Jam of the day, psychedelia compilations, and vinyl conventions: D.R. Hooker / "Forge Your Own Chains"

Artist: D.R. Hooker
Album: The Truth
Song: "Forge Your Own Chains"
Released: 1972
Label: On Records [original] / Subliminal Sounds [reissue]


A friend of mine had a vinyl copy of Forge Your Own Chains: Psychedelic Ballads and Dirges 1968-1974 and played it on at least one occasion while we were hanging out at his place and in the right frame of mind for this album. Oh man, is it heavenly. A double LP compilation, with songs from Korean psychedelic guitarist Shin Joong Hyun, Nigerian rock band Ofege, a Temptations cover by a group of American soldiers who won a "Battle of the Bands" contest while stationed in Germany, and this here tune and namesake for the album by an underground Connecticut folk-rocker named D.R. Hooker. I've since gone on and bought a vinyl copy myself and highly recommend you do the same.

D.R. Hooker has a solid J.C. look about him, as you can see on the cover art for The Truth, his 1972 debut LP. He released another LP 7 years later, and another one in the late 1980s, but I've yet to track those down. I stumbled upon a reissue of this album on vinyl (via the Subliminal Sounds label) at the 7th (semi-)annual Pittsburgh Record Fest at Belvedere's a month ago. The event was pretty big, filling the huge back room of Belvedere's with tables and sellers and people milling about. I got there with some friends on the later end of the evening, and probably missed out on some great scores because of that, but it felt like I didn't see a whole lot of stuff that "grabbed" me. This record was the only one I picked up that made me say, "I have to have this." I made some other finds, but this was my favorite by far.

Here's the jam that got this whole story started. It's a catchy little ditty in the middle of the LP, piecing together a tambourine beat and stuttery drums with D.R. Hooker's smooth voice and a cool bass line, plus some awesome jazzy punches of brass. It's really, really … cool. Suave.

D.R. Hooker / "Forge Your Own Chains"



"One more cigarette to clear your head
Today you're living, tomorrow you're dead"

Some other links about D.R. Hooker I found: Buried Treasure / 99 Krap Rec / The Truth

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I'm always on the lookout for other sweet compilation albums, after experiencing the greatness of this one. This also led me to buy an album of Shin Joon Hyung tunes called Beautiful Rivers & Mountains and it is similarly outstanding and highly recommended. Do you know of any other compilations like this that you'd recommend? LET ME KNOW!

Shin Jung Hyun (ft. Jang Hyun) / "Twilight"

Jams of the day, band name stories, and the many projects of J Mascis: Heavy Blanket / "Dr Marten's Blues" & Electronic Anthology Project / "Tarpit"

I've heard about two musical projects in the last couple of months and just about the only thing they have in common is one man: J Mascis. This guitar wizard has played in so many great bands and released so much awesome music into the world, and there's clearly no end in sight. Dinosaur Jr. is amazing, of course, and I was really wowed by last year's solo LP, Several Shades of Why. Great songwriting, and that growly voice of his still holds up in an acoustic setting like that.

I saw on Pitchfork last week that J and some pals will release an LP of instrumental psychedelic rock tunes in May. They've shared one track, "Dr Marten's Blues", and it is an absolute scorcher. Well, it's actually just a catchy bass rumble and a pounding beat that almost serves as an excuse for J to shread a massive guitar solo over the whole thing for four minutes. Yeah. I mean, it's an awesome solo. I literally can't stop listening to it. I'm pretty sure the whole LP will be like this, which … actually intrigues me.

Another part of this story, besides the surprising and weird nature of it all, is that the band apparently has a crazy, wild, pretty much unbelievable story. I'm sure it's rooted in some truth, but … it's hard to say. You can read the whole thing on their record label's website and see for yourself, but here's a choice selection:

He remembered a couple kids from his early high school days – stoner kids he’d always admired for their “who gives a shit” attitude. Those kids, Johnny Pancake and Pete Cougar, had been kicked out of marching band for smoking weed out of a tuba. Way better musicians than the marching band deserved, they’d formed a duo that was all rhythm section – no vocals, no guitar, a sick, punchy brew of Band of Gypsies and Japanese hard psych (Johnny’s uncle was a US Marine stationed on Okinawa in 1973. From his frequent visits to Tokyo, he brought home a killer psych record collection. And a mean dose of the clap). These were the guys he needed. He rounded them up and it soon became obvious that the heavy rhythms they created were the perfect backdrop to young Mascis’ insane, fluid ability on the guitar. The trio came up with six blistering tracks, named themselves Heavy Blanket, and set a date to record.

I imagine that the Heavy Blanket moniker has something to do with the thick, sumptuous slab of sound these guys produce, or something about what this type of music does to your brain … you get the idea. But it makes me think about how bands get together, decide on a name, name some tracks and an album. There's a lot of naming. My favorite band name story is far-and-away Yo La Tengo, though; here's a great video of Ira Kaplan (and special guest!) describing the story.

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The other musical venture I heard about recently is one by Built To Spill's bassist, Brett Nelson. His Electronic Anthology Project … er, project … covers entire albums of rock music in a more electronic/synthified way. His description sums it up nicely:

I truly love bands like Talk Talk, Men Without Hats, and Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, but I also love bands like Dinosaur Jr., The Replacements, and The Pixies. So what if I merged my two loves together?

An upcoming LP—set for release on Record Store Day—will have nine Dinosar Jr. tracks, with J Mascis singing on each one. (He might have re-recorded these vocals for this release? Not totally sure.) Have a listen to the old and the new versions here and see what you think. I'm intrigued but probably not enough to actually buy anything …

Cover jam of the day, local record stores, and vinyl to mp3: The Karl Hendricks Trio / "Out On The Weekend" [Neil Young]

Hey Pittsburghers, in case you were blissfully/woefully unaware: Paul's CDs in Bloomfield is closing its doors forever in a few weeks, and it will be replaced by Sound Cat Records, operated by current employee and living indie rock legend Karl Hendricks. Kinda sad, but kinda interesting and hopeful news, I must say. As Paul's clears out their inventory to make room for Karl and his wares, they are having ever-increasing sales. Last I heard, everything is 50% off! The vinyl is kinda picked over, but there's still plenty left, so go check it out!

I went there last week to see what I could find, and walked out with a big stack of LPs and 7"s. Oh yeah, don't forget to peruse the 7" singles at the front counter. Factor that into your shopping time, and don't just give a percursory looksee as you wait at the register. There are some good finds in there. Case in point: I snagged 3 original Karl Hendricks Trio singles for $10, and by that I mean $5! And yes, that is the very same KH whose name I mentioned above, and he was there at the register as I paid and he thanked me for buying them. I mean, I don't think any money of the purchase was going to directly to him (or indirectly, even) and yet he still looked grateful that I was buying his music. Cool dude, that Karl. I said, "No problem, I enjoy it", and gave him a smile. It's the best I could think of at the time.

One of those singles I bought was "The Worst Coffee I've Ever Had, Part Two". I was literally buying all of the vinyls of his there, so I didn't look too carefully past the awesomely cartoonish artwork. A few days later, when I got down to playing all of them, I noticed that the B-side to this is "Out On The Weekend", a Neil Young tune from Harvest! I quickly pulled out my vinyl copy of that album, played track one, then skipped over to this tune for comparison. In a way, it is a "faithful" cover—same lyrics and attitude, no big reinvention of the song's melody—but it's decidedly Karl's own—decidedly more uptempo, fuzzy guitars, sweet rock solo in place of the harmonica. It's a truly great indie rock cover of a truly great and historic folk rock tune.

Here's the Karl Hendricks Trio version, as recorded from that vinyl single I bought straight to mp3 on my laptop via some fancy-shmancy software that came with my turntable. It's not actually that fancy, but it's kinda handy. I'll try to take advantage of it more because I've basically never used it and this version turned out rather nicely. I'll try to share some vinyl singles I have that don't exist elsewhere on the web, so stay tuned for that! So yeah, here's that tune:



And now, here is Neil Young's original version:

Jams of the day, harmonicas in rock, and indie music on TV: The War On Drugs / "Don't Fear The Ghost" + "Snake Tongues" + "Baby Missiles"

I'm glad we've reached a point in our friendship where I can say "I like The War On Drugs" and you know what I mean. That other war on drugs is "bullshit", but Adam Granduciel and gang are "the shit". That Future Weather EP from 2010 still gets plays on my iTunes, and Slave Ambient was a perfect followup/expansion, working together some Tom Petty-channelling, road-trippin' rockers with some more, well, ambient soundscape-style songs. It's weird to listen to some of their quieter numbers because whenever I think back to when I saw them live last summer, I don't recall any dull moments or lulls or even feeling like I was being swept downward by their tunes. And yet, that's exactly what some of their songs do, in particular a new B-side they just released, somewhat appropriately-entitled "Don't Fear The Ghost".
Stream it here:



Oh wait! That's the more rockin' tune. "Snake Tongues" is the languid, hazy, psychedelic track that's newish. That seems backwards to me. I expected "Snake Tongues" to be some upbeat rocker about evil serpents nipping at your heels as you sprint through the desert or something like that. Instead, it seems to be about a weird drug trip. Whatever, it's great. Head over to any of these 1, 2, 3, 4 places to download the mp3 since I can't host it here.

One of my personal favorite tracks from both Future Weather and Slave Ambient is "Baby Missiles". It's not so different on the LP, maybe a slightly different mix or something, but the parts that always get me going are the way Granduciel's voice modulates rapidly in both pitch and fervor ("He's up and down like A NEW JACK TONE") and that fucking harmonica solo! How awesome is that?! Too few modern indie rock bands use harmonica, in my opinion, and I'm not just recommending it for the "let's be different" kind of thing. This is a damn fine instrument and deserves to be used more often. The War On Drugs took to the stage on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night and jammed out this tune, complete with that harmonica part we all love. Dig it:



Say what you will about Mr. Fallon, his show, and his ability to ruin every SNL sketch with shattering-the-fourth-wall laughter, but he and his staff have their ears to the grindstone vis-à-vis the indie rock scene. They've pulled plenty of great bands on for sessions and had a bunch make their TV debut there, TWOD included (as well as a recent, lovely appearance by Sharon Van Etten). I'm thankful for this trend: more exposure for good bands, a chance to see ?uestlove play backup percussion, all good stuff.

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The War On Drugs on the web: Website / Bandcamp / Facebook / Twitter
Buy Slave Ambient: Secretly Canadian / Insound / Amazon / iTunes / eMusic

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The Song Remains the Same-ish: The Apples In Stereo vs. Big Eyes

[This is a "series" that lets me point out when two songs sound really similar or something about one song reminds me strongly of another one, or something like that. Its frequency obviously depends on me finding these similarities, so who knows when it will happen again.]

Artist:	The Apples In Stereo	/	Big Eyes
Song:	"She's Telling Lies"	/	"Now That You Aren't Mine"
Album:	Velocity of Sound	/	Hard Life
Label:	Elephant 6	/	Don Giovanni
Released:	October 8, 2002	/	August 23, 2011

This same-ish similarity snuck up on me. I've been listening to a lot of The Apples In Stereo lately because I went and saw The Olivia Tremor Control a few weeks ago and it was fucking amazing. I sat front and center, it was an awesome theatre, the band sounded great, they played for a long time, and I was incredibly lucky and went backstage to interview Will Cullen Hart after the show, also chatting briefly with Bill Doss and John Fernandes in the process. But that's really beside the point; I just wanted to mention it :-) Since then, I've had a renewed interest in all that is Elephant 6 and have been listening to a lot of albums from Beulah, of Montreal, OTC, NMH, and so on. I renewed my devotion for Robert Schneider and The Apples and, particularly, my affinity for Velocity of Sound, their emo-punk album. It is surprisingly good. Seriously.

Earlier tonight, I was listening to a new LP, from a newish band named Big Eyes, entitled Hard Life. I was enjoying the pop-punk ride, with quick and catchy guitar-heavy numbers, but then I got to track 10: "Now That You Aren't Mine". The opening guitar line reminded me of something … I couldn't quite place it just yet, so I played the first minute of the song again. I listened to the first verse and noted how it matched the guitar melody in pitch. Then I played it again. And once more. And then it hit me. This melody is almost exactly the same as the beginning of a random bonus track tune from Velocity of Sound! Playing the two songs back to back now, I recognize that the connection is a little stretched—the tempos are different, the guitar scuzz layers are different, the intro/ending of the melodies are different—but hey, this series isn't about finding identical songs, right? It's just about pointing out similarities, and I believe I've found two songs whose guitar riffs sound remarkably similar. (It's a little odd that the song titles are slant rhymes, too, isn't it?) What's weirder to me is that I was able to recall this Apples In Stereo tune just from this random guitar riff, considering it's a non-standard-issue bonus track. Luckily, I've listened to this album four or five times over the last three weeks, and that I was pointed to this Big Eyes album earlier today via a message board I frequently read. Huzzah, serendipitous coincidences!

So, see for yourself! Do they sound alike? Am I making shit up? Tell me! (Seriously, tell me …)

The Apples In Stereo / "She's Telling Lies (Bryce's Mix)" / Velocity of Sound [Elephant 6, 2002]

 
Big Eyes / "Now That You're Not Mine" / Hard Life [Don Giovanni, 2011]

 

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By the by, this Big Eyes LP is awesome pop-punk. Check it aht. Also The Apples In Stereo are one of my fave bands of all time. VoS is good, Her Wallpaper Reverie is great, and Fun Trick Noisemaker is a fucking masterpiece.

Big Eyes on the web: Blog / Bandcamp / Facebook / Twitter
Buy Hard Life: Don Giovanni Records / Insound / Amazon / iTunes / eMusic

The Apples In Stereo on the web: Website / Facebook / Twitter
Buy Velocity of Sound: Amazon / iTunes / eMusic

the business of downloading music

I found this article today via the A.V. club. It discusses the interplay between Apple and Amazon over the latter's "Daily Deal", a feature that lets customers buy certain classic or new-release albums for (relatively) dirt cheap prices, sometimes a day before the street release date. Naturally, Apple doesn't like it, but what's unnatural (to me) is that some major record labels feel like they should stop participating in these kinds of promotions out of, presumably, fear of missing out on business on the iTunes store, or something like that. It seems as though the sheer potential sales volume on the iTunes store is enough to keep people from pissing off Apple, which is unfortunate. How can new music download models, like the Daily Deals, be phased in to the system with this kind of looming fear?

I also saw this article on NPR yesterday about a new music streaming service, Spotify, that has been popular in Europe. The article casually mentioned Apple's acquisition of Lala, a website that I have been using fairly frequently, but a deal that I didn't know about, even though it apparently happened at the end of last year. The music uploader on Lala is fine, but not great (it's rather slow and misidentifies/doesn't recognize the occasional song), but the feature I like is being able to stream every song once for free. It lets me preview an album before I buy it and lets me check out an artist's catalog before buying a ticket to see a show. I hope this feature doesn't get lost in the transition. Check out this article on PC World for some hypotheses about the merger's consequences.

Anyway, I'd also like to use this post to point out some of the download websites I use. I've bought albums on iTunes before, but now I don't even have iTunes on my Linux system. I have never used Amazon, actually, but I think I will start checking out these Daily Deals just to see what's offered. A couple years ago I discovered eMusic and have been very happy with it. It's more suited for purchasing full albums than singles, which I like, and the catalog of small label releases is garagantuan. At first, I used it to fill in my collection of bands I knew and loved, but gradually I started using it to seek out new artists. The editors do well with recommendations, and the other users on the site seem to have good tastes, and perusing the "top-downloaded" charts is actually quite helpful.

A different kind of download site is Amie Street, which I learned about via the eMusic forums, actually. The idea is that albums (and individual tracks) are released with a price of $0.00, and the price increases with the number of downloads. This has let me get a lot of new, popular albums for free or almost free. Another neat feature is that you can "Rec" (as in recommend) any track; if you "rec" a track that costs $0.25 and it later jumps to $0.75$, you can cash in on that differential. If you rec a song when it's free, when you cash in later you get the full change; if the song was strictly positive in price, you get half the difference. You can choose to cash in at any future time. Since lots of new albums are released on Tuesdays, this has meant a lot of late Monday nights for me, refreshing the "New Releases" page around midnight and nabbing the new releases and trying to rec lots of tracks before the price goes up. It sounds crazy, but it's fun.