Community Noise

The portability of recorded music is unique in the arts.  You can go to a museum to look at objects, go to a theatre to watch a play, or go to a venue to take in a concert.  Recorded music can play in your home, your car, on your MP3 player for a walk, a run, at the gym; take it to the office, the woodshop, or the airplane.  Your music collection becomes a soundtrack to your life: you select songs and albums for the setting, the mood, the time of day.

Planning for a road trip through part of Oregon, what should I take along?  I’ve had a

separate stack of CDs for a few months, stuff that I hadn’t meant to ignore, stuff I’ve wanted to give a second chance, newer stuff that hadn’t made the home playlist yet.  The stack grew to 3 shoeboxes.  Finally, for this road trip, I cleaned out the CDs from my car, and picked out a couple of handfuls of the special stack for this trip.

Typically, “road trip music” interprets as music that is good to have on in the car when driving.  Simple enough.  I have expanded the meaning along a second prong, “music that I purposefully bring along, because I need to listen to it”.

Wordy, not pithy, but that’s what I’m doing.

The way I do it, until somebody has a better idea, the playlist is on YT, with the listing and liner notes below.  I hope you find something new.

Playlist #8: Soundtrack for Road Trip

 

1. Destroyer – “Tinseltown Swimming in Blood”

I guess the album is pretty good, but I really just like the one song  … and it’s really good.

2. SuperOrganism Something For Your M.I.N.D.

I finally bought the CD, instead of listening to just 2 songs on YT, I can listen to the whole thing.  The 2 songs I previously knew are the best by far, but it’s a good record for me to listen to; lots of fresh ideas.

There is one stanza, I’d swear she’s singing, “I know you think I’m a social path …”; in fact, she sings “sociopath”.   Still, what might a “social path” be?

 

I think it would mean an avenue to meet people, or to be invited to a party, or to join a new clique.  Something like that.  I think “social path” should be added to the English lexicon.

3. Cherry Poppin’ Daddies – “Master and Slave”

Formed in Eugene, OR, not far from where I am as I write this, in the late 1980s.  When Brian Setzer gave us the mid-1990s Swing movement, CPD slid right into place.  Cool band.

4. Cherry Poppin’ Daddies – “Zoot Suit Riot”

Anybody that has heard of CPD knows the song “Zoot Suit Riot”; if you haven’t heard of them, it’s a good song.

5. NW ShoeGazzer Bliss

My memory might be ill, but I seem to recall receiving this as a gift for attending a show at The Crocodile Café.  The Croc used to do this; I have other gift CDs from shows there.  This is a 2002 release from Reverb Records.  It includes, for example, The High Violets and “44 down”

In case you don’t know about shoegazz, Wikipedia says, “Shoegazing is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock that emerged in the United Kingdom in the late 1980s.  Its sound is characterized by an ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volume.”

6. Black Nite Crash – See Her Tonight

ibid.

7. Elvis Costello – “Lip Service”

Elvis is a tough one.  I was never really exposed to him, and then a few years ago my nephew made me buy This Year’s Model.  It’s fun to listen to, but it never makes it into my home rotation.

8. Janáček – Piano Sonata 1.X.1905 (“From the Street”) – Lazar Berman

FB friend posted this while I was on the trip.  Does listening to songs in the hotel count as part of the road trip?  It must.

9. Get Well Soon – “If this Hat is Missing, I have Gone Hunting”

Do not watch the video whilst driving a horseless carriage, thou.

10. Tommy Good – “Baby I miss you”

Driving through the Umpqua Valley, from the Coast to Bend, Oregon, I stopped in Roseburg for lunch, and picked up the community quarterly, UV.  There’s an article about a local guy that curates 1970s soul.  I’m asking him to work on a playlist with me for Community Noise.  Stay tuned.  One song I learned from him, “Baby I miss you”.

11. Paul & The Broken Bones – “Apollo”

I just happened upon this, searching for YT videos.  I love these guys.

12. Eighth Blackbird – “Variations”

I’ve featured this ensemble before; I think these guys are incredible.  Far away from my roots in pop and punk rock, this music is complicated, intense, and learned, but remains enchanting.

My hope is that their music finds a touchstone for people that allows for the exploration of more musical forms.  It’s fun to watch them play, unfortunately, I couldn’t find any live versions of this album, Thirteen Ways.

13. The Fiery Furnaces – “Quay Cur”

It was a trip to London in 2004, previously documented in these pages, when I stumbled upon the Rough Trade record shop.  I asked the shop attendant for new music that I should give a try.  The bloke behind the counter handed me this, Blueberry Boat. (This is one of my ploys to find new stuff – ask the attendant for whatever he or she is listening to.)

It’s a tough album to figure out.  That’s why I lost it in the archives.  It will take some time for me to find my way with it, the right mood, the right time of day, all that.  There’s something going on though, and I think this is a record worthy of the time to work it out.

14. Nick Cave and the Badseeds – “The Good Son”

I don’t need to remember to listen to this one, it takes effort not to play it to death.  This album is perfect; every song is beautiful and there is song-to-song cohesion. The voices, instrumentation, the emotions: perfectly intertwine.

This album, The Good Son, is a masterwork of Western Civilization.

 

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© Community Noise 2018.  Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

It took me a few minutes, but “fear” brought memories of Julian Cope.

Julian sits in a special place for me.  His early work with the Teardrop Explodes and his first two solo records were great back in the day – that was the stuff to listen to.  It’s what the cool kids down the hall had.  No small triumph, not to brag, but I found all 4 vinyl albums and a couple of singles in the record stores.  (By the way, doesn’t “teardrop explodes” create the greatest mental image?)

I think a lot about “staying power” when I listen to music from my collection.  It turns out that, while I still listen to a fair amount of 1980s music, a lot from that decade now sounds tinny or the synthesizers are simplistic, or it just isn’t as good as I used to think it was.  Julian stands up a little better.  He has a nice voice and he sometimes has an astounding way with words.  Sometimes his music sounds naïve, but occasionally, decades later, some songs remain a real treasure.

Today’s selection is “Land of Fear’; originally found on a 7” EP.  (Now you will find it on Fried re-releases as “bonus material”.)  The song, to me, describes how it is to be in a relationship; scary, sure, but holding hands with the right person can make everything OK.  Also, there is clever adaptation of a biblical phrase to a love song.  (I guess it’s clever anytime someone does something useful with a biblical phrase.)  There’s another version, from studio tapes, mostly him noodling, playing with the words.  It’s an insight of how he worked through the scripture text to figure out how the words could work into his song.  I can’t find version that on YT.

Song:  Land of Fear
Album:  Sunspots EP (7” vinyl)
Artist: Julian Cope
Song Writer: Julian Cope

Thanks to Helen for the challenge;   Song Lryic Sunday

 

when I walk
through the land of fear
beside you
become over you
walk with me
through the land of fear
I don’t look to my left
I don’t look to my rear
cause I’m not afraid anymore
somehow I’m not afraid anymore
cause when I walk
through the land of fear
there’s no one there,
I make damn sure
I judge the stakes
against myself
the count has grown
up above the shelf
I’m not afraid anymore
somehow I’m not afraid anymore
cause when I walk
through the land of fear
the crying and the glancing out
abandon thee
incorrigibly tamed
they’ll never see
beyond my gaze
in the land of fear
the land of fear

http://www.thelyricarchive.com/song/579429-78219/When-I-Walk-Through-the-Land-of-Fear   I fixed up the found lyrics best I could.

 

Today, over 350 papers in the United States have coordinated to publish their own editorials on the importance of a free press.  The media is in collusion to protect our first amendment rights?  I’m in.

Is a blog really “journalism”?  Most frequently, probably not.  But I do consider some of my pieces to be journalism; they relate a story about something that I hope others find interesting or useful.

I promote music that I think is worthy to share with friends and strangers; that’s my opinion.  I write about how the music makes me feel, I write about a musician’s biography, and I sometimes write fiction to describe a real thing.  I offer my take on music for others to read, enjoy, and maybe learn from.  I invite readers to respond, whether they agree or not.  Discussion is paramount; if respectful and well considered, we all learn something.

Today’s editorials are about the freedom of press to report on government, root out corruption, and thus promote liberty and justice.  Arts journalism, and arts discussions, rely on the First Amendment similarly.  Books I read have been tried in US courts (in 1966, the Supreme Court of Massachusetts declared Burroughs’ Naked Lunch not obscene.)  We each rely on the freedom to assemble to attend a concert.  Last year, I wrote a piece about “bone music” in the former Soviet Union, when “Western music” was banned.

Let us unite today in joy and righteousness, knowing the power of the US Constitution; knowing that brave people continue to research the truth, provide informed opinions, and protect us all by invoking their First Amendment rights.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free assemble exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

This is a music blog, so let’s listen to something.  The great Aretha died today.  Impossible to choose just one song (earlier this morning I struggled and gave up)  I’m choosing “Respect”; it’s a good word for the day.

Her voice is as beautiful as Thomas Jefferson’s pen.  The First Amendment was vital to the civil rights movements when Aretha came to age.  It is a small piece of writing that keeps on giving.

 

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© Community Noise 2018.  Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

 

 

I am moving a little bit outside of myself for today’s theme.  I don’t normally listen to this gentleman, but the theme reminded me of these singular shows that we used to have in Seattle.

Kevn Kinney fronted Drivin N Cryin for some years, and I knew of him from that era.  Friends with REM from the Georgia days, there was a period of years in the mid-1990s when that Kevn would visit.  Peter Buck was living here and he’d put together an ensemble of locals to play, and they’d put on a show sometime over Winter Break.

Fond memories are mine, hanging out with a few friends, listening to the great riffs, and Kevn telling stories.  He’s the sort of guy that gently strums, eyes closed, and tells you, “all you really need in life is a full cup of coffee, a few good friends, and a guitar.”

Song:  “Broken Hearts and Auto Parts”
Album: “Broken Hearts and Auto Parts”
Artist: Kevn Kinney
Song Writer: Kevin Kinney

Thanks to Helen for the challenge.   Song Lryic Sunday

Ain’t been the best of years so far
I lost my girl, I lost my car.
Everything else, so in between
Seems so incomplete.
It ain’t the best of times you see
I’ve got no phone and no TV.
I’m just three steps from living on the street
Or sleeping in my truck.

It’s been broken hearts and auto parts and everything between.
I was on the move and in a suit, and on the silver screen.
Where I would hide for days and live inside my dreams.
It’s been broken hearts and auto parts this year.

Ain’t been the best of mornings
I spilt coffee on my favorite shirt.
Broke my shoelace gettin’ ready for church … ah, this is bullshit (sorry, Lord)
Ain’t been the best of nights so far
I spend most of it just standing at the bar.
Downtown, chasin’ a dream…hoping she’ll come chasing me.

It’s been broken hearts and auto parts and everything between
I was on the move and in a suit, and on the silver screen
Where I could hide for days and live inside my dreams
It’s been broken hearts and auto parts this year.

story

In the end the whole thing turns around
you find some spirit and you find the cause
You sit right down, with your ol’ broken-down guitar and write yourself a song.

It’s been broken hearts and auto parts and everything between
On the move and in a suit, and on the silver screen
Where I could hide for days and live inside my dreams
It’s been broken hearts and auto parts this year.

——

I found lyrics on a tablature site, then fixed them up a little bit for this live version.

 

There were options for this theme, “drink”.  My two immediate thoughts were The Thrownups (a Seattle band associated with Mark Arm and Mudhoney) and Pink Martini.  I thought the latter might be better.  I’ve never actually had a pink martini.  What do they put in it?

The song I choose, the lyrics are sort of punk rock for this multi-cultural orchestra.  It’s my favorite song by them.

Song:   Hey Eugene
Album: Hey Eugene!
Artist: Pink Martini
Song Writer:  China Forbes

(The live versions are funner to watch, but I thought the dynamics were better on the studio versions … so you get this version.)

Thanks to Helen for the challenge.   Song Lyric Sunday

Hey Eugene, do you remember me?
I’m that chick you danced with
Two times through the Rufus album
Friday night at that party on Avenue A
Where your skinhead friend passed out for several hours
On the bathroom floor
And you told me you weren’t that drunk
And that I was your favorite salsa dancer
You had ever come across in New York city

Eugene, Eugene, Eugene

I said hello, Eugene
Are you there, Eugene?
Hey Eugene, then we kissed

Once we lugged your friend into the elevator
And went to write my number on a soggy paper towel
And the car went down
And when we had finished making out
We noticed that your skinhead friend was gone
Long gone
And you looked into my bloodshot eyes and said
“Is it too soon if I call you Sunday?”

Eugene, Eugene, Eugene
I said hello, Eugene
Are you there, Eugene?

I said hello Eugene, Eugene, Eugene
(oh yeah)
I said hello, Eugene
Are you there, Eugene
(Tell me are you there)
I said hello, Eugene, Eugene, Eugene
(Tell me oh)

I said hello, Eugene
Does any of this ring a bell Eugene?

 

Lyrics for “Hey Eugene”

 

It’s time for another useful playlist, compiled for you, from me, performed by them.  No theme, just miscellaneous goodness.  Things come to me that I want to share, and as I go through the process to compile, more ideas came to me.

My playlists tend to be incoherent and maybe a little eclectic.  If one track isn’t working for you, don’t give up, just skip on to the next.  Except this first track, which I am completely enamored with.

Community Noise Playlist #7

1.    Superorganism – “Everybody Wants to Be Famous”

Cool song.  I hear things on the radio sometimes.

My first year of college, I took a class on public speaking.  This young woman, I sort of knew her, don’t recall her name, started one talk, “Today I’m going to teach you about orgasm” and proceeded to demonstrate the Japanese art of folding paper.  Everybody paid attention and my professor was agog.  I just wanted to make sure you all read the band name correctly, because you might be seeing it again.

2.    Galaxy 500 – “Listen the Snow is Falling”

My new friend Dean sent me this track, after reading my piece, ‘Yes’ is an Emotion, Yoko.  I’ve had this Galaxy 500 CD for going on 3 decades, but never made the connection to Yoko Ono.  Cool track.

3.    Ligeti with Barbara Hannigan – “Mysteries of the Macabre”

The Seattle Symphony played a Ligeti set last season; left me agog.  Then I found this.  Sweet jesus.  (I’ve featured this before, I must confess, but I love the weirdness.)   I like the music, but the brilliant weirdness strikes the heart.

4.    Transient Canvas – “Epidermis”

No story, just goodness.

5.    Frank Black & The Catholics – Everything Is New

Went for a walk, this beautiful thing came on the headphones.  A couple of details to listen for.

There’s a piano interlude, with accompaniment, in between the chorus and first verse.  (Chorus-verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure.)  Lovely.   That first verse, praisable phrasing, but that last line, it’s not clear that Frank is going to finish the words within the space of the melody but listen to him wrap his voice around it.  I supposed that’s “just singing” but it amazes me.

Chesney quit the army and he start a band
He used to play that club down at Hermosa Strand
I think they’re changing the name again
Down in Holland where the windows are big
They paint the buildings bright
Because they figured the rain is coming who knows when?

Freaky little story, too.

6.    The Sonics – Psycho

I wanted to throw something in from old Seattle; something from before my time.  These guys are local legends.

7.    Eighth Blackbird – “Still Life with Avalanche”

I saw Eighth Blackbird about a year-and-a-half ago at the Neptune Theatre.  Amazing sounds; intricate, meshed, compounded compositions. It is the greatest thing I’ve seen this century.  If you don’t know them, you should really spend some time with them.  Here’s a taste.

8.    Eighth Blackbird – “One with the Birds”

In fact, I’m going to give you two.  When I saw them, after some instrumentals, they had Bonnie Prince Billy come out to sing some murder ballads written for them.  Surprise dimension added.

At one point, with all this complicated music, high intensity, suddenly everybody on stage was screaming blood-curdling shrills.  Brilliant!  I can’t find that track on YT (or elsewhere).  (I don’t know the name of the song, and now can’t remember what they were screaming.)

9.    Wire – “Heartbeat”

I notice that Rough Trade Records have re-issued the Wire catalogue; really cool goth-punk band from the 1980s.  People might want to know about these guys, if they don’t already.

I remember I was listening to them on my headphones prior to one of my area exams in graduate school, dancing a little, blocking out the anxiety.  The proctor kept telling me that recordings were not allowed during the test, and I kept responding that the test hadn’t begun yet.  She really hated me.  Karen, I think?  Of course, I bombed the test; I’m terrible at exams.  Good times

10.   Adam Cork – Swing Gently Sweet Harlem

Featured in the amazing movie, Genius, that trombone line, just after the introductory trumpet solo …  slays my wee brain.  Beautiful.  With just a few exceptions, I have not found my way with jazz yet.  This track helps.

Genius is a beautiful movie about friendship, the agony of the writing process – the taming of prose – and growing the fuck up.  It tells the story of novelist Thomas Wolfe (not Tom Wolfe in a white suit) and editor Max Perkins. (Perkins was the editor for Wolfe, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald.)

I’m going to give you the full scene from the movie, too.  We’re a full-service music blog here: storytelling, lexis edification, movie reviews.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUkJn0xHPAs

11.   Goat Girl – Viperfish

The girls went acoustic at a BBC session.  I’ve still never been able to put words to why I love them so much.  They have sound.

12.   Goat Girl – Tomorrow

They posted two songs from the session on FB last week.  You get them both.

13.   Nice as Fuck – “Guns”

What could we do about gun violence in this country?  Plenty.  Would elected officials be willing to do the hard work of fair-minded, effective gun control measures?  Apparently not.  Would statistical studies by the CDC be useful?  Seems true.  Let the protest mount.  Pretty song, too.

14.   XTC – “Melt the Guns”

I should say, I’m not so much anti-gun, per se.  I know plenty of sane, safety-minded people with guns, and I’ve shot guns myself.  Still, gun safes and child-safety locks are out of play?

15.   John Doe with Mike McCready

I’m going to close this playlist with an entire set.  The local radio station has these live, in-studio sessions; guests play live on the radio, and then a video is posted on YT.  It’s a good series.

I met a woman a few months ago; she helped me for almost 2 hours picking out a new BW camera.  We talked about other stuff and music, and she mentioned this series.  I told her about this show and she stopped motion to consume the information.

It’s a cool set.  Friendly, relaxed, musical exchanges between Doe and McCready, and Mike puts some great spins on John’s songs.  I’m not just blabling, that first exchange is words to live by: John asked Mike if he wanted to sit in, and ‘yes’, 30 minutes later he has a guitar in hand on a live set.  None of the “… well, I have to look at my calendar” kind of shit.  These are real people.

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© Community Noise 2018.  Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

I’m selecting a Tom Waits song.  I awoke this morning thinking of steam rising from the bayou, air getting thicker as the sun get higher in the morning.  I live in Seattle – I’ve never experienced the steamy bayou, but that’s how visions come and go.  I read this morning’s theme, and went straight to Tom.

Song:  Gun Street Girl
Album: Rain Dogs
Artist: Tom Waits
Song Writer: Thomas Alan Waits

 

Thanks to Helen for the challenge.  (And thanks to William from 1000 Mistakes for pointing me to this.)  Song Lryic Sunday

 

“Gun Street Girl”

Falling James in the Tahoe mud
Stick around to tell us all the tale
He fell in love with a Gun Street girl and
Now he’s dancing in the Birmingham jail
Dancing in the Birmingham jail

 

Took a 100 dollars off a Slaughterhouse Joe
Bought a bran’ new Michigan 20 gauge
Got all liquored up on that roadhouse corn
Blew a hole in the hood of a yellow corvette
Blew a hole in the hood of a yellow corvette

Bought a second hand Nova from a Cuban Chinese
Dyed his hair in the bathroom of a Texaco
With a pawnshop radio, quarter past 4
Well he left Waukegan at the slammin’ of the door
He left Waukegan at the slammin’ of the door

I said, John, John he’s long gone
Gone to Indiana
Ain’t never coming home
I said John, John he’s long gone
Gone to Indiana
Ain’t never coming home

Sitting in a sycamore in St. John’s Wood
Soakin’ day old bread in kerosene
He was blue as a robin’s egg, brown as a hog
Stayin’ out of circulation till the dogs get tired
Stayin’ out of circulation till the dogs get tired

Shadow fixed the toilet with an old trombone
He never got up in the morning on a Saturday
Sittin’ by the Erie with a bull whipped dog
Tellin’ everyone he saw
They went thatta way
Tellin’ everyone he saw
They went thatta way

Now the rain’s like gravel on an old tin roof
And the Burlington Northern’s pullin’ out of the world
Now a head full of bourbon and a dream in the straw
And a Gun Street Girl was the cause of it all
A Gun Street girl was the cause of it all

Riding in the shadow by the St. Joe Ridge
He heard the click clack tappin’ of a blind man’s cane
He was Pullin’ into Baker on a New Year’s Eve
With one eye on the pistol and the other on the door
With one eye on the pistol and the other on the door

Miss Charlotte took her satchel down to King Fish Row
And she smuggled in a bran’ new pair of alligator shoes
With her fireman’s raincoat and her long yellow hair, well
They tied her to a tree with a skinny millionaire
They tied her to a tree with a skinny millionaire

I said, John, John he’s long gone
Gone to Indiana
Ain’t never coming home
I said John, John he’s long gone
Gone to Indiana
Ain’t never coming home

Bangin’ on a table with an old tin cup
Sing I’ll never kiss a Gun Street Girl again
I’ll never kiss a Gun Street Girl again

I said, John, John he’s long gone
Gone to Indiana
Ain’t never coming home
I said John, John he’s long gone
Gone to Indiana
Ain’t never coming home