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Jason Crawford
According to the accounts that I read, the worst of it took place at a concert that was being performed by the Eagles of Death Metal. I had already purchased their latest, Zipper Down, and I was looking forward to sharing my thoughts on it with you. Now, my opinions on the work seem trivial. The drummer that night was a guy from Athens, Georgia. He plays with the Whigs, and he’s a friend of some friends of mine. I saw some crowd-shot footage of the first gunshots, and watched him jump down off of his stool as if he knew immediately what was happening. From his elevated position, I imagine he may have seen the worst of it. I watched an extended online interview with the band, and their accounts of what happened were horrifying. At least one band member, Jesse Hughes, came face to face with a terrorist whose gun jammed allowing Hughes to escape. His girlfriend was in attendance. People lost their lives in the band’s dressing room. The carnage at the front of house was worse. Crew members died along with dozens of attendees. I would like to make it clear, before continuing, that I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach when I saw the news that day. I feel certain that lots of folks did. EODM had played a show in San Francisco down the street from my apartment a couple of weeks prior to the Paris show. Multiple friends of mine were in attendance, and this kind of thing could happen anywhere at any time. My thoughts and heart are with those affected by the events of that horrid evening. And that means all of us. We were all affected whether we are conscious of it or not. What we do to each other, we do to ourselves. Meeting hatred with more hatred leaves us with nothing but hatred. I do not understand the ideology that leads to these types of actions, but I refuse to hate. I love music, and I love living, and I love Love. I’m going to say a couple of things about Zipper Down because it’s an infinitesimally small way of carrying on in the face of such hate.
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The EODM are a good time band. They utilize a lot of humor in their work, but they’re lethally adept as musicians. The studio incarnation is composed of Hughes and Josh Homme (of Queens of the Stone Age fame). They cover Duran Duran’s “Save a Prayer” on Zipper Down, and Duran Duran has agreed to donate all of their royalties earned from the EODM version to the victims of the attack. In turn, the EODM are encouraging other bands to cover their tune “I Love You All the Time,” and those royalties will be donated too. My Morning Jacket was the first band to take them up on the offer.
Zipper Down is full of groovy, cheeky, fun music. It has a kitschy vibe, and the artwork is hysterical. The album is well pressed, and it comes with a download code and LP sized booklet. The EODM are going to be attached to a heinous historical event for as long as we all have left. The whole thing is a damn shame. I’m doubling down my support of the band and rededicating myself to living a life as free of fear as I can make it. I encourage you all to do the same.
Alright. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Widespread Panic released Street Dogs in September. It’s their first studio effort in a few years. Those who frequent this site may recall my scathing reviews of their reissues project a few months back. Those four titles are probably the weakest discs in my collection, no kidding. I was terrified to learn that Street Dogs, like the reissues, was pressed at United in Nashville. I actively avoid purchasing records that those folks handle if I can, but I’ve an interest in maintaining the completeness of my Panic collection so I bit on this one. There’s something going on at United that I may never get to the bottom of. Do they press records on a sliding scale depending on how much the artist wants to pay? Do they have functional presses in addition to the ones responsible for Panic’s reissues? Is the problem with the presses or with the humans operating them? Whatever the case may be, Street Dogs is of a much higher quality than the reissues. Happy Holidays.
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These guys haven’t done much to light me up over the last decade. Jimmy Herring has been blazing the guitar with them since 2006, and he’s pretty well assimilated by now. Still, there’s a lack of danger in comparison to the earlier era, and I miss the darker underbelly that this band used to display so beautifully. Nowadays, I’m most interested in the covers they choose, and Street Dogs has three pretty good ones in addition to the seven songs that stock the band’s mixed bag of originals. Alan Price’s “Sell Sell” is mellow compared to the live versions that the band has been playing for the last few years, but it still has teeth. Howlin’ Wolf’s “Tail Dragger” gives John Bell space to growl in, and he takes full advantage. For me, the band’s take on “Honky Red” (Murray McLaughlin) is the record’s highlight. I saw the guys play it in Oakland earlier this year, and I felt like I’d been in a fist fight afterwards. Hell, they could just call their version “Darker Underbelly” if they were so inclined. Not that things on Planet Panic haven’t been a little shaky of late anyway. Todd Nance, Panic’s original drummer, has been away tending to personal stuff for over a year now (he’s back in 2016), and Duane Trucks has filled in admirably in his absence. Trucks gives Street Dogs a little more grit with a little less swing than Nance typically provides. When a drummer occupies the stool that another player held down since 1986, the difference should be palpable and, in this case, it is. Trucks plays a little more forcefully than Nance (whose playing is slicker than owl dung). Works for me, especially on “Honky Red,” but it’s comforting to know that Nance will be back at the table with the big boys soon enough. These guys’ histories are pretty well wrapped up in each other at this point. Seems a shame to have one loose from the flock.
Somehow, this was the band’s first title that was recorded live in the studio. All the guys playing at once with a minimum of overdubs. And it may be the best sounding record the band has ever made. I wish they’d done it this way when Mikey was still alive. This is not my suggested point of entry for Panic’s work, but it’ll do in a pinch. It’s their strongest work in years.
I might be crazy, but I love the way Keith Richards sings. The two numbers he takes lead on are always my favorite parts of the Stones shows. (Unless Tom Waits comes out to sing with Mick on “Little Red Rooster,” then that’s my favorite part. Saw that happen in Oakland once. Whew!) Recently, Richards released his first solo album in 23 years. It’s called Crosseyed Heart, and it’s pretty good. There’s no “Happy” on there, no “Before They Make Me Run.” But there are a couple on there that could give “You Got the Silver” a run for the money as far as mood goes if not impact. I’m excited to have it, and I suspect that other Keef fans are too. Its pretty representative of what that guy brings to the table. And what he brings to the table is Rock ’n Roll.
I was validated by a Richards quote in the recent documentary about him that Netflix has been showing. I’m paraphrasing, but the thrust of it is that “today’s music is missing the Roll.” There’s plenty of Rock out there, God knows. I’ve been saying that for years, and I about fell out of my seat when I saw the doc. Crosseyed Heart, as you can imagine, attempts to balance that out a bit. There aren’t many of my favorite ‘60s artists whose current work I’ll reach for in lieu of their classics. Bob Dylan and Tom Waits are the exceptions that spring to mind. And Keef’s new one is pretty compelling too. I’ll get some mileage out of it. It won’t just languish on the shelf like Bridges to Babylon would. Richards’ records are always interesting because they give you a glimpse of what it might be like if he didn’t have to negotiate with Mick on the direction of the Stones. I get the feeling that if Keith were in the driver’s seat, Stones records would be a little less glossy, a little less experimental, with fewer attempts at relevancy by today’s standards. Because that involves a bunch of bells and whistles that Rock ’n Roll is better off without. On this one, Keith kicks things off with the title track which is a basic Blues comprised of his voice and an acoustic guitar. He cuts the tune off abruptly and you can hear him wheez “that’s all I’ve got” off mic just afterwards. In Keith’s world, that’s a take. In Mick’s, I’m guessing it winds up on the cutting room floor or with a guest spot from Lenny Kravitz to fill it out. Crosseyed has its misfires, mostly due to some questionable lyricism, but we all misfire if our body of work is big enough. And it’s doubly noticeable if your catalog is held in such high esteem that you’re constantly being compared to a version of yourself that’s 45 years younger than you are. Keith’s second band is all gristle and muscle with lots of soul to spare. If you like Keith’s playing; you’ll like his new record. It’s really as simple as that.
And it’s pretty well pressed if you can find one. They’re often backordered, and it took me a while to get my hands on one. No download code. Someone is given credit for the vinyl mastering, and you can tell they took some care here. The warm, fuzzy guitar tones and bombastic drum beats fairly jump out of your speakers. I just hope we don’t have to wait another 23 years for the next one.
I was going to skip Record Store Day’s Black Friday event this year. The list of releases was not too compelling to me, and the quality of the releases is often lacking with regards to pressings. I support local businesses as often as I can, and there are few businesses that need the boost more than independent record stores. But a good cause is compromised when corners are cut or discs are rushed through production. I have similar feelings about Jack White’s Third Man enterprise. No one can question the company’s dedication or their spirit of innovation. They’re all the time rolling out something zany and new for their vinyl fans, but the quality is often subpar. Hopefully, that will be ameliorated when they open their own pressing plant at their new Detroit location next year. That’ll get them out of United in Nashville, at least. Time will tell how that works out, and I’ve veered way off topic.
I got drawn into RSD by a 10” Big Star record built around a couple of versions of “Jesus Christ.” I thought that would be a fun one to play at Christmastime this year along with Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite and the Phil Spector Christmas record. I was right. It will be. The original version of “Jesus Christ” was on Third, and, according to a message on the 10” cover, Omnivore Recordings will be releasing Complete Third next year. The 10” is on translucent blue vinyl and it’s housed in a nifty cover featuring the three wise men gesturing towards the neon Big Star logo floating in a big starry sky. The pressing is mostly silent, and the material is a blast. Demos, rough mixes, TV mixes, and instrumentals, oh my! This one’s a ton of fun, and it comes with a download code. Tell your friends.
I was gonna pick up ORG’s take on Jerry Lee Lewis’s debut long player, but I called an audible at the line of scrimmage and grabbed another 10” by Dan Auerbach’s The Arcs featuring Dr. John and David Hidalgo. They called it The Arcs Vs. The Inventors Vol. 1. It’s trippy, and mostly in line with some of the spacier faire on the last Black Keys album, Turn Blue. The cover has a crude drawing of the Night Tripper (Dr. John) and a wolf (presumably a stand-in for El Lobo, David Hidalgo) on it. No download code, but this is a Nonesuch release so the quality is all there. Three songs on each side, and no end to the good times in these sparse grooves. Let us rejoice.
I did pick up ORG’s take on The Dance Album of Carl Perkins. I’d contacted them via email to see where the record was being pressed (Czechoslovakia) and whether or not the disc was mastered from the original tapes. It was not. The tapes are shot, according to the response I got. The thin disc is pressed on a weird kind of lilac colored vinyl. It’s pretty well silent too, and I almost made it out of RSD with a complete run of blemish free vinyl. Almost. The weird little patterns that are scratched into my Perkins record appear to have been placed there after the record was pressed. Things don’t get really bad until the next to last song, but it hurts, man. This record would have been great just on the strength of the ingenious “Blue Suede Shoes,” but Carl’s version of “Only You” blasts things into the stratosphere. I’d like to get a pristine copy if I can muster up the energy to pay for another copy. So it goes on Record Store Day. It’s kinda like finding a broken version of your favorite toy under the tree. Makes things less merry.
Wilco did one of those things recently where they sneak released their newest record for free online. It’s kinda cool to wake up one morning with a new studio long player from one of your fave bands without even having to deal with the tense buildup to a release date. But it had a funny effect on me. For one thing, the album was released as an mp3 download, and it rarely occurs to me to play digital music. I don’t have a stereo in my car because I don’t have a car, and I like to listen to the sounds of the Strange City when I’m out in it so I rarely walk around in my headphones. Plus, the record is only about 30 minutes in length. The freeness of it combined with its brevity and the digital format created an image in my mind of a disposable release. I thought of it as something to hold us over until the real album got here. Would I have felt differently if I’d purchased the album on iTune’s slightly better than mp3 platform? Or it I’d known it was coming and had time to get all geared up about it? The digital take released through the band’s website was released in mid-July of this year. The vinyl version found its way into the world in October. That cleared things up for me right away. It’s called Star Wars and it is a legitimate release, trust me.
Jeff Tweedy released a solo album a while back, and it was pressed in the Death Star (aka: United Record Pressing). I was concerned that Star Wars would be too, but it most certainly was not. Star Wars continues a run of high quality vinyl releases that really kicked into high gear for Wilco when Nonesuch took the reins on all of their vinyl reissues. The new record exhibits all of the depth and clarity and warmth of the best Wilco analog titles, but we all know that Wilco is gonna throw us a curve with the opening pitch every time they take the field. This time, it’s a Nels Cline guitar freakout instrumental called “EKG” that starts things off. It segues into “More” which suggests a T. Rex sing-a-long to me although that’s only in spirit, not sonics. Right now, “Random Name Generator” is my favorite tune on the album, but this is the kind of work that will reveal itself to you by and by. When all is said and done, ever song on here will have been my favorite at one point or another. I love that. This one is over and done before you can really settle in with it, and I love that too. It leaves you on a high note, and the most logical thing to do is to start side one anew at the conclusion of side two. Rinse and repeat until the roots are set in the soil.
To my ears, Star Wars trumps every Wilco release since Sky Blue Sky. These guys are always giving their fans something to bite into. They streamed their Solid Sound documentary for free over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. I whiffed on it, but I’ll see it soon. They’ve been playing Star Wars in its brief entirety at live shows and I’d love to catch one before they move on from the material. Don’t let the lack of hoopla fool you. Star Wars is prime Wilco, and the vinyl version is as pristine as anything they’ve released. May the Force be with you.