Breakdown
Did anybody else catch a glimpse of this? Sundance this evening ran a 4 hour Peter Bagdonovich directed documentary on... Tom Petty and the fucking Heartbreakers. I caught about 45 minutes of the first hour before flipping over to the hockey game and went back on commercials and stuff, but 4 fucking hours?
Okay, this was not VH1 Behind the Music boiling down your career and the low points and almost breakups and firing and hirings and death [Howie Epstien, R.I.P.] into a 50 minute feel good story. And there was a LOT of footage from the early years [BBC and German or Swedish TV] but 4 hours? The Heartbreakers are a good band and all and Petty's somehow walked the line between popularity and relevance for a lot of years [something that eludes Neil Young, Jackson Browne, et al] - but I mean 4 hours?
Dylan, Beatles, hell they did the first 25 years of the Rolling Stones in 2 - 2.5! Elvis. Maybe Neil because he has a decade more in the biz than Petty... of course, Neil has all that archival footage locked up in a vault in his front yard... but I don't think TP & H are worthy of a 4 hour documentary. Cut it 2 or 2.5 and then give us the 4 hour director's cut on DVD.
PS: Just when you think the ugly can't get any uglier, Mike Campbell [lead guitar] grows DREADS and a beard, now putting himself at the top of the list for Ugliest Man in Rock and Roll - yes, uglier than Neil Young!
Wilco Revisited
It has been pointed out to my by someone in the industry [Hi Amanda] that I was being a music snob and a fuddy duddy about the Wilco thing. This [probably] wasn't Tweedy making a money grab as
a) some Wilco fans trying to get some more people to listen;
and / or b) Tweedy making a marketing decision since he can't get his stuff played on the radio.
So I am an old fart who over-reacted. Bad me. No pudding for me.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Volkswagen and Wilco
For the last week or so I've noticed [which means it may have been longer, but I don't really pay attention] these Volkswagen commercials using new songs I was vaguely familiar with. It hit me a couple of days ago that it's Wilco - not OLD Wilco [A.M., Being There] but the songs of Wilco's new album - Sky Blue Sky - released at the start of the summer.
Okay, most commercials use off the wall semi obscure songs [Iggy Pop's Lust for Life, T.Rex's 20th Century Boy] or old washed up acts [Bob Seger, John 'Cougar' Mellencamp], but I am disturbed a little by this sell out by Wilco / Jeff Tweedy.
I know, being a critic's darling band and trying to get by selling a mere 500,00 units [one of which you got paid for twice - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot] is a tough life. But I am sure Tweedy and Co. make that money up by doing the touring thing and selling videos of Jeff's solo tour and I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. And yes, Jeff did have to pay for rehab out of his meager songwriting royalties [hard to get big bucks if radio won't play you, but that's another rant]. But selling out your brand new disc less than a year into the cycle smacks of ... desperation?
I don't know what it took - maybe VW just offered a wad of cash that would choke a horse. Maybe Jeff said "Five mil" as a joke and VW said "All right." Maybe the album stalled after a couple of months and some suit talked Jeff into this and he's been kicking himself ever since. Maybe Jeff's back on drugs [though I sincerely hope not].
Maybe it will bring some more people around to the most accessible [less weird] Wilco album since Being There. I think it's a good record, not as great as Being or Yankee. It has some really good moments but it's WAAAYYYY more laid back than I think necessary. It doesn't have a really great pop moment like Heavy Metal Drummer or I'm Always In Love. But that's just me. It's a slightly better than average album for me - like 3.75 stars out of five. But I could see how a lot of people would dig it, especially out of the wall of noises that A Ghost Is Born was [or "Music to Enhance Your Codeine / Vicodin / Soma Buzz"], although I thought that record has some great moments like That's What You Said and Spiders [Kidsmoke].
But, to sell out your art so soon after torturing yourself through it for 2 years? I don't think Jeff is Ryan Adams [5th album in two years now in stores near you!] or a hack like Randy Newman who writes music by the yard. Maybe I am wrong and Jeff is rivaling Prince, Frank Zappa and Neil Young in the "In the Vault"category and he can just drop album after album on the market. I just don't get that part of it. That's all.
For the last week or so I've noticed [which means it may have been longer, but I don't really pay attention] these Volkswagen commercials using new songs I was vaguely familiar with. It hit me a couple of days ago that it's Wilco - not OLD Wilco [A.M., Being There] but the songs of Wilco's new album - Sky Blue Sky - released at the start of the summer.
Okay, most commercials use off the wall semi obscure songs [Iggy Pop's Lust for Life, T.Rex's 20th Century Boy] or old washed up acts [Bob Seger, John 'Cougar' Mellencamp], but I am disturbed a little by this sell out by Wilco / Jeff Tweedy.
I know, being a critic's darling band and trying to get by selling a mere 500,00 units [one of which you got paid for twice - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot] is a tough life. But I am sure Tweedy and Co. make that money up by doing the touring thing and selling videos of Jeff's solo tour and I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. And yes, Jeff did have to pay for rehab out of his meager songwriting royalties [hard to get big bucks if radio won't play you, but that's another rant]. But selling out your brand new disc less than a year into the cycle smacks of ... desperation?
I don't know what it took - maybe VW just offered a wad of cash that would choke a horse. Maybe Jeff said "Five mil" as a joke and VW said "All right." Maybe the album stalled after a couple of months and some suit talked Jeff into this and he's been kicking himself ever since. Maybe Jeff's back on drugs [though I sincerely hope not].
Maybe it will bring some more people around to the most accessible [less weird] Wilco album since Being There. I think it's a good record, not as great as Being or Yankee. It has some really good moments but it's WAAAYYYY more laid back than I think necessary. It doesn't have a really great pop moment like Heavy Metal Drummer or I'm Always In Love. But that's just me. It's a slightly better than average album for me - like 3.75 stars out of five. But I could see how a lot of people would dig it, especially out of the wall of noises that A Ghost Is Born was [or "Music to Enhance Your Codeine / Vicodin / Soma Buzz"], although I thought that record has some great moments like That's What You Said and Spiders [Kidsmoke].
But, to sell out your art so soon after torturing yourself through it for 2 years? I don't think Jeff is Ryan Adams [5th album in two years now in stores near you!] or a hack like Randy Newman who writes music by the yard. Maybe I am wrong and Jeff is rivaling Prince, Frank Zappa and Neil Young in the "In the Vault"category and he can just drop album after album on the market. I just don't get that part of it. That's all.
Friday, October 19, 2007
First Flash of Fall
The humidity is finally gone and it's a crystal clear night and the temperature is dropping by the minute - supposed to be in the low 50s tonight. Good weather for hunkering down under a blanket [with the windows open] and sleeping like a log. Driving past closed barbecue placed, the aroma of mesquite smoke and cooking meats fill the nose and ignite the taste buds and then they're lost on the crisp night air.
The humidity is finally gone and it's a crystal clear night and the temperature is dropping by the minute - supposed to be in the low 50s tonight. Good weather for hunkering down under a blanket [with the windows open] and sleeping like a log. Driving past closed barbecue placed, the aroma of mesquite smoke and cooking meats fill the nose and ignite the taste buds and then they're lost on the crisp night air.
I get into the car and start down the highway - with the window down even a quarter of the way, it's chilly. I crank up the heat just to make sure it's still working [it is] and then turn it back down. I'm playing The Flasher Backer CD I am sending to Marty, probably a waste of CD because Marty refuses to play the Nostalgia Trip, but I'm sending it anyway. Suddenly, there is Heart - quick runs and staccato bursts of chords from Nancy Wilson's acoustic guitar and the roundness of Ann singing about keeping our love alive... then it's the fat golden chords of Jeff Lynne and ELO, double tracked attacks on a Les Paul gold top and Jeff is gravelling on about his Belle... whooooo!
This is the kind of night I like sometimes - me and the car and the radio in harmony, a nip in the air and 3/4 of a tank of gas. This is the kind of night I could stay on the road and just drive. Let the road and music and the cool night air erase the cobwebs and troubles from my head. Just stay on the interstate for an hour or two, just run out to Eastland [Tx] or up to Ardmore or Paul's Valley in Oklahoma, just to get some miles under my wheels...
Am I the only one?
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Sunday, October 07, 2007
First Week NHL Review
Okay, my regular blog flippers know that in addition to being a music snob, Chaz is also a hockey nut. As if the 8 pages 1.5 spaced season predictions weren't a clue also. But a few things that caught my eye.
Can I Take back the Ducks as Champs Again? After going to London to [quote] Open the Season [endquote] (although there were pre-season games going on back in the States - go figure) and splitting with the improved but still low in the Pacific L.A. Kings, they've come back and put up three losses. Including a blanking by the Columbus Blue Jackets. I understand that it's harder to defend the Cup and all, but jeez!
I am blaming the Ducks not having their number one... goalie. J-S Giguere will be back soon. I think when Mathieu Schnieder comes back on D, then the back end will stabilize. But they look as bad a Carolina did coming off their Stanley Cup in 06-07.
New Jerseys - BLEH. Especially the Dallas Stars home jerseys - they're a fucking plain as high school PRACTICE jerseys. The straight lines of these jerseys are just plain unimaginative and boring. And lettering? Give me a break. Langenbrunner is going to run from elbow to elbow.
Surprised? The Islanders have shot out of the gate and so have the Capitals [who actually do have a better looking new jersey] and Nashville looks like they will try and outwork teams instead of out pretty-ing them. But hey it is only one week into the season, right?
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Why Haven't You Downloaded the New GLOSSARY?
I found Murfreesboro, Tennessee's Glossary on Undertow Music's web site while I was checking out some Will Johnson / centro - matic / South San Gabriel titles. I checked out their My Space page and fell in love with their low-fi rock and roll, specifically The Devil's In the Details and Breathe Life Into Me ... so much so I immediately ordered their For What I Don't Become and played it non stop for about three days absorbing it.
So, now the gang has a new slab out - The Better Angels of Our Nature - and they're flippin' GIVING it away on their web page. Free. Gratis. No charge. Okay, they ask you to sign up for their email list, but the promise not to sell it to anyone.
I downloaded it Weds evening and burned it to CD for my car and I've been playing it non stop for two days. Of course, I'm going to buy a hard copy to support the band, but that's me.
Why do I think you should download it and then go see this band if they come to your fair burg? If I say it sounds like The Basement Tapes [the Band playing, not necessarily Dylan] if the band was from say Macon Georgia and had Garth Hudson on a pedal steel instead of a Lowery organ [not a Hammond B-3!]. And John Hiatt and Billy Bragg on vocals. With sweet harmonies by Sheryl Crow. And maybe Dan Baird on guitar rather than Robbie Robertson's minimal approach.
Don't believe me? Check out the uptempo Bitter Branch or the rollicking Almsgiver on that My Space page.
Okay, I am a self admitted music snob and I have an odd pallet, but I am telling you this a GREAT GREAT record if you like Rock and Roll. Does anybody remember Rock and Roll? All I'm asking you to do is invest ten minutes and check this out.
CREDITS posted today on Glossary.us :
I found Murfreesboro, Tennessee's Glossary on Undertow Music's web site while I was checking out some Will Johnson / centro - matic / South San Gabriel titles. I checked out their My Space page and fell in love with their low-fi rock and roll, specifically The Devil's In the Details and Breathe Life Into Me ... so much so I immediately ordered their For What I Don't Become and played it non stop for about three days absorbing it.
So, now the gang has a new slab out - The Better Angels of Our Nature - and they're flippin' GIVING it away on their web page. Free. Gratis. No charge. Okay, they ask you to sign up for their email list, but the promise not to sell it to anyone.
I downloaded it Weds evening and burned it to CD for my car and I've been playing it non stop for two days. Of course, I'm going to buy a hard copy to support the band, but that's me.
Why do I think you should download it and then go see this band if they come to your fair burg? If I say it sounds like The Basement Tapes [the Band playing, not necessarily Dylan] if the band was from say Macon Georgia and had Garth Hudson on a pedal steel instead of a Lowery organ [not a Hammond B-3!]. And John Hiatt and Billy Bragg on vocals. With sweet harmonies by Sheryl Crow. And maybe Dan Baird on guitar rather than Robbie Robertson's minimal approach.
Don't believe me? Check out the uptempo Bitter Branch or the rollicking Almsgiver on that My Space page.
Okay, I am a self admitted music snob and I have an odd pallet, but I am telling you this a GREAT GREAT record if you like Rock and Roll. Does anybody remember Rock and Roll? All I'm asking you to do is invest ten minutes and check this out.
CREDITS posted today on Glossary.us :
Now that many of ya’ll are enjoying The Better Angels Of Our Nature I want to take a moment and let you know who is responsible for those sweet sounds.
All songs were written by Joey Kneiser except “Bitter Branch” which was written by Todd Beene and Joey Kneiser.
Bingham Barnes played bass guitar.
Todd Beene played guitar, pedal steel guitar, and sang a tiny bit.
Eric Giles played drums.
Joey Kneiser sang and played guitar.
Kelly Kneiser sang and played percussion.
Matt Rowland played piano and organ.
The record was produced by Glossary.
It was recorded by Brian Carter of Paradox Productions in Murfreesboro, TN. Brian tracks on “Emma,” a beautiful 16 track 2 inch Ampex MM-1000 tape machine.
Mixing and mastering were performed by Matthew Louis Pence at the Echolab near Denton, TX. Matt is in Centro-Matic, one of the best rock bands in the world.
Monday, October 01, 2007
Music Blues [and Some Blues Music, too]
I 'acquired' [not by file sharing exactly, if you work for RIAA] a pile of 1000 +/- MP3 'titles' [I would say records or albums, but they're not - but they're not CD's really either - so we're going with 'titles.'] and for the last 10 days or so I have been trying to weed thought some of the things worth keeping and those that just need to be lost. Like 14 of 16 Chicago titles [sorry j. Michael, but those horns just grate after about five minutes] - I kept the two 'Best of' titles and pulled a handful of album tracks to make 1 great anthology CD. 7 of 8 Dio titles, though I did combine the two 'Best of' into one file. 6 of 8 Jethro Tull, keeping only Aqualung and Thick As A Brick. And the song Bungle In the Jungle. Piles of Genesis - sorry, the 81 - 85 albums Abacab, Duke and Genesis are all you REALLY need, though The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and A Trick of the Tail are good if you get them cheap... 4 of 8 Blue Oyster Cult, but I found a fairly good title from 1998 [Heaven Forbid] that I never would have heard. Yes - good God, I hate Yes! How many albums has Sting made? More Van Morrison than I can shake a stick at, but not the great Hymns to the Silence? And just a clue - if you have Bob Seger's Night Moves, Stranger In Town and Against the Wind, you don't need Greatest Hits except for the Live take of Turn the Page - but you probably all ready have Live Bullet, too, don't ya? That is unless you like Like A Rock. Because Greatest Hits doesn't have the great Shame on the Moon from The Distance.
Well, let me back up here - I am not listening to every title. I am scanning those I have not heard before, about 45 seconds of each song and marking the ones that seem interesting in the back of my mind and loading them into my MP3 player for further listening. That BOC, Springsteen's Lucky Town and The Ghost of Tom Joad, UFO Strangers in the Night [actaully, I'd only heard Lights OUt before - there's a really good collection I'm grooving on, too]. Stone Temple Pilots last one, Shangri -La Dee Da... loads of Roy Buchanan! The Blue Man Group's The Complex - who knew they were musical, too? But it's interesting enough for repeated listening. Gary Numan's The Pleasure Principle - yes, the one with Cars, but why didn't anyone tell me about this sooner? Prince - The B Sides!!!!! The Jeff Lynne led ELO 2000 album Zoom - it's pretty good if you like ELO. It's better than Jeff trying to make Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and George Harrison sound like ELO...
But I also got some off the wall compilations [hits] like Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Jophn Lee Hooker, Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Commodores, Spinners, Earth Wind and Fire, Joe Tex and Barry White I probably would not have bought, but am thrilled to have.
I've also re-acquired titles I'd traded in and deleted from my hard drive before - the Counting Crows catalog, some Metallica [come and get me, Lars!] and the Kiss catalog through Dynasty. And I've got a lot of titles not on digital that I only had on Lp before saving myself a lot of time in my conversion project.
I've 'Recycle Bin'-ed a lot of stuff - some people will buy anything with the name Jimi Hendrix or Elton John on it - box sets by Eric Clapton, Elton, Jimi, Aerosmith - all those things that just repeat song after song. Piled all the Stones best off '71 - 2004 into one folder - how many times do I need Brown Sugar and Miss You and Start Me Up? [answer: 1 20 bit remaster each at 160 or 192 KpS]
The persons who did this also compiled the Billboard Top 100 singles for every year from 1950 - 2002. No, I don't know if they use the AM 'safe' edit of Good Girls Don't by the Knack. [On the Lp, she's 'sittin on your face' on the single she 'puts you in your place.'] Interesting to load those onto my Windows catalog and just hit random.
But even doing this like 2-3 hours a night, I find myself burnt out. And I love music. But that's about the limit. And I have a lot to go. I hope I find some more cool things to keep this interesting.
I 'acquired' [not by file sharing exactly, if you work for RIAA] a pile of 1000 +/- MP3 'titles' [I would say records or albums, but they're not - but they're not CD's really either - so we're going with 'titles.'] and for the last 10 days or so I have been trying to weed thought some of the things worth keeping and those that just need to be lost. Like 14 of 16 Chicago titles [sorry j. Michael, but those horns just grate after about five minutes] - I kept the two 'Best of' titles and pulled a handful of album tracks to make 1 great anthology CD. 7 of 8 Dio titles, though I did combine the two 'Best of' into one file. 6 of 8 Jethro Tull, keeping only Aqualung and Thick As A Brick. And the song Bungle In the Jungle. Piles of Genesis - sorry, the 81 - 85 albums Abacab, Duke and Genesis are all you REALLY need, though The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and A Trick of the Tail are good if you get them cheap... 4 of 8 Blue Oyster Cult, but I found a fairly good title from 1998 [Heaven Forbid] that I never would have heard. Yes - good God, I hate Yes! How many albums has Sting made? More Van Morrison than I can shake a stick at, but not the great Hymns to the Silence? And just a clue - if you have Bob Seger's Night Moves, Stranger In Town and Against the Wind, you don't need Greatest Hits except for the Live take of Turn the Page - but you probably all ready have Live Bullet, too, don't ya? That is unless you like Like A Rock. Because Greatest Hits doesn't have the great Shame on the Moon from The Distance.
Well, let me back up here - I am not listening to every title. I am scanning those I have not heard before, about 45 seconds of each song and marking the ones that seem interesting in the back of my mind and loading them into my MP3 player for further listening. That BOC, Springsteen's Lucky Town and The Ghost of Tom Joad, UFO Strangers in the Night [actaully, I'd only heard Lights OUt before - there's a really good collection I'm grooving on, too]. Stone Temple Pilots last one, Shangri -La Dee Da... loads of Roy Buchanan! The Blue Man Group's The Complex - who knew they were musical, too? But it's interesting enough for repeated listening. Gary Numan's The Pleasure Principle - yes, the one with Cars, but why didn't anyone tell me about this sooner? Prince - The B Sides!!!!! The Jeff Lynne led ELO 2000 album Zoom - it's pretty good if you like ELO. It's better than Jeff trying to make Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and George Harrison sound like ELO...
But I also got some off the wall compilations [hits] like Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Jophn Lee Hooker, Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Commodores, Spinners, Earth Wind and Fire, Joe Tex and Barry White I probably would not have bought, but am thrilled to have.
I've also re-acquired titles I'd traded in and deleted from my hard drive before - the Counting Crows catalog, some Metallica [come and get me, Lars!] and the Kiss catalog through Dynasty. And I've got a lot of titles not on digital that I only had on Lp before saving myself a lot of time in my conversion project.
I've 'Recycle Bin'-ed a lot of stuff - some people will buy anything with the name Jimi Hendrix or Elton John on it - box sets by Eric Clapton, Elton, Jimi, Aerosmith - all those things that just repeat song after song. Piled all the Stones best off '71 - 2004 into one folder - how many times do I need Brown Sugar and Miss You and Start Me Up? [answer: 1 20 bit remaster each at 160 or 192 KpS]
The persons who did this also compiled the Billboard Top 100 singles for every year from 1950 - 2002. No, I don't know if they use the AM 'safe' edit of Good Girls Don't by the Knack. [On the Lp, she's 'sittin on your face' on the single she 'puts you in your place.'] Interesting to load those onto my Windows catalog and just hit random.
But even doing this like 2-3 hours a night, I find myself burnt out. And I love music. But that's about the limit. And I have a lot to go. I hope I find some more cool things to keep this interesting.