Someone, somewhere, sent me an email on behalf of a company called Burger Records about a band from the 1970s that's releasing a 7" vinyl single of two songs that were recorded in the 70's but never released until now. On vinyl.
(I feel I must warn you about the Burger Records website. If you go there, be prepared for the blinding colour scheme. It's red and orange, and I couldn't look at it for more than a few seconds.)
This is part of the email I received:
Hello!
THIS IS BURGER RECORDS!
We thought you might be interested in our newest release, it's...
THE QUICK - ON HOLIDAY WITH EARLE MANKEY (7")
"Bigger Than Life" b/w "Beautiful Island"
According to Australia's recent ARIA Awards (something I didn't watch when it was televised last weekend), a chappy called Gotye (someone I don't listen to) was awarded Best Male Artist. Mr. Gotye also won Single of the Year and Best Pop Release for his song "Somebody That I Used To Know".
Having not heard the song before, I thought I might see what the chart-topping fuss was about and listen to the little beastie. When it started, I was reminded me of another song.
I was contacted by someone called either John or Greybush (I'm not sure which) about a band called The CRY! who are from Portland, Oregon. I need to specify that they're from Oregon because they're not from Portland, Victoria or Portland, England.
Anyway, John/Greybush (or maybe he's "Greybush John", like a pirate) stated quite unequivocably:
"We are The CRY! out of Portland Oregon. WE ARE THE BEST NEW POWER POP BAND IN THE WORLD!! No kidding!! Let us prove it then give us some love!"
Greybush John provided me with some songs (thanks, GJ!) so I put on my listening ears.
The CRY's music reminds me of those British punk bands that endeavoured to write pop songs while retaining their punkiness – bands like The Undertones and the Buzzcocks and plenty of others I can't think of at the moment.
I must admit that I find the band name (The CRY!) slightly confusing, because the word "CRY" is quite deliberately in capital letters. That makes me think it's an acronym. If it is, do the letters mean something like "Combustible Rancorous Yeti" or "Carnival Ridin' Yams" or "Can't Really Yell"?
But you're not interested in rhetorical questions – you're interested in music. I'll play you the first four tracks I received. I won't play you all the songs I was presented with because I wouldn't want the boys in the band to send me emails along the lines of: "Why are you giving away all our songs??? We've only just put them on an album!!!"
I'll comment on the songs as they play, and I'll leave it up to you whether you want to read them or not. (I don't blame you if you don't.)
Link
I'd love to know what on Earth possessed the band to play parts of the song at double-speed. For me it doesn't quite work. I usually don't mind "OK, now let's play it twice as fast!" songs, but here I think it results in the song having too much of a split personality. I didn't mind the slow part, and I didn't mind the fast part, but I wasn't keen on them being together in the same song. Ah well. C'est la vie.
3. "Sleeping Alone"
Link
Oh-oh. The song starts with a not-terribly-well-disguised lift from "Lust For Life", but once that's out of the way it settles into its own (enjoyable) song.
4. "Be True"
Link
I was surprised when the song started at the instant musical coincidence here:
But that's only a small part of the song. The rest of "Be True" doesn't mention Paul McCartney at all.
The other songs I heard are pretty much par for the course. (The course being British-punk-inspired power pop). I reckon those four songs will give you a decent idea of the band's raison d'être. Some of the other songs are more melodic (i.e., have better tunes), but I think the tracks presented here today are representative of the band's oeuvre.
And sorry about the needlessly French phrases in this post.
(*Believe it or not, I've been wanting to put that Eddie Money song on the blog for ages but never thought it was a good time because either: a) readers would wonder what a non-Australian song from 1982 is doing on an up-to-date and hip-n-happening blog; or b) readers would think that song is nowhere near 'cool' enough to go on a blog – any blog. Thanks to The CRY!, I have the perfect excuse to play it. Thanks, guys!)
Here's another case of a blog reminding me of a song for this here blog. Actually, it's just the name of a song that did it this time.
Powerpopaholic (Hi, Aaron!) reviewed an album by Italian band The Sick Rose. PPA mentioned that the first song on on the album is "Putting Me Down", and that title reminded me of the phrase "breaking me down" which is repeated in...
After Steve Simels over at the Power Pop blog (Hi, Steve!) unwittingly prompted me to remember a Procol Harum song I hadn't heard in years, it caused a bit of a chain reaction. As I listened to (and enjoyed) that song again after a long time of not listening to it, it prompted me to seek out a whole lot more Procol Harum to find out what I'd been missing in the last few decades. (I'd only ever heard a few songs here and there, and have never heard any of their albums.) As a result, I'm now in a moderately large Procol Harum phase and playing catch-up with their back catalogue. I'm also considering buying a Procol Harum DVD. (It looks good, and it has a great version of "Conquistador" on it, and the DVD's only $10. Should I buy it?*)
At the end of my Procol Harum Quest™ I'll be in a better position to say whether I'll be thanking Mr. Simels, or shaking my head in disbelief and saying "Oh, Steve, why did I ever read that post of yours?".
But in the meantime, one of the Procol Harum songs I hadn't heard before but have now (thanks, Internet!) is "Homburg". Here's how the verse starts:
This may sound like a disclaimer, but I'm afraid that today's song won't be Australian. I was all set to play you an Australian song on this (supposedly) Australian blog, but I got sidetracked*. (Getting sidetracked is something I do regularly. Curse this short attention span!)
The reason for today's non-Australian-ness is Power Pop blog contributor Steve Simels (hi, Steve!). A couple of days ago Steve posted a track by Procol Harum, and that reminded me of my favourite Procol Harum track. The first time I ever heard it was on a jukebox in a pub. In amongst all the pleasant Top 40 songs on that jukebox was this:
I like that. A lot. (Even though the singer sounds disconcertingly like Billy Corgan.)
Here's another one of their songs:
Yep. Retro Plus.
I'm looking forward to buying their album when it's released.
Potentially Uninteresting Sidenote: as far as I can tell, Deep Sea Arcade is not related to an arcade band from Canada, an arcade band from America, or an arcade band from America in the 1990s.
I'm currently reading Perfecting Sound Forever, a book about the history of music reproduction and the various ways in which it's reproduced. One passage in it mentions a bit of wholesale thievery by Quincy Jones for a rather famous record he produced:
"You start with a pure sine wave," [Cameron] Jones [of the New England Digital company, maker of the Synclavier] says of the expressive capabilities of the Synclavier. "Then you add harmonics, you put in an unrelated modulating frequency, change the index of the modulation over time, and you get these distorted-sounding bell sounds or horn sounds, and you turn those into a hit. Michael Jackson turned that into a billion-dollar record."
He's talking Jackson's Thriller, released in 1982, containing arguably the most famous Synclavier-generated sound ever. It's that "gong" that opens "Beat It." Producer Quincy Jones apparently lifted those tones directly from The Blue Record, an NED promotional disc made to show off the Synclavier's capabalities. ("It was the exact melody and the exact sound," [Denny] Jaeger [of New England Digital] says of the song's intro. "I had a copyright on that, and they just took it.") It's just a couple of repeating notes. If you haven't heard them in a long time, it would be natural to edit them out of your memory, since what follows is one of the most recognizable opening guitar riffs in music history. But you remember them because the sound is so odd. The way the note decays sounds organic, as though someone were striking a surface like an oil drum. Yet it's unsettlingly synthetic. It sticks in your mind because it really does sound like nothing else.
I found that at the faunæ or automat? blog. Much obliged, blog person.
And that's the sound at the start of "Beat It" here.
The full song:
(I was going to give you an MP3 of "Beat It" but it seems that the estate of Michael Jackson is alarmingly enthusiastic in its litigiousness, so I won't invite any legal threats from large American companies. I guess you'll have to make do with that YouTube video, but at least I've linked to the place in the song where you can hear the nicked "gong".)
I do want to point out that given the current shenanigans in American politics, posting this song here is in no way a political statement by me. (I'm apolitical – especially when it comes to the politics of a country I don't live in.) Plus, I don't think that The Numbers were singing about the current state of American politics (unless they knew what was going to happen in America 31 years after they recorded it).
Incidentally, I think the chorus of "Mr President" contains an awful rhyming couplet:
"You're running for president, you're not even a resident."
That doesn't make any sense to me.
In their defence though, I guess there aren't that many words you can rhyme with "president". Precedent? Prescient? How about Pepsodent?
Actually, despite that dreadful rhyming couplet I'm glad I played you "Mr. President" because its title reminded me of another "president" song, one that I adore. I'll play that tomorrow.
Is Larry Graham the funkiest man alive? I think so...
When all you have is Larry Graham and a drummer, who needs a guitarist?
The video above was a highlights package of Larry's Super Slapping Bass instructional video he made for Japan. Here's the full video (in five parts) with better quality:
I was all set to post an Australian song today to get this blog back into Australian power pop territory, but the following song just popped into my head and I remembered how much I loved its main riff:
And because it's unlikely I'm going to post another Concrete Blonde song on this Australian power pop blog, I might as well sneak in another one of their songs that I like a lot:
Conjecture Time: The combination of cats and Johnette Napolitano's appearance in the "Happy Birthday" video makes me think that the director of the video (or whoever came up with the idea in the first place) may have seen this video from 1983:
Today's coincidence comes to you yet again from the ears and brain of Mr. Fabulous (Hi, Fabuloso!), and it involves... well as far as I can tell, it basically involves one shouted note at the start of each chorus:
By the way, I couldn't find an MP3 of that Adele song anywhere. (And I'm not about to buy a song that I'm not particularly fond of.) I guess Adele's record company is hyper-vigilant to music thieves, brigands and ne'er-do-wells.
Today's song, Led Zeppelin's "Ozone Baby", appears on the band's 1982 album of outtakes, the not-terribly-well-received Coda. (The general consensus from critics and Led Zeppelin fans is: "It's rubbish!")
Leaving aside the relative (non-)merits of the album, I must admit that when I bought Coda in 1982 I bought it for one thing and one thing only: the sound of the bass guitar in this song. If you're a bass player, you'll probably know where I'm coming from. If you're not a bass player, however, then you're thankfully spared from doing rash things that some bass players (i.e., me) do from time to time (i.e., buy albums only for the sound of a particular musical instrument in one song).
Listening to it again after a couple of decades of not hearing it (I bought Coda when it came out in 1982), I'd say I don't like "Ozone Baby" as much as I used to – but I still love that bass sound. And I do like Robert Plant singing "Ooh-ooh".
Speaking of songs people like solely for the sound of bass guitars in them, as a bonus here's bass player Chris Squire with some other people:
A few days ago I was listening to the wonderfully helpful* radio station Three D Radio and a song completely new to me came on. I heard the song and thought "Hmm – I like that song."
So I put on my Mr. Investigating Hat** and found out that the song is called "Over Before It Ended", and it's by Hawks Of Alba, a local (i.e., where I live in Adelaide, South Australia) band with a decidedly prog rock name. (But they're not a prog rock band.)
Talk about identical. Well spotted, Mr. Fabulous. Thanks.
Oh, and Mr. Fabulous mentioned another song...
"And add the verse from Yazoo's 'Only You' if you like..."
I was almost going to not include that because the chord progression in "Only You"'s isn't as identical as the songs above (it uses different chords at the end) – but it is one of my favourite synth-pop songs from the 80's, so I might as well throw it in as well:
As you might be aware, Pete Townshend kick-started this thing we call "power pop" when he coined the term in an article promoting the release of "Pictures Of Lily", saying that "power pop is what we play."
In case you haven't seen the full article and are interested in reading the whole thing, here 'tis:
THE lugubrious looking Pete Townshend with the mincer-like mind ground up an interesting selection of subjects for attention over a lemon tea in London's Act 1 Scene 2 coffee bar last week.
First subject to receive attention was the accusation of 'pornographic lyrics' in "Pictures Of Lily."
"Really it's just a look back to that period of every boy's life when he has pin-ups," said Pete and vent his violence upon a slice of lemon between forefinger and thumb.
"The idea was inspired by a picture my girlfriend had on her wall of an old Vaudeville star - 'Lily Bayliss.'
"It was an old 1920's postcard and someone had written on it - 'here's another picture of Lily - hope you haven't got this one.'
"It made me think that everyone has a pin-up period.
"John Entwistle and I used to swap 'dirties' when we were kids at school - we used to get a kick out of buying a thousand pin-up pictures at a time from tawdry little newspaper shops.
"It's funny how some film actresses have sex appeal and some don't - Bardot still has it - so has Loren.
"Julie Christie has a kind of youthful charm but no sex appeal.
"This adolescent stage is a very real part of a young person's life. I remember when I was fourteen I got a bus pass for school without my age on it and I forged 'sixteen' on it so I could go into X films.
D-j Simon Dee, now somewhat irreverently referred to by his real name - Carl [sic] Henty-Dodd - by The Who, recently said their new single was best forgotten and "It was just The Who in the studio making more noises!"
"If he appears on my TV screen again I may put my foot through it," said Pete pleasantly.
"I think he's trying to build up his own little musical empire in which we aren't included.
"He makes my blood boil - I wouldn't mind if he was any good in his programme!"
We left Simon somewhere between the apple strudel and the Danish pastry and turned to "Power Pop!"
Explained Pete: "Power-pop is what we play - what the Small Faces used to play, and the kind of pop the Beach Boys played in the days of 'Fun Fun Fun' which I preferred.
"There are too many groups involved in the same kind of scene as the Move where every word has to mean something.
"The Beach Boys are playing on this kind of ethereal level where the public are expected to come to them and be taught.
"I believe pop music should be like the TV - something you can turn on or off and shouldn't disturb the mind.
"Eventually these people are going to go too far and leave the rest of the world behind.
"It's very hard to like 'Strawberry Fields Forever' for simply what it is. Some artists are becomming musically unapproachable."
We discussed the progress of pop people and where The Who were going.
"To retain the attention of the public every pop star has to make the transition to films at some time," said Pete.
"Elvis did it - so did The Beatles and so did Cliff. Paul Jones looks to me as if he has done it with 'Privilage.' It's the only way to last.
TV series
"We're still being considered for a TV series in New York but it's very difficult to see what else we can do as a group apart from slapstick.
"Obviously it must be humerous - maybe Roger could break a leg or something."
Pete observed that it is now more difficult than ever for a new group to break into the big time.
"The pop group situation has been at saturation point in the hit parade for some time." said Pete.
"Look at the Move - they were around for ages before people noticed them and then they had to smash up TVs and break up cars on stage before people would pay them any attention.
"It's catching the attention and grabbing the publicity that is the biggest problem for a new group."
At this point Pete produced a damaged toggle switch and Keith Moon walked into the cafe only two days late for his appointment with me - something of an achievement.In all fairness he had phoned me on the Tuesday to say he was OK to meet me for the interview fixed for the previous Monday.
Still anyone can make a mistake and Keith generally does.
"I've just ben to the Finnish Embassy," he annouced brightly, "lost me passport again," and looked resigned to the fact.
Pete stayed for a few minutes but as Moon-madness began to creep into the conversation a look akin to that of a man sitting a film round for the second time came over him and he fled.
"Where were you on Moday when I was supposed to interview you?" I enquired.
"I figured if Brian Jones can make £100 an hour I can undercut him by £15 and clean up."
I discovered that Keith is buying a house but not, of course, in the conventional manner. He has bought some garden gnomes - now he is looking for a house to go with them.
"A large family-sized pack of gnomes," emphasised Keith.
New car
Other things Keith has done lately include selling his Bentley to Roger and buying a newer model, going down to Eastbourne to throw pebbles at ice cream cartons and hitting a belligerent fan over the head with a cymbal when they played recently at Dusseldorf.
"He bled all over my snare," said Keith disconsolantly.
Keith now has two ambitions.He wants to become a professional cartoon "like Tom and Jerry" and get a job in Herman's new Herne Bay hotel bar as a professional drip tray.
Drugs somehow got into the conversation
Wearing his most angelic expression he enquired: "Is it true there is now a thing called an electric grape which the hippies boil and smoke through a toilet roll?"
There are times when Keith Moon is worth waiting for.
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This is what I was writing about
PETE TOWNSHEND told the NME: "The photographs for the ad were postcards our co-manager Chris Stamp picked up in the Portobello Road. I must say he 'sussed' out the lyrics because these are the kind of pictures I was writing about. I hope we get lots of letters of protest."
The splendid, marvellous, and tremendously lovely Shae (Hi, Shae!) over at the American artist-wrangling company Luck Media & Marketing let me know about one of her artistes, a young chappy by the name of Pat Campo (Hi, Pat!) and his new song, "JTITM (Just Text It To Me)". I have to confess that because I wasn't paying much attention to that acronym, when I glanced at "JTITM" I thought it was a little rude. (Take away the "J" and "M" and you'll know what I mean.) But then I paid attention to the bit after the acronym that explains what the whole thing stands for and it made sense. I have a feeling that I'm not keeping up with text message lingo and the flurry of acronyms that keep getting added to the English language at an alarming rate.
Anyway, Pat has a video for the song. (Shae told me about it.) I had a look at it, and was mightily impressed. It's rather creative:
That track appears on Pat's EP of the same name. (Or, as he calls it in a frenzy of acronyms: JTITM EP.)
Unfortunately, for the first minute of the video I wanted to straighten the iPhone in the top left corner – but, I'm pleased to say, as the video progressed the phones were rearranged. (Trivia: they were rearranged by Pat, who made that video in one take.)
Incidentally, if you liked the video but weren't particularly keen on the music (it might be a bit too dance-clubby for your tastes), you might like this song by Pat more*:
One more thing I have to admit in addition to the admissions above (this post is turning into a confessional), I have to say that for some reason the combination of Pat's name and the cover for Pat's EP makes me think of...
(*Note to self: "...this song by Pat more..." is poor grammar, Peter. It sounds like the song is by someone called Pat More. Think a bit harder the next time you're constructing sentences.)
I've been enjoying Popdose's series entitled "Digging for Gold: The Time-Life 'AM Gold' Series", where each week a panel of the website's regular contributors spend their time listening to songs from the Sixties and then criticising them. (I've enjoyed the songs but not the criticism. It's frequently snarky, and I'm not a fan of snark.)
