Blogging, Books, Cats, Music, Mayhem
Ronald C. Brockmeier, my father, passed away on January 21, 2020 in Dorchester, Wisconsin. He was 79, and had spent about two and a half years suffering from vascular dementia and memory loss. He was preceded by his wife, Tina, who passed in July 2019.
It’s hard to write anything short of a novel about my father’s passing. How do you compress a life into a few paragraphs or pages? He was many things, and “easy to describe” wasn’t one of them. Continue reading “Remembering my father”
Went to see Robyn Hitchcock Thursday night at The Arts Center in Carrboro. This was a solo acoustic show, joined for a few songs by Emma Swift. Before the show Emma was working the merch table and we bought a few t-shirts, she asked if we had any requests.
My brain sort of short-circuited because it’s super hard for me to single out one or two songs by Robyn as favorites. I finally asked for “A Skull, a Suitcase, and a Long Red Bottle of Wine,” since it is one of my favorites and I know he doesn’t do it live very often. (Though I’ve gotten to see him do it live three times now, so.) Was super-pleased he did play it towards the end of the set.
Here it is from his show at Rough Trade in NYC, back in 2017 when he did the entirety of Black Snake Diamond Role with Yo La Tengo.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/310841138″ params=”color=#050505&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true” width=”100%” iframe=”true” /]
If you prefer electric, here’s Robyn & the Sadies doing a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Astronomy Domine” and “Lucifer Sam.”
[youtube https://youtu.be/aHweEQNtZfc]
Have a great Saturday!
Bill Laswell has been a busy fellow lately, pushing out a lot of stuff on his label (I guess?) to Bandcamp that’s been out for years or even decades but no longer in print. I’m really enjoying Revelator, a collaboration with Nicky Skopelitis and Raoul Björkenheim. I’d never heard of Raoul before, but I’ve picked up a couple of things by Skopelitis over the years and really enjoy his work.
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=3161926210 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]
This one is from 1998, but sounds like it could have been recorded yesterday. Some really lovely guitar work on this one, it flows really nicely. If you enjoy instrumental multi-genre jams, I would recommend checking this one out. It works as background music, but also rewards close listening.
Once upon a time I thought I knew a lot about “oldies” music, but the more I delve into things the more I find that I’ve just barely scraped the surface. The good news about that is that there’s just so much good stuff out there to be discovered, like this cut by The Checkmates, Ltd.
[youtube https://youtu.be/TlL9pcn9caM]
Clocks in at just a bit more than two minutes, give it a listen or two and you’ll find yourself humming it later in the day. Released in 1966 on Capitol Records, B-side “Glad for You” which has a great chorus but sounds a bit underdeveloped.
A few days ago I was reading through Jah Wobble’s discography and noticed something I hadn’t spotted before, an EP with Holger Czukay and U2’s The Edge. This dates back to 1983, and I’m sort of surprised it didn’t get more exposure given U2’s popularity in the 80s.
On further inspection, it looks like one cut (“Hold on to Your Dreams,” track 2 on the EP) made it to Jah Wobble’s Redux: Anthology 1978-2015 but it’s otherwise slipped into obscurity.
Listening to the tracks I found on YouTube, it’s not bad but I’d never have spotted The Edge’s playing on this one. I guess you can sort of detect The Edge’s fingerprints on “Hold on to Your Dreams” late into the track, but it’s more like he’s trying to channel Nile Rogers. Or vice-versa. Vocals contributed by Marcella Allen, whom I’ve never heard of and Wikipedia and Google are of little help.
[youtube https://youtu.be/WF_SxvpS8-g]
Apparently somebody in the props department was a fan, or thought that this is what a teen would like, because a poster pops up in the background of Ferris Bueller’s bedroom.
Unless you’re really, really into Wobble, The Edge, or Czukay this isn’t really a must-have. It’s not bad, but I doubt it’s going to find its way into heavy rotation for me. But it’s worth a few spins, and might grow on you.
If you’re of a certain age, you probably spent some time listening to American Top 40 with Casey Kasem. While I’m not a big top 40 person—probably more like obscure 40, much of the time—Kasem’s smooth delivery has a special place in my heart. And the top 40 from the 70s and 80s isn’t so bad in retrospect, when you’re not being blasted with it relentlessly.
A question on Ask Metafilter the other day mentioned that a bunch of the American Top 40 broadcasts are available on Archive.org. If you’d like to have a quick trip back in time, you can head over and search through the collection.
The site also has a number of show logs and some commercial clocks and promo scripts. I had a little fun reading a few to see if I can do the trademark Casey Kasem delivery. (Spoiler alert: no. He’s a master.)
A few months ago, I stumbled on The Staves “Tired as Fuck,” and it’s been a go-to listen on YouTube, Spotify, etc. It’s got a great build – adding layers until it turns into a chorus of voices and blistering guitar and throbbing percussion.
Really, you should listen to it right now if you haven’t already.
And now, the rant… I really want to buy a copy of this, but it’s only available digitally. I can buy it via iTunes, or listen on Spotify and Apple Music. (Or YouTube.) Or I can buy it via Nonesuch as an MP3. (Presumably, I hope, at 320.) No CD, no vinyl, not even FLAC.
Maybe demand is no longer there, but I don’t want my only copy of music to be digital.
I recently went with a deal on Bandcamp to buy 200+ releases from Buckethead, and it was similar – no vinyl, no CD, just digital. At least in this case, Bandcamp offers FLAC so the music quality is as good as you get on CD, even if you don’t get the actual physical media. (And Bandcamp has a reasonably good archival experience, I can go back for my purchases anytime – at least as long as they remain in business. Which I hope is a long time.)
Similarly, one of my favorite scrappy Indie labels (Magnatune) stopped offering physical media a long time ago. They’re such an awesome outfit, I’m happy to subscribe and have access to their catalog, but… I’d really love to have physical copies of Ehren Starks’ catalog, and Ninety Pounds of Ugly‘s Richmond Motel Room 3. (Pity they’ve broken up.)
For folks who only want digital, that’s great – but I want a pristine, physical copy. Hell, I want something the artist or band can sign if I get the chance. Something that, assuming civilization survives, somebody might pick up in 100 years and listen to.
This is another Bandcamp win, Secret Drum Band‘s Dynamics. Based in Portland, Oregon the band describes the album thusly: “Dynamics sees composers Lisa Schonberg, Allan Wilson, and Heather Treadway delving headway into creating living, breathing soundscapes, rich in rhythmic textures. Driven by five drummers, each song also employs an array of affected vocals, guitar, and synthesizers from noise musicians, often mimicking sounds found in nature.”
I’m on my third or fourth listen to the album, and I’m still finding new things to enjoy. If a hard, driving beat and textured sounds appeal to you, you really should give it a listen or two.
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=2378566956 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]
Don’t recall how I stumbled on this one, exactly, but one of my Saturday morning music searches led me to a post on Bandcamp’s blog about The Comet is Coming.
If you like instrumental music in the vein of Material, or early trippy Pink Floyd, I’d recommend checking this one out.
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=3084023840 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]
I’m not saying that Skylarking is the best album in the history of the universe, but I’m not not saying it either. Certainly it’s the finest album XTC have produced.
I know precisely when my love affair with XTC began, it was May 3rd, 1987 when MTV played the world premiere of “Dear God” on 120 Minutes. While not on the original pressings of Skylarking, Geffen slapped it on the US version and omitted “Mermaid Smiled” to make room.
Once I finally got my hands on a copy of the cassette, I played it as much as possible – it’s a miracle that the cassette lasted until I made the switch to CDs and was able to retire the poor thing.