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+