Category Archives: attitude

You Say You Want a Revolution?

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Happy Fourth of July.

Which is always a good day to reflect upon freedom and liberty and justice for all.

As the progeny of immigrants who fled the holocaust–and then whose father was drafted and sent to invade the country from which he fled–I have a pretty serious appreciation for our freedoms, and more frequently than just July 4.

In fact, at this time where revolution and talk thereof, along with the drive for democracy, occurs before our very eyes–in Egypt, as I write–on the television almost daily, I do have some hope for the world and that change, albeit slow, is possible.

So, why am I writing this jingoistic crap on a rock and roll site?

Because music, and literature and the arts play such a serious role in changing our culture and pushing forth the idea of progress.

johnnycIn fact, there is no better case in point than John Lennon’s struggle not to become an American citizen, but to simply stay in the States back during the Nixon era.

The FBI, led by J. Edgar Hoover and wanting to protect the Nixon White House and its policies back in the 70’s, worked hard to expel Lennon and Yoko Ono. In fact there is a great PBS American Masters film called LENNONYC that documents Lennon and Ono’s battle with the government. (And keeping things current, I found a pretty good article correlating Lennon’s struggle with the Dream Act.)

So, over the past month, I noted a couple of rock’n’roll documentaries that I wanted to see, and that tie the notions of freedom to music.

The first is the HBO produced film Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer, a movie that ostensibly depicts the Russian punk band Pussy Riot and their three members who were sentenced to two years in prison for protesting the return of Vladmir Putin to the head of the Russian government (the charge was “hooliganism”).

I confess that did not watch the whole film because in truth the movie wasn’t really very good, and the music of Pussy Riot was not really the issue anyway. It is clearly freedom of thought and speech and a government’s suppression those freedoms–the same thing in 2013 in Russia, that Nixon wanted to suppress–that was the core.  pussyriot

The other film was the Oscar winning documentary of last year, Searching for Sugar Man:  a movie about the Detroit-based singer/songwriter Rodriguez, his music. For Rodriguez album Cold Fact, virtually unknown in the United States (though distributed through Motown) was as influential among the youth of South Africa during the final throes of Apartheid in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s as anything Bob Dylan produced domestically a decade earlier.

Though both journeys–those of Pussy Riot and Rodriguez–are beyond compelling, yet completely different paths, the influence and notoriety that each propagated due to their respective art is huge. (Interestingly, both artists are identified as rock and rollers, though their music could not indeed be more different.)

coldfact

The point, though, is that just as the US wanted to censor John Lennon, and the South Africans did indeed censor Rodriguez (by the way, Searching for Sugar Man is indeed a terrific movie as well as a wonderful celebration to the human spirit) now, 40 years later, the Russians have worked to suppress Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alyokhina, the three convicted members of Pussy Riot.

What these examples remind us is just how powerful music is, for it can make national governments fearful of performers who simply want to tell their own version of the truth.

I write this remembering that our country is far from perfect; however, at least there are now ideally few of us who need fear being imprisoned for speaking our mind irrespective of which side of the political fence we live or speak (meaning I think Trace Adkins is a xenophobic pig, and that Ted Nugent is an idiot, but I am glad they have the freedom to say and sing what they want).

I think the other points are never underestimate the power of art, which includes music. And, finally, that the struggle for freedom for all the inhabitants of the planet is a long and winding road.

Just a few things to think about as we enjoy our own Independence Day (and, do catch both LENNONYC and Searching for Sugar Man).


 

Some Light Summer Reading

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I’m going to be away from Saturday to Saturday and away from the computer as well. I found what I think is a brand new book (yes, a book, not a download of a book) called “Detroit Rock City – The Uncensored History Of Rock ‘N’ Roll In America’s Loudest City” by Steve Miller (no, not THAT Steve Miller).

It’s one of those oral history books – just tons of little quotes from people who were there (I love that format). Of course, Iggy and MC5, but also Alice Cooper and even Ted Nugent, who I liked a lot before he shaved off his beard and eventually morphed into the world’s biggest asshole.

If this paragraph from the Introduction is any indication, I’m going to like it a lot:

“We all read Creem magazine in high school, learning about the real deal in a way that effete bullshit like Rolling Stone could never conceive of. Creem was Detroit; the rest were from, well, somewhere else. Creem wrote about the Stooges more than anyone else. When it came down to Mick Jagger vs. Iggy Pop in the rock-star idolatry sweepstakes, Iggy came out on top every time. He was Detroit. I would puff furiously on my Newport at the notion that anyone outside Iggy could be any more badass. Starting at age fifteen, we listened to the Stooges as we drove in cars on back roads and cradled bottles of Mad Dog 20-20.”

I loved Creem magazine. The first thing I did to my first very own brand new car (1982 Volkswagon Scirocco) was put a Creem Stars Car license plate on the front.

I also will finally write a review of the new QOTSA album when I get back. Meanwhile, enjoy the ride while 40 of pretty much “The Albums You Always Expect On A Greatest Albums Of All-Time List” pass by.

QUOTE: Rick Rubin

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“The thing is, when you’re a fan from the outside of something, you can embrace it in a different way than when you’re a fan from the inside. Run-D.M.C. could be sort of gangstery in their own way, pre-gangster rap, because they were suburban kids. Kurtis Blow, who was from Harlem and really around gangsters, he didn’t want to be a gangster. He wanted to look above it and wear leather boots and be more like a rock star. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were really inner-city, hard-life guys, and they wanted to be from outer space.”

Is There Life On Mars?

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Got permission to publish this story sent to me the other day from my guitar-playing friend Phil Pilorz. Yes, both he and I know that “Take Me To The River” isn’t originally Talking Heads.

This is musical reality in the real world:

I’m doing a pick-up gig on Saturday with a bunch of guys. We got together tonight to run over some sets.

The keyboard player had left blank spots in the sets for tunes I would do. When we got around to trying to figure out what songs I would sing I hit them up with “Sweet Jane.” Started the riff, sang the first verse, got nothing but complete blank stares. They had never heard the song in their lives. Never really heard of Lou Reed. So I started “Take Me To The River”. Blank stares. Never heard the song, never heard of Talking Heads. Actually, one guy had. He knew “Burning Down The House.” The keyboard player suggested “Johnny B. Goode.”

I’m glad I didn’t hit them with “I Wanna Be Your Dog.”

The Rock And Roll Attitude

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kanye-west-yeezus-650Kanye West released a new album today. It’s called Yeezus, which should piss off the Christians and Beatles fans out there, what with the self aggrandizing sacrilege and the echo of John Lennon’s claim that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. But that’s what makes this fun.

I had listened to songs from the set over the past few weeks, particularly Kanye on Saturday Night Live, and the live presentations were hard to listen to. Very loud, very jittery, very plangent, in a bad way. Metal Machine Music, or, in other words, unlistenable.

But today I listened to the record and it is, like all of Kanye’s solo work, incredible. If he wants to be Jesus, I’m fine with that. Of course, I’m not the pope.

What is more interesting, in a Dylan-ish sense, is that when Jesus Walked Kanye was a Christian. When there were Blood Diamonds out there he was the son of a Black Panther.

But his recent music has fewer goals, and is much more brain dump. Kanye has never been overmodulated, but he used to push his ego out front self-consciously, like maybe he thought he was pushing himself too far but felt he had to do it. Call it self-conscious adventurism. But here the presentation is pure self. Still self-conscious, but bold and reckless in equal parts. If a noise, a lyric, a design, whatever, makes the cut, he seems to be saying, it’s gold for the listener and the world. I think this is a Gnostic move. Yeezy is filled with God, so what he utters comes has the perfection of God and he becomes Yeezus.

This isn’t a likeable pose, and was disastrous on the Watch the Throne album with Jay Z, with all its insufferable bragging, but here Kanye is as confessional as ever, and as bracingly, surprisingly train-wreckishly honest, too, which to me feels quite extraordinarily. And the music is rich and aggressive and ambitious and fresh enough that he’s risking his pop audience (as he always has), taking them into Nine Inch Nails clangor (someplace I’m sure many have never been before) as well as pushing, on some tracks, the seventh level of hip-hop hell. I hate to say it, but when it comes to risk and reward Kanye is the rockingest dude of all time (Definition: Does whatever he wants, earns boatloads of dollars. Second definition: Quotes Gary Glitter and makes it sound new.), despite the bizarre Kardashian thing he’s doing.

The other interesting thing about this video clip is that visually it consists of a single provocative underwear shot, for no apparent reason except eye candy. But when you watch it at YouTube an overlay encourages the viewer to click either the right side (fuzzy image) or the left side (pert panties). What one gets if they click through are the chance to listen to one of two less than inspiring pop-rap crap (I’d say) songs. It appears to be a marketing gimmick which monetizes the songs, which you are playing for free. But I wonder why the fearsome artist Kanye West would make a record this sonically challenging, and then sign on to a bunch of links to bad Hollister-experience music. Should I add a question mark?

UPDATE: So what seemed to be official Kanye YouTube uploads with weird self-defeating monetization turns out to have been a Kanye account imposter trading on traffic attracted to the new songs. All the YouTube videos right now seem equally illicit but without the eye candy. You can find it.

Both Sides Now.

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Shortly after launching this rock raft of a blog, I proposed that we create a consensus Top 50 Essential Rock and Roll Albums. Something of a canon for Rock Remnant aficionados, and also a source of referral cash if we ever develop some traffic here.

As these things do, however, this project was quickly reduced to a playground of competing visions of what we were trying to do. Some of this was technical (I limited my list to one appearance per artist, Lawr allowed no compilations or best ofs), and some of this turned on taste. I picked 50 elpees that I hope demonstrated the breadth of rock, from juju to conjunto to rap to rock and pop, while others picked the albums they’d take with them to the proverbial desert island.

But perhaps the most interesting twist was Moyer’s vehemence against folky girls on the top albums list, a discussion that soon became a referendum on whether Joni Mitchell was rock or not.

That’s a discussion we may have on this site some day in more detail, but for now we have Hole’s take on Clouds…

Bring on the Blinders

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I’m trying something new. Whenever I find a band that I like, I don’t learn anything about them. I minimize my Pandora when I see “Northern Japan” in The Pillows bio. Lots of times Pandora has no biographical information at all and that’s even better.

I want the music. There are a rare few interesting music stories, or should I say variations on the same came from nowhere too much too soon death/disappearance and here they are with an abysmal comeback album yawn. I am sick unto dry heaves of the Legend of Keith Richards. I would be delighted to read about how Keith wrote “Connection,” or why they never finished “I’d Much Rather Be With The Boys,” or how those 378 great little touches on Stones’ songs came about. I don’t care where he shot up or how pharmaceutical his speedballs are.

So now I don’t wanna know and we’ll see how that works out. It’s not wholly possible for one thing. I already know that The Pillows are two guitar players, a drummer and a rotating guest bass player (just like Roxy Music!). I know that the Raveonettes are a guy and a girl. I like a band called Rogue Wave and I know that they are from California and have at least five members and that’s it. I’d like to keep it that way. I’m curious what y’all think of this band, they are softer than I usually like. Start with this:

Jefferson Airplane: THE Best San Francisco Band

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volunteers cov

I guess the news of ex-Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna drummer and percussionist Joey Covington’s passing earlier this week sort of pushed the thoughts I have always had about the Airplane into this virtual-osity.

I think of all the San Francisco bands–especially those who bore the “psychedelic” moniker–the Airplane were the truest to the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll.

True, The Dead were a great band,but they were a jam band. Big Brother was a great band, but they were a blues band. Quicksilver and Country Joe and the Fish were great bands, but they were indeed psychedelic,though the Fish gravitated more towards jug band music, and Quicksilver the blues.

However, though the Airplane could indeed be classified as a psychedelic band, they embraced what I think is the essence of real rock ‘n’ roll, and that is attitude.

It was the Airplane, who with White Rabbit encouraged us to “feed our head” as part of what I consider a favorite all time album of mine, Surrealistic Pillow.

That disc followed Takes Off, which featured the band’s first drummer, Skip Spence, who then fled to Moby Grape (another great, albeit tragic band), and female lead singer, Signe Anderson. One the heels of Pillow came After Bathing at Baxter’s and then the wonderful Crown of Creation, but it was album #5, Volunteers, that really sealed the deal of the Airplane owning the the title of best band of their generation. That is because very few albums until then were as in your face as was Volunteers.

Aside from the faux salutes and homage/parodies to Old Glory all over the liner notes and inserts, the opening track , We Can Be Together, announced that as “outlaws in the eyes of America,” we would “cheat lie forge fuck hide and deal.” Equally menacing, the song then screams “Up against the wall, Up against the wall, motherfucker.”

The Farm implies the pastoral life romanticized by Flower Power is the way to go, and the beautiful pairing of the post-apocalyptic Wooden Ships (co-penned by David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Paul Kanter) and Kantner’s adaptation of the lovely Good Shepherd, with the haunting guitar of Jorma Kaukonen might be demure compared to the fuck you of Together, but they never-the-less indicate there is a different path out there and we are on it, like it or not.

There is also the symmetry of the title track and closing cut, that screams “Look what’s happening out in the streets, got a revolution, got to revolution,” riffing off the Goodwill-like spiritual renewal organization Volunteers of America, shouting out just that: We are volunteers of America.

And, though spiritual renewal may indeed be what author Kantner was pointing to, it was certainly not a Salvation Army style one.

There are other parts of the album, like the half sides of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich–something so American–on either sides of the inside of the album, so that when closed, there was indeed a complete sandwich, albeit in just two dimensions.

pbj

Finally, there is the newsletter from the Paz Chin In, a Woodstock take off, that in the text gives us the lyrics (it was still the 60’s, so fuck is replaced by the word “fred”) plus cartoons, baseball stats (with a great subtle homage to local hero and SF Giant, Willie Mays), a goofy crossword puzzle with no questions but cryptic squares, and a funny reminder that says, “Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon.” However, the first is crossed out, and replaced with the word “last,’ and at the time it was true, that Armstrong was first and last.

volunteers back

We are also reminded in the notes to “feed and water our flag,” among other suggestions

In my mind, there is no other statement by any band in the counter culture that ever embraced art and music and sentiments in such a fashion.  Within Volunteers, Jefferson Airplane pushed the agenda of “we are forces of chaos and anarchy,” sneering at the status quo while also supplying a deadly combination of cuts in here-to-fore uncharted territory.  In fact, nothing else was even close.

Of course the band did rankle in other ways. Like Grace Slick trying to get into the White House to then first daughter Tricia Nixon’s tea for Finch College graduates. Slick, as alumnae, was invited, and did try to attend. However, the singer was not allowed entrance. According to Slick, she and her date, Yippie Abbie Hoffman, were pulled out of the entrance line and denied because they were on the FBI watch list at the time.

Per Slick, all the Airplane were on the list for “suspect lyrics.” Also per Slick, she did try to sneak LSD in to slip Nixon the father–hardly beloved by the left at the time–a mickey (presumably in his cottage cheese and ketchup).

Jefferson Airplane did release a few more discs after Volunteers–Bark and Long John Silver–but they never had the bite of Volunteers. The band did release a terrific live disc, Bless it’s Pointed Little Head that captures everything that is Airplane, and features a brilliant cover of Fred Neil’s The Other Side of this Life, which opens with a Jack Cassady bass-line, that is then joined by some deadly interplay by Kaukonen, then Dryden, and the best of the band systematically joining in.

If the Airplane peaked with Volunteers, they then slowly landed, re-emerging as Jefferson Starship, which was a Kantner/Slick/Balin endeavor to start, but quickly the principles abandoned ship, and the group morphed into the Starship, which really had nothing to do with anything Jefferson at all.

However, Kaukonen, Cassady, and the late Covington did form their own spin-off, Hot Tuna who did stay true to the folk-blues roots that signaled a lot of the original band’s sound in the first place.

Certainly, the Airplane, and especially the then exotic and brainy Slick, with the powerful voice, generated a lot of buzz when they entered the eye of the public at large, but to me at the time it all seemed in the context of the media trying to be or act hip. And, though Slick was indeed a great character, the real story was what a killer band the Airplane really was.

More to the point, they were a great band that embraced the “fuck all of you in the mainstream” principles that are the essence of rock ‘n’  roll.