15 April 2013 (Day 105) – The Meters

Things weren’t so bad after the disaster of the footy yesterday.  After the match, I popped off to South Wharf and headed to the JB HiFi there.  Normally, I don’t do well there but, to my great surprise, I was able to buy five albums by New Orleans funk masters The Meters for $6.95 each.

Until yesterday, I hadn’t owned any of the original Meters recordings from the late 60s/early 70s although I had an album or two from later versions of the band starting from 1990.  I also have most of the key albums by The Neville Brothers which grew out of the band.

Today was a frantic day at work which involved a lot of research and writing. (And like any sports obssessed Australian, I spent my first hour of the working week keeping one eye on The Masters as Adam Scott claimed victory.) I played through three of the albums over the course of the day starting with;

(# 284) The Meters – Self Titled (1969)

Their debut album was an entirely instrumental affair with a feel and sound not all that dissimilar to Booker T. and The MG’s.  The two singles released at the time Cissy Strut and Sophisticated Sissy are the undoubted highpoints but the tight interplay between Art Neville on keyboards, Joseph ‘Zigaboo’ Modeliste on drums, Leo Nonventelli on guitar and George Porter on bass was already apparent.  The unreleased bonus tracks on my edition of the album, The Look Of Love and Soul Machine are solid.

(# 285) The Meters – Look-Ka Py Py (1970)

There really isn’t much of difference between this and the debut although there are hints of vocal work on the title track.  Rigor Mortis, Little Old Money Maker and Dry Spell also stand out but the unreleased bonus material is unremarkable.

(# 286) The Meters – Cabbage Alley (1972)

Their fourth album and first for a major label sees them branching out. Art Neville handles lead vocals on a handful of tracks including a cover of Neil Young’s Birds and the rocky Lonesome And Unwanted People.  Do the Dirt flirts with reggae whilst You’ve Got To Change (You’ve Got To Reform) can be described as an informal jam.  Cabbage Alley, apparently a cover of Professor Longhair’s Hey Now Baby, features Cyril Neville on vocals possibly marking one of the first steps towards the eventual formation of The Neville Brothers. But the undisputed highlight of my copy is actually bonus tracks Chug Chug Chug-A-Lug (Push And Shove) Parts 1 & 2, a seriously funky slice of prime New Orleans magic.

13 & 14 April 2013 (Days 103 & 104) – Music For Stadium PAs

Nothing much happened over the weekend.

Today (Sunday), “M” and I caught up with Mickey and family to watch the Western Bulldogs cop a 67 point hiding from a promising Richmond outfit.  Whilst we were a car wreck on the field, at least, the stadium music was great.

I think it’s fair to say that Melbourne’s stadia and music don’t have a great track record.  In their efforts to provide “entertainment” that most patrons actually don’t want whilst not offending them, stadium operators inevitably opt for out dated and bland mainstream music such as Eye Of The Tiger and Playing To Win.  Even then, for the 0.00001% of the audience that hasn’t heard these tunes at least a thousand times, the music is played way too high or too low to be truly appreciated.

In recent years, operators or sporting codes have attempted to provide live entertainment at their sporting events.  I haven’t had much personal experience of this, as I tend to attend matches where there is no perceived need for such entertainment.  (Translation: the Western Bulldogs doesn’t play before huge crowds.)  Last year Mark Seymour, a Bulldogs supporter anyway, played before one of our matches.  As much as I like his music, I found it to be a distraction from the real business at hand.  On another occasion, I arrived at the ground only to discover that I’d just missed a performance from the cast of the Rock Musical, Rock Of Ages.  If my memory holds, I think I caught just the last few notes of We Built This City, one of those truly annoying songs that would have resulted in my storming ground management and demanding they drown out the tune by playing Eye Of The Tiger.

Thanks to my team’s grim determination to find bizarre ways to lose Preliminary Finals (seven from seven played in the past 28 seasons), I’ve mercifully been spared the horror of the musical entertainment that the AFL puts on to torture the audience at the Grand Final.  However, that is something that will be the subject of its own posting when we get to this year’s Grand Final. Suffice to say, Superbowl half time extravaganza it is not.

But back to the game.  Picking up on Mickey’s suggestion of last week, I started recording all of the tracks played over the Etihad Stadium PA in my Football Record from the time I sat down until I left.  The play list is not as deep as I would like owing to our relatively late arrival, but it is impressive:

Pre match

1.                   The White Stripes – 7 Nation Army
2.                   The Rolling Stones – Sympathy For The Devil
3.                   AC/DC – It’s A Long Way To The Top (This is the AFL theme song for the second season in succession.)

Quarter time

4.                   Silverchair – Straight Lines

Half Time

5.                   Led Zeppelin – Whole Lotta Love

From now on, I’ll record the stadium play list for the games I attend.  Stadium operators, you have been warned.

Due to the lazy nature of the weekend, I had a bit of time for listening and so went through;

(# 283) Iggy Pop – Roadkill Rising. The Bootleg Collection 1977 – 2009 (2011)

This is a 4 CD set with each disc devoted to live recordings taken from each of the 4 decades covered.  No song is repeated, thus providing an overview of Iggy solo and as a subsequent interpreter of his Stooges past.  Not much of the album sounds like it’s come from actual bootlegs.  Rather, most of this is from well recorded sources such as radio shows which were, in turn, widely bootlegged.  The 80’s disc, for example, contains a great version of Kill City from the Channel nightclub in Boston from a broadcast subsequently bootlegged as Live At The Channel.

Each disc has something to recommend it.   The 70s disc contains about 10 tracks from his 1977 tour with David Bowie and forms a fine complement to the TV Eye album.  Among the tracks here is Tonight the Bowie/Pop tune that Bowie recorded as the title track of his 1984 album. The 80’s disc starts with a poor quality sounding performance from a venue in Detroit where the audience does not take kindly to his attempts to perform Nightclubbing, Puppet World, One For My Baby (And One More For The Road) and Take Care Of Me.  Kill City and High On You on this disc are fine but the rest is only so-so.  Half of the 90’s disc is fine, especially the opening quartet of Lust For Life, China Girl, Butt Town and Home from a 1991 Berlin gig.  The 00s disc appears to contain some superb material by the reformed Stooges including Down On The Street, Real Cool Time, Funhouse and Skull Ring from 2007.  The final 5 tracks from a 2009 Parisian show shows a completely, um, different side to Iggy with a track in French and Willow Weep For Me.

12 April 2013 (Day 102) - The Shuffle Sessions #3

After an early meeting this morning, which ensures that I'll be spending the rest of my day at my terminal developing another presentation, I figured the time is right to set the iPod onto shuffle and listen to my own private radio station. 

Starting point for today's session is a track by one of my father's favourite acts;

1.       Gene Vincent – Pink Thunderbird (from The Very Best Of Gene Vincent)
2.       Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention – Trouble Every Day (from Freak Out!)
3.       Muddy Waters – You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone (Number One) (from The Complete Plantation Recordings)
4.       Bruce Springsteen – Linda Let Me Be The One (from Tracks)
5.       Randy Newman – My Life Is Good (from Trouble In Paradise) This is the first track to appear in a Shuffle Session from an album already played this year.
6.       Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Nomadic Revery (All Around) (from I See A Darkness)
7.       Django Reinhardt – Japanese Sandman (1) (from Swing 39)
8.       Sixfthick – 40c (from Canetrash)
9.       Pop Will Eat Itself – 92 F (The 3^rd Degree) (from Wise Up Suckers)
10.   Gov’t Mule – Life On The Outside (from The Deep End Volume 1)
11.   Elvis Presley – I’m Comin’ Home (from From Nashville To Memphis. The Essential 60’s Masters I)
12.   Michael Bloomfield – Goin’ Down Slow (from Don’t Say That I Ain’t Your Man!  Essential Blues 1964 – 1969)
13.   Iggy Pop – Turn Blue (from Lust For Life)
14.   Swans – Miracle Of Love (from Various Failures 1988 – 1992)
15.   Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone (live) (from No Direction Home: The Soundtrack.  The Bootleg Series Volume 7) Yes, the famous “Judas” version.
16.   Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers – Do You Love Me? (live) (from Stations Of the Cross (Revisited) Live)
17.   Beady Eye – Four Letter Word (from Different Gear, Still Speeding)
18.   The Church – Pharaoh (from Gold Afternoon Fix)
19.   The Easybeats – Lay Me Down And Die (from The Definitive Anthology)
20.   Wingless Angels – Four & Twenty (from Volume 1)
21.   Not Drowning Waving – Sweat (from Claim)
22.   Elvis Costello and The Attractions – Little Savage (from Imperial Bedroom)
23.   Hoss – Infidel (from Gentle Claws EP)
24.   The Hitmen – I Want You (from Hitmen)
25.   Soul Asylum – Keep It Up (from Gave Dancers Union)
26.   The Kinks – Days (from Picture Book)
27.   Seasick Steve – Salem Blues (from Dog House Music)
28.   Ramones – Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World (live) (from Loco Live)
29.   XTC – Complicated Game (from Drums And Wires)
30.   Crosby Stills Nash & Young – Laughing (live) (from 4 Way Street)
31.   Jimmy Witherspoon – When The Lights Go Out (from Willie Dixon. The Chess Box)
32.   Elvis Presely – There Goes My Everything (from Walk A Mile In My Shoes. The Essential 70s Masters)
33.   Ol’ Dirty Bastard – Proteck Ya Neck II The Zoo (from Return To The 36 Chambers)
34.   Mudhoney – When Tomorrow Hits (from Mudhoney)
35.   Aretha Franklin – I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You) (from Atlantic R&B 1947-1974. Volume 6 1966-1969)
36.   Laibach – Leben (from Opus Dei)
37.   Green On Red – Illustrated Crawling (from Green On Red)
38.   Whiskeytown – Factory Girl (Baseball Park Sessions – bonus track) (from Faithless Street)
39.   Syd Barrett – Rats (from Barrett)
40.   The Stone Roses – Daybreak (from Second Coming)
41.   Buffalo – Kings Cross Ladies (from Only Want You For Your Body)
42.   Little Richard – The Girl Can’t Help It (from The Very Best Of Little Richard)
43.   Mazzy Star – Blue Flower (from She Hangs Brightly)
44.   Scott Walker – If You Go Away (from Scott 3)
45.   Johnny Ace – Don’t You Know (from Ace’s Wild! The Complete Solo Sides)
46.   The Human Expression – Optical Sound (from Nuggets. Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era 1965 – 1968)
47.   The Alarm Clocks – No Reason To Complain (from Instant Garage.  Mojo Music Guide Vol. 1)
48.   The Style Council – Internationalists (from Our Favourite Shop)
49.   Dead Can Dance – Nierika (from Dead Can Dance 1981 – 1998)
50.   AC/DC – Beating Around The Bush (from Highway To Hell)
51.   The Who – My Wife (from Who’s Next)
52.   Mission Of Burma – This Is Not A Photograph (from Mission Of Burma)
53.   The Dictators – Baby Let’s Twist (from New York New York Live)
54.   Tool – Wings For Marie (Pt. 1) (from 10,000 Days)
55.   Luna – Whispers (from Pup Tent)

There were some nice sequences in this one, especially that encompassing tracks 12 through to 16 but overall I think it is probably not as good as the previous two this year.  Certainly it is less representative of my taste than those.

11 April 2013 (Day 101) – Music For Performing And City Night Driving

Over the years I've read a fair number of books and magazines about music and developed a rough idea of what performers go through backstage before a gig.  Basically there is no one approach.  Some acts like to be alone before they’re called out, others have designated spaces where they can jam or do warm up vocals whilst others don’t have a set routine at all.

I was thinking about this because my own job occasionally requires me to make public presentations and today was one such day.  Of course my situation is drastically different.  After all, I’m not going to appear before thousands of people who have paid top dollar and may gone through a number of hoops (organising a babysitter, pre gig restaurant reservation, etc) beforehand.  But I would imagine that we would share some things perhaps – performance anxiety, last minute nerves, wondering about the size of the audience and hoping that performances aids (in my case, a PowerPoint presentation and overhead screen) works.

Music normally plays a part of my “pre gig” routine as I prepare for a presentation.  Usually I like to listen to material that is fairly soothing and doesn’t intrude into my thought process.  In other words, I need music with which I’m very familiar.  Today, I chose two albums starting with one that I’ve played many times and another comprising songs that are very familiar even though I only bought the album a couple of years ago;

(# 279) Dire Straits – Communique (1979)

For reasons I cannot fathom, I remain a staunch supporter of the first four Dire Straits albums.  The restraint shown on those albums is commendable but ultimately it has always been the voice and guitar playing of Mark Knopfler that won me over.  But like many people in Australia, they lost me with the stultifying boring live show they put on to support Brothers In Arms.  On that tour they appeared to play second fiddle to the technical demands of the show, for example, needing to be at a certain part of the stage each night because the lights were programmed to shine there.  Or at least this is how it seemed to me.  It left me yearning for the organic sounds of the earlier albums which really do sound as though they were recorded live in the studio. Communique is the most under rated of these early albums, frequently written off as a remake of their celebrated debut but  containing a sucession of great songs that have store the test of time. Once Upon A Time In The West, the title track, Lady Writer, Angel Of Merecy and Follow Me Home are as good as anything in their catalogue.

(# 280) Willie Nelson – Stardust (1978)

I didn’t appreciate this at the time it was released because I had yet to develop an appreciation for Nelson or the songs he chose to cover.  Today it is precisely the combination of the two that appeals to me with Willie’s voice allied to the wonderful arrangements developed with producer Booker T. Jones.  Not a second, note or nuance on this record is wasted and it deserves all of the plaudits that it has received despite arguably being the recording that has kicked off the trend for older artists to release cover albums of even older songs.  All of the original side one – Stardust, Georgia On My Mind, Blue Skies, All Of Me, and Unchained Melody as well as On The Sunny Side Of The Street are superb, but really it is an album that should be played in full in a single session.

The presentation went off fairly well.  I suspect in that sense I’m also similar to a performer in that I know deep down whether I’ve given a good account of myself or not. After work, I take “M” home and later that evening head out for dinner with some former colleagues.  I’ve always enjoyed city driving at night after the bulk of city workers has gotten to their homes.  I found that I can focus on the road planning long ahead to far off traffic lights to ensure that I don’t need to stop.  On occasions like this, especially when “M” is not with me, I like selecting music that fits the objective.  Additionally, tonight’s venue is of a sufficient distance away to enable me to hear a conventionally timed vinyl album in its entirety.  On my way to the venue I listened to an album just as under rated as Communique in the Dire Straits catalogue;

(# 281) INXS – Welcome To Whenever You Are (1992)

I always thought INXS were a much better studio band than live proposition.  Their best albums such as The Swing, Kick and this were full of deft production touches that suited the music but didn’t necessarily translate well to live performance.  This album starts with an interesting opening track that segues beautifully into the surging Heaven Sent, easily their most under acknowledged single.  Well known tracks Taste It, Baby Don’t Cry and Beautiful Child fit beautifully into the remainder.

For my return trip, conscious that Public Image Limited were probably on stage on the sole Melbourne show this tour, I thought I’d crank up the car stereo and see if any other drivers would react to the monster that was:

(# 282) Public Image Limited – Compact Disc (aka Album) (1986)

This is one brute of an album.  On this John Lydon collaborated with musicians such as Steve Vai, Ginger Baker and, Tony Williams as well as producer Bill Laswell to create seven monolithic slabs of sound augmenting chanted, simple and repetitious lyrics.  Just about every single word titled track here is an absolute killer bordering on heavy metal – F.F.F (Farwell My Fair Weather Fried), Rise with its famous “Anger Is An Energy” lyric, Round, Bags and Home crackle with power and barely suppressed rage.  Wisely Lydon has never attempted to replicate this as it would have diluted it’s amazing power.

10 April 2013 (Day 100) – Expectations

I had a number of work commitments today which severely curtailed opportunities for listening. 

I had taken a bunch of CDs along with me that I’d yet to play and my selection from them was done on an ad hoc impulsive basis.  Yet when I sat down to write this post, it dawned on me that I had selected albums for which I had a clear expectation which influenced why I had taken so long to get around to playing them and which also coloured my eventual response.

I guess my mind is strange that way.  I spend a bit of time, effort and money each week in seeking out new music that I would like to hear and then, having obtained it, become quite lackadaisical in wanting to actually hear it.  Depending on the specific album, a variety of questions will go through my mind before I decide what to play.  Here are some examples:

(# 276) Danger Mouse and Jay-Z – The Grey Album (released and withdrawn 2004)

Expectation: Is this album really as good as everyone says?

This is the “legendary” album Danger Mouse put together when he took the raps off Jay-Zs The Black Album and then added them to new instrumental backings based on samples from tracks from The Beatles White Album.  (The White Album mixed with The Black Album produces The Grey Album.) He did not seek authorisation from either Jay-Z or The Beatles and it appears that lawyers for the latter insisted that the album not be released despite his intention of releasing only a few thousand copies. Fair enough, but the problem is that the end result is so damned good there was no chance of the genie ever being completely returned to the bottle.  The best tracks are those where The Beatles connection is most obvious.  This applies especially to What More Can I Say which is placed over While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Encore’s placement over a brilliantly constructed sample utilising Glass Onion and Savoy Truffle.  Other tracks employ more subtle Beatles colouring – 99 Problems’ set to Helter Skelter and Dirt Off Your Shoulder’s placement over Julia, for example – but are none the worse for it. 

(# 277) Jimi Hendrix – Valleys Of Neptune (2010)

Expectation: Oh no.  Not ANOTHER bottom of the barrel scraping exercise?

This is easily the most intriguing of the albums released in the decades of Jimi’s death given that the majority of tracks are either covers or alternative versions of material recorded with The  Experience.  Opener Stone Free employs interesting back up vocals, I suspect by The Experience, and appears to sound slightly slowed down.  A cover of Elmore James’ Bleeding Heart has some nice funky guitar work of the type I suspect Jimi would have pursued had he lived.  Hear My Train A Comin’ is fascinating because he uses a strum that is exactly the same as that subsequently used by Stevie Ray Vaughn.  An epic instrumental version of Cream’s Sunshine Of Your Love demonstrates why Eric Clapton always bowed to him and an alternate version of Fire is just strange.

(# 278) Hawkwind – Masters Of The Universe (1977)

Expectation: Surely these studio recordings cannot possibly be better than those I heard live?

Finally I get one correct!  This is a compilation drawn from the great British space rockers catalogue of 1971 – 1974.  (Motorhead’s Lemmy was a member of the band during part of this period.)  This period coincides with their epic live performances that were brilliantly captured on their Space Ritual album, one of the best live recordings ever captured.  4 of the six tracks on this compilation feature on Space Ritual; all four – Master Of The Universe, Brainstorm, Sonic Attack and, especially Orgaone Accumulator – are highlights on that set and pale in comparison here.  Of the two remaining tracks one, It’s So Easy, is represented by a live track and is this album’s highlight.  If there was ever a occasion to have heard the studio versions of tracks by an act first, this was probably it.

EXPECTATION: What did you expect?

When I got home, I started hearing about the controversy generated by John Lydon’s appearance the previous night on The Project.  (No doubt footage of this is now all over YouTube.)  Whilst there is no excuse for sexist language anywhere, what needs to be said that anyone who decides; to a) interview him, b) do this on the night of Thatcher’s death, c) ask inane questions, and then d) cut across him talking to ask what he thought about Thatcher’s death, is probably deliberately courting controversy and should be better prepared for it when it inevitably emerges.  Let me put it this way; if you stand on the edge of a crocodile infested river, hold a slab of meat dripping in blood and call out “Come here boy”, should you blame just the crocodile if it bites off half your arm?

9 April 2013 (Day 99) – Tramp The Dirt Down

And in the end the love you take
Is equal to the love you make.
(The Beatles)

These were the last words sung on the last proper track on the last album recorded by The Beatles, a band that came from Northern England.  This was one of a number of areas that was to suffer greatly as a result of economic policies implemented during the Prime Ministership of Margaret Thatcher.  These lines were also quoted many times by fans all over the world when they reacted to the untimely and premature deaths of John Lennon and George Harrison.  Then, these words were quoted in gratitude to the musicians for the joy that they had provided by their music. 

This morning I woke to the overnight news of Thatcher’s death and these Beatles lines occurred to me.  Only this time, I viewed them as an appropriate comment on how this news was being greeted within the UK.  I knew that a lot of the upper and middle classes who did well at the time would be hailing her as a great leader but precious little love would be expressed by the working classes congregated in Northern England, Wales and Scotland. 

Certainly many musicians from either these areas or of a left wing/working class persuasion had made their feelings well and truly known before today.  On my iPod I played the mischievous I’m In Love With Margaret Thatcher by the Not Sensibles (from Burnley), a couple of versions of Stand Down Margaret by The Beat (from Birmingham) and Billy Bragg’s Whose Side Are You One.  (Although from Barking close to London, Billy is a well-known left wing activist.)  To my surprise I didn’t have either London’s Elvis Costello’s Tramp The Dirt Down or Liverpool’s Peter Wylie’s The Day That Margaret Thatcher Dies on my iPod but I knew I had them on CD.

When I thought about it, I couldn’t think of another politician in the Western world who had inspired such resistance in song.  A case could be made for George W. Bush perhaps, but even then I’m hard pressed to think of any tracks (like Costello’s or Wylie’s) which gleefully anticipated his death.  Predictably, I couldn’t think of any negative tracks against politicians on the left side of the political spectrum.  Bill Clinton certainly attracted a great deal of odium during his time as U.S President but it was never expressed in song, at least by acts with a worldwide audience, but he did manage to inspire Greil Marcus to write Double Trouble.  In this book he compared the outsider status of Clinton to Elvis Presley in their respective fields and how they impacted upon the American populace.  He convincingly demonstrated that they have more similarities than you’d think.

And so, it was onto another full day and I made a conscious decision not to allow this news to impact upon my listening choices.  Anything that smacked of overt political music was out and I started with:

(# 271) The Kaiser Chiefs – The Future Is Medieval (2011)

Talk about different formats.  Originally this album was available only by download by which consumers could choose 10 tracks from a total of 20 placed on the website.  Eventually this standard CD edition of 14 tracks was released as well as a deluxe version containing 23 tracks.  In some ways, this album reminds me of their debut album Employment containing a number of tracks that remind me of XTC.   Things Change and All Is Quiet really stand out, but if you want to start listening to this band, have a listen to Yours Truly Angry Mob first.

(# 272) Artic Monkeys – Humbug (2009)

This is a solid rock album from the one time internet sensations. The youthful enthusiasm of their earlier albums is now settling down to a mature sound not a million miles removed from the Kaiser Chiefs.  Despite some great tracks such as Dangerous Animals, Dance Little Liar and Pretty Visitors, the album suggests greater triumphs are to come.  According to critical consensus, it appears this was achieved on the next album, Suck It And See although I’ve yet to get it.

(# 273) The Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound (2008)

Their second album of would be epics marrying lyrics reminiscent of a youthful Bruce Springsteen to the music of The Killers and a punkish attitude.  The first three tracks rattle by setting a high standard that is maintained by the rest of the album.  If there was a fuller production this would be regarded as a classic.

(# 274) Fleetwood Mac – The Pious Bird Of Good Omen (1969)

This is an early compilation bringing together some singles, their B sides and other material.  Two of their best known early singles, the instrumental Albatross and Black Magic Woman are on this as well as a number of scorching blues numbers.  The pick of these are a version of Elmore James’ Coming Home, The Big Boat with guest vocalist Eddie Boyd, I Believe My Time Ain’t Long and Jigsaw Puzzle Blues.  As always Peter Green’s guitar playing is a highlight.

(# 275) Erykah Badu – Worldwide Underground (2003)

This was Erykah’s third album and contains, for the most part, very classy and smooth (but not slickly sweet) soul and hip hop with a similar sound and feel to Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation Of.  Compare this to the music sold today as R&B from the likes of Rihanna and you’ll quickly be able to tell the difference.  I Want You and the bookending World Keeps Turnin’ are genuine highlights.

Just before sitting down to write this, I try to find the compilation CD I have that contains the Pete Wylie track and fail.  I then find my copy of Elvis Costello’s Spike and play Tramp The Dirt Down.  Ruminating on that, I scan more newspaper accounts and find that Thatcher is to be cremated.  There will be no tramping down and I suspect Thatcher is having the last laugh even in death.

8 April 2013 (Day 98) – Cleveland Rocks

Back to work after the weekend and another day of intensive work and some meetings.  I decide that a need something cerebral whilst preparing a PowerPoint presentation for public seminar I’m    delivering later in the weekend so plump for;

(266) The Beta Band – Heroes To Zeroes (2004)

This Scottish band was noted for its unique approach to music encompassing intriguing instrumentation, harmonies, sampling and songwriting.  Rock connoisseurs (OK, make that rock snobs) everywhere adored them, including Americans. They were the act John Cusack’s character in the movie adaption of High Fidelity bet could sell a few copies with just a single play of an album in his shop.  The song he played was Dry The Rain from their debut album The 3 E.Ps.  Heroes To Zeroes was their fourth and final album and whilst not as good as its predecessors (I suspect this was the band’s attempt to produce something along more conventional lines) has much to recommend it. 

After that and still wanting more of the same I went for an album by The Electric Eels.  I don’t know whether I was unconsciously influenced by my Spinal Tap wanderings backstage yesterday at Rod Laver Arena, but The Electric Eels were one of the acts at the epicentre of a punk movement that centred on Cleveland at the same time other well known American acts were forming in New York City.  The music created by these acts was more obtuse than that produced elsewhere which probably accounts for its relative obscurity today.

Although these acts produced music that represented a challenge to the then musical order, they unwittingly kept Cleveland’s reputation as one of the cities central to the development of rock alive.  It was in Cleveland that a record shop owner named Leo Mintz reputedly invented the term “rock ‘n roll” to replace the term “rhythm and blues” in an attempt to make such records appealing to white audiences.  He also worked closely with local DJ Alan Freed (later to be caught up in and disgraced by radio payola claims) to popularise the term through putting on special dances and shows.  A range of disparate acts have also emanated from Cleveland or its surrounds on a regular basis including Devo, Chrissie Hynde, Screaming Jay Hawkins, The Black Keys, Marlyn Manson, Trent Reznor/Nine Inch Nails, Tracey Chapman and The O’Jays.  The city was also immortalised by Ian Hunter in his song Cleveland Rocks (aka the theme song for The Drew Carey Show) but more  importantly, is now the home to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.  Ironically, in view of its past induction history, it will probably never admit any of the acts I’m about to celebrate.

(267) The Electric Eels – Their Organic Majesty’s Request (recorded 1975/released 1998)

This is a rough sounding release, effectively a compilation of all of the tracks that had been released on two previous albums.  Some of the tracks, notably Agitated, Anxiety, Jaguar Ride and the Stooges sounding Cold Meat are more likely to appeal to fans of the NYC scene.  The final two, and much slower tracks, As If I Cared and Almost Beautiful You reward repeated listening, each containing stabs of menacing guitar chords that would surface in future albums by the likes of The Residents and their ilk.  The remainder of the album is an acquired taste.

(268) Rocket From The Tombs – The Day The Earth Met …… (recorded c. 1975/released 2002)

This is a much more conventional sounding punk album from a legendary band that would give birth to both of the relatively better known Pere Ubu and Dead Boys.  I’m reasonably sure the band never got into a recording studio and these live recordings is practically all that exists.  Despite that, this is a thrilling listen, including embryonic versions of tracks that would be recorded by each of the subsequent acts.  (Sonic Reducer and Ain’t It Fun would be recorded by The Dead Boys and Final Solution and 30 Seconds Over Tokyo by Pere Ubu.)  A bunch of covers reveals their influences, including The Stooges’ Raw Power and Search And Destroy, The Velvet Underground’s Foggy Notion and an abortive attempt at The Stones Satisfaction.  

(269) Pere Ubu – The Modern Dance (1978)

A piercing line of white noise and minimalist bass heralds the start of Non Alignment Pact, one of my all time favourite tracks.  Based on The Stooges I Wanna Be Your Dog it careens down the road ridden by the unmistakably gruff vocals of Dave Thomas.  The title track, Life Stinks, Chinese Radiation and Real World all follow in the same vein.  It is as mysterious and intriguing today as when it was originally released.

(270) Peter Laughner – Take The Guitar Player For A Ride (1994)

A member of Rocket From The Tombs and a founding member of Pere Ubu, Laugner’s premature death at the age of 24 in 1977 robbed the world of a singular talent.  This album, which was compiled from a variety of sources including demos, home and live recordings explains why. It is also an extremely rare CD; I fluked mine for a couple of dollars from a second hand store clearly unfamiliar with the contents including Slyvia Plath, a solo version of Neil Young’s Only Love Can Break Your Heart, a live version of Richard Thompson’s Calvary Cross which at least matches the original and ferocious solo recordings of Rocket tracks Amphetamine, Life Stinks and Ain’t It Fun.  A poignant solo version of Me And The Devil Blues, reputedly recorded only a few hours before his death, ends this album on a sombre note.