I went to the gym today I heard "Knowing Me Knowing You" on the radio there. It occurred to me that ABBA is much more prevalent today than what had previously been the king of pop. No, Michael, I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about the Beatles. They have always been held up as the pinnacle of pop success and yet, how often do you hear them nowadays? There has recently been a broadway musical and movie made around their music, and I'm willing to be that more 17 year olds would recognize "Dancing Queen" than "Yesterday. I was a bit surprised to think of this, but I don't know why. ABBA really was amazing. It was about as pure a pop sound as has ever been made. I think their music will have legs for the next 20 years. I wonder what's going to happen to the beatles...

What is it with ad agencies and their music selections? Major League Baseball is apparently playing catch up with the NFL when it comes to worst song to grab a line from and represent their product. While the NFL likened their game to the apocalypse (although a nice one as only Morissey can), MLB has chosen to give us the warm fuzzies of being executed. I have seen the ad on the MLB channel and they have just enough time to use "...and touch the green, green grass of home." A nice enough line on it's own, but of course there is a context. The song's narrator is singing about being buried back home after being executed. The only version I have ever heard was by Johnny Cash, Im sure there are others.


Green, Green Grass Of Home - Johnny Cash

As unfortunate as that choice may be, it doesn't really compete with this next one as far as sheer uncomfortableness goes. Sir Mix A-Lot's "I Like Big Butts" is of course a classic. On it's own, it is a rather forthright ode to his favorite attribute on a woman. Burger King has tied this classic in with a spongebob square pants promotion. I don't know if it's the women dancing with square butts that is so disturbing, or the use of a very adult theme tied in with a kids character, but the result is unwatchable. BK isn't doing anything to make me want to come to their restaurant.

One of my favorite games to play when I'm listening to music is to imagine what Janis Joplin, Pete Townsend, or even Mick Jagger circa 1967 would think of the music I was listening to. Inevitably, any rock that I listen to would probably be recognizable to those folks back then. There is the same 4/4 time, blues based progressions, electric guitars, choruses, verses, etc. In some ways, it's kind of sad how little has changed. Even songs like Franz Ferdinand's "Jacqueline" could be figured out. They would be amused at the use of surf guitar and really heavy bass lines, but they could "get" it.


Jacqueline - Franz Ferdinand

I think the first band to come along that really changed the basic structure of rock music was the Pixies. Instead of adopting a verse, chorus, verse structure with orderly chord changes, the Pixies adapted a style that could best be described as soft/loud. The guitar was mostly used for texture, and there were no choruses. It was still most definitely rock music, but the stuff on Surfer Rosa and before were truly a break from the past. The folks from '67 would be lost, they would have some serious difficulty making any sense out of it at all.

How about something more recent? I submit this song by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. "10x10" could best be described as epic, especially when Karen O goes into her "10x10, 3x3..." while the guitar is stuttering and soaring above her about two thirds of the way through the song. This is more apparent in the studio version, but this live version is it's own kind of awesome. See it here.


I do think that my folks from the past could eventually get their heads around this, but I'm willing to be that the first time they heard this would involve quite a bit of mouth hanging open-ness. Some of that would no doubt be Karen O's demonstration of what could only be her fellatio ability or her fondness of ball gags. I gotta say that my favorite rock these days is more like the pixies and less like reworked blues songs. Luckily, the internet is a wonderful way to get a hold of this stuff. I'll try to post more as I find the time...

I love the Bouncing Souls. They are one of the few groups I have come across that is both ernest and not annoying. They also have an amazing habit of concisely saying why I like listening to music in their music.

The first song of theirs that I learned to love was "Cracked." I was in Yemen at the time and having a bit of a rough time.


Cracked - Bouncing Souls

They managed to capture how I felt in 1:57, amazing...

I think that from now on, whenever someone asks me why I listen to the music I do, I will just point them to "Sing Along Forever."



I can't think of a better summation than "Life is pain, give it to me straight, touch my heart, I'll sing along forever..." It isn't often that a rock band can make an anthem and not sound ridiculous. The Bouncing Souls touched my heart and I'll sing along forever.

I'm migrating some of my earlier writing for my website to this blog just to consolidate things a little. These will be longer than most, but it will be easier for people to find them. Enjoy!

 By today’s standards, Black Sabbath’s music is fairly tame. It’s easy to forget that they came to this country in 1969. Think about it, during the “summer of love” they were singing songs like “Black Sabbath,” “NIB”, and “Wicked World.” Not only were the songs in a minor key, they were dark and heavy. They sang about Satan and evil things. This last attribute would give them problems throughout their career in the USA. I’ve always thought that they have gotten a bad rap in that department, and I’m going to try to explain what I have gotten out of their music.
          It’s funny how little of their music gets played on the radio. About all you’ll ever hear is “Paranoid” and “Iron Man.” Black Sabbath is right up there with the Velvet Underground and James Brown in the hugely influential but never played category. Heavy metal was born the day “Black Sabbath” was released. Some will say that Led Zeppelin was the birth of heavy metal, but in 1969 they were more Yarbirds than the rock and roll juggernaut that they’d become later on. No, a whole new genre of rock was born with the first song on that album. The song “Black Sabbath” (yes on the album “Black Sabbath” by the group Black Sabbath) was both a tale of some unfortunate being thrown into Hell and a cautionary tale about what was to come. Not the standard musical fare in 1969! They actually mention Satan by name on two different songs on the album, “Black Sabbath” and “NIB”.
          If you read up on what was being said about them back then, you’ll see many people decrying “Devil Worship” and warning that the youth could get sucked into evil things by listening to the music. It was pretty obvious that they were put off by songs about evil and Satan. An understandable reaction, the trouble is that there is a big difference between singing about him and glorifying him. The song “NIB” is a perfect example. For those of you that have not heard the song, you really must. And make sure that you hear the original, not the lame remake with Primus. The song just drips with power, darkness, and (in my mind) epitomizes the Black Sabbath sound. You gotta play this as loud as you can to get the full effect. Power rock is as much about the physical feel of the sound waves hitting you as the actual music is. The basic chords of the song are as memorable as “In A Gadda Da Vidda” or even “Sunshine of Your Love.” Tony Iommi has a distinctive guitar sound that was originally caused by him having to use prosthetic fingertips. He had to loosen the strings slightly and this gave that incredible dark sound. Here are the lyrics to “NIB”:

Oh yeah!
Some people say my love cannot be true
Please believe me, my love, and I’ll show you
I will give you those things you thought unreal
The sun, the moon, the stars all bear my seal
Oh yeah!
Follow me now and you will not regret
Leaving the life you led before we met
You are the first to have this love of mine
Forever with me ’till the end of time

Your love for me has just got to be real
Before you know the way I’m going to feel
I’m going to feel
I’m going to feel

Oh yeah!
Now I have you with me, under my power
Our love grows stronger now with every hour
Look into my eyes, you will see who I am
My name is lucifer, please take my hand

Oh yeah!
Follow me now and you will not regret
Leaving the life you led before we met
You are the first to have this love of mine
Forever with me ’till the end of time

Your love for me has just got to be real
Before you know the way I’m going to feel
I’m going to feel
I’m going to feel

Oh yeah!
Now I have you with me, under my power
Our love grows stronger now with every hour
Look into my eyes, you will see who I am
My name is lucifer, please take my hand

See, isn’t Satan a great guy? No, not really, the song portrays him as a lying, attractive being that will drag you down with him if you believe his lies. It doesn’t take a genius to figure this out. Black Sabbath (at least during the Ozzy years) never portrayed Satan as anything but something to be feared. He is powerful, scary, and dangerous. For a rock song, this is pretty adventurous stuff. Certainly it has more meat to it than the superficial “evil” songs of late. Think about “Enter Sandman” by Mettalica. The gist is that the sandman is bad and scary. Ummm, not exactly plumbing the depths...
          Black Sabbath was the first to explore the darker aspects of rock and roll in 1969. There was a definite change in the air over the next few years, culminating in the defeat of Hubert Humphrey to Richard Nixon and the concert at Altimont. While the Stones and Led Zeppelin paced public perception, Black Sabbath was way ahead of them. They felt the shift years earlier and started a new way of looking at the world through rock and roll. If you haven’t yet, you should at the very least check out their first album. It’s an original.


N.I.B. - Black Sabbath

   I'll say it right up front. I think that the video to "Around the World" by Daft Punk is about as perfect a music video as can be made. Some might scoff and say that that's not saying much while others would laugh and say there isn't anything to it, so how can it be perfect? It takes some explaining, but in a nutshell, I think that the video was made in such a way that it explains the music. For those of you familiar with the song, that might come as a surprise since there doesn't seem to be much to the music other than bass, synth lines, and "Around the World" spoken again and again. If you've only ever heard the song in your car or on a boombox, it might seem that there isn't any other description necessary... You really do need to see the video.
     So yes, the song really is only a bass line, some higher synth parts, some clapping sounds, and a robotic voice saying "Around the World" 144 times. It is what as known as "Dance" music, or at least what the dance scene liked back in 1997. The video is a very simple affair, a single stage with an elevated center pedestal, a ring going around this pedestal, and the space in between them. The outer circle is raised in the back so that we can see people over the people on the center pedestal. The outer ring has a series of steps leading to the highest point in the back. The video consists of 5 quartets of dancers doing a choreographed number to the song, that's it. Well, no, that's not exactly it, there's a bit more to it than that.
        Each of the four quartets of dancers has a different costume. A set of "spacemen", a set of women in one piece bathing suits and caps, a set of women dressed as mummies, a set of dancers dressed in skeleton costumes, and one set of dancers with a fake extended torso and small head. Not coincidentally, there are 5 instrumental "voices" in the song and each set of dancers corresponds with a specific part of the music. The first third of the song is used to introduce and set up each voice/dancers part, the second third there are interactions between the voices, and the third part settles into a sort of universal groove. From time to time, the camera dollies back so that we are looking through a window, watching the dancers. At the beginning of the last part, we cut to a top view as the dancers all walk in a circular pattern and we see the unmistakable resemblance to a record spinning around. We then cut back to the frontal view and as the song comes to a close, we come back out until we are looking through the window again as the lights fade out. Some people have argued that it is supposed to remind you of looking into a jukebox while a record plays (talk about anachronisms!).
        There are those that say that this type of music isn't really music at all. They say that electronic dance music is mechanical, repetitive, and soulless. Despite all of these things, millions of people dance to the stuff, what can they possibly see in the stuff? Ah, that's the thing, they don't "see" anything at all, they feel it. In my mind, that's the wonderful thing about this video, it allows you to "see" the music and its structure. The result is hypnotizing. It reminds me of the dadaist film, "Ballet Mecanique" in it's feel and overall impression. I remember when my brother and I stumbled across it back when it first came out. We were amazed and looked back at each other and asked "What was that?" when it was over. If you've ever had trouble "getting" electronic music, I really encourage you to check out the video. It's refreshing to see something so low tech and simple have such a visual and musical impact.

        The video to "Da Funk" is a bit of a misnomer. This is a short film with the song acting as a score. It is a rather odd film involving a man with a dog's head and a broken leg moving into a new neighborhood and meeting a woman he grew up with. He has some sort of attraction to a boombox with a stuck volume control. It causes several problems for him, including losing the girl that just invited him back to her place. The boombox is playing "Da Funk" (what else could it be?) rather loudly. It's an interesting film. I get the feeling that the main, dog headed, character is trapped in the film, he has no choice but to walk around with this stupid boombox when he would much rather be without it. But without it, he has no reason to exist, there would be no "video".

     Since I'm not much of a dancer, I doubt I'd really enjoy owning any of Daft Punk's albums, but I am very impressed with what kind of videos they are capable of making. It's great to see people taking chances on things that people may not understand.

I wrote this back in 2005 and I am now migrating most of my music thoughts to this blog.

These are fairly recent videos from MCR's 2004 album "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge". "Helena" in particular was a fan favorite on M2 and the various countdowns that they have on music video channels. These songs are a great example of what a video can do for a song. On their own, I'm not very impressed with MCR, the songs seem to be a little too concerned with "rocking" and sound to me like they are trying too hard (which is always a cardinal sin in my book). The videos work well as short musicals, the songs themselves are little more than an excuse to dress up and take on characters roles. Good thing for the band that they do this very well. It's almost the reverse of David Bowie. I think his albums are (for the most part) great but the theatrics leave me cold. I would much rather listen to Bowie than watch him, and I'd much rather watch MCR than only listen. The bad news is that I am willing to bet that a lot of the success of the videos is due in no small part to good direction, camera work, and editing, all of which would be missing from a live performance. I would be amazed if Gerard Way could pull off the mannerisms and over the top delivery of the songs live like he does in the videos. Both "Helena" and "The Ghost of You" are very dramatic and emotional, so this style doesn't seem out of place but I really hope that his love songs don't have the same type of delivery...

UPDATE: Before I went overseas I saw the last part of a MCR concert on MTV. My original thoughts seem to hold true, they sounded dreadful in concert. Maybe it was just an "off" night for them, but I doubt that they would have put it out there if it really was a bad show. Oh well...


        "The Ghost of You" is a classic narrative video where the members of the band become characters in the story. The video is set during WWII and all of the action seems to take place in three areas. An NSO dance (in which the band is playing), a bar (after the dance?), and on what looks like Normandy beach during D Day. The bassist plays a soldier that is near and dear to the Sgt. (G. Way) and a girl on the dance floor. He is later killed in action during the invasion while the Sgt. has to be restrained from going to get him. The battle footage is pretty good, looks like it was right out of "Saving Private Ryan", right down to similar looking actors for some of the other characters. If I didn't know better, I would almost think that the director of the video intended it to be seen as another part of that film... Way's over the top vocals actually fit pretty well with the battle scenes, the chorus of "Never coming home, never coming home," is pretty intense, but for me the most emotional intensity comes during a quiet part of the song. As the soldiers and the women part ways at the dance, the bassist looks back at his date while the vocal is:

"If I fall
If I fall (down)

At the end of the world
Or the last thing I see
You are
Never coming home
Never coming home

Never coming home
Never coming home

And all the things that you never ever told me
And all the smiles that are ever gonna haunt me

Never coming home
Never coming home "

The volume pumps back up after the "If I fall (down)" part and it's right into the battle. The appeal of this video lies in the very high production values and decent acting of the band. It really is a short film with a dominating soundtrack...




        "Helena" is just as slick a production as "The Ghost..." but is a different type of video. It's a subgenre of the regular performance video. Usually, performance videos are used to sell a band and little else. This video certainly does that, but it appears that they are using it to try to reinforce whatever it is that they are trying to get across. The whole thing revolves around a funeral and almost the entire video was shot in a Catholic church with what we assume is Helena in a coffin front and center. The band is playing at the funeral and Gerard Way (the lead singer) is both the lead man of the band and impresario for the funeral. He spends equal time fronting the band and behind the pulpit in front of the congregation, singing all the while. In addition to the band, there are dancers up by the coffin. When Way and the rest of the congregation close their eyes to pray, Helena awakens and dances. She falls back into the coffin just as they open their eyes. It's always creepy when a corpse open its eyes, but they added a little touch that amplifies the effect. Not only does she awaken with a start, inhaling as if she'd held her breath the whole time, but she opens her mouth just slightly and shows some teeth. It's reminiscent of how skull's teeth appear, and just for a split second we are reminded of death and life all at the same time. The dancer is some football coach's daughter, I can imagine that those images of his daughter are the things nightmares are made of. Seeing your daughter as a dancing corpse, unseen and unheard, is bad enough, but seeing her breath taken away as quickly as it came and then dropping into a coffin would cure me of sleep forever. After helena is back where she is supposed to be, the band carries out their duties as pall bearers in the rain out to the hearse. The video ends with them closing the door of the hearse and Way looking into the window for a moment before walking away.
     OK, pretty standard stuff for a music video, but this one is done quite a bit better than most. There are several things that I like quite a bit. The dancers are surprisingly effective, even if they don't make very much sense when using logic. We instinctively revert to the sense of reality that we use when watching musicals. The choreography is very well done, all of them seem to do something different, but they are definitely coordinated for overall effect. There are two instances in particular that stand out to me. During one part of the eulogy(?), they cut form a frontal view of the pulpit to a top view overlooking the coffin. The dancers are on the floor and on the cuts to the top view, they change into various grief induced positions. The other thing that caught my eye is small but it really captured my attention. As the pallbearers are walking out of the church, the dancers form columns on either side. They put up their umbrellas and point their fingers into the distance with a slight elevation and then almost immediately put them back down. Inexplicably, this means a lot to me. I have no idea why.
     For me, the most interesting thing about the video is how it deals with religion. Most bands are quite ready to spit at and mock organized religion whenever it can, but it seems as though this one does not. The video is quite obviously in a church, but there are no crosses, no religious symbols of any kind are seen. There are no religious professionals attending the service, it is a self serve church apparently. Gerard Way is both the lead singer and the leader of the service. At a certain point behind the pulpit, he raises his arms and the entire congregation stands up and sings/prays with him:

"What's the worst that I could say?
Things are better if I stay
So long and goodnight
So long and goodnight"

        Ambiguity at critical moments has always been one of my favorite techniques for making people think. On the one hand, it is quite unlike any prayer you'd expect in a situation like that. On the other hand a heartfelt sentiment at a time like that is beautiful in its own way. Some might read this as being deliberately provocative but I don't see it that way at all. I have been to many church services where I would have given anything to hear the priest/minister say "What's the worst that I could say?" It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if members of the band consider themselves sympathizers of religion. In both of these videos, it is seen as a cathartic and communal thing, even if it is ill defined. On board the boat approaching Normandy beach in "The Ghost...", one man is seen kissing a cross around his neck and another crosses himself. During "Helena" one person crosses themselves at the coffin and the bassist comes in swinging an incense burner. All of those actions point towards either Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy (but they cross themselves the Catholic way). I'll go out on a limb and say that there are probably some Catholic sympathizers in the band...
     It is amazing to see video productions that probably cost as much or more than the album they are used to promote. My Chemical Romance has certainly benefitted from the high productions values of these things and it adds to their story telling. I'll admit to not listening to anything else of theirs yet, but I'll probably check them out before too long.

This is actually one of the more popular pages on my website. Thought I'd put it here as well so that more people find my music blog. I originally wrote this in 2004 I believe and Frank has been active since then. Maybe I'll do a follow up post one of these days...





  I remember the first time I ever heard the Pixies. My friend John Bowie and I had arranged a sort of lend lease deal. This was early on in my sophomore year at Ithaca college. At the time, I was still ensconced in Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and the Doors. John had grown up listening to indy rock and was amazed at such things like a live Beach Boys album. I offered to “educate” him, and he made the same offer to me. Trouble was that I didn’t know any of the bands in his collection. Fugazi, The Ramones, X, BDP, and many others. Seeing my confusion, he picked out a few things for me. Along with “Candy Apple Red” by Huskur du and “Fear of a black planet” by Public Enemy, he lent me “Surfer Rosa” by the Pixies.

     I couldn’t make heads or tails out of it. Disjointed stopping and starting, no choruses, no solos to speak of, and lots of noise and screaming. Keep in mind that this was 1991 and I had come from a mostly rural area in Virginia. In my mind, AC/DC was pretty out there and Pink Floyd was the ultimate in musical artistic expression. “Surfer Rosa” was, in comparison, incomprehensible.

     So we gave each other our cds back, neither all that impressed with the other’s taste in music. I kept listening to my stuff until “Nevermind” by Nirvana came out. I don’t have to tell you what kind of impact that had on music, it had a dramatic one on me. It was a new version of the Sex Pistols, making all that had come before them pointless. Nirvana was the band that completely shifted my approach to rock and roll.

     When asked what he thought of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, Kurt Cobain said that it sounded like a pretty good Pixies rip off. It’s no surprise that I gave the Pixies another listen. “Surfer Rosa” eventually grew on me, becoming my favorite Pixies album. I’ll go a step further and say that it’s one of the best albums I’ve ever heard. Yes, I’d put it up there with “Pet Sounds”, “Help”, Trinity Sessions” and others. At their best, the songs on "Surfer Rosa" have a kind of Bauhaus (and no, I'm not referring to the band) Zen feeling to them. It is wild and disjointed but very tight, there doesn't seem to be a random note on the whole thing. I find most of the rest of the Pixies output to be interesting, but not something that is rewarding to listen to repeatedly. This may sound like sacrilege to the hordes that swear that “Dolittle” was their best album, but I actually think that it was their worst.

     How important were the Pixies? 8 years after they broke up, most of the bands on the radio were trying to sound like them. They were so far ahead of the curve that their album sales didn’t take off until several years after they had broken up.

     When they broke up, Kim Deal’s band The Breeders was the first with a hit on the radio. I distinctly remember telling someone that I was glad that Kim got the talent in the divorce. In hindsight, I may have been blinded by my obsession of female bass players. Kim Deal, Kim Gordon, Tina Weymouth, and a local one in Ithaca named Darelynn were on my brain. Darelynn was an adorable, petite woman that cranked out the nastiest bass grooves in a dance band called Flashlight (presumably named after the Parliament song). In any event, I was eagerly awaiting the release of anything by Kim Deal, and when “Last Splash” came out, I bought it. “Last Splash” can best be described as smart, if not smart alecy. There are some catchy tunes on there, made palatable by the noise experiments done by the Pixies previously. The album hasn’t aged well however. It sounds like something that was cooked up for the “alternative” market but didn’t have the structure or the song writing that the Pixies were able to consistently put on their albums.

     Frank Black’s first big release after the Pixies was a bit of a disappointment. It became clear that he was the architect behind the sound of the Pixies and he also was the songwriter. The album had a few high points. “Los Angeles” is a real rocker and is a great example of what was possible in the mid 90’s in the rock and roll world. “Hang on to your Ego” really intrigued me. It was a cover of the Beach Boys song “There Must be an Answer” but he substituted “Hang Onto Your Ego” into the chorus instead of the original “There Must be an Answer”. I wondered about that for years until I found out that Hold Onto Your Ego was the original version and Brian Wilson changed the chorus at the last minute for the release of “Pet Sounds”. That was pretty cool in my book....

     The general feel of Frank Black's eponymously titled first album was one of tying too hard. You could almost imagine the producer asking for more of “That Pixies sound”. I, and many others saw a great future for Kim and her band and little from Frank Black.

     As it turned out, both have faded into obscurity, neither coming close to radio play or even a major label. Frank Black has kept recording though, and I have just recently stumbled onto these more recent works. I downloaded a handful of them and loaded them into my cd changer to see what they were like. I have listened to these albums more over the last month and change than I have of the Breeder’s last album in the 8 or so ears it has been out.

     The new albums can be divided into two groups. The first group contains the albums that are just Frank Black. That includes the album “Frank Black” and “Frank Black Francis”. The other group are by Frank Black and the Catholics.

     My original thoughts about “Frank Black” still hold, not very satisfying but clever. “Frank Black Francis” is really only of interest to die hard Pixies fans. The first half of the album is demo versions of various Pixies’ songs. It’s an exercise in musical archeology to hear these songs done in such a raw and sparse way. If I understand things correctly, he recorded these the day before he was going into the studio for what became “Come on Pilgrim”. It’s interesting to hear him talking about “The bass player’s part” and not mentioning Kim by name. Makes you wonder how tight they were. The second half of the album consists of rerecording of various Pixies songs. They are, without exception, dreadful. Everything that made the Pixies versions interesting was stripped out and was replaced with a lethargic, rather lame version. Frank Black says that he was afraid that only supplying demos of older songs wasn’t enough of a reason to buy the album, it turns out that the new versions are a good reason not to buy the album.

     Frank’s new band, the Catholics, have a very different feel. Some of that is due to the way they are recorded. “Pistolero”, “Black Letter Days”, and “ Frank Black and the Catholics” were all recorded live to two track. In other words, what was recorded was a live performance straight to stereo. Normally, a band will go into a studio and lay down various tracks one a time and then have them combined during mixing. This gives you quite a bit more control over the finial product,. Recording live to stereo is a hassle because you have to nail the performance, you can’t really go back and rerecord just the drums, or an off key vocal. In addition, you can’t tweak the sound or dynamics after the fact, you have to do the mixing of the instruments and vocals right when they are being recorded.

     Making albums like this is a bit of a throwback, but in a good way I think. The immediacy and honesty of the songs remind me a lot of the old time rockers like Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc. Don’t get me wrong, the style of the music is completely different from these guys, but the “feel” is similar. There is the occasional missed note in the vocals, and some of the guitar solos are a bit loose but this just adds character to the recordings. These little blips certainly don't detract from the over all feel.
     “Black Letter Days”, aside from the macabre first and last song, is a great album. Frank really flexes his storytelling muscles and is the most conventional of all of his albums. It really reminds me of Matthew Sweet's "Girlfriend" album, lot's of decent songs and the occasional stand out. If you’ve never listened to any of this stuff before, I’d highly recommend this album. If you’re a Pixies freak, you’ll like “Pistolero”. It is different from his Pixies days, but there is definitely an echo of his past in these songs. On both albums, expect tight, energetic performances. Frank, it’s great to have you back!

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pixies, frank black, kim deal, breeders

I caught a documentary on VH1 about metal. It was done pretty well and it filled in some gaps I had about the development of it. I'm not a metal fn really, but I'm curious about all types of music, where they come from, their influences, etc. Anyway, they were talking about metal's resurgence in Britan in the early 80's and they interviewed some people at a local club that played metal.

Keep in mind that there was no band there, just a DJ, and he played metal exclusively. And of course it was all guys.... Then they showed what some of the guys were doing to kick up the metal experience (without a band) up a notch. They started bringing in cardboard guitars to add to the air guitar experience. Seeing these guys rocking out on cardboard guitars in a club filled with other guys is just... sad. You can see what I'm talking about in this video at around the 2:56 mark and at the end. The rest of it is amazing as well...



This reminds me a bit of the current craze with "guitar hero" and "rockband" games. Guys spent a lot of time perfecting their air guitar performance on the cardboard guitars and God only knows how much time is spent on those games. Why not pick up an actual guitar? The guy in the video admits that it would take him 5 years or so to become competent. Yeah, that's some time, but then you could actually play music instead of waiting for someone to make it for you. The thing that seems to escape most people's notice is that even if you never get all that good at it, your appreciation of music will increase incredibly. Learning an instrument really is the best way to learn about music in general.

So put down the cardboard boys! Chicks dig actual guitarists, not fake ones...

I've been listening to Amy Winehouse's album "Back to Black" and I'm mighty impressed. Yeah, I know, I'm a little late to this party... This was released while I was in Yemen, give me a break!

The song that got the most airplay was "Rehab." While that falls right into my addiction soft spot, I think that it pales in comparison to the title track.


Back To Black - Amy Winehouse

This is significantly darker than "Rehab," but I think it is a stone cold, soul classic. It's got drugs, it's got sex, it's got codependancy and the inability to break away, and most importantly, it has heartbreak (We only said goodbye with words... You'll go back to her, I'll go back to us...) This is what I imagine Billy Holiday would have sung if she were singing back in the 60's. Janis would have done a good job with it too. The classic soul singers couldn't do it, they didn't have the darkness or the problems (You love blow and I love puff) that these ladies did (and do).

I'm not sure this got much airplay. It shares the same problem with a lot of the songs on the album in that they are not radio friendly. She isn't afraid to use some colorful language, and this kind of darkness doesn't do well unless there are some loud guitars to go along with it...

I was gushing about this album to a friend of mine and he described it as "affected." That seemed like an odd criticism to me. In my opinion, this is a great example of the "soul" genre. Her singing and style aren't affected, they are part and parcel of the genre. It is no more affected than any metal, hip hop, jazz, or trance song.

Working with a genre is both limiting and freeing at the same time. Once people understand what genre the work is in, the genre itself does a lot of the heavy lifting for the artist. You don't have to start from scratch when you use an established genre. When you write a mystery book, everyone understands what is supposed to happen. If you watch a western film, you don't have to be told that you don't shoot guys in the back or unarmed men. The ground rules are already there, you don't need to reinvent the wheel.

Of course, if you follow every single convention of the genre, it gets boring really fast. Amy manages to mix it up just a bit with some hip-hop inspired rhythms and that extra edge that only substance abuse and bad relationships can bring. It isn't clear where her songs end and her life begins. That's really too bad, cause there's a lot of pain and a lot of drugs in her songs. Recent reports have her doing well on the substance abuse front. Let's hope she can keep it together so we can find out what a happy Amy Winehouse sounds like...

I heard "Sweet Child of Mine" on the radio the other day, and a really odd thought came into my mind. It occured to me that Janis Joplin would have sounded pretty good singing that. Yeah, it has a little more grit than what she did, but the vocal style isn't all that different.

I then remembered a funny incident in college. A friend of mine (Aaron, whatever happened to him?) and I were talking about G N'R and he mentioned that he did a pretty good Axl impersonation. He slid open the sliding glass doors and belted out a couple of lines from "Welcome to the Jungle." With the echo of his voice dying, he thought for a second and then belted out some lines from "Everything's coming up Roses" and it was a dead on Ethel Merman rendition. The two weren't all that different, much more a matter of degree than anything else. We both cracked up pretty good over that one. Who would've thunk it? I wonder how Axl would sound with some old Ethel Merman standards?

Disco was everywhere in the late 70's. Every time you turned on the radio in 1978, you were bound to hear Donna Summer, the Bee Gees, or maybe even one of Diana Ross' last hurrahs. Then almost overnight it seemed, it disappeared. It was almost totally dropped from the radio. Not only that, everyone denied that they liked disco. It had been the hottest thing going and then suddenly no one would admit that they had listened to it.

Disco is one of the more extreme examples of popular music. I say extreme because of the rapidity it was disavowed. Whenever tastes change, musical genres are left behind. How many people do you know that listen to popular music from the 20's? But there was something special about disco... I grew up listening to 50's and 60's music in the 70's and 80's and up until recently, the exact same music could be found in any large FM market. Why was I able to listen to music from the 50's whenever I wanted to but was unable to hear disco on the radio for 20 years?

Well, it isn't exactly true that I couldn't hear disco after 1979, you could but they called it something else. "Dance Music" was the name of the new genre. People have been dancing to music ever since there was music, so why was this type called "Dance Music" and not just popular? It was because of the dreaded Disco appellation... The basic structure of disco was still popular, but you couldn't sell that any more, and no one would be caught dead dancing to it...

The new dance music didn't have as much cocaine to its sound, and they substituted synthesizers and electronic drums, but the basic structure was the same. The songs tended to be just as long as the disco era ones (compare dance hits from the late 70's and early 80's to the 60's). There was also a slightly different vibe. Disco had come out of the gay clubs in NYC, the new dance music was more influenced by the sounds of "the street" in the form of the nascent hip-hop movement.

The result? A song like "Let the Music Play" by Shannon.



There were all sorts of variations, but the electronic end of things came to their zenith in groups like Depeche Mode and New Order.



Both of these songs were released in 1983. With the possible exception of guitar, all of the instruments had been replaced by electronic ones. The result was a rather mechanical as opposed to disco's organic sound. This was actually an advantage to the new music. Disco had the same basic feel to it, but it was somewhat hidden underneath all of those strings and fancy arrangements. The new music embraced the vibe and it felt more honest... While vapidity was possible in either genre, the better groups used the mechanical sound as a way to get a point across. New Order, Depeche Mode, and Gang of Four ("Capital, it Fails us Now" "We Live, as We Dream, Alone") all did a great job of using the medium as part of their message.

There's a tale (I don't know where I heard this from, but it sounds believable enough) about Depeche Mode taking this to its limit. On at least one of the stops on their tour for "Music for the Masses," they ended the show by setting up their sequencers and synthesizers to play their groove. Keep in mind that these songs could top out at around 20 minutes or so in order to keep people dancing... Anyway, they set this song up to play and jammed along for a while and then left. The music continued to play and play and play until one of the roadies pulled the plug. They got it, and that's why they're still around and all of those other groups aren't.

I find that disco is fun to listen to once in a while, but it's mostly just that. A couple of Blondie tunes took disco as far as it could be taken and those are a different story... The dance music of the early 80's has had a longer lasting impression. I've had several dreams when that sort of music has featured prominently. In them, some people I know and I are stuck in a club/bar/meeting place with that music blaring. We always act like we're having fun, we think we should be having fun, but we aren't. Not only that, we don't seem to know or understand how to leave. We are stuck there bored, deafened, and confused. I refer to these as my "purgatory" dreams. That music seems very appropriate to that scene. It is soulless, way too long, and totally dehumanizing.

I'm not saying I don't "get" that music, or even that I don't like some of it, but I do think it has an effect on me, and I don't think it's a good one...

Beck Hanson is a musical genius. And I don't use the term lightly. Beck continues to amaze me, no matter how many times I listen to his stuff. Too many people heard his first album and got a chuckle out of it. I think that "Mellow Gold" was a little too clever for it's own good. A couple of albums down the road he really hit a groove and let loose...

He has a knack for nonsensical lyrics that just work. His sense of rhythm inside of words is impressive. The moods he sets in songs are crystal clear, just listen to the above quoted, "Nitemare Hippy Girl," or perhaps "Truckdriven' Neighbors Downstairs" to get an idea. His albums also tend to be sonic wonderlands, put them on a good system and a whole new world opens up. he is just as conscious of how sound impacts the experience as he is with the music.

More than anything else though, it is his feel for different types of music that amazes me. Beck covers a lot of musical ground in his songs. This was really brought out for me when I heard his duet with Emmy Lou Harris on the Gram Parsons tribute album (Return of the Grievous Angel). Their version of "Sin City" is straight up, old school country. On his albums, he is able to use different types of popular songs to amazing effect. Yes, there is the general slacker rock vibe, but he borrows from a lot of other genres as well. Sometimes it's to be ironic, but more often he uses samples to blend and synthesize with what he's doing. It's an amazing thing, we hear the new synthesis, but we remember the original at the same time. Most people use samples and snippets as just another noise or an ironic counterpoint, Beck is different.

"Rental Car" off of Guerro is a great example. He manages to combine that early 70's vibe (which I wrote about here), a driving, fuzzed out guitar riff reminiscent of the grunge era, and a yodel inspired "LALALA" interlude. That lala bit is especially impressive because he uses all three. I can hear and identify all of them, but they come together in a decidedly "go-go" vibe. It's an eclectic masterpiece, it's what he does...



And to get a feel for his lyrical talent listen to this. It reminds me more than a little of some girls I met up in Ithaca...

There are a bunch of songs that have moments in them that make the whole thing worthwhile. It's one of those moments where you say, "Doh!" and just flat out enjoy it. This is different than the whole song being great, I'm talking about a moment "making" the song.

The first one I can remember is in "Crimson and Clover" by Tommy James and the Shondells (although Joan Jett's version is pretty good too). I think the line "Yeah, I'm not such a sweet thing," is one of the greatest moments in rock and roll. Another is the somewhat more drawn out,
"And that villains always blink their eyes, woo!
And that, yknow, children are the only ones who blush!
And that, life is just to die!"
from Sweet jane.

A less well known moment comes from a group called the Detroit Cobras. BTW, that may be the best name of a rock band of all time... What I've heard of them so far is pretty impressive. There's a soul sound, old school rock, a little riot girrrl attitude, and general kick ass in there. Anyway, in "Bad Girl," we get a two-fer. First, we get this ennui filled stanza:

"But I said no
I must go
I'm not the one you want though I know you think so
'Cause I'm a bad girl,"

That's pretty good, but then Rachel Nagy follows it up with this:
"I'm a bad girl,
But I'm too good for you"

Wow... I have half a mind to put that short bit of the song on a loop and listen to it 17 times or so... Once again, it isn't just the words, it's how they're delivered and how they're presented in the song. Look for their stuff, it's worth listening to.

The title of this post comes from a song that could best be described as a guilty pleasure. I heard it on the radio on the way over and it prompted this post. Like I mentioned before, I tend to lump bands into like or don't like categories. Usually, if a band is in my "don't like" group it's a death sentence for all of their songs. Groups like Fleetwood Mac, Boston, REO Speedwagon, and Air Supply all fit this category. Yeah, you might hear me hum "Go Your Own Way" once in a while... I'll admit it's catchy, but it doesn't mean I like it!

There are some groups that escape my total hatred, I just mostly hate them. I still lump them into my "don't like" group, but I'm willing to admit they had at least one good song in them. Here's a list of songs I like from groups I don't:

"Do Ya" by ELO
"Bringing on the Heartache" by Def Leopard
"My Old School" by Steely Dan
"Still the Same" by Bob Seegar
"Peter Piper" by Run DMC
"Teenagers" by My Chemical Romance
"The First Cut is the Deepest" by Cat Stevens
"Simple Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd

and there's more... What are some of your guilty pleasures?

That's what my mother asked me the other day. It's true, my first reaction to the group is a bad one. I tried to come up with a reason, and the best thing I could come up with is "autoharp." I think that's a decent enough reason, but it didn't sway my mother.

I find it's always easier to say why I like something as opposed to why I dislike something. Usually, my dislike is a general one, making the object of my hatred irredeemable. Maybe that's intentional, if there was just one thing I didn't like, it could be fixed... I also notice that I tend to dislike groups and artists and then I generalize down to individual songs. While I don't claim to like the Lovin' Spoonful, "Summer in the CIty" is actually a decent song. Unfortunetly for them (and apearently my mother), the first thing that pops into my head when I hear the name of that group is "Do You Believe in Magic" which never fails to induce my gag reflex...

I wonder if part of my dislike is based on the fact that she does like it. Do not underestimate the power of generational differences... It's only natural to dismiss at least some of the things that are important to the previous generation. Of course this theory breaks down because I don't hate all of the music she likes.

So mom, I guess I don't know. I doubt I'll be losing any sleep over this though:-)

What is it with ad agencies and odd/inappropriate songs for their ads? I've talked about "Every Day is Like Sunday" for the NFL network before, but there are a couple of new ones making the rounds...

A car company (Lincoln?) is using a cover of "Space Oddity" by Bowie in it's commercial. Huh? Yeah, they lead up to the line "... you've really made the grade..." but they conveniently leave out the critique of that "success" by not asking "...and the papers want to know whose shirts you wear..." Oh, and of course the elephant in the commercial is the obvious drug content. The protagonist, Major Tom, goes up in a spaceship, is amazed, and never comes back. The song is transparently about drug use. Bowie himself sums up the song (his first hit) in his later song, "Ashes to Ashes"

Ashes to ashes, funk to funky
We know major toms a junkie
Strung out in heavens high
Hitting an all-time low

The other ad that jumped out at me is an HP one using Joan Jett's ode to horniness "Do ya want to touch me?" The commercial is touting the new touch screen computer, the song is about getting to third base. The images show a finger(!) doing all sorts of things on the display. In the meantime, the song is giving this message"

"Do you wanna touch (Yeah)
Do you wanna touch (Yeah)
Do you wanna touch me there, where?
Do you wanna touch (Yeah)
Do you wanna touch (Yeah)
Do you wanna touch me there? Where?
There? Yeah!

YEAH, OH YEAH, OH YEAH"

Don't get me wrong, I love the song, it even brings up happy memories (ahem), but it does seem a little inappropriate to me. I have a feeling that the people at HP are trying to be "edgy." I dunno, it seems a bit much to me...

I made a quick note about this station before, now I've listened to it some more and I'm even more impressed. The range of music they play is impressive. I've heard everything from Daft Punk to Stereolab to Dion (!) to a lot of stuff I've never heard before. It looks like each of the DJs have the ability to play what they want, their schedule has music from across the spectrum. You can also listen online! I'm doing that at home since the signal is so weak... What a combo, college radio and the internet! These are good times to be a music fan.

PS:

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the station that changed my music listening habits, WICB from Ithaca College. I went there from 89-94 and soaked up a lot of music from that station. They're still there of course, they've been there forever. It is also the classic college radio rock station. They don't have as many different programs as WCWM does, but they make up for it with an enormous catalog of college rock to play. They broadcast 24 hours a day if I'm not mistaken... Also, since it's being broadcast out of the Park School of Communications, the DJs aren't bad at all. That should be expected since it's mostly radio/TV majors manning it. Listen here.

I've always been a big fan of Sinead O'connor. Ever since she released "The Lion and the Cobra" back in '88, I've been hooked. She had the most powerful voice I've ever heard in a pop singer. Seriously, when she opened wide, something strong was going to come out of it. I can't imagine being her son, how would you like to be yelled at by someone with a voice like that?:-) Something that added to her power was her unusual lack of vibrato, when she held notes, they just stayed there.

But a strong voice doesn't make you a great singer, just look at Linda Ronstadt if you don't believe me. Sure, she had a voice, but the songs were vapid and there was zero soul. Those things were never a problem for Sinead. She was often very personal, and you could tell that she felt them deeply. Every note of hers is invested with something. Her first big hit was Prince's "Nothing compares 2 U." The video is even more intense than her singing. It's just that beautiful face of hers, and of course the tears...



It isn't just her voice, I've rarely seen a singer as expressive with her face and body motions. She put damn near everything into her songs, and you can hear it and see it. The music seems to posses her, to move her around so it can get out. The videos I've seen of her singing "Mandinka" show her twisting and gyrating when she comes to the chorus. It's as if those words have a certain motion associated with them...

One of her most gripping songs is also probably the best hurt/angry songs of all time. It still manages to get tears from me when I listen to it. It's called "Troy" and was on her first album. Oddly enough, the credit for mixer on that album was given to T. Roy... Here's a live version that shows her expressiveness and her ability to sing live.



ANother interesting thing about her is the range of music she has performed. Everything from Irish folk to intense rock, to big band to reggae, she's done it all. All of it ends up being her version, it doesn't really remind you of anyone else.

Alas, time has not been kind to her pipes. Her top end doesn't seem to be there anymore, and she doesn't have that explosiveness at her disposal anymore. I think she's working within her limitations though, and still making interesting music. You haven't lived till you've heard reggae with an Irish accent :-) You keep going on with your bad self Sinead, hair or no hair, I'll always love you!!

The first non-kids song I remember being able to recognize was "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" off of Abbey Road. It has kind of a sing-song quality to it, no wonder I latched onto that so early. The first song that I remember recognizing on the radio was "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by Gordon Lightfoot. I'm not really a big fan of that song, I wonder why I would have noticed that.. Gordon's best song has to be "Sundown," it's a classic early 70's song.

There's a certain sound that the early 70's had. Or to be more precise, there was a sound that could only have "made it" in the early 70's. I'm thinking of "Sundown," "Stuck in the Middle" by Steelers Wheel, and anything off of "Tapestry" by Carol King. This was before disco, before art rock hit it's stride, and before the identifiable genera of Arena Rock came around. There's something special to that sound. I'm not always in the mood for it, but I do think that it was a good time in music.

I'm back up in Northern Virginia again. I'm seeing people and frequenting the haunts I used to hang out in. One of those haunts is a high end audio store called Deja Vu audio. It's a cleverly worded name. The owners name is Vu, and he specializes in vacuum tube equipment and turntables. He has the most exotic equipment I've ever heard or seen there. I've seen Avantgaurd horns there, all sorts of electrostatics, custom built horn monstrosities, etc. I hadn't been there in years, so I thought I'd pop in.

He's got a new location, it's a little bigger and nicer than the last place. The exotic stuff was mostly involving large, vintage speaker systems in custom enclosures. Right now he also has a pair of Gaku-an amplifiers hand built by Kondo-san himself. This series is famous in tube audio circles and are generally considered to be the height of both audio accomplishment as well as audio craft. He had wound his own silver capacitors!!! The set comes in at a cool $250,000 for the pair... I didn't listen to them while I was there, but I might have to make another trip back...

Anyway, he remembered me right off even though I hadn't seen him for 4 or 5 years. It helps that he almost got me arrested once. He locked me in the store and left. I ended up setting off the alarm system and being questioned by the police... Anyway, it was fun to sit and listen to real audio again. AHHHHHHHHHH.... You can tell it's a real audio place because he has more music than equipment. And that's saying something, there are amps, preamps, turntables, and tubes crammed in every nook and cranny. Everything else is covered with LPs (yes... remember them?) and Cds. Check out the display in his entryway!

His shop is worth a visit if you're interested in the highest of the high end of musical reproduction. You won't find typical hi-fi there. I'll probably go back in a day or so...

I've been using my mother's iPod off and on for a couple of weeks. I had always assumed that I wanted one, and I had always assumed that I would want one big enough to keep my entire library on it. I'm not so sure now. I find it odd to be carrying around something of this size and weight. Even around the house, it seems really strange and awkward. This may be blasphemy, but I really do not like the navigation system, I keep overshooting the thing I want with the wheel. I also don't like wearing headphones while I walk around. That's a strike against portable players in general I guess...

So I still might want one for the car. It would just sit there and with the right deck, I could control it from the controls on the stereo. There's just one thing, I don't think the iPod sounds very good. Music sounds much better from my computer with the same headphones. I know, this isn't supposed to be a piece of hi-fi equipment, but still... Maybe it would be fine in the car, but it really doesn't cut it for me on headphones. Hmmm, I wonder if the smaller ones sound any better... The smaller ones are light enough to be useful when carrying them around.

I probably won't get an iPod. I've held off this long, and now that I'm actually using one, I don't really like it all that much. When I get a phone, I'll make sure I can use it to play music and that'll probably be good enough for portable use. I'll worry about the car when I get one...

There are a couple of "worship and praise" stations on the FM band around here. I've been wondering why I dislike them so much. I mean, I should like them, I believe in a lot of what they sing about, but still, they're annoying. My usual quip was that even the most hardcore, satanic heavy metal group would only have a song or two about Satan on each album, why can't the Christian groups sing about something else?

With a little more thought, the reason why they are so annoying seems obvious. They're too nice. There's nothing wrong with nice songs, there's nothing wrong with singing about how great God/Jesus is. But when you have a whole station that plays nothing but that all day long, it changes things.

If you listen to the station for any amount of time, you could get the idea that living a Christian life is all sunshine and lollipops. Everything is so nice, so happy, so peaceful. Unless you are incredibly shallow (don't get me started), living a life of faith is not a bucketful of puppies. Seriously, how can you listen to those stations after you got fired, your dog died, your mom died, or any other thing that happens to everyone from time to time? Those are the times when you are angry and hurt, being reminded that Jesus is the hope and the beauty just isn't going to cut it.

I've been asked why I like songs about "bad" stuff so much. I guess it's because they sound much more human to me. Humans are imperfect, we screw up and have strong emotions. That's the world we all live in. In theory, we will get to the world in the worship and praise songs, but sometimes that seems so far away. I'm a big believer in the idea that you have to stand in the dark if you want to see the light. Listening to songs about addiction, broken hearts, etc. remind me of the alternative. I'll take that any day over sweetness...

My friend Randy sent me this Youtube video a little while ago. I thought it was "nice," but I also thought they were just a little rough. I've grown more attached to it and now I think it's lovely.



They're a pair of Swedish teens, 15 and 17 I think. "First Aid Kit" is an odd name for a group, but there you go. The song is called "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" and was originally by the Fleet Foxes. It's not an easy song, I wouldn't think someone so young could do it so well. Maybe that works in their favor, if you're young enough you may not know how self-involved that song can be...

Anyway, Klara (the one with the guitar) has a really strong voice. You get the the feeling that she doesn't mind speaking her mind. Her temperament during singing and the quality of her voice reminds me of Sinead O'Connor (I keep meaning to do a blog post on her). I also think that she could do really well in Nashville, at times she flashes a little twang when she sings in English. Her sister, Johanna has a much softer voice. The two really harmonize well, the two voices combine to make a new, complex one. That reminds me of another pair of Swedish ladies that propelled their group to superstar status (ABBA anyone?).

Here's another song by them. This one's an original and I think it's probably one of the best songs I've heard written by teenagers. It's remarkable that they can be this mature and have this complete a vison of an idea at this age. It's called "Our Own Pretty Ways."



This is a different, live version than what is on their EP. The EP, entitled Drunken Trees, is much more polished, but I kind of like the electric organ. I also think they do a really good job harmonizing (despite the bad note at the end) live. Anyway, enjoy and I hope they tour the states! There's every reason to think that they'd sound fantastic...

UPDATE:

I was reading their myspace page and I got a kick out their influences, check it out:

Gary Numan


...and the rest:

Bright Eyes, Joanna Newsom, Vashti Bunyan, Cat Power, Fleet Foxes, Devendra Banhart, Karen Dalton, Judee Sill, The Carter Family, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Nick Drake, The Beach Boys, Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins, Neko Case, The Beatles, Elliott Smith, Laura Marling, The Delamore Brothers, Leonard Cohen, Antony and The Johnsons, T.Rex, Alela Diane, Gram Parsons, Neil Young, Simon Joyner, The Flying Burrito Brothers, America, Fever Ray, The Louvin Brothers, David Dondero, Ryan Adams, Cursive, Vetiver, The Vevlet Underground, Jon Brion, Yann Tiersen, Pixies, Lefty Fritzell, Billie Holliday, Bill Monroe & The Blugrass Boys, etc.

Gotta say, I don't hear too much Gary Nueman in there, but God love them for thinking of him :-)

I was surfing the radio "dial" (remember those?) the other day and came across a gen-ewe-wine college radio station. You can tell by not only the type of music they play, but by the incompetence of the DJs and their seeming lack of excitement. In any case, it was nice to come across a station that wasn't playing the top 40 dreck but still playing some new stuff. Much to my amazement, it was a lot of guitars, and a lot of noise. I have yet to hear any hip-hop anything on there. I thought rock was dead? Some of that lack may be due to the fact that this is a station out of William and Mary. It has a little more racial diversity than my alma mater Ithaca College (what college doesn't), but not much.

Anyway, I like listening to it when I can. It's pretty low power, so I never know when it'll be clear. It just adds to the thrill of the hunt... :-)

I worked with a guy, a rather odd guy. He could best be described as a redneck marxist. Anyway, he once related a memory from child hood that I could definitely relate to. He said that when he was a kid, the older kids that he was afraid of were the ones with the prismatic KISS belt buckles. You remember them don't you? Around 1978 or so?

(image from wesclark.com)

You remember the kinds of guys who wore them? Well, those types were still around when I got to high school. The big belt buckle thing had passed, but the attitude was the same. Check out this clip from the movie "Heavy Metal Parking Lot." It's from 1986 and filmed in front of the old Caps center in Landover MD before a Judas Priest/ Dokken concert. Check out the hair! Check out the cars! Check out the air guitar! I don't know if you guys that grew up in larger cities had a similar sub-culture, but they are unforgettable. have fun watching this!



I wonder what would have happened if you had told any of those people that Rob Haleford was gay?

I like all kinds of music, all different genres, all different speeds, political leanings, etc. There's one sub-genres that I have always had a fascination with, the addict song. I'm not talking about "getting wasted" songs, I'm talking about songs that are sung from an addict's perspective. They may indeed be getting wasted, but there's always a context involved, and it's always kind of sad.


Some standouts in this group are "Heroin" by the Velvet Underground, "Loaded" by Hole, and even "Moonshiner" as sung by Uncle Tupelo. I think that every type of popular music is best suited for a particular emotion, or at least the type can express a particular emotion better than others. For me, country music expresses regret better than any other type of popular music. The drug of choice in country music circles has always been alcohol (notwithstanding Johnny Cash's "Cocaine Blues") and there are a lot of standouts in the addict group in country.

Alcohol songs have a special attraction to me. I think that more people can sympathize with an alcoholic than say a heroin addict. Alcohol is everywhere, who hasn't tied one on? Who hasn't gotten drunk when they probably shouldn't have? Alcohol scares me to death for that reason. It's easy to avoid and not be tempted by things like heroin and crack if you grew up the way I did. I'm very glad I developed the habit of not drinking early on. I really believe that if I didn't, I'd have a problem with alcohol today. Crawford men have a long history of being handled by alcohol, and even though I never drink regularly, I still crave it on a regular basis. Thank God for good habits...

Here's a song I just heard, it's called "Whisky Lullaby" and it's sung by Alison Krauss and Brad Paisley. This one is interesting because we get a two-fer. It isn't just an addict, it's a pair of codependents albeit codependents at a distance. It doesn't end well for them, but as Bugs Bunny once said, "You were expecting a happy ending?"

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... except that he's not dead of course. The NFL network is now using "Every Day is Like Sunday" for their ad. The title makes sense for them, but like so many other examples of this kind of ad, the rest of the song doesn't.

The song is, IMO, the best apocalypse song of all time. The great thing about the song is that he wants the world to end. C'mon, only the Moz could get away with that. In the song, he says, "Every day is like Sunday, every day is silent and gray..." Not exactly what the NFL is looking for. Funnily enough they don't have him sing the song. The NFL has revamped the song giving it a little more, um, testicularity and a little country twang. When you think of singers with the NFL Hank Williams Jr., sure. The Moz, not so much...

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morrissey

I've always loved listening to Sam Cooke, he had that butter smooth delivery that could make even the worst schmaltz tolerable. I love his album "Night Moves" despite the fact there really isn't a really good song on the whole thing. His pop stuff was always catchy and hummable. Songs like "Another Saturday Night," " Twisting the Night Away," and "Cupid," are oldies mainstays.

As good as his pop stuff was, his gospel was even better. That's what he did originally, and it's what allowed him to transition over to the pop world. There is a lot of depth and feeling in his singing, and it really rings true in his praise songs.

So imagine how shocked I was when I read about how he died. I always knew he died young, but I didn't know how. I had a vague idea that he died in a plane crash, it turns out I was probably confusing him with Otis Redding...

It turns out that like so many other popular musicians, Sam Cooke had the bad two-fer of liking to drink and not being able to keep "it" in his pants. He was a well known womanizer and had children by three different flames of his. The night he died, he drank a lot and got obsessed with a woman.

He and a woman that he interested in had been sitting and drinking for most of the night in a night club. They decided to leave together and go someplace more private. He tore out of there in his Ferrari (one HELL of a sweet ride BTW) and went to a cheap hotel in south central LA.

By that time, he had lost whatever mental faculties he had. He got violent and stripped her down to her underwear. She was afraid of being raped, so while he was going to the bathroom, she took off in her underwear.

When Sam came out, he was furious that she had left. He threw a jacket on (he wasn't wearing a shirt) and drove back to the office of the motel. For some reason he thought she had gone there. He stormed in and started screaming at the lady there, demanding what had happened to "his" woman. He grabbed her, shook her, and started to get rather violent. She reached behind the desk, pulled out her .22 pistol and shot him a couple of times. One bullet hit his heart and it was all over.

The police had gotten a call from the woman who had run away saying that she had been kidnapped and was now in a phone booth in her underwear. Within a couple of minutes, they got a call about a shooting in a nearby motel...

I guess I shouldn't be so surprised. Often times the ones who proclaim their holiness the loudest are the most corrupt. On the other hand, it's always easier to see the problems in other people... RIP Sam, hope you're doing better now...

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