Windy City Wax, Part II

I was in Chicago the weekend before last, drinking copious amounts of booze, eating too much food, and generally acting like a Roman emperor. Of course, sizable chunks (pun intended) of the weekend were set aside for running around with my buddy Furr to visit some of Chicago’s finest record stores. In addition to our usual stops (Dave’s, Laurie’s, Dusty Groove, and 2nd Hand Tunes), we made a point of checking out a couple of new (to us) record stores. Here’s where we went:

Dead Wax Records

3819 N. Lincoln – Chicago, IL * (773) 529-1932

The skinny: Not the world’s greatest selection, but a very nice space that’s got a fantastic vibe. Record stores like this are the reason I enjoy visiting record stores. Good music on the PA, friendly clerks (thanks Wilbur!) and nearly every format you can think of for sale. Many more records than cds, which is the way it should be, if you ask me. I struck out on the records (Furr found a nice stack), but I foraged for some excellent 8-Tracks in an overlooked bin under one of the record cases.

Of interest: The small book section up front has a comfortable easy chair that seemed like a fine place to sit and read. If we hadn’t been on a schedule I would have done exactly that.

Bonus points: For the big colorful sign (above) in the rear of the store, as well as the general ambience.

Key purchases: Sly & The Family Stone * Fresh (8-Track), Mandrill * We Are One (8-Track), The Bonzo Dog Band * The History Of The Bonzos (8-Track), Pre-School Fact and Fantasies (8-Track), Roy Ayers Ubiquity * Vibrations (8-Track)

*****

Permanent Records

1914 W Chicago Ave – Chicago IL, 60622 * (773) 278-1744 * www.PermanentRecordsChicago.com

The skinny: This store features a great mix of old and new vinyl and compact discs, a fine music mag section, and a handful of books on all topics. The well-lit, modern layout makes it easy to browse, and the employees were outgoing and helpful. I will definitely include this in my regular rotation of Chicago record stores from now on.

Of interest: Of the four places that I priced a particular new release on vinyl, Permanent was the least expensive. Just saying…

Bonus points: Zaireeka the store cat! This was the first record store I’d ever been in that had its own cat, and she was quite a charming ambassador.

Key purchases: August 2008 issue of Mojo, Beck * Modern Guilt (LP), The Rolling Stones * Sticky Fingers (LP – Spanish pressing with the intended original cover art), M. Ward * Transfiguration Of Vincent (LP), The Family Tree * Miss Butters (original LP)

Doubleshot Tuesday: Evil Urges/Modern Guilt

[Today: Uneven new albums from a pair of perennial house favorites...]

It’s hard to fault My Morning Jacket for continuing to expand the scope of their sound, but an adventurous spirit doesn’t always translate into great music. Evil Urges often borders on parody (‘Highly Suspicious’ in particular) and Jim James’ voice is run through a shrill series of painful falsettos that will try the patience of even the group’s most loyal fans. The album eventually gains its footing – and only undisputed highlight – with its final track, ‘Touch Me I’m Going To Scream Pt 2.’ This shimmering faux-disco romp turns the band’s sound upside down and provides a solid blueprint for future efforts. It’s too little too late to save this disappointing album, but the seeds of better songs may be strewn here, particularly if MMJ can learn from what doesn’t work on Evil Urges.

Listen: Touch Me I’m Going To Scream Pt. 2

Beck Hansen has had a schizophrenic career: half the time he’s a fun-loving, loose-limbed party freak, the rest of the time he’s a down-in-the-dumps singer/songwriter who can’t win at love. Rarely have the twain met, but Modern Guilt finds him gathering some disparate personality traits under a single tent. Unfortunately, instead of fusing the fun-loving, singer/songwriter parts of his sound, he’s brought together the dour and the electronica. Consequently, Modern Guilt floats in a cumulus cloud of despair, and amounts to little more than a mournful electronica haze that barely stirs a pulse. Simply put, this album is boring, and that’s one of the hardest adjectives to hang on Beck.

Listen: Chemtrails

*****

[In honor of my old-skool hometown radio station KZEL 96.1 FM, I'm introducing a new feature called Doubleshot Tuesdays. I'll use this forum to talk about a pair of albums that have something in common, deserve comparison, or just happen to be on my mind.]

Masterpiece: Funkify Your Life

[Today: New Orleans' finest...]

The Meters enjoyed just four moderate hit singles in their dozen years of existence. But their influence on the sound of modern music stands in direct contrast to that modest commercial success. They released a couple of all-instrumental albums for regional label Josie before signing to Warner’s Reprise label and working in a more funk/rock vein for most of the 70′s. All of their albums contain gems, and none are below average. With 43 tracks spread over two generous discs, Rhino’s Funkify Your Life: The Meters Anthology collects all the high points in one super-funky package.

The Meters were a band in the truest sense of the word: there’s not a weak link to be found among their ranks. Drummer Joseph ‘Zigaboo’ Modeliste drove the band with his perfectly imprecise, zig-zagging rhythms that snaked in and around Art Neville’s Hammond lines. Meanwhile, guitarist Leo Nocentelli and bassist George Porter Jr were off doing their own funky thang that would inevitably meet up with Modeliste and Neville’s funky thang every couple of measures or so. Incredibly loose, but super-tight: it’s a contradiction for almost every band except The Meters.

In addition to their own albums, The Meters were producer Allen Toussaint’s house band, and played on sessions for a wide variety of artists, including Lee Dorsey, Dr. John, and Paul McCartney. [Fun fact: The Meters are the backing band on Labelle’s disco smash ‘Lady Marmalade’ (ie “voulez vous couchez avec moi“). The Meters are ingrained into many different facets of funk music in the 70′s, and that influence eventually stretched into hip-hop, where they’re among the most consistently sampled acts.

Public Enemy producer Hank Shocklee has referred to The Meters’ sound as “…the formula for funk and hip-hop as we know it.” Unfortunately, the band broke up in 1977 when Toussaint exercised his right over the group’s name. Art Neville would go on to form the Neville Brothers, and while The Original Meters would reunite to play a few shows over the course of the last decade, it’s their music from 1969 to 1977 that still causes funk fans to shake their stuff, and DJs to hit the crossfade.

Listen: Cissy Strut

Buried Treasure: Thunder Chicken

[Today: The Mighty Imperials mine a dusty sound...]

Recorded in 1999 but unreleased until 2004, Thunder Chicken sounds like the work of a veteran funk/soul band tearing it up back in the day. Thing is, this album was recorded by a bunch of 16 year-old white kids out of New York who got their hands on a copy of The Meters’ ‘Cissy Strut’ and got New Orleans funk religion. They quickly recorded the music here and then watched it moulder on the shelf when their label (Desco Records) encountered financial problems.

Of Thunder Chicken‘s 11 tracks, seven are gutbucket instrumentals that sound like they were lovingly dredged from the bottom of a 99-cent Goodwill bin. The four songs featuring veteran gospel singer Joseph Henry qualify as the album’s highlights. Henry’s rough vocals give the band some purpose – something to wrap their grooves around and keep them from meandering. It’s impossible to tell if the lo-fi production was intentional or the result of Desco’s limited means, but either way it makes the album sound like a genuine funk relic that was cut in the Crescent City around 1970.

The Mighty Imperials were Leon Michels (Hammond B3 Organ), Sean Solomon (guitar), Nick Movshon (bass), and Homer Steinweiss (drums), although befitting a band with a sound this throwback, they also employed colorful pseudonyms such as Otis Youngblood, Khaled Abdul Mohammed, and Clarence “Chicken Scratch” Johnson. Of course, the group split up before Thunder Chicken was finally released, taking their talents on to bands like Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings and Antibalas.

It’s tempting to lament the demise of this group and wonder what might have been if this album had seen a proper release schedule. But it’s hard to see where they could have taken their sound from here, and another record in this vein would be have been unnecessarily redundant. The 40 minutes of music that make up this album are perfectly sloppy, scratchy, soulful slices of funk. Thunder Chicken represents the band’s entire catalogue, and fortunately it’s all the Mighty Imperials you’ll ever need.

Listen: Joseph’s Popcorn

The P Speaks: Townes Van Zandt, Folk Icon

[photo credit: Wood Newton 1977]

A Texan by birth and a traveler by nature, Townes Van Zandt’s dark country and folk ballads mirrored his own life of haunting truths. Born in 1944 into a wealthy Fort Worth oil family, he spent his childhood moving around the country as his father’s business travel required. As a young man, he was recognized for his near genius IQ and an anticipated career in law and politics, and he attended military school in his early high school years. 

Some say that Van Zandt was being groomed for Texas governorship, but he dropped out of college in Colorado and decided to pursue a singing career. Diagnosed with manic depression in his early twenties, he was treated with insulin shock therapy, which erased much of his long-term memory. He tried to join the Air Force during the Vietnam War but was rejected because of his psychiatric history.

Citing influences such as Hank Williams, Lightnin’ Hopkins guitar style, Bob Dylan’s early lyrics and his friend Guy Clark, Van Zandt moved to Houston in the mid-1960′s to try his hand at the musician’s life. With Mickey Newbury’s help, he recorded what became first album, For the Sake of the Song, produced by Cowboy Jack Clement (best known for his work with Johnny Cash) and released in 1968 by Poppy Records. 

The next five years were the most prolific of Van Zandt’s career, as Poppy and Tomato Records released five more albums: Our Mother the Mountain, Townes Van Zandt, Delta Momma Blues, High Low and In Between, and The Late Great Townes Van Zandt.  These included the meat of what made him a legend in songwriting circles: ‘For the Sake of the Song,’ ‘To Live’s to Fly,’ ‘Tecumseh Valley,’ ‘Pancho and Lefty,’ and many more. Van Zandt’s personal behavior bordered on erratic, and for much of the 1970s, he lived a reclusive life in a cabin in Tennessee, with no indoor plumbing or phone, appearing only occasionally to perform shows.

Thought influential to many, Van Zandt never achieved mainstream success himself, in part because lived the life of drinking, depression, rambling and gambling that he sang about. In 1977, he released Live at the Old Quarter, Houston. This record (as well as 2001′s Live at McCabe’s) showcases him at his best, with just an acoustic guitar and an enraptured audience, paired with Van Zandt’s self-deprecating charm and dry humor.  Others found commercial success in his music – Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson rose to the top of country charts in 1983 with a version of Van Zandt’s ‘Pancho and Lefty.’

From the early 1970s until his death on New Year’s Day in 1997 (of a blood clot in the lungs following hip surgery), Townes toured frequently, driven in large part, his friends said, by inner demons. Generally shy and reserved, Van Zandt struggled with alcohol and heroin throughout his adult life. At times he would become drunk on stage and forget the lyrics to his songs. Van Zandt’s dark material and public struggles with addiction were powerful beacons for many fans who were dealing with depression and similar issues. 

The LA TImes once hailed Van Zandt as “a cross between Woody Guthrie and Leonard Cohen.” Steve Earle put it a little more strongly: ”Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I’ll stand on Bob Dylan’s coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.” To this Van Zandt replied: ”I’ve met Bob Dylan and his bodyguards, and I don’t think Steve could get anywhere near his coffee table.”

Listen: Tecumseh Valley (from the album Live At The Old Quarter, Houston, Texas)

*****

Post Script

I came across a 1987 interview which lists these albums as Townes Van Zandt’s top LP’s of all time, and given recent discussions, it seemed appropriate to include here:

1. Hard Again – Muddy Waters

2. Mozart’s Violin Concertos Nos. 4 & 5

3. The Times They Are a Changin’ – Bob Dylan

4. Sticky Fingers – Rolling Stones

5. Automobile Blues – Lightnin’ Hopkins

6. Atlantic 12 String – Blind Willie McTell

7. Tchaikovsky – Piano Concertos – Van Cliburn

8. Richard Dobson’s first LP

9. The Complete Hank Williams

10. Old #9 – Guy Clark

11. Surrealistic Pillow – Jefferson Airplane

12. Waiting for the Naked Girl to Call – Tim Henderson

The Little Giant

Hard-bop saxophonist Johnny Griffin died this morning in Availles-Limouzine, France. He was 80 years old. Diminutive in stature (he stood 5’5″) but large in sound, Griffin was a technically gifted player who displayed dazzling speed and remarkable touch on his instrument. He showed more sensitivity with a ballad than could rightly be expected of a man once called “the world’s fastest saxophonist”.

Griffin was an up-and-comer around the time be-bop was breaking out in the late 40′s, and he was deeply influenced by the style of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. The lightning fast tempo of be-bop was never far from his sound, and Griffin held onto it long after other artists had abandoned it for newer and more profitable styles. He often offset his tremendous speed showcases with ballads and blues, but it’s clear that be-bop was the rhythm of Johnny Griffin’s heart beat.

He played alongside luminaries such as John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, and Art Blakey, and made a number of fine albums in the 50′s and 60′s for Riverside and Blue Note Records. A Blowin’ Session (1957) is considered his masterpiece, but we also recommend Introducing Johnny Griffin (1956) and The Little Giant (1959).

The world lost another jazz great today. Johnny Griffin may not have been a household name, but he’ll be sorely missed around these parts.

Listen: The Message (from the album The Little Giant)

10 Fabulous Male Divas

Repeated listens to Hercules And Love Affair last night left the P and I discussing the concept of the “male diva”. Antony Hegarty’s transformation into a sultry disco queen had us both amazed, and got us talking about who else fits into the ‘male diva’ category. The P wasn’t sure that male divas can exist outside of disco, but I disagree. For me, the term means more than a disco queen, a ‘prima donna’ or an androgynous character. Male divas project a flamboyant, stylish personality that’s larger than life and beyond rock star. Some are androgynous, and many are difficult, but all of these figures are shining beacons – attention magnets that demand you take notice…

Freddie Mercury | The undisputed champion male diva naturally fronted a band called Queen. In spite of bad teeth and a state trooper ‘stache, Mercury was one of the most glamorous rock stars of his day.

Sir Monti Rock III | The voice of Disco Tex & His Sex-O-lettes, Sir Monti had all the props any good male diva needs: fly hats, big fur coats, and tons of jewelry. His chiffon is wet, darling.

Prince | If Prince Rogers Nelson was just your average midwestern funkateer, he’d still make this list just for changing his name to that unpronounceable symbol for nearly a decade.

Sylvester | Nicknamed the “Queen of Disco”, Sylvester James was a transvestite hit-machine (‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’ ‘Dance (Disco Heat)’ and more) who set the bar for disco queens who followed.

Mick Jagger | Nobody prances like Mick.

Elton John | “I’m the Connie Francis of rock ‘n’ roll” – Sir Elton John

Axl Rose | Forget the skin tight bicycle shorts, the habitual tardiness, and those adorable dreadlocks – only a true diva can take 10 years and spend $15 million on a single album. And besides, how could I squander this chance to put Axl and Liberace back-to-back?

Liberace | He wore more bling than the entire Wu Tang Clan, and might have had more chutzpah as well. It’s quite possible that he invented this category…

Robert Plant | He’s got the flowing, curly locks, and a falsetto that can crack bulletproof glass, but when Percy referred to himself as a “golden god”, he cemented his place in this Top 10.

RuPaul | Is he really a musician? Does it really matter? This list is no doubt incomplete without the man born RuPaul Andre Charles.

*****

And a half dozen runners-up…

Kanye West
David Lee Roth
Tom Jones
Johnny Rotten
David Johansen
David Bowie

*****

Listen: It’s Raining Men

Instant Classic: Hercules And Love Affair

Just to set the record straight: disco didn’t suck, it was just misunderstood by middle America and misappropriated by greedy record labels. Likewise, disco didn’t die, it just dissipated into the underground, to be reborn in the guise of other, more acceptable genres. The music that pounded out of 1970′s Manhattan hotspots like the Paradise Garage and Studio 54 bears a striking resemblance to the house and electronica that popped up in Chicago and Ibiza in the mid-80′s. But as those genres matured, they began to sound less like disco and more like something else altogether.

Two decades on, disco hasn’t exactly undergone a cultural reappraisal, but at least it’s no longer a poison word. Throw in a whole bunch of people looking to escape the world’s problems, and now is definitely the time for an album like Hercules And Love Affair. Unapologetically wearing its disco influences on its sleeve, this is party music for a new century. The backbeat is strictly electronica, but the attitude is all disco, minus the troublesome cliches. Featuring tart splashes of horns, angelic backup singers, and anthems aplenty, this is powerful, uplifting music that works just as well on the dancefloor as it does on the headphones.

The band is made up of a collective of musicians based in and around Brooklyn, NY. Main man Andrew Butler holds the whole thing together, but he had the good sense to farm out most of the vocal duties on this album. Guest star Antony Hegarty (of Antony & The Johnsons) has morphed from a dour torch singer to a full-fledged disco diva – a stylistic change that may finally deliver him to the mass audience he deserves. On ‘Blind’ he sings like Gloria Gaynor in reverse – he might not survive, but he’s going to sound fabulous on the way down. Meanwhile, electric vocal turns by Kim Ann Foxmann and Nomi suggest that Antony isn’t the only diva in the mix.

The Greek themes sprinkled throughout the album are a wry touch, but the real history covered here is just three decades old. A full generation removed from its heyday, disco’s ancient roots have sprouted a fresh flower in Hercules And Love Affair.

Listen: Blind (full album version)

A Dozen Artists Poorly-Served By Best-Of Compilations

A few weeks back I took a look at some musicians who are well-served by Greatest Hits compilations. Here now are a dozen artists who fit the flip-side of that description…

Artist: Pink Floyd

Collection: A Collection Of Great Dance Songs

Problem: The Floyd’s albums are conceptual puzzles that are meant to be enjoyed whole, and not on some choc-a-bloc collection with an unfortunately ironic name.

Artist: Funkadelic/Parliament

Collection: Tear The Roof Off: 1974-1980

Problem: George Cllinton’s twin funk powerhouses cranked out more than a dozen albums from 1976 to 1980 alone. No one compilation could possibly capture even a fraction of the best stuff, and the collections out there tend to stress the well-known material at the expense of some red-hot, but lesser-known jams.

Artist: Radiohead

Collection: The Best Of

Problem: Radiohead’s albums are all stylistically individual, so the idea of mixing their “hits” together into a big stew is kind of sonically nauseating. The fact that this compilation was released against the band’s wishes might also make you a little queasy.

Artist: Miles Davis

Collection: Take your pick.

Problem: Miles Davis made artistic strokes so bold and large that they took several albums to flesh out – witness the second quintet albums of the mid-60′s or the fusion gems of the late 60′s/early 70′s. The idea of encapsulating his career in one collection is madness – every song he made was a greatest hit.

Artist: Public Enemy

Collection: Greatest Misses

Problem: An uninspired collection of oddball non-hits and not-so-great re-mixes. Any of PE’s best albums (Fear Of A Black Planet, Nation Of Millions, and Apocalypse 91) lay claim to more great songs that this.

Artist: Grateful Dead

Collection: Skeletons From The Closet

Problem: The Dead just aren’t this kind of band. Their studio albums are barely relevant to what makes them great, let alone some patchwork best of. This is the kind of collection that non-Dead fans point to and say “See?“.

Artist: Tom Waits

Collection: Beautiful Maladies: The Island Years

Problem: Waits combines all the elements that make for a poor best-of: his albums are best consumed in full, he’s changed his sound wildly from one album to the next, and he hasn’t had any actual ‘hits’ to speak of. Naturally, his best collection isn’t Beautiful Maladies, but 2006′s Orphans, a scrapbook of B-sides and oddities.

Artist: Jimi Hendrix

Collection: The Essential Hendrix, Volumes I & II

Problem: These aren’t bad collections in and of themselves, but the fact that Jimi made just three studio albums in his abbreviated career makes any best-of seem superfluous.

Artist: Led Zeppelin

Collection: Mothership

Problem: Wait, isn’t that George Clinton’s thing? Zeppelin has several inadequate best-ofs on the market – Mothership just happens to be the latest and not-so-greatest. Do yourself a favor and get the studio albums – all of them are worth your time.

Artist: Bob Dylan

Collection: Greatest Hits, Volumes I, II, & III

Problem: With so many great albums in the discography, why would anyone tread here? Blood On The Tracks, Highway 61 Revisited, Bringing It All Back Home Again, Time Out Of Mind – any of them are a better place to wade into the myth of Bob Dylan than his Greatest Hits.

Artist: The Rolling Stones

Collection: Hot Rocks

Problem: The best bits of the Stones’ catalogue go well beyond their established hits. In fact, many of their finest songs (‘Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’ ‘Monkey Man’ and ‘Jigsaw Puzzle’ to name but three) are tucked away in places where only the true fans can find and enjoy them.

Artist: KISS

Collection: Smashes, Thrashes, and Hits

Problem: KISS is larger than life, and this collection is not. ‘Let’s Put The X In Sex’ is just plain bad, and shows that the group had run out of musical ideas by the early 80′s. Good thing they’re so on top of merchandising…

Buried Treasure: Rides Again

[Today: The James Gang find their groove...]

In April of 1969, James Gang’s founding guitarist Glen Schwartz left the band to join the ranks of a little-known white blues outfit called Pacific Gas & Electric. His departure opened a spot in the group for a precocious ax-man named Joe Walsh. With Walsh aboard, James Gang reeled off three of the most underappreciated hard rock albums of the late 60′s and early 70′s. Their second, Rides Again, is their best, and features the band’s definitive lineup of Walsh, bassist Dale Peters and drummer Jim Fox.

This 1970 album kicks off with a bang – opener ‘Funk #49′ wasn’t a big hit in its day, but it grew to become one of the most recognizable radio anthems of the 70′s, and continues to see heavy rotation on classic rock radio. Nothing else on Rides Again quite reaches that rarified air, but it’s a solid album through and through, filled with tasty guitar licks, stomping boogie rock, and a couple of not-terrible ballads. Like everything else produced by the Walsh-era Gang, it’s an album you’ll never regret dropping on your turntable.

James Gang would release one more studio album (1971′s Thirds) before Walsh departed for a highly successful solo career. The fact that he scored several major hits (including ‘Rocky Mountain Way’ and ‘Life’s Been Good’) before going on to play in The (oh so insipid) Eagles all but erased anyone’s memory of his former band. A shame, because James Gang helped define a certain strain of tough, Midwestern rock that has never gone out of fashion, and still sounds like a Friday night should.

Listen: Funk #49