Psychedelic Sunday

I Can See Through You - Episode Six

I had never heard of this band until I stumbled upon some songs while searching for mid-late 60's psychedelic tunes in some torrent files. Episode Six was Roger Glover and Ian Gillian's pre-Deep Purple band (and Deep Purple was the first real, hard rocking band I was into besides, well, Led Zep.) They tried like hell to have a hit song, releasing nine singles in Britain without cracking the charts. Such disappoinment probably gave them the stick-to-it-ivness to keep pushing for some recognition. (Either that or they were just too stubborn to quit.)

Anyway, I Can See Through You is a Glover-penned piece of psych-pop, with some cool/weird orchestration at the 1:40 mark, which ebbs and flows sort of like film soundtrack music. I can hear some James Bond flavoring in there at one point, almost like McCartney's Live And Let Die. Groovy, man, groovy.

I Can See Through You - Episode Six

The Shat Does "Taxi"

Oh, imagine my sheer joy at finding this on YouTube. You have to love the way he sells it at 2:11, when he takes off to find the sky.

It's truly cringe-worthy, so set those phasers to stun!

Top 5 On Friday

Music Memoirs offers up a great theme this week:

Top 5 CDs (Albums) You Bought Used

I figured albums were fair game, too, since a record is a record.

Sadly, one of my favorite finds for cheap, used CDs and vinyl, Al Bum's in Worcester, MA, closed up shop over the summer. I loved that place, even though I had to use hand wipes after I left the shop. You would not believe how dirty your hands would be after flipping through the racks of used CDs. Anyway, now I have only one shop left that sells used, Newbury Comics. Actually, it's a small chain in the Boston area, and each has their own inventory, so their selection is decent. It's not as varied as Al's was, and the CDs are more expensive, but it will do. At least the inventory is cleaner and nicely wrapped in cellophane sleeves. I digress, though, so on to my picks.

Lloyd Cole & The Commotions - Rattlesnakes - I read about this album somewhere, so when I stumbled upon it at Al Bum's, I picked it up for 4 bucks. The clamshell was all scratched, and you could tell someone loved this CD. I wonder why they let it go? It's great!

Jude Cole - A View From 3rd Street - What? Another Cole? I actually bought BOTH of these on the same day. I had been looking for Lloyd Cole, but Jude was right there and I loved the song Baby, It's Tonight, so I bought it. 2 bucks. It's a great pop album, and even though it does have that 80's sound, I dig it.

Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks - Buckingham Nicks - It has never been released on CD (the one on Amazon has apparently been recorded from vinyl.) Anyway, when I heard of this album's existence, I tracked it down used, but eventually found a new, unwrapped copy (it's a reprint, though.) I love every song, including the original version of Crystal, later appearing on the FM album,

Fleetwood Mac.

Loggins & Messina - Loggins & Messina - I already loved this duo, and I had the vinyl at home in PA, however, I was a couple of thousand miles away in San Diego attending Radioman "A" school. I had a brand-new 8-track player and nothing to play in it. Luckily, right down Rosecrans Blvd there was a shopping center with a transformed Fotomat building that housed a little shop called Swap-A-Tape. The old hippy dude who owned it made his living selling and swapping tapes, and he was a whiz at repairing the ailing, mangled tapes, too. I found a used 8-track of this Loggins & Messina album and played it until it died and went to 8-track heaven.

Various Artists - Windham Hill Sampler '84 - Ok, you can just stop laughing. Yes, I had a new age phase. I have no excuses except that I was a new mom and this music calmed my frazzled nerves (kid had horrid colic.) I still love a few cuts from this one, including the late Michael Hedges' Aerial Boundaries, William Ackerman's Ventana, and Shadowfax's Shadowdance.

Do you have any favorite used finds?

Brought To You By....

Two enlisted men of the ill-fated U.S. Navy aircraft carrier Liscome Bay, torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in the Gilbert Islands, are buried at sea from the deck of a Coast Guard-manned assault transport. November 1943. Photo from The National Archives.

I've been watching the Ken Burns' documentary series, The War, on PBS this week. Having grown up in the Vietnam era and hearing all the stories about disrespected vets of that war, I cannot fathom anything like that having happened to the brave, selfless men and women who defended our way of life in faraway places during WWII. I thought I knew a lot about that war, too, since I've seen almost all of Hollywood's WWII offerings, read a fair amount of what's been written, and heard some fragments of stories from friends and family over the years. But this series hammers home the notion that I know very little, really, about the horrible things those young boys had to endure and witness. Makes shows like Heroes seem pretty insignificant to me.

One thing that I chuckle at every time I hear it, though, is "Corporate funding for The War is provided by...." It just doesn't sound right, ya know, and I get this whole Bush/Big Oil picture in my brain.

5 And Out

Bettye LaVette's new one, Scene Of The Crime, is out today. In honor of that big-voiced woman, the 5 And Out today is Big Mama Voices.

Big Mama Thornton - Hound Dog

Shemekia Copeland - Who Stole My Radio?

Etta James - Gotta Serve Somebody

Janis Joplin - Get It While You Can

Bettye LaVette - The Last Time

Listen at left or here.

Psychedelic Sunday

Hot Smoke and Sassafras - The Bubble Puppy

Back in April, The Bubble Puppy's song Keep Your Mouth Shut Once In Awhile made an appearance on Psychedelic Sunday, and I thought that would be that. After all, who'd heard of them?

I kept going back to that song, though, since I liked it, so I thought I'd look for more. After hearing their 1969 release, A Gathering Of Promises, in its entirety, I realized that I had, indeed, heard this band before! Hot Smoke And Sassafras is their one hit I remember! It's one of those songs that I hear and think to myself, "Oh, that's the name of that song!"

I think the guitars stands out in this song, and the band's guitar-playing duo, Rod Prince and Todd Potter, both do some flaming-hot work here. (You can just hear the Jimi influence, though, can't you, especially near the end of the song.)

Listen below or at left.

Bubble Puppy - Hot Smoke and Sassafras

Lecture Of A Lifetime

I saw bits of Randy Pausch's Lecture Of A Lifetime on Good Morning America today, but clicked in to watch the whole thing this evening. It is worth watching, folks, and listen to him. Just listen.

Unfortunately, you have to link over to Good Morning America and look for Video: View Professor's Full Speech in the center column. Do it before it's not in the list any longer. You can find bits of the speech on You Tube, but they don't have any of the entire speech.

It's not very long, but it's packed with humor and life lessons from a dying man. Oh, and he's only 46.

UPDATE: That link at ABC doesn't really play the entire speech. You can watch the first 19 minutes there, and if you want to see the rest, click over to The Carnagie Mellon link.

A New Podcast in The Rotation

I needed to shake up the podcast a bit, since I don't have as much time to produce them lately. 5 And Out is my compromise. I play five songs fitting a theme, with a short intro, and then I recap what I played at the end.

This week, I've been able to assemble two 5 And Outs, and today's theme was Songs With 5 In The Title, because, well, the podcast is 5 songs.

What you'll hear:

5:15 - Chris Isaak (from San Francisco Days)

5th Season - Paul Weller (From Wild Wood)

Hwy 5 - John Doe (from Forever Hasn't Happened Yet)

1985 - Manic Street Preachers

Eighty-Five Feet - Sorta - (From Strange And Sad But True)

Listen at left or here.

And if you don't listen, you'll miss the sad news about Sorta, the band from Dallas, TX. Band member Carter Albrecht, who played keys and had been a member of The New Bohemians, was killed when he was shot in the head by one of his neighbors on September 3rd. The neighbor had mistaken Albrecht for a burglar. (Of course, there is more to the story, and it can be read here.)

Top 5 On Friday

Top 5 songs that could be Your Personal Theme Song

You Don't Own Me - Leslie Gore

Too Much - Dave Matthews Band

Can't Hardly Wait - The Replacements

Homeward Bound - Simon & Garfunkel

I Feel So Good - Richard Thompson

What are yours?

A Legend?

Photo grabbed from imdb.com

My morning paper contained a little blurb about Zsa Zsa Gabor and her recent surgery. The headline proclaims "Legendary Actress Recovering After Surgery." WHAT? When did she become legendary? She's the old-time version of Nicole Richie, for crying out loud. I checked imdb.com, and yes, she had a part in John Huston's Moulin Rouge, and a decent role in Lili, but most of her roles were in B movies or on TV, and in many of those TV appearances, she played herself.

She really is more famous for being famous. Does that make her a legendary actress, or just an old, famous lady?

Ahoy Mateys!

Ahoy! I'm beholdin' to my matey, Lydon, fer remindin' me that today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day! So, clear out yer bung holes and raise a pint too all yer seafarin' mates, or even yer slimey bilge rats.

How do ya talk like Cap'n Hook? Well, look no further than herrrrrre. Aye, you can scorrrrre pirate pickup lines, too, like " Ya know, darlin’, I'm 97 percent chum free."

Some Pirate Music:

Jimmy Buffett - A Pirate Looks At Forty - Buy it here.

John Hiatt-Pirate Radio - Buy it here

The Arrogant Worms - The Last Saskatchewan Pirate - Buy it here.

Tell It To Me Tuesday

Janet's Tell It To Me Tuesday "Name Game":

What are your favorite songs with a name in the title?
I have a ton, but here's a short list!

Cross-Eyed Mary - Jethro Tull
Hey Joe - Jimi Hendrix
Brian Wilson - Barenaked Ladies
Alison - Elvis Costello
Chuck E.'s In Love - Rickie Lee Jones
Baba O'Reily - The Who
Jenny Says - Cowboy Mouth
Jimmy The Exploder - The White Stripes
Proud Mary - Ike & Tina Turner
Sweet Lady Mary - Faces
Mary - Patty Griffin
Tony - Patty Griffin - She likes the name songs!
Joe's Garage - Frank Zappa
Frank & Ava - Suzanne Vega
Ziggy Stardust - David Bowie
Gloria - Them
867-5309/Jenny - Tommy Tutone


What are some of your favorite "name" songs?

Into The Wild Tuesday

I had a busy Monday, of course, since it was my day off! Now it's back to work today, and I can't seem to get back into a regular blogging/reading blogs routine. I hope to figure that out by week's end, since I feel somewhat off kilter if I don't get my blog fix.

So, today I leave you with a taste of the Into The Wild soundtrack, released today. It clocks in at a hair over 33 minutes, which is quite unusual for an entire CD of music these days, but it's 30 minutes of a rather subdued, even singer/songwriter-y Eddie Vedder. I am truly digging it. The movie is getting rather mixed reviews, so I may hold off watching it until it's available on demand on my cable system, but I think I'll reread the book.


Eddie Vedder - Hard Sun


Eddie Vedder - No Ceiling

Buy Into The Wild at Amazon. (And get the book, too, it's a good read.)

Psychedelic Sunday

See My Friends - The Kinks



Ad from NME magazine, grabbed from here.


According to this site, the first rock song to employ the use of sitar music was The Yardbird's Heart Full Of Soul, but The Beatles and The Kinks were not far behind in incorporating bit of Indian spice into good old rock and roll.

Today, we'll focus on The Kinks and their contribution to this psychedelic trend. See My Friends doesn't actually feature a sitar, but Ray Davies loved the sound of the sitar so much that he convinced his brother Dave to mimick the sound with his guitar. I think he pulls it off quite well!

The Kinks - See My Friends

Top 5 On Friday

This week it's:

Top 5 Depressing Songs

Off the top of my head, I can think of

Brick - Ben Folds Five - A song about Ben's girlfriend getting an abortion. "She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly..." (I'm not against a couple choosing to have abortion, per se, but this song is full of despair.)

Pretty (Ugly Before) - Elliott Smith - Just about any of his songs depress me, mostly because his songs were beautiful and he killed himself.

Hurt - Johnny Cash - I know it's a NIN song, but the Cash version really kills me.

Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd - The ode to tortured Syd Barrett. Very sad, indeed.

Time In A Bottle - Jim Croce - Another beautifully sad song, made even sadder by its inclusion in a sad TV movie, She Lives!, in which the heroin, (a very young Season Hubley) was battling cancer.

Runners-Up: The River - Bruce Springsteen; Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd; that sappy Honey by Bobby Goldsboro, and the almost-as-sappy Seasons In The Sun by Terry Jacks.

I know I left some out! What songs depress you?

Contemplating My Upcoming Saturday

toothpastefordinner.com

Artist Of The Day

photo grabbed from here

Polly Paulusma

Brit singer/songwriter Polly Paulusma was recently featured on KCRW's Top Tune podcast. She's new to me, but apparently there were some free downloads on iTunes earlier this year. I don't know how I missed them!

Anyway, after I heard the KCRW podcast, I found both her web site and her myspace page, and eventually had a couple of free downloads (one was from emusic.) I love her crystalline voice, which is sort of a cross between Leigh Nash and Lisa Loeb. Good writing, too.

Listen here, but you can buy at iTunes, emusic, or Amazon.

Her website is here, and her myspace page (where there is an additional download) is a click away, right here.

Polly Paulusma - Day One
Polly Paulusma - Back To The Start

Tell It To Me Tuesday

This is the first anniversary of 9/11 that has fallen on a Tuesday, the same day of the week as 9/11/01. At least the weather is different than it was 6 years ago today, and seems more suitable for the occasion: it's dreary and drizzling here in New England.

Janet's question this week is all about that dark day in our lives:

Where were you on September 11th, 2001 and how did it change your life?

I was home with my preschooler, and I was fighting off a migraine. The kiddo was on the floor, playing with his toys, while Nickelodeon quietly served as background TV noise. At around 9:45, I was feeling somewhat better and changed the TV station to see what I could watch. There was some odd picture of a tall building with smoke coming out of it, and since the volume was turned down very low, I didn't hear what was going on. I flipped to another network, and the picture was the same. Of course, this gave me a bad feeling. Kiddo was still playing happily on the floor, so I told him he could watch cartoons just a little longer, then I headed up to my bedroom and flipped the tv on. There was no Good Morning America, per se, although Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer were explaining the events so far. There was all sorts of chaos in the reporting, and I distinctly remember freaking out when they explained that 2 planes had been crashed into the towers. Then, suddenly, one tower came crashing down. I picked up the phone to call my husband at work. He works for a big defense contractor, and there had been some talk of a plane hitting the trade center, but the buzz in his office had led him to believe it was a small plane, which had always been a fear in NYC. I had to break the news of the severity of this to him.

After we hung up the phone, I thought of my friend, Mish, who lives in FL, but grew up on Long Island and had worked in one of the towers for a few years. I knew she would be in a bad way. I tried to call, but could not get through. Can you imagine how many people were on the phone that day? (When I finally did get through to her later that day, she said she had curled up in a fetal position on the floor, just crying. She still had friends who worked in the towers and didn't know if they made it out or not. And yes, they had.)

I could not peel myself away from the tv, but the kiddo needed to eat and needed some interaction, so I did leave the room to have our day, but I returned to my room, almost obsessively, all day long.

The older kiddo was in high school, and when he came home that day, he told me they really didn't have any classes. They'd had tv sets going in every room, so they watched and talked about what was going on. I don't know how anyone could have learned any math, Spanish verbs, or have balanced any chemistry equations after such an event anyway. All I know is that when he walked in that door, he got a very big hug.

So did my husband, when he got home.

Back then, I worked nights, but I was on a Mon, Wed, & Fri. schedule, so I didn't work until the next night. That Friday, though, was very somber. We held a short candlelight vigil in front of the store, which is situated on the corner at a very busy intersection in town and is up a steep embankment from the roadway. We asked customers to join us, effectively closing the store for about 15 minutes. One cop pulled over on busy Route 9, and gave us thumbs up. He stood at the roadside the entire time we were out there with our candles, and other people also pulled over to stand with the cop. All of this was done silently.

Has my life changed? Not so much. Am I extra freaked when traveling on planes or subways, or when attending an event like a Red Sox game? Yes. Do I do my own bit of profiling on planes, keeping an eye on guys who appear to be of Middle Eastern descent? Yes, I am guilty of it, and I feel slightly bad about that. I also think it's stupid, since there is really nothing I could do about it if some fucking terrorist is determined to take down my plane. And I know that there could be a terrorist who looks just like the guy next door, too, who could fool anyone. I still check the plane to see who's on board. This was never a thought pre-9/11.

I do pay closer attention to what goes on in the Middle East, and to our foreign policies. You know, I don't think the US should bend over and take it in the butt, but, I don't think we should expect any other country to bend over and take it from us, either. Sometimes we get a bit too arrogant when we deal with the rest of the world. Our bad.

Other than that, life goes on, as it should.

How about you?

Psychedelic Sunday

Hole In My Shoe - Traffic

Steve Winwood was still a young teenager when he and his older brother joined up with Spencer Davis and Pete York to form The Spencer Davis Group. He quit the group in 1967, when he was still only 19, and joined up with Dave Mason, Chris Wood, and Jim Capaldi, to form Traffic. Although a great deal of Traffic's sound leaned toward blues-rock, particularly when Winwood sang lead, some early Traffic is truly psychedelic. Mr. Fantasy, their first album (also released as Heaven Is In Your Mind in the USA), holds more psych than the rest, including Paper Sun, Utterly Simple, Dear Mr. Fantasy, and Hole In My Shoe. I chose Hole today, mainly because of the sitar music, the odd spoken-word break by a child, and one of the early uses of the Mellotron.


Traffic - Hole In My Shoe - buy Mr. Fantasy at Amazon.

You can also listen using the player in the left sidebar.

First Big Musical Disappointment

There comes a time when all music fans feel let down by something they eagerly anticipated, whether it's from a less-than-stellar release from one of their favorite artists, or by their favorite band's demise or whatever. My first big disappointment was finding out that the actual Beatles didn't do the voices in the Beatles cartoon. I watched it anyway, since there were real Beatles songs in the show, but the experience was cheapened for me somehow, sort of like when my mom bought us Sears jeans rather than Levi's.

This guy, Paul Frees, did the voices of John and George. Photo from here.

You Tube, of course, has plenty of clips and even watching them today gives me that bargain-basement feeling. See if you feel that way, too. Oh well, at least The Monkees were a real band! Right?





And what is the first musical disappointment you can remember?

Top 5 On Friday

This week:

Top 5 Albums with Unusual Titles

Well, there are weird names aplenty, since it is rock and roll!

I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass - Yo La Tengo - One of my favorites. Not only is it unusual, it's threatening.


Weasels Ripped My Flesh - Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention - The sheer number of Zappa's weird album names made him a shoe-in, but which one to pick? Burnt Weenie Sandwich? Uncle Meat? Hot Rats? No, the thought of weasels ripping flesh trumps them all.

Atom Heart Mother - Pink Floyd - Of course, how could I leave out this classic?

When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He'll Win the Whole Thing 'Fore He Enters the Ring There's No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and if You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land and if You Fall It Won't Matter, 'Cuz You'll Know That You're Right - Fiona Apple - Yeah, like that fits on a cd cover. No wonder it's referred to as When The Pawn...

Zenyatta Mondatta - The Police - Again, they had some weird nonsensical titles in Outlandos D'Amour, and Regatta de Blanc, but Zenyatta is my favorite.

Share some of your favorites with me!!

Oh, and there is a Top 5 podcast this week, it's here or in the player in the left sidebar. It's not with this album name theme, though. Tune in if you like The Replacements or Led Zeppelin!

Artist Of The Day

Photo of The Dykeenies swiped from here.

The Dykeenies

Scotland's sensation, The Dykeenies, has tongues wagging. I didn't hear about them until yesterday, when a fellow music geek at work asked me if I could get any of their music on the internet, since he was having no luck. What does he think I can do, work magic? Hah! Say no more, dude. I managed to get ahold of their 2006 EP, Waiting For Go, rather quickly. Their soon-to-be-released CD, Stitches, will hit the UK stores next week.

I had no time for an in-depth listening session, but after hearing a few songs a couple of times, I detect similarities to The Kaiser Chiefs or Franz Ferdinand or even The Arctic Monkeys.

Their web site is here, and their myspace page will give you a video peek.

Listen to two songs here:



The Dykeenies - Coward's Words



The Dykeenies - Waiting For Go


Buy 'em at Amazon.
The Lavolta Records store is also selling here.

I Don't Want To Work...

I just want to bang on the drum all day, or hold the remote, or go shopping....

But nooooooo, it's back to work with me today. (I know, those of you who work year-round are thinking, "Oh, poor YOU!")

There will be no more

• "sleeping in" until 7:30 a.m.
  
• sporting jammies until 10 a.m.
• wearing denim capris or jeans whenever I feel like it
• planning the day as it unfolds
• grocery shopping at noon
  on a weekday
• "Mom, can we go to a movie this afternoon?"
• warm afternoons drinking tea and eating bonbons (isn't that what all wimmin folk do when they don't work?)
• writing a post at 11 a.m.
  

Look Ted Nugent's new cd has a pink ribbon on it!

No, it's back to the bookstore with me today. And it looks like I'll be busy shelving new releases for part of the day, so I'll be the one with the v-cart and a shitload of Ted Nugent's new CD in my hands today.

Psychedelic Sunday

13th Floor Elevators - She Lives In (A Time Of Her Own)

The sophomore release from Austin's 13th Floor Elevators, called Easter Everywhere is held in quite high regard by rock snobs everywhere as one of the touchstones of late 60's rock music, and though I usually have a quibble or two with such proclamations, in this case I think it is a worthy label.

There's a definite tripped-out vibe in most of the songs. A prime example is She Lives (In A Time Of Her Own). Though Roky Erikson's lead vocal is pretty straightforward, there is is some sort of strange goings-on in the background. Stacy Sutherland's guitar work seems restrained, yet solid, and Tommy Hall's freaky electric jug might just creep you out, sounding sort of like a pigeon on crack. Listen and see if you think I'm on the money here!

A little trivia here: Janis Joplin was a friend of the band and sang with them several time before she took off for the left coast and hit it big with Big Brother And The Holding Company. As seems to happen to some rock geniuses, Roky Erikson was arrested on pot charges, but chose to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital rather than go to prison. This effectively killed the band. Erikson seems to have kicked his bad habits, and appeared this summer at the Coachella Festival.


13th Floor Elevators - She Lives In (A Time Of Her Own)

buy it here, at Amazon.com