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Saturday, November 14, 2009

My Insipid Record Collection - The Motels

Here is another band I felt never got enough credit for being good. The Los Angeles based "New Wave" band The Motels struggled a long while before ascending to the charts consistently in the early 80's, but they had some terrific songs. I wrestle with which one is my favorite all the time. I absolutely loved the songs "Suddenly Last Summer" and "Danger," but I think my all time fav by The Motels is "Take The L." Martha Davis had a great voice and a nice way of expressing her relationship angst. A curious thing about some bands is that they have to chart elsewhere globally before some of these US based record labels bother to sign them. In the case of The Motels, they had an international hit in France and Australia with "Total Control" in 1979 before Capitol records deigned to sign them. You folks might think I'm a whack job, but I'd like to believe I would have made a terrific A&R guy back in the day. I missed one of my callings there for sure. I still feel like I have an excellent ear for music (hey, stop laughing!) and am much more open minded about music than many of the people I have known over the years. Oh well, that and two cents will get you about as far along in life as you might imagine. You are looking live at my music career unfortunately...

To this day it's not clear to me how some folks in charge of programming at local FM radio stations are influenced by factors other than the music. There is just no accounting for some bands rising and others sputtering when the talent level seems so obvious in favor of the band that can't seem to make it. Funnily enough, it was only in the early to mid 80's that I felt albums really got frisked in full for every last great single. Some of the records that benefited at the time were Bruce Springsteen's Born in The USA, John Cougar Mellencamp's Scarecrow and Cyndi Lauper's She's So Unusual. Each of these records had up to five or six "singles" consistently played on FM radio. Even the mighty U2 no longer gets that kind of respect. The merits of No Line On The Horizon aside, it seemed be sabotaged by the worst lead single they've had in decades in "Get On Your Boots." I thought "Magnificent" was brilliant you barely hear it a mere ten months after it was released. They are playing "I'll Go Crazy" a bit now, but the record is probably done as far as singles are concerned. Zooropa and Pop got more respect than that. Weep not for U2, but it's just another sign of the terrestrial radio apocalypse. Selling singles the way they do today won't make anyone rich.

Back to The Motels; they were all over the FM dial from 1979 to about 1983. Exceedingly poor management allegedly left the band broke, unbelievably enough, by 1987 at which time lead singer Martha Davis decided to go solo. They resurrected, to little fanfare, around 1998, but after 1985's Shock they really were never heard from again for all intents and purposes. I hesitantly submit that The Motels are one of those bands that if you can grab a comprehensive greatest hits package you are probably good to go. They had five studio albums plus name only releases in 2007 & 2008. The players behind Davis have shifted many times, but with her voice out front the sound is instantly recognizable. Regarding today's posted single "Take The L," I wish I had written it myself. Take The L out of Lover and it's over...one of my all time favorite rock song sentiments. The Motels seemed to get lost in the female fronted mass of successful 80's acts like The Go-Go's, The Bangles, Joan Jett, Pat Benatar and that ilk. Those were pretty consistent acts, but it's a shame The Motels have faded from most people's memories. I don't know a thing about Martha Davis personally, it wasn't like she was in the news all the time (at least that I can remember), but I just loved her voice. Still do. "Danger" your love is like a stranger...."Who's Problem Am I?" if I'm not yours...and then "Suddenly Last Summer"....all these songs still sound great to this very day...


Posted by John Jay at 12:25 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

My Insipid Record Collection - Timbuk 3

Here's an act that I really liked back in the late 80's and into the 90's. They were a folk duo with a drum machine called Timbuk 3. I only first heard them in 1986 when the late WBCN used to play their first single "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades." For years, and thankfully I've broken myself of this habit, folks used to ask me how I was doing and I'd say "Doin' alright, gettin' good grades" as in "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades." This band always had clever wordplay and I have always loved that kind of thing. "Fifty thou a year'll buy a lotta beer" was another cute line from this once fairly popular song. Radio took to it pretty well and it gave these guys some footing, but I feel like I was the only one buying their records. They probably did too. I got a big kick out of them. "Shades" even made it all the way to #19 on the Hot Billboard 100 in 1986. Not bad huh?

Timbuk 3 initially consisted of a husband and wife team named Pat & Barbara MacDonald. I saw them play live on the grounds of Boston's Channel Club back on October 30, 1991. The legendary Channel was on its last legs by then and they had opened a tiny little club for smaller acts called "Club Vertigo" in the back of the same building. That is where I saw Timbuk 3. By then they had added real live backing musicians to their band so they were now a foursome. Timbuk 3 only recorded from 1986 through 1995, but all of their records had some redeeming music on them. I was definitely a fan. I bought every single one of their full length releases. They appeared on MTV's The Cutting Edge in 1986 and I.R.S. Records subsequently bankrolled them as a result. I don't pay much attention to radio programming, as ludicrous as that statement sounds coming from me, as it applies to artists that aren't getting played. I was hooked on this band immediately. Greetings From Timbuk 3, their first album starring "Shades," was a blast. There isn't a bad track on it and a favorite cut of mine, "Shame On You," was apparently featured in the opening scenes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, but as you know if you read my Halloween post; I didn't see it. According to Wikipedia, their music has been featured on over 20 combined compilations and movie soundtracks.

There isn't much information on the World Wide Web about these guys, but they were nominated for a 1987 Grammy for Best New Artist. That must have been a huge honor for them and very well deserved in my view. They have some allegiance with both Madison, Wisconsin and Austin, TX, but I don't have all the facts unfortunately. There next record after Greetings was Eden Alley, which again was excellent. It was kind of country folk with ironic lyrics and catchy melodies. After two records I was sold. I just bought the rest without hearing a note in advance. One of my all time favorites in their catalogue, and I promise you that ten or more of their songs are in the running, is "Dirty Dirty Rice" from their third, and some would say their best, release called Edge of Allegiance. Released in 1989 amidst the R.E.M., Soundgarden and U2 fare of the day, it is flat amazing that this band was kept alive for another six years. I don't know a single soul that has these records, let alone treasures them like I do. "Dirty Dirty Rice" popped up on my Sony iPod like device not three hours ago at the gym and I enjoyed the heck out of it for the billionth time. It's sometimes spooky how you know a band is out there and somebody somewhere is obviously enjoying them just like you, yet nobody you know knows anything about them...it's kind of like being on your own musical island...

I'm going to recant this thought for one hot minute now that I just remembered something; I once gave a mixed track cassette to a friend of mine in the early 90's. A real non starter of a music fan if I ever saw one (he's the kind of guy who will listen to maybe 100 albums of music total until the day he dies with no desire or room for anything new...and this has been going on for 20 years already). I finally figured out that if I give away a cassette I had better make sure I still have the master because it will only be a matter of months until said giftee loses or destroys the copy I give them. Anyway, I give this guy one of my all time great cassettes with The Cure, The Jam, The The, New Order, The Clash and all the other your "B" but probably my "A" cuts of the day and wouldn't you know, out of 90 minutes and maybe 25 songs he comes back with "I love that song Dirty, Dirty Rice." I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. All of the songs he could have come back with...funny...you never know what will strike someone...turns out he wasn't so stupid after all...

Timbuk 3 was unfairly pigeon-holed as a novelty band because of "Shades." It had those funny ironic lyrics and nobody who depended on the radio for their musical knowledge ever heard from them again. They must have been terrible right? Wrong! The truth is these folks were very good song writers and their voices blended beautifully right on through their last record in 1995. I think, unfortunately, their records are out of print these days due to public apathy. That's a real shame, but they were very cool for my money and I just loved 'em. So what if you've never heard of them? Sometimes that is what The Giant Panther is for...just in case you missed it...



Posted by John Jay at 6:43 PM 2 comments

Monday, November 09, 2009

My Insipid Record Collection - The Charlatans UK

Another band from the early 90's I've mentioned in the past, but just haven't gotten around to blogging about is The Charlatans UK. They are yet another band with a name conflict here in the States that forced the "UK" tag, but if I were these bands I'd wear it like a badge of honor. It sounds so much cooler than say, The Charlatans US, although I could actually live with that if I had to. I know they fool around with calling themselves The Charlatans as originally intended, but they'll always be The Charlatans UK to this fan. The record I come to talk about today is called Some Friendly and it was released in October of 1990. As a 30 year old roaming the alternative rock scene, I just loved this record. I saw them perform at The Paradise February 26, 1991 and had a ball. I know I've talked ad nauseum about the Manchester Scene in the UK around this time, but I never really spelled out how great I thought this record was. Some Friendly and Between 10th and 11th, their followup record, were very solid as first and second records go, but this band was right there with the makers of this sound. I don't want to dwell on it all over again since I have posted about this is the past, but the bands that best represent this period in musical time were The Charlatans UK, The Stone Roses, The Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets, The Chameleons UK, James, Oasis, The London Suede and Electronic. There were others, but these bands acts are probably the most famous.

The Hammond B3 Organ seemed to be at the fore of many of the sounds you heard coming out of Manchester at that time. I know many people have long forgotten Between 10th and 11th's "Weirdo," but that song was a killer single in 1992. It's intro was pure organ and it rocked. British heavyweights Deep Purple made a nice living incorporating that instrument into their music and now it was back with a vengeance. I think, though, it was the combination of the Hammond, the drug Ecstasy and the boundless energy in those days. My crowd never touched Ecstasy, but we loved that music as if we had. Some Friendly's first single, "The Only One I Know," was a big hit on WFNX and I owned the CD inside of a week of hearing it. WFNX barely touches it anymore, which is really disappointing to be honest, but at the time they were also dabbling with "You're Not Very Well, Then and Sprosten Green" as well. That didn't last very long, but however I feel about this station today I can't say they didn't play "The Only One I Know" and "Weirdo." There were eleven tracks on Some Friendly and the radio fooled around with four of them. Not bad for a band that nobody ever heard of prior to 1990. Time monkeys around with your memory of records, but I still like Some Friendly very much. It brings me back to a time when I seemed to have less cares, but the truth is I should have had twice the cares. It might have done wonders for the following decades....ah hindsight...

I'm going out tonight, not to see a band, but to hang out with friends so I'm going to keep this relatively short (by my standards). The Charlatans UK are still recording to this day and released a CD called You Cross My Path in 2008. I haven't followed them since their heyday (my tastes move all over the road and I can only stay on top of so many bands), but they went on to record eight more records after 1992's Between 10th and 11th (allegedly named after the rough address of the NY Marque, which was where their first US gig was according to Wikipedia). I frequently go back and listen to this record and if you've never heard it I'm recommending it. Like I said, for every post I only need to make one new fan to make it all worthwhile...



Posted by John Jay at 5:54 PM 0 comments

Saturday, November 07, 2009

Guilty Pleasures - Grand Funk Railroad

I'm sure to catch hell from The Giant Panther with this post, but I can't do a Guilty Pleasures feature without embarrassing someone (ultimately me) right? One of the funniest things I've seen on The Simpsons (a show I still love to this day) was a scene from an ancient episode called Homerpalooza where Homer is playing the car radio while shuttling some neighborhood kids around and they balk at his music, particularly Grand Funk's "American Band." Homer is indignant and shocked, essentially saying what about the "wild, shirtless lyrics of Mark Farner?, the bong rattling base of Mel Schacher?, the competent drumming of Don Brewer?...oh man!" It is actually funnier if you were a fan of the band, as I was, back in the early 70's. Some bands wind up being caricatures of their former selves and I think, to a degree, that is what happened to the venerable Grand Funk Railroad.

First of, no name changes...ever! Chopping off the Railroad was a move I didn't particularly care for. Apparently there is a Grand Trunk Western Railroad running through their home town of Flint, MI and they decided to use a play on words as the name of their band. Great job. It was a very memorable name until they butchered it. Grand Funk Railroad was a power trio fashioned after bands like Eric Clapton's Cream. The critics hated 'em, but the fans loved 'em. Reminds me of the ascent of Kiss; another band I enjoyed the heck out in the 70's. I heard "Cold Gin" at the gym today on my Sony iPod like device and it still sounds great to me. Beginning in August 1969 with On Time, Grand Funk Railroad began making records that were sort of Rock & Soul. Their style was distinctly American, but it was still rock music at its core. There was a rumor going around that Grand Funk Railroad intentionally recorded their early music with the bass guitar seemingly out in front and allegedly louder than the lead guitar. There was a school of thought that bassist Mel Schacher was the best musician of the three so they decided to accent the positive. I guess I never noticed it if that is true, but I just love the sound of 1970's Closer To Home. Always have. 1969's On Time had "Heartbreaker" and 1970's Grand Funk has "Mr Limousine Driver," but Closer To Home, their third LP, was a very good record. Side two had three songs and all of them were great. "I Don't Have To Sing The Blues, Hooked On Love, and I'm Your Captain (Closer To Home)" made a perfect album side clocking in just shy of 22 minutes. I still love to play these three tracks to this day.

By 1972 Grand Funk Railroad was kind of sputtering along. They had released three more records called Survival, E-Pluribus Funk and Phoenix, but sales were mediocre at best. There was at least one good song on each record; namely their covers of Dave Mason's "Feelin' Alright" and of The Glimmer Twins "Gimme Shelter" on Survival, "Footstompin' Music" on E Pluribus Funk and "Rock & Roll Soul" from Phoenix, but they had reached a bit of a crossroads. They were brawling with their manager, Terry Knight, and had decided to bring on a keyboard player named Craig Frost after failing to entice Peter Frampton to potentially join the group. The resulting sound seemed to alienate their fan base to a degree. It was around this time they started going by the protracted name of Grand Funk and hired one Todd Rundgren (there's that man again) to produce their new record. By this time Knight was out and they were posing half naked on the inside jacket of 1973's We're An American Band. We're An American Band was a terrific record even as sick as you all are of hearing the title cut. Grand Funk Railroad, as I like to call them, never sounded so consistent on one album. There were eight definitive Grand Funk tracks and only "Walk Like a Man" got any airplay other than "We're An American Band." Nevertheless, anyone who bought that record and played the piss out of it like I did knows every note and lyric. I'm going to go with "The Railroad" and "The Loneliest Rider" as my personal favorites, but I love "Stop Lookin' Back, Creepin' or Ain't Got Nobody" as well.

This is about where Grand Funk Railroad kind of went off the rails to coin a phrase. 1974's Shinin' On had a couple of decent tracks, but the Funk became ultra popular for their cover of Carole King's & Geffrey Goffin's "Locomotion" originally made famous by Little Eva. I hate to admit this out loud, that is what this column is for I guess, but my friends & I lip synched and faked playing the instruments to this song on stage at some faux talent show in 8th grade if memory serves. Uggh. "We're An American Band" and "Locomotion" were their only Number One singles according to Wikipedia. Their next record, December 1974's All The Girls in The World Beware, had two more top ten singles in "Bad Time" and "Some Kind of Wonderful" plus a lesser known hit called "Responsibility," but the once mighty Railroad was now a pop band. An awful lot of people loved them as a result, but I became much less interested. I think the band did too because less than two years later it was over for all intents and purposes.

I know I'll get laughed at or whatever, but I still get a charge out of some the early GFR. Call them Rhythm & Blues, Soul or Pop, but no one can say they weren't mega successful. I'm posting their perfect album side tonight because I'm in a good mood. It was nearly 40 years ago now, but I don't care. Tell everybody you know; you've got some Rock & Roll Soul!




Posted by John Jay at 5:52 PM 1 comments

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

The Giant Panther Does Requests! - Kim Mitchell

I just learned something right here, right now...I mentioned Canadian rocker Kim Mitchell in my last post and somebody, anonymously, asked me to post the songs I made reference to. Never a problem as we aim to please at The Giant Panther, so I figured I better bone up on Kim before I speak out of turn. I did some checking and it turns out Kim Mitchell was the lead singer of a band called Max Webster. Why is this important? Well it's probably not to any of you, but for me Max Webster was the first band I ever saw perform live at a rock show. I'm not going to count seeing David Cassidy at The Garden State Arts Center sometime in the early 70's. Ssssh! Don't tell anyone. Tracing some of my love of music from my allegedly cool late 60's awakening on through The Partridge Family (1970-1974) before figuring out what cool actually means can really be embarrassing. Keep in mind I was ten years old when I first laid eyes on Laurie Partridge. The significance of stumbling onto this tidbit about Max Webster is mostly irony, but I'm guessing Kim Mitchell was probably the first rock guitarist I saw play live (assuming he was there). This was 1976 at The Tower Theatre in Philadelphia. Cheap Trick was also on the bill followed by Rush performing 2112. Not bad out of the chute as far as I'm concerned. Who doesn't love a good blast of "The Temples of Syrinx" once in awhile? I definitely do even if I'm once again in the minority. I probably wouldn't have ever made the connection between Kim and Max Webster if someone hadn't requested these songs. I think that's kind of cool don't you?

I own the two records you see in the picture above. Akimbo Alogo and Shakin' Like a Human Being were their titles. I'm thinking I saw Kim Mitchell perform at either a WBCN (RIP) lunchtime concert (those were big in the 80's...the band would go on stage around noon and be done by 12:45 PM so everybody could make it back to work...they usually went down on Lansdowne Street so basically it was for students, folks with employers that didn't know or mind that you were cutting out fifteen minutes early and getting back fifteen minutes late, and those folks who worked in the Fenway area) or at something like a WBCN Rock & Roll Expo. I remember seeing The Long Ryders (Looking For Lewis & Clark) at something like this, but I can't remember if I actually did see Kim Mitchell or not. "Go For a Soda" was played fairly regularly for a couple of months back in 1984 and "Patio Lanterns" had a minor run a couple of years later in 1986. Here they are both are courtesy of "Anonymous," who seems to show up a lot in our comments files. Kim Mitchell apparently still records and performs according to his Wikipedia entry, but I have to admit to losing track of him. I did like these two songs though so I'm sure he's got more if you can find them.

Kim Mitchell - Go For a Soda.mp3

Kim Mitchell - Patio Lanterns.mp3

Kim Mitchell - Patio Lanterns.mp3 YSI
Posted by John Jay at 2:52 PM 3 comments

Monday, November 02, 2009

One Track Mind - The Pursuit of Happiness

I've been meaning to knock this one out for a while now and since I have an hour before The World Series I thought I'd toss this one back out to the masses for fun. Canada has long been a wellspring for catchy rock nobody seems to ever get to hear. I remember Kim Mitchell back in the 80's (Patio Lanterns & Might As Well Go For a Soda might ring some long lost bells) for example. The Pursuit of Happiness (TPOH) was one such band for me. Many of you will probably remember their quasi novelty track "I'm An Adult Now" released back in 1988 on their CD Love Junk. This is one of those humor meets pretty good song mashups for me. As I have noted in the past, I love when humor is injected into a good rock track. If I like AND it makes me laugh I'm sold. This record is classic cut out fodder. I remember loving this self titled record from 1975 by a Virginia band called Artful Dodger. Nobody I know can even recall this band, but I know every note on this record. I remember WNEW-FM in New York City, the mother of all FM rock stations for this once young listener, used to play a song off this record called "Think Think" for a couple of months back in 1975. I loved this record all the way through, but you can find it for 49 cents in a used record store and it's long out of print. It's a great record, but it's been a graveyard special since 1976. I guess what I'm trying to say is I love some records unconditionally even if nobody else on the planet has ever heard of them. In fact the older I get I'm convinced I have at least fifty of these in my collection. TPOH had a minor hit song with "I'm An Adult Now," but their record was really very good and it had/has zero audience.

Sometimes today, at least for me, I go shopping without a single shred of information about certain artists. I might hear them in Newbury Comics while I'm in the store or maybe I read about them in a trade publication, but back in the day it was all about the image. I'd buy anything on a whim trying to expand my horizons. I feel like I have to tell the story (again you're probably thinking) of how I had come to buy certain albums just by virtue of the artwork. In other words, by shear luck of the draw. I know I'll get the usual guffaws from a lot of you when I tell you I bought Joe Walsh's So What and Supertramp's Crisis What Crisis? just because of their covers and they are still two of my all time favorites. The Giant Panther hates Joe Walsh, but I'm a huge fan of his. Not because of "Rocky Mountain Way" or "Funk #49" or "Life's Been Good"; I love Joe Walsh because "Turn To Stone" was such a fantastic single. I didn't know The James Gang from Spanky and Our Gang back then, but I do now because of "Turn To Stone," which was actually a remix of the original version on an earlier record called Barnstorm. I love all of his "b" cuts like "Meadows" and "Indian Summer" and "Rosewood Bitters" and "Welcome To The Club." As for Supertramp I'm not embarrassed at all to admit to being a fan. Crime of The Century, Crisis What Crisis? and Even in The Quietest Moments were brilliant records long before anybody ever heard of Breakfast in America. I think you all know by now I go off on tangents at the drop of a hat, but I used to love shopping by picture or image. Albums were physically huge and a good album cover was a huge seller right up until the advent of the CD. I would have never bought Crisis What Crisis? without seeing that album cover and thinking those dudes are out there. I wanted to see what they had. I'm certainly glad I did. Great recording.

No one will accuse TPOH's Love Junk of having a great cover, but it was produced by Todd Rundgren and released on Chrysalis Records. Chrysalis, with its signature butterfly, was a British label existing as a subsidiary of Island Records. For me Chrysalis Records stood for Jethro Tull and Procol Harum, but it also housed a substantial portion of the library of such acts as Blondie, Ultravox and such inexplicably great sellers as Huey Lewis & The News and Spandau Ballet. True he said. Uggh. Anyway, Wikipedia does not give insight as to how TPOH came to be produced by sound wizard Todd Rundgren, but his signature sound (Bearsville?) is all over this disc. Harmonies out the wazoo (I should do some research on that word as it is amazingly prevalent in the lexicon of the past couple of decades don't you think?) and very clean sounding, Love Junk was a very good record in my opinion. It was never going to be album of the year, but I've heard much worse. Unfortunately most people haven't heard it at all. 49 cents might be high for the price this baby would fetch at a yard sale. No matter, "I'm An Adult Now" rocks pretty hard and has a few hilarious passages that I just love. "I don't hate my parents, I don't get drunk just to spite 'em, I got my own reason to drink now, think I'll call my dad up and invite him." This song just goes on and on with the cleverly written laughs. I wish I had written it myself. As for the album, check out the easy harmony on "When The Sky is Falling." Great stuff. I don't care if it's in the cut out bin. It's the public's loss as far as I'm concerned.


Posted by John Jay at 6:00 PM 3 comments
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