Recharging

Hey Folks! Not seeing any of my posts? I am recharging for a bit! working on a ton of ideas. If you have suggestions of who or what band I should do next leave them in the comment page, So far ideas are, Caravan, Beck, CCR, Camel, Henry Cow, Paul Motian, Velvet Underground, Band On A Can, Rush and others. Any other ideas please let me know. Otherwise end of the week I will have at least one or two ready to pump out. Enjoy the photo below until I post again.

Kick It INXS

I used get made fun of for liking INXS in High School, because all my friends thought they were not a cool band. I also was told that the music sucked and the reason they made it big was because it was an accident that we did not have enough music from down under represented in our musical culture. One friend claimed the only band worth hearing from Australia was AC/DC. I disagreed and went on my way to hear an original and more mature sounding band in INXS.

Who would have thought a band like INXS would come full circle. Today it was announced that Beck and his wonderful Record Club would cover INXS Kick. It must be hip again to look back at the 80's and do such a thing. I mean in 1987 when the album came out it was new and fun and had great elements of college rock and true rock and roll without all the 80's sound around it. I remember going to the store to pick it up. It was my first "new vinyl" buy in my life. Sure I had a few records in 1987, but I never actually went to the store and bought a new wrapped in cellophane before and that day I bought two. I bought Joshua Tree as well.



What made me like Kick more then Joshua Tree, that remains a mystery I heard and saw U2 so many times I needed something new and fresh. INXS was not that new or fresh, but it was new to me. I heard the first single on the radio and thought it rocked. It was fun at first, but then I realized I wanted to take this excitement on my bike rides. I was going to tape the record, but my best friend had the cassette. I asked for the tape. At first he did not want to let it go. He too had a liking to INXS as I did. It took some muscle, but my best friend let it go. He went away to college in upstate New York and he let me play with his tapes and few CD's that he had.

In the years liking INXS I was an outcast. I mean a musical outcast. I listened to all types of music, but the tape I always went to was the Kick album. It eventually fell off my musical spectrum and I went on to other things, but every once in a while I went to the tape to remember my 14th year of my life. It was an era that I just listen to happy music with happy results. I actually still have a soft spot for INXS. Even when Michael Hutchence died tragically in November of 1997.



So when you hear Beck cover INXS remember this story. This album had four number 1 songs. It may seem a bit dated, for 2010 standards, but back in 1987, it sounded great and fresh and new. I would not place in a top 100 of my favorites, but every once in a while, it transports me back to 1987. A wonderful album from an era that music was still waiting to find its place before it got good again. It's no Joshua Tree or Appetite for Destruction, but had some Kick to it. Enjoy!

Soundtrack to Ocean's

Okay, you can make fun of me and call me names if you want. I just don't want to see it in the reactions to this post. I usually don't watch a lot of mainstream films. If I do it's got to be really good or something that interests me. I don't even go to the theater that is about seven minutes from my house to see a film. If it does come to a cinema that promotes the independent films sure, or there is a college in Hartford I go to that has films. I have realized now and most people tell me that I am an ass for this, but the local theater has been a bad experience for me. If it is a film that is popular then I will go into Hartford that has the same type of theater that the one is seven minutes away. I will also make a point of seeing an weekday afternoon showing or a showing that no one will interrupt me. In the age of electronic devices in quiet areas this mythology has gone away. I could get personal about it, but I will not do that for the sake of upsetting me and boring you.

Anyway, this will be my second post that has to do with a soundtrack. I was going to do a soundtrack from the 60's. The films of the 1960's and 1970's are most of the films I admire or feel they are unique in their vision and their originality. The other day I looked and surveyed my DVD collection and about 70% of the films I watch are from that time period. There are some great independent films from the last couple decades I love too. There are a few films that I do like from 1990's and 2000's that I own and watch again and again. Some of these include, Glengarry Glen Ross, American Beauty, Millers Crossing, Fisher King, Hamlet, and more recent films There Will Be Blood, High Fidelity, Pan's Labyrinth, Batman: The Dark Night, No Country For Old Men, and City of God. I am a sucker for good old fashion films that have a lot of good actors, but the movie fails on greatness because it's not critical success. This would be the Ocean series. All three are great and fun to watch. The music of David Holmes has always impressed me on how well he places the musical score that he does.



The other day I was watching Ocean's Thirteen and I remember my seeing it at the college theater I go to with a few friends. Being a fan of Steven Soderbergh for quite some time and loving his early films Kafka and Sex, Lies and Videotape. I realized that the films of Steven have great music attached to them. They are very good to create a mood or a feeling or even a great scene that he is showing us the audience. People who know my musical and film likes and dislikes know that I go all over the map and with David Holmes the soundtracks to the Ocean trilogy can hear International, Classical, Electronica, Classic Sinatra, or stuff even your grandparents liked. This is what is great about this soundtrack to Ocean Thirteen. Is the musical muse of David Holmes is all over the map.



The unique of these soundtracks is that they have David does add his own spin on the music without it being boring or like old soundtracks that just set the mood without being memorable. Since I have a pretty good memory the music that is featured in the Ocean films is got moments that you will not only remember the scene, but the great music that came with it. Other soundtracks out there don't have that memory and scene acknowledgment like other films do. They make the soundtrack hip and fun to hear with all it's exotic or uptempo type music. David does not so the whole soundtrack himself, but he adds Elvis, Sinatra, Classical and other stuff to make it unique and for me, something I would listen to again and again.

Soundtracks are really important CD or LP's to pick up. Some of them have stuff that will never be anywhere else. In the Ocean soundtracks they have something unique that you should just listen with great joy! I like them and you will understand what I mean once you do. Enjoy!

Utero Nirvana

When I first heard Nirvana I thought it was going to be one of those one hit wonder bands that were here one moment and a month later was a band we still wondered if they were together. I heard them on college radio in 1990. I Heard Bleach from a friend and he told me he thought they were very original. I listened with too much intent and thought they were mediocre at best. It's not till 1991 when I was 18 when they crashed all over modern radio stations and MTV that my thought changed. I thought the stuff on Nevermind was great. It was full of bold, brash and angst that no one but Kurt could belt out. Each song felt like it took Kurt a month to write and when he did he was so drained it literally took the life out of him. You could hear the pain in every song. Even the hit song "Smells Like Teen Spirit" sounds like he was listening to too much The Who's "My Generation." Each of the powerful words of Kurt go so well with the music and he uses his provocative words to create a beast in the music.

I mean yea the hype was great, but I did not follow the hype as much. I remember friends of mine asking me if I had a copy of and if I did they were sure to make me one. It was like the Beatles landed for a second time. The hit anthem to me was way over played and I really needed to hear more and more of the album. Thank god "Teen Spirit" was the first track because I could quickly fast forward the tape to the next track. I realized a few months after this boom of Nirvana that I should have bought the CD. There was a bonus track on the CD I wanted that bonus. Only first pressings got that luxury of having it. It was not the best hidden song, but at that time it was new technology and it was a unique experience if you could listen to it.



The Nevermind was played for a little more then a year. MTV milked all of it for what it was worth and created categories for Nirvana and the Seattle sound. We all know about Grunge, but was it really something that was a sound or genre or some bullshit MTV and Rolling Stone hype. Whatever it was, it tarnished my image of these bands. Yea I listened to them, but trying to explain them to an older member of the family and then hearing the type of music they played it was a little unsettling. Nirvana got the worst reputation from this because people also had the video engraved in their head. It was even spoofed by Weird Al.

Nirvana did some good things though and the second and last studio album came out and people remember how powerful the first one was. On the other hand Nirvana cause a few steers in the music world with this album. The video for the wonderful song "Heart Shaped Box" was a little controversial as well as the artwork. I never saw the problem, but when I brought home the CD, it got a little attention from my mother. Warranted or not, the CD was great. Each song from In Utero was a really great song. Major credit for making these songs so good and not as commercial as I thought. One problem was "All Apologies" did and it was more of hit for the Unplugged album then their studio counterpart. Even more credit goes to Steve Albini even though the producing went to him, they never were able to use his mix anyway, but if you have heard his version, it has great moments of Nirvana in their natural environment. There are many stories about what happened with DGC records and Steve and I leave that for you to look at and research. It sounds like a soap opera. If you have the Nirvana Box Set the demo of "Heart Shaped Box" is pretty close on what Steve wanted. Steve even said that DGC wanted a cookie cutter Nirvana that the public would want and not what Nirvana wanted.



In the end there are mixes out there of what Albini did and it's a treat and that is the one they should put out on CD. I kept that fascination with me every time that I play In Utero. All in all the CD is great, if just a little short. I am sure everyone has a copy, if not, find it, rip it, or download it. It is a great CD. Some good music is just need to be shown in a better historical context. Nirvana in their short time here made some of the best music out there. If you agree, enjoy a great time with a classic band. If your new to Nirvana then try it, but be warned it's a hard listen to some people. Have fun!!!

Charles Lloyd Is Hearing Voices

During 1966-1969, Charles Lloyd led one of the most popular groups in jazz, a unit that played at the rock palace Fillmore West in San Francisco and toured the U.S.S.R. Lloyd's music, although generally a bit melodic, was not watered-down and managed to catch on for several years during a time when jazz was at its low point in popularity. After his group changed personnel in 1969, Lloyd gradually faded out of music, becoming a teacher of transcendental meditation. The few records he made in the 1970s were quite spiritual and bordered on new age. (AM)

With those sentences wonderfully said I can tell you that my Charles Lloyd listening started back in 1994. I picked up a used copy of Forest Flower. A friend suggested I listen to him. It was by chance that I should because he was someone I always heard him on the Jazz station in the car. I really did not hear about him in Jazz class or from the professor that gave me the Ornette Coleman, but the professor told me that he was really popular in his time. Even then he had a great band backing him that included Keith Jarrett, Jack DeJohnette, and Cecil McBee. Over the course of the next few years I studied his music from the 60's and the music of present time. In the 1990's he was on my favorite record label ECM. There is a point that ECM records are probably the most important records to own. Through the years ECM puts stuff out that changes what we know as music and it's all for the good.



After a few years of listening to Charles Lloyd I understood his purpose. He was not like an Ornette Coleman or a John Coltrane or any of the others I listened to, but he was smooth and very meditative. Then my luck struck when a friend called me and wanted to go to NYC for the Jazz festival. We would spend a week in the city and see lots and lots of live music. We would split what we wanted to see for live shows. We would even catch a rock show if one was around that we both liked. For both of us it was a good way to get away from our jobs. For me it was this chance to see Charles Lloyd. When the line up the festival was up in the paper. (I found it in the Village Voice) I showed the list to my friends. We both got stuff in the mail about the festival and made notes of what we wanted to see. Charles Lloyd was scheduled for a Thursday night at 11pm. I did not mind the time, because the whole evening was had great acts playing. Even better was the fact they were at my favorite venue. The Knitting Factory was a great place to see a show.

When I showed my friend the band backing Charles Lloyd I was in shock. It was Billy Higgins on drums, John Abercrombie on guitar, Dave Holland on bass, and Geri Allen on piano. It was my first time seeing Holland, Abercrombie, and Allen. Talk about a lineup of the ages. I was ready for that one. It was a year that Charles Lloyd did not have an album but he told the crowd that the people on stage are such great musicians that he might do an album with them. I was hoping he was. I loved all of them as jazz musicians. He played promptly at 11pm and did not finish till about 1:30am. After that he signed autographs and shook hands. Now I was hoping for a CD to come out of this performance or this band.



About year later the album came out. I quickly picked up Voices In The Night. The album included everybody except Geri Allen. (Side note Geri Allen and Charles Lloyd did work together on a soundtrack called Afterglow and then in 2005 on a great Lloyd album Jumping The Creek.) At first impression I was trying to remember the songs they played that night and see if they were on the CD. Only one was on the CD and the rest were numbers they worked on. It was great to hear the CD and remember that great night in NYC. What I found great on this CD were two songs. One was one of his early pieces of music and the other was one called "Pocket Full of Blues" It was a really great song. it had a wonderful groove and everyone has a solo on it. Charles Lloyd group at the performance and at the show are the best in the business. They knew how to play that Charles wanted to play. Each song is unique and out of the eight songs on the album two are not written by him.

I always say that you should check this or that out, but with Charles Lloyd he really is special. He is unique to Jazz and you can really appreciate what he does for music. He might not be talked about in conversation, but after this album I am sure he will. Still if you can find this CD it's worth every penny and maybe you too will put Charles Lloyd in your musical conversation. Enjoy a jazz album that not has an all-star cast, but an album that is all-star in musical greatness too. Enjoy!

What's A Pinkerton???

Back in 1994 there was a lot of music buzz. It was what MTV did best. They played videos that were called "Buzz Worthy." Some of these were like Beck, Green Day, Nine Inch Nails and Weezer. Some of them were not like Bush, Oasis, and so many others that I thankfully forgot. In time some of these bands got bigger and bigger and one of those bands was Weezer. Not only did MTV create the buzz, but my own home state of Connecticut did because the lead guy from Weezer went to E.O. Smith High School (remember that name). The music world once again had a musical connect to my home state. This time is was oddly more popular then another home state person named Charles Ives. Honestly, I like Charles Ives a bit more then Rivers Cuomo.

The Buzz was so big that at one point just about every song from Weezer's first album was either on the radio or on MTV. It got to be somewhat crazy, but I went along and listened like everybody else. I even saw the tour. I saw just once though. I was impressed but not impressed to go see a group of Weezer shows like some of my friends did. For my feelings on not jumping up and down like my friends did I quickly became the music snob and more then likely I deserve that, but I liked other things at that moment. I was in trance with Pavement and Jeff Buckley.



The Weezer buzz lasted a long time. It was just enough to last to push their second album upon us. What we did not understand was the second album was 100% different the the first and why of all the Weezer's catalog I love Pinkerton. It is not your regular run of the mill album. It is full of strong bite and promise of what Weezer can do. An album that only lasts 34 minutes, but god it's a damn good 34 minutes and since it's short it warrants repeated listening.

Fast forward to 2000 and I am going back to school at the ripe old age of 27. I am just about 1 generation removed from most of the young adults at school. I have my favorite bands and bands I want to know more about. I decided to become a DJ. I did this because I been doing it part time back home, but now I can get my degree I so badly needed and have fun by being a DJ. my friend back home who was a full time popular DJ told me, "it's a good way to get chicks."



One day I was in my dorm room cleaning when there was a knock at the door. One of my fellow DJ's asked me if I wanted to go over a friends place and talk music and possibly playing. I had no objections to this because I knew one of the people at this house. The fellow DJ told me to bring some music along. The fellow DJ had a stack of about twenty and I decided to bring about the same. In this pile was a signed Weezer promo Pinkerton CD. I forgot that I had it in the pile. We landed at this friends house where I met about ten more new people. Over time I became friends with all of them. We were talking music when one of them grabbed my stack of CD's. He looked it over and saw the Weezer. He quickly told me that he was one of their biggest fan's. I told him that I thought Pinkerton was their best album. They could never top that album and that album for me was their creative peak. Mind you there were still more Weezer to come.

He looked at the CD and told me that it was in really great shape. Then he opened up the booklet. He saw that it was signed. He just flipped. He asked how I got it signed and I told him that I had a friend who was a DJ and he got it signed for me. He then asked me Weezer type questions. These questions refered to trivia questions about the band. I got 100% and I was thrilled. I asked him if he could answer one Weezer question for me. I knew the answer, but I needed to see how much he was a fan. The question what is E.O. Smith Music in his publishing credits. He thought it over and told me a great answer, but it was the wrong one. He said to me that he thought it was a Professor that was his teacher while he was at Harvard. I commended him for his great answer, but I told him it was the name of his High School. He came over and shook my hand and proclaimed me as another Weezer fan. It was a good fun day and a great chance to make me feel welcomed by the power of music. Something I will never forget is how music can cross many generations. It may be a single artist or a group, but it works well.



So back to the reason Pinkerton is so great. From the onset the music is louder and messier and the drums are just tough. Even the guitars make feedback type sounds. It has more of an live album then anything else. It's an album that is a better album, full of crunching power pop with a surprisingly strong emotional undercurrent that becomes all the more resonant with each play. (AM). With that being said! Enjoy one of the best Weezer albums. Some true fans will say the same thing. Enjoy!!

Mr. Thompson's Teachings

I have seen Richard Thompson five times in my life and wished I have seen him more then twenty. Every show is amazing and different then the previous shows I have seen. His shows blow my mind because not only is he amazing, but his back up musicians are just on par with his greatness. I got into his music at an early age and glad I did. I was 18 when I did and wondered what my life would be like without Richard's music to listen to. I think my life would be boring listening to crappy music and my life would be dull and mundane. Richard was 18 when he joined Fairport Convention and according to music producer and all around smart guy Joe Boyd his jaw went to the floor and did not think an 18 year old can do that.

Richard Thompson in Fairport Convention turned Fairport into one of the most respected and influential bands. Another person in that band a young lady named Sandy Denny did as well. Both of them together was more then magic, it was the one of the best bands in the world. I wrote how important Fairport was in a previous blog and all that is true, but once you hear it you will be totally amazed on how great Richard guitar is and Sandy's voice. It was a brief moment that sounded just about perfect, and of course when I hear it I feel once again wish I was the product of the 1960's.



Richard Thompson was the first artist I did not buy any of his albums, nor did I borrow then at the library. He was the artist where I bought the Box set of his music. His 3CD package Watching The Dark was all I needed to get ahead of his wonderful music. It was the only thing that was around at one point because most of his great music was out of print. This Box set collected many of his best work and some of his unreleased stuff. The box set was great because it collected some of his better known songs and had enough gems for me to explore more of his material. I loved it and at one point it was the box set that I always listened to. I even at one point put it about my copy of Eric Clapton's Crossroads.

Richard's stuff was full of all kinds of stuff. He had great folk stuff from his early solo career. He even had stuff with his then wife Linda Thompson and even had stuff that was from his tenure in Fairport Convention. Some of the music showcased his unrated talent for being a great guitar player. If you take anything from his shows is the fact he can really I mean really play guitar. He does not show off, but he effortlessly makes it sound good. His solo acoustic shows are amazing too, because he will tear down a great song he wrote and make it even more special. If the song is got a great rock feel he will turn it around and make it so beautiful that you are crying by the end of the song. Richard Thompson to me is my guitar hero.



So when it came to choose an album I had to sleep on it. I had no idea what to pick because each album has a uniqueness that is great sometimes feels like it's got a classic written all over it. The one thing that should also be mentioned is his lyrics. His lyrics are amazing and right to the bone. They are smart and tackle a variety of subjects and ideas. He is to me a wonderful songwriter and tells it like it is. Here is a prime example. Taken from the album Mock Tudor. It opens up the CD and is a great rockin' song. The song is called "Cooksferry Queen."

Well there's a house in an alley
In the squats and low-rise
Of a town with no future
But that's where my future lies

It's a secret, but no secret
It's a rule, but no rule
Where you find the darkest avenue
There you'll find the brightest jewel

Now my name it is Mulvaney
And I'm known quite famously
People speak my name in whispers
What higher praise can there be

But I'd trade my fine mohair
For tied-dyes and faded jeans
If she wanted me some other way
She's my Cooksferry Queen

She gave me one pill to get bigger
She gave me one pill to get small
I saw snakes dancing all around her feet
And dead men coming through the wall
Well I'm the prince of this parish
I've been ruthless and I've been mean
But she blew my mind as she opened my eyes
She's my Cooksferry Queen

Yeaaaaah

Well she's got every rare perfection
All her looks beyond compare
She's got dresses that seem to float in the wind
Pre-Raphaelite curls in her hair

She could get the lame to walking
She could get the blind to see
She could make wine out of Thames river water
She could make a believer out of me

Yes I'd trade it all tomorrow
All the wicked things I've been
She's my bright jewel of the alley
She's my Cooksferry Queen

Yes I'd trade it all tomorrow
All the wicked things I've been
She's my bright jewel of the alley
She's my Cooksferry Queen



It's one of Richard's best rocking songs on Mock Tudor and still blows my mind. The song never gets tiring and if you want to hear Richard playing great guitar, this song is the proof. Thompson structured the album as a portrait of suburbia, tackling a different subject with each song. It's not all about desperation, although there certainly is a lot of that there. Instead, Thompson is at the top of his form, offering subtle shadings in his lyrics and remarkably catchy, memorable melodies throughout the album.(AM) Even the lyrics to the last song are brutal and full of hate and anger, but it's a Richard Thompson signature. The song called "Hope You Like The New Me."

I stole your style
Hope you don't mind
I must try to be all I can be
It suits me more
Than it ever suited you
Hope you like the new me

I stole your laugh
So bright and breezy
It stops parties in mid-air
It makes me feel more devil-may-care
Hope you like the new me
Hope you like the new me

We all need friends to lean on
Any time, any place, anywhere
Feel free to lean on me
But please don't do it right now
Yes I'm much too busy right now

I stole your walk
The one with purpoise
That says there is no mountain I can't climb
It fools people all of the time
Hope you like the new me

I stole your jokes
Just the good ones
How the gang all laughed with glee
I also stole
The way that you tell them
Hope you like the new me
Hope you like the new me

To steal is to flatter
What a compliment to pay
All those things that I stole from you
Well I might give them back someday
Yes I really might someday

I stole your wife
Hope you don't mind
She was looking bored don't you think
I'll soon have her back in the pink
Stop by and see us for tea

I stole your soul
When you weren't looking
I reached inside and cut it free
It suits me more
Than it ever suited you
Hope you like the new me
Hope you like the new me



So If you take anything from this post it's one thing. Richard Thompson should be listened to. I put up Mock Tudor for a reason. This is a great and accessible album to listen to. Try it and I am sure you will be hooked just like me. Enjoy a true legend in music who is full of no frills and wonderful music and great musicianship. Rock out Richard Thompson and thanks for letting me hear some of the best music in the world. Enjoy!!