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The snow has come down hard on Portland, but it looks to be over and done. Well, it's just turned to freezing rain, so not really an improvement, I guess.
I've had all the final, not-really-necessary-but-nice-to-get-done work done on Petey Plymouth up here, and am glad to be coming back to NYC shortly with a minivan in great shape.
And the iPod is now up to containing 19,907 songs, 68.25 gigs, 43.7 days of music (and other occasional oddities). Let's see what comes up this afternoon . . .
1. "Melancholy Music Man" - The Righteous Brothers - Anthology 1962-1974)
The song is probably unbearably sappy, really, but I can enjoy almost anything if it's sung by Hatfield and Medley (almost - there is that rotten, nails-on-a-blackboard "Rock and Roll Heaven" song . . . yeesh!). Too short, this one, doesn't get that BUILD going that it should.
2. "Luci Baines" - The Jigsaw Seen - Delphonic Sounds
Cover of a 1960s single on the Del-Fi label from a compilation. Don't know the original song (which seems to refer to the then-President's daughter), don't know who did it, don't know this band doing it now, but it's beautiful. Real candy-coated pop, keeping the 60s feel with a 90s production.
3. "People Say" - The Dixie Cups - Best Of The Girl Groups
Huh. Thought I really knew and liked this song. Suddenly it seems rather poky and unenergetic. I went and looked to be sure this wasn't a cover or alternate take that I also have. Nope, this is the original. I thought there was more power to it. Good song, still, just could be pepped up a bit.
4. "Ohm Is Where The Heart Is" - The Residents - WB:RMX
Great, long track combining the best parts of early and recent Residents. This is originally a track from the first "album" that they ever created, around 1969 or 70, I think. They sent the tape to Hal Halverstadt at Warner Bros. records, knowing of his support of "odd" artists such as Captain Beefheart. He sent it back to them with a polite refusal note - the envelope was addressed to "Residents," and so, while they didn't get an album deal, they were at least given a name. The tape sat around for around 30 years, unheard. Then they dragged it out and "remixed" it - which seems to have involved lots of loops, samples, added drum tracks, and extensive new work. The original was apparently more jarring and discordant than their first released album, Meet the Residents, and this is like real music. Best thing they've done in years, this album.
5. "Good Good Lovin'" - James Brown - Star Time
I miss James. This is a relatively early track that I've included on every "dance mix" tape I've ever made. Aaron Beall liked having the casts of his shows dance to one song together before every performance - I've done this, too, but not as a mandatory thing - and this was the favored one before every performance of Kirk Wood Bromley's Want's Unwished Work in '96. We needed a good jolt before that show, to give us the speed-freak pace the play requires. At one performance, several cast members insisted on a laid-back, reggae song instead, and we gave a lousy, unenergetic performance that day. It was back to JB after that disaster.
6. "Be a Zombie" - Los Reactors - Be a Zombie/Laboratory Baby 7"
Tight, lo-fi, punk-becoming-new-wave 45 single. Brings back memories of a time and place, though I didn't know this song until recently - I heard plenty like it back in school then. Simple and direct and powerful. No pretensions.
7. "Life's An Elevator" - T.Rex - History of T.Rex—The Singles Collection
Sweet, soft, acoustic ballad with a pretty obvious metaphoric chorus, but Bolan makes silly things sound profound, as usual.
8. "Stay Hungry" - Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings And Food
I'm a big Heads fan, grew up that way. Never liked this song until recently though. Too jumpy in the wrong way. Now I do. I think I've listened to all the Heads I really liked too much, so there's nothing much there for me anymore. Now all the songs I ignored sound full of depth and life. Familiarity breeds contempt, or if not contempt, boredom, even in the loved.
9. "TKO" - Off Beats - Dumb Looks Still Free
For some reason, when I got the most recent two Pere Ubu albums from Smog Veil records, my package contained two additional CDs, which I guess they had spares of and were giving away. One was a comp of Cleveland punk groups - about a third great, a third OK, and a third lousy - and this comp of "greatest hits" by this Cleveland punk group. Again, about the same ratio of great/OK/lousy. This is an OK one. Terribly recorded.
10. "Strawman" - Lou Reed - New York
The summer this album came out, it was MY ALBUM. I had been getting heavily into Reed for a few years, and suddenly he came out with this. Nothing had sounded so ballsy in years. I played it over and over.
By the end of the summer, I hated this damned thing. Yeah, it sounds great, but the songwriting is incredibly sloppy and shitty. When Reed began billing himself as a "poet," which he did around this time, his lyrics went to hell. They sound like bad first drafts, except for two or three songs, including this one ("Romeo Had Juliette" is still a great, GREAT song). The guitars are amazing, though. I think I like this one as much for being great curtain-call music for Tina Landau's production of Chuck Mee's Orestes, done on a rotting dock on the Hudson River (I saw the July 4 performance, and as this song played out, you could see fireworks all over New Jersey).
I was still writing lots of songs at the time this came out (and everyone was telling me my singing voice sounded like Reed, which I was also getting sick of hearing), and I started a kind of tribute song to Reed right after getting the album. By the time I finished the song two years later, it had gone from a tribute song to a parody of his . Still a favorite of mine to play any time I pick up a guitar (not very often these days, unfortunately).
Maybe some cat blogging later, if I can borrow my mom's camera and take some nice shots of our loaner cat up here, Bappers.
I've had all the final, not-really-necessary-but-nice-to-get-done work done on Petey Plymouth up here, and am glad to be coming back to NYC shortly with a minivan in great shape.
And the iPod is now up to containing 19,907 songs, 68.25 gigs, 43.7 days of music (and other occasional oddities). Let's see what comes up this afternoon . . .
1. "Melancholy Music Man" - The Righteous Brothers - Anthology 1962-1974)
The song is probably unbearably sappy, really, but I can enjoy almost anything if it's sung by Hatfield and Medley (almost - there is that rotten, nails-on-a-blackboard "Rock and Roll Heaven" song . . . yeesh!). Too short, this one, doesn't get that BUILD going that it should.
2. "Luci Baines" - The Jigsaw Seen - Delphonic Sounds
Cover of a 1960s single on the Del-Fi label from a compilation. Don't know the original song (which seems to refer to the then-President's daughter), don't know who did it, don't know this band doing it now, but it's beautiful. Real candy-coated pop, keeping the 60s feel with a 90s production.
3. "People Say" - The Dixie Cups - Best Of The Girl Groups
Huh. Thought I really knew and liked this song. Suddenly it seems rather poky and unenergetic. I went and looked to be sure this wasn't a cover or alternate take that I also have. Nope, this is the original. I thought there was more power to it. Good song, still, just could be pepped up a bit.
4. "Ohm Is Where The Heart Is" - The Residents - WB:RMX
Great, long track combining the best parts of early and recent Residents. This is originally a track from the first "album" that they ever created, around 1969 or 70, I think. They sent the tape to Hal Halverstadt at Warner Bros. records, knowing of his support of "odd" artists such as Captain Beefheart. He sent it back to them with a polite refusal note - the envelope was addressed to "Residents," and so, while they didn't get an album deal, they were at least given a name. The tape sat around for around 30 years, unheard. Then they dragged it out and "remixed" it - which seems to have involved lots of loops, samples, added drum tracks, and extensive new work. The original was apparently more jarring and discordant than their first released album, Meet the Residents, and this is like real music. Best thing they've done in years, this album.
5. "Good Good Lovin'" - James Brown - Star Time
I miss James. This is a relatively early track that I've included on every "dance mix" tape I've ever made. Aaron Beall liked having the casts of his shows dance to one song together before every performance - I've done this, too, but not as a mandatory thing - and this was the favored one before every performance of Kirk Wood Bromley's Want's Unwished Work in '96. We needed a good jolt before that show, to give us the speed-freak pace the play requires. At one performance, several cast members insisted on a laid-back, reggae song instead, and we gave a lousy, unenergetic performance that day. It was back to JB after that disaster.
6. "Be a Zombie" - Los Reactors - Be a Zombie/Laboratory Baby 7"
Tight, lo-fi, punk-becoming-new-wave 45 single. Brings back memories of a time and place, though I didn't know this song until recently - I heard plenty like it back in school then. Simple and direct and powerful. No pretensions.
7. "Life's An Elevator" - T.Rex - History of T.Rex—The Singles Collection
Sweet, soft, acoustic ballad with a pretty obvious metaphoric chorus, but Bolan makes silly things sound profound, as usual.
8. "Stay Hungry" - Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings And Food
I'm a big Heads fan, grew up that way. Never liked this song until recently though. Too jumpy in the wrong way. Now I do. I think I've listened to all the Heads I really liked too much, so there's nothing much there for me anymore. Now all the songs I ignored sound full of depth and life. Familiarity breeds contempt, or if not contempt, boredom, even in the loved.
9. "TKO" - Off Beats - Dumb Looks Still Free
For some reason, when I got the most recent two Pere Ubu albums from Smog Veil records, my package contained two additional CDs, which I guess they had spares of and were giving away. One was a comp of Cleveland punk groups - about a third great, a third OK, and a third lousy - and this comp of "greatest hits" by this Cleveland punk group. Again, about the same ratio of great/OK/lousy. This is an OK one. Terribly recorded.
10. "Strawman" - Lou Reed - New York
The summer this album came out, it was MY ALBUM. I had been getting heavily into Reed for a few years, and suddenly he came out with this. Nothing had sounded so ballsy in years. I played it over and over.
By the end of the summer, I hated this damned thing. Yeah, it sounds great, but the songwriting is incredibly sloppy and shitty. When Reed began billing himself as a "poet," which he did around this time, his lyrics went to hell. They sound like bad first drafts, except for two or three songs, including this one ("Romeo Had Juliette" is still a great, GREAT song). The guitars are amazing, though. I think I like this one as much for being great curtain-call music for Tina Landau's production of Chuck Mee's Orestes, done on a rotting dock on the Hudson River (I saw the July 4 performance, and as this song played out, you could see fireworks all over New Jersey).
I was still writing lots of songs at the time this came out (and everyone was telling me my singing voice sounded like Reed, which I was also getting sick of hearing), and I started a kind of tribute song to Reed right after getting the album. By the time I finished the song two years later, it had gone from a tribute song to a parody of his . Still a favorite of mine to play any time I pick up a guitar (not very often these days, unfortunately).
Maybe some cat blogging later, if I can borrow my mom's camera and take some nice shots of our loaner cat up here, Bappers.
