Category Archives: TV

Night Music: Benjamin Booker, “Violent Shiver”

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I happened on this article in the Guardian today about a new generation of blues rock players who say they learned the blues at least in part from listening to Jack White. Like a game of telephone, mistakes are made.

That’s not really what I mean. Each of the three bands talked about in the story combine modern and old sounds in interesting ways. Benjamin Booker stands out to me, because I could see his mix turning into excellent songs. Right now, this one is probably the best, and it has some excellent drumming and interesting bass playing and Booker is pretty laid back about making some fast and pounding noises with his guitar.

He’s got that diffident voice thing going on, which is too bad, but there’s way more good here than bad. It just isn’t fully baked yet. For instance, Paul Schaffer’s organ part is a nice addition.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jan/01/little-punk-jazz-shoegaze-the-new-blues

You should watch the D.D Dumbo clip, in which an Australian named Oliver Perry one-man bands things using loops, playing African guitar styles (which were at least in part derived from African guitarists listening to Lightning Hopkins), making art rock blues that support his arty vocals and more droney/chanty than catchy melodies. But it’s a cool sound that reminds me to listen to that Dirty Projector’s album I like so much (which nails all the vocal-mix-melody-abstraction issues this music is just starting to explore).

Night Music: Tony Joe White and the Foo Fighters, “Polk Salad Annie”

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This song was a hit in 1969, which means I was stumbling into adolescence and learning to delight in stupid rude puns (or what appeared to be so, at the time). This version, a song about food by the way, is contemporary (from October 2014), and Tony Joe’s voice isn’t quite so flexible, but it percolates anyway. And he has a nice buzzing solo, too. And Dave Grohl and Pat Smear, too. Plus Dave.

Breakfast Blend: Elvis Costello on Letterman 1982

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The Attractions were touring supporting Imperial Bedroom, the album that Columbia promoted with the headline, Masterpiece?

I saw the band on the pier by the Intrepid, and then got a call from my friend Robin. Her neighbor was a writer on the Letterman show, and she had tickets to see them in the studio on Letterman’s show. We went. You can see them here. Thanks Robin.

The reason I landed on this is I’ve been playing that album a lot lately. I hadn’t revisited it for years, partly because of that Masterpiece? dodge. The weird overselling and the record’s effete literary musicality caused a problem. You can’t say you love this record without saying you’re some king of fancy boy. Unless you’re brave.

I love this record. The Attractions were a fantastic band, and the songs and arrangements on this elpee push them to create lively melodic music that can only, sometimes, be called Beatles-esque.

But the record really doesn’t rely on pretension. This isn’t XTC. There’s lots of air and delicious melody in the arrangements. Beatles engineer Geoff Emmerich produces this one, and the sound is precise and rich, full of detail, but each layer adds nuance, not complexity. This is art rock that is art, but doesn’t sacrifice the straight forward perspective of rock, even if the tunes mostly rock only in spurts.

And then there are Costello’s words. He’s a writer of too many words, sometimes, but when they’re pared back, as they actually often are, especially on Imperial Bedroom, he’s also a writer of uncompromising personal directness and vividness. The two songs on this Letterman clip are lyrically bold and personally revealing.

And this live version of Beyond Belief shows the rock heart at the core of Imperial Bedroom.

Night Music: Chuck Berry, “Roll Over Beethoven”

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A few years ago Chuck Berry was inducted into some songwriter’s hall of fame. A friend said, “Chuck Berry?” Hell yes.

Berry’s rep has diminished thanks to Keith Richards (his bastard son, who disavowed him) and Chuck’s impecunious behavior, but the fact is that Johnny B. Goode, Maybelline, Back In the USA, Roll Over Beethoven, and almost every hit he ever wrote except My Dingaling, ranks among the best rock and roll tunes of all time.

I should bless you with Carol, here, but this will have to do:

Night Music: Frankie Ford, “Sea Cruise”

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Cosimo Matussa also engineered/produced this one, which is just a perfect pleasure. I can remember the first time I heard it. I’d bought a compilation of early New Orleans music, curious about these oldies that weren’t on the radio. It was full of great tunes, but this is the one that beckoned over and over.

I got to boogie woogie like a knife in the back.

Night Music: Quicksilver Messenger Service, “Fresh Air”

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If you were alive in the late 60s and all of the 70s, you were fed industry folderol about new bands constantly. That was the old way.

There were no zines, no alternative press (unless its origins were political), and no internet. Obs.

But there was radio promotion, touring, and the rock press, which was just beginning to take the music and the artists seriously, if you can believe that. And making lots of money selling ads against its content. No grousing about that, just the observation that one of the reasons things blew up after the Beatles showed everyone how is that small industry became a big one for a while, and while doing so it got the feel of being something new.

I’m sure I learned of Quicksilver listening to this great song on the radio. They have some other good ones, and seem from this vantage to be one of the better more forgotten bands in our history.

TV: Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers

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“Freaks and Geeks” was perhaps the most rock-ish network TV show that didn’t feature Don Kirschner. Episode number 12 of the show’s only season involved the freaks trying to get it together to drive to Detroit to see the Who. It’s always hard to get into a series in the middle, but for reference purposes here’s the 12th show in its only season. It is well worth watching them all.