Main Stage

Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

Posted by al

Apr 072011

My daughter, Kate, is in the final year of her 5-year architecture program at Syracuse University. I won’t brag about her except to say that this semester she is taking a fantastic course; here’s the outline:

**********************

Course Description

The Beatles changed the face of music, culture, business and technology forever. This course examines how these changes came about, with an eye to anticipating further/future changes on these fronts.

Our guest lecturers will offer a comprehensive look at the Beatles including:

Business-the growth and maturation of some of the most important brands in history
History-the biographical stories of all key players, the evolution of the group and solo careers
Music-the evolving structure and character of their world changing sound
Social and cultural aspects-the profound impact on popular culture
Political-leveraging celebrity to advance political and social concerns
Technology-the role of innovation that went beyond songwriting and performance

Tentative Topics and Speakers by Week:

1/24/11: Peter Asher with Rupert Perry—The British Invasion. A McCartney song becomes a hit for Peter and Gordon. Apple Corps-A&R reflections. Life after Apple: managing and producing the Pantheon.

1/31/11: Martin Bandier and Rupert Perry—How important can one band be? Contextualizing the impact of the Fab Four on music, business, culture and society during the last fifty years. Continue reading »

RTH Mailbag: Josh Wilker of Cardboard Gods Accepts His RTH Pince Nez

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Apr 072011

The Rock Town Hall Mailbag has been left unattended for too long, but following are a few messages of particular interest.

Josh Wilker, author of Cardboard Gods, who recently took time to chat with us about baseball cards and rock ‘n roll, took to heart a Townsperson’s subsequent pince nez regarding a reference to “the first album by the Band” when Wilker obviously meant to refer to their second album! He wrote me offlist and asked that I share his mea culpa.

Man, I cannot believe I referred in the interview to the Band’s second album as “the first album by the Band.” I deserve to be, to quote a line from the actual first album, “tarred and feathered.” It is a deeply troubling comment on my frazzled mental state and deteriorating cognitive faculties that I would make this mistake. I don’t know why it happened. I must be turning much sooner than scheduled into a version of my beloved grandfather near his end, when he walked into rooms carrying his oxygen tank and, with widening eyes, said, “Now, damnit, why in the Sam Hill did I come in here?” I am a huge fan of The Band, who have been an intimate part of my life since even before I collected baseball cards. I’ve leaned on their music all my life, read whatever I can get my hands on about them (“Across the Great Divide” and “This Wheel’s on Fire” and “Invisible Republic”), had the luck to see Garth Hudson play at the Bottom Line, detoured on a rare trip back east to try to see Levon in his Midnight Ramble (it got cancelled at the last minute, unfortunately), blah blah blah—and now I realize I’m sounding even more like some blowhard poser trying to defend his legitimacy. Fuck! It is as if I misspelled Yastrzemski. I can’t believe I did that. I may need to go away for awhile to “rest.” If you see fit to share this moaning with the Rock Town Hall community, that’d be okay with me—maybe it’d even convince a fellow Band fan or two that I’m a fumbling dolt rather than a dispassionately superficial douche.

Anyway, thanks for listening, and thanks again for the interview!

– Josh

Don’t sweat it, Josh. This happens to the most obsessive of us. You are a better man for this experience.

Townsman chergeuvara sent in the following links for my enjoyment and education. These may be of interest to you, as well, but caution punk rockers: some myths are about to be exploded. Continue reading »

Wire’s Previous American Television Appearance: Wouldn’t You Like to Have Been in Suzanne Somers’ Mind Just This One Time?

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Apr 072011

As Late Night With Jimmy Fallon host Jimmy Fallon mentioned in his introduction of Wire, it was the band’s first appearance on American tv in 25 years. This got me thinking: Where the heck did Wire appear on American television 25 years ago?

It turns out it was on an episode of The Late Show, hosted by Suzanne Somers. For the only time I can imagine, I would like to have been in Suzanne Somers’ mind rather than any of the usual areas.

Seinfeld’s Record Collection

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Apr 052011

Kramer prepares to check out Jerry's 20 records.

I was watching an early Seinfeld episode and there was a scene in his apartment in which a stack of about 20 lps were visible. I never thought of Jerry listening to music before; in fact, even after catching a glimpe of his collection I have trouble imagining what records he might have owned. Elaine displayed a knowledge of Eagles‘ hits in one episode, but did Jerry ever make a music reference? Maybe. I’m not one of those people who can remember every episode of a beloved show…

Anyhow, I was thinking: What 20 records would Jerry Seinfeld—the character—have owned?

Continue reading »

Lotus, continued

Posted by ladymisskirroyale

Apr 042011

Lotus, the song by REM. The Lotus Eaters, a song by Dead Can Dance. Lotus, the American jam band. Flying Lotus, the dj. The Lotus Eaters, British band from the ’80s. Lotus Eaters, another ’80s band. Plenty of lotus to go around.

But Radiohead’s latest single, Lotus Flower, was the song that became the target of a whole lotta dissing. I’ve been thinking about the comments that were generated and still puzzling them over.

The self-indulgence of Thom Yorke. So a song sung in the first person about a problematic relationship should depict the whole band? I think I’ll take that over some of the ’80s band videos that have the lead singer play acting the relationship with a model.
The Bowler Hat. If he wore yoga wear, wouldn’t we liken him to, say, the character of Ian, in High Fidelity? Stipe wears modified exercise wear in REM’s “Lotus,” so does that make that a better video?
The dancing. If the song is about drug use, as posited by the sages of the Suds on Bleeker blog, then isn’t the movement pretty representational? Note hypothesis of viagra abuse.
The symbol of the lotus. Out of the muck comes purity. Femininity (those are pretty tight pants). The progress of the soul from materialism to enlightenment. Those themes were popular in the ’60s, too.

The video seems to flaunt a lack of the rock and roll ethos. There is a flagrant disregard for lip synching. There are no other band members depicted. There is dancing in a non-white man’s-overbite kind of way.

Maybe that’s the point.

Lost Highway

Posted by ladymisskirroyale

Apr 042011

With all our recent discussion/posts about changes in music today, it was interesting to hear about this “band.” Dirty Beaches seems to epitomize nostalgia for the rock and roll of an America that no longer exists. In a recent interview with Urban Outfitters (!), Alex Hungtai, a Taiwanese-born Canadian, talks about his inspiration being primarily movies, rather than music, and that he “carves out” a song as if he were a casting director. Like the directors he admires, Hungtai sees himself as an exile, and his amped-up rockabilly evokes that search for a home he never had.

Maybe the best current rock and roll is made by outsiders?

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and the Evolving Rock ‘n Roll Landscape

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Apr 042011

I finally saw the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World last night. It was so good, so sweet, so true to a time in life that I’d bet—cultural and technological changes aside—a lot of Townspeople can identify. The whole family dug it, and my wife and I took great, snobbish pleasure in explaining to our boys why the film couldn’t have been the massive popular hit and Academy Award winner it clearly would have been had more of the world been more like us.

This morning I’m thinking about some of the key cultural developments since my teen years (that would be the mid-1970s into early 1980s, kidz) that have worked their way into the modern-day rock ‘n roll youth culture. For instance, the history of rock ‘n roll through my teen years was framed by the ubiquitous landscape of cars & girls. There was a good chance that a rock ‘n roll artist in the early days of the genre, such as Chuck Berry, through bands like Loverboy was going to sing about “cars and girls.” Drugs and alcohol would join the mix, but cars and girls were long the driving force, no? I wish I could explain it better; would it make sense if I said cars and girls were key to the mise-en-scéne of rock ‘n roll? (My apologies to film buffs and the French, if I’m using this term incorrectly.)

If it wasn’t clear enough to me, thanks to my Swing Era–loving, “gamer” teenage son whose love of The Mills Brothers, Dean Martin, et al has been furthered by the soundtrack to his favorite video game, the Fallout series, Scott Pilgrim vs the World drove home the point that video games have replaced cars in the rock ‘n roll mise-en-scéne. For that matter skateboards have eclipsed cars. What fun would there be writing about a Toyota Camry?

Girls are still essential to the landscape of rock ‘n roll, but boys are included too, and not just in “Girl Group” songs written by highly frustrated, compensating, domineering dudes.

Video games, skateboards, boys… What else might be new to the rock ‘n roll landscape since you moved beyond its core demographic?

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