Music from My Mailbox

I figure the last day of the month is as good a time as any to dump out the mailbox. Start fresh next month and all that.

A lot of stuff from bands that are going to be at SXSW next month. I’ll be not attending again this year, so who plays or doesn’t play isn’t going to much affect me. Just send me good music if you want me to post it. Kthx.

I’m gonna jump right in with my pick of the litter. The Pack A.D., from the home of the 2010 Winter Olympics, are a duet – guitar and drums a la Jack and Meg – and take a similar, garage/blues approach to their music. Singer Becky Black has garnered more than a few comparisons to a certain legendary 60's whiskey-throated blues shouter. I really liked this band and look forward to hearing more of their music.

A couple of other things that are interesting: Patrick Bower’s “The Dark Lord (of Love)” has a weird, dark sound to it and made me want to hear it more than once. Moneybrother’s “Born Under a Bad Sign” is another of those tracks I almost passed on, but, after a couple of listens, decided to include. It’s a sort of poppy, dancey, type of thing. Maybe like something from the first Killers album or something. Just know that it’s not a cover of the Albert King classic.

The very last song on today’s list, “Sleepwalking,” I decided to include sight unseen. That is to say, I didn’t even care if the music was up to my usual rigorous standards. Everything Is Made In China, or EIMIC as their friends call them, come from Russia. When was the last time you heard a Russian pop band? Exactly. So they get a mention just for that.

As always, follow the links for more information.

Blunt Mechanic
Indie / Folk / Punk
From: Seattle, Wash.
Band MySpace
Less Beat.mp3

Becca
Rock / Pop / Acoustic
From: Portland, Ore.
Band MySpace
Kickin’ & Screamin’.mp3

Nick Jaina
Folk / Pop / Indie
From: Portland, Ore.
Band MySpace
Sleep Child.mp3

Cast Spells
Acoustic / Country / Folk
From: Chicago, Ill.
Band MySpace
Pioneer Scalps.mp3

Patrick Bower
Indie / Folk / Pop
From: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Band MySpace
The Dark Lord (of Love).mp3

The Pack A.D.
Garage / Rock / Punk
From: Vancouver, Canada
Band MySpace
Crazy.mp3

Resonant Soul
Alternative / Rock / Indie
From: Toledo, Ohio
Band MySpace
House of the Rising Sun (Animals cover).mp3

Velvet Davenport
Psychedelic / Pop
From: Minneapolis, Minn.
Band MySpace
Get Out.mp3

The Dig
Rock / Indie / Pop
From: New York, N.Y.
Band MySpace
You’re Already Gone.mp3

Shellshag
Punk / Rock
From: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Band MySpace
Resilient Bastard.mp3

Friday Mile
Indie / Rock / Pop
From: Seattle, Wash.
Band MySpace
FYI.mp3

Moneybrother
Rock / Pop
From: Stockholm, Sweden
Band MySpace
Born Under a Bad Sign.mp3

EIMIC
Rock / Other
From: Moscow, Russian Federation
Band MySpace
Sleepwalking.mp3

~~~~~
(Pictures, top-to-bottom: Becca, The Pack A.D., Shellshag)

Labels: "alternative", covers, folk, garage rock, indie, pop muzik, pop-punk

posted by aikin @ 12:02 PM 0 Comments

'Buried Alive'

I can’t even count the number of times I’ve posted up some Aerosmith and tried to qualify the post by saying something like, “Well, back when they were good...”

Despite all qualifications, I happened recently to run up on some newer Aerosmith that’s pretty good. So I think I’ve found the problem: They need to cut out the shit in the studio. I found a couple of disks of demos and damned if even the crap songs from the later albums sound decent when they’re unadorned by studio fluffery. Prime example: “Living on the Edge,” which was, in my opinion, a typical late model, Aerosmith pop song. The demo shows the song stripped down and raw, before Bruce Fairburn glossed it up and turned it into mainstream mediocrity.

This collection, which was probably assembled by a fan, is titled Divers Aerosmith. I don’t know if that’s meant to be “Diver’s” or “Diverse.” Regardless, the original set had 32 songs, some of which had been released commercially, some of which had poor sound quality, and some of which just sucked (i.e. an orchestral version of “Crazy”). I trimmed the fat and ended up with 11 songs that I think are pretty quality. With the exception of “Mama Kin” and “Walk This Way,” everything comes from Permanent Vacation or newer. And, to the best of my knowledge, nothing here has been commercially released.

Bottom line: Here’s yet another Aerosmith post. You know we're all still fans.

Buried Alive.mp3 ~ Pump outtake
Crazy.mp3 ~ acoustic version
Guilty Kilt.mp3
Hollywood.mp3 ~ Permanent Vacation demo
Line Up.mp3 ~ smoky bar mix
Livin’ on the Edge.mp3 ~ Get A Grip demo
Mama Kin.mp3 ~ live, with Guns ‘n’ Roses
Once is Enough.mp3 ~ Permanent Vacation demo
Samurai.mp3 Permanent Vacation demo
Sedona Sunrise.mp3 ~ Pump demo
Walk This Way.mp3 ~ live, with Bon Jovi

Labels: Aerosmith, classic rock, demos, live music, outtakes

posted by aikin @ 7:00 AM 3 Comments

'Who Threw That Ham At Me?'

You wouldn’t expect anything less than quirky from the mind behind “Rock Lobster,” so when I heard Fred Schneider on the Howard Stern show yesterday, I figured I was in for something interesting.

Freddy didn’t disappoint. He was on the Stern show to promote his latest project, The Superions. After talking about Fred’s teenage years, how he came to form the B-52s, and whether or not he’d ever wanted to have sex with Cindy Wilson or Kate Pierson, Stern and Schneider got around to talking about The Superions.

The Superions came out of Orlando, Fla., in 2006, a meeting of Schneider’s mind with those of Noah Brodie and Dan Marshall. They released Totally Nude Island digitally in October 2008, followed a year later by “Who Threw That Ham at Me,” as a digital single.

Schneider was on the Stern show to promote the release today of The Superions’ new, self-titled album. The 7-track EP will be available on CD and limited edition 12-inch vinyl. It includes two new tracks as well as a re-release of “Who Threw That Ham at Me.”

As the title indicates, “Ham” is not your ordinary pop hit. The song is, as Schneider explained yesterday to Howard, a cautionary tale about the serious crime of shoplifting, set to a bouncy disco beat. It’s based on a story Schneider heard about a woman who was trying to shoplift a canned ham, only to have it fall out from under her coat. The woman looked around and, completely unfazed, asked, “Who threw that ham at me?”

Who Threw That Ham at Me.mp3

Labels: new stuff, new wave

posted by aikin @ 7:00 AM 0 Comments

Post #666

After three years and eight months I’ve made it to post number 666. Some careful mathing breaks that down to about 15 posts a month or an average of more or less one every other day. Which is better than I thought I was doing.

Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

I hold no special significance in the “Number of the Beast.” I’m way more aware of it through pop culture than I am through religious studies. Based on some quick, half-assed Internet research, 666 appears to have originally been used as code in order to write about Roman emperors (most likely Nero) without openly referring to them.

Through the ages, different beliefs have used different methods to sum different names, pretty much arriving at any person they feel is evil enough to be dubbed “The Beast.” Some scholars have decided the number was mistranslated and was supposed to have been 616, and would have referred to Caligula. Aleister Crowley believed he was the beast and adopted the name “The Great Beast.” By then using Greek gematria (assigning values to words), he was able to arrive at the sum of 666 for himself. I even found a Website where they had translated Al Gore into ASCII code and made it equal 666.

Be all that as it may, I’ve decided Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast” would be a swell way to acknowledge post number 666. This version comes from their March 15, 1985, show at the Long Beach Arena in Long Beach, Calif. This was one of the shows recorded for the classic Live After Death LP. What I’m posting comes from a Recording of Indeterminate Origin of the March 15 show and not from official release.

The Number of the Beast (live).mp3

Labels: live music, metal

posted by aikin @ 10:35 AM 2 Comments

I'm On The Train To Bangkok

Sometimes, when I’m thinking about what would be interesting to post, I try to consider things that may not already have been over-blogged. Invariably that leads me to post some unknown Midwestern punk band, or, as in today’s post, some ancient classic rock.

What’s interesting to me when I post the old stuff is the number of hits the post will get. From my observations, the majority of MP3 bloggers seem to be people in their 20s and the music, by and large, comes from “indie” musicians. Deer Tick gets blogger buzz; Clapton doesn’t seem to need it. Hence my question: Why the uptick when I post classic rock? That seeming anomaly has always fascinated me. Is it possible that while the bloggers are young, it's a bunch of us old dudes lurking the blogs?

Anyway, that brings us ‘round to today’s post: A 35-year-old Rush song from their classic 2112 album. “A Passage to Bangkok” is the opening track on what used to be Side Two of the album. A lot of fans consider this song as a sort of travelogue for weed: “Our first stop is in Bogota / To check Columbian fields / The natives smile and pass along / A sample of their yield.”

If you’re a Rush fan, you don’t need any more information about the significance of the 2112 album. If you have to ask your dad who Rush is, this should serve as an introduction since it was one of their more accessible (read: radio-friendly) songs.

A Passage to Bangkok.mp3

Labels: classic rock

posted by aikin @ 9:29 AM 1 Comments

Doug Fieger: 1952-2010

I read this morning that Doug Fieger, lead singer for the Knack, had died Sunday at his Woodland Hills, Calif., home after a battle with cancer. He was 57.

In 2006 Fieger had two tumors removed from his brain. He began undergoing chemotherapy in March of 2007 after a PET scan found a possible cancerous growth in his brain. He remained optimistic, saying, “You can't lie down. You can't stop your life.”

The Knack is often maligned as “one-hit wonders” for their phenomenal success with “My Sharona.” Although “My Sharona” was an insane hit, spending six weeks in 1979 as Billboard’s number one song, Get the Knack itself also became a huge success. The album went platinum in just two months and spent five weeks as number one, going on to worldwide sales of 6 million. It also spawned three other hit singles, although of course, none of them matched "Sharona's" success.

I think the Knack happened to come along at an opportune time in music history. They had the classic “two guitars, bass, and drum” line-up and made poppy, new wave music just as that style started to break. But they leaned enough on rock that they didn’t alienate fans who wouldn’t listen to the electronic new wave music that was waiting in the wings. Ultimately, the Knack would become so popular, they were hit with a backlash in the form of a “Knuke the Knack” campaign. Whether as a result of that backlash or because of weak material, none of the Knack’s five successive studio albums would come near the success of Get the Knack.

Good Girls Don’t.mp3
I Knew the Bride (Dave Edmunds cover).mp3
My Sharona (demo).mp3

Labels: covers, current events, demos, new wave

posted by aikin @ 8:24 PM 2 Comments

'I Slept With Joey Ramone'

I’m currently reading I Slept With Joey Ramone, a memoir written by Joey’s younger brother, Mickey Leigh (nee Mitchel Hyman). As the title indicates, it’s an account of Mickey’s life as the younger brother of one of rock's most famous frontmen.

A lot of the Ramones history will be old news to fans of the band, but what was interesting to me is Mickey’s perspective as both an insider and an outsider. I say outsider because while he was Joey’s brother, he was not inside Joey’s head. Mickey gathers perspectives from friends and family close to Joey, but a couple of chapters seemed lacking in detail that only Joey could have provided. For example, Joey’s two-week stay at St. Vincent Hospital’s psychiatric ward ends with Mickey’s summation, “It was hard to tell how much St. Vincent’s helped [Joey].”

Mickey’s insider perspective stems from his being there from the early days: He was in a band with Johnny Ramone when he was still John Cummings; he was an early roadie for the Ramones; and he observed first hand the animosity between Johnny and Joey that all but destroyed the band.

All the time the Ramones are struggling, Mickey is also working to become a star in his own right, yet he’s always over-shadowed by his older brother. He worked first with legendary rock critic Lester Bangs, and then moved on to form the moderately more successful Rattlers. The Rattlers’ brand of rock was more in the style of the Ramones’ 60s pop-cum-punk style.

Without the constant Ramones comparisons, the Rattlers probably could have been relatively successful. “Joey and I agreed we would never divulge this,” Mickey dead-panned to one interviewer, “but the real reason I started playing in bands was to help my brother and the Ramones get more publicity.”

I was able to find some music from Birdland, the Lester Bangs collaboration, as well as from the Rattlers. The song with Bangs, “I’m In Love With My Walls” is a Mickey Leigh composition that would re-surface on the Rattlers album. “On the Beach” makes clear the genetic link between the Hyman brothers.

I’m In Love With My Walls.mp3
On the Beach.mp3

Labels: books, punk

posted by aikin @ 1:10 PM 3 Comments

OST OCD - Cruising

A few months ago, when I posted about the Germs, I got a comment suggesting I check out the soundtrack for the 1980 Al Pacino movie, Cruising. The comment was spurred by one of the songs I posted, “Lion’s Share,” which was one of six Germs songs on the soundtrack.

I didn’t know it at the time, but the Cruising soundtrack has long been out-of-print. To the best of my knowledge, it was issued on vinyl and never reissued on CD. The Germs songs surfaced on the Germs (MIA) anthology; as far as the others, your guess is as good as mine.

The movie itself pretty much bombed when it was released. Gay rights groups, who opposed the way gays were depicted in the film, heavily protested it, which didn’t help ticket sales either. However, in the last decade or so, the film has become something of a cult classic. It’s even more accepted by some gays as “an entertaining and (for those born too late to enjoy the sexual excesses of pre-AIDS gay life) fascinating if ridiculous glimpse into gay life,” according to Raymond Murray, editor of Images in The Dark, an encyclopedia of gay and lesbian films.

Your basic plot summary, courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes:

A sadistic serial killer is targeting New York's gay community and, in response, the NYPD sends rookie cop Steve Burns undercover to find the killer. Burns, who is straight, poses as a homosexual and enters the world of gay S&M sex clubs, learning their rules and mores as he goes along. But as Burns arduously tracks down the murderer, he finds himself growing attracted to these clubs and the gay lifestyle, forcing him to question -- and possibly confront -- his own sexual identity.

These songs come from a vinyl rip. As I said, this isn’t available on CD. Since the album is out-of-print, I’ve been a little more generous than I usually am with commercial releases. Note that, except for the Germs track, all of the songs have little snippets of dialogue from the movie, not all of which is workplace appropriate, ifyaknowwhatimean.

Lump.mp3 ~ Mutiny
Loneliness.mp3 ~ The Cripples
Spy Boy.mp3 ~ John Hiatt
When I Close My Eyes I See Blood.mp3 ~ Madelynn Von Ritz
Shakedown.mp3 ~ Rough Trade
Pullin’ My String.mp3 ~ Willy DeVille
My Tunnel.mp3 ~ The Germs

Labels: "alternative", punk, soundtracks

posted by aikin @ 8:43 PM 3 Comments

'Who Put the Boot In'

Counting down to the Super Bowl and The Who’s halftime show. I’m pretty stoked to see them play even though I have a feeling I’ll be disappointed in the end. The last couple of years have brought some outstanding performances from Bruce Springsteen and Prince and I’m halfway dreading seeing The Who get up there and mash 40-odd years of music into a 15-minute medley of greatest hits. Or worse, something that sounds like a collection of TV theme songs and beer commercials. But hey, that’s just me – ever the optimist.

In an interview with Billboard, Pete Townshend says the band plans on “kinda doing a mashup of stuff: A bit of ‘Baba O’Riley,’ a bit of ‘Pinball Wizard,’ a bit of the close of ‘Tommy,’ a bit of ‘Who Are You,’ and a bit of ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again.’

As a sort of blogging tailgate party, I’ve dug up an old live Who show. This comes from a June 12, 1976, performance at the Swansea City Football Club in Swansea, Wales.

According to The Who Concert Guide, there are about seven songs the band played that didn’t make it onto this recording. The recording here opens with a set of “Tommy” material, whereas the actual show opened with older stuff and put “Tommy” in the middle. Some other songs here were also moved around a bit from their actual order in the show. Seeing as this clocks in at exactly an hour, maybe it was meant for radio broadcast or summat and was edited for that. But don’t let all these details bog you down. This is a typically powerful performance from The Who and the sound quality is very good and we’ll be damn lucky if they turn in half as good a performance tonight.

Amazing Journey.mp3
Sparks.mp3
Acid Queen.mp3
Fiddle About.mp3
Pinball Wizard.mp3
I’m Free / How Can We Follow.mp3
Baba O’Riley.mp3
Squeeze Box.mp3
Behind Blue Eyes.mp3
Dreaming from the Waist.mp3
Summertime Blues.mp3
My Generation.mp3
Won’t Get Fooled Again.mp3

Labels: classic rock, current events, live music

posted by aikin @ 3:35 PM 3 Comments

Music From My Mailbox

Cleaning out the mailbox for the first time this month. Once again I let it get full enough that I could skip over most of the really wretched “indie” stuff and the various remixes of songs I’ve never heard of. Something I saw for the first time is an email from a band’s promo person directing me to another blog to download the music. I can’t tell if that’s lazy promotional work or outstanding blog work.

A pretty fair amount of rock comes up with this purge: Burn the Evidence, Throwing Seven, and Gangcharger all crank up the electric guitars and pay homage to some combination of Metallica and Jesus and Mary Chain. Karnivool was kind enough to send me an actual CD. Their music is reminiscent of Tool – very much prog-metal. If you’re into that, you’ll definitely want to check Karnivool.

One song I almost passed on, but ended up liking after a couple of listens, is Paper Tongue’s “Ride to California.” It’s almost-but-not-quite rap-rock, which isn’t yet far enough in our past to make us nostalgic. The singer screams like a rocker, but the music, which emphasizes electronics over guitars, keeps this track from lapsing into Limp Bizkit territory.

As always, follow the links for more information.

Karnivool
Rock
From: Perth, Australia
Band MySpace
Set Fire to the Hive.mp3

Visqueen
Rock
From: Seattle, Wash.
Band MySpace
Beautiful Amnesia.mp3

Borrowed Eyes
Folk Rock / Indie
From: New York, N.Y.
Band MySpace
Slaves.mp3

The Soft Province
Indie
From: Canada
Band MySpace
One Was a Lie.mp3

Twin Tigers
Rock / Shoegaze / Tropical
From: Athens, Ga.
Band MySpace
Passive Idol.mp3

City Light
Indie / Alternative / Rock
From: San Francisco, Calif.
Band MySpace
Someday Maybe.mp3

Paper Tongues
Rock / Electronic / Hip Hop
From: Charlotte, N.C.
Band MySpace
Ride to California.mp3

Dana Falconberry
Visual / Tropical / Melodramatic Popular Song
From: Austin, Texas
Band MySpace
Singing Lullabies.mp3

Throwing Seven
Alternative / Post punk / Experimental
From: Los Angeles / Inland Empire, Calif.
Band MySpace
Let it Bleed.mp3

Gangcharger
Visual / Experimental / Rock
From: Denver, Colo.
Band MySpace
Apparition.mp3

King Khan and the Shrines
Psychedelic / R&B / Hardcore
From: South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
Band MySpace
Land of the Freak.mp3

Burn The Evidence
Alternative / Rock / Metal
From: Worthing/Brighton Area, U. K.
Band MySpace
New Disease.mp3

~~~~~
pictures, top-to-bottom: Visqueen, Twin Tigers, Dana Falconberry, King Khan

Labels: "alternative", electronic, folk, garage rock, hip-hop, indie, rock

posted by aikin @ 3:52 PM 0 Comments

'Shut Up & F**k'

I wonder if any of you remember or have heard of Betty Blowtorch? It was actually only a few months ago I heard about the band, which is a shame because they were great while they lasted.

Betty Blowtorch rose from the ashes of L.A. punk band Butt Trumpet. Butt Trumpet pretty much broke up in 1994, with Bianca Butthole (née Halstead), Sharon Needles, and Blare N. Bitch regrouping to form Betty Blowtorch. They brought with them the fun that defined Butt Trumpet, recording songs like “Shut Up and Fuck” and “Part-time Hooker.” L7’s Jennifer Finch served a short stint in the band during their 2001 tour with Nashville Pussy.

The band was brought to an early end with Halstead’s December 2001 death in a car accident. Their legacy consists of an EP, Get Off, most of which was re-released on their only full-length album, 2001’s Are You Man Enough?. The band was also the subject of Betty Blowtorch and Her Amazing True Life Adventures, a documentary by Anthony Scarpa.

Musically, the EP shows a more punk side of Betty Blowtorch. By the time they recorded Are You Man Enough? two years later, the band was a lot tighter and the newer songs are more melodic, although they never lost the rough edges: “All the lies that you tell / We hope you fuckin’ burn in hell / We hope you die... slowly.” If you like Girlschool, L7, stuff like that, Betty Blowtorch should do you right.

The songs below come one from each of their two original releases. “Shut Up and Fuck” is the original version from the Get Off EP; “I’m Ugly and I Don’t Know Why,” from the full-length, is the song that turned me onto Betty Blowtorch.

Shut Up and Fuck.mp3
I’m Ugly and I Don’t Know Why.mp3

Labels: metal, punk

posted by aikin @ 7:00 AM 4 Comments