All-Star Jam

 Posted by
Dec 192008
 

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What more can you say?

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  14 Responses to “All-Star Jam”

  1. Mr. Moderator

    This video is the opening scene of the movie that Almost Famous should have been.

  2. Mr. Moderator

    Former Lumber Company pitcher Dock Ellis died. He was a great man.

  3. hrrundivbakshi

    I love these bongwater-stained grooves from the early 70s. Nice changes under the “can you hear me…” section, too. But what’s with the wimpy Mustang bass? Dude needs to be poundin’ on a Jazz Bass for this one — with the shiny metal string cover thingie.

  4. diskojoe

    First off, I would like to use this opportunity to wish everyone at RTH a Merry Chrimble & a Gear New Year.

    Dock Ellis died? I think that pitching a no-hitter on acid was probably a better accomplishment then chasing after Madonna.

    Great Pretties video. It’s probably from the Parachutes album since Dick Taylor is nowhere to be found. Phil May doesn’t look as good w/the beard. Maybe there should be a new RTH topic, what rockers look better with or without a beard and/or mustache.

  5. Mr. Moderator

    Diskojoe, I’ll have to find the old post on the topic of rockers who didn’t fit their beards, or something like that. I remember a photo of Jagger from that Ned Kelly movie, for instance. It may suit what you’re looking for. If so we can bring it back to The Main Stage for a Friday Flashback.

  6. Mr. Moderator

    I just got the Cantonese chicken bone shot of Linda Rondstadt in the rotating banner image and I thought I’d share that I saw Yes Man with my 11-year-old boy yesterday. It was much better than expected. Zooey Deschanel’s character got to sing some silly New Wave songs that were written by Eels, if I read the credits correctly. Someone’s gotta get Zooey one of those chicken bones!

  7. trolleyvox

    An RTH-appropriate link to a most excellent Onion AV club 2008 Year in Band Names:

    http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/2008_the_year_in_band_names

  8. I can’t bring myself to see YES MAN, because I loved the book that it’s based on, and as far as I can tell, all they took was the title and the basic idea. Asswipes.

  9. Our man Fagen just wrote a piece on the author/DJ Jean Shepard. Just thought I’d share:

    http://www.slate.com/id/2207058/?gt1=38001

    TB

  10. diskojoe

    I saw that Slate article by Mr. Fagen on Jean Shepherd. I’m a fan of his, which began when I read his columns in Car & Driver when I was a lad in the early 70s.
    Just last week I posted a link to his Playboy interview w/the Beatles. I hate to Prince-Nez latelydavidband, but Shep was never a “DJ”. Although he did play records, they were only used as background & to amplify his monologues. In fact, he was fired from several of his early radio jobs for just talking instead of playing records. Another fact about Shep was that although his musical tastes were quite broad, he really didn’t care too much about rock.

  11. hrrundivbakshi

    Those of you curious to hear all sorts of Christmas-related Beatles oddities should head over to

    http://www.vinyldistrict.blogspot.com/

    and scroll a third of the way or so down the page. Lots of interesting goodies to explore, most of which I’d never heard before!

  12. Mr. Moderator

    Fans of the mustache will certainly be rooting for the 49ers this weekend:

    http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3789504

  13. Just wanted to share that Ethiopiques Vol. 1 is available on MP3 from Amazon.com for $1.99, today only! I know Mr. Mod, BigSteve and others really dig this stuff. I’ll probably buy it when I get home this evening.

    http://snurl.com/34x4m

    Nice seeing everyone last night.

  14. hrrundivbakshi

    I have a fave blog, “The Vinyl District,” the author of which — I *think* — is an occasional contributor to the Hall. Anyhow, TVD posted its “best song of 2008” today, and I just wanted to say it’s a stone winner. Click on through to

    http://www.vinyldistrict.blogspot.com/

    to check “Vitriol” by Bluejuice out. I’m not sure how long it will take for me to get tired of the otherwise humorous intro/cult spoof content in the video — but the song rocks. Without any guitars, it rocks!

    HVB

All-Star Jam

 Posted by
Feb 242007
 

All-Star Jam. Have some cake.

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  23 Responses to “All-Star Jam”

  1. sammymaudlin

    Speaking of Dub. I’ve been listening to those first three PIL albums lately. The dubness brought by Jah Wobble on the first 2 (and especially Metal Box) seals the deal for me but it isn’t an overt dubness like The Clash sometimes did.

    I’ve explored, with some satisfaction, the typical dub world of Lee Perry, King Tubby… I would love though to find another band, like early PIL, that used dub qualities as a means to an end rather than an end itself. No dance or trance suggestions please.

    Anyone?

    Also, is Paris au Printemps worth a spin?

  2. Mr. Moderator

    Sammy asked:

    Also, is Paris au Printemps worth a spin?

    Yes! It’s energetic and a bit sloppy in a great way.

    I need to find some albums produced by Adrian Sherwood that I used to hear in the ’80s. I don’t know what that music was, but it had some dub applications to music that was not necessarily reggae, from what I remember.

  3. sammymaudlin

    I am one of the votes for XTC as favorite post-psychedelia expression.

    This brings up an interesting conundrum – Is “Psychedelia” constrained by a time-period? Was it a music style that ended? I suppose you could certainly say that it was an “era” but does that mean that any psychedelic band that has come since is “Post-Psychedelia?”

    I could ask the same for Punk. The term Post-Punk seems to be pervasive, yet we still see bands following the Punk Era, given the tag of Punk. Is that a fair tag?

    Or how about Power Pop? Or other “genres” vs. “eras”?

    As a fan of what I consider a very narrow amount of really good psychedelic music, I would submit that as a “genre” English Settlement is one of the best psychedelic albums ever.

  4. BigSteve

    I would love though to find another band, like early PIL, that used dub qualities as a means to an end rather than an end itself.

    I’m not exactly sure I’ve got what you mean, but how about the Slits and the Delta 5? Killing Joke and the Basement 5 also come to mind as something along the same lines from that era.

    I agree`with Mr. Mod that Adrian Sherwood might be a good direction to pursue, but to me that stuff is pretty much dub rather than dub-like. He released records under the names New Age Steppers and African Head Charge. I don’t know if by “no dance or trance” you mean no elctronica. I mean, the whole trip-hop thing kind of used dub effects as a means to an end. The Mad Professor made lots of good electro-dub records, and he remixed the second Massive Attack album.

    Also the style called dubstep is one of the latest styles to emerge from the London underground. I really like it. The self-titled album by Burial is probably my favorite album of the past year. If you want more recommendations in that area I’ve got some.

    Also, is Paris au Printemps worth a spin?

    Yes.

  5. Mr. Moderator

    I would think some form of psychedelia will continue as long as we’re in touch with our psyches, but I was referring to the genre that self-consciously launched in the ’60s. I’m curious to know how the music has progressed beyond its origins. As much as I’m still a sucker for fuzz-psych riffs, heading songs these days with lyrics about the journey to the center of your mind (again and again) gets old. Where are we taking rock music that’s driven by explorations of the psyche?

  6. Mr. Moderator

    Delta 5 was always among the best of the PiL-type bands from that era, I thought. Didn’t a retrospective of their stuff just come out?

    I never got The Slits, although that one album cover had some appeal.

    I can’t stand Killing Joke – to me they were always nausea-inducing music, but they do fit the bill. Someday I’ll have to reexamine why they gave me such fits in their time.

    Good point about Sherwood, BigSteve, I guess that really was dub music itself. I do remember it sounding wholly formed as that sort of music, though, not like someone fiddling with knobs of an already recorded song, which is what I thought was meant by Sammy’s Clash example.

  7. BigSteve

    Delta 5 was always among the best of the PiL-type bands from that era, I thought. Didn’t a retrospective of their stuff just come out?

    Yes, but it only includes their singles, a few BBC sessions, and some live tracks. For some reason their album See the Whirl has never been re-released.

  8. Hi Sammy,

    Maybe you’d like Delroy Wilson too if you’re into Lee Perry – Prince Buster is another obvious one… but I think Delroy Wilson and the Prince had some kind of beef writing songs about eachother or something. Reggae Dub Fight Club! Does anyone have the Strummerville compilation on here? All I’ve heard is Janie Jones done by Babyshambles – which I actually really, really like a lot.

    This brings up an interesting conundrum – Is “Psychedelia” constrained by a time-period? Was it a music style that ended? I suppose you could certainly say that it was an “era” but does that mean that any psychedelic band that has come since is “Post-Psychedelia?”

    Hm. Interesting question. I’d say that it was a definite time-period, and that you could classify newer stuff as post-psychedelia. I’m happy with that. Newer (in the loosest sense of the term) bands that I’d lump into that genre would be Super Furry Animals, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci (r.i.p.), Dead Meadow, The Invisible Eyes, THTX, Black Lips, Jennifer Gentle, TV Personalities – thoughts on lumping Neutral Milk Hotel/Olivia Tremor Control in there?

    Delta 5 was always among the best of the PiL-type bands from that era, I thought. Didn’t a retrospective of their stuff just come out?

    Yep, Rough Trade released it a while ago. Retrospective 79-81, singles and sessions – I remember seeing/playing that at my hometown’s radio station when it came in.

  9. The Delta 5 comp is actually quite good. It doesn’t have See the Whirl, but that was kind of overproduced anyway. It has all of the Rough Trade singles, their finest moments, and a load of BBC sessions which include studio recorded sessions of about half of the See the Whirl songs that might be better anyway. They actually sound more like their fellow Leeds mates Gang of 4 and early Mekons than PIL, but Gang of 4 had a pretty clever approach to Dub themselves. I just got the Delta 5 CD this weekend after a long hesitation because it didn’t have the album and I had heard it was mastered from the vinyl and sounded subpar. I’m sorry I waited so long. It sounds great.

    Adrian Sherwood’s “African Head Charge” records are less Reggae focused than his productions like The New Age Steppers. Some of the early Material Records especially the collection of early singles, Temporary Music”, has a non-reggae Dub quality in spots.

  10. As a side note – the Delta 5 comp packaging art/cover was designed by Philly local music supporter Maria Tessa Sciarrino. She was one half of the local Philly show promoting “Plain Parade” organization.

    http://www.herjazz.org/maria/about/

    I’ve been meaning to pick this comp up and am glad it gets high marks here.

  11. Mr. Moderator

    Pretty much unrelated to anything so far – but isn’t that why we have these All-Star Jams? – I heard a cool version of John Coltrane’s “India”, I believe, on WPRB today. The rhythm had some kind of Afro-Cuban feel to it with an incredibly stuttered bassline. The horm parts were very much like what Coltrane and his partner on that recording (Dolphy) played, but the completely different rhythmic bed was a great contrast. Does this version ring a bell? I didn’t get to stick around long enough to hear who did it.

  12. hrrundivbakshi

    Is this Oscars night a particularly lousy one, or am I just in a cranky mood? That James Taylor performance was particularly heinous.

    Oh, good Lord. A perfect storm of… something; Melissa Etheridge singing a song from “An Inconvenient Truth.” Ewg. I really don’t like her — her music , I mean. I mean, at *all*. Really, other than the, you know, socially conscious lyrics and what not, what’s the difference between Melissa Etheridge and Jon Bon Jovi?

  13. Mr. Moderator

    what’s the difference between Melissa Etheridge and Jon Bon Jovi?

    Bon Jovi’s a lot better looking!

    It looked to me like James Taylor came real close to forgetting the lyrics at one point.

    I went to bed halfway through. I knew Penelope Cruz wasn’t going to win. I was already bummed that Casino Royale wasn’t nominated for Best Picture. The stars weren’t looking all that fabulous. I was getting tired and I knew I had to get to sleep before the prednisone I’ve been on gave me that extra late-night kick that it will do.

    I was glad to know that Scorscese finally won an Oscar for Best Director/Best Picture, even if it’s for a movie that by all reports is below his prime stuff. Friday night we let our oldest boy stay up late and watch most of After Hours with us, occasionally skipping to another channel for scenes not cut out for a 9-year-old kid. He loved it. That was a cool period for Scorscese. I haven’t put my finger on how to describe it quite yet, but it’s cool when an artist gets into a little stretch of “diversions.” I’m sure this happens with musical artists as well. Could be a full topic of its own someday if anyone hits on what I’m scratching at…

  14. Re: Scorsese

    My favorite “diversion” of his is Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, which ranks up there with the great road movies of the 70s.

    Last night, I rewatched Mean Streets, and there you can see all the classic elements of Scorsese in embryonic form: rock music soundtrack, religious themes, street dialogue.

    I was thinking that Taxi Driver actually marks an artistic decline for Scorsese, in that it allowed a kind of nihilistic approach to portraying violence to creep in.

  15. I too love After Hours and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. I miss the days when Marty didn’t feel the need to make an EPIC every time out. I think part of After Hours’ appeal is that it’s pretty “hip” for a film made by someone with 15+ years experience. It’s aged better than a lot of ’80s indie classics, and it captures nightlife paranoia very well. It’s a film I appreciate more and more the longer I live in the city.

    That said, I actually really liked The Departed and greatly prefer it to, for example, GoodFellas.

  16. re: post-psychedelia

    Comets on Fire
    Bardo Pond
    Skygreen Leopards
    The Espers
    Wooden Wand

  17. Speaking of awful Oscar moments, did anyone else endure that “duet” between Will Farrell and Jack Black? After watching that, I don’t think I need to see either of them in anything ever again.

  18. I was glad to know that Scorscese finally won an Oscar for Best Director/Best Picture, even if it’s for a movie that by all reports is below his prime stuff. Friday night we let our oldest boy stay up late and watch most of After Hours with us, occasionally skipping to another channel for scenes not cut out for a 9-year-old kid. He loved it. That was a cool period for Scorscese. I haven’t put my finger on how to describe it quite yet, but it’s cool when an artist gets into a little stretch of “diversions.” I’m sure this happens with musical artists as well. Could be a full topic of its own someday if anyone hits on what I’m scratching at…

    too love After Hours and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. I miss the days when Marty didn’t feel the need to make an EPIC every time out. I think part of After Hours’ appeal is that it’s pretty “hip” for a film made by someone with 15+ years experience. It’s aged better than a lot of ’80s indie classics, and it captures nightlife paranoia very well. It’s a film I appreciate more and more the longer I live in the city.

    I’m pretty sure this has been discussed years ago on the Yahoo list, but count me in as a major fan of After Hours as well as The King of Comedy with my preference going towards the former. In fact I like these movies just as much if not more than say Taxi Driver or even Raging Bull.

    I must say, though, that when anyone says “the city”, I also think of New York but that’s just a function of living in that area (either NYC proper in 3 different boroughs or the NJ suburbs) for most of my life until I moved here last year. Nevertheless, I’m glad to see other appreciators of that film on here. How cool is the scene where Griffin Dunne tries to get into a club to look for Kiki and Hearst (sp?) and the Bad Brains’ “Pay to Cum” is played? In a lot of ways it reminds me of everything downtown Manhattan used to be but isn’t anymore.

  19. Comets on Fire
    Bardo Pond
    Skygreen Leopards
    The Espers
    Wooden Wand

    All great ones Dr. John! Actually – I’m not a huge BP fan (and their website drives me frickin’ bananas), but they do have a few shows coming up with one of their gazillion side-projects that’s on my heyday list:
    # 2/7/2007 @ LURE, Philadelphia (PA) [As Michael Gibbons – also featuring Tristan Lowe as a part of “Sonic Expansion Night”]
    # 2/21/2007 @ North Star Bar, Philadelphia (PA) [As Baikal – also featuring Primordial Undermind]

  20. All great ones Dr. John! Actually – I’m not a huge BP fan (and their website drives me frickin’ bananas), but they do have a few shows coming up with one of their gazillion side-projects that’s on my heyday list:
    # 2/7/2007 @ LURE, Philadelphia (PA) [As Michael Gibbons – also featuring Tristan Lowe as a part of “Sonic Expansion Night”]
    # 2/21/2007 @ North Star Bar, Philadelphia (PA) [As Baikal – also featuring Primordial Undermind]

    Michael (and the rest of Bardo Pond) is also playing with a whole bunch of other musicians (including a member of Espers and others) at International House. They’re doing a live score to a screening of the horror film Head Trauma. The details are here:
    http://www.ihousephilly.org/headtrauma.htm

  21. Wow, that actually sounds really freakin’ cool. Thanks for the hot tip Matthew:) I’m going to put that in my calendar.

  22. You’re welcome sally (sorry I haven’t yet figured out who you are; that is if you were also on the Yahoo list; love the username, though; it’s a bit less egocentric than I_am_the_resurrection_; ha ha).

    Here’s another Bardo Pond appearance for you because I’m in a generous mood:
    http://www.poppedphiladelphia.com/

  23. Has everyone checked out that Cake video? I can’t stop watching it. The weird shuffle dance that the gals on the end do non-stop is really something, but coupled with the chick in the middle standing stock still and singing only when all three are in, Christ, it’s just TOO MUCH. I’m gonna go watch it again!!!

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