They Just (Look) a Little Weird
Cheap Trick was always one strange <I>looking</I> act. Never more so than in the late Seventies. And now folks, we have the film to prove it.
Robert Baird
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Recording of October 2008: Way to Normal
<B>BEN FOLDS: <I>Way to Normal</I></B><BR>
Epic 886970984928 (CD). 2008. Dennis Herring, prod., Joe Costa, eng. AAD? TT: 40:32<BR>
Performance ****½<BR>
Sonics ***
True Love
<I>All Together Now,</I> the DVD that details the making of <I>Love</I> the Beatles collaboration with Cirque du Soleil is coming out on October 21 and from the looks of the trailer it could be fun. I hear there are flashes of Yoko being a dragon lady (now there’s a shock), McCartney being a doofus of sorts (another revelation) and some great bits with George Martin which, all kidding aside, might make this worth the price. The subtitle in this trailer that says, “Yoko hates it,” is a classic.
Guitars and Digital Only
It’s been a Guitar Fest here in NYC lately. I’ve seen Bill Frisell (always superb), Kenny Burrell (a very rare pleasure because he hates to fly) and Mike Marino (with new Blue Note pianist Aaron Parks). Tonight is a tribute to Fender's Jazzmaster guitar headlined by Nels Cline, J. Mascis, Thurston Moore and Tom Verlaine. Must be frets in the water or something.
Recording of September 2008: Harps and Angels
<B>RANDY NEWMAN <I>Harps and Angels</I></B><BR>
Nonesuch 075597998931 (CD). 2008. Mitchell Froom, Lenny Waronker, prods.; David Boucher, eng. ADD. TT: 34:54<BR>
Performance <B>*****</B><BR>
Sonics <B>****</B>
Recording of September 2008: Harps and Angels
<B>RANDY NEWMAN <I>Harps and Angels</I></B><BR>
Nonesuch 075597998931 (CD). 2008. Mitchell Froom, Lenny Waronker, prods.; David Boucher, eng. ADD. TT: 34:54<BR>
Performance <B>*****</B><BR>
Sonics <B>****</B>
Wexler
It’s appropriate that I’d be listening to Irma Thomas’ new R&B record, <I>Simply Grand</I> when I heard that Jerry Wexler had died.
Fuck and Run
Calling anything “IMPORTANT,” particularly a record, often sucks the life out of it and dooms it to a kind of overly academic hell to be debated by talking heads and those that “were there.”
The Freewheelin'
<I>The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia</I>? Now in its second revised and updated printing? Does any one person, even a momentous artist who now seems determined to die on the stage (to steal a quote from the great <I>Midnight Cowboy</I>) really need or deserve their own encyclopedia?
Whole Lotta Sammy
These days I often have to stop myself and remember again that I need to write about music and not just the incredibly weird situation in which today's music business is both dying and rising from the ashes simultaneously.