3.23.2002

 
Overheard

Greil Marcus sometimes loses me. I loved his seminal Mystery Train, which took profiles/studies of Elvis Presley, Sly and the Family Stone, Randy Newman, and the Band, and used them to make broader observations on popular music. Lipstick Traces, his esoteric linking of the Dadaist movement to the Sex Pistols and modern literary theory, and which was recently, improbably, adapted into a stage production, was a little too over my head.

(Quick side-note. Was recently at a woman's house and found that she had Lipstick Traces as one of her bathroom books. Now that's intimidating.)

I always enjoy his writing for Salon and Artforum, though, and particularly enjoyed that which was compiled in Ranters and Crowd-pleasers, or, as it was titled in the UK, In the Fascist Bathroom. His book on Dylan's Basement Tapes, Invisible Republic, was hard to enjoy when it was talking about Dylan recordings I had never heard before, but his description of Dylan's 1966 tour of England was wonderfully vivid and evocative.

Despite his departures into the furthest reaches of theory, Marcus always still sounds like a good guy, smart but not smug, and hey, he still lives in Berkeley. Anyway, RockCritics.com, which boats an excellent archive of interviews with rock journalists themselves, is taking questions from readers to ask Greil. Deadline is March 28.






posted by Anon. 11:52 PM

 
Overheard

To cleanse myself after reading the *N Sync in space news below, I stumbled upon this nifty catalog of alt-country links on the web. In addition to links to artists' pages and fan pages, the author did a nice job compiling links to articles dealing with musicians on the slyer side of Nashville. This morning, I've been particularly enjoying this Robert Christgau piece from '99 on John Prine and Iris Dement. When he's doing his Consumer Guide column, Christgau sometimes feels like a lemon sucker to me, so it's a revelation to read a piece where his affection for Prine and Dement -- both for their music and for them as people -- comes through. John Prine has always come across to me like a favorite uncle -- full of good stories and jokes, and a fair share of fibs, but you love him for it anyway. Christgau's piece only reinforces that for me.




posted by Anon. 9:31 AM

 
Overheard

In this morning's first sure sign that the universe is finally going to split in half, CNN.com is running a story that Lance Bass, member of the increasingly less relevant boy band *N Sync, is all excited to become the first entertainer in space. Who is possibly allowing Lance to pursue his dream? Why, those helpful Russians of course. Oh, but wait: he's only first going through a battery of tests in Moscow. The Russian officials are playing coy: "Of course, there is a possibility. There is always a possibility. But he has taken no official steps to arrange the trip."

Palmermix presents: Choose Your Punchline!

A) Inevitable joke about space junk
B) Inevitable joke about the Scorpions being the first glam rock metal band in space
C) Inevitable reference to Space Camp film of mid-80s, starring Lea Thompson, Kelly Preston, Kate Capshaw, and Joaquin Phoenix (then known as Leaf Phoenix.)
D) No punchline necessary, this news is hilarious enough as is.


posted by Anon. 9:10 AM

3.22.2002

 
Little riffs
The long cut

Son Volt's Trace is on my short list for the best albums of the last decade.

And Wilco is probably my favorite band that's out there recording today.

Both of these acts grew from the same acorn, the legendary group Uncle Tupelo, the band led by two Belleville, Illinois guys named Jay and Jeff who started a band, released three albums on a small independent label, received great enough live notices that they won a big label contract with Sire, released their major label debut -- and quickly collapsed in a pile of acrimony and anger, leaving two new bands to rise from the ashes.

Along the way, the band received the lion's share of credit for inventing a new movement in modern alternative music: alt-country, it's called. Or Americana. Or called No Depression -- after the title of the first album that Tupelo released. Or -- my favorite -- Y'allternative.

Did Uncle Tupelo invent alt-country? Not when you consider that Gram Parsons and the Byrds had fused rock and country elements in the late 1960s -- or that Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers, and Bobby Fuller had done the same even before that. There were even several bands in the 80s whose sound was very similar to what Tupelo would draw raves for, including the Silos and, well, REM, if you listen to Reckoning.

But Uncle Tupelo certainly did start a movement of similar bands that blended traditionally country elements -- acoustic guitars, mandolins, etc -- with a looseness and energy more typical of the punk and power pop bands of the 80s Minneapolis scene. Old '97s, Whiskeytown, the Bottle Rockets, Alejandro Escovedo, the Jayhawks, and many other groups and artists were clearly influenced by what began on those first Tupelo records.

But those first three Uncle Tupelo albums, No Depression, Still Feel Gone, and, perhaps their finest moment, the largely acoustic album of old labor and coal miner songs, March 16-20 1992, have been out of print ever since the label that released them, Rockville, went belly-up.

The good news, though, is that Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar – who haven’t exactly been close pals in the wake of the band’s dissolution – have come together to remaster these albums, adding bonus unreleased and live tracks to the re-releases.

Which is great. Unless, you’re like me, and you already own all the albums in their original, unremastered, un-adorned with bonus tracks form.

A side-rant. This is always where the older fans lose out. I felt that way with the Who, when I bought all their CDs back in the lousy packaging that MCA originally re-released them. Then Townsend et al went back and redid them with all the goodies. I’m not going to rebuy all the Who albums just for the bonus tracks, though I’m sure some Keith Moon fan will. On the other hand, I managed to not buy any Elvis Costello albums when Columbia released his catalog originally on CD; so then I was able to indulge in the bonus and live tracks that Rykodisc added to the albums when they re-released. Will I re-buy the Uncle Tupelo albums to get the bonus tracks? Probably not.

But you can, when Columbia/Legacy re-releases them some time in the fall of this year or Spring of 2003. Or, if you are completely curious to hear their sound, what is already in print is an anthology recently released by Sony, comprising songs from all four of their albums, in addition to their cover of CCR’s "Effigy" that originally appeared on No Alternative, and a live cover of Iggy Pop’s "I Wanna Be Your Dog." (Fans of alt-country covers of that Stooges classic would also do well to track down the recording of it by Americana supergroup the Setters, where the Silos’ Walter Salas-Humara and Alejandro Escovedo give it a run.) While like any anthology it omits some goodies, I looked over the set-list, and it's a good place to start.

Or you can order their still-in-print fourth album, Anodyne, which, among other things, includes Jeff Tweedy’s paen to the kings of Nashville music publishing, "Acuff-Rose," and a terrific duet between Farrar and the late, great Doug Sahm (he of the Sir Douglas Quintet of "She’s About a Mover" fame) on Sahm’s "Give Back the Key to My Heart."

Nothing on the Tupelo records is, in my mind, as good as the best stuff that Tweedy and Farrar would do once they separated from each other. As I said, Trace is brilliant, though Farrar’s two other Son Volt albums and last year’s solo effort Sebastopol are spotty at best.

Tweedy’s Wilco started off with the light but likable A.M., but then recorded Being There, one of the best double albums of new material since London Calling. They followed that up with Summerteeth, where Tweedy left behind the country roots in favor of a sound that’s equal parts Pet Sounds and Pleased to Meet Me. And then there are the two Mermaid Avenue albums, where Wilco teamed up with Billy Bragg to transform unrecorded Woody Guthrie lyrics into sublime rock and pop anthems.

But though the parts would do more than the sum of the whole, there are terrific moments on the Tupelo albums. More than anything, it's fascinating to listen to the band evolve -- and listen to the evidence on the albums of what would eventually bring things to a close. To hear Tweedy’s confidence as a singer grow by leaps and bounds – and to understand that, with Farrar as the nominal leader of the group, it was only a matter of time before the little band from Southern Illinois was too big for the both of them.


Special note: if you don't own Trace already, Amazon is selling it for $8.99. If you don't have it, get it. Now.




posted by Anon. 5:33 PM

 
Overheard

Kevin Segall's Essential Media, my favorite vendor of crazed alternative publishing and products on the Web, is now featuring something quite intriguing. Apparently, Van Morrison hated his original record label, Bang, the one for whom he record T.B. Sheets and "Brown-Eyed Girl." But he was still forced to make music for them based on the terms of his contract. So what did Van do?

Well, pretty much what you would expect the mercurial Morrison to do. He went and recorded what has been likened to the "acoustic precursor to Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music." Yes, Van Morrison's contract-breaking sessions are now available on CD, on Volume 3.1 of Celebrities ... At Their Worst. See for yourself.


posted by Anon. 12:33 PM

 
Etc.

I'd like to thank Outside Counsel and El-Drac for posting linkage to Palmermix. Blogging only truly works if we all hype and give props to each other constantly, creating a gigantic international cat's cradle of blog yarn. Thanks, dudes.

Also thanks to the seventy-eight people who have found this blog simply by looking up "Eddie Vedder mohawk" on Google. Sadly, your quest has led you to a site with no photos of Eddie with a mohawk. But -- there are links to possible photos of Eddie with a mohawk. Palmermix, looking out for you, every step of the way!


posted by Anon. 11:41 AM

 
Little riffs

I mentioned Kelly Willis' cover of Dave Alvin's "Little Honey" on the Thelma and Louise soundtrack below. I listened to that soundtrack today, the first time in a long while, and I had forgotten that there are a few strong tracks there, interspersed between some bad B-grade blues.

In addition to the bad blues, you have to push through an awful Glenn Frey song. Never an easy task. But then you'll find a fine cover of John Hiatt's "Tennessee Plates" by Charlie Sexton, who after his own solo career -- and that Arcangels project with Double Trouble's rhythm section -- faded, took the guitarist spot for Lucinda Williams and now Bob Dylan. Then you'll find a nice version of Van Morrison's "Wild Night," by Martha Reeves, without the Vandellas -- this was probably a good five years before John Mellencamp and M'eshell Ndegeocello covered it.

But the song that stands out for me is also the one that plays in one of the stronger scenes of the film. "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan," by Marianne Faithfull, appeared originally on Faithfull's seminal Broken English 1979. In Thelma and Louise, it plays during one of the scenes of the two title characters driving at night, their faces caked with dirt and sweat, their knowing that they can't drive forever, but their smiles showing a certain solace and satisfaction in their own transformations.

The song, about a middle-aged woman's regrets, is punctuated by a synthesizer beat that on paper could have rendered the song as soulful as Kraftwerk -- i.e. not very soulful at all -- but instead accentuates the feeling of claustrophobia in Lucy's life. The song was written by Shel Silverstein.

Yes, that Shel Silverstein, the one who wrote The Giving Tree and The Missing Piece and many books of children's verse. Silverstein also wrote some bawdy plays, and wrote "25 Minutes to Go" and "Boy Named Sue," both made famous by Johnny Cash. He also co-wrote Things Change with his long-time friend David Mamet; it remains the film of Mamet's that has, I believe, the most warmth and humanity, and I think that's due in no small part to Mamet's choice of collaborator. Silverstein even was nominated for an Oscar for co-writing the song that Meryl Streep sings at the end of Postcards from the Edge. He had one of the more unique careers of any American artist in the last fifty years, and if he isn't worthy of a good biography treatment of his life, I don't know who is.

And if you have never read his Uncle Shelby's ABZ book, a very hilarious book for adults, you're missing out.

posted by Anon. 10:15 AM

 
Down under and out
Kasey Chambers' Barricades and Brickwalls

When Kasey Chambers sings, "Am I Not Pretty Enough," on her Barricades and Brickwalls, part of the joke is that she's obviously pretty enough to get away with asking such a question.

This isn't Ani DiFranco singing about being not a pretty girl, where, if you know anything about Ani, you know that much of the strength of the song comes from her having to overcome traditional attitudes about femininity and beauty, much as she overcame traditional business practices in the music industry by starting her own label. (In the end, Ani is beautiful, of course, and more so, because she's not cookie cutter pretty.)

Kasey Chambers, on the other hand, has probably not had to push through the same thousand insecurities and half-baked notions of beauty to get where she is. The cover of the Australian country singer's second album features her standing in the middle of traffic -- likely stopping it -- while wearing leather pants and holding an acoustic guitar at her side. She's certainly pretty; a better album title as one readies to listen to Barricades would perhaps be Is This It?, except, oops, the Strokes already took that.

There has yet to emerge a female Gen-X singer in the alt-country scene with the strength and emotional range of Lucinda Williams. Williams' voice may have its limitations, and she's guilty of occasionally recording boring music (and might even be in a rut as we speak), but she's been one of the few Southern female singer/songwriters to break through pigeonholes and adopt a variety of personas and attitudes in her music -- from the flat-out longing of "I Just Wanted to See You So Bad" and "Passionate Kisses," to the pensiveness of "Side of the Road," to the pissed-off heart rage of "Change the Locks," to the lust of "Right in Time," to the nostalgia of "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road," to -- well, you get the picture.

Williams is the sole female singer songwriter of the Nashville-Austin scenes who moves and evolves in subject matter and emotional landscape with the same frequency and depth as, say, Steve Earle, Richard Thompson, or John Hiatt. (The two women who are close, so close, to reaching that level, are probably Patty Griffin and Iris Dement.)

Not that there haven't been some recent Gen-X contenders.

Kelly Willis can sing, and sing well. Her version of Tom T. Hall's "That's How I Got to Memphis" is one of my favorite recordings, period, of the last five years. And years before, she did a lovely cover of Dave Alvin's "Little Honey" on the Thelma and Louise soundtrack. Her What I Deserve was a nice record, winning points with me for covering both the Replacements' "They're Blind" and Nick Drake's "Time Has Told Me" on a country album. But her songwriting isn't quite there -- she has yet to write a chorus or melody that holds my interest they way she did on her well-chosen covers.

Shelby Lynne's I Am Shelby Lynne did some nice genre mixing, as Lynne' sound-a-like of Bonnie Raitt's voice bridged some Macy Gray soul with Southern twang. For Lynne, too, the weakness was in the songs themselves, and her follow-up, Love, Shelby, produced by Glen Ballard, was one of the most universally reviled records of last year.

The next younger country singer in the hype machine is Chambers. And this time, the hype machine is working overtime. When I picked up the record, I was greeted by posters of Kasey on the walls of the store, featuring not just the traffic-stopping photo, but also prominent rave review quotes by Steve Earle and Lucinda herself talking about how much they love Kasey Chambers. Author blurbs? Has it come to this?

So. Believe the hype? That all depends. Believe it when Kasey is singing quick acoustic numbers full of melody and a beat, songs like the driving "If I Were You" and "Not Pretty Enough." Believe it and then some when she sings "On a Bad Day," featuring Lucinda herself on harmony vocals, which sounds like what would happen if Steve Earle rewrote the Temptations' "I Wish That It Would Rain": "So when it's pouring, I take them outside/I let the rain start washin' my tears away."

"A Little Bit Lonesome" has almost the old-school Haggard quality that Iris Dement brought to "Trouble" and "I'll Take My Sorrow Straight" on her The Way I Should album, and Chambers does an admirable and likable turn on Gram Parsons' 'Still Feeling Blue." That takes a good amount of chutzpah, to sing a Parsons song on one's second album. I'm happy to say that Chambers rises to the challenge.

But when Chambers then tries to sing hard-driving blues, things fall apart. On the title track and "Crossfire," she sounds a little too much like a little girl trying to adopt an outlaw's swagger: "I'll be damned if you're not my man before the sun goes down," and the result is as convincing as if Gwyneth Paltrow was cast as Lara Croft.

Even worse than that are a couple slow acoustic ballads that made it into the mix, particularly the god-awful hidden track, "Ignorance," which should have remained hidden from the CD, period. It's a sanctimonious folk ballad that makes Jewel look deep. The song starts:

Don't wanna read the paper
I don't like bad news
Last night a man got shot
Outside the House of blues

It doesn't get much better from there. You don't want to know. Well, okay, she actually then has the lyric, "While babies in Cambodia are starving everyday." I forget what I did first, cringe or go into convulsions. Needless to say, an unfortunate way to end a promising album.

Chambers clearly has chops both in her voice and her pen -- on the best tracks, you feel you're listening to a 25 year old singer who can write good melodies and strong lyrics, and has unique enough pipes to deliver those lyrics in a way that catches your attention. But the material on Barricades is inconsistent. In the end, it's not a matter if she's pretty enough or not, but instead, what's going on behind that pretty face.




posted by Anon. 8:26 AM

3.21.2002

 
Overheard

We all should be lucky to have such a choir of voices sending us off as country songwriter Harlan Howard did, at a memorial service held at the famed Ryman Auditorium in Nashville this past Tuesday. Emmylou Harris, Jim Lauderdale, Rodney Crowell, the Judds, Trisha Yearwood, the great Melba Montgomery, Nanci Griffith, and some other big names all came and sang at the service, where Howard's guitar and hat stood on the stage by the performers. A nice way to do it; here's the article on the service from the Nashville Tennessean.


posted by Anon. 5:43 PM

 
Overheard

Television, led by Tom Verlaine and featuring the guitar work of Verlaine and Richard Lloyd, was one of my favorite bands of the New York punk scene.

Sometimes they sailed far off into prog-rock like jams, but on songs like "Venus De Milo" and "See No Evil" they somehow merged the best of the Modern Lovers, Talking Heads, King Crimson, and the Allman Brothers. Well, something like that, anyway.

In today's New York Times, Jon Pareles reviews the Irving Plaza concert of a reunited Television. Pareles refers to the band as the jam band of the punk era. I think that's accurate.

(And no, Richard Hell, the band's original bassist, was not part of the reunion.)

posted by Anon. 3:39 PM

 
Overheard

The Buck trial continues! Now Pete is claiming a sleeping pill defense. Take a sleeping pill with wine, break British Airways crockery and throw yogurt onto innocent flight attendants! Where can I get these pills?

posted by Anon. 12:14 PM

 
Little riffs

This might just be the rant of a man who has to spend twelve hours today doing a rewrite of a script, but I swear to God that when I was listening two minutes ago to "Anarchy in the U.K." by the Sex Pistols, I could hear the riff from the Searchers' "Needles and Pins" during one of the guitar breaks. Am I nuts? Does the fact that Sonny Bono wrote that song mean that everything in the galaxy makes complete and total sense? (And yes, "Needles and Pins" is very, very similar to "Feel A Whole Lot Better" by the Byrds, later covered by Tom Petty on Full Moon Fever. The conspiracy grows!)

posted by Anon. 10:26 AM

3.20.2002

 
Overheard

Spin has posted its current article on the Spin 40 -- "today's most fascinating and amazing artists." The top spot is held by Jay-Z, which is a bold choice and not as completely predictable as one might expect from Spin. The rest of the list, though, feels pretty predictable -- Radiohead as #2, the Strokes, White Stripes, etc -- with at least a few more voices of color thrown in there to make it look a little bit more diverse than Pazz and Jop. But only a little.

posted by Anon. 7:20 PM

 
Overheard

Last word on the Rock Hall of Fame belongs to Jon Pareles, who nicely summarizes the ceremony in the New York Times. I'm beginning to want to get a hold of Isaac Hayes' acceptance speech, because the more I read of it, the more I like.

posted by Anon. 7:10 PM

3.19.2002

 
Also-rans

So this year, the Talking Heads, the Ramones, Isaac Hayes, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Brenda Lee, and Gene Pitney were elected to the Rock Hall of Fame.

But who didn't get elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year? The answer to that reveals two of the Hall's great biases and omissions.

These artists were also on the ballots of the Hall voters:

Patti Smith
Sex Pistols
Gram Parsons
Lynyrd Skynyrd
The "5" Royales
The Dells
The Chantels
Jackson Browne
Black Sabbath
AC/DC

Some of these omissions might make sense from a commercial point of view, some of them from an aesthetic point of view. Make sense, that is, until you look and realize that some of the artists that have made it into Cleveland on past ballots were worse aesthetically or performed worse commercially.

But also, there are three Doo-Wop groups on that ballot, and not a single one of the groups was inducted. Doo-Wop was one of the most important parts of rock and roll history, paving much of the way for rock and soul singing and harmony for the next thirty years. How many doo-wop acts are already inducted? Two, the Flamingos and the Moonglows, which were only inducted in the past four years; three if you include Dion, but he, like Bobby Darin, jumped genres a few times in his career. Two doo wop groups for one of the most important waves of popular music before the British Invasion? (The Orioles were selected as an early influence.)

And then there’s the issue of metal. The hall may have a natural inclination against certain punk bands or punk influencers – the Stooges, the MC5, pretty much every band of that ilk except for the art-rock Velvet Underground have yet to find a place. That’s perhaps because a lot of the record label people on the nominating committee have no idea who those bands are, or look at their significance only in terms of album sales.

But the difference between the roots of punk and the roots of metal is this: AC/DC and Black Sabbath sold records. A lot of them. They may have never won the critical support that even Zeppelin has received. (But then, the induction of Billy Joel, Elton John, and Queen prove that critical support isn’t necessary for induction into this hall.) And they haven’t had the second coming that Aerosmith have had. But ask anyone in hard rock or metal which band was more influential – Aerosmith or Black Sabbath – and without blinking, they’ll answer Sabbath. Or AC/DC, for that matter.

Why is Aerosmith in the Hall and Sabbath and AC/DC are left outside? Because Aerosmith continues to sell lots of records; they were able to find a place in the MTV generation. Sabbath was over by the time MTV took ahold, and, aside from one or two small hits, AC/DC didn’t find a place. I’ve never been big on metal – just not a genre I’ve ever embraced – but I certainly recognize it as an important and significant part of music, and I recognize AC/DC and Black Sabbath as certainly the next tier under Led Zeppelin of the acts that helped found it. They should be the next members of that genre to be inducted, before Metallica and Guns N Roses are eligible.

As for the other also-rans: if you’re judging based on the music, there is no reasonable explanation for having Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor in the Rock Hall of Fame but leaving Jackson Browne out. There just isn’t: he’s had just as good album sales as they have. He didn’t write and perform as good albums in the singer/songwriter confessional mode as they did: he wrote better ones.

The problem is, of course, that Browne has been accused -- via rumors, not any legal action -- of being a woman-beater, and that he’s remembered more now for his views on Central America than for writing terrific songs like "Rock Me On the Water," "The Pretender," "Running on Empty," "Boulevard," and so on.

The presence of Tom Petty though on the list of inductees makes me wonder further how Bob Seger did not even warrant a spot on the ballot. I’m not a Seger worshipper: but the guy was one of the biggest rock acts of the 70s, the biggest rock singer songwriter next to Springsteen, charting six songs in the top ten from 1977 to 1986 – chartng 13 songs in the top 20 in that same period. Billy Joel in the Rock Hall of Fame and not Bob Seger?

If John Mellencamp gets into the Rock Hall of Fame without Bob Seger even getting on a ballot – well, then I’m going to have to cry out about an anti-Detroit bias in this Hall of Fame. And the MC5 and Seger should stage a coup on the I.M. Pei-designed palace steps.

posted by Anon. 7:44 PM

 
Overheard

The bobdylan.com site that Sony Music runs is one of the best any label has put together for one of their musicians. It includes a complete archive of Dylan's lyrics, and links to many recent setlists for his tour. Reading over recent tour entries, it's interesting to note that in the last month, Dylan has been playing several songs from one of his more maligned (and one of my favorite) records, Nashville Skyline. Not just the obvious ones -- "Lay, Lady, Lay" and "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You," but also "Country Pie" and "Tell Me That It Isn't True." Okay, so it's not the same as if he were playing a bunch of tracks from Street Legal. But it's certainly more intriguing than "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "All Along the Watchtower" appearing on setlist after setlist.

posted by Anon. 7:27 PM

 
Little riffs

Speaking of the Talking Heads, I caught a bit of True Stories on cable this afternoon. While the album -- which contained the Heads doing versions of the songs mostly sung by others in this quirky David Byrne film -- was one of the weakest albums the Heads ever released, the movie, about a "celebration of specialness" in a small town in Texas, has its charms.

It's inconsistent, feeling like a string of bits. Some bits work: Spalding Gray, a few years before Swimming to Cambodia, has a great scene explaining suburban development; there's a terrific bizarre fashion show sequence. Some don't: the normally wonderful Swoosie Kurtz is badly misused as a woman so lazy she never leaves her bed.

The screenplay was co-written by Byrne, noted playwright Beth "Crimes of the Heart" Henley, and, get this, character actor Stephen Tobolowsky. (You'll know him best as Ned Ryerson in Groundhog Day, or the head of CBS News in The Insider.)

But the two best things it has going for it are the late Pops Staples playing a housecleaner who practices voodoo magic, and, one of my favorite actors, John Goodman, playing Louis Fine, a man desperate to marry and have a wife.

At the gala celebration that closes the movie, when Goodman and his backup band, the Lonely Bachelors, sing "People Like Us," it's a true feel-good moment, and none of Byrne's trademark detachment and irony can take anything -- or us -- away from it.

posted by Anon. 5:23 PM

 
Overheard

In this week's Voice, Robert Christgau submits an interesting piece on two new benefit albums, the Executioner's Last Songs, featuring Steve Earle, among others, in an album to raise money for anti-Death Penalty organizations, and Wish You Were Here: Love Songs for New York, featuring Moby, Cornershop, Baba Maal, and others in a benefit for the September 11 fund organized by ... the Village Voice itself.

You have to push through a lot of self-aggrandizement and Chuck Eddy pimping (myself, I've never cared for Eddy's writing or his attitude), but Christgau, as always, is dependable for some good insights amidst the irascability, and he makes an especially good argument about how most benefit albums are doomed by sanctimony. Though I continue to think RC has a tin ear when it comes to country and country-influenced music.

The Executioner's Songs, credited to the Pine Valley Cosmonauts, includes some inspired choices (as well as some, um, gallows humor), including Rosie Flores covering Hank Williams' "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive," and Steve Earle covering... "Tom Dooley." Okay, now I'm intrigued.

posted by Anon. 4:40 PM

 
Overheard

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony occurred last night at the Waldorf-Astoria, and by the accounts on the wire services, it sounds like the night didn't come off so well.

The presenters continued that bad tradition started by Ricky Martin inducting Ritchie Valens last year -- i.e., choosing presenters not out of true influence relationships as it was in the past, but instead feeling like they were chosen off of an "approved list" by VH-1, which has only aired the ceremony the last couple years. Alicia Keys awarding Isaac Hayes? Jewel inducting Brenda Lee? Come on.

Also interesting to note that the jam at the end of the night -- what has long been seen as the best part of the annual party -- was not joined by inductees the Ramones, Brenda Lee, or Tom Petty. Very strange: a jam consisting of the Talking Heads, Isaac Hayes, and Gene Pitney.

Also interesting to note that apparently Eddie Vedder has grown his hair into a mohawk.

But from the online reports, the person whose hand I most want to shake is animated voiceover artist and token black Scientologist Isaac Hayes, who used his time up on stage to rightfully take on an audience filled with music industry honchos who have continued to avoid redressing years of royalty shenanigans, especially towards 50s and 60s R&B artists.

I'll let Hayes speak: ``I'm just asking you to practice some business ethics and a little humanity,'' he said. ``Do the right thing by me and my contemporaries.''

Amen.

posted by Anon. 8:57 AM

3.18.2002

 
Little riffs
Lonesome organ grinder cries

I mentioned yesterday that I was borrowing a couple of Springsteen bootlegs from a friend and that they featured their share of intriguing cover choices. I had forgotten to mention that one of them, of a show in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, in February 1975, includes a cover of Dylan's "I Want You."

The choice of this cover on its own is interesting. Springsteen to my knowledge has rarely covered Dylan songs live (and the only song of Dylan's that Springsteen has ever released is his version of "Chimes of Freedom"), though he's often made the centerpieces of his shows covers that show an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of rock and roll. From "Do You Love Me" and "Quarter To Three" to songs by Motown and other soul greats, from the Stones' "Street Fighting Man" to John Fogerty's "Rocking All Over the World," and so on. (He even covered Tom Waits' "Jersey Girl" so well that there are a lot of people out there who think it's Bruce's own song.)

But "I Want You"? I love the song -- it's one of the first I embraced when I first bought Dylan's Greatest Hits on tape when I was 13. But it's one of Dylan's more playful numbers, not a song about freedom or liberty, but instead a song about lust and longing. (Not that that's bad -- in some ways, I think the songs of Dylan's that hold up the best are the love, heartache, and lust songs, numbers like "She's Your Lover Now," "If You Gotta Go (Go Now)," and "I Don't Believe You.")

But what's even more interesting than Springsteen's choice to cover "I Want You" is how he transformed the song on this live recording. What in Dylan's hands was playful, becomes in Springsteen's hands desperation -- displaying that same strain of yearning that "I'm On Fire" and its John Sayles-directed video would embody almost ten years later. When Dylan sings "so baaaad," it's the yearning that comes from a song hustler in too-tight jeans. When Springsteen sings it, it's instead a yearning that comes from long-shot dreams.

The other nifty thing about this boot is that it features a work-in-progress version of "Thunder Road," where instead of Mary's dress waving, it was Angelina's dress. Hmm. Women named Angelina and "I Want You" covers. You think all the hype of those "New Dylan" articles was starting to weigh heavily on Springsteen's conscience back there in 1975? I think you're right.

posted by Anon. 8:21 PM

 
Overheard

I often like to slag on Michael Stipe for his pretensions and his blatant star-fucking (both figuratively and literally, judging by his rumored flings with Morrissey and Dave Matthews), but I've been a big fan of REM in the past and perhaps will be again. That's not because of Stipe, whose lyrics tend to resemble poor 10th grade poetry, and whose singing has its obvious limitations.

But I'm a big fan of both Peter Buck and Mike Mills. Mills always seems like a cheerful guy who is just glad to be there, and at the 1992 MTV Inaugural Ball, he actually came out from behind the VIP velvet rope to hang out with those of us who were just on the main floor. I chatted with him, talked with him about "Voice of Harold" off Dead Letter Office and the Hindu Love Gods' record, the famous REM side project where Buck/Berry/Mills recorded an album of folk covers and "Raspberry Beret" with Warren Zevon singing lead. (It's actually not a great record, but "Beret" is wonderful.) He was a very nice guy, and this was right after Automatic for the People's huge success.

Buck I love because I love that jingle-jangly Rickenbacker sound, and because in every televised interview with the band, his contempt for Stipe's pretensions seems readily apparent.

Anyway, there's a must-read report on the wire today about Buck's London trial for his air rage incident. Buck apparently drank 15 glasses of wine on a flight from Seattle to London. Then, when the flight crew decided that 15 might be enough, Buck tried to steal more wine from the galley. He apparently "mistook a hostess trolley for a CD player," which is pretty hard to do unless you're Mr. Magoo, then confused a stranger on the plane for his wife, and proceeded to pour yogurt on the flight crew.

The part of this trial that does seem to be a frame job is their giving Buck grief for using the lavatory and the floor being "wet" afterwards. I don't know about you, but for me, urinating on an airplane isn't always the easiest target practice in the world. If they actually bust him on that, I'm crying injustice.


posted by Anon. 1:38 PM

 
Overheard

Nice piece by Josh Kun in this week's Boston Phoenix that deals with music and landscape -- and how for him, the desert and the Mills Brothers are inextricably intertwined.

posted by Anon. 10:32 AM

 
Little riffs
Mama tried

Been trying to put together a long overdue mix for my mother of, yes, mother songs. Hag's "Mama Tried" is a definite, as is Springsteen's "The Wish." I'd like to avoid using "Your Mother Should Know," one of my least favorite tracks of Magical Mystery Tour. Then there's Richard Thompson's "Mother Knows Best" and Loudon Wainwright III's "Your Mother And I," or, for that matter, Rufus Wainwright's "Beauty Mark." Paul Simon's "Mother and Child Reunion" and "That Was Your Mother." Billy Bragg's "Tank Park Salute" -- it was written, I think, for his father, but it'll work. "Come to Mama" off Pete Towsend's White City; Bob Mould's "Compositions for the Young and Old," with its image of pulling on your mama's apron strings. Lucinda Williams' "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road," Iris DeMent's "Mama's Opry."

Any other suggestions? Do not suggest Elvis' "Don't Cry Daddy." Giving my mother a mix CD with a chorus, "You still got me and little Tommy/and together we're gonna find a brand new Mommy" -- not a good idea.

posted by Anon. 9:09 AM

 
Little riffs

Remember that unfortunate "My Sweet Lord"/"He's So Fine" mess? I realized today that the Replacements' "Waitress in the Sky" bears an undeniable resemblance to 60s chestnut "(High on This) Mountain of Love." Just wanted to share.

posted by Anon. 8:29 AM

3.17.2002

 
Overheard

What is it with British Parliament's obsession with youth culture and popular music? First, as reported earlier in these pages, they host Billy Bragg wearing a Clash T-shirt. Now, as reported in this story in the AP, American neosoul singer Alicia Keys was invited to sing on Parliament property by a younger M.P. who invited her there to perform to convince younger constituents that Parliament is "hip" and not dull.

Kinda funny, but it's worth noting that in the UK, politicians see popular music as a means to attack political apathy within the younger generation. Meanwhile, here in the US, the tendency continues to be to use popular music as a punching bag, a blame magnet for all of society's woes. I don't know what's worse, unfairly trashing music for societal problems, or exploiting music's popularity for political gain.

Remember that time when infamous Reagan Interior Secretary James Watt wouldn't let the Beach Boys perform a concert on property belonging to the National Parks because they were a bad influence on youth? That was bizarre.

posted by Anon. 10:31 PM

 
Overheard

There's an amusing article by Bill Werde in this week's Village Voice, dealing with the fighting, both intramural and intermural, within the Talking Heads and Ramones as they head for the Rock Hall this next week.

The Ramones' antipathy for one another is direct and frank in the quotes in the piece, but the Heads' quotes are even funnier, as Byrne and Frantz/Weymouth try to be polite and guarded, yet the disdain between Byrne and the non-Byrnes is completely obvious. Overall, the piece continues to encourage my view that David Byrne was the least interesting part of that band. And her smart quotes in this piece confirm again my feeling that Tina Weymouth has not gotten near enough due.

posted by Anon. 7:15 PM

 
Overheard

Good piece by Dave Marsh on the contradictory nature of the record labels holding tight to the constricting seven-album contracts, in a fickle culture that they've helped create, where artists rarely have hit-spawning careers of seven albums or more. (See the follow-up, sophomoric dud situations of the Wallflowers, Counting Crows, Alanis Morrisette, Paula Cole, Joan Osborne, Hootie and the Blowfish, etc ad nauseum.)

posted by Anon. 5:53 PM

 
Etc.

Archives were down the last two days, due to a foolish move on my part. They should be up now. Meaning, there is a lot of back material for you to peruse if you are a recent addition to the reader ranks.

In other thrilling news, we seem to have finally made it into the Google engine. I guess I should send Instapundit a fruit basket.

posted by Anon. 5:36 PM

 
Little riffs
Intermissionaries

It's actually been a lovely two days in terms of friends giving or loaning me music. My pal Chris has lent me two Springsteen concert bootlegs that I'm going to copy. (Hillary Rosen and the RIAA, are you listening? I'm using burner technology to beat the boots! By the way, if you want a good laugh, check out the RIAA page. This is the lobbying organization for the record labels, and in a fine bit of Orwellian doublespeak, the page is full of talk about artists and their rights.)

Anyway, the boots are two complete Bruce shows. One of 'em is a show from the Main Point in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania,1975. The other's a show from the Shoreline Ampitheatre in Mountain View, California, from the Tunnel of Love tour in 1988. I've been listening to them today while I've cleaned up my apartment. Two things I've forgotten about how great Bruce is live: some of the shit he says between songs is just damn funny, a sense of humor he doesn't show near enough on record. In general, his between song patter, his stories, are pretty great.

Second, his choice of covers, as always, is inspired. I caught him three times on the E Street Band reunion tour two years ago, and he chose some good ones to cover then, including the Impressions' It's All Right and Al Green's Take Me to the River. On these boots, he covers "Mountain of Love" and Chuck Berry's "Back in the USA" in the 1975 show, and Arthur Conley's "Sweet Soul Music," Mitch Ryder's "Little Latin Lupe Lu" (and if you know anything about Springsteen live, you know it's Mitch Ryder's and not the Righteous Brothers' version that Bruce has embraced), and "Twist and Shout."

Something I did notice about the E Street Reunion tour, something a lotta folks noticed, was that there was no intermission. It was a single set show, though that entire set with encores was often three full hours. Pretty impressive, in terms of the energy that takes to plow through 30 straight songs. But remember the days when Springsteen did two two-hour sets? Nowadays, who still has an intermission in the midst of their concerts? Not REM or U2, who generally clock in at two hours before encores. Not the Stones. When I saw the Who on their '88 reunion tour, they did an intermission, but that's the last act I can remember.

So much has been made about the recording industry's transformation, but not enough ink has been written about changes in the concert industry. Back in '88, I remember several lineups that were filling up football stadiums. Now, it seems that there's been a rejection of stadium shows, with big acts seeming to prefer several shows within a smaller basketball arena. (You can't blame the rejection, as I can think of few worse places for acoustics than the L.A. Coliseum.) I gotta think that that's meant less money for the industry, and that for every Phish and Dave Matthews who sells out show after show, that all the classic rock dinosaurs playing the ampitheatre circuit are playing to a lot of half-empty crowds.

Something that would be welcome to see is more performers taking their live performances a little bit more seriously. Musicians would get fans attending more of their concerts -- several shows in a seriesof nights, in fact -- if they mixed up their setlists more, much like Springsteen, Phish, and Dylan (though his shows are notoriously brief, often clocking in at an 1:45 including encores) do. I'm not going to see multiple shows by the same artist if it's the same show every night. But mix it up a little, and yeah, you might get me to throw down some duckets for more than one night. Just an idea.

posted by Anon. 4:16 PM

 
Tweedledee
Belle and Sebastian and the Kinder Gentler Britpop

I tend to be an Anglophobe when it comes to contemporary pop music. I'd say I was just an Americanist, but no, upon closer inspection, I think I have a natural disdain toward the English (though not the Scottish or the Welsh) when it comes to music, particularly for anything that's come since the Clash and Jam. (Yes, I love the Beatles, Stones, Who, some Kinks, Nick Drake, and Townsend's solo records through White City. Hate Bowie, though. Long story.)

Oh, there are exceptions. I think Richard Thompson is a genius. And even though Coldplay and Travis are often disparaged as Radiohead-lite, I've found their records much warmer and approachable than Radiohead's recent journeys to the edges of prog-rock and sadism towards fans. But then, I'm a sucker for melody. I also think Peter Gabriel is one of the few major artists out there who continues to evolve in interesting ways; I eagerly await his long-delayed Up -- he has an excellent website promising a release soon. We'll see.

One thread of Britpop that I have enjoyed is that which is often referred to as "twee" -- soft, melodic, gentle pop with smart lyrics. Belle and Sebastian are the major progenitors of this style; if your sole acquaintance with B and S is through Jack Black's "This is crap!" scene in High Fidelity, or Todd Solondz peppering Storytelling with their songs, then you would do well to pick up either of their first two releases, Tigermilk or If You're Feeling Sinister. They can be a bit too precious for some, but the lyrics I think are terrific and the melodies often irresistable, equal parts Nick Drake and Brill Building.

Yesterday, my friend Rico gave me a mix he burned, and it includes the new Belle single "I Love My Car" and songs by other twee artists, including Kings of Convenience and the Spinanes. There isn't much exhilirating or breathless about the genre, but it does make you feel good or sad, sometimes both in the same number. I've found today that it's good music for the morning after, Pete Yorn be damned.

posted by Anon. 2:31 PM

 
Little riffs
The Oscar horse race

More than anything else, the Oscar Best Song category succeeds in doing two things: breaking up the award presentation of the actual show with some performances (I know, you're now going into convulsions from a flashback of Debbie Allen-choreographed dance numbers, but watch the Golden Globes and you'll see how much more interminable a show is when it's only award presentation) and injecting some much needed surrealism into the events.

Favorite surreal moment? C'mon, it has to be Elliot Smith taking a bow, hands locked with Trisha Yearwood and Celine Dion, a few years back.

But let's not kid ourselves: "Streets of Philadelphia" and "Things Have Changed" aside, the Academy voters generally don't award the most deserving. Which makes it all the more fun to handicap the category.

There are several factors to consider in handicapping. There's a built-in advantage for a song that came from a film that was also nominated for Best Picture. There's a built-in advantage for any song that was a large hit. There's a built-in advantage for any song that comes from rock royalty. And there's a built-in advantage for any song that comes from an animated Disney musical.

This year, though, is a hard one. No Disney musicals. The nominees?

* "If I Didn't Have You" from "Monsters, Inc." (Buena Vista) Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

* "May It Be" from "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" (New Line) Music and Lyric by Enya, Nicky Ryan and Roma Ryan

* "There You'll Be" from "Pearl Harbor" (Buena Vista) Music and Lyric by Diane Warren

* "Until" from "Kate & Leopold" (Miramax) Music and Lyric by Sting

* "Vanilla Sky" from "Vanilla Sky" (Paramount) Music and Lyric by Paul McCartney

Well, well, well.

Diane Warren and Randy Newman have both been nominated eight thousand times, and neither have ever won. Guess what? There's a reason.

Warren is of the Marliyn Bergman school of overwrought, heavyhanded lyrics; she may have an impressive list of artists who have covered her songs (everyone from Yearwood to Aerosmith to ... uh, the Smithereens), and many of her songs have been top-40 hits.

But none of them stay with you, even in that gum-on-your-shoe stick-with-you quality that a "My Heart Will Go On" had. Also, she was nominated for Pearl Harbor, a film which people loved to hate. No one wants to ever hear the phrase, "from the Academy Award winning film, Pearl Harbor" in their lifetimes.

Randy Newman is another strange case. It would be one thing if he was nominated for a song of biting wit, like his "Mama Told Me Not to Come" or something poignant, like "Louisiana 1927." But Newman along time ago reserved his deep stuff for his recorded albums. For his scores, he pours on the syrup; for his songs in films, he basically records the same song again and again. Can you tell the difference between this year's song for Monsters, Inc., and the one he did for A Bug's Life or the one he did for Toy Story? (Toy Story 2 was a different case; I liked that song because Sarah Maclachlan did such an affecting reading of it.) But Pixar films are not Disney musicals, the Randy Newman song in this one sounds like his others, and the only thing in his favor is that people liked Monsters, Inc.

People didn't like Vanilla Sky, but people do like Paul McCartney. He's a Beatle. And maybe if they vote for him, and he wins, he'll say something nice about George Harrison. But I don't know about you, but I've seen quite enough of McCartney for the last few months, and if I ever have to hear that song "Freedom" again, I'm climbing up the library tower.

Sting won the Golden Globe for best song, but unlike the acting performances, I don't think anyone considers the Golden Globe for song a sure sign of future victory at the Oscars. People didn't like Kate and Leopold either, but: it's a Miramax film. So you better believe eight thousand academy voters received CD singles of it or something. Those wily, crafty marketers.

Then, finally, we have Enya for a film that was nominated for best picture, Lord of the Rings. No one seems to be suggesting that Enya will win this -- they seem to think Sting or McCartney is a foregone conclusion. But I think that Enya has a few strikes in her favor. First, the Academy has a lot of older voters; Enya has a lot of older listeners. Second, she's nominated for a film that has a strong shot at being the best picture of the year. And third, she recorded an album which, along with U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind, was a record that strangely had a gigantic resurgence after 9/11. People seemed to embrace Celtic new-age music more than ever in the wake of national tragedy.

I can't explain it much more than that, but I think that she's the dark horse candidate.

posted by Anon. 1:01 PM

 
Overheard

Is it me or does Rolling Stone's website look like it was designed by a five year old using My First HTML? (Yes, I shouldn't throw stones at glass houses -- but surely Jann Wenner can afford better graphic designers than I can.)

Still, RS' site boasts many reviews that you don't get in the magazine itself (which in recent years seems to be heading dangerously close to Tiger Beat in terms of cover subject material). Recent ones include a faintly positive review of the new Bob Mould, and a pan of the Indigo Girls' record that feels like kicking a dog when it's down. Just last night, someone was raving to me about the N.E.R.D. hip-hop record, and here RS has given it four stars. Hmmm.

One last note: I don't like her music, so I don't see myself picking the new album up unless it has a couple of great singles, but you gotta admit, the new Alanis Morrisette album has one of the most beautiful album covers in years.

posted by Anon. 10:26 AM

 
Overheard

Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music has long been seen as one of the greater crimes perpetrated by an artist on his fans. A double LP of Lou making noises in the studio, it inspired some of Lester Bangs' best work. (Lou making noises in the studio should not be confused with that Elvis album of years and years ago that was just a strange editing of Elvis Presley making jokes in between recording songs -- Elvis Having Fun, was that what it was called? Instead, think guitar feedback, etc.)

Well, the AP ran a story yesterday reporting that a German avant garde classical ensemble is doing a live performance of MMM. Mark that down as a harbinger of irrelevence: when past albums of yours are reinterpreted by German avant garde classical ensembles.


posted by Anon. 10:07 AM