How did it take me until 8:34 EST to realize January 30th is the 44th anniversary of the Beatles’ rooftop concert? Can we make this an official RTH rock-oliday? How would we celebrate it? Jam on a rooftop? Wear a woman’s fur coat?
Jan 302013
Jan 302013
Busy day, but let’s keep the chatter going with something free and easy. Please answer the following 3 questions as accurately as possible:
- What are you listening to right now, as you read this post?
- If you’re not listening to anything at the moment, what song do you last recall hearing?
- If you could break away from whatever it is you’re doing and pull one record from your stack/playlist/hard drive that fits your current mood, what would it be?
I look forward to your answers.
Jan 282013
Honestly, what are the chances? I’ve been asking this question of My Bloody Valentine for some 22 years now. I love everything Kevin Shields has ever touched, but seriously, the man has a skewed sense of time. Brian Wilson comes off with a train conductor’s punctuality compared to this.
Pitchfork has been claiming that MBV have the follow-up to Loveless in the can, and today they report that they have a video of a new song, and that Shields promises a new record “in two or three days.”
The video has apparently been revoked already.
Realistically, folks, should we look for this on Tuesday? Don’t break my heart again.
Jan 282013
This weekend 2 Rock Town Hall Facebook page subscribers posted important content that I’ll share here, for non-Facebook users, as the start of an All-Star Jam. This is a welcome use of our Facebook page. If you’d like to stay in touch through those means, by all means Like it, here.
First up is a call from Townsman Tvox for a Rock Town Hall Inquisition of Lenny Kravitz. Before reading the caption on this Moment of Douchebag post, I assumed it was rockdouche Dave Navarro. Were Townsmen Andyr and I alone in thinking Kravitz might turn out to be cool way back when, when he released his first album?
Next up is a link from Townsman cherguevara, to a little piece about a 92-minute collection of every recorded moment of the Grateful Dead tuning up through their 1977 tour. The Slate writer probably had us in mind in his conclusion:
Perhaps someone will do an academic study of these odd, interstitial moments, to add to the growing body of Grateful Dead scholarship.
Thanks for passing along these nuggets! Townspeople are encouraged to jam on their own rock chatter here and on our Facebook page.
Jan 272013
Earlier this week, Mr. Moderator admitted to a musical version of beer goggles: listening with his groin. On the thread, I reminded him of a conversation we had been having about an artist, and he responded,
The woman who’s videos you were sending me looked like jailbait. And I don’t like spiders and snakes! The music that woman was doing had some merit, as I worked to get myself back into my 22-year-old Kate Bush appreciating self, but there was a troubling line for me to get past.
Gentlemen and Ladies, I now admit to you my girl crush: Grimes.
I first heard about Grimes from Simon Reynolds. Mr. Royale and I had gone to hear him discuss his 2011 book, Retromania. Audience discussion led to questions about the future direction of popular music, and one of the artists he mentioned was Grimes and her “post-internet” music of a multitude of references.
I wasn’t swayed by the first few singles (to quote another wag, “Cranes with a laptop”). But then came the new album, Visions and this video:
Move over, Bjork, there’s another beautiful weirdo out there! Lady Gaga, here comes another stylista! She is a Mark Ryden painting brought to flesh.
Mr. Royale and I purchased Visions, and it’s been on constant play. While Mr. Moderator referenced Kate Bush, I don’t find Grimes’ vocals quite as histrionic as that other musical temptress. I’m reminded more of the vocal experimentation of Jane Siberry, Liz Frasier, Laurie Anderson, Minnie Ripperton, and Hello Kitty (if she had a mouth). She doesn’t just always sing in that “little girl lost” vocal style, and I’m mesmerized by the different ways she alters and layers her vocals.
And then there is the music. I hear Depeche Mode, OMD, Aphex Twin, Heaven 17, Dead Can Dance, Kraftwerk, and other industrial and Warp artists. The music is mostly synthesizer/electronic, but with some guitars, sirens, bells, and Medieval instrumentation thrown in for good measure. I like a great deal of dance music and electronica, so Grimes’ beats and sounds make me feel very happy. (“Visions” has become my go-to album for when I’m having a bad day.)
Grimes (aka Claire Boucher) is also interesting to listen in interview. Here she is in a 2012 interview with ABC:
She has a dance background. She is also a creator of visual art. And other interviews indicate she is trying to address some deeper issues.
Here’s another track off of Visions. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do:
Jan 262013
Next week’s NFL Super Bowl game features a showdown between teams coached by brothers, John and Jim Harbaugh. This historic championship game between teams coached by brothers is probably a first in all professional sports—and likely the last in our lifetimes we’ll see a pair of brothers square off as coaches in the biggest game at the highest level of their sport. Super Bowl XLVII has been dubbed the “Harbowl.”
This got me thinking: Is there a rock ‘n roll equivalent of the Harbaugh brothers: two siblings who have risen to the top of their profession in separate bands/solo careers?
Siblings who established themselves in the same band do not count, so don’t give me Dave Davies‘ technically solo hit “Death of a Clown” in comparison with the Ray-led Kinks as a showdown of Harbaugh v Harbaugh implications. Thinks of what Mom and Dad Harbaugh must be going through. Do you think the Davies boys’ parents ever chewed their fingernails over the creative dominance of one brother to the other?
Siblings who are the result of “Whoops, I didn’t think we needed birth control at our age!” followed by a “Sorry kid, it’s too late to join your older siblings’ well-established group” father/band manager-talk don’t count. Sorry Andy Gibb, Janet Jackson, and Marie Osmond. This must be a head-to-head match-up of siblings’ musical achievements without one siblings’ aid of supporting siblings. So for whatever reason some Nevilles are part of the “Brothers” and some aren’t (and some of them may be cousins or offspring themselves, possibly answering a question on another recent thread), all Nevilles are off the board. It’s got to be a Harbaugh v Harbaugh dynamic.
Rock ‘n roll is littered with “also-ran” siblings, like Mike McGear (né McCartney) and Chris Jagger. Even a relatively accomplished sibling like Dee Dee Warwick, sister of Dionne, at the height of her chart success didn’t match up as a “top dog” alongside her sister in the music world. Ron and Art Wood, for instance, do not pose a Harbaugh v Harbaugh dynamic.
Kid brother Neil Finn would leave his older and relatively accomplished brother Tim in the dust, but both brothers led bands with hit songs. Although the brothers had brief stints in each others’ bands we won’t hold that against them for purposes of this discussion. The other set of siblings that comes to mind and that may hold the initial lead in determining the Harbowl of Rock, are the following:
Jan 252013
We could have a Last Man Standing on children of rock & rollers who have entered the business. but it seems like there are so many of them it would go on for weeks. (Maybe we could have an anti-LMS and have children of rock & rollers who have not entered the business.)
I saw a listing on a download site this morning that is a variation though. It was a concert recording of Roseanne Cash from 1981. I thought “Wow, 32 years in the business, I would have never guessed that.” And looking on Wiki, her first album was released in 1979, so she’s been in the biz for 44 34 years.
So, not a LMS but maybe a Reigning Champ. Who can come up with a second-generation rock & roller (loosely defined to include all the genres we generally talk about here) with more time in the business than Roseanne Cash?
Some rules. Backing vocals on Mom or Dad’s recording when you were 6 years old don’t count. And let’s arbitrarily keep it to musicians who were active post-1955. (Well, it’s not really arbitrary: Hank Williams died on January 1, 1953—and why didn’t I see any 60th anniversary mention of that anywhere a few weeks ago—and this way I can keep Bocephus out of the discussion.)
