Give Me Wine Or Money

The meme, the meme.... I can't resist a fuckin meme.  This one is the Alphabet meme.  Jennifer and Snag, of course, have turned this meme into their bitch with the Awfulbet over at snag's place, even if they are avoiding the obvious Zombie references.

But in any case, upon request, After doing her own letter, Sir Jen tagged me with a letter and it's G.  G, such an unprepossessing letter.  I am supposed to come up with 10 things I love starting with G.  The obvious starting point was the one Blue Girl and I beat to death earlier.  After that, it was Ghouls and ... umm Grass...  Guitars would have worked....

Damn.  This was harder than it sounded.  Snag, of course, made it look easy and funny, with a much harder letter.  Damn.  So in desperation, as it seems I so often do, I was forced to find inspiration and a solution in music.  The following are ten bands starting with G that I love in various ways.  which, of course, fits into the Friday Random Musical Spew.  Enjoy it or don't!

1.  The Geraldine Fibbers, Dragon Lady.  A defunct band, I love this song.  The laconic way she delivers the vocals, the way the guitars kick into the chorus, the 'yeah-yeah' she delivers at the end of the verses, the lyrical content of slackers 'rob a 7-11 and hit the road'.... this is swell in so many ways.  I was disappointed in their second album, and they broke up too soon.  But very much worth it; sometimes one great song is the whole point.

2.  Genesis.  O here we go.  Here's a great little bit from Genesis, of course, that has an astounding guitar solo from a Milwaukee boy, Daryl Stuermer; based on a lick originated by Steve Hackett.  But this one kicks way more than Hackett ever managed.  Zelmo and I debated this recently; he felt that Steve Hackett had more musical connection to the songs, while Stuermer is technically more proficient.  which is as it may be.  But this interpretation of this particular lick just makes my head all wobbly, and I have never seen Hackett deliver it with the same mix of chops and sweat.

Zelmo and I saw the Musical Box a few weeks ago, and the band renewed my faith and love for Genesis; I have been listening quite heavily to the playlists lately.  The cover band brought me back to a place where the music could fill some holes in my psyche, where it could repair damage to  whatever soul I have.  I know that sounds as if it way overstates the role a stupid english art-rock band fronted by a short balding fop can play, but that's the way it is.  I am satisfied that a lousy cover band has restored the feelings I used to have for this band.  Recent days and months have given me plenty of reason and opportunities to turn to this music for solace, and I would be poorer without it.

3.  Green Day.  Here's a great little bit from Green Day with an assist from some old-fogey Micks.  I recently saw a live show from the American Idiot tour, and they still do a pretty good job on the stage.  

4.  See, westerberg does some work as Grandpaboy.  But whether it's Replacements, Placemats, Grandpaboy, or even the old boy Paul W, I love this stuff.  I've seen the Replacements two or three times, including one during the drinking days where Westerberg was too drunk to stand for the encores, so he played a medley of 'Skyway' and 'Fuck School' by himself while sitting on a chair.

A friend of mine once bemoaned the deterioration of Pete Townshend's output after Townshend stopped drinking, saying that he was tempted to send him a bottle of cognac.  I kind of feel the same way about Westerberg, I'll reluctantly admit.  After breaking up his band, his output has been more regular but is missing the ramshackle genius of those early days.  We all move on, I guess and I won't begrudge him his decisions to live rather than follow Stinson into the grave.  But what do you do after making things like "Androgynous" and Tim while in your twenties? Is there a way to age gracefully after being called the saviour of rock n roll while barely out of your teens?  Good luck Paul.

5.  Goo Goo dolls, We are the Normal.  co-written with Westerberg above, and released back before they were huge.  This song, and album, makes me cut them a lot of fuckin slack for everything released since.

6.  Gogol Bordello, Wonderlust King.  The joy of hammering out a song at full volume and full speed.  Ramshackle indeed.

7.  Gang of Four, To Hell With Poverty.  Old school art-punks.  These guys were in school with the original members of the Mekons when the Sex Pistols played, and they all dropped out to start bands.  GoF had much more discipline, learned to play and had some success with these rabble-rousing funk-inflected punk songs, while the Mekons went for conceptual purity and were dropped by label after label for refusing to play by any sort of rules.  30 years later, GoF has been long defunct and is resorting to nostalgia tours, playing old songs for old punks now living their parent's lives.  The mekons are still releasing critically acclaimed new music, to massive criminal neglect.  One or the other of these bands made a wrong turn, but I'm damned if I can figure out which one.

Great song though.

8.  Grinderman.  The first Nick Cave disc I bought was Murder Ballads.  which scared the HELL out of me.  But wow, was it intense.  One reviewer counted 200 some deaths narrated over the course of the record.

This one is  a recent, more raw release, harkening back to his Birthday Party days.

But even though it sounds louder and harder and punkier, you know what?  It's not nearly as intense as those Murder songs.  Not by half.

9. General Public, Never You Done That.  A while back, I wrote a long post about seeing The English Beat in their new incarnation and how much I enjoyed it.  General Public was the band that Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger put together after the dissolution of the Beat, and they stopped at Summerfest a few years back.

They were pretty good, of course; and the show was well attended.  Attended by people of our age; so we were tremendously amused by the ring of strollers parked around the stage.... time, marching on.

10.  The Gear Daddies, Time Heals.  A tragically disbanded group from Minneapolis.  Minneapolis by way of Austin.  This song is a favorite of a good friend of mine, who found solace while he was struggling with a drinking problem.  

Happily, I can report that he won that battle, and still loves the song.  Good on you, Ror.

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