Mothers Of The Disappeared, 14th May 2017

Words fail at how moving experiencing this live yesterday was....it's a very sad state of affairs that this is still so relevant today . :( With Eddie Vedder and Mumford and Sons For ALL Mothers

Pure Pop For Now People

Nick Lowe joins Yo La Tengo for their encores last Saturday in Brooklyn, dusting off this classic paen to the Bay City Rollers.....well done chaps!

The Wheel Spin for Yo La Tengo at the WOW Hall, Eugene, OR ...20th Feb. 2011

the spinning of the wheel to see what YLT would play that night...a couple of NSFW words here as well.....the dreaded choice of what people did NOT want to hear was the Sounds Of Science Part 1.

16 Horsepower Nobody Cept You

One of my favorite cover songs of all time, a tense version of a lesser known Bob Dylan tune........... and because I love the singing of David Eugene Edwards in this one.

Say Goodbye..................

.......to 2009.......as the sun sets on us this last day of the calendar year. Photo taken near the Hwy 20 overpass in Albany.......not today cause it rained.......but the general idea remains.



Here's Aussie faves Hunters & Collectors saying goodbye as well.........

Braves 7 Mets 1: Definitely Not Great Men

Another day, another disheartening loss. (It's too bad the Mets can't replicate Johan Santana and have him pitch every day; but even if that were physically possible, the Mets would still be barely contending for the wild-card playoff spot given the paucity of the Mets offense of late.)


The false hopes that Saturday's 5-1 win against the Braves raised were blasted away by another woeful offensive performance, punctuated by yet another injury with starting pitcher Fernando Nieve pulled up lame with a hamstring injury whilst trying to beat out a throw to first base in the second inning. Given that the Mets wasted a lead-off double by Angel Pagan but failed to send him home has typified the Mets offense in the last month.


In another series of song titles describing the feelings of this Mets fan, today's offering is from the Gang Of Four performing Not Great Men live in Japan in 2005, the same year I caught the band at Coachella performing a white-hot set after being introduced by Anthony H. Wilson. A damn good performance even if the majority of the crowd were waiting for New Order and Nine Inch Nails.




ESPN RECAP

Braves 11 Mets 0: Our Love Lies Limp

Not much to say at this point of the season after tonight's woeful performance in Atlanta, other than to recall the great song from Alternative TV, whose title pretty much sums up my feelings at this time. Bonus positivity: yet another injury, this time in the form of Gary Sheffield's right hamstring.....what could possibly be worse? Well..........in this era of relative parity in major league baseball, being the Washington Nationals would certainly qualify.





THE GORY DETAILS

Couple Of Winners: Cathal Coughlan Covers The Go-Betweens

I was listening to Microdisney's fabulous The Clock Comes Down The Stairs just a bit ago and decided to cast an eye upon YouTube to see what kind of footage of the band kind souls around the world had cared to share with the rest of the world; fortune was certainly looking upon me when I stumbled upon this clip only very recently added, a clip of singer Cathal Coughlan performing Dusty In Here, a reflective tune originally performed by the Go-Betweens. Needless to say, Cathal sounds great and does the song justice. Thanks to the original uploader mosstinpowers.... and massive thanks to Cathal for his performance.............and R.I.P. Grant....:(

Apparently No Man or AstroMan? Fans At ODOT: Little Debbie Snack Cakes In Accident Hauled To The Landfill

A date at the bottom of an Oregon landfill is the end result for a truckload of Little Debbie snack cakes. An accident on Highway 217 Monday evening resulted in the truck and the trailer ending up on its side. Rather than salvaging what they could for food banks around the state, the products have been unceremoniously dumped at the dump. Given the long shelf life of the sweet treats, I'm sure they would've been in decent shape the next time that Man or Astro-Man? hit the road again.



KATU NEWS STORY




A lovely live video of the band, complete with theremin on fire, in Seattle in 2000 (thanks brianjbean!),

Another Reason To Love The Internet: Conway Twitty With The Residents

Very nice to discover this classic bit of incongruity from Night Music. I'd seen a couple of episodes of the show when it was on (I got chills hearing David Sanborn intone about "going from one classic American song to another", a segue from a country lament into a SONIC YOUTH-LED CAST JAM of I Wanna Be Your Dog); I had no idea that The Residents and Conway Twitty had appeared on the same show. A match made in heaven, no doubt, except perhaps to the more conservative elements of Twitty's fan base who were probably confused as hell as to what was happening on stage. A big thank you to the internet for letting me catch up on this, and to scmm42 for providing this clip. Nice work!

UB40 In Portland

Can't say that I've closely followed the saga between former UB40 singer Ali Campbell (and subsequently, keyboardist Mickey Virtue) with their band-mates over management issues. This split, which occurred just over a year ago, has sadly degenerated into a mud-slinging match between brothers and long time childhood friends as well as fans of the band. Reading the message board forums between the two camps about the problems tonight was frustrating to this long-time fan; the fact that this has happened to such a long-running band that was based on the equality of all members of the band has made this situation worse. Here's to hoping that time will eventually heal all wounds; in the long run, maybe the realization that the shortness of our time here on earth might bring about some reconciliation.



At any rate, the six remaining members of the band enlisted Duncan Campbell (brother of Ali and Robin, just to add another twist in the current controversy) as vocalist, starting their 2009 world tour here in the upper left hand corner of the U.S.



Given the relative low commercial profile of the band in the U.S. over the last decade, I'm sure that there were quite a few people who showed up at the Crystal Ballroom on Monday who had no idea about the events of the past year. The good news is that Duncan did an excellent job in the spotlight, and as always in past performances, vocal performances from Astro, Earl and Norman helped to show that this collective is indeed a band , one that is at its best when working together.



Can't recall the exact set list, but there was a nice selection of tracks from their career, starting with the opener One In Ten. Other tracks played were Tyler, King, Rat In Mi Kitchen, Wear You To The Ball, Homely Girl, Impossible Love, Higher Ground, Sing Our Own Song, Reggae Music, Baby, Don't Break Me Heart, The Way You Do The Things You Do, Can't Help Falling In Love, Johnny Too Bad, Cherry Oh Baby, Many Rivers To Cross, Red Red Wine, Kingston Town, and Sweet Sensation, along with a couple of others I can't quite recall at the moment. They also performed a decent selection of new material from the album 24/7, all of it sounding excellent.



The band certainly seemed to be in excellent spirits, there certainly was an energy and appreciation that the audience seemed to sense, and which was hopefully returned to the band, from my vantage point, that certainly was the case as everybody was singing and dancing along with their particular favourites (tip of the cap to the gal next to me who was delirious over hearing the opening to Higher Ground. That was a highlight for me as well, along with a stellar Kingston Town and their glowing, almost religious, take of Many Rivers To Cross. The trio of horn players, led as always by Brian Travers, were swinging and swaying with the beat, singing along with the songs when they weren't playing; it's that kind of enthusiasm that has endured the band to its fans over the years, one that I've been able to appreciate over the years (this was the fourth time I've seen the band, the last time being the wonderful gig at the Rose Gardens back in 1993).



I took a couple of pictures, most of them not that good, but I do like this one of Robin.


I've also joined the crowd in adding my own craptastic videos taken at the gig, the first of them being Kingston Town, the second being Red Red Wine, the latter song being cut short about two thirds of the way through as I ran out of digital space, but at least we get to hear most of Astro's toasting. As always, one should go out and support the artists in question, in this case, that means going out and seeing the band on their tour and buying the latest CD. As for me, I'm one for hoping that the nasty legal concerns of the band will resolve itself in a logical and relatively painless manner, this bitter division is not something that lends itself to a band founded on unity. One love to all.



EDIT: videos not cooperating at the moment, I'll try again tomorrow.

Rage To Live: Enough Is Never Enough

Why this song, why now? Cause I'd just played the wonderful Luxury Condos Coming To Your Neighborhood Soon album earlier this week. Also, this one one of my first song purchases on iTunes, now that I've overcome that resistance recently. (There's still a whole lot more that I'd like to see available on that venture, but that's another story entirely.


I also used to read New York Rocker regularly, so I was not unaware of Glenn Morrow's band back in the day; what I had totally forgotten about was that there was a video for this classic track. Thank you cheapguitar for putting this one up, this song never gets old.

Valentine's Day Special: It'll End In Tears, It's A Heart Disease Called Love

A fine, country-rock version from Miracle Legion of John Cooper Clarke's Heart Disease Called Love dedicated to both the delusional and hopeless amongst us, a perfect antidote for when 'perfect love' is currently not on the cards. Thanks to DigitalDeviant340 for the clip, this was a track I played a lot when it was released.

Broooce (Of Sorts)! Electrelane I'm On Fire

Since I'm not much of an NFL fan, I won't be tuning into tomorrow's Super Bore, especially as I'm not a fan of either team. I can't think of the last time I ever rooted for the Steelers in anything......and as for the Cardinals, about all I can recall of them is..........a very long run of mediocrity and a quarterback named Jim Hart from a long time ago. The last Super Bore I watched in its entirety was the 49er blowout of Denver however many years ago, so with that being said, I'll have no idea about the time of day when Broooce will be performing.


So in order to get my Broooce-fix tomorrow along with untold thousands, I'll be tuning into Brighton's finest combo Electrelane and their smoking cover of I'm On Fire; the least that people around the world should do tomorrow is buy the ELECTRELANE RARITIES DISC (with said Broooce cover included) so that he may acquire some more royalties, more money with which to soothe his troubled mind over having had to deal with WAL-MART. What would Great Pop Things have to say about that marriage?



At any rate, the fab Electrelane live in NYC ripping through I'm On Fire.

Mark Stewart: Loner

So maybe the initial impressions I've seen of the new Mark Stewart album EDIT (as in the two Amazon takes referred to) aren't of the "immediate all-time classic" that might have been expected, given the very impressive body of Stewart's work. (This is also his first solo album since the brilliant Control Data was released in 1996.)





The song for the new video Loner doesn't immediately captivate me as many of his songs, such as Hypnotised, Learning To Cope With Cowardice, or The Half (also can't forget his classic deconstruction of Jerusalem, the fact remains that Stewart is the kind of artist that demands some work from the listener, so I've got to take some time to find out what has inspired his latest round of musical missives. The July issue of the UK music magazine Wire featured Mark on the cover, along with the full unedited transcript of the interview found HERE.

Groove Armada & Richie Havens: Hands Of Time

Following the great Richie Havens performance in I'm Not There as well as hearing Handouts In The Rain on a recent Mojo magazine CD of some of Paul Weller's inspirational tunes, I went looking to hear something else by the man.


Came across this performance with Groove Armada, a song that's apparently featured in the movie Collateral; I suppose I'd overlooked this gem simply for the fact that it was placed in a Tom Cruise vehicle; with my hand on my heart, I can honestly say that I've never spent a dime of my own money at the box office for a Tom Cruise movie, the last movie of his I saw was Risky Business........and that's when I was working in the theater to start with.


Tom may get some ancillary income from the soundtrack CD sales, but that still won't detract from this lovely tune.

New Order Your Silent Face Glasgow 2007

One of my fave NO songs, the simple and elegant Your Silent Face, from the brand new Live In Glasgow DVD.

Mark Your Calendars: Nick Cave September 22nd At The Crystal Ballroom

Very good news has returned in the form of the Black Crow King returning to the City of Roses in late September. Of course, things changed the last time Nick was scheduled to perform in September (back in 2001 on September 23rd, obviously circumstances dictated that, out of respect, Nick and the band would postpone their dates until the next spring).


The new album, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! is very good, continuing on from the improvement that Abattoir Blues/The Lyre Of Orpheus showed after the slight disappointment that was Nocturama. The title song is typical of the rest of the album, a fierce rock stomp, seeing as how Nick stopped writing songs from the piano for this album, but the songs We Call Upon The Author , More News From Nowhere, and Today's Lesson rank as high in the Cave catalog as anything he's ever done of late. Even without Blixa Bargeld in the band these days, it should still be a show to remember. Roll on this summer.




The McMenamins/Crystal Ballroom blurb is HERE



the video for the title track from the new album............

Time Flies When One's Having (?) Fun: The Ramones & D.O.A 25 Years Ago Today

Sorry, no lost archival footage from the show from either band here, just a note to remember one of the most frenzied shows I've ever had the pleasure to witness. The smart folks at John Bauer, along with the EMU Cultural Forum, had the good sense to bring to Eugene, for the first time ever I think, the Ramones along with Vancouver's brilliant D.O.A. in a sonic assault for their eager fans at the EMU Ballroom.


This post is dedicated to the memory of a lost friend, Cary, who I had the good fortune to turn onto the Ramones, away from the dreary stadium rock that he'd grown up on. We cruised to the show in our self-styled Ramonesmobile eagerly looking forward to the show; what we got surpassed our expectations by a mile. Cary was right up front bouncing around with the best of them, and he enjoyed the show so much that he wound up getting Dee Dee's bass pick, Dee Dee had told him that it was cool to see him enjoying the music so much.


The Ramones were touring behind Subterranean Jungle, in my mind an underrated album in the Ramones catalog. D.O.A. had released War On 45 a little bit earlier; of course, opening for the bruddahs, Joey Shithead and the band made an excellent showing in front of the rabid audience.



Cary only lived a couple of years after this show, but he always thanked me for playing him the Ramones, and always with a smile on his face as he did. I'm always smiling at the memories of this show, both for the music and for Cary. Thanks buddy, I had a great time indeed. R.I.P. (And R.I.P. to Joey, Johnny and Dee Dee as well....thanks for your music.)


The Ramones covering Time Has Come Today on a date a few weeks before Eugene (bootleg audio over the album cover, good quality), and D.O.A. from 1981 telling someone to Get Out Of My Life.

Because Love Hurts, Stinks And Bites ( Don't Forget It's A Heart Disease As Well)

Cheers to the KLOO listener, Lori in Stayton I think, who, on the station's Friday 4 p.m. SELECT A SET, a regular programming feature where a selected listener gets to pick three or four songs that the station will air, went for a set that dealt directly with matters of the heart.


Can't recall ever hearing a thematic set before, but something maybe has gone amiss in that person's life, for KLOO listeners were treated to Love Hurts by Nazareth, Love Stinks by the J. Geils Band, Love Bites by Def Leppard, and Heart Of Stone by the Rolling Stones. Surely a nice cheerful way to roll into what's going to be a fantastic weekend, no?


John Cooper Clarke's wonderful Heart Disease Called Love was obviously not in the stations vast music library, that certainly would have been a perfect addition to the songs selected. There's no video of that song that I could find, so here's another classic track from the Bard Of Salford in a similar vein, entitled Tw@t. This post is dedicated to an ex-roommate of mine, not because he was or is an idiot, far from it, but because once he heard my twin-grooved 45 back then, he would have me play it at parties constantly. Ain't love grand? (this is the uncensored version, with language probably NSFW).