the sticking point

I Know You Got Soul. If You Didn't, You Wouldn't Be In Here.

Here is the download and the notes for today's Pointcast.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD TODAY'S POINTCAST

01 I'm Gonna Do All I Can For My Lord - John Fahey (The Legend of Blind Joe Death): Blind Joe Death was a blues guitarist who recorded one 78rpm record in the 1920s. About four decades later, John Fahey hijacked the name and used it as an alter ego, confusing the living shit out of blues purists and mouth-breathing shut-ins. His 1959 debut album had only the name "Blind Joe Death" on the cover. It had no liner notes, and no information about the identity of the musician.

Most of the BJD tracks are available on compilations Fahey released in the late 1960s When you listen to him, you can tell immediately that he was doing things on guitar that nobody else ever had. It was cool to hear Matt Ward mention Fahey on the Elvis Costello TV show. Ward is an extremely talented young man and if he says Fahey's the real deal, there can be no debate. Ward's newest record, Hold Time, is sheer perfection, and I'll get some tracks on here soon.

02 Four Winds - Bright Eyes: I was about 12 months late to the party, but at some point last year I found Cassadega, and fell over for it. There is so much good writing and good playing on it. It's one of those "no one makes records like this" records.
As with anything Bright Eyes- /Saddle Creek- /Team Love-related, a typical troop of highly skilled laborers join Conor Oberst here:
Mike Mogis: guitar
Nate Walcott: organ
Dan McCarthy (Tucksy): bass
Jason Boesel (Rilo Kiley, Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins): drums
Anton Patzner (Judgement Day, Two Gallants): violin
Maria Taylor (Azure Ray, Now It's Overhead): vocals
Andy LeMaster (Now It's Overhead): vocals

03 Change - Killing Joke: Their 1980 debut was remastered in 2005, and it sounds real good. One of the alt bonus tracks is a dub version of "Change." Today, we get the original version, straight up, and way ahead of its time. I think I give my Killing Joke records less attention than they deserve. I'll try to amend that this weekend.

04 I Know You Got Soul - Bobby Byrd: What a voice. What a hook! The version I played was a burn of the 1971 single, but it's also on an amazing comp called James Brown's Funky People (Part 2). Hard to find, but so is love and the perfect cup of coffee. How far back do Byrd and Brown go? Way back. They met as teenagers on, of all places, a baseball field where Byrd's church team was playing against a local reformatory prison team. The not-yet-Godfather of Soul was in the lineup for the latter. They shared a love for music, and soon Byrd's family made arrangements for Brown's parole.

Byrd brought so much to the table as a vocalist and arranger (and maybe the world's first hype man!), but he probably cemented his name in history in 1970 by being the "Get on up" to James Brown's "Git up-ah" on "Sex Machine."

Listening back to the recorded Pointcast, I wonder if I could have said the name "Bobby Byrd" a few more times. What do you think? Maybe two dozen utterances weren't enough for you. Duh. I'll chalk it up to being a geeked-out old man who talks about his favorite music with the unrestrained enthusiasm of a psychotic zealot. But anyway.

05 Screamin' Fist - Viletones: They are considered one of the first (if not the first) Canadian punk bands to release a record. This single came out in 1977. Here's a great clip of a Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) news report from that time, where the Nehru-jacketed reporter begins, "The latest fad in popular music is punk rock..." You know it gets good from there. Hey, check it out! Even long-disbanded groups (like the Viletones) now have official websites and myspace pages.

Their earliest singles and EPs are out of print, but most of what you need is compiled on the Taste of Honey CD.

06 Don't Ha Ha - Jürgen Wenger: Popmusik über alles! From the Pop In Germany collection on Bear Family; eight volumes of novelty, curios, and solid tracks in equal doses. This one appears on Volume 3. The series features covers of Dylan, the Supremes, Hendrix, the Box Tops, even Sabbath. There's a cool pass at the Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack" (called "Der Feuerstuhl") by a group called Verrückte Mädchen (Crazy Girls). I'll get it on here for you soon.

Here's a clip of Casey Jones and the Governors performing their 1965 original.

I'm surprised more bands haven't covered this song. I wish we could have heard the Ramones or the Cramps bite into it. Would have been perfect for them. I looked around online and all I found as far as contemporary acts doing this song is a band from Berlin called Mr Ed Jumps The Gun. Those guys and Jürgen Wenger? Wow, what is it with Germans and this song? (While I give the Mr Ed guys cred for putting "Don't Ha Ha" out to a new generation, I have to add that the band's canon also include a version of "Smoke on the Water" for the Dance Dance Revolution game, and a cover of Plastic Bertrand's "Ça plane pour moi"... for a Pamela Anderson film flick. Their Wikipedia page has to be a joke.

07 Koladiola - Yello: From their fourth album, the underrated Stella. Nearly everyone knows them for "Oh, Yeah" which took off after it was used in the Ferris Bueller movie. It turned up in more movies and probably dozens of TV commercials after that. The song itself has become a Hollywood cliché, I think. Like "Bad to the Bone" or Jeff Buckley's version of "Hallelujah." But I digress. "Koladiola" is from the same album that "Oh, Yeah" is on; it's a much better album than you, I, or our music snob friends would have thought.

08 Set Fire to the Face on Fire - The Blood Brothers: Fye-uh! Fye-uh! Fye-uh! Another band I missed altogether. I got their 2004 album Crimes but never made time to listen. Years later, they appeared on the IFC Henry Rollins Show and shredded a version of "Set Fire...." I got my act together -- got the 2006 album Young Machetes, then went and picked up all the rest of the EPs and albums before it. It's Young Machetes that I play most often, and it's a great place to start your introduction. "Set Fire to the Face on Fire" is one of the all-time greatest side-A track-1 songs. (Great line, don't miss it: "I'm kicking snowmen like it's going out of style style style!")

Dialogue excerpt from The Shield, 2004.

09 Cyanide - The Lurkers: As long as I'm dropping opinions on all-time this and all-time that, here's another. My all-time favorite overlooked band. When friends ask to hear something new, I go back to 1976-80 era Lurkers. People freak when they hear it, and wonder how it missed them. There's a great write-up of the band on the Punk77 site. This song is from their second album God's Lonely Men. It wasn't as critically acclaimed as the debut, Fulham Fallout, which is proof that most music critics aren't worth the food they're fed.

10 Under Heavy Manners - Prince Far I: From the Trojan ROOTS box set. A great song by a reggae legend. My favorite part comes near the end, when he says, "Discipline is what the world needs today... manners and et-eh-kwett." In the mid-seventies, as Jamaica neared a virtual civil war, the Jamaican Premier declared a state of emergency, and said that the country was about to experience some "heavy duty discipline." The poor and disenfranchised knew it meant the shit was going to come their way.

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I haven't done the Friday 10s in a long long while, but it doesn't mean you had to stop. Set your mp3 player to "shuffle all songs" and let us know the first ten songs in your earholes.

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[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: I Hate You from the album Black Monk Time by Monks

Four 'Casts

I've updated the posts for all the Pointcasts. The download links are available indefinitely now, via MediaFire. The entries are:

July 4, 2008: "Dry Mouth, Lip Smack and More!"
August 15, 2008: "The Second Time Usually Lasts a Little Longer, Too"
January 9, 2009: "Do Not Trust The Horse, Trojans"
March 13, 2009: "Collaborate and Listen!"

I hope you think these are getting better. The music is bulletproof for sure, so as I go on I'll work harder to be sure my voice (and what it's saying) is not the lamest part of the recordings. It's been decades since I've been on the radio and I need to shake loose the dust and rust. Hang in with me, because the music is going to get better and better and more worthy of your download-and-listening time.

I'm planning to record another this week and look to get it here on Friday. No theme, just a scalding set of songs. Hope you're back here for it at the end of the week.

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A few weeks ago, SNL aired a best-of compilation episode instead of a live show. The cowbell sketch was on it. I hadn't seen that one since the first time it aired, live, years ago. I didn't "get" the funny then, and I didn't get it recently either. Am I missing something? Or maybe: Is that cowbell sketch my generation's "No soap, radio"?

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Sleeping In Blood City from the album Miami by Gun Club

Now On 'Fire

All future Pointcasts (beginning with last week's) will be mounted on MediaFire. The only real difference to you is that these programs and files can now live forever on that site. They'll be available for download at any time. (The previous service had a one-week expiration date.)

As soon as I can, I'll rewire the older ones so they'll be available again.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Intensamente from the album Wild Teen Punk From Peru 1965 by Los Saicos

Collaborate and Listen!

The weekend starts with Friday the 13th and ends on the Ides of March. Maybe all the superstitious types will shutter up and bunker down and the rest of us can get to our work, play, or workouts more freely.

This is the first of the thematic Pointcasts and I know it's a goofy theme, but what the hell... there's some bulletproof music here. Eleven songs originating from the land of Guinness and bloodshed. Below, the link to download the Pointcast. Below that, the notes. And below all that... the link you'll click to leave your comments and opinions.

Happy St. Patrick's Day.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD TODAY'S POINTCAST

01 Jailbreak - Thin Lizzy (Jailbreak): If I did more of these 'casts, I'd make sure you got your recommended daily allowance of Lizzy. All their stuff is in print, easy to find and rewarding. I know I don't need to detail the rise and fall of Phil Lynott, as we all know the story (or if not, can easily look it up). I have played the Jailbreak album so many times I can’t even give you a ballpark figure. Back in the span of time that I moved into eight new addresses in five years, I christened each new place with a full listen of Jailbreak. I have taken this album with me on trips and expeditions in some form since the late '80s. I would even play it first thing upon returning as I unpacked. It became a well-worn ritual, a comfort.

02 The Jug of Punch - The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem (The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem)

03 Snow - JJ72 (JJ72): Bonus fun - make up some clever possible meaning behind the band's name. I'll go first: Former New York Ranger Jaromír Jágr? Born in 1972!

04 The Sun Beats Down - The High Llamas (Cold and Bouncy): Diehard Brian Wilson/Pet Sounds/SMiLE fanpeople get pretty uppity when you suggest (simply suggest) head Llama Sean O'Hagan might presently be carrying the BW/PS/S baton. Sheesh!

05 Mandinka - Sinéad O'Connor (The Lion and the Cobra): It seemed that every single one of my friends went apeshit for this album. (And me too.) I was the host of a local cable program at the time (but who wasn't?... stop yawning!), and Lion and the Cobra took over that studio like an infection. Eighty-five percent of that production crew was "in possession."
I know I say this about a lot of records, but it's true again... when this came out near the end of 1987, it sounded like nothing else. And yet, it just fit. I'm not even going to write anything about ex-Ant Marco Pirroni's guitar sound.

06 Looking After No. 1 - The Boomtown Rats (The Boomtown Rats): I hope you're listening to the recording before you read these notes, because when you get to this paragraph and read who it is, you might get yourself all rankled. Yes - the Boomtown Rats. The sonic leaping-off point for Sir Bob and whatever that name evokes in your mind. But 1977-79 era Boomtown Rats was a factory of edgy pop melodies and twisted guitar lines.

07 Sueisfine - My Bloody Valentine (Isn't Anything): From their debut album. I don't play it all that often but when the mood hits, it's perfect. I've been to see them play a few times, but could never identify many of the songs through the layers of noise.

08 Funky Céili (Bridie's Song) - Black 47 (Fire of Freedom): "I'm two months late / It's not with the rent." Chose the upbeat number instead of tracks I like better. "40 Shades of Blue" and "New York, NY 10009" are heftier songs. Next time, I won't be a-scared; I'll give you what you're here for.
Before Black 47 was even a glint in frontman Larry Kirwan's eye, he was a member of New York City's Major Thinkers with friend and fellow Wexford émigré Pierce Turner. They had a song called "Avenue B" that had a real cool sound but was, unfortunately, one of those songs you'd hear on left-of-the-dial radio stations only about once every four months. I was pretty happy the day I finally bought the six-song 12". I finally had "Avenue B," AND I ended up liking the rest of the tracks, too. It's way out of print of course. As you can see, prices for that 12" are all over the map. It looks like sellers are actually charging premium prices ($35+) for homemade CDRs of it. Just check back here; I'll get all six songs up here as soon as I can and you can download / burn your own. In the meantime, the Major Thinkers myspace page has tracks to hear.

09 Sally MacLennane - The Pogues (Rum, Sodomy & the Lash) / Dirty Old Town - Shane MacGowan (from The Henry Rollins Show [IFC]): All the great Pogues stories to be told begin "We got there at 8:30 for a nine o'clock show, and then the band didn't go on until...." All the worst Pogues stories start that way, too. Shane MacGowan is a troubled genius poet and the inelegant rest of us will suffer gladly his wayward manners, because he's the real deal. You've heard the phrase "been there, done that." Shane's been there, done that, intoxicated, and bleeding profusely. If you don't own Rum, Sodomy & the Lash, I recommend you amend the heresy at once.

10 Roddy McCorley - The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem (The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem): I'm reluctant to write anything here about artists like these, about whom many other people could take me to school. What can I say here that's not just dipping a toe into the ocean? I bought a great three-disk box set in London years ago, on the Tradition label, and it has everything I can manage to get my head around for now.

11 N17 - Saw Doctors (If This is Rock and Roll, I Want My Old Job Back or Sing a Powerful Song): I haven't been to a Saw Doctors show in a couple years, and I can feel the hole in my life it's caused. I haven't kept up with their releases since Villains (2001), so my knowledge of the band had gotten a bit dusty, but I can tell you that the entire SD catalog up to that point could provide enough energy to fuel seven throat-shredding encores.

On the Pointcast, I forgot to mention that some of the artists I played are currently on tour. A few are in the NYC area this week. Here's some of that info:

Black 47 is at Toad's Place in New Haven, CT tonight; in Boston March 15 & 16; and at B.B. King's in New York on the 17th.
The Saw Doctors are one of the 5-10 best live acts I've ever seen, and (lucky us) they're at The Nokia Theatre Times Square tonight and tomorrow.
The Pogues are at Roseland Ballroom here tonight and tomorrow, and in D.C. at the 9:30 Club March 16-18.
Thin Lizzy have just released a hot-snot live CD, Still Dangerous, and announced a few European dates for later this year opening for some band called Metallica.

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More Sticking Point / music-related goods and chattel:

Tommy Himself site at LastFM

Find me on Facebook

Listen to Sticking Point radio

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On iTunes right now: Reach the Rock from the album Havana 3a.m. by Havana 3a.m.

[posted with ecto]

Binge Thinking

From Sticking Point pal Tim:

Subject: "When you talk about Ron Asheton show some respect!!"
Date: January 21, 2009 09:08:59 EST

Hey T-
Loved the new Pointcast. Finally got a chance to hear it this AM. One thing-- you left me hanging with your Scruffy The Cat story. Did you buy your stolen tapes back or did you punch the dude in the neck?

Aw, damn, Tim. You won't like hearing that I did very little retribution-wise. (OK... nothing.) I had a hunch the guy selling all this stuff from his blanket wasn't the thief who smashed my car window and took my things.

I was never a cassette buyer, so except for five or six store-bought tapes, all the rest were homemade (dupes, mixes, bootlegs, etc.) I bought back as much of the guy's "inventory" as I could. The comedy routine occurred when I argued to convince him it was MY HANDWRITING on all these tracklists.

* * * * *

I've been putting together playlists for some thematic Pointcasts I want to record this year. Keeping the sonic jihad portion of those things to just five songs is restrictive, so I may stop doing the random Friday 5ive. I don't know if hearing my random tracks is worth anything, and there's so much more I can get to you without them. In the coming weeks and months I'll post an "alternate versions" Pointcast, and another comprised of very hard-to-find and rarely heard tracks. I could do a covers 'cast, pairing each cover with its original version. (Tim -- a self-confessed covers fiend -- should dig it.) That one is already looking good; sometimes the original is the more well-known, sometimes the remake.

Last night, I was paring down the playlist for something pretty cool: a Pointcast of songs sampled by the Beastie Boys. When I got my hands on "Loose Booty" by Willie Henderson, I knew I had to do this one.

I really enjoy recording these things and getting the music onto your hard drives. I'll do them every time I have the hunk of hours they require, whether or not I get many comments or email responses from you. But lurkers and silent ungratefuls, I'm warning you: If your taciturnity and lack of participation continue, one of these Pointcasts will be the Trojan Horse that furtively unleashes 558 megabytes of unmitigated Gipsy Kings (or a Nickelback tribute band) onto your iPod.

* * * * *

I had to replace the earphones I wear at the gym again. The set I wear when I'm training always takes a beating. I'm the guy who gets ear-snagged three times an hour when my wire gets caught on a barbell or the water fountain. Because of this, I look for passable sound quality and a fairly rugged in-ear design. And I won't pay more than $25.

I tried a different model (again) this time, and ended up with the third-best earphones I've ever had. Numbers 1 and 2 are the sets I wear when I'm really listening, not "gym listening." These new ones were a couple hundred dollars less and are a close third place. So I'm telling you about them.

Sennheiser CX300 Earbuds. Bass response, sound separation -- great. Very comfortable, and they stay put even under sweaty gym conditions. Definitely worth having, they're far superior to anything in their price range.

I can't explain why the price has gone up on Amazon... I paid $19.99 about three weeks ago. (I just double-checked my online invoice to be sure.) They're still better than any headphones I've heard under $75, believe me.

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On iTunes right now: Rainbows In The Dark from the album Bottoms Of Barrels by Tilly and The Wall

[posted with ecto]

"Do not trust the horse, Trojans"

Sorry these have been too few and far between, but here's the first Friday 5ive / Sonic Jihad for 2009. Below, the link to download the Pointcast. Below that, the notes.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD TODAY'S POINTCAST

The Friday 5ive

01 Gravity - Rilo Kiley: An unknown/forgotten gem from the second pressing of the self-titled CD (Rilo Records 2000), which was a reissue of the first pressing of the self-titled CD released a year earlier. Both are long out-of-print but occasionally detonate on eBay at about $150. The first three RK releases have nearly identical cover art. Known as Self-Titled (first pressing), Self-Titled (second pressing), and The Initial Friend EP are a fanboy's trifecta: hard to find and puzzling to unravel all the song-swapping, track sequencing, and alt versions. The first

pressing has eight songs (The Frug / 85 / Glendora / Papillon / Teenage Love Song / Asshole / Sword / Steve) plus a hidden track RK fanatics call "They Say It Rained The Day Your Mother Gave You Away." This is the only disk on which exists.

Pressing number two adds songs "Always" and "Gravity," subtracts "Steve," has an alternate version of "Teenage Love Song" (with keyboard solo), different track order, and the hidden track here is a 22-minute monster of narcissistic fluff called "Troubadours + The Annoying Noise of Death"

The Initial Friend EP (Rilo Records, 2001) omits "Glendora" and "Teenage Love Song," includes "Troubadours" but deep-sixes the noise of death part. Initial Friend was re-released in 2007 as The Rilo Kiley EP.

All this info is out there on fan sites, with jpegs and whatnot, but oddly Rilo Kiley's official website disregards the 1999-2001 releases (and about a dozen of the band's singles) entirely.

Blake Sennett and Jenny Lewis, 03/16/01: Photo by John Perry

02 I Can't Wait - Luna [Lunapark]: To some it's a supergroup: When they recorded this album, they were hardly a cohesive band. They were just the singer/guitarist from Galaxie 500, the drummer from the Feelies, and the Chills' ex-bassist. Their studio sessions guitarist was from Mercury Rev. If all you know about the Galaxie 500 split is Damon and Naomi's account in the liner notes of the box set, check out Dean's memoir. His side of the breakup seems more valid, in my opinion.

03 Bum Bum - Trio: I ripped this from the German import 45. The English-language version, "Boom Boom" is slightly more well-known, I guess. Or better yet, you probably know "Da Da Da, Ich Lieb Dich Nicht du Liebst Mich Nicht (Aha Aha Aha)," which was a 1982 cult hit in English as "Da Da Da I Don't Love You You Don't Love Me Aha Aha Aha." In 1997, it turned up in TV commercials for -- of course -- German cars.

"Bum Bum" reminds me of driving to Carvel with my high school pal John every Wednesday to get buy-one-get-one-free ice cream sundaes. We'd listen to WLIR on our powerful after-market car stereos and if we were lucky we'd hear something fucking great like this or, say, "Get Out of London" by Intaferon. (Jesus!)

(For a reason that I'll never remember, we referred to the ice cream as "F.B.S." for "fat bastard sundaes." Of course, it was Yonkers, NY, so we pronounced it "fat bas-tidd sundaes.")

04 Love Is Like A Bottle of Gin - The Magnetic Fields [69 Love Songs]: Some of you have written and asked why MagFields/Stephin Merritt popped up on Friday 10s with such regularity, maybe more than any other artist. My answer is always: I don't know. Looking at my iTunes as of this morning, MagFields accounts for 82 out of the 9500+ songs in the library. Not complaining. 69 Love Songs is like a book on how to write songs. Merritt released Distortion last year, it landed at #6 on The Sticking Point's albums of the year.

This song? It's in 21/8 time. Wild.

05 Laughing - R.E.M. [Murmur]: That's the 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of Murmur that Brian Last Stop sent me the other day. I A-and-B'd the original CD vs. the new mastering, and the new one wins. That's not always the case with remasters, as you know, but luckily it is here; Murmur is an exceptional album, it deserves a perfect mix. You could tell R.E.M. and producers Mitch Easter and Don Dixon had a Stax-like sound in mind: organic-toned instruments, clean guitars, a heavy drum groove carrying the vocals. Listening back to the original CD release (I.R.S. 70014), the mix sounds watery to me now. The new one polishes all the reverb and atmospherics without sounding digital. Does that make sense? Probably not. Anyway -- thanks, Brian.

"Laughing" was always one of my favorites on Murmur. Love that Stewart Copeland-style rhythm on the rototoms. And back in those days, back in my day, when Stipe unfurled this lyric referencing Laocoön, you can bet the fact-finding fieldwork took me 5000 times longer than it'll take you, today.

The Sonic Jihad

01 Phobias - Love As Laughter [#1 U.S.A.]: From my "If Only They Knew..." iTunes playlist. I found "Phobias" first on a great (GREAT) Rough Trade comp, loved it immediately. Not much on the #1 USA album can hold a candle to this, but still: wow... this. The band is still out and about. Info at loveaslaughter.net.

02 The Perfect Me - Deerhoof [Friend Opportunity]: If I could have, I would have. I would have gotten this song in your ears long ago. I wish I'd started doing these Pointcasts sooner and more often.

Dialogue excerpt from "The Facts of Life."

03 Fresh Cut Dynamite - Squatweiler [New Motherstamper]: Another group (along with Love As Laughter) that some of you probably haven't heard. Worth your hard-earned to get your hands on this one or Horsepower.

04 Moons of Jupiter - Scruffy The Cat [Moons of Jupiter]: One of the all-time great bar bands. Just flat-out and real. I think a dream gig for me would be a night with Scruffy, Del Fuegos, and Too Much Joy on the same bill.

05 Harder Than You Think - Public Enemy [How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?]: They lost the plot between 1993 and 2006, so I didn't expect much from How You Sell Soul... in 2007. Good to have 'em back. P.E.'s tenth studio album, and they land on it like a ton of bricks. Call it "Son of It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back."

* No Fun - The Stooges [The Stooges]: "Come on, Ronnie..."

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Get off your ass and do it for yourself. Put your digital jukebox or mp3 player on "shuffle all songs," and use the comments section to tell us the first 10 tracks out the chute.

Tommy Himself page at LastFM

[posted with ecto]

The Second Time Usually Lasts a Little Longer, Too

It took a long while to get another one of these recorded for you, so I won't waste your time with a preamble. Below, the link to download the Pointcast. Below that, the notes.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD POINTCAST

The Friday 5ive

01 Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley - Lee Dorsey [Yes We Can]: I really dig the horn sound on this track. The Meters, the backing band on these sessions, didn't have a horn section so I'll have to do a little more research to find out who was playing on this. Dorsey wasn't knocking down any walls with his range or technique, but his timing is unimpeachable.

02 Sleeping In The Devil's Bed - Daniel Lanois [Until The End of the World]: The Wikipedia page for Lanois's For The Beauty of Wynona has both versions of the Jan Saudek cover photo, and from there you can surf the link to the photographer's work. Oh, and Lanois? I wonder how many times he sat at the board for some other artist, knowing he had a song as great as "Devil's Bed" in his back pocket.

03 How Long the Night Was - deadboy & the Elephantmen [Live at Austin City Limits Music Festival 2006]: Dax and Tessie weren't together for long -- just one album, one TV appearance, and some tours -- but they sure left a trail of sparks in their wake. Listen to how hard this duo is playing and think of what passes for "rock" these days.
Here is a link to Tessie's latest project, Animal Electric.

04 (I Want To Live On An) Abstract Plain - Frank Black [Teenager of the Year]: Trust me about the Teenager album. You won't just like it, you'll like like it. You'll wonder where you've been all its life. There's no shortage of great Frank Black material, but that one -- for me -- is a standout.

05 God Is In The House - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds [Huxley's Neue Welt, Berlin; 11.14.04]: I've forgotten how I acquired this bootleg. It's a solid one, though; the sound is off-the-board CD quality, the mix is perfect, and the 2-disk setlist includes "Abattoir Blues," "There She Goes My Beautiful World," and "Stagger Lee." The studio version of "God Is In The House" is from No More Shall We Part, which came out in September 2001, following a couple years of Cave getting his drug and drink problems solved, and it's a masterpiece. His voice and range were the best they'd ever been, and the lyrics pulled no punches.

The Sonic Jihad

01 Solitary Confinement - The Weirdos [Dangerhouse Vol. 1]: The Dangerhouse comps are great, but if you are now a Weirdos purist, here's the link to Weird World. Solid West Coast punk rock from some cats who could effing play. Great riffs, great songwriting. And "Solitary Confinement" was a b-side! The Weirdos were playing L.A. clubs with the Germs, X, Black Randy, The Avengers, etc.

02 Bullets - Tunng [Good Arrows]: Like I said on the thing, I flipped pretty hard for this band. I think I had heard the song "Arms" on a KEXP podcast and within days I'd nailed down Tunng's entire canon: the EPs, the full-length releases, and the b-sides. It's all good, real good, but if you';re looking for a normal-person's portion, you'll be happy with Mother's Daughter and Other Songs (2005) or Good Arrows (2007) which has "Arms" on it, too. There are sounds and textures on that album that I'd never heard before. On "Bullets," check out how the guitars begin front and center in the mix, with the kick and snare, and then start to "float" a little bit. We'll be hearing more Tunng on future Pointcasts.
Here's a good interview with band member Mike Lindsay that includes explanations for a lot of the songs.

03 Silver Machine - Hawkwind: Last month my friend MDavis IM'd me a URL link. No hello; nothing but the link, which took me to a trailer for a Lemmy movie. I immediately sent the link to SO'C, who posted about it on his site, and within hours his page became a forum for idiot fanboys like us to share "Brush With Lemmy" stories. Check 'em.

Apologies Dept.: This song doesn't sound nearly as good as it should on the Pointcast, because of a problem I had in recording; the right channel had some unexplained pops in it, so in trying to correct that I came up with the stupid idea to copy the left channel and paste it onto the right. Which is a roundabout way of saying I double-tracked the left channel, rendering it flat and totally destroying the "spacey-ness" of the tune. Sorry.

Dialogue excerpt from The Sarah Silverman Program, 2007

04 When I Was Bleedin' - Dax Riggs [We Sing of Only Blood or Love]: Haunting and beautiful music abounds on this solo album. Another great track from the Bayou genius.

05 Toumast - Tinariwen [Aman Iman]: The electric guitar isn't an instrument that Toureg people are accustomed to seeing, hearing, or playing so I'm blown away when I listen to them and hear drop-dead John Lee Hooker riffs. It's hard to find solid info to read up on the band, but the Interweb's got plenty to watch!

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It's not Friday anymore, but what the hell -- do it yourself. Put your digital jukebox or mp3 player on "shuffle all songs," and let me know the first 10 tracks out the chute.

Tommy Himself page at LastFM

On iTunes right now: Open Letter To Duke from the album Ah Um by Mingus, Charles

[posted with ecto]

Pointcast One: Dry Mouth, Lip Smack and More!

Amtrak / en route to Providence.
Smile, you're traveling! It's Friday, it's the Fourth of July, and that could mean only one thing: the first of the Pointcast things I've been promising since March is here.

What goes up, must come down. I’m proving it today, heading up the eastern seaboard and back down again without so much as time for meal in between.

When I came home from the Yankees game last night I worked on the Pointcast and some other projects, hammering away until past 0300 hrs this morning. I finally got in bed and read the Dean Wareham book for a while, before lights out around 0400. I knew I could sleep in today, maybe as late as 0930, because all I had on the itinerary for this July 4 was to wrap up the last pieces of writing for the song list below, drink some coffee, get a good workout, and then wait for Mrs Sticking Point and the boys to arrive home from their week on Cape Cod. My comet of non-stop work and to-dos and errands would flame out, and I could relax today; well-rested and work completed.

Ha! My feeble "itinerary" is a mere yarn-ball between the giant paws of fate: toyed with, and ultimately swatted under a couch.

The phone woke me up at 0727. It was my wife. Feeling ill and feverish, the 5-hour-plus drive from the Cape (with our two Subaru-monkeys in the backseat) looked unmanageable in the least, unsafe at the worst. She asked, could I at least meet her and the boys in Providence to get them the rest of the way home?

I could, at least, so here I am. Sweaty, tired, and somewhere between Stamford and Bridgeport.

I bought a ticket on the Internets, packed stuff into a bag and hurried out to catch the subway to Penn Station. I had 70 minutes before the ticket, waiting for me somewhere in the cyber kingdom, became non-negotiable and utterly useless. My intensity and nervous froth eased up when I finally sat down on the E train.

It was short-lived comfort. At one stop, still in Queens, a creature boarded my train car. It would take a while before I could discern the lumped, hunched figure as female; what I knew immediately was fear.

It was dressed in a bright white shirt and bright white pants, the cuffs of which bunched up atop a pair of very new, very bright white shoes. Industrial white shoes like ER nurses wear. And, as I said, brand new. On its head was some sort of white cloth, a piece of apparel difficult to identify because the human-like entity was covered entirely with a plastic raincoat. Clear plastic, of course; and thin as Saran Wrap.

It had arrived on the train with two large and over-packed Duane Reade shopping bags that seemed quite heavy, and it stood in the center of the car. Nearly everyone stared warily at this stranger and I was relieved that even a pack of jaded New Yorkers might be as nervous and hyper-vigilant as I.

Nervous. Hyper-vigilant. Because… while this odd passenger stood, hunched over and incessantly adjusting and readjusting its head cloth and plastic hood, I patched together the details and wondered if maybe somebody woke up with Sarin gas attack on his itinerary for this holiday of American independence. The train crawled nearer to the underwater tunnel linking Queens and Manhattan, and I wondered if there were others; what if I looked through the doors and saw cellophane-covered creatures in the train cars ahead and behind? I decided, well -- that would make it time for some go get ‘em. Maybe I could stop something tragic, or diminish the horrendous aftermath, even a little. I conjured the inevitable press conference on the steps of City Hall. “No, no, no; I just did what anyone else would do. But my wife, she’s a hero. If she hadn’t been ill enough to suggest I meet her in Providence… Ha! It was providence! Does anyone else find that ironic? Hel-lo?! Is this on?!”

Idiot funboy can laugh now, but as we left the last subway station before the tunnel, and the featureless figure in white took down her hood to tie the white headscarf more firmly, I got about as fight-or-flight nervous as I’d been since September ’01.

The cult group that carried out the attack in the Tokyo subway was clad all in white and transported the Sarin in bags. They used the tips of umbrellas to puncture the bags and release the poison. There was something about the brand new white shoes keyed me up. They seemed more than just part of a uniform. The white headscarf up top and new white shoes down below lent a ritualized look to the wardrobe.

But. You already know the punch line to all this is that there is no punch line. No soap – radio, as they say. Without incident, the abominable terrorist and I both detrained at 34th Street/Penn and went separate ways.

*** ***

Before we cue the music, here's one quick note to the struggling couple:
I think it is a parental felony to leave your children (one of whom is about 90 days old) in Florida while mommy's in Paris going forth with the Lance Armstrong of Rock and daddy's in the Bronx batting fourth for the New York Mediocritees. But I'm sure you've got it under control.

*** ***

All aboard the kundalini express, here's the all-new Friday 10 Pointcast -- five songs at random, and five songs chosen. Every Friday that I can capably accomplish it, I'll record a podcast with all ten tracks and commentary. You can download it by clicking the link provided. Each 'cast will be available for one week. If you miss one, or discover the site weeks later, write me at TheStickingPoint@gmail.com and I'll get it to you.
UPDATE: The Pointcasts are now available indefinitely.

Your feedback means a lot, so even if you don't share your own Friday 10 in the comments section, let me know you were here and what you think of the music.

Download this week's complete file (which will open in iTunes)
CLICK HERE:
TSP Pointcast 070408

01 Media Blitz - The Germs: From the must-have complete Germs anthology. What a cool place to start these Pointcast things, with "Media Blitz."
By the way, could Pat Smear be the Forrest Gump of punk rock? Befriended Darby Crash and formed the Germs (with original drummer Dottie Danger a.k.a. Belinda Carlisle). Joan Jett produces first album. Crash commits suicide. Smear joins the Adolescents. Leaves Adolescents, is asked to join Red Hot Chili Peppers (1992). Turns down offer. Befriends Courtney Love. Kurt Cobain asks Smear to join Nirvana. First gig with Nirvana is SNL (09.25.93). Cobain commits suicide. Smear joins Foo Fighters. Quits Foo Fighters (1997). Serves as Creative Consultant on the Germs film What We Do Is Secret. Rejoins Foo Fighters as touring guitarist.

02 Ghost Rider - Suicide: Track one, side one from the "oh-you-don't-have-it -- what's-your-problem" debut album. Suicide was part of that great New York No Wave scene in the 70s that included Lydia Lunch, Mars, James Chance, Theoretical Girls, and DNA. Rollins Band once throttled this song; find it on Do It.

03 Freddie Freeloader - Miles Davis. (Kind of Blue): Recorded at Columbia Studio on West 30th in Manhattan. If you look up all the lineups Miles assembled over the decades, it's like a who's who of top-shelf, mind-boggling jazz legends. People write volumes about albums like this, jams like this. They are experts, and I'm just the unwashed zoomtard from Podunk who knows nothing but I sure like them sawngs.
Brief Wynton Kelly writeup here.

04 Dirty Water - Jesus and Mary Chain. (Stoned and Dethroned): I have loved this group from day one, the first time I heard the "Never Understand" single, in 1984. I went certifiably over-the-top apeshit for it, and the unimpeachable Psychocandy album that followed. That year, my friend Liz and I saw them play the Ritz -- the best 30-minute concert I've ever witnessed. And where is that long-rumored JMC box set?

05 Illumination - Rollins Band: From Get Some Go Again, criminally overlooked and underappreciated. (GSGA is right near the very top of my LastFM charts.) Features "On The Day," which I've now listened to a few times a week for several years.

06 Shout Bamalama - Otis Redding with the Pinetoppers: From the Definitive Otis Redding collection, the sound of a man singing his pain away. On "Shout Bamalama" though, his 19-year old voice has twenty-five years of thuggin' in it. A great one from the great one.

The George Carlin piece is from a 1986 HBO special called "Playin' With Your Head." My brother-from-another-mother Neil and I used to watch it several times a month; it was on a well-worn VHS tape that had Animal House on it, too. With my caveman audio gear, I was able to take it from TV to CDR to The Sticking Point.

07 You Want The Candy - The Raveonettes. (Lust Lust Lust): I have three of their disks, but never really paid close attention. A few tracks from this new one put the hooks in me, so maybe I have something to gain by giving their back catalog the time of day.

08 Son - 5'nizza: Pronounced "pyat NITsa." And guess what? Their name means "Friday" in Ukrainian. It's a duo that played together for nearly eight years, broke up in 2007, and of course I only discovered them this past February while trolling mp3 blogs for new sounds. It's about the most fun Eastern European music I've ever heard. The layered vocals are amazing and that guitar... are you kidding me?!
Paying it forward: I bumped into this band on the redoubtable Aurgasm weblog. If you go to this well-informed site, you'll leave with a few new favorite songs.

09 Dethbryte - Dax Riggs. (We Sing of Only Blood or Love): "The fragile wave of days / They break against the shore / Of all these years." I'm going to play a lot of Riggs on these Pointcasts, because you have to hear it. Mrs Sticking Point gave it to me. A great album... but you knew I was going to say that.

• Check out the "Dethbryte" video here.
• Dax performs a swamp-ified version of the Misfits' "Skulls" here.

10 Plastika - Idoli: Belgrade Rock City! It's been hard to find info on this band, but I sometimes see their name published as "VIS Idoli." One thing I did learn, is that we all missed out on quite a scene in the former constituent republics of Yugolslavia. I mean it. The Killed By 7 Inch collection is on Redrum Records, the label that releases the endless, rewarding Killed By Death series of obscure punk. You can download the KB7I collection for your own self HERE.

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Now, do it yourself. Put your digital jukebox or mp3 player on "shuffle all songs," and let me know the first 10 tracks out the chute.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Constant Pain from the album Corpse Love - The First Year by Pussy Galore

Birth of a Stoop Sale

I'm still working on the full-on TSP relaunch, with those Friday 10 Sticking Pointcasts for you... but in the meantime I thought I'd soft-launch with an entry or three. Rather than go into a drawn-out story that ends with my (unknowing) consumption of a dozen or so sunflower seed weevils last week, I thought I'd throw a question your way, and maybe have an interactive discussion in the "comments" board.

Of which band or album were you once a huge fan, but now -- with passing time and increasing sensibility -- can no longer tolerate?

I'll start.

In 2001 (April, as my Amazon.com buying history shows), I bought the entire Everclear canon. I went from zero to five CDs in a single one-click purchase. I had just read an article about Art Alexakis and was swayed by its sycophantic portrait of the old man as an artist.

Fast forward 7-10 days, the CDs have arrived and I'm listening. Try to imagine my face; it resembled someone who takes a huge bite from a steak sandwich and discovers he's been served rat's asshole. Uncooked!

Maybe you like Everclear. That's fine. I'm sure I have and enjoy 100s of CDs that would make most people laugh snobbishly. (That's for another day.) The 'clear is just not for me. And it is SO not for me that I cannot believe I was bamboozled into clicking away my hard-earned for a 5-disk earful.

I still have those CDs. I can't explain why, other than to say I have a tendency to keep things for that day in the distant future when the need will arise. (Like the ratty old pair of chinos balled up in the corner of my closet: there for a day friends may invite me for a game of pickup football in the mud, like they always do on commercials and the pages of J. Crew catalogs.)


But that's beside the point. The question, once again: Of which band or album were you once a huge fan, but now -- with passing time and increasing sensibility -- can no longer tolerate?

One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)

Barring a breakdown of equipment or a call-up from the Phillies to replace their number 3 starter, I'll soft-relaunch the site with the first Sticking Point'cast on Friday, April 18.

Maybe sooner.

But probably not sooner.

Thanks for hanging in there.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: 50 Year Old Man from the album Imperial Wax Solvent by The Fall