Why Rumsfeld Was Fired

This is just too funny...

Dylan Covers

Mississippi - Donna The Buffalo
One More Cup Of Coffee - Eric Burden
Highway 61 - World Party
Man In Me - My Morning Jacket
Hard Rain - Edie Brickell

The Abyssinians' Satta Massagana

I just got back from Jammyland, NY's premier Reggae shop. We scored some hot shit which no doubt we will be excerpting on the HBBB in weeks to come. In lieu of our recent purchases, here is the next installment in steller albums by notable reggae groups:

Compared to the last few reggae albums written about on HBBB, The Abyssinians' Satta Massagana is much lighter fare music wise, though the lyrics display an increase in religious passion. Culture, Burning Spear and The Abyssinians are prime examples of reggae vocal groups with close knit harmonies and Satta massagana may be the best example of this yet.

The Abyssinians is comprised of Bernard Collins (lead voice, low harmony), Donald Manning (lead voice, high harmony), Lynford Manning (lead voice, high harmony).

The musicians are Robbie Shakespeare and Val Douglas on bass. Mikey "Boo" Richards, Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace and Sly Dunbar on drums. Micky Chung and Earl "Chinna" Smith on guitar. Clive Hunt, Jerome Fracique and Llewellyn Chang on horn. Clive Hunt on flute. Geoffrey Chung, Clive Hunt and Tyrone Downie on keyboards.

The Abyssinians produced and recorded at Harry J. Studios and Joe Gibbs Studio in Kingston.
The album was released on Heartbeat Records in 1976.

Declaration of Rights

Something Old, Something New

In 2000, The Jayhawks released Smile. Apparently Gary Louris, lead Jayhawk, got the idea to name their sixth album after Brian Wilson's nightmare from fellow Minnesotians, The Replacements. To the Jayhawks credit, they were the first band to release an album titled Smile. I understand why they did it though. The Jayhawks' Smile would be a Minnesota band's version of the sun-shining music that the Beach Boys sunk into all of our souls.

To helm production duties The Jayhawks brought on Bob Ezrin, producer of The Wall, albums by KISS, The Darkness and Alice Cooper among many others. Sort of an odd combination but the results were not bad. Together they come up with something that was a lot more popped out (and has drum machines) than any other Jayhawks album, before or since and seven years later the sound fits the band well. Despite a departure in sound, the album is pure Jayhawks, featuring the same melodic, chorus infused songs that Louris and Mark Olson should've made a better living for having created.

The one non-musical thing I remember about the Smile album was that when it was released it was accompanied by a top of the fold story about the band in the Sunday New York Times' Arts Section, entitled "What If You Made A Classic And No One Cared?"

Well I cared and to my credit at the time, I had the wherewithall to get my ass into Boston rock club, The Paradise, and see them rock this record out. Three things I remember from that night: 1. Upon entering the venue with my musical companion, we were the only audience members underage who had bought tickets so we had to get bracelets on our wrists to insure we would not be sold drinks at the bar. 2. Before the show began, I went into the bathroom to take a leak and Gary Louris, himself, ended up at the urinal next to me. Thankfully I didn't say anything to him because I'd be mortified now, though I really scratched my mind thinking for something, anything to say that wouldn't be lame. 3. The band covered Eric Carmen's All By Myself and it was fucking awesome (they also played a slew of Golden Smog tunes), though not as sweet as hearing them do Carly Simon's Your So Vain years later.

Anyway Smile will never go down as one of the best Jayhawks albums, but that really hits upon just how good much of their other albums are. Had any other band released it, Smile may very well have been their Hollywood Town Hall.

Smile is The Jayhawks "big" album. All of our favorite "small" bands should get the opportunity to make one somewhere along the way.

What Led Me To This Town
Better Days



Oakley Hall's Gypsum Strings is an album I wish I picked up last year upon its release because it probably would have been on my year end list. The band which credits itself as having a hefty sized lineup of ten or so musicians is from Brooklyn, NY. They describe themselves as Neil Young backed by Neu! and Linda Rondstadt. David Fricke in the pages of Rolling Stone explained that Oakley Hall sound like Wilco joined by both Lucinda Williams and John Cale on viola. Maybe a mixture of the two of is more appropriate.

In my mind, O.H. have guitar parts that sound like they were layed down towards the end of the 1960's somewhere in Northern California before the Canyon sound took over. They also employ both male and female vocals upfront and together with the music gravitate towards some twisted combination of country-rock and psychadelica that one would think had been ground already trekked upon but sadly hasn't been, or at least in any memorable way.


Their sound, as embodied on thier songs, has obviously been well-crafted and yet the music sounds as fresh as a first take. Whatever they got going on, it's worth checking out and I'm curious to see how they expand on it over the course of another album. As much as I like Gypsy Strings I can totally see this band only getting better and raising the bar. Much as you just knew from listening to the first few My Morning Jacket records that the band was going to take its time blowing your mind while building up an audience to be there when they did it.

The band just signed with Merge Records and are about to hit the road with Bright Eyes and Gillian Welch.

Lazy Susan

Visit Oakley Hall's Myspace Page
The picture of the band above was garnered from their website.

If you like what you have heard, please be sure to go and purchase a copy of the album anywhere.

you gotta feel for the pig

Bob Marley And The Wailers' Catch A Fire

The liner notes to the deluxe edition point out something that sort of some's up, in part, the last few posts focusing on key reggae albums. Richard Williams writes that originally reggae, like rock 'n' roll started out as a medium propelled by singles, not albums. Catch A Fire was the first reggae album that defied this, much as albums by the Stones, Dylan and The Beatles took rock from the 7 inch to the LP. In his words, Catch A Fire was an album with all the songs tieing into one another to form a complete whole.

Normally I find that Deluxe Editions can be a little too costly for the bargain of material included but the Catch A Fire reissue is quite interesting. The first disc includes the Unreleased Original Jamaican Version (the above picture) and the second disc the Island released version (the below picture).

The difference you ask? Well, the unreleased Jamaican album contains two more tracks than its American counterpart, the track listing is a bit different but the topper that differentiates the two albums is in their mixes. Chris Blackwell, the head of Island Records, watered down, so to speak, the sound of Catch A Fire, in post-production, for mass consumption while leaving Marley to release locally his version, the version with a sound Jamaican's would best identify with. I don't know about you, but I would rather listen my reggae in its thick, original, not from concentrate form. The Jamaican version is evidence of some of the thickest stew a band can make with drums, bass, guitars, percussion and organs.

There's nothing wrong at all with the American version. In fact it seems to have been called into existence in order cater to rock fans and that's why it is worthwhile to own. But here is the caveat. It has nothing, n-o-t-h-i-n-g on the Jamacain version. In fact, it's existence only shows just how great Catch A Fire Jamacian style really is.

The Wailers were Bob Marley on vocals and guitars; Peter McIntosh on pianos, organs, guitars, and vocals; Bunny Livingston on congas, bongos, vocals; Aston "Family Man" Barrett on bass; and Carlton "Carly" Barrett on drums. Rita Marley and Marcia Griffiths provided backing vocals. The album was recorded and mixed at Dynamic Sound Studios, Harry J. Studios and Randy's Studios - all located in Kingston, Jamaica. Carlton Lee and Stu Barrett provided engineering services; Bob Marley and The Wailers produced. Errol Brown mixed the resissue.
(The above credits are only for the Jamaican version).

Ok, it's time to get onto the tracks.

Concrete Jungle

If you like what you have heard, please go to your local retailer of albums and pick yourself up a copy. If you don't like what you have heard, or are unsure whether you like what you have heard and still need to make your mind up, please go to your local retailer of albums and pick yourself up something else.

Top Ten Neil Young Songs

I woke up this morning, and went to my computer to start up some music in iTunes (on random of course), and the first thing that popped up was Neil Young. What a nice way to start off a morning. So, it begs the question, what are your top ten Neil Young songs? (entire musical career included)

Billy Childish Videos

Thee Headcoats - Just 15



Thee Headcoats - Oh Yeah



Billy Childish & The Blackhands - Can I Ask You Baby

Burning Spear's Marcus Garvey

In 1976, Burning Spear released the classic Marcus Garvey album. I write that the album is classic because upon its release in Jamaica it was immediately accepted as such and catapulted Spear into one of the world's most celebrated reggae artists. Years later it stands up as a classic of the genre and has levitated into a classic album by any genre's standards.

The music inside the jacket is both infectious, uplifting and filled with history and political meaning. The track names say it all: Slavery Days, The Invasion, Live Good, Tradition, Jordan River, and Red, Gold & Green to name but a few.

Burning Spear is chiefly Winston Rodney, Delroy Hines and Rupert Willington.

The band employed by Spear to turn his ideas and lyrics into music was dubbed The Black Disciples and is a version of The Revolutionaries. Robbie Shakespeare and Aston "Family Man" Barrett provide bass. Earl "Chinna" Smith and Valentine "Tony" Chin fill in the guitars. Leroy "Horse" Wallace on the kit. Tyrpne "Organ D" Downie and Bernard "Touter" Harvey sit at the organ and piano Vincent "Trommie" Gordon, Richard "Dirty Harry" Hall, Herman Marquis, Bobby Ellis and Carlton "Sam" Samuels make up the horn section.

The session was produced by L Lindo (Jack Ruby) and engineered by George Philpott and Errol Thompson. Spear recorded at Randy's Studio and the album was mixed at Joe Gibbs Recording Studio.

The Invasion
Tradition


Reprinted below is Robert Christgau's reviews of the Marcus Garvey album and the dub version, Garvey's Ghost which is attached to the reissue:

Marcus Garvey [Island, 1976]
The most African (and political) sounding reggae LP yet to crease the USA. Deceptive polyrhythms and horns that hint at highlife add to the hypnotic force of Winston Rodney's eerie ululations, resulting in chants so compelling that when Rodney cries "Give me what is mine" you half expect Chris Blackwell to hand over the record company. Or at least to release the group's next album when this one doesn't sell. A-

Garvey's Ghost [Mango, 1976]
Marcus Garvey dub, with the instrumental tracks remixed to create illusions of depth and focus. I know two people who consider it one of the great reggae albums, and oddly enough neither is a doper. Odd because, though I'm not much of a doper myself, I find that marijuana greatly enhances appreciation of this music. Which makes sense--marijuana certainly enhanced its creation as well. But which also makes me suspicious. B+

Read Them and more at Rob Christgau's website.

If you like what you heard please by the album at your local retail seller of fine albums. If you don't like what you heard please by another album at your local retail seller of fine albums.

New Releases

Tomorrow is shaping up to be a pretty shitty release day, what with Good Charlotte and the Kaiser Chiefs being the most interesting of the lot. Anyway here is a few albums that popped out.

A Band of Bees - Octopus

Mary Weiss - Dangerous Game (Formerly of Shangri-La's w/ the Riegning Sound guys)

Doors reissues on Rhino

Bob Dylan - Pat Garret & Billy the Kid, reissue

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Junk Culture, reissue

Ultravox - Vienna, reissue

Warren Zevon reissues on Rhino incl. what looks to be an awesome live album.

For a complete list go here.

Top Ten Jazz Albums

HBBB readers what are your favorite jazz albums and why?

Dylan Covers

You Ain't Going Nowhere - Roger McGuinn and Elvis Costello
Like A Rolling Stone - Barb Jungr
Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You - Gillian Welch and David Rawlings
Rainy Day Woman - Trey Anastasio
Ring Them Bells - Warren Zevon

iPod on Random

The Last Chance Texaco, Rickie Lee Jones, S/T
Altered State, Teddy Thompson, Separate Ways
Show Me That River, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Battle of Armagideon
West Man Skank, Augustus Pablo, Augustus Pablo Meets Lee Perry At The Black Ark
Tunic (Song For Karen), Sonic Youth, Goo
Bad Light, Built To Spill, Keep It Like A Secret
Dub Stew, Wackie's, Jamaica Super Dub
Love Untold, Paul Westerberg, Besterberg
(Your'e My) Favorite Waste of Time, Marshall Crenshaw, B-sides and Unreleased
Ball of Fire, Israel Vibration, The Same Song

The Silos - Come On Like The Fast Lane

The Silos just released their latest album, Come On Like The Fast Lane, on Bloodshot Records. The Silos were formed by Lead singer/guitarist Walter Salas-Humara about 20 years ago, and he has soldiered on with the band ever since. In the grand scheme of things, I don't know too much about the band, and I saw them live for the first time with The Minus 5 at The Mercury Lounge last year. I wasn't sure what to expect from them that night and I ended up becoming a fan. I only have a few cds of theirs, and I think I like this album better than the others I've heard. It's got a range of styles, from punchy pop/rock to roots-heavy americana, and the band pulls it all off extremely well. You can tell these guys are for real. This album is also being added to the Official Hendo Bendo Blog Bonanza Thumbs Up List for 2007
Here's the song Behind Me Now
Here's a link to buy the album
Go see them live

The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse

The JAGJAGUWAR label is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. What with releases by Black Mountain, Ladyhawk and Okkervil River among others. A new edition to their catologue is The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse. Upon reading write ups on the band, I was excited (to say the least) to see them described as Beach Boys harmony's backed by Spiritualized with Roy Orbison-esque lead vocals. Spread a psychadelic canvas all around that sucker and that is The Besnard Lakes.

To my surprise their first track has patent fucking Beach Boys harmonies. If you could copyright an idea, the Surf's Up boys would be expecting a royalty check in the mail and deservingly so. Harmonies aside, the band's compositions alternate between heavily drenched feedback and the whimsical. Some of the tracks seem to go to some pretty dark places musically but the band always manages to keep a bright light shing to find their way back on home.

So where does a band like this come from? Canada of course. What's more they are actually huge Orbison fans (get him a stamp please) and got into him by way of David Lynch's use of the Roysters music (the Spanish version of Crying in Mullholland Drive is a must listen). No doubt unless 10 or so most excellent albums are released by the end of this year, this one will be making its' way into the Top 10 of 2007 list (the only other one I got there at the moment is The Good, The Bad & The Queen which I have become addicted to).

One request before we get to the music, if you like what you hear please purchase the album from your local retail record seller or straight from the horse's mouth at Jagjaguwar's mail order site. Oh and if you get the cahnce check these guys out live. I hear they kick ass.

Disaster where you can just taste the harmony.

This has been brought to you as the third addition to our Thumbs Up for 2007 series.

Culture's Harder Than The Rest

Culture's Harder Than The Rest is as damn near a perfect reggae album as is possible, unless your the sort that would only get enjoyment out of a Bob Marley record. To take it out of the Reggae room, if Marley is the Beatles, an group like Culture would be something akin to The Byrds. I remember buying this album during the summer at a Tower Records in Stamford, Ct and tossing it into the car stereo for the ride home. I also remember that it remained inside that stereo for weeks, until school started up again.

Lots of reggae is heavily weighted in favor of rhythm - bass and percussion. Culture even the scales on Harder Than The Rest by adding a significant amount of melody to the mix producing a highly listenable, enjoyable and grooving set of music. In my book nothing, with the exception of Burning Spears' Marcus Garvey and the Jamaican version of Catch A Fire, beats this collection of roots reggae.Culture were three vocalists with Joseph Hill on lead and Kenneth Paley and Alber Walker bringing up the rear with harmony. Harder Than The Rest was recorded in 1978 in Kingston Jamacia at Treasure Isle Studios. The Revolutionaries, the legendary studio group, were employed to lay down the tracks. in case you need refreshing, The Revolutionaries are comprised of Robbie Shakespeare (Bass), Sly Dunbar (Drums), Willie Lindo, Bertram 'Ranchie' McLean (Guitars), Ansel Collins, Earl 'Wire' Lindo (Keyboards), Uziah 'Sticky' Thompson (Percussion), David Madden, Vin Gordon, Cedric 'Im' Brooks, and Felix Bennet (Horns). HTTR was engineered by Errol Brown and produced by Sonia Pottinger. Those names sound much cooler than any other set of musicians I have yet to come across. The album was released on Virgin's The Front Line label.

On a personal note Harder Than The Rest was the first reggae album I listened to where I was able to separate the fact that it was reggae and just focus on the music. It showed me that reggae could be just as good as any other type of music out there.


Without further ado some tracks.

Culture - Behold
Culture - Free Again

We Will Never Agree On Anything As We Agree On...Top 5 Stooges Songs

In honor of the fact that the three of us are going to see The Stooges live in NYC in 2 weeks, as well as the fact that their new album got a 1.0 from Pitchfork............
What are your top 5 Stooges songs?

Phil Spector, Jury Selection

Phil Spector's trial gets underway this week and HBBB will proudly be commenting on the whole thing.

Today was the first day of jury selection and Spector ditched his afro wig for a "blond, Beatles-style shag" according to the Wash Post. P.S. has some kickass lawyers including Robert Shapiro, from O.J.'s famous team, and I have to wonder why no one prevents him from wearing these insane wigs. After all if there is ever a day you want to appear normal when your on trial for murder, I think it would be the first time a jury of your peers lays eyes on you. Unless your going for an insanity defense, the goal is not to freak the jury out and encourage them to place you in jail.

The presentation of a case for Spector's guilt and defenses will not begin for another month or so, but we already know that the State of California will be arguing that the Tycoon of Teen shot and killed actress/waitress Lana Clarkson. Spector's side will be arguing that she killed herself ("kissed the gun" in P.S.'s words) or in the alternative that he is a raving fucking maniac. There is also a possiblity that Spector could argue the gun was faulty, hence the shooting was not meant to occur. Much of Spector's defenses and case will depend on the testimony of experts. Finding physicians and shrinks to testify he is clinically insane will be much easier than securing testimony that the gun should never have gone off, unless that is actually what happened.

Regarding jury selection, I wonder how many people in Spector's part of California have never heard about him or his antics. Obviously there are always people who live under a rock but Spector has been cultivating his image of the nutty producer for close to 50 years. It will be intresting to see how many jurors both sides get to before they settle on 12 and a few alternates.

Moving past jury selection, when the Prosecution makes its case that Spector has a penache for weapons, especially fire arms, and odd behavior, I'm sure all those stories of him pulling guns on The Ramones, Leonard Cohen, Ronnie Spector and others won't be too appreciated by the defense, though the trial transcripts will surely be fun to read. Maybe we will actually find out that End Of The Century is really a Joey Ramone solo album.

In closing, although we have a system where you are innocent until proven guilty, this writer believes that crazy Spector probably always wanted to shoot someone with a gun and one night he got drunk enough to do it. That is easier said then done especially when the Prosecution has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Spector is guilty.

If anyone wants to place some bets on how this will all unfold, lets do it.

More to come....

New Releases

Out Tomorrow:

The Assemble Head In Sunburst Sounds - Ekranoplan

Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Ray Price - Last Of The Breed (Covers of Old-School Country)

LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Living With The Living

Low - Drums & Guns

Jesse Malin - Glitter In The Gutter

Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank (incl. Johhny Marr)

The Ponys - Turn Out The Lights

Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby - S/T

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Abbatoir Blues Tour (4 CD/DVD)

Depeche Mode - Construction Time Again & Black Celebration

iPod on Random

Whizz Kids, The Undertones, Hypnotised
Lonely Says vs II, Gregory Isaacs, My Number One
Wake Up Exhausted, Tegan & Sara, So Jealous
I Wish I Was, The Twilight Singers, Powder Burns
Two Lives, Young Fresh Fellows, Topsy Turvy
Low Down Freedom, Waylon Jennings, Honky Tonk Heroes
Last Of The Jestering, Impact All Stars, Forward The Bass!
(You Caught Me) Smilin', Sly & The Family Stone, There's A Riot Goin' On
Movies In My Head, The 6ths, Wasp's Nests
Loco Motion, Dwight Yoakum, Dwight's Used Records

We Will Never Agree On Anything As We Agree On...Top Ten Figgs Songs

Everyone here at HBBB (not to mention our few regular visitors) are all big fans of powerpop/rocknroll legends (?, well, to us at least...), The Figgs. We've all seen them live at least a dozen times, and love all the studio releases as well. I randomly picked up a copy of Lo Fi... when it came out without knowing anything about them. I liked the album then, but it never really got into my heavy rotation at the time. By the time I made my way up to Saratoga Springs, NY (where the band started) for college, I was listening to it again, and met people who were REALLY into them. So I didnt really jump on the bandwagon until just before Sucking In Stereo came out. Anyway, since then, they have been one of my favorite bands, and the same thing can be said for the rest of the HBBB crew I'm sure.
With that said........
What are your Top Ten Figgs Songs?

Spring Music

I know this is jumping the gun just a bit but it's still timely nonetheless. I was listening to Traffic's Mr. Fantasy album earlier today and was thinking what a great album it is to bring in the spring. Deep thought I know. Anyway what albums do you associate with the season freshly coming upon us?

New Releases

Out Today

Graham Parker - Don't Tell Columbus (now every time he plays Columbus, the fans will have something new to yell).

Jon Rauhouse - Steel Guitar Heart Attack

Uncle Earle - Waterloo, Tennessee (Don't know this artist but it was prod. by John Paul Jones and Gillian Welch shows up on it).

Chuck E. Weiss - 23rd and Stout

Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers - (Sundazed reissue w/ bonus tracks)

Wilson Pikcett - reissue of 1969's Hey jude

Sylvain Sylvain - S/T, Syl Sylvain and the Teardrops

Neil Young - Live at Massey Hall

Coming Soon: Jesse Malin, Ted Leo & Rx, Low, Brett Anderson, Jarvis Cocker, Blonde Redhead, Grinderman

Pause & Play

Overheard comment of the day post

"The weekend was bittersweet for me. I had a great time with xxxx, but this morning I checked his email correspondence, because i just felt like it, and saw some unflattering comments he made about me to his friend..."

Dylan Covers

Man On The Street - Dave Von Ronk
Don't Think Twive, It's All Right - Lucinda Williams, Rosanne Cash, Bruce Cockburn
Dark Eyes - Alejandro Escovedo
Highway 61 - P.J. Harvey
Girl From The North Country - Pete Townshend

Shoegazing Day 1

The cottage genre of Shoegazing has produced music that can be thrown on at anytime of the day. Whether it be just when the sun has set or right before it comes up and anytime in between an album fitting within this genre can be played. The most cursory description I can give is that the music makes you feel like you are on painkillers and when you actually are on painkillers the music is all the better. Shoegazing primarily derives from the U.K. but it has moved across the pond and some of its most note worthy bands include My Bloody Valentine, Galaxie 500, Low, The Catherine Wheel, Ride and a few others.

Wikipedia can make a blogger's job all the easier with its' capable entries. Since I have foregone describing the genre here is there page devoted to it.
All Music Guide's Shoegazing Page.

Over the next few days, HBBB will take you and us on a stroll down shoegazing lane. Oh what good times these are bound to be. To get things going is a posted track by the Reading, England band Slowride taken from their album Souvlaki. The band were on Creation Records and 4AD Records. John Peel was a fan and so should you.

Slowride - Alison

The Buffets

As requested by Mr. Radnauseum, here is some Buffets. The Buffets were a one-off all girl band put together by Billy Childish in 2005, although the album, Saucy Jack didnt get released until last year. Here's the description of the band from the man himself:

The Buffets: a meal consisting of several spicy little dishes from which guests serve themselves Featuring Sister Tiffany Lee Linnes - vocals and guitar (Ex Stuck-up's singer), Nurse Julie - bass and vocals (Chatham Singers) Matron Bongo - drums and vocals (Ex Headcoatee / Dutronc / Speed Of Sound and many many more)

On the afternoon of Sunday April 3rd 2005 Sister Tiffany Lee flew in from Seattle and The Buffets had their first rehearsal.

On Monday the 3rd the girls recorded their debut LP, and on Tuesday the 4th It was Mixed and considered good.

On Friday the 8th they played their first and final show - with their male counterparts, The Buff Medways - to a Capacity audience at London’s famous Dirty Water Club, Next day, Sister Tiffany flew home again.

Their debut album is the record of that brief moment in rock and roll history.

It was a hectic week but one that will hopefully encourage others to do less, quickly.

Here's that top LP for you to enjoy now – and remember, this Buffet is all you can eat!

Jack Chatham
April 9th 2005 Chatham

The album fits nicely in the cd rack next to the Del Monas and Headcoatees, as you can hear for yourself:

Sally Sensation
Just 15

iPod on Random

To Go Home, M. Ward, Post-War
Cold Mountain Light, Todd Rundgren, Something/Anything?
Leave Me Alone, Johnny Thunders, So Alone
Hotter Claps, Ja-Man Allstars, In The Dub Zone
Good Times, The Stone Roses, Second Coming
Here I Go Again, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Anthology
Farewell To Cheyanne, Ennio Morricone, The Legendary Italian Westerns
Spark Plug, Stereolab, Emperor Tomato Ketchup
We Don't Get Along, The Go-Go's, Vacation
How She Threw It All Away, The Style Council, The Singular Adventures...

Magazine Update

The new Mojo and Uncut have hit the streets. Here's what's inside:


Uncut
Cover story on Keith Moon
An Interview with Mark E. Smith of The Fall
Choice CD's picked by Cat Power
An interview with Peter Buck and Robyn Hitchcock
The making of Our House by Madness
From The Vault: The Cure 2004 Interview
Arcade Fire Feature
Lou Reed on the Making of Berlin
Chinese Democracy Timeline
Feature on Rickie Lee Jones
Photography feature on Primal Scream
The Waterboys Album Retrospective
A look back at The Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin


Mojo
Iggy and The Stooges cover story (and CD of tracks picked by the Iggster)
In the studio with The Coral
Maria McKee on Rachel Sweet's Fool Around
Reader's Poll 2006
Kinks on tour in 1968 Featurette
Alice Coltrane Obit
Ronnie Wood Interview
Bright Eyes Feature
Amhet Ertegun Article
Genesis Article
Pentangle Feature
The Supremes and Dreamgirls Feature

Ronnie and Phil

Sometime last year I posted a review of sorts about Ronnie Spector's last album and the wonders of her voice. Today the NY Post published an article documenting the relationship and post-relationship lives of the Spectors. In all honesty if one half of the shit written about Ronnie is true, I am pretty disappointed and disheartened. I can believe all the crap in the article about Phil but some of it is still surprising.

Check it out.

(Almost) Famous

Last night Almost Famous came on the TV. I have to say, whenever I catch it, I am drawn in and watch. Mostly I skip around or wait until a scene with Frances McDormand (the mom) or Jason Lee (the ego driven front man). But nothing beats the scenes of Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Lester Bangs. The film is supposedly based on mostly true experiences that rock 'n' roll placed Cameron Crowe in and the DVD commentary attempts to synch up the story line to Crowe's reality. Still there is always going to be liberties taken and righty so.

Bangs apparently gave Crowe his start writing in the pages of Creem before Rolling Stone got a hold of him. Being that Crowe was so young to be writing and spending intimate time with rock stars, it makes sense that Bangs would take him under his wing and give him some sage advice, or the only kind of advice a guy like Lester Bangs could really give someone. I have faith that Crowe faithfully represented those words in his film.

I included some exerts from their conversation below because I enjoy them immensely but something that can't be exerted is PSH as Bangs. From the moment we first encounter Bangs he is going on to a radio disc jockey and presumably an audience of attention fixed listeners about the Guess Who being the truth of modern day rock. This is before he rips The Doors of the player to throw on Iggy's Raw Power. To this he begins doing a horizontal Teen Wolf dance. I've never seen footage of Lester Bangs, but in my heart I know, or rather, I want to believe this is how he was.

Amen that a man like Lester Bangs walked amongst us and told it like it was all the while showing how it could be done. Whether it be dribbling on about The Faces, or late night musings on Coltrane and the force of Astral Weeks he had a talent and he was a presence that came off the page into his reader's mind and in turn into his thoughts about music.

It's tough to be a respected critic. Afterall you comment on the work and art of others. Rarely does a critic transcend the boundaries of commentary into something more profound. But a good critic, like a Pauline Kael or Lester Bangs, turns that commentary itself into an art. I would hypothesize that maybe the reason Lester Bangs gets props is because there have been so few critics in the medium of rock that have done major damage and caused heads to turn but that would take away from Lester Bangs' work and legacy. It's more likely that Lester Bangs showed us what a critic should and could be and since then would be critics just haven't surmounted to that level, though many have tried, and none have come close.


Lester Bangs: Aw, man. You made friends with them. See, friendship is the booze they feed you. They want you to get drunk on feeling like you belong.
William Miller: Well, it was fun.
Lester Bangs: They make you feel cool. And hey. I met you. You are not cool.
William Miller: I know. Even when I thought I was, I knew I wasn't.
Lester Bangs: That's because we're uncool. And while women will always be a problem for us, most of the great art in the world is about that very same problem. Good-looking people don't have any spine. Their art never lasts. They get the girls, but we're smarter.
William Miller: I can really see that now.
Lester Bangs: Yeah, great art is about conflict and pain and guilt and longing and love disguised as sex, and sex disguised as love... and let's face it, you got a big head start.
William Miller: I'm glad you were home.
Lester Bangs: I'm always home. I'm uncool.
William Miller: Me too!
Lester Bangs: The only true currency in this bankrupt world if what we share with someone else when we're uncool.
William Miller: I feel better.
Lester Bangs: My advice to you. I know you think those guys are your friends. You wanna be a true friend to them? Be honest, and unmerciful.

Bangs: You CANNOT make friends with the rock stars. That's what's important. If you're a rock journalist - first, you will never get paid much. But you will get free records from the record company. And they'll buy you drinks, you'll meet girls, they'll try to fly you places for free, offer you drugs... I know. It sounds great. But they are not your friends. These are people who want you to write sanctimonious stories about the genius of the rock stars, and they will ruin rock and roll and strangle everything we love about it.

The only part of the movie that tops the Bangs scenes is the end of the film when the Crowe character finally has a private moment with Russell, Stillwater's lead guitarist. "So, Russell what do you love about music?" "To begin with, everything." That pretty much sums it all up for me.

As a postscript to this I want to add that of all the criticism I have ever read for artists never inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame, I have never, to my knowledge, come across any contestations to the fact that their are no critics who have been inducted. Unless I am forgetting a writer or two, the hall is absent their presence. Maybe next time we make a push in a poll or list or conversation for oft-forgotten nominations we should include critics like Lester Bangs and Greil Marcus who turned writing about music into something that was ,well, a little bit bigger than simply writing about music.

Super Tuesday

New Hendo feature is a listing of key albums coming out this Tuesday:

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible (ed.: This one is worth checking out. Curious to see the group's first week scan numbers).

Bryan Ferry - Dylanesque (ed.: Roxy Music front man addresses the music of Dylan. Brian Eno guests and I am real curious).

Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 - Sex, Food, Death and Tarantulas (live EP) (ed.: Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey make up 2/3 so that for me is an unshakeable combo).

Sonvolt - The Search (ed.: their last album was actually top-notch and way better than everything I have by them save Trace).

The Stooges - The Weirdness (ed.: The reviews have been less than steller but seriously, this is the first Stooges album to come out in my lifetime and I'm gonna have to go get it).

Next Week: Graham Parker & Jon Rauhouse, reissues from Guy & Gene Clark and a live Neil Young one.

For a complete list of new releases click here.

iPod on Random

A Higher Power, Jens Lekman, When I Said I Want...
Tellin' Stories, The Charlatans, Tellin' Stories
Let It Ride, Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, Cold Roses
Families, Neil Young, Living With War
Gary's Got A Boner, The Replacements, Let It Be
Gonna Get Out, The Figgs, Sucking In Stereo
Sailor, Hem, Rabbit Songs
A Change Is Gonna Come, Sam Coooke, Ain't That Good News
American Idiot, Green Day, American Idiot
Alone, David Garza, Overdub

Lets Go To Church

Blind Lemon Jefferson - All I Want Is That Pure Religion
Spacemen 3 - Walkin' With Jesus
Uncle Tupelo - Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down
The Quadrajets - Jesus In My Feet

Demon's Claws

On a recent trip down to NYC, I picked up a copy of the latest Demon's Claws album, "Satan's Little Pet Pig". This is their first (?) one on In The Red Records, and I gotta say its a scorcher. The band features guys who have spent time in other Montreal (their hometown) bands such as The Cut Offs, and The Scat Rag Boosters, and they stomp around on similar terrain to other garage/psych/trash bands like The Black Lips. I'm adding it to the Official HBBB Thumbs Up List of 2007. Check out the tune below, and buy the album here.

Get Together