Tales of True Adventure for Rugged Men Not Unlike Yourself
Learned this past weekend on a trip visiting my 81-year-old aunt that my grandmother’s cousin was a songwriter in California. And that I’m named for him, by way of my dad. (Fucked up spelling and all.) Here’s one of his tunes that Bing Crosby recorded.
And here’s another that could be fun to work up as a rocker.
From The Breeders 2018 album All Nerve, of which I was completely unaware. Good stuff! Video directed by Richard Ayoade.
By the way, this album was recorded with the reunited lineup that includes Jim MacPherson and Josephine Wiggs.
Behold the greatest classical lp cover of all time.
Dylan shows up to play Letterman with a punk band (the Plugz who later became Cruzados) and it absolutely rips. They never played with him again, but apparently had spent a month or so playing with him at his house.
A good interview with the bass player here talking about how it all went down (from a very good book about musicians who played with him).
On a side note, I saw Bob last night here in Beerville. I loved it.
New Libertines single! For the record, we did it first.
Imo loves the feeling of rolling in the sun
Rolling in the oceans she rolls until she’s numb
But it’s never too long before a swell comes crashing in
And you’re gonna go down if you don’t learn how to swimEvery moth to a candle finds a flame too hot to handle
And Jamie broke down at Imo’s every scandal
Imo went west and Jamie sang the blues
It was Niki’s raw heart that lit her fuseAnd she went
Oh shit, oh shit
Let’s make some money
Just enough to get us by
I want you when you smile
You got the dollars in your eyesOur love is
So sick, so sick
Just takes a minute to obliterate her mind
I want you when you smile
From today until you dieThey love rocky crystal in a lottery ticket
Unfortunate events (she’s his Jiminy Cricket)
Carving out initially (they did it on a wall)
And and I, in the world of a heart shaped scrawlGuides a finger across his hairline
As his head rests on the bar
He’s stone cold cut
And she hotter than a starBut Niki loves the fire
And Niki loves the fight
And Niki’s got a heart
That will love you through the nightAnd they go
Oh shit, oh shit
Let’s make some money
Just enough to get us by
I want you when you smile
I want the dollars in your eyes
And they go
Oh shit, oh shit
Let’s make some money
Just enough to get us by
I want you when you smile
I want the dollars in your eyesTank top, boots
No money
Living on the stubs
What’s it even matter
You’re just young and in loveOh shit, oh shit
Oh shit, oh shit
Oh shit, oh shit
Just enough to get us byAnd we go
Oh shit, oh shit
We need some money
Just enough to get us by
And everybody goes, whoa
We got the dollars in our eyes
We go oh shit, oh shit
We need some money
Just enough to get us by
Oh I want you when you smile
I want the dollars in your eyes
Oh shit, oh shit
You Bastards still haven’t listened to this yet, have you? I only listened to three or four new records this year, but this one is up there with any of my all-time favorites by any artist.
Came across the trailer above in an interesting interview with Isbell talking about working on Killers of the Flower Moon, which he was very good in as well. Ok, I’ll stop now.
If you’ve gone to see a power pop band in recent years, you might have noticed that most fans are pretty old. If you were ever in a band, went to clubs, spent time in an indie record store, or perused online fora, you might have noticed that some power pop devotees can be surly, limited, and intolerant. To be fair, that’s probably true of any genre, but you might expect that all those hooks and harmonies would leave power pop fans happier. Some people grow out of at least some of their intolerances. Some don’t, and this video has a lot of fun with aging sourpuss power poppers. Your mileage may vary, but I found the whole thing hilarious.
Mrs. Renfield put me on to this sugar rush of an album (really more like a longish EP). Many tracks are one-idea songs, but who cares when the hook’s good and they don’t belabor the idea: all but one are under two minutes. It so happens this band/person/whatever played Gonerfest last week, although it was an afternoon slot on a 90-degree-plus day, so can’t say I’m sorry I missed them. But this stuff hits my sweet spot. Good hooks throughout. Here’s another:
Roy’s right hand was an instrument in itself. Stunning strumming.
For whatever reason, I found myself revisiting cult faves Honeybus over the weekend. If you’re unfamiliar and craving some late 60’s psychedelic/baroque/folk/pop, they could be your fix. I recommend streaming the anthology pictured above. Some good hooks and harmonies throughout, though I found myself skipping a good amount of songs. Your mileage may vary. Perhaps due to the drug-addled times, there are some oddities, such as this otherwise good song marred by a fucking kazoo. They had a top ten UK hit with this, which almost, just-about sounds like it could be a parody of the baroque pop of the time.
Speaking of twee pop parodies, nothing will ever surpass this masterpiece (said to be a parody of Ray Davies’ “Funny Face”) from Neil Innes, the man who would one day compose the entire Rutles catalog in something like a week.