Another FRIDAYFLASHBACK! based on my own upcoming road trip. It’s off to Seattle, where I plan on visiting Experience Music Project, the Seattle-centric rock museum that Townsman BigSteve chronicled in one of our earliest Rock Town Hall blog posts. I’d hoped that a monthy Trippin’ series would develop, in which Townspeople would report on their own rock-related road trips, but to date I think this is the only rock road trip report. Hrrundivbakshi did report on a curiously named record store he found somewhere in Japan, I believe, so I’m holding out hope that this series will catch fire yet. Should I make it to EMP this weekend, I’ll be sure to share my thoughts. Now let’s revisit a very cool post!
This post initially appeared 1/23/07.
BigSteve, our Townsman in New Orleans, files the following report from Seattle.
I went to the Experience Music Project yesterday. I thought it was definitely worth the visit, and there was more than enough to keep me occupied for 3 hours. There’s actually not that much exhibit space, and one of the, presumably temporary, exhibits was a commercial for Disney musical product that gagged me. The history of rap exhibit was more interesting, but at least the Disney shit helped keep the busloads of kids away from the interesting stuff. The other useless parts of the museum were the interactive areas – you pay extra, go into a “studio” and `make your own CD by playing with a few computer stations. There’s also something where you pay and end up with a DVD of yourself onstage playing with other people in a band. I don’t know how it works, and I wasn’t interested enough to find out.
There’s a very nice exhibit, I assume permanent, on the history of music from the Pacific Northwest. From the Fleetwoods through the Ventures and Raiders and Sonics to grunge and punk. Lots of posters, artifacts, instruments, video – not enough time to look at it all.
The Hendrix exhibit is pretty amazing. I mean, they have the white Strat that he played at Woodstock, the guitar he was most often seen playing. They have pieces of many smashed guitars. Really I could have spent all day looking at this exhibit alone. They had lots of video of him playing, and then they had many of the outfits he was seen wearing in the videos, and you know how important fashion is to me. Continue reading »
You may recall in late June the stunning announcement of the coming of a new Paul Weller album, 22 Dreams. As planned, the album hit on July 22, and I was all over it! How could I not have been primed for this release after the press release announced this momentous occasion?
”After As Is Now I thought the time was right to make the sort of record I wanted to make,” says Paul Weller of the creative process which led to his striking ninth solo album 22 Dreams. ”Instead of worrying about anyone else, I wanted to really push the boat out. I think the result is going to surprise a few people.” Surprises have always been part of the artistic vernacular for the man who changed rock forever with The Jam, explored a host of eclectic influences with The Style Council and cemented his position as the patriarch of Brit pop with his legendary solo work. 22 Dreams is the latest chapter in a creative journey spanning 30 years, with material spanning the full breadth of popular music rock to classical, avant garde to funk and spoken word to experimental. In addition to a cast of Weller s frequent collaborators including Steve Cradock and producer Simon Dine, 22 Dreams also features some of the largest beneficiaries of Weller’s incalculable musical influence. Noel Gallagher and Gem from Oasis lend their talents to “Echoes Around the Sun”, a writing collaboration between Weller and Gallagher. Ex-Blur guitarist Graham Coxon appears on “Black River”. The spirit of collaboration and an in-the-moment creative approach have resulted in one of Weller s most spirited works and one that is sure to expand the artistic canon of the one and only Modfather.
To give Weller’s dream album adequate time for digestion, I’ve waited until now to share my thoughts. I’ll share a few other tracks from this album as you read along, but first, why don’t you listen to the lead-off track, “Light Nights”?
In was announced earlier this morning that the International Olympic Committee will investigate whether the Chinese women’s gymnastics team that won the gold medal had underage athletes. IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said “There certainly seems to be a lot of scantily clad pre-teen Chinese girls strutting around the Bird’s Nest these days.”
Within seemingly minutes Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page announced that he will be playing The Olympic Closing Ceremony in the Bird’s Nest on Sunday. A publicist for Gary Glitter said that Gary is “distressed” that he won’t be able to participate due to a prior booking.
Simple question: What band leaders have been least equipped to face the world as solo artists? In other words, what once-mighty rock visionaries have most struggled with creating meaningful, distinctive music outside their original (or any) band setting? You are encouraged to discuss Why.
Artists like David Lee Roth, who were clearly co-visionaries of a distinctive band, may not be up to the level of discussion that I seek. (If the Stones were to dissolve, the same would go for, say, Mick Jagger or Keef as solo artists.)
Every once in a while I stumble across a mention of an artist I’ve heard of but have not yet mentally catalogued adequately. What if I’m put on the spot about the works of this artist and do not have a clear point of view? It could be embarrassing! So I click a link on the InterWeb and arrive at a bio or interview that tells me more about this artist than I would have ever thought worth knowing. Maybe you’ve done this too.
Recently I stumbled across the Wikipedia page for songwriter/musician Chip Taylor. The name was familiar, and as soon as I saw he was the writer of The Troggs’ “Wild Thing” some synapses started firing. He also wrote “Angel of the Morning”, which has the same chord progression. Yeah, right! I thought to myself, as if I’d been sitting at a bar with fellow rock nerds. Efficient guy, that Chip Taylor!
As a service to Townspeople who might find themselves similarly stumped for talking points on Chip Taylor, I will run through a few facts and observations that you might find handy the next time his name crops up at a gathering of rock nerds. If we find this helpful, it might be worth posting occasional pieces on other, slightly obscure artists whom you do not want to be stumped by should their name come up at a party.
Along with Dionne Warwick, the late-60s hits by Glen Campbell represent, in my memory, the best of the failed aspirations of middle-class America. I still see those albums sitting in front of the huge, wooden stereo consoles in our neighborhood, resting on plush, burnt-orange carpeting. Some elongated sculpture of a conquistador on a horse decorates one end of the console. A reproduction of some painting by one of the Dutch Masters is centered over the stereo; it matches the colors of the heavy velour drapes and couch. “Gavleston”, “Witcheta Lineman”, and “By the Time I Get to Pheonix” made vaguely country music safe for those of us on the more urban coasts–East Coast city dwellers and California dreamers alike. Campbell was pretty cool and sophisticated for a guy playing twangy guitar tunes. As some of us grew into rock nerds, leaving behind the fractured dreams of middle America circa 1968, there were unexpected depths of Campbell to plunder, such as his work as a session man for The Beach Boys and his role as mouthpiece to the surprising cult of Jimmy Webb, Songwriter. It was these after-the-fact revelations that kept the increasingly irrelevant Campbell on the right side of “cool,” despite the cheesy career apex of “Rhinestone Cowboy”, the rough-and-tumble Tanya Tucker years, the coke slide, and the more-recent Jesus-friendly infomercials. When I first heard of this album – a good 24 hours before it showed up in my mailbox – I thought, “Oh man, another Rick Rubin reclamation project! What’s he going to do next, produce a ‘cool’ comeback album for Vicki Lawrence?” (Turns out it’s not a Rick Rubin production, but the brainchild of Julian Raymond, who’s produced Roseanne Cash and The Wallflowers, among others.) After a few minutes I thought, this is Glen Campbell, we have a history together. So I pushed Play and got down to the business of sharing my thoughts, feelings, and other observations.
Adding new meaning to “lineman.”
“Sing”: Campbell’s tenor rises above the alt-adult contemporary fare of this modern-day wall of sound, complete with a skipping drum beat, orchestration, and the insistent plucking of a banjo. Turns out this is a song by Travis, a band I’ve heard of but have never passed judgement on. Do they do, like, iPod ads or something?
“Walls”: I know this song. Is it by someone I don’t typically like? Campbell’s delivery has a way of making me drop my defenses. His performances carry no baggage, have no agenda. He expresses nothing but love and joy for his material, and it’s contagious. OK, I peeked: this is a Tom Petty song. I haven’t been “duped” into digging, like, an REO Speedwagon song.
“Angel Dream”: Here’s another loping Tom Petty cover. This is what we call a nice cover: nothing earth-shattering but completely professional, befitting the studio cat that a young Campbell once was. If this is where this album’s heading, it’s a dignified comeback album we’ve got cooking.
“Times Like These”: Man, this song’s familiar and well constructed! There was always something refreshingly straightforward and good natured in the delivery of Campbell’s classic hits, which mixed the pride of country music with the optimism and hope of Southern California pop. This song has that combination in spades. Whaddaya know? It’s a Foo Fighters song! A lot of older dudes have been telling me there’s something to Grohl’s songs. It’s funny, this is the most like what I would have expected in an album presenting some producer’s version of a comebacking Campbell, as if Elvis Costello had been commissioned to write a song in the Jimmy Webb style. There may have been more to the singer than the song than revisionist hipsters would like to believe.
“These Days”: This song’s off to a lovely start. I’m afraid I’m falling in love with a song by an artist I’ve never much liked…Oh man, I’ve got to take a minute to let some tears flow. This is beautiful…I KNOW THIS SONG: it’s friggin’ Jackson Browne! Truth be told, this is one of the only songs by that guy that ever made the slightest impression on me, but hearing this preternaturally wise song through the voice of a guy who’s royally screwed up his life and lived to tell about it makes it really moving. I’m taken back to that huge, wooden stereo console; the burnt-orange carpet; and the aspirations represented by those conquistadore sculptures.
“Sadly Beautiful”: A Replacements cover. Much better, to my ears, than hearing it on a flagging Replacements album. Like the first few tracks, a “professional” cover.
Pleased to meet you, too.
“All I Want Is You”: Is this a U2 song or that horrible Rod Stewart song, “Forever Young”? It’s U2. As is often the case when I can get past the band’s stock digitally mystical production I’m impressed by how simple and direct the band’s music can be. I MUCH prefer hearing this song in Campbell’s plaintive voice than through the emotive Christ-worthy self-love of Bono.
