Added - on second thought
June 29, 2007 | Filed Under Music | No Comments
Sitting here - trying one of my 24-different root beers package I received sometime prior to Vermont - I realised I need to listen to some of this stuff before I endorse it.
With Ryan Adams’ “Easy Tiger” – it’s not as good as I had hoped. Sometimes he is focused – more focused than on other recent disks – but still he is not getting to the heights of “Gold” or even “Rock and Roll”. There is a lot of meandering here – lyrically and musically. This man can write perfect rock/pop songs. But he throws away structure and just replaces it with navel gazing. He likes to listen to himself talk without revealing anything. I mean –“Two”, “Halloweenhead”, “Everybody Knows” and “Two Hearts” are good songs. But the rest is just him being “alt-country” troubadour – which can be pretty boring.
Howeever, my Saranac Root Beer (same logo as the beer makers) has a great taste and the head is the thickest and creamiest I have tasted yet. Sure - high fructose corn syrup is still one of the main ingredients - but you a drinking a ROOT BEER. Not tofu ale…
Added to iPod
June 26, 2007 | Filed Under Music | No Comments
How’s this for a crazy batch?
Ryan Adams - “Easy Tiger” I like him, but I didn’t like the three albums he put out a year ago. He wasn’t writing songs, he was just trying to be Jerry Garcia. He is back to songs now.
Black Sabbath - “Volume 4″ My favorite - and only! - Sabbath record. Given to me on vinyl many years ago by my aunt.
Grace Potter & the Nocturnals - “Nothing But The Water” Native of Vermont. Rickie Lee Jones voice with a Lucinda Williams edge.
Husker Du - “Zen Arcade” A great band.
Broken Social Scene - “You Left It In People”
Tom Waits - “Nighthawks At The Diner” This will be the 9th Waits album on the ol’ iPod. But you can NEVER have too much Tom Waits. Or Neil Young, for that matter.
Vermont - The Return
June 26, 2007 | Filed Under Main | 1 Comment
I had forgotten what the color green was. It is very green in Vermont (both physically and philosophically). Trees, the green mountains, the farms. Cows everywhere. Restaurants and stores sell “Vermont first”. A very proud state. It was great to spend some time in a place where pavement wasn’t considered foliage. In Waterbury - where my friend Tom and his family lives - there is also the Ben & Jerry’s factory, the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters factory and the King Arthur Flour headquarters. We didn’t go to any of them. We drove through the farmlands, toward the mountains. We were up near Stowe and saw “Camel’s Hump” covered by clouds and the ski trails covered with grass. We also visited the Magic Hat brewing factory - which was a let down. It is very small. “Here are the vats. This is where we keep the ingredients. Welcome to the gift shop.” Don’t know what I was expecting… elves maybe.
All in all - a fine weekend. The peace and quiet of a simple family life has it’s advantages…
Pond
June 21, 2007 | Filed Under Music | No Comments
This month’s “blue plate” special.
Do you have a favorite record that hits you on all levels? That seems to be wired to your wavelength? And yet every time you try to explain the music or have someone listen to it or actually give them the CD – you just get these odd looks like “What are you smoking”? This is one of mine (and – yes – there are others).
“Rock Collection” wasn’t the only album Pond put out – but it was their last. A power trio from Oregon on Sub-Pop records comprised of Chris Brady, Charlie Campbell and David Triebwasser. The album came out in 1997 on the SONY label Work – which means “if it sells, we may work with you”. It didn’t.
Every song on this record strung itself into my bloodstream for reasons I can never explain and it is still like igniting something every time I listen to it. Guitar, bass and drums. The harmonies didn’t blend so much as collide. The production was raw and chaotic. Occasionally, the guitar and bass were played with violin bows creating yet another odd sound for a rock record. And the songs? Dark – often in minor keys that exploded with redemption or catharsis at the end. Songs about divorce (“Forget”) or child abuse (“Spokes”) or disease (“Scoliosis”). Even a song about Laika, the dog they sent into space (“But My Dog Is An Astronaut”). My favorite is one of the most moving short stories I’ve ever heard in a three minute song - “Filterless”. As a writer, I can only dream of writing something so honest, clear and compact. My favorite image – “She used to make gum wrapper necklaces/She always seemed to smell of wintergreen”. Doesn’t mean anything out of context, but in the amazingly short world of this song it says everything.
If you can find it – listen. But I can’t guarantee anything. As I said – I’ve tried this before…
Added to iPod
June 20, 2007 | Filed Under Music | No Comments
The key thing to the whole iPod system is the Shuffle. Whatever mechanism shuffles these songs into a playlist is a master of styles and BPM. The trick is to load your library with everything you enjoy hearing - even the odd Christmas tune or Irish drinking song - and let the computer take over. At least that works for those of us without the time or discipline to create our own playlists. So for our Vermont trip -
Mission Of Burma - “The Obliterati” which is the new one that somehow got removed from my library, “Peking Spring” - the EP and “Forget”. They are the greatest band in the world.
Radio 4 - “Gotham”
Sound Tribe Sector Nine - “Artifact”
Lo Fidelity Allstars - “How to Operate With A Blown Mind”
Gin Blossoms - “New Miserable Experience” I like this album - but I hate this band. Because - as I heard it - when the songwriter (wrote all the hits) and guitarist was in the throes of drepression and alcoholism as the album hit, they convinced him to sign away his rights and royalties. That pretty much sucks.
Live - The best of “Mental Jewelry” and “Throwing Copper”
Green Day - A mix of the hits my son made for me.
Also various singles by David Bowie, Cracker, Material Issue, and Kitchens Of Distinction.
The count is now 6,726 or 20.3 days of music. Let’s go for a full month…
Vermont
June 20, 2007 | Filed Under Main | 1 Comment
Vermont
The Green Mountain State. Fourteenth State of the Union.
Capital: Montpelier. Largest City: Burlington.
Maple syrup – lots of it.
Breweries – LOTS of them.
A very singular state. They have one of the few Independent U.S. Senators and, of course, Democrat Patrick Leahy, who has been in Congress for almost three decades. Since he was 12, I believe.
Last year, five towns voted to impeach President Bush (or, as we like to call him – Beavis). This year, some crazy group wants Vermont to secede from the U. S. (14th in – 1st out).
I will be visiting this fine state this weekend. My best friend and his family have been living there for fifteen years and I have never visited. (My excuse: I couldn’t find it on a map and I was concerned about the plumbing…). So this Friday I will finally make that trip. Tom and Liz and family live in Winooski, which is just outside the largest city in Vermont. Winooski – at a population of 6,560 – is considered the 7th largest city in Vermont, whereas my town in Jersey – with a population of 4,200 – is somewhere around the 30,000th largest town in New Jersey. (You can see my apprehension…)
Did I mention the breweries? Well, there is a king hell LOAD of them up there! And part of this visit will be to visit one of my favorites – Magic Hat. Mmmmmm, Beeeeeeer…..
I look forward to my visit and I’ll let everyone know what it’s like. My flight is Friday. Did you know planes actually fly there? Amazing…
added to iPod
June 14, 2007 | Filed Under Music | No Comments
Yeah - another week of brain damage (including a brief trip back to politics) BUT I still can do this.
Brazilian Girls - Their first album. None of them are Brazilian and there is only one girl. Been reading about them for a while and this is great. Techno, latin, jazz and pop in a very sexy mix. I’ll have to get last year’s release.
Philip Glass - “Mishima”. Soundtrack to the movie.
Snow Patrol - “Eyes Open”. Nowhere near as good as “Final Straw” but I’m a sucker for Chasing Cars (or most anything featured on Grey’s Anatomy).
BT - “Still Life”
Mike Oldfield - “The Killing Fields”. Soundtrack to the movie.
Breakbeat Era - “Ultra-Obscene” From the height of the drum & bass era. Written and produced by Roni Size and featuring fab vocals by Leonie Laws.
Think I’m going to start checking out World music soon…
Just A Neighbor
June 12, 2007 | Filed Under Theater, Writing | No Comments
Another short play. More of a monologue.
Under Written Works.
Journey’s End
June 9, 2007 | Filed Under Theater | No Comments
On Wednesday, I went to Broadway to see Journey’s End – a play about the British in World War I. It is nominated tomorrow for a Tony.
And it will win the Tony.
And then it will close.
In fact I believe it is closing tomorrow, which is why I went last week. There have been very small audiences from what I read – sometimes only 25% capacity. Seems no one likes to see plays about war when there’s a war on.
And that is a crime because it was a very important production. Journeys End is an old warhorse of a play – going back to 1929. But it is rendered so soberly and straightforward that the anachronisms disappear. You are left with a stirring portrait of young men under the gun, fighting for their country in an impossible mission. These men are on the front line waiting for an imminent attack from the Germans. Then they learn the attack will come in two days. One of the sergeants asks the young commanding officer what the plans are. “We are to stick here”, he is told. “Yes but what if we can’t hold them or they overrun our flanks and surround us?” “We stick here. That is the only plan they gave us.” Rings a bell, doesn’t it? It’s a fool’s errand and they all know it, but they press on because that is the job.
The play was running at the Belasco Theater, which I have never been to before. [A moment of praise for all of NYC’s classic, old theaters! What a beautiful and intimate house. Supposedly haunted, too!] There was one set and the stage seems as cramped and claustrophobic as the play suggests. Like you are with them in the trenches. It was also very dark. I found myself squinting at times to see faces. Some scene changes happened in the light of a candle (real!) that sat on the table in most scenes. And the sound! The sound brought the terror of the war moving closer and closer into the play. At the end, the audience sat in darkness as the war came to us and it sounded as if the theater itself was under fire. The acting was also pitch perfect. All of the men were “types” but no one was a caricature. Each actor brought honesty and human emotions to their roles.
So – good luck to Journey’s End tomorrow – as well as Jennifer Ehle and Billy Crudup from Coast of Utopia.
Liberace!
June 8, 2007 | Filed Under Main | No Comments
Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to the Liberace Strip Mall! (or museum…) Be sure to buy all his cookbooks and the fabulous Lemon Drop Mix.
Added to iPod
June 7, 2007 | Filed Under Music | No Comments
Speaking of regressing…
Santana - “Abraxas”
Grand Funk Railroad - “Greatest Hits”. Some Kind of Wonderful, Foot Stompin’ Music and Closer To Home are great tunes.
I think I have the 70s totally covered now.
6,513 songs and counting…
New music?
June 4, 2007 | Filed Under Music | 6 Comments
There isn’t any. Doesn’t exist.
And I’m not saying - “there’s nothing new under the sun”. “Everything is derivative”. That was true in the 70’s, the 80’s and the 90’s and STILL new music came forward. There is nothing out there now. There is no passion. There are no ideas. There is no spark of excitement. Sure - there are old standby’s still putting out a decent set of tunes. But think about it - every decade had a signature sound. New and exciting artists who are still around today. And the beginning of the new millenium brought us - what? Nothing. All these bands are so tame. So bland. This group trying to be glam. That group trying to be retro rock. Singer-songwriters who just bore me to death. I go to the Warped Tour every year. I can’t tell these bands apart! (Except for Billy Talent who is the best rock band you will never hear.) If Bad Religion weren’t playing, I probably wouldn’t go this year. But they are an 80’s band! I would give anything if someone could show me what the sound of the first decade of the 21st Century is.
If something doesn’t come out and tweak my nipples soon….
Added to iPod
June 4, 2007 | Filed Under Music | No Comments
a few things….
Ulrich Schnauss - “Quicksand Memory” This is his new EP. I loved his CD “Faraway Trains”. Sort of soothing and trance-like. This is a bit more lively and follows a Lush/Jesus & Mary Chain vain.
Lush - “Spooky” Speaking of Lush….
Mozart - “Symphonies 36 & 38″ by the Prague Chamber Orchestra.
Selections from “The Two Tone Collection” with early Specials, Selector, & Madness. True Ska.
Various Artists - “Perfect Remixes” - DJ’d by Thievery Corporation
Various Artists - “Funky Desert Breaks, Volume 1″ - DJ John Kelley would play raves in the deserts of California. The first volume is a mix of beats as the sun goes down. The second volume is more chill as the sun comes up. Very cool sounds.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - “B.R.M.C.” The first. Love Burns is great!
Black 47 - “Fire of Freedom”. The best. They played at my 40th birthday, ya know?
Also some tunes from The Youngblood Brass Band. Hip-hop, jazz, funk in full marching band regalia. Lots of fun.