Archive for October, 2008
Being introduced to my future.
Author: Gary Cope
My friend, Jason, and I were talking today about our individual introductions to punk and to the punk scene. We had vastly different intros because he was older and we grew up in very different areas of California. My friend, Sean, had an older brother who was willing to take us along, at 13, to see the mighty Black Flag at some warehouse in a seedy part of L.A. Read the rest of this entry »
read comments (0)Arena = Todd Rundgren + Guitars Guitars Guitars!
Author: Jeff Boule
The story behind the album Arena is simply a tale born out of situational necessity. You die-hard Rundgren fans remember a couple of years ago (around the time the movie CARS came out) Todd had replaced Ric Ocasek in The New Cars (the ‘New’ being added in light of the minority percentage of returning members, only Elliot Easton and Greg Hawkes returned). Also joining Easton and Hawkes were Utopia and long-time Rundgren bassist and vocalist Kasim Sulton alongside drummer for The Tubes, Jefferson Starship and also a long-time Rundgren band member Prairie Prince. During the New Cars tour, the tour bus was in an accident and Easton fell from an upper bunk and broke his shoulder/collar bone. The tour was cut short, the cross-promotion with the Pixar movie was cancelled, and Rundgren found himself with nothing to do for a summer. Not wanting to waste a prime touring season, Rundgren spoke with Tony Levin band and long-time Rundgren guitarist Jesse Gress who contacted Levin and recruited him along with Levin Band drummer Jerry Marotta to do a two guitars bass and drums tour. Less expensive than touring with Midi and keyboards, etc.
Seeing as how he was going to be touring with a guitar-oriented band, not only did he have to limit his repertoire to guitar based or guitar-oriented or guitar adaptable songs, he also had to rearrange some keyboard-oriented standards for guitar.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
The Scientific Method… meets Kiss (III)
Author: Keith
If you’ve read the previous two posts here, you know the deal – we’re using science to figure out which Kiss album is the best Kiss album… eva! Last time we left off midway through the Kiss solo albums, so it’s time to finish up the solo records, get to the reason this post even happened, and of course – listen to ‘Music from the Elder’.
Peter Criss (1978)
While this album wins the award for ‘most un-Kiss solo album’, it doesn’t win the award for ‘worst Kiss solo album’, thanks to Paul. It all sounds kind of…. I don’t know, 60s? in terms of the songwriting, but that’s probably helped along by the cover of ‘Tossin and Turnin’ and the song I thought was a cover ‘That’s the Kind of Sugar Papa Likes’. Speaking of, I REALLY like that song (That’s the kind of sugar…), and I can’t say I’m entirely pleased admitting that, it sounds very ‘Hi my name is Keith… and I have a Kiss-listening problem’). Anyway, the bad moments on this record are pretty damn bad, and there aren’t many good ones, either. No wonder this was the lowest-selling solo album.
Gene Simmons (1978)
This record is slightly more Kiss-like than the two just mentioned, and it does have a few interesting moments (”Living in Sin”, “Radioactive”), it’s only good when compared to Peter and Paul’s albums. I never realized it until this experiment, but these albums don’t really sound like Kiss much – even this album is an album I would have assumed (before listening) sounds a lot like what we think of when we think of Kiss, but it just doesn’t. Plus, Gene’s songs all reek of egomania you know? Like damn – like yourself much? I’ll See you in Your Dreams? Though I think we can all thank Gene for having a song that rhymes ‘living in sin’ with ‘Holiday inn’, a time-tested piece of lyrical brilliance that Chingy would then resucitate 25 years later.
Ace Frehley (1978)
While it may not be saying much, this is an absolute no-brainer as the best solo record, sporting a bunch of really cool songs (”Ozone, “Snowblind” and “New York Groove”) and sounding the most like Kiss after the other three solo records. This record probably even cracks the top 10 in terms of Kiss albums, its weak moments aren’t as weak as many Kiss albums’ weak moments – but it’s not a candidate for the best Kiss record ever. Next!
Dynasty (1979)
Kiss does Disco! Well, that was the big tag line about this album anyway, that Kiss had ‘gone disco’ and all. Sure, the song ‘I was Made For Loving You” was disco-ish and the surprisingly cool ‘Sure Know Something’ has a little bit of that too, but this is still a pretty good Kiss album top-to-bottom. Plus, ‘I was Made for Lovin you’ is cool! Some people disagree I’m sure, but I don’t hear Kiss trying too hard to be disco here, I just hear a band that made a rock record with some disco overtones here and there. This isn’t their best album, but deserves a quick mention in the conversation.
Unmasked (1980)
And now, here we are – the reason behind this excursion involving the scientific method. Yes, I ended up taking a few weeks off from this – sometimes you just get busy – and that’s a good thing, probably. So how does this, the album that I thought would be the best Kiss album ever, hold up?
Well, um…
Not good.
See, it turns out it’s not that good. It does have some songs I like (”Shandi”, “What makes the World Go Round”, and “Tomorrow”), it feels like the songswriting is a little more mature maybe? Or maybe I’m just thinking ahead to Kiss’s ‘cash in on sex’ years that are right around the corner. Anyway. This album isn’t that good, and really when you think about it I have Science and the Scientific Method to thank – without doing this experiment I would have walked around like an idiot, claiming ‘Unmasked’ is their best record yet and probably been committed to a mental institution on the spot. Whew!
Music from the Elder (1981)
This is one of the most hyped ‘bad’ records ever, when you think about it. To show how far-reaching the suck from this record is, I’m listening to the NFL Network on Sirius a few weeks back and they bring some guest on, only to be prefaced by some absolutely horrible song. I mean, horrible! The two hosts – in remote locations – have nothing to say about this horrible piece of ‘bumper’ music other than an awkward pause and a “uhhh, wow. We need to talk to our producer”. At this time, the guest reveals that he and the producer – both in New York – were talking about “Music from the Elder by Kiss, one of the worst albums ever” and the producer played a cut from it (”A world without heroes”) as a joke.
That’s how bad this album sucks. Actually, it’s not so much that it’s bad – it’s that it’s not Kiss. Well okay, a lot of it is pretty bad. I’m really doing all I can to find something redeeming about it, but it’s hard. So, yeah. Let’s move on then.
Creatures of the Night (1982)
Many Kiss fans put this in their top Kiss albums ever, and I’m with them on this. Hell, the massive-sounding drums that begin “I love It Loud” are practically enough, me being a drum
junkie and all. But aside from that, the album is top-to-bottom solid without one bad cut. It’s the one album that straddles their riff-oriented best from the arena rock days with the tight production and bigger sound of their records later on in their career. This one’s in consideration for the top spot for sure.
Well, as long as Step 5 was…. it’s now done. Many albums by Kiss digested, and only the final step of the Scientific Method to go.
MGMT- The New Era of Psychedelic Pop
Author: Shira Karsen
MGMT (previously known as) The Management, have been around since 2002 when Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden, two neo-hippies from Wesleyan University, decided to form a band— but only recently have they been put on the indie rock radar. Read the rest of this entry »
Nick Cave and the Good Show
Author: Lydia Pudzianowski
Technically, it’s still Sunday, making it my designated blog day here at prex.com. Good start, I know.
A little while ago, I found out that Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds were playing the Electric Factory on October 7th. While I’m from Bucks County, I go to school in Pittsburgh, and Nick is one of my favorites. Long story short, I flew home for 24 hours to catch this show and then turned around and came back.
Worth it? Yes. Hell yes. Read the rest of this entry »
Why Our Jazz Magazines are Bad– And Bad for Jazz
Author: Anthony Medici
First, full disclosure: I subscribe to both Jazz Times (JT) and Down Beat (DB) (I liked it better when it was “downbeat”) and have for quite a few years. I also have a subscription to Signal to Noise (STN), and until, recently, Cadence. But this has been the year of my discontent with both JT and DB, or, more precisely, this has been the year that my dissatisfaction with JT and DB has creached critical mass, for these two mainstays of the jazz scene are both bad– and bad for jazz. Read the rest of this entry »
They were the soundtrack to my 18 year old life
Author: Gary Cope
I remember going into a local record shop in Cypress, California called Bionic Records. I worked up the street and would stop in there each Friday with my paycheck in my pocket. I needed to pay rent and buy food, but I also needed to buy new music. Read the rest of this entry »
FASTER THAN FATE: Pandora’s BOX
Author: Leigh Silbernagel
This band has shown consistently strong song writing skills, as well as ample stage presence. Drawing forces from punk-hardcore-alternative, the result is a unique and innovative sound, remarkable and unforgettable. Despite time and distance, one can not forget the sounds of Faster than Fate.
Steel Train
Author: Shira Karsen
In the basement of some suburban house in Princeton, New Jersey, four lanky and teen angsty men formed a band. Yes, this does seem incredibly cliché, but Steel Train, a band that easily defies every my-life-sucks-basement-band faux-pas is worth spending time listening to. Their quirky beats and melodramatic harmonies are reflective of their lead singer Jack Antonoff’s story, in which he fell into a deep depression after his sister died, his cousin died in Iraq and he broke up with his long-term girlfriend.
Their sound is like The Killers meets Ben Folds, if they were married and had the psychedelic folk of Joan Jett and the morbid lyrics of death cab as their in laws. Cutting, blatant lyrics from Antoff’s personal experiences are contradicted by electrifying piano pop and upbeat vocals.
Their latest album, Trampoline, which debuted in December of 2007, is like a therapy session strung over tunes of instrumental funk and jaunty anger. The first song “I feel weird” starts off telling his basic story: “ When I was 18/ everything was alive/ then the planes hit the towers/ then she died/ then he died/ a part of me disappeared/ six feet in the ground…./ a fire burns and it’s mine/.
In “Kill monsters in the rain,” lyrics like “together we can/ together we’ll kill monsters in the rain” harmonize over Ben Folds-esque keyboard’s. And the fun 80’s intro reminiscent of journey in “Alone On the Sea,” give this album it’s lighter side— the therapy sessions where time has passed and they’ve found something else to talk about.
This band should without a doubt be on our watch list. They were on tour this past summer, playing with O.A.R, performing at Bonarro in June and Lollapalooza in August, and are now performing all over the U.S.
Anthony Hamilton: The Point of It all
Author: Leigh Silbernagel
anthony hamitlon/The Point of It All/ So So Def/ Zombra Label Group
The six-time Grammy-nominated R&B-soul balladeer croons a melodic picture of life using straightforward lyrics as his mellifluous paintbrush on his junior effort The Point of It All: “Talking about relationships again… everything from making love to building love; having arguments, just life!”
Anthony Hamilton
Author: Leigh Silbernagel
anthony hamitlon/ The Point of It All/ So So Def/ Zombra Label Group
The six-time Grammy-nominated R&B-soul balladeer croons a melodic picture of life using straightforward lyrics as his mellifluous paintbrush on his junior effort The Point of It All: “Talking about relationships again… everything from making love to building love; having arguments, just life!”
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Mind
Author: Anthony Medici
As William Congreve (not Shakespeare) once famously said, “Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast” (not beast, although now so often misquoted as to form a standard quote in itself), but it seems rather powerless to cure the sick– at least in my case, as I spent the week suffering from a nasty illness that left me time to listen but not much inclination to do so. I usually suffer, as I suspect most music lovers do, from a perceived lack of time to enjoy their favorite music. It’s one of life’s cruel ironies illnes gives one the time to listen but takes away one’s capacity to enjoy it. I suppose music can often be a power for healing and would love to hear from those who have experienced that power. Read the rest of this entry »
Jazz- Live! The Duke Ellington Jazz festival
Author: Anthony Medici
I love my records and my CDs, and you can find me holed up with them for hours, but whenever I can I get out and listen to live performances, particularly jazz, I do so. Pickings have been somewhat slim this summer here in Our Nation’s Capital (you know, the place politicians love to hate, or pretend to hate), and so, I have had little to blog about. However, last week provided an embarrassment of riches, thanks to the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival, presented at various venues around the Capital, with a big outdoor festival on Sunday at the Sylvan Theater on the Mall, near the Washington Monument. The weather was perfect, and the music ran from the very fine to the sublime. Read the rest of this entry »
Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. Enough said from Byrne/Eno.
Author: Jeff Boule
It seems that life is so high pressure these days. Economic crisis, housing crisis, Middle East crisis, everything in crisis. Sometimes you need something to bring your stress level down. The new album from David Byrne and Brian Eno is something that can keep your toes tapping while reducing heart rate and blood pressure levels. But the music is far too lively to be as coma inducing as some of the earlier Eno ambient albums. But it is far more cerebral than Talking Heads.
Too Old to Punk?
Author: Anthony Medici
Folks, I’m going to need some help here. I’ll need your thoughts on this. Lately, I’ve felt the stirrings of a new infatuation, and I don’t know what to do about it. Should I indulge my passion, or impose some self-restraint? Am I too old to develop yet another liaison, or should I rest comfortably with my old flames? Oh, I’m not talking about my personal life, or, at least not that aspect of my personal life. No, this is about yet another musical infatuation: Punk. What I need to know is whether it is seemly for an aging Baby Boomer to launch himself into a passionate affair with punk rock. Read the rest of this entry »
Come Backstage at Princeton Record Exchange
Author: Brett
Have you ever wondered what goes on behind those mysterious doors at Princeton Record Exchange? In our new web videos, we give you a sneak peek into the behind-the-scenes workings of our store, and a whole lot more!