Some of you may be following my ongoing efforts to rebuild Team Hippie for the modern age. The time is right for long hair, free (or at least inexpensive) love, and dancing in the streets, but I’m looking for a few good Peace Warriors to lead us out of our current cultural doldrums. As I interview prospective Peace Warriors, one question must be answered: Do you care enough about peace and love to fight for it?
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Children’s books aren’t what they used to be. My daughter, for example, is reading the novel I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want To Be Your Class President by Josh Lieb. It’s story of Oliver Watson, an evil genius disguised as dorkish new boy who wants his father’s love and will do anything to get it. Yep, anything.
Even introduce middle grade kids to Captain Beefheart and Trout Mask Replica. Oliver explains to the reader why Beefheart was an evil genius:
…a musician so brilliant, so evil, he drove his own band insane. He would not let them eat. He would not let them sleep. He would not let them leave the house. He made them wear dresses (and they were not girls). He stripped them of their very names and subjected them to hours of abusive group-therapy sessions. When a dejected and desperate member of the Magic Band managed to escape the Captain’s clutches, Beefheart snatched him off the street and dragged him back to the practice studio.
It was cruel. Assuredly. Inhumane. Undoubtedly. Evil. Disgustingly so. And yet I defy you, today, to listen to Trout Mask Replica and say it was not worth it.
Being in step with the times, ie, aping Diary of A Wimpy Kid like mad, we also get a photo of Beefheart and the Magic Band in their pomp. And the cover of Trout Mask Replica. To a generation raised on Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber (whoever he is!), explaining Captain Beefheart isn’t easy.
Townsmen and Townswomen – how do you explain Captain Beefheart to a child of the 21st century? Where would you start? What song by Beefheart might best explain his strange magic? When I gave Doc At Radar Station a quick spin my daughter fled the room with ears covered.
A few weeks ago we received an e-mail from Andy Shernoff, founding member of The Dictators and a longtime rock ‘n roll agent provacateur. It turns out Andy was an occasional reader of Rock Town Hall and wanted to let us know he was coming to Philadelphia with his rock memoir/solo show, When Giants Walked the Earth: A Musical Memoir. You can read our little write up of that show and follow some links to the man’s very cool career here. Let’s just say that the The Back Office staff and I were thrilled and honored to learn that a guy who’d had his hands in so much of our shared musical heritage knew what went on in these hallowed halls. With the palms of our hands red from high-fiving, we asked Andy if he’d answer a few questions for us. Andy glady agreed before realizing what kind of piercing, nerdy questions he’d be getting from the likes of us. Nevertheless, the man took a deep breath and gave it his rock-nerdsage all!
Andy brings his When Giants Walked the Earth tour to The Rosebud Bar in Somerville, MA, outside Boston, this Saturday, July 10. I encourage our Boston-area Townspeople to attend. But that’s not the only place you’ll be hearing (and have been hearing) him in the coming week: “I just did a cool deal…,” he tells me, “Major League Baseball is using The Dictators’ version of ‘California Sun’ to promote the All-Star Game. This recording is from the demo that got us our first record deal and was the very first time I ever stepped into a recording studio. Truly bizarre!!”
Among his other activities Andy plays with The Master Plan, a party-rock supergroup that includes Keith Streng and Bill Milhizer from The Fleshtones and Paul Johnson from Waxing Poetics – and that features contributions from Hoodoo Gurus’ Dave Faulkner, who recently represented Australia in the Rock Town Hall World Cup of Rock ‘n Roll.
But enough of my yapping, let’s get on with our chat with Andy Shernoff…after the jump. Continue reading »
UPDATES:
England pulls out pyrrhic victory over Jamaica.
In a major upset over Team USA, Jamaica will face England in the Finals of our inaugural Rock Town Hall World Cup of Rock ‘n Roll!
The coaches, Mr. Moderator and bostonhistorian, know the drill by now. There will be no ties, so: have a third strike ready. You will pick up with the rosters you used to end the semi-final round of play. Remember: any artist substituted for is now OUT of play.
Coaches can submit their opening two strikes in the Comments section. If you want to play your hand close to the vest and/or would like to submit mp3s for me to post, please send them to the Commissioner: mrmoderator [at] rocktownhall [dot] com.
Thursday, July 8
England v Jamaica
Tomorrow (or Friday, depending on the length of the match) we make history!
UPDATES:
Jamaica to face England in Finals!
England progresses to finals.
Four teams remain in the semi-final round of the Rock Town Hall World Cup of Rock ‘n Roll!
You know the drill by now. There will be no ties, so coaches: have a third strike ready. You will pick up with the rosters you used to end the first round of play. Remember: any artist substituted for in Round 1 or 2 is now OUT of play.
Coaches can submit their opening two strikes in the Comments section. If you want to play your hand close to the vest and/or would like to submit mp3s for me to post, please send them to the Commissioner: mrmoderator [at] rocktownhall [dot] com.
Tuesday, July 5
USA v Jamaica
Ireland v England
It’s time to leave it all on the pitch!
I’m a bit shocked by the argument I’m about to make. I was listening to an album the other night with my close personal friend, Townsman Sethro. It was an album by a band I don’t consider among my Top 100 favorite bands but a band that, over the years, I’ve very slowly come around to thinking is occasionally great. A shocking answer to the following question came into my head:
Assuming that Jimi Hendrix is rock’s most-creative guitarist – and I cannot imagine anyone making a convincing argument otherwise – who us rock’s second-most creative guitarist?
The answer that sprang to mind was in the grooves of the $1-bin album that Sethro cleaned up and was playing me on his awesome tube stereo:
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In my high school days, when staying up on Saturday nights, or whenever, to catch the half-hour syndicated, pre-cable music television show Rockworld was a highlight of my week, I’d look forward to catching some exciting New Wave artist I’d been reading about in Trouser Press, Creem, and any other off-the-beaten path rock mag I could get my hands on. One night I saw the video for The Beat‘s “Different Kind of Girl.” They may have already been known in the US as “Paul Collins’ Beat,” to avoid confusion with the ska band, but it felt cool to refer to them as “The Beat” too. I immediately found this song really catchy and classic. The video, if memory serves, was done on a classic white background. One of the guys, maybe the drummer, wore a horizontal striped shirt. I used to think they were cool. The band members all had modified moptops, which, I’ll explain to younger folks who may be rolling their eyes as they read this, was pretty cool in the late-’70s. I wish I could find that video. I’ve remembered it and the song fondly over the last 30+ years, but today I realized that I never bothered to follow up on anything by Paul Collins and The Beat. I don’t know why, but I think I had a sense that hearing even one more song by this band might ruin the unexpectedly simple joy I got from “Different Kind of Girl.”
At the time, I easily could have bought the album including that song. Today I could go on YouTube and watch a half dozen videos by Collins from that period. There’s probably a site where I could download that album, be it legally or not. I know he’s thought highly of among fans of New Wave and Power Pop music, styles of music I’ve got plenty of familiarity with. I used to own the first two albums by 20/20, but I’ve never heard another song by The Beat – Paul Collins’ The Beat, that is. I don’t know why. For that matter I’ve never heard a song by Nick Gilder other than “Hot Child in the City,” and that’s another great single from my youth!
Is there a song you love by an artist you’ve never bothered to further investigate?
