SOME GIRLS LIVE IN TEXAS ’78
Written by: Kevin Brennan
ROLLING STONES
SOME GIRLS LIVE IN TEXAS ‘78 DVD
On the heels of their strongest album since Exile on Main Street, the Stones took on the States. Not quite 1975’s Tour of the Americas, but stadiums, small clubs, and national TV were on the itinerary. During the few years the band had been away, much had changed for them, both musically and personally. They were eager to hit the road and once again assert themselves as The World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band.
The Some Girls album sold well immediately upon its release in June thanks to the popularity of the “Miss You” single, news of the upcoming tour, and, of course, the inherent buzz surrounding any new Stones material.
As fans and critics began to realize that the album was an in-the-moment masterpiece, the Stones were a part of the conversation for all of the right reasons. No more hollow accusations of being outdated or past their prime. The talk now focused on their singing, playing and renewed energy.
Accented only by keyboardists Ian Stewart and Ian McLagan, the Stones brought a load of energy with them to Fort Worth, Texas on July 18. The Will Rogers Auditorium oozed with anticipation as the crowd waited into the night for the band to take the stage. The tension is evident and is finally broken with the opening of “Let It Rock,” a Chuck Berry favorite from years ago that was as symbolic as it was powerful.
Taking a little time to prove that they were back in control before moving to the new songs, they piled on with “All Down the Line,” “Honky Tonk Women,” and “Star Star,” three reminders of how potent they could be.
It’s now showcase time as the next seven songs are all new. “When the Whip Comes Down” blazes while “Beast of Burden” and “Miss You,” later to become signature Stones songs, show the band’s still-powerful command of creating the right sound for the right time.
Segueing to a run of classics, they reach back to “Love in Vain,” which just pours out thick and rolls on with some beautiful slide from Ron Wood. “Tumbling Dice” has the proper amount of swagger and greasiness, and “Happy” is sleazy rockin at its best. The closer of “Brown Sugar” and “Jumpin' Jack Flash” leaves no doubt as to who lays claim to the title of The World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band.
No excess, no restraint. Truly a moment in time and in Stones history.
EXTRAS
1978 Saturday Night Live
Parody of the “Tomorrow” show with Mick and Dan Aykroyd.
Live performances of “Beast of Burden,” “Respectable,” and “Shattered.” Note the shredded voices from too much partying.
ABC News interviews with the band.
2011 interview with Mick Jagger.
All in all, a great package. Experience the Stones as they took back the 70s and laid the groundwork for continued success into the early 80s.
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SOME GIRLS GETS A MAKEOVER
Written by: Kevin Brennan
SOME GIRLS
2011 – Universal Republic Records
1978 – Rolling Stones Records
In the words of Lou Reed, “Those were different times.”
And they were. New York was still reeling from a financial crisis and the country as a whole wasn’t much better off. Son of Sam had kept the city on edge for months, and punk rock was exploding worldwide.
As punk became a real player, there was a heightened sense of competition among bands as rock and roll’s first generation gap began to appear and grow wider by the minute.
The Who, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones were common targets as the new guard called out the old as being washed-up and tired. The newly-coined “corporate rock,” courtesy of Foreigner, Journey, Styx and others, was all over FM radio and it gave the punks a target as big as the hair on the heads of millions of leftover hippies and fist-pumping young rockers.
So here come the Rolling Stones, expatriates of the highest degree, absorbing the frenetically jagged New York vibe and turning it into the last undeniably great record of their then-vital career.
They were somewhat on the ropes in ’78, coming off the recent release of some average product in Black and Blue and Love You Live. Having now survived the departure of Mick Taylor, the group was about to fully realize what a great choice they made in his replacement, former Faces member Ron Wood, who developed a very different chemistry with Keith Richards that proved equally as successful.
Keith’s drug bust, one of near-jail proportions, proved to be a catalyst for him to write one of his greatest songs and perpetuated his outlaw status. It also helped to inspire him to lay down some of the roughest and toughest guitar he had brought forth in years.
Mick Jagger was the true sponge, bringing the underbelly of the city to life through his words and keeping the Stones on the edge with his attitude. His observations were keen and comical, biting and shaded.
Pulling it all together was engineer Chris Kimsey, who just plugged em in, turned em up and let them do their thing. The crisp, stripped-down sound still had layers and texture, but contained a freshness that was both welcome and necessary.
In its decadence, wit, variety and fire, Some Girls launched the Stones well beyond their previous few years of self-indulgent output and placed them squarely in the moment with a lot to say.
Going back to these songs 34 years later, the Some Girls experience is still relevant, still compelling, and still rockin.
"MISS YOU"
They always knew how to jump start a dance floor and this time around, they were ready to take on the challenge again. Not all of their fans were ready for them to do it via the disco route, but in the end it didn’t matter. What initially may have been looked at as trend-chasing has proven to be laying claim to a bit of territory.
“Miss You” is a true Stones classic, accepted within the context of their catalog because below the surface, it was genuine Stones. After a nice even setup, the guitars get loud and rough, Mick takes you from falsetto to in your face, Charlie and Bill are way up front in the mix, and the well-placed sax solo fits nicely.
What acts as a weave for the song is the great harmonica playing of Sugar Blue, bringing a refreshing melodic change from the typical disco of the day.
You are hereby served notice that this is not your mid-seventies glitter-flecked Stones. Not quite sure yet where we are headed, but it’s not back there.
"WHEN THE WHIP COMES DOWN"
If it’s too complicated, is it still rock and roll? The answer to that begins with “When the Whip Comes Down.”
Responding to the kids, the critics, and their fans, they let loose with the first of the album’s back-to-basics rockers. The reflections of a mover in the city’s gay community, the song just cooks and occasionally flashes powered by the rat-a-tat of Charlie Watts and the extra depth provided by Mick playing rhythm guitar. Gritty and loud with your feet on the street. A great song and a sign of good things to come.
"JUST MY IMAGINATION"
Upon hearing the original Temptations version, who would have thought that the Stones would cover it, and then, how did they do such a great job?
The Stones own this one from the get-go, led by the swirly twin melodies of Keith and Woody. A big fat bass gives it a bounce and Mick sings like he means it. It’s all very solid and very catchy. It helps to have a great song to cover and to be smart enough to know that you can pull it off.
Three songs in, we’ve gone disco, rock and roll and Motown. Unpredictable and perfectly executed.
"SOME GIRLS"
On “Some Girls” Mick cobbles together verses about the women of the world, Keith gives it a murky blues feel, and we get what resembles the adult version of a Dr. Seuss-like sing-song with its repetition and wordplay. This one is funny and catchy and again features Sugar Blue, who is right at home and it shows.
Love the reference to Bob Dylan and his troubles in Zuma Beach. Also love the big fat bottom with Keith on bass.
"LIES"
Whoever is on the receiving end of this one (Was it ex-wife Bianca?) had it spelled out in all of its fury. Crashing and banging out of the gate, this song never lets up until the shotgun blast ending. A perfect partner to “When the Whip Comes Down” and a warning shot to those who called them over the hill.
"FAR AWAY EYES"
Side two opens with “Far Away Eyes,” a country ballad that harkens back to a Charlie Rich or Conway Twitty record in its simple piano-driven story colored by slide guitar throughout. However, Mick is neither of those guys and this one is far too campy to be at that level. It’s well done for what its worth and here again we get funny and fun.
"RESPECTABLE"
The purest rock song on the album, “Respectable” just rips from start to finish. Everyone is all in – Charlie’s trash can drums, Bill’s driving bass pushing it all along, the twin guitars slashing, and Mick spitting out “Get out of my life/Don’t take my wife/Don’t come back” as if he cares so much but could not care less. Worth the price right here.
Over the past four tunes, we’ve gone from blues to rock and roll to country and back to rock and roll. The variety keeps comin and the quality is high. We’re building a classic…
"BEFORE THEY MAKE ME RUN"
The long-awaited bookend to “Happy,” this one is at once a story, a lesson, an anthem, and true Keith through and through. Outstanding in every way. Had things turned out differently for Keith, this would have been his closer and may have gone on to be better recognized for the great song that it is. The way it backs up at the end and lets Keith groove is an understated moment.
"BEAST OF BURDEN"
With “Beast of Burden,” Keith pulled out a thoughtful and slippery melody and turned it into an unexpected hit. Easy to dance to and sing along with, it brought the Stones to new ears and played well on non-AOR radio alongside “Miss You.” The call and response chorus and lilting harmonies sealed the deal.
"SHATTERED"
“Shattered” is Mick’s summary statement about the city and its fragile condition. He makes you pay attention while careening off of hotel walls and street corners. Delivered with passion and urgency, you can feel, no matter where you are, the chaos within the lyrics. A nervy riff partnered with an “Uh, Sh-doobie, Shattered, Shattered” refrain, by the end you feel as if you’ve taken the whirlwind tour and come to a screeching halt. The absolutely appropriate capper to the album.
BONUS TRACKS
There are two ways to assess “bonus tracks.” One is to worship them as unexpected moments of insight and prolonged enjoyment of your favorite bands. Another is to say “There is a reason why they are called outtakes.”
An additional consideration is that this is the Rolling Stones. Aside from Bob Dylan and the Beatles, not many superstars with 60s roots have been more often bootlegged and followed by such a large worldwide audience.
In this case, let’s say the best songs made the original album. After living with this album for 34 years and having listened to it hundreds of times, it’s clear to me that Mick and Keith made the right decisions about content.
However, for the fans who eagerly awaited being able to replace their bootleg versions of these songs, we have a treasure; twelve songs ranging from country to blues to rock featuring newly overdubbed guitar parts and vocals. Given that the songs were in various stages of completion, Mick and Keith gave them the final touches before release
The best of the bunch are the first three: “Claudine,” a rockabilly romp about Claudine Longet, accused at the time of killing her husband, skier Spider Sabich, “So Young,” a prototypical Stones rocker which would have sounded at home on either Emotional Rescue or Tattoo You, and “Do You Think I Really Care?” a catchy, countrified tune reminiscent of “Dead Flowers.”
The next level includes the bluesy duo of “When You’re Gone” and “Keep Up Blues,” and the band’s easy-going take on the Hank Williams classic “You Win Again,” which was likely on the turntable when they wrote “Far Away Eyes.”
The single released from this reissue was “I Love You Too Much,” a tune that, like “So Young,” has a feel that is inconsistent with this album but was well-suited for either of their next two.
Beyond that, the remaining songs are of interest as a reminder of the incredible output that flowed from the Stones from 1978-1981, but cannot be called essential.
PRODUCTION
The sound is bright and full of the nuances that didn’t always come across many years ago on a less-than-stellar turntable or an aftermarket cassette player in the car or a first-generation remaster of the compact disc. By filling out the subtle textures with this edition, the sound quality alone makes it definitive.
The liner notes written by Anthony DeCurtis are very well-done and the studio photos are cool. Unfortunately, the original cover which was recalled shortly after the album’s original release due to the band’s unauthorized use of photos of Lucille Ball, Raquel Welch and many other famous female celebrities, could not be restored.
*NEXT TIME
A review of the Some Girls Live in Texas ’78 DVD
Neil Young & Los Lobos: Cleveland 10-8-12
Written by: Kevin Brennan
Look out mama, there’s some greybeards comin’ up the river.
They may look like your old hippie parents or grandparents, but they are really one of rock music’s most enduring and consistent bands, Crazy Horse.
Playing as if the clock never moved over the last 40-plus some years, it was a treat to see Neil Young and Crazy Horse slip into their unique brand of rock and roll and get lost for a few hours.
With more than a nod to the Rust Never Sleeps era, the 21st century version of the “roadeyes” came out prior to the start of the set and began to put the finishing touches on the sparse but oversized set which included 20 foot tall Fender cabinets and an inflatable microphone placed center stage. While they dressed in lab coats and construction worker garb rather than brown robes, the crew worked diligently to get it all just right, backed by approving cheers from the anxious crowd at the Wolstein Center.
Following a pre-recorded rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” Crazy Horse was now ready to rock.
“Love and Only Love” set the tone with its trademark Neil and Billy Talbot harmonies over layers of Neil and Frank Sampedro guitar wash. Veering a little further into the past, Young broke out the first of only a few classics with “Powderfinger.” Losing none of its original contempt, Young delivered the closing line “I saw black and my face splashed in the sky” with the same defiant surrender as he did nearly 35 years ago.
Moving ahead now to the yet-to-be released Psychedelic Pill, Young’s homage to his hometown, “Born in Ontario,” preceded the song of the night, a 20 minute throwdown called “Walk Like a Giant.” A nod to the failures and unfulfilled romantic ideals of the1960’s, the riff was huge as was the ending; over five minutes of droning power and feedback, seemingly simulating the sound of giants stalking the stage. A noisy testament to knowing from where you came and not conceding to the limits imposed by your age, your history or your catalog.
Going acoustic for a few, “The Needle and the Damage Done” inspired a mini sing-along and “Twisted Road” brought approval with its mentions of the Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan. “Ramada Inn” was yet another reflective tune, looking back at life as a young traveler with nothing but ambition and contrasting that with the “what do we do now?” emptiness that pervades middle-age and beyond.
A fairly straight read of “Cinnamon Girl” preceded a wickedly welcome “F*! #in’ Up,” offering further proof that the band has lost nothing since that song’s debut over 20 years earlier on Ragged Glory.
Following “Psychedelic Pill,” Young commented that he forgot to introduce it as a new song while acknowledging that it didn’t matter because all of his stuff sounds the same anyway. He was certainly correct and that wasn’t a bad thing. The new songs would sound like vintage Crazy Horse to one who didn’t know better.
“Hey Hey My My (Into the Black)” reinforced Young’s notion that rock and roll will never die while also clearly illustrating that it’s just not being taken care of too well at the moment by those who don’t fit into a certain advanced age bracket.
“Mr. Soul” rocked hard and loud in the hands of the Horse. Interestingly, the fattening up of its original guitar melody brought light to the debt the song owes to Keith Richards’ great “Satisfaction” riff.
Finishing with the nostalgia and realism of “Roll Another Number,” the band stood on stage for an extended period soaking in the cheers and communal atmosphere. They had given it up in the name of rock and roll and Cleveland couldn’t have been more appreciative.
SETLIST
Love and Only Love
Powderfinger
Born in Ontario
Walk Like a Giant
The Needle and the Damage Done
Twisted Road
Ramada Inn
Cinnamon Girl
F*! #in’ Up
Psychedelic Pill
Hey Hey My My (Into the Black)
Mr. Soul
Roll Another Number
Playing the role of supporting act, Los Lobos caught fire early and could have played all night. Their seven-song set provided a brief overview of their career, hitting five of their 19 original albums: 1984’s How Will the Wolf Survive?, 1992’s Kiko, 1996’s Colossal Head, 2006’s The Town and the City, and 2010’s Tin Can Trust.
The opening strains of “Will the Wolf Survive” were familiar to many in the crowd, which grew larger over the course of their set thanks to the show’s early start time. Moving through a spicy version of “Chuco’s Cambia” into the hypnotic “Tin Can Trust,” guitarist Cesar Rosas then broke things open with a stompin’ take on the blues shuffle “That Train Don’t Stop Here Anymore.” A surprise followed in the form of the Blasters classic “Marie Marie,” recorded by the band on their 2004 EP of cover songs, Ride This.
Heading back to Kiko for a second dose with Rojas’ ominous “Wicked Rain,” they closed things up with the rocker “Don’t Worry Baby” and an all-out freak out on “Mas Y Mas.”
A brief but infinitely potent set from one of America’s finest. Catch them next time as a headliner for thorough exposure.
SETLIST
Will the Wolf Survive?
Chuco’s Cumbia
Tin Can Trust
That Train Don’t Stop Here Anymore
Marie Marie
Wicked Rain
Don’t Worry Baby
Mas Y Mas
It’s A Bleedin’ Board – Los Lobos 8-3-10
Written by: Kevin Brennan
As we prepare for the upcoming blockbuster show at the Wolstein Center tonight (Monday, October 8th) featuring North American music giants Los Lobos and Neil Young, I offer to you, from the big black vaults of musical eclecticism, nearly two hours of soundboard-quality Los Lobos.
Recorded August 3, 2010 at the Bowery Ballroom in New York, you will hear songs from the latest release Tin Can Trust as well as staples and surprises from the band’s esteemed catalog.
If you are a fan, you already appreciate the Los Lobos live experience. If you are new to the band, take the time to understand the groove that is Los Lobos.
Filled with variety, spirit and expert musicianship, their shows are throwbacks in terms of their use as a vehicle to cultivate lasting relationships between artist and audience, producing connectivity similar to that of the Allman Brothers Band, the Grateful Dead, Widespread Panic, and Phish.
The band members’ musical appreciation for their cultural roots combined with their exposure to both the AM and the FM dials of American radio from decades past results in a sound that is unique and wide-ranging, moving from traditional Mexican themes to thoughtful acoustic storytelling to improvisational jams to full-on rock and roll party music.
They are the best American band going so get out there and become a believer.
Pleased to offer you yet another life-enriching musical experience that you wish you were a part of, just remember: it’s a bleedinboard and it’s from ATV.
Disc One
Emily
Chuco’s Cambia
Georgia Slop
On Main Street
Yo Canto
Teresa
Angel Dance
Will the Wolf Survive
Maricela
Tin Can Trust
Jupiter or the Moon
Let’s Say Goodnight
Disc Two
Ay Te Dejo En San Antonio
Volver Volver
Burn It Down
West L.A. Fadeaway
Don’t Worry Baby
I Got Loaded
Bertha
An Introduction To Michael McDermott
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
The fine folks over at Noisetrade are giving away a free download titled "An Introduction To Michael McDermott." Strangely, it seems to contain a selection of 12 tracks designed to do just that - introduce you to the music of Michael McDermott.
From the Noisetrade site:
It's been quite a ride since Michael McDermott unleashed his debut, 620 West Surf, some twenty years ago, but his forthcoming 2012 release, Hit Me Back, represents the work of a new artist. This Noisetrade compilation spans Michael's career and was put together especially for music lovers like you to discover the artist that mega-author Stephen King has called “one of the best songwriters in the world and possibly the greatest undiscovered rock ‘n’ roll talent of the last 20 years.” Michael is a Raconteur and a Troubadour. He has lived a life full of the experiences that qualify him as such. With inspiration drawn from rock n’ roll’s great storytellers - Springsteen, Dylan and Van Morrison – McDermott’s lifelong connection with fans comes from his uncanny ability to communicate universal truths through his own personal experiences. Discover Michael through these songs and if you like what you hear let him know. Come see a show. Become a Facebook friend. Thanks for listening!
Within the download are three tracks from the new album, so you'll get a taste of what you can expect from Hit Me Back when it lands in stores in about a week, on September 25th. This is McDermott's first release on Rock Ridge Music and the project was funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign.
At the time of the campaign launch, McDermott shared the following thoughts regarding his planned new album:
It's been 4 years since my last recording venture. Much has happened in the last 4 years. Got married, had a daughter, played over 300 shows, wrote over 200 songs, traveled to Italy 3 times, England, Ireland, East Coast , West Coast, made many friends, made many lifelong friends. I NEVER go into the studio too soon. I always make sure that the songs are ready. The stories are ready. The chapter is ready for this never ending book. In this batch of songs we will have to pull from, there are songs of high drama, there are songs on international intrigue, philosophical meanderings, hijinks gone awry, love, loss, redemption and like any great rock record.... a song about a train.
Hearing the three songs that are on the above sampler, I'll look forward to finding out how the rest of Hit Me Back will play out. As mentioned previously, it's been quite a ride for McDermott in the past 20+ years, but there's been a lot of good music that has come our way as a result of his trip.
Thankfully, he's still here with stories to tell.
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Dan Hartman on “I Can Dream About You”
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
How's your falsetto voice holding up these days? Because if you're like me, it's very likely that you'll be singing the chorus of Dan Hartman's "I Can Dream About You" as soon as you start reading this interview. And of course, the next logical step after that is to listen to "I Can Dream About You" about 80 times or so.
Here - let me help you out with that piece of things:
I picked up a huge trunk full of music magazines from the '70s and '80s last night from a friend, who is back in Cleveland, helping to clean out his old family home. Within those magazines was an issue of Modern Recording & Music from June of 1985.
Reading this interview, which was conducted by Jimmy Guterman, I decided to see if I could find a good program that would let me scan to text (which I did - it's called FreeOCR, for the interested tech heads out there.)
I found this to be a really interesting read, no matter whether you're a fan of the song or not, it's just an interesting snapshot look at one man's perspective on making records, circa 1985.
I'm jealous of Jimmy, who had the chance to use what might possibly be one of the best opening interview questions ever. "How did 'I Can Dream About You' happen?"
Awesome.
More recently, Jimmy wrote a book which will be of interest to fellow Bruce Springsteen nuts, called Runaway American Dream.
Here's the interview - enjoy!
Nineteen eighty four was a year of many rock n‘ roll comebacks. Tina Turner and John Fogerty got all the headlines (and rightly so), but they weren't the only artists who returned to the spotlight last year after a long absence. Of those less-celebrated, the most unlikely return may be Dan Hartman's. Hartman's public career started with the Edgar Winter Group(for whom he wrote “Free Ride") and led to a checkered solo career as an artist (the 1979 disco smash “Instant Replay"), writer (for Diana Ross), and producer (Plasmatics).
Hartman's return to the charts with “I Can Dream About You,” one of the few listenable songs from last summers Streets of Fire soundtrack, places Hartman ?rmly in the center of the pop zeitgest. With co-producer Jimmy lovine and new songwriting collaborator Charlie Midnight, Hartman's new LP has spawned two dancefloor hits (the aforementioned title track and “We Are the Young”). I Can Dream About You has its share of obvious moments, but it is still an effective show-case for this self-proclaimed “studio rat's" skills. Modern Recording and Music sat down with Hartman in late March at New York's Top Cat Studios, where he was rehearsing for his first tour in the past decade.
Modern Recording & Music: How did “I Can Dream About You” happen?
Dan Hartman: Jimmy (Iovine)and I have known each other foryears. He worked on the Edgar Winter Group’s Shock Treatment album as assistant engineer for Shelly Yakus, and we stayed in touch over the years. One time I was in California and he was producing Stevie Nicks’ Wild Heart in the same studio I was working in. I saw him in the hallway and he told me he was working on the Streets of Fire soundtrack and he’d like me to submit something. I had a tape of “I Can Dream About You” sitting around the studio as a demo. I sent it to him and he loved it. The version on the record is mostly my demo version, even though the original demo was much more electronic-sounding. The electronic drums at the beginning are there for the whole track. Jimmy added a real drummer, a real bass player, and a real guitar player. He gave it a more human rock element to complement my electronic dance element. It's got the best of both worlds.
MR&M: Why has it been ten years and why now?
DH: The ‘now’ question is easy. I'm making music I’m excited about that can be played live. I never stopped making music because I have the studio in my house, but I didn’t have the means to play them live. I was doing a lot of dance music that I couldn't play live and honor it as an art form. What I’m doing now can be played live with a rough rock n‘ roll band. The two kinds of music that are prevalent today, rock and dance music, have finally come together. That’s where I am—rhythmic dance rock n’ roll.
MR&M: What's your approach to synthesizers?
DH: I prefer synthesizers without a sequencer. I don’t like the sequencer to play the part. I like to play it live-it feels better.
MR&M: Do you think you'll be working with Jimmy Iovine in the future?
DH: I don't know. People change between albums. When it comes time for the next album, I don’t know if he'll have the time. There are so many variables. When the next album comes up, there’ll probably be more steps I want to take. It's difficult to produce yourself. You have to keep a wide enough perspective and you have to be ruthless and cut and edit. Sometimes you get confused and need an outside ear. I recognize that. Some artists don't recognize that and come out without something sounding weird because of it.
MR&M: How do you hear “Instant Replay” almost a decade down the road?
DH: I'm successful at communicating When I‘m in the studio messing around, I don't think, “This sounds commercial." I just turn the music up to 10 and have a party. My natural inclination is what lifts me off the floor. With your own studio, you can either get real lazy or become a workaholic. When I play “Instant Replay" now, I listen to something that at the time communicated in the best way I knew how. It incorporated the trend of the time with real communication. I did that song because I was in love and I was elated. I did the whole thing in one week as a gift. It reflected the times.
A lot of my rock friends said at the time, “That‘s a hip record." If you listen to the disco records of that time, “Instant Replay" had more of a rock edge. I just put together a new version that we'll be doing on this tour. It will reflect the sounds of the Eighties now, instead of sounding like 1978 disco. I‘m still proud of the original. The vocal performance is great and it achieves a feeling. That's the most important thing. The song communicates.
MR&M: With “Instant Replay," you were a rarity, a white man with a disco hit in the midst of the racist ‘Disco Su--s’ movement." With the new album. you seem to be making a conscious effort to integrate stereotypical “black” and “white” styles.
DH: That's right. It's not so much a conscious effort as the consciousness of my focus. On “I Can Dream About You," the idea was to establish myself as a vocalist. I want to make mainstream records—I don’t want people to miss my message. I don't want to be too weird. I want to be heard—I want to communicate. I'm a rock n’ roller, but I also love rhythm n’ blues and soul. I love the spirit, the passion, and the sexuality of R&B much more than headbanger rock n’ roll—even though some of my favorite albums are Pyromania and For Those About To Rock. They’re headbanger albums,but they also have soul.
Two years ago. I fired everybody around me. I fired my manager, my lawyer, everybody. I got away from everything. I wanted to carry forth a concept of dance rock n‘ roll and the people around me wanted to do the same stuff again. I wanted to do a Big Bam Boom. They weren’t behind me. so I quit and disappeared for eighteen months. I lived my life. Along theway, I was writing. “I Can Dream About You" is what I was trying for. It’s crossover, black, white, rock,dance, and has a great vocal. It’s everything. Remember, it looks like black people do “I Can Dream About You" in the video. People saw the picture sleeve and said “Huh? He's white. This can't be Dan Hartman.” If they like the music, that's all that matters.
MR&M: How is getting ready for a tour different from preparing to record?
DH: I don’t actually get ready for records. I just do ‘em. It’s day to day; I live in it. For the tour. it's been easy and fun for the band to master tracks that are mostly just me on the album.
MR&M: How has producing or engineering other peoples work affected your own records?
DH: When I do somebody else's record, I'm a totally different person. I feel more of a responsibility to make sure nothing's messed up. Like my own work, I try to go for the magic, the essence of that artist. But I am more careful.
MR&M: You've said you want to play mostly small venues on this tour. Can you make money doing that?
DH: No. I'm not going out to lose money—who wants to bleed?—but I don't think it's all about money. I don't necessarily want to make money on the road. I've been lucky to make money from my records. When I go out on the road, I pay my band all the money. I don't make any money. My manager gets his cut, the expenses get paid. and I come back with the same amount I left with.
MR&M: But you do get to play in front of people.
DH: Yeah. that's it. The thing is to translate the studio excitement onstage. You've got to live what you're doing onstage. It's got to be raw energy. It doesn't have to be perfect. If it was. it would be boring.
MR&M: What inspires you?
DH: Sex.
MR&M: That's a great motivator, but anything else?
DH: I'm inspired because people are starting to hear me. I want to be heard. When no one's listening, I'm not real motivated. I'm motivated by listening to Chaka Khan. She's the Jimi Hendrix of our age. She'll sing and sometimes it sounds like Hendrix's guitar. It's the same essence of freedom he had in his solos. She's a major vocal influence and inspiration. I love Foreigner, Vangelis,Robert Palmer. Lotsa stuff.
MR&M: “I Can Dream About You" became a hit mostly because it fit snugly in the current dance/rock sound that's all over CHR. Was that calculated or accidental?
DH: It was luck. I do not consider these things when I'm recording. I just do what I want to do.
MR&M: Do you and Charlie have a writing method?
DH: I met Charlie eighteen months ago when I cut myself loose of the corporate leeches. I met him through some people at CBS and tried some songs together. Those songs had a real uniqueness. When we write a song, we have a reason. I like songs that have no reason at all, but they don't wear very well. If you want to say something and mean something you'd better have something strong to say that'll reach people. We usually start with a title. discuss it. He'll go off somewhere and come up with the lyric and I can read his lyric and hear the music. I don't fight it—I just get it down on tape.
MR&M: What kind of music canwe expect from you and Charlie next?
DH: We're discussing topics. We want to get strange, but still communicate. It'll be weird.
MR&M: What do you consider weird?
DH: When you get into the areas of eroticism, politics, and belligerency, you have to be careful. Some of it will get out. Both Charlie and I have slanted minds. If “Relax” or “Sugar Walls" can be hits, there is a place for that kind of stuff, too. It's fun and interesting to write about that. Or with politics: Third World people own the bomb. That's probably where the nuclear war will start. They have nothing to lose. You can write about that. It'll be just another record from a romantic cynic.
View CommentsYour Bright Baby Blues….And Mike Reno
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
I went to see Jackson Browne at Cain Park this past week. Jackson's been such a big part of my musical makeup and yet I'd only seen him one time, a couple of years ago at the Tower City Amphitheater. On the one hand, I knocked an item off of my bucket list, getting to see Jackson play with David Lindley. But on the other, it seemed criminal that my one and only time seeing Jackson happened at such a plastic venue like TCA.
Putting the "plastic venue" to the side, it was a pretty good night and if I were never to get the chance to see Jackson again, I would at least be secure knowing that I'd finally managed to catch a JB show and one with Lindley on board no less. Not bad.
But when he announced a tour stop this year at Cain Park (God, how I love this venue), I knew I'd have to find a way to go and check it out. And thanks to my lovely better half Annie, I was able to do just that. When you're lucky enough to experience a night of music from Jackson Browne, out on the lawn under the stars, it really doesn't get much better than that.
A show which was supposed to be acoustic ended up being fairly electric, because as the tour dates drew closer, Jackson decided that he wanted to bring some friends along to play with him. I was a touch bummed that I wouldn't be getting the chance to finally see a JB acoustic show, but as soon as he started playing, I was all good with it.
By the time he hit "Call It A Loan" with song #3, I was really okay with it, but it all really came together when he hit this moment in the setlist.
Jackson still has the mojo. It was the final night of the current tour, so he was feeling fairly loose and veered away from the setlist for an eclectic set that featured songs from the first album heavily in the mix, among others. You can see the entire setlist from the night here.
Now, I'm going to take this post and drive it straight into the brick wall, to get to the original topic I had in mind when I first opened up my blogging dashboard.
Mike Reno and Loverboy.
One of my latest interviews for Ultimate Classic Rock found me talking with Reno about the latest Loverboy album. I talked with Mike one time about 15 years ago when they were promoting their VI album release. He's a good dude and someone who will talk about anything. Our conversation must have been alright, because his mom left a comment in the comments section to give her thumbs up on the chat. It doesn't get any better than that.
We didn't have MTV in my house when I was growing up until the late '80s. As a result, I missed out on seeing quite a few videos when they originally first aired. Videos like "Lovin' Every Minute Of It" by Loverboy.
Watching this video now, you really have to miss the creative storylines that were all over music videos during the '80s. I'm sure there might have been an edited version of this video which stripped out the first minute of silliness, but if someone can step up and tell me that it aired this way every single time it was on MTV?
I'd say "hell yeah" to that.
It's probably a good thing that we didn't have MTV in our house, because if we had, I doubt that I would have read half of the books that I read as a result growing up (I would come home from the library with 10-15 books each week) or any other wholesome example you can think of, which probably would have been replaced by sitting in front of MTV, all day long.
But maybe that would have been just fine....
View CommentsSpoonman Flashback
Written by: Kevin Brennan
I was watching an edited version of MTV 120 Minutes on VH1Classic and saw the clip for “Spoonman” by Soundgarden. It took me back to the first time I heard that song on a car radio and wondered who the Spoonman was. Well now I’m wondering about him again, so…
After reading the interview from 2011 linked here, his life seems relatively unchanged. Check it out and enjoy the song on video.
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Memorial Metal Mix Download: Music Fan, Teacher, Reporter Damian Guevara R.I.P.
Written by: D.X. Ferris
Click HERE to download the kickass thrash mix you see above (as one .zip file that unstuffs into 15 mp3s, plus liner notes and artwork, 152 MB total); read on to find out why you should, and who made it.
Bad news today. Writer and metal dude Damian Guevara, whom I’d worked with briefly circa 2010, is dead. He was 37. It was an unexpected shocker.
UPDATE & EDIT: Damian Guevara was a respected metro reporter at the Clevland Plain Dealer. Then he didn't work there anymore, which was totally his decision.
After Damian worked at the PD, he joined the staff at Cleveland Scene, the local alt-weekly,which is where I met him. He resumed his work on the political beat, and he continued his socially conscious, ethical reporting. People from daily papers tend to treat alt-paper staffers like they’re scrubs or redneck cousins. Damian never copped an attitude. He was a helpful, supportive team member. He was glad to be in the game.
With a full set of grade-A skills and knowledge, he was the kind of guy you don’t meet too often in the junior-varsity publishing world he found himself in: He had two degrees, one from Syracuse, a capital-J Journalism school. Raised in San Antonio, Damian spoke more than one language (Spanish and English), and he knew a thing or two about a thing or two, so he had an informed perspective. After his distinguished, all-too-brief stint at Scene, he quit the business and moved to Spain with his wife, where he taught English to elementary students.
Not only was Damian a smart guy. He was a good guy. And he was a metal guy.
He played guitar, and often lamented that his bad arms—carpal tunnel or something like it—further limited his performance on the instrument. He really knew his music.
In early 2010, I gave Damian a metal mix. He wasn’t the kind of dude who just accepted the mix and never mentioned it again. Not only did he enjoy it; he responded in kind, with a CD of his own, which he titled “Thrash Retaliation Mix.”
“Thrash Retaliation Mix” was way better than whatever I’d given him, which was probably an unimaginative comp of 80s favorites, a couple obscure tunes, and some contemporary heavy artists. Damian stitched together a classy survey of thrash from different eras. It was a mix of dark, underground stuff, cut with enough [relatively] popular material to demonstrate he wasn’t a snob, with a funereal undertow. No obvious stuff like Metallica; instead, he unearthed some old-school Kreator, Sadistic, and Helstar. Yeah, Damian knew his sh*t. He had cool handwriting, too. You can’t fake that. (That's a scan of his original CD sleeve in the graphic above, with my sloppy title added in Sharpie.)
So that’s what I have to remember Damian Guevara—well, that and a few stories that never would have come together without his help.
We weren’t close. I worked at Scene for eight years, and in that time, I met maybe six people I would have voluntarily hung out with outside work. Damian was one of those people you know briefly, but gladly would have spent more time with. That’s life: You don’t get enough time with the people you like, and you spend way too much time with the ones you don’t.
So check out his mix and raise a microbrew to the memory of Damian Guevara—even if you don’t know him. Click here to download it (one .zip file, which unzips into 15 mp3s, plus liner notes and artwork, 152 MB total). Give it to a friend and tell them you appreciate their presence.
And enjoy the people you like while you can. They won’t be around long enough.
D.G. R.I.P. You were one of the good ones, brother.
— D.X. Ferris, 31 July 2012
View CommentsGuitar Center Sessions
Written by: Kevin Brennan
Today we are taking a look at one of the coolest rock and roll television shows in recent memory, Guitar Center Sessions.
Located on DirecTV’s Audience Network, the show is a combination of live performance and insightful interviews with a single band or artist that is reminiscent of an old-school music magazine** interview show, kinda like 60 Minutes meshed with MTV’s 120 Minutes.
** Random lyrical reference - “She saw my picture in a music magazine” from “Strutter” by Kiss.
Originating from Guitar Center’s renowned Hollywood location, GCS features the requisite “guy with an accent” as host, radio and television veteran Nic Harcourt. His laid-back yet knowledgeable manner is well-suited for this format. He talks just enough to get the conversation started and understands that the show is about the musicians and their music, not him.
Technically, the show offers rock-solid production values. Beautiful staging and lighting is par for the course while the audio mixes are fantastic each time. Cranking it up on my HD big-screen, my basement turns into a surrogate concert hall with a front-row seat.
Artists I have seen include Joe Bonamassa, Blondie, Bush, Cake, The Cult, Peter Frampton, Alanis Morrisette, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Slash, and Social Distortion. A few of these remain on my DVR for repeat viewing, particularly the Cult and SD shows, both of which I’ve watched at least times to date.
Making time for Guitar Center Sessions is time well spent each time I tune in.
If you have DirecTV, let me know what you think of the show. If you have cable or the dreaded DISH service, then it’s time you made friends with a DirecTV customer or seriously considered making the switch.
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