Primal Therapy, Anyone?

I was rummaging (again!) through my old cassette tape collection and found my copy of Tears For Fears' debut album, The Hurting.

Geez, was it that long ago when I first got hooked on the primal therapy pop/rock of these boys from Bath? I mean, I was still in high school when The Hurting first came out. Back then (and I guess, even now) the songs from the album exuded a freshness and quirkiness that no other act before or since has quite been able to emulate. By laying down lyrics that might have come from your Arthur Janov-educated shrink over layer after layer of synthesizers, percussions, and ambient sound effects, Tears For Fears presented music that would be like what rock n roll would be if it finished high school, joined the Ivy League, and graduated with top honors. I mean, its rock n roll with brains, man. A nice change of pace after getting used to rock lyrics that deal with sex and violence and drugs and parties and politics.

I followed the band throughout their first three albums (The Hurting, Songs From The Big Chair, and Seeds Of Love), which means I still have copies of those things on cassette. While I consider all the songs from the above albums as superb works, certain songs do stand out for me: from The Hurting, it's gotta be "Watch Me Bleed" (which I consider as one of the more underappreciated songs in the collection); from Songs From The Big Chair, it's "The Working Hour" (everything just gels so perfectly together; gotta love those sax passages); and from Seeds Of Love, I'd go for the title track "Sowing The Seeds Of Love" (which convinced me that Seeds Of Love is Tears For Fears' "Sgt. Pepper").

Of the three aforementioned songs, however, I really can't shake off "Watch Me Bleed". So here's a video of TFF's live take on the song. Better call your shrink. He might want to see this.

Bikini Girls With Machine Guns

If I would be asked to dig up the history of rock n roll for the most shock-inducing acts ever to hit the stage or the nastiest bands ever to grab your balls through a twelve inch vinyl disc, The Cramps would definitely be in the top ten.

With perpetual members Lux Interior (Erick Purkhiser, vocals) and Poison Ivy (Kristy Wallace, guitar) as its focal point, The Cramps dished out a bizaare but addictive stew of rockabilly, punk, and performance art mixed with twisted references to 50's americana. Their sound has been widely labeled as psychobilly. Rightly so. Listening to The Cramps is like listeneing to a 21-year old Elvis Presley get possessed by the spirit of ol' Sid Vicious. They don't sound like anybody, and it's quite likely that there will never EVER be a band like them again - EVER!

First song I ever heard from The Cramps was "Bikini Girls With Machine Guns". I was totally blown away by that song. I thought they couldn't possibly top that. Man, was I wrong! A couple of months ago, I chanced upon a video of a Cramps live gig and they were doing "Tear It Up"! Holy shit! With Lux screaming into a half-swallowed mic through most of the song, and Poison Ivy - with her gum-chewing Elvis Presley sneer -twanging away nonchalantly, The Cramps definitely remind me of the reasons why I love music that would get me branded as a prime candidate for the loony bin. I mean, a lot of my friends probably wouldn't touch this band with a ten-foot pole. But who cares? The Cramps were, still are, and will always be one of the best examples of the purest strain rock n roll. None of that pretentious emo stuff. Just pure rock n roll - loud, proud, and everything our parents hated about the kind of music we love!

So folks, as I end this post, here's The Cramps - LIVE! - with "Tear It Up"!

Who Is Daisy Hawkins?

On this day in 1966, vocal tracks for one of the songs to appear on the legendary Beatles album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" were recorded. This song was originally titled "Daisy Hawkins", but its author, Beatle Paul McCartney, decided to change it to its now more familiar title. Which turned out to be a good decision. I mean, if Paul hadn't changed the song's original title, it would sound terribly awkward. Consider this lyric: "Daisy Hawkins, picks up the rice in a church where a wedding has been..." Doesn't really roll off the tongue as smoothly as "Eleonor Rigby, picks up the rice in a church where a wedding has been", right?

Yeah, I know, I just had a recent post on Eleonor Rigby. Well, I just guessed this piece of trivia might be interesting to some people, so there. Anyway, if you're wondering how the hell Paul came up with the title "Eleonor Rigby", Beatle lore has it that he saw the name Rigby on a clothes shop in Bristol. Similarly, I've read somewhere long ago that another classic Beatle song we now know as "Yesterday" was originally titled "Scrambled Egg". Weird, huh?

Guess I'll be doing some digging up on Beatle song titles now, huh?

Catting It Up In The Alleys

While I'm all for getting into new music, I always make sure that I always reserve a special place for the seminal genres that gave birth to the myriad musical styles we hear on the radio. One of the early musical styles that I still cherish to this day is Doo Wop. Yep, that genre where a bunch of cool cats (usually between three to five guys) with really cool voices cat it up. They do it in the alleys, in front of the barber shop, inside the malt shop, on stage, on TV. Hell, wherever they do it - and whatever decade they do it - dudes who do Doo Wop are alright by me.

Obviously, I wasn't even a twinkle in the eyes of my parents when Doo Wop first came out. But that just goes to show you how enduring REALLY good music can be. I'm barely familiar with the legendary Doo Wop groups (The Five Satins, The Coasters, The Four Aces) or the classic Doo Wop songs ("In The Still Of The Night", "Blue Moon") that left an indelible imprint on popular music as we now know it. But I have definitely felt their mark on the music I grew up with and the stuff I listen to today. I mean, back in the 80's, even ex-Van Halen lead howler David Lee Roth gave Doo Wop a tip of the hat with his scat refrain in his remake of "I'm Just A Gigolo".

Two of the latter-day Doo Wop songs that I really really love are Billy Joel's "For The Longest Time" (from the album "Innocent Man") and Stray Cats' "I Won't Stand In Your Way" (from the album "Rant N Rave With The Stray Cats"). [The latter, I know how to play on guitar!] While they're not exactly from the era that spawned Doo Wop, these guys definitely could give the originators a good run for their money. Watch, listen, and enjoy!

For The Longest Time - Billy Joel




I Won't Stand In Your Way - Stray Cats

Bye, Mr. DJ

I just got a very sad news today. One of the people I've known and worked with for quite a long time passed away.

It's surprising how people surprise you. I first met Mr. DJ (that's we all called him) around 1994. I guess he was in his early forties then. He was quiet, mild mannered, and seemed to be typical of most guys his age. That meant that I thought he'd probably be into "grampa" stuff. You know what I mean: getting up early, going to work, going straight home after work, and going to bed before nine. Well, at least for a couple of years that's the kind of guy I thought he was. No problem. That's pretty normal for anybody his age.

But then, the company we worked in participated in some kind of religious parade. I can't recall what the occasion was, but I do remember the company had a float constructed and some of us were to board the thing in keeping with the theme of the parade. I was cast as one of the no-good alcoholics who would waste their life drinking. Mr. DJ was cast as the big JC himself, complete with a flowing white robe and a long-haired wig.

It was at this precise instance when I got to see a surprisingly different (and totally unexpected) facet of Mr. DJ's life. While he was putting on his wig, getting ready to play JC, he said something like "Wow, I look like one of the members of Wolfgang!" Wolfgang was one of the hardest-rocking local alt-metal bands at the time. So I thought, "WTF? How'd this guy know about a band as loud and cool as Wolfgang?" He must've heard it from a teenage nephew or something, I thought. But he didn't stop with Wolfgang. He went on to rattle out names of a lot of the heaviest and coolest rock acts at the time. So I went like, "Whoa, this is one very cool old man!"

Later on, after getting to know Mr. DJ better, I learned that he's the real deal - not some trying-hard poser who's just over-eager to impress the younger set with a fake knowledge of what's hip and cool in local rock music. He really was a fan, just like me! He'd go to a lot of rock events, awards nights, gigs - everything! And we wouldn't know about it until much later when he'd hand out various memorabilia from all his rock n roll adventures. I still have with me a couple of NU107 stickers that he gave me, which he got from one of the gigs he went to. I'll be taking real good care of 'em now.

We'll all miss you, sir. I guess I can consider you one lucky guy - you will now get to jam with all the heavies up there in rock n roll heaven. Goodbye, Mr. DJ.

You And Me Always And Forever

I just love 90's band The Wannadies' "You And Me Song". It has a nice 60's feel to it during the verses, but sounds absolutely 90's in the chorus. I'll have to look up more stuff about this band. In the meantime, here's their infectious "You And Me Song".

Add It Up

The 80's produced a lot of interesting out-of-the-way, left-of-center bands. That's why I'll always say that that decade produced a great deal of the best music played (and, thankfully, shunned) by radio.

One of the most curious musical incarnations of the 80's was the three-piece band from Milwaukee, Violent Femmes. Made up of vocalist/guitaris Gordon Gano, bassist Brian Ritchie, and percussionist Victor DeLorenzo, Violent Femmes presented a unique sound that blended folk music with a strong dose of punk. While busking in front of the Oriental Theater in Milwaukee, they were discovered by James Honeyman-Scott of The Pretenders who were due to play the Oriental later that evening.

Despite freely careening around in any direction they fancied, Violent Femmes stayed clear of the mainstream while consistently pulling in new fans along the way. They have a bazillion hit songs under their belt and I love every one of 'em. But for the purpose of this post, let's take a look at one of their biggest hits - a quirky little song called "Add It Up".

Rockabilly Rules!

Just thought I'd post one of my old rockabilly favorites. Here's Sexy + 17 from the Stray Cats hugely successful album "Rant 'N' Rave". Love those slicked up hairdos!

All The Lonely People...

I woke up this morning with a nagging Beatles bender. So I took out my DVD of the Beatle cartoon movie Yellow Submarine and saw it for the nth time. Well, it didn't matter how many times I saw it before, I'd probably be seeing it again and again in the future.

Yellow Submarine's soundtrack in itself can easily pass for a Beatles Greatest Hits compilation when it's actually not. Anyway, one of my fave songs to be featured in the movie is "Eleonor Rigby", a song about,well, "all the lonely people". People who live in an existence devoid of warmth, company, friendship, and love. People who go through their lives invisible and leave this earth unnoticed and unappreciated. Truly a classic!

Anyways, I saw American Idol contestant David Cook cover "Eleonor Rigby" during AI's Beatles Night. I must admit, I got hooked on Cook's rendition of the song. It's gritty and rockin' but still retained the original version's melancholy. Nice work, man.

Here are clips of the song as it appeared on Yellow Submarine and of David's performance of "Rigby" on AI. Enjoy.

David Cook's Version of Eleonor Rigby


Eleonor Rigby As It Appeared On Yellow Submarine

Stillwater Runs Deep

I felt an itch to see "Almost Famous". Maybe it was because of Kate Hudson's photo on the video sleeve. Or, maybe because - as I've mentioned a bazillion times before - I'm such a huge sucker for movies about bands (fictional or otherwise).

Anyway, Cameron Crowe's opus about a rock band called Stillwater had a similar feel as Tom Hanks' "That Thing You Do". Both movies were about fictional bands: Crowe's was Stillwater, Hanks' was The Wonders. Both fictional bands were representative of the predominant sound of their period: The Wonders with their dance-party-combo sound, Stillwater with their sludge/hard rock that was later to be labelled "Classic Rock". Both movies focused on a member of the band who was not the lead singer: "That Thing You Do" consistently showed deference to the importance of its drummer, Guy Patterson (played by Tom Everet Scott); "Almost Famous" put most of its focus on Stillwater's guitar player, Russel (played by Billy Crudup).

Anyway, back to Crowe's movie. I loved the scenes when the band would be onstage in front of an adoring crowd. I also enjoyed the scenes inside Doris, Stillwater's tour bus and - according to lead singer Jeff Bebe (played by Jason Lee) - the band's heart and soul. Of course, I also majorly crushed on Kate Hudson throughout the whole film.

I found a small clip from the movie featuring Stillwater doing their thing onstage. Sorry I don't know what the song's called. But who the fuck cares? It's only rock n roll.

First Ladies Of Grunge?

I was just rummaging through my old cassette collection when I happened upon my copy of Hole's "Live Through This". Since it's been quite a while since I listened to this album, I decided to give it a spin.

"Live Through This" is bracing blast of pure riot grrrl that obviously tips its hat to neo-feminism and 90's punk. After bombarding my senses with this album, I am reminded why I bought it and have been fiercely protective of it. I never lent it to anybody - mostly because a lot of people who tried were just trend-surfing posers who weren't really into this kind of music. If I let them get their filthy poser hands on this, they'd have probably lost it and wouldn't have felt any kind of remorse or sense of loss. (Don't laugh, but these days it's pretty hard to get a copy of this album in these parts.)

Anyways, I'd like to share my favorite song from "Live Through This". It's a sweet little number called "Violet". Listen, watch, and enjoy!

Record Store Stars

I mentioned somewhere in an earlier post that I'm a complete sucker for movies about musicians, both fictional and actual. That's because I'm a sucker for movies with bitchin' sountracks. But after seeing (for the nth time!) the 90's movie "Empire Records", I remembered that I'm also a big fan of movies whose lead characters work in record stores! Why? Because they also tend to have kick-ass soundtracks!

I don't think I've seen that many films where the star (or stars) work in good old-fashioned vinyl record stores. But I do recall three of 'em.

1. Empire Records

Like I mentioned earlier, this 90's classic (well, as far as I'm concerned, it's already one) looks at a day in the life of eight kids who work in a record store called --- you guessed it --- Empire Records, which is under the management of Joe, an ex-musician who still keeps his drum kit in his office. On this particular day, Rex Manning Day (as dubbed by the kids themselves because it's the day when faded TV and recording star Rex Manning was coming to Empire Records to promote his new album and sign autographs for his dwindling fans), the gang of Lucas, A.J., Mark, Eddie, Birko, Debbie, Gina, and Corey go through all the thrills, heartaches, fun, and disappointments that are part of being young in a pace that makes you wonder halfway in the movie if everything that was happening really did happen all in just one day. Man, all the stress that everybody went through on Rex Manning Day could kill an ordinary mortal. But, hey, we're talkin' about the employees of Empire Records here. They're hip, they're cool, they're young, they're resilient, and they still manage to look good even with all the heavy drama that periodically interrupts the movie!

Like I said, this movie features music from a lot of great acts that came out in the 90's to kick up its coolness quotient: Gin Blossoms, The Cranberries, The Buggles. I strongly recommend you get a copy of Empire Records for your collection. (Hey, shouldn't the producers be paying me for promoting their movie on my blog?)

2. High Fidelity

Where Empire Records dealt with the life of teenage record store employees, High Fidelity (starring John Cusack) looks at the life of record store employees who're already done worrying about zits and puppy love. In this movie, Cusack plays a guy who owns and runs a vinyl record store, Champion Records. He has two odd employees whom he says just kept showing up for work after he hired them. One of them is the fiercely opinionated rock snob Barry (played to the hilt by Jack Black), and the other is Dick (sorry, can't remember the actor's name).

This movie is absolutely fun to watch as it features three grown (albeit immature) men bickering incessantly about even the most miniscule piece of rock trivia and Top Whatever Lists. Who was it who had the car accident, Jan or Dean? Green Day is obviously most influenced by which two bands? Name your Top Five songs about death. Stuff like that. And, they (especially Black's Barry) would mercilessly pound on somebody who just happens to make the mistake of not having enough knowledge of rock trivia and folklore and displaying such ignorance. Fuck, I love those guys!

The movie's soundtrack is more eclectic as it features music from different genres: punk, new wave, 60's sould, rap-rock, and pop. For the guy who likes his rock snobs over 21, this one's for you.

3. Pretty In Pink

Now how'd this get in here? Well, actually, while this movie does have a great soundtrack, its protagonist --- 80's everygirl Molly Ringwald playing Andie Walsh --- also works in a record store. Although that part of Ringwald's Andie is not given any significant attention at all, I guess it still qualifies Pretty In Pink for this short list.

You know, I wish all record store employees are as knowledgeable about the records they sell as the characters from these movies. It just kills me when I ask a record store clerk about a record and they'll just say "It's on aisle number 8"! Well, I guess only the fictional record stores get the best workers.

Early Morning, April 4...

Everytime this day comes around, I get a little restless, a little nostalgic, a little misty. Hell, everytime April 4 comes around, I feel like smashing a guitar to bloody smithereens in front of a throbbing slampit of punks!

So what's so special about today anyway? It's April 4, so what?

Well, I'll tell you.

When I was around 19 and still in college, a bunch of my friends from school invited me to join their band. Yep, a band. As in, an honest-to-goodness-true-blue-kick-ass rock n roll band.

Actually, those guys were already in a band when they invited me to join. I guess they were in the middle of a line-up revamp or something. Or maybe they wanted to go to a different musical direction. Whatever.

Anyway, one Saturday afternoon I auditioned for them, not really knowing what they were expecting, what I could actually do, what I could bring to the band, or if they would even want what I had to bring in the first place. We ran through a lot of songs that I kept losing track of what we were actually doing: were we still holding the audition or were we just already dicking around in the tiny hot-as-hell studio? Luckily, after howling through several sets (which included U2's laryngitis-inducing "Bad"), the guys let me in the band. Great.

So what's this got to do with April 4?

Well, we needed a name. So during one rehearsal session, we were asking each other: what do we call ourselves? This was during the time when U2 totally broke into the American market and the world was beginning to feel the initial reverbations of one of the biggest band in rock n roll history. We were into their songs, totally. And one song that stuck out for us was "Pride", which included the line "Early morning, April 4, a shot rings out in the Memphis sky..." So April 4 it was.

April 4 was a college band made up of five school friends who loved different kinds of rock n roll music. Bass player Kenneth (to protect their privacy, I will not be giving you their last names; you'll have to pay us some kind of royalty for that! Hah!)grew up on a diet of hard rock with a little bit of pop-rock thrown in. Semi-anti-guitar hero Bobby was raised on heavy metal. Drummer Pong's (who also did back-up vocals and some songwriting) taste spanned hard rock, pop-rock, a little bit of punk, and underground music (it wasn't called "alternative" then - thank God). Keyboard player Toy (also the youngest in the band) leaned towards The Beatles and the whole gamut of British acts polluting the airwaves then. As for me, well I was (and still am) partial to punk, hardcore, Brit rock, and left-of-center acts. And I was sort of the unofficial rock trivia prince, a kind of rock snob: I'd tell the other guys that, before Generation X, Billy Idol was part of a gang called The Bromley Contingent. Stuff like that. I guess they didn't give a hoot where the hell Billy Idol buys his underwear either.

Those different musical influences helped make April 4 a very interesting combo. We could play punk or hard rock or any kind of earsplitting cacophony if we felt like it; but a lot of times we played a lot of U2, some Cactus World News, Translator, and a whole lot of bands that the frickin' mainstream were (and still are) blissfully ignorant of. We learned a lot from each other (I learned a lot of chords from Bobby)and taught each other a lot, too. We also learned how to --- using this fucking word is so shitty --- "multi-task". It was during my time with the band that I actually got to touch and play a real electric six string (Bobby used to have this awesome Aria Pro guitar), to sit in on Pong's drums when we were just dicking around, learn a couple of keyboard riffs from Toy (I learned the intro to The Colourfield's "Confessions" from him), or pinch hit on bass while Kenneth took five.

We got into a fair number of gigs, too. Some of them were good (we played well, had a good time, got warm reception from the crowd). Others, not too good - fuck, they were even downright depressing (example: the police had to stop the gig using fucking machine guns because the crowd was getting unruly)! But some of them have been so frickin' great that they're burned to permanency on my brain (people went crazy and took to calling our names out in the streets a couple of weeks after the gig)!

We met a lot of great people from other upcoming bands. We would be regularly bumping into bands like In The Dark, Stampinground, Major Minor, Child Flesh, and Temper of The Times while gigging around town. We became friends with a DJ from a popular radio station - he liked us so much that he would refer to us as "his band".
We had something that resembled a sort of a fan base (which included Mom, Dad, the neighbor's dog).

Yeah, those were the days, man. When did all that happen? What, between 1987 to 1989? It was that long ago, huh? Guess nothing that good can last forever.

Anyway, to the guys who were a big part of some of the best days of my life --- Pong, Kenneth, Toy, and Bobby --- Happy Band Day, guys! Rock n Roll!

I'll end this post with a video of the song from whence April 4 took its name: U2's "Pride". Enjoy