I Am Your Animal, Watching Your Head - Gong

GONG

Who the hell is supposed to be listening to this stuff? Jazz lovers? Potheads? Hippies? Kraut rockers? Aliens? Prog heads? Cats?

The answer turned out to be...me. And aliens.  This was one of those bands my man Volvo (Babic/Anders/Chris) sent to me over the Atlantic. And when I received it I thought I had finally found the chink in his music-suggesting armor. I mean....this is crap right? Songs about Pot-Head-Pixies while some woman sings like she's trying to serenade heavily sedated killer whales. Who wants to listen to that? Oh, I see. This is coming through a pirate radio station from the planet Gong called Radio Gnome Invisible. What the hell?

Well 41 year old Greg would have forgotten about the band right there. But 21 year-old Greg periodically gave it another shot. (I'd like to think 42 year-old Greg has opened his mind again, but we'll have to wait and see about that.) And eventually my brain learned to speak the sound of Gong.

See that's what it is. Unique musicians tend to have a sonic language. Or something like that. (Ask a real music critic or professor to describe it better. This is the best I can do ok?) Like...."The Boys Are Back in Town" by Thin Lizzy is an okay song right? Nothing too exciting. Didn't make me love Thin Lizzy. But once I grew to love Thin Lizzy, once my brain could speak the sonic language "Thin Lizzy" I could look back at "The Boys Are Back In Town" and hear the great things I missed.

So my brain learned to speak Gong. Gilli Smyth's "Space Whisper" vocals still sounded like serenading heavily sedated killer whales, but now I wanted to hear what the whales had to say in response.  And I wanted to hear advice from a Pot-Head-Pixie. I can't exactly explain why this goofiness works for me while I still have a little trouble getting deep into Zappa for instance. But it did.

One last thing. Gong should be experienced an album at a time, not a song at a time. And it probably sounds really awesome if you're stoned. For me, it makes me have some really fun dreams if I put it on before I go to sleep.

And yeah, Gong founder Daevid Allen is in fact from Australia.

Listen to the album Camembert Electrique by Gong

Whatever Greg, I only have time to listen to one song.

Oh. I thought this was gonna be trippy, space out music

Buy Gong albums on Amazon

And If You Give Me Half A Chance, I'd Do It Now!!! - John Cale

John Cale


I guarantee you this guy has made some music that is not what you expect of him. Unless of course you are intimately familiar with John Cale's entire career, in which case you should be the one writing about him.

All right I'm gonna back up a bit. Maybe there are people reading this who don't know who John Cale is. If so, hoorah! It means my blog has extended beyond just Brandon, Holly and Volvo! All right then. I'm not gonna do a whole history here cuz that's easy to find elsewhere (Julian said "everyone believes the wiki") but just some general stuff. Like any other Cale fan, I checked him out because of his old band. "Oh great, another one of those guys people say I should know cuz of his old band. You f-in' smug hipsters think that you know more than I know."  Okay, fair point. I'm sorry. But he wasn't a member of some little obscure cool band that only my friend Pete knows. He was in the Velvet F@#kin' Underground!!!! Cale was the electric viola player on sonic assaults to the system like this.

So anyway, the Velvet Underground entered their "Can't tell Lou Reed from Doug Yule" phase and Cale went solo. Since Cale never reached the fame of Lou Reed his solo albums were hard to find and therefore held in mythical reverence by 19 year old Greg.  I would have ranked his album "Paris 1919" in the top ten before I even heard it based on reputation and my audio imagination. And then, I discovered e-mail groups and tape trading. And of course, my first reaction was disappointment. Cale's music didn't conform to my original expectations. Where's the wild screaming viola shrieking?

I thought John Cale was a viola player with punk rock sensibilities. What I found out was that John Cale is a diverse musical genius who plays the viola (and about 10,000 other instruments.) Oh and he's a way better singer than Lou Reed (you tell me that to 1992 Greg he's gonna punch you, but since that guy's about 150 pounds and just graduated from a private school the punch won't hurt.) So I took some time to absorb the sounds he gave me and I grew to appreciate them. Cuz eventually you find that the genre/style doesn't always matter. The spirit of the artist shines through. If you love "Venus In Furs" you might find what you're looking for in "The Academy In Peril."  Maybe not on first listen, but it's there.

Oh, then I discovered the mid to late 70s Cale. Not only was it everything I was growing to love, it was a lot of what I had originally expected. Holy shit man, "Leaving It Up To You" is kind of a scary song!! But then again, fear is a man's best friend. And if you can't handle this music, it's cuz you got no guts!!

As usual, I hope there is someone reading this (okay I could end the sentence right there) who knows Cale's work better than me. I'm just now starting to delve into his post 2000 work a little bit. Guide me if you so desire. Otherwise, just play the songs below and turn them up loud enough to scare the cats!


Amazing live version of "Leaving It Up To You" I just found today

Sabotage/Live full album

Yeah well I prefer pretty melodies

Buy John Cale's music on Amazon


P.S. If you can spot the multiple Fall references here you win a prize. The prize is just my appreciation though.

P.P.S. I once earned extra credit in an African American History course based on knowledge I gained from a John Cale record.

Free Pizza And Great Rock N' Roll

The High Beck Tavern

We are coming to the end of an era. "What's that?" you say. "Is Donald Trump about to outlaw great music?"  Well, not that I know of. And if he did, that would just herald the next great wave of rock n' roll anyway. We all know that rock n' roll is truly outlaw music. But no, I am referring to something else.

David the bartender (hell I don't even know his last name) will soon no longer be bartending on Monday nights at The High Beck Tavern. " So what, right? I mean he might be a great bartender, but other people can serve a beer. I just go for the free pizza anyway." (It's true. They serve free pizza on Monday nights.) And that's all true. But David's playlists, that's what I'm gonna miss. 

I first met David several years ago when he was tending bar at another Columbus establishment when I suddenly realized that the music playing was one of my favorite albums, and one I had only ever heard played in my own house. We had a nice chat then and that was the end of that.  A couple years later I realized that same dude was bartending one of my favorite weekly hangouts. 

The great thing about High Beck on David's Monday nights is you would hang out and at first you might not notice the music. Oh there's a great Bob Dylan song...not so surprising. Hey there's a great David Bowie song. Yeah I like that Lou Reed song. Tom Waits, yeah he's cool. Ooh, that's Nick Cave right now. The Stranglers, YEAH! Hey...now that I think of it, I don't usually hear so much great music just playing on the PA at a bar. Hell yeah that sounds like The Seeds. Wait what was that last one? Ceramic Dog, who are they? 

So the point is, it's not that David played ridiculously obscure music that showed "Oh I'm so smart and I know more than anyone else." No, he just found a way to make it an inviting atmosphere where the masses could still feel comfortable that they would hear something familiar, while someone like me could totally geek out ("What's gonna play next?") And the great thing about it is, I could go into each song unbiased. If you would pull me aside and say "No man, this Conor Oberst song really kicks ass," there's a possibility I would have shut my ears off.  Ryan Adams? He's just some darling of the hipsters, I don't wanna listen to him. But instead, every song was "Something David played, so it could be great."  Some songs (like the Ceramic Dog and James McMurtry songs below) just sneak into the air and eventually I find they've reached into my brain and yanked my attention away from some actors arguing about paying college athletes.

I'll miss David on those Mondays, but I'll still be there. Those of you in Columbus should be there too!

The lesson David inadvertently taught me is that if I haven't heard it, I don't know if I'll like it. Just give the music a listen. I spent years seeking out new music to love. Thanks David, for helping me get back to that at least a little bit here in my middle age. Here's a sample of some great songs I never would have heard if not for David. 

Ceramic Dog

Roosevelt Room by Conor Oberst

Let It Ride by Ryan Adams

Choctaw Bingo by James McMurtry