live music, festivals, musicians and music history – curated links about the above – your mileage may vary
Musician and pal Dan Mangan shares a birthday (april 28) with my sweet wife Ryoko (he’s a year older) and while we were in birthday mode for wife, and in the the kura (barn) studio, whipped him up a friendly video with various records and posters of his and other amusements for his, and possibly your, amusement.
Bonus: here’s me and Dan and (at the time) Mayor Gregor Robertson at a charity street hockey game in Vancouver (Five Hole for Food) in 2011(?)
While sorting through archive in the kura/barn studio, came across a mighty bin of t-shirts from bands/tours, mtn bike races, trips, handmade goodness, or just quirky/weird. Of course many/most didn’t make it to this point but several did
Not surprisingly, rather delicate and need a freshening up. Considering some sort of craft project for these (a quilt? stretched over wooden frame? leave as is?) but in the meantime, a couple quick snaps of a few treasures which create a chronology from the early 1980s.
Call this: Front/back quick snaps, part 1 (without annotations):
To me, there is importance in preserving the efforts of “small time“ artists putting their goodness out into the world in a true DIY style.
This stash includes:
* “Houseboat” and “Filterland” /4 track recorded cassettes (with a lot of doubling up and bouncing… really fantastic) by Chris Jacobson (who I met in Guam but he’s from Rhode Island and I’ve lost track of him)
* Chris Sullivan / who I played in a band with in Salt Lake City, he’s in Kentucky (i think) after going to Alaska to catch crabs (the kind from the ocean) or something like that… Fantastically versatile musician and charismatic front man
* “ARCO Hotel” by Joe Williamson who I knew in North Burnaby, BC years ago. He’s a deep jazz and classical (mostly) upright bass player with training at McGill. Cassette was recorded on New Year’s Day (I think) at eponymously named hotel in Amsterdam. Every once in while I see him pop up in European jazz circles doing important, eccentric things
* JahWah (demo), my pals from BC playing some funky punky reggae goodness / Chris Gee and renegades (Rob T & Merlin)
* Metal Planet and Scandoll, a couple of metal bands – who shared members – from my first go around in Tottori, Japan in 1993
* Francisco Fernandez’s band “the ferocious few “ / purchased from him busking on the streets of Austin at SXSW. He’s still out there doing his thing, give him some support
* Stony Curtis and the pipe dreams, one of many submissions when I was making Hempen Road documentary film… This one didn’t get used but I appreciated the effort.
* Another radio show on which I talked about hemp cannabis somewhere someplace somehow, have a lots of these sort of things
… and worth noting a lot of these tunes were used in my documentary films, various podcasts and pop up here and there, or sometimes not. 
Most of these, I suspect there’s very few original/organic/analog versions floating around, maybe a few others stashed in forgotten shoeboxes in various basements, attics and closets. Proud to be a curator.
And yes, I’ve course I have more, a whole box of cassettes and CDs labeled “dude, you got to hear my band…”
On April 8th Japan time, i wrote:
“Digging loads of John Prine recently… he’s a funny as fck and exceptional songwriter / here’s him singing for his hero Gordon Lightfoot. The banter and songs are both top-level” and shared:
and a few minutes later, learned he’d passed from the “this g0dless plague”
so i wrote:
Now ole postman John gonna drink a vodka and ginger-ale, smoke a cigarette 9 miles long, find mom and dad & good ole brother Doug and cousin Jackie…, and momma’s sister cause that’s where the love starts… take this wristwatch off my arm whatcha gonna do with time when ya… bought. the. farm.
and later added a lyric along with our peach tree growing in the backyard while we wait for our lil human to arrive, ergo:
Throw away the paper
Move to the country
Build yourself at home
Eat a lot of peaches
Etc.
For dear old John Prine with admiration, respect and fondness
Notes (yes i overthink things):
Allman Brothers Band, AOT, Afghan Whigs, Arctic Monkeys, America, Adaline, Acoustica
Buffalo Tom, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Billy Bragg, Bob Dylan, Bear Mountain, Black Uhuru, The Black Angels, Booker T and the MGs, Black Francis, Blues Traveller, Broken Social Scene, Barenaked Ladies, Built to Spill, Belle Game, Black Flag, Blue Rodeo, Bad Yodellers, Burton Cummings, The (English) Beat, Bill of Rights, Bela Fleck and Flecktones, Bosephus King, Beat Happening, Bad Brains, Ben Harper, Big Mountain, Beck, Boom Booms, Barney Bentall
The Clash, The Cramps, Camper Van Beethoven, Chainsaw Running, Carolyn Mark, Chief, Colin James, Current Swell, Chixdigit, Cage The Elephant
David Bowie, Dead Kennedys, David Byrne, Dinosaur Jr. DOA, Death Sentence, Dave Matthews Band, David Grisman, The Dead, Dan Mangan, Donkey Show, Doobie Brothers, David Lindley, Debbie Harry, The Darts (US), Drive by Truckers, Daisy Chain, Dehli to Dublin, Don’t Mean Maybe, Dharma Bums (NYC), Dharma Bums (Portland), Dirty Birds, Devo, Deadmau5, Death, Dustin Bentall
Elvis Costello, Edie Brickell and New Bohemians, Ed Hall, Eek a Mouse
fIREHOSE, Flaming Lips, Flat Duo Jets, 54-40, Frank Black and Catholics, Furthur, Fred Penner, Frequency db, Fugazi, Fishbone (plus Angelo solo poetry reading)
Grateful Dead, Guadalcanal Diary, Green Day , Grape of Wrath, Guess Who, Gwar, Goo Goo Dolls, Geoff Berner, The Golden Dawn, Galactic, Gordon Lightfoot, Gov’t Mule, Garbage, Galactic, GD/BC
Hot Spit Dancers, Hanson Brothers, House of Commons, Hey Ocean, Hot Tuna, Hot Hot Heat, Henry Rollins (spoken)
I, Braineater, Irie Heights, ICU/IQU, Indigo Girls
Jerry Garcia Band, J.F.A., Jesus and Mary Chain, Jack Johnson, Jimmy Buffett, Jackson Browne, Jeremy Fisher, Jeremy Wilson, Jim Byrnes, Jill Barber
Kiss, Kool and the Gang, Kathryn Calder
Link Wray, Los Campesinos, Levon Helm, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Lava Hay, Los Lobos, Little Feat, Loverboy, Liam Finn, Lenny Kravitz
Mudhoney, Mike Watt (with Secondmen, Pair of Pliers, Missingmen etc), The Melvins (including with Leif Garrett), The Matinee, Mae Maes, Macklemore, Michael Shrieve (workshop), moe., Misfits, Mother Mother, Mojo Nixon, Matt Mays, Matthew Sweet, The Muffs, Michael Hedges, Metric
Nirvana, Neil Young (various bands), No Means No (including with Jello Biafra), New Pornographers, Neville Brothers, NRBQ, Numbskulz
Oingo Boingo, Oka, Oysterhead
Pixies, Pursuit of Happiness, Peter Gabriel, Pearl Jam, Phil and Phriends, The Police, Phish, Portage and Main, Petty Booka, Posies, Pointer Sisters
Queensryche
Replacement, R.E.M., Ramones, Robyn Hitchcock, Robert Hunter, Rusted Root, Ry Cooder, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rita Marley/I-threes, Reggie Watts, Rich Hope, Richard Thompson
Soul Asylum, Sonic Youth, Social Distortion, Steel Pulse, The Stills, Sebadoh, Santana, Steve Miller Band, Sidney York, Shred Kelly, Swim Herschel Swim, Spot, Sarah McLachlan, String Cheese Incident, Suicidal Tendencies, Slack Tide Currents, Skid Row, Said the Whale, The Smithereens, Shad, The Samples, The Spores, Spin Doctors, Silversun Pickups, Sarah Harmer, Susan Tedeschi, Stu Allen
Tragically Hip, Third World, Throwing Muses, Tom Tom Club, Tegan and Sara, Te’vaka, Topless GayLove Techno Party, Trees, TSOL, Ted Nugent (yes really), Trey Anastasio Band (soundcheck set), Taj Mahal, Tokyo Police Club, Tankhog
U {nothing, yet}
Vampire Weekend, Violent Femmes, Van Morrison
Wilco (with and w/o Billy Bragg), Wall of Voodoo, The Who, Widespread Panic, The Wailers, Weezer
X
Young Fresh Fellows, Yellowman
Zolas, Ziggy Marley
Q: How about “Ripple”?
A: We were in Canada on that train trip [the Festival Express, 1970] and one morning the train stopped and Jerry was sitting out on the tracks not too far off, in the sunrise, setting “Ripple” to music. That’s a good memory. That was one of the happy times, going on that train trip.
Janis [Joplin] was the queen of that trip. One of my greatest memories is having breakfast with her on the train. She was having Southern Comfort and scotch, and she asked me if I heard that song by Kristofferson, “Sunday Morning Comin’ Down,” and she sang it in my ear. Can you imagine?
Note: Ms. Calder is now some kind of special artist in residence for city of Victoria, i have a snap i’ll add here at some point, really
A few sundry/spontaneous remarks about London Calling, The Clash’s remarkable album, turning 40 as well as a few miscellaneous annotations about The Clash’s canon:
London Calling had the element of surprise as the world (or the record company) had no idea that this eclectic mix of americana, ska, rockabilly, mushy songs, political songs, fun songs, songs recorded in 1 take, a rock drummer playing like Ginger Baker without the prog and the almost alien guitar playing of Mick Jones. No one knew what to expect and it exploded as a secret, delivered mere hours before the EOY deadline.
The double LP was packed in one sleeve (to save label and fans money) and Train in Vain was Mick’s last minute addition (that’s why the mix sounds so different too) with Topper, no Joe or Paul on that track.
Continue reading Annotations re: The Clash’s London Calling turning 40
More: Interview with The Wailers and others at Komasket Music Fest, near Vernon, BC, Aug. 2010.