There was a story in yesterday’s NY Times about Harley Flanagan, who has always been a presence in the NY rock scene. Most notably as the drummer bass player in the Cro-Mags, one of the most notable bands of the city’s hard core scene in the 80s. All age shows at CBGB in the afternoon were a fixture, and perhaps explain why I never really paid much attention. Too old! But this clip is terrific, reminds me of Penelope Spheeris’s fantastic movie, Suburbia, and it even better than that. You probably won’t want to listen to it all the time, but I hope you enjoy it first time through.
OK, a big hiatus from writing, and I don’t so much have an excuse as I do a reasonable explanation.
Back in April, during our insanely fun Passover Sedar, my friends Debbi Berenberg and Barbara Kweller told me I needed to throw a party for my partner Diane who recently graduated from UC Davis, at age 57, with a BS in Animal Biology.
Since Barbara and Debbi’s suggestion was public, I was kind of stuck, but I knew Diane’s best friends, Dee Dee Huebner who is getting a PhD in Fairbanks, and her cousin Cherie Dudek, would be out our way in August, so I thought I would throw the soiree when Di’s buds were out.
In the mean time, Diane and I made our way to New York City where I attended the FSTA Summer conference, and where we stayed for the whole week as our main summer vacation. Di and I have been to Manhattan a handful of times over the nine years of our relationship, and have had a lot of fun, had great walks and meals, and seen wonderful plays. But, we had never really had a fancy dinner out together, and I knew Diane kind of coveted such an experience.
So, I made reservations at Tavern on the Green and then thought she might like it if we went on a horse driven carriage ride around the park, under the stars when we were finished eating. And, before we left, as I considered the party, Dee Dee and Cherie coming out, and with this romantic opportunity, maybe after all these years I would ask Diane if she wanted to get married. That way we could have a combined wedding and graduation party while Di’s mates were around.
So, we rode and I asked and she said ok, and the gears started turning, churning towards last Saturday, August 20, 2016 as the anointed date.
Indeed last Saturday we were wed, on the on the sand in the little town called Stinson Beach, near San Francisco. Our friends Rob Lewis and Mary Ford have a lovely house they let us use for the post beach wedding party, and my childhood mate and sometimes band partner Stephen Clayton, who also owns a house at Stinson with his wife and another life long friend Karen, let our contingent stay and base out of their house in the town.
More friends, Zoe Pollock and her mom Jeanne Schumann (yet another music mate, as are Mary and Rob from time-to-time) made our cake so the whole affair was pretty cozy and within our music and Passover (there are usually 40-plus humans at Pesach) communities making for a lovely day and party.
Though it was a dumb move, we did hire a DJ. Di really wanted one, though as I have noted before, she and I don’t share a lot of music other than some Meat Loaf. But the DJ is what she wanted, so she got one. But, we never really had a chance to give the DJ hired a set list or anything before the festivities began.
When we walked back to Mary’s from the beach, the guy had this awful sappy wedding crap playing, and as soon as I noticed I grabbed a copy of my CD Downward Facing Dog and told the DJ to get the horrible sappy shit off and just play the album till Diane could find him and give a set list.
The guy was lost when I told him to play I Knew the Bride (when she used to rock’n’roll) and he blew off Diane’s request for Surfin’ Bird, but we had a great time, and he did get our first dance down.
That dance was to Lucinda Williams’ Something About What Happens When We Talk which is sort of our song. Diane and I met via meetings we coordinated–her from Chicago, me from the Bay Area–when groups we managed had weekly discussions while we worked at ATT.
Di and I did change jobs, but six years after we met Diane came to the west coast to visit and suddenly we were in a relationship, and well, five years ago, after retiring from ATT and starting at Harper Community College in Chicago, Diane moved to California for good, into our home in El Cerrito, and began the second half of her college career commuting to Davis to finish her degree.
Before the move, however, we both worked for ATT, and we had essentially free land lines and long distance, so we spent hours on the phone after work, watching TV shows together long distance, having long philosophical discussions, and falling asleep with the phone off the hook (check out my song Geography Matters from Downward Dog which is about just that).
So, via the phone is how Diane and I actually fell in love, and that makes Lucinda’s song all the more poignant and special.
Hence, making plans for the wedding on the beach took front seat over the past couple of months and the best I can offer is Lucinda and her band simply killing it on a beautiful tune. And one that is our tune, I might add.
There is so much going on here. Muddy seems to be copping to the idea he’s not up to the barely legal conversation. That’s the opposite of the mannish boy. But whatever is going on with that pales beside Luther “Guitar Jr.” Johnson’s guitar, which is bigger than life.
On this album, a live album, Johnny Winter makes some excellent appearances. He’s a great guitar player, but lordy, Luther makes a fairly straight blues into something else altogether. I know I’m sati-fied.
Live at Daryl’s House is this oddball show. The idea. Musicians go to Daryl Hall’s house and record songs with Daryl Hall.
When it started Daryl Hall seemed to be bankrolling these video casts, which were available on his website, and it was hard to see how this was a sustainable program. But the quality was always exemplary, the pairings interesting, the musicians great.
I came upon this O’Jays show tonight. Here’s For the Love of Money at Daryl’s House:
It’s not my favorite O’Jays song, it’s kind of a Temps’ rip, but there’s lots to like in that live version. Including Daryl Hall’s vocals . Here’s the much-more restrained original:
I’m in love with HWIII when he and his band are rocking the country sound. Was listening to an album the other day that descended into some kind of death metal squawking, which wears thing quickly for me. But this is all day.
North Carolina punk band. Good one, in its way. For some reason the vocals are buried way under the rock. If you turn it up you can almost imagine the growl as you watch the singer front the band in the video. And yes, she uses that unappealing hardcore growl. You can hear it in other videos of the band, and not miss it here.
Darren Viola posted this song on Facebook today. I’d totally forgotten about these guys, though I’m pretty sure I have the vinyl of this one in the boxes in the basement. I happen to have the poster for the movie The Long Riders in my office. No direct relation, but Ry Cooder did the music for that classic film, and these guys took their name from the movie.
This is a fantastic tune by Peter Perrett, the singer songwriter at the heart of the Only Ones. This is by his 1996 band, the One, and was released on an elpee also called Woke Up Sticky.
It makes total sense that between their like (love?) of drugs, their romantic perspectives (cut by jaundice), mastery of classic rock tropes, and ability to twist them to their visions, Perrett and Johnny Thunder would bond.
