There Are Days I Wish I Were Paris Hilton....

Not because I'm a skank, and not because I want to leave my lovely family, but because if I were an unattached jet-setter with all the money in the world, I could make something like this:

As previously reported, the "United Sounds of ATP" festival will take place on the two consecutive weekends of May 12-14 and May 19-21, and will feature a different curator for each of the festival's six days. Mudhoney, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Devendra Banhart will helm the first weekend, while the second weekend will be spearheaded by the Shins, Sleater-Kinney, and Dinosaur Jr.

So far, Mudhoney have picked Black Mountain, Comets on Fire, the Drones, the Scientists, Country Teasers, and David Dondero for May 12 performances. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have chosen TV on the Radio, Liars, Ex Models, Blood Brothers, Celebration, Imaginary Folk, and the Tall Boys to rock May 13. Rounding out the first weekend on May 14 will be Banhart's choices: Espers, Vetiver, Jana Hunter, Bat for Lashes, and the Metallic Falcons. Don't forget that all of the curators will play their own sets on their respective days, if you're keeping score at home.

Weekend Two's not so filled yet, but hey, Dinosaur Jr. just got the gig. The Shins and Sleater-Kinney must just be slackers. The Shins, who will helm May 21, have only signed up the New Pornographers, setting the stage for an indie-pop clash of the titans. Sleater-Kinney have recruited the Gossip, as well as David Cross as their MC, for May 20.

But I still wouldn't do things like this.

Good Music for a Good Cause

Last month, venerable power pop figure Jeff Murphy played a benefit for Von Willebrand disease (a clotting disorder similar to, but far more common than, hemophilia) at McAuliffe's Pub in Racine, Wisconsin. He played a few Beatles' songs, joined by his brother John on bucket (in lieu of cowbell) on "You Can't Do That." Backup vocal duties were handled by Mrs. Murphy and a friend, and a good time was had by all.

Some terrific pictures here.

Shoes were My First Band, the first one that belonged to my generation, my era. Those who know me know that it's a bit of an obsession with me (and the various folks who've slept in our guest room do so under a Tongue Twister mobile (and a signed Redd Kross album cover)). They were not one of those bands who tour maniacally; their major work was always in the studio. I've never seen them live, and may never. But I hope not. Every few years they break down and play IPO, and I'm determined that, the next time this happens, I'll be in the room.

Live Rundgren

in historical perspective. Sounds odd, but potentially sort of interesting.....

This release, titled Best of Todd Rundgren Live features concert recordings of most of Rundgren's best-loved songs from various concerts spanning the last 25 years. Though they are cobbled together to seem like a single concert (a bit of studio trickery for which Rundgren apologizes in his detailed liner notes), they represent the considerable breadth of his musical vision. Though Rundgren is seemingly incapable of writing a dull or tuneless song, his output takes in most of what has been good 'n' smart in rock since the British invasion. He has absorbed the Beatles, sure, and Brian Wilson, too. But he's conversant in doo-wop flavored soul, flights of complex progressive rock from the '70s, power-pop tune-smithing to rival Elvis Costello, and even extended instrumental soloing. As a result, this "Best of" collection can seem schizy but is also rich; a primer in Todd-mania, a pu-pu platter of the Rundgren oeuvre that should hook folks with a taste for sophisticated rock music.

Anyone heard it? How do they cobble 25 live years into a single performance?

Barry Cowsill: R.I.P.

This isn't unexpected, but it's still sad.

Cowsills member dead; missing since Katrina
Barry Cowsill was bassist for '60s singing family

Cowsill's body, recovered December 28 from the Chartres Street Wharf, was identified with dental records Tuesday, said Dr. Louis Cataldie, head of the state hurricane morgue in Carville.

The coroner had not determined the cause of death but believed it was related to the devastating storm, which struck the city August 29.

Cowsill, who lived on and off in New Orleans, had not been heard from since he left phone messages for his sister September 1, his family's Web site said.

"They tell us he'd been dead for quite some time," Richard Cowsill, his brother, said in a telephone interview Thursday. "We love him and we're going to miss him, but he's in a much better place, in my mother's arms."

The Cowsills -- the inspiration for the TV series "The Partridge Family" -- recorded a series of top hits between 1967 and 1970, including "The Rain, The Park and Other Things," "Indian Lake" and "Hair."

Scout Prime as been doing great work on the shameful process of body recovery in New Orleans. This guy was sort of famous, and people have been looking for him for four months. Imagine the fate of poorer, less privileged folks.

Babyblogging: Party Edition!

It was Father NYMary's 75th birthday this week, and a surprise party assembled 60 or so close relations and friends for the evening. Rosie was a bit overwhelmed.


With Cousin Ethan. 


A little bowled over by enthusiasm. 


Nice shades! 

After a Process of Sincere Self-Reflection....

Inspired by my new hero, noted constitutional law scholar and relentless nonpartisan Ann Altmouse, I have engaged in a process of Sincere Self-Reflection, and have concluded that I'm better off dropping Netflix for the time being. Not that I don't love it, but we I just don't have control of the DVD player often enough to make it worth it.

But that means I have to collect and send back the DVDs I currently have, which include Weezer's Video Capture Device.

I'm not exactly sure of the moment hipsters started hating on Weezer, because I've been in and out with them myself. The reviews of last year's Make Believe were actually pretty funny: "Okay, I gave that Rivers Cuomo ONE MORE CHANCE, but we're done, man!" I dunno, I kind of like it. It's not a perfect record, but there's so few of those it's hardly worth smacking a band down when they don't have one. But "Beverly Hills" is a terrific song, and if there were any justice in the world, the Redd Kross-y "Best Friend" would have been all over the radio. (I do take as fair and kind of funny the criticism of the single they did release, "We Are All on Drugs," as a pop take on the children's sond "Diarrhea." And its cleaned-up version, "We Are All in Love," is even sillier.)

Weezer broke at a time when music was, for lack of a better term, really, really good. The 1993-94 period was one of those moments when power pop took advantage of a gap in the field, seizing the term 'alternative' (arguably meaningless after about 1992, except as a marketing gimmick) for power pop. There was so much going on and coming out in that period that to look back on it is a bit dizzying. And the Blue Album was, truly, a remarkable record. I'm willing to cut Cuomo some slack for not quite getting back there. (True: I was in church with my dad once and the priest gave a sermon on "In the Garage." I was daydreaming, the way one does, when he said "I'd like to quote here one of my favorite philosophers, Rivers Cuomo...." I swear I gave myself whiplash with the double-take. It was about authenticity and being fully oneself and all that kind of stuff.)

Anyway, Video Capture Device.

Lots of great stuff on here, though I could live with a few less alternate versions of "Buddy Holly" and more interview footage and rare video. The studio sessions are great, for instance, and it's not like "Buddy Holly" is exactly hard to find on TV. (Oddly, however, I'm not sure I ever saw the video for "The Sweater Song" before....) It's definitely heavier on the earlier period, spending significantly less time on the "troubled" years, which I guess makes sense, but doesn't seem wholly honest to me. The effect of putting all the alternate versions of a song end-to-end is a bit numbing as well. ("Here's the video. Now here's the outtakes for the video. Now they're playing it live in Tokyo. Now they're playing it live on Letterman..." like that.) But certainly illuminating, and recommended from this end.

PS. I got an email from Blue Ash's Frank Secich thanking me for mentioning them and saying he liked the site. I'm speechless.) (There is actually a tangential connection with this post, and when I'm not pregnant and able to drink again, I'll expound on my complex theory of power pop as Midwestern Minor Literature in the mode of Deleuze and Guattari, but that's for another day....)

Big Star Rarities

Courtesy of Kid C, we find this cool site:

Hey, hey, it’s Big Star Day here in Bootleg City! Presented for your downloading pleasure: What’s Goin’ Ahn, twenty-three tracks of demos, outtakes, and various other detritus left over from #1 Record and Radio City (not to mention a pair of live performances from ‘78). While I haven’t personally listened to these, I have been told they’re somewhat rough in the fidelity department, so caveat downloader and all that.

Enjoy!

UPDATE: The commenter is right: the links are bloggered. Well. Paint me embarrassed. Apparently, What's Goin' Ahn, the bootleg once linked here, is one of the most sought-after on the internets, which I can well believe.

Of Punk, Pop, and the Blogosphere

Been thinking a lot about this post from the excellent firedoglake:

I was chatting with a good friend of mine today who went to high school with Jack Abramoff and remembers him simply as a "weird fat kid" and we got sidetracked onto the subject of blogs and cultural energy in general. We both concurred that the blog world has the feel right now that the punk rock scene of the late 70's had, and for much the same reasons.

The music business in the 70's had grown bloated and moribund and disconnected from its audience. Record executives busied themselves buying Rolexes for REO Speedwagon and paying millions for Casablanca records and nobody cared. They were perfectly horrified at the spectacle of kids paying $3 to see the Clash play a benefit for Marxist youth at the Geary Temple in 1978, but even as a kid it was perfectly obvious where the energy was, where the zeitgeist was shifting. Punk rock became a beacon for creative people of all walks, and oh so many years later the shadow it casts looms far greater than the corporate culture merchants of the time were able to envision.

So I was thinking about the cultural energy of punk, and the cultural energy of blogs, and I have a bit of an addendum to Jane's point.

It's true, as she notes, that, "We thought punk rock and the energetic counterculture it produced would last for ever, but it didn't. It was over quite quickly." But, I would argue, the impulse of punk always exceeds the ability of the established forms to coopt it. Thus the long shadow: something remains.

(Jane Hamsher, btw, is a screenwriter as well as a blogger....)

More on this later, after I think some more about the parallel.

A Power Pop Exclusive!

Regular readers know that I'm quite keen on the Philadelphia-area band Milton and the Devils Party. I discovered them completely by accident a little over a year ago, fiddling around online. It was an extremely happy accident, since the band combines a solid power pop sensibility with a kind of literary wit that really appeals to geeks like me.

At that time, MADP were just releasing their first (self-produced and distributed) CD, What Is All This Sweet Work Worth? There were a number of really good tunes on the disc, and a handful of great ones. The production on it, however, was sort of flat and unimaginative, and didn't really do justice to the writing. I didn't realize how serious the problem was until I went to see them play: live, they're a much sharper band than the recording would suggest, and Daniel Robinson has his front man patter down cold.

Well, I have some happy news, in what is (I think) PowerPop's first genuine exclusive, Milton and the Devils Party have signed to the indie label Face Down Records (home of The Dipsomaniacs) for a remixed and expanded version of WIATSWW?. I've heard several tracks, and without exception, they're much edgier and punchier than the original versions, less safe, capturing more of the energy of live performance.

Face Down seems like a good fit for MADP: I'm particularly curious about their recent tribute compilation High School Reunion, a collection of songs from 80's teen flicks, performed by artists such as Frank Black and Matthew Sweet (Is he required by law to be on every compilation album? Maybe he's just a really good sport.)

About their relationship with their new label, Robinson said to me: "I'm thrilled to be working with Face Down Records: I loved the Dipsomaniacs before I even knew they were in New Jersey. I found them on iTunes somehow and downloaded a bunch of stuff--and then after the Philly IPO I contacted Mick about the label. I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't even know he was the frontman for the Dipsos."

The new version of WIATSWW?, which will be MADP's first label release, is expected March 06. But Philly-area readers can see them at the World Cafe Live on February 4. I really recommend that you check it out if at all possible: you won't regret it!

The New Way

Via Atrios, who names them Wankers of the Day:

Coldplay.

Coldplay's new CD comes with an insert that discloses all the rules enforced by the DRM they included on the disc. Of course, these rules are only visible after you've paid for the CD and brought it home, and as the disc's rules say, "Except for manufacturin/g problems, we do not accept product exchange, return or refund," so if you don't like the rules, that's tough.

What are the other rules? Here are some gems: "This CD can't be burnt onto a CD or hard disc, nor can it be converted to an MP3" and "This CD may not play in DVD players, car stereos, portable players, game players, all PCs and Macintosh PCs." Best of all, the insert explains that this is all "in order for you to enjoy a high quality music experience." Now, that's quality.

Happy Fucking New Year to you too.