Vinyl Records – Japanology Plus | NHK brings an enjoyable program (in its own quirky way) presented in English about vinyl records, specifically: how Japanese folks handle records with care, visit to a record pressing plant, many records shops of all kinds, notes about obis and city hop, records store day, needle making, laser listening and more.
includes a visit to one of only two lacquer producing facilities in the world (the “other one“ was involved in a big fire a couple years ago which is one of the reasons vinyl supply has slowed down).
oh, notes about “listening cafés“ as well (my *retirement business plan* :))
Press release from May 31, 1982 announcing the band’s signing with I.R.S. Records including news of the first release with the label, an EP called Chronic Town, plus plans for a full-length release to follow in 1983. REM40
“I read IRS honcho Miles Copeland’s autobiography recently and he talked about REM being the most low maintenance, easy to work with, no drama band of all of IRS artists – which of course including many notable (& great) bands laden with drama, conflict, squabbling (especially over songwriting credit/royalties), drugs and ego”
++ Noteworthy is the fact that REM split songwriting credits/publishing (read: royalties) equally between the four members of the band {guess I don’t know how/if this continues after bill berry left} This tactic is key to helping bands stick together.
So many bands split up when the checks start coming in and the drummer who spend so much time hauling gear, where the bass player that comes up with all kinds of grooves that make the song work etc gets left out in the cold… How many bands can you think of that the “lead singer/front person” left, started a new band with session musicians and just sort of fizzled out? So many band members have lifelong feuds as they split hairs about who came up with which part of which melody and which lyric was changed and end up with a dozen different “writers“ on each song or, just one writer for a whole album.
For the uninitiated, the lion’s share of the money from a musical recording is in the songwriting royalties, rather than the performance royalties (and yes I know it’s not all about that anymore in the age of streaming over physical media but this is coming from a guy who still buys physical media and publishing is still where the money is)
++ Used to be concerts were sorta a loss leader for album sales and now concerts are a big ticket item and merch is where the gravy is made (with exceptions etc. etc.)
Anyhow, this is where the REM story started progressing from a green Dodge van to a tour bus and theaters, two small arenas, and before you know it, for a while “the biggest band in the world“ selling out giant outdoor stadiums.
One other thought: in some bands (like for example the Beatles and the Police) where there were principal songwriter/s (Mc/L or Stg) the other band members would often/always get a song or two on each album >> I think in part to “be collaborative” but also to make sure they get at least a taste of the mechanical royalties from each album sold.
Of course George Harrison was a fine songwriter in his own right but after watching the Beatles documentary (that really long one) it’s clear the songs didn’t tumble out of him like they did with John and Paul. Ringo just sort of fiddled around with something here and there, helped out from his friends appropriately.
I thinking about synchronicity album, Stewart and Andy both have a song – both stick out like big toes in small shoes – but it means that there’s a check coming in for every album sold.
++ pal Mikael remarks: imho, George was, by far, the superior writer in the band.
++ my reply: my uncle agreed and made a whole album “by Bachman by George” (If I recall correctly) but in the case of the Beatles, after watching the documentary, B’s were very much a Paul and John “project” and George felt that and that’s why he kept on quitting. And dear Ringo, always showing up on time, letting the others do their goofy impressions & their squabbles.
In “honour of“ Sex Pistols bio flick directed by Danny Boyle coming out on Disney+ (without the “blessing” of Johnny Rotten), may I present:
Me [R] in 1984 at a Surrey, BC, Canada church air band contest performing Sex Pistols’ Anarchy & God Save the Q with:
Kamel Gill, rip (vox) – later singer for AOT
Brad Rees (guitar) – best pal, irl multi-instrumentalist
Frank Baker (drums) – who went on to be a professional drummer and pilot
{C/Would’ve actually been a really good band ha ha}
We had a strobe light, some real drums & mic, cut guitars with a jigsaw out of real estate sign plywood >> spray painted and then smashed, kicked in the bass drum (made from a laundry basket obv), wore Vans & cut up jackets + tiger prints – did take the time to edit out a couple of the curse words #goodboy.
We did not win/
PS became a Clash fan
PPS Used this photo in an issue of VOM fanzine as a concert review calling the band the “Ultimate Trendies”
Brother Dan notes: I thought the guitars you smashed were styrofoam. Like you had a 2nd set you swapped to at the end. I was there but didn’t make the photo…
Reply: You might be correct brother… If that’s the case, I wish I still had those plywood guitars, they were pretty sweet
Jack Kerouac “kicks joy darkness” double CD. All songs/spiels about/dedicated to Jack by various artists. ¥401 delivered.
An assortment of “popular music artists“ with songs inspired by, and about, Jack… Will give you a better rundown later.
And, Bob Mould seven (!) Vinyl box set… You may know him from Hüsker Dü and/or Sugar or his various solo/ Trio/DJ projects – from Minneapolis to San Francisco to Berlin.
Includes one which is a 12 inch disc but runs at 45 RPM and has three songs on one side and blank on the other, plus a booklet of credits, lyrics, annotations and a blurb by J Mascis. Really a fantastically crafted box, that even “wishes“ when you pull one of their records out.
Has been on my list but a bit *too expensive* for this hippie poet until it showed up for ¥5000 ish / $47 usd +/-, delivered.
There is also an earlier career box set as well as various Hüsker Dü compilations but as I say, “one revolution at a time”.
Accidentally fortunate enough to be dialed in to the Nirvana zeitgeist.
I saw Nirvana at a perfect time, before Nevermind but after Dave Grohl joined. They opened for Dinosaur Jr. at the Pompadour (an old church) in Salt Lake City.
Went away with nothing but the thoughts that they were the *most perfect* band i’d seen: i could hum the songs right away (“gramma take me home, i wanna be alone”) and they were loud (i love loud but Dino Jr. afterwards made everyone huddle in a mass at the back with bleeding ears), and *dareisay* charisma & confidence oozed from all three. They knew what they had ready.
I’ve met Krist a few times since and had him sign the poster from that show, he was surprised to see it as it was part of a few show run to stretch the band out before the whole world changed (for them and us) when Nevermind dropped.
My fave jukebox track was playing the last song on NM which was followed by 10 minute-ish of silence to confuse the bar patrons before the psychedelic mystery track melted their heads.
At Subpop HQ
At Subpop HQ
At Subpop HQ
Living in Olympia after he died, his ghost was everywhere and people always spoke in hushed tones about him.
His old house (from where he used to shoot at the Lottery bldg.) was right by my (OlyWa.net / Zhonka) office – the current resident was a customer even – i saw the graffiti he put on the walls of their jam space, drank at the bars he did, spent a year driving to Aberdeen on weekends for college classes and sadness of that town was palatable.
I learned he was dead weeks after it happened. I was in Japan working high in the remote mountains as a mushroom farmer and a pithy Brit mentioned it in a “good riddance” tone around a campfire at a log home builders party. I had to walk away.
{As an aside, i can’t thinking about another Olympia refugee who met an early self-inflicted (yet somewhat mysterious) demise, Elliott Smith. These dudes were more or less my age and i think my best work is still ahead of me at 43 and feel cheated from the songs we’ll never hear from them.}
But the strongest emotion is one is empathy and how i wished i could have helped them navigate the pitfalls of the “machine” which turned their outward projection into something they didn’t want to be.
And we all want to be known as who we really are.
The relentless photo, tours, hangers-on, pressure, misunderstandings. Let him breathe!
Be kind to artists, be kind to battered souls, be nurturing to those who dull the pain with the easiest escapes.
Here’s a peace pipe for us all to pass and remember a remarkable lightning bolt.
The 5 albums (counting Unplugged & Insecticide but not the endless bootlegs, other live, compilations, reissues blah blah blah) are all significantly different and explore so much musical territory in such rapid time is rather remarkable – reacquainting his muse with each release.
We missed the Kurt album with the 20 minute jams, the one where he played with Roma, the one where with spoken word stories, the one with lullabies, the one where he went surrealist, the one where Dave sang the songs, the one when they added an accordion player or a melodica, the one where he played right handed.
PS If you haven’t seen it, watch “About A Son” – a curious doc with intimate voice recordings with Cobain overlaid with scenes of Aberdeen, Olympia and Seattle. His voice oozes sincerity, intensity, sadness, elation and confusion.
Handcrafted USB guitar musical retrospective collection from desert rambler RJ Garn
Proud recipient of the last in a collectible series of bespoke wooden box with carved guitar usb drive with retrospective of desert rambler & guitar slinger & storyteller RJ Garn’s music. I feel am holding a very important piece of #personalarcheology, – very proudly & gratefully.
Reminder: your creative endeavours are important. We are the stories & artfacts we share. Fck Stats, Make Art.
Thanks RJ, say hey to the petroglyphs from Uncle Weed.
“wake now discover that you are the eyes of the world”
More Jack Kerouac riffs (in case you’re not getting enough) this one from the mighty Jerry Garcia
“I can’t separate who I am now from what I got from Kerouac. I don’t know if I would ever have had the courage or the vision to do something outside with my life – or even suspected the possibilities existed – if it weren’t for Kerouac opening those doors.”
Jerry Garcia, remembering Jack Kerouac who was born in Lowell, MA on March 12, 1922
Joe Strummer running London Marathon in 1983 by Steve Rapport as seen in the kura barn studio^ I spy with my bespectacled eye… {DOA, Billy Bragg, The matinee, Buffalo Tom, David Bowie, Shred Kelly, Ramones, Hunter S Thompson, Allen Ginsberg, The Spores…}
Joe Strummer (Mellor) died around this day 17 years ago, not too old but old enough to leave an exceptionally eclectic legacy of undeniable mightiness.
His silver form hangs proudly in a 150 year old grain barn in provincial Japan in a beloved photo by (Vancouver treasure) Bev Davies from the US festival (the last show with Joe and Mick) in 1983 & has recently made friends with another version of himself from the same year, running the London marathon captured by Steve Rapport (former UK, now Pacifica, California and just releasing a book full of Joe/The Clash photos #PreOrder).
Hopping the stage and singing “White Riot” for the encore in 1984 (yes yes I know ya purists “out of control” wasn’t the *real*… oh forget it… and no way I could’ve got to the show at the Kerrisdale Arena a few years before with The Special’s playing and you know I would’ve loved that but born in 1970 is great for many things)
Take what you can take
and stage diving in front of Joe will always remain near the top of my list of “noteworthy life accomplishments” – I was 13, took the bus in from the suburbs, and stuck my dorky glasses in my jeans pocket and headed into the pit, completely overcome and immersed by this massive sound *and* songs which “really said something”.
I “celebrate his whole catalog ;)” from the 101’s, to The Clash, to Earthquake Weather etc, to the Mescaleros, to filling in with the Pogues, to hanging out at campfires at Glastonbury. And hear his legacy living on through voices from Billy Bragg to Don Letts and so many others.
Route 19 revisited
West Way to the world
The future is unwritten
PS if you need even more The Clash goodness, dig up a BBC audio video collage style film made on the streets of London around 1979, it’s so weirdly awesome great. (I’d’ve pasted here but I can’t figure out new word press blog thingie blah blah blah)
Oh here it is:
Oh yeah, dig this Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros – Live In Roseland Ballroom, New York / familair classics with the Mescas world beat flair
Another curious cameo, this one in a speedy lockdown montage video collage by a punky reggae band from London called Smiley and the Underclass and their song “We All Get Like This” from their EP “The Way To The Bomb” (Bandcamp) released July 1st / + FB & YT
It all flashes by rapidly but if you look sharp, you might see your old pal in the grain barn studio lip-syncing along to the chorus.
Bad Wougar is/was a hard rocking band in Vancouver BC with four fine gentleman who practised diligently in a room called the “the Den” which I’ve visited several times – occasionally playing some drums, especially extended jams to “Cortez the killer”. The name “Bad Wougar” came from a campfire myth about a dangerous animal which was a mix of a wolf and a cougar.
Artifact: Bad Wougar album, 2014, cover
On a trail walk one day, I recorded a myth about the creature for the bands use and amusement. They then invited me into the glorious brand-new Monarch Studio (which has an origin story to share another time) to record a few snippets from the riff for the songs. In all, my voice/words appear in two tracks on this final release which was distributed on CD with a paper gatefold cover (i have 2, Mac Kobayashi has 1).
For the record, released: February 28, 2014 (noting this was a high point in an otherwise tough tough year). As mentioned, the four members of the band (including a non-related Olson) were each fantastically kind, interesting fellas as well as quality musicians and it’s a privilege to know them.
So it goes, folks have other commitments and adventures in life so they don’t play anymore but I hope this CD/album is more widely distributed in future / Kind of band that would be big in Europe.
Artifact: Bad Wougar album, 2014, back with track list
… every time I sling this album on the stereo I can’t but feel like I’ve been transported to a wood-panelled backwoods bar where the band are plying their gnarled rock ‘n’ roll trade in such a fashion that the venue’s customers are worried that the whole place will go up in flames, the sounds so incendiary….
There’s a grubby charm to this band and its self-described brand of hard charging rock ‘n’ roll. It’s garage rock by way of the forest and you can’t really ask for anything dirtier, earthier than that.
As the stoner-like riff of final track, ‘Spoke Too Soon’, rattles the fillings out of my teeth I’m left wondering if maybe what I just listened to was part of a crazed fever dream. Then I look up and see the album cover, the eyes of the Bad Wougar appearing to follow my every move…..
Another review in Permanent Rain references my spoken-word bit, ergo:
This spoken kick off made me realize I was in for a fun ride, just as if I was watching a movie–and I was not disappointed. …
The album itself has a delightfully punk element to it, often mixing with elements of classic and progressive rock. It could have been released in 1984, 1994, 2004, or 2014 and reflected the music of its time period.
Take what you can take
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