Monday, March 18, 2024

If It's Monday, It Must Be Musician Jokes

Q: What is something you never hear in the music business?

A: "There's the banjo player's Porsche."

Q: What do you call a trombonist with a pager?

A: An optimist

Q: What do you call a drummer in a three-piece suit?

A: The defendant.

Q: How do you get a bass player off your porch?

A: Pay for the pizza

Hey -- I'm laid-up with a cold. Regular posting, involving actual writing and real music, resumes tomorrow, Benadryl permitting.

Friday, March 15, 2024

La Fin de la Semaine Essay Question: Special "Ampersands Rule!" Edition

From 1973 and their album Louisiana Rock & Roll, please enjoy unaccountably little-known Southern Rock stalwarts Potliquor and their cautionary on-the-road tale "You Can't Get There From Here."

Those guys were, as you can hear, a killer two-guitar band, but unlike their better known and indulgently verbose genre/geographical blues-based brethren (Skynyrd, The Allmans) they actually have more in common on a sonic and compositional level with the likes of later, punkier avant-gardists like Television. I also hear a lot of the kind of mutant/metal stylings reminiscent of Brit contemporaries like The Move. And I can't think of another American act of their day who sounded so interesting production-wise.

Ooh -- I just remembered that not only have I written about these guys before, but that I actually had some interraction with people in their orbit. You can check that out OVER HERE,

I should also add that the aformentioned LR&R (I love the &), from whence the above song derives, is no longer officially available (although you can hear the rest of it on YouTube). Its predecessor, Levee Blues, however. remains available for streaming at Amazon and is highly recommended.

But now, of course, it's time to get to the business at hand. To wit:

...and your favorite obscure '70s rock/pop/country/folk or soul album by an equally obscure band or solo artist is...???

I emphasize 70s here, for obvious reasons. And by obscure, we mean something that the average reasonably well-informed music fan probably wouldn't be familiar with beyond perhaps the artist's name or album title. If that.

Discuss.

And have a great weekend, everybody!!!

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Songs I'd Forgotten Existed, Let Alone Loved (An Occasional Series): Special "You Can't Copyright a Title" Edition

From 1991, please enjoy Boston alt/folk-rock indie faves Knots and Crosses and their utterly heart-wrenching, gorgeously sung and brilliantly performed look at the relationships that happen to "Creatures of Habit."

K&C were one of those occasional shoulda/coulda music biz sad stories; after a couple of DIY albums that sold a remarkable 20,000 copies in the pre-internet days, they got signed to a major label (Island) and then got dropped almost immediately. Lead singer Carol Noonan, however, went on to release a whole mess of well-received solo efforts of similar quality in a similar stylistic vein and she's also, as I just learned, a big NPR fave and the co-proprietress of the Stone Mountain Arts Center in Maine.

In any case, I bring the whole thing up because I also just learned that Harry Shearer's wife(!) Judith Owen -- who I had never heard of until last Monday morning -- had written and recorded her own "Creatures of Habit" in 2008, and it's pretty damned impressive as well.

I should also add that the bit about not being able to copyright a title is actually true; apparently, if you wanted to publish a novel about a flatulent meteorologist and call it Gone With the Wind you would be completely within your rights. If there are any lawyers out there reading this, feel free to clarify it if I'm wrong.

[h/t Captain Al]

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Eric Carmen 1949 - 2024

The auteur of The Raspberries has passed. I needn't remind anybody that he and they pretty much sum up the mission statement of this here blog.

I should add that a certain Shady Dame and I had our first date at a Raspberries show in Manhattan in 2007; they were promoting the Live on Sunset Strip album from whence the above clip derives. So you can imagine my surprise when said jeune fille told me yesterday that she'd saved the Raspberries button the record company (Ryko) had thoughtfully provided for the industry attendees that night. (Cue: Steve getting a little verklempt.)

I should also add -- just to annoy the less fortunate -- that I also saw the Raspberries in their early 70s heyday. At Carnegie Hall, if memory serves; they were flush from the success of "I Wanna Be With You" (the opening 12-string riff of which is still one of my favorite several seconds of recorded music ever) and, alas, wearing those dopey matching suits that kept them from being considered hip in that far away era. Come to think of it, they were actually the opening act for somebody else (I forget who). But they were very impressive, and in any case, what I remember most about the show wasn't their ability to reproduce the sound of their records live, but rather that they rolled two(!) Mellotrons onstage at some point and proceeded to surprise everybody with a killer rendition of -- dig this -- "Be My Baby."

Have I mentioned that this death shit is really starting to piss me off?

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Karl Wallinger 1957 - 2024

The auteur of The Waterboys and World Party has passed. Damn, I'd forgotten how much I loved this song of his.

I've said it before and I'll say it again -- this death shit is really starting to piss me off.

PS: I'd also forgotten that I reviewed the album from whence that song derives. Here it is, in the September 1990 issue of Stereo Review.

Jeez, I really was a cynical bastard back then. I mean, the digs at XTC and Todd Rundgren strike me as a bit much. Other than that, however, I think I got the album right.

Monday, March 11, 2024

Les Cahiers du Jet Screamer!!!

From some time in the apparently distant future, please enjoy the aforementioned Mr. Screamer and the greatest rock record of all time, "Epp! Opp! Ork!".

Okay, maybe not the greatest rock record of all time, but Judy Jetson's favorite fer sure.

And I think we can also agree that Judy's dad George's opening drum solo rules.

In all seriousnes, I have not been able to determine who actually sang and played on EOE (an uncomfirmed rumor has it that the vocals were by Mel Brooks alumnus Howie Morris), but we do know that it was in fact co-written by the great William Hanna-Joseph Barbera team who created The Jetsons and much, much more.,

I would also be remiss if I didn't post this 1995 cover version by The Violent Femmes.

Pretty fab, and I should add that it derives from the unaccountably forgotten compilation album Saturday Morning Cartoons Greatest Hits, which also features a version of "The Banana Splits Song" by Liz Phair(!) and Material Issue(!!) that really IS one of the greatest rock records of all time. But that's a subject for a future post.

Friday, March 08, 2024

Weekend Listomania: Special "You Can't Get There From Here" Edition

[I posted the original version of this in 2008 -- Hole. E. Shit!!! -- but it struck me as newly pertinent now that our esteemed New York governor, in a ludicrously tone deaf attempt to co-opt the Trumpist Republicans' cynical and stupid THE IMMIGRANTS ARE COMING TO RAPE YOU! campaign, is actually deploying the National Guard into the NYC subway system to do bag checks of little old ladies purses. Genius!!!

In any case I've done a lot of re-writing of the thing, and switched in a couple of new items so as not to seem like the slacker asshole I actually am. That notwithstanding, enjoy.]

And the subject of our new and revised Listomania is...

BEST POST-ELVIS POP/ROCK/SOUL/COUNTRY SONG OR RECORD WHOSE TITLE REFERENCES A MODE OF TRANSPORTATION!!!!!

Totally arbitrary rule: No title utilizing the words "road" or "street" need apply. Sorry.

Okay, that said, here's my totally top of my head Top Eight.

8. Bitchin' Camaro (The Dead Milkmen)

I'm not sure if this is as funny as the DMs thought it was at the time, but you gotta give it this -- it's got one of the longest spoken word intros in rock history.

7. Little Deuce Coupe (The Beach Boys)

Pretty much my all time favorite car song, and I love this clip, from a closed-circuit theater concert which I actually saw in a local (Jersey) cinema when it was first broadcast.

6. Last of the Steam Powered Trains (Ed Kuepper and Mark Dawson)

The original is from the Kinks' epochal Village Green album, of course, and I've always wondered why nobody ever covered it. Turns out Ed Kuepper, the lead singer of the great Australian punk band The Saints, actually did.

5. Chestnut Mare (The Byrds)

Because "A Horse With No Name" is just too stupid for words, and I couldn't find a video for Procol Harum's "A Christmas Camel" that I liked. Heh.

4. A tie!!!

Theme from Route 66 (Nelson Riddle)

George Maharis and Martin Milner come home -- all is forgiven.

...and...

Route 66 (Some asshole whose name rhymes with Sleeve Nimels)

I can't think of another rock song that's inspired so many terrific covers in so many styles -- Depeche Mode, anybody? -- but this isn't one of them. Hey -- if memory serves, there were some alcoholic beverages being consumed.

3. Rocket in My Pocket (Jimmy Lloyd)

That's Jimmy Lloyd a/k/a Jimmy Logsdon ("The Man Without a Subtitle" in Nick Tosches brilliant Unsung Heroes of Rock n Roll, still the best and funniest book about roots music ever) and what was for many years one of the rarest and in-demand rockabilly obscurities ever recorded. You might recall it from The Iron Giant soundtrack, of course.

2. My White Bicycle (Tomorrow)

Brilliant Summer of Love psychedelic pop, even if the guitarist is the pre-Yes Steve Howe.

And the number one transportation-themed song, it's not even a contest so don't bug me, is --

1. Trains and Boats and Planes (Fountains of Wayne)

For obvious reasons, of course, not the least of which it's just so gorgeously mournful. Yeah, yeah, I realize the Dionne Warwick version is pretty much the peak product of her Bachrach/David collaboration, but a lot of the covers out there are really good. And I think FOW pretty much nailed it, no?

Awrighty then -- what would your choices be?

And have a great weekend, everybody!!!!

Thursday, March 07, 2024

Closed for Monkey Business: Special "Primary Exhaustion" Edition

Sorry -- Super Tuesday just wiped me out.

Barring the unforseen, regular posting -- and hopefully a Weekend listomania or some such -- resumes on the morrow.

Wednesday, March 06, 2024

Great Lost Singles of the (We Think) '80s (An Occasional Series): Special "This is the Big One, Elizabeth!!!" Edition

Okay, hold on to your seats, kids, and please enjoy should-be-a-household-word Richard Orange and his absolutely drop-dead astounding guitar-driven power pop masterpiece "Hole in My Heart."

Words fail me.

So where is that from? And why haven't you heard it before?

The short version: As attentive readers will recall, two weeks ago I had very nice things to say about the cover version done by Cyndi Lauper, which plays over the end credits of her underrated film debut (with Jeff Goldblum and Peter Falk) in the 1988 sci-fi rom-com Vibes.

So anyway, a certain Shady Dame and I watched the flick, and when the song came on I wondered a) why it hadn't been a bigger hit and b) and more important, who wrote it? So I looked it up, and when I found that Lauper wasn't the author, I figured I should track down the original, if there was one. Hey -- never let it be said I don't do the heavy lifting for those of you reading this here blog.

Result:I found the above vid on YouTube, and it blew my tiny mind. Great lost singles of the 80s? Hell, I'd nominate that for THE great lost single of all time, period. I mean, if I was still in a band, I'd want to play stuff that sounded just like that, at the drop of a hat anywhere, and I'd do it for free. I mean, my god -- those layered inter-weaving jangly guitars (there's a 12-string in there, of course), that propulsive and melodic McCartney-esque bass, those killer drums (the production of which is astounding), and the out-of-this-world and hilarious lyrical conceit. And have I mentioned the beyond perfect lead vocal and harmonies? It's like the record of my dreams.

In any case, I still don't know exactly when that was made, or anything about its auteur, other than that he seems to have been active since the 70s, to little or no notice beyond the royalty checks he presumably still gets from streams of the movie. He does, however, have a Facebook page, and after today's post goes up, I plan to go over there and act like the most obnoxious fanboy imaginable.

Hey -- he deserves no less. I'll keep you posted as things develop.

Tuesday, March 05, 2024

The Blog By Numbers: Special "Senior Citizens Rule!" Edition

[In which we catch up with a bunch of brief and/or dumb stuff that I've been meaning to post for a while, but hadn't gotten around to for whatever reason.]

1. Keith Sings Lou

I think we can agree that this is a song he was born to cover. I'm curious, however -- can you still score a bag of H for twenty-six dollars? Asking for a friend.

2. I Hate This Guy

This good looking sonofabitch turned 80(!) on Saturday. Words fail me.

3. Why Didn't I Get the Memo About This?

Joe Walsh(!) covers the Shirelles(!!). I had no idea this existed until our friend Sal Nunziato at Burning Wood mentioned it over the weekend. Pretty damn good, no?

4. I Really Liked His Solo Work

Harrison Ford, get it? Come to think of it, I could almost see George playing the part.

5. It Seems Like Only Yesterday

Ah COVID, we barely knew ye.