Peter Seeger - "Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There Is a Season)" (spotlight)

Peter Seeger died yesterday, with the New York Times running a nice piece about his legacy and impact (which I won't try to rehash here).  I can't say that I'm directly a big fan of his music;  I don't dislike him or his music* but I also don't own any of his 100+ LPs.   However, I do realize he greatly influenced artists that I am a big fan of, including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and countless others.

But here's where I have to admit that I either didn't know or forgot that Seeger originally wrote/arranged "Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There Is a Season)", made famous by The Byrds in 1965 and still heard on classic rock radio today.  Sure, I knew about Ecclesiastes, but I guess I just assumed it was arranged by Roger McQuinn.  There are innumerable covers of this song, but the words "turn turn turn" make me hear McQuinn's jangly 12 string...

Peter Seeger - "Turn! Turn! Turn!"
The Byrds - "Turn! Turn! Turn!"



* OK, that's a small lie.  I really don't like "If I Had A Hammer"...

Squeeze - "Up The Junction" (forgotten song)

"Up The Junction", from the 1979 LP "Cool For Cats", is probably my favorite Squeeze song, but up until yesterday I had never actually googled the phrase.  I was surprised to learn that "Up The Junction" is a 1963 collection of short stories describing dead-end, working class life in Battersea, where the railway station Clapham Junction is located.  It was also adapted as a play in 1965, as well as a film in 1968.  These would have been well-known cultural references in 1979 in the UK.  Presumably the rather bleak story ("The devil came and took me / from bar to street to bookie") told in the song is taken from the book, but I don't know for sure.

I don't recall Squeeze being famous in the US until a few years later, with songs like "Tempted" and "Black Coffee in Bed", but the compilation LP "Singles -- 45s and Under" was standard issue in every dorm room during my college years.  But somehow I waited until 2014 to learn the full context of this song...

Squeeze - "Up The Junction": official video, Top of the Pops, live version (20xx?), re-recorded 2010 version

Bonus link: 1965 BBC play

Camera Obscura - "Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi" (LP Review)

Several years ago I rated Camera Obscura's "Let's Get Out of This Country" a perfect 10, and the perfection of that LP overshadowed the two previous LPs (I didn't discover the band until 2009).  Now that I've had some time to reflect on it, I have to say their 2001 debut LP "Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi" is awfully good in its own right.  Not as good as LGOOTC but still pretty good, and as I've said before: the iTunes play counts don't lie.

This LP doesn't offer the same variety of musical styles that LGOOTC presented, but they completely lock down the genre of "pop music for adults"*.  I think there is a rule that any discussion of Camera Obscura has to mention fellow Glaswegians Belle & Sebastian.  While I recognize that Belle & Sebastian were first in this genre, but for my money Camera Obscura is a lot more enjoyable. 

One difference between this LP and LGOOTC is that although singer/songwriter/guitarist Tracyanne Campbell was still the center of the band, John Henderson (vocals/percurssion) was featured more prominently, in both duets ("Swimming Pool", "Anti-Western", "Double Feature") as well as lead vocals ("Houseboat").  Henderson left the band in 2004 and the supporting male vocal role was taken up by Kenny McKeeve, but in a diminished capacity relative to what we see in their first LP.  I love Tracyanne, but  Tracyanne & John both singing is pretty hard to beat.

In a perfect world, Camera Obscura would be a hugely successful band and "Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi" would be in the CD collection of every NPR listener under 50.  Not convinced?  Look at the cover art again, and then listen to the song "Double Feature":

Close comes this winter
Summer is no longer
And things, they seem much bleaker
We'll see a Catherine Deneuve double feature

TC: And our lives
JH: (Double feature, you will survive)
TC: will fade
JH: (Last forever so rest your eyes)
TC: as in darkness
JH: (Play with words when we cannot sing)
TC: we will bathe
JH: (This double feature means everything)

The question you should be asking yourself is "Why isn't Catherine Deneuve in dozens of pop songs?"

Standout songs: saying "all" would be cheating, so I'll go with: "Eighties Fan" (the only "official" video from the LP), "Happy New Year", "Houseboat", "Anti-Western", "The Sun on His Back", "Double Feature"  (listen to this YouTube playlist for all the songs).

Skip 'em songs: none.

Final score: 9/10



* One important exception: am I the only one that thinks the closing instrumental "Arrangements of Shapes and Space" sounds like the Texas-based, "post-rock" band Explosions in the Sky?

Andy Stott - "Moogfest 2012" (concert)

I've mentioned Andy Stott before (in this DJ Shadow review), but I haven't reviewed any of his material yet.  Part of that is because I'm at a complete loss for words on how to describe his music; "electronic" fails to capture the depth and richness.   Herbert turned me on to Andy Stott almost two years ago (with the two 2011 EPs "Passed Me By" and "We Stay Together") and he's been climbing my iTunes playlist since. 

NPR Music has an hour long live recording of Andy Stott playing at Moogfest, 2012-10-31 in Asheville, NC.  NPR Music also provides a direct link for an MP3.  Until I find the words to describe his music, I urge you to check out this concert.  I haven't worked out the set list yet (and it isn't listed anywhere on the web), but it includes songs from the two EPs mentioned above as well as his 2012 LP "Luxury Problems".

Links: NPR Music, Soundcloud

The Beastie Boys - "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" (spotlight)

Ok, so I always knew that the title of "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" was probably a nod to Motorhead's 1981 live LP "No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith".  Slayer's Kerry King providing the guitar solo that cements the metal/rap crossover.  But last night I noticed something in NSTB that has eluded me since 1986: stuck in between the 2nd and 3rd stanzas (at 1:33 in the video) is a one-off lyrical break not used elsewhere in the song:

Another plane - another train
Another bottle in the brain
Another girl - another fight
Another drive all night

How did I miss this?  One of my favorite Motorhead songs is their 1980 song "(We Are) The Road Crew" (from the classic "Ace of Spades" LP), where the lyrics are primarily a long list of "Another this, another that":

Another town, another place,
Another girl, another face,
Another truck, another race,
I'm eating junk, feeling bad,
Another night, I'm going mad,
My woman's leaving, I feel sad,
But I just love the life I lead,
Another beer is what I need,
Another gig my ears bleed,
We Are The Road Crew

I always knew the Beasties were clever, but this is excellent.  Why did it take me some 27 years to catch this?

The Beastie Boys: "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" (full lyrics)
Motorhead: "(We Are) The Road Crew" (studio version, full lyrics), 2005 live instrumental version

Pink Floyd - "Live At Pompeii" (concert)

I own well-worn copies on VHS and DVD, but at work I've recently been playing Youtube versions of Pink Floyd's 1972 concert film "Live at Pompeii" in the background.  I've already covered the similar but far more rare "An Hour With Pink Floyd (KQED)" from 1970.  The latter was never commercially released and is regularly purged from Youtube, while the former concert film is still commercially available and also easy to find on Youtube.  Go figure.

This is an historically important film, showing the group on the cusp of their 1973 watershed, "Dark Side of the Moon".  But I just recently discovered that the interstitial studio footage of the band composing songs for DSOTM was 1) faked, and 2) added for the 1974 re-release of the film.  It is this 1974 version that I have on VHS. 

Somewhat unfortunately, the 2003 DVD version is the "director's cut", and nicely demonstrates that more is not always better.  The songs are the same, but director Adrian Maben has added all kinds of unnecessary of additional space and planetary stock footage.  I get it, "Pink Floyd == Space Music".  But one of the strengths of the original film is Pompeii as a character, almost a fifth member of Pink Floyd.  The long tracking shots of the empty Amphitheatre, the mosaics, volcanic imagery, all help to establish the film's feel, and the director's cut undermines the beautiful (albeit sometimes modishly incorporated) imagery.  Fortunately the 1974 version is an option on the DVD; the 2003 version is to be avoided.

Enough complaining about directorial revisionism -- Maben does deserve credit for making a concert film without an audience (has this been done since?) as well as not attempting to hide the small army of staff supporting the AV gear.  Replacing the audience with staff and infrastructure and playing to an empty Amphitheatre somehow captures the desolation of Pompeii.  The songs are split between 1968 and 1971, with only "Controls" and "Careful" appearing on the "An Hour With Pink Floyd (KQED)".

1. "Intro Song"
2. "Echoes, Part 1" (from Meddle, 1971)
3. "Careful with That Axe, Eugene" (from Point Me At The Sky, B-side, 1968)
4. "A Saucerful of Secrets" (from A Saucerful of Secrets, 1968)
5. "One of These Days I'm Going to Cut You into Little Pieces" (from Meddle, 1971)
6. "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" (from A Saucerful of Secrets, 1968)
7. "Mademoiselle Nobs" (from Meddle, 1971)
8. "Echoes, Part 2" (from Meddle, 1971)

Rather than linking to individual songs, all versions uploaded to Youtube in their entirety:

Live At Pompeii: 1972 Version
Live At Pompeii: 1974 Version
Live At Popmeii: 2003 Version

Bonus Links:

From the DVD, an interview with Adrian Maben: part 1, part 2, part 3.

And finally, you can't mention "Live at Pompeii" and not mention the Beastie Boys "Gratitude", in which the entire video is a love letter to "Live at Pompeii".

Negativland - "Live at Lewis's, Norfolk VA, November 21, 1992" (concert)

Terry finally uploaded to Youtube one of my favorite videos of his from back in the day.  Almost exactly 21 years ago Negativland played at Lewis's in Norfolk, right outside of the Colonial Place neighborhood where I live.  Lewis's was a nondescript seafood restaurant that often featured bands in the evening.  Eventually it became Enrico's, a pretty good Greek restaurant, which eventually closed in a dispute with the landlord and in it's place came Phoenix Bar and Grill, which lasted less than a year (we never even tried it).  The building (4012 Colley Ave.) is currently inactive.   Of course, at the time neither Terry nor I were living in Norfolk, and I think Danette had just moved here. 

The point is that both Negativland and Lewis's are amenable to someone like Terry recording the entire event.  We were both big fans of Negativland, and this was right in the middle of their struggle with U2, Island, and SST (see my reviews of "Guns" and "U2" for background info).  I must have watched this video 20 or more times; but since he recorded it on S-VHS, I never got a VHS copy.  And although I've watched it enough that it seems like I was there, I'm slightly ashamed to admit that I missed this concert and attended a VT-UVa football game instead (although Terry has it marked as "October 21", I'm pretty sure this was actually November 21, 1992).  Fortunately, Terry took my copy of "Guns" and got Mark Hosler to autograph the inside fold (see above pic).  Apparently Mark did not approve of my choice of weekend entertainment either (also, it rained and VT lost -- a bad choice all around).

So I wasn't there, and most likely you weren't there either (it's not a big place), but thanks to Terry it can seem like we were there:



I don't normally embed videos, but this one deserves it.  You really should watch the whole thing, but some highlights include:

• 26:20 -- "Time Zones"
• 31:05 -- "Black Lady of Espionage", segueing into "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"
• 1:04:10 -- "Christianity is Stupid"
• 1:11:20 -- Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA"
• 1:24:40 -- Terry interviews Mark Hosler (while Mark has a post-show fish sandwich)

Craig Baldwin used part of this concert footage in his film "Sonic Outlaws", earning Terry a credit in the liner notes.

Also, instead of reviewing it as a LP, I'm starting a new series simply called "concert".