ipodshuffle

Lux Interior 1948-2009: 96 Tears in 96 Eyes

Much digital ink is no doubt being spilled regarding today’s death of Lux Interior, frontman of The Cramps.  I heard about it today at the office but it wasn’t until an old friend posted a status update of “96 Tears in 96 Eyes” on Facebook this evening that it really hit home.  “Human Fly” was a bolt out of nowhere that unleashed an amazing musical force on an unsuspecting world.

 The key point about the Cramps was the gutpunch power, raw energy of their live shows – rock stripped down to its essentials and turned up to the breaking point.  A stinging lead guitar, relentless rhythm and backbeat, and this insane singer who seemed to embody all those pulp horror-film spirits in the flesh.   For several years I was right down in the front row for many shows – in Philly, New York, and New Orleans – and I’d always leave feeling like I couldn’t listen to any other music for days afterward.  For a time it seemed that nothing else could compare after such a visceral experience.  

You can see the chaos of their live shows in the back cover photo of their debut Gravest Hits EP.   This was early in their career but it’s already there – Bryan writhing on the floor, Ivy and Nick holding it steady, and Lux climbing over the seats, in the middle of an audience that has no idea what to make of what they’re seeing.  As Joe Sasfy put it in the liner notes of Gravest Hits, in a line I know by heart: “The Cramps don’t pummel and you won’t pogo.  They’ll ooze, you’ll throb.” 

O Brave New World of Christmas Compilations

So the process that used to take me and the Mrs. (ok, mostly me) a few weeks - sorting records, auditioning tracks, recording the compilation, duplicating and sending to friends, took about an hour this morning:

Enjoy "Christmas Time is Here Again" for your cool yule this year.

Sweet Jane x 4

Yup, more cowbell

	Make your own at MoreCowbell.dj

Specifically, 54% cowbell, or so they say.

Strive at all times to bend, fold, spindle, and mutilate.

Les Crane, 1935-2008

So I guess it's an indication that the unnecessary music trivia is finally seeping from my mind, that I didn't see the Les Crane obit yesterday and immediately think, "Oh yeah, the guy who did 'Desiderata,'" as I probably would have 10 years ago. But lately between everything I haven't had much time to 'go placidly amid the noise and haste' and retain stuff like that (or upkeep a blog apparently). So I didn't pick up on the the fact that Crane was the 'recording artist' behind the 1971 pop-mystic novelty hit until I discovered it buried at the end of the NYT piece, which included a quote from Les basically disowning the song.  (“I can’t listen to it now without gagging,” he told The Los Angeles Times. - way to dis your loyal fans there, Les!)

But anyway, 'Desiderata.' Kitschy, certainly, and ripe for parody (see below). But it holds up in the line of spoken-word one-hit wonders that would stretch at least from 'Ringo' to '(Everybody's Free to Wear) Sunscreen'. And a fine tradition it was, too - though is there still a place in the world for the spoken-word novelty record? Probably not at this point...

Of course no discussion of "Desiderata" would be complete without its answer song "Deteriorata." This one from '72 comes courtesy of the National Lampoon, and was in fact written by Tony Hendra and Christopher Guest, who went on to greater things as manager and lead guitarist of a band of some note 10 years later....

Why I Didn't Get Work Done Today

So Zoilus (via Idolator) came up with the concept of "Famous Songs Rewritten as Limericks" yesterday.  And of course I couldn't resist:

Stevie Ray brought his Strat to the jam
When DB said "I'm through being glam.
"I'll no longer be soulful,
"'Sperimental, or doleful,
"So Let's Dance and cash in. Where's my gram?"

Third Avenue and 53rd
I stand without saying a word
Where once I turned tricks
Stabbed a guy just for kicks
Now it's luxury condos ... absurd!

I go driving round Boston pre-dawn
And I must make a Stop and Shop run
Modern music sounds great
Out on 128
I'll always keep the radio on

Never thought that I'd end up a killa
So goodbye Mom, I'm leaving the villa
Vocal choirs heroic
Left me feeling quite stoic
But who the hell is this Bismillah?

Night driving doesn't get better
The moon's pink and I'm loving the weather
My message, though traffic
(To the 'hip' demographic)
Is 'Please buy the Volkswagen Jetta'

Shall I get you a drink, Maggie May?
Though I'm used, I don't care what they say.
While you're older (and how)
Please enjoy my youth now
'Cause 'Hot Legs' is just five years away.

Well, that's a relief

From the Cold Case files:

Big Bopper autopsy puts rumors to rest

The autopsy put to rest persistent rumors of foul play in the death of the DJ and "Chantilly Lace" performer, who died in the same plane crash as Richie Valens and Buddy Holly. 

Confusing the dead guys

Sidney Sheldon - just died.

Wrote a bunch of books you see left on shelves in rental beach houses.

Sheldon Leonard - already dead.

Character actor and (I think) producer

As Nick in "It's a Wonderful Life," gave the world the classic line:

Hey, look mister, we serve hard drinks in here for men who want to get drunk fast. And we don't need any characters around to give the joint atmosphere.

And...

Frankie Laine - just died yesterday .

A "crooner" who (when I was growing up in New Orleans) I used to get confused with...

 

Frankie Ford - still alive and touring, as far as I know.

New Orleans-based singer who, according to his website, sang his way to rock n' roll immortality in 1959 with the mega hit "Sea Cruise"...

Best. Daily News Headline. Ever.

The Apple's venerable tabloid (the "less nutty" one) on the Lisa Marie Nowak story today:

The new Shuffle commercial

Presented as a public service, here's the new Shuffle commercial.  Like it says over on the left, we're not related to Apple, but the spot is pretty ubiquitous these days so some folks may be coming here for info.

The song featured is "Who's Gonna Sing" by The Prototypes

No more heroes anymore

It's a nice day for a ... White Christmas!

iPod Shuffle info

Welcome new visitors... See the out-of-date blurb over on the left about how this is not a blog about the iPod shuffle... But for better info, check out today's Engadget coverage of the revised Shuffle launch (among other things...)

What? Is there something you're not telling me? Do I have AOR lint on my shoulder or something?

Oh, how I love trying to figure out the vagaries of recommendation engines.  Lots of hype re Pandora these days, but I'll just report that the first time I tried it, I entered in "David Bowie" and it decided I needed to be rockin' some Eddie Money.   Hmmm... But the most common one I hit is the "Recommended for You" feature on Rhapsody, which pulls up some supposedly like-band recommendations based on your recent listening.  Today when it came up with REO Speedwagon, Journey, *and* Foreigner I like to had a cow, as they say. (ok, they don't actually but you get the point...)

Not sure what really drove those recommendations - my last few days on Rhapsody, I checked out the Jen Trynin albums (catching up with...), played the latest Audioslave, and for some reason came across a "Punk Goes '80s" album with Sugarcult, Motion City Soundtrack etc doing 80's radio classics.  And then went back to my old workday standby, the "downtempo" streaming radio channel.  Somewhere in there was some odd combo which reminded their system of its own AOR glory days, which it wanted to make sure I shared in...

Orville Redenbacher apparently has a new TV show

I just calls em as I sees em...

It's all coming together now...

For some reason, Tom Verlaine's "Breaking in My Heart" - the Side 2 Tour De Force from his first solo album - has been running through my mind the past few days.  In fact, I know the reason: "Torn Curtain" from Marquee Moon came up on the shuffle sometime last week, and I started wondering whether that solo album will ever make it back into print, at least on the digital side; "Breaking in My Heart" is the standout on the album, so thinking about the album put that song in my head.

But anyway, doing something completely unrelated the other day - raking leaves in fact - I realized that not only was that song running through my head, but that there were two others banging around in there, competing for literal "share of mind": the Stranglers' "Walk on By" and Nils Lofgren's "Valentine."  And when I thought about it today, I realized that it wasn’t a coincidence that thinking of the one song also suggested the other two.  As “Breakin In My Heart” plays on my mental jukebox, the guitar intro riff suggests the similar intro of the Stranglers' song, and the first piercing lead notes are sonic reminders of the lead in "Valentine," a very different song by a very different artist.

Meanwhile, The Lad has taken to watching “Kim Possible,” a show on Toon Disney, with a theme song about how “I’m just a normal high school girl, but sometimes I have to save the world” done in a faux Destiny’s Child style.  The song’s chorus features the line “call me beep me if you wanna reach me” sung mostly on the same note, going down one step for the last word - and that little pattern always calls up the similar melody line of the RHCP’s “Aeroplane” (“I like pleasure spiked with pain and music is my aeroplane.”) 

After a few decades of active listening, the several thousand songs in my head are coming together like some musical Pangaea, where an R&B flavored Disney theme song and a 10-year-old Chili Peppers line aren’t that far apart at all.  Far from being on separate continents, they’re just a quick stroll across the Bering Strait from each other…