Category Archives: Music

Music

David Byrne interview…

A few days back I linked to a fascinating interview with David Allen (read it here), one time bass player for the punk band Gang of Four and he presented some really interesting food for thought regarding music as a career (and, in turn, the arts in general) in this internet age.

Mr. Allen was interviewed in part as a reaction to comments by David Byrne, late of the very popular band The Talking Heads, who wrote an equally fascinating book about the music industry.  He is interviewed in the link below, and offers plenty of other interesting thoughts regarding the age of the internet and the place of music…and whether it can survive because of the internet.

The article/interview is subtitled “Do you really think people are going to put time and effort into this, if no one is making money?”  A great question.  Please, read on:

http://www.salon.com/2013/12/21/david_byrne-do-you-really-think-people-are-going-to-keep-putting-time-and-effort-into-this-if-no-one-is-making-any-money/

I think Mr. Byrne’s worry is certainly a valid one.  The Beatles, as good as they became, benefited from several years of working hard in low paying clubs to hone their craft.  Even with the release and popularity of their early albums, the fact that they made money allowed them to continue on the path they chose and were able to grow, musically, and create what I feel are the career defining albums that followed (to me, roughly from Help! on).

Today, I worry there are people out there -in music, in writing, in the arts, etc.- who may be making good but “rough” stuff at this stage and, given time, certainly have the possibility of shining in their fields.  In this day and age, however, and with the internet able to essentially give away these works for “free” (be it piracy, shared files, etc.), how long will it be before many of these struggling artists simply give up and find a job that pays?

One might argue on the other side that being an “artist” has always been a struggle and one never knows if what you do will ever be successful.  If one looks at the literary field, for every Stephen King who succeeds in becoming a famous author during his lifetime, you also have the likes of Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft, authors whose works didn’t become well known until after they passed away.

And so it goes.

Music

The Smashing Pumpkin’s Adore and beyond…

The other day, while listening to some songs on my mp3 player while driving around, I decided to put on The Smashing Pumpkins’ Adore.  For those unfamiliar with the album, it was the fourth album released by the band in 1998.  At that time, The Smashing Pumpkins were pretty much at the peak of their popularity and this album followed their single biggest success, the 1995 double-album Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.

Despite good critical reaction, Adore was something of a sales disappointment, especially considering how successful each subsequent album they released before it was.  They would follow up Adore with 2000’s Machina/The Machines of God but the damage appeared to be done.  Machina sold even less copies than Adore and it appeared audiences were “over” The Smashing Pumpkins.  The band seemed to sense this as well, and broke up after that album’s release, only to have singer/songwriter Billy Corgan reform the group several years later and, as of this writing, he -and his new bandmates- are still releasing new material.

Getting back to Adore, I’m in the car listening to the album and enjoying it.  While the album isn’t as wildly ambitious as Melon Collie (my personal favorite of The Smashing Pumpkins albums) it is really, really good, hitting a particular sweet spot -to me- with the song For Martha:

Now, let me be the first to say this: I can totally understand people being turned off by the Billy Corgan’s voice.  Personally, I don’t have any problem with it but for those who do, try to look past it.  His music during the 1990’s was ambitious, interesting, and, best of all, so damn varied.  And that includes the underrated Machina, which has its share of songs very much worthy of checking out, like…

Having listened to Adore and reconnected with it, I decided to give The Smashing Pumpkins’ latest album, 2012’s Oceania another listen.

I know critics liked this album and there are some songs here and there I like as well.  However, there’s something about this album, and most of the “new” Smashing Pumpkins material post-Machina, that isn’t quite doing the same for me as their first incarnation did.

Regardless, Mr. Corgan remains an artist worth watching and listening to.  Even if their/his latest work’s haven’t quite done it for me as their older stuff, I’ll still be there.

Here’s one of my favorite of their “newer”, post-breakup second incarnation of the band, from 2007’s Zeitgeist.

Music

19 Best Cross-Genre Covers of All Time…

…at least according to Noah Berlatsky at Salon.com:

http://www.salon.com/2013/11/30/the_19_best_cross_genre_covers_of-all_time/

I’m intrigued by the notion of a “cross-genre” take on a song.  I suspect that its a harder concept to cull than initially proposed.  The genre of “rock” covers so many different styles that Mr. Berlatsky felt he couldn’t include any Led Zeppelin covers of blues artists…though I don’t see why.

If we were a little more forgiving in the genre ideal, I’d put these examples as really wild cover versions of songs.  First up, Jimi Hendrix doing a wild -after a bit almost heavy metal- version of The Beatles’ Day Tripper:

Also really liked this, Megadeth’s metallic version of the Sex Pistol’s Anarchy in the U.K.:

Music

Most overrated musical anniversary?

Author Stephen Deusner for Salon.com on why the 50th Anniversary of the release of The Beatles’ I Want To Hold Your Hand is one of the more overrated musical anniversaries out there (and, no, I don’t believe his article is a Beatles-bash):

http://www.salon.com/2013/11/27/the_years_most_overrated_anniversary_quit-celebrating_i_want_to_hold_your_hand/

Mr. Deusner presents compelling information regarding other songs released in and around that same time that are arguably better than The Beatles’ hit, which effectively signaled the “British Invasion” into the United States.  Of those mentioned, I have to admit this one is a far more mature, elaborate, and overall better song (IMHO!) than I Want To Hold Your Hand:

Let me add very quickly the following, though: The Beatles, unlike many of the bands/artists represented in the article who one could argue made better music (actually a better song) than their I Want To Hold Your Hand, went on to produce a virtual library of music and redefined pop-music and art music and, for that matter, all music.

Thing is, their early releases -again, to me- are at times dated pop songs or pretty good cover songs that often followed regular 50’s rock conventions.  That’s not to say I fell the songs were all bad.  Quite the contrary, there were many, many gems to be found in the initial four albums but it wasn’t until the release of their fifth album, the soundtrack of Help!, that I felt they began the journey to making truly memorable -and outstanding- music.  Others site the two albums that immediately followed it, Rubber Soul and Revolver, as the point where The Beatles really “found” themselves.

Regardless, the point Mr. Deusner makes is probably true.  While The Beatles certainly found considerable success and I Want To Hold Your Hand was the first of their songs to become a big hit in the U.S., it was only a hint as to the better things that were to come as the band gained experience and matured.

Is it an overrated musical anniversary?  I suppose it might well be, though in no way does saying so diminish the incredible output of what is arguably the best band that ever was.

General, Music

This is…interesting

From Cracked.com, 29 Insane Pastimes That Prove History Was Terrifying:

http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_692_29-insane-pastimes-that-prove-history-was-terrifying_p29/

If your interest isn’t piqued -or, alternatively, grossed out- with the very first entry (blowing tobacco smoke up people’s rectums being thought of as a way to save someone from drowning), then this list isn’t for you! 😉

Secondly (I always find more than one humorous/horrifying list from Cracked.com at a time), check out their second list of 10 Great Songs by The Worst Bands of All Time…

http://www.cracked.com/blog/10-great-songs-by-worst-bands-all-time-part-2/

Now, I can’t quite agree with all their choices.  At least one of the bands/artists presented I find better than they do (though they are hardly a favorite), while others I simply cannot stand to listen to at all.  Of the choices presented, however, there is one that I strongly agree with and that admission…well, its a hard one to make but here it goes: I really, really like Brittney Spears’ song “Toxic”.

Mind you (oh the shame!!) I was never a fan of Ms. Spears’ music even in her heyday and that’s putting it kindly.  Her brand of bubblegum pop, while I can certainly see what many others liked about it, never appealed to me.

So the years pass and Brittney Spears’ star sets a little (OK, perhaps quite a bit) and then, one day, I’m driving along down the road and the radio announcer on a local radio station comes on and states that he’s about to play the latest Brittney Spears song and its called “Toxic.”

Just as I’m about to change the station I hesitate.  Perhaps I was coming close to a red light or perhaps someone driving beside me nearly drifted into my lane…whatever it was that happened, I was forced to focus on the road rather than on changing the radio station and the song starts playing.  And I’m listening to it.

And I’m not changing the channel.

When the song eventually ends, I smile and shake my head.

Not bad.  Not bad at all.

Your mileage, as the saying goes, may certainly vary!

Music

The Next Day Extra

Way back in 1984 the band U2 released The Unforgettable Fire, arguably their first major, major success.  Sure, they had already captured attention with previous works, but this album shot them into the stratosphere.  As much as I loved the album, I was blown away when in 1985 Wide Awake in America, a four song EP, was released.  It featured live versions of two songs from The Unforgettable Fire (both incredibly good) and, more startlingly, two “discarded” songs which were ultimately not deemed strong enough to include in that album.  The songs, “The Three Sunrises” and “Love Comes Tumbling Down” were both, IMHO, incredibly strong works and could –should– have been in the original album.

Fast forward to 2013.

After ten years of seeming (possible) retirement from music, David Bowie releases The Next Day last March to critical adulation -and the inevitable “best album since Scary Monsters notices- and it does pretty good business.

In retrospect and while I enjoyed the album, it struck me that many people/critics were overly hyping the album…this was pretty damn good David Bowie but I wasn’t sure I’d rank it among his best later day albums.  As good as the album was, I really wished Mr. Bowie would rock out a little more, like I know he’s eminently capable of.

When the album was released, I recalled an interview with Tony Visconti, the album’s producer, noting there while recording The Next Day, there were many extra songs left over.  Enough, he stated, for another full album.

So most of 2013 passes and, lo and behold, The Next Day Extra, a “bonus EP”, is released, one featuring the entire The Next Day plus the extras EP and, for those who already had that album, the seven song EP alone.  I listened to the samples of the songs but held back on buying the album right away.  Frankly, the snippets didn’t do all that much for me.

Which goes to show that sometimes song snippets don’t tell you how good a full song might be.

Over the weekend I downloaded (legally!) the EP and, like U2’s Wide Awake in America, I was blown away.  Here was the rocking David Bowie music I was longing to hear!  Why oh why, Mr. Bowie, didn’t you include some of these songs on The Next Day itself?!  Perhaps they didn’t quite “fit” with the narrative, but they’re pretty damn good!

The snippet of “Atomica”, the first song in the EP, certainly did it no favors…the full song, again IMHO, is a great rocker:

The album features five “new” songs and two “remixes”, all of which are quite good.  I think the 10 and a half (!!!) minute remix of “Love is Lost” is better than the version on the original album while the remix of “I’d Rather Be High” wasn’t all that significantly different from the original, yet still pretty good.  Apart from “Atomica” and the remix of “Love Is Lost”, my other favorite “new” song, previously only released as a bonus in the Japanese market, is “God Bless the Girl”:

The bottom line is this: if you liked The Next Day and want a little more from it, give The Next Day Extra a listen.

Books/Literature, General, Movies, Music

Blockbuster, RIP

Interesting article by Dana Stevens for Slate magazine regarding the news that the owners of Blockbuster are closing all remaining retail centers, effectively ending the era of the big video rental stores:

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2013/11/blockbuster_closing_why_even-those_of_us_who_hated_the_chain_will_miss_it.html

When Blockbuster first came along, there were more than a few “Mom & Pop” video stores around renting those pre-historic VHS tapes for film fans to watch.  Those who weren’t around back then don’t remember the way the film market used to be.  Recent movies took forever to be released to the home market and, when they were, they cost a lot to buy.  It wasn’t unheard of to see “new release” films go for as much as $50-85.  Further, that “new” film often took over a year -sometimes much more- before it even reached the home video market.  I distinctly recall the amazed reaction by many when the original Tim Burton directed Batman film was “quickly” released to video.  I can’t recall the exact time it took for the film to be released, but it was perhaps three to six months or so after its theatrical release, a turnaround that was completely unheard of back then but not so much now.

But this was the exception that eventually proved to be the rule.  Again, at the time and given the high price of films, video stores were a necessity.  If you didn’t rent and only bought the films you wanted, you would very quickly go quite broke.  When Blockbuster showed up, the Mom & Pop stores in my area were doomed.  These small stores couldn’t compete against the sheer bulk of material Blockbuster offered.

Even then, one had to be quick as even if Blockbuster had a large number of the latest “new” film available for rent, there were plenty of others trying to get their hands on it as well.

But for me the greatest thing about Blockbuster wasn’t so much the new and desired films, but their vast library of older classic films..  It was thanks to Blockbuster that I became aware of the movies of Stanley Kubrick.  It was also where I discovered Metropolis (the Giorgio Moroder version, which of course lead me to eventually want to see the original, uncut version) and Orpheus, two of my all time favorite films.

I could go on and on…

For all its flaws (and there were many) Blockbuster was a great place for its time.  The first big signs of trouble for the company probably came from the arrival of the DVD and the significant lowering of movie prices.  You could rent a film from Blockbuster for about $5 for three nights, but for another ten dollars or less you could purchase the DVD and own the film outright.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was likely the same as the one that killed music stores (and, sadly, looks to be doing the same to bookstores): computers and the internet.  Not to mention more choices in general.

Why would one go out to a Blockbuster to rent a film when you could Netflix it or stream it or Pay on Demand?  For those far less honest, you could steal a film via downloading it through one of many torrent sites.

So no, I’m not at all surprised Blockbuster has seen its end.  It was expected and, if anything, the only surprise one feels is that it lasted as long as it did.  Yet like Borders, like Circuit City, and like Peaches, I’ll miss her and the era she inhabited.

The world moves on and all that remains are the memories of what once was.

Music

Lou Reed…

…rest in peace.  Many have noted the big hits he was involved with, the most memorable being his Velvet Underground work and, of course, his biggest hit, the album Transformer.  Loved them too, and greatly enjoyed these songs, from one of his lesser remembered ones, the 1984 album New Sensations.

To you, Lou…

Books/Literature, Music

Reelin’ In The Years…

Fascinating book review/overview of one Donald Fagen, of the band Steely Dan, whose memoir Eminent Hipsters was released:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/books/2013/10/donald_fagen_s-eminent_hipsters_reviewed.html

Author Seth Stevenson goes beyond simply reviewing the memoir to talking about being a fan of a now aging musical artist…and the feelings entailed in this as well as the artist’s interactions with his fans.

Though I’m no fan of Steely Dan and their music (there may have been a time long ago when I could tolerate -perhaps even appreciate- their music, but the seemingly constant overplaying of Steely Dan hits on the radio have long ago burned me out of any desire to hear any of those songs ever again), I nonetheless am fascinated with the article.

I’ve long been fascinated with the way fans view their favorite artists and the levels of “hero worship” sometimes given.  I realize I’m not making any huge, earth-shattering revelations when I say this, but the artists we admire are people just like us.  More talented, certainly.  Perhaps more outgoing.  Perhaps more driven.

But human nonetheless.

I love the music of Jim Morrison and The Doors.  However, almost everything I’ve read about Jim Morrison the person makes me cringe.  I do note, however, that a large part of the mystique built around Mr. Morrison’s life revolve around his -let’s put it kindly- indulgences and therefore its hard to judge him unless you were there and saw it yourself.  Sinner or saint, Jim Morrison was a very talented musician, and in the end that’s all that matters to me.

So with his review of Mr. Fagan’s memoir, Mr. Stevenson, who clearly loves the works of Fagan and Steely Dan, relates his difficulty in realizing his idol is…human.  And aging.  He notes his discomfort in reading Mr. Fagan’s journal entries at the end of the book, which state the following:

In the final chapter of his new quasi-memoir, Eminent Hipsters, Fagen reprints the personal journal he kept while on that Dukes of September tour. It paints a less electric portrait of his night at the Beacon, concluding with a harrumph: “Hometown gigs are a drag.” Fagen was still reeling from the suicide of his wife’s son, about a week before. He was cranky onstage, thrown off his game by all the “friends, relatives, doctors, etc.” dotting the crowd. Much of the rest of his tour diary is consumed with complaints about health problems, travel snafus, and the spotty acoustics in the venues. Some representative lines:

 “Ah, waking up in Tulsa on a midsummer morning with a wicked sinus headache.”

“I guess some Snapple leaked onto my MacBook Pro keyboard so that now some keys are sticky and make a disturbing sucking noise.”

“I’m hoping that Richard can get someone to do a CAT scan of my kidney. It still hurts.”

I’m amused by Mr. Stevenson’s passage and the notes he reprints because though they may surprise and (perhaps) depress Mr. Stevenson, these entries are probably representative of exactly the type of things that go through many artist’s minds.  Creating works of art is…work.  Performing in front of crowds, while fun for the crowds, is also work.  Nowadays many musical concerts are carefully planned and choreographed and therefore feature precious little spontaneous actions on the part of the performers.  If this is the case and the artist performs them many, many, many times in their current concert tour, the artist must at some point view the concert as something done on “auto-pilot”.

You hit your notes and you sing your songs and when it is over you get off the stage and on with your life.

So it isn’t surprising the artist may view a particular show through the prism of things that went wrong…both within the show and outside the show (sinus headaches, sticky MacBook keyboards).  And if the show went smoothly, then the artist did what s/he set out to do and its on to the next show.

Bumps in the road are inevitably more memorable than smooth sailing.

Music

11 Famous rock songs…

…you didn’t know were sued for plagiarism:

http://www.fuse.tv/2013/07/famous-songs-sued-plagiarism

Arrogant me, figuring I would know most of the songs listed beforehand, yet was completely shocked and surprised by the very first one, Gordon Jenkins’ Crescent City Blues being so thoroughly…uh…swiped by, of all people, Johnny Cash for his Fulsom Prison Blues!

The rest of the list is quite interesting and features many original artists whose songs -at least to my ears- sound very similar to the more famous songs later sued (Avril Levigne’s Girlfriend is so clearly inspired by The Rubinoo’s –who?!– I Want to be Your Boyfriend)…along with a few other examples that -again, to my ears- bear only a passing resemblance to the much more famous song the authors claimed ripped theirs off.

Loved the bit about the suit against John Fogerty, late of Credence Clearwater Revival, being sued for plagiarizing…himself!  Very funny, yet I have to admit I always thought Old Man Down the Road was a CCR song…it certainly did sound alot like Run Through the Jungle.  Then again, and at the risk of repeating myself: both songs were created by the same man!

By list’s end, I knew only three of the songs featured and was surprised and fascinated by the rest, though they clearly missed a few famous songs that had their artists sued for plagiarism.

Most obvious, at least to me, is the exclusion of George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord versus He’s So Fine. Mr. Harrison’s song was the very first I ever heard of when I was a child being sued for plagiarism, and in that case I tended to agree.  It did sound an awful lot like He’s So Fine.

Since it wasn’t on the list above, I’ve embedded a neat (and short) video comparing the two songs: