Consider, for a moment, Kristin Hersh and the band she formed in the eighties, Throwing Muses.

Two things happened recently that made me think of Kristin and her aforementioned band. One was the release of the Breeders latest album, and the other was a conversation I had with a co-worker regarding Throwing Muses, my borderline obsession with their music, and a band from the mid 90’s, Belly.

While I haven’t heard the Breeders latest album in its entirety, I was lucky enough to see them on their latest tour, pimping said album. Sounded good to me. The Breeders first album was released in 1990. The band was formed by Kim Deal of the Pixies, and Tanya Donnelly, formerly of… Throwing Muses. While Tanya left after one album and one EP, the Breeders went on to have one of the biggest alternative hits of the ’90’s in “Cannonball”– even people who weren’t into that scene back then know that one. Try it, just hum the bass line to your Average Joe (“dum dummdummdummdumm dum dummdummdummdumm“) and they will instantly recognize it. Kim Deal, through her affiliation with the Pixies will forever have her place cemented amongst the pantheon of rock gods.

Belly had a huge hit in the 90’s called “Feed the Tree“– you know that one, too. And so did my co-worker.

So, who is this Throwing Muses you are always on about?

“Well, remember Belly? They had that song ‘Feed the Tree’?”

“Oh, yeah!”

“Ok, well, the woman that formed that band, Tanya Donnelly, used to be in Throwing Muses”.

Which brings us to Kristin Hersh, her career, and the music industry in general. There isn’t a single song that Throwing Muses did that I can point to and say “those guys”. This is a band that can claim REM and the Pixies as peers. Think about that for a minute. The Pixies inspired, by Cobain’s admission, Nirvana. They remain one of the most influential bands of our time. As for REM– well, Jesus, do I have to spell it out for you?

Should Throwing Muses have had some monster hit? Maybe “Mexican Women” or “Counting Backwards”? I don’t know. Perhaps the poppy “Dizzy”, or “Not Too Soon”? Would that have altered their following albums? Would I be able to sit here, writing this nonsense about some (relatively) obscure band, stroking my chin and sneering down my nose at the uninitiated? Or is it maybe just the luck of the draw?

I’ve been saying for years that Kristin Hersh is one of The Most Underrated Musicians On The Planet. Given her work with the Muses (Eight albums, a few EPs), her albums as a solo artist (her first solo album, “Hips and Makers” included a duet with REM’s Michael Stipe), and what she has done recently with her new band, 50 Foot Wave (whose only claim to fame is choosing that name right before the 2004 Tsunami), Hersh remains one of the most prolific artists of the modern era. And yet she toils away, giving music away for free on the internet, bounced from her label (the venerable 4AD), playing shows in the US to sparse audiences (she’s bigger in the UK), blogging about her latest bus breakdown or shitbag motel her tour had to settle for this week.

And yet, this is her career. This is the only life her kids know, schlepped around from city to city while mom and dad hope, maybe, just maybe, someone notices. Yeah, that describes thousands of unknown artists who will never know what it’s like to be U2– but listen to Throwing Muses’ “The Real Ramona”, or Kristin’s solo album “Sunny Border Blue”, and tell me that there isn’t some fickle injustice at work here.

There’s lots of hype right now around the 25th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. OK, so the album sold gazillions, produced 800 top ten singles, including “Billy Jean”, “Beat It”, et al. Aside from the obvious and easy digs on Jackson’s tendency towards child diddling, let’s be realistic: this is nothing more than a last gasp effort by the quickly-becoming-irrelevant music industry to, quoting Morrissey, “reissue, repackage, repackage” an album that, despite your hardcore music snobbery, you probably have a copy of in one form or another lying around your house.

Before you rush out and buy your special edition double CD/DVD death machine box set, consider these other releases from 1982 that deserve your ducats:

The Cure- Pornography:

Admit it, people think of the Cure as some kind of bubblegum pop band, but the reality is that Robert Smith can be one morose motherfucker. No other album brings this truth to light like Pornography. From the opening lyric of “One Hundred Years “ (“Doesn’t Matter if we all die” ) to the close of the title track (“One more day like today and I’ll kill you”), Pornography had proto-goth kids jerking off over the harsh reality of our bleak existence. Say what you will about Bauhaus and Joy Division being the progenitors of Goth—Pornography remains the signpost.

Kate Bush- The Dreaming:

The Dreaming is a difficult album to listen to. Couple that with the fact that Kate Bush is viewed in this country as a shrill harpy, and you have an album that practically no one gives a shit about. The Dreaming challenged its audience to embrace the album as a whole, rather than a framework built around pop songs. The Dreaming broke ground in many ways—it was one of the first albums to feature instruments native to the Australian aborigines, and featured songs with narratives that forced the listener to embrace the stories within (I maintain that Kate Bush is one of the greatest story tellers of our time—listen to “Heads We’re Dancing” off of 1989’s The Sensual World and tell me otherwise). “Pull Out the Pin” is set during the Vietnam war, but tells the tale from the point of view of a North Vietnamese solider, sneaking up on the enemy, referencing how the American smells of “Yankee hash”; “Houdini” attempts to explain how the title character escaped from his entanglements (“with a kiss, I’ll pass the key”). “There Goes A Tenner” details a bank heist gone wrong. Each song is wrapped in off-kilter rhythms and challenging lyrics. The album could have been recorded yesterday and people still wouldn’t know how to pigeonhole it.

REM- Chronic Town:

Technically an EP, Chronic Town broke REM onto the burgeoning college radio scene. I can be like a certain unnamed Buffalo News music critic (cough Jeff Miers cough) and feign ultimate, encyclopedic musical taste, and claim that I alone, at age 12, despite my infatuation with Styx and Pat Benetar, embraced REM for all they could be back in 1982 when this album came out. The reality is this release was thrown in my face in 1986, when all of the upper classmen in my high school decried Life’s Rich Pageant as REM’s sell out album (if only they’d waited five years for Out of Time). However, hearing “Wolves, Lower” and “Carnival of Sorts” now, and placing it in context, I can’t help but see where they were coming from.

Yeah, I got this blog title from a track off of Bob Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks” album.  It’s appropriate, though, because I’ll be talking about Dylan later on.

 So, this past weekend I took a road trip to Milwaukee to see Shooter Jennings play a club called The Rave.  It looked a hell of a lot like the place Wayne & Garth went to see Alice Cooper in the first movie, so now I have to watch it again to verify that.  Anyway, it was a decent venue with a small crowd, but a hell of a show!

The opening act was a gentleman by the name of Eddi Spaghetti, frontman for Texas punk band The Supersuckers.  He came out with his guitar player who was dressed like a 70’s porn star, but played like a rock star.  Spaghetti did some acoustic versions of Supersuckers songs, and even covered an old Merle Haggard song called “Misery and Gin” which was the highlight of his set.

 Then Shooter came out.  Shooter may be best known as the spawn of country music legend Waylon Jennings, but is a great musician in his own right.  I had listened to his albums “Electric Rodeo” and “The Wolf” before the show, and I can honestly say they’re both damn good country-rock records.

 What I wasn’t prepared for was his live performance.  I’d expected a toned down guitar rock show, but what I got was pure brilliance.  He was good.  Damn good.  He put on a better show in this club than most bands play in an arena. 

 And the band – let’s just say that the lead guitar was better than Jimmy Page on a good day.  I could have sat there all night listening to him solo.  I’d pay to see this performance again.

Monday.

 I paid a visit to the Chicago Theater to take in a performance by rock legends Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan.  Amos Lee opened, which was ok, but I wasn’t paying much attention to him.  Other people at the show informed me that he was fantastic.

Costello took the stage and played an acoustic set for about an hour.  I don’t really know a lot of his music, but what I heard has inspired me to check him out further.  He played one tune which may have been called “I Want You” which had me riveted.

Then Bob and his Band played.  I wasn’t expecting much because Bob is, well, Bob.  His voice isn’t what it used to be.  He growled though his first two songs, “Cat’s In The Well” and “Lay Lady Lay” – but as he went along, he seemed to come to life and sounded a whole lot better.  I was thrilled to hear “You’re A Big Girl Now”and “Highway 61 Revisited” and even more surprised when he closed with “Like A Rolling Stone.”

He, Amos Lee, and Costello came out for the encore and did an excellent rendition of “I Shall Be Released”,  then went into “Thunder on the Mountain” and closed the night with “All Along The Watchtower.”

I’m not going to give the performance a good or a bad review.  Bob can’t do a bad show, because he’s Bob Dylan.  He’s a music legend.

Why didn’t anyone tell me that Dinosaur Jr. was back?
Watch this five or six times and realize that good music is still out there:
Been There All The Time

From CNN.com:

Island Christian Leaders: Ban Elton John

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (Reuters) — Pop singer Elton John should be banned from performing at a jazz festival in Tobago because his homosexuality could influence young people, some Christian leaders on the Caribbean island said Monday.

A group of Christian churches have failed to persuade the Tobago House of Assembly, which oversees the administration of the island, to join the call for a boycott of John’s appearance at the Plymouth Jazz Festival in late April.

But they said they would pursue the campaign against John, who married his partner David Furnish in Britain in 2005.

“We feel it can have a negative social impact. There are some who may not be sure of their sexuality and one has to be careful about how this can create impressions on impressionable minds,” pastor Terrance Baynes told Reuters Monday.

I agree with Pastor Baynes.  I went to an Elton John concert once, and now for the first time ever I’m ready to talk about my experience there.

I was in the crowd waiting for him to take the stage, and suddenly a large flag unfolded at the rear of the stage, and upon it was imprinted a huge rainbow.  Then Elton himself walked out to a podium which was placed center stage.  He raised his fist in the air and everyone chanted “Hail, Elton John!”

It was a very surreal experience.  Most of the crowd were wearing pink armbands and waving little rainbow flags in the air.  Those who weren’t wearing the armbands were ushured into tents along the side of the main stage by a militant looking bunch of guys called the “Pink Panthers.”  About an hour later they were returned to the audience looking a lot lighter-in-the-feet than they had before.  Many of them were holding hands.  Needless to say, they were all male.  For some reason, there were no females present.

I had escaped the clutches of the Pink Panthers by making my own pink armband before I arrived at the concert grounds.  I was also wearing a gas-mask to prevent me from catching the deadly and highly contagious virus commonly caught at Elton John concerts called “The Gay.” Someone I knew had gone to see Elton John previously and had told me what had happened to him.  His name was Frank, and before going to see Elton had made a life out of dating female strippers and drinking beer.  Now, he watches Barbara Streisand films and drinks Cosmopolitans.  I didn’t want to end up like him.

Anyway, with everyone successfully converted, the concert began.  I’m up relatively close to the stage so I have a pretty good view of the festivities.  Elton breaks into one of his more famous songs, “Crocodile Rock” and it looks like there’s a mosh pit about to form in front of the stage. 

I thought it was unusual to see people moshing at an Elton John concert.  Unlike Judas Priest (which, for some reason has the tents and the Pink Panthers at their shows, too) this wasn’t a metal show.  But, upon closer inspection I realized it wasn’t a mosh pit at all!  It was a bunch of guys dropping their pants and fondling each other.  I was shocked!  Never had I seen such a thing happen since I went to see Ellen Degeneres do her stand-up show and the girls in the front were doing some very unladylike things to each other.  I stayed to watch that one, though.

 At that point, I knew I had to get out of there.  I took off my armband, which was not the brightest move on my part, and headed for the exit gate.  Elton was just starting to croon”Rocketman” when I felt a firm hand on my shoulder.  I turned to see a large black man starting at me.  He was wearing a pink t-shirt, biker shorts and a pink beret.  I recognized him to be one of the Pink Panthers.  He grabbed my arm and dragged me toward a tent.

Now, I was in a state of panic.  He threw me in the tent, and ripped off my gas mask.  I was now fully exposed to “The Gay” virus.  I began to cry as my captor started to unbuckle his pants.  He was about to expose his gayness to me when my arm shot out and I punched him square in the jaw.  He stopped for a minute, and his face began to change.  His head got smaller, and turned green.  Suddenly scales started appearing all over his body.  He was distracted long enough for me to run out of the tent. 

I looked around, and realized that everyone was turning green and scaly. I was surrounded with these creatures reaching out to me and trying to capture me.  I had no chance, so I gave in….and lost consciousness.

I awoke strapped to a metal gurney of some sort.  There were this lizard-people all around me hissing and making funny noises.  Then one of them approached.  He was one of them, alright, wearing big sunglasses and a pink boa.  He spoke:

“Welcome to the Mothership.”

His voice was familiar, and it only took me a moment to realize who it was.  It was Elton!  Elton John was a gay Lizard-man!  I remained silent, scared out of my mind, and he spoke again:

“I am the Rocketman.  I come from planet Fagotia, and we have come here to take over your planet!  Our weapon is the drug we call ManLove!”

He pulled out a syringe and stabbed me with it.  I knew it was over.  I had been infected with The Gay.  I was doomed to a life of lusting after other men.

He looked at the monitors I was hooked up to, concerned.

“Nothing seems to be happening,” he said, “He is immune!  We must get rid of him and wipe his memory clean! Brothers Halford and Mercury, get the Memory-Wiper machine!”

They did as they were asked, and hooked me up to what seemed like an EKG machine.  I witnessed a big flash, and then woke up in my bed, not remembering anything that transpired the night before.

The moral of the story:  Don’t let your kids listen to Elton John or they might catch “The Gay.”

Nobody likes me
It’s all my fault
Nobody likes me
Nobody likes me

“Oh yes we all like you”
“We like you a lot”
“Yes we all like you”
“Yes we all like you”

I never get a letter
“We have no time”
Never ever get a call from you
“We have no dime”

Neeeever call, never write
“Yes we do always try”
Make me cry all the night
“Sorry we made you cry”
Make me mad, Make me sad

Tell me true, what can I do?
“Way too late can’t make up”
“All the hate has built up”

“Alllright we all hate you”
“We hate you a lot”
“We hate all your family”
“We hate your dog Spot”
Even Spot?
“Yes”

Those words were sung by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame non-Inductee Alice Cooper, and they ring true now not only for him but for a number of deserving bands who have been overlooked by Hall of Fame induction committee.

Reading Chuck’s last post regarding Grandmaster Flash got me thinking about this. There’s a lot of controversy surrounding their induction, when the real controversy should be surrounding those overlooked bands who are worthy of induction. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five is the first hip-hop band to be inducted into the Hall, and they are very deserving of this honor. But Van Halen? Eddie can play guitar, but good as he is he’s not the great innovator everyone makes him out to be. Van Halen’s songwriting skills were mediocre at best. David Lee Roth didn’t even show up to the ceremony. The Ronettes? Talented as they were, they were merely a vehicle for Phil Spector. Seriously, I can think of many other bands that should have been inducted first.

1.) Alice Cooper. You could say that I’m biased toward him being inducted into the Hall because I’m a huge fan. That’s very well true, but the reason I’m a huge fan is because he’s good. His goth-glam style paved the way for much of the music that came after him. Without him there would be no KISS, Marilyn Manson (although I could live with that), Judas Priest, or any of the 70’s-present hard rock bands as we know them. The face of rock and roll would have been much different, probably much more boring. He was one of the innovators of the theatrical rock & roll stage show, frightening and enthralling concert goers since the early 70’s.

Aside form the image and theatrics, Alice Cooper along with the various incarnations of his band were accomplished songwriters. Bob Dylan himself has said that Alice is a very underrated songwriter. It’s easy to figure out why, too. People are too afraid to look below the surface. All they see is a long-haired, make-up wearing rocker who occasionally dresses in drag. And that’s what the Hall sees, too.

2.) KISS. I’ve never been a huge fan of the KISS phenomena. In recent years they seem to be a product of a great marketing firm rather than the hard rock band they started out to be. Nowadays you can buy just about anything with the KISS endorsement. I’ve seen KISS cologne, KISS wall clocks, KISS bedding and even a KISS coffin. Yeah, it might have gotten a bit out of hand.

Say what you will about them, though. Call them sell-out. Call them poseurs. Call them whatever you want to call them, but nobody can deny the impact KISS has had on the hard rock scene since their inception in the 1970’s. Not only did they have a stage show that people hadn’t experienced before, they had phenomenal guitar driven rock that was just awesome. Between the gravelly vocals of Gene Simmons and the range of Paul Stanley, KISS became an overnight sensation – and they’ve been rocking strong ever since. Their hard rock sound opened the gates for bands like Van Halen to get into the scene. But, again, overlooked by the Hall of Fame because they can’t see past the make-up.

3.) Rush. When I was first exposed to Rush, I hated them. I hated them for no reason whatsoever. I hated them because some guys I couldn’t stand in college loved them.

But, then I listened to them. I always called them nerd-rock because their sound is very technical, very precise. And that’s what’s great about them. They write and perform these technically-charged rock tunes which are at the same time good rock & roll. Rush paved the way for bands like INXS, Radiohead and Coldplay who will all make it into the Hall before them, if history keeps repeating itself.

Those are merely three of a number of bands being overlooked by the HOF committee. Some others who should have made it in long before Van Halen and ZZ Top (Yeah, they made it in somehow) are: Styx, Cheap Trick, Bad Company, Blue Oyster Cult, Jethro Tull, Peter Frampton, The Hollies – the more I list the angrier I get, and I don’t want to turn this into a rant.

As I said, I’m not trying to downplay the talent that’s already been inducted. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five deserves it. Hopefully their induction will pave the way for other deserving hip hop artists (Public Enemy, Run D.M.C.) to earn their rightful places in the hall. I just want to see those who are the most deserving get in.

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five are being inducted in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tonight.
To all those who think that putting a hip hop act into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame “violates the sanctity” of the Hall obviously haven’t been there. If they had been they would have seen the New Kids on the Block exhibit.
As the innovators and inventors of hip-hop Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five deserve to be in there.

When I buy a new album and put it on for the first time, I have a method. I grab a some beer, turn down the lights, maybe light a candle and put the music on. That way I can make sure I’m as comfortable as possible so I can absorb new sounds coming from my speakers.

So, last night I sat down with a sixer of Labatt Blue, and put on Per Gessle’s newest release called Son Of A Plumber.

For those of you who don’t know, Per Gessle is the male half (and chief songwriter) of the 80’s/90’s Swedish pup duo Roxette. He’s written many hit pop singles throughout the years including “The Look,” “Joyride,” and “It Must Have Been Love.” Whether you liked Roxette or not, to fully appreciate SOAP you have to go into it with an open mind, not expecting to hear a new Roxette album. Because it isn’t. It’s something so much different – and it’s something very good.

The album opens with a few upbeat tracks including the radio hit “Jo-Anna Says,” which is one of the few tracks on the album which reminds me at all of his work with Roxette. Then it goes into a number of shorter songs that flow into each other in a very similar way as Brian Wilson did with “Pet Sounds” in the late 60’s. Some of them are upbeat like “Speed Boat To Cuba” and some are more ambient, a good example of that being “Double-Headed Elvis.” Every track on the album compliments the one before and after it.

Gessle always says that The Beatles were one of his biggest influences, and you can hear it here. Much of the music seems to be a direct tribute to The Beatles – which I’m sure was in Gessle’s mind as he was writing it. They even get honorable mention in the title of the song “I Never Quite Got Over The Fact That The Beatles Broke Up” – a title which has nothing to do with the lyrics of the song.

Other highlights on the album include the beautiful, haunting instrumentals “Waltz For Woody” and “Kurt, The Fastest Plumber In The West.” There’s some good old-fashioned rock and roll on here too, the best being “Substitute” and “I Like It Like That” which blend very nicely with the dreamy “Late, Later On” and “Carousel.”

I’d recommend this album to anyone who likes rock & roll with a touch of ambiance. It’s a very good album to just sit back and enjoy. It’s a fun album, and I’m looking forward to hearing more music like this from Per Gessle in the future.