Fearing December

The Decemberists
To be fair I listened to this for the first time when I had food poisoning and a touch of the 24hr flu. It bugged the piss out of me. 24 hrs later a second chance was given. Same whiny vocals. Same songs that seemed to drag on far too long, with some songs being way to repetitive. Sorry there was no third listening. 1

Fear
Lee Ving was in a great rock and roll movie called get crazy. Hell it even had Lou Reed acting in it. He was also in Streets of Fire. The fact that I lead with those facts explains my feeling of this cd. Fast guitars, pissed off at the world lyrics and a horrible cover does not make great social commentary record. What it does make is a similar sounding songs following one right after another with no reason to differentiate between them as the fly by. I’ll probably watch the movies again, but not the cd. 1

Beck
Not a big Beck fan in general. I understand that he is extremely talented singer songwriter. I respect his willingness to push what is expected, switching from style to style with ease and still consistently putting out quality work. I liked his funky stuff, and his band driven stuff, not so much his work that’s studio driven. I found this particular cd okay. Sometimes the rhythm tracks he brings to the foreground did not add much to the tune. His lyrics were good but not really terribly memorable. I just found this a middle tempod middle of the road cd. 2.5


Jason and the Scorchers
This is the album that for me all other “alt country” albums should be compared to. When released it was way too heavy to be country, and to country to be heavy, so it had no place on the dial. Jason the singer with the nasal twang and Warren Hodges a guitar hero in any book created a sound unique to their time. A strong rhythm section that kept the tunes chugging forward and a classic record was created. From the bass fill in Last Time Around, to the catchy chorus of White Lies, to grandeur of I Really Don’t Want to Know the album is one great song after another. And that unfortunately was their demise, while the second record was still really good, they fell into the trap that all bands that do not fit the dial try and do. Change so they will. Some questionable covers, some cd’s that were heavy on filler and light on killer followed. But they would always have one or two tracks that just knocked you backwards in a good way. Perhaps they were ahead of there time; perhaps they would never quite fit in. But maybe some of the current “alt country” bands should look at this cd and remember what was good about this genre. Not play and twiddle in the studio, but put your head down and race to the end. 4.5

Superdrag
Great band with a great pop ear. Had lots of fun listening to it. Need copies of Head trip, and Vitriol. Thought I had three could only find the two. What’s the deal skipping Keep It Close to Me.


Topic

I want to be the bass player. I suppose its my classical training in Trombone that draws me to the idea that the best part of a band is to support the overall sound then fill in as needed to create interesting runs or help drive the song forward. Also if you research the bands I truly find influential all had strong bass players who were instrumental in the song writing process, if not the actual lead song writer of the band. Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy, Pete Way of UFO, Michael Been of the Call, Steve Harris of Iron Maiden all were phenomenal bass players and chief songwriters of their bands. Throw in John Deacon of Queen, Nicky Wire of The Manic Street Preachers, and Chris Carter of Dramarama all of whom were responsible for some of my favorite songs from their bands. Then of course there was a guy named McCartney especially in his early work.

Now I don’t think I want to be the front man of the band like Been and Lynott, but I would want to be part of the process that helps write the music and the words, and be the support the band needs to create their sound.