Tastes like chicken

How to turn your stomach...toward something better? The more innocuously shapeless a chunk of flesh looks on your plate, the more disgusting it probably is once you get to know it. Better to not be so squeamish and face your naked lunch honestly, perhaps.

Arthur Lee: the wilderness years

Felt like posting some rare Arthur Lee footage, and found these two performances from 1990, well after the dying days of the original run of Love lineups, but still before his highly suspicious arrest and jail term, and his subsequent glorious 21st century revival, sudden decline and exit from this plane. This was a time when Arthur was ignored, taken for granted and thought of as a has-been, knocking around L.A. clubs with various pickup bands. His astounding voice, wryly witty lyrics, and total commitment to self-expression never faltered, even in these dark days.

One of his greatest solo songs: "Everybody's gotta live/and everybody's gonna die!" If rock and roll is an art form that finds the most stunning and illuminating ways to speak the most obvious truths, this song is one of the best examples.



This song is new to me. "Somebody's Watching You": not the Sly Stone song, but equally paranoid. Hard-living African-American hippie geniuses do have to keep looking over their shoulders, after all.



I'm not really certain what Lee's spiritual beliefs were, but the final punchline, "God is watching you" does not sound the least bit comforting here, which is part of what makes this song is so appealing, I think. A very complex guy, Arthur Lee. We miss him.

Here comes the argument

I used to get caught up in this kind of discussion all the time. Brilliantly rendered.

Number 3!

"Mark Time", a track by X-tal, from the Ear Candle retrospective album, Who Owns Our Dreams?, has just leaped to the number 3 spot on the charts on North Fork Sound. North Fork Sound is an excellent online radio station run by our old acquaintance Howard Thompson. Thanks for playing our music, Howard!

The lights and the sound

A nice clip of Alan Vega's visual art retrospective in Lyon, France. Belated congratulations to the great man for getting recognition for his work.



Plus, a snippet of a great, passionate improv version of "Cherie" at Hurrah in 1980.



These clips and many, many more can be found on the Live-at-Hurrah video archive. What an incredible time capsule of New York. Check it out.

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20, August 2010

Oh, what a month.

Hip-hop academic DJ Spooky recently supervised an ear-tickling mix of reggae gems from the Trojan label to celebrate their anniversary and a particular highlight of that collection tops our charts: An a capella mix of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer harmonizing sweetly and spookily on the eerie Lee Scratch Perry collaboration "Mr. Brown". Is Mr. Brown controlled by remote? Calling Duppy Conqueror!

There's a new album by 90s New York indie stalwarts Versus; it's loud, brash and tuneful, and we picked one of bassist Fontaine Toups' featured numbers for the station, where it has already shot up to the number two spot. Behind that we have the spiritual Celtic drone of the Incredible String Band, the harsh, dubby post-punk protest of World Domination Enterprises, an exquisite jewel from the Tall Dwarfs (keep sending your love to Chris Knox!), exuberant catchy gibberish from the Plugz, a brief burst from the Minutemen with more ideas than most bands muster on an entire album, a track from one of our favorite dub albums ever courtesy of the late great Mikey Dread, and an incendiary love song from the mighty Flesh Eaters.

An exciting new Portland band, Explode Into Colors, bring forth rhythms that pin you against the wall in a track from the bonus CD of an issue of Yeti, which if you don't know what it is, you should: it's a nice, thick bound book/fanzine courtesy of Mike McGonigal, former editor of Chemical Imbalance, ably assisted by Steve Connell of Puncture and Verse Chorus press fame. They've got a new issue out; get it!

Behind that, there's Centry And The Music Family with their heavy dub version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit", the Bonzos with Vivian Stanshall's first installment of the mad soap opera he would keep coming back to for the rest of his life, X-tal caught improvising at a practice and stumbling on something gorgeous, the Skatalites stretching out (heavy dub content on this chart; the summer sun must be affecting our listeners!), the Poison Girls at their caustic best (no one else will ever rhyme "Ethiopia" and "utopia" with as much bitter, ironic truth), the Conspiracy Of Beards winning the ladies' hearts and teaching the men to be gentlemen in New York last year, Van Morrison gasping through a bad case of survivor's guilt at the dawn of his solo career in the 60s, Jefferson Airplane lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen offering a breathtaking melancholy folk ballad that shows he's more than a mere jammer, the Zombies giving voice to the optimism we struggle to maintain against all odds (as in fact they were themselves at the time), and dear Yoko, supported by an all-star, mostly-Japanese Plastic Ono Band, reminding us how to love.

This station is a tonic for its creators and a gift to our listeners. Listen, vote on the songs you hear, and give us your feedback!

1. The Wailers - Mr. Brown (DJ Spooky remix) - Creation Rebel
2. Versus - Into Blue - On the Ones and Threes
3. Incredible String Band - The Circle Is Unbroken - The Big Huge
4. World Domination Enterprises - Asbestos Lead Asbestos (Heavy Pollution Mix) - Love from the Lead City
5. Tall Dwarfs - Open Wide Your Pretty Mouths - The Sky Above, The Mud Below
6. The Plugz - Wordless - Electrify Me
7. Minutemen - Straight Jacket - The Punch Line
8. Mikey Dread - Fast Forward Dub - At The Control Dubwise
9. The Flesh Eaters - Tightrope On Fire - Forever Came Today
10. Explode Into Colors - Paper (Hot Sax Version) - Yeti 7
11. Centry Meets The Music Family - Release The Chains - Dub Revolution
12. Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - Rawlinson End - Let's Make Up and Be Friendly
13. X-tal - Slow Fidelity - Who Owns Our Dreams
14. The Skatalites - Middle East Dub - Skatalites Meet King Tubby
15. Poison Girls - Price Of Grain - Poisonous
16. Conspiracy of Beards - Lady Midnight - Live at Highline Ballroom, NYC
17. Van Morrison - T.B. Sheets - T.B. Sheets
18. Jorma Kaukonen - Genesis - Quah
19. The Zombies - This Will Be Our Year - Odessey and Oracle
20. Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band - Calling - Between My Head And The Sky

As usual, the Onion nails it

Waiting For The Miracle

Something stupid came on TV yesterday. Here's the best quote from this witness:

It’s not, of course, that I wish to downplay the most World-Historical Significantest event in the history of doughy insane cable television lunatic hucksters yelping soppy tedious halfwit whiny bullshit to morons. Gosh no. It was as momentously momentous and miraculously marvelous as advertised, I’m sure. But I had other, better things to do, like sort socks and check to see if the paint was drying properly.

Well, OK, not so much a witness, maybe.

Being morbidly curious, we did watch some of it. The gist seemed to be that God is good, Martin Luther King was good but his legacy has been hijacked by people who just talk about racism all the time and aren't even white, we are threatened by some horrific vague threat that threatens us, and while we're full of love and goodwill, you'd better get off America's lawn. Davis was wondering what sort of elaborately staged "miracle" was going to occur, but the only miracle turned out to be the lovely new suit the emperor was wearing, which can only be seen by the people that count. Perhaps the miracle was the way the hate speech was kept on the down-low this time around.

I do remember the anti-war demonstrations of 2003, which drew millions across the country and around the world, but somehow were just not newsworthy enough to rate a place on our teevees, unlike yesterday's Burning Man For Dummies event. Must be that liberal media bias again.

UPDATE: The very thoughtful and valuable Mahablog offers an analysis with a little less snark and a little more wisdom, as usual.

SON OF UPDATE: The inimitable Doghouse Riley volunteers some very badly needed perspective.

Arsebook

I have recently been hit with a misdemeanor charge for "Failure To Blog" by the authorities. My alibi: Facebook has eaten my brain. Will resume regular posting as the novelty wears off.

Sort of on topic: the Club Mekon mailing list is putting together their second Mekons tribute compilation. (The first, I Have Been To Harehills And Back, included the first release of the Content Providers' take on "Sometimes I Feel Like Fletcher Christian") In a tribute to the aforementioned brain-eating, time-sucking social media website, our ever-waggish UK comrades on the list have given the upcoming compilation the title ARSEBOOK. All potential proceeds will go to Amnesty International, who can always use more support for their good work. The Granite Countertops will contribute a cover of "Hard To Be Human" that will surprise you.

In other Ear Candle news, our former housemate and Content Providers lead guitarist Glenn Stevens visited from Qatar with his wife and two-year-old daughter and by the time they left, we had the seeds of five more new Experimental Bunnies tracks. Some of these should show up on the new album, due by the end of this year. We are busy!

We've finally found the perfect theremin player for the Experimental Bunnies!

I can haz good vibrashunz?

As long as these corporate shenanigans continue to occur, it's better to buy your cheap underwear somewhere else

Civil disobedience through silly show tunes! Now that oversized puppets are becoming played out, there is a new demo frontier to be explored.

Two hot chicks debate the existence of God and the value of secular humanism

This video is 100% guaranteed to pass the Bechdel test.



(Music: "We're Only Lost When We Stop Exploring" by the Experimental Bunnies and "Neroli" by Brian Eno, both playing at the same time.)

Once again, the Rude Pundit says what we're thinking, only more rudely

"We're supposed to be grateful that bills with the names of items on the left-wing agenda got passed. Look at this big-ass new law. It says, "Health care." Ain't that cool?"

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20: July 2010

1. Leonard Cohen - One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong - Songs of Leonard Cohen
2. Kaki King - Kewpie Station - Everybody Loves You
3. The Controllers - Electric Church - Tooth And Nail Comp.
4. Society of Rockets - Try Now Why Not - Future Factory
5. Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 - Crystal Illusions - Crystal Illusions
6. Killdozer - The Pig Was Cool - Uncompromising War on Art Under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat
7. Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band - Turkeys - Let's Make Up And Be Friendly
8. X - See How We Are - See How We Are
9. The Soft Machine - Love Makes Sweet Music - Out-Bloody-Rageous - An Anthology: 1967-1973
10. The Who - Dogs - 30 Years Of Maximum R&B
11. CAN - Yoo Doo Right - Monster Movie
12. King Tommy's Velvet Runway - Black Treacle Oil - Dance On The Volcano
13. Ken Nordine - Reaching into In - The Best of Word Jazz, Vol. 1
14. Gil Scott-Heron - ...And Then He Wrote Meditations - Free Will
15. Sandie Shaw - Hand In Glove - Hand in Glove 12"
16. Vivian Stanshall - Strange Tongues - Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead
17. Russell Kirk - Novus - Black & White
18. Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard - Mini-Theme: Moocher From The Future - 'Em Are I
19. Consider The Source - Patterns - Esperanto
20. Arthur Lee - Everybody's Gotta Live - Vindicator

Bardot Hotel by Rob K: Best Rolling Stones song in 38 years

So I believed the hype, or was at least curious enough to check it out for myself. I bought the mid-priced version of the remastered Exile On Main Street, the one with the second disc of "unreleased outtakes", because it happens to be one of the most kickass/murky/richly atmospheric rock & roll albums ever made, as well as the last time the Rolling Stones put out something that was more about depth than gesture. I figured that there was a chance that there might be some more goodies in that well.

Reality: some decent groove-oriented tracks, some blah early versions of songs that were much better after they were finished, and several Frankenstein monsters where Jagger takes an old backing track, writes lyrics, overdubs vocals, and mixes said vocals ridiculously loud just to please his own ego. (When you have the kind of voice that sounds best when it's buried underneath a pile of loud guitars, that's hardly an effective strategy or a good listening experience.)

I see a clear agenda coming from rock's most famous London School Of Economics graduate: after decades of mediocrity, people may still love to go to Rolling Stones shows, but nobody cares about new Rolling Stones albums. However, if you shove some new songs onto a deluxe edition of one of your old, beloved classics, you might get more of a reception just because of the context. And some of the new/old songs aren't half bad, but they simply don't belong on the same street as Exile.

Which is a rather roundabout way of introducing another really cool video we shot a while back:

Here's my idea of what a good Exile On Main Street outtake would sound like. Rob K, Mark Abramson, Mary Kelley, and Debbie Hopkins serve up the most sensuously dirty, swampy, sexy midtempo groove imaginable while Rob delivers another hilarious, mystical, profane tall tale. The spirit of Keith is all over this one in the best possible way.

Fooled you twice, shame on who?

Oh surprise, surprise. The whole "Shirley Sherrod hates white people" scandal turns out to be a complete lie. Who would have thought that the very same guy who instigated the defunding of ACORN through laughably edited video footage would do it again, after seeing how spineless the Democrats are when an alpha bully picks on them? At least some people are paying attention.

Which is worse: a "traditional values" party run by nihilistic sociopaths who would gleefully destroy the entire planet to put a little extra change in their pockets, or a supposedly "progressive" party who consistently rolls over and plays dead because they're scared of what Fox News might say? I wish Obama was even one tenth the left-wing radical the wingnuts are convinced he is. We'd all be a lot better off.

Shirley Sherrod should be rehired and given a public apology. Andrew Breitbart should be sued for defamation of character. See how simple this is? Oh, and by the way, why didn't the Obama administration declare a state of emergency and start issuing executive orders when this BP oil spill happened, instead of letting some Bush-appointed judge keep him from placing a moratorium on the kind of risky deep-water drilling that is destroying the Gulf Of Mexico, especially after the oil companies have proven themselves incapable of and uninterested in taking responsibility when something goes wrong? Or does the "unitary executive" status he inherited from his predecessor only apply to continuing the Bush policies of secrecy, torture, war, illegal imprisonment, etc. After all, he wouldn't want Glenn Beck to call him a dictator, would he? Damn it Barack, we really want to support you; why do you pull this wimpy crap?

UPDATE: The White House shows some class after all. Lesson learned?

FURTHER UPDATE: Wow, this really is becoming a massive story now. The mainstream media are desperately wiping the egg off their faces. The MSNBC liberal media ghetto is having a field day with this, and they should. Olbermann reminded us again tonight what a pleasure it is to watch him when he's really pissed off. Again I have to ask: is our Democrats learning? All this stuff is sort of insider politics, but it's a very important indicator of whether America is capable of governing itself.

Time to quote some Richard Hell:

Look out liars and you highlife scum
who gotta keep your victims poor and dumb--
Your motives and your methods are not disguised
by your silk, soap, sex, or your smiling lies.

Look out here
you pompous jerk
Look out here
I go berserk...

You were sixty-five when you wiggled out--
your mind all twisted and your mom all shout.
I'm a man with his share of excess nice
but it can't be spared for drooling lice.

Of course, The Granite Countertops have a song that comes to mind in this event too:

And they say: “We create reality!
What we declare will be
We are the masters and we make the decrees
For the good of all…and that means us.”

Stop handing power over to these hacks already. People in the business of deliberate disinformation are not to be trusted, especially when the issue involves an innocent person's career. You'd think this crew of allegedly shrewd political operators would have a clue about this. How will they react the next time the slander circus comes to town? It won't take us long to find out.
(Graphic stolen from the ever-brilliant Watertiger, with thanks.)

Old enough to repaint, but young enough to sell

Yes, I know the correct lyric is "repay", but that doesn't make a lick of sense. The above is the way I always heard it since the record first came out, which I totally understood: old enough that you could arguably use a fresh coat of paint, but still young enough that people are interested in what you have to offer. That's 60-something Neil Young in a nutshell. Hey, he's still young enough to sell us two unbelievably expensive tickets to see his solo show at Oakland's Fox Theater on July 12.

Do I regret it? Naaaahhh. I never saw Neil Young before, though I've liked his records since I was a tad. In between, he's had his ups and downs, the worst of which may have been his bizarre brain fart of outspoken Republicanism in the 80s (which I'll forgive; a great many "classic-rock" artists became unbelievably useless in the post-punk years, but a lot of them got over it later in fine style, Neil included).

But the first decade of the 21st century has been an interesting one for Young. The fascinating biography Shakey by Jimmy McDonough paints a portrait of a passive-aggressive guy who's burnt many of his bridges, lost his essential producer/collaborator David Briggs, and didn't look likely to contribute anything new and important in the future. What happens after the book comes out? Neil Young releases Greendale, a sweet, eccentric, moving, heartfelt multimedia piece (album, movie, performance, and soon-to-be comic book) that revived the socially conscious (especially when it comes to the environment) side of his art. And who's that playing Grandpa in the movie? None other than Ben Keith, the wonderful pedal steel guitarist who McDonough portrayed as having been so let down by Neil that he would never work with him again. Goes to show that life is a process, and while we may be caught up in our grievances in any given moment, tomorrow may bring new opportunities, new revelations, and new priorities.

Later in the decade, Neil puts out a very blunt album of protest songs called Living With War, coerces Crosby, Stills, and Nash into a tour where they are required to delve into their most confrontational anti-war songs and bring them to venues that aren't ready to greet them with warm nostalgia, and makes a film about the whole thing. Clearly, old age has brought out the fire in this guy, and resting on his laurels is the last thing on his mind. I haven't heard the much-maligned album Fork In The Road, which was apparently a whole album about how we need to switch to electric cars, but I guarantee that, like everything this guy does, there have to be at least two songs that are as good as his intentions. Because that's how Neil Young rolls.

This year, it's all about the "Twisted Road" tour: solo shows, mostly electric, lots of new songs. Fans have been moaning that he's been using the same set list every night, to which I say, WHO ON EARTH can afford to go to more than one, maybe two, of these gigs? If it's got to be this expensive, I appreciate that he's thought very hard about his program and what he wants to put across, and he's not just winging it.

Bert Jansch, a legend in his own right, opened the show. Sensuous acoustic guitar, purring vocals, thick accent I could barely understand, the music went down like a hot toddy. I would have liked it if people had talked less during his set. He was personable and enthusiastic, and his music was sublime.

Neil Young got down to business, starting with some oldies like "My My, Hey Hey" and (as quoted up above) "Tell Me Why". He tended to favor songs from the early 70s, especially from After The Gold Rush, but the real point of the show seemed to be the eight unrecorded (I'd say "new", but some of them apparently go back a while) songs. Every single one of these was striking.

I noticed the big difference between old Neil Young songs and new ones; in the 60s and 70s, his lyrics were primal, subconscious and random, like mad non sequitur fever dreams that evoked strange emotions but never added up to anything logical. The songs were wide-eyed, delirious, enigmatic, sometimes downright insane. Can you tell me what is going on in "Down By The River"? Do you even want to know?

The new songs are nothing of the sort. They are as strikingly direct as the old ones are strikingly mysterious. Neil Young is taking you aside, confiding in you, cracking jokes, and telling you exactly what's on his mind. And he's got a lot of interesting things to say, whether he's reflecting on a deceased friend, the themes of his own writing over the years and what more can be said about "Love And War", or a very straightforward cataloging of his drug experiences and how they made sense at the time and how he moved on. Once a poet, now a storyteller. If he doesn't change his fickle mind and goes ahead and records this batch of great new songs, this could be the best new Neil Young album in quite a while.

You have to acknowledge this guy for the stubborn bastard he is. He will not budge an inch from where he thinks his muse is leading him at any given moment. At the same time, he will change direction on a dime and leave everyone around him high and dry if his intuition tells him that's what he must do. I'm sure it makes him hard to work with, but if you read between the lines in Shakey, what makes this artist tick is so obvious even his biographer misses it: not only is Neil Young an intense, curious, creative person, but he is also an epileptic. When he was younger, playing with Buffalo Springfield and CSNY, he was plagued with horrible seizures, often while he was onstage. It makes sense that rather than going the way of Ian Curtis, he decided long ago when he had achieved a certain level of success that he was not going to subject his nervous system to any stress by doing anything other than what is fulfilling him at this exact moment. This is how he functions. The rest of us either like what he's doing or we don't, but we don't have a say in what that is. We can only choose whether or not we want to witness his process. He's certainly done his part by keeping things interesting most of the time. Long may he run.

R.I.P. Sugar Minott

In the early 80s, my late girlfriend Maati started working with Karen Lippmann, who did a radio show on KALX in Berkeley under the nom de dub of Jah Light, to promote local reggae shows at The Stone on Broadway. The first one was a stop on a tour that combined the talents of the legendary veteran reggae organist Jackie Mittoo with an up-and-coming roots/lover's rock artist named Sugar Minott. At the time, I was playing a lot with my roommate Alan Korn under the tentative band name PDR, which eventually evolved into X-tal. At this time, though, we are talking about a 2-track reel-to-reel and two guys who can't find a drummer but have a few ideas. Nothing special.

It so happens that Alan was a BIG fan of Sugar, especially his Lover's Rock showcase album, whose title song was pretty incredible, a gluey groove featuring a huge, warm blaring trumpet and Sugar's sweet, heartfelt croon. Somehow, due to Maati's instigation, Alan ended up driving Sugar and Jackie around San Francisco in his VW bug. He dared to play the visiting musicians a cassette of one of our early demos, a dub-flavored song I wrote about the Mission District called "Party In The Street" which you have never heard because...well, actually, it wasn't all that great, to tell the truth. BUT we had done a good recording with melodica and percussion overdubs. Apparently, Jackie listened and commented, "This sounds like the Clash!" A short while later, he added, "No! Better than the Clash!" which was certainly encouraging at the time.

Later, Maati gave the guys a ride in our trashed Plymouth Valiant station wagon, an oil and brake fluid-leaking monstrosity which we had just bought from Karen Jah Light for $100. Sugar and Jackie couldn't help making comparisons: "Didn't like that other cyaar. Now, THIS a good cyaar, mon!"

Anyhow, it was an incredible show all those years ago. Sugar went on to put out an intimidatingly large catalog of records, including the obscure but magnificent "Buy Off The Bar", (a real favorite in our Rough Trade days), "Four Wheel Wheelie", and the rootsy "Wicked A Go Feel It". I remember him as a nice, down-to-earth, sincere guy with a golden voice. Unlike some of his contemporaries like Gregory Isaacs, he wasn't particularly cool, suave, or sexy, just a regular dude from Trenchtown who sang like a dream.

Maati and Jackie left this plane years ago, and Sugar just followed in their footsteps this weekend. Thanks for the memories.

Painting The Devil's Office

You really need to acquaint yourselves with the brilliance of Rob K. Here is another song we shot at An Undisclosed Location from his in-progress song cycle about purgatory.

The introductory rap is priceless. "Life hands you lemons so you...commit a terrorist act." Yeah, this is how a LOT of people are feeling right now, is it not? This is an awesome song about the drudgery of labor and the inequalities of power. Again, Rob is ably supported by Mary and Debbie of the Contractions, along with his longtime crony, Mark Abramson. Rob is probably best known as the frontman of New York City's Workdogs, but his recent work isn't getting as much attention as it ought to. Here's a taste.

Now if he can just finish that new album. (Which may or may not include a sample from the Experimental Bunnies, by the way...)

Fool's Gold at the Mezzanine

Fool's Gold are a unique band from Los Angeles who combine many diverse strains of (mostly) African music, from the desert blues of Tinariwen to traces of Zimbabwean Chimurenga or Ethiopian sounds, with lyrics in various languages, primarily Hebrew. A real American band.

We shot this at the Mezzanine in San Francisco on May 26, 2009 when Fool's Gold opened for Sila & The Afro-Funk Experience, along with Diego's Umbrella. Enjoy.

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20: June 2010

Another month, another top 20. Another rare bootlegged outtake from the Stones' psychedelic period tops the chart; this time it's a mad Moroccan-Indian jam that shows they kept going long after the final edit that appears on Their Satanic Majesties Request. One of the interesting things about these session tapes is how noticeably in charge Keith Richards actually was during this project. No matter how trippy and exotic the results end up, each song is built on some snarly, droney, syncopated Keith riff, every bit as much as the songs on Exile On Main Street. Exhaustive, revelatory, and tedious by turns, The Satanic Sessions is an intriguing fly-on-the-wall document and a correction of revisionist rock history.

One of the Ramones' most exhilarating cover versions; drones, echoes, and affirmations from Yoko Ono; an eerie, mysterious Fall track from the 80s; David Bowie's best song from the 90s (just in time for the 4th of July!); an underrated, mellotron-flavored Kinks classic for cat lovers; Neo's favorite cover of "Hallelujah" (of course, he's a little biased since these are his boys!); the Minutemen's incomparable opening shot from their masterpiece Double Nickels On The Dime; a beautifully catchy and scathing a capella cover of a 19th century protest against the garment industry courtesy of Chumbawamba; expansive, spiritual, psychedelic jazz from Alice Coltrane and Pharaoh Sanders; an obscure, evocative grumble from Vivian Stanshall's rare solo album...

(Pausing to catch breath)

...mathematical bliss from the great composer Steve Reich; a bouncy pop song from Trader Horne (short-lived group featuring ex-members of Fairport Convention and Them); a lecture on economics and basic human needs from Fela Kuti; compulsive punk-soul from Detroit's mighty Dirtbombs; a multilingual flamenco-tango-chanson thing from SF's Rupa & The April Fishes (title means "I Am A Clown"); an exquisite folky number from Portland's Golden Bears (two ex-members of late great SF band the Quails...welcome back, Juliana and Seth!); a great song-poem bemoaning the state of human absurdity, which has only gotten more absurd since this recording was done some 40-odd years ago; Julie London's slow, seductive take on a 60s bubblegum hit; and finally, a good sarcastic pre-Lawrence vs. Texas protest song about the audacity of a state declaring themselves to be a place for lovers at the same time their legislature is taking way too much interest in what goes on in their citizens' bedrooms. (Presumably Virginia is a little bit safer for lovers these days...maybe.)

AAAAAAAAAAAAAND, that's the charts for this month! Keep on rockin' in the sort-of-free world!

1. The Rolling Stones - Gomper Part One (Takes 2 - 6) - The Satanic Sessions Vol 2
2. The Ramones - Do You Wanna Dance? - Rocket To Russia
3. Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band - Calling - Between My Head And The Sky
4. The Fall - Gross Chapel -- British Grenadiers - Bend Sinister
5. David Bowie - I'm Afraid Of Americans - Earthling
6. The Kinks - Phenomenal Cat - The Village Green Preservation Society
7. Conspiracy of Beards - Hallelujah - Demo CD
8. Minutemen - Anxious Mo-Fo - Double Nickels on the Dime
9. Chumbawamba - Poverty Knock - English Rebel Songs 1381-1984
10. Alice Coltrane - Isis And Osiris [Live] - Journey in Satchidananda
11. Vivian Stanshall - Strange Tongues - Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead
12. Steve Reich - Music For Mallet Instruments, Voices And Organ - Music for Mallet Instruments
13. Trader Horne - Better Than Today - Morning Way
14. Fela Kuti - Original Suffer Head - Original Suffer Head/I.T.T.
15. The Dirtbombs - The Thing - Ultraglide In Black
16. Rupa & The April Fishes - Soy Payaso - Este Mundo
17. The Golden Bears - You and All the Other Humans Like You - Wall to Wall
18. Norm Burns & Singers - Human Breakdown Of Absurdity - The American Song-poem Anthology: Do You Know The Difference Between Big Wood And Brush
19. Julie London - Yummy, Yummy, Yummy - Yummy, Yummy, Yummy
20. Black Angel's Death Song - Virginia Is For Lovers - Due Ragazze

Winston Tong and LX Rudis

Former Tuxedo Moon collaborator, performance artist and San Francisco character Winston Tong is seen here at the Vortex on Sept. 11, 2008, accompanied by LX Rudis, a founding member of local synth-punk legends the Units, who went on to front Modmach, a band J Neo Marvin insists were even better even if they are less celebrated at the moment. Our camera caught these two weaving their spell. They need to do this more often.

What Doghouse Reilly said

Yet another example of how our most astute commentators write their commentaries on blogs for free, while our paid press pundits type pablum that reads like hastily-written book reports by fifth graders with slightly larger vocabularies:

Well, y'know, maybe you Official Keepers of The Memory of 9/11 could try to recall that original rationale of the thing was to get bin-Laden and his three-dozen #2 men. And that Your Boy in the White House had seven years and unlimited black budgets to catch him, and failed. (I'm sorry. I know The Memory of 9/11 isn't suppose to evoke anything unpleasant.) In theory, anyway, if The Taliban had just handed over al-Qaeda before sundown, the way we demanded, we wouldn't have given a shit about how they treated their women. Or no more than we give about how our corporations and health care systems treat ours.

One more nail on the head:

I don't particularly care for the Taliban. In fact, I was making my objections known back when they were just subjugating women and destroying world heritage sites, the sort of shit you couldn't care less about...I just don't imagine--since I pretty much see it close up everyday--that the United States has the fucking answers, the capability of finding the answers, the political will to put those answers in place over the objections of Mitch McConnell or Glenn Beck, nor the ability to do so even if it did. And I think the record going back sixty years now is pretty clearly on my side.

Sometimes the most dangerous words in the English language are "We have to do something!" Well, we did something. How's that working for us now?

Why things are the way they are

As long as these guys and people like them are considered to be acceptable on the spectrum of mainstream America:



and this guy is considered to be part of the lunatic fringe:



America will never solve its problems. Period.

Big Sky feels sad when he sees the children scream and cry

About ten years ago, there was news of a reunion of the original lineup of the Kinks. Ray Davies, Dave Davies, Pete Quaife and Mick Avory would be playing some shows and recording a new album. Now, knowing how these reunions go, who knows how it might have turned out? All the same, how sad that right after the announcement, first Dave had his stroke, and now, Pete Quaife, who played bass during the Kinks' finest years, has passed on. Fate has never been good to the Kinks (why, even now, has no documentary been made worthy of the subject, unlike the Beatles, Who, Rolling Stones, Donovan, or so many other original "British Invasion" icons?), and the latest sad news is no exception.

A visibly moved Ray Davies was just captured at the Glastonbury Festival dedicating "Waterloo Sunset" and "Days" to his fallen former comrade, the guy who always played the mediator in a rabidly conflict-habituated but brilliant band until he quit because he was sick of the fighting. If anybody could have brought the other three together again, it would have been him.



We dedicate the Content Providers' cover of "Big Sky" (a song originally from his favorite Kinks album, The Village Green Preservation Society) to Mr. Quaife. Thank you for the bass lines (which were really quite nice and worthy of a little extra notice...time to pull those songs out again).

Scripture of the year

Thank you for your clarity, Fred Clark:

But knowing their hypocrisy, he said unto them, "Why are you putting me to the test? Bring me a dime and let me see it."

And they brought one. Then he said to them, "Whose head is this -- FDR's or Herbert Hoover's?"

They answered, "Roosevelt's."

And he said unto them, "Right. So shut up. Have you morons already forgotten the 20th Century? When the choice is between imitating what worked and what really, really didn't work, why are you pretending it's terribly complicated?"

And after that, no one dared to ask him any question.

New Deal Jesus kicks ass!

Search For The Sun

Found this while cleaning up old entries on defunct old blogs. It's a passage from the temporarily aborted punk rock memoir I was working on for a while and will one day resume work on. (Pauses, cocks ear to listen for clamor of eager readers begging for more...crickets chirping, tumbleweeds rolling past the window...OK, I'll check back later) Anyhow, this is the tale of how my late partner Maati Lyon ended up producing a classic anarcho-thrash album in 1983. Still a good story, worth rescuing from the far corners of the internet.

Crucifix were a group of young kids from the East Bay who had put out a couple of EPs on their own and appeared on the first Maximum Rock & Roll compilation. I'd seen them once at the On Broadway and heard some of their recordings, but they sounded like a big sloppy blur to me. Of all people, they had been chosen to be the first US release on the Crass-run Corpus Christi label. Crass had been looking for a band from the Bay Area that fit in with what they were doing.

"Why them and not, say, Social Unrest?" I asked.

Maati tossed her head dismissively. "Social Unrest are egomaniacs and they want too much money. Crucifix already have a rapport with Crass. They have the right kind of attitude." Her face suddenly lit up. "John Loder wants me to produce the album!"

"Wow." All I could think of was how cool it would be to see her name on an album cover. "You think you can get a good recording out of them?"

"You have to see them again. Wait till you hear the newest songs. And they're great people! They're just young boys, full of energy, but…really honest and respectful. Sothira was a refugee from Cambodia, did you know?"

"Really? So he actually knows a thing or two about war then, huh?"

"Exactly. He's not just another white suburban kid trying to look tough!" We were both getting fed up with the standard hardcore image: four muscular Caucasian boys barking orders at the world over a fast beat. It got monotonous very quickly.

"Well, if you say they're great, they probably are. I've always trusted your judgement."

"This is what I'm doing this for. You remember how we felt three years ago? First Reagan gets elected, then they shoot John Lennon a month later. It's not a coincidence."

"I certainly never thought so."

"Everything my generation worked for is being destroyed by these fuckers. I thought I was going to see something better than this in my thirties."

"Me too!" (I was 26 at the time.)

"And sure, it's great to have all these English people making a statement, but"…she flicked her wrist, indicating all the stacks of promos in the room. "Finally, here are some American kids. And they really rock. Maybe they can get across to the teenagers in this country now."

"They're that good, really?"

"Go see 'em again, Neo."

The hot, humid, smoke-filled interior of the Valencia Tool and Die was charged with energy. I was close to the stage, fending off the spiral of moshing kids behind me. I hardly noticed; I was so absorbed in the band. Sothira's raspy growl made it impossible to catch every word. (Comprehensibility was a common problem in thrashy punk bands with a message---some would attempt to remedy the situation by passing out lyric sheets at shows; others like Dave Dictor of MDC would actually recite a whole song as a spoken word piece and then the band would jump in and bash it out. Most just expected you to read their interviews, buy their records, and pay attention to what they had to say between songs. It was one of the unspoken punk rules: "Figure it out for yourself!") But certain phrases would pop out that made it clear where Crucifix were coming from: "These men! Bought by prejudice!" "Indochina! Lost forever!" "Youth! Violence! Youth! Don't! Fight!"

And the band was tight. Not quite stop-on-a-dime Minor Threat tight, but a unified roar that was fast and massive at the same time. Matt Borruso was an unbelievable bass player: strong and steady as a tree come to life, throwing out deep, monstrous riffs that grabbed you and pulled you into the current.

"This is our last song!" Sothira announced breathlessly. "It's called 'Stop Torture'!" The band crashed right in, faster and harder than ever, like "Ace Of Spades" played at triple speed, while Sothira ranted passionately, struggling to fit the syllables into the song. Suddenly they lurched into a slow, grinding Black Sabbath-like riff while Sothira railed, "US government-backed butchers! In the guise of friendly advisors! The friendly neighbor with a bloody trade!" then they returned to the fast verses and skidded off to a halt with one last shout of the title phrase. I was stunned and elated. Somebody finally got to the point and reduced the whole critique to a simple, perfect statement. Stop torture. Fuckin'-A. This is what rock and roll is supposed to do. Maati was right, as usual.

Maati and the band got to work, shopping around town for a studio and an engineer that could bring out the full force of their music. Crucifix's goal was to combine the speed and intensity of Discharge with the overwhelming, undeniable momentum of Motorhead. The winning candidate was a veteran English musician and recording wizard named Peter Miller, who had floated around the periphery of the music scene since the early '60s and had a passion for vintage rock & roll and vintage equipment. His own most recent self-released album was titled Pre-CBS, in honor of the guitars built by Fender before Leo Fender sold his company to CBS. A rock & roll "moldy fig" enamored with the technical minutiae of the past might have seemed an odd match for such a band, but Maati saw Peter as the perfect set of ears to see the project through.


The phone rang at Landers St. and I answered.

"Neo?" a familiar breathy female voice cooed.

"Maati! I haven't heard from you in a week! How are the sessions going?"

"I got so much to tell you. Why don't you come over right now? And bring a bottle of wine."

"Sounds good to me."

I arrived with a bottle of decent Valpolicella from around the corner and knocked.

"It's open." I entered to the sound of hyperfast instrumental thrash punk. "These are some basic tracks. That's all I've been able to bring home so far."

"It sounds even faster than they play live. How on earth is Sothira going to keep up with that?"

"Poor Sothira. He's a nervous wreck. He was supposed to finish the lyrics and he hasn't been able to. The others are getting really impatient, which obviously isn't helping."

"I didn't know there were songs that aren't finished. They seemed to have plenty of material when I saw them."

"Yeah, but they're not happy with all the songs. Now that Crass are involved…you know. Suddenly they're having more expectations put on them. But I think it'll be OK. I had them take a break and I took Sothira out for a walk. He needed some air. So I say to him, 'Look, you came here as a child from Cambodia. Your family escaped the Khmer Rouge and you lived here as refugees. But you haven't written about any of that yet. You have all these songs about war and prejudice and they're great, but maybe what's missing is your own story. All the people who come see your band don't have any idea of the things you've gone through. Why don't you try writing some songs about that? It might be what you're looking for.' And he was really listening. I think he'll come up with something good."

"'The personal is political', and all that?"

"Exactly." She paused. "This could be what I end up doing. I really like being in charge of a recording session. Being a record producer is a lot like being a teacher, and I always wanted to be a teacher." She focused her eyes on me. "You ever hear of the concept of 'right livelihood'?"

"Mmmm…no."

"You have to read more Buddhist books! You need to know about more things than just music! It means earning your living by doing things that are good for humanity. I want to make a positive impact on culture, and I like working with sincere young kids in bands. I can never decide what I want to do; maybe this is it! All I need is a good engineer. Peter is really cool and fun to work with."

She cranked up the volume on the cassette player. "Listen to that guitar sound. ADT really makes a difference. The sound is so big and full, they'll probably hate it at Maximum Rock & Roll," she grinned. "If it doesn't sound like shit, it's not real punk to them."

"It's gonna be an amazing record. I hope Sothira comes through with those lyrics. A well-told story is way better than a lecture."

Maati's pep talk was just what was needed. Sothira came back with "Another Mouth To Feed" ("from country to country/you're treated like shit/one camp to another/where do you fit?") and a rewrite of one of their most exciting live songs, a fast number with a catchy, lurching chorus, originally titled "Nobody's Fooled", now recast as "See Through Their Lies": "Slept under mosquito nets/we used kerosene lamps/I remember the discomfort/the air was so damp." On the front cover of the album was an image of a weary mother and a crying baby taken from Is Anyone Taking Any Notice?, a collection of horrifying pictures by the British war photojournalist Donald McCullin published in 1973. The book featured image after image of starving or disfigured children, dismembered corpses, desperate refugees, and other collateral damage from the ongoing global game where important men make important decisions and the human cost is hidden from the view of average citizens so as not to spoil their appetites over breakfast. The shot we chose was probably the mildest one of the lot.

Tin Sandwich!

A favorite moment from the extremely fun Conspiracy Of Beards end-of-season party at the Cyclone. These three gentlemen fix up one spicy sandwich.

Ladies And Gentlemen, The President Of The United States

Rachel delivers the speech Obama should have given. Brilliant.

Those are the Beards and that was New York

Some videos from the Conspiracy Of Beards' 2010 New York jaunt. Read all about the trip here.

A montage of images shot at the Chelsea Hotel to a performance of the song of that name at the Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco:



Crashing the Bowery party and singing for our juleps:



Practicing in the noisy park:



And as a bonus, an example of how the art of conversation is alive and well on the New York streets:

Things we miss out on by avoiding Twitter

Ladies and gentlemen, please note the awesomeness that is FEMINIST HULK:

HULK DONE WITH COOKIE NOW. HULK ONLY SMASH HEGEMONY, PATRIARCHY AND OCCASIONAL SKYSCRAPER. HULK NOT SMASH PEOPLE. PEOPLE NEED LOVE. BULLSHIT POWER ABUSES NEED SMASH. ALSO, COOKIE WAS YUMMY.

For more wisdom from a strong male role model for enlightened gender relations, go here.

Golden Seal

Here's a real find, some footage of two great departed reggae artists. Augustus Pablo, of course, was the genius who found the eerie heart of an unassuming little instrument called the melodica, and Hugh Mundell was the haunted-voiced teen prodigy who collaborated with Pablo on the ghostly Rasta protest album, Africa Must Be Free By 1983.

After cutting the album, Hugh ended up living in San Francisco for a time at a notorious punk rock house on Oak and Fillmore, along with some friends of ours, so we got to know him a little bit and caught a lot of his local gigs. He was still very young, but his voice was starting to deepen while retaining its childlike innocence. He seemed like a really nice kid.

Eventually, it was time for Hugh to go back to Jamaica. Maati and I had caught the news that Augustus Pablo was suffering from some sort of undiagnosed illness that wasn't being treated because he was a hardcore Rastafarian who had no use for Western medicine. We thought we ought to do something to help, so we bought a big bag of goldenseal at the health food store to give to Hugh with the instructions to make sure Pablo got it.

All too soon after that, we got the awful news that someone shot Hugh in his car in Kingston for reasons that have never been confirmed. We grieved for the boy we hardly knew who'd crossed our path, and we cursed the violence that robs us of so many who could give us all so much more. We wondered if he had ever had a chance to see Pablo before his senseless murder.

Many years later, a new Augustus Pablo album came out. One of the tracks was titled "Golden Seal". We were stunned. Thank you Hugh Mundell, and thank you Augustus Pablo. I hope we made some small difference in your all-too-short lives.

BP: What Really Happened

They say laughter is healing. So bring it on.

Twin Human Highway Flares

We haven't been playing live much lately, but here's a recent solo performance of the Content Providers' cover of the incredible Mountain Goats song, "Twin Human Highway Flares", captured at the Harbin Hot Springs open mike. Thanks for putting this up, Davis!

Terese Taylor weekend

Terese Taylor is a friend of ours who writes compelling songs and performs them loudly and softly. Here's some of her work that we have shot over the years.

"Defrost" at the Zeitgeist, featuring San Francisco's beloved Tamale Lady:



"Had A Heart" at An Undisclosed Location (J Neo Marvin's 50th birthday celebration!)



"Hermit", a nicely jarring post-punk instrumental, from the same Undisclosed Location show:



"Call In Sick" at the Dolores Park Cafe, with guest violinist and puppy:



"Doesn't Shine" at the Zeitgeist:



And one from the Cafe Du Nord several years before. This one's a bit more fly-by-night casual as far as cinematography goes, but it's great anyhow, because it features one of her finest songs, "Goats For Daddy":