The prog comes on little cat feet

Much to the embarrassment and consternation of my punk rock wife, I have been on a prog rock kick the last few years. There's just something so appealing to me about it. It's the combination of pretension, sincerity, cluelessness, amazing musical chops, incredible arrangements, and a general "kitchen sink" mentality that does it for me. The lack of self-conscious irony is refreshing. Plus I love epics. I love big sloppy stories. Prog Rock appeals to my inherent lack of subtlety.

Anyway, Bill Bailey (he of the great British comedy series starring Simon Pegg Spaced), recently hosted a top ten countdown show that names the greatest prog rock bands of all time. There is some great stuff here. Plus, some of Bill Bailey's comments are priceless.

Let's Burn One

Sound artist Brian Joseph Davis created this collection of banned albums that have been burned then played.

Here's a link to his site where you can find many other works and experiments by him.

Who's a good girl?

Here's a link to an early performance of one of Tammy Wynette's first big hits, "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad" from 1967.

Wait for the chorus and the incredibly awkward yet endearing appearance of the backup singer.

"Comme" All Ye Faithful

Just in time for the Christmas season Bedazzled has a great Scopiotone of the song "Les Rois Mages" ("The Wise Kings") from 1971 by the French artist Sheila. I swear that this song and "video" were lifted directly from my head because they contain some of my favorite things ever: French chanteuses, Medieval imagery, choruses with hand clap break-downs punctuated by percussive Neil Diamondesque acoustic guitar strums, Mod fashion, refracting lenses, the list goes on.

I have reprinted the lyrics below the video. The song is basically about how the singer will follow this guy like the three wise men followed the star to Bethlehem and Christopher Columbus followed the sun to the Americas. I love how the song has reduced key events of history and religion to a metaphor about relationships (and this is a few years before ABBA's "Waterloo" which did something very similar).


Comme les Rois Mages en Galilée
Suivaient des yeux l'étoile du Berger
Je te suivrai, où tu iras j'irai
Fidèle comme une ombre jusqu'à destination

Comme les Rois Mages en Galilée
Suivaient des yeux l'étoile du Berger
Comme Christophe Colomb et ses trois caravelles
Ont suivi le soleil avec obstination

Plaise au ciel que j'ouvre mes fenêtres
Le matin au bord d'un étang bleu
Plaise au ciel que rien ne nous arrête
Dans ce monde aventureux

Comme les Rois Mages en Galilée
Suivaient confiants l'étoile du Berger
Mon Amérique, ma lumière biblique
Ma vérité cosmique, c'est de vivre avec toi

Plaise au ciel que s'ouvrent les nuages
L'éclaircie dévoile le chemin
Plaise au ciel qu'au terme du voyage
Son triomphe soit le mien

Comme les Rois Mages en Galilée
Suivaient confiants l'étoile du Berger
Comme Christophe Colomb et ses trois caravelles
Ont suivi le soleil avec obstination

Slam Drunk

I know of no one who loves a sad song as much as I do. I'm not talking about the kinds of songs that make you feel a little wistful and melancholy. I'm talking about songs that make you double over with the sudden shock that life is nothing but horrible, inescapable suffering and the only recourse is to collapse, snot-faced and trembling in a wet, squirming mockery of the fetal position writhing on the floor. This is probably why two of my favorite kinds of music are classic country and Irish ballads. I must admit that there is also an over-the-top bathetic quality to many of these songs that I find appealing. Although I see how people could see that this approach could be ironic, it isn't. I love music that has shed all the cloaks of public decency and goes straight for the jugular vein, in terms of trying to pry emotion from its listener.

With that being said, here's a link and the lyrics to the Ferlin Husky classic "Drunken Driver." It is nowhere near as creepy or gloriously ridiculous as Dolly Parton's "Me and Andy," but it just as worthy of hearing.



"Drunk Driver"
Friends there's somethin' been hauntin' me and I just got to tell you bout it
I saw an accident one day that would chill the heart of any man
And teach them not to drink a drop while the steering wheel's in their hand
This awfull accident occurred on the 20th day of May
And caused two dear little children to be sleeping beneath the clay
These two little kids walked side by side along the state highway
Their poor old mother she had died and their daddy had run away
As these two little kids walked arm in arm how sad their hearts did feel
When around the curb came a speeding car with a drunk man at the wheel
The drunk man saw the two little kids and he hollered a drunken sound
Get out of the road you little fools and the car it brought them down
The bumper struck the little girl taking her life away
While the little boy in a puddle of blood in the ditch lying there did lay
The drunk man staggered from his car to see the damage that he had done
And he let out a yell you could hear for miles when he recognized his dying son
Such mourning from a drunken man I've never heard before
While kneeling at the running board he prayed to heavens door
Saying oh God please forgive me for this awful crime I've done
And his attention then was called away by the words of his dying son
And he said daddy why did you do this to us how come you run us to the ground
It was you and mommy we was talking about when the car it brought us down
And I was just telling little sister that I knew we'd see you again someday
But daddy why did it have to be like this why did it have to be this way
Why daddy why

Sweet, sweet memories of mama boiling corn

I grew up watching Hee-Haw and late night K-Tell commercials. This SNL skit from 2004 reminds me of both of those beloved memories. Watch for the song "Ain't Nothin' Cuter." It is God.

Doctor Uke

The Doctor Who theme play on ukelele. The two great tastes that taste great together.

Suarasama

I am so happy. A few years ago I stumbled upon a twenty volume Smithonian/Folkways collection of Indonesian music. Most of it was really great but the last disc pretty much blew my mind. It was a collection of guitar music and every track was absolutely incredible. What struck me was how all-over-the-place everything sounded. Some of the songs were made on funky home-made guitars and sounded like weird Delta blues filtered through Middle Eastern ude music, while other stuff sounded like Hawaiian slack key guitar.

Out of all of this great music, one band and song especially stood out. The song was called Fatas Di Atas Awan and sounded like nothing elese I had ever heard. I'm not going to describe it here, but you should give it a listen for yourself. The band was/is a male/female duo called Suarasama, and I've been looking for their album on and off for the last 7-8 years and just discovered today that Drag City will be re-releasing their full-length album, Fatas Di Atas Awan later this month.

Yay.

Since I'm kind of obsessed, I just ordered it on CD and LP. Although I've only heard the title track, which is the song on the Smithsonian compilation, I can't imagine the album being a disappointment.

Frankie Lee and Judas Priest were the best of friends

I've been listening a lot to Judas Priest lately. I never listened to a lot of metal growing up because I was a clueless little snob, but over the past few years I've seen the errors of my ways. Anyways, Sin after Sin is one of my favorite priest albums, and I especially love the song "Diamonds and Rust," which was written by none other than Joan Baez. What's awesome about this song is that it was written for Bob Dylan after he unceremoniously dumped her and treated her generally like dirt. Whenever I listen to the Judas Priest version of this song, I picture Rob Halford in full Priest leather get-up singing to Bob Dylan at the height of his Rolling Thunder weirdness. So my friend and band mate Ryan Thomas Becker sent me this image that he made in honor of my rock and roll fantasy.

Damn you Ryan, damn you.

HeLP!

I've been going record crazy. It is an addiction I cannot and do not want to curb. I am going to go broke. I don't care. Vinyl is precious to me. It gives my sad little life direction. It keeps my hands out of my pants (except when I reach for cash to buy record). I used to hate people like the one I have become. I worked at a used record store for ten years. I once mocked and loathed the sad, empty-lifed recluses who came into the store and snot-pawed the vinyl like some middle-aged pizza loving Gollum whose one-ring was an out-of-print Italian prog album. Now I am that person. I don't drink, smoke, or do drugs. I try to eat fairly healthily. I exercise regularly. I collect vinyl. I am new at it. It is a corrupting influence. I don't know exactly what caused this mania. I got a new job. I am in a band that makes me happy. My life has changed significantly in the past few months. This coincides with my new habit, but I'm not sure how the two fit together.

Here are my recent acquisitions of the past month or so:

Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
Pink Floyd - Meddle
Ray Charles - Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music
Geraldine Fibbers - Butch
XTC - Skylarking (Mermaid Smile version)
Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
Jethro Tull - Warchild, Heavy Horses, Living in the Past
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Lou Reed - Transformer
Big Star - 3rd
David Bowie - Scary Monsters, Changesonebowie & Changestwobowie
Billy Bragg - Workers' Playtime
Can - Ege Bamyasi
Decemberists - Crane Wife, The Tain, Her Majesty, Picturesque
6 Nonesuch Explorer Albums

There are more, but I'm too weak to go on.

Universal Soldier

I'll admit it. I am a big fan of musicals. I was raised on Singin' in the Rain, My Fair Lady, Cabaret, Jesus Christ Superstar, Wizard of Oz, and all of the other great musicals. I have never understood some people's dislike (in some cases revulsion) to movie musicals. The argument is usually that they are unrealistic, the plot is too thin, ridiculous and unbelievable, the characterization is weak, etc., etc. Of course these are the same people who love slapstick comedies and sci-fi actioners, two genres both entrenched in their own brand of unrealistic conventions, but that's another story (Note: I love these genres too, I'm just saying).

As a big musical fan, Beatles buff, and a fan of the director Julie Taymoor, I have been very excited about the new musical Across the Universe. I saw it over a month ago, but I'm only now getting around to completing my review. Although I totally loved it, the reviews have been decidedly mixed, it's at 54% fresh (read: good) at Rotten Tomatoes. Some of the negative reviews are spot on: that it is ham-fisted and overly naive (true), that it depicts a cliche-ridden, overly nostalgic and overly-simplified view of the 60s (also true), and that it is full of embarrassing cameos (half-true). What these critics hardly ever mention is the sheer inventiveness of the musical numbers, the excellent acting and singing, the amazing visual effects, the great score and performances of Beatle standards, and the film's palpable exuberance towards its subject matter.

One of my biggest complaints about some critics is the inability for many of them to temper their reviews based on the material. Criticizing a musical because the plot is thin, or the characterization is weak is like complaining about the lack of special effects in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Each film genre has its own inherent strengths and weaknesses, and although we should expect high quality from every film and also expect films to push the envelope of their respective genres, it is kind presumptuous to expect one kind of film to deliver a complete experience that is beyond the constraints of its genre in every single aspect.

While ACTU almost wallows in some of the hoarier musical conventions (boy meets girls-loses girl, big sing-a-long production number as deus ex machina, etc.), it fills the screen with some of the most beautiful and inventive images I've seen in a long time. The bizarre production number featuring "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" remade as a plaintive broken-hearted lesbian soliloquy set amongst a choreographed football practice is worth the price of admission alone. There are some numbers that take these very well-known songs in such unexpected ways, that I sat through much of the movie with a big, goofy smile on my face in anticipation of what was going to happen next.

In the end, if you're a fan of musicals and/or the Beatles, you'll probably enjoy this one. If not, then don't go.

Rock Lottery

This past weekend I participated in an annual event called Rock Lottery which celebrated its 10th anniversary with a two-night event. I’m not going to go into details about the event rules since you can read about that here. Suffice it is to say that RL is an exhausting but very rewarding process, that takes a few days from which to recover.

This year was a little different in that there was the possibility that a band could be drummerless. I was in that band. Also, I was in a band with arguably the most experimental musicians on the roster. I would like to say that I had a really great time and that working with the people with whom I was assigned introduced me to ideas and working methods that I had never tried. My bandmate Sarah Alexander especially had some really cool improvisational techniques that really opened my eyes to new ways of working. Although I listen to a lot of experimental kinds of music, my own music is folk based and rooted firmly in traditional American and British songwriting structures.

As a band, we intentionally avoided going for the comedy or outrageous stage show angle and really tried concentrating on making interesting sounds. I will agree that our performance could have had more polish, but overall I was happy with the direction and ideas. All of my bandmates agreed that we could have used a few more hours practice (and some sleep). The reaction of the crowd was definitely mixed. Some saw us as a mild disappointment while others were supportive of our more experimental approach, while there were others who didn’t like us at all. The best compliment I had was from my friend and Rock Lottery 9 alum, Ian Johnson, who said the band sounded like what the Replacements or another 80s Minneapolis band would have sounded like if they were from a parallel universe and played experimental music. We were definitely the strangest band that night in terms of the kinds of music we were playing, which veered from rhythmic and textural experimentations, electronic dance, Velvety post-punk stuff, to powerpop.

Ultimately I think we played in the best spirit of the Rock Lottery, and I’m happy with many of the things we did. I also had a really great time working with Cory, Sarah, George, and Rob, and hope to have the opportunity to play with them again some day.

Psych!

So I stumbled across a BBC2 radio special on the history of psychedelic music. Some of the interviews are really cool, especially with Joe Boyd and Mike Heron. However, some of the interviews are lifted directly from the tv documentary Rock and Roll: An Unruly History.

Unfortunately, the narrator adopts a kind of jaded a holier-than-thou attitude and thinks it is necessary to make dismissive jokes demonstrating how naive and ridiculous everyone involved in the 60s counterculture now looks. If you can get past the self-conscious narration, the series is pretty good.

For the Record

In honor of my friend Matt, I am going to try and post the LPs I have been purchasing of late.

From Half-Price in Dallas 9/10
Robyn Hitchcock - Invisible Hitchcock
Pentangle - Cruel Sister
Brinsley Schwartz - Nervous on the Road
Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead

Ebay
Incredible String Band - Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
Fairport Convention - Unhalfbricking

From Recycled over the past month
Willie Nelson - Phases and Stages
Rolling Stones - Through the Past Darkly
Mike Heron - Smiling Men w/Bad Reputations
Pentangle - Solomon's Seal

From Forever Young
Incredible String Band - 5000 Layers of the Onion
Kinks - Lola vs. Powerman...
Incredible String Band - Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (accidentally scratched and immediately replaced - see above)

Waterloo and Cheapo in Austin
Neutral Milk Hotel - Aeroplane Over the Sea
Pogues - Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash
Palace - Days in the Wake


I have also raided the $.25 bin at Recycled and grabbed a bunch of stuff from Fleetwood Mac to the Clash. I'm also building up my Dylan and Pink Floyd catalogs.

Up Rotoscope

Here's a nice little rotoscoping animation set to music of the wonderful band, Neutral Milk Hotel. I spend a good deal of time scoping youtube for interesting animation. I really need to focus.

The Vinyl Solution

I have never been a huge collector of stuff. I usually own just what I need. I tend to have a lot of books because I'm an information junkie plus I just finished writing a thesis, so my shelves right now are brimming over. However, I'm usually not the kind of person who fetishizes the object and surrounds himself with knick-knacks and curios as a kind of expression of identity or as a shield against the world (excuse my over-simplified psycho-babble). As a matter of fact, I'm known for purging my belongings every few years when I get the feeling that I have amassed too many material goods. However, recently I have started collecting vinyl records at a rate that threatens both my physical living space and my budget. I attribute this need partially to the huge changes I have recently experienced in my life which have rendered the near future as a gigantic question mark.

I have spent the last near-decade working as a clerk selling used lps and books at an amazing independent bookstore. A small portion of our clientèle consists of vinyl fetishists who are so annoying, weird, and compulsive, that any interest I had in lps was quashed by these strange men who spend insane amounts of money on music that nobody else in their right mind would ever buy in a format that is antiquated and obsolete. "Yes, yes!" I cry. I am aware of the archival stability of records, and I am certainly no stranger to acquiring music that could rightly be called, if not obscure, then at least not top 40. However, my need to purge every few years, coupled with my distaste for the collector mentality, has rendered my collection of lps to an amount that never exceeds more than two small 1' ft. square boxes. I am a huge music fan, and I do work at a great music store, so I always have plenty of music on hand. It is simply that I don't feel the need to hold on to things forever.

During the last few years, I have become a big proponent of digital music, my hard drive is filled with around 80 gigs of music at any given time, because it allowed me to acquire a huge library of music, without the material build-up. However, I have recently found myself unsatisfied with this as my sole means of musical acquisition in that the music itself seems temporary and ephemeral. I really like the thing-ness of an album.

I think that this is only half the equation. I think that my recent graduation with an MA, and my uncertain future have driven me to turn to material goods as a kind of security blanket. I have had mini-occurrences like this before, where I balanced instability in my life with material things, only to purge later on. However, I think that this time I might hold on to these albums a little while longer. I feel a real kind of sea change coming regarding both material goods and music. I don't know what it is, but I feel that there is something deeper and conservatory about keeping these records. I'll let you know when I find out what it all means.
I promise to post more in the future.

Neu Kid in Town

This is one of my favorite videos ever on youtube. The formula is simple: baby + solid color background + bubbles + pioneering Krautrock band Neu = pure visual bliss.

When All is Syd and Done

Here is a video from July 2006 of John Frussciante of the Red Hot Chili Pepper's playing Syd Barret's "Jugband Blues" at a concert in Manchester right after Syd's death. I am by no means a huge fan of the Chili Peppers, although I admire their longevity and their desire to give 100% when they play live, but I've always appreciated John Frusciante, and really enjoy some of his solo albums. Anyway, Frusciante has always played around in the same kinds of territory (both musically and mentally) as Barrett, and I find this cover of one of Syd's more upfront songs about his mental condition, Jugband Blues, to be a sweetly moving tribute by a fan after the passing of one of his musical heroes.

Tropocalia Pioneer Tico da Costa

Here's a video of Tropocalia pioneer Tico da Costa telling stories about the guitar playing styles of his "four uncles" and demonstrating said styles. This video not only shows the immense musical talent of this legendary performer, but also his sense of humor.

Thanks to Chris for shooting and providing the video.

George Washington

My friend Brian alerted me to this. It's an animated video about the greatest warrior of all time, George Washington! It might be one of the funniest things I've seen in a while. It feeds into my latest fascination with humor that is based upon giving completely erroneous information about well-know things. In the same vein I also highly recommend the BBC series "Look Around You," which are parodies/tributes to in-class science programs from the 70s and 80s.

Update Sept 3, 2006

It turns out the creator of the "George Washington" song and video is Austin, Tx comic artist Brad Neely, author of Creased Comics. Mr. Neely is also the creator of the very funny and subversive alternative soundtrack to the film "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" called, "Wizard People, Dear Reader".