Articles

She Stoops to Conquer

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There Affectation with a sickly Mien

Shows in her Cheek the Roses of Eighteen,

Practis’d to Lisp, and hang the Head aside,

Faints into Airs, and languishes with Pride—

From “The Rape of the Lock” by Alexander Pope

According to an article in a recent issue of The Journal of Trauma: Injury, Infection, and Critical Care, “Skateboard-Associated Injuries: Participation-Based Estimates and Injury Characteristics” by Kyle, Nance, Rutherford, and Winston, the obvious is sometimes merely the superficial. That is, while people might think that throwing tricks either on ramps or grinding on the streets can be comparatively dangerous, the authors found that skateboarding-related emergency room cases are only half as many as are associated with playing basketball. In fact, those boarders who required hospitalization were likely to have had a crash with a motor vehicle (presumably, pedestrians would suffer similar consequences). The authors conclude, in part, “We found that skateboarding is a comparatively safe sport.”

Things are not what they seem.

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Articles

Ain’t Got No Girls, Ain’t Got No Moogs

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Matt Sharp at Schubas

Chicago, 11/24/2002

I’m a big fan of Matt Sharp and the Rentals. I have been since I heard “Friends of P.” on the radio back in 1995. It amazes me today to think that a song that quirky and great got played on commercial radio, and actually spent three weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles charts. Much to the disappointment of Maverick Records, this did not cement “new wave” as the next big thing, post-grunge. Nevertheless, Return of the Rentals has earned a place in my personal Top Ten Albums of the 1990s. I really liked the long-overdue follow-up as well: 1999’s Seven More Minutes, but it was completely overlooked by everybody, and for a while there it seemed like Matt Sharp had fallen off the face of the earth. Web sites started popping up that were dedicated to Searching for Sharp, and we even hosted one here on GLONO for a while.

When Sharp’s old band, Weezer, released its lousy follow-up to their brilliantly raw and damaged Pinkerton, many disappointed fans blamed the boringness on the departure of Sharp. What else could explain the almost complete lack of risk and excitement on 2001’s green album? So where do we find Matt Sharp at the end of 2002, but on his way back from Leipers Fork, Tennessee, where he recorded a new album of stripped-down material, which he intends to release in 2003 even though he currently doesn’t have a label. But that didn’t stop him from playing a great show on Sunday night at Schubas.

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Articles

Sense the Disgust

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“These are my last two records. I’m quitting after this, because the business has made itself so repugnant to me.”—Joni Mitchell, W magazine

The quote from Mitchell is interesting for a number of reasons. Arguably, at this point in her long career, it could be said that she’s done simply because she’s been at it a sufficiently long time, such that she’s fundamentally had enough. It’s about time she retired (if it can ever be said that an artist actually retires: it is one thing for someone who has been working at a conventional trade to get to the point where punching the proverbial clock is no longer a desirable way of spending one’s time, but does a writer, painter, actor, musician, etc. ever really retire? It seems unlikely. But it opens up a question about the nature of work. The artists most certainly work, there can be no question of that, but presumably what they decide to do is more an intersection of vocation and avocation than is ordinarily the case. So when do they stop?) I assume that Mitchell will continue to make music, that she will continue to perform music. But chances are, she’ll be doing it on her own terms, not those of a record company or a concert promoter. (It could be argued that Mitchell may have trouble hanging on to a recording contract and that concert promoters aren’t exactly beating down her door and thus the announced exiting from the stage.)

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Articles

Greasy!

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BR-549 and Southern Culture on the Skids

Metro, Chicago 11/20/2002

It was a bit disappointing not to have a full house on hand Wednesday night at Metro for the great double bill of Nashville’s BR-549 and Chapel Hill, NC’s Southern Culture on the Skids. But the three quarters-full or so crowd that did come in from the spitting rain and wind outside pushed up all close to the stage, and I can honestly say that Wednesday night’s show was the first time I’ve had an obstructed view of the action due to a predominance of cowboy hats in the audience. Yee-ha. Let’s get neighborly!

BR-549 sounds, talks, and acts exactly as you’d expect a group of guys who have a standing invitation to play The Grand Ole Opry would. With bolo ties in place, vintage trap kit set, and an array of gorgeous Gretsch guitars primed for optimum twang, the fellas eased into a set of charming honky-tonk music that put grins on faces like they were going out of style. Moving fluidly from the barroom boogie of “Too Lazy To Work, To Scared To Steal” slow-burn crooners that showcased the band’s perfect Everly Brothers (or Louvin Brothers, for that matter) harmonies and some great instrumental sidework from a guy that my man Trey and I swore was David Spade. Switching from autoharp to fiddle to a miniaturized custom Fender job in a Hollywood minute, “Spade” added all the color the songs needed to appeal to the growing crowd on hand.

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Articles

Anthemic Pop Wonder – Rapid Pop Thrills

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Anthemic Pop Wonder – Rapid Pop Thrills (Bombco)

This album sounds like a fourth-generation copy of a cassette that had been buried in the backseat of someone’s Dodge Omni under a pile of McDonald’s bags and schoolbooks. Luckily, they credit Jimmy Ether for mixing and mastering, so at least you know who to avoid. It’s rare in these days of ProTools to hear something recorded this badly. It’s so rare that it’s interesting, even charming. Anthemic Pop Wonder’s catchy little rock songs immediately brought me back down to Andy Sheneman’s basement where I watched my friends’ band record a handful of songs into their newly purchased four-track. Hearing the playback was an exciting experience, and that same exuberance is all over the place on Rapid Pop Thrills. Which raises the question, would the songs sound as good and would I even have made it past the first track if they were recorded properly? I don’t know, but I do know that you just can’t go wrong with a song titled “How Great Was Hüsker Dü!”

MP3s available via mp3.com.

Articles

Portuguese Lesson

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Exactly once in my life have I heard Portuguese spoken before Thursday night’s Caetano Veloso show at the posh Chicago Theater. To further underscore my lack of preparedness to hear this man sing, I can summarize my knowledge of all things Brazilian in one word: Ronaldo.

It is no surprise then that my free ticket was actually procured by a more prestigious member of the media, the Chicago Tribune’s Greg Kot. Thus I must bid thanks to Greg for exposing me to an artist I would have never sought out on my own. Sadly enough, my musical tendencies are all too frequently similar to the Midwesterner traveling abroad who looks for the Golden Arches—in my case, that’s a dive bar with cheap beer and loud guitars.

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Articles

Much Love from Glorious Noise

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Every once in a while, we take the time out to thank our readers for coming here, and give you an update on what’s happening behind the scenes. So thanks, everybody, for stopping by. And thanks especially to the people who keep us in line by posting comments to the articles.

And we should also thank our message board community that’s growing larger and more vocal every day. It’s very cool for us to see people get involved in this, and we’re proud to be able to host so many thoughtful, interesting conversation.

And if you’ve ever felt like you wanted to add something, but resisted because you were afraid you’d sound stupid, all I can say is that, personally, I sound stupid at least half the time, and most everybody else around here sounds stupid only slightly less than that. But that’s okay. It’s fun to think about and argue about and rant about music, musicians and the music industry.

Also, we’ve got to thank the people who’ve bought our t-shirts and stuff and those who placed ads. You’ve kept us from having to turn tricks out on the street. (And we’d really have to hustle because we ain’t pretty—except for Johnny.) So thanks.

And while I’m at it, I’d also like to say what up to one of the early inspirations for Glorious Noise, a site called us|against|them, who went offline for a long, long time but recently came back into action. Back in the day, they turned us on to cool things like the Live365 radio stream (R.I.P.), the moreover.com news feed, and the three-column layout. Go back in time via the Wayback Machine: u|a|t from March 2001, GLONO from the same month. Ha.

On that embarrassing note, I’m outta here…

Articles

A Word About Zevon: Mesothelioma

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One of these days, not so very long from now, we’ll be reading of the death of Warren Zevon, who has been diagnosed with mesothelioma. When you see words like mesothelioma, you know it’s bad. What is mesothelioma? Cancer. From his lungs to his liver. Maybe he’ll kick it. Maybe.

I first saw Zevon perform in the early ’80s. In Rockford, Illinois. Home of Cheap Trick. It was at the 10,000-seat Metro Centre. You’ve got to watch it when places spell words like center as though they are, what?—Canadians? The Metro Centre was one of Rockford’s moves to revitalize the city center. The slab-sided structure hard on the banks of the Sinnissippi River is an aluminum siding salesman’s wet dream. The wonders of urban renewal. When Zevon took the stage, the place was damn near empty. Maybe the potential audience didn’t get the word about the renewal. “ROCKford! ROCKford! How can you miss with a name like ROCKford!?!” Zevon shouted. The man is nothing if not ironic. Which probably explains a lot of things. Like the empty seats.

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Articles

Dennis Driscoll – Voices In The Fog

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Dennis Driscoll – Voices In The Fog (K)

Voices In The Fog, Dennis Driscoll’s new album on K Records, is dominated by simple, pretty love songs driven by acoustic guitar and Driscoll’s faltering, slightly fey singing voice. The wide-eyed, unabashedly romantic notions that dominated 50s teen-pop also take a front seat here. “Stormy Weather” is a good example. “It’s a rainy day today,” Driscoll croons. “Where oh where is my true love on this autumn day?” He listens to the rain pattering on his window. “Maybe I’ll put my raincoat on, and my galoshes,” he continues, “And go downtown to see what came in the mail.” Galoshes? Honestly. But that’s the thing about Voices. If you have a sensitive bone in your body, you’ll likely fall for Driscoll and his collection of lo-ish-fi love songs. It’s the kind of lovelorn stuff that made all the sensitive guys (and girls) tear up during the “Your Eyes” scene in Say Anything.

There is a bit more to Driscoll’s songs than drippy lyrics and gentle acoustic guitar plucked from the brows of ex-girlfriends. Numbers like “Waitress and Sailor” hide their lyrical complexity within the ostensibly simple delivery; “Moon Patrol” adds the perfect hint of theremin to suggest Les Baxter if he’d written love songs with Buddy Holly.

K’s onesheet on Dennis describes him as such: “[H]e breathes in the evening breeze in Olympia and blows out magical puffs of smoke…[h]e calls these smoke-puffs songs and records them regularly for all to hear.” Which is copy in the classic K tradition. It’s a label that’s always adored soft-focus things like puppets, pies, and cardigan sweaters. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, K impresario Calvin Johnson’s vision of a world populated by friendly people making fun out of nothing at all was (and is) as punk rock as any jackbooted Crass fan’s notions of bombing 10 Downing Street. Driscoll’s acoustic whimsy only continues the particular brand of punk put forth by twee rockers such as Beat Happening (Calvin produced Voices from the helm at Dub Narcotic Studios), Six Cents and Natalie, and The Crabs.

So. You’re feeling sad, or maybe you miss your sailor boyfriend who shipped out two weeks ago? Maybe it’s beginning to get cold and gray where you live. If you’re looking for a record to wear scarves to, Dennis Driscoll’s Voices In The Fog just might be the hot cup of tea you need.

MP3s available from K Records: “Waitress or Sailor” and “Sarah Jane Part II.”

Rock and roll can change your life.