Monthly Archives: July 2006

Hee Haw

Cruising through the channels Saturday evening, we ran into a Hee Haw marathon. It'd been a long time since either of us had seen it, so I stopped, to make sure it was as dumb as I remembered. It was! It was a late-80's episode, and it, uh, sucked: the music was lame, the mega-hick jokes were dumb, the sketches were mercifully short, but still managed to drag - twenty seconds of Minnie Pearl and the poofy-hair bimbos is fifteen too many. But the strange part was a segment where Roy Clark is on stage with his guitar, along with another guy who's holding a Roland G707 guitar synth:


... on Hee Haw.

Other Guy plays some synth-orchestra sounds. Roy's all like "WTF?". Then O.G. plays some kind of flutey stuff, showing off what his toy can do. Roy looks like "Yeah, that great. Do I really have to do this? Yeah? Fuck. OK, let's get it over with," and starts Duelling Banjos. O.G. fiddles with his foot pedals for a bit, then joins in with this kind of cheesy synth-Jew's-harp sound - twang, twang, plink, ploink, twang. It was like two different performances: Roy's tearing the hell out of that song (wow, was he good); but O.G. sounds like he's playing the soundtrack to some lame-ass fishing game for NES. Strange shit.

And, speaking of music on TV, MTV is celebrating it's 25th anniversary Aug 1st. So, VH1 Classic has been showing the first hour of MTV all week. Watching it, I noticed something I'm surprised I never noticed before: Britain was pretty gloomy in the early 80's - or at least the people who made videos for British bands wanted everyone to think of it that way. I hope it's cheered-up a bit since then.

The List, 2006. #60-51

Today I close out the bottom fifty of my 100 favorite records. This time, all of them are American bands - three from Texas alone.

60. Spoon : Kill The Moonlight (2002)


Jonathan Fisk is a great little rocker; The Way We Get By does an awful lot with piano, handclaps and a little bass; Something To Look Forward To is exactly the kind of song that makes Spoon great: stripped-down, singable, power-pop. It's not quite as strong as their previous record, "Girls Can Tell", but it's better than 99% of their contemporaries.

59. REM : Chronic Town (1982)


It's just a little 5-song EP, but four of them are great. It's tacked onto the end of their "Dead Letter Office" CD, where it feels a little out of place. But, it's nice to get it, in effect, for free (with the purchase of DLO)

58. Gillian Welch : Revival (1996)


An relatively upbeat record, even if it starts with a (presumably autobiographical) song about being an orphan: "No mother, no father, no sisters, no brothers / I am an orphan girl". So many of these songs sound so old-timey that it's hard to believe they're all originals. But these two do that old-school country/bluegrass sound so well, everything sounds like they're doing faithful covers of old songs.

57. Lilys : A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns (1994)


This is a short little record that catches The Lilys in a brief Big Star / Teenage Fanclub phase (in the middle of their My Bloody Valentine phase, before their Kinks phase). There are only 5 real songs here (the sixth is a silly little bit of noise), and two of them fail to break two minutes in length. But every song is a gem: great melodies, great dynamics, fun (if opaque) lyrics. On one hand it's a shame the record wasn't longer, in case there's a chance they had more songs like this; on the other, the record's pretty much perfect as-is.

56. Codeine : Frigid Stars (1990)


One Saturday afternoon, my college roommates, their girlfriends, and I returned home, put two CDs in the player and sat around, snacking and talking. The first CD was Pearl Jam's 10, I think. It went by without much notice. This was next. From the time it started until it stopped nobody in the room moved or spoke. When it ended, the sun had gone down, and we were all sitting in the dark. I think we all let out a sigh at the same time. It's slow and heavy, but melodic, and at times, touching.

55. The Shins : Chutes Too Narrow (2003)


Their first full album, "Oh, Inverted World" was pretty good. It was interesting, different, but far too processed - the whole deep reverb, spacey keyboard thing was a little overdone, to my ears. So this album was a big surprise: without all that spacey atmospheric stuff, you can hear the vocals and the guitars - and they're rocking. A totally solid, if very short, record. Ten fun, bouncy, jangly pop songs, with great lyrics.

54. The Sea And Cake : The Biz (1995)


The overall feel is a bit breezier, but it basically continues along with the same clean, crisp, Latin-jazz-tinged rock as their previous record, "Nassau". They came out the same year, so it's not surprising that the two albums are similar. If this places farther down the list than "Nassau", that's probably just because I heard "Nassau" first and it made such a whopping first impression.

53. Stevie Ray Vaughan : Texas Flood (1983)


He was just so ridiculously good. He made it sound like playing guitar was just too easy - he couldn't help but put impossible little licks here and there, just to keep himself from falling asleep. And, I'm always amazed that he used these super-heavy guitar strings (a .13 for the high E) - to my scrawny little fingers, that feels like playing a bass - but bent and wiggled the things like they were ultra-lights. Yeah, he brings out the guitar geek in me.

52. ZZ Top : Tres Hombres (1973)


Sure, the whole Sharp Dressed Man / Legs thing from "Eliminator" was a drag. It was everywhere, back in the mid-80's. But this came out ten years before that; this is raw, gritty, John Lee Hooker-esque Texas blues. There aren't any keyboards or goofy videos here - just a bunch of shit-kickin songs.

51. The Feelies : Crazy Rhythms (1980)


A bunch of jittery, nervous songs that sound something like a sped-up Talking Heads / Velvet Underground / Television hybrid: a lot of crisp, jangly guitars, anti-guitar-hero solos, nervous detached vocals. There's a lot of empty space in these songs - wood blocks click in an empty room; lone guitars ring out here and there; Loveless Love takes over a minute before it really starts; Forces At Work takes 1:45 to fade up to full volume. And like the Velvet Underground, The Feelies are happy to sit on a chord for two or three minutes before changing to something else. And like Television, they shun blues-based riffing and solos. Yet, instead of difficult or pretentious, the way those other bands can sometimes feel, The Feelies make it seem fun.

Next time, Wednesday, I break on through into the Top 50!

Previous 100-91, 90-81, 80-71, 70-61.

Fuck the man

Guitar Tab Universe is in trouble with the music publishers, so is OLGA (OnLine Guitar Archives). These sites publish guitar tablature (sheet music for guitar players who can't read music) of whatever songs people figure out and send in - totally amateur stuff. It's great if you need to learn a song fast, or if you just can't figure something out yourself. It's often wrong, too. But, most of the time, it's good enough to get you started. But no, The Man says that's copyright infringement.

Fuck The Man.

Here's Jimi Hendrix's Red House as found on OLGA:

#----------------------------------PLEASE NOTE---------------------------------#
#This file is the author's own work and represents their interpretation of the #
#song. You may only use this file for private study, scholarship, or research. #
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------##
Article 1576 of alt.guitar.tab:
Newsgroups: alt.guitar.tab
Path: nevada.edu!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tamsun.tamu.edu!zeus.tamu.edu!spb0457
From: spb0457@zeus.tamu.edu (SubGenius)
Subject: Some of "Red House" (Jimi Hendrix)
Message-ID: <15AUG199203132725@zeus.tamu.edu>
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Keywords:  "I still got my guitar"--I like it, by gum!
Sender: news@tamsun.tamu.edu (Read News)
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 08:13:00 GMT
Lines: 161


A friend of mine told me this was the way to go as far as playing
the intro and solo to "Red House."

I'm afraid I've forgotten the latter part of the solo (the good part), and
the problem of figuring out how to play Hendrix wail 'n distort is more than
my equal.

Anyway, what do ya want fer nothin'?

My notation is:

	/	a slide
	~	wiggle yer fingers
	h	hammer on
	p	pull off
	'	bend
	-	buy SubG (that's me) lots of beer

|-----11----11----------11----11----11-|-------10----10-----10-----10-----10-|
|-/10-10----------10----10----10----10-|-10/9--9-----9---9--9------9---9--9--|
|-/11----11----11----11----11----11----|-11/10----10-----------10---------10-|
|--------------------------------------|-------------------------------------|
|--------------------------------------|-------------------------------------|
|--------------------------------------|-------------------------------------|


|------------------------------|-------------------7------9-7---------|
|-----10'~~10'~~10'~~10'~~-----|--10'-10-10'-10'-7---10-7-----10-7----|
|----------10---10---10--------|-------------9---------------------9'-|
|------------------------------|--------------------------------------|
|-9----------------------------|--------------------------------------|
|-7----------------------------|--------------------------------------|


|------------------|----------------------7-------7--------|
|------------7~~~--|-------------------7-----10~-----7-----|
|-7h9'--7~~~~~~~~--|-7/8--9'--7~~--9'----------------7--9'-|
|------------------|---------------------------------------|
|------------------|---------------------------------------|
|------------------|---------------------------------------|


|---7-7--------------------------------|
|-7---10/7---7h9p7---------------------|
|----------9-------9-7/8---------------|
|------------------------9-7-----------|
|----------------------------9-8-7-6~~-|
|--------------------------------------|


|-----------------------------------------------|
|------------------------------12~-14'--14'-14'-|
|---------------------11-12/13------------------|
|-------------9-11/13---------------------------|
|-------9~-11-----------------------------------|
|--9/11-----------------------------------------|


|------14-----14------------------------|---------------------------14-|
|-14'~----14'----14'-14-12h14p12h14-12~-|---15'15-15~-15'15-12~-14'----|
|---------------------------------------|------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------|------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------|------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------|------------------------------|

                                                               There's a...
|----------------7----7-9h10p7h10p7--9'-7------|---7---------------------|
|-14-12~12-----7---10-7-------------------7----|-7-----------------------|
|----------4/8------------------------------9'-|-----7-------------------|
|----------------------------------------------|-------9-----------------|
|----------------------------------------------|---------9---------------|
|----------------------------------------------|-------------------------|


..then Mr. Hendrix commences to sing whilst he's playing lead, which is
more than I can say for myself.

The lyrics are:

	There's a red house over yonder.
	That's where my baby stays.
	Lord, there's a red house over yonder,
	Lord, that's where my baby stays.
	I ain't been home to see my baby
	In ninety-nine and one half days.

	Wait a minute, something's wrong here,
	The key won't unlock this door.
	Wait a minute, something's wrong,
	Lord have mercy, this key won't unlock this door.
	Something's gone wrong here--
	I have a bad, bad feeling
	That my baby don't live here no more.

	That's alright--I still got my guitar.


  Look out, now!
|---------------10-12'---10-------10'-|
|----12-12~~12~~------------12~~~-----|
|-11----------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------|


|----------14'---14-12-14--10-12-12'--10h12p10----10h12p10----|
|-------12-------------------------------------12----------12-|
|-11/13-------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------|


|-10h12p10----10-12'---10h12p10---------7--------------------|
|----------12-------------------12-10'--7-7-7h10p7-----------|
|--------------------------------------------------9-7---7/8-|
|------------------------------------------------------9-----|
|------------------------------------------------------------|
|------------------------------------------------------------|


|------7------9p7---10p7---10p7----...
|----7---10p7-----9------7------7--...
|-9'-------------------------------...
|----------------------------------...
|----------------------------------...
|----------------------------------...

At the ..., Hendrix repeats the 10p7, 7 lick a bunch of times, then
does a bit or two that I've got no idea how to play, then sings:

	Well, I might as well go back over yonder
	Way back among the hills.
	Yeah, that's what I'm gonna do.
	Lord, I might as well go back over yonder
	Way back yonder acorss the hills.

	Even if my baby don't l_v_ me no more,
	I know her sister will.

Now play a little blues "see ya" riff, and then play something else.

Titties and
Beer forever,
Yours etc.,

SubGenius

Hey Jimi, sorry if that cost your estate any money.

Win an iPod

Just thought I'd let my dozen readers know about an iPod Nano giveaway that's going on at Carbon Records. Buy $20 worth of stuff and your name will go into a drawing for a new iPod Nano. Pretty good deal. The music there ranges from "(some) indie pop/rock to improv/noise/drone/experimental." Check it out.

Fans of smart power pop, ala Elliot Smith, Big Star, Rogue Wave, etc., should definitely check out Hinkley. Very very nice. You can get some MP3s here.

(No, I'm not making anything from this, but the proprietor there is an old friend.)

The List, 2006, #70-61

America takes a solid 50% of the slots in this section - good job, boys and girls. But first, there are a couple of Canadians and a bunch of Brits that I gotta deal with...

70. Rush : Moving Pictures (1981)


I was in 6th grade, I think, when this came out, and it was so cool. It was heavy, but modern; there were cool videos; there was a song, that nobody understood, about Tom Sawyer! 25 years later, it's not quite as modern, and it's definitely less cool. But it's still got some of the best technical playing around, and the first side still rocks.

69. Neil Young - Live Rust (1979)


Ideally, I put this record on at about 7:30, on a summer Saturday afternoon. Then I sit on the porch and drink beers. The acoustic set should last just until the sun goes down.

68. The Police - Regatta De Blanc (1979)


It's a little less polished and a little more silly than "Zenyatta Mondatta". And unlike that other Police record, it wasn't a college favorite. So, even though it's closing in on 30 years old, it sounds fresher to my ears. "And when the wombat comes / He will find me gone". Yup.

67. Replacements : Let It Be (1984)


It's everything you could want in a Replacements record. It has mindless fun: Gary's Got A Boner, Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out; Big Star-ish stuff: Favorite Thing, Sixteen Blue; classic Westerberg heartbreak songs: Unsatisfied, and the awesome Answering Machine. Plus, a KISS cover!

66. Sunny Day Real Estate : Diary (1994)


It's grand and soaring, beautiful. These are rock anthems, generally (but not always) loud and driving, sometimes soft and delicate. But always, the singer's unique voice and generally incomprehensible lyrics make the songs mysterious - you know he means it, but you don't know what he means. The lyrics might be in the liner notes, but at this point, I don't want to know what they are. This will always remind me of cool autumn Sunday afternoons, sitting in my car in Rochester's Mt. Hope cemetery, munching on Taco Bell: 2 soft tacos (no cheese), pintos and cheese, Dr Pepper. I just don't like un-melted cheese.

65. Dinosaur Jr. : You're Living All Over Me (1987)


The album's full of strange melodies, guitar effects, feedback, and head-scratching lyrics, Neil Young-style guitar solos and the lazy, whining vocals of J Mascis. Plus, the whole thing sounds like it's been pushed through a TV speaker. It took me a long time to get into this record, because it sounds so alien, but once I did... yay!

64. Yo La Tengo : Fakebook (1990)


90% of this record is covers, mostly obscure things from the 60s and 70s. While this doesn't highlight YLT's songwriting, it does prove that they have good taste in music. And more importantly, it shows just how much fun they are as a band. The backups on Emulsified are awesome - and who can not like a song about being emulsified?

63. Robyn Hitchcock : Storefront Hitchcock (1998)


This is a live album, so, like all live albums, it's also a Best Of collection. I've tried to avoid those kind of collections here, but because Robyn is so prolific his really good songs are scattered all over the place. This puts a bunch in the same place and gives them his typical live treatment: him and a guitar, though other people show up to play along on a few songs. The film version of this is good, too - it was the first DVD I ever bought.

62. Nirvana - Unplugged (1994)


Took me until last year to finally buy a copy, because it took that long for me to get over the Nirvana saturation I received in the mid-90's. But, happily, I think this is great. I like that the covers are obscure. I like that they didn't do Smells Like Teen Spirit. And I like that they mostly avoided their other hits, too - I didn't need to hear those Nevermind songs quite yet. They did two big hits, of course: Come As You Are and the fantastic version of my favorite Nirvana song evah, All Apologies.

61. The Cure : Happily Ever After (1981)

= +  

This is a US-only double CD set which includes both of their "Seventeen Seconds" and "Faith" albums, and it's how I first heard these two. They are each dark, lean, and introspectve records. "Faith", the later of the two, is a bit more agressive than the other - not quite so many dirges. But that doesn't mean there's anything to smile about. This is The Cure at their most melancholy, and I don't think there's a happy thought to be found on either. Still, I find their profound gloom beautiful.

Next time (Monday), we'll finish off the top 50 and get into what I consider the meaty part of the list.

Previous 100-91, 90-81, 80-71.

Stopped Thief!

Cary police seek owners of stolen items

    Cary police found themselves working backward when they walked into Phillip W. Aikens' house this week.
    In front of them was $50,000 worth of stolen goods, they said: jewelry, an iPod, cell phones, purses and more. They cuffed Aikens, 25, and charged him with several burglaries and thefts.

So, they got the guy. I wonder what this means for my shiny new 30GB...

Crazy People

First, these freaks:

    The longest foot race in the world is 3,100 miles, long enough to stretch from New York to Los Angeles. Those who run it choose a different route: they circle one city block in Queens -- for two months straight.

    The athletes lap their block more than 5,000 times. They wear out 12 pairs of shoes. They run more than two marathons daily. In the heat and rain of a New York summer, they stop for virtually nothing except to sleep between midnight and 6 a.m.

Then there's Floyd Landis, the winner of this year's Tour de France... he has a disease that is destroying his hip. His solution: work harder, to "wear a useful groove in the bone and cartilage of his damaged joint". (h/t Neddie).

I consider myself a fucking champion when I manage a 5 mile run on the weekend.

The List, 2006, #80-71

Previous sections: #100-91, #90-81.

Here's the next batch. A full 50% of the records in this section are from British musicians; then there's a mixed Aussie/Brit band, and a set of Cubans. America needs to step it up!

80. Van Morrison : Moondance (1970)


If only for these three songs: And It Stoned Me, Moondance, Into The Mystic. It doesn't hurt that the picture of Van on the cover looks just like my uncle Billy.

79. AC/DC : Back In Black (1980)


Another sentimental pick. Though I don't own a copy, and haven't since high school, I know every song front to back and consider all of them to be classics, even if I never need to hear Back In Black or You Shook Me All Night Long ever again.

78. The Colorblind James Experience - The Colorblind James Experience (1987)


A wild mix of rock, jazz, polka, country, blues, and more, with clever laconic lyrics and deadpan delivery. They were active in Rochester, NY - their home base - when I was going to college there, but somehow I managed to avoid seeing them live. I once had a cassette version of this album, which I wore out, and then lost. I've been trying to find a CD copy for years now, but unfortunately, it's terribly hard to find these days. So I have to settle for the handful of songs at the front of their Greatest Hits CD.
Edit: I just found a used copy of the vinyl for this, on-line. So, in a week or so, after I've ripped all the songs to MP3, I'll have a full working copy again. Yay!

77. Blonde Redhead - La Mia Vita Violenta (1995)


There's a huge Sonic Youth and Pixies influence in early Blonde Redhead - no way around that. But, using them as starting points, Blonde Redhead adds a Japanese-accented female vocalist, an Italian-accented male vocalist, strips away a lot of the surface anger and creates a lean, clean, dreamy sound. It's still pretty far out there into noise-rock, but here they do it with interesting melodies and an intimate feel that you don't get from too many of their peers.

76.The Beatles : Rubber Soul (1965)


It sits just on the early side of the early/late Beatles, so it's long on great singles about girls, but only hinting at the deeper and more psychedelic stuff, which I prefer, that they'd do on the other side of that line.

75. Rolling Stones - Some Girls (1978)


Miss You, Some Girls, Far Away Eyes, Beast Of Burden, Shattered, etc.. Probably their last great album.

74. Robyn Hitchcock : Spooked (2004)


This is his latest record of all-new songs, and was recorded with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings (who also produced it). It's got a couple of my all-time favorite Hitchcock songs : Sometimes a Blonde and Flanagan's Song, and a good cover of a Bob Dylan song, Trying To Get To Heaven Before They Close The Door. Rawlings' distinctive guitar playing (and the plucky sound of his old Gibson) fits well with Robyn's folky strumming - I honestly can't pick out what Gillian is doing. But the overall effect is very nice. Good to know Robyn can still bring it, 25 years and nearly 30 records (counting compilations and 'rarities' things) since he started his solo career. He did a couple of shows in Nashville with Gillian and Rawlings in support of this record, and they played the whole thing, if my info was correct. I saw him the night after, and he did very few of these songs. Sigh.

73. Buena Vista Social Club : Buena Vista Social Club (1997)


This is music by musicians who were popular in Cuba in the 50's, recorded in 97 by Ry Cooder as part of a (fantastic) documentary. It's my only experience with Latin music, but I love it.

72. Tortoise : Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1996)


Instrumental, experimental, influential, hydromatic, minimalist, electronic, ambient, cool jazz rock. Tortoise and The Sea and Cake (which share a wicked drummer/producer) both worked in the minimalist post-rock vein. But Tortoise did it without vocals or (obvious) guitars - Tortoise was all about the cool trippy instrumental, with bass or vibes taking the lead. It's very a clean, modern sound, and was the perfect way to rinse my palette after a long time with the noisy grime of earlier indie rock. And, since it's not a big leap from this to traditional jazz, it was a bit of a gateway, for me.

71. PJ Harvey : Dry (1992)


First thought: "Damn... That woman is pissed!" It's a raw, dark, angry record with a handful of truly catchy songs. She does the whispered-verse, thundering-chorus thing very well.

Be sure to stop by this Friday, for a double-shot of Canadians!