Lee Michaels thrived when his organ met with a drum.
Quasi’s Sam Coomes is looking for the same kick. He met the fabulous Janet Weiss. And found it?
LATER: Veruca Salt, “Seether” 2014
Last week we did a little nostalgic walk back to the lovely-and-cleverly-named Veruca Salt, and their high profile song (was it a hit? in indy circles it was), Seether.
It was a pretty good pop rock meld, not too heavy, but clever enough for college kids to get.
Now, 18 years later, Veruca Salt is back.
They re-launched on Conan, and here’s their aged version of Seether.
Not terrible. Not awful. If I was their friend and they were playing in a bar that wasn’t too far from my house and I didn’t have other plans, I would go see them. And I would appreciate that they are smart enough to know that they can’t reproduce the magic. They’re engineering the magic, again.
And hoping to cash in. I expect the hoping part isn’t in play. Promoters know they can generate lots of dough off our idiotic romance with our past.
Or maybe it isn’t idiotic. Maybe that nostalgia is a serious part of our personalities. We all have the bug.
Song of the Week Revisited – Carnival of Life, Lee Michaels
IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED
Since we’re on a roll with Lee Michaels’ posts, I thought I’d resubmit a SotW I originally wrote in November 2012 for the email distribution list I had prior to joining this blog.
Does anyone remember Lee Michaels? If you do, it’s probably either from his very good third album Lee Michaels (recorded live in the studio accompanied only by his hefty drummer, Frosty) or his top 10 hit, “Do You Know What I Mean”, from “5th”.
But I fell in love with his 1968 debut Carnival of Life through an introduction I remember fondly. My 7th grade best friend, Mark P., had a much older brother that was attending Manhattan College in New York City. Albert had his own car with an 8-Track tape deck in it… and very good taste in music. He also liked to drive, and gas was cheap, so now and then he would take Mark and me on long rides to nowhere, just cruising and listening to tunes.
It’s where I first heard Zappa’s Freak Out, The Band’s Music From Big Pink, and The Who’s Tommy. Not bad. And though Carnival of Life isn’t nearly as “important” as those albums (nor has it aged as gracefully), it still holds a warm place in my musical memory. That aside, it is still a pretty rare record that commands a decent price in psych record collecting circles. (Check out the prices they want for the CD on Amazon!)
So let’s give a listen to the title track, “Carnival of Life.”
On this song Michaels plays his trademark Hammond organ and harpsichord. But I chose this cut because it also includes some pretty nifty guitar work by Hamilton W. Watt.
So where is Michaels now? If you really want to know, check out his wacko personal web site:
Enjoy… until next Saturday.
Lunch Break: The Real Kids, “Reggae Reggae”
Not reggae. More rock from 1977, this time from New England.
Breakfast Blend: The Saints
The punk band from Australia that I remember best are the Saints, whose album (I’m) Stranded is a fearsome noise. But watching videos of the band just now, their dominant theme seems now to be boredom. But maybe that’s singer Chris Bailey’s affect. This one, from their second album, is pretty hot.
By their third album they were onto something a little jazzy. Nice.
But it was (I’m) Stranded, out before there were Sex Pistols and the Clash, that won them attention for raw energy and speed. Classic.
Night Music: Radio Birdman, “New Race”
It is always difficult to hear a new band in a new context and get a good idea about what they’re doing.
Radio Birdman ruffled some feathers back in the late 70s into the 80s. As alt-pop culture in Sydney this is important. As indie records culture in NY this means somthing, but how important it is overall is why we’re talking about it.
So, listen, and let’s try to figure out what comes next.
Lunch Break: Lee Michaels, “Streetcar”
Peter posted last week on the ever-fun Lee Michaels (sigh, no relation unfortunately) and his biggest hit, Do You Know What I Mean?
I was a big Michaels fan back then, and I think I saw him at Winterland and Sound Factory and various little northern California venues four times with my childhood friend Stephen Clayton.
I never saw him play with anyone but his great and behemoth drummer, Bartholomew Smith-Frost aka “Frosty.”
Further, I always remember he was barefoot, and from what I could see, his feet were really dirty (even back then, he was a stoner after my own heart).
I remember loving Michaels’ first pair of albums–Carnival of Life and Recital–after which he released Barrel, the work the artist insisted was his first real album. That is because Barrel was just Michaels and Frosty whereas the first two efforts featured the likes of studio-men Eddie Hoh and Hamilton Watt and friends.
The problem is as much as I liked Michaels and Frosty live, similarly I thought those first two albums were full of great tunes and some decent crunch and psychedelia.
The song I picked here is Streetcar which was my fave on that first Carnival of Life album.
As I was searching for Michaels information to assemble this little ditty, I did come across his website, which is kind of a hoot in a “peace and love I am a bit of a scattered stoned out hippie but that doesn’t mean I am stupid or anything” way.
Here is the link:
http://www.leemichaels.com/LeeMichaels.com/no_war.html
As they say at Penny Lane, “very strange.”
Real Remnants: TV Jones, “Eskimo Pies”
In 1974, an Australian band called TV Jones went into the studio in Sydney to record an album. They recorded a couple songs but things fell apart, the album was cancelled, the band broke up, the tapes were erased.
But they weren’t. In 2000, a cassette tape with the recordings was found. A single of Eskimo Pies b/w Skimp the Pimp was released.
Only later was it discovered that the version of Eskimo Pies on the single wasn’t the TV Jones version, but a demo of the song for the band’s guitarist/vocalist Deniz Tek’s next band, Radio Birdman. Bummer.
Radio Birdman later signed with Sire records in the states and had a storied and erratic career. By the way, Deniz Tek’s website is an excellent slice of the remnant side of rock history.
But it all started with TV Jones (which is also the name of one of the premier makers of guitar pickups).
Lunch Break: Sugar Pie DeSanto, “Rock Me”
We had breakfast with Sugar Pie this morning, but this is great. I’m heading to Littlefields.
Breakfast Blend: In The Basement
This tune popped up in my Youtube list today, because (I’m pretty sure) Sugar Pie DeSanto is doing a show a Littlefields, a small club in my nabe, in a few weeks. So I played the song. Sugar Pie DeSanto and Etta James cut this one in 1966, and it rocks.
So I thought that it might be good fun to see Sugar Pie, even though Etta James died a few years ago. But then I found this clip and I was conflicted.
On the one hand, the band seems strong, if kind of professionally bland. And she’ll be playing with a different band. On the other, Sugar Pie seems more adept at dirty dancing than singing these days, as that clip shows.
So, what do you do? Do you go to the show? Or do you avoid the discomfort?