I wanted to post up this video and song for several reasons: 1) It’s a non-traditional Christmas song and apparently that’s the theme around here lately 2) It’s filmed rad Super-8 style in San Francisco at several places I recognize
but mostly
3) dude’s rockin’ the same stylish satin Forty-Niners jacket that my dad sported in the ’80s (and possibly my little brother too):
Nothing says “Christmas” like some harmonica. I like the rolling, melancholy feeling of that song and the rambling walk-through-town feel of the video. The Trainwreck Riders are from San Francisco and have an interesting sound: a blend of old-time Americana, blues, and (on some songs) some good old Bay Area punk rock. Interesting trivia: They are pals with another San Francisco band I’ve been listening to more lately, Two Gallants. Here’s the mp3:
Maybe it’s the huge blizzard that has (this time seriously) immobilized my city, but I am feeling all holly and jolly. I think that my favorite Christmas album that I am playing the most ’round the house this yuletide season is Chris Isaak‘s 2004 Christmas CD.
In addition to rockin’ retro covers of several old standards, there are five originals and duets with Stevie Nicks as well. It’s got such a nice cozy feel to it, with a hint of the surf/jangle/crooner vibe that makes me love Chris. I do recommend buying the whole thing for your Christmas enjoyment — it’s one I look forward to taking out each year. Some people have an aversion to Isaak, but not me. There is nothing but love in my heart for that man.
Gotta Be Good – Chris Isaak (check the fun & naughty innuendo)
And this song’s not on the album, but I have categorized it in my iTunes as a bonus track for the CD. The shimmering cymbal roll at the beginning of the track is reminiscent of the sound of the waves – just me and Chris ’round a fire on Ocean Beach singing the season.
Here’s something my coffee table lacks this Christmas: A new book of photography by San Francisco’s Peter Ellenby called Every Day is Saturday, documenting the meteorical rise and rocking shows of many artists within the “indie rock scene.” Considering it is accompanied by a mix CD (with folks like Grandaddy, Death Cab for Cutie, American Music Club, Rogue Wave, The Wedding Present, and many of the other bands featured in the book) it’s available for a mere pittance at $17.
I mentioned Ellenby a few months ago because of his fine photographic coverage of the Rogue Wave benefit concert in SF that you may remember me talking up, and I like what I’ve seen of his work — his eye for a good shot. I love rock photography, and how could I personally not adore a rock photographer who says that “his favorite places in the world are the top of Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh and Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco“?
Some of the folks he’s photographed that appear in this book are: Beastie Boys, Bob Mould, Bright Eyes, The Donnas, Earlimart, The Fastbacks, The Flaming Lips, The Foo Fighters, Ivy, John Lee Hooker, John Vanderslice (bottom), Les Claypool, Matt Nathanson, Mike Watt (left), Modest Mouse, Nada Surf, Neko Case, Red House Painters, Sebadoh and more . . .
Also contributing to the book were John Doe (from the band X) and Tim Scanlin (remember Addicted To Noise?), and a fine SF writer named Christopher Slater. When I first read it I thought it said Christian Slater and I was gonna get excited and go all Pump Up The Volume on you. But it’s actually not him. Worthy nonetheless.
From the folks at Busted Tees – I actually have someof their shirts and love ‘em because they make me laugh (and make random strangers also laugh at me).
Austin-based power pop band Cotton Mather made a splash on the scene during the ’90s with their album Kontiki, which has some truly lovely tracks on it – infectiously good ’60s flavored pop with sublime harmonies that hit that perfect spot in my soul. Per esempio:
Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. Good stuff. The band was named after an especially foxy-looking 17th century Puritan minister, which makes them dang hard to Google, but NME once called them “almost the most exciting new guitar pop band since Supergrass,” and after releasing three albums they disbanded in 2003.
Now former Cotton Mather frontman Robert Harrison is back with his new band Future Clouds & Radar, who will release a self-titled double album of “polychromatic psychedelic art-pop” on the Star Apple Kingdom label (March 6). While similarly pleasing, this new stuff is completely unlike his days with Cotton Mather (who sound more like The Beatles/Knack/Oasis).
Listen to two other new tunes from Future Clouds & Radar on their MySpace, I especially like “Egyptian Cravat.” Oh, and this one here has ukulele, and is fantastic.
Joe Barbera, half of the famous animation duo Hanna-Barbera, died yesterday at the age of 95 from natural causes at his home in California. Just the name Hanna-Barbera makes me smile, and remember how it would always flash across the screen at the beginning of the best cartoons from the Saturday mornings of my youth.
Alongside recollections of watching questionable shows like The Gummy Bears or Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers (I can still sing the songs for both, wanna hear it? Didn’t think so), as well as better ones like He-Man and The Smurfs, I spent lots of weekend mornings with The Jetsons and The Flintstones. The duo also created Yogi Bear and Scooby-Doo.
Their strengths melded perfectly, critic Leonard Maltin wrote in his book Of Mice And Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons. Barbera brought the comic gags and skilled drawing, while Hanna brought warmth and a keen sense of timing.
Hanna, who died in 2001, once said he was never a good artist, but that Barbera could “capture mood and expression in a quick sketch better than anyone I’ve ever known.”
Yay for the both of them, for all the joy the’ve added into countless kids’ artificially-sweetened-cereal fueled Saturday mornings.
[Parts of this post are lifted from the AP article, and the songs are from the excellent mid-’90s snapshot of nostalgia Saturday Morning Cartoons’ Greatest Hits, which has more great tracks from the likes of The Ramones, Sublime, Reverend Horton Heat, and Juliana Hatfield/Tanya Donelly]
In the my continuing quest to find the perfect t-shirt, I’ve got another contender – just obscure enough to really fire me up. Worn Free replicates tees sported by your musical icons in random snapshots throughout history. Check their site to get the same shirt that Lennon wore in December 1971, or the yellow tank that Deborah Harry wore in concert circa ’77. Only you and a select few musical literati will know just how cool you really are under that corduroy jacket.
So, there’s sort of a theme time for the tunes this week – all are really upbeat and perhaps may lead you to dance this Monday morning. It seemed to me as if we might need it.
All The Time IV Thieves Aside from the vocal chants that I find entirely too reminiscent of “Walk Like An Egyptian” (you know, the one that all the cops in the donut shop say?) this is a sawing bluesy romp off the IV Thieves‘ new album If We Can’t Escape My Pretty. Formerly known as the superb Nic Armstrong and The Thieves, now known as simply the IV Thieves – from Nottingham and worth paying attention to.
Mr. Tough Yo La Tengo There is so much music always coming out that I admit I had not had time to listen to the new Yo La Tengo album this year, even though I personally thought the name was hilarious (I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass). Well, color me surprised, but this funk falsetto song is absolutely a million miles from what I expected to hear from Yo La Tengo, and it is completely fantastic. Love it, love it, love it.
Valerie The Zutons Here’s one more that I didn’t particularly expect, based on The Zutons‘ past Scouse-rock sounds. This is a definite dance-in-the-shower Motown/funk tune with “ooh-ooh” backing vocals (a la “Sympathy For The Devil”) and more than a hint of Elton John, if you can imagine that. It’s from their 2006 release Tired Of Hanging Around (Red Ink Records).
Plus, there’s a lyric that says, “And I miss your ginger hair and the way you used to dress.” Which makes me suspect this is really an incognito song about Ginger Spice.
Gotta Get Out The Bicycles Bruce hooked my interest by saying this track from Toronto’s The Bicycles makes you “think early Kinks meets the Bubblegum Explosion.” A mere two minutes long, this song is admittedly borderline hokey in a charming ’60s sense, but for me hokey ’60s pop = love, so we’re golden here. From their really preciously-titled (blech) album The Good, The Band, and The Cuddly, more free tunes here.
Heaven Knows Taylor Hicks This one’s for my dear mama, but you may find yourself liking it too. Her birthday was this weekend and my sister and I collaborated on a joint Taylor Hicks-related present, with me providing an autographed picture (spoils of my rich and famous blogger lifestyle) while my sister bought her the Taylor Hicks debut album (which I hear is selling like hotcakes). I smiled to hear this song, with it’s opening notes that you could mistake for Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say?” and other elements of Motown all over it. Yeah, he won American Idol. But don’t hold that against him, take a listen to this — I think it’s pretty good.
I have to admit that I had waaaay more fun judging this Oasis contest than I ever thought I would.
I was psychoanalyzing the roots of my longstanding distaste of Oasis (to be totally honest here), and I think it springs from the fact that when they first hit the scene, they were such the antithesis of the musicians I was fondest of at the time, namely Eddie Vedder and Kurt Cobain. Whereas I was passionately in love with music from these bands fronted by the strong, silent (sullen) types who were full of rage, here came these cocky brothers who thought they were the best thing since Lennon himself, and my first impression was just “no thank you” and I went on from there, not really reconsidering.
Slowly I’ve been giving them a chance, and completely admitting that they’ve got some great songs that have a place in my musical library. There’s room in the world of music for all types, and I guess the Gallagher brothers fill a special little niche that is all their swaggering own. The reason I enjoyed judging this contest is because I actually sought out all the moments that you guys referenced, the specific live versions where possible, and tried to understand those feelings you all so fervently and eloquently referenced. And it really did the music-lover in me good. So thanks for each and every entry, they were truly fantastic.
Picking an actual winner was hard, as always. I tried to extract from your answers not only who cited the best “moment,” but also who seemed to me like they would enjoy the prize the most. Pretty abstract, huh? But throughout all the judging, I kept coming back to one of the earliest entries (Brian’s, on the ending of “Champagne Supernova” — which was nicely bookended by Tommy’s later comment on the start of that same song, and Kristina’s well-spoken dissertation). Brian wrote a weighty tome that not only read like finely crafted liner-notes, or some momentous Hall-of-Fame induction speech, but also showed a pretty obsessive level of knowledge of the band (down to the color & model of Noel’s guitar). The clincher was probably the use of vocabulary like epochal, nostalgic soundscape and sonic signpost. I’m a vocab nerd at heart. So congrats Brian! I think you’ll enjoy the print.
There were several very close runners up that I wanted to comment on, and post a few related songs for your enjoyment. Start with this one that was so random I just loved it:
Ûž dom said… –>feint cheering of crowd –>undecipherable liam utterance –>feedback kicking in
‘wassup’
–>crashing guitars, more feedback
‘wassup…..dunt matter if it’s outta choon. doesn’t matter if it’s out of choon…..cos yoor kewl’
–>cymbals –>guitar intro to one of the best cover versions ever recorded – I Am The Walrus.
Ûž Then this deliriously grand piece that made me all kinds of happy (mentioning three of my favorite things – In’N'Out, air drumming, and road trips – in the same story):
I’M JUST SAYIN said… I don’t need thirty seconds of an Oasis song.
I don’t even need fifteen.
All I need is about three.
Seriously. Three.
Imagine yourself on a sunny Friday afternoon driving a banged up Jeep with top down north up the 15 from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. As you drive past Barstow, and the In-N -Out begins to settle, the road clears for miles. Your mix has already thrown on Wiser Time, One Big Holiday and MFC, and as you take a moment to exhale and enjoy the beauty around you, the sound of a guitar being plugged in blares through your speakers.
Now you’re thinking, ok, this guy’s moment is the opening riff of “Cigarettes and Alcohol,” right? Nope. It ain’t about the riff baby.
It’s all about the drum fill!
My moment is that stops my clock every time is that “clacky clack” drum fill that follows the opening riff of one epic road song that Hunter S. Thompson himself would approve of.
I challenge you to listen to it in your car and not attempt to air drum that fill! Go on try it! I dare you. It’s physically impossible. Scientists should be doing a study on it.
(You have to air drum that fill, it follows that same musical law that states by just mentioning the song “Tainted Love,” it automatically get stuck in your head for the day.)
Report back to me if you used “air sticks” or just pounded your hands right on the damn steering wheel! Also, let me know if you sang out at the top of your lungs the opening line “Is it my imagination, or have I finally found something worth living for?” complete with British accent or not. If you didn’t do any sort of these acts, you are inhuman and have no soul.
Ûž Christopher said… Heather….this is an easy one..from their live, double-disc album, “Familiar to Millions”……there is a few seconds towards the end of “Don’t Look Back in Anger” when you can actually feel the crowd ready to chant…
…it feels like you’re at a european soccer game and the entire arena believes in one team…except at this moment, Wembley Hall believes in Oasis…and maybe more so Rock and Roll.
Ûž Krista wrote a lovely and personally meaningful entry about how “Don’t Go Away” was especially important to her during a rough patch with her dad, and I wanted to share with her (and you all too) my favorite version of that song, a live acoustic version that roughly sounds reminiscent of the concert she wrote about:
Ûž Then Ian pointed out a nice little b-side, and provided the tune:
Ian said… Hands down, the whistle-solo at 3:12 on “Flashbax” — okay … it’s actually 41 seconds long, but hey, c’mon…
It’s not just the whistling though, it’s the way every single instrument interplays with each other during that spot of the song. It is absolutely positively amazing… and it’s a side of Oasis we don’t really get to see often.
If you haven’t heard the song (and just about every Oasis fan I’ve ever met never even knew it existed), you’ll either need to get your hands on the All Around the World single, or …. [here he links to the mp3]. In my opinion, it’s the best Oasis B-Side ever recorded… and it has a WHISTLING SOLO!!!
Ûž Finally, Eric said… Not “a” moment per se, but I love the way Liam, in “Cigarettes & Alcohol,” seems to pronounce the word “alcohol” as “alkeehawl”.
Yeah Eric, that’s exactly why I love hearing the line, “Maybayyyy, I don’t really wanna knaaaow how your gaaaaaaahden grows . . .” Never fails to make me smile.
What a great contest — my favorite so far. Goshdarn it if you guys didn’t almost make an Oasis convert out of me.
I was finally subjected to my first live performance of the season of “Feliz Navidad,” which ne’er fails to make me want to gouge my eardrums out with a knitting needle. I also was at a fancy office Christmas party on Friday night and the soul cover band kept throwing in trombone lines from Joy To The World and Sleigh Ride, etc etc etc.
It brought to my attention the fact that this post is long overdue. I’ve got a pretty sizeable collection of “Christmas Music That Won’t Drive You To Drink Unless You Want To” — which just got a shot in the arm this year thanks to a rockin’ 3-CD compilation I received from Philly friend Brian (yay Brian!).
There’s a lot of schmaltzy crap out there this season, kids. Stay safe. Here’s a haven of good stuff for your seasonal mixmastery:
That helps to slightly ease the sting of briefly having — and then cruelly LOSING — the vinyl Christmas With Elvis record last night at a houseparty with a white elephant gift exchange.
It was mine. I was so excited. But now the doe-eyed Elvis (with those dewy lips, good heavens) is gone from my Christmas celebration, stolen by another gal, sending me home with a plastic candy cane full of little bottles of flavored Stoli instead.
An author has contacted me to contribute to a book he is writing which indirectly is related to Jeff Buckley, and I am working on giving some initial answers to questions for him about my “relationship” with Jeff Buckley and his music, my perspectives and feelings.
I love talking about that kind of stuff, as you know, but it’s also kind of a hard exercise. I stopped and just kind of sat there when I came to question #5:
Did you ever see him play live, or meet him/speak to him? If not, do you wish you had?
(The answer is no, but more than anything I’d love to answer the first part of that question in the affirmative). I’ve been listening to Jeff Buckley a lot today, and am especially excited about this amazing version of Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released” that Buckley performed over the phone for some guys from WMFU Radio some years ago.
Name: Heather Browne Location: Colorado, originally by way of California Giving context to the torrent since 2005.
"I love the relationship that anyone has with music: because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. It's the best part of us, probably, the richest and strangest part..."
—Nick Hornby, Songbook
"Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel." —Hunter S. Thompson
Mp3s are for sampling purposes, kinda like when they give you the cheese cube at Costco, knowing that you'll often go home with having bought the whole 7 lb. spiced Brie log. They are left up for a limited time. If you LIKE the music, go and support these artists, buy their schwag, go to their concerts, purchase their CDs/records and tell all your friends. Rock on.
Austin-based power pop band 
Now former Cotton Mather frontman Robert Harrison is back with his new band 
Name: Heather Browne
