tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786806306726759772024-03-16T15:36:05.636-04:00La Historia De La Musica Rocknoisepunkprogtechdeathjazz electronicaindienewwaveshoegaze gothpostrockcanterbury singersongwritermetalskacore, and anything else I like on my iPod, updated when I canrastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.comBlogger240125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-15263172646941428742024-03-13T20:43:00.001-04:002024-03-13T20:43:07.491-04:00Defenestration - "Watch The Hearts Break" from the album Dali Does Windows<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhegGjArxqa8wUP98fI2RI9rdHU4o3FV-L9YvLJPXs2zxrUr21W6SvdzhdQXEqVY7lWPkRAK84C5ejvxZkXqOoHOzuAF9X1s1hnllaryaLIhS1kHQyxhZcAym18uVtkVakdLCyQQjLfN75QtVTLth6ly3NrOVqUCI6cSyz0nSrOZyE9wzxsPfN9Ie7fVdTp/s600/dali-does-windows.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="597" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhegGjArxqa8wUP98fI2RI9rdHU4o3FV-L9YvLJPXs2zxrUr21W6SvdzhdQXEqVY7lWPkRAK84C5ejvxZkXqOoHOzuAF9X1s1hnllaryaLIhS1kHQyxhZcAym18uVtkVakdLCyQQjLfN75QtVTLth6ly3NrOVqUCI6cSyz0nSrOZyE9wzxsPfN9Ie7fVdTp/s400/dali-does-windows.jpg"/></a></div></p><p>Despite the fact that it came out in 1987, and on the semi-major label Relativity, <i>Dali Does Windows</i> may be the most obscure album I've ever liked.</p><p>It's sort of fun to try to pick out the reasons why nobody has heard of Defenestration. There's the fact that their first album on a more-or-less major label was their last album on a more-or-less major label. </p><p>Or that it was their last album period. </p><p>There's that remarkably nondescript cover, and the band name that's more or less meaningless to most people, unless they've studied <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestrations_of_Prague">Bohemian history</a>.</p><p>Did I mention that they were from that hotbed of indie rock, Norman, Oklahoma?</p><p><i>Dali Does Wndows</i> failed to hit, and it failed to hit miserably. I'm sure I've missed some of the reasons why, but one of them was <u>not</u> that the music sucked. It's not great all the way through, but "Watch the Hearts Break" and "Bedlam Revisted/She Has No Soul" are outstanding, pretty much as good as anything else the late '80's produced.</p><p>It's sort of embarassing to admit, but I was a college disk jockey. What made it embarassing was that the station didn't actually have a transmitter. The signal was supposedly carried through the campus wiring. Which might have worked--if even the Rathskellar had bothered playing the station. But they didn't--so the job was basically talking to yourself. I will say they had good equipment, and music sounded good in that room. I made a bunch of mix tapes, and discovered a bunch of music, mostly from lists CMJ sent on.</p><p>Defenestration was one of the bands I discovered through my access to the carts and lists made available to the station, and so was Timbuk 3. If the rest of the world has forgotten both bands, I have not.</p><p>Anyway, for what it's worth, Defenestration were:</p><p>Tyson Meade - Vocals, and Guitar on the two best songs<br>Todd Walker - Guitar<br>Chris Ward - Drums<br>Joe Kollman - Bass</p><p></p><p><b>File under:</b> Eighties Alternative </p>rastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-49792304976928905842024-03-02T22:13:00.011-05:002024-03-03T00:10:19.967-05:0033-1/3: Tago Mago<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCqYwpBeNL8XQjGMYAIh88HXhQOGX4omeJYv6RfL6qkAzrW1219rUBjooWEsDMfRjmnzU0lDCwR7_YMFLzGbraszImSZAIqhVazCNTeQzVVp7SqmVTdZH_OJsJ0djGrGOB5jWAdEXn0rtug5fXR6LpUU0Klh5XH1JVhgRkaMzvCsT8BkWKbZni-3SRBYBD/s1350/tago-mag0-33-1-3.jpg" style="border: 3px ridge orange;display: block; padding: 3em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="Alan Warner Tago Mago" width="320" data-original-height="1003" data-original-width="1350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCqYwpBeNL8XQjGMYAIh88HXhQOGX4omeJYv6RfL6qkAzrW1219rUBjooWEsDMfRjmnzU0lDCwR7_YMFLzGbraszImSZAIqhVazCNTeQzVVp7SqmVTdZH_OJsJ0djGrGOB5jWAdEXn0rtug5fXR6LpUU0Klh5XH1JVhgRkaMzvCsT8BkWKbZni-3SRBYBD/s320/tago-mag0-33-1-3.jpg"/></a></div><p>So ten days or so ago, I read <i>Treble</i>'s review of the new archival Can live album--<i>Live in Paris 1973</i>--and it sounded good and noisy, so I ordered it.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU5I-b8SYDg7Lf0Dvq4cWpZZXSEpToTQWGsg4AdLUsOzxvL9L-nB7j_9MOTUaSvbV-LJyq9L8rBGe_JQv8-8J8sAuM6OMJh1AbK7-QZYpV7l98cRLvyzw2LHSqdYcCXt9GCCxKhObkLMQ033U8BuEBNvAyleBgmSMgmTphcvOtAGMSsUQMgCB1WVcS9elU/s1200/can-live-in-paris.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 3em; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img style="border: 3px ridge red" alt="Can Live in paris 1973" width="320" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU5I-b8SYDg7Lf0Dvq4cWpZZXSEpToTQWGsg4AdLUsOzxvL9L-nB7j_9MOTUaSvbV-LJyq9L8rBGe_JQv8-8J8sAuM6OMJh1AbK7-QZYpV7l98cRLvyzw2LHSqdYcCXt9GCCxKhObkLMQ033U8BuEBNvAyleBgmSMgmTphcvOtAGMSsUQMgCB1WVcS9elU/s320/can-live-in-paris.jpg"/></a></div>
<p>Received it over the last weekend, and spent the first half of the week listening to it as I commuted to and from work, and I fucking loved it, especially the 36-minute first track. Karoli goes repeatedly off and then goes off some more.</p>
<p>Listened to Miles on Thursday, but on Friday I was back to Can. Pulled out <i>Tago Mago</i> and I knew I had a difficult relationship with "Augmn" but this time, man, I *communed* with "Mushroom" (Jaki Liebezeits DRUMMING!) and found the perfect descriptor for "Oh Yeah" in 'hippity-hoppety.' </p>
<p>So jumping off from there, my goal for this weekend was to read the 33-1/3 on the album I've had lying around. My guilty secret is that I've got about 20 in the series filed neatly on my bookshelves, next to my dictionary and the albums I've kept--but I've only actually read two or three.*</p>
<p>Actually did break into it today, yay me, and I'm not done yet, intend to finish tonight, but I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Don't know this Alan Warner cat--evidently he's a Scottish novelist, not the guy who wrote <i>Trainspotting</i>, but I guess similar except he's got no experience with heroin--and his approach is basically to take us back with him to when he was a pimply teenager discovering the music, taking the train into Glasgow where there's a decent record store, etc, as he tells us all the misapprehensions and wildy exaggerated imaginings he had about the band and their albums--most of them simply based on the album art and most of them way way off.</p>
<p>It's pretty great. He's become an expert on the band, so he slaps his naive younger self around quite a bit and thereby imparts some crucial info as well.</p>
<p>Good stuff, and let me get back to it.</p>
<p>_________________</p>
<p>* <i>Master of Reality</i> and <i>Reign in Blood</i> and . . . oh wait that's it.</p>
<b>File under:</b> Permission to dreamrastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-70303294917715481232024-01-11T19:19:00.005-05:002024-03-16T15:35:31.329-04:00DreamDream<p>
So I ran into my buddy Jeff Bagwell. We were both in our 30s or something.<p>
I caught up with him as he was walking to his ride. I asked him, "Jeff, are you a metalhead?"<p>
Suddenly, in the way of dreams, he's lying on the floor, leaning back on his elbows next to a heavy workbench, looking up at me.<p>
"When I have to be," he says.<p>
We're walking again and I'm trying to tell him about that time when the boss let me leave work early so I could go to the Metallica concert off Justice and then I came back to work after the concert was over, but Jeff is going on about left-handed pitching and I can't get a word in edgewise. <p>
Finally he calls ahead to the driver of a ramshackle Chevy van and someone on the inside (there's four or five guys in black t-shirts sitting on the carpeted floor, I'll see) slides the side door open.<p>
"Frantic," from <i>St Anger</i> is playing rather loudly within. We both start headbanging.<p>
Jeff hops in, I don't. The van starts moving ahead slowly, side door still open, and I'm walking alongside, still whipping my head back and forth. <p>
Bagwell is still talking to me, now it's about Kevin Brown's anger management issues. I wish I was going with them. But I'm not, and I'm going to have to tell Jeff about that Metallica concert some other time. The van door slides shut and it pulls away in a cloud of exhaust. <p>
I turn around, dejected. Think I'll get a hot pretzel....rastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-56702669497872094682023-11-30T19:29:00.006-05:002023-11-30T19:34:31.512-05:00John Coltrane - "Greensleeves" from the album Africa/Brass<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQBVauPiFkNJUbJDlE9mNx_HPt7adQ_CSawRfr0mfT7r5OdnfkHDpkY9fGDagvxB4GxtCqfnzWNJuXX5x0Xku-ulw4KQozVM9ssFBo2J__iIDJBHtbcHfXnEdBxLwEKjpX1T7wHvfdai-YM6xHOk1rZ0EYgBtoVY-S7Dy4BiKkB-uyG9Cd9AqcTfH5Y9ae/s800/africa-brass.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 6px 6px; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" width="350" data-original-height="789" data-original-width="800" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQBVauPiFkNJUbJDlE9mNx_HPt7adQ_CSawRfr0mfT7r5OdnfkHDpkY9fGDagvxB4GxtCqfnzWNJuXX5x0Xku-ulw4KQozVM9ssFBo2J__iIDJBHtbcHfXnEdBxLwEKjpX1T7wHvfdai-YM6xHOk1rZ0EYgBtoVY-S7Dy4BiKkB-uyG9Cd9AqcTfH5Y9ae/s400/africa-brass.jpg"/></a></div><p>Listening to Coltrane's cover of "Greensleeves" for the first time. Nine or ten times over the last two days.</p>
<p>It's got a lot of the same lyricism that "My Favorite Things" does, the same modal, kind of raga feel, the same jawdropping glissando sound to his solos as he shifts the soprano sax up into hyperdrive--no, *through* hyperdrive, quickly tasting n-space and then bringing it back down into standard topology again.</p>
<p>Conjecture: If he had lived long enough Coltrane probably would have covered "Pure Imagination" too.</p>rastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-54224718722236340152023-11-21T23:01:00.011-05:002023-11-25T14:50:02.606-05:00Where I Stand<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJMiZNMaxaaIJ3XWNr-GoebeQquvtL3KjFmFieJf36r_aPQM3zobVLRuzioYJxvnJ9z9EkVkci8kij5ZTv0pAuaIYLU_eJVzIBiuASMj8NwcZh8eGnd2G3jLu5bx2eA-7OIABHQOqdpDK-fQ1nMU_rSiNaupdS2rjr6YkVx7N1cZjbf5_gZE5bkAF00PdJ/s1316/nobody-asked-me.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="750" data-original-height="1316" data-original-width="894" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJMiZNMaxaaIJ3XWNr-GoebeQquvtL3KjFmFieJf36r_aPQM3zobVLRuzioYJxvnJ9z9EkVkci8kij5ZTv0pAuaIYLU_eJVzIBiuASMj8NwcZh8eGnd2G3jLu5bx2eA-7OIABHQOqdpDK-fQ1nMU_rSiNaupdS2rjr6YkVx7N1cZjbf5_gZE5bkAF00PdJ/s1316/nobody-asked-me.png"/></a></div>
rastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-85113061005723339132023-11-05T14:39:00.001-05:002023-11-05T14:39:30.798-05:00Stupid and SillyBut I couldn't help myself<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl9hH1_1YQBOK2s6N1iudStxK5qqqWhgyD7YNawcyN1yVIkREUx2RNB45GLNZRYU2xq0aUMZhHBtf6fvhFGkczGgrUNTTrl1GvqoeBdPapM49mjlvCDtEBlgE4RzWU0ODNu1E5mIwzP1tC9zYkdQmPjzoUAYH4hz7Rb5Sev9U2bpPoUwsxYDWlJMVZjMWQ/s640/the-rise-and-fall-of-ziggy-stardust-and-the-spiders-from-mars-to-sirius.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl9hH1_1YQBOK2s6N1iudStxK5qqqWhgyD7YNawcyN1yVIkREUx2RNB45GLNZRYU2xq0aUMZhHBtf6fvhFGkczGgrUNTTrl1GvqoeBdPapM49mjlvCDtEBlgE4RzWU0ODNu1E5mIwzP1tC9zYkdQmPjzoUAYH4hz7Rb5Sev9U2bpPoUwsxYDWlJMVZjMWQ/s320/the-rise-and-fall-of-ziggy-stardust-and-the-spiders-from-mars-to-sirius.jpg"/></a></div>rastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-40582074127077885682023-10-30T21:32:00.018-04:002023-10-31T00:02:03.039-04:00King Crimson (with Jon Anderson) - "Prince Rupert Awakes" from the album Lizard<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE3DvWfXDXtel1iSKN3J41HDEKn9tCnZYRbfj2YqnwI_hRDxWwVjqgs1aPrvrmvM6-T4k-foyFRCq0GfzOsovNL3yhh-Qm9ct_6qW9wZVUyb8DtLzz6amG30yh5JVXin59gWBE2lltDdHF5hzJ-DDmfrb6hrPGkbvPwj65Rsi_zSj5KV6O5A8ZaT9hL099/s807/lizard.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="807" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE3DvWfXDXtel1iSKN3J41HDEKn9tCnZYRbfj2YqnwI_hRDxWwVjqgs1aPrvrmvM6-T4k-foyFRCq0GfzOsovNL3yhh-Qm9ct_6qW9wZVUyb8DtLzz6amG30yh5JVXin59gWBE2lltDdHF5hzJ-DDmfrb6hrPGkbvPwj65Rsi_zSj5KV6O5A8ZaT9hL099/s400/lizard.jpg"/></a></div>After basically being an ostracized dork during elementary and junior high school, I made the social decision to become a stoner in high school. You know, just to have someone to hang out with. Worked out pretty well, gotta say. The entrance requirement was basically: Smoke Dope. That, and listen to rock music. I already did the second, and # 1 seemed pretty easy enough--which it ended up being!<p>
So I was accepted into my peer group, and even managed to keep up my grades, but looking back, I was still a weirdo even by the relaxed standards of the stoners. To wit:<p>
While the more graphically talented and mainstream musically of my high school burnout brethren were attempting to draw the Aerosmith logo on their duotangs, because of talent (non-existent) and taste (eclectic, of course) I was instead simply writing out weird prog song titles on my notebooks. <p>
So I'm in 10th grade Vocabulary class, and my weird song title for the day is "Prince Rupert Awakes." Not even sure I'd even heard it as of yet, but clearly I'd heard <i>of</i> it, and if it was like that, if it was the second without the first, I was running ahead of myself as I so often did. Do. <p> Mr. Bloom as he proctors our open book quiz passes by, and notices what I've doodled, and almost sneers, looking down at me as I clutch my Bic Banana. "Some *rock* song, I assume?" And yeah, of course, but I'm not gonna admit it to <b>him</b>. <p>
"No," I almost snarl back at this guy, this teacher, this . . . older person who doesn't *get* prog. But I catch myself and continue reasonably. "It's a fantasy novel by James P Hogan." I'd read a few science fiction paperbacks--maybe was even reading one then--by the Englishman Hogan. My uncle had given me <i>The Genesis Machine</i>, and the author's "Giants" series was really really fun, and boy was I glad I had Hogan's name at the tip of my tongue that day in first period, because I sure as hell wasn't going to give Mr. Bloom the satisfaction of knowing that I write the names of goofy prog songs on my notebooks. <p> Even though I did.<p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikAgo0J9hlk3crQjlUZYlX4uAviu6_eZPVU9rTeVOm6E2IB2QIWb0QLn-tarcajb2CmNQT_z9ldU_9mZWhlfgRn87nEvYCT-YtJPIbTy9WONhFet41upUSMcOUrLBIiDC33nWWsQKHUxBETse1BKoQizaPHBfvSK4EgwKDOUojPklHVQCpuoDLunhJy-7B/s500/gentle-giants.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 5px 5px 5px 5px; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="James Hogan The Gentle Giants of Ganymede" border="0" style="border: 3px lavender ridge" height="320" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikAgo0J9hlk3crQjlUZYlX4uAviu6_eZPVU9rTeVOm6E2IB2QIWb0QLn-tarcajb2CmNQT_z9ldU_9mZWhlfgRn87nEvYCT-YtJPIbTy9WONhFet41upUSMcOUrLBIiDC33nWWsQKHUxBETse1BKoQizaPHBfvSK4EgwKDOUojPklHVQCpuoDLunhJy-7B/s320/gentle-giants.jpg"/></a></div>
So Mr. Bloom says, "Oh . . . bring it in, I'll read it. . ." and moves off to the next desk, leaving me infuriated with just a touch of sophomoric shame. <i>You . . . *entitled* so and so</i>, I think. <i>I wouldn't let you read "Prince Rupert Awakes," even if it just so happened to exist--which it DOESN'T. <p> Ha! Joke's on you!</i><p>
And that was the end of that. Mr. Bloom didn't six weeks down the road ask me what ever happened with that book I was supposed to bring in? And I ended up getting an 'A' in vocabulary. <p>
But you know what else? <i>Lizard</i> continued to sit in my record collection, unplayed over any of its grooves, including those of "Prince Rupert Awakes." My puny 10th grade brain thought, oh yeah, Jon Anderson PLUS King Crimson, should be awesome. But turns out, it was only OK. Fripp was in a weird period, you know? I'm more familiar with the song now, 'cause I've listened to the mellotron, piano and flute melange now more times as an .mp3 than I ever did on vinyl, but yeah: it's still only OK, Cosmic Jon's vocals notwithstanding. <p> Mr. Bloom--if he's still around, which he's probably NOT--would definitely think it was a whole kerfuffle over nothing.
rastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-71193372096874959022023-09-22T19:52:00.008-04:002023-09-22T20:13:11.720-04:00Low - The Great Destroyer<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAFP_XO-KOqygvioGozYMV9RYCUxHrPYO7-6UEpAQT8ax_SlwEqEXZWYxssaKQWyCLADhvi_StWXV1S5eUE_qg2AOI5YH5pVyrObMJtqxb3Q1e7NjCurtB8vJGBA-kZfEUFfTm17daAlpU8x0sYvehVcU7iG__B4K7tLGLM9EwrTzYgT20Je8VKToHaj8w/s970/the-great-destroyer.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 10px; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="970" data-original-width="970" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAFP_XO-KOqygvioGozYMV9RYCUxHrPYO7-6UEpAQT8ax_SlwEqEXZWYxssaKQWyCLADhvi_StWXV1S5eUE_qg2AOI5YH5pVyrObMJtqxb3Q1e7NjCurtB8vJGBA-kZfEUFfTm17daAlpU8x0sYvehVcU7iG__B4K7tLGLM9EwrTzYgT20Je8VKToHaj8w/s320/the-great-destroyer.jpg"/></a></div>
Been listening to <i>The Great Destroyer</i> all day.
And it's like this movie is playing in my head, this neo-noir hardboiled whodunnit. Not sure how well the lyrics would agree if I broke it down, but:<p>---------------------<p>
The Man and His Wife are living on a farm in West Kansas. The work's hard and the money's OK, but the relationship, it's not good.<p>
On a night that involves some fucking ("Monkey"), the toxic detente they had is broken.<p>
In the morning after the dust has settled, it's agreed: they'll sell the farm and move to Los Angeles ("California").
But it's no good, they sell the farm but they break up before they get to Los Angeles so they are each dropped in LA alone, by themselves. ("Everybody's Song").<p>
The woman there meets a dark shady man nicknamed The ("Silver Rider") guess he'd worked as a cowboy, or maybe he was just a mediocre actor, who gives her in an unconsidered moment the Macguffin of the album title.<p>
And she falls in with him. Theirs is a violent relationship, no uneasy detente or spaces unfilled, it's heavy with menace and violence, loud arguments, thrown glass, the sex is bondage with weapons, stilettos, leather. ("Just Stand Back")<p>
And it gets her killed. The Silver Rider's got some kind of conman scam with The Great Destroyer as the lure in mind; he wants the MacGuffin back from the woman who used to be The Wife, but she's pawned it for clothes, stupid frilly clothes, so he kills her with a jade bludgeon though he probably shouldn't have and he certainly didn't have to ("On the Edge Of"). <p>Two mornings later, Her ex-Husband reads about her found corpse in the LA Times ("Death of a Salesman"), and after stumbling around a bit through the downtown streets, stumbles into the dick's dusty office with the smoked glass insert in the door and the empty hatstand in the corner and it takes him five minutes to hire the detective. <p>
At some point later on, the gumshoe has to go to a law office? A bank? And in this huge waiting room, the mural on the wall is the cover art of the album, suggestive of the 10,000 ft cloud palisades of the California coast. But though the detective quickly susses what's happened, and by whom, The Silver Rider has disappeared.<p>
It's like Chinatown, Jake, there's no saving anybody no retribution for anybody and in the end the gumshoe has the truth and so does the ex husband but so what, and everybody complicit skates, including the Silver Rider, who's last seen entering with shaven head the ziggurat-like monastery of a violent, tattooed, betel-nut chewing sect in Burma.<p>
Cut back to California. The dick in full uniform, cheap dark suit, trenchcoat and fedora, the beach sand in his shoes, takes a "Walk Into the Sea," to cleanse himself of the awful case.
rastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-26660353325618554682023-05-26T20:14:00.002-04:002023-05-26T20:14:16.844-04:00When They Get The Best Album Wrong<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEildY5uLVGkI4FQXHtKzwER4Yb5905xIKR9CQkciUkhxqHdgOc85DjBYUnXBrUuNDgQJI9qkeUl860wgK7PDK9Kho0ga8AhIc_lKRyT2EUngg1LppZ94ftPTwFl91bd2nzjJWWoDH8rUcRE0_LzS1gBIir1abBIj6NQWhbrfWtddXNfrRGGG6LLMtowgw/s1024/sgt-pepper.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="887" data-original-width="1024" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEildY5uLVGkI4FQXHtKzwER4Yb5905xIKR9CQkciUkhxqHdgOc85DjBYUnXBrUuNDgQJI9qkeUl860wgK7PDK9Kho0ga8AhIc_lKRyT2EUngg1LppZ94ftPTwFl91bd2nzjJWWoDH8rUcRE0_LzS1gBIir1abBIj6NQWhbrfWtddXNfrRGGG6LLMtowgw/s320/sgt-pepper.jpg"/></a></div>
<p><h2>May 26:</h2>
Happy Birthday to the most overrated rock album of all time. It's been 56 years.<p>
"A Day in the Life" is pretty great, and "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" and "Good Morning" are also excellent, but as for the rest . . . meh.</p><p>
For me, <i>Sgt. Pepper</i> was more about a narrative people who really didn't know that much about rock 'n' roll felt the need to tell. Our music is deep! We have . . . substance!</p><p>If only they knew! The Byrds, The Mothers, Red Krayola, and even The Beach Boys had been there before The Beatles arrived. </p><p>My old man back in the day asked me the question: "Did The Beatles make the times, or did the times make The Beatles?" and I always leaned toward the latter.</p><p>But regardless of whether I got that answer right, <i>Revolver</i> is just far superior, track by track, or in the aggregate... </p></p>rastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-72170681431458545792023-05-22T18:52:00.004-04:002023-05-22T19:00:28.467-04:00Comments Elsewhere: on Nirvana at Reynolds RetroSo, not sure why I would have the gumption to mouth off about Nirvana, and to do so at one of Simon Reynolds' blogs, no less, but that's exactly what I did.<p>
Reynolds reposted or reprinted or whatever you'd like to call it, a contemporary review he wrote of a show Nirvana did at the Kilburn National Ballroom in December of 1991, and he'd thought the band "didn't quite happen" because of all the "goofing around," so I said<blockquote style="border: 3px ridge red; PADDING:8PX"> Exactly! Never saw Nirvana live, but through their videos and interviews I completely got the feeling that Nirvana refused to take themselves seriously, to the point where the band's disrespect towards itself had a deleterious effect on THE BAND as a concept, as a working unit, as an artistic collective.<p>Goddamn right, they should have taken themselves and their music seriously. They were, um, a lean mean rock machine. Be proud when you're being artistic, you know?<p>
And then Kurt's liner notes on that outtakes thing were serious to the point of melodrama, so what the fuck, they/he were/was just a complete mess, always doing the wrong thing at the wrong time.<p>
Which, I guess, was a state Kurt had an inkling of.<p>
Didn't have to be, anyway, if they'd just had confidence in their art, and their own goddamned *worthiness*.<p>
</blockquote>
Being old enough to remember when the prime criticism of my favorite (read: prog) bands was that they took themselves too seriously, all I can do when I think about Nirvana since Kurt died is to think about the same things I do during the middle sections of "The Revealing Science of God" or when some bozo references that transgender manifesto-writing person from Liturgy: It's bad to take yourself too seriously, but it's much worse not to take yourself seriously *enough*<P>
<A TARGET="_BLANK" HREF="https://reynoldsretro.blogspot.com/2022/11/nirvana-live-at-kilburn-national-melody.html">https://reynoldsretro.blogspot.com/2022/11/nirvana-live-at-kilburn-national-melody.html</a>rastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-1951703735489339412023-04-15T18:44:00.001-04:002023-04-15T18:44:11.760-04:00Back Cover to Album I'd Listen To If It Existed<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsrDlXOU3IdnTgtvI-Z25J5n46h5yVaWbCQiqFC5IrLfulOuq1D-N3VV_rhAQGVfytMuFIbmUVNG6PPdvds_hOdF8D8H0NMg91V_Y3lXxYn2PVLb9pZKHHfXFJCgSc7K3XKzPiumfEGisN6jXiO-r1RquMOiAEMVjcbor_oUUA0bhC4yRdA9S-FDtltQ/s512/drug-czar.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsrDlXOU3IdnTgtvI-Z25J5n46h5yVaWbCQiqFC5IrLfulOuq1D-N3VV_rhAQGVfytMuFIbmUVNG6PPdvds_hOdF8D8H0NMg91V_Y3lXxYn2PVLb9pZKHHfXFJCgSc7K3XKzPiumfEGisN6jXiO-r1RquMOiAEMVjcbor_oUUA0bhC4yRdA9S-FDtltQ/s400/drug-czar.png"/></a></div>rastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-66260610324073993982023-04-14T19:01:00.008-04:002023-04-15T18:04:42.464-04:00Primus - Miscellaneous Debris<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCN3jSZGUuD8gB3fD5LjYtA-jhB5lnNPqgD92chd15IHlXXVdDARTdFUL9Zcvk-Pr08d0joufQ17jg4ev_ssYWMehf9DfPjOtYLuqEaeD2VvjPsV1uXUNj-Z21BSFjt3XpZ0oRCuSbUgz9Vb9vu9HLLuddQDaaF78cwA2lpxMk8zRjekILwhev1Z7Z_w/s1125/miscellaneous-debris.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="1125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCN3jSZGUuD8gB3fD5LjYtA-jhB5lnNPqgD92chd15IHlXXVdDARTdFUL9Zcvk-Pr08d0joufQ17jg4ev_ssYWMehf9DfPjOtYLuqEaeD2VvjPsV1uXUNj-Z21BSFjt3XpZ0oRCuSbUgz9Vb9vu9HLLuddQDaaF78cwA2lpxMk8zRjekILwhev1Z7Z_w/s400/miscellaneous-debris.jpg"/></a></div>This is not necessarily my favorite Primus record, or my favorite covers record, but I think you have to say that it's a pretty successful covers record for Primus, if you consider "pretty successful for a covers record" to mean that it garishly displays your band's eclecticism. Like, 'OK, we're an Afro-futurist folk-metal band with two drummers, and we stick to that pretty much exclusively, but we ARE pretty wide-ranging in what we listen to. Check it out!'<p>So (more realistically) Slayer covers TSOL on <i>Undisputed Attitude</i>, <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkyl4X8sWUbPs4moLpptXbuaZiTznnPevLRySRFDjZfgwK7NiEo_6GGSMsWM5lBiLaZ52_E-oNdilxmj9xjJhtrbc5qZDfQhRj41Xoohg3iExdjtRoZ5zPZgn-qZUB6XxrEoG-pc7BhDxoGN1Ifvxcc9yvkundVZpW0mo_RnZoOTTEMvdbKT3gEKRGVg/s500/coverkill.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 5px; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" width="200" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkyl4X8sWUbPs4moLpptXbuaZiTznnPevLRySRFDjZfgwK7NiEo_6GGSMsWM5lBiLaZ52_E-oNdilxmj9xjJhtrbc5qZDfQhRj41Xoohg3iExdjtRoZ5zPZgn-qZUB6XxrEoG-pc7BhDxoGN1Ifvxcc9yvkundVZpW0mo_RnZoOTTEMvdbKT3gEKRGVg/s200/coverkill.jpg"/></a></div>Overkill covers Jethro Tull on <i>their</i> covers album, and Prong does Neil Young AND the Butthole Surfers.<p>But--again, just conceptually, 'cause the songs aren't really that good--Primus has got it going on with this one. Peter Gabriel, XTC, The Residents, The Meters, for chrissake, and Pink Floyd. <p>It's tough to top, and I don't think it has been, at least on the eclecticism front. On the musical front, well, I think a few do nose past it.<p>The other thing going on is the Pink Floyd track. Les Claypool LOVES Pink Floyd; he's covered with some of his other projects "Astronomy Domine" and the entire fucking <i>Animals</i> album. The version of "Have a Cigar" on <i>MD</i> doesn't maybe get to the heights reached by the Frog Brigade's cover of "Sheep," that's for sure, but it does sound <i>more different</i> if you know what I mean, and that's not a bad thing. You definitely notice the difference in bass style and the difference in guitar tone ('cause replicating Gilmour's tone is so difficult you shouldn't even try), and you also notice the awkwardly inserted Bob Cock reference, which I guess *is* a little bad.<p>But mostly what I think about with track five is that this was a Pink Floyd cover from <b>after</b> the time the covered band ended, but <b>before</b> said covered band's bassplayer so sadly and so publicly went completely insane . . . .rastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-20751304780564862622023-03-02T18:40:00.010-05:002023-03-02T18:47:58.307-05:00In Which I, rastronomicals, reveal the name of My Next Band<p><b>*** Charlie Kaufman's Hipster Bullshit ***</b><p>---------<p><font size=1>#Named in honor of the <i>Music for Airports</i> reference in CK's unfilmed script for <i>Eternal Sunshine</i></font>rastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-27516948873544460842023-01-20T18:42:00.001-05:002023-01-20T18:42:58.204-05:00The Night I Refused to Meet Matt Pike<p>It's almost three years now since Sleep closed their 2019 tour in Miami. I had been *really* early so I could grab a poster, and therefore had had my fill of the venue and bolted out shortly after the last note faded into nothingness. <p>
The band's tour bus was out front and the parking lot was off to the side. So I come out through the front entrance and start walking to my car. There's no-one around, everyone's still inside but as I walk I see this dude visibly limping towards me. More slowly than you'd guess, I realized it was Matt Fucking Pike. Not frantically, but definitely with some urgency, I tried to think of something to say, I mean, shit, Matt Pike! Too bad I don't smoke weed, or at least that I didn't have any. But at any rate, nothing occurred. No good under pressure, that's me. </p><p>
Mostly in the midst of my utter lack of inspiration, I was feeling sorry for the guy, last show of the tour, can't hardly walk, he probably just wants to get on the bus. As I passed him he looked at me, it almost seemed as he was expecting me to say something. But I didn't. Writing about it now, I wonder if I insulted him, coz y'know,--and this understates it--he played very well that night. </p><p>
So there it was; could've met Matt Pike but didn't. At least I've got my short conversation with Dylan Carlson . . . .rastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-40956703107855522092022-11-24T02:05:00.003-05:002022-11-24T03:22:07.047-05:00My Time Machine Gigs<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkxTkuaafAc2-VdxruGaMZkOEuzj2Ua2Lj9q1tsPD25k_GtijnO_VvmcVwDn-5lIsTzav_wSIsTiNkKNLSLwTnqknmB_97LGRR0iqm0OVc-K5jTsn-kbTbCJL5_dXNAqccIux7-kYCf3c8GuPAIz-umH6xEomDwdCv2zFEFnpmhLHSsgCYiYpCUROXCQ/s1200/smillerband68.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkxTkuaafAc2-VdxruGaMZkOEuzj2Ua2Lj9q1tsPD25k_GtijnO_VvmcVwDn-5lIsTzav_wSIsTiNkKNLSLwTnqknmB_97LGRR0iqm0OVc-K5jTsn-kbTbCJL5_dXNAqccIux7-kYCf3c8GuPAIz-umH6xEomDwdCv2zFEFnpmhLHSsgCYiYpCUROXCQ/s320/smillerband68.jpg"/></a></div><b>A<strike>n unordered</strike> chronological list</b></p><p>--The Steve Miller Band in 1967 or 1968, this show looks good! or maybe <br>when they co-headlined with The Doors at the Avalon Ballroom on April `14, 1967<br>The Steve Miller Blues Band, as they were sometimes billed, were to my mind, the best act that came out of the San Francisco psychedelic underground, and although Quicksilver can be good in spots, it wasn't really that close, either. Miller of course went off in a poppy direction during the 70's, but early on, before, as Thompson wrote, the tide rolled back, when I want to see his show, he was a dangerous man, and he had a dangerous band.</p><p>-- Cream's Farewell concert <br>featuring Yes and Taste in support. <br>At the Royal Albert Hall, London<br>Ginger Baker was about the only drummer in history from whom I'd like to hear a drum solo, and Cream are one of the few bands from whom I'd like to hear any individual song stretched out by 20 minutes of jamming.<br>November 26, 1968</p><p>--Any of the American shows in 1968 headlined by The Jimi Hendrix Experience with The Soft Machine in support.<br>On September 9, at the Oakland Colisum, Vanilla Fudge also played, so maybe that one.<br>the Soft Machine's shows with the stretched out lineup from <i>Third</i> also entice, but the added attraction of Hendrix--despite my frustration with his more psychedelic efforts--puts these shows to the top for me. Play the blues, Jimi!</p><p>--Blind Faith at Hyde Park<br>Eric Clapton famously didn't feel the performance was up to par, but the excerpts I've seen look fine, so since I've already got the time machine, what the fuck.<br>June 7, 1969</p><p>--The Stones in the Park<br>The first gig after the death of Brian Jones, of course, and Mick Taylor's first show as well.<br>King Crimson, Family, and The Edgar Broughton Band were among those who provided support.<br>July 5, 1969</p><p>--Yes at the Hollywood Sportatorium<br>The <i>Close to the Edge</i> tour<br>First show on the second leg of the American portion<br>Something like Alan White's 25th show with the band<br>They played a lot of other gigs along this jaunt, and I've seen <i>Yessongs</i>, which is what this would be, but why not see them at their peak where I cut my teeth? Would have done it then, except I was 7 years old.<br>September 15, 1972</p><p>--The Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall<br>Manchester, England<br>If it was good enough for Pete Shelley, I know I'd like it.<br>June 4, 1976</p><p>--Wire's First American Shows, at CBGB's 1978<br>Funny thing about Wire is they played Hammersmith before they played America.<br>They flew to New York City two weeks after doing a show at the Lyceum, and basically did a weeklong residency at CBGB's, then flew back to England. <br>Any of the seven shows would work for me, except for the one on Tuesday July 18, when they weren't at CBGB's at all, but at a Theatre the club ran on 2nd Avenue. I visted CBGB's before it closed, but it wasn't in it's prime, you know? Thanks to my time machine, I'll check *that* out as well as the band, who of course IRL I've never had even the opportunity to see.<br>July 13 - July 21, 1978</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFMOfNl_-2no3wEsbiqRiwdJjF-ppcUVo6LU5sM_HljrHVvCrBNl4Lns8lN_S0Z4ZWOMuGd2WxuMrypvR6GHoBU8HhWZDTSawYX1JcqnjD22y-CXOwNXw_Ie6QHnuITXze2N98JGfxmYwv3pbX7YLQ0JL-_Z7FJ_jUxR7G9y87245Hbu77rSEfoo_lsQ/s1408/knebwroth.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="1408" data-original-width="1000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFMOfNl_-2no3wEsbiqRiwdJjF-ppcUVo6LU5sM_HljrHVvCrBNl4Lns8lN_S0Z4ZWOMuGd2WxuMrypvR6GHoBU8HhWZDTSawYX1JcqnjD22y-CXOwNXw_Ie6QHnuITXze2N98JGfxmYwv3pbX7YLQ0JL-_Z7FJ_jUxR7G9y87245Hbu77rSEfoo_lsQ/s320/knebwroth.jpeg"/></a></div><p> Knebworth Festival Second Weekend<br>Led Zeppelin's last UK show. Reputed to be a better gig than the one played the week before. <br>"Sick Again," "Achilles Last Stand," "In the Evening," among others more often heard live. <br>Todd Rundgren & Utopia, among others, backed up.<br>August 11, 1979</p><p>--Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush w/ Angel w/ Humble Pie w/ Mother's Finest<br>at the Hollywood Sportatorium<br>I was aware of the show at the time, I like Frank Marino, he was at his goddamned *peak*, I could afford it (tickets were only $5), and I even knew who the reformed Humble Pie were. Yet I didn't fucking go. Of concerts I could realistically have gone to, my second biggest regret. I later saw Steve Marriott, with another version of Humble Pie, but never did catch Marino.<br>April 19, 1980</p><p>--Gila Monster Jamboree<br>at an undisclosed location in the Mojave Desert, east of Los Angeles<br>Featuring Sonic Youth, Meat Puppets, and Perry Farrell's first band, Psi-Com<br>January 5, 1985</p><p>--Volcano Suns/Big Black/Live Skull @ CBGB's<br>I wonder whether Albini has ever *set foot* in the State of Florida.<br> In any event, I got turned on to his band by a review of <i>Atomizer</i> in <i>Spin</i> and bought it shortly thereafter. Big Black neglected to play a show in my state before abruptly breaking up less than two years later.<br> I know a guy who saw them at the Touch & Go reunion show, and boy am I freaking jealous. Also, Live Skull's live show ca. 1986 was very well portrayed by that <i>Don't Get Any on You</i> thing, but by the time I saw them in 1988 at the Cameo, Marnie Greenholz had split and their sound was all wrong. So a chance to see them right. I knew Volcano Suns back in the day from that "White Elephant" track on <i>The Wailing Ultimate</i> comp, and I know now that they've covered "Needles in the Camel's Eye," but it wouldn't be about them, not really.<br>July 13, 1986</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTRS-BcLT5kEIw2ZSKbA9BkIUPY2lJ-zD-3CeJz9K1kUs5-yJHkdihnIvXskA0ieWGkMJRIQB8Qzfd-LFyTZ_GYv2KKnb9hEQVmGRBf8PzfF58c9XkjpmU9RtOMSnpmm9M9_qg_zCFim05MJ7vUeBXWwSPYakBVQNsE1Bn50-E5FO-js12dOlYysEOKg/s1600/pussy-galore-1986.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="635" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTRS-BcLT5kEIw2ZSKbA9BkIUPY2lJ-zD-3CeJz9K1kUs5-yJHkdihnIvXskA0ieWGkMJRIQB8Qzfd-LFyTZ_GYv2KKnb9hEQVmGRBf8PzfF58c9XkjpmU9RtOMSnpmm9M9_qg_zCFim05MJ7vUeBXWwSPYakBVQNsE1Bn50-E5FO-js12dOlYysEOKg/s320/pussy-galore-1986.jpg"/></a></div><p>--CBGB 's Halloween 1986<br>Pussy Galore, primarily. Death of Samantha/Phantom Tollbooth/Kil Slug<br>OK, last show at CBGB's. But it was an important place. Two other Homestead bands who appeared on <i>The Wailing Ultimate</i>, but this is all about Spencer & Hagerty & Cafritz etc. I've got a copy of "Biker Rock Loser/Cunt Tease," sounds great. I mean, it sounds shitty, but it's <i>supposed</i> to sound shitty. Gloriously shitty, that's it. Anyway, Pussy Galore at their peak, 'nuf said.<br>October 31, 1986</p><p>--Any of the dates along Pavement's 1992 <i>Slanted and Enchanted</i> tour<br>They were at the 40 Watt Club in Athens September 12, so maybe that would be a good one?<br>Huge fan of the band since <i>S&E</i> came out, even wrote them a fan letter, but did they ever repay my fandom with a SoFla gig? No!<br>They pretty much suck for that, but I'll still give the time machine a spin to go 'n' see 'em.</p><p>--Any of the Generator Parties hosted in the Sonoran Desert by Sons of Kyuss, or Kyuss<br>How about this one? <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd_cV3zfQjs">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd_cV3zfQjs</a><br>which was May 18, 1993</p><p>--Nirvana w/ The Breeders @ the Bayfront Park Amphitheatre, Miami<br>My biggest regret. <br>Not that I didn't have a ticket. I did, along with my roommate. But I got sick. Really fucking sick. I remember lying on the couch in the living room, sweating bullets, hallucinating, without the barest energy to turn my head, and Tim left for the show, I hear him rather than see him, 'are you sure you can't make it' and I mumbled, "I'll see them next time." and the door shut and I was re-absorbed by strange fever dreams<br>I did see The Breeders 20 years later, and it was a good show, too, but it didn't work out as well with Nirvana.<br>November 27, 1993</p></p>rastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-44459111084276439332022-11-02T06:41:00.006-04:002022-11-02T18:44:32.937-04:00DreamDream
It's 1:00 in the morning on a Saturday night in the early '90's and my friend Jerry and I are at a bus bench on 5th Street in Miami Beach, outside the back door of a club. I hesitate to say "Mardi Gras atmosphere," but there's a *bunch* of people around. They're alternately packed so tightly that I see them shoulder to shoulder surge past us, heading eastward toward the ocean, and simply bunched together in groups, leaving us room to step into the street and be demonstrative in our speech, waving our arms in the air as warranted by the importance of what we're saying. We are--everyone is--pleasantly intoxicated, loud, boisterous. <p>
It's hot, of course it is, sweat is part of the deal here on Miami Beach. It's noisy. Music is blaring through that back door, people are talking loudly, some are screaming.<p>
We're gonna see David Bowie, we know it. He's gonna show up in the crowd, and Jerry has some business with him, but I've got an Important Question for the guy.<p>
And suddenly there he is. David Bowie in the flesh, the Thin White Duke. He's wearing loafers, and a tan jacket, and Jerry steps up to him and respectuflly starts speaking to him. Then it's my turn and I stammer a bit, but he's listening to what I'm saying and I ask him how many shows he did in Miami Beach in the early days with Mick Ronson . . . and I'm tongue-tied a bit but I pull it out . . . and Martin Rev and John Cale. And Bowie corrects me, "no . . . John Cale was much later, but I did play many many shows here back in the day." <p>
And I'd wanted more from him, I wanted the nitty-gritty of those early, crucial, Miami Beach days, but clearly Bowie hasn't got time for that. He was polite, but he's got to be moving on. So he takes off his jacket and hands it to me, and slips out of his loafers. I put his jacket on, but I'm flush with footwear; the loafers sit there on the curb. <p>
Jerry and I keep talking there in front of the bus bench, not even about just having met David Bowie. I take out some Nyquil tablets from my pocket and twist the pills so that the gooey medicine inside the capsules drips into Bowie's loafers there on the curb. Jerry sees me do this, then he pulls out some Nyquil capsules from *his* pockets, and does the exact same thing.<p>
Some time later, Bowie is back. He needs to put his shoes on. He does and it's clear he knows his feet are now all sticky with gel acetaminophen. Without saying anything, he walks across the sidewalk and as he passes Jerry standing there, he farts loudly. He starts walking away, but I chase him down and tell him I need to give him his jacket back. So he says, yeah you're right, and I hand him his jacket.<p>
Later Jerry's wife shows up and we're telling her what happened and Jerry tells her it's only the second time somebody had farted on him in that way, the other time it had been my delinquent crack addict friend Jack. <p>rastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-53516873600432782242022-10-21T18:57:00.003-04:002022-10-21T19:00:17.325-04:00Sheer Poetry<blockquote>I dreamt<p>
Of a longhair cat<p>
His paws tracing sleepy cycloids<p>
While<p> <br>
Dreaming of a<p>
Shimmery goldfish,<p>
Which<p> <br>
Encased in its
transparent<p>
Sphere<p>
Anxiously swishing<p> <br>
Dreamt about a world<p>
In which<p>
It Could Dream<p> <br>
Of me. </blcokquote>
rastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-70588097957075873442022-09-02T23:52:00.000-04:002022-09-02T23:52:32.493-04:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBRZwWgsFKqdkT7iRDZMHjoWbBKHBdmGWfLki7PeNXJPkw17wyG92EvbI-1_AjT4IBkplzrlllQluv6YHaEfQaROQJ29JnP_AwlZDiLK-Vti5WSKKxI4RF8Dl5NAcDbAhMkPuURxPef4WDaFKMPp0fYFmW8JFQKncURlL3j-MHO2j4GW2nTKT2ZJxd6g/s2560/pistol.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="1728" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBRZwWgsFKqdkT7iRDZMHjoWbBKHBdmGWfLki7PeNXJPkw17wyG92EvbI-1_AjT4IBkplzrlllQluv6YHaEfQaROQJ29JnP_AwlZDiLK-Vti5WSKKxI4RF8Dl5NAcDbAhMkPuURxPef4WDaFKMPp0fYFmW8JFQKncURlL3j-MHO2j4GW2nTKT2ZJxd6g/s320/pistol.jpg"/></a></div>
Today, September 3, is Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones' 67th birthday, and isn't that coincidental, as I've been watching Danny Boyle's <i>Pistol</i> over the last week or so, and it's really hard to dim the light that <i>Sid & Nancy</i> shines on my soul, but for the most part, I've really enjoyed it.</p><p>It does seem a little off kilter to me to focus on Jones, when Lydon so naturally seems the primary in that particular solar system, but what do I know? I wasn't there, and it was Jones' book that Boyle tapped.</p><p>And I can't really take Lydon's disapproval very seriously, 'cause Johnny didn't like <i>Sid & Nancy</i>, either--and I *know* that movie's great.</p> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbtojEfc6dXE7W96_gBw_LpYKrVHC2FBBsox69XHj4f6DnzPLyA1BsQG-FXQ5xAHG3nyoxniOGnPbYAjJBHw4ZBTxYdcdeZZgvIZDfHv_6pW0tsprFpocl9bA04l6Sn1XNfRZMhxGjIVT_N0H_atVWDuYaOvDqfnN9S5j8CZLlGtuKwKfP1xiwEZjv5A/s1001/sid-and-nancy.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="1001" data-original-width="673" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbtojEfc6dXE7W96_gBw_LpYKrVHC2FBBsox69XHj4f6DnzPLyA1BsQG-FXQ5xAHG3nyoxniOGnPbYAjJBHw4ZBTxYdcdeZZgvIZDfHv_6pW0tsprFpocl9bA04l6Sn1XNfRZMhxGjIVT_N0H_atVWDuYaOvDqfnN9S5j8CZLlGtuKwKfP1xiwEZjv5A/s320/sid-and-nancy.jpg"/></a></div>rastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-70410832205551362392022-08-13T10:00:00.007-04:002022-08-13T10:11:07.868-04:00On The Guardian: "‘Better late than never’: how Brian Eno and David Byrne finally laid a musical ghost to rest"<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj50LxGlfVLIfX0OeeRkmRfk-o4Rjuk0DPlLJPwLSkbT3GR6keXjKiF071DslrweCq0DLJvmvoS3ETf3XPMcEh7HnhIs_HQmu7xu-mWW_I7XpQYApzwLv8I5Z9Ae98egJPqQM7bKJegSnTqsuNzWLx1wSc8PeyNIAn5YsFqhK-elFYAVudijZRBgC24sg/s1290/eno-byrne.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="792" data-original-width="1290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj50LxGlfVLIfX0OeeRkmRfk-o4Rjuk0DPlLJPwLSkbT3GR6keXjKiF071DslrweCq0DLJvmvoS3ETf3XPMcEh7HnhIs_HQmu7xu-mWW_I7XpQYApzwLv8I5Z9Ae98egJPqQM7bKJegSnTqsuNzWLx1wSc8PeyNIAn5YsFqhK-elFYAVudijZRBgC24sg/s320/eno-byrne.jpg"/></a></div><p>Check this out, on the eternally-relevant <i>My Life in the Bush of Ghosts</i>, <a target="_blank" href=-"https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/aug/11/better-late-than-never-how-brian-eno-and-david-byrne-finally-laid-a-musical-ghost-to-rest?utm_source=pocket-newtab">from my favorite liberal British news -site</a>.<p>Not as interesting as if, say, they had reinstated "Qu'ran," but OK, cool.<p>
What's funny though is that every time this album comes again to the attention of the musical moment (and it seems to return every decade or so, like cicadas or the Sunspot Maximum), the terms "cultural imperialism," or "cultural appropriation" seem to come up as well, with Byrne and Eno all too willing to play the cheerful but guilty pilferers for whichever journalist it is rolling the tape this time around. </p><p>And good for Dunya Younes, I'm glad she's pleased with the way it turned out, and I sure as fuck want to see her get paid, but for me, as a white American dude living at the ass end of a subtropical peninsula, at the ass end of a period of global domination, I have to say that the only reason I even care about the music being stolen is the identity of the thieves.</p><p>Again, I want artists to get paid, but for me, as a fan of whiteboys like myself but with guitars, to pretend that Lebanese "mountain singing" as they called it but really Beirut pop, matters at all to me would be fairly disingenuous. I care about the sounds because they were selected by Eno (and to a lesser extent, Byrne). They are important to me not because they were recorded in 1972 Lebanon, but because they were appropriated in 1979 London.</p><p>And I seriously don't think there's anything wrong in admitting that.</p><p>So I sure as fuck don't feel guilty about it, and I don't think Eno or Byrne should, either. </p></p><a target="_blank" href="https://lahistoriadelamusicarock.blogspot.com/2012/09/brian-eno-david-byrne-quran-used-to-be.html">Associated with a post on the same album I wrote in 2012</a>rastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-78211964062963748682022-05-27T18:50:00.002-04:002022-05-27T18:50:28.756-04:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzOunYkkJQgotByTgdY5pK1uTPvfRGsSkbWRmCPinVlnpkeOEpOAx8JlTIBwMJav_8GtHrvQsIkbZRrUbCHKmjfVrKX7JbeCokePjbgQihZb1S67cZusfqk8gJt0F8DixznoaWB9Km0ayhCA1fWOM9ZXbITqfac8iSm1B1QlZ9KVFNw3YLbfxNquhlAQ/s3076/alan-white.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="1994" data-original-width="3076" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzOunYkkJQgotByTgdY5pK1uTPvfRGsSkbWRmCPinVlnpkeOEpOAx8JlTIBwMJav_8GtHrvQsIkbZRrUbCHKmjfVrKX7JbeCokePjbgQihZb1S67cZusfqk8gJt0F8DixznoaWB9Km0ayhCA1fWOM9ZXbITqfac8iSm1B1QlZ9KVFNw3YLbfxNquhlAQ/s320/alan-white.jpg"/></a></div><p>RIP Alan White, drummer for Yes, I couldn't possibly not say. He wasn't the most iconic drummer in the band's history, or the best, or the most famous, or the most eloquent, or . . . . if you know what I mean. But unlike the guy who fills in the blank on those other categories, Alan White most definitely, at all times, wanted to be in Yes.
</p><p>And there's sure the fuck nothing wrong with that. </p><p>Plus <i>Plastic Ono Band</i> as the discography padder, who else in prog played on something like it?</p><p>
You know what I wish I had right now? That $1.99 cutout of <i>Ramshackled</i> I bought at Specs 40 years ago.
</p>rastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-23956357923835650472022-04-30T11:34:00.001-04:002022-04-30T11:39:24.285-04:00Godspeed You! Black Emperor at The Beacham, Orlando, FL April 28, 2022<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd1zgaYjg6QChIkVfyrmw4PuwF8bzziE-DxVUBUf9rayFjcz8Oclbn98Q5-RsXGyCHW1opWonX7xnIJXHSmilgAlWodB0TdvsMyKs2oyybKL1kZ2k4nnLKJ7CL-P4Ju43NC7Ph0lyvJolEhQ0tHpk6ccsSl3PcitZiO2v7iHeC1dK2wzcbUbswfOXWBg/s1227/godspeed-during.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="860" data-original-width="1227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd1zgaYjg6QChIkVfyrmw4PuwF8bzziE-DxVUBUf9rayFjcz8Oclbn98Q5-RsXGyCHW1opWonX7xnIJXHSmilgAlWodB0TdvsMyKs2oyybKL1kZ2k4nnLKJ7CL-P4Ju43NC7Ph0lyvJolEhQ0tHpk6ccsSl3PcitZiO2v7iHeC1dK2wzcbUbswfOXWBg/s400/godspeed-during.jpg"/></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPcK0TmIxHo-mi1rkFcr6J3gUpoXrw_5NKMdgdJ7LJXU3IRfBELNIig_kSGGS9iyim3WnWSCYiUfAOh1G7S3K810eNRvyDVjASqrPgIw11q2ZhJSjro8x_ycZmfj75_K2riSpfXyoS2Gp4G78tCmWAWw95JuzRaoY9uZpFii9Y3ThJG-mwU7Ag9FqdHA/s1021/godspeed-end.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="852" data-original-width="1021" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPcK0TmIxHo-mi1rkFcr6J3gUpoXrw_5NKMdgdJ7LJXU3IRfBELNIig_kSGGS9iyim3WnWSCYiUfAOh1G7S3K810eNRvyDVjASqrPgIw11q2ZhJSjro8x_ycZmfj75_K2riSpfXyoS2Gp4G78tCmWAWw95JuzRaoY9uZpFii9Y3ThJG-mwU7Ag9FqdHA/s400/godspeed-end.jpg"/></a></div>
Powerful show, if only an hour and 48 minutes long. Not a word was spoken by the band to the audience, speaking of pretense. <p>The finale was a half-hour version of "Blaise Bailey Finnegan III," of which <a target="_blank" href="https://lahistoriadelamusicarock.blogspot.com/2020/05/godspeed-you-black-emperor-blaise.html">I've written in these pages previously</a>. <p>I guess they still haven't figured out they'd been punked. Or--and I should mention the possibility--they knew the guns and the poem was all bullshit.<p>Anyway, it was a fucking orchestral treat, eight part toccatas and fugues, people, and I was glad I didn't have to hear them ask me to support Hamas, or anything.<p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIxYN1DndCHOIn3RoDy423SqM1710OyOv9xX2Vu6xb-pJ-PnlvSQXMQbPwv03DTJuxHPWsAD1qFdx1Pf1PLATa-0YBLiG6-YEBV3dOTnVxiIh_9bIjXA0gs6SiUWuWWAqq8UW7ouV1RCT7qzS81MCTnERd0jeFCWqrbxmqmZgXK-3CcjIqfsyMLlJCrw/s3180/godspeed-with-bars.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="3180" data-original-width="2740" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIxYN1DndCHOIn3RoDy423SqM1710OyOv9xX2Vu6xb-pJ-PnlvSQXMQbPwv03DTJuxHPWsAD1qFdx1Pf1PLATa-0YBLiG6-YEBV3dOTnVxiIh_9bIjXA0gs6SiUWuWWAqq8UW7ouV1RCT7qzS81MCTnERd0jeFCWqrbxmqmZgXK-3CcjIqfsyMLlJCrw/s400/godspeed-with-bars.jpg"/></a></div>rastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-51734058643848832712022-04-30T11:20:00.011-04:002022-04-30T11:38:31.013-04:00Jack White in Mojo, on Pretense<p>"People say That I can't do anything without pretense. No arguing with you there, but I would say everything we experience is pretentious. Some would say The Ramones are the most incredible authentic punk band there was. Some others would say they wore uniforms. They had clever stage names that weren't their real names. I love The Ramones to death. Just saying . . . 'Let's not pretend that's not a pretense.' But when [they] pick on something for being pretentious, they don't like it to begin with."</p><p></p><center>--- Jack White, interviewed in the May 2022 <i>Mojo</i><br></center><p>
Hear hear. It's not a big thing these days, because not as many music writers have a stick up their ass anymore, but back in the 70's or 80's when I'd see some mention in <i>Rolling Stone</i> of Yes, and it was tiresomely connected as it always was to the word 'pretentious,' I'd be thinking, 'OK. "The Gates of Delirium" is pretentious, but "The Murder Mystery" is not. Got it.'</p><p>
<a href="https://64.media.tumblr.com/8b23132d0dec669eceeedd42b774b01b/2e3faf908560569c-dd/s540x810/af18f50d1293e4c9b47f3acff323dc49ea04e658.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="767" data-original-width="540" src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/8b23132d0dec669eceeedd42b774b01b/2e3faf908560569c-dd/s540x810/af18f50d1293e4c9b47f3acff323dc49ea04e658.png"/></a></div><p><b>File under:</b> Power Speaks Truthrastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-26323461277666650082022-03-28T19:59:00.009-04:002022-03-28T20:12:37.809-04:00Some Favorite Album Covers<p>Well, I saw that <a target="_blank" href="https://big-low-t.tumblr.com/">big-low-t</a> just came up with <a target="_blank" href="https://big-low-t.tumblr.com/post/679821612017696768/i-thought-i-would-post-a-few-of-my-favorite-album">a post with some of his favorite album artwork</a>, and as far as I'm concerned, there's no idea so good that it's not worth ripping off, you know what I mean?.</p><p>So, then, like big-low-t said, these are just ten that I came up with quickly; I could be missing some, and I would probably come up with a different list tomorrow. But the real issue, for me, anyway, is separating the cover from the music. Just reviewing, I considered <i>Pink Flag</i>, and it's a good cover, even better than good, but am I overrating the cover some, just because I happen to think it's, like, the-second greatest album of all time? Should I not be surprised that I like the cover to Soft Machine's <i>Third</i>, the music attached to which I think is probably the only thing better than <i>Pink Flag</i>?. Or, moving down the line a bit, is the cover to <i>Let it Bleed</i> really that good, or am I letting the ace music influence my graphic judgement?</p><p>These are a bunch of rhetorical questions, I know.</p><p>So what I ended up with is a list of some really good albums, but with maybe none among my absolute favorites, just because I wanted to try and focus on the art.</p><p>
<img style="height:500px" src="http://www.lahistoriadelamusicarock.com/Music/arise.jpg"><p>
<b>Sepultura - Arise:</b> Michael Whelan is here to tell you that if you're an artist and you've captured the respect of the sci-fi paperback people, well, then, you're *definitely* good enough to do album covers. After Sepultura used Whelan's "Nightmare In Red" second hand, after at least two science fiction/fantasy books had already done so, for <i>Beneath the Remains</i>, Roadrunner commissioned the cover for <i>Arise</i> directly from the artist. It's Sepultura's best album, and their best cover, too, which is to be expected given Whelan's involvement.</p><p>
<img style="height:500px" src="http://www.lahistoriadelamusicarock.com/Music/egg.jpg">
<p>
<b>Paul McCartney & Wings - Back to the Egg:</b> This album definitely doesn't get the respect it deserves, but even the people who (wrongly) dislike the music recognize that the cover is great. It was the famed design studio Hipgnosis who were behind it, and the reason it's great is the juxtaposition of the warm, rich, comfortable Scottish castle with the cold, metallic, blinking spaceship porthole hidden under that tartan weave carpet. The interior of Lympne Castle would have been good; a view of Earth from space just as good; but the combination is jarring enough to stick in the memory forever, pretty much.</p><p>
<img style="height:500px" src="http://www.lahistoriadelamusicarock.com/Music/badmoon.jpg"><p>
<b>Sonic Youth - Bad Moon Rising:</b> This is another cover that derives its strikingness from a dichotomy. This one's not tradition vs. technology, but rather rural vs. urban. Really, it's the Led Zeppelin IV gatefold, done American style. A scarecrow against the New York skyline. Plus, you know, fire, which should really never hurt an album cover.</p><p>
<img style="height:500px" src="http://www.lahistoriadelamusicarock.com/Music/capt-fantastic.jpg"><p>
<b>Elton John - Captain Fantastic & the Brown Dirt Cowboy:</b> I am of an age such that this record was my first experience with a great album cover; I just so happened to be ten years old during the year when Elton John outsold the rest of the music industry combined. And what a package he and his people put together for his hundred million fans: count them, two, booklets, a poster, and that gatefold cover that made my pre-teen jaw drop; not only the glimpse of a well-proportioned bird-woman's pubic hair, but a roly-poly record player taking a dump. Amazing stuff associated with this rock 'n' roll stuff, huh?</p><p>
<img style="height:500px" src="http://www.lahistoriadelamusicarock.com/Music/fuzz.jpg"><p>
<b>Fuzz:</b> Ooooh, stars and bright colors and that space-monster looks fuckin' *stoned*, man. There's a vibe to this that reminds me of the series of <i>Samorost</i> games from <a target="_blank" href="https://amanita-design.net/">Amanita Design</a>. Yes, the music totally reminds me of fuckin' Blue Cheer, but in this case I am sure that I'm not being unduly swayed by that: the art, by <a target="_blank" href="http://www.taticompton.com/">Tatiana <strike>Kartomten</strike> Compton</a>, so you know, is that good.</p><p>
<img style="height:500px" src="http://www.lahistoriadelamusicarock.com/Music/free-heartbreaker.jpg"><p>
<b>Free - Heartbreaker:</b> Tremendous title track that you need to hear if you haven't, by the way, but if you thought that the cover image is a little boring, I might almost understand. This was the last of Free's studio albums, and the band had seen the end coming, too, so the front image (done by an Island Records midlevel functionary named John Glover) was probably fashioned deliberately to suggest an evaporation, a vanishing-in-progress, as the band transitioned from something that existed to something that did not. As their guitarist moved towards death, it must be said. But the idea of gradual reality extinguishment my own sci-fi brain brings to it from there may not be there for everyone else, I realize.</p><p>
<img style="height:500px" src="http://www.lahistoriadelamusicarock.com/Music/aeroplane.jpg"><p>
<b>Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea</b> is another one about disintegration. I like the album okay -- "Two Headed Boy" is good, and so is "Holland, 1945" and the use of theremin will always get some respect from me --but it's not the music that may be influencing my appreciation of the artwork. What may be influencing it is this idea that used to float around, and still does to a lesser extent, that bandleader Jeff Mangum is crazy. I once read a long, horrifying, account of Mangum's many encounters with ghosts, and one, OK, but many I gotta say sorta equals crazy to me. So when I see that <i>fin-de-siecle</i> image they dug out, but with the gal empty where her head should be, I just think of the disintegration of self that comes with insanity.</p><p>
<img style="height:500px" src="http://www.lahistoriadelamusicarock.com/Music/flying-teapot.jpg"><p>
<b>Gong - Radio Gnome Invisible Part One: Flying Teapot</b> The ultra-hippy thing with Gong kind of obscures the fact that they were as outsider-art as it gets. Daevid Allen was like Grandma Moses or Daniel Johnston or Jandek, knowwhatImean? Yes, perpetually toasted, but he did whatever the fuck he wanted, and it didn't sound or look like anything else, and that meant the album covers, too.
<p>
<img style="height:500px" src="http://www.lahistoriadelamusicarock.com/Music/surfs-up.jpg"><p>
<b>The Beach Boys - Surf's Up</b> This is a weird one for me, because I've never heard the album. But the title is so Beach Boys, and the art is so clearly not. The cover painting is based on a sculpture called <i>End of the Trail</i> by someone named James Earle Fraser, and it is so evocative of defeat, of simply having had all your lifeblood sucked out, it creates an amazing contrast with the former sunshiny image of the band. And makes me, frankly, a little afraid to listen to the record.</p><p>
<img style="height:500px" src="http://www.lahistoriadelamusicarock.com/Music/the-week-never-starts.png"><p>
<b>Arab Strap - The Week Never Starts Round Here:</b> I first became aware of this Scottish mopecore band when they backed up Jason Molina on <i>The Lioness</i>, and dug this out, their debut, for the People song "Kate Moss." Yet the album is not a favorite of mine. But I think you'll have to agree the cover is beautiful. It reminds me of the paintings Clive Barker did for his <i>Abarat series.</i></p><p>
Already, I can think of one I missed, or would put in next time, or whatever, which is Slayer's <i>Reign In Blood</i>. But this is long enough for now, don't you think? </p>rastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-50139482776331547982022-03-13T12:17:00.007-04:002022-03-13T12:26:20.359-04:00Dear Mr. Pavement*<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiUGIlhrEcoaENRsuoWt4ZOPLQtJ-RGZT_fih_zI7jVlP5mRzP8Bjhvt8ew5OljimRa2_naA-KvrTUK4Z84AL6N5V1bml-SbDO1HhsHBCHt34_qP_iLFcT-_yNQIc9_BjsvSdYDgC2hAtlvtozCAHatClZNNOvr0y1QfBniSXMMfC6W8x4lPC46q5b99Q=s599" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="599" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiUGIlhrEcoaENRsuoWt4ZOPLQtJ-RGZT_fih_zI7jVlP5mRzP8Bjhvt8ew5OljimRa2_naA-KvrTUK4Z84AL6N5V1bml-SbDO1HhsHBCHt34_qP_iLFcT-_yNQIc9_BjsvSdYDgC2hAtlvtozCAHatClZNNOvr0y1QfBniSXMMfC6W8x4lPC46q5b99Q=s320"/></a></div><p>So, I'm on Third Man's mailing list and I get an email Friday saying that Jack White is the cover for the new <i>Mojo</i> and did I want to buy the Collector's edition "[a]vailable exclusively at Third Man London, Third Man Nashville, Third Man Cass Corridor, and online at ThirdManStore.com on March 15th"?</p><p>Well, actually, no, I don't. I'll get the plebe version in a couple months, whenever it's traversed the pond via the Covid-slow international mail, thanks. But I'll definitely be looking forward to it!</p><p>And then I read through the email and below the blurb for <i>Mojo</i>, and the blurb for Jack's new single with Q-Tip(?), I learned that Third Man has a quarterly magazine themselves, called <i>Maggot Brain</i>. And that sounded cool to me. I still mourn the print version of <i>Spin</i> to which I subscribed for many years. I tried <i>Rolling Stone</i> for a year or two once <i>Spin</i> went out, but let's face it, they've been kind of lame since the '80's (which is why I started reading <i>Spin</i> in the first place). And I do subscribe to <i>Mojo</i>, and they're great, but always being 45 days behind current with them is a little weird, seeing gig ads for shows at the O2 Manchester I could never attend but also are already over is always a little sad for me. <p>I could maybe subscribe to this <i>Maggot Brain</i> thing! And be current, reading gig ads for shows I also couldn't attend, but *haven't* already happened! So I click through for that, but immediately get waylaid when I start reading about the interview the mag did with Pavement <i>in advance of their reunion tour</i>. </p><p>What's this? Pavement dates? So for a second I get excited, and I leave the <i>Maggot Brain</i> page and head over to https://pavementband.com/#tour and sure enough, US tour starting in September.</p><p>But my cautious excitement was dashed as I read through the dates, as once again, Pavement is not coming to South Florida, or even Central Florida. </p><p>And I sighed.</p><p>Because Pavement not coming to South Florida is a long tradition with me. And, you know, with them.</p><p>It's funny, 'cause at the bottom of the page, it actually had a link for "Request a Show," and I was like, "OK, I will," and I even had an inchoate letter written up in my head, went something like this:</p><blockquote><b>Dear Mr. Pavement:</b><p><b>Read with the usual disappointment your reunion tour US tour dates, because once again you've decided not to come to South Florida. Living here all my life, I've long since known that being at the geographical and cultural ass-end of America means that I'm often not going to have he opportunity to see my favorite bands play in town. Not like in Austin, or Atlanta, there's a window you have to squeeze yourelf through, here, I understand. It's got to be the band you know, of course, and before they break up, of course, or maybe during their one-off reunion, and during a tour where it's practical for the band to travel the 700 miles. Like some bands end their tours in Miami, and just begin their vacations here the next day. Think Sonic Youth did that one time. Or I saw High on Fire this other time, Pike and the rest of 'em were departing on some Metal Cruise the next day. So, such a long drive, it's gotta make sense, I get it. Not every tour is gonna work out right.</b></p><p><b>But with Pavement, it has *never* worked out, to the point where I wonder whether y'all just have something personal against South Florida. I've followed you, basically your entire mid-major career. It's true I wasn't a fan of the band when you were on Drag City, but you weren't doing national tours then anyway. But I read the glowing review in <i>Spin</i> for <i>Slanted</i>, and bought the Matador CD right away. Liked it so much I wrote you, commending your vision. Spiral Stairs even wrote back to me! So I'm right with you from your breakout. Should count for something, right? And since I got that short note, I've been keeping my eyes peeled for a date I could check out. </b></p><p><b>But never; not then, and not, sadly, disappointingly, not now. </b></p><p><b>Maybe you'd reconsider? Other bands, do, evidently. Hell, Godspeed You! Black Emperor is coming to Florida for the first time ever next month. You should do the same in October.</b></p><p><b>(Signed) rastro etc.</b></p></blockquote>It would have been a good letter. But when I clicked the "Request a Show" link,it just gave me the Bandsintown page and you couldn't personalize your request.<p>
Just as well, I suppose, as it puts me in mind of the time I wrote Sweep the Leg Johnny asking them to play Churchill's, and instead, they cancelled their tour. Or the time I *couldn't* talk Parquet Courts out of watching the Super Bowl and playing Churchill's instead.
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* Extra credit if you caught the "Young Ones" reference. </p>rastronomicalshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678680630672675977.post-66363934120528277312022-03-12T17:51:00.003-05:002022-03-12T18:05:17.705-05:00Rick Wakeman at the Amaturo Theater, March 11, 2022<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiT9xiZHelZYPdeUGgrncfun0fSl0oz00Fx8mIlY19JfMefY4xHyfp6_JgCQu4Gn0KBYkiuWOxggz8PtMMjTdt2XglgNYpmf4wc1Zf8pHme6or1FtBOWOMYyOphUvyo_DvaPUjSNgng-S4F63LUDbflIag51h86KDUBGw16UNI3b7nTfRnYx8_pK8ijeQ=s1053" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="702" data-original-width="1053" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiT9xiZHelZYPdeUGgrncfun0fSl0oz00Fx8mIlY19JfMefY4xHyfp6_JgCQu4Gn0KBYkiuWOxggz8PtMMjTdt2XglgNYpmf4wc1Zf8pHme6or1FtBOWOMYyOphUvyo_DvaPUjSNgng-S4F63LUDbflIag51h86KDUBGw16UNI3b7nTfRnYx8_pK8ijeQ=s400"/></a></div><p>After a cancellation due to Covid that actually worked out quite well, thank you, the Missus and I attended the Rick Wakeman show along his 'Even Grumpier Old Rock Star' US tour at the Amaturo Theater in beautiful downtown Ft Lauderdale last night.<p>
If it was not a long show by anyone's imagination, I did have loads of fun. Rick had a Steinway piano off to stage right, a microphone in the middle, and a Korg to the left. He'd hop in his bright white sneakers (you can seem 'em in the photo!) between the three positions depending on whether he wanted to play something acoustic, tell a ribald story, or play something electric. Highlights for me on the Steinway were the first number after the intermission, which was a medley of the two Catherines on <i>Six Wives</i> (the Aragon one, and the Howard one) and "Merlin the Magician," from <i>Myths and Legends</i>," betcha guessed.</i></p><p>
His stories--almost always funny--were primarilly in either of two camps; either something mildly off-color from his Mega-Rockstar days, or something mildly off-color about the depradations of being old. He also told an actually poignant (though also off-color) story about his friendships with Keith Emerson and Jon Lord, that I'll probably remember most.</p><p>
The best on the Korg was probably "Jane Seymour," you know the pipe organ one, and man, was I impressed by how much his little skinny keyboard sounded so goddamned much like some massive unit built into the nave end of a 600-year old Anglican church. As I was listening, I was pretty sure that was a perfect segue for Grumpy Rick to talk about the transmogrifying effects of our modern technology, but no, he didn't mention it afterward, though I noted that there was a credit in the tour book for the guy who programmed the pipe organ routine. </p><p>The other electric highlight was a Beatles medley he did toward the end, an interpretative medley in which he got to flash his classically-trained ear and chops with "Help!" as if it were written by Saint-Saens, and "Eleanor Rigby" as if it were by Prokofiev. I liked the <i>Revolver</i> cover better, but Melanie enjoyed the soundtrack tune better. Either way, it was an impressive flash, in, really, a show full of them. No capes, no smoke machines, and certainly no costumed knights on ice, but Mr. Wakeman's ten flexibile digits, 72 years old though they may be, still work quite well.</p><p>The song that he sent us off with was a dazzling "Life on Mars," on which he originally played of course, and it sort of circled round to the Emerson and Lord story. Enjoy and appreciate your artists while they're still around, is what I read from the encore choice--and I was left then with an appreciation that I'd attended, on a couple different levels.<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgttyxI-g5iKKQ-nsgPgIROpKlBI_bhSBtwk4XQ8Uh1uqMZp3SEq7DEYoJsyr12liq7RG2ZaB4wRq6EdFfQ5etxdBFdCrfNTgL1m05UdqQf-zppda3WowF3nQnpq54zv6QofxJE6ITsgfkTouYQN23xXsI5kuYuvqRXGUWOkU388tX6pH5-wu4_0sk2aw=s1006" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="341" data-original-width="1006" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgttyxI-g5iKKQ-nsgPgIROpKlBI_bhSBtwk4XQ8Uh1uqMZp3SEq7DEYoJsyr12liq7RG2ZaB4wRq6EdFfQ5etxdBFdCrfNTgL1m05UdqQf-zppda3WowF3nQnpq54zv6QofxJE6ITsgfkTouYQN23xXsI5kuYuvqRXGUWOkU388tX6pH5-wu4_0sk2aw=s320"/></a></div>
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