Here is what I was going to use as my latest rockfiend column... it's not working for me, I'm going to start all over and write something new but I just wanted to get this out there someway.......
Don't get me started....
It's been a while since I have authored one of these columns and my feelings of guilt for having taken so long are only alleviated by the fact that really there hasn't been all that much to talk about. Sure the music industry had kept pace turning out crap that most people will consume and flush out to sea like good little fools, but really there hasn't been much in the rock world that has set me on fire for a over a year. Too bad, cause I have money i'd like to spend on Rock and Roll.
This is not to say that I haven't found a few things worth spending my money on. Mostly it's been the same bands that I have written about here at Rockfiend in the past that I have voted for with my dollars. A few have been on the move and given me new, solid, and worthy records. The Hellacopters 'Strikes like lightning' ep serves up more of the same magic hard rock that they delivered to us with 'By the Grace of Good', but there are no suprises on the record. Besides the Hellacopters I can't think of one new record that has caught my ear.
The only one that I am looking forward to is the new The Soundtrack of Our Lives which is out in Europe and should be released in the states at some point. The band is touring the states in March and I hope that their record company is smart enough to have the new record out at that time. iTunes has the single and iTunes UK has the whole record (which of course I can buy because i'm in the states).
It looks bleak and barren out there on the rockfiend streets. However all is not lost, for some reason, despite the drought of the good new records I have found my self spending money on music often. Sometime it's stocking up on older bands who I have been a fan of for years (The Damned and Generation X), other times it's discovering some magic music mania that passed me by or didn't connect with me in the past. I have also rediscovered several albums and tracks that I have shuffled away into my record collection only to exhume them recently.
So I present some thoughts on the old ones that are new to me....
Stan Ridgway (stanridgway.com), former front man for Wall of Voodoo, is one of the those people who has been making his own music for years. His songs are mostly mid tempo story tunes, and it's his stories that I really like. He has a clear grasp of the disintegration of the american dream
and talks about it mostly in noir pulp terms. There is a dusty let down quality to many of his songs that I like. The songs of his that I recommend you check out include "Talkin' Wall of Voodoo Blues" and "Luther Played Gutiar". I should also mention that El Vez has recorded a great cover of Mexican Radio that you should all check out.
Tom Waits is another older artist that I hear an understanding of all that post american dream apocalypse stories that I dig. I don't really know when it was that I decided that I should check out his music, it might have been all the talk with him on Fresh Air, the articles in No Depression, or that opening sequence to The Wire (a show that you should check out), but there was somethign that called me to Tom. I have downloaded a dozen or so of his tunes from iTunes and and am officially iMpressed. The songs are gritty tales of failed lives, failed dreams and living in the pre-crack inner city wasteland (and I have been ODing on the computer RPG of the same name as of late, somethings from your childhood you should hold onto, now if I just could get my hands on copies of Roadwar 2000) that was americas underbelly. Waite's has a voice that can be a gruff bark or a smooth whiskey croon, or a demonic howl and is unlike anyone else. I recommend the following tracks of his: 'Gun Street Girl', '9th and Henniepin'. 'Way Down in a Hole", 'Downtown Train', 'Murder in the Red Barn'. All are dystopic and stark, amazing and beautiful.
Beyond these guys I have discovered a couple of Country, Alt Country, Blues and folk tunes that rock harder than a huge chunk of what's passed off as rock music these days.
I hear in their stories of pain, loss and hope something that I can feel, something that isn't just going through the thesaurus and looking up other words for ainxt. These song radiate that glow and energy that courses around and through me.
Picking through the blues turned up the lovecraftian biblical epic "John the Revelator' I have found version by 3 differnet artists, all of which have merrit. The Belleville A Cappella Chior give a joyful christian version of the song, Blind Willie Johnson's original has the gritty and scraped sound that suggests he's watching the revelation as he sings, and the modern gosple rock band Ollabelle present a smother more soulful version. No matter which version you stumble across no rockfiend should be able to listen with out a smile at the line 'I saw a beast come out of the sea', which might make the song one of the first horror tunes. Maybe Danzig will give the song a reading on his rumored southern rock/blues album.
I discoverd Ollabelle becacause Stephen King wrote about them in his EW column. I checked out all of the songs and albums that he recomended, and while I didn't dig all of them several stuck with me. King recommended Sarah Evan's 'Suds in the Bucket' is a plain real jaunty country tale that has energy and pop. I don't know why it's not all over the place as it's got more honesty than any of the dreck that passes for country music these days. He also mentioned James McMurty's 'Live in Aught Three' which rides the line between rock and country. It's
and it's good stuff. I go the Mark Lanegan 'Bubblegum' album which might be better than the stuff he did with the Screaming Trees, and I have heard the newest Motorhead CD (good stuff). I rediscovered Grave Disorder by the Damned with it's catchy bouncy punk and spot on social commentary.
Before I come to my standard closing thought i'd like to take a second to reconsider Black Sabbath and their place in the Rockfiend Library.
Despite their lauded roll as the fathers of Metal (and by proxy Doom Metal, Stoner Rock, Speedmetal, NWOBHM, Thrash and the rest) they were, at least in their early days, very much a poppy hard rock band. Maybe that's what too many of the new generation of metal bands are missing, strike that the new generation of all bands often are missing, that pop. I'm talking about that energy and chaos that makes you want to bop around the room instead of sit passively. The music should make you want to pump your first into the air and shout at the world. If you want to hear what I am talking about pull out your old sabbath recordings listen a few of these tunes.
Children of the Grave, Paranoid, Iron Man, The Wizard and espically Supernaut. I think that these tunes show case what Willie Nelson of all people said best 'Pick up the tempo'
Side notes:
I would be mistaken if I did not mention the Atomic Swindlers new CD, It's very much like Ziggy Stardust era Bowie, so if your into that check it out.
I have heard what is being passed off as the new underground rock and new radio format that is rumored to bring rock back to the airwaves, and I can only describe is as snore-core. If you happen through the twin cities you can safely avoid the Current.
Until next time, hate mail can be directed to me at irenzero@yahoo.com
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
in other news, i've been looking at the latest photo sets and to be honest most of them bore me... oh look it's another college girl with no clothes looking like the rest of the tribe..... I wonder when she's going to go back to being middle class suburban suzi sunshine.... at least the non american girls have something about them that speaks of personality... i'm feeling like a grumpy bastard... but can't we get some older women to pose??? you know like 25 year olds....
Don't get me started....
It's been a while since I have authored one of these columns and my feelings of guilt for having taken so long are only alleviated by the fact that really there hasn't been all that much to talk about. Sure the music industry had kept pace turning out crap that most people will consume and flush out to sea like good little fools, but really there hasn't been much in the rock world that has set me on fire for a over a year. Too bad, cause I have money i'd like to spend on Rock and Roll.
This is not to say that I haven't found a few things worth spending my money on. Mostly it's been the same bands that I have written about here at Rockfiend in the past that I have voted for with my dollars. A few have been on the move and given me new, solid, and worthy records. The Hellacopters 'Strikes like lightning' ep serves up more of the same magic hard rock that they delivered to us with 'By the Grace of Good', but there are no suprises on the record. Besides the Hellacopters I can't think of one new record that has caught my ear.
The only one that I am looking forward to is the new The Soundtrack of Our Lives which is out in Europe and should be released in the states at some point. The band is touring the states in March and I hope that their record company is smart enough to have the new record out at that time. iTunes has the single and iTunes UK has the whole record (which of course I can buy because i'm in the states).
It looks bleak and barren out there on the rockfiend streets. However all is not lost, for some reason, despite the drought of the good new records I have found my self spending money on music often. Sometime it's stocking up on older bands who I have been a fan of for years (The Damned and Generation X), other times it's discovering some magic music mania that passed me by or didn't connect with me in the past. I have also rediscovered several albums and tracks that I have shuffled away into my record collection only to exhume them recently.
So I present some thoughts on the old ones that are new to me....
Stan Ridgway (stanridgway.com), former front man for Wall of Voodoo, is one of the those people who has been making his own music for years. His songs are mostly mid tempo story tunes, and it's his stories that I really like. He has a clear grasp of the disintegration of the american dream
and talks about it mostly in noir pulp terms. There is a dusty let down quality to many of his songs that I like. The songs of his that I recommend you check out include "Talkin' Wall of Voodoo Blues" and "Luther Played Gutiar". I should also mention that El Vez has recorded a great cover of Mexican Radio that you should all check out.
Tom Waits is another older artist that I hear an understanding of all that post american dream apocalypse stories that I dig. I don't really know when it was that I decided that I should check out his music, it might have been all the talk with him on Fresh Air, the articles in No Depression, or that opening sequence to The Wire (a show that you should check out), but there was somethign that called me to Tom. I have downloaded a dozen or so of his tunes from iTunes and and am officially iMpressed. The songs are gritty tales of failed lives, failed dreams and living in the pre-crack inner city wasteland (and I have been ODing on the computer RPG of the same name as of late, somethings from your childhood you should hold onto, now if I just could get my hands on copies of Roadwar 2000) that was americas underbelly. Waite's has a voice that can be a gruff bark or a smooth whiskey croon, or a demonic howl and is unlike anyone else. I recommend the following tracks of his: 'Gun Street Girl', '9th and Henniepin'. 'Way Down in a Hole", 'Downtown Train', 'Murder in the Red Barn'. All are dystopic and stark, amazing and beautiful.
Beyond these guys I have discovered a couple of Country, Alt Country, Blues and folk tunes that rock harder than a huge chunk of what's passed off as rock music these days.
I hear in their stories of pain, loss and hope something that I can feel, something that isn't just going through the thesaurus and looking up other words for ainxt. These song radiate that glow and energy that courses around and through me.
Picking through the blues turned up the lovecraftian biblical epic "John the Revelator' I have found version by 3 differnet artists, all of which have merrit. The Belleville A Cappella Chior give a joyful christian version of the song, Blind Willie Johnson's original has the gritty and scraped sound that suggests he's watching the revelation as he sings, and the modern gosple rock band Ollabelle present a smother more soulful version. No matter which version you stumble across no rockfiend should be able to listen with out a smile at the line 'I saw a beast come out of the sea', which might make the song one of the first horror tunes. Maybe Danzig will give the song a reading on his rumored southern rock/blues album.
I discoverd Ollabelle becacause Stephen King wrote about them in his EW column. I checked out all of the songs and albums that he recomended, and while I didn't dig all of them several stuck with me. King recommended Sarah Evan's 'Suds in the Bucket' is a plain real jaunty country tale that has energy and pop. I don't know why it's not all over the place as it's got more honesty than any of the dreck that passes for country music these days. He also mentioned James McMurty's 'Live in Aught Three' which rides the line between rock and country. It's
and it's good stuff. I go the Mark Lanegan 'Bubblegum' album which might be better than the stuff he did with the Screaming Trees, and I have heard the newest Motorhead CD (good stuff). I rediscovered Grave Disorder by the Damned with it's catchy bouncy punk and spot on social commentary.
Before I come to my standard closing thought i'd like to take a second to reconsider Black Sabbath and their place in the Rockfiend Library.
Despite their lauded roll as the fathers of Metal (and by proxy Doom Metal, Stoner Rock, Speedmetal, NWOBHM, Thrash and the rest) they were, at least in their early days, very much a poppy hard rock band. Maybe that's what too many of the new generation of metal bands are missing, strike that the new generation of all bands often are missing, that pop. I'm talking about that energy and chaos that makes you want to bop around the room instead of sit passively. The music should make you want to pump your first into the air and shout at the world. If you want to hear what I am talking about pull out your old sabbath recordings listen a few of these tunes.
Children of the Grave, Paranoid, Iron Man, The Wizard and espically Supernaut. I think that these tunes show case what Willie Nelson of all people said best 'Pick up the tempo'
Side notes:
I would be mistaken if I did not mention the Atomic Swindlers new CD, It's very much like Ziggy Stardust era Bowie, so if your into that check it out.
I have heard what is being passed off as the new underground rock and new radio format that is rumored to bring rock back to the airwaves, and I can only describe is as snore-core. If you happen through the twin cities you can safely avoid the Current.
Until next time, hate mail can be directed to me at irenzero@yahoo.com
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
in other news, i've been looking at the latest photo sets and to be honest most of them bore me... oh look it's another college girl with no clothes looking like the rest of the tribe..... I wonder when she's going to go back to being middle class suburban suzi sunshine.... at least the non american girls have something about them that speaks of personality... i'm feeling like a grumpy bastard... but can't we get some older women to pose??? you know like 25 year olds....
i_poop_too_much:
Did those files ever get to you?