A few weeks ago, I was the winning bidder on a Heaven and Hell themed two CD mix at a Rock for Kids fundraiser. I was really bidding on the exquisitely embroidered cover, and the CDs inside were just a bonus in my eyes. The lead track on the first disc is "Up Jumped The Devil" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Its the only song of his I've listened to repeatedly and its really grown on me with each consecutive listen. One of you kind FI reader/listeners invited me to the sold out Nick Cave show last night at the Riv, which I had to decline due to other plans. I really would like to have gone, as Nick Cave is one those artists whose appeal has somehow eluded me for many years. I hear he's terrific live and suspect the experience would have demystified him for me. He is widely adored by music lovers of all types and is consistently heralded by the critics, yet the few songs I've heard over the years have failed to connect with me. He comes across to me as a sort of goth Tom Waits or Leonard Cohen, but in a more generic way.

If any of you NC fans are tuning in here, please write a comment as to which is your favorite NC album and why!

Up Jumped The Devil

H and I spent the weekend celebrating at my brother's wedding in San Francisco. In the wee hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning, the party migrated to its third venue, a friend's house in the hills high above the Castro. Someone put on the album Latin ala Lee and we danced through to dawn as we watched the fog roll in. The album was released by Peggy Lee in 1960 and features a handful of Broadway standards performed in a latin style.

I Could Have Danced All Night

FI Will Return on Monday, September 29

More new music today, this one from Lindsey Buckingham's latest, Gift of Screws. Its not as strong as Under The Skin, but I'm always interested in hearing whats he's up to.

These past few weeks its been all Fleetwood Mac all the time for me, Especially Tusk. The Mac is set to return with a new record and world tour in 2009, though without Christine McVie. I think I might just go see them!



Time Precious Time

Brand new music today from TV on the Radio

Family Tree

I'd like to introduce you to Aquatron VX-33c. We found each other yesterday at Vintage Underground, a weekend-only basement shop on Milwaukee ave, run by a nice Catalonian gentleman who collects steamship memorabilia, much of which is on sale amidst an eclectic array of items. The full functioning mod 8-track player caught my eye and I knew in an instant that it was coming home with me. The owner agreed to give me the
8-track of my choice to take with it, and I chose The Hollies Greatest Hits, since Queen II was warped.

The Hollies formed in 1962 and were the second most successful singles band to come out of the UK after the Beatles. Their line-up included Graham Nash, whose vocal harmonies helped define their sound. Their string of hits ran right up through the Seventies and includes Bus Stop, Carrie Ann, He Ain't Heavy,the CCR inspired "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress", and today's post the psychedelic "King Midas in Reverse, with its full string, brass, and flute arrangements.

King Midas in Reverse

What a difference two years makes. Rewind to 1968 and Pink Floyd's second album "A Saucerful of Secrets" and you'll arrive at a totally different sound.Due to his deteriorating mental health, this would be the last PF album Syd Barret would appear on, though he would turn up in topic on both Dark Side and Wish You Were Here.

Here's my favorite early PF song, Corporal Clegg. The song features kazoo, the inventor of which was named Thaddeus von Clegg, which is perhaps why they chose to name the title character Clegg.

The song is about a soldier who lost his leg in World War II. Its the first mention of war in a Pink Floyd song, something that would become a common theme in Roger Waters' lyrics right through to The Final Cut


Corporal Clegg

David Berthy Posts


Adding in tribute to Richard Wright, I thought I’d follow Mike’s post with my favorite Pink Floyd song, “Green is the Colour.” This version comes from, “Live at the Montreaux Casino, 1970,” a bootleg that, to my knowledge, was never officially released. This track is the only one I listen to, as the rest of the recording gets a bit excessive in terms of song length and all that business about dwarves and cats (the itunes genius tool recommends purchasing Strawberry Alarm Clock’s “Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow” and “Porpoise Song” by the Monkees, among others, which more or less gives you the idea.) The achingly beautiful “Green is the Colour,” is a transcendental, compact love song that showcases Wright’s lush keyboards. Whereas the rest of the record seems designed to muddle the mind, this one goes straight for the heart.

Green is the Colour

Earlier this week we lost Richard Wright, original member and keyboardist for Pink Floyd, to cancer. Though he wasn't the band's most prolific writer, he was responsible for writing large portions of Meddle, Dark Side of The Moon, and Wish You Were Here.

Weeks ago in a bar I heard the song "Fearless", one of my favorite Pink Floyd songs that I had forgotten about because its rarely played on the radio.
Its from the 1971 album Meddle, which heralded a softer direction in the band's sound that would become fully realized on Dark Side of The Moon and Wish You Were Here.

Near the beginning and at the end of the song, a field recording of the Liverpool F.C. Kop choir singing their theme song "You'll Never Walk Alone" is superimposed over the music.


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Great Mismatches- Air Supply Plays Meatloaf

Having forgotten to bring my ipod to work last Friday, I was left at the mercy of internet radio and the easy 70's station that I had selected. Midway through the afternoon the song "Making Love Out of Nothing at All" by Air Supply came on and Heather remarked that the artist should be sued for copying Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of The Heart". I listened closely and realized that is was structurally a carbon copy of TEOTH, one that I had often likened to Meat Loaf's bombastic style.

It turns out that both songs were penned by Jim Steinman, who had written most of Meat Loaf's material (Paradise by The Dashboard Lights et al.) Steinman had given the song, along with "Total Eclipse of the Heart, to Meat Loaf for his Midnight at the Lost and Found album, but Meat Loaf's record company refused to pay Steinman for the material and neither song was recorded. Steinman's songs were then offered to Bonnie Tyler & Air Supply, who scored #1 and #2 hits respectively, the same week. Meat Loaf's Album, on the other hand, produced no hit singles.

Steinman, known for his dramatic, rock-opera-ish type productions, used Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band members Roy Bittan on keyboards and Max Weinberg on drums to musically underscore the recording with like energies. 70's glam-rock icon Rick Derringer, supplied the electric guitar solo that made the sound of Making Love Out Of Nothing At All stand so drastically apart from most other Air Supply productions.

The track is a true curiosity, and Meat Loaf must have kicked himself hard for turning down what would surely have been two back to back number one singles.


Making Love Out of Nothing At All

Underwater Music

It was a great weekend to be inside getting things done without feeling guilty about not being outside for one of the last Summer weekends. Every now and then I love a weekend like this. When I'm faced with 72 hours of straight rain, Its a lock that I'll break out the 1997 Broadcast album Work and Non Work for the underwater soundtrack.


BROADCAST-ACCIDENTALS

THE FINGERHUT INVITATIONAL TURNS 1 TODAY!



HAPPY BIRTHDAY-DESTINY'S CHILD

Side one of Al Green Gets Next To You (1971) hasn't left my turntable in many days.


Tired of Being Alone

A while ago Lozier and I got into a discussion about the song Wagon Wheel. I had heard it was a Dylan tune and he was pretty sure it was an original. Turns out we were both right.The wiki tells us " The chorus for the song comes from a Bob Dylan outtake from the soundtrack for the film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (In my top three Sunday morning records of all time. Buy it!). Although never officially released, the Dylan song was released on a bootleg and is usually named after the chorus and its refrain of "Rock Me Mama." Although Dylan left the song an unfinished sketch, Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show wrote verses for the song around Dylan's original chorus. The song has become extremely popular since its inclusion on Old Crow Medicine Show's major label debut, "O.C.M.S."

Wagon Wheel

Shoot the Whole Day Down

Another School related nugget I came across was The Boomtown Rats 1979 UK # 1 I don't Like Mondays. The song was written by lead rat Bob Geldof after reading a telex report on the shooting spree of 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer, who fired at children playing in a school playground across the street from her home in San Diego, California. She killed two adults and injured eight children and one police officer. Spencer showed no remorse for her crime, and her explanation for her actions was "I don't like Mondays.

Bob Geldof would go on to star in The Movie Version of Pink Floyd's The Wall in 1982, and then organize Live Aid in 1985, for which he would be knighted.

I Don't Like Mondays

While compiling a "Back to School" house mix for the Uke Cabaret this past Saturday, I came across the mighty Franz Zappa, who I hadn't listened to in years. I found both "Catholic Girls" from the Triple album rock opera Joe's Garage and "Jewish Princess"from double album Sheik Yerbouti, both released in 1979 (thats 10 album sides in one year for those counting!)

Both tracks are hilarious but crass and ruthless concoctions mixing doo wop, prog rock, funk, and Spike Jones style novelty music. The musicianship, as always with FZ, is astounding...just listen to the middle section of CG with its shifting time signatures.

Zappa caught some flack for "Jewish Princess"from the Jewish lobby group, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), who tried to prevent the song from getting airplay due to its alleged anti-Semitic lyrics. Zappa vehemently denied any anti-Semitic sentiments and disregarded the ADL as a "noisemaking organization that tries to apply pressure on people in order to manufacture a stereotype image of Jews that suits their idea of a good time.

Major world religions were not the only ones in Zappa's sites, as he also satirized eskimos, groupies, scientologists, fetishism, drug use, and especially censorship among others.


Jewish Pricess


Catholic Girls

Rainy Day Music

If the Flaming Lips and Blonde Redhead met at a party and went home together, their lovechild might sound like The Delgados. Lovely orchestral pop from their 2002 album Hate.


The Light Before We Land

David Berthy Posts:

I've been thinking about the first month I lived in Chicago. I was heartbroken, friendless, and, since I moved from LA in the beginning of February, completely unused to the cold. I had a job to keep me busy during the week, but the interminable weekends were tough to fill. Sometimes, I would ride the trains at night with no destination, listening to music like this. Hunched in the back of a car, I'd stare at the city lights through the stained plexiglass windows, the salt-caked, desolate train platforms with buzzing heat lamps, and the groups of bundled people who, dream-like, flowed in and out of the sliding doors. Eventually, I'd get off and walk to my apartment, where I wouldn't take off my headphones until my ipod was plugged into the stereo. I would sit in the dark and smoke cigarettes, trying to pinpoint the moment I'd gone off the rails. It was pretty indulgent, the acting out of a fantasy of urban alienation I'd long held dear, but that doesn't mean I don't miss the crystalline melancholy of that winter when my ipod finds something like "Your Face" on the shuffle.

Your Face

Its that time again students! Polish an apple and bring it to Silvie's along with your Uke and a ditty or two this Saturday for Back to School at The Chicago Ukulele Cabaret. Huge bonus- The Duke of Uke and his Novelty Orchestra will be joining us all the way from downstate for a full set to close out the show!





ABC-Jackson 5

Which Doobie May Yoube?

This Labor Day weekend, H & I stumbled upon a 24 hour 90210 Marathon just at it was starting with episode 1. Needless to say, we were captured for the better part of the day yesterday. It got me to thinking about the history of guest spots by popular bands on television shows throughout the years.

The earliest one I can remember was the Doobie Brothers on Whats Happening back in 1978. Rerun gets busted for illegally taping the Doobie's live show, but when the cops try and take him down with the evidence, the audio tape is just crunching sound because he was snacking so much. The cops eventually let him go because there's no audio evidence of bootlegging, just sounds of Rerun crunching on chips.



During the Indie Rock Era, it was The Flaming Lips on 90210




And Post Millenium, the torch was carried by Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, and many others on Gilmore Girls



Do you know of others? Post them in the comments!


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