Records

'Tis the season for giving...to myself. I've been super busy these days, but i was able to make it out the other afternoon to do a little record shopping for myself. I didn't overdo it, surprisingly, but I did make it away with a pretty good haul.

Buzzcocks
Singles Going Steady
4 Men with Beards (re-issue)
LP

This is another one of those that I'm kind of ashamed to admit that I don't already own on vinyl. Regardless, I've remedied that situation, and have been listening to this one a lot. Gotta love the Buzzcocks. I sometimes wonder how successful they could have been in the U.S. given the proper push. The musicianship isn't quite on par with that of the Clash, but it's not all that far off, and I would put their pop sensibility up against just about everyone else. I definitely think they're the greatest thing to ever come out of Manchester.

Sweet
Desolation Boulevard
RCA Records (U.S. Release)
LP

Of all the studio albums by Sweet, this is definitely the one to own. This is the first record they made after they decided to shed the teeny-bopper image, although this is still about a year or so before they started writing their own stuff. Granted, a lot of their glossy stuff is pretty fun, too ("Little Willie" and "Wig Wam Bam" come to mind), but the real heavy hitters are on this one ("Ballroom Blitz" and "Fox on the Run"). The deep cuts on here are solid, too. I particularly like "A.C.D.C." and "The Six Teens".

Wilco
Summerteeth
Nonesuch Records (re-issue)
LP

This is definitely my favorite Wilco record, although YHF is not far behind. I like this one the best because it reminds me the most of Big Star. It sounds really nice on the 180 gram vinyl, and it includes a CD version, as well. Done and done. I'll probably have to get my hands on the re-issues of A.M. and Being There pretty soon, too.

Racounteured

Brendan Benson
The Earl
Atlanta, GA
12/11/09

I apologize for the lapse in writing, but I've been super busy of late. Well, that and Christmas shopping has left me too broke to buy anything worth reviewing, and the shows worth going to see have been few and far between for the last couple of weeks. Until going to see the film It Might Get Loud a couple of months ago, I had very little interest in anything Jack White had ever done. I swear this would have been totally different had I known that he was the drummer for the early-90's Cowpunk/Alt-Country outfit Goober and the Peas. I never made the connection, because he was credited under his given name, John Gillis. Regardless, I never paid a lot of attention to what the guy was doing, but he made quite an impression on me after I realized what he was really about. While I like certain things about the White Stripes, the fact that most, if not all, of it lacks a lovely invention called the bass guitar leaves a little something to be desired. I love what little I've heard of The Dead Weather, but that's only a couple of songs. Much like White Stripes, I'd largely ignored The Raconteurs. After giving it an honest chance, it's the most conventional of all of Jack White's projects. Coincidentally, it's the one I think I enjoy the most. Another thing that I didn't realize until digging a little deeper is that The Raconteurs is really more Brendan Benson's band than Jack White's.

When I saw that Brendan Benson would be playing a solo show at The Earl, I didn't know what to expect, but I also knew that I probably didn't want to miss it. I had never heard a single song from his solo catalog going in. That, coupled with the fact that I once again got pretty drunk (a recurring theme, I know), means that you're not getting too thorough of a review out of me. Let me put it to you this way, though: I may not have known any of the songs he played, but this show was absolutely brilliant. Benson is a great singer, a fine guitar player, and he was backed by stellar accompaniment, which included fellow Raconteur Mark Watrous, and Brad Pemberton and Jared Reynolds, sidemen of Ryan Adams and Ben Folds, respectively.

Watching and hearing Benson was like going back in time and watching one of the early-to-mid 70's power pop masters have a go of it. For me, it conjured up many of the great ones like Big Star, Cheap Trick and The Raspberries. The hooks were ubiquitous, and it seemed like with each song, you'd hear the first verse and whether you were familiar with it or not, you'd be singing along before it was over. And he did this non-stop for over an hour. When the set finished, he came out to do an encore with the opening act, Cory Chisel, joining him. They closed the set out by doing an outstanding version of Tom Petty's "American Girl", and a really good version of one of the more non-descript Petty hits that I can't recall (as I said, I was pretty loaded, and honestly I don't care much for Tom Petty), that brought the nearly packed house down. Yeah, this guy really knows what he's doing.

I was impressed enough by Benson to pick up a copy of his latest LP, My Old, Familiar Friend. I haven't given it a listen yet, but he appeared to have played most of the album, so I think I'm going to like it enough to work backwards and pick up some of his earlier records. I regret that I was only able to catch the last couple of Cory Chisel's songs, because based on those, he seems to be pretty good, too. I'd recommend checking either of these acts out in the future. And while I never thought I would find myself saying this, I think I'm going to have to see The Raconteurs next time they hit the road.

That's all for now, but expect a barrage of lame-ass 'Best of '09' posts between now and the end of the year. After all, I can't let Pitchfork and Paste have all the fun. See ya.

It's Beginning to Sound a Lot Like Xmas

I finished up my annual Christmas compilation CD last night. I didn't deviate too far from what I typically put on it, but I put much more of a concerted effort to make a CD that's enjoyable from start to finish. In my opinion, this one is good enough to copy and give to friends. Here's how it turned out, in order:

1. “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” – the Ventures
What better way to get it started than having an instrumental reworking a of Christmas classic.

2. “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday” – Wizzard
Probably my third favorite Christmas song of all time. Wizzard was an interesting time in Roy Wood's career, and this song is basically a Phil Spector/Girl Group sendup. It works beautifully.

3. “Run Rudolph Run” – Chuck Berry
Another classic. I don't really see how you can leave this one off. I briefly thought about omitting this one in favor of Keith Richards' version of it. I just couldn't do it, though.

4. “Frosty the Snowman” – The Ronettes
Not only is this an amazing song by an amazing singer, it was prominently featured in the film Goodfellas.

5. “Fuck Christmas” – FEAR
Being that it's under a minute long, I can't think of a reason why this shouldn't be on everyone's Xmas playlist. Especially after getting to see them play it live. In the summertime.

6. “White Christmas” – Stiff Little Fingers
I actually didn't know this existed until a few days ago. It's pretty good. Not great, but pretty good. It sounds like a relatively recent(definitely not from the 70's), but I can't say for sure.

7. “Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis” – Tom Waits
I really wanted a Tom Waits song on here. Basically, it came down to including either this song, or "Christmas Sucks" by Tom Waits and Peter Murphy. The cons against this song are a) Christmas is only referenced in the title and not in the lyrics of the song, and b) it's about a minute longer than "Christmas Sucks", and I probably could have jammed one more song in there had I opted for the shorter one. This one is much, much funnier, though, and the other one, well, that one has Peter Murphy on it. This one wins.

8. “Merry Christmas, Baby” – Otis Redding
Great rendition of a great song. This sure beats the shit out of Springsteen's. I'd like to track down the original, which was recorded by Johnny Moore's Three Blazers in 1947. I bet it cooks.

9. “Father Christmas” – The Kinks
My second favorite Christmas song of all time. It fucking rocks, and the lyrics are hysterical in a way that only Ray Davies can pull off. I have fond memories of hearing this song around the holidays on AOR stations. I can't recall the last time I heard a rock station play this, and that's a shame.

10. “Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy” – Buck Owens and his Buckaroos
I never knew this one existed until a couple of years ago. Of all the songs on here, this isn't my favorite, but it's the one that I'm most proud of including on my own compilation. Buck Owens gets name dropped in a lot of circles, but I can't think of any radio station, terrestrial or satellite, that would ever play this song. It came out in 1965 on Buck's Christmas Album, and I think I want to seek that out to see what other gems are on it.

11. “Christmas Vacation” – Descendents
It's really just another classic Milo song about getting dumped, but the dumping in question happens to occur over Christmas break, so that's good enough for me. I love this tune.

12. “Jingle Bells” – Booker T. and the MGs
I love Booker T. and the MGs and I love what they do with this song. I used a total of three songs from Stax artists.

13. “Fairytale of New York” – The Pogues
It's nearly impossible to escape this song during the holidays, but I don't care. It's still iconic.

14. “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” – Darlene Love
This is the best version of an amazing song. I don't know why anyone else ever bothered to try their hand at this.

15. “Merry Xmas Everybody” – Slade
Best. Holiday Song. Ever. And of course it's virtually unknown in the U.S. Slade is one of my favorite bands, and this is arguably their masterpiece. Noddy Holder does his best John Lennon on this song, and it works because Noddy was a lot better singer than Lennon (and virtually everyone else, for that matter).

16. “Mr. Grinch” – Mojo Nixon and the Toadliquors
This was the most palatable choice of Nixon's Horny Holidays record, and I wanted to include something off of that one to keep things fun.

17. “Gee Whiz, It’s Christmas” – Carla Thomas
The third and final song by a Stax artist is this one. It's a nice song, although basically just a simple reworking of Thomas' hit song "Gee Whiz". It's relatively obscure, but somewhat recognizable, so I thought it was a good choice.

18. “Little St. Nick” – The Beach Boys
Classic Beach Boys and there's nothing wrong with that.

19. “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight)” – Ramones
I don't think my conscience would allow me to leave this one off of any Christmas compilation.

20. “Feliz Navi-Nada” – El Vez
I had never heard this before the other day and it's a fun one. I also put it on here because I missed El Vez' early Christmas show at the Earl this past Tuesday, and I feel bad about it.

21. “Santa Baby” – Eartha Kitt
I really wanted to include a fabulous cover of this song by defunct Atlanta band 6x, but I couldn't find an mp3 copy of it. That's a tragedy, but the original version will have to suffice.

22. “Christmas with the Devil” – Spinal Tap
Even though this song never appeared on a recording until Spinal Tap released Break Like the Wind, I remember them performing this on Saturday Night Live in '83 or '84, so it could be considered an extension of the stuff they made for This is Spinal Tap.

23. “Blue Christmas” – Elvis Presley
This is one of the usual suspects for Christmas tunes, but I really wouldn't have felt right if I'd left it off.

24. “Christmas in Hollis” – Run-D.M.C.
See explanation for track 23.

25. “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” – John Lennon
See explanations for 23 and 24.

26. “Merry Christmas” – Wesley Willis
There was no way I was going to make a Christmas compilation without my man Wesley Willis on it. It came down to either this one, or "Kris Kringle Was a Car Thief". I figured that of the two, this would be the one less likely to result in everyone else in the room running for the door, or violently beating on me with lead pipes. It's still distinctly possible that this will happen with this selection, mind you, it's just less likely.

27. “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” – The Ventures
Start with the Ventures, end with the Ventures. Seems like a pretty good recipe for success to me.

On a side note, I remember back in the days of the actual mix tape, one of the many reasons I grew to love the Ramones was that no matter how little room there seemed to be when you approached the end of a cassette's side, there was ALWAYS room for a Ramones song. That's how I feel about the Ventures in the era of the mix CD. A virtual treasure trove of classic songs, with none of them exceeding two minutes and thirty seconds. Of course, the days of the mix CD are falling by the wayside, but that's another story for another time.

What do you think? What would you have done differently here?

No Thugs in Our House

Nigels with Attitude
The EARL
Atlanta, GA
November 24, 2009

As a general rule, I think tribute bands are complete and total dogshit. No matter how well they can play the songs of the band they're mimicking, there's always something about the set, or the band, or one member in particular that chaps my ass to no end. I once went to see a Replacements tribute band from South Carolina play a show here in Atlanta. When they took the stage, the singer didn't have a guitar, or any other instrument, in his hand. If someone is going to pretend to be Paul Westerberg, and is planning on doing so without a guitar in his hand, that's something to which I will not be a party. I left as they started playing their opening number: a boring, one-guitar version of "I.O.U.". Among the myriad problems this band had, there wasn't one greater than the fact that it lacked imagination. Sure, you could make a pretty compelling argument that the whole point of a tribute band is that it's supposed to lack imagination; you are covering another artist's material, after all. But I think imagination is what sets the really good ones apart from the really bad ones. A good tribute band is able to use their own imagination to channel that of the artist they're honoring. Nigels with Attitude is probably the best tribute band I've ever seen, and it's probably because they were able to dream really big, just like XTC did for so many years.

The Nigels, led by Sheryl Crow sidemen Tim Smith and Peter Stroud, tore through a 19 song set that spanned XTC's entire career and they did so in style. They began the set with "This is Pop?" from XTC's debut White Music, finished with a raucous encore of "No Thugs in Our House", and did their take on many other classic XTC songs in between. The band, which also included most of the recently disbanded Y-O-U, was spot on, used a lot of different instruments in order to duplicate the big sound of many of the original songs and they received quite a boost behind the boards from EARL sound man Curt Wells, who was obviously a big enough XTC fan to know where they echoes and the delays and such were supposed to go.

The set seemed to include anywhere from one to three songs off of each of XTC's major releases, and that was enough to keep everyone in attendance happy (although, admittedly I would have preferred it if they would have played more songs off of my favorite, Drums and Wires). They even included a couple of tunes from the Dukes of Stratosphear releases, which I hope would silence even the toughest critics. I considered the highlights of the set to be "Life Begins at the Hop", "Generals and Majors", "Senses Working Overtime", "Mayor of Simpleton" and "Ball and Chain".

What I saw on stage that night was a group of guys who are all professional musicians, that did this gig for fun. There's no telling when or if there is going to be a next time for Nigels with Attitude, but if there is, I will be there. As I stated before, as much as I generally detest tribute bands, there are exceptions to every rule, and this was rather exceptional. And it certainly didn't lack imagination. All it lacked was a version of the song "Helicopter", and hopefully next time they'll have the imagination to work that into the repertoire.