Pete Drake

I don't know too much about this guy but I gotta extend a public thank you to my buddy Asa at Black Iris as he showed me this ridiculously epic video the other day. The song is by Pete Drake, it's called "Forever" off the 1964 Smash Records album of the same name. Apparently this shit sold over one million...remember when people used to be rad...? I don't.

Pete Drake - Nashville pedal steel wiz, record producer and all around innovator. Apparently he played steel on all of Dylan's Nashville records, he played with Joan Baez, Marty Robbins, Don Gibson, George Harrison and Ringo. Definitely the first guy to use a talk box with a pedal steel guitar, though apparently Alvino Rey and Luise King were the first to employ the sound with a guitar in 1939. Nerd Alert!

Stay thirsty my friends.

Ain't No Grave

So I've been meaning to post about this for a while now. There's a new Johnny Cash jam called "Ain't No Grave" up on iTunes but more importantly it's streaming on his myspace page if you're not on lala yet...

This is amongst the last sessions he ever did with Rick Rubin before his death, and really I haven't heard J.R. sound quite so ominous ever. Maybe it's because he's accepted the inevitability of his death and is saying to all of us future listeners that even the grave can't hold him down. Creepier and more metaphysical still is the fact that we are now those present future listeners listening to the moribund (even in life) chant of the dead man, Mr. Cash, making these statements. A total mind-fuck, and just another excellent song by the godfather of goth.

CORRECTION: Ain't No Grave is actually a traditional, most notably performed by the late great Odetta. Sorry for my ignorance.

Long Time No See

Hello Children, it's been too long and I apologize. Things were extremely hectic.



I was inspired by a couple things going on, first the ATP NY 2010 announcement...gosh darnit if only I had the coin. Small bands like:

Iggy and the Stooges (doing Raw Power)
Explosions in the Sky
Breeders
Sonic Youth
Not one but two of the ironic Fuck bands - Fucked Up and Fuck Buttons
Brian Jonestown
etc.

Jim Jarmusch curated, well played.

But really most impressively SCIENTISTS from down unda, in their first US appearance apparently, performing one of my favorite lost gems, "Blood Red River."



In order to fulfill my quota of Nick Cave references, without further ado...
Along with Nick Cave (maybe before him), Kim Salmon of Scientists had a band called Cheap Nasties which was one of the first Australian punk bands. Really opened the flood gates for some genius shit, I don't think I have to sit here and tell you how rad Radio Birdman, The Saints and the Birthday Party were.

Scientists have that gnarly blues gothic post-punk sound that I adore, definitely more "rock & roll" than the Birthday Party, and a good place to start for someone looking to break their ears in to that aggro noisy sound. Maybe this is pushing it, but it's something like a cross between Mudhoney and Gun Club.

As penance for my long absence...here's some extra credit. These dudes are just so goddamm good at life.

Happy New Year and the Art of Contradiction

Just wanted to let everyone know that the Sheriffs EP is now available for download at several fine digital retailers.



In other news, the holidays have been good to me and I've been hoarding hidden record treasures like some sort of hybrid squirrel pirate. Amongst one of the records I picked up was "Seconds of Pleasure" by a band called Rockpile which features the serendipitous synergy of Dave Edmunds and the "Jesus of Cool" himself, Nick Lowe. I've been meaning to post a little something on the Stiff Records scene as it has always been fodder for pretentious banter between my equally supercilious friends, and my father who initially passed on the knowledge to me. However, that might be a story for another time.



Anyway, this record has power pop balls, and just oozes with no frills rock and roll under the supremely competent flag of its master songwriter co-captains. For how simple the music truly is, it's amazing how this record sounds unlike anything prior.

I've grown pretty weary with a good deal of the new "buzz band" music I've been hearing as of late. That's why, in case you haven't noticed already, I'm gonna be devoting a larger bulk of my time to forgotten gems--the lonesome, discarded masterworks of the past.

And in an effort to completely contradict myself, come see Papa and Slang Chickens at the Unknown Theater this Friday, because there's an exception to every rule. Namely if I am currently, or at some point was in a band, I will write about that band.

POWER POP! - The LAST Frontier

 

Alright, I adore power pop and it's about time I said something about it.  Nothing makes me feel quite so giddy as those jangly guitars, four-part harmonies and song structures lifted directly from the first 4 Beatles records - that and the crusty punk attitude lying just beneath the surface. It's like somebody pouring fresh squeezed orange juice down my ear canal.  Generally surfing, cruising in your sweet muscle car, drinking beers and saying Ghee Wiz with your best girl are topics of interest amongst the power pop elite.  I could filibuster about The Flamin' Groovies, The Barracudas, The Nerves, Plimsouls, The Raspberries etc. ad nauseam, but today is devoted to a very special band that nobody (to my knowledge) gives a rat fuck about, and they really should.

The Last (good luck googling them) are absolute power-pop poetry perfection.  Their first record came out on Bomp! and it was called L.A. Explosion, notice a trend...you know Los Angeles?  There isn't a bad song on this record, and it gets my dick rather hard.  It's like if the Beatles and the Byrds started freebasing crystal meth and hanging out with the Circle Jerks, yeah I know it's that good.  This is precisely why they make my nether-organs swell, pop songwriting sensibility and serious punk attitude.  Not to mention one Greg Ginn of a small band called Black Flag decided to put out their record Awakening on a pretty cool label called SST.

I highly suggest you seek out these records by any means necessary, I mean if you like power-pop.  They're actually not too difficult to find on vinyl.

Also shameless plug time!  Brandon Intelligator and the Sheriffs, LA's favorite wayward sons are playing at Echo Curio tomorrow night at 8:30 with good buddies Cassorla and Cooperation.  Come out if you're feeling saucy, lord knows I am after all that power-pop talk.

Skids

This band I feel is criminally underrated, and I was pretty sore at my pops for not showing them to me when he most certainly must have known how into them I would be.  Skids are a Scottish punk band from the late 70's, early 80's that shirk the requisite "oi" responsibilities of other Scotch scum fucks.  Rather they reach for Pere Ubu-like art rock and hard hitting 70's rock & roll with a distinctly Scottish flavor.  You can listen to their finest song, "The Saints Are Coming," off their debut record Scared to Dance here.  Mind you, this record has a dash of new wave pop that some may find irritating, not I, but some.  Either way, dare I blaspheme, this song may just be cooler than anything the Clash wrote--catalog-wise however, I'm not so sure...

Also a little extra credit, welcome to Los Angeles...

ATP Film Recap + Ongoing SXSW Coverage + Grooms

Another band worth checking out...

The 88, LA dudes, quite a bit poppier than my normal leanings but they have a Sparks thing going on, and the songs are just incredible, plus they're opening for Black Francis at the Echoplex next week.

The Yellow Dogs, they're from Iran where music is basically illegal.  I don't know how these guys walk with those boulders dangling between their legs.  Listen to the live tracks, sounds like they would probably slay live.

Also in the long line bands like the Burning Brides, Wives and The Husbands (it's purely a name joke, these bands don't particularly sound anything alike so don't crucify me, get a sense of humor, god!), I finally got around the hearing Grooms. They're playing an Aquarium Drunkard show at the Silverlake Lounge next week.  They've got the great de-tuned Sonic Youth guitar sensibilities and an energy that really explodes off the recording.

As a side note, I checked out the ATP Movie last night at Cinefamily.  It's a really well done rock documentary, and the incredible line-up of performers didn't hurt either...small guys like Grinderman, Dirty Three, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Daniel Johnston, The Stooges, Shellac, Sonic Youth, Portishead, Slint...well you get the idea.  They sort of took a Monterey Pop-like stand in the sense that they presented an extremely accurate and candid expose of a moderately confusing generation of young people.  See it if you get the chance.

Preliminary SXSW Lineup Announced and Other Things...

Hello Fanatics,

The preliminary SXSW 2010 Lineup has been officially announced.  I will be attending for the first time.  Take a look at that and I'll tell you later who of that list you should know, and who you should hope fades into obscurity.

And unless you like to wear your sphincter as a hat, you know tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends, and a wretched pisspot of a putrified fuck to all of my enemies.  

Friends, as a bonus I've recently come into knowledge of a scene based in San Francisco that LA's own late great Gold Standard Labs helped provide many a record for.  I bought a record a few years ago by a band called The Weegs that you've never heard of and was just checking in on them.  They are a bizarre band rooted in No Wave and a few too many spins of The Residents.  Anyway, their records are put out by a label called Hungry Eye Records.    The scene is death rock, and it's got that kind of Gothy Bauhaus, Birthday Party, Christian Death thing going on that I just can't get enough of.

Bands to check out:

-The Bellmer Dolls (opened for Grinderman apparently in San Francisco and were produced/loved by Jim Sclavunos of the Bad Seeds and G-man)

-Love Life

-The Holy Kiss

Well I've done my homework...time to do yours.  And uh...you know happy thanksgiving and whatnot.  Be sure and go check out Slang Chickens with Mini Mansions and Rumspringa this Saturday at the Unknown Theater if you're in LA!

New Lykke Li Jam-Cover of "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow"

Hello Fanatics!  

Just to quote Henry Rollins there...So if you go here, you can get a free download of Lykke Li's cover of the Shirelles' "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow."

Yes my sweet little Swedish pancake has not been busy as of late...but rest assured good people, she will be mine.

Because I haven't written about Nick Cave in a while...

Hello Children,

I just finished "The Death of Bunny Monroe" and I gotta say it was pretty awesome--the depths of sexual depravity, excessive substance abuse, all things that are good...I highly recommend you check it out, especially if you're a fan of Nick Cave's works en masse.  

Also, in more Cave news, the score to The Road, penned by Cave and menacing hobo brother Warren Ellis (I kid...I love the man), is due out upon the release of the film on 11/25.  Lord knows, I'll probably check it out, I haven't been disappointed yet by any of Cave's forays into the world of film, be it acting, writing or composing.  

In additional Nick Cave related news, Cinefamily will be doing Los Angeles a favor by screening ATP The Film on 12/1, which features performances from a few bands that I don't really like all that much: Sonic Youth, The Stooges, Animal Collective, Dirty Three, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Daniel Johnston, Lightning Bolt, Battles and a small band from the UK called Grinderman.

So yeah get your asses out there, and if anybody boos Grinderman, I will get so Manson up in this motherfucker (Charles, not Marilyn).

It's a long story but basically my roommate and I went to see Grinderman at Madison Square Garden a few years ago opening for The White Stripes and basically everybody in the room looked like this:

That is to say, with the help of The DB1, that everybody there was a hot chick with their requisite douchebag of the "frat" douche variety.  And the ingrate sitting next to me (who looked astonishingly like Mr. Sunburnt Vagina above left) was mustering every bit of wind in his Busch Light ravaged belly to let it be known to Mr. Cave and his motley band that they were not welcome.  I almost started a fist fight with him, it would be my first time ever seeing Nick in the flesh, and sadly he was forced off stage by a torrential downpour of hisses and boos.  I shudder to think of it...anyway this little video is also pretty cool.

Forgotten Gem - John Phillips: The Wolf King of L.A.

From the 60's to the beginning of the 80's, not quite as much these days, you had pop artists that really embodied the essence of a city. I could go on and on but for instance in Los Angeles we had Love and the Doors amongst others (I'm talking pop music here...so X gets no mention). I've had friends tell me that if LA was a seashell and you put it to your ear, you'd hear Love's "Forever Changes," I concur.

The Mamas and the Papas are another one of those bands, but specifically John Phillips (the Papa). The man who claimed that he'd gotten high every fifteen minutes for two years, the Wolf King of LA. This record is a totally overlooked gem. It has all the twang of the Byrds' "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" without the camp (mind you that's one of my favorite records of all time). It's for those of us who like a little more junk with their country, basically me. The songs are so unbelievably good, and the elastic pedal steel oozing all over this thing makes me wish I was hanging out with John tying off in his car in Topanga Canyon (not really, don't use drugs children...).

Anyway, as a note to all you "beachy" bands these days, you don't have to sound exactly like the Beach Boys (it helps though) to feel the sand in your toes. This record is a country record for sure, but I haven't really heard country soak up the Pacific Ocean like a sponge, and wring it out directly into my ear, which sounds disgusting in practice but in principle is incredibly romantic. I would check this record out immediately if you're into that sort of thing, and also if you're not on LaLa, you probably should be.

A Couple Bands That I'm Pretty Into - Snail and ...

God Bless Henry Rollins.  Via his show on KCRW, I was introduced to a band called Snail, and I gotta say I'm really into what I heard.  The band is made up of former members of Siouxsie and the Banshees, Gene Loves Jezebel, and the Soft Boys (Robyn Hitchcock's old band).  As a side note, if you haven't heard these bands I suggest you check them out before you read any further.

Anyway, they kind of sound like you might expect them to sound--savory dashes of heavy post punk (a la Buzzcocks or like a hi-fi Swell Maps) with sprinkles of Industrial here and there and the softer moments informed by Syd Barrett (gasp!).  Check em' out, I don't know why people haven't been talking about these dudes, they've been around a while now.

Another band I really like right now is San Francisco's The Fresh and Onlys. They're a bit like if Bauhaus and Joy Division got married to the Velvet Underground and moved to the west coast instead of the U.K.  It's gloomy, lo-fi psych, goth and anybody who knows me knows I love goth--the Birthday Party is my favorite band of all time.

And just as a bonus, there's this band that features ex-members of The Fresh and Onlys called the Sandwitches that are really rad.  Thanks very much to Gorilla Vs. Bear for the heads up.  They've got an extremely twisted girl-group vibe minus the shitgaze.  Like lo-fi meets Motown...I just invented a new genre: "Lo-town!"  Well I'm officially cooler than Ultragrrrl now.

New York and other assorted rants

Hello Kids,

It's been a long time but to quote Luther from the warriors, "I've been busy!"

Just got back from NYC with the Chickens, CMJ was a cruel mistress due only to extremely ill-timed torrential precipitation and a transportation paradox that lead me to ponder why and how I'd lived out there as long as I had, or at all.  All curmudgeonly slander aside however, I really do love that town and the proverbial nuclear war I wage on my body every time I visit.

Enough rambling let's talk music.  I didn't really see much, honest.  If you're wondering what I was doing with my time, see above statement.  I saw Fool's Gold, Best Coast, Surfer Blood and the always super rad Crystal Antlers.

Anyway, the whole thing was yet another exercise in "great record - shitty performance/how are you famous."  Best Coast was extremely lackluster, Surfer Blood had the songs but the vibe didn't transfer from the record.  Crystal Antlers I've seen a few times now and they ruled, they always rule.  Thankfully, Fool's Gold kicked ass!  Check them out right away, this minute even. They're like LA post punk Israeli Afro-Beat.  Really great songs and they are totally blowing up, and they're from a small town on the west coast called Los Angeles, known for its weather, music and basketball team, but not it's baseball teams (whoa!).

Anyway, I've got more...later.

Kid Congo

So I totally nerded out on Kid Congo last night.  Check out Kid and The Pink Monkey Birds, they totally rule.  The dudes tear through old billy-fried garage riffage with serious attitude (a la Cramps etc...), clad in only the cheapest thrift store suits.  Kid would chant some whacky lyrics with a completely cheeky agenda, then they threw in some 50's sci-fi noises.  A great tribute as always to the late/great Jeffrey Lee Pierce of The Gun Club and Lux Interior of The Cramps (They played Sex Beat and Goo Goo Muck respectively amongst others).  They've got some great tunes, namely "LSDC" and "I Found A Peanut," about how you shouldn't eat peanuts you found on the ground or you'll die.

The dudes all made fun of me, and I deserve it...But I don't care! Last night was a great time, I got to meet a legend (Gun Club, Cramps, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Knoxville Girls...), discovered a great venue/bar (albeit tardily, everybody's already been to Alex's bar a billion times but me), and my fucking god they are the only bar I've been to outside of the east coast that has Magic Hat #9 on tap, which for those of you who don't know is that last bastion of my youth!

Magic Hat Brewery

As my roommate once said "It has the faintest hint of Apricot..."

 

Surfer Blood

So I play in a little band called Slang Chickens, and we're going out to CMJ in a few weeks. We're playing the SESAC showcase with none other than the super sick Crystal Antlers, and naturally inclined by curiosity I checked out who else is on the bill.  I was pleasantly surprised to find our buddies The Depreciation Guild and the supremely rad Surfer Blood.

I'd never heard Surfer Blood, and if you're aware of how I'm always bitching about fads, these guys are a pretty great cure.  They're not "gazers," they're not "stoners," and while maintaining elements of the Beach Boys (uniquely so), they are not necessarily "beachers."  They're not lo-fi or electro or garage or psych, so what the fuck are they?

They're awesome.  Really crunchy guitars intertwined with great power pop hooks.  They don't really sound much like anybody except, well, Surfer Blood.  Yes, the delivery and perhaps reverb-y treatment of the vocals is reminiscent of the Beach Boys, but they don't really sound like the Beach Boys.  If I had to make a comparison, it's like Bruce Springsteen and Tommy Tutone meets The Thermals...or something.  Watch these dudes blow up pretty quick, they don't have a label and they're playing a million showcases at CMJ.  Then they're doing quick little tours with Art Brut and Japandroids.  Get into it, you will thank me later. 

Torch and Toast Vol. 1

I'd like to introduce a new series called "Toast and Torch."  A large part of my life at this point has been spent loafing about drinking beers with other idiot philosophers I like to call my friends griping at the lack of recognition of someone or other, while other "artists" bathe in undeserved worship fueled by drooling idolatry.  Now is the chance to take my battle to the interwebs where I can laud my under dog homies, and crush those fettered products of the crunching hype machine, see them driven before me and hear the lamentations of their women (Conan...seriously underrated movie btw).

Today's topic: NYC Proto-Punk Scene - The Testors vs. Patti Smith

TOAST - The Testors fucking rule!!!!  They were rocking the speed punk thing years before anybody, like...1976 (Yeah I'm looking at you Misfits).  And yes, you could say the Damned, Dead Boys or the Ramones might have been their closest counterparts, but I feel like nobody thrashed quite as hard as the Testors.  Plus...they got banned from Canada, that's pretty punk dude.  The Pistols never were barred from playing an entire continent...It's no wonder one of my favorite lables ever, Swami, reissued their largely forgotten catalog (btw listen to any John Reis project, and you'll hear the Testors), and it's probably the reason anybody in my generation knows them.  All "they did this first" statements aside though, they wrote some pretty great punk/garage songs and paved the way for hooky melodic punks like Husker Du and the Misfits.

TORCH - Patti Smith - good, not great...entirely overrated.  She sings like Tom Verlaine undergoing a rectal exam.  Fine...punk singers aren't supposed to be "good" per se.  But at least, unique?  And without recalling sounds akin to severe pressure on one's anus.  Punk rock's poet laureate?  I think not.  Everybody raves about her lyrics, I don't see it.  Leonard Cohen, Dylan, those dudes were poet laureates...also small guy Nick Cave circa 1979 with the Birthday Party, punk rock poetry at it's finest.  Horses is a good record, meaning it has 3 or so good songs on it...which does not equate to "one of the greatest albums of all time" status as one would be led to believe.  I would go so far as to say Karen O does Patti Smith better than Patti Smith does. I'm not saying the world would be a better place without her, I'm saying enough with the vacant worship already kids...

Couple Things...

Last night I was at the Longhair Illuminati thing at the Knitting Factory, I saw little bits of some pretty mediocre bands, but two bands really blew me away--Tweak Bird and The Living Suns.

Tweak Bird, is pretty sick, like the Melvins fronted by two unison screeching Geddy Lees.  As a duo, these guys definitely pay the tone bills, and man were they tight.  Some may write them off as Big Business biters, but really when it comes to metal these days, you could throw an anvil and land on a band that sounds EXACTLY like the Melvins, so no worries dudes.

Living Suns rule, they're super psychedelic without drifting totally into the "stoner" vibe, they're actually pretty punk.  Maybe hippie punks?  I don't know, just check em' out, they're badass.

Brel

I've been busy lately, also the internets seem to be devoid of information that pleases me. So to fill that conspicuous gap, here's my all time favorite Jacques Brel video.  Here's a flow chart as to what Jacques is to music...

Jacques Brel > Scott Walker > Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Eno, Nick Cave etc. > Music as we know it

That's an oversimplification, but not too far from the truth.

I also went to see Blind Boy Paxton on Monday night.  Very cool, extremely authentic old timey music, I expected nothing less.   A great unique unexpected twist was the "DJ" set in between sets.  They literally pulled out two crazy old turntables and started spinning old timey 7"'s, crossfading and everything (with microphones of course).  Oh yeah and he's not actually blind, but I ain't mad atcha'!

Happy 75th Leonard! and Deracine

First off, Happy Birthday to Leonard Cohen, 75 years old today and still more of a badass than just about anybody I can think of.  Dude collapsed on stage but he's still continuing to tour, because he's just a stud like that!

I went to see Deracine  (dare-a-sheen-ay) and my buddies Mikki and the Mauses at the Bixel House Friday night and it ruled pretty thoroughly.  Haven't been to a good ol' fashioned punk show in a while and it was refreshing.  Being splayed against the walls of a 10 x 10 living room, thrust into the back fat of inebriated young men and women, ripped in twine by the duality of wanting to both annihilate and hug someone at the same time, and all the while your ears are bleeding and there's malt liquor and sweat in your mouth that you're certain doesn't belong to you.  Good times.

Deracine ripped my face off, they're a Japanese trio built upon the most astounding controlled chaos.  The bassist and drummer held it down amidst the ferocious stops and starts while the third member precisely smashed on what looked like something you might have seen in the war room of an old Bond movie, it was two keyboards and a mish mash of effects and samplers on a table that triggered perfectly distorted samples and actually took the place of a guitar quite nicely.  Top that off with about a 10 minute set time, and you can be damn sure I walked out of there a fan.

Also going to see Blind Boy Paxton tonight @ Redwood Bar and Grill.  I'm stoked.

In Honor of Rosh Hashanah

Yes, today is the dawn of the year 5770.  My family celebrates in true style by gorging themselves on succulent savory treats and letting the wine flow like beer.  We may chant a prayer or two that nobody understands, but hey that's tradition and if you've ever seen Fiddler on the Roof, you know it's enough to make an entire village break out in song.

Thus I bring to you some of my favorite videos from the holy semitic quartet, none other than Neil Diamond, Lou Reed, Bob Dylan and of course Leonard Cohen (If only Nick Cave were Jewish).

Avalanche in 88'

Lou rockin out with the coolest dudes of ALL TIME, no debates

Neil playing some dark-ass Solitary Man in 71'

My favorite Dylan song, It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)