Here I go again, hoping to launch a discussion over a type of topic that is an anathema to many of you. I thank you in advance for your tolerance and, moreso, efforts in confronting the challenging relationships among form, content, and perception. It goes without saying that I do not expect you to thank me in advance for the surprising degree to which you might feel yourself caught up in this discussion.
Last March I did a little write-up of my favorite taped radio recording from my youth, a King Biscuit Flour Hour show featuring Elvis Costello & The Attractions with Martin Belmont guesting on lead guitar in place of an injured Steve Nieve. You can read what I wrote and hear the first batch of tracks I posted here.
Recently, Townsman snuh appeared in the Halls of Rock. He wrote me offlist to say how much he appreciated finding some of the tracks for this concert, which he also taped off the radio many moons ago. He lost his tape and asked if I had the rest of it. I do, but a couple of the tracks on the CD are not transferring properly. Until I find my original cassette and try re-burning those tracks, here are a few more tracks from that show. Stay tuned for a Pt. 3. Hopefully it won’t take me another 11 months to complete the sharing of this old cassette! Today, I’m also including a bonus track from another BBC bootleg during that same Get Happy!! period. Steve Nieve is back behind the keyboards for this one, while Martin Belmont was probably back getting dirty looks from Graham Parker.
So, without further ado…
“Waiting for the End of the World”
From the BBC boot…
By the way, you should check out snuh’s LiveJournal; you’ll find plenty of good stuff, including a piece on the Young Elvis!
Fellow Townsmen and Townswomen — I have long since resigned myself to the notion that my earnest contributions to this fine forum have disqualified me from any form of elective office… like, ever. The electronic paper trail I’ve left behind is long and eminently mis-quotable, unfortunately. But that can’t stop a man from dreaming!
As I ponder the upcoming election, I sometimes think: “Shit, man… if I were President, I’d be, like, the most full-on culture vulture Prez since Jack Kennedy. I’d have concerts and shit, showcasing the finest artists in the modern (and perhaps not so modern) American music canon… and shit.”
Then, of course, I stop myself, and think more realistically about what a President really can do with regard to showcasing talent in the White House for foreign and domestic dignitaries. Clearly, a performance by Iggy and the Stooges would be a waste of good talent, and would likely get me impeached for some damn reason or another. You gotta keep it real, but non-offensive, at the same time.
So who would make the White House concert schedule if you were Prexy? I have a short list, and it would be eminently do-able; quality American artists who wouldn’t offend anybody, but would provide a high-quality display of American musical talent. I wanna hear about yours!
Hail to the chief (that’d be you),
HVB
Rock Town Hall surely hopes that readers do not rely on us for the latest in rock news items, especially rock deaths. I’d hate to think anyone Townsperson’s missed a rock viewing while I miss a link that’s been buried somewhere in the RTH Basement. My thanks to the “basement dwellers” for passing along this link to a nice write up on Pere Ubu guitarist Jim Jones, who died recently. You may also be interested in this nice piece, written by the leader of Cobra Verde, if my rock nerd powers are fully functioning.
Jones joined Pere Ubu in 1987, for the recording of and touring in support of the strong comeback album, The Tenement Year. Shortly thereafter, the band’s recordings would lose the spark that I’d come to love, but they stayed strong as a live act over the next half dozen tours that I’d caught. Beside his snakey guitar parts, Jones added an enthusiastic, open, friendly vibe to the band that did not seem to be part of their overall band vibe. Judging by these pieces on him, it sounds like these qualities were part of his everyday personality. He sounds like a guy who would have been at ease around our virtual turntable.
I don’t have The Tenement Year handy in digital form, but here are two tracks with Jones from the last Pere Ubu album I’ve liked in too many years to date, Raygun Suitcase. This album saw the band coming out of a stretch of relatively poppy, overproduced albums and returning to their special blend of black-humored, disjointed garage rock. The next couple of albums I bought just seemed to lack any interesting form. Stuff happens.
Pere Ubu, “Electricity”
Pere Ubu, “Don’t Worry”
I’m no expert on the ’70s Cleveland/Akron scene, but because of my love for Pere Ubu I’ve done my share of reading and record buying around the extended Ubu family of musicians. In the early- to mid-70s, Jones played bass for The Mirrors, a “rival” band of Ubu predecessors Rocket From the Tombs. Here are a couple of tracks by The Mirrors, from a cool compilation of bands “left behind” from that fertile, mid-70s Cleveland/Akron scene, Those Were Different Times: Cleveland 1972-1976. (Both this album and Raygun Suitcase are available on eMusic.)
The Mirrors, “You Me Love”
The Mirrors, “Annie”
Finally, if you haven’t done so already, I suggest your read a lot more about the Cleveland/Akron proto-punk scene (as well as proto-punk scenes in Detroit and NYC), in Clinton Heylin‘s excellent From the Velvets to the Voidoids.
In other news of the dead…
Continue reading »
When you buy a digital version of an album you already own on vinyl, do you discard or keep the vinyl? If you keep the vinyl, why?
You may include your personal history with cassette and 8-track tapes in this discussion, if you feel that’s necessary.
Earlier today General Slocum posed the following thoughts at the tail end of a recent Dugout Chatter:
OK…what’s up with Thurston Moore? I have always been just one arm’s length away from being anything more than luke warm about Sonic Youth. Some admittedly great songs still don’t make them a band I like. That’s odd, to me, and unusual in my experience. So I just took out of the library today that Trees Outside the Academy album. Some of it sounds good, some really interesting rhythm guitar in there. But the whole package is a tastefully elaborate, calculatedly self-deprecating, quasi-candid shrine to Mr. Moore himself, and his own obtuse hipness. Fans, hatas, thoughts?
I know the General and let me tell you, he’s no dimestore, artsy-fartsy-averse Townsperson. This isn’t the esteemed-yet-hippie-hating Hrrundivbakshi, our very own 2000 Man of the People, or even an open-minded, reasonable, tolerant sort like like myself raising these issues. Rather it’s among the most free-thinking and visionary regular voices in the Halls of Rock. Hell, this is a guy we might have pegged for a Sonic Youth fan! For this reason I’m bringing the General’s idle chatter to The Main Stage. I’m hopeful that his asking this question will give the necessary campaign against rock’s most ubiquitous rock-doc commentator the credibility it requires.
It must be true! Even Lou said Mitch Ryder‘s version was better than his own! This 1972 cover totally explains Rock ‘n Roll Animal!
