Since You’re Dying To Know. . .

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I got one of Santa’s Amazon CDs that I was most anticipating today – “Wolverine Blues” by Entombed. I am going to make an honest effort with this CD to acquire a taste for death metal, because I feel there’s something good there that I’m missing.

Actually “Wolverine Blues” is legendary for pioneering the “Death ‘n’ Roll” genre – death metal with groovy rock ‘n’ roll elements encorporated. The liner notes on the CD (won’t find them on a damn download) explain that this was Entombed’s way of countering all the electronics that were beginning to overwhelm death metal at the time. (More electronics almost always means more suck.)

Today we start. I’ll keep you posted.

Night Music: Percy Mayfield, “Please Send Me Someone to Love”

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I don’t know how I discovered Percy Mayfield, I must have read about him somewhere. I knew his songs, this one particularly, which was a hit in 1950 and which has been covered by just about everyone in the world. For instance, the Grateful Dead (according to the Wikipedia, though I couldn’t find a clip of that one). He’s written many other wonderful songs, with terrific melodies and simple but ambitious words, and I think he has a terrific, warm and open voice, too. If you didn’t know about Percy Mayfield before, now you do.

Night Music: The Dream Syndicate, “Days of Wine and Roses”

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Back in 1982, I saw these guys at Gerdes Folk City, a bar next to the McDonalds on West 4th Street that was a Village folk institution. A place of historic interest. Last I checked A Kettle of Fish, a bar that had once been on McDougal, had moved there, but that was long enough ago that maybe J. Crew is in the space now.

The Dream Syndicate, who were written up in the Times or Voice as a formidable non-Cali-style band from LA, were pitched as the new Velvet Underground, but they were quite a bit less. At the same time, live in a tiny room sitting close to a small stage, when you’re young and big drums and careening guitars are like everything, they were fantastic.

And the record works really well, despite their limitations. This song is the title track.

One alarming thing, in addition to the vast expanse of time between the night I saw the Dream Syndicate and, um, today, I can’t recall who I saw them with. I remember the sound, I can feel the noise. I can remember buying the tickets, but I’m getting black drapes on who I was with. They were “confused” times, so maybe it was all painful fun. But there is a hole.

Old Rock: Concerts for the people of Kampuchea

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Concert for Kampuchea dvd cover and back Cambodia may not have a history of rock, but it does have a benefit concert in its past.

This is a pretty good lineup, a mashup of Stiff’s Live and the Concert for Sandy, kind of.

I’m attaching a Youtube of the whole concert, for the record, though I haven’t watched it all yet. But it starts with the Who playing old-style guitar-rock versions of Substitute and I Can’t Explain.

New Rock: Sliten6ix, “Annihilate the Meth”

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Just came across this story about Cambodia’s nascent hardcore punk scene. According to the article, apart from a surf rock boom in the 60s, Cambodia has never had rock music. The article also calls this a burst of creativity, which I’m not so sure about. I’m not so sure these shirtless guys get the whole idea of slam dancing, but let’s give them a break, they’re beginners.

Here’s another clip, a band called No Forever performing a song called Breathless.

Night Music: Smashing Pumpkins, “Cherub Rock”

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I’ve been thinking about the Smashing Pumpkins lately, a band I liked a lot but haven’t listened to recently, and then on the subway tonight in the novel I’m reading (Tao Lin’s Taipei) he mentioned the Pumpkins. (He mentions lots of bands. I ended up with Against Me! last night because I looked up the Ataris, another band mentioned in the novel, and they play that amped up guitar rock that turns Green Day into prog giants. They were wanting. You can Youtube them if you want.)

Smashing Pumpkins were pretty universally hated back in the day, the grubbingest of grungers is the way the story goes. But I liked their music back then, especially Siamese Dream (which this cut is from) and the epically grandiose and asinine (and unspellable) Melon Collie and the Something or Other in a Village of Dingoes. But despite the title there is some powerful rock on that one, too, which maybe we’ll get to another day.

I would say that their songs are built on powerful mid-rhythm parts, static melodies that noodle all over the same place, and guitars that careen from notely to powerhouse (and that’s where most of the dynamics come from). The other distinguishing feature is a distinctive distortion that almost sounds like the tape is being slowed and released and slowed.

I think it’s to their credit that Steve Albini compared them to REO Speedwagon and Bob Mould called them the grunge Monkees (Husker Du had a similar constant distortion field effect going on come to think of it), but you may disagree (with me and agree with them). But Smashing Pumpkins were way popular when this rock style, the last legitimate rock style that was popular, was popular, were not posers (but may have been ambitious assholes), but I’m not sure I see the crime in any of that. But feel free.

For Me! 2:20 PM Music – I Should Be Watching Football

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But a Hellacopters came in the mail Friday that I didn’t have before – “Strikes Like Lightning” – a $25 used CD on Amazon. (I also found another one “Geekstreak” – $25 used as well – that’s on the way from Japan with songs on that I don’t have, so that may be a while.)

On a tangent, did you ever consider what music is worth? This “Strikes Like Lightning” is only six songs, but I’m in love again. What would I be happy to pay for it? $100? More? What’s your favorite song worth? Is a 20-song album of OK stuff for $5.99 a better deal than a $12.99 album with one really good song but the rest is crap? This is the stuff that will be swirling around in my head when the Alzheimer’s sets in.

Anyway, I only allow myself to listen to “Strikes Like Lightning” once a day, so I don’t burn it out. Upon first listen, it sounded kind of same-y (which I think Peter thinks the Hellas are, period), but even upon the second listen, the riffs started gripping my brain and the nuances started becoming apparent.

This is my favorite so far – the Stooge-y “No Fun” part, the little low riffy chord progression, the just AC/DC-enough feel and the singing guitars. Ahh, those dual guitars just sing. During the solo part, in stereo, the first two solo chops come out of one speaker and the other two come out of the other (as the guys are surely trading – I was always a sucker for the one speaker/other speaker stuff). Upon the third chop I have to yell out in the car every time. I get chills, seriously.

The Hellacopters are perfect.

Link: The Guardian Loves The Everly Brothers

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This story is a little enthusiastic, I think, but I don’t blame it. The Everly Brothers’ music is majorly important in the history of rock ‘n’ roll. This story has lots of fun detail. So read it.

And look deeper.

Night Music: Against Me!, “Borne on the FM Waves of the Heart”

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I read a story in the NY Times today about this band, which is playing locally tonight or tomorrow or both. I’d never heard of them, but the story represents them as a modern and relatively popular punk band, so it got my curiosity up. Certainly some of the few modern rock bands I like, Fucked Up foremost, really are punky.

So I was just digging around on YouTube and heard some interesting stuff, but I wouldn’t call it punk and I wasn’t digging the style. And I have to admit, this one didn’t catch me at first, but it’s a duet and I liked the woman singing and kept listening. She is Tegan Quin of the duo Tegan and Sara, who are alt-rock favorites in recent years. And as I listened I got caught up in the drumming and the interchange of the vocals, and the somewhat soft guitars stopped bothering me as much.

I may or may not ever play this again, it’s a little slick for my tastes, but it’s worth a listen if only just for the drums. And I’m going to dig further into the Tegan and Sara catalog. There is pleasure there in her voice.

There is also the reason why the Times was writing up Against Me! at this point. It seems that Tom Gabel, the band’s singer when this record, New Wave, (produced by Butch Vig, by the way) was released in 2007, has long had gender dysphoria, and last year started hormone therapy to transition from male to female. At the band’s shows now he presents as a woman, and goes by the name Laura Jane Grace. What’s curious to me is that the Wikipedia entry for this album identifies the lead singer as Laura Jane Grace rather than Tom Gabel. Can that be right?

I don’t care personally, but watching this video and then reading about the dude as Laura Jane Grace seemed confusing.

Song of the Week – Rock and Roll Medley – The Everly Brothers

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Everly-Brothers-Show-album-sleeve-433IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED

Last Saturday I was saddened to learn that Phil Everly died. I’ve always been partial to harmony vocals, so the Everly Brothers were one of my favorite groups. I’m clearly not alone in that. Rock bands from the 60s through today have paid tribute to the Everlys, incorporating their close harmony style into their own music or recording covers of their songs.

It’s been said the The Beatles once considered calling themselves The Foreverly Brothers – clearly a tip of the hat to Phil and Don. No less than Bob Dylan included two of their songs on his Self Portrait album that was recently given new life in 2013 due to a Bootleg Series reissue.

In the 1970s Simon and Garfunkle put a (live) version of “Bye Bye Love” on Bridge Over Troubled Water. Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris covered “Love Hurts” and Linda Ronstadt sang “When Will I Be Loved.”

Skip ahead to the new millennium and you have Alison Krauss and Robert Plant doing “Gone, Gone, Gone.” “Cathy’s Clown” gets a shout out in Elliott Smith’s “Waltz 2 (XO).” And just this past Thanksgiving week, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones released a full album of Everly Brothers covers called Foreverly.

The SotW is a cut I discovered last year in MOJO magazine. There was a piece that had Will Oldham (aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy) describing one of his favorite pieces of music – the full album side, 18 minute “Rock and Roll Medley” from the Everly Brothers 1970 album, The Everly Brothers Show.

The Everly Brothers are supported by a really hot band that includes guitar wiz Sam McCue, bassist Robert Knigge and drummer Al “Tiny” Schneider. This medley is like a freight train rolling down the tracks at too high a speed. They round a couple of turns where things get a little wobbly, but always seem to catch up with one another and choogle ahead.

The clip offered here is just a 5 minute sampling of the performance. But the full “Medley” is available on Spotify. Listening to the whole thing is a commitment but, trust me, it’s worth it.

The albums label lists 7 songs in the medley: “Rock and Roll Music,” “The End,” “Aquarius,” “If I Were a Carpenter,” “The Price of Love,” “The Thrill Is Gone,” and “The Games People Play.” But there are more nuggets hidden in the piece. It’s like an Easter egg hunt trying to find them. I hear a bit of The Who’s Tommy near the beginning. Then, just after the drum and bass solos (yes, there are drum and bass solos) the band slips into the riff from “Ticket to Ride” for just a short moment. It’s beautiful.

The boys did have a 10 episode summer replacement television show (for The Johnny Cash Show) on ABC called The Everly Brothers Show, but album of the same name was not a soundtrack. The album was recorded from a live performance at the Grand Hotel in Anaheim, CA.

Enjoy… until next week.