My oldest kid is in the Peace Corps in South Africa and he texted me today to tell me some Zulu douche stole his Kindle and wallet. My kid was on the beach celebrating Christmas and the money in his wallet was money I gave him so he could afford the trip. Anyway, money can be replaced and I'm glad nobody got hurt.
On a slightly related but different subject, we also recently relocated from South Dakota to Pennsylvania and even though I've lived in a lot of big cities and spent a lot of time in New York City, Chicago, Altlanta and DC over the years I still am constantly amazed at the primal and antisocial behavior people sometimes exhibit. I grew up in Montana and lived in Western states for many of my years and am always taken by how much more civil and self-reliant folks are back there then they are here in the East. Always dangerous to generalize and stereotype, but the institutionalized, self-serving and just plain pissy attitudes are so pervasive around here that it can be almost suffocating at times. Why the hell can't people just lighten the hell up? I'm not the one who took a sh!t in your bowl of Wheaties, so don't take it out on me :-(
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Iced Ink - There's a Bee in Here
~~ originally posted December 15, 2011 at ProgArchives.com ~~
Well this is a bit of indie rock with some progressive influences that should be mildly interesting to fans of instrumental eclectic avant-garde music. Iced Ink are a band from the Twin Cities, Minnesota area who have formed, broken up and reformed several times over the past decade including stints in New York and the addition (after this release) of a transplanted Wisconsinite they ran into in Brooklyn.
Honestly the band's story and various inside jokes surrounding their song titles are more interesting than the music, although I do sort of admire their ability to blend ska, rock, a little punk and a touch of eighties skateboard music into something that resembles the Dead Milkmen trying to cover Zappa tunes with Explosions in the Sky backing them. There's an audio picture if you can imagine it.
The song titles are hilarious, as are some of the stories behind them which you can read about on the band's website and various blogs thanks to the investigative powers granted you by your browser and Google. For example, "The World According to a Drunken Trendy Asshole" is a raw drum-driven tribute to an audience member from one of their concerts who apparently informed the group that they "blew more than trumpets" (not a compliment for any non-native English speakers who might be wondering). And "Anorexiporn" is a suspiciously similar-sounding tune that includes some bent guitar riffs in memory of an email attachment "you just don't want to see". It seems these guys spent more time amusing themselves and each other while writing these songs than they did concentrating on producing anything of substance.
Still, the tracks are energetic and seemingly heartfelt if not stellar, and you have to admire a group that manages to keep trucking after a decade even though their 'career' story reads something like the Anvil movie. Long live rock and roll indeed!
"Buttons" off 'Actress' from the band's mySpace page
I like the theme of "Buy Me Toys" which is almost identical to Joe Jackson's 70s punk-pop power hit "I'm the Man"; and "Spin Cycle" that is dedicated to some chick who found love in the vibrations of her washing machine (I think I saw that in a made-for-TV movie way back when).
Nothing much in the line of progressive or even memorable music here, but a fun little album that's mildly amusing if you happen to run across it. Not likely given it was released on the largely unknown Painted Air label, but if you happen to be trolling around a used record store in a Northeastern U.S. college town like I was you just might catch a glimpse. If you do go ahead and fork out the $4 and amuse yourself for a few minutes. Two stars for me, maybe three for avant-garde or indie fans.
peace
Well this is a bit of indie rock with some progressive influences that should be mildly interesting to fans of instrumental eclectic avant-garde music. Iced Ink are a band from the Twin Cities, Minnesota area who have formed, broken up and reformed several times over the past decade including stints in New York and the addition (after this release) of a transplanted Wisconsinite they ran into in Brooklyn.
Honestly the band's story and various inside jokes surrounding their song titles are more interesting than the music, although I do sort of admire their ability to blend ska, rock, a little punk and a touch of eighties skateboard music into something that resembles the Dead Milkmen trying to cover Zappa tunes with Explosions in the Sky backing them. There's an audio picture if you can imagine it.
The song titles are hilarious, as are some of the stories behind them which you can read about on the band's website and various blogs thanks to the investigative powers granted you by your browser and Google. For example, "The World According to a Drunken Trendy Asshole" is a raw drum-driven tribute to an audience member from one of their concerts who apparently informed the group that they "blew more than trumpets" (not a compliment for any non-native English speakers who might be wondering). And "Anorexiporn" is a suspiciously similar-sounding tune that includes some bent guitar riffs in memory of an email attachment "you just don't want to see". It seems these guys spent more time amusing themselves and each other while writing these songs than they did concentrating on producing anything of substance.
Still, the tracks are energetic and seemingly heartfelt if not stellar, and you have to admire a group that manages to keep trucking after a decade even though their 'career' story reads something like the Anvil movie. Long live rock and roll indeed!
"Buttons" off 'Actress' from the band's mySpace page
I like the theme of "Buy Me Toys" which is almost identical to Joe Jackson's 70s punk-pop power hit "I'm the Man"; and "Spin Cycle" that is dedicated to some chick who found love in the vibrations of her washing machine (I think I saw that in a made-for-TV movie way back when).
Nothing much in the line of progressive or even memorable music here, but a fun little album that's mildly amusing if you happen to run across it. Not likely given it was released on the largely unknown Painted Air label, but if you happen to be trolling around a used record store in a Northeastern U.S. college town like I was you just might catch a glimpse. If you do go ahead and fork out the $4 and amuse yourself for a few minutes. Two stars for me, maybe three for avant-garde or indie fans.
peace
June Wallack
~~ originally posted July 21, 2011 at ProgArchives.com ~~
June Wallack shows great musical range on her lone solo album, even if only parts of it can be considered progressive or, at times, even rock. The multi-instrumental Canadian delivers all the vocals, flute, piano and except for the Billie Holiday cover "Don't Explain" also wrote pretty much all the music for this recording. It's a bit surprising that except for a handful of appearances on other people's albums she never recorded a full-length record again.
The opening "On est Rien qu'des amis Ici" gives the impression this will be a rather simple folk-rock affair with quite lovely French vocals, wispy flute, folksy, traditionally-oriented piano and not much else. Such is not the case though, as Wallack and company kick up a jazzy number with an almost funk rhythm next on "Pour qui qu'tu m'prends" then follow that with the meandering, spastic tempo-riddled "Mirage" that takes full advantage of the heavy and at times almost psychedelic electric guitar work of Michel Robidoux, himself an accomplished songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has recorded with a long list of French Canadian artists that for the most part I've personally never heard of, but then again I'm not at all familiar with much of the contemporary music from the Montreal and Quebec scenes.
Wallack shifts to a lounge act with Holiday's well-known cheatin' husband tune "Don't Explain" that combines a seductive vocal track with jazz-tinged classical piano arrangement in a variation that if nothing else at least beats the hell out of the recent Cat Power version.
The blend of jazz piano/rhythm and seventies progressive keyboard and vacillating tempo make the instrumental "Amalgame" the highlight of the album as far as I'm concerned, even though Wallack's notable vocals are missing save for some few wordless humming and background articulations. This is really an outstanding piece of music that should have ended up on a 'Best of' Canadian compilation record sometime over the past third of a century. There's still time for anyone reading this with a hankering to put out a record like that.
And Ms. Wallack isn't done yet as she slides gracefully into another lounge-lizard tune, the more upbeat "Je suis venue un Soir" (this one an original). Although she doesn't sing a lick of English anywhere on the album it's only on this song that I really care, as the lyrics sound quite intense. I've no idea really what she's singing but the title and general mood suggest the setting is romantic and an outcome that would inspire Rod Stewart.
"Sur la Colline" shifts the music back to a folksy ambience with acoustic guitar including string-bending picking at times that gives a bit of a rustic feel to the song. Ms. Wallack seems to have decided to throw in a nostalgic number either to balance the mood or simply to continue demonstrating her vocal and lyrical range.
And just when I thought this was a random collection of songs she ends with the laconic, peaceful and obviously introspective "Deja C'est L'Automne" with plunky keyboard tinkling evoking the coming of winter amid falling leaves (maple I'm sure) and the implied twilight of relationships and life phases. There's a tempo shift to a sort of theatrical vocal track and cheesy synthesizers mixed with rock power chords midway that doesn't make much sense to me, but eventually the band returns to the meadow-at-sunset motif where Ms. Wallack layers her own voice over itself in a two-party conversational arrangement that once again leads to me wondering what she's singing about, but only wondering a little. The lengthy fadeout makes this a much longer song than it really needed to be, but Wallack achieves the sense of ending and closure she obviously was going for with that arrangement.
"Mirage" from her mySpace page
I know almost nothing about the history of this record except that it is quite difficult to find today despite having been issued on a major label (RCA). Like I said June Wallack popped up on a couple other albums as a guest singer in the late seventies, but today she plies her trade as a voice-for-hire for businesses, events and even translation work. Not sure if she just decided to reign in the music ambitions or if something caused her to stop recording after this record, but it's too bad because she has quite a lovely voice and (assuming she did the work herself) the arrangements of these songs shows a considerable breadth of musical knowledge and competency.
While I'm not sure the total package quite rises to the level I normally consider to be four- star albums, it is an exceptional collection of music and one of those older albums every serious music fan always enjoys discovering from the distant past. For those reasons I'm going with four stars anyway, and a strong recommendation if you can find a copy.
peace
June Wallack on mySpace
June Wallack shows great musical range on her lone solo album, even if only parts of it can be considered progressive or, at times, even rock. The multi-instrumental Canadian delivers all the vocals, flute, piano and except for the Billie Holiday cover "Don't Explain" also wrote pretty much all the music for this recording. It's a bit surprising that except for a handful of appearances on other people's albums she never recorded a full-length record again.
The opening "On est Rien qu'des amis Ici" gives the impression this will be a rather simple folk-rock affair with quite lovely French vocals, wispy flute, folksy, traditionally-oriented piano and not much else. Such is not the case though, as Wallack and company kick up a jazzy number with an almost funk rhythm next on "Pour qui qu'tu m'prends" then follow that with the meandering, spastic tempo-riddled "Mirage" that takes full advantage of the heavy and at times almost psychedelic electric guitar work of Michel Robidoux, himself an accomplished songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has recorded with a long list of French Canadian artists that for the most part I've personally never heard of, but then again I'm not at all familiar with much of the contemporary music from the Montreal and Quebec scenes.
Wallack shifts to a lounge act with Holiday's well-known cheatin' husband tune "Don't Explain" that combines a seductive vocal track with jazz-tinged classical piano arrangement in a variation that if nothing else at least beats the hell out of the recent Cat Power version.
The blend of jazz piano/rhythm and seventies progressive keyboard and vacillating tempo make the instrumental "Amalgame" the highlight of the album as far as I'm concerned, even though Wallack's notable vocals are missing save for some few wordless humming and background articulations. This is really an outstanding piece of music that should have ended up on a 'Best of' Canadian compilation record sometime over the past third of a century. There's still time for anyone reading this with a hankering to put out a record like that.
And Ms. Wallack isn't done yet as she slides gracefully into another lounge-lizard tune, the more upbeat "Je suis venue un Soir" (this one an original). Although she doesn't sing a lick of English anywhere on the album it's only on this song that I really care, as the lyrics sound quite intense. I've no idea really what she's singing but the title and general mood suggest the setting is romantic and an outcome that would inspire Rod Stewart.
"Sur la Colline" shifts the music back to a folksy ambience with acoustic guitar including string-bending picking at times that gives a bit of a rustic feel to the song. Ms. Wallack seems to have decided to throw in a nostalgic number either to balance the mood or simply to continue demonstrating her vocal and lyrical range.
And just when I thought this was a random collection of songs she ends with the laconic, peaceful and obviously introspective "Deja C'est L'Automne" with plunky keyboard tinkling evoking the coming of winter amid falling leaves (maple I'm sure) and the implied twilight of relationships and life phases. There's a tempo shift to a sort of theatrical vocal track and cheesy synthesizers mixed with rock power chords midway that doesn't make much sense to me, but eventually the band returns to the meadow-at-sunset motif where Ms. Wallack layers her own voice over itself in a two-party conversational arrangement that once again leads to me wondering what she's singing about, but only wondering a little. The lengthy fadeout makes this a much longer song than it really needed to be, but Wallack achieves the sense of ending and closure she obviously was going for with that arrangement.
"Mirage" from her mySpace page
I know almost nothing about the history of this record except that it is quite difficult to find today despite having been issued on a major label (RCA). Like I said June Wallack popped up on a couple other albums as a guest singer in the late seventies, but today she plies her trade as a voice-for-hire for businesses, events and even translation work. Not sure if she just decided to reign in the music ambitions or if something caused her to stop recording after this record, but it's too bad because she has quite a lovely voice and (assuming she did the work herself) the arrangements of these songs shows a considerable breadth of musical knowledge and competency.
While I'm not sure the total package quite rises to the level I normally consider to be four- star albums, it is an exceptional collection of music and one of those older albums every serious music fan always enjoys discovering from the distant past. For those reasons I'm going with four stars anyway, and a strong recommendation if you can find a copy.
peace
June Wallack on mySpace
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Triumph - Just a Game
Every once and a while I have to take time out to bash my favorite hair-band whipping boys....
~~ Originally posted August 2, 2007 at ProgArchives.com ~~
I was spreading manure over my rose bushes this evening and it occurred to me that I hadn’t played any Triumph albums in quite some time. Well the mood seemed right, so off I went to the den to fish out something suitable to the occasion. And nestled back in the stacks just behind a couple of Butthole Surfers records and the stylish Keith Carradine ‘I’m Easy’ album I found this thing. Imagine my surprise it survived the Shaun of the Dead skeet-shoot my brother and I had last summer! And the goofy proto- Guitar Hero band board game on the inside fold was an added bonus I had forgotten about. My kids were so not impressed when I asked if they wanted to play it. Oh well.
This is the record that did two things, one for the band and one for me personally. On the band front the release of “Lay it on the Line” and “Hold On” gave them their first American hit singles. For me the album supplied some of the best lyrical arguments for Triumph being the most chauvinistic, juvenile, and shallow trio of Canadians I’ve ever laid eyes on. And yes – unfortunately I did see them live in the seventies. Then again, I also saw their countrymen April Wine and Loverboy (three times), so it’s clear my bar for acceptable entertainment was hovering pretty close to the ground in those days. For the record I’d rate April Wine as the overall least-sucky of the bunch. But I digress.
The best of the best? Here we go:
“Are you sure I'm the heartless one woman, after all we've been through? I gave you the best of my love, my sweet hoochie- koo”;
“Don't waste my time - lay it on the line; you got no right to make me wait - we better talk, girl, before it gets too late”;
“I'm talking about American girls, they got what I need; American girls, that's what I want - American girls”;
Inspiring stuff. I really am at a loss to understand why Fish didn’t cover a few of these classics. Or even Wishbone Ash during their ‘Twin Barrels Burning’ days. Wasted opportunities. (Editor's note: this review originally appeared on ProgArchives.com, a serious progressive rock site. "Fish" here refers to the former lead singer of the neo-progressive band Marillion, while the reference to Wishbone Ash can be appreciated by hardcore prog fans who will never accept the Ash as a legitimate prog band mostly thanks to some of their later decidely non-progressive work such as 'Twin Barrels Burning'. Hopefully the context helps derive some sense from this paragraph).
Really there’s nothing much to say about this album that can’t be said of most of the rest of the tripe Triumph put out in the seventies. Shallow, loud, two-chord pseudo white-boy blues with plenty of spandex, hair extensions, well-placed cucumbers, and as always Rik Emmett’s just-raped-a-cat vocals. To be fair though, Emmett manages to push out the worst first on “Movin’ On” with his unique brand of scorched-earth lyrical mangling. After that he actually seems to come to the realization that he’s both out of tune and well beyond his octave range most of the time and reigns things in vocal-wise until almost the end where the title track proves to be too much temptation and he strangles a few more small critters in the name of art. I have say to his vocal performance on the instrumental “Fantasy Serenade” is one of his finest efforts of that decade though.
For some reason the band felt the need to enlist some help in the vocal department; maybe they actually listened to Emmett’s reference tracks early enough in the process to realize that an auditory masking agent was in order. Whatever. Vocal-Coach-To- The-Stars™ Elaine Overholt, Leigh-Ashford (who?) guitarist Gord Waszek, Anne Murray sidekick Colina Phillips and somebody named Clint Ryan from something called Spuff all lend their vocal chords, but nobody bothered to turn off Emmett’s mike so really it’s no use. At least the boys showed some patriotic spirit by only surrounding themselves with fellow Canucks. Or maybe it’s just that the Labour department didn’t buy the ‘artistic value’ rationale for the work visa applications of American or British session musicians. Whichever.
Well, I have my fix of these guys for another year or so. Apparently I need to go scrape fungus out of the rain gutters before bedtime, so its time to switch out Triumph for some appropriate accompaniment for that task. Some Ratt maybe.
Anyway – peace
~~ Originally posted August 2, 2007 at ProgArchives.com ~~
I was spreading manure over my rose bushes this evening and it occurred to me that I hadn’t played any Triumph albums in quite some time. Well the mood seemed right, so off I went to the den to fish out something suitable to the occasion. And nestled back in the stacks just behind a couple of Butthole Surfers records and the stylish Keith Carradine ‘I’m Easy’ album I found this thing. Imagine my surprise it survived the Shaun of the Dead skeet-shoot my brother and I had last summer! And the goofy proto- Guitar Hero band board game on the inside fold was an added bonus I had forgotten about. My kids were so not impressed when I asked if they wanted to play it. Oh well.
This is the record that did two things, one for the band and one for me personally. On the band front the release of “Lay it on the Line” and “Hold On” gave them their first American hit singles. For me the album supplied some of the best lyrical arguments for Triumph being the most chauvinistic, juvenile, and shallow trio of Canadians I’ve ever laid eyes on. And yes – unfortunately I did see them live in the seventies. Then again, I also saw their countrymen April Wine and Loverboy (three times), so it’s clear my bar for acceptable entertainment was hovering pretty close to the ground in those days. For the record I’d rate April Wine as the overall least-sucky of the bunch. But I digress.
The best of the best? Here we go:
“Are you sure I'm the heartless one woman, after all we've been through? I gave you the best of my love, my sweet hoochie- koo”;
“Don't waste my time - lay it on the line; you got no right to make me wait - we better talk, girl, before it gets too late”;
“I'm talking about American girls, they got what I need; American girls, that's what I want - American girls”;
Inspiring stuff. I really am at a loss to understand why Fish didn’t cover a few of these classics. Or even Wishbone Ash during their ‘Twin Barrels Burning’ days. Wasted opportunities. (Editor's note: this review originally appeared on ProgArchives.com, a serious progressive rock site. "Fish" here refers to the former lead singer of the neo-progressive band Marillion, while the reference to Wishbone Ash can be appreciated by hardcore prog fans who will never accept the Ash as a legitimate prog band mostly thanks to some of their later decidely non-progressive work such as 'Twin Barrels Burning'. Hopefully the context helps derive some sense from this paragraph).
Really there’s nothing much to say about this album that can’t be said of most of the rest of the tripe Triumph put out in the seventies. Shallow, loud, two-chord pseudo white-boy blues with plenty of spandex, hair extensions, well-placed cucumbers, and as always Rik Emmett’s just-raped-a-cat vocals. To be fair though, Emmett manages to push out the worst first on “Movin’ On” with his unique brand of scorched-earth lyrical mangling. After that he actually seems to come to the realization that he’s both out of tune and well beyond his octave range most of the time and reigns things in vocal-wise until almost the end where the title track proves to be too much temptation and he strangles a few more small critters in the name of art. I have say to his vocal performance on the instrumental “Fantasy Serenade” is one of his finest efforts of that decade though.
For some reason the band felt the need to enlist some help in the vocal department; maybe they actually listened to Emmett’s reference tracks early enough in the process to realize that an auditory masking agent was in order. Whatever. Vocal-Coach-To- The-Stars™ Elaine Overholt, Leigh-Ashford (who?) guitarist Gord Waszek, Anne Murray sidekick Colina Phillips and somebody named Clint Ryan from something called Spuff all lend their vocal chords, but nobody bothered to turn off Emmett’s mike so really it’s no use. At least the boys showed some patriotic spirit by only surrounding themselves with fellow Canucks. Or maybe it’s just that the Labour department didn’t buy the ‘artistic value’ rationale for the work visa applications of American or British session musicians. Whichever.
Well, I have my fix of these guys for another year or so. Apparently I need to go scrape fungus out of the rain gutters before bedtime, so its time to switch out Triumph for some appropriate accompaniment for that task. Some Ratt maybe.
Anyway – peace
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