Friday, August 28, 2009

Emotions in Motion

Yes, a fantastic title to a mediocre album by the late great(meaning hasn't been great lately) Billy Squier...but also a perfect phrase to describe the way I've been feeling as I have been working,rocking and working and now rocking again for these past few weeks. I'm off to Rochester, NY today for a charity gig with some old friends and some even older songs. We are going to OPEN the show with Freebird to cool the jets of the hecklers before they ignite.

I have thrown the family into a whirlwind of "Where are you, Daddy/Honey? ' slightly reminiscent of the six week tour I was on in March/April...it does suck...but I will be back in the Daddy seat in perfect time for my three year old's first day of pre-school. I will be quelling many tears of joy and fear and release that day. We are merely players, performers and portrayers as we watch our children grow.

Being in NY for most of the last two weeks in the stifling heat..I kept my ear hovering just above the ground to see what the kids were listening to and to keep my shite radar in perfect tune. I can't think of anything more exciting than Them Crooked Vultures for this fall...whether those emaciated boys with yellow framed glasses and their version of Kate Gosselin hair cranking gently The Decemberists or Yacht in their nanos care or not....I do and I know. Lets just sit back and watch a trailer shall we? Here they are at another secret appearance at a European festival that nobody looking forward to the VMAs would give a Britney shit or Beyonce deuce about. Fuck 'em. I've got a good seat. I'll always have a good seat to what's good.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

NYCIIIIIIIITTYYYYYY

Internet cafe
no doldrums allowed.
6:51 left on the timer.
Saw a man walking with a cat balanced on his baseball hat.
Completely comfortable.
Saw a man attack a payphone with every inch of energy he had left after
the umpteenth beer.
We used to like it here.
I don't have the minutes of attention to keep up
but yes I do...4:22
Spring Sttreet my 3 day daily beat
no beating the heat.
no stealing the treat.
wipe off the sweaty brow
reminisce and be complete...2:59
the characters line up and laugh at roll call
laugh at the fun of it all
absurdity is the port of call.
there are pictures at an exhibition.
Under temptation of submission.
I am on my way home with no clue for free
like it used to be.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Soundtracks and Habitats

I am back after a week off from writing, blogging and for the most part, listening to music.I had to ship off to NYC for a week of work..so in preparation, I brought my trusty 80 g ipod. It got real crowded with a life on ipod shuffle..turbulently indecisive among 12000 songs. I lost my attachment to my digital collection while trying to seperate (by song) my brooding and dealing with the year long absence of my sister...I felt fastened and displaced...without rhythm with my headphones on. Too much ease and no connection...instant gratification and stoic submission I felt like switching back to cassettes on plain old auto reverse.The waiting would have felt fine.

I made an effort to use music heard "by accident" or organically spilling out of situations as my soundtrack as I walked the "hot time, summer in the city" streets of New York. There was lots of sweaty people lead-singing out of tune with their overloaded earbuds/ipods grafted to tight skulls...anything from Arctic Monkeys to Foreigner to Kanye... blind black buskers with only 2 or three quarters in their collection hats doing "On Broadway" a Capella unaware of their suckability in the Union Square station, pumping house music thrusting out of an Abercrombie and Fitch relentlessly bombarding shoppers as shirtless male models take pictures with the gawky Asian tourists out front... dry and fuzzy reggaeton pinching its way through a fist sized transistor radio as I waited for my bodega bagel..... The soundtrack to our lives is bugs and breeze for some, busy bustle for others.... It has been an introspective tour of the soul for me, like a colon cleanse for the imagination, setting free parts of the brain that lay hidden like lazy bugs under rocks. Turn that rock over and watch what gets to squirm into new comfortable spots: That is what I felt like.....so much to listen to and too many decisions sometimes cancel each other out and end up a companion of white noise for a brain that was emotionally spent and needed rest. So I went organic.

Some of my favorite sounds included:

-an early morning Red Hook junkyard mongrel hooting and growling at me through the chain link while I walked by.
-the intermezzo of clashing cabs vying for space and passengers while flaring their horns.
-a disheveled man without a home mastering a junk made drum set while smacking amazing rhythms out using only empty 5 gallon buckets, a chunk of a radiator and chutzpah on Houston and Broadway.
-the cacophony of tourists asking directions on 34th and 7th in a rainbow of language.
-the french hipster with the beatbox and cigarette purging the same un-intelligible song three days in a row outside of the job site on Spring Street.
-subway wheels screeching demonic to a halt at Astor Place.

Wherever you are today....unplug, tune in and drop out if only for a minute. There is music in the corners of rooms and the backyards of the suburbs that are in no need of earbuds or digital files... there lies only the passion for listening and the deep breath of escape.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Embers and Echoes



I know you are out there
trying to put your words
your queries
and hopes for the children into the form of
frolicking birds
late day August thunderstorms
a cacophony of cicada wings whirring
northern breezes blowing the Tiger Lillies back and forth.
It is where I hear your voice
paired up with a natural occurrence
waiting for a response.

I have them, I do
my dear Meaghan
I talk from the inside
scrape off the darkness clinging to my bones
shrug off the loss smoldering in my thoughts.
Embers and Echoes
confront the echoes of lost conversations with you
shout into the canyon of where you are
on underground days where my heart lays like a rock on the shore
of a forgotten beach.
Pummelled by tides I am never prepared for.
Low and High
ebb and flow.
I am wading in a circle
shouting into the canyon
waiting for a sign from you.
Soothed by the echoes.
Pulled by the tide.
Swayed by the breezes
humidity blankets
ethereal journey
ashes of hindsight
binging on worry
My promise is fleeting.
On the front porch
Summer night wandering
through the faintly swaying trees
and the thick of the crickets.
I feel you come to me.
I feel your need to breach
the resonating dark.
The night shift.
I will wait there often.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Most Overrated Albums

First of all...RIP Les Paul. The man invented multi-track recording and one of the best sounding guitars in history. He played live every monday night in NYC. He was 94.He will be missed by anyone who knows what rock and roll is.

Les Paul is not to blame for any of the albums on this list. He only came up with the technology all of those years ago for some of these pompous musicians to lay this ca-ca down to tape.

Most of the albums on this list came from a thread in progress on one of my favorite websites: The Velvet Rope, where I have lurked for many years. This is not a personal list because Coldplay would take up 4 places and thats boring blogging. They are listed in the order they were found on the thread...not in decending levels of suckitude.

My comments/additions will come after the list.

1)Beastie Boys- Ill Communication
2)Radiohead-Hail to the Thief
3)Raconteurs-Consolers of the Lonely
4)Janes Addiction-Ritual De Lo Habitual
5)Nirvana-Nevermind
6)TV On the Radio- Return to Cookie Mountain
7)Wilco-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
8)Hotel California-The Eagles
9)Hole-Live Through This
10)Kings Of Leon-Only By The Night
11)Fleet Foxes
12)Vampire Weekend
13)Television-Marquee Moon
14)REM-Automatic For The People
15)Anything By The Hold Steady
16)Bob Dylan-Love and Theft
17)The Strokes-first album
18)The Sex Pistols-Never Mind The Bollocks
19)Sonic Youth-Daydream Nation
20)My Bloody Valentine-Loveless
21)Captain Beefheart-Trout Mask Replica
22)Anything by Ryan Adams

Here's some of my takes on that list:
1)Beastie Boys- Not one of their strongest albums...but Liscensed to Ill is much worse, and made every tight baseball cap wearin' idiot turn into a drooling pit monster.
2)Radiohead-HTTT- My least fav Radiohead album makes the best coldplay album(oxymoron) sound like The Wiggles.
3)Janes Addiction-As I've gotten older I now see what a tool Dave Navarro was besides being an average player...but Three Days from RDLH is a masterpiece.

4)Nirvana-Nevermind : frankly sir,you are a fucking idiot. Changed millions of lives and sent every spandex wearing light metal fuckwad back to the gas stations. Oh Yeah, the songs are colossal,too.
5)TV On The Radio- Worked alongside the bass player in NYC. Never had the heart to tell him that it was unlistenable, even if David Bowie loves 'em.

6)Wilco-YHF: This was my REAL intro to Wilco while in NYC in 2001-2002 and was just what I needed to bridge the gap between classic rock and indie. Impenetrable,IMO.

7)Hole-Live Through This- I did, and it hurt. Like a brain bunion.

8)Vampire Weekend- Currently topping my list of WORST BAND OF ALL TIME. I want to hang these smarmy suckwads by their izod sweaters or stab them with vinyl shards of their own Graceland lps.

9)Fleet Foxes- This is what happens when all of those hipster mag writers don't listen to the first two My Morning Jacket Albums..they hype a sound that already happened and everyone adjusts their glasses in unison in a Brooklyn cafe and calls it brilliant. Faerie Music for down and out Faeries. Pawn -your -guitar- and buy- a mandolin- music.

10)Kings of Leon-OBTN: Lets face it. The Followills know that their first two records are brilliant restless rockers with taut rough songs on them. But it's pick up truck music. Write something like Sex on Fire with its dumbed down U2 tones and Calebs scratchy voice attached, and the panties come off much quicker, the cheerleaders cry and the money rolls in.

11)REM- Automatic for the People: More like Automatic for the Exits for me. Why buy anything after Lifes Rich Pageant? I liked it better when I couldn't understand Stipe's struggling with his sexuality lyrics.

12)Bob Dylan-Love and Theft-I give up on the critics who laud this album: I think it won album of the year. I'm beginning to think Bob gargles with sand before his vocal takes because he knows how horrid it sounds. He 's just testing the Dylan lemmings to see how low he can go with his "masterpieces".

13)Anything by Ryan Adams: Yes, finally I agree. Prolific can also mean rushed,bland as christian folk and not worthy of any hype level past a local battle of the bands winner.

14)The Strokes- Faux sloppy and forgetful. The second coming of nothing in 2002.

I would like to add:

1)Anything by Pavement: The attitude of Vampire Weekend from decades past. Wordy,Nerdy and mindnumbingly dull.
2) Surprisingly: The Mars Volta. I started listening to At The Drive In Again. And realised there were several other guys in that band who probably couldn't take the pretentious prattling on of Cedric and Omar. Christ guys, even Mastodon can take it down a notch. More rock, less talk.
3) The Pixies- Never had it, never will.
4)The Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Can't get that hipster stink off no matter how many reverbs you unplug, Nick.
5)Willie Nelson- I'm sorry, crucify me. I've heard better voices from people doing sign language.

Lets hear it!


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Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Tiny Dancer In Chains

In the Who Knew Dept: Apparently Sir Elton is an Alice In Chains fan. Apparently, Jerry Cantrell is an Elton John fan. Seano loves them both; Alice in Flannel and Elton in Rhinestones: Bring it on!......This from the presses:

It’s an unlikely pairing, but it’s legit: Elton John sings on “Black Gives Way to Blue,” the title track on Alice in Chains‘ September 29th album. The song is a tribute to the band’s late frontman Layne Staley, who died in 2002 from a lethal speedball, and the collaboration was born when singer-guitarist Jerry Cantrell thought the track could use a little piano.

When a pal suggested Cantrell ring up Sir Elton John, “I remember laughing and saying, ‘Yeah, I’ll get right on that,’ ” Cantrell says in a statement. “But I decided it was worth trying and wrote Elton an e-mail explaining what that song means to us — that it’s a real, raw openhearted song for Layne.” The band sent John the track and were “blown away” when he quickly responded saying he was in. “Elton John is a huge influence on me as a songwriter and having him on that song is an amazing honor for us,” Cantrell adds.

John reveals that he’s been a “an admirer of Jerry Cantrell” for quite some time, and “couldn’t resist” the offer. “It was a great recording session with Alice In Chains for a beautiful song,” John says in a statement. Recording was done in Vegas, where John was wrapping his Red Piano concerts. “Walking into a studio and seeing the sheet music for that song on Elton’s piano made it meaningful on so many different levels,” Cantrell says in a statement. “The whole experience was pretty magical.”


Wow..Its Captain Fantastic and the Brown Tar Cowboys! Can You Feel the Drugs Tonight? Don't Shoot me Up,I'm Only the Piano Player... Of Course, I'm full of jest when I say that. Couldn't you tell?

Elton John was one of Layne Staley's favorite vocalists and was an great influence on Jerry...this is great news. The harder part is wondering when Elton had the time to find AIC on his radar in between buying too-tight red velvet jackets and shilling for Disney.

As far as I'm concerned, early Elton is fantastic. Taupin/John collaborated on some of my favorite albums like Honky Chateau and Madman Across the Water....so this odd pairing is heavily anticipated by yours truly.

Thoughts?

Monday, August 10, 2009

Them Crooked Vultures Will Conquer: And I Haven't Heard A Note Yet



WARNING: THIS POST REEKS OF SUPER FANBOY STATEMENTS.....

Them Crooked Vultures (or The Best Supergroup since Blind Faith) are for real: this from Pitchfork.com:

Them Crooked Vultures-- the megawatt supergroup of Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl, Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme, and Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones-- made their live debut last night at a Lollapalooza aftershow at the Metro club in Chicago. A small group of very lucky fans snapped up the show's tickets in three minutes; they got to witness Grohl back behind the drum kit, with Homme playing frontman.

Chicago was the musical nucleus of the earth on Saturday night,obviously. This post- Lolla Hullabaloo would have burned my socks right off of my shoes and left them burning and the only thing that would have put it out was the excitement pee running down my leg.

Them Crooked Vultures set list: "Elephants," "New Fang," "Scumbag Blues," "Dead End Friends," "Bandoliers," "Mind Eraser (No Chaser)," "Gunman," "Daffodils," "Interlude w/ Ludes," "Caligulove," "Warsaw," "Nobody Loves Me."

This would be a show I would crawl over 100 miles of gunpowder and glass path walled in by fire to see.

I would convert to a tofu and mushroom-only diet in exchange for a ticket.

I would maybe even sell my star wars figure collection..but not my comics.

Life is full of would-ofs and should-ofs and the future is sutured by Them Crooked Vultures.

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Links to MXDWN reviews

I have been moonlighting as the East Coast Concert Reviewer(that's Mr. East Coast Concert Reviewer to you,thank you very much)for a music based website called mxdwn.com I have decided from time to time to link to my reviews on that site, so that you can check them out and review them.

That's right, I want you to review my reviews. Let's dissect each others lives, shall we? Let's peek into what we do outside of this carefree blogosphere. Maybe some of you are miniature pony enthusiasts, or are into cuddle parties or Magic the Gathering...who knows. But I want us to know each other better. And I'm not talking to you Layla, Mr. Isorski or Mr. Coleman. I feel like I've known you three for years. I'm talking to my silent Ontario, Wisconsin, Oregon and Georgia fans. Lurkers...I see you....I know you are there....I will not bite...show me the goods.

Here is a link to my latest review of the Buckethead show I saw in Philadelphia recently. Please check out the rest of mxdwn.com as well. There are some great articles on there.

www.mxdwn.com/2009/07/25/reviews/show-reviews/in-concert-buckethead-tla-philadelphia-pa-may-31-2009/

thanks, Seano

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Strange Coincidence

WoW! This new video from the upcoming Beatles Rock Band video game was released today....which also happens to be my birthday!!!!



Am I going to start my gaming life as a 40-Something? I'll take this as a present from my generous readers, thank you, you shouldn't have.

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

100 bands I Have Seen Live

I saw this "quiz" on Facebook and thought I'd bring it here. Can you list 100 bands you have seen live? Well of course I can. No doubling up, no cover bands, no dance troupes or Up With People. BANDS. They don't have to be major label, but they have to at least have a drum set(with drummer). A great memory builder! Fun for the whole family! " Daddy, who is GWAR? " Alrightythen....heres my list:

1)The Police
2)The Fixx
3)Flock of Seagulls
4)Sammy Hagar
5)Van Halen
6)David Lee Roth
7)Rush
8)Fastway
9)Tesla
10)Roger Waters
11)Pink Floyd
12)Sonic Youth
13)U2
14)Meat Puppets
15)Stevie Ray Vaughan
16)Fabulous Thunderbirds
17)Johnny Cash
18)Buddy Guy
19)Leon Russell
20)Psychedelic Furs
21)The Alarm
22)Rollins Band
23)Phish
24)Santana
25)Crosby,Stills and Nash
26)The Allman Bros.
27)The Grateful Dead
28)10000 Maniacs
29)Bob Dylan
30)Johnny Winter
31)Alice In Chains
32)NIN
33)Ministry
34)Red Hot Chili Peppers
35)Mick Taylor
36)Spin Doctors
37)Cowboy Junkies
38)Fugazi
39)Bad Brains
40)Nirvana
41)Soundgarden
42)Tad
43)Monster Magnet
44)Pearl Jam
45)Robert Plant
46)Weezer
47)The Toadies
48)Hole
49)Eric Clapton
50)Tom Petty
51)Lynyrd Skynyrd
52)Neil Young
53)Jewel
54)Foo Fighters
56)Black Sabbath
57)Queens Of The Stone Age
58)Rolling Stones
59)Black Crowes
60)Blues Traveler
61)Aerosmith
62)Motley Crue
63)Guns N Roses
64)Faith No More

At Woodstock '94
65)Traffic
66)Peter Gabriel
67)Candlebox
68)Flaming Lips
69)Jackyl
70)Violent Femmes
71)Joe Cocker
72)Blind Melon
73)Primus
74)Porno For Pyros

At Woodstock '99
75)Alanis Morrissette
76)Big Sugar
77)Buckcherry
78)Bruce Hornsby
79)Collective Soul
80)George Clinton
81)James Brown
82)Jamiroquai
83)Jeff beck
84)John Entwistle
85)Megadeth
86)moe
87)Los Lobos
88)Mike Ness
89)The Tragically Hip
90)Our Lady Peace
At the first four Lollapaloozas 91-94
91)Siouxie and the Banshees
92)Body Count
93)Living Colour
94)Fishbone
95)Jesus and Mary Chain
96)Dinosaur Jr.
97)Babes In Toyland
98)Tool
99)Rage Against the Machine
100)Smashing Pumpkins

Wait! Theres more..
More Lollapalooza

101)Beastie Boys
102)The Verve
103)Guided By Voices
104)L7
105)Cypress Hill
106)Ramones
108)Rancid
109)Screaming Trees

110)Cheap Trick
111)Motorhead
112)Steve Earle
113)Audioslave
114)Incubus
115)Jurassic 5
117)The Donnas
118)The Distillers
119)Burning Brides

at ACL festival 2005

120)Widespread Panic
121)Roky Erikson
122)Robert Randolph and the Family Band
123)Coldplay
124)Bob Mould
125)Lucinda Williams
126)John Prine
127)Built to Spill
128) Govt. Mule
129)Doves
130)Drive By Truckers
131)Rilo Kiley
132)Spoon
134)Mofro
135)Aqualung
136)John Butler Trio
137)Mofro
138)The Frames
139)Grady
At ACL Festival 2007
140)My Morning Jacket
141)Joss Stone
142)Ghostland Observatory
143)The National
144)LCD Soundsystem
145)Bela Fleck
146)Yo La Tengo
147)Devotchka
148)Midlake
149)Rose Hill Drive

150)Clutch
151)Soulfly
152)Reverend Horton Heat
153)The Who
154)Paul McCartney
155)Heaven and Hell
156)Black Label Society
157)Slipknot
158)Chris Cornell
159)Iron and Wine
160)Calexico
161)The Cult
162)The White Stripes
163)The Stooges
164)Radiohead
165)Stone Temple Pilots
166)GWAR
167)Nashville Pussy
168)Biohazard
169)Bonnie Prince Billy
170)Yeah Yeah Yeahs
171)Mark Lanegan
172)Joni Mitchell
173)REM
174)Lou Reed
175)Mike Watt
176)Le Tigre
177)Beck
178)Ben Folds Five
179)Brant Bjork and the Bros.
180)Buckethead
181)Mastodon
182)Iron Maiden
183)Duran Duran
184)Ben Harper
185)Sum-41
186)Back Door Slam
187)Chuck Berry
188)Jerry Lee Lewis
189)Aretha Franklin
190)Bruce Springsteen
191)John Mellencamp
192)Yes
193)Sheryl Crow
194)Ani diFranco
195)Tortoise
196)Medeski,Martin and Wood
197)Rusted Root
198)Electric Six
199)The Parlor Mob
200)The Chesterfield Kings
201)Butch Walker
202)Wilco, how the hell could I forget Wilco.

I'm exhausted. What a self important list. But I love lists! I'm sure there's more I forgot about. But you really don't care. What a live life I've had.

I have never seen David Bowie,Jimmy Page or John Fogerty. I almost saw the Clash open for the Who in Buffalo in 1982, but I got punished and could not go. The Black Crowes cancelled their Buffalo show with Jimmy Page...of course I had tickets. Those are my regrets. I saw Nirvana's last American concert in Seattle,1994. I did meet Ray Manzarek, but he wasn't really performing. I saw Neil Young,The Allman Bros., Lynyrd Skynyrd and Wilco from the front row. The worst seats I ever had were for the Paul McCartney tour which I saw in Miami in 1990.My nose is still bleeding. We were in the last row of the highest tier in The Orange Bowl.

Let's hear some stories fans and fellow bloggers!

Wanna try your own?

Monday, August 03, 2009

Positive/Negative

My wife says I'm Mr. Negative. I say I'm Mr. glass-half-empty, but I drank the first half and it was grain alcohol or absynthe. It really depends on the day..the music news headlines, if somebody is texting while driving in the fast lane in front of me..or...you know, normal every day piss me off stuff. So I never know what I'm gonna get. But I've never been in a physical altercation in my life(except for that time my Dad chased me around the front yard after my killer toga party), never been in a real time shouting match, hell I never even got detention or a speeding ticket.

So where does it come from? This so called "negativity"
.
Is it anger or just good old frustration or NEITHER....I mean this place is called CIRCLE OF FITS!! But is my "negativity" turning away readers? Hell I just want to talk to more people whether you agree with me here or not.

I am an artist, lazy, tri-polar... sometimes suffering...but not angry, I used to write lyrics that one would deem angry, but it was the 90s and it was a real blood boiling , frantic nomadic-flannel frocked- find myself time in my life. I might still be on that journey a decade and a half later.

I used to think that I had taken so many hard hits in my 20s that I was entitled to feel angry...but is that the origin? No.

I had a great childhood..two great parents back in the day. They can't stand each other now, but were caring, focused parents who allowed for creative expression, were not overbearing, didn't force us into clubs or over activity or sports and maybe gave us too MUCH freedom BACK THEN. Is my childhood the origin? How could it be? Nothing bad really happened (except for the time my friend Brian cracked his head open in my yard and I ran away after watching his arterial spray cover my kitchen floor as my MOM held a towel over it.) I assume Brian is fine, now. He was 7 then.

No, I don't believe it. I don't think I'm negative. Here's what I think:

I prefer to think of myself as a critic...a life long critic of everything from fashion choices,relationship choices, lifestyle choices, religious choices to art,poetry,humor, music and film.

I am a critic not because I am an expert or all white bread and bourgeois ..I am a critic because of a blurry concoction of MY OWN bad choices, my membership in a wild array of different groups of peers during formative years and my tight grip on common sense after years of never seeing the value of it. And I love me some music and some writing! It might be as delicately simple as that.

If I am negative here as well as everywhere else..I guess its because I can hide behind this keyboard and continue to complain...err critique music, life and a life of music. As a matter of fact, it energizes me...it makes me feel POSITIVE.

I don't really know what I was trying to convey with this post...but I sure feel good now. Have a great day!

Tomorrow.... A list of Albums that really suck no matter what the critics say...

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Sunny Sunday Music

Yes, its a bright one in the suburbs today. For some sarcastic reason all I can think of is Mark Lanegan and how a storm follows him wherever he may be. Its hard to keep track of one of my very favorite vocalists, but judging from this new version (2007) of his great song Kingdom of Rain (1994)by a band called the Soulsavers, he remains elusive,busy and buried in mystery. He sings on their version because it would be foolish to have anyone else get that low.

You might want to go to the circus,have a barbeque, a jacuzzi orgy, or watch a Peter Sellers movie before watching this on a bright sunny day....its one brilliant downer, beautifully done.