To the Isthmus Windbag

Yesterday David Blaska wrote:

...any charge of racism must be filed at the nearest court or civil rights adjudicator, such as the state Equal Rights Bureau. Prove it in court or shut up.

About a week ago he wrote:

Crime causes poverty, not the other way around.

Any statement alleging causality must have evidence to back it up. Find some proof or shut up. And by "proof" I mean actual scientific data, not press statements from the Cato Institute.

Eleva-Strum 41, Southwestern 6

The Cards' victory is decisive. Now, I wonder how the Quiz Bowl team is doing this year...

Go Cards!

My high school alma mater, Eleva-Strum Central, is playing today for the Division 7 championship. It's 19-6 with E-S in front at half. They were killed last year something like 42-0 in the finals but things are looking good today.

The Knee Bone's Connected to the Leg Bone

The Hollywood writers' strike hasn't had much of an effect on me and my viewing habits. At least not yet. The Dulcinea is all bummed out because The Office is now in re-runs due to it. I'm a LOST fan and the new 16-episode season isn't supposed to start until February. But, depending on how long the strike lasts, this season could be scrapped altogether. Half of the season was scripted and shot and, in case of a prolonged dispute, there's a possibility that the 8 episodes will be tagged onto next season making it a full 24-episode deal. The prospect of having to wait almost another year to get some more material to speculate on and be introduced to another character named after an Enlightenment philosopher is almost too much to bear. I've really been looking forward to the start of the season and am excited that Fisher Stevens and Jeremy Davies have been tapped to play a couple of the freighter people. Plus it looks like we've got a new hatch and some dinosaur bones.

A brief trailer for next season/the mobisodes has been released:



Of greatest interest to me is that it appears that Hurley stumbles upon Jacob's shack which is lit up.



And there's what appears to be bones hanging on the walls. Couple this with the dinosaur bones and the polar bear skull also seen here and you must wonder what that Jacob guy is up to in his charnel house.

A Crafty Night at the Majestic

The Dulcinea and I lost our Majestic Theatre virginity on Saturday night when we took in a performance by Robert Fripp & The League of Crafty Guitarists. (For more info on them, check out my posting of an old show of theirs.) The line was most of the way down the block when we approached the theatre much to my surprise as well as my delight. I must admit that I didn't think the show would be particularly well attended. Wandering inside, we found that the new owners had done a wonderful job of restoring the place. Spackling compound and paint really made the place new again. The floor was crowded so we went up to the balcony and found a seat on one of the benches. We discovered that Mr. Fripp himself was just off to our right about 3 feet away doing his pre-show meditation/observation. As the balcony filled up and Fripp found himself seated next to a trio of teenage boys, he made his way backstage.

Being a seated show, I would estimate the capacity at around 300 and nearly every seat was taken. A gentleman was sitting next to us with his daughter who was all of 8 or 9 years old. There was the aforementioned group of teenagers plus a smattering of folks in their 20s. No longer am I guaranteed to be the youngest person at a prog show. Some of Fripp's soundscapes were coming over the PA and, shortly before show time, a group of Crafties came onstage and did intros/announcements in a half a dozen languages. There couldn't have been anyone in the audience that didn't know cameras and recording of any kind were forbidden. Shortly thereafter Fripp came out and seated himself behind his stacks and gave us a few minutes of live soundscapes. I personally am not that enamored of them but there is the odd bit of Frippertronics that I find particularly engaging. Earlier The D has mentioned that she had found his performance opening for Porcupine Tree a couple years ago to have been wonderful and the soundscapes sensual. She said all this within earshot of Mr. Fripp who, I hope, was heartened that even we cheeseheads appreciate his unique craft.

When the spectral sounds died down, the Crafties, 10 in all and clad in black, came on the stage and took their seats which were arranged in a semi-circle. They then proceeded to do what it is they do. Aside from a couple Crimson tunes, I didn't recognize any of the songs they performed but it was really amazing. For the first song, it sounded like two or three folks played a rhythm line while another three or four played the melody. The remaining players colored the melody and, in general, added little bits here and there which accentuated the other elements of the song. The Crafties are, quite truly, a small guitar orchestra.

Fripp would occasionally add flourishes of his own to the songs and then sculpt more soundscapes every two or three songs, giving the Crafties a breather. The ensemble played Crimson's "THRAK" which certainly sounded different but, as I discovered, 10 acoustic guitars can still sound incredibly menacing. For this piece, Fripp added some trademark electric guitar. In the middle of the show they played a very beautiful piece, the name of which is unknown to me. Listening to it, I thought that it was one of those moments where more is more. I could hear the song in my head being done by two people but felt that 10 of them just amplified the beauty of the piece. The Crafties don't get in each other's way so a relatively simple piece doesn't sound cluttered which had the effect of simply heightening the feeling of the song. I realize this doesn't make much sense but it's all I've got at the moment.

The main set ended with another Crimson piece, "Vroom Vroom" followed by two or three encores, the final of which saw Fripp man his acoustic guitar for the first time that night and join his students in the semi-circle. For the occasion, everyone unplugged their instruments and the performance finished with a truly acoustic moment. The lights went up and, as people were filing out, the Crafties (sans Fripp) filed in and positioned themselves right in front of the bar. They serenaded the exiting concertgoers with a song or two before finally taking their leave. It was a really nice gesture to bring the music out to the people and those few minutes were a much looser affair with smiles all around instead of looks of intense concentration on their faces as they had while onstage. The remaining folks were quite appreciative of this chance to stand face to face with the group. Indeed, the audience was that way all night. Rapt attention was given during songs and loud applause and cheers after them.

Lastly, thanks must go out to the Majestic for bringing to Madison something that wouldn't be at home on an AC/MOR station and isn't indie rock as well as for beautifully restoring the theatre.

So Sad About Us

Yesterday I had the chance to watch Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who as I'd Tivo'd it when VH1 put it on. The film is, to the best of my knowledge, the first feature length look at the band since The Kids Are Alright from 1979. It came as a welcome relief since I had recorded the episode of A&E's Biography about Pete Townshend a few months ago which I erased after watching about 10 minutes of it because it featured no interview footage with the man himself. And so I was looking forward to a decent documentary about one of my favorite bands.

Amazing Journey is a straight-forward affair, unlike The Kids Are Alright. For the latter, director Jeff Stein created an impressionistic montage instead of a chronological story. Stein assembled his film almost purely from archival footage with some live performances in the fall of 1977 and spring of '78 put on for the express purpose of filming to capture some songs which were not represented in the archives. The result was a wonderful movie which captured the band's explosive live performances and their often hilarious off-stage antics. It did as good as possible of translating the manic energy of the band to film but it lacked a bio, a look behind the scenes, or much of any commentary on the music. Viewers saw that they rocked onstage and liked to have fun off but were left wondering how it all happened.

Amazing Journey takes a different tack altogether. The surviving members (Daltrey & Townshend) were interviewed especially for the project (at least the former was) which starts at the beginning and works its way up to 2007. There's a ton of archive interviews, live footage, et al to be found here. We begin with the band members' childhoods and work our way to the formation of the group with which everyone is familiar. The filmmakers are to be highly commended for their portrayal of the band's formative years. There is a fair amount of depth here which details how Daltrey recruited first Entwhistle and then the rest into The Detours which became The Who followed by The High Numbers and then The Who again. This well-crafted section is topped off by live footage from 1964 at the Railway Hotel which is a real treasure.

As the 1960s progress, however, the film gets worse as we hear a bit about the dynamics of the band and learn about their recording forays. It becomes obvious fairly quickly that we are in for a Behind the Music kind of expose with a heavy reliance on talk about the relationships of the band's members and a paucity of The Who plying their trade. The parts which document the period through the Tommy – up to 1971 – did a half-decent job of talking about the music considering how little was shown. One of the biggest problems with the movie is that, starting with the Lifehouse debacle, The Who's music gets glossed over in favor of even more attention on the personal lives of the members. Much more detail went into the music during the sections chronicling the 60s. Their blues and R&B; influences were well-noted and we learn about their early singles such as "I Can't Explain" and "My Generation" as well as the mini-opera, "A Quick One While He's Away". On the album front, we get a vintage interview with Townshend explaining his ambitions for The Who Sell Out and there's a hefty good dose of Tommy. But, starting with 1971, music takes a back seat with Lifehouse being explained away in two sentences. We then learn that Who's Next came out instead and it's off to Quadrophrenia which is similarly given short shrift. This is a real shame as Who's Next was a seminal album with Townshend's use of keyboards being a watershed moment in rock's history. Plus the whole concept is something that he continued to revisit and still does to this day. Albums subsequent to Quadrophrenia are all but ignored, unfortunately.

It's not that there aren't live concert clips but they are generally no longer than 10-15 seconds meaning that no song is represented in its entirety or anything close to it. The footage of Keith Moon being carried offstage at the Cow Palace lasts longer than do most of the songs. The only tune to get some real screentime was "My Generation" and this was mostly of Pete and Keith destroying their instruments as opposed to the band playing it. I understand that the film is trying to tell a story about people and isn't a concert video but to shortchange the live footage is ridiculous considering The Who's live reputation and that Lifehouse (i.e. – Townshend's ambitions) heavily explored the audience-musician relationship. What makes this situation unforgivable is that the filmmakers dug up some incredible footage including the holy grail for Who fans: a bit of the show at Leeds University on 14 February 1970. Live at Leeds is certainly the best document of the band in concert and arguably the best live album by any rock band ever. We get to watch a bit of "Christmas" as a teaser and then suddenly – poof! – it's over. Plus the Who's Next tour wasn't, to my recollection, represented at all. I'm no live Who archivist but the filmmakers had 200+ hours of footage to cull from yet the whole reason for The Who's existence – the music – is remarkably lacking.

Aside from the fact that there's too much talking heads and not enough concert footage, another problem is the talking heads. I appreciated the interviews with former & current managers to embellish the story but Daltrey and Townshend get the overwhelming majority of interview time from band members. Kenny Jones got as much time as Entwhistle and more than Moon which makes no sense. The Ox died in 2002 and I am incredulous of the notion that they couldn't have found enough footage to give him a more prominent and perhaps almost equal role in telling the story. Were his feelings about Moon's death never filmed? Ever? As for Moon himself, there was one interview clip that I can recall. Was every interview with him just total goofing around devoid of information? Had he never recalled how he joined the band for a camera regardless of any antics he did? We get to know Entwhistle and Moon mostly through the recollections of others as opposed to seeing for ourselves.

In a similar vein, the vast majority of interviews were vintage the past few years. There's hardly a word from anytime between 1964-2000 so we cannot know how events were perceived at the times they occurred nor how the band members expressed their feelings back in the day. We're left with the views of two old geezers reflecting upon their lives and careers. While I find them sincere, they are talking about events that, in some cases, transpired more than 40 years ago. Drug-addled memories go hazy so why not give interview footage from the times various events transpired instead of almost always having people look back decades later? For instance, how did Townshend feel about Tommy in 1968-69? Viewers are left to ponder this because all we hear about it comes from interviews done after the album's success, after the film, after the musical – after it had already achieved notoriety and become a cultural fixture.

How you will perceive Amazing Journey depends on what kind of fan you are. The dedicated will no doubt feel let down by the whole thing. They're already familiar with the stories and many have most of the concert footage in their collections so they must be disappointed that the rare stuff is so incredibly sparse. On the other hand, there's always new people just getting into the band for whom the well-worn tales of trashed hotel rooms and expensive cars being driven into pools are fresh territory. But that the live clips are so short and no song is represented in its entirety will disappoint everyone. Whether you're a new fan or an old one, the reason you like The Who is because of the music and there's just too little here. With 200+ hours of footage to wade through including stuff donated by bootleggers to the cause, it's inexcusable that there is so little music. This also leads to yet another problem which is that the events which we hear about aren't related to much – they don't get related to the times from which they sprung nor do we find out how they reflect Townshend's life. To me this signals that noting that event A was followed by event B is important but providing context and meaning isn't. For instance, a bit of "However Much I Booze" is shown with Townshend singing, "It's clear to all my friends that I habitually lie; I just bring them down" yet I don't remember the film even attempting to explain why he would be singing those lines. That his life was coming apart due to tremendous pressures relating to The Who as well as drugs & alcohol is omitted. By not showing very much music performance and by not having many interviews which actually talk about the music, viewers learn very little about how the music was a reflection of the band or its times or why it has any significance at all.

The Who demand an extended tribute as an extra two hours would have done wonders. Apparently the original cut was 3.5 hours but honed down to 2 by the studio. This "director's cut" would probably relieve us of the problem of the lack of concert footage, but I must wonder if would alleviate the problem of trying to portray the music as having some meaning to both the musicians and the audiences alike. It's important to note that Tommy was tremendously popular but it's infinitely more interesting to try to explain why it was. That the Lifehouse project yielded Who's Next is history and must be included. But to avoid explaining what Lifehouse was supposed to be, to exclude Townshend's ambitions regarding it is to fail. What was it really about and what did this say about Townshend? How did the rest of the band feel about his metaphysical aspirations? He certainly had some grandiose plans which were in line with his views on the transformative nature of music, specifically rock music.

The Who's music is important to people but this is taken for granted in Amazing Journey and so you never find out what relationship the music has to those who wrote and performed it nor to those millions of people for whom it is a part of the soundtrack of their lives. Except once. It comes at the end when the band are playing on 20 October 2001 at the tribute show for the victims of 9/11. They are doing "Won't Get Fooled Again" and is one of the few times more than 10 seconds of a performance is shown. Watching those firemen and police officers screaming out the words, I realized that it's the only moment of the film in which you get the impression that The Who's music is actually important, that it's actually meaningful to the band and audience alike. And this is exactly why Amazing Journey fails. It's a journey alright, just not that amazing.

Review: Lifeguard Nights - The Church of Song

Upon the demise of South Jersey Seashore Lifeguard Convention Band, Vincent Brue went straight back to work. In a strictly solo context, he buckled down and wrote dozens of songs, releasing them under the moniker of Lifeguard Nights. Earlier this year he recruited seven others and Lifeguard Nights was transformed into a full-fledged band. In addition to the usual rock instrumentation, melodica, jaw harp, and harmonium are part of the group's sound and so things have gone from rather minimal lo-fi to a more well-rounded version.

The burst of gospel that is the title track leads things off. It notes that "there is so much wrong in the world today" and offers music as a palliative. "Amen" follows and takes on organized religion much as Jethro Tull did with "My God". However, Brue does it with a late-60s pop pastiche featuring organ and jam band-like guitar noodling instead of the slashing 6-string chords and a C of E chorus hanging overhead. The beat skips along underneath a catchy chorus of "Well Jesus thinks you're an asshole" which makes the tune instantly memorable. The mocking and anger quickly go into hiding and are replaced by more doleful lyrics. "Downtown" is cut from the same musical template as "Amen" but it mourns an inability to get off the bottle. "Spare Tire" is reminiscent of early REM but replaces obscure lyrics with a lament about the narrator's extra girth. The ghost of Johnny Cash rears its head in the bleak "Nothing Left to Live For". What lies under that Motown tambourine is Brue coming down on a Sunday morning.

Listeners not at the bottom will appreciate the relief of "I'd Prefer It If You Weren't in Pornos" which has Brue's gritty voice showering his lover with praise. "Bastille Day" shows the first real signs of the musical eclecticism promised by an 8-piece band wielding a dozen or more instruments with the jaw harp and banjo contributing. The song opens with acoustic guitar strumming, a simple yet effective banjo melody, and the jaw harp bouncing in the background. This makes for a nice departure from the straight ahead pop of the previous 10 songs. Unfortunately, this was just a tease because, as soon as the drums enter, it's back to formula. "In the Navy Now" is faux Pogues while the epic closer "Over It" is notable only for closing the circle with a bit of the gospel that opened the album.

The Church of Song gets off to a good start but the formula grows stale. This is my first exposure to Vincent Brue and it's obvious that he can write a good pop song. He has a limited singing ability but the raggedness of his voice is what makes it great. But I was disappointed that eight musicians with an arsenal of instruments managed not to deviate all that much from the script. Thusly most of the album comes across as boilerplate. Individually the songs are good with a couple being great, but 43 minutes of them gets bogged down. There's a great EP lurking in here somewhere.

Review: The Dynamics - First Landing

I want to admit that I don't know very much about the state of R&B; these days. But, if the occasional song I hear on the radio courtesy of my roommate is any indication, then I must say that it's for shite. There is the odd exception such as "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley but, for the most part, R&B; these days hurts my ears. Thusly I was happy to receive First Landing by The Dynamics.

The Dynamics were 4-piece vocal group from Detroit populated by George White, Fred Baker, Zeke Harris, and Samuel Stevenson. They hooked up with Aretha Franklin's husband Ted White who got them onto the Atlantic subsidiary Cotillion and took them to Memphis to record this, their debut effort. "Ice Cream Song" proved to be a minor hit but, after this album, the band disappeared into the miasma that was late-60s. The album was first released in 1969 but has been given new life thanks to the folks at Hacktone Records. They recreated the original release's artwork even to the point of putting the CD in a paper inner sleeve.

"I Don't Want Nobody to Lead Me On" is a strong opener with Zeke Harris' confident vocals holding court. Harris handles the lead on the first five tracks and 8 of the 12 songs in total, though White and Baker get a chance to step up. He does another impassioned take on "Ain't No Love At All" but the song is marred by the melodrama of the strings. I've always been of the mind that strings are anethema to R&B; songs and there's nothing here to change my mind. With a beat oozing funk and punchy horns, why drain the dynamic with syrupy sweet strings? "Ain't No Sun" is a cover of a song by the band's Detroit brethren The Temptations and shows why an army of violins aren't needed to imbue a sense of drama into a song. These guys certainly had the pipes and they use them to great effect halfway in as the song slows down. What was side 1 closes with George White's falsetto on "What Would I Do" which emphasizes the blues in R&B.; White's pleading is just so smooth that it's a great shame that all the soul is drained from the performance by the strings.

Side 2 opens again with White handling the lead vocal chores on "The Love That I Need". There's a great melody here and I can imagine The Rolling Stones having covered this. What they would have done was to give it some more muscle which is lacking here. "Since I Lost You" is Fred Baker's lone contribution at the helm but he makes the most of it. In fact, the music struggles to keep up with his frenetic singing. And that's the general problem with the second half – it's too mellow. Somewhere along the way most of the energy got drained and there is a distinct lack of funk. "Murder in the First Degree" recharges the battery a bit but it's too late as it closes the album.

First Landing is a breath of fresh air in these days when R&B; generally means drums machines and synthesizers. It's not a perfect album but more traditional-minded R&B; fans will be glad this was pulled from the vaults and dusted off.

Review: Sterling Harrison - South of the Snooty Fox

Hacktone Records is getting a reputation for releasing comeback albums by R&B; artists who had faded into relative obscurity. (See Arthur Alexander.) This time around it's Sterling Harrison's South of the Snooty Fox.

Harrison passed away in 2005 and this album was to be his chance to step up from the second tier of soul singers and show off his not inconsiderable talents. In his 40 year career, he had played with the likes of Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and Etta James but he was never able to strike out on his own and find more mainstream (i.e. – white) success. Snooty Fox was mostly recorded in 2001 and then polished over the succeeding few years until Harrison's death. It was not until this year that it saw the light of day.

Steve Berlin of Los Lobos was co-producer and he managed to get a nice sound that recalled the R&B; heydays of the 1960s while being planted in the 21st century. Harrison's fantastic baritone is up front leading the music as it should be. All of this means that the album has a nice raw sound that lets the singer ply his trade instead of being bogged down by the production which killed Alexander's comeback effort.

If a guy can take a Tom Waits song and make it his own as is the case here with "The House Where Nobody Lives", then there's something special going on. And indeed there is. "Ain't Nobody Home" may be most closely associated with B.B. King, but the version here is the perfect opener with the classic R&B; beat and Harrison's soaring vocals. O.V. Wright's "A Nickel and a Nail" changes the pace a bit before the booty-shaking of "Seven Days" with its scratchy guitar riff and some sax work from Berlin. "You Left the Water Running" leans towards funk and has some tasty organ work. Perhaps the highlight is the slow-burning "I'll Take Care of You" which showcases guitarist Larry Johnson at his finest. It's a Bobby Bland song which Harrison stretches out to nearly eight minutes of tense seductive flirtation with the listener.

It is a crying shame that Harrison was taken away by cancer because South of the Snooty Fox shows just what an immense talent he was – certainly the equal of the legendary peers he opened for over the years.

Review: OST for Naming Number Two

Naming Number Two is the directorial debut of Toa Fraser who hails from New Zealand. I haven't seen the film but I do have the soundtrack from Hacktone Records. It's a rather daunting task to write about the music of that part of the world since I am totally unfamiliar with it. But try I must.

The album features tracks new & old by various artists interspersed with incidental music from the film by composer Don McGlashan. With the movie dealing with intergenerational conflicts, the soundtrack runs the gamut from rap to the classical repertoire with several tunes being flavored by the Pacific Rim. It makes for quite an eclectic mix.

Rap music has spread across the Pacific as evidenced by the lead track here, "The Medicine" by Tha Feelstyle who hails from Somoa by way of NZ. There isn't anything here to betray the homeland of the singer as the song sounds as American as anything you're likely to hear on this side of the ocean. The same goes for "Bathe in the River" by Mt. Raskil Preservation Society which also featured the silky smooth voice of soul singer Hollie Smith. Māori-Niuean hip-hop artist Che Fu contributes a couple songs and the mid-tempo "Waka" is the best with its sampled ethnic percussion which ensures that it doesn't sound overly American.

McGlashan's contributions here are short and obviously served their purposes in the film. "Nanna's Entrance" and "Mt. Roskill/Chasing the Pig" are largely orchestral while the aching dobro on "Early Morning" does a wonderful job of capturing the song's title. "Sai Levuka Ga" has some lovely guitar work and shimmering vocals which make a smooth transition to music hall with the addition of horns.

The best songs here, though, are the ones that don't sound like they originate from the States. "Wai Ni Bu Ni Ovalau" by the Fijian Festival Performers is a vocal tour de force for the large chorus. I have no idea what the lyrics mean but the song is absolutely beautiful. "Chulu Chululu" dates back to the mid-1960s and is by Mila with Eddie Lund and his Tahitians. How much it has to do with Tahitian music is unknown since it sounds fairly Anglicized to my ears but it has a tasty pedal steel break and is just blatantly catchy.

As I said above, my favorite tracks are the ones that sound the most exotic, for want of a better word. The songs that have at least some kind of inflection from cultures across the ocean fare the best to my ears. While you'd think that I'd be used to it by now, I still found myself amazed at how far American music has spread. The rap songs here were the most difficult but, after repeated listenings, even I, a bit of a purist and not a big fan of the genre, grew to like them. Still, they proved the most problematic as they sounded assembled instead of performed and, perhaps worst of all, they sounded American instead of Polynesian. And this makes me want to see the movie because I suspect that, not only is the tension between young and old present, but also that of traditional Pacific Rim cultures vs. Western and those tensions interest me greatly.