Sound Orders - Rock and Pop in a Social Context

I'm Back; Happy 2012!!

2011-12-30T09:29:00.003-05:00

After not posting here in quite a while, I am happy to say that I plan to resume regular posting here, which I look forward to. I also look forward to any feedback other than the regular spam messages that seem to show up in the comment boxes - no, I am not interested in helping you sell your damned designer clothing or prescription pills, thank you very much.

Anyway, here is something truly uplifting: Yo La Tengo, with original guitarist Dave Schramm, performing a Devo song at one of this year's always epic eight-show Hanukkah series at Maxwells in Hoboken. I wish I could have been there for this, but I'm very happy to have this video and to know that Ira Kaplan was healthy and recovered from recent medical treatments so as to have performed this. Happy New Year to Yo La Tengo and to all of you.

From the garage

2010-11-21T18:50:00.004-05:00

I was out running errands earlier and on my car stereo, which is tuned to XM and to Little Steven's Underground Garage, I caught this tune.

The guitar tone on this cover version of this song is one thing that truly stands out here.

What occurs to me is that mid 60s American garage bands like the Sonics represent a (I am hesitant to say the) true spirit of rock and roll, which is why their music sounds so refreshing. The Sonics, from Tacoma Washington, a band that was active for most of the 1960s (later to reunite), produced a musical sound that certainly paved the way for the musically stripped down punk revolution to occur at CBGBs by the mid-1970s. In fact, when I saw CBGBs veteran Tom Verlaine, live in the mid 1980s, his shows always contained their share of garage punk. Lenny Kaye, of the CBs scene and of the Patti Smith Group, was probably the most important figure in garage punk revivalism, having put together the great Nuggets compilation. And some credit, too, is due to record producer Richard Gottehrer, producer of Blondie and a key member of the seminal 1960s band, the Strangeloves

Anyway, back to the proto-punk of the Sonics and the specifics of this particular song. This is, arguably, the rawest version of this song, a song that has been multiply covered, even by these guys, and that, of course, is featured very prominently in a classic scene from this classic comedy from the late 70s, the era of Lenny Kaye and Tom Verlaine still playing fairly regularly at CBGBs.

Of course, one could possibly make a case for the also raw version of the song by the very obscure Charlie and the Tunas. Or perhaps the intense 80s hardcore version by Black Flag. And of course, the best known version, that is, the hit version by the Kingsmen, is the one that let to lots of speculation about the likelihood of some truly filthy lyrics buried under the muck. But whatever version floats your boat, this is a song that once you hear it, you won't soon forget it.

America has many national anthems and this song is one.

Appealing to my feminist sympathies

2010-11-21T18:19:00.001-05:00

Here is a legendary Brit punk band, that appeals to my feminist sympathies by proving that women musicians could be just as rebellious and as slightly crazy as their male counterparts, and that appeals to my love of reggae; the Slits could teach more respectable boring geezers like Sting and Eric Clapton what a reggae groove is all about.

Quite possibly, the greatest punk rock moment ever

2010-11-21T18:17:00.000-05:00

This was, quite possibly, the greatest punk rock moment ever to have occurred on national TV, John Lydon and his band, PIL, with their total piss take on American Bandstand in 1980. It is incredible to think that a band so radical as this could possibly have been booked for such a cheesy show as this, but what happened... here was an amazing piece of anarchistic performance art. Bravo, Mr. Lydon for this!

The latest from Sonic Youth

2009-07-01T09:09:00.000-04:00

Nice to see these guys still doing really strong music.

Blur and Thurston Moore

2009-07-01T09:01:00.003-04:00

Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore clearly enjoys experimental collaboration with his fellow musicians, and here he works out an instrumental melody, one which sounds like a somewhat warped 60s TV theme song, with members of the band Blur. Who would ever have imagined that a combination of these two would work, but in my opinion, this works very well.

Be your own DJ

2009-03-17T05:07:00.002-04:00

I may be late to this particular party, but this past weekend, I discovered the joys of such music service websites as Last FM and Pandora Radio. These allow you to create a quasi radio station that plays on the computer, with you, the listener, selecting the initial genre/artists, and with the program then playing continuous content within that framework. It is brilliant and deeply satisfying, and the polar opposite of what corporate/bland programming driven commercial radio has become.

Pandora is the creation of something called the Music Genome Project, which attempts to describe songs via their attributes - a very ambitions project indeed (but, if the proof of this method is in the product, the method seems to be working). As Wikipedia explains,

A given song is represented by a vector (a list of attributes) containing approximately 150 "genes" (analogous to trait-determining genes for organisms in the field of genetics). Each gene corresponds to a characteristic of the music, for example, gender of lead vocalist, level of distortion on the electric guitar, type of background vocals, etc. Rock and pop songs have 150 genes, rap songs have 350, and jazz songs have approximately 400. Other genres of music, such as world and classical, have 300–500 genes. The system depends on a sufficient number of genes to render useful results. Each gene is assigned a number between 1 and 5, in half-integer increments.

Given the vector of one or more songs, a list of other similar songs is constructed using a distance function.

To create a song's genome, it is analyzed by a musician in a process that takes 20 to 30 minutes per song. Ten percent of songs are analyzed by more than one technician to ensure conformity with the standards, i.e., reliability.

The technology is currently used by Pandora to play music for Internet users based on their preferences. Because of licensing restrictions, Pandora is available only to users whose location is reported to be in the USA by Pandora's geolocation software

Using this then, I have created a series of genre stations, based on style of music and named, in each instance for a representative artist of a particular genre/style. Thus, I have my punk station (Saints radio), my indie rock station (Pastels radio) my worldbeat station (Fela radio, though it seems to mostly give me reggae), etc. Right now, it's early morning, and I am wanting mostly folky acoustic tunes, so I have on my "Townes Van Zandt Radio" site; I've this heard Bob Dylan, Donovan, Meic Stevens, Johnny Copland, Jandek, Vic Chesnutt, Syd Barrett, Roky Erickson, Ramblin Jack Elliott, Doc Watson, Charlie Poole, Mississippi John Hurt, Alex Kash, and Eric Von Schmidt. It's been wonderful to hear artists whom I love, and to discover a few new ones along the way. And if I should decide that I want to own a copy of the recording, Pandora easily allows me to make a purchase. So, Amazon, ITunes, and my favorite commercial free music stations are now all together under one (electronic) roof.

Incidentally, last week, I happen to swing by a Virgin megastore in lower Manhattan, and while it was open and pretty busy, it felt like something on it's way out.CD megastores may be facing extinction - and as an embodiment of some old, now obsolete music industry practices, parhaps that is not an altogether bad thing, merely a sign of the evolution of things; as is Pandora Radio.

Two classic scenes from "Car Wash" (1976)

2009-01-12T10:35:00.005-05:00

The Afro signifies the 1970s. And the movie Car Wash, which I saw one afternoon at one of the Journal Square movie palaces in my hometown of Jersey City, is a radical, funny, humane depiction of race and class realities in the funky, urban 1970s, courtesy of a great cast led by Richard Pryor, a genius, and a very underrated Franklin Ajaye, in the romantic lead. But it also had a very solid supporting cast, including George Carlin, Bill Dukes, Ivan Dixon, and a very memorable performance by the always amazing Antonio Fargas (famous for his depiction of the pimpy Huggy Bear in the TV series Starsky and Hutch). As Wikipedia explains,

Car Wash covers the exploits of a close-knit group of employees at a Los Angeles Car Wash. In an episodic fashion, the film covers a full day, during which all manner of strange visitors make appearances, including Richard Pryor as a preaching 'wonder-man' who is loved by most but loathed by one, and a man who fits the profile of an active bomber by the way he is holding his bottle, but it is really his urine sample as he is off to the hospital. Additionally, George Carlin appeared as a Taxi Driver searching for a customer who failed to pay the fare.

Car Wash was also written by Joel Schumacher, who's had a long film career filled with hits and misses; Car Wash is a high point. Yet, in its day, Car Wash seemed to be considered a mere lightweight comedy; However, in retrospect, it is one of the great, unsung comedies of the decade, with a rather substantive populist message (not to mention a disco/funk classic theme song). And how cool is it to see a well made working class, populist comedy from this period with a largely black cast.

Anyway, here are two classic scenes.

I love the way that Ajaye's character, T.C., gets cheered on by the guys at the car wash throughout the film, as he pursues the love of the waitress; we in the audience are cheering, too. And that Afro! Great song, too, by Norman Whitfield and Rose Royce.

Here's a scene in which the film's quasi-Marxist politics come shining through (as they do in so many 70s genre films).

I need to own this movie, and let it sit next to my copy of The Warriors on my video shelf.

UPDATE: Last night, I went into the local Circuit City, looking for a CD case for my car, and picked up a DVD copy of Car Wash for $6.99. I also got a CD/DVD multimedia tower, to keep things organized.

Psychedelic Lollipops: Some mid 60s rock cameo moments on TV

2009-01-11T14:32:00.011-05:00

From the TV time capsule.

The Beau Brummelstones on the Flintstones

Gilligan's Island

The Standells on the Munsters.

The Seeds on the Mothers-In-Law

Boyce and Hart on Bewitched

(Here is Redd Kross's tribute):

and here are Boyce and Hart (as well as Phil Spector) on I Dream of Jeannie

Chad and Jeremy on Batman

Some rocking guitar, on the Andy Griffith Show

The Bedbugs on F-Troop

Lewis and Clarke Expedition on I Dream of Jeannie

Sacred Cows (and Larry Storch as the Groovy Guru) on get Smart

The Turtles on That's Life

The Castaways

Ann Margaret and Desi Arnaz Jr. on Here's Lucy

Herb Alpert. I'm not exactly clear on the source.

And some non singing moments

The Monkees on Laugh-In

And, here's Frank Zappa and Mike Nesmith, in a clip from the Monkees, with both guys mocking the Monkees as insipid.

Ringo on Laugh-In

As well as this

Wednesday doing the Watusi on The Addams Family (which also features Gomez doing the Freddie)

And this was apparently never aired. Too bad!

Paul Revere and the Raiders on the unaired TV pilot, The Treasure of 67.

Here are some performance clips from various programs

The Knickerbockers - "Lies"

The Easybeats - "Friday On My Mind"

The Grassroots - "Midnight Confessions"

The Who - "My Generation" on the Smothers Brothers show

The Buckinghams - "Kind of a Drag"

Question Mark & The Mysterians - "96 Tears"

The Standells - "Dirty Water"

The Barbarians - "Hey Little Bird"

The Byrds - "Turn, Turn, Turn"

The Count Five - "Psychotic Reaction"

The Electric Prunes - "I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)" - The Mike Douglas Show

Music Explosion - Little Bit O'Soul

Lemon Pipers - "Green Tambourine"

1910 Fruitgum Company - "1,2,3 Red Light"

The Association - "Along Comes Mary"

Gary Lewis & The Playboys - "She's Just My Style"

The American Breed - "Bend Me, Shape Me"

from German TV, The Monks

from Dutch TV, the Pretty Things

The Cyrkle - "A Turn Down Day"

The Lovin' Spoonful - "Do You Believe in Magic?"

The Boxtops - "The Letter"

Captain Beefheart - "Diddy Wah Diddy"

Harper's Bizarre - "The 59th Bridge Street Song"

Blues Magoos - "We Ain't Got Nothing Yet"

The Cowsills - "The Rain, The Park, and Other Things"

Dino, Desi and Billy - RC Cola ad

Every Mother's Son - "Come On Down To My Boat"

The Five Americans - "Western Union"

The McCoys - "Hang On Sloopy"

The Kingsmen - "Louie, Louie" (a song that always makes me think of Animal House)

Sopwith Camel - "Hello Hello"

13th Floor Elevators - "You're Gonna Miss Me"

MC5 - "Black To Comm"

The Music Machine - "Talk, Talk"

The Leaves - "Hey Joe"

Love - "My Little Red Book"

and for something completely different

The Mothers of Invention on Dutch TV; this would have never aired in America.

I was given this when I was six

2009-01-11T13:07:00.011-05:00

Back when I was a kid, I was a huge fan of the Monkees. I watched their show, and thought that it was funny. I listened to their music with much pleasure. I liked having - in the late 1960s - an American group (I also loved the Beatles) to look up to. I didn't know that the Monkees were considered a "manufactured" group, and being very young, probably would not have cared.

Today, I still really like a lot of the "poppier" music of the mid to late 1960s; Tommy James, the 1910 Fruitgum Company, Boyce and Hart, Sonny and Cher, the Ohio Express, the Lemon Pipers, and even cartoon bands like the Banana Splits and the Archies all sound good to me, and strains of this type of pop can be heard in such various Elephant Six bands like the Apples in Stereo and the Olivia Tremor Control and even in such indie bands as the Clean, the Minders, and Unrest. Not to mention all the great powerpop bands of the 70s and 80s (also borrowing from a lot of the poppier bands on the various Nuggets-type reissues.

It is also the case, I feel, that the Monkees were something more than simply a manufactured pop group. They had talented songwriters, such as Neil Diamond, writing very well crafted songs for them. Their film, Head, was a genuine attempt to embrace hipness (with Peter Tork being the one member who most embraced the 60s counterculture - he appears, as himself, in the Holy Modal Rounders documentary, which I recently watched). Of course, many rock fans know the story of Jimi Hendrix opening for them, and of bewildering the Monkees' core audience. But, the bottom line for me is that the Monkees are an endearing part of my late 1960s childhood (which was a time when I also listened to things like this).

Anyway, I was telling my wife, after we were amusedly viewing some retro K-Tel ads on line, about an experience I had as a kid. My one aunt bought me, as a special gift, what she may have thought was a Monkees record. But the thing was, it was not a Monkees record. Instead, it was a cheap knockoff, on the "Wyncote" label, by a group called the Chimps. It was meant to dupe people into thinking that they'd bought one thing without realizing that they'd gotten a lesser version (which my wife told me has also happened a few time to her record-collecting dad); notice for example how much the word "monkey" on this cover resembles the chosen font of the Monkees' logo? As far as the Wyncote Label, as Mike Callahan, Steve Klein, David Edwards, and Patrice Eyries of the Both Sides Now website, all explain,

In 1964, Cameo-Parkway started Wyncote, a budget label subsidiary named for a Philadelphia suburb, to reissue their large back catalog. The product on Wyncote was very typical of budget label of the 1960s. Record jackets were inexpensively made and tended toward falling apart easily, there was no inner paper or plastic sleeves for the albums, and there were usually only nine or ten tracks on each album. Many times the artists names weren't even given. Far worse, though, was the substandard vinyl pressings which were noisy and had many bumps. The vinyl on some of the early Wyncote albums could only be described as pathetic, with blisters, peels and bumps abounding. After the first few issues, they settled down to a vinyl quality that was passable, but not much more.

Also typical of budget labels was the annoying habit of using deceptive names or record jackets to fool a casual record buyer into thinking they were buying a better-known product. Thus we got the Mexican Brass doing hits by the Tijuana Brass, an album with "Beatlemania!" across the front in big letters which actually had tunes by a group called the Liverpools, and an unnamed band (actually, the Chimps) doing Monkees songs. Probably the worst offense in this regard (and they must have thought they were being soooo clever) was the takeoff on the very popular album Bach's Greatest Hits, which had been out a couple of years earlier by the Swingle Singers. Wyncote SW-9088 was Bach's Biggest Hits by the Single Swingers! Sheesh!

And as for the Chimps record, here is the track listing:
W/SW-9199 - Monkey Business - Chimps [1967] I'm A Beliver/Last Train To Clarksville/Sunday's Kid/Papa's Blue Jeans/Sally Sally//Watch Out/Sit Tight Girl/Just A Little To Early/No Survivors/I Realize

I think that I listened to it once. It sounded odd, and I set it off to the side of the records in our house. I don't know what became of it, but today, I'd love to still own it, for its sheer novelty value. I'm also not sure of what became of my Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt Kickers LP. And today, I sort of prefer this version of the song The Monster Mash.

The boy with perpetual nervousness

2009-01-11T11:23:00.004-05:00

A classic from Crazy Rhythms.

There's a kid I know but not too well
He doesn't have a lot to say
Well this boy lives right next door and he
Never has nothin' to say

It doesn't seem like he does anything
He never helps out in the yard
He lets his mother carry in groceries
Cause he doesn't plan to work too hard

The boy next door is into better things
As far as I can see
The boy next door is into bigger things
The boy next door is me

All right

Well he's not like the boys we used to have
Not like them at all - oh no
Those ones made their parents proud
This one beats 'em all

The boy next door is into better things
As far as I can see
The boy next door is into bigger things
The boy next door is me

Yeah

Two real examples of what's right about globalization

2009-01-10T16:15:00.004-05:00

Globalization is a force to be reckoned with, and may be inevitable. Yet along with its destabilizing effects, there are some real plusses, particularly in the areas of music and culture. And here are two examples - the Bollywood Brass Band, a London based band inspired by Bollywood musicals (which are themselves an homage to old Hollywood musicals) and a song by the cult band the Shaggs played, lovingly, by a young Japanese band.

As one commentator said, abut this latter clip,

I just can't get over my astonishment that anyone beyond the English-speaking world even knows the Shaggs exist...

So what's right about globalization? Members of one sort of cultural background getting exposed to the culture of an other, and digging that culture, appreciating it on its own terms. We see lots of that happening. And that gives me hope for the future.

Wild Man Fischer and the Bonzo Dog Band

2009-01-10T15:49:00.007-05:00

I don't know much about Wild Man Fischer, but on a quick listen, I find that I enjoy the sheer primitivism of his music. But, according to Wikipedia his life has not been without its troubles. I wouldn't be surprised to know that he's been potentially exploited by those who knew him. Not everybody, though. And it is also possible that his 'craziness' and his detachment from the normal conventions of polite society was interpreted, in the freewheeling late 1960s in L.A., as something heroic. Again, since i don't know very much, I am intrigued to try to find out more.

Fischer was institutionalized at age 16 for attacking his mother with a knife[citation needed]. He was later diagnosed with two mental disorders: severe paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (manic depression). Following his release, Fischer wandered L.A. singing his unique brand of songs for 10¢ to passers-by. Discovered by Frank Zappa, with whom he recorded his first album, Fischer became an underground concert favorite, earning him the title "godfather of outsider music." Zappa was responsible for Fischer's initial foray into the business of music, an album called An Evening with Wild Man Fischer, contains 36 tracks of "something not exactly musical." Frank and the Wild Man remained close--until Fischer threw a jar at Moon Unit Zappa, barely missing.

Frank Zappa's interest - given his championing of other outsider artists such as the Shaggs and Captain Beefheart - in this was undoubtedly genuine, however. But, I've seen other clips of Wild Man Fischer on late night TV, and he is basically rendered a sideshow clown, there to amuse the supposedly "normals" in the audience.

He's also been the subject of a documentary film. I plan to watch, when I can.

Interestingly, the Youtube page for Larry Fischer also links, not surprisingly, to the equally eccentric and very delightful and funny Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, a band described by Trouser Press in the following way.

Absurdity is, admittedly, not for everybody. It takes a certain sort of mental ticklishness to recognize the artistic merit in a urinal or the wit in a painting of a pipe over the phrase "Ceci n'est pas une pipe." Linear thinkers could easily consider the Ministry of Silly Walks just plain silly — which, of course, it was, but crossed with a wildly inventive rejection of the obvious and soused to the gills with irony. Absurd is never irrational. A clown with a water-spouting flower might have been clever once upon a time, but absurdity dies on repetition, which is why Gallagher is stupid and Steve Martin can be very funny. Translated into any medium, the institutionalization of absurdity as the art movement dubbed dada is not simply random-play nonsense, it's highly-informed and thoroughly considered random-play nonsense. There is, indeed, good dada and bad dada, although good luck finding two people with such similar sensibilities as to agree on which might be which.

That human impossibility is one of the reasons why the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, which had as many as nine instrumental absurdists in its lineup, remains so clearly outstanding in its field — and so impossible to categorize. Lowbrows who consider the British group a novelty act are simply failing to grasp the worthiness of humor, as if making people smile somehow negates the difficulty of creating great art. And the Bonzos' records are great art, a cornucopia of musical styles from the first half of the 20th century blendered into the freewheeling thrall of the psychedelic '60s.

Led by daft renaissance man Vivian Stanshall (who died in a 1995 fire), a genius of enormous creative imagination and skill, the Bonzos played a crucial role in the development of British humor (by providing a direct connection between music and comedy, they connected the Goon Show and Temperance Seven to the Pythons, especially in their filmmaking endeavors, for which Bonzo Neil Innes provided much of the music). They also hung out with the Beatles (appearing in Magical Mystery Tour), shared stages with Led Zeppelin, inadvertently provided the name for this journalistic endeavor and introduced dada to rock a good ten years before new wave's cynical wiseacres came along to need it. How did they do it?

When my wife and I first got together, she gave me a Bonzo Dog boxed set as a gift; is it any wonder that I love her madly :-)

Much better than Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers

2009-01-10T15:03:00.006-05:00

Tiny Masters of Today

The Muldoons

Here are two really cool bands, made up of young musicians, which I learned about on Myspace. The brother-sister act Tiny Masters of Today hail from Brooklyn, where lots of NYC's rock community now is, and the Muldoons, two young brothers (with their dad on drums) reflect the great proto-punk Stooges/MC5 legacy of their native Detroit.

I really like indie rock played with integrity, and I generally really like kids. So I especially like kids who are into indie rock. On the other hand, I have little use for mass marketed, Disney-esque crap, or for superficial, phony, Radio Disney style entertainment. And I hate bad music, which seems to be everywhere these days.

And so, regarding Tiny Masters and the Muldoons, I love them both. They give me much faith in the next generation and of the future of music. And I am so inspired by them that I want to buy a guitar for my beautiful little baby niece, who lives up in Canada. Of course, she's not even one yet. But I want her to be a cool kid, not unlike bass playing Ada. As Artrocker magazine says, re: Tiny Masters - "Each of their songs was a barrage of distorted guitar noise and they obviously thought they were the coolest 11-year-olds on the planet. They quite possibly are."--The Telegraph

Here are some select videos for these two bands. And they truly are bands, and not novelty acts or manifactured pieces of pop from the culture industry/corporate entertainment industry.

And finally, here is a clip that puts these bands in perspective, and gives an indication of how growing up in places like Brooklyn may have shaped these bands.

On the film 1991: The Year that Punk Broke

2009-01-10T14:24:00.004-05:00

I own a video copy of 1991: The Year Punk Broke, a rather fine concert documentary of (mostly) Sonic Youth and a variety of other bands (including Nirvana and Dinosaur Jr.) touring Europe. It remains in my video collection, and it's really good, particularly if you like the music, which I very much do.

I am curious, though, about the title. Did "punk" really "break" in 1991? I don't really think so. In fact, historically, Sonic Youth, the main band in 1991, came out of the No Wave scene in NY in the early 80s, which was arguably the most radical and experimental wing of post-punk. I would think that SY would not be trying to "break" something which had long been seen as no longer existent. Yet, by 1991, Sonic Youth, with their integrity still intact, would seem to be fully conscious of marketing, and wouldn't necessarily be bothered with wanting to argue about whether or not punk has *finally* caught on. I also don't that they, like Cobain, really wanted to see punk become a mass phenomenon.

In any case, the reference to punk "breaking" refers here, in part, to a quote by Thurston Moore, made at the very beginning of part 9 of this film. As hesays it, it seems, he does so with tongue firmly planted in cheek; it is unclear whether he believes that punk - whatever that might mean - has ever broken, or will ever do so. At least that's how I hear him.

And, as a commentator here noted, the reference to punk "breaking" was in reference to an inside joke during the tour, after the filmmaker and band caught Motley Crue covering "Anarchy in the UK" on tv. Dave, the commentator, notes that it was tounge-in-cheek, and has been misunderstood since the film's release in 1992. I would tend to agree.

Instead, I think what "broke" then was an almost retro hard rock, with punk, metal, 70s classic rock, and various other influences all parts of the mix – in fact, I’d argue that the whole "Seattle sound" phenomenon was as much derived from “Toys in the Attic” as it was from “Never Mind the Bollocks”; and while this music was hyped as "grunge," there soon was a backlash against this term, just as there was against the connected term, "Generation X,” just as much as there was the predictable emergence of pop grunge acts like Stone Temple Pilots and The Smashing Pumpkins

Incidentally, I also have 1/2 Japanese's excellent documentary, The Band That Would Be King, in my video collection, purchased around the same time that I picked this up. But that's for another post.

Here are some clips of 1991

Snow is Starting to Fall Here

2009-01-10T13:15:00.012-05:00

I guess I am in for the weekend. The snow is starting to fall, and we are expecting up to ten inches. I have been aching to get into NYC for some time now, and am kicking myself knowing that I am probably not going to be able to get to see a Gilbert and George exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum; it is closing after this weekend.

Anyway, being snowed in here in Beacon, and wanting to get out for some culture, I am recalling one very musically busy weekend I had a few years ago, back in the summer of 2002.

Seeing live outdoor shows has long been one of my favorite summer activities. When I used to live in Boston, I would occasionally attend the Lowell Folk Festival. In 2002, I was back living in NJ, Several weeks later, I ventured in to Prospect Park in Brooklyn, to check out one of my favorite all time bands, Yo La Tengo. It was, I think, my first time seeing them.

Anyway, in August 2002, here was one memorable weekend.

First off, on a particular Saturday, I went to Damrosch Park, which sides to one side of Lincoln Center, to experience a free show, part of the Lincoln Center Out of Doors free music festival. It was a nice night to be outdoors, surrounded by the lights of Manhattan. The opening group was Liam Clancy from the Clancy Brothers, his son Donal Clancy, and nephew, Robbie O'Connell. They strummed acoustic guitars and played mostly Celtic folk and traditional songs (what sounded like pub songs and/or marching songs). I discovered that Liam Clancy is a very charismatic performer and a terrific singer. They were then followed by the Greenbriar Boys, who were back together doing a series of reunion shows. They had started in NY in the late 50s during the pre-Dylan folk boom, and then gravitated toward bluegrass and became master bluegrass musicians, remaining as a group through the 1960s and then disbanding; their lead singer, John Herald, has a real Appalachian twang to his voice, and one of their other members is Eric Weissberg, who later had big success composing and playing on "Dueling Banjoes." In fact, they did a rather fantastic cover of that particular song. Finally, the last act was the legendary Doc Watson, who came out on stage, initially accompanied by his grandson, and later by another musician. He and each partner each played acoustic guitar, and each sang, though Doc did most of the singing. He sat on a stool, played, sang, and talked with the audience, and just gave the audience a completely soulful performance. At one point, he did a very moving cover of the Moody Blues "Nights in White Satin." For the encore, the Greenbriar Boys came back out, and they and Doc Watson jammed together. It was a great 3 hours of music; and it was free.

On Sunday, I ventured to Central Park, for another free show - NY's own Sonic Youth, back home from touring. The first act was a German techno group called Monolake, who produced a kind of cool, pleasant, minimalist techno sound as the crowd was entering into the enclosed bandshell area. It was good chill out music, which helped a bit given the 90 plus temperature in Central Park. I kind of stood, initially, looking at the stage and at the crowd, and then I walked around the perimeter of the frontstage area and sat with part of the crowd on the ground and just waited and listened to the techno. The crowd kept getting bigger and bigger. The second group then came out on stage, and they were some kind of modern jazz supergroup called Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet, featuring a pair of legendary jazz guys, Jack DeJohnnette , on drums and Anthony Davis
on keyboard. They reminded me a lot of fusion era Miles Davis, and after moving much nearer to the stage to watch them from a more up-close perspective, I found myself becoming very engrossed in their deep, fusiony sound, filled as it was with complex harmonies and shifting polyrhythms.

Finally, Sonic Youth
- now a five member band with the addition of guitarist Jim O'Rourke - came out to a heroes welcome, and played for about 70 minutes, and then did two sets of encores, including an early classic, "Making the Nature Scene." They played songs spanning their entire career, with an emphasis on such "hits" as "Kool Thing," "Eric's Trip," "Candle," and "Bull in the Heather." They seemed to be in a really good mood and happy to be playing, and they played with quite a bit of intensity, periodically breaking guitar strings, playing their guitars like percussion instruments, and producing gusts of their patented feedback/noise sounds. They seemed a tad mellower than when I last saw them live, around 1987 or thereabouts, but in generally good form.

One other thing; while not a live show, I went, in that same week, to see the British rock music film "24 Hour Party People,"
about the band Joy Division and the city of Manchester, UK's role in the world of rock, rave, and modern music, and thought it to be one of the best music history films I'd ever seen. Great film.

Memorable week, that was.

Finally, here's a fine Sonic Youth video

Further Proof of the Genius of New Zealand Indie Rock

2009-01-10T12:32:00.002-05:00

This is a thing of sheer beauty and genius!

The Boy Looked at Johnny.....

2009-01-10T12:25:00.002-05:00

Patti Smith's "Horses" starts out with some soft, mournful piano chords, courtesy of Richard Sohl. We then hear a most extraordinary, New York sounding voice, which declares "Jesus died for somebody's sins/but not mine!" And from this moment on, the listener is brought into a kind of wild, subterranean world, a world of poetry and mythos, a world which is an extension of the very soul of the greatest poet to ever become a rock star. As the opening song, "Gloria" continues, picking up speed via Lenny Kaye's crunching guitar riffs and Jay Dee Daugherty's steady drumming, poetry merges with mid-60s garage punk, and a whole new world of possibility opens up. This is followed by the gentle, reggae derived "Redondo Beach," which, it turns out, is one of Patti's great vocal moments; there is a rhythm to her voice which serves this, and other songs, very well, as here, she sings a sad tale which contrasts with the upbeat sound of the song. "Birdland," one of the lengthier songs here, returns to the mournful sound of the beginnings of "Gloria" and is quite sublime. A few songs later is "Kimberly," Patti's tribute to her sister, with some great lyrics and a nice steady, rocking beat. It's one of my favorite all time Patti Smith songs. The record climaxes with "Land," a song sequence, in which Patti creates a near cinematic narrative, set in a high school filled with misfits. She brilliantly alludes to the popular culture of an earlier era.

So, with this record, which sounded like absolutely nothing else that came out in 1975, Patti Smith begat a revolution. She is a historic link between the Dylan/Morrison/Lennon/Hendrix 60s and the CBGBs/Max's Kansas City punks of a few years later. Its hard to imagine folks like Courtney Love, Kurt Cobain, and all of today's female rockers like L7, Sleater-Kinney, and others, even existing, without her getting the ball rolling. While she is still a vibrant artist, this is the place to begin to explore the world of Patti Smith.

I should add that I came very close to meeting Patti Smith a few years ago. I had an activist friend who appeared on stage at an antiwar rally the day before, and was set to introduce me to her the next day. However, she wound up resting up for a show at CBGB's (right before it closed down) and was home resting. Instead, my friend intriduced me to Patti's daughter Jessie (her kid with Fred Smith), who seemed a bit shy, but nice, and pretty cool.

I Hate Myself, i.e., Songs About Self-Pity

2009-01-10T12:10:00.003-05:00

Here's another musical theme question. What are some songs that wallow in self-pitying, self-loathing (or at least self-depreciation), or self-objectification?

Here are a few.

Lovesick Blues - Hank Williams

Crying - Roy Orbison

It's My Party - Leslie Gore or Bryan Ferry

What Kind of Fool am I? - Sammy Davis Jr. or Tony Bennett

I'm a Loser - The Beatles

Baby's in Black - The Beatles

In My Room - The Beach Boys

I Wanna Be your Dog - The Stooges

Poor Poor Pitiful Me - Linda Rondstat

You and Me Against the World - Helen Reddy

53rd and 3rd - The Ramones

Pinhead - The Ramones

Pretty Vacant - The Sex Pistols

Seventeen - The Sex Pistols

Boredom - The Buzzcocks

Who Said - Richard Hell and the Voidoids

Life Stinks - Pere Ubu

55 Times the Pain - Husker Du

I Felt Like a Gringo - The Minutemen

Milk It - Nirvana

Rape Me - Nirvana

Deformography - Marilyn Manson

Alex Cox's Film - Sid and Nancy

2009-01-10T12:04:00.004-05:00

Great flick - I particularly like the slapstick elements and the documentary-like scenes involving the Sex Pistols, like when Sid stumbles through the glass door, or the performance on the Thames. But I also like the more surreal stuff, like Sid eating pizza and then driving off in the cab, or the "My Way" scene. Or, a scene such as this one (which appears to depict the South Brox, or perhaps the Lower East Side, circa 1978).

The Sex Pistols are an icon to this day.

Wire - 12XU

2009-01-08T18:41:00.001-05:00

From the band that, arguably, invented art punk, here is one of their most energized early tracks. This still sounds as great as it did 32 years ago.

Fronting

2009-01-08T17:56:00.004-05:00

This is a list I made, in response to a survey question back in 2002. The question: All time favorite Front man/woman of a rock band? My replies.

Joey Ramone (Ramones), Johnny Rotten/Lydon (Sex Pistols/PIL), Patti Smith (Patti Smith Group), Mark Smith (The Fall), Michael Stipe (REM), Ian Curtis (Joy Division), Ray Davies (Kinks), Gibby Haynes (the Butthole Surfers), Howard Devoto(Buzzcocks/Magazine), Joe Strummer (Clash), David Thomas (Pere Ubu), Iggy Pop (Stooges), Jad Fair (Half Japanese), Katrina Mitchell (The Pastels), Stiv Bators (Dead Boys), Jim Morrison (Doors), Paul Westerberg (Replacements), Ian McKaye (Minor
Threat/Fugazi), Jeffrey Lee Pierce (The Gun Club), Robert Pollard (Guided By Voices, Henry Rollins (Black Flag/Rollins Band), Alison Stratton (Young Marble Giants), Exene Cervenka & John Doe (X) Ian Hunter (Mott the Hoople), David Johansen (NY Dolls), Marc Bolan (T Rex), George Clinton (Parliament), Kurt Cobain (Nirvana), Thom Yorke (Radiohead), Chris Bailey (The Saints), Chris Cornell (Soundgarden), David Byrne (Talking Heads), Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins), Michael Rose (Black Uhuru), Lydia Lunch (Teenage Jesus and the Jerks/8 Eyed Spy), Vic Godard (The Subway Sect) Feargal Sharkey (The Undertones), Colin Newman (Wire)

And speaking of Joey Ramone, here he is with the band, shaping the future of Britpunk in 1977. What a great clip this is.

And, as an example of something that perhaps only Mark E. Smith could ever hope to pull off, here is the audio track of the song Birtwistle's) Girl In Shop. Like a lot of Fall songs, it is not altogether clear what he is singing/ranting about. He also sounds very intoxicated on this. Nonetheless, it's a great recording, and I've been listening to it a lot in the past month or so.

A piece of 80s music nostalgia - Watusi Rodeo

2009-01-08T17:36:00.005-05:00

I was driving home from work a short while back, and heard this minor classic on a now non-existent XM new wave station (which before it went under, was, in my opinion, playing too much Duran Duran and Flock of Seagulls, and not enough of stuff like this).

One could also say, remember when MTV played videos by (relatively) underground, critically respected artists? Remember, even when MTV played videos?

And speaking of a blast from the past, my wife, driving my car on another day, discovered this Black Flag classic; she was only six years old when this came out, whereas I was in my late teens

This, though, is for me, the definitive Black Flag song.

One which still holds up, and with a message that still rings rather true.

Henry Rollins - a renaissance man of our time.

Possibly the funniest scene from the film Slacker

2009-01-08T16:27:00.003-05:00

I love the movie Slacker, and think that it captures the zeitgeit of 90s alt culture in a way like no other film. Those who have seen it will likely recall this hilarious scene; those who haven't seen this film should add it to the top of their Netflix queue.

This scene is also priceless.

When worlds collided in the 1970s

2009-01-08T15:56:00.002-05:00

My aunts used to watch daytime talk shows like Mike Douglas and Dinah Shore. Imagine everyone's surprise when Dinah Shore offered her audience of primarily older housewives this truly weird moment in which Iggy Pop and David Bowie sat down for a chat. It's very sweet watching the ladies on this show express concern about Iggy Pop's self-inflicted scars.

Truly, the 70s were a weird decade; I am glad to have been tuned in and watching on this particular broadcast day.

Here's a clip of the boys performing on the show.

RIP, Ron Asheton

2009-01-08T15:36:00.004-05:00

Rest in peace, Ron Asheton and condolences to your family, friends, and bandmates/fellow musicians.

Here he was, discussing his influences, in a recent interview.

Happy 40th Anniversary to Everyday People

2009-01-08T15:28:00.002-05:00

Hard to believe that it's been 40 years since this great piece of psychedelic soul was released.

According to one reference source, this song was in the top five in Febraury 1969 and was number one on Feb 15th of that year.

I still remember my sister bringing home a Sly and the Family Stone LP, back when I was in the 3rd grade or so. And I also acknowledge that Sly Stone paved the way for the likes of George Clinton, Prince and so much of the world of hip-hop, and probably much else in the world of music. So, I celebrate this song on its 40th anniversary.

Yo La Tengo - Eight Days a Week

2009-01-08T15:03:00.002-05:00

This is a clip that I really like, as it connects the band I loved best in my childhood to a band that represents so many personal and positive things about music.

And how about that amazing looking 12 string (looks like a Mosrite) guitar in Ira Kaplan's hands. Nothing like a classic rock instrument for playing a seminal piece of classic 60s rock.

Yo La Simpsons

2008-07-23T10:26:00.002-04:00

I've watched The Simpsons a lot, and I've seen Yo La Tengo live about 10 times. But I've never seen these two worlds collide the way that they do in this awesome clip.

A statement from the Electronic Fronteer Foundation (EFF)

2008-07-09T16:44:00.004-04:00

This is in response to today's decision by Congress to allow immunity to the telecommunications companies in the revision of the FISA bill.

Washington, D.C. - The U.S. Senate this afternoon passed the FISA Amendments Act, broadly expanding the president's warrantless surveillance authority and unconstitutionally granting retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that participated in the president's illegal domestic wiretapping program. The House of Representatives passed the same bill last month, and President Bush is expected to sign the legislation into law shortly.

"It is an immeasurable tragedy that just after its return from the Fourth of July holiday, the Senate has chosen to pass a bill that betrays the spirit of 1776 by radically expanding the president's spying powers and granting immunity to the companies that colluded in his illegal surveillance program," said Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). "This so-called compromise bill represents a shameful capitulation to the overreaching demands of an imperial president. As Senator Leahy put it in yesterday's debate, the retroactive immunity provision of the bill upends the scales of justice and makes Congress and the courts handmaidens to the White House's cover-up of its illegal surveillance program."

The FISA Amendments Act won passage after several amendments intended to remove or modify the bill's immunity provision failed to pass. One amendment, offered by Senator Christopher Dodd, would have stripped immunity from the bill altogether. Another, introduced by Senator Jeff Bingaman, would have stayed the pending cases against the telecoms and delayed the implementation of the immunity provision until the Inspectors General of the Department of Justice and other U.S. government intelligence agencies finished their investigation into the spying program, thereby preventing Congress from granting immunity in the dark.

"We thank those senators who courageously opposed telecom immunity and vow to them, and to the American people, that the fight for accountability over the president's illegal surveillance is not over," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl. "Even though Congress has failed to protect the privacy of Americans and uphold the rule of law, we will not abandon our defense of liberty. We will fight this unconstitutional grant of immunity in the courtroom and in the Congress, requesting repeal of the immunity in the next session, while seeking justice from the Judiciary. Nor can the lawless officials who approved this massive violation of Americans' rights rest easy, for we will file a new suit against the government and challenge warrantless wiretapping, past, present and future."

EFF is representing the plaintiffs in Hepting v. AT&T, a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of millions of AT&T customers whose private domestic communications and communications records were illegally handed over to the National Security Agency (NSA). EFF has been appointed co-coordinating counsel for all 47 of the outstanding lawsuits concerning the government's warrantless surveillance program.

And here is a similar statement by the ACLU

Today, in a blatant assault upon civil liberties and the right to privacy, the Senate passed an unconstitutional domestic spying bill that violates the Fourth Amendment and eliminates any meaningful role for judicial oversight of government surveillance. The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 was approved by a vote of 69 to 28 and is expected to be signed into law by President Bush shortly. This bill essentially legalizes the president’s unlawful warrantless wiretapping program revealed in December 2005 by the New York Times.

“Once again, Congress blinked and succumbed to the president’s fear-mongering. With today’s vote, the government has been given a green light to expand its power to spy on Americans and run roughshod over the Constitution,” said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union. “This legislation will give the government unfettered and unchecked access to innocent Americans’ international communications without a warrant. This is not only unconstitutional, but absolutely un-American.”

The FISA Amendments Act nearly eviscerates oversight of government surveillance by allowing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to review only general procedures for spying rather than individual warrants. The FISC will not be told any specifics about who will actually be wiretapped, thereby undercutting any meaningful role for the court and violating the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

The bill further trivializes court review by authorizing the government to continue a surveillance program even after the government’s general spying procedures are found insufficient or unconstitutional by the FISC. The government has the authority to wiretap through the entire appeals process, and then keep and use whatever information was gathered in the meantime. A provision touted as a major “concession” by proponents of the bill calls for investigations by the inspectors general of four agencies overseeing spying activities. But members of Congress who do not sit on the Judiciary or Intelligence committees will not be guaranteed access to the agencies’ reports.

The bill essentially grants absolute retroactive immunity to telecommunication companies that facilitated the president’s warrantless wiretapping program over the last seven years by ensuring the dismissal of court cases pending against those companies. The test for the companies’ right to immunity is not whether the government certifications they acted on were actually legal – only whether they were issued. Because it is public knowledge that certifications were issued, all of the pending cases will be summarily dismissed. This means Americans may never learn the truth about what the companies and the government did with our private communications.

“With one vote, Congress has strengthened the executive branch, weakened the judiciary and rendered itself irrelevant,” said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “This bill – soon to be law – is a constitutional nightmare. Americans should know that if this legislation is enacted and upheld, what they say on international phone calls or emails is no longer private. The government can listen in without having a specific reason to do so. Our rights as Americans have been curtailed and our privacy can no longer be assumed.”

In advance of the president’s signature, the ACLU announced its plan to challenge the new law in court.

“This fight is not over. We intend to challenge this bill as soon as President Bush signs it into law,” said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project. “The bill allows the warrantless and dragnet surveillance of Americans’ international telephone and email communications. It plainly violates the Fourth Amendment.”

I strongly support both of these organizations in their fight to uphold the Bill of Rights and our system of checks and balances.

God save the queen (with the safety pin through her nose)

2008-07-08T14:52:00.003-04:00

(This was written when Queen Elizabeth II was celebrating 50 years on the throne, back in 2002).

This image, couresty of graphic artist Jamie Reid remains deeply iconic.

Now, no disrespect to the head of what remains of the British empire, but being an Yank (and one of Irish descent at that, not to mention a left winger), I must admit that it's hard for me to be too reverential toward royal traditions. I tend to see these Buckingham Palace dwellers as little more than a curious carryover from a bygone era, and probably not really worth the care and feeing costs involved. But, as an American, I also recognize that it's ultimately none of my business whether or not the British want to keep their Royals.

However, as an amateur, but passionate, pop historian and punk fan, the thought of the Queen celebrating an anniversary will always call to mind something else for me. The great punk year 1977 was 25 years ago. It was in this year that Johnny Rotten/Lydon got his face slashed by some nationalistic street thugs in retaliation for the symbolic slashing by him of the Queen. She was for him, and for many, an empty meaningless signifier, and so he, with his sense of ironic black humor, called her a "moron" and a "potential H-Bomb." With this, the punk poster/t-shirt of Elizabeth with a safety pin through her nose became one of punk's (and thus rock's) great signifiers - a thing of beauty (in the postmodern sense of beauty). It was a gesture, an act of toppling an apple cart or the throwing of a tomato at some revered object. The punks like Johnny Rotten instinctively knew that which I always tell my students in my sociology classes, namely to recognize what the norms are,
one might go about breaching them. And breach the norms the punks certainly did.

As I reminisce about this time, it occurs to me that, like myself, Johnny Lydon, Steve Jones, Ari Up, Jimmy Pursey, Joe Strummer, Rat Scabies, Mark P, Siouxsie Sioux, and whoever's left of the Bromley Contingent are all getting older, if not mellower. Hopefully, they have some contentment in their lives today, given the likelihood of their memories of an exciting and meaningful time in their youth. Hopefully, for them, as for me, the "official" celebrations of the Queen calls to mind the great punk safety-pin signifier and that this gives them some satisfaction and puts a little smile on their faces. Hopefully, they can hear the words, sung in that expressive Johnny Rotten voice:

...GOD SAVE THE QUEEN
SHE AIN'T NO HUMAN BEING
THERE IS NO FUTURE
AND ENGLAND'S DREAMING....

some thoughts on Elvis, Beatles, and Michael Jackson

2008-07-08T14:35:00.008-04:00

(I originally wrote this about five years ago; it is revised from its original form)

Recent discussions of Michael Jackson have gotten me thinking about a comparison of Jacko with another musical icon - Elvis; i.e., two pampered, socially isolated megalomaniacs whose musical quality went steadly downhill as each approached middle age; Elvis turned into a karate kicking, jumpsuit wearing self-parody; Jacko has been a self-parody for some time now.

I was recently watching and greatly enjoying a tape I had made of the ABC special on the Beatles, right about the time that the compilation with the song "Free as a Bird" was released; how poignant it was to see George, along with Paul and Ringo sitting around together and discussing old times.

Well, one discussion was about the time the fabs met Elvis; it sounded, from the way that they told the story, that they were pretty high, when they met The King (their onetime hero).

What was interesting, though, was how they were eventually made aware of the fact that, while Elvis may have been a rather gracious host during their afternoon in his house, he held a rather low opinion of them, in the final analysis (perhaps he was jealous, or perhaps they were a symbol of how out of touch Elvis was slowly becomming, 1968 comeback special to the contrary). Yet how gracious and even empathetic Paul and the other Beatles seemed to remain in discussing Elvis, even though it was clear how disappointed they seemed. Of course, though, to their credit, they choose to take the high road, and come out looking better.

Here's one account of what Elvis said to President Richard Nixon, during a meeting they had in the White house, wherein Elvis did a bit of trash talking about the Beatles; Nixon, of course, wanted John Lennon deported. (Please note, though, that while this incident may be interpreted in terms of politics, I am not about to discuss this politics here. As everyone probably knows, though, irony abounds in Nixon making Elvis an honorary "youth advisor" to help in the fight against drug use.)

from "Nixon the Narc"

The Prez and The King

Years later, as President, Nixon had a unique opportunity to meet another world-famous musician, Elvis Presley. In 1970, Elvis wrote Nixon a long, poorly handwritten letter requesting a visit with the President and suggesting that he be made a "Federal Agent-at-Large" in the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. Elvis claimed to have made extensive study of "drug abuse and Communist brainwashing
techniques," and wanted to help save his country from hippies and communism.

Elvis was eventually received at the White House by Nixon, where the two spent some time in the Oval Office together. Although no transcript of their conversation exists, a summary of their talk written by Nixon's staff indicates that Elvis showed the President his collection of law-enforcement paraphernalia, and then derided the
Beatles, saying they had been a "real force for anti-American spirit."

Nixon clearly agreed with the King's assessment of the Fab Four, as John Lennon was already on Nixon's infamous "enemies list," with a thick FBI file investigating his anti-war activities. Nixon was personally behind efforts to deport Lennon in 1972.

Yet despite Elvis' claim to dislike the Beatles, five years earlier he had hosted them in his Hollywood home. For one enchanted evening, on the night of August 27, 1965, the lads from Liverpool and the King hung out, jammed and swapped stories about life on tour. "We all drank scotch and coke or bourbon and Seven Up," explained Lennon in a memoir of the event. "Elvis only had Seven Up. He didn't touch any of the cigarettes that were offered around, either."

While offering to serve as Nixon's anti-drug spokesman, Elvis was already a heavy user of prescription drugs. Within two years Elvis was admitted to hospital for hepatitis, pneumonia and overuse of prescription drugs. Five years later Elvis was dead at the age of 42, due to heart failure brought on by prescription drugs and poor attention to his personal health.

So basically, this little anecdote suggests that Elvis and Nixon - in spite of seeming to be worlds apart - were perfectly willing to exploit one another, at the expense of others (as well as of their own reputations), and to try to capitalize, socially, culturally, and politically, on their association with one another.

Meanwhile, here is a rather amusing clip, from around the same era, that shows just how willing John Lennon was to stand up for the people and the things that he believed in - a kind of skiffle/jugband version of a song by Lennon's friend (and hippy radical) David Peel. It is a performance that gleefully thumbs its nose at the Nixonian-era establishment, and is certainly one for the time capsule.

...Bronx keeps creating it!

2008-07-01T18:10:00.003-04:00

Is hip-hop dead? Maybe not, but it's not sounding much like this any more. There may have been some progress from the classic "old school" era, but lots and lots of regress, as well. As Nas explains, in the song "Hip Hop is Dead,"

Everybody sound the same, commercialize the game
Reminiscin' when it wasn't all business
If it got where it started
So we all gather here for the dearly departed
Hip hopper since a toddler
One homeboy became a man then a mobster
If the guys let me get my last swig of Vodka
R.I.P., we'll donate your lungs to a rasta
Went from turntables to mp3s
From "Beat Street" to commercials on Mickey D's
From gold cables to Jacobs
From plain facials to Botox and face lifts

Scotland vs. New Zealand – a Matchup of Two Leading Indie Rock Meccas

2008-07-01T17:30:00.012-04:00

If I can allow myself an admittedly simplistic analogy, it seems to me, based on my limited experiential knowledge, that the countries of Scotland and New Zealand – known for so much, are like the college towns of countries – urbane, sophisticated, environmentally conscious, principled, idealistic (in a good way), and filled with youthful energies and tolerances for difference. Perhaps I am overidealizing both places, but it just seems to me that they have a lot of very positive things going on.

And that is certainly true in terms of their musical output or noted music scenes, particularly their indie rock scenes. When I think of Scotland, I can’t help but think of some really great bands, from Orange Juice and the Skids, through the Jesus and Mary Chain and the Proclaimers, to the Pastels, Teenage Fanclub and Belle and Sebastian. The amount of musical talent from Scotland is truly staggering.

And of course, when I think of New Zealand, along with having vivid cinematic images of the rugged terrains shown in Peter Jackson’s Ring trilogy, I can’t help but think of the extraordinary Christchurch label, Flying Nun, and its long history of wonderfully quirky and massively seminal bands, starting with bands like the Clean, the Chills, the Straightjacket Fits, and the Tall Dwarves. The very wit-filled names of these (and other such NZ) bands, not to mention the use of a 60s pop reference to an example of a kind of kitschy pop Christianity (in a city given a "godly" name by a group of (most likely very serious, sober 19th century) clerics, in a time much different than our own), expresses for me a kind of humorous sensibility that strikes me as perhaps uniquely New Zealandish. The wit of New Zealanders - delivered with a poker faced charm by its musicians (or especially by the fictional band on the HBO carried show, Flight of the Conchords) - is a thing of great beauty.

So, as a purely academic exercise, one with no real practical concerns, I would propose that these two countries be held to a kind of matchup as two centers of indie rock greatness – a sort of U-Cal Berkeley vs. University of Wisconsin-Madison (the latter of which was once my place of residence for a few years).

Here, then, is who I would pick as the heavy hitters for each respective country – call it an indie rock top 10.

Over in the tartan corner, we have (in no particular order): The Jesus and Mary Chain, Teenage Fanclub, Pastels, Cocteau Twins, Mogwai, Belle and Sebastian, Orange Juice, The Vaselines, the Wake, and APB. All are really terrific bands, whose music holds up remarkably well to this day. In particular, The Pastels, Teenage Fanclub, and most especially, Belle and Sebastian are, for me, examples of genius bands, among the very best in rock music history. I listen to their music on a very regular basis and it never gets old for me.

And, over there, in the kiwi corner, we have another top 10 (actually top 11) to consider (though again, in no particular order); a number of these groups are connected, in one way or another, to one or to both of the Kilgour brothers - New Zealand indie rockers come across as communally spirited and generally willing to play in one anothers' bands: The Clean, The Chills, Tall Dwarves/Chris Knox, the Bats, Split Enz, Verlaines, Bailter Space, The 3Ds, The Sneaky Feelings, The Able Tasmans, Jean-Paul Sartre Experience. These too are some truly amazing bands, some focused on noisy experimentalism, others on melody and subtle arrangements, and a few on all of these altogether.

But, having spent lots of times listening to both the Scots and the New Zealanders, I would have to say – if push comes to shove – that the world’s indie rock capitol is, for me, by a relatively close margin, none other than .... New Zealand. Not only are there so many amazing bands from there, but the DIY spirit of punk seems to inform so much of what New Zealand is all about. And this spirit, too, appears to inform the possibility of these bands having full lives, both as musicians and as human beings - getting together to record, to play shows, and then to go live their lives, and then to get back together to record a bit more, and to play some more shows, with all of these things being woven together as an apparently seamless whole. Again, perhaps I am overidealizing these bands, but that is how I see it, just as I see their personalities and their passions coming across very clearly in the sublime music that they manage to produce.

So, therefore, I conclude - having expressed a true love for Scotland's bands, though I could also easily talk about great independent music from various other countries, including my own - that, nevertheless, New Zealand wins my trophy for best indie rock country. In fact, in realizing this, I kind of want to fly there right now, climb a few lush green hills, listen to a some church bells chiming, eat some local seafood with some regional side dishes, drink a few local drinks, and hear some bands!

Arguably Better than U2

2008-06-14T11:34:00.008-04:00

I really like U2 and have seen them live a few times, but on the other hand, the band Stump is the band that make me proud of my Irish family roots. I just came upon this video for the song Charlton Heston, and, well, it's bloody genius.

This band, and its Captain Beefheart-esque music, were part of the musical soundtrack to my life, back in the mid to late 1980s, when I was grappling with Chi-Squares and qualitative data sets as a master's degree student at University of Wisconsin, and listening enthusiastically to Stump's A Fierce Pancake.

Their music was, and is, delightfully quirky, catchy, and full of wit and energy. You can clearly hear the Irishness in the vocal inflections of lead singer Mick Lynch. The song/video is great, too, in how it comedically and absurdly deconstructs spectacle, such as movies like the Ten Commandments - and religious spectacle even, i.e., as a kind of cross between Samuel Beckett and the Three Stooges. Sadly, they chose to break up soon thereafter rather than slog it out in the music world. Happily, though, their music lives on, via ITunes and in the memories of fans of the quirky and original.

Percussion

2008-05-07T06:57:00.004-04:00

Last summer, I got invited to a "solstice party" in a neighbor's yard - a really fun time and a chance to meet some interesting folks. As the evening went on, some there had guitars and led those there in singing. Some of us played percussion instruments (I was given a maraca to shake), and it was s joyous experience to be making music together, to be part of a song circle, and to experience the warmth of creativity and communality with my fellow human beings.

Here, though, is another example of creative percussioning. This video is pretty amazing.

The Chills - Heavenly Pop Hit

2008-05-07T06:54:00.000-04:00

I love this!

Rightwingers Again Supress Free Speech, This Time in Troy, NY

2008-05-07T06:14:00.000-04:00

The NYCLU is currently filing a laswuit against the city of Troy, NY, an upstate city and home to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Russell Sage College, because the city's public works commissioner, Robert Mirch, also the majority leader of the Rensselaer County Legislature, did what empowered right wing thugs everywhere tend to do, that is, to abuse their power. And in this case, Mirch abused his power to suppress an idea that he did not like, that is, the idea of critiquing the Iraq war. And that this idea was being led by an Iraqi-born artist, Wafaa Bilal, is particularly egregious. Incidentally, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's College Republicans played a strong hand in this shutdown.

Mirch, essentially, shut down the exhibit using the most bogus rationale, claiming as a city official, in effect, that the exhibit was being organized in a building that violated safety code violations; the building had previously been approved for such use, without incident, prior to this particular exhibit.

This abuse of Mirch's power - an assault on free speech and antiwar activities by an established government - should be vigorously opposed. I urge all who read this to protest this action.

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) has more details.

The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a claim Thursday against the City of Troy concerning the city’s decision to close an arts and media center on purported code violations in March after a controversial art exhibit opened there.

The notice of claim was filed on behalf of The Sanctuary for Independent Media, whose gallery was ordered closed March 11, a day after the opening of Iraqi-American artist Wafaa Bilal’s art installation, “Virtual Jihadi.” The exhibit was intended to provoke thought about the roots of violence, but it angered some people who objected to its content.

Among those offended by the artwork was Robert Mirch, public works commissioner and majority leader of the Rensselaer County Legislature. Mirch, who oversees code enforcement, publicly denounced the exhibit and led a protest against it outside the Sanctuary. The NYCLU contends that Mirch used his official powers to have the building closed, which violated the Sanctuary’s First Amendment rights to free speech and expression.

“City officials cannot selectively enforce building codes to shut down an art exhibition they find distasteful,” said Melanie Trimble, director of the NYCLU’s Capital Region chapter. “It is troubling that Mr. Mirch would wield his authority to suppress the free speech rights of people he disagrees with.”

Before the controversial exhibit opened, the city had given no indication that it objected to the Sanctuary’s schedule for restoring the 106-year-old building. The Sanctuary had worked closely with the Bureau of Code Enforcement throughout the renovation process. Code enforcement officials inspected the building on April 23 and found no violations.

Here is a statement by Steve Peirce, a spokeman for the The Sanctuary for Independent Media, addressing this incident.

Since 2005, The Sanctuary for Independent Media has struggled to be a good citizen and a good neighbor. We've invested immense creative energy and toil and spent many thousands of hard-earned dollars to refurbish a historic former church in a neglected neighborhood of north Troy, striving to enrich the community through telecommunications production, media arts and education. Our efforts have proved beneficial in that we've succeeded in bringing internationally acclaimed filmmakers, graphic artists, musicians, authors, and other important cultural figures to a deprived area and fostered constructive public dialogue that informs and enlivens our democratic society.
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On March 11, 2008, however, just as the Sanctuary was launching a month-long scheduled program of artistic exhibits, performances and discussions, the City of Troy abruptly closed the facility on codes violation charges -- because somebody didn't like one of our planned art exhibits. This is wrong. We must not allow our public officials to continue to act in such a manner.
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The Capital Region New York Civil Liberties Union and attorney Peter Henner are among those who have stepped forward to assist the Sanctuary in protecting our constitutional rights and the rights of our artists and patrons.
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We do not dispute the need to respect city laws and ordinances. Prior to this incident, the city knew we were operating in good faith to comply with the building codes and we had made and were continuing to make ample improvements to this 108-year-old structure. There wasn't any conflict. Our relations with the city's professional employees had been very positive and everyone recognized we were acting in a responsible manner. We were never warned we might be shut down. In fact, on March 10, the city's own building and fire inspectors gave us the green light to proceed with holding a major public event that night.
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But then the city's public works commissioner, Bob Mirch, who oversees Troy code enforcement and holds a variety of other local political posts, railed on rightwing talk radio and he also physically led a vocal demonstration outside our facility to protest our showing of an exhibit he did not like. The next day, his department shut down the Sanctuary.
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These events have been extremely upsetting and damaging. First, the whole incident has been fueled by wildly irresponsible misrepresentations of Wafaa Bilal and his work, using racial and jingoistic stereotypes that breed fear and misunderstanding. Second, Mr. Mirch has been allowed to abuse his official position to enforce his own political views - to use alleged code violations as a pretext to stifle political dissent. This kind of intimidation is wrong. His behavior has violated the civil rights of Mr. Bilal to express himself through his art, it has violated the civil rights of the Sanctuary to present art, and it has abrogated the civil rights of the public who wanted to view art by denying them that opportunity to make up their own minds. We urge the City of Troy to put an end to this kind of discriminatory action. We want to resume working in good faith with government officials to make sure that the law is upheld and people's rights are respected. This is the United States of America.

Here is a YouTube clip about this controversy.

Here is a link to a GamePolitics.Com article with more details about the artist in question.

Here is a link to a detailed timeline of this incident.

Lupe Fiasco's vision - a hip-hop anti-racist challenge

2007-12-08T16:42:00.000-05:00

"We have known divisions, which must be healed to move forward in great purposes - and I will strive in good faith to heal them."
-George W. Bush, Second Inaugural Address, January 2005

"George Bush doesn't care about black people!"
-Kanye West, December 2005, in response to Bush's handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster of August of that year.

"I think that an objective analysis of events that are taking place on this earth today points towards some type of ultimate showdown. You can call it political showdown, or even a showdown between the economic systems that exist on this earth which almost boil down along racial lines. I do believe that there will be a clash between East and West. I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those that do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the systems of exploitation."
-Malcolm X, January 19, 1965

I look to the culture - speeches, texts, performances, works of art, works of entertainment, etc. - as a gauge or an indicator of where we are as a society.

I was in college back in the early 1980s, listening to a variety of musical forms, such as 1960s political folk, Afro pop, and post-punk, in between my classes and term papers. This was the era of hip-hop's "old school," that is, of pioneering artists such as Grandmaster Flash, Eric B and Rakim, Afrika Bambaataa and the Zulu Nation, and Boogie Down Productions and of songs like "Rapper's Delight," "The Message," and "Planet Rock." I thought then, and still think, that, following the decadence and mindlessness of the late 70s disco era, rap music breathed new life into Black popular music, just as punk at more or less the same time did so for rock and roll.

When I graduated from college, I then moved to the Bronx, hip-hop's cradle, so as to, like Barack Obama, practice my progressive beliefs as a community organizer. I organized tenants' associations and neighborhood groups in a neighborhood in the border zone between the North and South Bronx. I heard hip-hop playing in the beackground of the neighborhood on a fairly regular basis.

Since then, I have, selectively, made room in my music listening habits for various figures from the world of hip-hop. Most recently, I have discovered a young MC named Lupe Fiasco, an associate of Kanye's, and have been watching a pretty impressive video of his.

What to make of this? And what of the opening quotes by such opposed figures as Kanye, Malcolm X and George Bush?

First off, this song is actually not all that political in terms of its (somewhat surreal) lyrical content, but what is political here, theoretically, is the triadic relationship that the song establishes amongst Lupe, the thug chorus, and the cynical, clowning WASP character. Both the chorus and the WASP tell Lupe to "Dumb it down," and yet Lupe refuses. In fact, the initial chorus

You goin' over niggas' heads Lu (Dumb it down)
They tellin' me that they don't feel you (Dumb it down)
We ain't graduate from school nigga (Dumb it down)
Them big words ain't cool nigga (Dumb it down)
Yeah I heard Mean And Vicious nigga (Dumb it down)
Make a song for the bitches nigga (Dumb it down)
We don't care about the weather nigga (Dumb it down)
You'll sell more records if you (Dumb it down)

and the Wasp's lines

You've been shedding too much light Lu (Dumb it down)
You make'em wanna do right Lu (Dumb it down)
They're getting self-esteem Lu (Dumb it down)
These girls are trying to be queens Lu (Dumb it down)
They're trying to graduate from school Lu (Dumb it down)
They're starting to think that smart is cool Lu (Dumb it down)
They're trying to get up out the hood Lu (Dumb it down)
I'll tell you what you should do (Dumb it down)

are perhaps the key to the song, but, more deeply, a key to what's happening more generally in society, particularly for young persons, including young persons of color. As opposed to the rhetoric, the reality is that this society, with its dumbed down government, wants its young to be dumbed down. It is, in a sense, easier that way. That is, it is easier for those in power - be they local thugs or members of the Power Elite - to maintain control when certain conditions exist, conditions that rationalize holding tightly onto the levers of power.

During the Reagan 1980s, when, again, I was organizing the poor in a poor place, the Bronx, I was perpetually struck by the institutional racism of a conservative government that, for example, allowed poverty rates to rise and to disproportionately affect young people of color. As William Spriggs points out in an article in the American Prospect

During the Reagan administration, the United States suffered its highest national unemployment rates since the Great Depression. In the black community, the effects were devastating: The unemployment rate for adult (over age 20) black men peaked at more than 20 percent in December 1982; during the entire Reagan presidency, the unemployment rate for adult black men remained in double digits. The highest recorded unemployment rate for adult white men was 9 percent in November and December 1982. But for black men, the unemployment rate remained above that mark for 182 straight months (15 years), from October 1979 to November 1994. Because children do not work and need working adults to support them, it is hardly surprising that during that period, black child poverty rates remained intractable above 40 percent.

And then

Under Reagan, who ridiculed antipoverty efforts, the number of black children living below the poverty line increased by 200,000, from 3.9 million in 1980 to 4.1 million in 1988. During the Clinton years, the black child poverty rate fell steadily, from 46.3 percent to a record-low 30 percent, lifting about 1.6 million black children out of poverty. For all children, the poverty rate fell annually during the Clinton's presidency, reaching a 30-year low of 15.6 percent when he left office. But those reduced poverty rates may be the best we can achieve simply by getting jobs for parents. While lower than during the Reagan years, they do not equal the lows America has achieved for its senior citizens, or the general population. And those gains reversed course when George W. Bush became president.

Of course, such reality makes a mockery of Bush's grand quote about "healing" our divisions and underscores, instead, the quote by Kanye West.

Rolling Stone magazine has also recently published a wonderfully comprehnsive report on the failures of our "war on drugs" a war that has taken a heavy toll on America's inner cities, and that "now costs the United States $50 billion each year and has overcrowded prisons to the breaking point - all with little discernible impact on the drug trade." The article points to a lack of poitical will to carry out necessary reforms.

But despite their evident success, the most forward-looking programs remain buried at the fringes of drug policy, featured not in the president's budgets but in academic journals and water-cooler talk in cities like High Point. Experimentation at the community level is more imaginative than programs that are federally sanctioned. "We haven't had the kind of national leadership that blesses this and encourages it," says Caulkins, the RAND researcher from Carnegie Mellon. "So this kind of innovation stays below the radar." Thirty-five years after Richard Nixon launched the War on Drugs, the most promising programs continue to be shunted aside by Washington's unswerving emphasis on law and order.

And as a parallel, the New York Times recently reported on a Big Increase in Black Men as Inmates Since 1980

The number of black men in jail or prison has grown fivefold in the past 20 years, to the point where more black men are behind bars than are enrolled in colleges or universities, according to a study released yesterday.

The increase in the black male prison population coincides with the prison construction boom that began 1980. At that time, three times more black men were enrolled in institutions of higher learning than behind bars, the study said.

The study found that in 2000 there were 791,600 black men in jail or prison and 603,032 enrolled in colleges or universities. By contrast, the study said that in 1980 there were 143,000 black men in jail or prison but 463,700 enrolled in colleges or universities.

Something's not right here.

I certainly do believe that while there is racism and bigotry to be found in many different realms and institutions, I also am hopeful that racism, as a disease of the mind, is curable. However, racism is many things, and in addition to being a subjective attitude, it is also a structural series of positions, one of, as Malcolm X alluded to, exploiter and exploited. Just as exploitive Bush, Cheney and their neocon associates have set forth the conditions for the exploitation of Iraq and its recources for decaded to come, the right wing and all it represents stands for the exploitation of the minority poor, its rhetoric notwithstanding. By disinvesting in progressive government, in meaningful effective education, and by leaving poor and weak individuals to their own devices, the right wing - with George W. Bush as its figurehead - places the profits of a few over the well being of the many. And this is shown in a whole variety of social indicators - crime and poverty rates being up, growing numbers of poor young minorities, suddenly gowing teen pregnancy rates giving lie to "abstenance education," parts of New Orleans remaining unlivable and ungovernable.

Yet, as with the Lupe song, speaking truth to power must be accompanied by some sort of vision. Malcolm X, paradoxically, began to see himself as emancipated from mental slavery, as Bob Marley once put it, while serving a prison sentence. He experienced a paradigm shift, just as we all must if we want to move our society beyond the ugliness of the Bush era.

In the meantime, going back to hip-hop, here is a nauseating reminder of the trivializing of this form of an essentially Black popular culture by those who hold power. It reduces hip-hop to little more than a minstrel show.

Totally whack!!!!

Antiwar scholar denied a visa simply because of his views

2007-11-26T10:57:00.000-05:00

(Crossposted on Daily Kos.)

I am a member of the American Sociological Association and teach sociology at CUNY. Yesterday, my copy of the association newsletter arrived in my mailbox, offering this bit of news on scholar Adam Habib and his struggles with attempting to secure a visitor's visa from the U.S. State Department. While Habib has been invited by such organizations as National Institutes for Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Bank, Columbia University and the Gates Foundation to appear at colloquia, somehow his anti Iraq War views has led the State Department to refuse Habib a visa after months of inaction, claiming that he is barred because he has “engaged in terrorist activities.” There is no evidence of this.

The ASA newsletter announces a legal filing on behalf of Habib by the ASA as well as the ACLU.

November 14, 2007

ASA News
Media Contacts:
Sujata Sinha or Lee Herring
(202) 247-9871
pubinfo@asanet.org

ASA and ACLU Rebuke U.S. Government for Denying South African Scholar’s Visa

ACLU Renews Legal Challenge, Says U.S. Unfairly Maligning Distinguished Professor

BOSTON – In response to the unjustified denial of a visa to renowned South African scholar Adam Habib, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Massachusetts today renewed their legal challenge against the Departments of State and Homeland Security. The State Department refused Habib a visa after months of inaction, claiming that he is barred because he has “engaged in terrorist activities,” but the government failed to explain the basis for its accusation, let alone provide any evidence to prove it. The ACLU, in today’s legal complaint, is now demanding that the government substantiate its ban on Habib or grant him a visa.

“In one fell swoop, the U.S. government has stifled political debate in this country and maligned the reputation of a respected scholar without giving one shred of evidence to support its claims,” said Melissa Goodman, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project. “It appears that Professor Habib is being excluded not because of his actions but because of his political views and associations.”

Today’s legal challenge amends a lawsuit, filed in September in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, charging that the government’s exclusion of Professor Habib amounts to censorship at the border because it prevents U.S. citizens and residents from hearing speech that is protected by the First Amendment. The ACLU went to court on behalf of organizations that have invited Professor Habib to speak in the U.S., including the American Sociological Association (ASA), the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and the Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights (BCPR). The lawsuit asks the court to prevent the government from excluding Professor Habib unless it comes forward with evidence to substantiate its accusations.

Habib is a renowned scholar, sought after political analyst, and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research, Innovation and Advancement at the University of Johannesburg. He is also a Muslim who has been a vocal critic of the war in Iraq. Until the government suddenly revoked his visa in October 2006 without explanation, he never experienced any trouble entering the U.S.; in fact, Habib lived in New York with his family for years while earning a Ph.D. in Political Science from the City University of New York.

The ASA press release goes on to add that Habib, in attempting to fly to the U.S. in 2006 "was detained for seven hours and interrogated about his associations and political views" and that "Armed guards eventually escorted him to a plane and deported him back to South Africa. The State Department later revoked the visas of Professor Habib’s wife and two small children, again, without explanation." Habib tried again in 2007, to no avail.

It offers the following conclusions:

“The American Sociological Association has become increasingly concerned about apparent systemic U.S. government interference in scientific exchange and the associated corrosion in the luster of the nation’s democratic face to the world. ASA has become sufficiently concerned about the need to defend our country’s commitment to free exchange. We seek to wrest a long-awaited explanation from the U.S. Departments of State and Department of Homeland Security as to why they refuse to admit internationally known South African scholar Adam Habib into the United States for purposes of scholarly exchange,” says Sally Hillsman, Executive Director of the ASA.

Professor Habib’s exclusion is part of a larger pattern. Over the past few years, numerous foreign scholars, human rights activists, and writers – all vocal critics of U.S. policy – have been barred from the U.S. without explanation or on vague national security grounds. In 2006, the ACLU filed a similar lawsuit on behalf of U.S. academic groups and Professor Tariq Ramadan, a widely respected Swiss scholar of the Muslim world. When the government revoked his visa in 2004, Professor Ramadan was prevented from assuming a tenured teaching position at the University of Notre Dame. The Ramadan lawsuit challenges the legality of his exclusion and the constitutionality of the Patriot Act provision under which he was initially excluded. He remains excluded from the U.S. to this day.

To repeat, Professor Habib’s exclusion is part of a larger pattern. Over the past few years, numerous foreign scholars, human rights activists, and writers – all vocal critics of U.S. policy – have been barred from the U.S. without explanation or on vague national security grounds.

This story has also recently been covered by the Christian Science Monitor which notes

Habib is just one foreigner of many who have faced either strenuous interrogation or expulsion by US immigration officials since 9/11. But his legal challenge shines a media spotlight on a visa process that has become more opaque in recent years, raising questions about the rights of individuals to free speech and to due process.

"This is a problem that is much bigger than just Professor Habib," says Melissa Goodman, an attorney with the ACLU who is handling Habib's case. "Since 9/11, writers, artists, and other have found it much more difficult to get into the US. What they have in common is that, like Professor Habib, they are vocal critics of US foreign policy."

Also, a South African news outlet, Independent Online, did a profile on Habib and found no explosive skeletons in his family's closet offering the following details on the possible bases for this case.

Habib said he was then told by a highly placed South African government official that his exclusion was apparently related to photographs taken of him addressing an anti-Iraq war rally in Durban.

"But the strange thing about that is that I know other people who addressed the same rally, and also had their pictures taken, and they, too, have not been denied entry."

He said that he had "of course" exchanged e-mails with Muslim scholars worldwide: "In the course of my job, I get about 70 e-mails a day from a variety of scholars from all over the world, Jewish ones, Islamic scholars, Christians, Marxists, neo-conservatives, fascists, deists - you name it".

Habib said that, in terms of Muslim practice, he also gave charity ("zakat") to various organisations.

"But I'm pretty careful about where I send my money and I focus on education and HIV/Aids in South Africa. I have also given to the Gift of the Givers, but they operate in co-operation with the department of foreign affairs - so if the US government wants to suggest that the department is also a terrorist organisation, well."

Habib said that, as far as he could tell, his exclusion from the US seemed to be the result of a mixture of "racial profiling" - "I'm a Muslim, after all" - and what the American Civil Liberties Union calls "ideological exclusion".

"It's scary. These days if the US government doesn't like what you say, or the views you apparently hold, well, it just won't let you in.

"But I think," Habib said, "the problem is much bigger than the case of Adam Habib and I think it's pretty serious - and that it's time our government did something about protecting its innocent citizens from being targeted and labelled in this way."

Habib said he had encountered a number of people who were targeted for no apparent reason.

"I have been told of a Canadian dentist of Muslim extraction who was whisked out of New York to Guantanamo Bay. It was all a big mistake, but it took his family nine months to get him out - and he was completely traumatised by then.

"You know, the constitutional court recently found that our government had an obligation to make sure that the mercenaries in Africa were not tortured, murdered, etc. How much more so does our government have a duty to its citizens - those falsely accused [like Habib] - and others?"

Here, too, is what the ACLU says about Ideological Exclusion Here is some further documentation.

Denying international scholars a chance to enter this country and to express their views freely is just a disgusting, totalitarian practice that needs to stop. Insinuating that someone is a "terrorist" because they happen to have an Arabic last name and don't support the Administration's views is part of the reason why we are distrusted by the very Arabic societies whose hearts and minds we are supposed to be winning over. This needs to stop.

UPDATE: Here is a link to a podcast of Habib discussing this case.

Congress and the President can't be trusted. Can the courts keep us free?

2007-10-29T21:56:00.000-04:00

Recently, a Federal court struck down a Patriot Act regulation that had allowed the FBI to issue National Security Letters (NLSs) demanding private information about people within the United States without court approval, and to gag those who receive NSLs from discussing them. The court has ruled that the gag rule is unconstutional. The courts have also recently court found that secret searches of a "terror suspect's" house and office violated the Fourth Amendment's guarantee against unreasonable search and seizure.

Score two for the Bill of Rights.

Since the presidency, at least under the Republicans, and the Congress appear not willing and able to continue bothering to uphold the Constitution, perhaps we need to turn to the courts - as well as to mass movements - as among the only things left to keep us free and living under the rule of law.

Internet Business Law Service has a story that broke a few weeks ago.

NEW YORK - A federal court struck down the amended Patriot Act''s National Security Letter (NSL) provision. The law has permitted the FBI to issue NSLs demanding private information about people within the United States without court approval, and to gag those who receive NSLs from discussing them. The court found that the gag power was unconstitutional and that because the statute prevented courts from engaging in meaningful judicial review of gags, it violated the First Amendment and the principle of separation of powers.

U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero wrote, "In light of the seriousness of the potential intrusion into the individual''s personal affairs and the significant possibility of a chilling effect on speech and association - particularly of expression that is critical of the government or its policies - a compelling need exists to ensure that the use of NSLs is subject to the safeguards of public accountability, checks and balances, and separation of powers that our Constitution prescribes.

"As this decision recognizes, courts have a constitutionally mandated role to play when national security policies infringe on First Amendment rights. A statute that allows the FBI to silence people without meaningful judicial oversight is unconstitutional," said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU''s National Security Project.

NSLs may be used to obtain access to subscriber, billing or transactional records from Internet service providers; to obtain a wide array of financial and credit documents; or even to obtain library records. In almost all cases, recipients of NSLs are forbidden, or "gagged," from disclosing that they have received the letters, even to close family and friends. This has been a severe hardship on NSL recipients, who not only have been forced to keep this major event secret, but who have been prevented from meaningfully participating in public discussions about NSLs. The court today held that because the gag provisions cannot be separated from the entire amended statute, the court was compelled to strike down the entire statute. Recently, too, a federal district court struck down two search and surveillance provisions of the Patriot Act as unconstitutional.

This decision was also reported on in Wired which wrote

A federal district court judge struck down two key pillars of the Patriot Act Wednesday, ruling that using a secret spying court to wiretap and secretly search Americans' homes for criminal prosecutions violates the Constitution's protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Federal district court judge Ann Aiken struck down the government's ability to get orders from the secret spy court for anything other than acquiring foreign intelligence activities, saying that using that court and its lowered standards -- instead of getting a traditional criminal wiretap order -- violates the Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches and seizures. The ruling applies to Patriot Act changes to wiretapping laws and to so-called sneak-and-peak searches, where the government can search someone's home secretly and never have to disclose the search to the individual.

The ACLU commented on this, saying

The Fourth Amendment's probable cause requirement is one of the most important safeguards against an overreaching government. By allowing the FBI to conduct searches and wiretaps in criminal investigations without first demonstrating criminal probable cause, these Patriot Act provisions allow an end run around basic constitutional rules. There is no reason why the FBI can't investigate criminal activity - including terrorism - while at the same time complying with the Constitution."

The courts are thus, thankfully, chipping away at aspects of the Patriot Act, though perhaps it may be too little too late. But it is certainly better than nothing and worth celebrating as a victory for the Constitution.

Of course, the Patriot Act still allows some injustices and abuses of powers and these must be addressed by the courts. This includes such provisions as those that allow federal agents to "'shop' for judges that have demonstrated a strong bias toward law enforcement with regard to search warrants. It for the prosecution of those found to be offering "material support of terrorism," with groups labelled terrorist in such a sweeping manner that it could include just about anyone; giving support, for example, to the African National Congress, the anti-apartheid organization, a group labelled a terrorist organization by our government, could very well get a U.S. citizen arrested and sent to Gitmo. Alas, the Patriot Act still allows for indefinite detention upon secret evidence.

These provisions are all apparently indended to be sunsetted, though Bush's allies in Congress, led by Mitch McConnell and no doubt assisted by Lieberman and, likely, by some right wing Democratics, will try to extend it into law, indefinitely. Here, for example, is some classic McConnell dissembling

Unfortunately, some members of Congress have allowed the passage of time and the success of our efforts under the Patriot Act to dull their sense of urgency. Others have caved into the fears of a political base that has become increasingly radicalized in its opposition to anything the president supports. Two senators in particular have recently said they plan to block the full Senate from taking up a FISA reauthorization bill that was reported out of the Intelligence Committee last week with near-unanimous, bipartisan support.

Opponents of the reauthorization bill say they oppose it because it would give phone companies protection from lawsuits alleging they were wrong to share customer information with intelligence officials. This, despite the fact that U.S. businesses have always viewed sharing information to save American lives as being a patriotic duty they were only too happy to fulfill. Opponents also worry about an update that allows agents to listen in on phone calls that emanate from terror suspects abroad. But the Bill of Rights was never meant to cover terrorists in Diyala, Karachi, or Tehran.

Indeed, if there is any criticism at all with the proposed FISA reauthorization, it is that it does not go far enough. Most Americans have the common sense to recognize that FISA and every other tool we have used in this fight are worth making permanent. An open secret on Capitol Hill is that most Democrats do too. If there is one lesson from Sept. 11 that we should have learned by now, it is that the people who protect us from terrorism should have more, not fewer, tools to do their jobs. The Patriot Act and FISA are among the most valuable. It is time we acknowledged as much.
The Democrats, if they have spine for this, should prepare for an epic battle; since we cannot count on this, we need to look to the courts, which may be our best hope for restoring this country, right wing neo-fascictic activist judges, notwithstanding.

Internet Business Law Service has a story that broke a few weeks ago.

NEW YORK - A federal court struck down the amended Patriot Act''s National Security Letter (NSL) provision. The law has permitted the FBI to issue NSLs demanding private information about people within the United States without court approval, and to gag those who receive NSLs from discussing them. The court found that the gag power was unconstitutional and that because the statute prevented courts from engaging in meaningful judicial review of gags, it violated the First Amendment and the principle of separation of powers.

U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero wrote, "In light of the seriousness of the potential intrusion into the individual''s personal affairs and the significant possibility of a chilling effect on speech and association - particularly of expression that is critical of the government or its policies - a compelling need exists to ensure that the use of NSLs is subject to the safeguards of public accountability, checks and balances, and separation of powers that our Constitution prescribes.

"As this decision recognizes, courts have a constitutionally mandated role to play when national security policies infringe on First Amendment rights. A statute that allows the FBI to silence people without meaningful judicial oversight is unconstitutional," said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU''s National Security Project.

NSLs may be used to obtain access to subscriber, billing or transactional records from Internet service providers; to obtain a wide array of financial and credit documents; or even to obtain library records. In almost all cases, recipients of NSLs are forbidden, or "gagged," from disclosing that they have received the letters, even to close family and friends. This has been a severe hardship on NSL recipients, who not only have been forced to keep this major event secret, but who have been prevented from meaningfully participating in public discussions about NSLs. The court today held that because the gag provisions cannot be separated from the entire amended statute, the court was compelled to strike down the entire statute.

Recently, too, a federal district court struck down two search and surveillance provisions of the Patriot Act as unconstitutional.

This decision was also reported on in Wired which wrote

A federal district court judge struck down two key pillars of the Patriot Act Wednesday, ruling that using a secret spying court to wiretap and secretly search Americans' homes for criminal prosecutions violates the Constitution's protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Federal district court judge Ann Aiken struck down the government's ability to get orders from the secret spy court for anything other than acquiring foreign intelligence activities, saying that using that court and its lowered standards -- instead of getting a traditional criminal wiretap order -- violates the Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches and seizures. The ruling applies to Patriot Act changes to wiretapping laws and to so-called sneak-and-peak searches, where the government can search someone's home secretly and never have to disclose the search to the individual.

The ACLU commented on this, saying

The Fourth Amendment's probable cause requirement is one of the most important safeguards against an overreaching government. By allowing the FBI to conduct searches and wiretaps in criminal investigations without first demonstrating criminal probable cause, these Patriot Act provisions allow an end run around basic constitutional rules. There is no reason why the FBI can't investigate criminal activity - including terrorism - while at the same time complying with the Constitution."

The courts are thus, thankfully, chipping away at aspects of the Patriot Act, though perhaps it may be too little too late. But it is certainly better than nothing and worth celebrating as a victory for the Constitution.

Of course, the Patriot Act still allows some injustices and abuses of powers and these must be addressed by the courts. This includes such provisions as those that allow federal agents to "'shop' for judges that have demonstrated a strong bias toward law enforcement with regard to search warrants. It for the prosecution of those found to be offering "material support of terrorism," with groups labelled terrorist in such a sweeping manner that it could include just about anyone; giving support, for example, to the African National Congress, the anti-apartheid organization, a group labelled a terrorist organization by our government, could very well get a U.S. citizen arrested and sent to Gitmo. Alas, the Patriot Act still allows for indefinite detention upon secret evidence.

These provisions are all apparently indended to be sunsetted, though Bush's allies in Congress, led by Mitch McConnell and no doubt assisted by Lieberman and, likely, by some right wing Democratics, will try to extend it into law, indefinitely. Here, for example, is some classic McConnell dissembling

Unfortunately, some members of Congress have allowed the passage of time and the success of our efforts under the Patriot Act to dull their sense of urgency. Others have caved into the fears of a political base that has become increasingly radicalized in its opposition to anything the president supports. Two senators in particular have recently said they plan to block the full Senate from taking up a FISA reauthorization bill that was reported out of the Intelligence Committee last week with near-unanimous, bipartisan support.

Opponents of the reauthorization bill say they oppose it because it would give phone companies protection from lawsuits alleging they were wrong to share customer information with intelligence officials. This, despite the fact that U.S. businesses have always viewed sharing information to save American lives as being a patriotic duty they were only too happy to fulfill. Opponents also worry about an update that allows agents to listen in on phone calls that emanate from terror suspects abroad. But the Bill of Rights was never meant to cover terrorists in Diyala, Karachi, or Tehran.

Indeed, if there is any criticism at all with the proposed FISA reauthorization, it is that it does not go far enough. Most Americans have the common sense to recognize that FISA and every other tool we have used in this fight are worth making permanent. An open secret on Capitol Hill is that most Democrats do too. If there is one lesson from Sept. 11 that we should have learned by now, it is that the people who protect us from terrorism should have more, not fewer, tools to do their jobs. The Patriot Act and FISA are among the most valuable. It is time we acknowledged as much.

The Democrats, if they have spine for this, should prepare for an epic battle; since we cannot count on this, we need to look to the courts, which may be our best hope for restoring this country, right wing activist judges, notwithstanding.

A bit of surreality, courtesy of Renaldo and the Loaf

2007-10-05T12:59:00.000-04:00

I've been exploring music videos recently, including videos made for relatively obscure musical performers, like the Rubinoos, Josef K, the Residents, and one, in particular, that I found surreally beautiful. It's a video for the experimental British duo, Renaldo and the Loaf.

I'm so happy for the existence of websites that allow for such exploration.

Anyway, here's a music video by this group. It's truly bizarre, in a sort of David Lynchian/surrealistic sort of way. I really like it.

Why not a turn - perhaps even just a quick turn - to surrealism, and to its interest in all things absurd, and in the subconsiousness?

It was the goal of the surrealists (and their dadaist allies) in the 1920s and 1930s to challenge the very cognitive and ideological foundations of the modern, western world, and to truly free the imagination. In that sense, the surrealists were truly radical.

Such a radical and subversive spirit - which was reawakened during the counterculture - is probably needed in today's world.

And as an example, we have this one example, a video and a sample of music by a very odd pair of experimental musicians, about whom, the All Music Guide describes their music as something "guaranteed to rid your house of unwanted guests."

Here's Wikipedia's take on this inventive duo.

An English duo active in the late seventies and most of the eighties, Renaldo and the Loaf consisted of a pathologist (David Janssen or "Ted The Loaf") and an architect (Brian Poole or "Renaldo Malpractice") who made music often considered strange.

By their own assertion, they achieved their unique sound in part by striving to get unnatural synthesizer-like sounds using only what instruments they had available (acoustic ones.) To that end they routinely used muffled and de-tuned instruments, and often to striking effect, tape loops / manipulation. The two released four full length albums, one collection, various songs on compilation albums, and several self-produced demos. They were "discovered" by The Residents when Brian dropped off a tape at Ralph Records headquarters in San Francisco, during a visit to the US. After being signed to Ralph, they collaborated with The Residents on Title in Limbo.

By 1989, the collaboration had lost its steam, and the duo disbanded after recording a sea shanty, "Haul on the Bowline," which appeared only on a Ralph various artists release. Brian/Renaldo contributed to sporadic recordings in the 1990s. In 2006 upon the launch of the new Renaldo & the Loaf web site, the duo were reunited for the first time in the better part of 2 decades.

All blessings to the surrealists of all eras!

Fire of Love - the Gun Club

2007-05-21T08:16:00.000-04:00

I remember when the Gun Club emerged in the mid 80s out of L.A., as it was a truly exciting time for independent and alternative music. And the Gun Club were a key part of them. I had the good fortune to see them live, at a small, but rather well regarded club in Hoboken, NJ and they had some majestic moments, moments in which they kicked into a great, noisy groove and elevated everyone there. Thinking back, I realize how much I miss them (and various other bands from that golden era).

Here, on their stunning debut, the Gun Club, led by hellbound lead singer Jeffrey Lee Pierce, offer 11 fine tracks of bluesy, countrified music. It makes sense to classify it as "roots punk," that is, as a mix of the underlying elements of rock (i.e., blues, country, rockabilly, African/Carribean voodoo music, etc.) filtered through the rebelliousness of punk. It sounded great back then, and it still sounds great. Highly recommended for listening while driving down a highway, particularly around sunset.

Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To

2007-05-04T13:17:00.000-04:00

I was just listening to a bit of the brilliant group, the Spacemen 3, a group, about which, the All Music Guide states the following:

Spacemen 3 were psychedelic in the loosest sense of the word; their guitar explorations were colorfully mind-altering, but not in the sense of the acid rock of the '60s. Instead, the band developed its own minimalistic psychedelia, relying on heavily distorted guitars to clash and produce their own harmonic overtones; frequently, they would lead up to walls of distortion with overamplified acoustic guitars and synths. Often the band would jam on one chord or play a series of songs, all in the same tempo and key. Though this approach was challenging, often bordering on the avant-garde, Spacemen 3 nevertheless gained a dedicated cult following. After releasing several albums in the late '80s, the band fell apart after in 1991.

The Spacemen 3 are a band that liked to play with the textures, generally guitar driven ones, of their songs, resulting in a sort of "trance-like neo-psychedelia." And their songs, and LPs, as the above example demonstrates, simulated an altered state of consciousness associated with drug use. The band, while certainly not the first band of counterculturalists to turn to pharmacueticals for inspiration, were to rock music something like what William S. Burroughs was to literature, with the LP Sound of Confusion being their Junky and, I suppose, Perfect Perscription, the record playing on my CD spinner downstairs, being their Naked Lunch. It should be noted that this recording evokes everything from Lou Reed to gospel to Sun Ra filtered through the MC5.

My wife's top 20 rock bands

2007-04-25T18:49:00.000-04:00

This is a list that my wife, Jolie, put together a while ago (actually in 2002) of her top 20 rock and roll bands. Pretty good list, if you ask me. She and I got to see, together, live shows by two former Beatles (Pete Best, and Paul McCartney), a Kink (Ray Davies), an Animal (Eric Burdon) a Hermit (Peter Noone) and the reconstituted New York Dolls, as well as the reconstituted Soft Boys and reconstitued Buzzcocks (where we got caught up, for a moment, in the moshpit up toward the front of the stage, and Jolie found herself bumping into the lead singer from Everclear. We also saw, in a packed theater, the T Rex concert film Born to Boogie; T Rex and David Bowie producer Tony Visconti was in the audience then. And another piece of trivia is that my wife works just blocks from where Jimi Hendrix started up a recording studio and recorded Electric Ladyland, and also a slight distance from the building which was photographed for the Led Zeppelin LP Physical Graffitti - two pieces of rock trivia we always point out to visitors when we are showing them around Manhattan.

1. The Beatles 2. The Kinks 3. Led Zeppelin 4. The Ramones 5. The Who 6. The Sex Pistols 7. The Heartbreakers (NOT Tom Petty's Heartbreakers!) 8. Fairport Convention 9. The Incredible String Band 10. Jethro Tull 11. Pink Floyd 12. The New York Dolls 13. The Stylistics 14. Sly and Family Stone 15. T. Rex 16. The Rolling Stones 17. The Jimi Hendrix Experience 18. Deep Purple 19. The Clash and 20. The Misfits

Twenty Five Greats

2007-04-20T12:14:00.000-04:00

What makes for rock music greatness is not necessarily commercial success, longevity, or even a great deal of musical ability; rather, greatness seems to emenate from those groups that manage to be very creative and to develop a style and a sound all their own. Bo Diddley, back in the 50s, developed a style all his own, with the underlying basis of his sound being the "bo diddley beat," which Bo himself explained as deriving from a style of dance known as the "hambone," a style involving the stomping as well as slapping and patting the arms, legs, chest, and cheek, and derived from African culture via the Southern plantations and various Caribbean locales. Or, another example is the Kinks, a British Invasion band whose sound was rooted in a more aggressive version of the early 60s British rock but then was refined a few years later through more complex arrangements of their hook-filled songs.

I posted this once before elsewhere a few years ago, and am reposting an edited version of it here. These are arguably the 25 greatest bands in rock history.

1. The Velvet Underground
What made them great: hung out with Andy Warhol and were the Factory's house band, released 4 classic and influential LPs, combined noise/art/drones with well crafted songs, gave us two great talents - Lou Reed and John Cale, influenced punk, post-punk and indie rock from the 1970s on. It has been said that very few people owned the Velvet Undergound's LPs in their time, but that everyone who did was inspired to start a band of their own, or to, in some way, create. Perhaps.

2. The Kinks
What made them great: The Kinks, unlike a lot of other bands of their day, exposed their own weaknesses and vulnerabilities, not to mention their utter Britishness - with their music filled with references to village greens, royalty, afternoon tea, to music hall and to various memories of ordinary British life. They perfected the concept album and were also pioneers of the theatrical side of rock band performance. Much of their music is truly gorgeous and moving (e.g., Waterloo Sunset, Days, Starstruck, Hollywood Blvd., etc.). And their leader, Ray Davies, is undoubtedly a genius, one of rock's greatest geniuses, in fact. In short, they made both pop and art and combined the two in a way only they could.

3. The Beatles
What made them great: The Beatles caused the whole world to fall in love with them, and all with a few basic chords and a few well placed "yeah, yeah, yeahs." The Beatles' greatness, in addition to deriving from both their personalities and their music, has something as well to do with how intertwined they were with their decade - the 1960s. Much was packed into a short span of time, particularly from 1964 until around the time of the moon landing and Woodstock.

4. The Stooges
What made them great: The Stooges are a band now understood to be as seminal as the Velvet Underground for punk rock and other forms of modern music. But whereas the VU were something like a group of art school misfits, the Stooges were more a motley collection of trailer park dirtbags and lowlives, from the wilds of Ypsilanti, Michigan (thus also tied to the great Detroit garage band/biker band scenes). The Stooges seemed to thrive on tension and on stage, this consisted of confronted the audience, in the studio, one another, and when not playing music, themselves. Musically, they captured what is essential about rock, namely its noisy, rhythmic power - no surprise that one of their classic albums was called "Raw Power."

5. The Ramones
What made them great (from a personal review of their 1st LP): I first heard the Ramones debut record in early 1977, shortly after reading a review of them in a music magazine (I think it might have been Trouser Press or perhaps Hit Parader) when I was 15, and I was blown away by its stripped down sound. Hearing them made me an instant fan, as I suspect it did for many others. I remember just loving the Ramones' sound and their twisted sense of humor, not to mention their look (kudos to Roberta Bayley and Arturo Vega for the band photos), and beginning with them, embracing the punk revolution as a breath of fresh air. Here indeed was a band for kid who grew up on Mad Magazine, Famous Monsters of Filmland, comic books, Ed Sullivan, and late 60s bubblegum, and who came of age in the middle of the anomic 1970s. Here the Ramones are sounding extremely stripped down and raw. Recorded for just a few thousand bucks (cheap even by mid 70s prices) the raw sound is a perfect compliment to these songs - some of the Ramones great classics. Songs like Blitzkrieg Bop, Beat on the Brat, 53rd and 3rd, and I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You have well stood the test of time. And with a cover of the oldies song Let's Dance, the Ramones link themselves to rock's glorious past, its transistor radio era. In short what we have here is the start of a musical/cultural revolution.

6. The Who
What made them great: They were tied, at the start of their career, to an anglicized version of Motown/R&B, as well as to the "mod" subculture, and later explored these roots in the LP and (very underrated) film Quadrophenia. They embraced pop art and the swinging 60s, but brought to these things a great deal of testosterone fueled aggression, making their acts of aggression into pop art itself. However, they also balanced their aggressiveness with insightful moments of introspection and reflective insight into the human condition. They were a highlight of Woodstock and released the classic Who's Next, filled with anthems. They then stuck around for several more years, adding to their legion of devoted fans.

7. The New York Dolls What made them great: Not so much their musical skills, which were somewhat limited, as their attitude, one based on their outer boroughs New York personalities, their aggressive androgyny, and their association with drug induced decadence and anomie, all of which made rock music once again seem rebellious, after a long time of not being so. They were the perfect contrast to the corporately sponsored mellowness of mid-70s, Seals and Crofts-era, rock. This attitude and contrastiveness paved the way for the punk scene a few years later.

8. The Fall What made them great: Their droning, atonal sound and the personality of band leader, lead singer and lyricist Mark E. Smith. Even when he's doing things like reading British football scores in the voice of someone with a bad hangover, Mark E. commands the performance space. In short, the Fall, while flirting here and there with commercial success, have been a creative force in indie/underground rock
for decades, and for very good reason.

9. My Bloody Valentine What made them great: They invented/perfected an ethereal style of play, known as "shoegazer." Their music is extremely powerful and seductive and leaves the listener wanting much more.

10. Joy Division What made them great: They captured a moment, when punk seemed dead and the world of possibility was completely opened up, with their music, which is haunting, intense, powerful, and mournful about the various tragic elements of essential existence.

11. T Rex What makes them great: Moved from hippy to glam and thus helped to create the 1970s. And, they are one of a handful of performers/groups (such as Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, AC/DC, Motorhead, Ramones, and ZZ Top) with a patented sound of their own.

12. Yo La Tengo What makes them great: They encompass the history of rock's critical and indie highlights in its entirety in their recordings and performances, and embody the principle of refraining from selling out. Plus, since I like cheering on the home team, and since I have a bit more of an identification with Hoboken's later renaissance than with its 1940s Sinatra-era glory days, I cheer for YLT as my musical home team.

13. Sex Pistols What makes them great: They took anarchism and made it into a band ethos. And they inspired Greil Marcus to write his great Lipstick Traces, which found connections between punk and situationism.

14. The Raincoats
What makes them great: They managed to combine punk and feminist impulses, and gave us a homey, lovely sound.

15. The Beach Boys What makes them great: The musical genius of Brain Wilson, as demonstrated in the LP Pet Sounds and the song "Good Vibrations."

16. Sonic Youth What makes them great: Sonic Youth represents the triumph of the Lower East Side's early 1980s post-punk "no wave" scene, but whereas most of the bands associated with this scene were producing their music almost as an art project - not necessarily meant to last for very long, SY actually dedicated themselves to their band as a career, and produced an extensive body of work, merging guitar noise and conventional song structures.

17. Guided By Voices What makes them great: They've got bulldog skin and they knew how to make lo-fi rock as hard as a metal band.

18. The Television Personalities What makes them great: Someone had to be the cheekily ironic commentators on the punk revolution. Why not them?

19. Hot Tuna What makes them great: They are the anti-Starship, a Jefferson Airplane spinoff band actually better than the band from which they emerged, and thus a continuation of the ideals of the 1960s and of roots rock. And having seen them live, I can easily vouch for their musicianship.

-also, some bonus points here for the fragile, lovely music of Jefferson Airplane alumni, Skip Spence.

20. Stereolab What makes them great: Marry 50s lounge music to 90s synth-pop, and do so perfectly. Listening to their music always puts me in a better mood.

21. The Buzzcocks What makes them great: they were, as the Spin Alternative Record Guide puts it, a "pop band born in punk heaven."

22. TheClean What makes them great: Their total commitment to lo-fi musical greatness and their pioneering status as New Zealand's first great indie rock band - a further instantiation of Beat Happening's notion of an "international pop underground."

23. The Ex What makes them great: Their idealism and their experimental approach to music.

24. Pink Floyd What makes them great: starting with Syd Barrett, one of the great conceptually oriented rock bands, with a great interest in alienation and dystopia.

25. The Minutemen What makes them great: Their energy, their commitment to truth and to ideas, and the fact that they could really play, in a style like no other band of their era.

It was 40 years ago today....

2007-04-16T16:13:00.000-04:00

...according to my copy of The Billboard Book of Number One Hits, that two really great pop tunes were in the top five.

For the week of April 15, 1967, the number 2 song in the country was the Turtles' Happy Together, a song written by Gary Bonner and Allen Gordon (these guys also wrote She'd Rather be With Me.)

And the number 5 song was the Monkees' A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You, a song written by Neil Diamond. (I've yet to hear the Ventures' version, at least in its entirety.)

Both songs - I love them both - bring me back to more innocent days.

It was twenty years ago today....

2007-04-16T15:24:00.000-04:00

... that Prince had a top ten hit with the song Sign `O' the Times, which is, in my opinion, one of the great all time Prince songs, from Prince's greatest LP, of the same name.

I remember the release of this, as if it were yesterday. A coworker, Jay R., taped me a copy of this record, and with appreciation, I took it home and gave it a listen. I was already a bit of a Prince fan, and enjoyed his music. But nothing I had listened to could possibly have prepared me for this epic double LP, with its serious expression of social concerns. As I listened to it for the first few times, I can remember thinking how powerful, substantive and deep it was. It represented a major artistic leap forward for an artist who had already demonstrated his originality. And the songs - Starfish and Coffee, Hot Thing, The Cross, U Got the Look, Forever in My life - these songs would just ring in one's ears for hours afterward.

So, this posting is to celebrate the 20th anniversary of this classic record hitting the charts. Chart success is not always a sign of artistic achievement, though sometimes it is. It certainly was in the case of this record. I also have long wondered about who Prince's audience is. I gather that his audiences (and I use the plural intentionally) were multiple and diverse, and transcended color. In fact, I can still recall the first time I became aware of Prince; I was in a record shop in Boston in 1979, and saw a large store poster for Prince's For You LP.

And then, along with music listeners everywhere, I took note of such hits as Controversy, Sexuality, 1999, Little Red Corvette, and of course, Purple Rain. And I remember such moments as Prince on Saturday Night Live, during the show's bad era of the early 80s, doing the song Partyup. Prince was certainly a force. But again, Sign `O' the Times was an artistic leap forward.

So, here's to an album and a song which twenty years later still holds up. And here, while it lasts on Youtube, is a video.

Pub Rock in the USA and the UK

2007-04-15T19:45:00.000-04:00

Remember "Pub Rock"? It was sometimes marketed as "punk rock," but in actuality, it was a slightly different animal. For one thing, while it shared with punk a penchant for stripped down simplicity, it wasn't nearly as angry, confrontational, absurdist and/or political as punk. It was much more a feelgood music, though perhaps with some exceptions. Essentially, pub rock was, and always has been, crowd pleasing music played in clubs with bars. And of course, while famous, landmark NYC clubs such as Max's Kansas City, CBGB's and the Mudd Club could possibly have been considered drinking establishment, none, in fact, qualified as pubs. The music played in these places was not pub rock, exactly. In the U.K., pub rock seems to be associated with small clubs out of London, that is, locatable more in small provincial towns.In fact, the two times in my life I've been to London, I noticed that there were a lot more techno dance clubs than bars featuring bands playing live, at least within the London city limits.

[a side note: in NJ, there is a large slew of shore bands that play in the boardwalk bars, from Cape May all the way up to Sandy Hook. Much like their British counterparts, they used to be known for their classic rock/r&b sound. Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes came out of this scene as did, of course, the E Street Band (as well as Bruce's earlier bands). Nowadays, I tend to ignore this scene, as my impression of it is that it has gotten a lot schlockier.]

I was thinking a while ago about pub rock, after acquiring a cheapo 3 CD compilation called "I Spit on your Gravy," and one of the tracks is by Eddie and the HotRods, one of the leading pub rock bands during the era of British punk, c. 1976-78. I remember buying their LP "Teenage Depression" right around the time I got into punk and thinking it was pretty decent. They had a really rocking, loud fast version of Bob Seger's "Get out of Denver." On this record, they do Van Morrison's "Gloria," but its not that great a version.

Anyway, Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds were also pub rockers, with their power pop and neo-rockabilly. So was Graham Parker and the Rumour, with their stripped down r&b, even though, like the punks, Parker was often edgy. Then there were bands like Ducks Deluxe (who spun off into The Motors, Brinsley Schwartz, and Dr. Feelgood. The Motors then gave us Bram Tchaikovsky, who was something of a hitmaker in the late 70s new wave era. I'd also include Ian Dury and the Blockheads and Wreckless Eric among the pub rock pantheon. My wife, Jolie, who lived for a time in England was telling me a while ago about the Sensational Alex Harvey Band; it sounds, too, like they might have been pub rockers; or at least rockers who spent all their free time at the pubs.

Some scholarly accounts of how we use music

2007-04-15T16:24:00.000-04:00

Scholar Tia Denora, in the book Music in Everyday Life, draws upon a series of ethnographic studies, including in-depth interviews with a group of fifty-two British and American women aged eighteen to seventy-seven, and in doing so, examines how the subjects utilize music in a wide variety of different settings. The book is thus a social phenomenology of music, which is something that interests me very much.

Another study, Thinking inside the box: In search of music-video culture is a 2005 doctoral dissertation by Patricia L Schmidt, a scholar at the University of Surrey. Schmidt's dissertation is based upon an ethnography she conducted with teenagers in the eastern United States "to examine the development of music-video cultures and to discuss the medium's overwhelming influence on the adolescent imagination." From this, she put together a "working definition of music-video culture and cultural practice." Her work challenges ethnomusicologists to think differently about participant-observation, fieldnotes, and other traditional anthropological methods.

From Amazon.com Music, Space and Place, edited by Sheila Whiteley, Andy Bennett, and Stan Hawkins, examines the urban and rural spaces in which music is experienced, produced and consumed. The editors of this collection have brought together new and exciting perspectives by international researchers and scholars working in the field of popular music studies. Underpinning all of the contributions is the recognition that musical processes take place within a particular space and place, where these processes are shaped both by specific musical practices and by the pressures and dynamics of political and economic circumstances.

Important discourses are explored concerning national culture and identity, as well as how identity is constructed through the exchanges that occur between displaced peoples of the world's many diasporas. Music helps to articulate a shared sense of community among these dispersed people, carving out spaces of freedom which are integral to personal and group consciousness. A specific focal point is the rap and hip hop music that has contributed towards a particular sense of identity as indigenous resistance vernaculars for otherwise socially marginalized minorities in Cuba, France, Italy, New Zealand and South Africa. New research is also presented on the authorial presence in production within the domain of the commercially driven Anglo-American music industry. The issue of authorship and creativity is tackled alongside matters relating to the production of musical texts themselves, and demonstrates the gender politics in pop.

Underlying Music, Space and Place, is the question of how the disciplines informing popular music studies - sociology, musicology, cultural studies, media studies and feminism - have developed within a changing intellectual climate. The book therefore covers a wide range of subject matter in relation to space and place, including community and identity, gender, race, 'vernaculars', power, performance and production.

Sociologist and jazz musician Howard Becker offers the following analysis called jazz places. This is a starting point for those interested in looking at jazz from a sociological standpoint. Here too are Becker's notes on improvisation.

Finally, here are some links to ethnomusicology.

So bad it's good

2007-04-15T13:53:00.001-04:00

From Bizarre Records, Nick DiFonzo's website for cataloguing weird records. Great website, worth several visits. The Friends are simply one of a number of obscure acts to be discovered there.

The Bizarre Records catalogue fits in with the sorts of outsider music that WFMU DJ and cultural explorer Irwin Chusid focuses on in his fascinating book/recording series, Songs in the Key of Z. I read his book several years ago and could not put it down.

According to Chusid, "If you're interested in Outsider Music, it's safe to assume you're a fairly unusual person, inquisitive, perhaps a bit "outside" the mainstream yourself. Because Outsider Music, by definition, offers little of interest to the vast majority of your fellow citizens. They have neither the time nor the curiosity for.it.

- - The spectrum of music to which the average person is exposed -- versus the variety of available sonic art -- is extremely limited. Yet I don't subscribe to conspiracy theories about the music industry suppressing uncommercial (or non-commercial) artists; nor do I believe that the government, the Trilateral Commission, Billboard, radio programming consultants, Warner Bros., and agents of the Nine Elder Bankers are in collusion to prevent anyone from exploring the nether reaches of musical marginalia. These lumbering Goliaths aren't concerned with Jandek or Shooby.Taylor.

Most consumers simply do not have adventurous taste in music. They're preoccupied with families, careers, and paying bills, home improvements and car repairs, and getting a good night's sleep. Insofar as music plays any role in their lives, they prefer the comfort of familiar artists and formulas. For that, no one should be faulted. It's a filtering process, necessary to avoid sensory overload. A person who can't appreciate music beyond Air Supply or Jimmy Buffett may have an appetite for exotic food, fine art, or extreme sports. But when they or their progeny get married, they prefer that the festivities resonate with the strains of Billy Joel, Sinatra, Motown oldies, and Madonna. Weddings and Bat Mitzvahs are not occasions for expanding your musical horizons, or those of your guests. And yet music provides an important ritualistic function, and I harbor little doubt that pop standards played or performed at these events have great significance to all involved. Captain Beefheart's "Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish" or Wesley Willis's "Shoot Me in the Ass" just won't.do.

- - Yet Outsider Music has its place -- an intimate, dimly lit enclave. Songs in the Key of Z attempts to air out the dusty attics and damp cellars of the greater music community, introducing some of the dizzy aunts and eccentric uncles about whom your parents rarely.spoke."

Finally, as an example of pure outsider music, there is the Shaggs. This is a group of sisters who seemingly could not play their instruments; nevertheless, the wrote and performed a bunch of songs, appearing at venues during the late 60s/early 70s. Their LP sold very few copies, but among those who did own it were Frank Zappa, who championed them, and the music collectors at Rounder Records, who signed them to a releasing deal. The Shaggs periodically get together to play, and they were also the subjects of a musical in L.A.

Here is the Shaggs' website

On a certain level, Shaggs' music may seem laughably bad and thoroughly amaterish. However, I must admit, I actually like their records a lot, and from what I have gathered, the Wiggin sisters are very likable people. These recordings are unlike anything else ever recorded. Nothing is in tune. The beats and rhythms are all over the place. The lyrics are very naive and childlike. However a certain sweetness and sincerety comes across. I also don't find it irritating the way I find a lot of commercial music. Is it any wonder that the Shaggs have been the object of cultish devotion for all these many years?

Sons (and Daughters) of the Velvets

2007-04-15T11:34:00.000-04:00

Some reviews of some seminal bands that were influenced by the Velvet Underground, starting with The Only Ones

A mini-review of the LP Special View

A great blast of new wave energy is to be found here. Featuring the classic Another Girl, Another Planet, Britain's The Only Ones rocked many rock fans' worlds when they they came to public attention during the late 70s punk explosion. Listening to them, you hear in them a sort of a glam/pre-punk feel, not unlike Lou Reed and the New York Dolls. In fact, I suggest listening to them along with Lou and the Dolls, perhaps on a CD spinner. Their respective sounds are quite complimentary.

Back to the Only Ones; here is what Jim Walsh of Spin says about them: "Live, the band's leopard skin vests, furs, pink top hats, sharkskin smoking jackets, and shades had more in common with glam than punk." Walsh also describes lead singer Peter Perrett's songs as "suggestive, flowery, mystical, debauched," and his voice as "sheated in sorrow, decay, and bliss - nothing short of hypnotic." Ira Robbins of Trouser Press refers to Perrett's "romanticism and artfully decadent stylings."

It's no wonder Peter Perrett and Johnny Thunders hit it off.

Next up, the Talking Heads, with a focus on More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978)

This is one of those records I associate with a time when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life; it was 1980, and I was just out of high school and taking a writing class at the New School, hoping to learn to observe the world around me and to write well about it. Around this time, the music world, too, was trying to figure out its own direction. Mainstream music felt so bloated and lifeless. Nevertheless, there were various forms of life bubbling underneath. The Talking Heads were one such form. On this, a record from 1978 (punk rock's sophomore year) the band combines the jittery vocals and non ironic observational lyrics of lead singer David Byrne, the minimalist funk-based(particularly on Found a Job) playing of rhythm section Chris and Tina, and a variety of inputs from newest member Jerry Harrison. More Songs then adds something very special to the mix - the production treatment of avant-garde rocker Brian Eno, who helped them to find a newer, perhaps better, sound with which to present their music. It allows them to present their very unique take on Al Green's Take Me To The River, as well as the epic in scope song The Big Country (not to be confused with the song In A Big Country by the band named, what else, Big Country). The Talking Heads song is much more subtle.

One other personal association. I also associate this record and this band, in particular,with the world of lower Manhattan, particularly the area of the East Village/St. Mark's Place, where I was spending an increasing amount of time, going to book stores and record shops and developing a deep appreciation for new ideas and for various alternative cultures/cultural underground. This would be a place I enjoyed observing things going on, a place to inspire writing, and a place with a lot of interesting music and culture, all of which helped me to think.

Turning to the Clean, a band from New Zealand and a leader of the indie rock scene there.

The LP Getaway represents one of my beloved bands playing on a really fine record. While better produced than some of their earlier work, this on again, off again trio continues, over and over again, to deliver music that is a joy to listen to. Combining folkish Velvet Underground-ish three chord rock with various indie rock sonic experiments, including some cuts that remind me of My Bloody Valentine at their most danceable, and featuring the fine accompanying playing of Yo La Tengo's Georgia Hubley and Ira Kaplan on two tracks, some mighty infectious grooves abound on this, a wonderfully warm, enjoyable recording by a legendary group.

Next up, Scotland's Pastels.

On the recording Mobile Safari, Glasgow, Scotland's Pastels really shine, particularly on the song "Yoga," which sounds something like what the Velvet Underground might have produced had they, like the Archies, had their own Saturday morning cartoon. In fact, the Pastels move beyond the "shambolic," an adjective frequently used to describe their sound and demonstrate why they are, in fact, one of the great unsung rock bands of our day. Long may they continue to shine and to make joyous guitar pop like they do here.

Finally, the band Luna.

Luna, now no longer, were, like all of the bands above, a beloved cult band, but one uniquely influenced by one Velvet Underground LP in particular, their last recording with Lou Reed, Loaded. Their record Bewitched offers a consistent interpretation of Loaded, but not an a derivative way; rather, Luna managed to take a great sound and to bring it forward.

Some possible theme songs for a former hometown

2007-04-14T22:32:00.000-04:00

There is a freebie magazine in NYC called The L Magazine

In an issue from a few years ago titled "the music issue," the question was asked, as one of the regular features (the "New York argument," in which two New Yorkers square off on some topic) What's the quintessential NYC song? The arguments were posited by a couple of musicians.

One writer argues for Lou Reed's "Take a Walk on the Wild Side," arguing that the song, about Warhol's Factory, reflects NYC being a collection of scenes: Hip-Hop, Hipsters, Hippies, 1960s Folkies, Antifolk, Bohemians, Beats, Bobos, the Harlem Renaissance, Glam, Broadway, and that New York breeds and imports the talented, brilliant leaders of avant-cultural movements, and stews them in neighborhood cauldrons of endless experience.

The other argues for the song Autumn in "New York," proclaiming that "while New York holds out the promise of every worldly success imaginable - fame, treasure, and young flesh for starters - you're just as likely to find abject failure and cruel heartbreak in New York as you are dizzying success and sweet romance. All of this is poignantly conveyed in `Autumn in New York'."

So, in thinking about this, I ask, what song best describes or conveys something unique about where you live or come from?

Here are three possible picks, and these pertain to Jersey City where I grew up and lived for three different stretches. I couldn't decide between these:

"One of the Boys" by Mott the Hoople
"The Real Me" by the Who
"In the neighborhood" by Tom Waits.

While the first of these tunes, written by Mick Ralphs and Ian Hunter is a classic rocker and is about being in a rock band/fitting in with a group, almost in a tribal sense, the second of these, also a classic rocker, is about not fitting in and feeling alienated. Both of these convey the feel of growing up in a blue collar town like Jersey City. And finally, the third song, the Waits tune, is a nostalgic, somewhat bittersweet ballad, observing/(celebrating?) the eccentric misfits with whom one makes a community, in spite of everything. It has a kind of shaggy dog quality to it, and impressionistically, reminds me of certain aspects of the place in which I grew up. It connects the old to the new, which is how I recall life in an aging post-industrial city which happened to be situated in the shadow of Manhattan. The video for this song is terrific and was directed by Haskell Wexler, the great documentarian.

Anyway, here are some lyrics to the Who song.

The cracks between the paving stones
Look like rivers of flowing veins
Strange people who know me
Peeping from behind every window pane

The girl I used to love
Lives in this yellow house
Yesterday she passed me by
She doesn't want to know me now

Can you see the real me, can you, can you
Can you see the real me, can you, whoa yeah

And here are the lyrics to In the Neighborhood

Well the eggs chase the bacon
round the fryin' pan
and the whinin' dog pidgeons
by the steeple bell rope
and the dogs tipped the garbage pails
over last night
and there's always construction work
bothering you
In the neighborhood
In the neighborhood
In the neighborhood

Friday's a funeral
and Saturday's a bride
Sey's got a pistol on the register side
and the goddamn delivery trucks
they make too much noise
and we don't get our butter
delivered no more
In the neighborhood
In the neighborhood
In the neighborhood

Well Big Mambo's kicking
his old grey hound
and the kids can't get ice cream
'cause the market burned down
and the newspaper sleeping bags
blow down the lane
and that goddamn flatbed's
got me pinned in again
In the neighborhood
In the neighborhood
In the neighborhood

There's a couple Filipino girls
gigglin' by the church
and the windoe is busted
and the landlord ain't home
and Butch joined the army
yea that's where he's been
and the jackhammer's diggin'
up the sidewalks again
In the neighborhood
In the neighborhood
In the neighborhood

Global impact of music vs. film

2007-04-14T22:24:00.000-04:00

I was once asked the question, which medium/art form has reached more people around the world via popular culture: music or film. The questioner specified that they we're talking about 20th century music/film and were excluding literature
from this debate. The question was about which has had the most power to reach the world, that is, to make people react, be it laugh, cry, think, change society, entertain, remain in people's memories etc.

I replied that I lean slightly in the direction of music, but I think, when all is said and done, both mediums are about tied. Film themes and genres and music styles both cross cultures and bring influences from place to place. One musical example that comes to mind is that of reggae, a Jamaican musical genre based on American soul (and later hip-hop), which then, in turn, influenced everything from British punk bands like the Clash, ATV, Buzzcocks, etc., American rappers like KRS-1, various techno artists (particularly dub reggae), Afropop, and probably a whole lot more. As far as the "message" (aside from the sound of danceable "crooked beat" as the Clash once described it) of reggae, it is ambiguous, being an equal mix of feel-good spiritualism (e.g., Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds" now used to promote Jamaican tourism) and (gangsta-)rebellion, (e.g., Shabba Ranks) and either message, depending on artist consumed, is what gets delivered. I was recently listening to a tribute record to the Nigerian political popstar, Fela Kuti, and on it, artists from around the world gather to interpret music which is itself a hybrid of forms. Also, in both Jamaica and various African countries, the DJ is still king as a taste maker; something that was the case in the U.S. when Murray the K was spinning Beatles records, before radio became corporatized. In more urbanized parts of the world, the same globalization seems to be occurring, but it seems that music videos are more influential; one could argue that the medium of the music video emphasizes the visual at the expense of the music, but I'm not necessarily convinced that the global audience is now only interested in consuming visual images and not in the music itself. What I think is happening are a series of massive changes by which music is produced, distributed and consumed. It is sometimes difficult to chart these changes.

With film and globalization, one thinks of Hollywood. However, there is, within film, high, low, and middlebrow culture, and it seems that what is most globally popular are either the lower or middle brow style fare; I'm not sure what particular this impact has. In part, I think, audiences can and do read whatever meanings they project onto the screen while watching the film.

The needle and the damage done

2007-04-14T18:48:00.000-04:00

Rock, folk, blues, and jazz are genres in which some of the greatest musicians have also been drug addicts; Bix Beiderbecke, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Art Pepper, Tim Hardin, Townes Van Zandt, Tim Buckley, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, and the Pretenders' Pete Farndon and James Honeyman-Scott were all among the casualties. These musicians were all extraordinarily gifted. Some were visionaries. And not to be overly clinical or reductionist, some may have been inherently unstable as a result of some underlying psychological conditions.While some lost their battle with smack or booze, others managed to go clean, at least for a time. While drinking or drug taking was not necessarily the essence of a Charlie Parker or a Townes Van Zandt or an explanation of the unquestionable beauty of their music, being wasted - and thus loopy and uninhibited - at least some of the time may have had something to do with how they lived their lives and in how they created a music that endures to this very day.

A couple of bands, though, spring to mind as bands that were both drug addled and thus prone to self-destruction but nevertheless perhaps somewhat inspired by the junky existence; brilliant and influentially ragged, these bands, from the world of punk - a world that reveres raggedness and nonconformity - are: The Germs, the Heartbreakers and Flipper.

Here are the Germs doing No God The Germs have recently reformed with a new lead singer and have been out on the "Warped" Tour, playing for kids a few generations younger, and young enough to be their offspring. Many outside of their L.A. base in the early 1980s became aware of the Germs through their appearance in the film The Decline of Western Civilization , myself included.

The Germs were, in my opinion, one of the great and essential American punk bands. Their sound was a particularly primitive stripped down three chord punk; listening to them it sounds as if they could barely play when they started. No matter - neither could other punk legends like Sid Vicious or the Ramones, both of whom were obvious influences here. The other obviously key part of their unique sound is singer Darby Crash. Darby was no poser; for him, punk was a total way of life, one to which he committed his (short lived) life. On songs like What We Do is Secret, Richie Dagger's Crime or Lexicon Devil, you can hear the power of his vocalizing; and you can also hear a deeply buried but inherent tunefulness, deep within the musical muck.

Here are the Heartbreakers doing Going steady and Chinese Rocks. The Heartbreakers were a band formed by guitarist Johnny Thunders, after the breakup/fracturing of his earlier band, the legendary New York Dolls (Here is a really fine Johnny Thunders blog.) I recently finished reading Nina Antonia's book about the Dolls - Too Much Too Soon, and also read, a few years ago, her book on Thunders, In Cold Blood. Both are very good, interesting, informative reads, with both chronicling the rapid rise and hard, grief strewn falls of said musicians.

[Incidentally, the New York Dolls have recently reformed and have an official band website. I've seen this version of them twice live, and while they are a lot of fun and sound decent, it's not quite the same as the 70s version; it cannot possibly be. Everyone knows that. And Nina Antonia's book's has apparently been revised, for the 3rd edition, to cover this recent reunion, as well as the most recent Dolls death, of bass player Arthur "Killer"Kane.]

With the Heartbreakers, Johnny Thunders established himself as his own leader of the pack, but in the clip shown above, he shares the stage with bass player/songwriter/singer Richard Hell, who didn't last in this group for very long; (the clip being from 1975, and Johnny here still has his long NY Dolls haircut and not yet his punk hairdo). The classic Heartbreakers lineup was Johnny, ex-Doll Jerry Nolan on drums, Walter Lure on guitar, and Billy Rath on bass. While the Heartbreakers were well known as a band of heroin addicts and were thus inherently unstable (only managing to record one studio LP as a band, and, according to Antonia, sort of screwing that task up. Nevertheless, their recording are filled with hooks, chords, and a type of New York street humor. The Heartbreakers, as well as the Ramones, were also massively influential on the London punks of the 70s, and thus on punk, generally speaking. And yet in their live shows, they were essentially playing for chump change, and were sometimes so wasted that they could barely hold their instruments.

And not to overly romanticize their use of potentially deadly substances, but an argument can and should be made that the use of such substances as speed and heroin by such bands helped to fuel their creativity, by fueling their alienation from much of the world, essentially all of the straight (i.e., non partaking) world, and also by altering their perceptions in ways we may not fully understand. It made their performances ragged and messy, and this actually and authentically added a certain textural quality to their otherwise in many ways conventional music. None of this is to rationalize drugs; rather, it is to look at the use of drugs by certain artists with a sense of honesty.

Finally, here is Flipper doing Way of the world

These performances are truly sloppy and pretty great, with Flipper's showing a particular intensity. Bruce Lose is quite the charismatic front man/lead singer and looks healthy here (that would change in later years; Flipper would also suffer a band casualty - in their case, bass player Will Shatter. In the early, classic lineup, Flipper's two main songwriters were a kind of yin and yang, with Shatter known for writing the "optimistic" songs like "Life" and "Way of the World," and Lose writing the more "pessimistic" songs like "Life is Cheap" and "Living for the Depression."

This video has been removed due to terms of use violation: on intellectual copyrights, part 1

2007-04-14T12:58:00.000-04:00

The terms "This video has been removed due to terms of use violation" appears in a number of links to posted materials such as music videos/film clips, such as on such popular websites as Youtube.

Youtube, listing its terms of use rules, states the following: The content on the YouTube Website, except all User Submissions (as defined below), including without limitation, the text, software, scripts, graphics, photos, sounds, music, videos, interactive features and the like ("Content") and the trademarks, service marks and logos contained therein ("Marks"), are owned by or licensed to YouTube, subject to copyright and other intellectual property rights under United States and foreign laws and international conventions. Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only and may not be used, copied, reproduced, distributed, transmitted, broadcast, displayed, sold, licensed, or otherwise exploited for any other purposes whatsoever without the prior written consent of the respective owners. YouTube reserves all rights not expressly granted in and to the Website and the Content. You agree to not engage in the use, copying, or distribution of any of the Content other than expressly permitted herein, including any use, copying, ordistribution of User Submissions of third parties obtained through the Website for any commercial purposes. If you download or print a copy of the Content for personal use, you must retain all copyright and other proprietary notices contained therein. You agree not to circumvent, disable or otherwise interfere with security related features of the YouTube Website or features that prevent or restrict use or copying of any Content or enforce limitations on use of the YouTube Website or the Content therein.

And so, we see a continuation of the ongoing struggle between the rights of "intellectual property" owners and users/consumers of such content. Youtube, being an extremely popular and successful video hosting site, appears to be managing this struggle on an ad-hoc, case by case, basis. It also is the case that the entertainment industry is itself internally divided on the question.

Here is what Wikipedia has to say on this matter.

YouTube policy does not allow content to be uploaded by anyone not permitted by United States copyright law to do so, and the company frequently removes uploaded infringing content. Nonetheless, a large amount of it continues to be uploaded. Generally, unless the copyright holder reports them, YouTube only discovers these videos via indications within the YouTube community through self-policing. The primary way in which YouTube identifies the content of a video is through the search terms that uploaders associate with clips. Some users have taken to creating alternative words as search terms to be entered when uploading specific type of files (similar to the deliberate misspelling of band names on MP3 filesharing networks). For a short time, members could also report one another. The service offers a flagging feature, intended as a means for reporting questionable content, including that which might constitute copyright infringement. However, the feature can be susceptible to abuse; for a time, some users were flagging other users' original content for copyright violations, purely out of spite. YouTube proceeded to remove copyright infringement from the list of offenses flaggable by members.
Hollywood remains divided on YouTube, as "'[t]he marketing guys love YouTube and the legal guys hate it.'"Further,

“While lawyers are demanding filtering technology, many Hollywood execs actually enjoy the fact that YouTube only takes down clips when they request it. "If I found part of a successful show up on YouTube today, I'd probably pull it down immediately . . . If I had a show that wasn't doing so well in the ratings and could use the promotion, I wouldn't be in a rush to do that."
”
Content owners are not just targeting YouTube for copyright infringements on the site, but they are also targeting third party websites that link to infringing content on YouTube and other video sharing sites. For example QuickSilverScreen vs. Fox Daily Episodes vs. Fox and Columbia vs. Slashfilm. The liability of linking remains a grey area with cases for and against. The law in the US currently leans towards website owners being liable for infringing links although they are often protected by the DMCA providing they take down infringing content when issued with a takedown notice. However, a recent court ruling in the US found Google not to be liable for linking to infringing content (Perfect 10 v. Google, Inc.).

Examples of infringement complaints

On October 5, 2006 the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) had their copyright complaints regarding Japanese media on YouTube finalized. Thousands of media from popular Japanese artists (such as Tokyo Jihen and various other music including Jpop) were removed.

When CBS and Universal Music Group signed agreements to provide content to YouTube they announced that they would use new technology that will help them find copyrighted material and remove it.

TV journalist Robert Tur filed the first lawsuit against the company in Summer 2006, alleging copyright infringement for hosting a number of famous news clips without permission. The case has yet to be resolved.

On November 9, 2006 Artie Lange said his lawyer were in talks with YouTube, after finding his entire DVD, It's the Whiskey Talking, available for free on their site. Artie said he will either demand money from them, or else he will sue.

Viacom and the British Broadcasting Corporation both demanded YouTube to take down more than 200,000 videos.

Viacom announced it was suing YouTube, and its owner Google, for more than $1 billion in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Viacom claims that YouTube has over 160,000 of their videos on their website without their permission.

Speaking personally, I am for as much open access as is possible, and I am for a balance between intellectual property rights and the principle of fair use. (To be continued.)

Review: The Velvet Underground's - White Light/White Heat

2007-04-14T11:27:00.000-04:00

The Velvet Underground is, for me, rock's - or specifically indie/alternative rock's - all time greatest band because it is its most influential. The list of bands and musicians influenced and inspired by the VU is enormous and includes U2, the Cure, the Strokes, REM, Luna, the Jesus and Mary Chain, and Patti Smith, to name just a few. I am the proud owner of their boxed set, Peel Slowly and See which is one of the few boxed sets I own. I also own some solo records by various Velvets, including Lou Reed, Nico, and John Cale. I brought my friends to see the film "I Shot Andy Warhol," which reconstructed the era of Warhol's Factory, when the Velvets (well played in the film by Yo La Tengo) were the house band. I now own a copy of that fine film, as well.

(Here, as a bit of proof, is a really crude, lo-fi and amazing film clip of the band playing, apparently at the Dom on 8th Street (Manhattan) April 1966. It's a crude clip, but its very Warholian and gives a good sense of what the VU sounded like during their mid 60s period. Such 60s NYC underground royalty as Barbara Rubin, Tuli Kupferberg, Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, Ed Sanders, Gerard Malanga, Andy Warhol all appear to be present.)

Even though I was born in 1961, and was thus a bit too young to have known about and understood the Warhol Factory era, I do remember the tail end of the 60s. And I remember Greenwich Village and lower Manhattan from back then. I had an aunt who loved the City and who used to take me over there, from our NJ home, on a regular basis and I have specific memories of witnessing 60s freaks in Washington Square Park. I must have been about six years old at the time. As I got older, I came to a realization of the significance of the 60s, of Warhol, of Greenwich Village, and of the seminal band connected to all three: Lou Reed, John Cale, Mo Tucker, Sterling Morrison - the Velvet Underground.

I bought a rather old, scratchy copy of this record, which I found in a used record bin, while in high school in the mid/late 1970s, which is also the period of time when I, influenced by 70s rock mags like Creem and Circus, began to discover the music of Lou Reed (e.g., Coney Island Baby, Transformer, Street Hassle, etc; this was also a follow-up to my love of the music of David Bowie, whom I discovered in the 8th grade, in 1975, which is also around the time I remember seeing LP covers f0r Roxy Music). However, I didn't truly get deeply into Lou and the Velvets until a bit later, when I bought a Velvet compilation, and began listening to them, as well as the various Velvets solo stuff more frequently and carefully. Nevertheless, having first listened to this record and its classic proto noise/no wave track "Sister Ray," when I did, planted a seed. I recall liking a few of the songs here - the title track, "Sister Ray," and "Here She Comes Now," and not quite knowing what to make of the rest, particularly John Cale's nihilistic little story song "The Gift" or Lou's freak out guitar solo on "I Heard Her Call My Name." I was also less than impressed with the cruddy production values of the recording, made worse by my scratchy used copy.

Listening now, and thinking about it further, I now realize what a gem even a scratchy used copy of this is. This, indeed, is a great album. This is also mainly Lou's album, and in it, you can hear him asserting himself as the band's leader. And you can also hear the band pushing him back. And listening to the whole band thrash away on "Sister Ray" - with its deviantly awkward, erotically charged lyrics -one hears what a rock drone is meant to be. In short, the lo-fi production and the inherent tensions within the band made for a proto-punk, proto-indie rock classic recording, one which truly captures the anomic and polarized mood of the late 60s, a time of drugs, violence, political confrontation, of social and artistic change. The whole world was being turned upside down, and the Velvet Underground managed to capture a small piece of the tenor of the times. This recording belongs in the music collection of everyone interested in the history of rock, punk, indie rock or Warholiana.

Finally, Olivier Landemaine maintains a very informative Velvet Underground web page .

Paris Hilton has a record deal?

2007-04-14T11:15:00.000-04:00

Paris Hilton is the perfect embodiment of that side of American society and culture that is bubble headed and that worships at the altar of money and celebrity. It is the culture that is also expressed in the headlines of the supermarket checkout counter tabloids, the Globes, Stars, and Enquirers, with their references to scandalized celebrities referred to by first name only ("Anna Nicole," "Brittany," "Tyra," "Jacko," "Ashton") as if we, the public, were on a first name basis with these remote figures. Being bubble headed, this culture promotes trivia and minutia over more important facts; more Americans, for example, can name the Three Stooges or recite the lyrics to the Brady Bunch song than can name their own congressperson or explain the Bill of Rights.

This interpretation of the more shallow aspects of our society, then, helps to explain the phenomenon of this record, which is purely the result of recording studio technology. Like some of the disco classics of the late 70s, this is little more than generic dance pop. As such, it's actually listenable, but in a purely mindless and innocuous way. It's much better than, say, Kelly Osbourne's equally mindless musical outbursts. If anything, it reminds me of the kinds of music that I hear when I am at the mall, which is pumped out of the mall stores' speakers, at an appropriately innocuous volume, so as to give the consumer a kind of mild pumping up so as to keep on spending. I would imagine this goes over particularly well in the mall stores frequented by mall princesses. Nevertheless, it's rather generic and empty, not unlike the "soul" of the "artist" whose name gets to be put on this. We know, though, that Paris Hilton had very little to do with making this recording, as making a recording is work, and Paris Hilton doesn't know the first thing about what it is to have to work.

Incidentally, here is Paris Hilton's website which offers links to her videos and to music clips. It pretty much speaks for itself.

A burst of energy, courtesy of Joe Strummer & the Clash

2007-04-14T11:02:00.000-04:00

For those in need of a pick-me-up, here is one that works for me. A rocking video, courtesy of YouTube, of one of my favorite bands, the Clash, playing an October 1977 show in Manchester, UK, in support of their recently released LP, The Clash.

The Clash were a great band, one of the greatest in the history of punk rock, and very political. I feel privileged to be able to say that I saw them perform twice, once in 1979 and again in 1982.

Here's some proof of how great they were; a video of them performing the songs "What's My Name" and "Garageland" live at a club in the North of England. They play with total intensity. And lead singer Joe Strummer shows what a charismatic star he was.

My favorite moment here: during the second song, "Garageland," Joe leans right up into the crowd and sings the chorus - "We're a garageband/we come from garageland" etc. and guitarist Mick Jones provides the backing vocal "who-ho-ho"s as does the crowd, a number of whom lean in to touch Joe, some patting him on the head as you might affectionately touch a beloved pet. It's a moment of punk communion.

So, let the Clash - and this recorded moment of their history - be, perhaps, a metaphor for the importance of community, the need for positive energy, and the willingness to channel our rage toward something creative. And may the great Joe Strummer rest in peace.

A list of my favorite politically oriented musicians

2007-01-19T09:10:00.000-05:00

Here is a list of my favorite left leaning bands and individual musicians, from a variety of different musical genres.

I'm in my forties and having grown up on pop and rock and loved such musics from an early age, inevitably, my interests in music and politics (as well as sociology, which I study/teach) became somewhat intertwined. When I was a kid growing up in a lower middle class Democratic household in NJ, with aunts and uncles who were nostalgiac for the big bands of the 1940s, parents who liked pre-rock music (lots of Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett) and older siblings who listened to everything from the Beatles to Donovan to Iron Butterfly, I was exposed to a wide range of music (including late 1960s "folk masses" at church, showtunes, commercial jingles from the 60s/70s, and much else in between). Then, starting late in high school and continuing in college and grad school, my taste in music began to expand, and incorporated such genres as punk/new wave, funk, hip-hop, jazz, folk, blues, bluegrass, and even a bit of classical and modern music. I now listen to lots of different music, some of which, such as the Beatles and various Motown groups, I have liked since childhood, and much else I have discovered in later years.

One of my proudest achievements, in fact, was organizing an academic conference on hip-hop last year at Lehman College

Anyway, as far as politics and music, here is a list of some of my favorite performers whom I associate with the left end of the political spectrum. I like what these musicians stand for. But I also like and deeply appreciate them as musical artists.

The Clash - These guys knew how to rock, and knew how to make their audience think. Offered such insightful lyrics, about such topics as working class oppression as

"So get back to work an' sweat some more The sun will sink an' we'll get out the door It's no good for man to work in cages Hits the town, he drinks his wages You're frettin', you're sweatin' But did you notice you ain't gettin'?"

and militarism

"All the young people down the ages They gladly marched... off to die Proud city fathers used to watch them Tears in their eyes"

And how can you not love a band that could come up with lyrics such as these

"I don't wanna hear about what the rich are doing I don't wanna go to where the rich are going They think they're so clever, they think they're so right But the truth is only known by guttersnipes."

Johnny Cash - Johnny Cash may have been a true believer from the Bible Belt and may have been a country superstar, but that didn't cause him to be a reactionary or prevent him from seeing and speaking the truth. Whether addressing the lives of those living behind bars, the plight of Native Americans, or questioning America's involvement in Vietnam, Johnny Cash was generally a humanistic voice of the workingman and a great, great talent.

Here's a fine tribute to the man in black.

Bob Dylan - He was probably thought of as more explicitly political during his earlier days, particularly on the earlier (profoundly influential) recordings like The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, which featured songs like "Blowin' in the Wind," "Masters of War," and "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" and The Times They Are A-Changin' which had along with the great title track, such other classics as "With God on Our Side," "Only a Pawn in Their Game," "Ballad of Hollis Brown" and "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll." However, his career in its entirety is symbolic of many things, including the very idea of America; in that, he cannot help but be thought of as a symbolic icon of who we are.

Bruce Springsteen - I'm originally from New Jersey but I got to see the Boss back in 1980 at Madison Square Garden, when he was touring in support of his LP at the time, The River. What an amazing live performer. He played for a solid 4 hours, and never seemed to run out of steam. I was truly impressed.

It turns out, too, that Springsteen is a truly progressive artist, and very much an heir to the old folkie spirit of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. Not for nothing did Springsteen recently release a rollicking album We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions Here too is a link to a video performance

And after 911, Springsteen's music was healing. When I first heard the song "City in Ruins" with its pleading chorus of "Come on rise up!/Come on rise up!/Rise up," I was so moved that I wept for a long time.

Patti Smith - and in particular the song "People have the Power." This song (co-written with her late husband, Fred "Sonic" Smith of the MC5) is so good that I will quote it in its entirety.

Phil Ochs - Ochs is probably best known for the song "I Ain't a Marching Anymore," an anthem of the antiwar movement in the 1960s, which was put to great use in the documentary film Berkeley in the Sixties

And as proof of Ochs' commitments to progressivism, here is a transcript of Ochs testifying at the trial of the Chicago 7. He, Abbie Hoffman and company were comrades in the struggle.

Pete Seeger/the Weavers - I feel a special bond with Pete Seeger, as he is my neighbor here in Beacon, NY, and like me, Pete was a part of John Hall's successful campaign for Congress. Last weekend, he led a little gathering of community members in some festive outdoor holiday caroling. And at a Hall fundraiser a while back, he had us all sing-along to his antiwar song "waist deep in the big muddy" and told us the story of how he was censored by CBS when attempting to sing the song on the Smothers Brothers TV show. It was neither the first nor the last time that Pete Seeger, a truly decent and wise man, would run afoul of the powers that be.

John Lennon/the Beatles - John became more radical over time, and while some of his actions - such as the "bed in" for peace - may have seemed a tad gimmicky, his heart was certainly always in the right place. I still mourn his loss to the world.

REM - Performing at the Bring 'Em Home Now! concert at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom, an event benefiting a number of anti-war groups earlier this year was not the first political act of REM's Michael Stipe, but was merely an example of his commitment to progressive causes.

Billy Bragg - This man, who set Woody Guthrie lyrics to music on some award winning records, is a socialist electric guitar playing folkie at heart, who's written a ton of really fine odes to the working man (and working women; in fact, a good chunk of his songs are tender love songs).

Yo La Tengo - While not necessarily a political band per se, these veteran indie rockers from Hoboken, NJ have their hearts in the right place, having been catalysts for the 2004 John Kerry campaign through their "swing state" tour, along with such notable as Chris Heinz, Eric Bogosian, Ted Allen from 'Queer Eye,' John Wesley Harding, Rachel Dratch and Friends from SNL, author Jonathan Lethem, and many others. Plus, their ode to voting (with Chris Stamey - actually his song went like this): "If you don't get out and vote this year/You're really not groovin/It takes every one of us/to keep the country movin/You can make it to the polls/you can get it together/Won't you meet me there?/we'll vote/we can make things better/V-O-T-E: Vote!" (This reads a bit hokey but, trust me, actually sounds good when set to music.)

Bob Marley - So many of his songs - so well known at that - were message songs. You can pick which is your favorite. Mine happens to be "Punky Reggae Party," his tribute to the London punks of the late 70s.

Fela Kuti - This guy was so charismatic and so politically motivated that he took on the dictatorship in his country of Nigeria and came close to leading a revolution, only to get violently beaten down, and to have his mother killed, by the dictatorship. Invented a genre, "afrobeat," and wrote a classic political anthem, "Zombie." His attitude toward women was problematic, but in nearly all other respects, he was a true progressive and visionary.

Bruce Cockburn - It is hard to think of too many songs other than "If I had a Rocket Launcher" - written during Reagan's proxy wars in central America - as expressions of righteous anger toward fascistic bullies. Also wrote a not quite political but equally great song called "Lovers in a Dangerous Time."

Steve Earle - a brilliant songwriter, perhaps best known for his passionate opposition to capital punishment. Steve Earle experienced many trials and tribulations in his life; as he's put it, he's "been to hell and back again." A true progressive, he serenaded us during the GOP occupation of NYC back in the summer of 2004.

Woody Guthrie - Not much needs to be said about the man who wrote the left wing alternative patriotic song "This Land is Your Land" other than to say that he inspired millions of people over many generations.

John Hall - I'm proud to call him my representative in congress and I was moved and inspired when he sang Steve Van Zandt's "I Am A Patriot" during his victory speech on election night.

Bonnie Raitt - Not only did she help her dear friend John Hall to win his seat in Congress, but she's been a voice for political progress for many years. And on top of that, she plays a pretty mean slide guitar.

KRS-One - perhaps the most brilliant thinker/writer in the history of hip-hop, Kris Parker, aka KRS-One of the ensemble Boogie Down Productions, has been philosophizing about street life and inner city culture for several decades.

Public Enemy - helped to give hip-hop a new sound to go along with their message of self-determination in such classic tracks as "Fight the Power," "Bring the Noise," "Party for Your Right to Fight," and "Prophets of Rage."

The Ramones - I know that the Ramones also weren't really a political band per se, but I include them mainly because of Joey Ramone and the classic song "Bonzo goes to Bitburg." I loved the Ramones, and was lucky enough to see them live, twice, back in the 70s.
Here's Salon's fine posthumous tribute to Joey Ramone

The Flames of Discontent - this is a local band of politically active folky musicians here in the Hudson Valley who specialize in protest and old union songs like "Joe Hill." Here is their website.

Check them out. They're really cool people and very talented musicians.

Rage Against the Machine - for merging neo-marxian analysis with metal and hip-hop and having it all work. Or, as the All Music Guide puts it, "sloganeering leftist rants against corporate America, cultural imperialism, and government oppression into a Molotov cocktail of punk, hip-hop, and thrash"

Neil Young - Here's the video for Let's Impeach the President. I think that this appropriately angry rant of a song says it all, when it comes right down to it.

Arrested Development - best remembered for the classic song "Tennessee," which dealt with the inherent spiritual journey of Black history, as the All Music Guide suggests, this band offered a blend of "progressive rap collective fusing soul, blues, hip-hop, and Sly and the Family Stone-influenced funk with political, socially conscious lyrics."

Michael Franti/Spearhead - A Bay Area based social and political activist, Franti, a founding member of hip hop groups, the Beatnigs, the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, and Spearhead, is a very talented socially conscious artist whose writing has developed in complexity as he's gotten older. He's addressed such topics as AIDS, racism, homelessness, and the conflict in the Middle East, all with an acutely sharp sense of justice and humanity, and has thus been compared to Mavin Gaye and Gil-Scott Heron.

Gil-Scott Heron - When I think of him, I think of such great, righteous classic tracks as "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," "Washington, D.C.," "Johannesburg," and "Message to the Messengers," as well as his "tributes" to the Reagan administration - "B Movie" and "Re-Ron."

Digable Planets - a jazz influenced hip-hop group with a mellow vibe from Brookyn, this group stood for gender equality and peace, in sharp contrast to much of the prevailing norms within 90s hip-hop. And "9th Wonder (Blackitolism)" is one of the catchiest tunes ever recorded in any genre.

Tom Petty - Here's a quote from an interview with Petty in Esquire.

"The war in Iraq is shameful. Whether you're pro or con Bush, you've got to admit: The guy lied. And he continues to do so. I can't understand why he's just not run out on a rail. To send somebody's kids off and have them killed for no good reason--he's going to have his day in hell for that. I wouldn't want that karma.
When you kill somebody's little sister with a missile, he's going to hate you forever. And the next generation will hate you even more."

Also, he released an explicitly political album in 2002, called The Last DJ which featured the track "Money become king," which like his earlier song "Jamming me" is an accurate statement for our time of greed, mass production, and information overload.

Henry Rollins/Rollins Band - Rollins, on the surface, may mistakenly appear to be a right wing and stereotypical "angry white male," but looks can be deceiving. In fact, he is a much more complex figure. Highly intelligent and fiercely independent, Rollins has taken punk's DIY philosophy and made it his primary operating principle. Politically, he is smart enough to see the stupidity of those operating from positions of power, and to call them on their bullshit. Musically, he offers a rockingly hard catharsis.

Ani DiFranco - a antimaterialist, post-feminist folkie for our times.

Michelle Shocked - Michelle Shocked manages to bring a Lower East Side/countercultural sensibility to all of the music that she explores, be it folk, bluegrass, jazz, or anything else.

Beastie Boys - It's hard to believe that these guys went from the wisecracking adolescents of "Cookiepuss," and "Egg Raid on Mojo" to mature elder statesmen of hip-hop and alternative rock, organizing events to save Tibet, as well as the environment. But they have.

Fugazi - Ian McKaye is a living icon, and this DC based band of his, which came out of hardcore punk, embodies all of the ideals of a movement that emerged in opposition to the mainstream in all of its dismal forms (such as plastic corporate culture). Musically, Fugazi stand out against the countless, uninspired guitar bands whose music all kind of sounds the same.

Bad Religion - This long standing punk band takes on a wide variety of right wing targets - such as the Christian right - in a series of very tuneful musical moments.

Miriam Makeba - Perhaps best known for the 1967 Afropop hit "Pata Pata," and in the US for her friendship with Harry Belefonte, Miriam Makeba, known as Mama Africa, is a vitally important figure in African musical and cultural history. From South Africa, she was driven into exile for her outspokenness against the apartheid regime. When she returned to her native land in the wake of Nelson Mandella, she was hailed like a returning queen. In the meantime, she has a large body of recorded works, nearly all of which are full of charm, warmth, and elegance.

Moby - Moby, a vegan, feminist, radical, anticorporate techno/pop artist with energies channeled in many different directions gives Christianity, a version of which he follows, a very good name. Had his breakthrough moment with the LP Play and the hit song "South Side."

Carmaig deForest - He who plays the ukelele punk style. Here is a link to his fine song George Bush Lies

The MC5 - from Detroit, these guys were the godfathers of political punk, combining hard rock and late 60s garage punk, with a radical, countercultural sensibility permeating their songs, some of which, like "American Ruse" and "Motor City is Burning" created a picture of a polarized society coming apart at the seams.

The Gang of Four - These guys are basically punk's version of the Frankfurt School, or Adorno and Horkheimer with punk riffs and funk basslines.

God is My Co-Pilot - offer a radical gender vison wedded to some very radical postpunk grooves

The Ex - are an influential and deeply respected musical collective. I've written about them elsewhere in a review of their singles compilation that the Ex are committed philosophical idealists and political activists, who also happen to be a long existing and deeply influential punk band. The Ex - from the Netherlands - formed in the late '70s, and began recording in the early 80s, releasing singles, EPs and LPs on various indie labels, and participating in the creation and maintanence of politcal punk scenes in Europe, the U.S., and elsewhere. This recording compiles much of their early work, and sounds very raw and abrasive, as well as minimalist and lo-fi. Most of the songs are sung in English (though some, such as "Lied Der Steinklopfer," are not), and offer socially critical and political themes and topics. While a number of the songs sound a bit same-ish, some do stand out. Among these are "Human Car," which explores the analogy of man:machine, and does so over classic hardcore punk riffs, and some of the more explicitly topical or political songs, such as "Cells," "Weapons for El Salvador," "Enough is Enough" (which also features a kind of Middle Eastern sounding motif within the song), and the dirgelike "Memberhips." Highly recommended for fans of noise bands and/or leftist message oriented punk.

Linton Kwesi Johnson - Johnson, a former Black Panther in the UK is a politically conscious dub reggae artist who has dealt, really insightfully, with themes of racial and class oppression.
Here's a review from All Music Guide:

"Although he has only released one album of new material in the last ten years, and has virtually retired from the live stage after his 1985 tour, Linton Kwesi Johnson remains a towering figure in reggae music. Born in Kingston, Jamaica and raised in the Brixton section of London, Johnson invented dub poetry, a type of toasting descended from the DJ stylings of U-Roy and I-Roy. But whereas toasting tended to be hyperkinetic and given to fits of braggadocio, Johnson's poetry (which is what it was — he was a published poet and journalist before he performed with a band) was more scripted and delivered in a more languid, slangy, streetwise style. Johnson's grim realism and tales of racism in an England governed by Tories was scathingly critical. The Afro-Brits in Johnson's poems are neglected by the government and persecuted by the police. Johnson was also instrumental (with his friend Darcus Howe) in the publication of a socialist-oriented London-based newspaper, Race Today, that offered him and other like-minded Britons both black and white an outlet to discuss the racial issues that, under Margaret Thatcher's reign, seemed to be tearing the country apart. For one so outspoken in his politics, Johnson's recorded work, while politically explicit, is not simply a series of slogans or tuneful/danceable jeremiads. In fact, is was his second release, Forces of Victory, where his mix of politics and music united to stunning effect. Dennis Bovell and the Dub Band could swing (as in jazzy) more than many reggae bands, and guitarist John Kpiaye, the group's secret weapon, offered deftly played, dazzlingly melodic solos. But it was Johnson's moving poetry, galvanizing moments such as "Sonny's Lettah" and "Fite Dem Back" that made it obvious that this was a major talent."

Willie Colon - I teach in the Bronx, which is where this activist musician from the world of salsa originally hails from. Colon, in addition to maintaining an influential, nearly 40 year musical career, has also been an activist on human rights, immigration, and environmental issues, and has been an advocate for the Latin American community in the U.S. In the Bronx, he is a revered figure

Pearl Jam - a bit mainstream at times, these guys - not unlike U2 - nevertheless bring a social conscience to arena rock. And their last record, titled simply Pearl Jam, rocked like a motherf**ker, with the song "World Wide Suicide" an apt description of a world with George W Bush in power. In fact, the entire album appears to be a protest statement against the Bush administration.

Dave Van Ronk - I got to see him play live once, many years ago at a socialist scholars conference in Manhattan, where after playing the song "losers," he, being an old lefty, thanked the audience with a "goodnight comrades." Not knowing exactly who he was, i.e., that here was a guy who mentored a young Bob Dylan, I now know I was in the presence of greatness. The voice, the songs, the fingerpicking guitar style, the attitude, the irreverenace toward power, Dave Van Ronk was a complete package.

Utah Phillips - No one quite sings a protest song like Utah Phillips.

Marvin Gaye - He wasn't necessarily always political, but What's Going On is a masterpiece, and the title song on it still rings true.

the Mekons/Jon Langdon/Three Johns/Waco Brothers - Britain's neomarxist country punks who combine sociopolitical analysis with roots music have been doing their thing - in a myriad of different permuations - for over twenty years.

Frank Zappa - Probably more of a libertarian than a leftist, Frank Zappa was afraid neither to experiment with music nor to speak on freely and honestly on what he thought was true.

Incidentally, the photo above is of the great Almanac Singers, featuring a very young Pete Seeger (that's him, second from the left) and also Lee Hayes (later a member of the Weavers) as well as Woody Guthrie. The Almanacs specialized in union/working class tunes and were explicitly political; they were later blacklisted as communists.

Music as negative as it gets

2006-12-30T18:40:00.000-05:00

There are feel good movies, feel good songs, and other forms of entertainment designed to bring about feelings of goodness, contentment or even, bliss. However, there are also musical moments in which a tortured artist wishes to share his/her pain and/or a very bleak sense of the world or of just basic existence. This can sometimes be quite beautifully done, as in, for example, some of the music of Nick Drake. Drake was a genius, and even though he fell into a state of psychic disintegration toward the end of his life, with this reflected in his music (particularly the LP Pink Moon), his music remained largely generous toward the listener.

In the mid to late 1980s, one trend in post-punk and industrial music was toward a kind of loud, noisy abrasiveness, as in the music of such performers as The Butthole Surfers, Scratch Acid, Foetus (James George Thirlwell), Killdozer, the Cows, Pussy Galore,The Swans, Live Skull and various others. This music was truly an underground phenomon, resulting in extreme, atonal music which was really theatrical, often used to accompany a type of confrontational performance art. Also influential for such groups were such pioneering acts as Suicide, Throbbing Gristle, Public Image, Ltd. and Flipper.

Here, too, is a sampling of clips for music that explores sadness, isolation and other negative emotional extremes.

Jandek (live) Real Wild
Jandek (video) The Glade
Lou Reed Berlin
Voivod Insect
Leonard Cohen Everybody Knows
Joy Division She's Lost Control
Flipper Ever and The way of the world

and a song by a fairly mainstream rock act, the Who The Real Me but one which addresses a sense of onself as emotionally unstable.

Also relevant; a short film Waking to Berlin

Here, too, are some songs that wallow in self-pitying, self-loathing (or at least self-depreciation), or self-objectification. Yes, some of these are shamelessly manipulative of the heartstrings; that's probably what made them such classic hits.

"Lovesick Blues" - Hank Williams
"Crying" - a remake by Roy Orbison with KD Laing
"It's My Party" - Leslie Gore or Bryan Ferry
"What kind of fool am I?" - This torchy showtune has been widely covered, but here it gets sung by Anthony Warlow, who I had never heard of prior to this search; apparently he is a star of such shows as Phantom of the Opera.
"I'm a loser"- The Beatles (hard to feel sorry for them over all the screaming girls)
"Baby's in black" - The Beatles
"In my room" - The Beach Boys
"I wanna be your dog" - The Stooges (a more recent version of this band)
"Poor Poor Pitiful Me" - Linda Ronstadt or Warren Zevon
"You and me against the world"- Helen Reddy
"Rainy days and mondays" - the Carpenters
"At Seventeen"- Janis Ian
"53rd and 3rd" - The Ramones
"Pinhead" - The Ramones
"Pretty Vacant"- The Sex Pistols
"Seventeen" - The Sex Pistols
"Boredom" - The Buzzcocks
"Who Said" - Richard Hell and the Voidoids
"Life Stinks" - Pere Ubu
"55 Times the Pain" - Husker Du
"I Felt Like a Gringo" - The Minutemen
"Milk it" - Nirvana
"Rape me" - Nirvana
"Deformography" - Marilyn Manson

A video chronology of post-British Invasion rock-pop and power pop

2006-12-30T10:59:00.000-05:00

Here are some links to some music videos (and in some cases live clips) for some songs, mostly by indie/cult pop/rock and classic pop/rock bands, I happen to like. I've put these together because they offer a kind of narrative of a kind of skewed post-British Invasion rock-pop and power pop, that goes from garage rock through bubblegum to punk and post-punk, with some brilliant, genius moments at various points in between. I generally remember all of this music, some of which was in the air during my early childhood in the mid 60s; to me, bands like the Cyrkle and the Dave Clark Five represent the 60s as I experienced it much more than icons like the Jefferson Airplane or the Grateful Dead.

(a note: a number of these links are dead, but it turns out that in most instances, they have been reposted, perhaps by a different user, and are thus very easy to search for; corporate entities like Viacom are going to have to spend a great deal of company resources fighting what will probably prove to be a losing battle in the neverending attempt to retain a corporate oligopoly over such archival images, will lots of earned ill will in the process.)

The Cyrkle Red Rubber Ball
The Lemon Pipers My Green Tambourine (and here they are, performing on the Mike Douglas Show)
Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders The Game of Love
Hermans Hermits Dandy
Tommy Roe Sweet Pea
1910 Fruitgum Company 1-2-3 Red Light
The Okaysions Girl Watcher
The Statler Brothers Flowers on the Wall
The Boxtops The Letter
The Association Windy
The Toys A Lover's Concerto
The Dave Clark Five I Like it Like That
The Monkees Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day and I'm a Believer and Mary Mary . Here too is the video to the very obscure Windup Man
The Nazz Open My Eyes
Crispian St. Peters The Pied Piper
Petula Clark A Sign Of The Times
The Mamas and the Papas Monday Monday
The Beatles Hello Goodbye and Rain and Tomorrow Never Knows and And Your Bird Can Sing and All Together Now and It's All Too Much and I Am The Walrus and Your Mother Should Know and Flying
Donovan There is a Mountain (and here's another version .)
The Kinks Waterloo Sunset and Days and All You Need is Love
The New Vaudeville Band Winchester Cathedral
The Beach Boys GoodVibrations
The Byrds Turn Turn Turn
The Turtles She'd Rather Be With Me
Oliver Good Morning Starshine
The Doors Hello I Love You
The Foundations (c.o There's Something About Mary) Build Me Up Buttercup
Pink Floyd Scarecrow
The Cowsills The Rain The Park and Other Things
Simon and Garfunkel (live) 59th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy) (and here's a related early 70s Cheerios Commercial)
The Archies Sugar Sugar (and here is the cartoon version of this bubblegum classic)
Mungo Jerry In the Summertime
Big Star Lady Sweet
Paul McCartney Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey and Helen Wheels and Hi Hi Hi and Junior's Farm
The Looking Glass Brandy (You're A Fine Girl)
The Raspberries GoAlltheWay
Sweet Little Willy and Fox on the Run
Bay City Rollers Rock and Roll Love Letter
Eddie and the Hot Rods Do Anything You Want To Do
The Buzzcocks What Do I Get and Promises and Nothing Left At All
The Saints I'm Stranded
The Undertones Teenage Kicks
The Dickies Banana Splits song
Meat Puppets Get On Down and Scum
The Replacements Kiss Me On the Bus and I Will Dare and Kids Don't Follow and Kick Your Door Down
The Stone Roses Elephant Stone
The Jesus and Mary Chain Rollercoaster and You Trip Me Up
Blur Chemical World and She's So High
Stereolab Cybele's Reverie and Wow and Flutterhttp
Yo La Tengo From a Motel 6 and Big Day Coming
The Chills Heavenly Pop Hit
The Bats Too Much
The Television Personalities The Painted Word
The Close Lobsters Never Before Seen
Beulah Gravity Brings Us Down
Circulatory System Should a Cloud Replace a Compass?
Teenage Fanclub Everything Flows
Shonen Knife Redd Kross andRiding on the Rocket and Twist Barbie
Miyavi Woo Hoo
The NoMen I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives
The Raveonettes Love Trash Can and Attack of the Ghost Riders
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Love Burns
The Magnetic Fields Love Goes Home to Paris
East River Pipe Metal Detector

And, on a somewhat unrelated note, I thought I'd throw in a link to a very funny musical parody of the John Waters' star Divine, played by John Candy on SCTV. My wife and I heard this song, as performed by Elvis, while shopping at the Mall, and of course with thought of this clp (which was filmed, incidentally, in the subfreezing winter air of Alberta, Canada.

Some Personal Favorite LPs by my Favorite Artists

2006-11-08T23:09:00.000-05:00

A
Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen
Laurie Anderson - Big Science
Joan Armatrading - Me Myself I
Louie Armstrong - The Hot Fives and Sevens
Albert Ayler - Spiritual Unity

B
Stiv Bators - L.A., L.A.
Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
The Beatles - Revolver
Belle and Sebastian - Push Barman to Open Old Wounds [Deluxe Edition]
Boogie Down Productions - Ghetto Music: The Blueprint of Hip Hop

David Bowie - Station to Station
James Brown - 20 All Time Greatest Hits
The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man
The Butthole Surfers - Live PCPPEP

C
Caberet Voltaire - Voice of America
Johnny Cash - Unchained
Ray Charles - Genius Hits the Road
The Clash - The Clash
The Clean - Vehicle
Leonard Cohen - Songs of Love and Hate
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Elvis Costello - Get Happy

D
Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
Dead Boys (Stiv Bators) - Young, Loud and Snotty
The Doors - L.A. Woman
Nick Drake - Fruit Tree
Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde

E
Steve Earle - El Corizon
Brian Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets

F
The Fall - Perverted By Language
The Feelies - The Good Earth
Flipper - Generic Album Flipper
Fred Frith - Gravity

G
Gang of Four - Entertainment
Dizzy Gillespie - Groovin' High
The Grifters - Ain’t My Lookout
Go-Betweens (Grant McLennon,Robert Forster) - 1978-1990
Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand
The Gun Club - Death Party EP

HHalf-Japanese (Jad Fair, David Fair) - Fire in the Sky
PJ Harvey - Dry
Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced
Gil Scott Heron - From South Africa to Southern California
Billie Holiday - Quintessential Billie Holiday
Holy Modal Rounders (Michael Hurley, Peter Stampfel) - Have Moicy
Husker Duh (Bob Mould-Sugar, Grant Hart) - Zen Arcade

I
Isley Brothers - That Lady

J
Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking
Robert Johnson - King of the Delta Blues
Joy Division - Closer
Jungle Brothers - Done By the Forces of Nature

K
King Crimson - Beat
Kinks - Muswell Hillbillies
Kronos Quartet - Pieces of Africa

L
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

M
Magnetic Fields - The Charm of the Highway Strip
The Meat Puppets - Up on the Sun
Minor Threat - Minor Threat
The Minutemen - Buzz or Howl
Mott The Hoople - Mott
My Bloody Valentine - Isn’t Anything?
Mekons - Rock `N' Roll
Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um
Thelonius Monk - Brilliant Corners
Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
The New York Dolls - The New York Dolls
Nirvana - Bleach

O
Phil Ochs - All the News That's Fit to Sing

P
Charlie Parker - Now's the Time
Parliament-Funkadelic - Mothership Connection
The Pastels - Mobile Safari
Pere Ubu - The Modern Dance
Pink Floyd - The Piper At the Gates of Dawn
Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Nation of Millions
Public Image, Ltd. - Second Edition
Tito Puente
Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted

R
The Ramones - Rocket to Russia
Lou Reed - Growing Up in Public
REM - Life’s Rich Pageant
Replacements - Let It Be
Residents - Third Reich and Roll
The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street
Henry Rollins/Black Flag - My War
Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Collosus

S
The Saints - I’m Stranded
Pete Seeger - Pete
The Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks
Elliot Sharp - Errata
Michelle Shocked - Short Sharp Shocked
Patti Smith - Horses
Sonic Youth - EVOL
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Spacemen 3 - Playing With Fire
Phil Spector - A Christmas Gift For You
Bruce Springsteen -
Stereolab - Emporer Tomato Ketchup
Karzheinz Stockhausen
The Stooges - Fun House
Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend

T
The Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Television - Marquee Moon
Television Personalities
Richard Thompson - Shoot Out the Lights
Throbbing Gristle -
Johnny Thunders - So Alone
Peter Tosh -
Toots and the Maytals -
T-Rex -

U
Undertones - The Undertones
Unrest - Perfect Teeth

V
The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground

W
Wire - Pink Flag
The Weavers - Wasn't That a Time?
Kurt Weill - Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill
Tom Waits - Bone Machine
The Who - Who’s Next
Hank Williams -
Stevie Wonder -

X
XTC - Oranges and Lemons

Y
Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One
Neal Young -

List of bands/performers I've seen live

2006-11-06T17:36:00.000-05:00

List of bands/performers I've seen live (in alphabetical order):

I saw my first "rock concert" in the mid 1960s - the 3rd tier British Invasion band Freddie and the Dreamers, known in the states for their one hit "I'm Telling You Now." Here they are doing the freddie - what a goofy dance that one was. My family and I saw them at an outdoor show in the pre-gambling Atlantic City.

(I may have also seen Paul Revere and the Raiders, around the same time, but my memory is hazy on this one.)

Here is a (mostly complete) list (with dates, opening bands and venue, where these are recalled, and also, drawing upon various net searches, the band playlists).

Aerosmith (Golden Earring - MSG November 24, 1978) Here appears to be some vintage live Aerosmith from 1978.

Bad Brains - Boston (early 1990s)
Marcia Ball - Lowell Folk Festival 1985
Marcia Ball - Lowell Folk Festival 1986
Beck (Belle and Sebastian, Raveonettes, Polyphonic Spree, Gang Gang Dance
Whirlwind Heat - Coney Island, NY October 2, 2005)
Pete Best Band - Maxwells, Hoboken, NJ . Pete Best was the Beatles original drummer, and after many years out of the public spotlight, he's now performing songs done by the early Beatles, back when they were playing the clubs of Liverpool and Hamburg. If you close your eyes and listen, it feels like you've stepped back in time and gone to the Cavern club. Anyway, I got a chance after his set to meet him and to get an autograph; I can now say that I met a Beatle.
Black Sabbath (Van Halen Aug 27, 1978, NYC - Madison Square Garden. black sabbath set list Symptom of the Universe, War Pigs, Never Say Die, Dirty Women, Rock & Roll Doctor,
Guitar Solo, Electric Funeral, Embryo / Children of the Grave, Paranoid, Snowblind, Black Sabbath, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (instrumental), Iron Man, Fairies Wear Boots, Hand of Doom, N.I.B. ,Gypsy, Shock Wave, Swinging the Chain )
Blondie
Bongos (Chesterfield Kings)
Eric Burden and the Animals
Butthole Surfers (Redd Kross, Das Damen, Ritz, NYC, 1987). Here are the butthole surfers doing the song "hey" in 1985; and here is a short video for redd kross showing what they looked and sounded like in the mid 80s.

I couldn't find any videoclips of Das Damen but here is what they looked like; they were pretty decent band

Buzzcocks - Boston (early 1990s)
Buzzcocks - Irving Plaza 2006

Celibate Rifles (Dumptruck) (CBGB, July 1986; note, this was the Celibate Rifles only on their only U.S. tour, and it was at this show that the band recorded the tracks for the live release "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" about which CD Universe.Com says it is "considered by those in the know to be one of the best live albums of all time. 13 tracks including the definitive version of Radio Birdman's supercharged Aussie punk anthem, 'Burn My Eye'.") Here are the celibate rifles still rocking out. Even though this is from around 20 years after I got to see them, they still have the raw high energy, which is good to see.

Cheetah Chrome, Bad Brains, etc. (free in Central Park, early 1980s)
Chicken Legs (ex. Little Feat)
The Chieftains

Eric Clapton (Elton John)
The Clash (Steel Pulse, Boston 9/19/1979 setlist City of the DeadI'm So Bored with the USAComplete ControlLondon CallingWhite Man In Hamm PalaisKoka KolaI Fought the LawSafe European HomeJail Guitar DoorsThe Guns Of BrixtonEnglish Civil WarClash City RockersStay FreeClampdownPolice and ThievesCapital RadioWrong 'Em BoyoJanie JonesGaragelandArmagideon TimeCareer OpportunitiesWhite RiotJimmy JazzWhats My Name) . And here they are , from the British show Top of the Pops, from early 1978
The Clash (Kurtis Blow, Gregory Isaacs NYC, 1982/3?)
The Clean (The Minders - Maxwells, Hoboken, September 2001)

Das Damen
Ray Davies (Irving Plaza NYC 2005) (here he is from this show doing Oklahoma USA)

Miles Davis - summer, 1983. Here's the later Miles with musicians. The DBs
Carmaig de Forest
Carmaig de Forest (Barbès - Park Slope, Brooklyn) . Here is his wonderful song George Bush Lies

Del Byzantines
Del Fuegos (New Hampshire)
the Du-Tels (i.e., Peter Stampfel and Gary Lucas )

Feelies (Ritz, NYC, 1987-90) Here they are live in New York doing "deep fascination" and here's another early classic

Fleshtones (Peppermint Lounge - NYC) Here's a really rocking performance from French TV.
Steve Forbert - Ship Bottom, NJ (free outdoor show, with the audience sitting in beach chairs)
Peter Frampton - 1977
Freddy and the Dreamers (Atlantic City, mid 1960s)
Robert Fripp (free show, Central Park, summer 1990?)

Gamelan Orchestra (Madison, WI)
The Gang of Four - summer, 1983
Dizzy Gillespie
Indigo Girls
Green
Guided By Voices (w. Ambulance)
The Gun Club (here doing Brother and Sister)

Guns and Roses/Faith No More/Metallica (early 1990s Giants Stadium)

Hermans Hermits
Hot Tuna

King Crimson (summer, 1983) (here is the version of the band I saw live- Robert Fripp, Tony Levin, Bill Bruford and Adrian Belew.)

Kiss (Madison Square Garden, 1978)
Kronos Quartet (Madison, WI 1988)

Lach
Live Skull (Here's a music video). I saw this Sonic Youth-esque band at CBGBs some time in the 1980s.

Los Lobos
Nick Lowe (free show, Boston, summer, 1995)
The Lunachicks (here's a video for this highly underrated band). I saw them at an outdoor show in Hoboken in around 1990 or 91.

Lyres (Maxwells - Hoboken) Here they are live doing "I want to help you Anne." I'm not sure when this was filmed, but they sound like they did when I saw them.

Meat Puppets (with a live clip of the song "swimming ground")

The Membranes (Madison, WI, 1989/90). An obsecure, barely remembered but highly original band. Here is their All Music Guide page.
Paul McCartney
Roscoe Mitchell
Morphine

The New Barbarians
New York Dolls
New York Dolls - Hoboken street fair Fall 2006

The O'Jays
Old Skull
Outlaws (Mama's Finest, The Stanky Brown Group)

Pere Ubu - Hoboken, 1990/91(?)
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (Boston, 1980)
Iggy Pop (Boston, 1980)
Pop Will Eat Itself

Queen (Piper December 1 or 2, 1977, MSG)

Ramones (Tuff Darts, Runaways - March 25, 1978 Capital Theater, Passaic NJ)
Ramones (Syl Sylvain)
(Here is the classic Ramones lineup (Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee and Marky) doing blitzkreig bop from what appears to be the late 70s or early 80s; here's the Runaways live from around the same era.)
Todd Rundgren (Hall and Oates)

Pete Seeger (Washington, DC)
Pete Seeger (NYC)
Pete Seeger (Beacon NY)
Pete Seeger (local activist Connie Hogarth’s living room, at a fundraiser for John Hall's congressional campaign; Pete sang this anti-war anthem and those of us there sang along.)

(Here, also, is Pete,June Carter, and Johnny Cash from a TV program from the early 1960s)

Scrawl
Shriekback (live Nemesis)

Soft Boys (reunion tour, Maxwells, Hoboken, October 2002)

Sonic Youth (NYC club, 1987)
Sonic Youth (Central Park, 2003; here's a brief clip; and here's the legendary Richard Kern directed Death Valley 69 video)
Soundgarden (Madison, WI, 1989/90) (some live music from them)
The Spanic Boys
Bruce Springsteen (Madison Sq. Garden, 1980, the "River" tour)
Peter Stampfel Until I find something else to post, this will have to do - some flash animation for the silly, but very catchy, Fugs/Holy Modal Rounders tune boobs a lot.

Sugar - Boston (and here is a great clip of Bob Mould and Lou Barlow doing a Sugar song.)

Matthew Sweet - Boston, 1993
Matthew Sweet - NH 1995

Here's Matthew Sweet live on MTV.

Talking Heads - NYC, Radio City, 1980 (with live performance)
Television (reunion tour, 1993, Boston) Here's a live performance from one of the reunion shows.

Tin Huey
Derek Trucks Band
Richard Thompson - Here he is doing one of my favorite of his songs 1952VincentBlackLightning which he did when we saw him

The Tubes - Central Park
The Turtles

U2 (March 9, 1981 - the Ritz, NYC: setlist The Ocean, 11 O'Clock Tick Tock, Touch, An Cat Dubh, Into The Heart, Another Time, Another Place, The Cry, The Electric Co., Things To Make And Do, Stories For Boys, Twilight, I Will Follow encores: Out Of Control, 11 O'Clock Tick Tock, The Ocean)
U2 (The Alarm) outdoor show July 1, 1983- NYC)

Dave Van Ronk (Socialist Scholars Conference, NYC, early 80s) I wish this clip were a bit longer, but it gives a fine taste of this legendary folk singer.
Tom Verlaine (Ritz, NYC)
Tom Verlaine (Ritz, NYC)
Here is Verlaine doing a wonderful version of the Television song "Glory"

Doc Watson (with John Herald) Here's some Doc Watson live

The Who (Madison Square Garden, 1979)
Johnny Winter

Yo La Tengo (Prospect Park, Brooklyn, 6/7/2002)
Yo La Tengo (Northsix, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, December 16, 2003, Onion Holiday Party, with David Cross, the Walkmen, Dev Attack, Tyondai Braxton)
Yo La Tengo (Maxwells, 12/12/2004 w. the Coctails, 12/30/2005 w. Volcano Suns, 12/28/2005 w. The Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of Marshall Allen)
Yo La Tengo (Beacon Theater, NYC 2004)
Yo La Tengo (Battery Park, w. Steven Malkmus and the Jicks ) July 4, 2005
Yo La Tengo (NYC)
Yo La Tengo (March 29, 2005: Tonic Benefit, Tonic NYC)
Yo La Tengo ( THE JOSHUA WHITE AND GARY PANTER LIGHT SHOW. )

a really nice live clip of Yo La Tengo doing "little eyes"

Also, various music festivals and multi-artist performances, including:
-Lowell Folk Festival
-New Orleans Festival (NJ)
-Williamson Street Block Party, Madison, WI
-Halloween, Madison, WI
-Central Square Block Party, Cambridge, MA
-Hoboken Alt. Rock Festival
-Central Park Rock Against Racism
-Caribbean Day/Labor Day Festival – Brooklyn, NY
-Copley Square Summer Fest
-The American Songbook – music of Arthur Schwartz, Lincoln Center
-Anti-Folk/Howlfest – Lower East Side
-TibetHouse benefit - w. David Byrne, Keb Mo, Yo La Tengo, Phillip Glass, Bright Eyes, Angelique Kidjo (2/25/04)
-also, miscellaneous British bands at the Marquee Club, London, UK 1994

Some political punk (and proto-punk) LP reviews

2006-11-06T11:57:00.000-05:00

Music wedded to politics can work very well, or it can backfire. Here, in my opinion, are four examples that work very well.

I've posted these elsewhere and am now posting them here.

The Ex - Singles. Period. The Vinyl Years, 1980-1990

The Ex are committed philosophical idealists and political activists, who also happen to be a long existing and deeply influential punk band. The Ex - from the Netherlands - formed in the late '70s, and began recording in the early 80s, releasing singles, EPs and LPs on various indie labels, and participating in the creation and maintanence of politcal punk scenes in Europe, the U.S., and elsewhere. This recording compiles much of their early work, and sounds very raw and abrasive, as well as minimalist and lo-fi. Most of the songs are sung in English (though some, such as Lied Der Steinklopfer, are not), and offer socially critical and political themes and topics. While a number of the songs sound a bit same-ish, some do stand out. Among these are Human Car, which explores the analogy of man:machine, and does so over classic hardcore punk riffs, and some of the more explicitly topical or political songs, such as Cells, Weapons for El Salvador, Enough is Enough (which also features a kind of Middle Eastern sounding motif within the song), and the dirgelike Memberhips. Highly recommended for fans of noise bands and/or leftist message oriented punk. Perhaps less so for the casual listener.

The Ex's members have included: G.W. Sok, Andy Ex, Tom Greene, Terrie Hessels, Terrie Ex, Katrin Bornfeld, Wineke T. Hart, Luc Klaassen, Jos Kley, Sabien Witteman, René, and Geurt

The Gang of Four - Solid Gold

When I saw the Gang of Four perform live in the early 80s, bassist Dave Allen, a brilliant musician, was, sadly, gone, though in his place was a fairly decent replacement, Sara Lee. The Go4 were true post-punk progressives, who sought to elevate women rock musicians as the equals of men, at a time when this was still a novel concept. In fact, the Gang of Four's progressivism was partly the result of the earthshaking consequences of 1970s British punk, of which this band was definitely a part (their first recording - the Damaged Goods EP - was released in 1978, still the punk heyday). Their progressivism was also a result of their university education in philosophy, and specifically, in the neo-marxist critical theory of scholars like Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, and Antonio Gramsci, all of whose work informs the Gang's lyrical content and sensibilities. But these were also smart young men, loaded with talent, living in a world in which they felt alienated. Seeing them live was great! They rocked, and they connected with the audience, a large gathering of mostly Americans who were deeply in to them. And lead singer John King certainly had the funky white guy thing going on, as he was constantly in motion on stage, as guitarist Andy Gill riffed away, fearlessly and energetically.

Here, on Solid Gold, mixing punk, postpunk, funk, dance, and just a bit of free jazz, the Gang of Four wildly succeed in producing one of the 80s finest musical hours. The key to this record are probably the tight rhythms which the band produces. In fact, the bass lines here are anything but simple, whereas the guitar lines are effectively simple, and sharply rhythmic. Also, the band's messages are a bit less cryptic and thus a bit clearer than on Entertainment, which seemed so immersed in social theory (though, of course, this recording has a song called Why Theory?, about praxis, with the clever split of the vocals between King and Gill). The messages of song's like Capital (It Fails Us Now), History's Bunk!, and If I Could Keep It For Myself are pointedly clear, not to mention very insightful.

One other observation. This has some of this band's best, and best known, songs, including What We All Want (which they've recently re-recorded), In The Ditch, Outside The Trains Don't Run On Time, and To Hell With Poverty.

The MC5 - Kick Out the Jams

Throughout rock history, there have been a number of bands, particularly from the Midwest, vying to be known as *the* all American, working class "people's band." This is a trend which, I would say, probably accelerated with Grand Funk, continued through the 70s with groups like the Michael Stanley Band, as well as Bob Seger (whose Get out of Denver is a classic, and whose Night Moves remains for me a personal favorite of its era), and others, and then picked up steam in the 80s with John Mellencamp (an aside - there is a contemporary punk band, I don't know what they sound like, but they call themselves John Cougar Concentration Camp, which I find amusing, albeit in a non-PC way), and probably dozens of others. Most recently, we've had Kid Rock.

However, I've always thought the true representatives of the repressed condition of the heartland working class were more the rebels and miscreants like the MC5 and the Stooges, (or in England, Black Sabbath from the industrial city of Birmingham would have been more or less the equivalent) and then later on, bands like the Dead Boys and even Pere Ubu , or today, the novelty-rap act Insane Clown Posse. No disrespect intended to the working class, or for that matter, the Midwest; I come from working class roots myself, and spent three enjoyable years of my life in the Midwest.

Listening to this blend of garage band power chords, proto heavy metal and protest rock, what you hear, beyond a somewhat murky sound, is the blood, sweat and tears of a fine group of rebel rockers. These guys deserve to be thought of as a seminal precursor to punk, particularly the more politically driven punk of bands like the Clash, Dead Kennedys and Millions of Dead Cops. Here, then, is a chance to hear what the MC5 sounded like live. It may have been the 60s, but mellow is not a word to describe them.

Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come: A Chimerical Bombation In 12 Bursts

I got first turned onto punk in the late 70s, while in high school, after hearing the first two Ramones records. I then tried to listen to and read about punk, and particularly favored bands that had some originality or a style all their own.

In the eighties, as punk went in at least two directions (i.e., postpunk/noise and hardcore), there were many bands but few standouts; Husker Duh, Black Flag, the Flesh Eaters, X, P.I.L., Gang of Four were among the standouts.

So here it is, early in the 21st century, and what is punk, now? Some would argue that its glory is largely a thing of the past, and what passes for punk now is basically a rigid formula and a pale imitation of what once was. While that may be largely true, I know that its also always possible to over idealize the past and to not see it as it actually was. In fact, there were mediocre punk bands in the 70s and there are at least some excellent ones in the late 90s/early 00s; Refused are one such band.

I recently got turned onto this band, and this record in particular, and boy is it good, really good in fact. Sounding a bit like a combination of Fugazi, the Rollins Band, and a number of punk-metal bands from over the years with just a sprinkling of jazz and techno thrown in to enhance the recipe, Refused play really tight, have a wide variety of arrangements to keep things from getting monotonous (a problem with a lot of bands), and offer sharply satirical lyrics containing a sort of anarchist rage at global capitalism and forms of repression. All in all, a complete package on a record which will likely wind up on a lot of critics lists of the best punk of all time. What this all proves: punk lives!

In praise of some musical "outsiders"

2006-07-30T10:24:00.000-04:00

For me, and I acknowledge that this is purely subjective on my part, my preference tends to be for rock music - my favorite musical genre - which doesn't necessarily contain too much unnecessary technical prowess. I think I've been listening to so much punk, as well as post- and proto- punk (and/or what was for a time rather meaningfully called "alternative rock," until, perhaps around the time that Pearl Jam hit the charts), for so long now that it has irreversibly altered my aesthetic sense. I suppose that taste is also subjective. I find, for example, that I can only take so called "classic rock" particularly anything recorded from the mid 70s on, in at most, small doses, if at that. I find most of what Eric Clapton did following his Derek and the Dominoes phase tedious and uninspired; a song like "Free Bird" makes me exhausted, even though I acknowledge that many hear it as a near sacred anthem; I think, for example, that Daniel Johnston, an outsider artist, whose musical instrument of choice is either a Fisher Price children's keyboard or a cheap $50 Sears acoustic guitar, is a much better musician than, say, Ted Nugent or Joe Satriani, in the sense that this more naive figure, Johnston, relies on instinct and vision, and not on cliches and formula with which to construct his craft; in many ways, I think that Jimi Hendrix - whose music I really love -, as well as Eric Clapton, whose earlier stuff I generally appreciate, were nevertheless perhaps two of the worst things to happen to music, because they both inspired too many rock guitarists, in the 70s and beyond, to want to be soloists, and in my opinion, most rock instrumental solos, especially those that go on for more than 20 seconds, are boring; which is also why I would rather listen to marginally capable musicians - such as the Shaggs, the New York Dolls, or Half-Japanese, than to very competent musicians like Van Halen, Rick Wakeman, or Emerson, Lake and Palmer. In fact, I'd argue that Half-Japanese were probably 20x greater overall than a band like Van Halen, and that Jad Fair is a greater and more important musician than David Lee Roth or Eddie Van Halen. Daniel Johnston is, to me, a more important songwriter and performer than, for instance, Neal Diamond or Elton John. In fact, Daniel Jonston's songs about Casper the Friendly Ghost have much more charm and originality than anything Elton John has written for a Disney musical. I also think that much of what passes for contemporary mainstream rock is completely lame and a big waste of time.

Let me add here that - in my opinion - some lengthy guitar solos in rock are just fine. For example, Robert Fripp's solo on Brian Eno's song "Baby's On Fire" is, to me, truly inspired. I also love the guitar solo on Frank Zappa's song "Willie The Pimp," (with vocals courtesy of the great
Captain Beefheart; I was amazed when Saturday Night Live once had him on as a musical guest, the kind of thing that this now teen pandering show would never do), from the album Hot Rats, a record I used to listen to each time I visited my sister and brother-in-law (it belonged to him, among other fine records) in Massachusetts. Zappa's work here, as elsewhere, borders on jazz, where instrumental soloing is an essential part of the genre. And I also love Adrian Belew's work on the Talking Head's classic - Remain in Light. (I was privileged to be able to see the Heads live at Radio City in 1980 with my friend Mike and they were quite amazing.) Incidentally, both Belew and Fripp were members of a later version of the prog rock band King Crimson, who for me have always been the exception to this "rule." I like them a lot, but can only take so much of the likes of Gentle Giant, Emerson Lake and Palmer, and Genesis.

I recognize, of course, that mine is probably a minority opinion. I tend to dislike things in rock music the more popular they are and to appreciate stuff that most people would think is bad/weird/incompetent, particularly when it expresses a passionate originality, which is why I appreciate stuff like the Shaggs, Daniel Johnston, Pere Ubu, Half-Japanese, The Throbbing Gristle, the Velvet Underground, and many many others. My idea of a great rock show is probably not 50,000 people at a baseball stadium responding to some big name act (after paying $80.00 for tickets) but rather, something like 80 people in a tiny club grooving on some obscure alt.rock band, particularly if they are the only ones left remaining after others were driven away by the inherent weirdness of the performers or, alternately, a group of folks of widely varying ages inside a gym dancing their hearts out to the unintentional polyrhythms of the Shaggs. I guess, then, that beauty certainly is in the eyes of the beholder. Anyway, to get right to the point, this is my roundabout way of saying how much I love bands like Half-Japanese. who are truly artists, with a vision. So too, the somewhat tragic figure of Daniel Johnston.

Two other points: As the above image suggests, once upon a time, back in 1989, Jad Fair and Daniel Johnston - two longstanding true outsiders - managed to get together to record a "session" of songs, mostly co-written by both artists (along with covers of such notable figures as Phil Ochs, Glass Eye, the Beatles, the Butthole Surfers, and Rogers and Hammerstein!), a session that was both crudely primitive and fully inspired. Not necessarily the best work of either artist, it is nevertheless great in its own way, with such magic moments as a dog barking accompanying the song "Kicking the Dog," Shaggs-like minimalist drumming (apparently courtesy of Johnston; that's him with the drum kit in the above photo) and a rather unhinged version of the South Pacific tune "Happy Talk." It's a unique recording.

The other point is: both artists have been the subjects of a series of really fine, empathetic feature length documentaries by Jeff Feuerzeig - The Band That Would Be King and The Devil And Daniel Johnston . I saw The Devil and this Spring and afterward spent the day thinking about such things as how mentally ill creative types are so often misunderstood and how creative an artist Daniel Johnston - hie own worst enemy - is, in spite of himself. Someday I'd love to meet Jeff Feuerzeig and chat with him about film, music and related topics since I think we probably have similar perspectives and similar aesthetics.

Which is the true obscenity?

2006-07-05T13:03:00.000-04:00

Many have decried the lowering of standards in the culture, invoking Senator Pat Moynihan's memorable phrase "defining deviancy down," and pointing to such well publicized examples as Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" during the 2004 Superbowl.

However, much less has been said, particularly by these cultural critics, about the fact of a well known self-proclaimed and highly influential "Christian preacher" such as Rev. Pat Robertson using his nationally televised soapbox, The 700 Club to call for the assassination of international leaders whom he dislikes. As the New York Times points out points out,

Pat Robertson, the conservative Christian broadcaster, has attracted attention over the years for lambasting feminists, "activist" judges, the United Nations and Disneyland.

Now Mr. Robertson has set off an international firestorm by saying on his television show that the United States should kill the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, a leftist whose country has the largest oil reserves outside the Middle East.

"If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it," Mr. Robertson said Monday on his show, "The 700 Club." "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don't think any oil shipments will stop."

Here is Robertson on CNN offering the government this advice. (And Here is Jon Stewart's brilliant take on this, which undercores the blatant hypocricy of those who would, on the one hand, see the brief televised flashing of a female nipple as a crime, while on the other, would defend the likes of Robertson spweing hate speech as freedom of expression.)

Unfortunately, Robertson gets to keep his soapbox, because the 700 Club is carried, via contract stipulation, by the Family Channel, which Robertson sold to Fox, which then sold the Family Channel to Disney. At the same time, the FCC, acting at the behest of mostly religious and cultural conservative, issued record fines against CBS, which broadcasted the Superbowl halftime show.

Incidentally, Hugo Chavez is still waiting for the United States Justice Department to get back to him after requesting that it investigate Robertson's calls for his murder.

Representing the culture and ambiance of the East Village

2006-06-24T12:23:00.000-04:00

(Note: this is part of an ongoing research project I am doing called Do Places Have Essences; I presented a preliminary version of this study earlier this year at the Eastern Sociological Society meetings in Boston, MA.)

One function of the arts – i.e., theater, film, performance arts, visual arts, etc. - is to see how they represent specific times and places, that is, the essential qualities of particular historical sites and moments.Two recent cases, in which the East Village/Lower East Side are in some way represented, are considered here. One case, the film version of the musical Rent, which recreates a lost era, is considered. A second case, a visual arts show, recontextualizes and thus celebrates the art products of an earlier era.

Rent, a Hollywood film version of the Off Broadway (later moved to Broadway) musical by Jonathan Larson is the story of a group of twenty-somethings of mixed races, genders, and sexual orientations, living (squatting?) in the East Village in the late 1980s. It is a story based on the opera “La Boheme” by Puccini. It is, as one reviewer suggests, “a story of love in a time of HIV/AIDS” (Batson-Savage, 2006). It is also meant to be a prototypical New York story, with a particular reference to the East Village as perhaps New York’s most fertile creative frontier.

Nevertheless, questions arise as to the plausibility of the essential depictions, both of the theatrical version, and in particular for the film version.

The writer Sarah Ferguson, for example, points out flaws in the film, particularly the artificiality and inauthenticity of its depictions. She writes (2005).

Although critics have praised director Chris Columbus’s “painstaking” efforts to recreate the old flavor of Alphabet City, anyone who knows the neighborhood is instead confronted with a made-up landscape of mix- matched locales. Columbus filmed most of “Rent” in San Francisco and Oakland, then pieced in bits of Loisaida back in to authenticate the scenery, sometimes to jarring effect.

The facade of the Marz Bar, that lowdown watering hole on Second Ave. and First St., makes a guest appearance but is digitally rendered to appear midblock instead of on the corner, near an improbably placed Wiz store. Vazac’s bar on Avenue B is remade into Life Café (belying the Vazac’s sign still visible on the side of the building) and there’s an F train subway stop just off Tompkins Square.

And no East Village loft ever had such high ceilings as the one the central characters inhabit, which looks more like an old factory building in Soho or Tribeca circa the 1960s. Meanwhile the favorite drug-copping spot of the junk-addled stripper Mimi (played by Rosario Dawson) looks like it was filmed after hours at the South St. Seaport (or more likely, a lot in San Francisco).

Ditto for the riot scene at Maureen’s ditzy protest performance, which takes place in a cavernous warehouse that never existed down here. Maureen comes off like an annoying cross between Karen Finley and Sandra Bernhardt. And what to make of the aspiring rocker Roger (Adam Pascal) wailing Bon Jovi style in a brief, car-commercial-like detour to the New Mexican desert to mourn his breakup with Mimi? These Hollywood folks can’t help themselves it seems. The impulse to dumb down and deliver a sanitized version of true grit is inexorable.

The reduction of the East Village into a series of bohemian-esque clichés is not surprising. “Rent” the movie is the apotheosis of the Lower East Side as Hollywood movie set, where the local residents are simply off-camera “extras,” and production companies are free to tow your car at will. (I remember them filming the “La Vie Bohème” scene outside Vazac’s and watching them blow plastic snow into the trees.)

It’s interesting that the characters in the movie are only truly fulfilled when they watch themselves projected onscreen in protagonist Mark’s 16-millimeter film, which simply plays back snippets of previous scenes in the movie like a grainy promo trailer for the flick. Given the overmarketing of the East Village as an expensive playground — or “entertainment district” — for wannabe hipsters, even these movie characters seem to find the celluloid version of themselves more appealing.

In sum, the film appears to be offering a revisionist and watered down, or glossed over, history. While it touches upon elements that made the East Village unique, it appears not to fully capture these elements.

A second case is of a recent art show. As reported in the Village Voice, an alternative newsweekly, published now for the past fifty years in New York City, The New Museum, a museum at West 22nd Street in Manhattan, organized a multi-art program at the beginning of 2005 entitled “East Village USA.” This program was devoted to the underground art of the East Village which was done, by and large, starting in the late 1970s and continuing through the 1980s. Reviewing the show for the Village Voice, writer Jerry Saltz comments

if you come away thinking the East Village was just a bargain basement of second-stringers, you're looking too narrowly or haven't adjusted your filters to appreciate artists who, while not "major," are or were quite gifted. Viewers with open minds and gentle hearts will discern ideas and attitudes that were put into motion then that are still in play today…Admittedly, the place emitted a tang of cultishness, desperation, and squalor. This scene was all trial and error and delusions of grandeur: ego, libido, unexamined ambition, adolescent energy, creepy collectors, crazy critics, obnoxious middlemen, burnout, and ferment. Everything was built bottom-up and was thrilling for 15 minutes before it was spun into success and out of existence. Artists, dealers, and hangers-on who had no other choice, weren't worldly enough, weren't part of the more established scene, or just wanted to try it another way had one brief fling at bohemian royalty, success, and excess. This motley crew created the overhyped twinkling star known as the East Village art scene.

The artists, whose work was displayed, included Keith Haring, Philip Taaffe, Peter Hujar, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Nan Goldin, and David Wojnarowicz, as well as perhaps lesser known artists such as Gracie Mansion, New Math, Civilian Warfare, and Piezo Electric.

While the art products of these artists depicted various subject matters and dealt with a variety of themes (including the theme of transgression), the grouping of them together under a single roof suggested that, at the very least, they shared a common history, and helped to symbolize the East Village as an arts center. As Saltz puts it, “for a time the East Village was the art world's duodenum—no matter how it came out, almost everything passed through it.”

NWA vs. the Confederate flag

2006-06-24T12:04:00.000-04:00

I was once engaged in a spirited debate about the meaning of the Confederate flag, and whether it is inherently racist (or just an innocent symbol of "Southern pride"). While not necessarily inherently racist, I would argue that the use of the flag to symbolize Southern pride cannot be separated from its use as a racist symbol, given that these two uses are so deeply and so historically intertwined.

Anyway, the debate then gravitated to such topics as gangsta rap, (and to the problematic concept of "reverse racism").

Here is what I commented then.

I do have a certain amount of respect and sometimes even fondness for rap/hip-hop, and think, at its very best, it is brilliant - like, for example, Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising, as well as some of the recordings of The Jungle Brothers, Wu Tang Clan, Dr. Dre, Cypress Hill, Boogie Down Productions, Beastie Boys, Eric B and Rakiim, Salt `N Pepa, Queen Latifa, Grandmaster Flash, etc. I used to live in the Bronx in the mid 1980s (I now work there), and certain rap cuts help keep that time of my life alive via musical association memories.

When I think of gangsta rap, I think of it, in some ways, as analogous to some of the political punk bands - like MDC (Millions of Dead Cops), CRASS, Dead Kennedys, and others from around the same era. Both are brash, angry, somewhat witty, and sometimes not very intellectually sophisticated; then again, both were primarily the product of adolescent energies, rather than more mature thinking. As a teacher, I am very comfortable being amongst adolescent energies and trying to channel some of it toward intellectual sophistication.

A song like "Fuck Tha Police" by NWA might seem offensive; then again, if we look at a song like this in context, and realize - via the Rodney King verdict and the investigations in the root causes of the ensuing riots - that racism and brutality among the LAPD (as well as other police agencies) toward the poor minorities of Compton, South Central and East L.A. was - and perhaps still is - endemic, then the song begins to make a bit more sense; if one group systematically oppresses another group, then the oppressed group may just feel -and periodically express, perhaps even poetically - some anger toward the oppressor.

In other cases, such as Ice T and his pimp story raps, or a bit later on, in Snoop Dogg's songs, my sense is that the performer is trying to achieve something like a cinematic-styled, or narrative, verisimilitude in the raps; [it's interesting, and not surprising, that both Ice T and Ice Cube (as well as Snoop Dogg) wound up making their mark in Hollywood.] In other words, a thick description rather than a justification for the lifestyle being depicted. This is in following a long African-American tradition going back to the early blues and griot singers, and to later pulp fiction authors like Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim.

In comparison, I see nothing of any positive value in an institutionalized confederate flag.

I asked Bobby Dylan.....

2006-06-24T11:54:00.000-04:00

I was recently listening to Bob Dylan's 1st record, which is entitled, appropriately enough Bob Dylan. It's a great record, even though only a few of the songs are Dylan originals; it contains some classic tunes, like House of the Rising Son and a song later associated with the film Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? - Man of Constant Sorrow, not to mention the tune, In My Time of Dying which was later covered by the British band Spacemen 3 (with their trippy version called Come Down Easy.) Dylan's wit, originality, fine musical instincts, and his embracing of such kindred spirits as Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, and Jack Kerouac all come shining through. He sounds unpolished, and that is a very good thing; heard in the context of the folk music boom of the 1950s and early 60s, in which folk was smoothed over as easy listening music for mass consumption, Dylan is truly a diamond in the rough. He sounds like someone you'd go to a small folk club, and not on the Ed Sullivan Show, to hear. And in his Song To Woody, Dylan's obvious love for Woody Guthrie and all he stands for comes convincingly across.

Well, as I was listening to it, it occurred to me that, while Bob Dylan" was released in 1962, it was recorded in 1961, the year of my birth. 1961 was the year that John Hammond signed Dylan to a recording contract after seeing him perform in the clubs of lower Manhattan, where Dylan lived after leaving Minnesota.

That same year, on the other side of the ocean, a young British fan happened to walk into a Liverpool record shop to ask the proprietor, Brian Epstein, if he had any copies of the song "My Bonnie," which had been recorded by the then relatively unknown Beatles; Epstein sought the band out, a year later they had a recording contract, and the rest is history.

1961 was the year that a charismatic young president took office; the hopes and dreams of America, and indeed, the world, for peace, freedom, and equality, which were projected onto and associated with Kennedy and Camelot were not unlike the ideals that were associated with the songs of Bob Dylan, particularly those which offered social and political commentary; also, it has been suggested by many that the emergence of the Beatles in America a few years later in 1964 was a means of helping a grieving nation to get over some of its grief and to start feeling happy again. In any event, the 60s were by then well under way.

Dylan, then, gets his start here, and as the 60s unravelled in some surprising ways, so too would Dylan with later turns in his magnificent, unique musical career.

Some thoughts on Nick Drake

2006-06-24T11:42:00.001-04:00

The thought of British folksinger Nick Drake being so depressed that his life would end at the tender young age of 26 is itself, to me, a sobering and depressing fact about how hard life can be. While Nick Drake (1948-1974) may not have been able to cope with life, it is also clear to me that his was a gentle and sensitive poet's soul. Listening to his record Pink Moon - his most stark recording - you come directly in contact with Nick Drake's very soul, and this soul lives on. The record is thus haunting, and beautiful.

I'm not exactly a religious fanatic (I started out Catholic and eventually became a Unitarian-Universalist, with an eclectic set of beliefs and a non-dogmatic non-literalist take on religious traditions), but I cannot help but think that the sheer depth of the music of Nick Drake, and of Pink Moon in particular, hints at a realm of the spiritual. There is simply something in this - Drake's quiet guitar strumming, his mournful singing, the overall simplicity of the arrangements - that is not unlike the moment of contemplation that one sometimes experiences while sitting in a holy place, be it a church, or a chapel, or even a small natural pond surrounded by nature, and which is thus transcendent.

In fact, as Ian McDonald's sympathetic Mojo article "Exiled From Heaven" argues, "Nick Drake wasn't a literal disciple of Blake or Buddha. There are no direct Blake references in his lyrics, nor is he likely to have treated Buddhism as more than a confirmation of concepts he'd arrived at through his own experience. Nevertheless Blake's mystical vision and the tenets of Buddhism illuminate a great deal of his work. Drake's outlook seems to have boiled down to the linked recognitions that life is a predicament and that the world is ultimately an irreducible mystery to us. Why it exists, why we exist in it, why there is anything at all, we haven't the slightest idea. From this sense of predicament and mystery flows all his work and also his message to us. More than that, the same influences shaped the growth and decline of his life." The article adds, about Drake's vocals, that it is "a low, close, sustained sound, rich in chest vibration yet entirely without glamorous vibrato. It's the sound of incantation: slow, deep, OM-like. His phrasing is riverine, flowing across metre and through bar-lines as though detached from normal time. It's as if he's seeking to impress upon us the sense of another way of being."

Looking at, and considering such elements of this music, it is obvious that there is more here than a quick consideration might recognize. It is perhaps these various elements which makes this music so rich, and which, for me at least, causes it to become ever more satisfying with each subsequent listen. I just know that I'll be listening to Nick Drake for the rest of my life. I can't say that with confidence about too many musicians.

Finally, I close with this

The furious intensity of L.A. hardcore punk

2006-06-24T10:59:00.000-04:00

I never got a chance to see the band Black Flag live, but having read about them and listened to their records, I know that they were amazing. They embodied the spirit of furious intensity of punk rock in the form of Los Angeles based hardcore, and a movement for which they were, whether they wanted to be or not, among the leaders.

The music of Black Flag was a kind of hard pounding. It was the sound of a fistfight (or perhaps a riot; punk bands have long been artistically inspired by riots as sociocultural phenomena). Yet, unlike most fistfights, it was also quite intelligent, meaningful, and message driven. In that sense, the fistfight was more of a war of ideas; other hardcore bands - notably the Dicks, Dead Kennedys, Millions of Dead Cops (MDC), The Proletariat, and in the U.K., bands like the Business and the Exploited, might have all been more explicitly political. Black Flag's politics were concrete, and pragmatic. Guitarist Greg Ginn was, after all, the enterpreneurial wiz who put out SST records ; eventual lead singer, in fact the essential Black Flag lead singer, Henry Rollins - one of my cultural heroes and a Renaissance man for my generation - would eventually surpass Ginn's entprenerialism with his own 2-13-61 Publications, putting out books, CDs, DVDs, t-shirts, and more significantly, contributing via these a number of alternative voices (something vitally needed in today's conformist, repressive, corporatized climate). Rollins would eventually do this, along with his acting gigs, his successful career as a monologuist, his radio show, his IFC talk show hosting duties - and, lest we forget about the music, his leadership of the (punk/metal/funk/jazz influenced) Rollins Band and the occasional Black Flag reunion, as well as other musical forays; when the man gets to sleep, I don't know.

However, thanks to the magic of video, one can look back to the past. Black Flag's Rise Above video gives a good look at what a Black Flag show must have been like. Here, Henry Rollins is shown as his younger, somewhat skinnier self. He/they are intense. And the song - all about bouncing up when you are beaten down - is about as hopeful a message as a song can be.

Punk rock today, or what passes for "punk" according to mainstream media/the music industry's accounts, doesn't even come close to this. One is reminded of religion, in which a religious community attempts to convey its divinely inspired experiences, but has a hard time doing this over time. The community keeps the words, and invokes rituals, but what these may have eventually denoted, or tried to invoke, gets altered, and in some cases watered down.

Todd Gitlin on Postmodernism

2006-01-23T08:55:00.000-05:00

Todd Gitlin has occasionally been skeptical about postmodernism, but in explaining what it is, offers some useful insights. Essentially he argues, correctly in my estimation, against ahistoricismm ("Postmodernism defined, at last!", Utne Reader, July/August 1989, p. 52)

One context for theories of postmodernism is the concept of the post-industrial society, with its notion of a shift to an information economy. The idea of this is that societies would place new pressures and opportunities on the workers, allowing them a greater surplus wealth and more diverse statuses than previously. Arguably, as a result of size, mobility, educational level and widely differing life experiences of their populations, postindustrial societies have relatively various, tolerant and heterogeneous cultures, or, perhaps, subcultures. It has, in addition, been argued that this trend is likely to continue, even though large scale systems may show periodic outbreaks of social conflict and strain. New subcultures and lifestyles will likely continue to develop to meet rapidly changing needs and problems. It is likely that there will be greater emphasis on balancing societal needs with the concern for individual self-fulfillment.

Gitlin suggests that post-industrial society may be most marked by a new, somewhat initially dislocated lifestyle and attitude (what he calls "postmodernism"). Quoting from a leading European theorist, Gitlin states "One listens to reggae, watches a Western, eats McDonald's food for lunch and local cuisine for dinner, wears Paris perfume in Tokyo, and "retro" clothes in Hong Kong. However, it goes beyond the personal or superficial into broader ranges. Gitlin sees this change as being, ultimately, "a way of seeing, a view of the human spirit and an attitude toward politics as well as culture. It has precedents, but in its reach it is the creature of our recent social and political moment. In style, more than style is at stake. Gitlin then summarizes six theories which each emphasize a different aspect of postindustrial style:

1. The global shopping center -- global capitalism accounts for an ideology which stresses high consumption, ceaseless transformation of style, and an emphasis on surface, packaging, and reproducibility. Even "lifestyles' become commodities to be marketed. Thus, the modern consumer is encouraged to live in the immediate present garnished by nostalgia binges.

2. The scientific method -- However, the advance of science has been accelerating for centuries, yet postindustrial style is no more than two decades old.

3. the television generation -- For those who grew up watching TV and who therefore now simply take it for granted, TV has had a powerful impact on the style and content of the flow of information

4. American eclecticism -- Quotes the essayist Randolph Bourne (1916) "There is no distinctively American culture. It is apparently our lot to be a federation of cultures." Alexis de Tocqueville described American culture 150 years ago as a "marketplace jamboree with amazing diversity striving for recognition", implying that no style, no subject is intrinsically superior to any other.

5. The post-'60s syndrome -- the 60's exploded our faith in progress, which underlay the classical faith in linear order and moral clarity. Old verities crumbled, but new ones have not settled in. Self regarding irony and blankness are ways of staving off the anxieties, rages, terrors and hungers that have been kicked up but cannot find resolution.

6. The yuppie factor -- Such currents run especially deep among people born in the 1950's and 1960's. Pomo as "yuppie outlook", reflecting an experience that takes for granted not only television, but suburbs, shopping malls, recreational (but not religious or transcendent) drugs, and the towering abstraction of money. To grow up post 1960's is to experience everything as having apparently been done. Therefore, culture is a process of recycling; everything is juxtaposed because nothing matters.

Gitlin's conclusion: Postmodernism which is disdainful of history turns out to be all too embedded in it. Because such a variety of forces have funneled together to nourish pomo, it's likely that the tendency will be with us for some time to come.

However, he argues for developing a workable political viewpoint for the postindustrial era, one protective of the environment, and protective of the individual and the social group from domination by larger groups. He last states "The ideal toward which politics strives is conversation -- and conversation requires respect for the other. The fundamental value is that the conversation continue toward the global culture." (Gitlin, Utne Reader 7/8-89: 52-61)

Rem Koolhaas and the Seattle Public Library

2006-01-22T20:19:00.000-05:00

This is an interior and exterior shot of the new Seattle Public Library, which was designed by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, whose highly imaginative work is said to be is as much about ideas as it is buildings, and which opened in 2004. As one can see, it is magnificent. That the people of Seattle would invest in such a structure says much about them and about how much libraries are valued by them.

A while back, I picked up Koolhaas's book Contact, and started reading from it. I found it to be dense, brilliant, and dedicated to both the future, and the imagination. Like sociologists in the field, Koolhaas is preoccupied with how our environments shape us, and with how these environments get transformed. As a builder/creator, though, he occupies a unique position and from here, can experiment with bringing about changes in environments, such as with the Seattle project; and the success of this project can transform our understanding of libraries, and thus our relationship with knowledge and ideas.

Some more Koolhaas links here

Review of The Goddess and the Bull

2006-01-22T12:21:00.000-05:00

From the online Marxist journal Political Affairs.Net comes a review by Thomas Riggins of a very ambitious book in archaeology.

An excerpt:

A new book on archaeology makes the claim that "our understanding of our own origins was changed forever" by a very significant dig in Turkey. Michael Balter, author of "The Goddess and the Bull: An Archaeological Journey to the Dawn of Civilization," is a correspondent for the journal "Science." His book is a semi-official "biography" of an archaeological dig in Turkey. But is more than just that. It is three books in one – a history of the dig and the personalities of the archaeologists and other scientists who have conducted it, a history of archaeological theory over the last forty or so years, and finally, not least, a discussion of what the dig tells us about our past. . . there was a "revolution" in archaeological theory, at least in the English speaking world, and a large part of Balter’s book is dedicated to discussing it.

Hodder discovered that his research on the problem of a particular spatial distribution of archaeological findings could be explained by mutually exclusive interpretations of the data. He asked himself how could "archaeologists be certain that their interpretations of the archaeological record were correct" if even the scientific method led to equifinality. In stead of realizing that archaeologists can’t ever be certain of their interpretations because of the nature of their data, Hodder ended up creating an alternative paradigm to replace the "New Archaeology." Influenced by "ethnoarchaeology" – which attempts to read back into past cultures, such as those of the Neolithic, the culture traits of contemporary "primitive" peoples, and by contemporary anthropologists and some "postmodern" thinkers, he developed what has become known as "post-processual" archaeology (as opposed to "processual" another name for the "New" archaeology). Hodder correctly noted that material culture "is meaningfully constituted" and, as Balter puts it, the artifacts that archeologists find "were once active elements in the living symbolic world of ancient peoples" (a fact well known to Childe). These symbols were not passive reflections of culture put played, as Hodder wrote ("Symbols in Action" 1982) "an active part in forming and giving meaning to social behavior." The problem is not that Hodder is wrong, but that post-processualism doesn’t seem to recognize that we can never know exactly what those symbols meant to past Neolithic peoples nor how they functioned in their social behavior. The best we can do, as Marxism suggests, is try to deduce from the remains of the material culture what Neolithic life may have been like.

What this seems to be indicating is that culture - and our knowledge of it - cannot be separated from the act of interpretation. This is something we have long realized in sociology. I've long been deeply interested in the field of archaeology, and see its findings as compatible with that of my field of sociology. The conceptualization of material and non-material culture seems to be the place where the two fit together.