Don't
feel like celebrating. Not with 130K+ lost souls and a country on the
brink of implosion. So this song captures my mood in that regard
perfectly.
"...'cause I heard in the wind/and I saw it in the sky/and I thought it was the end/I thought it was the 4th of July..."
1956 - Elvis Presley records "Hound Dog" at RCA Studios, in NYC. (Take 31 was the released version.) The single sold over 10 million copies globally, became his best-selling song and topped the charts for 11 weeks, a record that stood for 36 years.
1962 - Jimi Hendrix is honorably discharged from the 101st Airborne Paratroopers, after breaking his ankle during his 26th and final parachute jump.
On this same date, in 1969, bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell quit The Jimi Hendrix Experience after completing the three-day Denver Pop Festival. Hendrix and drummer Mitch Mitchell would later team up with bassist Billy Cox to form the short-lived Gypsy Sun and Rainbows.
Also on this day: The Beatles (except John Lennon, who was hospitalized in Golspie, Scotland, following a car accident the previous day) work on the tracks "Her Majesty" and "Golden Slumbers"/"Carry That Weight" for the Abbey Road album.
1971 - Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon play their first gig as Queen at Surrey College, in England.
1979 - Sony introduces the Walkman, the first portable audio cassette player. Over the next 30 years they sold over 385 million Walkmans in cassette, CD, mini-disc and digital file versions, and were the market leaders until the arrival of Apple's iPod and other new digital devices.
1988 - Michael Jackson becomes the first artist to have five #1 singles from one album when "Dirty Diana" goes to the top of the charts. The other four chart-toppers from the Bad album were the title track, "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "The Way You Make Me Feel" and "Man in the Mirror".
1991 - Axl Rose causes a riot to break out during a Guns N' Roses gig after leaping into the crowd to remove a camera from a fan at the Riverpoint Amphitheatre, in Maryland Heights, a suburb of St. Louis. Over 50 people were injured and 15 fans were arrested.
2001 - Liverpool Airport is renamed John Lennon Airport. The airport's slogan "Above Us Only Sky" is from his song "Imagine".
2005 - The G8 concerts, organized ahead of the G8 summit to put pressure on political leaders to tackle poverty in Africa, are held in 10 cities, including London, Philadelphia, Paris, Berlin, Johannesburg, Rome and Moscow, with participating artists playing to hundreds of thousands of people. Among the performers: Pink Floyd, The Who, Madonna, U2, Coldplay, Sting, The Scissor Sisters, Keane, Paul McCartney, Destiny's Child, Jay-Z, Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, Neil Young, Bjork and Green Day.
2008 - The gravestone of former Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis is stolen. Police said his memorial stone was taken from where he is buried in Macclesfield Cemetery. The gravestone had the inscription "Ian Curtis 18-5-80" and the words "Love Will Tear Us Apart".
2015 - Buddy Holly's widow, Maria Elena Holly, announces she has entrusted the publishing rights to her late husband's influential catalog to BMG. The company was now authorized to administer royalties worldwide of nearly all of Buddy Holly's recordings.
Today's Birthdays include...longtime Springsteen keyboardist Roy Bittan (71); Johnny Colla, guitarist and saxophonist for Huey Lewis and the News (68); a trio of bass players: Boomtown Rats' Pete Briquette (66), Mike Anker of The Blow Monkeys (63), Transvision Vamp's Dave Parsons (54); and rapper Monie Love (50).
First of all, it’s not meant to be definitive. At all.
Secondly, quite a few of the artists on the list are not of the power pop persuasion, but their entries here most definitely are. By my definition, at least. Which brings us to…
Power pop, as I see it, is a balance of both factors. This gets me in trouble with purists who, for instance, love The Shoes, who I consider too much pop and not enough power. But thems the breaks.
Also, these 25 tracks are all, with 2 exceptions, from the ‘90s and beyond. Make of that what you will.
Finally, I have omitted such power pop touchstones as Badfinger, Big Star, Jellyfish, The Posies, Raspberries, and Matthew Sweet but have included songs by some former members of their ensembles. Often, the mothership gets (all) the love and I wanted to spread it around.
And so, in alphabetical order by artist...
RYAN ADAMS “PS”
He has covered plenty of ground, so a bit of power pop is no surprise.
JON AUER “The Perfect Size”
The Posies’ co-frontman goes completely solo with the exception of the late Darius Minwalla on drums and it’s a more than worthy excursion.
CHRIS BELL “I Am the Cosmos”
The defining solo statement from the late Big Star co-leader.
BRENDAN BENSON “I’m Blessed”
Best known as a Raconteur, his catalog is rich in melodic, rocking gems. This one is from his debut album and was co-written by Jason Falkner.
CAFE TACUBA “53100”
Since it was Pete Townshend who coined the term “power pop”, it’s more than apropos that Mexico City’s premiere art rockers appear here with a Who-influenced tune.
WES CUNNINGHAM “Only You Know”
A gifted songwriter whose lack of commercial success led him to stop making records and turn to jingles instead. A music biz crime if there ever was one.
JASON FALKNER “I Live”
A talented multi-instrumentalist and former Jellyfish guitarist with a respectable solo career of his own.
FASTBALL “Emily”
Tasty slice of punky power pop from these Texas rockers.
GIGOLO AUNTS “Mr. Tomorrow”
Another coulda/shoulda/woulda…their key members are now songwriters for Hollywood films. This is from their final album, released in 2002.
JOE JACKSON “Tonight and Forever”
Like Adams, he’s covered a lot of musical ground, albeit in slightly different directions. This one is par for the course, tho.
JUMBO “Siento Que”
A powerful anthem of longing and love on its last sighs that would subsequently come to define the Monterrey, Mexico rockers' sound.
KARA’S FLOWERS “Myself”
The initial, commercially failed version of Maroon 5 before they changed their name and added another guitarist. I prefer this incarnation.
THE KATIES “Noggin’ Poundin’”
Without a doubt the hardest rocker on this list but its Cheap Trick-influenced vibe won it a spot.
THE LEMONHEADS “Poughkeepsie”
Evan Dando knows his way around a melody and he’s been known to rock out. Here he does both.
MATERIAL ISSUE “Diane”
Power pop lovers know this long gone beloved Chicago outfit quite well but, like all of the artists listed here, they should be even better known.
THE MERRYMAKERS “Troubled Times”
Produced by Jellyfish honcho Andy Sturmer, this one is simply Swedish ear candy bliss.
MYRACLE BRAH “Eleven”
Andy Bopp is a master at crafting hooks and melodies and deserves to be a household name, damn it!
NADA SURF “Happy Kid”
Brooklyn in the house! They went from almost MTV one-hit wonders to one of indie rock's most reliable purveyors of guitar pop and this is why.
OWSLEY “Oh No, The Radio!”
William Reese Owsley [1966-2010] was simply a brilliant popsmith who left us way too soon. It’s a point of personal pride that I have turned into a fan everyone I’ve played his music for over the years. But it’s way more about how awesome he was than my hard sell.
THE SHAZAM “Getting Higher”
Underground power poppers from Nashville with a string of great but unknown albums under their belt.
SUMMERCAMP “Should I Walk Away?”
Think Descendents with Beach Boys harmonies. Um, yeah.
LOS TRES “Feria Verdadera”
Chile’s premiere cult band have been rock royalty in their homeland and in Mexico—Café Tacuba paid tribute by recording an EP of their songs—for decades.
12 RODS “Marionette”
Produced by Todd Rundgren, the band’s third release got itself hammered by Pitchfork, who gave their terribly overrated debut a 10.0 rating. It’s all good, sometimes great and P4K was wrong both times. What else is new?
VELVET CRUSH “Hold Me Up”
Started by longtime Matthew Sweet drummer Ric Menck in 1989, with a similar sound to that of Menck’s on-and-off boss (who produced their debut album), they have been on hiatus since 2004 but reunited briefly in 2019.
THE WRENS “Dance the Midwest”
A different batch of New Jersey misfits with a taste for chaos. In this case, the angular power pop of this tune.
During his speech honoring Julia Louis-Dreyfus for being awarded the Mark Twain Prize For American Humor in 2018, Jerry Seinfeld makes
fun of the fact that network TV executives aren’t to blame for what he
stated were the invariably bad ideas they pitch to showrunners (aka
notes) since, vis-à-vis sitcoms, they are not funny people and aren’t
supposed to be. So, it occurs to me: why don’t the networks hire
comedians and/or comic writers who do have a solid grasp on humor? And
if these aforementioned executives are that clueless about their
purported jobs, why the hell are they employed in those positions in the
first place?
And it’s not just sitcoms: the vast majority of
classic and/or hugely successful books, movies, music and TV dramas have
a common origin story of repeated rejection by the gatekeepers who are
supposed to recognize quality or, at the very least, commercial
potential. Sure, there are variables out there: an executive or company
may pass on something because they’d rather not be associated with a
certain project due to sensitivity or tone, for instance. Which is why I
don’t blame them so much for the bad ideas they greenlight as much as I
do for passing on the ones that are obviously great and/or
blockbusters. I mean, unqualified people running key departments where
careers are made or hindered? Ridiculous.
So why is it so common? Or rather, why is it an
established part of the arts and commerce nexus? Sadly, I think it’s a
crap shoot. In other words, in the most simplistic but probably accurate
of terms, if you manage to claw your way to the top of the ladder and
get lucky with a couple of hit projects, you get to keep your job and
have those successes be the key part of your resumé. For a while, at
least. If not, like Denzel Washington in Philadelphia, can someone explain it to me, like I'm a six year old?
The first year of the '80s decade just might be, musically speaking, my favorite of them all; this was after all the beginning of a rich musical adventure that started with me as barely a teenager engaging with the gems below and concluded with The Cure’s Disintegration 9 years later as a young adult, with so many varied and wonderful stops along the way.
Man, has it really been 40 years?
There are so many records I loved that year but here are, in alphabetical order by artist, my Top 5:
AC/DC Back in Black [Atlantic]
There's not much I can say about this one except that it brings back fond memories of listening to it with my dear friend Yiik-Funk Chong [RIP] and that I love it as much now as I did then. ALL killer no filler, indeed. Also, all these years later, the glorious intersection where Chuck Berry and Black Sabbath meet remains as awesome as ever and just sounds sooooo good. PETER GABRIEL self-titled aka 'Melt' [Mercury]
I don't think my music directly reflects the indelible impact this album had on me, but it was along with King Crimson's Discipline [Warner Bros-1981] the album that made me want to be not just a musician but an artist as well, and evokes a time when I would eat, breathe, sleep and dream music, as if nothing else could sustain me. Man...
THE POLICE Zenyatta Mondatta [A&M]
Derided not only by the band itself (especially Sting, for the band not having enough time and too mush pressure to adequately put an album together) but the press, as well. However, we who love it have had the last laugh: it's a banger and along with the previous year's Regatta de Blanc, the primo example of the classic Police sound. (I'll always be grateful to my then-new friend Mr. S for lending me the
first three Police records in one shot, which I then proceeded to
absorb in chronological order, gazing at each vinyl record as it spun on
the turntable of our parents’ living room sound system, and culminating
with Zenyatta.)
THE PRETENDERS self-titled [Sire]
The opening salvo by Chrissie Hynde
and her killer band of co-horts was not just the best thing they ever
did, it towers over the rest of their catalog. And in the majority of
cases, dramatically so. (It is, after all, recognized as one of the
greatest debut albums in rock history.) I actually remember exactly where I was the first time “Brass in Pocket” came on the radio. Yeah...
VAN HALEN Women and Children First [Warner Bros.] You
won’t find any big hit singles like on the previous two releases but
the first VH album of all self-penned material is arguably their most
cohesive and representative. Just check out the stomp and swagger of
“…And The Cradle Will Rock”, “Everybody Wants Some"—immortalized in the
‘80s teen flick Better Off Dead—“Fools”,
“Take Your Whiskey Home” and one of the band’s very best songs, “In A
Simple Rhyme”. It was my introduction to VH and remains to this day, oh so near and dear to my heart. HONORABLE MENTIONS: GENESIS Duke [Atlantic]; DARYL HALL Sacred Songs [RCA]; HALL & OATES Voices [RCA]; PAUL McCARTNEY II [Columbia]; MOTORHEAD Ace of Spades [Bronze]; OZZY OSBOURNE Blizzard of Ozz [Jet]; RUSH Permanent Waves [Mercury]; XTC Black Sea [Virgin].
Although many recognize Steven Halpern’s Spectrum Suite album [Halpern Sounds-1975] as ground zero for the New Age music movement, its influences precede it by a decade, as the music of Phillip Glass, Pink Floyd, Terry Riley, and others, laid the groundwork.
By the mid ‘80s, New Age was a big deal and had transcended its humble bookstore and health-food store retail origins: major labels picked up indies or started their own divisions to cater to the music’s growing audience; record stores established New Age sections (in 1981, a California Tower Records was the first to do so), and certain jazz and rock musicians started dabbling and released New Age records. (A significant chunk of The Police’s Andy Summers’ solo catalog falls into that category.) Former Frank Zappa/Missing Persons bassist Patrick O’Hearn was among the latter.
A charter member of former Tangerine Dream keyboardist Peter Baumann’s prestigious Private Music label—also home of Eddie Jobson, the aformentioned Tangerine Dream, and Yanni, among others—O’Hearn’s solo debut, Ancient Dreams [Private Music-1985] is a breathtaking example of what New Age music could be in the right hands, and is rightfully considered a classic of the genre.
The dude had been seemingly AWOL from the music business after his tenure as vocalist/frontman of the one-off late '90s Stone Temple Pilots side project Talk Show. Turns out Coutts had indeed left the biz and started a family with his wife Tracy.
But the death of a former bandmate in his pre-STP band, Ten Inch Men, brought him back to making music, and in 2018 he released a couple of tracks, including "Saturday", written during his Talk Show days but left off the band's lone self-titled album.
Despite this being not just the end of the year but the end of the decade, it's adios to 2019 with the briefest, shortest recap in the history of 5 and leaving whether to ponder the decade perhaps some other time. But truth be told the first two decades of the 21st century are sort of one big blur ‘round here, anyway, so…
(The ‘00s review can be found here.)
So, here we go...
FAVORITE ALBUM: THE CLAYPOOL / LENNON DELIRIUM South of Reality [Prawn Song]
A proggy alt-rocker with a fondness for the weird and absurd and a melodic singer/songwriter with a taste for psych does not sound like the most auspicious musical combination. But these two talented gentlemen have made the most of their common ground, namely that sweet spot where Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd meets John Lennon in “I Am The Walrus” mode with a dash of early ‘70s King Crimson.
FAVORITE REISSUE:
THE BEATLES Abbey Road 50th Anniversary Edition [Apple]
Giles Martin does his old man proud on this remix of the Fabs’ best sounding album—and arguably their best—giving it the proper sonic treatment it deserves. That it practically explodes from your speakers without sacrificing clarity or nuance is quite the triumphant achievement, indeed.
FAVORITE TV SHOW: The Kominsky Method (season 2) [Netflix]
Watching Alan Arkin and Michael Douglas share scenes is nothing short of delight. This is the kind of show that, as I go through each one, inevitably makes me sad to acknowledge I’m counting down the episodes. Yup.
Runner up:
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel [Amazon]
A little to precious at times and a bit demanding in the suspension of disbelief department, but a winner nonetheless.
BIGGEST HYPE:
The Overwhelming Return of Vinyl and the Death of the CD
Despite CD players being eliminated from cars and computers while vinyl enjoys quite the resurgance, the pesky shiny discs refuse to die: they outsold vinyl records by more than twice as many units in the first half of 2019, 18.6m vs 8.6m units. And Discogs notes that while vinyl is their most popular format, CDs saw the biggest sales increase on the noted online music database/marketplace. So hold off, will ya?
GOODBYE
Drummer Andy Anderson (The Cure, Steve Hillage, Peter Gabriel); the incomparable Ginger Baker; Silver Jews
frontman David Berman; Alabama 3’s Jake Black;
the great studio drummer Hal Blaine; South African singer and apartheid activist Johnny Clegg;
the legendary Dick Dale;
Germs bassist Lorna Doom; The "Captain" in Captain and Tennille, Daryl Dragon; American psych godfather Roky Erickson;
The Prodigy frontman Keith Flint; Roxette singer Marie Fredriksson; Brazilian legend Joao Gilberto;
co-founder, lead singer and principal songwriter of the band
Talk Talk, Mark Hollis; Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter; rapper Nipsey Hussle; the great Dr. John;
singer/songwriter Daniel Johnston; rocker Eddie Money; The Meters and
Neville Brothers’ Art Neville; singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer Ric Ocasek;
singer/songwriter Leon Redbone;
multi-instrumentalist and Big Black bassist Dave Riley; English Beat and General Public’s
Ranking Roger; Kim Shattuck of The Muffs and The Pixies; Shawn Smith of Brad, Satchel and solo fame;
The Monkees’ Peter Tork; the one and only Scott Walker; singer/songwriter
and Bridge School founder Pegi Young.
LARRY CARLTON
The Iridium
Times Square, NYC
10/19/19
E. J. DECKER
Bar Thalia @ Symphony Space
Upper West Side, NYC
10/20/19
Yeah, NoLa and KC...but we’ve also got that jazz magic here in NYC. Every single night. Whether it’s legends or local heroes, we’ve got it covered. And this weekend was just another reminder.
Closing out his 2-night Iridium stint, Saturday night’s late set by the legendary Mr. 335 was simply pure delight. Backed by an excellent 5 piece band—which included the astoundingly impressive playing of his son, bassist Travis Carlton—he ripped thru choice cuts from his catalog and a smattering of Steely Dan faves including “Black Friday”, “Josie” and “Kid Charlemagne” for an intimate but adoring crowd who celebrated every note and every nuance of his 90 minute set.
[Decker flanked by Bryant (left) and Greene (right)]
On Sunday, the rainy October night was the perfect backdrop for the deep, mellow groove of the great Mr. Decker, a singular jazz vocalist and local treasure. (Full disclosure: Decker is a professional colleague and dear personal friend.) Performing alongside the brilliant guitarist Freddie Bryant and outstanding upright bassist Hill Greene for a small but enraptured audience of uptown jazz fans, Decker’s velvet smooth baritone was every bit as impressive as on his multiple critically acclaimed albums. But among a night of gems, like the standard "Come Rain or Come Shine" and a series of wonderful originals, there was an unexpected curveball: a bossa nova-flavored take on The Beach Boys classic “God Only Knows”, making it clear the old dog’s not averse to showing us his new tricks.
It has become customary for the last couple of generations to bemoan the cultural prospects of the one immediately following them, decrying falling standards in art, cinema, literature, music and even television. (Although the latter has enjoined an undeniable renaissance since the last days of the 20th century.) And while some of this might legitimately be ‘back in my day’ nostalgia, it’s no less true that from the vantage point of a Kardashian world in which the US is run by an unfit, former reality show star turned president, it seems practically unfathomable that MTV not only used to air music videos but also—and during prime time, mind you—short films recreating scenes from literary classics like “The Metamorphosis”.
Which leads me to ponder the following: what is in fact more surreal—that approximately 20 years ago a for-profit pop culture TV network purposely included Kafka in their programming or our current reality?
