Category Archives: live

Lightning Bolt, Megahost

by

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.

Afternoon Snack: Roxy Music, “Prarie Rose” meets Talking Heads, “The Big Country”

by

I cannot same that I am as crazy about Roxy as my mate Gene, but I do indeed love them, their sound, and a shitload of their songs.

I have my loves–Out of the Blue, Virginia Plain, and All I want is You–but Prarie Rose has something to it that pushes beyond being just a favorite Roxy tune.

Aside from being just a wonderful piece of music and lyric, their are links to both Talking Heads (The Big Country) and Big Country’s In a Big Country, that line being core to Roxy first.

Here are the Heads, live in a song that sort of has that great feel between driving and laid back thanks to great drumming laying down that fantastic groove.

Here is Roxy from a few years back, and though the hand held IPhone camera is way shaky, the audio is pretty good, and Phil Manzanera just fucking kills his solo even if we cannot really see him (check the video behind Ferry and I think that is a simulcast?)

Stuart Adamson’s fine Big Country band will be saved for another day!

Breakfast Blend: ELO, “Illusions in G Major”

by

I have not meant to be neglecting writing here, but truly, the last six weeks have been among the busiest of my life, with travels to Southern California, New York, the Sierra, and now Chicago.

But, it doesn’t mean I have not been thinking about what to post here.

I have indeed been peppering a lot of golf in my daily mix of stuff, no matter where I am, but especially when home and in my car, I have been enjoying listening to spacier, more reflective rock, just because it sort of seems to relax me for the mental challenge of whether to use a driver or a three-wood on a particular hole.

As part of this troll, El Dorado, Electric Light Orchestra’s really great album from 1973 has made the mix. When the album came out, it quickly shot to my favorite list, where the disc remained until the late 70’s when punk took over everything rock and roll for me in the best possible way.

I listened to El Dorado here and there to see if any magic remained but it was sort of like watching Gone with the Wind and its outdated and hopelessly romantic view of the South, racism, and slavery. As in, it just didn’t do it.

I don’t really know what prompted me to reclaim El Dorado out of the huge stack of CD’s I have, but I found myself first sticking the disc into the player, and then humming along to songs I really did know by heart.

So, I really did rediscover the whole thing in a good way.

Now, I get if the strings Jeff Lynne stuck into his band are not your cup of tea, and, well, if you watch the video, I am not sure if we will ever get over the hair and clothes from the 70’s (I doubt I ever wore any of that shit, being a devotee of jeans and tennis shoes pretty much my whole life, but it does sort of hurt to look) but, make no mistake, Lynne is a rocker at heart.

We all know his treatment of Chuck Berry’s Roll Over Beethoven and I think the Move’s original Do Ya is as killer a cut as exists.

But, this little ditty from El Dorado, Illusions in G Major, does indeed show Lynne’s roots are indeed with the Chuckster. Strings or not, they kill it.

 

Crawling From the Wreckage

by

This live version from 1980, is like the studio version, full of Lowe-isms while popping Dave Edmunds up front. I’m sure that’s Elvis Costello introducing the tune, by the way.

I’m not sure of the pedigree of this Graham Parker version. He wrote the song, of course. It’s certainly styled less to please pop, more skiffle and Dylan than Chuck Berry. But Parker knows how to sing and that drummer knows how to make a shoe box rock. For better or worse, you decide that, Parker gives his words more attention here.

Afternoon Snack: Joni Mitchell, “Amelia”

by

I know Joni has caused a lot of buzz on the site, but aside from the fact that I love this cut from Heijara, I have been wanting to write for weeks about my concern for Mitchell, who has been hospitalized for months due to an unspecified illness (it was rumored to be a stroke, and Joni was similarly said to be in a coma, but the latter information is untrue per her official web site).

But, the other day, our Remnants mate Peter lost his father, and well, I figured I would post this both just to keep Joni–an exceptional artist and creative force–in our thoughts, as well as Peter and his father.

I think that it is all I can possibly say, because the song and Joni really do it better. Just close your eyes and listen. And, that is Pat Methany on guitar, and the late and equally wonderful Jaco Pastouris on bass.

 

Ornette Coleman is Dead!

by

I went to an Ornette Coleman tribute Hal Wilner put on in the park near my house just about one year ago today.

Ornette is a jazz guy, perhaps the most popular of the free jazz players, and a musical giant. What I learned a year ago was that Lou Reed loved Ornette, but then so do many. I remember at poker games in the loft on Lispenard Street I would sometimes put Ornette on as a distraction, but somehow the beauty of his sounds won the day more often than I won the hand.

This one is live from Prince Street in 1970, same neighborhood as the poker (though 10 years earlier), and chosen especially because of the groovy vibe. (That’s Charlie Haden on the bass, Dewey Redman on tenor, and Ed Blackwell on the drums. )