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Happy birthday to three of my personal favorites: Arnold Schwarzenegger, 60 (!); Laurence "Larry" Fishburne, 46; and Tom "My bum is on the Swedish" Green, 36.
Today also marks the anniversary of the Treaty of Box Elder (1863), Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance (1975 -- though I guess this wasn't so good), the signing of the Sarbanes Oxley Act (2002), and Sarsfest (2003).
For your edification:
All-time classic Arnold
&
Pavement's Stephen Malkmus performing "Box Elder"
The Knights of Infinite Resignation were pleased to find out that their "Paris Hilton & Captain Beefheart" single was the subject of an entry today on the blog at The Captain Beefheart Radar Station. Ever since the days of the Electric Eels, Captain Beefheart has always been a favorite of Ohio's rock expeditionaries, and so it should almost go without saying that the Knights were totally psyched that they warranted mention on beefheart.com.
Well, today is the day. The Knights of Infinite Resignation's "Paris Hilton & Captain Beefheart" single is released upon the world at large. The CD version (which contains a cover of Pere Ubu's "Ice Cream Truck" -- gotta love the Cloudland action) can most easily be obtained through the NBR Online Store. Prefer digital downloads? We've got you covered. Here's a sampling:
That should be a good sampling. There's some other ones too, so if you use another service just rust an artist search.
In honor of the release of the Knights of Infinite Resignation's "Paris Hilton & Captain Beefheart" single, the Next Best Records Store has been updated and completely redesigned. (That's right, it's now free of the rigid constraints of one big table.)
What does this mean for you? Well, first the PH&CB single is available for mail-order through the store. The abbreviated version (i.e., without the Pere Ubu cover that's exclusive to the CD version) should be available online via pretty much all of the digital retailers tomorrow. We're not 100% sure on that, though, so we're not offering any guarantees. In any event, we'll let you know when PH&CB is up on the sites.
Also, as an added bonus, we've discounted the Knights t-shirts from $15.00 to $12.50 in celebration of the new single. So yeah, check out the store (www.nextbestrecords.com/store.html).
I figured I should write something about this year's Pitchfork Festival, since I went all three days. I also figured it wouldn't be a good idea to babble on and on about everything, so here's a list of ten things I liked about it (there were a number of things I didn't like, but it's better to stay positive, right?). There's no particular order here (well, maybe chronological).
That's the list. Like I said, Sonic and Malkmus were the big highlights for me. All in all, getting to see three members of Pavement play was worth the price of admission, not to mention all the other bands I got to catch.
I posted a news update on the Knights of Infinite Resignation MySpace site tonight. I also posted a rough mix of a new Knights song, "Her Bangs," which will be on the Knights' debut album, White Rose Exile Rock. That's right, I said album. More information is found in the news update post.
Also, in case you forgot, the "Paris Hilton & Captain Beefheart" single comes out July 24.
Professor Lee (whose YouTube blog is linked somewhere to the right) used a portion of my "Song For Paige" as background music at the end of his video, "The Real History of YouTube in 3 Minutes." If you're interested in the history of YouTube, this is the quickest and most entertaining source of info.
If you're too lazy to follow the link above, I'll post it here as well:
Congratulations to Joey Chestnut who earlier today pulled off an epic victory in the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Competition. I honestly thought Kobayashi was my generation's Babe Ruth -- someone who defined the sport and would own it for as long as he chose to compete. When Chestnut went jaw to jaw with Kobayashi last year, there was hope that the U.S. would reclaim the mustard belt. Chestnut fulfilled that promise today.
First that annoying law professor finally got beat on Jeopardy last night, and now Chestnut wins the hot dog eating competition. It's been a good two days.
Today I got a new stylus for my record player. I figure that's reason enough for me to reinstate the long-abandoned "record of the month series" that actually only appeared once. I've changed the title of the series from the unintentionally (and regretfully) elitist "NBR's Greatest Records You've Probably Never Heard" to the more populist (and gramatically incorrect) "NBR's Records That More People Should Listen To." I promise to update this once a month, since really this blog should be used as a force of good, and there's no higher good than letting people know about underappreciated records. So, without further ado . . . .
This month's Record That More People Should Listen To is Peter Laughner's "Cinderella Backstreet" 7" single.
The Laughner story has already been told a few times by people who know more and write better than me. If you're interested, first check out John Petkovic's piece on Laughner. From there, I heartily implore you to read and reread Charlotte Pressler's classic essay, "Those Were Different Times," which at great length details the origins of the 70's Cleveland scene (which spawned the Electric Eels, Mirrors, and Rocket From The Tombs, and from there everything else) and Laughner's integral role in it. Finally, Handsome Productions' site has another comprehensive overview of Laughner's recording career written by Derek DePrator. While you're at it, be sure to check out the MySpace page for Laughner, on which some songs are streamed.
For those who want the short story, here's my go: Peter Laughner played guitar and sang for Rocket From The Tombs and Pere Ubu's early lineups. Really, though, he's probably most famous for Guns and Roses covering his song, "Ain't It Fun" (previously made popular through the Dead Boys' version) and Wilco quoting a line from his "Amphetamine" ("Take the guitar player for a ride . . . ") in one of their songs (although Guns and Wilco fans still probably wouldn't know who Laughner was). He also played in a number of other bands based in Cleveland. He was instrumental in bringing other bands to the "forefront" in Cleveland, whether they be Clevelanders themselves or New York outfits like Television (Laughner personally arranged for Television to perform their first shows outside of New York City in Cleveland). His work with the Rockets and Ubu (not to mention his influence on the Dead Boys) solidified him in the pantheon of underground rock visionaries, but his "solo" work (both truly solo and with the numerous bands he fronted) is also great.
The problem is that it's hard to find Laughner's solo stuff. When he died in 1977 (at the too-young age of 24), his only recorded output consisted of his appearances on a couple of Pere Ubu singles. The first Laughner record released was a self-titled seven-song 12" record released in 1982 on Koolie Records (based outta Chagrin Falls (!), Ohio). It's a great record, but, unfortunately, long out of print (as I type there's a copy on eBay that's at $17.28 with 3 and a half days to go). Also out of print is the greater Take The Guitar Player For A Ride double-LP released in 1994 by Tim Kerr Records. In fact, Amazon.com has used copies of the Tim Kerr CD (which has three less tracks than the LP version, most notably the brilliant solo acoustic cover of Dylan's "Visions of Johanna") for $70! Supposedly there's also an out of print 7" featuring Brian Eno's "Baby's On Fire" (which is also on Take The Guitar Player For A Ride) and the Velvet Underground's "What Goes On," but I haven't ever come across it.
So what Laughner records are in print? Handsome Productions currently has 10 discs of Laughner material available, but if you're one of the uninitiated, you can't go wrong starting out with the "Cinderella Backstreet" single, which thankfully Forced Exposure has kept in print.
Even though it's only got two songs, the "Cinderella Backstreet" single serves as a decent overview of the rest of Laughner's voluminous recorded output. Some have documented how Laughner went through distinct phases: folk (in the mold of Woody Guthrie and Dylan), underground rock (in the mold of the Velvet Underground), experimental rock (in the mold of Captain Beefheart), glam (in the mold of Bowie/Eno), punk (in . . . um . . . his own mold), etc. There's a good bit of truth in this idea, and the A-side title-track to the single is one of Laughner's "folk" recordings.
Accompanied only by a 12-string acoustic guitar, "Cinderella Backstreet" takes a long look at one of Laughner's favorite subjects: ordinary people. The song takes a few cues from Dylan -- I read some review somewhere derisively calling Laughner's "Sylvia Plath" a knockoff of "Desolation Row" (which it most definitely isn't, though that's another story for another day), but "Backstreet" is the song that bears a faint resemblance to Dylan's tune. Laughner's song is wholly his own, however. The "alley" that the narrator walks down during the refrain of "Cinderella Backstreet" is an infinitely more real alley than Dylan's Row, and Laughner's song is populated by friends with real names -- Scotty and Ricky -- while Dylan sings about Ezra Pound the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Sure, Peter's guy is walking around with Cinderella Backstreet, but this Cinderella is a Cleveland girl, not the fairytale maiden Dylan sings about.
And maybe this was what Laughner was really good at. He took certain recognizable forms, digested them, and produced something that was uniquely his. And isn't that what a folk singer -- no, better yet, an American singer -- does? "Cinderella Backstreet" is an epic acoustic folk song in the mold of Dylan -- but it's Laughner's epic acoustic folk song. When Laughner sings that opening line, " . . . I am a backstreet boy . . . ", you get something distinctly Laughner -- that forlorn, but not resigned, sense of standing on the periphery while knowing there are still movements to be made -- that transcends form (and any baggage the words "backstreet boy" may carry for those of us living in the new millenium). It's a good song, and my words really can't do it justice. You gotta listen to it yourself.
While Laughner dug Dylan, perhaps his ultimate "hero" was the Velvets-era Lou Reed. So, it's fitting that the B-side of the single is the Velvet Underground's "White Light/White Heat," performed by one of Laughner's bands, Cinderella Backstreet (that's right . . . just like the song -- by the way, I'm not sure if this is the same recording that's featured on the Handsome Productions Cinderella Backstreet cd, though I imagine it is). Recorded live during a show in August, 1973, this 6+ minute take of the Velvets classic showcases a bit of the experimental noise-rock elements that would inform both Rocket From The Tombs and Pere Ubu. In fact, Cinderella Backstreet features Scott Krauss, who later would go on to drum with Ubu.
Is this version of "White Light/White Heat" as good as the Velvets' version? Of course not. But, as Laughner himself says in introducting the song, "This is the same song, only it's a little bit different." The "meat" of the song is pretty true to the original. It's at the ends where we get a bit of that Laughner magic. It starts off with a slow groove that allows the tension to build up. It doesn't have the initial rush of the Velvets' version (which starts with the singing), but the effect here is interesting nonetheless. At the end we get an extended improvisation, heavy on the keys, but not at the expense of the guitars, that gives us a bit more substance than the original. Again, this version isn't on par with the classic original, but it does work as a glimpse into how the Velvets were interpreted a mere five years after the fact.
Like I said, the two songs on the single will give you a good but brief overview of Laughner's work. If you can't get your hands on any of the other recordings just yet, it'll take care of ya. There have been hints here and there (e.g., Wikipedia) that a new Laughner compilation will be distributed on a more "mass" scale than Handsome Productions is capable of, but that remains to be seen. After all, for 20 years after Laughner's death, all the world officially heard of his solo work was six album sides and two singles. Hopefully his work will soon see release on the various digital retail sites as well. Until then, get the single from Forced Exposure.
Apparently the recent Heedfest GBV-oriented gathering in Dayton was pretty exciting. Where else are you going to get Pollard, Farley, MacPherson, and Slusarekno playing "A Salty Salute"? You can't go wrong with that. (By the way, is this an unprecedented GBV lineup? That would make this, what, lineup number 684?)
