Be Hear Be Now

In Search of the Lost Prince of Rock and Roll

2011-05-22T07:10:00.001-04:00

Several years ago, I posted a piece (http://behearbenow.blogspot.com/search?q=michael+brown) about Michael Brown, co-founder of the Left Banke, and composer of "Pretty Ballerina" and "Walk Away Renee" when he was 16, founder of the Stories, a Beatle-esque pop band that recorded concurrently with the Raspberries and Big Star, without ever achieveing any of their commercial success or notoriety, and finally, weirdly (since he was from NYC) the musical leader of the Beckies, an obscure mid-70's St Louis, MO rock band who put out one great (in my opinion and apparently no one else's) album on Sire which was remaindered a week after its release.
That was in 1977. At that point, Michael Brown, one of the undoubted pop music genuises of his time, disappeared, dropped out, retired.
He has released no recordings since The Beckies album.
All in all, he released one record with the Left Bank, 1.5 records with the Stories ( he left before the second album was finished and before they had their one hit, a remake of Hot Chocolate's "Brother Louie") and one record with the Beckies. (Between the Left Banke and the Stories, he also released an album under the name Montage, with only the vaguest credit, although several of the songs are reconizably Michale Brown songs).
To me, Michael Brown is one of the great mysteries and perhaps one of the great tragedies of the modern rock era. Few composers, arrangers, producers have come along with so much obvious musical talent and such a clear creative vision. And yet, 45 years since the release of "Walk Away Renee," there is so little to show for all that talent.

It is apparently true that, to put it mildly, Brown had problems working with others. He left every band he was in soon after the bands formed. There are also rumors he might have experimented too heavily with hallucinagenics and he may have suffered from stage fright.
While listening to the Beckies album recently, I started wondering what Brown's music would be like today, if he was still writing and recording. I decided to create a mix that tracks Michel Brown's music, beginning with several of his own compositions, through t examples of work that seems to me to be either strongly influenced by Brown or very similar in style to what he was doing, and finally ending with a few songs by current bands that in my opinion, could have been created by Brown.

Along with the Zombies, Brown was credited with inventing "Baroque Pop," a horrible name for pop music that employed strings and, sometimes, instruments like harps, harpsichords and French horns, which would more commonly be found in an orchestra. But he was also a genius when it came to arranging strings, horns and harmonies, and his style of piano playing owe more to his early classical training then to Jerry Lee Lewis or Leon Russell.
We may never know what happened to Michael Brown. And we can only imagine what music he would have created if he had not disappeared.

Michael Brown Mix

The Playlist:

1. Pretty Ballerina - Left Banke

2. Barterers and Their Wives - Left Banke

3. Desiree - Montage

4. Please, Please - Stories

5. Fran -The Beckies

7. Can't Stop My Love - Andy Pratt

8. New York Tendaberry - Laura Nyro

9. Meagan's Gypsy Eyes - Blood Sweat and Tears

10. A Rose For Emily - The Zombies

11. Kites Are Fun - Free Design

12. Crayon Angels - Judee Sill

13. Day Is Done - Nick Drake

14. These Days - Nico

15. Taking Tiger Mountain - Eno

16. Paris 1919 - John Cale

17. Wedding Day - Alejandro Escovedo

18. Settler - Balmorhea

19. North - Phoenix

20. Afraid Of Anyone - The National

21. The Gulag Orkestar - Beirut

22. All Delighted People - Sufjan Stevens

23. Pedalo - The Heart Strings

24. River Bayou - The Beckies

25. Love Is in Motion - Stories

26. Walk Away, Renee - Left Banke

Heads up! The file is large, so it will take 10-20 minutes to download.

Betwixt and Between Mix

2011-02-20T14:02:00.000-05:00

The Betwixt and Between Season Mix is named after an essay my father wrote when he was the editor of the Warrensburg Lake George News, which was antholigized in Carl Carmer's The Tavern Lights Are Burning. It described what my father called "the fifth season" in the Adirondacks, prior to the arrival of full winter, but after the pleasant foliage-filled days of early autumn. It's a time when the cold and wind and bleak gray skies encourage you to stay inside, when there is nothing to look forward to except another long hard Adirondack winter.
"This isn't October, it is well into November. The hope of an Indian sumer. which beguiles football fans and gay drivers of convertibles a couple of hundred miles to the south, isn't for us. That hope vanished from these parts with the last golden leaf of the aspen in our meadow. here, at this season, we count it a blessing if the day which was fine at noon hasn't turned wintry by dusk."

It's the time when loans get turned down, marriages fall apart, liquor tastes a little too good. (My father didn't say this, I did.)
Tha Playlist:
1. Turn Around - Whiskeytown
2. Cuttooth - Radiohead
3. Strange and Futureless - Mister Loveless
4. Floating in the Forth - Frightened Rabbit
5. The End of the World Is Bigger Than... - Jens Lekman
6. Devil Town - Tony Lucca
7. If You Want It - TV Girl
8. Something Happenin' Here - Jack Tennis
9. Fikisha (to help someone to arrive) - Roy Ayers
10. Keep On Searching - Kraak & Smaak
11. Skal vi Prove Naa - Lindstrom and Prins Thomas
12. Let Them - jj
13. Drift Away - Junkie XL
14. Up and Down - Chad Valley
15. Endless Rain - How to Dress Well
16. Song To The Siren - BRYAN FERRY
17. Fragile - Cassandra Wilson
18. Futile Devices - Sufjan Stevens
19. Milk Thistle - Conor Oberst

The Mix:
Betwixt and Between Mix

(The Tavern Lights Are Burning is available from Google Books. http://books.google.com/books?id=kHPHC1_2jDkC&dq=tavern+lights+are+burning+carl+carmer)

Tying Up Loose Ends

2011-01-08T10:33:00.000-05:00

Rather than create a best of 2010 mix, I thought I would post three mixes I put together over the course of 2010 but which I never posted:

Serendipity Mix

This is a mix that grew out of a very fertile period of listening to my Ipod on shuffle on the way to and from work each day. It's an edited, truncated added-to version of what I heard over the course of a few days last summer.
The Playlist:
1. Prelude - Mayer Hawthorne
2. I Must Be In A Good Place Now- Bobby Charles
3. Train Song - Feist and Ben Gibbard
4. I'm On My Way - Yo La Tengo
5. We Are Blind and Riding the Merry Go Round - Alaska In Winter
6. Master Moon - On Fillmore
7. True Love Travels On A Gravel Road - Elvis Presley
8. Landvetter - Moonlit Sailor
9. Boiling Springs - Like Bells
10.Letters Home - CFCF
11. Full Moon (Appleblim & Komonazm Remix ) - The Black Ghosts
12. A Strange Arrangement - Mayer Hawthorne
13. Pacific State - 808 State
14. Summer Rain - Etro Anime
15. Didn't Want To Have To Do It - Roger Nichols & The Small Circle Of...
16. I Must Be In a Good Place Now - Vetiver

Serendipity Mix

Sara Song Mix

This is a mix of songs that my wife and I found ourselves listening to while we cooked dinner.
The playlist:
1. Be Here Now - Ray LaMontagne
2. Oh, The Divorces!-Tracey Thorn
3. Slow Show - The National
4. Meridian - Shearwater
5. Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe - Okkervil River
6. Chicago - Sufjan Stevens
7. All The Best - My Morning Jacket
8. Zebra - Beach House
9. Mouthful of Diamonds - Phantogram
10. My Girls - Animal Collective
11. Freeway - Aimee Mann
12. You Better Mind - Sam Amidon
13. Pretty White Clouds - Christian Kiefer
14. Wide Eyes - Local Natives
15. The Wild Hunt - The Tallest Man On Earth
16. Is There Any Way Out of This Dream? - Tom Waits & Crystal Gayle
17. Living Life - Eels

Sara Song Mix

McKennas Move to Maui Mix

This is a mix I created to celebrate Steve and Kate McKenna's move to Hawaii.
1. Back To The Island - Leon Russell
2. Hawaiian Island - The Sorcerer
3. Floating - Nobody & Mystic Chords Of Memory
4. Ene Alantchi Alnorem - Girma Hadgu
6. Harbor Lights - Boz Scaggs
7. The Boat - Yana Saraswa
8. Edge Of The Ocean - Ivy
9. Papa e - Te Vaka
10. Boats To Build - Guy Clark
11. To Live Is To Fly - Townes Van Zandt
12. Come From The Heart - Guy Clark
13. Never Ending Song of Love - Delaney & Bonnie & Friends
14. Waltz for a Little Bird - Rainstick Orchestra
16. Going Home [Theme of the Local H... - Mark Knopfler etc
17. Somewhere Over The Rainbow/Wha... - srael Kamakawiwo'ole

The McKennas Move to Maui Mix

Out of the Blue Mix

2010-12-04T18:56:00.003-05:00

Looking over the playlist for the Out of the Blue Mix, I see that it's very heavy on slightly off-the-wall '70's songs. I didn't mean for that to happen, although I'm not sorry it has.
A lot of good music was released in the 1970's, and even though I spent a good part of the decade working in records stores, I freely admit to ignoring much of it at the time. I was deeply involved in the New York punk/new wave/no wave scene, and I was drawn to a certain type of music - starting with the Velvets and the Stooges and the Dolls and extrapolating out from there. I wasn't nearly as narrow-minded as a lot of my friends - I did champion Abba and Steely Dan - but still, a lot of music fell through the cracks.
Thanks to Ipod Shuffle, I have been exposed - or re-exposed - to a lot of the music which I had ether dismissed or ignored previously.
I love the fact that, after all these years, I'm still finding music from 30 or 35 years ago that's capable of exciting me. Three examples of that stand out in this mix:
Everyone knows Steveie Wonder, everyone is probably sick of his most popular songs - Superstitious, Living for the City etc. In the 70's he was one of the best selling artists in America. I saw him open for the Stones in 1972, and I appreciated him, but as he more more deeply into fusion, (and he won more and more Grammys) I lost interest. I came across "Journey to India" on the subway a few months ago and was surprised to hear him doing music that made me see him in a whole new light.
I was familiar with Wishbone Ash from listening to WBCN in Boston when I was in high school. I thought of them as a competent folk rock band slightly less interesting then the Richard Thompson/Ian Matthews bands like Fairport Convention, Mathews Southern Comfort and Plainsong. But I heard "Time Was" recently and was blown away by the way the song moved from an early '70's folk pop gem into a vicious guitar face-off over a sly shuffle beat, and then back into a CSN/Bread soundalike.
Dust was a favorite of Creem Magazine. They were American heavy metal, and I think their drummer may have later played with the Ramones. I vaguely remember Chris Gray, the guitarist in Jack Ruby, playing their album, Hard Attack when it came out, but I don't remember anything about it.
"Thusly Spoken" kept coming up on my Ipod over the summer, and every time it did, I thought it was something that had been released in the last couple of years. Certain things (the lyrics!) betray the song's origins, but in many ways, it's much more modern than any of the accepted sacred texts that we've all been listening to for the last 30-40 years.
There are some other '70's things sprinkled in with the above mentioned gems - some disco some Krautrock, a song by Television, as well as some modern stuff that, in one way or another references the '70's. As I said, I didn't set out to build a mix around the '70's, but the experience has convinced me that there was a lot more going on than what we were listening to below 14th St at the time.

Here is the mix:
Out of the Blue Mix

Here is the playlist:
1. Music Of Life - Cerrone
2. Voyage To India - Stevie Wonder
3. Jolene (remix)
4. Move Me No Mountain - Love Unlimited
5. Don't Beat Around The Bush - The Salsoul Orchestra
6. Like Tears In Rain - The Bamboos
7. Things Get Better - Delaney and Bonnie
8. I'll Be There - Sun Kil Moon
9. Snake Charmer - CFCF
10. Castle In The Air - Eloy
11. Friction - Television
12. Time Was - Wishbone Ash
13.Thusly Spoken - Dust
14. Rattler's Hey - Belbury Poly
15. Sweet Love - The Commodores
16. Paris Nights/New York Mornings - Corinne Bailey Rae
17. Renegade - Kings Of Convenience

(Photo by Joseph Szkodzinski)

Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture

2010-09-29T23:18:00.003-04:00

I've been making mixes for about three years now. Every once in awhile I go back and listen to an old one, and compare it to whatever I am currently working on, just to see if I can perceive any change in my mixing style and to see if, in any measurable way, my mixing skills had improved.
It's a little discouraging to note that I haven't seen any noticeable improvement, either in song choices or transistions or in segues, over the course of the three years. Which is not to say that I'm not happy with my mixes. it's just that I've always bought into the idea that one should always be growing, always be improving. But maybe that's bullshit. I'll have to think about that.
Anyway, even if I can't discern any growth in my mixing skills, there are no that I can't listen to, and I think I work equally hard on all of them.
However, every so often I make one that I really, really like. I would say it's mostly about song selection. Sometimes the songs I have chosen just sound, to my ears better than others.
I think "Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture," is one of my favorites, and one of the best I've done. From the opening notes of Marvin Gaye's acapella rendition of "Mercy, Mercy Me," to the closing notes of the same song, every second of this mix is strong. It moves seamlessly from one genre to another, building in intensity but never flying out of control.

The Playlist:
1. Mercy Mercy Me - Marvin Gaye
2. Wake Up Everybody - John Legend/The Roots
3. Round and Round - Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti
4. Aquarius (Let The Sun Shine In) - Celia Cruz - Celia Cruz
4. Lotta Love 6:49 Nicolette Larson (Remix)
5. Empty Room - Arcade Fire
6. Palm Road - Wolf Parade
7. Juveniles - The Walkmen
8. Living In America - Dom
9. Major Tom (Coming Home) - Shiny Toy Guns
10. Satellite of Love - Color Of Clouds
11. What Would I Want? Sky - Animal Collective
12. Renaissance Fair - The Byrds
13. Change of Time - Josh Ritter
14. A Town Called Obsolete - Andreya Triana
15. Ailleurs - Benoît Pioulard
16. Ghosts - Laura Marling
17. Circle - Swan Dive
18. Sink / Let it Sway - Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
19. Sundown Syndrome - Tame Impala
20. My Hopes and Dreams - jj
21. In the Sun - Damon & Naomi
22. I'll Keep it With Mine - Dean & Britta
23. Dear God - The Roots & Monsters of Folk
24. Mercy Mercy Me - Marvin Gaye

The Mix:
Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture Mix

Summer On the Lake

2010-08-12T00:32:00.001-04:00

There are many ways to spend a summer vacation. As a kid, I spent several summers at a sleep away camp. There were a couple of years of daily Little League baseball. There was a trip to Nantucket. The memories from these summers are still really strong.
However, by far the most profound memories of summer for me have to do with the two summers my family spent in a ramshackle cottage on Lake Champlain, down a long dirt road off Route 9 near the town of Keeseville, NY, so hard to find that when my father wrote a piece about it for the New York Times Travel Section, readers who got lost accused him of making it up.
My mother, brother, two sisters and our babysitter Elsie Higgins moved up there from our home in Warrensburgin early July and stayed for two months, My father would come up on Thursday night and go back to Warrensburg on Monday morning.
We slept on a screened-in porch on stilts six feet off the sand of the beach that seemed to stretch off forever in either direction, falling asleep to the sound of moths banging against the screen mixed with the whisper of waves lapping the sand.
Lake Champlain, which is famous for it's rocky unwelcoming shorelines and clifflike drop-offs, was incredibly calm and shallow here. I could walk out 50 or 75 yards on the soft sand and the water would barely come up tpo my thigh.
The house satt on the beach, the sand was our front lawn. Our nearest neighbor was a quarter mile away.
It seemed like the sun shone every day. At night I would fall asleep reading the swollen and sun-faded Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magzines someone had left there in summers past.
I remember thinking to myself that that time, that place was the best time and place I would ever experience.

The Playlist:
1. Live With The Seasons - Teenage Fanclub
2. Summerlong - CFCF
3. Fourth Of July - Aimee Mann
4. After the Fireworks We Walked to the Rope Swing - Sumner Mckane
5. Wedding Day - Alejandro Escovedo
6. Gauzy Dress In The Sun - Richard Buckner
7. Popsicle Orange - The Sorcerer
8. Strawberries - Asobi Seksu
9. Blue Canoe - Blue Mountain
10. On A White Lake, Near A Green Mountain - M83
11. Hidden Lakes - Shearwater
12. Tianchi Lake - The Mountain Goats
13. Endless Sunset - Delorean
14. Nightswimming - R.E.M.
15. I Just Want to See You Underwater - Here We Go Magic
16. Moon River - Bill Frisell

Summer On the Lake Mix

Tim Hardin

2010-06-13T18:57:00.003-04:00

My first exposure to Tim Hardin came on my second weekend at Windham College in Putney, Vt, in the fall of 1971. I was a miserably lonely freshman with no friends and nothing much to do. A friend of mine, Michael, who worked for a sound system company that rented out PA's for concerts throughout New England, called me that Saturday and said he was doing a Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen show at Windham that night, and did I want to help him unload, set up and then hang out. Which, given my lack of friends and feelings of isolation, I was happy to do. (If for no other reason than that all the other students who seemed to have easily slipped into collegial familiarity with their dorm- and classmates would see me hanging out with rock stars and be very envious.)
Michael arrived in his rental truck full of PA equipment and we began to unload. He mentioned that Tim Hardin was opening the show. I was vaguely aware of Hardin as a New York folkie who had written "Reason the Believe," the flip side of "Maggie May," Rod Stewart's huge hit the year before, as well as Bobby Darin's comeback hit, "If I Were a Carpenter." (I guess I was a music geek even back then.) But honestly I could just as easily have confused him with Tim Buckley, who probably had more FM cred at the time.
Commander Cody and his band and hangers-on arrived and immediately started partying. I had seen them a few years before at a People's Park benefit in Berkeley, CA, but I was moving away from that 2nd generation Bay Area hippy music, and I was mainly interested in them because there were a couple of very pretty, long haired, long dress-wearing hippy chicks floating around blowing bubbles and smiling beatifically. (Cody himself was an overweight, mustached man who didn't say much and didn't dance very well)
Sometime after Cody and his band arrived, while Michael and I were pushing speakers around and uncoiling cable, a slight, shaggy-haired, slope-shouldered guy slipped through the back door, carrying a guitar case and a small Fender amp. He didn't speak to anyone, just walked by us, and then up the stairs to the performer's dressing area in a roped off section of the student union. I figured that was Hardin, but he didn't make that much of an impression. I went back to plugging in powers cords.
Later, after we had finished, Michael and went upstairs to the dressing room area. Commander Cody and his whole entourage were at the far side of the room, laughing and partying. Hardin, clearly separating himself from everyone else, sat in a folding chair near the stairs, leaning over his Gibson SG, which was plugged into his Fender Vibrachamp amp, softly strumming chords, not looking at anyone, not saying anything, obviously feeling dark and miserable.
That image of him has been frozen in my mind ever since, if only because, wallowing in my own loneliness-induced depression, I believed I understood perfectly how he was feeling. I wish I had spoken to Hardin at the time, but I didn't. Way too shy, and frankly, his obvious misery was so palpable it created a negative force field around him that screamed, "Stay away!"
I don't remember his performance at all, but I've held onto the picture of the sad, pinched face rock star hunched over his Gibson SG ever since. He seemed to me to be the epitome of the haunted, tortured artist, and I'm sure I subconsciously adapted a bit of that into my own attempt at creating an artistic persona in the years that followed.
Given my fascination with what I observed about Hardin that night, I'm not sure why I didn't listen to his music. It probably had something to do with my dislike of anything that smacked of the singer-songwriter. I was angry that James Taylor and Carole King and Cat Stevens were riding high, and I took great pleasure in skewering them any chance I got. I was into the Allman Brothers and the J Geils Band, and headed rapidly towards Lou Reed and the Stooges and Alice Cooper.
So while that snapshot of Tim Hardin the artist stayed with me, his music remained unknown. And I went my way, eventually dropping out of Windham and making my way to NYC to become part of the '70's punk movement. Hardin remained a touchstone, but only for what he represented.
It was no surprise to me when I read, some years later, that Hardin had died of a heroin overdose. I was saddened to hear the news, especially since I had already taken a few steps down that slippery slope, but not surprised.
Fast forward more than 15 years, and I read an admiring review of a Tim Hardin greatest hits package. The critic pointed out that Hardin had written some of the greatest songs of the previous 25 years.: "Reason the Believe," "If I Were a Carpenter," "Lady Came from Baltimore," "Red Balloon," "Black Sheep Boy," "How Can We Hang On to a Dream?"
I bought the compilation and quickly realized that Hardin was indeed a brilliant songwriter. (Not to mention a moving, expressive singer.) Listening to his songs unroll, one classic after another, led me to the conclusion that Hardin deserved a place in what Stephen Holden and others call the Great American Songbook, along with songwriters like Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern.
A few years ago, one of my favorite American indie bands, Okkervil River, released an album called Black Sheep Boy, which opened with a very short version of that brilliant Hardin song. This only reaffirmed Hardin's current relevance. The song fit perfectly with Okkervil River's post modernist take on family, love and (un)happiness.
In many ways, Hardin is America's Nick Drake, without the sympathetic fan-based hype. Both Hardin and Drake were intensely shy, intensely private, intensely (I think) unhappy men, whose outlet for their misery was their songwriting. Drake's imagery was more poetic and mythic, while Hardin's writing reflected his love of American blues and Southern folk songs. But ultimately, the power of the music is the same.
My image of Hardin, going back to that Saturday night in 1971 remains, still clear and still tragic, but it's now buttressed by the evidence of his songs, painful and beautiful in their stark honesty.
I highly recommend any one of the several compilations of Hardin's music. Rather than posting any of his songs here, I put together a mix of covers. I've always felt that you can tell a lot about the quality of a song by the nature of the different versions that have been recorded. In this case, the covers run the gamut, from the Carpenters to Okkervil River. It upsets me a little that most of the covers date back to the 60's and '70s. Still that doesn't detract from their power to shine a light on the genius in the songs themselves.
The Mix:
Tim Hardin Cover Mix

The Playlist
1. Hang On to a Dream - The Nice
2. Black Sheep Boy - Okkervil River
3. If I Were A Carpenter - Bobby Darin
4. Reason to Believe - Carpenters
5. You Upset the Grace of Living Whe... - Heidi Berry
6. The Lady Came from Baltimore - Scott Walker & Reg Guest
7. How Did the Feeling Feel to You - Karen Dalton
8. Don't Make Promises - Beau Brummels
9. You Got A Reputation - The Byrds
10. Reason To Believe - The Dillards
11. If I Were a Carpenter - The Four Tops
12. Black Sheep Boy - Scott Walker & Reg Guest
13. Red Balloon - Small Faces

14. Misty Roses - Colin Blunstone

'70's Mix

2010-04-21T08:01:00.000-04:00

I rediscovered this mix of '70's music I put together a few years ago, and I enjoyed it so much I decided to repost it.
No playlist, just music.
Enjoy.

(The opening track is actually from 1981, byut it's so similar to the artist's '70's music I chose to pretend it was released a few years earlier than it actually was.)

'70's Mix

Now That's What I Call Softcore!

2010-04-11T10:56:00.001-04:00

My passion for what I call Softcore - West Coast soft rock and dance music spanning the '60's, '70's, '80's, '90, and '00's, has been revitalized, not sure why. It's not like it ever left, but it was definitely dormant.
Anyway, here is a mix of new and old Softcore, inspired by John Sebastian's "Theme from 'Welcome Back, Kotter'." Jim Lewis, a friend of mine who lives in Austin, Texas, recently produced an album by the great singer-songwriter Michael Fracasso. When he emailed me some songs from the album, he mentioned that one of the songs (my favorite, as it happens) was written in 10 minutes, in the studio, while waiting to begin recording. That reminded me that Sebastian said, after "Welcome Back" had become a huge hit, that it had taken him less than an hour to compose.
Honestly, "Welcome Back," doesn't hold up that well. Maybe I've heard it too often. However, it's a bonafide member of the Softcore Hall of Fame, and deserves to be a part of the mix.
More interesting to me are Paul Westerberg's "Dyslexic Heart," Looking Glass's "Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne," (the far-superior follow-up to their hit, "Brandy,") and Monsterbuck's "Felicity."
The playlist:
1. "Lalena" Donovan
2. "Stand Tall" Burton Cummings
3. "Felicity" Monsterbuck
4. "Come On Get Higher" Matt Nathanson
5. "Make You Mine" Breakbot
6. "Out In The Country" Paul Williams
7. "Sundown, Sundown" Calexico Feat. Valerie Leulliot
8. "Welcome Back" John Sebastian
9. "Southbound" Lake Heartbeat
10. "You Take My Troubles Away" Rachael Yamagata & Dan Wilson
11. "Wolves"Josh Ritter
12. "Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne" Looking Glass
13. "Temptation Eyes" The Grassroots
14. "Dyslexic Heart" Paul Westerberg
15. "Lucy"Julian Lennon & James Scott Cook
17. "The Senile Rings" Alsace Lorraine
18. "Flying On The Ground Is Wrong" Buffalo Springfield
19. "Blue Moon" Big Star

The Mix
Now That's What I call Softcore!

End of Winter Mix

2010-03-26T08:02:00.001-04:00

Just in time for Spring (actually a little late), here's a Winter Mix, based on the great Stone' song, "Winter," from the under-appreciated Goats Head Soup.

Winter Goats Head Soup The Rolling Stones
A Week Without Sunlight So Close To Life Moonlit Sailor
Dragon The Amazing The Amazing
Silent snow London Town The Magic Theatre
Sleeping In Our Clothes Hold This Ghost Musée Mécanique
Angel Echoes There Is Love in You Four Tet
Run Out Seek Magic Memory Tapes
Into The Light no 3 jj
Take Me Higher CQ OST Mellow Feat. Alison David
Lewis Takes Action Heartland Owen Pallett
Our Lips Are Sealed Fun Boy Three Fun Boy Three
Have You Never Been Mellow Back To Basics (The Essential) Olivia Newton John
Home Life Rook Shearwater
Les Furies Shape of the Shape Starless & Bible Black
Sure been a cold cold winter: Winter 2010 Mix

Alex Chilton

2010-03-23T23:04:00.004-04:00

My memory tells me that I first heard about Big Star in a review of #1 Record by Ellen Willis in the New Yorker. But after Alex Chilton's death last week, I went online and accessed the New Yorker's archives, and I didn't find any record of that review.
In any case, I remember very clearly buying the album at a record store in Kenmore Square on a visit to Boston in the winter of 1972.
I also remember being instantly hit over the head with the album's obvious brilliance. Songs like "Ballad of El Goodo," "13," "When My Baby's Beside Me," just knocked me out. Which was interesting because I was in the throes of falling in love with the Stooges, Lou Reed and the Velvets (I had a pre-release copy of Transformer which I played incessantly, even though the sound quality was horrendous) and Alice Cooper. I had moved out of my hippy phase and was beginning my obsession with the music and literature and movies that would lead me to start a band and move to New York a year or two later. (On a more destructive - but also more simply illustrative level - I was moving from psychedelics to heroin.)
I had never been a Beatles fan, in fact, I was pretty much a Beatle hater, a chooser of the Stones in the Stones - Beatles debate which, charmingly, still raged at that time. And the primary reference for Big Star was definitely the Beatles. They were by far the best power pop band I have ever heard. Not the first - that was probably the Raspberries, but Chilton's root in 60's garage rock and more importantly, Memphis soul music, gave the band a third dimension that most Beatle/Byrds style bands could never approach. (Not to mention the fact that neither Chris Bell and Chilton were mainstream enough to ever be easily identifiable in terms of one band or one genre.).
Flash forward a couple of years and Chris Gray, the guitar player who moved to NYC with me, and I are deep into the creation of Jack Ruby, our "punk" band. Our most obvious roots were the Stooges the Velvets, Black Sabbath and conceptually, Ornette Coleman and Philip Glass. And while neither of us would ever write a song a la anything on #1 Record, we were both fans of fractured pop music. We (along with George Scott, who would join the band in its second generation, after original members Randy Cohen and Boris Policeband left) were lovers of AM radio, 45 RPM singles, jukeboxes and one hit wonders. We all recognized that Big Star (and for us, that meant Alex Chilton - I have since come to see that not only Chris Bell, but Jody Stephens, Andy Humell and evern Ardent Records' founder John Fry, had a lot to do with the sound that came to define Big Star) was a vitally important band that spoke to us in the same way as our more obvious influences. Chris and I saw Big Star at their (I believe) only NYC gig, in the winter of 1973-1974, at a half empty Max's Kansas City. Bell had left the band, and neither Chilton nor his rhythm section seemed particularly into the gig. My central memory of the night was that Max's was extremely cold. But I also remember that they played most of the songs I loved from #1 Record. And we knew that even phoned-in gig by Big Star was something to be treasured and remembered.
During that same time period, Chris and I wrote a song called "Neon Rimbaud," an obvious reference to punk rock's (in other words, Patti Smith's) favorite poet. The lyric reflected my obsessions with Nietzsche, Camus and pop culture, and, musically, was tumbling, bar chord extravaganza that referenced Hawkwind and Black Sabbath as well as the Velvet Underground. For us, what made the song interesting was that we turned it into a medley with a very punk rock, amelodic version of the Chilton's Box Tops' "Neon Rainbow," There was no way I could come close to singing as well as Chilton did, and Chris had no interest in playing chiming guitar parts, but we could express our admiration for Chilton and his cohorts indirectly.
Unfortunately the song never got recorded, so there is no way anyone will hear it, which is too bad, because it was one of Jack Ruby's best songs. However this discussion does give me a chance to reprint some of my lyrics:
Yesterday, or maybe was the day before
My mother died, but I don't care no more
Nietzsche couldn't 've said it better
Soon to be a major motion picture
Which I don't wanna see
and then... Neon Rainbow:
"But in the daytime
Everthing chnages
Nothing remains the same
People will close the door til the night time comes...."

There was no question that the Chilton/Big Stars influence was felt strongly in the '70's in the middle of New York's punk rock explosion. I remember working at Bleecker Bob's in 1977, and all the whispering that went on when a jaundiced, grimy but obviously beautiful blond walked in. ("Chilton's girl friend, Chilton's girlfriend," mumbled as only a bunch of punk rock record store dweebs could mumble.) The sneers we normally wore were replaced with looks of awe. Chilton himself was a rarely glimpsed rumored NYC resident, already - this was before the release of Big Star 3 - a legend. We knew his girlfriend was as close as we were going to get.

Truthfully, I never liked much of Chilton's post-Big Star output. I got what he was doing, I think, but I found the songs to be either incredibly sloppy, unformed, or just not very good.
However, Chilton never lost that rock and roll attitude, even when he was denying the power of the reality of that attitude. He didn't define the punk or post punk or indie rock that copied his music, but in so many ways he was the archetype. It is such a cliche to say they don't make them like that any more, but in this case I think it's true. And it's a shame.

Big Star - When My Baby's Beside Me

Sunday Morning Brunch Mix

2010-03-21T09:23:00.001-04:00

Here's a mix for a beautiful Spring Sunday morning. Not too NPR-ish I hope. No playlist, you'll have to trust me.
Sunday Morning Brunch Mix

Slow Dance

2010-03-05T23:01:00.002-05:00

One of my music-related hobbies is inventing names for genres of music that either have no name or whose name leaves me cold.
A couple of years ago I coined the term "softcore" to signify the modern version of '70's soft rock (or yacht rock or Pacifica, as it has been variously referred to).
I would be lying if I didn't admit to hoping that my genre names would catch on, and Pitchfork and Hype Machine and Stereogum would introduce bands with my genre name as a descriptor.
Well, it didn't happen with Softcore, which is a shame, because it's the perfect name for a genre that clearly needs an identity.
But I have moved on, and so I am pleased to introduce a new genre - Slow Dance - to you. Slow dance is what used to be referred to as Chill - dance music for the end of the night (or early or late morning, depending on your drug of choice). Slow Dance, however, is more all-encompassing, since it includes older music, as well as music outside the boundaries of what would be called dance music (i.e. Robert Wyatt's "Shipbuilding" by the Orchestre National de Jazz).
I just created a new mix that fit this name, full of old and new music that make you groove but sure enough keep it smooth.

SLOW DANCE MIX
The playlist:
1. Shipbuilding - Orchestre National de Jazz Around Robert Wyatt
2. Will - No. 9
3. You've Got the Love (xx Remix) - Florence and the Machine
4. Close to Forever - Hatchback Colors of the Sun
5. The Contemporary Fix (Bjorn Torske Remix) - Lindstrom
6. The Adventures of Pippi Longstrom (Diamond Cut Remix) - Fear of Tigers
7. Green Eyed Love (Classixx Remix) - Mayer Hawthorne
8. Full Moon (Applblim and Komonazuk Remix) - The Black Ghosts Dubstep (Remixes)
9. Norway - Beach House Teen Dream
10. Feel It All Around - Washed Out Life of Leisure
11. Distort Yourself - Sorcerer Neon Leon
12. I Regret the Flower Power - Quiet Village Black Sunshine
13. Never Ending Romance Disaster - Anoraak Nightdrive With You
14. En Hand I Himlen (Sound of Arrows Remix) - Jonathan Johansson En Hand I Himlen
15. Swayin' to the Music (Slow Dancing) - Johnny Rivers Anthology 1964-1977

The Mix:
Slow Dance Mix

New Mix

2009-10-26T22:50:00.008-04:00

One Sunday afternoon late this past summer, my wife, Sara and I were driving down a lightly-populated country road that on one side was separated from the Long Island Sound by a thin barrier of marsh grass and bordered on the other by modest summer homes. As we rounded a curve, we passed two young women walking against the traffic, both holding small, terrier-like dogs. Glimpsed quickly as our car passed, the women, wearing high heels, short dresses and full make up, seemd oddly out of place.
"Trashy girls and their trashy dogs," my wife said, and then we were past them, and we continued our discussion of school clothes and babysitters and whether Walker was old enought to see "Where the Wild Things Are."
The playlist:
1. Helium Dreams - Manuel Da Costa (The Ghost of Summer Last)
2. VCR - The xx (xx)
3. Tessio (Butch Sunrise Mix) - Luomo (Tessio (Remixes))
4. Yummy, Yummy, Yummy - Julie London (Yummy, Yummy, Yummy)
5. Never Forget You - The Noisettes (Wild Young Hearts)
6. Bang - The Raveonettes (In and Out of Control)
7. Say When - Lene Lovich (Stateless)
8. Agneta - Villa
9. Out of the Box (Ulrich Schnauss Remix) - Chilled by Nature (Musical Box EP)
10. Chrystal Visions - The Big Pink (A Brief History of Love)
11. Rainwater Cassette Exchange - Deerhunter (Rainwater Cassette Exchange)
12. Dreams Come True Girl - Cass McCombs (Catacombs)
13. Kaufman's Ballad - Megafaun (Gather, Form & Fly)
14. The End of Things - Bachelorette (The End of Things)
15. Tessio (Acapella) - Luomo (Tessio (Remixes))

The Mix:
Trashy Girls and Their Trashy Dogs Mix

Mister Loveless Update

2009-10-10T10:37:00.006-04:00

Periodically, my nephew, Rob Miller, sends me an update on Mister Loveless, the up-and-coming Bay Area band he fronts. His emails are always interesting since they provide a great deal of incite into the rewards and frustrations of trying to find your way in a popular music environment in which the rules are either disappearing or being rewritten every day.

Dear Robby
How’s it going? How’s the family? I apologize for not writing sooner. It’s been rather chaotic here in Loveless country. Which, for the most part, is a good thing.
We just returned from a brief trip down South where we played two shows in Los Angeles and one in San Diego. Though we are truly in love with San Francisco, Los Angeles has an unbelievable power over us. It’s never predictable, always vibrant and strange, and for reasons unbeknownst to me, packed with great bands. It makes us question everything to such an extent that we even toy with the idea of relocating there. However, I believe most of it’s allure comes from the fact that we don’t actually live in LA. Which leads me to believe all four of us have some sort of condition that can only obtained through touring. Like a “touring bug” or something.

Every time we go on the road we fantasize about a life where that is all we do, travel from place to place playing shows, meeting different people and sleeping on their floor. No shitty job to come back home to, no real problems. Touring enables you to live life one day at a time. Your daily objectives are reduced to simply making sure you get to the venue on time, turn some heads at the bar, and make enough money to get a meal afterward. What’s great about Mister Loveless is is all four of us want to tour…

As you may have heard, earlier this summer, we parted ways with our drummer. We couldn't be happier with who has joined the band. Our good friend, Nick Clark is now the drummer of Mister Loveless and has been exactly what the group has always needed - a pocket drummer.

Pocket drumming is a playing style that consists of a simple, solid beat that lacks the flair of flamboyant fills. A drummer sets a groove so deep that he/she never lets the tempo waver (I took that from Wikipedia). Old songs have never sounded so tight and the new ones we are writing with Nick are incredibly rhythmic and dynamic. Nick has a very disciplined style, which I attribute to his father being both the drummer that inspired him to play as well as a police officer. Yet, at the same time, he has the ability to break away from convention and add enough flair to a drum pattern that it sounds interesting and bombastic without the obnoxious overuse of cymbals and fills.

After taking a break from recording our upcoming EP, Three Words to get Nick comfortable with all the material and playing live, we are ready to resume the project. On October 17th we will head back into Different Fur Studios in San Francisco to re-track material in addition to recording the new material we’ve written with Nick. We are extremely excited about this, as we are both very proud of the new material and are anxious to introduce people to Nick.

In addition to working on Three Words, we are developing a set specifically for our next show at San Francisco’s Bottom of the Hill on Saturday, November 7th. This is our first time headlining a Saturday night at Bottom of the Hill and we couldn’t be happier. We intend to bring back some old songs, debut some new ones, play all the hits, and a cover that I MUST keep a surprise.

Before, I go, here is a live recording of “The Old Pain”, a song we’ve reworked a lot since it’s inception that will be the opening track of the Three Words EP once we finish the studio version.

Give the family my best!

Sincerely,
rob

From L to R: Nick Clark (drums) Charlie Koliha (bass guitar) Rob Miller (vocals, guitars) Sean Gaffney (guitars)

Attached is an .mp3 of a live recording of a song called "The Old Pain"
We are recording the studio version in a few weeks that will be the opening track of our next EP, Three Words

The Old Pain (Live) - Mister Loveless

(Drummer on this version of "The Old Pain" is Rachel Travers)

Check out Mister Loveless on Myspace

September Mix

2009-09-20T15:33:00.005-04:00

Here's a mix of songs I've been listening to lately. It includes everything from Liquid Liquid's "Cavern," from 1983, to "Headphone Space," off of A Sunny Day in Glasgow's newest album. Of particular interest is Connie Converse's "One by One." I posted a link to an NPR piece by Converse on the Be Hear Be Now Facebook fan sight. It's a fascinating story, and a haunting, unforgettable song.
The playlist:
1. Fire Truck - Conner Hall
2. Cavern - Liquid Liquid (Optimo)
3. Music for Gong Gong - Osibisa (Very Best of)
4. Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey - Paul McCartney (Ram)
5. I Wonder Who We Are - Clientele (Bonfires on the Hearth)
6. Gothenberg Belongs to Me - Air France (Love Affair in Three Parts)
7. Headphone Space - A Sunny Day In Glasgow (Ashes Grammar)
8. Higher Than the Stars - The Pains of Being Pure At Heart (Higher Than the Stars EP)
9. Long Live the Fallen World - Young Galaxy (Invisible Republic)
10. Cloudbusting - Kate Bush (Hounds of Love)
11. To Lose Someone - Taken By Trees (East of Eden)
12. Can We Stay - The Woodlands (s/t)
13. 3 Chord Song - The Black Swans (Change!)
14. Melba - Lalo Schifrin (The Reel Lalo Schifrin)
15. One by One - Connie Converse (How Sad, How Lonely)

September Mix

PS Find out more about Connie Converse here: http://www.lauderette.com/

Namaste Motherfucker (Mix)

2009-09-04T17:04:00.006-04:00

"Namaste" is a Hindu greeting that means, "The divinity in me bows to the divinity in you." Accompanied by a slight bow, with the hands pressed together at the heart or forehead, it can be used to say either hello or goodbye. It is a word that communicates both respect and an acknowledgement of our shared humanity/divinity.
"Namaste Motherfucker" is either the catch phrase of a Mumbai version of Harry Callahan ("Make my day.") or Tony Montana ("Say hello to my little friend."), or the way one greets one's yoga instructor in a New York City yoga class. I'm not sure which definition this mix refers to.
The mix itself has a slight - very slight - yoga feel to it. When I lived in Los Angeles, I taught yoga, and I would carefully prepare a new mix for each class. Each mix would start off slowly, to reflect the warm-up poses I would teach at the beginning of the class, get more rhythmic and louder to coincide with the sun salutations, and then slow down and mellow out as the class wound down, ending with something meditative for savasana. This mix doesn't really do that, but you are welcome to practice yoga to it. Just as you are welcome to kick down a door, with either good or evil intent, and shout, "Namaste Motherfucker," at the top of your lungs.
The playlist:
1. Amarantha Gange - Nina Hagen (Om Namah Shivaya)
2. La Guerre de Sept Ans - Benoit Pioulard (Precis)
3. You Go Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II) - Sunset Rubdown (Dragonslayer)
4. Mega Secrets - Family Portraits (Underwater Peoples Compilation)
5. Revenge (featuring Wayne Coyne) - Sparklehorse (Dark Night of the Soul)
6. Walkabout (featuring Panda Bear) - Atlas Sound (Logos)
7. Big Blonde - Aidan Moffat and the Best Ofs (How to Get to Heaven from Scotland)
8. To Kingdon Come - Passion Pit (Manners)
9. Soft Houses - 13 Ghosts (The Strangest Colored Lights)
10. Njósnavélin - Sigur Ros ( () )
11. No Stars - Alsace Lorraine (Dark One)
12. I Am Leaving - Blue Roses (s/t)
13. Govinda '97 - Kula Shaker (Summer Fun EP)
14. Om Shanti Om - Shahrukh Khan, Arjun Rampal, Deepika Padukone & Shreyas Talpade (Om Shanti Om)

The Mix:
Namaste Motherfucker

Stuff that Works

2009-08-23T08:28:00.008-04:00

The older I get, the more I appreciate stuff that doesn't break or wear out. Maybe because, as I get older, I'm increasingly faced with the fear that I may break down or wear out (it's called fear of dying), and I don't want to believe it.
Back in the'60's and '70's, there was a lot of talk about planned obsolescence, the idea that products were deliberately designed to wear out quickly, since, if a product lasted forever, there would be no need to buy another one, and corporate America would suffer. I suspect the reason the concept is no longer a hot topic is that it has become so ingrained in our psyches. We take it for granted that stuff is going to have to be replaced every couple of years, or that (as in the case of my Apple computer and every cel phone on the planet) that's what the manufacturer has planned.
I would like to pinpoint three (actually four, since the oldest product I'm going to mention is a pair) products that have, in my opinion lasted well past the point when I would have expected them to give up the ghost.

The first is my Bianchi Cafe Racer, a handsome, beautifully designed riding-around bike I bought on the recommendation of my brother-in-law, Colin Powers, a one-time bike builder and an expert on all things outdoorsy. I bought the bike in 2000. Now that doesn't seem that long ago, but I have treated it so badly that in my opinion it's at least 20 years old in bike years.
I bought the bike when I lived in los Angeles (I should mention that my wife bought the same bike in green at the same time), and kept it tuned and protected, until I moved back to New York in 2002. At that point I brought the bike to my father-in-law's house in the country, since there was no way to store it in our tiny Brooklyn Heights apartment, and deposited it in his doorless, geodisic dome-shaped shed where it has lived ever since.
Every spring I bring it out, pump up the tires, oil the chain, and wipe the dust off the seat and handlebars. I ride it three or four times to the beach over the course of the summer, and then I put it back in the shed, where it sits all winter, collecting dust and suffering through the snow and rain.
What makes me appreciate this bike is the fact that, for all my lack of care, it still works as well as it did when I picked it up from the bike shop 20 (bike) years ago. The salt and sun and dust have caused the beautiful black and red paint job to fade a bit, but the machinery still functions perfectly. The gears shift as effortlessly as ever, the brakes still allow me to stop on a dime, the ride is still as smooth as that of a 1965 Cadillac.

In 1997, I purchased a Braun coffee grinder from a department store in one of the malls that surrounds central Austin. It was a no-frills grinder, cost under $30. It did nothing except grind the coffee. No clock or timer, no measuring tool, just a couple of blades inside a plastic cylinder.
12 years later, I still use that grinder every morning. I have tried to find an excuse to get rid of it, to get something fancier, but I cannot. This grinder does what it's supposed to, faithfully, efficiently, reliably. There is, much to my chagrin, absolutely no reason to replace it.
I'm sure that there was a time when people expected their utensils to last this long. I know my mother had pots and pans and kitchen utensils that belonged to her mother. But I continue to be amazed that an electrical appliance, something that plugs in, and that I have used almost every day for over 12 years, continues to work as well as it did the day I brought it home.

Finally, there are these socks. What can you say about socks? Nothing. You put them on in the morning, you take them off and throw them in the laundry at night. Who notices them? Especially when they're black or navy blue. They're just socks. But these socks... I bought these socks at Brooks Brother in 1984 or 1985. That's 25 years ago! And they still work! They still fit! No holes, no dead elastic. Whatever happens to socks to make them wear out hasn't happened to them. God bless these socks, God bless Brooks Brothers.
And God bless me.

Stuff That Works - Guy Clark

Old and Revisited: The A. Bear Mix

2009-08-17T21:36:00.009-04:00

I was inspired to create this mix when a Facebook friend mentioned he was listening to Coney Island Baby, an album which, at one time, I considered Lou Reed's best, but which I hadn't listened to in probably 15 years. I rebought it on Itunes and happily rediscovered all the things I loved about it back in 1975 - the exquisite pop melodies disguising the fact that Lou was singing about the things he always sang about - drugs, weird sex, street violence, football (!) misery. Airy arrangements anchored by Lou's almost-but-never-quite atonal vocals. The fact that it was the anti-Berlin and anti Rock & Roll Animal, and would soon be followed by the anti-Coney Island Baby, Metal Machine Music, insuring that anyone who had not yet been alienated by his creative twists and turns soon would be.
That led me to reconsider other artists and albums I hadn't thought about or listened to for awhile - everyone from the Stones and Queen and Steely Dan to more obscure bands like the Individuals, one of the more underrated of the New York post punk bands and - my current fave - Savage Rose, a Danish band fronted by the beautiful Anisette (pictured above).
Out of all that considering and reconsidering, I bring you this mix.
The playlist:
1. Crazy Feeling - Lou Reed (Coney Island Baby)
2. Jackie Said So - The Individuals (Fields/Aquamarine)
3. Revival Day - Savage Rose (Refugee)
4. Shine a Light - The Rolling Stones (Exile on Main Street)
5. Ain't That a Shame - Brian James (s/t)
6. Poptones - Public Image Ltd. (Metal Box)
7. Silver Machine - Hawkwind (In Search of Space)
8. Liar - Queen (s/t)
9. Help Me Lord - White Witch (s/t)
10. Lady Day and John Coltrane - Gil Scott-Heron (Pieces of a Man)
11. Aja - Steely Dan (Aja)

The Mix:
Old and Revisited: The A. Bear Mix

PS: There will a prize - I'm not sure what - for the first person who correctly identifies the origin of the A. Bear reference.

Disco Pinata Mix

2009-08-01T16:19:00.004-04:00

Here is an interesting mix of dance-oriented songs, some old, some recent, all pretty chill, although Salsoul Orchestra kicks it up a notch with their '70's hit, "Tangerine." (One note: "Sueno Latino," from 1989, is actually a disco-ized version of Manuel Gottsching's classic 1984 electronic music composition, E2-E4, which is very definitely worth checking out.)
The list:
1. Crystal Neon - Windsurf (Coastlines)
2. Sueno Latino (Paradise Version) - Sueno Latino (Mastercuts Classic Balearic Volume 1)
3. Say Yeah - Kraak and Smack (Boogie Angst)
4. Tangerine - Salsoul Orchestra (Salsoul Orchestra Anthology)
5. Paris (Aeroplane Remix featuring Au Revoir Simone) - Friendly Fire (Paris Single)
6. No Matter Which Way - Nite Club (My Tronic)
7. Ene Alantchi Alnorem - Girma Hadgu (Ethiopiques 4)
8. Reunited - Bob James (The Essential Collection: 24 Smooth Jazz Classics)
9. Welcome to Fermilab - Kate Simko (Music from the Atom Smasher)
10. Cello Song - The Books and Jose Gonzalez (Dark Was the Night)

The Mix:
Disco Pinata Mix

Three Songs

2009-07-12T18:39:00.009-04:00

Posted below are three songs from the early '70's that each, in their own way, defied expectations. The three songs were released by groups that any music listener at the time would have dismissed as crass, commercial, bubblegum, middle of the road, mainstream and at best, trivial.
At least one of the groups - the Carpenters - has undergone a rightly-deserved critical evaluation and are now recognized not only for the artistry and beauty of Karen Carpenter's voice, but for the brilliance of the arrangements and the high quality of the song writing.
Paul Revere and the Raiders were actually a very good Northwest garage band who had the dubious good fortune to be signed by Columbia Records with the intention of making them the American Beatles. Hype and silly costumes prevented them from ever being taken as seriously as they deserved, even though their early hits included such legitimate classics as "Kicks," "Hungry" and "Just Like Me."

As for the Osmonds...uh, yeah. At least on "Crazy Horses," (written by Alan Osmond) they demonstrated a surprising willingness to experiment. And even though though the song bears an uncomfortable resemblance to Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song," there are enough interesting things going on -- synth parts, screeching guitars, no Donny vocal - to make the song a truly unexpected pleasure.

"Goodbye to Love," from the Carpenters' 1972 album A Song For You is in many ways a classic Carpenters song, in that the melody is instantly memorable and accessible without sounding like anything else you have ever heard. However, what distinguishes the song is the guitar solo by studio musician/engineer Tony Peluso, thick with fuzz and adolescent aggression, yet simultaneously so clean as to instantly identify it as a product of the LA studio system.
There is a hint of the solo after the second chorus, then it disappears, only to reappear in the long choral coda as the song ends. I have always felt it was a kick ass solo and I thought it took balls for the Carpenters to feature it so prominently on one of their ballads.

I first heard "Powder Blue Mercedes Queen" coming out of my car radio in Albany, NY in the summer of 1972, which was entirely appropriate, since it's one of the best driving songs I've ever heard. It's pop, but bordering on rock, more Crabby Appleton or Jo Jo Gunne than Raspberries or Big Star. Which makes sense, since the Raiders were at heart a punk band, not a pop band. I've always thought the lyrics were a little corny, but the distorted power chords and Plant/Stewart vocal moves totally make up for that.

Crazy Horses - The Osmonds
Goodbye to Love - The Carpenters
Powder Blue Mercedes Queen - Paul Revere and the Raiders

Person Of Interest Mix: Best Mix Ever!

2009-07-02T22:02:00.012-04:00

Some art forms seem to lend themselves to self promotion more than others. For instance, fashion designers and chefs never seem to have a problem trumpeting their amazing creative triumphs. Have you ever heard an interview with a fashion designer that didn't include rapturous descriptions by the designer of his/her own designs? Same goes for chefs. How often have you heard a chef describe in great detail exactly how original beautiful and delicious each dish he/she created is?
On the other hand, writers and musicians (and film makers, visual artists, dancers, opera singers, sculptors, photographers and journalists, for that matter) tend to be more modest in their claims. If anything they tend to downplay their own brilliance, implicitly asking the audience to judge the work.
I'm not sure why this is. I know that in my own experience, there was never a time that I bragged about any of my musical or written creations. I may have felt that like bragging, but I would never have actually done it. (And quite often I'm not even sure I felt like bragging, because honestly I wasn't sure how good some of my things actually were.)
However, since I began making and posting mixes, that has changed. I am no longer the withdrawn, modest guy who has nothing much to say. With each mix I have become more and more certain of it's excellence and more willing to announce the fact of that excellence.
In fact, at this point, I would say I have become an egomaniacal blowhard.
Which brings us to my latest mix, A Person of Interest Mix. I am convinced that THIS IS THE BEST MIX I HAVE EVER CREATED! It's probably the best mix ever made. It's Awesome. It's Stupendous. I know because I have listened to it a thousand times an I'm still not sick of it. In fact, I love it more now than the first time I played it. If you don't download this and listen to it immediately you are cheating yourself and you'll regret it for the rest of your life.
The Playlist:
1. Threnoodie - Ochre (Death of an Aura)
2. Pric - Super Furry Animals (Dark Days/Light Years)
3. On - Delays (Faded Seaside Glamor)
4. Stillness Is the Move - Dirty Projectors (Bitte Orca)
5. Love Love Love (Soft Rock Remix) - Low Motion Disco (Love Love Love)
6. Diamonds On Fire (Pyramid Dub Version by Sorcerer) - The Rubies (Diamonds On Fire EP)
7. Southern Point - Grizzly Bear (Veckatimist)
8. It's Great - Greater California (All the Colors)
9. Gentle Hours - Yo La Tengo (Dark Was the Night)

The Mix:
Person of Interest Mix

New and Extended 2009 Mix

2009-06-27T14:54:00.009-04:00

For a while now, I have found myself appreciating longer songs more and more. This is news only in that, as a member of the '70's punk rock and post punk generation, long songs were anathema. They were part of what we were rebelling against. Long songs meant Yes and ELP and the Grateful fucking Dead. Short songs (aka singles) were where it was at. And, except for a few exceptions over the years (like Public Image Ltd, Metal Box), I have pretty much stayed true to that thinking. But in the last few years, I've discovered many longer (five or more minutes) songs that I've enjoyed immensely, even after repeated listenings.
Most of them come from, directly or indirectly, some genre of dance music, particularly from those composers and musicians who have been using dance music as a jumping off point to explore more conceptually adventurous ideas.
I have a couple of theories about why I find myself drawn more and more to longer compositions:
One of the reasons may be that, as more and more musicians themselves abandon the same prejudices I had, and have become more interested in longer forms, they have therefore concentrated more on how to make them interesting. Another, more mundane reason, may be that I now do most of my listening mainly on headphones, the textures, arrangements progressions over the course of a composition become more important, and longer songs lend themselves to these aspects of the composition.
Here is the Playlist:
1. Phoenix - Lisztomania (Classixx Version) 5:02
2. Windsurf - Bird of Paradise (Studio Version) 13.57
3. Isis - Handing of the Host 10:43
4. Seefeel - Plainsong 7:44
5. The Field - The More I Do 8:33
6. The Honeydrips - Fall From a Height-The Field Way (Remix by the Field)
7. A Mountain of One - Your Love Over Gold 6:39
8. Lewis and Clarke - Light Time 7:22

The Mix:
New and Extended Mix

Sculpture by David Smith

Sky Saxon RIP

2009-06-27T06:58:00.005-04:00

Lost in the hysteria surrounding the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson was the passing of Sky Saxon, 71, former lead singer and bass player for the Seeds, the LA-based proto-typical '60's garage punk band. His death should not go unnoticed.
The Seeds were one of my early rock and roll infatuations (after Love and before Cream). I bought their first album mainly because they looked incredibly cool on the cover, but then discovered the power of their buzz saw guitars and Saxon's eternally petulant voice. The second album, Web of Sound, expanded on the nastiness of the first album, and, particularly in the writing, demonstrated that they were more than one-hit wonders. (Unfortunately, the band never lived up to the potential of those two albums, releasing first a bad blues album then a "flower power" album, before disintegrating.) Saxon later became a member of a West Coast spiritual cult. He would sporadically perform and release albums either under his own name or as the Seeds right up to the time of his death.
All these years later, listening to those early Seeds albums, it's easy to reconnect to the anger and exultation of adolescence.
The Seeds - Mr. Farmer
The Seeds - Can't Seem to Make You Mine
The Seeds - Up In Her Room

Here Comes the Summer 2009 Mix

2009-06-20T22:32:00.007-04:00

There are 41,000 songs in my Itunes play list. The word "summer" figures in 304 of them, proof that the idea of "summer" plays a big role in our collective psyche.
On the East Coast, we have lived through such a long, shitty Winter and rainy Spring that Summer seems almost unimaginable. Nevertheless, today is the first day of Summer, and so I present to you, in the words of the fabulous Undertones, "Here Comes the Summer."
(Just a half-glass-empty reminder: for some people, Summer doesn't necessarily mean big fun or hot fun or any other kind of fun.)
The 2009 super-fun Summer play list:
1. Here Comes the Summer - The Undertones (The Very Best of the Undertones)
2. Summer's First Breath - Epic45 (May Your Heart Be the Map)
3. It Must Be Summer - Fountains of Wayne (Utopia Parkway)
4. Summer Breeze - The Isley Brothers (3+3)
5. Your Summer Dress - Dirty on Purpose (Hallelujah Sirens)
6. Endless Summer - Anoraak (Nightdrive with You)
7. Summer Rain - Johnny Rivers (Anthology 1964-1977)
8. Summer '68 - Pink Floyd (Atom Heart Mother)
9. One Kiss Don't Make a Summer - Lucky Soul (The Great Unwanted)
10. Summer Samba - Ice Demons (Miami Ice)
11. A Warm Summer Night - Chic (Risque)
12. Summer In Your Heart - Shermans (Casual)
13. Long, Hot Summer - Style Council (Hit Parade)
14. That Summer, at Home, I Had Become an Invisible Boy - The Twilight Sad (S/T)

The Mix:
Here Comes the Summer 2009 Mix

Techno Pop Mix

2009-06-13T19:53:00.010-04:00

I created this mix a couple of years ago but never posted it. It consists of a bunch of songs that either began life as techno songs or used techno as a jumping off place. What's interesting is how "pop" they all are - how melodic, accessible, radio-ready. (Several of them were radio hits in one format or another.) It just goes to show that any genre - no matter how left-of-center its origins - can become part of the mainstream.
1. The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Underworld
2. Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space - S/T
3. Royksopp - So Easy Melody AM
4. Moby - South Side Play
5. Chicane - Saltwater (Thrillseekers Mix) Behind the Sun
6, Delerium w/ Matthew Sweet - Daylight Poem
7. Mandalay - Beautiful (7" Canny Mix)
8. Kings of Convenience - Toxic Girl Quiet Is the New Loud
9. Everything But the Girl - Missing (Terry Todd Mix) Amplified Heart
10. Cornershop - Brimful of Asha When I Was Born for the 7th Time
11. Moodswings - State of Independence Moodfood
12. One Dove - White Love Morning Dove White
13. Leftfield - Open Up S/T
14. Dido - Thankyou No Angel
15. Deep Forest - Sweet Lullabye (Ambient Mix) S/T

Techno Pop Mix

New and Recent Songs Mix 6/09

2009-06-02T23:00:00.002-04:00

Here is a mix of recently-released stuff that I've found myself listening to with some regularity over the last couple of months. I particularly like the Junior Boys and the Black Kids (actually, at this point, I can't get the chorus of that fucking Black Kids song out of my head), but I strongly recommend all of the albums represented by the songs in this mix.

The Playlist:
1. Axis: Thrones of Love - The Pink Mountaintops (Outside Love)
2. If the Stars Were Mine (Orchestral Version) - Melody Gardot (My One and Only Thrill)
3. Two Doves - Dirty Projectors
4. Hurricane Jane - Black Kids (Partie Traumatic)
5. The Animator - Junior Boys (Begone Dull Care)
6. 16th Stage - Osborne (A Bugged Out Mix by Hot Chip)
7. Only You Can Make Me Happy - Au Revoir Simone (Still Night, Still Light)
8. Canned Food - Surf City (s/t)
9. Tokyo - Sissy Wish (Beauties Never Die)
10. He Doesn't Know - Tina Dico (A Beginning/A Detour/An Open Ending)
11. Jim Cain - Bill Callahan (Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle)

The Mix:
New and Recent Songs Mix 6/09

(Artwork by Jackson Pollock)

Drive Around the World Mix

2009-05-21T21:04:00.004-04:00

There's not much to say about this mix. It's a bunch of songs that seem to go together well. It includes a new song by the Bowerbirds and an old song by the Critters. It includes "Put the Message In the Box," by World Party, which I dismissed when it came out in 1990, but which I now love. It also includes "Una Domenica Italiana," by Cecile and the guitarist Dennis Coffey, about which I know nothing but which I find wonderfully addictive. And finally, it ends with "Violets of Dawn," a '60's folk anthem by the underrated Eric Andersen.
Treehouse - Keen
Part of the Plan - Dan Fogelberg
Like Home - Musee Mechanique
Settler - Balmorhea
Put the Message In the Box - World Party
Una Domenica Italiana - Cecile featuring Dennis Coffey
Ray Gun - Bird and the Bee
Mr. Dieingly Sad - The Critters
Northern Lights - The Bowerbirds
Violets of Dawn - Eric Andersen

The mix:
Drive Around the World Mix

Echo Lake Mix

2009-05-11T07:16:00.005-04:00

This short mix was inspired by the song "Echo Lake," by the lo-fi folk band, Woods. Growing up in Warrensburg, NY, Echo Lake (really more of a pond than a lake) was the local swimming hole. During summer vacations, from the time I was eight until I was 14, my friends and I would ride our bikes there and depending on how old we were, swim, clown around or flirt with girls. (The last time I was there was was just after school let out when I was 14, and my friend Mickey Leonard and I went there to drink warm Budweiser we had stolen from either his parents or mine and buried in the sand. )
There are, I'm sure, a lot of Echo Lakes in America. The one in the Woods song is probably not mine. But ultimately it's not about geography as much as it is about experience, and I suspect that ours were similar. (The lake in the picture accompanying this post is the Echo Lake of my childhood.)
Here is the track list:
1. Echo Lake - Woods (Songs of Shame)
2. Melodia (1) - Johann Johannsson (Fordlandia)
3. Sneak a Picture - Junior Boys (Begone Dull Pain)
4. I Feel Space - Lindstrom (It's a Feedelity Affair)
5. Yellow River - Christie (Christie)
6. Mr. Lucky - Anita Kerr (We Dig Mancini)
7. Some Constellation - Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin (Pershing)
8. Albina - Horse Feathers (House with No Home)
9. Bulbs - Van Morrison (Veedon Fleece)
10. Written on Sky - Max Richter (The Blue Notebooks)
Here is the mix:
Echo Lake Mix

Stephen Bruton 1948-2009 RIP

2009-05-09T20:23:00.007-04:00

Stephen Bruton was one of the first people to welcome me to Austin in the Fall of 1996. I was in awe of him because of his musical skills and resume, but those things were more important to me than to him. From his point of view, I was a newcomer, a guest, and he was a host and guide, and he wanted to make sure I was at ease.
There was no doubt that Bruton was, first and foremost, a musician. He breathed music, he bled music. One of the stories I had heard about him was that, as a teenager, he had hitch hiked to Woodstock to hang out with the Band, and ended up as their roadie. And of course, he had been Kris Kristofferson's guitar player since the early 1970's. (You can see him backing up Kristofferson's character in A Star Is Born.) I have a Monument Records sampler that credits him with playing guitar on several Billie Joe Shaver songs from 1970 or 1971. Bruton was making records at an age I was studying for high school midterms.
But, like other musicians who had spent a lot of time on the road, and had lived with the ups and downs of success, and had wrestled demons of one sort or another to a stand-still, Bruton had a wry sense of humor about the whole thing, and I think that colored his outlook on life. He could be passionate about the things he cared about, he could even be hard-assed. But I got the sense he knew it was all one day at a time, and that someone was in charge but it wasn't him.
I moved to Los Angeles in the Spring of 1997. Not only did Stephen loan me his apartment in Santa Monica for a month while I looked for a place to live, but he made sure to introduce me to a bunch of his LA friends, and every time he passed through town he would stop by and say hello. He was a Texas gentleman in the best sense of the word, loyal to his friends and honorable in every way.
Here is a version of Stephen Bruton's "Getting Over You," sung by Willie Nelson and Bonnie Raitt, from Nelson's album, Across the Borderline.
Willie Nelson and Bonnie Raitt - Getting Over You

Phoenix/Brat Pac Mash-up

2009-04-29T09:36:00.009-04:00

Here is a brilliant mash-up of Phoenix's "Lisztomania" and some scenes from several '80's Brat Pack movies. Phoenix's next album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, will be out at the end of May.

Spring Is Here Mix

2009-04-28T06:36:00.003-04:00

Here is a weather-related mix reflecting my extreme relief about the end of Winter in NYC. It takes it's name from the lead-off song, an instrumental version of the Rodgers-Hart song. Otherwise, the mix is heavy on hot weather and sunshine, with a few surprises.
1. Spring Is Here - Cal Tjader
2. Who Loves the Sun - Velvet Underground
3. Everybody Loves the Sunshine - Roy Ayers
4. Vapour Trails - Windsurf
5. Sunshine Reggae - Laid Back
6. Cardiff In the Sun - Super Furry Animals
7. Sunset Blvd - Pacific!
8. River Song - Dennis Wilson
9. Happy Island - The Poppy Family
10. Carolina Day - Livingston Taylor
Spring Is Here Mix

Spring Cleaning

2009-04-16T09:06:00.008-04:00

I was going through my Box.net account, my online storage facility, and I found several MP3's I had loaded in with the intention of posting, but never got around to. In the interests of completion, and because they are worth hearing, I am posting them now, with little or no comment.

These Days

This is a Jackson Browne song that has been covered many times. The original impetus for this post was the latest Glen Campbell album, Meet Glen Campbell, on which he covers a lot of very good songs, including - albeit anemically - "These Days." Listening to Campbell's version, I realized how much I had always liked the song. It had always struck me as odd that a 19 year old could write a song with so much weldschmerz without sounding too pretentious. That led me to go back and listen to all the versions I own, from Jackson Browne's original, through Nico's, Tom Rush's (the first I heard, back in 1969) and finally the one I find the most soulful, Gregg Allman's. Here are three:
Nico - These Days
Tom Rush - These Days
Gregg Allman - These Days

I Don't Wanna Know

Last fall, HBO aired a series called "True Blood," involving vampires good and bad in and around New Orleans. On one episode, (called "I Don't Wanna Know...") the end credits rolled over Dr. John singing a song with the chorus: "I don't wanna know 'bout evil, I only wanna know about love." I had never heard Dr. John's version before (and don't particularly wanna hear it again) but the song itself was familiar. It took me a few old age minutes to remember that it was a John Martyn song, from his 1973 album, Solid Air, which I had played a lot about 10 years ago. While researching all of this, I came across Beth Orton's version from her first album, the horribly-named, Japanese-only Superpinkymandy, produced by William Orbit.
John Martyn - I Don't Wanna Know
Beth Orton - Don't Wanna Know bout Evil

Mark Fidrych RIP

2009-04-13T19:04:00.009-04:00

Mark Fidrych died yesterday on his farm near Worcester, MA, in an apparent accident. He was 54. Massachusetts-born and raised, Fidrych was a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, for five years beginning in 1976. He was a brilliant pitcher but a little too strange for Major League baseball. (Among other things, he talked to the baseball between pitches.)
I admired Fidrych, as much for his inability to toe the very straight line demanded by professional baseball as for his obvious pitching brilliance.
Fidrych's career was cut short by injury, but I always wondered if he was just too different to (literally) play the game.
I am posting a song, "Moulty," by the Cape Cod garage-rock band the Barbarians, which tells the story of their drummer- Moulty - who lost a hand in an accident. (I believe he blew it off with a firecracker.) And yet still he continued to drum! I feel like Fidrych and Moulty are connected both by geography and Massachusetts accent, and by an eccentric New England-stubborn refusal to act their age.

The Barbarians - Moulty

Two New Mixes

2009-03-15T17:25:00.022-04:00

I just completed two new mixes that seem very different, but are connected in some way I haven't yet figured out. For that reason I'm posting them together.
One if them is called Mix Acoustic. I created this because a friend of mine, who loves to make sweeping statements designed to piss people off, said that there had been no real singer/songwriters since the '70's. Focusing on form rather than the content, I looked at how much acoustic music I had been listening to lately, and realized that, indeed, a lot of what I have enjoyed has been acoustic. Most of the current acoustic music strikes me as fairly serious in its intent, although melodically, it's as accessible as the '70's and '80's softcore I have been exploring. (I still have trouble with the so-called psych folk that seems too self-consciously connected to the traditional American and English folk music tradition.)
The mix posted here doesn't really need much set-up. Some of the songs seem particularly strong lyrically, although I don't think there is anyone who would be considered a threat to Wallace Stevens. (However, check out Sibylle Baier's "Says Elliott," which is based on "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.")
Here is the mix:
MIX ACOUSTIC
Playlist:
1. Lawns Breed Songs - Strand of Oaks. On the same label as Lewis and Clarke, which to me means a lot.
2. Black Sheep Boy - Okkervil River. An excellent cover of a heartbreaking Tim Hardin song by one of my favorite bands.
3. To Ohio - Low Anthem
4. Bare Bones and Branches - Lewis and Clarke
5. Tomorrow - Espers
6. The Alder Trees - Alela Diane
7. The Things I Know - Musee Mechanique. From Oregon, and amazing
8. Rolling Sea - Vetiver. Supposedly a psych folk artist with connections to Devandra Baenhart, but you wouldn't know it from this.
9. In Our Talons - Bower Birds
10. Brokered Heart - The Acorn
11. For Emma - Bon Iver
12. Footloose - Doveman. This singer is a New York multi instrumentalist for hire who is also an excellent conceptualist. Last summer, he recreated the sound track to the film Footloose in its entirety, and posted it on his website. Someone made him take it down. Idiots.
13. Says Elliott - Sybille Baier. This actually dates from the '70's. Her son is doing a tremendous job publicizing her work, which really needs to be heard: http://www.sibyllebaier.com/home.html
14. John Allyn Smith - Okkervil River. Putting this mix together, I was again reminded of how important this band continues to be to me.

The other mix is called Mix Hardrock, and it is kind of a goof.
For a while, beginning in the late '60's and continuing into the early '70's, there was a sub-genre of English rock that evolved out of the first and second generation English blues rock. It definitely had its roots in that kind of music, but it turned up the volume and took the riffs that may have been incidental in the more blues-based bands that came before, and made them the centerpieces of the songs. Combine that with plodding rhythm sections and ballsy, in-your-face vocals, and you have what I used to think of and therefore am calling simply Hard Rock. Foreigner and Bad Company were the most commercially successful of these bands and the reasons for the genre's demise. (I'm excluding Led Zeppelin because, as much as I dislike them, I recognize that, even though many of their songs might fit in the genre, they took it so much farther that it just doesn't seem right to include them).
Eventually, the genre splintered into various other genres - for instance, proto-heavy metal (ala Deep Purple Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep) and Glam Rock (ala Slade and Sweet).
To me the apotheosis of this genre was Humble Pie, particularly on their 1971 album Rock On, and most especially on the song included in this mix, "Stone Cold Fever." There are at least three highly memorable riffs running through the song, not to mention long guitar solos from both Steve Marriott and Peter Frampton, not to mention one of the best rhythm sections (Greg Ridley and Jerry Shirley) operating in England at the time. Not to mention Marriott's amazing anguished howl of a vocal.
It's hard to take this music too seriously, it's just kind of fun and stupid. But it does remind us that sometimes that's what rock is supposed to be anyway.
Here is the mix:
MIX HARD ROCK
Here is the playlist:
1. Hear Me Calling - Ten Years After. For awhile, this was my favorite band. One of the best concerts I ever saw was Ten Years After and Mott the Hoople at the Boston Tea Party in the summer of 1970.
2. Rock My Plimsoul - The Jeff Beck Group. More blues rock than hard rock, but really one of the originators of the form. Beck, Rod Stewart, Ron Wood and Micky Waller.
3.The Stumble - Love Sculpture. Dave Edmunds, guitar god.
4. Whiskey Train - Procol Harum. Proof that, despite the classical trappings and"Whiter Shade of Pale," Procol Harum was, at heart a rock band.
5. Better By You, Better Than Me - Spooky Tooth. Check out the riff. When I was a teenager, this song defined the genre for me.
6. Stone Cold Fever - Humble Pie
7. Making Time - The Creation. This is to maintain my indie cred.
8. Rock and Roll Queen - Mott the Hoople. The Mick Ralphs showcase on the first Mott album.
9. Alright Now - Free
10. Can't Get Enough of Your Love - Bad Company. At the point the tent should have been folded and the circus should have moved on.
11. Death May Be Your Santa Claus - Mott the Hoople. Ian Hunter subverts the genre.
12. Stay With Me Baby - Terry Reid. How to employ the elements but avoid the cliche.

Softcore 10- The Winter Vacation Mix

2009-02-18T14:02:00.006-05:00

Here is another mix with roots (albeit less obvious than in previous mixes) in '70's and '80's American soft rock.
Here is the Mix:
http://www.box.net/shared/static/xuo1elbbbi.zip
Here is the the Playlist:
1. With My Eyes Open I'm Dreaming - Virginia Astley
2. Kites Are Fun - The Free Design (American group from the late '60's that married light harmonies and bubblegum pop with Left Banke-ish classical influences)
3. June Evenings - Air France
4. Nothing's Happening By the Sea - Chris Rea
5. Don't Wanna Know 'Bout Evil - Beth Orton (A cover of a great song by the late John Martyn)
6. Community Tour - The Sea and Cake
7. True Romance - Sentimental Scenery
8. Love You All - Luomo and Apparat (from Luomo's underappreciated 2008 album, Convivial)
9. You Rock Me - Larry Heard Presents Mr. White (I don't know much about this cut. I found it on an excellent Gilles Peterson compilation called Gilles Peterson in the House)
10. Innocent Reprise - A Mountain of One
11. We Just Disagree - Dave Mason (Classic soft rock from his 1977 album, Let It Flow)
12. These Days - Gregg Allman (This song was written by Jackson Browne when he was still a teenager (!) and was originally recorded by Nico on her album, Chelsea Girl. It has subsequently been recorded by many other artists - including Browne himself - but I've always felt that Allman's version is the most soulful.)
13. End in Flames - Strand of Oaks
14. There is a 14th song - but I'm not going to tell you what it is.

Best of 2008

2008-12-27T21:45:00.007-05:00

This has been an odd year for me in terms of my relationship to music. I still listened as passionately as I have in the past, but circumstances - a new job, new friends, a young son, different interests - created a situation in which I was less driven to discover and keep track of the next big thing and more intent on tracking down older stuff that worked in combination with other things (new and old) in a mix format.
However, I still found plenty to like this year, some of which I have put together in the attached mix. Most of the songs are from albums I would wholeheartedly recommend. "Jai Ho," the song tha leads off the mix, is from the soundtrack to Slumdog Millionaire. I can't recommend the album because I haven't heard it as an album (go see the film though - it's great). Here are a list of the tracks on the mix which comprise my arbitrary Top 20 of 2008.
1. Jai Ho - Slumdog Millionaire - AR Rahman
2. Halfway Home - Dear Science - TV on the Radio
3. In the New Year - You & Me - The Walkmen
4. Kim and Jessie - Saturdays=Youth - M83
5. The Park - Migration - Sambassadeur
6. Community Tour - Car Alarm - The Sea and Cake
7. Innocent Reprise - Collected Works - A Mountain of One
8. Le Long du Large - ST - Coeur de Pirate
9. Things Are Gonna Get Easier - ST EP - Low Motion Disco
10. Light As Daylight - Coastlines - Windsurf
11. White Winter Hymnal - ST - Fleet Foxes
12. After the Fireworks We Walked to the Rope Swing - What a Great Place to Be - Sumner McKane
13. For Emma - For Emma - Bon Iver
14. Cape Canaveral - ST - Conor Oberst
15. Calvary Scars/Aux. Out - Wierd Era Cont. - Deerhunter
16. Gobbledigook - Me› su› í eyrum vi› spilum end - Sigur Ros
17. One Fine Day - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today - Brian Eno/David Byrne
18. Goodbye Lennon - ST - Vanilla Swingers
19. Ana Mir - ST - The Ghost Orchid
20. Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa - The Very Best Mixtape - Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit

Best of 2008 - Robin Hall Mix

Softcore #7 - Brooklyn Bridge Mix

2008-11-14T20:14:00.010-05:00

Yo.
Yo motherfuckerfucker. Where you been.
Around. Busy. I moved. Got a new job.
Yippee. Thanks for the postcard.

Continuing my fascination with soft rock in all its possible permutations, may I present to you Softcore 7 - The Brooklyn Bridge Mix:
Softcore #7 - The Brooklyn Bridge Mix
Track List:
1. The Boat - Saraswa
Saraswa is an electronic/computer composer I found on MySpace. When I first discovered him he was living in Turkey. He seems to have relocated to Nepal. He has released two very beautiful albums.
2. Sail On - The Commodores
I don't know when this was released. You can hear quotes from "All Night Long" in the fadeout.
3. Standing Right Next to Me - Karla Bonoff
Bonoff was one of Linda Ronstadt's go-to songwriters, so she was definitely part of the LA softcore elite. But what's interesting about this song is how it anticipates the big showy ballads sung by the likes of Celine Deon and written by songwriters like Diane Warren in the mid-90's.
4. Pacific Rhythm - Quiet Village
A post-modern Balearic group, named after an MOR classic by Martin Denny.
5. You're So Beautiful - Danny Kortchmar
Jame Taylor's guitarist-turned heavy duty LA studio musician. Along with Ned Doheny, he he illustrates how influential soul music was to soft rock.
6. Fool (If You Think It's Over) - Chris Rea
A minor hit from 1978 or 79, I sold a lot of this when I worked at Sam Goody's.
7. Late Arrival - Katy Lied
I don't know anything about this band except that they named themselves after a popular Steely Dan song and are very self consciously softcore.
8. The Show - Lenka
Pretty song.
9. Antique Bull - Broken Social Scene
I'm close to overdosing on BSS, but not just yet.
10. Christo Redentor - Harvey Mandel
This is a great guitar instrumental from 1968. You could say Mandel was the poor man's Michael Bloomfield, but it wouldn't do this song justice.
11. Dove - Cymande
This is the mix's centerpiece. I've been carrying it around in my head and headphones for months, waiting for the chance to drop it. Cymande was one of the few post-Santana jazz/soul rock band that could stretch out on a groove and not get too repetitious or boring.
12. Aeroplane - Aeroplane
They are Belg, I mean Flemish. Part of the nu world order that celebrates the beauty of trans Euro indie pop disco.
13. Nesso - Hatchback
Hatchback is half of the great Windsurf (the other half being Sorcerer) These guy have been responsible for more great music in the last two years than all the indie bands in Brooklyn.
14. Looking Down a Hill - Epic45
An instrumental band from England, maybe a variation on Explosions in the Sky
15. The Sunken Queen - Doveman
He's from New York, apparently a very much in demand session player. He came to my attention last summer when he Internet-released a son by song homage to the film Footloose.
16. The Other Side of This Life - Fred Neil
Blues folk as softcore. I first noticed this song when I was having a Jefferson Airplane moment a few months ago.
17. I'll Be Long Gone - Boz Scaggs
This is a great song from Scaggs' first solo album, recorded in Muscle Shoals just after he left the Steve Miller Blues Band.
18. I Feel Like Going Home - Yo La Tengo
I don't know anything about this song. My Ipod carried me to it. I must have downloaded it at some point. It's beautiful.

Softcore #3 - The Rockford Files Mix

2008-07-09T21:19:00.006-04:00

This mix reflects my growing interest in soft rock. In this case, the emphasis is on songs from the '70's that have a definite Los Angeles feel. Whether or not they weere recorded in Los Angeles - some were, some weren't - they all reflect the influence of the Los Angeles country rock community.
I called this mix the Rockford Files mix in honor of the television show that, to mind, has done a better job than any other television show (and most movies, for that matter) in bringing the city of Los Angeles and its environs to life.
The playlist:
1. Let Your Love Flow - The Bellamy Brothers
2. We're All Playin In the Same Band - Bert Summer
3. Shannon - Henry Gross
4. Never Ending Song of Love - Delaney and Bonnie
5. Prove My Love - Ned Doheny
6. Dean - Terry Reid
7. My Flame - Bobby Caldwell
8. Her Town Too - James Taylor and JD Souther
9. Isn't It Always Love? - Karla Bonoff
10. Thank You for Being a Friend - Andrew Gold
11. Shake It - Ian Matthews
12. Geronimo's Cadillac - Michael Martin Murphey
13. Muscrat Love - Willis Alan Ramsey
14. Let It Flow - Jimmy Spheeris
15. Laughing - David Crosby
16. Albatross - Fleetwood Mac

Softcore #3 - The Rockford Files Mix

I love all the songs in this mix but a few stand out: the Delaney and Bonnie song, which was recorded in a hotel room and was a minor hit several years after the hype about their Eric Clapton/Leon Russell-led super group had died down; the Ned Doheny song, which sounds like a cross between the Eagles and Steely Dan. The doubleheader of Texas singer/songwriters, Michael Murphey and Willis Alan Ramsay. And finally, the sweet, soft "Let It Flow," by Jimmy Spheeris, who was killed in a motorcycle accident in Santa Monica in 1984.

1990's Mix #1

2008-06-20T12:53:00.013-04:00

Here is my 1990's mix, #1. There was so much music I wanted to include, I split the mix in half. I'll post #2 soon.
I'm not sure how I feel about this mix. None of the music blows me away, but that may be because it's still so recent. The things that stand out at the moment are the Loose Diamonds' version of Joe Simon's, "(You Keep Me) Hangin' On," Simon Bonney's, "Don't Walk Away from Love" and "Beautiful Struggle," by the Austin-based (at the time) band, the Borrowers. "Windfall," by Son Volt, is off their first album, Trace, probably my favorite album of the '90's. Alejandro Escovedo and Richard Buckner were two of the most interesting artists I discovered in that decade. Both continue to be woefully under-appreciated.
I didn't include a lot of stuff which, based on number of plays, would have definitely qualified. (Patty Griffin, Bue Rodeo, Dixie Chicks, Jon Dee Graham, Grant McClellan) But, as in my other by-the-decade mixes, I was more interested in using material that I loved but either hadn't played that much or hadn't played in a long time.
Here is the tracklist:
1. Windfall - Son Volt
2. Let's Talk About Sex - Salt and Peppa
3. California (All the Way) - Luna
4. Bad Reputation - Freedie Johnston
5. Hey Jealousy - Gin Blossoms
6. The Natural Alarm - Tobin Sprout
7. Oppenheimer - Old 97's
8. Beautiful Struggle - The Borrowers
9. Pissed Off at 2:00 AM - Alejandro Escovedo
10. Fuck and Run - Liz Phair
11. Skin and Teeth - Joe Henry
12. Red Vines - Aimee Mann
13. Rainsquall - Richard Buckner
14. Sweet Old World - Lucinda Williams
15. You Keep Me (Hangin' On) - Loose Diamonds
16. Dressed Up Like Nebraska - Josh Rouse
17. The Saturday Option - Lambchop
18. Don't Walk Away from Love - Simon Bonney
19. Your Swaying Arms - Deacon Blue
20. We Walk the Same Line - Everything But the Girl
21. Five Strng Serenade - Mazzy Star
22. Hymns to the Silence - Van Morrison
23. Road to Ensenada - Lyle Lovett

Mix Tape 1990's #1

Note: The picture at the top of this post is of the Continental Club on South Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas. For 9 months in 1996 and 2997, I lived in an apartment complex behind the club, and it was like a home to me. And even though I was only in Austin for nine months, when I look back on the '90's, the city and its music had an incredible inluence on what I listened to, both before and after I actually lived there.

(Picture is from Google Images)

Sharvey New Wave Mix

2008-05-26T18:48:00.014-04:00

I created this mix as a good-bye present for my friend, Sarah Harvey, who, after three years, was leaving her commercial post production job to pursue film editing work of a more independent nature.
She asked for a new wave mix and the first thing I had to ask myself was, what is new wave? At some point in the late '70's, punk music morphed into new wave, probably as a way of making it sound friendlier. By the early '80's new wave meant something vaguely silly - Wham and Duran Duran and Kakajoojoo. That's when I tuned out.
But, as I put this mix together, I found a bunch of songs I hadn't listened to in a while that I really liked. Seems like new wave may not have been so bad. The best of it was a very cool combination of power pop and disco. So go ahead, have fun, dance. I will not disapprove.
Personal PS: My band. W-2, opened for Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark one night at Hurrah. OMD didn't speak to us.
Tracklist:
1. Relax - Frankie Goes to Hollywood
2. Red Skies - The Fixx
3. Enola Gay - OMD
4. New Gold Dream - Simple Minds
5. Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
6. She Bop - Cyndi Lauper
7. Goodbye to You - Scandal
8. Ca Plane Pour Moi - Plastic Bertrand
9. Mind Your Own Business - Delta 5
10. When You Were Mine - Christina
11. I Want Money - Flying Lizards
12. TVOD - The Normal
13. Time (Clock of the Heart) - Culture Club
14. True - Spandau Ballet
15. The Paris Match (Tracy Version)
16. Sugar Hiccup - Cocteau Twins
17. Say Hello, Wave Goodbye - Soft Cell

SHARVEY NEW WAVE MIX

1980's Mix

2008-05-06T17:48:00.010-04:00

The 1980's was not a great decade for me when it came to music appreciation, since I was semi-comatose for much of the time. To be truthful, my strongest musical memory is listening to the Cocteau Twins. I liked them so much I (unwittingly) bought several of their albums twice.
However, even though I bottomed out in 1988, and much of the decade leading up to that occasion was a vague blur, several things stand out: the heady early days of MTV, the cheap synthy sound of the new romantic movement (I can't bring myself to capitalize that phrase), one-hit wonders like "99 Luftballoons," a trip to Barbados that was highlighted by discovering the great Calypso pop singer Mighty Gabby.
My own musical aspirations ground to a halt in 1982 after I did a "poetry reading" at the Mudd Club organized by Lydia Lunch and featuring Thurston Moore, Nick Cave and several other downtown performers way better known than I was. The audience was expecting music and was not happy with our recitations. One by one we were booed and heckled.
I personally take great pride in the experience since I backed myself up with prerecorded drum tracks long before anyone I knew was doing that sort of thing. But nevertheless, by that point I had already started my adddiction-fueled descent into lethargy, and I never performed again. Nor did I listen very closely to music, at least for a while.
Chapter Two of my 80's musical experience occurred after I got sober in 1988. The last thing I bought before I went to rehab was John Hiatt's "Bring the Family," and the first time I played it was the day I came back to work. I couldn't have picked a better album to celebrate my sobriety - Hiatt was a newly sober guy singing honestly and with humor about his everyday life - and it set the tone for the kind of music I would listen to not only for the rest of the decade but well into the 90's.
Tracklist:
1. I Can Dream About You - Dan Hartman
2. Anything Can Happen - Was (Not Was)
3. On the Roof - The Feelies
4. Nena - 99 Luftballoons
5. Over the Hillside - Blue Nile
6. The Paris Match (Tracy Thorn Version) - Style Council
7. Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? - Culture Club
8. Borderline - Madonna
9. Blue Monday - New Order
10. Do It Again/Billie Jean Medley - Club House
11. Black Coffee in Bed - Squeeze
12. Here Comes Alice - Jesus and Mary Chain
13. She Bangs the Drum - Stone Roses
14. Bastards of Young - The Replacements
15. There Is a Light That Never Goes Out - The Smiths
16. Talk of the Town - Pretenders
17. Fisherman's Blues - The Waterboys
18. If I Had a Boat - Lyle Lovett
19. Anchorage - Michelle Shocked
20. On the Streets of This Town - Steve Forbert
21. Snowin' On Raton - Townes Van Zandt
22. The Way It Always Starts - Gerry Rafferty & Mark Knopfler
23. Slow Turning - John Hiatt

Mixtape 1980's

(This is a long one.)

ROBYN

2008-05-06T14:38:00.009-04:00

I predict that Robyn, by Robyn, is going to be a huge hit this summer. This album, released several years ago in Europe, is only now being made availablet in the USA.
Robyn is a Swedish singer who had a cheesy Britney-esque hit several years ago. She has remade herself as a tough (albeit very white) dance princess, with elements of Shakira, Nelly Furtado, Gwen Stefani and even Peaches.

MP3 removed per artist request

Check out Robyn's website.

Barclay James Harvest

2008-05-05T20:36:00.011-04:00

Barclay James Harvest was an English art-rock band from the late '60's/early '70's who fell through the cracks. With their sophisticated, classically-tinted arrangements and memorable melodies, they should have been a lot more popular than they were, but, even though they toured with a string section and at times sounded very much like Pink Floyd, they were never pretentious enough to have the success of bands like Gentle Giant, Genesis and the Nice.
They were also way too ironic, going so far as to record a self-referential song called "Poor Man's Moody Blues."
Another problem was that they came along at a time when art rock in England was undergoing a metamorphosis and the paradigm was changing from Pink Floyd to Roxy Music. And as smart and potentially post-modern as they were, at that point they were too set in their ways to conform to the new mold.
Despite all that, their music sounds surprisingly fresh, probably because they brought a pop sensibility to the serious high mindedness of their chosen genre which prevents them from sounding dated.
(It didn't hurt that they recorded their first few albums at Abbey Road, under the production direction of Norman Smith, the Beatles engineer and Pink Floyd producer.)

Barclay James Harvest - Hymn
Barclay James Harvest - Life Is for the Living

Find out more about Barclay James Harvest at http://www.bjharvest.co.uk/
(Among other things, you will discover the BJH did not go quietly into the night, but rather stuck around making records well into the '90's.)

Mister Loveless Update

2008-04-19T20:48:00.008-04:00

Every so often I like to check in on my nephew Robby Miller's band, Mister Loveless, and post an update. This time, I asked him to email me his thoughts on the current state of the band and their music. (He wrote this as an EP they had been working on was near completion.):
Dear Uncle Rob,
I feel like this is a strange period of time for the band. We burned
the band down only to rebuild it again within a year. No one has heard
new music from us in two years, with the exception of some demos and
our live shows. We have been eager for people to hear what we've been
working on but simultaneously weary of putting out anything that we
aren't 100% confident in. Now that the EP is within a week of being
complete we are more eager than ever. In fact, we have to resist
temptation to post rough mixes on our website.
It's increasingly hard when you're spending countless hours with
three people in the same room trying to create something great only to
hear "what's going on with the band?" or "what happened to you guys?"
from people you run into on the street. We may not put a record out
every six months but we are secretly prolific. We've written tons of
songs in the last year but we spend lots of time with them before we
record them, or record them several times. I think this makes
promoting ourselves difficult but is ultimately better for our music.
We have had nothing to sell or even give away that is remotely
representative of the way the band sounds now.
I feel as though Two Words, our new EP, is a milestone for the band. We have yet to record anything representative of the band live, till now. Moreover, nothing has been released from us since we added Sean Gaffney on guitar and Rachael Travers on drums. We are essentially a completely different band with the same name.
Here is "Just Thoughts" the third track of the EP. I am extremely excited about this track. I believe people will be shocked to hear it.
Take Care,
Rob

Just Thoughts - Mister Loveless

Check out Mister Loveless on MySpace

1960's Mix

2008-04-07T18:58:00.005-04:00

As inevitably as day follows night, and as Spring follows Winter, so too does a '60's mix follow a '70's mix.
In putting together this mix I tried to avoid the classic '60's music that everyone discovered in the '70's - the Velvets and the Stooges for instance. Most of the songs were songs I heard and absorbed during the '60's and as such played a big part in creating my rock & roll DNA.
My goal with this mix was to find songs that were true to my '60's experience - in that I actually listened to them in the '60's - but still sounded fresh. It is amazing to me that music I listened to that long ago not only has the ability to sound new, but still has meaning beyond evoking adolescent emotional goosebumps .
The surprises: The Rain, the Park and Other Things," by the Cowsills, is an amazing pop masterpiece, as good as anything by Badfinger, Big Star or the Raspberries. Songs by Love never grow old. it is possible to find a Rolling Stones song that hasn't been overplayed to death. "Polk Salad Annie" sounds as good now as it did when I was 17 and hearing it on a cross country trip at 2:00 in the morning, coming out of the radio like a message from the great beyond.
One more surprise: the music of San Francisco 1966-1969 does not withstand the test of time. Listening to it now, I find a lot of it - even the stuff I liked at the time, like Quicksilver Messenger Service and Country Joe and the Fish, to be sloppily played and creatively uninspiring.
(Of course, having said that, I contradict myself by leading off the mix with "Embryonic Journey" by Jefferson Airplane.)

1960's Mix

The playlist:
1. Embryonic Journey - Jefferson Airplane
2. Without Her - Blood, Sweat and Tears
3. Quicksand - Youngbloods
4. Orange Skies - Love
5. Neon Rainbow - Box Tops
6. Buzzin' Fly - Tim Buckley
7. Gigolo Aunt - Syd Barrett
8. Back in the States Again - Yours Forever More
9. The Rain, the Park and Other Things - The Cowsills
10. Care of Cell 44 - The Zombies
11. Here Comes the Nice - Small Faces
12. Open My Eyes - The Nazz
13. Waiting to Die - Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies
14. Lies - The Knickerbockers
15. Painter Man - The Creation
16. I Can Only Give You Everything - Them
17. Sabre Dance - Love Sculpture
18. Sittin' on a Fence - The Rolling Stones
19. These Are Not My People - Joe South
20. Polk Salad Annie - Tony Joe White
21. Driving Wheel - Tom Rush
22. Big White Cloud - John Cale
23. Forty Thousand Headmen - Traffic
24. Dance in the Smoke - Argent
25. Peaches in Regalia - Frank Zappa
26. Dreams - The Allman Brothers

1970's Mix

2008-03-18T23:03:00.004-04:00

This is a mix of songs from the '70's. There are several artists I've talked about before - the Beckies, Andy Pratt, Dennis Linde and Philip Rambow, as well as some well-known artists like J Geils, Lou Reed and the MC5. But I'm pretty sure that, with a few exceptions, most of the material is relatively unfamiliar.
The mix opens with "Postcard from Waterloo," by Tom Verlaine, from his first solo allbum (which actually came out in 1981). This song has rattled around in my brain since I first heard it alomost 30 years ago. A couple of other highlights: "Lean On Your Mind," by the Contenders a late '70's Nashville band led by the late Walter Hyatt, a singer and songwriter who has become a legend in Austin. Also, "Spanish Stroll, " by Mink Deville, one of the most underrated of the CBGB bands. (The first time I went to CBGB's, the bill was Mink Deville and the Ramones.) Another highlight: "Sister Anne," by the MC5, from their 1971 album, High Time. "Sister Anne" is one of the most energetic songs I have ever heard, and it holds up remarkably well.
Here is the complete playlist:
1. "Postcard from Waterloo" - Tom Verlaine (1981)
2. "Fool's Gold" - Graham Parker (1976)
3. "Spanish Stroll" - Mink Deville 1977
4. "Love Makes You Feel" - Lou Reed (1971)
5. "Fallen" - Philip Rambow (1978)
6. "Lean on Your Mind" - The Contenders (1979)
7. "Hello, I Am Your Heart" - Dennis Linde (1973)
8. "O Lucky Man" - Alan Price (1973)
9. "If You Could See Yourself Through My Eyes" - Andy Pratt (1976)
10. "So You Win Again" - Hot Chocolate (1979)
11. "The River Song" - The Beckies (1976)
12. "Homework" - J Geils Band (1970)
13. "Where Were You?" - Mekons (1978)
14. "See My Baby Jive" - Roy Wood (1974)15. "Sister Anne" - MC5 (1971)
16. "Cherchez La Femme/Se Si Bon" - Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band (1976)
17. "On Some Faraway Beach" - Eno (1975)
18. "Hallelujah Europa" - Jona Lewie (1977)
19. "Memory Motel" - Rolling Stones (1976)
20 "Ticket to Ride" - Carpenters (1973)
21. "Borderline" - Ry Cooder (1980)

1970's Mix

This mix is dedicated to my old musical comrade-in-arms, Chris Gray, who introduced me to Roy Wood and never stopped singing his praises, even when I told him I thought he sucked.

Andy Pratt's records are available at www.itsaboutmusic.com

Pacific Ocean Mix

2008-03-09T20:41:00.007-04:00

This is a mellow mix, with a definite West Coast feel, inspired by the Oakland deejay/producers Sorcerer and Hatchback (who also work together as Windsurf).
The mix opens with a great Leon Russell song from 1979, (long after he had became a minor star as a result of his work with Joe Cocker, Delaney and Bonnie and George Harrison) called "Back to the Island." This song is not at all like the rhythm and blues based-material that Russell usually wrote and performed. It has a very laid-back, spooky feeling to it, which makes it perfect to lead off a mix called Pacific Ocean Mix. (It has been covered by Jimmy Buffet and Toots and the Maytals, and I actually thought I would use the Toots version, but it but it is jumpy and skittish rather than subversive, mellow and swinging.)
Among the other highlights is "White Lies," by Grin, featuring Nils Lofgrin before he began his long solo career. "White Lies" was a minor hit around the time of "Horse with No Name," and it has some of the same feel, only it's a thousand times better.
Newer bands featured include the Skygreen Leopards, the National Lights, Warm Morning (from Italy) and Stars of Track and Field.
The mix ends with Mark Knopfler's theme from the film Local Hero, probably one of my favorite film scores of all time (and one of my favorite films.)
Here is the complete track list:
"Back to the Island" Leon Russell
"Hawaiian Island" The Sorcerer
"Floating" Nobody and the Mystic Chords of Memory
"White Lies" Grin
"Pacific Standard Time" Pete Krebs
"Outdoor Games" Magic Arm
"Bad Weather" Poco
"The Skies Turn Black" Fireflies
"Gentle On My Mind" Glen Campbell
"Your Rocky Spine" Great Lakes Swimmer
"Riverbed" National Lights
"Sentimental Lady" Fleetwood Mac
"Fantastic" Stars of Track and Field
"White Summer Daydream" Warm Morning
"Sail Around the World" David Gates
"Wildfire" Michael Martin Murphy
"The Horses" Rickie Lee Jones
"The Homeless and the Hummingbird" Alaska In Winter
"Head Over Heels" Blue Rodeo
"Hard to Say" Dan Fogelberg
"Going Home (Theme from 'Local Hero')" Mmark Knopfler

Pacific Ocean Mix

Instrumental Mix

2008-02-23T06:15:00.002-05:00

In the past, I stayed away from rock instrumental music. Partly because I associated it with the pretentious, bloated, drum-solo-filled schlock that bands like Led Zeppelin and Emerson Lake and Palmer used to pad out their albums and shows, and partly because songs never seemed complete without words. (Although, to be fair, my opinion of most rock lyrics is pretty low.)
Recently, however, there seems to have been a huge jump in the amount of great instrumental music forcing its way into my consciousness. It started with Explosions In the Sky, the Texas band who did the soundtrack for the film "Friday Night Lights," but has expanded as my explorations into dance and its associated genres has expanded - a lot of the instrumental music I have been discovering comes from dance music composers, who seem to be increasingly influenced by the music of composers like Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Terry Reilly, Charlemagne Palestine, and Glenn Branca.
25 years ago, I would listen to Steve Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians" as a way of relaxing. Maybe I - and the world - just need more "relaxing" music more often these days.

This mix started as a list of songs I put together for one of the editors with whom I worked, who needed something "big" to cut to. I liked it so much I turned it into a mix.
Instrumental Mix 1

Playlist:
Clear Light - Lanterna
Looking Down a Hill - Epic45
Wishwash - Saraswa
Future Warriors - Windsurf
A Paw in My Face - The Field
Misty's Reflection - All Systems Ghost
Broken Monitors - B. Fleischman
Waltz for a Little Bird - Rainstick Orchestra
Welcome, Ghosts - Explosions in the Sky
Frozen Twilight - God is an Astronaut
The Boat - Saraswa

Sunday Morning Mix

2008-02-15T20:47:00.004-05:00

Here's another mix. It's kind of down tempo, what used to be called chillout, with a couple of Swedish Italo disco songs mixed in. Here's the playlist:
1. Kissing - Mandalay
2. Full Circle Song - Gene Clark
3. Reason to Believe - Tim Hardin
4. Irene Wilde - Alejandro Escovedo
5. Where's the Playground, Susie? - Scud Mountain Boys
6. Jesus Walk with Me - Club 8
7. I'll Be by Your Side - Sally Shapiro
8. Karibien - Air France
9. Hold Me Now - Thompson Twins
10. Misty's Reflection - All System's Ghost
11. The Boat - Saraswa
12. Dance Til the Morning Light - Starflower

Sunday Morning Mix

Soft Rock Mix

2008-02-09T09:39:00.000-05:00

I apologise for the scarcity of posts recently. A combination of a heavy workload, a lack of much to post about and an intense education in new technolgy has prevented me from posting as regularly as I would like to.
However my explorations in new (for me) technology has resulted in my obtaining the knowledge to create mixes with crossfades, and I am posting one here. It's soft rock, a term that meant something horrid 25 or 30 years ago and still has some ugly connotations. However, in my opinion, there is a bunch of music from that period that was unfairly dismissed by being classified as such. I have provided a couple of example in this mix, as well as some current music that very proudly calls itself soft rock.
Soft Rock Mix
Tracklist:
1. Quicksilver Girl - Steve Miller Band
2. The Sun in California - The Autumn Defense
3. Gauzy Dress in the Sun - Richard Buckner
4. Joe Purdy - Can't Get It Right Today
5. Windsurf - Windsurf
6. Any Major Dude - Steely Dan
7. Popsicle Orange - The Sorcerer
8. Starsong...What Became of Us - Sylvie Lewis
9. Dancing in the Moonlight - King Harvest
10. Begin Again - California Snow Story
11. It' s a Beautiful Day Today - Moby Grape
Notice I don't attempt to define soft rock. You'll know it when you hear it.

Disco continued

2008-01-15T22:31:00.000-05:00

My fascination with disco continues to grow. Back in the '70's, playing in punk bands, working in record stores, hanging out at Max's and CBGB's, I was never a member of the Disco Sucks crowd. But I never embraced disco either, never went to disco clubs, never even saw Saturday Night Fever. Working in records stores, I was aware of what was going on with mainstream disco. At Sam Goody's, we sold a shitload of Thank God It's Friday soundtracks and the latest disco one-shot hit, from "Ring MyBell" to "Boogie Oogie Oogie."
Listening to both modern disco, like the Sorcerer out of Oakland, and Johan Agebjorn/Sally Shapiro, and classic stuff from the 1970's I love how the rhythm is the engine that propels the gorgeous arrangements and (very often) amazing technical performaces by singer and muicians. The best disco feels very spacious, without every threatning to degenerate into hippy-ish (or even free jazz-ish) jamming. The rythmic underpinning keeps things under control.
Disco Mix

Guilty Pleasure - Mandy Moore

2008-01-15T22:04:00.000-05:00

Mandy Moore began her professional life as a Britney Spears/Mouseketeer clone, but in 2003 she released an album called Coverage that pretty definitively separated her from the other teen idols. The album was full of really well-chosen covers (Mandy said they were songs her parents had played for her when she was a kid) sophisticatedly arranged and produced by John Fields and sung confidently and with feeling by Moore. Among the songs she chose were several gems, particularly, in my opinion, XTC's "Senses Working Overtime," and the Waterboys' "Whole of the Moon."
The thing that amazed me when I first heard the album was the sense that Mandy Moore, who was then barely out of her teens, seemed to comprehend what songwriters like John Hiatt, Joe Jackson and Andy Partridge were writing about. Now I'm not so sure - it may be that she had a really good producer and that she is a much better actor then she's had a chance to demonstrate in her movie and television roles.
Whatever the case, I love the album, I love the choice of covers and I love her voice.
Mandy Moore - Senses Working Overtime
XTC - Senses Working Overtime

Bonus:
Mandy Moore - Umbrella (Rihanna cover)

Rainstick Orchestra

2008-01-04T22:33:00.000-05:00

I first heard Rainstick Orchestra on KCRW a couple of years ago and immediately fell in love with its clever arrangements, memorable melodies and hints of Steve Reich and Phillip Glass. (Even though the sound sometimes veers dangerously close to what I imagine Spyro Gyra or the Yellow Jackets must have sounded like.)
I played the album (The Floating Glass Key in the Sky) pretty relentlessly for a couple of weeks, and then moved on to something else, and frankly forgot about it. However, this week, as I was sitting with Conner, my six month old son, in my living room listening, to music while everyone else slept, during that space of time just before the sun comes up, when the birds start to sing and the shadows outside resolve themselves into trees and the tops of buildings, this song popped up on my Ipod, and Conner smiled hugely, and awkwardly reached out to hug me, and the music perfectly matched our mood and briefly reflected the brightening sky.
Rainstick Orchestra - Waltz for a Little Bird

Rainstick Orchestra is made up of two Japanese musicians, Baku Tsunoda and Naomichi Tanaka. The album is available from Amazon.

Rolling Stone on the death of high fidelity

2008-01-02T14:17:00.000-05:00

Check out this link to a fascinating piece in Rolling Stone by Robert Levine on the ten-year-old philosophical shift in mixing records that is responsible for producing a sound that might, as Levine says, truly mean "the death of high fidelity."
The basic point is that record producers, using dynamic compression, are now mixing records at a very high volume, with little variation between the different instruments, and between the highs and lows. Apparently, this makes the records sound brighter and therefore more likely to sound good on the radio. However, it can also cause the records to sound peculiarly monosonic. If you look at the sine wave of some of these songs (like Arctic Monkeys, "I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor.") it's one thick black line.
The article quotes a bunch of leading producers, split about half and half between those who like the New Loud and those who bemoan it. (Guess which side of the argument Butch Vig comes in on. Now guess what Donald Fagen thinks.
In the extensive list of links at the end of the article, I came across an article from Wikipedia that reported the following:
"In 1997, Iggy Pop assisted in the remix and remaster of the 1973 album Raw Power by his former band The Stooges, creating an album which, to this day, is arguably the loudest rock CD ever recorded^[Cite]. It has an RMS of -4 dB in places^[11], which is rare even by today's standards^[Cite]."
Oddly enough, I had been contemplating the idea of posting the original and the remixed versions of "Search and Destroy" as part of a discussion of the current drama surrounding Raymond Carver and his editor, Gordon Lish, as discussed in a piece in the recent Fiction issue of The New Yorker. But I think posting the two is more appropriate for this:

The Stooges - Search and Destroy (Original version)
The Stooges - Search and Destroy (Remixed/remastered)

I am kind of torn on the issue. I love the original "Search and Destroy," and I remember saying to myself when I first heard it, "this is the loudest, hardest rocking song I have ever heard." It would have been hard to imagine how the song could have gotten more intense. But I gotta say, the remix is kind of cool.
(I would also love to see an analysis of some high volume classics, like Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water, or Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog," or the Clash's "White Riot.")

Be Hear Be Now Top 15 Albums - 2007

2007-12-27T10:44:00.000-05:00

A few months ago, Stephen King, who I respect in the same way I respect Nick Hornby, as a writer whose work I like who also has a pretty good critical perspective on popular culture, wrote a piece for Entertainment Weekly about coolness, and who was cool and who wasn't, specifically in terms of pop artists. (Find it here.)
It was actually surprisingly curmudgeonly and, in my opinion almost as off-base as Sasha Frere Jones' article about how indie music has disconnected itself from black music.
However, it gave me permission to use coolness to define my best-of-2007 list, so here goes, the coolest records of 2007 as per moi.
1. Okkervill River The Stage Names
Okkervil River has plenty of indy cred -obscure lyrics, wandering melodies - but at their heart they are a very powerful rock band.
Okkervil River - Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe
Okkervil River - John Allyn Smith Sails

2. Sorcerer White Magic
I think this is my favorite discovery of the year. Sorcerer is Daniel Saxon Judd, a musician/producer from Oakland, CA. Sorcerer is his vehicle to present his odd combination of laid back California yacht rock and disco. It shouldn't work, but, of course, it does.
The Sorcerer - Hawaiian Island

3. Jens Lekman Night Falls Over Kortedala
Swedish guy from Gothenberg, the Austin of Europe. Many people compare him to Jonathan Richmond, which is definitely not cool. But since all those people are wrong he is still cool. Charming lyrics (at least they seem to be, maybe it's the Swedish accent), surrounded by astute samples from all over the musical map. Like a great storyteller, he lays out conflicts and then subtly but inexorably increases the emotional pressure.
Jens Lekman - Postcard to Nina

4. Silent League Of Stars and Other Somebodies
Their MySpace site proudly proclaims, "Soft rock is not a guilty pleasure."
Silent League - Before You Started

5. Of Montreal Hissing Fauna Are You the Destroyer
Mixing '70's and '80's soul with George Bataille.
Of Montreal - A Sentence of Sorts in Kingsvonger

6. Lewis and Clarke Blasts of Holy Birth
I believe Lou Rogai may be the best songwriter in America.
Lewis and Clarke - Blasts of Holy Birth

7. Panda Bear Person Pitch
Complicated, layered pop music.
Panda Bear - Comfy In Nautica

8. M.I.A. Kala
Her second album, even stronger than her first. This time next year she is the Next Shakira.
M.I.A. - Paper Planes

9. Chromatics Night Drive
Post modern neo-disco? The next cool sub-genre.
Chromatics - Night Drive

10. Feist The Reminder
At this point she is too popular to be a cult figure, but too smart to be mainstream. Okay, she's already been on "The Today Show" twice. I guess that makes her mainstream. That only adds to her subversive coolness.
Feist - 1234

11. The National Boxer
Supposedly inspired by Jonathan Ames' The Extra Man.
The National - Fake Empire

12. The Dreamers - Day For Night
Representing all the Swedish pop music I listened to this year.
The Dreamers - Michael

13. Paul Duncan Above the Trees
I don't know much about this guy, except that his songs are shiny bright acoustic gems.
Paul Duncan - Red Eagle

14. The Heart Strings Try Fly Blue Sky
I found this band on MySpace, under their cover band name Hot Air Balloonists. I blogged about a song of theirs. Their manager sent me their record when it came out a few months ago. I really like it.
Heart Strings - Pedalo

15. National Lights The Dead Will Walk, Dear
A concept album about dying. More fun the Lou Reed's Magic and Loss.
National Lights - Better For It, Kid

Honorable Mentions: Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga; Dan Deacon Spiderman of the Rings; The Field Over the Ice; Iron and Wine The Sheperd's Dog; Richard Hawley Lady's Bridge; Taken by Trees Open Field; Ulrich Schnauss Goodbye; Mono in VCF Mono in VCF; Arcade Fire Neon Bible; Great Lakes Swimmers Ongiara.

All I Want Is You - Juno Soundtrack

2007-12-21T15:57:00.000-05:00

I recently saw Juno, the Jason Reitman film written by Diablo Cody, about a smart 16-year old (played by Ellen Page) who gets pregnant and decides to have the baby and then give it up for adoption.
I highly recommend the film - it's funny and thoughtful and knowing. Not the least of its highlights is the soundtrack, which is a mixture of cool oldies and new singer/songwriter stuff. One of the things I particularly appreciated was that the producers weren't afraid to play whole songs and make them the center of attention.
As if to underscore the fact that Juno is basically a child, the song that plays over the opening credits is "All I Want Is You," by kiddie music star Barry Louis Polisar.
I've been playing this song over and over ever since I saw the movie. I'm sure I'll get sick of it soon enough - it's that kind of song - but for now it's my Christmas hit.
Barry Louis Polisar - All I Want Is You
Purchase the soundtrack on Itunes - it's not yet available from Amazon or in stores.

New Mix by Sorcerer

2007-12-17T11:00:00.000-05:00

Sorcerer, aka Daniel Judd, the master producer/dj/musician from Oakland responsible for White Magic, my Number 2 album of the year, has posted a link to a cool mix he recently created. Very very highly recommended.
http://sorcerermusic.com/magic/?cat=1

Great Songs and Great Songwriting #3 - Jon Dee Graham ESCAPE FROM MONSTER ISLAND

2007-12-09T18:21:00.000-05:00

I got to know Jon Dee Graham after I moved to Austin in 1997. At the time, he was in the process of transforming himself from a respected guitarist who had toured and recorded with people like Kelly Willis, John Doe and Simon Bonney, to a singer of his own songs. It was not an easy transformation. Austin, for all its musical greatness, has a tendency to pigeonhole people and then fight like hell to keep them there.
Consequently, there were a lot of nights when Jon Dee and his buddy and musical compere, Mik Hardwick, played to a crowd of five or ten. That crowd often included me. I don't think you have to be a genius to recognize Graham's talent, but for some reason many people in Austin didn't seem to get him at first.
That started to change after he did a Sunday night broadcast on one of the local Austin radio stations. Matt Eskey, the owner of Freedom Records, heard a tape of the show and asked him to make a record. Gave him a bunch of money (Not!) and said, go make a record and bring me the master and I'll put it out. So Jon Dee took a notebook full of songs and a couple of guitars, went into a local studio with Hardwick, a group of musicians he had met over the years, and Austin's producer du jour. That producer left after a week for greener pastures (or what he perceived to be a better offer) and Jon Dee, Hardwick and engineer Andy Taub ended up producing the album themselves. I hung around a little during the recording sessions, and watched as Jon Dee, Mike and Andy slowly built the album (sometimes, it seemed, with glue and rusty nails and wood they found out behind the studio.)
By the time the album came out, in June or July, 1997, I had moved to Los Angeles, so I experienced Austin's "discovery" of Jon Dee and his talent second hand, through the pages of the Austin Chronicle.
After Jon Dee finished recording, he mixed and mastered the album. He and Matt Eskey started taking it around to radio stations. I remember very clearly speaking to Jon Dee one night after he had met with the program director of the most influential radio stations in Austin. This was a good guy, a guy with taste, a guy who had been a friend of Jon Dee's for years. He listened to the record and pronounced it "not radio-ready."
It may not have been radio-ready, but sometime after that Andy Langer wrote a cover story about Jon Dee for the Austin Chronicle, and, Austin being Austin, that was enough to create a tidal wave of interest in "Escape."
Not that it was undeserved. Escape from Monster Island is a brilliant album.
Many of the songs - the ones most moving to me - dealt with his touring- and divorce-enforced separations from his then-five year old son, Roy. But there were also songs that explored spirituality, and songs about relationships and friendships and breakups and tragedies. Not too many happy songs . (There were a couple later on - a great song called "Big Sweet Life," a song called "October," which I posted last year.) Throughout all of Jon Dee's songs, on Escape from Monster Island and on his later albums, there is a sense of sadness and regret but mostly, a willingness to explore the dark places most of us are just as happy to stay away from.
Ten years of listening, and the album still moves me, and makes me uncomfortable and makes me nod my head in recognition.
Jon Dee Graham - $100 Bill
Jon Dee Graham - Faithless
Jon Dee Graham - Kings

My current favorite lyric (from "Kings"):
Havin' a child
Takes the paint right off a man
Man, man oh man.
Out in the wild
The beasts do the best they can
To stand, stand, stand stand

You can purchase Escape From Monster Island, as well as the new documentary about Graham, called Swept Away, at the Texas Music Roundup.
Get more info about Jon Dee at his website.

DJ Johan Agebjorn

2007-10-31T23:51:00.000-04:00

Johan Agebjorn, the Swedish composer, producer and dj, has released a tremendous new mix, made up mainly of songs by female singers, including one by the great Sally Shapiro, who's album, Disco Romance, he produced and mostly wrote.
I have blogged about both Johan and Sally Shapiro several times in the past year, because I think they are two of the most talented artists I have come across in a long time.
Here is the track list for the "Pig Radio Mix:"
1. Mylène Farmer - L'Ame-Stram-Gam (1999)
2. Sophie Rimheden feat. Annika Holmberg - Can You Save Me? (Mont Ventoux Remix) (2005)
3. Cloetta Paris - I Miss You Someone (2007)
4. Sally Shapiro - I Know (2006)
5. Souvenir - Allô allô (Johan Agebjörn remix) (2007)
6. Ercola feat. Annie - Follow Me (Original Club Mix) (2007)
7. Mikado - Romance (1983)
8. Ingela Renliden - Dockans Man (1967)

Johan Agebjorn and Sally Shapiro - Pig Radio Cast

Sally Shapiro's album, Disco Romance, has just been released in the USA, wuth several cuts not on the European release. It's available via Amazon.

The Heart Strings/Jens Lekman

2007-10-24T22:19:00.000-04:00

Last year, while browsing around on MySpace, I came across the website of an English band called the Hot Air Balloonists. Their site featured a great song called "Cosmos," which I posted here. One of this blog's readers did a little research and found out that the Hot Air Balloonists was actually the alter ego of a band called the Heart Strings.
Several weeks ago, the Heart Strings' manager, Paul Devaney, sent me a promo copy of the band's first album, entitled try fly blue sky.
The album lives up to all the expectations created by "Cosmos." It is gorgeous pop music, reminiscent of everyone from Badfinger to the McCoys to the great (unknown) '70's pop band the Movies, yet utterly original and definitely grounded in the 21st century.
The Heart Strings - Nina and Her Very Long Hair
try fly blue sky is currently available for download only. You can get it at Itunes.
The similarity in song titles is as good excuse as any to post something from the wonderful new Jens Lekman album, Night Falls Over Kortedala, one of the best albums of the year.
I won't say anything about "A Postcard to Nina." Just listen.
Jens Lekman - A Postcard to Nina
Night Falls Over Kortedala is available from Amazon.

San Francisco Sound

2007-10-20T15:51:00.000-04:00

As part of their Nuggets series, Rhino Records has just released Love Is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-1970, a four-cd box set that features songs by Bay Area pre-hippy garage bands as well as some post-1967 bands like the Great Society, Janis Joplin and Santana.
This is not a set I will be buying. After a brief infatuation with San Francisco music as an adolescent, when I happily bought into the myth of a rock music-led revolution, I got the hippy ethos out of my system when I made a post-high school pilgrimage to Mecca and found not peace and love but street criminals, speed freaks and bad LSD.
However, the release of the set is a good excuse to post a couple of songs by two San Francisco bands I actually like a lot.
The first is "Don't Talk to Strangers," by the Beau Brummels, a song actually featured on the Rhino set. Written by the band's guitarist, Ron Elliott, "Don't Talk to Strangers" is grounded in Byrds-like folk rock but morphs into a powerhouse garage rock masterpice during the chorus. The song is driven by the vocals of Sal Valentino, one of the best American rock singers of the 1960's. And it doesn't hurt that it was produced by the premier San Francisco music producer at the time, Sylvester Stewart, who would later change his name to Sly Stone.
The second song is "It's a Beautiful Day Today," by Moby Grape, from their 1969 album, 1969. Moby Grape was as badly over-marketed and overhyped as Boston's Ultimate Spinach, but they had ten times the talent. Unfortunately, Columbia Records was so anxious to ride the wave of the "San Francisco Sound," that they ruined whatever chance the Grape had for commercial success. The record company did brilliant things like simultaneously releasing five singles from the debut album, and of course, all of them tanked, including the still-amazing "Omaha."
By the time 1969 came out, Moby Grape had been forgotten by everyone from the record company to the public. That's too bad, because the album was a brilliant example of WestCoast down tempo folk rock.
"It's a Beautiful Day Today" has always been a favorite song of mine. I've never been sure if the band really means what they are singing or if the song's true meaning is more accurately reflected in the incredibly melancholy melody, emphasized beautifully by the lonesome whistle bridge in the middle of the song.

The Beau Brummels - Don't Talk to Strangers
Moby Grape - It's a Beautiful Day Today

"Don't Talk to Strangers" is featured on several Beau Brummels greatest hits albums, available on Amazon. Check out the Sal Valentino/Beau Brummels website.
"It's a Beautiful Day Today" is available on 1969, which is being reissued in an expanded version next month, and can be pre-ordered at Amazon.

Scandinavian Pop

2007-10-04T23:13:00.000-04:00

I don't think there is any geographic area putting out as much interesting music right now as Scandinavia, more particularly Sweden and most particularly, the city of Gothenburg, where every resident must be in a band and have a MySpace site.
Most of the music is melodic pop with roots in the Indie pop of 1980's England. (Some call it twee - one blog referred to current Swedish pop music as "Swee.")
But even in that context, many artists are finding ways to either subvert the genre or totally modernize it. (The two most striking examples are Sally Shapiro and her producer, Johann Agebjorn, and the post modern crooner, Jens Lekman, who's album Night Falls Over Kortedela, has been alternating with the latest Okkervil River album as my favorite of 2007.)
Scandinavian pop is like music porn. Once you start listening, you can't stop. I find myself at my computer, late at night, the lights off, everyone else asleep, with headphones on, frantically clicking from one MySpace site to another, listening to snippet after snippet of brilliant pop music from one band from Gothelberg after another.
Here are songs from two of the (at the moment) more obscure of the many amazing bands that make up the population of that city.

The Dreamers - All Across This City

Boat Club - Warmer Climes

Boat Cub on MySpace. The Dreamers on MySpace.

The Feelies

2007-09-22T21:51:00.001-04:00

Was there ever a time when the Velvet Underground was unappreciated? Of course. Certainly during the period when they actually existed. I'm sure that, outside New York, Los Angeles and Boston, they were booed as much, if not more, than they were applauded. I personally remember having to lock the door of the dj booth in college when I played "Sister Ray," because the program director wanted to come in and turn it off.
But somewhere along the line, the boos turned into cheers, Lou Reed had a hit single, a million bands claimed the Velvets as an influence, a box set came out, and finally, I think, they even made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
If you are pining for a band to love who suffers from the same lack of appreciation as the Velvets suffered for so long, may I suggest the Feelies, a band from the same fertile new wave crescent of Northern New Jersey that produced the Bongoes and the Individuals, but with a much more lasting impact.
There is a reason that I led this piece with the Velvet Underground. The Feelies unabashedly borrowed the rhythm guitar style of the Velvet's "What Goes On," (not they were alone - check out many of Brian Eno's tracks on Another Green World) combined it with great Television double leads and Beatle-esque harmonies (not to mention exquisite tastes in covers ) and created a new pop sound that was loved by the bands who got into clubs for free to hear them but not by the record companies or the masses who were meant to buy the four albums they put in their lifetime.
Part of the problem was that the Feelies never seemed that interested in being a band, much less rock stars. They were like a college student who would finish one year of school and then drop out for two or three or five. They put out their first record Crazy Rhythm, on Stiff Records in 1980, but they had already been together since 1976. (I actually met them in 1977 at Terry Ork's loft, when they played percussion for my band Jack Ruby, when we were auditioning for Ork.)
They then broke up, but got back together to put out The Good Earth (my favorite of their records) in 1986. That is probably the record that should have made them stars. It was accessible and warm and full of hummable melodies and intricate pop arrangements. But it did not make them stars.
It only took two years for the Feelies to put out their next album, Only Life, the album which makes clear their debt to the Velvet Underground by actually covering "What Goes On."
Finally, three years later they put out their last album, Time for a Witness, at which point Bill Million, one of the two writer/singer/guitarists, moved to Florida, neglecting to mention to the rest of the band that he was leaving.
As I said, I knew the Feelies slightly back in the late '70's. They were part of the very vibrant post punk scene that coalesced around Maxwell's in New Jersey. But I wasn't a huge fan of Crazy Rhythms, and I lost track of them after that. (Honestly, I lost track of most music for the next eight or ten years.)
When I finally rediscovered them, it was too late to appreciate them in the flesh. However it's still possible to appreciate them on their records, which sound as fresh today as they did when they were released. Some reviewer called them the first alt/indie band, and if you want to talk about powerful rhythms, strong melodies built into the vocal harmonies and the guitar parts, and obscure, hard-to-decipher lyrics - then I would agree. But what I always come back to is the rhythm. I said earlier that they co-opted the Velvet's rhythm from "What Goes On," but really the Velvets smartly stole that rhythm from Bo Diddley and that rhythm is part of the original dna of rock n roll.
The Feelies - The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness (from Crazy Rhythms)
The Feelies - On the Roof (from The Good Earth)
The Feelies - Higher Ground (from Only Life)
The Feelies - Waiting (from Time for a Witness)
The Velvet Underground - What Goes On (Closet Mix)
The Feelies - What Goes On

Great Songs and Great Songwriting #2 (Story Songs)

2007-09-16T19:28:00.000-04:00

I am not a huge fan of story songs. Actually, let me rephrase that: I've never found the fact that a song is a story song a reason in and of itself to love the song. I know there is a tradition in American folk music that has certainly shown itself in pop ("Honey"), soul ("Papa Was a Rollin' Stone," Slick Rick's "Children's Story") and country (a million examples, everything from "Ode to Billie Joe" to "Goodbye Earl"). And many of those songs are great. But they aren't necessarily my cup of tea. (I am partial to Dennis Linde's "Goodbye Earl.")
But I'm posting the two story songs below not only because they build suspense like good old fashioned short stories, but their twisted endings reflect a cynicism and bitterness on the part of the writers that I find very attractive.
John Hiatt - Tennessee Plates
Robert Earl Keen - The Road Goes On Forever

Rock's Backpages

2007-09-14T13:47:00.000-04:00

Rock's Backpages is an English website that republishes English and American music criticism from the rock era, dating back to the mid-60's and continuing into the present. It has managed to collect over 10,000 articles from most of the rock press - everything from the major magazines, like Rolling Stone, Spin, Creem, NME and Melody Maker - to more obscure but equally influential magzines like Zig Zag, Fusion, Trouser Press, New York Rocker (my fave) and No Depression. It features pieces by literally thousands of writers, from early mainstream media rock critics like the NY Times' Mike Jahn, to hall of famers like Lester Bangs, Greil Marcus, Greg Shaw and Nick Kent, to obscure geniuses like John Mendelssohn, to passers-through like Chrissie Hynde, Kim Fowley and Nick Hornby. It costs a few bucks a year and it's is totally worth it. I've been subscribing for five or six years. Every Monday I get an email with a list of 10-20 new articles they have added to their database. They are extremely well-organized and articles are accessible by artist name, genre, writer or magazine. Please check it out.

Great Songs and Great Songwriting #1

2007-09-08T18:58:00.000-04:00

I've always been fascinated by songs, and what makes one song great and another not so hot. There is so much that goes into a great song. Obviously, you have to have both a memorable melody and meaningful lyrics. And the song has to be constructed in such a way as to please and surprise the listener over and over again.
Great songwriting is a craft as well as an art. I love that place where the craft and the art meet.
This is the first in a series of posts in which I hope to explore different facets of songwriting and also post some examples of what I consider great songs. And eventually, come to some conclusions about exactly what elements go into a great song.
The first song I'm posting was written and performed by Michelle Shocked, on her 1992 album, Arkansas Traveller. Ironically, I chose it not because it illustrates any particular premise about songwriting. It's just a song I find myself listening to a lot. And aside from the catchy melody and propulsive pace of the song, the reason I love it as much as I do may have more to do with the fact that it's structurally a travelogue about Los Angeles circa 1988 (a few years before I moved there) and therefore personally interesting.
Michelle Shocked - Come a Long Way

Nu-Soft Rock

2007-08-29T09:22:00.000-04:00

Looking for something easy to listen to on your way to work, something that won't insult your intelligence or threaten your musical integrity? Check out the Silent League, a celestial-sounding pop band founded by Justin Russo, formerly a member of Mercury Rev, whose MySpace page proudly proclaims, "Soft rock is not a guilty pleasure."
Incorporating influences from artists as disparate as Bowie and Bread, (not to mention amazing Richard Carpenter-like horn arrangements) Silent League's album, Of Stars and Other Somebodies, (available here) will make you forget, at least for a moment, the rush hour traffic, the crowded subways and the horribly petty humiliations of your pathetic existence.
The Silent League - Out of Reach
Silent League will be at Mercury Lounge in Manhattan on September 28, and at Luna Lounge in Brooklyn on September 29. Another great nu-soft band, Maps, is also on both bills.

Two New Discoveries

2007-08-24T15:05:00.000-04:00

Besides the Okkervil River album, there are two other artists I have discovered recently that I've been enjoying a lot.
One is a guy I discovered on Pitchfork, named Christian Kiefer, who lives in Northern California and is a fiction writer as well as a musician and songwriter.
Kiefer has put out several albums that are stylistically all over the map, from avant-noise to blues to folk. His new album, Dogs and Donkeys, (available here) is what I would have called alt-country ten years ago. (It actually reminds me of one of my favorite albums of all time, Son Volt's Trace.)
The album features guest appearances by Nels Cline (currently in Wilco), the legendary Garth Hudson and Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker from Low.
Here is the first track on the album:
Christian Kiefer - Pretty White Clouds

The other artist I'm really enjoying right now is a DJ from Oakland, CA, called the Sorcerer. (Real name, Daniel Judd.) He has a new album out called White Magic, on Tirk Records, available here.
It's a lovely West Coast example of neo-disco, one of my favorite genres at the moment. (See my post on Sally Shapiro a few months ago.)
The Sorcerer - Hawaiian Island
There is also a great Prins Thomas remix of "Surfing at Midnight," from the same album, floating around the blogosphere.

Okkervil River - The Stage Names

2007-08-24T06:59:00.000-04:00

Okkervil River, from Austin, Texas, and led by singer/writer Will Sheff, just released their fifth album, The Stage Names, and it may be the best album I've heard all year. The album careens between genuinely driving rock and roll songs and indie ballads that border on prettiness. The lyrics are as dense and full of puns and tricks as early Elvis Costello. (Case in point: The song "Plus One," with lyrics like, "No one wants to hear about your 97th tear," and, "You would probably die before you shot up nine miles high..." You get the point.)
The music is complex and layered without ever sounding processed or artificial. The playing is self-assured and the arrangements are consistently surprising.
The album has totally passed the listen-all-the-way-to-work-without-switching-to-shuffle test. Here is the opening track from the album, kindly provided by Jagjaguwar.
Okkervil River - Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe

Find out more about Okkervil River here.
Order The Stage Names from Emusic.

The Best Velvet Underground Cover EVER!

2007-08-19T21:52:00.000-04:00

Detroit, featuring vocalist Mitch Ryder, released their self-titled debut album on Paramount Records in 1972. Besides Ryder, the star of the album was guitarist Steve Hunter, who had played on a couple of Alice Cooper records and would go on to ((fleeting) fame as one of the guitarists who, along with Dick Wagner, gave Lou Reed's Berlin and the live Rock & Roll Animal their signature sounds. (Many people believe Rock & Roll Animal is the best live rock album of all time. I wouldn't go that far but, having attended the concert at which it was recorded, I will say it kicked ass.)
At the time of Detroit's release, the Velvet Underground's impact on rock music was still pretty much under the radar. David Bowie was performing live versions of "White Light White Heat" and "I'm Waiting for the Man" and Mott the Hoople covered "Sweet Jane," on the Bowie-produced All the Young Dudes, but at that point there was very little mainstream acknowledgement of their influence. (Of course, that would change drastically over the next couple of years as punk took hold and the cliche that the Velvets never sold a lot of records but everyone who bought one started a band came true.)
Listening to Detroit's version of "Rock and Roll" it's as if Grand Funk or Foghat or Dust had decided that this was their chance to define rock music circa 1972. It's a big hunk of Michigan metal that perfectly captures everything that was great- and execrable - about mainstream, pre-punk blues-based hard rock.
Detroit - Rock 'n' Roll

Harry Potter and the Smiths

2007-08-13T22:32:00.000-04:00

My friend David Lee told me that he had spent the weekend reading the latest (and final) Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, while listening to the Smiths. And even though there are (obviously) no overt references to the Smiths in any of the Harry Potter novels, it makes a lot of sense to me that you could make a connection between the two. After all, even though the Potter novels are fantasy, they are as steeped in English-ness as Twinings Breakfast Tea, fitting very comfortably in the literary genre of the English schoolboy novel. And is there any band in the last 25 years who has so clearly been "English" as the Smiths?
Also, at least according to what I know about author JK Rowling (which is not that much, I admit) she is the right age, with the right kind of sensitive/rebellious college student mentality, to have listened to a lot of Smiths music in the '80's. And while there are no explicit Smith references in the novels, they are infused with the sense of romantic tragedy and outrage that defines the Smiths.
The Smiths - The Boy With the Thorn in His Side
The Smiths - There Is a Light That Never Goes Out

Three Songs About Rock Stars

2007-08-12T09:21:00.000-04:00

Two comments on superstardom and a 30-year-old plea that seems to have worked.
Russian Futurists - Paul Simon
Chin Up Chin Up - Fuck You Elton John
Nils Lofgren - Keith Don't Go

Lee Hazlewood

2007-08-08T10:18:00.000-04:00

Lee Hazelwood, who had been battling renal cancer for some time, passed away last Saturday, at the age of 78 . I posted a piece about him last January, and I am reposting it below, along with an mp3 of the song, "Summer Wine."

In today's (January 28) New York Times Arts and Leisure section, there is an interesting and entertaining interview with Lee Hazlewood, the songwriter and performer best known for writing many of Nancy Sinatra's hits, including "These Boots Are Made For Walking," "Some Velvet Morning" and "Summer Wine." Hazlewood, who recently released a new album called Cake or Death, has incurable renal cancer.
Hazlewood has been a hero of mine since I was a kid, because "Summer Wine" was the first song I had ever heard where the references to sex were so blatant and explicit that even I recognized them for what they were: blatant and explicit references to sex. (Lee: "She saw my silver spurs and said let's pass the time/And I will give to you some summer wine." Nancy: "Take off your silver spurs and help me pass the time/And I will give to you more summer wine.")
In the early 90's, young musicians began to realize that Hazlewood was more than just a kitschy artifact of the pop '60's. (He had been recording and releasing idiosyncratic albums in his adopted homeland, Sweden, throughout the last three decades, but very little of that material got heard in America.) Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth got a record company to release several of his albums in America. A bunch of artists recorded Hazlewood's songs on a tribute album called Total Lee!
Hazlewood's songs have held up incredibly well, because, even though the songs were supreme examples of '60's pop, there was always something weirdly off-the-wall going on. Like Scott Walker, Lee Hazlewood is now generally recognized as an overlooked artist who was way ahead of his time. It is unfortunate that it is only now, as he wrestles with cancer, that he is getting the kind of recognition he deserves.

Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood - Summer Wine

Best of the First Half of 2007

2007-07-28T16:00:00.000-04:00

I started working on this list over a month ago, but got sidetracked by the birth of my son Conner.
I wouldn't have said that the first six months of the year had been that great musically - nothing stood out in my mind as singularly mind-blowing. The trumpeted albums - by Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, Of Montreal, Feist, Voxtrot - were all good, but nothing jumped out of the pack and marked itself as classic.
However, when I began to put together a rough list of my favorite tracks, I was surprised to find that I was almost overwhelmed with the amount of material I wanted to include - and the high level of enjoyment I got when I played the songs one after another. And frankly, I had a tough time editing the list down to the 36 songs with which I ended up.
Here, then, in no particular order, except that the segues work, is my list (album titles in parentheses):
Feist - One Two Three Four (The Reminder)
Los Campesinos! We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives (We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives)
Twilight Sad - That Summer at Home, I Had Become the Invisible Boy (Fourteen Summers, Fifteen Winters)
Of Montreal - A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger (Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?)
The Clientele - Here Comes the Phantom (God Save the Clientele)
Lucky Soul - Add Your Light to Mine, Baby (The Great Unwanted)
Math and Physics Club - Darling, Please Come Home (Math and Physics Club)
Kuryakin - Take My Hand (Unreleased Demo)
Pelle Carleberg - Pamplona (In a Nutshell)
California Snow Story - Begin Again (Close to the Ocean)
Panda Bear - Comfy in Nautica (Person Pitch)
Lewis and Clarke - Blasts of Holy Birth (Blasts of Holy Birth)
Great Lake Swimmers - Rocky Spine (Ongiara)
Magic Arm - Outdoor Games (Outdoor Games)
Miracle Fortress - Beach Baby (Five Roses)
The National Lights - Better For It, Kid (The Dead Will Walk, Dear)
Paul Duncan - Red Eagle (Above the Trees)
Nobody and the Mystic Chords of Memory - The Seed (Tree Colored See)
Hot Air Balloonists - Cosmos (Demo)
Scott Simons - Umbrella (Unreleased)
All Systems Ghost - Misty's Reflection (Virtues of Sleep demo)
Le Futur Pompiste - Sunflower (Your Stories and Your Thoughts)
Au Revoir Simone - Sad Song (The Bird of Music)
The Twin Atlas - Take Your Own Advice (Magic Car Wash)
Ulrich Schnauss - Never Be the Same (Goodbye)
LCD Soundsystem - Someone Great (Sound of Silver)
The Charade - My Song to You (A Real Life Drama)
The Mary Onettes - Pleasure Songs (The Mary Onettes)
Explosions in the Sky - Welsome, Ghosts (All of a Sudden, I Miss Everyone)
The National - Fake Empire (Boxer)
The Field - Over the Ice (From Here We Go Sublime)
Alsace Lorraine - As We Fight (Dark One)
I Am Robot and Proud - The Catch (The Catch and Spring Summer Autumn Winter)
Patty Griffin - Up to the Mountain - MLK Song (Children Running Through)
The Postmarks - Goodbye (The Postmarks)
Many of these songs have already been posted on Be Hear Be Now. I've posted several more here. I strongly recommend that you buy these artists' albums.

My New Sloop

2007-07-28T15:41:00.000-04:00

I have to be honest, I've never been a huge fan of the Beach Boys. But this understated remix of "Sloop John B," by my friend David Mester, really brings into focus how brilliantly they used harmonies to create a Phil Spector-like wall of sound.
By the way, Mester is not only a talented musician and mixer. He is also, among other things, the voice of the "Goat" in certain Aflac commercials.
David - My New Sloop

1995

2007-07-19T04:45:00.000-04:00

1995 was a year of many changes for me, mainly because, for the first time in many years, I found myself living alone.
One result was that I spent a lot of time not only listening to music, but seriously exploring music and artists I wasn't previously aware of.
I'm posting songs by three of those artists here:
Grant McLennan, who passed away last year, was one of the co-leaders of the great Australian band the Go-Betweens. Horsebreaker, A True Star was his third solo album. The songs are jangly 12-string pop, very Byrds-like, but with offbeat melodies and lyrics that are either brilliantly surreal or really dumb.Rickard Buckner was (and is) a singer/songwriter from Phoenix, AZ. I first got interested in him because that summer, coinciding with the release of his first album, Bloomed, he was performing a lot at a club on East 9th Street called, Sine, and I would stick my head in the door on the way home from work. Even though I never stayed for a whole set (it was too hard to find a place to sit) I was mesmerized by his high lonesome voice and disjointed melodies. His songs remind me of a romanticized version of Denis Johnson's book, Jesus' Son. Like, maybe the songs Fuckhead would write after he got out of rehab.The reason I was living alone in 1995 was because in January of that year, my wife and I separated. I moved into a furnished studio in the East 40's. On the weekends I would drive out to Amagansett on the East End of Long Island, to stay at the house we had rented a few months earlier, when we first started having problems, in the hope that getting out of the city would help us patch things up. It didn't, we separated, and my wife wanted nothing to do with the house. So every weekend I would pick up the car we still shared and make the three and a half hour drive out to the Hamptons.
My soundtrack for many of those trips was Robert Earl Keene's Gringo Honeymoon. Even though the lyrics didn't necessarily speak to my particular situation, the sense of sweet melancholy in the songs, particularly the title song, refracted through the cocoon of darkness in which I was enveloped the minute I hit the highway, was a perfect mirror for my feelings and provided me with hours of comfort on those long drives.

Grant McLennan -Ice in Heaven
Richard Buckner - Gauzy Dress in the Sun
Robert Earl Keen - Gringo Honeymoon

Clientele - God Save the Clientele

2007-07-18T22:40:00.000-04:00

When I first heard to the Clientele's latest album, God Save the Clientele, a few months ago, my thought was that they were plundering genres like the Pirates of the Caribbean, particularly late '60's Beatle-inspired American pop music, best exemplified by the Monkees, but certainly echoed by bands like Tommy James and the Shondells, the Turtles, Harpers Bazaar and the Cyrkle.
But the more I listened to the album, the more I appreciated it - not only for the skill the band demonstrated in producing classic pop music, but also for the genuinely clever lyrics, memorable melodies and complex arrangements.
I've come around to the point that I consider it one of my favorite albums of the moment.
Here's a song that would have been a certain Number 1 in 1968.
The Clientele - Here Comes the Phantom

Just for kicks, here's a Jayhawks song from their 2000 album, Smile. That was the album that lost them their alt-country fan base without winning them any pop music fans. However, I believe this song was used in a Ralph Lauren commercial.
The Jayhawks - Smile

Both God Save the Clientele and Smile are available via Amazon.

J Pop Offshoots

2007-07-06T23:18:00.000-04:00

I recently spent a brief period obsessed with J Pop, that genre of Japanese pop music that is the result of Japanese assimilation/interpretation of American and European pop music. My obsession has wained simply because I found most of the music pretty boring.
Ultimately, I did discover a couple of artists I find extremely intriguing.
Color Filter probably does not qualify as J Pop - they seem too serious. But since I discovered them on a Japanese label website (Happiness Records) that featured several J Pop performers, I'm going to call them neo-j pop. Color Filter is led by nuclear physicist/multi instrumentalist Ryuji Tsuneyoshi. Vocals are by Yuki Nishimura. They have just released a new album in Japan called Blueberry. (Doesn't seem to be an American release scheduled, although their earlier albums were released on Darla.)
I am posting a track from their last album, called Silent Way.

Color Filter - Strange Day

Find out more about Color Filter at their website.
Purchase Silent Way at Pointy Records.

I found Sucrette via MySpace, and I don't know much about them (everything is in Japanese). I do know they have a fascinating take on French yeh-yeh pop. This song is from their new album, C'est Si Bon.

Sucrette - Sweet Magic

Check out Sucrette on MySpace
Purchase C'est Si Bon at Amazon Japan

Check out the Itunes Podcast called the JPopcast Show with DJ San Fran & Christine Miguel to hear more J Pop than you'll ever need.
I continue to be fascinated with J Pop's utterly uncritical embrace of other genres of pop music, so, if anyone has any J Pop suggestions for me, please email them. I'm very interested in learning more.

Middle of the road crap or rock classics?

2007-07-06T13:30:00.000-04:00

In the early 90's I wasn't listenng to a lot of music, and what I was listening to was all over the map. A little bit of country, a little bit of shoegaze (even though I didn't know that was what it was called) a little bit of whatever was popular on MTV or on WNEW-FM, the New York progressive rock dinosaur radio station.
For me, it was a time of relearning how to listen to music, after a long period of not listening to much music at all.
The three songs I'm posting here are songs I listened to a lot during that period, and which I don't think I've listened to in over ten years. I'm posting them because I'm curious if they hold up.
When the Gin Blossoms released their first album, New Miserable Experience, it seemed like they could be the reincarnation of either Big Star or the Raspberries. Then the band fired their alcoholic guitar player, Doug Hopkins, (he later committed suicide) and they were never able to repeat the magic.
Del Amitri was a Scottish band, in some ways maybe a distant relative of Teenage Fanclub in their ability to come up with memorable melodies, but without the Fanclub's originality or willingness to take a risk.
Hothouse Flowers was another Scottish band. I liked the bigness, the anthem-like quality of their songs. I put "Isn't It Amazing" on a lot of mix tapes, because of its spiritual theme.
Gin Blossoms - Hey Jealousy
Del Amitri - Be My Downfall
Hothouse Flowers - Isn't It Amazing?
So, crap or classic? I can't tell. Each of these songs meant a great deal to me at a particular moment in my life, and I can't separate the songs from the emotional connections I still have with them. The one thing I will say is, none of them are as bad as Hootie and the Blowfish.

Here's a bonus:
Freedy Johnston - Bad Reputation

A Few Summer Songs

2007-06-23T23:53:00.000-04:00

I'm not going to get involved in any stupid arguments about what defines a summer song.
But here are a couple of older summer songs and and two that I've been playing recently. I know they're summer songs because they have the word "summer" in the title. (Check out the cool pop culture reference in the Johnny Rivers song.)
Johnny Rivers - Summer Rain
The Undertones - Here Comes the Summer
The Shermans - Summer In Your Heart
Lucky Soul - One Kiss Don't Make a Summer

The Undertones and The Johnny Rivers Anthology are both available at Amazon.com.
The Shermans' Casual cd is available from Shelflife Records.
Lucky Soul's Add Your Light to Mine, Baby is available from emusic.com.

Lewis & Clarke's Blasts of Holy Birth etc.

2007-06-13T22:02:00.000-04:00

Lewis & Clarke's new album Blasts of Holy Birth (about which I posted before it's release) is out now, on La Societe Expeditionaire. I recommend it highly.
As I have discussed before, Lewis & Clarke is the musical vehicle for the singer and writer named Lou Rogai, from Pennsylvania.
I have thought a lot about what makes his music so attractive to me, and last week, as I was walking home from work with the title song playing in my Ipod headphones, I realized that what I like best about the music is the fact that it swings. I hate that word, because it so directly references a type of music that I don't have any particular affinity for, but I figured out a long time ago that my love of music is very strongly related to my belief that there is a definite rhythm to the universe, and that if we can lock into that rhythm and live within it, it's like swimming with the current, and we can live harmoniously. And of course, if we fight the rhythm, as if we were trying to swim against the current, we are going to be exhausted, anxious and discontent.
I have found this applies to everything from physical activities like running to things a simple and basic as breathing. And, of course, it very much applies to music.
The sense of swing begins, superficially, in the rhythm section. Bass and drums. I can't explain technically what makes some musicians swing and others not swing, although I think there may be something about being just the slightest bit ahead of the beat. I do know that Charlie Watts could play the phone book and it would swing. And I remember seeing James McMurtrey at Mercury Lounge back in the 90's and thinking that he was very lucky that he had an Austin rhythm section backing him up, because without it his songs (at least in the arrangements he was then playing) would have been interminable.
However, I think there is a deeper kind of swing, which I hesitate to even try to define. It's one of those "I don't know what it is, but I know it when I hear (feel) it" things. I think there are musicians - artists - who innately and unconsciously swing. (For some reason, my paradigm for this is Duke Ellington. My image of being swingingly in sync is Duke Ellington in a tuxedo, conducting an orchestra as he floats down the river.)
Lewis and Clarke, and Lou Rogai, embody that type of swing.
What's interesting about Lewis and Clarke's music is the fact that there is something meditative - a melodic droning, a relaxed drawing out - that occurs simultaneously with its swing-ness. When I first noticed this, I thought that the two were antithetical, and that it didn't make sense that they were occurring at the same time. But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to fit, in as much as one of the goals of meditation is to find that place in oneself where one is in sync with the universe.
So, in affect, the music is acting as a prod to help us find that place of harmony within ourselves, at the same time that it actually reflects that harmony.
Lewis and Clarke - Bare Bones and Branches (Live on WPRB)

All of Lewis and Clarke's albums are available at the Lewis and Clarke website.
Lewis and Clarke will be performing at a Ballroom Party to Benefit Common Ground
Friday June 15th at the Prince George Ballroom
15 East 27th St (btw. 5th & Madison)
Manhattan, NY
$20.00 (3 Free Beers with every Ticket Purchase [21+])
For more info, go here.

Welcome to the World, Conner Kirkpatrick Hall

2007-06-13T05:05:00.000-04:00

Guy Clark - Come from the Heart
White Stripes - Hardest Button to Button

Philip Rambow - Fallen

2007-06-07T23:03:00.000-04:00

There isn't much to say about "Fallen." It's a great song by a singer/songwriter who never did anything else as interesting or exciting. You could call "Fallen" a one hit wonder, except it wasn't even a hit.
For a couple of months back in 1979, I played this song more often then all the other records I owned combined. And since I found it online last week, I've been playing it just as relentlessly. (One of the things I have found out about my music listening is that I still love everything that I loved at one time or another. But in addition, I now love a lot of things I didn't like at all at one time or another.)

Philp Rambow - Fallen

You can download the (now out-of-print) album from which "Fallen" is taken - Shooting Gallery - at a great sharity blog call Power Pop Criminals.

Marie et les Garcons - Re-Bop

2007-06-07T21:48:00.001-04:00

Over the last couple of weeks I've been incredibly fortunate to find digital versions of several songs/albums that have been on my digital wish list for years.
First and foremost is the Beckies' album, about which I've already posted.
But there are a couple of other things I've found recently, and I'm happy to be able to write about them and offer them up as MP3's.
Marie et les Garcons was a French post-punk group. When I discovered the 12" of "Re-Bop" (in 1978 or '79)) I was working at Bleeker Bob's record store, and I brought it home only because it was on Ze Records and because John Cale produced it. At the time I was in a band called W-2, and we had just replaced out bass player, Shelby, with a guy who I remember only as William. "Re-Bop," which was disco punk overlayed with a thin veneer of Euro-pop, had a lot of elements that I thought were similar the things we were doing in W-2, and I wanted this guy William to listen and learn. So I loaned him the 12" (along with Jack Johnson and some obscure disco records). A week or so later, in the van on the way back from a disastrous gig in Philadelphia, W-2 broke up, and for whater reasons - mostly having to do with my own drug-addled lack of responsibility - I never saw William again, and I never got the records back. And I never replaced "Re-Bop." Every couple of years I would wake up singing the chorus, and that would make me heartsick. I made a couple of half-hearted attempts to locate another copy of the song, with no luck. It wasn't like the song had been a hit and was going to show up on Greatest Hits of the '70's. Finally, last week, I discovered it online.
Happily, it holds up extremely well.
Marie et Les Garcons - Re Bop

Believe it or not, Marie et les Garcons are still around; at least they have a MySpace site.

Ze Records deserves at least a post of its own, if not a whole book. In its heyday, it was one of the most innovative record companies in the world. Everyone from Lydia Lunch to Arto Lindsay released records on that label and none of them were boring.

A Couple of Things I Found on MySpace

2007-06-03T16:42:00.000-04:00

I've never had much to do with MySpace in terms of interacting with friends, but I've been a big fan of it as a source of music since I joined last spring. The first band I sent a Friend Request to was My Morning Jacket (don't ask me why). Soon after that, I learned about Lily Allen and I've been using MySpace to discover and keep up with music and musicians I like ever since.
In the past few days I have come across a couple of bands I would love to recommend:
My Cloud Mireya is from New York City and is made up of Claudia Deheza (ex- ON!AIR!LIBRARY!) and Guillermo S. Herren (Prefuse 73, Savath y Savalas, Piano Overlord, Zanzo plus the defunct Delarosa+Asora.) I don't know much else about them. I discovered them when I was checking out the "Top Friends" of a band I have been listening to for awhile called Daylight's for the Birds.
A Cloud Mireya - Wasted Time
A Cloud Mireya's album, Singular, is available from Insound.
My Cloud Mireya's MySpace site.

Le Futur Pompiste is from Finland. They were "Top Friends" of the Dreamers, a band I highly recommend and intend to post about more extensively in the near future.
Le Futur Pompiste - Seeds
Le Futur Pompiste's record, Your Stories and Your Thoughts, is available from Siesta Records.
Check out Le Futur Pompiste on Myspace.

Luomo

2007-05-31T08:40:00.001-04:00

Now that's what I call music.

Luomo - Let You Know

Buy Paper Tigers here.

Luomo website

The Great Pop Masterpiece

2007-05-24T22:56:00.000-04:00

The legend of Michael Brown is pretty familiar to pop music geeks of a certain age. He was a precocious 16-year old music student in 1966 when he formed the Left Banke and wrote, arranged and recorded "Walk Away Renee" and "Pretty Ballerina." Both of those songs were hits, and it seemed like the Left Banke, and Michael Brown, were on their way.
But to those to whom much is given, much trouble is also given, and Brown, never comfortable on stage, and perhaps (unfairly) feeling the band could not keep up with him, soon split, and a year or so later, ended up producing and writing songs for a band called Montage. That didn't work out and the band broke up after making one album. (Despite the fact that it is probably the weakest album with which Brown was ever associated, his signature is unmistakeable.)
A couple of years later, Brown hooked up with a singer/bass player named Ian Lloyd and formed a band called the Stories, who were, in many ways the third point in the pop triangle of Big Star and the Raspberries. But while the Raspberries and the Stories shared an obvious debt to the Beach Boys, the Stories were strongly piano-based while the Raspberries and Big Star were all about ringing guitar chords. And even though all three bands relied on strong melodies and soaring harmonies, the Stories' music was much more firmlyy rooted in Brown's classical training and a love of a frenetic, almost Glenn Gould-like bed of keyboards.
The Stories released two albums in which Brown participated, but then he and Lloyd fought and Brown split again. Shortly afterward, the Stories actually had a hit, with Hot Chocolate's "Brother Louie," but one listen to that song and it's obvious that Brown had nothing to do with it.
Brown dropped off the map for a few years, and then resurfaced with a band called the Beckies, from St. Louis. I don't know how he found those guys. On paper, it was an unlikely match: young fresh faced innocents from the Midwest teaming up with a by-now battle scarred, paranoid New York music veteran.
However - a big however - the album they released in 1976 (called The Beckies) is, in my mind, a POP MASTERPIECE. Maybe THE pop masterpice.
Now, I may be alone in thinking this. Certainly no one has thought enough of it to reissue it on CD. Even when I first purchased it, in the summer of 1976, I found it in a cut out bin for $1.99 in a second hand record store on 12th Street and Broadway in NYC. But the fact that I remember so clearly the circumstances of the purchase says a lot about how important the album has been for me.
I have been listening to this record off and on for 31 years now, and it still sounds as fresh to me as the first day I heard it.
It's a sneaky record, I will admit. It's easy to hear it as a bland '70's pop/rock JoJo Gunne/Crabby Appleton wannabe (especially considering that it came out at a time when so much interesting and edgier stuff was going on musically in New York City.). But listen closely: the subtleties of Brown's writing, arranging and producing soon become obvious. The stops and starts, the bed of keyboards, the string arrangements, the counterpoint in the harmonies, the classical echoes in the solos, are all musical themes Brown had explored before, (albeit never as as successfully.)
The Beckies was the last album Michael Brown worked on. I have no idea what has happened to him. There is a fan website that has downloads of radio interviews with him in 2003, but I haven't listened. As a rock and roll romantic, I don't want anything messing with my image of Brown as the Villonesque artist manque. He is that great tragic figure, the musical genius who could never find a home. I would say that it's a shame, and I can't even begin to imagine what he would have created if he could have harnessed the demons that seem to have kept him from staying active. At the same time, I have to say that the Beckies album is a glorious way to end a career.

The Stories - Darling
The Stories - Please, Please

The Beckies - River Bayou
The Beckies - On the Morning That She Came
The Beckies - Fran

(Check out Gooder'n Bad Vinyl, a sharity blog featuring a great selection of out-of-print vinyl downloads.)

Voxtrot

2007-05-22T22:37:00.000-04:00

Voxtrot, from Austin, Texas, has released three EPs in the last year and a half, each one more subtly original than the last. In the process, the band built a huge international fan base. (They sold out a week's worth of shows in New York City in no time last fall.)
Consequently, there was a lot of curiosity about what their first full length album (called Voxtrot, and released this week on Playlouder / Beggars Group Records) would sound like. (And quite a lot of pressure to be as good as, if not better than their three EPs, without repeating themselves.)
As the review in the New York Times on Monday said, no need to worry. Voxtrot has outdone themselves in every way. The production, by Victor Van Vugt, fleshes out their sound, adding instrumentation and weight without sacrificing the focus on the songwriting. The performances, by lead singer and songwriter Ramesh Srivastava, Jason Chronis, Mitch Calvert, Matt Simon, and Jared Van Fleet are original and self assured. The songs themselves are idiosyncratic pop gems, echoing everything from early Paul McCartney to XTC to fellow-Austinite Britt Daniels. And yet, there is never any doubt that it is Ramesh who is writing these songs. Melodic without being cloying, lyrically intensive without being pretentious or verbose, they are serious without taking themselves too seriously.
Voxtrot - Kid Gloves
Purchase Voxtrot at emusic.com.
Voxtrot MySpace.

May 21, 1988

2007-05-21T14:13:00.000-04:00

Townes Van Zandt - To Live Is To Fly

Miracle Fortress

2007-05-17T21:38:00.000-04:00

Miracle Fortress, the brain child of Montreal musician Graham Van Pelt, is streaming their new album on their MySpace site, and it's worth putting up with the crappy MySpace music player to experience it.
The album, Five Roses, will be released next week on Secret City Records, and can be ordered here.
Check it out, it really is brilliant.
PS: I posted a song from the album a couple of weeks ago, and you can still download it.

The National Lights

2007-05-17T05:43:00.000-04:00

The National Lights, from Richmond, Virginia, have released an album called The Dead Will Walk, Dear, on BloodShake Records, and it's lovely (in a full moon shining through the pine trees in a lonely forest in Kentucky sort of way.) I have found myself listening to it a lot lately - in the car, on my way to work, on my computer at work. One song flows into another so seamlessy that the album seems to be over in the space of time one song usually takes.
Everything works: the 21st-century folk arrangements, the self-assured production by Chris Kiehne Jr., the background vocals by Sonya Cotton.
What I love best is the way the warm, accessible melodies by group leader Jacob Thomas Berns very sneakily suck you in, and then you slowly become aware that most of Berns' songs are about death and dying. The Dead Will Walk, Dear is an album that wraps itself around you. It's only later that you realize you are being warmed by a shroud.
I am hesitant to post a single song, because, as I said, one of the album's strengths is its cohesiveness. It really should be heard in its entirety. But what the hell, here is the first track.
National Lights - Better For It, Kid
Order the album here.
Learn more about the band here.

Guitars

2007-05-16T09:47:00.000-04:00

In the May 14 issue of The New Yorker there is an article about guitar maker Ken Parker by Burkhard Bilger that should be fof interest to anyone who either plays guitar or has tried to play it. Or, for that matter, anyone who has surfed Ebay fantasizing about vintage Gibsons, Martins and Fenders. Among the things I learned was that building a guitar is like building a cathedral - you are always balancing the practical need for support and the aesthetically-driven desire for pure tonal beauty. I also learned that you will never get rich making guitars by hand. Your descendants might, but you probably won't.
In honor of guitar makers and players everywhere, I am posting a song about guitar strings by Guy Clark, a pretty fair luthier in his own right.
Guy Clark - Black Diamond Strings
(The song has an interesting verse about Rodney Crowell and his father, JW, and mother, Causette.)

Listen to audio clips from Burkhard Bilger and Ken Parker

(I Am) Superman

2007-05-08T11:02:00.000-04:00

The other day, my wife, Sara, and I were discussing REM, and she mentioned how much she loved the song "I Am Superman." I was happy to be able to point out to her that REM's version was in fact a cover of the original, which was the b-side of the only hit by a '60's pop/bubblegum LA group called The Clique, whose hit, "Sugar On Sunday," was written and originally recorded by the greatest of the pop/bubblegum LA groups, Tommy James and the Shondells. Oh, what a wonderfully tangled web we weave.

The Clique - (I Am) Superman
REM - (I Am) Superman

The Clique - Sugar On Sunday
Tommy James and the Shondells - Sugar On Sunday

Special thanks to my son Walker for finding the Clique cd in our apartment when I was convinced I had put it in storage.

Searching for a second career

2007-05-04T11:25:00.000-04:00

No words are necessary:
http://www.billwymandetector.com

Rolling Stones - You Got the Silver

Toni Price

2007-05-03T13:29:00.000-04:00

Toni Price represents everything that is both awesome and tiresome about the Austin music scene. She is an amazing singer, with a richly sensual voice, who could easily have a larger career if she wanted to. But she rarely tours, and rarely makes the kind of records that could expose her to a wider audience. She has been content to make records in Austin using local musicians and producers, recording material by little known Austin and Nashville songwriters or obscure blues standards, and she is best known for her long running Tuesday night Hippy Hour at the Continental Club
I am not at all critical of her decision to stay local. I think that can be really healthy. Just like the best restaurants buy local produce from local growers, sometimes the best music is made by local artists who are totally steeped in their own environment.
But the tiresome part is that localism gets worn like a flag, and then it becomes parochialism. Your audience doesn't grow, it just becomes more fanatic. Your choice in material narrows, and you proudly refuse to grow stylistically.
I used to go to Price's Happy Hour gigs a lot when I lived in Austin. Week in and week out, the music was great. She was backed up at the time by three great Austin guitar players, Scrappy Jud Newcomb, Casper Rawls and the late Champ Hood. I always had a good time, even though Toni's cult of weird little hippy girls and fat bikers was a little off putting.
Now, out of the blue, Toni Price has announced she is moving to San Diego, so no more Hippy Hours. And even though I left Austin ten years ago, I will miss knowing that, if I was there, I could always find her at the Continental Club on Tuesday evenings.
Toni Price - Tumbleweed
Loose Diamonds (with Toni Price) - Hanging On

Toni Price on MySpace

Lucky Soul

2007-04-29T15:36:00.000-04:00

Presenting this year's Camera Obscura. Great melodies and arrangements straight out of late 1960's Top 40 radio. People who don't take themselves too seriously. And Ali Howard's glorious voice. Summer is coming.
Lucky Soul - Add Your Light to Mine, Baby

Learn more about the band, purchase the new album, The Great Unwanted, at the Lucky Soul website.

The Math and Physics Club

2007-04-29T13:13:00.000-04:00

You could draw a straight line from Belle and Sebastien, through the Lucksmiths and end up at the Math and Physics Club. (And in my opinion, there is nothing wrong with that.)
Here is a song from their recently-released first album, on Matinee Recordings.
The Math and Physics Club - Darling, Please Come Home
Check out their page on the web.
Purchase their album at Amazon.

Some More Personal Music

2007-04-20T06:48:00.000-04:00

I wanted to post a few examples of music similar to that of Lewis & Clarke. (You can see I'm really living by my words about personal music and the feeling I don't have to share it.)
Here are three more very personal artists:
Miracle Fortress - Have You Seen In Your Dreams
Paul Duncan - The Lake Part 2
Magic Arm - Outdoor Games

None of the albums from which these songs are taken are available yet, but check out their websites for preordering info, tour schedules, artist bios and (possibly) more mp3's.

Miracle Fortress
Paul Duncan
Magic Arm

Madame George

2007-04-17T15:00:00.000-04:00

There is an interesting article by Tom Nolan in the Friday, April 13 edition of The Wall Street Journal, proposing that Madame George, the central character in the song of that name on Van Morrison's landmark 1969 album Astral Weeks, was in fact Madame George Yeats, wife (from 1917-1939) of the Irish poet W.B. Yeats. (Unfortunately, I can neither post the article nor link to the article, since The Wall Street Journal offers no Internet access unless one is a paid subscriber.)
Nolan makes a convincing argument, based not only on the character's name, but on some key lines in the song that talk about the spiritualist activities of the main character. (Madame George Yeats was famous for her seances.)
When you fall into a trance
A sitting on a sofa playing games of chance
Up to now, the most popular theory concerning the character's identity was that Madame George was a Belfast drag queen. See Lester Bang's fairly famous piece on the subject in Stranded from 1979.
One thing about which we can be pretty certain, Van Morrison is never going to enlighten us. Whoever Madame George is, however, the discussion is a good excuse to revisit a great song.
Van Morrison - Madame George