FOMM: Mitch Madness!

In honor of Mitch Easter coming to California next week, here are five tracks from Two Dozen Easter Eggs, a CD-R mix I made back in 2002 with 28 songs either performed or produced by Mitch. These five were his contributions to various early-90s tribute albums.

1. International Feel by Todd Rundgren
   (from For The Love Of Todd, Third Rock, 1991)
2. Kizza Me by Big Star
   (from Not The Singer But The Songs, Munster, 1991)
3. Valleri by The Monkees
   (from Here No Evil, Long Play, 1992)
4. Shiny Happy People by R.E.M.
   (from Surprise Your Pig, Staple Gun, 1992)
5. Pay You Back With Interest by The Hollies
   (from Sing Hollies In Reverse, Eggbert, 1995)
   

I saw Joe Boyd

Last night I went to see legendary producer Joe Boyd read from his new autobiography White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s. The impressive list of records he produced in that decade included Pink Floyd's debut single, Nick Drake's first two albums, and almost everything by Fairport Convention and the Incredible String Band.

Joe Boyd’s name evokes a certain time and place for me. I spent a few weeks in London in the Summer 1985, when Boyd’s profile was at a high point for producing R.E.M.’s Fables of the Reconstruction. Peter Buck said in an interview that they’d asked Boyd to produce the album because they liked the sound of the Nick Drake and Fairport Convention records he’d produced. Those artists were just random entries in Christgau’s Consumer Guide to me, but I was enough of an R.E.M. obsessive to want to learn more. Anything that inspired Peter Buck had to be great. I found cassette copies of Fairport’s Unhalfbricking and Drake’s Bryter Later (both way out of print in the USA but easily available in England at mid-line prices) a few days later, and those two tapes ended up spending more time on my Walkman than even Fables. I especially couldn’t get enough of Drake’s Bryter Later, and played nonstop that summer.

I brought the inlay card for that Bryter Later tape (which doesn’t play anymore) for Mr. Boyd to sign last night, told him the story of how I got it, and how grateful I was that I was to him for keeping Nick Drake’s legacy alive, and his music in circulation for all those years. A few folks asked him about Drake, but most of the audience at Booksmith seemed more interested that Boyd was the stage manager at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival (aka when Bob Dylan went electric). I like Dylan too, but this guy worked with Syd Barrett and Nick Drake! During the post-reading Q&A, after the fourth Dylan-goes-electric question, Boyd asked “are there any questions that aren’t about Bob Dylan?”.

I've only started reading the book, but it makes for fascinating reading for any fans of the artists Boyd worked with in those days. It focuses on the making of the music, and what it was like to be there at the time. On the front cover, Brian Eno calls it "the best book about music I have read in years", and after three chapters, I'm inclined to agree with Eno.

Neverending Flood of Litigation

I like this!

A few days after the Super Bowl, a Brooklyn Law School professor posted a YouTube clip containing the standard NFL copyright notice that was broadcast during the game.

This telecast is copyrighted by the NFL for the private use of our audience. Any other use of the pictures, descriptions or accounts of this game without the express written consent of the National Football League is prohibited

Five days later, she received a notice from YouTube that the clip had been removed at the request of the NFL, who claimed that reposting their copyright notice was a violation of their copyright. Knowing her fair use rights, she then filed a counter-notification with YouTube, saying that the clip was "an educational excerpt showing the NFL's overreaching copyright warning aired during the Super Bowl" and fell under fair use.

The NFL's DMCA-compliant response to this counter-claim would be to take the professor to court to remove the clip. Instead, they ignored the counter-claim and sent a second takedown request with YouTube, which violated the DMCA, the very same law they were invoking to protect the descriptions and accounts of their copyright notice.

Classic rock cinema

I saw two Rolling Stones movies on TV last weekend: Gimme Shelter (on the Sundance Channel) and Rock and Roll Circus (on PBS). Very interesting to compare and contrast the two shows, which were recorded a year apart from each other.

My interest in the Stones tends to ebb and flow, but I’ve started listening to them more lately. I’ve watched Gimme Shelter a few times, but normally only watch for the twenty seconds of the naked hippies dancing to Gram & the Burritos playing “Six Days On The Road”. The rest of the movie is (to paraphrase Jerry Garcia and the Rubinoos) a "bummer", especially when you know how it ends. How did a free concert by the biggest band in the world get approved just two days beforehand? Who thought hiring Hells Angels for security was a good idea? Were people really that stupid back in the 60s?

For late 60s Stones footage, Rock and Roll Circus is a lot more fun. It’s been out on video tape and DVD for awhile, but I’d never seen it before, except the Who’s performance of "A Quick One While He's Away" on The Kids are Alright, which has to be one of their finest moments as a band.

According to the R&RC wikipedia entry, the Stones withheld its release for 20 years because they felt their performance was substandard, but I thought they sounded great. This was Brian Jones’ last performance as a Rolling Stone, and he looks a bit lost for most of their set, but the rest of the band were on, and they played some of my favorite rarely-played tunes from Beggar’s Banquet (their brand new album): “Parachute Man”,”No Expectations”, and “Salt of the Earth”.

The show also shows a pre-Sabbath Tony Iommi playing with Jethro Tull, and a pre-junkie Marianne Faithful. This concert was a holy grail for rock collectors for a long time before it came out because it had the Rolling Stones, the Who, and one Beatle (John Lennon’s Dirty Mac) on the same stage. I don’t know if I need to buy the DVD, but it’s entertaining to watch once or twice.

Bracketology 2007 Update

NCAA Tournament 2007
1st Round Upsets: GWU over Vanderbilt, Long Beach over Tennessee, Gonzaga over Indiana, Creighton over Nevada, Winthorp over Notre Dame, VCU over Duke
W-L First Two Rounds: 35-13
Sweet Sixteen: 12/16ths correct
ESPN Bracketology Percentile: 66th
Elite Eight: 7/8ths alive (X%$& Badgers!)
Final Four: Wisconsin, Kansas, Ohio State, North Carolina
Finals: Kansas, North Carolina
Winner: North Carolina

Also, Bradley was trounced 101-72 yesterday by Mississippi State in the NIT.

chasing rainbows home

My musical discovery for today: the Australian band Even. I downloaded their latest single "Rainbows" on this free emusic compilation, and now have most of their available output, thanks be to emusic.

Even have been together since 1994, and their myspace profile describes their sound as "Big Star and The Lemonheads washing each others back with a cake of Small Faces soap". They've got that classic pop sound down cold, and even update it a bit for the here and now. Highly recommended to those who like that sort of thing. And to those who don't.. what's wrong with you?

FOMM: Five more for St. Patrick

Another Friday, another mini-playlist. Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, and here are five covers of songs by Irish Bands (northern and southern), as performed by Americans. St. Patty's Day is more of a holiday in the USA than in Ireland.

Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - Little Girl in Bloom
(from Treble in Trouble, originally by Thin Lizzy)
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - Suspect Device
(from Sharkbite Sessions, originally by Stiff Little Fingers)

Ted Leo's new album Living With The Living is coming out next Tuesday, and initial pressings come with a bonus cover of Chumbawumba's "Rappaport's Testament", that I saw him play a couple week's ago at SF's Noise Pop festival show. Ted Leo has unique taste in cover songs, and seems to like covering Irish bands. Here are a couple of covers from previous EPs, Thin Lizzy's "Little Girl In Bloom" from 2000's Treble in Trouble (his first recording with the Pharmacists) and "Suspect Device" by Stiff Little Fingers from 2005's Sharkbite Sessions (recorded at Oakland's Sharkbite studios).

I remember the first time I heard Ted & the Pharmacists cover "Suspect Device". It was at the Great American Music Hall before the 2004 Presidential election, and would've made me want to go out and vote for anyone who wasn't George W. Bush, even if I wasn't already motivated to do that. Two years, and more than "2000 dead" later, the song is sadly still pertinent, but on the plus side, GWB is two years closer to being the ex-president.

Dale Ann Bradley - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
(from East Kentucky Morning, originally by U2)
The Coal Porters - Teenage Kicks/Old Joe Clark
(from How Dark This Earth Will Shine, originally by The Undertones)

Bluegrass has roots in Irish traditional music, so what could be more apt for St. Patrick's Day than bluegrass versions of Irish rock classics? Both these songs are from a mix disc called California Grass that I made a couple of years ago, full of bluegrass covers of rock songs.

In my quest to mark notable album anniversaries, I should mention that U2's The Joshua Tree came out twenty years ago this month. I remember buying it as a longbox cassette, a short-lived packaging phenomenon that thankfully never caught on. Some of the songs on my California Grass mix were kind of gimmicky, but Dale Ann Bradley's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is a near-perfect match of singer and song that I find much more powerful than the U2 original.

The Coal Porters are Sid Griffin's post-Long Ryders band, who despite being based in London, are far more rootsy and Americanay than the LRs were. Their bluegrass-flavored cover of the Undertones' "Teenage Kicks" came out right before John Peel died, and I wonder if he heard it, and what he thought if he did ("Teenage Kicks" being Peel's all-time favorite song).

Patti Smith - Gloria
(from Horses, originally by Them)

This week Patti entered the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, so here's the first song from her first record, an extended version of the garage band standard "Gloria", written and originally recorded by Belfast's own Van Morrison & Them. I've just realized that most of these songs are by Northern Irish bands.. oh well! This came out on a major recording label, so it's linked from somewhere else. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, the 30th anniversary 2005 reissues of Horses and Born to Run came out on the same label (Sony/BMG of rootkit fame).

PS: Yesterday wasn't a great day for my picks, but how about that VCU over Duke selection?