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.” 

Random iPod Shuffle segue of the month

Iron & Wine into

John Martyn.  Oh yeah, thanks for pointing that one out, little fella.  I guess every generation needs their own breathy bearded not-really-folky troubadour...

exciting news for geezers

Gang of Four Announce U.S. Tour Dates!

May 1 - Coachella
May 2 - San Francisco @ Fillmore
May 3 – San Francisco @ Fillmore
May 5 - Portland @ Roseland
May 6 - Seattle @ Showbox
May 7 - Vancouver @ Commodore
May 10 - Minneapolis @ Quest
May 11 - Chicago @ Metro
May 12 – Chicago @ Metro
May 14 - Toronto @ Phoenix
May 16 - Boston @ Avalon
May 17 – NYC @ Irving Plaza
May 18 – NYC @ Irving Plaza
May 20 – Washington DC @ 9:30 Club
May 21 – Philadelphia @ tba

via The Fink File

I still think of the Gang's (1985?) farewell tour show at the Ritz (aka Webster Hall), as one of the Greatest Shows Ever.  And that was just the Gang of Three plus Sara Lee...

THE BE(a)T(le)A BAND

Listening to 'Hey Jude' for the first time in a while this weekend I had a blinding musical revelation (fortunately not a 'deafening' one - I hate when that happens...).  About a minute into the coda section (you know, the 'na na na na-na-na-na' bit) I thought to myself 'wait a minute, this is ... this is ... this is 'Dry the Rain' by golly!' 

'Dry the Rain' is probably the Beta Band's best-known and best-loved song, and the it's song in question in the scene in HIGH FIDELITY when John Cusack puts a new album on the store stereo and tells the staff 'I will now sell five copies of THE THREE EP's by The Beta Band.'  It's essentially an amiable three-minute intro section leading up to the big payoff - a lengthy three-chord outro driven by a high trumpet pushing sublime yet simple repeated lyrics.  You know, kind of exactly like 'Hey Jude,' with a slight sideways twist.  Go ahead, play the outro, and sing the 'na na na na-na-na-na' part on top of it.  It's a 10-point match, Horatio.

I googled "'Hey Jude' + 'Dry the Rain' similarities" and came up with nothing (but then maybe 'similarities' is too big a word, and I haven't used it yet in this piece...). But I'm surprised this ... um... remarkable correspondence hasn't been remarked on by anyone.  I know it's nothing on the level of, say, what's in Hilary Duff's purse, but hey, hopefully I can add a little to the discourse...

Those frenzied Japanese

So whenever Cheap Trick's I Want You to Want Me (the LIVE AT BUDOKAN version naturally) comes up in rotation, I wonder about that bit of crowd participation. In the second section Robin sings "didn't I didn't I didn't I see you crying" and the audience screams 'crying, crying, crying' right in rhythm... It's a great rock and roll moment but is it real? Was there a little audio sweetening involved? (and for that matter so what if there was?)

At my first label job I remember when they were prepping a CD release of a live album by a certain well-known 60's folky, someone who had maintained a relatively pure artistic tradition over the years. And I was shocked, shocked to discover that the audience applause got boosted in the remastering process. Heavens, I thought, if they do it for this singer, is nothing sacred? And the answer of course was, get over it, kid. In some ways live rock albums are inherently artificial documents masquerading as 'real,' so I guess we should sit back and let that crazed Budokan love wash over us...

The Eels

... are actually a great example of bands I've rediscovered through relistening after I got the ipod. I had managed to pick up a few of their albums over the years, but hadn't delved deeply into them beyond a couple-month infatuation with BEAUTIFUL FREAK when "Novocaine for the Soul" was first on the radio. I ripped them and put em in the player fully expecting to get a little bored with them soon, but it hasn't happened ... The songs for the most part still feel imaginative, touching and well-produced - from the faux Mike Post piano on "Susan's House" to the weird groove of "Hospital Food"...

Yes, some of it is still "Beck lite" and the whole hospital / death thing is a little much sometime but so far I haven't deleted any from the collection ...

When I was a child I spoke like a child...

And when I was a teenager I dreamt like a teenager; so now when I hear the last verse of After the Gold Rush by Neil Young (flying mother nature's silver seed to a new home in the sun), or Oh! You Pretty Things by David Bowie, I'm right back at age 13, reading 'Childhood's End' and seriously considering what the next evolution will be after homo sapiens, who, after all, has long since outlived his usefulness...

The grave disappointment of the new Sigur Ros album

I know it's become a cliché to say 'I prefer their earlier work' but what happened to Sigur Ros? Their early independent and import releases had a sublime beauty and majesty - sounds and (presumably Icelandic) syllables floated in and out, they threw in a churchy organ or a wash of guitar feedback, and it all came together in a wonderful indescribable way. The underground salivated, the American labels started bidding, and the band ended up with a contract with MCA. A year or so later, in Fall 02, their first 'major' release emerges and it's a head-scratcher... It's got most of the same elements described above, although the syllables are now in a made-up language (not that that should make any difference, or whether this is any different from the previous releases) but somehow it left me cold. And ever since SPIN published a list of “what the lyrics are on the album” with entries like “You sigh low, in Ohio” I can't really listen to it without hearing those…

And now the album has scored a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Album. Well there ya go.

The greatest song of the 80's

... was (as everyone knows) the Coldcut remix of Eric B and Rakim's "Paid in Full". The brilliant original track (that flow, that bassline), merged seamlessly with the Ofra Haza vocal track - which at the time, in that context, sounded like it came from another planet... In some ways you could call the track one of the first mash-ups, though I'm sure there are earlier examples.

But also part of what made it great was that it was underground - the remix was just out on a white-label pressing, so if you weren't friends with the right clued-in DJs it was pretty hard to find. Now the damn thing is everywhere, it's on like three soundtrack albums, two Eric B and Rakim hits comps, and it took me about a minute of online searching to find a link to this passably-listenable 2-minute stream. Which makes me feel a little sorry for people today who may not experience the same thrill of the search, looking for a cool rarity in every record store for months or years... now it's all out there somewhere, it's just a matter of digging it up...