Category Archives: funny

Night Music: The Upper Crust, “Let Them Eat Rock”

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It is not a joke to say that this is one of the great songs and performances of the rock era.

No, it wasn’t a hit. But listen again. We have time. It speaks to all of us, and it rocks.

The Upper Crust, Let them eat rock

The amazing thing is that nearly 20 years on the Louis 14 thing is still working. As it should. We’re fighting the upper crust more now than at any time since the 30s.

Night Music: Reform School Girls, and Don’t Touch Me There

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If you have ever been in a band–and I hope my buds Steve and Gene affirm this–you are doomed to play covers.

Speaking for myself, and the Biletones, between my own catalog of originals, and that of  bandmate/singer/rhythm guitarist Tom Nelson, we could easily play a two hour set of tunes we penned.

However, especially if your group does not have, shall we say, “a name,” then for the most part you have to get used to playing Little Queenie, Dead Flowers, Moondance, and a zillion other tunes that I have played way more often than I wish.

Still, it goes with the territory, as people want to hear and dance to stuff they know. We do play Tom’s Rich Girlfriend as a regular tune, and have done my own Geography Matters, as well as a couple of more Tom wrote (Bad Dreams, DUI Bars) but for the most part we have to squeeze the desire to play originals into playing more obscure covers.

That means we play a chunk of Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, and Wilco, all of which are fine by me, to go along with Queenie and the more mainstream cover ilk.

Sometimes those odd covers work (Gravity’s Gone, by Drive by Truckers) and sometimes not (Having a Party by Sam Cooke, and Borrow your Cape by Bobby Bare, Jr.).

Well, about a month ago, the song Reform School Girls, by Nick Curran and the Lowlifes appeared on the weekly practice list.

The song is a great paean to the Phil Spector sound, as well as an homage to the Bitch Groups like the Shangri-Las, and well, once we started playing it, I found myself humming it for days at a time.

Written by the very talented Curran, who sadly passed away from oral cancer in  October of last year at the age of 35, Reform School Girls is as beautiful a send up to the genre as is the Tubes Don’t Touch Me There.

Enjoy!

Night Music: Brandy Clark, “Stripes”

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I was talking to Steve about country music in Arizona. We’re both fans (he plays in a country band) and agreed that the country music radio we’ve listened to lately was horrible. I came home and quickly discovered Brandy Clark. I have no idea if she gets any country radio play, but she writes clean and sharp country songs with classic country music themes, without cliche or hokum or manufactured pathos.

I have a reservation. She tells stories about workers and their families, and while I’m assuming that’s where she’s from, what I hear makes me less than certain that these are her stories. Her song about believing in Jesus and the Lotto, for instance, seems not a little condescending and alien, like Obama talking about people clinging to their guns and religion out of despair. I may understand the point, intellectually, but I’m pretty sure the subject of the songs wouldn’t recognize themselves.

That may be a problem, or maybe she’s taking on the shibboleths of the genre. It’s too soon for me to tell, but it’s something to keep an eye on.

And catchy melodies and concise lyrics wash away many sins. I like the tunes of her songs, and the sharp turns of phrase (these are “her songs” in the pop sense, always with writing partners and collaborators), and most of all the arrangements, which can be elaborate as in this clip, but are still direct and honest and accessible.

Her album reminds me of the first two Steve Earle albums, and early Roseanne Cash. Good stuff if you like country music that maybe doesn’t land on country radio.