Back in May of ‘92 I was handed an advanced copy of the Lemonheads It’s A Shame About Ray. It was the very first album review that I did for the now defunct id Magazine, and it was a giant part of “my musical eye opening.” While Seattle had led the world towards what would be called “alternative” (whatever that means) this album slapped me in the face way harder than anything coming out of the so-called grunge scene.
It was twelve songs of pure ‘jangle pop’ joy that played like folk/punk/country/power-pop/lo-fi and whatever other style you decide applies all at the same time. You could play it at a party or a campfire. It had the energy of the Ramones with the pop sensibility of Big Star and the emotional depth of Gram Parsons. Under thirty minutes in length, Ray was a meaningful shot of music that…
Back in ’93 I was handed a copy of Big Star’s – Columbia: Live at the University of Missouri. It was my entrance into the world of Big Star. Previous to this I had heard the odd track on my campus radio station as well as seeing numerous references as influences by many of my favorite artists, but I had yet to hear a whole album. One song caught me right away.
Perhaps the greatest song the rock masses never heard is Chris Bell’s “I Am The Cosmos.” Even for those lucky enough to have heard Big Star back in the 70’s, “Cosmos” was a single that saw only limited release in Memphis in 1978 and certainly never attained (like Big Star itself) national attention. Bell himself would be killed in a car accident later the same year.
Still, like a few other legendary acts (The Velvet Underground, Flying…
Just before Christmas I was flipping through the pages of e-bay, day dreaming about all the expensive things that I neither need nor can afford, when I came across a listing for one of the greatest albums ever released – The Beatles: Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Now ordinarily I might not have stopped to look seeing as I already have a couple versions, but this was a grey marble style vinyl, and it was priced ‘under’ thirty dollars.
“WTF”
I placed a bid, not expecting to actually win and the family and I left to spend a couple seasonal days with my in-laws.
Upon my return I found out I won…, again – “WTF”
So now I need to find out what I’ve bought and why it was worth owning.
Well, this particular piece of wax was a limited version put out in Canada only in the year…
One of my favourite artists on this planet is Aimee Mann. Album for album there just hasn’t been a record she has put out that made me doubt where she is going. Even her latest effort with Ted Leo, The Both (which I wrote about a while ago), was an incredibly satisfying union that I hope happens over again and again. (Get it here)
However, Aimee has also provided me with perhaps the greatest example of ‘buy it’ or miss out that I can get.
Coming off an Academy Award nomination for the soundtrack to Paul Thomas Anderson’s film Magnolia, Mann released what is probably her most well known record Bachelor #2 or, The Last Remains of the Dodo. The album also included several songs from the Magnolia soundtrack and was incredibly well received by critics and fans alike.
A couple years later Mann released the phenomenal Lost In Space, which was really well received by British critics, and dumped on by North American ones. Regardless, she would appear in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV) performing two songs from it. The art work for the project was done by award winning cartoonist Seth, which just added to the cool factor on this record. It still remains one of my favourite.
Of course both of these albums were put out before the recent vinyl revival, so they appeared only on the compact disc format…
UNTIL
2006
Mobile Fidelity, which loves to re-release critically heralded records got together with Mann. Now I also wrote about MoFi a while back, but to briefly recap, they do awesome things with wax, and they do it all on audiophile grade vinyl (180 gram or higher), from original source tapes and in limited numbers. When the album is done right – it is a collector’s dream come true.
Bachelor #2 and Lost in Space were released at the same time and likely would have put you back anywhere between 30 and 45 dollars back in 2006.
Well, nine years later.
A vinyl copy of Bachelor #2 sells for $203.84 off of discogs, and between $226.38 and $320.69 on e-bay.
A vinyl copy of Lost In Space sells for $274.42 on discogs and also $226.38 + on e-bay.
I don’t know about you, but that is out of my price range. I mean maybe if I won the lottery, but, well, like so many other cool things – it’s a nice thought but reality is where I live.
So all I can say is this…
Hey Aimee, if you’re out there, maybe you could re-release these records on vinyl again, and maybe some others too. I promise to buy at least two or three copies of each as my sister is also a fan and they make great birthday and holiday gifts.
P.S. If I could also get ya to sign this poster I have for my kids; it was their first concert ever, and you know, that would be just kinda awesome and stuff, and maybe you know… well maybe bring your Christmas show north to Toronto once… and… well, thanks for considering, and putting out great music, and…
I wasn’t really going to write about WKRP in Cincinnati: The Complete Series, but when I posted watching it on my Facebook page, a few people were quite curious… so here we are. Now obviously, I’m not reviewing the show itself. If you’re reading this it’s because you want to know if the DVD release by Shout Factory has done justice to your lasting impression of the show.
Let’s start with a brief history lesson. WKRP ran from 1979 -1983 and due to a constant shifting in schedule it never became a top rated show. However, once it was in syndication and given a regular slot on the TV schedule, its repeats were often beating prime-time shows in the ratings. My own memories of the show are from watching re-runs as a teen.
Then it disappeared. The show just stopped airing. The reason was its subject matter… oh not…
It’s funny the tricks that your mind creates for some screwed up database of how you remember things. As I drive on the 401 there is a man-made lake that you can see as you drive by the Niagara Escarpment, I think it is named Lake Kelso. Hundreds of times I driven by this spot in all seasons, weather, and times of day and every time I smile. The opening chords to “Sister Havana” play in my head and I picture an old Volvo with a tape deck that has wires hanging out, stretching toward a CD player that rests on a pillow on the floor. My roommate Kevin is hyped by this band and is telling me the finer details of their former indie label existence. I’m enjoying the song and nodding a lot as I look through the CD booklet. One song becomes another and by the time we hit downtown Toronto and the final notes of “Heaven 90210” ring out, I’m a fan. I know that when I get home I’ll be picking up this record and telling everyone who will listen, Saturation is a GREAT ALBUM!
Later that night as Urge Overkill took the stage things were a little different than usual. It being 1993, most bands were dressed down in ripped jeans and whatever t-shirt was handy at the moment. These guys were in flashy suits with big gold chains that had carried the UO medallion around their necks. As the show kicked in, the maybe 400 people present were treated to a freakin’ rock spectacle of epic proportion. For the next couple hours this band was convincing this audience that they, Urge Overkill – Nash Kato, Edward (King) Roeser and Blackie Onassis were the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band on the planet. They swaggered, they posed, and they had a great album that was being performed in glorious fashion. Walking out of Lee’s after the show I was a ‘HUGE FAN’ and absolutely convinced they would be massive.
Critics loved them, other rock stars couldn’t heap enough praise on them, and they were in every alternative magazine of the time being ‘rock stars’. But that was pretty much the height of it all. They just didn’t catch on. The next album, Exit The Dragon, didn’t capture audiences imagination the way Saturation had and they broke up.
So here it is more than twenty years later, and I want to honour that day, that time, when for a couple hours Urge Overkill was the world’s greatest band. So I want this:
Problem is the price and the condition. A good clean copy with a mint cover is around $100 once you add shipping. Oh well, maybe Geffen will do a re-release on vinyl… that would be cool! Still I want this album in my collection. I want this beautiful piece of orange vinyl playing at 33rpm as it takes me back to memories of Lake Kelso and Lee’s Palace.
Ok, you have started a vinyl collection and you want to get a few of those classic records you loved so much back in the day. Unfortunately, the used copies you found sound like crap and you don’t know where to turn. Well, first place to stop is… http://www.mofi.com/Articles.asp?ID=255
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab has been around (with a brief absence) since 1977 and are known for making the best quality vinyl on the market. All their vinyl is put together using the original master tapes and then recorded onto the vinyl at half speed to make sure the music is recorded with “greater precision”. Essentially, Mobile Fidelity are the biggest name in the audiophile vinyl market. Actually they have done similar things with CD’s, and over time I’ve come to own a few of their products. You’ll pay a bit more than the standard vinyl and CD prices, but the…
Legendary punk bands best known song, just because I was playing Guitar Hero the other day and it reminded me how frickin’ cool they are. I’ll be starting to write about some past Record Store Day finds and Social Distortion will definitely be a part of it. (And rumour is, their first record will be coming out on vinyl for RSD)
“Redemption Song” – Joe Strummer
There is so much more to Strummer than the Clash. Damn I miss him. Streetcore was re-mastered for vinyl back in 2012, and comes highly recommended from this reviewer and many others.
“Help” – The Damned
I love punk covers of classic songs. Either you love the Damned or you never got into punk at any point in your life.
“Secret Agent Man” – Dwight Twilley
Singer / Songwriter almost no one has heard of, yet captures my attention with some great songs… and of course, I love this cover – so there! Actually comes from an album full of covers.
“Blood and Roses” – The Smithereens
Something about the Smithereens and their brand of 80’s power-pop catches me every time I listen. They are just so damned easy to sing along with.
“Get Up” – Bleu
Then you take that power-pop thing into the 2000’s and give it to a guy who loves the studio and with a bit of blending you end up with Bleu. Sure it’s another rock song about staying strong in the face of adversity, but we can all use one of those from time to time.
“I Think We’re Alone Now” – The Rubinoos
Shift back down a gear and we end up with cult fixtures the Rubinoos who are famous for providing the theme for Revenge of the Nerds and taking Avril Lavigne to court for plagiarism.
“September Gurls” – The Bangles
Awesome cover of Big Star, who are the originators of the power-pop genre, the Bangles are just a lot of fun to hear at any time.
“The Great Salt Lake” – Band of Horses
Was gifted to me when I was doing all that “driving.” Was a great companion during hard times. Sometimes a few songs can make all the difference.
“Better Man” – Beth Hart
Another of those ‘musicians musician,’ Beth Hart is well known amongst her peers, but hasn’t found a door big enough to get her past the small venue life. Weird, because every time I hear her I wonder why she isn’t bigger than many stadium playing bands.
“When The Stars Go Blue” – Ryan Adams
One of my favorite tracks off Gold (which I kinda talked about a week or so ago), this is one of those songs that just gets covered a lot. The Coors w/Bono did a pretty good cover… although I’ll still take the original.
“Rocket Man” – Elton John
Or should I say “Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going To Be A Long, Long Time).” I couldn’t resist putting it on here right after Adams seeing as the post from last week featured them both.
“Burnin’ For You” – Blue Oyster Cult
Sometimes when you put on one classic 70’s track, you feel like hearing another. What I always loved about these guys is that they never seemed to fit into a genre proper. They weren’t metal, or prog, or … they were just a band that put out some songs I really liked.
“Second Option” – Caitlin Cary & Thad Cockrell
I’ve always loved this song, but also found it strange that Cary would collaborate with a vocalist who sounds so similar to what she already had in Whiskeytown. I hear this and I pretty much picture Ryan Adams singing it.
“The Day That Lassie Went To The Moon” – Camper Van Beethoven
This was really my introduction to Camper, who I discovered after Cracker (go figure). Right away I just fell for the quirky characters found in Camper songs and have remained a fan ever since. I was lucky enough to see them together a month back.
“A Long December” – Counting Crows
I don’t know why I consider these guys a guilty pleasure, but I’m a fan. For some very odd reason, every time I hear this song I picture Kermit the Frog singing it. Really, I just think the green muppet himself would do an awesome version.
“Deadwood” – Dirty Pretty Things
I was rather bummed when the Libertines called it a day after only two records… I was cheered up when I heard “Deadwood” blast out my speakers. Good to hear that the Libertines have gotten back together, but I’m not holding my breath over the quality of work that will come out of it. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
“Horses” – Gemma Hayes
Something about this song just frickin’ caught me and has never let me go. It was just the kind of song that gets you to buy the record and then the whole back catalogue.
“Need Your Loving Tonight” – Queen
Just because I have been spending a bit of time listening to them recently, I think I’m just about over this phase.
“I’m A Little Airplane” – Jonathan Richman
Just like on that Sesame Street bit, my kids and I would spread are arms out, sing and pretend to fly.
I suppose I could have added up the kilometres, but that information wasn’t relevant.
Distance
Doesn’t have a goddamn thing to do with how far you have travelled.
Locked in thoughts of where you were and where you’re going without the benefit of perspective. Each moment passing without the ability to reflect on it, because time passes and you can’t grasp it. Words linger without being able to wrestle them to the ground and beat them for information.
Instead there is only me, the kilometres and the music I’ve chosen to spend my time with.
Driving back and forth through snowstorms, Mark Linkous sings “When you raise your head from your pillow don’t delay / Because people decay / Will you let the rays of the sun help you along / I woke up and all my yesterdays were gone.” I might have a tear. It depends on which day; which snowstorm; they kinda blend together like the snow as it settles on the ground.
December 24, 2009 is the last Christmas I have with my parents. It isn’t pleasant. Sick people don’t make for good company… and by this time we’re all sick. They have cancer – I have depression. Everyone else is just sick with worry. None of us know yet.
Dark Night of the Soul is playing in the car on the ride home – another snow storm. Vic Chesnutt is singing “What went on in my horrible dream / I was peering in through the picture window / It was a heart-warming tableau / Like a Norman Rockwell painting / Until I zoomed in / I was making noises in my sleep / But you wouldn’t believe me when I told ya / That I wasn’t with someone in my dream / Catfish were wriggling in blood and gore in the kitchen sink / Yeah, I told ya / I told ya / I told you / Now sweetie, promise me / That you won’t sing /This sad song, grim augury.”
On boxing day, as I drive alone towards my parents house I hear of Chesnutt’s death. He took a bunch of muscle relaxants on Christmas Day and never came back. Some tears hit me and I’m not sure if they are for me or him. He was such an awesome songwriter.
New Year’s eve, my parents are both being taken from their home by ambulance. My mom needs surgery, my father can’t take care of himself and I can’t be with both at the same time. Separate rooms in palliative care two hours away from me. Peterborough – nice city, full of shitty memories. I’ve grown to hate Highway 115/35.
Frank Black is screaming “I’m pluckin’ all day on my angel’s harp / Shoutin’ at the rising moon / Knowin’ that I will soon stay” and I’m driving in another snowstorm… following an ambulance from Peterborough to Toronto. Cars are sliding around, but I take my time, life has handed me enough drama, it doesn’t need me to create more by being an idiot.
After the surgery my mom is in and out of consciousness, sometimes doing well and sometimes not; talking to doctors about my parents is like watching a yo-yo go up and down without any tricks.
Iggy Pop sings “A massive headache in my aging skull / Means I do not feel well / Pain, pain, pain / Bad brains must always feel pain.” Maybe, but I’ve got a steady diet of pain killers and muscle relaxants to keep that shit at bay. There are too many places to be and I‘m never in the right place.
She died. My mom. I don’t know what I was listening to when I found out. I was five minutes from the hospital in another fuckin’ snowstorm. And after, I was alone in the parking lot, distraught, destroyed, and I don’t remember what I was hearing or seeing.
February turned to March, and there was more snow and more trips and the doctors and nurses knew me by name and the Black Keys, Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash had joined the soundtrack of my trip along with Dark Night of the Soul. Two days before my father died Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse) shot himself.
“Our souls / Time slippin’ by / I call out your pain / All alone / Shadows movin’ / Shadows movin’ / Shadows have long gone by / Dark night of the soul”… words, they haunt you more if you place them into your own context. They take on meanings that the writer never had. I slip further in thought.
Like Chesnutt, Linkous music had meant a lot to me. It had seen me through some good and bad times… and there should have been more. Both had put out an amazing repertoire of tunes and suddenly – like my parents, they were gone.
When the hell everything turned to shit I don’t know, but when my mourning turned into a full out depression, I got help. That was four years ago.
“Daddy’s Gone” spins on the turntable. A tear drops. Not for my parents… it’s for my kids. Cancer doesn’t just rob the sick of life; it steals time from the living; it steals focus away from happiness and places it squarely in survival mode. Caregivers and their families endure but those too young to understand see smiles slip away when heads turn from their eyes to look upon the photos on the wall. Funny, was I just describing cancer or depression?
Every few months I listen to this record and it takes me to places to important to forget. The emotional resonance just pulls me in and washes over me. Then, for a short time, I mourn again, and then I move on.
We would stay up and just talk until the wee hours. It was a bond we had, although it probably meant way more to me than her. Cousins, although not by blood, when my aunt said we were too old to sleep in the same room, we instead just went to the sofas down stairs and kept the conversation going.
There wasn’t any specific music as we chatted, it’s just that Queen’s The Game reminds me of those times. It was at at my cousins place where I first listened to this record but over the years it began to fade into the background, until I recently picked up this used copy on vinyl. It was the only format that I really wanted to own it on. I’m sentimental that way. If I originally heard it on vinyl, then that is how I want it now.
Queen put out ‘better’ records of course. (Although, The Game has sold more than any other Queen record due to two number one hits “Another One Bites The Dust” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”)
Early on they did the prog thing, and then they started this hybrid roaring twenties in the distant future bit. Honestly, I always pictured Queen as being at their best when imagining a movie cross of styles between Metropolis and Blade Runner. While Mercury and May were always a pretty much “over the top” duo, The Game along with the Flash Gordon Soundtrack was the end of the FM years for Queen as they began turning towards Mercury’s more ballad and broadway inspired material. He has always been the greatest vocalist to come out of “Rock”, but in the 80’s and 90’s it was as if he wanted to prove it… in my experience, when the ego gets bigger than the music, that’s when an artist begins to really… um… suck!
From The Works on I just couldn’t get into it. “Radio Ga Ga” was a song that just forced a change in the station. Maybe the Brits at Live Aid were into it, but that song drove me insane.
So it was nothing new after that. Sure I would, and did go back to listen to Night at the Opera and Day at the Races, but it was like photographs of days gone by. The Game, is a great classic record, but it is best suited as an entrance to memories. My cousin and I see each other now and then, but it’s been a long time since we sat up talking late into the night about nothing and everything. Meanwhile Queen keeps trying to keep memories alive, and in the process kinda ruin the legacy they have.
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