Remember the old episode of Benny Hill, were the word ‘Therapist’ is written on a swinging door, so when one of the door opens, it’s revealed to be ‘The Rapist,’ well likewise, you may write the word ‘Theme’ on this door, and when it opens it’s revealed to be ‘the me.’
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The Coup – Pick A Bigger Weapon
The Coup’s new album is just out (April 25) and includes such lyrics as:
Our pay is unstable and under the table
We like free speech but we love free cable
I’m here to laugh, love, f**k and drink liquor
And to help the damn revolution come quicker…
I don’t do justice to it here (I wrote more about it at www.myspace.com/continuouspeasant), or don’t take my word for it, just check it out, if you’re into articulate personal-political rap in the pre-gangsta tradition
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Billy Childish
Got to see Mr. Childish perform at Mama Buzz in Oakland, with his wife Juju Claudius on Jeff Johnson ’s bass, and Maz
on drums. Though billed primarily as a poetry reading, Childish also graced the audience with many original and cover songs from both early and late in his 25 year recording career as both solo artist, singer of The Headcoats and the man who discovered Holly GoLightly. Organized by Jerry Connolly of Smart Guy Records (who told me he had just caught a cold from none other than Jack Rabid!), the event also featured very long bathroom lines, or in the apt, overheard words of Mr. Childish, ‘Too long, this queue.’
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Chuck Prophet
I got to meet Chuck Prophet this week! At the event at Cato’s Ale House (see item #1 on this list), I overheard him talking about how people use words like ‘boss.’ ‘chief’ and ‘pal’ in often disparaging ways. Unfortunately, I found at too late about his performance at the Jeffrey Lee Pierce tribute the previous week, but for those of you who do not know Mr. Prophet, either his earlier work with Green On Red or his solo albums,
he’s both an amazing lead guitarist as well as songwriter
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Stan Ridgeway
Well, more of an oddity, and at times it seems hastily put together, but there’s a secret mystery track on his new album, Barbecue Babylon, which has been getting a lot of airplay here on the ;left coast,’ because it juxtaposes samples of our President and splices them together in ways that attempt to expose the true meaning beneath his Orwellian doublespeak. There used to be a lot of this kind of thing in the Reagan era, and
even though at times Ridgeway’s point could be more thought out, this genre still has interesting possibilities, and it’s good to see Ridgeway is still trying to be inventive.
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Dylan Brody
Check out his piece “The Secret Shame of The Casual Conspirator,” at www.dylanbrody.com. Mr. Brody occupies the liminal zone halfway between short story writing and stand-up comedy a la Bill Hicks or David Cross. Definitely an up and coming voice woth keeping an ear on.
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Area – “With Louise”
A song from circa 1988 that I recently found again on old cassette. Hard to explain exactly why it’s so powerful, but the lush guitars are a little reminiscent of The Edge, but instead of Bono’s voice, the female singer’s emotional melody and lyrics cut deeply, beautifully, tragically sensual, in ways that The Cocteau Twins would, I hope, envy.
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Talking Heads – “Mind”
From their amazing third album, Fear of Music_. David Byrne’s quasi-cubist lyricism is perhaps most evident on this album. They are probably one of the most important bands for me that has no direct influence on my own musical style whatsoever, yet Byrne’s words and attitude were, along with the poet John Ashbery, really important in lending different perspectives to my (non-musical) poetry.
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Jolie Holland
Jolie will be releasing a new album come May, but this past week took some time out to play some violin as well as lend some vocals for a new Continuous Peasant song. I just wanted to say thank you!
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The Lyres
Everytime someone from the college radio hipster crowd hypes the reunion album The Liars, I get initially very excited…until, that is, they play the song, and it turns out it’s NOT The Lyres, the late 1980s Boston-area garage rock band, whose biggest ‘hit’ was probably the gloriously farfisa-ridden “She Pays The Rent.”
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Chicago – “Dialogue, Parts I and II”
This week’s cheesy (classic) favorite, probably because I’ve been trying out my own fledging horn arrangements and even dusting off my own trumpet for the first time since I played on “Random Rules,” by The Silver Jews. Though in general it’s the first two Chicago albums that are the best (not just the hits, “Make Me Smile,” “Beginnings,” “Questions ‘67 & ‘68,” though they are good places to start), this song from their 5th album (from 1972), is one of their last bearable ones. Written by Robert Lamm, this song juxtaposes two attitudes: the voice of passionate social conscience is sung by the amazing guitarist, Terry Kath while the more apathetic hedonistic optimistic voice is sung by Peter Cetera. In retrospect, it’s hard not to see the song as Lamm’s take on two attitudes within the band itself (as well as in society at large during this time, especially given the fact that Kath killed himself within five years (as the times got more conservative, and there was increasingly less room for his rough vocal passion and surging guitar in the band) while Cetera went on to now lows in vapid schlock, largely taking over the reignns of the band from Lamm (to say nothing of the horn section).
