Monthly Archives: November 2016

Well, I can cross another item off my bucket list. I got busted this past weekend, and shoved handcuffed into the backseat of a Pennsylvania State Police car, and it was thrilling in a traumatic way, even more thrilling than the first time I heard the Minutemen’s “Paranoid Chant” off SST’s 1983 compilation LP, The Blasting Concept. I was in Boston where a friend put it on, and I can’t describe the wonderment of that moment, because I’d never heard anything like “Paranoid Chant” before, and it left me hungry for more.

Which is more than I can say about my run in with the state trooper, who said I was driving erratically. I wanted to tell him I always drive erratically, and in fact do everything erratically, but he gave every indication of not having a sense of humor. Why, he even refused my request to take a photo of me in cuffs. I even offered to let him use my cell phone to take it. But back to the Minutemen. They were the quirkiest post-punk band ever, musically speaking, what with their off-kilter time signatures, jagged edges, unusual song structures, and funk and jazz influences.

They had about as much in common with such by-the-numbers hardcore bands as SSD as Miles Davis did with KC and The Sunshine Band. Throw in some really cool lyrics (guitarist and vocalist D. Boon’s frequently addressed political concerns, while bassist and vocalist Mike Watt’s were often opaque and indecipherable “spiels”) and the Minutemen quickly established themselves as the best post-punk trio in business.

I still think their 1984 double LP Double Nickels on the Dime is one of the top five LPs recorded during the eighties, and I would happily review it were it not for the fact that it’s 45 songs long, a feat made possible by the fact that most of its songs clock in at a minute and change. Plenty of people think this is why they called themselves The Minutemen but they’re wrong; Watt has stated that the name was taken from Colonial America’s minutemen militia, or a poke at the 1960’s far-right-fringe militia The Minutemen, or both.

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The second full-length by Il Sogno del Marinaio, an international entity comprising two Italians and an American, features a fresh yet familiar aural breeze combining progressive rock’s instrumental adeptness and expansionist possibilities with a lean punk-derived lack of malarkey. That the Yank is Mike Watt demands note, but it’s far from the only reason to investigate Canto Secondo, which is freshly available on CD/vinyl/digital via the Clenchedwrench label.

It’s important to respect this trio’s choice of handle, for it’s just one more example in the enduring tradition of naming that underscores the struggle for creative equality inherent to Rock’s communicative structure (furthermore, the Italian moniker translates into English as The Sailor’s Dream). But as stated in the paragraph above, a third of this unit does consist of the great bassist Mike Watt.

Another point in the triangle is guitarist Stefano Pilia, an Italian acquaintance of Watt who had the fortitude to ask a man significantly his senior and of considerable reputation to form a band with his drumming countryman Andrea Belfi. This they did in 2009, commencing a short tour almost directly afterward and recording that first LP between the shows.

La Busta Gialla didn’t come out until January of ’13, and it wasn’t really hard to understand why. While not aptly described as Experimental, a key component in its prog-influenced sensibility is indeed experimentation, as was the on-the-fly looseness that can only be transcended by the confluence of heavyweight talents.

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The Vinyl Guide is a weekly podcast for fans and collectors of vinyl records. Each week is an audio-documentary on your favourite records, often including interviews with band members and people who were part of the project.

It’s hosted by Nate Goyer, a self-described vinyl maniac who enjoys listening to records and sharing the stories behind them. Despite his Yankee accent, Nate lives in Sydney, Australia with his wife, 2 kids, and about 1,500 records. (But only about 1,000 of them his wife knows about.)

The Vinyl Guide takes records one by one, telling the tale of how they came to be, why the work is important, and then shares how collectors can tell one pressing from another. Learn more at the TheVinylGuide.com or simply subscribe via iTunes or RSS feed.

Red Fang is a metal band, very heavy, catchy, and never-compromising. Bryan Giles joins us to talk about the band’s history, their approach to making music, their new album Only Ghosts, their upcoming tour, and of course, vinyl vinyl vinyl. Plus we just got back from Southern California with a few suitcases full of rekkids!

As 2016 nears conclusion, Mike Watt’s rank as one of rock’s finest bass players remains secure. ‘twas the same two decades back, though at that point many ears were just getting introduced to the man by his debut solo effort. Loaded with contributors, Ball-Hog or Tugboat? helped to document the era’s alt/ indie surge while raising Watt’s profile, and to promote it he hit the road econo-style with Eddie Vedder, Dave Grohl, Pat Smear, and William Goldsmith. “Ring Spiel” Tour ’95 captures the Chicago stop on the tour; on November 11, it’s being released on 2LP, CD, and digital by Columbia/Legacy.

Biographical synopses of Mike Watt still regularly detail his role in the Minutemen, which is unsurprising as they endure as one of rock music’s greatest trios. Upon reflection, what he’s achieved since the tragic demise of that singular unit (due to the death by van accident of his friend and bandmate D. Boon) is nearly as impressive, with the artist’s creative energies remaining forward-focused as he’s maintained healthy ties to the past in a wide variety of situations.

Amongst Watt’s best known work post-Minutemen is fIREHOSE, a unit consisting of the bassist, Minutemen drummer George Hurley and Ohio guitarist-singer Ed Crawford that existed from 1986 to ’94 with reunion shows in 2012. More recently, his role in the Stooges’ extended return to activity and membership in Il Sogno del Marinaio put him on the radar of a younger generation; in between, his solo records and by extension, a run of material and shows with the Black Gang, the Pair of Pliers, Secondmen, and Missingmen comprise some of the more prominent entries in his discography.

Released in early ’95, Ball-Hog or Tugboat? was Watt’s first solo LP after the breakup of fIREHOSE, and today it stands as the most well-known of his solo efforts, in no small part due to its long list of guests. A sampling; Bernie Worrell, Flea, Ad-Rock, Mike D, Henry Rollins, Krist Novoselic, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley, Dave Pirner, Evan Dando, Frank Black, J Mascis, Kathleen Hanna, Mark Lanegan, Cris and Curt Kirkwood, Epic Soundtracks, Petra Haden, Bob Lee, Joe Baiza, Carla Bozulich, and Nels Cline.

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I’m of two minds when it comes to Todd Rundgren. Part of me hates him, and the other part of simply loathes him. Oh, I’m kidding. I really liked the Todd Rundgren who gave us 1972’s Something/ Anything?. It wasn’t until he formed the synth-heavy prog rock band Utopia that things got ugly. Ugly as in pompous, long-winded (a song off the band’s 1974 debut clocks in at 30:26), and philosophically empty-headed. He became the kind of guy who referred to Ra, the sun god, as a “holy synthesizer.” And speaking of Ra, Utopia’s 1977 LP, none other than Robert Christgau complained that, “The first side is bad, the second unspeakable.” And that’s before he really starts getting insulting.

That said, I have a horrible confession to make. I actually owned Utopia’s 1975 LP Another Live, which followed the band’s self-titled live debut. And not only did I own it, I played it, on my 8-track boom box, while painting houses in Gettysburg, PA in the bicentennial year 1976. It seems inexplicable to me now, given that I would soon despise them, but what I really liked, looking back, were the songs “Heavy Metal Kids” and “Just One Victory,” both of which appeared on Rundgren solo albums before Utopia got around to performing them. My brother and I even painted the legend “Heavy Metal Kids 1976” in silver glam paint on the stone windowsill of one of the houses we painted. I went back to Gettysburg not too long ago, in part to see if it was still there. It wasn’t. Some people just have no respect for history.

Anyway, I decided to gird my loins and listen to Another Live again, just to determine whether it sparked any nostalgic memories. And I’ll be damned, but the LP isn’t bad. Or not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. There are, admittedly, moments of sublime banality, combined with large amounts of futuristic brouhaha, but a few of the songs actually get out of their wheelchairs and dance, which is certainly more than I expected.

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The words “studio genius” get flung about willy-nilly, but Todd Rundgren, the guy who gave us “Hello, It’s Me,” is the real thing. Oh, I know, his prog explorations with Utopia are largely unlistenable, but I would ask you to look at Exhibit A, the 1972 double LP Something/Anything?, as proof of his, er, geniusitude. It was one of the greatest gifts (along with Mott the Hoople’s All the Young Dudes and Rod Stewart’s Every Picture Tells a Story) my older brother bequeathed to me when he took off to see the country in the mid-seventies, and I loved (and played) it to death.

Studio savant that he is, Rundgren recorded three of the LP’s four sides all by himself, and brought in a gaggle of studio musicians, including Rick Derringer, Randy and Mike Brecker, Hunt and Tony Sales, and Ben Keith to record side four. All four sides have titles, which we needn’t worry about, and side four purports to be a “pop operetta,” to which I can only say okay, Todd, it’s your LP. The critic Robert Christgau said of Something/Anything?, “I don’t trust double albums” before changing tracks and saying, “But this has the feel of a pop masterpiece, and feel counts.” He’s right about double albums: some of the tunes on Something/Anything? do nothing for me and have the distinctive smell of filler. That said, there are more than enough timeless tunes on Something/Anything? to justify that other overused word, “masterpiece.”

Stirring ballads (“It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference”), dizzyingly marvelous power pop numbers ala The Raspberries (“Couldn’t I Just Tell You”), flat-out screamers (“Some Folks Is Ever Whiter Than Me”), great horn-driven hard rockers (“Slut”), Steely Dan soundalikes (“Piss Aaron”), utterly sublime pop confections (“Hello, It’s Me,” “I Saw the Light”) and oddball novelty tunes that nevertheless rock (“Wolfman Jack”)—that “anything” in the album’s title is Todd’s way of telling us he can do it all, and does. Why, I didn’t even mention his soulful turns on the piano (“I Went to the Mirror,” “Torch Song”), maniacal metal contraptions (“Little Red Lights,” the big-hooked “Black Maria”), big, bad gospel- AND Steely Dan-tinged tunes (“Dust in the Wind”), ironic Harry Nilsson numbers (the happy-go-lucky sad song, “You Left Me Sore”), and brief lo-fi studio jams (“Overture—My Roots: Money (That’s What I Want)/Messin’ with the Kid”).

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Press Play is our Monday recap of the new and FREE tracks received last week to inform the next trip to your local indie record store.

Jordan Burchel – Why They Call You Blue
Jo Mango – If I Could Choose) Live at The Pond)
Owls of the Swamp – Start All Over
Stars and Rabbit – Man Upon The Hill
Known to Collapse – What Is Said
Minor Moon – So Composed
Matt Tarka – Very Little
SuperGlu – Latvian
Kristoffer & The Harbour Heads – Nervous In Berlin

TVD SINGLE OF THE WEEK:
White Room – Stole The I.V

Floating Room – Sad God
GRIDFAILURE – A Severing Of Ties
Rootwork – Trust
Everyone Is Dirty – Andy Warhol (Bowie cover)
Handgrenades – The Watcher
Taka Perry – Fishy (feat. Jimmy Davis)
Fialta – Do The Best We Can
Mesh – Lonely Photos on Instagram
Bleu Davinci Feat. Judge – Free
Enzo Bennet X Ema & Hugo – All We Know