"Big Escape" by: Pearly Gates Music

ah, the home recordist.
he is alone, and you don't know what he's doing in there.
quiet, quiet for hours....
then.....
a SOUND!
and...
the same sound...
slightly altered, but, to your ears, the same.
and again.
over..and over...and over...

he is searching for something. something he can't find in his friends. or his family. or in you.
his eyes are closed...his headphones squeezing tight on his cauliflower ears. he alone here's the difference in the squeals rattling his amp.
over...and over....

it's there, in his room, where he prays. where nobody sees him. praying. praying to a god only he can hear.
a god that screams and squeals at the top of his lungs.
a god that whispers only to him.
only in his ears.

You Say Nyro and I Say Nyro

I'd always pronounced it "Nigh-ro." I guess I'd never heard her name said, only read it. I listened to her music for years before I learned it's "Near-o." Like hero.

I can still recall the first moment I became aware of Laura Nyro. I was sitting in my car in a parking lot on the SUNY Farmingdale campus, waiting for my brother Jim to get out of a night class. I had a public radio station on (about the only way to hear anything interesting on Long Island at the time). "Up on the Roof" was playing. I was enraptured, as I often am with certain songs. "That's Laura Nyro singing..."

Hmm, well, I guess I would've had to hear her name pronounced. Chances are, the DJ said it wrong, as well. I'm not the only ignoramus. Nyro's given name is Nigro, with a long "i", so you'd think her new name would've kept the same long vowel. I used to know a Michael Nigro back in school. No relation, as far as I know.

Anyway, now I know how to say her name so I don't sound like a putz bringing her up at a barbecue.

I freaking love Laura Nyro. I probably listen to her music more than anyone else. Years ago I wrote a quick post about one of her album covers.

Now I've written another one. This one. Listen: this will either change your life or... nah, it'll change your life.

The Beast in Me - Nick Lowe

imagine writing a song so good that your father-in-law wants to record it. then imagine your father-in-law is johnny cash. then you might understand what it's like to be nick lowe. elvis costello called him 'englands' greatest songwriter'. it's hard to argue against that after hearing this.

Elvis Costello A Slow Drag With Josephine Jools Holland Later Live Oct 2010

this song just makes me smile. i guess any song with a whistle solo will do that. the thrill i get from listening to costello now is less visceral, but no less thrilling. listen to the phrasing on 'the hesitation....waltz'. and he uses the word 'armistice'! he is way to smart for the masses. and that's why he's still going strong.

Almost Got Away With It

No, Mike, this is not a New Order song. It's Electronic, a band I've always been aware of yet never knew I was familiar with. And to think I love this song! Bernard Sumner (of New Order -- well, there you go!) and Johnny Marr formed Electronic in 1989 (initially conceived as an anonymous venture). Alas, their debut single, Getting Away With It (featuring co-writer Neil Tennant on backing vocals) became a major hit, peaking at #12 on the UK Singles Chart. Anonymity thus denied.

Quoth Marr: "We were naive when we started, we honestly didn’t anticipate the attention we’d get. It was only when the media picked up that it was me, Bernard and Neil Tennant that it began to snowball.”

Anyway, great song. Listen. Then move onto some New Order, Smiths and Pet Shop Boys.



A clearer version of the video (of which embedding has been enabled) can be found here: Getting Away With It.

We're All Cliches

I watch a performance of X-Ray Spex's "Oh Bondage! Up Yours!" and think, is cool dead?

I mean, I know it isn't, but it's not as easy to find anymore. Well, maybe it was tough to find back in the 70s as well. It's not like Poly Styrene was EVER in the American Top 40. Or 100. In the UK, "The Day The World Turned Day-Glo" reached No. 23 in April 1978, "Identity"  captured No. 24 in July 1978 and "Germ Free Adolescents" grabbed No. 18 in November 1978. Number 18 in America on Nov. 4? How about "Talking in Your Sleep" by Crystal Gayle? Not even "..Brown Eyes Blue"! Jeez.

I certainly wasn't aware of X-Ray Spex in their heyday. 1978? I was still listening to Donny & Marie and the "Grease" soundtrack on my tape recorder. Fact is, I never heard of them until a few years ago. Probably after reading Greil Marcus' "In the Fascist Bedroom." I'm terrifically hip after the fact.

What matters now and always is the music. Farewell, Poly! Thanks for the sounds!

X-Ray Spex - Oh Bondage! Up Yours!

R.I.P. Poly Styrene

the meaning of life- patti smith

[from More Reflections on The Meaning of Life, edited by David Friend and the Editors of Life Magazine, Little Brown and Company, 1992.]

'My first sense of life was that of motion, of being lifted, and the beating of my mother's heart. Then, as consciousness pressed, I turned in the radiance of my father's mind. When I closed my eyes I could feel the world spin. When I reached out I could feel the breath of care. Bound, within my blood, was their love, their burning and their discordant prayers.

Yet time makes ravens of us all and swiftly, it seemed, I fled from their grasp. The sea was a glass. The sky an immeasurable path.

Guided by the knowledge of them I journeyed fettered, free. And as all before me, I have questioned, grateful for the privilege of being able to ask: What is my task? Why do we exist? All answers produce the pain of recognition, emptiness and joy.

To prey upon stillness, to suffer dawn
To bow before God, to administer grace
To unveil space, to be spirited away
To lift a child
into the reigning air
where the voice of heaven
chirps like a bird'

Copyright © Patti Smith 1992

The Letter on ET

what the fuck!?!?!?! alix chilton on 'entertainment tonight'? mike was right. tv ain't what it used to be. seems back then something cool could slip through the cracks. i wonder if anyone watching this new anything else about chilton, and his unique genius. he is missed. he was one of the few older rockers who aged with dignity. when i saw him in 2000, he was the epitome of coolness and class. the image of him in his suit and big guitar is burned in my memory. i miss him like a friend.

To Be in England in the Summertime with My Love

What are 15-year-olds watching on MTV? Crap, no doubt. Boring, probably. Inventive, cutting-edge? Doubtful.

Well, back in '84, I was watching this, Art of Noise's "Close (to the Edit)".

I want my MTV (from the early '80s)! And I'd rather be back on January 2, 1984 taping WLIR's "Screamer of the Week" than chancing arthritis trying to stumble on ONE DECENT SONG on the radio today!

So, here -- watch this and feel better.

Middle Brother - Wilderness

god damn, i wish i had written this song.

Grinderman - No Pussy Blues (Live On Later)

savage.

Motörhead - Motörhead

i think Merritt Wever said it best in the latest episode of 'nurse jackie': 'I AM SPEED, MOTHERFUCKER'!!!!!!!

she makes me want to go to the hospital

No Scrubs

Posted by JShort

friends in low places

Posted by JShort

Set Adrift On Memory Bliss - PM Dawn (HQ Audio)

posted by j.short

Before the Doom: Lotta Love

Neil Young wrote it, even recorded it, and though he brands his songs like a rancher, I never saw his mark on Nicolette Larson's version. Even now, the knowledge absorbed, I can only think of Larson. Not because hers is the more popular version, but Larson's is the better voice for this poem. It's that symbiotic relationship between the lyrics and the singing that elevate this song into that lofty ether of music that could dispel the evil and ennui that has drawn the apocalypse towards humanity for ages.

This is the song for the battlefield and the churches. Her voice is a combination of the Wild West and New York City. I think when you hear "Lotta Love" you fall in love with Larson as deeply as you do with the song. Any civilization that breeds such a creature must devise a way to thwart its own demise. So, let's feedback the sound of our species! "Lotta Love" could give warlords pause, and cast doubt on the deadly designs of dictators.

If music doesn't save us, nothing will.

catholic boy: jim carroll

i'm reading jim carrolls'  'the petting zoo'. seems i'm on a bit of a new york kick.
if you're not familiar with carroll, or are only familiar with 'basketball diaries', you should check out the mans' poetry. he writes with surreal beauty and sadness, but never loses his cynical optimism. it makes me feel good to read him.
'the petting zoo' is also a deeply catholic book.
it's funny, if i'm ever asked what religion i am, i always say 'catholic'. even tho' i haven't practiced in years. i also usually add, 'i was an altar boy'!
that shit clings to you.
carroll died on 9/11/09.
that seems so right.

A Close Strangeness: Mars Classroom

Back Cover of "New Theory..."

MARS CLASSROOM - THE NEW THEORY OF EVERYTHING

In the basement with the windows open. Breeze in, Pollard out. Awaiting accolades from the neighborhood. Hey, I've unfrozen your time! Gather at the curbs and open your own windows! The Teacher is back in the classroom!

"The New Theory of Everything", the 28th(?) Pollard-related release of 2011, exudes a close strangeness. Like an android of your best friend. Like a grape in the dark.

17 years of Robert Pollard finds me in his Mars Classroom, advancing but never graduating. Failing gym to stay behind. Missing the bus for a ride home.

Pollard introduced a new theory of rock and roll. Here I am growing older, but there's no oldies station for me or my gang. Christ, I stood on line for 20 minutes on Record Store Day only to find the vinyl of "Sing For Your Meat" was sold-out It's not so much I grow with the music, but rather that I grow and my receptors pick up new signals from the music.

Pollard turns concrete (not just "the" concrete) into ice cream; anthems into epiphanies. Pulls dream into poems, yanking them down like heavy drapes. There's paneling and pool tables behind his lyrics -- I don't know how else to describe it. "Cassavetes to your Mia Farrow" means something to me. And it means something else. Then something else.

I never hear anything elitist in Pollard's music. Maybe knowing a songwriter's background informs the impression. But it's music for the common man. Surreal folk music? I don't know. I just know that it's the greatest music I've ever heard.

I dreamed I drove a bookmobile selling only Pollard's music. He collaged the entire truck! Driving down the shady streets, the rooftop speaker played...but, ah! I woke up. What would it have been? What could it have been?

Waleik & Beerman twist the reins of the chariot around their wrists and turn the race into a fury. Pollard's the horses. The origin of the chariot is unfathomable, but only responds to the pull of these three men.

There's math in there somewhere; physics, I suppose; and the daredevil dive of any artist who shares the city with the phoenix.

i always think of birds.

people are barbaric. i saw a man spit next to a baby carriage yesterday. i saw a woman alternate between sticking french fries and a menthol cig into her filthy, twisted maw. i heard them slur, smelled their stink, and had to acknowledge their rightful place as heirs to this wretched land.
barbarians.
but not quite.
there is no savagery in their actions. no passion. no real hate. just an uncomprehending, cancerous, nothingness in all their actions.
i can respect a barbarian with blood on his axe.
i cannot respect the slothful children he brings his bloody mounds of meat to.

there is savagery and grace to lou reed's 'metal machine music'. there is grace because i put it there. it may be a joke lou has played on us, on me. to make me seem like a pretentious fool. and that is savage.

it's just noise. but i always think of birds.

he claims in the liner notes that no one has ever listened to it in his entirety.
i have.
but i have also spent time in the hospital.
as has lou, receiving electo-shock treatment.
in that context, this album is probably the most personal album he, or perhaps anyone, has ever recorded. 4 sides of unrelenting feedback, squeals, screeches, and static.
and birds.
i can swear i hear birds.

so beautiful. this outpouring of hate, and anger, and sadness, and despair. and i sit and listen. and absorb it. and send it back. and it creates a loop. a horrible whistling, an animal whine, a bestial wail.
the birds.
i always think of birds.