Monthly Archives: November 2014

Up All Night! More Dimaggio. Via Pomplamoose.

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The music making entity called Pomplamoose has been around for a while. They do cute covers of classic songs, with clever arrangements that build off their cute parts. She’s a cute singer. He’s a cute musician.

Their videos have generated 100s of millions of YouTube hits, which is good for them, and they recently went on tour to support their new album. I know nothing about the album or the tour, but they posted an accounting yesterday on Medium of what it means financially to be an internet sensation on the rock touring road.

Interestingly, they hired a real band to accompany them, which was expensive. And I think reflects well on their motives. It was also probably the reason they lost money.

All in all, I’m not a fan. Too cute. But as far as too cute goes, I like them, which I think is too their credit (since I have great taste). And not only did they go all transparent about their tour, which is a good thing, but they happened to cover Simon and Garfunkel’s Mrs. Robinson, which is a pretty good Joe Dimaggio song. Yesterday was his 100th birthday, if he was alive.

Night Music: Wilco and Billy Bragg (Woody Guthrie), “Joe Dimaggio’s Done It Again”

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Joe Dimaggio was born 100 years ago today. Last year we posted the great Teddy Powell Band tune, Joltin’ Joe.

This year, Wilco and Billy Bragg’s rendering of Woody Guthrie’s lyrics, from their second Mermaid Avenue album. Happy Birthday, Joe.

I don’t know why Joe Dimaggio has so many songs. There is, of course, that Simon and Garfunkel song, and Les Brown’s original hit recording of Joltin’ Joe. I think I prefer the Teddy Powell version.

Afternoon Snack: The Good Rats

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Someone posted this picture on Facebook today, saying you know you’re from Smithtown if you recognized this spectacle.

Screenshot 2014-11-25 15.02.33

I didn’t recognize the picture or the band (or the spectacle of the testicle), but someone immediately commented, as you can see in the picture. The Good Rats!

The Good Rats played at a bar over by the ocean called Oak Beach Inn, a notorious place I only knew from their radio ads full of reverb. The Rats often opened for more national bands at clubs and arenas. But as you can see from the comments, it isn’t easy to win respect.

Lyrics quiz: I know they don’t mean much, but I can’t figure out the second line of the couplet that begins: Let me tell you I’m going to make myself famous…

Please comment if you can figure it out.

Another song from their first album, out in 1969, is pretty cool.

Lunch Break: Jimmy Cliff, “The Harder They Come”

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My post of yesterday, Me Talk Pretty One Day reminded me of the great Percy Henzell film from 1972, The Harder They Come.

In the movie, Jimmy Cliff plays frustrated singer Ivanhoe Martin, a young man with talent, but one unable to generate any buzz or interest in his skill either within the music industry, or with the Jamaican population.

So, he becomes and outlaw, first as part of a record deal, and then because it becomes too late to turn the clock back.

Not only is the film really great, but the soundtrack is maybe the best compilation of reggae ever assembled.

But, it was also the first film I ever saw where the words were spoken in English, but the accents were so thick, that American audiences were blessed with subtitles (I think the words of the Pikers in the movie Snatched also might have had subtitles).

Irrespective, here is the clip from the movie with Jimmy recording the title track:

Breakfast Blend: Elvis Costello on Letterman 1982

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The Attractions were touring supporting Imperial Bedroom, the album that Columbia promoted with the headline, Masterpiece?

I saw the band on the pier by the Intrepid, and then got a call from my friend Robin. Her neighbor was a writer on the Letterman show, and she had tickets to see them in the studio on Letterman’s show. We went. You can see them here. Thanks Robin.

The reason I landed on this is I’ve been playing that album a lot lately. I hadn’t revisited it for years, partly because of that Masterpiece? dodge. The weird overselling and the record’s effete literary musicality caused a problem. You can’t say you love this record without saying you’re some king of fancy boy. Unless you’re brave.

I love this record. The Attractions were a fantastic band, and the songs and arrangements on this elpee push them to create lively melodic music that can only, sometimes, be called Beatles-esque.

But the record really doesn’t rely on pretension. This isn’t XTC. There’s lots of air and delicious melody in the arrangements. Beatles engineer Geoff Emmerich produces this one, and the sound is precise and rich, full of detail, but each layer adds nuance, not complexity. This is art rock that is art, but doesn’t sacrifice the straight forward perspective of rock, even if the tunes mostly rock only in spurts.

And then there are Costello’s words. He’s a writer of too many words, sometimes, but when they’re pared back, as they actually often are, especially on Imperial Bedroom, he’s also a writer of uncompromising personal directness and vividness. The two songs on this Letterman clip are lyrically bold and personally revealing.

And this live version of Beyond Belief shows the rock heart at the core of Imperial Bedroom.

Me Talk Pretty One Day

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Any of you read David Sedaris’ very funny reflections, Me Talk Pretty One Day?

Well, I am not sure why that emerged as an appropriate title for this, but Diane and I schlepped up to the Tahoe house for the Thanksgiving holiday (rest of family will start arriving tomorrow) and we were watching Life of Brian (watching Brian, or The Holy Grail when we get here is part of the ritual for us).

Of course I was cracking up, as I think Life of Brian is not just one of the funniest–and best–movies ever, but I felt strongly that before America engaged in any invasions of Iraq or Afghanistan, every American should watch the film (and then keep watching it once a week until we were out of the middle east).

That is because the issues in that region are indeed 6000 years old, and, well, they run deep and silly. But, as the “Biggus Dickus” scene popped on, it made me wonder why it is so extra funny when characters are speaking the same language, and yet still cannot understand one another.

Not to mention, maybe such language miscues really get to the heart of human problems: that we simply don’t listen or hear to one another.

Here are some pretty good cinematic examples of this, starting with the oh so brilliant Pythons.

Yet another favorite, and perhaps the greatest parody of all time (sorry Spinal Tap), this scene also completely kills me.

While Father of the Bride does not even close to rank in a favorites list, this scene with Franck (Martin Short) does always get me, especially in the sense that the women totally get Franck, and poor, flustered Steve Martin has no clue. (I know this scene is pretty much ripped from the original, with Elizabeth Taylor and Spencer Tracy, but I like this sequence better.)

Lunch Break: Elvis Costello and the Attractions, “Dr. Luther’s Assistant”

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This is an Attractions B-side, originally released with New Amsterdam from Get Happy! in 1980. I own the 45 pictured in the video. The song was later collected in many different places, including the first odds and sods elpee, Taking Liberties (in the US), and like all the repeatedly rereleased novel versions of the classic albums albums with bonus tracks from the Attractions’ early years.

It’s a weird perverse kind of song, swampy with decadence and transgression, not at all in keeping with Get Happy!’s soul inspiration. I find it creepy and catchy and very bent, and tried to post it at some point last year but couldn’t find a copy on the internet.

But now there is one, and it’s gotten 51 plays. Whoops, 52, I played it again.

Breakfast Blend: How the Eagles of Death Metal Got Their Name

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A friend of Josh Homme’s was playing him tunes from a Polish metal band called Vader, and was making the argument that Vader fell within the classification of death metal. Homme said if that was true, that Vader was the Eagles of death metal.

He later thought, with his friend Jesse Hughes, that it might be fun to start a project that combined the Eagles and metal. This one was the first EoDM single.