Anyone whose been reading this blog over the last month or so knows I have been very busy at work and have gone through some stretches with not many posts...Throughout the month of December it seemed like I lived out of a suitcase, hitting L.A., Charlottesville, Toronto and a few days of shore leave in Florida...
All that travel gave me some time to catch up on some reading and I have to admit, I mostly kept it light.
After a fair bit of prodding from a guy at work I read Gene Simmons' first book, Kiss and Make-up. For the record: Surprisingly good. Gene's capable of not being a self-promoting idiot all of the time, and when he isn't he is a pretty sensitive, thoughtful person whose life story was pretty interesting even before he was in KISS. There are some tough things to read about certain members of the band, but if you are anything less than completely naive or starry-eyed in your interest in KISS, none of it will be particularly shocking. If you are looking for a book you could blow through on a long flight or over a weekend, this one's for you.
Now here is one that I couldn't resist when I saw it in my local used bookstore...Seb Hunter's Hell Bent for Leather: Confessions of a Heavy Metal Addict is the author's story of his journey from a pre-adolescent KISS and AC/DC fan in working-class England to full-blown hair metal fandom (and wanna-be) throughout the 80's and early and 90's. There is so much to like about this book - the author reminded me of myself and so many people I knew at different points...his hilarious glossary of the various metal sub-genres alone is worth the cover price. He's pretty spot-on with his pop culture commentary, too, especially Kurt Cobain's impact on the whole scene.
I received a small pile of books for xmas but if you have any music books (bios, business books, etc you want to recommend please let me know).
One of my favorite records has long been Dave Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name. It's recently been remastered and reissued - marking my ownership of a third copy (LP, original CD issue and now this one!). I didn't have to fork out the loot this time because a buddy of mine was head's up about it and gave it to me for xmas.
Stephen Barncard, the original session engineer who has also overseen all subsequent releases of the album has some great session notes online here. It was a collaborative and fertile time in the Bay Area, with members of the various bands all dropping by each other's sessions and playing on each other's projects, in what came to be known as the Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra. A typical track from this album would include Cros on guitar and vocals, with Garcia, Lesh, Billy and Mickey backing him. Beautiful. If you want to read more about the bands and records involved in , click here.
David Crosby is a stone cold hippy. He didn't go Hollywood, he went the other way around and left the Byrds and their LA scene for the Bay Area. He lived on his boat in Sausalito while he took enormous quantities of drugs, hung with the Dead and the Airplane, and wrote, co-wrote, sang and played on some phenomenal music in the late sixties and early seventies...the free love, guns, dope, jail time, reunion tours, good and bad records, environmentalism, sperm donation to Melissa Etheridge...it all adds up to an interestng cat who still talks like an idealist. Outraged, but hopeful...
This compilation requires two downloads and includes a bunch of stuff Cros has been involved with, from the Airplane to the various C/S/N/Y permutations - live tracks, too.
I love this music. It hits me on a real visceral, emotional level. These people were some of my original musical and cultural heroes. I really believed and believed in them. The songs about revolution, outer space, enlightenment, beautiful girls, sunny afternoons...I only wish I could feel the way these songs make me feel 24 hours a day.
Zeta is most popularly known as the "fat Samoan lawyer" in Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. In real life, he was a leader in the Chicano "Brown Power" movement. This book is his fictionalized memoir (part two, actually) of his time in East LA defending Chicano militants and leading The Revolution...
I have long been interested in post-WWII American History and especially the late '50s thru mid '70s. This book represents a great piece of that history. I have a few dozen songs I want to string together, from Willie Bobo, Mongo Santamaria, Cymande and others that conjure up a Chicano, urban vibe for me. This first Latino compilation is a little less militant but I hope you dig it - and please let me know if you read the book and what you think of it.
I have not finished trading presents with everyone on my list but I did get a couple of CD gems already, the first of which I am posting an MP3 from...
My first experience with Simon Shaheen was his 1991 CD of the music of Mohamed Abdel Wahab, one of the most important songwriters and musicians in modern Middle Eastern music. Several years later I managed to catch him live at a festival on the Yale campus where he both performed and spoke, discussing the oud, his own musical upbringing and the music of Persia and Arabia. I was somewhat disappointed by his Blue Flame CD, initially thinking it was a total pandering to the NPR crowd, though it has grown on me over the years (as I have joined the NPR crowd, perhaps...).
The disc I received the other day, though, was one I somehow missed out on when it first came out. It is more traditional, in the spirit of his Mohamed Abdel Wahab release and while I am still digging into it, I wanted to post this one MP3 for you. I am sure more tracks from the CD will surface on my mixes in 2007. Enjoy.
Came across a pretty interesting blog post this morning on the Dial "M" for Musicology blog...It was written in response to something the author read asking readers to "Name any rock musician whose recorded work maintained an equal level of relevance and impact throughout his/her career -- let alone became deeper or richer."
I won't blow the punchline and tell you the artists that cases are made for, if only because I'd like to drive you over to their site to check out some of the other articles, too.
All I can hope is that you enjoy visiting and reading this site as much as I enjoy working on it. If you like what you find here, please leave a comment. It means a lot to hear from you.
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After a fair bit of prodding from a guy at work I read Gene Simmons' first book, Kiss and Make-up
. For the record: Surprisingly good. Gene's capable of not being a self-promoting idiot all of the time, and when he isn't he is a pretty sensitive, thoughtful person whose life story was pretty interesting even before he was in KISS. There are some tough things to read about certain members of the band, but if you are anything less than completely naive or starry-eyed in your interest in KISS, none of it will be particularly shocking. If you are looking for a book you could blow through on a long flight or over a weekend, this one's for you.
Now here is one that I couldn't resist when I saw it in my local used bookstore...Seb Hunter's Hell Bent for Leather: Confessions of a Heavy Metal Addict
