Monday, October 5, 2009

Dan vs. Dave: The Battle Continues

Since Boomer sucks, it looks like its up to the Nüdge to keep the blog alive.

This one will require some feedback. As you all know the epic battle between Dans and Daves has raged since the early 1990's. Dans would argue that winning the gold medal in the 1996 Olympics clearly is the trump card in the classic battle. However, Daves may counter that no medal can account for the epic fail that was Dan's lack of qualifying in 1992 after all the hype.

There is no doubt that Dan in Real Life is superior to Meet Dave, but what about Dave, a pretty solid flic and most likely Ben Kingsleys greatest role, sorry Ghandi. Since this is a music blog maybe we should settle it there so I have a reason to post this here.

Dave Matthews -- what would you say, I say weak sauce, but still better than 80% of the crap out there.

Steely Dan -- solid band, sweet light show, Reeling in the years, and mad props to any band that Michael McDonald contributed to.

Dave Grohl - would be a positve for Daves all over had he stopped at Nirvana, however the addition of "There goes my Heeerooo watch him as he goes" to his resume, makes me watch his positive impact for Dave's go as well.

Banjo Dan and the Midnight Plowboys - wow mad points for Dans everywhere on this one: --US Senator Patrick Leahy: "Thanks, Dan. What a production!" Hard to argue this is not a blow to Daves around the globe.

Dave Mason - this is a good one for Daves, he played with just about everyone, Traffic kicks ass, and he plays the acoustic on Hendrix's version of All Along the Watchtower

Dave Mustaine - too hard core for Metallica (what a bunch of sellout pansies to have to kick him out), formed his own band called Megadeth, and beat George Clinton on Rock and Roll Jeopardy not sure how Dans can top this...

Hmmm Goodbye Dan Marino perhaps?

-Nüdge

Thursday, September 10, 2009

K&W Calling

While we wait endlessly for Boomer to post his next musings, I have decided to break my place in line and post since Boomer is taking months and is a lazy ass, anyways I was recently inspired by two great things: The K&W Cafeteria and The Clash's London calling. I thought to myself, wouldn't it be great if two classics like this could be combined some how, so below is the love child of the song and the food, you can see the two really do belong together like peanut butter and jelly, if peanut butter were a song by a british punk band and jelly was a southern food cafeteria that is. Enjoy with a little biscuit and excitement on the side:

K&W calling to the faraway towns
Lunch time is declared - and trays come down
K&W calling to the hungerworld
Come out of the cupboard,you boys and girls
K&W calling, now don't eat too much
Phoney Picadilly has bitten the dust
K&W calling, see we ain't got no dumplings
'Cept for liver and onions and that luncheon thing

CHORUS
The seniors are coming, lard asses zooming in
Jello mold and pies, no hope in growing thin
A vegan's terror, but I have no fear
Cause K&W is open and graavvvy, flows like a river!

K&W calling to the stomach alone?
Forget it, brother, throw the taste buds a bone
K&W calling may lead to our death
Keep pigging out - its better than meth
K&W calling - and I don't wanna shout
But while we were talking I saw lines thinning out
K&W calling, see they ain't got no fries
Except for that skin on drumsticks and thighs

CHORUS x2
The seniors are coming, lard asses zooming in
Jello mold and pies, no hope in growing thin
A vegan's terror, but I have no fear
Cause K&W is open and graavvvy, flows like a river!

Now get this
K&W calling, yes, I was there, too
An' you know what they said? Well, some of it was true!
K&W calling pan pie for a while,
And after soft rolls, won't you give me a smile?
K&W Calling

I never felt so much alike, like-a, like-a...

Monday, March 2, 2009

Top 5 Worst Songs by Great Artists

So The Nüdge has a penchant for making top 5 lists, my goal is to make enough over time that I can eventually make a Top 5 Top 5 lists list. So we are going to start it off with the Top 5 Worst Songs by Great Artists. Let me explain the criteria I am using a bit. In order to be eligible the song must be really, really bad but performed by an artist I think is really good. So for instance while I may be tempted to put every song ever played by the The Eagles on the list, I cannot because that would imply that in spite of this one song (in this case their entire repertoire) that they are still great which they clearly are not. The same analogy also works for Aerosmith, although they may be eligible for a future Top 5 list: Top 5 Great Songs by Horrible Artists. Anyways I think you get the point, feel free to comment and add suggestions, if they are bad enough I may have to edit the list, like the Constitution it can be viewed as a living and breathing document.

5) Tears in Heaven - Eric Clapton - I know this one will be a controversial pick because of the subject matter of this song but seriously this is the guy who rocked with Cream, ripped Crossroads, played Further on up the Road at the Last Waltz, and who covers J.J. Cale like no other not once but twice, and we have to listen to this. Add the requisite saturation through constant radio play and the sympathy Grammy's and this song becomes borderline unbearable.

4)Shiny Happy People-R.E.M. - This song makes me want to shoot myself in the head. And just when you thought it couldn't be worse... , actually I take it back that may be better.

3)France - The Grateful Dead - This song is so bad I cannot find an Internet link for audio of it, the best I can do is find a site that scrolls the lyrics, my only guess is because to play the song would immediately bankrupt the web provider. Seriously find the Shakedown Street album put it on Track 2 and wonder to yourself how this is not #1 on my list, especially compared to this from the same album. Thanks for letting Mickey Hart write a song and Donna Jean sing one guys. If this had been written by Weir/Barlow or Garcia/Hunter it might really be #1, it slides to #3 because maybe they were just throwing Mickey a bone by putting it on the album either that or they had found some really really potent drugs at the time. Never Performed Live.

2)Higher Love - Steve Winwood - This song is so bad it almost makes you forget how great Steve Winwood actually is. From Spencer Davis Group to Traffic to Blind Faith (a band with two members cracking this list) Steve Winwood was an artist that other artists wanted to play with. I saw a Biography on Jimi Hendrix where a close friend of his is talking about how Jimi always wanted to play with Steve Winwood but was too nervous to ask, something tell me if he had been around for this release it may have settled his nerves a bit.

1)I'm No Angel - Gregg Allman - When I first found out this was Gregg Allman I did not believe it, I actually thought it was Eddie Money for years. Boasting great lyrics such as "Come and let me show you my tattoo" it is hard to see where this song steered so far wrong. I can only rest easy that Gregg Allman did not end his career with this, and has since been touring with The Allman Brothers Band and not playing this garbage. Talk about a roller coaster, start with this brilliance then move to what we are discussing and then come full circle to end well.

Others receiving votes: Kokomo - The Beach Boys, Savoy Truffle - The Beatles, The entire Album -Ball - Widespread Panic.

Ok there is my list, have at it, up next Top 5 Worst Venues to see a show.
Nüdge out.

Friday, February 27, 2009

That Sweet New Orleans Piano Sound

Everybody has heard of the blues and jazz. But, have you ever heard of boogie woogie, zydeco, stride, ragtime, and calypso? Well believe it or not, all seven of these musical forms played an important role in shaping and influencing the amorphous genre we call rock and roll.

As one of the big three centers for the development of American roots music, New Orleans has been home to an incredible collection of artists over the decades, many of whom commanded the above musical styles. For me, two N'Awlinz players in particular blended all these genres into one savory gumbo of ivory tickling greatness: Professor Longhair and James Booker.

I'll spare you the full biography of either of these two legends (though if your interested, see here, and here), but I will talk just a little about their music. A lot of people (but probably not enough) are familiar with the music of Professor Longhair. He won a posthumous Grammy winner in 1987, he was a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee in 1992, and his album "New Orleans Piano" was voted #220 on Rolling Stones' 500 Greatest Albums list.

Fess, as he we called later in his career, has been credited as the founder of the New Orleans piano style. This style is generally characterized as a combination of all the above musical forms, with a special focus on the player's technique. This difficult technique involves using the left hand to continuously pound out bass line chord walks, while contemporaneously using the right hand to accent the bass notes and chords with lead style runs that fly all over the keys. In short, this.

Professor Longhair was not only the creator of this sound, but many today still consider his work on the keys to be the best ever produced. One of his most famous songs, and one that really showcases how uniquely talented this guy was (it also happens to be my favorite by him) is the eccentric tune "Tipitina". If you've ever been to New Orleans, you may have noticed a famous music club there in the city by the same name. Now you know where the name of the club came from. Here are some other great glimpses of the Fess: "Hey Little Girl," "Bald Head," and "Everyday I Have the Blues." All it takes is one listen to this stuff and there's no question that this guy helped pave the way for rock and roll.

James Booker came along as a recording artist a decade after rock and roll had cemented its place in American culture. However, thanks to his immense talent on the piano and his flare for performing, it didn't take long for the even the best musicians out there to name him as one of their influences. As you probably noticed from the above videos, Professor Longhair could really do a lot with the keys. But, in my opinion, Booker could do even more (especially with his left hand playing bass note walks.) He was classically trained on the piano, and was reputed to have learned entire compositions from Chopin, Bach and Rachmananoff after only one listen. Somehow, he was actually able to incorporate these classical sounds into his modern New Orleans style. Booker was nothing short of a virtuoso.

Tragically, he suffered from lifelong mental illness and battled a sever drug problem which eventually took his life. Despite this, much of his music still lives on. Booker is much less well known than Professor Longhair, so it's a lot harder to find links to his stuff online. By far, my favorite Booker tune is his take on the blues/jazz classic "Junco Partner." Unfortunately, I could not find a link to Booker's recording of the song (other than the 5 second preview on Amazon), so I will just have to link you to Dr. John's attempt; while good, it can't touch Booker's version of the song, trust me. There are, on other hand, some great examples of Booker's playing on these (mostly instrumentals): "Pixie,"Put Out the Light," "Yes Sir That's My Baby," and an untitled recording.

An interesting note is that Booker schooled a young Harry Connick, Jr. on how to play New Orleans style blues - can you tell?

For anyone who likes the blues, jazz and/or rock & roll, I would strongly suggest getting to know these two artists. There's no better place to start than here: for Professor Longhair start with the album New Orleans Piano; for James Booker start with any of these three records. Buy, download or steal, you'll be happy that these albums were added to your collection.

Boomer

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Be on the Lookout for Some Guest Gyros!

Just an FYI to our readers,

The Nüdge and I have many compadres out there who not only know a ton about music, but also bring very different perspectives to the party (not that anyone would ever need viewpoints beyond the brilliance that we already offer.)

Quite a few of these folks have guest authorship privileges in here, and we look forward to their analyses and reviews. So, be on the lookout for these fresh new commentators.

Boomer

Poor Howard only knows that he knows nothing.

Hey there. I'm poor Howard, and I know less about music than anyone on this blog. Really. I'm just some guy. Usually when I'm listening to music it's while I'm doing something else. But I'm operating under the assumption that---even though Boomer has the power to communicate with humbucker pickups and the Nudge could probably list the entire discographies of Creepwood and Stinky Creek and other patchouli-scented jam bands I've never even heard of---I'm still entitled to my opinions. For me, talking about music is fun for the same reason talking about sports is fun: there are nearly as many opinions as there are people, and very few of those opinions are flat-out wrong.

Here's a not-quite-flat-out-wrong opinion of mine: Pearl Jam is better than Nirvana. Ten is better than Nevermind.

When I say this to people who know more about music than I do, one of two things always happens: (a) their heads explode, or (b) they spend the rest of the conversation treating me like Forrest Gump ("Really," they whisper to their friends, "as damaged as he is, the fact that he can hold an opinion at all is a triumph of the human spirit"). But I don't care. For a host of personal reasons that maybe I'll get into in a future post, I prefer Pearl Jam.

Meanwhile, feel free to write a long comment telling me how I made your head explode or how I'm a Faulknerian idiot man-child. But if you do, take a moment to stop typing at some point and listen carefully---that sucking sound you hear is your free time circling the drain.

Besides, all I'm really saying is that if Eddie Vedder had choked to death on his own vomit before polluting the radio waves with "Last Kiss," Pearl Jam might be bigger than Satan right now.

So, what might I blog about in the future? Expect more half-baked opinions, maybe some anecdotes about living with music, and definitely some questions for you, Loyal Reader. I suspect a lot of people out there are like me and mostly listen to music while doing something else---waiting for the bus or folding laundry or having sex. But just because you giggle at the word "humbucker," that doesn't mean music isn't important to you. Music can still enhance moments in your life. You don't have to be an expert to know that the right song at the right moment can charge your perceptions with its own valence. And that's my angle. Consider me this blog's resident non-expert.

By the by, some of my favorite music to listen to while I'm doing other things comes from Dylan, Bowie, the Stones, Derek and the Dominos, The Band, R.E.M., Camper Van Beethoven, and The National.

Yours, until next time, in gleefully opinionated ignorance,
PH

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Statistics are Stupid

Where to start on Boomer’s last post? I guess first off, who cares what guitar they are playing as long as it sounds good. Statistics are not what this blog should be about, but since that is the direction we are going, look forward to my next post, a regression analysis of which is the greater act, Sonseed or Montgomery Flea Market, while both have their respective merits and obvious demerits, I look forward to an excel spreadsheet telling me which one I like more.

Second, your so called statistical analysis is so inherently flawed I hardly know where to start. You take a subjective list and use this for some sort of correlation which is then supposed to provide some kind of insight. There is a direct correlation between shoe size and intelligence; does this mean that people with abnormally large feet tend to be smarter than those with average feet? No, it means that grown ups are smarter than babies. Until you do a Granger causality test your correlation means nothing to me.

Next by breaking this into solos and not artists the fact that Jimi Hendrix played a Fender counts as much in this debate as the combined weight of Jerry Garcia, Mark Knophler, Pete Townshend, B.B. King, Jerry Cantrell, and Carlos Santana. This is downright silly, and any list that provides the same weight to Jerry Garcia and Richie Sambora is seriously flawed. Heather Locklear and Denise Richards are hot and all but give me a break.

Did you know that if 23 people are in a room there is a greater than 50% chance that two of them will have the same birthday. What light does this shed on which is better, a Gibson or a Fender? About the same as Boomer’s post, absolutely none, we are still living in darkness after that post, but we won’t get the time in our lives it took us to read it back.

On a happier note I would tell you I saw a show that blew my mind a few months back, David Byrne at Meymandi Hall in Raleigh, the sound was awesome, setlist rocked, choreography was amazing, one negative was the beer line was atrocious, but overall one of the best shows I have seen in years, and I have no idea what kind of guitar he was playing, as it should be. In the immortal words of John Bell, “if it feels good we shake.” Ain’t that how we should judge it? Definitely see David Byrne if you can, he has aged incredibly well and still rocks, white tutus and all. And if you have never see Stop Making Sense, rent it now.

Also, unrelated but I am sick as hell of thinking Warren Zevon is coming on the Radio and having it end up being Kid Rock. Nüdge out.