Not a lot of time for an extensive post here, largely considering that those of us living in Southern California are living on borrowed time. Reportedly, a massive earthquake is imminent based on geological records and the data collected in 1977 by Larry Graham, former bassist of Sly & the Family Stone. Graham’s findings, succinctly titled "Earthquake" are collected on the Graham Central Station album, Now Do U Wanna Dance?

This amazingly thunderous noise-funk jam sounds more akin to early-90’s bands like Steel Pole Bathtub and/or the AmRep roster than it does a disco-infused funk-out. If you like early Funkadelic, but want a little more "delic" in the mix, this is the sound for you. Check out the crazy freak-out in the middle. Larry Graham is a God. And, lo, he tried to warn us nearly 30 years ago of our impending doom.

Perhaps Sly was also trying to tell us something with his equally far-too-advanced recent Grammy Awards performance.

(Download - "Earthquake")

On Friday April 14th, 2006 at Barbican Hall in London, Daniel Johnston and several of his admirers played a special concert together to celebrate him and his new documentary "The Devil & Daniel Johnston". His guests included Teenage Fanclub,  Vic Chesnutt, James Yorkston, Howe Gelb & Jason Pierce from Spiritualized. Jason along with Doggen (who’s also in Spiritualized), a String Quartet & a Choir played some new Spiritualized songs, some of Daniels songs and even a Spacemen 3 cover. Shit kills.

(Download - "Old Flame/Devil Town/Lord Let It Rain On Me")

(Download - "True Love Will Find You
In The End/Walking With Jesus")

(Download - "Coming Down/Funeral Home")

This is pretty much "the worst Ride record there is" according to most fans of the band I know. For some reason I’ve been listening to it allot lately. "Tarantula" is the band’s last record and they actually broke up right before it was released. They were similar to The Jesus & Mary Chain… but not quite as pissed off, cool or good. Andy Bell, the chap who sings all but one song on this record, now plays bass in pretty much the coolest band on the planet… Oasis. How much is that guy winning at life? Playing rad songs, hanging out with Liam and Noel all the time and talking about how cool they are… that shit must rule! Anyways, if you don’t own any Ride records I’d say pick up "OX4 - The Best Of Ride"… it’s a good place to start and includes a killer cover of The Creation’s "How Does It Feel To Feel?" not to mention "Chelsea Girl" and "Drive Blind" (two of my favorite jams by these dudes). Summer’s here!

(Download - "Black Nite Crash")

(Download - "Castle On The Hill")

(Download - "Gonna Be Alright")

I’ve been on a huge Beatles kick lately, I think it was this month’s Mojo on "The Story of Revolver" that got it started. I haven’t heard any new records I like a whole lot lately (although I just saw The Raconteurs play at The Henry Fonda Music Box here in Hollywood and they were really good) plus you can never go wrong with the Fab Four. So here are two songs from the Beatles that they released as a single in 1966, Revolver era bitch. "Paperback Writer" was the A-side and "Rain" was the B-side. "Paperback Writer" was the first single released by the Beatles which wasn’t about love or some crybaby shit. The story goes that Paul wrote it because he had been challenged by an aunt to write a song not about love. "Rain" is the first song to use backward tape, which Lennon said was the result of being stoned and accidentally spooling up the tape wrong way. See, being stoned is rad! Ringo is psyched on his drums on that one too. He said in an interview "I think I just played amazing…I think it’s the best out of all the records I’ve ever made. Rain blows me away. It’s out in left field. I know me and I know my playing… and then there’s Rain." Dude needs to go hang out with Noel and Liam so they can all talk about how rad they are. You can now find both these gems on a cd called "Past Masters Volume 2" along with other hits like "The Ballad of John and Yoko", "Revolution", "Get Back", "Day Tripper" and others… DO IT!

(Download - "Paperback Writer")

(Download - "Rain")

(Live video of "Day Tripper/Rain")

Kids, I apologize for my long absense in posting to Travis’ YouTube links page — er, I mean the Buddyhead blog — but, I think there’s been enough Pearl Jam, Black Crowes and Dick Ashcroft songs to keep you up-to-date on the trailblazing Adult Contemporary scene for some time to come.

So, to hasten my return to posting, here’s more of the same: Ye Olde Classique Rock… But, moreso as a little reminder that while the best rock music may be long gone, every sacred cow is nonetheless just a COW.

Do you ever get tired of hearing indie-rock jerkoffs regurgitating the same tired old storyline about the genius of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys? You know the drill, the oft-repeated, but seldom really understood notion that the Beach Boys’ music is the work of pure, tarnished genius. Remember, this idea came about in the days before we had figured out how to justify mocking the mentally ill by qualifying their pathetic art as "outsider music." Well, yeah, Brian Wilson is responsible for writing some downright catchy tunes in his eagerness to out-do both Phil Spector and The Beatles. But, genius? Nah… However, anytime I hear good songs like "Good Vibrations" or "Hang On to Your Ego" I am reminded of lesser-known nuggets of pop wisdom that fell so far from the tree of knowledge that we’d all easily forgotten them in the shadow of the love-good vibrations. I think the true "genius" of this pistol-whipped clan shows through clearest on tracks from the 1977 album The Beach Boys Love You whereupon Brian Wilson penned gems like "Johnny Carson" (an earnest paen to the late night talk show host: "He sits behind his microphone/he speaks in such a manly tone…/Every night at 11:30 he’s so funny…"), the thinly-veiled ode to getting a blow-job while driving "Honkin’ Down the Highway" and the penultimate summation of the Beach Boys in one 57-second blitzkrieg of inanity called  "Ding Dang."

I’d bet that 90-percent of the insipid indie-rock twerps today who listen to the Beach Boys because they’re  "supposed to" don’t even realize that the whole reason anyone liked them in the first place was for the same reason that people are tickled pink talking to a retarded person — because what they’re saying seems so incredibly funny!

(Download - "Ding Dang")

This month’s Mojo came with a cd that has various people doing Beatles covers of songs off of their "Revolver" album. The highlight of the free compilation for me is the Jim Reid (former singer of The Jesus & Mary Chain and currently Freeheat) version of "And Your Bird Can Sing". So far as a solo musician Jim has only released one song ("Song For A Secret") on a split 7 inch/cd with "Sister Vanilla" (which is his brother William Reid) and this cover, but it sounds pretty damn good. As far as I’m concerned these dudes need to quit wasting time and get the fuckin’ JAMC back together. In the meantime, get ready for the JAMC reissues Rhino is putting out on July 11th, check out the "I Hate Rock N’ Roll" video,and download some solo Jim from these two radio sessions that homeboy did.
* Janice Long Session - 3 mp3s from a live BBC2 radio session recorded December 12, 2005
* Evening Sequence Session - 2 mp3s from a BBC6 radio session recorded in late 2005

(Download - "And Your Bird Can Sing" Beatles cover)