Boxy but safe (was Re: Blue Chip Radio Report, 04/19/99)
Hey there, Expect more rear-end collisions on Music Row in the near future. Vince Gill's Volvo was involved in a 3-car accident on West End Avenue just off the row a few days ago. Reports say that Vince was stopped for a red light when he was rammed from behind and pushed into the car in ahead of him. Shouldnt driving a Volvo disqualify one from being the AOTD? Later... CK "They're boxy, but safe." A few years back when the 850 series first came out, a Car and Driver type rag commented that they really liked the car but sure wished it looked a little less like the box it came in. As tidy a summing up of Volvo sheet metal as you're likely to find. Cheers, TG... recently seen driving around in a boxy car listening to The Backslider's Throwing Rocks at the Moon and wondering how the CD had flown under his radar for so darn long. Fine stuff.
Question: Lap Steel by Analogy
Anyone out there want to take a run at completeing the following statement: fill in the blank is to the lap steel what Mississippi John Hurt is to fingerstyle guitar What little I know about playing fingerstyle guitar I learned from listening to Mississippi John Hurt's relatively simple, elegant work. Who should I be listening to to hear lap steel lovingly stripped to the bare essentials and well played. Anon...TG
Ghost of Hallelujah - impressions
Ive been listening to the Ghosts of Hallelujah since Tuesday and Ive been enjoying the hell out of it in a mystified sort of way. Musically I have no hesitation; there is a back porch, orchestral quality that has the feel of a good stringband that's been playing together forever, stretching out under deeply shared tunes. There is a lot of wonderful, seemingly organic ensemble playing; no stars but plenty of individual contribution. The closest aural equivalent that comes to mind is The Bands early work: a home grown sounding blend of rural parlor music solidly grounded in a rock sensibility...along with the additional influences and changing context thirty years passing has heaped on. Lyrically my initial take was "Huh?". There is a huge contrast between the earthy, largely traditional, albeit loose and eclectic, playing and the unearthly, often near (near?) hallucinatory lyrics. This contrast is growing on me overtime but I couldnt begin to say what kind of a statement "Up on High" or "Bean Bowl" are making. Other songs like "January 6" (wonderful harmonies) and "Rugged Roses" present relatively coherent emotional vignettes. Strangely, this almost increases your struggle with the wilder lyrics in a "Rugged Roses is musically comfortable and makes sense so this other comfortable sounding song, say Bean Bowl, must also make sense" kind of way. But, as I said, it grows on you. If your left brain keeps nagging you try and figure this stuff out , wander over to www.thegourds.com for the lyrics. You can also find The Gourds own description of their music (below) which suggests you should probably just kick back, take in the "quilt", and enjoy it for what it is. "There is just absolutely no way to categorize this music, these songs, without tearing up the English language. On any given night, in any given bar, somewhere out in Eugene or Amarillo or Jacksonville or Lincoln. In new York city, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, Seattle or Austin. One can sit listening to a gourds show without a clue as to where in the hell it's gonna go. They are quilters in the true sense of the word. Scraps, fragments, leftovers, images strung together in a continuous scrabble of sheets draped over old wood like charm. This is first and foremost a music of joy. From there it¹s anybody's guess what the friggin' hell it is." Cheers...TG Still p. Ghosts of Hallelujah - "Pair of Goats" and suspecting Id enjoy this song almost as much (which is considerable) sung in latin
Re: Covers and a defense of irony (long)
Garden variety covers aside, *startling* covers provide wonderful thread fodder because they are so damn rich in ambiguity. Intended or not, they are a test...the question is...which test? Ironic covers: the hipness test I know that you know that I know you know I know that...(nudge, nudge, wink, wink) Non-ironic covers: the zen test I can cast off my cultural baggage and accept the beauty that underlies that which others disdane Quasi-ironic covers: the Miles Davis test I can take a sow's ear (removed from a pig about whom I feel largely indifferent) and turn it into a silk purse through the sheer force of my musical prowess Answers may vary and the decisions of the judges are final. Which "tests" are artistically valid? Hmm, let's see now... Anon...TG
Damnations TX Trivia, Promotional vs. Commercial release
After having bought the just released "Half Mad Moon", I came across a promo copy packaged with no inserts and close enough to free that the missionary in me had to pick it up as a loaner to sway the unconverted. Beyond the absence of the "TX" in the bands name, I noticed a few odd things. Tracks one and ten are switched. Hmm. A quick comparison shows that all timings are identical except tracks 1 and 10 which vary by seconds. "Things I Once Adored" sounds identical to my ears but "Unholy Train" has been subtly juiced on the commercial release. The acoustic guitar in the left channel of the promo has been replaced by an electric and the organ on the promo has been replaced by horns. (I'll give a slight nod to the original mix) My guess is that somewhere between Sire/Watermelon and Sire, Unholy Train became the single release. Anyone know if "refining" material between the distribution of promotional copies and the commercial release is a common practice? Anon...TG np. Lefty Frizzell - Look What Thoughts Will Do
Hot Damnations Dallas Observor 2/11-2/17 (long)
Picked up the album last night and was impressed enough (strong songwriting, striking harmonies, and some musical twists and turns that'll make you grin) to want to learn more about the band. Wandered across this in the process. Hot Damnations Leave it to two Yankee sisters to kick it TX style By Rob Patterson The Damnations TX Kelly Willis opens Saturday, February 20 Gypsy Tea Room It is a story too good to be true, something only a publicist could concoct during a fever dream -- so much to hype, so little time. But it all happened, and it of course makes for great copy: The Hottest Band in Austin Gets Hotter, or something along those lines. Get the advertising department on it. It first occurred not long ago, when The Damnations TX were opening for Cake at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City. During the band's set, a building next door caught fire. Then, less than a week later, while The Damnations TX were onstage at the Agora in Cleveland, sparks flew once more. "We had all these problems with feedback," recalls Damnations singer- bassist Amy Boone. "We kept looking over at the monitor guy, because it was really loud and hurting our ears, and he just threw his hands up in the air." "I was right next to him," continues singer-guitarist Deborah Kelly, Boone's sister. "And he goes, 'I can't even deal with the soundboard right now, because the system is on fire.' There was smoke pouring out from behind the curtain. Amy kinda wanders over to me nonchalantly in the middle of the song and whispered, 'Don't freak out, but backstage is on fire.' It was kind of weird: a second 'fire incident' while we were opening for Cake. We thought they were going to start thinking we were arsonists." You see -- maybe, in a way, The Damnations TX really are Austin's hottest band. "We're going to add new meaning to that term," Boone says, laughing it off. Almost from the moment The Damnations (as they were once known) stepped onto a stage in their hometown, they've been adored and hyped beyond any wannabe rock star's wildest dreams. They've been showered with open-mouth, wet-kiss press clippings, hailed as saviors and second- comings before anyone outside of Austin ever heard of them no easy task in a city where it takes forever to build a loyal local following. Even the Capital City's alt-pop hitmakers Fastball were only playing to a handful of fans after releasing their first major-label album. Since every building with a spare corner considers itself a concert venue and there are enough aspiring musicians to populate a small city, on most any night Austin has an embarrassment of, well, if not riches, at least original music offerings. It's not uncommon to catch some group with a buzz and still find oneself in sparse company. Yet The Damnations TX were a strong local draw well before they even recorded their debut, Half Mad Moon, which will finally be released next week on Sire Records. And it's not just that the band has found an audience, but that they actually have fans -- enthusiastic followers who crowd the front of the stage, some of them zealously doing a slightly spastic jig Kelly calls "the get-the-bug-off-me dance." Given their music, it's no surprise. With a polished country-punk attack that's more comfortable in X's "Los Angeles" than the Eagles' "Hotel California," the band plays with adrenal-charged élan, making the rush they get from being on stage and performing not just tangible but downright infectious. Backing up that enthusiastic approach are songs with smarts and heart, led by Kelly and Boone's bittersweet harmonies and the wiry, electrified picking of guitarist Rob Bernard, onetime member of the Dallas- based Picket Line Coyotes and Austin rockers Prescott Curlywolf. Where so many recent country-rock converts are content to trot out Branson-ready tribute acts, dressing up in bargain-bin honky-tonk drag while playing slide- guitar blues-by-the-numbers, The Damnations TX have achieved a sound much their own, making their inspirations more implicit than apparent and melding rural stylings with an urban kineticism. Although their approach has a distinctly Texan roots-music stamp, Kelly and Boone grew up in the heart of the Upstate New York rust-and-truck farm belt. The progeny of a civil engineer father and schoolteacher mother, they were weaned on everything from Bob Dylan to Stax and Motown soul, early influences that seal all the cracks on Half Mad Moon. But within the circumscribed horizons of the Upstate hills, there was little to do beyond "drive out to the cornfields and drink and smoke pot," as Kelly remembers. (As to why these sisters of the same parents have different last names, Deborah explains, "I changed mine to Kelly because we have Kellys on my mom's side and Kellys on my dad's side. I just wanted to have that name instead of Boone, y'know Debbie Boone. The joke got to be annoying after a while.") After their parents divorced, first Kelly and then Boone
Re: Steve Earle/old vinyl/Huddie Ledbetter
Lance Davis wrote: Also--and on a completely unrelated note--can someone offer a reason why record companies used to make double LP's with Side 1 backed with Side 4? Call me crazy, but wouldn't it make more sense to have Side 2 on the flip since the record is already right there on the friggin turntable? The answer: so you could automagically play two following one and three following four. Side three following two required manual intervention. At one time most turntables came with a cheesy device called a record changer designed to give Linnies and other vinal purists the heebie jeebies. The spidle was about four or five inches tall and allowed you to stack lps above the currently playing record. When the tone arm got to the lead out groves it retracted, the next lp in the stack dropped to the spinning platter and the tone arm repositioned itself and plopped down over the lead in groves. Not too good for the record and the VTA was almost always off but convenient. Cheers...TG, feeling like an old timer np Roseanne Cash - The Wheel
