Friday, May 18, 2007
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
record shopping in Pittsburgh
Greetings from the Steel City. Today was spent record shopping, something I look forward to when I'm in town. Iowa City just doesn't have much to offer in the way of good record shopping, so it's always a treat to do some digging at Jerry's Fine Used Records when I'm home.
Over the years, I've found that my favorite way to experience Jerry's is to go alone and go early, giving myself ample time to dig through the seemingly endless collection vinyl Jerry's offers. Today was one of those days. I would venture to say that I spent between 90 minutes and two hours there. $60 later, I came out with a stack of roughly 15 LPs/12"s. Being that record shopping in Iowa is generally fruitless, I allow myself to splurge when I go to Jerry's. As always, I found I couple of things I was specifically looking for, but mostly I came back with dusty gems found by digging through the store. Mostly I came out with a lot of funk records. Excellent.
Don Lindich recently did a great piece on Jerry's (with lots of great photos) on his Sound Advice blog. Check it out. A warning to those of you that have never been to Jerry's: the photographs may give you a heart attack.
Jerry also does a great deal of online auctioning through his site - you can find a lot of great stuff there too if you aren't in the Pittsburgh area.
Jerry's Records website
I also stopped by Attic Records.
I literally hadn't been there since high school, so it was about time. I recalled them having a really good selection of 12 inches. They still do, although that area of the store is incredibly difficult to navigate.
To their credit, they were hit incredibly hard by a flood in 2005, so it's good to see them still there at any rate. I restrained myself there, picking up only Marvin Gaye's Super Hits LP, which I've been after for months. (It's the only collection that gathers all of those great early singles like "Hitch Hike," "Ain't That Peculiar," "Wonderful One," etc.) So I left pleased. I saw a lot of stuff I wanted, but figured I'd already spent enough money for the day.
When I'm in Pittsburgh, I also tend to make the rounds to various locations of The Exchange (a regional used cd chain), but that will have to wait until later.
I'll have some more odds and ends from the web in my next post, so stay tuned.
Over the years, I've found that my favorite way to experience Jerry's is to go alone and go early, giving myself ample time to dig through the seemingly endless collection vinyl Jerry's offers. Today was one of those days. I would venture to say that I spent between 90 minutes and two hours there. $60 later, I came out with a stack of roughly 15 LPs/12"s. Being that record shopping in Iowa is generally fruitless, I allow myself to splurge when I go to Jerry's. As always, I found I couple of things I was specifically looking for, but mostly I came back with dusty gems found by digging through the store. Mostly I came out with a lot of funk records. Excellent.
Don Lindich recently did a great piece on Jerry's (with lots of great photos) on his Sound Advice blog. Check it out. A warning to those of you that have never been to Jerry's: the photographs may give you a heart attack.
Jerry also does a great deal of online auctioning through his site - you can find a lot of great stuff there too if you aren't in the Pittsburgh area.
Jerry's Records website
I also stopped by Attic Records.
I literally hadn't been there since high school, so it was about time. I recalled them having a really good selection of 12 inches. They still do, although that area of the store is incredibly difficult to navigate.
To their credit, they were hit incredibly hard by a flood in 2005, so it's good to see them still there at any rate. I restrained myself there, picking up only Marvin Gaye's Super Hits LP, which I've been after for months. (It's the only collection that gathers all of those great early singles like "Hitch Hike," "Ain't That Peculiar," "Wonderful One," etc.) So I left pleased. I saw a lot of stuff I wanted, but figured I'd already spent enough money for the day.
When I'm in Pittsburgh, I also tend to make the rounds to various locations of The Exchange (a regional used cd chain), but that will have to wait until later.
I'll have some more odds and ends from the web in my next post, so stay tuned.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Prince - Dream Factory (1986)
Following the Camille pots a few weeks ago, I have for you today a version of the
Dream Factory album. The project started directly after the Parade (knowing Prince, they were writing and maybe even recording on the road). The album was to feature much more creative input from the Revolution than previous albums, something that injected a new energy into the group as is evident in the Rolling Stone interview with Lisa and Wendy. As Prince would have it however, he canned the band and the project, although some of the tracks survived to end up on what became Sign 'O' the Times.
I've said it before, but I'll say it again - were this album to have been released, it would have been Prince's magnum opus. The songwriting and general style take the best aspects of the Parade material to the next level.
I also have to say that this is not the final configuration of the album. This configuration is the second, dated June 3, 1986. I chose this because I feel it to be the most comprehensive and most impressive of the known configurations. Here, Dream Factory was to be a double LP. This configuration also includes one of my all time favorite Prince compositions, "Power Fantastic," which due to being unreleased until 1993's The Hits/The B-Sides was not given due credit. But that's Prince for you. Tracks come from various sources, so the sound is a little uneven, sorry.
Tracks:
Side 1
1. Visions
2. Dream Factory
3. It's a Wonderful Day
4. The Ballad of Dorothy Parker
5. It
Side 2
6. Strange Relationship
7. Teacher Teacher
8. Starfish and Coffee
9. Interlude
10. In a Large Room with No Light (aka Welcome 2 the Ratrace)
11. Nevaeh Ni EcalP A
12. Sexual Suicide
Side 3
13. Crystal Ball
14. prelude
15. Power Fantastic
Side 4
16. Last Heart
17. Witness 4 the Prosecution
18. Movie Star
19. A Place in Heaven
20. All My Dreams
Enjoy!
(link expired)
Show Review: Gore Gore Girls, 5/2
This is a week overdue, but it's been a rough week. The good news is that I wrapped up the semester yesterday. The bad news (for you) is that posts will still be sporadic, as I'm heading to the Steel City for a few weeks. (But that's good news for me, so it all works out.) I'll try to get a few posts while I'm there, but I make no promises.
The Gore Gore Girls are one of my very favorite neo-garage bands. As an acquaintance of mine put it so perfectly: "a near-perfect melding of girl group sound and Detroit muscle." I saw them a couple years ago, and was ecstatic to hear that they were gracing Iowa City with their presence once again. However, I got much more than I bargained for this time out, and got to see three other bands that I was very impressed with. So let's start from the beginning of the evening. And by "beginning of the evening," I mean 10pm.
Thee Almighty Handclaps!
I admit not knowing much of the local Iowa City music scene. The bulk of bands I come across are cover bands, because this is a college town with typical college students whose idea of going to a local show is paying $7 to hear upper classmen play Dave Matthews covers. I was refreshed to see Thee Almighty Handclaps open Wednesday's show.
The three piece consists of drums, a seriously fuzzy bass, an electric organ, and dueling vocals. They've got a great garage-y sound, and I was impressed enough to buy their 7". Check out their myspace page. Both of the tracks there are great, although my favorite on the disc may be "Sugar Bowl," which is not on their page. I spent some time chatting with their bassist and organist, and I'm told they're going back into the studio this week. I'll definitely be checking these guys over the summer.
Thee Almighty Handclaps! Myspace Page
Next up were The Rusty Buckets, another local band. Unfortunately I didn't grab any of their music, but these guys are TIGHT. And they have some great lyrics. I don't really have too much else to say about these guys. I will comment that the recordings on their MySpace page don't do their performance justice at all.
Rusty Buckets' MySpace Page
Then came The Dollyrots, a band whose name I've been hearing tossed around here and their, yet whose music I hadn't experienced. I loved it! They're musically tight, and have a great amount of energy. I could see some criticizing them for being too poppy, but I really don't care. They pull off the power pop punk thing very well. I picked up their newest cd while I was there, and it's been in heavy rotation. Great to have in the discman while on a run. I also have a crush on the bassist/lead vocalist. And yes, her voice really sounds like that, even when she's speaking. Also, they did a great rendition of Melanie's hit "Brand New Key," which I was pleased to find also made the cut on the album. Here's a live version of it:
The Dollyrots official website
The Dollyrots MySpace Page
And finally, it was time for the main attraction, The Gore Gore Girls! They're better than ever, still kicking ass, still taking names. They played a lot of material from their two most recent albums, Up All Night (2002, Get Hip Records) and Get the Gore (2007, Bloodshot Records). I was also pleased that they pulled out their awesome cover of The Golliwogs' "Fight Fire," which the also played the last time they were in town. Also similar to their last Iowa City performance, I was pissed that the crowd was so sparse. Seriously, what the fuck, Iowa City? At any rate, it was a great show. I of course grabbed their new disc Get the Gore and love it. All of three of their albums are great, but each release continues to improve and mold the band's sound. Definitely check them out if they hit your town.
Gore Gore Girls official website
Gore Gore Girls MySpace Page
I got on the guest list for the show, saw four awesome bands, and came home with two cds and one 7". A good night all around. And I also got to play some Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga at The Picador. Score!
The Gore Gore Girls are one of my very favorite neo-garage bands. As an acquaintance of mine put it so perfectly: "a near-perfect melding of girl group sound and Detroit muscle." I saw them a couple years ago, and was ecstatic to hear that they were gracing Iowa City with their presence once again. However, I got much more than I bargained for this time out, and got to see three other bands that I was very impressed with. So let's start from the beginning of the evening. And by "beginning of the evening," I mean 10pm.
Thee Almighty Handclaps!
I admit not knowing much of the local Iowa City music scene. The bulk of bands I come across are cover bands, because this is a college town with typical college students whose idea of going to a local show is paying $7 to hear upper classmen play Dave Matthews covers. I was refreshed to see Thee Almighty Handclaps open Wednesday's show.
The three piece consists of drums, a seriously fuzzy bass, an electric organ, and dueling vocals. They've got a great garage-y sound, and I was impressed enough to buy their 7". Check out their myspace page. Both of the tracks there are great, although my favorite on the disc may be "Sugar Bowl," which is not on their page. I spent some time chatting with their bassist and organist, and I'm told they're going back into the studio this week. I'll definitely be checking these guys over the summer.
Thee Almighty Handclaps! Myspace Page
Next up were The Rusty Buckets, another local band. Unfortunately I didn't grab any of their music, but these guys are TIGHT. And they have some great lyrics. I don't really have too much else to say about these guys. I will comment that the recordings on their MySpace page don't do their performance justice at all.
Rusty Buckets' MySpace Page
Then came The Dollyrots, a band whose name I've been hearing tossed around here and their, yet whose music I hadn't experienced. I loved it! They're musically tight, and have a great amount of energy. I could see some criticizing them for being too poppy, but I really don't care. They pull off the power pop punk thing very well. I picked up their newest cd while I was there, and it's been in heavy rotation. Great to have in the discman while on a run. I also have a crush on the bassist/lead vocalist. And yes, her voice really sounds like that, even when she's speaking. Also, they did a great rendition of Melanie's hit "Brand New Key," which I was pleased to find also made the cut on the album. Here's a live version of it:
The Dollyrots official website
The Dollyrots MySpace Page
And finally, it was time for the main attraction, The Gore Gore Girls! They're better than ever, still kicking ass, still taking names. They played a lot of material from their two most recent albums, Up All Night (2002, Get Hip Records) and Get the Gore (2007, Bloodshot Records). I was also pleased that they pulled out their awesome cover of The Golliwogs' "Fight Fire," which the also played the last time they were in town. Also similar to their last Iowa City performance, I was pissed that the crowd was so sparse. Seriously, what the fuck, Iowa City? At any rate, it was a great show. I of course grabbed their new disc Get the Gore and love it. All of three of their albums are great, but each release continues to improve and mold the band's sound. Definitely check them out if they hit your town.
Gore Gore Girls official website
Gore Gore Girls MySpace Page
I got on the guest list for the show, saw four awesome bands, and came home with two cds and one 7". A good night all around. And I also got to play some Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga at The Picador. Score!
Friday, May 4, 2007
Iris DeMent
Earlier this week, I finally finished watching the entire series of Northern Exposure. Admittedly, the finale was more of a whimper than a bang. Seems to me it could have ended any season. At any rate, the final scene was a montage of sorts over which a very fitting song played. After some research, I found that the song is "Our Town" by Iris DeMent.
I tracked down the album from which this song came, 1992's Infamous Angel. On the whole, the album is as strong as "Our Town," a collection of singer-songwriter Americana that is both honest and poignant. I don't care as much for the final track, but the disc as a whole is quite enjoyable. I haven't gotten into any of her other material yet, but plan to do so soon. Give it a whirl!
(link expired)
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Kiss Internet Radio Goodbye
I want to once again urge all of you to contact your representatives about the recent actions of the Copyright Royalty Board, which will effectively KILL Internet radio. This is no exaggeration.
From a recent article on Alternet with Tim Westergren of Pandora.com:
Westergren: As a webcaster, we pay a performance royalty for every song that we stream. It’s a royalty that’s not paid by terrestrial broadcasters, and is paid at a much lower rate by satellite broadcasters. Until this ruling, the rate that we paid was 1.17 cents per listener-hour, which equates to about 0.076 cents per song streamed to each listener.
The new rates, which are retroactive to the beginning of 2006, are immediately higher than that. They go from 0.076 to 0.08 cents per song, and then they go up incrementally over the subsequent five years. And by the end, they’re at 0.19 cents per song. That’s close to a tripling.
Economically, these new rates will represent 70-80 percent of gross revenues for folks like us, as opposed to only about 25 percent today. So they make the business completely uneconomic. There’s nobody that can deliver an advertising-supported webcast at those levels, because advertisers won’t allow us to raise rates high enough to cover it.
When you consider that satellite radio providers pay between 5 and 7.5 percent of gross revenues for the same thing, it seems especially unreasonable.
Sinnreich: As of May 15, you’re going to owe higher royalties retroactively to January 2006, due in one lump sum. How big is that check going to be?
Westergren: I can’t tell you specifically, but the near-term impact is many millions of dollars.
This isn't some whiny liberal media scholar bullshit I'm handing you here, folks. These rates have passed, and go into effect on May 15.
So if you have any interest in listening to Internet radio after next tuesday, seriously - get off of your ass and urge your legislators via email, phone calls, letters, whatever - URGE them to pass the Internet Radio Equality Act drafted by Reps. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and Donald Manzullo (R-Ill.). The bill revokes the CRB's ruling, aiming to construct an alternate system wherein artists still receive royalties, but those fees aren't prohibitive for netcasters.
Even better, IT'S EASY. Free Press has it set up so you can send off a letter to your Representatives in literally seconds. If you have the time, you should write your own message about why this is important to you. But if you're in a rush, they have a nice form letter that you can paste.
Seriously folks - don't let this shit die. I'm sure there would be Internet pirates in the wake of this but the bulk of Internet radio will go away. This affects not just net-only stations like Pandora or Launchcast, but terrestrial stations with web simulcasts as well. Like listening to your local public radio station at work? Enjoy checking out college stations from other states? Your time is limited unless this bill passes.
Here's the form from Free Press:
http://action.freepress.net/campaign/netradio
From a recent article on Alternet with Tim Westergren of Pandora.com:
Westergren: As a webcaster, we pay a performance royalty for every song that we stream. It’s a royalty that’s not paid by terrestrial broadcasters, and is paid at a much lower rate by satellite broadcasters. Until this ruling, the rate that we paid was 1.17 cents per listener-hour, which equates to about 0.076 cents per song streamed to each listener.
The new rates, which are retroactive to the beginning of 2006, are immediately higher than that. They go from 0.076 to 0.08 cents per song, and then they go up incrementally over the subsequent five years. And by the end, they’re at 0.19 cents per song. That’s close to a tripling.
Economically, these new rates will represent 70-80 percent of gross revenues for folks like us, as opposed to only about 25 percent today. So they make the business completely uneconomic. There’s nobody that can deliver an advertising-supported webcast at those levels, because advertisers won’t allow us to raise rates high enough to cover it.
When you consider that satellite radio providers pay between 5 and 7.5 percent of gross revenues for the same thing, it seems especially unreasonable.
Sinnreich: As of May 15, you’re going to owe higher royalties retroactively to January 2006, due in one lump sum. How big is that check going to be?
Westergren: I can’t tell you specifically, but the near-term impact is many millions of dollars.
This isn't some whiny liberal media scholar bullshit I'm handing you here, folks. These rates have passed, and go into effect on May 15.
So if you have any interest in listening to Internet radio after next tuesday, seriously - get off of your ass and urge your legislators via email, phone calls, letters, whatever - URGE them to pass the Internet Radio Equality Act drafted by Reps. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and Donald Manzullo (R-Ill.). The bill revokes the CRB's ruling, aiming to construct an alternate system wherein artists still receive royalties, but those fees aren't prohibitive for netcasters.
Even better, IT'S EASY. Free Press has it set up so you can send off a letter to your Representatives in literally seconds. If you have the time, you should write your own message about why this is important to you. But if you're in a rush, they have a nice form letter that you can paste.
Seriously folks - don't let this shit die. I'm sure there would be Internet pirates in the wake of this but the bulk of Internet radio will go away. This affects not just net-only stations like Pandora or Launchcast, but terrestrial stations with web simulcasts as well. Like listening to your local public radio station at work? Enjoy checking out college stations from other states? Your time is limited unless this bill passes.
Here's the form from Free Press:
http://action.freepress.net/campaign/netradio
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
IASPM 2007
Well, I'm back from the IASPM 2007 conference, or more accurately, music geekfest 2007. It was a great conference, if a bit draining. As this is a music blog, I thought I'd share some highlights of what I saw.
Perhaps the best panel I saw the entire weekend directly preceded my own.
-Wendy Hsu gave a great paper on Yoko Ono. Admittedly, this was the paper I was most looking forward to. When I first saw it listed in the program, I was nervous that we would be doing similar projects, but such was not the case at all. Wendy's paper focused on the role of gender and race in Yoko Ono's identity and her music, and did a great musicological analysis of "Kiss Kiss Kiss."
-David Brackett followed with a discussion of the unreleased Pennebacker documentary of Dylan's 1966 tour. Also very interesting. I could be wrong, but I think this is the documentary which includes footage of Lennon and Dylan riding around in a limo, wherein they have to pull over for one of them to puke. I didn't get a chance to ask. Brackett also looked very familiar to me for some reason.
-Keir Keightley spoke on Capitol's initial rejection(s) of the Beatles' music in the Americas. Lots of good history here, and he also set up some extremely interesting context by discussing the "Capitol of the World" series.
-Norma Coates had a very amusing presentation on John and Yoko's stint on the Mike Douglas show, which I hadn't seen footage of in years. I forgot what a weird (and cool) pop cultural moment that was.
My own panel was also really interesting.
-Richard Carlin drew on his personal history to discuss the Folkways Record label
-Cynthia Fuchs did a great presentation on Jay-Z's so-called retirement and comeback.
-Deborah Pacini had a very interesting discussion on Latin American music in the US, and the various ways in which it has been labeled and marketed over the years.
I was less consistent and hopped around on saturday. Some more highlights:
-Zarko Cvejic's presentation on Klaus Nomi. This is someone that I don't know much about, but Zarko showed some fascinating video clips on this very interesting figure from the late '70s/early '80s.
-Theo Cateforis delivered my favorite paper of the day on the current rash of 1980s nostalgia and the new wave revival. We heard about the rash of current bands appropriating the new wave aesthetic and even watched a bit of Devo 2.0, which I had hoped to never see again but was amused by nonetheless.
The last session I attended was a roundtable on VH1's White Rapper show. The roundtable format was perfect for this topic - everybody had really interesting comments and insights about this show which I've admittedly never seen.
All in all, an incredibly fun conference. I look forward to next year when it's in Iowa City and I don't have to travel for it.
----
While in Boston I also did some record shopping. Given that I'm going to Pittsburgh soon and will be hitting the vinyl mecca that is Jerry's Fine Used Records, I forced myself to show restraint. That said, I picked up some odds and ends in the 50 cent bins and kept my other purchases to things I've been looking for but haven't come across. These included:
-Madhouse 16
-Siouxsie and the BansheesJuJu
-Sweet - Desolation Boulevard
-Funkadelic - Uncle Jam
Speaking of which, has anybody used any of those record cleaning solutions? I've got a few discs that skip, but are unscratched. Wondering if this would rectify the problem.
That's all for now.
Perhaps the best panel I saw the entire weekend directly preceded my own.
-Wendy Hsu gave a great paper on Yoko Ono. Admittedly, this was the paper I was most looking forward to. When I first saw it listed in the program, I was nervous that we would be doing similar projects, but such was not the case at all. Wendy's paper focused on the role of gender and race in Yoko Ono's identity and her music, and did a great musicological analysis of "Kiss Kiss Kiss."
-David Brackett followed with a discussion of the unreleased Pennebacker documentary of Dylan's 1966 tour. Also very interesting. I could be wrong, but I think this is the documentary which includes footage of Lennon and Dylan riding around in a limo, wherein they have to pull over for one of them to puke. I didn't get a chance to ask. Brackett also looked very familiar to me for some reason.
-Keir Keightley spoke on Capitol's initial rejection(s) of the Beatles' music in the Americas. Lots of good history here, and he also set up some extremely interesting context by discussing the "Capitol of the World" series.
-Norma Coates had a very amusing presentation on John and Yoko's stint on the Mike Douglas show, which I hadn't seen footage of in years. I forgot what a weird (and cool) pop cultural moment that was.
My own panel was also really interesting.
-Richard Carlin drew on his personal history to discuss the Folkways Record label
-Cynthia Fuchs did a great presentation on Jay-Z's so-called retirement and comeback.
-Deborah Pacini had a very interesting discussion on Latin American music in the US, and the various ways in which it has been labeled and marketed over the years.
I was less consistent and hopped around on saturday. Some more highlights:
-Zarko Cvejic's presentation on Klaus Nomi. This is someone that I don't know much about, but Zarko showed some fascinating video clips on this very interesting figure from the late '70s/early '80s.
-Theo Cateforis delivered my favorite paper of the day on the current rash of 1980s nostalgia and the new wave revival. We heard about the rash of current bands appropriating the new wave aesthetic and even watched a bit of Devo 2.0, which I had hoped to never see again but was amused by nonetheless.
The last session I attended was a roundtable on VH1's White Rapper show. The roundtable format was perfect for this topic - everybody had really interesting comments and insights about this show which I've admittedly never seen.
All in all, an incredibly fun conference. I look forward to next year when it's in Iowa City and I don't have to travel for it.
----
While in Boston I also did some record shopping. Given that I'm going to Pittsburgh soon and will be hitting the vinyl mecca that is Jerry's Fine Used Records, I forced myself to show restraint. That said, I picked up some odds and ends in the 50 cent bins and kept my other purchases to things I've been looking for but haven't come across. These included:
-Madhouse 16
-Siouxsie and the BansheesJuJu
-Sweet - Desolation Boulevard
-Funkadelic - Uncle Jam
Speaking of which, has anybody used any of those record cleaning solutions? I've got a few discs that skip, but are unscratched. Wondering if this would rectify the problem.
That's all for now.
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