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Category Archives: musicians
Mr. Grinch
Highly recommended from two years ago:
Aimee Mann - One More Drifter In the Snow
My own xmas podcast comp is in the works.
Posted in musicians, video
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Graham Parker – the year, 1976
33 years ago, 1976, was the bicentennial year, but for me it was mainly the year I latched onto a dream job running a record department in the back of a book store in the college town of Middlebury, Vermont. Very soon after my arrival I struck up a friendship with a like-minded jazzbo and began sitting in on his weekly radio show on the college station, WRMC. One way or the other, I would spend one radio slot a week there for nine years, mostly presenting jazz on Tuesday nights under the title Groovin’ High. Tidbit: for two years CNN’s Frank Sesno read the news after my show.
So, this was the background for 1976. Graham Parker released two superb recordsHeat Treatment and Howlin’ Wind in the same year! I have to confess too: to my tastes, both records wiped away my fascination with the Boss, who had released Born to Run the previous year. To place these records in context, both Elvis Costello and the Sex Pistols would issue their debut records the next year. Meanwhile, the FM radio dial was increasingly dominated by corporate rock.
Parker recorded for Mercury, yet their hype machine fell short with his one-two punch in 76. There really wasn’t a place for pub-rock driven singer-songwriter rock and roll on the stateside dial. I didn’t need any extravagant pitch. As soon as I learned that Parker had hired en-mass the legendary Brinsley Schwarz outfit to be his back-up band I was off my rocker. They were my favorite countrified import from the isles, and Silver Pistol (1971) and Nervous On the Road (1972) remain among my favorite listens in the down home vein of The Band and Better Days and Bobby Charles. Okay, as it turned out: guitarist Schwarz and keyboardist Andrews, and they picked up buddy Martin Belmont from Ducks Deluxe.
Billy Rankin-drummer
Bob Andrews-piano
Nick Lowe-bass
Ian Gomm-guitar
Brinsley Schwarz-guitar
Only a little of that flavor is in the mix of Parker’s two opening shots. Parker is a ferocious soulman and one of the great rock-and-roll songwriters, and the Brinsleys morphed into The Rumour so as to match the ferocity with their own fervor. No hits was the reward for two statements of fierce rock and roll. Only surprising—since the era’s trends were unkind to so much terrific music—in that the two records have nary a bad cut, and, including lots of hit-worthy cuts.
(I count Heat Treatment, Black Honey, Pourin’ It All Out, and Fool’s Gold, just from Heat Treatment.) It was the same result for Squeezing Out the Sparks, released in 1979, albeit at least it is considered one of the great rock records. However, it came out in even more ungenerous times: 1979 was the year disco broke through, and, punk ruled most muso’s hearts.
Quality wins out in the end. Graham Parker has been churning out grown-up rock and roll ever since that bicentennial year–enough so that he is one of the masters.
Graham Parker tells the story himself on his defunct blog Chairman Parker. It’s an amusing and edifying read.
Graham Parker (home page | Wikipedia)
Essential:
All-time favorites
Brinsley Schwarz – Silver Pistol
Brinsley Schwarz – Nervous On the Road
Graham Parker – Howlin’ Wind
Graham Parker – Heat treatment
Desert island worthy:
Graham parker – Squeezing Out the Sparks
New and likely fab:
Graham Parker & the Rumour – Live in San Francisco
Posted in all-time favorites, masters, musicians
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Drunken Angels
‘Drunken’ in the mystical sense. . . Back in the day, Emmy Lou Harris was it. I’m talking 1973, and seeing her save a performance by a sadly bombed Gram Parsons. Although by then—at 19—I could sing the praises of Dolly and Loretta and, yup, Linda Ronstadt, seeing Emmy Lou sing like an angel in that very dark context was my first encounter with the living deep soul of pure country.
Ahh, but my cosmic cowboy phase soon moderated. Ha, blame it on Blue Note records! The upshot was that outside of a handful of leading lights,( like Rodney Crowell, Rosanne Cash, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Dwight Yoakim,)ccountry and country rock gems had to wind and roll their way onto my radar screen. I didn’t go searching for nuggets and still don’t. So, Wilco sparkled, so did Steve Earle, Will Kimbrough, and but a few others. Americana? Whatever.
The world wide web, of course, significantly improved the ol’ radar system. Nowadays, it’s a snap to dig out a glittering lead out of the various expert discussions happening on mp3 blogs and in forums. It’s funny to not keep up and yet find an embarrassment of riches.
Miranda Lambert tripped my trigger as soon as I checked out a hot tip about her second record, Kerosene. I liked her verve, and wasn’t hip enough to be cynical about the slick Nashville country-rock-pop settings. Her next record, Ex-Girlfriend, rocked harder and in those edgier settings, Lambert loosed a record full of oft pissed off, personal gestures about the man woman thing.
With Revolution, her record from earlier this year, Lambert has crafted a real diamond in the vein of the best countrified singer-songwriters, such as Rosanne Cash. Even though the arrangements are still a bit too shiny, Lambert has waxed a killer set of very personal, witty songs about growing up ‘country’. In a way, she’s a country Sheryl Crow, and that’s a-okay in my book.
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Inner Squall
VI. Noise. In terms of music, personally, it’s not a mean distinction. It was 30+ years ago that I heard very late period Coltrane. At the time I didn’t understand, nor do I today, why it was termed free jazz. Then came Evan Parker and Peter Brotzmann. Sonny Sharrock. It goes on. Peter’s son, Caspar Brotzmann. Mersbow. Charles Gayle.
It goes on: over there. Actually, when I hear the word ‘noise,’ I think of Jacques Attali; Noise: The Political Economy of Music. It’s one of the essential books about music, but it’s not about noise, really.
What is noise? One can’t say, ‘I know it when I hear it.’ This doesn’t make sense as a report about a coherent act of listening. Still, the actual received—heard—bandwidth, streamed into cognitive apparatus, then inferentially extracted to either ‘feel’ or (some) named perception, is variable “in the subject” but defines nothing more than the available slice. This slice is allowed by the consequence of evolution. Listening is actually very hard to do.
The extremes of this slice might hold some fascination.
quiet becomes
lifeless, short
of this, thumping
passes over
silence
The most intense noise I ever heard was the sound world available while floating in an isolation tank. Beautiful.
SunnO))) Wikipedia
About Sunn O)))
SUNN 0))) is the heavy rock equivalent of an institutional-size dose of Largactyl; when you finally get down, you stay down. SUNN 0))) makes sounds of weather formation size meditations, as monolithic as a brick of monosludge. SUNN 0))) music is huge and simple, like a future race of technologists who forgot how to build microchips so had to return to factory-sized computers. Its shamanic appeal is considerably enlivened by the sub-bass disfigurations caused to all bowels in the immediate proximity, whilst the lead guitar clings to your torso like a butter knife spreading Philly Lite first on a piece of toast, then on the bread board, then across the counter over the fridge and up the walls into adjacent rooms.
Ha ha. . .Philly Lite? I guess lava would hurt. Anyway, SunnO))) and Double Leopards figure into my sense, although, the heaviest drone I’ve churned through and out, Low Mera, didn’t make Slidemare.
John David Souther – If The World Is You
How does a musician sustain their career over decades?
A decades-long career may be viewed against the context of the music industry dream machine. Supposedly, a long career can be developed if the artist earns some measure of popularity, dolls out a ‘catalogue’ of records, leverages a sustained high point against a long, slow decline in popularity.
Examples of this kind of trajectory would be Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Emmylou Harris, Ry Cooder, David Byrne, Amie Mann, Jackson Browne, Shawn Colvin, Elvis Costello. I suppose a Ray Davies might count too. He’d be an example of a precipitous decline in popularity. In any case there are many examples.
There is another trajectory: where there was no great initial popularity able to serve as a foundation. Almost always–with this trajectory–this includes stop-and-start recording activity, jumping from label to label, and many days on the road. Many of my favorite artists have toiled along variants of this trajectory. Example: Richard Thompson, Bonnie Bramlett, Little Feat, Los Lobos, Geoff Muldaur. The point is: artistry and sheer force of will sustain the musical career.
John David Souther (Wikipedia) came onto the scene in 1973 as part of the L.A. folk and country rock scene. Associated with the Eagles and under the wing of the scene’s principal patron, David Geffen, he put out a strong self-titled debut record, soon enough was plugged into an ad hoc super group with ex-Buffalo Springfield, and Poco frontman Richie Furay and ex-Byrd and Burrito Chris Hillman. However, by the late seventies, radio was already headed in other directions. Souther continued to record solo records until 1984, and enjoyed a sizable hit with the single You’re Only Lonely in 1979. But the early eighties marked out a dead zone for the the country cosmopolitans of the L.A. scene, and even the radio-friendly (thus terrible,) production values, and, a handful of good songs, couldn’t reverse the downturn in Souther’s recording career.
The thing is: Souther was, is, has to be, a serious artist. Emphasis on: has to be. Most musicians are to greater or lesser degrees true to their personal, creative callings. Yet, it’s more than possible to get caught up in all sorts of damn stuff. Souther, a student of the great american song, and also, apparently, he’s a kind of traditionalist, walked away from all the entangling music industry crap.
Now he’s returned with–by far–his best record. I might go farther and say, If the World Is You is a flawless artistic statement.
The epiphany I had while listening to his remarkable comeback record, If the World Is You, released earlier this year, is that the sixty-something musical artist who has sustained by force of will a career over 30+ years, is likely in this day and age to focus their artistry on the music they have to create, and this would be irrespective of anything other than the desire to fulfill their artistic vision.
J.D. Souther is firstly a fine song writer; always has been one of the first call guys. Souther is a songwriter’s songwriter.
In Souther’s case, he’s made a superb record for grown-ups. To say that it is the best record of his career is to miss the point. If the World Is You seems to me to be completely sincere and personal. It’s main pleasures are found in how his adult themes are masterfully wrapped up in jazzy gulf coast and world beat inflections. Yet, it’s organic, and beguiling from start to finish.
If the World Is You is a report from an artist being true to his self. I feel that’s the secret of a long career.
John David Souther @myspace
John David Souther – official home
context: Debbie Kruger on JD Souther (from 1998)
His youtube page has an excellent interview.
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Willy DeVille – excerpt from Paderno
A medley of songs taken from an acoustic concert of the late, great, Willy DeVille.
Download via Rapidshare m4a Apple lossless.
Paisley-ality
The fall of 1969, 10th grade for me in a new school, (prep school-all guys,) was the big ear opener. I’ve written about this previously–how many of my musical prejudices were formed starting and in some ways ending with those three prep school years. It’s certainly true that certain antipathies were formed then too: never could get into gratuitous and arty heavy music for example. Instead, and no doubt to some even worse, it was country cow pokin’ and hippie psychedlia and white boy white girl blooz.
I think it was doozy who slid Quicksilver Messenger Service‘s self-titled debut on the spindle. Pride of Man! Then, Happy Trails, the spliced together masterpiece live recording that made Quicksilver’s rep amongst the stoner divers. Who do you love? And so it went: Turn On Your Love Light, The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil, Chooglin’, Hey Grandma.
Although the Grateful Dead kept on truckin’ in this vein for two decades farther, FM radio by the early seventies came to ignore west coast psychedelia, and, eventually it disappeared in practice as well as being wiped off the commercial dial.
In the eighties, to me bands such as The Dream Syndicate and Lush square in different ways the druggy pop storms of that first psych age by the bay. And, there were others too but I was onto other things and not spending much time trying to collect myself into a reprisal of the panama red fueled attics and hang down cribs. Also at times, a lot of southern rock will elevate the hippie blast current in their music, and that moving the charge up up and out has been an element in many of those bands for a long time.
But, psychedelic classicism seemed unthinkable, a time long gone.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I discovered a nice review of the bay area band The Quarter After on an mp3 blog last year. (The Quarter After-mySpace)There was a comparison to the Younger Than Yesterday-Notorious Byrd Brothers iteration of The Byrds and also to Moby Grape. In the latter case, I had to doubt prior to my first taste that The Quarter After would capture lightning in a bottle as did Moby Grape with their self-titled debut, but I was willing to hear how close.
As it turns out: Wow. For sure there is almost a recreation of the 1967 Byrds, weaving harmonies and weaving guitars, yet its the elongation of the tunes and the layered sometimes veiled mix of their two fine records, especially the second-Changes Near, that call to mind the focused gallop of Moby Grape. Now I’m catching up: heck there’s an entire scene around Club Spaceland in Silverlake, Cali built on emerald haze and swirling dervish guitars.
Recently, another band has elevated itself out of the rank of contenders–since I discovered the whole psych revival scene–Howlin Rain. I don’t hear the comparison to the country Grateful Dead. For me the touchstone is Quicksilver Messenger Service‘s work in the studio, and, Cream at their most tune oriented. Again, their second record, Magnificent Fiend, is slightly superior to the debut.
The one mark against Howlin Rain to me is the unnecessary caterwauling lead vocals, think Chris Robinson of Black Crowes at his most over-stretched, that dial down to a nice harmony concept. I don’t enjoy the contrast. What really works are the songs which run an attractive gamut between jammy sketches and mini-suites, the latter harkening back in the form of a song such as Calling Lightning With a Scythe to syncretist 1967-era Pink Floyd.
While I’m at it, there are two other bands worth checking out if you long for the sound of ’67: Rosewood Thieves, and, Parson Red Heads. The former adding some Beatlesque sweetness, the latter straddling guitar crunch and cow pone.
Posted in musicians, soundwise tips
Tagged Howlin Rain, Parson Red Heads, Rosewood Thieves, The Quarter After
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Ended Disco, for one thing
Given that my second of three stints in record retail took place between 1976-1986, it would be apt to point out that Michael Jackson was responsible, in effect, for more than several of my pay checks. At the time of his Thriller, I was long off the rails of pop hits. At the time, all I really cared about was channeling the surging phenomena to the cash register. Didn’t watch TV in those days and didn’t have real way to contextualize what was making the cha ching, even in the seemingly unlikely location of a lilly white new england college town in Vermont.
Looking back on it all and ignoring the incredible one man Fellini film Jackson opted for after reaching his peak, I came to understand how rare and sharp was Jacko’s talent. Iconic, sure, but also after a fashion, Jackson was very experimental-one of the great experimentalists and syncretists in pop music history.
essential:Achewood
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Transformers
Between 1976 and 1986 I generated yearly Best Of lists of favorite music. I won’t be doing this now, although I hope to highlight a few startling musical encounters. The problem is that I’ve become desensitized to when a recording actually comes out. This is the result of wandering around the greatest free record store, the internet, a shop for which rigid annual temporal distinctions have become, for me, meaningless. In turn thinking about this had inspired me to think about the damn record business, a form of reflection I try not to indulge.
In December I bought a ton of music. I think most of it was fairly new, but upon closer examination it was just new to me. Some of those records evoked startling listening experiences too. Those experiences would count on a best listening experiences of 2008 list too.
As for the record business, I’ll work up at least one post on what I’m seeing now. I’ve recently read a handful of interesting articles about the current biz.
However, nothing I’ve investigated changes the basic set of principles that inform my views. It’s simple, the principles are focused on how musicians can better understand the actuality of their cultural and economic environment, and then design productive means to respond to reality. As always, the trick is in getting musicians to go beyond dim, fantasy-infused prejudices which fuel their cynicism and ignorance, and move to depth of understanding. Usually this requires substantial letting go of prejudices and surface comprehension.
Luckily for me and probably for musicians, my principles exist today outside of any practical application. I’m out of the biz for six or so years. The one thing I’ll note is that the youngest generation of entrepreneurial musicians, say those under 30, have a leg up because their own cohort is the first group largely liberated from being the subject of the old, now dying, record business. And fans in the same cohort are different too, for they’re the generation that, for the most part, doesn’t hold a solitary recording in their hands. Call them the playlist generation.
I’ll have more to write on this soon.
It would be easy to summon up the musical highlights for 2008 even if many don’t carry the ’2008′ tag. For example, the family of Thelonious Monk approved the release of a CD, Transformer, documenting Monk working through themes in the form of sketches. It may have come out in 2008, but these recordings from 1957-1963 are obviously timeless. I reacquainted myself with the New Orleans singer, Bobby Charles after purchasing Last Train to Memphis, from 2004. And, I played catch up with one my favorites, Stan Tracey, picking up half a dozen records from the last ten years. This turned December into Stan the Man month, agreat way to end 2008.
Over the next few months I’ll visit some of the highlights. Tracey and Charles will get their moment, as will Sussan Deyhim, the Iranian-born singer and syncretist, and others.
Posted in Music Business, musicians
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