Today was a Day for "Death Letter Blues" by Son House

<unabridged lyrics>

I got a letter this mornin, how do you reckon it read?

It said, "Hurry, hurry, yeah, your love is dead"

I got a letter this mornin, I say how do you reckon it read?

You know, it said, "Hurry, hurry, how come the gal you love is dead?"

So, I grabbed up my suitcase, and took off down the road

When I got there she was layin on a coolin' board

I grabbed up my suitcase, and I said and I took off down the road

I said, but when I got there she was already layin on a coolin' board

Well, I walked up right close, looked down in her face

Said, the good ol' gal got to lay here 'til the Judgment Day

I walked up right close, and I said I looked down in her face

I said the good ol' gal, she got to lay here 'til the Judgment Day

Looked like there was 10,000 people standin' round the buryin' ground

I didn't know I loved her 'til they laid her down

Looked like 10,000 were standin' round the buryin' ground

You know I didn't know I loved her 'til they damn laid her down

Lord, have mercy on my wicked soul

I wouldn't mistreat you baby, for my weight in gold

I said, Lord, have mercy on my wicked soul

You know I wouldn't mistreat nobody, baby, not for my weight in gold

Well, I folded up my arms and I slowly walked away

I said, "Farewell honey, I'll see you on Judgment Day"

Ah, yeah, oh, yes, I slowly walked away

I said, "Farewell, farewell, I'll see you on the Judgment Day"

You know I went in my room, I bowed down to pray

The blues came along and drove my spirit away

I went in my room, I said I bowed down to pray

I said the blues came along and drove my spirit away

You know I didn't feel so bad, 'til the good ol' sun went down

I didn't have a soul to throw my arms around

I didn't feel so bad, 'til the good ol' sun went down

You know, I didn't have nobody to throw my arms around

I loved you baby, like I love myself

You don't have me, you won't have nobody else

I loved you baby, better than I did myself

I said now if you don't have me, I didn't want you to have nobody else

You know, it's hard to love someone that don't love you

Ain't no satisfaction, don't care what in the world you do

Yeah, it's hard to love someone that don't love you

You know it don't look like satisfaction, don't care what in the world you do

Got up this mornin', just about the break of day

A-huggin' the pillow where she used to lay

Got up this mornin', just about the break of day

A-huggin' the pillow where my good gal used to lay

Got up this mornin', feelin' round for my shoes

You know, I must-a had them old walkin' blues

Got up this mornin', feelin' round for my shoes

Yeah, you know bout that, I must-a had them old walkin' blues

You know, I cried last night and all the night before

Gotta change my way a livin', so I don't have to cry no more

You know, I cried last night and all the night before

Gotta change my way a livin', you see, so I don't have to cry no more

Ah, hush, thought I heard her call my name

If it wasn't so loud and so nice and plain

Well, listen, whatever you do

This is one thing, honey, I tried to get along with you

Yes, no tellin' what you do

I done everything I could, just to try and get along with you

Well, the minutes seemed like hours, hours they seemed like days

It seemed like my good, old gal outta done stopped her low-down ways

Minutes seemed like hours, hours they seemed like days

Seems like my good, old gal outta done stopped her low-down ways

You know, love's a hard ol' fall, make you do things you don't wanna do

Love sometimes leaves you feeling sad and blue

You know, love's a hard ol' fall, make you do things you don't wanna do

Love sometimes make you feel sad and blue

Father Of The Delta Blues: The...

Today was a Day for "Subspace Biographies" by Robert Pollard (1998)

Side A, song #4 from the album Waved Out by one-time (and at that time) Guided by Voices frontman Robert Pollard.  From his 1998 solo release on Matador:

Has there been a break today,

Stoned comedian Ringo?

Should I put the plates away?

Captain, are you sure they're coming in?

I am quail & quasar

I picked you up on radar

I do my job each day

Empties crushed and filed away

And there is nothing worse th'n

An undetermined person

Can I abuse you please

In my subspace biographies?

Today was a Day for Camper Van Beethoven's "Telephone Free Landslide Victory" (1985)

Take the Skinheads Bowling

Every day, I wake up and pray to Jah
And he increases the number of clocks by exactly one
Everybody's comin' home for lunch these days
Last night there were skinheads on my lawn

Take the skinheads bowling
Take them bowling
Take the skinheads bowling
Take them bowling

Some people say that bowling alleys got big lanes
Some people say that bowling alleys all look the same
There's not a line that goes here that rhymes with anything
I has a dream last night, but I forget what it was

Take the skinheads bowling
Take them bowling

Take the skinheads bowling

Take them bowling

I had a dream last night about you, my friend
I had a dream--I wanted to sleep next to plastic
I had a dream--I wanted to lick your knees
I had a dream--it was about nothing

Take the skinheads bowling
Take them bowling

Take the skinheads bowling

Take them bowling

I am going to see David Lowery and the Cracker 'Acoustic' Duo (with guitarist Johnny Hickman) next month. Over the next couple of weeks I am going to work my way through the entire Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker discographies. I have all 15 of the Camper and Cracker studio albums on vinyl and/or CD, so I am going to try and listen to one per day or so. This process started earlier in the evening with a spin of Camper's debut album, 1985's Telephone Free Landslide Victory. One of my very favorite albums of the 1980s by one of my favorite bands of all time:

Telephone Free Landslide Victo...

Where the Hell is Bill?

Where, where the Hell is Bill?
Where, where the Hell is Bill?
Where, where the Hell is Bill?
Where, where the Hell is Bill?

Well, maybe he went to get a sideways haircut

Maybe he went to get a striped shirt
Maybe he went to get some plastic shoes
Maybe he went to get some funny sunglasses

Well, maybe he went to get an Air Force parka

Maybe he went to get a Vespa scooter
Maybe he went to get a British flag
Maybe he went to go Mod Ska dancing

Well, maybe he went to get a mohawk

And maybe he went to get some gnarly thrash boots
Maybe he went to go ride his skateboard
Maybe he went to see the Circle Jerks

Where, where the Hell is Bill?
Where, where the Hell is Bill?
Where, where the Hell is Bill?
Where, where the Hell is Bill?

Today was a Day for Japandroids "Post-Nothing" (2009)

"Wet Hair" from 2009's Post-Nothing which was on my Best of 2009 list:

She had wet hair
Say what you will
I don't care
I couldn't resist it

These girls are all
Bikini Kill
We need a ride to Bikini Island

We run the gauntlet
Let's get to France
So we can French kiss some French girls

Today was a Day for The Mekons

from 1978:



This single and more can be found on the compilation Heaven and Hell: The Very Best of the Mekons that came out in 2004:

Heaven & Hell - The Mekons

Today was a Day for a Roir Records Re-release on Vinyl: The Skatalites -- Stretching Out (1987)

Great news arrived in the post yesterday: a nice, new vinyl copy of the best live ska album of all time by the best ska band of all time (The Skatalites - Stretching Out - 1987, 2 LPs). Stretching Out was originally put out as a cassette-only release by Roir Records in 1987, but last year they finally released the set on vinyl for the first time.

The music on the two LPs comes from a recording of a warm-up show that The Skatalites did on June 27, 1983 in preparation for their reunion performance in July at the Reggae Sunsplash festival in northern Jamaica, and from a recording of a show later in the month on July 17, 1983. Both shows took place at The Blue Monk Jazz Gallery in Kingston, Jamaica. The performances that summer constituted the first full Skatalite shows in 18 years--almost two decades after their short-lived, but legendary tenure in 1963-65.

I was fortunate enough to see a Skatalites reunion show at the "old" 9:30 Club in D.C. in the spring of 1994. It was a helluva show and a great night of music. By 1994, however, there were missing members from the original 1960s lineup. Not so on this double album--this is the original lineup playing and improvising together for some of the initial times after an 18-year hiatus. The Skatalites kick out the jams, mofo. Listen for yourself below (and buy the vinyl if you can):

Stretching Out - The Skatalite...

100 Years + 2 Days ago Today: Django Reinhardt was Born in Belgium

Bio and discography here.
Recent NPR story on his legacy 100 years after his birth here.

Today was a Day for "The Best of the Black President" (or, Waiting for the Fela Kuti remasters on vinyl)

I highly recommend spending $5.00 at Amazon.com to download over 2 hours of remastered Fela Kuti music. This new career overview collection, "The Best of the Black President" is the first release from Knitting Factory Records in their Fela reissues series. According to stories like this one, all 45 titles in the Fela catalogue are going to be re-released on both vinyl and CD over the course of the next couple of years!

Go slow, go slow! Take a listen:

Best of The Black President - ...

Today was a Day for Crack Sabbath

Grunge jazz from Seattle:



Skerik & Crack Sabbath kickin' out the jams, mofo!

Today was a Day for "Twelve" by Patti Smith (2007)

Oops, I forgot about this album. It should have gone in the Honorable Mention listing for my Best of the Decade list. Fun stuff:

Twelve - Patti Smith

Or get the CD here pretty darn cheap at amazon.com.

I am also looking forward to reading Patti's new (published December, 2009) memoir "Just Kids" about hangin' out with her pal Robert Mapplethorpe, but that is going to have to wait until summer...

Today was a Day for "The Hardness of the World" by Slave (1977)

Slave was one of the top late-period funk bands from one of the the capitals of funk music: Dayton, Ohio! While not as funk famous as fellow funk Daytonites The Ohio Players or nearby funk neighbor Bootsy Collins (from Cincinnati), Slave put out two great albums (their first two) in 1977. I picked up their second album The Hardness of the World on NM- vinyl last month, and it grooves like a mofo, mofo. Feel the funk, ya'll:

Hardness Of The World - Slave

Slave also had a #1 hit on the R&B chart for one week in late July of 1977 with "Slide" from their first self-titled album released earlier in the year:



Want to know more about the extraordinary 1970s Dayton funk scene and its underpinnings & implications?
Check out this paper. And this paper.

Happy 64th Birthday Dolly, from Your Pals at "Jams, Mofo" & Jack White

I read the news today, oh boy.



About a lucky man who made the grade.

Today was a Day for Booker "Bukka" White (1906-1977)

Today was a Day for Carl Smith, aka "Mr. Country" (RIP edition)

Country Music Hall of Fame member Carl Smith, known as "Mr. Country", died today at the age of 82. He was married to June Carter Cash at one time and had 30 "Top 10" hit songs in the 1950s. Good obituaries on him here and here.



RIP "Mr. Country".

Poor, Poor Pitiful Him (or, The Self-Destructive Brilliance of Warren Zevon) [book review]

Though it came out a few years back, I only recently got around to reading Crystal Zevon's compelling biography of the late Warren Zevon. It was the last music-related book I read in 2009. Zevon died in 2003, at the age of 56, after being diagnosed the year prior with end-stage mesothelioma lung cancer. This multi-viewpoint biography (with quotes and interview material from over 85 different people, and many excerpts from Warren's diary) does a fantastic job of taking us vicariously into his wild and strange life over the years, and it's sad conclusion. While he led a chaotic and out-of-control life in many ways, he left behind an extraordinary catalogue of albums, full of bitingly sarcastic, dark, and beautiful songs. He was an excitable boy, to say the least.



In addition to reading the biography, I would highly recommend that one listen to Zevon's albums (good discography from allmusic.com here and you can stream all of his albums for free one time here at lala.com), and listen to some representative live performances from his career as you are reading the book (not necessarily concurrently, but during the general time period). As to the live shows, I would suggest the following (all available for free at the LMA and authorized by Warren's son Jordan):

Recording #1: Warren Zevon Live at WMMS studio on 1976-10-13 (October 13, 1976)
Recording #2: Warren Zevon Live at The Record Plant on 1978-07-27 (July 27, 1978)
Recording #3: Warren Zevon Live at Tralfamadore Cafe on 1986-06-12 (June 12, 1986)
Recording #4: Warren Zevon Live at 1st Avenue Club on 1990-02-27 (February 27, 1990)
Recording #5: Warren Zevon Live at Wheeler Opera House on 1994-03-06 (March 6, 1994)
Recording #6: Warren Zevon Live at Moore Theater on 2000-04-22 (April 22, 2000)
Recording #7: Warren Zevon Live at King Kat Theater on 2001-07-28 (July 28, 2001)

Today was a Day for Captain Beefheart (Happy 69th Birthday edition)

Don Van Vliet hit the big 69 today.

CB in late 60's:


CB in 1973:


CB in 1982:

Today was a Day for Jay Reatard (RIP edition)

I first got the news this morning from our friend over at the Joy of Speed blog that Jay Reatard died on Wednesday. Various news outlets now have stories up (for example the NYT here and Paste here) about the untimely passing of the 29 year-old Memphis punk-and-beyond musician. He has put out an extraordinary number of albums (20+) in his too-brief recording life (starting when he was 15).

He will be missed.

His compilation on Matador of his 2008 monthly series of 7" releases made my Best of the 2000s list. I highly recommend poking around and listening to some of his other stuff as well.



RIP Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr. aka Jay Reatard

Today was a Day for Dengue Fever

Dengue Fever kickin' out the Cambodian/Californian/Psychedelic/Surf future-of-music-under-globalization jams, mofo!

Bonus vid:


Make sure to pick up their 2008 release "Venus on Earth" if you don't have it. It received an Honorable Mention designation on my recent Best of the 2000s list (and came awfully close to placing in the top 25).

"If you can imagine a band where a Cambodian beauty queen shares the stage with Rasputin, Barry White, Allen Ginsberg, Michael Hutchence, and Brian Wilson, you'd have a pretty good idea of the group Dengue Fever." -Los Angeles Times

Discoveries that Make You Go 'Heck Yeah!' (Alejandro Escovedo edition)

This is the best music-related news of the week for me. I hadn't realized until a few days back that Alejandro Escovedo shows are on the Live Music Archive. So nice, so nice! Praise be to the various tubes of the internets! I wish there were more 1990's and early 2000's shows available, but hey, it is nice to have the 82 shows that are archived thus far for our listening pleasure. Unfortunately, none of the fifteen or so shows of Al's that I have seen are posted as of yet.



Man oh man, it has been too long since my last Escovedo show. I miss seeing him on a semi-regular basis at the Dingo Bar (long since shuttered) in Albuquerque and at the 7th St. Entry and 400 Bar in Minneapolis. I have also caught Al shows in Austin (SXSW, Waterloo Records, and Liberty Lunch), Houston (Mucky Duck), Atlanta (Variety Playhouse), San Antonio (Historic Sunset Station), and Santa Fe (The Paramount), as well as at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. Don't pass up the chance to see him if he comes to your town: here are his current tour dates.

Likewise, pick up an album or two of Al's if you don't have any already. You might start with his 2001 album "A Man Under the Influence, " the John Cale-produced "The Boxing Mirror" from 2006 which ranked #10 on my best of the 2000s list, or pick up his most recent release, 2008's "Real Animal".

Today was a Day for Bikini Kill

From their 1993 compilation "The C.D. Version of Their First Two Records":



Kathleen Hanna and company kickin' out the early-period-third-wave-feminist jams, mofo!

The world needs more riot grrls. Roar!

New Year's Resolutions #2-C, #2-D and #2-E: See a Show on Each of the Led Zeppelin, Iggy & the Stooges, and Pavement 2010 Reunion Tours

must pave:



must find some raw power:



must get the led out:

Today was a Day for Chuck E. Weiss

You might know him from references in the songs and albums of Tom Waits [for example, "Jitterbug Boy (Sharing a Curbstone with Chuck E. Weiss, Robert Marchese, Paul Body and The Mug and Artie)" from the 1976 album Small Change] and Rickie Lee Jones' mega-hit from 1979 "Chuck E's in Love". Here is a promotional vid for a more recent Chuck E. song:



Wouldn't it have been fun to live at the Tropicana Hotel in LA in the mid-70s? Frank Zappa, Sam Shepard, Tom Waits, Chuck E. Weiss, Warren Zevon, Henry Rollins, etc. all muttering to themselves as they passed by your room?

Do yourself a favor and pick up Chuck E's 1999 album "Extremely Cool". I listened to it earlier today for the first time in a while. Good stuff.

Today was a Day for Betty Davis

"Don't Call Her No Tramp" from Betty's second album, 1974's "They Say I'm Different":



Betty Davis, kickin' out the futuristic-freaky-funk jams, mofo!

Today was a Day for Mclusky

Track #8 from album #13 on my best of the decade list:
"Mclusky Do Dallas" (2002)

"My love is bigger than your love

We take more drugs than a touring funk band

Sing it

My love is bigger than your love

Sing it

My love is bigger than your love

Sing it

My band is better than your band

We've got more songs than a song convention

Sing it

My love is bigger than your love

Sing it

My love is bigger than your love

Sing it

And we're all going straight to hell

My dad is bigger than your dad

He's got eight cars and a house in Ireland

Sing it

My love is bigger than your love

Sing it

My love is bigger than your love

Sing it

When we gonna torch the restaurant?

Sing it

When we gonna pay the guide dog?

Sing it

My love is bigger than your love

Sing it

My love is bigger than your love

Sing it

And we're all going straight to hell

My love is bigger than your love

We take more drugs than a touring funk band

Sing it

My love is bigger than your love

Sing it

My love is bigger than your love

Sing it

When we gonna torch the restaurant?

Sing it

When we gonna get excited?

Sing it

My love is bigger than your love

Sing it

My love is bigger than your love

Sing it

And we're all going straight to hell

And we're all going straight to hell"

I'm Going Where There's no Compression; To a Better Land That's Free from Care (or, Reason #1 Why Today's Recorded Music Sucks)

In the weeks and months ahead, I'll post with my 7 or so reasons why I think that now is a very bad time to be a fan of recorded music. I think that there are also several clear reasons why the present is a very good time for music and I will get to these later on down the road. Nevertheless, as we begin the second decade of the 21st century, there are some crucial ways in which it is a terrible time to listen to recorded albums and songs of music in general. The first of these reasons is low-hanging fruit and many other people have made reference to this one in recent years.

Reason #1 Why Today's Recorded Music Sucks: Lossy Audio Data Compression

We begin with a reason that is a clear example of how "advancement" in music-related technology has actually led to "decline" in music quality (fidelity). This one is fairly obvious, yet I suspect there are a fair number of people out there who listen to music that is far inferior to what people listened to a generation ago--not in terms of style, genre, or quality of musicianship, but in terms of the sonic richness of the recordings to which they listen.

In the last dozen or so years of the MP3 revolution, many music fans have willingly (even if unwittingly at some level) lent an ear to recorded music that is compressed and missing large amounts of data. On this point, Neil Young and I agree. But then again, maybe it is just that Neil and I are getting out of touch with the preferences of the Ipod generation as this news story on a recent academic study suggests. Though, I must say, the professor's study... sounds... unsound [sorry!], and his reasoning quite faulty, if the news story is accurate.

To wit, as this report makes clear, people can tell the difference between different degrees of music compression when given the opportunity to sample the audio quality differential for themselves. Many people, however, have no idea that their lossy 128 KB/s, 192 KB/s, and 256 KB/s MP3s sound like crap and don't have the opportunity to hear fuller dyanamic range 320 KB/s VBR MP3s (due to inattention or it-was-the-only-rip-available-to-thieve or whatever), let alone CD quality recordings (or lossless compressed music like .shn and .flac). We won't get caught up in the VBR versus CBR debate right now. Likewise, don't worry, this post won't be extolling the virtue of vinyl. I'll save that for another day...

I argue that we just happen to live in a blip of time where current bandwidth availability (and bandwidth cost) isn't well suited for high quality music distribution through the internet.  Likewise, there is not sufficient storage capacity on mobile devices (smart phones, Ipods, etc.) to facilitate circulation of lossless audio. As data transfer and portable storage memory costs go down, there will be a return to non-compressed music consumption (and maybe even richer sound?). I don't know if this is 3 or 5 or 10 years away, but we will look back on the 1998 to 2015 (or whatever critical mass end-year) period with some embarrassment--it is the generation where folks bought and listened to music that sounded like crap because of missing depth of sound due to lossy audio compression. [We'll get to the recording, engineering, producing, and mastering end (beginning) of things in post #2 on this subject.]

You know that aunt (or uncle) of yours that you saw briefly over the holidays? She (or he) was listening to better sounding recordings on her (his) Sears hi-fi and tapedeck when she (or he) was your age as compared to music on an Ipod with docking station. It is hard to believe, but there are hundreds of thousands (or millions?) of people (young and old) out there (yesterday, today, and tomorrow) listening to 128KB/s-encoded MP3 copies of Ziggy Stardust, After the Gold Rush, Innervisions, The Soft Bulletin, Kid A, Return to Cookie Mountain, etc. It really is quite sad...

In future weeks and months I'll get around to posting about the other 6 reasons why today's recorded music sucks.

New Year's Resolution #3-B: Listen to More "Luke the Drifter" on Sundays in 2010

Show me the light Luke.

No more darkness, no more night.

Now I’m so happy, no sorrow in sight.

Note: "Luke the Drifter" was the nom de guerre in 1949-1952 for Hank Williams when he recorded talking blues, gospel, hymns, and preaching/morality songs. This was done at the insistence of Fred Rose for reasons of "protecting" Hank's reputation and also because many jukebox owners had standing orders for Hank's 78's and the last thing most saloon patrons wanted to hear at midnight on a Saturday night was "The Funeral" (even if it might have been for the best).