• Pop,  Rock

    How to Unravel a Good Thing: Gary Glitter and Kramer

    gary glitter

    I was listening to Joan Jett’s radio show on Sirius’ Underground Garage (the brainchild of E Street’s Little Steven). She kicked off the show by spinning an old Gary Glitter tune. This tune comes from 1973’s Touch Me, Glitter’s second release. The album’s biggest hit was “Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)”, which reached number two on the UK charts in January of ’73, and was later covered by Miss Jett in the early 80’s. Another hit on the album was the song I heard this past weekend, “Hello, Hello, I’m Back Again”.

    As many or most of you know, Mr. Glitter hasn’t fared too well over the last couple of decades. He was busted for child porn in the UK in the late 90’s, and is now rockin’ and rollin’ away the days in a Vietnamese prison, after being convicted early this year of “obscene acts” with two Vietnamese girls.

    So it’s unfortunate that listening to Glitter’s music now immediately makes you think of his misdeeds later in life. It’s a shame that he’s permanently scarred the accomplishments of a successful music career.

    kramer

    And now, of course, thanks to Michael Richards’ idiotic and hate-filled rant at a recent stand-up gig, he’s helped mar every future episode of Seinfeld I’ll ever watch. The “Seinfeld Curse” has even managed to reach back in time and foul up all of those brilliantly funny episodes. Oh, they’ll still be as hilarious as they’ve always been, but I’ll always see Kramer and think “Ah! Racist idiot!”

    Well played, Gary Glitter and “Kramer”, well played!

    Gary Glitter: Hello, Hello, I’m Back Again (mp3) – from Touch Me, available on The Ultimate Gary Glitter | eMusic has it too.

    I defy you to watch Gary Glitter sing “Another Rock ‘n’ Roll Christmas”, and not think of Gary as a “slimy, sinister git”, as one of the YouTube commenters puts it. But who knows, maybe Gary will be “rockin” your “stockin!”

  • Pop,  Rock

    Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me

    cure

    I’ve never been a Cure nut, but something about their 1987 album, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, caught my ear around that time. I was working at Camelot Music in a Racine, Wisconsin mall before I went off to college in Colorado, and I used to play the new releases I found interesting. It’s the cover that made me open it and take a listen, and I’m glad I did. It turned into one of those albums I’ll always associate with that time.. being 18 years old, still seeing the high school sweetheart, and shipping off to school out of state.

    So Rhino has introduced the Cure Deluxe Reissue Series, which is made up of albums the Cure put out between 1984-1987: Kiss Me, The Top, and The Head on the Door. Each album has an extra disc of rare outtakes and demos. The extra disk didn’t do too much for me, but I can imagine how great it would be for a Cure superfan. But it was great to hear this great album remastered, and damn, I still love that cover!

    cure

    The Cure: Catch (mp3)

  • Funk,  Pop,  Prince

    Vanity 6 Open It Up

    vanity 6

    I thought we’d all jump in the time capsule back to 1983 this week, and take a listen to the “triple threat” tour, AKA Prince’s 1999 tour, also featuring the openers Vanity 6 and The Time. First up, Vanity 6.

    Made up of Prince’s high school girlfriend Susan Moonsie (on the right above), Boston native Brenda Bennett (on the left), and Canadian model/actress Denise Matthews, who underwent the obligatory Prince name change to Vanity (reportedly after Prince first recommended Vagina – – classy!).

    Vanity 6 wasn’t out there to impress anyone with their vocal and musical prowess, they were there to wear trashy lingerie and entertain, which they did. Backed up by The Time (on stage and on record), the music ranged from funky (Nasty Girl) to the new wave of the period (He’s So Dull).

    It wasn’t long after this show that Vanity made the decision to break off from the Prince camp and go solo with a Motown record deal, as well as appearances in some quality films (The Last Dragon, anyone??, and Action Jackson, of course). Vanity’s personal life took a nose dive (no pun intended) over the coming years, as a severe cocaine addiction developed. But fear not folks, Miss Vanity found Jesus and is alive and well these days, doing her thing as Evangelist Denise Matthews.

    The opening set:

    Vanity 6
    Long Beach, CA
    March 31st, 1983
    Opening for Prince on the 1999 Tour

    Make Up
    Wet Dream
    Drive Me Wild
    If A Girl Answers, Don’t Hang Up
    Nasty Girl

    Coming This Week: The rest of the show with The Time and Prince & the Revolution

    Buy Vanity 6 (the CD’s out of print, but you can buy them used for a fee):

    Vanity 6 album

  • Hip Hop,  Old School,  Pop,  Rock n' Folk

    Thursday Variety Hour

    til tuesday

    WordPress, the blogging software behind this blog, has a cool feature that snatches comment spam and tucks it away so I can delete it. I have a question. Who are the people that spend their days creating this stuff?? What low-life wastes of space get up in the morning and look forward to a day of carpet bombing the internet with this trash?

    null

    What the hell is hentaipowerpuff?? On second thought, I don’t wanna know. It just mystifies me that there are people that do this. Obviously $$$ is the driving force, but holy cow, what a way to make it.

    Thank you. I guess I needed to get that off my chest.

    So before I post another Springsteen tour update, I thought I’d spice it up a little. These songs have absolutely nothing to do with eachother. Or do they? I guess, like the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon, that it wouldn’t take too many steps to connect them up. Hmm, Til Tuesday, Billy Bragg & Wilco, and Boogie Down Productions. Maybe they all played the same festival in Finland one year. Entirely possible.

    Boogie Down Productions: Criminal Minded (mp3) – from Live Hardcore Worldwide.

    Til Tuesday: Coming Up Close (mp3) – from Welcome Home.

    Billy Bragg & Wilco: Walt Whitman’s Niece (mp3) – from Mermaid Avenue.

    Oh, and here’s a YouTube link to a 4 year old banging away on the drums like a pro.

  • Acoustic,  Laid Back,  Pop

    Citizen Cope: More than it Seems

    cope

    This tune is kicking me in the pants right now. Citizen Cope has that satisfying blend of soul and a rootsy acoustic vibe that I’m enjoying more and more with each listen. “More Than It Seems” just plain grooves, in a slow, pleading sort of way.

    Memphis born, and reared in Texas and Washington DC, Cope now calls Brooklyn home. His third official release, Every Waking Moment, was just released on September 12th. Like many folks, “Sideways”, a Cope tune that Carlos Santana chose for his Shaman album a few years ago, first turned me on to the man. But whether you’ve heard of Citizen Cope or not, listen to this tune, and watch the video below. Like me, you may itch to hear more…

    Citizen Cope: More Than It Seems (mp3) – from his Sept. 12th release, Every Waking Moment

    Nice little vignette of Cope tunes and interview clips (in WMP high bandwidth)…..
    cope


    Citizen Cope Links
    : Official | MySpace | eCard

  • Pop

    The Cars Unlocked

    null

    For you Cars fans out there, mark October 17th on your calendars. The Cars Unlocked, a live CD/DVD, will be released. Judging by the trailer and the live “Shake It Up” video below, we’ve got some vintage 80’s moments. Bikini clad 80’s chicks on top of their boyfriends’ shoulders, what more could we possibly ask for?

    Click on the pic for a quality live video of “Shake It Up” and “Let the Good Times Roll” (in Quicktime – get Low Bandwidth here):

    Also, The Cars: My Best Friend’s Girl – Live Audio (Play in Quicktime | Play in Windows Media Player)

    “You Might Think” you know The Cars, but it’s time to say “Hello Again.” On October 17, Docurama will release The Cars Unlocked, the definitive live document of one of the most popular and influential rock groups of our time. Unlocked includes a live DVD with over twenty never before seen performances, interspersed with intimate interview footage, backstage antics, soundcheck rehearsals and more. Unlocked also includes a bonus CD, the multi-platinum group’s first-ever live album, with fourteen additional, direct-from-the-soundboard songs. The Cars Unlocked is produced by the group’s lead singer/songwriter Ric Ocasek.

    The Cars Unlocked comes packaged in a gorgeous, embossed case and includes a 28-page, hardbound booklet, designed by Ocasek, with dozens of newly unearthed photos. “This is the most comprehensive look at The Cars ever released on any format,” says Ocasek. “I’ve been sifting through our video and audio archives for a long time, and think I’ve put together a really personal, inside look at the group.”

    This is gonna be cool.

    Order The Cars Unlocked (released Oct. 17)
    Official Site of the DVD

  • Funk,  Pop,  Prince

    1988 Prince Aftershow at the Warfield

    Prince

    I sound like a broken record with my Prince posts, so let me sum it up:

    Prince + after-hours performance + 1980’s output = Best Prince

    Hmm, I guess I have to conjure up a Not So Best Prince formula.

    I’ll try: Prince + Tony M. + “Jughead” = Not So Best Prince.

    “Jughead”, from ‘Diamonds and Pearls’, is THE worst Prince song of all time. Totally unlistenable. Not far behind is the title track from ‘Graffiti Bridge’. LOTS of good tunes on the album (“Question of U”, “We Can Funk”, “Joy in Repetition”), but “Graffiti Bridge” itself is cringe-inducing for sure.

    For the Comments section below: What are your Best and Not So Best Prince formulas [formulae?]. Worst song?

    But back to the best of Prince. The Lovesexy tour was my first live Prince experience (two shows at the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago, Sept, ’88). This aftershow came a couple months later. After playing the Oakland Coliseum, Prince and his band zipped across the Bay Bridge and set up at the Warfield Theater.

    That evening, the lucky Warfield audience caught great versions of “Positivity” (the closing song on ‘Lovesexy’), “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker”, and the Temptations’ “Just My Imagination” (and a lot more). Question for the Prince fans…. “Imagination” turns into a refrain of “Sitting in this cafe, waiting for my baby.” I’m wondering about this song, namely what it is. The age old trick of plugging lyrics into Google gets me nowhere! Does .. not .. compute.

    Prince
    Warfield Theatre
    San Francisco, CA
    November 10, 1988 (aftershow)

    {Explore & Buy the Music of the Purple Man}

    Lineup:
    Prince (everything)
    Mico Weaver (guitar)
    Levi Seacer (bass)
    Sheila E. (drums, percussion)
    Cat (eye candy)
    Matt (Dr.) Fink (keys, synth)
    Boni Boyer (keys, vox) [who sadly passed away in 1996 at age 38 due to a brain aneurysm]
    Eric Leeds (sax)
    Matt (Atlanta Bliss) Blistan (trumpet)

    1. Positivity
    2. The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker / Four (Madhouse)
    3. Housequake > Take The A-Train
    4. Housequake (ending)
    5. Just My Imagination > Sitting In This Cafe (Waiting For My Baby)
    6. I’ll Take You There > Take this Beat (from “I Wish U Heaven” 12″ version; it is hard to get funkier than this)
    7. Cold Sweat
    8. Prince Drum Solo > Sheila E. Percussion Solo
    9. Lovesexy > It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night > Chain Of Fools > Beautiful Night

    UPDATE: I forgot to mention a web site I recently came across. Michael and Tobias have a very cool thing going with their Prince Podcast site. They have 4 podcasts so far, where they go deep into their thoughts and observations about different Prince albums, eras, etc. Check ’em out here: Prince Podcasts

  • Pop,  Rock

    1981 Flashback: Journey’s Escape

    Escape Cover

    There were three albums I remember dominating my life in the very early 80’s. If you’re over the age of 35, it’s likely you had these too. They were: REO Speedwagon’s ‘Hi Infidelity’, Foreigner ‘4’, and Journey’s ‘Escape’. Are you with me? “Take it on the Run”, “Open Arms”, “Urgent”, “Don’t Stop Believin”, “Waiting for a Girl Like You” – they are classic arena rock / pop staples of that era. These three albums are like the holy trinity of early 80’s rock albums and probably helped usher in the “power ballad”era.

    So lo and behold, I see that Columbia/Legacy is re-issuing the entire Journey late 70’s / early 80’s catalog, and I hurriedly got my hands on ‘Escape’ (which is an expanded edition, with four bonus tracks). Ah reminiscing…. Okay, it was released in July of 1981, which makes me 11 years old when I was enjoying this album, so my memories of ‘Escape’ lean more toward cranking up the little stereo in my room rather than, say, parked on top of Lookout Point with a hottie and letting Steve Perry’s voice do some of the dirty work for me (Prince would end up performing that same function a few years later – a lot less subtly).

    Hearing this album in its entirety again does what all good music does (or at least the music that’s important to you): it takes you back in time. It also makes you wonder how Journey can make it without Steve Perry. But they tour on and on. The current lineup includes two original members: Neil Schon (lead guitar) and Ross Valory (bass), and Jonathan Cain (keyboards), who has been with Journey since 1981. I won’t judge the latest lead singer, Steve Augeri, because I haven’t heard him, but my guess would be that his M.O. is to sound as close to the other Steve as possible. Where is Steve Perry, by the way?

    steve perry

    So sit back and take in a track from Journey’s golden era, when the tuxedo-jacket-with-coattail clad Steve Perry ruled the microphone at center stage. Where feather-haired vixens lifted their 3-quarter sleeved concert shirts to the sky. Where dark bespectacled burners named Russ and Dirk passed quality concert spliffs back and forth, with oversized handled combs sticking out of their back pockets. A simpler time, my friends, a simpler time.

    Journey: Stone in Love (mp3)

  • Laid Back,  Miscellaneous,  Pop

    Book em Danno

    Here is an absolutely bizarre post I found on Boing Boing… wow, wonderful use of the University of Colorado’s law enforcement agency…. damn pot smokers!

    Doug says: “Every year on 4/20, students and residents gather on Farrand Field at CU Boulder to defy the authorities and smoke marijuana publicly. This year, the University of Boulder Police Department fought back by taking pictures of as many participants as possible. They have a website with photos up, offering an $50 reward to anyone who positively identifies someone who was photographed. Nothing about what the authorities plan to do with the information is posted. Scary.”

    Scary and downright mystifying indeed…..

    Link to the CU Boulder Police web site

    This song has nothing to do with the subject matter at hand, but it sounded awfully good this morning when it randomly materialized…….

    Kings of Convenience
    : Gold for the Price of Silver (mp3) – from Versus

  • Pop

    Sunday Morning on a Saturday

    I have to say, it’s good to hear Susanna Hoffs’ voice again. As lead singer of the Bangles until they disbanded in 1989, I had a big crush on her, watching her belt out “Walk Like an Egyptian” and Prince-penned “Manic Monday”. Here, admire her hotness:

    She released a couple of solo albums in 1991 and 1996, but apparently has been flying well below the radar since. That is until now. Last Tuesday saw the release of ‘Under the Covers, Vol. 1’, a collaboration between Hoffs and Matthew Sweet. Their strong affection for 60’s pop music has always been evident in their own work, and they bring it together here by covering some classics by Dylan, the Beatles, the Mamas & Papas, Neil Young, among others.

    But it’s this one that caught my ear recently, one of my favorite Velvet Underground songs, “Sunday Morning”. Hoffs and Sweet make this one their own, delivering a sweet, effortless flow that warms the listener like a nice warm blanket. Look at me being sappy.

    Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs: Sunday Morning (mp3) – from Under the Covers, Vol. 1

    And for good measure, here’s how the VU original version sounds, 39 years after its release….

    The Velvet Underground: Sunday Morning (mp3) – from The Velvet Underground & Nico