David Byrne live benefit EP

David Byrne has a wonderful four-song EP for download benefiting Amnesty International highlighted by an amazing live version of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts' "Help Me Somebody," converting a song based on samples to a live vocal jam. There's also a superior version of "One Fine Day," from his still-percolating 2008 album with Brian Eno. Here's Byrne's email in full:

Some time ago Amnesty International asked if I might do "something" for that organization this year- (in previous years I had done one of my tour dates as a benefit for them). Amnesty has such an amazing and consistent track record of speaking out and helping to illuminate courageous people who might otherwise not be heard from so the answer was "yes."

It was decided to record some songs from my current tour for them to be sold as a download with the proceeds going to Amnesty. As there are no physical costs with digital distribution this means more of the sales percentage actually goes to where it's supposed to. So, thank you for supporting a great organization and I hope you like these recordings too.

Get the Tracks

The tour isn't over yet. It has been exhilarating for all the musicians, singers, dancers and the crew as well- so we all voted to keep rolling on through summer 09. On these live shows I decided to use the connection of Brian Eno- as a collaborator, producer or musician- as the thread that links some material from the past with a group of songs done last year. Most of the time music listeners are blissfully unaware of the contributions of a record producer, and sometimes even of which musicians who play on a record as well...so the Eno linking device might not be as self evident as I imagine. However, the device also allowed me to include a fair number of songs in the live set that people are somewhat familiar with, which wasn't exactly accidental.

For me, there is are rhythmic and structural links between the older material and the new- though there are lyrical and melodic differences too that I, at least, can hear. Those musical parallels help the live show maintain some kind of musical thematic unity- they help the show from becoming a random hodge podge of songs. I've even heard someone say to us backstage that they felt the show tells a story. They didn't elaborate as to what kind of story.

DB
Midtown

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at May 13, 2009 11:05 AM | Comments (0)

 

De La Soul, Nike, and corporate everything

My favorite music right now is the new album by De La Soul, Are You In?: Nike+ Original Run--a new take on rap-rock-techno in 45 bracing minutes, with production by Detroit's Young RJ and Chicago duo Flosstradamus, with the latter mixing the results into one continuous track.

This is also De La's first album since 2004's The Grind Date (on Sanctuary Urban), and first new material since the new songs spiking their 2006 rarities comp Impossible: Mission TV Series: PT. 1, released on their own AOI Records label.

The reason you haven't heard about it is because the new album is actually an iTunes exclusive released by Nike, the latest in the company's series of "running mixes" by artists such as LCD Soundsystem, Aesop Rock, A-Trak, and Crystal Method. De La are on record claiming the mix is hardly just, or even, a "poster for Nike," and they're right: It's more like a shoe than a poster for shoes--a Nike product, straight up.

Am I the only De La Soul fan who finds this sad? Forget Nike for a minute, a company that could make sweatshops a thing of the past if it wanted to, and obviously doesn't want to. Are You In? (as in "R-U-N," get it?) says something about the music industry De La Soul has fled. "The objective of a record label is just selling records," said Dave Jolicoeur in an interview with Avertising Age. "I think they could almost care less about the creative aspect of it. So this is cool, you've got a company that creates."

In 20 years, will there even be record companies? Or just artists sponsored by corporations selling other things?

And what about the people who write about artists? As the wave of layoffs reaches my doorstep (my fiancee, my book editor, and a good friend all lost their jobs in recent weeks), I note that my best pay for writing about music comes from eMusic, an online store that doesn't run pans. Maybe one day I'll simply review the new De La Soul for Nike directly, to be published on their website.

People who think the corporatization of everything is as natural as the weather probably don't feel that corporations have fucked us with this economic collapse. But they have fucked us. Not just in their hold on government, which gave us the current crises, but in their hold on business thinking itself. Talk to anyone in any field, and you'll hear about business after business becoming more "corporate"--i.e. stupider, more centralized, less efficient, less fair, and more prone to "self-destruction"--though the "selves" getting destroyed are never the ones on top, who are rewarded.

This is the story of American industry in our lifetime, one that David Simon, creator of HBO's The Wire (whose show about New Orleans just got green-lit by HBO), framed very well recently on Bill Moyers when talking about newspapers:

"A lot of the general tone in journalism right now is that of martyrology... 'We were doing our job. Making the world safe for democracy. And all of a sudden, terra firma shifted, new technology. Who knew that the Internet was going to overwhelm us?'

"I would buy that if I wasn't in journalism for the years that immediately preceded the Internet, because I took the third buyout from the Baltimore Sun. I was about reporter number 80 or 90 who left, in 1995. Long before the Internet had had its impact. ... Those buyouts happened when the Baltimore Sun was earning 37 percent profits...

"We now know this, because it's in bankruptcy, and the books are open. Thirty-seven percent profits. All that R&D money that was supposed to go in to make newspapers more essential, more viable, more able to explain the complexities of the world. It went to shareholders in the Tribune Company. Or the L.A. Times Mirror Company before that. And ultimately, when the Internet did hit, they had an inferior product, that was not essential enough that they could charge online for it.

"I mean, the guys who are running newspapers, over the last 20 or 30 years, have to be singular in the manner in which they destroyed their own industry. It's even more profound than Detroit making Chevy Vegas and Pacers and Gremlins and believing that no self-respecting American would buy a Japanese car in 1973. It's analogous up to a point, except it's not analogous in that a Nissan is a pretty good car, and a Toyota is a pretty good car. The Internet, while it's great for commentary and froth, doesn't do very much first-generation reporting at all... The economic model can't sustain that kind of reporting. And to lose to that, because you didn't-- They had contempt for their own product...

"For 20 years, they looked upon the copy as being the stuff that went around the ads. The ads were the God. And then all of a sudden the ads were not there, and the copy, they had had contempt for. They had actually marginalized themselves."

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at May 9, 2009 9:55 AM | Comments (1)

 

More "Fun" around the Internets

Recently posted elsewhere:

Q&A: Lady Sovereign (D.C. Decider), review: Mr. Lif, I Heard It Today (Las Vegas CityLife 4/23/09), preview: Mastodon (City Pages 4/29/09), preview: Sole and the Skyrider Band (City Pages 4/22/09), Apocalypse Now: Muja Messiah (The Liberator 11/08, posted 4/21/09), review: Monks, Black Monk Time and Monks, The Early Years 1964-1965 (Twin Cities Decider 4/15/09), preview: The Current Fakebook: Bob Gruen (City Pages 4/15/09), previous roundup (recently updated with things I missed).

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at May 8, 2009 8:10 PM | Comments (1)

 

'Unconvention' and the RNC 8

Whenever it opens, you must see Unconvention, the locally-made documentary about protests outside the Republican National Convention in St. Paul last year. (It screened Sunday as part of the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival.)

I covered the events of that week for MN Indy, yet hadn't witnessed most of what's in the film, which outlines a long, slow, but seemingly planned and certain overreaction by police and paramilitaries to a small group of vandals--bringing the full force of tear gas and arrest down on legal marchers, bystanders, and unlucky reporters. The documentary tells this story without any narration or framing devices outside of a few subtitles.

I have to add that I was wary: I don't agree with director Chris Strouth, a friend of mine, that the purpose of political protest, avowed or subconscious, is to persuade the people being protested. (He expressed this ideas last week on MPR.) Something similar was pointed out by an audience member at the Q&A after the screening, but not before the exchange degenerated into shouting and ranting from the floor--had the hecklers never encountered a public speaker with whom they disagree?

The point to make here is that these shouters weren't responding to the film, but to the director's remarks: At no point does Strouth put anyone onscreen discussing the efficacy of protest. The fact that people of differing views respond so strongly and approvingly to Unconvention is a sign of its beauty. At an hour and a half, with footage from a slew of different DIY video journalists (including The Uptake), the movie feels raw, unprocessed, and complex--with an eye toward every possible irony. We put together the whole in our minds, and make them up while we're doing it.

Unconvention is also just a starting point, and makes no claim to be the last word. Among the things striking me that week that aren't onscreen was just how deserted downtown St. Paul was (partly, I imagine, as a result of Labor Day Weekend, partly because citizens were truly led to believe that the great bomb-throwing conspiracy was descending, partly by elaborate security design). I also think any historian of the moment should point out that the confrontations with police on Monday involved a break-away protest from the much larger and apparently uncinematic legal one--and discussions of efficacy should make that distinction. Yet the movie wasn't about that conversation, which should come later. Maybe it should come tonight:

There is a public meeting at Coffman Memorial Union tonight titled Defend the RNC 8! The Struggle for Justice after the RNC (7:00 p.m., Room 324). The "RNC 8" are the activists who were initially charged with conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism under the Minnesota version of the Patriot Act. Though the terrorism charges were dropped recently, each still faces a possible five years in prison. It's a chance to hear them tell their story.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at April 29, 2009 1:14 PM | Comments (1)

 

The Shop Assistants: "Dreaming Backwards" mixtape 1983-1990

In the late 1980s, my friend Rick Vorndran made me a tape of a record he bought while in England, the Shop Assistants' Will Anything Happen. The 1986 Chrysalis Records album by the relatively obscure Edinburgh, Scotland, band remains one of my favorites of all time, a thing of enduring power and beauty. On 100th listen, it still sounds vulnerable, gorgeously noisy, and built to chill (notice how the chorus becomes climax and coda on "I Don't Want to Be Friends with You" above). They're a secret link between the Jesus and Mary Chain roar and Riot Grrrl rage, the Pastels' tenderness and Slumber Party daze, Cocteau Twins glisten and Stereolab drive, something new under the Velvet Underground sun.

Shop Assistants friends and fans the Vaselines recently got a deluxe reissue treatment on Sub Pop, and it's high time "the Shoppies" got something similar (since they've been covered by Matador's Fucked Up, maybe that label would be game). They were so much better than their contemporaries, I think, at least on the evidence of their hard-to-find recordings, and yet so much less heard and known--and I've always wondered why.

Until we get a proper complete-discography double-CD, here's a recommended make-it-yourself chronological compilation, with info about where to buy or download each set of songs. The most surprising thing about putting this together was that every single track was worth it:

CD 1: 1983-1986

From Buba and the Shop Assistants, Something to Do (November 1983, Villa 21, 002) 7-inch, downloadable here at Shelflife:

1. Something to Do
2. Dreaming Backwards

From The Shop Assistants, a.k.a. Shopping Parade EP (June/August 1985, Subway, SUBWAY 01, Subway Organization) 7-inch, all different versions of songs than on album, downloadable here at Phoenix Hairpins:

3. All Day Long
4. Switzerland
5. All That Ever Mattered
6. It's Up to You

If I could find it, this would be where I put the "rough mix" version of "Safety Net," from an unreleased demo tape, which I read about here at Down With Tractors (with more here at Westway). Hope he re-ups that track!

7. Safety Net (rough mix)

From Peel Sessions (October 21, 1985), downloadable at Hopeless:

8. Safety Net
9. Almost Made It
10. Somewhere in China
11. All That Ever Mattered

From Safety Net (February, 1986, AGARR 1/AGARR 112, 53rd & 3rd Records) 7-inch/12-inch, from Anthology 1985-1986,  downloadable at eMusic:

12. Safety Net
13. Almost Made It
14. Somewhere in China

From Peel Sessions, June 12, 1986, downloadable at Hopeless:

15. Fixed Grin
16. I Don't Wanna Be Friends with You
17. Ace of Spades [Motorhead cover]
18. Before I Wake

I Don't Wanna Be Friends With You (September 1986, Blue Guitar, AZUR2/AZURX2) 7-inch/12-inch, downloadable here at Phoenix Hairpins:

19. I Don't Wanna Be Friends With You [not different than the album version, but included here for flow]
20. Looking Back
21. All Day Long (Slow Version) [a.k.a. Long Version]

CD 2: 1986-1990

From the 2008 CD reissue of Will Anything Happen (also simply known as The Shop Assistants) (November 1986, Blue Guitar, AZLP2/ZAZLP2), LP/Cassette, also on Chrysalis Records/EMI, reissue on Cherry Red Records available for purchase at Amazon:

1. I Don't Want to Be Friends With You [same as single version except for the tweaked title]
2. All Day Long
3. Before I Wake
4. Caledonia Rd.
5. All That Ever Mattered
6. Fixed Grin
7. Somewhere in China [different version than on Safety Net single]
8. Train from Kansas City [Shangri-Las cover]
9. Home Again
10. Seems to Be
11. After Dark
12. All of the Time
13. What a Way to Die [Pleasure Seekers cover]
14. Nature Lover

From NME's C86 compilation cassette, downloadable here at Aquarium Drunkard:

15. It's Up to You

From You Trip Me Up flexidisc (January 1990, FLX886, Avalanche Records), downloadable here at Pukekos. Note significant lineup shift for these still-wonderful final releases, with the departure of lead vocalist Alex, bassist and second vocalist Sarah moving over to lead vocals, drummer Laura moving over to bass, and Margarita joining on drums with a full drum kit instead of Laura's usual upright bass and snare:

16. You Trip Me Up [Jesus and Mary Chain cover]
17. The Other One

From Here It Comes (January 1990, Avalanche Records, AGAP001C/AGAP001B), CD single, with "Here It Comes" and "I'd Rather Be With You" downloadable here at I Could Die Tomorrow, and the other two apparently downloadable here, though I'm going off my own CD copy, which is track-downable:

18. Here It Comes
19. I'd Rather Be With You
20. Look Out
21. Too Much Adrenalin

From Big E Power (May 1990, Avalanche Records, AGAP003/AGAP003MC/AGAP003T/AGAP003CD), various formats, including CD single, with first "Big E Power" and "One More Time" downloadable here at I Could Die Tomorrow, and "She Said" downloadable here at Chocolate Bobka, though I can't find the live "Big E Power" online anywhere yet (I'm going off my own copy of the CD, which is track-downable):

22. Big E Power
23. She Said [Beatles cover]
24. One More Time
25. Big E Power [live]

(The Pleasure Seekers' 1965 classic "What a Way to Die")

Drawn from these Shop Assistants links: Tom Bartlett's page, Wikipedia entry, 17 Seconds post, I Could Die Tomorrow, Merry Swankster, MySpace page, a discography, ilx, with more here, here, here, here, and a live remembrance/review and photo at Fruitier Than Thou. Send suggestions and links if you have them--info on this band has exploded online over the past decade.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at April 25, 2009 12:03 AM | Comments (1)

 

"I never knew which cartel I worked for"

(Poster for a missing 15-year-old girl from Juarez, Mexico, 2008, reproduced in Zanzana Knowledge and Expression)

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at April 24, 2009 3:07 PM | Comments (0)

 

Complete run of Billboard now on Google Book Search

Matos hips me to the fact, pointed out to him by Eric Weisbard, that Google Book Search now has what appears to be a complete run of Billboard from 1942 on. Just what I want: More research materials! But no, this is a great and wonderful thing, especially the Google map identifying places mentioned in the magazine--there's usually at least one dot per issue in Minnesota.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at April 16, 2009 11:46 AM | Comments (0)

 

Beenie Man mixtape

13. "Haters and Fools," from Art and Life (VP/Virgin), 2000

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at April 15, 2009 5:26 PM | Comments (0)

 

Complicated Fun around the internets

It's been a year since my last roundup up non-blog writing, so here's the beautiful backlog. If you want to read what I've written here at complicatedfun.com over the same period, browse the archive to the right.

Recently posted elsewhere:

review: Lady Sovereign, Jigsaw (Las Vegas CityLife 4/9/09), review: Bob Mould, Life and Times (City Pages, 4/1/09), preview: The Ting Tings (City Pages 4/1/09), preview: Morrissey (City Pages 4/1/09), with more below, preview: Raphael Saadiq (City Pages 3/11/09), preview: Anni Rossi (City Pages 3/4/09), preview: Estelle (City Pages 2/25/09)

The Shifting Republic of K'Naan: A deft Somali rapper, now ensconced in Canada, prepares his American invasion (Village Voice 2/25/09), preview: Ralph's World (City Pages 2/25/09), preview: Juana Molina (City Pages 2/18/09), preview: Blitzen Trapper (City Pages 2/18/09)

CD review: P.O.S., Never Better (Las Vegas City Life 2/12/09), Slumdog Chamillionaire: Rapper K'Naan makes peace with Somalia, and pop for the world (City Pages 2/11/09), preview: A Celebration of Immigration to the Twin Cities (that's Jim Reilly in the photo) (City Pages 2/4/09)

CD review: Heartless Bastards, The Mountain (eMusic 2/3/09), CD review: Various artists, The Roots of Hip Hop (Las Vegas City Life 1/19/09), preview: The Big Pink: A Tribute to The Last Waltz (City Pages 1/21/09), Pazz and Jop ballot (Village Voice 1/21/09), review: From Hell: AC/DC at the Xcel again (Gimme Noise 1/20/09), preview: AC/DC (City Pages 1/14/08), preview: Lil Wayne (City Pages 1/14/09), preview: Best New Bands of 2008 (City Pages 1/14/09)

Artist of the Year: The makers of Trouble the Water (City Pages 12/24/08), preview: Hip-Hop Night at the Roxy (City Pages 12/24/08), Being Prince's Sister: Tyka Nelson steps out of her brother's shadow (City Pages, 12/10/08), preview: Mint Condition (City Pages 11/26/08)

Apocalypse Now: Muja Messiah (The Liberator 11/08; click here to buy a copy--the cover by Rebecca McDonald alone is worth it), I contributed to the ILX Top 75 Films of the 1950s (I Love Everything 11/18/08), preview: Heartless Bastards (City Pages 11/12/08), preview: Atmosphere (City Pages 10/29/08)

CD review: Dub Colossus: Dub Colossus in a Town Called Addis (City Pages 10/29/08), CD review: U2, Under a Blood Red Sky (see page 18) (Campus Circle 10/15/08), preview: Jolie Holland (City Pages 10/22/08), preview: Set the Smith (City Pages 10/15/08), preview: Stereolab (City Pages 10/8/08), preview: David Byrne (City Pages 10/8/08)

SST Records: The eMusic Dozen (eMusic 10/3/08), preview: The Wedding Present (City Pages 9/24/08), preview: Impaler's 25-year Anniversary Show (City Pages 9/17/08), Muja Messiah lists his favorites, profile of eighth-place-winner in Picked to Click (City Pages 9/10/08), Picked to Click ballot (Gimme Noise 9/9/08)

Anti-Flag Q&A: Police at Ripple Effect "dangerous" (MN Indy 9/5/08), Defiance of arbitrary authority sans painful consequences: Cops, Rage and Target Center (MN Indy 9/4/08), preview: GZA (City Pages 9/3/08), preview: Nas (City Pages 9/3/08), Ellison, and no Republicans, turn up for Katrina doc near RNC (MN Indy 9/3/08)

Take Back Labor Day: Hip hop meets folk by the RNC riverside (MN Indy 9/3/08), The cloud over Sammy Hagar and the RNC (MN Indy 9/1/08), Liberty Parade: Missile Dick Chicks meet Ron Paul voters (MN Indy 8/31/08), preview: Black Keys (City Pages 8/27/08), preview: The Unconvention: Liberty Parade (City Pages 8/27/08)

CD review: Coping With David Byrne & Brian Eno: A boost to your optimism from the Internet (Village Voice 8/27/08), Yo! the Movement 7th Annual Celebration (City Pages 8/20/08), CD review: Juliana Hatfield, How to Walk Away (City Pages 8/20/08), preview: Afrifest (City Pages 8/13/08), preview: N.O.R.E. (City Pages 8/13/08), CD review/profile: K-Salaam & Beatnick, Whose World Is This? (City Pages 8/6/08), "They Sound Like God": Peter S. Scholtes reviews Orchestra Baobab (Gimme Noise/Culture to Go 7/1/08), CD review: Trama & Muja Messiah (City Pages 6/4/08)

Purple Rain Dogs: Tom Waits for Prince Fans--Or How Atmosphere Went Electro (City Pages 4/30/08), Back to the Terrordome: Peter S. Scholtes reviews Chuck D and Slug (Gimme Noise/Culture to Go 4/29/08), Hi Yo Silver, Purple Rain: The Color of Minneapolis Rock and Roll, From Integrated Bands to Segregated Clubs (paper presentation at the EMP Pop Conference in Seattle 4/11/08--I'll email it to you upon request), No Faking: Peter S. Scholtes reviews the Mekons with Greil Marcus (Gimme Noise/Culture to Go 3/31/08) Artist of the Year: The Owls (City Pages 1/2/08)--where I proposed to Toasty, and she responded on the letters page the following week (City Pages 1/9/08). It's been a good year!

Previous roundup (scroll down), the one before that, and the one before that.

_________________________________________________________

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at April 9, 2009 11:10 AM | Comments (2)

 

Morrissey: Compiled

Nathan Amundson, a.k.a. Rivulets, writes to inform me that not only does the solo Morrissey need no compiling, contrary to my hasty preview, but he's been compiled to death--with more than 10 best-ofs listed on Allmusic alone. "What Morrissey needs is a definitive box set. Which can never happen until he's done, and he doesn't seem done yet." Overconfidence in my (obviously) casual fandom wasn't my worst sin: I somehow missed the "compilations" tab while checking his discography at Allmusic. As partial penance, I offer parts one and two of a very rich 2002 Morrissey interview with Dave Fanning on 2FM Ireland, probably news only to fans as casual as I. (But so long as I'm linking audio, download a recently posted 28-minute interview with the Minutemen's D. Boon at Corndogs.org.)

Also, Jake Rudh emails to announce his official Morrissey afterparty at the 7th St. Entry Monday night, free and 18+, with Morrissey prizes, music, and a large screen showing your favorite Smiths and Moz videos:

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at April 6, 2009 12:14 AM | Comments (0)

 

April preview and quarterly Top 10s

Top 10 April releases:

1.-2. Monks, Black Monk Time (Light in the Attic) and Monks, The Early Years 1964-1965 (Light in the Attic), both CDs out April 14: Together these reissue everything on the 1997 Infinite Zero CD issue of Black Monk Time, and include 11 other tracks that are, so far as I can tell, previously unreleased. Beautifully remastered, packaged, and liner-noted too. I wrote about the Monks here three years ago.

3.-4. The Heptones, The Heptones Meet the Now Generation! (17 North Parade/VP), and Various artists, Joe Gibbs Scorchers from the Early Years 1967-73 (Gibbs/VP/17 North Parade), both out April 14: Arguably the best crate digs yet from 17 North Parade, the vintage Jamaican music reissue imprint of powerhouse reggae label VP, these releases capture Jamaican pop still in the romantic vocal-group throes of rock-steady, but with an awakening social-religious consciousness, and deejays meeting harmonies in the crossroads of Joe Gibbs's studio.

Most tracks on The Heptones Meet the Now Generation! were originally released on two various-artists LPs in 1972. Paired down and remastered here, the results emerge as a more shapely dawn-of-reggae classic, though not an entirely new one to CD: Nine of the 12 tracks appeared on Trojan's 1995 reissue of the UK vinyl versions, The Heptones and Friends Volumes 1 & 2. (And if you have that disc, hold onto it: Joe Gibbs Scorchers compiles eight other non-Now Generation! tracks from Heptones and Friends, but leaves off another seven, including Nicky Thomas's indelible "Mama's Song.")

Still, Now Generation! adds three pretty wonderful new rare tracks, including "Freedom Train," U Roy's deejay version of "Freedom to the People." Meanwhile, Scorchers' 40 tracks include such new-to-me joys as Lee Perry smashing bottles during "Seeing Is Knowing/Kimble." I wish Steve Barrow's liner notes had been edited with as much care as they were written--part of the intro text to Scorchers is repeated, and the song dates have somehow been left off amid otherwise meticulous discography. But the graphics and sound are beautiful (the slight dropout on Errol Dunkley's "You're Gonna Need Me" is in the original). See also: Heartbeat's 2007 Clement Dodd-era Heptones collection Sweet Talking.

5. Trama, Mr. T ziptape, out as a free download on April 14: Comedic highlight: "If I Was Emo," in which our hero croons, "I would get great reviews in the hip-hop local news/because I'm not seen as a threat, and my rhymes make you boo-hoo-hoo/If I was emo, I wouldn't have to wear gold/and my fake friends wouldn't call to get on the guest list the day of the show/I would have my own band and listen to Wu Tang Clan/I wouldn't be known in the hood because the hood don't understand." Take that, ...somebody! Written about here.

6. Lady Sovereign, Jigsaw (Midget Records), out April 7: Dropped from Def Jam, she comes back scrappier over weirder beats, or maybe this is just what grime sounds like now.

7. I Was a King, I Was a King (Control Group), out April 7: Norwegian band at first appears to wring a pre-punk American pop fixation through the scuzz textures and meandering modulations of Dinosaur Jr., like Teenage Fanclub with better singing but less memorable tunes--and has anyone needed anything that since, like, 1991? But most songs carry their own weight, and after some mid-album filler, get better as they go--adding horns, piano, strings amid greater compression and sharper hooks.

8. Two Fingers, Two Fingers (Paper Bag Records), out April 14: New project from legendary producer Amon Tobin and Joe "Doubleclick" Chapman outweirds and -grooves Lady Sovereign, but I'll have to listen more for it to stick. Love the sound off the bat.

9. Black Blondie, Do You Remember Who You Wanted to Be (Black Blondie), out in Minneapolis/St. Paul April 17: Sort of D'Angelo meets show-tunes--a sound all its own.

10. Allen Toussaint, The Bright Mississippi (Nonesuch), April 21: I don't know jazz, but I know what I love.


Top 10 from January/February/March:

1. K'Naan, Troubadour (A&M/Octone): Three stars in Rolling Stone is bullshit. Reviewed here and here.
2. P.O.S., Never Better (Rhymesayers): Also best local video in years. Reviewed here.
3. Heartless Bastards, The Mountain (Fat Possum Records): Still miss the old drummer, but more quietly transcendent. Reviewed here.
4. Various artists, Aaron LaCrate & Debonair Samir Present, B-More Club Crack (Koch): Crazy club rap sounds from Baltimore, cooler to blast out your window than grime, crunk, or dancehall, and like some dream version of all three.
5. Lily Allen, It's Not Me, It's You (EMI): Much better, makes me think I misjudged the first one.
6. Various artists, The Roots of Hip Hop (Harte): Reviewed here.
7. Various artists/Mixed by DJ D.Mil, hosted by Mr. Peter Parker, HomeGrown Heat Rocks Volume One mixtape CD (Shadyville/SPStyle.com): Spun and then passed out at Minnesota Hip-Hop Awards, this is the best all-around local rap mix in years, maybe ever.
8. Atmosphere, God Loves Ugly (Rhymesayers), 2002/2009: Sneaks up on you, discussed here.
9. A.C. Newman, Get Guilty (Matador Records)
10. Sims, False Hopes 14 (Doomtree)


10 other great tracks from January/February/March:

1. "Cedars of Lebanon," from U2, No Line on the Horizon (Island/Universal): We played the whole album in the car, liked the sound, and talked over it until this song came on, when we just stopped, turned it up, and listened. "Wow," was all I could say. The album isn't as good as reviewed, at least not yet to my ears, not even as good as How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, which has three more great songs by my count, and that's three more than the two I heard at the time--but then there's the reason I mistrust my mistrust, even if the odd claim that this new one is their best since Achtung Baby makes me wonder if everyone just loves or hates his or her own U2. The one I love did this song, and "Wake Up Dead Man," and "Beautiful Day," and War. Bono's mouth noise to the effect that "Cedars" is about Iraq, a subject on which he remained mum while persuading Bush to give all that aid to Africa, doesn't take away or add, but makes it clearer that this song is as snakey and misty as anything since "Surrender" off War, the one I'll also play to think about hard truths early in the morning. Happy Easter.
2. "Wasted World," from Bob Mould, Life and Times (Anti-), out April 7: Reviewed here.
3. "Duro Hardcore," from Doble Filo, Despierta V. 1 (advance from Emetrece Productions): Cuban hip hop on the way.
4. "Jook Gal" (remix) feat. Twista, Young Blood & Kirprich, from Elephant Man, Energy God: The Best of Elephant Man (VP): Most Jamaican-sounding track turns out to be Lil' Jon's, go figure.
5. "Freakin Out," from Death, ...For the Whole World to See (Drag City): Their most uncanny 1975-sounding-like-1981 punk recording.
6. "Flying Dagger aka 100 Stab," by Aidonia, from Various artists, Ragga Ragga Ragga! 2009 (Greensleeves/VP): Sounds like a posthumous Clash-ification of dancehall.
7. "Elijah," from Black Lips, 200 Million Thousand (Vice)
8. "All You Need Is Me," from Morrissey, Years of Refusal (Attack/Lost Highway): Not the only good track, but the LOL one, discussed here: "You don't like me but you love me/Either way you're wrong/You're gonna miss me when I'm gone."
9. "Money Love," from Glen Washington, Destiny (VP), 2008
10. I forget what ten was for.

Still listening:

Various artists/Niney the Observer, Roots with Quality (17 North Parade/VP)
Brother Ali, The Truth Is Here (Rhymsayers)
Anni Rossi, Rockwell (4AD), discussed here
Sole & the Skyrider Band, Sole & The Skyrider Band Remix LP (Black Canyon)
Andrew Bird, Noble Beast (Fat Possum Records)
Franzdiego.com, The Fanzdiego.com EP free download (Franzdiego.com
Kermit Ruffins, Livin' a Treme Life (Basin Street Records), out April 28
Parallax, When It Rains It Snows (Parallax Music), local funk/reggae/hip hop with Kanser on one track, "Summertime"
Cyril Neville, Brand New Blues (M.C. Records)
The Roe Family Singers, The Earth and All That Is In It (Roe Family Singers), 2008

Late discoveries from 2008 and before:

The Raveonettes, Lust Lust Lust (Vice), 2008
School of Seven Bells, Alphinism (Ghostly Int'l), 2008
Nine Inch Nails, The Slip (The Null Corporation), 2008
Belle and Sebastian, The BBC Sessions (Matador), 2008
Raphael Saadiq, The Way I See It (Columbia), discussed here
Estelle, Shine (Atlantic/Homeschool Records), discussed here
The Kamillion, The Light from My Eyes (Living Profits Records), 2008
Ralph's World, The Rhyming Circus (Disney Sound), 2008, discussed here
Ralph's World, Welcome to Ralph's World (Disney Sound), 2006: Children's music classic.
Various artists, Darker Than Blue: Soul From Jamtown 1973-1980 (Blood and Fire Records), 2001
The Smiths, The Sound of the Smiths (Sire/Rhino), 2008, discussed here
Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes (Sup Pop), 2008
Alexander O'Neal, Alex Loves (Phantom Sound & Vision), 2008
Various artists, Refugee Voices: Building Bridges (UNHRC), 2001, featuring a young K'Naan

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at April 3, 2009 7:19 AM | Comments (0)

 

Greg Ginn at Cabooze Thursday

The great Black Flag guitarist brings his Texas Krautrock and ambient Western blues projects to the Cabooze Thursday (show details) for an 18+ gig with the Bill Mike band opening. Both Greg Ginn & the Taylor Texas Currogators and Jambang have recent albums on SST that are pretty damn cool, soundscapey but never aimless, and always beat-driven--here's a live review in the Houston Press. I missed seeing this show coming or I would have pitched a profile somewhere, but Ginn might be a slightly rarified taste until he starts writing songs with lyrics again.

By coincidence, Quincy Punx did a set of Black Flag covers this weekend at First Avenue, which I missed because I was in Madison, where Ginn was playing the same night, though I doubt he performed a single Black Flag song. Still, I might bring an album down for him to sign.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at April 1, 2009 11:44 AM | Comments (0)

 

New Trama ziptape

I love Trama's new ziptape (his term), Mr. T, hosted by comedian Boima Freeman (as the mohawked icon) and available for free download April 14 at http://www.myspace.com/tramagnum. No other rapper paints as vivid a picture in so few words, and if his long-awaited album is this good, expect big things.

Only disappointment: No samples of the real Mr. T's 1984 rap record, Mr. T's Commandments (Columbia/CBS Records). Listen to "The One and Only Mr. T" for a taste of that T (with more on Youtube)--he was definitely part of the pop-culture magic of '84. Trama plays the Dinkytowner Saturday, and debuts as a portrait artist at the Bloomingdale's gallery in the Mall of America starting April 17--that was him holding up his own painting of Nas at Nas's First Avenue show last year. I've written about Trama before here and here.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at March 31, 2009 12:09 PM | Comments (2)

 

Bob Gruen on Lennon and the Clash

Bob Gruen took some of the most iconic photos of John Lennon, the New York Dolls, and the Clash in America: That 's his image you remember of Lennon with the sleeveless "New York City" t-shirt, and Joe Strummer thumbing backwards at the Empire State Building. Gruen's photos are so good in part because he knew the guys, and loved their music. He also shot 40 hours of footage that was edited down into the 2006 Dolls documentary All Dolled Up: Films By Bob Gruen and Nadya Beck, co-produced by Minneapolis punk archivist Rick Fuller.

Gruen has two recent books out, The New York Dolls: Photographs by Bob Gruen, and a new Clash book authored by the band, The Clash (both of which Michael Matos reviewed here). Gruen also wrote the liner notes for Sony's recent Clash 1982 concert CD Live at Shea Stadium (not their "peak," as Gruen writes--it features '77-era drummer Terry Chimes, brought in to replace longtime drummer Topper Headon, whose grooves are missed--but it does feature cracking good renditions of  "Career Opportunities," on which Chimes played in the studio, and the Equals' "Police on my Back").

Gruen's stories are so good, he's become the subject of a forthcoming documentary himself, produced and directed by Fuller. He'll appear April 15 at the Fitzgerald in St. Paul as part of the Current Fakebook series with Mary Lucia. I caught up with Gruen by phone in New York City last year on the eve of his opening at the International Center of Photography.

I'm curious how some of the people you've known might overlap. Like, did John Lennon ever go see the New York Dolls?

I don't think John actually saw the Dolls. We discussed it a number of times, and he wanted to. But in '73 and '4, John was going back and forth to Los Angeles. He was recording some of his own records. He had a lot of turmoil going on in his life. That was during the period when he and Yoko were kind of separated for a little while.

I do remember one night when the Dolls played on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday at Max's, and in those days you played two sets a night, three on Saturday. And everybody had been there, we had a fantastic weekend. And on Monday, on a rainy night, I was with John and he said, 'Great, let's go downtown, I want to see the New York Dolls.' And I was like, 'Ah, you're a day late.' And he goes, 'Well, tonight's my night to go downtown.'

I did bring David [Johansen] to meet John, so he was aware of the Dolls, but I don't think he was actually at a show.

Are there some unlikely connections with the Dolls that people might not expect? Who went to see them?

All kinds of people. I remember Iggy was there. Andy Warhol came there a couple times and his entourage. I don't have a lot of factual history on that. I wasn't a journalist taking notes, I was in the dressing room drinking with the band.

At some point did the Dolls audience become the punk audience? Was there a difference?

Those are things that people quantify later. Punk didn't happen over a weekend. It wasn't like Friday was glam-rock and Monday was punk rock. These are words that journalists put to describe things after they've happened.

Did John and Yoko ever go to a hip-hop park party in the '70s?

By the late '70s, when hip hop was happening, John and Yoko didn't go out. They stayed home and took care of Sean. John went home in 1975 and didn't come out for a few years. He had been out and about in New York earlier. And he discovered the Elephant's Memory at Max's Kansas City. But I wouldn't say he was a regular there. He was there a few times, maybe two or three over the course of a few years. It was difficult for him to go out, because he wasn't just John Lennon, he was a Beatle. And wherever he showed up, particularly in a club where you have a room full of drunk music fans, he would get really surrounded by people pretty quickly. So generally after 20 minutes or so, he'd have to leave to go to another club.

The rainy Monday night that we went downtown, there was a club that was pretty popular called the Club 82 that was usually pretty crowded. Quite an eclectic group of people. It had been for many years a drag club and then it became more of rock and roll club. So we went there, and I told him it was a Monday night, not much is happening. We walked in, there was like three or four people there. Well within 20 minutes, and this is in the days before cell phones, within 20 minutes they must have had 50 people there, and we had to leave, because they were all trying to talk to him.

So he didn't have the freedom to go out a lot. In the early '80s, I remember trying to talk to him about coming to see certain bands, to go to the Mud Club, for instance, which was a new place. And he said, "You know, I did all that in Hamburg." John was very much about not doing things again. It was something I really learned from him. One time he was asked, "When are you going to reform the Beatles?" And he said, "When are you going to go back to high school?"

(Bob Dylan, "Chile Benefit," Felt Forum NYC 1974)

You were at the Newport Folk Festival when Dylan went electric. Did you happen to know Paul Nelson, the Minnesota critic?

Paul was a wonderful guy. I liked him quite a lot. He was quiet, intellectual. He would smoke a cigarette in the days when a cigarette had significance. And he smoked those brown Nat Shermans, a rather healthy, if I can use that word, cigarette. But yeah, he was a very nice guy, very observant, very quiet. Whenever you asked him something, he always had a really good answer.

I met him when he was hanging around with the Dolls. I didn't know that he knew Bob Dylan until I read it in his obituary. He wasn't the kind of person that would play on that. It never came up. He was a sort of intellectual in the midst of this loud crowd that did get drunk. He was much more of the observer type, but obviously enjoying it. He wasn't aloof.

How did you come to see the second Clash show?

One thing just leads to another in my life, and I just happen to have good timing. I met the New York Dolls because working with John and Yoko I became friends with the Elephant's Memory and made photos for their album. And when I brought the photos for the Elephant's Memory album to their managers, the manager was Leiber and Crabs, and someone in their office said I should go see the other band they manage, the New York Dolls. And so I did, and I totally loved the Dolls and ended up spending a lot of time with them working with them. And toward the end of their time in '75, Malcolm McClaren came to New York with clothes that he had made for the Dolls. And I met him and hung out with him, and he's quite a funny guy. I enjoy Malcolm a lot. And then he went back to England.

When I went to England, to Europe, for the first time a year and a half later, in the Fall of '76, I only had two phone numbers in England. One was the editor of the Melody Maker, who was an older guy, and the other was Malcolm McClaren. And Malcolm hooked me up and found me a cheap place to stay, and he took me to a club called the Club Louise, which had been a lesbian club, but was now letting in all these new young kids into the basement area. They'd been used to an unusual crowd, they didn't mind these guys. It was the basic people who formed the punk scene in England. In Club Louise I met Joe Strummer and Mick Jones, I met the Sex Pistols, Billy Idol, Siouxie and the Banshees, Jon Savage and Caroline Coon, who wrote about it, Vivien Westwood, Malcolm. It was actually Vivien and Caroline Coon who took me to see the Clash. I just happened to be in town that week, and they were playing that week, and they said, "Come along with us, we're going to go see this band called the Clash, they're new." And I was totally blown away by the power and the glory that's the Clash.

When I went back to England in '77, I went to Glasgow to see them. Again, my timing has always been pretty good. Mick Jones and Paul Simonon happened to be at the front desk in the hotel that day, and we were kind of walking to the elevator at the same time, and Mick was looking me over. And he remembered seeing me at the Club Louise a year earlier, and he was like, "You're that guy from New York, right, the photographer?" And I said, "Yeah." And Paul Simonon, hearing that I was like a press person, he kind of turned to me and said, "Well you better watch out for us, because we're cunts." And I said, "Yeah, well, you look it." And we just kind of bonded over that and have been friends ever since.

(Sex Pistols, "With Straws," Luxembourg 1977)

You were there when the Clash first set foot in the United States, right?

Yeah, we came over the border from Vancouver to Seattle. Actually, we got off the bus and took a picture. I was surprised, they actually had a big Peter Max painting that said, 'Welcome to America.' Actually, it was before that. That was on the tour.

But I connected more with the band in '77. In September of '78 the band was in New York to mix their album with Sandy Pearlman, and we spent a lot of time hanging out then. I was one of the few people they knew in New York before they got here. I had a really nice car, a '54 Buick Special, a very rock and roll car. So we'd drive around. They liked hanging out at Max's, a lot of the New York places. So when they came back in the winter tour, I was already friends with the band, and by fortunate coincidence, I was also friends with the publicist of the record company.

For a band that was photographed so much, did the Clash talk about the power of images with you?

I don't remember them talking about it much, but they were very conscious of their images, of image in general. They designed their own clothes. They always had a backdrop that was very powerful. They often decorated whatever room they were in, dressing room or recording studio, with headlines and pictures from the local newspaper. And that would be a collage that would develop and get bigger and bigger and bigger. Like over their two weeks at Bonds, they got like this huge, cool collage going on the door of the dressing room.

You'd been shooting videotape of the New York Dolls. Did you continue with that with other bands?

Not really. There was no outlet for it. There was no such thing as a video cassette at that time. This was a reel-to-reel kind of techie thing, and it wasn't real high quality. Around '73 there was a channel in New York that was cable access, so I showed my rock tapes there.

I upgraded a little bit and got a Super 8 film camera for a while, and I do have some footage of the Clash, which we're trying to put together a DVD of. But the quality wasn't very good. When MTV was invented, it sort of became a committee process to make a video, and that's not really what I was doing. I'm much more of a freelance photographer.

You ended up packaging the Dolls footage as New York Dolls: All Dolled Up, at least.

We were hoping to put out a second one of mostly live footage, but there are contractual problems, and their manager doesn't return our calls.

I actually spent a lot of time [shooting footage] with Ike and Tina Turner, but because of the animosity between Tina and Ike, we never got around to doing [a documentary]. Last year [2007], Ike had contacted me to try to put some of that footage out, and then he died before we really got talking about it. I don't think Tina really wants to see any of that footage.

____________________________________________

Other Clash-related interviews and articles:

My Top 20 Music Videos of All Time (Complicated Fun 3/12/08) http://blogs.citypages.com/pscholtes/2008/03/my_top_20_music.php

An interview with Julien Temple (Complicated Fun 11/9/07) http://blogs.citypages.com/pscholtes/2007/11/interview_with.php

Who is Mick Jones? The Clash and Carbon/Silicon guitarist talks about life after Joe (City Pages 11/8/06) http://www.citypages.com/2006-11-08/music/who-is-mick-jones/all

Complicated Clash: The Mick Jones Interview (Complicated Fun 11/21/06) http://blogs.citypages.com/pscholtes/2006/11/complicated_cla.php

Complicated Dread: The Mikey Dread Interview [RIP] (Complicated Fun 7/21/06) http://blogs.citypages.com/pscholtes/2006/07/complicated_dre.php

Clashback: A bio-doc looks at the punks who changed the complexion of white rock [Strummer at Lifter Puller show!] (City Pages 12/15/99) http://www.citypages.com/1999-12-15/sports/clashback/all

"It's just the beat of time, the beat that must go on": Guy Stevens, London Calling, and the Clash (Complicated Fun 10/26/04) [I'll clean this up and repost it sometime soon] http://blogs.citypages.com/pscholtes/2004/10/its_just_the_be.php

(My Westway to the World review seems to have disappeared from City Pages online, along with all the old film clips. I'll repost it when they reappear, or if I can find it anywhere else.)

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at March 26, 2009 1:21 PM | Comments (0)

 

George Pelecanos: A Critical Bibliography

 
George Pelecanos has written 15 crime novels set in Washington, D.C., none of which is a waste of your time. His latest, The Turnaround, comes out in paperback next month. His new book, The Way Home, appears in May. I've written about Pelecanos here and here. Below are notes for a critical bibliography complete with letter grades, which I know he loathes. They capture how strongly I feel about each book.

A Firing Offense (1992): B so far--haven't finished yet
Debut Nick Stefanos PI mystery establishes classic themes early on: family, drugs, violence, drink, and stereo equipment--with no hurry to get anywhere soon. So I set it down before I ran out of Pelecanos.


Nick's Trip (1993): A
Between-the-lines/between-beers road-trip mystery about the illusory nature of friendship. Best Nick Stefanos.


Shoedog (1994): A-
A break from Stefanos and the first-person with a formula noir to beat all formula noirs (the only one from Pelecanos). Memorable ex-sex and shoe salesmanship.

Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go (1995): A-
In which semi-autobiographical Nick Stefanos realizes he might be bad for people.

The Big Blowdown (1996): A so far--haven't finished yet
Disappointed by other retro-historical Pelecanoses, I was surprised by how completely this 1940s story envelopes you in its mundane but absorbing postwar reality, without a trace of sentimentality or the expected pop-culture overload. Parents of many recurring Pelecanos characters appear.

King Suckerman (1997): B
Gripping fan favorite set in 1976 has amazing moments, but hits the same notes too often for my taste, and with a plot that's like a racially and sexually subverted Elmore Leonard but less fun than that sounds. Vivid picture of moviegoing in the '70s. Optioned and dropped by P. Diddy.

The Sweet Forever (1998): B+
Of all the '80s years to immortalize, why crappy old 1986? D.C. basketball is why. Hence my relative lack of enthusiasm for this thriller of cocaine, parenthood, tube tops, and record stores. Scream and Chuck Brown make appearances.


Shame the Devil (2000): B+
Having written about violence for close to a decade, Pelecanos goes deeper here, using his most immediately grab-you-by-the-head action set-up to frame a drama about... a support group for survivors. Climax tries to have revenge both ways, as both necessary and no good, but villain is so queasily and memorably creepy you just want him gone.

Right as Rain (2001): A-
Introducing Derek Strange, possibly Pelecanos's greatest character, a mentor-hero with problems of his own, and Terry Quinn, his partner, together the most plausible and wonderfully specific salt-and-pepper friendship of crime fiction. Optioned as Samuel L. Jackson vehicle, which is a shame.


Hell to Pay (2002): A+
Great suspense, good dogs, and true-to-life explorations of commitment and would-be fatherhood in the smoke of desire and drugs. Resemblance to Taxi Driver only points up how much more authentic and adult this feels by comparison, and I'm a huge Taxi Driver fan. Best Derek Strange.


Soul Circus (2003): A
Big finish to Derek Strange trilogy ends on an uncharacteristically overt-political note, albeit with tough-guy fire.

Hard Revolution (2004): B+
Given the research, might have been better as a straight-up oral history of the '68 riots in D.C., or of Link Wray's '50s heyday there. But both time-machine destinations are a thrill, whether or not you remember the story of young Derek Strange.


Drama City (2005): A+
Stand-alone redemption tale about a dogcatcher where even the dogs are distinct characters. This book is moving and re-readable in every particular, even if the ending offers the hero too easy a way out. Subjectmatter recalls The Wire, but Pelecanos only repeats one beat--and this book hit it first. Best Pelecanos.

The Night Gardener (2006): B
For once, the author's dutifulness to reporting and subjects close to his heart feels like a burden rather than a spark, and the over-familiar scenario leaves those axes he grinds more obvious. But the reporting and writing are so good that fans won't mind.


The Turnaround (2008): A-
Pelecanos themes of youth, work, fatherhood, racism, violence, reconciliation, and the Iraq War come to a head in this modern-day Steinbeck fable, with an anti-climax so left-field, it circumvents the Pelecanos-esque. Is this even a thriller?

______________________________________
Some Pelecanos links:

My 2006 Q&A with Pelecanos in City Pages
http://www.citypages.com/2006-07-19/news/ten-thousand-bullets/

Extended outtakes from the 2006 City Pages Q&A at Complicated Fun
http://blogs.citypages.com/pscholtes/2006/07/george_pelecano.php

2008 editorial in Time Magazine against the Drug War
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1719872,00.html

2008 Washington Post profile
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/15/AR2008071502119.html

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at March 25, 2009 2:23 PM | Comments (0)