jackhammer

I'm liking that tune a lot. There is enough going on to keep me interested instead of a traditional strumming technique that so turns me off music of this ilk. Once again proof that good music is out there if you look for it.

RE:Madness. I still haven't checked out the new album but I am au fait with the band riding the coat tails of Ska and that they moved away from the genre early on in their career. Unfortunately they did use the genre as a nostalgia trip with their Madstock concerts in the 90's which has saddled them with the tag of bouncy Ska enthusiasts whether deserved or not.

__________________

Gavin B.

Song of the Day


Clint Conley of Mission of Burma in a more subdued moment.

Max Ernst (7" Single)- Mission of Burma This song was Mission of Burma's 1980 tribute to surrealist painter and co-founder of the Dada movement Max Ernst. I included some paintings by Max Ernst in the video to give you an idea of what is art looked like.

Max Ernst was the B-Side of MoB's first single Academy Fight Song. MoB tears through this song with their usual high impact velocity. Roger Miller was very influenced by Hendrix early on, and it shows in his squalling guitar work. Peter Prescott's drumming on the song is muscular and wildly innovative. I can't imagine any other drummer being able to keep time to Roger and Clint's erratic and deconstructive approach to playing. MoB's music is still a wonder to behold three decades after Max Ernst, their earliest recorded song.




Max Ernst
Words and Music by Roger Miller

People did not like that man Max Ernst.
(The Blessed Virgin Chastises the Infant Jesus)
He was so irrational Max Ernst.
(Garden Airplane-Trap, Garden Airplane-Trap)
The pleasures of the sight
The pleasures of the flesh
The vanities of life
He loved them all.
In the pretty house they go away.
(In the pretty house, In the pretty house)
In that pretty house they do not stay.
(Not in the pretty house, Not in the pretty house)
In the burning sea
In the laughing lights
In the luminous sea
In the brash gold night
In the turtle's head I blacked out fast.
In the city's halls always it laughed.
HA HA HA HA HA HA
Dada
Dada
Dada...

Flower Child

You knew I would have to bite with all these first-rate country names floating around here. If it wasn't for you and Bulldog, I wouldn't have the slightest clue about these guys (particularly Townes Van Zant who I really grown to love) as they are a bit before the time of my outlaws. But I find it so interesting how much they were influenced by them. I really enjoyed Steve Young's little number. At first I was a little put off by his voice, because of its high tone, but it grew on me and I ended up liking the fresh sound. And I agree with you on how very soulful he is. The notes he held at the end of some of the lines of the song were amazing. I also liked hearing your story about how you came across the Townes Van Zant album. Those mistake albums always seem to turn out to be some of the best.

I have yet to hear your thoughts on my hero's music, Willie Nelson. And I don't mean his new music and duets he's been slopping together the past few years for that extra buck, I mean his old classics. If you want something to jog your memory- 05 Hello Walls.m4a

Gavin B.

Miles Davis once said that the notes you leave out of a composition are every bit as important as the ones you play. I think Miles was the master of the use of rests, pauses and silence when he played trumpet. He never played one single note more than was necessary to perform the song.

Gavin B.

I'm a big fan of Willie Nelson and I go way back in my love for his music. I don't write a lot about him because he's so successful, that most people have more than a passing aquaintance with his music. I don't write a lot about the Beatles, Madonna, Eminem, Nirvana or U2 for the same reason. Unless you're living in a cave, you've probably heard music by their and have your own opinion about their merits (or lack of merits) as music artists. It's unlikely that anything I write about Willie Nelson is going to change anyone's mind about his music, for better or for worse. But since an artist like Townes Van Zandt isn't widely known, maybe an essay I write about him will win a couple of new fans for his music. My case in point: You.

I never cared for Willie Nelson duet albums except for last year's Two Men With the Blues collaboration with New Orleans jazz trumpeter Wyton Marsalis. A lot of Willie's music has strong elements of jazz and the blues and that's probably why Two Men With the Blues and Stardust, his 1978 album of jazz and blues standards, are among his strongest albums.

These are my favorite Willie Nelson albums:



Country Willie His Own Songs (1965) - The album contains Willie's earliest versions of Hello Walls, Nightlife and Funny How Time Slips Away. At the time Willie was thought of as more of a songwriter who wrote hits for other people but this album proves he was the best interpreter of his songs.



Phases and Stages (1974) In the early 70s Willie recorded two concept albums for Atlantic Records both of which are very good. The first one was Shotgun Willie (1973) followed by this one; Phases and Stages. This album is a cycle of songs revolving around the dissolution of a marriage and devoting one side to the wife's perspective, the second to the husband's. This innovative album set the stage for his blockbuster concept album Red Headed Stranger which appeared a year later on Columbia Records.



The Redheaded Stranger (1975) I'm not sure why this album appealed to so many people. It's a concept album about a preacher on the run after murdering his departed wife and her new lover, told entirely with brief song-poems and utterly minimal backing. It's defiantly anticommercial and it demands intense concentration — all reasons why nobody thought it would be a hit. Phases and Stages was far more acessible.

It took about a year for Redheaded Stranger for me to really appreciate the brilliance of this album. It's like an epic tale told around a cowboy campfire.



Stardust (1978) How could anybody not like this album? Part of what makes Stardust unique was it was produced by soul and jazz master keyboardist Booker T. Jones (of Booker T and the MGs noteriety). Jones adds a jazz/blues element to Willie's presentation that really works. The songs are all jazz standards writen the likes of Hoagy Carmichael, George and Ira Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Irving Berlin who were the greatest composers of the classic big band jazz era.

Flower Child

I should have known you'd have such a broad knowledge on Willie! I kind of figured with your music taste, you would appreciate him. Yes, yes, yes, you're right about opening up people to more obscure artists but I think Willie Nelson's old classics are a little less known than you think. Many people, especially my younger generation, are only familiar with his Toby Keith "Beer For My Horses" duets and such. But anyway, very respectable album choices and thanks for posting them.

'Red Headed Stranger' is such an album. I think your put it perfectly when you described it as brief poem songs with minimal backing and an epic campfire story. 'Stardust' is also one of my very favorites. Such a brave move- executed brilliantly. Such a great contribution to his discography. I reviewed it in the classic country thread.

'Phases and Changes' was the only Willie album that you listed that I was not familiar with. But it sounds great. I've always thought Willie's discontent relationship songs are some of his best.

Gavin B.

Song of the Day


Air's newest album Love 2... more of the same can be a good thing.

Heaven's Light- Air I've had about a month to listen to the new Air album Love 2 and I've concluded that it's their most Air-like album since their early Moon Safari/Virgin Suicide days around the turn of the millenium. Our beloved French duo has returned to their opium induced soundscapes that sound like the dreamy soundtracks from late 60s and early 70s European art house movies.

In 1975 Brian Eno said "Ambient music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting." On those terms, Air is brilliant and those music critics that label Air's music as derivative will also confess to being the band's biggest fans.

Gavin B.

Song of the Day



Surfer Girl- Dave Alvin This reworking of the classic Brian Wilson song Surfer Girl by Dave Alvin is well worth a listen. Dave was the founder of the seminal Los Angeles rockabilly group the Blasters. Dave left the Blasters in the late 80s and played bass with the punk band X before moving on to a solo career playing a wide range of music from the traditional American folkways.

Surfer Girl comes from Dave Alvin's 12th solo album West of the West (2006). You betcha.. Dave has really made that many albums since he left the Blasters...he recently released his 14th solo album Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women. The Blasters are still playing gigs and recorder under the leadership of his brother and co-founder of the Blasters, Phil Alvin.

Dave sings Surfer Girl in his countrified baritone voice and transforms it into a doo wop song complete with a quartet of harmony singers. Dave also adds beautiful reverb drenched guitar fills on his vintage Telecaster. I like his arrangement almost as much as Brian Wilson's orginal arrangement for the Beach Boys' 1963 recording of the song.



DON'T FORGET! Tommorrow (Sunday November 8th) kicks off my all instrumental song-of-the-day week in which I'll share some of my favorite rock, jazz, and blues instumentals.

Gavin B.

Song of the Day
DAY ONE: All Instrumentals Week!


Bruce Licher, Lead gutiarist and founder of the all instrumental band Scenic

Parisia- Scenic I'm kicking off my Song of the Day all instrumentals week with Parisia a song by Scenic, a rock band that plays all instrumentals. Scenic was formed by noise guitar wonderkin Bruce Licher in 1994. Licher was also the founder of the legendary Savage Republic, an underground band with a cult following in the 80s. Licher's bandmates are Brook Wirtz on drums and James Brenner on bass. Scenic is based in Sedona Arizona and a lot of their instrumentals have a Borderwave feel to them.



Coming up on All Instrumentals Week! : Music from the Raybeats, the Lounge Lizards, Pell Mell, Mission of Burma, The Torquays, Junior Walker and the Blue Stingrays plus Bonus Songs!!!

Gavin B.

Song of the Day
DAY TWO: All Instrumental Week!


Pell Mell founder and uber producer Steve Fisk

Nothing Lies Still Long- Pell Mell Pell Mell was an all instrumental rock group founded by Steve Fisk who is more notable for being the producer of bands like Nirvana, the Screaming Trees and Beat Happening. Nothing Lies Still Long is from the 1995 album Interstate. I really like the surf guitar work by Robert Beerman at the beginning of the song and some of Fisk's retro-new wave playing on the Farfisa organ but the last 60 seconds of the song are about 60 seconds too long.

Nothing Lies Still Long would have been a brilliant 3 minute song but it's a little to long at 4 minutes. During the final minute of the song the band appears to be in search of an appropriate coda for the song and they lose their focus. A slow fade out at about the 2:45 mark that ended with a cut at 3:00 would have made Nothing Lies Still Long a much better song. Sometimes less is better.



================================================== ===
Bonus Song!


Hank Marvin of the Shadows... my own guitar hero.

Apache- The Shadows Hank Marvin of the British group the Shadows was the guy I always wanted to play guitar like. When all of my friends were trying to sound like Jimmy Page playing their Les Paul Black Beauties through monster Marshall Amps, I was digging on the Fender surf picking of Hank Marvin. I played a 1957 Fender Telecaster through a Vox equipped with an Italian Meazzi Echomatic echo unit, like my hero Hank Marvin. No distortion, no feedback, no fuzz box, no wah-wah pedal, and no humbucking pick-ups for me...just good clean Fender picking with a bit of reverb and echomatic.

Surf guitar was relegated to lowest stratum of the rock and roll guitar totem pole in that era. Nobody wanted to hear surf guitar in the Seventies. Surf guitar was so square that it was campy like old Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello Beach Party movies.

To make matter worse I couldn't (or wouldn't) play Whipping Post, Crossroads Stairway to Heaven or Free Bird which were the benchmark songs for every respectable guitar player in that era. I stubbornly stuck to my surf guitar. I didn't get many gigs and my style of playing made me an easy target for jokes but I didn't care. I was following my muse even though surf guitar was almost two decades out of date.

I played surf guitar until I met Furry Lewis and became fascinated the way he played country blues with a bottleneck, so in the early Seventies I traded in my Telecaster and Vox Amp for a shiny used 1938 model American steel body guitar and began playing delta blues in the old fashioned drop tuned style of Son House, Furry Lewis and Booker T. White. Switching from surf guitar to delta blues guitar got me a few more steady gigs because bar owners thought I was some kind of novelty act who played a bunch of quaint blues songs from the Twenties and the Thirties.

For me it all started with the Shadows version of Apache. I still think Hank Marvin is the greatest guitarist ever.