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.

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.

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!

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?

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.