Category Archives: night music

Night Music: Lou Reed, “Street Hassle”

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We watched Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale tonight, which ends with the first of the three parts of this rather incredible song. I posted this same clip last October after Lou died.

The video, by the way, is made up of Andy Warhol screen tests, as well as other clips of Warhol’s. Notably, Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips, who wrote the original music for The Squid and the Whale, later went on to make an album of songs to accompany the screen tests. I haven’t heard that album.

Also notable, the start of a section three features spoken word by Bruce Springsteen, whose three year recording exile in the mid-seventies was coming to an end with the recording of Darkness at the Edge of Town, at about the time Street Hassle was recorded.

Night Music: The Crystals, “He Hit Me, And It Felt Like a Kiss”

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Little Eva was Carol King’s baby sitter. And she did the Locomotion.

It turned out Little Eva also had a boyfriend who hit her, when things weren’t going right. Carol and Gerry Goffin learned about Eva’s burden and wrote this song in outrage, but it seems Phil Spector missed at least part of the point.

So it stands as an amazing song with a killer arrangement and offensive lyrics. How do you reconcile that?

Night Music: La Luz, “Call Me In the Day”

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My friend Angela linked to this Seattle band today on Facebook, and their sound is retro and spare, like the Dum Dum Girls, but more so.

This tune reminds me of the Burt Bachrach tune, Baby It’s You, though it isn’t quite as exquisitely structured. But it has lots of air and reverb and good taste. The rest of the EP is similarly smart, though of course it’s just a tease until they put it all together and make a sound of their own.

But until then, this will do. Cause baby, it’s you.

Night Music: Simi Stone, “Pyramid”

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We’re spending July up north, in the Hudson Valley. On our side of the river, the east side, the food is incredible. On the west side of the river there is music. Lots of it.

Tonight, a band from the Woodstock side came to play in the Spiegeltent at Bard College, up the road from us, on our side of the river. Simi Stone, our friends told us, sang backup for Natalie Merchant last week at a show in Kingston, and saved Natalie’s behind. At least that’s what it sounded like, our friends said.

I checked into Simi Stone on the internet and found this delightful clip:

Too cute for school, but fine for going out with friends. What could go wrong?

So we went to the show tonight, met our friends and one of their friends (who had been to the Merchant show and kind of fell for Simi Stone), and were prepared to enjoy, not be blown away.

But when the show started something better happened.

This wasn’t like Jon Landau and Dave Marsh seeing Springsteen, but the fact is that you can go to a lot of shows and not catch a fire. And Simi Stone and her band threw a spark.

The lineup was unusual: Piano, drums, bass and baritone sax, plus Simi singing, playing violin and guitar. The baritone sax guy played flute on a few songs when the bari wasn’t necessary.

Simi is not exactly graceful on stage, she can seem ungainly, but when she dances she hits the groove. She has a big head of hair and subtle feet. What might seem impromptu at first starts to seem very easy and knowing as you get to know her.

But what was gripping were the songs. Soul songs, for the most part, not really extraordinary in any obvious way, but in some ways all the better for the way they respected the traditions and also told Simi Stone’s personal story. These were personal songs, cut from the cloth of Rickie Lee Jones and Laura Nyro and Bill Withers, tunes that laid bare moments of life’s pain and despair, gently, in the first person, and then more forcefully claimed life itself for itself with a groove that just goes on. Simi Stone, she sang, deserved more than she had had at her low points.

This is powerful stuff that might not mean much musically, except Simi Stone made sure that it did. Whatever her previous problems, her performance was a repudiation of trouble, while at the same time she respectfully acknowledged trouble’s power.

So her show told us her story, and at the same time had the room on its feet dancing by the end, joyous in her message of transcendence and liberation.

On a side note, at the end, Simi introduced the band. They were all good players, older than Simi, but excellent at executing her vision, it seemed. Notably, however, her bass player was Sara Lee, who was the bass player in the rather significant post-punk band Gang of Four.

My point, I guess, is that talent doesn’t always make itself obvious. Sometimes you need to get your ass kicked by a bunch of fine musicians playing live. Simi, it turns out, is an ace fiddle player, and an able guitar picker. She was also happy to get down on the dance floor to promote the idea that folks should be shaking to her music.

We were. Alas, this clip shows some of her charm but doesn’t get the hip shaking. But let’s keep an eye out for that. And go see Simi and band i they play your town.

My friend Sheila bought me a copy of Simi Stone’s CD, which was nicely autographed:

2014-07-11 12.21.04

Night Music: Flamin’ Groovies, “Shake Some Action”

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I’ve resisted posting this one, mostly because it is way bigger than a Night Music posting, and yet perfect for a casual, hey, you gotta hear this one note.

My old buddy Peter turned me onto the Groovies (and the Beau Brummels and, for that matter, the Searchers, too, thank you Peter), which is one reason (or three or many more) he’s a big character in my life.

What I can say for sure is that this album, on Sire, in the middle of punk, was a clean and compelling call to hew the clean line between rock and pop. Not that the Groovies had historically respected such formal niceties.

But that doesn’t matter. This recording or this song does. Whoever the players were, whoever wrote it, whoever produced it, whoever mastered it, none of them would ever be a part of a recording so perfect again.

Despite those cartoon characters in the video (whose idea was that?). You gotta hear this one.

Night Music: Beau Brummels, “Just A Little”

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The Beau Brummels were one of the most and successful American bands to follow in the wake of the Beatles arrival in the States. Laugh Laugh and Just A Little were big hits, and not just imitations of the Invasion sound. I didn’t really know these guys though until the release of Nuggets and the Flaming Groovies Shake Some Action.

Night Music: Rolling Stones, “Monkey Man”

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The Stones were at the top of their game in the midst (at the start almost) of an incredible run of great music. I have to admit I haven’t listened much to Let It Bleed in recent years because it seemed so familiar, spoiled by overplaying on classic rock radio and my own turntable decades ago, but having a listen today I was struck by how fresh and awfully good the lesser known songs are.

I’m talking Country Honk, and You’ve Got the Silver, and this one. They defy genre and characterization. They rock, but they’re blues and country, and just plain Stones, all at once. It’s surprising what you end up with when you go back to the familiar.

Night Music: Sonny Boy Williamson w Buddy Guy, “One Way Out”

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I was washing dishes today and started singing this song. Maybe because I was looking out the window, or maybe just because it’s one of those songs I know all the words to. Of course, the version I know is the Allman Brothers version, which is pretty great.

But this version, I think it’s the original, is clearly the template. It’s good to keep track of where the music came from.

Night Music: New York Dolls, “Seven Day Weekend”

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There are terrific versions of this great Doc Pomus/Mort Schuman song by Gary US Bonds, a duet by Elvis Costello and Jimmy Cliff, but I found this on a CD of demos the Dolls had recorded in 1973, which was released in the 90s sometime.

There’s a Heartbreakers version, too, with Johnny Thunders, that’s almost traditional. In every case, a great song for the start of summer.