Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Still kind of working out the kinks in this Blog. This design, while dapper, does not allow me to add permanent links on the side of the page. I'm not savvy enough to figure out how to change the template from under the hood. So, for now, no permanent links. Not a big deal since so far Mitch Cardwell is the only person whom I have told about this site.
If I had links, I would include ABC's political-nerd fix, The Note. Because as much as I love music, I am also a sad-sack news junkie, fixated like a wayward housewife and her soaps. So don't be too shocked if a fair amount of politics and news wanders into my posts.
When I get out of the deep financial hole in which I am currently residing, I plan on forking out the dough to upgrade so I can post photos. More than writing about music, I like taking pictures of bands. For instance, tonight and probably tomorrow I am going to see the Lost Sounds. Rather than just writing about the show, I'd prefer to post a photo or two or three. And wouldn't it be great to post scans of record covers along with the reviews?
Which reminds me, the new issue of Hamburger Eyes is out. I have a handful of photos from India in the new issue. One of the better photo zines going. Get it at Needles & Pins in San Francisco, or order from Ray directly through the website.
So, music. Let's get started.
Mitch is my ear to the ground. He's the kind of guy who, if we were in a cowboy movie, he'd put his ear to the railroad track and say, "the train is coming!" I'd look down the track, all the way to the horizon and only see tumbleweeds and cacti. Then, 15 minutes later, sure enough, the train would come, we'd rob it and make off with the loot. Not only does Mitch have a good grasp of things coming and going, he's got good taste in music. I mention this only because a lot of the tips and recommendations I get comes from him. Just giving credit where it's due.
Steve Shaw, of Detroit Cobras fame has a new band, the Fondas. Listening to their debut album, Coming Now! (Sympathy) just makes me want to put on a Detroit Cobras record. It makes sense. Guitar guy from the Cobras starts a new band, a five piece that only covers old R&B and sould songs, with a sultry female singer up front. Julie Benjamin has a good voice, but sort of in the same way that Rachel Nagy (of the Cobras) didn't really hit her stride until the second album, Benjamin comes off as, well, being good but not great. Not forceful enough, or not really making a distinctive mark. I can't pin it down. But listening to this album just makes me think back to when I first listened to the first Cobras album and was left decidedly unimpressed. Filed it away and forgot about it. When Life, Love and Leaving hit my turntable, I hit the floor.
The real shame in the Fondas album (and the band as a whole) is they are going to forever live in the shadow of the Detroit Cobras, constantly compared and measured against them. It's valid and almost inescapable. In the end it sort of comes down to the frontwomen, whose voice, whose style do you like better? The the cigarette-stained, tough love of Rachel Nagy or the more demur, silky sound or Julie Benjamin. Me, I still prefer the Cobras, but that doesn't mean this album isn't worth its weight in vinyl. Think of it as a compliment to the Detroit Cobras, don't settle for just one or the other. Even if they have to endure endless comparisons, the Fondas stand firmly on their own two (or, uh, ten) feet.
A few final notes...as Chris Brown recently reminded me, there is a new Lester Bangs book due out soon! It's called Main Lines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader, edited by John Morthland. Due 12 August, here's the description from Amazon:
Serving as a companion to the 1987 collection Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung, this volume is a selection of 54 pieces, some of which have been recently uncovered. In his introduction, Morthland, a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly, offers a paean to Bangs, who died in 1982 of a drug overdose, describing him as the "best-known bull-in-a-china-shop... who was always dangerously loaded, who could be so insulting and malicious as well as self-destructive... who had an expansive lust for life and a sense of humor and (sometimes even, and for no apparent reason) cheerfulness to match it." Within these pages, the acerbic Bangs takes on Dylan ("Dylan merely used Civil Rights and the rest of the Movement to advance himself in the first place") and encourages the Stones in a 1973 Creem article ("I challenge those lazy, sniveling, winded mothermissers to PRODUCE"). There's plenty here to entertain music fans and inspire today's critics of rock and roll.
It is required reading.
Also! The club once know as Mabhuay Gardens, the Fab Mab, now the Velvet Lounge (430 Broadway, in North Beach, SF), is again doing shows. MRR's own limey Tim Brooks kicks things off DJing this Thursday night at 9 p.m. Catch him there, then get to the Bottom of the Hill to see the Lost Sounds.
If I had links, I would include ABC's political-nerd fix, The Note. Because as much as I love music, I am also a sad-sack news junkie, fixated like a wayward housewife and her soaps. So don't be too shocked if a fair amount of politics and news wanders into my posts.
When I get out of the deep financial hole in which I am currently residing, I plan on forking out the dough to upgrade so I can post photos. More than writing about music, I like taking pictures of bands. For instance, tonight and probably tomorrow I am going to see the Lost Sounds. Rather than just writing about the show, I'd prefer to post a photo or two or three. And wouldn't it be great to post scans of record covers along with the reviews?
Which reminds me, the new issue of Hamburger Eyes is out. I have a handful of photos from India in the new issue. One of the better photo zines going. Get it at Needles & Pins in San Francisco, or order from Ray directly through the website.
So, music. Let's get started.
Mitch is my ear to the ground. He's the kind of guy who, if we were in a cowboy movie, he'd put his ear to the railroad track and say, "the train is coming!" I'd look down the track, all the way to the horizon and only see tumbleweeds and cacti. Then, 15 minutes later, sure enough, the train would come, we'd rob it and make off with the loot. Not only does Mitch have a good grasp of things coming and going, he's got good taste in music. I mention this only because a lot of the tips and recommendations I get comes from him. Just giving credit where it's due.
Steve Shaw, of Detroit Cobras fame has a new band, the Fondas. Listening to their debut album, Coming Now! (Sympathy) just makes me want to put on a Detroit Cobras record. It makes sense. Guitar guy from the Cobras starts a new band, a five piece that only covers old R&B and sould songs, with a sultry female singer up front. Julie Benjamin has a good voice, but sort of in the same way that Rachel Nagy (of the Cobras) didn't really hit her stride until the second album, Benjamin comes off as, well, being good but not great. Not forceful enough, or not really making a distinctive mark. I can't pin it down. But listening to this album just makes me think back to when I first listened to the first Cobras album and was left decidedly unimpressed. Filed it away and forgot about it. When Life, Love and Leaving hit my turntable, I hit the floor.
The real shame in the Fondas album (and the band as a whole) is they are going to forever live in the shadow of the Detroit Cobras, constantly compared and measured against them. It's valid and almost inescapable. In the end it sort of comes down to the frontwomen, whose voice, whose style do you like better? The the cigarette-stained, tough love of Rachel Nagy or the more demur, silky sound or Julie Benjamin. Me, I still prefer the Cobras, but that doesn't mean this album isn't worth its weight in vinyl. Think of it as a compliment to the Detroit Cobras, don't settle for just one or the other. Even if they have to endure endless comparisons, the Fondas stand firmly on their own two (or, uh, ten) feet.
A few final notes...as Chris Brown recently reminded me, there is a new Lester Bangs book due out soon! It's called Main Lines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader, edited by John Morthland. Due 12 August, here's the description from Amazon:
Serving as a companion to the 1987 collection Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung, this volume is a selection of 54 pieces, some of which have been recently uncovered. In his introduction, Morthland, a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly, offers a paean to Bangs, who died in 1982 of a drug overdose, describing him as the "best-known bull-in-a-china-shop... who was always dangerously loaded, who could be so insulting and malicious as well as self-destructive... who had an expansive lust for life and a sense of humor and (sometimes even, and for no apparent reason) cheerfulness to match it." Within these pages, the acerbic Bangs takes on Dylan ("Dylan merely used Civil Rights and the rest of the Movement to advance himself in the first place") and encourages the Stones in a 1973 Creem article ("I challenge those lazy, sniveling, winded mothermissers to PRODUCE"). There's plenty here to entertain music fans and inspire today's critics of rock and roll.
It is required reading.
Also! The club once know as Mabhuay Gardens, the Fab Mab, now the Velvet Lounge (430 Broadway, in North Beach, SF), is again doing shows. MRR's own limey Tim Brooks kicks things off DJing this Thursday night at 9 p.m. Catch him there, then get to the Bottom of the Hill to see the Lost Sounds.
