Posts

Pops Staples :: Don’t Lose This

In 2014, Mavis Staples tasked Jeff Tweedy with a heavy responsibility. She asked the Wilco songwriter, who’s helmed the production console on her last two solo LPs, to take tracks from an unfinished 16-year-old session recorded by her father, gospel patriarch Roebuck "Pops" Staples and his daughters, and use them to craft a completed album. Don’t Lose This, named for Pops’ command . . .

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Davy Graham :: Both Sides Now

Transfiguration. In 1968 British guitarist Davy Graham kicked off his lp Large As Life And Twice As Natural with this re-imagining of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" -- a song itself made famous (in part) by Judy Collins Grammy award winning cover in 1969.

Whereas Collins rendering was fairly catholic to the Mitchell original in its approach, Graham's is anything but. Transcendent.

Davy Graham :: Both Sides . . .

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Aquarium Drunkard Presents: February — A Medley

Tune in to this all-vinyl medley of soul, funk, blues and folk intended to guide you through February on a freedom train of rhythm.

Aquarium Drunkard Presents: February — A Medley

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Universal Togetherness Band :: More Than Enough

This: While in pursuit of a Radio and Television Broadcasting degree from Chicago State University, Cynthia C. Gibson produced the music video for “More Than Enough.” Filmed in the Summer of 1983, the video stars her husband and Universal Togetherness Band frontman Andre Gibson. The group's prolific studio career, spanning the years 1978-1983, explored permutations of soul, jazz-fusion, new wave, and disco with little regard for studio rates or the availability of magnetic tape. Previously unreleased, Universal Togetherness Band's brightest moments are now available through the Numero Group.

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The Keggs :: To Find Out

The story of The Keggs plays out like the narrative of a death disc single. A rock n roll band from the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, in July of 1967 they recorded their one and only 45 single on Orbit Records. Of the seventy-five copies pressed, most were destroyed during the subsequent 1967 race riots – there are currently ten known copies left in existence. Although they gigged around the midwest playing public pools, VFW halls and backyard birthdays, The Keggs failed to garner critical attention or accrue a . . .

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SIRIUS/XMU :: Aquarium Drunkard Show (Noon EST, Channel 35)

Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35, can be heard twice, every Friday — Noon EST with an encore broadcast at Midnight EST.

SIRIUS 375: Jean Michel Bernard — Générique Stephane ++ Honeyboy Martin & The Voices - Dreader Than Dread ++ Johnny & The Attractions - I'm Moving On ++ Andersons All Stars - Intensified Girls ++ King Sporty - DJ Special ++ Freddie Mackay - When I'm Gray ++ Hopeton Lewis - Sound And Pressure ++ The Upsetters - Popcorn ++ Willie Williams - Armageddon Time ++ Sister . . .

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God’s Song: The Satire of Randy Newman

There’s been a lot of talk recently about satire. What it is, what it does, if it really exists anymore. Following the Charlie Hebdo attack, the question whether or not the use of racist imagery can ever be sufficiently ironic has been a noticeably polarizing one. Everyone poring over the nuances of a French, left-leaning magazine (and, yes, its oftentimes crude appropriation of racial stereotypes) has also opened a larger debate, however. Not only in regards to free speech and political correctness, but also when it comes to satire per se.

In the wake of recent events, the writer Will Self found reason to draw a line in the sand:

‘[T]he test I apply to something to see whether it truly is satire derives from HL Mencken's definition of good journalism: it should "afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.” The trouble with a lot of so-called "satire" directed against religiously-motivated extremists is that it's not clear who it's afflicting, or who it's comforting.’

Leaving aside the irony of any good, moral definition having sprung from the mind of an unapologetic elitist-racist like Mr Menken, let’s think about this use of affliction as a moral barometer. (Let’s also gloss over the fact the Menken-Self test becomes rather less precise where groups wrangle over who is the more afflicted and who is being afflicted by whom.) The thesis here is that we should seek to protect the underdog, the lumpen few–which is no bad thing, obviously. Satire is surely meant for the bad guys, for taking down the complacent powers-that-be. However, according to Self, if satire is to maintain its moral backbone–if it is to be ‘good’–it can only do so by punching upwards and away from the have-nots. In other words, satire’s shit sandwich should be left for the status quo alone. Thou shalt not mock the underprivileged, the put upon, the uncomfortable…

My rather more succinct definition of ‘good’ satire is Randy Newman. Others may throw around more technical, more literary names (Juvenal and Horace, the Minippean, the Hogarthean), but I prefer Newman’s name because of what it represents in regards to the art of satire. Show me any recent think piece about what good satire is or is meant to be and my response is invariably going to be Well, what about Randy Newman? And that’s because, when we talk about Newman’s satirical songwriting, we are necessarily talking about more than straight mockery and poking fun. This is about making you feel something alongside the laughter. It’s about stripping away pretense in less-than-obvious ways and making you swallow hard facts. More importantly, it’s about never being made comfortable.

Let’s get Newman’s best known song, "Short People", out of the way first, as it both is and isn’t the kind of exemplary Randy Newman satire I want to discuss. It was such a staple of the late-Seventies (kept out of Billboard’s number one spot by no less than "Staying Alive") that very little recap is needed. Suffice it to say, the song’s narrator has a thing against short people. What we are offered in the lyrics is a laundry list of grievances, all the result of short people with their ‘grubby little fingers’ and ‘nasty little teeth’. So, at first glance anyway, this would seem like comedy very much at the expense of the little man. (The song pushed enough buttons to get legislation drafted in Maryland to keep it off the airwaves). Admittedly not quite as sophisticated as Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal, the irony was still lost on some listeners. On the face of it, these lyrics are offensive, aren’t they? Don’t short people have a hard enough time without a bouncy song poking fun at their shortcomings? What was frequently missed was the characteristic double-ness of Newman’s satire. The laughable stupidity of the song’s prejudice is the un-laughable stupidity inherent in all prejudice. Once that central irony is appreciated, we can see that the target isn’t demonic little people, it is our own prejudicial stupidity. The butt of the joke is all of us.

As Newman himself has explained in a number of interviews, it’s too easy to say ‘prejudice is bad’ and have done with the issue. ‘I find it more natural to do it in an indirect way by having a character who states the case. I always think the audience is a little brighter than some of the people in my songs.’

That sense of the indirect route, of Newman-ian Double-ness, is a fundamental to his satirical songs. In "Davy the Fat Boy" we find a carnival barker who exploits the rotundity of an orphaned ‘friend’ for monetary gain. Drawn into the sideshow, listeners are held to account. Again the finger points at us (‘I think we can persuade him to do/The famous fat boy dance for you.’) Another great example is what might be considered Newman’s first satirical masterpiece–"Sail Away." There too we find a huckster disguising cruelty underneath a sheen of philanthropy and communal spirit: ‘In America, you get food to eat/Won’t have to run through the jungle and scuff up your feet/You’ll just sing about Jesus and drink wine all day/You all gonna be an American.’   You want irony? Well, imagine a slave trader backed by a string arrangement as sweepingly gorgeous as anything by Aaron Copland. Imagine him laying down a piano figure filled with the ghosts of Stephen Forster and Hoagy Carmichael and singing the praises of ‘the sweet watermelon and the buckwheat cake.’ It is unsettling, almost painful, the way the song balances a slave trader’s reassurances (‘In America every man is free’) with something musically so beautiful that it makes us want to get on the boat. And all this despite Newman’s treading very sensitive ground indeed (‘climb aboard little wog, sail away with me’). We know this history, we know the suffering it was predicated upon and how it turned out. But the song works as great satire because it doesn’t let us off the hook so easily.

We don’t laugh at this style of irony and find our moral superiority still intact. The funniness gives way to darker truths. Try listening to "Rednecks", for example (the epitome of an ironic Newman-esque one-two punch) and remain sitting comfortably. You might even laugh with relief at the first couple verses and the pot-shots taken at the ‘good ol’ boys from Tennessee,’ but come the final chorus, Newman makes sure the irony is pointed squarely at you.

Religion isn’t off limits for Newman, either–but you have to be mindful of the way his brand of satire deals with this subject matter, particularly in "God’s Song (That’s Why I Love Mankind)", the song that closes-out the Sail Away (1972) album.

Randy Newman :: God's Song

By this point in the album, we’ve already heard an unadulterated song of praise (‘He Gives Us All His Love’) and a bleak, atheistic lament (‘Old Man’), but ‘God’s Song’ shuts the door on unquestioning faith and shuts it hard. Satirical to its core, it is also serves up one of Newman’s darkest ironies–and does so in no less a voice than that of god Himself. The song’s subtitle hints knowingly at Threepenny Opera’s ‘What Keeps Mankind Alive?’ but what we get musically-speaking is closer to "St James Infirmary Blues": just solo piano and voice, along with a faintly tapping foot reminiscent of John Lee Hooker. On the face of it, it’s a bluesy dirge sounding the death knell for the very concept of a compassionate God. A theodicy to end all theodicies. If Dylan rooted his Americana in the story Abraham and Isaac, Newman now pushes it even further back, to the first murder, the first conscious act of violence and cruelty.

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Viet Cong :: Viet Cong

Calgary’s Viet Cong arrived fully formed with last year’s Mexican Summer release, Cassette. But on their self-titled Jagjaguwar debut, it is clear they have grown even tighter and more sure-footed in the short time that has passed. Teasing the new release with “Continental Shelf” and “become a member or log in.

Natalie Prass :: S/T

On Nashville singer-songwriter Natalie Prass’ self-titled album, every song is like a tiny miracle. Helmed by producer Matthew E. White and his Richmond, Virginia-based studio/band/label, Spacebomb, the album features lush string arrangements, jazzy overtones and classic R&B horns. But White could make almost anyone sound good. What sets Prass far apart is the maturity of her songwriting; her elegant, woodwind-esque . . .

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Jim White Vs. The Packway Handle Band :: Take It Like a Man

Jim White once told me that his ideal situation as a songwriter would be to make a record of other people recording his songs. And given the bits of himself that have leaked out through his six full-length albums, it's not surprising to think of him being the introvert, of wanting to share his ideas, but perhaps not through his own voice on his own stage. Thankfully, he never fully embraced that idea given how perfect his own spoken and sung voice is for his written words, but his newest album, Take It Like a Man, a collaboration with Athens, Georgia's Packway Handle Band, is a good example of how his sought anonymity within the music could generate amazing results.

This is not to say that this is not a Jim White record. His name appears above the title for a reason. His lead vocals, however, are restricted to only five of the 11 songs on the album. And that's something to get used to. But the Packway Handle Band proves to be an amazing compliment to White's music and lyrics.

Clocking in at less than 40 minutes, Take It Like a Man is a rambling chase. It comes up to speed through the mystical feel of "Smack Dab in a Big Tornado," a song with imagery familiar to long-time fans of White's work, hitting its first stride with "Corn Pone Refugee," a song that relishes in its word play. "I could not help myself, tugging on them strings," White sings with the gallop of Packway behind him both musically and vocally. What sounds in a lot of ways like a traditional bluegrass romp is transformed with White's distinctive imagery and vocal delivery.

Jim White And The Packway Handle Band :: Corn Pone Refugee

The album shines especially when it both revisits and re-imagines some of White's earlier work. Two songs previously released are performed here. "Jim 3:16," a version of which appeared on the 2009 live EP A Funny Little Cross to Bear, is fantastic in this setting, the refrain of "A bar is just a church where they serve beer," having its simple truth underlined by the full instrumentation. Digging back even deeper to White's first LP, "Wordmule Revisited" is exactly as the title proclaims, a re-examination of the Wrong-Eyed Jesus stand-out. Here, the original's creaky, fractured production is straightened out into a jam that carries a hoarse sounding small-choir of voices. Where the original sounded like free association funneled through a filter of smiling insanity, the remake finds the song to be much more foreboding. Maybe it's the more intense instrumentation - the Packway Handle Band is a ridiculously well oiled machine on this album - or the spoken lines among the sung that add to the menace. The overall feel is ratcheted up and it's a tremendous song that stands on its own against the original's broken brilliance.

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Tangerine Dream :: Live At Conventry Cathedral, 1975

Sad news from the camp of kosmische/space music/soundtrack pioneers Tangerine Dream today regarding the passing of founding member Edgar Froese.
"Dear Friends, this is a message to you we are deeply sorry for. On January 20th, Tuesday afternoon, Edgar Froese suddenly and unexpectedly passed away from the effects of a pulmonary embolism in Vienna. The sadness in our hearts is immense. Edgar once said: “There is no death, there is just a change of our cosmic address."

Tangerine Dream was a defining band in the "Berlin . . .

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The Rolling Stones :: Satisfaction (Charlie Is My Darling)

While it existed as a poorly edited rough cut on rough quality bootlegs for many years, thankfully the historically important and downright amazing Charlie Is My Darling is now available on a coherent and highly official DVD. Charlie documents the Rolling Stones at the peak of mod mania, touring Ireland in the fall of 1965 and performing to both riotous youngsters and at least one young priest. In addition to the on-stage rushes, there is some priceless footage of the band . . .

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SIRIUS/XMU :: Aquarium Drunkard Show (Noon EST, Channel 35)

Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35, can be heard twice every Friday — Noon EST with an encore broadcast at Midnight EST.

SIRIUS 374: Jean Michel Bernard — Générique Stephane ++ The Allah-Las — Busman’s Holiday ++ B.F. Trike — Be Free ++ Dinosaurs — Sinister Purpose ++ Flaming Groovies — Golden Clouds ++ The Ramones — Oh Oh I Love Her So ++ The Nerves — Stand Back And Take A Good Look (Demo) ++ Chris Spedding — Bored Bored ++ The Lovin’ — I’m . . .

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Die Electric Eels / Spin Age Blasters / Bunnies

The electric eels (all lower-case, with reverence to e e cummings) were a short-lived Cleveland combo with a discography that sounds too ramshackle and combustible to have been recorded in the first place. They barely played live, clocking in something like five shows before breaking up in 1976, but their sounds, collected lovingly by the fine folks at Superior Viaduct on Die electric eels and the 45 Spin Age Blasters / Bunnies, sound revelatory in 2015.

Inspired by disparate influences upon their formation in 1972 — guitarists John Morton and Brian McMahon and . . .

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Multis E Gentibus Vires: A Vintage Saskatchewan Mixtape

Dig into an all-vinyl helping from one of Canada’s overlooked and underappreciated provinces. Rural rock with guitars informed by six months of winter. Prairie Lily ladies and god-fearing men. 800 pounds of country rock from a trio of CFL players. A paean to a Métis folk hero. And Howard. Welcome to Saskatchewan.

Multis E Gentibus Vires: A Vintage Saskatchewan Mixtape

Playlist after the jump. . .

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