Timing, Me and Max.

This is a ridiculous story: ten days or so ago, I was talking to my buddy Dave, and out of almost nowhere I said “I wish I’d been able to see Max Webster play.” He says: “They’re playing soon!” – for the Q107 anniversary or something like that. So I was very excited. They were even playing a bike ride from my house. I kept an eye out – checked through the Now magazine on the Thursday, saw nothing, forgot about it. The next morning, I checked the Web. Guess when it was? Thursday night. 12 hours ago. In the past.

Anybody I’ve mentioned this too said, well, they’ll do it again… But this is not The Who or April Wine or somebody like that. Max Webster’s last reunion, also a single night event, was New Years’ Eve, 1990, when I couldn’t afford it. Isn’t that a fucking bummer?

Here: soothe your wounds, mister jep: listen to some of the good stuff. Mmmm.

High Class in Borrowed Shoes from HighClass in Borrowed Shoes.

Battlescar from Universal Juveniles. Two bands on this: Max and Rush. This song was where and why I heard of Max Webster, learned that they were from Sarnia, discovered someone from Sarnia could rule, discovered someone from Sarnia could leave. Formative moment. I still don’t rule, but at least I left.

Instant Klazzix: Pure Klazzix Gold.

Attached to the Rheostatics site is www.rheostaticslive.com, where somebody has put a lot of work into pulling together a ton of live recordings by the band proper and solo members. It’s nice, you’ll love it.

Surfing around in that little pool, I found a zipped file called Instant Klazzix 2002 – get it here. A little investigation later, I learned that Instant Klazzix are (or were, I can’t tell) a loose collective of Canadian musicians who gather and record songs on the fly. And it turns out to be really good. Here’s a couple of great tracks from Pure Klazzix Gold. I don’t know where you could buy it, or if you’re supposed to … so just enjoy.

Dune Buddy 

 Diamonds on his Toes

Now This Is An Album Cover.

A feller wrote and shared a link to Jason Plumb’s page on a site called Sonic Bids (I guess it’s an online press-kit service). There are musical and video files, bios, etc – nice looking site.

Anyhoo, I mainly wanted to post about this album cover, which is my favourite in a long time. Look!

And then I listened to these songs, intentionally evoking the clean, studio-heavy 70s sound (prepunk), and thought I ought to share them too. You can sample and download more tracks at the link up top. Inspired by such samples, I will buy the record. See how that works?

Beauty In This World, and

Seems To Me, by Jason Plumb and the Willing.

Check it out.

Iranian Pop Party 02.

Still going through those Persian Pop CDs I picked up in Iran. Wanna see pictures?

A few tracks to share – but first, I did find a tune (a lot of tunes) with the Cher Voice thing I mentioned in our last Pop Party. Check it out if you’re curious: be warned, the song is bad. There’s as much of this terrible stuff there as there is here.

Cheshm Haye Barooni

For all the crappy formula of this stuff, I do think I like it better with Farsi singing than English. Not enough to listen to it, but it drives me less crazy.

Here’s something I do like: by Arash Delfan, from an album called Chaloos*, a tune called Ba Ta Boodan.

*By the way, if I’ve gotten a name or other info wrong here, please correct me. I’m just going with what little is listed in English from these collections.

Somebody’s Baby.

Since we were talking about early 80s gems – we were, you just don’t remember – here’s one I’ve loved since the first time I heard it.

Somebody’s Baby - Jackson Browne

- from the Fast Times At Ridgemont High soundtrack. Like a lot of the great songs from the 1980s, the sonic qualities seriously undermine the song’s fineness (though there are plenty of worse example of the phenomenon – I always think of Cyndi Lauper’s debut, which could have been really funky if it had come out at another time). Jackson Browne had another tune from the same era, which also suffered from the same thing – anybody else remember Lawyers In Love?

For interest’s sake, here’s Yo La Tengo’s live rendition of it, which I think is pretty terrible but not unfun. Somebody please do a great version of this song?

Little Richard’s Part of a Long, Sad Story.

Stumbled across this Rolling Stone article – through the Librarians Index to the Internet – last week. I guess it’s a few years old, but it’s part of a series where the kings and queens of rock and roll wrote about the other kings and queens of rock and roll. Little Richard wrote about himself.

“I appreciate being picked one of the top fifty performers, but who is number one and who is number two doesn’t matter to me anymore. Because it won’t be who I think it should be — it’s not going to ever be any of the entertainers from the past. The Rolling Stones started with me, but they’re going to always be in front of me. The Beatles started with me — at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany, before they ever made a record — but they’re going to always be in front of me. James Brown, Jimi Hendrix — these people started with me. I fed them, I talked to them, and they’re going to always be in front of me.”

It’s a long-known story, the one where African American art gets stolen and used by European Americans. But the article struck me this week because I’ve been writing a paper about Black American music between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, and guess what? It happened back then too. And one of the very first ways white americans decided to demonstrate their love of the black approach to music was to use that music to degrade its creators – the Minstrelsy thing. So intertwined, and so fucked up. Sorry Little Richard.

Everyone’s Got Sex Appeal For Someone.

If you’ve received a mix CD from me in the last couple of years, you’ve already heard this… I love this track. And not just the anciently dirty lyric – I dig the singer’s pretending to be dancing too. Whoo!

Everyone’s Got Sex Appeal For Someone by Ronald Frankau & Monte Crick. From the 1920’s.

Bullshit DVD Series Warning

So I’ve been seeing this DVD series around town – only in used shops – for a while. I recently decided to dive in and spend the 25 bucks for this episode on The Wall.

If that sounds like an odd choice, well, two justifications: one, I’d gotten the impression that The Wall was a breaking point for Pink Floyd as a band, which interested me; two, the other episodes I’d seen in the series discussed acts like Deep Purple or Thin Lizzy. So.

In any case, whatever the band, this series is a terrible rip off. There is nothing of value in this package. The films are shite: mostly, they’re made up of still photographs and audio clips that are in the public domain (or have been stolen). The package is completely misleading – there’s no critical analysis at all. And the booklet inside – well, it’s a straight and largely unpunctuated transcription of the shitty film.

I know, I could have spent more time reading through it and discovered the poor quality on my own without spending the dough. I did not. Let that be a lesson to me, and let this be a warning to you. This thing sucks. If I met the dudes who created it, I’d give them a thrashing. Dicks.

Nervous Sheep.

I have a trait that has led some to believe I’m a titch insane, but I have a hard time throwing art out. If you’ve ever given me a mix tape, a collection of poetry, or a strange 45, you can bet I still have it, whether or not I ever enjoyed it. I also have a little box full of the claw-sheddings of our cats. Why? Who knows.

In any case, part of that Saving Things thing is good when it comes to sharing music, because once in a while I am able to share something that few others could possibly share. Which is a Good in and of itself.

In Sarnia, towards the end of high school, a friend lent me a 45 of a local band called Nervous Sheep. I taped the single; I still have the tape; the other day I digitized it. Here it is!

Free Me Tonight by Nervous Sheep.

I particularly love the verse that goes “Well, tonight my child / tonight, my child / tonight!” Awesome.

Clark The Band and the Wooden Stars

There are several fine ways I like to find new music (none of them are listening to the radio): first is the mix-tape or verbal recommendation by a friend (now includes the blog-post, I suppose). Second is total randomness: this is fun but crazy and irregular. Third is the family-tree mode, which is my favourite: who else has X played with (not the LA punk band – the algebraic stand-in)? who produced them? who do they like? who was inspired by them?

I’ve been very YellowJacketAvengery this last couple weeks, and that has led me to some very nice new discoveries. Today’s discovery also ties into the Rheostatimania I reexperienced after their final show in March: John Tielli leads Clark the Band and has worked with mister Pye and is brother to Martin. I hadn’t realized the brotherly connection til I listened to it – it’s very evident at times in the voice. The record’s good – nice sounds, good songs, pretty rockin. I will be keeping an eye on these cats, and hope to catch them live at some point. Here’s a track:

Metropolis, by Clark the Band, from The Woods.

I’ve also been led – again by both bands – to The Wooden Stars. Their latest record, a seriously great one, is called People Are Different. The Rheos connection is that they recorded Saskatchewan for the Zunior-organized Secret Sessions tribute album.

The YJA connection is deep and compelling, although I don’t fully understand it: they cite YJA as an influence; the singers (there are two) sound, when combined, a lot like Geoffrey Pye; and there’s a track on their The Very Same album called Farewell to the Yellow Jacket Avenger. I tried to find more info (for a little while) but couldn’t. If you have, do share.

Here’s a swell track from People Are Different: Pretty Girl

All of the stuff in this post can and ought to be purchased for fair prices from Zunior.