Split Enz - "History Never Repeats" (forgotten song)

Danette and I went to the 2015 Kentucky Derby last week (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday) and to avoid putting the 1700+ miles on our car we rented a car.  The car's best feature was the satellite radio and probably 90% of our time was spent on the alternative 80s channel "1st wave".  We heard a lot of songs that we hadn't heard in a while (including some that are probably better left in the 80s), but there was truly one "forgotten song" that we heard: Split Enz's "History Never Repeats", a single off their 1981 LP "Waiata".  The video received a little airplay in the early days of MTV, but mostly I remember songs like "I Got You", "Six Months in a Leaky Boat", and the various Crowded House videos.  It's a good song, but one that I just barely remember.

"History Never Repeats" - 1981 video, 2007 reunion

Hum - "Stars" (forgotten song)

This song has been on low rotation on 96x for a while now, but I finally Shazam'd it on the way to work today.  I was going to post something snarky like "this new song incorporates everything I loved about early- to mid-90s rock", but then when I googled it I found out this song did indeed come out in 1995!  At first, I was happy that I had pegged the time frame so nicely, and then I started to wonder how I had missed this song 20 years ago...

Apparently "Stars" was a minor radio hit for the now defunct Hum, off their 1995 major label debut "You'd Prefer an Astronaut".  Either it did not get airplay in Hampton Roads at the time, or I've simply forgotten it.  I'm hoping for the former.  Either way, I'm enjoying it like it's 1995.

Hum: "Stars" (studio), Late Night with Conan O'Brien, 120 Minutes

Bonus link: "You'd Prefer An Astronaut" (full LP -- I haven't listened to it yet)

Celtic Frost - "Morbid Tales" (LP Review)

Enough of the Beach Boys, Lesley Gore, etc. -- today we're going back to high school and Celtic Frost.  I remember Scott Kinkade getting their debut EP, "Morbid Tales" as an import in 1984.  Although I was a fan, I was never the biggest CF fan at the time (their goth-viking visual imagery was especially silly), so it with some surprise that when I revisit it now I realize that the music has held up so well after 30+ years.  The debt they owe to Black Sabbath is more apparent to me now, although they extend that sound with the speed and punk-like attitude (for lack of a better term) of Motorhead.  The production is mid-80s awful, but again that's part of the charm (cf. Blacktask).  This stuff is ferocious in a way that more polished & produced metal just can't touch. 

Also, in retrospect, their lyrics were much better than most of their contemporaries.  Certainly they were into the whole doom/black metal thing, but their lyrics borrow more from the Conan / Weird Tales milieu instead of, say, Venom's comically satanic imagery.  With songs like "Into Crypts of Rays" (about Gilles de Rais) , they get points for realizing history provides more sources for "morbid tales" than fantasy ever could. 

Standout songs: "Into the Crypts of Rays", "Visions of Mortality", "Procreation (Of the Wicked)", "Return to the Eve", "Danse Macabre",  "Nocturnal Fear"  (that's all six from the original European import; later versions had additional songs -- full EP on Youtube)

Skip 'em songs: none.

Final score: 8/10.  And not just from nostalgia or irony, but neither is it focusing on its significant influence on later bands.  Even out of its historical context, this is just really good, heavy music. 

Take my soul away into the dark, dreaming 1000 morbid dreams, no tomorrow when the wind caresses my mind, could I ever return, it would be my doom.

--"Return to the Eve"

The Beach Boys - "Wild Honey" (LP Review)

Like most people, my knowledge of The Beach Boys ceases from about 1967 (resulting from the whole "Smile" / "Smiley Smile" debacle) until their emergence in the 1980s as a nostalgia act.  Doing some detailed reading in their discography reveals they continued to release LPs pretty regularly until about 1980.  The reviews of some of those LPs are pretty good (corresponding to the ascendancy of Carl Wilson within the band's hierarchy): Allmusic gives 1967's "Wild Honey" 4/5 stars, 1968's "Friends" also gets 4/5 stars, 3.5/5 stars for 1969's "20/20", 4.5/5 stars for 1970's "Sunflower" (it also made Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest LPs of All Times"), and finally 4/5 stars for 1971's "Surf's Up".  That's a pretty strong showing for five LPs, with only 1969's "Do It Again" as the only song from this period that most people will recognize. 

So it was with some anticipation that I looked forward to hearing "Wild Honey", which in 2001 was appended to "Smiley Smile" and various contemporary outtakes for a bonus CD.  Had I just received a forgotten gem from this unexplored portion of their discography? 

No.  No, I had not.

I can't speak for the other LPs listed above, but "Wild Honey" is a really bad LP and no amount of nostalgic revisionism can change that.  The title track is mildly interesting, sounding like Stevie Wonder with a theremin, but I think it stands out only because the rest of the soul-inspired songs fall flatter than does "Wild Honey".  "Darlin'" pauses the Stevie Wonder theft long enough to steal from the Four Seasons.  The best two tracks are 1) "Country Air" which although written for this LP would sound at home on "Smile" or "Pet Sounds", and 2) "Mama Says", a reworking of the acapella  break from "Vegetables" (left off "Smiley Smile" but present on "Smile"). 

The double CD is worth getting, but adjust your expectations for "Wild Honey".  The Beach Boys excursion to Motown has as much skill and authenticity as Robert Van Winkle brought to rap some 22 years later... 

Standout songs: "Country Air", "Mama Says"

Songs that appear: "Wild Honey" (live 1972), "Darlin'"

Skip 'em songs: the rest.

Final score: 3/10. 

Lesley Gore - "You Don't Own Me" (the song remains the same)

I should acknowledge the recent passing of Lesley Gore.  Best known for popular but fluffy songs like "It's My Party", "Judy's Turn to Cry", and "She's A Fool", Lesley made her lasting mark on music with the feminist anthem "You Don't Own Me", the 2nd single from her 1964 LP "Lesley Gore Sings of Mixed-Up Hearts".  Even though all of these songs came out in 1963 and 1964, they still sound like the 1950s -- before the Beatles ushered in the "modern" sound of music.

Tame by today's standards, I can only assume it packed quite a punch in 1964.  And while "You Don't Own Me" was covered by many different artists, its feminist message seems to serve as a safer, surrogate message for artists that would later come out. 

Lesley Gore: Live TV (I'm pretty sure this is not lip synced), studio
Dusty Springfield: studio
Joan Jett: studio

Avett Brothers - Austin, TX 2014-10-11 (concert)

The picture to the left is from Herbert and Lisa at the Avett Brothers concert in Albuquerque, New Mexico 2015-02-04 (setlist).  They went to the show on my recommendation and although they I think they enjoyed it, the Avett Brothers didn't resonate with them as much as they do with Danette and me.  One thing they mentioned about the NM show is that the venue, the Santa Ana Star Center, was too large for a band like the Avett Brothers.  Judging by their picture, it looks like their seats were pretty good, but they still felt the venue was not intimate enough for the kind of music they play.  This echos our experience in the NYE 2014 show in Raleigh where we had really bad seats in the PNC Arena.   Our experience almost surely would have been better if I had ordered tickets sooner, but then perhaps they should not have played in a venue where bad seats were even possible?

This brings up an interesting question: can a band grow too popular for their ideal venues?  Obviously you'd prefer to see bands in the smallest possible venues.  On the other hand, you can't fault a band for gaining popularity and filling (or nearly so) increasingly larger venues.  But some bands' sound transposes to larger venues with less of a problem.  The Avett Brothers are high energy, and they've slowly accreted band members to help them have a consistently bigger sound, but they're still not really an arena rock band, either in terms of popularity or sound.  Is there an ideal venue size for an indie/folk/roots/country/bluegrass band like the Avett Brothers?  David Byrne in his 2010 TED Talk (transcript) explored the relationship between venue and music, but did not really explore the idea of an optimum venue size for a particular sound.

I could only find a few uploaded videos from the New Mexico show ("Love Like The Movies", "Left on Laura, Left on Lisa", "Laundry Room", "Satan Pulls The Strings", "Murder In The City", "I Wish I Was"), and the quality isn't consistently as good as the NYE show I was able to reconstruct.   So instead, I'll include a professionally recorded show at the 2014 Austin City Limits Festival recorded about four months earlier than the NM show.



The setlist is available for this as well, and it amounts to about an hour of music (shorter than a headliner concert).  I'm not sure if there was more music and it was edited down to an hour, or if their hour simply straddled sunset (the sun appears to go down at the ~45 minute mark).   Apropos to the venue size question above, note at about ~31:50 how Seth leaves the stage and tries to pump up the audience by running around the WWI style trenches that separates the band from the audience.  I get that it's a large, outdoor festival, but that just doesn't seem like the best way to see the Avett Brothers.

Continuing on this theme, here is a short, five song 2015 Austin City Limits TV show appearance where the venue is small and intimate but the audience appears sedated if not fully dead.  Once again it falls to Seth to venture into the crowd and inject some life (~14:20).  Perhaps it is just the nature of TV audiences to be lifeless, cf. my review of  Wire's 1979 concert "On The Box".

In summary, I'm very thankful that in years past we have been able to see the Avett Brothers in the Portsmouth Pavillion, which might be the ideal size (~6500 people) in addition to its absolutely beautiful outdoor location right on the Elizabeth River.  I'm also glad Herbert and Lisa got to see them even though it's not exactly their thing.  So far their tour page doesn't list a return to Portsmouth, but right now there are only a few dates booked for May, June, and July so I would expect more dates to be announced soon.  I'm hoping they return to the area and that we're in town for them (we missed them last year for the 2014 Power Tour).  Between Michele & Chris, Joy, Marilee, and possibly some others we'll be a good chunk of the audience in what might be a perfect venue for them. 

Jill Sobule ‎– "I Kissed A Girl" (forgotten song)

Another Super Bowl has come and gone, and with it a pretty good halftime show, featuring Katy Perry, Lenny Kravitz, and Missy Elliott.  Katy Perry was Katy Perry, I'm not sure why Lenny Kravitz was there (having him sing "I Kissed a Girl" isn't really a stretch), and most people celebrated the return of Missy Elliott.  And then there were the sharks, or more specifically "left shark".  If you didn't enjoy the sharks, trees, and beach balls then you're dead inside (see also: Aqua's "Barbie Girl").

I've already (sorta) blogged about Katy Perry once and that seems like enough.  The third song in the Super Bowl setlist was Katy Perry's first single from 2008, "I Kissed A Girl", but instead I want to focus on another song by the same name that you might not have heard.

In 1995 Jill Sobule released "I Kissed A Girl" as a single off her second LP "Jill Sobule" and it received minor airplay.  Although she's been active continuously I don't think she's had a hit since then.  Katy's song is a different song altogether, even though they share a title and theme.  Obviously Katy played the bi-curious theme to much more commercial success than did Jill.  In a 2009 interview Jill said, tongue-in-cheek:

When Katy Perry's song came out I started getting tons of inquiries about what I thought. Some folks (and protective friends) were angry, and wondered why she took my title and made it into this kind of "girls gone wild" thing....

As a musician I have always refrained from criticizing another artist. I was, "Well, good for her." It did bug me a little bit, however, when she said she came up with the idea for the title in a dream. In truth, she wrote it with a team of professional writers and was signed by the very same guy that signed me in 1995. I have not mentioned that in interviews as I don't want to sound bitter or petty...

Okay, maybe, if I really think about it, there were a few jealous and pissed-off moments. So here goes, for the first time in an interview: Fuck you Katy Perry, you fucking stupid, maybe 'not good for the gays,' title-thieving, haven't heard much else, so not quite sure if you're talented, fucking little slut.

God that felt good.

I watched the halftime show, and I liked it...

Jill Sobule - "I Kissed A Girl"
Katy Perry - "I Kissed A Girl"
Full Super Bowl XLIX Halftime Show