Coming to the end of the month and asking the question of what happened to spring?
It's been a cool and mostly gray month. And we been getting mostly drizzle and light rain. Supposed that's a good thing considering the fact that St Louis and points to the south have been blasted with heavy rains, tornadoes and floods. I can identify with that judging from past years and seeing moats outside the door here. I am not a fan of springtime storms. Friday with a big EF4 tornado ripping apart Lambert Airport in St Louis and other spots along the way reminds us of a smaller but more destructive tornado in Iowa City and one alongside 151 about five years ago.
So far the ratings here assures me that this month will be one of our biggest and best months of readership. Most of them coming from Drew's Odd and Sods page (Thanks Drew) and Tad's Back Up Plan (Thanks Tad). We have passed March and with a little more luck should overtake January with four days to go. But everything has a cost it seems, I been having carpel tunnel issues again and my left wrist has been giving me pain of the past couple weeks. I may figure to take next month off and try to rest it, or otherwise I may have to go that fixed. The ratings for the Consortium have been in the single digits but I really don't go there to post and really don't see the need to tout that. However, rest assured that next month The Crabb Music Site will have something for your Crabby fix of music observations and top tens. As for any bargain hunts coming next month, 4 dollar a gallon gas pretty much sums it up that decision. Plus I have things to do around the yard and won't be doing much traveling anyway.
Now for the latest in Music trends, here's the top ten of the week.
1. Black Book-Rank & File 1987 They pioneered Cow punk or were the forepunks of Americana Alt Country but by the 1987 they moved from Slash/WB to Rhino to make what I thought was enjoyable rock and punk but the purists out there hated it. I remember KUPD playing this song and when they said it was the new Rank N File I camped outside Zia's and picked up a promo copy of it a few days later. When it came out on CD I bought it again at Best Buy, I think I even had it on tape. Even with the hair metal guitar leads I still called it the best album of 87 although 24 years after the fact it has sounded a bit dated due to the hair metal guitar leads. Being on the cool retro Rhino label was a double edged sword, they put it out but never did promote it much and the Kinman Brothers retired the Rank N File name but returned as Blackbird (made an album and EP for Scotti Brothers in the 90s) before finally settling for Cowboy Nation and making western styled music. Collector's Choice Music reissued this album but botched up the recording. The Rhino CD still holds up much better than whatever passed for the CCM sound.
2. Waitin On The Sky-Steve Earle 2011 I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I haven't gotten the new Steve Earle album yet (but will once I make my way into town) but I heard this new single and must say that I'm impressed with what I heard. Perhaps the meeting up with John Henry Burnett may have convinced the old man to return to what he did best, stunning good music and leaving the rap and drum machines (and John King) behind. Didn't like his last two albums very much although the Townes tribute album was touching but would have been done better had he done it in Nashville with The Dukes rather than drum machines in New York. Heard one bad review of this already but since I'm a big fan of Steve Earle, rest assured I'll take a listen to it.
3. Maggie's Farm-Bob Dylan 1965 This was the infamous version done at Newport Folk Festival and to which Pete Seeger was ready to take a axe to the power supply. Funny how 45 years after the fact that this don't sound like a big deal but back then it started the folk masses and although we do hear the cheers at the beginning we don't hear the boos since it fades out quickly after the song is done. This version can be found on the No Direction Home S/T that Sony Music put out in 2005. Which reminds me, Norio Ohga, the guy who pioneered the CD passed away at age 81. He didn't like the sounds of cassette tapes and sought for a more viable product and got it when the CD was finally introduced to the buying public in 82. And the CD was the preferred way of listening to music till the internet and downloading came along. To which Crabby salutes Ohga with his vision and the CD. Every time I take a look at my stacks of CDs piled up to the sky, I'll think of him.
4. Badass Mama-Cycle Sluts From Hell 1991 Got your metal on people? This came out at the tail end of the hair metal outbreak to which Nirvana ended on Smells Like Teen Spirit and started the grunge years much to Kurt's chagrin but this is not about him. This was about four chick ladies, with alias name Venus Penis Crusher, Queen Vixen, She Fire Of Ice and Lady 1%. You get the picture. In some ways they sounded like Joan Jett leading L7 at other times a female version of Spinal Tap. When I listening to this the other day, it sounded to me that although it was called Badass Mama it sounded more like Fat Ass Mama so had to rechecked the label. I donno, still sounds like Fat Ass Mama to me. Nothing wrong with that.
5. Government Cheese-The Rainmakers 1986 Their first album got plenty of great reviews and a minor hit with Let My People Go Go but this ode to no government cheese remains a Crabb favorite. To where I stole this weeks title from, Decline And Fall. I think they have a new album out.
6. Little Man-Alan Jackson 1998 The decline and fall of the small town mom and pop store as seen from the eyes of Mr. Jackson who is one of the best singer songwriters to ever come from Nashville in the 1990s but I really never paid much attention to his music. Too much steel guitar and fiddles mind you, take them away and he could pass as Americana. Actually he is Americana if you think about it. After 20 years with Arista he parted ways from that label but in the end he will go down as one of the few true country music artists from an era that gave us Garth Brooks. This comes from 16 Greatest Hits, a CD that was found in the two dollar bin at Half Priced Books. If I was looking for a studio album I could hang my hat on (bad country joke, "hang my hat on") I'd go with High Mileage although Under The Influence shows Jackson can do the drinking at the bar songs better than say Jason Aldean or Josh Thompson. Yep, they're real country too, next.
7. Good-Better Than Ezra 1995 Out of all their albums, I still play Deluxe 16 years after the fact and it still holds up. The rest of their albums, nope. I think I enjoyed them for the fact that they sounded a bit like the Gin Blossoms but with less focus and a lot more looseness. I remember seeing this in the used selection at BJ's and not hearing a note bought the album and played it twice after getting home. I'm sure I'm the only out there that gave it a B plus and then upgraded it to a A minus. But then again what do I know?
8. Hikky Burr (Part One)-Bill Cosby with Quincy Jones 1969 Or if you remember it, the original theme to the Bill Cosby Show of the late 60s to which the Coz raps along to music provided by Quincy Jones. Cosby remains one of my most favorite comedians out there but he's also a very capable jazz composer and also scored a minor hit with Little Ole Man (Uptight Everything's Alright). Used to watch the Bill Cosby Show and never could understood the nonsense lyrics, sounded he was saying Hit The Bird, Hit The Bird. Always pays to research and read the actual lyrics or song title (aka Fat ass mama from the Cycle Sisters Of Heaven).
9. True Religion-Hot Tuna 1971 Burgers will go down as the go to album if you want to hear electric Hot Tuna although fans will go for either their first album or Pull Up Then Push Down, although the sound quality of the latter wasn't all that great. Thought it was CD (the dumbfucks at CD's Plus buffed the scratches out and gave it such a shitty shine that I thought it would never play) till I heard the selections lifted off for the Keep On Trucking Best Of Sony Music put out in 2007. Hot Tuna has a new album out, what I heard so far I like enough to buy it, now only if I can find it............
10. Your Favorite Thing-Sugar 1994 To top this all off, we take a track off their ignored and thrown into cutouts everywhere CD File Under Easy Listening and this was the genuine followup to the Husker Du farewell Warehouse but with different members. I wasn't too impressed with Copper Blue and so I ignored this album till I found it in the 50 cent bins and figure its worth a listen. And it would be the last time Bob Mould would ever get close to the Husker Du sound with Sugar. And then they broke up.
And finally Jim Rogers was a co worker that I worked with for just about 20 years in the computer and printing area down in NCS in Iowa City and moved up to Cedar Rapids in 1998 and spend first shift being in the tape/CD making room. I regret to say that Jim passed away from kidney failure after being in poor health the past couple years. He didn't look very well the last time I saw him in February. At one time he did own a bar down in Coralville and sometimes after work we would hang there for a few. I suspect that I will be going to his funeral this week. Sad to see him go but I'm sure the folks at Pearson will remember him with a blue push car, his employee number and the dates worked. Jim was a good person and he will be missed. He was 63 years old.
Post Script: The Tornadoes of the past week took out Malaco Records in Jackson Mississippi last week but today I witness from the internet the share power and terror of the Tuscaloosa/Birmingham Tornado which was a monster and stayed on the ground for a ungodly five hours before disappearing somewhere around North Carolina. Today may have been the most significant outbreak in US history. Last week tornadoes tore through the St Louis Airport and Missouri got hit with so much rain that the levees breached around Poplar Bluff. The tornado situation was the worst since the outbreak in 1974 but perhaps a better example of this Alabama monster, we have to go back to the Tri-State Tornado of 1925. To which that one tore through Missouri and through the whole Illinois state and part of Indiana before disappearing.
For our final offering, I enclosed a link of raw footage of the Tuscaloosa Tornado that hit at 5:14 PM. I've seen some of big storms up here in Iowa, The 1968 May 15 outbreak at Charles City/Oelwein, The 2006 April 13 Tornado at Iowa City and a small one just not too far from here and the 2008 Parkersburg/New Hartford monster that tore a path about 100 miles wide in the state. Even the St Louis Lambert Airport EF4 of last Friday. But when I take a look at this ominous dark twister with so many mini funnels coming every which way like snakes in Medusa's hair I feel bad for the folks who had to endure this storm which stayed on the ground and wiped out small towns and ran into Birmingham a half hour later and then into Georgia. This storm is for the ages folks. I pray that neither me nor you ever have to come face to face with such a force of nature. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0FHTG9VETY&feature=youtu.be
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