Happy Cinco de Mayo

I don’t know much about cinco de mayo Im never sure what its all about I say I want you, and you dont believe me You say you want me, but I’ve got my doubts Oh baby, I was bound for mexico Oh baby, I was bound to let you go Listen:

I don’t know much about cinco de mayo
Im never sure what its all about
I say I want you, and you dont believe me
You say you want me, but I’ve got my doubts

Oh baby, I was bound for mexico
Oh baby, I was bound to let you go

Listen: Images

prog-by-numbers

Wow, what a resource. I just found progressiverock.com; a massive timeline of Prog, from 1967’s proto-prog Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, all the way through Pink Floyd’s bloated radio-rock opus The Wall, featuring reviews of pretty much every major prog-rock and krautrock album in between. There are reviews of major works – The Yes […]

Wow, what a resource.

I just found progressiverock.com; a massive timeline of Prog, from 1967’s proto-prog Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, all the way through Pink Floyd’s bloated radio-rock opus The Wall, featuring reviews of pretty much every major prog-rock and krautrock album in between.

There are reviews of major works – The Yes Album, Thick As A Brick, Brain Salad Surgery, Trick of the Tail; but also of minor but important acts like Jade Warrior, Premiata Forneria Marconi, Camel, Gentle Giant, etc.

This is a work of major geekery, arranged in cronological order. And importantly, while the dude who wrote all this is a fan-boy, he generally gets it, nailing both why the particularly great albums work, and why the over-rated ones (like The Wall) are not all they’re cracked up to be.

It’s an impressive piece of work; and for stoner prog-heads like me, it’s like a personal, bong-hit-and-black-light history of my teenage years.

Wow, man.

You look like you been losin’ sleep

I posted that Swervedriver song the other day which made me go listen to Mezcal Head. And I’m reminded what a fucking brilliant album this is. Here then is the one I can’t get outta my head, just cause I can’t get it outta my head: Last Train to Satansville.

I posted that Swervedriver song the other day which made me go listen to Mezcal Head. And I’m reminded what a fucking brilliant album this is.

Here then is the one I can’t get outta my head, just cause I can’t get it outta my head: Last Train to Satansville. Images

girl on a motorbike

I sat at a light, and watched a girl on a motorbike.

The bike was yellow; the girl was in leather, jeans. Her booted feet looked like a child’s, tiny black leather boots.

She passed me in an intersection as I waited for green, and then I tried to catch her; in my huge gray truck, it was hopeless. But I tried, ran a light to stay with her, passed my stop.

Her helmet was decorated, neck to crown, in sparkling stickers, whorls and flourish and little stick-on gems. It was a helmet a little girl would imagine on a princess, should a princess ride a motorbike; perfect and elegant, yet child-like.

I lost her at the next light, carving between cars on her fleet little yamaha; her black braid trailing behind her in the wind. I never got a look at even the sliver of face a motorcycle helmet would show, only a pair of mirrored shades, no more.

I turned my truck around, a great tire-screeching arc, and went back to my errand.

This is the song I dialed on my iPod as I drove away.

 

Read more “girl on a motorbike”

Gurus and Beer

The Hoodoo Gurus are back. And it’s about fucking time. They haven’t toured in more than ten years. This is snipped from a mini-review I posted on the band’s mailing list; the photo is from a gig in Los Angels at the El Rey on 3/28 (photo courtesy of qsysue on Poison Pen. I saw […]


6E4C

The Hoodoo Gurus are back.

And it’s about fucking time. They haven’t toured in more than ten years.

This is snipped from a mini-review I posted on the band’s mailing list; the photo is from a gig in Los Angels at the El Rey on 3/28 (photo courtesy of qsysue on Poison Pen.

I saw the Gurus Saturday night 3/31 In SF, at the Cafe Du Nord; it was the last night of the tour but Dave [Faulkner, the Gurus frontman] pretty emphatically stated they’d be back in September or October.

Cafe du Nord is a small place in San Francisco’s Castro district; it looks like it’d be a great place to see jazz or acoustic but it’s a bit small for a band like the Gurus. Dave described it as looking ‘Like a punch n’ judy show, with a little punch n’ judy PA’. This resulted in a show where the volume wasn’t quite as earth-shattering as when I’ve seen ’em before (i lost a good chunk of the hearing in my left ear last time I saw ’em, in San Jose CA ten or so years ago). But the sound was good, so you know, *shrug*.

I swear, it’s like they never went away. The same energy, the same evident joy in playing live.

I wish I’d noted down a set list; I was too much in the groove just diggin’ it to recall (well, that, and the sake and beer wreck havoc with memory). But as always, Cyril Jordan from the Flamin’ Groovies joined the Gurus for a few songs, playing a rippin’ version of the Groovies hit ‘Shake Some Action’, as well as a couple other songs. Cyril’s lookin’ really old, but his playing just keeps getting better.

I don’t have any audio from the show but here’s Miss Freelove from a live album they released a while back. They played it saturday and like every other damned thing they played, it smoked. They were and are one of the best live bands I’ve ever seen I I suggest you do whatever you have to to see ’em on the fall tour.

I’m payin’ for saturday’s rockin’ good time today, though. The cold I was fighting off friday won on sunday. But the Gurus are worth it.


Update: I found YouTube videos of this gig. The first two are with Cyril Jordan.

Bittersweet
Teenage Head
Come Anytime

I come old friend from Hell tonight across the rotting sea

I’ve talked a few times about stupid, meaningless holidays, and we’ve just passed another. Oh, i imagine to those of irish descent and catholic faith this day may actually mean something; and in fact I am of irish descent somewhere back in the family tree (somewhere in the stew along with scottish, french, german, dutch, […]

I’ve talked a few times about stupid, meaningless holidays, and we’ve just passed another.

Oh, i imagine to those of irish descent and catholic faith this day may actually mean something; and in fact I am of irish descent somewhere back in the family tree (somewhere in the stew along with scottish, french, german, dutch, scandinavian, and even claims of cherokee).

But a any day named for a dubious catholic saint is a hard thing for this life-long atheist to to get worked up over. And a day celebrating the irish that has more to do with green beer and leprechauns strikes me as one of america’a sillier occasions to get stupid drunk.

Still – for some reason this day always leaves me feeling vaguely sad; thoughts of days past and celebrations of various sorts drift vaguely through my mind.

Maybe it’s the irish in me; maybe I’m more irish than I thought. Or maybe it’s the Jameson and the Pogues I’ve been listening to for the last few days – I’ll be fucked if I know. But I walked around all day yesterday in a funny state of mind, trying to get a billion things done, driving around, running errands; and all day I went from a vague under-current of the desire to cry, to the desire to hit someone.

Plus, the store was sold out of guiness last night. So it was that kind of holiday.

But in any case – Lets say it with song. NOt the most irish of songs, but a song that sorta speaks to me. And it’s the fuckin’ Pogues, man.

I come old friend from Hell tonight
Across the rotting sea
Nor the nails of the cross
Nor the blood of Christ
Can bring you help this eve
The dead have come to claim a debt from thee
They stand outside your door
Four score and three

Listen.

Marquee Moon

Because it’s time for songs when we can’t actually blog. Ray made mention of this the other day, which made me realize I only owned in on vinyl, which made me go order the 2003 remastered version. I remember how the darkness doubled I recall lightning struck itself. I was listenin listenin’ to the rain […]

Because it’s time for songs when we can’t actually blog.

Ray made mention of this the other day, which made me realize I only owned in on vinyl, which made me go order the 2003 remastered version.

I remember
how the darkness doubled
I recall
lightning struck itself.
I was listenin
listenin’ to the rain
I was hearin’
hearin’ something else.

Life in the hive puckered up my night,
the kiss of death, the embrace of life
there I stand neath the Marquee Moon, just
waiting…
Hesitating..
I ain’t waiting

I spoke to a man
down at the tracks.
And I asked him
how he don’t go mad.
He said: “Look here, junior, don’t you be so happy.
And for Heaven’s sake, don’t you be so sad.”

Life in the hive puckered up my night
the kiss of death, the embrace of life
there I stand neath the Marquee Moon, just waiting…
Hesitating..
I ain’t waiting

Well, a Cadillac
it pulled out of the graveyard,
Pulled up to me,
oh they said get in.
Then the Cadillac
it puttered back into that graveyard
Me, I got out again.

Life in the hive puckered up my night
the kiss of death, the embrace of life
there I stand neath the Marquee Moon, just waiting…
Hesitating..
I ain’t waiting – Uh-uh!

Television, Marquee Moon
(I’m not completely sure these lyrics are right, I found about three diff. versions but this is closest to the ones in the CD)

Listen here. It’s 10:47, but listen to the whole fuckin’ thing, the guitar solo is brilliant. I’d forgotten how great this album is.

Ain’t he Funky

i just figured out how to make ring tones for my phone in iTunes, and xfer them via bluetooth. Here’s my current ringtone. Now I just need to find a good (free) app for OSX or Linux that lets me clean up the audio, boost volume, and do fades.

i just figured out how to make ring tones for my phone in iTunes, and xfer them via bluetooth.

Here’s my current ringtone.

Now I just need to find a good (free) app for OSX or Linux that lets me clean up the audio, boost volume, and do fades.

Be My Guru

One of my fave bands of all time, the Hoodoo Gurus, are (for now at least) back together and touring. This is it for US dates as far as I know: March 16, 2007 Austin, TX SXSW – Aussie Bar B Q show March 17, 2007 Dallas, TX Club Dada March 20, 2007 New York, […]

One of my fave bands of all time, the Hoodoo Gurus, are (for now at least) back together and touring.

This is it for US dates as far as I know:

Machschau-Thumb-1-2

March 16, 2007 Austin, TX SXSW – Aussie Bar B Q show
March 17, 2007 Dallas, TX Club Dada
March 20, 2007 New York, NY B.B. King’s Blues Club & Grill
March 21, 2007 Philadelphia, PA World Cafe
March 23, 2007 Toronto, ON The Horseshoe Taven
March 25, 2007 Chicago, IL The Abbey
March 26, 2007 Aspen, CO Belly UP
March 27, 2007 San Diego, CA Belly up
March 28, 2007 Los Angeles, CA El Rey Theatre
March 30, 2007 Anaheim, CA House of Blues Anaheim
March 31, 2007 San Francisco, CA Cafe de Nord

I just bought my tickets to that last one in SF.

Last time I saw this band, i left with my ears almost bleeding, cigarette burns on my arm, and a strange woman’s lipstick on my mouth. It was a fabulous show. They absolutely rocked. I wish I could fly down south to seem another show.

No Language in our Lungs

There is no language in our lungs to tell the world just how we feel no bridge of thought no mental link no letting out just what you think there is no language in our lungs there is no muscle in our tongues to tell the world what’s in our hearts no we’re leaving nothing […]

There is no language in our lungs
to tell the world just how we feel
no bridge of thought
no mental link
no letting out just what you think
there is no language in our lungs
there is no muscle in our tongues
to tell the world what’s in our hearts
no we’re leaving nothing
just chiselled stones
no chance to speak before we’re bones
there is no muscle in our tongues
I thought I had the whole world in my mouth
I thought I could say what I wanted to say
For a second that thought became a sword in my hand
I could slay any problem that would stand in my way
I felt just like a crusader
Lionheart, a Holy Land invader
but nobody can say what they really mean to say and
the impotency of speech came up and hit me that day and
I would have made this instrumental
but the words got in the way
there is no language in our…
there is no language in our lungs
to tell the world what’s in our hearts
no we’re leaving nothing behind
just chiselled stones
no chance to speak before we’re bones
there is no language in our lungs.

     — No Language in our Lungs, by XTC. Listen here.