Ramblin’ Jack Elliott has put out a shit load of records (most of which I haven’t heard), was friends with Woody Guthrie, inspired Bob Dylan’s playing style, appeared on Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue in 1976 and now at the age 75 has signed to the same label as Nick Cave (and his new killer band Grinderman), Tom Waits, Neko Case, Merle Haggard and Elliott Smith. Yup, he’s cooler than you’ll ever be and that photo up top is kinda old. Jack signing to Anti means… now I get his records for free in the mail so I can write about em. On homeboy’s new record, "I Stand Alone", he’s got some "youngsters" helping him out… DJ Bonebrake (the drummer of X), Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker and jive turkey Flea. I’m really digging the song,"Driving Nails in My Coffin" and his spoken word piece "Woody’s Last Ride" is pretty cool. Anyone know what old Ramblin’ Jack records are the ones you wanna hear? Fill me in… more downloads here.
If you aren’t feelin’ the country/folk vibe today because you’re already a little down… pound some coffee and download these two Oasis demos. That always works for me.
I haven’t been to a movie theater in about eight months because last year it seemed like every movie I went to totally sucked balls. And I can’t afford to drop $10 and up for ball suckage. It’s called netflix, maybe you’ve heard of it? So yeah, I had lost faith in going to the theater. Well I’ve already seen two good flicks this year, so I guess I’ve got the faith back a little. Either that or I just pick better movies now.
Yesterday I saw "Pan’s Labyrinth" and it was surprisingly good. I got dragged to it and figured it was going to be some Harry Potter bullshit for kids but it was totally entertaining and super violent so I’m positive it’s made for adults. I also highly recommend seeing "Children Of Men", one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. Pretty cool soundtrack too (Deep Purple, Donovan, King Crimson, Jarvis and John Lennon) aside from the lame songs by The Kills and The libertines, I didn’t need to hear those. Check out the trailers for both movies as well as a clip from the British TV show Bo’ Selecta! The British may have shitty teeth, weather and food but they’ve got way better music and TV. Dave Clifford linked me to that and I figured seeing as how he’s too busy blowing guys to post here anymore, I would. Thanks Dave. Oh, make sure you watch the Bo’ Selecta! clip til the very end… there’s a pay off.
Children Of Men
Pans Labyrinth
Jenny McCarthy interviewed by The Bear on Bo’ Selecta! In The USA
Where have those good times gone? I’ve been on a Kinks kick for a while now, just can’t seem to get my fill of Ray and his homeboys. I posted "20th Century Man" from "Muswell Hillbillies" back in August (if you missed that click here), but lately I’ve been rockin’ lots of the early shit. Check out "Where Have All The Good Times Gone", "Milk Cow Blues" and "Till The End Of The Day". I’m gonna go catch a movie. Saw "Children Of Men" and it’s killer. I guess Michael Caine’s based his character on and older John Lennon (they were friends)… little trivia for you.
I really wanted to post more Oasis songs on here but I figured that since every other post lately has been a Gallagher brothers tune it’d be better if I posted some Gary Glitter. Liam and Noel are stoked on Gary Glitter. I’m not much for glam rock usually but Gary kinda kicks ass. I mean who can’t get down with songs called "Do You Wanna Touch Me? (Oh Yeah!)"? I sure can. Gary’s in jail for touching kids in some weird country. Anyone know when he gets out? Check out this video of him and his band not really playing… the drummer is my favorite… can you say tripping? He can.
Nick Cave’s new band Grinderman (click here if you missed my post about them last month) just posted a video for their single "No Pussy Blues" on their myspace page. As you might guess… it’s bitchin’. How come I don’t get invited to house parties like the one in this video? damn. Oh well… Preach on brother Nick… preach on..
I officially have an angry beer gut today. I’ve probably actually had it for much longer, but today is the first day I’m accepting that it’s there. I wish you could kill beer guts by pouring pitchers of beer down your throat on top of them. If that was the case mine would be gone immediately. Sometimes life’s a bummer.
Below are two songs I’ve been into lately that remind me of each other. Again… nothing new. The first one is my favorite late era Black Sabbath song. Bill Ward (the drummer) sings it, not Ozzy. Before I knew better I thought it was a Beatles song. The second download here exactly that…. my favorite late era Beatles song, "The Ballad of John and Yoko". John’s so rad.
Check out the videos too… Axl tripping balls in his spandex bike shorts back in the good ol’ days and The Beatles killing it back in the really good ol’ days.
So I guess they announced who was playing Coachella today. If you ask me.. I think it’d be a lot cooler if Van Halen was playing Coachella. Diamond Dave, the Halen bros and Wolfgang killing it on bass… fat and 15. As Eddie told Howard Stern… "He’s DANGEROUS!"
Believe it or not, I’ve been getting into Van Hagar lately. It grows on you. Suck on "Poundcake" from a small record called "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge". The Red Rocker and this dude on the left here just GOING OFF! Hell Yeah!
I’ve never been a huge fan of The Jam, they’re cool and all but they never really hit me between the eyes like a lot of other bands have. But I might have to dive into em a little deeper after hearing Noel’s cover of their song "To Be Someone (Didn’t We Have A Nice Time)". I found the song here (it’s a pretty cool site) and it was recorded for a comp called "Fire & Skill: Songs of The Jam" on which Liam also covers the song "Carnation" (which if anyone has… please email me).
I’m gonna have to go out on a limb and say Noel’s version smokes the original. And here’s why I’m thinking that… When Paul Weller wrote the song near the beginning of the Jam’s career it was penned as a tongue in cheek tale, it’s upbeat and loaded with humor. When Noel’s singing it, he throws all the humor and everything upbeat about the song straight out the window. And you can tell homeboy means what he’s singing, he even kinda ends up sounding like Ozzy a bit when he starts going off at the end. Weller’s lyrics couldn’t be anymore similar to Oasis’ quick ride to fame and how they took a creative nosedive right around the "Be Here Now" era. Noel gives a nod to the real life similarities with his addition of "ain’t that the truth" at the end.
With that said, I’m gonna make a prediction and say that the next Oasis record is gonna be really good. Maybe not “Definitely Maybe” good, but close. For two reasons… One, they’ve got it back, "Don’t Believe The Truth" was a good record. And two, they’re out of their record contract so nothing would feel better than a giant fuck you in the way of record sales. But, I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Yeah I know, there’ve been a lot of Oasis posted here lately… but if that’s a problem for you, you’re fired dude.
I’ve never been a huge Prince fan. Sure he’s talented… but I’ve just never really gotten into his music or him. Until yesterday when my friend showed me this video of Prince just killing it. Dude just solos-right-now over "While My Guitar Gently Weeps " during the Tribute to
George Harrison. Check out how bummed Tom Petty is when Prince just keeps shredding over the part where he’s supposed to sing and George Harrison’s kid starts laughing. The best part is how he leaves the stage… takes his guitar off, throws it and walks off without looking at anyone. Fuck, Prince is totally cool.
Has Prince made any good records lately? Anyone here a Prince fan?
Supposedly, we can thank Donovan for Led Zeppelin becoming a band in some round-about-way. The story goes that Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones played on his record "The Hurdy Gurdy Man", met John Bonham at the recording sessions and Zeppelin grew out of that… dude gets points for that in my book.
"Sunshine Superman" has been the album of choice for me lately, the title track is almost impossible to un-stick from your head once it’s there. I’ve been humming it for weeks. "Superman or Green Lantern ain’t got a-nothin’ on me!"
Donovan’s also got Beatles connections… John Lennon and George Harrison have both said they were influenced by Donovan. In the video for the Beatles’ "A Day in the Life" you can see a close up of "Sunshine Superman" playing on a spinning turntable. That’s cooler than anything that you’ll be able to brag about.
Homeboy was also down with Dylan and Joan Baez. He was often unfairly called a Dylan imitator as well as "The British Dylan". Dude was pretty much always in Dylan’s shadow… In face if you check out the Dylan dvd "Don’t Look Back" you can see Dylan smoke him with a little song called "It’s All Over Baby Blue"… maybe you’ve heard of that one?
A while ago I wrote about seeing Noel Gallagher with Gem play rad Oasis B-sides at the Wadsworth Theatre in Westwood (click here for that post)… well here’s a killer recording of pretty much the same show that he did in Melbourne, Australia. It’s soundboard quality and I guess this came out down-under as some limited release. For those who saw any of Noel’s solo shows, here’s a little reminder of how fuckin’ rad that night was. For those who didn’t, here’s what you missed…
P.S. Attention dude who’s in charge of booking Coachella… let’s not blow it this year, PUT OASIS ON THE BILL BRO! It’s three days this year, at least have Oasis play one of em if not all three. DO IT!
Saw this band called Chronic Heist over the holidays in the northern lands. A manic blend of 70s croony vocals over slightly mathy riffage™. Shall I say Free and King Crimson in a Dischord band meets Herman Munster? Their drummer is amazing live and unfortunately the insufficient PA system drowned out the vocals when I saw them… It’s a crying shame too as they have some catchy vocal hooks! The album took me a few listens but now I think I "got" it. Top notch! And to top it off the singer’s nickname is "Fagge" (pronounced "Fah-geh"), pretty amazing for us native English speaking folks.
Someone over at Mojo obviously likes The Jesus & Mary Chain as much as I do, if not more.
Here’s the part where I rant and it doesn’t make too much sense…
JAMC won "The Maverick Award" last year (whatever that means), the re-issues got super good reviews, there was a big article on them in another issue, Jim Reid covered "And your Bird Can Sing" for their Beatles "Revolver" compilation and now this new issue’s cd comp comes with Jim covering "(I’m) Stranded". That’s a lot of the Reids man.
Jim is obviously stoked on covers, cuz the b-side of his second (solo) single "Dead End Kids" is him making Bob Dylan’s - "If You Gotta Go, Go Now" sound like a Velvet Underground song.
Anyways, here’s Jim’s newest cover (which sounds doesn’t sound like he spent too much time recording it), along with the original punk version from The Saints for all you posers out there. I figured that it would be pretty clever idea to put em both up here, but then again the doctor just gave me a bottle of Codeine cough syrup that I’ve drinking like water. Everything seems way cooler than it really is right now. Being sick has never been so fun!
If you missed what we thought was the best of 2006, head on over to the gossip page. Sorry we’ve been lagging on updating this page but like Dr. Hook says… life ain’t easy. Whoever said it should be?
If you missed my other post a while ago about the Dr. Hook live dvd, click here. Shit fuckin’ kills.
