Vinyl Vednesday 8/24/2011

[Vinyl Vednesday is a weekly feature about three favorite vinyl finds. It’s not meant to be a dick-measuring contest, but it usually turns out that way. As always, e-mail pelonej1@gmail.com with your own big finds!]

Records: New York Dolls’ Too Much Too Soon (1974) on black, Zombie Zombie’s Plays John Carpenter (2010) on black, and the To Benefit Petra Haden seven-inch compilation (2003) on grey.

Place of Purchase: NYD came from my recent trip to Shore Things in Ocean City, N.J. Zombie Zombie was snatched up unheard from Repo Records in Philadelphia specifically because it involved John Carpenter. The Haden comp came from defunt shop Spaceboy Music in Philadelphia (I’d say R.I.P., but the clerks there were always wieners).

Thoughts: I’ve been trying to find New York Dolls’ Too Much Too Soon on compact disc for years, but I finally caved and bought it on vinyl. I decided to go with Shore Things for this particular item because one summer prior, a clerk there harassed the bedickens out of me about buying it, much to my consternation. I’m glad I finally bough it though. It’s such a fun, funny glam rock/proto-punk collection, a bridge between Ziggy-era David Bowie and later ’70s acts like Kiss and The Ramones. It’s deliciously raw despite all of its ’50s doo-wop inclinations. Best revelation of all: I finally understand that Voodoo Glow Skulls song “Stranded in the Jungle,” for Punk-O-Rama 5, was actually a Too Much Too Soon cover.

John Carpenter had a string of brilliant genre flicks in the ’70s and ’80s, and he’s something of a DIY icon to me, if only because he was able to create so much of his movies on his own, from scripting to directing to scoring. French DJ duo Zombie Zombie acknowledge just how important Carpenter’s synth scores were by covering some of his biggest “hits.” Yeah, the A-side’s take on the Escape From L.A. theme is weird, if only because no one wants to talk about Escape From L.A., but the B-side packs two of Carpenter’s best compositions. First off is his most well known piece, the Halloween theme, a simple piano piece that I think might be impossible to ruin. It’s just so haunting and intimidating. Closing out the EP, though, is the theme from The Thing. That movie relies more on tones to create atmosphere, and Zombie Zombie pack it with all the dread they can muster.

To Benefit Petra Haden is one of the first records I ever bought. I’ve gone through phases as a record collection. I’m just now coming out of a compulsory need to double up on all of my favorite bands, like Jawbreaker and Discount. When I first got a record player, all I wanted to do was pick up rare, vinyl-only stuff from my favorite bands, which was probably a better idea than rebuying every album I liked. As a benefit comp, Petra Haden seems like a bad idea – it’s a limited edition seven-inch, created after the original Rilo Kiley live album recorded to benefit Haden was ruined, meant to help pay for Haden’s medical bills after she was in a hit-and-run. This comp is worth way more now than it was in 2003. But if you were all about the power-pop like I was at the time, you were obsessed with this double-seven-inch. You get Weezer playing a Pinkerton cut back when they never played those songs, a new Ben Kweller tune, and one of Phantom Planet’s better tunes from their self-titled record. Also, AM Radio shows up. While I’m not the Weerez/BK obsessive I once was, I still treasure this set.

Vinyl Vednesday 2/17

[Vinyl Vednesday is a weekly feature about three favorite vinyl finds. It’s not meant to be a dick-measuring contest, but it kinda is. E-mail pelonej1@gmail.com with your own big finds!]

Records: Nico’s The Marble Index (1969) on black, Prince’s Dirty Mind (1980) on black, and Radish’s “Little Pink Stars” (1997) single on clear with pink glitter.

Place of Purchase: Um… all three came from eBay.

Thoughts: I’d like to discuss Nico’s The Marble Index by telling a story that has nothing to do with that album, at least on the surface. Freshman year of college, my good buddy Eric Crack, of the rockin’ punk band The Next Big Thing, were visiting record shops in Philadelphia when we stepped into the now-departed Spaceboy Music. As much I dug their selection, the dudes there were kinda pretentious, and the music usually followed suit. The highlight on this particular occasion was a song that played the entire time we were there (20 minutes or so). A man rambled about holding his father’s skull while a harmonium or maybe a Moog (I don’t remember; this was like five years ago) screeched along. So it was 20 minutes of “And I beheld a skull” *DEE DEE DEEEEE* “It was my father’s skull” *DEEEEEEEE DOOOOO DOOO DOO DEEEEE*.

That’s kind of what I think about Nico’s The Marble Index, except with female vocals. But I’m still giving it an honest effort. I kind of dug her Velvet Underground and David Bowie covers on Drama of Exhile, but right now I feel like I’ve become everything I swore to destroy.

But while avant-garde electronic music is my guilty pleasure, I feel no guilt whatsoever for my love of Prince. Dude wrote a ton of awesome songs about sex, politics, and sexual politics. Dirty Mind is as far back as I’ve gone in his discography, and I think this is probably a good stopping point. The title track announces the album as a hot and heavy, somewhat minimalist record. It’s primarily driven by drums and synth – both played by Prince, with some help from Dr. Fink – and it deals with sexy sex. “When You Were Mine,” which Cyndi Lauper did a solid job with a couple of years later with She’s So Unusual, is about gettin’ cheated on, but Prince, as always, turns the pain of not getting effed into an infectious pop ditty (Have you heard “If I Was Your Girlfriend?”). The flipside is what got Prince into trouble. “Head” is an insanely frenetic ode to blowjobs – the music makes you realize how much the dude likes ’em. “Sister” was also controversial due to its depiction of, um, uh, errrr… incest. Yeah, I don’t know what it’s here either. For an album that celebrates like, 23 positions in a one night stand, “Sister” is the one that makes me blush. But then “Partyup,” an anti-war tune, kicks in and, in complete defiance of the album’s theme, gets all types of political.

In some ways, I think I love Ben Kweller more than the bands he’s been inspired by (my beloved Nirvana and Weezer). At this point, he’s released more solid albums than the Weez, and for a while there, I was obsessed with collecting all of his older, out-of-print stuff. Sometimes it paid off (Freak Out… It’s Ben Kweller); sometimes it didn’t (Radish’s Restraining Bolt has like three good songs). It’s been interesting for me to go through his discography and realize how many of his songs emerged during his teen years. As awful as some of the Radish material is, there are some fantastic nuggets scattered around. Case in point: the “Little Pink Stars” single. “Stars” is one of the good ’dish ditties, very much in the Nirvana vein. The flipside is a demo of “Make It Up,” which later showed up on BK’s 2002 solo full-length Sha Sha. The lyrics are a little goofier, with references to Star Wars, but the structure is there. Basically, regardless of how Radish did, BK was always on track to write my most beloved pop songs.

*DULEEEEE DDDEEEEEEEEEE DEEEEEEE*

Ben Kweller at the TLA

Attending shows while you’re sick sucks. Same goes for when the band is sick. But when you throw in a few hundred friends to keep your spirits high, everything works out. And that’s exactly what happened when I saw Ben Kweller perform at the past and future Theater of the Living Arts (né Fillmore at the TLA) with The Watson Twins and Jones Street Union Feb. 27. BK and I both had head colds a-snotting that Friday, and while Kweller had a tough time hitting all of his notes as a result, it didn’t stop the whole room from loving the tunes. It helps that his new album, Changing Horses, translates so well live, as 8 out of the album’s 10 tracks popped up in the set list.

Jones Street Union opened the night at 9 p.m. with a dash load of charm and a huge heaping of emphatic harmonica. The bill was appropriately stacked with country-tinged acts, and the crowd loved Jones Street Union enough to even stay quiet during an unplugged finale. A gutsy move given how loud the bar can get, but it paid off; Jones Street Union won the audience over. The Watson Twins also got a huge response for their sleepy, soulful interpretations of older songs like Bill Withers' “Ain’t No Sunshine” and The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven.” Being a Cure fetishist, I was a bit taken aback by how subdued they rendered the song, but man can those gals sing. Still, though, I found myself wishing they would cut loose more. Belt out the vocals; bang the drums a little harder.

I got one of those wishes fulfilled when Ben Kweller and his Trio on the Train Track took to the stage. Opening with a rapid-fire salvo of “Walk on Me,” “Run,” and “Family Tree,” BK and co. started off rocking before segueing into mellower country/bluegrass numbers like “Things I Like to Do” and “Homeward Bound.” Still, though, even in those quieter Changing Horses moments, flashes of sonic euphoria burst forth – the spastic freak-out surprise of “Gypsy Rose” that violently splits from the recorded version; the dueling acoustic/slide guitars on the bridge to “Old Hat.” On My Way got a little bit of love via “The Rules” and “On My Way,” although some “Different But the Same” or “Hospital Bed” would’ve been appreciated. Same goes for Ben Kweller, which scored huge reactions for a slowed down version of “Sundress,” a heartfelt “Thirteen,” and an encore-ending “Penny on the Train Track.” While I miss Kweller’s abilities with an electric guitar, the dynamic he has with the Trio on the Train Track works quite well. Drummer Mark Stepro and bassist Chris Morrissey held down the rhythm while pedal steel guitarist Rich Hinman took the lead, exploring the space between the beat and vocals. Dressed in a suit while the others opted for slacks and flannel, Hinman stood out visually as well as aurally.

The night took a few bumps halfway through. Kweller’s a great songwriter, but his mic skills aren’t always on par. An awkward conversation about whether or not Bob Barker was dead preceded an even more awkward conversation about the fact that the night’s show hadn’t sold out. Oddly enough, the reaction I saw for Kweller was way louder than a lot of sold out shows I’ve seen around town. Call it a country-fried hootenanny.

But while the set wasn’t perfect (too many ballads, even if “Lizzy,” “Thirteen,” and “Falling” are pretty great; not to mention the Barker debate), the audience still clearly loved it. Duets with The Watson Twins on “Hurtin’ You” and both openers on “Fight” were applauded; as were comments about President Barack Obama (BK loves ’em). And while the set closely mirrored Kweller’s show at Johnny Brenda’s back in October, I found myself drinking it in as well. Those warm, acoustic, country songs were like (fake/vegetarian) chicken soup for my stuffy head.

Playlist: Ben Kweller

[Playlist is an attempt to distill my favorite artists to 80-minute compilations. If someone asked me to burn them a mix of ____, I would give them this collection.]

S'been a while since the last playlist, kiddos. After a few aborted playlist attempts (Yeah Yeah Yeahs only have like two hours of music out right now), I figured I'd whip something up in honor of my old flame, Benjamin Thaddeus Marjorie Kweller [note: some parts of that name are not accurate]. BK is playing the TLA this Friday, which I'm juiced on, and he's touring on a pretty dang excellent new album to boot. Kweller is part of a subset of artists whom I've always felt were "mine" (see also New Found Glory and Against Me!). That is, I got into them in my youth, near the start of their careers, and, like an old friend, been through some good and bad patches. I've actively disliked BK at times, as I was bitterly disappointed by his self-titled third LP (I got over it). But I've never been able to completely quit him, as of opposed to, say, Alien Ant Farm.

Kweller's professional music career began in the '90s with Radish, a grunge act from Texas that pretty much got signed because they sorta sounded like Nirvana and Kweller was a teen (prodigy marketing angle! Yes!). Radish did some touring, recorded some decent songs, and then broke up after their label, Mercurcy, ate shit and died. Kweller some heat at the time since he was supposed to be a savior of rock or whatever, but the fade from spotlight suited his upcoming musical growth. Dude start self-releasing anti-folk EPs like Bromeo and Freak Out It's... Ben Kweller and in the new millenium, put out the Weezer-y alt-rock gem Sha Sha.

Sha Sha came out in 2002. I was 16 or so, I believe. Sam Goody had it for $9.99. The night I bought, my friend Tim and Steph, his girlfriend an the time, got into a fight and drove out to a park in Conshohocken, with me in tow, to sort out their issues. Three things teens are good at: Driving aimlessly, trespassing, and having stupid fights. Tim and the soon-to-be-dubbed "Crazy Ex-Steph" left the car to sort out their issues while I sat in the passenger seat and played Sha Sha on the stereo. A lot of people from my given demographic (r.e. - the angsty] think about Pinkerton as the penultimate emo record. I always think about how I started my love for Ben Kweller with a car stereo, by myself, while my best friend had anger sex in the woods.

BK release another excellent album during my high school years, 2004's On My Way, which geared more towards indie rock. As it turns out, each BK album has its own genre. 2006's Ben Kweller honored sunny '60s pop rock, while this year's Changing Horses is a country/bluegrass album on par with Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline. I've tried to respect each era of Kweller's songwriting with this playlist while also tossing in some rarities. As a die-hard, I think there's some missing spots: On My Way deserves way more face time, I really wanted to fit in BK's duet with Adam Green on "Kokomo," there's no Bens songs (side project with Ben Folds and Ben Lee), and I had to cut BK's spastic/psychedelic side when I took "Launch Ramp" and "Tylenol" off the list. Oh well; here's "Little Pink Stars."

Little Pink Stars
1. Ben Kweller - "How It Should Be (Sha Sha)," Sha Sha
2. Ben Kweller - "Wasted & Ready," Sha Sha [How could I not open with the first two songs from Sha Sha, in sequence?]
3. Radish - "Little Pink Stars," Restraining Bolt [BK still gets requests for this one. I'm sure it still annoys him, but to be fair, this is the best pre-solo song he ever released.]
4. Ben Kweller - "I Need You Back," On My Way
5. Ben Kweller - "The Rules," On My Way
6. Ben Kweller - "Jerry Falwell Destroyed the Earth," Future Soundtrack for America
7. Ben Kweller - "Commerce, TX," Sha Sha
8. Ben Kweller - "On Her Own," Changing Horses
9. Ben Kweller - "Sundress," Ben Kweller
10. Ben Kweller, "Penny on the Train Track," Ben Kweller
11. Ben Kweller - "Gypsy Rose," Changing Horses
12. Ben Kweller - "BK Baby," Freak Out It's... Ben Kweller [ This Vanilla Ice reimagining also gets requested at shows a lot. It's kind of awesome.]
13. Ben Kweller - "On My Way," On My Way
14. Ben Kweller - "Family Tree," Sha Sha
15. Ben Kweller - "In Other Words," Sha Sha
16. Ben Kweller - "Thirteen," Ben Kweller
17. Ben Kweller - "Different But the Same," On My Way
18. Ben Kweller - "Undone (The Sweater Song)," bootleg [Kweller's got some great covers; I also dig his version of Lemonheads' "Buddy."]
19. Ben Kweller - "Harriet's Got a Song," Sha Sha
20. Ben Kweller - "Falling," Sha Sha [Gotta close with the same ending from Sha Sha... almost]
21. Guster w/ Ben Kweller - "I Hope Tomorrow is Like Today," Keep It Together [This bittersweet gem got some face time in the hit summer comedy Wedding Crashers. Guster and BK did not play this song when I saw them play together at Penn's Landing. Weak sauce!]

I'll be the first to admit that I rely too much on Sha Sha at seven songs (out of a possible 11), but I did the best I could to "find a box to put BK insides," as some might say.

Ben Kweller - 'Changing Horses'

Plenty of people made a stink about Bob Dylan going electric, but how many will flip assorted lids over Ben Kweller (ex-Radish, “your favorite sugar-metal band”) going acoustic on new album Changing Horses? Probably not many, and while it might seem unfair to draw a line between Kweller and a legend like Dylan, it’s hard not to think of the two here. See, with Changing Horses, Kweller has essentially made his own Nashville Skyline, a brief, easy going country record. It’s charming in its simplicity, honest in its intent. And while Kweller completely drops the vestiges of his old alt-rock style here, the change isn’t nearly as abrupt as one might think.

Older Kweller cuts like “Family Tree” and “Living Life” were always flecked with country/bluegrass hints, so Changing Horses is more an exploration of his influences than anything else. And where some former rockers have flailed a bit in the genre (Oh hey Jenny Lewis! No I didn’t buy Acid Tongue, why?), Kweller sounds, ironically, more assured with his laidback delivery. It helps that, lyrically, the songs are still more or less in keeping with BK’s style post-Sha Sha. He gets a little less silly with each release, that’s for sure, but ultimately these are still songs about wanderin’ ladies (“On Her Own”) and dudes hangin’ out (“Homeward Bound”).

By this point, I don’t think Kweller is ever going to record another album of grungey Weezer-esque loser jams, but I’m finally OK with that. Dude still has a thing for hooks (again I cite “On Her Own”). Just because Changing Horses is loose doesn’t mean it’s lazy – the guy still writes pop songs. “Fight” is a rousing call to action; Kweller is sure to get toes a-tapping when he hits the lines “Playin’ every card that’s been dealt to me / Ya know, some days are aces and some days are faces / Well, some days are twos and threes” during the third verse. Same goes for opening track “Gypsy Rose,” which constantly fluctuates between loud/fast and slow/quiet (It’s almost like bluegrass Nirvana!).

Of course, for all its lack of fuss, there are plenty of aspects to Changing Horses that might turn folks off. First off, it’s a country record. So those who “like everything but country” are going to be stereotypically disappointed. Plus, Horses isn’t much of a rocker, although a few of these songs do kill live. Older fans might not be turned off by the new sound, but they may be dismayed that, all these years later, Kweller is still rerecording his early songs – “Wantin’ Her Again” is back. Finally, sometimes Kweller gets a lil too cutesy. Lines like “I like likin’ you” from “Things I Like to Do” or “I never wanna be the old hat you put on your pretty head” from “Old Hat” might taste too saccharine for some.

Still, though, it’s great to have the guy back. All these years after “Wasted & Ready” (and, uh, “Little Pink Stars”), Kweller is still turning out pop tuneskis that are catchy, fun, and heartfelt. While reality occasionally creeps into his lyrics (“On Her Own” uses Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath as a backdrop), and that twang has gotten a wee bit stronger, Kweller still knows how to write a good pop song.