Rock Hall Class of 2014

     For the second straight year, the crack Rock Hall induction team has silenced another rabid fan base. Last year it was the induction of Rush that finally got us Rush-ians to stop our whining and petitions. In 2014, the hottest band in the world (in the 70's), KISS, finally get their due and the KISS Army get their validation.  They will be joined by first ballot slam dunk Nirvana, Peter Gabriel, Hall & Oates, Linda Ronstadt and Yusef Islam. I, for one, can hardly wait to see this motley crew jam to "Crossroads", "Peace Train" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit". If there's a God, maybe they'll at least perform "Tumbling Dice". Where do I even start with this class? I did vote for Nirvana, KISS and Peter Gabriel, so I'm happy for them. I would have voted for Hall & Oates if there hadn't been a five vote limit, so I can go for that. Unfortunately, Dave Grohl, Gene Simmons, Peter Gabriel and Daryl Hall will be forced to share this moment with Yusef Islam and Linda Ronstadt. Every year there is at least one head-scratcher, and this year there are two. At least there should be intrigue a-plenty with KISS and Nirvana. Will the human dumpster fire that is Courtney Love somehow manage to insinuate herself into this honor for her late husband? Will Dave Grohl get a restraining order on her, so she can't get within 500 yards of the ceremony? Will Sir Paul reprise his role of lead singer and left-handed guitarist of Nirvana? Will Gene Simmons not be a douche and play with Ace and Peter? Will Gene insist on inducting his own band into the Rock Hall? Will KISS wear their makeup? Will there be an appearance by a hologram of Kurt Cobain? Will Yusef Islam be inducted by Salman Rushdie? Will Yusef Islam kill Salman Rushdie while singing "PeaceTrain"? Will Peter Gabriel show up wearing a dress and fox head mask? Will we finally get the Hall & Oates vs. Simon & Garfunkel cage match that we've all been dreaming of? Now I kind of wish it was Cleveland's turn to host in 2014.
     Seriously, the top of this class is great. Nirvana may be the last band to get in on their first ballot for some time. Radiohead and The White Stripes are the only other bands I can think of that have a chance, but I doubt it. Cobain's music touched millions of people because they felt like he was someone who understood them. There's been some revisionist history since their nomination, but go back and listen to those albums. Listen to the studio version of "About A Girl". Watch Nirvana on MTV Unplugged. They did what The Pixies and Dinosaur Jr. couldn't do; bring alternative rock to the mainstream. They may not have been the best band, but they were one of the most important bands in the history of rock music.
     KISS were long overdue for induction. I had the great fortune of growing up during their heyday. I drew them on my notebooks. I watch their horrible movie. I was glued to MTV when they removed their makeup. I played the hell out of Alive II. I wanted to be Ace Frehley. They are truly one of the most influential bands ever.
     I have to admit, in the 80's I hated Hall & Oates. I was into metal and prog rock. They represented everything I despised about mainstream music. In my middle age, I've grown to appreciate their music and I even own a greatest hits CD. I'm still surprised they were inducted into the Rock Hall. Maybe groups like Duran Duran still have a chance some day.
     Finally, Peter Gabriel is a musical genius. He completely reinvented himself as a solo artist and became one of the world's most iconic performers. I crap on the Rock Hall voters quite often, but I congratulate them for inducting Peter Gabriel. It almost makes up for Yusef Islam. I gotta go. It's Cold Gin time again. Peace.

Cheap Trick: 1977-79 Vinyl Box Set

     What is it about the United States that someone comes up with a great idea, then it gets co-opted by The Man and ruined? I am speaking of Record Store Day. The original concept was great; have one day each year where bands release limited edition records so people will patronize local record stores. Over the past couple years, there's been a revival in vinyl record sales and I'm sure Record Store Day is partly responsible. Unfortunately, it was only a matter of time before the success of RSD would attract the attention of free market capitalists. Now it has been lumped into Black Friday and most of it isn't very exciting. Hopefully the Walmart cretins don't find out about it. I don't want to be shot over the last copy of the latest re-issue of Kind Of Blue. As you know, I work in retail and therefore have to work Black Friday every year. However, I have refused to take part as a shopper...until now. When I found out that the first five Cheap Trick albums were being released on 180 gram vinyl in a box set for Black Friday RSD I abandoned my principles. I would like to thank Dave and Mike for hooking me up with copy 0875.
     You're probably thinking to yourself, "Didn't he already have all these albums on vinyl?". Actually, I didn't. The first Cheap Trick album I bought was Budokan. From there I went to Heaven Tonight and Dream Police. Then I bought their 80's stuff on cassette. For some reason, I never went backwards from Budokan. It wasn't until a couple years ago that I bought In Color on used vinyl and the first Cheap Trick album is impossible to find used. So, I mainly wanted this collection for the first album and the 180 gram vinyl. I did notice something funny on the box set that may make it more valuable (or not). On the slip case, they list the song "Downed" as "Drowned". I'll probably still keep my old copies for sentimental reasons. I strongly recommend all five albums to my kids, with the caveat that the In Color songs are better on Budokan than the studio album. Anyhow, here's a quick breakdown of each album. Peace.

Cheap Trick- This is the most overlooked, brilliant debut album of all time. How is it the Japanese could figure this out and we couldn't? "He's A Whore" is amazing and if I had a band I'd do a cover of it. Other standouts are "Elo Kiddies" and "Oh Candy".

In Color- Includes killer songs "Downed", "Southern Girls" and "Oh Caroline". It also has the horrible studio version of "I Want You To Want Me". They only played it on Budokan because it was a hit in Japan. Thank you Japan.

Heaven Tonight- Probably my favorite CT studio album. Side A is outstanding with "Surrender", "On Top Of The World", Move cover "California Man", "High Roller" and "Auf Wiedersehen".

At Budokan- The greatest live album of the "Live Album Era", which is saying something. The highlights, for me, are the live version of "Come On, Come On" and the cover of Fats Domino's "Ain't That A Shame", which featured Bun E. Carlos on drums. I also have the CD box set of At Budokan, which has a DVD and the entire show for both nights on CD. It's outstanding.

Dream Police- Dream Police is my favorite CT song and if I ever did karaoke this would be my jam. Other great tracks are "Way Of The World", "I'll Be With You Tonight", "Voices" and "I Know What I Want".

2nd Annual Things I'm Thankful For Post

     Last Thanksgiving I mailed it in and posted about the things I'm thankful for. Well, I've decided to make it an annual tradition. When I was a kid, Thanksgiving was my favorite holiday. All the men would sit in the living room complaining about the Detroit Lions while the women cooked. Turkey. Mashed potatoes. Sweet potatoes. Pumpkin pie. Cherry pie. Apple pie. My grandma's amazing apple salad. My mom's amazing dinner rolls. The only time I saw most of my cousins was Thanksgiving and Christmas. Then we all grew up and started having our own families and everyone went their different ways for the holidays. Since we moved to Ohio, Thanksgiving is just me, my wife and our kids. I feel bad for my kids that they don't get to visit with their extended family, but I work in retail management and only have Thanksgiving day off. Sadly, that's more than most retail workers get these days. Anyhow, here's my list for 2013. Peace.

* The Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving. It's the one day of the year everyone has to share in my pain. People wonder why the Lions play on Thanksgiving every year. The answer is Ford money talks and you know what walks:)

* My place of work being closed today.

* The Cheap Trick 180 gram vinyl box set.

* Bacon

* My wife making me Tom Collins' when I come home.

* The Tom Baker cameo on the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special.

* Lucky Records. Thanks for all the hook ups; especially Fly By Night.

* The return of MST3K's Turkey Day marathon on the interwebs.

* Austin, Texas (and Denton). How do they produce so many great bands?

* 2nd row seats for Toad The Wet Sprocket. I know I said I'd post about it, but I haven't come up with a good take yet. It was a great show in an intimate venue and I'd never seen them before.

* The 12 string Rickenbacker 350. I hate to imagine how music would have evolved had this guitar not been invented.

* My wife.

* My kids.

* All my friends and co-workers who keep me sane in an insane world.

* All my peeps back in Michigan.

* Rush. Enjoy your year off in 2014!

Clockwork Angels Tour Blu-ray

     I promise I'm not going to turn Sound Mind into a Rush blog, but 2013 has been a big year for the boys. Rock Hall induction. Awards. Band recognition. Individual recognition. Thousands of interviews. Magazine covers. A successful two year tour with strings. Blah blah blah:) Friday, I picked up their new concert Blu-ray for the Clockwork Angels tour and it made me feel like a real dick for not going to see them. There are several reasons I didn't attend this tour. First, I didn't want to see them with a string ensemble. For me, a rock band touring with an orchestra or strings is a "jump the shark" moment. After watching the Blu-ray, I was completely wrong. The string ensemble sounded great and it was fun watching Rush feed off their energy, as well as that of the audience.
     The other major reason I didn't see this tour was the set list. One of the great things about Rush is they aren't a nostalgia act. They still write new, vital music and I like to see them perform it live. However, there were rumors that they would play Clockwork Angels in it's entirety. It turns out they played 10 songs from the album. Then they revived a bunch of songs from the mid-80's, which is the much hated keyboard era of Rush. So, when you factor in 10 new songs, a bunch of Power Windows songs, an intermission and goofy videos of Geddy, Alex and Neil as gnomes, there's not much show left. Consequently, they didn't play "Limelight", "Freewill", "Closer To The Heart", "Working Man" or "La Villa Strangiato". I know I'm being a hypocrite, because I wish McCartney would drop "Let It Be" and "Hey Jude" from his set. But, imagine what would happen if The Rolling Stones put out a new album and played 10 new songs on their tour and dropped "Jumpin' Jack Flash", "Satisfaction", "Gimme Shelter" and "Shattered". The arena would be torn down. If Rush are going to cut those songs, I want to see "Fly By Night" or "Jacob's Ladder" or other songs they never play live. The other obnoxious thing they did was change the set by a few songs each night. Now, when I saw them on back-to-back nights in 2002 in Detroit it was cool that they changed it up for a couple songs. But for a whole tour? And what if the show I went to had the crappier set list. So I took a pass. After watching the Blu-ray, I have to admit the set was pretty good. They did several of my favorite songs like "The Analog Kid", "Force Ten", "The Pass" and "Middletown Dreams".  I was also pleasantly surprised by the amazing quality of the video and sound. I had been very disappointed in the quality of the R30, Snakes and Arrows and Time Machine concert videos.
     There were also a couple petty reasons I didn't see this tour. First, it's getting too expensive to see them live when you know they will put out a Blu-ray of the show eventually. Also, I was pissed that they skipped Cleveland and Detroit on the first North American leg of the tour. By the time they came around on the second leg, I didn't care anymore. Anyhow, the Clockwork Angels Tour Blu-ray is fantastic and has lots of extras, unlike the Time Machine Blu-ray. Not that I'm bitter. In closing, here's my favorite part of "The Analog Kid". Peace.

Too many hands on my time,
Too many feelings,
Too many things on my mind.

When I leave I don't know what I'm hoping to find.
And when I leave I don't know what I'm leaving behind.

The Black Angels and Other Random Stuff

     I needed some record store therapy yesterday, so I took some of the money I'd been saving for the Cheap Trick vinyl box set and headed out. I picked up three CD's and decided to lump them into one post, rather than posting on them separately.
     A few weeks ago, a co-worker asked me if I had ever heard The Black Angels. I had heard of them, but hadn't gotten around to checking them out at that time. Shortly after that, I was at the record store and saw  an orange vinyl 7" by The Black Angels that came with a download for a cover version of The Zombies "She's Not There". Needless to say, I bought it and gave away the download card because I don't do downloads:) However, I did check out the cover of "She's Not There" on You Tube. It was really good and I started to check out some of their other stuff. They sound like a British 60's psychedelic band, but they're actually from Austin. By the way, how is Austin part of Texas? Anyhow, imagine The 13th Floor Elevators, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Rod Argent's organ playing and Syd Barrett's vocals and you have The Black Angels. So, yesterday I bought their latest CD, Indigo Meadow. I highly recommend it if you are into trippy, psychedelic rock with a splash of Black Keys bombast. The standout track is "Don't Play With Guns". "War On Holiday" sounds eerily like Piper At The Gates Of Dawn Pink Floyd. I know this makes them sound  derivative, but they do manage to translate their influences into a unique sound.
     Recently, my power pop bona fides were called into question because I didn't have Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend, so I picked it up. I did buy 100% Fun when it came out, because I LOVED "Sick Of Myself", but that was the only Matthew Sweet I owned. Girlfriend is one of those albums that I've had in my hand to buy several times, but then I'd see something else and put it back. Obviously, it's a great CD and there were a few things about it that I didn't realize. I didn't recall that it was released in the epic year of 1991. 1991 is to album releases what the 1983 NFL draft class was to quarterbacks. Nevermind. Loveless. Automatic For The People. Bandwagonesque. Achtung Baby. Ten. Blood Sugar Sex Magik. In The Presence Of Greatness. And apparently Girlfriend. Speaking of Velvet Crush, I didn't know Ric Menck played drums on some of this album. One of these days I'll get around to posting about Mr. Menck.
     Finally, I stopped being a contrarian jerk and bought a used copy of Pet Sounds. Yesterday was literally the first time I've ever listened to it. It was alright and I'm sure it was ahead of it's time, but I still love the songs about surfing and cars on their early records. "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and "Sloop John B", needless to say, are amazing and I also liked "That's Not Me". However, I don't agree with McCartney that "God Only Knows" is one of the greatest songs ever written. I know it's not Brian Wilson's fault, but I also hate how lazy music critics compare every album that's not straight up vocals, guitars, drums and three chords to Pet Sounds. Is it possible to impose a moratorium on this practice?
     One more random thing, I'm going to see Toad The Wet Sprocket tonight. Look for a Toad post soon. Peace.

Keeping Time

     This post stems from a conversation with a friend about the timeline of rock music. On one hand it seems like Bill Haley and the Comets were from another time. On the other hand, rock music is a fairly recent musical genre. My dad was born in 1943 and rock and roll didn't exist until he was a teenager. Chuck Berry, Elvis, Little Richard and Buddy Holly began their careers in the mid-50's. By 1959, Chuck Berry was in jail, Elvis was in the military, Little Richard was a preacher and Buddy Holly was dead. Chuck Berry is still alive. In contrast to classical music, there is no one alive today who ever heard Beethoven, Bach or Vivaldi play live.
     Now, let's consider The Beatles. In the early 60's, they were young men wearing leather jackets playing covers in a German club. By 1964, Beatlemania had come to America. Between 1964 and 1969, they made four movies, started a record label, lost their manager, got into drugs, broke up over money and women, then pulled it together to record Abbey Road. It's really amazing when you consider how many books have been written on The Beatles that they accomplished everything in the span of a single decade. When we think of them in the comparison with Elvis, we perceive Presley as the elder statesman of rock and roll and The Beatles as young upstarts. Elvis was born in 1935. John and Ringo were born in 1940. That's only five years difference in age.
     In 1967, The Beatles released their iconic Sgt. Pepper album in response to the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. Here's a surprising list of albums that were contemporary to Sgt. Pepper:

* Velvet Underground and Nico
* Piper At The Gates Of Dawn- Pink Floyd
* Days Of Future Passed- Moody Blues
* Goodbye and Hello- Tim Buckley
* Moby Grape
* Absolutely Free- The Mothers of Invention
* Bee Gees
* David Bowie
* Miles Smiles- Miles Davis
* Sorcerer- Miles Davis
* Gentle On My Mind- Glen Campbell
* The Doors

     Here's one more thing that's interesting about the timeline of rock music. Let's take Nirvana's Nevermind for example. It was released in 1991, which was 22 years ago. Therefore, Nevermind is as far removed from Arcade Fire's new album, Reflektor as it is from Led Zeppelin's first album in 1969. 22 years before that, Elvis was 12 years old. That's crazy! Peace.

Neil Peart: Motivational Lyricist

     As you can probably tell from my sporadic posting the past few months, I've kind of hit the wall. It began with my family all being off for the summer and not having much time to post. Then we had our basement backup right after I had hernia surgery. Shortly after that, I had begun writing on my Sound Mind book. Naturally, our computer hard drive decided to crash at that point and I lost everything I had written. It was only the introduction and part of the first chapter, but it was still demoralizing. Since then, I haven't been very motivated to write. So, when faced with this problem I always turn to my favorite motivational writer. No, it's not Tony Robbins or Norman Vincent Peale or Deepak Chopra...it's Neil Peart. Wait, let me explain. I know Neil's lyrics are often dismissed as pretentious, dogmatic, fascist and humorless. This is mainly due to his unfortunate past association with the writings of Ayn Rand. However, that was almost 40 years ago and critics should just let it go already. I think the real takeaway from Neil's lyrics is that we all have control of our own lives. On a personal level, that means if my dream is to write about music I have to "just do it". That's always been difficult for me, because I have the Mother of All Inner Critics living in my head. In fact, I scrapped a post yesterday because of that negative voice. So here are some of the lyrics that give me a kick in the ass when I think about giving up. Peace.

* Those who wish to be must put aside the alienation, get on with the fascination, the real relation, the underlying theme.

* Leave out the fiction- the fact is this friction will only be worn by persistence.

* He knows changes aren't permanent- but change is.

* Attack the day like birds of prey.

* I turn my back to the wind to catch my breath before I start off again.

* From the point of ignition to the final drive the point of the journey is not to arrive. Anything can happen.

* A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission.

* I'm not giving up on implausible dreams.

* Dreams flow across the heartland feeding on the fires. Dreams transport desires drive you when you're down. Dreams transport the ones who need to get out of town.

*And the things that he fears are a weapon to be held against him.

* Some are born to move the world- to live their fantasies. But most of us just dream about the things we'd like to be.

* You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill. I will choose a path that's clear, I will choose free will.

* All of us get lost in the darkness, dreamers learn to steer by the stars. All of us do time in the gutters, dreamers turn to look at the cars.

* When we are young wandering the face of the Earth, wondering what our dreams might be worth. Learning that we are only immortal for a limited time.

* Why are we here? Because we're here. Roll the bones.

* I'm in a groove now, or is it a rut?

* The greatest act can be one little victory.

* Celebrate the moment as it turns into one more.