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Entry 187: 8/28/2010: CD Review, Book & Video Review

Dear kindly Sergeant Krupke, you gotta understand, it's just our bringin' up-ke that gets us out of hand. Our mothers all are junkies, our fathers all are drunks. Golly Moses, natcherly we're punks!

The Riverdales - Tarantula (cd review):

The Riverdales: "Crash Of The Moons" (download now)

Quoting yourself is how one intellectually  demands a beating, but I do so here. Of their last cd, 2009's Invasion USA, I wrote, and I quote (myself), "Most song titles are from Mystery Science Theatre 3000, but the  lyrics are mostly surface and disinterested, as if Ben figures lyrics are besides the point by design. I was hoping for a little more cleverness, or maybe lyrics that tell me he's at least watched the movies in the titles." Assuming Ben Weasel and Danny Vapid read my review and decided to shove it back in my face by making my point irrelevant is megalomaniacal, but that's the only possible explanation for Tarantula, their best cd yet. The Amazon blurb reads "Initially meant to be part of Invasion USA, these tunes stood out on their own enough to be their own beast". I might believe these tracks were written at the same time but the execution is different and I'm sure the lyrics improved even if only by being de-emphasized. The addition of a second guitarist and an embrace of the full potential of the recording process makes this one of the best punk-pop records of all time.

For a punk record Tarantula is effing quadraphonic in sound quality, and you should listen to it with studio-grade headphones in your den, sitting in your best high back chair wearing an ascot and smoking jacket. That goes without saying. Two of the fourteen tracks are not of a kind, and with them removed what you have is a unified product of what is basically a nearly flawless effort. "Volcano" is decent enough but more of an album track from the first few albums. "Time Chaser" falls into the trap of the last record where the lyrics draw attention to themselves by not adding up to anything past a bet fulfillment that a song can be written about the movie "Time Chasers". Put these aside and move on.

Listening to Tarantula I'm caught between wanting to dance and playing every air-instrument I've studied to date. The extra guitar and layers of back-up singing multiply the effect of what is a restrictive formula - the simple three and four chord Ramones tribute. There's no way they'll be able to replicate this live but I'm glad they put the extra effort in the studio. There's a noticeable influence of Doo-Wop singing and The Queers love of the Beach Boys, making it that much better. "Bad Seed Baby" and "12 To The Moon" have nice layered vocals while "The Beginning Of The End" offers up sweet harmonized vocals. "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" adds some backup singing in an unusual tone I got hooked on while "Master Ninja" has Ben providing the engagingly discordant vocals that populate his solo recordings. It's like he's throat singing. The riff of the song is provided by The Dictator's "Two Tub Man" and you can hear a bit of "I Wanna Be Sedated" in "Stranded In Space". They use church bells (for Christ's sake!) to accompany the guitar solo on "Stranded In Space". Great stuff. There's a lot going on in each song and it's worth repeat listens and your full attention.

Lyrically two songs stand out. "Girls Down" gets a lot of use from the words "pretty" and "bad". "Crash Of The Moons" is kinda heartbreaking, helped greatly by sentimental music that gets more intense the louder its played. Tarantula isn't lyrics-driven but this time I think they don't want them to be, making them little more than vocalized musical accompaniment to what is a master class in writing and playing guitar-driven punk-pop. The best punk-pop band of the last few years has been the Kody Templeman-enhanced Teenage Bottlerocket. With Tarantula, The Riverdales are their equal and complete a ying and yang of the hard and soft styles of the Kung Fu of bands influenced by the original Forest Hills pinheads.

Punk 365, by Holly George-Warren (book review): This photo book was a pleasant surprise and an absolute pleasure to read. I bought this two pound, $30 brick basically for the price of shipping while on a manic eBay spending spree, and I figured I’d look it over and either throw it at a truck or give it as a gift down the road. Punk 365 is a keeper not for the photos, which I get the point of instantly, but for the short yet informative and opinionated comments that appear to the left of each odd numbered page. It’s the kind of things I would write, if I could write more gooder.

Next time you’re at Borders read the short intro by Richard Hell. It’s all as good as this: “Punk is pretty funny. It’s like reality itself, as exemplified by the statement ‘This statement is a lie.’ It’s hard to be authentic.” The book is sectioned thusly: In The Beginning; East Coast USA; Across The Pond; Way Out West; Here, There, And Everywhere”; and Hardcore, but geography is less important than what band was photographed there. There’s a fair amount of repetition, especially with The Ramones, The Sex Pistols and The Clash, but in 365 pictures there’s a nice cross-section of bands from all related genres, and as I see the relevance of each to what’s loosely called Punk they get the ratios right. You could have 365 pictures of 365 bands but then the book loses its excellent timeline story aspect. The emphasis is safely in the late 70s and early 80s, but even hardcore as it’s practiced today was fully formed not long after the demise of the Sex Pistols.

I often only glanced at the pictures, even if only because I have a hard time shifting from left brain reading to right brain visual analysis. The writing is excellent, and I plowed through that learning and laughing more than I expected. They’re short passages filled with things to consider both on and between the lines. Here’s some nuggets:

“Here, Sid Vicious stands outside the venue, the Taliesyn Ballroom – which has since been razzed and is now home to a Taco Bell.”

“Horribly, Sid’s mother dropped the urn containing her son’s ashes at Heathrow Airport, causing his remains to spill helter-skelter onto the floor.”

From Wayne Kramer’s ten tips for electric guitar players: “Plug the thing in. I’m no technical wiz, but I’ve noticed that electric things always work better plugged in.” “Wash your hands. You play better with clean hands.” “Always wear your coolest clothes onstage. It’s better to look good than feel good.”

Debby Harry sees a flier for an upcoming new zine called PUNK and thinks to herself “Here comes another s—ty group with an even s—tier name.”

Elvis Costello: “When I started, I swore to myself I’d always try to avoid songs about hotel rooms.”

Here’s the entire blurb for a pic labeled “Mosh Pit, 1980”. It’s thick with facts and commentary: “Hardcore polarized L.A.’s punk scene; though there was the occasional mixed bill featuring Black Flag, The Blasters, and Fear, fans eventually split into three camps: hardcore, roots rock, and Paisley Underground. The latter two’s audiences would overlap, but the former began attracting mainly the (very) young and (very) restless. The mosh pit at hardcore shows was not for those who did not want to risk a jackboot to the nose. ‘Punk was urban, hardcore was suburban,’ espoused Greg Shaw, whose Bomp record store, label, and fanzine had veered gradually toward power pop over the years. ‘Punk had been arty and conceptual, but then came the kids from the beach, boneheads who’d heard that punk was violence, but didn’t realize it was metaphorical violence.’ The Starwood, the site of the Gary Leonard photo, became a foundation of the mosh pit.”

Holly George-Warren could have made this a written history with pictures but her assignment was to put together one in a series of picture books, all with “365” in the title. She went above and beyond the call of poopie with Punk 365.

Entry 186: 8/22/2010: Analog CyberPunk Third Series XXV and Video Review

In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.... But the three eyed man is still a g**damn freak

Here's this week's edition of Analog CyberPunk Third Series XXV (download zip file at Rapidshare)

XXV

39 Clocks: "Radical Student Mob In Satin Boots"
B Troop: "Killing Conversation"
Basking Sharks: "Croatia"
Chandra: "Subways"
Clock DVA: "Brigade"
Freiwillge Selbstkontrolle: "Verbotene Fruchte"
I'm So Hollow: "Entrance"
Jesus Couldn't Drum: "Beat The Dog"
Legs Akimbo!: "Got To Get My Legs Out Of Bed"
M-Bryo & D.M.T.: "The Empty Street"
Neal Von Non & The Guinea Pigs: "A Hard Day's Night"
Perfect Strangers: "Fascination"
Taxi Girl: "On Any Evening"
Transparent Illusion: "Demented"
Wonders Of Science: "Call It Off"

Captain Beefheart: Under Review (dvd review): The dryly witted Brits who produce the Under Review series hit another triple with this two-hour production on Captain Beefheart (real name Don Van Vliet) whose borrowed and blended avant garde bluesy jazz rock influenced the likes of Devo, The Residents, and The Minutemen. I’ve given Safe As Milk (1967) and Trout Mask Replica (1969) a few spins and put them away as not my thing so my interest in the Captain is limited to whatever I might find interesting along the way. Under Review gets technical on recordings and player’s techniques, so that’ll be either a virtue or a vice for ye of the short attention span.

The Magic Band had a healthy turnover during its run from 1964 through 1982, and from that large pool they interviewed bassist Jerry Handley, guitarist Doug Moon, drummer John French, bassist Mark Boston, guitarist Jeff Moris Tepper, guitarist Elliot Ingber and bassist Ira Ingber. Along for the ride are Beefheart recording engineer Gary Marker and writers Alan Clayson, Mike Barnes, Nigel Williamson and Clinton Heylin. Continuing a tradition I find hysterical, interviewees are subjected to strange settings, lighting and camera angles. Handley sits with a huge margarita, Moon sits in the desert, Clayson is in a church with beautiful stained glass windows, Boston sits behind a door in a recording booth, Marker wears a chef’s hat and stands behind a kitchen counter, and best of all John French talks into the receiver of a phone hung onto a tree branch. He does this for a long time and from different angles.

Under Review had access to a lot of Beefheart music and video, and to make points and keep it lively they added footage of Howlin’ Wolf, Van Vliet friend and rival Frank Zappa, The Beatles – even footage from The Creature From The Black Lagoon, which didn’t prove much but was nice to see all the same. The focus is on the albums and how the band changed over the years to fit Van Vliet’s shifting commercial and personal aspirations. I wanted to know more about the Magic Band house but Under Review mostly avoided dirt dishing in favor of generally positive analysis. Here’s a bit of grime for enquiring minds from Wikipedia:

“Van Vliet wanted the whole band to ‘live’ the Trout Mask Replica album. The group rehearsed Van Vliet’s difficult compositions for eight months, living communally in a small rented house in the Woodland Hills suburb of Los Angeles. Van Vliet implemented his vision by asserting complete artistic and emotional domination of his musicians. At various times one or another of the group members was put ‘in the barrel,’ with Van Vliet berating him continually, sometimes for days, until the musician collapsed in tears or in total submission to Van Vliet. Drummer John French described the situation as ‘cultlike’ and a visiting friend said ‘the environment in that house was positively Manson-esque.’ Their material circumstances also were dire. With no income other than welfare and contributions from relatives, the group survived on a bare subsistence diet, and were even arrested for shoplifting food (with Zappa bailing them out). French recounted of living on no more than a small cup of beans a day for a month. A visitor described their appearance as ‘cadaverous’ and said that ‘they all looked in poor health.’ Band members were restricted from leaving the house and practiced for 14 or more hours a day.”

Now that’s a story! Substance abuse was also legendary. Movie soundtrack genius Ry Cooder played on Safe As Milk. The Captain would give his band instructions like “Play a high note like it was a low note.” He sold many more records in Europe than he did in the States, thanks in part to the support of John Peel, The Pope Of Modern Music, whose influence on modern music history is nothing short of monumental. If you have two hours to burn and love late 1960’s freaky music, definitely rent Captain Beefheart: Under Review. If not, The Horseman is a great revenge movie.

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