Category Archives: video

Night Music: Cheap Trick, “Sgt. Pepper Reprieve” and “A Day in the Life”

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A lot of Beatles buzz on the site the last few days, and I wondered how much of the world knew that Cheap Trick actually covered the entire Sergeant Pepper album a few years back, taking it to the road (kind of like Phish, who do someone’s classic album every Halloween)?

Though I was a big Trick fan during their early years–especially In Color and Black and White,  Heaven Tonight, and Dream Police–I sort of lost track of their newer stuff after that (shame on me, as that is when Buddakon came out, but as good a live band as the Trick are, that one seemed like too much hype too after I had found them).

Not that I ever wrote the band off: I still love all three of those albums from the Rockford band (about 40 miles from where Diane lived in Algonquin) who so emulated the Beatles with their own spin. Though the Trick have been a lot more. Poppy, tuneful, funny, and they don’t take themselves too seriously, which to me means if they take from other bands (like the great bridge chords in I Know What I Want and I Know How to Get It that are lifted from Eight Days a Week)  it is more of an homage than a rip.

Well, a few years ago my friend, drummer Steve Chattler turned me onto the Trick doing Sergeant Pepper in its entirety, and the band does a killer job.

See for yourself. I mean, this is nothing like watching a tribute/cover band.

Night Music: The Pixies, “Dig for Fire,”and Frank Black “(I Want to Live on an) Abstract Plain”

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I had to drive up to our house near Lake Tahoe on Wednesday for the simple task of installing our new DSL modem.

You see, even though the house is buried in the Tahoe National Forest, and we neither get–nor want–television or our cell phones to work, we do often have to work from the house. So, being able connect with the world is essential.

My whole time at the house took about 20 minutes for the install, but the drive is around three hours each way. But, since we do rent the house out, particularly to skiers this time of year, and we advertise the house has high-speed, well I had to make sure we delivered upon what was advertised.

I usually would have just streamed KTKE in Truckee (the town about ten miles from our house) but for some reason I just plugged in my iPhone, put it on shuffle, and let it go.

Most of the storage on my iPhone is gobbled up by music (7.2 GB as I write) so there is a pretty good array of stuff, and it was good fun listening to the digital DJ take a turn at spinning tracks, and as Pavlov (one of our dogs joined me for the trek) and I wound our way up in altitude, shuffle handed out a few songs by The Pixies, a band I really love a lot.

Among them was  Dig For Fire from the band’s terrific Bossanova album. Such a great cut (I saw the band once, opening for U2 on the Achtung Baby tour).

Well, since I am a big Pixies fan, it presumes I am also a Frank Black (aka, Black Francis) fan as well, so I figured I would throw in a cut from his album Teenager of the Year, with Frank and his band The Catholics.

I Like This Song: Chuck Berry and Keith Richards, “Carol”

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I should research where this clip is from, though I suspect it’s from that TV special Keith did with Chuck that made Keith realize he wasn’t the bastard son of Chuck. Rather, Chuck was a bastard.

What’s great about this clip is how generous the music is. Once they get past the stuff that isn’t working, they really enjoy playing. Maybe all the more so for all the awkwardness that it takes to get them there.

Night Music: Pavement, “Range Life”

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Hat tip to my friend Angela who posted this yesterday on Facebook. I’m so busy approving pages to the Fantasy Baseball Guide I can’t really think. But listening to this I’m struck by the linkages between Pavement and the Kinks.

I don’t have time to do the work for you now, but believe me, it’s soooo cool. (Dig Pavement in their Hillbilly’s phase.)

Night Music: Texas Tornados, “Who Were You Thinking Of”

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I started with Flaco, then Flaco and Freddy, then Lawr bit the madeleine and added Doug Sahm. Those were all different bands, but that inevitably leads us to the Texas Torandos, a band started in 1990 by Flaco Jimenez, Freddy Fender, Doug Sahm and Augie Meyers, a member of the Texas Music Hall of Fame. Something of a conjunto supergroup, if you will.

Night Music: The Spirit of Radio

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I have never really been a big Rush fan.

Not that I was ever against them, but sort of like Masters of the Universe, I was born  too late for them.

By the time Rush hit what Wikipedia refers to as the band’s “Mainstream Success” years (1977-81) I had run from the Arena rock of ELO and Queen to the Punk bands from England and New Wavers out of New York.

Furthermore, Rush was a Prog Rock band, and I had already grown weary of Yes, not that I did not respect the musical chops of Steve Howe and his mates. Yes’ music just seemed a bit on the forced/overwritten side to me compared to the visceral guitars of the Pistols and Eddie and the Hot Rods and the Records, et al.

Actually, the real bottom line was that the Prog Band of my adolescence was The Moody Blues, and then Pink Floyd, both of whom were cutting edge in the late 60’s, before Yes and Rush and even Fripp and Eno (there was Roxy Music out there too, though they were more Pop/Art Rock than Prog in my opinion).

I was given a copy of Rush’s single, New World Man when it came out in the mid-80’s, and it was OK, but I more remember a photograph of a Dalmatian on the cover (our family had one as I was growing up) than the actual song.

Over the years, I have heard songs by Rush on the radio waves, and with their distinct style and Geddy Lee’s falsetto vocals, they are pretty easily recognizable. And, they are not bad in any way. I never turn them off or change the channel: I just never crave more.

Except for the tune The Spirit of Radio which I have heard from time-to-time on said radio, and which I thought was a really great cut, but which I had never really listened to, if that makes a lick of sense. And, I certainly did not know the title of the tune.

However, I did catch the Band’s live performance  as part of their introduction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and lo and behold the band played a red hot version of said song.

Again, I noted I liked it a lot, but I still did not know the title till the other night when I was returning from band practice, and the local hard rock station (the Bone at 107.7) played the original album track from the 1981 album Permanent Waves.

Of course with its unmistakable Alex Lifeson riff that runs through the tune, it is pretty hard to miss, but the truth is, since I heard it that last time, I cannot stop hearing in my head.

For now, that is a good thing.

 

 

Freaks and Geeks: Nick Auditions

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Freaks and Geeks only ran for one season, did not attract a big audience, and the for a time vanished. I remember the promotion when the season was released on DVD, but it wasn’t until earlier this year I started watching it on Netflix. The premise is simple: The year is 1980, I think. A brainy high school girl, Lindsey, grows dissatisfied with her sheltered suburban life, and decides she wants to be friendly with the clique of freaks who hang together on the edge of academic engagement. Meanwhile, her nerdy brother and his friends enter high school, and try to navigate through the pubescent mine field there.

One of the freaks, Nick, is a stoner whose identity is linked with his giant 29 piece drum kit. He’s not that bright, but he’s sweet and for a while he and Lindsey go out. In this episode a leading local rock band loses its drummer and Nick auditions. The result is wonderfully nuanced.