My 2012: Revenge(s) of the Record Store(s)

Somewhat disappointed in the results of my prior adventure in downloading, I found myself back in the record store.  

Maybe this is where I truly belong. Maybe I’ll never be convinced that a downloaded album actually exists. Maybe when I download, it costs more for the good songs.

Having logically argued myself out of downloading (for the time being), I manage to find myself in a record store on several occasions over the next few weeks.


Trip 1:

After a failed attempt at hard rock and trying singer songwriter sludge, I was longing for some tuneful pop.  You know, chiming guitars, snappy beats,  catchy melodies...

Jens Lekman: Night Falls on Kortedala
What I got instead was by far the weirdest album of the year.  Pop music, yes. But of the extra cheesy mid-sixties variety. You know, the kind your parents might have liked if they despised the Beatles, and loved watching European melodramas.

The orchestrations (yes, there are orchestrations) are totally over the top. And the singing is so mannered that I expected Engelbert Humperdinck to jump out at any moment. Luckily the subject matter was just weird enough (and to be fair, the tunes are just tuneful enough) to keep me paying attention. The best song has an actual guitar on it.  B+
"Your Arms Around Me:

It took me a few weeks to figure out that Jens Lekman wasn’t going to be my pop salvation and I 
resolved to get back up on the horse.


Trip 2:

This trip yielded an experiment in how my reactions to music change over a few listens.  So where did I finally end up with them?


Wu-Tang Clan: Enter the Wu-Tang:
I can hear the appeal of this music, up to a point, but from my comfortable, safe standpoint, I still struggle with the more brutal aspects of it.  I guess these guys will have to wait for me to catch up to them, as is usually the case for me with hip hop. B+


Beck: Sea Change:
Ah, so where did I leave off with Beck? A very consistent, catchy and at times beautiful record. It never quite took over my brain, like some classics do, but it’s a Contender nonetheless. A
"Sunday Sun"


Best of Blur:
In England, they’re gods who get to put out a complete boxed set of their music. In America, they’re the ones that you’re always saying “so they do that song”. Unfortunately, it’s very hit or miss whether you liked the song in the first place.  There are a few great ones ("She’s So High", "Parklife") here but no more than what I’d expect from a regular album, let alone a Greatest Hits. B+
"She's So High"



Bright Eyes: Lifted, or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
So young, so very ambitious. And when the artist in question has the right attitude, you really want it to go well.  But this doesn’t hit the mark often enough to be a masterpiece.  Some great moments, though (You will you will you will, and ????)  So I still prefer the simpler I’m Wide Awake, because it has no greater ambitions than to put together ten excellent tunes. B+
"You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will."



Trip 3:

Friend Sean had an art exhibit and he invited us along. Was it Fate that it occurred in a used record store? Sorry Sean, for spending almost on CDs as we did on your art.





Liz Phair: Whitechocolatespaceegg:
Another post-masterpiece record link, this time a couple of records down the line after the epochal Exile in Guyville. So while it’s no Exile, it’s also not a disappointment. Ms. Phair puts together over a dozen excellent tunes, and how many records have that many.  Life-changing no, but pretty good!   A-
"Shitloads of Money"


The Hives - Veni Vidi Vicious:
Loud, fast fun, with a lead singer coming across as a more nerdy Iggy Pop.  So I’m not taking it as seriously as I should.  If I played it more often, I’d know if it had staying power. B+



Wire - Pink Flag:
After a twenty year go round with a greatest “hits” collection, I finally get the 1978 classic, and while it’s very good, the unknown legend in my head was a little better. A-
"Mr. Suit"



The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight:
After having bought this in 2010 only to immediately lose it, I found it again. I’d barely gotten to know it but now can confirm that, like Fegmania! a year ago, it’s slightly disappointing. I’ve come to the conclusion that  as talented as Robyn Hitchcock is, he’s more suited for a greatest hits record. B+
"Underwater Moonlight"

So my luck with the record stores was slightly better than my downloading. Maybe I need to slow down and not rush into the 21st century.  

Yeah, maybe it’s time to invest in an 8-track tape player...

My 2012: My Head in the Cloud

Downloading, it turns out, is ever so slightly less pathetic than going to a record store. And maybe the only real difference is that it takes less time. And it’s a good deal less deliberative than I first let on.

Oh, I do go through my research when I get the itch for new music. But more and more lately I’m the victim of the Amazon drive-by.  Every month, it seems, amazon has 100 mp3s on sale for $5. This past January it was 500!  So I perused the list and wrote down about 50 possibilities. Through a method that one could only call...subjective I managed to cull it down to just two.

So you’d think I’d have come up with some real winners


.
Wild Flag:
I liked Sleater Kinney, love Carrie Brownstein on “Portlandia”, but, sad to say I rarely feel like putting this on. I have to wait for that “hey, I spent good money (?) on that music, so it’s time I got my money’s worth!” moods to go back to it.  Is it the organ? The vocals? The unmemorable songs? I don’t know but it just isn’t resonating with me at all. A huge disappointment. B-
"Romance"


The Essential Leonard Cohen:
Two full CDs worth of LC. You’ve heard too much of a good thing? It seemed that way at first. It really should have been perfect for January, but the early stuff was just too quiet, and the later stuff, too plodding. B
But he’ll be back.
"Sisters of Mercy"

.
Television: The Complete Elektra Recordings
Classic Marquee Moon. Undeservedly Reviled Adventure and fun Live at the Old Waldorf”. Who could ask for more?  link  A
"See No Evil"


But it doesn’t really count, since it’s not new to me. So downloads have been disappointing so far. Maybe I’m not through with the record store just yet.

My 2012: Mr. Jaybee Goes to the Record Store

While most of you lead normal lives, I do things like go to record stores - a doubly pathetic exercise these days, what with so few young people there to provide some validation. When they do frequent such places, it’s in the ever expanding vinyl section. When I was their age, I watched that section contract to about the size the CD section is now.

Unlike online ordering, where I consult my “To Buy” list, weigh the prices of various websites, factoring in gift cards and shipping and handling costs, and ultimately make the whole exercise comparable to the planning of the D-Day invasion, a trip to the record store is very circumstantial.

First of all, you’re browsing. And you’re limited to what they have in stock at the moment, and increasingly, by what they have on display, since going through the racks methodically like I used to do is the very definition of sad.

I rarely plan a trip anymore. That would be sadder still. But when I’m in the neighborhood, there is that gravitational pull that’s hard to resist. I just make sure not to look up to see the other pathetic people.

And what did J&R have to offer that day, for $4.99 no less?


Amnesiac Radiohead:
Coming off the almost twin “masterpieces” - OK Computer (the great, but kinda bombastic, popular one) and “Kid A” (the weird, and thus controversial, one that I like almost as much) - it’s a relief that this one’s pretty simple.  It emphasizes Thom Yorke’s voice and the song’s melodies. The lyrics aren’t as dumb as usual and the  textures are nice and soothing.  Solid.  B+
"You and Whose Army"



Lodger David Bowie:
Also coming off of what would eventually be regarded as two masterpieces - Low (the weird poppy ambient one) and “Heroes” (the weird rockier ambient one) - Bowie consciously moves away from an obviously Eno (who collaborated on all three of these records) inspired sound. It starts out straightforwardly enough, but as things progress, almost as an act of will, Bowie keeps finding a stranger melodies or arrangements. I think he realized that the songs just aren’t as memorable as the prior records, so he’s trying to keep your attention.  And it works, to a point. He nails it on “Look Back in Anger” and “Boys Keep Swinging”.  But it’s just not as catchy either prior masterpiece.  B+
"Look Back in Anger"


A week later, I somehow found myself in the neighborhood again, where I had a very similar experience in the jazz section. It’s ridiculous for me to grade something I barely understand, so I like to think of the following as my primitive gut reaction to something very sophisticated, something that will take me years to truly get.


Sidney Bechet Ken Burns Jazz:
From 1923 to 1947 he played the hell out of the clarinet and soprano sax, meeting up with Louis Armstrong along the way, and ends up filling in a big gap in my collection. I’m sure there are more comprehensive collections out there, but my time’s running shorter than my money.  Perfect for a dilettante like me. B+
"Wild Cat Blues"



Coleman Hawkins Body and Soul:
My preferred jazz era is the late 1950’s.  And I may never forgive the forties for impressing upon my youthful brain the supposedly vast difference in quality between the big bands of that time, and say, a small one, like the Beatles, from mine.  As such, it takes a long time for music from that era to get past my prejudices. Too soon to tell, but it’s probably me.
"Body and Soul"

So that’s the outcome of an hour or two of my time. I’ll bet you spent yours having a life.

But I’d do it again.

Still Into Bond-age

In honor of the 50th Anniversary of the first James Bond movie - "Dr. No", which opened on October 5, 1962 - here's a link to my post about 007 from 2009 - three years early then, two days late now.

Keep 'em guessing, right 007?

Jaybee: 1977

Back in June, as part of my Secret History series, I posted about 1977.

And any time I post about a year based on when music gets released, I’ve got my own personal version of that year, too, based on what I bought/experienced.  

As a kid, you’re pretty dependant on the radio, so you have the current music of the day to tie to your memories. I was no different, but once I got a job and some spending money (about 1974) I began seriously buying records, and not always getting what was current.

So from then on my recollections were not always stamped with the then current music. And I suspect I’ll be remembering 2012 via the Small Faces’ “Ogden’s Gone Nut Flake” released in 1968.

Add to that the fact that the punk explosion of 1977 was neither televised nor radio-ized, unless the purpose was to denigrate it.  So 1977’s significant music was twice removed from me. The punk world was exploding while mine was only growing more insular.

And I had my own experiences: turning twenty, changing my appearance, changing my major, changing friends, meeting (or rather not meeting) girls. Nothing earthshaking, but I still think of it as a very emotional time. Translation: I was sad a lot.

But in a lot of ways, it was a great year. When I really take stock of it, I can think of a dozen great moments, but I have no music to bring me back to them.  The closest thing is Feats Don’t Fail Me Now by Little Feat, which was constantly on my turntable that year. Perhaps because it’s rock and roll party music, I don’t have the intense emotional attachment to it that I do for the records below.

Because they so strongly evoke the sadder moments, they cause me to remember the times as sadder than they actually were.

So I may love these records way out of proportion to what I would otherwise perceive as their merits. Whenever I play them, I’m brought to tears. Every time.


Aztec Two Step:
I would not blame you for judging this record to be lame hippie crap, but songs like "Prisoner" reminds me of unrequited love.
And if you can somehow apply romanticized vision of the beatnik life to your own with "Highway Song", all the better:


Alan Price’s Between Today and Yesterday:

As I did with Aztec, I listened to Alan Price this during the winter, holed up in my room, alone. I think I was between friends at the time:

Is the title song depressing enough for you?  

But Alan could be gentle, too, but only he made you earn it. And even here, it’s far from joyous. Who’s kidding whom, right Alan?

The loneliness lasted into the summer.  I remember taking a week off from work and not having the slightest idea what to do with it. My friends were all working and my girlfriend, well, she didn’t actually exist.  Elvis decided to die that week, too, but since I hadn’t warmed to him yet, I couldn’t even sincerely partake in the grief.

So I’d wander the city by myself and go to the local bar.  Sad any day, but pathetic on a Tuesday.


Karla Bonoff:

By the end of the year, things were looking up.  I could listen to sad music like "Falling Star" and not want to slit my wrists.

The incredibly sappy arrangement of “Flying High” doesn’t even rate a youtube video. (and, no I’m too old to figure out how to do that.), which is a shame because it will always evoke being out to dinner with friends, which beat being in the bar with them.  There we were, a mix of boys and girls, all platonic relationships.  And for once, feeling completely comfortable with it because we genuinely liked each other.  

As it turned out there was another group of friends waiting in the wings, too. I’d hung with them a bit during the year, and they’d turn out to be keepers


A Hopeful Ending:
So what was there to be so miserable about? I don’t know. The music maybe. Most likely, it was just being twenty, an age that I could really do something with now, but that at the time seemed so difficult.

And to just finish it off, here’s another song from Aztec Two Step. You may not think it’s great. That’s okay.  I not only love it, but find the part between 1:30 and 2:00 to be transcendent:

Dancer’s All:

But that’s just me liking it more than I should.

It's All Good!

The first time I heard the phrase It’s All Good was a few years ago during a very tense work meeting. Something got royally screwed up, but someone - not me - had the presence of mind to not let the negativity get out of hand, and said it.

What a magical phrase, I thought! Let’s get past the negatives and just make the best of the situation, it seemed to say, and I was all for that!

But alas, the phrase may have had its day.


The Wedding Feast of Orlando, or Jaybee Turns Hot Coffee Into... Cold Coffee

The Jaybee Family attended a wedding last month, and by guy measures, it all went great.  There was, however, a minor mishap the next morning, when everyone gathered for breakfast.at the hotel.  The hostess didn’t know we were coming so not everyone (us) got to sit together.  By gal measures, this qualified as a catastrophe.

And every time another relative walked into the restaurant, they’d stop by our table, and we’d go through the minutia of the situation all over again. The fact that it was an all you can eat buffet didn’t seem to matter. So having anointed myself the All Wise One, I tried to calm everyone down by saying, It’s All Good, and watch that phrase work its magic on everyone, or go get more home fries..

But after about the tenth time the magic wore off and my wife replied:

“It is NOT all good!  They messed up the arrangements and Michelle (the bride) is upset!”

Okay, I guess that counts as not all good.  Point taken. Nonetheless, I countered with the usually decisive: It Is What It Is.

But Mrs. Jaybee riposted with the admittedly all-powerful F*ck off.

So that’s two of my favorite phrases biting the dust in the space of a single conversation. Mrs. Jaybee’s phrase - immune to fads - has the staying power, it seems.


I Swear It’s True, I Got It Off the Internet:

If you study the etymology of “it’s all good”, you’ll find that it originated in Auschwitz in 1939. In German, “Ich al Guden”’ literally means “I’m not Jewish”, but quickly evolved to mean “Oh, that’s your problem”. (Curiously, in Yiddish, it translates into “We’re f*cked”.)

Over time, this meaning has been lost, and in an age where irony no longer exists (see the RNC platform) it evolved into a positive statement.  Apparently this is the last phase before a phrase passes into actual obsolescence, which is marked by the use of the phrase F*ck off in reply.

So not only is It’s All Good now passing away. As a former adherent, I am also willing to admit that this is a good thing.


Hooray for Everything!:

I say this because I want to complain.  This hasn’t been the best summer - too hot and humid for my taste. But of course, how bad can summer be?  So overall, it was only Good.

And it hasn’t been a great year for music, either.

Oh, It’s been good.  But as I’ve said on other occasions, good just isn’t good enough any more.

Why? Because I don’t have the time I used to have.  And I want to fill that time up with great.

So far, I’ve gotten more music this year than I normally do. This is due to some gift cards, and Amazon.com’s monthly $5 mp3 sales. And I’m having a good time.  There’s been a lot of good music.

But not much GREAT music.

Nothing that changes your life, that interrupts your day, even though it isn’t on.  The closest so far has been Beck’s Sea Change and Imperial Teen’s On.

I’m slowly drowning in a sea of good, when I’d just as soon die from a blast of GREAT to the head.

But when I’m feeling this way, there’s one thing I tell myself that puts it all into perspective:

Hey, Whatta You Gonna Do?

Not What I Wanted to Talk About

Amazon.com Strikes Again:

Well, Amazon struck again this month, this time with another $2.99 MP3 special. And this time I broke one of my own rules - not the first time, though - by buying music I (mostly) already had on vinyl.

But that’s not what I wanted to talk about.


Missing the Actual Thing:

I still struggle with CDs vs. MP3s. I’m saving space and the environment, but I miss the liner notes! And according to allmusic.com this album has some fine ones. I’d love to be able to access the liner notes and I’ve been trying with linernotes.com.  Meh.

But that’s not what I wanted to talk about, either..


If I Ruled the World...

The first thing I’d do (after World Peace, of course. You’re welcome Andie Macdowell!) is correct all the Greatest Hits Albums.

Come on, you know exactly what I’m talking about! When you see a Greatest Hits record from an artist you like, you mentally correct the song list. You favor the hidden gems over the big hits. And with no licensing or back catalog sales issues to consider, you’re bound to do a better job.

So now with World Peace out of the way (oh, and I slipped in getting a fridge that keeps beer at the perfect temperature) I’m ready to take on improving The Best of the Monkees.

It’s comprised basically of their set list from last year’s tour: And it’s not bad at all.  But with a few tweaks it could be perfect:

• They missed a couple of good ones from the first record - I would have included the King-Goffin penned “Take a Giant Step” and David Gates great “Saturday’s Child”.
• There’s a really bad version of “I Want to be Free”. It’s a loud, smarmy, overplayed, oversung travesty. The swirling organ leads me to suspect that they were going for “Like a Rolling Stone”. It’s likely an early version, before they realized that Davey would be the sensitive one.
• And I’d swap the sweet “Papa Gene’s Blues” for the rowdy “Sweet Young Thing”. But it’s close - James Burton and Glenn Campbell are on both.
• My only problem with the picks from More of the Monkees is that they didn’t leave enough room for “When Love Comes Knocking at Your Door”.  By the way, I don’t know why other singers (Smashmouth, I’m talking to you) don’t know how to sing “I’m a Believer”. Micky gently bends the notes and raises the song from the merely excellent to the euphoric.
• And aside from the Mike Nesmith penned “You Told Me” and “Sunny Girlfriend” among the missing, the selections from Headquarters are on the money.

“A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You” convinces me that Neil Diamond should have stuck to writing songs for the Monkees. But no! He had to trade in his guitar for an orchestra. And a cape.

I remember spending an entire summer afternoon listening to the excellent “Words”, thinking it was the A-side of a single. The A-side was, ahem,  “Pleasant Valley Sunday”.  Technologically obsolete Life lesson: Always listen to the other side at least once.

“Porpoise Song” is a pretty cool spacey song that shows what results when the Monkees let some drugs - and Jack Nicholson - into the studio.

But I have to admit, that’s not what I wanted to talk about either.


Jaybee-Childhood-Friend-Mike L:

What I really wanted to talk about was how Jaybee-Childhood-Friend-Mike-L
(not to be confused with:

• Jaybee-Childhood-Friend-Mike-C, who had all the Beatle albums, or
• Jaybee-Roommate/Friend-Mike-F who liked Television, or for that matter
• Jaybee-Son-Mike, who plays a great guitar, or
• any of the several other Jaybee-Friends/Acquaintance-Named-Mike who haven’t made it onto the blog yet)

was just so full of crap. And this record - now, almost 50 years later in clear MP3 - confirms it.  

Let me explain

Back in 1966, me and my friends - Mike L among them - were big Monkees fans. (So big, in fact that we pretended to be them.  I played curtain rod/guitar. Mike played sofa pillow/drums.) And with old record players being what they were, you couldn’t always make out the lyrics. So there certainly was room for misinterpretation. And friend Mike L took that room and the patio, too. His interpretations were of a singularly juvenile nature. After all, he was ten. (I was only nine, but being Irish Catholic, you have to add fifty years.)

Take the following examples:

From “I’m a Believer”:
What I heard: When I needed sunshine, I got rain.
What Mike heard: When I needed sunshine, on my brain

And it get’s worse. This, from “Steppin’ Stone”::
Me: And now you’re walkin’ round like your front page news.
Mike: And now you’re walkin’ round like you’re f*cking news

From “Shades of Grey”:
Me. We had never lived with doubt, or tasted fear
Mike: blah, blah, blah.... tasted beer

And finally, “Some Time in the Morning” - one of the greatest songs of the decade:
Me: And you need no longer wear a disguise
Mike: And you give your underwear to this guy.

And he’d argue with a straight face! He really wanted to believe his versions were the correct ones. The more serious the song, the more ludicrous his interpretation. I guess he felt life was more interesting this way. Thank God Belle and Sebastian’s “Stars of Track and Field” didn’t come out until the nineties. Otherwise he would have been insufferable.

Or maybe he was just messing with me. Either way, I was dumb enough to argue with him. He’s probably laughing as we speak, 50 years later.

And his influence is still felt today, both in the music industry - have you noticed how as sound quality improves, lyrics are getting more juvenile? - but more importantly, in his role as translator at the UN.


Let’s not even discuss Jaybee-Adolescent-Friend-Joe...

...and brother of Mike-C, who took over for Mike L as I hit my teens, giving me all of the sexual and drug interpretations of rock songs. Him being such a huge Zeppelin fan, he was sort of an authority.

And of course, he was always right. You really couldn’t put up much of an argument over “The Lemon Song.”

And sadly, these revelations made rock and roll less fun for me. Just like how your teen years are less fun than your childhood.

But like I said, that’s not what I wanted to talk about.