Over at WFMU, there was a brief and sad reminder of the life and death of Johnny Thunders who died 17 years ago last week. Check it out here.
Someday soon when I'm not so busy I'll post something more about this.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Has it really been so long?
Over at WFMU, there was a brief and sad reminder of the life and death of Johnny Thunders who died 17 years ago last week. Check it out here.
Someday soon when I'm not so busy I'll post something more about this.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Muxtape Mixtape
This morning I decided to give Muxtape.com a try and so I made you, the reader, a mix tape. There's nothing significant about the songs except for the fact that they are songs I still like.
Wanna hear it? Just click here A Rock and Roll Ghost Mix Tape #1 and then click on the song titles to listen. The mix will only stay up until I make a new mix so get in while the listening is good. If you have any questions about the songs, let me know.
Once you listen to mine you can go to the main page to listen to other mixes and maybe create your own. Let me know if you make one.
Wanna hear it? Just click here A Rock and Roll Ghost Mix Tape #1 and then click on the song titles to listen. The mix will only stay up until I make a new mix so get in while the listening is good. If you have any questions about the songs, let me know.
Once you listen to mine you can go to the main page to listen to other mixes and maybe create your own. Let me know if you make one.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Getting Back to Basics
The last time I went to see live music here in LA was about six months ago when I saw The Hold Steady at the Henry Fonda Theater. The show was something of a disappointment but not because of the music; The Hold Steady and openers, The Art Brut were fine but a large portion of the audience seemed more interested in live blogging the show from their Blackberrys, getting the perfect camera phone shot or loudly mentioning that they saw the band at a bar in Brooklyn back in two thousand and who gives a shit. So, it was refreshing to go to the El Rey to see Nick Lowe and Robyn Hitchcock a few nights ago and find that the overwhelming majority of the people were just there to enjoy the show. As my wife and I waited for the show to start I looked around and saw no ironic tee shirts, nobody loudly mentioning when they first saw the artists; basically there was no hipster snobbery to be found. This is not as great as it sounds because as my wife said “Don’t get too excited; remember if you can’t spot the hipster snob, you may be the hipster snob.” She was probably right.
There's a review of the show here.
There's a review of the show here.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Speaking of Live Music, A Story about My Brother
When we were youger and lived in the same city my brother Mike was a trusted ally. This was due to the fact that he was big and willing to fight and also because of his fierce loyalty to those he cared about; on some days this included me. This loyalty could also be counted on if you were scoring him drinks while he was underage, which I did frequently, including on the night mentioned below.
One night he and I were at a concert at Irving Plaza in NY along with a few friends when I, in a lapse of judgment, hurled a handful of lose change at the opening act. I was unceremoniously dragged from the venue and thrown into the street. A few minutes later my brother gets the same escort out the door. He walks across 14th street to where I'm sitting and says:
"I didn't want to just leave you out here alone so I punched the guy who threw you out as soon as he came back up the stairs."
-Thanks man, wanna get some beer?
"Sounds good to me"
Sure we missed the show but it was OK we had more fun outside.
One night he and I were at a concert at Irving Plaza in NY along with a few friends when I, in a lapse of judgment, hurled a handful of lose change at the opening act. I was unceremoniously dragged from the venue and thrown into the street. A few minutes later my brother gets the same escort out the door. He walks across 14th street to where I'm sitting and says:
"I didn't want to just leave you out here alone so I punched the guy who threw you out as soon as he came back up the stairs."
-Thanks man, wanna get some beer?
"Sounds good to me"
Sure we missed the show but it was OK we had more fun outside.
Invisible Concert Goer
I’m going to try and get back into seeing live music tonight by checking out (along with my wife) Robyn Hitchcock and Nick Lowe at the El Rey here in Los Angeles. There’s an excellent review of their NY show over at Aquarium Drunkard. While I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing Nick Lowe live, Robyn Hitchcock and I go back through many years of live shows including the time back in 1995 when I managed to drink too much and briefly pass out right in the middle of Ghost Ship. I might also be in the rarely seen Storefront Hitchcock, directed by Jonathan Demme. I was at the filming but I haven’t seen the movie (I do have the soundtrack though and I can tell that it’s me clapping on a few songs). This will be my first show since I decided I didn’t want to hate music anymore; wish me luck.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
You May Have Seen This Already
I posted this earlier today on my other blog but just in case you've never seen that one here's some news:
Just a quick update to let you know that the good people over at LA Metblogs will be letting me post there a few times a week. I’ll be joining a group of very talented writers, many of whom have the same first name as me. To avoid confusion with the other Wills I’ve been given a new name*. You can find out what my new name is here and, more importantly, you can find LA Metblogs here. I hope you'll check it out.
*New name courtesy of Noirbettie.
More music stuff very soon.
Just a quick update to let you know that the good people over at LA Metblogs will be letting me post there a few times a week. I’ll be joining a group of very talented writers, many of whom have the same first name as me. To avoid confusion with the other Wills I’ve been given a new name*. You can find out what my new name is here and, more importantly, you can find LA Metblogs here. I hope you'll check it out.
*New name courtesy of Noirbettie.
More music stuff very soon.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Taking an Unpopular Stand
While this blog is largely about why I don't like music anymore I'd be doing a disservice to anyone reading this if I didn't offer some type of solutions to my music problem. Here's an example of something I dislike and something that makes it all better.
Here's something I hate about music: Led Zeppelin. This is not me being a contrarian hipster dick because I really want to like Led Zeppelin but I can only like half of them. I'd like all the way if they had a different singer and a drummer who didn't just pound the skins with tree branches. It would also have helped if they would have laid off on the mysticism once they hit it big...we get it guys, you've read Tolkien. That said, the rest of the band was great; there's no arguing against Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones being awesome.
Wouldn't it be great if there was a band that had the fat bluesy riffs, bass lines you could hang your wash on but got a better drummer and a singer who didn't suck?
Good news everyone, that the band exists and they are called The Chrome Cranks. Sadly they are no longer active but if you want to rock without having to get a degree in mythology or feeling guilty for robbing Willie Dixon the Chrome Cranks are the band for you. Click on the link below to check it out.
Chrome Cranks - Shine It On
Here's something I hate about music: Led Zeppelin. This is not me being a contrarian hipster dick because I really want to like Led Zeppelin but I can only like half of them. I'd like all the way if they had a different singer and a drummer who didn't just pound the skins with tree branches. It would also have helped if they would have laid off on the mysticism once they hit it big...we get it guys, you've read Tolkien. That said, the rest of the band was great; there's no arguing against Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones being awesome.
Wouldn't it be great if there was a band that had the fat bluesy riffs, bass lines you could hang your wash on but got a better drummer and a singer who didn't suck?
Good news everyone, that the band exists and they are called The Chrome Cranks. Sadly they are no longer active but if you want to rock without having to get a degree in mythology or feeling guilty for robbing Willie Dixon the Chrome Cranks are the band for you. Click on the link below to check it out.
Chrome Cranks - Shine It On
Thursday, April 3, 2008
My Brother Dylan and That Other Dylan
Here's something semi music related:
Today my brother Dylan turns 21, I find this fact stunning because I am nearly 13 years older than him. It seems like just yesterday he was in diapers and now he's an adult and I'm one year closer to needing diapers. Where does the time go?
Dylan is named after Bob Dylan, a fact which I disliked a great deal at the time my brother was born. At age 12 I hadn't discovered Bob Dylan yet although my parents tried to introduce me to him very early on. My parents tell me that while I was still in the crib they would put on a Bob Dylan record and plug in the headphones then lay those big 70’s headphones next to me so I could hear it as I went to sleep. Apparently in the 70’s it was common for parent to fill the crib with cords and electronics. I don’t actually remember this ever happening; I swear that Just Like a Woman is the first song I can remember hearing but I can’t that’s a real memory or just years of suggested memory.
Twenty-one years ago I was 12 going on 13 and my favorite things in life were The Mets, Nintendo, and watching the squiggly lines on the adult channels in the hopes that I could see boobs. 1987 was a good year, in fact as far as family goes it may have been the best year we ever had.
1987 was a big year. If you ask my sister about 1987 she’ll call it, The Year We Had Food. We also moved from the ghetto part of town to a nicer section; we could tell it was nice because residents only shot off fireworks on the 4th of July and we didn’t have to pause our conversations every 15 minutes when the train passed. As an added bonus we even went to the dentist...it was like being in a real family 7 days a week. So, in April of 1987 when Dylan was born it was like we got an eight pound reminder that things were on the upswing for us all.
Did it last? If you said no, you are correct. Looking back at things I think that in the fall of 1988 we should have disbanded and joined other families; quit on top, but that's another day's story, today is about wishing the kid named after Bob Dylan a happy birthday.
Today my brother Dylan turns 21, I find this fact stunning because I am nearly 13 years older than him. It seems like just yesterday he was in diapers and now he's an adult and I'm one year closer to needing diapers. Where does the time go?
Dylan is named after Bob Dylan, a fact which I disliked a great deal at the time my brother was born. At age 12 I hadn't discovered Bob Dylan yet although my parents tried to introduce me to him very early on. My parents tell me that while I was still in the crib they would put on a Bob Dylan record and plug in the headphones then lay those big 70’s headphones next to me so I could hear it as I went to sleep. Apparently in the 70’s it was common for parent to fill the crib with cords and electronics. I don’t actually remember this ever happening; I swear that Just Like a Woman is the first song I can remember hearing but I can’t that’s a real memory or just years of suggested memory.
Twenty-one years ago I was 12 going on 13 and my favorite things in life were The Mets, Nintendo, and watching the squiggly lines on the adult channels in the hopes that I could see boobs. 1987 was a good year, in fact as far as family goes it may have been the best year we ever had.
1987 was a big year. If you ask my sister about 1987 she’ll call it, The Year We Had Food. We also moved from the ghetto part of town to a nicer section; we could tell it was nice because residents only shot off fireworks on the 4th of July and we didn’t have to pause our conversations every 15 minutes when the train passed. As an added bonus we even went to the dentist...it was like being in a real family 7 days a week. So, in April of 1987 when Dylan was born it was like we got an eight pound reminder that things were on the upswing for us all.
Did it last? If you said no, you are correct. Looking back at things I think that in the fall of 1988 we should have disbanded and joined other families; quit on top, but that's another day's story, today is about wishing the kid named after Bob Dylan a happy birthday.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Anyone Who Ever Had A Heart
Driving slowly over Sunset Blvd in 2000 while Sweet Jane played she sang the opening lines and then let Lou Reed take the next one on his own. Her omission bothered me so I said;
"You know the words are "Riding in a Stutz Bearcat"
– "I don't care, why do you always have to do that?"
"You didn't sing them so I thought you might not know them"
- "I'll sing any way I want to, I don't care that you know everything about stupid things."
"I'm just saying"
- "Well don't say anything."
................ (Pause)
"The Stutz Bearcat, was a car"
- "I'm getting out of THIS car if you don't shut up"
There was a time when lyrical mistakes bothered me but I don’t care anymore even if it is one of my favorite songs.
The live version of Sweet Jane, that the Velvet Underground play on Live:1969 was for years, the only place to hear a good version of the "lost"* middle verse of the song. It simply repeats the following line twice:
Heavenly wine and roses seem to whisper to me when you smile**
I knew the song Sweet Jane for years before I ever heard the full version. There's a time in a teenage boys life when he discovers Lou Reed, at least there was in this boys life. Back around 1988 my mother's husband was playing Lou Reed's "New York" down in the basement. I liked what I heard but I didn't know who it was, shortly afterwards I saw Dirty Blvd. playing on MTV and I caught the name Lou Reed. Being a dork I headed to the library to look him up. My town library didn't have much but I discovered that this was the same person I heard mentioned back when Andy Warhol died the year before and he had a band called the Velvet Underground. There was also a copy of Metal Machine Music listed in the card catalog but the LP had been taken out some time before and never returned. Several months later I took my birthday money and bought, "New York" and The Velvet Underground and Nico but it was another year before I heard the Velvet Underground's Sweet Jane thanks to a ninth grade friend who taped me a copy of Loaded. Now, contrarian hipsters will tell you that Loaded is an inferior album, that it is too polished and therefore not as good as White Light/White Heat. Fuck that, I love Loaded as much if not more than any other official album in the VU catalog and I loved Sweet Jane 10 seconds into the first time I heard it but I didn’t really, REALLY love it until I heard the live version with the missing lyric. If you’ve only heard the edited version that appeared on the original release of Loaded I highly recommend the “Fully Loaded” version below and the 1969 version. For anyone looking to dig deeper there are three other versions below. Click the links to check them out.
Live 1969 Version
Max's Kansas City 1
Max's Kansas City 2
Early Loaded Version
Fully Loaded Version
* The verse was not lost, it was purposefully deleted from the album version by Doug Yule after Lou Reed quit the band. Loaded, the final Velvet Underground album was released after the band had dissolved.
**In alternate versions the line varies
UPDATE: Check this out, a previously unknown Velvet Underground live recording from 1967. Link courtesy of Dr. Mooney.
"You know the words are "Riding in a Stutz Bearcat"
– "I don't care, why do you always have to do that?"
"You didn't sing them so I thought you might not know them"
- "I'll sing any way I want to, I don't care that you know everything about stupid things."
"I'm just saying"
- "Well don't say anything."
................ (Pause)
"The Stutz Bearcat, was a car"
- "I'm getting out of THIS car if you don't shut up"
There was a time when lyrical mistakes bothered me but I don’t care anymore even if it is one of my favorite songs.
The live version of Sweet Jane, that the Velvet Underground play on Live:1969 was for years, the only place to hear a good version of the "lost"* middle verse of the song. It simply repeats the following line twice:
Heavenly wine and roses seem to whisper to me when you smile**
I knew the song Sweet Jane for years before I ever heard the full version. There's a time in a teenage boys life when he discovers Lou Reed, at least there was in this boys life. Back around 1988 my mother's husband was playing Lou Reed's "New York" down in the basement. I liked what I heard but I didn't know who it was, shortly afterwards I saw Dirty Blvd. playing on MTV and I caught the name Lou Reed. Being a dork I headed to the library to look him up. My town library didn't have much but I discovered that this was the same person I heard mentioned back when Andy Warhol died the year before and he had a band called the Velvet Underground. There was also a copy of Metal Machine Music listed in the card catalog but the LP had been taken out some time before and never returned. Several months later I took my birthday money and bought, "New York" and The Velvet Underground and Nico but it was another year before I heard the Velvet Underground's Sweet Jane thanks to a ninth grade friend who taped me a copy of Loaded. Now, contrarian hipsters will tell you that Loaded is an inferior album, that it is too polished and therefore not as good as White Light/White Heat. Fuck that, I love Loaded as much if not more than any other official album in the VU catalog and I loved Sweet Jane 10 seconds into the first time I heard it but I didn’t really, REALLY love it until I heard the live version with the missing lyric. If you’ve only heard the edited version that appeared on the original release of Loaded I highly recommend the “Fully Loaded” version below and the 1969 version. For anyone looking to dig deeper there are three other versions below. Click the links to check them out.
Live 1969 Version
Max's Kansas City 1
Max's Kansas City 2
Early Loaded Version
Fully Loaded Version
* The verse was not lost, it was purposefully deleted from the album version by Doug Yule after Lou Reed quit the band. Loaded, the final Velvet Underground album was released after the band had dissolved.
**In alternate versions the line varies
UPDATE: Check this out, a previously unknown Velvet Underground live recording from 1967. Link courtesy of Dr. Mooney.
Reasons I Don't Like Going To See Live Music As Much As I Used To
1- Adults who wear the t-shirt of the band they paying to see: Your presence at the show is generally proof enough that you're a fan, there's really no to belabor the point.
2 –Time Shifting: Time at music venues is a relative thing, if the band's web site says the will go on at a certain time you can be sure that means that the doors to the club will be opening at that time. Once you add on sound checks you can guarantee an extra 90 minutes tacked on to that advertised start time. Club goers just figure this relative time into their schedule, if it says 8:30...figure 10...9:30 means 11:00 and so on. I'm asking that we stop this practice or at least push the advertised start times back, let's just agree to list the start time at 7:30, but open the doors at 9:00 and start playing music an hour later. This means that the band you paid to see might actually take the stage before midnight. I know I'm asking a lot but this is plan is a winner for everyone...I get to see more shows because I know that I'll be able to get to work the next day...the venue gets more of my money and the band knows that I care...we all live happily ever after and get home at a decent hour. If I'm ever named king of somewhere this will be my first decree.
2 –Time Shifting: Time at music venues is a relative thing, if the band's web site says the will go on at a certain time you can be sure that means that the doors to the club will be opening at that time. Once you add on sound checks you can guarantee an extra 90 minutes tacked on to that advertised start time. Club goers just figure this relative time into their schedule, if it says 8:30...figure 10...9:30 means 11:00 and so on. I'm asking that we stop this practice or at least push the advertised start times back, let's just agree to list the start time at 7:30, but open the doors at 9:00 and start playing music an hour later. This means that the band you paid to see might actually take the stage before midnight. I know I'm asking a lot but this is plan is a winner for everyone...I get to see more shows because I know that I'll be able to get to work the next day...the venue gets more of my money and the band knows that I care...we all live happily ever after and get home at a decent hour. If I'm ever named king of somewhere this will be my first decree.
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