a coherent collection of random statements regarding God, words and tunes

A Blast (or several dozen... or so....) From the Past

Nothing new to report on the new-music front (a lot on the homefront, but I think I'm gonna wait till the dust settles further to even try....)

But on the old-music front, MAN... Let's just say a lot of old friends have joined the digital era in my house in the past month, courtesy of the following: http://thep5.blogspot.com/

As brief an overview as I can offer follows -- and these are just the highlights -- but suffice to say I'm in post-punk hog heaven....

The Cure -- Faith/Seventeen Seconds -- Still their best period, IMHO. Wonderful minimalist atmosphere. And let us not forget that Robert Smith saved South Park from Mecha-Streisand. For that alone, he deserves our eternal gratitude.

RobertSmithoftheCure, you ROCK!

 

ALL Things XTC (except for Go 2, as of this writing, only because it's not available in blogworld) -- The humanist Daniel Amos (and/or Swirling Eddies, as they too had an alter ego in the form of The Dukes of Stratosphear). Andy Partridge is a pop genius, that's that, and this is all the evidence you need (and all you're going to get, although there ARE rumors of a solo album FINALLY being created). To quote from one of their titles, this was music burning with optimism's flames, even while evolving from spastic new-wave to the band you wished Brian Wilson and The Beatles had joined forces to form.

And Nonsuch is a dark album in many places nonetheless. Ironic that arguably the darkest moment (or decidedly not, and you'll need to do the deciding) basically takes the penultimate line from Skylarking's harrowingly brilliant accidental hit "Dear God" ("and if You're up there, You perceive / that my heart's here upon my sleeve") and stretching it into what can only be considered an atheist's prayer ("Where's the message that's written under the base of clouds?/ Plans eternal, I know you know, so don't blurt out loud / Rook, Rook, by hook or by crook / I'll make you tell me what this whole thing's all about... / If I die and I find that I had a soul inside / Promise me that you'll take it up on its final ride / Rook, Rook, gaze in the brook / If there's a secret, can I be a part of it?") Story has it that this broke a two-year writer's block and Andy cried like a baby when it first poured out. And so should you. And although he denies it, Hooray for Peter Pumpkinhead too, for that matter.

Dexy's Midnight Runners -- Searching for the Young Soul Rebels / Too-Rye-Ay -- Yes, yes, Kevin Rowland is best known as the one-hit-wonder grungebag singing "Come on, Eileen" (which, nonetheless, remains a perfect pop song for the intellectual hornbag in all of us), but the man could channel Van Morrison with the best of them, for two albums anyway. Too-Rye-Ay holds up a LOT better than you thought it would, but their debut Searching for the Young Soul Rebels is the real deal -- angry, soulful, bitingly witty.

ALL things The Jam -- Say what you like. Paul Weller knew how to write idealist anthems, even while blindly ripping off (the best features of) every British Invasion or Motown group he could find. And to convey said idealist anthems with EVERY ounce of conviction at his disposal. And All Mod Cons, Sound Affects and especially Setting Sons are just great stuff.

Tom Robinson Band -- Power in the Darkness/TRB Two -- Don't know why he/they never became more popular. (OK, so I do -- probably something to do with being "glad to be gay"....) But when PitD came out in 1979 -- and I was still heralding the values all things Who (especially Quadrophenia)... well, music didn't come much better than this. And it's still a thump or several in the chest. Great lyrics that usually protested without preaching (the aforementioned "Glad to Be Gay" being the exception that proved the rule), and fueled by the absolutely smokin' guitar of Danny Kustow. And yet, TR could still come up with the pure power pop of "2-4-6-8 Motorway," or the "Moondance"-ish soul of "Too Good to Be True." And his version of Peter Gabriel's "Bully for You" still remains the definitive one. Glad to've re-found this.

The Modern Lovers -- 1st album -- Before Jonathan Richman went into a second childhood and never came out again (and, for that matter, before the rest of the band threw up their hands and became the Cars and Talking Heads years later) -- and a full decade before the Violent Femmes made this kind of music vaguely popular (and another decade before Smashing Pumpkins' metal version of it DID become popular, for that matter-er), there was this. Everyone and their mother has covered "Roadrunner," and there's been more than their share of covers of "Pablo Picasso," for that matter, but the blend of angry pathos (or pathetic anger, take yr choice) is all over this. "She Cracked" is The All-Time Great Vegetarian Anti-Drug Song (yes, I know, such an extensive genre -- still, it MUST be heard to be appreciated); "Hospital" is eery, pathetic and heartbreaking all at once. And, well, so on.

The Waterboys -- The Waterboys/This Is the Sea (and somebody find me A Pagan Place!) -- I think my feelings re: Mike Scott and whoever else is in the band that day have already been adequately conveyed, but still, to quote the man hisself, HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The Psychedelic Furs -- 1st album -- Nasty, brilliant stuff. Even here, though, Richard Butler's spirituality had a way of belying his anti-religious rants. (Trust me though, Jim, stay AWAY from this one! )

All things Magazine -- I present to you Howard Devoto, the half of the Buzzcocks that wasn't Pete Shelley and got out before they singlehandedly invented punk-pop, opting instead to create an icy-warm keyboard-laden darkness that made you wonder what Roxy Music might've accomplished if Bryan Ferry had been less debonair and more crazy-literate and angry. And while Real Life is the album that captures that best, the most sublime case in point is The Correct Use of Soap's "Song From Under the Floorboards," a literal rewrite of Dostoevsky's Notes From the Underground (right from the opening line, "I am angry, I am ill, and I am ugly as sin.") Song STILL floors me (pun unintentional) every time.

Gang of Four -- Entertainment! -- They kinda petered out after this one, but boy, was/is this an interesting album. Incisive lyrics, catchy hooks, and some great angular feedback-laden guitar work. "Anthrax" is STILL edgy for an anti-love song, even 25 years later.

Jim Carroll -- Catholic Boy -- I wish this one held up a little better, but it's still poetry with some great greasy guitar behind it. And I can't hear "People Who Died" without remembering the first time hearing it and having to pull off the road, it was so remarkable. Plus, it was an Envelopes staple; people who'd never heard the original thought tim wrote it, it fit in so well...

The Only Ones -- Special View / Only Serpents Shine -- Peter Perrett was clearly a total moron with his personal life (go look it up), but in his day the boy could write the best poppy rockin' sardonic love songs this side of Matthew Sweet.

The Boomtown Rats -- A Tonic for the Troops / The Fine Art of Surfacing -- And speaking of people who are their own worst enemy (but at least somehow held their own lives together)... Bob Geldof has gone in any number of curious and seemingly contradictory directions, but when he was still just a songwriter with a big mouth and a good band, he/they did some great stuff. Cool personal memory: Seeing them on the Tonic tour at the Palladium in NYC (for $5 -- ALSO way cool), and having them come out for the encore and perform a song they'd just written -- a cappella. The song? "I Don't Like Mondays."

The Pretenders --  Pretenders II -- The first album and Learning to Crawl are the preemptive greatest-hits albums, but this one -- written in between the two while Chrissie Hynde almost became the fifth Mrs. Ray Davies and bore his child regardless -- is the true gem. To open said album with two songs called "The Adultress" and "Bad Boys Get Spanked" is nothing if not ballsy. But the real album starts after that -- "Message of Love" is a GREAT wall-of-sound single; "Birds of Paradise" is a tough but wistful tearjerker directed at a former lover; "Talk of the Town" is another near-perfect single; and so on and on.

The Clash -- 1st album/London Calling/Combat Rock --  They weren't the ONLY band that mattered, but get past the singles and they mattered a whooooole lot more than you might think. And they don't get near enough credit for the amount of musical styles they experimented with even as they were thumping you in the chest with three chords and the truth. You really don't need more than Side 1 of Combat Rock, but the other two are critical. (And Sandinista even moreso, evinced by the fact that I'd already replaced that one.)

So there you are. Now go FETCH.

Posted by: burninglight at 20:04 | link | comments (44)

Additional Notes on Historic Fowler Summit

Well, you've got tim's fuller version here, and I must say there isn't very much to quibble with, but my own two cents to go with it:

1) Like Stevie Wonder would say, "just like Ah pictured it." Take the town of Brush up my way (albeit 100 miles east on Rt. 34), make a right on Route 71, go 150 miles south, and you have a duplicate of it in Fowler. Just don't blink, or you'll miss it. (And compared to anything else between Pueblo and LaJunta, it's a hoppin' burb.)

2) Never have I seen so much gratitude expressed by so many over a c.1979 Radio Shack cassette recorder with fake-wood trim. But hey, I'm glad it works, guys.

3) It's really, really pointless to try to maintain a low-carb diet in a town comprised of two convenience stores. But I'll get back on track.

4) Despite implications (intended or not) by non-attendants elsewhere, discussions of God often flowed freely, if respectfully. And as declared by one of those actually in attendance, it sure seems like He's always weaving in and out of the scenery whether the other one of those in attendance wants to acknowledge it or not.

5) Camille is one small but kick-butt cat.

6) Make that two speedfreaks, one of whom would've turned entirely alcoholic as well had he not pulled off the road when he did. (See also #s 4 & 7.)

7) A bit more clarity on the "George Bailey" comment: As person after person walked through the doors of the Quickee Mart (and on the street, for that matter) -- and let's not forget tim's own fire testimony from a couple weeks back -- it became abundantly clear that, in this town of 800, there's really only one person who hates tim.

Thing is, the skinny 52-year-old kid lives with him, sleeps with him, yada yada. No big secret in that latter half, but still....

And still-er (not Ben, nor Jerry), drummer Dan's testimony on tim's behalf just before I left pretty much summed up how it appears everyone else feels about him. I arguably felt jealous. Anyway, boy just needs to receive it.

Ah says, RECEIVE it, son!

8) Like I told tim at the time, SOMEone had to step up and do those back-ups on "Slamming Door Repeats." Neblung can reassume his rightfully place next year. (Actually, I did them too, didn't I? I always thought of it as Rick's.... probably 'cause I was looking at him while he was looking at me.....)

9) Playing bass hurts when you haven't done it for 10+ years. But I wear my blister as a badge of pride.

10) There's other things as well, but I've been sworn to secrecy and I'm'a respecting that.

Posted by: burninglight at 16:02 | link | comments (22)