Last night went out alone to downtown Salem to see some friends play music. I went down early and found a parking spot immediately so I took a walk around to see the people walking around doing their Halloween shit. At this point I don’t really care about Halloween either way, people seem to love it though. I like this time of year, and obviously being here for it is great, but I could really care less about the dressing up and partying and all of that stuff. It just really seems like a child’s holiday to me. I always come up with an idea for a costume but never have any actual plan to follow through with it. I had an idea for one this year, but I am obviously not going to do it. The last time I dressed up was in 2000 and I think I just wore a long haired wig and a Motorhead shirt or something like that.
I walked around for a little while and it was surprisingly not that crowded for a Friday evening at that early time. Halloween in Salem basically amounts to people walking around, some dressed up in a costume, some half assed costumes that as account of the weather are covered with a New England Patriots jacket. I saw a couple people I know walking and turned around and kind of went a different route to avoid having a conversation. I figured I’d see plenty of people at the show. One thing I enjoy about being back here is running into people I know all the time. On the other hand, I have nothing good happening to talk about so I have to try to avoid anything like that which is why last night I didn’t feel like talking to anyone on this walk.
The show was great, all three bands. The venue, this Thai restaurant was interesting, but sounded great. Ran into a number of guys from the area and beyond. Amazing musician friends that are still into it, always great to see still out there. It made me want to play music again real bad. It’s a low priority on my list right now really. Went out at one point with a friend I’ve known since probably 1984 or so. Always love seeing him, everyone knows him, he’s a great guy, amazing player and it’s always a trip talking music and life with him. We went and “got lit” around the corner with some other guy I kind of know, not that well. Afterwards he offered us some cocaine. No thanks! I’ve never done that shit and never would at this point, and my friend I was with is certainly not into that either. Only reason I’ve mentioned this is I don’t think I’ve ever been offered cocaine in my life.
I am enjoying being here in New England right now. This time of year is nice, perfect temperatures blasting you in the face at night. Walking last night for an hour or whatever it ended up being, crunchy leaves and yelling children and Massachusetts accents following closely behind them, cold air on your face makes everything more clear, at least voices and faces. Trying to avoid eye contact with people though as I get slow nowadays and sometimes it takes a few to realize I recognize someone, and next thing you know you’re being introduced to children and wives and husbands and hearing about jobs and all that kind of shit you don’t have. I feel like the beginning of eighty seven horrible songs.
I have been writing far too much non-fun stuff in here lately. I was watching some live music stuff on Youtube recently and it got me thinking about live shows I have seen. I have seen tons of shows from different genres through the years, and could write reviews of every single one of them if I had to. Well, not really but....I want to talk about the ones that gave me that feeling of...hmm. I don’t know what to call it without sounding all new age. I'll do more posts like this over the next week or so as I think of shows. Grateful Dead - 10/16/89 Brendan Byrne Arena, East Rutherford, NJ This was my second Grateful Dead show, and although the first one a few months earlier was great for a first experience, this one was great for a host of reasons.
This was my first concert that was also a road trip. I would take many more of these throughout the next twenty years and still probably will again some day. My friend and I got a hotel room “near the venue” which turned out to be four miles or so away. We had to literally walk on the New Jersey Turnpike for a good part of the walk to the arena. The band was playing six shows at this arena, which is part of a big complex next to Giants Stadium. We found out later that a young man had been murdered by security guards or so they think. The case has never been solved. I have to think we walked through where this may have happened as we were in some pretty remote areas of this gigantic parking lot.
A week or so before the show we saw the band played a “surprise” show billed under their early name, The Warlocks. They were also playing songs they hadn’t played in years, including the elusive “Dark Star” which was sort of the crown jewel of songs you could see the band play. They hadn’t played it in over ten years and before that it was pretty rare. Early versions of the song contained long exploratory segments, sometimes reaching over forty minutes.
The band opened the second set of the show with Dark Star and used it as bookends for a long set of improvisation and fan favorites like Uncle John’s Band and Playin’ in the Band. I had a live recording of this show for years on tape and then at one point the band released it as an official release called Nightfall of Diamonds. There is a moment captured on the recording where the crowd seems completely silent right before Jerry Garcia plays the opening guitar line to the song. This still gives me chills when I hear it. There was always something about seeing them live when he walked on stage that gave you this moment of excitement and nervousness that can only come when seeing an iconic presence such as “JERRY”. Granted part of it was just thousands of people fucked up on booze and drugs excited to see the guy who sang "driving that train, high on cocaine", etc. It was a little more than that though. I am not someone who gets flustered in the presence of celebrities; I mean I get a little flustered, but not like this. It's hard to explain with words what it was like that split second when he would come on stage, but you felt it. This would happen years later with Tony Iommi who I stood ten yards from during the Heaven and Hell tour. Like "holy shit, the dude that arguably invented heavy metal is right there. Sick."
This picture was taken the night of this show. I was 19 years old and would be 20 two weeks later, so this could be the last picture of me as a teenager take. Heh. The shirt says "Jamin with Jerry" Whoever made the shirt missed an M.
Some days you know, I don’t feel like discussing music or movies I don’t feel like explaining what a band sounds like. is there a worse question in the world than “What does it sound like?”, or “What does your band sound like?” I hate putting music into categories. Obviously the Rolling Stones and The Faces and Chuck Berry sound like rock and roll music, but wait High on Fire and Judas Priest are both metal bands that sound nothing alike at all. Anyway, it seems like I’ve had a few of these lately with strangers and others. I used to hate doing this with the band I was in as I didn’t really know what to say. The bands I always used to compare us to sounded absolutely nothing like us at all but really.
Oh yeah lets keep talking about that first thing there not my band...the other thing you have to take into consideration when describing music is what I call “The Thanksgiving Meter”. I call it that because usually this conversation will take place is at a Thanksgiving dinner. Lets say you are in a band that plays music that sounds sort of like Archers of Loaf. You find yourself at a Thanksgiving dinner talking to a cousin you barely know who starts asking you about your band. It is up to you to determine how much this person knows about music. The most popular band you can maybe throw out there is “Sonic Youth” but really, this is Thanksgiving and your cousin is from Connecticut and works as a milk delivery guy. You need to go a little higher on the meter and maybe try the Smashing Pumpkins, if that doesn’t work you can push it to Nirvana. If you end up in U2 territory you are most likely talking to a deaf person or to someone who is exactly 46 years old. I’ve managed to avoid using the meter for the most part by just saying we play “heavy metal” and they usually don’t know anything about it, and/or don’t want to. Also, I would love to be in a band that sound like Archers of Loaf!
I pulled the guitar out last week and started messing around a little, but there is something going on with my left ring finger and pinky which makes me think perhaps because I haven’t played the guitar those fingers stopped getting exercise. I had some ideas of music I would like to play with a couple of friends that I will hopefully get around to putting more thought into soon. I feel like I have been “home” for months already, but I have only been here for a couple of weeks now. My other thing with guitar is, when I pick one up I don’t really do anything on it aside from try to play Allman Brothers songs on it or whatever. I used to write actual songs by myself. After a while though, the band started just improvising and coming up with music that way. Traditional methods of writing songs was so foreign to us that I couldn’t imagine bringing in a pre-written song to practice and saying “okay this one is going to go like this” it almost sounds to ego-driven, which is ironic as everything I did in that band was pretty self centered aside from putting music together.
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“If You Can Stay You’ll Eventually See”
The only thing this cup of coffee is doing for me right now
The only thing it does is keep me from reading the correct things
The right things I need to read
My eyes move too fast on the caffeine diet
Did they miss me?
Doubtful
What were they all wearing?
The gamblers
The thieves
I live amongst them
Just read what was inside of me all last summer
The way things are going now
There is nothing else that can happen
It is all uphill from here
Nobody understands this
They offer handkerchiefs and jokes
Come on, have you seen what my smile is all about?
I wear it inside out
No, actually I don’t ridicule
I don’t point my finger
I point my finger at myself
I take it out on myself
Not others
Never, right?
Obviously
I woke up this morning right
It was late in the morning
Talking to myself
Like this, and like that
Short little lines to myself
“okay”
etc.
When I cut my hair, I didn’t lose my strength like Samson
I lost my job, my wife, and my kids
I never had any of that
But I was assured I wouldn’t get it, ever
Hence me now using my fingers
Words
Honesty
They think it’s something else
What a joke it can be
Trying to explain things
When it’s all right there
When I have a secret
The first thing I do is
Record it into a tape machine
Then, and only then do I tell everyone in the world this secret
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Tonight it banged on the door. It's strange, most nights I don't see it when I come through the back door. I feel it. It overwhelms me. I don't mean to fumble with the keys, but I don't want any confrontation. I know what it's all about. I know why I'm being watched. Trying to get into my head and control me like a puppet on a string. Trying to push me over the edge. I know why you're out there. I do it. I push. I control just like you. Not to an innocent. There's a reason I do it. I don't stalk. Watch my prey first. Hiding out in the woods. Like I said the other night, just ring the bell, I'll let you in, I have nothing to hide in here, my space is yours. Just don't try and get inside me. I'm not going to let you. Not again. I spent half of my life getting rid of ghosts like you. Don't try and get your claws into me. I won't punch you. Try and win you over. We're the same skin you and I. We travel. We feed on some of the same things, yet you don't have the decency to show me your positive aspects. A coward hiding out waiting to take me over. Let me play you some sort of melody on the guitar and see if that makes you want to ring the bell instead of banging on the door. You come up right behind me like a leech. A monkey. A monkey ready to get on my back again. You always haunt me when I come home at night. You tell me that music will be heard from different ears if I let you inside me. You tell me the same bullshit I hear constantly. Try me on for size. Try me. I won't bite you.I just want to help you out. I just want you to get yourself a new friend. How many times am I going to tell you that I don't need you or them. How many times am I going to open the window and hear you out there laughing at me. It's not really that funny, you may amuse yourself, but you're far from amusing me myself and I. I'd love to be your little friend who visits here and there but doesn't sleep over. I'd love to be your friend that keeps me in the back of your head, knowing that you're there if I NEED you. But you know as well as I do that I don't. Either just come and hang, or get the fuck out.There is no room left in this head for you.
Last weekend in LA. Tonight doing a get together with the few people I know out here and will probably end up leaving Monday morning, but maybe tomorrow. The main problem on my mind at this point though...what song will be the first song played on what should be kind of an epic journey? I feel kind of unprepared for this trip, which is kind of good. Once I start over thinking these things they get to be a pain in the ass. I know the numbers of the highways I have to go on, and I am driving east, that's all I really need to know.
I've been writing so much bum out material lately I figured I'd switch it up as some of this has been sitting on my laptop for a while.
I haven’t come up with a list like this in a while. Mostly because I don’t pay that much attention to new music; I’ve kind of gotten back into some metal related music in the last couple of years though. The genres I liked or loved at one point in time have dried up. Most of the stuff on this list is rooted in metal or hardcore, which is the music that has defined me for the last 30 years or so. No hip-hop has made the list this time around as I didn’t hear one album that moved me at all aside from maybe the Jay-Z album. These are in no particular order.
Top Albums of 2009
Mastodon - Crack the Skye I guess if you were going to put these in order this would be the top album. This was one of those records that didn’t take long to get into. Finally shedding some of the more harsh metal leanings for a more late 70’s early 80’s hard rock vibe that reminds me of Diary of a Madman era Ozzy in some places. Anyone into metal or hard rock who didn’t like this either didn’t hear it, or has some sort of sill underground agenda that doesn’t allow them to listen to bands that are popular, or they don’t like metal period. If so, too bad for them as they are missing out on a truly breathtaking album. Why someone wouldn’t like a concept album about a paraplegic who astral travels, eventually having his soul enter the body of Rasputin is beyond me.
Converge - Axe to Fall Considering it is pretty hard to put this group in any category, I have decided that with the addition of all the special guests on this album, Converge are still a hardcore band of the truest form. Hardcore kids from the Boston area who have been “doing it themselves” for quite a long time embrace hardcore’s essence of community by creating an album that is all over the place in style, but still firmly what the newest Converge album should sound like. These guys have been getting better with age in my opinion. From the first time I saw that video tease they released for the album of the band playing an instrumental of what would turn out to be the title track I knew this record would be at the top of my list somewhere once it came out. While I was initially turned off by all of the special guests, all of it works perfectly. Easily my favorite Boston band still playing.
Rise and Fall - Our Circle is Vicious I know very little about hardcore music at this point in time, so I was initially not even wanting to hear this. Once I bought it though, that changed. There is no crappy thug mosh hardcore crap on this. If I were to compare it to anything it would be Deadguy. Some really cool melodies.
Baroness - Blue Album This album will always hold a special place for me as a dear and close person to me and I both discovered this band around the same time and I like to think of it as “our record”. Between this and the Mastodon record it is hard to really pick a better album. This is a truly great hard rock album, from the arrangements to the artwork and lyrics, everything about it is classy and executed with a lot of blood, sweat and tears. I’m glad I found this album and was able to appreciate it with someone who appreciates good soulful music like this as well.
Black Crowes - Before the Frost...Until the Freeze Who knew these dudes were still putting good albums out? Hippies and dudes with beards did most likely. While I was off in screaming like a shitbag at the world metal hell this album came into my life as a pleasant surprise. Black Crowes have aged into a great rock and roll band from America, still putting out good quality music. This one was recorded live in front of an audience at that Levon Helm barn up in Woodstock, NY. Whatever kind of weed they are smoking up there is doing the trick.
Medeski Martin & Wood - Radiolarians III Another band putting out some great music this far into their career. They’ve kind of lost the jamband vibe and funk thing into this great instrumental band. Some of the tracks on this are almost indie rock sounding. They create a vibe few other instrumental bands can create. All three albums in this series are great.
Some other albums I listened to a lot in 2009: Storm of Light - Forgive Us Our Trespasses, Black Elk - Always a Six Never a Nine, Torche – Meanderthal and Intronaut – Prehistoricisms (I know these last two are not from 2009, but I wore both of these out)
Top Live Shows of 2009
Steely Dan x 3 - Gibson Ampitheatre (Studio City, CA) This would be the first big concert I saw out here as a resident. They were touring and performing their albums Aja, Gaucho and The Royal Scam as well as a “All Request” night. I spent quite a bit of money and went to three nights. I can’t really say which night was the best. I had amazing seats each night (10th row, 5th row and 3rd row). Aja may have been the best night of the three as it’s my favorite album of theirs. Some of the lyrics on that record held some significance to me at the time such as Home at Last. The addition of Larry Carlton on the Royal Scam night made that night even better as he played on the original album. This venue holds a place in my musical history; as a kid I saw Steve Martin with the Blues Brothers here, and as a teenager visiting LA I saw The Smiths (for the third time, yeah yeah, yeah, sorry). I took some video with my iPhone at each of the nights. Sound came out surprisingly well on these!
This one is a brief 35 seconds with yours truly on background vocals
Nine Inch Nails - Hollywood Palladium (Hollywood, CA) General admission shows where people may start jumping around, I usually stay in the back. This night we went right to the front, and Trent let folks bring cameras in. Aside from the amazing pics and video footage I got the show wasn’t too shabby: opening with the whole Downward Spiral and continuing with some random rarities and favorites and then two songs with Gary Numan this should be the number one choice. I was able to get some amazing shots at this show. Phish - Fenway Park (Boston, MA) Thanks to an old friend I was able to score some tickets to this at the last minute. This was my 90th Phish show. I first saw them in 1990. The show itself was okay as with most shows the band has played since coming back in my opinion. Perhaps my last show seeing them...was a nice farewell to Boston and Phish for me.
Wilco - Lowell Baseball Park (Lowell, MA) My second show at a baseball park in one year. This show was great. Good group of friends who I spent a good amount of time going to shows with before leaving town. The last two Wilco records have been great so it was nice to hear songs from both of those in such a cool place to see them. Show was cut short due to some serious rain. Opener kid from Bright Eyes was the only other bummer of this night after the rain.
Baroness - the Troubadour (West Hollywood, CA) I had no idea this band existed when the year 2009 started. Like seeing a band right before they are going to blow up and make it into Mastodon territory, these guys were so on top of their shit at this show. Friends saw them in Boston as well as San Francisco all said they were amazing and they weren’t kidding. Perfect segues between songs, some slight improvisation and soul and fire made this a contender for show of the year.
Harvey Milk, Torche - Middle East (Cambridge, MA) Judging by some of the live shows I have from this same tour it looks like Harvey Milk were playing pretty much the same set every night. I dig these guys quite a bit, but as I’ve said before I think the concept of them is better than the actual music sometimes. Vocals are hard to deal with for an hour plus set, but at least Creston oozes soul and pain when he sings and the band is always tight as well. Openers Torche were great. I have spent so much time with their last album that hearing them live as a three piece was a slight letdown, but still good.
Mastodon - House of Blues (Boston, MA) Touring their amazing new album Crack the Skye and performing the whole thing start to finish. The band sounded great, vocals were a little off in my opinion, but the album as a whole is so great that it works as one piece in the live setting. By the time they got to the old songs my ears were kind of shot, but they still kicked it.
Shrinebuilder - the Viper Room (Hollywood, CA) This is that club where Jaquion Phoenix's brother drowned in vomit or whatever it was. This was kind of a last minute announced warmup show that I thankfully bought a ticket for. The place is tiny, and was packed. The band played their whole set not once but twice! They played the whole new record as well as a few others and a cover of Twenty-Four Hours by Joy Division which was intense.
Jesus Lizard - Henry Fonda Theatre (Hollywood, CA) Easily the best band ever when you are seeing them live. There are a whole slew of bootleg videos and audio of this tour and I have to say I was just melted at the end of the night. They definitely showed the kids how it's done.
Cattle Decapitation, Intronaut - Cobalt Cafe (Sherman Oaks, CA) My first time seeing Intronaut live and they were amazing. The club was great, this tiny little all ages venue in Sherman Oaks which is pretty close by where I live. Cattle Decapitation were great as well, my friend caught some video with her camera. The singer is intense to watch.
Screaming Females - Spaceland (Silverlake/Los Angeles, CA) This venue, my first time here, is great. This band, even better. I saw them open for Throwing Muses in Boston, and wait a minute I think I may have written about this very show in this here blog. Anyway, amazing band. A shame nobody was there. I made a distorted video.
Seeing shows out here is pretty good so far. The crowds for the most part are cool, and people definitely are into the music. One irony is LA is full of "plastic" people or whatever, and whenever I see an Angels game on TV or a Dodgers game it seems half the crowd is not paying attention, they're there to say they were there. This was something that bugged me about seeing shows in Boston, half of the time you would be at a show and you'd be standing behind a group of beards and tits chatting it up the whole set of the band you went to see. I haven't seen that out here at all yet. People are genuinely into the music and the show. I have seen some of the same faces at some of these shows as well. This is definitely refreshing.
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