More Dave Grohl spotting. Also, quirky video choices and pretty good guitar solo. From the album Death by Sexy.
Monthly Archives: November 2014
Lunch Break: London Calling
This seems to be from a Grammy Awards show, not that long ago. Notable because the front line of dudes is Stevie Van Zant, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, and Dave Grohl. That Grohl dude is everywhere.
Presumably this was a tribute after Joe Strummer died, in 2002, though I’m not sure how to look that up quickly, nor if it is important. Could have been 2003 (Strummer died in 2002). I like the way the guys do the share-the-microphone singing thing, and how big and veiny the Boss’s throat gets when he’s singing. It’s also cool how they trade lines, and how cacophonous the stomp gets as they go on. Loud counts.
It’s a nice tribute.
Night Music: Allen Ginsberg and the Clash, “Capital Air”
Anticipating Apple’s naming scheme, the Clash invite Allen Ginsberg on stage at Bonds in 1981 for a punk poetry session.
I found this on the pleasekillme.com website, an analog to the excellent Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain oral history of punk.
I think Allen’s pretty much right about it all.
Song of the Week – Day of the Eagle, Robin Trower
IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED
Forty years ago, Robin Trower released his second solo album – Bridge of Sighs – named after the famous 17th century Italian structure in Venice.
To be honest, it’s not an album that I paid much attention to when it spent 31 weeks on the charts in 1974. On several occasions my good buddy Steve S has mentioned to me how much he loves this album. He was in Venice recently and it made me wonder if he was able to get to the famous Bridge to check it out. That all got me to thinking that since I have so much respect for Steve’s taste in music that I should give the record a spin again to see if it connects with me now in a way it hadn’t before.
I must admit it’s a pretty damned good album. Trower’s guitar playing is terrific, the songwriting is solid and the vocals by James Dewar (he plays bass as well) are bluesy and soulful.
The SotW is the lead of track from the album, “Day of the Eagle.”
It starts off with an aggressive guitar riff reminiscent of some of the work Trower did with Procol Harum prior to going solo, like “Whiskey Train,” but with more of a Hendrix styled power trio edge to it. This is a record meant to be played loudly!
About 3 minutes in, the song slows to a swampy blues crawl and a veeery slow fade out that provides Trower the room to throw off some tastefully emotive licks.
And it all sounds outstanding thanks to production by Trower’s former bandmate, Matthew Fisher and engineering by Geoff Emerick of Beatles fame.
Trower is still in the game. His most recent album, Roots and Branches, was released in 2013. He continues to gig and has tour dates scheduled in the UK for the spring of 2015.
Enjoy… until next week.
Night Music: Lucinda Williams, “Protection”
Lucinda Williams has a new album out, called Where the Spirit Meets the Bone. As these things go in the modern age, she’s releasing it on her own record label. I don’t know what happened to Lost Highway, but that seemed like it should have been a home forever.
Where the Spirit Meets the Bone is a double album, which is too much at this point. She’s one of my favorite performers and songwriters, but in recent years she’s become more of a boogie franchise than a songwriter. Not that that’s a bad thing. But how many folks are still writing great songs by album No. 12?
Lucinda used to write great songs. Now she writes pretty good words for pretty good riffs. There’s a big difference, but the latter isn’t bad, especially when the band is lively and tight.
There is something else about this album that struck me. The sound is incredibly present and bright. Maybe it’s compression, at least some, but it also feels like the microphones are wired hot, getting every bit of sound and reverb, and pressing directly to, um, my stream. The room feels alive, ready to pop, and that makes the music sound live-er than it sometimes is.
That was coming over Google Music. This YouTube clip has a bit of that, too, when you turn it up. But mostly it has a rock-solid band boogying rock solidly, and one of my favorite musicians and songwriters working out.
TRAILER: Death Metal Angola
This movie opened in NYC today, and is available on iTunes.
The Times review says it’s moving, but surprisingly sweet and without enough music, like the trailer, which may have been an attempt to make it a movie for non-fans of that particular style of singing.
Afternoon Snack: Dick and Dee Dee, “The Mountains High”
Beats me where it came from, but I was making dinner (a nice shepherd’s pie on a rainy evening) the other night and out of nowhere, The 
Mountains High got tripped off in my head somehow and I found myself singing it while I cooked.
Was it a Proustian moment, where the scent of thyme and garlic with ground beef and carrots triggered memories of being eight and getting totally knocked out by the song? I actually doubt that. My mother was at best a pedestrian cook, and she would never have understood the Proust reference anyway.
But, the song did completely nail me when it came out in 1961 (I was eight, so cut me some slack). I think it was mostly the machine gun drums that got me, but something about the almost dissonant, but somehow very right mix of the vocals of Dick and DeeDee also got under my skin in a good way as well.
That and as a precocious eight-year old, I saw a pic (see above) of DeeDee and had a horrible crush on her. In fact I think that my tastes in women were largely as set there as anytime, as black hair and bangs and the skinny Parker Posey/Chrissy Hynde/Joan Jett look has always been my preference, although add glasses and being a Southpaw for some reason kicks that attraction into outer space. We humans are so odd, no?
Lunch Break: Juveniles, “Fantasy”
I went to film school, so I know where most of the cuts in this video come from.
In the 1980s I was in my 20s, mostly, so I know where most of this New Wave/Disco hybrid comes from.
As a band name Juveniles seems pretty great, no matter what age.
And I bumped into this while listening to the new Belle and Sebastian single, which explores similar sonic ground. Belle and Sebastian’s tune is richer, but it doesn’t have these gals, the director’s playful prudity, and the sex-role play (or disambiguation, if you prefer) of this video.
Nicely done, Juveniles. But next time we want newer music. (Or as Steve might say, music that doesn’t suck.)
Breakfast Blend: Another Distant Planet World
Okay, I didn’t know about this 1979 U2 song, and its humiliating video. But it’s U2 and they weren’t yet famous, so they were working it. Hard to blame them. Still…
A year before that The Only Ones released this tune, which is one of the great romantic tunes of all time. Disambiguated, of course. But please dare to compare not only the hook, but the ambition and imagination.
Night Music: U2, “Out of Control”
I liked the first U2 album, in large part because of this song, which feels like it is going to spin out of control, but it never does, all the while rueing the day that control was lost.
This live version doubles down on that conflict, and maybe signifies why this rock band has always come across as more in control than ecstatic. I love the way Mr. Vox yanks his sweater out of the public’s hands, and uses that as a way to wade gently back into the fray topless.