Check out the dancers.
Also, how ’bout that whistling flub?
Sep 082008
Mr. Moderator
Sep 052008
Here’s a question for musicians in the Halls of Rock, a question that begs your honesty: Can you share a personal example of what I call an “exit strategy,” or way out, of having to play a song that a bandmate has brought to you for the first time or that your band has been playing for some time? Candid, weasily examples will be appreciated.
I ask this question as both a bandmate and a songwriter, who’s been involved in conducting exit strategies as well as, I am pretty sure, had them conducted on my own compositions. The exit strategies I’ve been involved in have been as straightforward as telling the songwriter “It’s just not right for our style” to stalling to something squirrely, like telling my friend, in private, “You don’t want [our singer] to butcher your song. That demo’s perfect the way it is!” As a songwriter of a song that most of our band liked playing live, I had one bandmate who would claim that he’d forgotten the chords to that one song. I later used his technique on another guy in that band, to get out of having to perform a song I never liked playing.
Short of having George Martin do their dirty work, I wonder what strategies Lennon and McCartney used on Harrison over the years.
Sep 052008
Here’s a FRIDAY FLASHBACK! topic from way back that might be worth extending with the input of our newer Townspeople. In the Comments for this post you’ll see that Hrrundivbakshi suggested an offshoot thread that’s also still worth exploring. The KISS Army Reunion referred to, by the way, was a pretty major event in early Rock Town Hall history. It may be worth seeking out that mid-February 2007 series of posts.
This post initially appeared 2/16/07.
Enthusiasm for the KISS Reunion has spilled over to the parking lot here at the Valley Forge Convention Center, so keep those KISS comments coming. Something posted by Townsman hrrundivbakshi, however, caught my eye and warrants a discussion of its own. It has to do with the adolescent rock conspiracy theories that only a teen rock fan’s mind can get its, er, head around for a short time. In case you missed the comment, here it is:
Speaking of bands actually being other bands, I must share one of the funnier/stupider young teen music rumors that me and my friends all believed for a while: that Van Halen were actually KISS without the makeup. It was so obvious, from the backstory (Gene “discovered” Van Halen in a bar in California… yeah, *right*) to the revealing photos on the inner sleeve of VH’s first album. I mean, look at that picture of Michael Anthony scowling with demonic intensity! And you can’t tell me that happy-go-lucky photo of “Alex Van Halen” doesn’t capture the essence of the Cat Man! Now, “Eddie,” he’s, uh, Paul Stanley ’cause of the hair… though it’s funny that Paul didn’t play lead guitar in KISS… hm… I guess — I guess that leaves Ace. Ace is, uh, this David Lee Roth guy, I guess. Funny how he must have a completely secret life/talent set… you know, to be the lead singer and everything. Still, he’s a *rock star*, so, you know, anything is possible. Right?
This fantasy lasted about 3 days before we moved on to the next bizarro adolescent conspiracy theory.
There are rock’s legendary conspiracy theories – Paul being dead, the Elton John/Rod Stewart stomach pumping – but I’m curious to know about the adolescent rock conspiracy theories that you grew up with, even those that only lasted a few days.
Sep 042008
You may recall David Byrne: Leader of Talking Heads. Intimate collaborator with the visionaries from Brian Eno to Twyla Tharp to Robert Wilson. (Would rock fans in the early ’80s have even known that the latter two existed if not for their collaborations with Byrne?) Curator of cool Brazillian and other music on his Luaka Bop label. If the name and face are still fuzzy, the following clip will likely ring a bell.
Whatever happened to that guy? I heard he’s put out some solo albums over the years. There was a good song from one of those albums in that movie with Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, and Scarlett Johansson. One day I almost bought the album that contained that song, but I sampled the rest of the songs and they didn’t come close to matching the generally strong album cuts on Talking Heads’ highly underrated swan song, Naked.
Talking Heads, “Ruby Dear”
Recently I was surprised and excited to learn that Byrne and Eno had collaborated on a new album, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. Visions of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts danced in my head! You can stream the whole thing here, but I wanted more. I was pretty sure this would be worth owning. Before I even listened to the stream I acquired the whole album.
David Byrne & Brian Eno, “Home”
The opening track, “Home”, was nothing to write home about. It sounded like a warmed-over track from Eno and John Cale’s mildly underrated collaboration, Wrong Way Up. This is not to criticize the Cale-Eno collaboration, because it’s pretty good, especially the songs Cale sings.
Brian Eno & John Cale, “Crime in the Desert”
The new Byrne and Eno album had to get better, but even the best tracks sounded no better than one of the few tolerable songs from Talking Heads’ all-around worst album, Speaking in Tongues. Beside “Burning Down the House” that album was a heaping bowl of plain spaghetti! What’s the point?
After 2 dozen spins of this new Byrne and Eno record, here’s my relative favorite song from Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.
David Byrne & Brian Eno, “Life Is Long”
Pass the salt, please.
So what’s the deal with David Byrne? Is this what he’s reduced to?
Continue reading »
Sep 042008
Here’s a challenge with a less-involved set of criteria than meets the eye: examples of two or more officially released versions of the same song by an artist, not including live, orchestral, or simply remixed versions. As a final condition, you must state your favorite version.
I’ll start us off: Elvis Costello, “Black and White World” (Get Happy!! version and country-style alternate take, which was released on Taking Liberties). I prefer the alternate take.
Sep 042008
As a huge Beatles fan who has identified with John in particular, I’ve long struggled with this question: Is John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band a great album?
Thinking about the album in its context, the answer is certainly Yes!
Listening to the album in its context, including its anti-Beatles simplicity and in-your-face production, the answer is Yes!
But just listening to the songs on the album, in sequence, I’m not so sure.
Continue reading »
Sep 042008
East Coast fans of The Flamin’ Groovies take note: Magic Christian, a band featuring the Groovies’ Cyril Jordan along with Blondie drummer extraordinaire Clem Burke and Plimsouls’ lead guitarist (on bass!) Eddie Munoz, may be coming to a small club your way (click here for tour dates). The secret weapon in this super-duper rock-action combo is stealth vocalist Paul Kopf. Outside the San Francisco area, where Paul has long been a dedicated scene-maker, readers may be going, Huh? But this guy’s the real deal, complete with a rocking voice, great hair, cool slacks, and percussion-shaking chops. Most importantly, the guy’s got balls, which is key to fronting the band’s energetic, riff-heavy, mid-’60s mix of tunes, which are just what you’d hope to hear from a band of this pedigree.
Paul recently answered some questions for Rock Town Hall before the band launches its East Coast tour on Friday, September 5, at Johnny Brenda’s (Girard and Frankford), with The Donuts, Beretta76, and Parallax Project. The Donuts feature Townsman cdm, who’s asking local Townspeople to come out early and catch his band’s set, at 9:00 pm. Judging by the enthusiasm of Paul in our chat and what I know about the spirited set of local openers, this should be a show worth catching from bottom to top of the bill.
Rock Town Hall, Paul Kopf. Paul Kopf, Rock Town Hall.
RTH: Can you tell our readers a little about your background, Paul? You’ve got a history organizing San Francisco music festivals and the like, right? Have you played in other bands, I’m sure. Are you from the Bay area?
Paul Kopf: Was in a couple of band’s growing up in SF, none of particular note, though one band, The Heebee Jeebeez, seem to have made some sort of impression on a few people. A few times on the road this year I’ve been approached by people who say they liked that band. Why? I can’t figure out… Left that band when one of the guys went nuts and wouldn’t show up for a showcase in LA for some labels, who we were interested in us, and decided, after a few SF scenesters recommended I do so, to get into putting on shows with bands that I like and who I felt didn’t have a forum anymore to play their music. Also this was in the late 1990s, when ALL festivals seemed to be geared to alternative music audiences. I felt like there were no festivals left, at least in the SF Bay Area, that appealed to Power Pop-, Beatles-, Stones-based music fans. So I did the Baypop Festival for a few years and got a chance to meet some of my musical idols, including my good buddy and partner in crime, Cyril Jordan. I was right in that Baypop was somewhat successful and had some AMAZING shows, but in the end I lost a lot of money and I really missed performing. But Magic Christian did come out of it as I met Alec Palao, MC’s original bass player, and I as said earlier, Cyril.
RTH: How did Magic Christian came about? Some of the original participants turned over, but their replacements are even cooler.
Paul Kopf: As I said band came out of Baypop Fest. What happened was, I hired Cyril and Alec to put together a band and back the original Beau Brummels for a Baypop show I did. After that Baypop was over I decided I missed singing and performing and wanted to do my own CD. So I hired Cyril to produce it, Got Alec and Prairie Prince, who’s good friend’s with my buddy, Roger, to play on it. We found out that recording together was such a blast and we sounded so good together that it just turned from my record to Magic Christian, which Cyril christened us. As time went by and after we played a few times live and we were getting a lot of offers to tour and play, Alec and Prairie couldn’t commit to the opportunities coming our way. You see Prairie plays with Todd Rundgren, The Starship, The New Cars, and of course The Tubes, among others, and Alec is always busy with putting out all those wonderful reissues he does for Rhino and Big Beat and such. So we had to make the hard decision of replacing them or else we could never play live and tour, which is what Cyril and I really dig doing. Frankly we like to ROCK OUT LIVE, and it’s a big part of why the two of us are musicians in the first place. So we had to get some new guys like us. Luckily I called up my good friend, Eddie Munoz of The Plimsouls, who we did a few gigs with in the past and asked him if he could recommend anybody to play bass for us, and he said “Yeah..Me!!!” which just blew our heads!! I mean Eddie’s a GREAT guitar player, man. The Plimsouls ROCK!! Cyril and I never thought of him being a bass guy!! But he did, as it turns, have an extensive background playing bass for Adam Ant and Dave Vanian‘s (The Damned) solo tours. So we got together and it worked. We then were lucky enough to have this old friend of Cyril’s offer us a gig to play his 50th birhday party. We told him we’d love to but no skins, man. He said he has this friend named Clem who might do it with us if he liked he tunes. We sent him a CD. He liked it. Him and Eddie were, as it turns out good friends, and in fact were in The Plimsouls together. It just fell right into place and we haven’t looked back.
