A Song For You, Gram

A little over two weeks after I was born Gram Parsons died. He died at Joshua Tree National Park in California for reasons all too common for musicians of the day: too much morphine and alcohol.

When I was starting to play guitar and sing and write my own songs I was heavy into alt country. Bands like Wilco and Son Volt and Whiskeytown and Old 97s were in heavy rotation. As I am want to do with music I am always searching for more more more and that led me to the grand-daddy of alt country records: Sweetheart Of The Rodeo by The Byrds. I've talked about Roger McGuinn before and The Byrds are popularly known as a contemporary of The Beatles and The Beach Boys, but Roger  originally was a banjo player (hence his distinctive guitar playing style) and bassist Chris Hillman was a country kid to his core. After David Crosby got the boot McGuinn starting dipping his toe in the world of country music where they weren't particularly welcomed (i.e. their Grand Ole Opry show in 1968). Chris Hillman knew Gram and invited him into the band and for one record they became a hard-core country band thanks to Gram.

Now when I say country I don't mean the garbage you see on CMT. I mean real country. Cash. Haggard. Waylon. Kristofferson. Real outlaw stuff. Not this pop junk done by morons in jeans and giant hats singing about getting barbecue sauce on their t-shirt. Deep, man.

I don't think there has ever been an artist who spent as little time in a band yet had such a profound effect on a record as Gram Parsons did with The Byrds on Sweetheart of The Rodeo. For legal reasons his voice was taken off the original record or at least pieces of the original record, whatever, but the re-issue has him singing a bunch of tunes like "Hickory Wind" and "The Christian Life" and "One Hundred Years From Now." Listening to that record it is unlike anything else in The Byrds canon, even with Clarence White joining and pretty much playing slide the next few records. It's hard to imagine this is the same band (mostly) that did "Eight Miles High" and "So You Want To Be A Rock n Roll Star."

After that Gram and Hillman went on to form The Flying Burrito Brothers. If somebody tells you they like country rock and how awesome the The Eagles and Jackson Browne are tell them to shut up and listen to something like "Sin City" or "Hot Burrito #1" or "Christine's Tune." And I LIKE The Eagles (except for the non-Joe Walsh tunes on The Long Run).

TFBB didn't last long and Gram went solo making two amazing records (G.P. and The Return Of The Grievous Angel), discovering Emmylou Harris (see below), hanging out with Keith Richards and damn near turning THEM into a country rock band, and doing an ungodly amount of drugs and booze. That got him dead but the music lives on and it is awesome and sounds as vital today as it must have seemed strange to the country boys back then, a long-haired young hippie kid doing hard core country music. You might have heard some of those tunes from those records done by other people: maybe "Streets Of Baltimore" and "$1000 Wedding" by Evan Dando (who wore a Gram t-shirt in the video for "Mrs. Robinson") or more likely "Love Hurts" by Nazareth.

I don't listen to much alt country anymore. I am however listening to The Burritos do "Sin City" right now and it reminds me of when me and my buddy Clay did that song at the old Grog & Tankard in Georgetown and I said to the meager crowd "We're going to do a Flying Burrito Brothers tune now" and one guy by a pool table let out a yell and a cheer and applauded mightily after we did "Sin City." At least we touched one guy. Gram touched a helluva lot more than we could dream of doing. I guess that's good enough.

Gram would've been 66 years old if he were alive today. What a waste. What a damn shame.

Here's a treat: Gram and and an incredibly young Emmylou doing "Streets of Baltimore."

Blinded By The Light

After seeing Rush for the (I think) 11th-ish time, I followed that up Friday evening seeing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band for the first time. My seats weren't nearly as awesome this time around but that's OK.  Here's the view from our seats at Nationals Park:

Bruce and the band are somewheres in there

There isn't much that I can say about Bruce Springsteen that has not already been said much more eloquently. I will say this: every rock fan should see Bruce at least once, no matter how you feel about his music. The band puts on a HELL of a show. It was long, it was rocking, it was a great marvel of endurance on the band's part. There wasn't a break between songs for the first 4 or 5, Bruce and the band just blazed through them.

My wife made a funny observation: she has no doubt that Springsteen's last words on his deathbed will either be "Where are you, Steve?!?" or "1..2..3..4!!!!" After seeing this show, I am going to work more counting in my band's shows! Seriously though, you can tell the band, especially Bruce and Silvio...errrrm...Little Steven, have a real rapport. I guess that happens when you've been playing together for a thousand years. I am sad I didn't get to see the Big Man Clarence Clemons who sadly passed away a year ago. His son Jake did a terrific job in his spot. They incorporated a nice visual tribute to Clarence during "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out."

The band is tight. They did killer versions of "Blinded By The Light," "Prove It All Night," "The Ties That Bind," "Spirit In The Night," "Darlington County," "Jackson Cage," and "Hungry Heart" (with the crowd doing most of the singing). Of course there was "Badlands" and a truly nerve-tingling moment in the encore with "Thunder Road" followed by "Born To Run."

I was never a big Bruce Springsteen fan until I started writing songs myself. It was only then I began to appreciate him as an artist. The record of his for me is Nebraska. This record is just Bruce and his guitar and harmonica and a 4-track, singing songs about killers and losers and used cars and dreamers and just not being able to have the the life you thought you would no matter how hard you try. It's stunning in how resonant and deep such a simple sounding record can be. When I started writing songs it was a touch-point for what I wanted to do, admittedly at a stunningly meager level compared to that. I can't even say fractionally because it's an insult to fractions. The same thing happened with me and Neil Young and CS&N and those kinds of artists. Before I picked up a guitar and tried to create art those acts never really stood out to me. Once I discovered how hard it is to make meaningful, interesting, beautiful music, those acts, and especially Springsteen, became clear to me.

Nebraska aside, my favorite Bruce song is "Racing In The Streets" off of Darkness At The Edge Of Town. Here's a song that is just stunningly good, stunningly well-written.

The closing lines:

With the eyes of one who hates for just being born 

For all the shut-down strangers and hot rod angels 

Rumbling through this promised land 

Tonight my baby and me we're gonna ride to the sea 

And wash these sins off our hands 

Tonight tonight the highway's bright 

Out of our way mister you best keep 

`Cause summer's here and the time is right 

We're goin' racin' in the street

Yeah. If I ever wrote something that good, well...it ain't gonna happen so forget it. Bless you internet, here's a video of that song from the Nats Park show. And on a sad note try to ignore the doofuses talking in the background. The same thing happened to me with two slobs yapping the entire time during the song. Here's one of Bruce's most affecting, emotional, powerful songs...and you are talking the entire time about nonsense. What kind of fans are these people?  Anyway, enjoy. And THANKS< Bruce and band. Awesome show.

Living In The Limelight

I have seen Rush at least 10 times. I have a hard time keeping track of the number of times I have seen them in the last 22 years. My first show was on the Presto tour in 1990 at Reunion Arena in Dallas. The last was yesterday evening on the Clockwork Angels tour at Jiffy Lube Live outside DC. They have yet to disappoint.

This might have been the best show ever. Why? Because Jodi and I pretty much won the lottery with our seats:

Close enough for you?

Alex and funny rock-face

Last time we saw them was at the Baltimore Arena. It was a great show but we were far back on the floor. I vowed that I would never again sit that far back. So for this tour, I bit the bullet and got the VIP package. They don't tell you exactly what seats you get but we were guaranteed sitting in the first 15 rows.

We got to the show about two hours early so that we could pick up Tom (from my band and a fellow Rush freak) and get good parking. Yes, we are old. I went to the box office to pick up the tickets and once I got them I didn't open the package. I figured Jodi might bring better luck so I would let her open it. As she did I was hoping that Orchestra 2 would come up, meaning center stage. The verdict: Orchestra 2, row B. B. As in A and then B. I thought "we can't be this lucky." When we got to the seats, I was blown away. Center stage, two rows away from the greatest band on the planet.

Needless to say, the show was seriously awesome. I put the set list down below. It was heavy on mid 80s stuff. At one point I wondering whether this was the Power Windows tour. More so than other tours, they played the hell out of the new album. Nine songs from it. No complaints with that; the new record is really good. To support them for those songs they had a 8/10 piece string section. Very nice addition! Jodi was happy because they did 2112 in the encore and she got to do the "HEY!" part which she likes. She says Geddy Lee smiled at her. I am sure she did because she is a hottie at a Rush show and who wouldn't smile at that!

Geddy doing his thing

I was really excited to hear two of my most favorite Rush tunes: The Pass and The Analog Kid. The latter song is one of Alex's finest moments. He's not a shredder when it comes to guitar playing. I think he's one of the most under-rated guitarists around. But in the solo for TAK he goes nuts. After he nailed every note the crowd let out a roar. That must be a great feeling!

Two quibbles with being up close: one is I had to keep looking back and forth with a goofy grin on my face to see what Geddy was doing then what Alex was doing. Second was anything else in the future will be a let down! HA! Maybe not.

Rush put on a tremendous show. Everybody knows they are phenomenal musicians. It's great to see a band genuinely enjoying themselves, and Rush obviously do. Jodi mentioned they appear to enjoy it when the older songs get such wild reactions. I was glad to see the new songs get a supportive reaction.  It must be much more interesting to play new material than the same hits over and over. That's the cool thing about Rush: their fans actually want to hear the new stuff. The Rolling Stones, nobody gives two shits whether they make a new record and nobody wants to hear them play that instead of "Jumpin Jack Flash."

Hopefully there will be more Rush tours to see. They are getting up there in years, but they still bring it.

The Professor at work!

Here's the set list:
Subdivisions
The Big Money
Force 10
Grand Designs
Middletown Dreams
Territories
The Analog Kid
The Pass
Where's My Thing
Far Cry

Caravan
Clockwork Angels
The Anarchist
Seven Cities Of Gold
The Wreckers
Headlong Flight
Halo Effect
Wish Them Well
The Garden
Dreamline
Red Sector A
YYZ
Working Man

Tom Sawyer
2112 - Overture/Temples Of Syrinx/Grand Finale

If The Shoe(s) Fits

Tuesday is new release day and I was going through eMusic looking to see what's new.  There's the new Animal Collective, whom I have already talked about not being into although the critics lap them up. There's the new Jens Lenkman, whom I have heard and have appreciated but meh. I saw Two Door Cinema Club opening for Tokyo Police Club a year or so ago but British synth-rock is not inspiring me. Deerhoof, another critical darling, meh. Everybody loves Cat Power...she's OK.

So that got me thinking what's new in power pop? I thought in a pinch I can't go wrong with a good hook and a good melody and great harmonies. One of the elder statesmen of power pop is Shoes. I had read they had a new album out in July and at the time I thought "groovy" but that was it for that. So I downloaded it today (along with Gentlemen Jesse's 2011 debut but that's for another time). And it's a great piece of bubble-gum.  It isn't deep, it isn't a jaw-dropping display of instrumental prowess, but it is three minute "pop" songs done really well.

From my metal and classic rock upbringing to the obligatory grunge period in college to prog to alt-country to indie rock, I must say that power pop, which I first really got into in college, is my go-to genre. It always works for me. I can always listen to it and find myself bopping up-and-down in my chair like I am as I write this sentence. Good power pop makes you do that.

Here's the song I was bopping to, off Shoes' latest record (Ignition), "Heaven Help Me."

It Would Be So Nice

Last night I had a dream where I was discussing with my bandmates a Pink Floyd reunion tour. Of course this was a dream because something like that is never going to happen. But it got me thinking when I woke up what would be my dream setlist for said gig?

Since this is a dream, I am figuring the band would have stamina, so I have no problem constructing a kind of long setlist. The is a reunion tour! Also, I don't want 25 people on the stage. I want Dave on guitar, Roger on bass and Nick on drums. Rick Wright has sadly passed away so on keyboards we'll have somebody like Jon Carin, who has been playing with Gilmour since the 80s. Maybe one other guitarist who could also play saxophone. Definitely 3 lady back-up singers.

OK, here we go.

Set 1
entirety of Dark Side Of The Moon
Astronomy Domine
Set The Controls For The Heart of The Sun
The Gold It's In The...
Wish You Were Here

Set 2
One Of These Days
Fearless
Fat Old Sun
Pigs On The Wing Part 1/Dogs
Have A Cigar
In The Flesh?
The Happiest Days Of Our Lives/Another Brick In The Wall Part 2
Mother
Empty Spaces/Young Lust
Hey You
Comfortably Numb
Run Like Hell

Encore
Your Possible Pasts
Free Four
The Narrow Way Part 3
Shine On You Crazy Diamond, 10 minute version from A Collection of Great Dance Songs

Second Encore
Echoes, shortened to 15 minutes
Arnold Layne
See Emily Play

Yeah, boy! Now that's a frakkin Pink Floyd set list!!

To Each His Own

I like lots of different kinds of music. Right now I am listening to the latest record from a chap named Matthew Perryman Jones. He's an indie/folkie type; perfect record for a Saturday morning and getting a little work done. I've been on a bit of a 70s New Wave kick, so yesterday was the first records from The Cars, Elvis Costello, The Cure, Nick Lowe and Television (who deserve an essay all to themselves but that is for another day!). Earlier in the week I was feeling all proggy so it was Rush and old Genesis and Porcupine Tree. Tomorrow it good get aggressive so maybe Slayer and Pallbearer and Baroness (get well soon, fellas!!)

Pitchfork is a music site I have a love/hate relationship with. I read their record reviews to stay up on what's new in the indie rock world. But a lot of times I read a review only to listen to clips and wonder if we are talking about the same thing. Pitchfork recently came out with a thing called The People's List. This is a list of the top 200 records of the last 25 years as picked by readers of the site.  Not surprisingly Radiohead has two records at the top, one I love (OK Computer) and one I don't (Kid A). Another one (In Rainbows) shows up at 6. I have most of the records in the top 20.

Two of them are records I have read tons about but just do not see what all the fuss is about. One is Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective. Allow me to lift a line from the review of this album. This comes after talking about incorporating West African rhythms and playing around a single chord for 10 minutes:

But Merriweatherfeels like a joyous meeting in a well-earned, middle place-- the result of all their explorations pieced together to create something accessible and complete.

Now I have no problem with a band getting experimental and challenging themselves and going off into new an interesting directions and dimensions. That is what the creative process is all about, right? Right. I think of a band like Wilco. Re-making A.M. is year after year is going to get boring. So it's natural to see a progression from that record to Being There to Summerteeth to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. They are another band that lost me after a while, and though they have gotten back to a roots-ier sound,  I have never been able to get back into their new records. I digress.

The pause I have with the above statement is the world "accessible." The next paragraph says this record will be "tagged as Animal Collective's pop album. This is not what I think of when I think of pop:

OK. I kind of hear a Beach Boys thing going in the harmonies. It reminds me of New Order, which is fine because I like the first couple New Order records. But if it's a sunny day and I have the top down, I am not going to be blasting this. And if I hear this coming out of the convertible next to me at the traffic light I am probably going to turn Lithium up.

No offense to the cats in AC. I am not saying they have no talent. And in no way would I say "they suck." They are creating something I could not possibly do.

The other record which baffles me is LCD Soundsystem's Sound Of Silver. A good friend of mine and his son are into this outfit and I believe they went (or were pondering going) to see LCD's last-ever (yeah right) shows in NYC. When I heard they were doing that I thought, wow I must check this out. This is what I discovered:

Now, I actually like this a bit better than AC. I still can't imagine standing through this show. I'd be in hell. I'd have to be a) much younger and single and b) the girl wanting to go would have to be really hot.

The pattern here is it's more electronic kind of thing going on. And I am unabashedly a guitar dork. I have a large spectrum of liking stuff but it has it's limits. If you are new here and wondering "well what do you like, snob?!?" just click around the other posts. Or better yet, check out my band! <nudge nudge>

So don't think I am slagging these bands. I am just saying it isn't my cup of tea. Like I said before they are both really talented and creative and making music that obviously many people enjoy and get and love and use it to make a shitty day a little bit better. Hooray for that! To each his own, right?

And to show that I am not just some rocker with no sense beyond three-chords, here's what I started playing when the first record I was listening to ended:

I wouldn't blast this with top down either. But it's perfect for my mood right now. Rock on, Leonard!

Really? I liked The Replacements but didn't dig Sugar?

Sometimes I amaze myself. Granted, I have a ton of music. According to iTunes there is 257G of music in it. Artists = 1637. Albums = 4033. Songs = 46180. It would take me 131.6 days of non-stop listening to get through it all. That's a lot to listen to. I understand there are many people who have more. But it's still a lot.

Sometimes I stumble across an artist that is inexplicably not part of my collection. Today's case in point: Sugar. I was making a 1990s mix to listen to while driving through the backroads of New York and Pennsylvania. My car has satellite and I like the Lithium channel but there is only so much Offspring and Red Hot Chili Peppers (neither band appears in my collection, except for maybe a song or two from RockBand) I can take an hour. So I made a mix that would what I would program Lithium with. Let's just say it has a LOT more power pop than Lithium would ever have the guts to play.

I was looking through Pitchfork's best of the 1990s lists looking for more esoteric stuff. There I was reminded of Bob Mould's post Hüsker Dü band Sugar. I remember an old friend from work (Nathan) was big on Bob Mould and made me play Sugar every now and then. For whatever reason it didn't sink in. Now, I am listening to Copper Blue and wondering why in the hell, when I was almost exclusively in my power pop phase, I didn't go nuts over "The Act We Act."  What's that? Here:

Frak me, what a great tune. And the rest of the album sounds like that. Here's a line I really wish I wrote: "Hours slipping by as you watch/The worlds collide/And now you're nothing more/Than another passer-by." Then again "Helpless" might be a better song. Whatever.

I think my missing out was due to two things primarily: a) I only had so much money in the early 90s and couldn't buy EVERYTHING; and b) I had already fallen into The Replacements camp. Let me talk about that second one because it's infinitely more interesting.

Hüsker Dü and The Replacements were two of the important bands to come out of Minneapolis in the 1980s. Both did the ragged pop-punk thing and had modest success. Some of the guys I was working with at the time were Mats fans so being the impressionable lad I was I became a Mats fan.

Both bands eventually wore themselves out when the leaders, for lack of a better term, went sober. In Hüsker Dü case the aforementioned Bob Mould and for the Mats Paul Westerberg. Mould did a couple records with Sugar before going solo and then ultimately becoming a DJ. Westerberg did the solo thing for two good albums, then a couple head-scratchers of album before falling off the face of the planet.

Listening to the first Sugar record and then the first Westerberg record (14 Songs) it's the Sugar record that holds up better, yet it's the Westerberg record I have had for nearly 20 years. The best song on that record is "World Class Fad." It's the only song on the record where Westerberg sounds like he means it: (of note the first 30 seconds has some odd German-dubbing...god bless the Internets!)

That's also a great song. But that's pretty much the only great song Westerberg did post-Mats. Sugar, and Mould on his first handful of solo records, do what I call "bring it." Westerberg seems like he ran out of ideas. Hey man, that happens. I love the story about him firing Brendan O'Brien during the making of his second record because if he "wanted to make a Replacements record I'd hire the fucking Replacements." HA that's awesome. But maybe making Replacements records is what he did best. I am not saying that an artist should stay in their comfort zone but that doesn't necessarily mean it will make for a great record. Bob Mould went from punk in Hüsker Dü to harsh power pop with Sugar to..well not much lately but he did do a couple songs with the Foo Fighters when I saw them in DC earlier in the year. Westerberg went from punk to power-pop in the Mats to the old-soul-world-wearied-guy kind of power pop to records that are almost unlistenable. I prefer Mould's arc better.

So good for me for finally realizing what a great band Sugar was. It only took me 20 years. But better late than never, right Nathan? I wonder what other gems are out there waiting for me to find them.

(On a happy note and according to his website Paul Westerberg seems to be quite happy being a dad and doing family stuff. Good for him!)