This isn’t really breaking news. This link leads to a story from June 2014, but it’s new to me.
Yes, it seems that the Upper Crust’s Lord Rockingham, an Upper Crust member in 1995 through 1997, wrote Hard Choices, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s inside look at the choices and challenges she has made and faced.
But not Bernie Sanders.
The linked story has some clips, but let’s add one more. h/t to Cindy Brolsma.
As if that’s not enough, there is a surprise Upper Crust documentary, that features plenty of Ted Widmer, aka Lord Rockingham.
I’ve just started it, but, um, it is called Let Them Eat Rock!
When I was in high school, maybe junior year, a new kid named Robert Ellis moved to town from Cherry Hill New Jersey. I guess we shared a class and became friendly, and one day he came over my house and we spent hours arguing whether Springsteen or the New York Dolls were better. It accrues good will to us that we weren’t arguing between Foghat and REO Speedwagon, these are two of the greatest rock artists of all time in their infancy, but I still remember him saying that the Dolls didn’t even play their own instruments, as if they were the Monkees or something. I loved the Monkees.
Robert was right, the Boss was boss, and I in fact had no problem with Greetings from Asbury Park or the Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, except they weren’t the Dolls.
Today, or maybe yesterday, is the Boss’s birthday, and there is a post on Gothamist ranking all of his records. I’m so over that, I didn’t even open it, but it did make me think about the songs that speak to me. Top of the list is Rosalita, which should probably be everybody’s favorite song and lets be done with it. Then these two came to mind:
This is a really early version I’d never seen before!
I posted a great video of this tune yesterday, but this one has brighter color and is from just a handful of months ago. It also has a camera dude who is clearly not committed to not rocking.
Before the video, here’s a little of what I learned today about Lightning Bolt. They’ve been playing together for 20 years. They’ve made a number of records. The most recent came out in May 2015. The previous came out in 2009.
Brian the Bass Player has a regular job as a game designer, and worked on Guitar Hero. They live in Providence RI, so maybe he worked with Curt Schilling! Don’t know, but it seems possible.
What’s in My Bag is a show in which musicians go to a store and select stuff, and then talk about what they selected. I can tell from what Lightning Bolt selected that they’re educated and experimental. That’s a little too bad, but maybe that’s why they do what they do so well. Here’s the clip:
But much better yet, here’s more music, from a band that does away with the stage and invites the audience to stand as close as possible to them while they play. Loudly. I’m still blown away.
Friend of the remnants, Evan Davies, the WFMU DJ, is traveling around the UK buying records. Today he posted yesterday’s haul, which like his excellent radio show was an eclectic mix of punk and rock and novelties. One band name jumped out at me: The Stinking Polecats. Who?
It’s an excellent name and a quick survey at YouTube revealed a pop punk guitar band with an excellent attack and a bit too much (for my taste) of that cute uplifted voice in the vocals, like the theme song from Friends and a million other bands of their time. Which was from 1996 or so until 2006, when they stopped updating their blog.
There isn’t much out there about them, but Googling revealed that the Stinking Polecats, who sound 100 percent USA, were Italians from Piacenza, which is south of Milan. Plus, the chorus seems to be, “She was reading, and my heart was beating so fast.”
This is proof of something. I mean, it’s a pretty funny concept for a one off thing, but this guy has made at least 18 shows! Who’s watching? Or is it listening? Or maybe reading? I want to try the tahini thing he does in this one, “turning bitter brown shit into a creamy white paste!” It sure does seem like a mistake to finish this dish off with a jar of sauce, when a can of crushed tomatoes would make it your own.
This was at a show in 2009. It was the last song Lightning Bolt played that year. This is the only band I know where the bass and drums compete to be the lead instrument, and give no quarter. The results are awesome, and the video is full of drama. I’m crushing on Lightning Bolt.
Why not get rid of the guitar? Do you really need it? Lyrics, too.
These guys also get rid of the stage. They’re like subway musicians beating on joint compound containers, though louder. Much louder.
The singer, who is busy drumming, sewed a microphone into his face mask, so he could go hands free. And I can only hope I’ll stumble upon them in the subway some day..
This is from a show in France in 2008. I found it on a raging website called weirdestbandintheworld.com. Lightning Bolt ranked 94th.
