This may not be a revelation for some of you, but it surprised the socks off of me. Really, I’m sitting here barefoot as I compose this post. What I’d like to hear are your thoughts on the tunes, maaaaan. If you know who it is, keep your smartypants on long enough to let Townspeople share their thoughts. Then, when today’s Mystery Date is revealed, we’ll see if anyone else is as surprised as I still am.
Here’s a humble oldie but goodie that was initially posted with a hard-to-find Pere Ubu video that was quickly removed from YouTube, as we learned is the case with this band’s scant videos. A Kinks video that only a Kinks fan could love was put in its place, and this gets to the heart of our discussion. We’re a discerning bunch, and many of us have been known to kill off the “runts” in our favorite artists’ outputs, such as a friend’s literal shooting of his copy of London Calling, the Clash album that marked, in his mind, the band’s betrayal of their initial purpose. Who knows, on the other hand, what kepts others buying Clash records right on through Cut the Crap. Us parents call it unconditional love.
This post initially appeared 5/31/07.
No longer Maimone’s mullet, but hair treats nevertheless!
Am I incorrect in thinking that there are some long-running bands and solo artists who somehow manage not to bum out their dedicated fans? I’m thinking, in particular, of The Kinks and Richard Thompson. Do diehard fans of either band ever bum out at the release of a lesser work, or do they just “walk on by,” content with the fact that their underdog favorites have lived to see another release? Come to think of it, I probably do this for Pere Ubu, who haven’t put out a decent album that I’ve heard among occasional releases for what must be closing in on 15 years. Is there a band for which you turn the other cheek?*
*Really nice people, who never bum out over a bad turn by a favorite band, need not apply.
After a year and a half of research, analysis, and discussion, Rock Town Hall has arrived at what might be its most important Glossary entry to date, Proctomusicology and its related terms, Proctomusicologist and Prock. We have identified a unifying principle in modern music that cuts across genres. A simple, concise definition follows:
Proctomusicology: Music up its own ass about its musicological means of creating music, inching forward the aesthetic principles of whatever style/s is/are being mined.
See also: Proctomusicologist, Prock
The research and development that went into the validation of this term is detailed in the links below. It was a true team effort, with Townsman Saturnismine responsible for the exact phrasing of our definition. Meanwhile, the author of our Glossary entry Kentonite, Townsman Hrrundivbakshi, noted the difference between a Kentonite and a Proctomusicologist:
A Kentonite is obssessed with the technical componentry of music, and cares not whether the music is looking forward or backward; the Prock-ist is obsessed with the subject matter’s musicological componentry, and always defines it in terms of its antecedents.
Of course, there’s a Rock Venn Diagram thing going on here, as well. Some artists are both Prockists and Kentonites. Donald Fagen springs to mind. I’d add that — slicing even more finely — there are Prock bands (eg, XTC) that contain Kentonite members (eg, Dave Gregory), and so forth.
Read back through the term’s Working Definition period of development, in the following links, and I think you’ll agree that no group of music lovers was better equipped to define this term. For more reading on this subject see here, here, and where it all began, here.
In their respective solo careers, Stiff Records original Wreckless Eric and singer-songwriter Amy Rigby have mined similar, down-to-earth, ’60s-influenced pop material that’s both open hearted and appropriately self deprecating. A few years ago they met, jammed together, and fell in love. Today they’re married, living in France, on tour together (click here for tour dates), and set for the September 15 release of a joint album, Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby.
A few of us had the fortune of meeting Amy in 2002, as she not only contributed an awesome cover of Jane Aire & the Belvederes‘ “Yankee Wheels” to a Stiff Records tribute album we curated (The Stiff Generation), but introduced us to some other contributors and flew to Hoboken, NJ to play a few Stiff-related songs at the record’s release party. She was as cool and approachable as her music, and she had the foresight and good sense to wear a dress that matched the polyester shirt of our bassist, Townsman Chickenfrank. It’s only fitting that we, once more, turn back to Amy for yet another Stiff-related introduction. The following chat with Amy and Eric was conducted separately, with one of them in an isolation booth, wearing huge headphones and seen only on a video monitor. This is the first time their responses will appear in one place. Enjoy!
Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby, “Here Comes My Ship”
RTH: This Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby album and tour is some way to celebrate a marriage! You were married earlier this year, right? How long have you been together? Did the two of you actually meet, as I’ve read, during one of Amy’s concerts, as she covered “Whole Wide World”?
ERIC: We met in Hull, in a pub I used to play in when I was an art student back in the early ’70s. It was actually the first place that I ever played “Whole Wide World” in public. Amy sang it and the promoter shoved me on stage to help out. The song went round the world and did the work for me! I don’t think the album is a celebration of our marriage – it’s not Two Virgins or something…
AMY: I’d been playing “Whole Wide World” in my set when I felt I needed a little boost and a promoter in Hull that we’d both worked with had the idea to have Eric DJ for one of my shows. He came in covered in snow with a box of records under his arm and then he got up on stage with me during “Whole Wide World” and said I was playing it in the wrong key.
If you look at the photo collage inside my “anthology,” 18 Again, there’s a picture of it happening.
RTH: Your new album is on a revived Stiff Records! Are any of the founders of the label involved in its revival? Eric, did you have mixed feelings about going back to Stiff? Amy, you were a fan of the label and its artists in its heyday, right? Were you struck by any teenage fangirl feelings at this opportunity, any need to keep your emotions in check? (For instance, I’d have had to keep my self in check to make sure I didn’t agree to sign with Stiff for free.)
ERIC: I had no qualms about going back to Stiff – on the contrary it was my idea. None of the founders or the subsequent employees are involved, which is just as well.
Amy Rigby, “Yankee Wheels”
AMY: To be on the same label that gave us “Yankee Wheels”, Lene Lovich, Nick Lowe & Wreckless Eric? It beats being labelmates with Pokemon, which was the big priority album when I was on Koch.
RTH: On the new album, did you collaborate on the writing of the songs, or did you write separately? Were most of the songs written before or after you’d met?
AMY: All of the above.
ERIC: We wrote most of them separately I think. I started “Here Comes My Ship” and Amy finished it off. We wrote “Round” together – I came up with a guitar chord sequence and we got the lyrics together between us, so that was a true co-write. “Trotters” is a group composition that came out of a jam session – we were playing “God Only Knows” and we changed one of the chords. Apart from that I think we wrote separately, Amy upstairs, me downstairs. But we’d definitely met before we started.
RTH: Did you learn anything about each other during the writing process that you may not have learned had you not mixed business with pleasure? Were there ever times when you’d have to stop working on a lyric and ask your partner, “Why didn’t you tell me you were feeling that way?”
In the Comments for our recent Albums Used Record Dealers Won’t Touch, Not Even for a Penny! thread Townsman Chergueverra wrote:
As an aside, I think somebody should write some goofy lyrics to “feels so good”.
We agree, and we’re pretty certain that somebody registered to comment in the Halls of Rock is just the person to do that job! In fact, to ensure that the job is done right, rather than commission the lyric-writing task, how about we make this an open contest? You have until 11:59 PM EST on Friday, September 19 to submit your lyrics to Chuck Mangione’s “Feels So Good”. The winner will have the option of selecting the Gap Mangione album of his or her choice from Gap’s very own official website or the coveted RTH No-Prize!
To refresh your memory on this groundbreaking smooth jazz classic, here’s Chuck in his prime, on Midnight Special.
Norman Whitfield, the producer-songwriter most responsible for dragging Motown into the second half of the 1960s and making the label’s music at least tolerable for the whitest of rock fans, has died. Despite my poke at those of you who fail to dig the beauty of the earlier model of Motown’s output, I love Whitfield’s work. Come on, you Rockist lunkheads, for Norman’s sake go back and learn to dig the earlier stuff too!
From The Guardian:
Whitfield’s big chance came when Holland-Dozier-Holland stormed out of Motown in early 1968 in a row over profit-sharing. Inspired by Sly and the Family Stone’s wild arrangements, he wrote the hard-driving, socially aware Cloud Nine with lyricist Barrett Strong (who is himself currently recovering from a stroke) for the Temptations. Despite Gordy’s reservations over its perceived pro-drug message, it changed Motown overnight. Suddenly, topical comment and audacious psychedelic arrangements were on the agenda, and Whitfield-Strong were on a roll: Ball of Confusion, Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone, War and Smilin’ Faces Sometimes all smouldered with tension and paranoia befitting the era of Vietnam, Nixon and the Black Panthers. War actually sounds like war; Ball of Confusion is indeed a ball of confusion.
Command Performance!
REMINDER: Occasionally Townspeople experience login problems that initially hit other Townspeople when we first upgraded the site. Following is a repeat of some tips we posted back then. If you missed it – or it didn’t apply – the first time around, this repeat may be better than anything you’ve TiVoed in recent weeks. If you think you know it all and don’t need to read this, perhaps you’re wrong. Enjoy!
Vn_SIBXPRns]
Continue reading »
