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| 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 |
Friday, April 28, 2017
I Am Your Animal, Watching Your Head - Gong
Thursday, April 13, 2017
And If You Give Me Half A Chance, I'd Do It Now!!! - John Cale
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| 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. |
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Free Pizza And Great Rock N' Roll
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| 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.
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
If There Is Something More Than This - Roxy Music
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| Roxy Music Seeing Bryan Ferry perform at the Palace Theater in Columbus last night got me reminiscing about my history with Roxy Music. Becoming an alternative music fan in the early 90s I always heard that I was supposed to like Roxy Music. And I guess I did a little. Every now and then the local alt-rock station would give me "Avalon" or "More Than This" and I thought "Gosh, that's nice sounding music." I even remember being in a college friends' dorm room when she said "Just put on one of my records" and I grabbed her copy of "Avalon." "Ooh, stylish," she said. And yeah, that was my impression of Roxy Music. Stylish. Smooth. Nice. But nothing exciting. I mean, if there's nothing more than this, I'm not going to find myself lining up to see this singer perform 24 years later. But then again, if there IS something.... There is. There is something that I might find. Turns out maybe I had too much cheesecake too soon. A few years after my college days my friend Rich told me I was crazy to not love Roxy Music. We all had (or should have had) a friend like Rich in those days. He was about 25 years older than me, and had been through those years with the same rock sensibilities I was developing. (Rich was also the one who got me hooked on Julian Cope, by the way.) So as happened in those days, Rich gave me a cassette. And the first song on that cassette was "If There Is Something." Oh I know this song. It's all right, I've heard the Tin Machine version. Well, turns out this is one rare occasion where David Bowie doesn't make a song better.(in case anyone doesn't know, Tin Machine was Bowie's hard rock side project in the early 90s. Good stuff, but not so much on this one cover.) I mean Damn!!! This isn't the same song at all! And this is definitely not the Roxy Music that I know. Well I eventually learned that I had just started with the wrong Roxy Music. And since I was running 40-50 miles a week and pretty much only knew how to cook frozen pizzas and fried potatoes I was blown away that a rock song would contain the line "growing potatoes by the score." Of course in the ensuing 21 years I've had the pleasure of discovering the rest of the Roxy Music catalogue. It's not just beautiful models on album covers. If you want the pretty, stylish, soft and sexy sound check out Bryan Ferry's solo career. You want some incredible, never-duplicated glam/prog rock with weird Brian Eno noises thrown in all over the place...here you go! I'm including versions of the three songs I most hoped I would see played last night. (I got two of them) Editions of You from John Peel Session If There Is Something from John Peel Session Casanova Buy Roxy Music On Amazon (and if you want my advice, stick to "Roxy Music" "For Your Pleasure" "Country Life" and "Stranded" |
Monday, March 27, 2017
The Road Gets Darker From Here - Gallon Drunk
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| Gallon Drunk My love of the band Gallon Drunk has been an exercise in patience and persistence. While I was definitely predisposed to like them, it took me several years to truly catch on. I first heard of the band the same way I heard about everything those days, due to Nick Cave. Gallon Drunk frontman James Johnston was a guest musician when Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds toured as part of Lollapalooza in 1994. This was when I was starting to realize that anyone associated with Nick Cave probably had another band I wanted to hear (Einsturzende Neubaten, Crim and The City Solution, Magazine. I wasn't yet onto the Triffids). So this Johnston guy, eh? What's his band? Gallon Drunk huh? All right I'll file that away for later. "Later" turned out to be 1996 I found myself in a record store in Denver. I can't recall, but I was probably looking for one of two things. Either a bootleg of Nick Cave singing happy birthday to his grandmother when he was 4 years old, or some pretty music I could listen to with the Irish girl. But I found three inexpensive Gallon Drunk CDs instead. And Gallon Drunk was not "pretty" music. At first, I didn't think Gallon Drunk was that impressive music either. Seemed to have an okay formula. Get a heavy driving bassline, add a bunch of hoots and hollers and some growled lyrics and you had a pretty good song. But to my ears at the time, they all pretty much sounded like the same song. Like I said, it's good stuff. It just didn't completely grab me yet. Then came 1996's "In The Long Still Night". That bassline is still kicking ass, but now there's more tunefulness. And love those keyboards! (Full disclosure, when I go back and hear those first few albums, the keyboards melodies are there. I just didn't realize it yet.) They found a way to highlight what had been minor elements in their music before and yet not lose any of what made them Gallon Drunk to begin with. I'd love to say that I became a Gallon Drunk devotee for life. But I lost touch when the band took a long hiatus after their great 2007 album "The Rotten Mile." Not my fault. right? The band stopped, Sure but when they came back around in 2012 where was I? Honestly? I was wasting too many brain cells on how many pairs of f#@kin' socks people were buying at my store. So it took me until 2016 to get back into the "New" Gallon Drunk and James Johnston, but thank goodness that I have. They've released two great albums since returning and James has just released his first solo record. Oh, and he's been touring as part of both PJ Harvey's band, and Mick Harvey's (no relation) "Serge Gainsbourg" tour. James Johnston. It's time to pay attention to this guy. Take This Poison from 1996 A Thousand Years from 2012 James Johnston Solo "I'd Give You Anything" 2016 Buy Gallon Drunk music on Amazon |
Thursday, March 23, 2017
I'm Too Scared To Even Walk On Past - Nick Cave
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| Nick Cave I had to do it eventually. I've mentioned Nick Cave in so many posts already that it was only a matter of time before the man gets his own page. I've put this one off as long as I could, but no more. So it's early 1994. I'm drugged up a bit on pain medication (hernia surgery) and whiny melancholy. The two roommate girls I liked (I wasn't greedy, I'd have been happy with either of them) are both at a dance event with friends of mine. And I'm lying in bed. All right. I'll put on that tape some dude sent me in exchange for some Lou Reed albums and then I'll just drift off to sleep. The tape was Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds' "From Her To Eternity" on one side and "The Firstborn is Dead" on the other. And I was high-tech, man. I had a tape player that would automatically play the other side when the first was done. If you know those albums, you know they aren't the kind of stuff you go to sleep to. At least not comfortably. So I drifted off to terrifying dreams about falling down wells, being chained to rocks, and a giant fly pulling my limbs off like a demented child. But I woke up to an "extra" song. Seems the guy who made me the tape had some extra room so he threw on a song from Nick's then current album "Henry's Dream". The song was "John Finn's Wife" and I was spellbound. The painkillers and the whiny teen female rejection angst probably had something to do with it too! Now I don't understand how great music is made (proof here) but that two note string melody that essentially makes up an instrumental chorus to the song was suddenly the only sound I ever wanted to hear! Previously I had heard Nick and thought of him as something of a novelty from this song (which I heard from a Soundtrack a friend and I won by placing 3rd in a three-legged race.) And then there were the old newsgroups. Anyone remember those newsgroups? alt.music.alternative or alt.music.leonard-cohen etc. Damn I wish those old posts were archived somewhere. Well anyway I met a guy named Maurice Maes (anyone know how to get in touch with Maurice these days?) on the Leonard Cohen newsgroup. He kept telling me I gotta try this guy Nick Cave. I posted some diatribe about how the Holy Trinity of Rock was Lou Reed, Neil Young and Bob Dylan and he said "You gotta check out Nick Cave." I posted "My knees hurt," and he said "You gotta check out Nick Cave." I posted "Oh God, imagine if this D. Trump asshole ever had any sort of political power," and he said "You gotta check out Nick Cave." I checked out Nick Cave. It worked. Nick also opened the Australian music floodgates for me. If you want an index of great Australian bands, here's what you do. Get out all your Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds albums, and then research everyone you see named in the credits either as a band member or guest and next thing you know you're in the Aussie rabbit hole and you're begging some dude on the internet to send you taped copies of Tex Deadly And The Dum Dums gigs. And with this, I now have a post up for each of my current Big 4. The Fall, Luke Haines, Julian Cope and Nick Cave. And yeah, I'm seeing Nick in Detroit in July of this year! Can't wait. Proof that Nick's as good as ever Buy Nick's Music on Amazon
Nick Cave fans might like these pages:
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Tuesday, March 21, 2017
Don't Ya Don't Ya Wish Ya Met Her Sooner - PJ Harvey
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| PJ Harvey I never got rid of her. So it's 1994, I'm at Lollapalooza in Columbus, Ohio. There's only one artist I'm there to see. The friends I'm with are ridiculing me "Huh huh. You just wanna see 'Nick the Cave'. He sounds dumb. We're waiting for the good music, Green Day and Smashing Pumpkins." To be fair, there's a good chance I was being a smug little prick about it myself though (Yeah, I only weighed about 150 then, I was definitely little.) When Nick did play, me and like three other people near me seemed interested. So eventually I ended up talking to some dude. I don't remember who he was. But he told me to check out PJ Harvey. It was 1994, and I was 20. I was practically begging to find more great music so I followed this guy's suggestion. I went to a store soon after and bought a CD. Damn!!! She rocks pretty hard for a woman! |
Wait a minute! (Come on, click it. Please? It's only 4 seconds)
"Rocks pretty hard for a woman!" What does this mean? Well, you see, woman normally make softer, prettier music cuz women are softer and prettier than men. Wait really? Do we men play guitars with our cocks? No, but see women are supposed to make gentle music. They're just not naturally as good at hard-rocking masculine music. Really? But this PJ Harvey kicks us just like plenty male artists. Yeah, she's a rarity, a woman who can rock like a man.
This isn't Greg vs. The Patriarchy here. This is Greg talking with Greg. So Greg tried to learn and grow a little bit. I mean, if I ignore women singers there's a chance I'm missing out on a ton of great music. But still, when I look through my collection I don't find that many women artists. Why is that Greg? Oh well you see, I'm more open to female artists now. But I just don't identify with them as much. You know, cuz I'm a man. So when I listen all alone at home and shout along with the music I can't pretend I'm the singer like I can with Nick Cave or David Bowie. Oh I see. So when you sing along with Nick Cave you identify with him better than PJ Harvey or Chrissie Hynde. But Nick Cave is 6'3" and really skinny and we're 5'10" and chubby. Come on Greg, stop insulting us. Okay but the point is we aren't like Nick Cave either. We've arbitrarily chosen the possession of an attached weiner to determine whether we can identify with an artist. Oh. I get it. Well maybe we can sing along with PJ Harvey too! "I've lain with the devil, cursed god above. Forsaken heaven, TO BRING YOU MY LOVE!!!" Yeah! That feels pretty good!
And now it's 2017 and I'm considering NOT going out of town to see PJ Harvey play. Two of my favorites, Mick Harvey (Bad Seeds, awesome solo career) and James Johnston (Gallon Drunk) are in her band. And I'm all worried about spending the money. And yet I spent $40 on some damn film festival....don't get started. The upshot is, I really need to figure out how to get myself to one of those shows.
Oh, and one little note. If you go to the local record store to buy PJ Harvey records, you might have to look two places. Originally the band was called PJ Harvey so technically should be listed in the "P" section. But since the singer is Polly Jean Harvey I think you'll still usually find them in the "H" sections. Perhaps a little unintentional nod to Alice Cooper there.
If you feel like it, tell me in the comments how dumb I am for considering not going. And be like the guy I met at that show in 1994, tell me about the other women I should be listening to now.
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