Hoppy Easter!

Happy Easter courtesy of Polish black metal band, Behemoth and their song, "Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel"... 

Have fun with the nightmares!

\m/

Movie Night: Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

Hello Friends,

Grab your popcorn and pull up a stool, its Movie Night again on Vinyl in the Valley!

Tonight we're watching Inside Llewyn Davis, a 2013 movie written and directed by the great Joel & Ethan Coen.

No one quite portrays the existential crises of modern man as enjoyably as the Coen Brothers do in their films.  From Barton Fink to Big Lebowski to their terribly underrated masterpiece, A Serious Man, the brothers Coen seem to be drawn to characters who are on psychic journeys-- road movies not necessarily of a specific place or time, but rather of a state of mind.

Inside Llewyn Davis is a film that could have only been made by the Coens.  The story revolves around the ups and downs (mostly downs) of the title character, Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac), a folk singer bouncing around clubs & coffee shops in 1961 Greenwich Village.  Musically, 1961 is kind of in a creative abyss taking place between Rock and Roll's first Golden Age and the next generation of greats like Bob Dylan and The Beatles. 

Based very loosely on real life folkster Dave Van Ronk, Llewyn's odyssey is one of just scraping by, never quite "making it", playing folk covers in cafes, sleeping on couches, burning bridges and chasing cats.  Along the way, there's the last of his "friends", folk duo Jim & Jean (Justin Timberlake & Carey Mulligan); a revealing trip to the abortion clinic; a road trip to wintery Chicago; beatnik poets (Garrett Hedlund), junkie jazzmen (John Goodman) and a brief glimpse of this new folky upstart (Dylan) who's about to turn this entire world on its ear.  And cats, cats, cats.

The entire cast is great.  Adam Driver who plays Al Cody (loosely based on Ramblin' Jack Elliott) is a real standout!

Although we agree its a little bit of a tough and challenging movie at times, we give Inside Llewyn Davis two cocktail glasses up!  Au revoir!

We'll see you next time, friends, until then the Tiki Bar is closed*.  

(* not really)

Music to Change her Mind

Jackie Gleason - "Music to Change Her Mind" (1956) - Capitol Records

Hello Friends,

Its been a while since we've had The Great One on the VITV turntable and tonight we've got a classic piece of Gleason "mood" music spinning.  And just what mood is that?  How about the mood to feed our date some red wine and sleeping pills while taking complete advantage of her! 

You think we're kidding?  All the clues are there friends.  Something is amiss! Just check out some of these song titles: "You've Changed", "GUILTY", "It WAS so Beautiful", "She's Funny That Way", "All By Myself", "You and the Night and the Music", "Dancing in the Dark", "You Call it Madness", et cetera.  It reads like some creepy night stalker's diary entries!

Music to Change Her Mind is the sound you hear in the wee hours of the morning, just before you fall asleep, with a good buzz going, after you smoked your last cigarette.

It's the sound of your brainwaves in a dense fog: misty, muddled, familiar and dreamlike.

The ethereal horn of Bobby Hackett is present throughout like a beacon in the night guiding us to shore!

FUN FACT: Side One's haunting "You're My Greatest Love" is also the theme music to The Honeymooners!

RATING: 4 Strings of Poloponies out of 5

13th Floor Elevators: Headstone - The Contact Sessions

The 13th Floor Elevators - "Headstone: The Contact Sessions" (1966/2010) - Contact Records

Hello Friends,

Tonite we're listening to the first LP in our recently acquired Music of the Sphere's box set.

Recorded in early 1966 by legendary psychedelic producer Walt Andrus, Headstone was supposed to be the Elevators' first LP (it was to be released on Gordon Bynum's Contact Records), but for reasons too convoluted to go into here, the finished product never saw the light of day! Luckily for us, The Elevators "lost" first album wasn't really lost all and they would eventually be signed to Houston's International Artists record label and get a proper debut with The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators.

Headstone (recorded in mono) sounds raw and raucous. Loud and electric.  A mix of original and cover tunes. Perfect in all its imperfection.  

Its a proper-sounding album and not just a collection of demos and outtakes.

It should also be noted that by early 1966, most of the members of the band were subsisting on a steady diet of marijuana, various pills and LSD.      

The opening track-- what would become the band's signature song-- "You're Gonna Miss Me", sets the stage not only for the rest of the album, but for the rest of the band's too-short career. 

At first, "You're Gonna Miss Me" sounds like pretty much any other post-British Invasion garage rock song, thunderous power chords (played by guitarist Stacy Sutherland) lead to a chaos-fueled drum beat that sounds as if both the drummer (John Ike Walton) and the drumset are tumbling down a flight of stairs while never quite losing the beat.  And what's that sound weaving between the beats like a swarm of stoned bees?  Why its an amplified jug being played (er, rather, being vocalized) by Elevators' founding member, Tommy Hall.  Within the first 20 seconds you can tell this band is going to be something more than just another Yardbirds-influenced blues band! 

Then... there's the voice! Like a demonic freight train breaking through the gates of hell, the barbaric yawp of lead singer, Roky Erickson, pierces through the music sounding just as frightening and unhinged today as it must have to audiences back in 1966. Amazing! 

You're gonna wake up one morning as the sun greets the dawn,
You're gonna wake up one morning as the sun greets the dawn,
You're gonna look around in your mind, girl, you're gonna find that I'm gone...

"You're Gonna Miss Me" is followed up by another original written by Tommy Hall & Stacy Sutherland, "Tried to Hide".  Then there's a cover of the Solomon Burke blues tune, "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love".  Next up is the the aching ballad, "Take That Girl" written by fellow Austin bohemian and frequent Elevators' collaborator, Powell St. John.

"You Can't Hurt Me Anymore" is another Hall-Erickson composition.  Side One closes with a nod to another fellow Texan, Buddy Holly, with the Elevators covering "I'm Gonna Love You Too" which sounds a little like what Holly himself might have sounded like if he would have made it to 1966-- stoned, world-weary and jaded, and with an electric jug frantically going at it in the background.

Side Two opens with another Powell St. John composition, "Monkey Island".  Its creepy and psychedelic as Erickson sings (yells) his heart out with lyrics literally about living on a monkey island.  ("Living home on Monkey Island, baby, right in the middle of a zoo / Living home on Monkey Island, baby, pretended to be a monkey too".) 

If a Southern and stoned Bob Dylan sang lead for Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, it might have sounded something like the next song, "Roller Coaster".  Another Erickson composition complete with tempo changes and very psychedelic lyrics about "opening up your mind and letting everything come through".

Things quiet down a bit on the gorgeous ballad, "Now I'm Home (Splash 1)", co-written by Erickson and Tommy Hall's wife, Clementine.  More melancholia, more paranoia and a killer guitar solo. Sample lyric: "The fierceness of my feelings rocks me like a roar / Its good to know we won't be strangers anymore".  (Supposedly Roky began writing this song after meeting yet another Texas native, Janis Joplin!)  On the song "You're Gonna Miss Me", Erickson declared with little uncertainty, "I'm not coming home!"-- on "Now I'm Home", midway through Side Two, he's apparently had a change of heart!  

The record ends with early versions of two more great psychedelic originals, "Where Am I? (Thru the Rhythm)" and "Fire Engine".  The former reaching new heights in lyrical neurosis while the latter is a surf tune written as a tribute to a mind-expanding DMT experience ("The Empty Place" = "DMT Place", get it kids?)

Again, there's some long story as to why Headstone wasn't released as the band's first album.  It would have made a fantastic debut.  But take a bunch of loud rock & roll, some rowdy Texas teenagers, a bunch of mind-altering substances and a very public drug bust and I guess its lucky that anything survived!

    Here's an early version of "You're Gonna Miss Me" courtesy of Roky Erickson's first band, The Spades: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qan7lVj3KtM.  

Can't wait to hear what's up next, the band's actual debut, The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators!

RATING: 4.5 Let Me Take You To The Empty Place On My Fire Engine out of 5

"She Used to Love Me A Lot"

Johnny Cash - "She Used to Love Me A Lot" from the 2014 release, Out Among The Stars-- a "lost" Cash album from the 80's.

Video is directed by the great Australian director, John Hillcoat (The Proposition, The Road, Lawless).

Anodyne

Uncle Tupelo - "Anodyne" (1993) - Sire Records

an·o·dyne  [an-uh-dahyn] 

noun

1. a medicine that relieves or allays pain.

2. anything that relieves distress or pain: The music was an anodyne to his grief.

adjective

3. relieving pain.

4. soothing to the mind or feelings.

Hello Friends,

They say parting is such sweet sorrow and Anodyne is the sound of a band coming apart at the seams.  

By 1993 Uncle Tupelo were ready to conquer the world.  Anodyne was their fourth record as well as their major label debut (Sire Records).  By now, the Tupelo sound really developed into a perfect balance of angst-ridden, early 90's indie rock and more traditional country music.  However tensions between founding members, Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) and Jay Farrar (Son Volt), were at a breaking point.   So much so that Farrar would refuse to play on Tweedy songs live in concert!  (What a jerk!)  As is often the case with bands (or artists, in general), its this kind of unflappable tension that helps create one of the early 90's great records, both musically & lyrically. 

The 12 songs on Anodyne are part early R.E.M., part Replacements, part Sticky Fingers, part Neil Yong and with a healthy dose of Hank Williams, The Louvin Brothers, Johnny Cash and the Bakersfield sound. (Actually, as I listen to this record 20 years since I first heard it, I'm thinking Sticky Fingers is the closest comparison to Anodyne in sound, style and mood!)

So many great lyrics too.  Overall a very sad record...

"A worn out joke to keep the flies away
Carried it this far
Got the west side winds to keep it steady
We bury the hatchets we find
Could carry that heavy load" (Slate)

"When jousting is for pleasure
Pleasure is way out of hand
The time is right for getting out while we still can
Chickamauga's where I've been
Solitude is where I'm bound
I don't ever wanna taste these tears again
I don't ever wanna taste these tears again" (Chickamauga)

"All my daydreams are disasters
She's the one I think I love
Rivers burn and then run backwardsFor her, that's enough" (New Madrid)
 
"You threw out the past
When you threw out what was mine
Throughout the years
It was hard to make it last
Anodyne" (Anodyne)

"There's a guitar leaning on a Marshall stack
Used to sound like the sun on the horizon
Now I think we've been had" (We've Been Had)


"Slings and arrows completes the score
Always leaving, wanting more
And I try to throw it away
Strings that pull, strings that bend
This song and dance never ends" (Fifteen Keys) 

"So long since I've seen you
Haven't we both been living the high life
It flows to the bottom
No more, no more will I see you
No more will I see you
No more will I see you" (Steal the Crumbs)

Smack dab in the middle of Side One is the one cover on the album.  A great version of Doug Sahm's (of The Sir Douglas Quintet) "Give Back the Key to My Heart" with Sahm himself accompanying on guitar & vocals.

Here's Jeff Tweedy's The Long Cut live on Conan O'Brien (sadly, the band's only nationally televised performance):

Fucking crazy how young they all look back in 1994 (including Conan!!)

Great... now I'm sad!  

Thanks to Amy & Jim for the sweet 180 gram vinyl re-issue! 

RATING: 4.5 Mister Browning has a Prediction out of 5

13th Floor Elevators: Music of the Spheres

Hello Friends,

Your old pal Ned Tugent celebrated a big birthday this month (hint: its a birthday with a Zero in it) and to help mark the occasion, Miss Tiki Tuscadero scrimped and saved in order to buy MUSIC OF THE SPHERES - The Ultimate 13th Floor Elevators Vinyl Box Set.  A beautifully packaged 9 LP Box with a companion book, some groovy psychedelic prints and pretty much EVERYTHING from the Elevators' tragically short- but hugely influential-- rock n roll career.  The damn thing weighs about 10 pounds!

Fucking incredible is what it is! And we're really going to enjoy the hours of psychedelic music courtesy of Austin, Texas's greatest garage band!  

Over the course of the next couple of months we're really going to sink our teeth into these records and review them here one at a time.  We can't wait!  Especially as this long, cold winter draws to a close and our small corner of the world thaws out and are nights are greeted with brilliant sunsets, dizzying cocktails and some mind-expanding music.

Rarely in life is two minutes quite this satisfying!

Stay Tuned...

Sound City: Real to Reel

"Sound City: Real to Reel" Soundtrack (2013) - Roswell Records 

Hello Friends,

Sound City: Real to Reel isn't so much a soundtrack to the Dave Grohl documentary as much as it is a companion piece.  This is not a compilation of all of the great songs recorded at the legendary Sound City recording studios, but rather a labor of love by Grohl (and a hodgepodge of friends) who got together to create some totally new music in celebration of his film.

Most of the 11 tracks here were recorded by Butch Vig and ALL were recorded in Grohl's private studio on "the" Neve 8028 console from the original Studio City.  

Surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly) its an incredibly listenable double LP set with every song pretty much being good.  

Side A has Grohl and the Foos jamming with such strange bedfellows as members of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club ("Heaven and All"), Masters of Reality, Rage Against the Machine ("Time Slowing Down") and Miss Stevie Nicks ("You Can't Fix This").  At first, we just figured this was going to be a throwaway novelty song, but the Stevie Nicks song is great! It sounds as if it would have been right at home on Fleetwood Mac or Rumors.

Side B begins with "The Man That Never Was" featuring Rick Springfield and the song sounds exactly like a Foo Fighters song if it were sung by Rick Springfield!  Things take a (welcome) punk turn on "Your Wife Is Calling", featuring the vocals and harmonica(!) of Mr. Lee "Fear" Ving.  The side concludes with "From Can to Can't" featuring a passionate Corey Taylor (Slipknot) on vocals and the inimitable Rick Nielsen on lead guitar.

Side C starts out with two songs featuring longtime Grohl collaborators, Josh Homme and Alain Johannes ("Centipede" and "A Trick With No Sleeve").  Speaking of collaborators, Nirvana bassist, Krist Novoselic, joins Dave and Pat Smear on the Grammy-winning, "Cut Me Some Slack" which features septuagenarian Paul McCartney on vocals and guitar.  Again, the result is far from the cheesiness one might expect; it sounds like a loud and grungey update of Helter Skelter-era Paul.  A fusion of two of the most important Rock & Roll bands of all time, what's not to like?

Side D begins with Grohl going mostly acoustic on the ballad-y "If I Were Me" (again, this would fit right in on a Foo Fighters record!).  And the album closes with the 8 minute climactic, "Mantra", featuring Grohl, Homme & Trent Reznor-- a fitting conclusion to an overall great record.  (Plus, Reznor & Homme harmonizing sounds really good!)

Our fear here was that this was going to sound like a hastily put-together "Rock & Roll Hall of Fame" Jam Session, but instead, the artists here (lead by Grohl) really give their all and come up with 11 really enjoyable songs.  There's not a stinker in the bunch and because of Grohl's presence throughout the record has a good flow, a solid sound, from start to finish!

RATING: 4.5 Your Wife Is Calling (Tell Her I'm Not Here) out of 5

Movie Night: Sound City (2013)

Hello Friends,

Grab your popcorn and pull up a stool, its Movie Night again on Vinyl in the Valley!

Tonight we're watching Sound City, a 2013 documentary about the legendary recording studio in Van Nuys, California.

Directed by Dave Grohl, the documentary tells the story of the rise and fall (and rise again, sort of) of the seminal rock & roll studio that in its heyday produced some of rock's greatest acts including Fleetwood Mac, Cheap Trick, Tom Petty, Nirvana, Neil Young, Elton John, The Dead, Nine Inch Nails, Dio, Slayer, Tool and Rick Springfield to name a few!  

Grohl spends the first two-thirds of his film on the history of the studio, the artists who performed there, and the legendary music created there.  The last third of the film shows Grohl restoring the Studio's one-of-a-kind NEVE 8028 analog mixing console in his private studio (Studio 606) and inviting various musicians who have recorded at the original Studio City over to jam.  

These are some of the best scenes in the movie.  Its a lot of fun to see Grohl and friends write & record with the likes of Stevie Nicks, Rick Springfield, Lee Ving, Josh Homme, Trent Reznor and (especially) Paul McCartney.

In recent years, digital music has really put the screws on more tradtional, analog recording methods.  A song recorded and mixed on a lap top using Pro-Tools regularly becomes a top-selling hit.  Thunderous drums have been largely replaced by heavily-programmed machines; crisp and delicate vocal tracks have been supplanted by Autotune.

Of course, here on "Vinyl in the Valley", we're always suckers for nostalgia and (generally speaking) we prefer the sound and feel of analog over anything digital. We like our music like we like our women: a little rough around the edges, with charming flaws and full of tiny little mistakes.  Give us the crackle and pop of listening to vinyl over the electric hum of a spinning Compact disc (or, worse, the souless silent processing of an mp3). 

As Grohl ponders in his film, "How do we get music to sound like people?"  Agreed!

We give Sound City two cocktail glasses up! 

We'll see you next time, friends, until then the Tiki Bar is closed*.  

(* not really)