I'm watching the end of the world happening from the seat of my chair staring at the computer. The computer that has erased away 14 years of internet play. Between games of Farm Town to Candy Crush to Bejeweled and at the same time buying and selling stuff (although I'm buying more than I'm selling in music) and once in a while finding new friends to chat with and otherwise but if I want to know where all the time went, I'll just look at the well worn carpet on the floor to this computer. But for news, plenty happening.
I'm not going to buy the deluxe edition of In Utero like I'm not going to buy another Tommy super deluxe issue but Rolling Stone does have a nice article on Pat Smear, one time Germs member later joining Nirvana's final ride and now Foo Fighter to Dave Grohl gives a insight to what it was like playing in Nirvana. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/pat-smear-remembers-nirvanas-final-year-20130829
I guess Canada wanted their own version of W, so they voted this idiot Harper in and he's doing his best to throw that country in the toilet but now if you're a struggling musician and want to make some kind of money, better not go up there eh? They're now charging a musician 425 dollars to perform every time they go playing up north. This is one of the more backward thinking that I've heard. Blow a fart in Jason Kenney's direction and sign the petition here: https://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/canadian-government-to-charge-international-touring-artists-425-per-band-member-per-performance-in-canada-previously-a-1-time-150-fee
Speaking of Canooks, Bryan (not to be confused with Ryan although I type the latter's name in first, GD me) Adams has told All Music Guide that they can't use his discography anymore and if you type his name in the search guide, you'll come up with nothing. Maybe Bryan doesn't like the new format of AMG and I don't either. Too much flash and shockware and pop up commercials and then the GD thing freezes up my computer. I wish these fucking music reference sites would quit going for the glitz and leave things as is but that's asking too much. Basically this is as non news as it gets and wouldn't have known anything about it till somebody brought it up on Mark Prindle's facebook site. As for myself, Adams's early stuff is still good, his best of gives the best and worst and anything after that you're on your own.
By now you also know that Linda Ronstadt has Parkinson's and cannot sing anymore which is a sad thing. If you lived in the 60s and 70s Linda was a constant on radio. But Dan McCaffery, the lead voice of Nazareth had to retire due to having a stroke on stage last week. Which ends Nazareth as we know it, since Manny Charlton left years ago and Darrel Sweet died a few years back leaving Pete Agnew as the last man standing. Never a critics favorite band, they'll forever known with the album Hair Of The Dog which was the B side to their lone top ten hit Love Hurts. McCaffery's voice you either liked it or hated it but there was more to them than just HOTD, I love the first side of Loud N Proud (although side 2 features a great version of This Flight Tonight and not so great OTT metal version of Ballad Of Hollis Brown). Malice In Wonderland with Holiday was produced by Jeff Baxter (Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan) and showed a more AOR rock rather than the metallic sound of Hair Of The Dog but I don't think Nazareth was a metal band but rather more straight ahead rock. As for myself 2XS is my favorite Naz album, Billy Rankin replaced Zal Cleminson on guitar and that may have been their last good rock and roll album although I did pony up to buy Bugaloo toward the end of the 90s. Road Dogs was issued via Eagle Rock but I never did buy that one. Nevertheless, Dan's ill health has closed the chapter on Nazareth but I'm sure the surviving band will continue as a tribute band of sorts.
And meanwhile the demise of man continues with this piece of shit: http://ultimateclassicrock.com/ryman-auditorium-fire-arrest/
Ratings wise, we'll limp to around 2200 or 2300 views, quite a jump from the record last week, but i'm sure the spamsites had something to do with that, I guess this is more "realtime" views than referring sites. This month's top tens are been lacking of viewership it seems, the Miley Top Tens may have been the lowest ever. They still get the most views regardless (around 25-30 views, average) but anything else nobody really cares and the Ellis Get Together is for archival or historical use since I'll won't see half of my co workers ever again. Ivy Doomkitty has moved up to fifth place in all time keyword searches. Eventually like Natalie Monet or London Andrews, I'm sure she'll join them in the archives. As for future Crabb Fashion Shows here, don't look for any new ones, the second installment flopped on the catwalk. Meanwhile, Ivy Doomkitty ponders how she managed to make it to number 4 on the most searched keyword list here in Crabbland.
I thought that tomorrow would be the final day of Printing but turns out that I'm still there for at least another four weeks, so we're not going to Iowa City till October or last week in September. Which means I still got daylight left so why not do a couple bargain hunts? That's coming next month. This weekend is the end of August and the beginning of the New Bo Festival. That should be a lot of fun. http://www.newbofest.com/
Before I forget, remember in March through June we had a highway of storms rolling through and flooding the basement about four times and when I got to Arizona I was taken that big high pressure back home with me. Must have followed me for since July, we only had three major rain storms and the hottest weather came this last week in August. So we have gone from 6 inches of surplus rain in the moisture to now level 2 drought conditions. With dry conditions I don't have to worry about water in the basement.
And finally, I've known Margaret Parsons for close 20 years now. She's been a permanent fixture in printing, always a reading book or the new Nook as they call it, the famed label lady as we call her. We almost lost her in a freaky incident to which she almost lost her life but came back a few months later in the new year. With most of printing going north and the rest of the gang going to packaging, it looks like Margaret will be back on the road, going to Iowa City since she was reassigned like the rest of us that weren't lucky to go to packaging (how I managed not go to third shift packaging was a miracle upon itself). Miss Margaret, has always been a great co worker, and has a witty sense of humor to go but like myself she's a bargain hunter in terms of books and she claims to have a big 45 record collection too. Anyway I'll miss her as she departs for a new department and hopefully it will work out for her. BTW Miss Margaret OOXX back at cha too!
See U at Goodwill or Half Priced Books!
For a final passing before I left, Margaret was the last person to leave the building and of course she was still in the parking lot with her car running, reading a book. That's how we'll remember her. And the way she wanted it to.
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Top Ten-Oh Miley!
Welcome back.
Found a new follower out there in Blogspot land that goes by the name of 2000 Man. He must have found me from somewhere but anyway, I like a lot of the bands that he puts up on his site, anybody that has Plimsouls, with BTO, Brownsville and may of the 70s and 80s band that I grew up listening to is A Okay in my book, and big points for Eddie And The Hot Rods. Check him out here at: http://negligibleinterest.blogspot.com/
From the archives: Old Relics ad from 1990. Betcha the freaky dude with the GnR album doesn't look like that anymore. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8Ykt8As0bc
What is the future of Radio Crabbland or the top ten? Meeting the obligations but even it's been pointed that I'm not saying much like I used to. Life has a strange way of doing that. When you have rehashed everything that comes your way so many times, it's easier just to let it slide by and enjoy the coming and goings of nature while hitting the trails. Madison has a weekend showcase featuring The Bottlerockets and the English Beat played there on the 25th but I didn't get news of it till it was too late and plans were already made to do other things. I'd love to see the Bottle Rockets but need more than a day notice.
So far after a week, Willie's Roadhouse remains the most listened to station on XM, followed by Little Steven's Underground Garage and Classic Vinyl. I raved about Deep Cuts when I was out in AZ a few years ago on a car that had XM but frankly I can only do so much Pink Floyd and Bruce Springsteen. Besides isn't there a E Street Radio station of all things Bruce? Keep it there.
With nothing better to do, I tuned into the MTV trainwreck of Video Music Awards and got to see future stripper Miley Cyrus applying her trade and watching the stock value of Lady Gaga fall as well in a confusing Applause song, and today's rising star will be tomorrows dollar bin special. Justin Timberlake reunites with NSYNC in a 30 second medley of past hits. I guess the highlights would be Bruno Mars firing away on Gorilla and winning an award. But most of the time it was Taylor Swift this and that. Guess you can't call her a country star anymore. She's crossed over....and not the better for it. But as for Miley, I'll somebody else explain it better, and bitchslap Billy Ray upside the head too. http://bottom-of-the-glass.blogspot.com/2013/08/frankensteins-monster-miley.html
the top ten of this week:
1. I Saw The Light-Dash Rip Rock 1988 Billy Davis continues to lead DRR well into the 21st century with a new album that is hard to find and yet to be found but the original lineup featuring Cowboy Mouth leader Fred LeBlanc were so rough and rowdy they made the Georgia Satellites sound like Air Supply but then again I don't play DRR very much anymore. I did compile a very best of about 10 years ago that cherry picked their better known songs. Of course this is the PBR's soaked cover of Hank Williams' number.
2. Seasons Change-The Jimmy Bowskill Band 2012 The Black Crowes used to be this good.....
3. Waiting For The Rain-Walter Egan 1980 Says the farmers watching their cornfield pop due to lack of rain and the hot weather. Strange how this year has been, with rain every day from February to June and then it dries up. About this time in May we're watching the Cedar ready to overtake New Bo again but now it's barely above three feet in town. Egan, long time ago made a couple albums with Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham helping out but by the time he made The Last Stroll, Fleetwood Mac was playing stadiums, he broke up with an ex GF, and his indifferent record label pretty much wrote him off as a tax loss. And looking at his record covers is a tale of night and day, from the innocent looking Not Shy, to the damn it all, I dare you to release this The Last Stroll LP, which I have never seen in record stores in 1980. It has turned out to be my favorite of Walter's CBS era, to which all four albums can be brought on a 2 CD The Collection (an import, Legacy wouldn't dare reissue all four of them here in the states) which Walter provides some insight.
4. Mommy Can I Go Out And Kill Tonight-Misfits 1982 Glenn Danzig era led group and more punk than what Danzig would be doing as a solo artist. If Kiss was listening to The Clash and watching Night Of The Living Dead while jamming away, this is what it would sound like. The album Walk Among Us, has 13 songs lasting a EP time of 24 minutes. Oi!
5. Searching For Celine-Blue Oyster Cult 1977 The passing of Allen Lanier practically ends BOC as we knew them, behind the scenes but still hands on and writing some amazing songs, even though Lanier didn't care much for Spectres, an album that I always loved more than Agents Of Fortune. Lanier says that it was too slickly produced and sounded. In some ways this song was a commentary on his break up with Patti Smith, although In Thee is more touching and from the heart to the heart. A bit on the bitter side.
6. Smokehouse-Pell Mell 1997 A real alternative instrumental band, they made one album for Geffen and one for Matador (Star City) to which this song comes from. Makes great background music while you're driving around town.
7. Runaway Train-Geddy Lee 2000 An outstanding cover of the Soul Asylum song? Nope, just thought I throw that in there for shitz and giggles. Rush took time off after Neil Peart went through some serious life changing issues which lead Geddy to give us his first (and only) solo album to date. It doesn't vary much from Rush albums, outside that Peart isn't playing and writing observations but Lee found a perfect foil in Ben Mink to make his album a joy to listen to. Guest star also includes Soundgarden/Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron playing straight ahead drums. An underrated album for sure, that's My Favorite Headache.
8. Collins' Cave-Phil Alvin 1986 Another guy that hasn't recorded much under his own name but of late been keeping The Blasters legacy going, Phil made a off the wall 1986 album with backing from Sun Ra's band which was extreme upon itself but a few songs just features Phil and his guitar. Wounded Bird made a limited amount of copies on CD last year and is now out of print. Sometimes if you want something you better ordered it via online or Collector's Choice. Ask a Best Buy employee about this album and you'll be greeted with blank stares (but they'll try to steer you into buying that Yesus album-bombs away).
9. Nobody's Fool-Miranda Lambert 2011 Written by Chris Stapleton, it also come to my attention that Four The Record came out 2 years ago. See what happens when you spend way too much time on the internet. You tend to forget what year your living in. Miranda's been very busy of late promoting the latest Pistol Annies and putting up with Blake Shelton. Which is a full time job in itself. On a different subject, the latest Bob Lefsetz rant was about his problem of letting haters define him and his lack of interacting with people skills.http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2013/08/25/how-do-you-get-what-you-want/ Which brings to mind this piece from the archives. http://rscrabb.blogspot.com/2012/08/friday-night-high-jinx-bob-lefsetz.html What's my secret you ask? Just thinking out loud will do it.
10.Waited Up-The Samples 1990 They had the worst luck being on major labels. Arista tried to change their style of jam music and the band rebelled and when they got to MCA in 1996, the label was in cahoots as well. Best type of description would be a a cross of The Police and Grateful Dead with reggae thrown in on the side. Sean Kelly continues to lead them through the 21st century.
Five more to add.
Diesel On My Tail-Jim And Jessie 1967
Vanessa-Shakin Stevens 1983
Problem With You (T Bone's Last Ride)-Darryl Hall 2011
Let Go-From Good Homes 1994
Honey Hush (Live)-Foghat 1977
Randy Bachman turned 70 on Tuesday. Another sign we are ALL getting old.
Vinyl King, Greg Warren is now a proud grandparent. That makes me feel that much older since I have never had any of my own and if I did, I'd be in my 70s when they graduated. That is if they did and that is if I lived to see that. And if I did have any daughters, I hope I would raise them a lot better than Billy Ray did with Miley. We didn't bring children into the world just to have them on a pole, unless it's the Indy 500 (that comment did come from V.K.)
It was 10 years ago that I had my last burrito dinner at Mi Casa at Mount Vernon, the best Mexican food place that I have ever ate at here in the great state of Iowa and still mad of the fact that the next week I went there, they closed it up. Vivid memories include seeing a hungry engineer of a Union Pacific stopping and placing an order before going on his way. As much as we tried to get the word out, their location, which was across the train tracks on Highway 1 wasn't an ideal place to have it. They would have been better off either in town or at the US 30/Highway 1 four way to where a different Mexican place is next to Subway and Diary Queen. Mi Casa was torn down and storage units replaced it. But even I cannot believe it was 10 year ago that I had the last decent Mexican meal here in the area......
Archives: Review of The Iowa Compilation Volume 3 Or Third Time's The Charm (South East)
Before the era of the CD took over, we got our music from college stations, suggestions from record heads at Relics or BJ's and friends passing cassettes of their music around. Around that time, my little band graduated from low fi cassettes to a actual four track recording and we labored on what would be Moonlight Chronicles for the old Route 66 band (named changed to The Townedgers after many bands used the Route 66 moniker, including a pretty good country rock band). Around this time, Doug Robertson, who was part of the Dangtrippers and originator of the Iowa Compilation album series got together with Eric Melchner of Full Fathom Five and behind South East Records put out a flier for local bands to submit their songs for inclusion on CD the best of what Iowa had to offer in alternative rock and roll. I chose Garageland for inclusion. Needless to say it didn't make the cut.
The problem with Garageland was we were still trying to figure out how to record in four track and second of all it really wasn't that great of a song. We had better ones written but they went on too long (Teri was 7 minutes long and the best version wouldn't appear till 2002). Still the odds were against our little band since it was more of a hobby and not serious enough to make it to Gabe's. But still I held hope that I could hear it on CD.
The Iowa Comp 3 album of 1989 showcased what Iowa had to offer and most of it is fairly good although The Dangtrippers and Full Fathom Five's songs may have been throwaways but they were better than the majority of cuts submitted by long forgotten bands that sounded somewhat like both Dangtrippers or FFF. A great selection of who's who, plus Cedar Falls best known band House Of Large Sizes and the long gone Voodoo Gearshift, who like Full Fathom Five was on the Link Label (later home to Head Candy which featured Peterbuilt's Jim Viner joining up with the reminding guys of The Dangtrippers). Heavy hitters like Pat White and Billy Neff (later joined Doug Robertson in the Bent Scepters who recorded for Bizarre Records in the late 90s), and John Robinson of Movable Feast (who returned in a different band for the much better Iowa Compilation 4 CD a few years later) can be heard here.
It starts out strong with punkish Blank Expressions putting their Buzzcocks on with Money Loving Attitude and HOLS's Lovely But Deadly, one of their signature songs. But then the subpar starts with Bernie Lowe and Peterbuilt's songs suffering from poor lead singers. Then after that, the unknowns take over, and with the exception of Movable Feast's poptastic Turn there's nothing really left worth hearing, the goofy singer trying to sound like Ric Osacek of the cars with a Bob Dylan sneer (or Talking Heads), anyway it's poor jam new wave from East And West (nobodies from Normal ILL), and Hanging Tree and Puppet Show's Promises sounds something that the Rembrandts would have some success in the 90s. But then the album ends on two goofy turds from Tropical Punch (although it's supplemented by a decent popping bass although the lyrics are asinine) and Hairy Carrie (bad hair metal) and two reasons I don't play this comp very much. It is a product of that late 80s period between the confusion of alternative rock and power pop and failed experiments that at that time, but gave some of these bands a chance at least to warm up for The Dangtrippers or Full Fathom Five or House of Large Sizes. Or them to turn their songs up in the car when KRUI played their songs and yell "THEY ARE PLAYING OUR SONG" to deaf ears. Uneven as hell but honest as heaven, the third time really wasn't the charm as the title claim to be but it was rock and roll in Iowa in 1989. And it gave them some hope for music stardom before the bills piled up and they had to go get real jobs. Just like I did.
Grade C+
Found a new follower out there in Blogspot land that goes by the name of 2000 Man. He must have found me from somewhere but anyway, I like a lot of the bands that he puts up on his site, anybody that has Plimsouls, with BTO, Brownsville and may of the 70s and 80s band that I grew up listening to is A Okay in my book, and big points for Eddie And The Hot Rods. Check him out here at: http://negligibleinterest.blogspot.com/
From the archives: Old Relics ad from 1990. Betcha the freaky dude with the GnR album doesn't look like that anymore. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8Ykt8As0bc
What is the future of Radio Crabbland or the top ten? Meeting the obligations but even it's been pointed that I'm not saying much like I used to. Life has a strange way of doing that. When you have rehashed everything that comes your way so many times, it's easier just to let it slide by and enjoy the coming and goings of nature while hitting the trails. Madison has a weekend showcase featuring The Bottlerockets and the English Beat played there on the 25th but I didn't get news of it till it was too late and plans were already made to do other things. I'd love to see the Bottle Rockets but need more than a day notice.
So far after a week, Willie's Roadhouse remains the most listened to station on XM, followed by Little Steven's Underground Garage and Classic Vinyl. I raved about Deep Cuts when I was out in AZ a few years ago on a car that had XM but frankly I can only do so much Pink Floyd and Bruce Springsteen. Besides isn't there a E Street Radio station of all things Bruce? Keep it there.
With nothing better to do, I tuned into the MTV trainwreck of Video Music Awards and got to see future stripper Miley Cyrus applying her trade and watching the stock value of Lady Gaga fall as well in a confusing Applause song, and today's rising star will be tomorrows dollar bin special. Justin Timberlake reunites with NSYNC in a 30 second medley of past hits. I guess the highlights would be Bruno Mars firing away on Gorilla and winning an award. But most of the time it was Taylor Swift this and that. Guess you can't call her a country star anymore. She's crossed over....and not the better for it. But as for Miley, I'll somebody else explain it better, and bitchslap Billy Ray upside the head too. http://bottom-of-the-glass.blogspot.com/2013/08/frankensteins-monster-miley.html
the top ten of this week:
1. I Saw The Light-Dash Rip Rock 1988 Billy Davis continues to lead DRR well into the 21st century with a new album that is hard to find and yet to be found but the original lineup featuring Cowboy Mouth leader Fred LeBlanc were so rough and rowdy they made the Georgia Satellites sound like Air Supply but then again I don't play DRR very much anymore. I did compile a very best of about 10 years ago that cherry picked their better known songs. Of course this is the PBR's soaked cover of Hank Williams' number.
2. Seasons Change-The Jimmy Bowskill Band 2012 The Black Crowes used to be this good.....
3. Waiting For The Rain-Walter Egan 1980 Says the farmers watching their cornfield pop due to lack of rain and the hot weather. Strange how this year has been, with rain every day from February to June and then it dries up. About this time in May we're watching the Cedar ready to overtake New Bo again but now it's barely above three feet in town. Egan, long time ago made a couple albums with Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham helping out but by the time he made The Last Stroll, Fleetwood Mac was playing stadiums, he broke up with an ex GF, and his indifferent record label pretty much wrote him off as a tax loss. And looking at his record covers is a tale of night and day, from the innocent looking Not Shy, to the damn it all, I dare you to release this The Last Stroll LP, which I have never seen in record stores in 1980. It has turned out to be my favorite of Walter's CBS era, to which all four albums can be brought on a 2 CD The Collection (an import, Legacy wouldn't dare reissue all four of them here in the states) which Walter provides some insight.
4. Mommy Can I Go Out And Kill Tonight-Misfits 1982 Glenn Danzig era led group and more punk than what Danzig would be doing as a solo artist. If Kiss was listening to The Clash and watching Night Of The Living Dead while jamming away, this is what it would sound like. The album Walk Among Us, has 13 songs lasting a EP time of 24 minutes. Oi!
5. Searching For Celine-Blue Oyster Cult 1977 The passing of Allen Lanier practically ends BOC as we knew them, behind the scenes but still hands on and writing some amazing songs, even though Lanier didn't care much for Spectres, an album that I always loved more than Agents Of Fortune. Lanier says that it was too slickly produced and sounded. In some ways this song was a commentary on his break up with Patti Smith, although In Thee is more touching and from the heart to the heart. A bit on the bitter side.
6. Smokehouse-Pell Mell 1997 A real alternative instrumental band, they made one album for Geffen and one for Matador (Star City) to which this song comes from. Makes great background music while you're driving around town.
7. Runaway Train-Geddy Lee 2000 An outstanding cover of the Soul Asylum song? Nope, just thought I throw that in there for shitz and giggles. Rush took time off after Neil Peart went through some serious life changing issues which lead Geddy to give us his first (and only) solo album to date. It doesn't vary much from Rush albums, outside that Peart isn't playing and writing observations but Lee found a perfect foil in Ben Mink to make his album a joy to listen to. Guest star also includes Soundgarden/Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron playing straight ahead drums. An underrated album for sure, that's My Favorite Headache.
8. Collins' Cave-Phil Alvin 1986 Another guy that hasn't recorded much under his own name but of late been keeping The Blasters legacy going, Phil made a off the wall 1986 album with backing from Sun Ra's band which was extreme upon itself but a few songs just features Phil and his guitar. Wounded Bird made a limited amount of copies on CD last year and is now out of print. Sometimes if you want something you better ordered it via online or Collector's Choice. Ask a Best Buy employee about this album and you'll be greeted with blank stares (but they'll try to steer you into buying that Yesus album-bombs away).
9. Nobody's Fool-Miranda Lambert 2011 Written by Chris Stapleton, it also come to my attention that Four The Record came out 2 years ago. See what happens when you spend way too much time on the internet. You tend to forget what year your living in. Miranda's been very busy of late promoting the latest Pistol Annies and putting up with Blake Shelton. Which is a full time job in itself. On a different subject, the latest Bob Lefsetz rant was about his problem of letting haters define him and his lack of interacting with people skills.http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2013/08/25/how-do-you-get-what-you-want/ Which brings to mind this piece from the archives. http://rscrabb.blogspot.com/2012/08/friday-night-high-jinx-bob-lefsetz.html What's my secret you ask? Just thinking out loud will do it.
10.Waited Up-The Samples 1990 They had the worst luck being on major labels. Arista tried to change their style of jam music and the band rebelled and when they got to MCA in 1996, the label was in cahoots as well. Best type of description would be a a cross of The Police and Grateful Dead with reggae thrown in on the side. Sean Kelly continues to lead them through the 21st century.
Five more to add.
Diesel On My Tail-Jim And Jessie 1967
Vanessa-Shakin Stevens 1983
Problem With You (T Bone's Last Ride)-Darryl Hall 2011
Let Go-From Good Homes 1994
Honey Hush (Live)-Foghat 1977
Randy Bachman turned 70 on Tuesday. Another sign we are ALL getting old.
Vinyl King, Greg Warren is now a proud grandparent. That makes me feel that much older since I have never had any of my own and if I did, I'd be in my 70s when they graduated. That is if they did and that is if I lived to see that. And if I did have any daughters, I hope I would raise them a lot better than Billy Ray did with Miley. We didn't bring children into the world just to have them on a pole, unless it's the Indy 500 (that comment did come from V.K.)
It was 10 years ago that I had my last burrito dinner at Mi Casa at Mount Vernon, the best Mexican food place that I have ever ate at here in the great state of Iowa and still mad of the fact that the next week I went there, they closed it up. Vivid memories include seeing a hungry engineer of a Union Pacific stopping and placing an order before going on his way. As much as we tried to get the word out, their location, which was across the train tracks on Highway 1 wasn't an ideal place to have it. They would have been better off either in town or at the US 30/Highway 1 four way to where a different Mexican place is next to Subway and Diary Queen. Mi Casa was torn down and storage units replaced it. But even I cannot believe it was 10 year ago that I had the last decent Mexican meal here in the area......
Archives: Review of The Iowa Compilation Volume 3 Or Third Time's The Charm (South East)
Before the era of the CD took over, we got our music from college stations, suggestions from record heads at Relics or BJ's and friends passing cassettes of their music around. Around that time, my little band graduated from low fi cassettes to a actual four track recording and we labored on what would be Moonlight Chronicles for the old Route 66 band (named changed to The Townedgers after many bands used the Route 66 moniker, including a pretty good country rock band). Around this time, Doug Robertson, who was part of the Dangtrippers and originator of the Iowa Compilation album series got together with Eric Melchner of Full Fathom Five and behind South East Records put out a flier for local bands to submit their songs for inclusion on CD the best of what Iowa had to offer in alternative rock and roll. I chose Garageland for inclusion. Needless to say it didn't make the cut.
The problem with Garageland was we were still trying to figure out how to record in four track and second of all it really wasn't that great of a song. We had better ones written but they went on too long (Teri was 7 minutes long and the best version wouldn't appear till 2002). Still the odds were against our little band since it was more of a hobby and not serious enough to make it to Gabe's. But still I held hope that I could hear it on CD.
The Iowa Comp 3 album of 1989 showcased what Iowa had to offer and most of it is fairly good although The Dangtrippers and Full Fathom Five's songs may have been throwaways but they were better than the majority of cuts submitted by long forgotten bands that sounded somewhat like both Dangtrippers or FFF. A great selection of who's who, plus Cedar Falls best known band House Of Large Sizes and the long gone Voodoo Gearshift, who like Full Fathom Five was on the Link Label (later home to Head Candy which featured Peterbuilt's Jim Viner joining up with the reminding guys of The Dangtrippers). Heavy hitters like Pat White and Billy Neff (later joined Doug Robertson in the Bent Scepters who recorded for Bizarre Records in the late 90s), and John Robinson of Movable Feast (who returned in a different band for the much better Iowa Compilation 4 CD a few years later) can be heard here.
It starts out strong with punkish Blank Expressions putting their Buzzcocks on with Money Loving Attitude and HOLS's Lovely But Deadly, one of their signature songs. But then the subpar starts with Bernie Lowe and Peterbuilt's songs suffering from poor lead singers. Then after that, the unknowns take over, and with the exception of Movable Feast's poptastic Turn there's nothing really left worth hearing, the goofy singer trying to sound like Ric Osacek of the cars with a Bob Dylan sneer (or Talking Heads), anyway it's poor jam new wave from East And West (nobodies from Normal ILL), and Hanging Tree and Puppet Show's Promises sounds something that the Rembrandts would have some success in the 90s. But then the album ends on two goofy turds from Tropical Punch (although it's supplemented by a decent popping bass although the lyrics are asinine) and Hairy Carrie (bad hair metal) and two reasons I don't play this comp very much. It is a product of that late 80s period between the confusion of alternative rock and power pop and failed experiments that at that time, but gave some of these bands a chance at least to warm up for The Dangtrippers or Full Fathom Five or House of Large Sizes. Or them to turn their songs up in the car when KRUI played their songs and yell "THEY ARE PLAYING OUR SONG" to deaf ears. Uneven as hell but honest as heaven, the third time really wasn't the charm as the title claim to be but it was rock and roll in Iowa in 1989. And it gave them some hope for music stardom before the bills piled up and they had to go get real jobs. Just like I did.
Grade C+
Monday, August 26, 2013
Garage Rock Classic Of The Sixties-Look Away By The Tempests
I swore I put this link up in a previous post but dammed if I can find it so here it is again if I haven't put it up. A little song called Look Away By The Tempests.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuaydtPn4ek
Ain't You Tube wonderful?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuaydtPn4ek
Ain't You Tube wonderful?
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Crabb Says It's Later Than You Think
The days are getting shorter as summer draws to a close. The kids are back in school, we're losing two to three minutes at a time and our time in Printing are down to the last 7 days. Seven days left and the old gang will move over to packaging, some will go to days, a couple will trek to Minnesota to start what I think is a losing battle of keeping printing alive, and the rest of us going to Iowa City for a half year.
At this point I have to go where the work is at, and there's not much going on down there. But I still have a good two and half weeks of vacation and another week of unpaid time off. But with a new baby in the family, a four wheel baby I call Redd, I'm back into the tradition of car payments and keeping it looking good in a crappy environment. The leaves fall and get in between the grill and under the wipers and then winter comes along and make everything even worse, salt on roads, gravel, dust leading to rust but I'm placing bets on hoping Redd last 10 years at least. And maybe pay it off before then.
I'm enjoying what satellite radio has to offer but the more I listen to it the more I hear the same old same old as heard on the FM dial. Deep Tracks and their Pink Floyd at midnight gets me to change the channel, not that I don't like Pink Floyd, I have 8 of their albums but geez can we just live without hearing The Wall or Dark Side Of The Moon once in a while? I think this is the wave of my future, to finally end the wild CD buying habits and live the rest of my years on pay radio and what I have in my collection. There's really not much out there that I'm hard up to buy. Disposable music, that's what we're stuck with today and we can always turn on the radio to hear the overplayed memories. But I don't think paying 19.95 a month just to hear Free Bird on XM is going to convert me as much as the comedy channel or Willie's Roadhouse, where country classics live. Or KDST when it comes into range.
I don't think I've ever had a car that I bought that the mileage was 10,000 miles. Except maybe the rebuilt 1990 Skylark which my brother slaved away getting together and watched it rust within 8 years of hard driving and harsh winters. There's a feeling of euphoria when you drive in something brand new, like you have been reborn again to drive the roads and not have to worry about things falling apart like the 1994 Purple Corsica has done the past five years. A four door car with only two doors that opened, it was a good car before it hit 200K, but then after that, the old age and rust it finally gave up the ghost. I think I got a good deal from the folks at Brad Deery in Maquoketa. They managed to email and call me a couple days later for a followup. Yep, it's a love affair with Redd.and hope it last. But since it stays outside due to no garage I'm going have to invest in a cover to keep it from trees, limbs, flying shit bag birds taking target practice and the elements. But I now have something reliable to get me to the bargain hunts in Madison or even take that trip to St Louis that I have put off for a couple years. But for now, there's no trip planned to go anywhere. Except in town.
July took forever to get through but this month has gone by faster than a speeding train. With school back in session, I have to now deal with school buses and the idiot Kirkwood semi truck drivers in training. Going to I City, on highway 1, it's two lane all the way and the closer you get there, the cars seem to come out more and more, especially in Solon. For years I've bitched about the crappy printers and the crappy towers and paper cutters that wouldn't work half the time. Maybe I'll miss it when the scanner's break but maybe not, I'll miss the co workers that got me through the hard times and put up with my antics. I have no idea what they're going to have down in I.City but the high Bejeweled scores will come to an end. I think out of all the ones I'll, the one I tend to worry about, like everybody else does is Margaret, as she has to go to days since the folks in packaging didn't really want her all that much.
If I took the money and sat on my ass for a year and did nothing, chances are I wouldn't bought a new car. I would have settled for something much cheaper but not reliable and probably would have plenty of miles. A 2004 or 2005 Impala with low mileages are just as rare as Corsica's. But with a year off, I would have cleaned and cleared my house of clutter, or at least die trying. I could live off selling the CDs or my musical instruments as well, but nobody really much anymore and with Music Go Round a memory, trying to find some place that would pay a decent price for used stuff is even rarer than that elusive Corsica with low mileage. The hoarder house of 250,000K records scared me straight into perhaps getting rid of the things that sounded like a good idea at the time.
I have things on the back burner that needs to be tended to. The new Townedgers record that I made I need to revise it. Some songs are good but some of it sucks and the world doesn't need a remake of The End, no matter how desperate for music you may be. The inner critic in me is showing again but it's obvious that I fucked it up on the song selection and sequence. But then again it's all for my benefit and nobody is going to hear outside of those who hear it on www.radiobuzzd.com
Meanwhile, the ratings continue to drop, and the big blog that was the moneymaker, the Brains Blog isn't packing them in anymore. And like in real life, I'm beginning to run out things to say, like watching the setting sun, fading into darkness. Wondering what's next in life. Wondering if there's anything left to say in life that I haven't before. There's really nothing left out there that I haven't heard yet, I think I covered most of it. I guess that's why I have a substantial collection of music, since I can't be at a record store all day, I think that's why I have so much, so I can go dig deep into the archives and see what I did buy and haven't played yet or forgot all about them. I don't need any more, but I drive to Madison or go to Mesa FYE stores or Zia's and it makes me feel like I belong there, even though I go to Madison a couple times per year and Arizona every other summer if I can afford it.
But I'm going have to prepare for life after the record stores; they're too far away and age is slowly creeping up on me that I'm the oldest dude at the local Zia's or Mad City Music X. With Best Buy shrinking their selection and the help more annoying then ever, maybe I have to go the mail order route for the new and reissues.
Maybe it's later than I think?
At this point I have to go where the work is at, and there's not much going on down there. But I still have a good two and half weeks of vacation and another week of unpaid time off. But with a new baby in the family, a four wheel baby I call Redd, I'm back into the tradition of car payments and keeping it looking good in a crappy environment. The leaves fall and get in between the grill and under the wipers and then winter comes along and make everything even worse, salt on roads, gravel, dust leading to rust but I'm placing bets on hoping Redd last 10 years at least. And maybe pay it off before then.
I'm enjoying what satellite radio has to offer but the more I listen to it the more I hear the same old same old as heard on the FM dial. Deep Tracks and their Pink Floyd at midnight gets me to change the channel, not that I don't like Pink Floyd, I have 8 of their albums but geez can we just live without hearing The Wall or Dark Side Of The Moon once in a while? I think this is the wave of my future, to finally end the wild CD buying habits and live the rest of my years on pay radio and what I have in my collection. There's really not much out there that I'm hard up to buy. Disposable music, that's what we're stuck with today and we can always turn on the radio to hear the overplayed memories. But I don't think paying 19.95 a month just to hear Free Bird on XM is going to convert me as much as the comedy channel or Willie's Roadhouse, where country classics live. Or KDST when it comes into range.
I don't think I've ever had a car that I bought that the mileage was 10,000 miles. Except maybe the rebuilt 1990 Skylark which my brother slaved away getting together and watched it rust within 8 years of hard driving and harsh winters. There's a feeling of euphoria when you drive in something brand new, like you have been reborn again to drive the roads and not have to worry about things falling apart like the 1994 Purple Corsica has done the past five years. A four door car with only two doors that opened, it was a good car before it hit 200K, but then after that, the old age and rust it finally gave up the ghost. I think I got a good deal from the folks at Brad Deery in Maquoketa. They managed to email and call me a couple days later for a followup. Yep, it's a love affair with Redd.and hope it last. But since it stays outside due to no garage I'm going have to invest in a cover to keep it from trees, limbs, flying shit bag birds taking target practice and the elements. But I now have something reliable to get me to the bargain hunts in Madison or even take that trip to St Louis that I have put off for a couple years. But for now, there's no trip planned to go anywhere. Except in town.
July took forever to get through but this month has gone by faster than a speeding train. With school back in session, I have to now deal with school buses and the idiot Kirkwood semi truck drivers in training. Going to I City, on highway 1, it's two lane all the way and the closer you get there, the cars seem to come out more and more, especially in Solon. For years I've bitched about the crappy printers and the crappy towers and paper cutters that wouldn't work half the time. Maybe I'll miss it when the scanner's break but maybe not, I'll miss the co workers that got me through the hard times and put up with my antics. I have no idea what they're going to have down in I.City but the high Bejeweled scores will come to an end. I think out of all the ones I'll, the one I tend to worry about, like everybody else does is Margaret, as she has to go to days since the folks in packaging didn't really want her all that much.
If I took the money and sat on my ass for a year and did nothing, chances are I wouldn't bought a new car. I would have settled for something much cheaper but not reliable and probably would have plenty of miles. A 2004 or 2005 Impala with low mileages are just as rare as Corsica's. But with a year off, I would have cleaned and cleared my house of clutter, or at least die trying. I could live off selling the CDs or my musical instruments as well, but nobody really much anymore and with Music Go Round a memory, trying to find some place that would pay a decent price for used stuff is even rarer than that elusive Corsica with low mileage. The hoarder house of 250,000K records scared me straight into perhaps getting rid of the things that sounded like a good idea at the time.
I have things on the back burner that needs to be tended to. The new Townedgers record that I made I need to revise it. Some songs are good but some of it sucks and the world doesn't need a remake of The End, no matter how desperate for music you may be. The inner critic in me is showing again but it's obvious that I fucked it up on the song selection and sequence. But then again it's all for my benefit and nobody is going to hear outside of those who hear it on www.radiobuzzd.com
Meanwhile, the ratings continue to drop, and the big blog that was the moneymaker, the Brains Blog isn't packing them in anymore. And like in real life, I'm beginning to run out things to say, like watching the setting sun, fading into darkness. Wondering what's next in life. Wondering if there's anything left to say in life that I haven't before. There's really nothing left out there that I haven't heard yet, I think I covered most of it. I guess that's why I have a substantial collection of music, since I can't be at a record store all day, I think that's why I have so much, so I can go dig deep into the archives and see what I did buy and haven't played yet or forgot all about them. I don't need any more, but I drive to Madison or go to Mesa FYE stores or Zia's and it makes me feel like I belong there, even though I go to Madison a couple times per year and Arizona every other summer if I can afford it.
But I'm going have to prepare for life after the record stores; they're too far away and age is slowly creeping up on me that I'm the oldest dude at the local Zia's or Mad City Music X. With Best Buy shrinking their selection and the help more annoying then ever, maybe I have to go the mail order route for the new and reissues.
Maybe it's later than I think?
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Top Ten Of The Week: Happy Birthday Tad
It's been years since I went out and got a more recent car but this weekend I finally did it and acquired a 2013 Chevy Impala with all the extra goodies that I have forgotten about. An air conditioner that works, not only an actual radio but satellite radio as well and great sounding speakers and an OnStar service that the car has it's own phone. My Gawd I'm in the 21st century. With car payments now forthcoming it's a given that I won't be doing much buying new stuff but as long as there's cheap things in the dollar bins at the thrift store I'm guessing I'll continue to find things I overlooked. For new music, really not much out there but I have found a couple of 50 dollar Best Buy giftcards in my cleaning up the hoarder house.
Five days remain in the printing department before I return to the road to Iowa City to the other Pearson place but a judge has halted the city of Iowa City's plans of trying to take over some of Pearson's property for a pipe dream they call economic development, the Moss Ridge Campus at Moss Ridge Road. For the time being, Iowa City cannot use the eminent domain monkier since you can't use economic development since there's no business out there. So for now that's one less hassle to deal with while driving down highway 1 and trying to fight traffic, red lights, the fucking roundabout at highway 30 (another dumb idea) and deer trying to rearrange the car. The Press Citizen as always got it home, it's known as Pearson, NCS died a long time ago after Pearson bought them out. And things went downhill after that. Moving on.
On the followup, Apollo Records who bought the 250,000 thousand collection of albums, they did managed to find some interesting things, Beatles, Led Zeppelin among the junk in the house. A Carl Perkins EP will fetch some big bucks in the process. Sorry to say folks my collection is nowhere near that bad.
Passings: Paul Michaels, radio broadcaster at KXEL at age 65, natural causes.
Rodney Long, on the run killed by a homeowner defending his home. Long escaped from a minimum security prison shot a deputy and broke into a home looking for another way to get out of town but overstayed his welcome. Reading the DM article (I'd post it but Gannett owns it and you've been stuck with those annoying adds to subscribe to their shitty newspaper messages) a former GF of Long mentioned that when she knew him, he was nice and quiet and do anything for anybody, yeah they all do sweetheart, till they do home invasion and threaten to kill you, then they'll not so nice and quiet then. Casey Riedel, living in fantasy land said she wished he'd come out of the cornfield so she could talk to him. Good thing he didn't, Casey Riedel would be in the obituary. I don't think Rodney Long would have stopped for tea sweetheart. This brings the valid argument that the right to bear arms in your home come into play. If the owner didn't pop Long between the eyes, Long wouldn't hesitate to shoot him. People change in the 14 years you haven't seen them, sometimes they're not as mild mannered and friendly as they used to be. If you think about it, nobody is.
Best Buy continues to shrink their anemic CD selection now down to two aisles, and of course they didn't have the Fleetwood Mac Then Play On reissue. It's getting to the point that going there for new music is a disappointment. Looks like from here on out, we'll take our chances on the net and Collector's Choice Music.
Lester Chambers has filed a 5 million dollar lawsuit against the psycho bitch who jumped the stage and pushed him over plus the blues festival and the city that hosted it due to lack of security. He does a point of lack of security from the video that was provided, there as hardly any security seen anywhere when Dinalynn Andrews-Potter high on bath salts and PBR jumped the stage and pushed Chambers. And the odd thing is that DAP made a beeline to the stage without anybody blocking her way. I'm sure there'll be more to this story as it happens. We shall see: http://www.vintagevinylnews.com/2013/08/lester-chambers-files-5-million-lawsuit.html
Still, the ratings haven't been all that cheery either. If we make it out of 2,000 I'll be surprised. Maybe I'll cancel myself and go driving around the U.S.
1. Something Better-The Dirt Drifters 2011 I think in the archives of alt country rock and roll that the Dirt Drifters have joined the likes of The Randy Cliffs, Big Back Forty and 17 Candle as bands that made fine debut albums but imploded soon afterwards, the biggest mystery is the Drifters who made an 2012 announcement that it was all over, you can get This Is My Blood at their website for 3.99 now. They were way ahead of the odious country toppers like Florida Georgia Line but they owed a lot more to Mellencamp and Earle than country hacks that write those truck songs. I like to thank Chris Stapleton for actually picking my brain in trying to find idea songwriters should Petty make that country album if and when he gets time to do so.
2. A Little Bit Crazy-Eddy Raven 1982 Raven enjoyed some radio played success in the 1980s, wrote a couple big country sellers for Don Gibson in the 70s as well, but country has ignored him like the rest. Originally on Elektra, but Warner Brothers issued this on a greatest hits that is brief (the odious Curb label put another very best of that is just as uneven) Raven is in dire need of a decent overview, RCA made a half assed best of and then replaced it with a couple additions and deletions (I Could Use Another You in, Operator Operator out) and the best CD came out on Westside in the UK and sells for big bucks. A Little Bit Crazy is the best single of his type of zydeco Cajun country and it's the best off the Warner/Curb Greatest Hits.
3. Tornado Warning-Pure Prairie League 1976 I may have been harsh on them in previous blogs and of course I heard about it when the comments were open to the public but I guess they can't figure out the code to post, nobody can figure out the Captcha code most of the time but before the budget went toward the down payment on the new car, I could keep an eye open out on PPL league albums that I may have overlooked. Doubt if Half Priced Books will have another copy of Can't Hold Back, the 1979 reissue featuring the up and coming Vince Gill. Moving to Casablanca (the after disco Casablanca label mind you) they scored soft rock gold with Let Me Love You Tonight and I'm Almost Ready. I'm surprised that RCA didn't issued Tornado Warning as a single, I think it would have done well on the charts. From the forgotten album Dance, never issued on CD that I know about. Renaissance reissued the first two PPL album and like the Taking The Stage Live CD commands big bucks as well. Could have used both of them CDs as down payment on the new car.
4. Laredo Radio-The Swimming Pool Q's 1986 Ah Southern Alternative Rock in the mid 80s was a happening thing and the Pool Q's was one of them you couldn't categorize. If the B 52s were brought up more on southern rock than Devo, that would be the sound of the Q's and their albums on A&M didn't see the light of day on CD till this year. Somebody must have payed the bounty to Universal to reissue both albums and they're a must have. But the Digipak and the superglue that holds the CD holder sucks. Thank you Cipher Bureau, whoever you are for the reissue, now convince the Universal fucks to reissue The Brains album.
5. Some Other Man Instead-Spin Doctors 2013 They never really went away although radio has quit playing anything from them except Two Princes which gets plenty of bad jokes from failed comedians still living at home with mommy and daddy (see VH1). They have gone from jam band to a blues band and the new album If The River Was Whiskey has been getting excellent reviews from various blues magazines. Of course I found the new album as a promo, Best Buy doesn't seem to have it (like many other new CDs). I wouldn't call it a big comeback or record of the year but it is quite listenable more than Pocket Full Of Kryptonite ever was.
6. You Got Me Runnin-Parker McGee 1976 Gene Cotton covered this and got the bigger hit (number 33 1976) and McGee only had one hit single to his name (I Can't Say No To You #42 1977) but Dan Seals and John Ford Coley had hits with I Would Really Love To See You Tonight and Nights Are Forever. His solo album is a dead ringer for sounding like England Dan/John Ford Coley or Seals & Crofts, mellow soft rock of the late 70s. His only album sells for big bucks on out of print Japan CD's but I did find this on vinyl.
7. Walking On The Sidewalks-Queens Of The Stone Age 1998 After the groan and drone that was Kyuss, Josh Homme took the Kyuss drummer along with him to start this new project which would become a full fledgling band but I find him hard to take at times. The first album was hard to find even in print but Josh reissued it with a few more bonus tracks to add to the madness. There's still plenty of a Kyuss clumsy dinosaur sounds on this to even the riff is repeated a good two minutes over and over but I find it charming myself.
8. Seventh Son-John Baldry 1972 Everything Stops For Tea, the followup to his well known It Ain't Easy LP has Rod Stewart and Elton John producing again, with EJ having side 1 and Rod the Mod on side 2 and even playing banjo on one cut! (this is the same guy that gave us the crappy Great American Songbook album of the last decade?). The American public didn't care, he was way too British for their tastes and ESFT was in the cut out bins before you knew it. The Canada based Stony Plain reissued both albums with bonus cuts as well since Baldry recorded for that label before he passed away in 2005. Both albums are worth listening just to hear the up and coming Stewart and Elton John and their bands helping out.
9. Radio Ass Kiss-The Wonder Stuff 1989 This band is far down the list of the late 80s British bands that came across the pond that I cared much about and I had their so called classic Never Loved Elvis but I think I donated it a long time ago, never thinking I wanted to hear it again. In the big collection that is the LPs that I have I came across Hup, and revisited that record. At times they sounded like The Stone Roses but with a more annoying singer but any band that gives Corporate Radio the bird gets Crabb points. Here's to you.
10. Singing Cowboy-Love 1969 It's not a country song, it's just an excuse for the drummer to try out his china crash at the end. Arthur Lee we hardly knew ye.
The Party Never Ends:
That's The Way I Like It-KC And The Sunshine Band 1975
Weirdo-The Charlatans UK 1992
Mama Coco-Gino Vannelli 1975
Paper Doll World-The Backsliders 1997
You-REM 1994
Review:
The Essential Gino Vannelli (Hip O)
Blue eyed progressive soul is the best way to describe it and Gino was the second white guy to appear on Soul Train is meaning something but also remembered as Eugene Levy parodied him on a SCTV skit. But you gotta give him props for hanging outside Herb Alpert's A&M studios in a attempt to get noticed, he couldn't do that today, Interscope would have security on his butt. Thankfully, this Hip O overview covered the highlights of his A&M period as well hit singles from Arista and CBS to boot. The early stuff is silly and a bit on the overwrought side but there's a certain charm to Mama Coco (brother Joe adds keyboard and counterpoint) and hit single People Gotta Move. A move to Arista damn near broke him although he did score a top ten hit with Living Inside Myself but that label didn't like his followup and for the next five years disappeared from the face of the earth. But to this day Vannelli has continue to reinvent himself via opera and lite jazz to which this best of doesn't explore.
For myself, he remains an acquired taste but my favorite songs come from the CBS albums he recorded. the new waveish' Black Cars but final hit was his finest, Wild Horses. That's his claim to fame and for me why this best of is the one to get. But it also shows the good and the bad of what made G.V. such a treat to listen to, brother Joe's assistance and musical arrangement. It was ahead of its time, even worth the chance of outrunning the security guard to get to Herb Alpert. And he's done quite well afterward too.
Grade B+
Pick hits: Black Cars, Wild Horses, People Gotta Move
A late add: A rant on playing classic albums in their entirety at concerts: http://bottom-of-the-glass.blogspot.com/2013/08/if-you-want-to-play-cd-play-it-on-your.html
Finally, I want to wish a happy birthday to the biggest supporter and commentator and all around great guy Tad and continue to thank him for his support of the blogs for the past couple years. If only we can get a few more of them in here. Cheers and hope you have a happy one!
Five days remain in the printing department before I return to the road to Iowa City to the other Pearson place but a judge has halted the city of Iowa City's plans of trying to take over some of Pearson's property for a pipe dream they call economic development, the Moss Ridge Campus at Moss Ridge Road. For the time being, Iowa City cannot use the eminent domain monkier since you can't use economic development since there's no business out there. So for now that's one less hassle to deal with while driving down highway 1 and trying to fight traffic, red lights, the fucking roundabout at highway 30 (another dumb idea) and deer trying to rearrange the car. The Press Citizen as always got it home, it's known as Pearson, NCS died a long time ago after Pearson bought them out. And things went downhill after that. Moving on.
On the followup, Apollo Records who bought the 250,000 thousand collection of albums, they did managed to find some interesting things, Beatles, Led Zeppelin among the junk in the house. A Carl Perkins EP will fetch some big bucks in the process. Sorry to say folks my collection is nowhere near that bad.
Passings: Paul Michaels, radio broadcaster at KXEL at age 65, natural causes.
Rodney Long, on the run killed by a homeowner defending his home. Long escaped from a minimum security prison shot a deputy and broke into a home looking for another way to get out of town but overstayed his welcome. Reading the DM article (I'd post it but Gannett owns it and you've been stuck with those annoying adds to subscribe to their shitty newspaper messages) a former GF of Long mentioned that when she knew him, he was nice and quiet and do anything for anybody, yeah they all do sweetheart, till they do home invasion and threaten to kill you, then they'll not so nice and quiet then. Casey Riedel, living in fantasy land said she wished he'd come out of the cornfield so she could talk to him. Good thing he didn't, Casey Riedel would be in the obituary. I don't think Rodney Long would have stopped for tea sweetheart. This brings the valid argument that the right to bear arms in your home come into play. If the owner didn't pop Long between the eyes, Long wouldn't hesitate to shoot him. People change in the 14 years you haven't seen them, sometimes they're not as mild mannered and friendly as they used to be. If you think about it, nobody is.
Best Buy continues to shrink their anemic CD selection now down to two aisles, and of course they didn't have the Fleetwood Mac Then Play On reissue. It's getting to the point that going there for new music is a disappointment. Looks like from here on out, we'll take our chances on the net and Collector's Choice Music.
Lester Chambers has filed a 5 million dollar lawsuit against the psycho bitch who jumped the stage and pushed him over plus the blues festival and the city that hosted it due to lack of security. He does a point of lack of security from the video that was provided, there as hardly any security seen anywhere when Dinalynn Andrews-Potter high on bath salts and PBR jumped the stage and pushed Chambers. And the odd thing is that DAP made a beeline to the stage without anybody blocking her way. I'm sure there'll be more to this story as it happens. We shall see: http://www.vintagevinylnews.com/2013/08/lester-chambers-files-5-million-lawsuit.html
Still, the ratings haven't been all that cheery either. If we make it out of 2,000 I'll be surprised. Maybe I'll cancel myself and go driving around the U.S.
1. Something Better-The Dirt Drifters 2011 I think in the archives of alt country rock and roll that the Dirt Drifters have joined the likes of The Randy Cliffs, Big Back Forty and 17 Candle as bands that made fine debut albums but imploded soon afterwards, the biggest mystery is the Drifters who made an 2012 announcement that it was all over, you can get This Is My Blood at their website for 3.99 now. They were way ahead of the odious country toppers like Florida Georgia Line but they owed a lot more to Mellencamp and Earle than country hacks that write those truck songs. I like to thank Chris Stapleton for actually picking my brain in trying to find idea songwriters should Petty make that country album if and when he gets time to do so.
2. A Little Bit Crazy-Eddy Raven 1982 Raven enjoyed some radio played success in the 1980s, wrote a couple big country sellers for Don Gibson in the 70s as well, but country has ignored him like the rest. Originally on Elektra, but Warner Brothers issued this on a greatest hits that is brief (the odious Curb label put another very best of that is just as uneven) Raven is in dire need of a decent overview, RCA made a half assed best of and then replaced it with a couple additions and deletions (I Could Use Another You in, Operator Operator out) and the best CD came out on Westside in the UK and sells for big bucks. A Little Bit Crazy is the best single of his type of zydeco Cajun country and it's the best off the Warner/Curb Greatest Hits.
3. Tornado Warning-Pure Prairie League 1976 I may have been harsh on them in previous blogs and of course I heard about it when the comments were open to the public but I guess they can't figure out the code to post, nobody can figure out the Captcha code most of the time but before the budget went toward the down payment on the new car, I could keep an eye open out on PPL league albums that I may have overlooked. Doubt if Half Priced Books will have another copy of Can't Hold Back, the 1979 reissue featuring the up and coming Vince Gill. Moving to Casablanca (the after disco Casablanca label mind you) they scored soft rock gold with Let Me Love You Tonight and I'm Almost Ready. I'm surprised that RCA didn't issued Tornado Warning as a single, I think it would have done well on the charts. From the forgotten album Dance, never issued on CD that I know about. Renaissance reissued the first two PPL album and like the Taking The Stage Live CD commands big bucks as well. Could have used both of them CDs as down payment on the new car.
4. Laredo Radio-The Swimming Pool Q's 1986 Ah Southern Alternative Rock in the mid 80s was a happening thing and the Pool Q's was one of them you couldn't categorize. If the B 52s were brought up more on southern rock than Devo, that would be the sound of the Q's and their albums on A&M didn't see the light of day on CD till this year. Somebody must have payed the bounty to Universal to reissue both albums and they're a must have. But the Digipak and the superglue that holds the CD holder sucks. Thank you Cipher Bureau, whoever you are for the reissue, now convince the Universal fucks to reissue The Brains album.
5. Some Other Man Instead-Spin Doctors 2013 They never really went away although radio has quit playing anything from them except Two Princes which gets plenty of bad jokes from failed comedians still living at home with mommy and daddy (see VH1). They have gone from jam band to a blues band and the new album If The River Was Whiskey has been getting excellent reviews from various blues magazines. Of course I found the new album as a promo, Best Buy doesn't seem to have it (like many other new CDs). I wouldn't call it a big comeback or record of the year but it is quite listenable more than Pocket Full Of Kryptonite ever was.
6. You Got Me Runnin-Parker McGee 1976 Gene Cotton covered this and got the bigger hit (number 33 1976) and McGee only had one hit single to his name (I Can't Say No To You #42 1977) but Dan Seals and John Ford Coley had hits with I Would Really Love To See You Tonight and Nights Are Forever. His solo album is a dead ringer for sounding like England Dan/John Ford Coley or Seals & Crofts, mellow soft rock of the late 70s. His only album sells for big bucks on out of print Japan CD's but I did find this on vinyl.
7. Walking On The Sidewalks-Queens Of The Stone Age 1998 After the groan and drone that was Kyuss, Josh Homme took the Kyuss drummer along with him to start this new project which would become a full fledgling band but I find him hard to take at times. The first album was hard to find even in print but Josh reissued it with a few more bonus tracks to add to the madness. There's still plenty of a Kyuss clumsy dinosaur sounds on this to even the riff is repeated a good two minutes over and over but I find it charming myself.
8. Seventh Son-John Baldry 1972 Everything Stops For Tea, the followup to his well known It Ain't Easy LP has Rod Stewart and Elton John producing again, with EJ having side 1 and Rod the Mod on side 2 and even playing banjo on one cut! (this is the same guy that gave us the crappy Great American Songbook album of the last decade?). The American public didn't care, he was way too British for their tastes and ESFT was in the cut out bins before you knew it. The Canada based Stony Plain reissued both albums with bonus cuts as well since Baldry recorded for that label before he passed away in 2005. Both albums are worth listening just to hear the up and coming Stewart and Elton John and their bands helping out.
9. Radio Ass Kiss-The Wonder Stuff 1989 This band is far down the list of the late 80s British bands that came across the pond that I cared much about and I had their so called classic Never Loved Elvis but I think I donated it a long time ago, never thinking I wanted to hear it again. In the big collection that is the LPs that I have I came across Hup, and revisited that record. At times they sounded like The Stone Roses but with a more annoying singer but any band that gives Corporate Radio the bird gets Crabb points. Here's to you.
10. Singing Cowboy-Love 1969 It's not a country song, it's just an excuse for the drummer to try out his china crash at the end. Arthur Lee we hardly knew ye.
The Party Never Ends:
That's The Way I Like It-KC And The Sunshine Band 1975
Weirdo-The Charlatans UK 1992
Mama Coco-Gino Vannelli 1975
Paper Doll World-The Backsliders 1997
You-REM 1994
Review:
The Essential Gino Vannelli (Hip O)
Blue eyed progressive soul is the best way to describe it and Gino was the second white guy to appear on Soul Train is meaning something but also remembered as Eugene Levy parodied him on a SCTV skit. But you gotta give him props for hanging outside Herb Alpert's A&M studios in a attempt to get noticed, he couldn't do that today, Interscope would have security on his butt. Thankfully, this Hip O overview covered the highlights of his A&M period as well hit singles from Arista and CBS to boot. The early stuff is silly and a bit on the overwrought side but there's a certain charm to Mama Coco (brother Joe adds keyboard and counterpoint) and hit single People Gotta Move. A move to Arista damn near broke him although he did score a top ten hit with Living Inside Myself but that label didn't like his followup and for the next five years disappeared from the face of the earth. But to this day Vannelli has continue to reinvent himself via opera and lite jazz to which this best of doesn't explore.
For myself, he remains an acquired taste but my favorite songs come from the CBS albums he recorded. the new waveish' Black Cars but final hit was his finest, Wild Horses. That's his claim to fame and for me why this best of is the one to get. But it also shows the good and the bad of what made G.V. such a treat to listen to, brother Joe's assistance and musical arrangement. It was ahead of its time, even worth the chance of outrunning the security guard to get to Herb Alpert. And he's done quite well afterward too.
Grade B+
Pick hits: Black Cars, Wild Horses, People Gotta Move
A late add: A rant on playing classic albums in their entirety at concerts: http://bottom-of-the-glass.blogspot.com/2013/08/if-you-want-to-play-cd-play-it-on-your.html
Finally, I want to wish a happy birthday to the biggest supporter and commentator and all around great guy Tad and continue to thank him for his support of the blogs for the past couple years. If only we can get a few more of them in here. Cheers and hope you have a happy one!
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