Here's the only one I can think of top of my head -- Grant Lee Buffalo's heart-stoppingly beautiful grunge take on "In My Room," from the Friends soundtrack.
Damn -- I know there must be some others, but I'm absolutely drawing a blank.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Wednesday Deep Thought
Why are there so few good Beach Boys/Brian Wilson covers?
Here's the only one I can think of top of my head -- Grant Lee Buffalo's heart-stoppingly beautiful grunge take on "In My Room," from the Friends soundtrack.
Damn -- I know there must be some others, but I'm absolutely drawing a blank.
Here's the only one I can think of top of my head -- Grant Lee Buffalo's heart-stoppingly beautiful grunge take on "In My Room," from the Friends soundtrack.
Damn -- I know there must be some others, but I'm absolutely drawing a blank.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Believe It Or Not, There WAS a Time When Rod Stewart Wasn't an Asshole...
...although I realize that our younger readers may find the idea preposterous. Still, here's Exhibit A in that regard; from his 1972 solo album Never a Dull Moment, please enjoy "True Blue."
This was the follow-up single to "You Wear It Well," and I for one think it's even better. In fact, it's pretty much the apotheosis of what we think of Rod's style circa "Maggie May," which is to say it's just as touching but rocks harder than either of those two, IMHO.
This was the follow-up single to "You Wear It Well," and I for one think it's even better. In fact, it's pretty much the apotheosis of what we think of Rod's style circa "Maggie May," which is to say it's just as touching but rocks harder than either of those two, IMHO.
Monday, September 28, 2009
The Girl With Colitis Goes By....
Sad news just in over the wires.
As I said, sad news indeed. Especially given that Mean Mr. Mustard still walks the streets a free man.
LONDON (AP) — The real life Lucy from The Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" has died after a long fight against lupus. The death of Lucy Vodden at age 46 has been announced by St. Thomas' Hospital in London, where she was treated. The hospital said Monday she died after battling the disease for years.Vodden came to the attention of John Lennon when the Beatles' young son Julian came home from school one day with a drawing that he said was "Lucy in the sky with diamonds."
As I said, sad news indeed. Especially given that Mean Mr. Mustard still walks the streets a free man.
The Letter "U" and the Numeral "2"
Caught U2 at the soon to be demolished Giants Stadium on Wednesday. Good show, by and large, although this particular well-intentioned birthday tribute to Bruce Springsteen kind of sucked.
That said, I had a perhaps amusing difference of opinion about the concert with a certain Shady Dame.
Her (having seen U2 seven times previously):
"You know, Bono really is kind of an asshole."
Me (seeing U2 for the first time):
"You know, Bono really isn't as big an asshole as I expected."
That said, I had a perhaps amusing difference of opinion about the concert with a certain Shady Dame.
Her (having seen U2 seven times previously):
"You know, Bono really is kind of an asshole."
Me (seeing U2 for the first time):
"You know, Bono really isn't as big an asshole as I expected."
Friday, September 25, 2009
Weekend Listomania (Special George Constanza "It's Not You It's Me" Edition)
Well, it's Friday and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental groinal maintenance engineer Fah Lo Suee and I will be off to Paris, France where we'll be attending the annual "Hideously Goofy Eye Wear" tradeshow along with Bono of U2. He never misses it!
So posting by moi will more than likely be sporadic for a little while.
But in the meantime, here's another little project for us all:
Band or Artist That Most Makes You Go "Can Someone Please Explain What the Hell the Fuss About This Band or Artist is All About?"
You know...rock or pop or r&b acts that lots of people whose opinions you respect seem to dig the most but for the life of you can't figure out why.
Oh -- and a coveted PowerPop No-Prize obviously goes to commenter Anonymous, who suggested this theme during last week's desperate cry for help. I thank you, my nameless friend!
Okay, and my totally top of my head Top Six is:
6. Swans
Doom and gloom and minimalist droning, usually at volume levels that make your ears bleed. Actually, I only ever knew one guy who really loved this band, but since he was a bit of a genius I give them a try from to time. Never works.
5. The Cocteau Twins
These long-running Brits are supposed to be....what? Some kind of hauntingly ambient Celtic whatsis, I guess; all I know is lots of people swear by them but to my ears they just sound kind of watery and uninteresting. Sorry
4. Kings of Leon
.
Don't get 'em at all, except for the earnest angst. Which would be a great name for a folk singer, now that I think of it.
3. Genesis with Peter Gabriel
He finally lost me with the Mr. Potato Head outfit, but even this earlier and relatively straightforward performance reduces me to scowling fidgets. Seriously -- I like a lot of Gabriel's 80s output, and the Phil Collins version of Genesis was an argreeable hit machine, to be sure. But the 70s prog stuff?
2. The Killers
Forget their music, which strikes me as mediocre and derivative at best, but if anybody has a clue about those feathered epaulets on the singer please e-mail me.
And the numero uno artiste that make me go "Huh?" but other folks seem to grok to the nth degree is...
1. Fleet Foxes
What I hear from these guys is a mediocre early 70s Southern California folk-pop band, like America without the chops and with even less charisma, but apparently I'm missing something. Bueller? Bueller?
Alrighty then -- and your choices would be?
[Shameless Blogwhore: My parallel Cinema Listomania -- theme: best films about the heroic struggle of the Little Guy against the odds!!! -- is now up over at Box Office. As always, if you could take a moment to go over there and leave some sort of snark in the comments section it would help keep me in good with management. Thanks!]
So posting by moi will more than likely be sporadic for a little while.
But in the meantime, here's another little project for us all:
Band or Artist That Most Makes You Go "Can Someone Please Explain What the Hell the Fuss About This Band or Artist is All About?"
You know...rock or pop or r&b acts that lots of people whose opinions you respect seem to dig the most but for the life of you can't figure out why.
Oh -- and a coveted PowerPop No-Prize obviously goes to commenter Anonymous, who suggested this theme during last week's desperate cry for help. I thank you, my nameless friend!
Okay, and my totally top of my head Top Six is:
6. Swans
Doom and gloom and minimalist droning, usually at volume levels that make your ears bleed. Actually, I only ever knew one guy who really loved this band, but since he was a bit of a genius I give them a try from to time. Never works.
5. The Cocteau Twins
These long-running Brits are supposed to be....what? Some kind of hauntingly ambient Celtic whatsis, I guess; all I know is lots of people swear by them but to my ears they just sound kind of watery and uninteresting. Sorry
4. Kings of Leon
.
Don't get 'em at all, except for the earnest angst. Which would be a great name for a folk singer, now that I think of it.
3. Genesis with Peter Gabriel
He finally lost me with the Mr. Potato Head outfit, but even this earlier and relatively straightforward performance reduces me to scowling fidgets. Seriously -- I like a lot of Gabriel's 80s output, and the Phil Collins version of Genesis was an argreeable hit machine, to be sure. But the 70s prog stuff?
2. The Killers
Forget their music, which strikes me as mediocre and derivative at best, but if anybody has a clue about those feathered epaulets on the singer please e-mail me.
And the numero uno artiste that make me go "Huh?" but other folks seem to grok to the nth degree is...
1. Fleet Foxes
What I hear from these guys is a mediocre early 70s Southern California folk-pop band, like America without the chops and with even less charisma, but apparently I'm missing something. Bueller? Bueller?
Alrighty then -- and your choices would be?
[Shameless Blogwhore: My parallel Cinema Listomania -- theme: best films about the heroic struggle of the Little Guy against the odds!!! -- is now up over at Box Office. As always, if you could take a moment to go over there and leave some sort of snark in the comments section it would help keep me in good with management. Thanks!]
Thursday, September 24, 2009
An Early Clue to the New Direction: Special What the Hell is That? Edition
From 2006, please enjoy the irrespressible GWAR doing to Alice Cooper's classic "School's Out" pretty much what they do to everything.
As always, a coveted PowerPop No-Prize will be awarded to the first reader who gleans its relevance to the theme of tomorrow's Weekend Listomania.
As always, a coveted PowerPop No-Prize will be awarded to the first reader who gleans its relevance to the theme of tomorrow's Weekend Listomania.
Greetings From NYC!
Well, here's another one that got away. From 1980, please enjoy my old pals The Mix and their sprightly cover of Van Morrison's "Glad Tidings."
These guys should have been big; they were managed by Leber & Krebs, who also handled some band called Aerosmith (the Mix's album -- American Glue -- came out on L&K's custom label), and they were a genuinely exciting live act. Frontman Stu Daye, in particular, was as annoyingly talented and natural a rocker as anybody I've ever seen -- think Steve Marriott with Pete Townshend's guitar moves. Still, although they were quite a big deal in the New York area for a while, they never broke through; if I had to guess why, I'd say it's because the record didn't really do them justice. For which I blame rather lackluster production by the late Felix Pappalardi.
Incidentally, the band's drummer was the great Corky Laing, of Mountain fame. The bass player was David Grahame, an old bandmate of mine who I haven't heard from in a while but who's apparently become something of a powerpop cult figure over the years. It thus pains me to mention that to (perhaps) his eternal shame, his major credit remains co-writing the soul-destroying Mr. Big hit "To Be With You."
These guys should have been big; they were managed by Leber & Krebs, who also handled some band called Aerosmith (the Mix's album -- American Glue -- came out on L&K's custom label), and they were a genuinely exciting live act. Frontman Stu Daye, in particular, was as annoyingly talented and natural a rocker as anybody I've ever seen -- think Steve Marriott with Pete Townshend's guitar moves. Still, although they were quite a big deal in the New York area for a while, they never broke through; if I had to guess why, I'd say it's because the record didn't really do them justice. For which I blame rather lackluster production by the late Felix Pappalardi.
Incidentally, the band's drummer was the great Corky Laing, of Mountain fame. The bass player was David Grahame, an old bandmate of mine who I haven't heard from in a while but who's apparently become something of a powerpop cult figure over the years. It thus pains me to mention that to (perhaps) his eternal shame, his major credit remains co-writing the soul-destroying Mr. Big hit "To Be With You."
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Why Wasn't I Told?
Courtesy of Pandora, I've come across a sort of Partridge protege, Martin Newell. I like this, but it never made a dent here. Enjoy!
More Tales From the Intertubes
Okay, this is a true story, I swear to god.
Last Saturday -- a Jewish holiday, which is not germane, although I had just dined on a very nice brisket -- I was on the bus heading into NYC when a completely obscure album I hadn't thought about in ages popped into my head unbidden. I couldn't for the life of me remember the name of it or the band that made it. But I knew the album was on Sire, that it was released in the late 70s, that the band had played CBGBs, that the LP (never to my knowledge on CD) had a striking cover image, and that there was at least one song from it that absolutely slayed me -- or so I remembered; I hadn't heard it for decades.
Bottom line is it was driving me bonkers all day and then -- again, I swear to god -- I was web surfing on Sunday and suddenly there was the album cover and a link to a transfer from the original vinyl.
Ladies and gentlemen, from 1979, please enjoy Alda Reserve and their seductively melodic and suspiciously Television-esque should-have-been-a-New-Wave-hit "Dressing for Love."
Hey -- now that I've heard it again I'm pleased to discover that I still think it's a great song, although I also now recall that absolutely nobody agreed with me about it back in the day. Of Alda Reserve, I can find little or no info except that demented death dwarf and Springsteen leech Dave Marsh panned them in Rolling Stone and that the guy who wrote and sang the song was keyboardist Brad Ellis. Whatever happened to him subsequently has, so far at least, been lost to history.
Anyway, the rest of the album is almost equally strong; if you're interested, you can download it here.
Last Saturday -- a Jewish holiday, which is not germane, although I had just dined on a very nice brisket -- I was on the bus heading into NYC when a completely obscure album I hadn't thought about in ages popped into my head unbidden. I couldn't for the life of me remember the name of it or the band that made it. But I knew the album was on Sire, that it was released in the late 70s, that the band had played CBGBs, that the LP (never to my knowledge on CD) had a striking cover image, and that there was at least one song from it that absolutely slayed me -- or so I remembered; I hadn't heard it for decades.
Bottom line is it was driving me bonkers all day and then -- again, I swear to god -- I was web surfing on Sunday and suddenly there was the album cover and a link to a transfer from the original vinyl.
Ladies and gentlemen, from 1979, please enjoy Alda Reserve and their seductively melodic and suspiciously Television-esque should-have-been-a-New-Wave-hit "Dressing for Love."
Hey -- now that I've heard it again I'm pleased to discover that I still think it's a great song, although I also now recall that absolutely nobody agreed with me about it back in the day. Of Alda Reserve, I can find little or no info except that demented death dwarf and Springsteen leech Dave Marsh panned them in Rolling Stone and that the guy who wrote and sang the song was keyboardist Brad Ellis. Whatever happened to him subsequently has, so far at least, been lost to history.
Anyway, the rest of the album is almost equally strong; if you're interested, you can download it here.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Happy Autumnal Equinox!
In honor of the first day of Autumn, and well, because I really like it, here's the Kinks' 1967 single Autumn Almanac released on October 13th of that year. I always get a kick out of Dave's foppish Elizabethan threads from this era!
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