Gaper's Blog

The Unheard Music (Volume LXXXIV)

So, we're at Volume 84 in this series and now it comes full circle. What began as a titular reference to X now ends with X.  I'm not ending the idea of featuring a different band every Friday, just ending the name and (with your help) retooling what it's all about. My intent was always to simply expose you to artists that you'd either never heard about or had forgotten about and I think I accomplished that goal. I hope you learned a lot about music you may not have otherwise listened to, were it not for this weekly feature. I'm proud of the fact that of 83 previous posts, I never got a cease and desist letter asking me to take down the music.  In fact on about half a dozen instances, I actually heard from an artist I featured who was grateful for the exposure.

Since I 'borrowed' the name The Unheard Music from an obscure X song, who better to retire the title with than one of the greatest American punk bands ever.  X. It's funny, so much is in a name.  I was a bit scared by Dead Kennedys as a kid, ditto The Damned, Sex Pistols and X. They just seemed so 'punk' with those names and I had this notion that they were all scary bands with scary music (with apologies to The Cramps, who also scared me--a lot). It wasn't until a high school friend of mine put an X song on a mix tape "Make The Music Go Bang" that I realized X was just a roots band with a punky attitude.  Of course the term 'roots band' didn't exist then but that's what they were/are.  

Plus, they had that male/female vocal dynamic with the added element of being married members of a band.  They weren't the first but they certainly fit in with that timeless husband/wife vocal thing.  Think bands from X to Yo La Tengo, Richard and Linda Thompson, Sonic Youth and Arcade Fire with so many in between.

What always struck me about X was how they managed to work within the framework of the Los Angeles music 'scene' and became legendary, despite the sometimes cheesy nature of it (think Sunset Strip in the 1980's with bands like Motley Crue).  Sure they were never as popular as their protégés like RHCP or Jane's Addiction but maintained the status in Los Angeles that Sonic Youth still have in NYC. John Doe and Exene are still the King and Queen of L.A. music.  I once had some people over on a Sunday night and playing amateur Music Supervisor, I played "Los Angeles" over the opening credits of Entourage (replacing Jane's Addiction's "Hero") and damn if it didn't sound even better. Try it sometime.  My first X album was "More Fun in the New World" (following the advice of my high school friend) which also contained a song most punks would've dismissed as too conventional "True Love Pt. #2 " but it sure is fun counting how many other songs are referenced. And while it's one of the few X songs not written by John or Exene, Dave Alvin wrote a great song for the band in "4th Of July", which follows the rule that if you write a good song with a holiday as the title, you pretty much guarantee radio airplay once a year, I know I'll probably spin it at some point Saturday night.

What I need are suggestions for a new title for this feature and bands you'd like to hear about. Oh, let's go completely full-circle: The Unheard Music  

Have a great Independence Day Weekend.  Rock out!

The Unheard Music (Volume LXXXIII)

Say you were in a band and your t-shirts handily outsold your records and your guitar tech ended up joining a band that dwarved your success one hundred fold?  The I'd say you'd be in band called Insprial Carpets.  It wasn't all bad, in fact for a period in the late 1980's and early 1990's it was a good place to be.

I'll admit my introduction to the band was a bit after their greatest success in Manchester, the 1990 album Life, which contained the single "This Is How It Feels".  By this point, they had already done a Peel Session and had a string of successful singles and an EP or two.  They also had sold a few metric tons of their infamous "Cool As F*ck"* t-shirts, one of which got an Oxford student arrested for obscenity. I vaguely recall The Beast Inside and a middling single but not much else from that album. 

What I do remember quite fondly was the early 1993 release (it came out in 1992 in the UK) Revenge of the Goldfish.  A big Carpets fan would probably scoff at the notion but I found Goldfish to be their finest work.  Where earlier material was too reliant upon their trademark organ sound (what was it about Manc bands and organs?) this album found them stretching out stylistically and writing better melodies.  Lead single "Two Worlds Collide" was a bit melodramatic but that 'What have I done with my life" chorus was undeniable, anthemic even.  A bit more playful was the the catchy "Smoking Her Clothes".  They were back to brooding on "Bitches Brew" but it was in the service of a good song.  The follow up album stiffed everywhere and they broke up not long after.  The aughts found them reuniting and re-releasing material and Best Of's, so you never know when they'll be back. Oh, and that guitar tech? Noel Gallagher, of Oasis. 

Have a great weekend, enjoy the music.

* FYI - It's not that I'm a prude and mind typing the f-word, but if you do, search engines find that and send people here looking to f*ck or at least pictures and movies that depict this.  One of my posts from a few years ago gets monster hits EVERYDAY and I couldn't figure out why until I remembered that I used the word a**hole, and search engines were directing spambots to my site.  

The Unheard Music (Volume LXXXII)

Normally when I do an Unheard Music, it's about an artist I've known and loved for a long time.  The aim is always for you to hear something you hopefully haven't heard or know little about.  Since I'm focusing on lesser-known Manchester bands in June, I'll admit I know precious little about New Fast Automatic Daffodils.  I first knew them by their nickname "New FADS" (an acronym, really) and they were a band I'd always heard of but had never heard.  Having been burned by British band hype before, I waited out New FADS until their second record came out.  I was working at WCBR in early 1993 when one afternoon during my radio show, the Music Director came in with a copy of Body Exit Mind and said, "You have to play this!"  It was that sort of spontaneous programming that made working there such a blast.  I scanned the song titles and suggested playing "Bong" but he suggested "Stockholm" instead.  It's such a visceral song, angry and melodic at the same time with a slight nod to (fellow Mancunian) Peter Hook by using the bass guitar as a lead instrument.  Very compelling.  While not as immediate, "It's Not What You Know" was another choice track.  We later added "Bong" as a third single.  And despite really liking the band, they totally dropped off my radar, they would release just one more record which I never heard.  I'd love to hear more about the band if you're privy to more background and perspective than I am.  Are the first and third albums worth hearing?

Have a great weekend, enjoy the music! Be good to your dads.

The Unheard Music (Volume LXXXI)

I wasn't there when most of the magic was happening but I have been to Manchester, England.  It's my musical Holy Grail. So much of the music that shaped my life and musical tastes happened there from 1977 on.  For the month of June (marking the 10 year anniversary of my visit there in June of 1999) I will focus exclusively on the underrated artists that made Manchester such a musical Mecca for the last 30+ years.

The Charlatans had the last laugh out of the whole Madchester Scene, didn't they? They never got the accolades or records sales of their Mancunian peers (Happy Mondays, Stone Roses) but 20 years later, they're the last men standing. If' you had shut the door on Manc music in 1990, you'd still have an amazing record from the Charlatans to hold up as emblematic of that era and Deep Purple would still have a lawsuit. Everybody knows "The Only One I Know" right?  I mean, the title is appropriate (for most it is the only Charlatans song they know) and this is the one Deep Purple fans have been grousing about for decades.  And they do have a point.  Deep Purple may not have invented the Hammond B3/Leslie combo but they did write 'that riff', but there's so much more to Some Friendly. In the same vein of "The Only One I Know" and owing a stylistic (keyboard) debt to The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again", "Sproston Green" is another gem from Some Friendly. The band chose the underwhelming "Over Rising" as a second single but a bonus track from that single/EP remains one of my all time Charlatans faves, "Happen To Die"

Eager to distance themselves from the retro vibe of the debut, The Charlatans employed more technology (and hotshot producer Flood) on the sophomore effort "Between 10th and 11th", which still featured prominent B3 work from Rob Collins but also used sequencing as evidenced by would-be hit, "I Don't Want To See The Sights".  I was working with a band who opened for The Charlatans on this tour and when The Charlatans played Chicago's Cabaret Metro, they spent a considerable part of that afternoon's sound check mastering the cues in this song. (They did end up nailing it live, btw.)  Another highlight from 10th & 11th was the minor hit "Page One".  I checked my iTunes and no less than five songs from this album are '5 Star' songs, making it my favorite Charlatans album.

 

Where so many other bands would've just given up, The Charlatans just kept on keepin' on and it has only enhanced their stature. They certainly had their moments of doubt (and tragedy) but twenty years after their debut, they remain a standard bearers--and elder statesmen--of Mancunian music. Certainly a song like "You're So Pretty- We're So Pretty" won't make you forget their earlier work but it's still moving forward and it's why their upcoming September show at Double Door will sell out well in advance. While writing this piece, I revisited a significant portion of the Charlatans catalog which was not only fun and revelatory but it has me totally stoked for that September Double Door gig.

 

Have a great weekend, enjoy the music.  Share your Charlatans moments in the comments.

The Unheard Music (Volume LXXX)

Remember when R.E.M. was the coolest band on the planet? I sure do. There was a period (Circa 1984- 1989) when R.E.M. was unimpeachable.  Better than even U2. U2 at that point were too earnest: a great band (who sold more records than R.E.M.) but they had yet to discover their own sense of humor and irony.  That would come a few years later.  The mid-to-late 80's belonged to R.E.M.  Everything they did was shrouded in mystery, sangfroid and irony. They were funny then, really funny but it didn't overshadow the music, they managed to be mysterious, funny and remarkably consistent at the same time, a potent combination. It is for those reasons that I will always hold a special place in my heart for R.E.M..  Much later came a period when I seriously considered giving up on them forever, Around The Sun SUCKED and I figured I'd give them one last chance.  Thankfully they released Accelerate, and while it won't make me forget Reckoning, it was a wonderful surprise. I look forward to their next album, whenever that is.

So, back to that time when R.E.M. ruled.  I have been fortunate enough to have seen them live seven or eight times over the last 25 years and five of those were in that mid-to-late 80's.  While it may not have been the best I've seen them, I do have an aural artifact of one such show, a show I helped 'bootleg'. While I didn't do the actual taping, I did 'crotch' one of the master cassettes used in the taping.  By 'crotch', I mean I put a Maxell XLII underneath my jeans (but outside my boxers) in an area where no security personnel had a legal right to touch and smuggled the tape into the UIC Pavillion, allegedly, of course.  A friend (who shall remain anonymous) did the actual recording.  Truth be told, he still does this 25+ years later.  As a result, I can't actually talk to him at shows as he doesn't want the ambient sound of me talking to him to be recorded, we just talk after the shows.  He's been kind enough to give me copies of a few shows he's taped over the years and a few years ago asked if I wanted a copy of that R.E.M. show from UIC Pavillion on October 19, 1986.  Since my cassette was on the brink of wearing out from two decades plus of use, I was more than happy to accept a digital copy.  

I still remember many details of the show, 23 years later.  It was a Friday night, the night before I took my PSAT Test.  Camper Van Beethoven opened (with a great set) and XRT DJ Johnny Mars was the Emcee, about seven years before we'd (amazingly) become colleagues and friends.  While all three of my then bandmates were also in attendance, I rode to and witnessed the show with my fellow bootlegging pals. R.E.M. had released Lifes Rich Pageant [sic] a few months prior.  The set was heavy on Pageant material but the band had a few surprises up their sleeves. First among the surprises was an embryonic version of "The One I Love" that wouldn't see the light of day until the next album Document, I knew that song was a keeper, even then. Another was a cover by a band I had only heard of then and wouldn't fully appreciate until college a few years later, "See No Evil" by NYC band Television. I knew a bit about Iggy Pop in 1986 but was unfamiliar with the 1977 gem from The Idiot "Funtime".  I tried to find tour date information about the Pageantry Tour but couldn't.  I mention that because R.E.M. always played The Velvet Underground's "After Hours" on the last date of each tour. "Elvis Story/After Hours" was the last song of the night that night but I find it curious that they would end a tour in Chicago and not Athens, GA or on one of the coasts.  At right is the actual setlist as I wrote it out during the show, with minor corrections using White Out, at least I guessed right on the title of  "The One I Love", a paragraph above that is the actual cassette I smuggled in and the photo in the first paragraph is a B&W photo advertising the show I took from The Reader and 'colorized' myself and served as my makeshift cover for this boot for 20+ years. Hope you enjoy the music, have a great weekend.

The Unheard Music (Volume LXXIX)

One of the great pleasures of being a music fan is hearing a great song for the first time.  Few words can accurately convey what that feeling is like but it's sublime.  And if you're like me, your first inclination is to listen to it again and again.  If it's something I own or have ready access to, it's not unusual for me to replay a new song three or four times in a row.  Thankfully, I have access to a great deal of new music from a wide variety of sources.  I figured so many of these Unheard Music posts spotlight a band that is no longer around or dormant, it might be nice to feature a band that is still in their prime. A band whose music you can still discover and enjoy and (hopefully) get that feeling of hearing a great song for the first time.  Today's Unheard Music will be about Los Angeles band Great Northern.

I first heard Great Northern about three years ago on a promotional compilation CD.  Upon hearing the chorus of the song "Home" for the first time, I was hooked. It was one of those songs that I knew was just going to blow up huge.  Now, ten years ago 'blowing up huge' meant massive airplay and selling out venues, these days, huge means getting your song placed in a television show and maybe a movie or commercial.  "Home" hit the Triple Crown there.  It was ubiquitous (to me) for a few months.  Thankfully the full-length album Trading Twilight For Daylight didn't disappoint, there were four or five bona fide great songs with "Our Bleeding Hearts" another example of Great Northern's skills.  They proved to be a powerful force live as well, I saw them on the last night of their 2007 tour in a sparsely attended Schuba's show in November of that year that made my cut for top shows of that year.  While they failed to fill out Schuba's that night, everyone there came away having seen a fantastic show and the band was appreciative of everyone who did come.  Just a few weeks ago, Great Northern released their second full-length album Remind Me Where The Light Is which continued in the same musical vein.  I don't know which track the band is emphasizing (remember when bands would release a 'single'?) but my money's on "Houses" as the front runner.  Listen for it on a screen near you this summer, mark my words.  And, fer Pete's sake, if you like it, buy it; this is band that is still around and can use your support.

Have a great weekend, enjoy the music.

The Unheard Music (Volume LXXVIII)

What I wanna know is what the hell is wrong with the name Kevin Moore?  I had a History teacher in high school named Kevin Moore and he was a good teacher and nice guy.  In the music world though, Kevin Moore is the birth name of two different performers I know of, neither of whom use their given names.  The first Kevin Moore I became aware of is an Irishman who has a legendary older brother named Christy, so he adopted the nom de rock "Luka Bloom" to avoid the inevitable comparisons to his famous sibling.  The second Kevin Moore shortened his given name to Keb' Mo' (which sounds like someone with a sinus infection is saying his name) and has won a few Grammys and is fairly well known, so I'll focus on the first former Kevin Moore, the one now known as Luka Bloom.

The first I heard of Luka Bloom was his second album Riverside and the first single "Delirious", which got a lot of airplay in 1990.  It was enough to inspire me to buy the album, which was remarkably deep, full of great material.  The penultimate track on Riverside was a stunner called "You Couldn't Have Come At A Better Time", a song my wife and I discovered independent of each other nearly a decade before we met.  It would end up on a mix CD we made for our wedding guests. Two years later, Bloom released The Acoustic Motorbike with the lead track "Mary Watches Everything", another gem. Over the years Bloom has been regarded not only as a riviting live performer but also as a skilled interpreter of other people's works.  Like last week's feature, Too Much Joy, Luka Bloom found a muse in LL Cool J, Bloom covered "I Need Love" where TMJ covered "That's A Lie".  Bloom then decided to record an album of covers called Keeper of the Flame which ranged from Dylan and Marley to contemporary artists U2 and Radiohead.  He also covered The Cure "In Between Days" and one of my all-time favorite songs, Hunters and Collectors' "Throw Your Arms Around Me".  Hopefully you'll find something to enjoy in Bloom's music and Chicagoans should note the he'll be in town playing two shows at the acoustically brilliant Old Town School of Folk Music on June 6th at 7 & 10PM.

Have a great weekend, enjoy the music.

The Unheard Music (Volume LXXVII)

I hate to write a new post when I see a big, fat comments goose egg staring at me from last week's post on 60 Ft. Dolls.  Anybody listen to it?  Hate it?  Love it?  Moving on.

Frank Zappa released a record and video in the mid 1980's called "Does Humor Belong In Music?"  This post is not about the late great FZ but will address humor in music.  There's a fine imaginary line when an artist chooses to inject humor into music.  Cross that line and you risk having your music relegated to The Dr. Demento Show without non-humor outlets taking you seriously.  I got nothing against Dr. Demento, it's just that his is not a show of musical integrity, it's meant to be funny and is.  If you manage to stay clear of the imaginary funny line, you can have it both ways, regular outlets play your music and you get noticed by the Dr. Demento's of the world.  It's the difference between They Might Be Giants and Dead Milkmen. Both bands started at around the same time but where the Milkmen are famous for one, maybe two songs, TMBG thrived with both funny and poignant material over the years and are now heroes to the children of the kids who grew up with TMBG. Today, my focus will be on a lesser known band with a finely tuned sense of humor: Too Much Joy.

The band's first two albums riffed on Dr. Seuss titles: Green Eggs and Crack and Son of Sam I Am. From the latter album came an inspired cover of the LL Cool J song "That's A Lie", which managed to pay homage to the original while also putting their own personality on it. 1991's Cereal Killers was quite a leap in quality, both in songwriting and production.  Proof that band could write non-joke material came in the form of a wonderful pop gem called "Crush Story" that actually charted.  Still one of my favorite songs.  No crush/mix tape from me in that era was complete without that song.  Clearly the chords from "Crush Story" worked well because a few songs later, the exact same chord progression showed up on the funny "Long Haired Guys From England".  The band fizzled out in the mid 90's but are still friendly and have reunited for special occasions.  And as far as I'm concerned, they were like all the cool television shows like Arrested Development and Freaks and Geeks, great but too smart for their own good. 

Thanks for visiting, enjoy the music and have a great weekend.  And hey, if you like this site, tell some friends about it.  Oh, and next week look for another baby-themed post, I got a lot of good feedback on that.

The Unheard Music (Volume LXXVI)

Opening salvo, three in fact.  After a windy but otherwise uneventful Thursday, a strong thunderstorm cell moved through the Chicago area around 11PM.  Of course it happened hours after I went through the car wash and with no advance warning from any of the meteorologists I heard.  While the rain was relatively light, the electrical activity was spectacular. The peak of the lightning episodes happened just as I was approaching Lake Shore Drive via I-55.  I was drawn to a very large bolt as it arced across the sky and connected with the antennae of The Sears Tower.  A minute or two later, another massive bolt streaked through the air and once again hit the Sears Tower.  Then finally, as I was wating for the light at Balbo and L.S.D., I saw one more direct hit to the two antennae atop The Sears Tower and was close enough to see a shower of sparks and smoke arise from the strike.  True, the Sears Tower probably receives hundreds if not thousands of lightning strikes every year but to see three direct hits in the span of three or four minutes was pretty cool.  What's more is I talked to an engineer buddy of mine whose job it is to keep several radio stations on the air, several of which have transmitters atop the Sears and none of them experienced so much as a blip in service. Onto the music.

Despite a system of Post-It notes and a mental backlog of potential Unheard Music artists that could take me into next year, I'm often swayed by a song that pops up on an iPod shuffle. Such was the case this week when Mid-90's Welsh band 60ft. Dolls gave my car stereo a workout and refreshed my memory.  You don't listen to 60ft. Dolls for insightful lyrical content, they are all about high octane riffage, which they deliver in spades.  Try not to crank "Happy Shopper", it's the bastard child of Thin Lizzy and Urge Overkill, it's the perfect for a day like today (in Chicago): windows down, sunroof/convertable top open and the stereo on 11.  Despite high-profile tours with Oasis, Elastica and Dinosaur Jr., and a record deal here with Geffen, the Dolls hardly made a dent in the States.  I mean, before now had you ever heard of 60ft. Dolls?  Another 'single' "Stay" despite another great riff, was as unsuccessful as the first.  After continuing troubles with booze, the band split up in the late 90's.  One post-script with a modern day implications involves 60ft. Doll Richard Parfitt introducing a then-unknown singer Aimee Ann Duffy to her manager/mentor Jeannette Lee.  Aimee would eventually drop her first name and enjoy worldwide success with last year's smash single "Mercy". 

Have a great weekend (finally), enjoy the music.

The Unheard Music (Volume LXXV)

Busy week.  In addition to the Easter Holiday, I had the added duties of blogging for my day job, with a review of the wonderful Lily Allen show Easter Sunday at The Riv.  You can read that post here if you'd like.  Love Lily Allen.  Onto the Unheard Music.

I'm writing this assuming most of you have at least a passing familiarity with Blake Babies, a great late 80's/early 90's Indie rock band from Boston.  If not, go buy the Blake Babies record Sunburn and come back later.  The Blakes featured the unique vocal talent of Juliana Hatfield who went on to a successful solo career which still thrives today, she also recently published her memoir, a book called "When I Grow Up".  When Juliana left Blake Babies, the two remaining Blakes (John Strohm and Freda Love) decamped to their hometown, Bloomington, Indiana, recruited two locals and formed a new band.  They were originally called Sway after the Stones song from Sticky Fingers but changed it to Antenna and instead named their first album Sway.  That debut is still a staple in my life, 18 years after it was released.  "All I Need" is a highlight and "Snakes" is simply stunning, a slow, wistful bit of nostalgia and still ranks among my favorite songs, ever.  Prior to Antenna's second album, they released an EP of sorts called Sleep which contained two songs from Sway, a Wire cover and a demo of a song that would be fully fleshed out for the second album Hideout.  I actually prefer the rough around the edges demo version, "Wall Paper".  Hideout wasn't without charms but not as good as Sway and the band spilt up not long after Hideout was released. 

Freda Love was last heard playing in a group called Some Girls with Juliana Hatfield circa 2006 and John Strohm went to law school and works as a lawyer handling mostly musical clientele in Birmingham, Alabama where he continues to write and record music.

Thanks for visiting.  Have a great weekend, enjoy the music!