I was asked to guest blog at The Bubble Death, a music blog based in San Diego. I don't know the protocol about such an endeavor, and was tempted to just shamelessly post Re-Ree songs, but instead I dug deep into my collection and posted a kick ass song by a kick ass band. So go here to check out what I picked.
Both nights of Radiohead's Sold Out San Diego shows are now available for download. Check out Monday and Tuesday. Click each song for an MP3.
Or download the zip of Monday's show here. Zip of Tuesday's show here.
Evidently the Tuesday crowd had their off in the distance visual trump our Monday firework show, when a crazy rocket test launch that Boeing did culminated in an awesome trail and explosion off on the horizon.
Here's Fake Plastic Trees from Tuesday:
The last thing I can remember ignoring, when it was as guarantee a home run for me as conceivably possible, was The Life Aquatic. Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums are two movies that I absolutely love, (Bottle Rocket, ehhhh), but for some reason I didn't make it to the theater to see The Life Aquatic and ended up watching it at home months after it came out. In the exact same style is The Ricky Gervais show, his downloadable podcast radio show. I remember hearing that this came out like 8 months ago, and was even given the emphatic "It's hilarious" guarantee by a friend about two months ago. Somehow, it completely did not manifest itself as a priority until yesterday, when I read an interview with Ricky Gervais in Stop Smiling magazine and decided to check the podcast out.
Holy god. I spent all day yesterday looking around, hoping that if anyone at work happened to see one of the many uncontrollable laughing outbursts I was having, that they would notice the headphones and infer that I was listening to something funny. The low point came during an episode of Monkey News (more on that below) towards the end of the day, when I heard something funny while sipping water, attempted to suppress a spit take, and ended up almost choking as the water went down the wrong pipe. The Ricky Gervais show: funny enough to almost kill you, or at least get you fired for spitting water all over expensive equipment.
Anyone who has seen The Office, and Extras needs no introduction to Ricky Gervais, or co-host Steven Merchant for that matter, the man who played the agent on Extras and Gareth's pal The Oggmonster on The Office. But the central character of these podcasts is the third man, Karl Pilkington, who has already amassed a vast internet following, as well as rumors about whether or not he is real. The show centers around Gervais and Merchant asking him questions, or prompting him to tell a story, which they then dissect and dispute, even as he is still telling the story. They analyze how Karl's mind works, and the effect is to reinforce why the absurd nonsense, coming out of the calmest, most qualude-ed up sounding guy you can imagine, is so absurd. They make him answer reader emails, read from his diary, (Sample entry: "Had a drink in bar...Everyone sat and watched one of the local cats lick its bollox.") and of course, Monkey News, where Karl delivers a ridiculous lengthy story about monkeys in the news that Gervais scoffs at.
Karl Pilkington
At least two dozen times per episode, Gervais lets loose with the high pitched girlish laugh that you heard on the office when David Brent was seen helping to pull off an obese co-workers pants in front of the camera. The laugh is so contagious that I nearly caused us to drive off the road on the way home today, even though I wasn't even driving, and the joke that Ricky Gervais was laughing at was because Karl Pilkington got a piece of mail addressed to "Mr. Dilkington." Even as Ricky Gervais was laughing and shrieking, "I don't know why that's so funny!" I found myself laughing so hard that I almost started hitting myself over the head with a mallet, like the wolf in those old Tex Avery Cartoons.
So there are 18 half hour podcasts so far...That's 9 hours of hilarity. It's a guarantee people, a can't miss. You will love it. I put up one of the podcasts from the first series for download, it features one of the better monkey news segments, and I don't remember what else. The first 12 episodes cost $4.95 and the last 6 cost 6$.95, all at Audible.com. Don't sleep on it like I did. They are the funniest things you will hear all year. In a world of tepid comedic entertainment, where romantic comedies like "Wedding Crashers" can pass for edgy, offensive comedy, Ricky Gervais' humor makes me laugh the way I did when I saw Eddie Murphy "Delerious" for the first time. This is the only time I'll implore you to not behave like me - download these podcasts without further delay.
Download an episode of The RIcky Gervais Show
The Art Of The Reprise
There are many thing that makes the experience of listening to whole albums great. There's the cover art, the liner notes, the continuity, the ability to not know a songs name, but to know when it comes along. There are segues, intros, hidden tracks...and there are reprises. Reprises are truly an audacious move when you think about it. Nothing reveals a band as having some sort of hidden artistic agenda quite like a reprise. "Here you go," a reprise seems to say. "You bought our album, you're listening to it all the way through and for some reason, now you've just come to a song that we've decided to repeat in a varied fashion for a shorter amount of time than it took the first time through. Why? You figure it out."
Though they may be audacious and at times inexplicable, the reprise can also be a nice touch, lending a great deal to the continuity of the album and making you realize that you're listening to real musicians who put some effort and thought into their music. Or in the case of Oasis, they no doubt just got blown out of their gourds and decided to hire a orchestra one day.
So here are a collection of reprises, from varied artists and eras. I've tried to rate them on how effective I think it is as a reprise. It's a unique and esoteric criteria to judge something by, since I'm not really even sure what it means myself. But let's give it a shot:
The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
A reprise that has found its way onto a mix CD of mine at some point in time, a feat that the original song cannot claim. i think that this song defines what a reprise should be. Contains enough elements from the original, but stands on its own, thus giving it a reason to exist. In the Beatles case, I think that the reprise is better than the original. It may be their second most rocked out song of all time, with killer fuzzy guitar licks throughout. And when they slip the "One and only" into the middle of "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" the effect is sublime.
Sufjan Stevens - A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, But for Very Good Reasons
There's nothing particularly wrong with this brief stretch of music. It just doesn't need to exist. It's mostly a continuation of the previous track "Jacksonville" on the Illinois album. Jacksonville flows into this song, making "Mary Todd" more of a coda, and I feel like they should have just been made one song. It also loses points for not identifying which song it is reprising. But it's not offensive to listen to in any way. Unlike...
Nick Cave - O'Malley's Bar (Reprise)
Let's list the litany of things wrong with this reprise. First of all, it is not a song. It is disjointed sound fragments. It has nothing to do with the song it is reprising, which is a nifty 14 minute long story about an intense bar murder. It doesn't even appear on the same album, but rather on a b-side collection. It is very unpleasant as far as sound collages go, and is why scraping the bottom of the barrel for material to release for artists is never a good idea.
Konono #1 - Kule Kule (Reprise)
Innocuous enough, but since i can't understand the words and all the music by Konono #1 sounds the same to me, its value as a reprise is lost on me.
Dr. John - Familiar Reality (Reprise)
This gets points for being the album closer. It also gets points for revisiting the major theme of one of the albums best songs, as the lady singers wail the title over and over again towards the end of the song. It gets points for being in the right spot, the last song, (even though whether a reprise belongs in the last or second to last spot is a debatable topic.) It also gets points for pioneering the "artist doesn't even appear on the song" method of reprises, adding to their mystique. It's just not that exciting of a song overall though.
The Beastles - Root Down (Reprise)
This song, from DJ BC's first Beastles masup compliation is great. Sampling from the above mentioned greatest reprise of all time and layering it over one of my favorite Beastie Boys raps is a nice touch. Super bonus points becuase it is the strategicly placed last track on the compilation.
Pearl Jam - Wasted (Reprise)
This reprise is far sparser than the song it reprises. It's just Eddie Vedder singing as a church style organ plays behind him. The effect is quite nice, it puts a neat spin on the rocking album opener. But if you reprise the album opener, I feel like it should come as the last track on the album, and three more songs follow this cut.
Oasis - All Around The World (Reprise)
The second ever reprise that I've put on a mix CD. This closes out Oasis' "Be Here Now" album, and is a orchestral reprise of the already excessive nine minute "All Around The World." Reprises are an excessive format themselves, so when the reprise kicks in a song after the original, it finishes off the album in ultra excessive fashion. It is also a good antidote if you're tired of hearing All Around the World in the cell phone commercial or whatever it is in now.
David Bowie - Sweet Thing (Reprise)
David Bowie figures to be someone who would have done his share of reprises in his day, but this one is not one of his finest. It comes in the middle of the album, reprises a song that didn't need reprising, fades off into oblivion without any epic-ness, comes one song after the original, and is just not a very pleasant song to listen to.
Soundgarden - Full On (Reprise)
This is the last song on Soundgardens early "Louder than Love" album. They try to go out in epic classic reprise fashion here, as a chorus wails "Full On" over and over again for the duration, with Chris Cornell joining in himself with a few more lyrics, but mostly "Full On." It gradually descends towards the end into guitar feedback. If you only heard this song, you might think that they were up to something on the album a bit deeper than songs like "Big Dumb Sex."
Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - Happy (Reprise)
Airy and echoey, this reprise could conceivably work its way onto a mix somewhere. It reminds me sort of the Beach Boys Smile session outtake "You're Welcome." Jenny Lewis sings the phrase over and over again with just a wood block accompaniment until it fades away, thus ending her album
Rufus Wainwright - Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk (Reprise)
This reprise of the first song on the Poses album is really more of a remix. It features a drum machine and some different music and studio effects, but is still the same basic song. Since the original version is the first song on the album, this seems like more of a bonus track than a reprise, but it's still an alright song.
Os Mutantes - Panis Et Circences (Reprise)
This song utilizes the same technique as many of the above reprises: repeated phrasing, extended fades, semi-epic sounding orchestration. It also closes out the album as a reprise of the first track, making it a nice bookend effect. I like this song, but probably wouldn't stick it on a mix CD.
Son Volt - World Waits For You (Reprise)
This sort of suffers from the coda-effect that I mentioned in the Sufjan Stevens song. Just seems more of an extension of the song that precedes it than a true reprise. I guess in my mind, a reprise means returning to something after you've left it for a while, not just continuing it onto another track. It's got a cool epic sounding countrified guitar solo, and repeated lyrics, but I'd like it better if it wasn't just a coda.
Ween - She Wanted To Leave (Reprise)
Ween gets points for this song because they were the only ones brash enough to use the ironic technique of reprising a song that was not on the album. And it's a pretty cool song too. Bonus points for the last sound effect, which reminds me of the dramatic episode ending sound from "Lost."
Sublime - What I Got (Reprise)
This one is tough. It's not really a reprise, this version of the song got played on the radio just as much as the original. It's more of a bonus track in this respect. But I think it's a much better version of the song, and the fact that I didn't know today that I'd been listening to a reprise all those years ago made me like it better. Do I contradict myself? Very well then..
Queen - Flash's Theme (Reprise)
Queen gets points for putting a reprise on a soundtrack album, it shows a degree of commitment and aristry involved in a project that other bands might simply have tossed off. The song unfortunately sounds like a movie preview because of all the film clips, and isn't very enjoyable to listen to. I do like the way it ends, but would have preferred an entire song to build up to that moment.
Outkast - Player's Ball (Reprise)
Anybody unsure about Outkast's staying power back when their first album came out should have taken note of this reprise at the end of the album. Rap albums are known (unfortunately) for their intros and outros, but reprising an earlier song is a feat that is attempted much less frequently. Ironically, this reprise has it's own spoken intro at the beginning of it, and it is the last song on the album, so it embodies the coveted intro-reprise-outro trifecta that so few have attempted, and even fewer have achieved.
The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) (Alt. Version)
This comes from the Anthology Vol. 2 album. The fact that there is an Alternative Version of a reprise is close to being mind blowing. The music on this version is a bit rawer, but every bit as cool as the album version. Unfortunately the singing is a bit sloppier, and the key "One and only lonely" line is omitted, rendering it an interesting yet forgettable footnote in the reprise canon.
Well that was fun! If I left anything out or if you have any suggestions please let me know. If I get enough reprises suggested that I missed, who knows? We could have another entry "The Art of the Reprise (Reprise)"
Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour continues to be a weekly entertaining listen. Though the Baseball theme in week four was rather week, too many novelty songs, not enough Steve Goodman, it is always fun to see what he pulls out of his bag. Hearing what newer songs he chooses to play every week are interesting as well. They're pretty infrequent, since as Dylan said on the Coffee show "There are more old songs than new songs out there," but when he puts on a Blur tune, as he did this week with "Coffee & TV" you always have to wonder where he came across it. Next weeks theme is Jail, which should be interesting. My friend Andrew rightly wonders what's going to happen by the time the third season rolls around and Dylan is stuck with themes like "Corn," "Potatoes" and "Blue Jeans."
For those of you without XM, Patrick at White Man's Stew has set up a page with downloads of all five programs so far. They're available in MP3s of the whole show, or broken down into segments. Go check them out here.
Why are you inside reading blogs? Enjoy the evenings with a mini soundtrack before the gloom returns!
-Little John and the Merry Men - The Phony King of England
-The greatest song from a Disney movie, period.
-Grateful Dead - Sugar Magnolia
-The longest version I have on my computer. Without the ending breakdown, this song is a shell of itself.
-The New Pornographers - The Bleeding Heart Show
-For when you get tired of Sing Me Spanish Techno (which is impossible)
-Bruce Springsteen - Bishop Danced
-An incredible one of a kind song. I'd be interested to know if anybody has covered it...
-Lee Michaels - Heighty Hi
-Upon recommendation from my dad
That was easy, and surprisingly fun. Let's hope it wasn't habit forming.
A month or two ago I posted just the stories from Tom Waits' VH1 Storytellers episode. People dug them, and demanded the songs. I completely forgot about it until today, when somebody posted a comment and I remembered that I still had yet to post the songs. So here they are!
The storytellers episode is great: the song performances are top notch from an artist that rarely performs live, and as I said before, the stories are just as entertaining on their own. They kind of remind me of the SNL "Neil Diamond Storytellers" sketch starring Will Ferrell - a fantastical story, featuring unbelievable situations and ridiculous characters that launches into a seemingly unrelated song that could have in theory been any song in the artists repertoire. That video is below, actual videos of Waits' Storytellers performance and the story MP3s can still be found here.
If you want the whole show, download a zip file here.
1. Tango Til They're Sore
2. Hang Down Your Head
3. Ol' 55
4. Strange Weather
5. Hold On
6. Picture In A Frame
7. I Can't Wait To Get Off Work
8. House Where Nobody Lives
9. Get Behind The Mule
10. Chocolate Jesus
11. What's He Building In There
12. A Little Rain
13. Downtown Train
14. Black Wings
15. Jesus Gonna Be Here
16. Jersey Girl
17. Chocolate Jesus (Alt.)
18. Tango Til They're Sore (Alt.)
19. Hang Down Your Head (Alt.)
I heard Humble Pie's cover of "Honky Tonk Woman" on XM today today. Then I heard it like seven more times, each time louder than the next. It rules. Humble Pie, for those of you who were as unaware as I was before today, was a band that included Peter Frampton, among other people, and also Steve Marriott, the former singer of the Small Faces. Their cover of Honky Tonk Woman just blows the original out of the water. The singer can wail, the guitarist alternates between the riff and shredding solos, and the drummer...The drummer is just insane. Just bashing the shit out of the drums for the entire song, letting up for maybe 15 seconds tops, and then going right back into just drumming like nothing I've ever heard before. He somhow plays the crash cymbal on like every beat while still managing to pretty much solo the rest of the song. There's no way that you could hear this song and not instantly imagine Animal, the drummer for Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem Band on The Muppets playing the drums while shackled to his kit. Tremendous.
It's probably also important to note that the song has been covered by Joe Cocker, The Meters, The Pogues, The Black Crowes and The Rolling Stones themselves, and despite many impressive versions by an equally impressive lineup, no version can touch the Humble Pie one. Lest you think Humble Pie is some kind of one trick wonder, I present to you Thirty Days In The Hole. My friend Richard rightly insists that there is no way that this song should have not been included on "The Spaghetti Incident
After getting the mental pictures of Animal bashing the drums in my head, I found it impossible not to spend the rest of the day thinking about the Muppets. I realized that there was another song that I've always associated with a specific duo of Muppets. And though it may not be as good a song, and have nowhere near the energy or repeat listening value of Humble Pie's "Honky Tonk Woman", I challenge you to listen to Simon and Garfunkel's "Old Friends" and deny that that picture of Waldorf and Statler sitting on that park bench will be forever etched in your mind whenever you hear the song again. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the Muppets did some sort of music video for that song where those two "Old Friends" were "Sitting on a park bench like bookends" because otherwise, it's just an astonishing way to bring that song to life.
Any other songs out there that make Muppets spring to mind?
Humble Pie - Greatest Hits Live
Simon & Garfunkel - Bookends
Guns N' Roses - The Spaghetti Incident
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Axl Rose - Still Reassuring, Even Underwater
Guns N' Roses just played four sold out shows in New York. Though they won't be coming this way anytime soon, I think it is reassuring to know that they are out there. Knowing that Axl and the band are performing somewhere in the world gives me the same feeling as every time I glance down at the bottom of my firefox window and see the picture of Abe Vigoda, indicating that he is still alive.
The MP3s that have surfaced of the show are not the best quality, but I've posted the new songs from the show on the fifteenth below, just in case you've missed them so far. Also, Sebastian Bach of Skid Row joined Axl to sing My Michelle, Dizzy Reed got a chance to shine playing a piano solo of The Beatles "Something" and each guitarist got to indulge in song length "Eruption" style guitar solos. Brooklyn Vegan has some terrific photos of the show on the 12th. This one is my favorite. Halfway unbuttoned leather jacket and sunglasses at night indoors underneath a projected stained glass window. God, it's like looking into a mirror...
UPDATE: Links have been removed, sorry!
1. Welcome To The Jungle
2. It's So Easy
3. Mr. Brownstone
4. Live And Let Die
5. Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal Guitar Solo
6. Knockin' On Heaven's Door
7. Better
8. Robin Finck Guitar Solo
9. Sweet Child O' Mine
10. Something (Piano Solo)
11. The Blues
12. Out ta Get Me
13. Richard Fortus & Robin Finck Guitar Solo
14. Rocket Queen
15. My Michelle w/Sebastion Bach
16. Madagascar
17. You Could Be Mine
18. November Rain
19. I.R.S.
20. Richard Fortus Guitar Solo
21. Nighttrain
Encore:
22. Patience
23. Chinese Democracy
24. Robin Finck Guitar Solo
25. Paradise City
UPDATE: I've posted the Street Scene lineup, with MP3 links, here.
You know the feeling you get as you sit in an airport waiting for you flight to take off when you have a connecting flight you have to make? You're there an hour early, sitting in the terminal waiting. You notice the airplane hasn't arrived yet. No matter, you've still got plenty of time. As long as you take off no less than an hour late, you'll still be fine for your connection. But it gradually become a battle between optimism and reality, and as the clock starts ticking down, you come to the grim realization ten minutes before your deadline that the plane's not coming, you're going to miss your connection, and your vacation is ruined.
Well that's what this past week has been like watching the Street Scene rumors trickle in. The latest, collected nicely for us at the UT's Liner Notes, indicate that She Wants Revenge, My Chemical Romance, Yellowcard and possibly Tool are added to the lineup. The possibility of pulling off an event to rival Lollapalooza that same August weekend appears to have evaporated almost laughably quickly, and as the clock ticks down towards the Monday lineup annoucement, one can only hope that whoever is piloting the Street Scene plane pulls off some Chuck Yeager style heroics to bring the bird in safely. What is most unsettling about the whole thing is not the lack fo indie buzz bands, or major headliners, but rather that the Street Scene seems completely focused in the absolute nadir of shitty genres: the emo/punk bands.
The problem with these bands, none of which I have ever listened to and could not name a song or album by, is that they forgot something about the very basics of punk. Though the Sex Pistols were angry, and the Ramones could only play three chords, both of these bands were essentially pop music gone horribly awry. If you take away the sneering vocals, some of the distortion and slow it all down a wee bit, you've got a sixties pop song. Maybe take out the abortion and glue sniffing subject matter, but anyways. Bands like The Clash would further expound upon the inherent poppiness in early punk music, creating songs that build, segue, flow, you know, songs that behave like Beatles songs. I remember in 8th grade when Green Day came out with Dookie, and all the magazines talked about was the "return of punk." I was confused then, and only now realize that what they meant was the return of punk that you can actually listen to. Nobody's saying you have to puss out to make a pop-esque punk album. But at some point in time, I imagine that artists get a bit tired of playing unpleasant music, and decide that more ambitious goals (the long rumored fourth chord!) are worth a shot.
So as an antidote for the shitty punk/emo that the Street Scene is offering up, I present to you San Diego's own Fifty On Their Heels. Listening to these guys the past couple days has really made me aware of the fact that a record does't have to go by at 120 mph and be shoved down your throat to be punk. The singer has a voice that you'll feel like you've heard many times before, sort of snotty, faux British. But where the band really shines is the music, which manages to never sound the same, and even accomplishes the ultimate punk coup of incorporating different musical passages and even different instruments into the same song. You know how on American Idiot, Green Day had a couple nine minute song "suites" that sounded like 6 different songs put together? Well my favorite song on the album, Occupation, pulls off a similar trick in just three and a half minutes. I hear traces of Rancid in the beginning, and Sex Pistols in the vocals, with a Strokes kind of guitar lick for the chorus and a Clash style breakdown all before it builds to an utterly triumphant, cut off too brief finale.
The guys sound like they're having fun. Which is important. But more important, they sound like the kind of band that you could have fun going to see. Fortunately for you, they're playing two shows in San Diego in June, and will be playing lots more all summer long. Check out the myspace page for dates, a few more streaming songs as well as info on where to get their new CD. San Diego has been on a roll with local bands lately. It's too bad that the major summer festival looks headed in the opposite direction.
Dowload MP3 of Fifty On Their Heels - Occupation
http://www.myspace.com/fiftyontheirheels
June 13th @ The Casbah
So both of the Radiohead shows sold out very quickly on Saturday. I managed to get four tickets to Monday's concert, and have noticed that tickets are already being offered up for outrageous (at least double the actual cost) prices on Craigslist and ebay. The internet definitely gives anybody the advantage of being able to quickly and easily buy tickets for any show in America and be selling them minutes later. For recent concerts I've bought tickets for, this and Bruce Springsteen, the internet seemed like the only way to possibly obtain tickets, and evidently it was a seconds-different crapsoot since everyone was pretty much doing it at the same time.
So did anybody else get lucky? Anybody know how many tickets were for sale each night?
Whether you made it or you didn't, everyone can enjoy the below recording of Radiohead playing in Copenhagen just a few days ago on May 6th. It can either get you pumped for the show, psyched enough to shell out the dough to a scalper, or maybe even push you towards sour grapes "all those new songs aren't any good anyways" mode.
A zip file of the MP3s is available at http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CN0GDYYB
Q: What is "Hail, and Farewell Gothenburg?"
A: The sequel to Sweden, never released.
That's always been an intriguing little exchange from the FAQ on the Mountain Goats website. Ah, the fabled "Lost album." There is no better way to get peoples minds a-racing and anticipations dreadfully out of wack. I still remember reading a Beatles biography in ninth grade where the author breathlessly wrote about some vaulted tapes that only he had ever heard, but that were so mind blowingly great that the reader, the simple 15 year old wanting to learn about the Beatles, could not even look at them, lest he wind up like the nazi's upon opening the ark of covenant, and that would be if he was lucky.
Who Cares?
Of course, those tapes turned up on the Anthology series, and later on Let It Be...Naked and nobody gave a damn. Distinguishing between similar sounding takes of a song and deciding which one is "Best" (which is never the released one that you've heard) is a passion enjoyed solely by the joyless elitists. Admitedly, sometimes a reworking of a song can completely change the animal. Bob Dylan's Idiot Wind has three distinct versions, all which change and enhance different emotions. Idiot Wind on Blood On The Tracks
Look at this watch...You won't believe what this thing can do...
Of course, an entire unreleased album is a very different situation. Though they just as rarely ever live up to the hype, they are often more satisfying and a more complete vision than the hours of outtakes and alternative versions that even the most pedestrian bands accumulate. Recently, the above Mountain Goats album, Hail and Farewell, Gothenburg recently surfaced on the internet. It had long been rumored to only exist on a single cassette tape, if at all. Evidently, it inspires a good deal of emotion and devotion (a little E & D never hurt anybody) in Mountain Goats fans. Somebody posted it at this SendSpace site. For a casual fan, I think it's hard to tell what distinguishes it from other early Mountain Goats recordings, but the song "Crane" stood out to me as a highlight during the first listen. The band is coming to the Casbah on June 15th, and have recently released a new EP.
And as one long lost album finally surfaces, another one prepares hints that it may do so soon, as Axl Rose announced today. It's hard to say what the best strategy would be for Axl regarding Chinese Democracy. As more and more people come of age musically that have never lived in a world where Guns n Roses has existed as a band, the possibility of them becoming a cross-generational punchline grows greater and greater. I would advise him to shelve everything for two more decades, just to avoid the awkward middle aged stage that claims all men except maybe Jack Nicholson, and emerge when he's in his "Cool old guy" stage, where its considered positive if you get really fat. As far as the new album goes, I think that the best Axl is going to get from people will be the damning faint praise of "It's not as bad as you'd think."
But in the back of my mind will always be this article that Kurt Loder wrote in January, 2001 after the new lineup had played Rock In Rio. I was a sophomore in college, with the above poster of Rose on my bedroom wall, and when I read lines such as:
"a tribe of burly security guards began sweeping away un-credentialed idlers with a snarling insistence rarely seen since the heyday of such preshow prima donnas as Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones.played with a passion and precision that's unlikely to be matched in any other quarter anytime soon.
he remains one of the great can't-take-your-eyes-off-him rock stars, twirling back and forth across the stage...pausing only to lean back and emit a proverbial banshee wail"
I wanted to believe. Loder ended by tell us to "pray for a tour." Now it appears we may get yet another one from the new lineup (I was at the last tour show in Philly, where Axl cancelled and the fans rioted. I left quickly.) I pray more that Axl is able to make one last contribution to the rock canon before he packs it in. A contribution, not a footnote.
Bad Sinatra - Get it?
Frank Sinatra has more than one box set of recordings that consists of over a dozen CDs. This is a staggering amount of recordings, even for one of America's most beloved entertainers. The duration of his career would be similar to Michael Jordan pressing on for eight more seasons with the Wizards, or a desperate Ray Manzarek trying to dig up Jim Morrison's body and attaching strings to it to perform a reunion tour Weekend At Bernie's style. Some things just go on for too long, or are so sprawling and prolific, that there are bound to be some missteps.
So to capitalize on this, every time my iTunes shuffle hits up on a particularly lousy Sinatra song, of which there are far too many as it is on my computer, I've been dragging it over to a Bad Sinatra playlist. It is ever growing, and I'm always amazed to see some of the territory he thought it natural or necessary to venture into. Disco, Cartoon songs, Neil Diamond...But as bad as it all is, a lot of it has its own unique charm, and that's what makes it worth sharing. So stay tuned for future installments, but check out these for now:
-Until The Real Thing Comes Along : This was the first one on my playlist. Upon listening to it again just now I thought I might have made a mistake , but in the last minute or so, Mr. Sinatra makes a reference to a 80s pop culture icon (Hint: It is Mr. T) that just vaults it into the realm of "rewind...oh my god, that's what I thought he said!"
-The Coffee Song : Sinatra rhymes Tomato with Potato. Date her with Perculator. He sings "They put coffee in the coffee" and "Coffee pickles well outsell the dill". As obviously slapped together quickly by Sinatra, and apparantly Dr. Seuss' retarted stepson, as "The Coffee Song" is, the band still manages to bring it, breaking for an extended solo passage, and Sinatra sings with highly caffeinated enthusiasm. This is "Good" bad.
-Bein' Green : This is "Bad" bad. Unlistenable. And yes, it's that Bein' Green song.
-Mrs. Robinson : You can just imagine Frank going into the studio, angry at these disrespectful rock and rollers for climbing the charts without regard for how to actually sing a song, thinking "I'm gonna show them how to sing a song." And then emerging from this recording session thinking he had done just that, while his cronies slapped him on the back and said "You done it Frank, these kids'll never last." You can also imagine the failed inventor, sitting at home alone and miserable hearing this song and deciding that a fantastic product called "Karaoke" needed to be unleashed upon the world.
And just becuase it obviously isn't all bad, here's one of the best: The Most Beautiful Girl In The World.
Not enough local bands email me to tell me about their shows or MP3s, and I'll be damned if I dip my toe into the uncharted waters of venturing out to venues completely blind. We've all been there, usually when you move to a new town, or start school somewhere. One new friend convinces you to just head out to a club where an unknown band is playing, or go see a movie that you never even knew existed. In an effort to prove your open mindedness to this free spirit, you go along, and by the end of the worst two hours of your life you are fairly sure that you never want to speak to that person again, but iyou know with absolute certainty if you ever hear the phrase "going in blind" again in your life, you will render the person saying it unable to participate in an activity in any other manner than that for the rest of their life. (If you couldn't tell, I recently got burned going into something blind. It was a movie, and it was called Brick. You know how ignorant people look at a Jackson Pollock painting and say 'My five year old could have done that?' Well your average ninth grader absolutely could make a better movie than Brick. Never in my life have I regretted not chosing to go see Phat Girlz more.)
Fortunately, here I am to recommend to local bands to everyone, and just in time for some kick ass shows. First up is Firethorn, who played at the Tiki's local showcase last week, which I missed, but also are playing at Blind Melon's tomorrow with Vintage Honey. Firethorn I guess you could say are rooted in punk, but obviously they're not so far into the realm of punk where I would not be mentioning them on this website. In the way that Nirvana was punk, in terms of heavy power chords, and frayed vocals, that's how Firethorn is punk. Not shouting indistinguishably and generally making everyone miserable around them. Both Reflecting Pond and Make Me Cry on their myspace page capture this kind of spirit, and both feature promient guitar solos that hopefully wail even harder at Blind Melons.
Next is Road Noise. I met the guy front and center in this picture on National High Five Day, and as soon as I found out he was in a rockabilly punk band, I knew it couldn't miss. This was before I even saw him in the White Suit and cowboy hat. Road Noise has four songs from their demo up on the internet, and while the recording mix isn't the best I've ever heard, I think that the energy that the band undoubtedly has in a live performance is adequately conveyed through the singers voice and the spot on extended guitar solos. They will assuredly deliver the goods when they rock the Parkway Bar in La Mesa on May 13th. My favorite song is Daddy's Drunk, but three more are available online as well, BEG, Rumble Town and Three On A Tree.
http://www.myspace.com/Firethornrock
http://www.road-noise.com
http://www.myspace.com/roadnoisemusic
We woke up this morning and snagged two tickets to the Springsteen Seeger Sessions show at the Greek in LA on June 6th. It's been said that the tickets for these concerts have been selling out so fast that they actually reverse the flow of time even without the aid of a flux capacitor, so I feel pretty lucky. I thought that the bootleg of the Jazz Fest show that the band plays tomorrow was going to be one hell of a sought after bootleg, and I still think it would be, but I didn't anticipate bootlegs from the Asbury Park "Rehearsal" shows turning up before it happend. Well they have, and in the spirit of having bought by far the most expensive concert ticket I ever have in my life, (expensive than even some airplane tickets now that I think about it), I want to share the MP3s from the concert the band played on April 26th.
The band sounds great, the arrangements are long and heavy on solo's, and it just reinforces the fact that this is going to be a tremendouse concert to attend. It looks like he's tossing some traditional songs that weren't on the album into the mix, as well as playing a few Bruce originals. Two of Nebraska's more upbeat songs, Johnny 99 and Open All Night are on both sets, as well as Cadillac Ranch, which is an awesome song. The songs sound radically different than you've ever heard them before, and it takes some getting used to, but in the long run I can definitely support the old timey style arrangements. Bonus points also go to the needlessy vulgar set closer, The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeeze. Hearing Bruce swear like that is kind of like that movie where Julie Andrews went topless: out of character, but awesome.
Check it out for yourself:
1. Long Black Veil
2. O Mary Don't You Weep
3. John Henry
4. Johnny 99
5. Eyes On The Prize
6. Adam Raised A Cain
7. Old Dan Tucker
8. Cadillac Ranch
9. My Oklahoma Home
10. Mrs. McGrath
11. How Can A Man Stand Such Times
12. Jacob's Ladder
13. We Shall Overcome
14. Open All Night
15. Pay Me My Money Down
16. If I Should Fall Behind
17. Buffalo Gals
18. You Can Look (But You'd Better Not Touch)
19. Daring Young Man On The Flying Trapeeze
I watched the Coachella DVD
But nevertheless, the DVD did have a cool purpose, and that was to re-spring the Arcade Fire on an unsuspecting me. Their sunset performance of "Rebellion (Lies)" was definitely one of the highlights, and it confirmed that the band has been the rarest kind of hype transcender, the kind where when you hear one of their songs out of the blue months after you stopped listening to them daily, you remember how good they sounded at the peak of your fan-ship and want to listen to them all over again. That's pretty much everything I want from a band: for them to be good enough to listen and love them until you can't take it anymore, and then you hear them for the first time in five months and start it all over again.
The Arcade Fire at Coachella
The Arcade Fire played at the Casbah last January, and it was the kind of show where the tickets were 10 dollars, our friends in New York had seen them, and the hype was inescapable. I bought the tickets and sort of forgot about the commitment, and a few days before the concert I still hadn't given the record the proper pre show listens. Then, at some point in time, "Wake Up" played at just the right time, and I realized that this was absolutely going to be the show opener, and that there was no way the show wasn't going to be awesome. This was an accurate assesment, and as the band left the stage I found myself thinking that this was the rare kind of show where if they announced that they were going to play it all over again, from start to finish, I would probably have stayed. Then they played the encore and I seriously thought about changing my answer. After the ridiculously intense closer of Neighborhood #3 -> Rebellion (Lies), they encored with two songs that the singer's wife sung, or warbled, complete with interpretive dance antics out of an SNL sketch. I seriously didn't know if I could have taken the double dose of "Haiti" and "In The Back Seat" even for all the "Wake Up"'s in the world. But oh well. Here's the show, enjoy it, and think about how much awesomer it would have been to see them at the Casbah the next time they come to play like the UCSD arena or some other awful spacious venue.
1. Intro
2. Wake Up
3. Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
4. No Cars Go
5. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
6. Crown Of Love
7. Cars and Telephones
8. Born On A Train (Magnetic Fields Cover)
9. Une Annee Sans Lemiere
10. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
11. Rebellion (Lies)
12. Encore Break
13. Haiti
14. In The Back Seat
And PS, if you know the girl in the front row of Coachella who sobbed like a baby in the video after Conor Oberst sang "Lua" please slap her for me.
David Lizerbram sent me the above picture. It's of his bedroom. It's probably unnecessary to say that getting emailed a picture of some dude's bedroom doesn't happen that often, and I pretty much discourage the practice across the board. But this was a special case. David had noticed that Bruce Springsteen was included on the National High Five Day soundtrack CD, and expressed his happiness with that to me in an email. I wrote him back, telling a few Bruce Springsteen related stories of my own, (they involve The Rising, high volume, and the destruction of a friends property.) Then David sent me that picture.
There's a few key things that I like about it. One, it's pretty much the only thing on the wall. You can see a fair amount of wall on either side, and there's nary a "The Kiss" poster or a "Lifeguard May Be Used as a Flotation Device" in sight. So he's not a man to decorate his apartment, but he puts his sparing efforts to good use. Secondly is the speed with which he sent me the picture. It arrived in my email a mere 12 minutes after my Bruce Springsteen stories were sent. This means that he read my email, found his camera, snapped the pic, loaded it up, debated about whether to really send it to a stranger, and decided to go for it, all very quickly. Thirdly, I like the fact that David Lizerbram is the bassist for a sweet band from San Diego called the Kite Flying Society.
Kite Flying Society
Did you wonder where that was going? Well if you made it here, you'll be a better person for it. From the songs that I've heard, the Kite Flying Society makes music akin to those happy popsters in the Apples In Stereo. Lots of spacey background harmonies on the oohs and the aahs, some handclaps, and eclectic instrumentation that includes organ, guitar and a quite prominent glockenspiel. The songs are incredibly catchy, and stay soft without being wussy. Like, they have enough going on and are fun enough that you'd want to turn them up loud, but they would sound just as good through your headphones while you're walking around the zoo.
David was kind enough to send me two songs to let you all download. 6000 Shipwrecks has the best backgound harmonies and is the more uptempo of the two, plus it includes the rarely attempted background harmony solo, whereas Love & Seagulls is more of a slower, bouncier track with a melody very similar to Daydream Believer by the Monkees, but just enough to reel you in before switching it up on you.
I'm pretty sure the band is named after Max Fisher's sparsely attended club from Rushmore, and I think that the tone of the songs would be akin to the aural equivilent of Wes Anderson fare. Rushmore is my favorite movie and Anderson can do no wrong by me, so I think that this is one band that I'm going to recommend and keep an eye out, as they are currently recording their debut album. They are also playing a few shows at the Casbah, one on June 20th, and Ain't No Cure, a Cure covers benefit show on April 30th.
Check out their myspace page for two more streaming songs: http://www.myspace.com/KFSMusic
Two songs will do you well to listen to today: Thursday by The Features and The Rising. Go ahead, download blindly, you know you want to.
One concert will do you well to attend today: Blind Melon's in PB at 9:30.
Best National High Five Day t-shirt wins some cold hard cash. Check the myspace blog for details and post your picture there.
After Thursday, things will hopefully calm down around here, and I can get back to posting more regularly and thoroughly. Until then, keep the high fives coming.
The grandest National High Five Day tradition of them all: The Soundtrack mix CD. Finding the perfect set of songs to deliver your high fives to complete strangers to is a difficult task. Songs must sound good played in perfect weather, and turned up loud, but must also stand the test of time and not be the kind of thing you are embarassed about in a years time. Hence, you will find no Gnarls Barkley "Crazy" on this years mix. This years mix was also unique because we put out the call for original works from artists or bands, songs they truly felt exemplified the themes on NH5D. Responses ranged greatly in quality. In fact, the entire time that I've had this blog, I've refrained from really exhibiting a large part of my personality, the hyper critical, dismissive side that really truly hates a lot of the music that is out there. Keeping this part of me in check while listening to some of the songs that opportunistic musicians sent in, (always with the assurance that this song would be "perfect" for NH5D) was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.
And yet, i pushed through it, and came up with a damn good mix. Only six artists here that you've probably never heard of, but I'd like to thank all of them for submitting their fine songs to our cause. I hope you enjoy the mix as well, and that it plays loudly as you exchange high fives on Thursday, April 20th.
Rhapsody has done us the service of setting up this years National High Five Day soundtrack as a playlist that you can listen to for free. We're talking entire songs, with no software to install, it was very nice of them. Of course they don't have the original songs that we got sent, so you can download all of those songs below, and click here to listen to the Rhapsody playlist of the rest of the bands.
Thanks again to the six bands that sent in original works: The Bo Dukes, Wynn Walent, Pablo, Jay Mankind, David Shultz and Yeah Someday
Sly & The Family Stone - Everyday People
The Bo Dukes - All My Fives Are High
Flaming Lips - Turn It On
Wynn Walent - Paramedic
The Replacements - Bastards Of Young
Lou Reed - Andy's Chest
Pablo - Loser Crew
Jamie Lidell - Multiply
Jay Mankind - East Village Strollin'
Bruce Springsteen - Badlands
Bob Dylan - Tell Me, Momma
David Shultz - Tones
John Lennon - Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
Paul Westerberg - Mr. Rabbit
Yeah Someday - Give Me Five
Flaming Lips - Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
Andrew Bird - Fake Palindromes
Bright Eyes - Road To Joy
Wolf Parade - I'll Believe In Anything
Elvis Presley - If I Can Dream
The Hold Steady - How a Resurrection Really Feels
In other exciting news:
-The Official National High Five Day concert (San Diego edition) is still taking place at 9:30 at Blind Melon's in PB! The bands we have lined up are The Bo Dukes (see above) and Shaka Buku. We'll be hanging out at my place right nearby beforehand, so if you're in the area, drop me a line beforehand and we can maybe chill beforehand and play this soundtrack really loud.
-Have you noticed the banners on the side of the page for Permanent Tanooki? It's my webcomic, resuming a comic that I wrote and my friend Cason Moore drew for three years in college. New comics every Monday and Thursday, check it out!
-We had a winner in the 4/20 giveaway, it was the guy who wrote about Little Feat. I hope to do more contests again soon.
-Read more about some of the artists on the mix that I've written about before: David Shultz, The Bo Dukes, The Hold Steady, Bob Dylan, The Flaming Lips
If you ask me what the first concert I ever went to was, the answer you will get is Green Day, Dookie Tour '94. I have the t shirt. But it's not entirely true. Before that I attended a Billy Joel/Elton John extravaganza with my parents, (yes, they played Piano Man) and WAY before that I saw The Monkees at Wolf Trap when I was like in second grade. Yes, The Monkees for some reason played a big part in my childhood, and nothing makes me happier than to see that members of The Monkees are still kind of revered non-ironically in our modern society.
This Wired interview with Michael Nesmith (the one with the hat) popped up in my Gmail news feeds today, and is very interesting. Nesmith is famously the Monkee who objected the most to the role the band was forced into by the nameless, faceless executives of either television or the music biz. He wanted the band to take advantage of their popularity and write their own songs and play their own music on the records. Post-Monkees, he has gone on to produce one of the greatest movies of all time, "Repo Man", and generally kick back and savor his reputation as The Monkee Who Kept It Real.
Nesmith's desire to inject authenticity into the Monkees in my mind makes him sort of a tragic figure. One can't help but listen to him sing "Listen To The Band" and hear a voice that truly yearned to and deserved to be heard. The plea of the song, (a song that evidently meant enough to Nesmith to name one of his Greatest Hits
Nesmith evidently remains active in the music and arts scene. I will review his new album, "Rays" as soon as I can. Until then, check out the Monkees MP3s and videos I have below. The videos are of "What Am I Doin' Hangin' Round," Nesmith's hat wearin', heart rendin' country ballad, and "Goin' Down," my dad's favorite Monkees song, that is sung by Mickey Dolenz, builds like "Keep The Customer Satisfied" and has a video that trully must be seen to be believed. After that, download the MP3 of "Goin' Down" so you can show your friends how much ass the Monkees indeed kicked, and finally, the MP3 of "Listen to the Band", for you to put on repeat as you finish your last three beers of the evening.
What Am I Doin' Hangin' Round
Goin' Down
MP3s:
The Monkees - Goin' Down
The Monkees - Listen To The Band
Monkees Season One DVDs
Monkees Greatest Hits
Monkees Head DVD
Gilly Leads
I've never been to Lestat's in Normal Heights, and usually I like to spend my birthday at a favorite restaurant/booze dispensary. However, I think that come April 23rd this year, I will have to make an exception and travel to Lestat's to check out Gilly Leads. He's an artist from Los Angeles who you've probably never heard of, but who you shouldn't miss the opportunity to check out in a week's time. I find it difficult not to hear shades of David Bowie in the two songs by Leads that I've heard, not so much in his voice, but in the style of music. Fire Escape has lurching, piano driven march verses that give way to the more plaintive, melodic chorus. People Know is more energetic and features some cool harmonizing the likes of which TV On the Radio recently recruited Bowie for for their latest single "Providence." Of course, whether or not I would be making these comparisons if I didn't know that Mike Garson, who played on keys on all of Bowie's great albums was part of Gilly Lead's band, but that power of suggestion...it's a damn strong power.
Leads plays at Lestat's on Sunday, April 23rd with The Bo Dukes and The Shambles
Check out some MP3s:
Here's another CD that was provided to me by my friend Andrew. It's the weekend, I'm going up to LA, and I'm feeling lazy, so I'll just relay to you what he told me without checking it's authenticity. This is evidently a show that Dylan recorded that was supposed to an MTV Unplugged. However, the suits, as they tend to do, wanted a show more packed with the hits. So he recorded a new show, that was released as the underwhelming official MTV Unplugged album
MP3s:
1. Ragged And Dirty
2. Lay Lady Lay
3. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
4. Queen Jane Approximately
5. Jack-A-Roe
6. One Too Many Mornings
7. I Want You
8. Ring Them Bells
9. My Back Pages
10. Forever Young
11. Tight Connection To My Heart
12. Weeping Willow
13. Delia
Bob Dylan homepage (On tour soon!) and Bob's Boots, and excellent Dylan bootleg resource.
