The Clean: Vehicle

     In one of my early posts, "Flying Nun: The Label, Not The Show", I openly begged for someone to distribute the Flying Nun catalog. Shortly after that, I was thrilled to read that Captured Tracks would be reissuing Flying Nun albums. Finally I'd be able to get my hands on The Clean, The Chills, The Verlaines and Toy Love. Sadly, Captured Tracks' distribution is only slightly better than Flying Nun. I hadn't been able to find any of the reissues in a record store and was resigning myself to the idea that I'd have to order them from the interwebs. Then Mike told me he saw The Clean's Vehicle at Square Records. Yay! So I high-tailed it over there before work yesterday and picked it up. I've been listening to it all morning and it really hits the spot.
     The record comes in a gatefold jacket and includes the live EP, In-A-Live-Situation. Inside the fold, the members of The Clean (David Kilgour, Hamish Kilgour and Robert Scott) penned their individual recollections of the Vehicle Era. In 1989, they had reformed for a tour of Australia, New Zealand, the US and Europe. The live EP was a results of this tour. It features performances of classic material, but they also played new songs during these shows. They were convinced to go into the studio in 1990 to record these new songs, which resulted in Vehicle. The songs were already worked out, so it only took three days to record. Actually, one to record, one to overdub and one to mix it. Alan Moulder was supposed to produce it, but he didn't get there until the third day and only worked on a couple tracks.
     Usually, I'm the guy who likes a bands early output more than their later albums. In the case of The Clean, Vehicle is actually my favorite period. It's straight-up, tight, guitar pop. That's not to say I don't like their older material. The live EP is fantastic as well. It's very raw and up-tempo. I was thrown off a bit though because Vehicle is played at 33 1/3 and the live EP is 45 rpm. Vehicle features several standout tracks like "I Wait Around", "Bye Bye", "Some One", "Diamond Shine" and "Getting To You". These would all become part of The Clean's classic canon. I already owned The Clean Anthology and seven of these songs were included on it. I may actually force my kids to listen to The Clean now, rather than hoping they'll read this someday and check them out. Gun to my head, The Clean are probably the greatest of the Flying Nun bands. It's hard to top a group with David Kilgour AND Robert Scott of The Bats. Peace.

Is It...Man or Astro-Man?

     When I was compiling my shopping list for Jerry's Records I wrote down surf rock. I love surf guitar, but only have a superficial knowledge of surf bands and albums. Unfortunately, Jerry's had very few surf albums. However, while researching surf albums people kept referencing a band I'd never heard of, Man or Astro-Man. I assumed they were a weird band from the 60's, but it turns out they are a weird band that started in the 90's. I went on You Tube to see what they were about. Man or Astro-Man can best be described as Space-Age Surf rock. They wear jumpsuits and goggles and sample old science fiction movie clips in their songs. It was right in my wheelhouse; music for people who love MST3K. I bought the first album, Is It...Man or Astro-Man, on CD. It features song titles such as, "Invasion of the Dragonmen", "Sadie Hawkins Atom Bomb", "Escape Through the Air Vent" and my favorite "Eric Estrotica". The band credits are as follows:

Star Crunch- guitar, laserguns, Q-tips and rare obligatory vocals
Dr. Delecto & His Invisible Vaportron- bass, sterilized rhythm guitar, malpractice suits and the two step
Coco, The Electronic Monkey Wizard- alternate universe bass, percussion, banana consumption, sound bites of lower primate love, hand-held viewmaster, VCR ignition, bunny control, foreign language count-offs,and yelps of intense pain given to him, sometimes as punishment,
Birdstuff- hi-hat

     I can see where some might find this contrived and obnoxious, but I think it's fun. And the music is a high-speed joyride. I highly recommend this CD to my kids. I also bought MOAM's latest, DEFCON 5,4,3,2,1, on vinyl. The playing is good, but they have done away with the Space-Age kitsch; therefore the fun. The songs are more conventional rock songs and many of them have lyrics and vocals. I understand that they probably don't want to keep doing the same thing for twenty years, but I prefer their first album. I plan on checking out their other releases as soon as I can track them down. From what I could tell from You Tube, their other albums seem to be similar to their first. And the album cover for Destroy All Astro-Men!! is awesome.
     It continues to amaze me how much music I missed out on in the 90's. Not to say I didn't enjoy Gin Blossoms, Better Than Ezra, Oasis and Smashing Pumpkins, but wow. It has been a fun ten years playing catch up though. Peace.

Elvis Presley

     I'm always struck by a couple things when I visit the Elvis exhibit at the Rock Hall. First, his purple Lincoln is exquisite. I would love to spend a day tooling around town in that ride. Second, it's funny that his personal jukebox only has Elvis records in it. In fairness, I don't know if that was his doing or the Rock Hall's. The third thing has to do with people's perceptions about Elvis. There are two commonly accepted phases of Elvis' life; skinny Elvis and "fat" Elvis. I was as guilty as anyone else in this regard. "I love skinny, Jailhouse Rock Elvis, but I hate fat, In The Ghetto, La Vegas Elvis", I'd say. However, part of the exhibit is one of his "fat" Elvis jumpsuits. It's tiny. I would guess that about 90% of adult males roaming the Earth today, stuffing their pie holes with Big Macs and doughnuts, couldn't fit into that outfit. I know I couldn't. The other day, during their pledge drive, a local PBS station aired Elvis' Hawaiian concert. My wife randomly commented, "He wasn't fat". And he wasn't.
     I've mentioned before that my parents were Elvis fans who didn't like The Beatles. Therefore, I grew up watching Elvis movies, especially Blue Hawaii. Back before cable TV and VCR's there were no movie channels or video rentals. So, I would see these movies periodically when a local station ran an Elvis marathon on a Saturday. They always played Blue Hawaii. As a kid, Elvis' movies were fun. I'd fantasize about living in Hawaii and singing to girls. As I grew older, I realized that the movies were just a vehicle for other people to make money off of Elvis. I began to write off Elvis as a sell-out. To this day, I really only like his songs from the 50's, before he was drafted. That stuff is amazing.
     I don't have much Elvis in my collection. I inherited some LP's and 45's, but they aren't in great shape. Even at the record store, the used Elvis is usually pretty jacked up. I think the problem is most people who bought Elvis records back then were teenage girls. So, they drew hearts all over the covers, then their brothers would come along and draw on Elvis' face. And they didn't take very good care of the actual record either. I recently bought a CD box set of his output from the 50's and it's very good. The main reason I bought it was it had the song "Baby I Don't Care", which is one of my favorite Elvis songs, but it's hard to find on any of his albums. I would recommend it to my kids as a good introduction to Elvis. If they are interested in his releases from the 60's and 70's they are on their own. Anyhow, I thought I'd do a list of my favorite Elvis movies. Maybe I'll check at work and see if we sell any of them. It's been awhile. Peace.

1) Jailhouse Rock

2) Blue Hawaii

3) King Creole

4) Wild In The Country

5) Follow That Dream

Pilgrimage To Jerry's Records

     Saturday I took my first trip to Jerry's Records in Pittsburgh. My friends Mike and Dave invited me to go with them and it was a great time. To illustrate the extent of my geekiness, I actually prepared for the pilgrimage by watching store tours and interviews with Jerry on You Tube. I even made a list of records to look for in case I became overwhelmed. Jerry actually picked on us about coming from Cleveland, because there aren't any good record stores in Cleveland. It was great. By the way, Dave is opening a record store in Wooster called Lucky Records, so there will be at least one good one in the greater Cleveland area.
     The cool thing about Jerry is that he will buy any record to keep it from ending up in a dumpster. The sheer volume of records at Jerry's is amazing. He has records stack everywhere, including the restroom. However, once you get the hang of the store layout it's not difficult to find what you're looking for. He must have had a thousand cardboard storage boxes, on shelves, full of 45's. That was probably the most daunting spectacle in the store. I did manage to dig out a few 45's that were on my list (and some that weren't), but I focused on LP's for the most part. All three of us had a pretty good haul. I spent $75 and got 19 records. I can't wait to go to Jerry's again. Here's the breakdown of what I added to my collection. Peace.

* Split Enz- Time and Tide: Got this for my wife, because she loves the Finn Brothers.

* U2- Unforgettable Fire: I only had this on cassette and I lost all my cassettes in our basement flood.

* David Bowie- Diamond Dogs: The only thing from my favorite Bowie period that I didn't have.

* The Kingbees: I've been looking for this forever because I love the song "My Mistake".

* Miles Davis- Water Babies: Great album from the second quintet.

* Adam and the Ants- Kings of the Wild Frontier: "Ant Music", nuff said.

* Bill Evans Trio- Portrait in Jazz: Legendary jazz pianist.

* Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent- Their Finest Years: Guitar innovator's and rockabilly pioneers.

* Yes- Fragile: I'm collecting Roger Dean album covers.

* Yes- Relayer: See above, plus Geddy and Alex always cite this album as an influence.

* Dancing Hoods- Hallelujah Anyway: This is one of Mark Linkous' old bands, before Sparklehorse. I've been looking for Dancing Hoods albums for a few years and this is the first time I've ever seen one in a store. I don't know who was more excited about me getting this album, me or Dave.

* Commander Cody- Hot Rod Lincoln 7": My dad loved this song and he did this crazy dance every time he heard it. And it's a great song.

* Jerry Reed- East Bound and Down 7": Love Smoky and the Bandit and this song. My wife doesn't understand.

* Frida- I Know There's Something Going On 7": Everyone loves this song!

* R.E.M.- E-Bow The Letter 7": I was hoping for "Driver 8", but this is a great song.

* Gem- Sheep 7": Doug Gillard's old band.

* Gem- Suburban Girl 7": See above.

* Beatles- Help/I'm Down 7": For my son's collection.

* Beatles- Got To Get You Into My Life/Helter Skelter 7": For my son's collection. This was the first Beatles record I bought, but it was lost somewhere in the sands of time.

Best Songs By Former Beatles

     When I was trying to come up with ideas for Sound Mind's 100th post one idea had been to list the 100 best songs by former Beatles. Piece of cake. However, when I actually sat down to do it I was hard pressed to compile 60. Had I spent several days listening to all their deep cuts I probably could have found 100, but that would have been too much like work. For some reason, my obsession with the Fab Four has not extended to their post-Beatles music. When I was younger, John Lennon was my favorite Beatle. In college, I had to write an essay about the person who I most admired and I chose John Lennon. As of this writing, I own none of his studio albums. I had Double Fantasy on cassette when it came out, but it was eaten by my tape player (by the way, I lost all my cassettes in our recent basement flood). All I have is the Lennon Legend collection. I don't own any Ringo at all. Technically, all of our George Harrison albums are my wife's, not mine. And most of my McCartney is Wings. The funny thing about Paul is I bought that McCartney Years DVD box set and I had never seen most of those videos or even heard those songs. That's almost unbelievable, because I spent most of the 80's watching MTV. It's also interesting that even though Lennon and McCartney are the greatest songwriters of the 20th Century, they are responsible for two of the worst Christmas songs of all-time. At any rate, after going through the exercise of trying to come up with 100 songs I realized that John, Paul, George and especially Ringo have recorded hundreds of songs that I've never heard. I feel like I've been negligent and intend to make amends. It's actually an exciting prospect to really dig into their entire catalogs.
     For my "Best Songs By Former Beatles" list, I decided to go with the Top 20, with a few comments as I go. I have to mention up front that I screwed over George a bit. I didn't include "Got My Mind Set On You" because it's a cover and "Handle With Care" because it ended up being a Traveling Wilbury's song. However, they are great songs.

1) What is Life- I decided to make this #1 because All Things Must Pass is the best post-Beatles album and it's always been one of my favorite songs.

2) Maybe I'm Amazed- Brilliant song that arguably is #1.

3) Working Class Hero- Angry Lennon at his best.

4) All Things Must Pass- This will be played at my funeral.

5) Jealous Guy

6) Jet

7) It Don't Come Easy- Great song and I had to get Ringo in the Top 10.

8) Band On The Run

9) Venus and Mars / Rock Show- "In my green metal suit I'm preparing to shoot up the city". Classic!

10) Junior's Farm- I know it's not a "great" song, but I love it.

11) Photograph- Ringo and George!

12) Blow Away

13) Nobody Told Me- "most peculiar mama, whoa". One of my favorite lines just because it's goofy.

14) When We Was Fab- Great song and video.

15) Instant Karma

16) Take It Away

17) Helen Wheels- Awesome jam and clever word play.

18) Live And Let Die

19) Mrs. Vandebilt

20) Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey- I'm counting this as one song like Venus and Mars / Rock Show. It probably should have been higher on the list, but it's in the Top 20. I love the part where Paul says "Butter Pie". Then Linda incredulously asks "Butter Pie?" Then Paul replies "The butter wouldn't melt, so I put it in the pie." Nothing brilliant, just goofy fun. It's the only time I welcome the involvement of one of their wives in their music. That's the great thing about George and Ringo; they kept their spouses out of their music.

Honorable Mention: Magneto and Titanium Man, Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five, Silly Love Songs, Too Many People, Young Boy, #9 Dream, Whatever Gets You Through The Night, Watching The Wheels, My Sweet Lord, All Those Years Ago, Beware Of Darkness, Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp, Wah-Wah.

     Obviously, I recommend these songs to my kids and I hope they explore the Beatles' solo albums as well. Peace.

     

The Mountain Goats: All Hail West Texas

     In honor of Merge Records reissue of the lo-fi classic All Hail West Texas, I thought I'd do a post on this album and the puzzling lack of The Mountain Goats in my music collection. I had never heard of All Hail West Texas until about a year and a half ago. One day at work, I went back to the receiving room and the guy back there was listening to it. I was there about ten minutes getting some product to take out on the salesfloor and really liked the couple songs I'd heard. They were right in my wheelhouse and I had no idea who it was. So I said, "This is awesome, who is it?" When he told me, I was surprised. I had heard of The Mountain Goats, but I didn't own anything by them. I knew John Darnielle was in The Mountain Goats, because he had written a 33 1/3 book about Black Sabbath's Master of Reality and it said so on the back cover. Anyhow, I immediately went to order All Hail West Texas on the computer at work, but it came up as being out of print. I checked around at several record stores and not only did they not have it, but they had nothing by The Mountain Goats at all. So I guess that's the explanation for why I have no Mountain Goats in my collection, except for this new reissue.
     Since I had struck out in my attempts to buy All Hail West Texas, I decided to resort to You Tube. This is where I found the song "Source Decay". I was instantly struck by the amazing songwriting of John Darnielle. The song seems to be about someone who has repressed a bad memory and his friend who tries to get him to remember through postcard correspondences. The chorus goes, "I remember the train headed south outta Bangkok down...toward...the water". I'm tempted to post all the lyrics, but I'll just post a few of the best lines instead.

* and I park in a alley and I read through the postcards you continue to send, where as indirectly as you can you ask what I remember. I like these torture devices from my old best friend.

* I wish the West Texas highway was a Mobius strip. I could ride it out forever when I feel my heart break.

* I set your postcard on the table with all the others like it. I start sorting through the pile. I check the pictures and the postmarks and the captions and the stamps for signs of any pattern at all.

     The astounding thing about the songs from All Hail West Texas, which I just learned from the liner notes, is if he couldn't finish a song in a day it was scrapped. The subtitle of the album is, fourteen songs about seven people, two houses, a motorcycle and a locked treatment facility for adolescent boys. I haven't managed to figure out all the math yet, but there does seem to be a theme that runs through the album. The opening track, "The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton", is about two of the seven people, Cyrus and Jeff. They are convinced they will be rock stars with Lear jets, but things fall apart. The most poignant line from this song is "When you punish a person for dreaming his dream don't expect him to thank or forgive you". One of the best songs on the album is "Jenny". She is apparently another of the seven people and she has a motorcycle. The narrator of the song loves riding on the back with his face in her hair. The first time through the chorus he sings "900 cubic centimeters of raw, whining power, no outstanding warrants for my arrest. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, the pirate's life for me". The second time through he sings "900 c.c's of raw, whining power, no outstanding warrants for my arrest. Hi diddle dee dee, goddamn, the pirate's life for me". Awesome! Then there seems to be a run of songs where his relationship with Jenny goes from bad to worse.
     I bought All Hail West Texas two days ago and I've already listened to it at least a dozen times. It's destined for my shortlist of goosebump albums with The Soft Bulletin, In The Aeroplane Over The Sea and Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot. I really hope this album speaks to one of my kids. Apparently, this is the only Mountain Goats album that John Darnielle did completely on his own with a Panasonic RX-FT500 tape recorder. The reissue has a few extra tracks from these sessions that weren't on the original tape and they are pretty good as well. He claims there was another tape, but he threw it away. I'm afraid The Mountain Goats have just become my new musical obsession. I will be adding to my collection. Hail Satan! Peace.

2112

     Sound Mind reached a fun milepost today; 2112 pageviews. Loyal readers of this blog are painfully aware of my Rush fandom and 2112 is perceived to be one of their iconic albums. My best friend in high school owned it on 8 track, I own it on vinyl and recently bought the remastered deluxe edition on CD. When I was a teenager, I spent hours in my room with a Rush songbook trying to learn side one of 2112 in it's entirety. I still fart around at playing the "Discovery" section when I break out my guitar. I've seen them play the complete side one of 2112 live. I love 2112. Well, side one anyway.
     A mythology has grown up recently around 2112, which I don't particularly buy. The first part is that they were about to be dumped by Mercury Records and had to record an album with hits. The band even talks about how the label demanded they "sell out", but they stuck to their principles and put out a concept album anyway. Now, Rush was already a popular touring band and had songs on the radio, like "Working Man" and "Fly By Night". I'm pretty sure their recording career wouldn't have come to an end if 2112 had been a disaster. In fact, there were no hits or even songs that received radio play on 2112. Their next big song was "Closer To The Heart" from A Farewell To Kings. The other myth about 2112 is that it's one of Rush's classic albums. Moving Pictures even had to share an installment of Classic Albums with 2112. I'm a huge Rush fan, but side two of 2112 is the worst music they ever made. The only semi-listenable song on side two is about buying weed around the world (Passage To Bangkok).
     I am glad Rush finally got in the Rock Hall. I thought it was cool when Foo Fighters performed 2112 in costume during Rush's induction. I just think 2112's place in their history is blown out of proportion. To me, it's no Moving Pictures or Permanent Waves. Having said all that, Happy 2112th pageview! Peace.

P.S. There won't be one of these for Van Halen's 5150:)