You can come back baby, indie rock never forgets

Hmmm, not only is Liz Phair working on a new novel, but Exile In Guyville is getting the re-release treatment and she is making a new album in the "DIY spirit" of her much loved debut. I am perfectly happy to pretend the last few albums were made by Bizarro Liz Phair and that we can get more songs like the one below.

Random items

The long delayed Cool Moon Ice Cream is open. Located across from one of Portland's great summer kid magnets, Jamison Square, it is too bad they opened at the beginning of winter. They serve the standard flavors but also things like "Unusual flavors could include avocado, candied ginger, Black cherry with chocolate and pine nuts, Campari grapefruit sorbet, and many others. Possibilities are only limited by imagination!" While there weren't that many off the wall flavors available when I walked it, there were enough to make the choice a challenge.

I tried butter pistachio and lemon ginger, which would have been better apart then together. The butter pistachio is an improvement over baseline butter pecan, as the pistachios deliver more flavor. The butter flavor unfortunately overpowered the ginger in the lemon ginger ice cream. The lemon ginger was quite tasty and is probably best had alone to savor the shift from tart to sweet.

The shop serves a wide range of sundaes and sodas as well. The staff is friendly and the shop itself is cheery. This is a good addition to Portland.

I saw the Jicks last night at the Doug Fir. If a band you like is playing the Doug Fir, go. The sound is great, the venue is small, there is a full bar in back and the tickets are inexpensive. The Jicks sounded great and continued in their jammy vein they have been exploring. This means the default indie dance mode of a barely perceptible head nod is giving way to a mode of dancing last seen on the HORDE tour.

Speaking of Portland and music, Carrie Brownstein is now blogging about music and other topics on NPR. Her pieces are thoughtful and well-written, have a look.

Camera got them images, camera got them all

What is a rockstar to do when the rocking is all done? You could combat global poverty, or perhaps submit to a reality TV show about shaping up. Not Dave Navarro, no sir. He's now entered the porn world, as a director. I suppose in about a decade, declining indie stars will make really awkward porn movies in which people get naked but never actually have sex.

Rockumentary

(via Pitchfork) Have a gander at this trailer for an upcoming movie about defunct indie rock band Silkworm. And I just realized the Pitchfork page has the trailer as well. Silkworm is one of the most under-rated indie rock, and I do mean rock, bands. The band broke up after their drummer died in a car accident.

Fans of hooks backed by thunderous rhythm sections need to own Firewater, which came out just as rock was taken over by the dread rap-metal fusion. Repent for your failure to recognize this one at the time by purchasing it now.

The song you hear in the trailer is Wet Firecracker, which is on Firewater. Touch and Go has MP3s as well.

Caligula would have blushed

Lydia Lunch's Paradoxia is a voyeur's delight, consisting of shocking stories from Lunch's history as a Magellan of sexual exploration. The tales, purportedly from her past and one hopes at least partially embellished, are varied and would give the editors at Penthouse pause.

The book is subtitled "A Predator's Diary," and this isn't exactly true. The classic vision of predator is a killer that hunts on weak victims. In her case, the appropriate image is the T-Rex battle of Jackson's King Kong. Lunch styles herself as essentially male in her aggressive, conquering sexuality and she tends to form with relationships with people as aggressive as herself. The results are often unpleasant. When she does get busy with the weak, she takes an almost mothering approach. Although she says that she always leans toward the bad side, this means the socially out of bounds, rather than the evil.

Lunch's prose is often appealing clear and unadorned. When describing sex, she gets appropriately over-heated, but she occasionally gets overblown when describing the mundane day to day of life on the fringes.

I envy you.....so much rocking to do

Coffee table books are tricky. If you are a student or an enthusiast of the subject matter, they are wonderful, if not, they don't draw out the eye. Fans of rock photography will want to take a look at Pat Graham's Silent Pictures. The book focuses on indie rockers of the 1990s, capturing concert photos of Modest Mouse, Fugazi, the Jesus Lizard and others. The madness of David Yow is nicely captured in these images. The live videos don't capture the carnage of the live act, so listen to this studio version of Puss to get an idea.

Reading through the book, I was sad to recall all the shows that I missed in this period. The shots of Fugazi on the Washington Mall are excellent and remind me that I really underutilized that city during my undergrad years. The moral? Go to more shows. These photos will remind you of what you are missing.

This will be a fun book for fans of indie rock. If you want to see some of Pat Graham's photography, visit his site, which leans more 21st century and color than the book. The site doesn't work very well with Firefox.

You got a lot of nerve to say you are my friend

I am currently watching Scorsese's epic Bob Dylan documentary No Direction Home. While I certainly like Dylan I listen primarily at the hits rather than the album level. As such, the furor that greeted his switch from acoustic to electric was a mystery to me. The movie makes it clear, that it was not the mode that mattered but Dylan's underlying switch in subject matter.

Dylan rose to prominence in part because the counterculture saw their viewpoints presented perfectly in songs like A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall and Blowin in the Wind. When Dylan decided to go in a different direction but stayed acoustic, they were quiescent, but people went crazy when he switched to electric. The shows feature booing and people yelling "unplug it Bobby!"

Pete Seeger explained the problem was that they couldn't hear the words. For the politically motivated ( or to use their word, topical) folk movement, words were everything. Its fascinating to watch the disconnect of the people who wanted Dylan to be something he clearly wasn't. I don't think there is an example in the post-60s era. If Cobain had gone on and made an acoustic record as he planned, I can't see the grunge types rending their flannels.

Here are a few Dylan covers for your morning:
Neil Young - Blowing in the Wind.
The Turtles - It Ain't Me Babe.
Rolling Stones - Like a Rolling Stone.

Dennis, tell me another story, tell me about the lows and highs

I had more or less written off the possibility of another Kenzie-Gennaro novel, until I read this article. And who do we have to thank for this change of heart? Ben Affleck! (via Sarah Weinman)

Music notes

As Brack notes below, the Interpol album is looking pretty good. "No I in Threesome" is immediately catchy. Sure, the similiarity of this song to some of the nice ones from Bright Lights and Antics makes one wonder if they are merely a nattily dressed Ramones, delivering more of the same each time. If so, sign me up, I love this stuff. If they can serve up something that makes me weep like Leif Erikson, I will be overjoyed.

I am one listen into the new Shellac record, and I have to admit it is a challenge. End of Radio is like a concentrated Mama Gina or the endless song from Terraforming. I feel a bit like I am taking a class when I am listening to the album as a whole. Not a bad thing necessarily, but a bit tough nonetheless.

The subway is a porno, the sidewalks they are a mess

Like the Pixies, the Misfits, and the Ramones, The New York Dolls are a band that should have been more successful, at least judging by all the bands that cite them as an influence. The Dolls were unluckier than most given the early death of so many of their members. Johnny Thunders downward spiral is the best known, among the many songs referencing him is the Replacements' Johnny's Gonna Die. But drummers Billy Murcia and Jerry Nolan died young as well.

The documentary New York Doll tells the bittersweet story of bassist Arthur "Killer" Kane. This excellent film succeeds for two reasons. The first is that the story is one of the stranger ones in music history. The second is the tone that the film-makers set.

After the Dolls broke up in the 70s, Kane turned to alcohol and set himself on a path similar to Thunders. After losing his wife, Kane turned to the Mormon church. It not only became his lifeline but also his life. He became a file clerk at a Mormon genealogical library in LA. All those years, he dreamed of being back on stage with his band. In 2004, Morrissey promoted the idea of reuniting the Dolls for a London event. Kane was thrilled, he packed up his things and performed at a critically acclaimed show. He then came home to the library and two weeks later he was diagnosed with cancer. He died two hours later.

The movie's action takes place before, during and after the 2004 show. While Kane has most of the screen time, there is quite a bit of face time for rock stars, with Morrissey being the most prominent. The movie gives equal time to Kane's library co-workers and his Mormon spiritual advisers. Remarkably for a rock documentary, the movie is supportive, even celebratory about Kane's Mormon experience. The final shots are of one of his co-workers reflecting on his passing. While the rock stars tend to mourn the loss of the artist, his coworkers mourn the loss of the person.

Watching a movie like this makes you want to hear some of the music.

Trash - New York Dolls. The most exuberant of the Dolls songs. David Johansen sounds like he is from Baltimore on this one. This one is Morrissey's favorite.

You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory - Johnny Thunders. A sad pop song, that is quite good.

Chinese Rocks - Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers. Written by Dee Dee and eventually recorded by the Ramones, this little ode to heroin is a grungey delight.

I've been walking these streets tonight

The 33 1/3 project is a fun, if occasionally frustrating, reading experience. Each slim volume relates to a specific, seminal album. In Let it Be, Colin Meloy of the Decembrists writes about the intense joy and excitement that music brings in the teen years. For Meloy, one of the most important bands was the Replacements. If you want to learn about the making of the album or anything much about the band, look elsewhere. I really liked it, but I can see how people might feel misled. The volume on Exile on Main Street is much more about the making of the record itself.

Eric Weisbard's book on Use Your Illusion I & II is about GNR's place in the rock world. He notes that the Illusion records were among the last of the blockbuster records. Rarely today do you see people lining up for a new record release, and rarely do you see giant sales either. When Weisbard debates the relative impact and import of the early 90s alternative scene with that of GNR, the book really sings. I enjoyed the cultural analysis of populist vs. elitist rock, as indie eventually became. A good portion of the book is a study of Axl Rose, which I found less interesting. I quite enjoyed the song by song analysis of the record which came at the end. This one is really for fans of the band, but that is true of the entire 33 1/3 series.

As to the GNR albums themselves, I bought them in the first month of my junior year abroad in London. For quite some time they were the only recorded music I had. In listening, I experienced a bit of the Phantom Menace syndrome. I wanted so much to like it, that I did. I didn't come full circle as I did on Phantom Menace, but as Clash fans did with Sandinista!, I ended up making a mix tape of my favorite songs from both albums. I would be hard pressed to fill up a mix tape these days. I still like the more over the top numbers like Coma, but a lot of it leaves me cold today.

I always come back to you, I'm just a bad penny

My rock movie and book kick continues apace. The most recent item is DiG!, a documentary about seeking success in rock music. While this sounds like a Behind the Music episode with swear words, it is quite a bit more.

For one, the documentary follows two frenemy bands, the Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Dandy Warhols. The band members are like siblings from a broken family. They can't stand each other, but can't seem to stay away either. They play pranks on each other and torment one another. With the first burst of success, the Dandies go to the BJM flophouse early in the morning for a surprise photo shoot. The crazed leader of BJM, Anton Newcomber, responds by penning an anti-Dandy song and then mailing the group with shotgun shells with their names literally on them. The period covered is nearly ten years and the back and forth continues over the same period.

Anton Newcombe is too crazed (and too little known) for a Behind the Music episode. He proclaims his revolutionary character and his hit making prowess, but squanders it in drug use and abuse of his bandmates and the audience. Documentaries can lie through selective use of footage, but at the very least Anton had some career limiting behavior. Getting in fights with bandmates when the labels come to see you is not the wisest of courses.

While those interviews talk about making music and incredible live performances, the focus is much more on the process of music making. We see touring, recording, writing and excessive behavior including the consumption of much cocaine. What we don't hear is a lot of music. A failing of the movie is that we are told that BJM is one of the greatest bands you have never heard, but none of what we hear or see validates this claim. As one of the movies theses is that success is as much about luck and not being a jackass, I think this is OK.

The DVD has commentary from both bands and it is well worth listening for context.

Rockin was nowhere in sight

After reading Rip It Up and Start Again, I decided I needed to read more books about music. Instead of asking friends or finding good reviews to create a potential reading list, I just picked some possibilities up at the library. With a reasonable frequency, I find decent books this. That didn't happen this time.

I first picked up Nirvana, the Stories Behind Every Song, hoping to learn things like Come As You Are, is about Cobain's My Pretty Pony or something surprising of that nature. No luck. I should have been warned by the back cover which posed the idiotic question "Who is the Floyd in Floyd the Barber." Fine, maybe you don't remember him from the show, but when the lyric "Opie, Aunt Bea I presume, comes up," you don't have much of an excuse. The book presents a basic and all tool adulatory account of the band's history with the songs serving as milestones. Yes, there is something to be learned, but skimming reviews will get you all you can get here.

I then took a chance on Fool the World, and lost once more. Following the success of Please Kill Me, the authors took the oral history approach. Unfortunately it reads like a bunch of unedited notes. There may be some genius here, but I wasn't willing to swim through a bunch of mush to get to it.

I suppose what I was really looking for was a dispassionate, analytical account of these two bands. I want someone to do the thinking and then present a thesis they can back up. And tell a good story while at it.

Waiting for something that will never arrive

In the mid-80s I listened almost exclusively to the Ramones. I still very much like the band, but probably listen to the songs every other month or so. Still I was eager to see the documentary End of the Century, a 2003 movie that covers the entire career of the band. The movie includes all the band members, although Joey and Dee Dee died before the release. It also has a number of interviews, the most interesting of which is Joe Strummer. Fans of the Ramones or the Clash will probably have read his opinions by this point, but it is fun to see his enthusiasm on film.

The band members themselves are a bit more shocking. Dee Dee is a wreck in all his interviews. In an early one, he comes off like Nigel from Spinal Tap. Others portray Johnny as a martinet, and he comes off as callous in his interviews, coolly disparaging almost everyone else. Joey and the various drummers seem more or less normal.

Due to the length of the career, 21 years, the movie doesn't delve too deeply into any one subject area. The closest attention, rightly so, is given to the formation and initial launch of the band. The first reaction was largely negative, but the buzz continued to build. Another major plot thread is the internal war between band members. Johnny vs. Joey, Dee Dee vs. everyone else and so on. The very best scene of the movie shows an onstage battle about which song to play next.

The big question with the Ramones is why they never achieved chart success. Like the Pixies, they inspired other bands to great success and maintain a cult to this day. The documentary points to the backlash against punk as one reason for the failure, but the conflict over what to make also seemed to be a problem.

All in all, this one is probably for people who like the Ramones or want to learn more about the band. For some reference points, here is Johnny Thunder and the Heartbreakers doing Dee Dee's heroin song, Chinese Rocks. Here we have Dee Dee's hustling song 53rd and 3rd. Here we have the Chili Peppers covering Havana Affair.

Actual Ramones videos: Psychotherapy, Rock and Roll Radio, and Teenage Lobotomy, live.

The perils of rock and roll decadence

I used to think that I could not be shocked by tales of celebrity shenanigans. Well, I was wrong. After a few recommendations I read The Dirt, the story of Motley Crue. For most of their career, the behavior of these people (Mick Mars excepted) is flat out appalling. As Nikki Sixx notes, if they were not famous they would have been in jail. I'm pretty sure that if you saw any of these people in their heyday, you would hate them immediately.

If it was written in the 80s, it would probably have been unreadable. As it was written after the end of their Crue career, the tone is more reflective. With the help of Neill Strauss, each chapter is written by a band member or a hanger-on. This was a great choice. For one, we often see where band members have different takes on the same event, or they think the other guys were unaware of behavior. Mick Mars, for example, states that no one knew he was really drinking large glasses of vodka, instead of water, pre-show. In the next chapter, another members notes that Mick always pretended to drink water. The narrative approach also humanizes these freaks. You can hear Tommy Lee talking with his frequent "It was all good, dude."

There is self-criticism among the bragging and celebration. You get a sense they are looking for absolution. One of the more despicable members, Nikki Sixx, attempts to atone for his awful behavior to nearly everyone around him. Vince Neill is more like Lars in Some Kind of Monster, less reflection and a lot less growing up. That may be a defense, as he has some of the worst overall experiences. All of the band members face a heavy personal cost for their fame, and that provides some level of sympathy for them.

Some people will be repelled by the book, but I found it fascinating. This is what Behind the Music would have been like if HBO did it, instead of VH1.

Maybe everything that dies, someday comes back

One of the greatest of rock documentaries is Some Kind of Monster. It paints a rich, if not always flattering portrait of the band, while also showing how the rock lifestyle can prevent the successful from ever growing up. That movie is so good, I would recommend it to people who couldn't care less about Metallica. LoudQUIETloud, a film about the Pixies reunion tour, doesn't reach that height, but it still a must see for the (non-worshipful) fan.

If you are hoping to see the genius that penned the classic Pixies songs you won't find it here. The story in this movie is that the Pixies are mildly quirky but generally normal people who are somewhat taken aback by their reception. Joey and Frank Black are family men earning for the folks back home. Kim is a recovering alcoholic who switches to caffeine and cigarettes. David Lovering's father dies while he is on tour and he turns to Valium and wine. The movie makers try to portray him as getting out of control, but in rock star terms, it isn't much. At one show, he keeps drumming far past the time to stop and he acts a bit manic in scenes. He then pulls it back together. For some this will anger, I found it endearing. These are normal people who create amazing work. If you come to the movie as a worshiper on a pilgrimage, you will probably be disappointed.

Since documentaries have to have an overall story, some stand alone annecdotes have be left aside. Thanks to the wonders of DVD, these are now available. There is awkward scene where the Pixies visit Sigur Ros at their Reykjavik studio and no one seems to know what to do. There is another where Kim is interviewed with Steve Albini. There is a brief, but funny bit where Kim visits a music shop. After handing over her credit card, the clerk lets her know that there is another Kim Deal in a band called the Breeders. Finally, Kim Deal's ex-husband (Mr. John Murphy) shows up and gives the band some archival material he was keeping.

Stonehenge, where the demons dwell

Your Band Sucks on Something Awful has a nice bit on metal. My fave part:

I have to laugh when I hear metalheads complain that some of the best pure musicians of our time are being ignored and neglected by the ivory-tower establishment just because they play in the metal genre. Here, it’s simple: imagine if William Butler Yeats only wrote poems about dogs eating peanut butter, and if he used only the same fifteen or twenty words in every single poem. People who espouse the shredding merits of metal guitarists and the double-bass technique of metal drummers crack me the fuck up. Maybe they also think books are better when they have lots of pages.