Anvil are a Canadian metal band who've been together for 30 years and despite some brief notoriety in the early '80s, sink to the crappy club circuit due to bad management and worse personal music business acumen, struggle to rise above it all, with the attendant lifetime of battle scars and mishaps to show for it. The 2008 documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil is their story.
Having watched it over the weekend amongst friends, we can tell you this much: it did not provoke in us any sympathy for these guys. Their music is not that great (despite what Anthrax's Scott Ian, Metallica's Lars Ulrich, Motorhead's Lemmy, and Slash have to say about them); are dumber than a bucket of sand; and for people who've been gigging and recording for over 30 years, they make some of the most dumbfounding rookie mistakes ever.
Seriously, why would anyone who's been doing this for some time now, book a European tour with a novice booking agent--we're being kind here--who does not demand guarantees, and arranges international train rides as transportation? How about paying a has-been producer some $25,000 to record an album in his tiny London home studio? Or showing up, unannounced and without appointment, looking for a record deal at the offices of major labels in Los Angeles and expecting to be taken seriously? Based on what? Pure "yeah man, we're gonna be rock stars 'cause we deserve to be" drivel? Give us a fucking break.
Luckily, for these bumbling gentlemen, one of their former roadies is filmmaker/journalist Sacha Gervasi, whose doc--and their old high profile friends in the metal world--have garnered Anvil enough attention to be back in the spotlight for a bit. Good luck to them; they're nice enough folks. Just not worth our time and money.
11/29/2009
11/28/2009
Branca Is on to You, Music Industry
Of course, we could all just listen to all of our old albums, CD’s and mp3’s. In fact, nowadays that’s where the industry makes most of its money. We could also just watch old movies and old TV shows. There are a lot of them now. Why bother making any new ones? Why bother doing anything new at all? Why bother having any change or progress at all as long as we’ve got “growth”?
I’m just wondering if this is in fact the new paradigm. I’m just wondering if in fact the new music is just the old music again. And, if that in fact it would actually just be the end of music.
Avant garde composer Glenn Branca, "The End of Music", NY Times, 11/24/09.
Nicks and Petty: Not Your Typical '80s Tune
Definitely one of the great singles from the 1980s and one of the few Stevie Nicks solo songs worth listening to, 1981's "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" was the first single off her first solo album Bella Donna, and a Mike Campbell/Tom Petty composition, with the Heartbreakers providing backup.
11/27/2009
Hendrix Forever
Nov. 27th, is the birthday of one James Marshall Hendrix.
He would've been 67 today. Here is Jimi performing one of our faves, "Foxy Lady", months before his 1970 death:
[Also, happy birthday to drummers Charlie Benante of Anthrax,
and Mike Bordin (Faith No More/Ozzy Osbourne), both of whom
turn 47 today.]
He would've been 67 today. Here is Jimi performing one of our faves, "Foxy Lady", months before his 1970 death:
[Also, happy birthday to drummers Charlie Benante of Anthrax,
and Mike Bordin (Faith No More/Ozzy Osbourne), both of whom
turn 47 today.]
11/26/2009
Happy Thanksgiving
One of the non-music blogs we read on a regular basis reminded us that guitar virtuoso Michael Hedges died 12 years ago in a tragic car accident on Thanksgiving weekend.
Commonly referred to at first as "the Eddie Van Halen of the acoustic guitar", Hedges was not only an immensely talented instrumentalist but also a gifted composer who quickly made a name for himself and was held in high regard during the decade-plus we was in the public eye.
As a tribute to him, we'd like to share with you one of our favorites,
"Rickover's Dream" from the landmark album Aerial Boundaries [Windham Hill-1984], performed live at New York City's Bottom Line in 1990. Happy Thanksgiving.
Commonly referred to at first as "the Eddie Van Halen of the acoustic guitar", Hedges was not only an immensely talented instrumentalist but also a gifted composer who quickly made a name for himself and was held in high regard during the decade-plus we was in the public eye.
As a tribute to him, we'd like to share with you one of our favorites,
"Rickover's Dream" from the landmark album Aerial Boundaries [Windham Hill-1984], performed live at New York City's Bottom Line in 1990. Happy Thanksgiving.
11/25/2009
Open Letter to Mickey Dolenz
Dude,
Listening to the music of The Monkees lately we got a not so-crazy idea: why don't you put together a four piece band and do theatre shows performing all the great tunes you sang with your old band. You know: "An Evening of Monkees Music with Mickey Dolenz" or something. No need to do the reunion thing. You've had way too many of those already. Plus, nobody wants to hear Davy Jones' corny, show bizzy, Broadway musical lameness; Peter Tork is sick; Papa Nez has bigger things on his plate; and it's not like you're that busy, huh?
People still want to hear those songs and, to your benefit, you sang the vast majority of the best ones. C'mon: "Last Train to Clarksville", "I'm a Believer", "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone", "The Girl I Knew Somewhere", "Pleasant Valley Sunday", "Porpoise Song", "As We Go Along", "Randy Scouse Git", "Goin' Down"...we could go on and on.
But if you decide to do this, don't book any casinos or other cheesy joints of that ilk. No, play the venues the current rock bands are playing and get some young'uns in the crowd. Trust us, you won't regret it. It might actually be awesome.
So, think about it, will you? Not a giant step, you know.
Cheers,
-KJ
Listening to the music of The Monkees lately we got a not so-crazy idea: why don't you put together a four piece band and do theatre shows performing all the great tunes you sang with your old band. You know: "An Evening of Monkees Music with Mickey Dolenz" or something. No need to do the reunion thing. You've had way too many of those already. Plus, nobody wants to hear Davy Jones' corny, show bizzy, Broadway musical lameness; Peter Tork is sick; Papa Nez has bigger things on his plate; and it's not like you're that busy, huh?
People still want to hear those songs and, to your benefit, you sang the vast majority of the best ones. C'mon: "Last Train to Clarksville", "I'm a Believer", "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone", "The Girl I Knew Somewhere", "Pleasant Valley Sunday", "Porpoise Song", "As We Go Along", "Randy Scouse Git", "Goin' Down"...we could go on and on.
But if you decide to do this, don't book any casinos or other cheesy joints of that ilk. No, play the venues the current rock bands are playing and get some young'uns in the crowd. Trust us, you won't regret it. It might actually be awesome.
So, think about it, will you? Not a giant step, you know.
Cheers,
-KJ
11/24/2009
NYT Review: Fela! (the musical)
Ben Brantley raves in the paper of record about the Broadway musical focusing on the turbulent life and times of the influential and revolutionary Nigerian musician, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.
Not only is Fela Kuti a musical giant that should be discovered and embraced by music lovers who may not be familiar with his groundbreaking work—often called "the African James Brown", we'd also venture to say Brown is the American Fela—we can't think of a better musical surrogate than the great Antibalas to be performing his music for this particular play.
In the meantime, here's the title track from Fela's 1977 album Zombie [Mercury] to get you started or perhaps reminiscing:
As brought to the stage by [Bill T.] Jones—the show’s venturesome choreographer, director and, with Jim Lewis, its book writer—“Fela!” doesn’t so much tell a story as soak an audience to and through the skin with the musical style and sensibility practiced by its leading man. That style is Afrobeat, an amalgam of diverse cultural elements that will be parsed and reassembled during the show by its performers and the wonderful Antibalas, an Afrobeat band out of Brooklyn.
Not only is Fela Kuti a musical giant that should be discovered and embraced by music lovers who may not be familiar with his groundbreaking work—often called "the African James Brown", we'd also venture to say Brown is the American Fela—we can't think of a better musical surrogate than the great Antibalas to be performing his music for this particular play.
In the meantime, here's the title track from Fela's 1977 album Zombie [Mercury] to get you started or perhaps reminiscing:
X Does Not Mark the Spot
Fellow blogger Xmastime, had this to say about a particular point in Spin magazine's "16 Myths Debunked" (a feature we recently assailed for its dreadful numbskullery):
A few things to consider:
- An album by a band whose previous releases were mostly confined to specialty shops—along with Tower Records which always catered to indie rock as well as the big ticket items (as opposed to the likes of Sam Goody, The Wiz, etc)—and was initially ONLY played on college radio and MTV's 120 Minutes, eventually went on to dethrone a mega, mainstream star's album from the top spot of the Billboard charts. That, my friend, is a fact. Pure and simple. No need to dis.
- No person in their right mind could ever claim that a motherlode of bands on major labels—regardless of their indie origins—was a "grass roots movement". That's patently absurd. We've never heard anyone who even remotely has a clue utter such idiocy.
- Sure, much of the hairband-loving flock resisted the Seattle/grunge/alt-rock wave. Absolutely. But the hordes of frat-boy knuckleheads that didn't—which Kurt Cobain would subsequently and bitterly complain about—did not come out of nowhere. These—along with your average, every day, Top 40 radio-listening folks of the day—are the ones who latch on to "the new thing", whatever it happens to be at the time. Poison and Warrant weren't "it" anymore; Nirvana and Pearl Jam were. Period. Was it because the latter were awesome and the former were not? We'd like to think so, but that can be construed as a matter of taste and not entirely the reason why.
What happened? People were tired of the flamboyant, glam nonsense—it's a cyclical thing—and they went for the new, cool thing which was different. And no one who lives or dies by these silly definitions wants to be left behind. Yes, Nirvana were at the right place and the right time. We agree. But it doesn't make Nevermind any less great, or Appetite for Destruction—another beneficiary of the "the right place/right time" scenario a few years prior—for that matter. If you recall, in the late '80s many fans of heavy music did not fully appreciate the intensity of Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, etc and were turned off by the antics of the Winger-Warrant-Poison contingent, which they very much deemed to be "fake". These people went for Guns 'n' Roses in a really big way.
(Speaking of which, years ago, while over at a friend’s house, we sat in the living room chatting while MTV blared in the background. As some Poison video came on, one of our friend’s older brothers—and not a fan of rock music—walked in to get a bite to eat, looked at what was on the TV and chided us for watching “that crap”.
We told him truthfully that we weren’t paying attention. Moments later, as he came out of the kitchen with a sandwich and a drink, the video for GnR’s “Sweet Child O' Mine” was on, and in between bites he managed to bellow, “See? Now that’s music!” and left. So, there is something to the idea of people latching on to what they feel is "real". But we digress.)
- Check your calendar: at the time the Britney/boy band avalanche hit, the Seattle/grunge/alt-rock thing had run its course: La Spears' first single was in '98; so was N'Sync's. Christina Aguilera's debut single was in '99. (Only The Backstreet Boys, of that new teenybopper wave, had a single prior to that: their first came out in 1995.)
By then, Cobain had been dead a few years; Soundgarden had broken up; Smashing Pumpkins had fizzled; and the rest—along with the one-hit/album wonders—had already had their day in the sun by '96, '97. Eventually, for the masses, as someone brilliantly once stated, the flannel shirt simply didn't fit anymore. So, what the boy bands and co. did was fill a mainstream chart vacuum, not slay any grunge dragon. It was already dead. Sorry, Charlie. (We're not pointing fingers but so called nü-metal may have blood on its hands, tho.)
In conclusion, "grunge" did kill hair metal. Not because of quality or authenticity necessarily, but because the fickle mainstream wanted something else, and moved on. (Quite a few hairbands themselves cut their hair, de-tuned their guitars and moved to Seattle in hopes of joining the bandwagon, btw.) However...
That a certain lack of artifice and pomp—and choice of wardrobe, lifestyle, and causes to support—made these new artists seem more "real" than the party-all-the-time hair farmers, is a distinct possibility for many if not all who embraced them. But you knew that already.
And if we mock these Nirvana haters, Poison apologists and Lady Gaga whores who "write" the kind of gibberish found in that Spin article, it's not because they dis a fave band of ours; it's because they are lazy hacks and two-bit clowns who don't bother getting their facts straight and who should know better. You know, the same fools that branded Wire-retreads in this decade with having a fresh new sound.
Yours in rock,
-KJ
...FINALLY someone agrees with me that this smug, idiotic "Nirvana ENDED hair metal!" nonsense people have always tried to tell me is complete nonsense.X, in agreeing with the contrarian retard who wrote the piece—who, for the record, once pontificated to us on the greatness of Poison at a party a few years ago—you have missed the boat completely, sir. (Note: We're not calling YOU a contrarian retard.)
I don't now why, but it's very important for Nirvana's fans to place them on some strange artistic-cleansing level of "greatness;" it's not enough for them to think Nirvana was a perfectly good band, they also hafta somehow make them the righteous slayers of what they see as a "fake" music. The thinking of course is the second Poison fans heard Nirvana they realized which music was "real" and ditched Poison, and probably sat around their bedrooms being ashamed of ever having loved such "fake" music in the first place. Which, of course, didn't happen.
Nirvana was a good, if not original, band that sounded like tons of other bands but was at the right time/right place like any band that blows up. Nirvana fans want you to believe that people were led to the music shops to buy Nevermind by some strange desire for "real music" in some weird "if you rock it, they will come" happenstance of zen-ness. Nirvana fans cannot accept that the same machinery that was in charge of making, say, Warrant bigger than Huey Lewis was the same machine that put Nirvana on every radio and tv across the land. No no, they want you to think, THEIRS was a real "grass roots" movement. Hmm.
Like any other music genre, grunge had it's day, and then ran it's course. One final thing for these "Nirvana killed hair bands!" idiots to consider is that if it can be said of Nirvana/hair bands, couldn't the same be said for boy bands and Britney/grunge? OUCH, right guys?
A few things to consider:
- An album by a band whose previous releases were mostly confined to specialty shops—along with Tower Records which always catered to indie rock as well as the big ticket items (as opposed to the likes of Sam Goody, The Wiz, etc)—and was initially ONLY played on college radio and MTV's 120 Minutes, eventually went on to dethrone a mega, mainstream star's album from the top spot of the Billboard charts. That, my friend, is a fact. Pure and simple. No need to dis.
- No person in their right mind could ever claim that a motherlode of bands on major labels—regardless of their indie origins—was a "grass roots movement". That's patently absurd. We've never heard anyone who even remotely has a clue utter such idiocy.
- Sure, much of the hairband-loving flock resisted the Seattle/grunge/alt-rock wave. Absolutely. But the hordes of frat-boy knuckleheads that didn't—which Kurt Cobain would subsequently and bitterly complain about—did not come out of nowhere. These—along with your average, every day, Top 40 radio-listening folks of the day—are the ones who latch on to "the new thing", whatever it happens to be at the time. Poison and Warrant weren't "it" anymore; Nirvana and Pearl Jam were. Period. Was it because the latter were awesome and the former were not? We'd like to think so, but that can be construed as a matter of taste and not entirely the reason why.
What happened? People were tired of the flamboyant, glam nonsense—it's a cyclical thing—and they went for the new, cool thing which was different. And no one who lives or dies by these silly definitions wants to be left behind. Yes, Nirvana were at the right place and the right time. We agree. But it doesn't make Nevermind any less great, or Appetite for Destruction—another beneficiary of the "the right place/right time" scenario a few years prior—for that matter. If you recall, in the late '80s many fans of heavy music did not fully appreciate the intensity of Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, etc and were turned off by the antics of the Winger-Warrant-Poison contingent, which they very much deemed to be "fake". These people went for Guns 'n' Roses in a really big way.
(Speaking of which, years ago, while over at a friend’s house, we sat in the living room chatting while MTV blared in the background. As some Poison video came on, one of our friend’s older brothers—and not a fan of rock music—walked in to get a bite to eat, looked at what was on the TV and chided us for watching “that crap”.
We told him truthfully that we weren’t paying attention. Moments later, as he came out of the kitchen with a sandwich and a drink, the video for GnR’s “Sweet Child O' Mine” was on, and in between bites he managed to bellow, “See? Now that’s music!” and left. So, there is something to the idea of people latching on to what they feel is "real". But we digress.)
- Check your calendar: at the time the Britney/boy band avalanche hit, the Seattle/grunge/alt-rock thing had run its course: La Spears' first single was in '98; so was N'Sync's. Christina Aguilera's debut single was in '99. (Only The Backstreet Boys, of that new teenybopper wave, had a single prior to that: their first came out in 1995.)
By then, Cobain had been dead a few years; Soundgarden had broken up; Smashing Pumpkins had fizzled; and the rest—along with the one-hit/album wonders—had already had their day in the sun by '96, '97. Eventually, for the masses, as someone brilliantly once stated, the flannel shirt simply didn't fit anymore. So, what the boy bands and co. did was fill a mainstream chart vacuum, not slay any grunge dragon. It was already dead. Sorry, Charlie. (We're not pointing fingers but so called nü-metal may have blood on its hands, tho.)
In conclusion, "grunge" did kill hair metal. Not because of quality or authenticity necessarily, but because the fickle mainstream wanted something else, and moved on. (Quite a few hairbands themselves cut their hair, de-tuned their guitars and moved to Seattle in hopes of joining the bandwagon, btw.) However...
That a certain lack of artifice and pomp—and choice of wardrobe, lifestyle, and causes to support—made these new artists seem more "real" than the party-all-the-time hair farmers, is a distinct possibility for many if not all who embraced them. But you knew that already.
And if we mock these Nirvana haters, Poison apologists and Lady Gaga whores who "write" the kind of gibberish found in that Spin article, it's not because they dis a fave band of ours; it's because they are lazy hacks and two-bit clowns who don't bother getting their facts straight and who should know better. You know, the same fools that branded Wire-retreads in this decade with having a fresh new sound.
Yours in rock,
-KJ
Milestones: MTV Unplugged
[Our series of posts on albums, movies, etc that celebrate significant anniversaries this year continues. - KJ]
Although decidedly far removed from the enormous influence and popularity it once had, MTV Unplugged is still around, two decades after its 1989 debut.
Originally hosted by singer/songwriter Jules Shear (who wrote Cyndi Lauper's "All Through the Night" and The Bangles' "If She Knew What She Wants"), it was a simple affair and not the big production showcase it became at the height of its popularity. During the program's humble beginnings the format consisted of 2 artists separately performing acoustic, stripped down arrangements of their chosen songs with minimal accompaniment--Shear would occasional participate on guitar--then both would join the host in a finale.
As Unplugged grew in stature it became practically a must to appear on the show, and many artists saw fit to release their appearances as live albums. But the show eventually got bloated and strayed from its modest origins and purported raison d'etre--certain artists bringing on a small army of backup musicians was not very "unplugged", as it were--and after 8 seasons, Unplugged was moved from regular program to special feature status in 1997.
The show had many memorable moments; for us the following stand out: the Stevie Ray Vaughn/Joe Satriani episode from the first 13 which were hosted by Shear; LL Cool J/A Tribe Called Quest/De La Soul/MC Lyte, all backed by Pop's Cool Love; and of course, Nirvana. The network's Spanish-language sister, MTV Latino, also featured great individual performances by Café Tacuba (Mexico), Robi Rosa (Puerto Rico), and Los Tres (Chile).
In 2009, MTV returned the show to its regular programming schedule with a six-episode run including a controversial turn by pop starlet Katy Perry, and indie darlings Vampire Weekend. Oy vey!
SRV:
LL Cool J:
Nirvana w/The Meat Puppets:
Café Tacuba:
Robi Rosa:
Los Tres:
Although decidedly far removed from the enormous influence and popularity it once had, MTV Unplugged is still around, two decades after its 1989 debut.
Originally hosted by singer/songwriter Jules Shear (who wrote Cyndi Lauper's "All Through the Night" and The Bangles' "If She Knew What She Wants"), it was a simple affair and not the big production showcase it became at the height of its popularity. During the program's humble beginnings the format consisted of 2 artists separately performing acoustic, stripped down arrangements of their chosen songs with minimal accompaniment--Shear would occasional participate on guitar--then both would join the host in a finale.
As Unplugged grew in stature it became practically a must to appear on the show, and many artists saw fit to release their appearances as live albums. But the show eventually got bloated and strayed from its modest origins and purported raison d'etre--certain artists bringing on a small army of backup musicians was not very "unplugged", as it were--and after 8 seasons, Unplugged was moved from regular program to special feature status in 1997.
The show had many memorable moments; for us the following stand out: the Stevie Ray Vaughn/Joe Satriani episode from the first 13 which were hosted by Shear; LL Cool J/A Tribe Called Quest/De La Soul/MC Lyte, all backed by Pop's Cool Love; and of course, Nirvana. The network's Spanish-language sister, MTV Latino, also featured great individual performances by Café Tacuba (Mexico), Robi Rosa (Puerto Rico), and Los Tres (Chile).
In 2009, MTV returned the show to its regular programming schedule with a six-episode run including a controversial turn by pop starlet Katy Perry, and indie darlings Vampire Weekend. Oy vey!
SRV:
LL Cool J:
Nirvana w/The Meat Puppets:
Café Tacuba:
Robi Rosa:
Los Tres:
11/23/2009
What We're Listening To
DINOSAUR JR. Where You Been? [Warner Bros]
DURAN DURAN Seven and the Ragged Tiger [Capitol]
MICHAEL HEDGES Beyond Boundaries: Guitar Solos [Windham Hill/BMG]
PAUL McCARTNEY McCartney [Capitol]
ELLIOTT SMITH Figure 8 [Dreamworks]
What are YOU listening to?
DURAN DURAN Seven and the Ragged Tiger [Capitol]
MICHAEL HEDGES Beyond Boundaries: Guitar Solos [Windham Hill/BMG]
PAUL McCARTNEY McCartney [Capitol]
ELLIOTT SMITH Figure 8 [Dreamworks]
What are YOU listening to?
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