Licorice Pizza

2010-07-09T19:06:00.000-04:00

Auf Wiedersehen

2010-07-08T07:00:00.001-04:00

Well, it looks like this is the end of the ride. I’m not much for long goodbyes, so I want to mention a few things and then I guess we’ll call it a day.

First, a month or so ago I went over a half-million hits to my little blog. I had meant to mention it at the time, but the moment slipped away. I want to thank those of you who were faithful readers and checked in regularly. And thanks to anyone who even occasionally dropped by. Special thanks to the 25 people who “follow” my blog and to those of you who left comments so I would know I wasn’t doing this solely to entertain myself.

Thanks in particular to two blogs: I Am Fuel, You Are Friends and Aquarium Drunkard. These are two of the very first music-related blogs I found and they served as inspiration for starting my own. Thanks also to everyone else who exchanged links with me and added me to your blogrolls or linked something I had posted. Although I’ve never met any of you, I nonetheless feel like we’re a bit of a community.

Big thanks to every band or artist’s rep that sent me music. I especially want to mention Amber and Clinno from BugGiRL, who not only sent me music, but also stayed in touch. And when I saw them play live and met them, they were very cool and decent people. Also, thanks to every band that didn’t ask me to take down any of their music I had posted.

Never say never. I may decide in the future I miss this and start up the blog again. We’ll see....

Rock and Roll Music.mp3

Dead Weather: Bonnaroo, 2010

2010-07-06T22:00:00.003-04:00

This will probably be my last major post before I cease operations here at the Licorice Pizza blog. That should happen at the end of this week. As such, I wanted to share something really decent I got hold of not long ago.

The Dead Weather played Day 3 (June 12) of this year’s Bonnaroo Festival, sandwiched on the “What” stage between Big Sam's Funky Nation and Jimmy Cliff on one side and Stevie Wonder and Jay-Z on the other. Kind of an unlikely, yet appropriate, slot for this unholy gothic blues quartet.

I’ve made no secret of mentioning that I really liked Sea of Cowards. I think the band and album are a natural progression for Jack White, moving forward from the basic blues stomp of the White Stripes. My only issue is that I would rather hear Jack on guitar than drums. Fans at Bonnaroo got a chance to see him do just that during their set: White stepped out to play lead guitar on “Will There Be Enough Water?” launching into an extended solo to end the set. When the band returned for its encore, Jack again took lead guitar for “I Can’t Hear You.”

Like every other year and every other festival, needless to say I couldn’t attend Bonnaroo. It sounds as if Dead Weather was phenomenal. Rolling Stone wrote, “Their set was a nasty reconfiguration of classic blues, ripping out everything but the floorboards and rebuilding a rickety, menacing house on top of them.”

I’m not sure of the original source for this recording, but the sound quality is as suitably great as the band. Again, my host is expiring in a couple of days and the individual tracks are likely not going to be available after that. The RapidShare file should be around a bit longer.

Forever My Queen.mp3
60 Feet Tall.mp3
Hang You from the Heavens.mp3
You Just Can’t Win.mp3
So Far from Your Weapon.mp3
I Cut Like a Buffalo.mp3
No Horse.mp3
A Child of a Few Hours is Burning to Death.mp3
The Difference Between Us / I’m Mad.mp3
Hustle & Cuss.mp3
Die by the Drop.mp3
New Pony.mp3
Will There Be Enough Water.mp3

encore
Blue Blood Blues.mp3
I Can’t Hear You.mp3
Treat Me Like Your Mother.mp3

Zipfile linkage

Some Quick Thoughts On Peter Ivers

2010-07-05T21:15:00.006-04:00

A few days ago I started reading “In Heaven Everything is Fine: The Unsolved Life of Peter Ivers and the Lost History of New Wave Theatre,” by Josh Frank and Charlie Buckholtz (Free Press, $25). I had read something a couple of weeks ago that piqued my interest about Ivers and this book, although admittedly, I really knew nothing about him other than being peripherally aware of New Wave Theatre.

There are a couple of things that so far have really made an impression on me: First is the incredible wealth of talent that came Harvard during that era (the late 1960’s). Ivers’ classmates and friends included Harold Ramis, Stockard Channing. Doug Kenney, and Tommy Lee Jones. And those are just the bigger names that I was immediately familiar with.

The other thing that absolutely stunned me was a title bestowed on Ivers by none other than Muddy Waters. One night in 1968, Ivers and then-girlfriend Channing were at the Cambridge Blues Club in Boston, watching Waters perform. “At one point between songs, Muddy Waters gestured to Peter and began to speak about him,” the authors write. Waters tells the crowd about his previous encounters with Ivers, including times the two had played together. “Looking out over the small but devoted audience in the smoky room, Waters referred to Peter as ‘the greatest harp player alive.’”

A white kid from Harvard was “the greatest harp player alive”? No doubt about it, I wanted to hear this. Ivers’ music is sort of hard to find, even on the Internet. eMusic has a couple of his later albums, but they’re mistitled as being by “Pete Rivers.” After some digging, though, I managed to find a couple of things I wanted to share here. Both of Ivers’ songs here display his harmonica talent, which is quite amazing.

The other two songs are versions of “In Heaven (Everything is Fine),” the song that lent its name to the book I’m reading. David Lynch asked Ivers to write a song for the 1977 movie Eraserhead and “In Heaven” was what he came up with. The first version is the original from the movie; the other is the Pixie’s version, from a BBC broadcast.

I’ve Got a Sex Crush.mp3
Harmonica Solo.mp3
In Heaven (Everything is Fine).mp3
In Heaven (The Lady in the Radiator Song).mp3

Happy Independence Day

2010-07-04T12:45:00.003-04:00

It was kind of a tough call deciding what would be an appropriate Fourth of July post. The most obvious call was the Beach Boys – why, I don’t know, but the Beach Boys always seem right. At some point last night I woke up and thought the Rolling Stones, but in the clear light of day I realized that was an obviously delusional idea.

While looking through music this morning, I found what seems to be perfect: Bob Dylan and Tom Petty playing a July 4 concert in New York. I mean, what’s more American than that? I suppose I could upload some hotdogs for you.

While this is a great show and I would have loved to see any stop on the True Confessions tour, the sound quality here is about a C-. That being the case, I'm posting only a handful of songs – just something to get your morning moving. Enjoy your Fourth.

Masters of War.mp3 ~ Bob Dylan with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Breakdown.mp3 ~ Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall.mp3 ~ Bob Dylan (acoustic)
Ballad of a Thin Man.mp3 ~ Bob Dylan with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Johnny B. Goode.mp3 ~ Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Refugee.mp3 ~ Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35.mp3 ~ Bob Dylan with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

This recording is from the July 4, 1986, show at Rich Stadium in Buffalo, N.Y. It may or may not show up as July 14 when downloaded. According to the Gone Gator Website, there was no July 14 show on that tour, so I take that as a typo and assume this is the July 4 show.

Hole: Live 1995

2010-07-03T12:36:00.005-04:00

I realized last night that I’ve been going to concerts longer probably than some of you have been alive – my first show was KISS, on the 1979 Dynasty tour.

This realization came to me while I was waiting for Hole to take the stage at the Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami Beach. What brought this realization is watching everyone around me busy with their cell phones: texting, tweeting, taking pictures, and generally doing everything to remember this experience other than actually experiencing it. It made me feel old and annoyed thinking about how much the concert-going experience has changed over the years.

I remember when I saw Iggy in 1980 or '81, I was scared! The crowd was ugly. I later learned that it’s mostly in fun, but it’s rare these days to see a band and worry about your safety. Everything is very sanitized these days, which I guess makes venue owners sleep better at night. I compare that Iggy experience with the Hole show because the theaters are probably more or less the same size (I saw Iggy at the Hollywood Palladium in California) and Courtney, being Courtney, always brings the potential for some kind of disorder. There were no surging crowds last night; no one spit at Courtney; no one crowd-surfed or stage-dived; and there was no mosh pit full of sweaty, shirtless fat guys. Hmm, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

So how was the show?

Courtney Love released Nobody’s Daughter and is touring under the name “Hole.” Regardless, this is the Courtney Love show: She’s such a personality that, at his point, it doesn’t much matter whether it’s Eric Erlandson or Micko Larkin alongside her; it’s still gonna be the Courtney show. The current band has been together long enough that there’s some form of chemistry, but it’s really not “Hole” per se. And apparently, use of the name is still being discussed.

Regardless, this version of Hole opened with an appropriate cover of “Sympathy for the Devil.” They ripped through about an hour-and-a-half worth of material, mostly from Nobody’s Daughter and 1994’s Live Through This, going deep into the latter for songs such as “Plump.” As advertised, Courtney stayed clear of material from America’s Sweetheart. Also, regrettably, they didn’t play anything from Hole’s debut, Pretty On the Inside.

So, the band has changed. The concert-going experience has changed. Has anything stayed the same? Well, due to a DUI roadblock (Thank God and $12 beers I wasn’t drinking) it still took two hours to get home, just like the old days driving back from Los Angeles.

This recording goes back to the original Hole band; it was recorded February 1995 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. I also added in “Loser Dust,” one of my favorites from the new album, but a song they did not play last night.

Plump.mp3
My Beautiful Son.mp3
Miss World.mp3
Asking for It.mp3
Hungry Like the Wolf.mp3
Gutless.mp3
I Think That I Would Die.mp3
Credit in the Straight World.mp3
Teenage Whore.mp3
Violet.mp3

Loser Dust.mp3

‘All Night Long’

2010-07-01T19:57:00.002-04:00

I heard this Rainbow song, “All Night Long,” yesterday afternoon. I can’t even tell you how long it’s been since I’ve heard that sleazy paean to “band aides.”

“All Night Long” is great in its unapologetic portrayal of the girls who love the bands: “Your mind is dirty but your hands are clean / You’re short on class but your legs are long.” How awesome are those lyrics? And they’re certainly not the typical Ritchie Blackmore fare.

This was actually my introduction to Rainbow, coming by way of the first Monsters of Rock album, recorded at Castle Donnington in 1980. Dio sang that version, though, whereas Graham Bonnet handled original vocal duties. It was only after I heard this song that I became more interested in Rainbow and Ritchie Blackmore. Actually, I take that back. Castle Donnington was my introduction to Rainbow, but it was a video clip of the performance that I had seen on TV that made me seek them out and, ultimately, led me to the Castle Donnington album and “All Night Long.”

Still with me? Good.

I was looking for a little information about this song and came up with the following: “All Night Long” – surprisingly – came in for some criticism from feminists. However, in a 1980 Sounds magazine article, Roger Glover was quoted to the effect that the song was “supposed to be funny.”

I also found an interesting Website called Groupie Dirt, which I’ll let you explore on your own.

All Night Long.mp3

Why Radio Sucks Now

2010-06-29T22:07:00.005-04:00

The horrible state of commercial radio never ceases to amaze me.

I had a small change to my work situation so, now, instead of spending time in a car with my satellite radio, I’m working indoors. I don’t yet have a portable adaptor for my satellite receiver, so lately I’ve been listening to a lot of government radio. Specifically, the local “active rock” station. Their playlist seems to consist mainly of a mix of old Pearl Jam, old Black Sabbath, old Motley Crue, and way too much Nickleback and bands who sound like Nickleback.

I mention this (yet again) by way of transitioning to today’s post. Granted it was a long time ago, but when I was growing up, commercial radio was the source for new music. And they actually played new music. During that weird period between early 1970’s freeform FM and the homogenization of your FM dial, there was a time when radio stations would actually play things you hadn't heard 10,000 times.

One of the artists introduced to my expanding taste was Robert Gordon. Rockabilly music and the guy playing it immediately enthralled me. He looked like the Stray Cats, but before the Stray Cats. Gordon’s voice sounded like the old Elvis records my dad listened to, but he had found a plugged-in Scotty Moore in the form of Chris Spedding.

The album that introduced me to Gordon was Rock Billy Boogie, which he released on RCA in 1979. There was no rockabilly revival fad and Gordon wasn't following trends; just a guy making the music he loved.

Rock Billy Boogie.mp3
Black Slacks.mp3

Music from My Mailbox

2010-06-27T12:16:00.010-04:00

Could I just copy the words to The Sun Also Rises, throw in some fresh adjectives and updated references and get it published as the remixed version? Honestly, I’m so tired of remixes. I go through my inbox and see remix after remix after remix. Are you serious? Make your own damned music if you’re so talented. And not to be hateful, but I don’t even care if you disagree.

So, that said, here’s what I found that wasn’t just someone else’s music with a couple of echo effects and a drum loop thrown in: While this mailbox purge is short on my beloved garage punk, there are still a few interesting things here. The first I want to mention is The Emotron. I’m not sure what’s up with this guy. He lights his pubic hair on fire during live performances and claims to be some kind of synth-punk G.G. Allin, a feat I’m sure no one could really pull off. This song, “Drink A Beer for Me,” sounds more like a novelty song than it does anything from G.G.’s catalogue. See what you think.

There are a couple of reggae-type bands represented: 10ft. Tall Ganja Plant (ha! Like you wouldn’t have guess they were reggae!) and Indofin. Both are great for a relaxing on a summer evening.

“Neon for You” comes from My First Earthquake’s just released EP Crush. The disk hearkens back to 80’s pop and is very enjoyable. In a wide-open field, this track is one of my favorites.

As always, follow the links for more information.

My First Earthquake
Indie / Electro / Rock
From: San Francisco, Calif.
Band MySpace
Neon for You.mp3

10ft. Ganja Plant
Reggae / Dub / Roots Music
From: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Band MySpace
Bonny & Clyde.mp3

Love Crushed Velvet
Rock / Alternative / Pop
From: New York, N.Y.
Band MySpace
Love Crushed Velvet.mp3

Electric Tickle Machine
Indie / Alternative
From: East Village, N.Y.
Band MySpace
Honest Injun.mp3

Joy Ike
Indie / Soul / Pop
From: Pittsburgh, Penn.
Band MySpace
Sweeter.mp3

Indofin
Reggae / Ska / Punk
From: Austin, Texas
Band MySpace
Bluelight.mp3

Imagine Dragons
Indie / Pop / Rock
From: Las Vegas, Nev.
Band MySpace
Selene.mp3

Upstation
Pop / Indie
From: Moscow, Russian Federation
Band MySpace
No More Promises.mp3

The Emotron
Punk / Rock / New Wave
From: West Fuckin’ Philly/Georgia/Pennsylvania
Band MySpace
Drink a Beer for Me.mp3

Eagle Winged Palace
Acoustic / Indie / Classical
From: The Deepest Darkest Corners of California
Band MySpace
Movin’ on to Avalon.mp3

~~~~~
(pictures, top-to-bottom: My First Earthquake, Joy Ike, The Emotron)

~~~~~
As a reminder, there is a little less than two weeks left on my host, so if there is anything you want to hear, you need to act quickly.

Rolling Stones: SNL, 1978

2010-06-26T12:55:00.007-04:00

I mentioned the other day I was involved in watching season four of Saturday Night Live. Somehow there was a mix-up down at Blockbuster and they sent disk two before they sent disk one. Eventually disk one arrived and I was able to look at that season's opening episode, which featured the Rolling Stones.

American music in 1978 was on the precipice between the punk rock and disco eras. The Stones had just released Some Girls with “Miss You,” a strongly danceable track, opening the album. This SNL appearance would throw all disco pretense out the window as they took the stage for a classically ragged performance.

“Get out of my life / Don’t fuck my wife.” Did that really make it past the censors? Keef, reportedly so drunk at dress rehearsal that he was dropped from a sketch, makes it onstage to play (he’s a trained professional, kids). Mick’s voice blown into ragged hoarseness. The band a mesmorizing mess. This is the Stones in boiled down, punk rock mode. Barely even recognizable as the band we’ll see three decades later in Shine A Light.

These tracks were unofficially released as part of a boot titled Sucking Don on SNL. Along with the SNL appearance, the disk includes performances from Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, as well as the SNL rehearsals. I owe big, big thanks to Dino over at D&P’s Bootleg Tunz World for finding this for me. I had spent quite a bit of time looking for Sucking Don before I reached out to Dino. Within a few hours, one of his readers had located it and passed it along. His site is great and I want to encourage you to visit it early and often.

Beast of Burden.mp3
Respectable.mp3
Shattered.mp3

Cyndi Lauper's Blues

2010-06-22T11:56:00.004-04:00

Cyndi Lauper dropped by the Howard Stern show this morning to promote her brand new album, Memphis Blues, a collection of old standard blues songs. She brought with her a collection of ace musicians, including hotshot blues guitarist Jonny Lang, and jammed a very credible version of “Crossroads.”

I use the word “credible” because Delta blues isn’t really the first thing that comes to mind when you think Cyndi Lauper. Like it’s hard to picture B.B. King doing “She Bop.” It just don’t fit. But like Cyndi told Howard, her music is based in the blues anyway. Which, technically, I suppose it all is. So, if you can ignore Cyndi’s Queens accent that leaks through at times, you can say she has done a credible job on her Memphis Blues album.

Along with Lang, Memphis Blues also has guest appearances from legends such as Allen Toussaint, Charlie Musselwhite, and the aforementioned Mr. King himself. She recorded the disk in Memphis, where she says they played a lot of it live: “It was a very big priority that we walk in and play live,” she told Yahoo news. “This album was all about the moment and what happens when the groove is exact and the key is right.”

Memphis Blues isn’t Pearl, but it’s an interesting and, yes, credible, homage to the genre by an artist you maybe wouldn’t have expected to go that way.

Crossroads.mp3

*edited for error corrections...

The Blues Brothers

2010-06-20T11:27:00.005-04:00

I spent some time yesterday watching part of Saturday Night Live’s fourth season, which was, I think, the last year with the original cast. It aired during the 1978-79 television season. What’s great is going back and seeing so much stuff and so many characters that have become part of pop culture: John Belushi’s samurai; Dan Aykroyd and Steve Martin as the swinging Czech brothers; and Garrett Morris’ Chico Escuela, just to name a couple.

One absolute classic that appeared that season was the Blues Brothers. They opened the Nov. 18, 1978, show with a manic version of “Soul Man.” I couldn’t help but smile at Danny Aykroyd’s spastic dancing and Belushi’s cartwheels as I watched this yesterday.

I vaguely remember seeing this when it originally aired and I remember not being sure if it were real or shtick. No doubt there’s plenty of shtick behind the act, but there’s also some real love of the blues, especially on Aykroyd’s part. Enjoy some delicious copy-pasta from the Blues Brothers’ Wiki:

Following tapings of SNL, it was popular among cast members and the weekly hosts to attend Aykroyd’s Holland Tunnel Blues bar, which he had rented not long after joining the cast.... It was here that Dan and Ron Gwynne wrote and developed the original story that Dan turned into the initial story draft of the Blues Brothers movie.... It was also at the bar that Aykroyd introduced Belushi to the blues. An interest soon became a fascination and it wasn't long before the two began singing with local blues bands.

The article goes on to talk about Aykroyd growing up in Canada and attending blues shows at Ottawa's Le Hibou Coffee House and other influences on him personally and on the Blues Brothers act.

After John Belushi’s 1982 death, Aykroyd would occasionally join up with John’s little brother James and/or John Goodman to perform as the Blues Brothers, but, in my opinion, that original spark was gone. It’s also been diluted through various tribute acts and bad movie sequels.

“You know, so much of the music we hear these days is pre-programmed electronic disco we never get a chance to hear master bluesmen practicing their craft anymore. By the year 2006, the music known today as the blues will exist only in the classical records department of your local public library.” ~ Elwood Blues, from the opening of Briefcase Full of Blues

Soul Man.mp3
(I Got Everything I Need) Almost.mp3

A Shower with Norman Bates

2010-06-16T20:41:00.004-04:00

I read earlier that today is the 50th anniversary of the release of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and I thought it might be appropriate to make mention of that before I go shower.

Psycho is now, of course, considered a classic, but I was surprised to learn that it opened to not-so-great reviews: “There is not an abundance of subtlety or the lately familiar Hitchcock bent toward significant and colorful scenery in this obviously low-budget job,” Bosley Crowther wrote in a June 17, 1960, New York Times review.

Like now, though, even bad reviews didn’t keep the public away; the film broke box office records all over the world and would ultimately become Hitchcock’s most successful movie.

Some random Psycho trivia:

Anthony Perkins was paid $40,000 for his role, which is exactly the same amount of money that Marion Crane embezzles.

Marion’s white 1957 Ford sedan is the same car (owned by Universal) that the Cleaver family drove on “Leave It to Beaver”

Psycho was the first American film ever to show a toilet flushing on screen.

In the murder scene in the shower, there are only two split second frames of the knife actually touching the body.

And some random music about Norman Bates:

Norman Bates.mp3 ~ Utopians
Norman Bates.mp3 ~ Bright Light Fever
Norman Bates.mp3 ~ The Tailgators
Norman Bates.mp3 ~ from a German electronica collection titled Cyberworld II
A Shower with Norman Bates.mp3 ~ Etienne & Moi

Can You Go a Little Deeper: UFO

2010-06-14T07:00:00.000-04:00

In a catalogue of songs with abstract meaning and near-indecipherable lyrics, UFO’s “Dance Your Life Away,” from their 1975 album Force It, has to be one of the strangest.

The track, ostensibly about a dance contest (“In a dance band competition / Fox-trotting with my girl”), sits hidden among songs about blackmail (“Shoot Shoot”) and washed up groupies (“Love Lost Love”). But as it hits the bridge, the song’s meaning becomes clearer: “You try your hand at anything you know / Just to try to earn a dollar.” At the risk of turning a rock song into an English class, that’s where we see the protagonist as a loser who fits more appropriately alongside the whores and misfits that populate the rest of the album.

Force It was UFO’s fourth release and the one that set the band on an upward spiral in popularity, setting the stage for the classic Lights Out album two years later. “Heavy metal that's not hard to take? wrote Robert Christgau, the “Dean of American Rock Critics.” “What? Well, the whole first side moves to smartly you could almost mistake it for rock and roll.”

Some trivia about the album cover: Hipgnosis designed the cover, as they had several other UFO covers of the era. (They also, of course, did Dark Side of the Moon). On both the vinyl and CD versions I have of Force It, the couple on the cover are almost transparent, something done for the U.S. market and our virginal eyes and morals. Eventually the album was released as intended, with the pair fully visible. The models, by the way, were Genesis P. Orridge and his girlfriend Cosey Fanni Tutti, both later of the band Throbbing Gristle.

Dance Your Life Away.mp3

~~~~~
(Can You Go a Little Deeper is an irregularly recurring feature here wherein I resurrect old favorites, lost songs, and other things you maybe haven’t heard in a while)

Music from My Mailbox and Other Important News

2010-06-13T12:02:00.007-04:00

OK. Important things going on, so please don’t skip the first part of this post. I have slightly less than a month left on my web host. When that time is over, I am not planning to renew. What that means to you is, in all likelihood, I will bring this blog to an end. I’ve learned to never say never, but I’d say there is about a 99.9% chance Licorice Pizza will cease operations in about a month.

The reason for this decision is two-fold: First, while Dreamhost is an excellent host, I do pay quite a bit for that service. Quite frankly, I have never donated to anyone else’s blog fund and don’t feel you need to contribute to mine. This is something I do for fun and if you’re going to pay for my fun, well, there are other things you can buy me. But understand it’s not just about the cost of the host, which brings me to my second point:

I have been at this for four years and my interest has waned a bit, although I still go on posting jags once in a while (see last month). I can tell by the quality of some of the posts I’ve made recently that I’m forcing them and I don’t want to continue doing that.

Although this post has been on my mind for some time, it makes me a bit sad to actually write it. I may at some point decide I miss doing this and I’ll start up again. In the meantime, I assume that once my host expires, so does access to anything on that host. I encourage you to look back over the past couple of years for anything you wanted to hear but put off listening to. If you find something that is no longer available, drop me a note and I’ll do my best to re-up it.

I’ve started a Tumblr page, in case I feel like there’s something I need to say. You can up music on those pages, but you can’t share it, which is a disadvantage of sorts. Feel free to check it out if you care to; there’s not much there now but I may get more active with it in the future.

As always, follow the links for more information....

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Indie / Alternative
From: Vermont, USA
Band MySpace
Things I Never Needed (acoustic).mp3

Soft Tags
Indie / Shoegaze
From: Portland, Ore.
Band MySpace
The Pine Barrens.mp3

22-20s
Alternative
From: United Kingdom
Band MySpace
Latest Heartbreak.mp3

Ashton Nyte
Alternative / Folk / Indie
From: Johannesburg, South Africa
Band MySpace
Jennifer.mp3

Horrorfall
Electronica / Industrial / Shoegaze
From: Los Angeles, Calif.
Band MySpace
Necroplasm Fix.mp3

Nada Surf
Rock / Indie / Pop
From: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Band MySpace
Electrocution.mp3

The Constellations
Psychedelic / Ghettotech / Showtunes
From: Atlanta, Ga.
Band MySpace
Setback.mp3

Kyp Malone (TV on the Radio)
Acoustic / Indie
From: United States
Band MySpace
Frog Went a-Courtin’.mp3

Nadia Kazmi
Pop / Rock / Soul
From: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Band MySpace
Mother.mp3

Burnt Ones
Minimalist / Psychedelic / Thrash
From: Indianapolis, Ind.
Band MySpace
Gonna Listen to T. Rex (All Night Long).mp3

The Public Good
Rock / Powerpop / Indie
From: Washington, D.C.
Band MySpace
My Pre-existing Conditions.mp3

~~~~~
(pictures, top-to-bottom: Grace Potter, Horrorfall, Nadia Kazmi)

Hendrix in Miami(!?!): live 1968

2010-06-12T10:51:00.004-04:00

Here’s what I like about the Internet: Last night I read something about the 1968 Miami Pop Festival (more about what I read in a sec), and within the half hour I had located a recording of Jimi Hendrix’s appearance and was listening to it. Not all that long ago, I probably never would even have heard about the festival, let alone been able to so quickly find a recording from one of the artists playing there.

Some quick background info on the Miami Pop Festival, then I’m going to link you to the site that got this whole post going. “Woodstock was born at Miami Pop” is the retrospective tagline attached to the event. Michael Lang, who would go on to be one of the brains behind Woodstock, was the Miami event promoter.

The two-day festival took place May 18 and 19 at the Gulfstream Park horse racing track in Hallandale Beach, which is actually just north of Miami. Featured acts included Hendrix, Steppenwolf, the Mothers of Invention, and Blue Cheer. The weather was typical Miami for that time of year – rain, rain, and more rain. Hendrix’s “Rainy Day, Dream Away” was supposedly written in response to the rain cancellation of the Sunday show. Rock legend also has it that rain and technical difficulties plagued Hendrix’s short set and resulted in Jimi tossing his guitar into the audience, only to be claimed by Frank Zappa.

The article I read was posted yesterday on a site called REV Miami. The site basically covers music, art, and similar happenings from around this area. One of the site’s creators, Ric Delgado, managed to land an interview with Ken Davidoff, a rock photog of some renown. The Miami Pop Festival the first major event Davidoff covered, and he shared his memories of that with REV Miami, including a run in with Hendrix: “My first night time shot was a beautiful full length pic of Jimi in these blue crushed velvet pants that practically glowed,” Davidoff said. “For the second shot I moved closer. As the strobe went off for the second time, I was stunned to hear Jimi stop, look directly at me, and say, ‘There will be no more flash photography.’”

The rest of the interview, including Davidoff’s memories of shooting other rock greats and some outstanding examples of his work, can all be found at the REV Miami Website. I cannot encourage you enough to go there when you’re finished here.

This is a soundboard recording of very good quality and, as far as I know, has never been officially released, although obviously it’s been bootlegged aplenty.

Intro.mp3
Foxy Lady.mp3
Fire.mp3
Hear My Train a Comin’.mp3
Purple Haze.mp3
Outro.mp3

Hank III's Rebel is Still Within

2010-06-10T07:00:00.000-04:00

I toss out the phrase “not reinventing the wheel” pretty freely here. I don’t mean nothing by it; all I’m saying is that a band has found something that works for them and their fans and they stick with it. You don’t want to pick up, say, a Metallica record only to find out they’ve decided to have a try at some Lady Gaga sounds. No, you sure don’t.

Take it as an endorsement, then, when I tell you Hank III ain’t reinventing nothing on Rebel Within, his new album. “I’m drunk (again), and stoned (again), let’s fuck (again) ‘til dawn (again),” goes the title track. So it should come as no surprise to fans that III is still drifting, stoned, lonesome, and everything else he’s been for the past decade.

As someone said on the Hank III message board: “I think he's gonna do whatever the fuck he wants to anyway...no matter how many people pick it apart.” So if you haven’t liked his previous albums, you won’t like this one. But if you, like me, are a fan, then you’re going to want to get yourself a copy of Rebel Within.

Rebel Within.mp3

Motley Crue: Live 1982

2010-06-07T07:00:00.000-04:00

I was at a friend’s house this weekend when he put on a DVD of some stuff he had recorded from a TV channel called Palladia. Now, I’ve got low-end cable, so of course I’d never heard of the channel. What it is, is “a 1080i high definition music television network that shows music-related content from its owner, MTV Networks.” In layman’s terms, we watched a couple of cool-ass concerts.

The channel broadcasts a lot of the stuff that MTV and VH1 used to, but they also have what looks like a fair amount of original and live performance content, such as a Lily Allen concert playing this week. Palladia appears to be available mostly via satellite TV providers, but after some searching, I found that iTunes makes some of the station’s programming available for streaming or purchase.

How does this all relate to what we’re doing here today? One of the concerts we watched was a Motley Crue show from last year. During the show we were talking about all the serious shit Motley Crue has done during their nearly 30-year career; from Vince Neil’s car crash that killed Razzle from Hanoi Rocks to filming anti-drug commercials while wasted off their asses. These guys were the epitome of out-of-control rock ‘n’ rollers. Presumably they’ve cleaned up a bit, but they can still bring a sleazy rock show complete with strippers and a crowd of breast-baring women. Musically the band sounded as good as they ever have, with Vince Neil’s voice still standing up to the hair metal falsettos of the Crue’s first album.

I went back and forth on whether to post an old or new Motley Crue show. In the end I went with the former because I’ve had this on my drive forever. It was recorded Nov. 19, 1982, at Perkin’s Palace in Los Angeles and originally broadcast on the "mighty MET."

Take Me to the Top.mp3
Looks That Kill.mp3
Public Enemy #1.mp3
Red Hot.mp3
Starry Eyes.mp3
Piece of Your Action.mp3
Shout at the Devil.mp3
Merry-Go-Round.mp3
Running Wild in the Night.mp3
Hotter than Hell.mp3
Live Wire.mp3

OST OCD: Colors

2010-06-01T21:35:00.005-04:00

If you’ll do me the favor of thinking back a couple of weeks, you’ll recollect I posted up a remixed cover version of Ice-T’s classic “Colors.” At that time I mentioned I would consider a post of the original if I still had the soundtrack. Well, friends, guess what?

This is actually sort of a relevant time to post from this soundtrack, with the death last week of Dennis Hopper. Hopper, in case you’ve forgotten, directed the 1988 flick, which starred Robert Duvall and Sean Penn.

Your basic plot summary, from IMDB:

Colors stars Robert Duvall and Sean Penn as partners on the LAPD’s gang crime division. Duvall had hoped to spend more time with his family, but he's pulled back into active service because of a step-up in gang activity. He makes no secret of his contempt for his novice partner Penn, but eventually comes to rely on the younger man as a valuable street contact. The central crisis is the battle for supremacy between the Crips and the Bloods, with every effort to call a truce stymied by the gang members themselves and by undue police intervention.

The soundtrack itself did pretty well, chart-wise. It went as high as number 31 on the Billboard charts, and helped launch the career of the future Detective “Fin” Tutuola. Before Colors, Ice-T was doing OK, releasing 12-inch singles and the moderately successful Rhyme Pays. But it would be “Colors” that put Ice-T on the map as a “gangsta rapper” as well as a commentator on that lifestyle. From that point, Ice’s lyrics would become sharper and more incisive, putting him in the role as “OG” of west coast rap.

Along with “Colors,” I’ve also got for you the classic Cold Cut remix of Eric B. & Rakim’s “Paid in Full,” another old-school, not-to-be-missed hip hop track.

Colors.mp3
Paid in Full - 7 Minutes of Madness (The Cold Cut remix).mp3

Music from My Mailbox

2010-05-30T13:11:00.005-04:00

This month has probably been the most prolific month for me since I’ve started this blog. I’ve blasted out 20 posts (21 counting this one) and cleared out my mailbox three times. By my own low standards, that’s amazing. I think I deserve a vacation.

Items of note for you to note: Amanda Zelina makes a third appearance on these hallowed pages. This go ‘round, she has released an album of gritty blues under the name The Coppertone. It’s very much in the vein of the Dead Weather. I’ve liked everything I’ve heard from Amanda and this is no different.

When I opened the e-mail from These Guys and read all the typical raves, “These Guys are the second coming, blah, blah, blah,” I almost hit delete and just moved on. Instead, something made me click the link to watch the video for “Pete’s Sweet Sixteen.” It is just auto-tuned, cross-dressing hilarity: “You’re like a sister to us, bro.” I can’t let you miss out on this.

In a similar vein are the Deli Boys, whose indictment of Sex & the City culture is neatly wrapped up in “P.R. Girls.”

And if you’re tuning in for some regular ol’ rock ‘n’ roll, try Shellshag, The Enthusiasts, or Tomorrow’s Tulips. You know I ain’t gonna steer ya wrong.

As always, follow the links for more information.

The Coppertone
Blues / Rock / Soul
From: Ontario, Canada
Band MySpace
Nighttime Wishes.mp3

Thought
Rock / 2-Step / Funk
From: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Band MySpace
Echka (I Like to Party).mp3

Shellshag
Punk / Rock
From: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Band MySpace
Crashing Rockets.mp3

PackFM
Hip-Hop / Rap
From: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Band MySpace
I F*cking Hate Rappers.mp3

These Guys
Rock / Comedy / Grunge
From: Los Angeles, Calif.
Band Website
Pete’s Sweet Sixteen.mp3

The Enthusiasts
Garage / Blues / Pop
From: Ardsley, N.Y.
Band MySpace
In the City.mp3

Hot Hot Heat
Indie / Minimalist / Showtunes
From: Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Band MySpace
Zero Results.mp3

Moving Castles
Indie / Rock / Progressive
From: Tyler, Texas
Band MySpace
Wives (You’re Near Me Always).mp3

The Deli Boys
Electro / Crunk / Comedy
From: New York, N.Y.
Band MySpace
P.R. Girls.mp3

Thank God
Punk / Experimental / Jam Band
From: Columbia, Atlanta, Charleston
Band MySpace
Ice Age.mp3

Monarques
Pop
From: Portland, Ore.
Band MySpace
Angel Eyes.mp3

Tomorrow’s Tulips
Minimalist / Pop / Shoegaze
From: Costa Mesa, Calif.
Band Myspace
Eternally Teenage.mp3

~~~~~
Pictures, top-to-bottom: The Coppertone, These Guys, The Deli Boys

R.I.P. Dennis Hopper, Gary Coleman, and Art Linkletter

2010-05-29T18:30:00.006-04:00

It’s one of those weird coincidences that celebrity deaths seem to come in threes. Last year Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Ed McMahon passed within two days of each other – Michael and Farrah on the same day. Now, over the past four days, we’ve lost Art Linkletter, Gary Coleman, and, today, Dennis Hopper.

Hopper, 74, died of prostate cancer; Coleman, 42, after suffering an intracranial hemorrhage; no specific cause has been given for Linkletter, who was 97 years old.

The idea that death comes is threes is an old superstition, extending to the idea that death in a family or community comes in threes and that bad luck in general comes in threes. A book titled “How Did It Begin” explains that the superstition of three may have started with British troops in the Boer War who thought it bad luck to light three cigarettes from one match.

Some miscellaneous thoughts on the latest three stars:

Inverting a famous line of dialogue spoken by Peter Fonda in “Easy Rider,” Manohla Dargis wrote of Dennis Hopper in The New York Times:

Dennis Hopper – actor, filmmaker, photographer, art collector, world-class burnout, first-rate survivor – never blew it. Unlike the villains and freaks he has played over the decades – the psycho with the mommy complex in “Blue Velvet,” the mad bomber with the grudge in “Speed” – he has made it through the good, the bad and some spectacularly terrible times. He rode out the golden age of Hollywood by roaring into a new movie era with “Easy Rider.” He hung out with James Dean, played Elizabeth Taylor’s son, acted for Quentin Tarantino. He has been rich and infamous, lost and found, the next big thing, the last man standing.

~~~~~

Number One on ChartAttack.com’s “Ten Reasons Gary Coleman Was Cool” list:

Coleman made cameo appearances in several music videos going back to the early '90s. Some notable ones include Raging Slab’s “Anywhere But Here,” Kid Rock’s “Cowboy,” and Moby’s “We Are All Made Of Stars.”

~~~~~

Art Linkletter’s biggest successes came mostly before my time, but I’m familiar with “Kids Say the Darndest Things,” the Bill Cosby-hosted TV series based on Linkletter’s books. Linkletter was also a passionate anti-drug activist – his daughter, Diane, jumped to her death in 1969, an act Linkletter said was caused by her LSD usage.

Today’s music is a seeming bizarre mix of things, but trust me when I tell you I will relate it all back to our topic: “Born to Be Wild,” of course, was made famous in Easy Rider; “Cowboy” I explained above. (That video is here); “We Love You; Call Collect” is an appeal to an erring daughter to return home. Linkletter recorded the song with Diane, ironically, just a few months before her death.

Born to Be Wild.mp3 ~ Steppenwolf
Cowboy.mp3 ~ Kid Rock
We Love You; Call Collect.mp3 ~ Art and Diane Linkletter

‘Between the Lines’

2010-05-28T07:00:00.001-04:00

Speaking of unpacking my old flannel shirts, Stone Temple Pilots are back. Again. But unlike previous efforts at reconciliation, they seem for real this time, having released on Tuesday the eponymously named Stone Temple Pilots.

After splitting in 2003, STP reunited five years later for a North American tour. The band continued together in a sort of half-hazard manner, playing festivals, battling their record company, and weathering a Weiland solo album and tour.

Finally getting it all back together last year, STP did a short tour, then went almost immediately into the studio and recorded the tracks that would make up Stone Temple Pilots. The new songs have the feel of a classic STP album, from the grungy, hippy feel of the opening track, “Between the Lines,” to the oddball closing track, “Samba Nova.” In between is the grunge/pop/hook-filled-whatever-it-is you’ve come to love from STP.

One thing that I never even considered as I listened to this disk is that STP was taking a country music approach to the album. Songs such as “Hickory Dichotomy” and “Huckleberry Crumble” “really are a lot of country riffs, but in typical STP fashion we stepped into some other areas,” guitarist Dean DeLeo told MusicRadar.com. “It's amazing how if you were to present [“Huckleberry Crumble’s”] opening riff on a Tele really clean, it's almost a country riff. But if you present it with a Les Paul through a Marshall, it takes on this whole different thing.”

STP resume their current tour June 5 in Irvine, Calif. For more tour information, etc., check out their Website. What? No Florida dates? lol

This is a live version of “Between the Lines,” the first single and song one on side one of Stone Temple Pilots. It was included as a bonus track on the version of the CD I got.

Between the Lines (live).mp3

‘If You Want Some True Lovin’, Make Sure Her Eyes Are Brown’

2010-05-27T07:00:00.000-04:00

Even if you’ve never heard it, there’s something instantly familiar about the Swingin’ Neckbreakers’ “Brown-Eyed Girl.” Maybe it’s the sludgy riffing, maybe it’s the heavy garage sound, maybe it’s just that it kicks so much ass it sounds like something you must have heard before.

Actually, if you’re tuned in to your rock history, you’ll know the Neckbreakers’ “Brown-Eyed Girl” is a cover of the closest thing to a hit John Fogerty’s pre-CCR band, the Golliwogs, ever had. (On a side note, and aptly enough, the Golliwogs’ song charted highest here in Miami.)

As far as the Swingin’ Neckbreakers’ version, I had no idea until recently it had been around since their second album, 1995’s Shake Break. When the Neckbreakers originally released that disk, they were just coming off a tour behind their debut, Live for Buzz. Returning home after the European leg, they went straight into the studio. Still riding the momentum from the successful tour, they blasted out an album showing how far the band had come in two years. All Music Guide described Shake Break as “a straightforward brand of rock ‘n’ raunch that critics hate but nonetheless resonates perfectly with the average Joe who just wants to shake it down.”

This version of “Brown-Eyed Girl” is a perfect example of the Swingin’ Neckbreakers taking in their classic heritage, cranking the volume until the speakers crack, then spitting it back at you.

Brown-Eyed Girl.mp3

Time to Get Out the Flannel

2010-05-26T07:00:00.000-04:00

Soundgarden’s reuniting and the Melvins are releasing their 20th album next week. It’s starting to look like a good thing I didn’t throw out all of my old flannel shirts.

I just got an email last night announcing the June 1 release of The Bride Screamed Murder. Fortuitously, “The Water Glass,” which will be the first single from the upcoming disk, accompanied the message.

A mostly instrumental track, “The Water Glass” blasts right at you with serious riffage and heavy drums. About halfway through it takes a turn for the weird as the band breaks into a military marching cadence that sounds like maybe Adam Ant had decided to grunge it up a bit. It's twisted, but it has grown on me the more I've listened to it.

The Melvins are hitting the road in support of The Bride Screamed Murder, kicking off their tour June 1 in San Diego, Calif. Surprisingly */sarcasm*, I see no Florida dates on their schedule. To see if your city has been included, you can drop by the Melvins’ MySpace page.

The Waterglass.mp3

Jewel’s ‘Needle and the Damage Done’

2010-05-25T07:00:00.000-04:00

I like to – every now and again – throw a curveball at you with something I post. I sure don’t want you getting bored or complacent and thinking you can tune in any ol’ time and just pick up some oddball garage rock or a classic rock ROIO.

Hence today’s post.

I know very little about Jewel. I’ve heard the song that made her famous: “You Were Meant For Me” (ha! Tell me that song’s not in your head right now!); I know she can yodel; and I know she’s really attractive. Beyond that, I dunno....

So it came as a surprise to me to learn that she regularly performs the Neil Young classic “The Needle and the Damage Done” when she plays live. I found out about this yesterday, when Jewel was on the Howard Stern show. At Howard’s request she played her version of the song he said “wrecks him every time.”

Without a doubt Jewel brings something different to her version of “Needle.” She doesn’t have the intimate feeling of loss that drove Young to write the song, but she struggled a lot on her way to where she is and I have no problem with her putting her own emotions to such a heavy song.

To my knowledge, although Jewel regularly performs “The Needle and the Damage Done” live, it has never been officially released. The track here is a YouTube rip – it is not from the Stern show, btw; I don’t know where it was recorded. On a quality note, I’ve found some new software that pulls stuff from videos at a higher bit rate, bringing a slightly better sound than previous YouTube stuff I’ve posted.

The Needle and the Damage Done (Neil Young cover).mp3

Nudedragons Live in Seattle, pt. 2

2010-05-24T07:00:00.000-04:00

Alright, then. As promised, part two of the Nudedragons April 16 set at the Showbox Theater in Seattle. This half includes an extended version of “Slaves and Bulldozers” as well as a cover of the Doors’ “Waiting for the Sun” to wrap up the show.

Beyond their August appearance at Lollapalooza, Soundgarden have no definite tour plans. According to a Billboard article the band is considering offers to appear at as-yet-undetermined U.S. and European festivals. However, the article continues, “a tour routing is still a work in progress, due to [drummer Matt] Cameron's prior commitments to play with Pearl Jam in the spring and summer.”

Nothing to Say.mp3
Loud Love.mp3
Blow Up the Outside World.mp3
Pretty Noose.mp3
Outshined.mp3
Slaves and Bulldozers.mp3
Encore:
Get On the Snake.mp3
Big Dumb Sex.mp3
Waiting for the Sun (Doors cover).mp3

Remember I mentioned yesterday that the zip sets were divided differently than the posted sets. Anyway, the second part is right here.

Nudedragons Live in Seattle, pt. 1

2010-05-23T10:08:00.003-04:00

Oops!

Someone sent me this brand new Soundgarden recording last week and it’s been sitting on my desktop since, where I almost forgot to post it.

When Soundgarden split up in 1997, it seemed pretty unlikely Seattle’s godfathers of grunge would ever reunite. “I haven't received any phone calls from anyone in Soundgarden about a reunion since we broke up, nor have I called anyone,” Chris Cornell said in 2007 interview with MTV News. “We were happy with how it ended. There was no unfinished business.”

Before and since, various other members of Soundgarden had also nixed the possibility of a reunion. However, in March 2009, Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron, and Ben Shepherd teamed with Tad Doyle (of Tad fame) to perform a handful of Soundgarden songs at a Tom Morello show. Then in October, Cornell joined his three former bandmates at a Pearl Jam show, where they played together on “Hunger Strike.”

Then came a New Year’s Day tweet from Cornell: “The 12-year break is over and school is back in session. Sign up now. Knights of the Soundtable ride again!” Since, the band has been in a flurry, rehearsing for their upcoming headlining slot at Lollapalooza, and possible U.K. festivals.

On April 16, the band played what Cornell called “a rehearsal, really” for about 1000 fans at the Showbox in Seattle. The show was billed under the pseudonym “Nudedragons,” an anagram of Soundgarden. I have no idea of the original source for this, but it sounds like an audience recording. On a scale of 1-5, I’d put the sound quality at about 3-3.5. The band sounds great and you might even forget Chris Cornell put out an album like Scream.

Since there are 19 tracks, I’m going to split this over two posts and of course I’ll zip up each post for your shopping convenience. (Because of RapidShare upload limits, the two zip files are going to be split differently than the two posts – just be sure to tune in tomorrow and you’ll get everything.)

Intro.mp3
Spoonman.mp3
Gun.mp3
Searching With My Good Eye Closed.mp3
Rusty Cage.mp3
Beyond the Wheel.mp3
Flower.mp3
Ugly Truth.mp3
Fell On Black Days.mp3
Hunted Down.mp3

Unzip part one here.

A Historical Recreation?

2010-05-22T18:25:00.006-04:00

I went yesterday and bought a copy of the newly reissued Exile on Main Street. Even though I have a couple CDs of outtakes from the Exile sessions, I wanted to hear how those tracks cleaned up.

Those of you familiar with the Exile session bootlegs know that many of the tracks are either basic, rough tracks or just instrumentals. For the re-release Jagger added vocals to some tracks. He mentioned to Larry King (part one of the interview is here) that he had to write lyrics for a couple of the songs, but didn’t say which ones.

While most of the “new” songs sound like they fit perfectly with the original material, there are a couple where Mick’s voice sounds, as Charlie Watts told Rolling Stone, “like it was recorded yesterday.” The track “Plundered My Soul,” for example, sounds like it could just as easily have came from A Bigger Bang.

No one has been secretive about the Stones enhancing these tracks for the Exile re-release. Engineer Bob Clearmountain told Rolling Stone he electronically “tweaked” Jagger’s voice to make it sound more like it had four decades ago. Jagger even got Mick Taylor to participate in the effort.

I like that some of the leftovers from the Exile sessions are finally seeing commercial release. I’m just not sure if I like that they’ve basically been recreated. Like when I used to go see a historical building and find out the only thing original is a scrap of wallpaper encased behind glass and hanging on the wall of a “historically accurate” recreation. These 10 “new” tracks are at least as good as anything the Stones have released recently, but I do get the feeling I’m listening to a historic recreation, rather than to tracks that have just been cleaned up for release.

The song I have today comes in two versions, which should pretty much sum up what I just said: The first one, which is titled “I Ain’t Signifying,” is from a boot called I Gave You Diamonds, You Gave Me Disease. It is completely unadorned, starting as a bluesy shuffle, gradually picking up steam until the end, where Mick Taylor steps out front for a solo.

The musically (and grammatically!) cleaned up “I’m Not Signifying” retains the blues, but adds Nicky Hopkins’ piano as well as Mick on harmonica. Taylor takes a slide solo in this version, but it’s pushed back under a layer of horns.

I Ain’t Signifying.mp3
I’m Not Signifying.mp3

‘I’m Crazy ‘bout You Baby, But Baby You’re Crazy’

2010-05-18T07:00:00.001-04:00

Holy shit.

If you guys aren’t yet aware of Nick Curran, I need you to sit up and listen to what I’m about to lay on ya.

Like so much of the newest / oldest / coolest stuff I hear these days, Nick Curran came to my attention via Little Steven’s Underground Garage. As soon as “Baby You Crazy” blasted through my speakers, I was hooked by the guitars, the horns, and the boogie-woogie piano, all of it distorted and all of it sounding like it was 100-percent lifted from 1950’s jump blues via the Cramps via the Ramones with T-Bone Walker sitting in for Johnny. If I didn’t know better, I’d have sworn the song was coming from some crusty half-century-old vinyl.

“Baby You Crazy” – and for that matter, the entirety of Curran’s latest album, Reform School Girls – is just so ridiculously good I don’t even know where to start. It transcends boogie-woogie or rock-a-billy and becomes Little Richard reborn in the body of a 32-year-old white guitar player from Maine (I know Little Richard is still alive, but just stay with me on this). I downloaded Reform School Girls from eMusic and – seriously – this is the first time in I don’t know how long that I listened to a CD, played it again, then played it again. And it’s still in my CD player waiting for another spin.

Just listen to this.

Baby You Crazy.mp3

Ronnie James Dio: 1942 - 2010

2010-05-17T07:00:00.000-04:00

I had no sooner finished yesterday’s post than I went to one of the forums where I hang out and read about the passing of Ronnie James Dio. His death had been mentioned the previous day in the same forum, so I wasn’t sure if this was another rumor or if it were, in fact, true.

Sadly, it was true. His wife, Wendy, posted the following message on the Ronnie James Dio Website:

“Today my heart is broken, Ronnie passed away at 7:45am 16th May. Many, many friends and family were able to say their private good-byes before he peacefully passed away. Ronnie knew how much he was loved by all. We so appreciate the love and support that you have all given us. Please give us a few days of privacy to deal with this terrible loss. Please know he loved you all and his music will live on forever.”

No cause was given in the announcement, but Dio had been suffering from stomach cancer, and recently his band Heaven and Hell canceled its summer tour because of his health.

By way of tribute, I found a couple of tracks spanning Dio’s career. This version of “Man on the Silver Mountain” is an epic, 14-minute version, showcasing Richie Blackmore’s guitar prowess as well as Dio’s vocals. It comes from an album called Rainbow: Live in Munich 1977. The recording is from a show taped for the German TV show Rockpalast, and was heavily bootlegged, eventually seeing commercial release in 2006.

“Neon Knights,” of course comes from Heaven and Hell, Dio’s 1980 debut with Black Sabbath.

The last song, “Rainbow in the Dark,” is from Dio’s classic 1983 album, Holy Diver. In October 2005 he performed the album live in its entirety and, the following year, released the show as the Holy Diver Live album. You can hear the strain in Dio’s 63-year-old voice, but he still delivers a performance the youngsters can only hope to match.

Throw some metal today in memory of one of metal’s greatest front men, Ronnie James Dio.

Man on the Silver Mountain (live).mp3
Neon Knights.mp3
Rainbow in the Dark (live).mp3

Music from My Mailbox

2010-05-16T18:02:00.009-04:00

This seriously has to be one of the largest mailbox dumps I’ve ever done. Sixteen songs – and that’s after I deleted a good number I didn’t want to post. What’s funny is I started off thinking this was going to be an unusually small post because I had to go through about 20 e-mails before I ran across something I liked and wanted to post.

Like always, I was happy see big names like the Dead Weather and MIA reaching out to bloggers to help promote their respective albums. I’ve seen both of these tracks posted on other blogs the last few days, so I apologize I’m a little slow getting them to you.

Besides the Dead Weather, of course, some other tracks you should pay particular attention to: The Ex-Girlfriend’s Club and Best Coast both fit loosely into the garage / psycho-fuzz genres I like and can recommend.

A lot of bands sending out music seem to be shooting for summertime pop-hit type of stuff. Sometimes that can come across like they’re trying too hard, but the couple I picked here – The Like and Sonny and the Sunsets – are bearable, if not downright decent. The Like also went for a purposefully lo-fi sound, recording their album direct to analogue tape.

Finally, I usually shy away from remixes, but I went with this remixed cover of Ice T’s “Colors,” from the movie of the same name. I was just talking with someone the other day about the 1988 flick, a classic directed by Dennis Hopper and starring Robert Duvall and Sean Penn. If I still have the soundtrack, I may get that up as an OST OCD post soon.

Like always, follow the links for more info.

The Dead Weather
Rock / Blues / Gothic
From: Nashville, Tenn.
Band MySpace
Die By the Drop.mp3

Sonny and the Sunsets
Indie / Beach-Pop
From: San Francisco, Calif.
Band MySpace
Too Young To Burn.mp3

Pearly Gate Music
Tropical / Concrete
From: Seattle, Wash.
Band MySpace
Big Escape.mp3

MIA
Other
From: London & Southeast U.K.
Band MySpace
XXXO.mp3

Ganglians
Showtunes / Celtic / Roots Music
From: Sacramento, Calif.
Band MySpace
My House.mp3

Pete Covington
Alternative / Psychedelic / Pop
From: New South Wales, Australia
Band MySpace
Balloons.mp3

The Like
Pop / Garage
From: Los Angeles, Calif.
Band MySpace
Fair Game.mp3

Sleigh Bells
Electronic / Rock
From: Brooklyn, N.Y. & Florida
Band MySpace
Infinity Guitars.mp3

The Ex-Girlfriends Club
Garage / Rock / Glam
From: Portland, Ore.
Band MySpace
Your Prescription.mp3

Lana Del Ray
Glam / Surf / Hawaiian
From: New York, N.Y.
Band MySpace
Diet Mtn. Dew (demo).mp3

Yelawolf
Hip Hop / Ghettotech / Southern Rock
From: Gadsden, Ala.
Band MySpace
Good to Go (ft. Bun B).mp3

DJ Troublemaker / King Fantastic
Punk / Funk / Crunk
From: Los Angeles, Calif.
Band MySpace
Colors (Ice T cover).mp3

Best Coast
Surf / Pop / Gospel
From: Los Angeles, Calif.
Band MySpace
Far Away.mp3

Katelyn Dawn
Indie / Pop / Acoustic
From: Toronto, Canada
Band MySpace
Puzzle Pieces.mp3

Luna is Honey
Pop / Rock / R&B
From: Los Angeles, Calif.
Band MySpace
Who Wouldn’t.mp3

Lisa Jaeggi
Soul / Folk / Freestyle
From: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Band MySpace
Oh Lady You Shot Me!.mp3
~~~~~

(pictures, top-to-bottom: Dead Weather, MIA, The Like, Lana Del Ray, Best Coast)

Armed Forces Day

2010-05-15T18:25:00.002-04:00

I think it’s pretty cool that there’s a day set aside each year just to recognize what is arguably Elvis Costello’s greatest album.

Oh c’mon! I’m just kidding. I served my time in the U.S. military and I know what Armed Forces Day is. It’s probably too late in the day for most of you to run out and do anything to mark the occasion, but just take a sec this evening and appreciate the men and women who are serving in the Armed Forces.

Some background, in case you don’t know: On Aug. 31, 1949, Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson announced the creation of an Armed Forces Day to replace separate Army, Navy, and Air Force Days. The single-day celebration stemmed from the unification of the Armed Forces under one department – the Department of Defense.

“This is the day on which we have the welcome opportunity to pay special tribute to the men and women of the Armed Forces ... to all the individuals who are in the service of their country all over the world,” wrote the New York Times in a 1952 article. “Armed Forces Day won't be a matter of parades and receptions for a good many of them. They will all be in line of duty and some of them may give their lives in that duty.”

But I do have a song from Elvis Costello’s 1979 Armed Forces album. Or actually it’s a track that was originally included on a bonus 45 that came with the vinyl release, then added onto the CD re-release.

Watching the Detectives (live).mp3

Frank Frazetta: 1928 - 2010

2010-05-11T19:28:00.002-04:00

I heard this morning about the death yesterday of artist Frank Frazetta. If you’re a comic book aficionado, you might know Frazetta from his work in that field. I learned about him from seeing his art on the cover of Conan the Barbarian paperbacks, then later, on the cover of Molly Hatchet albums.

As an aspiring artist, I was intrigued by not just the detail in Frazetta’s work, but the figures he portrayed: Vikings, warriors, barbarians – the lot of them seemingly coming from post-apocalyptic times despite their own ancientness. It was not just what he drew, but the way he drew it that I wanted to emulate.

I’ve moved on from my aspirations, but I see Frank Frazetta’s influence in any number of contemporary artists, particularly in the science fiction / fantasy genres. Artists such as Boris Vallejo, who has also done illustrations for Conan novels; and Ken Kelly, who, along with Conan art, did the covers for Kiss’ Destroyer and Love Gun albums, are keeping alive Frazetta’s larger-than-life fantasy ideals.

For more information about Frank Frazetta’s life and career, you can click over to the N.Y. Times obit, or to Frazetta’s Wiki page.

Tonight’s music has really nothing to do with Frank Frazetta other than it was his painting “The Death Dealer” that graced the cover of Molly Hatchet’s 1978 debut disk. The Death Dealer is arguably one of Frazetta’s most well known pieces, spawning all manner of merchandising, including action figures, novels, and comic books. But for me it’s always the cover of Molly Hatchet and the door that opened up a new world of art to me.

Bounty Hunter.mp3

AC/DC - Live on BBC, 1976

2010-05-10T07:00:00.000-04:00

All right, all right – settle down. I know that you, my faithful readers, get tired of me posting music only I find interesting. But how fun would things here be if all I ever posted was Zeppelin boots?

In appreciation of your patience, I found an old AC/DC live recording for you; something originally broadcast by the BBC back on July 8, 1976. The location was the Paris Theatre in London, which the Beeb used to use for live performances. AC/DC were on their first tour of the U.K., the “Lock Up Your Daughters” tour.

The sound quality here is very good. The performance of the band itself, though, is an interesting contrast to the AC/DC that would appear a couple of years later on the If You Want Blood live album. The audience here is sedate, almost polite, and the band itself rips through the five songs mostly staying faithful to the album sound and with little of the snarl of later performances. You’d think they were trying to make a good impression or something.

A couple of the tracks performed at this show, “Soul Stripper” and “Baby, Please Don’t Go” were released on AC/DC’s debut Australian album, but didn’t show up here in the States until the 1984 ’74 Jailbreak. Also be warned that you’re going to hear Pete Drummond chat between each of the songs.

Pete Drummond Introduction.mp3
Live Wire.mp3
It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll).mp3
Soul Stripper.mp3
High Voltage.mp3
Baby, Please Don’t Go.mp3

Free Cigarettes for Drunken Minors

2010-05-09T10:24:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, while I was looking for info about the Living Deadbeats, I noticed one of their MySpace “friends” was a fellow Vancouver-based band called Free Cigarettes for Drunken Minors. I’ve mentioned before that I’m a sucker for a cool band name, so I had to see what was going on there.

What I found was guitarist Kara Beaner and banjo player Dirty Swagger, who together play what they call a “rotten brand of country punk.” They’ve also described themselves as “the Eurythmics of the drunk rawk scene.”

What you get is an acoustic duo that has been together since the mid-90’s, entertaining the masses with tastefully twangy tunes such as “Hard Luck Motherfucker,” “Whiskey Demons,” and today’s selection, “Hangover.”

You can also get more information about Free Cigarettes for Drunken Minors from their MySpace page. (Taken out of context, that sentence sounds like either the worst or the funniest PSA ever.)

Hangover.mp3

Do the Living Deadbeat

2010-05-08T11:37:00.002-04:00

When you think of a band called the Living Deadbeats, you might expect howling psychobilly. What you get, though, is distorted guitars and cranked up garage rock.

Pete Fiend, the Living Deadbeats drummer, dropped me a note a while ago, inviting me to check out their music. I liked it a lot and told him so, and he was kind enough to send me a copy of the band’s self-titled EP. The four-track disk simply oozes classic influence: a sort of violent collision between Detroit and late 70’s era L.A. punk. Singer Lindsay Kasting has a little of that Exene Cervenka thing going on; the rest of the band picks up somewhere between the Stooges and the Detroit Cobras. These comparisons are especially apt when you listen to the live tracks posted on the band’s MySpace page.

There’s scant biographical info on the Living Deadbeats. And other than a show tonight at Chateau Noir in Vancouver, I can’t give you any other dates. All I can suggest is that you check out their music and keep your ears open for much more from this band.

The Living Deadbeats (theme).mp3

‘Five Years, My Brain Hurts A Lot’

2010-05-07T07:00:00.000-04:00

Today marks a dubious sort of anniversary: It was five years ago I pulled into Miami to take up permanent residence. While for some this city is dream vacation destination, the reality of living here can be a whole different animal.

I don’t want to get off into the various reasons I dislike living here; just know that I do. Why stay, you may reasonably ask. Well, I have a job and in this economy that’s as good a reason as any. And as long as that continues to be true, I’ll continue to suck it up and live in Miami.

The lyrics of this Bowie song, the opening track from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars aren’t all true to my situation, but some of them are. Or maybe the song’s theme of pending destruction fits. Either way, it’s still a cool song.

Five Years.mp3

‘This Song Makes The Car Look That Much More Badass’

2010-05-05T21:00:00.004-04:00

I may have mentioned once or twice my distaste for bands who sell their music for television commercials and/or theme songs. I’ve long held the belief that those songs are sacred and should be treated as such. But in a perverse twist of logic, I like when I hear something new and appealing, no matter the source.

Such is the case with the song “Light of the Morning,” which is currently in play on advertisements for the 2011 Ford Mustang. The first time I heard “I wanna see you in the morning...” and the power chord-filled, start-stop, classic rock crunch, I no longer cared about the Mustang (which I’ve always found uncomfortable to drive anyway) but I had to know where the music was coming from.

With some crafty googling, I soon found out the band is Band of Skulls, a fairly new quartet from London. “Light of the Morning” comes from their debut Baby Darling Doll Face Honey, which they released in March last year. Although it got generally positive reviews, the album didn’t exactly fly off the shelves, not even making the British charts until this past February.

“Light of the Morning” hasn’t been officially released as a single, but in an era where government radio doesn’t play unproven artists, this commercial may be the break Band of Skulls needs.

In light of my past comments, “Light of the Morning” has also caused me to rethink my whole hatin’-on-songs-in-commercials thing. There’s always the possibility that a 13-year-old somewhere is turning on an episode of CSI, hearing the theme music and thinking, This band is fucking amazing; who is it?

Light of the Morning.mp3

~~~~~
(note: the title quote is from a comment on the Mustang commerical’s YouTube page.)

‘Hustle and Cuss’

2010-05-04T20:28:00.004-04:00

I think the Dead Weather’s Horehound was one of last year’s underrated releases. As far as Jack White projects go, anyway. He put himself out of the spotlight and managed to put together a band that turned in a great gothic blues project. At the right time of night and in the right frame of mind, the album remains one of my go-to disks.

There hasn’t been much news lately about the Dead Weather, so I was surprised to hear that they have a new disk, Sea of Cowards, due out later this month (May 11, here in the U.S.). And I was happily surprised that the news of this upcoming album was accompanied by an early release.

“Hustle and Cuss” stays true to the ethic of the Dead Weather with Alison Mosshart’s more grittied-up vocals backed by Jack Lawrence’s jazzed up bass line. This is the second release from Sea of Cowards (“Die by the Drop” was released in late March). Both songs show the group growing in maybe the direction the White Stripes would have taken as a four- rather than two-piece, giving Jack White room to expand the garage blues that are his hallmark.

It might be time to stop thinking of the Dead Weather as Jack White’s other, other band and start thinking of them as the band he has grown into.

Hustle and Cuss.mp3

Music from My Mailbox

2010-05-03T21:06:00.008-04:00

There is, if I say so myself, some pretty high-power stuff in this purge of my mailbox. Big names like Julian Casablancas, MIA, and Atari Teenage Riot don’t usually go to the blogs to promote their wares. I like it.

Speaking of MIA, “Born Free” is sort of unusual territory for this blog. I liked “Paper Planes” – the mix of the Clash, gunfire, cash registers, and MIA’s original style made it interesting and new. “Born Free” continues in a similar vein with an intermingling of styles – rock, hip-hop, etc. Also, the video, if you haven’t seen that, is worth your time. I’m sure her intention is some deeper message, but it’s like a more violent version of the South Park “Gingers” episodes. You can see it on her MySpace.

Some other key tracks: Semi Precious Weapons seem to be some sort of mad mash up of Hanoi Rocks and Lady Gaga. Whether these guys can extend the act into a career remains to be seen, but “Magnetic Baby” is a glam-ish song that isn’t going to make your head hurt.

Scott Morgan is a Detroit rock legend whose band The Rationals had the MC5 open for them and almost landed a young Iggy Pop as their drummer. He also formed Sonic’s Rendezvous with Fred “Sonic” Smith and Scott Asheton. “Fallin’ For You” continues the legend with a nice slice of Motown rock ‘n’ soul.

And I gotta show a little local love – AluKarD come from here in Miami. Don’t let the “rock / hip-hop” tags fool you: There’s no Limp Bizkit going on here.

As always, follow the links for more information.

AluKarD
Rock / Alternative / Hip Hop
From: Miami, Fla.
Band MySpace
44 Kaliber Love Letter.mp3

Julian Casablancas
Rock / Alternative
From: New York, N.Y.
Band MySpace
Old Hollywood (live).mp3

MIA
Other
From: London & Southeast U.K.
Band MySpace
Born Free (album version).mp3

The Pipettes
Pop / Powerpop / Glam
From: United Kingdom
Band MySpace
Stop the Music (Will Eastman remix).mp3

Semi Precious Weapons
Visual / Garage / Rock
From: Brooklyn, United States
Band MySpace
Magnetic Baby.mp3

DeVotchKa
Indie / Rock
From: United States
Band MySpace
Clockwise Witness (live).mp3

Scott Morgan
Soul / Rock
From: Ann Arbor, Mich.
Band MySpace
Fallin’ For Ya.mp3

Atari Teenage Riot
Electronica / Experimental / Hardcore
From: Berlin, London, Tokyo, New York
Band MySpace
Activate.mp3

The Joy Formidable
Other / Other / Other
From: United Kingdom
Band MySpace
Whirring.mp3

Inside the Black
Rock
From: Hollywood, Calif.
Band MySpace
Adult Movies.mp3

~~~~~
Pictures, top-to-bottom: AluKarD, Semi Precious Weapons, The Joy Formidable

Bad Housewife

2010-04-26T21:33:00.004-04:00

A little less than a couple of months ago – if you’ll recall – I posted about a blues guitarist named Popa Chubby. As almost an afterthought, I also mentioned Galea, who sings on one of the tracks I posted.

After I had heard about and posted about Popa Chubby, I continued investigating and tracked down some music by the lovely Miss Galea. I can’t tell you much about her, other than I learned that – in addition to handling occasional bass and vocal duties for Popa – she is also his wife. And, a few years ago – 2005, to be exact – Galea gathered ‘round the boys, including her husband, and recorded Diary of a Bad Housewife.

Diary is chock-full of country / rockabilly / blues tastiness, much like you’d expect from the bride of Chubby. Galea’s voice reminds me of the old time country singers: Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, that sort of style. There is no Carrie Underwood here.

Alongside her original material, Galea picked a range of covers, which show off her range of influences: Willie Dixon, Robert Johnson, and Willy DeVille are just a couple of the artists to whom tribute gets paid. One interesting cover is “Brand New Key,” the early 70s hit by pop singer Melanie. Galea countries it up and the song is titled “Combine Harvester (Brand New Key)” after a parody by British country act The Wurzels (“I’ve got a brand new combine harvester...”), but she sticks with Melanie’s original lyrics. Anyway, it’s an interesting take on a song I haven’t heard in a long time. “Truck Drivin’ Man” is one of Galea’s original songs that I think will show you what she’s all about.

Brand New Key (Combine Harvester).mp3
Truck Drivin’ Man.mp3

Doing the Cabo Wabo

2010-04-22T20:53:00.006-04:00

Fifteen or so years ago, when I was still married, the ex and I took a weeklong trip to Cabo San Lucas. Coming from the deserts of Southern California, we were ill-equipped to handle the brutal humidity we found there. But the subsequent sweatfest was only the beginning of the fun.

A couple of nights into the trip, we made the obligatory trip to Sammy Hagar’s bar, Cabo Wabo, where mucho drinking ensued, natch. The bar was way crowded and at some point another couple ended up at our table. They seemed decent enough, so we had drinks with them. Then at some point before closing time, they disappeared. When the tab appeared, guess who hadn’t paid? The ex and I were young, drunk, and in love, and decided, fuck this: We threw our share on the table and beat it out the door.

This might seem hard to believe, but in Cabo there’s not much to do at night except drink. So, a couple of nights after the discrepancy with the tab, we found ourselves headed back at Cabo Wabo. You would think that in a town filled with gringo tourists, one would pretty much look like another. No way. Cabo Wabo’s managers and bouncers were on us before we could even sit down.

“You skipped out on your bill,” they said.

“Wtf?” we said.

Our explanation of being stiffed by the other couple seemed to hold no agua with these guys and they promised there would be police involvement if we didn’t pay up.

After a brief conference, we decided it would be in our best interest to pay the tab and consider it a lesson learned. I forked over a credit card, signed as appropriate, and managed to look sufficiently contrite as the manager told us we were not welcome back in his bar.

And that, my friends, is the story of how I was banned for life from Cabo Wabo.

This track comes from Van Halen’s 1993 album, Live: Right Here, Right Now.

You Really Got Me / Cabo Wabo.mp3

Just Say 4/20 - the repost

2010-04-20T07:00:00.000-04:00

This is a repost from 4/20 a couple of years ago. My thinking goes along the following lines:
- I always kinda liked this post;
- I can't be arsed to dig up five or six more songs about weed;
- If you're really celebrating 4/20, you probably don't remember I've posted this before.
Also note that Nirvana's "Marijuana" is likewise known by the name "Moist Vagina."

~~~~~

I’ve been more or less responsible all day, so it’s time to go ahead and roll out (roll up?) some music and celebrate 4/20.

I know a couple of people who are actually taking the day off of work tomorrow and plan on celebrating the day as if it’s some sort of religious holiday. I’m not that dedicated.

In case you don’t know what 4/20 is (and if I know, there’s no reason you shouldn’t know!), High Times magazine can help expand your mind: “420 is not so much a time or place as it is a state of mind. The original story of 420 begins with five fellow students – all of whom assumed the nom de pot ‘Waldo’ – who met after school at the appointed hour to smoke some of California’s finest, and occasionally searched for a hidden pot field they’d heard about in the hills outside town.” Click here for the very informative “History of 4/20” timeline.

For today’s post, I’ve gathered a variety of appropriately themed music; I’m sure there are some classics I’ve, ahem, forgotten. Be safe and know that I am not endorsing any sort of illegal activity.

Smoke Two Joints.mp3 ~ Sublime
Sweet Leaf (live).mp3 ~ Ozzy
30 Days in the Hole.mp3 ~ Humble Pie
Sweet Leaf.mp3 ~ Black Sabbath
Hits from the Bong.mp3 ~ Cypress Hill
Let’s Get High.mp3 ~ Dr. Dre
Marijuana.mp3 ~ Nirvana

Music from My Mailbox

2010-04-18T13:29:00.009-04:00

I just realized that the last time any of you heard from me I was on my way out of town to see BugGiRL. For all any of you know I never made it back. But I did. The BugGiRL show was great – they gave it their all despite the small crowd. If you get a chance, definitely you need to see them live.

I’ve really had a lack of posting inspiration lately, so I thought the best solution would be to hit up the mailbox. It turned out there were a few gems hidden there. Straight away I need to mention Long Island’s Roast Beef Curtains. The band’s name alone is hilarious if you realize what exactly a roast beef curtain is. Besides that, there are the lyrics to “5th Base Girl”: “My fifth-base girl likes Diet Coke and glory holes.” I actually laughed out loud the first time I heard that.

The Burnt Ones wear their Johnny Thunders influence proudly, with reverby, echoey vocals and the almost patented Johnny Thunders lo-fi recording style. As a matter of fact, I like these guys so much I tossed in a bonus track, a cover of Motörhead’s “Damage Case,” which was a special Record Store Day download.

A couple of other things: I saw Ke$ha on SNL last night and I wasn’t really impressed. I’m sure she’s this summer’s Kelis. The Clucks’ cover of “Tik Tok” is interesting and at least as good as the original. Also check out garage rockers Thick Shakes for more of that tasty lo-fi rock ‘n’ roll I know you love.

As always, follow the links for more information

Thick Shakes
Garage / Punk / Pop
From: Jamaica Plain, Mass.
Band MySpace
(Baby) You’re a Starfish.mp3

Midnite Theory
Alternative / Hip Hop / Other
From: Los Angeles, Calif.
Band MySpace
Angel On Sunset.mp3
** now with correct links! **

Clucks
Indie / Rock / Garage
From: Seattle, Wash.
Band MySpace
Tik Tok (Ke$ha cover).mp3

The Roast Beef Curtains
Reggae / Dub / Punk
From: Long Island, N.Y.
Band MySpace
5th Base Girl.mp3

The One AM Radio
New Wave
From: Los Feliz, Calif.
Band MySpace
Credible Threats.mp3

Norman
Indie / Folk / Rock
From: Willamette Valley, Ore.
Band MySpace
Hell, If I Love.mp3

Terese Taylor
Experimental / Black Metal / Folk Rock
From: San Francisco, Calif.
Band MySpace
My Shine, Doesn’t Shine.mp3

The Futureheads
New Wave / Indie
From: Sunderland, UK
Band MySpace
Struck Dumb.mp3

Burnt Ones
Minimalist / Psychedelic / Rock
From: Indianapolis, Ind.
Band MySpace
Gonna Listen to T-Rex (All Night Long).mp3
Bonus: Damage Case (Motörhead cover).mp3

~~~~~
(pictures, top-to-bottom: Thick Shakes, The Roast Beef Curtains, Terese Taylor)

Blood, Sweat, and Beers Tonight

2010-04-10T10:41:00.002-04:00

If you’re in or around South Florida, I need you to join me tonight at The Monterey Club in Ft. Lauderdale to check out BugGiRL.

Long-time listeners will know that I have posted before about this hard-rockin’ Australian duo (here and here) and have been oh-so-patiently waiting for them make the 9000 mile trip to this side of the U.S. so I can see some Blood, Sweat, and Beers all up close and personal like.

The first band is scheduled to go on at around 8 p.m. Also playing is Mekango N.T., who I believe are from Florida. The show is 18-and-up and you can find The Monterey Club at 2608 South Federal Highway (aka US 1). I’ll be the old guy near the bar looking like he’s one beer from having had one too many.

Hot Tonight.mp3

Malcolm McLaren: 1946 - 2010

2010-04-08T21:03:00.004-04:00

I just heard this afternoon about Malcolm McLaren’s death from mesothelioma at the age of 64. The following is a repost from November 2006.

~~~~~~

Malcolm McLaren: Clothing designer, impresario, rock ‘n’ roll swindler, and manager of some of the most unique musical acts ever to grace a stage.

He began his career as a rock and roll manager by attempting to resurrect the fading New York Dolls. He brought to this – and his other efforts – the philosophies of the French Situationist movement, which advocated provocative, even absurd, actions as political statement and performance art. Following the Dolls, he of course introduced the Sex Pistols to the world. After the Pistols’ crash landing, he launched the careers of Adam Ant, Bow Wow Wow, and Boy George.

Always moving forward, McLaren began his own musical career in the early 1980s, with the single “Buffalo Gals,” which combined traditional folk music with hip-hop. The single was credited to McLaren and the World Famous Supreme Team, and became a Top Ten hit in the U.K. The remix mini-LP “D’Ya Like Scratchin’” gave McLaren his first American album chart entry in February 1984.

Which leads us to today’s music: A sampling from that EP, which was released in 1983. There’s a long, but interesting story about McLaren titled “The Unlikely Origins of UK Hip Hop” posted on a message board. In it, the author writes about McLaren’s discovery of hip hop while in New York: “It was extraordinary cos the sound coming out was totally inarticulate; it was a load of rough noises, noises that sounded a little like guitar, but had a sort of concrete chisel sound and the sound I realised was actually coming from the way they were messing around with their hands on the decks, moving records backwards and forwards [sic ].”

The posting goes on to talk about how the British initially dismissed scratching and other sonic experimentation (particularly from McLaren, a white man, of all things!). Ultimately it was the video for “Buffalo Gals” that changed the minds of the British youth and opened the floodgates for the British B-Boys.

D’ya Like Scratchin’.mp3
She’s Looking Like a Hobo.mp3
Buffalo Gals.mp3

Screaming Out of the Night

2010-04-06T20:29:00.004-04:00

Talk about a blast from the past. I found a new Krokus album in my mailbox yesterday. That’s right – a new Krokus album.

Hoodoo, the band’s 21st release, is the first since 1983’s Headhunter to feature the classic Krokus line-up of Marc Storace, Chris von Rohr, Fernando von Arb, and Mark Kohler. On-and-off-since-1977 drummer Freddy Steady is also back in the fold for this metal rendezvous.

I’ll admit I put the disk into my player kind of warily; I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Swiss metal-meisters. I’d only been a casual fan back in the days when they were making their biggest hits. I wasn’t sure if I would hear a Def Leppard-ish style of pop metal or... or what, really. I didn’t know what to expect, especially after so many years.

What I got was a trip back to the early ‘80s. Krokus isn’t redesigning the wheel here and you’re going to hear riffs you’ve heard before, but they put it all together in a fun package. And that’s what rock ‘n’ roll should be about. These songs hearken back to their classic era without sounding any more dated than the last AC/DC album. Krokus have gone back to their roots, decided what they do best, and returned with an 11-song showcase.

The first single from the album, “Hoodoo Woman,” should give you a pretty good taste of what Hoodoo is about.

Hoodoo Woman.mp3

Hoodoo is scheduled for a May 25 release here in the U.S., but the album has already hit stores in Switzerland. For more information and for tour dates, check the Krokus Website.

Fighting Piranhas on Easter

2010-04-04T12:33:00.003-04:00

Easter sort of snuck up on me this year, although I suppose it came the first Sunday in April just like every other year. Not that there are many traditions in Apt. 104, but at least I could have bought groceries last week in case my local market is closed today.

As far as today’s post, I went back and forth on what I could do. A couple of years ago I found some old, old blues songs that were somewhat religious in nature and thought those might make good Easter fare. I also thought about going tongue-in-cheek with the Cramps’ Songs the Lord Taught Us.

In the end, I went with this White Stripes song because of two lines: “It’s Easter morning, and there’s no one around / So I unroll the cement and walk into the town.” Like a lot of Jack White’s lyrics, it’s ambiguous, possibly meaning everything or nothing or a little of both. Either way, it’s an apt description of Easter morning around these parts.

This particular recording comes from the White Stripes’ July 14, 2007, show at the Savoy Theater in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.

I Fought Piranhas (live).mp3

Technical Difficulties: Please Stand By

2010-04-01T21:35:00.006-04:00

I'm not sure what this means, but apparently my file host has disabled my hosting capabilities. If I understand the email correctly, I was getting something like eight requests per second for an Eminem song I posted back in February 2009. All I can think is spammers or a haxor or something equally nefarious. Unfortunately everything hosted under the "apt104" domain name is affected.

I hope to have this sorted out shortly. If not, there are about three months left on my host and I may be pulling the plug on them (and, in all likelihood, this blog) sooner than I had planned.

**************************
UPDATE: As of this morning (April 02), I'm back online. Let me know if you encounter any problems.
thanks!

'We'll Park At 7-11 And Look For Some Beef'

2010-03-31T07:00:00.000-04:00

I have, over the past couple of months, gotten a lot of hits on a Runaways post I did more than two years ago (the links are still up if you want to check it out). Oddly, the referrals are almost exclusively from Google images, which made it hard for me to figure out at first. The conclusion I finally came to is that the spike in hits has more or less coincided with the attention to The Runaways, which opens nationally April 9, and people searching images for the band.

Whatever the reason for the uptick, as always, I welcome it and, as always, I hope that people visiting my blog for that particular post will look around and decide to come back.

With that, never let it be said that I’m not a whore: If one Runaways post is good, two has got to be even better.

I did some searching and found Flaming Schoolgirls, an oddly named disk that is a collection of outtakes from the Queens of Noise and Live in Japan albums. Originally available as a Japanese import, the Cherry Red label released it in the U.S. in 1980. Flaming Schoolgirls features the classic Runaways lineup of Lita Ford, Joan Jett, Cherie Currie, Jackie Fox, and Sandy West.

I picked a couple of what I think are pretty representative songs from the album: “Don’t Abuse Me,” a Joan Jett-penned song, features Cherie Currie on vocals (Joan would rerecord it later for her Bad Reputation album); Joan herself is out front on the live version of “I Love Playin’ With Fire.”

In an interesting choice, there are two Beatles covers on Flaming Schoolgirls – “Strawberry Fields” and “Here Comes the Sun.” Yeah, that’s what I thought too. But Joan’s version of “Here Comes the Sun” is really not bad and it’s a rare occasion to hear her accompanied by just piano and strings. What kept going through my mind as I listened is, Thirty years down the road, there would be kids the same age Joan was then, singing their little hearts out on American Idol, maybe trying the same song, and not even coming close to turning in as good a performance. Yet ironically, I doubt Joan could have even “made it to Hollywood.”

Don’t Abuse Me.mp3
I Love Playin’ With Fire.mp3
Here Comes the Sun (Beatles cover).mp3

Music from My Mailbox

2010-03-28T12:48:00.005-04:00

Wow. I just can’t get the motivation or inspiration lately to post. I look through my CDs and the stuff on my computer and think, Nah, that’s all been done. Then I look through the 100-plus emails clogging my inbox and think, There’s gotta be something interesting in there. So out of those hundred-some emails, this is what I culled. Can you see why I’m not feeling too inspired these days?

My pick of the litter this go-round is Univox’s “Pi,” which I think I had attempted to post before but there was a problem with the link they sent me. Whatever the issue, I’m glad it showed up again, because it’s a rockin’ little number.

A song I almost passed on is Marc Robillard’s “Butterscotch High.” I’m glad I didn’t. I don’t know much about Marc, but there’s something about this song that I really like and it reminds me of someone else, but I can’t quite put my finger on who.

And just to mix things up a bit, I also want you to check out Dominique Young Unique. This is something you might hear thumping in your local strip club this summer.

As always, follow the links for more information

Science Fiction Theater
Rock / Indie / Melodramatic Popular Song
From: Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
Band MySpace
Gasoline.mp3

Marc Robillard
Pop / Rock / Acoustic
From: Venice, Calif.
Band MySpace
Butterscotch High (acoustic).mp3

Univox
Glam / Soul / Folk
From: Philadelphia, Penn.
Band MySpace
Pi.mp3

Thought
Rock / 2-step / Funk
From: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Band MySpace
The Hardest Thing.mp3

Lloyd’s Garage
Rock / Indie / Blues
From: SF Bay Area, Calif.
Band MySpace
Return to Sender.mp3

Hunters & Runners
Rock / Indie
From: New York, N.Y.
Band MySpace
Sociology.mp3

Dominique Young Unique
R’n’B / Hip-Hop / Electronic
From: Tampa, Fla.
Band MySpace
Show My Ass.mp3

~~~~~
(pictures, top-to-bottom: Science Fiction Theater, Lloyd's Garage)

'Fell In Love With A Girl'

2010-03-23T07:00:00.000-04:00

This past weekend I bought the new White Stripes live disk, Under Great White Northern Lights. I went the route of going to my local big box retailer to get a physical copy so I could get the bonus DVD.

The set documents the White Stripes’ 2007 trek across the Great White North, and while the CD is the expected collection of live hits, the DVD contains a few surprises. During the three-week tour, Jack and Meg made stops at several out-of-the-way towns and played some unorthodox venues, such as local cafes and bowling alleys. Hardly settings where you’d expect to find one of the biggest bands in the world. Snippets of these stops, along with the infamous one-note show in St. John’s, Newfoundland, are all on the DVD.

One other thing that came from watching the DVD is a new appreciation, or perhaps sympathy, for Meg. Fans generally know very little about her. She mostly keeps quiet, allowing Jack to speak on behalf of the band. Because of her taciturnity, it’s hard to know where Meg stands. In every scene with Jack, she’s walking behind him, rather than alongside him. The primary focus is always on him, in all meetings with reporters, fans, and public officials. They talk about that at one point on the DVD, and Meg says the decision to let Jack do all the talking is hers; she doesn’t want to talk. She’s very soft-spoken and is actually sub-titled throughout the 90-minute film.

But I think her feelings come out at the end of the movie. In the final scene, Meg is sitting beside Jack at a piano as he plays a solo version of the ambiguous “Holy Ghost.” She’s at first swaying slowly, in time with the music. After a while, the camera catches what looks like a tear on her cheek, but it moves away too fast to be certain. But the next time the camera zooms on her, she’s unmistakably crying. When the song ends, Jack gives her a quick, one-armed “cheer up, pal” kind of hug, which quickly becomes a real hug and you see the affection between them. That unexpected moment of intimacy is something that made the entire movie for me, and made Jack and Meg seem real, not just a “deserted cartoon” that Jack wrote.

I ripped “Holy Ghost” from the DVD, so the sound isn’t 320 kbps quality, but it’s decent. It’s also, as I mentioned, a solo piano version, so it's different than the Get Behind Me Satan version.

White Moon (solo piano version).mp3

Beatles - Atlanta '65

2010-03-22T10:07:00.004-04:00

I found this Beatles “recording of indeterminate origin” a while ago and was impressed by two things: First, the sound quality is almost at a professional level; and next, the fact that they tear through 10 songs in less than half an hour. I wasn’t sure if I was hearing the Beatles or the Ramones.

This recording comes from the Aug. 18, 1965, show at Atlanta Stadium in Atlanta, Ga., the third stop on the tour. Beatlemania was at its peak and the band was just coming off one of the most amazing concerts ever – the Shea Stadium show.

This is the last tour while the Beatles were still “moptops”; at the end of the year, they would release Rubber Soul and the music and band would start to take a new direction, showing new influences and growing up, as it were.

Almost four years ago I posted from a vinyl version of the Beatles at the Star Club, a recording from 1962, before they were the Beatles. I commented about the “the absolute rawness and pure unvarnished rock and roll energy” of the recording. Three years later, the Beatles were a worldwide phenomenon, but the live energy was still there. They tear through their set with a force and vitality we wouldn’t see from England for another decade.

Introduction – Paul Drew.mp3
Twist and Shout.mp3
She’s a Woman.mp3
I Feel Fine.mp3
Ticket to Ride.mp3
Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby.mp3
Can’t Buy Me Love.mp3
Baby’s In Black.mp3
I Wanna Be Your Man.mp3
Help!.mp3
I’m Down.mp3

unzip 'em all here.

Sláinte!

2010-03-17T21:18:00.003-04:00

I considered a fair number of songs for this St. Patrick’s Day post. Had I managed to get around to it earlier in the day, probably any one of them would have been apropos. But, seeing as it’s going to be after 9 p.m. (EST) by the time this post sees daylight, the Dropkick Murphy’s “Kiss Me I’m Shitfaced” seemed the most appropriate.

Here in Miami, St. Patrick’s isn’t the event it is in other cities. Sure, there’s green beer, and people wearing green, and bars with Irish names, but the spirit isn't here. In Miami, St. Patrick’s Day is just another beer company-sponsored night out. That, plus the fact I have to work tomorrow morning, has kept me indoors tonight, celebrating Lá Fhéile Pádraig at home with a couple of bottles of Guinness.

But whether you're at home yourself or you've ventured out, I hope you’ll raise a glass and join me in a little toast:

Here's to a long life and a merry one;
A quick death and an easy one;
A pretty girl and an honest one;
A cold pint – and another one.

Kiss Me I’m Shitfaced.mp3

Music from My Mailbox

2010-03-14T12:40:00.004-04:00

Happy SXSW week to you and yours. Once again I will not be attending, although I recently wondered if I could have gotten a record label or PR firm to cover my airfare and bar tabs while I whore myself for whatever bands they have in attendance. On the other hand, I harbor a dislike for much “indie” music and can see where it may have ended up as a “Fear & Loathing on 6th Street” type of occasion. “We were somewhere over Louisiana when the drugs began to take hold...”

Anyway, as you might guess, my inbox was full of notices about appearances at SXSW. Probably the majority of the bands in today’s post will be there, but I can’t be arsed to dig up schedules for you. If you like the band and you’re going to be in Austin this week, I’m sure you’ll figure it out.

This is a pretty small inbox purge because a lot of the stuff I received was electronica or whiney, self-indulgent indie/emo stuff or some mash-up/remix of the two genres, and I’m really not in the mood to hear that.

The top stuff today is easily The Choke and The Ex-Girlfriend’s Club. Both bands bring the garage rock sound that I so enjoy. Also, if you think back to my last mailbox post, you’ll recollect Pack A.D. Well, as the fates would have it, The Choke are on tour with Pack A.D. You’ll definitely want to check out that bill if they come to a town near you. The Koot Hoomi track comes from a Hall and Oates tribute album the group did. It’s called The Dark Side of Hall and Oates and is bizarre enough that it warranted inclusion here.

As always, follow the links for more information.

The Choke
Garage / Punk / Soul
From: New York, N.Y.
Band MySpace
Tuff Kids.mp3

Shaka Ponk
Rock / Electro / Experimental
From: Berlin, Germany
Band MySpace
Do.mp3

Cary Ann Hearst
Folk Rock / Southern Rock / Roots Music
From: Charlotte, S.C.
Band MySpace
Are You Ready to Die.mp3

April Smith
Melodramatic Popular Song / Pop / Folk Rock
From: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Band MySpace
Movie Loves a Screen.mp3

Koot Hoomi
Experimental / Indie / Acoustic
From: Tempe, Ariz.
Band MySpace
Maneater (Hall and Oates cover).mp3

The Ex-Girlfriend’s Club
Garage / Rock / Glam
From: Portland, Ore.
Band MySpace
Devil Eyes.mp3

~~~~~
(Pictures, top-to-bottom: The Choke, April Smith)

'Gotta Keep Things Moving...'

2010-03-13T11:41:00.004-05:00

For David Lee Roth lightening struck twice when he tapped guitar virtuoso Steve Vai for his first full-length solo album, 1986’s Eat ‘em and Smile.

Following a decade alongside Eddie Van Halen, anything less would have seemed as if Diamond Dave were just settling for what he could get. Instead, he dove into his solo career with a big splash, introducing to the world one of the few guitarists who could arguably out-Van Halen Eddie Van Halen.

Steve Vai had, of course, been around for years before DLR brought him on board: He’d been working with Frank Zappa since 1979 and was often credited on Zappa’s albums as performing “stunt guitar” or “impossible guitar parts.”

Vai left as Zappa’s fulltime guitar player in the early 80s, releasing a solo album and serving a short time as Yngwie Malmsteen’s replacement in Alcatrazz. Then, in 1985, he made the career move that would catapult him onto rock’s world stage.

In an old interview with the DLR Army fansite, Vai reminisced about how he ended up joining forces with Diamond Dave. Billy Sheehan, who would play bass on Eat ‘em and Smile, recommended Vai to Dave. “I’ll never forget,” Vai said. “I was in the shower, covered in soap, and a call came in: ‘Hey, this is Dave Roth, man!’ I was like, ‘No, it's not!’ He said, ‘Yeah man, we’re putting a group together.’”

Eat ‘em and Smile came out to mostly positive reviews. Critics agreed the album was fun in the style of the early Van Halen albums and was actually better than the slick pop rock coming from Dave’s old band mates. Some even called it the “real” follow-up to 1984.

Shy Boy.mp3

Can You Go a Little Deeper: AC/DC

2010-03-08T07:00:00.000-05:00

In this age of iPods and iTunes and random singles, it’s unusual to sit and listen to an entire album. This past week, though, I’ve been in the mood to put on an album (OK, a CD, whatever) and listen to the whole thing. Call it random song burnout, but I’ve gotten tired of hearing whatever comes up on “shuffle.” I want control over my musical destiny.

One of the disks I listened to this weekend was AC/DC’s U.S. debut, High Voltage. I specify the U.S. debut, because that’s the one I have, and also because this version was actually a compilation of AC/DC’s first two Australian releases, High Voltage and T.N.T. Their Aussie debut release also had a much different track list than what the rest of the world would get. The album that hit these shores in May 1976 included only two tracks from the original Australian release, with the rest of its songs being pulled from T.N.T.

The track I’m reaching out for today, “Little Lover,” is one of the two from the original release that made it onto the international version. Typical of many AC/DC songs from this era, it’s a sleazy, bluesy romp about a groupie (“When the band said goodnight, I had to say hello”). It’s also one of my favorites from this album and one you probably never hear anymore.

Little Lover.mp3

~~~~~
(Can You Go a Little Deeper is an irregularly recurring feature here wherein I resurrect old favorites, lost songs, and other things you maybe haven’t heard in a while)

'Through Being Cool'

2010-03-07T11:32:00.005-05:00

When I was back there in seminary school....

Oh wait, that’s a different story. How about “when I was back there in high school...”

... I saw Devo make their network television debut on Saturday Night Live. Although many of my tastes were very white bread and mainstream, I was also drawn toward music that was outside of that box. In the harsh world of high school, those tastes were seldom met with approval.

Such was the case when, the Monday after their October 1978 appearance on SNL, I went to school raving about this band who had quirkily covered “Satisfaction” and had the gall to appear dressed in yellow jumpsuits like some freaks from another planet, while preaching de-evolution. And all this just a week after the Stones themselves had graced the stage at Studio 8H.

SNL was still relatively new and hip then, so everyone watched it and everyone had seen Devo and everyone hated them. Those of you who are still just a few years removed from high school will remember how fear of the unknown and different is a potent virus that pervades every school, everywhere. So of course a couple of weeks later, when I showed up at school sporting a Devo t-shirt, it was greeted with hatred and derision by the cool kids rocking their Mahogany Rush tees.

tl;dr? I’m posting Devo, not Mahogany Rush.

This is a collection of live Devo, recorded at various venues and at various dates, from the 1978 SNL appearance through a 1988 performance of “Girl U Want.” Unfortunately, other than rough dates, I don’t have any additional information on where the songs come from.

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.mp3 ~ SNL, 1978
Mongoloid.mp3 ~ 1978
Uncontrollable Urge.mp3 ~ 1978
It Takes A Worried Man.mp3 ~ 1980
Gates of Steel.mp3 ~ 1980
I Saw Jesus / Through Being Cool.mp3 ~ 1981
Working In A Coalmine.mp3 ~ 1981
Smart Patrol / Jerkin’ Back and Forth.mp3 ~ 1981
Patterns.mp3 ~ 1982
Girl U Want.mp3 ~ 1988
That’s Good.mp3 ~ 1988

'How'd a White Boy Get the Blues?'

2010-03-06T11:00:00.005-05:00

Is it too early in the day to star drinking whiskey? ‘Cause dammit that’s what Popa Chubby makes me want to do.

Popa Chubby (more on the name in a bit) plays the kind of raunchy blues / rock-a-billy / old-school country that you want to hear in a bar, not sitting on the couch in your living room at 10 in the morning. Last year he released his 19th album, Vicious Country, a disk that not only showed off his talent on the guitar, but also paid tribute to the legendary music that has influenced him along the way. The album, while not attracting much mainstream attention, continued to build on the legend that is Chubby.

Ted Horowitz came out of the Bronx, raised on Clapton, Hendrix, and the Stones. By the time he was in his early 20’s, he had found his love for the blues, but had also found his way into occasional work with Richard Hell. Ted’s first big break was winning a national blues talent search sponsored by KLON, a public radio station in Long Beach, Calif.

I’ve found two versions as to how Ted Horowitz became Popa Chubby. The first comes from something Chubby himself said. He was jamming one night with Bernie Worrell of Parliament-Funkadelic, he says, and, “He was singing a song called ‘Popa Chubby’ and he pointed at me.”

“Popa Chubby basically means to get excited. The core of my music is about excitement. I think music should make people feel alive.”

The other version – unsourced, I might add, but on the Popa Chubby Wiki page – claims the name is a variation of the term “pop a chubby.” My guess is that, as usual, the truth is somewhere between the two versions.

Popa Chubby’s 20th album, The Fight Is On, is due out March 22. If you can’t find it your local big box retailer (haha!), you can order it from the Popa Chubby website. In the meantime, here are a couple of things from the Vicious Country LP. The woman on vocals is Galea, Chubby’s sometime bass player and longtime collaborator.

Break Me Down.mp3
Satan is Real / Straight to Hell (Hank III cover).mp3
Harper Valley P.T.A. (Jeannie C. Riley cover).mp3

Izzy's Still Smokin'

2010-03-03T20:35:00.004-05:00

Right now seems as good a time as any to bring you up to speed on erstwhile Guns N’ Roses guitarist Izzy Stradlin.

Of course you know Izzy left the Gunners in late 1991 to pursue other interests. He released his debut solo album, Izzy Stradlin & the Ju Ju Hounds within a short time of leaving G n’ R, seemingly disappeared for six years, then released a second solo effort in 1998.

The next year, Izzy released the Japan-only Ride On, followed in (relatively) quick succession by two more albums, both released on independent labels. Since then, Izzy has stuck to Internet-only releases, supported by a small but loyal fan base.

His latest disk, Smoke, was released last November with no real media attention, but a lot of excitement from Izzy’s fans: Comments such as “Simply Izzy.... signature,” and “guaranteed Izzy, nothing more, nothing less,” were posted on the ChopAway Website following the album’s release.

I haven’t listened to any new Izzy Stradlin music in probably 10 years. Once in a while I’ll pull out the Ju Ju Hounds disk, which I love, and give that a spin. And I’ve always appreciated Izzy’s serious Ron Wood influence. In fact, if memory serves, they actually did a song together many years ago. Smoke picks up where I left off with Izzy 10 years ago. He still plays bluesy rock ‘n’ roll and still flaunts his Stones influence. With no industry suits breathing down his neck, Izzy is free to make the music he and his fans enjoy. Sometimes it's refreshing to hear something that hasn't changed to suit the times.

Comfort Zone.mp3

To my knowledge, Smoke is available only through iTunes, although some of his older albums are on Amazon.

Music from My Mailbox

2010-02-28T12:02:00.007-05:00

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)

'Buried Alive'

2010-02-26T07:00:00.000-05:00

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

'Who Threw That Ham At Me?'

2010-02-23T07:00:00.000-05:00

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

Post #666

2010-02-21T10:35:00.003-05:00

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

I'm On The Train To Bangkok

2010-02-20T09:29:00.003-05:00

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

Doug Fieger: 1952-2010

2010-02-15T20:24:00.003-05:00

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

'I Slept With Joey Ramone'

2010-02-14T13:10:00.004-05:00

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

OST OCD - Cruising

2010-02-10T20:43:00.005-05:00

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

'Who Put the Boot In'

2010-02-07T15:35:00.005-05:00

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

Music From My Mailbox

2010-02-06T15:52:00.007-05:00

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

'Shut Up & F**k'

2010-02-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

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

Can You Go a Little Deeper: Jethro Tull

2010-01-30T19:05:00.005-05:00

“Too Old to Rock and Roll, Too Young to Die” isn’t, by the strictest sense, a deep track. Actually the version I’m posting comes from one of two Jethro Tull greatest hits collections I have, so it’s apparently considered by some to be in that category.

Tull released Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die! in 1976. It was written as a concept album with a plot involving a retired rock star named Ray Lomas. An aging Lomas wins money on a quiz show, but finds society has changed so much that, with no one left like him, he can't enjoying his money.

Lomas decides to commit suicide via motorcycle crash but fails and ends up in a coma. When he awakens he discovers society has changed and his style of dress and music are popular once again. In addition, the cosmetic surgery he received after disfiguring his face in the crash makes him look 20 years younger. He becomes an overnight sensation with the young kids who now try to dress and act like him.

In his liner notes to the 2002 reissue, Ian Anderson said the story was “based on a late-'50s motorcycle rocker and his living-in-the-past nostalgia for youthful years. Not me, guv, honest,” he wrote.

Critics complained the story was muddled; fans didn’t care much for the album or its story; and Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll ended up as Tull’s only release from the 70s to not achieve at least gold status

The title track surfaces once in a while on classic rock radio but is too often overlooked in favor of the bigger hits, i.e. “Locomotive Breath” or “Cross-Eyed Mary.” I think “Too Old to Rock and Roll” is one of Tull’s greatest songs, well deserving of its place on a hits collection. It perfectly describes someone who has remained young at heart while everyone around him has grown up, gotten married, and became adults: “He's the last of the blue blood greaser boys / All of his mates are doing time: married with three kids up by the ring road.”

Too Old to Rock and Roll, Too Young to Die.mp3

~~~~~
(Can You Go a Little Deeper is an irregularly recurring feature here wherein I resurrect old favorites, lost songs, and other things you maybe haven’t heard in a while)

I've Got A Rock 'n' Roll Heart - If You're Paying For It

2010-01-26T22:01:00.006-05:00

For the record, I am not a fan of artists licensing their music to sell things, no matter how unique or prestigious said things may be. There are memories associated with particular songs and I would, for example, just as soon that memory not involve David Caruso.

Which brings up the new T-Mobile ad starring Eric Clapton. Clapton, of course, is no stranger to whoring out his product: Back in the 80s, Anheuser-Busch used “After Midnight” to sell Michelob beer. I guess the admen didn’t consider the irony there.

I can understand artists seeking sponsorships – I know it costs zillions of dollars to tour and having a large corporation underwrite it can help out. And I suppose if it’s a product the artist truly believes in, why not put your name on it. Or, you can just take Pete Townshend’s attitude and say, “This is my music, not yours. I sell it wherever I like.”

But I don’t get the phone thing. This has gone beyond using a great Clapton song in the advertisement to designing a special Eric Clapton model telephone. According to the T-Mobile Website, it comes “with a classic Fender sunburst-inspired design” and “preloaded with music from Eric Clapton.” I just don’t get it, but then again, I’m not a Techno-Beaver kinda guy. The company I work for has thoughtfully provided me with a pretty lo-tech cell phone and I seem to make do with that. As much as I admire Eric Clapton, and as beautiful as I think the Fender Stratocaster is, I just don’t see the need for a $450 telephone with faux sunburst colors. I can buy a lot of Clapton records with that $450. Hell, I could just about buy a real Strat for that kind of money. And without the monthly bills from a pain-in-the-ass phone company.

I can see from different things I’ve read that feelings vary widely on the idea of commercial use of classic rock music. Some people think it’s the reality of the times and that it actually helps introduce a new audience to the songs. Others feel the music is sacrosanct and shouldn’t be whored out to the highest bidder. If you care to, drop me a comment and let me know what you think. In the meantime, here’s the song Clapton and T-Mobile are using to hawk this latest gadget.

I’ve Got a Rock ‘n’ Roll Heart.mp3

Scorpions Calling It Quits

2010-01-24T10:57:00.004-05:00

After more than 40 years, German metal-meisters the Scorpions are calling it quits.

The Scorpions, which Rudolf Schenker formed in Hanover, Germany, in 1965, posted a message on their Website today announcing the end of the band following their upcoming world tour:

“We are extremely grateful for the fact that we still have the same passion for music we’ve always had since the beginning. This is why, especially now, we agree we have reached the end of the road.”

The Scorpions are wrapping up their eighteenth and final studio album, Sting In the Tail, which is due out March 19. Their farewell tour kicks off in Moscow on the 15th. Tour dates and streaming snippets from a couple of new songs are on the band’s MySpace.

I wrote not long ago about my history as a Scorpions fan, so I won’t bore you again with details. Suffice to say they deserve their place near the top of the metal pantheon.

For today’s music, I’m going to reach all the way back to the Scorpions debut album, 1972’s Lonesome Crow. This version of “I’m Going Mad” is an alternate take from a German re-release of that disk. Although the Scorps seem to be headed in a Black Sabbath direction, you can hear traces of what would later become their signature sound.

I’m Going Mad (alt version).mp3
It All Depends.mp3

‘Is There Anybody Alive Out There’

2010-01-23T10:55:00.009-05:00

I thought I’d pass along part of something I found the other day: A “recording of indeterminate origin” from last year’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame induction concert.

If you’ll recall, there were shows October 29 and 30 at Madison Square Garden honoring the Rock Hall inductees. The recording I’ve got is from the first night’s show, recorded – in that time-honored method – by someone in the audience. The sound, while obviously not professional quality, isn’t bad. According to the notes that came with the file, this person started the night with a “limited” (read: “no”) view seat in an area that also had terrible sound. He soon “realized it wasn't going to be very good [and] quickly relocated myself to one of the expensive seats and luckily its rightful owner never showed up.”

This enterprising person managed to capture the entire show for posterity, from Tom Hanks’ opening remarks to the Bruce Springsteen-led closing performance of “Higher and Higher.” Rather than repost the whole thing, I decided I’d go with a theme and just repost Springsteen’s portion of the show. This was, to me anyway, the most compelling, with guest performers ranging from John Fogerty to Billy Joel. The only stumble is the version of “London Calling,” which sounds forced. Otherwise, the performances are solid. “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” with guest guitarist Tom Morello, hits the middle ground between Springsteen’s original and Rage’s thrashing cover. There’s also an amazing 12-minute version of “Jungleland.”

Again, this is an audience recording, so the sound isn’t pristine, but it is well listenable and proves beyond a doubt that the E-Street Band is one of the greatest bar bands ever.

Tenth Avenue Freeze Out.mp3
Hold On.mp3 ~ with Sam Moore
Soul Man.mp3 ~ with Sam Moore
The Ghost of Tom Joad.mp3 ~ with Tom Morello
Fortunate Son.mp3 ~ with John Fogerty
Proud Mary.mp3 ~ with John Fogerty
Pretty Woman.mp3 ~ with John Fogerty
Jungleland.mp3
Fine Fine Boy.mp3 ~ with Darlene Love
Da Do Ron Ron.mp3 ~ with Darlene Love
London Calling.mp3 ~ with Tom Morello
Badlands.mp3 ~ with Tom Morello
You May Be Right.mp3 ~ with Billy Joel
Only the Good Die Young.mp3 ~ with Billy Joel
New York State of Mind.mp3 ~ with Billy Joel
Born to Run.mp3 ~ with Billy Joel
Higher and Higher.mp3 ~ with ensemble

Or, if you're feeling particularly lazy, you can click here and get the whole thing at one time.

'I Thought This Was Love, But This Ain't Casablanca'

2010-01-21T20:36:00.007-05:00

I heard something the other day that I didn’t realize was so seminal. You know I loves me some Australian rawk, but I was not aware of Aussie punks The Saints.

The Saints, who started playing together in 1974, were considered contemporaries of the Ramones, and actually released their debut, (I’m) Stranded, about six months before Never Mind The Bollocks came out. Bob Geldof was even once quoted as saying, “Rock music in the Seventies was changed by three bands: the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, and The Saints.”

So how did I not know about The Saints? Who knows. Although once I located their debut disk, some of the songs did sound familiar. Probably I’d heard them and not known who it was. There’s also the possibility that, because the band had relocated to the U.K. by 1977, (I’m) Stranded got lost in the punk shuffle and never got the acclaim it deserved.

By the time The Saints got ‘round to recording their second album, they had started to move beyond punk, which they already thought was becoming over-hyped and too commercial. “New uniforms; we all look the same,” they would sing.

Subsequent albums would take The Saints in a more blues-rock direction and through just over 20 different members. Chris Bailey is the only one to have been with the band throughout their 36-year history. Various members still reunite with Bailey for the occasional one-off reunion gig, although they haven’t released a new album since 2006.

(I’m) Stranded stands as a punk rock benchmark. Listening to it now, I can’t believe this album came out pre-Pistols. The buzzsaw guitars are 100-percent Stooges / Ramones / pure punk raunch. The Saints’ take on “Kissin’ Cousins” turns it into a sleazy incest fantasy far removed from the hillbilly innocence of Elvis’ original. “Night In Venice,” which was the original album closer, sounds like Night in Seattle as it presages grunge nearly 15 years before the world would hear about Kurt Cobain.

This is truly a remarkable album and is as fresh and vital now as it was 35 years ago. If you, like me, have somehow missed out on it, you need to somehow get hold of it and treat yourself to it.

Kissin’ Cousins.mp3
Night In Venice.mp3

Music from My Mailbox

2010-01-17T12:41:00.006-05:00

I suppose one advantage in taking so long to clear out my inbox is the large selection to pick from. I’m able to weed through all the “indie” stuff and skim the cream off the top.

A couple of items of note from this purge session: Kandi Coded keeps the Seattle grunge tradition alive on their debut Fell for the Gift, which is out next month. Check out their amped-up take on Johnny Cash’s tribute to a lost Viet Nam vet, which is just as meaningful now.

In case you weren’t aware, there is a Spinal Tap tribute album floating around (I think you can download it here for free or voluntary contributions or something.) Lapdance Academy Records founder and Dogs of Winter front man Brian Grosz contributed “Gimme Some Money” to the release.

And of course there’s the almost-obligatory Wolfmother remix track. There were actually three versions in the package I received – this was, in my opinion, the best of the lot.

As always, follow the links for more information.

Wolfmother
Rock / Psychedelic / Metal
From: Australia
Band MySpace
White Feather (Burns remix).mp3

Doug Keith
Rock / Acoustic / Alternative
From: New York, N.Y.
Band MySpace
The Lucky Ones.mp3

We Be The Echo
Progressive / Experimental / Metal
From: San Francisco, Calif.
Band MySpace
Droid Poem.mp3

Phantogram
Concrete / Other / Big Beat
From: Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Band MySpace
When I’m Small.mp3

Kandi Coded
Rock / Alternative / Grunge
From: Seattle, Wash.
Band MySpace
Drive On (Johnny Cash cover).mp3

Pierced Arrows
Rock / Garage / Punk
From: Portland / Clackamas, Ore.
Band MySpace
Paranoia.mp3

LANTERNS.
Punk / Punk / Pop Punk
From: San Diego, Calif.
Band MySpace
Midnight Psalms.mp3

Year Long Disaster
Rock / Rock / Rock
From: Los Angeles, Calif.
Band MySpace
Show Me Your Teeth (radio edit).mp3

Brian Grosz
Indie / Acoustic / Ghettotech
From: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Band MySpace
Gimme Some Money (Spinal Tap cover).mp3

~~~~~
pictures, top-to-bottom: Doug Keith, Kandi Coded, Year Long Disaster

Sodomizado Estas

2010-01-15T07:00:00.000-05:00

I was just thinking the other day that I needed more porn in my metal. So it was fortuitous I came across (no pun intended) Sabrina Sabrok.

Argentina born Sabrok began her career as a model, appearing in Spanish language ads for companies such as Harley Davidson, Diesel Jeans, and Volkswagen. She formed her first band, Primeras Impresiones, in 1996. The band – or possibly Sabrina herself – managed to catch the attention of Marilyn Manson and they landed an opening spot for his 1997 Argentinean shows.

Although the band plays the kind of industrial metal (or cyberpunk, as Sabrok calls it) that appeals to fans of Manson, their singer is probably more infamous for other aspects of her, um, personality.

Sabrina is reportedly chasing the goal of having the world’s largest breasts. Her Website claims she sports 59XXX-sized boobs. Chickipedia, however, puts her at 40 inches (no cup size given). Just in case you were wondering, the Guinness record holder for largest breasts is Sheyla Hershey, with a 38KKK bust.

And – if that wasn’t enough – Sabrina has a whole other career as an S&M model. Check that out here (warning: link NSFW).

To summarize, Sabrina Sabrok fronts an industrial metal band, has breasts that are among the top five largest in the world, and has her own porn site. By now you’re thinking there’s no way this woman can do anything else. Well, you’d be thinking wrong. Sabrina is also a Spanish language TV star, having appeared in the Mexican edition of Big Brother. She also currently hosts her own television show called Sabrina, El Sexo en su Máxima Expresión.

Her latest album, released last year on Sabrina Sabrok Records, is titled Antisocial. Sabrina’s vocals bring to mind the snarl of Wendy O. Williams while the heavily synthesized industrial metal makes for a 21st century version of the Plasmatics – maybe what they would have become. Both of the songs below are from Antisocial.

One other thing about Sabrina’s music: She emphasizes that you should not pay for it. Everything is available for free download from her site. The music site, not the porn site.

Antisocial.mp3
Rata de Dos Patas.mp3

'Somethin' Ya Can't Tell Your Mother'

2010-01-10T09:39:00.003-05:00

I had some doubts about posting today’s music, because I just found it last week on another blog. Then I thought, well, if you can reblog things on tumblr, you can reblog things here. I’ll post a couple of songs here, and then send you to OP for more info.

Toronto, along with New York and London, was at the forefront of the original late 70s punk scene. Three September 1976 concerts by the Ramones kicked off the Canadian movement. The joke was that 1,200 people went to see the Ramones play, then they all went out and started bands.

The Curse were formed during that flurry of activity. One of North America’s first all girl punk bands, they supposedly got together as part of a challenge to form a band to open for another band. Within a year, they were playing CBGB as part of a Canadian punk bill.

Probably their most infamous moment came with the release of the “Shoeshine Boy” single. The song was about 12-year-old Emmanuel Jacques, who was raped and murdered after being kidnapped in mid-July 1977 off of Toronto’s then-sleazy Yonge Street district. Jacques was working on the street shining shoes. The band sparked additional controversy by sending copies of the single to the boy’s murderers in prison.

So, check these couple of songs, then get over to the Model Citizen, Zero Discipline blog for the complete story of The Curse and some more of their music.

Shoeshine Boy.mp3
Somethin’ Ya Can’t Tell Your Mother.mp3

Artie Lange....

2010-01-07T20:48:00.003-05:00

It’s a weird thing with celebrities. Some of them you see or hear so much of that you could almost regard them as someone you know.

That’s kind of the way I think of the members of the Howard Stern show. The Stern show is unique in that, while they are celebrities of sorts, they also have five hours of airtime to fill each day. To fill the time around the guests, it seems little is off limits for discussion. I know Howard’s new cat is named Apple. I know about JD’s huge pimple. I know everyone thinks Benji fingered his date at the office Christmas party. I know more about the Stern show staffers than I know about some of the people I work with.

Still, it was a shock this morning to turn the radio on and hear that Artie Lange had been hospitalized. Artie has been on indefinite leave from the show since mid-December, with Howard being uncustomarily tight-lipped about the reason for Artie’s absence. I assumed Artie’s absence had to do with his mental health. Last year he took several days off as he dealt with depression over having lived past the age at which his father died.

When I heard Artie had been hospitalized this past weekend, I assumed it was drug-related. I never would have imagined it was because he had tried to take his own life. But the New York Post, citing unnamed sources, reported that Artie had “landed in the hospital after stabbing himself nine times in an apparent suicide attempt.”

It’s a weird thing with celebrities. I don’t know Artie Lange at all, but I’ve heard him talk about so much of his life that I could almost regard him as someone I know. My thoughts are with Artie and his family.

Darkness on the Edge of Town.mp3

*Picture note: This was taken at Artie’s book signing just after “Too Fat to Fish” was released last year. Neither of us are looking particularly spectacular....

Madame Pamita's Parlor of Wonders

2010-01-05T07:01:00.000-05:00

Performance artiste Madame Pamita one-ups Jack White for minimalization on her latest release, Madame Pamita's Wax Works. The erstwhile Pamela Moore recorded the album directly onto a wax cylinder, giving her music a sound that hearkens back to the turn of the last century.

The songs are a lo-fi, bare bones antithesis of the slick, overproduced music we’re usually forced to swallow, complete with enough pops and clicks to make you think you’ve accidentally put on one of your grandfather’s old 78s. But while she has taken an extreme retro approach to recording, Madame Pamita puts a modern edge on it by singing about the virtues of sex, drugs, and the power of positive thinking.

Madame Pamita and Peter Dilg spent two days last year recording the 13 songs on this album, “using absolutely no electricity during the process... what you hear is the recording exactly as it was performed, with the same vitality and exciting recklessness of the early days of reproduced sound.”

Madame Pamita live is a combination old-time medicine show and musical performance. She tells fortunes, does tarot readings, and plays a mix of rural blues, jug band, and proto-jazz songs, both original and traditional.

You can download her album at a name-your-own-price cost from her Website (I’m sure the irony’s not lost on her). There are also several other performances you can download for free.

While you’re at her site, there is an interactive talking spirit board page. Ask a question and the spirits will give you the answer. Apparently I will have no romantic luck again this year. And if interactive Web pages aren’t enough, you can also contact Madame Pamita through her site and arrange a personal reading.

The first song, a version of Blind Willie McTell’s “Your Southern Can is Mine,” was traditionally recorded – it’s from a session at KXLU. The second is an example of the Wax Works style. Check this stuff out, particularly “He’s in the Jailhouse Now.” It’s very cool in how retro and minimal it is.

My Southern Can is Mine.mp3
He’s In the Jailhouse Now.mp3

Avalon Calendar Jams: The Blues Project

2010-01-03T11:39:00.004-05:00

If you think back to 2008, you’ll recall that I made a series of posts based on artists featured on a blues calendar I was using that year. I thought that was pretty interesting; it introduced me to some new music, and, judging by the hits I got for those posts, most of you seemed to enjoy it as well.

Last year I used a Spanish language scenic view calendar so, unfortunately, I wasn’t really able to do anything related to my purpose here. My 2010 calendar, though, is a collection of posters from the heyday of San Francisco’s Avalon Ballroom, so I thought I’d return with a similar series of posts

A very brief history of the Avalon: The place was originally built in 1911 as the Colin Traver Academy of Dance. In April 1966 Chet Helms and Family Dog Productions, along with Robert E. Cohen, reopened the building as the Avalon Ballroom, where local bands such as the Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Steve Miller Band performed in the 500-person capacity ballroom. Janis Joplin supposedly made her first public appearance at the Avalon in June 1966.

To advertise these gigs, Cohen and Helms hired artists such as Rick Griffin, Wes Wilson, and Stanley Mouse to create posters. Over time, of course, these posters would become classics of the genre. Hence my 2010 calendar.

January’s poster, done by Wilson, advertises an April 1966 three-night stand by the Blues Project and the Great Society. A quick Wes Wilson bio: Born in 1937, he attended school at San Francisco State, but dropped out in 1963. His very first published poster was a swastika within an American flag motif, a protest of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Living in San Francisco, Wilson was part of the scene there and soon began making handbills for the San Francisco Mime Troup and the Merry Pranksters. He eventually also began making posters for Helms, which would lead to his being involved with Family Dog Productions and creating promotional posters for the Avalon.

Wilson is generally credited with developing the design that is now known as the psychedelic poster. His style of filling all available space with lettering, creating fluid forms from letters, and using flowing letters to create shapes became the standard that most psychedelic artists followed. (For more information about Wilson, including how to purchase some of his work, click over to his Website.)

The Blues Project, which is the main subject of this month’s poster, had a lifespan about the same as that of the Avalon Ballroom (the Avalon would close in November 1968). They formed in 1965 and split in 1967. Most of the original members were – or would become – renowned session men: Danny Kalb, Al Kooper, Steve Katz, Tommy Flanders, Andy Kulberg, and Roy Blumenfeld. Projections, the band’s second album – and first studio album – was also the last with the original members. Kooper left after that release, followed in quick succession by Katz and Kalb.

During their life, the Blues Project garnered a reputation as a jam band; some critics would even refer to them as New York’s answer to the Grateful Dead. The Projections album featured an 11-minute version of “Two Trains Running,” which showcased their improvisational tendencies. I’ve got that song for you today, as well as a lesser-known song called “Cheryl’s Going Home.” The reason I picked “Cheryl” is because I originally heard that song performed by “rock and roll’s greatest failure,” John Otway. Take my word for it; his version is drastically different from the Blues Projects’.

Two Trains Running.mp3
Cheryl’s Going Home.mp3

'Last Night On Earth'

2010-01-02T09:56:00.002-05:00

I kinda-sorta remember seeing Green Day play live on some New Year’s countdown show a couple of nights ago. What continues to impress me is the power of the band in a live setting. While the albums have become increasingly grown up (I’m not saying that’s a bad thing – how many more songs about masturbation do we really need?), Green Day live are still the sneering kids we loved 15 years ago.

A couple of months ago Green Day dropped a Japan-only live EP, Last Night On Earth (Live In Tokyo), that pulls in some of that live energy and offers a brief career retrospective. The six-song disk opens with “21st Century Breakdown” and finishes a quick 20 minutes later with “Geek Stink Breath.” When I looked at the track list, I thought it might be strange to hear the new “adult” stuff alongside hits from Dookie. Funny enough, it wasn’t. It all fit together nicely.

Since this is an official release, I’m not going to post the whole EP. It saw release in the U.S. as an import last month, so I’m sure you can find the whole thing if you try.

Last of the American Girls.mp3
Basket Case.mp3

'White Men In Hammersmith Odeon'

2010-01-01T12:30:00.005-05:00

Happy New Year!

I haven’t posted any live music in a while and it seems the new year would be a good time to get back into the habit. I had tried to plan this as a New Year’s Eve post, but other activities got in the way.

I picked this particular performance from the Clash because of its date. I was looking for an NYE performance and this December 27 show is the closest I could find. It’s actually from the 1979 Concerts for the People of Kampuchea benefit show. The Clash appeared along with Ian Dury and Matumbi on the second night. There is an official album from the four-day event, but only one Clash song, “Armagideon Time,” made its way onto that release. For the sake of my sanity, I’m not gonna post that here (although savvy readers may find a “bonus” track in the RapidShare DL).

A bit o’ background: The Clash had toured America in September and October of 1979, where they previewed some songs from the-then-unreleased London Calling LP. With that album fresh in the shops by the Kampuchea show, songs from it were much more prominent in the set list. Also of note is a revved-up ska-like version of “Bankrobber,” different from the soon-to-be-released single, which was more in the reggae style of its inspiration, Max Romeo’s “Public Enemy Number One.”

Clash City Rockers.mp3
Brand New Cadillac.mp3
Safe European Home.mp3
Jimmy Jazz.mp3
Clampdown.mp3
The Guns of Brixton.mp3
Train In Vain.mp3
Wrong ‘em Boyo.mp3
Koka Kola.mp3
White Man in Hammersmith Palais.mp3
Stay Free.mp3
Bankrobber.mp3
Janie Jones.mp3
Complete Control.mp3
Armagideon Time
London Calling.mp3

or – get it all in one shot here.

'Youth Nabbed As Sniper'

2009-12-30T07:00:00.000-05:00

While the Licorice Pizza interns were hard at work on Christmas posts last week, I was busy searching for other things that I thought might entertain you. In my quest, I happened to pick up a couple of pretty cool albums: The first I’ll post from today; one of the others I may get into in a few days.

Plastic Letters, Blondie’s 1978 sophomore release, has never been one of my favorites from the band. Although it does have a couple of decent songs – i.e. “Denis” and “(I'm Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear” – I’m mostly inclined to agree with the scribe who said it sounded like leftovers from their debut disk.

But here’s why I was happy to get my hands on the 2001 re-released version: It contains “Once I Had A Love,” which is the original version of “Heart of Glass.” Blondie recorded this much slower version in 1975, and would sometimes play it live, but never released it. It wasn’t until Parallel Lines in 1978, when Mike Chapman would pump up the bass and increase the beats to 120 per minute, that the song was officially released.

This original version is more in keeping with the pop-oriented Blondie songs, while it also looks forward to the funky reggae that would come with “The Tide is High” in 1980.

Once I Had A Love.mp3

Woozy Viper Speaks in Tongues

2009-12-27T07:00:00.000-05:00

From Kansas, via New York, come the brothers Meseke. The duo, which goes by the name Woozy Viper, have just released their eponymous debut, an album of back-to-basics acoustic rock.

Don’t be misled into thinking these guys play peace and love coffee house music, though. From the album’s opening line, “I’ve got graveyard dirt in my mouth,” you know they’re up to something a little different. Without a doubt, there’s more blues influence than folk on this disk.

The brothers write with a sense of humor as well, with songs about King Kong (“He didn’t give a shit / Until some girl messed with his head and he wound up dead”) and hypocritical faith healers (“Slip out them blue jeans, get down on your knees / ‘Cuz, I’m gonna teach you, baby, how to believe”).

Check these songs, and then click over to Woozy Viper’s MySpace page, where you’ll find a link to download their album for free.

Speaking in Tongues.mp3
The Switchblade Swing.mp3

Happy Christmas

2009-12-25T07:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Christmas to you and yours.

I’ve decided to finish off this Christmas song season with quality rather than quantity. These three songs are right up there with my all time favorites. I hope you enjoy them as well.

Like every year at Christmas, there’s been a slight uptick in visitors to my little blog, most of them searching for seasonal music. I hope at least a few of you come back. Once in a while I post some listenable stuff.

Little Drummer Boy (extended version).mp3 ~ Jimi Hendrix
Christmas (demo).mp3 ~ The Who
Winter Wonderland.mp3 ~ Dean Martin

Down the Holiday Trail, pt. V

2009-12-23T07:00:00.000-05:00

Maybe it’s the colder weather but I’m feeling a little more Christmasy than a couple of days ago. I’d like to see this chill continue on through the weekend, but it doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen.

I was looking around the Internet a couple of days ago, trying to find out if the Stones had ever released any kind of a Christmas song. I know there’s Keith’s version of “Run Rudolph Run,” which I posted the other day, but beyond that, it doesn’t seem there are any Rolling Stones Christmas releases . Being the anti-Beatles they were, apparently Christmas music wasn’t their style. About the closest I found is “Winter” from the Goats Head Soup album. I’m not a hundred percent sure what the song is about but it’s – no surprise – a winter sorta tune with the line “And I wish I'd been out in California / When the lights on all the Christmas trees went out.”

Actually, if you look at the lines around that line, the song seems to be about someone being exiled for sexual sins. And if that ain’t Christmas, I don’t know what is.

Winter.mp3 ~ Rolling Stones
Joy to the World.mp3 ~ Pure Defiance
Dead By Xmas.mp3 ~ Hanoi Rocks
Let Me Sleep (Christmas Time).mp3 ~ Pearl Jam
Santa Bring My Baby Back to Me.mp3 ~ Charlie Sexton

Down the Holiday Trail, pt. IV

2009-12-21T07:00:00.000-05:00

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas here in Mee-yami. For at least a couple of days anyway as temperatures plunged into the 40s last night. I suspect that by Christmas Day I’ll have the air conditioner back on, so I’m enjoying the seasonal weather while I can.

Today’s music consists mainly of classic rock classics, with a couple of exceptions: I posted the Fiona Apple version of “Frosty the Snowman” last year and I thought it was quirky / cool enough to pull out again this year. “Together in Our Holiday Sweaters” is a brand new track this year; it just recently showed up in my mailbox. I thought I’d share it, since I like Christmas songs with bad attitudes.

Frosty the Snowman.mp3 ~ Fiona Apple
Ave Maria.mp3 ~ Pacific Chorale
Father Christmas.mp3 ~ Kinks
Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home).mp3 ~ U2
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!.mp3 ~ Brian Setzer Orchestra
Together in Our Holiday Sweaters.mp3 ~ My First Earthquake

Down the Holiday Trail, pt. III

2009-12-19T13:32:00.003-05:00

My personal little slice of Christmas spirit and why I’d prefer to shop online: I went this morning to a big box retailer, looking for two specific items and an unspecific one. I couldn’t find the two specific items and decided not to get the third.

While at the store, I was subjected to crowds, rudeness, and a couple of people who apparently decided it was more important to shop than bathe. I also caught sight of an individual unironically wearing full Ed Hardy gear, including a hat carefully cocked and tilted. That made me laugh, which made the whole trip worthwhile.

Enjoy today’s music.

Must Be Santa.mp3 ~ Bob Dylan
Jingle Bells.mp3 ~ Pearl Jam
Story of the Magi / Silent Night.mp3 ~ White Stripes
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.mp3 ~ Christina Aguilera
Santa Baby.mp3 ~ Madonna

Down the Holiday Trail, pt. II

2009-12-17T07:00:00.000-05:00

This picture is of a car I actually saw a few days ago here in Miami. I only wish I could have seen it at night: It seems like a truly glorious holiday spectacle.

And so Christmas draws ever nearer. I watched “A Charlie Brown Christmas” the other night, so I suppose you could say my holidays are coming together nicely.

Once again, here are a few random, seasonally appropriate songs. Enjoy.

Winter Wonderland.mp3 ~ Ray Charles
The Christmas Spell.mp3 ~ Peggy Lee
Santa Claus and His Old Lady.mp3 ~ Cheech & Chong
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).mp3 ~ The Raveonettes
Peace on Earth / Little Drummer Boy.mp3 ~ Bing Crosby and David Bowie

Down the Holiday Trail, pt. I

2009-12-15T18:16:00.004-05:00

Ten days before Christmas and 10 days since my last post seems like a good mid-point and a good place to jump up on the holiday song bandwagon.

I’m going to take it a little easier on myself this year than I did last year and post just a few random songs a day, every other day until Christmas Day. Then I’ll do a massive Christmas song dump – haha, just kidding.

I’ve picked up a couple of new things since last year, but for the most part, these are holiday standards we all know and love. From today’s post, one of the new things for me is the Flirtations’ “Christmastime is Here Again,” which I found when I was looking the other day for “Nothing But a Heartache.” A beautiful version by a woefully underappreciated 60’s “girl group.” The other song I just recently found is the Boss’ version of “Blue Christmas,” a live version that I think was recorded in December 2000.

So, settle down, put another log on the fire – or, if you’re in someplace like Miami, turn the air conditioning a little lower – and let’s all get in the holiday spirit.

Run Rudolph Run.mp3 ~ Keith Richards
Blue Christmas (live).mp3 ~ Bruce Springsteen
Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight).mp3 ~ Ramones
Christmas Time is Here Again.mp3 ~ The Flirtations
Silent Night / Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis.mp3 ~ Tom Waits