Category Archives: afternoon snack

Afternoon Snack: Toad the Wet Sprocket, “Hold Her Down”

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Lindsay and I burn CD’s for one another on birthdays and XMAS.

I think these are what we would call “mix-tapes” in the “cassette High Fidelity” vernacular.

The whole process is fun: she digs for stuff she thinks I would like and not know (like Neutral Milk Hotel and Atmosphere, whom I shall comment on soon) and I try to do the same, digging for Billie Holiday and Dylan bootlegs along with odds and sods from hither and yon.

So, part of the process for me is simply staring at the wall of CDs in the music room, and trying to pluck out some nuggets accordingly. This time through, the great Toad the Wet Sprocket song Hold Her Down jumped out at me, and made it.

Aside from I love where the band got their name (Monty Python), Toad is a pretty good and versatile band (I saw them at a BFD many years back) and Hold Her Down is a great driving and lyrically powerful cut (listen carefully: it is a vehemently anti-rape song).

So, for my first entry of the new year, rock out.

Afternoon Snack: Green Day, “Jesus of Suburbia”

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Sometime back Steve dissed Green Day.

I understand we all have our preferences, but I have been meaning to present them, maybe even with consideration as a great band.

I got to see them twice, way back when Dookie was released. In 1993, they were the opening act at the local BFD, a spring pre-cursor to Lollapalooza. That year was a heavyweight BFD, also featuring, Pavement, Luscious Jackson, Toad the Wet Sprocket, the Rollins Band, the Flaming Lips, and the Knack (who had become a sort of cool post punk retro band).

I saw Green Day again a year later, still paying dues and working at their already well defined craft/attitude presented in Dookie. When that album came out, my legs could still allow me to run 25-35 miles a week, and Dookie was a Walkman favorite for a while.

I confess that I did not buy any Green Day discs till American Idiot was released a decade later, but their doggedness, and tuneful pop hits kept right on coming.

Warning. Redundant. When I Come Around among others, are all well done power pop/punk tunes to be sure.

But, I remember my friend George Anderson, making me sit in his car after we had picked up Chinese food. Jesus of Suburbia was next cut coming on the newly released American Idiot.

“You gotta listen to this before we go in. You will love it,” George implored.

That meant Mongolian beef and BBQ pork were going to cool down some, but I listened and George was right. I loved it.

Say what you will, but American Idiot is solid album, with clever tunes, a clean sound, and a lot of punch. Maybe it was popular, or chic, but I cannot see blaming the band for actually achieving what we all aspire to: commercial success.

Here is Jesus of Suburbia

For fun,  let’s toss in the band’s treatment of the Simpson’s theme from The Simpson’s Movie.

Afternoon Snack: The Numbers Band, “The Animal Speaks”

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The Animal Speaks was written by Akron bandleader of The Numbers Band, Robert Kidney, and recorded for the band’s first album in 1975. Earlier versions of the Numbers Band had Chrissie Hynde’s brother and future members of Devo on board, but by the time they recorded their first album, a live one, they had a different lineup.

They went on to make three albums over the next ten years, popular success didn’t find them the way it did Pere Ubu, let’s say, and for a while Robert Kidney toured with the Golden Palominos.

Afternoon Snack: 13th Floor Elevators, “You’re Gonna Miss Me”

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Gene’s post of the Dolls Too Much Too Soon reminded me so much of the 13th Floor Elevators, that I was jonesing to hear that great tune from Roky Erickson and band.

In searching, I found this really great clip from Dick Clark’s Where the Action Is.

Since it is actually semi-live, and since I don’t remember seeing the Elevators in “action,” I had no clue that the odd sort of synth/bass sound was Tommy Hall playing the jug.

Now I know.

Afternoon Snack: Randy Hansen’s Machine Gun, “All Along the Watchtower”

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I guess this piece goes back to the determining the difference between what is good, art/music wise, as opposed to what we like.

To a degree, I will buy into Steve’s notion that once the “Average Joe’s” are hep to a band or performer, I am usually done with them.

That said, his comment on the Rubettes piece, that Dave Evans could not pick up a Jimmy Page lick is kind of specious to me.

I did think of the great Jimi Hendrix in this sense, for though he was indeed a tremendous and innovative player, as much of his performance was rooted in the volume and feedback he employed. And, I don’t mean that as a slam. I LOVE Hendrix, and was lucky enough to see him four times.

But, if you doubt this, check out Randy Hansen, who does his Hendrix tribute.

I actually saw Hansen in action, maybe 35 years ago, and no question he had the Hendrix chops and sound down as you can see. Does that mean it is good? Does that mean Bono sucks because he cannot sing Come on Feel the Noise a la Noddy?

Does it mean Hendrix sucks because Dylan wrote All Along the Watchtower? Or that Joan Jett sucks because she made a hit out of Bad Reputation, even though Freedy Johnson wrote it? Despite the fact that both deconstructed the songs and essentially made them their own?

Does it mean the the movie Clueless sucks because it is based upon Jane Austen’s Emma, which was given a truer representation to the original with Gwyneth Paltrow?

Is there a difference between “this sucks,” and, “I don’t like it?”

 

Afteroon Snack: Cage the Elephant, “Cigarette Daydreams”

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I always think that I don’t post enough stuff with contributions from newer bands, and, I really like this band (well, the band is really the vehicle for singer/songwriter Matt Shultz) a lot, and this song has a nice dreamy almost John Lennon quality to it. As does Shultz’ voice at times.

Really a sweet tune as we all try to relax during the calm, prior to the onslaught of turkey and family and football.

Which isn’t a bad thing, I might add.

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.

Afternoon Snack: Dick and Dee Dee, “The Mountains High”

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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 dickanddeedeeMountains 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?

 

Afternoon Snack: Neil Diamond, “You Got to Me”

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Again, I am minding my own business, working and steaming KTKE. when this Neil Diamond nugget from 1967 came blasting out.

I do remember liking it at the time, but don’t remember the terrific blues harp at all.

Weird with Diamond. I liked some of his earlier songs, but for sure, once my mother announced how much she loved the guy, that was it for me.

I hate to lump him with Billy Joel (ugh), and even Elvis, though the glitter parallel is kind of scary.

But, just like early Elvis, this early Neil is really pretty good (and, Neil should thank his stars that Chuck Berry gave him the form).