VA/MD "Big Bad City"

Here is a wonderful music video featuring my good friends, VA/MD, produced by yours truly. Watch it in HD if your internet connection allows it. Feel free to leave compliments in the comments.

J Seger "With His Hat On"

Enjoy! Here's the link if you want to watch it in High Quality (HQ).

Rainy Day Man # 010908

Stepping into the bowels of 5 o'clock commuter traffic from a place where wind is tightening the lines on under your eyes and blushing your checks. Christ it's muted down here. And milky? If I could look to the left at just the right time, I can see an impending movement about to take place in my life. A movement that carries me. Don't react too quickly, look up too hastily or stare. Maybe there's a pole I can hug, a hang-nail I can bother. I'd read a book if I could concentrate longer than three seconds, but I'm a goldfish. I'm taken from carnival, to pet shop, to home. I said, "Conductor, ain't there nothin' I can take," but remember, I took everything before I left. That is the point of this obsessive story line. If you can settle beyond heart-attack, you've made it. If you look at the same person four times and feel creepy about it, then you're using them. Soon enough I'll be following someone's khaki pants up a stairwell. I'll flex the sphincter of this big city. That is to say that the city outside is a toilet bowl and I'm piece of shit. Not fair I guess.

Blogama: Gettin' Safe Wit' It

Obama is bulletproof. The bulletproof glass was not visible to the millions of people worldwide watching his speech on TV. So it was no surprise that Barack Obama's victory speech was delivered from behind two-inch thick bullet proof glass?

The Story

The Armpit Collection IX

The Kinks - Muswell Hillbillies

In light of a previous post, I figured I'd share my favourite Kinks album. I first heard this record around the time I was introduced to Holly Golightly (she actually covers a view Davies tracks on the aforementioned), upstairs on NattyBo's phonograph at the corner of Cary & Lombardy in Richmond, VA. It was the piano/horn combo of track 2 that got me. "Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues" is pure dixieland country-rock that encompasses the paranoia and pressure of modern society, that which I've truly come to know here in NYC. After writing and singing "I'm a 20th century man and I don't want to be here," I wonder how Ray Davies feels having made it to the 21st C. It's like Paul turning 64. Most of the lyrics on the album are quite a drag: life complications, alcoholic memory loss, jailed women, losin' land, losin' weight, no security, it's all pretty weird actually - and real! "Holiday" is a notable track on the lighter side, "I'm leavin' insecurity behind me," great creed for a vacation. Listen for the album's great guitar interplay in a variety of tones, piano & keyboard work, and harmonies.

This is one of those albums that doesn't have a bad track. Some are stronger than others, but each represents a piece of the greater work. A true piece of art really. In the trough of great country-rock records from the late sixties/early seventies, this one doesn't stand out commercially or critically. There are many records in the same vein as this one, reaching some form of a climax in American roots music. These Brits did it just as good as any of the others.

Notables (and feel free to Comment with additions):
The Basement Tapes
Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed
Harvest
Sweetheart of the Rodeo
The Band
American Beauty and Workingman's Dead

The Armpit Collection VIII: Double Dip

John Lennon - Mind Games and Walls & Bridges

Both records produced by Lennon himself with all the maturity of a legendary songwriter and musician. It's actually hard to describe the songs on these two records because they both offer so much in terms of actual music and writing - texture, balladry, arrangement, philosophy,goofiness. You won't hear too much of about the critical success of these albums. Imagine and Plastic Ono Band are typically held in higher regard in the Lennon solo catalog. It's kind of sad in a way because as great as those two albums are, Mind Games and Walls & Bridges strike me as more intelligent musical pieces, deeply personal and exciting. A grown man making grown up music, probably sounds boring to some, but I'm takin' 'em with me.

An American's Dream

"One day I'm gon' grow up to be somebody..." thought the young boy.

These were the words of young boy with a dream. Despite being raised in the slums of Harlem, NY, little Duane knew that one day he wanted to help people. Even if it wasn't his ailing grandmother or delusional, overbearing father, it would be someone.

"That boy ain't neve' gon' 'mount ta nothin'" his uncle would say. And everyone laughed, except Duane.

"One day I'm gon' help people. If they'z sick, I'll help 'em, give 'em the medicine they'z need" little Duane would cry amongst the chuckles of his relatives.

"Boy can't even read, thinks he's gon' help people," and the laughing.

Well, little Duane grew up fast, studied his way to Medical school, taking a keen interest in pharmaceuticals and eventually providing an empire where everyone could get the things they need. He took his name, the name of his relatives and made it something - Duane Reade.

The Armpit Collection VII

Train Whistle Blues - The Legendary Jimmie Rodgers


Blues, country, and jazz, all in their prehistoric stages, coming together through one man. The music is personal, rhythmic, deeply melodic and cuts to a place that seems rightly familiar if you're an American. They say he's the father of country music, and he is. And as a matter of opinion, you could go one step further, grab Hank Williams and simply stop there and forget about the rest of country music all together. They are it! Alright, so there's some interesting points here and there through the years. But Rodgers had the fortunate circumstance and ability to combine interesting musical elements - like being at the fork in the road when it forked. He popularized a particular style of playing guitar and singing; convenient, natural, and legendary, yet managed to augment himself with interesting bands and use popular song structure. "Any Old Time" is probably the best example of his greatness. A lonely few measures of a guitar tune about a woman who's left and wants to come back, then the horn section and band kick in and holy shit, "...drop ME a line and saaaay no more you'll roam." It makes you smile, like an inside joke that everyone gets and musicians strive toward, still.

The Armpit Collection V

The Beatles - Abbey Road

One side of singles, One side of suites. Is this the best Beatles record? Is it more mature and natural than Revolver? More accessible than Sgt. Pepper? A better version of Let it Be? A Rubber Soul for wiser man? Does Magical Mystery Tour even count? Shall we go on? So this is the one Beatles record I'm taking with me. They hunkered down, went back to George Martin and did the fucking right thing. George is obviously well represented with one of the greatest pop singles of all time (Something) and one of the greatest pop non-singles of all time (Here Comes the Sun). John could've done Oh Darlin real justice, but Paul is at the top of his game there, not too mention the bass playing on this record is completely untouchable in rock/pop music. Paul's got some other nice ones on the second side. My favorite track is I Want You (She's so Heavy), classic John. Musically it's a satisfying meal with the time changes, harmonies, simple blues chords and lush sound. There's a couple of dodgy spots that make me reconsider if I've got enough room to maybe just grab the two Singles collections, but then I remember how amazing Because is...because it's round, because it's high, because it's blue, because it's their best record.

The Armpit Collection IV

Champion Jack Dupree - Blues from the Gutter

This is one of the first real blues records I heard. It somewhat jolted my intrigue towards the blues and I've found many great records by other bluesman since, but this record has always remained an ideal. What a title. What a piano player. What a singer. And what a band (the guitar playing is simple and monumental). "Slow down man, don't walk so fast." Produced by the recently deceased Jerry Wexler, I believe it's the Champion's first full album, despite being on many 78's before this. You gotta dial in on some of the lyrics, "lord when I get loaded, I just want my milk and cake." Or, "I hung around my friends and smoke reefer." Or, "climb up on the table honey, let the doctor see what else you got." I have since found a record that's a collection of Dupree recordings - just the man at the piano, and I ultimately prefer this setting, but as an album and an experience, Blues from the Gutter is as the title suggests, and what better place to look?

The Armpit Collection III

"I used to visit all the very gay places..." Rumor has it that Johnny Hartman went to see Coltrane play at the Birdland, after the show they ran over some songs and felt good about recording - a Coltrane idea. I don't think either of them were gay, but Billy Strayhorn was. The opening line above is from "Lush Life," written by Strayhorn and classically featured on this album. "...those come what may places. Where one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life, to get the feel of life from jazz and cocktails." I am struck by this record and refuse to part with it. Hartman's polished and distinguished tone paired with Coltrane's genius is remarkable, standards at their finest. This is a man's man record.

The Armpit Collection

This is a new series I'm beginning. It's called the Armpit Collection. Each post in the series will be about a Record that has touched my heart in mysterious ways, to the point that if instructed to grab what I can for eternity, this would be one I'd tuck under my arm before I walked away.

Truly She Is None Other - Holly Golightly Damaged Goods 2003

This is my first and original introduction to the British songstress. At the cross street of Lombardy & Cary Streets in Richmond, VA, our fellow blogger NattyMcDanielson used to grace the second floor (and first floor, but somewhat muted) with the lovely and broken sounds of this record. I think I recall simply asking, "What is this?"

"Holly Golightly."

"What?"

(hands record sleeve)

"Ahhh...oh."

I fell somewhat in love with the exclusivity and underdog status of such a beautiful, yet unpolished and relatively unknown singer. This record marks the initial step into the upper-realms of recording greatness for Miss Golightly, in terms of traditional music in the modern world. It coincided with her appearance with the White Stripes ("well it's true that we love one another"). This album combines all the elements that make Holly cool - (1)slower, sensual bluesy ballads, (2)aggressively attacked, early R&B, and (3)the marriage of tremelo guitar and harmonizing-hypnotic vocals. Her band is brilliant, as they would say across the Atlantic, but not annoying. "Don't get in the fucking way," the producer probably said, "just lay down the bloody groove." I can say there's not a bad song on this record, but more importantly, there's a flow, which is even more impressive considering she managed to sneak two Davies songs in the mix, of Kinks fame, and two other covers. It goes to show she knows how to make a record sound real good.