Remembering Joe Strummer

I’m terrible with birthdays. Joe Strummer would’ve turned 57 yesterday, and I missed it, so I will enlighten you all with my take on him and his music. He was, in my mind, a combination of James Dean, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Rotten. Not that he was necessarily the larger-than-life figure those guys were, but instead he combined the rebellion and the swagger of them, and to me, was the face on punk rock..
The Clash’s debut album had the best of both worlds- an angry punk attitude with great melodies and songcraft. Strummer and Mick Jones weren’t rank amateurs, but instead experienced musicians who were blown away by the punk movement. “Give ‘Em Enough Rope” showed they could match guitars with any metal band with the same ferocity as the debut album. London Calling was a landmark. The band not only perfected their songwriting chops, but also mixed reggae, pop, and soul into their musical mix. It was a statement album that proved punk rock could be diverse musically and appeal to a wide audience, and still not compromise. “Sandinista” while, inconsistent took the experimental touches of London Calling three steps further. Combat Rock broke the band to huge mainstream success, with “Should I Stay or Should I Go” and “Rock the Casbah”, but began a divide in the band with Jones wanting to experiment more, and Strummer wanting to stick closer to their punk rock roots. They never made another Clash record together.
The Clash was Strummer’s as well as Jones’s finest moments. Joe’s solo records and Jones-less Clash record had their moments, but he was never able to connect to the musical zeitgeist the way he did with the Clash. As a listener, you kept hoping they’d get the band back together, that they would have this great re-union and re-establish themselves as the best rock band in the world, which in the early 1980’s they arguably were.
He died way too soon. It was right about the time that it looked like society would “get” his solo records, maybe not in a larger-than life way they did with the Clash records, but it looked like there was hope, maybe even for a Clash reunion. Jones, Strummer, and Paul Simonon were on good terms, who knows.
Either way, rock needs a rebel like him and he will never be replaced,

Bottle Rockets "Lean Forward" on new release

Before you listen to the Bottle Rockets, it is refreshing to just look at the song credits, they don’t have twelve song doctors on each song, preferring to actually write their own songs. They don’t have a team of “ace’ producers, or a long list of studio musicians. When you listen to their music, you get the same feeling. They write songs that pay equal homage to old school Nashville songwriters as they do garage bands like the Ramones and The Replacements. There is not one shred of B.S. to be found anywhere in their music. And that is not to say they are some humorless wannabe purists. With a songwriting style vaguely reminiscent of John Hiatt, they mix even their most serious songs with a dry sense of humor, and never forget that they’re writing three minute rock songs and not John Steinbeck novels.
Like many artists of their ilk, they’ve paid a price. The Bottle Rockets have had enough record company drama and hijinx to fill up a Nashville Spinal Tap movie. They’ve also had numerous personnel changes which would’ve broken up many bands. Despite all of that, guitarist/ vocalist Brian Henneman and drummer Mark Ortmann, the bands mainstays, have kept the band on the right track. Their latest release, “Lean Forward” is as raw and uncompromising as anything they’ve done. After being together about sixteen years, it doesn’t seem like they’re anywhere close to slowing it down and playing it safe.
The opener “The Long Road” is a fine statement of purpose with the chorus “the long road isn’t the wrong road/a wrong turn isn’t the end/if it’s understood that something good may be coming around the bend” propelled by the two guitar attack of Henneman and John Horton, and the tight, reliable rhythms of Ortmann and bassist Keith Voegele. Throughout the record the same theme resonates: “Hard Times” sings about keeping one’s head up even when things are tough, and the songs “Get On the Bus” and the ballad “Open Your Eyes” talk of survival and resilience.
There is also the quiet heartbreak of “Solitaire”, the anti-war ballad “The Kid Next Door”, and a couple tunes about the losers who can’t get it right with “Shame on Me’ and “Done it All Before”.. The band sings with the knowledge and compassion of one who’s been there before, not one who read Studs Terkyl and John Steinbeck for inspiration.
What makes it all work is that they never forget that they’re a rock band, and while it may seem their preference to rock out on songs like “The Long Road” and “The Way it Used to Be” they don’t forget their older roots, either. There is the swamp boogie of “Hard Times” the country swing of “Get on the Bus”, and the reflective Nashville balladry of “Open Your Eyes” They like to mix it up, even though it seems they like to return again and again to the jagged stomp of “Nothing but A Driver”.
The band on “Lean Forward” is all about staying tough in the face of life’s dramas. The songs have a hard-won optimism that could only be pulled off by a band with the survival skills of the Bottle Rockets. They are played by the band with energy and attitude, not like a band that is ready to slip into the easy elder statesmen mode.

Down on the Corner

It is impossible not to feel good when you hear this song. From the shuffling bass line that begins the song, it has you nodding your head in unison to this tune about Willy and the Poor Boys playing “early in the evening, just about suppertime”
I heard the cooks in my kitchen playing it on the broken-down radio that sits on top of the microwave. The new kid who told everyone he was an Iron Maiden fan brought this CD in. It got everyone smiling. It put the night cook in a good mood, even though we were short one cook and the Iron Maiden fan was a newbie. It got the servers smiling as they picked up plates and filled up ice teas, It got me in a good mood while I was trying to entertain my bar crowd and find solutions for my two missing employees. Everyone was smiling, and if a song does that, it succeeds.
Some music is written to inspire. The melody to “Where the Streets Have No Name” is a spiritual call to arms. U2 has made a career writing songs like this. Some music is about confrontation. Public Enemy’s “Fear of a Black Planet” is an album about revolution. It isn’t something you’d normally listen to while doing your laundry on a Tuesday night. Other kinds of music are meant to be more introspective. Leonard Cohen’s “The Future” is good for that.
Some music is for light and easy escape. Not light and easy as in brainless, but something you can tap your feet to. That is “Down on the Corner” It is about a band that plays on street corners for nickels to entertain. Main CCR songwriter John Fogerty was probably writing an idyllic 1960’s portrait seen through the eyes of a small southern town, but the emotion connects, the snaking bass line connects, the spare rhythm guitar connects, the whole song connects, a three minute slab of perfection that helped make what could’ve been a rough night for my crew a pleasant and happy one.

A Morning Car Ride With The Beatles

I’ve come to this realization that I’m not in the Pitchfork Generation. I love talking about and listening to whatever bands might come my way, but there is no way I can keep up with the maelstrom of young bands anymore. I love to write and I love music, but there is just too much going on.
One of the things I stumbled on many years back that I keep on going back to from time to time is the radio show Breakfast with the Beatles. It plays on KLOS in the Los Angeles area and on Sirius radio elsewhere. It’s not just a rehash of Beatles hits that you hear anyway on classic rock radio. Host Chris Carter (who was a founding member of 80’s rock band Dramarama) plays outtakes, solo material, re-masters, deep cuts, and anything else except for straight radio cuts.
Back in my punk and metal years, I hated the Beatles. Their earlier stuff seemed like carbon copy pop songs- super tight arrangements, two to three minute song lengths, flawless vocal harmonies, and seemingly mindless songs. I liked their later stuff better, but not much. It seemed like psychedelic noodling to me. I preferred at first the aurally grandiose sounds of Queen and the mythical thump of Led Zeppelin to the overly cute and perfect three minute pop songs of the Beatles, or the later balls-out aggression of Black Flag to what I saw as the silly nuances of Sgt. Pepper. I didn’t realize that although the Beatles didn’t perhaps invent those perfect harmonies and melodies, they sure as hell perfected them. I also didn’t realize that the sill absurdist noodling, they did largely invent, and countless others would spend the next forty years trying to copy.
It wasn’t until I began to appreciate more modern songwriters and bands like Elvis Costello and The Replacements. Eventually you got the feeling of the tremendous debt they owed the Beatles, which they would acknowledge themselves. They struggled, even in their best work to come close to the perfection of the Beatles, and this is no knock on them. It is more a testament to the genius of the Beatles.
This comes to mind for one reason that it is the fortieth anniversary of Woodstock. That festival was the culmination of a musical revolution that had been brewing for four years. While the Beatles weren’t there, having given up live performance at the time, they still had an indelible mark on that festival.
The beauty of a show like Breakfast with the Beatles gives one some hope for terrestrial radio. It flies in the face of radio convention. It is in direct contradiction to the overly formatted, killed with commercials, flavor-of-the-month radio that is popular these days. It is a fine history lesson I get in the car on my way to work on Sunday morning, and has me showing up to work with a smile on my face.

My strange American Idol fetish and other weird tales

I know you’re all waiting for it, but there is no news about Queen and Adam Lambert. Instead, we’ve got news that Paula Abdul is leaving American Idol. This is a disaster for the show. She is a complete train wreck, and one of the main reasons that the show is worth watching is to watch her bizarre antics. Whether it’s rubbing up to Simon Cowell or her inane comments, it was always entertaining. I used to not watch at all, but my kids like it, and since we only have one TV these days, I started watching. Once in awhile, there is some good talent on there, but it is ultimately Simon Cowell’s stinging comments or Paula’s bizarre behavior that makes it worth watching.
Fox is making a mistake, unless they find some other reality TV refugee to fill her shoes. And what is Paula going to do? She can’t think that her singing career is going to go anywhere. If it wasn’t for Milli Vanilli, she would’ve been the lip-synching poster child of that era. Paula and Fox should work it out, unless Courtney Love or Lindsey Lohan is available.
As far as Wilco’s last record, it’s lack of experimentation put me off a little at first, but after a few more listens, you can’t hide from the fact that they are great songs that are executed well by the band. They are the best melodies Tweedy’s come up with since “Being There”. Sometimes us critics come up with all this drivel about “brilliance” and the fact that if a band isn’t always pushing to new horizons, that they are somehow a disappointment. Wilco throws that theory out the window. Good songs, clean but not overbearing production, and great musicianship always wins out.
Wilco aside, anyone who thinks Americana died when No Depression stopped printing, was way wrong. Besides the fact that blues, country, and folk will never really die, it is good to know that last week’s Newport Folk Festival was dominated by young up-and-comers like The Decembrists, Low Anthem, and Fleet Foxes, among others. It is nice to know that there are tons of young artists out there doing new and interesting things with old-school music.
Now there is the heat that Leonard Cohen is taking about playing Tel Aviv. The Palestinians freaked out, the leftist Israelis freaked out, so he had to promise to make donations to all these peace groups and call it a “benefit”. Settle down, people. There are always axes to grind, and there are those that will exploit every opportunity to grind theirs, especially when there’s some money or a headline in it for them.

Gordon Gano's New Times

No college experience would be complete without the Violent Femmes. If you’ve never heard the name, you’ve at least heard “Blister in the Sun” or “Add it Up”, two paeans to adolescent horniness. Gordon Gano whines away about unrequited lust while Brian Ritchie thumps his ubiquitous bass line, and Victor de Lorenzo doesn’t seem to do much but hit a snare. I thought they were pretty much a 1980’s snapshot that no one before or since would care about, but when I went to call someone into work the other day, the nineteen year old girl had “Blister” on her phone.
Fact is, while their first self-titled album continues to be huge. It is nearly double platinum (two million sold) without ever being on the Billboard charts, they continued to record and tour quite successfully until 2007. While their recordings were hit-and-miss, they would tour the world to sold out crowds until legal problems brought them to heel. Alleged chief songwriter Gano sold “Blister” to Wendy’s over the public objections of Ritchie, and it went downhill from there. As of this ranting, Ritchie is suing Gano for half of the songwriting royalties of the band. While it’s hard to know to us outsiders exactly who did what in the studio, it is sad to see one of the great cult bands go down like this.
One way or another, Gano is moving on. In the fall he will release “Under the Sun” under the moniker Gordon Gano and the Ryan Brothers. It is his collaboration with Brendan and Billy Ryan, previously known as members of 1990”s indie band the Bogmen, but perhaps even better known as the guys behind movie scores like The Heartbreak Kid, Fever Pitch, and MO. They were all living close together in New York City, and began collaborating.
Under The Sun has many of the things that made the Femmes who they are. Gano’s vocals are in fine form, and most of the record hearkens back to the spare rock the femmes were known for. “Wave in the Water” and “In the Sand” sound like classic Femmes, but the undersexed rants are now replaced by real songs that have more acceptance and joy than the intensity and nervousness in his older band. They haven’t abandoned quirkiness, however. “Here as A Guest” follows along the lines of Gano’s spiritual songs (in the old days when he wasn’t singing about being horny, he was singing about being close to God), and also recalls his old band’s fondness for East European rhythms. “Under the Sun” is as down in the dumps as anything he does, while “The Way That I Creep” has the silly wordplay he has always been known for. They don’t really break new ground here, but sort of like Legendary Hearts-era Lou Reed, his songs sound more mature and he doesn’t seem to feel the need to write the tragicomic breakup anthems he was known for in the past.
It’s hard to say where this will go or what will happens with this collective or the Femmes, but it does show that Gano does have some cool new music, and isn’t quite ready to completely give himself away to the 1980’s oldies circuit.
You can hear the new record stream for free at the band’s MySpace page. http://www.myspace.com/gordonganoandtheryanbrothers