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Rosie glows with an unholy light.
Don't forget to register for EschaCon!
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Early on during They Might Be Giants's show at Boulder's Fox Theatre, keyboardist/accordionist/vocalist John Linnell called a song to a premature halt, waving his hands frantically at his bandmates.
"Whoa, hold it guys," he croaked. "I don't know what's wrong-my voice is all messed up."
Though the band is known for its onstage pranks, this wasn't one of them. Holding his throat, it appeared that Linnell really was having trouble with his vocal chords.
"It's the altitude," suggested an audience member.
"No, it's not the altitude," Linnell answered. "It must be the latitude. What is this-the 40th parallel? We can't play shows at the 40th parallel!"
Big Star to Release New Album
To be released by Rykodisc, In Space will feature mastermind and principal songwriter Alex Chilton and drummer Jody Stephens, both original members of the classic quartet. Rounding out the lineup are Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow of fellow power-poppers the Posies. Auer and Stringfellow have been part of Big Star since 1993, when the group reformed to tour.
List ten songs that you are currently digging...it doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they're no good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artists, and the ten songs in your blog. Then tag five other people to see what they're listening to.
"We Jam Econo," Tim Irwin's lovable documentary about the lovable 80's punk band called the Minutemen is making the rounds of film festivals and revival houses this summer. It's nice to revisit the hullabaloo of their songs. And watching the bassist, Mike Watt, driving his van around his California hometown, San Pedro, and pointing at Minutemen landmarks is like listening to a fascinating Concord park ranger lead a tour across North Bridge. "We were minute men," Watt says. That's my-NOOT men - a little homemade band, not the slick Redcoats of arena rock.
--snip--
The best part of the film, and the most heartbreaking, is when Watt walks around the park where he met Boon, a childhood friend who died in a car accident in 1985. "I was quite smitten with him," Watt remembers. "He was playing army and he fell out of a tree on me."
As he stares at the very tree, it occurs to me that playing army when you're 13 is fine. Grown men playing army on the Mexican border? No, thanks.
As for myself, I've always admired EC, though I can't say I've ever loved him. I don't think that's my fault, either. EC has always adopted a deliberately ironic pose, I think; he's has a gift for really sweet and catchy melodies, but also seems to have a real instinctive fear of the pretty, of the sentimental, of the, well, revealing. Hence what comes across as a fascination for songs which reference death; I didn't keep a scientific count, but I don't think I'm wrong in guessing that %75 of the songs at the concert, his own & covers, mentioned death in some way shape or form. Even the prettiest ones with Harris were, well, death themed.
So what caught me about the show was Costello really trying hard to balance what are really two contradictory impulses, which are of course in every performer, but kind of pronounced in him -- to Do His Own Thing, and to Give the People What They Want.
Example: Cheap Trick.
I love Cheap Trick, but there's no denying that you always had two shooting for the hotness factor and two shooting for the quirky factor, and that's okay. Once, the divine watertiger interviewed them, and she was crushed to find (1) Tom Petersson not in attendance, and (2) Robin Zander hiding an ooky cold sore behind a bandanna (shades of Spinal Tap!). Neilsen's always been smart and thoughtful (loved him in The Big One--"You just wrote a Yardbirds song!") but not, you know, hot.
NYMary's Life Lesson #312: If you are in a relationship and The Supremes make sense to you, even seem to have a point, get the hell out. Thank you. And you may thank me later.
Case's set involved a full band, including multi-instrumentalist Jon Rauhouse (his arsenal included pedal-steel and banjo). Case herself played guitars, and her band was loose and lively. But everyone seemed to understand that the voice was the centerpiece. It's almost a cliché with Case, how captivating and powerful her vocals really are. But there's no getting around it, and especially not in concert, where the instruments weaved around her voice, creating little warrens she could sing her way out of. (Or stay comfortably within, for an extra velvety touch.) "Favorite" was a highlight, just as it is on Tigers, with Case's voice climbing the lingering rollercoaster melody and breaking with the plaint and sigh of a million tear-soaked date nights.
Top of the Pops
(via Hits A Gogo)
The Seeker - The Who (black and white (original tx in colour) - live vocals)
Top of the Pops
(via Disco)
Get It On - T Rex (mimed)
Top of the Pops
(via Disco)
My World - Bee Gees (live vocals)
Top of the Pops
(via Backtrack on VH1 and commercial video)
Autumn Almanac - Kinks (mimed)
unknown programme
(used on Hits A Gogo in a manner similar to The Seeker - Who clip, above)
Sorry Suzanne - Hollies (mimed)
Does anybody know what the source programme is? It looks like British TV to me.
Top of the Pops
(via Disco)
The Wizard - Uriah Heep (live vocals)
Top of the Pops
(via Disco)
Poppa Joe - Sweet (mimed)
Beatclub
Me and Bobby McGee - Johnny Cash - a great up-tempo version of Janis Joplin's hit, recorded for a Beatclub session in 1972.
(note: this is not a missing clip!)
Once More With Felix
The Stranger Song - Leonard Cohen - amazing 1967 colour clip from Julie Felix's BBC2 show, famous for the tear that runs down Cohen's face at the end of the song.
Top of the Pops
(via Disco)
Gudbye T'Jane - Slade (mimed)
Top of the Pops
(via Dutch TV)
Wonderboy - Kinks (mimed)
She calls me up at ten past midnight.
She and some guy just had some big fight.
And I say, 'Well, maybe he's just not all that bright.'
She tells me it's not his brain that she likes.
An idiosyncratic blog dedicated to the precursors, the practioners, and the descendants of power pop. All suggestions for postings and sidebar links welcome, contact any of us.