The Giant Panther

This is kind of a tough one for me. I was never a big Michael Jackson fan, though I own The Best of The Jackson Five and a copy of Thriller. It's definitely not time to talk negatively of the deceased, but I can't think of anything past 1984, when he was absolutely the King of Pop, that I can point to that pumps me up about Michael Jackson. He was, however, right there with the titans of that mid 80's era alongside Prince, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and U2. Those were the five biggest acts of the 80's as far as I can tell. It goes well beyond record sales and concert revenues...these five acts overshadowed all comers. Jackson's 1982 album Thriller catapulted him into the stratosphere, as if he wasn't already famous and successful enough. It remains one of the best selling records of all time to this day. By the time MTV began playing his Thriller video, complete with a reading from the venerable Vincent Price, Jackson had no place on this earth to hide from his fame. His legendary moon walk is probably one of the most mimicked dance steps of our generation. A TV performance of "Billie Jean" on the 25th Anniversary of Motown special was flat jaw dropping. Michael Jackson was an incredibly talented performer. One of the greatest the world has ever seen. He apparently died of cardiac arrest today at age 50. What a shame. Even though his music is not necessarily our charter I felt like it was important that The Giant Panther should acknowledge his passing.

There were rumblings that Jackson was thinking about making a comeback and that several shows had been scheduled for London in the fall, but I wasn't much interested in that potential spectacle. His eccentric behavior and insistence on maintaining a childlike persona seemed to eventually derail any scintilla of sanity in his world. Here was a striking young African American male with the world at his feet and somewhere along the way he just seemed to come unglued. They call Joan Rivers the Queen of Plastic Surgery or some such thing, but Michael Jackson had to lead the league in completely unnecessary surgeries. As far as I was concerned, Jackson was a good looking man, but he obviously didn't see it that way. I have to believe the stress of being Michael Jackson just overwhelmed him. He sold a lot of records after Thriller and was still in the news, mostly for all the wrong reasons unfortunately, but he never did attain those heights ever again. We can't imagine what it was like to be the son of an allegedly abusive father and a pop star by eight years old or whatever it was. The Danny Bonaduce story doesn't even scratch the surface here.

I was an AM Gold guy in the late 60's and early 70's. I got on quite nicely with The Love You Save, ABC, I Want You Back, Rockin' Robin, I'll Be There and Never Can Say Goodbye. I started to lose it when he had the hit "Ben" about the friendly rat and as popular as Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough or Rock With You were I couldn't stand them. I was never much for so called "Dance Music." My ears perked up when I heard Eddie Van Halen's solo on "Beat It," but I still wasn't completely sold. "Billie Jean" was a brilliant pop song though. I remember we played it on WBCN, a rock station, and that was amazing. Like Prince, Michael Jackson's music was color blind and crossover format friendly. I even liked "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," but I was back on the outside looking in when P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) became a hit. WBCN played this record until nobody could stand it anymore. It had the same type of "Legs" as ZZ Top's Eliminator, Cyndi Lauper's She's So Unusual, Prince's Purple Rain and John Mellencamp's Scarecrow. Whether it was four, five or six singles radio just kept playing all of these records for over a year...almost until the artist's next record came out!

I guess what I came to say is that Michael Jackson was a true icon. Larger than life. A supreme talent. I didn't always like his music, but I was clearly in the minority. His legal troubles, the opulent Neverland Ranch, the multiple facial reconstructions, the rumors about his sexual preferences, the endless stories about his financials and mental status, the inexplicable marriages, and the bizarre footage of him hanging a child out of a hotel window? You can have all that stuff. At the end of the day the world lost a world class entertainer at a very young age and it is kind of a shame the way it all ended for him. He seemed to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb, but that doesn't change what he accomplished. I hope he can rest in peace now. He's earned that much. Best wishes to the surviving members of the Jackson family and all of his heartbroken fans.

Before I go I wanted to mention Farrah Fawcett's passing as well. She was 62 years old. The sex symbol of the 1970's, Farrah ended up overcoming her "handicap" of being gorgeous and went on to prove herself a serious actress when nobody thought she had it in her. Charlie's Angels and one fantastic poster might have put her on the map, but she took it from there. I'm glad she is no longer suffering and will remember her fondly until my turn comes.

Cake is an interesting act. An American "Indie" band from Sacramento, CA, Cake burst onto the national scene around 1996 with a cover of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive." Fashion Nugget was already their second record, but we didn't know that at the time. All we knew is that while Gloria Gaynor was famous for that song folks who listened to Cake and similar bands weren't typically fans of that type of music. It came across as more funny than anything else. The next thing I remember hearing is "The Distance," a song that thrust Cake into the spotlight. It had lyrics conducive to having the local professional sports franchises potentially adopting it as their marketing soundtrack. I know the Boston Bruins gave it a whirl at one point. As a result, Fashion Nugget is not the first record I reach for when considering a Cake CD. I can listen to "The Distance" if I have to, but it's gone the way of "Song 2" by Blur, "Tubthumping" by Chumbawumba, "Rock & Roll Part 2" by Gary Glitter, "Let's Get It Started" by The Black Eyed Peas, "We Will Rock You" by Queen, "Centerfield" by John Fogerty, "All-Star" by Smashmouth, "Welcome To The Jungle" by Guns 'N Roses, "Unbelievable" by EMF, "Ready To Go" by Repulica, "Jump Around" by House of Pain and that god awful "Who Let The Dogs Out" by The Baja Men. You no longer care if you ever hear these tracks again. Ever. They're a little too easy as halftime fodder while watching the cheerleaders. You know you haven't heard the last of them so no reason to play them at home or add them to your iPod. They are overexposed for good. The Distance might be better than all of these tracks, but it has been dragged down to that level by virtue of its association with sporting events and TV commercials.

Cake, though, is a great band. They only have five records, a B-side compilation and a live disc. I'm sure it is intentional, but all of their album covers look very similar with a yellowish or white background. Nothing is very eye catching. It adds to their mystery I suppose. I last saw them at the Hatch Shell in Boston last summer at the Earth Day Festival. The played their cover of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs." I had never heard it before. As a Black Sabbath fan, at least until 1978 or so, I loved it. I decided to post it for fun today. Make no mistake; Cake has a fine catalogue in their own right. I own all of their studio records, but Prolonging The Magic and Comfort Eagle are great records. I'm not sure which one I like the best, but you can trust me when I tell you that they are very much worth owning. Hardly a throwaway track across the board. Cake has always had a tongue in cheek sense of humor about them which I can really appreciate. I always like a little humor in my rock & roll. It makes it fun every now an then. "War Pigs" is one of the all time anti-war protest songs of our time. When Cake sings the lyrics you can actually understand what Ozzy was mumbling way back in 1971. They could never match the epic back beat of the Black Sabbath original, but I think you'll find this to be entertaining. I gave it the thumbs up both in concert and on record. Happy Father's Day to all the Fathers out there. Hopefully this one will be a sleeper cut on your iPod now...

Power Pop is a term you hear fairly often when talking about oldies that sort of split the atom between Bubblegum (think The Ohio Express or The 1910 Fruitgum Company), Pop (think Three Dog Night, The Grassroots or The Lovin' Spoonful) and Rock (think The Doors or Cream). I was reading that Pete Townshend of The Who is generally credited with coining the phrase in 1967 when asked what type of music his band played. Referring to "I Can't Explain", "Happy Jack" and "Pictures of Lily" he replied "Power Pop." I never knew this tidbit of information. I can't describe Power Pop when I try to explain it, but I know it when I hear it. It's always been a favorite genre of mine. It lends itself to one hit wonder bands, or at least to bands that don't have a lot of catalogue exposure. One of my all time favorite Power Pop songs is "Shake Some Action" by The Flamin' Groovies. That song rocks. How about "No Matter What" or "Baby Blue" by Badfinger? Yes please. Little Girl by Syndicate of Sound? Yep. What about "Starry Eyes" by The Records? Love it. I loved Pop Rock when I was a kid. Time of The Season by The Zombies. Spirit in The Sky by Norman Greenbaum. In The Summertime by Mungo Jerry. Go All The Way by The Raspberries. Surrender by Cheap Trick. Anything by Todd Rundgren. September Gurls by Big Star. Bus Stop by The Hollies. I'm On Fire by Dwight Twilley. She's So Selfish by The Knack. Teenage Kicks by The Undertones. Switchboard Susan by Nick Lowe. Anything by Joe Jackson. Driver's Seat by Sniff 'n The Tears. Melt With You by Modern English. The Buzzcocks. The Monkees. The Beach Boys. The Kinks. Electric Light Orchestra. The Easybeats. Love. Heck, you could even call Blue Oyster Cult Power Pop if pressed. The list is blissfully endless...

Later on we had The Replacements, XTC, Blondie, The Bangles, The La's, Fountains of Wayne, The Dandy Warhols, The New Radicals, Matthew Sweet, The Lemonheads, Teenage Fanclub, The Romantics, The Plimsouls, Marshall Crenshaw, R.E.M., Squeeze, The Jam, The New Pornographers, Jimmy Eat World, Weezer, The dB's, The Smithereens, The Pursuit of Happiness, Utopia, Nada Surf, The Hoo Doo Gurus, Rhett Miller and others carrying the flag. The actual time frame of the golden age of Power Pop is up for debate. By most accounts the sweet spot was 1975 or so until maybe 1983, but we all know that Power Pop was invented by The Beatles. The Kinks, The Who, Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders, The Troggs, The Rolling Stones, Sly & The Family Stone and scores of bands had also paved the way prior to 1975, if indeed that is the imaginary line in the sand. The thing about it is, I think you have to have had roots in the AM Gold Pop era to appreciate this music to the level that I do. It was right on the fault line when AOR FM radio started to take off. The music needed to be longer than 2 minutes and 15 seconds and it had to have something to say. The late 60's and early 70's had a backdrop of heavier music making it's own history in Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Aerosmith, but there was a bridge to this music that was a hybrid of pop and rock. It took nearly a decade to come and go, but fortunately there is still a market for this product even if it is dormant at times. It's kind of cyclical I think. Some might call it antiquated, but I like it.

I don't know what it is that attracts me to this genre so much, but it's like ear candy for me. It's easy to understand the lyrics and sing to and it just rips the nostalgia from my can't remember what I had for breakfast brain. I'm posting two Power Pop tracks today. The first is without a doubt one of my favorite local Boston band tracks by a band called Private Lightning. This band never really made it out of New England, but I don't care. "Physical Speed" is a masterpiece from my point of view. I was so happy to read on another blog that they were going to re-release their 1980 self titled CD this month I ordered it before it was available. They had a second song called "Song of The Kite" that I also loved, but these tracks were very hard to find for decades if you didn't own their original album. I never did own it, but I did record the single on a cassette tape for safe keeping and held onto it tightly until now. Whenever I hear it I am instantly taken back to hazy lazy summer days on Nahant Beach back in 1980 with a kite tied to my beach chair and the cheapest beer we could find. Most of the time we had two or three bikini clad waitresses with us from work with the boom box blasting. I'm sure there was no connection to the ideology behind "Girl of My Dreams" and my love for the second song below, but it sure was nice to get lost in the day dream with that kind of company just the same. Local New Englanders already know Nahant is not exactly a five star beach, but it was close to Boston and most of the time we needed to be at work by 4:30 PM so Nahant it was. I just loved Physical Speed. Private Lightning was a rousing success if for no other reason than this contribution to the world of music. Congrats guys (and girls) wherever you are today. You rocked my world nearly 30 years ago and still do to this day. That has gotta be such a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction. I'd be so proud if somebody remembered my signature tune for a decade, let alone three...that was such a long time ago...still, I remember it like it was yesterday...

The other song I'm posting is Bram Tchaikovsky's "Girl of My Dreams." Bram released Strange Man, Changed Man in 1979. It had a mediocre cover of The Monkee's I'm a Believer (written by the legendary Neil Diamond), but nothing else that riled up the radio community. Luckily they latched onto this track and played it like there was no tomorrow. Everything about this track screams Power Pop and I could never ever get enough of it. It's a brilliant track. I hope you like it too. I don't know what it says about me that Bram's "girl" Judy was a blow up doll, but the song is so beautiful I can overlook that minor detail. At least I'm not one of those clowns who brings blow up dolls to sporting events to be passed around huh? Don't you judge me...

Ahoy Hoy my friends! Did you know that "Ahoy Hoy" was the standard greeting in the early days of the existence of the telephone? Me neither. Luckily it was replaced by "hello" before too long and only the venerable C. Montgomery Burns of Simpson's fame uses that greeting in the modern day. Sorry for the prolonged absence, but it seems like I've got a lot going on these days for a guy in between jobs. It's concert going season and though my budget isn't what it used to be, but I've got a couple of outings planned shortly. I remember seeing Devo for the first time last summer (pre-blogging for this rookie) in the second row and having a rip roaring blast singing "Mongoloid" at the top of my lungs with friends. Hopefully some such slice of life awaits me in the coming months so I can report back to the masses for fun. Is there anything better than an outdoor summer concert? I ask you...

I can remember when WFNX, my local alternative rock station here in the Boston area, began to morph it's playlist to include the mash-up between hip hop, rap rock and metal in the early 90's. Suddenly bands like Rage Against The Machine, Linkin Park, Cypress Hill, and Limp Bizkit starting taking over the airwaves. We already had Faith No More and The Red Hot Chili Peppers edging into that genre a bit, but now, coming off The Manchester Sound and a ton of singer songwriter types like Matthew Sweet the melody was gone. Shout singing, rap rock and noise became the order of the day. I actually stopped listening to WFNX for a while. Aside from the DJ turnover and god awful repetitiveness of the programming, I really didn't like the direction they were headed. Local dinosaur rock station WBCN was almost playing the identical artists at the time next to their standard fare of Aerosmith and U2. Maybe the change was too sudden for me at the time, but I really felt WFNX was losing its way. I was turned off. No more obscure tasty treats like Propaganda, The Lightning Seeds, It's Immaterial and scores of other bands I can't remember off the top of my head. Today order has been restored. The maddening tiny playlist still exists, but they are back on the beam of what made them great in the first place; new artists mixed in with at least some reverence for what came before. I'm a big history guy; I love to trace musical lineage. It's all borrowed one way or another...

I've begun backing off on my Rage Against Rage statements of the mid 90's. I was pointing at Rage as the reason alternative rock had gone to hell in a hand basket. I never really was keen on Bulls On Parade, but I've come to enjoy these guys more than I ever thought I would. Truthfully, if I wasn't filling an iPod for a friend who wanted all that stuff; Disturbed, Drowning Pool, System of a Down and the like I wouldn't have given Rage a second chance. I was more of a Soundgarden and Monster Magnet guy at the time. Those bands still had some discernable melody to offer to me. Now I find myself Raging from time to time. Guerilla Radio no longer goes right through me like it once did. Sleep Now in The Fire! Have you seen that TV commercial where the three rockers with long hair are swinging their manes around with headphones on? Not only is that flat hysterical it reminds me of watching concert footage of RATM and their fans just grooving to the music. I was listening to RATM's Renegades a while back and stumbled upon their cover of Bob Dylan's Maggie's Farm. I love Bob Dylan to pieces so I thought this would be fun to post. Even if Rage is not your cup of tea, and I totally get it if they are not, the re-worked Maggie's Farm is very cool for my money. Enjoy.

Rage Against The Machine - Maggie's Farm.mp3

Rage Against The Machine - Maggie's Farm.mp3 YSI

www.ratm.com

One of New England's finest exports in the 1980's was a band called The Pixies. I'm quite sure you have heard of them if you liked the Modern or Alternative Rock genre. With a few minor exceptions, The Pixies were mostly comprised of Black Francis, Kim Deal, Joey Santiago and David Lovering. You may have noticed their much ballyhooed one off reunions over the past couple of years at strategic festivals. Their story has been told more than once. You also may have heard of how one time University of Massachusetts-Amherst college roommates Black Francis and Joey Santiago formed a band in 1986 and began recruiting band members. They found bassist Kim Deal allegedly by placing an ad requesting a female bass player that liked both folkies Peter, Paul & Mary and Husker Du. I really have no way of knowing what is true and what isn't, but legend has it Deal was the only one who responded to the ad and showed up for the audition without a bass guitar claiming she had no money to retrieve it from her native Ohio. On top of that she had never played the instrument if you believe the rumor. Apparently drummer David Lovering was discovered at Kim's own wedding reception. Different, but with the pieces now in place they began to build the legend...

I began thinking about The Pixies again this morning because my local alterna-rock station, WFNX, runs a feature every Thursday morning called "My Song is Better Than Your Song." I kind of like the bit, but they frequently fail to mention the song titles after the first time and they don't document the history of the game on their web site. It's kind of maddening because it takes place in a span of 15 minutes to half an hour and then they crown a champion. Voters are encouraged to continue the debate on their home page, but it basically ends right there. It would be a lot more fun if you could go to their web site and look at the history of what song beat what song. It's a futile pursuit of course, but if I miss a week or some guy is champion for weeks on end I want to follow his song titles. They might have made some improvements to their web site, I haven't checked in a while, but it was severely lacking when I last checked to try and track some of the history of the game. It is an interesting concept for someone with a little historical perspective on the station. I think I was listening to it before the morning crew were born, but that's on me I suppose. They rag on old time alternative legends like Roxy Music, which drives me up a wall (I can't communicate how much I love everything about Roxy Music including the name of the band), but they are just kids. I get that. But I love it when they get all bent out of shape when Mission of Burma's That's When I Reach For My Revolver tops Pearl Jam's Jeremy or Steppenwolf's The Pusher takes out Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart (don't quote me on that last match up...I'd reference it if I could). They frequently have older guests like Big Jim's Dad (Big Jim is the afternoon drive guy who also hates several bands I love) who won several weeks in a row with older tunes they would never actually play on WFNX. It's kind of fun to see how much perspective the actual listeners have and how many of them are in my age bracket. You can sort of tell by the votes and it's a fun curiosity for me.

The reason I tell the story is because this morning one of their sales guys brought Van Halen's Ice Cream Man to the My Song party. I love David Lee Roth led Van Halen, but Ice Cream Man has never been a favorite of mine. I know it's an old blues standard redone, but I would have picked a gazillion other Van Halen tunes to ostensibly go up against what will likely be a song they play on the station. The champion picked The Pixies' Dig For Fire from 1990's Bossanova. Predictably, Van Halen went down by a 4-1 margin even though this Pixies number is probably not in their top ten songs lifetime in my opinion. For those of you who don't know who The Pixies were, they had a brilliant seven year run from 1986 to 1993 or so. They had four studio albums and an EP. It doesn't sound like much, but what an impact. Nirvana and other bands have tipped their collective hat to this outfit from Boston. Combining surf music, punk rock and Black Francis' infatuation with all things UFO, this band's sound was characterized by soft and melodic excerpts frequently followed by harsh explosions of sonic noise. It was referred to as LoudQUIETLoud in their 2006 Rockumentary. You couldn't really put a handle on it, but you knew it was something totally different. It had some Sonic Youth and Husker Du attached to it, but it was definitely off the beaten path.

The Pixies had to wait until their third record for real "national" recognition. I say "national" because it's debatable whether they were ever really that big in the United States. Once they had established a bit of a foothold in Europe and Surfer Rosa gained some notoriety, they were able to sign a deal here in the States and get going. The first song I ever heard by The Pixies was "Gigantic." Whoa. 'Nuff said I thought to myself. Count me in. Many of their songs were short bursts of intensity and Gigantic was just perfect as far as I was concerned. Then I heard "Where is My Mind?" and I was an even more ardent Pixies fan. Everything sort of changed when they released Doolittle in 1989. Now they were stars. I will never get tired of listening to "Monkey Gone To Heaven" as long as I live. Songs like "Debaser" and "Wave of Mutilation" just put Pixies fever in overdrive 20 years ago. I know very well I will receive some criticism for what I'm about to type, but I liked Bossanova the best out of all of their records. It contained all kinds of "B" cuts. Aside from the radio friendly Dig For Fire you might have heard personal favorite "Is She Weird?" on the radio, but never today. It's a crying shame too. The Pixies were much greater than people even realize today. It just goes to show you what you hear on the radio or see on the charts is not necessarily indicative of greatness. They cobbled together one more record called Trompe Le Monde in 1991 before calling it a day. It's amazing that they could put together two more good records after it became public knowledge that Francis and Deal were having a power struggle. Thank god they squeezed out the song "U-Mass" before they expired. That song positively rocks! Black Francis famously notified band members Deal & Lovering of his cessation from their union via fax (remember those?) in January of 1993 officially ending their intial run as Monsters of Alternative Rock.

OK, I've got to shut myself off because I could go on all day about these guys and this post is already too long. The Pixies imploded due mostly to the egos of Black Francis and Kim Deal, but one of the greatest shows I have ever seen took place November 27, 1991 (the night before Thanksgiving that year) at The Orpheum Theatre in Boston. For my $20.50 I saw an unbelievable combination of intensity, musicianship and crowd worship. I walked out of their completely spent and talking to myself. How could this band be on the verge of breaking up? They clearly were ignoring each other to a degree, but WOW!...what a concert! After the breakup Kim Deal formed The Breeders with her sister Kelley and dominated the free world with the song "Cannonball" in 1993. Black Francis became Frank Black and also released a tremendous, but little known, self titled solo album in 1993 (go buy that one if you like The Pixies...trust me) before his career tailed off big time. The song I leave you with today is from Bossanova called "The Happening." If you don't own Bossanova you have never heard it, but it is very representative of The Pixies. Death To The Pixies? I think not!...