A little over a year ago, the possibility of a Phish reunion was the stuff of parking lot rumor and message board postings. When they took the stage at Hampton back in March and played those opening notes to “Fluffhead,” 2009 officially became the year of Phish.
Somehow, between jamming with Bruce Springsteen at Bonnaroo and playing consistently sold-out nights, they managed to record a new album with old friend Steve Lilywhite. Joy is their first studio outing since the weary Undermind back in 2004. (more…)
After what will probably go down as the worst week in the Bottom Feeders series, we crank it up a notch with some superstar artists and some really well-known songs. Here’s another week of artists whose names begin with the letter P, as we continue looking at songs that charted below #40 on the Billboard Hot 100 during the 1980s.
Pet Shop Boys
“Love Comes Quickly” — 1986, #62 (download)
“Suburbia” — 1986, #70 (download)
“Left to My Own Devices” — 1989, #84 (download)
Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe are awesome. If you’re unfamiliar with Pet Shop Boys, pick up PopArt: The Hits (2003) for a near-flawless retrospective of their career. What’s most amazing about that double album is that it’s not in sequential order, yet the ‘80s Pet Shop Boys sound still melds well with their new-millennium tunes. I admit, though, that I kind of lost track of them after their 1996 album Bilingual, even though I think that album is excellent. They are probably going to be my next “catalog” artist, where I have to own everything they put out (which can’t be easy with a dance-oriented duo like these guys, what with the million remixes and side projects). Both “Love Comes Quickly” and “Suburbia” are from their debut album, Please; “Left to My Own Devices” comes from their third studio album, Introspective.
Oh, that’s right: we were chatting with the one and only Francis Reader, frontman for the Trashcan Sinatras. If you tuned in last week (and you really should have, you know), then you’re already aware that the conversation between Frank and myself was one that was a little freewheeling in its form, but the end result seems to be well appreciated by fans of the band…and, indeed, by members of the band. Our own David Medsker spoke with Paul Livingston a few days later – look for that interview on Bullz-Eye.com in the very near future – and remarked that I really seemed to have caught Mr. Reader in a talkative mood. Well, all I can tell you is that the decision to make it less of an interview and more of a conversation seems to have worked in my favor, and I’m glad that it seems to be going over well. Now, mind you, I did hear from one friend of mine who, after praising the piece, noted that it perhaps wasn’t the kind of interview that the band’s manager would want, given that there was zero mention of the band’s latest album, In the Music.
What luck, then, that there’s quite a bit of chat about the record in the second and final part of our conversation.
Popdose: So what’s Davy Hughes’ status with the band? Did he drop out? Did he just not want to participate anymore?
Frank Reader: Well, Davy’s still involved, but he’s…you know, he’s got a family, and it’s just not the kind of thing, really, where you can give your all your time to it when you’ve got a family and kids to support. Neither me or Paul or Steven or John have got kids, and although three of us are married, John’s married to another musician, and me and Paul are married to very understanding, beautiful women. (Laughs) For Davy, it was just a case where we had to work out a different way of having him involved, and that was…what we kind of do now is that we keep in touch, obviously, and every now and again, he’ll say, “You know, I managed to get ten minutes’ peace from the kids…” (Laughs) “…and I sat down and did a bit of writing, and here it is. If there’s anything you can do with it, do something with it.” So he contributed to In the Music in that way. And it’s great, because it feels good to have him involved, because he’s a touchstone in my life. He was there in the very beginning, although he didn’t play on Cake. He was actually playing with us once or twice before we made an album – when we were just doing covers, he was around then – so it’s good to have involved. It’s kind of “once a Trashcan, always a Trashcan” with him, you know? (Laughs) And the keyboard player we have, Stevie, has been with us off and on since ‘95, so he’s more permanent now, too.
The double album turns 30 this year. In upcoming installments of Test of the Boomerang, ‘ll be taking a look at the album’s creation, live spectacle, aftermath and legacy. In this first installment we’ll be looking at the long-storied origins of the album and sharing the band’s original demo recordings.
I. Origins
It’s one of the most repugnant tales in rock history: The final show of Pink Floyd’s “In the Flesh” tour, July 6th, 1977 in Montreal. Roger Waters had had quite enough. Floyd was performing in a stadium, fans were setting off fireworks during the quiet numbers, the sound was lousy, and finally, out of the roiling sea of people, a fan, imploring the band to play “Careful With That Axe Eugene,” clambered onto the stage, only to have Waters spit in his face.
Pink Floyd had come a long way from the spirited whimsy of “See Emily Play” just 10 years prior. 1977 saw the release of Animals – a visceral and venomous five-song diatribe on class and culture. After the worldwide success of Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here, the grislier Animals showed Roger Waters exerting himself more and more as band leader and the weightier themes on their new album suggested a pretension that was very unlike the zen parable simplicity of Dark Side’s best moments or Wish You Were Here’s built-in nostalgia. (more…)
As I’ve mentioned previously, Uncle Donnie’s been writing these things for years—decades, even. Lev brings over another box of them every once in a while. This one dates back to 1974, and is notable for the absence of Donnie’s can’t-miss bit of advice about faking one’s demise. It wouldn’t have made sense in this context; the band he’s writing to was pretty well unknown at the time. Enjoy. – RS
TO: The Ramones
FROM: Don Skwatzenschitz
RE: Career Advice
I’ve got to say, you guys are amazing. I mean, really amazing. You blew my mind at Seymour Stein’s birthday party at Max’s last weekend. I’ve never seen Sy look happier. Joey, you’re so tall. And your set was so … concise! Yes, concise! Thirty-one songs in 17 minutes? I mean, I haven’t been this blown away since I saw the Dead at Golden Gate Park three years ago—a show in which they played for 12 hours (pretty much the opposite of concise), including a two-hour “Turn on Your Love Light!” Do you guys like the Dead? I can get you a tape of the show, if you want one.
You’re right on the verge of something special—I can tell that. It’s my business to be able to tell that. And Sy is very big on you; I wouldn’t be surprised to see you make a record for Sire next year. You’ve got some time to hone some things, though. The world isn’t ready for the Ramones yet, and I’m not entirely certain the Ramones are ready for the world. Things will go a little smoother for you, though, if you consider doing the following: (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.”
Starting off this, the final set of Penguimania 2009, is King’s X with a breakout track from the Ear Candy album. “Mississippi Moon” features guitarist Ty Tabor on vocals.
From their eponymous “Island Album,” known as such as it was their sole release on the Island label, The 77’s tear through their original “Pearls Before Swine.” The live version was the first recording of the tune, and subsequent studio recordings were put to tape with the command, “Play it like you did live.”
Technically the last Pink Floyd song being it was the final track of The Division Bell, the last studio Floyd album (we can dispense with the Roger Waters/not Roger Waters argument on another day,) “High Hopes” represents the band at its most ornate and orchestral.
Recorded during the tour of his hugely popular album The Stranger, Billy Joel closes it all out with “Say Goodbye to Hollywood,” in part a tribute to the Phil Spector/Ronettes pop sound.
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That’s it! Thanks for enjoying Penguimania 2009 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. Popdose and The Penguin wish you your best concert experiences this summer. I’ll be back next week when we return to Dw. Dunphy On…
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.
When I first heard that the new Doves album, Kingdom Of Rust, hearkened more toward their first album, Lost Souls (2000), than their most recent, Some Cities, even though that album is now four years old and strains the definition of “recent,” I worried a bit. I liked Lost Souls, but was very impressed by the directness of Some Cities, both in the songwriting and in the band’s seemingly newfound restraint in the fields of reverb and feedback. The latter seemed to find new ground for the group, versus the by-now-rote Radiohead-meets-shoegazing sound. Four years is a long time to retreat.
It is with great relief, then, that I say that not only is Kingdom Of Rust its own creature, but that the band has found a comfortable common ground between both their phases. The opener, “Jetstream,” finds the band adopting an electro-chug and guitarist/vocalist Andy Williams slipping into a vocal sound easily mistaken for Tears for Fears’ Curt Smith. It’s a shocking start, but a good one because it absolutely indicates you’re not getting old wolves in new sheepskin. The title cut has a country ramble feel that builds into the guitar and string majesty we’ve come to expect from Doves, yet the framing device gives it all a freshness, and a killer melody is hook enough for repeated listening. This all leads to track three, “The Outsiders,” which deceptively begins with Pink Floydian psychedelic washes, segues into a Coldplay-like rocker, only to jump into a nicely head-thrashing chorus.
The 3/4 shuffle of “Spellbound,” while at complete odds with the track that follows it (”Compulsion” sounding like a mutant of Human League brit-funk, Adrian Belew-era Talking Heads and those barely restrained atmospherics) really catches up all this album is in a neat five and a half minutes. Jimi Goodwin’s vocals drive the song right up front, the rhythm suggests decades of pop ancestry and, all the while, the waves of sound that in the past swallowed the band whole is at complete service to the tune.
Some Cities made me rethink Doves, and became one of the most compulsively enjoyed CDs of 2005 for me. With its variety and willingness to try almost everything, while not abandoning the core of their sound, Kingdom of Rust continues that trend and may very well surpass it.
Through the eyes of my son, I’ve been reliving a part of my youth in the form of colorful costumed super heroes from cartoons and the pages of comic books. Because Jacob’s sister, Sophie, and his mom have no enthusiasm whatsoever for this stuff, he and I get to bond over the muscle bound humans out to save the world. With equal parts fascination and wonder, the two of us leaf through my musty old comics from the ‘80s and the glossy new ones we buy once a month.
My personal interest began as a child, around Jacob’s age, when my parents bought me the oversized graphic novel Superman vs. Wonder Woman. From that point on, I was obsessed with all of the big guns, like Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Green Arrow. But my favorite adventures always involved a group of outcasts, teens mostly: The Uncanny X-Men. In my teens, most of my X-Men comics were bought in a Convenient Food Mart located next door to the small music studio where I took drum lessons. In the time between when my lesson ended and when my father would pick me up, I would peruse the comic books held in a squeaking, turning metal rack in the back of the store. With any change I could scrounge from the sofa cushions or whatever I “acquired” from my dad’s dresser, my monthly does of mutant mayhem would always get snuck into the house and immediately taken to the basement, as if I were carrying a Playboy or something worse.
I’m unsure where this feeling that reading comic books was an illicit, depraved thing came from. Particularly in high school, when I was supposed to be poring over the works of Dostoyevsky, Faulkner and Voltaire, I didn’t want my friends to know I was more interested in Chris Claremont, Alan Moore and Frank Miller. Primarily, it was an escape, yet there were strong themes that I identified with, like brotherhood, loyalty, tolerance and redemption. (Ironically, many of these same themes were found in the novels I was reading by those classic authors I mentioned.) The comics also brought me comfort. In early ’88 I holed myself up in the basement to mope about a broken heart and listen to sad Springsteen songs. My one pleasure was delving into the X-Men saga “Fall of the Mutants.”In this epic story, Storm, Rogue, Wolverine and their teammates sacrificed their lives to defeat an evil spirit unleashed on our world. (more…)
I’ll be honest: I downloaded this mix a few months ago, after searching for it for years (decades, even), but planned to do nothing with it…until I read the comment in Dave Steed’s awesome “Bottom Feeders” column that “Blue Light” was voted the worst solo single by a member of Pink Floyd by some warped, disturbed group of people. At which point, I had to respond. Come on, really? Worst solo Floyd single ever? Can you really trust the Floyd faithful to be of sound mind to render such a judgment? As our own Ed Murray wryly observed, if you’re out of high school and still into Pink Floyd, you’ve got a problem, and their hatred of “Blue Light” proves this as well as anything. And if it didn’t, we have two words for you: “Radio Waves.” Case closed.
In fairness to those insane voters, I think I can see why they were so offended by “Blue Light.” It’s bouncy, chock full o’ horns, and has a beat you can dance to, all of which are anathema to anything Roger Waters ever stood for. But that’s sort of the point of solo albums, right? To make the kinds of records that you can’t make with your day job? And never mind the whole day job nonsense – is this song really that far removed rhythmically from “Run Like Hell”? Nope, it really isn’t, and in fact serves as a perfect bridge between “Run Like Hell” and “Dogs of War,” which would appear on the next (Waters-free, augh!) Pink Floyd album A Momentary Lapse of Reason. Ha fucking ha.
Given that the legendary Francois Kevorkian handled remix duties, the extended mix of “Blue Light” is not at all what I expected. He played it rather straight, basically making a Jellybean Benitez mix out of the song. And that’s fine, I guess, but part of me was hoping for something closer in spirit to the 12″ mix to the Firm’s “Radioactive” – or ideally, Arthur Baker’s mix of the Rolling Stones’ “Too Much Blood” – than a Jellybean mix. But let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth here. A Floyd-related 12″ mix is a Floyd-related 12″ mix. Dig in, mates.
Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe are awesome. If you’re unfamiliar with Pet Shop Boys, pick up 
TO: The Ramones
next year. You’ve got some time to hone some things, though. The world isn’t ready for the Ramones yet, and I’m not entirely certain the Ramones are ready for the world. Things will go a little smoother for you, though, if you consider doing the following: 
When I first heard that the new Doves album, Kingdom Of Rust, hearkened more toward their first album, 
is available through Amazon.com.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=a331f25c-f4b9-4e34-8c7c-41793d58975f)
Through the eyes of my son, I’ve been reliving a part of my youth in the form of colorful costumed super heroes from cartoons and the pages of comic books. Because Jacob’s sister, Sophie, and his mom have no enthusiasm whatsoever for this stuff, he and I get to bond over the muscle bound humans out to save the world. With equal parts fascination and wonder, the two of us leaf through my musty old comics from the ‘80s and the glossy new ones we buy once a month.
In fairness to those insane voters, I think I can see why they were so offended by “Blue Light.” It’s bouncy, chock full o’ horns, and has a beat you can dance to, all of which are anathema to anything Roger Waters ever stood for. But that’s sort of the point of solo albums, right? To make the kinds of records that you can’t make with your day job? And never mind the whole day job nonsense – is this song really that far removed rhythmically from “Run Like Hell”? Nope, it really isn’t, and in fact serves as a perfect bridge between “Run Like Hell” and “Dogs of War,” which would appear on the next (Waters-free, augh!) Pink Floyd album A Momentary Lapse of Reason. Ha fucking ha.