Create Your Own Concert w/ John Fogerty

John Fogerty is headlining a concert that airs on PBS on November 7.  In itself that is good news for me since I have been a fan of his since I began listening to my parents collection of Creedence Clearwater Revival records over 25 years ago. Called "Live By Request", this show allows fans to pick the setlist Fogerty is going to play.  As a precursor to the show, PBS allowed fans to write in questions to ask Fogerty prior to the show. In case you're interested he answers those questions here.

I applaud Fogerty for agreeing to try something different; a little outside his comfort zone. The road can't be easy out there...

As technology and the music industry progresses, musicians seem to be getting more creative and interactive with their fans.  This is especially true of veteran artists that have been in the industry for 25 to 40 years.  A couple of years ago John Mellencamp introduced a new song in a Chevrolet truck commercial.  On his current tour Bruce Springsteen set aside part of the setlist and allowed fans to bring signs to his shows as a request portion of the show.  He and other artists have also been playing live shows featuring songs comprising full albums of their material. This month Tom Waits announced his new live album from last year's Glitter and Doom tour on Facebook and Twitter.  (Side note: My wife and I were lucky enough to see this show at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis, MO and it was incredible!)  Waits and his current label, Anti, is even allowing a free download a preview of the album here.  This Fall Bob Dylan has released a Christmas album and included a previously unreleased outtake, a song called "California" from his classic album Bringing It All Back Home (1965) on a soundtrack to the CBS drama NCIS.

As radio gets more compartmentalized and segmented (Sirius and XM are guilty here) artists have had to get more adept at promoting their current project.  I find it interesting and sometimes fascinating to see which avenue they take to get the music to their fans. Years ago those committed to a particular artist would have called this selling out.  However, now artists must find new ways to reach their audience through all the static. I don't envy them. Believe me there's a lot of static out there!

Here in St. Louis you have to tune in a non-profit, community radio station KDHX 88.1 FM to get a lot of the new music by new artists and established artists. The Classic Rock station KIHT won't play much past 1990 - focusing mostly. The eternal Rock station KSHE plays new and old songs, but doesn't seem to embrace new songs by established artists.  Other than that St. Louis has two stations that seem to play 60's, 70's, and 80's hits - KLOU and WARH.

The only other station that really gets it for my money is in Chicago - WXRT - too bad I can't pick that up 300 miles south in my car.

Artists have been complaining about radio for a while, including three of my favorites...

Elvis Costello


Tom Petty


Finally, watch the video for "Radio Nowhere" by Bruce Springsteen here

Camper Van Beethoven / Cracker

My friend Tom texted me yesterday excited that Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker were touring and playing a show in St. Louis on January 8th.  I had seen this in an e-mail the previous week, but hadn't done much about it yet.  My boss and I talked about it last Friday but dropped the subject quickly.

Weirdly enough just before Tom texted me, my boss received a text from his friend about the show too. The show was back on my mind again. I texted Tom back and asked how much and he replied they were having a special until Friday and if you bought 3, you got one free.  I checked The Pageant site and found tickets were priced at $20.  With this deal the tickets would be $15 each + miscellaneous charges.

Count me in!

I haven't seen Cracker play since a very chilly February night in 1993 when I saw them at Mississippi Nights with Counting Crows as the opener.  After hearing good things about their recent shows from my friends, I wanted to see Cracker the last couple of times they played at Blueberry Hill, but just never got there.

The balcony is closed for the show so it should be a little bit more intimate than usual.

Should be a great show! I concur with Tom's sentiments - "Looking forward"

LIVE - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band

Last night I saw my third Bruce Springsteen concert!

While I cannot say that I have seen a bad Springsteen show, the band seemed to start out a little flat for "Wrecking Ball" and "Seeds."  I was confused by the choice of "Wrecking Ball" for the first song in the set.  The band had been playing the song "Wrecking Ball" because they had just done a run of shows at Giants Stadium and the Spetrum in Philadelphia - both venues slated for the scrap heap. However, the Scottrade Center in St. Louis is only 15 years old and not ready for demolition anytime soon.  Maybe Springsteen felt that the venue should be torn down or just felt that he and the band respectively had written and worked on this new song so much that they were going to play it again to see how it played in the Midwest. What's the old saying - "if it plays in Peoria it will play anywhere!"  According to Springsteen's written setlist posted on his website, the first five songs before launching into Born To Run were going to be:

1. Prove It All Night
2. Working On The Highway
3. What Love Can Do
4. Hungry Heart
5. Working On A Dream

"Wrecking Ball" was going to be played as the first song of the encore. I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out Springsteen's audible here. Nevertheless, the original setlist opening was recreated and "What Love Can Do" was eschued altogether. By the time the band picked it up for "Prove It All Night", then "Hungry Heart", then "Working On A Dream" it was time to start the Born To Run portion of the night. My point to Mary on the ride home was that the album should be at the beginning or end of the main set and then take a break and move into rest of the set.

The Born To Run portion of the show was a highlight and the version of "Jungleland" was especially good.
However, as my friend Rob pointed out after the show the band played enough material after the album that you almost forgot about this landmark song cycle in the midddle of the set. He was right.

I think there were a couple of reasons for the disappointment:

1. Personal expectations set too high. Put simply - last year's show was amazing! It's hard to top your first E Street Band show and with that setlist. Many were calling the 2008 St. Louis date the show of the tour. I had a hard time comparing that statement until now.
2. Our seats were in the mezzanine aboug half way up on stage left and there was a metal gate/bar running down the length of the row. We sat down for most of the show. We had a good vantage point of the stage, but we could barely see one of the screens and some of the guitar sounds were grating. We were in the lower bowl last year. We had more room, got up and danced more and generally had a much better time.
3. Even though he didn't play a lot of songs from Working On A Dream, I thought that Magic was a better album and mixed better with his older material.

Highlights included hearing "Prove It All Night" and "The Promised Land" as both are favorites from Darkness On The Edge Of Town. Hearing another Chuck Berry cover is always a treat and the only way you could top "Rosalita" as a show closer would be possibly "Thundercrack". Overall this was a good show and I'm glad that we went, but I'm interested to see what's next for Bruce as it seems that the E Street Band is going to take a break. I think I would welcome another solo tour and a chance to see him at a smaller venue again.

Setlist
October 25, 2009 - Scottrade Center - St. Louis, MO

Wrecking Ball
Seeds
Prove It All Night
Hungry Heart
Working On A Dream
Thunder Road
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out (with Curt Ramm)
Night
Backstreets
Born To Run
She's The One
Meeting Across The River (with Curt Ramm)
Jungleland
Waitin' On A Sunny Day
Working On The Highway
The Promised Land
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Badlands
No Surrender

***Encore***
For You (solo piano)
Roll Over Beethoven (Chuck Berry cover)
Surprise, Surprise
Detroit Medley
American Land
Dancing In The Dark
Rosalita (with Curt Ramm)

Compare last night's show to the set from 2008 - even with the highlights and Born To Run - not even close. The songs in bold are different from the songs he played this time around.

Setlist
August 2008 - Scottrade Center - St. Louis, MO
Then She Kissed Me
Radio Nowhere
Out In The Street
Adam Raised A Cain
Spirit In The Night
Rendezvous
For You
Mountain Of Love
Backstreets
Gypsy Biker
Because The Night
Not Fade Away/She's The One
Livin' In The Future
Cover Me
Mary's Place
Drive All Night
The Rising
Last To Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands

* * *Encore***
Girls In Their Summer Clothes
Jungleland
Detroit Medley
Born To Run
Dancing In The Dark
American Land
Thunder Road
Little Queenie
Twist And Shout

Finds At The Antique Mall

Across the street and down a block or two from work is an antique mall in an old Kroger store.  This is one of those huge antique malls with booths of miscellaneous items and some dedicated to specific things.  One of the booths I obviously like is one dedicated to records.  This booth has all vinyl and has both LP's and 45 RPM records.  I found a few for the jukebox there a while back.  Here are some records that I found on Friday - all for $3 each.

Bruce Springsteen - Darkness On The Edge Of Town

Here's a blistering version of the title track filmed at Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ on September 19,1978

Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen - Lost In The Ozone

Peter, Paul & Mary - (self titled)

Peter, Paul & Mary - In The Wind

George Carlin - FM/AM

Sammy Hagar - Standing Hampton 

Stan Freberg - The United States Of America Vol 1: The Early Years

If you've never heard of Stan Freberg take a listen to the album through a series of videos on You Tube. Funny stuff!

In another booth I found a used copy of Goo [Deluxe Edition] - Sonic Youth.  I was just talking about buying this version a day or so before with Mary and here I found a used copy in great condition for almost half of what I would pay for a new copy. Yes!

I was very excited to find the copy of Darkness On The Edge Of Town since my wife and I will be seeing Springteen & The E Street Band on Sunday night.  However, I was more excited to find the Sammy Hagar album. This might seem strange, but I have a method to the madness here.  If you have lived in the St. Louis area at some point in your life post 1974 you have likely been issued a copy of a Sammy Hagar record.  It's the law!  In an issue of Creem magazine I once saw Hagar wearing a KSHE 95 t-shirt on in concert!  Hagar got his "Red Rocker" moniker in St. Louis, plays concerts in honor of KSHE birthday parties, he wins when the station does a March bandness game (read: NCAA Final Four brackets w/ bands and voting) and even has a Cabo Wabo bar at a local casino. I owned Standing Hampton on tape when I was young, but I'm sure that got sold a long time ago when I was getting rid of my tapes. Lately, I have been doing research on albums and release dates and I found that this album came out on October 23, 1981. Here I was 28 years to the day later buying a copy of the album again.

After I got the records home and inspected them a little closer - something I should have done at the store -  I was disappointed to find that the Commander Cody album had the wrong record inside the sleeve.  It was a live record by Commander Cody from 1974. Bummer.

On Saturday, my wife, daughter, and I went to a resale shop in O'Fallon, IL and I found a copy of Rickie Lee Jones self titled first album for $1! By the way...if anyone is interested that store has most of the albums ever released by Mac Davis for $1.  I can tell you where they are if you are a big Mac Davis fan or feel the need to go get them.

Artists Pondering The Demise Of The Album

Johnny Cash - The Fabulous Johnny Cash (Columbia Records, 1959) with some of my other records

I was reading my recent copy of Rolling Stone the other night before bed. I came across something sent a shock wave through my system. Artists were talking about the limitations of album releases and talking about releasing MP3 versions of tracks a little at a time or in weekly bursts or further outragous ideas.  You can see an article by David Browne on this subject regarding Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins here. Radiohead broke some of the boundaries in 2007 when they relased their album via the internet allowing the public to pay whatever they wanted for the album. This Fall, Tom Petty is selling a $24.98 subscription to weekly "leaks" of the new live album and then the consumer can download the rest of the album on the release date. However, as an established artist Petty is also selling the live release in CD/LP formats as well. See a review here.  However, both Radiohead and Petty are sticking to the concept of an album, but getting it to the public in a different fashion.

If you read my post late last week you might have an idea of where I am going with this...

I know that changes to the way that artists release their music shouldn't come as too much of a surprise due to the growth of the MP3 download via iTunes, Amazon, et. al. over the course of this decade. The subject has been out there for a few years now - see here and here. However, like anything else from the last 15 plus years, the concept of focusing on the hits is not a new one (45's, tape and cd singles), nor is the concept of a playlist - you've certainly heard of a mixtape right?

Hits are fine - not that I have particularly liked or identified with too many in the past 15 plus years, but they have their place. What if there are other songs that the listener itentifies with on the album?  Further, I've made plenty of mixtapes in my life and it's great fun to sequence songs in a particular order for your enjoyment or for the enjoyment of someone else - particularly someone to whom you're enamored. I've made mixtapes for roadtrips, dates, new loves, old loves, friends, etc.  When I only had a tape player in my 1968 Chevrolet Camaro I would also dub entire albums onto blank tapes so I could listen to it in the car. But the beauty of making your own mixtape is that you can choose not to include the hits. You can choose to include songs that include lyrics that may mean something to that person or the current situation or just fit the overall vibe.

A very small amount of the overall compact discs that I own

However, the thing that I LOVE about albums are that they are snapshots of an artist at a particular time in their career.  I LOVE the artwork, the packaging, the cohesive sound, the track listing, the liner notes, the recording details, the thank yous - basically the creativity within the boundaries of an established medium. As artists I can see their need to sometimes break through these boundaries and chart new territory. Painters would not stand for having to paint the same size painting every time so why should musicians have to release an album?

I realize that there have been MP3 only releases for a while too, but those are usually reserved for "super" fans of the artist that go out seeking everything available. My wife calls me a completist and I would have to agree. I like to collect all of these "snapshots" of an artist to get a clear, overall picture of their career.  To me an album is like a book - a physical copy of a produced work that you can hold in your hands. If artists want to break the boundaries of the album I wish they would keep all consumers in mind and still release a physical copy of their work to the public. I know it's not eco friendly to waste paper, plastic, and vinyl, but this is the one time when I really don't care. 

Albums I listened to today:
The Beatles - Rubber Soul (1965)
Bill Janovitz - Up Here (2001)
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs (1985)
Girlfriend - Matthew Sweet (1991) released on October 22

Finally, a Happy 35th Anniversary to the album Hotter Than Hell by KISS released on October 22, 1974. If you're not really into classic KISS, you can also listen to Fumbling Toward Ecstacy by Sarah McLachlan released on October 22, 1993, or if you're a really big Paul Simon fan you can pull out your copy of The Rhythm Of The Saints released on this date in 1990.

Items To Buy: Guitar (or Bass Guitar)

Last night I got my acoustic guitar out to play a while. Eventually this led to me getting my bass guitar out to play and I was completely dissatisfied. My bass guitar is a Yamaha model from the late 1980's or early 1990's that I bought off someone in the early 1990's and needs some work. It needs new strings, there's a buzz on the strings, and it needs some work on the electronics - whenever I plug into my amp it seems to cut out. Furthermore, the aesthetic is just not there for me - the guitar is black and used to have a sticker and it just looks like I'm playing in a metal band. *Ugh*

I like the look of this one much better -

Epiphone Jack Casady Signature bass - $799 (Gold/Ebony). I did a little research and found a Ebony version for sale at Swing City Music for $699. I like the gold version (pictured) much better though. Classic.

I would love to have a Rickenbacker 4001 -  (USA) or a Rickenbacker 4003 - (USA) (Jetglo, Fireglo, Midnight Blue, Mapleglo), but can't justify spending $1500 to $2000 on a bass guitar no matter how cool it may look or sound. If I didn't get the Epiphone I would probably stick with a Fender Precision Bass or

Fender Jazz Bass. There are so many choices with the Fenders however -

• Vintage '51
• Vintage '57
• Vintage '62
• Geddy Lee
• Deluxe
• Standard
• Road Worn 60's
• Road Worn 50's

...and that's not to mention Gibsons like a Gibson Thunderbird IV (USA) or an Gibson SG reissue - $1399.

Guitars
This is a monster of a whole different kind. I have been thinking about buying an electric guitar for a couple of years now. So many choices, and sounds.  However, I have narrowed it down somewhat.  The main thing affecting the decision will be price. Maybe with some Christmas and birthday money I can get something and finally make a decision.

Rickenbacker
Rickenbacker 330 (USA) (Jetglo, Fireglo)
Rickenbacker 360 (USA) (Jetglo, Fireglo, Midnight Blue, Mapleglo)
Rickenbacker 620 (USA) (Jetglo, Fireglo, Midnight Blue, Mapleglo)

Fender
American Vintage '52 Reissue Telecaster (USA)
Classic Series '72 Thinline Telecaster (Mexico)
Road Worn '50's Telecaster (Mexico)
Artist Series Joe Strummer Telecaster(Mexico)
Artist Series Elvis Costello Jazzmaster

My Wear AC/DC Shirt?

On Monday night, my wife was getting our daughter ready for bed and needed to put a t-shirt on her before she went to sleep. When my wife went to the closet to get a shirt my daughter said,

"My wear AC/DC shirt?"

My wife and I laughed, but complied with her request. My wife tucked her in and I read her The Poky Little Puppy again and she drifted off to sleep to the soothing ocean sounds from the wave machine. Months ago my wife had bought my daughter the AC/DC shirt along with a Star Wars shirt at Target.  She's worn both quite a bit because we're not into dressing our daughter like a girly girl.

The next morning I got our daugher up to go to the babysitter's house. I changed her diaper, pulled on her black pants and had the long sleeved shirt that my wife had laid out for her to wear in my hand.  In a soothing voice I said, "Ok, I need to change your shirt now." Our daughter replied, "No, my wear AC/DC shirt."  I laughed again, but didn't want to fight over this since the shirt really wasn't dirty.

So, our daughter wore the AC/DC shirt all day and evening.  We repeated the same evening ritual last night. Ouf daughter wanted to wear the AC/DC shirt to bed again!  My wife insisted that she change her shirt and she didn't protest too much. Our daughter conceded it was okay for her mommy to put on the pink Alamo shirt that her uncle brought back from Texas for her. When she saw that shirt our daughter said, "(insert uncle name) bought this." We laughed again only because she seems so smart. My wife tucked her in, I read What's Baking, Strawberry Shortcake?, Where's Baby's Pumpkin?, and The Poky Little Puppy, and she was off to sleep again.

This morning, I got my daughter up again and she wanted to wear the AC/DC shirt again!  Luckily, she already had the Alamo shirt on that we planned to leave on and didn't protest too much again.  I know she just likes the shirt because she's really into the alphabet right now, but I still think it's cute!

Rock on little girl!

Oktoberfest

Tonight is the 2nd annual Oktoberfest party at David and Theresa's house. Should be a good time with homemade pretzels from John, German sausages, homemade beer from David and myself, beer stein races (with water - no one wants to waste beer!), German music, German trivia, and more.  A good time that is, if, David didn't drink all the beer. Dig the cool invitation made by my sister-in-law Dawn!

Vinyl Continues To Make A Comeback

A recent article in the Terre Haute Tribune Star displays the continued push by audiophiles of the vinyl format.  In case you're not convinced music stalwart Rolling Stone also ran a recent article you can read here. I support this push toward the only format to survive attacks by all other formats (Reel to Reel tape, 8 Track tapes, Cassette tapes, Compact Discs, & MP3's) because the experience of dropping a needle on a record is like no other experience in listening to music. This trend is especially intriguing in the wake of the recent remastered compact discs of The Beatles albums released by Apple/EMI on 09/09/09.

In an era of "Sound Wars" the albums of the 1960's, 1970's, 1980's could not compare to the albums released in the late 1990's and the 2000's. The significance of these classic albums dictated that they needed to be remastered to compete with the sound of the new albums being released.  Thus, I have been slowly replacing many of my compact discs with remastered copies for the better part of a decade because of the better sound, extra tracks, live versions, restored album artwork, expanded liner notes, etc.  While I have noticed a considerable difference in the sound quality on remastered compact discs when compared to the original release on compact disc I don't have all the necessary vinyl to compare the various releases. If I did my "man cave" (or apartment as mine is above the garage) would look like Rob's apartment in Almost Famous.  Not that I would complain...

The 180 gram vinyl re-releases have been the turning point for the vinyl devotees.  These thick, lush slabs of vinyl sound delicious.  I first heard about 180 gram vinyl when I bought the records of post rock band Shellac in the 1990's. Finally, the reissues started arriving at a frantic pace in the independent record stores and I bought the much heralded mono version of the Bob Dylan classic Blonde On Blonde on vinyl and found out what all the fuss was about. However, I still buy compact discs, but I have been buying more vinyl for the experience and the free digital download.  Two very different experiences, but the convenience and portability of digital balances out the enjoyment of dropping the needle on the vinyl perfectly.

The problem being that new slabs of vinyl are not cheap! You can end up paying anywhere to $15 to $30 for a new record depending on the number of sides. The price point is set higher which is disconcerting for those who remember the flip side of this 20-25 years ago when compact discs were the more expensive of the two.

I recently purchased replacements for The Beatles Abbey Road and Revolver albums. These two pivitol albums by The Fab Four are central in my musical consciousness. I have heard these two albums hundreds of times at least both on vinyl and compact disc. I will reluctantly admit that it's been quite a while since I have pulled out my vinyl copies of these albums, but that's how I experienced them in the first place and that counts for something. I believe there is a muscle memory of that experience that's locked in my brain.  These come as close as anything I've heard digitally to the vinyl experience. The thing I noticed first was the harsher (read: tinny or grating) sounds on the top of the treble spectrum were gone and made the overall experience more enjoyable. What had been added were the crisper sounds of Ringo Starr's high hat cymbals and the punchy deeper sounds of Paul McCartney's bass. A perfect example of this would be Come Together from Abbey Road. A conspiracy theorist would say that these observations point to the fact that Starr and McCartney are the two surviving Beatles and they wanted their parts to be heard.  Wild conspiracy theories aside the remasters are doing a couple of things: 1) updating the digital catalog of one of the best bands to ever put music to tape and 2) bringing the music of The Beatles to yet another generation of fans. Both are going to continue to make money.

This brings me to my final point. I don't want to keep buying my record collection over and over again! The Beatles did the right thing, especially waiting 22 years before re-releasing their catalog. In the future there may be a fewer albums that fall into that category for me. But, I will say that I would gladly buy Abbey Road as many times as it took. Yes, it's that good.

Listen To The Entire Album

This past week I decided to eschew the shuffle function on my iPod.  I have purchased quite a few new albums recently and put them on the computer and uploaded them to my iPod.  Instead of just pushing shuffle I have made a new promise to myself to get back to the basics -- listening to the entire album.  In our current world of soundbites & highlights, I found it refreshing to get back to my roots and spend 30-50 minutes with an album.  This is something that many (including myself) consider to be a work of art so why was I chopping it up like a personal satellite radio station? 

This made even more sense with the recent shows that Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band have been playing recently. They are incorporating playing entire albums into their live sets. So far they have done Born To Run, Born In The U.S.A. & Darkness On The Edge Of Town. This is not a new trend in live sets as many acts are doing this now, but Mary and I are seeing Springsteen in 10 days and they are schedule to play one of my favorite albums 1975's Born To Run. There was a need for a change. Here's what I have listened to lately...

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Band Of Horses - Everything All The Time
The Bar-Kays - Soul Finger
The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
The Beatles - Abbey Road
The Beatles - Revolver
Buffalo Tom - Let Me Come Over
Laura Cantrell - When The Roses Bloom
Green Day - American Idiot
Lucero - 1372 Overton Park
R.E.M. - Reckoning + entire live show from July 7, 1984 at Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, IL
Lou Reed & John Cale - Songs For Drella
Josh Ritter - Golden Age Of Radio
Sonic Youth - Dirty
Sonic Youth - The Eternal
Bruce Springsteen - Darkness On The Edge Of Town
Bruce Sprinsteen - The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle
Bruce Springsteen - Working On A Dream
Carla Thomas - The Queen Alone
Uncle Tupelo - Still Feel Gone
The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat
Tom Waits - Mule Variations
Neil Young - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
ZZ Top - Tres Hombres

If I could only get the iPod to let me turn over the record at the end of side one...