how did i miss this/kiss?

douchebaggery obviously knows no bounds when dealing with the juggernaught of KISS, but this actually might take the prize. a video of Ace Frehley's hit, "New York Groove".

most geeks know that KISS tried to quadruple their sales power by releasing 4 solo albums on the same day in 1978 with albums by the guys dressed in character on their respective covers. it was by all accounts, a disaster, with one exception, lead guitarist Ace Frehley's number. (i bought and still have the awful Paul Stanley album)

that the video seems to fake the viewer into thinking that this was a KISS recording is beyond laughable. kudos to simmons for clapping instead of pretending to play the bass (like he did on "Alive" and alot of records).

non-interesting facts:

a) the song was not Frehley's. it's a cover of the english band Hello
b) the backing band is basically what became of David Letterman's Late Night band

c) RAWK

"we've been expecting you"

one of the favorite records i've stumbled upon online recently is an old fave, husker du's true breakout LP "new day rising". the album is marked by incredible songwriting and performing AND one of the worst mixes known to mankind. let's just call it high end squall. SST house producer spot's days were numbered after this (still incredible) debacle, and mould and hart went on to awkwardly produce the rest of their canon (i never could stand that drum sound). it's no secret why the posthumous live record "the living end" is often my go to husker record. on it, they're unleashed, non-compressed to hell, AND grant hart sings his ass off. his backups on mould songs are often high points of seriously great songs.

ndr has always been my favorite record by the band. i saw them perform it in its entirety before it was released. it took what was promised on a half-dozen or so tunes on zen arcade and blew up. it has the requisite du complete crap at the end of the record, but it started a 3 album run that can hardly be quantified in terms of godhead.

the reason i'm bringing this up is a download i came across. it's the final mix of the record. i'm assuming pre-mastering, or perhaps the last mix the band okayed before spot made final changes. it is in a word, fucking AWESOME. norton's bass is audible, large, and rules. you forget how much he was a part of the sound. the mix just explodes out of the gate. unrelenting. also, there's an unreleased cut that won't change anyone's mind either way and thanks to it i finally have a digital version of "erase today" (from the blasting concept comp). godiluvtheinternets* ....

*it ain't hard to find

simmon's fambly jewels (spit)

i am truly astounded by this, a legitimately GREAT song by douchebag extraordinare Gene Simmons. i had long since gotten over any adolescent KISS love by watching him & co over the years. this could be a Big Star outtake. from his first solo record. kudos to Michael Shelley for playing this on FMU today ... stunned ...

word

christ

nick's back. righteous. let's start building shit.



Heathen Child by MuteRecords

until further notice

the greatest band on earth

6 stars?

is there

a band with a better feel than this?

duh

duh

in conclusion ...

great article about chilton's life in new orleans the last 28 years.

chilton

an easy intro to the non-big star:

alex chilton RIP

this fucking SUCKS ... vic chesnutt, mark linkous, and alex chilton in succession. unreal.

the sad thing about chilton is for most ears (and most big star fans), he's been dead since the early 70s. let's get real, big star broke up in 1974 (read, nixon). yeah, they got back together (in a bastard but GREAT form in '93), but unless you count that 70s show, they were invisible-- much as they were during their existence ... but i come not to bury alex, but to praise him.

i first caught word of him via peter buck and paul westerberg. i still remember the day i saw a used copy of the first big star album in plan 9 records and didn't buy it (needed money for an ill repute LP or something). i just facebooked my friend seth who had the first copy of radio city i ever saw ... but they weren't my entrance. big star's third was the ticket. this album changed my world. it's still my favorite record. you know, a testament to this band was this blog's top albums of the 70s list. all three big star albums made it.

once i got in to big star i started hitting the solo stuff, and i really dug it. there are some tough listens, but honestly. much of the work he did post-BS is just as viable. "like flies on sherbert" is amazing in its rawness, its rockness, and its sheer balls. "bachs bottom" in its audacity. "high priest" in the 'i bet you thought i'd try and recreate big star, but i'm gonna play a bunch of songs i like playing'. "a man called destruction" in its sheer fun. i probably saw alex 4 times solo before i saw him even play a big star song. the legendary cranky dude (who always knew how to put on a show) would just scoff at requests, wanting to play standards and the occasional solo tune. it was at this time i realized what and incredible musician he was. his guitar playing is some of the most expressive i've ever witnessed. i fucking loved those shows.

someone today mentioned everyone has a chilton story. mine was great. went to see him as a double bill with mazzy star. we got to the club incredibly early for some reason and witnessed hope sandoval onstage deeming the club unworthy and refusing to play. refunds were given, but as we walked out, chilton, the "codgy dude" was sitting next to the guy dispensing money asking "wanna be on the guest list?". we went back in and witnessed the loosest, incredible show ever. at one point, he and his standup bass player played a medley he called "buck to bach", where they did as advertised. buck owens and bass player grabbing a bow and playing bach as alex followed along.

i got to see the reformed big star a couple of times, most memorably at SXSW a few years back. they were fucking brilliant. in no small part to the posies guys who were born to fill those roles, and jody stephens was beaming. alex was playing along. he had no love for that, and i admired him for it. the "been there, done that" mentality.

but i think my favorite alex moment ever was at my first big star reunion show i saw at tramps in the 90s. in the middle of the show, he whips out an idea for a cover to the guys, a dorsey swing song from the 40s (i wanna say pennsylvania 54-609, but i'm gettin no love from google!). he starts playing it and is excited. the band doesn't reciprocate and he's perplexed.

text honors go to jack who sent ... "tell (your wife) i'm sorry it happened on her birthday"

ps- i have an amazing show, which i did not attend, from the old knitting factory. the power was out and he played acoustic, with candles lighting the place. i'm going to post that soon.

the war of northern aggression

titus andronicus "the monitor"
drive-by truckers "the big to-do"

albums of the year (so far) ... two records that have infected me.

"the monitor" ... really? civil war you punk ass northern kidz? ... the short ... comically long songs ... pretentious as all get out ... channelling jim steinman songwriting at times ... shades of ghostface (a fucking scooby doo reference? this dude is craig finn on a heavy sugar diet, the mix of billy bragg and the boss refs on the first tune is both brilliant and STOOPID), and the best fucking record i've heard in A WHILE. a way more compelling vision of teen alienation (and they ain't teens) than zen arcade (which, can we now agree was never a concept album to begin with?) or "footloose". this shit is fun, this shit is rock, this shit has a backbone. this is the odd record i hear and WISH i was in the band playin gtr. listening to this record gives me an understanding of what's going thru peep's screamin heads when they hear the opening chords of "thunder rd" or "heat of the moment" ... and not for nuthin, "theme from cheers" is not only the best song title of '10, but the best song (so far).

"the big to-do" ... slow burn epic in a fucking history of epics ... patterson tossin of ideas like a drunken nobel (not gettin thru the ideas half the time, but that's the fuckin charm) ... halfway thru wonderin why not more cooley??? (monster throwin scraps) ... they bought new pedals? .... backup vocals? ... "this fuckin job" bein a more compelling argument than anything obama has come up with as prez... shonna, who knew? adding a reigning sound worthy tune ... and cooley closin this thing with a ballad that could kill a fuckin loaded steam train.

i want these bands to date twice, get drunk, and fucking smack each other around.

geek shit

interesting ... i just recently finished joe boyd's autobio "white bicycles". a great read which includes NOTHING about the band he's referencing. he commented on this elsewhere.

'American groups are very fluent. In any town you can find a bar with a jam band. There's places to play all the time. That doesn't happen much in Britain. English musicians are much less experienced and accomplished in a variety of styles. They're much less fluent. But when it comes to creating original pop music, it was an advantage because they had to reinvent the wheel. The fluency of American musicians led to a flattening out. They knew how to do everything but they just fit into long-established patterns. Whereas English people didn't. So you got a load of of English art students starting a band and not knowing what they wre doing and having to invent a way to play the original songs that had been written by the strong personality who led the band. And it was very effective in creating stuff that was genuinely a different take on this African American form.

Some of the most successful American things combine the two. What fascinated me about REM when I worked with them (Boyd produced Fables of the Reconstruction in a studio in Wood Green in 1985) was that they were like a mid-Atlantic meeting. You had Bill Berry and Mike Mills who were a good old boy rockin rhythm section who played frat parties for five years and could play anything. Then you had Stipe and Buck who were like English guys working in a record store reading liner notes, intellectuals who were trainspotterish about music and imagined things in their heads but had no real facility to do it. Peter Buck is not a guitar hero. He's a nerd who studied Fairport Convention records. Michael Stipe was full of all these ideas that he never thought he'd be able to do and then they met. That combination is what gave REM its power'.

junkies

are way more interesting than lindsay lohan ... well

sugar

a forgottten classic by a really great band. sugar gets maligned (of course) cuz it's bob mould's post-husker band. but i defy anyone to deny their debut record's first 4 songs on any level. and this off their followup EP, is a friggin drum clinic, courtesy of my bud malcolm travis.

gabba too

never been able to find this. gotten to the point i thought i'd dreamt seeing it BITD. i must remember to remind myself that i'm always right.

gabba

being a giant ramones fan, i find it odd that i never knew of the existence of this live footage from the 1982 us festival. even odder is the fact that i didn't even know they played the damn fest. this is really interesting as it's a vastly different set than any i ever saw em play live or on any taped form. they're actively pushing current material. despite a tech glitch with joey's mike early on, they are in scorching form ... but there's still that issue with johnny. i guess it's comforting to know he's mere months away from getting his skull bashed in. enjoy

phranc

as i seem to be on a rock film thing, i caught the pixies reunion tour doc loudQUIETloud on the hulu. it's streaming there for free right now.

this is a really bizarre band.

them pixies seem to exist in a vaccuum. other than the obligatory cobain quote at the top of the movie, there's nary a mention of other music anywhere. there are no testimonials-- no why we do this, why did we do this, no awkward or funny backstage visits from rock stars. not that standard rock doc stuff needs to be there, but it's oddly weird. understandably, it's a tour doc, and not a bio, but still.

charles thompson is cast as a sort of affable hitchcock character, and that's fine. he plays "the man". the guy that needed to say, "yeah, we're getting back together". nevermind that kim deal is arguably a bigger rock star, but the pixies do begin and end with him. their deference to him is deservably up front. the band's vaunted complete lack of communication is pretty well documented in the film, and makes the tweedy/bennett passive-aggressive salvo seem almost thoughtful in retrospect.

everyone seems slightly shell-shocked ... deal's emerging from rehab and takin baby steps ... loverling is soft kind of mess (but he's got nothing on dozens of casualties) ... santiago is just a working dad missing his kids ... but the lack of joy is palpable. on a level, i get it's about money (the WHY ARE WE DOING THIS is pretty up front), but the approach given alot of the time is a bunch of peeps who just happened to be successful at something that happened at the right time. i got the thought occasionally that one of em being nabbed from the masses and bein named "head car salesman for the northern quarter" woulda sufficed. i'm not tryin to be an idealist here, but juxtapose this against something like the townes van zandt "be here to love me" pic. this dude was a disaster on so many levels, but you knew his raison d'etre every fuckin frame.

i've always contended the pixies were a pretty mediocre live act, but this is a muted version of the late-80s/early-90s. balance that with audience members LITERALLY losing their freakin minds. deal seems to get that, and those are many of the flicks best moments. her meeting with fans. to me, deal in the real pixies years was the only thing that worked onstage.

thompson's admission that no one really gives a damn about his solo career, and his talking about playing his new songs for bandmates hoping a spark will be lit to initiate some new work, gives the flick some pulse towards the conclusion. i don't even knew if he meant it, and, in the end, nothing comes of it, and thus ...

mojo's list of best rock docs ever

i can't really argue with mojo's list of greatest rock docs ever (with GIHYB comments).

1. Don't Look Back (1967)

as i get older, dylan, who is clearly the MAN in the movie looks sillier. not entirely silly yet, but sillier every view-- though i still rewind the donovan KILL-- that's still awesome.

2. DiG! (2004)

mesmerizing every second. if you'd told me i would watch a doc by two bands i could not give a shit about (and didn't after i watched them and listened to their stuff), would be this great? i wouldn't have believed you

3. The Last Waltz (1978)

genius? just fucking workmanlike diligence.

4. Gimme Shelter (1970)

watchable, and stil reeling that the band let this be released. as a teenager, i got to understand jagger's a pussy, and the stones sucked live in the late '60s (though not in the mid-60s or early 70s).

5. No Direction Home (2005)

the bomb

6. Fearless Freaks (2005)

fun as hell, and the first one i felt a part of. i once saw the lips in '87 with about 25 other people in c'ville, va. they had a light show that would've made the crue wince

7. Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007)

said here. i loved joe strummer. could watch this on a loop. too many campfire interviews??? go fuck yourself.

8. The Devil And Daniel Johnston (2005)

actually was at the premiere of this. i'm a somewhat johnston fan and kinda met the director a few times. a great movie, on many levels. compelling. you get through the airplane thing unscathed???

9. The Beatles Anthology (1995)

like every other beatles fan, was all about this. triumphant, it's great, incredible, but in a smaller scope, "let it be" was better.

10. End Of The Century: The Story Of The Ramones (2003)

as a ramones freak, learning to hate johnny ramone was not on my agenda, now it's part of the class. great movie.

death, taxes, 'n hatin new leaked tracks by DBT

every year and a half or so i get a hold of a new track or 2 by the drive by truckers pre-album release. i hear em and don't like. as it turns out, i'm always wrong (aftermath usa-- WTF was i thinkin???). this year, same deal ... though "this job" is growin on me. fuckit. DBT is the best band standing. the new one march 16. order now.

despite the fucking creepy end (yeah, I'm a fuckin dad!), this is a cool vid and reminds me of a great ride home from a shitty end of tour. we got the joey solo record in richmond heading back from austin. kudos trav!

grant hart ... vid from new album?

doubtful with the oz footage, but a great song regardless.

still miss this band

xmastime n i were in the audience ... fuckers ...

sick good

Jack's thoughts on the top 50

This list seems to be significantly more interesting than the song list we did a couple years back. While the contents of the list were not necessarily surprising, a few things struck me:

The Clash debut narrowly beat London Calling.

This was actually a pleasant surprise. I had them at #2 and #4, respectively.

The Sex Pistols beat the first Ramones LP.

This appeared to be a situation of great records canceling each other out. All five 1970s Ramones LPs received votes, while Swindle deservedly received none.

Big Star batted a thousand.

The 3 Big Star records placed in chronological order at #27, #29 and #33. They were the only artist to claim 3 spots. This is quite impressive considering Rocket to Russia, Live at Leeds, Some Girls and Give ‘Em Enough Rope didn’t chart.

VU definitely benefited from the 70s letdown.

If Loaded had been released 9 months earlier, things would have been different. While there is no doubt that it’s a great record (I had it at #9), there is absolutely no way that it would place #6 in a best of 1960s list. My guess is that it would fall somewhere between 30 and 40. Would the third record (just as good if not better than Loaded) crack the top 25 of the 1960s?

The Beatles are still the best.

All 4 Beatles received votes for their solo work with Harrison and Lennon charting. McCartney received several votes for various records. Conversely, neither of Bill Wyman’s solo records nor Mick Taylor’s solo record received any votes.

Soundtracks and Excess:

Saturday Night Fever charted at #47. In addition, several other soundtracks received votes including those from The Harder They Come, The Kids are Alright, Jaws, Star Wars and Superfly.

Six of the top fifty are double LPs (including two in the top five) and one is a triple LP. It was not a subtle decade.

The following well respected LPs failed to receive even one vote:

Five Leaves Left – Nick Drake
No Dice – Badfinger
Damned Damned Damned – The Damned
Plastic Letters – Blondie
Go Girl Crazy – The Dictators
In the City – The Jam
All Mod Cons – The Jam
The Cry of Love – Jimi Hendrix
The Madcap Laughs – Syd Barrett
Tumbleweed Connection – Elton John
(GI) – Germs
The Last Waltz – The Band
Shake Some Action – Flamin’ Groovies
Teenage Head – Flamin’ Groovies
All six of Tom Waits’ 70s LPs.

While top honors could go to Big Star (3 selections) or The Clash (two in the top five), I begrudgingly have to give it to Bob Dylan. In addition to Blood on the Tracks charting at #3, six more LPs received votes (it could be seven; I’m assuming that all of the votes for At Budokan were meant for Cheap Trick). This is pretty impressive considering the 70s may very well not even be Dylan’s second best decade.

The GIHYB TOP 50 Albums of the 1970s

1. Exile on Main Street (The Rolling Stones)
2. Born to Run (Bruce Springsteen)
3. Blood on the Tracks (Bob Dylan)
4. The Clash (The Clash)
5. London Calling (The Clash)
6. Loaded (The Velvet Underground)
7. Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols (Sex Pistols)
8. Ramones (Ramones)
9. Who’s Next (The Who)
10. Marquee Moon (Television)
11. Sticky Fingers (The Rolling Stones)
12. After the Gold Rush (Neil Young)
13. Rumours (Fleetwood Mac)
14. Let it Be (The Beatles)
15. All Things Must Pass (George Harrison)
16. What’s Going On (Marvin Gaye)
17. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Elton John)
18. Hunky Dory (David Bowie)
19. Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon and Garfunkel)
20. Tapestry (Carole King)
21. Leave Home (Ramones)
22. The Cars (The Cars)
23. Innervisions (Stevie Wonder)
24. Moondance (Van Morrison)
25. Déjà Vu (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
26. Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd)
27. #1 Record (Big Star)
28. Led Zeppelin IV (Led Zeppelin)
29. Radio City (Big Star)
30. Unknown Pleasures (Joy Division)
31. Harvest (Neil Young)
32. Entertainment! (Gang of Four)
33. Third/Sister Lovers (Big Star)
34. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (John Lennon)
35. Raw Power (Iggy and the Stooges)
36. American Beauty (Grateful Dead)
37. Van Halen (Van Halen)
38. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (David Bowie)
39. Off the Wall (Michael Jackson)
40. The Modern Lovers (The Modern Lovers)
41. Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (Devo)
42. Paranoid (Black Sabbath)
43. Quadrophenia (The Who)
44. Talking Heads: 77 (Talking Heads)
45. Transformer (Lou Reed)
46. Armed Forces (Elvis Costello and the Attractions)
47. Saturday Night Fever (various artists)
48. Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (Derek and the Dominos)
49. Darkness on the Edge of Town (Bruce Springsteen)
50. Pink Moon (Nick Drake)

thanks to all who submitted. great lists! and as always, thanks to jack, who put in the sweat at the end. let's hear from you.

my quick thoughts:

-as with the top songs from 1950 list, I'm starting to think we're only going to see surprises once we get to the later decades. classic rock bleeds all over this list. crucial acts like john cale and the stooges get ignored or get one entry based on multiple great albums that cancel one another.

-once again, the lack of female presence is astounding (2.5 entries out of 50???), given the talent base. i'm the first to blame, patti smith only received honorable mention on my list. we did, again, have an overwhelming male voting

-3.5 on the color scale. "what's going on" being pretty much everyone's go to record.

-bizarre note ... metal almost completely excluded in the golden age of the genre??? sabbath is really the only true metal record on the list (maybe van halen). i know the community now embraces "raw power", but i'm not allowing that revisionism here, and zep IV is about as pussy a record as most southern cal crap from the era (not that there's anything wrong with that! boz scaggs made my list!!!).

-true 60s dinosaurs only accounted for 9 entries. i'm not including floyd in that category, cuz they emerged in the 70s as a different (and way less interesting) beast. i think, as we move into the 80s, when classic rockers began to put out truly terrible records, we'll see some more inspired choices. also, given the demographic of voters, many came of age in the 80s ... i think that's going to be an interesting list.

-one funny thing, the last entrant was able to knock "hotel california" off the list. kudos to k.c. in germany!

the man is black

... on February 26, American/Lost Highway will release Johnny Cash's American VI: Ain't No Grave, the final volume in the series. February 26 would have been Cash's 78th birthday.

final??? i get the feelin rick rubin taped his last fuckin breath and will release that with bonus tracks next year

true story

the first time i heard "love will tear us apart", i'd heard OF the song, but never actually listened to it. can't remember the location, but when i heard the chorus lyrics "love will tear us apart ... again", i instantly thought i was hearing the post-punk equivalent of "let's twist again", and wondered what the original song sounded like.

top 50 albums of the 70s

wednesday! i promise. we had a late entry we couldn't refuse!!!

vic

a beast ... just found this vid ... so fuckin sad

lordy

shame the band flipper never had a cartoon