Cleveland Still Rocks

  After Thanksgiving weekend as I drove back to west Michigan, I heard an awesome song 'Melted Rainbow'  on Impact 89 the MSU college radio station.  It was by a two-piece Cleveland band Mr. Gnome.  The band members are Nicole Barille and Sam Meister.   They are kind of like a Bizarro World White Stripes.  They are an actual married couple where the husband is the drummer and the wife is the guitarist/vocalist and is extremely talented.
Here is a link to their new album released in November.  Give a listen to 'Melted Rainbow' the first track 

                                 

  The city of Cleveland was an appropriate place for the site of the Rock Hall of Fame as local  DJ Allen Freed, who coined the term Rock 'n' Roll, also launched a lot of early artists on his Moondog Show back in the 50's.  Although the intention of the Hall of Fame was noble, it almost immediately seemed to have lost the rebel spirit of the music genre and began chosing its inductees instead on a basis of record sales.  For example, The Stooges were snubbed by the Hall until 2010 (17 years after first being eligible) although they did perform Madonna's 'Ray of Light' two years earlier when she was inducted  in 2008.  Madonna choosing them to back her up, was about the only Rock n Roll moment of her career.

  Anyway, Mr. Gnome is just the latest innovative band in Cleveland's unbroken succession of trail-blazing underexposed bands.  Here are a couple more songs starting with Pere Ubu's Beach Boys, a song that my mp3 player (set on random) once picked as I was approaching St. Louis (home of the blues) 16 hours into  a 24 drive home from Santa Fe, NM.

   Lead singer David Thomas and Guitarist Peter Laughner from Pere Ubu were initially in another Cleveland band Rockets from the Tombs.  Two other members of Rockets,  Cheetah Chrome and Johnny Blitz went on to form the Dead Boys with Stiv Bators(who made a guest appearance at Rockets from the Tombs last show).

    Stiv Bators went on to form the Lords of the New Church, after the Dead Boys broke up, in the early 80's.  Here is their song 'Open Your Eyes'.

  Tragically Mr. Bators died in 1990 when he was struck by a taxi in Paris.  About a year later I was on my way to work at 5:30 AM when I was the first car stopped at a railroad crossing for a slow moving train.  When the train was about halfway through a boxcar rolled by that was tagged with three words 'Long Live Stiv'.   I'm pretty sure that very few people seeing the traveling epitaph knew to whom those words were referring.  When I got to work I told my friend Tom about the rolling tribute, being a long-time Dead Boys fan,  he covered his heart with his hat and bowed his head.

Happy Everly After

  This afternoon I heard on a local classic rock station Nazareth's caterwauling version of 'Love Hurts'.  I never thought much of the song until I heard Kim Deal (Pixies) and Robert Pollard's(Guided by Voices) version recorded for the soundtrack of C M Talkington's 1994 movie 'Love and a .45'

    Next up is 'That Great Love Sound' from the Raveonettes debut full-length album. It contains their trademark catchy blend of noisy guitars and two-part vocal harmonies.  Also the video is pretty damn amusing.

  

  Lastly is Luna doing a mellow cover of the guns n roses "Sweet Child O'Mine'

  The connection between the songs in this post is the long lasting influence of the Everly Brothers.  Song 1 was originally recorded by the Phil and Don Everly.  In song 2 the Raveonettes employ the vocalizing techniques that made the Everlys famous.  The third was written by Axl Rose for his then girlfriend  Erin Everly daughter of Don Everly.

Great as the sum of its parts

  Take the drummer, keyboardist/bassist and guitarist out of band one

Jonathan Fire*eater - When the Curtain Calls For You

  Add the vocalist and keyboard/bassist of band two. 

The Recoys - Song of the Paper Dolls

  And here's what you get......as described by YouTube commenter Marty Nozz- Five guys dressed like they're on their way to Sunday dinner at Mom's, melt the faces off of the audience at the Conan O'Brien show and the drummer wore long sleeves just to rub it in.

   The connection between the first two bands is that Jonathan Fire*eater's keyboard/bassist Walter Martin is the cousin of The Recoys vocalist Hamilton Leithauser.

  In the lyrics of the first song there is an indirect reference to a celestial event that occurred in 1997.  Any guesses?
 

Rolling (away the) Stones Covers

      One of my earliest recollections of hearing the Rolling Stones was on a family vacation in 1971.  We had traveled to a rental house on Lake Michigan for the first week of summer vacation in June of that year.  The weather was cold and rainy and the lake temperature was probably about 50 F, as a result we spent most of the week inside.  Luckily my siblings had found the cottage owner's record collection and a crash course in the era's rock filled my 9 year old ears and mind.   It was the first time I heard the Beatles whole Sgt, Pepper album and the  'Let it Bleed'  LP by the Rolling Stones.
     I wasn't aware of it at the time but sadly the Stones' songwriters Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were quickly approaching age 30, the age when all songwriters start becoming a shadow of their glorious past.
  Here are three interpretations of Jagger and Richards compositions.

Cub - She's Like a Rainbow

Wilco with Bob Weir - Dead Flowers

This last song is Bittersweet Symphony by the Verve.  The band sampled a orchestral arrangement of the Stones' song 'The Last Time'  as the melody for the song.  Turns out lawyers determined they used too large of a sample and Jagger and Richards were given credit as song writers and 100% of royalties,  

    Lead singer of the Verve Richard Ashcroft said at the time the lawsuit was settled "It's the best song the Rolling Stones have written in 20 years".  To this day they still haven't written anything worthwhile since the early 70's,  If you like 'Bittersweet Symphony' and have it in your collection head on over to iTunes and buy a different Verve song so that they get paid something.

Winter is Coming

  Saw my first Snowy Owl of the season today and the first snow is forecast for tomorrow.  Time to break out the winter themed songs.

  Bonus points offered for those who know the connection between Elf Power and Apples in Stereo.

...and it was never really like that

  

October 3rd was College Radio Day.......

 ......and I didn't get you anything but I can make it up to you.


  Yesterday while driving through the sweet spot on I-96 between mile markers 75-155 (Portland to Brighton),  I was able to pick up my favorite radio station Impact 88.9 WDBM East Lansing, MSU student radio.  While listening I learned that Friday was College Radio Day. Here are three diamonds mined during the (80miles/70mph x 60 minutes per hour=) 68 minutes that I was able to receive the station on my radio.

Am I forgiven?

The Afterworld Can Wait for Leonard Cohen

   In the Nirvana song Pennyroyal Tea,  Kurt Cobain sings "Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld, so I can sigh eternally".  Cobain may be sighing but Leonard Cohen is still speaking to you sweetly from a window in the Tower of Song, as he turns 80 this Sunday.

   In the early nineties I picked up a Leonard Cohen tribute album called "I'm Your Fan"  Here are three of my favorite songs from the disc.

REM - First We Take Manhattan

    The Pixies - I Can't Forget

Ian McCulloch - That's No Way To Say Goodbye

  Although the disc contained a cover of my favorite Cohen song "Tower of Song"  by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, I prefer Jesus and Mary Chains version.

Life after the Brian Jonestown Massacre

    Anton Newcombe the mastermind behind the San Francisco band, Brian Jonestown Massacre, is notorious for being hard to get along with.  He fires or frustrates band mates until they quit at an impressive rate.  Of the 40+ musicians that have past through the usually 5 to 7-piece band, several have gone on to make some excellent music. 

   In Ondi Timoner's Sundance Film Festival 2004 Grand Jury Prize winning documentary DIG!, there is a scene where fed-up guitarist Peter Hayes and another band member quit the band and just walk away from the tour down the streets of Cleveland.  Hayes went on to form Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.  That name comes from Marlon Brando's biker gang in the movie 'The Wild One.  Hayes and BRMC co-founder Robert Been  had considered naming their band after the rival gang in that film, but being called 'The Beetles' may have caused some confusion.   

  Here is their song EVOL

           

   Ian Sefchik also had a limited membership with Newcombe's band before he reunited with his former high school classmate Sharky Laguna to record a couple of albums as Creeper Lagoon. 

    Brian Glaze was a drummer in an early incarnation of BJM, he now spends his Thanksgivings recording music with Greg Ashley of the Gris Gris.  He has recorded a few solo EPs and albums.  Here is a grooveshark link to the closing song on his third CD, Green Living.     Brian Glaze- Shake Shiloh

Fury of Trees

   In April 2005 I went to see the Northern Ireland band Ash at the Magic Stick in Detroit.  As their tour progressed one of the warm-up bands on the bill, The Bravery, surged in popularity so that by the time they reached Detroit, Ash was relegated to second band on and The Bravery became the headliners.  This actually worked out pretty good for me since I had to work that night and by the time the Bravery started their third song I had had enough of their style over substance approach and headed for the door and made it to work on time.

  Although Ash was pretty darn good,  the showstealer for me was the first band of the night, alaska!.  alaska!  formed by Imaad Wasif and Russ Pollard from the remnants of Lou Barlow's New Folk Implosion, and included drummer Lesley Ishino of the Red Aunts.    On this tour they were fresh off the release of their CD 'Rescue Through Tomahawk' .  The lead track on the disc 'Fury of Trees'  leads off this post's theme songs of trees.  Hope this link works  alaska! 'Fury of Trees'   

In late 2011, my wife and I observed our 25th anniversary.  While other couples celebrate such milestones with trips to Hawaii, or gifts of shiny minerals of high implied value but of little practical use, I took my wife to Cleveland.....the one in Ohio.   Yeah I know.  What was going on in Cleveland in December?  Beside the Christmas Story House Museum, we went to a hot dog stand/concert venue to see the Crystal Stilts.  Which brings us to their song  'Sycamore Tree'.    

   Rounding out this post is a song brought to us by the Committee to Keep Music Evil and their charter member the Brian Jonestown Massacre.  More about that band in the next post but until then here's their song 'Evergreen'

When the Earth's Last Picture is Painted

    After the previous two posts focused on songs about the Moon and Sun, it was time to get back down to Earth   First up is a song from Milton Mapes.  It is called  " When the Earth's Last Picture is Painted" .  In it we have a band (named after a real person who's not in the band) singing  an original song (with chorus lyrics they didn't write).   Singer/ guitarist Greg Vanderpool named the band after his maternal grandfather.  The lyrics are lifted from a poem by Rudyard Kipling written in 1892.
Milton Mapes -When the Earth's Last Picture is Painted

     This next song by Eric Goulden, is about how you may have to go to great lengths to find the one who was meant for you.  Under his stage name Wreckless Eric he recorded  'Whole Wide World' back in 1977.

 
 

  Built to Spill's contribution to this post doesn't include the Earth in the title but rather sheds light on a little known phenomenon that may or may not occur every thousand years.  The song's title is 'Randy Describes Eternity'.

    Now go and be perfect from now on.

Songs of the Moon

    In the previous post we featured songs inspired by the Sun.  Now it's the Moon's turn.  

First up is a 90's band covering an 80's song.  Pavement's interpretation of Echo and the Bunnymen's ' The Killing Moon'.

   In 1985  British band XTC, under the pseudonym Dukes of Stratosphear, released the EP '25  O'Clock'.  It is a collection of songs written with a nod to 60's bands: Beatles; Byrds; Kinks; Pink Floyd; Jefferson Airplane among others.  Song 2 on side A of the vinyl record is 'Bike Ride to the Moon',  an original song in the style of Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd  It may or may not have been inspired by Dr. Albert Hofman's experience after he became the first person to ingest the chemical compound he had synthesized.  On April 19, 1943 he took 250 micrograms of LSD and in the obvious next step hopped on his bike and rode home.

  Wrapping this post up is the Magnetic Fields 1995 song 'Save a Secret for the Moon'.

The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas.......

.....and forecast to be the inspiration for songwriters for another 5 billion years.

  Intro   In 1993 They Might Be Giants recorded a cover of "Why Does the Sun Shine?" originally written in 1959 by Hy Zaret.

The next song is 'My Head is in the Sun' by The Rentals it fits perfectly into the unheard category as it only has about 4,000 hits on Youtube.  Another version put together by a fan has 7,000 plays.  Great song to sing along to in the car.

    Back in March of O-10 my wife and I rented a car for a short weekend trip.  The vehicle was brand new and had a six-month free satellite subscription which made the hours of driving pass quickly.  On the Sirius XMU channel Bethany Consentino and Bobb Bruno's band Best Coast had a song 'The Sun was High' in moderate rotation.  When we arrived home from the trip I found out they were going to play in Detroit at the Magic Stick in April.  Even though their debut CD wasn't released until July of that year,  I was able to purchase a Lisa Frank sticker spangled CD-R that contained all the songs that appeared on their upcoming disc.

   There's a universe other than the one I reside in,  where bands can put out intelligent cutting edge, melodic power pop, get radio play and sell records.   From October 2002 to August 2004 the London band The Libertines released 2 full length albums and 3 EP's.  A mercurial rise was followed by an equally quick implosion as the relationship between the band's two song writers Carl Barat and Pete Doherty became strained by the latter's  increasing erratic drug-fueled behavior.  In fact, by the time they played the Magic Stick in October of 2004 Doherty had left (or was kicked out of) the band, for a series alternating stints of rehab and jail.  Their contribution to the songs-about-the-sun theme is 'Don't Look Back Into the Sun'.   Although the video has 4.8 million youtube plays, I doubt it has been played on a commercial radio station in Detroit.

It's a Monday, it's so mundane.

  A couple of weeks ago I was slacking-multi-tasking on my computer while watching TV, when the following Snickers commercial aired.  

  Sure I appreciate a Snickers bar as much as the next low-brow chocoholic.  Also I had  my share of Godzilla nightmares growing up in an era with only 6 channels available on TV.  But what caught my attention was the music in the ad.  It reminded me of a Throwing Muses song that I couldn't remember the name of.  I knew that I had the song on my computer and my Zune mp3 player.  I skimmed through the 2000 music files on the computer and couldn't find it.   Two hours later I was driving to work listening to the Tiger game when an inning ended and the station went to commercial.  I switched from the radio to my mp3 player during the commercial break and what song did the Zune (set as always on random) play?  "Not too soon" by the Throwing Muses, the very song that the candy commercial reminded me of.

  Although the song appeared on the Muses' 1991 album 'The Real Ramona'  it was originally written in the mid-80's when the band's founders, step-sisters Tonya Donelly and Kristen Hersh were in their late teens.  Tonya Donelly went on in the 1990's to found two other bands The Breeders and Belly  and still records solo material. 

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    In 1995 P J(Polly Jean) Harvey release the album 'To Bring You My Love'.  Critically acclaimed from it's release, it was later named by Spin magazine as the #3 album of the 90's and included in Rolling Stones top 500 albums of all time.  The 7th song on the album, 'Down by the Water', received quite a bit of play on alternative stations back in the late 90's,  but to me the preceding track "Long Snake Moan" is the song that gets me cranking whatever electronic player to maximum volume. 

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  WDET's Jon Mosier has a Friday night radio show called 'Modern Music'.  It is the only place in this area to hear any newer music that is more substance than style.   It was on Mosier's show that I heard Courtney Barnett's 2013 gem 'Avant Gardener'.  The song is a humorous account of an allergic reaction while gardening during a heat wave.  Courtney Barnett is not only a heralded songwriter, she also started her own record label, Milk Records.

The underlying theme of this post is Female songwriters from islands.  Courtney Barnett is from Melbourne, Australia . P J Harvey is from Bridport, England.  Tonya Donelly and Kristen Hersh are from Newport, Rhode Island.......oops.  Maybe that island thing is a stretch.