April 2009 Archives

Last Man Standing: Bands That Should Have Been Strictly Instrumental

Apr 152009

I know this is highly subjective, but let’s be honest and see if we can’t reach agreement on a few of our suggestions. I’ll start by suggesting King Crimson. I can’t say there’s a single King Crimson vocal melody or lyric that I’d miss if it had never existed. The whole point of listening to King Crimson, for me, is tolerating the vocal sections so that I can dig the music.

What band with vocals do you wish was strictly instrumental? Per Last Man Standing protocol, one suggestion at a time, please.

The Dexateens are coming! The Dexateens are coming!

Posted by 2000 Man

Apr 142009

I got an email the other day that’s the best news I’ve had all year. The Dexateens are releasing their new album, Singlewide and for the first time ever, they’re going to tour to promote it! You probably don’t know who The Dexateens are, but in my little part of the world, they get as much play as any other band I’ve ever followed. They were my New Favorite Band back before someone at Fox pissed me off and I quit my occasionally updated and hardly read blog. They have too many releases to maintain that title, so they just fall into the category of one of My All-Time Favorite Bands Ever category.

I found out about them in the best way to find out about a band. I was shopping at My Mind’s Eye in Lakewood, OH and in the miscellaneous “Ds” I saw their first album. I liked the cover, and I loved their name. I flipped it over and saw they were on Estrus and I figured the odds were damned good that this band was gonna have some guitar firepower. I have always shopped like that, and I usually have good luck. I had a few other things that day and when I got in my car I listened to those while I was driving around doing my job. I never got around to The Dexateens that day, but the next day I looked at the stack of new stuff and popped that in first and headed for the other side of town.

I don’t know what it is about twangy punk that I like, but it’s something. I never cared much for Southern Rock, mostly because I never much cared for The South, I guess. I live as far North as you can get in my part of the country, and if you go a few miles north in Lake Erie, you’re in Canada. So I feel a lot more in common with that nation than I do with the Deep South of my own country. I hate the racism and the stereotypes of The South, and my few dealings and visits there didn’t do anything to change my mind. When I popped in the first Dexateens album and “Cardboard Hearts” staggered up and slapped me in the face I knew I was gonna be hooked. This was fast, sloppy, loud and just made me want to knock off early, get some beers and make some noise!

The Dexateens, “Cardboard Hearts”

I had started listening to Drive By Truckers around that time, and I was seeing that the music coming out of The South was completely different from what I thought it would be. I like DBT, but I’m not one of their legendary fans. They just made me think I shouldn’t judge 50 or so million people by some hang-ups I had. I’d been listening to Lucero a lot and I was feeling pretty wrong about a lot of my preconceptions of The South, and here was a band that just seemed all fired up for fun. I was totally unprepared for “Cherry,” a 200 mph bitter diatribe against Bobby Frank Cherry, a white guy that bombed a Black church in 1963, killed four Black girls and lived free to boast about it until 2002. Then he was tried and put in jail, and that’s where the SOB died. These guys – The Dexateens – seemed like a band I could really get behind. By the time the Stonesy “Shelter” played, I really thought I might just play the first five songs on this album all day and never move past them. I started looking all over to see if they would play in Cleveland, because I couldn’t wait!

The Dexateens, “Cherry”

The Dexateens, “Shelter”

When their second album, Red Dust Rising, came out in 2005, I was ready for another sonic assault with some decent lyrics and plenty of guitars. They were still on Estrus and I was pretty sure that it would just be more of the same, but that sameness would be just fine by me. What I got was still plenty of guitars, but more twang, and a more deliberate pace. I was thinking maybe they needed a slow song so they could take a break a little during their shows, but this was different. I had tried finding out something about them, and it led me to a band called The Quadrajets who were a big influence on The Dexateens. I really assumed Red Dust Rising would be the same thing, and I was wrong. They still played some things fast and loud, but they were tighter and their sound was more their own. It’s definitely Southern Rock, but where that wall used to be impenetrable to me, their attitude and good sense to use many loud guitars whenever possible had me won over. I hate picking songs from this album for you, because I think everyone should have this one and there isn’t a weak spot on it. I think “Take Me to the Speedway” portrays their frustration of things in The South, but it works as a personal relationship, which I think is something Southerners feel more deeply than those of us up North. “Devoted to Lonesome” almost caught me by surprise, but that had already happened with the title track, and I knew I had found a band that I could really get behind. Still no Cleveland shows, though. I consoled myself with the boogie of “Pistol Totin’ Man.”

The Dexateens, “Take Me to the Speedway”

The Dexateens, “Devoted to Lonesome”

The Dexateens, “Pistol Totin’ Man”

(Much more after the jump!)
Continue reading »

How Would You Describe Modern-Day Rock Hairdos?

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Apr 142009

A range of mid-60s rock hairdos.

As a young boy in the late-60s/early-70s, I could have described then-fashionable rock hairdos. All you had to do was look at a half dozen popular groups shots on albums covers and in magazines.

Unmistakably the Disco strain of late-70s hairdos.

Later in the ’70s, it was just as easy, and we could clearly trace the divide between Rockin’ late-70s hair and feathered Disco-influenced hair.

Baseball Will Never Sound the Same to Phillies Fans

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Apr 132009

I can’t believe I’m going to have to watch Phillies games without the voice of Harry Kalas, who died in the press box at the Washington Nationals’ stadium at 1:20 today. For those of you who did not grow up with “Harry the K” calling games since your childhood, the Baseball Hall of Fame broadcaster may be one more legendary voice you’ve heard in the background of ESPN highlights – and even imitated by ESPN broadcasters – but he’s THE VOICE of the team I first started following the same year Kalas came to Philly, 1971. From boyhood forward, every Philadelphia sports fan works on his Harry Kalas impersonation. It’s a good thing that we’ll be able to remember the sound of Harry’s voice a lot better than any of us try to replicate it.

Admittedly, we’ve got weird priorities in Philadelphia, and our beloved sports broadcasters often resonate more deeply in our hearts than our usually suspect teams. When Kalas’ old color man and Hall of Fame Phillies centerfielder in his own right, Richie Ashburn, died midseason in 1997, our city mourned like Rome might following the passing of the Pope. I’m sure the coming week here will be no different.
Continue reading »

Turn Me On, Nobody

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Apr 132009

I may soon find that my premise was not worth bringing to the Halls of Rock for possible scintillating discussion, but that’s the way it goes around here. Driving in this morning I was listening to a collection of obscure ’60s psych recordings that came with the recent edition of Mojo with a Who Sell-Out article and Nick Lowe interview. While enjoying the songs for what they were, I got to thinking about whether any “psychedelic” lyrics ever made an impression on me if they didn’t come from a band that had first established its lyrical cred through more traditional lyrics.

For instance, as a teenager I had no beefs with George Harrison‘s “The more one travels/The less one really knows” from The Beatles’ B-side “The Inner Light,” to show you how forgiving I could be. Same goes for a much better song, The Byrds‘ “Eight Miles High.” Cool music, cool enough sentiments. To this day I dig the lyrics of these songs. I’d already liked my share of songs and lyrics by these artists, so perhaps, based on some form of the Sincerity Fallacy, it sounded like progress when they moved into psychedelic territory.

On the other hand a song like “Journey to the Center of Your Mind,” cool as it is musically, never carried any weight with me musically. I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t have any prior respect for the lyrical content of The Amboy Dukes, but I’m more than willing to consider that to be the case. If “Strawberry Fields Forever” was the first single by The Beatles would I have brushed off the lyrics as nonsense plucked from the Psych Pshoppe? I’m equally willing to admit that I may not know how it is that I assess psychedelic lyrics from any source.

One band that trafficked in psychedelic lyrics from the starting gate, when they were “nobodies,” so to speak, and that hold up as well as any psych lyrics, in my mind, was Pink Floyd. Because I was not already a fan of later-day Floyd when I first heard the early stuff, I cannot say that they built up credibility after the fact. Those Syd Barrett lyrics actually sound original and inspired to me more often than not.

What are your experiences with psychedelic lyrics from artists who did not previously establish credibility as more conventional lyricists?

Rock Town Hall’s Rock Fan Artwork Appreciation: Easter

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Apr 112009

Bless you, Townspeople.

Do The Doors Actually Suck?

Posted by Oats

Apr 102009

Yes, Jim Morrison was a bad poet with a ridiculous persona. Yes, Ray Manzarek is still smugly obsequious nearly 40 years after Jimbo’s death. And yes, that tour with Stewart Copeland and the dude from The Cult is one of the most pathetic attempts to keep a boomer-rock brand on the shelves waaaaayyy past its sell-by date.

But do The Doors suck? Like, is their music that bad? They had a kinda seedy punk-rock intensity about them, like The Velvets. They had jazz and blues chops that, to my ears, are more appealing than those of The Grateful Dead. They managed to convey both of the above in their singles, which are often hella punchy and catchy to boot.

I mean, if you think “Light My Fire” sucks, but “Marquee Moon” is awesome, that’s a little strange, right? You should have some really solid data backing up your statement, I think.

I’m not saying I’m a Doors fan all of a sudden. I just wonder if there’s an objective reason for saying they suck. But more importantly, I’d like to hear what Townspeople really think of The Doors.

Older Entries Newer Entries