I’d like to play you a video but I can’t find my pen.
May 212007
May 192007
Townsman Geo check in with his Hear Factor experience!
To start with, I misread the first artist and am surprised to hear The O’Jays kick off the mix with a duet between a hyperkinetic drummer and a noisy, simplistic guitar doing an instrumental. Oh, “The Jay Jays.” I see.
When the second song kicks in, I notice that it, like the first, has an untethered, uncompressed noisiness that I like. The Comet Gain song, “Record Collector”, reminds me of the verse to the Buzzcocks’ song, “Harmony in my Head”, but it never quite gets to the payoff the Buzzcocks’ chorus delivers. It does have an amusing dead stop in the middle, that starts back up with music so totally different after the break that I would’ve sworn it was one of those Pink Flag segues where a new song kicks right in and eventually you can’t hear the end of the first without hearing the start of the second in your mind’s ear.
I’ll admit that although I have heard the Plastic Ono Band Album, I haven’t rigorously explored every second- or third-tier rock band that has come down the pike. I know “Itchycoo Park” and I’m sure I’ve heard Ogden’s whatever it is, but I’m barely familiar with the Small Faces beyond that. I expect “Almost Grown” to be the Chuck Berry tune that I believe The Animals covered, but instead it’s an organ driven, nearly instrumental soul groove. I always think of McLagan as a piano player, but I remember back to his autobiography that he’s also played a lot of organ. Pretty nice.
So three songs in, and I’m trying to place the “theme” of the set as well as the source. I see Big Star and Velvet Crush down the list and I figure this to be some kind of rough power pop collection sprinkled with some English antecedents. I wonder why Mr. Mod aimed this one at me since it’s not something I quite despise, but I guess I do have a studied disinterest to this stuff. It doesn’t appall me, but even at its nearly best, it often doesn’t grab me, more admired than loved.
Continue reading »
May 192007
Don’t know about you, but I need a good rock read. It’s been a long time since I’ve picked up anything I could really sink my teeth into. The last tome that really flipped my wig was Revolution in the Head, which came out about 10 years ago. I think we can help out here. I consider it our duty to let the pop intelligensia know what issues are worthy of exhaustive research. My hope is that one of those nuts will find this desperate group on google and dig away at one our proposed projects.
Mine are as follows:
1) King Records, or a biography of Syd Nathan. I don’t get it. There’s a Sun book, a Chess book, hell, there’s even a Trumpet, and Duke/Peacock book. Still, nothing on King! The guy that ran the show, the aforementioned Nathan was a legendary prick, but still had the smarts to sign up James Brown, Billy Ward and the Dominoes, Hank Ballard, Charlie Feathers (WAY overrated in my book, but nonetheless considered one of those biggies by the Nu-Nile crowd), Wynonnie Harris. . . .We’re talking about artists that influenced just about anyone who ever tried to form a band. Peter Guralnick, where are you? In college, I actually dropped out of a class to have more time to read Albert Goldman’s Elvis book (yeah, I know that’s frightening, but it was good and gossipy). Know that I would collect unemployment checks for 6 months to eat up whatever you found worthy enough to flop on the plate.
2) Brian Jones – His actual contributions to Stones recordings. Mark Lewisohn (or whatever the fuck his name is, the guy that wrote the Beatles Recording Sessions). I want you to revisit all those tapes with Mick, Keith, Charlie, and Bill to find out what contributions Brian actually made to each song. I have a feeling the results will be very surprising to those Jones die hards who swear is input is what made the Stones the greatest rock and roll band ever.
3) Curtis Mayfield – An exhaustive biography nothing short of the Stax accounting that came out about 6 years ago. I want it all. Every nook and cranny of info about his stuff as well as all his contributions to those incredible Vee Jay, Okeh, Windy C, and Mayfield singles. And here’s something neat -I’ve got an old fart buddy named Dennis Brennan, who used to be in a Magnificent Men kinda thing called the Intentions who recorded for Philips, a Mercury subsidiary, in the ’60s. He told me that he actually went to a mid-60s recording session where Mayfield was actually the drummer! If it so turns out that Mayfield is indeed the drummer on those Okeh records, the finding will be nothing short of the discovery of the dead sea scrolls. Stax guy, again whatever your name is, this one’s for you!
Well, that’s a start! I’d try to help out with the research myself, but there are too many roadblocks ahead: work, the raising of insufferable fearless brats, and daily visits with my rehab counselor.
Post those ideas!
E. Pluribus
May 192007
Is it time we give Husker Du a critical downgrade? Does anyone listen to their albums anymore, whether old heads or young? It seems they’ve gone from being this all-important band in underground rock in the ‘80s to a mere footnote to more influential bands that would follow in their wake: Nirvana and The Pixies. The Pixies, for cryin’ out loud, seem to have eclipsed Husker Du in critical acclaim and influence on indie rock bands! Bob Mould spinning techno records at a DC disco these days has eclipsed his hard-earned legacy in Husker Du! Now, non-fan that I’ve always been, I thought even the best Husker Du songs sounded like well-intentioned punk-pop mush, but come on, these guys ruled the roost! Now they’re a footnote to the history of The Pixies? Let’s examine.
Continue reading »
May 192007
Download entire Damn Hippies! (.zip)
When I finally found my Hear Factor cd, conveniently stashed under the couch by Mrs. kpdexter, I was excited to see so many titles I was unfamiliar with. The Traffic titles were a pleasant surprise to me, I guess I never considered them a hippie band, though “You Can All Join In” certainly has that feel, generally a feel-good kind of song.
Now, “The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” has always held a special place in my heart, and it excited me to see it here. I often reflect back on Halloween 1991, enjoyed at the Halloween Mecca, Ohio University, in Athens, Ohio. A carload of us drove the 3-hour trip from Dayton to Athens, armed only with 12-packs of Milwaukee’s Best Light, a few packs of smokes, some low-grade weed (of which I did not partake), and a bunch of shitty cassettes, a mixture of Canned Heat, early Ween, some weird Beach Boys stuff, a few Dead boots, and a Traffic mix tape. Now, the ride down was relatively uneventful, the driver was a bit paranoid because of all the contraband, and the fact that several of us were underage as well, so we played it cool, we sipped some beers and played some music, and talked about shit, school, and whatnot. We played some crappy Dead tape on the way there, and all lamented the fact that we were unable to score any psychedelics for the trip. I remember a rousing version of Franklin’s Tower>Help on the Way>Slipknot, but not much else, it was a pretty standard setlist, nothing too earth shattering.
Continue reading »
May 182007
Do you prefer your fez with or without tassel?
May 162007
As we all know, the End Times are upon us.
And there are several rock-related issues that require closure. Up first, Who IS The Fifth Beatle? This term has been bandied about more than Paris Hilton’s labia and I for one am more than ready for some closure. And to my mind there is only ONE logical answer but apparently there are others with “opinions” of their own.
