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This excellent new oral history is a must for any serious fan of THE REPLACEMENTS, perhaps the greatest rock and roll band of the ‘80s. Reading these anecdotes from former managers, associates, critics (including our own JACK RABID), friends, relatives and many others just confirms my love for this band. Its order is generally chronological and by chapter and while I’m most partial to the Twin Tone years, the major label period also makes for fascinating reading.
With the exception of a few songs from her excellent new album 100 Days, 100 Nights, this was a very similar show and a similar set to the excellent performance I saw at Southpaw a few years ago. This was far from a bad thing, however, as Jones and her excellent backing band The Dap Kings whip up a funk and soul groove worthy of such genre legends as JAMES BROWN or TINA TURNER (back in the days when she was working with her former husband IKE TURNER, who passed away a few days ago). Many of the same dance moves (tributes to her African-American and Native American ancestors) and songs were there, though this time Jones guided the audience into singing background vocals on one song and on several others, she brought up members of the crowd, a few of whom gave Jones a good run for her money in the dancing department!
And much like that previous show at Southpaw, The Budos Band once again opened and again, this all-instrumental, 11 (count ‘em) member band’s blend of Afrobeat and early ‘70s funk was both fun and a great warmup for the headliner. The highlight was their take on SMOKEY ROBINSON’s “My Girl” (which they re-titled “His Girl”).
Of the many times I’ve seen Yo La Tengo, this was one of the absolute best. Perhaps it helped that they were playing with the dB’s, a huge influence when they were first starting out and a band whose members (particularly CHRIS STAMEY, who they backed on a 2004 album alternately known as either V.O.T.E. or A Question of Temperature, as well as GENE HOLDER, who played on and produced some of their earlier albums as well) they have played and recorded with. Simply put, they were on fire, opening with a 10-minute plus rendition of SUN RA’s “Nuclear War.” The main set included material from last year’s excellent I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass such as “The Race Is on Again,” “The Weakest Part,” and “Mr. Tough,” along with some covers (including BEAT HAPPENING’s “Cast a Shadow” and BOB DYLAN’s “I Wanna Be Your Lover”). For the encore, they brought out JIM JAMES of MY MORNING JACKET (!) to sing songs by Jewish songwriters (in keeping with the Hanukkah theme, this was night three of their just-about-annual eight-night stand at Maxwells this time of year). I’m not a big fan of My Morning Jacket, but James was spectacular on NEIL DIAMOND’s “Solitary Man,” PF SLOAN’s “Secret Agent Man,” and KISS’ “Hard Luck Woman” (a PAUL STANLEY composition).
The openers played a short but impressive set consisting of familiar songs from their first two (and best) albums Stands for Decibels and Repercussion such as opener “We Were Happy There” and “Neverland” from the latter and “Dynamite” along with “Big Brown Eyes” from the former. However, a good chunk of the set consisted of obscurities such as “You Got It Wrong” and “I Thought (You Wanted to Know)” from the Ride the Wild Tom-Tom compilation along with the download-only song “World to Cry” and the seasonally appropriate “Christmas Time” (changed to “Hanukkah Time for this occasion).
Although I can’t help wondering what their set at Johnny Brenda’s here in Philadelphia was like the night after this set because it has much better acoustics and is a more comfortable room, this fun, sweat-drenched show in Cake Shop’s long, narrow and stage-free basement (thus causing very poor sightlines) was somehow appropriate for the D.I.Y. spirit of New Zealand’s indie-pop forefathers The Clean. I stood next to one of the speakers just to see something and my ears paid the price afterwards (they were loud even with earplugs), but boy was it worth it! Although we didn’t get to hear “Anything Could Happen” or “Tally Ho,” we did get “Point that Thing Somewhere Else,” among many other highlights. The interaction between guitarist DAVID KILGOUR, his brother and drummer HAMISH KILGOUR, and bassist ROBERT SCOTT was amazing, as if they were locked into some deep groove stuck in White Light, White Heat .
Openers Times New Viking are a noisy girl/guy duo from Ohio with the female half of the duo on keyboards and vocals with the male half on drums. Although none of the songs really stood out, I like them as they had a lot of energy.
The Mad Scene, Hamish Kilgour’s other band, opened up the show and included GEORGIA HUBLEY from Yo La Tengo in their ranks. Basically an improv outfit with a strong late ‘60s psych bent and a lax attitude towards rehearsing, they were even more ramshackle than when I last saw them open for THE BATS last year.
My favorite Replacements album, this one is an absolute corker and one of the best US punk albums ever. Of course you probably don’t need me to tell you how great this album is, but as I’ve been revisiting their catalog recently as I’ve been reading the excellent new oral history edited by Jim Walsh, my love for this album has been re-ignited once again. I’m just surprised that it doesn’t get more respect compared with their later records.
The last two Shocking Blue albums before their dissolution in the mid-‘70s, this two-fer is a really mixed bag. Dream on Dreamer is clearly the stronger of the two albums, as it contains several top-notch ROBBIE VAN LEEUWEN (the man who wrote “Venus” and “Love Buzz,” not to mention many other great Shocking Blue tunes) compositions much in the same mold as their previous few albums (starting with the country-influenced direction of 1970’s Scorpio’s Dance). Van Leuwen left after that album and thus their last album, Good Times, suffers comparatively. His replacement, MARTIN VAN WIJK, does a capable job on songs such as “This America” and “Come My Way,” and the sole Van Leeuwen-penned track (“Nashville Rebel”) is good, too. Overall, though, while Good Times regains some of the rocking exuberance of their earlier work, it feels like I’m listening to a different band and half of the songs are covers (including the title track, an EASYBEATS tune).
Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten (NR)
Although I wasn’t as crazy about this JULIEN TEMPLE documentary as others seem to be, I still think it was well-made and well worth seeing for any fan. Following Strummer’s life in chronological sequence, the first two-thirds of the film (which comprises everything up to the dissolution of THE CLASH) are clearly stronger than the last third. Regardless, in attempting to make sense of Strummer’s post-Clash career, it reveals things about him that I didn’t know before and though it doesn’t refrain from pointing out his weaknesses completely, it does show him in a very sympathetic light.
This is an amazing book consisting primarily of photos that Glen E. Friedman has taken of FUGAZI over the years. Although none of the Fugazi shows I attended were photographed for this book, it’s still an amazing artifact. Plus, don’t miss IAN SVEVONIUS’s essay (entertaining and comical as per usual) in the foreword and Friedman’s comments throughout the book as well.
A self-released, limited-edition “official bootleg” (the most recent in a series that has been ongoing for the last four years through Parker’s website), this CD chronicles the Burning Questions tour in 1992, featuring bassist GRAHAM MABY and drummer GARY BURKE, both better known as sidemen for JOE JACKSON. The format of the tour was such that Parker played one song from each of his previous LPs and then played all of his then-new album in sequential order. On this CD, this is just about replicated except that only nine of the songs from the original album appear. I wouldn’t recommend getting this unless you’re already a hardcore Parker fan, but those more interested in the material with THE RUMOUR should know that the first 200 copies of this disc came with a crude-sounding (it was recorded by an audience member with a hand-held tape recorder, then hard to obtain) but amazing document: the first-ever recorded performance of Graham Parker and the Rumour at Glasslands Tavern in 1975, featuring early versions of songs that would show up on his first three albums, some with different lyrics.
This is just wonderful. It picks up right where THE DELGADOS’ last album, Universal Audio, left off, with more pop-friendly hooks and easier accessibility than their previous album Hate. It’s deceptively simple, though, as Pollock’s intricate melodies and lovely voice thrill throughout this entire disc.
