MUSIC ON THE COUCH ROUNDTABLE

Very excited to be joining a discussion regarding the music industry on a cool blogtalkradio program hosted by Vinny "Bond" Marini called Music On the Couch.

Here's the link:

Music On The Couch Roundtable

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When? The show airs 10pm to 11pm ET on Monday, March 29th.

Details:

A panel discussion with four music aficionados covering where the music industry has come from, where it is now and where it is heading. Joining host Vinny Bond are good friends Starrlight http://absinthedreamers.blogspot.com/, who will bring her wealth of knowledge regarding the newest alternative bands; JohnH http://www.avoicetohear.com/ who has his finger on the pulse of the Indy bands abounding today and Sean Coleman, whose knowledge of Classic Rock is as complete as they come. Dial in as we all sit on The Couch and talk it through.Your participation is also encouraged by calling the show at 1.347.633.9400.

Registration to join in and chat takes just a few minutes and is free. Pre-register here http://www.blogtalkradio.com/register.aspx

Be sure to tune in on Monday evening!

THE CRAWPUPPIES

WORLD'S MUCH BIGGER

Had the great pleasure to be steered toward a couple of taster tunes from a band called The CrawPuppies, who happen to have a new CD out called World's Much Bigger.

You can learn all about the quartet here http://www.crawpuppies.com/index3.html

Straight up rock songs with good melodies always find a receptive audience and these guys certainly have that part locked down. The title track leans toward Being There era Wilco, which is certainly a plus. Crunchy guitars and a subtle hook line highlight a great tune. Most impressive is a deliberate move keep the vocals free of the dreaded modern engineering crutch: the auto tuner/pitch corrector. The band is allowed to breathe, though production values remain high.

Definite favorite of the two is "She Comes Lovely", which features fantastic changes, delicate guitar interpolations and excellent vocals. Again, it's refreshing to listen to people who are putting thought into the finished product.

I really like what I hear so far and look forward to spinning the full length disc.

In a plastic world, there's always room for craftsmanship.

The CrawPuppies are officially in my listening rotation.

GREEN BEER AND SHAMROCKS

Two great Irish story tellers and musicians, Liam Clancy and Tommy Makem.

I'm raising a glass to the both of them tonight.

Here they are, live from God's Country, in 1977.

Happy St Patty's Day!

May you be half an hour in heaven before the devil knows you're dead

MOTORHEAD

BOMBER

Contemporary culture seems to be focused on smothering people with safety.

This is fine if you're shopping for a new family car, though good music should move people to a place where there's a little more action, even a hint of danger.

Looking for some rock and roll?

Arse-kicking from start to finish, Bomber is just the ticket. Lemmy, Phil and Eddie hit a ferocious groove throughout, delivering on the LP cover's promise that the bad-ass trio intend to carpet bomb everything in sight.

I was a teenage metalhead

Yes, I proudly owned every Motorhead release (on cassette) right up to Another Perfect Day. Out of that amazing run of discs, this one just hits the spot. Strip away all of the artifice and you have three aggressive instrumentalists hitting their marks hard with no regard for anything but the thrill of making beautiful noise together. The band works like a Swiss watch.

Despite the violence of each attack, Lemmy delivers catchy melodies with hooks that you can hang your hat on. His vocal coach may have overdone it with the "carton of cigs washed down with Jack Daniels" regimen, though that part just adds to the authenticity.

Wouldn't be Motorhead with Pat Boone out front now, would it?

There is a wit at work here that those who write off anything louder than Coldplay are missing out on. The title track always brings a twinkle back to dimming eyes.

You know we do it right
A mission every night
It's a bomber...

It actually plays like a fleet of bombers.

Lemmy lets Fast Eddie Clarke take the wheel for a tune ("Step Down") and fires scattershot verbal barbs in all directions. There are a clutch of classics on this record ("Lawman" "Poison" "All the Aces") that remain satisfying thirty years on from their creation. These guys didn't bother with being trendy, which has payed handsome dividends in terms of musical shelf life. Kids in 2034 will still be picking up on the energy of Motorhead because it's real. Simple as that.

Jimmy Miller produced this mighty work in between trips to the land of nod.

Would your lawn die if Lemmy moved in to the house next door?

Definitely.

No amount of description is a substitute for the real thing, so velcro yourself in and enjoy some rock and roll in the way it was intended to be heard.

LOUD

PAUL SIMON

PAUL SIMON

Following a very successful run of LPs with his partner, Art Garfunkle, Paul Simon entered the 1970s as a solo act. His first effort in this capacity was par excellence.

"No, I would not give you false hope, on this strange and mournful day."

Stylistically, the loping, reggae inflected "Mother and Child Reunion" opens this phenomenal set with a knuckleball. Coming on like an old spiritual, without alluding to any religious theme, there is something deeply familiar in its groove, yet it belongs to Simon.

"Know where the words came from on that? You never would have guessed. I was eating in a Chinese restaurant downtown. There was a dish called "Mother and Child Reunion." It's chicken and eggs. And I said, 'Oh, I love that title. I gotta use that one.' I fell into Los Incas, I loved it. It's got nothing to do with our music, but I liked it anyway. The Jamaican thing, there's nobody getting into a Jamaican thing. Jamaicans have a lot of good music, an awful lot."

Cissy Houston leads the backup singers with soulful precision.

Los Incas provides the solo breaks in the acoustic-dominated tale of "Duncan", similar to the Andean touches they added on "El Condor Pasa (If I Could)." World Music was not in the purview of the majority of pop artists of the period, though it works well here. Brian Jones would have been proud. There are lines that are quintessentially Simon, intoned in a way that almost seems like he's passing on a secret.

Displaying an incredible economy with words, that concision is used to great effect in "Everything Put Together Falls Apart". Clocking in just shy of two minutes, the delicacy of the playing coupled with a lilting melody belies the darker message of the downside to taking pills. This is a tune to play for songwriters that have only a nodding acquaintance with subtlety. Arrangements are uncluttered, with a deliberate attempt to shun the big production job that colored Bridge Over Troubled Water. Very little augmentation is present and the focus is, rightfully, placed on the songs themselves.

"Run That Body Down" is my personal favorite, standing out from the pack. This song builds beautifully, supported by Hal Blaine's brushed groove and airy vibes, virtually lifting off when Jerry Hahn takes his tasteful, wah-wahed solo. Hinting at domestic troubles, he name checks himself and then-wife Peggy in the lyric, though, again, any pointed references are gracefully sidestepped, leaving the listener to speculate as to what meaning is intended.

Butchered by countless guitar players during late night sing-a-longs, "Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard" is one that everyone knows, sounding like it is being delivered with a wink.

What was it that mama saw?

"Something sexual is what I imagine, but when I say 'something', I never bothered to figure out what it was. Didn't make any difference to me. First of all, I think it's funny to sing--"Me and Julio." It's very funny to me. And when I started to sing 'Me and Julio,' I started to laugh. I like the line about the radical priest. I think that's funny to have in a song. "

Simon was ahead of the curve by employing exotic instrumental flavoring (inspired work by percussionist Airto Moreira) that manages to enhance the scattershot wordplay of this memorable song.

"It's carbon and monoxide, the ole Detroit perfume, that hangs on the highways in the morning and it lays you down by noon..."

Delicate chord progression, harmonium pad and jaunty bass harmonica (reminicient of "The Boxer") move "Papa Hobo" along. Nice vocal texture. Close-up to the mic, with no reverb. Stomping bass drum pushing violent acoustic slide work announces the arrival of "Paranoia Blues". "Whose side are you on?" asks the author as he moves from people talking behind his back to getting the shakedown by the customs man "in that little room" to someone stealing his chow fong.

Paranoia is just a heightened state of awareness.

Isn't it?

Closing this flawless record is another sketch of a troubled relationship.

"Congratulations, seems like you done it again. I ain't had such misery, since I don't know when."

Ouch!

Ending with the question, "Can't a man and a woman live together in peace?" some beautiful electric piano by Larry Knechtel provides the soft landing. Meticulous in every way, I don't think that he has ever made a better record. Bigger commercial splashes would follow, though artistically, it was all done best here.

"I viewed Simon and Garfunkel as basically a three-way partnership. Each person had a relatively equal say. So in other words, if Roy (engineer Roy Halee) and Artie said, Let's do a long ending on "The Boxer'", I said, two out of three, and did it their way. I didn't say, Hey that's my song, It wasn't until my own album that I ever started to think to myself, What do I really like?" On my own album, I learned every aspect of it has to be your own judgment. You have to say, wait a minute, is that the right tempo? Is that the right take? It's your decision. Nobody else can do it."

Left to his own devices, he would not disappoint.