Husker Du - "Everything Falls Apart and More" (LP Review)

"Everything Falls Apart" was Husker Du's first studio LP, originally released in 1983 on Reflex Records and then re-released as "Everything Falls Apart and More" in 1993 on Rhino Records. The "and More" part refers to including Husker Du's first two 7" singles, 1980's "Statues / Amusement" and 1982's "In a Free Land", as well as two unreleased tracks a studio version of "Let's Go Die" (a live version appears on 1982's "Land Speed Record"), and the previously unreleased "Do You Remember?" (which is the English translation of "Husker Du"). The original LP clocked in at under 20 minutes, but the bonus material takes it to 42 minutes. Yes, in 1982 20 minutes was considered a full length LP for punk bands.

I got this LP sometime well after college, so it doesn't have the same nostalgia for me as "Flip Your Wig" or "New Day Rising". And this LP doesn't show the depth, complexity or variety that other LPs would; this is straightforward, hard-core punk. The production is thin & biting (courtesy of Spot, who produced most of the bands on the early days of SST Records) and the songs are short, furious, and rarely last much over two minutes. I wish I had heard this LP when it came out, it would have made a huge impression on me then.

But even still, this is a surprisingly good LP to listen to today. It is mostly angry punk music, but a few glimpses of their future, more melodic sound peek through in a few songs, like "Everything Falls Apart", "In a Free Land", and "Do You Remember?". So while this LP stays well within its genre, it is a genre that Husker Du helped create. Many fans think Husker Du began with "Zen Arcade", but if you're in the mood for a ferocious blast of energy, then give this LP a listen.

Standout Songs: "From the Gut", "Punch Drunk", "Bricklayer", "Afraid of Being Wrong", "Everything Falls Apart", "Target", "In a Free Land", "Do You Remember?".

Skip 'em Songs: their awkward cover of Donovan's "Sunshine Superman".

Final Score: 8/10

Thanks to HUSKERchout for the super-rare concert videos.

Husker Du - "Eight Miles High / Makes No Sense At All" (LP Review)

I recently rediscovered this one out of my stacks of CDs and put it in my iTunes collection. Released in 1990 on SST Records three years after Husker Du had broken up, this 4-song EP is really just two earlier 7" singles combined and re-released: 1984's "Eight Miles High" and 1985's "Makes No Sense At All".

"Eight Miles High", their cover of the The Byrds classic 1966 song, is a non-LP single. Covering a song by The Byrds was quite a stretch for a punk band in 1984, and Husker Du turns out an appropriately heavy, buzz-saw version. The B-Side is a live version of "Masochism World", one of the heaviest songs on the acclaimed double LP "Zen Arcade".

"Makes No Sense At All" is the best song in Husker Du's catalog, and quite possibly the best punk song ever. It is the only single from their outstanding 1985 LP "Flip Your Wig". The B-Side is a cover of Sonny Curtis's "Love is All Around". That's right, as if to prove they could stretch further than The Byrds, they covered the theme song for The Mary Tyler Moore Show (opening credits).

So do you need this EP? If you already have "Zen Arcade" and "Flip Your Wig", then there are only two new songs: "Eight Miles High" and "Love is All Around". The latter is just a novelty, so the former is really the only new song. If you're a hard-core fan (and don't already have the two 7" singles!), then get this EP since it is still in print and reasonably priced (I think the individual singles are out of print). But if you're not familiar with Husker Du, then start with "Flip Your Wig" and "New Day Rising" instead.

Standout songs: Eight Miles High (live 1983, live 1985, live 1987), Masochism World (studio version), Makes No Sense At All / Love Is All Around (in a single video).

Skip 'em songs: none.

Final Score: 6/10. All good songs, but necessary for hard-core fans only.

Bonus Link: The Byrds - "Eight Miles High"

Bruce Springsteen - "For You" (the song remains the same)

I recently reviewed "Blinded by the Light", the song from Bruce Springsteen's first LP, "Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J." that was made famous by Manfred Mann's Earth Band. For MMEB's 1980 LP "Chance", they went back to the well again, recording "For You" from Bruce's 1973 debut LP. (Bruce never released "For You" as a single, so I chose MMEB's covert art.)

I don't recall ever hearing Bruce's version on the radio, only occasionally for the MMEB version, and nothing on classic rock radio in I don't know how many years. Which is too bad, since this is quite a good song. MMEB used the same formula they used on BBTL: increasing the production complexity and greatly simplifying the lyrical complexity (three stanzas to 1.5 stanzas), even to the point of removing half of the chorus. The LP version clocked in at almost 6 minutes, but the 7" version is just under 4 minutes. Bruce's version:

I came for you, for you, I came for you, but you did not need my urgency
I came for you, for you, I came for you, but your life was one long emergency
and your cloud line urges me, and my electric surges free

MMEB's version:

I came for you
I came for you
I came for you
For you
I came for you

Eliminating the urgency/emergency portion significantly changes the meaning of the song; explore the original version and the MMEB version for additional changes.

For You: Bruce Springsteen (studio version, 1978 live version), Manfred Mann's Earth Band (7" single version, LP version, 1986 live version).

And for completeness, I suppose I should mention the 2005 release by The Disco Boys, based on the MMEB version: Radio Edit version, Freemasons Remix version.

Cowboy Junkies - "The Trinity Session" (LP Review)

I was recently extolling the virtues of this LP to Herbert, and I've given/recommended it as a gift several times before so I decided I should go ahead and review it. Simply put, the Cowboy Junkies 1988 sophomore LP, "The Trinity Session", is one of the best LPs of all time. The story of the actual recording session is now legendary: on a shoestring budget, the group rented the Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto (they're Canadian) for one day and recorded the entire LP live with one mic (ok, technically they forgot to record the a capella "Mining for Gold" during the weekend and recorded it a few days later in the church during the lunch break of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's recording session). The warm acoustics of the church, the intimate, spare production, the lonely, hazy songs -- it all combines to transport you to the session itself, like you helped the band move their gear and watched and listened to the LP unfold.

But what is less well-known but more interesting to me is that this LP is a love letter to & reinterpretation of country music. On the band's website they have extensive notes about their experiences touring the American South in support of their previous LP and being introduced to country music:

[W]e had spent a lot of time in the Southern States, especially Virginia, Georgia and the Carolinas. ... Those were the days when having to spend a night in a hotel room would mean the difference between eating the next day or paying for the gas to get us to the next town, so we spent a lot of our time sleeping on the floors of friendly promoters, fans, waitresses and bartenders. One of the best part about being "billeted" was that each night we were exposed to a new record collection and each night we'd discover a new album or a new band or a whole new type of music that was springing up in some buried underground scene somewhere in America. ... A style of music that we were heavily exposed to at that time was country music. It wasn't like everyone we ran into was a country music freak, but growing up in the South, most people had been exposed to a lot more of it than we had growing up in suburban Montreal. There would inevitably be in every collection one or two great country music records that had been lifted from their parents as they moved out. Sitting there between the latest Death Piggy single and Coltrane's Giant Steps would be something like Waylon Jennings' Honky Tonk Heroes, or Patsy Cline's Greatest Hits, The Louvin Brothers, The Carter Family, Bill Monroe, Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and the list goes on. We drank it up.

Sometimes you don't really understand something that you take for granted until it is processed and presented to you by someone from another culture or background (cf. my discussion of Robbie Robertson's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"). In doing so, the Junkies helped revitalize/define the genre of alt country, infused from their lo-fi, hazy, barroom blues sound from their first LP, "Whites Off Earth Now!!" (see also: "Me and the Devil Blues").

On this LP, the CJs don't simply cover country songs, but reinterpret them, and let the attitude infuse their other songs as well. For example, they do a slow, aching version of "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" that I think Hank Williams would approve of. Ditto a six minute blues jam version of Patsy Cline's "Walkin' After Midnight". They also strip down "Dreaming My Dreams With You" by Waylon Jennings, and do a surprisingly upbeat version (for them) of the traditional song "Working On a Building".

They go beyond straight covers with their version of "Blue Moon", mixing an original song with the Rodgers & Hart standard to yield "Blue Moon Revisited (Song for Elvis)". The result is genius; acknowledging the presence of Elvis without overshadowing the rest of the collection.

Despite my high praise for the above songs, the star of the show is without question their rolling, relaxed cover of The Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane". One doesn't normally associate the Velvets with, say, Patsy Cline or Hank Williams, but the CJs figured out how to make it work. Lou Reed himself has said that the Cowboy Junkies version of "Sweet Jane" is "the best and most authentic version I have ever heard" -- you're not going to find higher praise than that.

Although I've spoken mostly of their covers, the LP features a handful of originals like "Misguided Angel" (a disturbingly beautiful song about an abusive relationship) and "200 More Miles" (a road song that appropriately namechecks Willie Nelson) that are excellent songs worthy of their placement in the LP. There are a few missteps on the LP, for example Jeff Bird's harmonica on "I Don't Get It" and "Postcard Blues" is a little too shrill for my tastes, but these flaws are easily forgiven.

Conventional wisdom on the Cowboy Junkies is that "The Trinity Session" was their creative high point. I have most of their other LPs and I would agree that this is their best (though the others are quite good), but whereas many other critics blame them from not deviating from the formula they introduced on this LP, I think their fortunes waned when their sound became more polished and mainstream. I don't normally wish for bands to miss out on financial and critical success, but I kind of wish that it had avoided the CJs for a while longer and they could have made a few more LPs like this.

Standout Songs: "Mining for Gold", "Misguided Angel", "Blue Moon Revisited (Song for Elvis)", "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", "200 More Miles", "Sweet Jane", "Walkin' After Midnight". (The entire LP at grooveshark.com).

Skip 'em Songs: n/a

Final Score: 10/10. Perfection.

Bonus Links:

Elvis Presley - "Blue Moon"
The Velvet Underground - "Sweet Jane"
Patsy Cline - "Walking After Midnight"
Waylon Jennings - "Dreaming My Dreams With You"
Bill Monroe & The Bluegrass Boys - "Working on a Building"
Hank Williams - "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"

Julee Cruise - "Floating Into the Night" (LP Review)

To most people, Julee Cruise will remind them of the TV series "Twin Peaks", but I didn't watch much TV in college when the series was on. But this music does remind me of my senior year of college, when I and my roommates Terry, Jason, and Frey would stay up all hours of the night drinking beer and playing Hearts and Spades. It didn't do much for our studies, but we became expert at shooting the moon and going under with almost any hand. Of course we'd listen to music as we played, and this LP was a constant favorite for all four of us. Individually we all had substantial CD collections and together we had maybe 15 linear feet of CDs, which was quite a lot at the time. I'm not sure who had this CD (Jason?), but I quickly purchased my copy after moving out.

Simply put, "Floating Into the Night" is one of the best LPs of all time, featuring the perfect collaboration between Julee Cruise (vocals), Angelo Badalamenti (composer), and David Lynch (lyricist). Badalamenti has composed many soundtracks for Lynch, and the collaboration with Cruise actually began with the song "Mysteries of Love" for the film "Blue Velvet". That song lead to them recording a full LP's worth of songs, culminating in the 1989 release of "Floating Into the Night", prior to the release of Twin Peaks (90-91).

If you're familiar with Lynch's films, you know that they are surreal, dream-like, and often deal with dark, disturbing themes and images. Badalamenti's dream/lounge arrangements perfectly complement Lynch's imagery but the real surprise is Lynch's lyrics, which depict scenes which are best described as bittersweet, bucolic, Rockwellian, nostalgic, and child-like. The lyrics juxtaposed with the foreboding soundscapes makes the entire experience that much more powerful. Consider the closing lyrics to "Rocking Back Inside My Heart":

Do you remember our picnic lunch?
We both went up to the lake
And then we walked among the pines
The birds sang out a song for us
We had a fire when we came back
And your smile was beautiful
You touched my cheek and you kissed me
At night we went for a stroll
The wind blew our hair
The fire made us warm
The wind blew the waves
Out on the lake
We heard the owl in a nearby tree.
I thought our love would last forever.

Simple enough, but when combined with the music they become quite unsettling in an unexpected way.

With the possible exception of "Swans", all the songs on this LP are perfect, memorable, and distinct: the horn riff on "Floating", the bass on "Falling", the 50s-era "shu bops" at the end of "I Remember", the swing sound of "Rockin' Back Inside My Heart", sweeping sounds of "Mysteries of Love", the musical surprise at ~3:28 of "Into the Night", the horns of "I Float Alone", the vocals of "The Nightingale", the solemnity of "The World Spins". "Swans" is not bad, but at 2:33 it does not add much to the LP.

Cruise, Badalamenti, and Lynch would all work together again on 1993's "The Voice of Love", and while that is not a bad LP it does not come close to capturing the magic of "Floating Into The Night". Danette says I'm too generous with my perfect scores, but this LP clearly deserves it. Whether it is evokes late nights playing cards, Twin Peaks, or simply nostalgia viewed through the twisted prism of David Lynch, once you've listened to it this LP is not easily forgotten.

Standout songs: "Floating", "Falling", "I Remember", "Rockin' Back Inside My Heart" (live), "Mysteries of Love", "Into the Night", "I Float Alone", "The Nightingale", "The World Spins" (live).

Skip 'em songs: none.

Final score: 10/10.

Bonus links: Entire LP.  Some of the live versions are from the concert film "Industrial Sympony No. 1".

Red House Painters - Red House Painters (LP Review)

What if you combined elements of 1980s goth/punk (e.g., The Cure, The Jesus and Mary Chain), alt-country (e.g., Cowboy Junkies, Mojave 3), and slowcore (e.g., Low, Codeine), and the result was...  boring?

That would be Red House Painters, at least as I listen to their 1993 eponymous LP informally known as "Rollercoaster" (to differentiate it from their other 1993 eponymous LP known as "Bridge"). I generally like to become very familiar with an LP before I review it, but I actually haven't had this LP long. I read an effusive review somewhere online (Allmusic perhaps?) and purchased it without a lot of other research. Having just listened to it again tonight, the best thing I can say is there are no bad songs. Unfortunately, there are no good songs either. Just 14 unremarkable songs that evoke all of the influences listed above, but otherwise do nothing for me... and I really like this genre!

Perhaps I would have felt differently in 1993, or maybe if I gave it a few more listens, but I feel I've listened to it enough to render an opinion: there were many LPs released in 1993 and this is one of them. It reminds of Roosevelt's quote about "those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

Standout songs: n/a

Skip 'em songs: n/a

Songs that appear: "New Jersey", "Strawberry Hill", (find more at Grooveshark)

Final score: 5/10. Suitable for background listening only.

Bruce Springsteen - "Blinded by the Light" (the song remains the same)

How should I observe the passing of Clarence Clemons? An obvious choice would be "Jungleland", which is often cited as having one of Clemons' best solos (it occurs ~ 4:03 in this live 1978 version). Instead, I'm going with a song most people probably don't know was written by Bruce: "Blinded by the Light", the first (and ultimately unsuccessful) single from Bruce's first LP, 1973's "Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.".

"Blinded by the Light" was later made famous by Manfred Mann's Earth Band as a single from their 1976 LP "The Roaring Silence". Whereas Bruce's version was still very much in Dylan's shadow, MMEB trimmed the voluminous lyrics (original lyrics vs. MMEB's lyrics), provided a slick 70s synth sound, and added some clever counterpoint at the end. The Manfred Mann version came in two versions, both of which you still hear regularly on classic rock radio: a 7 minute LP version and a 4 minute single version. And while it very much sounds like a mid-70s song, I never tire of it (see also: "Cruel to be Kind").

The various characters in the song (the drummer, diplomat, mascot, preacher, chaperone, etc.) are partially explained in the VH1 Storytellers DVD, but the interesting explanation is cut short by the video's editors! Danette bought this as a Christmas present a few years ago precisely because she knows I'm fascinated by this song's cast of characters and she thought all would finally be explained. Unless someone has an unedited version of this performance we'll never know who all these people are (though it is clear they are all real, or at least based on real characters). I've seen various explanations on the web, but none that I'd consider canonical. And if you're only familiar with the MMEB's version, you're missing out on the those that MMEB removed: the "hazard from Harvard", the "dude" from Scotland Yard, the shooting star, and the avatar.

While "Blinded by the Light" is probably not the first song you think of when Clarence Clemons is mentioned, I will point out that it is one of only two GFAPNJ songs on which Clemons appears and as such I consider it a fitting tribute.

Bruce Springsteen: studio version, 1974 live version, 2009 live version, VH1 Storytellers version (starts at ~9:00 into the video).

Manfred Mann's Earth Band: LP version, Single version, 1975 live version.