Sinead O'Conner- An Appreciation

 I have to write about Sinead O’Conner and as I sit down, I realize I had an unusual relationship with her music.

I bought her second album when it came out. At the time, I made a habit of buying what I thought were the most “important” record of the day. I wasn’t necessarily that excited about it and when I got it, I didn’t listen to it very often. As a huge Smiths fan, I was particularly excited that Andy Rourke played bass on the album.

It wasn’t exactly the same case as the Sugarcubes, who had a drop in quality after their debut. I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got is unquestionably a good album. It’s just not like the raw early singles i hears and I dug like “Mandinka” It’s just a different vibe

No one could have anticipated that Sinéad would end up having the biggest song in the world. I wonder if I would have treated her second album any differently had it not.

After that, the focus really wasn’t on the music, and that isn’t fair to the artist but it was reality. I returned to her for her fourth album Universal Mother

The single Fire on Babylon was a tour de force. Part Bob Marley part John Lydon. The album was a mixed bag - a true cult album and again I didn’t spend a ton of time with it - but that single was powerful.

Sinead played a few dates on the one Lollapalooza I do attend and I think that (hazy memories many decades later) that we picked Yo La Tengo on the second stage to concentrate on instead. (Given YLTs resume, I doubt you can give me too much grief for this).

I picked up her 1997 Greatest Hits compilation So Far which collected some essential things that I didn’t have.

She had at least one more great single which unfortunately was too late for her compilation -2000s No Man’s Woman (off Faith and Courage)

Sinead sort of fell out of the spotlight, continuing to release albums. I crossed paths with her once more picking up what will be her tenth and final studio album released while she was alive -2014s I’m Not Bossy, I’m the Boss

Looking back now, you can see her massive influence and how those who came after- Tori Amos, the Cranberries, Beth Orton, even Alannis Morrissette and Lilith Fair to name a few.

I know I’m the early 90s, if asked I likely would have said she is one of my favorite artists. I haven’t really thought of her that way in awhile, but I do realize that I don’t have too many artists that I have four albums of. She was a really interesting artist and we are poorer without her on the Earth.

Sons music- Scooter

When writing about the music of my life, I have always meant to make some mention of rave music, which was a part of my mid teens. First things first, I lived in a small town so it’s not like we had separate groups for metalheads and punks and goths and ravers and new wavers and what not- it was quite simply “outsiders” and we bonded together The next is that electronic music and especially rave doesn’t get a lot respect with music critics. It’s not that it doesn’t have fans or gets seriously studied; but at the same time- the stuff that I consider of that era can be broken down into Acid House, Breakbeat, Techno, and so on and it's generally a bit marginalized in music journalism This breaking of music down into boxes means that they sometimes get put in bigger unrelated boxes. I am probably even misusing terms in calling it "rave music" and not techno or EDM or another more appropriate musical term but I guess that is how I have it labeled in my head What I am trying to say is some of the biggest rave hits don’t get treated with the same respect as the wider alternative genre. Rave often had the same aspects as new wave synth pop and I will detail some of the post 90s breakdown a little bit later as well So Rave sat adjacent to those sounds, but I am no means an expert. My experience of the genre is the music of that day and I mostly experienced it from big budget compilation albums like SBK Record's Rave Til Dawn and others (the eternal way of defining music. They’re “playlists” now) and the songs I heard in those years as I occasionally ventured to the bigger city to go dancing at gay bars and dance clubs. I would also add that I made an acquaintance that was a hardcore raver who introduced me to stuff I would otherwise not would have been exposed to then. Maybe Rave to me was what didn’t get covered elsewhere. Rave sat apart from Madchester, the real rave music beginnings. Maybe it wasn’t that I was into rave but that it was slowly exposed to me. Again, don’t focus on the label, focus what I am trying to say was the music in my ears in those days. Nitzer Ebb both predated and defined that time for me. The Jesus and Mary Chain also somehow doesn’t fit my definition and was everything to me at that time. Similarly, KMFDM probably check more industrial boxes than techno, but was definitely a favorite of everyone I knew and was still in that element of breaking through from the Underground. (Maybe these are stories for another time). There are of course pop and industrial elements in the stuff I am talking about, even R&B, rap and hip hop elements. (Lest we forget The Movement's "Jump" perhaps the forgotten third of the 1992 trilogy- House of Pain "Jump Around" and Kriss Kross's "Jump") So maybe I should define this all as the larger category of EDM as some do. Since we are talking about what I was personally listening to- it seems appropriate. Also scholarly, that’s important- though again some of the most important music of that genre never made it to the radio or even those big aforementioned “various artists” compilations. Moby of course did go into the 90s and 00s a big Alt-rock (and even Top 40) star. Eyes backwards, we look at bands like The Prodigy, Lords of Acid and Messiah that could draw alt rock and even metal/hard rock fans I tie so many of these bands together to a certain time and yet - am I miscategorizing them or am I wrong to categorize them at all. Do the KLF, 2 Unlimited, and the Orb exist in that same space? What I do know is it felt like an explosion and that explosion had ripple effects. Some bands walked a tight wire of success and acclaim like the Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim. Some burned brightly as the next big thing and then either were or weren’t with various degrees of success- everyone from the Underworld to the Klaxons to Atari Teen Riot. I could go all day and I still haven’t touched on all the roads the genre of electronic music has traveled - ambient and trance and grime and whatnot. Anyway, this is a conversation that I always wanted to write up and strangely what got me here was wanting to talk about my #sonsmusic When I think of the bands I listened to in the early 90s and what came from them- I generally look at two paths One is the commercial path. The 90s radio was full with European dance music. Artists like Real McCoy, La Bouche, Culture Beat, Rozalla, Ace of Base, KWS, Cascada, Amber, Haddaway and Robyn (and many many others) dominated dance floors and charts into the early 00s. These for me are guilty pleasure pop songs. These bands provide a direct road to where artists like Lady Gaga and the Backstreet Boys would pop up and go on. I have to admit that I don’t love a lot of modern pop music but DJ culture is a dominant force in it (Tiesto, Major Lazer, Diplo, Afrojack, DJ Snake, Steve Aoki, David Guetta, Aviccii and many many more). But there’s also the side that blends in the goth, industrial and new wave influences that had a boom in the early 00s and given names like "darkwave" or "futurepop" and featured bands like VNV Nation, Apoptygma Berzerk and Assemblage 23.. And I am telling you all this to get to Scooter. Scooter is a popular German band that is what you get when you blend my paragraphs above into an industrial-strength mixer and then feed it steroids My sons grew to love Scooter from a local hockey game where the song plays when a goal is scored. They are, no doubt, the perfect soundtrack for adrenaline and excitement and I suppose, violence I am not sure Scooter is very popular in the US, though if you have heard them, it’s likely either the preposterous “How Much is the Fish?” or the energetic cover of Supertramp (what?)’s “Logical Song” (double what?) Scooter has unleashed a string of hit singles in their home country of Germany. But they definitely fall into that category with Aqua, Rednex and Vengaboys of being ridiculously over the top. Ask me if I love or hate them and I am not quite sure what I will answer.

Sons Music - "Narco"

#sonsmusic Part 4 Not everyone loves sports and certainly many of my closest friends do not. But I love sports. It’s true a lot of liberal minded people aren’t sports fans, but there are exceptions. Steve Earle is a huge baseball fan. Hunter S Thompson spent his final years writing for ESPN and of course, famously talked football with Jack Kemp Most people love their local teams as a rule. There is a set of people who pick their favorite team in their preteen years and never leave them. I spoke to someone like that just last weekend who loves the Oakland As- a team that dominated in the late 80s and though famously saved for many years by Moneyball seem to be beyond hope. For me it is the New York Mets a team that wouldn’t have even been on my radar. Another hopelessly lost team that had no chances until a change of ownership and General Manager fielded a competitive team which was led by the two most exciting young players of the time- Dwight Gooden and Daryl Strawberry Gooden and Strawberry infamously had (and still have) personal issues that largely sank the promise of their careers. But I stayed a Mets fan when WOR came into my house and television screen The Mets have had highs and lows- mostly lows with a nice early-Aughts wave. They were back on the uptick last year when they found an owner with endlessly deep pockets The highlight of last years team was relief pitcher Edwin Diaz who would pitch the ninth inning with seemingly invincibility Depending on how much you know about baseball, the “closer” is one of the more dramatic parts of the game. The best to ever do it had memorable music and they came out -most famously “Enter Sandman” “Hells Bells” and “Welcome to the Jungle” and probably eclipsing all those “Wild Thing” from Major League which probably is the grand daddy of them all Most of these songs have been fairly well known when repurposed (a couple more fairly memorable ones are “California Love” and “Shipping Up to Boston”) but the Mets Edwin Diaz put “Narco” on the map The Dutch house duo Blasterjaxx teamed up with Australian musician Timmy Trumpet. I’m not really familiar with Timmy but he’s apparently a big deal and his niche is adding trumpet (and jazz) to electronic dance music. So while I didn’t know him, it looks like he has done quite well

Sons' Music- The HU

My seven year old's favorite song at the moment is one he heard at a sporting event. I am familiar with the band (at least by name) from their constant touring but the choice surprises me. Mongolian throat singing is a very unique sound. I doubt many people in the US were aware of it until the 90s when a few bands, preeminently Yat-Kha got some attention The HU has taken that form and blended it with modern metal music to achieve more commercial success. Their songs have broken into rock radio as they collaborate with Nu metal artists from bands like Papa Roach, System of a Down and Halestorm.

Sons Music- Parry Gripp

 Today in #sonsmusic

Kids love novelty songs. I loved Weird Al Yankovic and bought all his albums until I was 19. Country radio played in my house and I also bought Ray Stevens albums. I also know several of my generation that grew up on Dr Demento

So I get that my kids love jokey music. Joke music, viral music, meme my. There may not be a better joke music artist than Parry Gripp. Gripp has given us classics like “Raining Tacos”, "Riding on a Llama" “Hug a Turtle” and “Baby Yoda”.

Now there’s plenty of adults who like what gets termed “nerd rock” or “geek rock” and there are massive fan bases for artists like Jonathan Coulton, Paul and Storm, MC Frontalot , and I Fight Dragons. Music is such a hard thing to box in that it’s sometimes hard to decide where the genre starts and stops. Throw anything from Nerdcore rap to video game inspired music.

Parry Gripp interestingly is his real name and he came to fame as singer for the band Nerf Herder

Now, if you are looking for a path for this genre - there’s Weird Al and They Might Be Giants, but it goes back as far as Tom Lehrer, Stan Freeberg, and Allan Sherman and lest we forget, Monty Python. Do you count Zappa and Devo and numerous New Wave and Prog bands that led to 80s bands like Ween, the Dead Milkmen and Violent Femmes. Canada had a mini boom in the late 80s that includes bands (many that became stars in the 90s in the US) like Barenaked Ladies, Moxy Fruvous and Crash Test Dummies.

I bring this up because Nerf Herder was part of what became the 90s wave that rode the Alt rock explosion- Bowling for Soup, Fountains of Wayne, Ben Folds Five, Wheatus, and probably the biggest example Weezer.

For whatever reason, Nerf Herder never quite hit that one big hit those other bands enjoyed. “Van Halen” was an alt rock hit and they got press in CMJ and Spin. Yet it’s sort of a forgotten song, while the others mentioned above had at least one evergreen single.

And Nerf Herder never really went away. They performed the theme for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and then would go a bit viral in 2016 with the autobiographical “We Opened for Weezer”.

Now, Gripp has viral hits about food, animals, and for someone who was in a band named after the Princess Leia quote "you stuck up, half-witted, scruffy looking nerf herder" from Empire Strikes Back, songs about Jawas, Admiral Ackbar and Grogu.

So maybe Parry did when the long game- millions of songs streamed and a cult audience that loves his band and him.

2013 - Parry Gripp/Oglio

Concert Review- JAWNY

I spoke recently of how I had hoped to be seeing more concerts than I had been. Part of that of course is a mix of seeing old favorites and bands that are new to me.

A friend suggested we see JAWNY so we did. I was not familiar with the Philly- based artist who clearly is more famous than I

I couldn’t find much in terms of why on his Wikipedia although it did mention he dated Doja Cat. I could not tell you a Doja Cat song but I know she is one of the biggest stars in music now.

I also could tell you that at least by Spotify numbers, he eclipses any of my indie heroes like Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, and Pavement, even more than Violent Femmes or the Velvet Underground.

I do know that by the old trademark, that I do have at least two friends that were fans. I also knew the cliche is to “cram” in a band’s discography before seeing them perform

It would not have been hard to do- he has a new album and maybe another two albums or so of material. Nor do I think anything is wrong with that, but I wanted to come in and experience with little preconceptions.

I did spend some time with his song “Take It Back” which is a collaboration with Beck. In fact my first impression from this song and snippets of others is that JAWNY was a bit of a similar polymath.

My thoughts of the concert start with opener 18 year old Adan Diaz, who comes across as the new generation of musicians-more bedrooms and computers, less garages and amps.

I am struck by some probably obvious things.


First, the crowd was probably the largest and most energetic that I have seen in some time (from the perspective of I really only attend mid size or smaller venues in a Top 75 sized market - comparable to say Salt Lake City or Tallahassee or Little Rock, so not large).

But the crowd was young and excited. Certainly a better response than at shows of bands who had made their name on 30-40 years of performing.

JAWNY still perplexes me so I went back to the internet with the only clue being that one of his songs broke out as a Spotify Fresh Find

I feel 100 years old but I suspect the youth has word of mouth and shared media, and there probably wouldn’t be much difference to an outsider attending a Depeche Mode concert in the late 80s

JAWNY is a heck of an energetic performer. He plays guitar and is accompanied by a bassist and drummer, and surely something electronic in the background. I can’t find any faults in his frontman ship.

Musically, he wasn’t my taste though I wouldn’t have guessed why.

The clues were in his intro (Killers’ “Mr Brightside, his Shawn Mendes jokes and his choice of a Taylor Swift cover.

JAWNY might not be my favorite but I can see why he has won over a legion of fans. He’s good at what he does.

Just what he does is way more poppier than i expected. I had seen a lot of Strokes references on his reviews in the NME and the Guardian, but it would be more accurate to say he sounds like the latter day descendents who took the sound more mainstream and had way more chart success- band like Glass Animals and Neon Trees.

The second thing that struck me had to do with the songs. As a white middle class Gen Xer, my generation “discovered” rap. Aerosmith and Run DMC of course, but more importantly also a class that was as likely to listen to NWA or Tupac as it was Pearl Jam or Aerosmith. Gen Y combined genres even more with the popularity of Nu Metal.

But both artists- the opener and JAWNY - a more seasoned 27 year old- are indicative of a generation that doesn’t think about genres. Rock, hip hop, dance, pop- all fluidly blend together.

I like JAWNY at his best when he is playing the more new wave-y stuff. I can picture him touring with Cheap Trick in the 70s or an 80s glam band. I hear Oughts hopefuls Rooney and modern day chart toppers AJR.

JAWNY seems much more in line with the poppier alternative bands of the last 20 years - Foster the People, lovelytheband. The energetic “Take it Back” is a highlight, so they do a second version to close the show.

Critical fanfare or commercial success? Both show high probability in JAWNYs future. 

Sons Music- Darude

 It was such a fun time writing about Mom’s records (and I’m not done) and it occurred to me I probably ought to write about #sonsmusic too.

I have a 7 and 9 year old. It is one of the most rewarding things in my life. The seven year old especially loves music and wants to be a DJ when he grows up. As my first (and often favorite) music memories are around 8 and 9 (with vague recollections of earlier years), it strikes me how these are going to be those years for them.

As mentioned elsewhere, satellite radio is something we have in my wife’s car. This sounds unhip, but it cannot be understated how KidzBop is so influential and is inescapable. Of course, there’s always been something like that, but this is the current iteration of music marketed to kids. It’s not the worst thing in the world as my kid does keep me current with pop music.

Another route is the sporting events we go to. These are generally their favorite songs and why not- energetic and uplifting, not complicated.

I don’t try to foist my tastes on my kids. Ok, not often. I have found negative feedback for 60s Rock (Yardbirds, Screaming Lord Sutch) and positive feedback when I played Sham 69 (which follows the same template as the sports songs above)

My seven year old does love some of my favorite bands like Soft Cell and New Order along with most of the popular music of the day. He occasionally will go on wild searches that bring in every thing from SoundCloud rap to doom metal.

My nine year old is quite scattered and less traditional. The Trans Siberian Orchestra is a favorite. He likes a variety among other things of Catholic hymns, the Cello Guys, assorted kids music and soundtracks. He loves a lot of instrumental music that probably would be labeled trance or ambient (like Robert Miles “Children”, and Astronomia” by Vicetone )

It is probably a internet meme. It might be THE internet meme if Rick Ashley didn’t exist, but I think my son's favorite song might be Sandstorm by Darude

Both kids do love it, and hey, who can hate it? With evidence like this, maybe it is the best song ever.

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What I'm Listening To: Reigning Sound

I have to admit that I pretty much missed the 90s garage rock revival. Now, I did have a couple of friends who were a bit more knowledgeable and the other part of that is that it was a pretty underground phenomenon. I am talking that (mostly) late 90s (mostly) Memphis based garage punk scene that was on labels like Crypt and Sympathy for the Record Company, whose only real means of advertising were word of mouth and zines. Bands that come to my mind are the Oblivians, New Bomb Turks, the Reatards, Nine Pound Hammer, the Dirtbombs, and the Gories and then you could (depending on how you want to define the scene) broaden it out to what became the early 00s garage rock scene and eventually broke through in terms of bands like the White Stripes and Black Keys. (Bands like Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, the Supersuckers and Rocket from the Crypt with larger label support and audiences generally don’t get grouped in but aren’t that much different) So I missed a lot of the scene at the time and to a certain extent, didn’t really find the bands that would come out of it until much later- King Khan, the Detroit Cobras, Black Lips and so on I didn’t even revisit the Oblivains until the year 2000 album Crystal Gazing Luck Amazing by the Compulsive Gamblers- a band formed by two thirds of the Oblivians - Greg and Jack (and actually predating the Oblivians) Whereas the Oblivians were primal frantic rock n roll birthed of the Stooges and Cramps, the Compulsive Gamblers were certainly less wild, but retained some of the same elements and sort of skipped around elements of the Nuggets style garage bands Greg “Oblivian” Cartwright went on to from Reigning Sound. Upon releasing the live album “Memphis in June” last year, Greg announced the bands break up I was bummed as I really enjoyed 2021s “A Little More Time with”. I was consoled by the fact that I doubt Cartwright will go idle. In a vein of the Gamblers, the Reigning Sound is a mix of garage rock with a bit of soul and Americana. On the “A Little More Time” album, they slow it into Flying Burrito Brothers territory at times. It almost sounds radio friendly but Americana stations seem to be few and far between. “Memphis in June” is of course being a live album- strongly focused on the most recent albums with a couple of greatest hits thrown in. It is missing probably their finest moment - a fast paced cover of the Gants “Stormy Weather”- the original from an underappreciated lost mid-1960s Beatles influenced Mississippi garage band, and you have to go to the band's excellent second album, 2002's Time Bomb High School 

2002 - In the Red Records

Moms Music- Queen

One of my mom’s favorite bands is Queen. I acquired three of Mom’s records, a fact that I mainly bring up because prior I only had one Queen album on vinyl and that was Hot Space (everything else on CD) It’s always interesting to me how tastes change. Classic bands like Queen, Led Zeppelin, the Doors, the Who and so on seem to ebb and flow with cultural tides Clearly the Freddie Mercury biopic put Queen back on the map. More recently, Brian May was named the best Guitarist of all time in a March poll. This was a big controversial conversation starter on social media. But seriously, May was incredibly humble and any ranking of art is going to be subjective I don’t have anything I can say about Queen that hasn’t already been said. They aren’t necessarily at the top of the list of my favorite bands but I do like and enjoy them and listen to them still quite a bit. They have transcended generations and my sons listen to them. I am not sure I even have a favorite album - Queen 2 and Night at the Opera are generally regarded in conversations of the best. But I do love plenty of their songs. The Three Albums from #momsrecords were A Day At the Races, Live Killers and Greatest Hits I think I actually place “A Day..” with the two more popular platters mentioned above. I don’t find any of them perfect but they are all great listens with a mix of memorable songs and some filler. Live Killers similarly is slated as “less than”, but I find it a wonderfully sounding document of the Queen live show. The general consensus is that one of the problems is that Freddie’s voice isn’t as strong here as say, contemporaries like Robert Plant or Roger Daltrey. Yet, for me, the energy really does it- capturing at least a bit of what made Queen great. On the singalong of “Now I’m Here”, you get a glimpse of Freddie the showman, vocal criticism is secondary. Some don’t like the Medley format that gets used like Killer Queen with Bicycle Race, though I think it helps bring out the uniqueness of the band in concert I am not sure if they ended up releasing a better live album (in that, this is the only one I have spent time with). I know there are several other choices now from various points in their career- Wiki lists 10 proper live Queen albums - but I believe this was the only live Queen reord released in the US until the early 90s 1981s Greatest Hits is like ChangesBowie, an essential compilation that came out while the artist was still vital. In the CD and cassette age- it got the 1992 makeover. This was important timing to coordinate with the success of “Bohemian Rhapsody” re-entering the charts. The newer version removed Under Pressure, Flash and Keep Yourself Alive and added Body Language, Seven Seas of Rhye, Now I’m Here, Save and, Don’t Stop Me Now, Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy and I Want to Break Free Though I think mainly that was to move those to a second disc, add everything from the 80s and release an album in the States called Classic Queen that added all the 80s hits that had yet to be recorded before the original greatest hits and added some important omissions like Stone Cold Crazy and Tie Your Mother Down. The label also moved Bohemian Rhapsody to this disc to make both albums necessary purchases to complete an essential collection. (At least in the US, where both discs were a success and made a completed pair. The UK had a Greatest Hits 2 instead)

Moms Music- The Beatles

I have likely already told you all this before but I can’t talk about #momsrecords without talking about the Beatles. I was relieved to find all her Beatles records in the mess that was her garage. I think she had a couple of “Tony Sheridan” records she sold but everything else was intact So here is the rundown -Paul McCartney and the Lennons - John and Julian were radio stars when I was a kid and lest we forget Stars on 4(# 1 in 1981) and Beatles Movie Medley (# 12 in 1982) -One Beatles song is on the short list of my favorite songs of the preteen years - but it’s not an usual cjoice - it’s Ringo’s “With a Little Help from my Friends” -My first real immersion like others was a compilation- in this case in high school driving around town with a friend listening to eight-track tapes of the “Red” and “Blue” albums -Listening to Revolver and Rubber Soul were a revelation. At the time, Sgt Pepper’s seemed to be the unassailable “best album ever” - that’s changed but I didn’t know what I was getting with those “middle” albums. I also vividly recall buying Revolver on CD my sophomore year in high school. - Similarly, I bought the White Album in college, the favorite Beatles record of both Morrissey and Marr. It might be (depending on the day) my favorite too. The eccentric mix of songs anticipated “college rock” - In my preteen years, I watched the Magical Mystery Tour movie. In those years, every movie watched has some kind of impression and MMT is truly a weird movie to begin with. It would be easy to categorize it watching it now for what it was, but it was just an unorganized film with some striking moments otherwise. - When push comes (and I’m not sure if related to the above or not), I really do believe the Magical Mystery Tour is my favorite Beatles albums. Sgt Peppers has some great songs. Revolver is such an amazing beginning to end listen. Rubber Soul is probably a shade lesser than Revolver, but covers a lot of musical ground. White Album of course is great and the last “two” albums are not personal favorites. I am of course talking about the American version of Magical Mystery Tour which is on one side - the British EP of songs from the movie and on side 2- five strong singles from 1967. In my estimation, if you’re picking 5 songs from a year by a single band you could do worse. .

Moms Music- The Rolling Stones

A record my Mom gave me long time ago was Between the Buttons. If we were talking about almost any other band, we would be talking about their greatest albums. But it’s the Stones, and I think everyone will say one answer and if they don’t, then surely there’s another answer that is the answer. So there’s those three, and that’s if you don’t prefer Beggars Banquet, Some Girls, my favorite Goat Heads Soup or any left field choice you might have There may be a couple of reasons. One being it’s one of those albums that was released in different versions in the UK and the US. I would also suspect that like many people, I grew up with “Hot Rocks” - as good as a compilation as one can find and didn’t really need to look any further. Still, I suspect like the Beatles and the Who, that later work is just so overshadowing of the early stuff But Between the Buttons does feel like an essential album and an all time classic. The US version is pumped up by the addition of two UK singles - Let’s Spend the Night Together and Ruby Tuesday. These are classics but the whole first side consists of great songs- Connection, Yesterday’s Papers, She Smiled Sweetly and Cool Calm and Collected. The B sides aren’t quite up to that all star lineup but they’re not filled either -with songs like Miss Amanda Jones- a prototype for where the band was going to be with Exile in Main Street in a few years The album of course is that gateway - Their Satanic Majesties Request was their next album. “Buttons” would be the last Stones album wholly produced by Andrew Loog Oldham. Brian Jones plays multiple instruments like marimba, recorder and kazoo. So many of the early Stones records are great and I am guilty of skipping to the big singles, but if you’re like me, Between the Buttons is a great listener experience

Moms Music - Buddy Holly

How about another round of #momsrecords. Mom is a huge Beatles fan and a huge Buddy Holly fan I have gone back and forth with Holly’s music. He certainly influenced everyone. I particularly find my love of Holly in his influence on cult musician Roky Erickson. But of course, whether British Invasion or garage rock or power pop, it starts with Holly. It’s hard not to picture Elvis Costello on the sides of his feet banging at “Pump it Up” and not see the obvious Holly influence. I acquired the now iconic self titled 1958 album where Holly on the cover could pass for a young John Lennon -which got the reissue treatment in 1988-the last album released by Holly before his death. I suspect most people’s experience with Holly begins with 20 Golden Greats- another iconic record, this one with the graffiti Buddy Holly Lives on the cover. Granted, that’s a good suggestion but “Buddy Holly” is a nice start too - there’s “Peggy Sue”, “Rave On”, and “I’m Gonna Love You Too” which are all great must haves. The latter as good as a rock song ever- covered by Blondie, the 13th Floor Elevators and others. But there is a nice mix of songs- slow and fast as well as songs made more famous by others- Lieber and Stoller’s “You’re So Square” popularized by Elvis and “Ready Teddy”, an early hit for Little Richard. As an aside, I have now lived in Iowa for 20 years and one thing I have yet to do is to visit the Surf Ballroom the site of the last concert. It often comes up what Buddy Holly would have done if he had lived. It is one of the all time great music questions that gets applied to Hendrix, Lennon, Janis, Cobain, Otis Redding, the original Lynyrd Skynyrd and countless others. This one is tough because I take a pessimistic view. Elvis and the British Invasion changed everything. Would he have became a “nostalgia” act? This seems a likely answer. We know how the careers of the Everly Brothers and Ricky Nelson played out. That seems like a likely path Yet, you never know. He was beloved by the Beatles. I am sure he would have been given similar treatment as Lennon would give to Chuck Berry. We saw Berry and Roy Orbison get huge, star-studded tributes in the 80s. The likelihood of a latter years Holly revival almost seems assured. I would surely be wrong if I compare him to musicians like Bobby Vee and Frankie Avalon. That's got to be underrating his sizable talent and influence, right? Between the 70s variety shows, the ascent of various neo rockabilly and traditional rock acolytes and late 90s/early 00s Rick Rubin makeovers - someone would have lifted Holly’s star again. Springsteen, U2, Robert Gordon, the Clash, Costello, the Ramones, The Rolling Stones and most obviously Lennon and McCartney -without a doubt, someone would have found tour support and album appearances for Holly as they did for his contemporaries (Note: I typed this out and forgot all about the Weezer hit. Definitely was in the cards for him to get his heyday again, and though I didn’t plan on writing on it- clearly between “American Pie”, the Gary Busey biopic and “La Bamba”, America still had cravings for early rock n roll)

Album Review: the Ventures- New Space

While streaming via both Spotify and Pandora, I kept running into a new single by the Ventures. 

I have to admit that I was a bit confused. “New” Ventures? I had to dig in. It was hard to find anything but here is what was easy to find. 

All the members of the most famous lineup of the Ventures were dead. Guitarist Don Wilson passed away in 2022. Bob Bogle, Nokia Edwards and drummer Mel Taylor all preceded him. This opens a conversation of whether a band can exist without its members. (Some of the names often cited in these conversations are acts like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Thin Lizzy, and Foriegner). 

So let’s look at the make up of the Ventures. The current lineup of the Ventures has evolved and been approved over the years. The current iteration of the Ventures is led by Bob Spalding and his son. Spalding has been active with the band in some capacity since 1980 (his relationship with Mel Taylor going back about a decade earlier before that) and the face of the band for the last 15 years. It helps that the Ventures seem to exist more as a concept than a personality led band like Dick Dale and the Del-Tones. 

The most recognizable member likely being Taylor, and Taylor’s legacy (he passed in 1996) is represented here by his son being the drummer. This may not please everyone. This may feel like Jack Osbourne and Tony Martin touring as Black Sabbath in 2023. 

There is also the argument that this album would go unnoticed under any other name (the only lengthy article I can find on this band is from a website called StormSurgeofReverb.com and they mention this band had been also advertised elsewhere as V2- presumably Ventures 2) Personally, I am surprised how much I love this new album “New Space”. 

It seriously feels if not like the actual Ventures, an updated take on what a 21st Century Ventures would sound like. There are of course, dozens of surf bands, but somehow this continuation seems to hit perfectly upon it. 

 The album opens with a cover of “Fly Me to The Moon” which has the same crunch as “Walk Don’t Run”. It’s an instrumental cover of the song made famous by Sinatra but given a sharp clean production that you hear on the Ventures most famous tune but all of the other greatest surf tunes (Pipeline, Wipeout, Miserlou, and so on) Smartly, though the album opens up to a set of originals that follow the early 1960s Space (and Surf) theme. It’s a really good record. 

 We are a good 20 years removed from where we seemingly used to worried about such things as credibility. It still comes to mind that we are aware that the Four Tops currently on tour are just a lineage of a band that no longer really exists; and I feel that we have been comfortable calling an album sans Entwistle and Moon a proper Who record. Do the Ventures feel like more of a band or do they feel like a sports team or a business? Are they to be treated like the Beatles or more like The New York Yankees or Sears Roebuck? The Byrds played in my old home town (population 20,000) in the 90s but it wasn’t a lineup that McGuinn, Crosby or Hillman could recognize. These were thoughts I wasn’t comfortable with at the time, but seem to be okay with now. And this group is bringing the Ventures sound back properly, so I guess that’s enough for me.