More on covers...

Johnny Cash went out in style. His fertile pairing in those last years with Rick Rubin tapped a rich vein of soulful performance, recorded in a way in tune with the moment, and yet that I think will prove timeless.

Johnny Cash is a commanding performer and a deep, historied , dark personality, a known symbol in an of himself in American culture.

Whether he or his management put together this pairing of Rubin and Cash, it’ll preserve his legacy, and it was an extended parting shot at extending his songbook, and cementing his name across generations in popular culture.

But I feel Rubin’s fingerprints all over these song choices, or at least the ones we’re looking at, and while the old man wasn’t exactly propped up and asked to sing songs he didn’t know at all, sometimes, well, it feels kinda close to that. That the commanding performer Cash was, and the personality he established across decades, it carried him gloriously doing those Danzig, Nice Cave, Depeche Mode, Soundgarden, Tom Petty, Neil Diamond, NiN, U2 songs. And while I wouldn’t change it, it doesn’t seem like the same achievement that creating the persona was. I want to hear the Folsom prison record over and over again still, and I’m dying to see his TV show if it ever comes out on DVD.

Lately I’ve been listening to the Rubin-produced Neil Diamond CD, and honestly there’s more original material on that one disc that I like and see merit in than in the whole American catalog of Cash.

So I agree, I See a Darkness, a great song and a great cover, among many covers he did then, chosen for him or by him. I like the original and listen to it often honestly, and in the context of an amazing record Will Oldham conceived. Cash actually gave me more insight into the lyrics with his delivery and made me revisit it. But it was already a song I saw carried a lot of meaning.

I listen with wonder to inventive covers like Joel Phelps (whose vocal style admittedly could be gated and trimmed about 10% of the time) and his piano version of Guns of Brixton by the Clash, as he pulls that song into a while new context and light. Or M Ward doing his sensually acoustic version of Bowie’s Let’s Dance. Man, those are glorious reinventions. I could listen to those over and over again.

Cash didn’t really make art with covers that way for me in those last days. He added good songs to his songbook of competency, and a couple times his authority and delivery really brought new life and fresh eyes to a song for me, like with U2’s “One”, and all this work late in life was probably the best he could do at the time, and it’s often enjoyable as hell to listen to, and it’s a dignified parting shot-- but not the meat of the matter of Johnny Cash, and it’s not the kind of art that a weird, cool, perceptive treatment in a cover can be.

That would be my two copper.

~Arum

currently listening to "Save Me a Saturday Night" by Neil Diamond

Careys Bay Young Drinkers Club

It's cliched and a bit too easy to praise the early-90s output of cacophonous New Zealand eccentrics the Dead C. It's also more than deserved. Tonight I listened to 1992's Clyma Est Mort. From the Fall-derived cover art on, it's probably their least careful, most tossed-off album. It's also truly remarkable. At times it resembles the Sightings, Growing, and (for a brief minute) the Tower Recordings. Even having heard all of those bands for years now, Clyma Est Mort still impresses me, perhaps more than any of them... only it's not a mix-up of those bands by methodical record-collector fans. It predates them all, from 1992! Its purposeful and well-considered (but still chaotic) diversity reminds me a bit of Meat Puppets II, though the two records are obviously quite different. To continue rambling about a band who certainly still receive their due feels like an unnecessary exercise, so I'll stop here.

SNL, Season 1

As some of you may already know, Saturday Night Live, season 1 is out on DVD. I watched the first episode last night, hosted by a young George Carlin. Back then, the show had more music and comedy than sketches, it was very interesting to see. One of the guests was Billy Preston, singing "Nothing from Nothing". They also had Janice Ian singing 2 songs, one was "Seventeen". I've heard that song before, but I never really 'listened' to it, until now. It was quite moving. I don't know much about her, except that she has a lot of albums out there :)


Janis Ian (1967) #29 US
For All the Seasons of Your Mind (1968) #179 US
The Secret Life of J. Eddy Fink (1968)
Who Really Cares (1969)
Present Company (1971)
Stars (1974) #83 US, #63 Japan (1976 release)
Between the Lines (1975) #1 US, #22 Japan
Aftertones (1976) #12 US, #1 Japan
Miracle Row (1977) #45 US, #26 Japan
Best of Janis Ian (collection) 1977 #5 Japan
Janis Ian II (1978) #120 US, #79 Japan
Remember (1978) #72 Japan
Night Rains (1979)
Restless Eyes (1981) #156 US
Uncle Wonderful (1983)
At Seventeen 1990
Up 'Til Now (1992)
Breaking Silence (1993)
Simon Renshaw Presents: Janis Ian Shares Your Pain (1994)
Revenge (1995)
Live on the Test 1976 (1995)
Hunger (1997)
Unreleased 1: Mary's Eyes (1998)
The Bottom Line Encore collection (Live 1980) (1999)
Unreleased 2: Take No Prisoners (2000)
god & the fbi (2000)
Unreleased 3: Society's Child (2001)
Lost Cuts 1 (2002)
Janis Ian Live: Working Without a Net (2003)
Souvenirs: Best of Janis Ian 1972-1981 (collection) (2004)
Billie's Bones (2004)
Folk is the New Black (2006)

And then..

..I looked at the links on the side of the blog and saw that Arum has already linked to Sounds Opinion, which is probably the same exact on that I was talking about. So basically, my post was reiterating what you already know, but LA style. *le sigh*

I will run to tie your shoelaces.

So, I'm going through this time in my life where I really can't get enough of public radio. Sometimes it's the BBC, sometimes NPR. Sometimes, I get to hear theater from a traveling show or from this theater in Los Angeles, or recommendations of books I'll always add to my B.I.N.T.R. (Books I Need to Read; clever, I know) even though I would put money on it that I'd never actually get around to reading. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. (Probably.) There's this show on the station that I listen to called Sounds Opinion. Often times, I don't care much for it (but still listen to, for some reason), but sometimes it's amazing. Tonight, the Decemberists were on. I've never cared one way or another for them-- they weren't my favorite but I wouldn't complain if someone put it on. The show brought it to my attention that they've got much more to them than their albums. The live songs that they performed were awesome. Accordion, melodica, banjo... it's just more impressive when it's live, I guess. There's a great Brian Eno cover on the show, also. I'm not generally one for live recordings, but I enjoy this. Anywho, if you want to listen to it, you can do so here. It's an archive of all of the previous shows as well-- there is some good stuff in there if you look through it.

--

Last night, in Azeroth (or Outland, for those of us who were there) we had a great music conversation. First of all, Titanarum (whom I'm just going to call Arum from now on) can rap. I don't know if you knew that-- but he really can. I felt like the spirit of Rev. Run and DMC were here with me, through the powers of Arum. If you see him on a regular basis, (or even not regular, just.. when you see him) you should ask him to rap for you. I mean, that's gonna be my first request if I ever head that direction. There was also some conversation about Raffi. Yes, the children's singer. Yes, I know he writes songs about sandwiches and whales and sometimes god, but he's a damn good songwriter. I don't actively listen to him or anything, but you can't deny his ability to write a catchy song. What else did we talk about? Hm. It matters not, but is marginally interesting. Mostly the part about Arum being a total rapper. Gang-stuh.

Maybe I'll post something a bit more... interesting later. I have a feeling everyone else who posts here already knows far more about music than I do (which is incredibly intimidating). On the positive side, I'll learn a lot, right? Hahaha.

I just put on Mwng, by the Super Furry Animals. (To end the entry with the current playlist, of course.)

I see a darkness

YES! I agree Johnny Cash really nailed it! The gravitas that he brings to this song
is majestic. Not that the Oldham version doesn't have its merits...it is good, but, like
Cash's reading of Cat Steven's "Father & Son" (a song slightly marred by the backing
vocals of Fiona Apple), it just packs a lot of emotional weight. As does "Hurt", and
coupled with the video, could be one of the saddest things I've ever seen. The Cash
museum closed, and the gold record with smashed glass frame accenting the words...
definitely reflects upon a lifetime of work...

It's like when I play my 1965 Gibson acoustic, a guitar I love dearly...and realize
that it won't be mine always...someday, somebody else will own it, not because I'll
sell it, but because I won't be here anymore, and I'm hoping it will go to somebody
who loves it and treasures it and I wonder what it's tenure here on earth is, something
I wonder more about than my own time on this planet. Johnny's, end of career song
selections really bring home our finiteness...

Cash in Spain, pt. 2, or, Go Where The Music Leads You

I was going to put this in the newly enabled "Comments" section, but it kept getting longer and longer....
___________
Nice! Cash's 'Spiritual' really is an amazing performance, and definitely tops Spain / Haden's.

Interesting that you should mention that. Bonnie Prince Billy's I SEE A DARKNESS (the album) and Spain's THE BLUE MOODS OF SPAIN are closely linked in my mind, because they were both staples on the stereo that blizzardy winter on the floor with the first girlfriend I mention in my Cash post.

I went back and listened to that record after I read your post, and I still like it, though it's definitely best suited to "mood listening." (Amazing, isn't it, how music can evoke memories so completely.)

Josh Haden is the son of Charlie Haden, who, for those of you who don't know, is one of the MONSTERS of jazz bass. Also, Charlie Haden's daughter, Petra, used to play with The Decemberists. But I digress. My point is that Charlie Haden also covers "Spiritual" on a record he did with Pat Metheny called BEYOND THE MISSOURI SKY.

Also covered on that record are two Ennio Morricone pieces from Cinema Paradiso. Morricone is one of my favorite contemporary composers, and Cinema Paradiso is one of my all time favorite movies. The final montage of kisses is breathtaking. There are two versions of the film, the original European release, and the US release, which the American distributor cut down by about an hour. Contrary to what is normally the case, the 'more commerically viable' US version is actually the better film, as it more effectively captures the Romantic (capital R) soul of the film. Morricone's soundtrack, by the way, is absolutely essential to this film, and is a shining example of how important the right music is for a film. Please, if you've never seen this film, go rent or buy it. It's packaged with both the US and the Europena version. Watch both, but watch the US version first.

UPDATE: apropos of nothing...THIS is amazing, disturbing, hilarious, depressing, and unfortunately not surprising in the least.

Cash in Spain

I'm not a huge Spain fan, but I'd like to include Johnny Cash's cover of "Spiritual" in this discussion, because I'm a big fan of Midnight Choir's version of the song, which sounds closer to Cash's than to Josh Haden's original.

I have almost nothing in iTunes, so digging up long tracks would be painfully manual. The Psyche is my favorite Revolutionary Ensemble album and just a big favorite all around.

And I did find Internet in the desert, at least for now.

Recent listening of note, from the other night, John Martyn One World. Bless the Weather and Solid Air from the early 70s are the obvious classics, sort of a smoky, jazzy twist to Richard Thompson. One World, from the late 70s, makes far less sense. The production is weirdly polished and slick and of its era (recorded by Phill Brown, shortly before his work on Roxy Music's Manifesto), but it manages to suit the songs. The strange drum machines (I think that's what they are) and other hard-to-identify sounds are incongruous, but somehow also make sense in the end. And the songwriting is strong and interesting, even if the lyrics sometimes seem a bit tossed-off. The crazy 7 minutes of guitar across the pond that ends side 1 (sorry, no record in front of me here) is really pretty special. Not the first place I'd start for John Martyn assuming I was looking for his canonical "best" work, but an engaging and very distinctive record with great moments.

Perhaps size does matter

Interesting concept.

*consults iTunes*

My shortest tracks, granted most of these aren't songs:

:04 Aural Brutality by The Moment on This Is The Moment [best possible name EVER for a 4 second song]
:04 13 13 by Clinic on Internal Wrangler
:04 Underture by Mercury Rev on Deserter's Songs
:06 Gravy by The Monkees on Head
:06 Static Intro by The Misfits on their box set [really, I didn't need more than :04 of this]
:11 Xmas Riff by T Rex on Tanx
:14 Load Bank by Unitone Hi-Fi on Wickedness Increased
:14 Three Car Jam by The Minutemen on Double Nickels

My longest tracks:

54:12 Baltimore by the jazz band Test, which I think is a whole set in Baltimore
32:13 25 - Tab by Monster Magnet
30:04 This Dust Makes That Mud by the Liars on They Threw Us All In a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top
27:37 Carnage Visors by The Cure
27:01 Bitches Brew by Miles Davis
26:23 Invasion by Revolutionary Ensemble on The Psyche
21:35 So That I May Come Back by Town and Country off their self-titled release

I skipped a couple Miles Davis numbers in there.

~Arum
currently listening to The The's Soul Mining

You know how much I love you

Just listened to the podcast of last week's Sound Opinions which was dedicated to cover songs that are better than the original. Johnny Cash came up when a listener proposed that his version of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" was superior. Needless to say, when the subject of Cash covering contemporary "alternative" artists came up, there were many accolades for his version of Nine Inch Nails's "Hurt." But for my money, the Johnny Cash cover that puts both those to shame is his version of "I See a Darkness" by Bonnie Prince Billy.

Oldham's version is great. No doubt about it. He approaches the song with melancholy and it seems to be sung to himself in a kind of interior monologue, despite the fact that the lyrics are addressed to "You." And oddly, the chorus of "i see a darkness...." seems somehow triumphant. Like so many Oldham performances, there's a mysterious and otherworldly quality to it. I remember when I first heard that record, lying on the floor with a former girlfriend on a cold and snowy winter afternoon. In that scene, at that time in my life, lying on the floor, the darkness was mine, and I knew the girl couldn't save me, in part because I didn't love her.

When I first heard Cash's version, it was many years later, in a claustrophibic attic apartment lying in bed on a hot summer night with a different girlfriend. This girlfriend had had a bizarre and difficult childhood, she struggled with depression, but she had a fragile, magic center to her that was beautiful and rare. I loved her. Cash perfoms the song not with melancholy, but with resignation.. the weight of his years, his sins, and his regrets infuse every word. He sings it to us, not for us, and when he sings the chorus, he projects pure dread at the darkness and a terrifying uncertainty at whether love can save him from the darkness. In that attic apartment, it was my girlfriend who saw the darkness, and my love couldn't save her.

Not only does Cash's version best Oldham's, it's probably the best song on any of the American recordings. It's an amazing song. Period. As I said, Oldham's version is really good, but it's Cash's world-weary and wizened delivery that best captures the strange cocktail of dread, despair, and hope, and that is the terrible magic of the song. I get goosebumbs just thinking about it.

To this listener, Cash's version is the definitive version. Man, I miss him.

Go to Hype Machine and do a little compare and contrast. Here...I'll even make the link for you.

Meow!

*Jumps up and down, to let everyone know she is here*

*Saunters away, thinking of the homeless guy I saw walking down the street, who sounded just like Tom Waits, if Tom Waits talked to himself in a violent fashion*

Waitin' for the band to return from the show

MX-80 Sound have been a favorite of mine since I first heard them at age 20. Out of the Tunnel remains a huge personal favorite, and I buy every absurd release down to Rich Stim's pre-MX-80 art project Chinaboise (CD reissue on Gulcher). Last year, they released their first CD since 1997 or something, called We're an American Band, and it turned up in my CD player this morning. With their usual blend of behemototic guitar playing and utterly absurd/absurdist lyrics, it's a cool, fascinating listen. Where in their early years, they both sounded like rock music and made rock music at the same time (the same could probably be said of Pavement circa "Cut Your Hair"), MX-80 now solely sound like rock music. Huge guitar riffs, verses and choruses, primitive drumming are all there. In the end, though, it somehow isn't rock music, just a deformed post-structuralist summation or an artist's rendering. Yes, it does include a rather poetic deconstruction of the Grand Funk Railroad hit from which the album derives its title.

Now listening, amiina, "Seoul".

I'll be traveling the next few days and probably not posting to this blog. I'll catch you on the other side. Neither rubber sharks nor Feargal Sharkey will be involved, I reckon.

The Short & the Long of it...

Well, an interesting notion, to sort your songs by duration, which I sometimes do when I need a short track to fill up a mix CD, but I never really thought of which were my best, and, I don't use itunes, the program I use happens to sort things out by directory and I have many directories filled with songs on my 3 computers...so I actually fired up itunes (which I do have, but don't use) just to do this task...let's hope it sucks in all of my files...

The first thing I noticed was a preponderance of tracks from the American Hardcore soundtrack...great doc, and some great tunes... This is Boston Not LA - The Freeze clocking in at a whole 20 seconds...and Milwaukee legends die Kreuzen's "Think for Me" a whopping 1:37, which compared to some of the other tracks here, makes this like prog rock or something...

Beyond that I will offer up these curios...

Jimmy Gilmer - Sugar Shack 1:58 (perfect malt-shop bubblegum pop!)
Bob Dylan - Suze (the cough song) (instumental track ending with Dylan coughing) 1:58
Hank Williams - Honky Tonk Blues (an acoustic version) 1:59
Lisa Ekdahl - Flyg vilda Fagel (not what you think...Swedish folk singer) 2:00
Four King Cousins - God Only Knows 2:04 (one these gals was on My Three Sons!)

But most of these songs are longer, I must have some cool songs under 1 minute, I just can't
seem to get them into itunes at the moment...

At the other end of the spectrum, I've got some interesting ones as well...(and as well as some
of those Johanna Newsom Ys tracks)

Ella Fitzgerald - Basella 10:28
Louis Armstrong - Let's Do It 11:45
Pink Floyd - Interstellar Overdrive 9:43
Bob Dylan - Idiot Wind 8:52
Van Morrison - You Don't Pull No Punches, But You Don't Push The River 8:50

These are truely some epic tunes!

Anyhow, that's the short and the long of it...

Speaking of XTC...

Actually, the post about XTC was a few down the list; I lack all experience in posting, sequentially or otherwise! Still, seeing the word "XTC" (and, yes, those quotation marks are indeed necessary!) made me think of the following exchange from an interview with Andy Partridge in the new issue of MAGNET:

the interviewer asked if he had any stories like "the Led Zepelin shark story."

"The nearest I could get was my rubber-shark story. That was my notorious way of not being unfaithful when I was on tour."

"Come again?"

"It was the best blow job I ever had. I bought it at a Woolworth's in Melbourne, Australia, on tour. I saw this soft, rubber shark about a foot long and thought,'Wow, if I stuck my dick in that, it'd feel really good. I could be faithful and not tempted by all these women now that I'm married.' So I thought, 'I'm gonna buy this rubber shark and fuck it.' I bought the shark, and it felt great. You'd get some suction going, a vacuum effect, just terrific. I used to wedge it under a cushion or a chair and fuck this rubber shark. My suitcase was full at the time, so I had to buy an extra box to take it around. I remember going through New Zealand with it and the customs agent asking me, 'What's in the case, mate?' I said, 'Well, it's a rubber shark.' 'Wise guy,' then he'd open it up and it'd be a rubber shark. It was great."

"Did it have a name, this shark?"

"Sharky. [laughs] Although after a while that stopped, because then I'd think of Feargal Sharkey. The last thing - literally - you want to be thinking of when you're blowing your wad is the lead singer of the Undertones."

The mind...it boggles!

The Short List

Sometimes I'll listen to my iTunes library alphabetically by song, or sometimes alphabetically by artist, but my favorite is to sort songs by duration. In that spirit, here is a list of the 5 best songs under 1 minute, and the best 5 songs over 10 minutes.

The Short List (in no particular order)
1. Hit (Guided by Voices / Alien Lanes) :22
2. Stop (Pink Floyd / The Wall) :30
3. Tahuti, Splendid Scribe (Impossible Shapes /TUM) :51
4. My Mummy's Dead (John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band) :59
5. Denver (Willie Nelson / Red Headed Stranger) :55

The Long List (also in no particular order)
1. Only Skin (Joanna Newsom / Ys) 16:53
2. I Dream a Highway (Gillian Welch / Time, The Revelator) 14:39
3. Desolation Row (Bob Dylan / Highway 61 Revisited) 11:21
4. Spiders Kidsmoke (Wilco / A Ghost is Born) 10:48
5. Pigs (Pink Floyd / Animals) 11:28

These lists naturally lead me to the question: What are the best GBV soungs under 1 minute, and what are the best Bob Dylan songs over 10 minutes.

I'm curious what other people's iTunes sorting yields. Blog away, people.

[Crossposted at Bob Loblaw's Law Blog]

Randomizer, I am the

Titanarum: yes...I had been unconvinced of Detholz! greatness before witnessing their live show. It was truly transcendent rock and roll. Frankly, I'm a fan of the live act over their records.

Sites to link to? How about Hype Machine: http://hypem.com/

I love these MP3 aggregators. It's a neat way to see what's piercing the consciousness of the music bloggers of the world, and it's a fantastic way to listen to songs by folks you might not know. A bunch of new Dungen showed up right before their new album dropped last month, which was a great way to get excited about Dungen again (Ta Det Lugnt rocked my world last summer).

It was on Hype Machine that I first got to hear some of the new Wilco record, Sky Blue Sky. Not sure where people stand on Wilco, but I'll be goddamned if Sky Blue Sky is not fucking great. I can be listening and hea The Band, The Allman Bros. Zeppelin (ca. Phys Graf), and not a little Robert Fripp in Nels Cline's guitar playing. It's been a pleasure settling in with this record. I was at first unconvinced by Nels Cline's guitar wizardry and blistering fast technique, but the more I hear it, the more I like it. He's very tasteful and musical with his playing, and even when there's a lot of notes coming fast and furious, they all make wonderful sense.

Most recent album spins:
Joni Mitchell: Don Juan's Reckless Daughter
Midlake: The Trials of Van Occupanther
Stephen Malkmus: Face the Truth
Bitter Tears: The Ginning Corpse who Went to Town
Van Morrison: Astral Weeks

The first time I really kissed a girl....

....Seventeen Seconds by The Cure was on the stereo. My iTunes is playing it now, the exact song.

Her name was Brenda and she was a cheerleader at Rufus King, and had Gordon Gano's math book (the singer from the Violent Femmes). She was rather pretty, and she was way smart, but we didn't have too many common interests. And her lips I thought were the texture of worms. Ick! I'm glad all ladies don't suffer from worm-lip ick.

~Arum, at lunch
listening to "In Your House"

Silence the Memories

I saw Those X-Cleavers. I even went to high school dances where bands covered Silence the Critics. I even went to high school dances where Bon Ton Society played (a very new wave local ban). I even bought the Bon Ton Society twelve inch, Korg synth and all. I shudder to think.

~Arum
currently listening to:
the mother and son feline team of Scamp and Edgar eat breakfast, noisefully

Silencing the Critics?

A reissue of two early-80s albums by a band in a small midwestern town, on a label known for reissues by SRC, Captain Beefheart, and Emitt Rhodes... it's amazing I hadn't bought it til now.

I knew about Those X-Cleavers from their appearance on the Milwaukee compilation The Great Lost Brew Wave. "Silence the Critics" is definitely not my favorite song, but I've periodically found it stuck in my head. As was inevitable, I grew curious to hear more, especially for $4 including shipping. The CD reissue on One Way includes two albums from 1982 and '84. The production sounds like a cheap imitation of commercial new wave, and some of the ska-tinged moves have aged awkwardly. At the same time, the songwriting is catchy and strong with memorable moments. It's an odd record that definitely sounds a bit dated, but it's also a fascinating and enjoyable view into an era long since passed. Not on par with the Dancing Cigarettes reissue on Gulcher (which is stylistically the closest thing that comes to mind) or the Human Switchboard LP (vaguely similar), but a fun listen with both a saccharine happiness and an odd dark side.

Another list: Music sites and resources worthwhile

Something great on the web worth linking to regarding music?

Submit your idea and an explanation why it's of measurable worth, and I'll link to it in the side bar.

I'm going with Aurgasm, a music blog I like, and Dusty Groove, a store a favor.

~aRum