Song of the Week – Harvard, Diet Cig

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Today’s SotW is by a band from New Paltz, in the Hudson Valley of NY, where I grew up. It is the duo of Alex Luciano (vocals, guitar) and Noah Bowman (drums), gigging under the name Diet Cig.

(I saw many of my earliest rock concerts at SUNY New Paltz including the memorable 1972 Kinks show with a Boston based warm up band I’d never heard of called Aerosmith!)

Earlier this year they released their first proper recording, an EP called Over Easy. The last song on the disc is today’s SotW, “Harvard.”

It’s a pretty funny song… and a nice kiss-off to an Ivy League jerk of an ex-boyfriend who ditched the edgy girl that turns him on for the nice girl he wants to “bring home to mom.”

How’s your new Ivy League girlfriend?
Is she boring too in the way I couldn’t stand?
And I’m not sorry
I just hope you trust her more than me

You never wanted to date a college girl
Well, I hope you got something out of that deal
Or made your parents proud
I bet she’s not as loud

Does it feel better
To be in an Ivy League sweater?
Put your work shoes on
And talk about her at your shitty job
Does it feel better
In that cold Boston weather?

Fuck your Ivy League sweater
You know I was better
Fuck your Ivy League sweater

The music is pretty basic 90s style indie rock. Guitar based, straight ahead rock with heavy drumming. Throw in a little of the Pixies/Nirvana soft/loud dynamics and, viola, the magic begins.

Enjoy… until next week.

Elliot Murphy, “Last of the Rock Stars”

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Around the time the Dolls and Springsteen were going for stardom, Elliot Murphy was the darling of Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine, which didn’t lack for cachet because of that whole Velvet Underground thing.

One day when I was in high school I was in New York City for some unremembered reason, and I was on the Long Island Railroad headed home reading Interview, a feature about Elliot Murphy, and I look up and there on the danged LIRR car is Elliot Murphy, wearing a neon blue (aqua) feather jacket, like a true rock star, with hangers on (friends) and everything. On the Long Island Railroad! Though I’m not sure the record was even out yet, which may explain something.

Murphy didn’t endure nor soar the way the Dolls and Springsteen have. I don’t have a theory why. He seemed very delicate and kind of made up on the train. Aquashow was a good album, but careers get derailed in many ways. Stardom selects in reverse. Many aspire and a few survive the gauntlet.

In any case, Murphy didn’t stop. Here’s a version from a live show in Italy in 2006. No longer innocent nor callow.

Rocking Visions of Johanna

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I’m listening to this new Bob Dylan booleg, The Cutting Edge 1965 – 1966: The Bootleg Series Vol. 12 (6 CD Deluxe Edition), which is full of alt takes of songs he recorded on his three epic albums of 1965 and 1966. It all sounds great, but this backing track for the stately (in its official release) Visions of Johanna is unlike anything else, unless maybe something from the future. This hard driving rock doesn’t really work with the song, but for at least a few minutes it sounds pretty terrific.

Meet the Spraynards

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On the first New Yorker Radio show, the most excellent rock writer Kelefah Sanneh goes to the Philly suburbs and talks to the guys in the band Spraynard.

Now, I’ve only heard the radio segment and my first impression is these pop punk guys are as formulaic as the death metal guys. What’s with that voice dudes?

But the interview is worth a listen, especially since it takes place in a batting cage.

https://www.wnyc.org/radio/#ondemand/540298

And a listen to an actual song is kind of nice. Those crappy vocals, but good (not stupid) lyrics.

Johnny Cash, First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

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I like the Roberta Flack version, which is direct and simple. But apparently Ewan MacColl, who wrote the song, thought it was too pop.

It is pop, it has strings, which is why it was a big and deserved hit.

There is a new album of Ewan MacColl covers out. A tribute album, as it were. He was a giant of the Englishy folk scene of the 50s, and married Pete Seeger’s sister to boot. He claimed their version of this song was the best, stripped down and weird, but he’s wrong (though to be fair he died before Johnny Cash recorded his version).

For the record, here’s the lovely Roberta Flack version, which is also better than MacColl’s.

Radio Radio

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I was at dinner with some friends the other night, when talk turned to Elvis Costello’s new book, Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink. Many people there that night claimed fandom, but I think I won with my story of being at the first show at the Bottom Line, standing on our chairs so we could look over the fucking piano, and telling the bouncers to go to hell, since we didn’t want to look in the stupid mirror they had for those of us in our blocked seats.

I also told the story of hanging at the bar with Joey Ramone, talking about just how sucky the Tuff Darts (opening act) were.

But then I told the story of seeing Costello and the Attractions on Saturday Night Live, and I got the whole story totally wrong. In my head, the label wanted Elvis to play Allison, and he instead played Radio Radio.

But the clips are clear. He was scheduled to play Less Than Zero, a track about British fascist Oswald Mosely, and who could know it would later become a Bret Easton Ellis post teen drug romp novel and movie, but played instead the insolent and immature but uberly catchy Radio Radio.

For this, Lorne Michaels or NBC, I’m not sure which, banned Costello from NBC shows. Wow.

But on the 25th anniversary of SNL, Costello was back, recreating the moment (equally awkwardly) and played Radio Radio with the Beastie Boys. It’s cool, and I think shows just how tight the Attractions were.