The connection between music and memories is as fundamental as that between heart and soul. We write songs about things we’ve done and people we’ve loved and those songs remind us that we are human. To be robbed of either is heartbreaking, to be robbed of both is tragic.
Glen Campbell has been frank about his battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He announced his affliction in 2011 and embarked on a farewell tour—one that he had to take while he still could. If you love songs but aren’t familiar with Campbell’s work then you are missing some of the 20th century’s most endearing music. The towering shadow of his career is summarized in just the opening paragraph of his Wikipedia entry:
Campbell has released more than 70 albums. He has sold 45 million records and accumulated 12 RIAA Gold albums, 4 Platinum albums and 1 Double-Platinum album. He has placed a total of 80 different songs on either the Billboard Country Chart, the Billboard Hot 100, or the Adult Contemporary Chart, 29 in the Top 10 of which 9 peaked at number one on at least one of those charts.
And now he has one more song and album. His 78 years are reflected in this video, his last.
If you’ve seen A Hard Day’s Night then you know George was definitely the coolest Beatle. If you’ve seen any clip of him you know it. And so it’s fitting that we celebrate George Harrison Week with Conan O’Brien and a cast of friends, family and admirers.
Beck Kicks it off with “Wah Wah” and the influence of All Things Must Pass on Beck’s sound become so obvious now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01IU1Vdz-w8
Next is George’s old pal, Paul Simon with a tasty cover of “Here Comes the Sun.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGKZzPb_Y3Y
Contrast that with this version of the George Harrison and Paul Simon playing it together in 1976 and you can FEEL the years wash over you.
Guess what other flavor of rock isn’t dead, Gene Simmons? Garage Rock! Yes, there are lots of bands out there banging away on rough guitar riffs and smashface drum parts. I like Toronto’s Pet Sun, made up of a gang of high school pals who just can’t let go of the rock.
The band’s first official release is out on September 27 and includes this gloriously bizarre video for the single, “Feel Like I’m Going Away.”
While we all loved KISS as kids we also now know Gene Simmons is an unbearable blowhard and apparently a dipshit too. How else do we explain his claim that rock and roll is dead? Maybe if you never go to clubs or talk to people who pay attention to independent music or have no access to the Internet or record stores or…
Not only is rock and roll still very much alive but classic rock (Simmons’ own genre) is chuggling along just fine too. Exhibit A: Handsome Jack
Heavy, fuzzy, muddy guitar tones sloppily bump up against a wheezy Hammond organ and leave you with the distinct feeling of dudes in jean vests slowly lumbering around the floor while their cougars prowl the perimeter. No pretense, no skinny pants, no Swatches to be seen. This is your dad’s rock and roll. And your dad was cooler than you.
Watch Conor Oberst tool around the Nonesuch Records offices in a bad wig in his latest video from Upside Down Mountain. He reads the Bible, pounds a bottle of water, and trims his wig. The video is a little goofy, but the song is good: a character study of a classic fuckup. We all know the type. “Washed up, bitter, broken, busted / backstabbed everyone he trusted.”
It’s a sequel to the “Zigzagging Toward the Light” video, which was released back in May and concluded with a promise to be continued. Both were directed by David Altobelli.
My original forays into freak folk started with Hasil Adkins, who defies genre assignment but personifies the spirit of this strangest of musical styles and really put me on a path of weirdness. Charles Manson’s famous demos ended up on mix tapes and further piqued my curiosity. Charlie’s a wicked man, make no mistake. But there’s something very tender about his demos and “Look at Your Game Girl” is a bona fide cult classic.
Enter: Morgan Geer and his ongoing odyssey, Drunken Prayer. I’ve seen various incarnations of this project from the solo crooner to the neo-Vegas stage show to the psycho freakout mountain holler. Geer covers a lot of ground, and most of it via the ditch.
“Heigh-Ho Nobody Home” is a tasty sampling of his home-style witch’s brew. Geer is DYI all day long and his House of Morgan video series applies his own warped sense to sound and vision. Dig in and sop it up.
Some friends in the know have been trying to turn me onto The Growlers for a while. And really, why have I not been listening? I trust my friends, especially when it comes to music recommendations. Well, I finally got around to it and because I consider you, our readers, friends I implore you to not repeat my mistakes.
This is our music. It’s a bit druggy, a bit psych, a lot cool.
Listen now. Get your shit together. It’s good advice.
And then dig this awesome video:
North American Tour Dates:
09/05 – Denver, CO – Hi Dive
09/06 – Denver, CO – Hi Dive
09/08 – Lawrence, KS – Bottleneck
09/09 – Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry
09/10 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
09/11 – Ann Arbor, MI – Blind Pig
09/12 – Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
09/13 – Montreal, QC – Il Motore
09/14 – Allston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
09/17 – Providence, RI – Columbus Theatre
09/18 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
09/19 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
09/20 – Washington, DC – Black Cat Mainstage
09/22 – Atlanta, GA – The Earl
09/23 – Nashville, TN – Exit In
09/24 – Memphis, TN – Hi Tone Cafe
09/25 – Dallas, TX – Dada
09/26 – Houston, TX – Fitzgerald’s Upstairs
09/27 – Austin, TX – Scoot Inn
10/10 – Victoria, BC – Upstairs Cabaret
10/11 – Vancouver, BC – The Rickshaw
10/15 – Seattle, WA – Chop Suey
10/16 – Spokane, WA – The Bartlett
10/17 – Portland, OR – Alhambra Theatre
10/18-19 – San Francisco, CA – Treasure Island Festival
10/25 – Orange County, CA – BEACH GOTH III at The Observatory
My pal Jeff busts my chops because I like short songs. Pop songs. I don’t like extraneous filler. Get in and get out.
But I also like Funkadelic. Sometimes a song needs to stretch out to get its point across. I wouldn’t cut a minute out of “Sister Ray,” for example. Same with “Like a Hurricane.”
This song, I’m not so sure. When I suggested that the last three minutes don’t add anything to this song except length, good old Jeff pointed out that “They give you time to reflect.” Which is fair enough. Reflect away.
Let me start by saying that I am not even sure I like this band. That’s not to say that I am trying to get a pass on them. I might like them, I might not. Whether I do is not the point. It’s that I can’t figure it out yet I will excitedly watch any late night TV performance of Future Islands—a statement I cannot make about bands I love.
Obviously, the focus of my semi-obsession is on the singer, Samuel T. Herring. I haven’t read anything about him or the history of the band so let’s run with some of my assumptions:
He’s clearly the guy pushing the band forward. He’s the guy who has been pestering people about his band to the point where they are now regularly on national TV. The rest of the band seems to be barely paying attention. The bassist thought the band broke up 15 years ago, but here they are.
His awkward, intense dancing is unnerving and fascinating. He OWNs this dance. Nobody else can match him. Nobody. Mick Jagger and Bruno Mars are weak fakers just walking through some moves. Samuel T. Herring is the real deal.
Kinda memorable melodies and disco beats aren’t really enough these days so Samuel T. Herring goes full Cookie Monster to cut through the clutter. That takes some real balls.
Samuel T. Herring can and will do Monty Python impressions for hours on end as long as someone—anyone—is still paying attention.
Okkervil River’s Will Sheff posted a fantastic essay on his “very-favorite-ever cinematic document of a rock and roll band” which happens to be “a 10-dollar import DVD of Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show doing a live-for-German-TV performance sometime in 1974.”
It’s interesting timing, because just a couple months ago GLONO co-founder Derek Phillips, who I call Phil, turned me on to the glory that is video footage of Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show from the 70s. I knew “Cover of Rolling Stone” from classic rock radio, but didn’t know anything else and had certainly never seen them live.
Seeing this video blew my mind. Will Sheff put a lot of thought into his essay, but what we’re presenting below are our first reactions to experiencing this crazy, wasted party that was a live Dr. Hook show.
Session Start (Jake:Phil): Thu Nov 29 13:08:45 2012
[13:08] Phil: Hey
[13:09] Jake: yo
[13:10] Phil: You see that crazy shit I posted to the GLONO FB?
[13:10] Jake: no
[13:10] Phil: Dude
[13:10] Phil: Take a break and watch it
[13:10] Jake: the dr hook video?
[13:10] Phil: yes
[13:11] Phil: it is awesome
[13:11] Jake: watching now
[13:11] Jake: those guys are wasted
[13:11] Phil: big time
[13:11] Jake: not in tune at all
[13:11] Phil: Oh no
[13:12] Phil: I mean, why tune up? You’re only on TV
[13:12] Jake: i didn’t realize that’s what dr hook looks like
[13:12] Phil: Looked
[13:12] Phil: past tense, by a long shot
[13:12] Jake: wow
[13:12] Phil: oh yeah
[13:12] Phil: keep watching
[13:12] Jake: the shirt thing!
[13:13] Jake: eyepatch!?!!!
[13:13] Phil: hahahaha
[13:13] Phil: I know. It’s crazy
[13:13] Jake: who’s george?
[13:13] Jake: he’s hairy.
[13:13] Jake: i can practically smell them from here
[13:14] Jake: the eyepatch guy’s dance moves are COLOSSAL
[13:14] Jake: he is the coolest guy i’ve ever seen
[13:14] Jake: wait. that SOLO?
[13:14] Jake: WHAT?
[13:15] Jake: these guys are not sober
[13:15] Phil: I don’t think so either!
[13:15] Jake: OMG
[13:15] Phil: I think they’ve been drinking!
[13:15] Jake: this is the greatest performance i’ve ever seen
[13:15] Phil: you’re welcome.
[13:16] Jake: holy crap
[13:16] Phil: I had to make sure you saw it
[13:16] Jake: this confirms everything i thought was true about the 70s
[13:16] Jake: but only had photo evidence
[13:16] Jake: like from goose lake
[13:16] Jake: or the grand river raft race
[13:18] Phil: When you have a minute go YouTube Willie’s 4th of July picnic videos
[13:18] Phil: more of the same
[13:18] Phil: pure awesome
[13:19] Jake: reading dr hook’s wiki page now
[13:20] Phil: dude has lived
[13:20] Phil: and his album with Dan Auerbach is tight
[13:20] Phil: …and I am not a fan of Dr. Hook’s music normally
[13:23] Jake: dude that’s dr john
[13:23] Jake: different doctor
[13:24] Phil: Oh ho!
[13:25] Phil: Yes, I meant Dr. John, not Dr. Hook
[13:25] Phil: but what do I know about any of this?
[13:25] Phil: I have multiple work conversations going on
[13:25] Phil: I don’t know who I am
[13:25] Phil: where am I?
[13:25] Phil: I am as drunk as those dudes
[13:25] Jake: i want to know what kind of show that dr hook song was filmed for
[13:26] Jake: because if that got played on TV, that makes the 70s even better
[13:26] Phil: right
[13:28] Jake: holy cow. more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0yCzCEgfqE
[13:28] Jake: sounds like hasil adkins
[13:29] Phil: I would like to get loaded and watch these videos with Father John Misty
[13:29] Jake: YES
[13:29] Phil: he is my current hero
[13:29] Jake: i was thinking that when i saw the dance moves
[13:30] Jake: i hope he tours with phosphorescent and jonathan wilson
[13:30] Jake: wouldn’t that be a tour?
[13:30] Phil: oh fuck, that would be awesome
[13:30] Jake: i’d follow them around like the dead
[13:30] Phil: hahahaha
[13:30] Phil: “I am going on hiatus. See you guys in three months”
[13:30] Jake: dig the drummer’s t-shirt
[13:31] Jake: i swear these dudes regularly hung out on the brownshoe [My dad’s boat when I was a kid. – ed.]
[13:31] Phil: hahaha
[13:31] Phil: Dude, that’s John C. Reilly on drums!
[13:31] Jake: ha
[13:31] Jake: i have found my new favorite band
[13:31] Phil: these dudes were fucking LIVING it, man
[13:31] Jake: people loved the 50s in the 70s
[13:31] Phil: look at them!
[13:32] Jake: sweating balls
[13:32] Phil: they sure did
[13:32] Jake: i love the ragged harmonies though
[13:32] Phil: I know nothing about Dr. Hook
[13:33] Phil: I need to fix that
[13:33] Jake: srsly
[13:33] Jake: new favorite band!
[13:33] Phil: no joke
[13:33] Jake: unreal
[13:33] Phil: Portland is all about tribute shows right now. I could pitch this easily
[13:33] Phil: The rare occasions I do hang out now is with dudes who look like this
[13:33] Jake: looks like that whole don kirshner show is on youtube
[13:34] Phil: bad ass
[13:34] Jake: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dr+hook+kirchner
[13:34] Jake: there goes my productivity
[13:34] Phil: uh oh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iYpboTjtoQ
[13:35] Jake: oops. turning that off immediately
[13:35] Phil: the video is pretty awesome
[13:35] Jake: watching rollin’ in my sweet baby’s arms from 76
[13:35] Jake: in HD
[13:35] Phil: link
[13:35] Jake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaE0D852n3Q
[13:37] Jake: i wish we still had don kirshner’s rock concert
[13:37] Phil: this band must have been a riot on the road
[13:37] Phil: can you imagine?
[13:37] Jake: i can
[13:37] Phil: I know this dude named Matt who tours as The Don of Division street who looks just like that dude without the patch
[13:38] Jake: i have a new favorite band
[13:38] Phil: no shit
[13:39] Phil: one of the things I’ll miss the most about Portland is The Hoot, which is a party once a month on this farm in SE Portland
[13:39] Phil: looks and sounds a lot like this
[13:39] Jake: another 50s cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olQNes_mq8I
[13:40] Jake: these dudes are actually good, soulful singers
[13:40] Phil: This concert is incredible
[13:40] Jake: they’re just insane
[13:40] Phil: WTF?!?!? How have we missed this band?
[13:40] Phil: until now?
[13:40] Jake: this is exactly what is missing from indie rock
[13:40] Phil: No shit, this is exactly what The Hoot is like
[13:41] Phil: not as drunk or high, but this vibe and look
[13:41] Jake: these dudes clearly love each other too
[13:41] Jake: i bet their records sound terrible
[13:43] Jake: looks like this is the first song from the kirshner concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF0_947VPNA
[13:43] Jake: sounds like a beegees ballad
[13:44] Jake: wtf?
[13:44] Phil: I am just catching up on Only 16
[13:45] Jake: srsly this song could be on the soundtrack for grease
[13:45] Phil: hahaha
[13:45] Jake: and now that bearded non eyepatch singer is reminding me of bobier
[13:45] Jake: which is creeping me out a little
[13:45] Jake: i think i’m coming down…
[13:48] Phil: “Sexy Eyes” is Dr. Hook
[13:48] Phil: I had no idea
[13:48] Jake: what is that?
[13:48] Phil: Oh you’ll know it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ3DWa_QLO4
[13:49] Jake: man, they must’ve disappointed a lot of people
[13:49] Jake: starting out that great and crazy
[13:50] Jake: and ending up disco
[13:50] Phil: everyone was finding coke together, man
[13:50] Phil: Holy shit, watch the yodel song I just sent
[13:50] Phil: they have a BEZ
[13:50] Phil: crazy hill dancing
[13:50] Jake: amazing
[13:51] Phil: good lord
[13:51] Jake: that dancer is my hero
[13:51] Jake: omg
[13:51] Phil: is this not amazing?
[13:51] Jake: this is fantastic
[13:51] Jake: his “butt dance”
[13:52] Phil: complete insanity
[13:52] Phil: OK, I think Dr. Hook and The Medicine Show is the era
[13:52] Jake: yes
[13:52] Jake: seems to be
[13:53] Jake: although this kirshner show is 76
[13:53] Jake: which seems to be post-medicine show
[13:53] Phil: still buzzing
[13:53] Jake: yes
[13:53] Phil: craziness
[13:53] Jake: shel silverstein wrote their first album
[13:53] Phil: what?
[13:54] Jake: and some of the second, incl cover of the rolling stone
[13:54] Phil: crazy time
[13:54] Jake: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Hook_%26_the_Medicine_Show
[13:55] Jake: they’ve got a 1975 live album: Bankrupt [It’s actually a studio album. – ed.]
[13:55] Jake: i bet that’s the one to get
[13:55] Jake: i don’t normally like live albums
[13:55] Jake: but with these guys, i bet that’s the winner
[13:56] Jake: they have a song (written by silverstein) called looking for pussy
[13:59] Jake: ok i’m streaming their album sloppy seconds now
[14:00] Phil: I am listening to Essential Dr. Hook & Medicine Show on Spotify
[14:00] Jake: i might switch to that one
[14:01] Jake: ha
[14:01] Jake: that amg review confirms what we feared
[14:02] Jake: “ramshackle, Shel Silverstein-singing, goofy bar-band hippies”
[14:02] Jake: yes please
[14:03] Phil: more of that!
[14:04] Jake: cover of the rolling stone is pretty perfect though
[14:05] Phil: yes
[14:05] Jake: it needs to go on a mix immediately before or after the doobies’ “black water”
[14:05] Phil: right!
[14:06] Jake: someone needs to sample that “aww beatutiful” at the very end of that song.
[14:06] Jake: (if they haven’t already)
[14:06] Jake: sylvia’s mother kinda sucks.
[14:08] Phil: it does
[14:08] Jake: i bet sab would love it
[14:08] Phil: of course
[14:10] Jake: this band is weird
[14:11] Jake: i don’t understand how bobby keys is NOT in this band though
[14:12] Jake: how did they NOT have a sax player at all?
[14:13] Jake: too many lame ballads
[14:14] Phil: yeah, more party music
[14:15] Jake: hilarious: mog shows similar artists as three dog night, ozark mt daredevils, leo sayer, olivia newton john, status quo, rod stewart, and harry nilsson
[14:16] Phil: jesus…
[14:17] Jake: i’m switching to something in mog called alive in america
[14:17] Jake: by its tracklist, i’m guessing it’s 1976 ish
[14:17] Phil: There was a really interesting article I can’t find anymore about Amazon’s recommendation machine and one of the lead developers said, “It’s more about what’s NOT recommended than what is.”
[14:18] Jake: it’s just not as good without the video
[14:18] Phil: Dude cited The White Album as an example. On the surface, The White Album would be a great recommendation for huge numbers of music fans. But he says everyone who wants the White Album has it
[14:19] Jake: huh
[14:19] Phil: something like that
[14:19] Phil: I want a live Dr. Hook album from that era
[14:20] Phil: or just a great audio file from the Kirshner show
[14:20] Phil: I’ll take that and be happy
[14:20] Jake: someone should sell the complete don kirshner rock concert series on bluray
[14:20] Phil: mos def
[14:20] Jake: i wish licensing wasn’t such a pain
[14:21] Phil: yeah
[14:21] Jake: i wish copyright would expire after a decent amount of time
[14:21] Phil: like it used to
[14:22] Phil: BRB
