Elephantgun

I saw Elephantgun at the unfortunate Treasure Coast Music Festival in Vero Beach, Florida, but they are a Melbourne, Florida ensemble.  Don't get me wrong.  Seeing Elephantgun was very fortunate.  Hearing them even more so.  They were playing on the North stage where people passed by from the entrance, pavilion or venders and while few stayed I think mostly for fear of impending weather or wishing to be elsewhere, it was amazing to see everyone stop and stare and listen.  These guys are truly fantastic!  While the flamboyant playing of bassist David Pastorius is often the attention grabber (follow the link to hear, but he really is a marvel to watch), Tom Van Dyke is no slouch on the drums nor does guitarist/vocalist Trevor Prince fail to enthrall.  Trevor is a powerful and intricate guitarist which is a striking contrast to his irreverent humor and casual presence as the groups frontman.  His vocal style is a gravelly alternative texture with a quick, concise hip-hop/rap style.  Don't be misled, though, this is definitely a solid rock trio.  They are contemporary but tip their hats in homage to some classic covers like CCR and Fleetwood Mac also.  The style is not similar I think, but I could not help but compare three such phenomenal musicians with Emerson, Lake and Palmer.  Just my age, I suppose, but to say I was impressed was an understatement.  I highly recommend, seeing, hearing and know this band as well as you are able.

Elephantgun

Imagination Theater

Miss old-time radio;  mysteries, fantasies, suspense, westerns-the drama imagination and excitement?  I did.  And old-time radio is entertaining, but there are a limited number of shows preserved and I'm often subjected to the same shows and sometimes I like something new.  Enter Jim French's "Imagination Theater" with its "movies for your mind".

I listen every Thursday to the Seattle-based production over the internet and often in between on the collection cds available at the above website.  Some of the voices might even sound familiar. Jim French has been in radio since 1943, long before Imagination Theater was started in 1972 and syndicated in 1996. Other regulars like Larry Albert are long-time veterens of airwaves and footlights and guests like John Astin, Eddie Bracken, Hans Conreid, Bob Crane, Patty Duke, Russell Johnson (the Professor on Gilligan's Island), Kurt Kasznar, Ruta Lee, Roddy MacDowall, Richard Sanders (of WKRP in Cincinatti), Tom Smothers, and Keenan Wynn might sound familiar.
   The shows vary not just week to week but often 2 shows per 1 hour episode.   My personal favorites are "The Adventures of Harry Nile", "like the river" to quote that classic hard-boiled private eye and the non-recurring stand-alone shows.  Tonight was a "Powder River" episode, though (I listened to the archive tonight.).  That's a western drama in the vein of "Gunsmoke" and I enjoyed it.  Another favorite is "The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes".  I strongly recommend this show!

Noisetrade - Fair Trade Music

"What does it cost?"  "Whaddaya got?"  Noisetrade is a great place for music listeners and independent musicians.  The former is delighted to find diverse and wondrous music sold as listen first then pay what you think is fair.  All that is required is your e-mail addy and your zip code.  I often find a new artist there and then buy other product they choose to sell elsewhere.  The latter gains exposure, a test market and though I doubt anyone gets rich I bet one can do alright.  This is an outlet for music to be honest and not cajole the fickle sensibilities of us mass-market types (peasants!). 
My latest treasure finds were Ivan & Alyosha's Fathers Be Kind and Molly Parden's Le Premier.  Wow!  Fortunately, I can listen now and tip later because as a disabled, fixed income listener,  I fall in a category like to many others who tip, not what a things worth, but what we can afford.  That these talented people are offering their music makes me wish I could afford so much more.

Donnacha Dennehy, 'Grá Agus Bás'

When I read the review for Donnacha Dennehy's, 'Grá Agus Bás' I thought, "This sounds promising."  After listening I thought, "This sounds like crap."  To be fair, it is much louder than crap which generally just lies around being crappy.  I guess it is artistic expression and has its audience, but I'm not it.  When I started listening I couldn't decide if it was being chanted in indigenous American or some middle eastern dialect.  Perhaps culturally meaningful in some way, but not aesthetically pleasing to western ears.  Melody seemed a foreign concept and meaning seemed obscure.  Perhaps I didn't understand but certainly I did not wish to.  When I hear a disturbing noise, I may seek its source and meaning, but if I fail to do so and it merely continues to be annoying, I seek only to stop it, or, at least, stop listening to it.  The All Songs Considered reviewer might rejoice that it is not the stereotypical example that the term 'Irish Music' brings to one's mind.  I despair of it.  This is an example of what I was discussing previously.  Being different for difference's sake is no virtue.  Sins can be different also. 

Jesus Christ Superstar

Well, I'm listening to the original 1970 brown album JC Superstar.  Sort of a pleasant cleansing, like a relaxing warm bath after a difficult, dirty day.  Sorry, but for me that dirty day included the movie soundtrack of the same title.  Nearly the same music too.  I'll never forgive Andrew Lloyd Webber for that.  I cannot understand when someone, in my opinion, massacres their own work, like the numerous butcheries of "Tommy" perpetrated by The Who.  I have repeatedly attempted (always unsuccessfully) to appreciate the movie version of "JC" and I tried again this morning.  I couldn't get through it.  My friend, Terry, did have some good interviews with cast members, so that made it desirable to listen.  I am not a very supportive fan, I guess.  An artist has to grow and keep changing things.  However, I don't feel obligated to follow.  I generally stick to the works I liked them for in the first place and will expand to other artists as I expand  (or digress as the case may be).  It reminds me of a conversation I once had with a friend concerning Paul McCartney's music.  My friend said that artists must change and grow.   "He can't keep playing 'Band On The Run.'"  "True", I said, "but that's the beauty of recorded music.  I can keep listening to it."  I try to keep an open mind and ear, but I've never latched on to change just for change or for following trends.  I am as likely to put on something old I've never heard as to put on something new.  I've heard Superstar for years and I still like it.  I just had a thought.  Ya know, a new interpretation with maybe Cee-Lo Green and Bruno Mars, now THAT would be interesting.  Over 40 years gone by!  A reinterpretation a few years later is only an inferior copy of the original.  I find it inferior.  The music and lyrics are not as edgy, like they've been censored.  Could it be that I am not the target demographic here.  God forbid!  Just for that I'm going to bed and when I close my eyes everything else (other than what I dream about) will cease to exist.  So there!

A Prairie Home Companion

Friday night.  A Prairie Home Companion and AT40.  I've been listening to the former off and on since'78, not quite the beginning.  It's changed a lot since then.  Haven't we all?  I don't even remember how I came to listen.  I lived in a city in New England and the folk music and old fashioned format was quite different from the rock I heard on the radio and even my tiny record collection.  I wanted to escape the disco music all around me too.  I was even younger when I listened to American Top 40 with Casey Kaycem back then.  WRKO-AM with Dale Dorman.  Haha, those were the days when I recorded songs from the speaker on my transistor radio to the built-in mic on my portable cassette deck.  I'd know when to start it because if I heard a song I liked, I'd just look at the clock.  They'd play it again at the exact same time the next day.  Each day wasn't exactly like the next, not like it was all taped.  But they followed a pretty strict playlist and it seemed to work just about anytime I tried it.  Now I listen to archives on the computer (run through my stereo-not a 5-1 home theater.  Maybe next time I buy)  I finally had to get rid of my NIKKO PRO amp and preamp I had bought in the early eighties.  They were demo units.  I played the shit out of them before I bought them from Tech Hi-Fi (Remember them?).  I told the salesman, "I want something to last.  I want something I can take a hammer to."  He said, "Try this."  I was still happy twenty years after they had spent a night playing while underwater (basement apartment in my parents' house).  Anyway, I'm still here.  PHC and AT40 have changed, but their still here too.

So Many Notes!

I didn't go to hear anyone live, but wow!  I've been listening to a lot of great stuff!  To begin with I'm loading...OH MAN.  I was rolling on a long blog but this is all that's left after I had to stop and recover from a virus.  I'll write more tomorrow-as if there is anyone reading this, right?  Doesn't matter that computer virus crap still interrupted and pissed me off.  That crap makes me ashamed to be a human being.  We like to blame others for trouble; play the us and them game.  The trouble is human nature.  Rich people or politicians or any group we care to create is really just human beings like the rest of us.  Money and power are just opportunities.  They aren't good or bad inherently.  They are opportunities to do either and 99% might be good, but that 1% is more noticeable.  I can ramble some more, but this is nothing new or informative.  I'm going to bed.  Well, maybe I'll watch a little more Eddie Murphy first.  Do I still have that album?  I relocated and left a lot of my tunes behind.  I liked that though.  Many people didn't but I did.  I liked that song C-O-N Confused.

So Many Notes!

I didn't go to hear anyone live, but wow!  I've been listening to a lot of great stuff!  To begin with I'm loading AT40 With Ryan Seacrest to listen to right now.  I like independents, unknowns and unpopulars, but ya know I enjoy the top 40 now that I'm long past the target demographic (I'm 48, disabled and retired).  I was always averse to over-commercialized, top 40.  I was never much of any kind of radio listener except for special programs like comedy hour or Dr. Demento or "The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy", but I'm actually digging (hahaha)it these days.  It's probably me but I think top 40 is better than  when I was a teenager.  I've gotten much more tolerant in my old age, though.  Do you find that too?  I don't even mind disco like I used to.  I was always more of a listener than a dancer even when I was healthier.  Usher always makes me smile though.  Good stuff.

  I listen to podcasts when I cycle. 

Invasion of the Tree Frogs

I got to hear my Tree Frogs today!  No.  No croaking nor distasteful discharge involved.  The Tree Frogs are a duet, "resident baby-boomers" they call themselves, playing 1960's and 70's memories for the afternoon tourists at Captain Hiram's Sandbar here in Sebastian, Florida.  They say they have been doing so for five years now.  THAT'S a long set!  Their time together is very evident.  Their harmonies are very tight and lush perhaps most noticeable on some Everly Brothers and Beatles' tunes.  The fact that they did well-executed covers of "Love Me Do" and "And I Love Her"  made me suspect but when they did "Something" and announced it as a Harrison song that seemed to confirm that they are Beatles' fans (Hey!  Frank Sinatra didn't realize that when he covered it.)  Jonathan Edwards' "Sunshine" seems a current favorite of theirs and I'm certainly in favor of that, but my high point this afternoon was a creative cover of Tommy James' "Crimson and Clover".  This was a very pleasant afternoon.

Music! Music? Muse-ic...: Mojo Medicine Band at Riverview Park in Sebastian,...

Music! Music? Muse-ic...: Mojo Medicine Band at Riverview Park in Sebastian,...: "Well, I wasn't very certain I would be attending because of the rain we had in the afternoon, the threatening look of the sky and my lack of..."

Mojo Medicine Band at Riverview Park in Sebastian, Florida, April 15, 2011

Well, I wasn't very certain I would be attending because of the rain we had in the afternoon, the threatening look of the sky and my lack of enthusiasm for this band based on samples and information garnered from their (?) MySpace page.  I put the question mark there because I had to go back and check right now.  Yup.  That's them...and the description is accurate "blues/jam band/rock", though I found the link to their website ineffectual except that I learned of a Mojo Medisin Band from Philly.  That is a three piece and I saw a five piece.  Besides the pictures match the former band.  Anyway the band on MySpace didn't sound bad, but not especially energetic and a bit modern country oriented, a genre for which I am unenthusiastic.  I wasn't especially keen to see them.  The band I'm glad I risked the weather for was a pleasant surprise.  This venue is a free, early (5:30-8pm) outdoor, mainly retiree crowd cut at least, in half by the threat of foul weather, so the band's enthusiasm (especially the vocalist/front man) was very impressive.  The music was classic rock, which is more to my taste.  Well-known yet obscure covers seemed a forté.  By that I mean well-known songs which I did not expect to see live, such as the Beatles' "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?", The Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar" and the rousing finale,  Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love".  The lead vocalist was amazing.  The bass player and drummer may not have been adventurous, but MAN were they solid and proficient and air-tight.  I would have like more on the keys but he played well and was paying close attention to sheet music so I suspect there was a story there.  The guitarist was not at the top of his game, but is still very good, enthusiastic, powerful and fast.  I thought it was a great show especially for such a laid-back venue on a dreary, off season afternoon, so I just have to recommend these folks.