Track Listing: 1. Clean Money 2. Girls Talk 3. Talking in the Dark 4. Radio Sweetheart 5. Black and White World (Demo version) 6. Big Tears 7. Just a Memory 8. Night Rally 9. Stranger in the House 10. Clowntime Is Over (Version 2) 11. Getting Mighty Crowded 12. Hoover Factory 13. Tiny Steps 14. (I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea 15. Dr Luther's Assistant 16. Sunday's Best 17. Crawling to the U.S.A. 18. Wednesday Week 19. My Funny Valentine 20. Ghost Train
Any Elvis Costello fan will you tell you that he was on such a roll from 1977-1980 that even his B-sides and outtakes are essential...And damn, did he do a lot of them...Consider this output...In three years, he released 4 classic albums and an hour-long album with 20 freakin' outtakes on it! And they're all good...As good as any of the stuff from the albums,even...And this isn't even all of them...I can name many other outtakes from this era that aren't represented here!
If you bought all the EC reissues, then you have all these, but I still strongly recommend listening to them in this format....Free of rougher demos and mostly free of repetitive alternate takes (although a couple of alternate takes do pop up and are easily the worst things here. The "Version 2" of "Clowntime is Over" is agonizingly slow if you're familiar with the original). This is like a greatest hits album of those bonus discs...This is where you can just pick up a single record and hear "Girls Talk" and "Crawling to the USA." There are a couple overly-familiar tracks like "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea," "Night Rally" and "Sunday's Best" which are here because they were left off the US versions of their respective albums.
Highlights are too numerous to mention. "Hoover Factory" with its bizarre arrangement that somehow works perfectly, that amazing opening guitar figure and organ that kick off "Big Tears," every single second of "Tiny Steps." "Stranger in the House" is also interesting since it has Elvis going full-on country years before "Almost Blue" or "King of America." I find "Getting Mighty Crowded" intriguing since it seems too legitimately soul for even "Get Happy!" I've also always been a big fan of the lovely, straight pop of "Dr Luther's Assistant."
I can only imagine what a treasure trove this must have seemed like back when it was released. Elvis and the Attractions were just an unstoppable new wave juggernaut at this point. The best songwriter of the late 70's-early 80's? Hell yes. And here's further proof...And the best part is you can always find this album cheap as balls in any respectable record store.
Here's "Tiny Steps" by Elvis Costello and those rascally Attractions...Enjoy...
Track Listing: 1. The Affidavit 2. X-Ray Visions 3. Firebirds! 4. A Quick Death in Texas 5. Sucker for the Witch 6. Your Love Is Incarceration 7. Doom Saloon 8. Our Lady of Electric Light 9. Noble Savage 10. Behold the Colossus 11. Decapitation Blues 12. Son of Virginia
I love this one. My favorite Clutch album since "From Beale Street to Oblivion." "Strange Cousins from the West" seemed a bit routine and "Earth Rocker" was exciting as hell but the songwriting felt a bit hollow to me...But "Psychic Warfare" is perfect.
From the awesome conspiracy-minded opener "X-Ray Visions" it's apparent what Clutch has done. They've taken the raw speed and energy from "Earth Rocker" and melded it to their bluesier, wordier side. The best of all possible worlds. This is one of those albums where there's just no way you can pick a favorite song. Everything's great. I think the only ones that I would consider a smidgen lesser would be "Decapitation Blues" or maybe "Our Lady of Electric Light." The rest is all frosting.
I'll try to pick some favorites, though...I love "Firebirds!" and "Noble Savage" which are full-throttle Earth-Rocker types that blow away anything from that album (except maybe "D.C. Sound Attack"). Super fast and catchy. And there's a three-song run in the first half ("A Quick Death in Texas," "Sucker for the Witch" and "Your Love is Incarceration") that squarely hits that classic-rock loving sweet-spot for me. I honestly can't think of a modern band that can do classic-style rock as convincingly as Clutch...Again, it's a sad thing that classic rock radio playlists petrified in the early 90's (save for the odd active-rock yarler) cos these songs would be shoo-ins...I also have to give a thumbs-up to "Behold the Colossus" for featuring Tim Sult's most subtle and well-composed guitar solo...Plus the lyrics (drenched in Greek mythology) make me want to hang out with a clockwork owl...
The best though, and possibly up there in the pantheon of all-time great Clutch songs (along with "Spacegrass," "Elephant Riders" and "Electric Worry") is the album closer, "Son of Virginia" which is by far Clutch's most successful attempt at a slow, bluesy rocker. Oh, my God, this song is perfect. The surreal lyrics (featuring a sarcophagus and a talking, smoking dog) set against the grand, surging ROCK is unexpectedly powerful...Perfecting the sepia-tone they pioneered way back on "Elephant Riders," the track starts slowly with a dusty, twangy riff but ends as the most majestic, earth-shaking motherfucker ever recorded...There's no way this doesn't become their standard set-closer...
For extra head-spinning effect, put on "Transnational Speedway League" directly after you finish this album...I did that the other day at work, and it struck me that back when that album first came out I don't think I could have predicted that Clutch would still be rocking it 20 years later or that they would ever end up sounding quite like this...These guys have progressed so far beyond their initial promise that it's mind-boggling...Easily one of my favorite bands on the planet...
Track Listing: 1. I Am the Living 2. Another Summer 3. All The Strength We Got 4. It's The Beginning Of An End 5. Gone Clear 6. Love Again 7. Satan's Kingdom 8. Morning Train
With the sheer volume of Jimmy Cliff albums and the willy nilly manner in which I bought/listened to them, it's somewhat hard to get a handle on Mr. Cliff's artistic trajectory, but I think I got it...You're free to disagree with me:
He initially finds worldwide fame with a series of essentially flawless reggae releases. Innovative in their omnivorousness and pleasing to the ear due to Jimmy's sweet vocal tone and earthy instrumentation. Then he goes into a downcast series of slower, soulful albums that aren't widely acknowledged classics but the diehards go crazy for. Then he goes through a somewhat fascinating stage where his albums are grab-bags of brilliant reggae, paranoid musings and desperate bids for hits. Then comes "Give Thankx" where he seems to find some peace of mind with gentle African rhythms and mellow reggae and this is where "I Am the Living" picks up...
First off, I love the cover..
The black & white photo with the red text reminds of Jimmy Cliff's version of "The Slider."
After the excellent title track, which is such a prime example of the kind of straight-up, life-affirming reggae anthem that Jimmy does best, we quickly settle into an album that emits a soothing easiness. Songs like "It's the Beginning of the End" and "Another Summer" feature shimmery electric pianos and gospel vocals. In the soft category I tend to prefer the more roots-based "Love Again" and "All The Strength We Got" which are lilting but still have a bit of that reggae fire igniting certain moments.
There are some awesome exceptions though, "Gone Clear" is one of Jimmy's toughest funkiest moments. It almost reminds me of a Jamaican James Brown(!) at times. And I had to flinch a bit when I saw the title "Satan's Kingdom" because I suddenly had flashbacks to the paranoid/persecuted Jimmy Cliff of the mid-to-late 70s'...But it's actually a pretty killer example of righteous reggae and possibly one of the best song on here...
The album ends with "Morning Train" which is so singular, I can't really think of another song like it...Chugging reggae with an ominous soft-rock feel...The song says "morning" in the title, but I get a darker "just before dawn" feel from it...You can clearly picture the last of the stars fading as the rickety morning train choogles down the tracks...Damn, I love this song. It's become one of new favorite Jimmy Cliff tracks...
Again, Jimmy is difficult to pin down...Reggae, soul, rock, he can do it all and blend it together until the individual ingredients become almost indistinguishable...I often hear the complaint that reggae all sounds the same, but I doubt those people have seriously listened to a Jimmy Cliff record. This isn't his best album or anything, but it's pretty solid and comes at an interesting period in his career. Shortly after this, he 80's-ized his sound and became very squarely an 80's pop artist...What I'm trying to say is "just buy it"...It's an interesting album and it's hard to find the entire album anywhere online but it's probably waiting in a used record bin near you for about 3 or 4 bucks...
Here's "Morning Train" by Jimmy Cliff...Enjoy it...
Track Listing: 1. PC Musical Chairs 2. Next Big Thing 3. Can't Be Bothered 4. 2000 and One 5. Panic in the Supermarket 6. Can't Complain 7. Faster 8. Phone in Sick 9. Refugees Go West 10. Backlash 11. Friends 12. Skin
Remember last year when I was doing the Citizen Fish posts? Well, after that I had such a huge hankerin' for more CF, so I went to the used record store and found an old Cd of "Millennia Madness" which (along with "Flinch" and "Thirst") used to be my go-to album. Good, conscientious ska/punk/rock that doesn't use its fiercely political stance as an excuse to skimp on a good tune. One of those rare albums where the music blasting from the speakers and the lyric sheet are equally compelling...
I loved re-reading the anti-2000 screed inside (basically placing an unrealistic expectation on the promise of the then-impending year 2000, using it as a marketing tool to package "newness" when we still have a world full of old problems...)
That's something I kinda miss...Punk albums that include editorials in the inside cover...It tends to reinforce and enhance the album's overhanging feel of dread, anticipation and skepticism...If you've checked out the later Subhumans albums or any other Citizen
Fish album, you won't be greatly surprised by the sound...Really dry, clanky brand of British, anarcho, stretched-shirt punk-ska...
A few of their best songs are here...For a band that's always excelled in impeccable opening tracks (Just think "TV Dinner," "Sink or Swim," "Feeding") "PC Musical Chairs" is possibly the best of the best...Just a big, hooky, horn-drenched manifesto with so many memorable bits...The mournful trumpet solo, that nagging guitar hook that dances the jig from time to time, that "Anyone with a conscience.." breakdown...And then when it goes back into the final verse (but with the horns blazing this time) but it's ten times punchier than the time before...Those kind of details always blow me away...
"Phone in Sick" is so fucking amazing it made me want to call in sick to work before I even had a job...I had totally forgotten about the song, but on the day I re-bought the album I just so happened to call in sick to work... As I was driving home while listening to the album I felt a circuit complete...A final puzzle piece click into place..."Woke up with a job one dayyyy, didn't want to work no mooooooore..." Oh, man...So good...
Add in the nerve-wracking "Panic in the Supermarket" and the ultra-catchy "Can't Be Bothered" and you've got one of the best albums of the whole 90's ska-punk era...Even suggesting that it had something to do with that whole scene lessens its achievement...This album has a clenched fist quality that works well in any era...It just so happened to coincide with the commercial rise of a superficially similar scene and made the whole thing sound meaningless in comparison...Long swim the Fish...
Here's "Can't Be Bothered" by Citizen Fish..Enjoy...
Friday Night Record Parties usually consist of a lot of talking about old times...There's nothing like blasting a bunch of records, drinking a ton of beer and boozily talking about the good ol' days...Last night the topic turned to a favorite old children's book of mine and I decided to do another entry in the "Sacred Things" category...Here it is...A list of my favorite childhood books...The merest mention of any of these takes me back (I'm excluding floppy, staple-bound comic books this time around cos I already covered those here.
Garfield Makes It Big: Comics (and my parents) taught me how to read. Plain and simple. There are photos of me sitting on my Dad's lap as a toddler as he held the daily Flint Journal in front of my face and apparently we used to just read the comics together. As a result, I learned to read at an extremely early age. So Garfield books were a natural progression. I know it's puzzling to modern sensibilities, but I cannot convey to you how popular Garfield was in the 80's...And I considered "Makes It Big" to be the peak...The one I returned to the most...After all, the celebratory back cover made it clear that this was no ordinary Garfield book. This was a big deal...
Special mention should also go to the epic "Garfield's Nine Lives" which ran the gamut from Lisa Frank cuteness to out-and-out old lady-murdering horror...
I was utterly taken with the wide variety of styles on display...Especially the noir realism of the "Babes and Bullets" section...
Crestwood House Godzilla Book: Oh, man...The memories...Crestwood used to put out the most ballin' series of monster books that I would relentlessly check out at the library as a kid...Seriously, every time I went there, I would pick out another one...I mean, look at the line-up listed on the back cover...
It's very hard to pick a favorite, but if forced at gunpoint, it would have to be the Godzilla entry. I lived for Godzilla Week (when WNEM TV5 would air Godzilla films for a week straight) but this book included stills from films I had never seen! And those stills! I used to stare at them longingly for hours on end...
What was Gigantis?!?! I could only read about this stuff until the VHS/DVD era was in full swing and I could finally watch some of these films...And oh yea, I consider the following page to be one of the defining images of my childhood...
So many monsters!! Drool...Drool...
I suppose I should give an honorable mention to the Creature From the
Black Lagoon book...That was probably my most 2nd checked out book...
Hot Dog Jokes-Told With Relish: I recently bought a copy of this and as I turned each page, there was an overwhelming rush of nostalgia...I read and re-read this book growing up...My most vivid memory of it, was a family gathering where I opted to stay in the car and pore over this book instead of visiting relatives...A very similar memory to the AC/CD "High Voltage" cassette that kicked off this blog...
I don't know what made me think of the book again, but one day I was sitting there and suddenly it popped in my head, "Oh, yea! The Hot Dog book!" Re-reading it I now, I realize it's basically an ad for Hebrew National Hot Dogs...
I took a photo of this particularly striking page. It's Columbo eating a hot dog! I figured the world needs to see this drawing...
GM- The First 75 Years of Transportation Products: My Dad worked for General Motors and used to bring home copies of this book. Chock full of striking colorful photos of old and (then) new vehicles...Of particular interest was a sleek, silver rocket concept car..."Dad?! Why can't we get one of those?!?!?!" Strongest memory of this book, was a sunny summer morning in the late 80's...It was the day of my sister's graduation party and I recall everyone getting everything ready, while I sat on the brown shag carpeting, drinking a big cold bottle of Faygo and reading this book...
Again, overwhelming stuff...
The Muppets at Sea: There was something about comics in book form that have always sucked me in...And when those comics were about The Muppets, that was even better...It's difficult to explain the pull of the Muppets at the time but I'll try to explain...Imagine having to endure Hee-Haw...
...and once it was over, you'd have to sit thru a bunch of Art Van commercials...
...but suddenly the TV screen would go blank, then that unaccompanied drum roll began...The sense of excitement was palpable... Then Kermit would introduce tonight's guest and the bonkers theme song would begin and you knew you were in for a good half hour of entertainment...
You never wanted it to end...That's why these books were so sacred to me...There were no DVD's back then...Once the Muppets were off the air, you couldn't see them anymore...It was as simple as that..Unless you had the books...
(Muppets on the Town...Another favorite)
In this same vein...Wembley's Egg...I first saw a girl reading this on the schoolbus and as soon as I saw it, I had to have the book! It consumed me! What was it?!?!? Then at the next school book fair, there it was...I begged and pleaded with my parents until they relented and I can still recall the sweet, sweet moment when I was the one reading it on the bus...The paintings in this book were flat out gorgeous...At the time, I had no idea this book was based on an episode of the show, so when I finally saw the episode years later, it was quite a rush...
Also in the staple-less comics category are these old Marvel Hardcovers that I used to check out all the time...
I now have the soft-cover version of this Spider-Man one and I still love it...Lots of text backstory and reprints of the Amazing Fantasy origin, a beautiful John Buscema Chameleon issue and some Ditko stuff from an old annual...There was also a Captain America one I used to check out (and apparently kept, cos I traded it to JJ somewhere in the 90's)...
Sandlot Peanuts: I still have a copy of this one too and still read it often...A collection of baseball-related Peanuts strips including the famous "Baseball Rash" series which I consider to be the pinnacle of Western Literature...
Lizard Music: A brilliant book that I still bust out and read regularly...Although, it does fall into the category of Twin Peaks category of "Bizarre Mysteries That Should Never Actually Be Solved." The setup is so intriguing that no actual answer can ever payoff sufficiently...My favorite moments are simply the descriptions of the protagonist watching mundane television...Very relatable to a kid like me, who would stay up all night watching TV like I was culture pop-spelunking...The copy I have now has a completely different cover, but it's all about that MC Escher dustjacket...
Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back Storybook: Another one of my most-checked out library books. I was crazy about all the big, glossy Star Wars story books but this one was the clear winner.
I think it comes down to the Bounty Hunter page and the Hoth battle
scenes, with their rich orange explosions juxtaposed against the white
snow...Pure imagination fuel when you're growing up in the snow-swept
wastelands of Northern Michigan.
I still have a full set of these Star Wars storybooks. You can get them super cheap and they bring back lots of memories...Honorable mention: The paperback of Marvel's Empire Strikes Back adaptation...
Y'know...The one with the purple Yoda...
'
The Thing at the Foot of the Bed: YES! Haven't read it in a krillion years, but I used to love this book and carried it around with me every where I went one summer...It was basically a bunch of scary stories for kids...The standout for me was the titular story where some guy thinks he sees monster eyes at the foot of his bed but it's actually just his toenails glistening in the moonlight...He might even shoot them off or something...I remember there's even a little drawing that accompanies it that illustrates how one could make that mistake...
Alright...Enough reading for the day...We'll get back to the records next time...Thanks for indulging me...
Track Listing: 1. Too Much Talk 2. Misadventure 3. Breakdown 4. Pretend 5. Fiasco 6. Pictures Paint Minds
Chron Gen didn't release much in their time...Just one full-length, a live album, a few singles and "Nowhere to Run," which was their final EP. Now, I have no idea what the fan reaction to this record was back in the day, but my guess would be that it was wildly, mohawk-twistingly unfavorable...
"OI! PLAY THE OLD STUFF, YE FECKIN' SCRUBBAH!!!"
Because the album kicks off with "Too Much Talk" which is fluffy, chugging, metal-flavored pop-punk...Lots of handclaps...Sorta reminds me of The Vibrators' "Disco in Moscow"..Pretty cool, actually...I can imagine a punk with a metal sweet tooth and a sorta open-mind enjoying this somewhat while his mates take the piss but then "Misadventure" queues up next and features...gulp....POPPIN' FUNK BASS!!!
"WHY?!!...sob...Why the poppin' funk bass, ye olde tarts?!?!"
And "Pretend" features a lovelorn Glynn Barber moaning and sobbing over some girl!?! Cripes! What's a punk to do?!
Shut up and enjoy it that's what...I'm not particularly concerned over what is and isn't punk... All I know is those above-mentioned songs are pretty cool and the entire second half of the album consists of nothing but absolute knockouts. The punky reggae "Fiasco" has some great dub effects for you to get lost in... The track can go on all day for all I care. Fucking love it. And "Breakdown" is QUITE POSSIBLY CHRON GEN'S ALL TIME BEST SONG! There, I said it! One of the catchiest pop-punk tracks I've ever heard. Glorious stuff if you're into fizzy headrushes...
This is the sort of album that could have only come out between 1980-1986. Back when punk bands were still expected to evolve and grow rather than put out the same album album forever. There's a lot of pitfalls when you're talking punk growth, but Chron Gen handles it beautifully. Is it "London Calling"? No. But it's a solid, melodic, energetic album full of memorable tunes. More than anything, this album makes me sad they called in a day after this. I would have loved to hear where else they were willing to go... Here, I'll shut up so we can listen to some music...Here's "Breakdown" by Chron Gen. I highly recommend you check it out....Enjoy...
