The House Wins

I lived for a brief time in Janesville, Wisconsin, in the 80s.

Janesville is, or maybe was, a GM town- built primarily around the auto plant in town, solidly blue collar and centered around a rather lovely river valley downtown; the residents were militantly working class. But in every way, a prototypical Rust Belt town past its prime. Needless to say, Bruce Springsteen was the primary deity in town; Christianity was a secondary religion.

even the short time I lived there, it became aggravating, trying to find a bar or club or...anywhere, really, that didn't play Springsteen incessantly. We usually ended up in the places that had fewer visitations from the Boss than others. For a long time, I maintained that aversion to Springsteen's work, and diving into the punk community in Milwaukee provided adequate relief.

But as of late, I have done some reevaluation of Springsteen's work, especially mature stuff such as Devils and Dust and Nebraska, and find much to admire. And I have never disrespected the man's success; he's always deserved every bit of success he's achieved.

Faux News is reporting that Clear Channel is instructing its station to not play the new Bruce Springsteen album. Are they just pissed he named the lead track Radio Nowhere?

Thus achieving another stupidly ironic milestone: at this point in my life I enjoy a newfound respect for Springsteen's work at a time when his new work is being discredited and ignored on popular radio.

Now, let's be clear: I despise the monopolistic and one-size-fits-all corporate philosophy of Clear Channel; I also find the shameless support of mindless jingoism and reactionary policies to be repugnant and anti- American. At least as long as they are tending toward market monopolization, anyways. Their attempts to punish the Dixie Chicks for not backing down in their outspoken dismay at George Bush was reprehensible.

And now, the weasels at Clear Channel think they can silence, or at least ignore, the overtly political statements in Springsteen's new album by directing it to be omitted from playlists? It's laughable.

Who is going to win this one, especially in the hearts and minds of Americans? Magic has sold half a million copies in less than a month, been receiving laudatory reviews everywhere, and the tour is selling out in record times. Does anyone think Springsteen will ever back down to corporate business whores like Clear Channel? Much more likely for him to break away from the giants altogether, like Trent Reznor and Radiohead have done. You just keep on picking fights like this one, Clear Channel. I'm sure it's gonna work out for you.

Just imagine if Springsteen decided to start a record label and booking agency.

Clear Channel is providing an instructive lesson in what Corporate America and the Republican party want America to be: while Bruce Springsteen represents the best of what we have been.... and could be once again.

Planet of Weed

Holy effin crappy Pinkopants.

What planet is this?

Because, according to the fine work being done at SadlyCorp, it is being documented that Little Green Footballs (home to all that is crazy and hateful), is being run out of Rightwingoville for being ' pro-Muslim, left-wing, politically correct, and basically a front for neoconservative foreign policy' rather than just, you know, wanting to just eradicate all the brown people.

Where the hell are we? How could I be this stoned?

No really. Atlas Pammy and now Young American's Foundation have called them out.

I can't wrap my head around it. The purges have begun, and they've decided to start with their own side. It figures that there would be SOME part of 1984 that, in the end, they couldn't quite figure out.

If it gets any weirder, 3Bulls will start making sense.

Total Trash

Okay, I know he won't read this, but just a rant:

To the addlepated scavenging cobag who was looking for aluminum cans last night in our recycling container to fund his vices :

Dude. Seriously. A little focus please? You'll get a lot more sympathy if you don't scatter the rest of the garbage across the lawn, driveway, street and trees like a caffeinated weasel with ADD and a meth habit.

Love, the Pilgrims.

Now, the Friday Random Musical Blerts. 30,000 songs! In honor of "Islamo-fascism Awareness Week", David Horowitz can bite my ass. Hamas-trained Terrorist Peeing Groups? Really? How can we ever defend ourselves. America is truly doomed. The real thing that bothers these chickenshit bedwetters is that some of us don't run around in mortal fear.


Eye Of The Hurricane from the album "Down Out Law" by Kevn Kinney Kevn is an ex-milwaukeean, had a band called Drivin n Cryin. Released one album up here, then moved to Atlanta because the music scene was BETTER there. (!!!)
Wake Up Sally (the cops are here) from the album "Snakebite: Blacktop Ballads & Fugutive Songs" by Stan Ridgway Missed him when he came around here.
Tamborine from the album "Around the World In a Day" by Prince
I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive from the album "The Executioner's Last Songs Volume 1" by Rosie Flores
Haunt You Every Day from the album "Make Believe" by Weezer
It Had To Be You from the album "The Way I Feel Today" by Stan Ridgway Extra Stan today!!
Sunday from the album "A Thousand Leaves" by Sonic Youth
Birthday Girl from the album "Broken By Whispers" by Trembling Blue Stars The followup band to the Field Mice, sounds pretty much the same. Which is just fine by me, the twee, mopey pop is plenty of all right.
Washaway from the album "The Big Express" by XTC
Someone To Die For from the album "Star" by Belly


That was a plenty odd little set there. Especially when it's all interwoven with phone calls and questions.

Mountain Goats next Tuesday.

Classic Rot

K-Tel Records Presents: BP's Softer Side:The Soft-sational Billy!!




Yes, your favorite soft and classic rock hits now 'Pilgrimized' and committed to digital clariffic sound (suitable for 8-Track!!)

You'll get Billy's versions of all your favorites like:

Theme From Titanic (My Heart Will burp brapp baarrrrp excuse me)
(Don't Fear) The Chili Dog!
Mekonian Rhapsody!
Yah Moh B der yah da Yooper dere hey!
Emu In The Wind!
All Out Of Lube!
Take It To The Garbage!
(Fire) Escape (The Flaming Bathtub Margarita Song)
Wind Beneath My Pants!
25 Or 6 To 4, except on Wednesdays, 1/3 off and 4 to 1 against!
In the Year 2525/ Eve of Destruction/It Isn't easy Being Green/ Sussudio medley!
If You Love Me, Kill Yourself (duet with Willem Dafoe)

....and many more!!


Of course, what collection would be compelte without Billy's elegant and unforgettable version of What I Like About You performed with bagpipes, accordion and porkarina!!

Order now and we'll throw in free of charge, in fact we're going to send it to you whether you order or not, The Pilgrim Library of Michael McDonald Classics!! (except, of course, anything good he ever did with the Doobie Brothers like China Grove and.... well, China Grove.) 42 tracks of MOR classics, treating your ears like Dick Cheney treats flightless birds!!

Orange-Blue

(sorry, folks, a little inside dialogue here for a minute)

Smiling Chocolate JESUS, Zelmo!!!

you hadn't warned me about our fascist ex-boss. He's really not aging well, is he?

Is that hair coloring? It's like Calvin's hair, colored in with a yellow marker!!!!

I came around the corner where he's putting up that monstrosity, and he was walking with the Natrosexual ( Who looks JUST THE SAME, like he's been in the freezer for fifteen years)

(Incidentally check out the comments in this thread. Not complimentary).

BUT old Pedro, man, what's up with that skin? You know, a bottle of bronzer is supposed to LAST, dude, it's not just one application!! But it does give him that pleasing orange glow.

Holy Living FUCK. I nearly drove into a nun.


(bleach. shudder.)

Shit, I could barely eat lunch.

The World's A Mess, It's In My Kiss

A few stories of note from the world around us.

1. From Milwaukee's own Shepherd Express, a cover feature on the government's quixotic, doomed war against pot. $42 billion a year, pissed down the toilet like the day after New Year's.

42 billion. that would bail out the mortgage buyers (NOT the banks. Those bottom feeding hyenas deserve to go down in flames for their idiotically predatory practices. But the home buyers who were preyed upon) AND repair our creaking bridges AND fund an expanded SCHIP. With maybe enough left over to equip Bush and Cheney and Rove and Lieberman and send them over to SERVE in their Happy Lil War.

Just to protect us from pot smokers? What, we're afraid there'll be a run on Twinkies?


2. Kudos to Chris Dodd for forcing a halt to the rush in providing blanket amnesty for telecom giants who knowingly broke the laws while bending over backwards to comply with Cheney's mad desire to listen to American coversations. Time was, Congress would call out these corporate suckwad legislators for the whores they are, and slap them down. Until further notice, Dodd's my man.

2A. A Republican I can respect. Thought they were extinct; better start cloning him ,Republicans! Ron Paul introduced a bill to codify and protect the Constitution from the insane interpretations being wrung from it the past seven years: the American Freedom Agenda Act of 2007. Nothing hiding behind a cutesy acronym, it just lays out the problems and in a straightforward way delineates them as against the Constitution. Hell, it's only three pages.


3. Also from the local paper, the Urinal-Sentinal, an above the fold headline: Execs Tout Universal Coverage. About wisconsin big-business executives paneling a discussion about universal health care, and saying that there needs to be a 'fundamentally different solution" to the mess we've got now.

Geez, guys, ya think?

First, I can't WAIT for Sykes et al. to decry the management heads from NML and Manpower as 'socialists'. But since it is Halloween: "Oooooh!! Socialised medicine!!! Boogah Boogha!!!!!"

Second, crews across Wisconsin's white-icing suburbs are on standby overtime to clean up the mess from all the heads exploding upon reading that headline. That is, of course, if the JS had the guts to post it in the burbs; chances are good it was replaced with something like "Milwaukee: It's as bad as you think" or "Brown People: Be Scared!"

Even with Big Biz backing it, universal health care faces an uphill road. Too many culture warriors still fighting the last war (back two).

Something That I Said

It's a meme! It's a scientific/social experiment! It's also a dessert topping!

There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, "The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is…". Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify them in a limited way, carrying out no more than two of these operations:

— You can leave them exactly as is.

— You can delete any one question.

— You can mutate either the genre, medium, or subgenre of any one question. For instance, you could change "The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is…" to "The best time travel novel in Westerns is…", or "The best time travel movie in SF/Fantasy is…", or "The best romance novel in SF/Fantasy is…".

— You can add a completely new question of your choice to the end of the list, as long as it is still in the form "The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is…".

You must have at least one question in your set, or you've gone extinct, and you must be able to answer it yourself, or you're not viable.

Then answer your possibly mutant set of questions. Please do include a link back to the blog you got them from, to simplify tracing the ancestry, and include these instructions.

Finally, pass it along to any number of your fellow bloggers. Remember, though, your success as a Darwinian replicator is going to be measured by the propagation of your variants, which is going to be a function of both the interest your well-honed questions generate and the number of successful attempts at reproducing them.

My great-great-great-great-great-great grandparent is Pharyngula.
My great-great-great-great-great grandparent is Metamagician and the Hellfire Club.
My great-great-great-great grandparent is Flying Trilobite.
My great-great-great grandparent is A Blog Around the Clock.
My great-great grandparent is Shakespeare's Sister.
My great grandparent is Excuse This Mess...
My grandparent is Jennifer.
My parent is Snag! I'll be home by six, Dad. Can I have the car tonight? And the gun?

My changes are in bold.

1. The best musical in scientific dystopias is: Rocky Horror Picture Show

2. The best sexy song in rock is: True by Spandau Ballet.

3. The best cult novel in absurdist fiction is: Geek Love by Katherine Dunn.

4. The best use of ground meat in American cooking is: the chili dog.

5. The best political song in punk is: Washington Bullets by the Clash.


And.. that's it. Kind of disappointing as a meme, in that it exposes less about the individuals than it does about the process (except for that chili dog thing) , but that's the nature of an experiment, I guess.

TAGGED BLOGERZ IS TAGED! Nick tha Liberrian, Crossing the Border for Mendacious D, and Zelmo. I'll even allow Zelmo to lay his eggs here, like some of the weirder creatures do.

..With Teeth

Tagged.

With a Mutant meme.

Now, I like memes, but apparently Snag wants me to ignore my Klark Kent life duties to blast words into the 'tubes. Well, before that, I gotta do my Friday morning Random, contractual obligations yanno.

No intro or anything, the meme will slide out later in the day. Maybe.

1. Sixty Eight Guns (Demo Version) from the album "Eponymous (1981-1983) [Remastered]" by The Alarm
2. Creator from the album "Up On The Sun (Reissue)" by Meat Puppets
3. Hank Signs His Contract from the album "Nashville Radio Companion Earwig" by Jon Langford
4. Beside You In Time from the album "With Teeth" by Nine Inch Nails
5. New Times from the album "New Times" by Violent Femmes Pretty damn wordy for a Femmes song. Bring on "Dance, Motherfucker!"
6. Far, Far Away From My Heart from the album "Joe Dirt Car [Disc 2]" by The BoDeans Hey, it's a Hometown mini-set! This album is named after a good friend of mine.
7. The Letter from the album "Edge Of The World" by Mekons
8. Swept Away from the album "Full" by Jon Dee Graham This guy is great. If you ever get a chance to see him perform, don't hesitate. This is one of his better songs, too.
9. Jonny Goes Barbados from the album "Live Mayors" by Jon Langford and His Sadies
10. What's On My Mind from the album "Kansas [Boxed Set Disc Two]" by Kansas Ouch. That one'll leave a mark. At least it wasn't Journey. Or Boston.
11. Mercury Poisoning (Live) from the album "The Stiff Records Box Set (Disc 3)" by Graham Parker Classic bile.

Now I've gotta go figure out this meme. And I also hear there's a carnival of AG chain yanking in the future.

Technorati Tags: noise

Grinderman....and a chili dog.

Man, even Zelmer's bringing the guilt.

Would it help if I said I am inspired by Three Bulls, and always aspire to half-assedness?

Anyway, bite me Z. You don't even COMMENT every day. Putz.


Young Pilgrim was eager to see Rollins spoken word, so we went on Tuesday night. Rollins makes a pretty good storyteller, and has the energy to go for two and a half hours. He speaks rapid-patter, barely pausing for applause or laugh lines. There was plenty of eff bombs, but since language doesn't scare us, we took the sprout anyway. Yes, we are liberal parents and we are destroying America.

Rollins opened with a fair amount of talk about sex, and segued into a defense (!), of sorts, of Larry Craig; finding sympathy in a man who came of age in 1961 in Idaho. Maybe that wasn't a particularly conducive environment for coming out. After a while, subterfuge becomes a lifestyle, and now the guy can't admit, maybe even not to himself, that he's gay. It IS sad.

The most entertaining piece for me was Henry's recounting of last summer's benefit concert, where he had the opportunity to sing with one of his favorite bands as a young punk, the Ruts, on a stage with the Damned and countless other legends from those breakneck days. You can find videos of this on youtube; the name checking in Hnery's piece was... well, it made me jealous, and regret my early life choices that I'm now in a lifestyle that offers little opportunity to meet my musical heroes (except the Mekons, of course. I can talk to them after just about any show, especially if I'm buying).

At the end, though, Rollins went for the jugular. After recounting his most recent visit to Bethesda Naval Hospital to visit casualties of King George's Excellent Adventure and describing the horrific injuries these men have to learn to deal with, he pled with the audience to help support them through agencies like IAVA, providing support directly to the oncoming vets, because the VA is horribly compromised and has no ability, money, or political power to use for the soldiers (Claiming PTSD is 'phony', as Limbaugh did recently, appears to be quite the coming thing).

Then, he insisted that everyone there vote in the next election. He made no endorsements, although it is clear where his intentions lie (or don't lie, maybe.... he often says that he usually votes AGAINST the most egregious motherfucker on the ballot).

We got the T-shirt for Boy Pilgrim, I'm sure he was the only one in middle school wearing a 'Rollins: Provoked' shirt the next day. We waited for a bit, but Rollins didn't come by the merch table. Later I learned he usually meets fans at his bus, but we went home. Actually, on quite a positive note for a presentation from a legendary Punk. It may not have been Green Day or U2, but then, I'm not the High Powered executive that Snag is.

yeah, yeah, yeah. What does a Nick Cave thrash song have to do with Rollins, I know. What, I need a reason to throw Nick Cave up? Anyway, in the music story portion of the show, Rollins talked about heading straight from the Ruts show to catch Grinderman two nights in SF, and being invited on stage with Cave and the band, as well as Jello Biafra (Henry does a great Biafra, btw) to sing "Deanna" and "Red Right Hand" Too cool.

Technorati Tags: cobaggery, noise

Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone

Zelmo never comes round here no more.

Huh. Must hate Genesis.

Yanno who else I miss? Jack Montag.

Peace And Noise

HUGE shout out to Big Al, The Goreacle. I'm sure the Nobel will make plenty of winger heads hurt, if not go 'splodey today. But the reality is that ONLY IN AMERICA is the fact of Global Climate Change doubted in any meaningful fashion, and largely as a result of a FUD campaign orchestrated by the BushandCheney administration. As a result, America is posing a huge roadblock to achieving any meaningful impact on the damage being done.

Plus, Joan Jett totally kicked out that Replacements song up there. Plus John Doe. It would only have been better if he was holding a chili dog.

1. I'm Friends With a Working-Class Black Woman from the album "The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature" by Neal Pollack
2. Puddin Time from the album "Frizzle Fry" by Primus
3. American Woman from the album "Alternative Tentacles Records Presents Apocalypse Always" by Jello Biafra w/ Randy Bachman, Chris Houston and Garnet Sweatshirt Jello still rocks the revolution.
4. Devils & Dust from the album "Devils & Dust" by Bruce Springsteen Nobody ever expects Springsteen to crop up on my playlists.
5. Cracking Up from album "Munki" by The Jesus & Mary Chain
6. When We Collide from album "Invincible Summer" by Lang, K.D. How the hell did I end up with a kd lang song? I mean, it's okay and all, but I don't have any of her discs, and I don't remember ever getting any of her music. One touch ordering on iTunes is a hazard, I guess. Speaking of which, I used the iPhone to download the new Joan Jett release (based solely on that song up there, yes, but what are you going to do?) and it worked pretty slick. Just synced right back to my computer. Tech that works is a pleasure.
7. Me And The Devil [Live] the album "200 More Miles: Live Performances 1985-1994 [Disc 1]" by Cowboy Junkies That's actually a great follow up to the kd lang.
8. Who Needs Love from the albuestination Universe" by Material Issue It suddenly occurs to me that I don't listen to enough Material Issue.
9. Piggies from the album "Farewellve (Disc 1)" by Oingo Boingo Loud, loud, loud.
10. Here Come The People In Grey from thbum "Muswell Hillbillies" by The Kinks An oldie for Nick.
11. Green Green Grass Of Home from the albume Executioner's Last Songs, Vol. 2" by Kelly Hogan Old country, about death and cheating.
12. Beat Surrender from the album "Compact Snap! The Jam Succumb to the beat, surrender.

Yo La Tengo tonight.


whew. That's some f'ed up formatting right there. Sorry. Don't know what happened, and it's just surreal enough that I kind of like it.



Oh, and finally - TWO wetsuits?
Yanno, it just works better to admit your kinks as part of your person, learn to accept yourself, and find a like-minded partner. Safe, Sane and Consensual would have saved this guys life, for what it's worth. Sweet Chocolate Jesus, are there ANY non-repressed Republicans?

Well, That kind of says it all.

EDIT: For our... more sensitive visitors, a polite but thorough takedown of the vile Ms. Coulter by the stylish Mendacious D.

For Absent Friends

One for Blue Girl:



Even if THIS is the one she sent me.

So this Friday's random Random goes out to BG and Zelmo- I feel bad that you guys weren't able to enjoy the show as much as we did.


Pulling offa the iPod today:

1. Feel The Benefit. Genesis-style long, multi part song by 10cc. But it mentions ganja, so it's a bit hipper. Banks of massed violins, reggae guitar, hooks all day long. Blistering guitar solo to finish the song. Stewart and Gouldman are such superb tunesmiths. Great, great song. Good way to start the day.
2. Without A Trace. Live track from Soul Asylum. SA are back on the road and back in form on their latest release, The Silver Lining. They still put on a blazing live show, and Pirner/Murphy still sing together like "fallen angels on a bender". This is from a benefit show they did for a Nebraska high school that had their Prom flooded.
3. Sodajerk. Buffalo Tom, from their first Great album, Big Red Letter Day. I hope their recent reunion is not a one-off; they've always been one of my favorites. Again, the punk harmonies (who'd ever thought those two words would make sense together?) between the two singers work in unexpected ways.
4. Party Girl. Old live track from U2. Under a Blood Red Sky was a constant party soundtrack when we were in college, and this was one of the oddball tracks the band always threw out there.
5. Firth of Fifth. Ha. I didn't plant this one; but it was pretty much a given it was going to happen, wasn't it?. It's the studio track from Selling England By The Pound, with the full piano intro. Beautiful. Sublime. It includes the word undinal. That Guitar Solo. Excuse me while I turn this up all the way, hearing be damned.
6. Fear of Germs - George Carlin. Profane. Foul. Truth.
7. Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her. XTC, of course. From the Skylarking album. I've loved this band for so long, I really wish I'd had the chance to see them before Andy Partridge couldn't tour anymore. One of my friends saw them open for the Police in Madison, and said they made Sting and the boys look like pretenders. Pop music in weird and wonderful transformations and new flavors.
8. All The Critics Love U IN New York. Prince, from back before he became huge- JUST before. What a twisted boy. 6 minute funk rave-up.
9. Nobody. I love the Replacements. I've seen 'em like three times, including one when Westerberg was still drinking. Raggedy punk genius. But this is from the last album, a de facto Westerberg solo show, and just a bit....lackluster. The grimy sparks flying off Pleased To Meet Me are missing. The raunchy unpolished bliss of Tim and Let It Be are long gone. It's still pretty damn good.
10. NYC Ghosts And Flowers. Latter Day Sonic Youth. Sy are one of my favorite bands, this is some of their more trancy stuff, from the album of the same name.
11. Leave The Planet. Long ago droning popsters Galaxy 500. They only put out three albums and a disc of odds and ends, and still sound fresh.
12. Which Side Are You On... winding up today with a totally appropriate tune from Billy Bragg's rabble-rousing days. One man with a guitar carrying on the Clash's legacy. Punk DIY at its finest.

Regardless of what Jennifer says, I think I'm done Genesisblogging. For now. Zelmo and I hashed it out to the fine hairs last night, so I think we got the marrow of the truth of it, now. How's that for a ragged batch of metaphor mixing?

Next week I'm seeing Yo La Tengo in a small venue, semi-unplugged and Storytellers mode. That oughta be interesting.

....Afterglow....

(We'll get back to the incessant violent political outbursts soon, I promise)

(AG can go pound sand)

Phil Collins took the stage in a leap, shouting "Hey, Chicago! Didya see that big steaming pile we laid on Cleveland the other night? We've got a completely different, special show for you tonight! Let's get started!" and the opening chords of "Dodo/Lurker" blasted the arena.

errrr. well, no. Not Really. Sorry BG, couldn't resist.

The United Center was surprisingly intimate for the show; maybe a function of being on the floor. The stage was....spartan, even, at least as musical equipment goes. Banks's setup consisted of a relatively meager 3 keyboards, a big change from the days when he was nearly totally concealed behind equipment. Two drum kits, of course; I had some concern that Collins would be obscured behind Tony Banks from our vantage point, but then, do I care? But we could see fine. The stage set had an arcing backdrop across the back, an oval screen on either side, and several arcing gantry light fixtures, that never seemed to actually add anything to the performance.

[okay, before I get much farther, I've got to say I think Phil has finally found his hairstyle. He never had the hailine to pull off long hair, although he tried; his beard in the 70's made him look like an unsuccessful audition for ZZTop. His poufy tufts during the 80's were kind of laughable. But he's one of the few white guys to actually look pretty good with a shave]

But by the time the band was charging into Behind the Lines, we weren't really paying attention. Phil Collins had lost a bit of the high register, whether to age or fatigue? Doesn't matter, it suited the material well, and he saved it for more crucial moments. The lessons of an experienced touring musician.

Not to say that they were holding back or playing half speed. early on, I felt that, as Blue Girl said, the Duke suite opening was a bit lackluster, but I kind of slowly realized that they had brought the pace down just a half beat, making it a bit less....propulsive; and after a bit more I noticed that they were kind of leaning into the songs, taking the extra bit of time to really work the notes, not rushing through them. Maybe it wasn't a better version of the songs, but it served, especially considering the remainder of the show; like weathered runners, they chose to pace themselves a bit at the beginning. It wouldn't last.

One of my immediate reactions also; was that it wasn't loud at all. It was encompassing certainly; but it wasn't filling my head and rumbling the floor. Was everybody getting old? Not to worry; this, too, would be changing.

The backdrop featured an LED video screen, used on nearly every song. It was a very different aspect than the older shows. In the previous shows, they had banks of Vari-Lites arrayed above, that swiveled, swooped, rotated and angled to provide visual effects suggestive of cages, forests, underwater; 3 dimensioned constructs like this one:



I remember At one point during the old abacab, the lights would all swivel outward to the extents of the arena, then swivel inward to a single focus on Collins; it was a compelling bit, nearly forcing you to bring your attention into that point. The reliance on the LED screen to show graphics was kind of disappointingly two dimensional. And as I mentioned, the booms really added nothing: I think they could have been discarded and more Vari_Lites added to better effect.

One thing I've noted about the lighting show on this tour, is that the brunt of the lighting is focused outward, from behind the band. There's enough front lighting to see the members just fine, of course; but when things really got cooking, the lights just blasted out at us. I guess the band has gotten tired of lights shining in their tired old eyes all these years, and decided it was our turn. It was especially intense down on the floor. At times, the heat from the lighting was palpable.

Okay, now comes the rant. Hold On My Heart is a miserable song. It's got nothing to recommend it; the lyrics are trite; the music is nearly non-existent, there's no guitar of note, drums are AWOL. It couldn't be less of a Genesis song.

It makes sense in the flow of the concert. The band has roared through the opening, Land of Confusion, the Old Medley, and peaked at Afterglow. It's a good point at which to being the show down a notch or two, and let people catch their breath before heading into some other more intense material. BUT; they've got plenty of quieter songs that could serve. Ripples, coming later, has a great instrumental break and some fine piano work. Follow You, Follow Me has the pseudo-reggae guitar line loping through it. In previous times, Say It's Alright Joe provided a similar break, with an interesting take, and not losing the intensity. But HOMH is a momentum-killer, not just a pause.

I get ahead of myself.

It's not surprising, I guess, that by the time the band had turned the corner on the old Medley, I was lost. By this point, the volume had increased noticeably and the band had discarded any notion of pacing themselves; Duke's End morphed seamlessly into the opening strains of Afterglow; the arena roared back, and tears streamed down my face. The screen behind became resonant of a sunset, and the band, again, just leaned into that sucker, bringing all the dynamics that could bear; Rutherford's pedals shook the building's foundations for the first time.

The mid portion of the show kind of swung back and forth between older and newer, simpler vs. intense. I actually liked the flow of the show; in this portion, they would do a couple of more intense bits, or a really long one like Home By The Sea, and break it up with some simpler songs.

I made an illustration of the flow; you can see how the set was arranged to build to a first climax, then kind of go up and down a bit, and then build to a finale with the encores serving to, again, bring things a bit closer to earth. It works far better than when you're looking at a list of songs, wondering how in heck there can be any continuity. It also illustrates how, by the time Domino was playing,they had peaked their meters and the volume was .....well, loud enough for me, anyway. And, as always, clear as a frickin bell.



IN the Gabriel days, the song The Musical Box featured a point near the end where PG, wearing an old man's face, would hunch over the mike stand and an uplight would shine on his face as he shouted "Now...now....NOW...NOW....NOW!!" I've always appreciated the way the band has incorporated the self-referential moment into Mama, when Collins does the same trick , growling 'haha...haaaa......haha.....oooooooaaah" Last night, it went one further; it appeared that they used some digital processing, or some weird mix of lighting colors, to make the screens show Collins as if he were wearing a wrinkled old man mask.

Ripples was great; but it wasn't the epiphany I thought it would be.

And it wouldn't do to forego mentioning that when Collins and Chester began their Drum Duet, they were standing between the two drum sets, playing bar stools like they were auditioning for Stomp.

Firth of Fifth was shortened; which is always tragic. But it again, allowed Daryl Stuermer to put his stamp on that solo. He took it farther than I've seen before; but always kept bringing it back to the same themes that have always been there. Far too soon, it melded into I KNow What I Like. The best part of IKWIL was the history photomontage across the screen, with photos and video from across the years. They got clever here; Phil Collins did a flamboyant tambourine routine in tandem with a video of him doing the same thing from 30 years ago.

Just like twenty years ago, Domino was far better live than it has ever been on a recording. The spoken word audience participation intro was trite could have easily been dispensed with; the audience needed no encouragement to raise their energy level. But the song....crisp, ear shattering volume, Thompson hitting a snare that could rip your face off, the dynamics building up, then falling off....concluding in an arena-filling finale that you felt emanating up through your feet and inward through your ears, meeting someplace around your gut. Or heart, maybe.

was it perfect? Of course not. How could it be? a band with this kind of history could not possible satisfy everybody, even among themselves. I feel like they overdid the graphics technology. I'll always miss abacab. But it was a fine performance, even sublime at times, and the crowd appreciated nearly every moment; the band didn't miss a step and the material still works superbly in a live setting. It was all we could expect, and more than Genesis owed.

This is getting long, and not going anywhere really. I would quibble about the ending; Los Endos should have brought the main set to a close, Not Invisible Touch. Then the fireworks would have made sense, as part of Dance On A Volcano; especially if you're not going to use flashpots.
There's a story about one of the first times Genesis played Chicago, they had just acquired some new flashpots and deployed them during the finale of Supper's Ready. Not being familiar with the new hardware, the pots were overloaded and when they went off, the flash was visible in the concourse of the theater, through the doors and screens; the smoke filled the theater.

Last night, as we left the seating areas and milled through the concourse toward the exits, smoke and a singed smell from the concluding pyro wafted about, as if a ghost of that long-ago show had stopped by to offer a glimmer, a memory, of those days; a calling card from the past and reminder of where the band had been and how far, and long, we've all traveled since.

Was it perfect? No. But who needs perfect? It was....enough.

Technorati Tags: noise

Visions of Angels

Bear with us a while longer.

Something we WON'T be seeing tonight.....

While BG and Z wax ecstatic over the glory that is Eric! Claptoon, I have been thinking about this Genesis obsession.

Odd stuff, especially the early days with the Sainted Gabriel. The Lamb (I'll bet snag can't listen to it all the way through cuz he gets hungry) is a warped and impressionistic descent into a shallow young man's subconscious, using imagery overt, blatant and subtle. But as a story, it's jarring and near-incoherent. Which is, I suppose, part of it's appeal; there are dozens of ways to relate to it.

And the early songs are replete with mythical characters and magical realms, as with so many prog bands. At least they never stooped to writing about their dogs as mythical warriors, I guess. But still; kind of hard to relate to outside of the use of illegal substances.

Supper's Ready, the precursor to Lamb, is a paean to A Savior (not explicitly named as JC, but near as dammit) but the imagery leading up to that is just as scattershot and open to interpretation. Ikhnaton? Itasacon? Narcissus and Willow Farm? in 9/8 time? No wonder they were slagged by punks, eh?

But.... but. There's something beyond, something deeper, that kept the band relevant to me while otherwise I was reveling in the urgency and energy of punk music. Maybe it's the self-taught musicianship that refused to follow any real rules, except what sounded right. Maybe it was the incessant communal character of songwriting, where very rarely was a single individual responsible for an entire piece, but everyone contributes pieces and bits. Maybe it's just that they had more talent than most of the other bands, and could pull this crap off.

In the song Firth of Fifth, there's this guitar solo. It's not flashy, like a Clapton bit. It falls in toward the end, after the song has established it's themes and counterthemes, and that's where it starts, kind of seamlessly and organically growing from what's come before. By midway through, though, it's taken on a life of it's own and by the time it ends, it's driven the song through the stratosphere and the rest of the time the song works to just bring the listener back to ground. I have seen and heard Steve Hackett, The Musical Box, Mike Rutherford and Daryl Stuermer all put their own stamp on this solo without altering its basic character, but each one has an individual interpretation. That's a bit of magic that you don't hear very often.

All through the worst pop excesses (really, Phil, those horns on No Reply At All!), they still manage to bring that magic, and keep it fresh. The muted beginnings of latter days like "Dreaming While You Sleep" and "Driving The Last Spike", the supernatural driving rhythms of "Home By The Sea" . The spare open spaces of "abacab". The warm, medieval feel of "Dance On A Volcano" and "Squonk".

And the instrumental work. Always, always a sublime part of the concerts, the place where they re-work old material and meld it with new. The "Old Medley" incorporates parts of The Lamb, The Musical Box, Cinema Show, Watcher of The Skies, One For The Vine... disassociated, for the most part, from the semi mystical lyrics of the kids they were when they wrote them, the music exudes even more power. And always, always ending with "Afterglow" where they finally dispensed with the goofy lyricism and sing a perfectly sentimental, elegiac love song, framed in epic grandeur.

I have heard that newer fans, who are attracted by the popular hits of the latter days, are often put off by the extensive instrumental work. I would wager, though, that if they find themselves delving deeper into the band's catalog, they find many avenues, nooks, and crannies that appeal in a far deeper way than the ephemeral treacle of "Hold On My Heart" (the only other song Genesis released with Heart in its title was "Hairless Heart" from The Lamb, which, obviously, was NOT a simple love song).

Love songs are hard; I realize that. Pop songs are hard. Or rather, a single pop song may be easy, hence all the one hit wonders, but returning to the well without becoming trite or repetitive is hard.

But that's never been what I get out of Genesis' work. Even the lyrics rarely touch me in a way that is memorable, although I will probably sing every word of every song tonight. But the music.... like other immortal music and art, it reminds me that for all of humankind's faults, all our wars, idiocies, superstitions, hatred, and ugliness, people can still create art that moves the listener, that echoes within the small, still spaces of the heart, that set up sympathetic vibrations in your neurons....

.... Visions of Angels, indeed.

See you tomorrow.

Aisle Of Plenty.

"STOP talking about how MONEY works into the deal where love is concerned. I have to say, that might be slightly Republican of you." - Blugrrrl

We weren't talking about LOVE, blu, we were talking about MUSIC.



Money is where the entire BUSINESS is now. How else do I wind up blowing an entire paycheck on Genesis tickets? There are business weasels out there, who see that there is a market for it. After decades of driving ticket prices up for EVERYTHING, they knew what they could sell tickets for...and did it.

Maybe in the late sixties and for a short while in the seventies, there where still music lovers running parts of the industry. Hell, even Howie Klein stuck it out at Sire Records into the eighties without being an entire choadwipe.

Bands like Genesis got together because they were inspired by others, and they loved to make music. And of course, the opportunity to get girls. Musicians didn't make tons of money in 1969, other than a few mainstream pop artists who were on TV and the Grand Ol Opry. And Johnny Cash.

What I've read of the Charterhouse boys indicated that as products of an all-boys school, girls weren't even much on their mind. They loved music; and what they were inspired by? Pop music. The Single. even now, you can hear them struggle on that misbegotten first album, struggle to refine and create a Simple Pop Song.

They spent a year woodshedding, and in seclusion, had no restraint on the forms of their songs. No record label telling them to write a hit or do a cover version, just their own, collective ideas of what songs could be, and after a few tumultuous, inexperienced live shows the roughhewn trailblazer "Trespass" came tumbling out, absolutely impressing....just about nobody. How the hell did they ever get signed to a label? Charisma records was run by a MUSIC LOVER, who saw them play in those early days and saw something, some passion he responded to. And furthermore, when the album didn't do so well? allowed Genesis to keep working, to record another album which expanded on their vision but again, was no world-breaker.

The band never wrote pop hits at this time because they had developed into a communal author, often representing several viewpoints in a single song; at the same time, rock bands were experimenting with exotic song structures and long songs; FM radio actually WOULD PLAY THEM.

So the band became a progenitor of Prog Rock. Although they never really cared all that much to be known as a prog band. The band grew at their own pace, evolved, and became a huge touring act ... by touring and earning the reputation for a fantastic live show. [They did, in fact, complain a bit about the makeup of their fan base in latter days; as BG noted, it was mainly guys. But since this was after they had all been married at least once, I think it was more of a joke with them] But they never saw themselves as part of the Prog movement; in fact, had a bit of disdain for the 'serious' bands.

That kind of maturation can't happen within the Music Industry now; actually, it stopped happening in the late eighties, when marketing became a bigger part than the music.

Not that it wasn't always. 'Teen Sensations' were everywhere in the sixties, and white artists plundered Black music for sure-fire hits that didn't threaten the Biz. But during the late sixties and seventies, FM radio was an upstart that allowed music lovers a place in the Business that they didn't have before.

The difference NOW is that in this Sweet, Brave, Glorious New Century Of Fascism, the Industry is all sewn up by C minus business school graduates who wouldn't know musical passion if it gave them coke and butt-fucked them. Playlists are tighter and more closed-programmed than at the height of the payola era; and Ticketbastard rules the tours. Clear Channel programs playlists for 3/4 of the country, and use their power to promote and punish artists they don't approve of (can anyone say Dixie Chicks?)

Money, friends and chili dogs, has almost always been at the heart of music, except for a brief, shining time in the sixties and seventies. It's no coincidence that the time was an explosion of creativity and diversity in music.

But now, there's little opportunity for an artist to mature at their own pace. The Majors gobble up the Next Big Things at an unsupportable pace, mire them in unsupportable debt to get a Hot record out, then brutalize them for a follow up that exceeds it; when they don't they are unceremoniously dropped, in breach of contract and owning little, if any, of their recorded output.

It's all about Money. Of course.

Genesis was fortunate in their timing; but had they been able to write pop hits at the outset and have success at it, they would have; it was always their original love. In latter days, they make no secret of the fact that one of the band's favorite albums is Invisible Touch because it was their most successful. So it's little wonder that the current tour devotes the majority of its time to IT. If they had wanted a wildly successful tour, they could have included Supper's Ready; hell they could have just done the set list from Seconds Out, and the fans would have been in ecstasy.

Viewed in that light, it's also little wonder that they canceled the tour and hung it up after releasing Calling All Stations; it was one of their least successful albums in terms of initial sales, at least compared to recent years. even though the music was more in keeping with stronger songs like Home By The Sea and Driving The Last Spike, the pop art that Collins brought in was missing and there wasn't an obvious hit for the record company to push; hence, lower 'buzz', lower initial sales. When they couldn't top the charts, they hung it up.

It may not be about the money for Genesis any more, but they still look at it in regards to hits, airplay, and chart position.

Compare to the Mekons: the band has been dropped from no less than FOUR major labels. They've never had a decent hit, although "Where Were You ?" and "Never Been In A Riot" met with some popularity in England at punk clubs. But they've always played on; I saw them continue a tour where the record label dropped them in mid tour, because they couldn't think of anything better to do. And they made the music THEY wanted to make, and delivered it to the few fans when they could. They weathered indifference and playing in tiny dive clubs for years upon years, making their per diems from t-shirt sales the night before. Finally, now, they've ended up on an appreciative independent label, and say that each year or two, there's enough money in the pot to gather the band from the four corners and record a new release, and that's enough for them. And which band has more love of making music?

Maybe I'm being a cynical old fart, BG, but it seems to me that in this climate it's amazing that ANYTHING worthy of love can be created and delivered to fans.

Oh, there are avenues, certainly; live music and the internet are developing ways to circumvent the Biz. But how does a band go to a National status, let alone International, without having the backing of Warner, ClearChannel and Sony?

And their Money.

Tell That Girl To Shut Up

BG hates Genesis, and AG is bored with me.

I'm so chagrined. And bereft. Certainly abashed. Life seems pointless.

I don't have Pinko's way with surrealism. Nor do I have Snag's affinity for Meat, nor his background in Suburban Debauchery.

Blue Girl and Jennifer have their wealthy, interesting jet setting life styles.

What, O what do I write to entertain AG?

Maybe something about eunuchs.

Nahh, we'll just post this: