissa belt out a song.

“Downtown” is a celebration of how you can put hundreds of thousands of people in a city and for the most part everyone gets along.  It s got a great throbbing bass and some cool guitar scratching and riffs from Doucet.  It’s a bummer that they interrupt the awesome middle solo section with an interview, even if it is quite interesting.

After Melissa lays out how they wanted the band to sound, Luke says that when people ask him about what it’s like to do Whitehorse, he says

we were solo artists first but we had been involved with each others albums as singer or producer  or touring musician.

So in order to be successful

you have to hang out together for five or six years and play in each others bands and make eight albums together and then you have to go on tour as freelance/hired gun musicians working for Blue Rodeo or Sarah McLachlan and then you have to live together for five or six years and listen to music together and fight and then you have to get married and once you’ve done all these things and listened to 10,000 hours of music and dissected Tom Waits entire catalog and argued about which is the best Beatles record and had fights on stage about who is speeding up or slowing down and once you’ve done all those things together then start a band.

It certainly worked for them.  The only bad thing about this show is that it’s only 30 minutes.

[READ: January 24, 2019] Hits & Misses

It has been a while since Simon Rich published a collection of his stories.  This one was pretty enjoyable.  Overall, not as much fun as some of his previous collections, but still a lot to laugh at.  Rich tends to write what he knows, which is often a very good sign.  However, sometimes what he knows is limited to writing and filming, which tends to miss the everyman silliness of his earlier pieces.

Having said that there are still some hilarious pieces that anyone can enjoy and some pieces about writers that are very funny.

A few of these pieces appeared in the New Yorker, and I indicate as much, with a link to my longer review.

“The Baby.”  This was a highlight.  A sonogram reveals that their baby is holding a pen–he is going to be a writer!  But when word gets out that the baby is already getting a reputation AND representation, well, that baby’s writer father is pretty damned jealous.  Wonderful absurdity based on reality taken to its extremes. (more…)

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Beat Root Revival (Bergen Performing Arts Center, Englewood, NJ, December 4, 2018) [BRIAN WILSON]

Posted in Beat Root Revival, Bergen Performing Arts Center, Brian Wilson, Englewood, NJ, Fleetwood Mac, Set in New Jersey!, The Beatles on December 4, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 4, 2018] Beat Root Revival

I had called BergenPAC to see if Brian Wilson would have an opening act and I was told it was Beat Root Revival.  I hadn’t heard of them and they sounded interesting, so I had hoped to get there in time to see them.

I didn’t quite know where BergenPAC was, so we arrived in Englewood a little later than I intended.  We also needed to grab a slice before the show–it’s awkward to have to drive through dinner.  So we walked in during the duo’s first or second song.

So just who is this band (which I misunderstood as Beet Root Revival at first).  They describes themselves:

Beat Root Revival are a multi-instrumentalist roots duo, combining elements of Folk, Blues, Country and Rock n Roll to create a foot stomping, melodic sound, made up of power house harmonic vocalists Andrea Magee and Ben Jones.  Originally from England and Ireland, Ben Jones and Andrea Magee came to the USA 3 years ago like their ancestors before them, looking for a new life and to share their music far and wide.

And that really sums them up nicely. (more…)

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Steven Page Trio (World Cafe Live, Philadelphia, PA, September 24, 2018)

Posted in Art of Time Ensemble, Barenaked Ladies, Craig Northey, Kevin Fox, Philadelphia, PA, Steven Page, The Beatles, World Cafe Live on September 24, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 24, 2018] Steven Page Trio

I’ve seen Barenaked Ladies countless times.  I saw them when Steven Page was with them.  I’ve seen them after he left.  BNL is always fun even without Steven.

But Steven Page’s voice is awesome and he is definitely missed in the band (even though his solo albums are better than recent BNL albums).

This is actually the third time I have seen him since he left BNL and all were within the last three years.

The first time (also with Craig Northey) was when they and the Art of Time Ensemble performed Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band.  The second was earlier this year when Steven did his Songbook–singing (mostly) other people’s songs.

These were both great but, man, I wanted to hear him sing his own songs.  So I was psyched when he announced a new tour with a trio playing his own music (and a new album).

The trio included Craig Northey on guitar and Kevin Fox on cello.  And it was awesome. (more…)

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Pearl Jam (Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL, August 20, 2018)

Posted in Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago, IL, Neil Young, Pearl Jam, Phish, The Beatles, The White Stripes, The Who, Wrigley Field on August 20, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 18, 2018] Pearl Jam

After four days of touring Chicago, we were beat.  Even though we were both looking forward to tonight’s show, we were a little wiped out by the thought of staying out, catching the EL, etc.  Especially because of the weather.

The weather was not promising: rain all day and then thunderstorms right around showtime.  The Chicago weather seems to change a lot, but that forecast never wavered all week.

Our friend Kaylo and her family (who live in Minnesota but whom we met in Boston–they were staying at the same hotel for Pearl Jam) could only make this one show.  They had gotten general admission spots (again).  And so it was part of her family hazing ritual to make her kids wait outside in the rain all day to get as close as possible the front of the stadium.

Meanwhile we were in a museum across town, learning stuff and staying dry.

The weather let up a bit as we got off of the El and headed to Wrigley.  There were a lot fewer people milling about and we even got on line for merch (and got two of the notoriously hard to get posters–but not the awesome ones that immediately sell out).

And then Sarah pointed to the monitors which had a green sign which read:

When I saw Phish at BB&T Pavilion, there was lightning right overhead but nothing happened. However, back in 2013, Pearl Jam played Wrigley and there was a storm which delayed the show for hours. (more…)

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