JBC-15's Scratches and Skips

Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Where's the Fire Marshall?

2010-06-11T10:26:00.001-07:00

This is a perfect example of a great show almost being ruined by a bad venue. The venue in question, the Uptown Nightclub in downtown Oakland, is a nice place, but a horribly designed one. This would become apparent as the club filled with patrons for this jam packed show.

The headliner is the legendary punk band The Buzzcocks, a Manchester-based group formed in 1975 who were there for the birth of the punk movement in the UK. They are punk royalty, the architects and pioneers of punk-pop, influencing everyone from Husker Du to Green Day to Weezer to Blink-182.

Their legacy rests on the peerless run of singles they released from 1977 to 1979. Many of these were released on the classic compilation 'Singles Going Steady' in 1979, an essential artifact of the era.They carried on having serious chart hits in England until the early 80's. Their hot streak ended in about 1980, not helped by the fact that their label United Artists had been purchased by EMI, a label that didn't seem that interested in them. They broke up in 1981, but band leaders Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle reformed in 1989 and have been together ever since, touring and releasing respectable studio records.

While the punk movement in the UK was filled with rage and social commentary, the Buzzcocks lyrics tended to look inward and deal with the kind of emotional terrain that is universal and eternal. While other acts were calling for "Anarchy in the UK" or a "White Riot" or even to "Smash it Up", the songs of Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle asked questions like "What Do I Get?", "Ever Fallen In Love (with Someone You Shouldn't ve?)" and "Why Can't I Touch It?" (in the existential sense,not the physical, you pervs out there). These were songs of yearning, vulnerability and frustration. It is obvious that fellow Mancunian, Stephen Patrick Morrisey, was taking notes for his future band the Smiths. And I suppose the roots of emo-punk can be traced back here as well--unfortunately. I think these songs endure long after many others because the themes are timeless.

The Buzzcocks brought a certain melodic sense to punk's three chord rush, but also a serious dose of Krautrock that is not often seen in the groups they inspired. This German influence is apparent in the minimalist rhythms to certain songs, courtesy of their obsession with Can. There is also unexpected, and atypical for punk, bits of jagged guitar interplay which stretch out some songs in interesting ways that again betrays the Can influence.

Now back to the gig. The Uptown is a newish punk/alternative club that opened in 2007. The crux of this venue's problem is that it is two separate rooms crying out to be one room. Upon entering the club, one is met by a long (40 feet maybe) and fairly narrow space with a mirrored bar on one side and a brick wall on the other. On the other side of the brick wall is the performance space, also long and narrow. While this is fine when sparsely populated, when a sizable crowd gathers it can be problematic.

The problem lies in the fact that when the headliner takes the stage, the crowd for the entire place moves into the performance room. While the venue may not technically be oversold, the imbalance of too many people in one room and very few in the other made it seem like it was. When the Buzzcocks came on the room was hot, cramped and claustrophobic. That long and narrow room began to resemble a human corral. There were some desperate folks wading through the crowd looking for an exit and some fresh air. I am tall and not as susceptible to a crush of people, but I was very uncomfortable throughout.

The show itself was tremendous. On this tour the Buzzcocks are engaging in the latest trend for live band marketing:playing entire albums from start to finish. Tonight the Cocks do two: the first album 'Another Music In a Different Kitchen' and the second, 'Love Bites'. Pete Shelley looks like a middle age pub landlord these days,but he still has the voice and the energy to put the songs across. Steve Diggle may look like a middle age cabbie, but tonight he is a punk rock guitar god, flailing at his instrument and doing half windmills. They are ably supported by two younger musicians that make up their rhythm section.

They dispense with the two albums with nary a word spoken, other than occasionally calling out the song title. Both of these albums are considered punk classics, in a genre known more for singles than albums. Nevertheless, there is some filler on both records in my opinion, but they are mostly great. The crowd is loving it, but they go particularly nuts for any of the 'Singles Going Steady' tracks.'Kitchen' contains the singles sides "I Don't Mind" and "Autonomy", while 'Love Bites' has "Ever Fallen in Love" and "Just Lust". When the band returns for the encore they wheel out other 'Singles...' chestnuts in rapid succession: "Promises", "Love You More", "What Do I Get?", "Harmony In My Head" and finishing with "Orgasm Addict". The crowd is going ballistic at this point and is heartily singing along to the choruses of each.

As soon as "Orgasm Addict" ends, I am out the door and happy to have finally seen one of my favorite punk bands after 25 years, but also glad to be out of the Nightclub's sweat box of a performance space.

Enjoy Yourself: The Specials @ Club Nokia

2010-04-24T10:06:00.000-07:00

It may have been 2010 and not 1980, but the reconstituted Specials proved they could still bring enough energy and verve to their performance at Club Nokia last week.

First thing I saw when I entered the hall was the sight of what looked like Terry Hall dj-ing at the front of the stage. Only this wasTerry Hall circa 1979, buzz cut and all, just like he looked in the "Dance Craze" movie, except with a more tan complexion. Oh, wait a minute,of course that can't be him. However, if that isn't Terry Hall progeny then I need my eyes and head examined. It turns out it is his son, Felix, who is playing tour dj and spinning reggae 45s only. Kid has his dad's temperament too: at one point some jerk took exception to all the reggae music and young Felix threatened to take him outside and smack him.

I arrived early enough to receive my wrist band allowing me into the pit area. I was nervous about this due to my bad experience at that Bad Manners show in Hollywood last year. I scanned the crowd anxiously for skinheads and piss-heads and general troublemakers of every stripe. There were a few benign looking skinheads out with their girl, but no gang of them or any sense of menace evident. That's a relief.

The Specials hit the stage and launched into the party starting anthem "Do The Dog". Six of the seven original members are present and accounted for: singer Terry Hall (absent from any Specials-related shows until last year), singer-guitarist Lynval Golding (who exuded the friendliest vibe and seemed just so thrilled and grateful for this reunion to be happening), singer-toaster Neville Staples (with the sleepy eyes and sly grin of someone who must be smoking some great weed), bassist Horace Panter (dapper in his suit and demonstrating the calm reserve of many great bass players), guitarist Roddy Radiation (big eared, suspenders-wearing rockabilly freak), and drummer John Bradbury (looking lean and hard behind the kit). The band were also supplemented with a keyboard player standing in for absent founder Jerry Dammers, as well as a three piece horn section on a few songs.

Seeing this line-up is a dream come true for me. The Specials actually played in Davis in either 1980 or 1981 at the UCD coffee house. I would have been 12 or 13 at the time and was a year or two away from discovering this band--probably in early 1982 is when I became aware of the whole 2-Tone thing. This show represents not only a reunion of six of the original seven Specials, but also Terry, Neville and Lynval who split from the band and formed Fun Boy Three in late 1981. The two original Specials albums as well as the two Fun Boy Three albums were a big deal for me during my high school years. No FB3 songs are being played tonight,of course, but it is a thrill to see that trio back on stage and performing again.

Terry Hall has always been one of pop music's strangest ducks. He always has a permanently dour expression on his face,yet he is also capable of being drolly hilarious. His participation is what really makes this a legitimate Specials reunion. The other five guys have worked together in various incarnations of the Specials (or sometimes as Special Beat with English Beat members) since the third wave ska revival of the 90's. What was missing was Terry's vocals and general presence to make it authentic.

Terry is center stage but he lays back and doesn't get too close to the front. His general demeanor is one of someone who would rather be anywhere else but on that stage. Coming from any other performer this might seem offensive, but with Mr. Hall it is part of the act and makes perfect sense. Terry demonstrated a bit of like father, like son early on in the show when he called out an idiot fan who was trying to "gob" like it was 1977: "If you do that again I'm going to come down there and smash your fookin' head in", much to the delight of the audience. Of course it is easy to be hard when you have nine band members and several crew members to back you up. Terry also facetiously announced to the crowd they should come back to the band's hotel (the celebrity swank-fest that is the Sunset Marquis) for an after show party. "Just tell them you're there for a reception, they will love it. I won't be there, I will be asleep in my room." He also said quite randomly at one point "I'm delicious".

The band was a real well-oiled machine as it tore through virtually the entire first album (no"Too Hot" or "Stupid Marriage") and exactly half of the second record. They also tackled the classic single "Ghost Town" and its b-side "Friday Night and Saturday Morning". The energy level, while perhaps not the same as in their prime, was high and the audience was enthusiastically skanking away and showing their appreciation the whole time. The performance was only marred by Roddy Radiation taking over lead vocals for "Concrete Jungle" while Terry took break. Roddy's guitar work was ferocious but the guy cannot sing. It would also have been nice to hear the cover songs from the 'Too Much Too Young' EP that they have performed at other shows.

Still, as Neville Staples, at age 50-something, ran across the tops of the band's monitors just like in the old days, the only thing I could do was to marvel at the fact that I was finally seeing this band after a mere 28 years and that the wait had been well worth it.

Set List

'Do The Dog'
'(Dawning Of A) New Era'
'Gangsters'
'It's Up To You'
'Monkey Man'
'Rat Race'
'Hey, Little Rich Girl'
'Blank Expression'
'Doesn't Make It Alright'
'Stupid Marriage'
'Concrete Jungle'
'Friday Night Saturday Morning'
'Stereotype'
'Man At C&A'
'A Message To You Rudy'
'Do Nothing'
'Little Bitch'
'Nite Klub'
'Too Much Too Young'
' You're Wondering Now'
--------------------------------------
'Ghost Town'
'Enjoy Yourself'

Peter Gabriel and The Soft Pack

2010-03-07T16:38:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-07T16:31:00.000-08:00

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.

Pirate Radio

2009-12-11T19:42:00.000-08:00

I saw "Pirate Radio" (or as it was known by its terrible UK title "The Boat That Rocked") here in Davis and it was the kind of light-weight fare that I could have waited to see on video. I love the era, the music,and the subject matter, but the treatment was sort of like a late 60's comedic "romp" with a stellar cast of actors playing one dimensional characters. There are a couple of plot twists I found to be quite hokey and predictable. Some of the humor played out like a bad sit-com.

Great cast. Phillip Seymour Hoffman gets a couple of good scenes. Bill Nighy, Nick Frost, Kenneth Branagh,Rhys Ifans-- all shine, as to be expected. Rhys Ifans looks dead on Liam Gallagher; he even shouts "I'm going to live forever" at one point. The soundtrack was cool, though a touch predictable. Then again, I'm sure it was fairly accurate as to what was being played on these stations, considering that the BBC allowed so few hours in a week for any pop music to be played. Of course I was playing amateur music supervisor and it did bother me when I saw them cue up an A&M record with the late 70's logo in what was supposedly 1967 or 68'. There were, no doubt, some other anachronisms, but probably only the kind that geeks like me would care about.

It was written and directed by the same guy (Richard Curtis) who created (either as screenwriter and/or director) "Notting Hill", "Four Weddings and a Funeral" ,"Love Actually" and "Bridget Jones Diary". All of those films are as superficial and cutesy as any Hollywood rom-com, though they are not without their charms if one is in the mood for that. He is also the guy who wrote for all the "Black Adder" and "Mr. Bean" shows with Rowan Atkinson, so he certainly has a great track record.

I just wish the film was a bit more grounded in reality and had believable situations and characters. My mother says there was a pirate radio station that pre-dates the British ones called Radio Nord (North) that she listened to in Sweden in 1961' and 62'. The boat was stationed somewhere offshore from Sweden in the Baltic Sea and was only operational for less than a year. I would love to hear more about that tale and of the British ships like Radio Caroline.

I'm sure there is a great story to be told, unfortunately, this fictional account ain't it.

Xmas in October: Bob Dylan's "Christmas In The Heart"

2009-10-17T11:56:00.000-07:00

I can handle Christmas songs for approximately one week, that being the week of Christmas itself. There are some nice, comforting songs that evoke the holiday spirit, even if one lives in an environment lacking snow or much change of season--like Davis, Sac or LA. These songs are part of an annual tradition and therefore can give one a Proustian link to Christmases and times past. I'm down with that.Give me Bing doing "White Christmas", "I'll Be Home For Christmas" or "Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy" (with David Bowie);Nat doing "The Christmas Song";Elvis doing "Blue Christmas" or Charles Brown crooning "Please Come Home For Christmas" once or twice during that week and I'm a happy guy. Hey, I can even handle a version or two of "Silent Night", or if I have dipped into the eggnog, even a little "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas".

The rock era has given us some gems like Chuck Berry's "Run Run Rudolph", John & Yoko's "Happy Xmas (War is Over) ( which usually gets me,except when Yoko starts her warbling), The Pretenders "2000 Miles", and of course what might be my favorite Xmas song of all, The Pogues "Fairytale of New York"--best opening line ever: "It was Christmas Eve, babe, in the drunk tank...".

Unfortunately, the Christmas season also means I have to endure the sheer torture of such yuletide classics as "Frosty the Snowman", "The Chipmunk Song", "Feliz Navidad","Jingle Bell Rock", "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer", "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" and "Winter Wonderland". The modern rock era is responsible for The Waitresses "Christmas Wrapping", which can irritate the hell out of me,too. I know this makes me sound Scrooge-like, but no amount of yearly repetition or the spirit of the season can make me appreciate this treacly crap. Let us not forget that most of these beloved classics are forms of 20th century pop music--tin pan alley stuff written to cash in on the holiday market.

The Christmas market being so potentially lucrative, and frankly, so easy to try and capitalize on--sing 10 or 12 trad Christmas tunes and you got yourself an album--that seemingly everyone has tried their hand at a Christmas album. Even being Jewish does not necessarily exclude one from the rush for Xmas bucks: Neil Diamond, Barbara Streisand, Mel Torme, Barry Manilow. Even more interesting is that every one of the following Christmas songs have Jewish authors:

The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Santa Baby
Holly Jolly Christmas
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
I'll Be Home for Christmas
Silver Bells
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Sleigh Ride
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
White Christmas

Some great stuff here, as well as some of the songs I can't stand. Point being, professional songwriters such as Sammy Cahn, Irving Berlin and Johnny Marks knew an opportunity when they saw it. Not to say they couldn't genuinely get into the holiday spirit themselves, but bottom line is that they were composing songs for a Christian holiday.

Which I suppose brings us finally to Bob. Bob's faith is of no relevance to me. His Bobness (or anyone else for that matter) can record an album of Koranic chants for all I care. It is, after all, allegedly a free country. I don't buy into the theory that it is a sly joke on Bob's part either. There is a segment of Bob obsessives who are always trying to second-guess their hero. They are of the belief that Bob is always just putting us on, that his god-like powers would naturally prevent him from unintentional blundering and that all of these bizarre moves he has made over the years are just Bob's way of amusing himself. I disagree, I believe that the he really does sing like sh*t these days, has made bad albums,chosen dreadful movies to be involved with,done Victoria's Secret ads for the money and not the irony and generally does things because he wants to do them (or maybe goes along with something his management cooked up) with total disregard for his so-called mystique or what his fans might think.

Now he puts out this Christmas record. What can you say? It is being done for charity and will most certainly generate a lot of cash and awareness for the Feeding America organization, which I'm sure is a worthy cause.The music? Almost beside the point. In recent years Bob has become increasingly fascinated with music of the first half of the 20th century; you heard this on his radio show every week. Growing up in Minnesota in the 40s and 50s he would have heard most of the songs he covers here with regularity.Yes, this also includes some traditional songs which may be a couple hundred years old and not artifacts of the 20th century. Maybe as an act of nostalgia he has elected to record some of these and I can only see it as an act of genuine affection for songs that remind him of his youth. He is not suited to sing these songs, that's for sure. The arrangements are pretty standard, which when you consider this is a Bob Dylan record, make it sound totally incongruous. Anything with those female backing vocalists sounds ridiculous and laughable to my ears. Other selections, like "The Christmas Blues" work better--Bob being more in his element and his band lending sympathetic backing.

I like a lot of unconventional vocalists: Bob, Tom Waits, Marianne Faithful, Edwyn Collins, Shane MacGowan, etc. I don't need technical perfection, I will take feel and passion over it most of the time. However, I generally don't expect these and other oddball vocalists to tackle holiday classics as earnestly as Bob does. I tend to think of those kind of singers being a little too cool to tackle that kind of material anyway. The "Very Special Christmas" compilation series (also for charity) has spotlighted all manner of pop, rock, R&B and even rap artists tackling Christmas standards and no one is the worse off for it. They are also albums I would never dream of owning or playing. Why on earth would I ever want to hear Michael Bolton sing "White Christmas" or Sheryl Crow do "Blue Christmas"?

All I can say is that if there was ever a superfluous addition to the Dylan catalogue, this is it. And I'm even taking "Dylan and the Dead", "Dylan" (1973 revenge-exploitation release by Columbia for Bob's defection to Asylum for two albums), "MTV Unplugged" and "Under the Red Sky" into account here. But who cares what I think. Bob freaks own everything else anyway and will certainly pick this up to be completists. I have to wonder how much this disc will ever actually be played,though.

Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame Nominees 2010

2009-09-24T12:51:00.000-07:00

The usual R&R Hall o' Fame nominee nonsense begins again. Another list of obvious and questionable contenders. Never know what the 500 person voting committee will do.

There are certain folks past and present (Seymour Stein, Amhet Ertegun) who have held a lot of influence and have gotten perhaps some less deserving people in while other, seminal artists remain shut out. Alice Cooper, The Stooges, The New York Dolls not in Hall, but Percy Sledge and Ritchie Valens are? I am always baffled by exactly what the criteria is to get into this goofy museum. It seems having the right lobbyists helps.

Would love to see such cult-ish types as Love and The Zombies in there, but I am probably dreaming.

The list:

KISS-- Love em' or hate em', they should have been in there long ago.

Genesis-- Same as above.

Stooges-- The godfathers of punk not in Hall, but Sex Pistols and Ramones (both directly influnenced by Iggy and co.) are? C'mon, dummies!

Laura Nyro-- Great songwriter. Cult-ish type artist who is certainly worthy, but not exactly rock and roll. If she makes it, then where is Harry Nilsson?

The Chantels-- Output is pretty slight, even by girl group standards, though they are credited with being R&R's first great female group.

The Hollies-- Great and underappreciated 60's pop group who had tons of hits. If they make it, well deserved.

Donna Summer-- This is disco or R&B, but the "Rock and Roll" moniker hardly seems to apply for this organisation. Miles Davis is in there, for god sakes! Miss Summer certainly sold a ton of disco records in her time.

ABBA-- Again, not what one would call Rock and Roll, but considering they have sold more records than anyone but the Beatles and the fact they cranked out a string of pop classics that for better and worse continue to influence pop music, they should be a shoo-in. If Madonna is in there, then ABBA should definitely be in there.

Red Hot Chili Peppers-- This one may ruffle a few feathers too, but they have had a 25 year career of critical and commercial success. I know, there are those who hate them with a passion, but I have liked some of their stuff and the musicianship from Flea, John Frusciante and Chad Smith is phenomenal. Now if the voting committee can just forget about the socks on cocks episodes or some of Anthony Kiedis' raps, they should be in there.

LL Cool J-- WTF. Another example of the East Coast bias of this organisation. How many rap acts are you going to include in this thing? And if I had to pick 5 or 10 of them for inclusion, I don't think Ladies Love (who has had his moments) would be one of them. Grandmaster Flash and Run DMC are in. Wouldn't The Beastie Boys or Public Enemy be the most obvious next choice?

Darlene Love-- Great girl group singer. Not sure she has accomplished enough to get in, but you never know.

Jimmy Cliff-- This would make reggae artist number two in the hall behind you-know-who. If called upon to induct another reggae artist,would not be my next logical pick. That would probably be Toots & the Maytals. He had a few gems in the early 70's and helped to popularize reggae on an international level, but I just don't think his work warrants inclusion here.

Why should we care? Isn't this just a tourist trap that honors a very populist history of, well if not exactly rock and roll, at least popular music of the last 50-odd years. At least the Hall serves the functions of taking this music seriously and commemorates some of the old-timers. You and I know who Little Richard, Chuck Berry,Jerry Lee Lewis and so on are, but future generations may need some gudiance.

Will these future generations care about these artists or will they be relevant years from now or will they be like those old Baseball Hall of Fame players like Pie Traynor and Tris Speaker whom fewer and fewer people remember seeing and whose careers are only important to historians? At least these Hall of Fame members have something that can always be experienced in the here and now: their music.

Someday We'll Look Back And Laugh: Warped Tour 2009

2009-08-30T13:34:00.000-07:00

Today I am writing from the Sleep Train Amphitheatre, a venue that is located in the middle of a field outside the northern California farming community of Marysville, some 35 miles north of Sacramento.

The heat today is absolutely staggering, at least a hundred degrees. Having recently relocated from Los Angeles back to the Sacramento Valley, I had forgotten how punishingly hot the summers could be here. I am quickly remembering why I left the valley in the first place. I have brought plenty of water and sunscreen, yet I worry constantly about getting sunburned or suffering heat stroke. Hollywood's usually more balmy climes never seemed more appealing than right now.

I am here today for the 15th annual Vans Warped Tour, a punk rock festival that travels the U.S. each summer touring various outdoor venues, particularly the amphitheaters, or "sheds" as they are referred to in the biz, mostly owned by concert giants Live Nation. Though nominally a punk festival, perhaps it is more apt to say that it is "punk-ish", with a number of bands on the bill who might actually fall into the category of emo-rock or metalcore. There is also a smattering of ska-punk, alternative hip-hop and even a bluegrass band (with attitude) for some much welcomed variety.

The show itself takes place over ten different stages with up to a hundred bands playing in one day. There are two large main stages, but there are a number of smaller ones scattered throughout the festival grounds. The bands start playing at 11am and the music continues until about 9pm. Every band plays approximately thirty minutes with several bands playing at once, though in the case where there are two stages right next to one another, they have it timed with military-like precision for one band to start up their set as another band is finishing.

How odd it is that punk rock has its own corporate sponsored festival. Punk, or at least some of the stylistic trappings of punk, long ago was absorbed into the mainstream of American teen youth culture. Maybe it was Nirvana with "Nevermind" or maybe it was Green Day and their mega-platinum "Dookie" record ,or maybe it was the fashion world who co-opted ideas from punk and repackaged them for the teen market, or maybe punk was helped along by the rise in popularity of skateboarding and other extreme sports for which it often serves as the soundtrack to and also informs the dress sense of its participants. Or perhaps maybe, just maybe, over time enough older brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, and even mothers and fathers had adopted aspects of punk culture and had paved the way for the fashion, music, attitude, and sometimes the ideals of punk to become more commonplace and thus more acceptable.

Nowadays punk is not viewed with the same fear and derision it once held. In fact, punk is almost passe, an all too common instant identity for confused teenagers in search of one. This wasn't always the case. I was no punk myself, but I had friends who were or at least those that flirted with it at some point during high school. To be a punk back in the early to mid 80s was to really open oneself up to ridicule and persecution by just about everyone. Whether is was jocks, parents, school officials, law enforcement officers,local business owners, everybody seemed to have a problem with punker kids and all wanted a piece of them. Back in high school I had enough problems without inviting that kind of additional hassle into the life. The irony is not lost on me that those punk rockers who were followed and often trespassed from the property by shopping mall security now have their own "lifestyle" boutique chain store, the cheesy put popular Hot Topic. Yes indeed, times have changed.

Anyway, now on to the bands that I was able to take in during my eight plus hours roasting in the hot August sunshine:

12:45 pm , Hurley.Com Stage: Westbound Train

Was not familiar with this band, but a band named after a Dennis Brown reggae classic could only be a ska band on this bill. This stage is located withing the Sleep Train amphitheater itself: most of the other stages are actually located in part of what would normally be the Sleep Train parking lot.

7 piece band, including horn players, Westbound Train play a genial mix of ska-reggae,mixed with a bit of soul. They are a solid outfit. They do conform to one hard fast rule: the nerdiest looking guys will be in the ska band. Must be all those years in the high school marching band.

They finish off with a ska version of "I Fought The Law". We are off to a good start. I make my way through the festival's main area, which is lined with small band tents. These tents are set up to sell merch and are a place for band members to come to either hang out or participate in a pre-arranged signings. I see some signings already under way. In some cases these lines are 100 to 200 people deep. A lot of teenage girls await with posters, albums and camera phones for a chance to meet and interact with their favorite tattooed love boy. Some things will never change.

1:15, Vans Main Stage: Underoath

This Florida based screamo (or is it post-hardcore?) group specialize in a brand of rock that just leaves me cold. Bellowed verses by one guy, anthemic choruses from another high tenor-ed guy who is straining to reach the top of his register, and metal textures just make this a real chore to watch. A good 700 or so people don't agree and are totally into it. Another indication that I am out of touch with what "the kids" are into these days. The band are kicking much ass, I'm the one with the problem.

My attention is much more focused on the half-pipe skate ramp erected just to the left of this main stage. I am amazed by what looks like seven year olds flying back and forth with ease on this thing. I nearly do a double-take when I see a couple of guys who are riding without any board at all--just the wheels! They ride on top of them without any attachments. Perhaps people have been doing this for year, but this is the first time I've witnessed it.

1:45, Punk Rock Legends Stage: Channel 3

Now finally a band I came here to see. In fact I was enticed to come sweat out my fluids in this brutal heat because of this band and about half a dozen other "old school" punk bands who are on the tour. Warped Tour usually includes a couple of these heritage acts, but this is the first time I have seen this many scheduled. I'm not sure if its to attract older folks like myself (precious few of those around) or to add some legitimacy to the proceedings. Conveniently, the Warped Tour have gathered all these band together on their own stage.

Anyway, Channel 3 are an L.A, punk band that were around in the early to mid 80s. Original members Mike Magrann (guitar and vocal) and Kim Gardener (guitar) and two new recruits make up the band now. Only a couple old punks in sight and a handful of true "old school" looking punk types. By this I mean young guys, some with mohawks, wearing jean jackets with mostly vintage punk band t-shirts cut out and stitched to the jacket. The total number of audience members at this stage is maybe 30.

The band are pretty good and they tear into their set with the conviction of guys 20 years younger. During the mid-80s these guys took a right turn and tried to become Replacments-like roots rockers. They lost a lot of fans by doing this, but I happened to love 1985's "Last Time I Drank..." album. They do the title track and "Hanging Around" and I'm pleased. They conclude with their one true punk classic, "I've Got A Gun".

Did I mention how freaking hot it is? I make my way to the main entrance area where there are these twenty foot high towers with what looks like a mushroom cap. The saucer like lids spray out water in streams of varying strengths. This is a place to get wet and cool down. The sweat has been pouring off of me in buckets. I'm trying desperately to not get heat stroke. I douse myself and then go seek shelter in the nearly empty beer tent. Nearly empty because there are so few people who are of age to actually buy a beer.

2:45 pm, Punk Rock Legends Stage: DOA

DOA are a hardcore band from Vancouver, Canada who have been around since 1978. Led this entire time by Joe Keithley, aka Joey Sh*thead, DOA have been a stalwart punk band with a political edge for over three decades. Mr. Sh*thead fronts the band, runs his own indie label and has even run for public office in Canada.

This festival is surprisingly apolitical. There are no political organizations with booths to be seen here. This event seems to be about presenting non-confrontational punk music and eschewing any real message, other than to buy stuff.

DOA are an exception and these guys mean business in all their sloppy glory. There might be a hundred kids checking them out now. I see a fifty year old man in the circle pit! The band reel off classics like "Police Brutality" and "F*ck You". Joey Sh*thead advises the crowd to always speak out and question authority; well, I'm paraphrasing here. This is invigorating. Finally some songs sticking a middle finger up to the establishment; some songs that actually mean something. Damn, I think its time to head to the beer tent again.

3:10 pm, Hurley Stage: Gallows

Gallows are a buzz band from the UK fronted by Frank Carter, a pint-sized lead vocalist with a lot of charisma. I guess someone forgot to inform the crowd of this band's buzz because there are maybe 200 kids watching but not being particularly receptive to Gallows brand of UK hardcore.

Frank Carter, all 5 feet of him, is covered neck to toe in tattoos. His first words to us are "How the f*ck do you people live here?", no doubt in reference to the unbelievable heat. He also goes on a rant about how many "sh*t bands are on this tour" and then name checks most of the Punk Rock Legends Stage acts as those that are worthy of our time.

In a real missionary zeal type of a moment, Frank jumps off the stage, wades into the crowd with two of the band's guitar players and proceeds to try and convert this bunch of confused, overheated kids. He commands everyone to make "the biggest circle pit you've ever seen around this tent", this tent being the sound man's. Many kids comply and they begin running furiously around the tent, Frank joining in during instrumental breaks. Gallows brand of hardcore is nothing new, but they are tight, fast and have a true star in their lead singer. By the end of their set they have won over just about everybody there.

3:45, Punk Rock Legends Stage: Thelonious Monster

Another big reason I came today, actually perhaps the main reason I came today was to see these guys. Why they are part of this thing at all is a complete mystery to me. This band was not punk, but more of a Replacements type drunk rock band with three guitar players and a lead singer, Bob Forrest, who specialized in the kind of blunt, introspective and heartfelt lyrics that had him on par with Paul Westerberg's best work. They were pretty big in their native Los Angeles in the mid 80s to the beginning of the 90s. They made some waves on college radio but were never going to be the type of band to break out big. They were also tight with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, with whom they played many shows together. I saw both of them play together at the Roxy in Los Angeles, circa 1988. They were a pretty big band for me from 1987 until their dissolution in about 1992.

Lead singer Bob Forrest became know as a notorious L.A. music scene drink and drug casualty. In the last decade he has turned his life around and now might be better known as a substance abuse counselor at the Las Encinas rehab center in Pasadena headed by Dr. Drew Pinsky. He has been widely seen in episodes of VH1's "Celebrity Rehab".

Here I am 21 years later and I am just ecstatic to see this band again. They play a great set featuring such songs as "Look Into the West", "Sammy Hagar Weekend", "Walk On Water" and "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean". They seriously rock the Legends stage and me and about 10 puzzled kids are there to witness it. I am at the front with my body hanging over the crowd barricade; of course I am the only one to do so and sing along with the band. It begins to dawn on me that I have suddenly become Mel from Flight of the Conchords, but I'm too jacked up by seeing my old heroes to care. Bob is also being affected by the heat. "How can you f*cking stand this?" he says at one point. I am too excited by their performance to care about the heat now.

4:15, SkullCandy Stage: Millionaires

I was warned about this act. Apparently they are the most divisive act on the tour. It is a girl trio with huge hair performing catty electro rap songs. They came out and performed to backing tapes. They are just awful. That said, there are many high school age girls singing along to their hit "Alcohol", which has lines such as "Come get f*cked up. Give me my alcohol." Time to move along.

4:45, Punk Rock Legends Stage: UK Subs

Talk about legends. Lead vocalist Charlie Harper is by far the oldest punk here, if not in the world. He is 65 years old! He started his first band in 1964. He has led the UK Subs since 1976. Considered part of UK punk's second wave of punk bands. the Subs had their heyday from 1979 to 1981. During this time they racked up half a dozen Top 40 singles and a few charting albums as well. They were and are a pretty straight forward three chord punk act, with a Clash-like approach and attitude.

They perform a great set of Subs standards, including "Warhead", "Emotional Blackmail", "New York State Police" and "CID". Harper rasps his way through his umpteenth gig. Still the consummate front man after all these years and a true punk legend.

The heat is oppressive. Time for another beer and a mushroom tower shower.

5:15, Vans Main Stage: NOFX

NOFX were one of the preeminent punk bands of the 90s. They have released at least fifteen albums since 1989, many of them on leader Fat Mike's Fat Wreck Records. Their 1994 release "Punk in Drublic" even went gold.

I have never really listened to these guys much. Their show on Van Main Stage is full of bad on-stage jokes and unimpressive songs. The kind of pop punk that made punk rock very formulaic and predictable by the 90s. Really I think that punk said all it was going to say musically in its first ten years, which is to say that it was done by the mid-80s. Or perhaps that is just me being out of touch again. Still, the appeal of this group mystifies me.

The heat is really getting to people. Kids are taking shelter where ever they can on these grounds, which are few and far between. Heat exhaustion and dehydration must be a problem. And what is this? I think I have seen my first stretcher of the day.

5:45, Punk Rock Legends Stage: Fishbone

Here is an act that should be much bigger than they are. Fishbone are an all African-American six piece act that play a fusion of punk, funk, ska and metal. They have been around since the early-80s and had their commercial and critical heyday in the late 80s and early 90s, though they never really broke through like they should have. They appeared on the third Lollapalooza festival in 1993. I saw them play the UCD Coffee House in 1987.

They are working hard up there to a crowd of maybe one hundred kids. They should be gods, but now they are perhaps of more curio interest. They do a cover of Sublime's "Date Rape", which seems a little odd. They conclude with the chestnut "Party At Ground Zero" , which I believe is prominently featured in one of the late John Hughes teen flicks. Good set from a criminally under appreciated band.

6:15, Vans Main Stage: 3 Oh! 3

This is a Colorado-based band sure has drawn a lot of fans today judging by the number of t-shirts I see. They are currently enjoying a big pop hit with the song "Don't Trust Me". There is nothing remotely punk rock about these guys. They play a sort of alternative rap mixed with the kind of generic "Alternative Rock" that gets played on stations with that format. Lots of keyboards and a heavily processed guitar that doesn't even sound like a guitar.

The crowd is digging it though. Must be 4,000 people with their hands in the air and getting really into it. I seriously don't get it. The end of day is almost here and I think I am ready for it. Just one last thing to do.

6:45, Punk Rock Legends Stage: The Adicts

Yes, and for the final act of the day, it is the UK's Adicts, a veteran punk band, also of the UK's second wave. This band is all about the gimmicks. The lead singer, Monkey, dresses like an evil clown, Ala the Joker from Batman. The backing band dress like the Droog gang members from "A Clockwork Orange". Their music is pretty standard fare with chanted choruses and your usual chords and song structures.

Somehow these guys have become quite renowned in the punk rock world of today. I see the Adicts logo on many a jacket and wonder how they have achieved this. They were practically a non-entity back in the 80s. Perhaps the fact they have never broken up and continue to tour the U.S. has elevated their profile.

They also turn out to be one hell of a fun time. Monkey bombards the audience with streamers, confetti, glitter and joker playing cards as the band tear through their biggest songs: "Joker in the Pack", "Viva La Revolution" and "Chinese Take-away". For their final song, roadies fling all sizes of beach balls from behind the amps into the crowd of 150 or so. Simple but enjoyable pleasures.

So, that is about it. There is still another hour or so of this festival, but there is no one that I would want to stick around for, and besides, I am pretty fried and want to get a jump on the traffic.

Is this an accurate representation of the punk rock revolution that has now gone mainstream or is it just another rock show? The crowd was predominantly a mainstream one of high school kids who seemed most interested in the bands that seemed, to these ears, the least punk rock. I think punk rock lost its ability to shock a long time ago. Nowadays a kid with a mohawk hardly gets a second look. Hip hop usurped punk back in the late 80s, early 90s a the subculture of choice for rebellious teens to piss off their parents. Now even hip hop has grown tame and predictable. Where is the next youth culture revolution? Whatever it is or whenever that will be, I am sure it will be a grass roots movement that will be hated and misunderstood by adults and it sure won't have a corporate sponsored music festival supporting it. At least not yet.

Dad Rock

2009-07-27T15:02:00.000-07:00

In the waning days of the Virgin Megastore Hollywood, just days before we shut our doors for good, I was given a promo by one of our managers. It was one of those UK import compilations, always chock full of hits and usually centered around some sort of loose theme. This particular collection was called, "Heroes: The Anthems" and featured 36 tracks of UK rock from the 60's to the 90's. One might say it is a UK approximation of what in the U.S. we call "classic rock". This set includes a lineage of acts that might fall under the umbrella of punk/alternative/indie (UK definition, meaning punk inspired and guitar based) or at least progenitors of such: The Kinks, The Specials, The Jam, The Undertones, David Bowie, Oasis, Primal Scream, The Buzzcocks, The Clash, The Small Faces, The Stones Roses and even Underworld were all featured.

Now I had all of these tracks, but was thrilled to have them all packaged together. It was very thoughtful of said manager to think of me and to know that this music suited me best. But then it occurred to me that perhaps what I thought was so hip was no longer considered such to my predominantly twenty-something fellow employees. What I thought of as the epitome of cool was in fact now considered old guy music or what is referred to in England, usually perjoratively, as "Dad Rock". Had I now slipped into unhip and out of touch status? I am...Dad Rock? How can I be Dad Rock when I'm not even a dad?

All of the artists on this compilation were once considered quite modern and cutting edge. The punk bands were once considered a threat to the very status quo of the music industry itself. Of course that was a long time ago and now punk acts are used to sell consumer products,played at sporting events or used to soundtrack Hollywood movies. What was once considered outside the mainstream (though it must be said it always had commercial potential) was now accepted as part of the mainstream. This reminds me of my last trip to London back in 2006. I was in a tube station (not at midnight) when I spied a billboard for a greatest hits cd by the punk-ish band from the 70's and 80's, The Stranglers. The tag line of the ad said "Perfect for Father's Day!" Huh? Unless that was a deliberately sarcastic line (which I don't believe it was) then I couldn't imagine a more inappropriate selling point for this record. I mean The Stranglers were notorious for their sleazy and downright misogynistic lyrics. I mean, had the marketing department for The Stranglers cd actually heard the likes of "Peaches"? Sample lyric:

"strolling along minding my own business
well there goes a girl and a half
she's got me going up and down
she's got me going up and down

will you just take a look over there (where?) there
is she tryin' to get outta that clitares?
liberation for women
thats what i preach
preacher man"

In a side note, the line about "is she trying to get outta that clitares" has often been mis-heard as clitoris. Clitares is French for bathing suit apparently. Though the word clitoris would make no sense in this context, no doubt the band took delight in this double entendre. A re-recorded version of the song for UK radio substituted "bikini" for "clitares".

Anyway, with songs like this and "Bring On the Nubiles" and "Nice and Sleazy" it somehow doesn't seem such an appropriate gift for dear old dad. However, this reinforces my point that what was once considered so outre is now boring music your weird old dad listens to. After all, no teen wants to have the same tastes as their parents. They are trying to rebel and gain their own independence from their folks. They want their music to be as annoying and alienating as possible. Now it seems that you have to try harder to make music that is more extreme than what your parents listened to. Unless you go the other way and you take up classical music or Broadway show tunes.

I love the Stranglers, as I love all of the bands on this compilation. Some of the acts were contemporaneous to my teenage years, others were not,but were discovered during those formative years. My musical tastes have moved on with the times. I am not perpetually stuck in the 80's. Yet one thing these acts have in common is that their music has endured and they have that elusive quality that all the best music has--songs. They are memorable songs, with choruses,bridges, hooks. Not all music then or now can claim this. They also are durable enough that they do not sound dated and "of their time" due to whatever the prevailing trend or technology was. They have achieved a certain classic status that can be an anathema to people who are forward looking when it comes to art, even if that art is pop music.

Who remembers the hipster bands of the 80's and 90's? I could list a thousand bands from the 80's who were underground-alternative-college bands who are now nothing but a footnote, all but forgotten. That is not to say they were bad or insignificant. I have tons of records and memories of acts from that time: Christmas? Wild Seeds? Naked Prey? Let's Active? Dumptruck? The Long Ryders? Translator? Once again let me say that I like all these bands,but how many of them left behind great songs? How many left behind songs that are well known and are influential on succeeding generations of musicians? Perhaps many of them did not have the luck or record company promotional budget that would allow for their work to seep into our collective consciousness. I guess what I am trying to say is that they were once considered the hip up-and -comers, the darlings of the underground, but within a few years they had been super-ceded by the next hip and happening band. Now, it is worth noting that some college-indie type acts influence and popularity has endured: The Pixies, Pavement and Sonic Youth certainly fall into that category.

I suppose it comes down to what you might call Shiny New Toy Syndrome. A band is only new for a limited time. Its sound only fresh for a short while. These days (and here is where I really start to show my Dad Rock-ness) there are so many people making music. Not only making music, but via the Internet there is now an outlet for this music, a chance for the whole world to hear it. That is, if you can somehow be noticed from amongst the onslaught of music vying for the World Wide Web's attention. The Internet now provides the kind of word of mouth, the kind of dissemination of music and information about said music that was unheard of back in my day (thank you, Dad Rock, or maybe Grand-Dad Rock!). Word of mouth was always critical. Friends were influential. Some could even be construed as taste makers, people whose opinions you valued above all others.

This still exists today, but now it is on a massive global scale. Everyone has an opinion and many of them want to share that opinion in blogs like this one.The cycle of hype and its inevitable backlash is now faster and faster. Careers that once lasted a few years can now be made and unmade in a matter of months, maybe even weeks. I feel overwhelmed by the amount of music and unsure of where to start or which filters (information sources) to trust. There are times I feel my Dad Rock-ness and begin to feel out of touch. And there are those who would say that I certainly should, that it is the natural process of growing up. Some of my friends still listen to new music and can still be influential. Others gave up on new music years ago and now their valuable word of mouth may be parenting advice, like how much to pay babysitters these days, that kind of thing.

One thing I know after all of these years is that the pop music (and I use this as a catch all term for the music that most young people listen to) is incredibly ephemeral. Ephemeral literally means "lasting only one day". Sometimes it seems that is how long careers last these days. So much of what I hear, especially from indie music, does not do too much for me (Dad Rock!) As you get older and especially if you have spent many, many hours listening to music, it gets harder to be impressed by something new. Often it does not sound truly new to you, but derivative of something older that you like better.

And these kids today (Dad Rock) often do not have an historical context of where this new music comes from; nor do they care. Why should they? They are interested in what is happening NOW, something they can call their own and relate to their youth. They don't want to hear some boring old fart go on about "Yeah, well if only you could have seen The Replacements. Now that was a band!" In fact, as much as I still love that particular group, they now seem like the epitome of Dad Rock (lots of 70's rock influence, some punk, and a whole lot of sensitive singer-songwriter vibe) and hardly the type of group that today's youth would consider in the least bit radical or cutting edge. In fact it is hard to keep up with "these kids" in many ways. They have the passion for the music that I had at their age but can't possibly maintain now. They devour music ravenously and are not a jaded middle-aged guy who has heard it all before. They also have the social networks in which they are sharing music like never before. We used to borrow albums or make our friends compilation tapes (Dad Rock again). We used to hang around in records stores and spend hours trying to track down elusive imports or rare releases by artists whom we only knew of their reputations. You used to have to really work at it. Now files are shared and the entire output of recorded music is available at a few clicks of a mouse, often not paid for at all.

As far as keeping up what is going on in new music, I often feel that if I am not tuned in for a couple of weeks that I am hopelessly out of touch. However, as a dj friend of mine stated, you can be away for a long time and then hop back into the scene and be up to speed pretty quickly. After all, many of the bands you were unaware of for the last couple of years are probably totally irrelevant now anyway.

I suppose I have come to terms with my Dad Rock status. If legendary acts like David Bowie,The Jam and The Clash are considered Dad Rock, then I am more than ok with it. In fact, I have to believe that eventually many youngsters will discover these acts and appreciate them one day. But then maybe that is what our parents or grandparents said about Elvis or Sinatra or The Beatles or...Perry Como?

To conclude this piece in a way that puts some perspective on things, I recall seeing a Billy Bragg show in London a few years back. Billy had this monologue bit between songs (no doubt repeated at all of his shows around this period) in which he acknowledged that himself (an old lefty punker) was getting older, as was his audience. This crowd was definitely a 35 and up group of people with only a few youngsters in attendance; in fact, some of them were the children of some of the attendees. Anyway, Mr. Bragg made the telling comment that it was going to be amusing in the future when our grand kids would gather round conspiratorially and say, "Watch what happens to grandpa when I put on this old ska record!" Inevitably time makes fools of us all.

I Am The Sea: Listening to Quadrophenia

2009-06-28T01:03:00.000-07:00

I am definitely a fan of lists. I love reading other people's top whatever lists of things. I am not so good at actually compiling them myself. When it comes to music, it can be downright impossible to rank what my favorites are. I have maybe a hundred or so albums that would conceivably make a top 100 list, but actually putting them in order would be a painful undertaking. What I do know is that for years I have known what my top two albums are on this hypothetical list and have always instinctively mentioned them when put on the spot: The Who's "Quadrophenia" and The Clash's "London Calling".

Both of these albums I did not discover at their time of release (though I was only a couple years late for "London Calling"), but both had a major impact on me some time between the fall of 1981 and the spring of 1982, or between my 14th and 15th years. "London Calling" I will save for another time. This essay is all about "Quadrophenia" and whether I should still be calling it my favorite album of all time, considering the 27 years that have passed since I embraced it as "the one" and the thousands of albums I have heard and discovered since. Why "Quadrophenia"? Does it still hold up? Seems like it is high time for a reassessment of this hallowed record.

First off, there many who don't consider this record even the best Who album ever. Now, I must emphasize that I claim this as my personal favorite album of all time, a very subjective view that does not try and make a case for this double album as the most significant pop recording ever made. So, please Beatles, Bob Dylan and even Radiohead fans, calm down. The populist, conventional choice for best Who record is "Who's Next", the 1971 collection that was salvaged from the "Lifehouse" project. It is inarguably a masterful bunch of songs and contains some of their most popular tracks ever. 1969' "Tommy" is embraced by many a critic as the definitive concept album. This is the record that really put The Who on the map on an international scale. Its allegorical story of a deaf, dumb, and blind boy who becomes a cult leader until he is turned on and deposed is very prescient for its time of the late 60's and all the gurus and cults that were arising. It is also an album whose narrative can be a bit confusing and whose production could have been better. The mid-60s era rock fan and the choice of many a hipster is 1967's "The Who Sell Out", a concept record in the presentation of songs linked by radio commercials both real and fake ones recorded by the band. It is also a brilliant work.

I was prompted to review "Quadrophenia" again after purchasing a re-issued vinyl copy--a beautiful, 180 gram vinyl ,Polydor pressing that replicates the original artwork, including a 40 page photo booklet illustrating the story that was not included in later re-pressings of the album, including the MCA label version I bought back in the 80's. I then hunkered down with some beers and began to listen once again to all 4 sides of vinyl. It had been a while since I had listened to it from start to finish. This is one of those albums that positively demands that it be heard all the way through. To listen to it in bits and pieces seems a crime. So anyway I listened, drank and furiously scribbled voluminous notes about the story, the sound, etc. I looked at my notes two days later and tried to make sense of my chicken scratches. Good lord, I wasn't sure I would have much to say, but it looks like I got drawn into the magic of this work again. I then decided I needed to listen to it again sober and then give my opinion.

"Quadrophenia" was released in October 1973 and rose to number 2 in both the UK and US. It was the first album by the Who since "Who's Next" and was highly anticipated. It was produced by Pete Townshend, with the mighty Glynn Johns listed as Associate Producer and Engineer. It is a concept record, another "Rock Opera" in the vein of "Tommy" or the abandoned "Lifehouse".

The album tells the tale of Jimmy Cooper, a teenage mod who lives in London, circa 1964 or 5. Townshend wanted to write another concept record that dealt with The Who's early fans, the mods. This protagonist was given the affliction of having a multiple personality disorder and each personality would be represented by a musical theme and each theme also represents a member of the band. 'Bell Boy' is Keith Moon, 'Helpless Dancer' is Roger Daltrey, 'Is It Me' is John Entwhistle, and 'Love Regin O'er Me' is Pete Townshend. All four of these themes are weaved in and out of various songs on the record. Townshend also had the bright idea of extending this idea of Quads a bit further and recorded the album in the fleeting trend of quadrophonic sound, sort of a 5.1 concept for the early 70's. I have always thought the title character only thought he had multiple personalities, seeing as he represents every confused teen. I am more inclined to think that it is, as suggested by another song on the album, 'Is It In My Head?', that his personality crisis is an imaginary one.

Side One

1) I Am The Sea: The track begins with the sound of waves crashing against the shore and the wind howling. Very moody stuff, kids. We hear snatches of the four themes as they drift in and out of the mix. We hear mournful, piano chords. We hear...a cat's meow? What is a cat doing on the beach? Anyway, this is the perfect setting to begin the album's journey. One could say that it is beginning at the end. All of a sudden we hear a very distinctive Daltery vocal, "Can you see the real me? Can ya?"

2) The Real Me: Bang! We are off into the album proper as this loud, crunching rocker introduces our main protagonist and presents his general state of mind. He goes to his doctor, his mother and his preacher trying to get answers to why he feels the way he does. He says to his mother, "I'm crazy ma, help me". Her only reply is "I know how it feels son, 'cause it runs in the family." Later in the lyrics we discover that the girl he used to love is now ignoring him and "doesn't want to know me now." Yes, young Jim is pretty messed up. He keeps asking "Can you see the real me?" This is a prototypical teenager who is in doubt about his true self and identity. And yes, this album is going to be one raging ride into teen angst of the highest order.

Meanwhile the music that sets the template for this album is muscular 70's hard rock, the kind that has nothing in common with the 60's R&B that mods worshipped but is certainly an extension of the sound the band was honing post "Tommy". Crash chords from Pete's guitar, thundering drum rolls from Keith, and John's stunning and melodic bass work will set the tone for all the rockers on the album. Many tracks will also include brass parts dubbed by Entwhistle. The Who were probably at the top of their game for this album.

3) Quadrophenia: This is an instrumental that incorporates the four main themes. This and the 'The Rock' were reportedly the most difficult things the band has ever attempted in their quasi-classical complexity. There are beautiful, clean guitar solos and orchestral synthesiser swells that really draw you into the (melo) drama of the piece.

4) Cut My Hair: Very expositional song that describes Jimmy's day-to-day existence. It is a quiet song,sung by Pete and tells of how Jimmy feels he must "move with the fashions or be outcast". It is certainly the eternal dilemma of a teen wanting to fit in and thinking he has to conform to exactly what other kids are doing to achieve it. This song goes a long way to articulating the universality of the Jimmy character. It doesn't matter that he is a mod in mid-60s Britain. His story is the story of millions of teenagers since and to be. Jimmy says he is "still living at home,even though it won't last." The mid-section of the song has Daltrey and band kicking in as Jimmy fantasizes about looking like the perfect mod and achieving a sense of belonging and freedom--

"Zoot suit, white jackets with side vents,five inches long (Who as the High Numbers song reference)
I'm out on the street again, and I'm leaping (reference to speed or "leapers", by the way) along
I'm dressed right for beach fight, but I just can't explain (Who song reference)
Why that uncertain feeling is still here in my brain"

That uncertain feeling is his doubts that he can be that cool and fit in, and perhaps he is wondering if this is something worthwhile to begin with. Jimmy, even at this stage, has the makings of a free thinker and individualist. Another narrative link is introduced as we hear a radio report at the tail end of the song that talks of gangs of mods and rockers rioting at the seaside resort town of Brighton. The Jimmy monologue included in the booklet to help with the story states that Jimmy is supposedly a participant in the disturbances.

One of the brilliant touches on this album is the extensive use of sound effects to convey certain moods and plot points. The BBC radio report is just one such example. I also love the concluding verse with it's "I'm coming down, got home on the very first train from town...my fried egg makes me sick first thing in the morning."

5) Punk and the Godfather (US title, Punk Meets the Godfather): This is a somewhat confusing song to follow, but it is supposed to be about Jimmy waiting to meet the leader of his favorite band (Pete? The Who?) and being thoroughly disappointed that they don't live up to his expectations. The song quotes "My Generation". One confusing element of the song is that it is supposed to be a dialogue between Jimmy (the punk) and the rock star (the godfather), yet both parts are sung by Daltrey. This is now more cleared up since I have the lyrics in the booklet. This also a story of one kid's gradual disillusionment with all the things he believed in and held dear. Finding out his favorite rock band are not heroes but real people who cannot help him either is one of these.

Side Two

1) I'm One: We gently land on side two and witness Jimmy sulk and feel sorry for himself. Pete handles the vocal and plays acoustic guitar.

" I'm a loser, no chance to win
Leaves start falling, comedown is calling
Loneliness starts sinking in"

He then starts to feel a resilience (or is it bitter resolve) to, you know, show em'

"But I'm One, I'm One.
And I can see that this is me
And I will be, you'll all see I'm the One"

It is either a determination to become something or at least a declaration that he is an individual.

The full band crashes in and Jimmy then reverts to worrying about fitting in.

"Where do get those blue blue jeans
Faded patch secret so tight
Where do you get that walk oh so lean
Your shoes and yer shirts all just right"

He later laments that he, on the other hand, has "ill fitting clothes and I blend in the crowd, fingers so clumsy, voice too loud." Our protagonist seems uncertain what he wants. To be simultaneously part of the crowd yet separate from it?

2) The Dirty Jobs: This song is supposed to be about Jimmy's humiliating job as a "dustman" or janitor. He is getting "put down and pushed round". It also details other working men's grim tasks. This song, as well as the next one, I always felt were minor songs that almost don't seem to belong to this piece, like perhaps Pete wrote them separately and then decided to incorporate them into the story.

One misheard lyric now corrected with the help of my lyric sheet:

Actual lyric: "My karma tells me, you've been screwed again"

I heard: "My father tells me, you've missed school again"

I think mine was more relevant to me at the time.

3) Helpless Dancer: The most theatrical number on the album and also the least compelling. This is supposedly Roger's theme and it is a song that is supposed to illustrate Jimmy's social conscience. Like I said about the last song, it seems out of place and superfluous to the story.

4) Is It In My Head?: Another more low key number where Jimmy is in a reflective mood. Song about uncertainty regarding his mental state. "Is it in my head?" he asks over and over. There is also intimations of possibly drug fueled dislocation and paranoia, "I feel I'm being followed, my head is empty". Young Jim is starting to crack and this reveals itself on the next song.

5) I've Had Enough: One of the key, epic rockers on the album and a welcome relief after a side of low key-ness and at times unfocused narrative. This is the track where Jimmy loses it and articulates his contempt for everything and his desire to escape and return to his glorious days as a mod.

Its opening salvo is:

"You were under the impression, that when you were walking forwards
You'd end up further onward, but things ain't quite that simple"

Jimmy concludes that he has been under the mistaken impression that work hard and forward progress would actually get you somewhere.

He then begins to fantasize about having the mod identity again. This idea of obtaining identity through conformity. It is a romanticized vision.

"My jacket's gonna be cut slim and checked
Maybe a touch of seersucker and and open neck
I ride a GS scooter with my hair cut neat
I wear my war time coat in the wind and sleet"

We then hear a recurrence of the "Love Reign O'er Me" theme/refrain. Next is a break down section, underscored by a killer banjo part from Pete, where Jimmy goes about rejecting everything in his life.

"I've had enough of.....living...dying....smiling....crying"

and then

"I've had enough of....dance halls...pills...street fights...fashions"

He then concludes with the line "I'm bored with hate and passion, I've had enough of trying to love". This last word is shouted and gradually fades away as if Jimmy has jumped off a building. This is followed by a police siren and the cheers of a football crowd. I always thought that last word was "cope" not "love". I stand corrected again.

According to Townshend this song is supposed to represent Jimmy's rejection of his current reality. He breaks up with his girlfriend, accidentally destroys a his scooter and makes the decision to hop on the train to Brighton to recapture the glory he had with his friends fighting rockers on the holiday weekend we hear about on the radio at the end of "Cut My Hair".

Side Three

1) 5:15: The second half of the album all takes place on Jimmy's ill-fated return trip to Brighton. "5:15" details pilled up Jimmy's train ride from London to Brighton. This is one of the more well known songs from the album and one of the most direct and rocking. Song is punctuated with multiple brass overdubs from Entwhistle.

"Inside, outside, leave me alone
Inside, outside, nowhere is home
Inside, outside, where have I been?
Out of my brain on the 5:15"

Fairly explanatory.

2) Sea and Sand: Jimmy returns to the beach at Brighton and tries to relive the most recent past. Only now he is alone and those glory days seem and eternity away.This is another great exposition song and an overlooked gem.

" They finally threw me out, my mom got drunk on stout
My dad couldn't stand on two feet, as he lectured about morality"

Jimmy fantasizes about being with his girlfriend just a few weeks earlier. Now everything has changed and he is on his own.

"I'm wet and I'm cold, but thank god I ain't old"

"Nothing is planned by the sea and the sand"

The High Numbers (early Who) song "I'm the Face" is quoted on the fade out.

3) Drowned: Townshend refers to this as being a stand alone track, very spiritual in nature. The ocean is a metaphor for God and all of us are just drops in his ocean. Pretty heavy,Pete.

I must take time out to mention the spectacular piano playing on this track and throughout the album by Chris Stainton, ex-member of Joe Cocker's Grease Band. I always thought it was Pete playing or maybe that session mainstay Nicky Hopkins, but it is Stainton who handles the tricky keys work here.

This song is Jimmy desiring a spiritual release or redemption via the ocean, which may also be interpreted as a highly romanticized death wish.

It is a spectacular number that just bursts with joy and instrumental improvisation.

4) Bell Boy: Jimmy sees Ace Face, his mod leader hero from the mods/rockers battle and it turns out he a bell hop at the same seaside hotel that the mods wrecked. Far from being the enviable and liberated star of the mod scene, this guy has a menial job where he rather meekly says "I wander in early to work, spend my days licking boots for my perks."

This wonderfully conveys how one can idealize people we hardly know and then one day we discover they are far from the exalted heroes we imagined. Another of Jimmy's illusions is smashed.

Side Four

1) Dr. Jimmy: Begins with storm noises, including thunder and lightning.

Pete Townshend says: " Dr. Jimmy was meant to be a song which somehow gets across the explosive, abandoned wildness side of his character. Like a bull run amok in a china shop. He's damaging himself so badly that he can get to the point where he is so desperate that he'll take a closer look at himself.

One can infer from this song that Jimmy gets extremely drunk and his thoughts and judgement run wild and completely out of control. " Doctor Jimmy and Mister Jim" is the Jekyll and Hyde that drunks can become.

The "Is It Me" theme is repeated in this song. Jimmy is still trying to figure out who he is, questioning if this "Dr. Jimmy" persona really is him.

2) The Rock: Supposedly meant to convey Jimmy stealing a boat and riding it out to sea only to stop off at a huge rock in the ocean and then have the boat drift away, stranding him.

It is another complex instrumental piece which again introduces the four main themes.

The rock is a very obvious metaphor for Jimmy's emotional isolation and alienation from the rest of the world.

3) Love Reign O'er Me: Thematically similar to "Drowned" in its use of water as a metaphor representing God or at least some spiritual infiniteness that the protagonist is seeking or desiring to "get back to" or surrender to.

Epic power ballad with Roger Daltrey at the top of his game--shouting, bellowing his desire, no, his insistence, that love (spiritual, God's love) wash down upon him and envelop him. Song ends with the simultaneous sounds of both waves crashing and instruments, particularly Moon's drums, crashing down and bringing this 82 minute drama to an appropriate climax.

So concludes this mammoth record. Hearing it for the first time in a few years I am immediately transported into that world of Jimmy's. It is a small story really, told on an epic scale. How appropriate that the story of a troubled teen would be given such a large canvass. Teens have a heightend sense of drama about their own lives and feelings. They have a level of self-involvement that can magnify things to the level of the operatic. It is also so brilliantly executed at every level. It certainly is the the ultimate teen angst tale. I have not been a teen in a long time, but the album still resonates with me in many ways. The story is no longer relevant to me, but the emotional core of songs like "Drowned" still do. And by the way, it rocks like hell. It is an album that I am sure will continue to be discovered by new generations of teens due to the fact the feelings and scenarios are universal and eternal.

Pete Townshend states that it is The Who's "towering achievement". I certainly wouldn't disagree. Is is still my all-time favorite album? Well, it is of epic length, a cohesive piece and just about every song is brilliant. It is truly an album, in that it is designed to be listened to from start-to-finish in one sitting and the songs all go together in the order they have been sequenced and could not be altered. They say that the album as an art form in dying, that we are now in the ala carte era of downloadable tracks. "Quadrophenia" is a testament to the power of the album. For that and for the fact I can't think of any other record that has come close to surpassing it in my own personal experiences, it still remains number one.

Anvil: The Story of Anvil Review

2009-05-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

You might have heard of this new documentary called "Anvil: The Story of Anvil" and thought that a film about an obscure metal band from the 80's would be of zero interest to you. I thought the same way, but let me tell you, it would be a mistake to let this film pass you by. It is one of the finest rock documentaries that you will ever see. After being a big hit on the film festival circuit last year, this movie has already set a box office record as the highest grossing rock doc of all time in the UK. The hard luck tale of the two founders and leaders of the group, Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner is a surprisingly powerful and emotional ride that you don't want to miss.

Anvil is a metal band from Toronto, Canada, formed in 1978, who made some waves in the early 80's as a band that were among the earliest progenitors of speed and thrash metal. They are considered a group who laid the ground work for the thrash movement and were an influence on bands like Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax. At the outset of the movie, members of all three bands testify to the band's significance. Robb Reiner's jazz-trained drum style in particular is singled out for its excellence. The band's first three albums on a small Canadian label called Attic are considered significant artifacts of the era, a time when thrash style metal was in its early days and was just as underground and indie as punk. Their output had a small following ,they did play on the same bill as metal titans such as Iron Maiden and Motorhead, and footage at the beginning of the film shows them playing a metal festival in Japan on the same bill as Bon Jovi and Whitesnake.Lips was a distinctive front man whose big gimic was to play his guitar with a vibrator. He was also the lyricist behind such Anvil gems as, "Metal on Metal", "Show Me Your Tits", "Mattress Mambo"and "Five Knuckle Shuffle". However, by the late 80's they had been left in the dust by the bands who were influenced by them, missing out on the fame and fortune that those bands achieved as this kind of music went mainstream.

And that, really should have been that. But the band refused to pack it in and just soldiered on year after year and album after album to nothing more than a small cult of followers. Director Sacha Gervasi, who once roadied for the band in the 80's and who has gone on to become a successful screenwriter, picks up their story in 2006 as Lips and Robb are now in their early 50s, married, and working menial 9 to 5 jobs in construction and school lunch delivery. Yet they still have a version of Anvil that they perform with in whatever sports bar or small club will have them and have long-time fans with names like Cut Loose who like to drink beer through their nostril. Despite their current status, Lips and Robb still cling to the dream that they are going to make it and become rock stars.

The heart of the film is the symbiotic relationship between Lips and Robb, two guys who have been playing music together since junior high school, in all over 30 years together in bands. Lips is outgoing, frenetic and emotional, while Robb is stoic and level-headed. While they are far from dumb guys, they are regular Joe kind of guys who, because they are still in a rock and roll band, live in that state of mind where at least part of them is forever a teenager. You immediately get the sense that the pursuit of the dream is the only thing that brings any sense, meaning or joy to their lives.

This film is being promoted as sort of a real life "This is Spinal Tap", the 1984 comedy directed by Rob Reiner about a buffoonish English metal band who go on a disastrous US tour. This is certainly a valid comparison as the similarities between Anvil and the fictitious Spinal Tap are numerous and uncanny. Such as:

They embark on a disastrous, shoe-string budget European tour, organised incompetently by the girlfriend of one of the other band members. The bookings are bad, the travel plans are screwed up and they find out they are not even scheduled to perform at some shows and at others the promoter refuses to pay. They play many shows in Eastern Europe, including something called the Transylvanian Metal Festival where a 10,000 seat hockey arena is booked and only 175 people show up.

They meet up with former contemporaries from the 80's ( like Michael Shenker and members of Whitesnake) at a Swedish Metal Festival who don't seem to remember them.

The ridiculous and ridiculously literal album cover art, every one featuring an anvil.

Stupid, sexist songs like "Hair Pie" and "Tease Me, Please Me".

They visit Stonehenge!

The falling out and eventual reconciliation between Lips and Robb.

They are offered a gig in Japan and make a triumphant return there.

While all of this is great fun, a strange shift happens about half the way through the movie--aided by the back story about their upbringing-- in that you begin to really care for these guys and hope that they can perhaps make it. After the ill-fated tour, the action shifts to the guys wanting to record their 13th album, to be entitled most brilliantly "This is Thirteen". They are currently without a label deal, yet they have secured the interest of one of their old 80's record producers, the famous metal producer Chris Tsangarides. The band then must try and raise the money it will cost to record the album with Tsangarides in England. After failed attempts at earning money with second jobs, Lips older sister fronts the money for the album to be recorded.

Not only has the world seemingly passed the band by, but the world they are trying to be a part of is almost a thing of the past. In their mind they are going to be signed by a major label, get some radio play, have a video on 'Headbanger's Ball' and the kids will rush to the record store and buy their album. Does anything sound wrong here? Anything just slightly outdated? These days it is all about DIY and the internet.

They even naively believe that a record company A&R man might come to one of their European shows and sign them. Once you see the sh*tholes they are playing in places like Croatia, you will understand how foolish a notion that is. However, even this band begins to "get it" that they won't be signed because they are old and seen as has-beens and it might make more sense to self -release their album and sell directly to fans, cutting out the record label middle man.

Ultimately you admire their sheer pluck and determination in the face of a world,that for the most part, is indifferent. This film really shows what drives people to create--even if we may find that expression not to our taste--and to doggedly pursue a dream despite the seemingly insurmountable odds. My only quibbles with the film is that it really tries hard to pluck the sentimental heartstrings towards the end, though it sure is effective at it. I also question if the finale in Japan in 100% legit, but I wasn't there so I guess I just have to give them the benefit of the doubt.

At the end of the film I didn't find myself liking Anvil's music any better than I did at the start of the film, in fact, I pretty much hate it. However, I definitely love these slightly dopey guys and I am inspired by their story of perseverance. I am sure anyone who sees it will come out of the theater feeling the same way.

Star For George

2009-04-20T00:42:00.000-07:00

This blog posting was written about April 14, 2009 in Los Angeles, CA.

Today I am standing at 1750 Vine Street, site of the Capitol Records building. This, the world's first circular office building, was completed in 1956. It stands thirteen stories high and many believe the myth that it was designed to look like a stack of records. Atop the building is a spire and at the tip of the spire is a little light that at night blinks out the words "Hollywood" in morse code.

The reason I am here today is for the George Harrison Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony. Beatle George is receiving a star today from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. The Hollywood Walk of Fame was established in 1958 as a way to spruce up the image of this main drag of Hollywood. The two thousand plus stars are located on Hollywood Boulevard from Gower Avenue to La Brea Avenue and north to south on Vine Street between Yucca Street and Sunset Boulevard. The first star was awarded to Joanne Woodward (actress and wife of the late Paul Newman) in 1960 you trivia buffs out there.

In order to receive a star, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce's Walk of Fame committee is usually solicited by a sponsor (movie studio or record label) but sometimes by the star themselves. If the committee approves the celebrity,then $25,000 must be paid and there is usually a proviso that the celebrity, if living, must show up to attend the ceremony. Well, no chance of that happening today, but Capitol Records (the sponsor for George) no doubt promises to wheel out a cavalcade of celebs and near-celebs to honor the quiet Beatle.

A crowd somewhere near a thousand people have gathered in the area just outside the barricades set up at the edge of the sidewalk and another set about half way into the Vine Street. I would describe this mass of humanity to be comprised of many Beatle fanatics, some might say nerds. Yes, Beatle nerds. Beatle nerds belong to a special sub-category of music nerds. Nerd-dom can take on so many forms: Comedy nerds, movie nerds, Star Wars nerds, Dungeon and Dragons nerds, (video) Gamer nerds, Monty Python nerds (often in tandem with Beatle nerds I find--perhaps they belong to the larger school of Anglophile nerds), and science nerds are the ones I can think of right off the bat.

Nerdiness is a form of obsession adopted by people in their formative years as a way with coping with the world. What better way to combat your social awkwardness than to obsess over something and at the same time find like-minded individuals to bond with over said obsession. Nothing wrong with being nerdy: it demonstrates you are really serious about something and often it shows you can really devote yourself to the pursuit of that something and master it. Some nerdy pursuits can really get you ahead in life. For instance, computer nerds now run the world. Beatle nerds, on the other hand, show up outside an office building at 10 am on a Tuesday. To be fair, I'm sure some of them have jobs.

My Beatle nerd-dom began in 1979 when my mother purchased the Beatle compilation albums "63-66" and "67-70" (aka the Red and Blue albums) on cassette and indoctrinated me to the world of the Beatles' music. To say my life has never been the same would be an understatement. Prior to this, I had dabbled in music, mostly the John Denver,Waylon Jennings and Simon and Garfunkel albums my dad would play on car trips and soundtracks such as "Saturday Night Fever", "Grease" and, god help me, "Thank God It's Friday". I also joined a record club (RCA Record Club - 8 albums for a penny) back in 78' maybe, but was mostly indifferent to the motley assortment of albums I selected. Not sure what my methodology was, but I do remember receiving Peter Frampton's "Frampton Comes Alive", Bob Seger's "Night Moves", Steve Miller Band's "Greatest Hits 74-78" and maybe a James Taylor record. Of course I never sent back the monthly form to reject that month's selection, so our house was inundated with such gems as Fogat's "Rock and Roll" (cover sported a picture of a small stone and a dinner roll) until my mother called the RCA Record Club and pitched a fit about how young I was and they agreed to cancel my membership.

The Beatles was a whole other story. I was initially captivated by the music, but it became a full-time obsession soon after the death of John Lennon. I heard about Lennon's murder like many American males did--from Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football. I ran to tell my mother,who I was staying with on that particular evening, this during the early stages of my parent's separation. She shrieked "What !!" and was no doubt more stunned by the news than I was. My mother, though by no means a Beatle fanatic, had actually seen the group live in Stockholm in 1963 during their Scandinavian tour, several months before they even came to American for the first time in February 1964.

Soon after my whole world was Beatles. I bought all the albums. I bought most of the solo records up to that point. I bought books and old Life magazine covers. I started buying picture sleeve singles and bootlegs. I became a regular customer at the hole-in-the-wall used record store downtown (what was the name of that place, Morgan?) that traded in such contraband. I went to these shoe string budget Beatle "Film Festivals" at places like the Davis Veteran's Memorial so I could see old grainy clips of Beatle press conferences, Ed Sullivan and other television appearances, promo films such as "Hello, Goodbye" and "Strawberry Fields" and maybe that amateur filmmaker disaster, "Magical Mystery Tour". I went to a midnight screening of "Let It Be" at the Varsity Theater in downtown Davis and even persuaded someone to drive me to a showing of "Wings Over America" at the dome shaped (where I saw "Star Wars" in 77') Century Theaters in Sacramento. I think I was bored to tears by those last two films, but such was my mania for all things Beatle that I could not pass them up.

At one point I was even looking into attending a Beatles convention in Los Angeles. If you are attending a convention of any fan-worshipping kind, you have most certainly graduated into another realm of nerd-dom.This period of insanity lasted from approximately 1980 until some time in 1982 when I began to discover other music and my obsession was redirected and soon mutated into so many other directions that I soon lost count. I think my buddy Morgan's obsession with the Who soon sent me down that road and into all things mod-related, though I never did adopt a mod fashion identity.

So, this must be why I am standing out here on this overcast Los Angeles morning waiting for the dignitaries to show up for this questionable dedication to a music great. A public address system has been set up and George Harrison solo music plays from the speakers placed atop stands. As the song 'All Things Must Pass' plays from the speakers, it is not lost on many folks in the audience that the producer of this song (Phil Spector) sits in a Los Angeles jail cell waiting to be sentenced for second degree murder. And wouldn't you it, as the "Concert For Bangladesh" version of 'Here Comes The Sun' plays, the sun begins to peak through the clouds and shower us in sunshine. I would claim divine intervention, but perhaps it is just a well-timed case of typical Los Angeles marine layer being burned off by the sun as we approach noon.

There are two platforms set up outside of Capitol Records. One is for the assembled press, who take their places as the 11:30 start time approaches. The other is situated a few feet in front of them--a dais with a podium for today's speakers. And at the appointed hour the VIPs file out of the front doors of Capitol Records, I'm thinking by order of importance. We are all straining our necks to see who has come and I immediately start recognizing and checking off in my head who is there. Tom Petty ( major rock star and a Travelling Wilbury), Mike Campbell (a member of Petty's band), Jeff Lynne ( ELO leader,produced George's "Cloud Nine" and also a Travelling Wilbury, Jim Keltner (drumming god who has played with everybody, including George), T-Bone Burnett (producer and solo artist extraordinaire), David Foster (big-time producer and writer of mostly MOR music), Joe Walsh (James Gang, The Eagles, solo artist), Ray Cooper (session percussionist who played on many George albums), Gary Wright (Spooky Tooth and solo artist-'Dream Weaver'-who played on some George albums), Ed Begley Jr. (???--actor and environmental activist), Tom Hanks (???--2 time Academy Award winning actor), Eric Idle (founding member of Monthy Python, actor/comedian) and Olivia (the wife) and Dhani ( the son, musician in his own right, and spitting image of his father) Harrison. What? No Beatles are here? Then Sir Paul McCartney is the last to emerge from the foyer of Capitol Records and the assembled Beatle fans really lose their sht*t.

What follows is a twenty-odd minute ceremony that sees a member of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce read, verbatim, the press release bio of George's life that was posted on his web site. Then we get another member of the Hollywood CoC who gives a speech where he repeatedly says that George is "with the angels now" and then, bizarrely, presents George's wife, Olivia, with some b.s. certificate from the city and a loaf of bread he says was the last loaf baked by a group of locals nuns whose ovens have broken down and they are now trying to raise money for. He also introduces representatives of the British and Bangladeshi embassies and his whole appearance basically makes for the one truly awkward moment of the day.

Next up is Tom Hanks, top notch actor and seemingly good guy, but why on earth is he up here stumping for George? Perhaps he was a close friend of his, I don't know. Hanks gives a brief, blustery, over-the-top kind of speech that sounds like he was making it up on the spot. Perhaps he was. His speech is very specific to the impact the Beatles had on America and how trans-formative they were to popular culture. He then gestures to the Capitol building and says "They built this!"--not quite, but he meant well.He signs off with "All things must pass, this this true, but George Harrison will live forever".

Eric Idle is next.He was a close friend of George (George was a Python nut and went on to almost single-handedly finance "Life of Brian" and then through his Hand Made Films production company, finance several other Python-related films) and he proceeds to give a comic speech that is by turns ribald, funny, not funny,crass and inappropriate.One thinks that George would have probably approved. Idle pondered what George would have thought of a star on the Walk of Fame and then says George would have said "What a load of old bollocks". No doubt this is true. Idle then solemnly recounts how Paul McCartney was there for George in his final days when he was ailing from the throat cancer that killed him on November 29, 2001 in Los Angeles at the age of 58. Idle stated the often rumored fact that Harrison died in (one of ) Paul McCartney's homes. This turns out to set up a joke: "George died in Paul's house, which is why I won't go stay with John Cleese"--they both live in the L.A. area.

Olivia Harrison, who was a secretary at A&M Records when George met her in the mid 70's, then gave a brief speech thanking all those who came out and those who spoke and saying of George, "...he was a mystical man living in a material world, funny as the day was long and just as perplexing." His son, Dhani, followed by just saying "Hare Krishna" and then it was on to unveiling the star. A wood panel was lifted to reveal the freshly-minted new star and Olivia, Dhani, Idle, Hanks and McCartney posed for a photo. Tom Petty and a few others also came down for a photo op and that was pretty much that. McCartney, who was bombarded with cries of "Paul ! Paul !" (one can only wonder what a life of hearing that for 46 years can do to a person) tried to mount the podium and say thanks, but it had already been shut off. He mouthed the words, placed his hands over his heart and then was gone.

Alas, no sign of Ringo.

Deep Hit of Morning Sun:Primal Scream @ Club Nokia

2009-03-25T18:52:00.000-07:00

Tonight's show is by two leading exponents of what you might call modern psychedelia, psych-punk or late 60's rock revivalism.Call it what you will, but Primal Scream and The Brian Jonestown Massacre are both now long tenured acts that have carved out a notable career by borrowing heavily from rock's past and trying to give it a modern spin.

This evening's venue is the rather sterile and way-too-modern, theater-sized, Club Nokia, situated in the new-ish L.A. Live complex in downtown Los Angeles, adjacent to the Staples Center. The 2,400 capacity club is on the third floor of this entertainment behemoth. As I cross the Nokia plaza with it's giant digital display of "Nokia" taking up one side of a building, I see Anderson Cooper bathed in intense white lights and surrounded by a film crew and bystanders. That's L.A. for ya.

This venue has all the charm of a hotel convention hall. That and the fact that the prices for everything are sky-high ($20 to park, $10 beers, $9 for a pre-made sandwich or salad) do not put me in a great mood for a night of wild rock and roll. The sound and lighting are top-notch, and the back bar looks like it has the same art direction as a Stanley Kubrick film, but this place feels cold and empty. Welcome to the 21st century, I guess.

The Brian Jonestown Massacre are up first. This band has been led by the mercurial Anton Newcombe since 1990. They specialize in a sort of droning, psychedelic guitar music that draws on such influences as The Velvet Underground, Rolling Stones circa 1967, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Spacemen 3 and a touch of shoe-gazer acts like Ride.

BJM are probably best known for the 2005 documentary, "Dig"--a must-see rock-doc about two friendly and similar bands (BJM and The Dandy Warhols) who get caught up in classic music industry hype. We witness how this affects their relationship and how they go about dealing with it. It is a fascinating study of how the two band leaders (Newcombe and Courtney Taylor-Taylor) cope with the prospect of imminent fame and success. Both are portrayed as being maniacal control freaks, but while Taylor-Taylor is seen as an ambitious opportunist, Newcombe comes off as someone who shys away from the attention and seems hell bent on self-destruction and self-sabotage. They both to battle to a draw in who can come off as being the more self-involved jerk. Nevertheless, it is an essential document of how art and commerce often exist uncomfortably together, as well as the corrupting effects of money, media and fame on smart and creative individuals.

This evenings opening slot sees Anton Newcombe and his seven cohorts plow through a 45 minute set that covers a wide range of material from throughout their career. Suprising to see erstwhile members Matt Hollywood (guitar and vocals) and Joel Gion (tambourine shaker extraordinaire, comic relief and used buyer at Amoeba in SF) back in this ever-shifting line-up after having been out of the band the last time I checked. Newcombe is situated stage right all the way at the end, with his mic and body turned sideways facing the band. Either he suffers from some stage fright or else he wants to keep a close eye on his charges. He is looking pretty haggard, but then that is usually par for the course with him and it doesn't seem to affect his performance at all.

Their reverb-heavy, druggy and hypnotic sound is mesmerizing, however it is performed with such cool detachment and at times lacks really memorable tunes, that often you feel that it is a bit of a studied pose. Hard to believe these guys were once being hyped as a potential big mainstream cross-over act. They would seem most at home in some small, low-down club and appear out of place in this sterile and cavernous corporate venue.

Primal Scream, meanwhile, are perhaps too big for this hall. They are practically an institution in the UK and have been filling arenas and playing huge European festivals for close to 20 years now. They were formed in 1984 in Glasgow, Scotland by former Jesus and Mary Chain drummer Bobby Gillespie (lead vocals), Andrew Innes (lead guitar) and Martin Duffy (keyboards) who remain the core of the group,but are now supplemented with former Stones Roses member Mani (bass), Darren Mooney (drums) and a second touring guitarist.

The Scream have had a long and distinguished career that has seen many changes in their sound. This has led to criticism in some quarters that they are musical magpies--hopping on whatever musical bandwagon is trendy and then hopping off and onto the next passing trend. Perhaps this notion has been overstated, but it is true that their career has seen time for 60's psych-revivalism in a Byrds and Love mode (not too successfully I might add), MC5 style hard rock (again, kinda of iffy), indie rock/dance ( on the landmark "Screamadelica" album that brought Acid House and rock music to the masses, at least everywhere but the U.S.), early 70's Rolling Stones clones (a sound they embraced wholly on "Screamadelica's" follow-up "Give Out But Don't Give Up" and have been returning to as sort of a default setting, especially 06's "Riot City Blues" ), electronica (1997's "Vanishing Point"), and noisy Krautrock (2000's brilliant "XTRMNTR" and 02's "Evil Heat"). This schizophrenic approach to their music has made them a most eclectic band who now can draw upon all these influences and put on one hell of a rock show. I have never seen them before and they don't play the U.S. too often (last time being in 2001 I believe), so I was very primed for this show.

So it was that they took to the stage at Club Nokia and proceeded to just about take the audiences heads off with the volume and propulsive attack of their music, aided and abetted by a truly disorienting light show filled with relentless flashing strobes and a laser beam that I haven't seen since The Who's "The Kids Are Alright" film. The first five songs, beginning with 'Kill All Hippies' and concluding with 'Jailbird' was about as breathtaking an opening salvo as I've seen from any band ever. Andrew Innes' Gibson Les Paul played through a Marshall stack amplifier was absolutely lethal.

They then slowed things down to take on some of their more trippy, psychedelic songs, where the two guitarists made ample use of their effects pedals and keyboardist Duffy provided spooky textures and strange loops. The high point of this middle section was 'Higher Than The Sun' from "Screamadelica" and 'Deep Hit of Morning Sun' . Lead singer Gillespie is a stick figure with a Phil May circa 1965 haircut. He is not the most powerful vocalist out there, but he gets the job done and is a charismatic front man.

They then shifted back to an uptempo mode and ripped through seven high octane rockers that began with 'Exterminator' and finished off with their heavy Stones-referencing, 'Movin On Up' and 'Rocks'. A four song encore followed, highlighted by Stonesy-stomp of 'Country Girl' and capped off with the mind-bending (and ear-splitting) tour-de-force that is 'Accelerator' a feedback spattered bit of noise rock that is a fitting farewell from this band.

I am stunned by how good this show was and how powerful this band is. I am completely worn out! They have spent 25 years of developing into a first rate rock band with enough stylistic detours to keep it interesting and a somewhat dark and mysterious image that serves them well too. I'm hoping that they will be back sooner next time and when I see them I plan to bring ear plugs and sunglasses.

Strange Animal: Sparks at Royce Hall

2009-02-26T12:49:00.000-08:00

Some time back in either late 1982 or early 1983,I was introduced to the this strange little group called Sparks. I think it may have been after seeing their video for "I Predict" off of their 'Angst In My Pants' album or else I caught them as the music guest on 'Saturday Night Live'. Either way they made quite a unique first impression both musically and visually. The lead singer Russell Mael sang in a fruity sort of quasi-operatic falsetto and sported a spangled jacket, a floppy curly-haired fringe haircut and pin-up good looks. The keyboard player,Ron Mael, on the other hand, had what can best be described as a Hitler mustache (or maybe Charlie Chaplin), clothes that looked like a middle-aged man of the time on a fishing trip (polyester pants and dopey hat), and a look of perpetual consternation on his unsmiling face. "Who are these guys?", I wondered. 'Angst In My Pants' became my next purchase (on cassette!) and I was ushered into the odd-ball, art-pop world of the Mael Brothers.

Little did I know at the time, but the brothers Ron and Russell had been at this for quite a long time before I stumbled upon them. They were Los Angeles natives who spent their teenage years in the sixties as models for mail-order catalogs(mail, male, Mael?) They formed their first band, Halfnelson, as students at UCLA in 1970. They recorded their first album in 1971, a self-titled affair produced by Todd Rundgren for the Bearsville label. Soon after they changed their name to Sparks, and the first album under the new moniker appeared in 1972, titled "A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing".

The band's style was a unique concoction of keyboard-based songs (mostly written by Ron Mael) with a tough rock backing and Russell swooping vocals laid on top. They were odd, often bizarre tunes with a very skewed world view and much off-beat humour. Art Pop is the label most often thrown at them, though the band itself has gone through three distinct musical phases, all the while remaining unmistakably them.

Phase one took them through the glam rock years and it was during this period that they became big stars in England, a country they subsequently moved to for a few years. They went to number two with their song "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us" in 1974, a track off their classic album 'Kimono My House'. They had similar success for the next year or so, where the Brothers style, mixed with the almost Spiders From Mars-ish rock band backing made them fit in well with the times.

After a couple of flop albums, the brothers changed labels, band members and direction, as they enlisted famed disco producer Giorgio Moroder to helm their 1979 come-back album, 'No.1 Song In Heaven'. This album not only spawned a pair of UK hits, but also was highly influential for the emerging techno pop movement of the early to mid-eighties. The pair used this template for roughly the next 20 years, fusing Ron's synth-based backing to such lyrical oddities as "Tryouts For The Human Race", "SexTown USA","All You Ever Think About Is Sex", "When Do I Get To Sing My Way", "I Thought I Told You To Wait In The Car", "How To Get Your Ass Kicked" and the song they are probably the most famous for here in the U.S., 1983's duet with Jane Weidlin of the Go-Go's, "Cool Places",which reached the lofty heights of number 49.

By the turn of the 21st century, Sparks sensed it was time to move in a totally new direction. Considering how patchy many of their albums were from the mid-80's on, it was probably not a moment too soon. Since 2002's "Lil Beethoven" album, the Mael brothers have now adopted a style of elaborately layered keyboards (though more actual piano than ever before), string sections and vocals ,and almost no drums. Ron Mael is now creating quasi-classical compositions of great complexity and detail. Though different in approach, these are still Sparks tunes and new song titles such as "Ugly Guys With Beautiful Girls", "I Married Myself", "Dick Around' and "The Director Never Yelled 'Cut' " let you know that their tongue remains firmly in cheek.

Sparks are definitely an acquired taste. In fact, they are most likely to inspire a very negative reaction in most. I am not sure there is a middle ground in ones opinion of them and I can totally understand when their music makes many people lunge for the stereo in an effort to turn it down or off. They are the epitome of a cult band and I'm sure their international following, especially in England, France and Japan, wouldn't have it any other way.

Which brings us to this special Valentine's Day performance at Royce Hall , which is a snazzy performing arts building on the UCLA campus that is modeled on a famous basilica in Milan. The all-seated venue seems more appropriate for a visiting orchestra or dance troupe than a weirdo pop band, but here we are. Though they still live in the Los Angeles area, Sparks rarely play the states and the fact they are doing a special show in which they are performing their new album 'Exotic Creatures of the Deep' and their classic 'Kimono My House' in their entirety has made this a special event. The show was sold out (1800 seat capacity) and the crowd seemed like a West Coast Sparks convention, such was their enthusiasm. I overheard people saying they had come from as far as Arizona, New York , and even Japan for the show.

It turns out to be a fantastic show. Sparks did the new album in its entirety, took an intermission break and came back out and did 'Kimono My House', then reemerged again for an 8 song encore that included "Propaganda", "At Home, At Work, At Play", "No. 1 Song in Heaven","BC", "Mickey Mouse", "Dick Around" , "When Do I Get To Sing My Way" and "Suburban Homeboy".

The staging for 'Exotics Creatures' was amazing. There were giant gilded picture or mirror frames suspended in the air towards the back of the stage. The backing band, which included Steve McDonald of Redd Kross, played behind and in-between the frames,so as to appear to be giant portraits come to life. There was a massive video screen in the middle of them, also with a giant picture frame around it. Films and graphics were displayed on it, timed to go with whatever song was being played. The Mael brothers played on front, center stage: Russell flouncing around and Ron mostly sitting at his keyboard and making his usual weird faces that look like a combination of irritability and consternation.

On a few songs Ron was interacting with the footage on screen. For instance, on "Let the Monkey Drive", Ron called an animated monkey out to play an animated piano. The most clever bit was when Ron appeared to be playing a piano on the video screen (which was made to look like a desk top computer screen with application icons running down the one side) during "Photoshop (Me Out of Your Life)", in an update of the classic Daffy Duck cartoon, the piano kept changing size, color, position, number of pianos, as Ron frantically pretended to keep trying to play the song. Brilliant piece of theater. Another bit came at the end of the "Kimono" performance when each album cover would be displayed on the screen and Ron would light a real lighter at the bottom of the screen and it appeared the album was engulfed in flames. They did this for each and every one of the albums, which gave the audience a chance to applaud their favorites; I was particularly boisterous for my first Sparks album, "Angst In My Pants". When the new albums was "burnt up", Ron tossed the lighter over his shoulder and and walked off the stage as the band concluded 'Equator' and the album.

Ron and Russell appeared as they have in the photos for the last couple of albums. Russell has some dyed floppy fringe cut and Ron has perfected his crotchety old-man-next-door look, complete with those round horn rimmed glasses that George Burns once favored.

No sign of huge Sparks fan, Morrissey, but they did perform the song "Lighten Up,Morrissey" (which if you listen to the lyrics is not really a dig at him, but a plea to him to not be so appealing to the singer's love interest) and introduced it my saying it was about "a good buddy of ours". They even sold t-shirts with that song title emblazoned on the front. I am certain that Moz was there someplace that night: he has been in town recently to launch his new album.

Again, it was a great show. I went in uncertain about the two albums in their entirety format and wished it was more a standard show, but I was pleasantly surprised how I enjoyed it all. I don't see any gigs scheduled in the U.S. on their web site; looks like London (including an appearance on the Jonathan Ross show) and Tokyo next. I'm glad I was able to finally see this most elusive of old favorites live. See them if you get a chance

Lux Interior: Requiem for the Undead

2009-02-08T14:32:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday night I returned home from a show in Echo Park at around 10:30 and sat down to look up some info on the band I had just seen. As I was was surfing for info on the group at the NME website, I saw a news headline on the homepage that said "Cramps founder dies". I did a quick double-take to make sure I had read this correctly. What? No! This can't be!

Sadly, the news was indeed true that Lux Interior, the lead singer of the pioneering punkabilly group, The Cramps, had passed away early Wednesday morning in nearby Glendale from a pre-existing heart condition. I was absolutely stunned. I had no idea that he suffered from any health problems, but then he and his wife and co-conspirator, Poison Ivy, were always a fiercely private and secretive couple. Also, as a friend would mention to me later, "How can someone who is already dead die?"

This remark would have undoubtedly amused Lux. The Cramps entire image was founded on an obsession with horror films and trash culture of the 50's and 60's. Lux and Ivy looked like the freakiest and most ghoulish couple to ever walk the face of the earth. They could have jumped onto the screen of any zombie, vampire or monster movie of the last 75 years and fit in perfectly. Surely, a rock n' roll zombie can't really die, can he?

Erick Lee Purkhiser was born in Stow, Ohio, a small suburb of Akron, in 1946. From an early age he had a fascination with horror and sci-fi films of the 40's and 50's and EC comic books like, "Tales from the Crypyt" and "Vault of Horror". By his teen years he was also a huge fan of early rock and roll, particularly as it was presented by local Akron disc jockey, Pete "Mad Daddy" Myers. The Mad Daddy mixed horror, rock n' roll and R&B with a rapid-fire delivery that was usually done in rhyme and hipster jive. Another early influence was local late night television host ,Ghoulardi, who introduced horror and sci-fi B-movies on "Shock Theater" with his own hip slang, using catchphrases like "Stay Sick" and "Turn Blue".

After living in the Akron area into his early 20's and trying to avoid the Vietnam draft--mostly by staying unemployed and untraceable---Lux decided to move to California and enroll in college as a way of ducking the draft legitimately. He moved to Sacramento some time in the late 60's and began attending school at Sacramento State. One fateful day he met the person who would become his life-long partner in love, music and other crimes, one Kristy Marlana Wallace, born 1953 in Sacramento. Lux swears that he met her while she was hitch-hiking near campus in 1972. They also were in the same art class together and soon became inseparable,eventually moving into a mid-town apartment together.

Lux was already a fanatical collector of rockabilly, garage punk, surf, and early rock n' roll / R&B records, especially the really rare stuff. Records by regional garage bands that only released one or two 45s in limited quantities or that one rockabilly record that every hillbilly or failed country artist who thought he was going to be the next Elvis made. Ivy was also a big fan of early rockers like Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Duane Eddy and particularly Link Wray. Lux did extensive record rummaging around Northern California, tracking down all kinds of rare stuff before there was a real market for it. It is worth noting that there was no re-issue market and generally no compilations for most of the rockabilly and garage obscurities that we take for granted today on collections like "Nuggets", "Pebbles" and "Desperate Rock and Roll". If you wanted to hear this stuff, you had to track down the original 45. Many of the people who were tracking down these obscure releases were the people who wound up putting together many of those quasi-legal compilations.

One favorite record haunt was the Records shop on the K Street Mall in downtown Sac. Ray, the late owner of the place, befriended Lux and Ivy and was instrumental in turning them onto R&B vocal groups (never say "Doo-Wop"), whose wild vocal gymnastics on up-tempo numbers would also play an important role in the eventual sound of The Cramps.

Tiring of what they thought was the "small town mentality" of mid-70s Sacramento, as were they of a hippie scene they did not feel a part of, the couple briefly moved back to Akron in early 1975, but by the fall, after having seen The New York Dolls perform and being inspired by their look and their desecretion/veneration of R&B, they decided to move to New York City and start a band. It turned out to be a fortuitous decision, as they wound up being at ground zero of the punk movement there, which was centered around the Bowery dive bar known as CBGB's. It was here that they adopted their new monikers of Lux Interior and Poison Ivy.

The band they put together would be an original amalgamation of all the things that Lux and Ivy had been soaking up for years--Lux was almost 30 at this point. The sound they came up with, to quote Lux, was "A patchwork hybrid with a life of it's own--a rock n' roll Brides of Frankenstein". Rockabilly was only the starting point. Rockabilly was fused with the fat, distorted, fuzztone power chords of Link Wray, the surf riffs of groups like The Ventures and the twangy reverb of Duane Eddy. The guitar playing was simple, but menacing and effective. Lux also said of their nascent sound, "There were all these bands, like The Rolling Stones and The New York Dolls, that took R&B and did something with it, but nobody had done anything with rockabilly yet". As a line in their seminal single "Garbage Man" said, they were indeed "one half hillbilly and one half punk".It was a sound that found room for Link Wray, Sun Records rockabilly singles and Sonics-style garage punk.

One novel approach they had in their early years was that they had no bass player. Instead they recruited second guitarist,Bryan Gregory, more for his looks (peroxide blonde hair combed forward, obscuring half of his acne scarred face, scary-looking face) than his musical ability. Gregory lay on thick sheets of atonal guitar noise while Ivy held down the more traditional, structured guitar licks. The drums would be a primitive, stomping beat (provided by Nick Knox) that was straight out of snarling garage punk classics of the mid-60's.On top of all of this was Lux's echo-drenched vocals and vocal mannerisms that were a combination of rockabilly yelps and hiccups, the nonsense jive of R&B vocal groups and bird calls and animal noises that may have come from Exotica records or Tarzan movies, maybe both.

Lyrics were handled exclusively by Lux and were such marvelously humorous and inventive things. Funny lines that were a distillation of every song lyric, movie dialogue quote,comic book image or Maddy Daddy and Ghoulardi bit he had ever heard or seen, mixed with a twisted sense of the macabre and more than a touch of surrealism. Later in their career he would dive whole heartedly into lewd and racy lyrics that were a product of the sex-ploitation films, such as Russ Meyers', that he became a big fan of, as well the "blue" lyrics of certain smutty, double-entendre jump blues records of the late 40's and early 50's. Here are a couple of examples of Lux's lyrics.

"Well I'm a human flyIt's spelt F-L-YI say buzz ,buzz, buzz, and it's just because..I'm a human fly and I don't know whyI got ninety six tears in my ninety six eyes.I got a garbage brain, it's drivin' me insaneAnd I don't like your ride, so push that pesticideAnd baby I won't care, 'cause baby I don't scare'Cause I'm a reborn maggot using germ warfare. Rockin'Zzzzz..." Human Fly (1978)

"oh baby i see you on my tv set yeah baby i see you on my tv set i cut your head off and put it in my tv set i use your eyeballs for dials on my tv set i watch tv i watch tv since i put you in my tv set oh baby i hear you on my radio yeah baby i hear you on my radio you know i flip flip flip for my radio you're going drip drip drip on my radio am radio pm radio since i tuned you inside my radio... like this! oh baby i see you in my frigidaire yeah baby i see you in my frigidaire behind the mayonnaise, way in the back i'm gonna see you tonight for a midnight snack but though it's cold you won't get old 'cause you're well preserved in my frigidaire" TV Set (1980)

" I been a drag racer on LSD, and i rode bare-assed on top of the shpinx, i even had a gorilla on the slopes of kismet, and man, that was fun for a while you bet but... well i savored many foriegn kinds of delicacies, intoxicated til i can't tell what the hell i could see, had all the violence and liquor within close reach, but all bars, pills and threeways lead me back to the beach and... now they say that virtue is it's own reward, but when that surf comes in i'm gunna get my board, got my own ideas about the righteous kick, you can keep the rewards, i'd just as soon stay sick..." Bikini Girls With Machine Guns (1990)

"Torso tossin'. Shockwave a causin'. A wammy in the boogaloo. Busted up bustle, too. Gear strippin' dynamo. Limbo down kinda low. I can do the camel walk. Torture me. I won't talk. Down in the fashion pits. Girls wearin' tourniquets. Rough and ready riff raff. Straight jacket sneak attack. Wig hat jack knife. Out on bail for life. Sex in the cycle set. Mama don't allow no pets." Dames, Booze, Chains, and Boots (1991)

The Cramps also excelled at covers, unearthing many obscure gems from rock and roll's past like "Goo Goo Muck" (Ronnie Cook and the Gaylads), "Sunglasses After Dark" (Dwight Pullen), "Rockin' Bones" (Ronnie Dawson), "She Said" (Hasil Adkins), "Love Me" (The Phantom), and "Save It" (Mel Robbins) just to name a few. These were never straight covers,but songs given a signature Cramps style, often slowed down, dirtied up and spooked out versions, with bits of other songs sometimes thrown into the mix, like in the case of "Sunglasses After Dark" which is fused with a Link Wray song called "Fat Back". In other cases the band shamelessly stole other songs and created their own. For example, The Busters "Bust-Out" instrumental would mutate into "I'm Cramped", while The Riptides "Machine Gun" would serve as the basis for "Call of the Wighat". There are a couple series of albums devoted exclusively to songs that the band covered or cribbed from, one being the "Born Bad" series and the other known as "Songs The Cramps Taught Us". Both are highly recommended, though not always easy to find due to them essentially being bootlegs. Whatever the case, one of the enduring legacies of The Cramps will be that they exposed many people to a ton of classic obscurities. They were a gateway drug to so much great music from the 50's and 60's.

The first two Cramps singles (Surfin Bird/The Way I Walk and Human Fly/Domino) were self-released in 1977 and 78' respectively and they were soon signed by IRS records where they were to do their most influential ,and many would argue best, work. 1980's "Songs The Lord Taught Us" and 81's "Psychedelic Jungle" are both considered the high water mark in terms of their quality and their hipness. These albums and assorted singles sides of their IRS tenure are still held in high esteem and even gave birth to an entire genre known as Psychobilly, a term they coined but later disowned when they became disenchanted with so many inferior groups trying to copy their style. During the early to mid-80's they were considered as cool and hip as any act out there. Any store selling rock merchandise would be sure to have plenty of Cramps t-shirts, buttons, stickers, and posters, almost always with their trademark dripping band name logo.

A legal fall out with IRS left them without a label for a few years and between 82' and 85' only the self-released (and subsequently licensed) 6 song live EP (of new material) "Smell of Female" came out. During this time they had also moved from New York City to Hollywood, California. By the time the of 1986's "Date with Elvis" album, they had ditched the second guitarist format and had recruited their first in a long line of bass players, for a more conventional set up. From this point forward, the songs lyrics became more sex-obsessed and less horror film-oriented. They became more burlesque ,and some would criticize, more cartoon-y. This may have resulted in a loss of some of the hipster crowd, but their now world-wide cult remained as strong as ever. They toured North America, Europe, Japan and Australia with regularity.

The longer they went on, the freakier their appearance became. What began as a look that was merely dressing in black, eventually became all manner of lingerie, gold lame, latex rubber bondage gear, leopard print pants,shirts and bikini briefs. Lux was known to wear women's high heel shoes,makeup and maybe a string of pearls on stage, too. Lux and Ivy also had the palest, mostly deathly pallor I have ever seen on two human beings. This just added to the allure and to the enduring image of the scary but somehow adorable freak show they had become over the years.

Live shows were where they were really in their element. A Cramps show was always an event, a guaranteed good time out. Many in the audience would dress as outlandishly as they did. Lux was the consummate showman, always giving 100% of himself and his body. He had a gallery of facial expressions he would pull during a performance as he stalked the stage, often seemingly trying to swallow the mic , dropping to his knees, his latex pants hanging half way down his ass as he would eventually be nearly (and occasionally entirely) naked by show's end and god knows how many mic stands he destroyed over the years.

The show-stopping finale for as long as I can remember was their version of The Trashmen's "Surfin Bird". This began as a fairly straight version of the first half of the song (the "Birds the Word" section) but when it came time for the "Poppa Om Mow Mow" second half, all hell would break loose and Ivy and whomever their bass player happened to be would unleash a wall of distorted noise and feedback for 10 to 15 minutes, the drummer (another revolving door after the January 1991 departure of the long-tenured Nick Knox) tried to keep up a relentless beat while Lux went totally berserk. Lux would destroy mic stands, climb all over the speaker stacks, lay on the ground writhing or pouring a bottle of wine over his body while still trying to sing the "Poppa Om Mow Mow" mantra. Words don't do this justice. Lets just say it was as unbelievable a spectacle as your are likely to see on a music stage. Pure theater of course, and heavily indebted to Iggy Pop's performance style,but thrilling nonetheless. One of the six times I saw the band was at a KWOD radio show concert where they were on the bill with The Jesus and Mary Chain and Weezer. Most of the audience were teens there for Weezer. When The Cramps went into their "Surfin' Bird" number, I have never seen so many shocked and baffled faces in my life. I think a number of them actually stepped back, away from the mayhem.

Now back to their recording career, both "Date With Elvis" (1986) and "Stay Sick" (1990) were both excellent albums in their new perverse, tongue-in-cheek style. "Stay Sick" contained the single 'Bikini Girls with Machine Guns', earning them their first national chart hit of any kind--number 35 in the UK. However, with "Look Mom, No Head" (1991) it was the first time they genuinely disappointed me, though it has a handful of good tracks, especially 'Dames, Booze, Chains, and Boots'. "Flame Job" (1994) I thought was a pretty good return to form; having what amounted to a major label deal certainly inspired them to dig a little deeper. However, "Big Beat From Badsville"(1997) was just an awful piece of crap and it was the point where I stopped caring about them so much. They were back in indie-land and the album was a collection of really generic originals that had no impact. They were masters of unearthing great songs to cover (or steal shamelessly from) , but not on this dud. Not a single track was memorable at all.

The final album "Fiends of Dope Island" (2003), released a full six years after the last one, was an improvement, but not by much. Ivy was just recycling the same old tired riffs and the Cramps formula seemed spent. They were not a band that was ever going to embrace any changes; it was the antithesis of what they were about in the first place. At least in the past they seemed inspired to write great songs. I guess eventually all artists lose it and become hacks or a shadow of their former selves.So, the last 13 years produced two fairly crappy albums that nobody bought and most people were not aware were out anyway.

Lux and Ivy had moved to Glendale in the late 80's and spent their time ensconced in their home with their massive record collection, their cult films ,Lux's 3-D photography and Ivy's cats. Whether they had a new album and tour or not, they would always emerge from their lair each year for a Halloween show in San Francisco (because they said SF gets into the spirit of that holiday the best) and maybe a New Years show in LA or SF.

They were still great live and could draw crowds world-wide as a cult act. They were a band that always seemed out of sync with what was going on, yet they endured. Bands form and break up, trends come and go, The Cramps outlasted them all. They were so completely original and true to themselves that they were almost beyond reproach, at least as a live act. Most bands develop a fanbase and more or less keep the same one until it dwindles to the select few. The Cramps, on the other hand, were always regenerating their audience. It was always a wide range in ages with many young people at the shows.

Their sound was already out of time with what was considered trendy in the punk/alternative/underground rock world when they began, so they never fell out fashion. Really it was a timeless sound that lasted for over 30 years and will still sound great in another 30.

Hard to believe that the great ghoul of rock and roll is gone. He was genuinely a hero of mine, from back at a time when I still had those. I never thought he would go this soon. Hell, since he seemed to be amongst the living dead, I wasn't sure he would ever disappear at all. I can't believe there will never be a Cramps show to go to again.

Perhaps Lux took a look around the beginning of the 21st century, found it boring, and went back into his crypt to sleep this one out, waiting to emerge again in the 22nd century to terrorize the world's stages and teach the human race of the future what real rock and roll is. Well, it's a nice dream anyway.

Under Heavy Manners

2009-01-19T20:16:00.000-08:00

I had my Bad Manners show ruined by some skinheads Saturday night. "Skinhead!", you say. Yeah, but keep in mind these skinheads were not the racist Nazi skinheads that many people believe are what all skinheads are. In fact, some of these skinheads were Chicanos. Confused yet?

Well, what I have discovered down here in Los Angeles is a fascinating sub-culture of working class Hispanic youth that are enthralled with the British working class youth/fashion movements of the late 70's-early 80's. Skinheads, Rock-a-Billy (or PsychoBilly), and Oi! Punks with Spanish surnames abound in this city. I don't know enough about it to know why this is or how it started, but there is a sizable Chicano following for these styles, often crossing over from one to another. Another strange thing is that many of them are fervent followers of Morrisey and The Smiths; they now pretty much make up his fan base here in Southern California--but that is a whole other story.

Many skinheads are known as S.H.A.R.P.s, which stands for skinheads against racial prejudice. It is an actual organization,but many Skins who are not officially part of it identify themselves as such. This working class youth movement began in England in the 1960s and was originally an outgrowth of the mod movement. The skins were more or less the poorer mods who couldn't afford all the latest fashions than the more well off peacock-ish mods could and they tended to be from rougher backgrounds and thus more gang-oriented and prone to violence.

The Skins favored Dr.Marten steel-toe boots, straight-leg Levi jeans or Sta-prest trousers, button-down shirts, Fred Perry or Ben Sherman polo shirts and braces (aka, suspenders), and flight jackets or blazers. They were rabid fans of the Jamaican music they heard from their Caribbean immigrant neighbors: ska, rock steady and early reggae.

When reggae began slowing down the tempo of the music and started singing about Black Nationalism and Rastafarianism, the Skins could no longer relate to the music and thus their connection to Jamaican music ends by about the very early 70's. Their was a skinhead revival in the late 70's that was parallel to the punk movement and found Skins following certain harder edged street punk groups as well as forming the core fan base for the 2 Tone revival of ska in the late 70's-early 80's, a more uptemo, punk-infected take on the genre.

Bad Manners was one of these groups, though they never actually recorded for the 2 Tone label. They were a strictly-for-fun 9 piece ensemble who recorded ska-pop orginals as well as covers of old ska, reggae, 50's R&B and novelty songs. They were and continue to be led by Buster Bloodvessel, a bald, 300 + pound mountain of a man who liked to revel in his own girth and stick out his considerably large tongue a lot. Between 1980 and 1983 they amassed 12 chart hits and were seen as a lightweight alternative to some of the more earnest socio-political messages being articulated in song by The Specials, The Selecter, and The (English) Beat. When the ska craze in England died down, so too did Bad Manners popularity. They tried to move away from their ska roots and released a dreadful pop album on the Portrait label called "Mental Notes". That flopped and in the 20-odd years since they have been a cult act who have toured the world playing the old hits and r eleasing a string of forgettable ska-oriented albums and countless compilations, re-recordings and live albums.

Which leads us finally to the show itself. I arrive at he Knitting Factory's main room, which is a dark and fairly unremarkable performance space with a back bar and an upstairs balcony that is closed off for tonight. Buster (now the only remaining original member) is holding court near the bar: chatting with fans and taking photos with them. In every single photo op he sticks out his tongue. I have seen Bad Manners a couple times before, but that was up in the college town of Chico, California and it is now a good 15 years ago. Buster appears much shorter than I remember him, considerably less than six feet. What is really surprising is how much weight he has lost. He is much more svelte than he has even been in his life. I'm thinking he must of had gastro-bypass surgery.

Bad Manners take the stage at 10:30 to their traditional opener "Echo 4-2". Buster hits the stage and they proceed to move through the same set they have been playing for years. I think only a couple new songs are ever added to the format of hits and live favorites from the first four albums. A couple of things from their late 80's attempt at a serious comeback are now live staples, including "This is Ska", "Sally Brown" and "Skaville UK".

All seems to be going fine, when all of a sudden, the crowd starts moving in my direction and away from the front right-hand side of the stage. I look over and see two Mexican skins pummeling some white guy senseless. The music stops and security come over and grab the dazed victim, who is bleeding profusely from his lower lip, and start to escort him from the building. I am thinking that it will only be a moment before the guys administering the beating will get the same treatment. Nothing happens. The band start to play again and now one of the Mexican skins has taken his shirt off (for some reason,a classic tough guy move) that shows off his muscles and his 2 Tone man and English Beat girl tattoos. At this point you get the sense that he is not through kicking ass, and it takes just a few seconds before he starts attacking someone else in the crowd. The band stops again and security again make a feeble attempt to restore order. This mostly involves waving flashlights around . Once again they don't do anything to try and kick out the trouble makers.

Buster has left the stage momentarily, perhaps he is in discussion with the promoter over what is becoming of the show. He returns and make a plea for everyone to stop the violence and that what we need to do is show one another "luff". At least the guy is trying. He then strikes up the band to start playing a slow ska-reggae version of "Can't Keep My Eyes Off Of You", perhaps hoping the lilting lovers rock tune will mellow out the crowd. A white skinhead couple are dancing cheek-to-cheek right next to me when all of a sudden they are violently shoved by some other Mexican skin. They shove back and things seem to be unraveling quickly. At this rate,Ska-Reggae's message of racial unity may be forgotten pretty soon. I start sizing up which exit is closest and/or easiest to get to in case this thing blows wide open. I might be seen as a likely target for someone to get their Saturday night frustrations-jollies out on.

A Mexican skinhead girl (who looks like quite the bruiser, let me tell you) pushes her way through the crowd and wallops some other girl for no apparent reason. And in a unintentionally funny moment, Buster says from the stage, "That doesn't look like luff to me." No kidding, big man.

The security staff have had enough and I see one of them give to the finger over neck symbol to kill the show. The sound man gets on his mike and declares the show is over. Many people, including myself,are unhappy, but perhaps a little relieved too. This does not change the fact that we paid $20 and only got to see approximately half the show. People mill around not wanting to leave, while the security staff start waving their stupid flashlights around. People are screaming about refunds and a crowd gathers at the box office outside in a vain attempt to get their money back. That isn't going to happen any time soon, so I am out of there.

It is really sad that 95 or so people had their Saturday night ruined by the actions of maybe 5 morons. I abhor violence, but if it has to happen, then let it be for a reason. These idiots seemed hell bent on creating a violent confrontation just for kicks or as some stupid weekend ritual they go through all the time to prove how tough they are or as a temporary escape from their grim day-to-day lives. But now I'm being extremely speculative.

As I move east down Hollywood Boulevard, away from The Knitting Factory and that night's debacle, I see a couple of cop cars and an ambulance heading in the other direction. I'm pretty sure I know where they are headed.

Ghosts of Top Ten Lists Past

2009-01-09T11:07:00.000-08:00

I was rummaging through some old boxes at my parent's house yesterday and I uncovered a list of top ten albums of the year that I had done in the mid-80's. These were the first and last top tens I did until 2000.

It is quite the time capsule of what I was into at the time. 85'-87' were pretty seminal years as far as my music fandom went. It may have been the peak of my music fan obsession. 80' and 81' were my Beatle years. 82'-83' had a lot of "new wave" like Elvis Costello,XTC, Talking Heads,Squeeze and Joe Jackson ;synth-pop (Heaven 17, Thomas Dolby and Thompson Twins, anyone?) ; new romantics (hello, ABC), Two-Tone (Specials, English Beat and Madness) and punk survivors like The Jam and The Clash. 1984 I started to embrace a lot of the rootsy American bands (Long Ryders, Three O'Clock, Dream Syndicate, Blasters,True West, Los Lobos,Green On Red, The Gun Club) that were making a name for themselves on college radio and starting to creep onto the fringes of the mainstream via modern rock stations like The Quake in San Francisco or KWOD in SacTown. British band like Echo and the Bunnymen, The Alarm, The Pogues and The Smiths figured highly in 84',too.

Concurrent with all of this, especially since about 84', was my interest in older music, "source music" as Guy Kyser once said. Through my buddy, Morgan Young, I learned all about the 60's American and British bands other than The Beatles, bands who became the backbone of my entire music collection and sensibility--though that other stuff I listened to is still a part of me too. On my own I investigated soul, funk, 50's rockers,rockabilly and some country.

Yet what is happening at the time is what you can actually experience first hand and so these lists document a time when I would obsessively follow these band and know everything about them I could (all that one could in the pre-internet stone-age),as if my life depended on it. I still love music, but it would never be quite the same again. I don't think it ever is once you are no longer a teenager.

Anyway, the lists are accurate I suppose. I am shocked that there is no Pogues on any of these lists (must of forgot them), as well as being baffled as to why Naked Prey made it twice; I don't remember much about those roots rocking dudes. No surprise to see my big four of that era all over these lists: Husker Du, The Replacements, R.E.M. and The Smiths.

Then, as is now, they are not the most cutting-edge lists you will ever see. They represent stuff that was maybe on the more popular and accessible side of what passed for "alternative" or "college radio" type music.More than half are on major labels. I can't pretend I was discovering the most obscure or hip bands back then or now. That said, these acts, with the exception of R.E.M., were hardly selling huge quantities of records. I guess my love of The Beatles has set me up for a lifetime of needing music that was catchy, hooky,song-driven. No matter the style, I think all of these records qualify as having that. Anyway, without further ado, here are those lists.

Top 10 1985

1) Husker Du- "Flip Your Wig"

2) Husker Du- "New Day Rising"

3) The Replacements- "Tim"

4) The Smiths-"Meat is Murder"

5) Green on Red- "Gas, Food, Lodging"

6) Shriekback- "Oil and Gold"

7) R.E.M.- "Fables of the Reconstruction"

8) Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers- "Rockin and Romance"

9) Billy Bragg- "Brewing Up With"

10) Camper Van Beethoven- "S/T"

Honorable mentions: XTC "Big Express"; Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper "S/T"; Jefferey Lee Pierce "Wildweed"; Jesus and Mary Chain "Psychocandy"; Channel 3 "Last Time I Drank", Talking Heads "Little Creatures".

Top 10 1986

1) Peter Case- "S/T"

2) Elvis Costello -"King of America"

3) Screaming Blue Messiahs- "Gun Shy"

4) Husker Du- "Candy Apple Grey"

5) R.E.M.- "Life's Rich Pagent"

6) The Cramps- "A Date with Elvis"

7) The Housemartins- "London 0 Hull 4"

8) Elvis Costello and the Attractions- "Blood and Chocolate" (In retrospect, should not be on this list)

9) The Smiths- "The Queen is Dead"

10) Naked Prey- "Under the Blue Marlin" (Still trying to figure out why they are here)

Honorable mentions: Billy Bragg "Talking with the Taxman About Poetry"; Let's Active "Big Plans for Everybody"; XTC "Skylarking"; The Redskins "Neither Washington Nor Moscow".

Top 10 1987

1) Husker Du- "Warehouse: Songs and Stories"

2) The Replacements- "Pleased To Meet Me"

3) The Meat Puppets- "Huevos"

4) R.E.M.- "Document" (This should not be on here either; first lame album of their career)

5) Warren Zevon - "Sentimental Hygiene" (He sticks out like a sore thumb. Great album despite the bloated 80's production)

6) Thin White Rope- "Moonhead" (Might seem like a nod to the hometown boys, but it really is a great album)

7) Dinosaur- "You're Living All Over Me" (Before they had to add the "Jr" to their name)

8) The Gun Club- "Mother Juno"

9) The Screaming Blue Messiahs- "Bikini Red"

10) Naked Prey- "40 Miles From Nowhere" (Again with these guys--why?)

Honorable mentions: Sonic Youth "Sister"; Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers "Modern Lovers 88' "; The Soup Dragons "Hang Ten".

FTJ

2009-01-09T11:05:00.000-08:00

Note: This show took place in January 2008.

Just wanted to tell you about the From The Jam show. Pretty great show from Bruce, Rick and the other two. This took place last Saturday at The El Rey Theater in the Wilshire District.

First up was Hugh Cornwell, formerly of The Stranglers. I was looking forward to seeing him, but I have to say that it was pretty underwhelming. He performed as a trio with a bassist and drummer. Most importantly, no keyboard player. This was unfortunately all too apparent on all the Stranglers material he played. Those Doors-ish keyboard touches were sorely missed on stuff like, "Peaches". His set would be one Stranglers tune, one undistinguished solo tune,repeat. So we got "Get A Grip", "Hanging Around", "Nice and Sleazy", "Peaches","Always The Sun", "Down In The Sewer" and some ho-hum solo work.However, Hugh did not seem that into it at all. He looked a little haggard and though he knows the Stranglers material is his bread and butter, I think he might be a bit bored with having to play them at this point. To make matters worse, his vocals were kind of buried in the mix.

Then came the main event--From The Jam! Bruce Foxton on bass, Rick Buckler on drums, some stand-in for Paul Weller on guitar, and some other dude on second guitar and occasional keyboards. They really nailed it in my opinion. The sound was perfect, the energy was there and the Paul Weller-alike did a credible job of imitating Paul's gruff vocals of that period.

They kicked off with "In The City" of course and proceeded to sail through the band's catalogue for about 90 minutes. It was hit singles like "Start", "Eton Rifles", "Down In The Tubestation","Town Called Malice","Strange Town","The Modern World", "When You're Young" that filled up the great majority of the set. They also threw in some album tracks like, "Little Boy Soldiers","It's Too Bad", "In The Crowd","To Be Someone","Pretty Green" and "The Gift". Bruce Foxton got to sing his two best Jam numbers, "Smithers-Jones" and "News of the World",as well as sing "David Watts" like he did on the Jam's version. They also threw in rare B-side cover of the Who's "So Sad About Us", which may say more about what happened to the original group than it does about their obvious debt to the Who's music. Thankfully such Bruce gems as "London Traffic" were not tackled.

Bruce Foxton (at least from 20 feet away) looked like he was beamed in from 1982. He had the same mullet hair, same build, same suit and two-tone mod shoes as he did back in the day. He also did the leaps and flying kicks of old, like he did on the back of second album. Rick, even from a distance, looks like he is getting on a bit, but the drumming was rock-solid and he seems to be in pretty good shape. I was disappointed that they didn't do "Funeral Pyre", with it's distinctive drum pattern / solo to spotlight Rick's talents. Bruce may have said hello but that was about it. Rick said nothing. The Paul Weller stand-in would introduce songs and mumble a few things in a heavy,and at times indecipherable,cockney accent, usually punctuated with a "Nice One!"

The crowd was pretty fired up as California crowds go and Rick and Bruce got rousing applause when they were introduced. They really seemed to be loving the adulation, especially Rick. I found it kind of heart-warming to see these guys get their due again, after all these years and particularly since Paul left them high and dry when he broke up the band. Weller wanted to move on and work with other musicians in other styles, which I suppose is his prerogative. However, he not only pulled the plug on the band when they were at their peak, but he has not even spoken to them since then. I know Weller is supposed to be kind of a dick, but come on! It was no surprise that Bruce and Rick faded out of the limelight pretty quickly, like within a year or so.

I am surprised that this alliance did not happen sooner, like 10 to 15 years sooner. Bruce was playing with Stiff Little Fingers for a time and Rick has been doing his Jam tribute band The Gift for a couple of years. This band is really The Gift + Bruce Foxton.

I'm not saying that I actually saw The Jam. Paul Weller was the voice, the song-writer, and the vision for that band. I saw him last year and he as that charisma that separates stars from the just regular guys, like his FTJ stand-in. Weller is open to performing a couple of Jam songs per show, but is unlikely to fully embrace that part of his career; he doesn't have to. So, this is probably the closest we will ever get to seeing the real deal and it ain't bad. It felt nice to contribute to the Bruce and Rick retirement fund. It was also worth every penny.

Next Position Please

2008-12-17T21:02:00.000-08:00

Nothing like a Tuesday night at the House of Blues. This venue, which is part of the well known chain, is like a Disney theme park ride, complete with its own gift shop.With its faux tin shack exterior and many examples of "folk art" on the inside, they may as just as well call it The Haunted Southern Roadhouse ride. No scary animatronic hillbillies or Uncle Remus characters to seen here,thank god. I think they are just one step away from being an adult Chuck E. Cheese. Though I have to say, I don't mind this place. Food and drink is pricey, but this is L.A., the Sunset Strip no less. Sound and lighting are top notch and the staff at this venue are extremely friendly.

At first sight it appears to be a horrible turn out. This is the second night of Cheap Trick playing here and the tickets are in the $80 range. On top of this they are doing a Monday and Tuesday two-nighter, hardly big concert going nights for their fan base. I ask the bartender how the turnout was for last night and he says it was barely half full. This is the reality of the concert business these days. High ticket prices in this economy are resulting in some shockingly low attendance figures. Many of these acts need to get realistic about what they are charging to see them play. The days of inflated ticket prices, which have just gone through the roof in the last ten years, has to be waning. I was sifting through some old ticket stubs from the 80's (yes, I have saved most of them) recently and I was just gob smacked at how low the prices were. I know it was 20 to 25 years ago, but still. It seems like most of the shows were less than $15! Veteran acts now routinely charge $75 to $125 or more for shows, figuring that their older fan base has money and will pony up to see them. I think that mid-level veteran acts are going to have to bring those prices down. Cheap Trick, for example, should be $40 to $50 at most.

Anyway, getting off that tangent and getting back to the gig. The opening act was Ricky Warwick,a tough looking bloke from Belfast, Ireland sporting tattoo sleeves on his arms, a 70's porn mustache, and an acoustic guitar. He began by saying "I know what you're thinking when you see a guy with an acoustic guitar, 'Oh no, here we go, another bastard who wants to serenade us about his feelings " He turned out to be a rock n' roller with the tools of a singer-songwriter. He had the kind of style that was the equivalent of Bruce Springsteen or John Mellencamp goes to Ireland. He was not as brilliant a writer as those two gentlemen, but he bashed out some decent originals in a compelling and heartfelt way. He did a cover of Motorhead's 'Ace of Spades' and that helped him get over with the crowd. He acquitted himself admirably.

Now the main event. The venue has filled up to maybe a little more than half way by the time our headliners arrive.Cheap Trick have been around since the early 70's (though their debut album was in 1976) and have long been considered the elder statesmen of that rock sub-genre known as Power Pop. There are those who like to dismiss that label and just see them as a rock band, maybe even a classic rock band, a Guitar Hero band. However, if the Power Pop is defined as having the crunching power chords of The Who combined with pop melodies of a band like The Beatles, with maybe some Beach Boys-style harmony thrown in for good measure, then Cheap Trick is a Power Pop band. They were a group that achieved major success for a brief time in the late 70's and early 80's after their 'Live at Budokan' album blew up, fueled by pumped up live versions of their own "I Want You To Want Me" and a cover of Fats Domino's "Ain't That a Shame" and relentless touring, mostly as an o pening act for the likes of KISS,The Kinks and Be-Bop Deluxe. Their popularity faded by about 1983 or so. There was a big, but also short-lived comeback in the 1988 with the "Lap of Luxury" album, which featured a pretty awful rent-a-power-ballad called "The Flame" (a song the band apparently hates) which went to number one and an over-produced in an 80's way cover of Elvis' "Don't Be Cruel". Almost immediately after that good fortune it was back to flop albums and more of a cult following, but the touring has never stopped.

In retrospect, the band's first four albums are absolutely brilliant records: filled with great tunes, quirky lyrics, fine musicianship and the world class vocalizing of Robin Zander. This is a band that may have suffered because they were thought of as being too soft for the rockers and too hard for fans of pop and new wave. It is the first four albums that a make up the bulk of their show these days. They hit the stage to their traditional opener "Hello There" and proceeded to plow through a mostly greatest hits set. They showed their influences with covers of "That 70's Song" (actually "In The Street") by Big Star, "Magical Mystery Tour" by The Beatles, and "California Man" (which is on their second album) by The Move. The playing was tight and economical throughout, with no bombastic over-indulgence into heavy jams or anything. They have songs with tremendous choruses and hooks, but retain a hard rocking edge.

The band was alway visually striking and unique. They had two pretty boy members (Zander and bassist Tom Petersson) and two goofballs (Rick Nielsen and Bun E. Carlos). Rick Nielsen stills sports the black suit, bow tie, and cap combination from the early days and goes through a succession of custom guitars (a twin neck that has a caricature of him on its body and an unwieldy-looking five neck guitar monstrosity) and acts as De-facto MC. On this night he said hello to his wife in the balcony and announced it was their 39th (!) wedding anniversary.He kind of reminds of the actor John Lithgow. Nielsen also thanked the bands that Cheap Trick used to open up for in the 70's. He did,however, note that while the rest of The Kinks were good guys, Ray Davies was "An Asshole", though he stepped away from the microphone and mouthed these words. Tom Petersson, with his suit and black horn rim glasses,looks like a hip college professor. Bun E. Carlos looks practically n ormal and considerably thinner than in their heyday. Robin Zander hides himself behind wrap-around sunglasses and cowboy hat pulled down tight.

75 minutes after they began it ended with "Goodnight", "Dream Police" and "Just Got Back". Would be nice if they played longer considering what they charge, but it is a solid show that won't disappoint anyone. Only two songs ("Magical Mystery Tour" and "Ghost Town") were from after 1982 and there was nothing save the "That 70's Song" cover from the last twenty years,but then the band is wise enough to play to their strengths and to give the people what they want. I hope they continue to do so for many years to come.

Set List:

Hello There
That 70's Song (aka "In The Street")
California Man
High Roller
Oh Candy
If You Want My Love
She's Tight
Heaven Tonight
Magical Mystery Tour
I Want You To Want Me
Voices
Downed
Ghost Town
Surrender
Goodnight

Encore:
Dream Police
Just Got Back

If You're Viper

2008-12-12T11:58:00.000-08:00

Note: This is from a show I saw back in July.

Viper:
Any of several venomous Old World snakes of the family Viperidae, having a single pair of long, hollow fangs and a thick, heavy body. Also called adder 2 .
A vicious or treacherous person
A term used in 1920s to describe a Heroin addict, also a heavy marijuana user.

In my ongoing quest to hit all the music venues in the Los Angeles area, I decided it was time to visit the "notorious" (as the web site self-proclaims)Viper Room on the Sunset Strip. The club usually hosts shows by no-name rock bands, kind of a West Coast CBGB's. Last night they had a straight ahead, old school punk rock band from Texas called The Riverboat Gamblers, a band I've heard of and think will suffice. And this is Johnny Depp's place, opened in 1993. Doubt you will see him here much. He lives in France and probably only comes to his club once in a blue moon, and then probably only for private shows. (editors note: I have come to find out that Johnny Depp may not be an owner anymore)

I arrive at the club after my UCLA class at around 10:30pm. The entrance to the club is on the side of the building, down a steep hill slightly. Located there is a bouncer with the smallest velvet roped off area I've ever seen. There was no-one there, aside from him and a guy he just let in.The bouncer looks like a walking cliche of an 80's era,dumb weight lifter type--wavy shoulder length hair and vaguely He-Man looking. I walked up and asked him if this was the entrance to the club. He says yes and then hooks the rope onto the little post, securing the area once more. I ask him again if this is the entrance to the venue (as opposed to a service entrance) and he says "Oh, you want to come to the show? Are you ready to ROCK OUT?" I'm thinking "Like nobody's business I'm ready to ROCK OUT! Let me in , He-Man dude! He calls out down the hallway over his shoulder, "I got one paying customer!" Then he unhooks the rope and lets me pass.

I walk down a long and narrow hallway until I reach the girl at the ticket booth (a lot of ink and a sour puss--too much time in Hollywood rock club world I think). I pay the $15 and go forward into the downstairs lounge. One thing this club favors is the color black (I later discover this extends to the club's toilets and sinks!) All the walls are painted black and the lighting is real low--lots of muted blue and red neon. The lounge is located below the main bar / show room above at street level. There is a bar here and leather covered benches line the rest of the walls in an L-shape. There are a number of Hollywood types lounging around down here looking bored. I decide to head upstairs to the main room.

The first thing I notice when reaching the top of the long and narrow staircase is the smell of....flowers? Wait a minute, no, I think it's citrus. I come to realize that the club pumps some kind of air freshener into the venue to keep it from smelling like a smelly beer hall. Is this Johnny's idea?

This is not a big room, maybe holds 200 or so people. Directly to my right is a big bar that takes up most of the back wall. Directly ahead of me is the stage. It is arranged in a semi-circle and has electric powered curtains that open and close for the performers. Some of you will remember the scene in the documentary Dig when The Brian Jonestown Massacare are playing a crucial showcase gig and the band members get into a fight on-stage. The curtains are closed on the group, with the exception of their goofy maraca player who is caught outside the curtains with a priceless deer-in-the-headlights look. I think only of this when I see the stage.

Looking up and to my left I spot the sound man's booth, neatly tucked away near the ceiling in a sort of enclosed crow's nest. Located directly below the crow's nest is some sort of room with a large window facing out towards the room. Upon closer inspection, it appears to be a v.i.p. area of some kind. There are all kinds of small framed mirrors hanging from the walls and the window has blinds. Hmm..I think I can put two and two together. The room also contains one framed 8x10 glossy photograph, signed and framed. I strain to make out who it is, and though I'm not 100% positive, I think it's Johnny Cash. There are also circular leather booths (also favored at the Whisky) located on the far wall , to the left of the stage.

Anyway, the Riverboat Gamblers proceed to rock mightily;the first 20 minutes is played at such an unbelievable break neck speed I am astounded. The lead singer, a real bean pole thin, Iggy-like front man does his damnedest to connect with the audience. He does that straight up leap where his feet kick behind him, almost kicking himself in the back.He twirls the mic cord incessantly. He crawls onto the the leather booths to his left. He climbs up one of the two supporting beams that are in the middle of the club--the beams that can kind of screw up sight lines and one flaw I see with this venue. He falls into the audience several times and crowd surfs to the middle of the dance floor and then is carried back. He even hops off-stage and wanders out the Sunset street level entrance and sings to people on the sidewalk. Some of these antics remind me of this little band from Sacramento called Magnolia Thunderfinger. Anyway, the singer certainly gives it his all. This band might not have the most memorable songs or a real original approach, but boy are they one insanely well-oiled machine.

The band finish up at 12:30--no encore. I have had my two beer limit and I cut out and head for my car. I have to say that I think it is a pretty cool little rock dive. I'm not too crazy about the "Too Cool For School" rock n' roll types who hang out there, but that is par for the course, particularly at any of these Sunset Strip venues. All in all, not a bad night out at Johnny's place.

Rock On.

Madge's Stadium Gig

2008-11-23T16:58:00.000-08:00

Madonna had her big outdoor gig at Dodger stadium earlier this month. My class was canceled that night and an extra ticket became available at a slightly discounted rate, so I decided the time was right to cross this iconic artist off my list of big names that I really should see once. She joins other such luminaries as Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, Paul McCartney, The Who and The Rolling Stones as acts who I can now say I saw live.

Big shows in arenas are not my thing, so to go to a baseball stadium for a live gig seems preposterous. However, for musicians on a living legend sort of scale, you often have no choice. Madonna does stadium-size shows in other countries on a regular basis, but has never done them in the U.S., with the exception of 'Live Aid' type of extraganzas for which she is not the only act. She usually does arenas, often multiple nights in some cities. This and I think one other show in Miami were an experiment to see if she can draw for this size venue. Dodger stadium does not play host to too many live shows. Elton John played here in 70's and other package rock shows took place then, but you hardly ever hear of them nowadays. I think The Police may have played here on their reunion tour last year.

So, I hopped in the car with some new acquaintances and set off for Dodger stadium at about 6:30pm. It was stop-and-go nightmare traffic all the way down Sunset Boulevard. We took an alternate route on SillverLake Boulevard, winding around the reservoir and ending up on the other side of Dodger stadium and more traffic lining up to get inside the stadium, though not as bad as if we had stayed on Sunset.

The concert ticket said 7:30 as the start time, but I knew there was no way the show would start that early. We arrived in the stadium at about 8:30 and there was an opening act--DJ Paul Oakenfold-- who just looked like guy behind a desk. "Could be doing spreadsheets for all we know." remarked one of our companions.

One fortuitous event was that we got bumped down one whole level from the top deck to the reserved level of the stadium. This was due to the show not being sold out and the music promoters (Live Nation) deciding to close up the top deck--pretty common occurrence at live shows. So, despite news reports of it being a capacity crowd, this was not the case. Nevertheless, there were plenty of people crowed into that venue, many off them on the playing field, which had huge tarps over it and folding chairs. The stage was situated where the outfield bleachers would be. The areas on the sides of the bleachers were also closed off. I would estimate there was 40-50 thousand people there, approximately the amount that would have attended two arena shows.

The show finally got under way at 9:50 pm as the house lights cut out and the stage lights came on. Onstage was large box shaped contraption that eventually raised up to revealed old Madge and her dancers. She had a live band playing behind her, pushed was to the back of the stage in practical darkness. It was a full-on audio/visual extravaganza, with video screens left, right and center. The ones on the left and right had mostly footage of what was going on on-stage and the center one had pre-filmed bits timed to go with whatever song they were doing. The Jumbotron screens sure came in handy for those of us in the stands, who despite being moved a bit closer were still a million miles away from the action and needed the aid of the screens (or in my case, my binoculars) to see exactly what was going on down there.

Sound was mostly clear and loud and everything was expertly timed and choreographed down to the last dance move and lighting cue. It is hard to say for sure how much actual singing was going on on-stage. It is pretty apparent that a great deal of it is mimed. Choruses in particular seemed beefed up with pre-records. It is hard to criticize her because this is the norm for shows like this. I mean, how in the hell can you be running around, dancing, skipping rope (for one early 80's/NYC/electro/Double Dutch/Keith Harring graphics assisted rendering of 'Into The Groove"), pretending to box ('Die Another Day', complete with boxing ring that popped out of the end of catwalk at the end of the stage), writhe around on a piano ('Devil Wouldn't Recognize You'), go all Eastern European Gypsy hoe-down on us (complete with Romanian folk group, violins and all), and not be out of breath, much less sing in key?

Another thing that Madonna seems to favor these days is to strap on the old electric guitar and pretend she is some guitar hero. This is kind of comic, in that it appears that the thing may not be even turned on and the guitar sounds are courtesy of her guitarist who lurks in the shadows behind her. But whatever, the instrument is basically another prop she uses and gives her an opportunity to perform a few songs standing mostly still, looking cool, and not having to dance some more. This rock-tastic approach was used for her re-arrangements of old songs like 'Borderline' and 'Hung Up' which now have crunching rock arrangements that actually worked well. In general, Madonna is willing to perform the oldies, but she has reserved the right to reinvent them to her liking.

One has to put away any misgivings about how "live" the music is and just remember that this is a "show" in the purest sense of the word. It's like the circus or a magician and it's best to forget about how it's being done and just sit back and enjoy the spectacle. If there were any doubts about how Madonna really sings and how it sounds on stage or on record, the proof was in the acappella version of 'Dress You Up' she performed as a crowd sing-a-long--actually one of the more enjoyable moments of the night. She sang and the crowd would respond with the next line. However, when she tried to hit the highs in the chorus, she struggled mightily. She actually stopped the song early and said, "I think we have to stop. I'm butchering my own song."

Of course the crowd were eating out of her hand all night long. Madonna fans are as impassioned as they come. It is telling that the crowd really came alive for all the old stuff. Abouta third of this show was devoted to the new album, "Candy Shop", and the material went down well. Latter day hits were trotted out: 'Music', 'Ray Of Light', 'Human Nature', 'Die Another Day'. But if the song was something from the 80's, say anything from "The Immaculate Collection" album, the crowd went berserk and sang along: 'Vogue', 'Borderline', 'Like A Prayer', 'Into The Groove'. Madonna still sees herself as a contemporary artist, and like any such artists, doesn't just want to rely on all the old stuff that they made their career on. She will give up some, but will do them in an updated way and then mix in things from throughout her career and the new album. I think she achieved the right balance with this show and is not ready for the oldies circuit anytime soon.

Oh yeah, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that, yes, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake were there and performed with Madonna, just not together. Britney came out during 'Human Nature', sang a bit of the chorus with Madonna and that was pretty much it. Justin joined Madonna late in the show for a duet on '4 Minutes', which they performed together on the studio version. Very anti-climactic really.

Exactly two hours after it began, the big box on stage came back down with an 80's video game style graphic on it that said "Game Over". And so it was. I think myself and everyone else there that night went home pleased.

Here is the set list for the show / tour.

Intro/Candy Shop
Beat Goes On
Human Nature
Vogue
Into The Groove
Die Another Day
Borderline
She's Not Me
Music
Devil Wouldn't Recognise You
Spanish Lesson
Miles Away
La Isla Bonita/Lela Pala Tute
Romanian folk interlude
You Must Love Me
4 Minutes
Like A Prayer
Ray Of Light
Dress You Up (acappella version with audience)
Hung Up
Give It To Me

Love Doc

2008-11-20T11:59:00.000-08:00

http://www.amazon.com/Love-Story/dp/B00197KG02/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1217311091&sr=1-2

Great documentary about Arthur Lee and Love,finally available to purchase. All the band members (including Brian MacLean back in the late 90s) are interviewed about the history of the original band. Love's music is used throughout (as opposed to some docs that can't get the rights) and there is priceless footage of the band and the LA music scene of the 60's.

Would have been nice to have more information about Arthur's post 60's life,even though that's probably not a very happy tale. This documentary is definitely pro-Arthur and keeps it all very positive. The troubled soul that was Arthur Lee is not really delved into and maybe that is best for a project like this that is more about celebrating the music. In the interviews with Arthur (thankfully not the only perspective, considering what a slippery personality he was) show both the sweet and thoughtful side and the bitter, angry side that unfortunately derailed his career more than once.

I feel so lucky to have seen him four times during the last years of his life. I only wish that last show at Cafe DuNord hadn't been the drunken, ranting nightmare show from hell.I would love to hear a bootleg tape of the show, as there were many "choice" quotes from Mr. Lee, including "My waterbed jumped up and made a peace sign at me!" and "I had four AK-47s pointed at my head--quatro!" I did get him to sign my copy of Love's first record before the show, which of course is now a prized possession. Sadly, he was the master of self-sabotaging whatever streak of good luck he had going. I'm sure I'm not the only one who can relate to that. Nevertheless, he did leave us with some of the most sublimely beautiful music we will hear in our lifetimes.

Buy it, rent it, whatever. See it now!