The Super Bowl was entertaining to say the very least but in a attempt to get some Mexican at the local Anamosa restaurant I came to find it closed that night so the only choice to get some take out Chinese and they had Beyonce bouncing along but I didn't pay much attention to it but Bob Lefsetz did and made his usual either/or comments. Dave Lifton gives his response to his annual Bash Bob blog: http://popdose.com/bob-lefsetz-is-a-sexist-racist-pig/?fb_source=pubv1
Former Paraphernalia vocalist Mike Swearingen's plans for a musical reunion fell through but he does plan a karaoke, his last for a while at the Sip N Stir before having minor brain surgery on the 14th. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery.
Last weekend was our usual tribute to the fallen of the Winter Dance Party of 1959, which turned out to be the worst tour for anybody to endure at time, too bad that the brain dead trust who thought up of this, having musicians to suffer for days on end as they criss crossed a frozen and barren Midwestern tour on piece of shit buses whose heaters would not work and they be stranded on highways, as they zig zag from one part of Wisconsin to the other side of Minnesota or make a detour in Iowa, just like the last minute adding of the Surf Ballroom show which became the most famous of them all. With Carl Bunch having to set out due to frostbitten feet, Buddy Holly would become a stand in drummer for Richie Valens which photos have been taken and can be found on the internet somewhere. Such a shame we didn't have Smart phones to take pictures and record the show, we have to rely on hear say and recollections. The GAC Company which did this disaster, I'm surprised never got sued for this. Too bad The Big Bopper, Buddy and Richie had to experience our crummy weather of sub zero temps and Alberta Clippers coming in one after the after trying to make a living off a dollar twenty five admission, perhaps the biggest bargain in the history of music, since the next day they would for the ages. The next show Bobby Vee and his band subbed and when the remainder of the Dance Party hit CR at Danceland, they got Frankie Avalon, Fabian and Jimmy Clanton instead. Not exactly a fair trade by any mean, but by then, the plane crash sucked the life out of that disaster anyway. And nobody remembered much of the replacement acts that took over since I can't find any reviews of the WDP after Clear Lake. Another reason why you don't see many rock acts invade this cold barren area in the wintertime. Too fucking cold. Even though Buddy, Richie and JP were not from here, they became honorary Iowans and forever a part of our Iowa Rock n Roll Hall Of Fame the hard way. We'll remember them more in our hearts then some of the multi tri inductees that are from Iowa.
This week's ten:
1. Spirits In The Night-Manfred Mann's Earth Band 1975 I'm not a good keeper of time but it has been two years since the last Beaker Street show and nothing to really report about if Clyde Clifford will return or simply retired from it all. Podcasts and net radio seems to be the future of music and if I had a net ready smart phone I'd be listening to that more often than any of the crappy stations around here. You can't fucking escape Kris Allen's pukemuncher Live Like Your Dying to which was blaring out of the speakers at the local Salvation Army and then again at the pizza joint the next day. Originally on Nightingales and Bombers Warner Brothers released this as the followup to Blinded By The Light on the notion that it would reach top ten like Blinded did. The edited version sucks and didn't do very well on the charts but the album track was a Beaker Street special and can be heard on the FOX once in a while too. Unlike Live Like Your Dying to which I would firebomb KKRQ if they dared played that crap.
2. Remedy-Seether 2005 A poor man's Nirvana, Seether is actually a step above Puddle Of Mudd or Nickelback in the Nu Metal department, I mean I don't mind playing this once in a while although the rest of the album is a strain on the ears to get through. Originally, they wanted to name this album Catering To Cowards which would have classic title but since they would offend a few folks, they decided on Karma And Effect. Fun fact no. 2: their label Wind Up asked the lead singer not to use any F bombs on this album. And he didn't. But he would on the next effort.
3. Charlie X-Information Society 1990 They were dance pop most of the time, when they had that chick singer in the band they gave The Thompson Twins a run for the money but when she left they got a bit more techno out there. Not that techno works for me, most of techno I can't stand but I can listen to most of this album Hack and this song which might be the only one that samples both James Brown and The Beastie Boys.
4. In Their Hearts Is Right-Bad Religion 2013 I know you don't care but I've been on a Bad Religion kick thanks to Mark Prindle and his love of this album and for the most part every album that I have from them have good moments and so so moments. True North might be in the all time top five BR albums out there, at least on this effort, it's full speed ahead and none of the pop moments that kinda hinder their last couple albums although I didn't mind their pop moments.
5. Hurry Up-Richie Valens 1958 Life is never fair and to Richie who sad to say hopped on a flight with Buddy and JP to the Great Beyond would have more influential music in him, 17 years too young to die and there's not much out there that Richie left outside of a handful of singles and demos that Bob Keene would make into two albums, a best of and a couple more money grabbers in the process. His uptempo numbers sound just about like punk rock in the 50s and a bit more tougher than the garage rock of Buddy Holly per say. Even though the Winter Dance Party was hell on earth in 1959, what strikes me is how accessible everybody was after the meet and greet, and that Buddy, JP and Richie would be kind enough to pose for pictures and get autographs after the show. As long as I shall live, I continue to pay tribute to all three of them at this time every year. Forever Iowans, even though they didn't stay long.
6. Learning The Game-Buddy Holly Dec 1958 later overdubbed 1965 with The Fireballs. Let's face it folks, you don't know how much Buddy influenced me in my lifetime of music. No Buddy Holly, no R. Smith Bands regardless. In six weeks, Buddy would be gone from the world but this came from the Apartment Tapes. Leo Kottke's version sounds the closest to Buddy although I think there's other versions out there.
7. Break On Through (To The Other Side) The Doors 1967 Since I haven't been out on bargain hunts (outside of Half Priced Books) I have been finding things I forgot I had on the shelves here. Found the CD at a pawnshop years ago but I bought the album at a flea market for a quarter and found that in my vast collection of albums. Surprised this didn't chart here since it remains one of my fave Doors songs ever.
8. Spacehead-The Primitives 1988 A buzz bin band that MTV touted, I never paid much attention to them until I found Lovely in a dollar bins and became a late addition fan. Has that echoey sound that sounded a bit like Jesus And Mary Chain but with a chick singer, or a mild mannered My Bloody Valentine, to which finally released their followup to Loveless this weekend. BTW The Primitives are still around in England to which they about ready to reissue the Lazy Recordings once again (Castle/Sanctuary put it out in the early 00's, one of the last CD's bought at Real Records before they closed their doors).
9. Fall From The Grace Of Love-Don Felder 2012 Q) Why did the last Eagles album suck so much? A) Don Felder wasn't on it! I tried to get into Long Road To Eden but the whole 2 CD set bored me to tears and I don't think I listen to the last couple songs before I stuck it in the CD section at Goodwill in Iowa City. But since I liked Don's 1982 Airborne album a lot, I decided to check out his new album Road To Forever and for the most part it rocks although Felder goes a bit overboard on the mellow stuff towards the end of the album. This would sound good on soft rock radio (unless it's Cumulus owned and then they would say no, unless he added Sheryl Crow to the sound, can't get on Cumulus unless you have Sheryl Crow guest star on a track, or Kris Allen *smirk*).
10. The Orange County Lumber Truck (Part 2)-The Mothers Of Invention/Frank Zappa 1968 Zappa may have better lineups or ones that could play his complex music but his Uncle Meat edition of the Mothers were the best loved and most crazy. There's a edited version of this song on the Weasels Ripped My Flesh album but this is the full 10 and half minute jam boogie to which is probably the closest thing to boogie jazz that Frank Zappa would ever do again. From the rightfully titled Ahead Of Their Time CD that was the last of reissued Zappa albums that came out last year.
Bonus Track:
Chantilly Lace-The Big Bopper 1958 Because I remember him.
And four more to score.
I Don't Like Mondays-Boomtown Rats 1979
Wait-White Lion 1987
Mr. P.C.-John Coltrane 1959
Roundabout-Yes 1972
Other notes: I can't figure out the ratings and what gets viewed. Somehow we have gotten 14 views for the False Prophets top ten of December where it's four behind last week's Eye To Ear Candy Top Ten which makes me think that adding cute models doesn't translate into more views. The Mexican Jumping Beans Top ten is all time best one behind of the Samantha Fish, Irish Fest blog. Samantha continues to be the most searched keyword but Pat Travers is closing in fast. The All time most viewed blogs is a mystery how they do it, The Brains so far ahead but even though The Strange Case Of Bobby Fuller is in the mid 80s in views the overall on the other page shows it at 119 views. The Winter Dance Party blogs pulled in about 25 views for both entries but I thought they would do much better than that. What do I know.
Finally, I found a Gold Disc of John Coltrane's Giant Steps for 6 dollars which is cheap considering its a gold disc and the sound is much better than the actual Atlantic album. The bass player comes in very clear, my brother pointed that out as he said it drowned out the TV upstairs even though I didn't have the volume up all that loud. Other cheap finds was White Lion Pride for 95 cents at Salvation Army and a bunch of 2 dollar stuff that made the top ten this week. Easy to figure out which ones they are. Can't say I'm a big Seether fan although Karma And Effect has its moments. Sad to say The Everly Brothers 1989 Mercury album Some Hearts turned out to be their worst all time album, not a decent song in the bunch and it's stuck with that cold digital sound that was part of the late 80s recordings. Their third and final album for Mercury didn't do much on the charts and it was the last original batch of songs that they recorded for a major label. Not exactly the way to go out on, I gave up after the 7th song since Larrie London didn't help with the electronic drum sound either. If nothing else the Cadence stuff is still available.
Congrats to Diggy Kat for winning best DJ!
4 comments:
Appreciate you mentioning The Rats, The Doors, "The Orange County Lumber Truck" & "Mr. P.C." (which has nothing to do with being Politically Correct), but what I wanna know is who is the blonde with the flyaway hair in the pic you posted? Did I miss something...?
That's Tracey Tracy from The Primitives TAD. She the lead singer of that band which is still around and playing in the UK, they never made much of a dent here in the US. ;)
Any woman with a name like Tracey Tracy is OK with me....
Her real name is Tracey Cattell, had to look it up somewhere ;)
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