Mr. E’s Beautiful Show
September 24, 2010
Saw the Eels last night on the first few dates of their U.S. tour (at The National)— wow does he have a blues-rock band behind him this tour*. Impressive show, and of all things he did a blistering cover of “Summer In The City” (kinda cool given our recent conversation about the singles of 1966). Also a standout was the Encore’s “Baby Loves Me” and the earlier-set’s “Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues” retooled to fit “Louie Louie.”
- Dean (@dbrowell)
* Last time I saw him it was 2002 and he largely played a toy piano beside P.J. Harvey’s Joe Gore on bass while a Mime opened the show.
The Stunning Singles of 1966 & A Random Week
September 4, 2010
Email exchange from Rebel Records:
how many of these songs have you actually heard?
’66 was a pretty amazing year for singles; not sure the criteria in picking these, but “mostly” great (tommy roe i could do w/o in general; pet clark kind of throw-away). the roots of punk and psych can be traced to pushin’ too hard and you’re gonna miss me
pardon my nostalgic moment–(how bout cee-low’s new single?):
- Happenings – See You In September
- Turtles – Hey Baby
- Yardbirds – Happenings Ten Years Time Ago
- Lovin’ Spoonful – Summer In The City
- Shadows Of Knight – Gloria
- Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels – Devil With A Blue Dress
- Syndicate Of Sound – Little Girl
- Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66 – Mais Que Nada
- 13th Floor Elevators – You’re Gonna Miss me
- Temptations – Ain’t Too Proud To beg
- Bobby Hebb – Sunny
- Troggs – Wild Thing
- Love – My Little Red Book
- Animals – Don’t Bring Me Down
- Johnny Rivers – The Poor Side Of Town
- Tommy Roe – Sweet Pea
- Swingin’ Medallions – Double Shot Of My Baby’s Love
- Paul Revere & The Raiders – Hungry
- Easybeats – Friday On My Mind
- Crispian St. Peters – Pied Piper
- Electric Prunes – I Had Too Much To Dream last Night
- Who – Happy Jack
- Tommy James & The Shondells – Hanky Panky
- Seeds – Pushin’ Too Hard
- Petulia Clark – Sign Of The Times
And me:
LOVE Cee-lo’s new one.
I counted 6 that I couldn’t recall lines or licks from, not sure if that’s good or bad. But that’s pretty ridiculous that these are all from the same year. There’s at least one of my all-time favorites (“Ain’t To Proud to Beg”) nestled in here and lots of really strong favorites (“Summer In The City” is one of those hard-rock-before-there-was-supposed-to-be-hard-rock tracks I’ve always been a fan of– the first 20 seconds breaks it down the way the last 20 seconds of most songs try too hard to emulate).
For whatever reason I’ve been watching old Jools Holland episodes on my Verizon cable’s on-demand (not sure if you have concert.tv for free on your home cable, give it a look) – found an old 1992 episode with Mary Chapin Carpenter and a star-studded Indigo Girls (with Souixie’s Budgie on drums, Bob Dylan’s violinist and the bassist from B-52′s).
Musically I’ve been all over the map this week. From a reggae version of “Country Roads” by Toots and the Maytals to a new solo set by the former NIN knob-turner Alessandro Cortini (“Sonoio”) – to a weird reprisal in my collection of Living Colour. Don’t know what’s gotten into me.
This week I get back to the concert-going after a few weeks off — get to see Black Keys with The Whigs opening. Looking forward to it…
- Dean (@dbrowell)
A note to Rebel Records about the last couple of days:
Two nights at The National in Richmond produced two very different but enjoyable shows…
On Thursday we saw Interpol. More on that in a second but let me lift up one of their openers: The Postelles (FANTASTIC!) and down another, Twin Tigers (AWFUL Sonic Youth knock-off).
Interpol tried to pull a hattrick and appear on Letterman the same day they were playing Richmond, but storms near DC screwed them up. The management saw what was unfolding, and with second-opener the Postelles starting deliberately late they still didn’t buy enough time. They offered refunds for anyone that couldn’t wait. Interpol did eventually land in Richmond but didn’t take the stage until midnight. They were apologetic but returned our patience with a positively blistering set – I can’t praise them enough – and also did a super-rare-for-them second encore. We left that venue at 2:30am but holy crap was it worth it. A potential disaster became a really, really special show.
Last night we saw Devo. It was entertaining, but I also felt like I was watching Dungeons & Dragons The Musical – it was as if there was a million in-jokes flying and I wasn’t in the know. They were terrific, their young nimble drummer being nearly as much of a spectacle as the LEDs behind them. Amazingly they played “Whip It” about halfway through the show and to their credit kept everyone in enrapt attention afterwards. I’m still sad they didn’t do their cover of, “Workin’ In a Coalmine” (from the Heavy Metal soundtrack). At the very end Mothersbaugh donned a weird plastic mask of an overweight child and completely lost most of the crowd in a falsetto extemporaneous speech about Michael Jackson – not the softest landing.
Up next: Arcade Fire with opener Spoon and then I’m actually (gasp!) on a slight hiatus from shows in most of August…
- Dean (@dbrowell)
P.S. Interpol setlist for playlist building at home:
On Music & Home
June 28, 2010
I was actually looking for some lyrics and stumbled on a blog that featured these quotes:
“I love the relationship that anyone has with music: because there’s something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. It’s the best part of us, probably, the richest and strangest part…”
—Nick Hornby, Songbook
“Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel.”
—Hunter S. Thompson
Incidentally the blog is really, really cool: and I suggest you check it out “I am Fuel, Your Are Friends” Blog.
But here are the lyrics I was actually looking for:
[Her:]
Alabama, Arkansas,
I do love my ma and pa,
Not that way that I do love you.[Him:]
Holy, moley, me, oh my,
You’re the apple of my eye,
Girl I’ve never loved one like you.[Her:]
Man oh man you’re my best friend,
I scream it to the nothingness,
There ain’t nothing that I need.[Him:]
Well, hot and heavy, pumpkin pie,
Chocolate candy, Jesus Christ,
Ain’t nothing please me more than you.[Both:]
Ahh Home. Let me go home.
Home is wherever I’m with you.
Ahh Home. Let me go ho-oh-ome.
Home is wherever I’m with you.La, la, la, la, take me home.
Mother, I’m coming home.[Him:]
I’ll follow you into the park,
Through the jungle through the dark,
Girl I never loved one like you.[Her:]
Moats and boats and waterfalls,
Alley-ways and pay phone calls,
I’ve been everywhere with you.[Him:]
That’s true.
Laugh until we think we’ll die,
Left with on a summer night,
Never could be sweeter than with you.[Her:]
And in the streets you run afree,
Like it’s only you and me,
Geeze, you’re something to see.[Both:]
Ahh Home. Let me go home.
Home is wherever I’m with you.
Ahh Home. Let me go ho-oh-ome.
Home is wherever I’m with you.La, la, la, la, take me home.
Daddy, I’m coming home.(Talking)
Him: Jade
Her: Alexander
Him: Do you remember that day you fell outta my window?
Her: I sure do, you came jumping out after me.
Him: Well, you fell on the concrete, nearly broke your ass, you were bleeding all over the place and I rushed you out to the hospital, you remember that?
Her: Yes I do.
Him: Well there’s something I never told you about that night.
Her: What didn’t you tell me?
Him: While you were sitting in the backseat smoking a cigarette you thought was gonna be your last, I was falling deep, deeply in love with you, and I never told you til just now.[Both:]
Ahh Home. Let me go home.
Home is wherever I’m with you.
Ahh Home. Let me go ho-oh-ome.
Home is where I’m alone with you.[Him:]
Home. Let me come home.
Home is wherever I’m with you.[Her:]
Ahh home. Yes I am ho-oh-ome.
Home is when I’m alone with you.[Her:]
Alabama, Arkansas,
I do love my ma and pa…
Moats and boats and waterfalls,
Alley-ways and pay phone calls…[Both:]
Ahh Home. Let me go home.
Home is wherever I’m with you.
Ahh Home. Let me go ho-oh-ome.
Home is where I’m alone with you…- Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, “Home”
Dig?
- Dean (@dbrowell)
I thought I’d make a point to share some of the standout musical experiences of Bonnaroo this year, especially by bands you may not know. We’ll be occasionally coming back to the Roo well for perspectives and sharing, but this is a decent start:
First up, a really energizing band I caught was Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (their website here, Twitter here). The band is a somewhat amazing ensemble that appears to double in sound as songs progress. There’s a clear frontman in Alex Albert, but even his leadership is clouded, delightfully, by the swarm of the band. (You might be familiar with Albert’s other effort, Ima Robot.)
#RVA Update: Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros visit Richmond on July 17th at The National.
Be sure to check out the Largehearted Boy blog for Bonnaroo downloads, bootlegs and streams.
- Dean (@dbrowell)
P.S. Big thanks to “Wolfman” Jess for letting me know I should check out this band at Bonnaroo; always great taste, Jess.
Tommy James & a Funny Twist
May 20, 2010
A note from Rebel Records with a fun twist:
useless/interesting/strange-but-true:
1963, Niles, Michigan-based tommy james and the shondells (formed in junior high) records a throwaway single, “hanky, panky,” that becomes a big local hit, but no national action.
group loses interest, breaks up; james works in a record store and does music after-hours.
2 years later, james gets a frantic call from a pittsburgh deejay–he’d unearthed the original “hanky panky” single, started playing it at sock-hops and on the air. it was a big hit in pittsburgh, and he needed james and the shondells to get up there immediately for appearances.
ready to rock, james packs up and head out w/o a band, picks up a local band to back him, gets signed to nearby “big time” indie label roulette (notoriously “mobbed-up”), recuts “hanky, panky” which then proceeds to become a #1 national hit!
james and “new” shondells then reel off 14 consecutive top 40 hits over the next 3 years.
the name of the pick-up band when james found them?
the raconteurs.
Recent Conversations w/ Rebel
May 5, 2010
Dean:
Found a record store in town I hadn’t visited, came away with some fun older stuff (some boogie woogie piano, a couple of Sam & Dave 45′s, and a live Blue Oyster Cult — a weak moment–, plus Joshua Tree on vinyl for $1).
Rebel Records:
I AM intrigued by the new Bird and the Bee: Tribute to Hall & Oates. shockingly good, making old warhorses sound like new songs.
May bring many around to admitting that those guys knew how to write a great pop song . . . I was a big fan, put them aside for many years, and now am prb to the point where I could fall back into certain spots in their catalog . . . things like Sarah Smile hold up like classic soul.
…
A little while ago in the NY Times, the irony of pretty big splash for new Brad Mehldau/Jon Brion jazz collaboration “highway rider” . . . it reads fairly high-brow (a lot of classical influence) . . . but, not sure I’ve mentioned prev–these were the guys who did an impromtu after-hours jam following Brion’s normal fri. “trip” at Largo in west Hollywood the first time we were there, which must’ve been 6-8 yrs. ago, at least.
I barely knew Mehldau’s name, we were both exhausted, so we left about halfway thru their first song. it was so quiet (about 10 people maybe) that i heard Brion half-whisper “well, i guess they were impressed.”
In the story, a lot is made of how influ. their first collab (“largo”) was among young jazzers . . . I DID regret having to leave, even tho I had no real idea of how big a deal the 2 of them together were.
National’d.
April 20, 2010
I’m trying to think of how you describe the sound of The National. This is in honor of their two-night stint (April 22nd and 23rd) at a venue also called, incidentally, The National.
Here’s what I came up with:
What do you guys think? Think of something better than my obtuse analogy: “”What the Blake Babies would sound like if we chained them to Interpol for 14 days.”"
- Dean (@dbrowell)
Whole Lotta Dave
April 15, 2010
It all began innocently enough, with a text from my friend Anne, a text not unlike many others of its kind, a text with a “hi” and “oh man, have you heard [insert awesome artist here], yet?”
This time it was Gregory Alan Isakov, a folk/indie dude who originates from South Africa. I hadn’t heard of him and so, like the good student of music that I am, I headed over to his myspace page to have a listen.
She was right. He was great, not to mention, his recent album features Brandi Carlile on a majority of the tracks.
She and I always share our music and this time was no different. After a moment’s listen, I requested that she share what she had of his and with delight she obliged me.
It all could have turned into “well I hope you have a great day” ‘s and “tell so-and-so I said hi” ‘s but instead, I opened Pandora’s box.
She’s a huge Dave Matthews Band fan. As soon as I heard about LeRoi Moore’s death, she was the first person that came to my mind. She’s seen the band perform live more times than I’ve had years on this earth. That’s – what? – 28? it changes every year, so I tend to forget.
Back to the story. I simply said – paraphrasing here – you know, I love me some Dave but there’s SOOOO much music out there, can you make me a mix of your favorite Dave tracks?
Oh wow had I started something! By the end of the day, she’d sent me nine mixes. I was still at work so I was only able to peruse through the tracks she’d chosen and boy did they bring back some good memories. I recognized about half of the songs she’d chosen. I stopped listening to DMB back in college or sometime close thereafter, there was just so much music coming out and maybe I felt like I couldn’t devote enough of “me” to them. I’m not sure. But I’ve always loved the band.
So what did I do last night? Yer damn right I spent all night downloading the tracks and then compiling the playlists based on her suggestions. What will I be doing all day and into the next week? Listening to them all – deliciously and one by one.
This summer, Anne and I will see them together live at Bonnaroo. I couldn’t be more stoked and these mixes are set to be the perfect segueway into the experience that is the ‘roo.
As requested, here are the lists:
Mix 1
Grey Street
Squirm
Drive In Drive Out
04 The Dreaming Tree (Live At Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY)
Don’t Drink The Water (Live)
1-07 #27 (Live)
Everyday/#36 (Live)
2-03 Eh Hee (Live)
1-05 Proudest Monkey (Live At Mile High Music Festival)
Fool To Think (Live)
1-04 Save Me
Mix 2
Granny (Live)
Bartender
2-09 Grace Is Gone
You Never Know
Digging a Ditch
Hello Again (08.24.04)
2-02 Stay (Wasting Time) [Live At Mile High Music Festival]
Crush (Live)
Say Goodbye-Mile High Stadium, Denver, Colorado,July 25 2000
Mix 3
Alligator Pie (Live At Beacon Theatre, 6/1/09)
2-06 Sister
2-02 Cornbread
Pig
Steady As We Go
1-03 Stay or Leave
Captain
Rhyme & Reason
Recently (Live 7.13.04: Darien Lake Performing Arts Center, Darien Center, NY)
Everybody Wake Up
Dreamgirl
Where Are You Going?
Mix 4
The Idea of You
1-11 Betrayal
Stolen Away on 55th & 3rd
Funny the Way It Is
1-05 You Might Die Trying (Live).m4p
08 Tripping Billies (Live At Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy, WI)
Christmas Song
So Much To Say / Anyone Seen The Bridge?
Lie In Our Graves
One Sweet World 04-20-02 Corel Centre, Kanata, ON, Canada
Rapunzel
Mix 5
Time of the Season
2-10 Dancing Nancies
Joy Ride
Big Eyed Fish
Sweet Caroline
3-07 Thank You (Falletin Me Be Mice Elf Agin) [Live At Mile High Music Festival]
Angel
One Sweet World
The Stone
The Last Stop
Mix 6
2-11 #41
Warehouse
Break Free
Shake Me Like A Monkey
Ants Marching
Time Bomb (Live At Comcast Theatre, Hartford, 6/6/09)
#41
Jimi Thing
Mix 7
Seek Up
Can’t Stop
American Baby
05 Pay for What You Get (Live At Toyota Pavilion At Montage Mountain, Scranton, PA)
Sledgehammer
1-02 Two Step (Live)
Jimi Thing
Mix 8
Mother Father
Cry Freedom – 7.31.2003, West Palm Beach, FL
Raven 07-08-02 HiFi Buys Amphiteatre, Atlanta, Georgia.
2-01 Oh
Typical Situation
2-08 Some Devil
Song That Jane Likes (Live)
Smooth Rider
Lying In the Hands of God
Hunger for the Great Light
I’ll Back You Up 08-05-04 Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, OH
Mix 9
Dive In – 9.10.2009, Los Angeles, CA
The Space Between
1-08 The Maker
So Right
Lying In the Hands of God
Spoon
You & Me (Live At SPAC, Saratoga Springs, 6/12/09)
Minarets – [8.31.95]
*for the record, any repeated songs are different versions
Goodbye, B-sides
April 13, 2010
The first single I ever bought -- way back in 1973.
Don’t get me wrong — I love iTunes and the ability to download almost any song that works its way into my brain almost instantly, whether it happens at noon or 4 a.m. (Good thing I already own all the Beatles’ CDS, though.)
But this instant gratification comes at a cost that can’t be measured in dollars and cents. iTunes and other music download services have killed the B-side.
When I first became aware of music in the early 1970s, my preteen friends and I bought singles instead of albums. We wanted to listen to the same hits we heard on our favorite radio station over and over, not plod through a whole album that might feature songs we didn’t like. Besides, singles only cost a little more than a buck, so they made economical sense, too, because you could get five or more of your favorite songs for the price of an album.
The first single I ever bought was Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” which then was in heavy rotation on the now-defunct, and much lamented, KSLQ in St. Louis. I was 9. As I remember it, I bought the single in the summer, riding my ultra-slick Raleigh Chopper to St. Clair Square with my best friends Barry and Bob and then racing home to slap the disk on my Sears portable record player. Most likely, though, I purchased it at Camelot Music while at the mall with my mom and rode home safely in her Monte Carlo.
For days I would play “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” over and over without thinking about turning it over and giving the other song on the disk a listen. But one day I did turn the disk over, and I was shocked to hear what it contained.
The B-side of “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” is a song titled “Young Man’s Blues,” a pithy rebuke to English schoolboy life that contains the refrain “Screw you/ain’t got nothing to lose” as the key couplet in the chorus. I sat in dumb silence as the record played, praying that my mother hadn’t heard the words spewing forth from the small speaker on my record player. Little did I know at the time that the song is titled “Screw You” in the rest of the world and that it had been retitled for U.S. release, lest it offend American sensibilities.
What made the song unique, though, was that it didn’t appear on an Elton John album in the United States until the “Rare Masters” collection, which corralled two CDs worth of Elton John B-sides and rare tracks, was released in 1992. The song’s only other album appearance was on the 1980 “Lady Samantha” album, a U.K.-only release that gathered much of Elton’s pre-”Caribou” B-sides. (Luckily my local record store had a huge import section, so I was able to “Lady Samantha” to my album collection when it was first released.)
Unfortunately, the days of the rare B-side have gone the same way as the 8-track and Billy Squier’s career, becoming just another footnote in the history of rock ‘n’ roll. In perusing my beloved, although relatively small, collection of 45s, there are several gems hidden on the back sides of some of my favorite singles.
The Beatles, of course, were the masters of the single. Most of their biggest hits — “Day Tripper,” “Paperback Writer” and “Hey Jude” among them — appeared only as singles in Britain, not appearing on albums until much later. The blockbuster “Hey Jude,” for example, didn’t appear on a Beatles album until “The Beatles: 1967-1970″ (more commonly called the “Blue Album”) compilation was released two years after the band broke up.
What made the Beatles unique was that some of their B-sides were as strong, if not stronger, than the A-sides. “Rain,” one of the band’s heaviest songs that presaged both heavy metal and psychedelia, appeared on the flip side of the 1966 single “Paperback Writer.” For me, “Rain” is my all-time favorite Beatles song, a churning stew of Epiphone guitars and sneering John Lennon tweaks at uptight straights. The song also contains the first use of backward masking on the coda, with Lennon’s vocals and George Harrison’s guitar run in reverse as the song fades out.
Even though I have the song on the “Past Masters” CD, I still like pulling out the single — with its full-color picture sleeve — and playing both sides of the disk. There’s a comfort there that transports me back to my childhood bedroom, the one with the blue shag carpet and the matching bedspread and curtains featuring sailing ships that were purchased from the Sears catalog, that I don’t find when I download a song from iTunes. Also gone is the sense of wonder at finding a hidden gem on the other side of a hit single, one that you can’t find anywhere else and that only the most diehard fans care about.
The B-side is dead. Long live the B-side.
rvarecords
dbrowell
cshepscorp
Bryan DeVasher
