The Day the Music Store Died

Category:  News


Even if you're not from Louisville you've probably seen those bumper stickers.  How could you miss them:  the old typewriter font with the store's name in lower case letters save for that capital "X."

Ear X-tacy closed its doors in Louisville for the final time on October 27.  The store's demise is no real surprise, given all the other mega-chain stores that have bitten the dust with the advent of the download.  Yet somehow, through the changes from vinyl (which was predominant when I began shopping there when it opened in 1985) to cassettes to CDs and back to vinyl the store had managed to stay around.  It has been cited by numerous national sources as one of the top independent record stores in the country.  Now it has suffered the fate of so many other stores.


The store was the child of John Timmons, brother of 80s pop-metal band Danger Danger's lead guitarist Andy Timmons.  It was named after John's favorite band, XTC.  (John once said one of his biggest thrills was getting to talk to XTC front man Andy Partridge on the phone.)  It began in a small store on Poplar Level Road near the Watterson Expressway on-ramp.  The first move came when the expansion of the Watterson took the land.  Ear X-tacy moved next door to the Great Escape on Bardstown Road in the Highlands.  It then moved to a larger location further down Bardstown Road, near Eastern Parkway.   At the height of its popularity there were three locations in town, but last year the store had to move to a smaller location on Bardstown Road because of poor business.  In addition to records, CDs, and cassettes the store sold just about anything music-related short of instruments:  t-shirts, posters, tickets, books, magazines and bumper stickers.  Many free performances took place on the second floor of the store.


Despite the loyal fan base Timmons could no longer manage to keep the store in operation.  Whether it's the recession or the trends in downloading that keep people away from "real" stores in favor of cyber ones was not addressed in the press release.


Jim James, Louisville native and member of My Morning Jacket, told the Louisville Courier-Journal by e-mail, "There's a tear in my eye right now as I hear about the closing of one of my favorite places on earth."


It's sad to see the place go.  I discovered so much great music hanging out in that store.  It was at Ear X-tacy that I discovered the joy of the Replacements' Pleased to Meet Me, the brilliance of John Hiatt (name an album, any album), mourned the demise of Talking Heads, and debated the "they sold out" claim about R.E.M.  It was, in essence, my rock and roll university.


Ear X-tacy was 26.

And I Thought It Was Bad LAST Year

Category:  News


The nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 2012 induction class were announced today. 


As usual, no legitimate superstars who should be nominated on the list (e.g., Steve Miller, Linda Ronstadt, Chicago, ELO, Rush, Moody Blues, Neil Sedaka), and a lot of disco, rap, and one-hit wonders (e.g., Beastie Boys) who should never be considered ARE on the list.


I'd comment on the way these nominations are making a mockery of the Hall of Fame, but these jokers aren't worth the caloric output.  It almost makes me glad Miller, Ronstadt, et. al. are NOT nominated:  it would cheapen their otherwise very successful careers.

Pat Summitt's Toughest Game

Category:  Sports News


Nobody -- nobody -- has coached more victories in college basketball than Tennessee Lady Vols head coach Pat Summitt.  Now the Hall of Fame coach is facing her toughest opponent ever:  a serious health issue.  Summitt has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia. 


Summitt announced today (8/23) that she received the diagnosis of early-onset dementia (Alzheimer's type) in May.  Following the conclusion of the 2010-2011 season her doctor sent her to the Mayo Clinic, where she received the diagnosis.


Summitt is receiving treatment and will continue to coach.  The interim Athletics Director for the University of Tennessee, Joan Cronan, affirmed that "Pat Summitt is our head coach, and she will continue to be."


Pat Summitt has 1,071 victories, more than any other coach in any division of NCAA basketball, male or female.  She has won eight national titles and has spent her entire 39-year coaching career on the sidelines at Tennessee.  Her program has never been under any scrutiny by the NCAA for any violations, meaning she has won all those games and titles the right way.


Considering all the foul-smelling news coming out almost daily about college sports it is more important now than ever that the college games obtain more coaches like Pat Summitt.  Keep this marvelous coach and her family in your prayers as she battles this terrible diagnosis.

The More Simplistic the Better

Category: 50 Songs to Hear

SONG: You Are the Everything
ARTIST: R.E.M.
SONGWRITERS: Michael Stipe / Peter Buck / Mike Mills / Bill Berry
ALBUM: Green
YEAR/LABEL: 1988; Warner Brothers


Yee haw!  Let's go make an art record!
(Peter Buck)


Athens, Georgia is the home of the University of Georgia.  Thanks to the bustling music scene that roared from the town in the late 70s and early 80s, one could make a legitimate argument that it is also the birthplace of "college rock," a genre of more adult, experimental music than the mainstream was cranking out in the disco and synthesizer era.  While acts from the Athens music scene enjoyed varying degrees of success (the B-52s were quite successful, Pylon and Kilkenny Cats were not), they all paled in comparison to the Hall of Fame success enjoyed by R.E.M.


When R.E.M. debuted in the early 1980s they were a cross between Tom Petty's jangling rock sound and Bob Dylan's cryptic lyrics (and garbled vocal delivery).  The albums had the added problem of no lyric sheets, meaning that it was up to the listener to decided what lead singer Michael Stipe was saying.  The music was perfect for the time:  "roots rock," the answer to the heavily-synthesized music that was dominating the pop charts at the time.  R.E.M. quickly became critics' darlings and picked up an increasing number of fans (among them, Warren Zevon, who recorded his Sentimental Hygiene album backed by Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry).  When they left the independent IRS label for giant Warner Brothers many claimed they were selling out, but in actuality their music was as fresh as the day they started.  Just as they ignored the popular music of the time when they started, as they sold millions they stayed true to what they wanted to do.  That meant as music got louder, with the rise in popularity of the hair bands in the mid-80s, R.E.M. decided to pull out the mandolin for a song.


That song is the highlight of their album Green, and indeed one of the highlights of their entire career:  the stunningly beautiful "You Are the Everything."


Proving they could mix music styles (the album was labeled, instead of "side one" and "side two," "air side" and "metal side") R.E.M. presented a lovely ballad that was as close to a love song as they had recorded (for the record, Stipe clearly and repeatedly stated in interviews that "The One I Love" was not a love song).  Buck picked up the mandolin and played a simple, beautiful melody as Stipe began, "Sometimes I feel like I can't even sing."  And you have to love a song that uses the word eviscerate, not to mention the notion of a band from the South throwing in a line that says, "You're drifting off to sleep with your teeth in your mouth."


R.E.M. has continued to impress fans and re-invent themselves.  Their masterpiece, however, is a haunting balled with a simplistic instrumentation that proves that a rock band doesn't have to "rock" to be memorable.

OTHER R.E.M. MUSIC TO INVESTIGATE:


The entire Murmur album -- their initial album stands as one of the best of the 1980s.


The entire Dead Letter Office album -- a collection of B-sides, some fabulous ("Ages of You," their cover of "Femme Fatale"), some so bad they're good (their drunken rendition of "King of the Road," which they state in the liner notes should have led to a lawsuit from Roger Miller) but all that needed to be removed from the "buried B-side" status.  The best side of a single wasn't always the "A" or "plug" side!


"Gardening At Night" (originally on the Chronic Town EP, a different version appears on Eponymous) -- in various interviews both Michael Stipe and Mike Mills stated they have no clue what this song is about.  Flash back to the early days when songs didn't really have to be more profound than a Bob Dylan album to be good.  This song brings that notion forward.



PREVIOUS SONGS:


(Country)
You Haven't Heard
Winter's Come and Gone
Where Do I Go to Throw a Picture Away
When My Rowboat Comes In
When I Lift Up My Head
Rose of My Heart
Rock of Ages, Hide Thou Me
Playboy
Our Town
Old Memories Mean Nothing to Me
Not That I Care
Nobody Eats at Linebaugh's Anymore
My Book of Memories
Lost to a Stranger
A Little Bitty Heart
Life Has Its Little Ups and Downs
Life is Too Short
I Want a Home in Dixie
I Lost Today
Fingerprints
Down to the River to Pray
Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyeballs
A Death in the Family
Dark as a Dungeon
Bottomless Well

(Rock)
Wall of Death
Train Leaves Here This Morning
Swallowed By the Cracks
Stephen
Stealin' Time
Starting Tomorrow
Spellbound
Sleep's Dark and Silent Gate
She's a Runaway
Painted Bells
Out to Sea
One More Song
New Delhi Freight Train
Millworker
Long Way Home
Island
Heart of Rome
Harriet Tubman's Gonna Carry Me Home
Entella Hotel
Desperados Under the Eaves
Crossing Muddy Waters
Cliffs of Dooneen
Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)
Baby Mine

...Even If I Don't Know Anything About Jazz

Category:  Concert Review


I'll start by admitting point blank that I know nothing about jazz.  I know some of the names, of course -- Charlie Parker, Louie Armstrong, Django Reinhardt, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald -- but I don't have any real knowledge of the music, its history, or anything else.  Give me two notes can I can tell you if something's real country music or pop wanna-be, but jazz?  I haven't even graduated kindergarten in my education.  So when I spent an evening at Katerina's in Chicago watching Harmonious Wail perform over two hours of spectacular music all I could say is "wow."  

L-R: Jeff Weiss, Sims Delaney-Potthoff,
Maggie Delaney-Potthoff, Mark Kreitzer

Harmonious Wail is a quartet from Madison, Wisconsin fronted by the husband and wife team of Sims and Maggie Delaney-Potthoff.  They bill themselves as a "gypsy swing jazz band."  I do know enough to know the term "gypsy jazz" is an ode to Django, the masterful French guitarist who influenced people ranging from Les Paul to Chet Atkins.  Sims fronts the band not on guitar but on mandolin, having taken lessons from the legendary Jethro Burns (who was also influenced by Reinhardt).  Maggie plays various and unique percussive instruments (such as a empty box that once held boxes of Purex laundry detergent and a pair of scissors).  Mark Kreitzer plays guitar brilliantly, and Jeff "Jeffro" Weiss is a young but gifted stand-up bassist.


The band, quite simply, is superb.  Maggie has a voice that can melt ice cubes then turn around and re-freeze the water.  "Torch?"  Maybe.  "Great?"  Absolutely.  She let loose on a combination of originals ("I Like to Feel My Bones," a song written after a car wreck, and the title song from their most recent CD "The Vegan Zombie's Lament") and covers ("My Favorite Things" and a show-stopping rendition of Steely Dan's "Home at Last").  Sims' mandolin playing showed his respect for his teacher (most notably when he let loose on "Tico Tico," borrowing heavily from the 1962 Homer & Jethro Playing It Straight arrangement) as well as the love for Django (they played "Djangology" and "Minor Swing").


My favorite quote about music comes from Sir Paul McCartney, who said in an 1974 interview, "I just like good music.  And, you know, you gotta search for it."  I may not know much about jazz but I do know that Harmonious Wail is a superb band with talented musicians and a gifted vocalist, and they deserve to be heard, regardless of how much you do or don't know about jazz.


Harmonious Wail's web site

At Halftime of the Baseball Season...

Category:  Sports Rant

Now that the Midsummer Classic is over with an astonishing two-game winning streak by the National League in the books, it's time to sound off on the All-Star Game -- and a few other things.

1.  Don't Wanna Go to the All-Star Game?  Fine!  This year's All-Star Game may be remembered more for the players who snubbed it rather than the people who did attend, the outcome, or the game's MVP.  This has become a disturbing trend over the past few years:  instead of acknowledging the fans' votes and being grateful, more and more players seem upset that their less-successful teammates are getting a three to four-day vacation and they, the superstars, are not.  So, they're shunning the All-Star Game.  That used to be a resume-padder (so-and-so "is a three-time All Star").  Now people are treating it like a liability.  

Here's a solution:  if you don't go to the All-Star Game this year after being voted on the starting line-up by the fans, you're automatically excluded for three years.  That way, your fans won't waste their vote on you when they could instead be voting for someone who really would appreciate the fans' gratitude toward the season he's having.

2.  That Annoying "Every Team Must Be Represented" Rule.  There are 30 teams in Major League Baseball -- 14 American, 16 National.  There are 25 players in the game on each side.  There's also a rule:  each team must have at least one representative on the All-Star team.  Baloney.  A team with sixty-two losses at the All-Star Break deserves a representative?  In a word, NO.  

Instead, try this:  the last-place teams (in each of the six divisions) do not get a representative unless (a) he's voted in by the fans or (b) that team is the host for the game.  That way, if Houston were hosting the game this year they would get a representative, or if Carlos Lee received enough votes, they could be represented.  Otherwise, let them all stay home and work on getting out of the cellar (between that and Reds' closer Francisco Cordero melting down worse than a damaged Japanese nuclear reactor, that shouldn't take long) and leave that spot for a player that currently has to stay off the roster because of the rule.  (Think about it:  if this game "means something," would the manager rather have the best players that would help assure a victory, or would he rather have the best player from the worst team instead of, oh, another player off the first-place team?)

3.  And While We're On the Subject of "The All-Star Game Means Something..."  This may well be the worst thing Bud Selig has ever done to baseball -- and that's saying something.  The notion of giving home field advantage to the All-Star champ league hasn't helped re-spark passionate interest in the All-Star Game a whole heck of a lot, has it?  (See issue #1.)  Fine.  Chalk this up as a failed experiment and let's have the World Series home field advantage decided on the field -- the team with the best record gets it.  Hockey and basketball seem to think that's a good idea, so why can't baseball do it the logical way as well?

4.  Elsewhere, There's the NCAA's Feet-Dragging.  So does Ohio State have to give the Sugar Bowl trophy to Arkansas with "2011 Sugar Bowl champions: Ohio State" written on it for the Razorbacks' trophy case?  What's going to happen to Auburn if the investigations prove all the news reports about Cam Newton were true?  The NCAA moves about as fast as a turtle covered in molasses stuck in a frozen pond when it comes to investigations, and that's making them a laughingstock.  They need to change the rules so we don't have any more Heisman Trophies returned to the New York Athletic Club or bowl hardware handed over to the losing team.  Come up with a "limbo" program, move faster, or do something to prevent any more egg on the faces of award sponsors, bowl sponsors, universities, and/or the NCAA.

5.  How About Punishing the COACHES in These Scandals?  "Eddie Sutton" is a worse cuss word in Kentucky than "Christian Laettner."  While Sutton was the head basketball coach at Kentucky a number of scandals, from players cheating on their tests to payment of $1,000 to the father of a player, came to light.  The NCAA's punishment was swift and sure:  Kentucky almost got the "death penalty" for the basketball program but was "let off the hook" with a three-year probation, two-year postseason ban, and a ban from television.  While Kentucky's fans, innocent players, and new coach (R*ck P*t*no, another cuss word in the eyes of Wildcat fans considering where he's coaching now) paid the penalty, Eddie Sutton waltzed off to a new job at Oklahoma State.

That is just wrong.  The NCAA has to initiate a penalty for ALL the guilty parties.  If an assistant coach is slipping C-notes under the table to a player's parents that coach should be banned from working anywhere in an NCAA college for a number of years.  I don't know if Jim Tressel could get a job as towel washer at a university right now, given what happened at Ohio State, but given the fact that he is a proven winner (and the name of the game is "just win, baby") somebody is sure to offer him a job.  Not so fast:  when the slow but sure boom is lowered on Ohio State it should also come down on Tressel.  The fact that the guilty coaches, assistant coaches, and other behind-the-scenes people can walk away and immediately become gainfully employed by another university while the former college is left to bear the brunt of the sins is part of the reason there are so many problems in college sports now.  Let them experience a consequence for their actions and see how quickly things clear up.

6.  And Finally... If these sporting events wish "to honor America," how about having someone sing the National Anthem with dignity, respect, and all of the words instead of calling on pop stars who try to turn the song into their new top 40 hit?  Take it from a veteran:  having someone who sold four million records last year screaming the song while forgetting the words does not honor America.  It should shame these people that the Stanley Cup's games in Canada earlier this year featured a Canadian singing our National Anthem on-key, with respect, and not forgetting a single word.  If you want to "honor America," get Wayne Mesmer (who sings the National Anthem at many Cubs games), not Christine Aguilera or Jesse McCartney.

Thank you, and enjoy the second half of the season.

When Scooter and the Big Man Bust This City in Half

Category:  Obituary/News


Thinking about Bruce Springsteen without Clarence Clemons is almost impossible.  It's the rock equivalent of Buck Owens without his lead guitarist/tenor singer Don Rich.  It's just not right.


Clarence Clemons, Springsteen's "Big Man" saxophonist, died today (6/18) at approximately 7:00 p.m. (ET) from complications of a stroke he suffered June 12.  The news had been bad from the beginning:  his stroke was considered "very serious" according to news reports, and sources reported that Springsteen and fellow E Street Band members were advised to get to Palm Beach, Florida (where Clemons lived and where he was stricken) as soon as possible.  Clemons underwent two surgeries on his brain after the stroke and was reported to be "responsive" although paralyzed on his left side following the operations.


Clemons was in the E Street Band at the beginning, playing saxophone that ranged from raucous rock and roll to beautiful soul.  He was featured on the cover of Springsteen's legendary breakthrough Born to Run album in 1975, and the song "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" mentioned him in the final verse ("I'm gonna sit back right easy and laugh when Scooter and the Big Man bust this city in half").  Even Randy Newman mentioned Clemons in his song "My Life is Good," in which he spoofed Springsteen ("Rand, I'm tired, how would you like to be Boss for awhile?  Well, blow, Big Man, blow!").  In addition to his work with Springsteen, Clemons released his own music (his duet with Jackson Browne, "You're a Friend of Mine," was an MTV hit in the early 1980s) and played on numerous other recordings.


Shortly after Clemons' passing Bruce Springsteen released this statement:

"Clarence lived a wonderful life. He carried within him a love of people that made them love him. He created a wondrous and extended family. He loved the saxophone, loved our fans and gave everything he had every night he stepped on stage.  His loss is immeasurable and we are honored and thankful to have known him and had the opportunity to stand beside him for nearly 40 years. He was my great friend, my partner and with Clarence at my side, my band and I were able to tell a story far deeper than those simply contained in our music. His life, his memory, and his love will live on in that story and in our band."

Rock and roll will never be the same.


Farewell to the great Clarence "Big Man" Clemons.  He was 69.