Can you will yourself into liking a CD or is it merely that the recording is a ‘grower’? The term itself is suspect; it’s almost a prettified way of saying “I listened to it until I liked it.” However, there’s no other way I can honestly define my experience with the latest CD by The Shazam, Meteor. On first listen it wasn’t that I disliked it so much as it did not grab me in the slightest, yet there must have been something swirling around in there because I kept coming back to it. I can now say that it is on regular rotation on our corporate 747, Popdose Force One my car stereo.
There are still some things about the album that don’t quite sit right, not the least of which is a sense of goofiness on some of the songs, particularly “Latherman Saves the World” and “Disco at the Fairgrounds,” but they’re fun. And if you’re not a cantankerous old grouch like I am most of the time, you would probably find the pop silliness immediately endearing. The latter track features the strange collusion of a verse worthy of an OK GO album clashing with the chorus reminiscent of Queen’s lighter moments. It’s not a shock. The album was producer by the storied and enigmatic producer known as Mack, who helmed many a Queen album in his day.
Mack also produced Billy Squier’s breakthrough album Don’t Say No, and damned if the Shazam’s lead guy Hans Rotenberry doesn’t sound a lot like him on the track “Don’t Look Down” — homage, coincidence, or a calculated callback? I’m picking door number three because that song was one of the primary things that brought me back to the whole album in spite of initial indifference. You might recall in a recent review, I took to task a performer for using the term “fuck” in the title because it was unnecessary and inadvertently trivialized a decent song. The same could be said for The Shazam’s “NFU” (or, “not fucked-up enough”) but there is a difference. Because “NFU” is surrounded by more lighthearted material, it doesn’t come off quite as trivial. Unnecessary, sure, but it gets a pass.
The album features a monster hook in the track “A Little Better” co-opting a Zeppelin acoustic groove, and while I don’t think it would have peacefully coexisted with the songs on Houses Of The Holy, I didn’t mind in the least cranking the volume up. It all combines and reasserts my initial question. Did I grow to like Meteor or force myself through doubt and uncertainties in order to like Meteor? The answer is that I like it now and how I arrived at that position is irrelevant. Sometimes you just have to be in the right, or slightly goofy, frame of mind to get what’s coming your way.
I was too young to experience many of the groups and performers featured here when they were in their prime. Sure, I heard the music of Led Zep, Dylan, the Rolling Stones, the Who, et al growing up, but I didn’t own any of their albums until the ’80s when I starting my serious record collecting phase — which tends to happen when you get older and get a job.
Musicians, like everyone else without a trust fund, have to make a living, too — even those who made millions in the ’60s and ’70s. By the late ’70s/early ’80s, many “older” rockers tried to stay relevant by incorporating stylistic flourishes that later became known as New Wave. New Wave often (though not always) meant that that soulless contraption known as the synthesizer would find a way to weave itself into the fabric of a song. Sometimes having synth sounds or electronic drums would be great; other times it would miss the mark and sound kind of, well, crappy. Whatever the case, here are six songs from very well known artists whose music was caressed by “The New Wave Effect.” (more…)
Chicago, Illinois, April 1977 — I knew what I was in for ten seconds after Guitar Player said to me: “We want you to interview Led Zeppelin.” My head filled with the clarion call of screaming guitars and in a moment of epiphany I saw it all: Jimmy Page would be my touchstone. Every story I’d ever written or ever would write would be measured against this one.
“Screw this up,” I also remembered muttering to myself, “and the closest I’ll ever get to another guitar player is looking at his picture on the cover of an album!”
I silenced the voice and plodded ahead. GP had only made one cursory call to Zeppelin’s record company offices in New York, and had left the rest up to me. I contacted Swan Song immediately. The baton had been passed and I ran with it like Forrest Gump.
“Run, Rosen, Run!”
What I thought would be a sprint turned into a marathon.
The next seven months were devoted to making phone calls and leaving messages. Dealing with Zeppelin’s demands and strange requests became a daily ritual. In many ways, they may have been testing my resolve, some sort of acid test meant to reveal just how truly motivated I was. (more…)
May is the unofficial start of the summer concert season, so to unofficially celebrate the shows of 2009, Popdose.com and internet radio station The Penguin have teamed up for Penguimania 2009. Tune in each Wednesday at 9:00 EST for Radioshow With Dw. Dunphy to hear the live performance megamix in full. Then each week we’ll present a downloadable MP3 of a set from the “concert.”
The third set starts with power trio Rush and one of their most popular (and most “pop”) tunes, “New World Man.”
RPWL started as a Pink Floyd tribute band, then emerged with original compositions. Ray Wilson was the lead vocalist for the band Stiltskin and the one-time singer for Genesis on the Calling All Stations album. Here is a version of his standout track from that album, “Not About Us.”
Steve Taylor started as a singer in the Christian contemporary market, and while wildly popular, was also controversial in his witty, sometimes flippant approach. He also pulled in musicians from the secular market to play on his recordings. He currently finds work as a director with his next film, Blue Like Jazz, now in production. “Violent Blue” comes from the band Chagall Guevara when Taylor, Lynn Nichols and Dave Perkins (of Passafist) shot for the big time on their self-titled MCA release.
Ritual is a folk/prog/metal group from Sweden, fronted by Patrik Lindstrom. Although the mix might seems strange and daunting, their turn on “Do You Want to See the Sun?” originally from their album Superb Birth, has a heavy stomp reminiscent of Led Zeppelin crossed with heavier aspects of King Crimson.
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We’ll see you here next week for the final set and, don’t forget: you can enjoy the entire mix over at The Penguin, Wednesday nights starting at 9:00 PM EST: find it at www.thepenguinrocks.com.
Triumph was an arena rock staple in the late ’70s and through much of the ’80s, particularly in their native Canada, where they were known for their bombastic, pyro-filled shows, as well as bassist Mike Levine’s inexhaustiblecollection of sports apparel. They had a few gold records here in the States, and a handful of rock radio hits (“Magic Power,”“Lay It on the Line,” and the like), but never made it to the level of stardom that their countrymen Rush managed to achieve in the same period.
Unlike Rush, whose approach to music has always given the appearance of a united front, Triumph had two distinct, dichotomous camps—the guys who just wanted to rawk yer ballz off (Levine and drummer/vocalist Gil Moore) and the sensitive, progressive-minded Artiste with a capital A (guitarist/vocalist Rik Emmett). Thus, any given Triumph album—say, 1984’s pretty awesome Thunder Seven—would have its share of arena stompers (”Spellbound,” and the Zeppelinesque “Cool Down”) alongside pastoral instrumental passages (”Midsummer’s Daydream”), with an occasional what the fuck moment (”Time Canon”) tossed in for good measure.
Things got pretty ridiculous, though, by 1987, when the band belched out Surveillance. The music was a typical pastiche of the ridiculous (“Rock You Down”), the anthemic (”Never Say Never,” “Carry on the Flame”) and the instrumentally showy (”Intro: Into the Forever,” “Prelude: The Waking Dream”). The liner notes, however, attempted to tie the vast and various incongruous pieces together by attaching a literary quote to introduce each song’s lyrics. The extra percussion you heard was the sound of Aristotle, Lucretius, Alexander Pope, Blaise Pascal, and others rolling in their graves. Or perhaps they were rocking. Anyway, once you got past the pretentiousness, it was … oh wait—it was impossible to get past the pretentiousness.
Hung at the end of Side One (track 6 on the CD), “Let the Light (Shine on Me)” cut through the band’s literary aspirations with a beautiful, steadily building anthem to persistence and commitment. It truly stands as one of Triumph’s more … um … triumphant moments. (more…)
A couple months ago, Jeff mentioned to me that he was thinking of putting together the Ultimate Drinking Mixtape in time for St. Patrick’s Day. I got so excited that I persuaded him to immediately open the floor to suggestions from the Popdose writers. And the song requests flowed in.
As the resident souse of the Popdose staff, I felt it was my responsibility to filter through the ideas that emerged and weave them together into something slightly more coherent than the drunken rantings I’d occasionally find typed out on my computer during the extensive beta-testing process. Later, during gamma-testing, the songs started to find their ways into groups. Finally, when I reached the delta-testing phase, things had been organized into chapters that celebrate the many different aspects of that delightful elixir that can lift or lower our spirits, make us in turn beautiful or ugly, and loosen or tangle our tongues with equal abandon.
Here’s the full tape – 116 minutes of pure malt goodness, with some wonderful words of wisdom sprinkled in. Just add liquor.
This album from 1978 features the Temple City Kazoo Orchestra playing that most maligned of instruments, the kazoo. The kazoo was invented by an African-American named Alabama Vest in Macon, Georgia sometime in the 19th century and it was first publicized at the Georgia State Fair in 1852. (I got all this information from Wikipedia, so you know it’s true.)
This first song is called “2001 Sprach Kazoostra” and it’s based on…well, you know what it’s based on. You can almost imagine the little Star Children playing this as the monolith approaches Earth.
This next song shows how kazoos can even be used in disco music. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present “Stayin’ Alive.” (Beware of some pretty scary ad-libbing here.)
While this last song is not included on this record, it’s still by them and it really needs to be included. There was an annoying group in the ’80s called Stars on 45 that did medleys of songs to a steady clap track. Here, the Temple City Kazoo Orchestra does its own take on this phenomenon.
BONUS: Here’s a clip of the Temple City Kazoo Orchestra performing live on The Mike Douglas Show!
If you’re also interested in hearing their take on “Miss You” by the Rolling Stones and “Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin, you can get the whole thing right here!
One morning, Joe Satriani woke up to 40 text messages on his cell phone. After scrolling through 40 variations of “holy schet u got ripped off,” Joe texted back his good friend (whose Internet name is Fuzzyslippers621) the following reply: “wot d feck R U talkin bout?” This went back and forth for about 15 minutes until Joe realized his cell phone was actually a phone. So he called Fuzzyslippers621 and asked in regular English, “What the fuck are you talking about?” To which his friend replied, “Haven’t you heard the new Coldplay song?” He had not, but after launching his Limewire program, he downloaded an illegal copy, waited for his iTunes player to play it, and lathered up his head for his morning shave.
The opening strains of the song were interesting, but he had no idea what all this “ripping off” business was, until …
He was stunned. There it was. An unabashedly plagiarized portion of a song he wrote years before. “How could this be?” He wondered as he carefully glided the Gillete “Fusion” razor over his grizzled pate. The more his listened to “Viva La Vida,” the angrier he got. Beads of shaving cream-infused sweat started rolling off his head. Furiously, he texted his lawyer the following message: “I wnt 2 sue.”
And so began the story of one artist’s quest to right the wrongs that had, uh, wronged … him. Right.
Joe Satriani’s claim may have merit, but if he does win in court, lawyers for artists whose work has been the inspiration for other songs that sound uncannily like the original are going to have work after listening to this mix.
My Popdose colleague Matthew Bolin started a back and forth about Satriani’s lawsuit against Coldplay, and me being the opportunist I am, decided to float a Mix Six idea I had been thinking about for a few weeks. Jeff Giles, Scott Malchus and Michael Fortes all contributed suggestions to this mix, so with that, let’s get started! (more…)
Dan Wilson (Trip Shakespeare, Semisonic, solo artist)
Okay Darren, here are my picks! I’m sure if I thought about it more I’d only come up with a bunch more bonus picks, so I’m sticking to these.
Joni Mitchell’s Hejira album. If it were one song I’d say “Hejira” — there’s something so heartbreaking about Jaco Pastorius’ bass melodies intertwining with Joni’s lyrics. And the song is about love, travel, the temporary fixes of modern life, and the quest for something lasting. What more could you ask for in a song? (more…)
Most rock & roll memoirs are penned either by rock stars themselves (Clapton, Dylan) or by the original titans of the industry (Ertegun, Yetnikoff), and as our pal Pete Lubin discovered when he tried peddling his own account of his life in the biz, there’s a reason for this: The number of people who purchase books filled with rock-geek trivia — shit, the number of people who purchase books period — is woefully small. It’s surprising, then, to see Gotham taking a flier on an autobiography from Danny Goldberg — but as you’ll quickly discover if you pick up a copy, it’s quite a pleasant surprise.
Goldberg, for the non-geeks among us, was one of the biggest seat-hoppers in the game of high-stakes musical chairs played by the major labels in the ’90s — and before that he was, in order of occurrence, a Billboard staffer, Led Zeppelin’s publicist (and eventual label VP), and manager to Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Raitt, and Kurt Cobain. A man with that perfect combination of dumb luck and ears for talent, in other words — and a veritable treasure trove of behind-the-scenes stories.
Sadly for readers who pick up books like this in search of juice and dirt, Bumping Into Geniuses focuses less on who did what to whom and more on how incredibly fucking awesome it is to fall in love with rock & roll, and then fall ass over elbow into one pile of money after another until you’re sitting on top of the Warner Music Group without any real idea of how it happened. I’m oversimplifying things a bit — and surely Goldberg did have a very clear grasp of how he rose so far, so fast — but that’s the basic tone of the book: It’s a gee-whiz account of Goldberg’s many brushes with greatness. (The title, by the way, comes from Ahmet Ertegun’s quip to a teenage Goldberg that the secret to success in the business is to walk around bumping into geniuses.) (more…)
Can you will yourself into liking a CD or is it merely that the recording is a ‘grower’? The term itself is suspect; it’s almost a prettified way of saying “I listened to it until I liked it.” However, there’s no other way I can honestly define my experience with the latest CD by The Shazam, Meteor. On first listen it wasn’t that I disliked it so much as it did not grab me in the slightest, yet there must have been something swirling around in there because I kept coming back to it. I can now say that it is on regular rotation on our corporate 747, Popdose Force One my car stereo.
![jimmy002_silverdome-april1977[1]](http://popdose.com/wp-content/uploads/jimmy002_silverdome-april19771.jpg "jimmy002_silverdome-april1977[1]")
Chicago, Illinois, April 1977 — I knew what I was in for ten seconds after Guitar Player said to me: “We want you to interview Led Zeppelin.” My head filled with the clarion call of screaming guitars and in a moment of epiphany I saw it all: Jimmy Page would be my touchstone. Every story I’d ever written or ever would write would be measured against this one.
Triumph was an arena rock staple in the late ’70s and through much of the ’80s, particularly in their native Canada, where they were known for their bombastic, pyro-filled shows, as well as bassist Mike Levine’s 
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Danny Goldberg – Bumping Into Geniuses: My Life Inside the Rock and Roll Business (2008)