Radio Show: October 19, 2009

I'm back to being a week behind on posting my shows for download but i'll try to catch up. On this particular show, i reveal my deep dark secret: I have a trainee. Enjoy.

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Paint My Album

If you go to PaintMyAlbum.net, you'll find a couple of guys collecting album covers created using Microsoft Paint. Here's my contribution:

Here's the original:

Faces :: Ooh La La :: 1973

"Rarely has a singer had as full and unique a talent as Rod Stewart; rarely has anyone betrayed his talent so completely."

-- Greil Marcus, from The Rolling Stone History of Rock 'n Roll

There's this dirty little secret that is revealed to every real music fan at some point in his or her life. It's actually a pretty well-known secret but it still comes as a surprise to most every person when they first discover it. It's like when you first see "Arrested Development." You've heard people mention that it's good but suddenly you realize how amazing it is but your parents still don't know about it so it's like you've become a member of a really large secret club. That pretty much goes for the deliciousness of mini-corndogs too. So, if you're not already a member, i'm going to give you admission to this special club through the knowledge of the following run-on sentence.

There was a time, many years ago, pre-Cell Phones but post-Dinosaurs, pre-Cosby show but post-Civil War, pre-New Wave but post-British Invasion; a time all but forgotten by modern men, forever to be sanctioned to historical accounts, record-store conversations and music blogs; a time before the decline of the Western Civilization, believe it or not... there was a time that Rod Stewart did not blow goat balls."

Rod started his musical career in 1962 with a group called Steampacket. Other than a pretty hideous name, the only other notable fact about Steampacket is that it included as its members, Brian Auger, Julie Driscoll and Long John Baldry, who all went on to have successful careers on their own. In 1966, Stewart signed on as the singer of the Jeff Beck Group. I just recently (finally) picked up Jeff Beck Group's Truth and Beck-Ola after a friend made the statement that, at their best, they rivaled Led Zeppelin. Having never heard anything mentioned as "rivaling Led Zeppelin," i had to know. While the Zep still operates way above Beck's group as a whole, i completely see the argument. Beck's guitar is on fire and Rod rips out some vocals that would make Robert Plant pee in his way-too-tight bell bottom jeans. In 1969, Stewart and bassist Ronnie Wood, switching to guitar, left Beck to join a new lineup of the Small Faces who changed their name to simply Faces.

As the new Faces began recording, Stewart simultaneously began his solo career. Over the next few years, Faces released several fine albums, leading up to Ooh La La, their final album together. Where the Small Faces fit the British Invasion mold and the Jeff Beck Group went to louder and heavier lands, Faces went for a good-ol' rootsy, blues based rock 'n' roll. It was a path most notably cut by The Rolling Stones, and unlike Zeppelin, i have heard it said many times that, at their best, Faces rival and probably even surpass The Stones. I agree.

Many songs on this album are piano/guitar driven barroom boogie like "Silicone Grown" and "Borstal Boys." Others get a little bluesier and give the organ some time to shine like the instrumental "Fly in the Ointment." For all the rocking, one of the standouts for me has to be "Glad and Sorry" which is a much more laid back track and features group vocals on the entire song. The final track is the title track. It's also one of Faces best-known songs and ironically sung by Ronnie Wood. You know the song, it's the one with the chorus "I wish... that... I knew what I know now... when I was younger." Perhaps it's a fitting epitaph for a band that, in one more year, would no longer be.

Stewart gets a lot of notice for Faces success perhaps because he was the frontman or perhaps because it's so amazing that something so awesome came from someone so lame. But the truth is that Faces was a group. Stewart, Wood and bassist/sometimes vocalist Ronnie Lane were fairly equal parts in the songwriting department and the way they all played together was so loose and free that it created a certain magic that was missing on Stewart's solo albums of the time. After Faces, Wood joined The Rolling Stones, Lane began a solo career, drummer Kenney Jones covered for the late Keith Moon with The Who and keyboardist Ian McLagan became a bit of a session man playing over the years with The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and a million others.

As for Stewart, we all know what happened. After his first four, mostly excellent, solo albums, he began his long descent into suck. He recorded some disco, he married supermodels, he danced all over Mtv, he recorded standards albums, he pops up on American Idol, all presumably in search of the perfect set of goat balls. Rod Stewart is dead. There's no hope that he'll someday come back to us and rock a face or two. He's gone but it's up to our secret society, of which you are now a member, to make sure he is not forgotten.

This is a pretty long version of "Borstal Boys" due to an extended guitar and drum break buy, my Ford, it's good.

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A lot of people will tell you that "A Nod is as Good as a Wink..." is Faces' best album. They might be right.

Radio Show October 12, 2009

Julian and Kristin from The Young Republic joined me in the studio this week to play a few songs from their new album, Balletesque. They'll be celebrating its release with three shows at Edgehill Studio Cafe in Nashville, October 15, 16 & 17. You can find more info and hear songs and look at pictures and post witty comments and stalk and invite them to join your mafia on the Young Republic MySpace page.

Here's the radio show. They play four songs in studio, plus we play one from the new CD. We also play a song by a guy that's kind of like Sondre Lerche but not as good.
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Radio Show: October 5, 2009

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Radio Show: September 28, 2009

More electronic than it was supposed to be. How does that happen?

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Steve Earle :: El Corazon :: 1997

There was a period of time between 1998 and 2002 that i listened to a lot of Americana/Alt-Country music. I'm not "blaming" my friends but i was somehow influenced by my peers more than any other time in my life, concerning the music i listened to. Johnny & June were the figureheads. Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams were the King and Queen. Ryan Adams was the unruly Prince. Alejandro Escovedo was some related Duke. Emmylou Harris was an angel sent to remind us of the spirit of Gram Parsons, who conquered Country for the Rock kids and thus birthed the State of Americana.

Of course a lot of this influence was a great thing. Through them, i found a greater appreciation for Neil Young and The Rolling Stones. I discovered Faces and Moby Grape. I was forced to hear Wilco so many times, i actually started to like them. If it was no more than four chords, channeled Cash, Stones or Dylan and mixed well with beer, that's what was being played at the parties i went to. It's what people talked about. Those were the concerts everyone went to. And i was right there with them.

But after a while, all the newer bands started sounding alike to me. Son Volt, Drive-By Truckers, Jayhawks, Lucero, Bottle Rockets. All these bands that i appreciated on their own just became a big ball of unoriginality. We all know the classic Country themes. They were presented in the titles of a Johnny Cash box set and a series of Merle Haggard compilations. Together, you get the list "Love, God, Murder, Cheatin', Drinkin', Hurtin', Prison." Yep, that about covers it. The problem is that it's hard to come up with a new way to approach a song about Drinkin'. All of these themes have been touched on so many times for literally over a hundred years now. For me, the music became just as derivative and repetitive. If you exceed that 4-chord limit or started singing about wizards and shit, it's not longer Americana. It's a small box and most of the inhabitants have not found a way to sneak out and still keep one foot in.

It all became very boring for me. Soon, a lot of these artists that i had loved (and many that i still do love) just sort of fell to the side. I still don't listen much to Americana music. There was even a big Americana festival here this past weekend and i didn't even look to see who was playing. I think i just got burned out. There's a lot of music out there to listen to and this stuff doesn't scream for my attention the way it used to.

One of the reasons i enjoy writing this blog is that it makes me re-examine albums i've heard a million times. I know/think something is good but so often i've never really thought about why it's so good. I've listened to El Corazon about 10 times in the last week so i would know what to write about but more importantly because i have a new appreciation for Steve Earle that i never had before, even when i listened to him on a regular basis. Suddenly, he's screaming out for my attention again. What sets Earle apart from so many in the Americana/Alt-Country crowd became very evident to me last night while listening to a Lucero album. While so many artists, particularly younger artists, take their cues from the likes of Gram Parsons, Uncle Tupelo and Whiskeytown, Earle takes his from Woody Guthrie and more importantly, America.

His writing shows that "Americana" must actually represent the history of this country and its music. He understands from Guthrie the importance of telling a story. Sometimes it's for fun, sometimes it's to share an emotion and sometimes it's to kill fascists. And with the past in mind, Earle creates something very modern. El Corazon's opening song "Christmastime in Washington" relates the mood in the country in 1996 the way Guthrie related the mood of the country in 1940. He doesn't try to pretend he was in the Dustbowls, he just writes about where we are now. His call to Guthrie, Jesus & Martin Luther King to come help us out comes from the repressed reality that he and every listener are now the ones that have to set the world straight. I think this is one of the greatest bits of songwriting from the 20th century. I don't say that lightly. This is one for the history books.

For song #2, Earle does what every Americana artist does at one time or another. He pulls out the big gun, Emmylou Harris on harmony. With her help, he tells the story of a black boy who heads down to Taneytown, where his mother told him not to go. And he soon learns why vowing "I ain't goin' back there anymore." It's a dark rocker that sends chills down your spine. On "I Still Carry You Around," he solicits the help of the Del McCoury Band (which he would do further on their joint album The Mountain) in a legitimate nod to Bluegrass. "Somewhere Out There" and "Poison Lovers" cover the "Love" and "Hurtin'" themes in songs where you hear the harmonies even when they're not there. He closes it out with "Ft. Worth Blues," a sincere tribute to the travelling life and the love for home.

Steve Earle is a songwriter that will be remembered and re-discovered forever. He doesn't fake it, he lives it. He knows what songs are for.

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These are dang fine albums too.



Transcendental Blues
and
I Feel Alright





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For the Nashville crowd, i'd like to propose an idea. Let's try to get The Traveling Wilburys to reunite. In place of the late Roy Orbison and George Harrison, i nominate Steve Earle and local perennial rock god Dave Cloud to take their place. With the new lineup, we'll create a Monkees type tv show where they live together. Dave Cloud will constantly sing "Lay Lady Lay" whenever Bob Dylan's in the room and wackiness ensues when he pees on Tom Petty's couch.

Radio Shows: September 2 & 21

I found another show i hadn't posted from September 2nd. So here's that one and this week's show.

September 2
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September 21
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The Damned :: Damned Damned Damned :: 1977

A guitarist whose influence starts with 1950's Rock 'n' Roll, a drummer whose chosen last name is a skin infection, a bass player who sounds like the world's lamest superhero and occasionally sports feather boas & berets and a vampiric singer who wears all black and paints his face white. This mostly sounds like a creation one would make on the Rock Band video game. But at a time before Punk Rock had become stylized and homogenized and originality still counted for something, Brian James, Rat Scabies, Captain Sensible and Dave Vanian formed The Damned.

The Damned are very well known in the Punk world but considering they were pioneers along side The Sex Pistols, The Clash and Ramones, they've never quite reached the household-name status that the other three have. Their biggest claim to fame is that they released the first UK Punk single, "New Rose," and the first UK Punk album, Damned Damned Damned, and were the first UK Punk band to tour in America.

While this is great for the history books, i think The Damned have something much greater to be proud of. Unlike their counterparts, they created an album that seems truly timeless. I mean that as no disrespect to The Clash, Pistols or Ramones. Let me see if i can explain this. If a band released Nevermind the Bollocks... today, we'd say it sounds like 1977. We've all heard bands that rip off those others and they're just not that interesting, they just sound like rip-offs. But when was the last time you thought, "oh great, another Damned rip-off"? This album sounds as fresh today as it ever could have.

They presented a batch of songs that were aggressive enough to blow away pop music but still informed by the Rock 'n' Roll that everyone knew so there was still something recognizable in there. And to top it off, these guys actually knew how to play their instruments as opposed to some of their counterparts. James' guitar rips through like an angry Chuck Berry. Scabies' drumming has earned him comparisons to The Who's Keith Moon, which basically means he never stops hitting things, he never hits them softly and he generally hits more than what's really acceptable in a two and half minute song. Vanian's vocals have more melody than a lot of punk songs both past and present; it's stuff you can actually sing, not just scream, along with.

This album was basically a representation of their live set and recorded as such. Stiff Records house producer Nick Lowe essentially hit record and let the band run through the songs with very few overdubs or 2nd takes. As such, you can feel the energy running through these songs of a band just doing the only thing they know to do. There are so many highlights on this album. "Neat Neat Neat" and "New Rose" have already established themselves as classics in the Punk Rock canon. The creepy air of "Born to Kill" and "Feel the Pain," the one minute blitz of "Stab Your Back" and the whiplash 1-2 punch of "Fish" and "See Her Tonite" all make this one of the greatest and somewhat overlooked Punk albums ever to assault your ears.

After this album, The Damned have a bit of a strange story. For their second album, they brought in a second guitarist, making them a 5-piece. During the recording, Scabies quit the band and future Culture Club drummer Jon Moss filled in. Nine months after their debut, they released Music for Pleasure which was recorded by Pink Floyd's Nick Mason (?!huh?) and apparently sucks. They were dropped from Stiff Records and officially broke up. Two years later they reformed with Scabies back on drums, Captain Sensible switching from bass to guitar and a rotating cast of bass players. Despite James' unique guitar sound and the fact that he had written every original song but one on their first album, his presence really wasn't missed much. The Damned third album, Machine Gun Etiquette, picks up where Damned Damned Damned left off. It does add a certain layer of musical maturity from an only slightly older and wiser band and who knew Captain Sensible could be such an incredible guitarist? Vanian continued to perform and record over the years with Scabies and/or Capt. S joining him from time to time, even releasing an album of new material as recently at 2008.

I was going to close with a thought about how we should make sure The Damned end up on the Mt. Rushmore of Punk. I then noticed the similarity of the cover of Damned Damned Damned to the four stone faces carved out of that South Dakota hill and realized the world would be a better place if George Washington was licking cream pie off Thomas Jefferson's head.

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I thought i'd find some good video of early Damned but it was tough. Here's some lip-synching and overdubbed girls shouting like they're watching The Beatles.

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Go find this!

Radio Shows August 19 & 26

Here are the next two shows. Unfortunately, i have screwed up trying to record my last two shows so i'm essentially caught up as far as posting Podcasts. I'm going to try a lot harder to stay on top of them in the future and have them up by Tuesday nights each week.

I appreciate everyone who does download these to check out what i'm playing. Feel free to leave comments if any particular song catches your ear, moves you to tears, makes you dance or fills a certain void left in your soul because your parents never told you they loved you or something.

August 19
I cut off the first two songs but it's a 2-hour show so you get your money's worth
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August 26
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