I had never heard of Hayes Carll (or the Drive by Truckers, for that matter) till I joined the BileTones, and our lead singer, Tom Nelson insisted we cover songs by each.
The Hayes Carll nomination was this song, which Peter’s last “Name That Tune” brought to mind.
It’s a killer song, very funny, and it rocks.
I tried to find a good live version, and this was the best (in fact, Carll opened for the Truckers at this gig). Most of the live stuff is digital phone, hand held. But, do try to catch the words if you dare.
Check him out, though. I mean, how can you not love a guy who wrote a song called One Bed, Two Women, Three Bottles of Wine?
Indulge me a little bit here, as this entry has virtually nothing to do with music.
However, like my mate Peter, this site, though primarily focused on music–specifically rock’n’roll–is also about art and culture.
Hence this entry, which involves my favorite TV show at present, Mr. Pickles, which appears on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim.
In contextualizing Mr. Pickles, it is important to note the brilliant concept Adult Swim has for a lot of their shows, not all of which are cartoons, but all of which represent some of the truly original and creative work anywhere.
A lot of the network’s (Adult Swim operates from 10 P.M. to 5 A.M. EST, daily, after which some very creative younger humans programming takes back over) brilliance comes from packaging. Shows generally run about 11 minutes, so, a Mr. Pickles that begins at say 9:30 P.M. will run for that time span, without commercials, and then be followed by three-to-four minutes of breaks, followed by another 15-minute program running under the same format.
Mr. Pickles, specifically, is about the Goodman family, their community (“Old Town”) and their “lovable” dog, Mr. Pickles. Mr. Pickles is beyond loyal to his owner, Tommy (who legs are inexplicably in braces) and the Goodman family, but Mr. Pickles also has a satanic streak, where he has some magic dominion over other animals, and can control them accordingly.
Mr. Pickles also has a serious sense of justice to go with that evil, if you will, streak. The thing is no one knows about Mr. Pickles’ dark side save the Goodman’s grandpa, who is always maintaining the dog is indeed evil, but is always disproved by the episode’s end, leaving the elder man with a wild tale that makes everyone know he is crazy.
I tend to describe the show as Leave it to Beaver, meets Scooby Doo, meets Dexter. The storylines get complex, but by the end of the 11 minutes, all the crazy loose ends are indeed tied up. But, in addition to the wild plots, there are all kinds of great things the creators have tossed in.
For example, Mr. Goodman is always reading the paper and the news of the story is often reflected in the headlines of his daily news, or within the sherrif’s office, the same can be said about the wanted posters.
Similarly, there is a lot happening in the background, with a lot of very off-the-wall stuff–particularly sex, as Mr. Pickles does indeed like to hump and grope almost anything, especially Mrs. Goodman–going on all over the place.
Mind you, this is a cartoon, but don’t let your kids watch, at least not without checking it out first, because this show is hysterical and as creative as it gets, but it could also be disturbing.
There are 10 episodes available (my favorite is The Lair) but what I linked to below is the Pilot as it gives a pretty good overview of the whole melange of craziness. But, if you go to the Adult Swim website, you can stream all of them (yay, they have been renewed for a second season!).
Today I brought my Rickenbacker along to my guitar lesson (as opposed to my bass) just because I felt like playing some guitar, and Steve pulled up this wonderful Captain Beefheart cut, I’m Glad from the album Safe as Milk.
I have that disc, as well as the seminal Trout Mask Replica, though I have not listened to either of them in years, so I sort of forgot about them. We were working on the arpeggios within the cool progression (played here by Ry Cooder) and at one moment, I stopped dead, looked at Steve, and said, “this is Ooh Baby Baby,” and Steve quickly nodded and said, “yeah, I couldn’t put my finger on it.”
Both are great, and different in their own way, but the crossover is unmistakable; however, you be the judge.
And now the inimitable Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.
Peter’s Edgar Froese obituary reminded me of not just the band Tangerine Dream, but the film Sorcerer, by William Friedkin.
At the time Tangerine Dream was new, I had already owned Autobahn (by Kraftwerk) and the samples I heard of Tangerine Dream sort of sounded the same to me, so I was not that interested.
And, then I went to see Friedkin’s wonderful film from 1977 Sorcerer, a remake of Henri-George Cluzot’s 1953 movie The Wages of Fear, which featured a very young Yves Montand (who also is in the Friedkin remake).
Tangerine Dream was responsible for the soundtrack to Sorcerer, and basically composed the whole score just based upon notes supplied by Friedkin, as opposed to even seeing daily rushes of the movie. Which is amazing when you hear the haunting and dreamy score the band delivered.
But, the film is also so good, and unfortunately, because the movie followed Friedkin’s treatment of The Exorist, Sorcerer was dismissed as another super natural film by many.
Which was hardly the case. Sorcerer is the name of one of the trucks the principles of the film use to deliver volatile nitro glycerin to an oil fire, with hopes of blowing over the top soil, and thus suffocating the flames.
The results are fantastic all around: visually, musically, emotionally.
Sorcerer also featured the late Roy Scheider, and this treatment of Betrayal features clips from the film.
I could have sworn I posted something on Midnight Oil before, but a search of the archives suggested otherwise.
If you know Midnight Oil at all, it is from their hit Beds are Burning from the Diesel and Dust disc.
That song was ok, in my opinion, but did not do a lot to make me a fan of the band. Although, I heard through circles that Midnight Oil had honed their skills by playing a shitload of bar dates for years, and as a result were a really hot live act.
So, when they toured on top of Blue Sky Mine, I think in 1990, I bought the disc and got tickets to see them at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, a nice outdoor venue (with, if memory serves, Hunter and Collector).
They were indeed one hell of a tight band, and put on a terrific show, holding their notch of the notion that they were a much better live band than studio one.
On the heels of Blue Sky Mine, came their live disc, Scream in Blue which is a killer set and displays just what a crisp live act the band was (they disbanded in 2003).
Part of what made the band interesting, too, was their lead singer Peter Garrett, an environmentalist and artist who had quite a life as a politician in Australia, as well as that of a rocker.
This song, Stars of Warburton, is subtle in that it is not really a cranked-out song in tempo, but it drives and builds and is just so well executed that it is sick. Although, also note that this particular version is not from Scream in Blue. I chose it because it at least flashes on pics of the band and the outback and environment that the band wrote about (Garrett once said it would be silly for them to do love songs, as that just wasn’t what they did).
Friday night, and as I was making dinner (this time cayenne fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy) this great song from To Have and To Have Not jumped the synapses.
Directed by the equally great Howard Hawks (Bringing Up Baby, The Big Sleep, Red River, and Ball of Fire to name a few), with a screenplay by Ernest Hemmingway, To Have and To Have Not is in fact based upon a Hemmingway short story. But, rumor has it, there is very little in the film that has anything to do with the story.
Which doesn’t mean the film isn’t just great. It was Lauren Bacall’s and Humphrey Bogart’s first film together (in fact this was Bacall’s firgst film, period, and she was 19 at the time) and the chemistry is undeniable.
This is the film where Bacall suggestively tells Bogart he knows how to whistle (“you just put your lips together, and blow”).
The film also features Walter Brennan as a tookothless rummy sidekick named Eddie, and a joke of mixed-up names, for Bogart’s name is Harry Morgan, but Bacall always calls him Steve, while Bacall’s name is Marie Browning, but Bogart calls her Slim.
Anyway, the equally wonderful Hoagy Carmichael (as Cricket) plays throughout (remember, this is a 40’s movie, and music and song were part of the equation), including this cool number where he starts solo, and where Slide m helps him finish up.
I know what you are thinking. Ugh. The Eagles. I understand. Truth is I feel about them the same way I feel about Hall and Oates. Which is basically, I am not sure I like them, but I definitely like some of their songs.
Which is not really fair. One song, and you can dismiss, but there are four or five from each group anyway, that I know I really like (I think this is where Elton John falls for me, too). So, it is hard to really dislike a band that at least got to you more than a couple of times.
Plus, I do like just about anything Joe Walsh does, or at least has a hand in. And, it is still hard for some reason to suppress the Lebowski instinct to hate the band.
This is a really great cut, though. Very well executed. Great drums (by Henley) and the bass by Timothy B. Schmidt just plays off those staccato chops by Walsh.
I get the band may not be your cup of tea, but give this track a shot. It ain’t bad.
Congressman Steve King blasted the President yesterday because the first family invited Ana Zamora–a Dream Act candidate–to sit with Michele Obama during the State of the Union speech.
Zamora did not merit being referred to by name: rather King tweeted “#Obama perverts ‘prosecutorial discretion’ by inviting a deportable to sit in place of honor at #SOTU w/1st Lady,” King wrote. “I should sit with Alito.”
Basically that means King is in congress to represent the xenophobes and bigots within our population (you know who you are).
I tweeted back that King should check out the Lucinda Williams/David Rodriguez song, Deportee. In the tweet I noted that he would like the song since all the undocumented die in a plane crash at the end of the song.
I have a live version my friend Les burned for me (by Williams and Rodriguez), but I could not find it on YouTube. But, in searching, I discovered the song was written by Woody Guthrie, and is based upon a real incident (the actual title is Deportee (Plane Crash at Los Gatos).
Anyway, I found this cool version by Ani DiFranco and Ry Cooder. Good stuff.
And, fucking bite me Steve King. Good thing you descended from Native Americans, and not from immigrants (that was sarcasm Steve: I forgot, you are not smart enough to understand sarcasm without an explanation).
What do The Hollywood Argyles/Joan Jett/The Runaways/B. Bumble and the Stingers/The Seeds/Alice Cooper/KISS/Helen Reddy/Steel Pulse/Bread and John Lennon have in common?
Part of their careers, including songs they recorded was pushed in some way by singer/songwriter/producer/manager Kim Fowley. And, there are a lot more.
Fowley died January 15, and he had a career so varied and extensive, that it is useless to paraphrase. I will just give you the Wiki link to him.
Below is the song Fowley produced that was the most fun (at least to me). But, check him out. I promise there is a band or artist you like on the list.
