Good Times 2013

Tony Soprano's Legacy

To put it simply Tony Soprano acted by James Gandolfini set the benchmark for characters in television drama. This in turn has had an incredible affect on the acting and drama that has followed since on the small screen. It's a funny turn of events that has led to the best acting now being on the telly and not in the movies. Me & the Mrs would watch Sopranos and say 'Can you believe this is not real?'  Tony had other characters surrounding him that were as brilliantly acted as he was. Carmella, Paulie, Christopher, Ralphy, Uncle Junior, Johnny Sac, Janice, Adrianna, Dr Melfi, Tony's mum etc. That's an incredible list of characters whose actors were so good that you believed they were real.

It was Tony's show though and his multidimensional and nuanced performance is monumental. Apart from making the Sopranos the classic that it is Gandolfini has raised the stakes so high that he has caused an unprecedented eruption of great character acting.

Walter in his Whites.

Music may have died in the new millennium so this late flowering of tv drama is perhaps how we'll remember the 00s and the 10s as the new golden age of tv drama. Who'd have ever thought that? We hardly watch tv like we used to. With our i-phones, i-pads, wiis, xboxs and computers up the wazoo does the telly even get turned on?  So this peak in tv drama has come at an odd and unstable time for tv. I'm sure downloads & dvd sales insure it occurring. In my home at least these series are consumed in seasons via the dvd. Last weekend the entire season 5 (part 1) of Breaking Bad was watched. That's 8 episodes. Right there you have some of nows greatest actors. Who can believe that Walter White is the same guy as the dad in Malcolm In The Middle? Then there's Jesse, Gus, Tuco, Hector etc. Without Tony Soprano would these characters have existed? Maybe he made writers and actors see the potential for the quality standards we could have. McNulty, Kimia, Bunk, Omar, Bubbles, Marlo, Prez, Snoop, Avon, Stringer Bell to list just a few of the unforgettable and incredibly acted characters from The Wire a show that followed in The Sopranos wake.  I didn't even realise two of these guys were actually posh British actors. This cast took The Sopranos mantle and possibly even surpassed it. They certainly equalled their standard as have others like the aforementioned Breaking Bad as well as Six Feet Under, Deadwood, Boardwalk Empire et al.

I guess Tony Soprano was a catalyst for premier acting and we all get to reap the benefits. David Fisher played by Michael C Hall in Six Feet Under is possibly my all time favourite but hang on what about Clare and Brenda from the same show? The list goes on...Nicky, Margene, Alby, Roman, Frank and Rhonda from Big Love.... Al Swearagen, Alma Garet, Trixie, Calamity Jane, Joanie Stubbs, The Doc, Charlie Utter, Mr Wu, EB Farnum are also all great characters beautifully acted in Deadwood... I can keep the lists coming.

The Sopranos and the shows that followed are going to be seen like late 60s LPs are seen by the likes of Rolling Stone and Mojo. These shows are going to be your Sgt Peppers, Pet Sounds, Blonde On Blondes  et al. They will perennially feature in the top 10s of all time, be endlessly discussed, have their order shuffled every few years and be revered as peaks of popular culture because they are.

Is The Sopranos The Sgt Pepper of telly?

RIP Tony Soprano

Gene Clark's No Other

The Best LA LP of The 70s?

What I've been tryin to get to for a while now is this: Gene Clark's No Other. Here's another record I don't really need to talk about as some of the greats have written about it here and here. Anyway this is a record that is still building its cult. It'll probably be 5 to 10 years before he gets to that stage that, I dunno, someone like Nick Drake ended up in 10 years ago. A sort of saturation point where you've gone from cult figure to everyone who's ever gonna know about you knowing about you. I guess Rodriguez is reaching this position now, sure a doco helps! As does an Academy Award for said doco. Anyway David Geffen apparently pumped a hundred grand into Clark's magnificent 1974 opus and upon receiving it in the flesh promptly chucked it in the bin in a hissy fit because it only had 8 songs. Geffen refused to promote the LP and it came and went in a flash. Clark's career never recovered and he allegedly became a tragic figure until he died in 1991 before the No Other cult had gained much momentum. This LP is up there with the best 70s West Coast records by Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan, Sly Stone and Dennis Wilson and could possibly be the best of the lot. I reckon we definitely get our $100,000 worth. It's lush. It's sublime. This album is the perfect amalgamation of songs, performance and production. It does not get much better than this if indeed it does at all! There's something intangibly magic about this LP and framing it in Gram Parson's term 'Cosmic Americana' doesn't do it justice. This ain't no hippy hillbilly record. However there is a dichotomy at work here. Clark wrote this album during a deep spiritual time but then recorded it in the grips of out of control cocaine use/abuse. An interesting footnote to Australian readers is that Venetta Fields, yes she of John Farnham's band, sings backing vocals on the trax Life's Greatest Fool & Some Misunderstanding.

I is diggin those 1974 threads man.

The Eagles & Satan Part 2

Here's a very bad close up of the previously mentioned dude in the 2nd window of Hotel California. According to some Christians online this is apparently Anton LaVey who was the founder of The Church Of Satan. Don Henley says it's a woman hired by the band. Who should I believe? Check out Jesus Is Saviour for more info!

Anton auditions for a villain
part in Get Smart

Ensemble Skalektrik-Trainwrekz

Totally diggin this. More gold from the Ekoplekz, eMMplekz dude whose name escapes me at the moment. This is different to anything he's done before and quite a surprise! Dubby environmental power hauntology if you get me?

Hotel California

I just read Barney Hoskyns's Waiting For The Sun and it's pretty good up until the late 70s when he starts to rush through punk, paisley, metal through to Hip Hop. I'm a Beach Boys, Byrds, Burritos, Love, The Doors, Gene Clark kinda guy so when it got to The Eagles, Linda Rondstadt, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Brown and ugh James Taylor I thought I'd probably stop reading as my interest waned but man they were all so fucked and took so many drugs it was absurd. Anyway what I'm gettin at is the biggest impact* The Eagles had on me, apart from hearing their songs on the radio growing up ad nauseum, was the inner of the gatefold sleeve of Hotel California.  While in about year 8 in High School me and a bunch of friends watched this video about backmasking, satanism etc. in rock at one of my friends houses whose dad happened to be a teacher at our catholic School.  The video would have been produced by some kind of American fundamentalist christian group to scare the kids away from that evil Rock n Roll. I vaguely recall stuff on The Beatles, Led Zep and Queen and their use of satanic backmasking. The main thing I remember however was the dissection of the lyrics to Hotel California and the study of its cover. From then on that cover became a spooky artifact. It was in my home. I don't recall anyone ever playing it but the cover was often perused with spooky delight. At other peoples houses we'd go through the record collections to invariably find the album cover to check out the dude up there in the 2nd of the 3 windows upstairs. He was meant to be the devil or something. It was pretty creepy whatever he was. The Hotel according to the video was some kind of satanic church...'you can check in anytime you like but you can never leave'...... Anyway I should check and see if that video is on the youtubes.

*I loved Don Henley's Boys Of Summer (One of my all time fave 80s tunes!), I bought the 7", but I probably didn't even realise until much later that he was the dude in The Eagles.

Boards Of Canada-Tomorrow's Harvest

The opening of the new record Tomorrow's Harvest seems funny to me. They have a little logo tune or is it a logtone? An Ident? I don't recall them having used one before and to me it seems like a nod to the people they've influenced ie. The Belbury Poly, The Advisory Circle and the rest of the GhostBox crew. Then there are hints of John Carpenter that I don't recall being referenced before on their previous records, which could possibly be a nod to Pye Corner Audio or even Umberto. One wonders whether they keep up with all this stuff or it's just a coincidence.

Tomorrow's Harvest does seem a lot darker and not as lovely* or gorgeous* as previous efforts. The beats seem to trudge and appear quite inert. It's still unmistakably Boards Of Canada with no sign of the guitars used on The Campfire Headphase.  The Jury is still out for me as I'm only half a dozen listens in. Still it must be alright even if I've played it that many times. I remember playing Music Has The Right To Children about 5 years ago to someone who only listened to trance and he said it was like electronic funeral music. He didn't even think you could chill out to it. So the darkness thing was always there but now we're splitting hairs over its minute shades.

*Lovely and *Gorgeous are two terms, I learnt yesterday, that announcers on a certain Melbourne independent radio station are never supposed to use on air about the music they are playing. Guess what all you prince's and princess's of darkness nice is nice! The Black Crow King obviously still wields influence in Melbourne town.

Old Geezers!

A quick look at recent releases reveals it's not just Bowie, MBV, Daft Punk & Boards of Canada making comebacks this year.
Texas
Goo Goo Dolls
Ben Folds Five
Barenaked Ladies
Jimmy Eat World
Garbage
Tangerine Dream with Brian May(?)

John Fogerty
Alice In Chains
Sebadoh
Billy Joel
Iggy & The Stooges

Melvins,
Rod Stewart
Megadeath
Black Sabbath
Anvil
Alison Moyet
Alannis Morissete
The Orb
Skinny Puppy
The Pastels

And many more all have new LPs for you to listen to in 2013!

 Who's listening?

Tangerine Dream with Brian May-What the fuck would this be like? I'm almost tempted to listen to listen to it but... not quite!

I must say I'm slightly intrigued at the Skinny Puppy LP. Didn't one of them die?

What makes me listen to the new Boards Of Canada album over say the new Black Sabbath er.. hang on Boards Of Canada have really not released a bad record ever and well how many good records have Sabbath produced since like 1974? Am I gonna listen to that Orb record though? I dig The Orb and their first few LPs. But I don't think I'm gonna check out the new one. Why? It might be cool. We are fickle aren't we. Do I wanna just leave The Orb in their early 90s heyday? Why not leave BOC in the late 90s/early 00s though? I loved that John Fogerty comeback album in like 1985 Centrefield. What's another 30 years difference gonna make? ....er probably quite a bit to me and Mr Fogerty. Alison Moyet anyone? Surely she's the original Adele doncha reckon? Didn't all the Alice In Chains people die? Or was it just the singer? Me and the Mrs couldn't even come up with a Texas song, she could however sing me a Goo Goo Dolls song and I recognised it. Barenaked Ladies had the song about a Chinese Chicken I think......

The Fog is back again.

Other People's Memories II

Sagittarius - Present Tense

Another gem I've just discovered. More relationships to The Byrds and The Beach Boys. I know I'm not really gettin to the best ex-Byrds records but I came across this last week and can't believe it hasn't been in my life till now. Gary Usher is the man behind this project. He is probably best known as a producer for The Byrds and for writing a couple of Beach Boys classics including 409 and In My Room. He'd also written tracks for Dick Dale, Frankie Avalon and Peanut Butter Conspiracy. Anyway Gary and Curt Boettcher got together in the studio and created this psych-pop masterpiece. They dragged in other friends Terry Melcher, Bruce Johnston and Glen Campbell to help make this magic. It's like psych with all the rock removed which is actually quite refreshing. I guess the closest thing I can compare this to is The Free Design but its way more psychedelic, freaky and haunting than them. This aint no rock record and it's all the better for it. I cannot stop playing this LP and can't quite figure out why. It's been called soft rock, sunshine pop but I think the best and most fitting term is Baroque Pop. There are a couple of other Usher studio projects, Super Stocks and The Hondells which  are more on the surf rock tip. Curt Boettcher was a just a name to me previous to hearing this, maybe someone Bob Stanley once wrote about or admired. He produced The Association and had his own groups The Ballroom and The Millenium. He even had something to do with Dennis Wilson's classic Pacific Ocean Blue I think. Boettcher died relatively young and has become a cult figure ever since. The Millennium's LP Begin is considered a cult classic, I'll mos def have to track that one down along with the 2nd Sagittarius LP.

Gary Usher

Baroque-pop genius?
Curt Boettcher

Terry Melcher - Terry Melcher LP

How did I end up here? Well a while ago a friend of mine told me he was gettin into The Byrds. I'd been tellin him for a while he should check out Gene Clark. So then I thought I'd do a post about the best Post-Byrds records. Then as I was thinking up some crap to write I remembered this song I'd heard about 7 years ago on the radio by sometime Beach Boy songwriter and Byrds producer Terry Melcher. It really struck me as quite edgy and unhinged and has stayed with me ever since. I've never been able to find a physical copy of the above LP but I finally tracked down an MP3 of said artifact. Anyway I can't figure out which of the tunes it was because there is quite an intense unhinged quality to a lot of the trax. There is something in his voice that is so real and slighly terrified. This is a man who was friends with Charlie Manson and was supposedly the real target for one of the Manson murders. I'm sure he did his fair share of coke and was quite paranoid. His mum was Doris Day talk about yin and yang! That was LA though wasn't it?!. The sweetest most innocent harmonies coming from some of the most mental people in town ie. The Beach Boys. Anyway did I miss the Mojo where they said this was a forgotten classic or am I one of only a few who think this is pure gold from LA in 1974. Doris even does backing vocals on Terry's version of These Days which makes it brilliantly haunting. When he says he's 'OK and so is LA' in a jaunty tone you don't really believe him particularly when it's a sentiment expressed to his shrink on Dr Horowitz. Particularly affecting is the booze hound lament The Bars Have Made A Prison Out of Me. His sense of desperation for something to believe in is palpable in songs like Beverly Hills, Halls Of Justice and The Old Hand Jive. His spirit though is broken but he keeps on going, just, and thankfully so because this is a fucking great record! Features such luminaries as Sneaky Pete, Hal Blaine and Chris Hillman. Terry's old buddy and sometime Beach Boy Bruce Johnston co-produces.

Other Peoples Memories

On The Hi-Fi Part 27

Crucify Your Love - Dylan Ettinger
Now this guy has moved on quite a bit. He made one of the landmark statements of Hynagogia, New Age Outlaws from 2010. Some even consider that record to be where H-Pop ended. So where do you go from there? Particularly if people are saying that's the end of the genre but you created one of its masterpieces. Perhaps that call was a little early but all the same, what do you do next? Should you stick with it till the revival comes around? How long would that leave you in the wilderness though? Stasis V progression. This new ep is somewhere in between. It's like the Cabs have hijacked the hynagogia party. There are vocals in in a deep dubbed fug/fog amongst the H-pop sounds. Is that progression or regression? It puts this work in a zone not that far from eMMplekz but more on an easier listening tip, if that makes any sense at all. It's pretty good/Odd!?

OFF/On - Forma (2012)
Finally getting around to hearing this release from very late last year due to SLX having it as their record of the year for 2012. I didn't hate that first LP but it just didn't surpass its influences Cluster, Harmonia et al. This is top notch electronics retaining some of that Kraut vibe but now including 80s drum soundz, soundtracky motifs and even delving into 90s electronica. Who knows in a couple of albums time they may be soundtracking the new future and not the retro-future.

The Garnet Toucan - Monopoly Child Searchers (2012)
Another release from late last year. This time it's the other Skater you know the one who is not James Ferraro. Talk bout becoming the Andrew Ridgley or the other guy from Style Council of Skaters. I have over 30 releases by Mr Ferraro and not one solo outing from Spencer Clark until this landed on my lap. There was the excellent Inner Tube release last year which was a collaboration with Mark McGuire of Emeralds. You could slap a Ferraro label on this and I would be none the wiser. It really could be an old tape from 2009. That's a good thing here. Plastic fourth into fifth world neon soundz makes this a quality LP that I can't stop playing.

Random Access Memories - Daft Punk
Do I really need to add to the discourse of this cd? For what it's worth I fell asleep the first 2 times I listened to this. On the 3rd listen I started to enjoy the tracks towards the end of RAM. I really think this is a bad case of track placement error.

The Elektrik Karousel - The Focus Group
The title says it all really. This is like an acid trip through an horrific fairground (aren't they all a little bit spooky?). The emphasis being on the trip. You get into the zone with this LP and you are on a sonic ghost ride. Dear Wire reviewer I don't need to be English to enjoy this and I don't need to be humming its tunes once the Voyage is over. If I wanted to hum some tunes all day long I'd listen to Abba. This is about listening in the moment and that's what The Focus Group are all about. Another GhostBox gem!

RocKwiz

So the advertisement for the new season of RocKwiz is all about staying in. This reminded me of that aforementioned article by Paul Morley on The Stones at Glastonbury. RocKwiz is a fantastic show. There are 2 teams in a panel of 3.  In each panel is a famous/semi-famous/working musician and two rock nerds picked from their audience due to their knowledge of rock trivia. At the opening of the show each of the musicians play one of their usually well known trax. A quiz then ensues with rock questions, some easy & some quite hard. At the closing of the show the two artists always do some kind of duet. The duet is usually terrific or total shite. This is all hosted by the charismatic and sometimes goofy Julia Zemiro with Brian Nankervis as the side-kick/adjudicator. The emphasis is definitely on rock, meaning trivia from the 60s, 70s, 80s and only sometimes from more recent times.

Julia Zemiro and at the back the fantastic RocKwiz Orchestra.

This most recent ad tells us to stay in on Saturday Nite to avoid the hipster zombie apocalypse. This is like the opposite idea of Rock n Roll. That being going out, drinking, taking drugs, being hip, prowling for promiscuous sex, lookin for kicks, pushin the boundaries etc. Now rock is in its old aged home where you stay in and avoid those young people and their silly hair. Sit back with a cup of tea and a biscuit and watch the telly. RocKwiz will give you a little trip down memory lane which will be nice. You might even like one of those nice new young artists. Then it's off to beddy byes nice and early.

Don't get me wrong I love the show. Some of my all time favourite artists have taken part - Ed Kuepper, Steve Kilbey (The Church), Mick Harvey, Hugo Race, Gareth Liddiard (The Drones), Steve Lucas (X), Chris Bailey (The Saints), Kim Salmon (The Scientists), Adrian Belew, Ron Peno (Died Pretty), Jim Keays (The Masters Apprentices), Russell Morris etc. They've even had some international rock royalty like Betty Harris, Suzi Quatro, Wanda Jackson, Judy Collins, Mary Wilson and the list goes on. There was even a memorable episode featuring the charming Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet who turned out to be a right card and was in fine voice!?

The funny thing is it's filmed in one of Melbourne's most famous and long standing rock venues The Esplanade Hotel. According to the ad this is the type of place you are supposed to be avoiding as there may be funny haired, weirdly dressed, drunk and pilled up young folk. The ad I guess is tongue in cheek but that's a moot point as you can't really be among such unwashed folk on Saturday nite otherwise you'll miss the show.

Once at an Australian Rules Football match I ran into an old musician friend. He was in the company of someone who may or may not have been in the Australian underground supergroup The Beasts Of Bourbon. After already having had a few lemonades I asked their posse to join me in kicking on at the pub across the road from the MCG only to be told 'Thanks but nah. We're going home to watch RocKwiz.'

Rock & Roll!

RIP RAY MANZAREK

You know what I loved about Ray apart from his skills on the organ, piano, bass and even marimba was that he stayed enthusiastic about the Doors right through his life. He really believed in them and knew they were great. He never dismissed them as juvenalia like many artists would. He knew they were the best musical days of his life and they would never be repeated. He was still inspired in the sleeve notes of those last reissues from like 2007.

Dead Blogs

Norm Chambers AKA Panabrite once ran one of my favourite blogs Lunar Atrium. This was a great place to find the weird and wonderful. I got to listen to many library and obscure electronic records that will never see a re-release. I don't know what happened but he started blogging less frequently and then bang all his files and critical comments were gone. Now it's like a ghost town blog with just it's header and zero content. Thanks Norm for the heads up on a lot of records I would never have known if it wasn't for your old/dead blog. Where else was I gonna hear Claudio Rocchi's classic Suoni Di Frontiera along with many others?

Another excellent blog on the more funky tip of library records, Funky Frolic, has called it quits too. This could possibly be the source of where I first heard Alan Hawkshaw's legendary Oddball! Another one bites the dust.

I could go on about many others who are disappearing by the minute. Then there's others who have slowed to a crawl like Pontone & Exp Etc. and the great Mutant Sounds. Many file sharing blogs are still online but in spectral form with most links no longer alive. Is the well drying up? Or are the authorities taking control? A golden era of obscure record sharing seems to be coming to an end and that's a shame.

eggheads

Barry enjoys Adolescent Sex

CJ used to be my favourite egghead. Man of many great shirts. He admitted though the other day that he doesn't listen to or buy music thus becoming the villain egghead. Some of the other dudes know their stuff though. Pat got a question about Black Flag the other night and Barry answered correctly a question on Japan and even named an LP Adolescent Sex as one his particular favourites. There was even a question about who was the lead singer/songwriter/guitarist behind The Mighty Wah! & Wah! Heat. The answer of Pete Wylie however was not forthcoming. Once a question was asked "What Beatles LP is actually called The Beatles?" The challengers were given 3 choices of which they replied Sgt. Pepper & not you know, the right answer. There's obviously a music freak in the question research department. It definitely keeps me watching to see what weird music question is next and leaves me slightly disappointed when the music category does not appear in an episode.

Pat gets the Hardcore questions.

This parallels Gilmore Girls which I used to watch. The writers must have been big music fans and in the end I think I was just watching to see what kind of music esoterica they could smuggle into such a mainstream show. Slint once got a mention and I thought wow how are they gonna top that? One of the main 2 characters was named Lorelei. This would always put me in mind of the great Cocteau Twins track from the classic Treasure LP.  Surely she was named after that.

One More Time

Beaches - Granite Snake

I is Ignoramus!

"You know Mick one day you will play on an LP by an Aussie
band called Beaches and even you will shine amongst these
Godesses!"

Michael Rother of Neu fame actually plays on, aforementioned in previous post, song by Beaches Granite Snake. I is not up withe me Pitchforks and Mess & Noises.

NEU - NEGATIVLAND

The embryo for just about everything that followed in rock that was good!

The Greatest Track Ever?

I'm confused!

Doris Hays

I know the Internet is full of bullshit but I  was always under the impression Doris Hays was a pseudonym for Delia Derbyshire. It turns out this is not true! Is that true? Who should I trust?

Is this the above lady's LP or is it Derbyshire's?

Robin Crutchfield

Here's a great podcast from Minimal Wave featuring Robin Crutchield of DNA and Dark Day fame discussing his history and playing tracks of his and his influences with Veronica Vasicka from East Village Radio. So this is for all you No Wave/Post-punk/electro and acid folk...Fans. I can't find the track list but whatever.

Research Rock

*Research Rock I guess is the new Record Collection Rock. A continuation if you like. This time time though it's not based so much on music weeklies, magazines, fanzines, fusty second hand shops, eighth generation tapes, word of mouth, cool record collections and knowing taste makers but on your ability to connect threads from blogs, Web magazines, music history books/magazines (these aren't totally necessary as all research can be done online) and knowing the coolest virtual places to go for your info. Then collecting the correct files through your expertise of cool web navigation. Later you pick and choose from your downloads/files in your virtual record collection. Now you can do it overnight instead of years of gathering tid bits of esoterica to build the perfect record collection which your band can cut & paste into an amalgam of seemingly new soundz etc. (er...still thinking this through. I'll expand this another day when my brain is functioning in a less tired manner)

**This is a work/thought in progress.

Beaches - She Beats

When I write about an artist I usually try to evoke the sounds, ideas and feelings through words and not list influences. This is getting harder by the second particularly as we are now very late in the (rock) epoch.  I'm only a couple of listens in but I'm really diggin' She Beats. It's a guitar record. It's not really breaking any new ground but who is? My ears just love hearing those guitars and the melodies. They've definitely done stellar research*. Beaches belong the lineage of The Velvets/Stooges/Kraut/Hawkwind axis, the Paisley Underground, 80s Sydney Rock (The Church, Died Pretty) 80s into early 90s Flying Nun, Proto-Shoegaze (ie. Loop et al.) Shoegaze, 90s Kranky and  instrumental groups from the USA like Pell Mell & Cul-De-Sac and the more recent Yawning Man/Ten East. I have to say though with Beaches It feels more organic than that. This musical melting pot  has been brewing in their DNA for some time and can't help but ooze out of them when they plug in and play. As opposed to a group like Savages who seem to be mixing and matching influences like trying on clothes. IE. 'Does my Wire match my Siouxsie? Does my Banshee look big in this?'

Beaches still haven't captured the immensity of their live sound on tape and one wonders if they ever will. Someone should give them hundreds of thousands of dollars so they can create their very own Tusk or Starfish. They must be special if I'm willing to let a track like Granite Snake get past me as I swore a couple of years ago that if I heard another band being influenced by Neu (Neu are one of my all time favourite bands but does that mean every 2nd band should rip em off) I would smash the radio in. But Granite Snake blows my fucking mind, it's incredible  Who'd have thought we'd be listening to a band in 2013 that reminded us of Opal, The Pale Saints or the 3Ds? Possibly the best record of its ilk since Yawning Man's excellent Vista Point from 2007 (yeah yeah I know Vista Point is a compilation of records made in 2005, whatever).