Townedger Radio 11

Playlist of Townedger Radio 11   (August 19, 2015) Lucky Star Radio

https://www.mixcloud.com/LuckyStarRadio/townedger-radio-11/?utm_campaign=notification_new_upload&utm_medium=email&utm_source=notification&utm_content=html

Litany (Life Goes On)-Guadalcanal Diary
Dance With The Devil-Cozy Powell
Let There Be Drums-Sandy Nelson
I Can't See You-Tim Buckley
Strange-REM
Another Bubble-Robyn Hitchcock
Buckeye-Johnny And The Hurricanes
Boogie-John Hartford
Hope-Mason Profit
I Know About Me (Don't Know About You) The Townedgers
Pussy Pussy Pussy-Light Crust Dough Boys
Your Ma Said You Cried In Your Sleep Last Night-The Turtles
Ain't It Amazing Gracie-Buck Owens
Call On Me-Bread
Morning Song-Compost
Sick Of Me-Descendants
Real World-Mighty Lemon Drops
Something's Telling Me-BoDeans
Black Metallic-Catherine Wheel

Somewhere near Stanwood, Tuesday.  A little tornado  appeared.  I slept through it.  S. Ash didn't and posted this via Twitter. This summer, the heavy rains and storms dried up during the July months and never really took hold.  We did have a wet June but for the past month and a half it's been back to drought like conditions.  Update: the weather bureau did confirmed this as a EF 0: weak tornado.

I love Bill Ward, and do think his drumming on the early Black Sabbath recordings are classic but I'm beginning to tire of his continual whines that if the band gets back on the same page....HIS PAGE...and if Ozzy Osborne and his wife apologize to him, then maybe he'll be on board to do perhaps the final Sabbath album and tour.  Which means that Billy will be on the outside looking in. The last time Bill did hang with Ozzy was a track of Tony Iommi's solo album about 12 years ago thereabouts.  History has proven that Ozzy and the boys could live without Mr. Ward although 13 could have used a bit of Bill's drumming.  But when Classic Rock Magazine continues to rehash Ward's sour berries and feeling "hurt" by the snob, you have to wonder if it's Bill's attempt to try to stay in the limelight.

In town, you can get free WI FI at the Hiawatha's public parks......isn't the intent to go outside and enjoy life rather be bound by the internet?  Just wondering.


The mind numbing garbage that is Bro Country continues it's downward slide with the latest mini full porta potties line of crap from Chase Rice who continues to dazzle us with thought provoking words of wisdom:  Just some old plowboys, pretending were cowboys (is that supposed to be We're and not were Chase buddy?!) came from nothing, oh but look at us now boys.  If you don't think that's country, UR ignorant  (from an actual tweet).  Technically from a kindergarder's point of view Chase that might pass for country....if you're five years old.  Me, I prefer a little more thought to my country.  I outgrew your type of music once I got past 4th grade.  But you can't escape this bad country.  KDST popped in Something Bout A Truck by Kip Moore after playing a Willie Nelson song and I could only do about 5 seconds and one dumbass lyric of that song. A former Iowa Hawkeye linebacker who recently retired made the grand statement of listening to Sam Hunt is equivalent to being peed on.  Which one can basically substitute Sam's name in favor of Chase Rice, who will ban you if you say anything bad to him on Twitter.  To those who cry out about the Luke Bryan bashfest and FGL can understand why anybody would want to, country music is evolving.   In this day and age I think New Bro Country is regressing.  As for Chase Rice, if you type in Chase Rice is, the first thing that crops up is Not Country. At least from the Yahoo site.

From the mind of Rich Rose, Las Vegas' favorite record store owner. 

"What the hell is this? It's terrible!" - Rich Rosen when a song comes on the radio
"It's Coldplay." - David Rosen
"And these people are successful?" - Rich Rosen

If you have 70 dollars laying around you could invest in Soul Manifesto, a 12 CD set that has all of Otis Redding's albums under one box set.  That is the albums that he recorded for Volt/Atco  Since I have all but 3 of them, I really don't see the need to pony up again.  The problem of music today is that you can get anybody's output in box sets rather than doing it the old way like I did and buy one album at a time. However, Legacy Records outdid themselves by putting out the 23 CD coffee table set of The RCA and T Neck Years (1959-1983).  Basically this is more of the T Neck Years, they only did one album for RCA (Shout!) and there's a big hole in the decade missing, Tamla/Motown, United Artists and Atlantic are missing and the other two major labels have dibs on those masters.  Some people would dig it but I think it's overkill.  Anything over five CDs is overkill and I don't even listen to The Specialty Records Story all that much.  Buyer beware indeed.

49 years ago, this was the playlist at a Duluth Minnesota am radio station. http://las-solanas.com/arsa/surveys_item.php?svid=11069

Reviews

Barrett Whitfield And The Savages-Under The Savage Sky (Bloodshot 2015)

Nobody makes this kind of music anymore certainly on the major labels.  But for one Barry White (no not that late great soul singer) aka Barrett Whitfield, he's more Howling Wolf, Wilson Pickett and Iggy Pop, and his band has a guitarist that played in the Lyres and produced this garage soul rocking album, the followup to Dig Thy Savage Soul, to which Little Steven's Underground Garage played regularly it seems.    Peter Greenberg has that 60s in your garage sound down pat, and Whitfield can howl with the best of them on such classic tracks as I'm A Good Man, I'm A Full Grown Man and Bad News Perfume. Perhaps I'm A Good Man would have been a better way to end the album rather than the moody Full Moon In The Daylight Sky.  You won't hear this on regular radio, it's too much punk and garage but betcha Little Steven will plug it on his show every chance he gets.  And it beats Chase Rice all to hell too.
Grade A-

PJ Harvey-Rid Of Me (Island 1993)

It's clear to me that what passed for noisy alternative rock in the 1990s has really dated itself and not in a good way.  Even though Harvey has been a critics darling throughout her career, a little of her goes a long way, even more on this noisy album that Steve Albini recorded.  I had this CD once and got rid of it, and decided to revisit it from the bargain bins and no, this hasn't aged at all.  Harvey can scream out of tune with the best of Courtney Love and the Man Size Sextet is the cause for a fast forward button.  She can display a rock side, Me Jane  is the best by far.   Ecstasy is better the second time around, and the other version of Man Size is good.  Steve Albini's adds his usual sound for some effect but his "recording" tends to overpower Miss Harvey.   I think she got better on her next album To Bring You My Love but Rid Of Me, she channels her inner Courtney Love.  With mixed results.
Grade B-

Shakin' Stevens-Get Shakin  (Epic 1981)

It's odd I never gave much thought to Stevens although his sound was close to Rockpile as anybody.  In fact I can't give you a reason why I didn't buy his records till finding them one by one in the Goodwill bins.  Get Shakin is basically Epic's condensed version of three albums he issued in the UK. A fine rockabilly star in his own right, he even employs Albert Lee on a few songs as well as Mickey Gee and Geraint Watkins, the mentioned names have played on albums by Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe who was Rockpile.  He also knows covers too, covering the Blasters (Marie Marie), George Jones (Revenuer Man), and Buck Owens (Hot Dog).  Of course the number one single This Old House in the UK went unnoticed and the only top 100 song he had was 1984's  I Cry Just A Little Bit which petered out at number 67.  Which deems the fact that Stevens was perhaps too rockabilly for the American public to digest.  But Dave Edmunds would produce him later in the 80s.  Overall a fine US debut from a guy that if you like the sound of Rockpile, you'll get a kick out of hearing it. I know I did.
Grade A-

Mitch Ryder And The Detroit Wheels Greatest Hits (Roulette 1985)

One of those grab bag LPs that Roulette threw out in the mid 80s and while the Rhino album was the better of these best of, the one omission of Turn On Your Lovelight was the reason that I ended up buying the cheaper Roulette reissue.  If nothing else, this song itself shows why Johnny Bee is one of the best drummers out there alive today that nobody knows about.  His beats reminds me of a train goring through town. Of course the majority of the New Voice hits are here, Jenny Take  A Ride, Little Latin Lupe Lu, Devil In A Blue Dress, and of course this shows off Ryder's powerful vocals.  But still Greatest Hits remains that the Detroit Wheels backed up Ryder with plenty of rock passion. Jim McCartney and Johnny Bee would figure into the late 70s band The Rockets and have a couple hits on their own too.  But this is where it all started, the Rhino set is better but my heart remains with the Roulette cheapie.
Grade B+

Johnny Otis-Rock Me Baby (The Mercury and Peacock sides 1951-1955) (Rev Ola 2007)

Otis is one of the early rock and rollers but like most of the early ones, they got their start in Jump Blues or Big Bands and Otis was no exception.  Born a Greek but raised among black folk, Otis really absorbed the music influences of the time and turned it into his own sound, his biggest hits came on Capitol with the Bo Diddley influenced Willie And The Hand Jive and Ring A Ling, one of the more intense rock numbers of the late 50s.  While at Peacock, he played vibes on Johnny Ace's Pledging My Love and bring out the early rockabilly of Big Mama Thornton's Hound Dog.  No denying Rock Me Baby has hints of rock, but it's more jump blues and Mel Walker's Charles Brown/Billy Eckstine  type of singing, and the slower blues of Brown's influence, while good, tends to put me to sleep.  The hokiness of Call Operator 210 comes to mind of dated early 50s pop and I think Otis kind of sensed that as he plays with  a arrangement of The Peacocks spicing up what was getting to be a lax version of The Game Is Over.  Otis did revisit the early days of jump blues with One O Clock Jump and Groomp Blues, both minor houserocking classics.  Otis was beginning to get his act together after leaving Mercury for Peacock Records and working with Johnny Ace and Big Mama Thornton on the forgotten Yes Baby and beginning to sing more, including the title track and Shake It.  For a historical CD, Rev Ola does put in a couple missing pieces of Johnny Otis' music and the liner notes are informal.  You can probably live without this, I tend to think of the Mel Walker songs as a nice tribute to Charles Brown or Billy Eckstine but really don't do nothing for me. But the more uptempo songs and the hilarious Wishing Well with the underused Ada Wilson are the better songs.  If you're into what Johnny Otis does, this might work for you.  And if you're into Johnny Otis music, I'd like to talk to you about that as well.
Grade B+

Bon Jovi-Burning Bridges (Island 2015)

The writing on the wall, Bon Jovi bids adieu to Island/Def Jam after thirty years of highs and lows and surprised he hang around as long as he did on the label.  The tabloids say Mercury, but he's been a Island roster dude since Universal bought out Mercury, shut the label down and kept Jon on Island even though Mercury did return a few years later. Major labels are a shell of their former selves and that is even more true today.  While the reviews have been scathing, I kinda find this record somewhat listenable, even though having the insufferable John Shanks to produce and telling Bon Jovi to add those Mumford and Sons Woahs and Hey Yeah.  The title track just might be the most F.U to a major label since Graham Parker's Mercury Poisoning and Bon Jovi couldn't call it Mercury Poisoning Part 2, or This Island Isn't Big For The Both Of Us.  Side 1 has a couple fun songs the Richie Sambora co write credit of Saturday  Night Gave Me Sunday Morning or A Teardrop To The Sea.  We can't forget the new anthems of We Don't Run or I'm Your Man, although you won't hear much of them as time goes on.  Problem remains the boring assed ballads and side 2 is full of them, Fingerprints,  the Coldplay ripoff Life Is Beautiful and Who Would You Die For, yeah nobody going to request that one although they'll go with I'll Be There For You.   Don't expect Island to pay for a retirement party for Jon anytime soon after this final product is delivered and released last week and forgotten next week.  Like the majority of Bon Jovi albums, this is spotty and even more lackadaisical but I will give him credit for a good protest of a major label on his final try.
Grade C+

Men, Women And Children (Reprise 2006)

One of those throwaway tax writeoffs bands of the 2000s that nobody gave much thought about (and with good reason) their one and only album appeared in 2006.  They couldn't decide if they wanted to be the next Modest Mouse or Franz Ferdinand, so the lead off track they tried to go for a sound like Scissor Sisters with a disco sound somewhat like Funkytown.  At times MWC comes off like Information Society but with less emotion and less songwriting ability  and although there are bits of moments to remember (Vowels with A-E-I-O-U nothing chorus that's easy to remember and to chant too), the rest of the album the band does an okay job of aping other bands be it Modest Mouse or Smashing Pumpkins, but they could never sound like themselves at any given time.  Kinda like another one album band Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants which had a much better album than this one.
Grade C

And the Chicago Cubs continue to have a hot August and taken a few teams to task, sweeping the Braves over the weekend and winning two more games before San Francisco cooled them down 4-2. Still the remarkable fact is that Joe Maddon has turned them into contenders.  Although its too early to tell if they will make the playoff, nobody can beat St Louis and Pittsburgh is just as tough, I'm glad to see the Cubs are playing much better baseball before the year is out.  Go Cubbies.