Playlist for 4/29

Shelby Lynne - Tears Lies and Alibis
Trombone Shorty -Backatown
Jakob Dylan - Women and Country
Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Pt. 2

Gotta Have Friends

Most of my Facebook friends I don't know, but I feel like I know them. Sound weird? It shouldn't. Because most of them are music critics or music insiders whose work I've read or seen or heard about forever. Most, like me, rarely contribute anything to their Facebook page. But it's interesting to see that a lot of other music fans are friends of theirs as well. Isn't that what Facebook is all about?

Iphone Update

I'm liking Pandora better as an Iphone app than I did on my computer. Its Deep Funk is an especially excellent station. The Bling 100 app is odd. Don't know where they are getting their charts from. Must be England. I see some England chart songs there that never made it in the U.S.

Iphone

I've finally made the dive into the Iphone. It took me a couple of years. So far I like it. Don't think it's incredible. But I've only had it for a week. Like the free music apps. Mostly streaming of radio stations or AOL/Yahoo cites. Pandora I was already familiar with. Like BingMusic's Top 100 by year App (especially because it shuffles the countdown).

Playlist for 4/22

Slash
Willie Nelson - Country Music
Dictators - Go Girl Crazy
Peter Wolf - Midnight Souvenirs
Stooges - Raw Power reissue
Jeff Beck - Emotion & Commotion
MGMT - Congratulations

Why Glee Matters

The great thing about Glee is that it is making us all realize how much we like songs that we doubted as slight. Even the Beatles "Hello Goodbye" which is not for their canon sounds like the great single it never was. Or Lionel Richie's "Hello" and anything by Bryan Adams from the 80's. Then the Madonna episode reminded us how great a singles artist she was. Maybe the best of the 80's to early 90's. Some critics dismiss the notion of a Guilty Pleasure. But I've been embracing it for years. And Glee let's everyone in on the secret. Try not to smile when one of yours pops up in chorus form sometime during the show.

Haggared

Merle Haggard is 73 and Willie Nelson 76 (soon to 77 on 4/30)and they've both knocked out new releases in the last month. Haggard's is better, not just because it has new songs. Nelson's last 2 have been covers, and his latest of Country classics is better than his last of American Standards. But Haggard sounds more relevant. He doesn't put out as much product as Nelson, but when he does, especially on newer stuff, you take more notice. He bookends his 36 minute CD with statements of fact. Not overtly political, more bio. Haggard has always been a fierce independent (and Nelson a fierce Democrat) in a sea of Country Music Red. But his best political songs speak the truth of a clear thinker. His relationship ones now speak the truth of a world-weary romantic traveler. The good thing is both of these Country titans are still putting out good product. Country radio or Country TV channels may not give them time, but you should.

Treme

Man, I hope HBO's Treme sticks around. Mostly for the show, which is great, but mainly for the music, which is all New Orleans. In fact, the debut episode had me checking my collection to make sure I had a decent amount of New Orleans music. The answer is yes, but I should have more. I'm still waiting on an all-encompassing box set of the city. But the show does its job well, as far as showcasing a city as rich in musical heritage as it is in the cultural one.

Facebook Update

Most of the Facebook friends I've added are music related. Critics, maybe some publicists, etc. I haven't added many sports things and a lot of my other friends aren't there. I've also added a few names to my Fan page. Most of these are music related also. Wish I had more time to read all the comments that come across my page.

National Record Store Day

Around here, not many Indie stores to go to anymore. In fact I think there's only 4. Used to be more. This is National Record Store Day, so if you have a local store go in and buy something. But I have to admit, I find better prices online than I do in these places. Just saying.

Playlist for 4/15

Alan Jackson- Freight Train
Gary Allan - Get Off On The Pain
Christian Scott - Yesterday You Said Tomorrow
Georg Levin - Everything Must Change

Rock Hall Veteran's Committee

This excerpt taken from Rolling Stone magazines Rock Hall Ceremony coverage (by way of Future Rock Legends) brings up the sports Hall of Fame analogy I always make. It seems easier for Baseball Hall of Fame voters to cast a ballot for modern era players than the ones that played pre-1970. That's why Baseball has a Veteran's Committee who meet every couple years to vote in, usually 2 or 3 people. Why can't the Rock Hall do the same. Why were the Chantels on the same ballot with LL Cool J. Metallica and Wanda Jackson on the same ballot?
With the minor changes the Hall makes every year, it's time to consider a Veteran's Committee type scenario.

Jazzed

Although I read Down Beat and Jazz Times I don't buy many Jazz records. Well, I should say new Jazz ones. Older catalog titles I'm still catching up on. The only new Jazz stuff I buy are things that get renewed on in Rock oriented magazines. I think I've found a great one in Christian Scott's Yesterday You Said Tomorrow. The 26 year old Trumpet player makes a lot of social statements here, his playing coming off like Miles Davis with slight rock influences. But its a 21st century release. The record has a fresh feel. It's his 4th album, and I never heard the other 3, but by all accounts this sounds like the right time to drop his best one.

Eargasm

We used to have 2 Top 40 AM radio stations here in the 70's. They both died with the appeal of FM in the late 70's. But they were pure Top 40 AM. You'd hear anything that was on the Billboard Top 100. They also gave away free stuff. One gave away the week's Top 10 singles. I won once. The other gave away random albums. I won once, too. It was Johnnie Taylor's 1976 Eargasm, the one that had his #1 "Disco Lady" on it. Not a great album at all. But I have it in my CD collection for memories only. I'm sure others have stuff like that in their collection. Singles or albums that weren't all that great, but stir memories.

Taylor has passed away, but whenever I hear "Disco Lady" on an oldies channel, I'm taken right back to that moment I picked up the phone and got excited that I won a free album. Even went to the radio station to pick it up.

April Fool's Update

I don't know if many people caught this, but my post on April 1 about the Rock Hall was indeed a joke. My favorite line in the whole thing was about Little Steven who believes Herman's Hermits should be inducted. That is not a joke. Read what he said about it at the link below. Herman's freakin' Hermits! Now you see why I've been advocating for years that the Hall rotate its nominating committee members every few years. Otherwise, we're going to get the same stale recommendations by the likes of Little Steven and some of the others.

Little Steven advocates The Hollies for 2009

Malcom McLaren

Elvis had the Colonel, the Beatles had Brain Epstein. And Punk had Malcom McLaren. Sure he was the manager of the Sex Pistols. But unlike those other 2 managers, McLaren's name instantly conjures up images of English Punk. You can't say that with the Colonel. You don't think of Rock and Roll when his name is mentioned. And Epstein won't make you think British Invasion.

This was McLaren's legacy, for me at least, more so than managing the Pistols.

Playlist for 4/8

VV Brown - Travelling Like The Light
Sharon Jones - I Learned The Hard Way
Mose Allison - Way of the World
Titus Andronicous - Monster

Facebook

Just for the Hell of it, I have a Facebook page, but I don't have much time to add things to it. Doing this page is enough. But you can find more info on me at that page.

Facebook Tom Lane

Train of Thought

A true single, that would be Train's "Hey Soul Sister". The type of song that would have appeared on Rhino's Have A Nice Collections of 70's cheesy hit records. It's also the type of song that is dismissed by music critics. And that's why it's so great. Much like their first hit was as well, "Drops of Jupiter". But they are a singles band, and the albums don't hold up. Which means they are made for those Now compilations, which are basically the Rhino's of the 00's.

Old Friends

I've been hearing the Simon & Garfunkel song "Old Friends" in my head for the last week as I try and get in touch with my best friend from the 80's/90's. We lost contact with each other for reasons that I never could figure out, but now that he's back in my area I'm trying to reach out. We shared a lot of musical moments in those days. And after looking at his new Facebook page, it appears that we still share the same tastes in things. But he won't answer my emails, and I don't have his phone number anymore.
But youthful memories can't be erased by a delete button. I'm sure when he saw my name on his email header it brought back as many memories for him as it did for me.

Front Men

The goofy readers at England's Q magazine say Liam Gallagher is the greatest frontman in history. These same people usually vote Radiohead's Kid A best rock album of all time. I'm not gonna list the names, but the list is horrible. Quote what you'd expect from Q's readers nowadays. My own list of Top tier would be in no order: Freddie Mercury, Mick Jagger, Robert Plant. Yeah, I know the usual suspects but only Mercury ranked high on the Q list. My idea of a frontman is someone who commands the stage. Michael Hutchence of INXS was one of those. There are few out there today, though.

Rock Hall- Induct These People Already!

I've had enough. I want some Rock Hall Justice. Induct these names already, so we can get on to the real business at hand and that is putting in more deserving names that have been eligible for years. I'm thinking of the Three Dog Night and the Doobie Brothers and Grand Funk and Boston and every other 70's act that springs to mind. But first we must get these names inducted. How much longer do we have to wait for these 5 names to get their due? When you see these names, you'll wonder like I did-How come they aren't in already? Hell, they've influenced everybody. And how good are their records? Well they've sold millions. Isn't that enough? 2011 will be there year. Little Steven told me so.

Paul Anka
Pat Boone
Herman's Hermits
Chubby Checker
Bobby Vee

Playlist for 4/1

Bird and the Bee - Interpreting the Classics
Justin Bieber - My World
Drive By Truckers - Big To Do
Pavement - Best of
Everybody Was In the French Resistance - Fixin' The Charts
White Stripes - Under the Great White Northern Light