Peter Gabriel and The Soft Pack

Two current releases that I am really into.



1) Peter Gabriel :"Scratch My Back" is Gabriel's covers record. It has twelve tracks performed without drums or guitars, but plenty of piano and orchestra. Really lovely interpretations of older tracks/artists like Paul Simon ("Boy In The Bubble"), the Talking Heads ("Listening Wind") and Randy Newman ("I Think Its Going To Rain Today"), as well as Gabriel tackling such younger/newer tracks and artists as Bon Iver ("Flume"), Elbow ("Mirrorball") and Arcade Fire ("My Body Is A Cage").



Mood is very somber, though " The Book Of Love" (Magnetic Fields song) and "Power Of The Heart" (Lou Reed song I was unfamiliar with) provide some uplift and are both very powerful. This is not what I would call a sunny day record. The tone is very hushed throughout, the vocals at times so conversational that it seems like Pete is not having to exert himself too hard to actually sing. On the whole, it is a subtle and restrained work that I am really digging and I highly recommend it.



2) The Soft Pack: The self-titled album by this San Diego band formerly known as the Muslims is a real grab bag of influences from 60's garage rock, 70's punk and 80's alternative. I suppose one might rate them as a Strokes-ish type band, but I have to say that this debut is short and too the point with no excess filler. All the songs are catchy as hell and it is rare for me to come away from listening to an indie rock release where I can say that the whole thing was good to great.



This band has been buzzed about since late 2008. Last year I read about them in the LA Weekly as the "Pick of the Week" for their show at the Echo (in Echo Park). I went to check them out, though for such a supposedly buzzed about band they attracted maybe 50 people. It was a Wednesday, but still, out of population of 12.9 in the LA Metro area it is kind of surprising. This would hardly be the first time I experienced this in LA. If you were not the hipster band of the moment, often bands could look forward to the kind of apathy and low attendance that I have experienced so many times in Sacramento. The band was good, especially the rhythm section--really tight. Not the most dynamic performers in the world, but then again the audience was small and not too fired up.







http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nZGv8VTBVE This is a fan video for Peter Gabriel's "The Book Of Love". As soon as I heard it I thought there must be a music supervisor scrambling to get this included in a TV show. Turns out I was right: I read that it was included in the final episode of "Scrubs", not a show I have ever watched or was too keen on.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgU2NhcoqWg This is video for The Soft Pack's "C'Mon".

Bomp #20-- January 79'--Penultimate Issue

These five photos are taken from the January 1979 issue Bomp! magazine. I found a copy in a local Davis comic book and hobby store the other day. It is a document of what was an exciting time in popular music.



Published by Greg Shaw, Bomp! specialized in punk, power-pop, new wave and 60's garage and Brit Invasion influenced guitar rock. There was also a record label called Bomp! that released similar fare. It documents an time in which the 45, at least for this type of music, became king again and three minute manic pop thrills of guitar, melody and energy came to stimulate a soporific music scene dominated by the Bostons, Eagles and Yeses of the day. You of course know all this.



Publication of Bomp! began in 1970 and ran until Bomp! number 21 in 1979. That make this the second to last issue they ever published. That's a shame as it looks pretty jam-packed with cool stuff to me, including a very detailed discograghy of British Beat groups. This issue covers the letter F (Tony Fabian) to Fi (First Gear); it's a shame they were not able to complete it.



#1: Nick Lowe adorns the cover and the headline reads, "Nick Lowe Insults Everybody. An Outrageous Interview". The article doesn't quite live up to that hype, but Nick is definitely opinionated. These were booze and what have you days for him.



He does say that his favorite bands as a teen were the Small Faces and the Move. He also liked the Creation and the Who. He says "I used to go see the Small Faces in the mod era, and I had a scooter and spikey haircut and the kids used to go and dress up in the new clothes. That's the thing with the New Wave, that's part of the fun of it, the clothes."



Another quote: "Oh, Jimmy Page, wanker. He hasn't played a good solo for f-ing years. He's just a wanker"



On the Damned: "When I first met the Damned, I hated their group. I thought they were terrible but it was the fact that other musicians I knew hated them as well. They just didn't think they were a shitty group, they hated them. I thought, well, any group that can stir that emotion up in people must have something going for them so I started going around with them and going to see a few gigs and I changed my mind about them."



Praise for Cheap Trick: "Cheap Trick are the best group I've seen in years. They're great because they've got a sense of humor. There's so many people who take themselves seriously. Cheap Trick are tight. They got it all covered. They've got two pretty boys and two bozos. It works perfectly...I'd really like to work with them."



#2: The Human Being Record Chart-- a chart compiled from fan votes. The Ramones are all over the singles chart. Many punk and new wave gems mixed in with Cheap Trick, the Cars and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Nice to see the Jam on there at #34. I have most of these gems, though I don't know the Pleasers and the Zones, both Arista acts. Nick Gilder's "Hot Child In The City" looks out of place here.That album chart is loaded with classics.



Such a great time for music back then. This is from a period that I wouldn't discover for another 3 to 5 years. Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, the Clash, the Jam and Nick Lowe came first, around 1982 or 83'. I see no Joe Jackson on this chart: his first two albums were popular, accessible and favorites of mine.They were all among the more commercially successful of the "New Wave" and college student staples of the time, Davis being no exception. The Buzzcocks, the Ramones, the Sex Pistols and some of the more abrasive stuff was more 1984 and 85' for me. The Cars, Cheap Trick and Tom Petty would actually get played on true commercial rock stations. They kind of had their feet in different camps. I was always aware of them, knew the radio hits and liked them I suppose; I wouldn't truly appreciate them until years later.



#3,4,5: Full page adds from the era. The add proclaiming "Take No Prisoners" the best live album of 1978 seems very funny now. That album was notorious for Lou telling bad jokes and harassing rock critic Robert Christgau, who was in the audience.



Anyway, thought you might dig it.