FAN: Music at The Mart

A friend and I drove to Quakertown Farmer's Market today in search of music. There are usually a lot of cheap CDs floating around there and I had a hankering for some "new to me" stuff that I can rip and then resell to secondspin.com.

Off the top of my head I bought System of a Down's Mezmerize, The Essence of Dave Brubeck which is not listed in his discogography so it's a cheapy compilation by an old record company most likely, Melissa Ethridge's Your Little Secret, Kiss Psycho Circus, Everlast's Whitey Ford Sings The Blues, They Might Be Giants John Henry and Otis Redding Live In Europe for $11. Later I picked up Sheryl Crow's The Globe Sessions (the Australian version which contains Sweet Child O' Mine) for $1.

What's crazy is, after going through 4 or 5 vendor's CDs, we were spent. It was hot and sunny and you can only look through so many. I was happy with my take and shut it down. I'll go back in the fall and check out the other vendors. I'd much rather find a family selling their collection than go through a dealer's stuff, but some dealers price extremely well starting at $1 and going to $3. It makes going to a used CD store worthless. I passed on a few I maybe should have bought but I also had Homer's Iliad and Odyssey in a bag which were getting heavy to lug around at this huge venue. The hardbacks were printed in 1961 and had a nice look to them so I thought I'd buy them for the bookshelf, even if I never get around to reading them. I paid $4 for the set.

If you can put up with body odor and 75% of the crowd not speaking English, it's a good way to waste 2-3 hours on a Sunday morning.

FAN: Cyndi Lauper Memphis Blues at Keswick Theater

I'm getting kind of spoiled with the seats I've been getting for concerts lately and a lot of it has to do with going to much smaller venues. Last night Mrs. Fan and I saw Cyndi Lauper from the 5th row at The Keswick Theater which is only a short 25 minute drive from my house.

This started out being all about Mrs. Fan as I gave her the tickets months ago for our anniversary. Lauper is one of the few musical acts Mrs. Fan would even go to see live. I know two others would be Madonna and Alanis Morisette but I'm not sure there are too many others. I know she used to wear out 12 Deadly Cyns on long drives when we would alternate CDs before the advent of iPods. I grew to like and appreciate more than a few of the songs on that disc.

Maybe a month ago or more Lauper was on Howard Stern with Johnny Lang promoting her new cd Memphis Blues which she reminded us has topped the Blues charts for the past 5 weeks. She said this tour was more of a Blues show than a greatest hits show. Hmmmm, now I'm really interested. I told Mrs. Fan who SWORE I knew that when I bought the tickets. I did not!

After being bored by David Rhodes who is breaking out on his own I guess after years of playing for Peter Gabriel, Lauper came out in her.....pajamas. Her hair was crazy and two different colors but she looked superb for 57. On the way home Mrs. Fan asked me how old she was and I guessed 47 or 48 so she had me fooled by a decade.

Although Lang is touring with her on some dates I did not get to see him. Still A Dog said I'm not missing much. To get back to guitarists, my comment about Rhodes isn't totally fair. He shouldn't be opening for Lauper though. He she be on an experimental ambient guitar tour or something. I once saw Roger Fripp open for a G3 show and this dude would fit right in with him. I did feel bad that the crowd talked right through his set mostly. Anyway, Michael Toles played guitar last night and he did a good enough job. He played a few solos and Lauper had to actually push him to the middle of the stage the one time to get the attention he deserved. It was towards the end of "Waiting For A Change of Heart".

She played the entire cd I believe as a separate set and then hit the greatest hits. The Blues set was good, but she kept going on and on about how people should look up the original artists and stuff and it appeared to me that because she is just finding all this music, she assumed nobody else had. Whatever, it should be listened to so I shouldn't complain. The GH set got the crowd up and they rushed the stage as much as you can rush the stage at the Keswick. It was me, Mrs. Fan, 7 other hetero couples and an assload of gay people, both sexes, there. We noticed that as we ate dinner and got drinks across the street. No harm, no foul. I'm for 95% of gay rights and that's not too shabby for a boy born and raised in western PA. Don't try to convince me of the other 5%, go get people who are only at 5%.

My favorite moments of the show were when Cyndi played the sitar to True Colors and Time After Time. I'll give her credit - both were really heartfelt. She also had no issues jumping into the crowd if the energy sagged a bit. Numerous times she went out 10-15 rows deep and stood on the back of a chair. There were also a ton of hard core fans there. I had no idea they existed. An entire group had t-shirts made up for their nite. The guy next to us at the bar has seen her 13 times and he was only 25-30. He was seeing her tonight in Myrtle beach and then again in Orlando the next day. Crazy.

Would I have went to this concert without Mrs. Fan? No. Was I looking forward to the concert? Maybe. I was more interested in sitting in the 5th row to see everything going on and to check out the Blues band (Archie Turner (aka Hubbie Mitchell) was also very good on organ). Was I glad I went? We weren't doing anything else and I was entertained. If you are a fan of hers, I'm sure it was stellar. Mrs. Fan would give it a 9. I'm giving it a 6.5 as a casual fan of hers.

Dog, why does Archie Turner have two names?

FAN: RIP Ronnie James Dio

I forgot to mention this earlier this week. A sad day for metal indeed. I just saw him this season on That Metal Show and from what Eddie Trunk was saying the outlook wasn't all that bad. He took a turn for the worse and just like that, the big C ended his life.

I remember buying Dio's The Last In Line in 1984. I was 16. I already had my drums and I used to play along to Mystery. It was one of my favorites. Rainbow in the Dark had much more staying power and is now a metal staple. I bought Holy Diver shortly after TLIL even though it came out first. There was nothing I liked more than playing those songs and banging the hell out of the big bell on my ride cymbal.

Rest in peace, Ronnie.

FAN: James Cotton & Slam Allen

I went to see James Cotton tonight at the Sellersville Theater, a small local venue that hosts a number of concerts per week. Opening up for James was Mad Dog and Blues Night Out from Allentown PA. They say they have been touring the East Coast for 20+ years. It's almost wrong to have a harp band open for a living legend on harp but whatcha gonna do? I took at break in between bands and they were in the lobby taking pictures so I got a handshake from Mad Dog and told him it was a good set.
Cotton came out after his band played a few songs first. His band is incredible. Slam Allen on vocals and lead guitar was extremely entertaining. Just an awesome entertainer. It's hard to describe but he's like most blues guys I've been made aware of.....they are much better live than on wax. He didn't stop smiling the entire show and gave 110%. The bass player was also kick ass. I caught up with him after the show and told him it's the best live bass I've heard in 10 years (which coincides with the last time I saw Geddy Lee probably). He was walkin', poppin' and slappin' all over the place. They turned him and the drummer loose before Cotton came out and it was faster and cleaner than any bass solo I've ever heard like that. I thought Parliament was in the hizzy. It flat out rocked. His name is Noel Neal. Maybe Dog can tell us something about him. Not only was his playing tight....he was a master showman. He told me it's the gospel in him. Very friendly and approachable. Cotton can still blow, man. He held some notes really long and played a lot of extended solos. He can barely talk and I didn't catch everything he said. As much as I knew I was watching a legend, I was still every bit as impressed with Allen and Neal. I could have listened to Allen all night. He was especially good when he went off mic and off the electric and brought it down to barely audible before roaring back to hoots and hollers. Good stuff! They also had another guitar player Tom Holland who was tough to figure out. He could solo and he was very technical but didn't have anywhere near the showmanship Slam Allen or Noel Neal had. He sang one song and it reminded me a lot of Eric Clapton's tonality and depth. I thought he didn't fit in well with the others style-wise but he did compliment Allen on guitar. While Cotton was signing autographs and selling CDs after the show I saw Slam on stage and went over to tell him how much I enjoyed his performance. I got my picture with him and I felt like a dwarf when he put his arm around me. He's on the stage there bending over.

I love Buddy Guy and he's my favorite Blue's musician but I got an education tonight. From what I listened to of Cotton today at work I thought I was in for more of a "listening" event instead of a raucous head bobbin' foot tapping time. I was W-R-O-N-G. I was into this show from note one till I left. Very, very, VERY, entertaining. All for $25 and free parking. Crazy. A Lady Ga Ga ticket is probably $60 and gets scalped for $300. Cotton was $25 and couldn't sell out a 400 person theater. It's embarrassing.

FAN: Satchmo Cash

Cool YouTube video.

FAN: Rock-n-Roll Hall Of Fame 25th Year Concert

Wow. Did anyone else see this? I set the DVR on Sunday but just finally watched it last night. Tonight I FF'd through it to show Mrs. Fan and Still A Stroke a thing or two. They got nowhere near as hyped up as I did, but it's mostly because it wasn't Beyonce or Madonna. I'm not going to lie, parts of it were just "meh" for me, but some parts had me screaming emphatic "Yeahs" in an empty house and raising double rock signs while riding a recumbent bike. On to a detailed review.....The two concerts totaled over 5 hours but HBO cut it down to 4. If the DVD is ever released I hope to buy it as it's really a superb rock reference.

The show opened up with Jerry "Killer"Lee Lewis singing Great Balls of Fire solo with only a piano. He looked and sounded like shit but he was still 100% rock-n-roll. He flipped his seat when the song was over and it was symbolic but kind of sad really. I don't think the Killer is going to be around much longer. During the piano solo in the middle they did an awesome video montage of his hair flying around in his younger days. Still A Stroke couldn't believe it was the same human being but that's the point I was trying to get across.

The next set was Crosby, Stills and Nash. I have nothing against them and I know Stills is a good guitarist, but they just were never my bag of tricks. They stayed out and played the part of house band for a while while others played with them. I know I will forget people over the course of the review but I think Bonnie Raitt did a song with them as well as Jackson Browne and James Taylor. Of course being a blues fan I liked the Raitt part the best, but I could have done without the wife beater and James Taylor. Again, no offense, they just don't speak to me. I like some of Taylor's music and he showed some life on stage but this entire set kind of bored me a little. Taylor sang "Love The One You're With".

Paul Simon came 0ut next and did a really entertaining set. He's a very capable guitar player. He did a solo hit or two including "Call Me Al" which included some strange dancing by Paul that looked out of place at his age. He's old enough to scare young children for God's sake. Dion DeMucci joined him for "The Wanderer" and then Stills and Nash came back out for "Here Comes The Sun". Simon then introduced Garfunkel and the place went bat shit. Art needs a stylist as he still looked like his usual self from their heyday. It was weird in that it looked like Will Ferrell dressed up in makeup. I have to say though that I enjoyed the set they did together. "Sounds of Silence" sounded great. HBO cut some of their songs but left in "Bridge Over Troubled Water" which I could have done without. They also cut Paul doing "Late in the Evening" and I love that song. The band was really tight and I was enjoying all the percussion. I hope it makes the DVD.

Stevie Wonder came out next and tore it up. He did one song with an embalmed looking Smokey Robinson. A 100 year old man should not have the smooth face of a 7 year old. Creepy. Ew. John Legend joined him for a song and I have no idea who that is. BB King joined him for what else but the only song he ever plays on TV "The Thrill Is Gone". Uninspired I was. I got fired up for what came next though as Sting walked out playing bass to "Higher Ground" while they traded lyrics. Cool. The song then morphed into "Roxanne". Sting tore the bass up on Higher Ground which sounded more like the Peppers cover with Sting on bass. Sting had a lumberjack beard that I didn't mind on him. He's a solid solid musician in my book. Not sure who was on drums for this set but he kicked ass. The next song ended up being my favorite of the concert....Jeff Beck strolled out for "Superstition" and brought the house down. His solo was electrifying. My daughter was like "how does he DO that?" and I said "Baby, that man is only 4 years younger than your Grandpap. Pay attention cause they won't teach this in music class". I was inspired to listen to Beckology at work today. What a showman too. He doesn't move much so every movement he does make carries extra significance to me. Understated and perfect.

The first night's set ended with Bruce doing too long a set in my opinion. Billy Joel joined him for 2 songs, Sam Moore did a little with them. John Fogerty did a good rendition of "Desperate Son". Then I was totally blown away....Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine came out which I thought was a really odd pairing and they did "The Ghost of Tom Joad" together. Morello knocked the solo out of the park. It was crazy. Bruce also had a very good guitar solo which shocked me to be quite honest. My main problem with Bruce is that he has become a caricature of himself and he doesnt realize it. From the first note of the first song he was strumming that crazy ass strum he does and rearing back to sing and making faces like he had a redwood tree trunk stuck in his ass....the first song! He looked like he just finished a marathon. Stop acting and only do that stuff if you're really feeling the music. Don't fake it. It looks retarded. Darlene Love also did a song but I don't know her either.

I'll do a second post tomorrow or Friday on the rest of the concert. It's too long to do in one post and I need my beauty sleep. I will say this.....I was curious the entire night as to why the concert was in New York when the HOF itself is in Cleveland. Isn't that a slap in the face to Cleveland? I also understand every band isn't still together or there have been deaths and other things that occur, but it seemed odd to me from reading the set list that Paul Simon and then Paul & Art got so much time. Looking back into the history and influence of everyone in the HOF, were they THAT significant? Who knows. More later...... I suggest setting your DVR if it's going to be on again or trying YouTube.

DOG: Hot August Blues - Not So Hot

Joe Bonamassa @ Hot August Blues

Well, yesterday it was hot and it was August but there was something missing from the Hot August Blues festival in Hunt Valley Maryland... the Blues!

The temperature was 89 and the sun was scorching when we picked up the party at the second act with a band called Chopteeth. It was an Afro-Funk band and I thought it would be very entertaining. And actually they were very good musicians, especially the horn section (baritone sax, tenor sax, trombone, trumpet). And when they were simply jamming out I really liked them. But when they added the vocals it was just horrible. The African "Whooooop Whoops" weren't so bad it was the rest I couldn't handle.

Jason Isbell and the 400 was pretty good. Definitely not blues, but at least well done and entertaining. Of particular note was their cover of the Talking Heads tune Psycho Killer. But I don't think too many people knew of the Drive-By Truckers (from whence Isbell came) let alone Jason Isbell. They were an 11th hour replacement for Davey Knowles and Back Door Slam, so all things considered it was fine.

Then Joe Bonamassa came to save the day. He came on early and played an extended set and really saved the festival from a music stand point. But even he played little of his core blues repertoire. Mostly jazz-rock influenced stuff. But he was excellent as always.

The headliner Derek Trucks was just awesome and Bonamassa came out to jam with him on one number which was great to see. But the festival was unbelievably bad.

Despite claims that there would be sufficient food and beer vendors this was not the case. They didn't even have enough shaved ice vendors. And worst of all, at about 4:30 in the afternoon there was not a vendor in the place who had any inventory of bottled water! The restaurant chain Damon's actually ran out of food!!! That is inexcusable with a nationwide chain with the kind of resources they have to run out of food at a catering event. Rest rooms, which are usually the major complaint at events like this, were not much of a problem and were kept clean all day... at least that's what my friends tell me. I saw a small line at the urinals and decided the nearby woods would be more conducive for my needs.

In that heat with no water, the First Aid personnel were kept jumping from one overheated and dehydrated body to the next. Funny how they ran out of $2 water but had an endless supply of $5 beer. No mind to me. I drank beer anyway. But people were pissed about no water.

So anyway it was a nice day in the sun. Didn't hear hardly any blues. And not a well organized festival at all. Doubt I'll be going back any time soon unless they book an artist that I just absolutely am compelled to see. And the list of those is dwindling.

FAN: Yardsale Music Scores

This is getting to be too easy. Still A Stroke and I went out to a few local yardsales this morning advertised on Craigslist. We were never more than 3-4 miles from the house and by quick count we went to 8. I added 6 cds to my collection for the grand total of $9. What's funny about the total is that a quick check of secondspin.com shows that one of the ones I paid $2 for (Miles Davis Bitch's Brew, a double cd) they will pay $10 for. What's crazy about the purchase is that I only bought that cd because of the potential resell value. The guy had his cds marked way too high at $3 a piece or 2 for $5. I found two that I wanted (Midnight Oil and Silverchair) but couldn't find a third. Why did I want a third? Because you NEVER pay what the person running the yardsale wants. If they want 2 for $5, you ask if you can have 3 for $5. They said yes and I picked the Miles cd. When the guy said "Oh I didn't know you were going to pick a double cd as the third", I threw the crying bitch an extra single. The rest of the sales were strikesouts until we got back to my neighborhood. Someone was selling cds for $1 and I picked up Anthology of Bread, BTO's Greatest and Queens of the Stoneage. I already ripped the 6 and am now ready to create my order for secondspin which is worth $19. True, it's only $10, but I got 6 cds plus $10 in my eyes. I still like that feeling of seeing a box of cds. I need secondspin.com to play nice with my Blackberry browser so I can see the resell value realtime. The $10 for Miles is the best buyback price I've had. Second was Floyd's delicate Sound Of Thunder at $7.50.

FAN: I Got Cooties

The Big Giant Company let us off work today at noon. Superb. The only thing that sucked about it is that I was in at 7 AM. The folks who got in at 8:30 caught a break today. Anyway, since I was done early I volunteered to take my daughter to a birthday party because it was most of the way to a used CD store I've been meaning to check out. While there I checked out the Blues section which I was a little disappointed in. It was sparse on CD. They had more vinyl than discs for Blues. It seemed like more 60's and 70's rock to me on CD but it's all good. I love looking at music. Just the smell of the vinyl jackets is enough to send me over the edge sometimes. I sent Stilladog a text because I saw an interesting CD and the price was right. Cootie Stark's Sugar Man. Dog didn't have it so I picked it up. I really like it a lot. Right up my alley. I found myself bobbing along to the first track on my way home. While Cootie was a stand-up double considering the price, I struck out on my second purchase. I feel like taking it back but since it's a used local store - I'll suck it up and consider it my civic duty to support small businesses and keep the turd. The marketing got me - I have to admit it. I bought Carolina Chocolate Drops "Dona Got A Ramblin' Mind". I hope somebody besides the Dog just read that and laughed as it's a little bit of an inside joke. Anyway, while I want to be eveolved and say I can appreciate the music - the store totally had this mislabeled as Blues. It's not even close. I'm not even sure I would call it "roots" music. It sounds more folkish than anything on the "O Brother Where art Thou" soundtrack to me. In fact, I can describe it well as I made Still A Stroke laugh in the car when I put it in. It sounds like something that would be playing in the background while watching a Civil War documentary. Something Pa would play and clap to on Little House on the Prarie. I'll be selling this one back to the place where I can do the best. Not even sure I'll keep it on my iPod as I can't think for a second why I would ever listen to it again. In fact, I only listened to enough of each song to say..."Yup, just like the last one". Oh well, walking around the store and seeing old familiar album art made me smile. I would have loved to rip the two nose rings out of the skinny jeans wearing hipster working the counter, but I didn't have time for the police to come and question me. Here's a clip of Cootie Stark. In the end Dog could have given me Cootie, but like I said, I enjoyed my hour plus int he store and it's local so it's all good. Stay at YouTube and search for some CCD to see if you like it. I see from the comments it's identified as "Old-Time". The Bluegrass fans got angry when people referred to them as Bluegrass. Lol. Wow. I didn't really there were angry splinter groups!

FAN: New (Old) Music

Something that is highly unusual of me lately is buying CDs. I haven't bought any in a long time. Until last week. While in Portsmouth NH at a used shop - I picked up Snooky Pryor's Shake My Hand from 1999. As it turns out, Stilladog already owned it so I could have "borrowed" it and accidentally put it on my iPod, but that's ok. Sometimes finding something used feels good. Anyway, I've listened to the disc front to back about 10 times already and I really like it. Alot. I ripped it, put it on my iPod and now I'll throw it in the yardsale pile. Feeling good abuot the find, at the mall the following weekend our local FYE had a $1.97 bin. Hmmmm, I'll take a look. I ended up buying another 4 discs. The first was George Thorogood and the Destroyer's Bad To The Bone from 1982. I had it on cassette but haven't seen it since about 1989 when I bought my first CD player. I love BTTB the single, but the rest of the CD is not the kind blues I like. I'll be surprised if I listen to it in it's entirity again after moving off BTTB t omy party mix. Next was something I really wanted and it sucks. It's a Ray Charles compilation called Essentially Ray Charles. It's not even listed on Wikipedia's discography so I'm assuming it's posthumus and a money grab. It's live and the damn cover doesn't even say it's live or I would have never bought it. Also, no cover art was found to be associated with it after I ripped it. The sound quality is a step above using a tin pie pan as a speaker. I wasted $1.97. David Lee Roth's Your Filthy Little Mouth 1994 came out of the bin as well. It has a few songs that are in the spirit of Eat 'em and Smile's Tobacco Road cover which I love. Again, for $1.97 you can't go too wrong and Dave at the very least usually puts tight bands together. Eat 'Em continues to be one of my most listened to "go to" cds. Being a huge fan of VH's original lineup, I thought E'EAS destroyed Van Hagar's first offering. The last bin find was Howlin' Wolf. It ended up being a compilation cd as well, but at least it was full of songs I didn't own. So the next morning, I go to a neighbor's yardsale and pick up 3 more discs for $0.50 each! Jay-Z something or other that contains Big Pimpin' which I like. Classical compilation of Mahler which is really good. Madonna's something or other that I knew Mrs. Fan didn't own but would want for half a dollar. I think it's the disc right before Ray of Light also from mid 90's. All in all I picked up 8 cds for less than $20. Heck, I think I got $20 worth of enjoyment out of the Snooky Pryor cd. It really reminds me of a Jimmy Witherspoon cd "Live at the Mint".

FAN: Buddy Guy In Harrisburg

So I went to church on a Thursday night this week. For the second time in about a year I was fortunate enough to see living Blues legend Buddy Guy in concert. The logistics of the event sucked. I quit work at 3:30, drove to Harrisburg. Went to the G-Man for a mostly liquid dinner, walked to the concert, made the 2 hour drive back and finally wound down and got to bed after 1. Woke up at 5:45 to be in at 7 as I'm extremely busy at work. Was it worth it? God, yes. The man is 72......72....think about that....and you would think he's 50, he has that much energy. he played longer than when I saw him last time in Reading. I think he came on at 8:20 and played until slightly before 10.

I'll try to recap what happened but having 5 vodka tonics in less than 90 minutes sometimes changes perception. The ticket named nobody as an opening act so I was hoping Guy would take the stage at 7:30 but no such luck. Again, I only wanted to see Guy and get home. Instead, we were treated to "Indigenous". I texted Stilladog at exactly 7:32 with 'Who the F is Indigenous?'. i got my answer a few minutes later. A good band consisting of some Native Americans. After two songs I said to my frined how much they sounded like Stevie Ray Vaughn. When I looked them up on Wikipedia a short time ago - it mentions the influence of SRV in the opening paragraph. As it turns out, the band isn't really Indigenous any longer. It's one original member, Mato Ninj and a group of capable side musicians. Meh. Mato is completely badass. Voice and guitar. I will get some of his work to check out. I'm more interested now in the original lineup.

After a short intermission, The Damn Right Blues Band came out and started to jam to a standing ovation of maybe 500 people. The forum is on the smallish side and the top ends weren't sold it looked like. Buddy had a world class keys player with him last night who was very very impressive, Marty Sammon. Ric Hall also lit it up again on rhythm and took over twice on blistering solos. The drummer and the bassist are adequate. I don't think he had keys when I saw him last year.

From what I remember he ripped through Hootchie Cootchie Man, Boom Boom Boom Boom, She's 19 Years Old, Vodoo Chile, Damn Right I Got The Blues, Skin Deep, Fever.....more that I am forgetting. Memorable to me was picking a kid out of the audience who gave him a pick during the walk through and taking him up onstage. Usually he allows someone to strum a solo while he plays with the left hand. Nope. He took it off and let the kid jam. He was decent enough. he was 17. If Rio is reading this, Rio would eat him alive, but the kid was OK. He and Sammons played off each other for Fever and it was live art - no other way to describe it. During one quiet stretch as it seemed like he was taking requests, yours truly screamed out 'DAMN RIGHT BUDDY' and with that he ripped right into the song. Goosebumps. We were so close. Some of the solos were just sick. It's so much easier to get into concerts when you have great seats.

I see he's at Jersey's House Of Blues in June. Maybe I'll go again? I didn't stop smiling the entire concert as he adds his own humor into the set. Wow. I just can't say enough good things about seeing him live. Pictures below are from my phone.

Buddy Walks The Crowd

Buddy is so close I could reach out and touch him

Mato Nanji of Indigenous

FAN: What Are You Listening To? #5

We had an intern at my last company that I kind of took under my wing. He was 21 and a lover of music. He liked both old and new stuff and when we traded, I had little time to listen to everything as it was close to 10 gigs of music. As I was perusing some clip links, I caught this fantastic performance of Death From Above 1979 on Conan O'Brian. It's a duo consisting of only Bass and Drums. Cool. Max even runs over to cover the drums for a while. Pretty cool. You have to hover the mouse around the dead black space until you find the controls for the player. Anyway, they were in the stuff I took from the intern and I've now listened to it all day. Read more about them here. They disbanded already and there isn't much of them out there - but I really dig the one studio album that they put out. If they got together with The White Stripes I guess they would have a full band. Sorry Stilladog, I stole your column! I didn't think you'd mind.

FAN: Blind Idol

Yes, American Idol has a blind finalist. I don't know about you, but I just can't see him winning.

RIM SHOT.

I am so ashamed of myself.

DOG: Is This Really Live Music?

In the last few weeks we've had a myriad of "famous" musicians "perform" in what was a "live" setting. First at the presidential inauguration and then at the Super Bowl. I use the quoted words loosely... very loosely.

You can read all about it here.

Very few of them actually perfomed anything. Very little of their appearances were live. And they should be ashamed of themselves. I am disgusted with this whole thing. And you know what I'm talking about.... this lip synching to a pre-recorded track. If it's going to be a live performance then let them play and sing. If you want to play a recording and have the person who made the recording stand (or sit) up on a stage and receive accolades for it, fine. But don't lie to me.

It comes as no surprise to me that American Dildo musical director, Rickey Minor, is responsible for insisting upon the artists lip synching all pre-game songs at the Super Bowl. This asshole has no concept of what music is anyway as evidenced by the total horseshit he sends across the airwaves.

What Minor has done is controlled America's collective minds into believing live music needs to be absolutely perfect. When just the opposite is true. A true classical virtuoso can play the same piece over and over flawlessly without fail. So with guys like Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman it shouldn't really matter. And a true virtuoso of the improvisational styles such as jazz, country, blues, and rock can allow the conditions at the moment to alter his/her performance to take the music where it has never gone before and may never go again. This makes for a unique listening experience for those present. A diva like Aretha Franklin may bitch about her own performace afterwards. But that 19 degrees had an affect on her voice and it was uniquely beautiful anyway.

Bruce Springsteen is nothing more than a political windbag anymore but at least he sang the vocal track live to the pre-recorded music track. Not that it was really good. Maybe he should have lip-synced his vocals after all? But I give him credit anyway. Although The E Street Band should hide their faces.

Idiots like Minor put more emphasis on sychronizing pyrotechnics with a song than having a talented and patriotic American sing America The Beautiful or the National Anthem from their hearts. Somewhere Milli Vanilli must be rolling over in their graves or wherever their lip-sych routine put them. Or maybe these American Dildos can't really sing to begin with.

And Etta James is right, Beyonce is a bitch. I'd love to see the day Etta gets ahold of her lip- synching ass! ...at last.

DOG: What Are You Listening To? #2

Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater

OK, so it's been 9 days since our first What Are You Listening To segment. Let's see whether anybody is expanding and exploring their musical tastes or if they are stuck in the same old rut that the music industry has boxed them into.

On my music delivery systems we have shifted our focus from Africa to Chicago and New Orleans mostly. Here's what is coming out of the speakers nowadays.

5. Marcia Ball - Soulful Dress, Live!, and Peace, Love & BBQ.

4. Boozoo Chavis - Down Home on Dog Hill. Some very interesing and good zydeco.

3. Professor Longhair - Crawfish Fiesta. Used to have this on vinyl. Finally got it digitized.

2. Duke Robillard and Roomful of Blues. Listening to some of Duke's solo albums and some Roomful of Blues when he was the lead guitar player there too.

And the number 1 artist being played on Sonos and iTunes this week...

1. Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater - Cool Blues Walk and A Mean Case of The Blues.

I honestly don't know how Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater escaped me for so many years in light of how much blues music I listen to. Clearwater is an older man who was a contemporary of the West Side Chicago blues men like Magic Sam, Otis Rush, and Buddy Guy.

What are you listening to this week?

DOG: What Are You Listening To? #1

King Sunny Ade

A while back I promised (threatened?) to add some cultural diversity to this blog by adding a more structured music segment outside of Fan posting some stuff about his basement band and some various Kiss and Rush related items... and of course his occasional blues promoting. So in my attempt to stimulate dialogue here, here goes.

So starting this first week of 2009 I'm going to post some things that pump out of my speakers or flow out of my new Bose noise cancelling headphones and pour into my ears. It's going to be very free form. I'll post any number between 5 and maybe a dozen or so of artists I'm currently listening to.

What I'm looking for is to find out what anybody who reads this blog and these posts specifically is listening to themselves. So please put in some comments. You can even make fun of my stuff or ask questions about it. I'll reply as best I can. I am always astounded at what passes for popular music and others probably scratch their heads at what I listen to. So here's what I've been listening to this past week with any applicable comments:

1. The number one thing I'm listening to is a huge variety of African Music. In fact it's what I've got on right now. I put together a play list called Musique Afrique that is a mix of all kinds of African songs. A couple prominent artists in my list that you might want to check out on your own are: King Sunny Ade, Fela Kuti, and Zaiko Langa Langa.

2. Earl Scruggs Revue - In my vain attempt to locate an album by Earl Scruggs called Live at Austin City Limits, I ran across the Earl Scruggs Revue Anniversary Special Vol. 1. So I've been listening to it instead.

3. Little Walter (Jacobs) - I can just put this on and listen to that Chicago blues all day long.

4. Squirrel Nut Zippers - Hot. I've had this album since it came out in 1996. And I don't remember liking it as much as I do now. Never throw out those CD purchases you think you went wrong with. Just listen to them 12 years later!

5. Guns N Roses - Chinese Democracy. It's pretty good. Can't see why it took 10 years to release. Nor why all the fuss about it being prematurely released on some internet site.

6. Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Just came across an album of Gatemouth's from 1977 that I thought was out of print called Black Jack. This is like finding a brand new release to me. Never heard any of this before.

7. Dave Edmunds - A DJ on the old WHFS in Annapolis named "Weasel" used to play this guy all the time back in the mid-80s. I just acquired a bunch of his albums and have enjoyed rehearing a lot of this stuff.

8. The Doors - Got ahold of a bootleg of a Doors concert in Pittsburgh in 1970. When Jim Morrison was still alive and the Civic Arena was called the Pittsburgh Ice Arena.

9. The Del McCoury Band - Had a buddy of mine go to the big Christmas Jam down in Asheville, NC that Warren Haynes of Gov't Mule & the Allman Bros. puts on every year. And he was talking about Warren jamming with bluegrass/country legend Del McCoury. So I thought I'd bust out some of Del McCoury and give it a new listen.

10. Todd Rundgren - Just picked up the bigger part of his discography that I didn't already own.

Just realized I should have done this in reverse (10-1) order like Letterman. In a week or two I'll do this again and I'll do it that way. Until then, what are you listening to?

FAN: Three Dollar Bill, Y'All

This must be the recording studio for rap MUZAK. It's enough to make you think the dude from Best In Show and The Breakup is in on a hidden camera show. He's a dead ringer for the conductor. I don't know many things, but I think I know funny. This, is funny.

FAN: Hey Coldplay, Suck It

Howard Stern was talking about this today. He played Coldplay's "song" over Satriani's and you literally couldn't tell where one stopped and one started. It's the same speed, in the same key. I have some Satriani on my iPod and I swear every time I hear that Coldplay song (which isn't often because I don't listen to the radio much - and if I do it's Sirius and on a channel that doesn't play Coldplay) I feel like I've heard it before. Check this out from YouTube. Gotta love these Johnny Come Lately Idiot bands. Pretty proud to say that I can't even name a Coldplay song.

FAN: The Ultimate Mashup

Wow, this is cool. With Led Zeppelin being in my Top 3 bands of all time (not sure where though) and Bloom County being my favorite print comic....this is kind of like pop culture crack for me. The way the Zeppelin riffs are weaved together with Christmas songs is pure genius. Me likey. I want to get this in mp3 format.

Beth Gets Posted

The version of Beth that I played drums on for Moor Cowbell has been posted to the website for the tribute material. I listened to some of the other songs and they are pretty good. They are pretty deep cuts though, so if you aren't a big KISS fan, you might not recognize them at all. I don't belong to the board who runs this, another guy set up the website to host it, but here are the comments so far that Moor Cowbell has collected from the site:

"Who ever thought Beth could be turned into a shuffle? I think almost anything can be done with a classic song as long as it's done with heart and conviction and Moor Cowbell shows the truth of that here."

"I get scared when I know I'm just about to endure a rocked-up version of Beth, but all my fears were allayed when Moor Cowbells boogie version jumped out of my speakers - I couldn't help nodding my head along with it. Well done."

"this is the most original Beth cover ive ever heard! And the heaviest one too! very cool cover and an interesting answer to the question how beth would sound as a heavy rock track"

Still A Cowbell, add more to comments as they come in.....if they are good.