In our last get together of Singles Going Steady, we scraped the bottom of the Davenport Salvation Army finds. Since then, except a few Dubuque Goodwill finds nobody has given up their 45s. And perhaps for the better of it, since everybody is hoarding them. You won't believe the dry spell I have at Half Price Books in town. I'm sure Madison has a better selection but it's winter and Madison is snowy colder than here. Maybe on the next World Naked Bike Ride Day I'll venture up there.
This time out, somebody did drop off a bunch of picture sleeve 45s and while some were overpriced (4.99 for a Led Zeppelin one) most were 49 cents and somehow managed to slip underneath the watchful eye of the HPB buyer. I did pay 5 dollars for a 45 of note but only at a antiques store.
Since Record World has been enjoying over 100 views for over a month I thought it was high time to make myself known again and let you all know I'm still alive, unlike Nat Hentoff who left us last week at age 91. One of the best jazz critics out there I bought a few jazz albums under his recommendations. But on these collection, not a jazz record to be found. It's more New Wave and 80s rock which brings images of MTV and Music Theater on Satellite Station 1 many many eons ago. I saved the Culture Club and Men At Work picture 45s for somebody else but did find songs that made more sense to me. Maybe you too. (but not U2)
1) I Like Them Big And Stupid-Julie Brown (Bulletz BR 767-7) 1983
There were two Julie Browns that was part of the MTV 80s culture, one was Downtown Julie Brown, the Club MTV host and Miss Julie Brown, the comedian who also recorded an EP for Rhino and then a full album on Sire to which this song was re recorded I think. Miss Julie Brown seemed to be the more fun of the two and while I'm sure Seymour Stein had vision of another Madonna hit making machine, Brown was more interested in being more than anything else. Another fun song was Because I'm A Blond. She later starred in the TV version of Clueless to which I tried to watch on the crappy CW channel for a week before the show was replaced by infocommercials. She might be in her late 50s but I still find her to be sexy and fun to be with. If only. http://www.juliebrown.com/
2) I Got You-Split Enz (A&M 2252) #53 1980
For a number 53 hit, it still gets played on oldies radio or KDAT when they go 80s but in all fairness, this was one of the early songs I bought by seeing their video. While A&M was good to them, this was their only top 100 song, which is a shame, but for early new wave rock and roll, I Got You remains a golden treasure.
3) New Romance (It's A Mystery)-Spider (Dreamland DL-100) #39 1980
Mike Chapman was a hot shot producer that scored hits with Blondie and The Knack and managed to convince Polygram to give him his own label. This band featured Holly Knight, which was the link between Dale Bozzio and Pat Benetar as well as Anton Fig (Ace Freheley) playing drums. You really don't hear this song all that much anymore and while I found the 45, it reminded me that it sounded a lot better back in 1980 than in 2017. But then again a few other songs from the past have sounded dated, but still I remember them and New Romance better than any of the crap on top forty radio. At least this song has a hook to remember it by.
4) Ways To Be Wicked-Lone Justice (Geffen 7-29093) #71 1985
Very much hyped in 1985 and even Tom Petty wrote them this song. I suspect Lone Justice was in the pioneering Americana rock field from the likes of Jason And The Scorchers, Green On Red, Rank And File and so forth but Geffen Records really went out of their way to promote Maria McKee and band. While McKee turned out to be a very good singer songwriter, the Lone Justice albums have fallen out of print and easily can be found in the dollar bins. I used to have them all but was not that sold on them like I was with the Long Ryders or Jason and so forth. If need be I know where to find them just in case I want to revisit Lone Justice.
5) Stars-Hear 'n Aid (Mercury 884-004-7) 1985
Here ya go, Metal's answer to We Are The World and a much better song, written by Ronnie James Dio and having a all star cast to record the whole thing. Geoff Tate, Eric Bloom, Buck Dharma, Don Dokken, Vince Neil, even Derek St Hibbins of Spinal Tap fame. 40 hard rock and metal musicians all came together to record this song for the folks in Africa. Certainly it's good enough to be included on a Dio album is needed to, but Dio donated the song away. Once in a while you'll hear it on Ozzy's Boneyard. Sometimes Rock 108, but not very often.
6) Ten Men Workin'-Neil Young And The Bluenotes (Reprise 7-27908) 1988
Neil's wilderness years I guess. After the fallacy that was his Geffen period, Neil return to the other side of Warner Music back to Reprise, where he's been ever since but he was still throwing weirdness into the wind, with the album This Note's For You, to which Neil was forming his own Blues Brothers revue it seems. Power swing he calls it. The record is uneven as well as this song. B side I'm Goin, is a Neil Young throwaway.
7) Ten Years Of This-Gary Stewart (RCA PB-10957) #16 Country 1977
He was considered to be one of the latter day better honky tonk country singers of that time and he did score some hits (She's Acting Single, I'm Drinking Doubles, Out Of Hand) on the country side. He later recorded for High Tone once the RCA hits dried up. Once he lost his wife of many years due to illness, he gave up living and killed himself in 2003. But we still have his music. Which I should check out once I find his albums. B Side is I Ain't Living Long Like This, later made into a hit by Waylon Jennings and covered by Foghat and Dream Syndicate.
8) I'll Be There-Stan Gunn (Sugar Hill SH-007) 1970
Early rockabilly star, later went on to a supperclub country music career, recorded for Jack O Diamonds and Sugar Hill. So so Nashville song that didn't do much on the charts.
9) Jump Into The Fire-Nilsson (RCA 74-0673) #27 1971
Had this on 45 years ago, but too many games of Frisbee left about three giant scratches across the playing surface making it useless to play, still I thought highly of this edited version enough to buy a better copy of it for 50 cents. Herbie Flowers plays a mean bass on this. Alas, on the single version you miss out of Jim Gordon's drum solo which KCRG played the long version one night, which may have been the reason why the 45 got scratched up. Where's the drum solo at?
10) Get Back-The Beatles (Apple 2490) #1 1969
So ends this edition of SGS, the number 1 hit single from the Fab Four and the 45 that I got for 5 dollars at BDW Records this week. The BDW folks haven't had much in terms of 45s and between this and Day Tripper, I chose this 45, since it was in better shape and I like Get Back better. I always like the single version rather the Let It Be finale to which John Lennon thanked everybody and hope they passed the audition. Yes you have lads, yes you have. Now get Billy back on keyboards and jam on one more time.
Monday, January 9, 2017
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
Week In Review: Trainwrecks Are Us
Happy New Year!
And the same old shit continues. Marah Carey didn't have a good New Year's Eve night when she tried to lip sync to a bunch of old songs that made her famous, but she claims that the earpieces that Dick Clark Productions gave her didn't work and they promised that they would. Nevertheless, Carey half danced and half commented through the whole ordeal while social media world blew up big time. And Dick Clark Productions claimed innocence. I've seen the videos posted and Carey simply bit her tongue and did the best she could, making the best out of a bad situation. http://969thekat.iheart.com/articles/trending-104650/mariah-careys-odd-performance-on-new-15427870/
It wasn't a good ending to 2016 for Rhonda Rousey as she got her ass kicked by Amanda Nunes, nor Ohio State getting whitewashed by Clemson 31-0. However the big trainwreck was down at Raymond James Field in Tampa as Florida kicked Iowa's ass 30-3 in the Outback Bowl. So far 2017 has picked up on the shit luck where 2016 left off. Once again, with the piss poor performance by the Hawkeyes, has gotten mainstream media wondering why the hell Iowa was in a New Year's Bowl game anyway, Paul Feinbaum calling Iowa, The Pinata of the the Bowls and with five straight losses in a row and three fucking blowouts I agree with him. Iowa showed less this game than the Rose Bowl debacle. CJ Bethard, playing his final game for Iowa was hurt and after pulling a hamstring couldn't function as Florida kept sending defense players past Iowa's Ole blockers and getting up close and personal with CJ. Akim Wadley, was the only bright spot rushing for 115 yards and with LaShaun Daniels, the first two Iowa running backs with over a thousand yards for the first time ever. Let's just leave it at that and hope that 2017, Iowa can improve. The defense should be better although they will be losing Desmond King. But in the final analysis, even with a 8-5 record, The Hawks were average, their best showing was in November, but the rest of the season, they sleepwalked though it all.
Over New Years' Eve, a car was spotted abandoned on the Julian Dubuque Bridge and sad news is that Alison Morgan may have jumped into the Mississippi River. She has been missing since Saturday Night and sad to report that Morgan may have gone under the ice. Rescue efforts have been put on hold till the the weather gets better.
After 31 years, the Marion Maid Rite is closing their doors on January 31st, giving the town folk a few more weeks to enjoy a maid rite before it's gone forever. The owners thought it was a good time to retire. I wish them well.
So here we are again, a new year and I'm already sick and tired of trying to write this blog and using the back space key every other time or have spell check pop up just as much. Over 1,000 views for the first three days and not too bad, but in reality, it's a bitch and I've been dealing with sore hands from playing guitar and drums and blogging to document things. But I'm still here, deleting most of the spam crap from Blogger spammers and keeping things up to date. I'll be back later to continue the music news. Been doing this for 15 years now. It's a vice and hard habit to break.
Record Reviews:
Harvey Headbanger (2010)
One of the premier hard rock and metal bands in this area took the time to make an 8 song CD. They were much better of covering Rock You Like A Hurricane or Welcome To The Jungle. The band lineup varied and changed over time, Terry McDowell would replace Craig Sprat and Ted Reily took over for Dave Calhoun. But on this effort Sprat along with Harvey writes the majority of these Hairball inspired songs. Perhaps they should have done a metal covers instead of originals. Very Spinal Tap, with the inspired lyric I going to drop my coin into your slot. If you're up into how they sound like, the original guys play on this 2011 video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps980Uid7I4
Harem Scarem Rocks (Wounded Bird 2001)
While Harvey Headbanger may have celebrated their inner Spinal Tap, Harem Scarem did a better job of creating that 80s hard rock sound that could rival Night Ranger or Loverboy, although I think H.S. was better than their Canadian counterparts. But they were 10 years too late to the 80s rock scene but you gotta love them for giving the old college try. Wounded Bird issued the majority of their 90s albums when Warner Brothers US passed on them and really peppered up the the albums with plenty of bonus tracks. Saviors Never Cry would be playing on classic rock radio and No Justice could possibly be a nice take on Sammy Van Hagar Van Halen. But I think these guys were in line with Little America or Honeymoon Suite too, they had enough rock and roll hooks to their music. A companion CD Ballads, is as advertised but I prefer my 80s rock uptempo and this is a good sampler of a band that was big in Japan (so to speak) but unknown in the states.
Grade B+
Lawrence Gowan-Lost Brotherhood (Anthem 1990)
Gowan has been the lead vocalist of Styx for quite some time but in the 1990s under his last name Gowan, he managed to win SOCAN awards up in Canada. This record features Alex Lifeson (Rush) playing guitar and Tony Levin (King Crimson) and Jerry Moretta on drums and it's a underrated cutout classic. Found this for 40 cents at Stuff Etc, and Gowan can sing like Geddy Lee (not the helium screams but rather latter day (Hold Your Fire) era Rush but he can also sound like Peter Gaberial and Peter Himmel too. He had a number 6 (Canada) single with All The Lovers In The World, but Gowan showed a bit of Progressive rock too, especially on side 2 with songs like Holding Them Back and Message From Heaven. Like Harem Scarem, Gowan had good success in Canada but in the US, even on Rush's label, he couldn't get arrested. A shame really, it's worth a listen
Grade B+
Black Rose (Casablanca 1980)
Cher's first attempt of a hard rock move and it's actually fairly good, despite having James Newton Howard as producer (not exactly a rock and roll producer although he did get good results with this album and later on, Jude Cole's Start The Car). Cher does go over the top at times with songs like Julie and Young And Pretty but it's not Mariah Carey over the top bad. Les Dudek (remember him?) does provide a bit of relief with You Know It and the Bad Company influenced Fast Company (irony in the title don't ya think?). While Cher did have a top ten hit with Take Me Home for Casablanca, there's nothing on this album that sounds disco, unless Trey Thompson's bass popping shows up from time to time. Next to I Paralyze, one of Cher's finer moments and it sure in the hell beats her hair metal garbage for Geffen at the end of the decade. A guilty pleasure.
Grade B
Freddy Cannon-Action! (Warner Brothers 1965)
My final offering comes from a free album that I found outside of Analog Vault in New Bo and it's a period piece. Very short album, 25 minutes long give or take a second or two and really, Cannon has no business covering Papa's Gotta Brand New Bag or High Heel Sneakers. Beachwood City is Abigail Beecher with different lyrics and Palisades Park's music. Nothing tops the title track and even if the album is slight, I always loved Cannon from Tallahassee Lassie onward. Second best song is You Gotta Help Yourself, filler for sure but it has a nice hook to make me remember this album, long after I forgotten the rest.
Grade B-
The Wapsipinicon Dreamers (Maier 2017)
The side project of Rodney Smith and it has been a 25 year record in the making. Originally a band with Chris Dutcher joining up didn't pan well and the whole thing got shelved, till being inspired enough to finally come up with something after The Townedgers finished up Jubilee. The W.D. eventually became reality as a busman's holiday with Mark Mason and Mel Strobie joining Martin Daniels, Geoff Redding and R. Smith but the liner notes don't say who played what. It was supposed to be a country album, and it does have a country sound but it doesn't differ all that much from The Townedgers sound. Anybody who decides to add If I Were A Carpenter, Fly Away Home, Oh Death, Splendid Isolation, You Can't Touch This, Let Your Love Flow, Solitary Man does have a skewed sense of humor. In essence, The Wapispinicon Dreamers are no different than a local bar band although bar patrons would be leaving for the door on the more eclectic songs. Still, it's Rodney Smith's show and album and the acoustic jams have done him wonders judging by this version of Dead Flowers which is more to the studio version by the Stones and not the wild TE Country version. And The Life We Lead is faster than the Townedgers' version, and more to the point. While The Townedgers albums have had cover songs before, this album showcases the covers than original, although Baby Wanna Dance is that obligatory Town's Edge Rock cover. BTW, Fox On The Run is not The Sweet version but rather the Tom T Hall bluegrass number done rock style.
Grade B+
Mark Prindle had started to review albums again on his FB site. While a lot of the bands are not ones I'm familiar with he is looking at some of the better known acts to which I picked the best of the bunch.
The Doors - London Fog 1966 - Supposedly the earliest Doors recording ever released, this features the band playing a bunch of blues covers and only two originals -- "Strange Days" (which wouldn't be released until their second album) and "You Make Me Real" (which wouldn't be released until their FIFTH album, for Pete's sake!). It's of historical interest, but that's it. The set list is boring ("Hoochie Coochie Man," "Baby Please Don't Go," etc.) and they weren't exactly the cream of the young white blues crop. (Crabby note: I noticed on their live albums their blues cover versions are somewhat half assed, Morrison never really deliver the blues songs at all live.)
Bruford - One of a Kind - In his autobiography, Bill Bruford called this one of the three best albums he's ever played on (the other two being "Close to the Edge" and "Red"), but this mostly sounds like corny smooth jazz-rock to me. There are some cool proggy synth riffs scattered throughout, but the overwhelming feel is that of '80s fusion. Not for me!
And the same old shit continues. Marah Carey didn't have a good New Year's Eve night when she tried to lip sync to a bunch of old songs that made her famous, but she claims that the earpieces that Dick Clark Productions gave her didn't work and they promised that they would. Nevertheless, Carey half danced and half commented through the whole ordeal while social media world blew up big time. And Dick Clark Productions claimed innocence. I've seen the videos posted and Carey simply bit her tongue and did the best she could, making the best out of a bad situation. http://969thekat.iheart.com/articles/trending-104650/mariah-careys-odd-performance-on-new-15427870/
It wasn't a good ending to 2016 for Rhonda Rousey as she got her ass kicked by Amanda Nunes, nor Ohio State getting whitewashed by Clemson 31-0. However the big trainwreck was down at Raymond James Field in Tampa as Florida kicked Iowa's ass 30-3 in the Outback Bowl. So far 2017 has picked up on the shit luck where 2016 left off. Once again, with the piss poor performance by the Hawkeyes, has gotten mainstream media wondering why the hell Iowa was in a New Year's Bowl game anyway, Paul Feinbaum calling Iowa, The Pinata of the the Bowls and with five straight losses in a row and three fucking blowouts I agree with him. Iowa showed less this game than the Rose Bowl debacle. CJ Bethard, playing his final game for Iowa was hurt and after pulling a hamstring couldn't function as Florida kept sending defense players past Iowa's Ole blockers and getting up close and personal with CJ. Akim Wadley, was the only bright spot rushing for 115 yards and with LaShaun Daniels, the first two Iowa running backs with over a thousand yards for the first time ever. Let's just leave it at that and hope that 2017, Iowa can improve. The defense should be better although they will be losing Desmond King. But in the final analysis, even with a 8-5 record, The Hawks were average, their best showing was in November, but the rest of the season, they sleepwalked though it all.
Over New Years' Eve, a car was spotted abandoned on the Julian Dubuque Bridge and sad news is that Alison Morgan may have jumped into the Mississippi River. She has been missing since Saturday Night and sad to report that Morgan may have gone under the ice. Rescue efforts have been put on hold till the the weather gets better.
After 31 years, the Marion Maid Rite is closing their doors on January 31st, giving the town folk a few more weeks to enjoy a maid rite before it's gone forever. The owners thought it was a good time to retire. I wish them well.
So here we are again, a new year and I'm already sick and tired of trying to write this blog and using the back space key every other time or have spell check pop up just as much. Over 1,000 views for the first three days and not too bad, but in reality, it's a bitch and I've been dealing with sore hands from playing guitar and drums and blogging to document things. But I'm still here, deleting most of the spam crap from Blogger spammers and keeping things up to date. I'll be back later to continue the music news. Been doing this for 15 years now. It's a vice and hard habit to break.
Record Reviews:
Harvey Headbanger (2010)
One of the premier hard rock and metal bands in this area took the time to make an 8 song CD. They were much better of covering Rock You Like A Hurricane or Welcome To The Jungle. The band lineup varied and changed over time, Terry McDowell would replace Craig Sprat and Ted Reily took over for Dave Calhoun. But on this effort Sprat along with Harvey writes the majority of these Hairball inspired songs. Perhaps they should have done a metal covers instead of originals. Very Spinal Tap, with the inspired lyric I going to drop my coin into your slot. If you're up into how they sound like, the original guys play on this 2011 video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps980Uid7I4
Harem Scarem Rocks (Wounded Bird 2001)
While Harvey Headbanger may have celebrated their inner Spinal Tap, Harem Scarem did a better job of creating that 80s hard rock sound that could rival Night Ranger or Loverboy, although I think H.S. was better than their Canadian counterparts. But they were 10 years too late to the 80s rock scene but you gotta love them for giving the old college try. Wounded Bird issued the majority of their 90s albums when Warner Brothers US passed on them and really peppered up the the albums with plenty of bonus tracks. Saviors Never Cry would be playing on classic rock radio and No Justice could possibly be a nice take on Sammy Van Hagar Van Halen. But I think these guys were in line with Little America or Honeymoon Suite too, they had enough rock and roll hooks to their music. A companion CD Ballads, is as advertised but I prefer my 80s rock uptempo and this is a good sampler of a band that was big in Japan (so to speak) but unknown in the states.
Grade B+
Lawrence Gowan-Lost Brotherhood (Anthem 1990)
Gowan has been the lead vocalist of Styx for quite some time but in the 1990s under his last name Gowan, he managed to win SOCAN awards up in Canada. This record features Alex Lifeson (Rush) playing guitar and Tony Levin (King Crimson) and Jerry Moretta on drums and it's a underrated cutout classic. Found this for 40 cents at Stuff Etc, and Gowan can sing like Geddy Lee (not the helium screams but rather latter day (Hold Your Fire) era Rush but he can also sound like Peter Gaberial and Peter Himmel too. He had a number 6 (Canada) single with All The Lovers In The World, but Gowan showed a bit of Progressive rock too, especially on side 2 with songs like Holding Them Back and Message From Heaven. Like Harem Scarem, Gowan had good success in Canada but in the US, even on Rush's label, he couldn't get arrested. A shame really, it's worth a listen
Grade B+
Black Rose (Casablanca 1980)
Cher's first attempt of a hard rock move and it's actually fairly good, despite having James Newton Howard as producer (not exactly a rock and roll producer although he did get good results with this album and later on, Jude Cole's Start The Car). Cher does go over the top at times with songs like Julie and Young And Pretty but it's not Mariah Carey over the top bad. Les Dudek (remember him?) does provide a bit of relief with You Know It and the Bad Company influenced Fast Company (irony in the title don't ya think?). While Cher did have a top ten hit with Take Me Home for Casablanca, there's nothing on this album that sounds disco, unless Trey Thompson's bass popping shows up from time to time. Next to I Paralyze, one of Cher's finer moments and it sure in the hell beats her hair metal garbage for Geffen at the end of the decade. A guilty pleasure.
Grade B
Freddy Cannon-Action! (Warner Brothers 1965)
My final offering comes from a free album that I found outside of Analog Vault in New Bo and it's a period piece. Very short album, 25 minutes long give or take a second or two and really, Cannon has no business covering Papa's Gotta Brand New Bag or High Heel Sneakers. Beachwood City is Abigail Beecher with different lyrics and Palisades Park's music. Nothing tops the title track and even if the album is slight, I always loved Cannon from Tallahassee Lassie onward. Second best song is You Gotta Help Yourself, filler for sure but it has a nice hook to make me remember this album, long after I forgotten the rest.
Grade B-
The Wapsipinicon Dreamers (Maier 2017)
The side project of Rodney Smith and it has been a 25 year record in the making. Originally a band with Chris Dutcher joining up didn't pan well and the whole thing got shelved, till being inspired enough to finally come up with something after The Townedgers finished up Jubilee. The W.D. eventually became reality as a busman's holiday with Mark Mason and Mel Strobie joining Martin Daniels, Geoff Redding and R. Smith but the liner notes don't say who played what. It was supposed to be a country album, and it does have a country sound but it doesn't differ all that much from The Townedgers sound. Anybody who decides to add If I Were A Carpenter, Fly Away Home, Oh Death, Splendid Isolation, You Can't Touch This, Let Your Love Flow, Solitary Man does have a skewed sense of humor. In essence, The Wapispinicon Dreamers are no different than a local bar band although bar patrons would be leaving for the door on the more eclectic songs. Still, it's Rodney Smith's show and album and the acoustic jams have done him wonders judging by this version of Dead Flowers which is more to the studio version by the Stones and not the wild TE Country version. And The Life We Lead is faster than the Townedgers' version, and more to the point. While The Townedgers albums have had cover songs before, this album showcases the covers than original, although Baby Wanna Dance is that obligatory Town's Edge Rock cover. BTW, Fox On The Run is not The Sweet version but rather the Tom T Hall bluegrass number done rock style.
Grade B+
Mark Prindle had started to review albums again on his FB site. While a lot of the bands are not ones I'm familiar with he is looking at some of the better known acts to which I picked the best of the bunch.
The Doors - London Fog 1966 - Supposedly the earliest Doors recording ever released, this features the band playing a bunch of blues covers and only two originals -- "Strange Days" (which wouldn't be released until their second album) and "You Make Me Real" (which wouldn't be released until their FIFTH album, for Pete's sake!). It's of historical interest, but that's it. The set list is boring ("Hoochie Coochie Man," "Baby Please Don't Go," etc.) and they weren't exactly the cream of the young white blues crop. (Crabby note: I noticed on their live albums their blues cover versions are somewhat half assed, Morrison never really deliver the blues songs at all live.)
Bruford - One of a Kind - In his autobiography, Bill Bruford called this one of the three best albums he's ever played on (the other two being "Close to the Edge" and "Red"), but this mostly sounds like corny smooth jazz-rock to me. There are some cool proggy synth riffs scattered throughout, but the overwhelming feel is that of '80s fusion. Not for me!
Strawbs - Grave New World - Folksy,
symphonic prog rock. When it's good (which is often!), it reminds me of
Jethro Tull or the Moody Blues. At its worst, the songs are too soft and
la-de-da, like Cat Stevens or something. I'm not fond of the lead
singer's ugly voice, but the other guys contribute lovely harmony
vocals.
Colosseum - Valentyne Suite - Hippie freakout music, low-down boogie-woogie blues, butt-grooving funk, horn-drenched jazz-rock and organ/piano-driven prog rock. It's very dated, but still a fun listen. I wouldn't run out and buy it or anything, but the sidelong title track is definitely worth a listen.
Nina Hagen Band - S/T - Starts off with a German cover of "White Punks on Dope"! Then progresses into German language original compositions that combine rock guitars, new wave synths and funk/dance rhythms. Some of the music's alright, but her voice is gruff and not to my liking.
Elvis Costello - Brutal Youth - I listen to this and know full well it's not my type of music -- too slow, too old-timey singer-songwriter poppy -- but I enjoy so many of the songs! (Not ALL of them, but at least half). Elvis cares about melody. And I don't hate his voice anymore!
If - 3 - British jazz-prog-rock, with an uneven mix of horn-driven brappiness, piano-driven laid back tunes, cool rockin' proggish synths, and corny dogshit -- with Spooky Tooth-style bluesy vocals (or "Steve Winwood-style," if you don't know Spooky Tooth). Some of the songs are perfectly enjoyable, but others are just awful.
Ramones - The Family Tree - Double-cd compilation of side projects, guest appearances and solo material. Some good, some bad. You don't need it. (Do try to check out Dee Dee's hilarious cover of Metallica's "Jump in the Fire" though!)
Neil Young and Bluenote Cafe - Bluenote Cafe - If you loved the Chicago blues stylings of "This Note's for You," you'll LOVE two hours and 15 minutes of it! Although the six-piece horn section sounds really good and all the recordings sound terrific, there are definitely some sections on this double-CD that make me never want to hear Chicago Blues again (the middle of disc 1, for example). It can get very generic and tedious. As a whole though, there is some great stuff on here and it's definitely worth hearing if you're a Neil fan. There are some otherwise unavailable originals, and they even do "On the Way Home" and a super-long version of "Tonight's the Night"!
Pixies - Head Carrier - I hated "Indie Cindy," so was shocked by how much I enjoy this one. It's good! Just good melodic songs, with a female bassist who sings every now and again. A few sound a bit too "Pixies"-ish, but maybe that's just the noise that comes out when these guys get together. I enjoy this one so much that it turned me back into a Frank Black fan! I hadn't been into him for a few years, but this did the trick. I guess my next step should be to try "Indie Cindy" again?
Colosseum - Valentyne Suite - Hippie freakout music, low-down boogie-woogie blues, butt-grooving funk, horn-drenched jazz-rock and organ/piano-driven prog rock. It's very dated, but still a fun listen. I wouldn't run out and buy it or anything, but the sidelong title track is definitely worth a listen.
Nina Hagen Band - S/T - Starts off with a German cover of "White Punks on Dope"! Then progresses into German language original compositions that combine rock guitars, new wave synths and funk/dance rhythms. Some of the music's alright, but her voice is gruff and not to my liking.
Elvis Costello - Brutal Youth - I listen to this and know full well it's not my type of music -- too slow, too old-timey singer-songwriter poppy -- but I enjoy so many of the songs! (Not ALL of them, but at least half). Elvis cares about melody. And I don't hate his voice anymore!
If - 3 - British jazz-prog-rock, with an uneven mix of horn-driven brappiness, piano-driven laid back tunes, cool rockin' proggish synths, and corny dogshit -- with Spooky Tooth-style bluesy vocals (or "Steve Winwood-style," if you don't know Spooky Tooth). Some of the songs are perfectly enjoyable, but others are just awful.
Ramones - The Family Tree - Double-cd compilation of side projects, guest appearances and solo material. Some good, some bad. You don't need it. (Do try to check out Dee Dee's hilarious cover of Metallica's "Jump in the Fire" though!)
Neil Young and Bluenote Cafe - Bluenote Cafe - If you loved the Chicago blues stylings of "This Note's for You," you'll LOVE two hours and 15 minutes of it! Although the six-piece horn section sounds really good and all the recordings sound terrific, there are definitely some sections on this double-CD that make me never want to hear Chicago Blues again (the middle of disc 1, for example). It can get very generic and tedious. As a whole though, there is some great stuff on here and it's definitely worth hearing if you're a Neil fan. There are some otherwise unavailable originals, and they even do "On the Way Home" and a super-long version of "Tonight's the Night"!
Pixies - Head Carrier - I hated "Indie Cindy," so was shocked by how much I enjoy this one. It's good! Just good melodic songs, with a female bassist who sings every now and again. A few sound a bit too "Pixies"-ish, but maybe that's just the noise that comes out when these guys get together. I enjoy this one so much that it turned me back into a Frank Black fan! I hadn't been into him for a few years, but this did the trick. I guess my next step should be to try "Indie Cindy" again?
Sunday, January 1, 2017
Iowa Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame Inductees 2017
HAPPY NEW YEAR! The Iowa Rock 'n Roll Music Association is pleased to announce its 2017 Hall of Fame inductees!
BANDS: Jeff Brandt & Galaxy (Central Region), Lavender Lace Band (Central Region), High Heel & the Sneakers (Southwest Region), The Night People (Southeast Region), Hampton Road (Northeast Region), Prince & the Paupers (Northwest Region), IRRMA All-Stars Band (Northwest Region)
BANDS: Jeff Brandt & Galaxy (Central Region), Lavender Lace Band (Central Region), High Heel & the Sneakers (Southwest Region), The Night People (Southeast Region), Hampton Road (Northeast Region), Prince & the Paupers (Northwest Region), IRRMA All-Stars Band (Northwest Region)
INDIVIDUAL PERFORMERS: Angelo Doud (Southeast Region), Craig Erickson (Southeast Region)
NON-PERFORMERS: Kid Bisket (Northeast Region), Gary Kellgren (Southwest Region), David Sandler (Central Region), Matt Coffin (Southeast Region), Don “Shakey” Ahrends (Northwest Region), Reiman Music (Northwest Region)
WOMEN WHO ROCK: Karie Skogman (Northeast Region)
BORDER BAND: The Whitesidewalls (Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN)
IRRMA LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Jerry Jones (Northwest Region), Steve Soboroff (Southeast Region)
MATOUSEK FAMILY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Tommy Allsup (Out of State)
SUPPORT: Marla Black (Northwest Region)
DJ: Kyle Martin (Central Region)
SPIRIT AWARD: Surf Zombies (Central Region), Merle and Jan Wiese (Northwest Region), Greg Miksich (Central Region), Bruce Cameron (Central Region)
The 2017 IRRMA Hall of Fame Induction Spectacular weekend takes place September 1-3 in Arnolds Park and will mark the association's 21st induction year.
NON-PERFORMERS: Kid Bisket (Northeast Region), Gary Kellgren (Southwest Region), David Sandler (Central Region), Matt Coffin (Southeast Region), Don “Shakey” Ahrends (Northwest Region), Reiman Music (Northwest Region)
WOMEN WHO ROCK: Karie Skogman (Northeast Region)
BORDER BAND: The Whitesidewalls (Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN)
IRRMA LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Jerry Jones (Northwest Region), Steve Soboroff (Southeast Region)
MATOUSEK FAMILY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Tommy Allsup (Out of State)
SUPPORT: Marla Black (Northwest Region)
DJ: Kyle Martin (Central Region)
SPIRIT AWARD: Surf Zombies (Central Region), Merle and Jan Wiese (Northwest Region), Greg Miksich (Central Region), Bruce Cameron (Central Region)
The 2017 IRRMA Hall of Fame Induction Spectacular weekend takes place September 1-3 in Arnolds Park and will mark the association's 21st induction year.
Thursday, December 29, 2016
2016 In Review
So here we are at the end of the year. If you have made it this far, congratulations! You survived the year unlike Muhammad Ali, David Bowie, Debby Reynolds and Carrie Fisher, Prince, Merle Haggard and on and on. This year we lost Billy Pinney and his dad James, Billy suffered a heart attack, James died from smoking too much. Basically I haven't seen neither since the turn of the century and those relatives I don't have much to do with. I simply lost track of Billy. But losing Bruce Stanley in late August would set the tone for a somber rest of the year. And William Christopher was the last person to get on the 2016 death train. Father McCauley from MASH.
The year started off on the wrong foot right off the bat when Iowa got blown to bits by Stanford in The Rose Bowl, once again proving to the ESPN and the Colin Cowpisses of the world that Iowa didn't belong and when the football season came around it was looking that Iowa might not finish above 500, losing to North Dakota State and crappy Northwestern and getting blown to bits by Penn State before doing the unthinkable and upsetting mighty Michigan 14-13 and then shutting out Illinois and blowing out Nebraska to finish 8-4 and get a trip to Florida to play Florida in the Outback Bowl. Arizona State on the other hand sucked and after starting out 5-1 would lose the rest of the games and for their effort had the all time worst defense in the NCAAs. Key injuries didn't help on the offense but the defense was a fucking mess all season. While Iowa got better during the season ASU got worse and worse.
The beginning of the year I predicted something special would happen and it did...in the form of the Chicago Cubs winning their first World Series since 1908, coming back down 3 games to 1 to win the 7th game in amazing style over the Cleveland Indians in perhaps the best all time World Series ever. Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo had banner years, Dexter Fowler took a pay cut after the deal with Baltimore went sour and was part of the reason why the Cubs won it all. Dan Ross, retired after the season and with Rizzo and Dexter appeared in Saturday Night Live. Fowler would later sign with the St Louis Cardinals for next season and Adonis Chapman returned back to the Yankees with a big pay contract and proceeded to bitch about Joe Madden overused him in the world series. He did have a point since he had nothing to show in the final two games but his 2 and 2/3 inning shutout in game five was his best pitching performance of the season. Even though the price of borrowing Chapman trading an of a up and coming short stop, you cannot take away the title CHICAGO CUBS 2016 WORLD SERIES AND BASEBALL CHAMPIONS. It's in the history books and I'm glad I got to see and hear it.
So the hope is that the Cubs can continue to return back to the world series and since the loss of Chapman and Fowler, Wade Davis and John Jay have taken their place. We'll see where 2017 will go. On paper it still looks good.
Another surprise of the year was taking part in the World Naked Bike Ride day in Madison in June. One of the most daring and off the wall thing that I have ever done, it was interesting of the fact of joining 150 other bike riders taking everything off and go riding around downtown Madison in the early morning, peddling for about 7 miles and trying to shake off leg cramps towards the end. But to my surprise I finished the bike race and after that, retreating back to the motel to rest for a couple hours and then do the bargain hunts around the usual thrift stores in Mad City. But if you look up WNBR Madison 2016, you might see the full birthday suit of myself for further proof. In Record World it's NSFW and a no no to post.
(Acousta Kitties in action)
Surprise number 2 was playing guitar and singing songs in front of a crowd for the first time in over a year and I'm amazed how everybody enjoyed the songs. But at Checkers Tavern, the Acousta Kitties have been hosting the Acoustic Jam for over a year and they continue to draw a great support of regulars, to which I might be a part of if I didn't have a job. Playing acoustic jams don't pay but when you get the crowd to sing along to Games People Play and Dead Flowers, it's priceless. I hope to do more jams in 2017, weather and health permitting. I also took part in many Popcorn Jams on Sundays and a few Parlor City Blues Jams on Tuesday and managed to play alongside some of the best talent in town. We lost a couple jammers, Tim Duffy moved to Georgia but in return Jason Christensen and Karl Hudson returned, Jason from Memphis and Karl from Florida. Karl has continued to keep busy with jam sessions and playing in The Buzz and solo projects around the area.
For bargain hunts, I didn't venture outside of the comfort zone. It was usually Davenport one week, Dubuque the next and it varied, I did go up to Madison twice this year, the WNBR weekend and then back there again in October. I didn't go overboard on buying vinyl but I did find The Golliwogs Pre Creedence on LP and that record may have been the highlight of the year. Runner up: Bobby Bare 500 Miles Away From Home, that record was part of my growing up years and my dad still has that record, in very scratched up condition. Surprisingly, I did managed to find about 100 new 45s from various eras, mostly the pop or middle of the road including a bunch of oddball stuff at the Waterloo Stuff Etc stores, and Cliff Steward Coral stuff at the St Vincent De Paul in Waterloo, a very hit and miss store but sometimes I can score with some good finds if I knew when to go up there. Even the Dubuque Goodwill had some choice 45s of the year. No shortage of pawnshop cheap cds too. I just bought 8 of them for 1.88 apiece in town (Echoes-The Best Of Pink Floyd, Best of Kristy McColl, T.Rex, White Zombie and...ahem....Bob Dylan's Christmas In The Air to scare off anybody who comes calling around here.
The big news was the loss of Hastings Entertainment Stores when they got bought out by liquidators and they ended up closing all of the stores. By November 1st, Hastings was history. It was a shame, Hastings was the last great entertainment store that you can find cheap CDs and DVDs under a dollar and was a great place to hang around with the locals when I was in Kingman or Lake Havasu City or Bullhead City. Say what you want about them, they did serve a purpose and now there's a great big void now that they're are gone. The internet is fine but we all need to go somewhere on a Saturday Night. And you can't beat a Hastings despite what people say about them.
In late September the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids reached the second highest crest ever, even more so than the 1993 flood but people kicked in efforts to save the town and sandbagged and picked up and packed up everything in the flood prone areas. Not everybody stayed dry. While New Bo was fairly dry, the folks at Tornado's Pub had to sand bag themselves from a 5 foot flood river since the makeshift flood wall was built in front of their building and places like The Kickstand and the Mad Modern Art place had to endure flooding in their building. However, once the flood crested, Tornados was open a week later and The Kickstand two weeks later. And Parlor City was hosting jams three weeks later. Unlike 2008 Cedar Rapids rebounded but the big difference was that the river runoff came all the upstream and we didn't have the flooding 10 inch rainfalls of 2008. Plus it happened in the fall when we didn't have much rain to contend with. We got lucky but we all came together to support one another. And watched as Ron Corbett took credit for that as he considers running for Governor in a couple years. It never ends. But we also got our first record store in town too, Analog Vault opened up in New Bo in October and seems to be doing well.
In October I finally kicked the cable TV and have not watched much TV in the past three months. I had to go Wrigleyville Bar in Marion to watch the Cubs win the Series or listen to them on the radio as well as the Hawks but I have to find that I can live without the crap reality shows or for that matter those annoying Big Pharma Drug commercials and the damned E.D. crap that is now part of sports. Four hour erection ain't going help me anyway. I get by watching DVDs of quality shows I grew up watching and will be content that way.
This month saw the biggest reader viewership this year with me going over 12,000 views. I'm guessing mostly phantom readership although Blogger spam is 99.9 percent of comments. And none that add to any of the blogs that the spammer blogger has posted to. Which is why I have things awaiting approval. But those who continue to read, I thank you for your patronage. And while 2017 will continue on with the usual rant and ravings and music news and views and, there's no getting around that, deaths. Cause people will die and we'll continue to lose people of all statue. But what awaits us all is the forthcoming year of President Failed Reality Star and, worse, the GOP controlled everything, which is slated to set this country back 60 years ago. Seeing Obama leave after 8 years, I honestly say I hate to see him go, despite a do nothing and obstructing congress, he did managed to do a few good things. Like stopping the Dakota Pipe Line to which the Indian Nation stood up for clean water and not another leaking pipeline. We cannot afford to see our water supply poisoned by oil, which has happened time and time again. The question remains is the President Failed Reality Star who continues to use Twitter for his saber rattling and continue to bitch about Saturday Night Live making fun of him. Despite not having the popular vote, the Electoral voted him in regardless. Hillary may have run the popular vote, President FRS won in the states with the most electoral votes. I'm not certain what the GOP will have in store rather than their being bought out by the lobbyists and Big Oil and Big Pharma, but if this is the beginning of the end times, we can hope that Jesus will come and save this world from further destruction. Or perhaps have a meteor score a direct hit on the planet and have everything start all over again. The election this year was a farce from the word go and if The Democrats slit their own throat by sabotaging Bernie Sanders and keeping Debbie Wasserman Schutz through the whole ordeal then that's the reason why they lost. But then again it's hard to tell the real news from the fake, certainly the major networks didn't provide much relief in between their fucking drug commercials and Hilary's emails. In the end it didn't matter anyway, the bad guys all won, from Ron (Snake in the grass) Johnson to Congressman for life Chuck Grassley and joker Steve King. Oh I voted, but the wrong fucks won anyway. It is what it is. And not worth bitching about anyway.
So basically for a wrap up, there's not much to be said or done. I'm completed 15 years of blogging things from music to sports to rant and ravings and once in a while I strike a chord with forgotten bands or a tribute to friend taken from this world. It's a hit and miss and I can see why people give up, half of my readings are now from folks who moved on back to real life. The Best of 2016, it's nice to give credit to bands that wouldn't be known at SPIN or Rolling Stone, it's hard to keep up with the Best lists out there, I just choose the ones that make the most sense. Pitchfork will have theirs Robin Hilton of NPR has hers and neither has any of my favorites. I think I'm more inclined to play Mike Eldred Trio's Baptist Town more than Metallica's latest, which got good reviews but I've outgrown them. Or in Hilton's case I'll stick with Wooden Nickel Lottery or Tommy Bruner than Beyonce or Kanye Autotuned Chipmunk West or what's on KISS country. The hope is that Bro Country is on the way out and the women continue to kick the guys' ass in terms of memorable country music but I wasn't a fan of Miranda Lambert's effort. Perhaps Cam's time is gone too, her latest album, has three used copies at half price books. Likewise Steven Tyler's failed country attempt or Aaron Lewis for that matter, although Lewis has his heart in the right place but I think his daughter might have a better go at it since she was involved on the best song on Aaron's album.
While I insist that next year I won't partake in any more new albums, the logic is that I'll will find something to listen to. There will be bargain hunts in the future, more 45s to come across, more jams to play at and life will go on, unless it's our time to leave this world. Which I don't see happening anytime soon, remember the more you bitch, the longer God lets you live so I'm here for another 517 years. Certainly more trips to Davenport, Dubuque, Waterloo, places I'm comfortable of going. And of course Madison although returning to do WNBR Madison in 2017 is probably out of the question. But I did find my Tazmainan Devil Silk Boxes and just cover up. Biking naked is one thing I can cross off my bucket (fuck it) list.
But I have grown tired of the usual blogging of the week in review and most of the time, I'm using the backspace key more than any others and good thing the spellchecker comes up. With 12,000 views this month, I'm encouraged to consider keeping this going. But I am slowing down as you can tell, I've only done 89 blogs this year, I've been posting things under The Townedgers blog which might explain the reason for the decline but I'm more interested of doing a diary of the jams and recording projects since they are dear to my heart. But I fight the keyboard to get my thoughts down pat even for Record Review. For something that doesn't pay at all, I tend to waste more time doing this, but it's nice to look at the archives and remember the time and places that I was at or what was happening. Too bad that Groove Sandwich or Trucker Kitty didn't keep theirs up, they really had some cool stories to go with, but I can also why they pulled the plug. When it's time consuming and the returns aren't there, it's best to say you did your best and move on. But in the end, I did end up with over 12,500 views. Historic in views but doubt if we'll have that many in the incoming months.
And life will go on. If things interest me enough, there'll be something documented, or if I unearth a cool collection of 45s, Singles Going Steady will return. Forgotten bands? Sure why not? ICON? Everybody likes to read them. Bargain hunts? For my own amusement I guess. And for you dear reader who read this far, thanks for your support. I've come a long way from The Yardbird's Roost on About.com to the fucked up My Space years (Both MSN and My Space deleted a lot of classic blogs from 2002 to 2008 although I did save a bunch for the 2009 year....in term of theory I should have gone with Blogspot sooner 2006) and Multiply (which lost key blogs including the Neil Young ICON Blog). Could have gone with Wordpress but Blogger/Blogspot has been very good to me, despite the spam comments. However, I do hope 2017 is a much better year, while it was great to see the Chicago Cubs win it all, losing Hastings and many good friends and musicians turned this year into a bittersweet sort of thing.
And I wish everybody a blessed 2017. Keep rocking.
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Week In Review: George Micheal, Carrie Fisher etc.
Even this late in the year the passings continue. George Michael, famed for Wham! and his album Faith passed away on Christmas Day from heart failure, he was 53. Death has been everywhere this year and really have thinned the musicians out there, beginning with David Bowie and now Michael. I wasn't a big fan and so be it, but I do find Wham! I'm Your Man to be a guilty pleasure listening more than Wake Me Up Before You Go Go and Faith had a nice collection of different songs from I Want Your Sex to the rockabilly title track.
Carrie Fisher en route to L.A. suffered a heart attack and never recovered, passing away early Tuesday Morning, she was 60. Fisher also best known for playing in Star Wars but I loved her as the crazy person trying to kill The Blues Brothers and posting a autobiography called Postcards From The Edge, to which I stole the title to name an album that I did back in 1988. She was married to Paul Simon which had its ups and downs before they called it a day. In essence, her work is done on this planet. She will be missed. And then the next day her mom Debbie Reynolds joined her in the afterlife, she suffered a stroke but in essence she died of a broken heart. She was 84.
Getting to football, The San Diego Chargers may as well be dead, Josh Lambo, had one field goal blocked and another went wide right and Cleveland won their first game of the year. While Lambo gets the blame for the loss, Phillip "Fumbles and Interceptions" Rivers is now turned the ball over 19 times this season, and basically he might be replacing Dan Fouts in all time passing and so forth, he remains one of the annoying quarterbacks for the Chargers and after 12 years this year has been his most disappointing. He couldn't rally the Chargers to beat the Raiders and then his kicker let him down. But in all fairness the Chargers have blown 6 games with leads. They may as fire Mike McCoy, they may as well give Rivers his walking papers and start anew once they move it up to Los Angeles. Had they held the leads they could be challenging Kansas City and Oakland for the top spot but then again, when they blew a 24 point lead in Kansas City this season, it was of things to come. And not for the better. Basically the below picture will leave the legacy of Phillip Rivers to be a whiner. He should apply for a job as a baker, he does make a lot of turnovers.....
I think she can play better QB than Rivers. This week's eye candy...cuz we need something to cheer us up.
For Christmas here, we went from 2 below last Sunday to 40 degrees and rain and clouds most of the day with the usual dumb fucks driving NASCAR speeds on icy covered roads. I remember of Christmas past, of 1999 when Olivia came down to visit us from Oregon and ended up getting phenomena for 3 months afterwards. Then two winters of Nicole (2010, the coldest Christmas it seems and we drove in the old Purple Corsica which kept having a flat tire and on New Years Day looking for a place with air to fill the damn tire up, and 2011). Alas Nicole was the last to see our family, The Bickersons in action and usually new potential dates are scared away after the first meeting. Last year was a disaster but this year, there were no blowups, everybody got along fine and Santa was very good to me. Hopefully all of us will be back next Christmas. And you too as well.
My good friend Mark didn't have a good Christmas flight, on the way to CR, his plane had mechanical trouble and then flew back to Kansas City of all places. What should have been a four flight turned out to a day and an half. Mark didn't get here till 4 AM and still to wait for a rental car place to open up at 6 to get a car. And that's one of the reasons why I don't fly in the wintertime. Actually I don't fly at all anymore. Too much bullshit to deal with and it usually starts with the TSA.
(Photo: AP)
As we wind down this year, the uncertainly of next year will be on the horizon, the 45th President of the USA, the Failed Reality Star and of course the GOP in control of everything. Already gas prices have gone up from 1.89 to 2.25 in the three weeks and it's not even springtime. It wouldn't surprise me to see the return of 3 dollar a gallon gas by summertime with the usual bullshit excuses of the raises, OPEC, leaky oil polluting the water supply. Perhaps the people who died in 2016 made the right choice of exiting here before the Failed Reality Star becomes the POTUS. He certainly can't keep off Twitter. Will things change around? Probably, as prices continue to rise but no businesses want to pay anybody 15 dollars an hour. Things go up, gas, electric, insurance, HEALTH insurance, food etc etc. But there's so much fake news out there, it's hard to tell what's the truth and what is bullshit. In the meanwhile some of the Rockettes don't want to partake into the gala presidential celebration of the failed reality star on Jan 20. The guess is that Mike Love's Beach Boys will have the honors, but I'm surprised Ted Nugent wasn't asked to do that, nor Charlie Daniels.
A retraction to a blog, Neil Young's Peace Trail did pop on the Billboard Chart at number 75 last week and then dropped out of the top 200 the next week. I thought the record was good enough to be included in my top 20 best of 2016 and still think it's a decent listen. But if Neil Young would take the time to develop the songs rather than toss them out he still might have a album for the ages, like After The Gold Rush or Rust Never Sleeps. Perhaps he should take a breather before issuing a new album next year to you know he will. Perhaps people are getting burned out of his music or just don't care. I still do.
I guess that's all the news and happenings for now. Tune in next time for 2016, the year in review. It should be a hit.
Carrie Fisher en route to L.A. suffered a heart attack and never recovered, passing away early Tuesday Morning, she was 60. Fisher also best known for playing in Star Wars but I loved her as the crazy person trying to kill The Blues Brothers and posting a autobiography called Postcards From The Edge, to which I stole the title to name an album that I did back in 1988. She was married to Paul Simon which had its ups and downs before they called it a day. In essence, her work is done on this planet. She will be missed. And then the next day her mom Debbie Reynolds joined her in the afterlife, she suffered a stroke but in essence she died of a broken heart. She was 84.
Getting to football, The San Diego Chargers may as well be dead, Josh Lambo, had one field goal blocked and another went wide right and Cleveland won their first game of the year. While Lambo gets the blame for the loss, Phillip "Fumbles and Interceptions" Rivers is now turned the ball over 19 times this season, and basically he might be replacing Dan Fouts in all time passing and so forth, he remains one of the annoying quarterbacks for the Chargers and after 12 years this year has been his most disappointing. He couldn't rally the Chargers to beat the Raiders and then his kicker let him down. But in all fairness the Chargers have blown 6 games with leads. They may as fire Mike McCoy, they may as well give Rivers his walking papers and start anew once they move it up to Los Angeles. Had they held the leads they could be challenging Kansas City and Oakland for the top spot but then again, when they blew a 24 point lead in Kansas City this season, it was of things to come. And not for the better. Basically the below picture will leave the legacy of Phillip Rivers to be a whiner. He should apply for a job as a baker, he does make a lot of turnovers.....
I think she can play better QB than Rivers. This week's eye candy...cuz we need something to cheer us up.
For Christmas here, we went from 2 below last Sunday to 40 degrees and rain and clouds most of the day with the usual dumb fucks driving NASCAR speeds on icy covered roads. I remember of Christmas past, of 1999 when Olivia came down to visit us from Oregon and ended up getting phenomena for 3 months afterwards. Then two winters of Nicole (2010, the coldest Christmas it seems and we drove in the old Purple Corsica which kept having a flat tire and on New Years Day looking for a place with air to fill the damn tire up, and 2011). Alas Nicole was the last to see our family, The Bickersons in action and usually new potential dates are scared away after the first meeting. Last year was a disaster but this year, there were no blowups, everybody got along fine and Santa was very good to me. Hopefully all of us will be back next Christmas. And you too as well.
My good friend Mark didn't have a good Christmas flight, on the way to CR, his plane had mechanical trouble and then flew back to Kansas City of all places. What should have been a four flight turned out to a day and an half. Mark didn't get here till 4 AM and still to wait for a rental car place to open up at 6 to get a car. And that's one of the reasons why I don't fly in the wintertime. Actually I don't fly at all anymore. Too much bullshit to deal with and it usually starts with the TSA.
(Photo: AP)
As we wind down this year, the uncertainly of next year will be on the horizon, the 45th President of the USA, the Failed Reality Star and of course the GOP in control of everything. Already gas prices have gone up from 1.89 to 2.25 in the three weeks and it's not even springtime. It wouldn't surprise me to see the return of 3 dollar a gallon gas by summertime with the usual bullshit excuses of the raises, OPEC, leaky oil polluting the water supply. Perhaps the people who died in 2016 made the right choice of exiting here before the Failed Reality Star becomes the POTUS. He certainly can't keep off Twitter. Will things change around? Probably, as prices continue to rise but no businesses want to pay anybody 15 dollars an hour. Things go up, gas, electric, insurance, HEALTH insurance, food etc etc. But there's so much fake news out there, it's hard to tell what's the truth and what is bullshit. In the meanwhile some of the Rockettes don't want to partake into the gala presidential celebration of the failed reality star on Jan 20. The guess is that Mike Love's Beach Boys will have the honors, but I'm surprised Ted Nugent wasn't asked to do that, nor Charlie Daniels.
A retraction to a blog, Neil Young's Peace Trail did pop on the Billboard Chart at number 75 last week and then dropped out of the top 200 the next week. I thought the record was good enough to be included in my top 20 best of 2016 and still think it's a decent listen. But if Neil Young would take the time to develop the songs rather than toss them out he still might have a album for the ages, like After The Gold Rush or Rust Never Sleeps. Perhaps he should take a breather before issuing a new album next year to you know he will. Perhaps people are getting burned out of his music or just don't care. I still do.
I guess that's all the news and happenings for now. Tune in next time for 2016, the year in review. It should be a hit.
Saturday, December 24, 2016
Christmas 2016
As the final shoppers continue to invade the local stores before Christmas and as we continue to celebrate the pagan holiday of hearing 10 different versions of Holly Jolly Christmas and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas It's basically a time to reflect on making it to this holiday. And this year we lost many people. Just last night we lost another rock and roller in Rick Parfitt, longtime player in The Status Quo, Britian's long time boogie band. To which I think also puts an end to that band. 50 years ago, The Quo came into the scene and gave us Pictures Of Matchstick Men. Then The Quo went for Bee Gees power poppers to boogie sonic masters with their early 70s albums Piledriver, Quo and On The Level. They almost called it quits till Bob Geldorf asked them to open up Live Aid. The Quo continued on. http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-28640835
Each year Christmas becomes less and less interesting for me. I don't have children or grandkids and the spirit of gift giving to those kids are just a dream. And getting older, I really get less interested of checking out band gigs. I thought I would have an early Friday Night off to look up Karl Hudson and The Buzz but by the time I left, I was too tired to pay him a visit. But I need to show up at his gigs just to support his band efforts. The man moved back here from Florida to frigid Iowa and playing to a crowd of 10 people in a bar which somebody would steal one of his microphones, gives good cause that maybe he should have stayed in Florida. The weather is a hell of a lot nicer there.
I finally sat down to listen to Bob Dylan's Christmas In The Heart CD and come to find it's actually quite listenable, in fact I prefer his Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas over anybody else. I like Christmas Blues and the polka flavored Must Be Santa. It's product but it's like Christmas With The Townedgers, nothing to get too overly excited about but it is sung from the heart, despite Dylan's wheeze like vocal. A B grade and a wink . Christgau's take:
Christmas in the Heart [Columbia, 2009]
Funnier than the Chipmunks, give him that ("Must Be Santa," "Winter Wonderland"). * B-
Here in Record World, life is great judging by the ratings. Over 10,000 for the first time ever, seems like I'm getting more readers looking at the archives and giving hope that this is not a lost cause. But in the circle of life, things happened along the way. Getting back into the music scene and playing more often, recording with The Townedgers and try to balance work with tasks around the house, this place needs an overall or a big ole dump outside to throw things out. And next year I need to really get rid of this leaning tower of pisa entertainment center for a more sturdier one. This place is not looking any better than the abandoned school house down the road. Music continues onward and so does life. Perhaps five years ago I should have heeded my advice and paid more attention to my love interest rather than post 10 to 15 blogs in social media talking about it. Social media is a blessing and an curse and you have to balance out the good and the bad and see if it's worth keeping, your special someone or a blogging hobby. In the meantime, that special someone now has a new special somebody and is happy about it, and I still have this blog and this subversive life style of social media and music junkie. I like to think next year to have a special somebody to celebrate Christmas with but as history as shown that will not happen. Who knows, maybe next year Record World will have 20,000 readers. And the same 2 followers, which I thank you for your support.
Despite 45 degrees temps and a cold rain, this will be our first white Christmas in three years. Since December we have had a snowstorm every weekend, last weekend was 2 inches of blowing and drifting snow and -4 daytime temps. Which in essence is our typical winter weather in Christmas. We just been spoiled by two Brown Christmases in passing years. But I don't think the weather isn't as frightful as it seems as we have to deal with dumbass drivers in SUVs or big pickup trucks driving NASCAR speed down the ice slicked highways and by ways with no regard with anything in their way. Or washing your car off only to be stuck behind the sand and salt trucks trying to do their jobs and I picked the wrong time or road. And more bad drivers. Even with two or three cars stuck off the road doesn't deter the texting idiots driving with their knees or Bubba Trump plowing through at 80 MPH. I like life, but I hate people, especially the ones that do such crap as mentioned above. This world isn't coming together but rather splitting apart. And judging by the elections this year it does seem we are at the end times.
But everybody has family and everybody has their own agenda. And even to the Texting dudes and dudettes and Bubba Speeder we'll warrant a Merry Christmas to them as well. Just don't try to kill somebody on their destination too.
(photo: Ivy)
And to the rest of us naughty or nice or both. Happy Holidays as well. In terms of naughty I'll take Ivy Doomkitty under my tree any Christmas.
Or another drum set.
Each year Christmas becomes less and less interesting for me. I don't have children or grandkids and the spirit of gift giving to those kids are just a dream. And getting older, I really get less interested of checking out band gigs. I thought I would have an early Friday Night off to look up Karl Hudson and The Buzz but by the time I left, I was too tired to pay him a visit. But I need to show up at his gigs just to support his band efforts. The man moved back here from Florida to frigid Iowa and playing to a crowd of 10 people in a bar which somebody would steal one of his microphones, gives good cause that maybe he should have stayed in Florida. The weather is a hell of a lot nicer there.
I finally sat down to listen to Bob Dylan's Christmas In The Heart CD and come to find it's actually quite listenable, in fact I prefer his Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas over anybody else. I like Christmas Blues and the polka flavored Must Be Santa. It's product but it's like Christmas With The Townedgers, nothing to get too overly excited about but it is sung from the heart, despite Dylan's wheeze like vocal. A B grade and a wink . Christgau's take:
Christmas in the Heart [Columbia, 2009]
Funnier than the Chipmunks, give him that ("Must Be Santa," "Winter Wonderland"). * B-
Here in Record World, life is great judging by the ratings. Over 10,000 for the first time ever, seems like I'm getting more readers looking at the archives and giving hope that this is not a lost cause. But in the circle of life, things happened along the way. Getting back into the music scene and playing more often, recording with The Townedgers and try to balance work with tasks around the house, this place needs an overall or a big ole dump outside to throw things out. And next year I need to really get rid of this leaning tower of pisa entertainment center for a more sturdier one. This place is not looking any better than the abandoned school house down the road. Music continues onward and so does life. Perhaps five years ago I should have heeded my advice and paid more attention to my love interest rather than post 10 to 15 blogs in social media talking about it. Social media is a blessing and an curse and you have to balance out the good and the bad and see if it's worth keeping, your special someone or a blogging hobby. In the meantime, that special someone now has a new special somebody and is happy about it, and I still have this blog and this subversive life style of social media and music junkie. I like to think next year to have a special somebody to celebrate Christmas with but as history as shown that will not happen. Who knows, maybe next year Record World will have 20,000 readers. And the same 2 followers, which I thank you for your support.
Despite 45 degrees temps and a cold rain, this will be our first white Christmas in three years. Since December we have had a snowstorm every weekend, last weekend was 2 inches of blowing and drifting snow and -4 daytime temps. Which in essence is our typical winter weather in Christmas. We just been spoiled by two Brown Christmases in passing years. But I don't think the weather isn't as frightful as it seems as we have to deal with dumbass drivers in SUVs or big pickup trucks driving NASCAR speed down the ice slicked highways and by ways with no regard with anything in their way. Or washing your car off only to be stuck behind the sand and salt trucks trying to do their jobs and I picked the wrong time or road. And more bad drivers. Even with two or three cars stuck off the road doesn't deter the texting idiots driving with their knees or Bubba Trump plowing through at 80 MPH. I like life, but I hate people, especially the ones that do such crap as mentioned above. This world isn't coming together but rather splitting apart. And judging by the elections this year it does seem we are at the end times.
But everybody has family and everybody has their own agenda. And even to the Texting dudes and dudettes and Bubba Speeder we'll warrant a Merry Christmas to them as well. Just don't try to kill somebody on their destination too.
(photo: Ivy)
And to the rest of us naughty or nice or both. Happy Holidays as well. In terms of naughty I'll take Ivy Doomkitty under my tree any Christmas.
Or another drum set.
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Week In Review: TE Radio 25, Ellis Kell, Blue Band 35, LA Chargers, Rock and Roll HOF 2016
Zsa Zsa Gabor passed away, she was 99.
But the the bigger news around here was Ellis Kell losing his battle with cancer at age 62. Kell is a Quad Cities legendary rock and roller who with the Ellis Kell Band opened up many a headliner act in the Davenport area in the late 70s and early 80s. Kell also started the RME experience, encouraging many people to take up playing music. Sean Leary writes a nice piece on the Q C Legend. https://www.quadcities.com/columns/seanleary/farewell-ellis-kell-you-were-true-blue-to-the-end/
Obituary: http://www.wheelanpressly.com/notices/Ellis-Kell
With the death of Arnie Erickson the Music Loft, one of the last of the original music stores in Cedar Rapids will be closing their doors at the end of 2016. Craig Erickson continues to teach guitar and play his music around the area. I do admit I haven't talked to Craig all that much, our paths rarely cross on the jam circuit but in the early 1980s I did buy drum stuff from them, I think they were the only place in town that sold Camber Cymbals. Starter cymbals of course, but I bought my first 4 track recorder from Craig in 1989. So basically Craig is responsible for The Townedgers music sound although we didn't know how to work it for about 2 years.
On December 9th, I gotten word that Rex Glasgow left this world, he was 59. He'll be forever known as the DJ up at Super Skate in the late 70s and early 80s best known for saying ALL SKATE after slow skate songs. Rex was a big part of my growing up years in town and he will be missed greatly.
Longtime KRNA programmer and DJ Greg "Shark" Scharnau passed away Tuesday from a long bout with cancer he was 49. Greg also worked for KDAT and KCRG before moving over to KRNA and hanging there for 14 years. A career as they say in radio.
Since living without TV, you probably have noticed not much in terms of sports anymore. I lost interest in the NFL and watching the follies that is the soon to be history San Diego Chargers, blowing their sixth game of having a lead and getting swept again by the Oakland (Las Vegas) Raiders 19-16, in front of a crowd that had more Raiders fans than Chargers. San Diego folk, tired of Alex and Dean Spanos jibber jabbing of wanting a new stadium and basically will more back to Los Angeles for the first time in 56 seasons. L.A. can have them. It's pathetic to see Phillip (Mr. INT) Rivers trying to rally a team only to get knocked down or throwing errant passes to which Oakland would intercept and run the clock out. Granted Rivers' receivers are not high caliber, but rather rookies and glass handed WRs who would drop balls and run the wrong way. For 12 seasons I have seen Rivers fail more than win, perhaps that's bestowed on the Spanos family who can never find any sort of coaches or general managers worth a shit, and had to watch former QBs like the hated Eli Manning and odd man out Drew Brees win Super Bowls while the Chargers spin their wheels. I enjoyed the Dan Fouts era, and rooted for Brees as he did his damnest to get the team to the playoffs but basically former worthless GM Ass Jack Smith mailed him off to New Orleans. I wouldn't say Rivers is as worthless as first round flop Ryan Leaf but Phillip has been my least favorite Charger. Still, Rivers's time as a Charger could be nearing at an end, it's once again rebuilding time and perhaps a change of scenery means a change in coaches. Mike McCoy simply doesn't have it. 56 years ago the Chargers did have a very good team but they couldn't draw flies at the Colosseum.
So instead of seeing another Rivers disappointment, lets' have another archival picture of a Chargers RB Paul Lowe playing in front of 55 people on a late autumn afternoon, in LA. Chances are better that the newly return L A Chargers will have better crowds, but the 1960 team could probably take out the 2016 Chargers any day of the week. I'm tired talking about this already, moving on.
Are people sick of Neil Young? Judging by the buyer's remorse and indifference it seems that way. After a poor showing in the lower 200 for Earth, his new album Peace Trail didn't even chart at all. Since the passing of David Briggs, the man that made Neil's albums classics, Young tends to throw things together, to see if things stick. Sometimes it works (Chrome Dreams 2, Greendale) sometimes it's an inflated mess (Storyville, The Monsanto Years) and once in a while it don't work (Are You Passionate?), but Neil always had enough in him to keep me interested and pony up dollars for his next efforts. He's made five albums in the past three years and people might be overwhelmed by his vast catalog. Earth was an interesting concept live album and if he didn't go an almost full 30 minutes on Love And Only Love perhaps the world might have taken to that album better. But Neil Young continues to blaze his own trail and even if his failures are out there (Arc), he demands the full listener's attention although common folk would have stalled after 5 minutes of Love And Only Love Earth Version. You're not going to get another Harvest or Harvest Moon, nor Ragged Glory., and even with the no chart showing of Peace Trail, Neil could interest the buyers with a standalone CD release, it seems better than most of his 2010's output. I do like Peace Trail, raggedness and all and fuzz tone harmonica and it is a decent protest album of the 2010s, Neil standing with the Indians on the the pipeline issue, it's his best album (to me) since Living With War. Neil has partnered up with John Hanlon, who was around when Briggs was alive, but in reality, it's Neil producing the whole thing and John recording it. David Briggs would have found a way to make it a classic album and his loss really has changed Neil's albums over the years, they vary from so so to good to sometimes very good but never really elevated to classic status. But I'm sure Neil is back in the studio with a new set of songs done his way and 2017 you will hear from Neil Young, whether you like it or not. I do.
And now the big news of the Jann Wanner Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame inductees. A bit more rocking and rolling with the usual Wanner favorites thrown in there. I'll put them in the order of importance for me.
Yes-For many years, many folks wanted Wanner to induct Yes into the HOF for their inventive prog rock, but it took Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman to replace Tony Banks and Tony Kaye, not that both Banks and Kaye were bad but Howe gave a little more something to The Yes Album and Wakeman on Fragile. Basically lineups came and gone, the one constant was Chris Squire, who is now dead and won't be able to enjoy the festivities. Yes was revised a few times, Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes came on board in 1980 with Drama and then Trevor Rabin and Tony Kaye with Jon Anderson joined Squire and Alan White for 90125 which gave Yes a more pop sound, the inescapable Owner Of A Lonely Heart and the prog pop of Changes. Big Generator and Talk continued this sort of sound before the band brought back Steve Howe and they still made classic albums 1999's The Ladder, which was Bruce Fairbairn's finest hour before he passed away. Magnification, basically the final Yes studio album was still enjoyable, and the band came full circle when Trevor Horn produced Fly From Home, to which at that point Jon Anderson was replaced by a soundalike. They're in the twilight of their career but with Squire gone, they're an official tribute band.
Journey-The fans spoke up and voted them in, otherwise they'd be on the outside looking in. Basically a knockoff of former Santana members Greg Rolie and Neil Schon hooking with Ross Valory and Ansley Dunbar (don't forget George Tickner) and making three albums of varying jam rock degree although Look Into The Future hinted at prog rock too. Rolie's vocals not standing out the first three albums do have some good music in them but with Steve Perry joining up for Infinity, their sound changed overnight with massive hits like Wheel In The Sky and Lights. Dunbar either got fired or left and Steve Smith (Ronnie Montrose) played drums and the classic lineup was then made with albums like Evolution and Departure. Jonathan Cain (The Babys) replaced Rolie and Escape rewrote the book on arena rock and it sold a ton with their signature song Don't Stop Belevelin. By then I begin to lose interest as it became the Steve Perry Band and later albums sounding more desperate than inspired. Journey imploded in 1989 but reunited on the Trial By Fire album and Neil Schon continues to lead that band with a Steve Perry soundalike on vocals. Steve Smith has rejoined them on occasion too.
ELO-Another hit making machine of the 70s overlooked for many years, Jeff Lynne owns a share of classic rock radio with hits like Don't Bring Me Down, Evil Woman, Turn To Stone and Rock and Roll Is King. Originally an offshoot of The Move, the eccentric Roy Wood plays on the first album No Answer, this was Lynne's band all along the way, and in 1973 Lynne decided to cross Beethoven's 9th with Chuck Berry on Roll Over Beethoven. The Best of ELO (the updated one) has all the hits but I tend to be partial to 1979's Discovery and 2001's Zoom to which Lynne put under the ELO banner rather than his own name. Lynne has produced Dave Edmunds, Joe Walsh, Del Shannon and Tom Petty over the years as well as taking part of the Traveling Wilburys.
Pearl Jam-The band we thought that would implode first in the grunge years has been the longest lasting band from the Seattle scene and Eddie Vedder has branched out into other things and being one of the biggest Chicago Cubs fans out there, taking part of them winning the world series by recording a new song. Their early albums, Ten, Vs, and Vitalogy are reasons why they are in the hall of fame but keeping Dave Abuzzesee and Jack Irons out of the inductions is blasphemy, Dave's power beats ARE why Pearl Jam is in the hall of fame. Originally the guys were once part of Mother Love Bone, to which when Andrew Wood OD in 1989, 1990, the band would reform under various jams and getting Eddie Vedder. Matt Cameron plays drums for Pearl Jam and keeps a tight beat but to me Dave Abbuzzesee was the Keith Moon to Matt's Charlie Watts.
Nile Rodgers-Since Chic wasn't getting in, Wanner decided to nominate Nile for his production and guitar playing skills. Nile has produced the likes of Madonna but also Stevie Ray Vaughn and Ric Ocasek.
Joan Baez-Legendary folk singer who best years were with Vanguard and had a hit with The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down and hung out with Bob Dylan a lot. Later years with A and M had Diamonds And Dust as a top 20 hit too.
Tupac Shakur-20 years ago after his killing, Tupac makes the HOF. The sixth rapper to do so. Not rock and roll but with his gangsta style rapping, it's rock attitude.
(Photo: The Blue Band) http://www.theblueband.com/
So far, December has been a bitch with cold weather and snowstorms every weekend. The 25 below windchill canceled a few shows and killed my Corsica's starter but Redd started up. It made jamming quite easy, since hardly anybody showed up and on Tuesday Night I finally got to share the stage with Bob Dorr and Jeff Petersen of the legendary Blue Band up at Parlor City and managed to do six songs with Tim Giblin host and arranger. The Blue Band has been around for 35 years now, with a New Year's Eve Gig at the Artisan Sanctuary in Czech Village. Bob is best known for KUNI Back Tracks which is still on Saturday Afternoon and he still has a wide range of musical knowledge, even wailing away on I'm A Man, and helping Jeff Petersen singing to Four In The Morning and Move It On Over. Even with the wild drummer taking a break from work to play, we had a few girls dancing to Rockin My Life Away. Special thanks to Bob for letting me play his drums. http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/BobDorrandtheBlueBand
And now the ratings game. We are in uncharted territory, over 9,000 views so far this month. Not exactly sure why the sudden boom in interest, but with 10 days left Record World might reach an zenith, 10,000 views. Which means the peaks and valleys will be huge, kinda like Mt Everest one month, and lower than Death Valley the next. I have had many other things going on that kinda kept me blogging here than I used to in the past. I still have to come up with the review of this year, and the events that happened. I have noticed that the spam blogger comments have spiked big time, which is the drawback of more readership here. Once in a while we'll get a real comment about music or the eye candy shots, but in the battle of Coke Vs Pepsi, I prefer root beer, or sweet tea from a place that can make good tasting tea. And judging for the shoddy quality of tea at Kum N Go and Hardees, Florida Georgia Line makes better music. And that's saying how bad sweet tea is around these places. Half the time I want to go up to somebody at Kum N Go and say, geez you might be able to taste some tea among the 10 gallons of sugar used in a 32 Oz cup. And since you requested this Tad, here's the dream date girl of the month, introducing this week's edition of Record Reviews.
Bette Midler-It's The Girls (East West/WB 2014)
Her first album in 8 years and she pays tribute to the Girls sound, be it The Chordettes, Andrew Sisters, Motown, 60s Girls Group and even TLC. Basically done for fun, Midler loves the songs enough to play them like the record did, although she makes Waterfalls a ballad without the rapping. Midler is enjoyable when she does the songs right, she rarely over sings, and her add libbing on Too Many Fish In The Sea and Give Him A Great Big Kiss (Muah) made me break out in a smile, and with a wink and a nod to "the girls" (guess which ones?) Previous reviews complains of over production but I don't hear it on this, sometimes a bit too much drum boasting from JR Robinson but that's nit picking. The country arrangement of You Can't Hurry Love may not fit the song but that's nit picking as well. Midler is excellent at ballads, (Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow) and revisits her swing songs with conviction (It's The Girl), and still has one of the sweetest vocals in her later years. And still looks like good eye candy too. An overlooked feel good album of the 2010s.
Grade B+
Will Bradley Featuring Ray McKinley-It's Square But It Rocks (Hep UK 2002)
In the swing era, Bradley is overlooked and forgotten which is a shame. Bradley's band offered equal parts of Boogie Woogie to their Big Band Swing and Ray McKinley could hold his own with Gene Krupa or Chick Webb or Cozy Cole on drums. This is the second compilation on Hep, the better known songs are on volume 1 (Down A Road Apiece anybody?), which since I have the Columbia Best Of The Big Bands CD of Bradley/McKinley I don't really need volume 1. First part is mostly big band balladry, not bad, but it is the boogie swing that I'm more interested in and it does feature Beat Me Daddy Eight To The Bar in all of its 5 minute glory and the lesser interesting Scrub Me Momma with a Boogie Beat. And they had a rocking piano player in Freddie Slack too. Next to Louie Jordan Will Bradley does figure in early rock and roll, but they call it boogie instead.
Grade A-
Jose Feliciano-Encore! (Wounded Bird/RCA 2010)
Among the Wounded Bird cutouts at Half Price Books is Jose finest moments at RCA, but I find it tedious. Hit single Light My Fire managed to revamp The Doors big hit and sets the pattern for later singles, starts out softly, then Jose gets caught up and goes all over the place. Gotta love his rapid fire light my fire barrage of the final fadeout and the single version is better. Susie Q, Jose gets creepy and it turns out to be more of a forgotten fart of a song than say Hi Heel Sneakers. Pegao, sounds like Jose redoing Classical Gas and he keeps Wichita Lineman as a instrumental, before he goes over the edge on wrecking California Dreaming. Joe Cocker has the better version of Hitchcock Railway, but Jose's isn't that bad. If you're interested in the cross pop of the late 60s and decent Spanish guitar playing it's worth a listen but you can live without it. Missing in action: Feliz Navidad, that Yule time classic song you hear every hour on the hour on the Christmas channel and probably Jose's finest moment. But the single version of Light My Fire is required listening, it's better than Tiny Tim's Tip Toe Through The Tulips.
Grade B
Brass Transit (Self Released 1998)
Now here's something that wasn't part of the grunge or Nu Metal garbage of the 1990s. A local ensemble of 11 guys and more horn players than Chicago had at that time. I have no qualms about bands trying to recapture the horn sounds of Chicago or Blood Sweat And Tears and at times they have funky sound that starts the record out jumping on Try To Decide or the goofy Hey El Nino. But as the record progresses onward, they then start mining into Lighthouse territory or even Chase, both bands of that era capable of making great singles (One Fine Morning for Lighthouse, Get It On for Chase) but then stacking their albums with subpar ballads or half assed R and B. While I credit them for being original, perhaps they should have sneaked in a cover song from EWF or Ides Of March, they have done a wild Vehicle cover in their concerts. Brass Transit continues to dazzle people in concerts 18 years after the fact but this record never really cooks, as they say. A slow simmer actually.
Grade C+
Robert Christgau:
Buddy Guy: Born to Play Guitar (Silvertone) At 79, last Chicago blues master standing nabs cameos, nails songs by his Berklee-trained drummer, survives the Muscle Shoals Horns, and claims his birthright yet again ("Come Back Muddy," "Kiss Me Quick") **
David Bromberg: The Blues, the Whole Blues, and Nothing but the Blues (Red House) In the year the Rolling Stones capitalized their franchise on the cheap by mining the blues of their youth, who'd have guessed they'd get smoked by this equally ancient folk muso? Yet it's no contest. Where the one remake Mick and the boys shine up a little is Little Johnny Taylor's near-soul 1971 "Everybody Knows About My Good Thing," Bromberg leads a livelier band through a set that kills the same the-postman-told-me shtick. Prone as a young hippie to the fallacy that blues was a music of old men on porches, now he digs into these lyrics as the sexually insecure cuckold he can evoke as Sonny Boy Williamson and Bobby Bland could not, adding a nerdy comedy routine to Bessie Smith's "You've Been a Good Ole Wagon" and showcasing the belated debut of the pathetic "How Come My Bulldog Don't Bark When You Come 'Round," which he learned long ago from a lead sheet whose composer was too embarrassed to put his name on it. In real life, meanwhile, Bromberg has long been married to musician Nancy Josephson. They own a violin store in Wilmington, Delaware, where she's made a name for herself creating vodou-influenced beaded objects in a nearby studio. Ain't love grand? And let's hear it for art, too. A MINUS
Happy Holidays!
Townedger Radio 25-The Best Of 2016 Playlist (On Lucky Star Radio 12/22/16)
https://www.mixcloud.com/LuckyStarRadio/townedger-radio-25/
You Want It Darker-Leonard Cohen
My Sweet Charade-Tommy Bruner
Can't Be Wrong-Wooden Nickel Lottery
Wonderful Crazy Night-Elton John
Young Man Blues-Mose Allison
Old Man From The Mountain-Merle Haggard
Love 99-The Townedgers
Waiting For The Thunder-Blackberry Smoke
Bad Motor Scooter-Paraphernalia Tyrus
Shake It Baby-Texas Hippie Coalition
Sugar Shake-Mike Eldred Trio
You Wouldn't Know Me-Miranda Lambert
Ramon Casiano-Drive By Truckers
Young Blood-Green Day
Frogman-Whiskey Myers
The Moon Upstairs-Mott The Hoople
But the the bigger news around here was Ellis Kell losing his battle with cancer at age 62. Kell is a Quad Cities legendary rock and roller who with the Ellis Kell Band opened up many a headliner act in the Davenport area in the late 70s and early 80s. Kell also started the RME experience, encouraging many people to take up playing music. Sean Leary writes a nice piece on the Q C Legend. https://www.quadcities.com/columns/seanleary/farewell-ellis-kell-you-were-true-blue-to-the-end/
Obituary: http://www.wheelanpressly.com/notices/Ellis-Kell
With the death of Arnie Erickson the Music Loft, one of the last of the original music stores in Cedar Rapids will be closing their doors at the end of 2016. Craig Erickson continues to teach guitar and play his music around the area. I do admit I haven't talked to Craig all that much, our paths rarely cross on the jam circuit but in the early 1980s I did buy drum stuff from them, I think they were the only place in town that sold Camber Cymbals. Starter cymbals of course, but I bought my first 4 track recorder from Craig in 1989. So basically Craig is responsible for The Townedgers music sound although we didn't know how to work it for about 2 years.
On December 9th, I gotten word that Rex Glasgow left this world, he was 59. He'll be forever known as the DJ up at Super Skate in the late 70s and early 80s best known for saying ALL SKATE after slow skate songs. Rex was a big part of my growing up years in town and he will be missed greatly.
Longtime KRNA programmer and DJ Greg "Shark" Scharnau passed away Tuesday from a long bout with cancer he was 49. Greg also worked for KDAT and KCRG before moving over to KRNA and hanging there for 14 years. A career as they say in radio.
Since living without TV, you probably have noticed not much in terms of sports anymore. I lost interest in the NFL and watching the follies that is the soon to be history San Diego Chargers, blowing their sixth game of having a lead and getting swept again by the Oakland (Las Vegas) Raiders 19-16, in front of a crowd that had more Raiders fans than Chargers. San Diego folk, tired of Alex and Dean Spanos jibber jabbing of wanting a new stadium and basically will more back to Los Angeles for the first time in 56 seasons. L.A. can have them. It's pathetic to see Phillip (Mr. INT) Rivers trying to rally a team only to get knocked down or throwing errant passes to which Oakland would intercept and run the clock out. Granted Rivers' receivers are not high caliber, but rather rookies and glass handed WRs who would drop balls and run the wrong way. For 12 seasons I have seen Rivers fail more than win, perhaps that's bestowed on the Spanos family who can never find any sort of coaches or general managers worth a shit, and had to watch former QBs like the hated Eli Manning and odd man out Drew Brees win Super Bowls while the Chargers spin their wheels. I enjoyed the Dan Fouts era, and rooted for Brees as he did his damnest to get the team to the playoffs but basically former worthless GM Ass Jack Smith mailed him off to New Orleans. I wouldn't say Rivers is as worthless as first round flop Ryan Leaf but Phillip has been my least favorite Charger. Still, Rivers's time as a Charger could be nearing at an end, it's once again rebuilding time and perhaps a change of scenery means a change in coaches. Mike McCoy simply doesn't have it. 56 years ago the Chargers did have a very good team but they couldn't draw flies at the Colosseum.
So instead of seeing another Rivers disappointment, lets' have another archival picture of a Chargers RB Paul Lowe playing in front of 55 people on a late autumn afternoon, in LA. Chances are better that the newly return L A Chargers will have better crowds, but the 1960 team could probably take out the 2016 Chargers any day of the week. I'm tired talking about this already, moving on.
Are people sick of Neil Young? Judging by the buyer's remorse and indifference it seems that way. After a poor showing in the lower 200 for Earth, his new album Peace Trail didn't even chart at all. Since the passing of David Briggs, the man that made Neil's albums classics, Young tends to throw things together, to see if things stick. Sometimes it works (Chrome Dreams 2, Greendale) sometimes it's an inflated mess (Storyville, The Monsanto Years) and once in a while it don't work (Are You Passionate?), but Neil always had enough in him to keep me interested and pony up dollars for his next efforts. He's made five albums in the past three years and people might be overwhelmed by his vast catalog. Earth was an interesting concept live album and if he didn't go an almost full 30 minutes on Love And Only Love perhaps the world might have taken to that album better. But Neil Young continues to blaze his own trail and even if his failures are out there (Arc), he demands the full listener's attention although common folk would have stalled after 5 minutes of Love And Only Love Earth Version. You're not going to get another Harvest or Harvest Moon, nor Ragged Glory., and even with the no chart showing of Peace Trail, Neil could interest the buyers with a standalone CD release, it seems better than most of his 2010's output. I do like Peace Trail, raggedness and all and fuzz tone harmonica and it is a decent protest album of the 2010s, Neil standing with the Indians on the the pipeline issue, it's his best album (to me) since Living With War. Neil has partnered up with John Hanlon, who was around when Briggs was alive, but in reality, it's Neil producing the whole thing and John recording it. David Briggs would have found a way to make it a classic album and his loss really has changed Neil's albums over the years, they vary from so so to good to sometimes very good but never really elevated to classic status. But I'm sure Neil is back in the studio with a new set of songs done his way and 2017 you will hear from Neil Young, whether you like it or not. I do.
And now the big news of the Jann Wanner Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame inductees. A bit more rocking and rolling with the usual Wanner favorites thrown in there. I'll put them in the order of importance for me.
Yes-For many years, many folks wanted Wanner to induct Yes into the HOF for their inventive prog rock, but it took Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman to replace Tony Banks and Tony Kaye, not that both Banks and Kaye were bad but Howe gave a little more something to The Yes Album and Wakeman on Fragile. Basically lineups came and gone, the one constant was Chris Squire, who is now dead and won't be able to enjoy the festivities. Yes was revised a few times, Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes came on board in 1980 with Drama and then Trevor Rabin and Tony Kaye with Jon Anderson joined Squire and Alan White for 90125 which gave Yes a more pop sound, the inescapable Owner Of A Lonely Heart and the prog pop of Changes. Big Generator and Talk continued this sort of sound before the band brought back Steve Howe and they still made classic albums 1999's The Ladder, which was Bruce Fairbairn's finest hour before he passed away. Magnification, basically the final Yes studio album was still enjoyable, and the band came full circle when Trevor Horn produced Fly From Home, to which at that point Jon Anderson was replaced by a soundalike. They're in the twilight of their career but with Squire gone, they're an official tribute band.
Journey-The fans spoke up and voted them in, otherwise they'd be on the outside looking in. Basically a knockoff of former Santana members Greg Rolie and Neil Schon hooking with Ross Valory and Ansley Dunbar (don't forget George Tickner) and making three albums of varying jam rock degree although Look Into The Future hinted at prog rock too. Rolie's vocals not standing out the first three albums do have some good music in them but with Steve Perry joining up for Infinity, their sound changed overnight with massive hits like Wheel In The Sky and Lights. Dunbar either got fired or left and Steve Smith (Ronnie Montrose) played drums and the classic lineup was then made with albums like Evolution and Departure. Jonathan Cain (The Babys) replaced Rolie and Escape rewrote the book on arena rock and it sold a ton with their signature song Don't Stop Belevelin. By then I begin to lose interest as it became the Steve Perry Band and later albums sounding more desperate than inspired. Journey imploded in 1989 but reunited on the Trial By Fire album and Neil Schon continues to lead that band with a Steve Perry soundalike on vocals. Steve Smith has rejoined them on occasion too.
ELO-Another hit making machine of the 70s overlooked for many years, Jeff Lynne owns a share of classic rock radio with hits like Don't Bring Me Down, Evil Woman, Turn To Stone and Rock and Roll Is King. Originally an offshoot of The Move, the eccentric Roy Wood plays on the first album No Answer, this was Lynne's band all along the way, and in 1973 Lynne decided to cross Beethoven's 9th with Chuck Berry on Roll Over Beethoven. The Best of ELO (the updated one) has all the hits but I tend to be partial to 1979's Discovery and 2001's Zoom to which Lynne put under the ELO banner rather than his own name. Lynne has produced Dave Edmunds, Joe Walsh, Del Shannon and Tom Petty over the years as well as taking part of the Traveling Wilburys.
Pearl Jam-The band we thought that would implode first in the grunge years has been the longest lasting band from the Seattle scene and Eddie Vedder has branched out into other things and being one of the biggest Chicago Cubs fans out there, taking part of them winning the world series by recording a new song. Their early albums, Ten, Vs, and Vitalogy are reasons why they are in the hall of fame but keeping Dave Abuzzesee and Jack Irons out of the inductions is blasphemy, Dave's power beats ARE why Pearl Jam is in the hall of fame. Originally the guys were once part of Mother Love Bone, to which when Andrew Wood OD in 1989, 1990, the band would reform under various jams and getting Eddie Vedder. Matt Cameron plays drums for Pearl Jam and keeps a tight beat but to me Dave Abbuzzesee was the Keith Moon to Matt's Charlie Watts.
Nile Rodgers-Since Chic wasn't getting in, Wanner decided to nominate Nile for his production and guitar playing skills. Nile has produced the likes of Madonna but also Stevie Ray Vaughn and Ric Ocasek.
Joan Baez-Legendary folk singer who best years were with Vanguard and had a hit with The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down and hung out with Bob Dylan a lot. Later years with A and M had Diamonds And Dust as a top 20 hit too.
Tupac Shakur-20 years ago after his killing, Tupac makes the HOF. The sixth rapper to do so. Not rock and roll but with his gangsta style rapping, it's rock attitude.
(Photo: The Blue Band) http://www.theblueband.com/
So far, December has been a bitch with cold weather and snowstorms every weekend. The 25 below windchill canceled a few shows and killed my Corsica's starter but Redd started up. It made jamming quite easy, since hardly anybody showed up and on Tuesday Night I finally got to share the stage with Bob Dorr and Jeff Petersen of the legendary Blue Band up at Parlor City and managed to do six songs with Tim Giblin host and arranger. The Blue Band has been around for 35 years now, with a New Year's Eve Gig at the Artisan Sanctuary in Czech Village. Bob is best known for KUNI Back Tracks which is still on Saturday Afternoon and he still has a wide range of musical knowledge, even wailing away on I'm A Man, and helping Jeff Petersen singing to Four In The Morning and Move It On Over. Even with the wild drummer taking a break from work to play, we had a few girls dancing to Rockin My Life Away. Special thanks to Bob for letting me play his drums. http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/BobDorrandtheBlueBand
And now the ratings game. We are in uncharted territory, over 9,000 views so far this month. Not exactly sure why the sudden boom in interest, but with 10 days left Record World might reach an zenith, 10,000 views. Which means the peaks and valleys will be huge, kinda like Mt Everest one month, and lower than Death Valley the next. I have had many other things going on that kinda kept me blogging here than I used to in the past. I still have to come up with the review of this year, and the events that happened. I have noticed that the spam blogger comments have spiked big time, which is the drawback of more readership here. Once in a while we'll get a real comment about music or the eye candy shots, but in the battle of Coke Vs Pepsi, I prefer root beer, or sweet tea from a place that can make good tasting tea. And judging for the shoddy quality of tea at Kum N Go and Hardees, Florida Georgia Line makes better music. And that's saying how bad sweet tea is around these places. Half the time I want to go up to somebody at Kum N Go and say, geez you might be able to taste some tea among the 10 gallons of sugar used in a 32 Oz cup. And since you requested this Tad, here's the dream date girl of the month, introducing this week's edition of Record Reviews.
Bette Midler-It's The Girls (East West/WB 2014)
Her first album in 8 years and she pays tribute to the Girls sound, be it The Chordettes, Andrew Sisters, Motown, 60s Girls Group and even TLC. Basically done for fun, Midler loves the songs enough to play them like the record did, although she makes Waterfalls a ballad without the rapping. Midler is enjoyable when she does the songs right, she rarely over sings, and her add libbing on Too Many Fish In The Sea and Give Him A Great Big Kiss (Muah) made me break out in a smile, and with a wink and a nod to "the girls" (guess which ones?) Previous reviews complains of over production but I don't hear it on this, sometimes a bit too much drum boasting from JR Robinson but that's nit picking. The country arrangement of You Can't Hurry Love may not fit the song but that's nit picking as well. Midler is excellent at ballads, (Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow) and revisits her swing songs with conviction (It's The Girl), and still has one of the sweetest vocals in her later years. And still looks like good eye candy too. An overlooked feel good album of the 2010s.
Grade B+
Will Bradley Featuring Ray McKinley-It's Square But It Rocks (Hep UK 2002)
In the swing era, Bradley is overlooked and forgotten which is a shame. Bradley's band offered equal parts of Boogie Woogie to their Big Band Swing and Ray McKinley could hold his own with Gene Krupa or Chick Webb or Cozy Cole on drums. This is the second compilation on Hep, the better known songs are on volume 1 (Down A Road Apiece anybody?), which since I have the Columbia Best Of The Big Bands CD of Bradley/McKinley I don't really need volume 1. First part is mostly big band balladry, not bad, but it is the boogie swing that I'm more interested in and it does feature Beat Me Daddy Eight To The Bar in all of its 5 minute glory and the lesser interesting Scrub Me Momma with a Boogie Beat. And they had a rocking piano player in Freddie Slack too. Next to Louie Jordan Will Bradley does figure in early rock and roll, but they call it boogie instead.
Grade A-
Jose Feliciano-Encore! (Wounded Bird/RCA 2010)
Among the Wounded Bird cutouts at Half Price Books is Jose finest moments at RCA, but I find it tedious. Hit single Light My Fire managed to revamp The Doors big hit and sets the pattern for later singles, starts out softly, then Jose gets caught up and goes all over the place. Gotta love his rapid fire light my fire barrage of the final fadeout and the single version is better. Susie Q, Jose gets creepy and it turns out to be more of a forgotten fart of a song than say Hi Heel Sneakers. Pegao, sounds like Jose redoing Classical Gas and he keeps Wichita Lineman as a instrumental, before he goes over the edge on wrecking California Dreaming. Joe Cocker has the better version of Hitchcock Railway, but Jose's isn't that bad. If you're interested in the cross pop of the late 60s and decent Spanish guitar playing it's worth a listen but you can live without it. Missing in action: Feliz Navidad, that Yule time classic song you hear every hour on the hour on the Christmas channel and probably Jose's finest moment. But the single version of Light My Fire is required listening, it's better than Tiny Tim's Tip Toe Through The Tulips.
Grade B
Brass Transit (Self Released 1998)
Now here's something that wasn't part of the grunge or Nu Metal garbage of the 1990s. A local ensemble of 11 guys and more horn players than Chicago had at that time. I have no qualms about bands trying to recapture the horn sounds of Chicago or Blood Sweat And Tears and at times they have funky sound that starts the record out jumping on Try To Decide or the goofy Hey El Nino. But as the record progresses onward, they then start mining into Lighthouse territory or even Chase, both bands of that era capable of making great singles (One Fine Morning for Lighthouse, Get It On for Chase) but then stacking their albums with subpar ballads or half assed R and B. While I credit them for being original, perhaps they should have sneaked in a cover song from EWF or Ides Of March, they have done a wild Vehicle cover in their concerts. Brass Transit continues to dazzle people in concerts 18 years after the fact but this record never really cooks, as they say. A slow simmer actually.
Grade C+
Robert Christgau:
Buddy Guy: Born to Play Guitar (Silvertone) At 79, last Chicago blues master standing nabs cameos, nails songs by his Berklee-trained drummer, survives the Muscle Shoals Horns, and claims his birthright yet again ("Come Back Muddy," "Kiss Me Quick") **
David Bromberg: The Blues, the Whole Blues, and Nothing but the Blues (Red House) In the year the Rolling Stones capitalized their franchise on the cheap by mining the blues of their youth, who'd have guessed they'd get smoked by this equally ancient folk muso? Yet it's no contest. Where the one remake Mick and the boys shine up a little is Little Johnny Taylor's near-soul 1971 "Everybody Knows About My Good Thing," Bromberg leads a livelier band through a set that kills the same the-postman-told-me shtick. Prone as a young hippie to the fallacy that blues was a music of old men on porches, now he digs into these lyrics as the sexually insecure cuckold he can evoke as Sonny Boy Williamson and Bobby Bland could not, adding a nerdy comedy routine to Bessie Smith's "You've Been a Good Ole Wagon" and showcasing the belated debut of the pathetic "How Come My Bulldog Don't Bark When You Come 'Round," which he learned long ago from a lead sheet whose composer was too embarrassed to put his name on it. In real life, meanwhile, Bromberg has long been married to musician Nancy Josephson. They own a violin store in Wilmington, Delaware, where she's made a name for herself creating vodou-influenced beaded objects in a nearby studio. Ain't love grand? And let's hear it for art, too. A MINUS
Happy Holidays!
Townedger Radio 25-The Best Of 2016 Playlist (On Lucky Star Radio 12/22/16)
https://www.mixcloud.com/LuckyStarRadio/townedger-radio-25/
You Want It Darker-Leonard Cohen
My Sweet Charade-Tommy Bruner
Can't Be Wrong-Wooden Nickel Lottery
Wonderful Crazy Night-Elton John
Young Man Blues-Mose Allison
Old Man From The Mountain-Merle Haggard
Love 99-The Townedgers
Waiting For The Thunder-Blackberry Smoke
Bad Motor Scooter-Paraphernalia Tyrus
Shake It Baby-Texas Hippie Coalition
Sugar Shake-Mike Eldred Trio
You Wouldn't Know Me-Miranda Lambert
Ramon Casiano-Drive By Truckers
Young Blood-Green Day
Frogman-Whiskey Myers
The Moon Upstairs-Mott The Hoople
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