Some Cuteness

I haven't posted some cuteness for awhile, so here is some.


ABOVE: Finding the ever elusive Easter eggs

Dez's Top Rock/Pop Artists: #29 - Jimi Hendrix

What Could Have Been...
I don’t really need to explain Jimi Hendrix’s greatness. Do I? It has been proclaimed for decades, the fact that he was only on the scene for four short years, only releasing three studio, one live and one compilation album during his lifetime. His work with The Experience stands as a Rock & Roll monolith, with Are You Experienced?, Axis: Bold as Love and Electric Ladyland each a masterpiece and landmark record. The live, post-Experience excursion of Band of Gypsys was released as a transitional toss-off at the time, but since it was comprised of all new material and hinted at Jimi’s new direction, it is also essential (even though nothing on it is as transcendently great as his first three records, save the slowburn of “Machine Gun”). Fortunately for us, Jimi was a prolific studio hound, and he recorded miles of tape. To this day we still get a steady stream of previously unheard material released, some of it remarkably good, as deep as we have now delved into the vaults.

That is what I want to focus on here. Jimi’s posthumous recording life, especially the record that he was preparing at the time of his death. First, a little background. Many artists of Jimi’s generation were not too business savvy. They were desperate to make it, and often signed predatory recording and management deals just for a shot at the big time. It's not like they had the money to hire lawyers to review the deals. But even by the industry’s and time period’s standards, Jimi was more careless than most. He would sign conflicting contracts with multiple studios and companies, with little regard to the effects on his career. In fact, that is the only reason Band of Gypsys was ever released, he had signed some forgotten contract years prior, and with his fame cresting the holder of the contract came out of the woodwork to collect. So Jimi agreed to release a live record of some new material he was tinkering with in order to fulfill the contract. Little did he know that it would be his sole live record (out of many now on the market) that he would ever get to personally authorize. And it was one that he was less than enthused about, releasing it mainly to avoid a lawsuit.

After his death, the legal labyrinth that he had inflicted upon himself wrecked havoc for over a decade on his recorded legacy. The Cry of Love, War Heroes, Rainbow Bridge, Crash Landing, Midnight Lightning, Voodoo Soup…these are just the most infamous posthumous releases that took his work-in-progress recordings and various unreleased tracks, doctored them up and “finished” them with studio musicians who had never even met the man, and were released in the 70’s and 80’s. Fortunately, Hendrix’s family eventually stepped in and bought out the rights to all of his remaining recordings, pulled all of these faux records from the shelves, and attempted to bring some much needed order to his posthumous releases.

I have to say they have done a great job. South Saturn Delta, Valleys of Neptune, West Coast Seattle Boy, Jimi Blues, The BBC Sessions and various live recordings are all worthwhile for the Hendrix collector. But by far the most significant is First Rays of the New Rising Sun. This record is as close as we will ever get to what was going to be Hendrix’s next record. Jimi was incredibly ambitious about his next step in his evolution, making his death that much more of a tragic loss. With the Experience disbanded and behind him, he was prepping a double record that would boldly emphasize R&B, soul, blues and jazz roots featuring Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell and U.S. Army buddy / Band of Gypsys bassist Billy Cox as the core of his new band; yet supercharging them with his unique brand of psychedelic rock. Recall that Hendrix started his career as a session and road musician backing the likes of Little Richard and King Curtis, so he had deep roots in R&B and soul music.


ABOVE: First Rays of the New Rising Sun is the best guess we have of what Hendrix's next record would have sounded like

Hendrix had many tunes that were in-progress at the time of his demise. Some (“EZ Rider,” “Freedom,” “Angel,” “In From the Storm”) sound near completion and are probably very close to what he would have eventually released, while others were still clearly in their working phase. Nobody knows, of course, what Hendrix’s next record would have been. While working on this stuff, he was allegedly also in serious discussions with Miles Davis regarding a collaboration. (Listen to Miles’s stuff from the period (In a Silent Way, Jack Johnson, Bitches Brew, etc.) and you can definitely imagine how a Hendrix-Miles record would have worked and possibly blown our collective minds.) But much of the material on FROTRS is what he was most seriously prepping for the next record. What you’ve got are tunes with deeper grooves than before rooted in soul music with Hendrix’s ever inventive jamming on top, as he worked out the lyrics and song structures. I think that Hendrix would have taken this rock/soul/R&B hybrid to a new place, forever changing the genres. Some of this material matches his Experience material in quality, and remember that these were still works in progress.

Rock has many “what if’s,” but this is one of the more tantalizing ones. We throw around the word “genius” way too loosely, but Jimi Hendrix was one of our true musical pioneers/geniuses who fundamentally changed the landscape. What would have Hendrix done to the music we call rock had he been able to produce thirty years of work vs. just four?


ABOVE: Here is "Freedom," one of his more finished songs for the record he was recording at the time of his death. It still features his superlative guitar work, of course, but what is different is the deeper groove rooted in soul and R&B


ABOVE: Then there is something like "Angel," which is beautiful new cosmic soul music

What to Listen To:
Obviously, his three Experience records are foundations for any rock collection. Are You Experienced?, Axis: Bold As Love and Electric Ladyland are must haves. First Rays of the New Rising Sun is the best of the posthumous collections, and the best approximation of his new direction at the time of his death. If you are weak sauce and want a hits compilation, the once flooded market of Hendrix compilations has now been narrowed to essentially two, since the others have been pulled from shelves by the Hendrix family: Smash Hits (the concise hits collection issued during Hendrix’s lifetime) and Experience Hendrix. Of those two, go with Experience Hendrix because it has broader coverage. As far as live material, there is so much out there. Over ten live albums are readily available. I like Live at Monterrey (probaby his most significant live performance, career-wise) and Live at Winterland. The BBC Sessions has many revelations and is loads of fun.

I Was Wrong (Thank God)

"But this Mavs team is different." Year after year, if you Dallas fans say that enough times, then the law of averages states that you are bound to be right sometime. I guess this year's Dallas Mavericks was, in fact, different. I am no Mavs fan, but I hate the Miami Heat, so I was rooting for Dallas. As distasteful as that is for me to do. LeBron's Decision, the assertion that by assembling two or three supermen you can win the championship (vs. assembling a real team), the Championship celebration they held before the pre-season even started, whiny Bosh...all of those things pushed me into Dallas's camp. I am pleased to see some veterans who have toiled for years get their day in the sun. Dirk obviously, but also Kidd and Marion. (Not happy for Terry, though, he's a douche.) So, congratulations Mavs Nation. You have staved off the Evil Empire for all of us who appreciate team basketball at least for one more year.


ABOVE: I guess this pre-season celebration was for the Eastern Conference title, and not the NBA one? Because that is as far as you got, a-holes.

Dez's Rock/Pop List: #30 - The Cure

Fall, 1992.
I had always bought into the caricature of Cure audiences as wimpy, goth, black-eyelinered, pasty kids on the perpetual verge of suicide. Perhaps there is some truth to that. So I was a bit hesitant when my friend Willis, whose taste in music I always respect, suggested that we go to a Cure concert up at the Woodlands Pavillion, just outside of Houston. This was senior year in high school, and I was all about testosterone-fueled classic rock at that point. Willis was a Cure fan (and not goth, did not wear eye-liner, and was not suicidal). He knew that his best play was to present the suggestion in the guise of a joke. "Let's go and make fun of the pasty and morose fans." It worked.

An odd group assembled for the evening. Willis and I were joined by Eric and Johannes. I cannot remember whose idea it was, but somebody thought it prudent that we all put on eyeliner and do our our hair a la Cure leader, Robert Smith, here...


I do remember Willis arguing convincingly that if we did not do this, then we would really stand out. My girlfriend at the time came over and assisted with our make-up and hair. We arrived at the venue, and of course, nobody looked like us. This was 1992, so most people were wandering around in flannel shirts. Eric was fairly oblivious, Johannes and I did not really care and thought it quite amusing and tried to play up our goth roles, but Willis, who takes great care with his appearance and general presentation, was horrified. And of course, the worst happened (for him). We ran into some other people from our school, and Willis desperately tried to explain that we were being ironic and making fun of the entire Cure ethos.


ABOVE: Photographic evidence. Dez and his amigos prepare to attend The Cure show

But that is all secondary. The real point here is that I started the evening considering this band and show a joke, and left the concert loving Robert Smith's teetering melancholy to joy musical mood swings. Under the substantial amounts of eyeliner, distorion (this was the Wish tour, afterall) and gothic posturing lay a band with unbeatable pop and melodic sense. Robert Smith is one of the great underrated pop songwriters. Yes, he has made entire albums of brilliant gothic gloom (Faith, Pornography, Disentegration), but to get a sense of his true gift, head for the singles. There is where you will find some of the greatest pop music of the last 30 years. Glorious stuff of masterful construction, incessant hooks and brimming with emotion.

What To Listen To:
As stated above, the neophyte needs to head straight for the two singles collections, Staring at the Sea covers the late 70's to mid-80's, while Galore covers the rest of the 80's to the mid-90's (by the way, their material since the mid-90's is quite good as well). If you want to explore further, Disentegration is their towering, gothic masterpiece. The Head on the Door is an earlier milestone.

This Summer's List

Another summer, another definitive, completely objective list from Dez. Longtime GNABB readers know that I like to throw up a list of some sort each summer. There have been mini-lists at other times, but the big guns tend to come out over the summer. So far I've given you Dez's: Top 100 Albums, Top 50 Movies and Presidential Rankings.

Rolling Stone Magazine recently published their updated 100 Greatest Artists of All Time list. If you read the intro in the issue, it explains more precisely that it is their 100 Greatest Artists of the Rock and Roll Era, which better explains some of their omissions. The list was compiled by polling a panel of "experts," a mixture of artists, producers, critics, and other music insiders. They first published their list in 2004, and then updated it in 2011. My friends over at Future Rock Legends have conveniently posted both lists side by side if you want to see the results, here.

Of course, that got me thinking, who would make my list? So I present you with Dez's Favorite Rock and Roll Artists. More details about the list:

1. This will be more interesting than just standard bios and discographies. I have wanted to stretch my writing skills, so I will try and focus on an interesting aspect of the artist, controversy, particular era or album, memory associated with them or something else specific. I want to try and write interesting essays inspired by or associated with the artists vs. giving you a Wikipedia-like entry. Two of my regular readers and good friends, JMW and ANCIANT, are writers by trade. I am not. But I figure that since I am most comfortable writing about music, that was the best place to try to stretch myself a little bit.

2. All joking aside, this list is purely subjective. I am giving you the artists that have given me the most enjoyment and challenged me or inspired me so far in my nearly 40 years of existence.

3. I've listened to them for awhile. I will not have newer discoveries here, they have to have been with me for awhile to be able to view them in perspective.

4. I chose Rock/Pop because as I was ranking them, I was having difficulty really comparing Mozart or Miles Davis to my #1 pick, Wham. (OK, not really. Wham! is not on my list). But it was just easier and more fair to set other genres like jazz, blues, soul and classical (all of which I also really love, but do not have that direct connection with) aside and just focus on Rock and Roll. So this is not just "Rock and Roll Era," this is Rock and Pop.

5. I am limiting it to 30 artists. I could easily give you 100 and still leave off artists that I love, but you don't want to read 100 essays. I figured 30 was a good number, enough to be somewhat representative, but not overkill. Please understand that I am leaving off artists who still mean a great deal to me, who at different times I have obsessively listened to. I considered just doing 11 of them, because as I was ranking I found that #'s 1-11 immediately and easily fell into place, but I struggled more with ranking #'s 12-30. But thirty works.

I will post about other things as well, as I know not everyone obsesses over music as I do, and this blog is supposed to be about a variety of topics. Alright, first entry coming soon.

Fun For Toddlers and Potheads Alike

As a relatively new parent, I am still discovering all that there is to offer in children's entertainment. In meeting with several other new mothers, my wife noticed that many of them raved about this TV show called Yo Gabba Gabba on the Nick, Jr. network. We pulled up a few episodes On Demand, and my daughter went wild. Loved it. Immediately started dancing around the living room to the catchy music. Honestly, I could not tell who was enjoying the show more, my daughter or my wife.

It is nothing new to create children's entetainment that also has appeal for adults (go back to the Muppets in the 70's), But YGG takes it to a new level. It plays like a very pleasant acid trip, with strange but endearing characters...


ABOVE: Some of you non-parents may recognize these characters from a recent great car commercial.

In conducting a little research, I found that YGG is quite popular on college campuses as well. Not surprising. With the funky visuals, great modern sounding music, strange but child-friendly and instructive scenarios, and hip special guests (Jack Black, The Shins, Andy Samberg, Tony Hawk, The Roots, Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo, etc.), I can see the appeal. The show was co-created by lead singer Christian Jacobs of the band Aquabats, which explains a lot.


ABOVE: Here's "Party In My Tummy"

Last weekend we went to visit and stay with some friends in Houston (who don't have any kids), and once we started to tell them about YGG, they told us that they watch it all the time (usually while enjoying an adult substance). I guess that is the sign of a great kids show, adults and toddlers both get into it.

Yes I Can

I have found my latest musical obsession, and it is the experimental, Krautrock band Can. They were one of those bands that had minimal mainstream success, but who greatly influenced a ton of people. Artists who have claimed to have been influenced by Can include David Bowie, Radiohead, Talking Heads, The Fall, Joy Division, Public Image Ltd. and Brian Eno, to name just a few. How to describe Can's music? Wikipedia lists the following genres in their entry: "Krautrock, Experimental Rock, Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Ambient, Avant-Garde, Electronic Music." That's about right. And if you listen to their first couple of albums, you could also add punk to that genre list.

I have heard of Can for years, but only recently actually tried listening to them. For about a week now, I have not wanted to hear anything else. It is Can all the time. I was playing it in class this last week of school, and I was pleased that at least five different students (all male, all musicians) approached me and asked me what we were listening to, and wanted to learn more. Can lecture followed.


ABOVE: 1973's Future Days is a landmark ambient album, but never boring like so much ambient music can be

They formed in the late 60's with their core of West German musicians who were influenced by the avant-garde art movement in New York (Warhol and Velvet Underground especially). Their first couple of records were good and very interesting, but their flat out brilliant releases came between 1971-74. They recorded throughout the 70's and reunited briefly in the late 80's, but the early 70's is the peak with four groundbreaking albums: Tago Mago (1971), Ege Bamyasi (1972), Future Days (1973) and Soon Over Babaluma (1974). It is these four records that I have been listening to incessantly for almost a week now. My daughter is starting to dig them as well, especially Future Days. While all of those genres previously mentioned are present in some fashion, I would most directly compare this stuff to what Miles Davis was doing around the same time, but more rhythmic and melodic and less jarring that Miles's most challenging fusion stuff.

Can worked in what they called "spontaneous composition," which is slightly different than straight improvisation. They would improvise and collectively compose on the spot just by playing together a lot. Sometimes an improvisation would go on for hours at a time, and then later they would strip away elements and edit the improvisations in the mixing room to make the "songs" for their albums (which is exactly how Miles Davis worked during the same period. Davis and his bands would play for hours at a time, and then producer Teo Maceo would take the results and edit them for albums). One legendary Can concert in Berlin featured improvisations that went on for over 6 hours. Now that, my friends, is getting your money's worth! It was so intense working in Can that original vocalist Malcolm Mooney left, supposedly, in part because his therapist told him that working with Can was driving him insane.


ABOVE: Tago Mago features bold, epic, experimental jams

While guitarist Michael Karoli is outstanding and quite versatile, and while vocalists Mooney and later Damo Suzuki broke ground vocally (Suzuki never wrote down his lyrics, treating the vocals as another improvising instrument and making them up on the spot. Suzuki would sometimes sing in English, sometimes Japanese, and sometimes in pure jibberish. Check him out especially on Future Days, where his spare vocals are mixed deep in the sound and fade in and out without pattern. It is brilliant stuff), and founder/keyboardist Irmin Schmidt should be considered a founding father of experimental electronic music...what makes Can so great to me are bassist/effects engineer Holger Czukay and drummer Jaki Liebeziet. The percussion can be minimalist at times, yet quite subtle and intricate at other times. It is the interplay between Czukay and Liebeziet that makes 20 minute tunes like "Halleluwah" (from Tago Mago) so mesmerizing and even hypnotic.

Tago Mago is long, intense and often grooves madly. Ege Bamyasi is shorter, but no less intense, and may even groove deeper. Future Days is simply gorgeous and a landmark in ambient music, and clearly influenced Bowie and Eno in their Berlin Trilogy. Soon Over Babaluma steps up the electronic experiments, yet also maintains the ever important groove.

For something a little different, open up some Can.