Cover jam of the day, and a vinyl find at Jerry's Records: "Come On Down To My Boat"

Artist: Every Mother's Son / Meeting of Important People / The Rare Breed
Song: "Come On Down To My Boat"

Like many other vinyl fans in Pittsburgh, I trekked to Jerry's Records this past weekend after hearing he was planning to give away 33,000 records in boxes of LPs and 45s. (Why 33,000? He just likes the number, although I think 33,333 would have made more sense.) He's done giveaways like this before, and I've lucked into some good stuff (check out my "vinyl find" series for some of those). I was already needing to stop by the store and pick up some auction wins anyway (super clean copies of Fresh Cream and Bob Dylan and, as Jerry noted upon pickup, not quantity but definitely quality), so I looked around to see if anything caught my eye. While walking through the "rock" area, one album was sitting at the front of the "miscellaneous E" section and it grabbed my attention: the album Every Mothers' Son by the band Every Mother's Son (note the subtle apostrophic difference). The name was familiar, and in case I couldn't remember, a sticker on the album cover notes the inclusion of "Come On Down To My Boat". Aha! This song was covered by my fave local band, Meeting Of Important People, on last year's Quit Music EP! I don't think I knew for a couple of months after the release that it was even a cover song, but I learned the band's name at some point and it stuck in my head until now.

Based on the cover photo, this is a band of preppy dudes who write bubblegum pop songs, and some web research supports this hypothesis. Wikipedia notes the band's signing to MGM in 1967 was "supposedly because management saw the band's clean-cut image as an antidote to the hippie influx". Haha. But it's strange that the back cover of this album has silly band member bios, and one says "Lary can out-drink the toughest guy on the block" and Christopher is clearly reading an issue of Playboy in his photo. Maybe it's funny because Lary is chugging milk from the carton with a straw, and Christopher is grimacing at the magazine? I dunno. It's also strange that the song is really called "Come On Down To My Boat" yet the back of the album lists it as "Come And Take A Ride In My Boat". The album copy I grabbed is a little scratchy, but it just adds to the nostalgic feel, and the tunes are pretty solid for what they are: sweet and simple pop. ("For Brandy" is a particularly lovely little ditty.)

Enough chit-chat, here are two versions of this pretty and fun tune: Every Mother's Son's 1967 original version first (recorded live for some TV spot, in this particular video; here's a link to the album version), and then Meeting Of Important People's garage pop take on it 43 years later!
 

 

 
"Old garage song about a completely harmless man and his boat."
 
Hey now, hold on there! I just learned that Every Mother's Son aren't even the original recorders of this song! The Rare Breed (later known as The Ohio Express) hold that title, releasing a version entitled "Come And Take A Ride In My Boat" (aha, whence the confusion mentioned above) in 1966, but it never hit the charts. Somehow, Every Mother's Son's version did. There ya have it, folks, the fickleness of the listening public …
 

 

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Meeting of Important People on the web: Website / Facebook / Twitter / Bandcamp

Jam of the day, Wikileaks leaks, and a surprising fact about China's punk rock scene: Sonic Youth / "Washing Machine"

Artist: Sonic Youth
Album: Washing Machine
Song: "Washing Machine"
Released: September 26, 1995
Label: Geffen Records

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I really had no intent on listening to Sonic Youth today, let alone writing this post, until I saw the following headline on a link shared on SY's Facebook page:

Wikileaks: Sonic Youth is bigger than The Black Eyed Peas in China
The corresponding blog post (on some random crazy-link-sharing Tumblr) links to a New York Times article about how Julian Assange's Wikileaks site has completely revealed all of its holdings via some 1.73 GB document of text that one can find on a file-sharing site using a password that is findable somewhere on the internet. Crazy stuff. I have no desire to actually go through any of that (that's a huge document) but the particular passage this Tumblrer came across was interesting, kind of humorous, and, well, yeah, just really intriguing. (The following is quoted from that Tumblr page; I did not read the Wikileaks document myself.) Here it is:

Shanghai Rocks Out To Sonic Youth
12. (U) In the past year Shanghai has hosted an increasing number of concerts by foreign performers, including the Rolling Stones, James Brown and the Black Eyed Peas. The audiences at all of the concerts have been remarkably consistent, mostly foreigners (of all ages) with few Chinese. As a result, most foreigners expected a similar audience at an April 24 show by New York-based punk band Sonic Youth. Unbeknownst to most (Econoff included) Sonic Youth has a large, devoted following in China.
13. (U) The concert was held at the Shanghai Concert Hall, a historic building in the center of People's Park that primarily hosts classical music concerts. Before the show started the mostly twenty-something clean-cut Chinese audience was seated politely, many still in work attire, most with backpacks, a far cry from the typical Sonic Youth crowd in the United States. There was no alcohol or soda sold, only water. As soon as the lights dimmed, however, pandemonium erupted.
14. (U) The Chinese security seemed unsure how to react; for the first hour every time they tried to control the audience, the band would castigate them. Five minutes into the show the audience rushed the stage but the security stopped the surging crowd and aggressively pushed the audience back to their seats at which point the band stopped singing and asked the security to let the crowd approach the stage. Security held firm until a particularly popular song whipped the crowd into such a frenzy that it overwhelmed the security guards and the audience took over the stage pit. As the concert went on, security eased up more and more so that by the end they were allowing stage diving.
15. (U) According to Lilo Wang, a 24-year old accountant, who spent most of the show in the heart of the mosh pit, Sonic Youth had been popular in China for a long time and within the rock crowd was extremely popular. She said that Shanghai's rock scene was weak because all everyone cared about was making money and they were not passionate about life. She said the cost of the tickets (RMB 480 or USD 62) was worth it and that she hoped more bands like Sonic Youth would come to China and that rock, especially punk, would grow in popularity in Shanghai.
16. (U) Regards from Shanghai.

Pretty crazy, huh? I'm trying to picture what it must have been like to be at that show, both as a foreginer and as a native Chinese, closet Sonic Youth fan. Wild. Music is a universal language, folks. I wonder what that "particularly popular song" was that "whipped the crowd into such a frenzy". Any guesses? It's probably "Teenage Riot", but I'd rather play "Washing Machine" here. My friend and sole office mate has the actual washing machine-featuring blue t-shirt from the album cover (see above photo) and he wears it a lot, so it's always on my mind, and we have a good time tossing each other quarters and saying "Hey honey, here's a quarter. Go put it in a washing machine." Ahhhh, I guess you just have to be there. I found this awesome live version of "Washing Machine". Check it out.


"This is a song about the future. It's called 'Washing Machine'."

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Sonic Youth on the web: Website / Facebook / Twitter / Wikipedia
Buy Washing Machine: SYR Store / Insound / Amazon / iTunes / eMusic

Video jam of the day: Sleeping Bag / "Slime"

Artist: Sleeping Bag
Album: Sleeping Bag
Song: "Slime"
Released: August 9, 2011
Label: Joyful Noise

One of my favorite debut releases of this year is Sleeping Bag's self-titled LP. It channels 90s indie rock at its finest, smashing the wry and understated lyricism of Stephen Malkmus with the hooky guitars of Dinosaur Jr. and the poppy sentimentality of any number of Elephant 6 bands. That's high-minded company to lump Sleeping Bag with, but I think it's all well-founded and deservèd. I gave a glowing review of their album over at Draw Us Lines about a month ago, and since then, the band has gone on a Midwest/East Coast tour and has released an official music video for the lead single, "Slime". (Anyone out there who has seen them live wanna share your thoughts? Apparently they were here in Pittsburgh while I was out of town :-\ )

This song is one of my faves from the album, with its driving bass riff and drum beat, and the way Dave Segedy's vocals just push everything forward without too much insistence, combining just the right amount of forcefulness to be heard amongst the music with just the right amount of nonchalance to let the guitar melodies grab your ears and keep your attention. The video itself is an apparent homage to the Bloomington, Indiana scene, with shots of the band playing at a half dozen or so locations around town, from a garage to a junkyard to a rooftop to a living room to a patio to a playground to a forest and back again. Throw in some playful handclaps from the background crowds, plus a girl napping on a couch, some dudes eating breakfast, a couple making out, and a one-on-one basketball game amongst all the musical action, all spliced together seamlessly with great shots of the trio doin' their thing, and you've got a solidly entertaining video. Oh yeah, flying kittens!

Sleeping Bag / "Slime" / Sleeping Bag [Joyful Noise, 2011] / Dir. Nathan Vollmar and William Winchester Clay


Also check out this interview with singer/drummer Dave on the Village Voice's music blog for more info about the band and the video.

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Sleeping Bag on the web: Website / Bandcamp / Facebook / Twitter / Joyful Noise Recordings

Local music notes, September 2011: New Shouts, Neighbours, Host Skull, Donora, The Ceiling Stares, Draw Us Lines

It's impossible to stay in tune with all of the goings-on of the Pgh music scene, I gotta say, but when I find some good and/or interesting stuff, I like to share it with you. So here are some good and/or interesting songs, albums, events, etc. from the very recent past and the very near future.

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• New Shouts / Sing New Shouts EP / Release Show at Thunderbird Café on 09.24

  
  Pittsburgh's best retro soul rock band finally have an official release! They put out a couple of singles on their Bandcamp page many months ago when they started playing shows around town to drum up interest, and it definitely worked, at least for me. I've seen them a few times (at the Brillobox and The Shop) and their onstage energy is addictive. They also did an acoustic session for Draw Us Lines' Echo Chamber series and it turned out fantastically. (By the way, you can buy those Echo Chamber recordings on Bandcamp; more about that below!) But now they have a batch of seven new songs and they really capture their live energy, with catchy guitar melodies and upbeat percussion and soulful vocals (that almost sound British to me …?) that make you wanna sing along. It's part Kinks, part Beatles, part Motown, and all fun and danceable. You'll be able to buy the album digitally on 09.13, and they're having a release show at the Thundebird on Saturday 09.24 with Mariage Blanc and DJ Jordan K. In the meantime, you can still download those digital singles for free, and the teaser video below features a clip from my favorite song on the new EP, "Dollybird". Check it:
  
  New Shouts on the web: Facebook / Twitter / Bandcamp / Tumblr
  

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• Neighbours / Neighbours EP / Release Show at the Friday Nite Club on 09.02

  
  Whaddyaknow, another retro rock band has an EP coming out soon! Neighbours (now with a Britishized "u") have that Kinks/Animals/Small Faces vibe goin' on and it works really well. The couple of shows of theirs that I've seen have been great, with the singer sitting up front with his keyboard and then getting up and dancing around sometimes, singing his heart out and Andy's arms flailing all over the place behind the drumkit. The five songs on the EP are some of their best work, too, right from the keys riff and forceful vocals that kick off the energetic "Real Talk", to the Motown-inspired lament in "Fun", to the soft and slow and pretty "Without You" (with some great reverb on the vocals, nice recording there, fellas), to the punchy percussion that carries "Popgirls" through to the end. My only critique is that it's too damn short! They also have a couple of "name your price" singles here and here, and they'll have an official release party at the Irish Centre of Pittsburgh's Friday Nite Club party, on 09.02. DJ Jordan K and The Mt. McKinleys will also be playing, and you can pick up a CD there for just $5. In the meantime, stream some tracks here:
  
  Neighbours: Facebook / Twitter / Bandcamp
  

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• Host Skull / Totally Fatalist LP / Release Show at Brillobox on 09.22

  
  I am always amazed by what David Bernabo accomplishes. (When do you sleep, Dave?) His latest project is Host Skull, a collaboration with Will Dyar and a host of other Pittsburgh musicians: saxophonists, singers, bassists, drummers, dancers, flautists, etc. The story is that Will is based in Santa Fe and the band will have a dual existence, with Dave and friends performing shows here while Will and friends perform out there. Now, after seeing a recent performance of some of these songs, and knowing that Dave is an interesting dude, I'm not sure how much of the band story is rooted in truth, but that just adds to the mystique and intrigue. They have an LP coming out very soon on Chicago's Contraphonic label, and it is an amazingly broad yet cohesive album. The songs themselves span a wide array of influences—from Wilco-esque country folk to Grizzly Bear-ish baroque pop to some kind of soulful funk rock, and lead single "Totally Fatalist" (see video below) is the kind of jazzy avant-rock you might find with Dave's Assembly project—yet it all feels … right. It's born from some talented musicians and their powerful, united vision, and it shows. They'll play these songs, and more, at the Brillobox on Friday 09.22 with Raw Blow. You definitely want to see this show; I promise it will be good. In the meantime, check out the fascinating and humorous stop-motion video that Dave and pals put together for the title track, with direction by the one and only Hugh Twyman.
  
  Host Skull: Website / Facebook
  David Bernabo: Website / Twitter
  

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• Donora / Boyfriends, Girlfriends LP / "The World Is Ours" music video / CD Release Show at Rex Theater on 09.16

  
  I am so excited that Donora has a new album coming out. I remember buying their self-titled debut on the now defunct site Amie Street, a couple years ago when I first found out about them as I explored the local music scene, and then saw them play a couple live shows. I immediately loved their catchy indie pop songs and their live shows are always a lot of fun. They've played several new songs at shows over the past year and have been working hard on the recordings, and they're finally ready to share them with the waiting world. Boyfriends, Girlfriends will be officially released on 09.27 on Rostrum Records, and they're playing a show on 09.16 to celebrate (and give some of us a chance to buy it early, of course, and hey look at that, New Shouts are playing at that show, too!). Also, a month or so ago I hitched a ride to the suburbs of Pittsburgh to help the band film a video for the song "The World Is Ours" from the new album, and that video premiered on Spinner.com a couple weeks ago. I had no idea what I was getting into, and it ended up being a fun day of sitting around and pretending to play cards with an older gentleman on the porch of somebody's super nice guest house. The video is one continuous shot, so we did about five full takes, plus a bunch of practice ones, and each one required a lot of cleanup afterwards, as you'll see after watching the end result. Hugh also shared some photos from the video shoot. Enjoy the video, and see yinz at the show!
  
  Donora: Facebook / Twitter / Rostrum Records
  

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• The Ceiling Stares / new split 7" single with The Super Vacations on Velocity of Sound / 7" Release Show at The Shop on 10.01

  
  Pittsburgh-based record label Velocity of Sound releases 7" vinyl records of local underground artists, and for their latest single, they've hooked up with the Sweaters & Pearls label to feature two bands. The Super Vacations are from Viriginia and have a deliciously scuzzy and fast-paced psychedelic punk sound. Their side of this single has two 2-minute jams, "Hexing" and "Controller", and they are catchy as hell and, unfortunately, over before you know it. I've definitely played this side like three times in a row back to back. Great stuff. The Ceiling Stares are from Pittsburgh and used their side of the record to stretch out with a 5 minute psych-rock jam entitled "A Tunnel Through The Air". I saw this band play at Howlers last year and noted in a review that their sound is kind of a Jefferson Airplane/Sonic Youth/Pink Floyd hybrid, and I stand by that, and I particularly like this song of theirs. The guitars swirl, the vocals are impassioned, the keys drone, the drums drive, it's all perfect. You can stream the three tracks below, and head over to the Velocity of Sound site to buy them on cool green vinyl! Check out this nice feature in last week's Pgh City Paper, as well. The Ceiling Stares will be playing at The Shop on 10.01 to officially celebrate the vinyl release and, alas, The Super Vacations can't make it then, but locals Flesh Vehicle (who also have a Velocity of Sound release coming out soon) and Holy Daze will play in their stead. Should be a fun night of excellent rock music!
  Controller - The Super Vacations by Velocity of Sound
  Hexing - The Super Vacations by Velocity of Sound
  A Tunnel Through The Air - The Ceiling Stares by Velocity of Sound
  The Ceiling Stares: Website / Facebook / Bandcamp
  The Super Vacations: Blog / Facebook / Tumblr
  Velocity of Sound: Website / Twitter / Soundcloud
  Sweaters & Pearls: Website / Facebook
  

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• Draw Us Lines / Echo Chamber Recordings

  
  Last, and certainly not least, I'd like to point out that we've put a lot of work into the Echo Chamber series over on Draw Us Lines (and by "we" I mean Jim, he's the fucking man) and have released the audio recordings from those video shoots as buyable CDs/mp3s! We gave out some download codes to folks who came to our birthday show in July, but you, my friend, can go to our Bandcamp page and buy the whole collection for just $5. These are all local bands playing acoustic versions of their songs, and some of these songs are not available anywhere else! Want to hear an awesome, stripped-down version of New Shouts' jam "Gotta Get Along"? We've got it. Want to hear that lovely Meeting Of Important People song "Oh, Will You Finally Go?"? We've got it. Want to hear indie rock legend Karl Hendricks playing solo in the Children's Museum? We've got that. Stream the whole thing below and you'll see that it's worth it. And head over to Draw Us Lines and watch the videos and read the stories behind them, too, because they're all great. There are plenty more to come, so stay tuned, too.
  
  

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So that's what I've found lately. Have any other interesting local songs, albums, events, etc. to share? Let me know about 'em!

Jam of the day: "I'm Not A Young Man Anymore"

Artist: The Velvet Underground
Album: Live At The Gymnasium 1967 (live bootleg)
Song: "I'm Not A Young Man Anymore"

There is no other band for which I will so fervently track down bootlegs than The Velvet Underground. I was super late to the party on The VU (my friend introduced them to me in college—sophomore year, I think) but I was really drawn to them and scoured the web for anything I could find. I got ripped CD copies of their studio LPs from said friend, including a version of the Live 1969 album that has a 30-second long skipping section during "New Age" that is, at this point, so much a part of the song for me that when I played that version on vinyl when that friend visited me last month we both thought it sounded really odd for some reason. Yeah, we listened to it that much. I remember finding some freakin' .ra files or something crazy of some live show in Cleveland, I think, from 1969 that included a sweet jam of "Can't Stand It". See, I still remember this, even though I've long since lost track of the file itself, let alone the source. I bought the CD box set version of The Bootleg Series, Volume 1: The Quine Tapes when it came out, and that may very well be the last CD I bought. I really can't remember, but that was also at a time in my life when I hardly ever spent money on music. Obviously, things have changed greatly since then.

So, a couple years ago, a bootleg surfaced of recordings of The VU from early 1967 at The Gymnasium, a NYC venue. I somehow missed out on that hot news item until like 4 months ago, when I spotted the album on some blog post about the best internet bootlegs of all time, when I downloaded it and listened. It's the grungiest, garage-iest, and rocking-est that The VU can possibly be, really, and featues early versions of three album cuts ("I'm Waiting For The Man" and "Run, Run, Run" and "Sister Ray") and a previously-released B-side ("Guess I'm Falling In Love", an instrumental version of which appears on Another View, and a regular version of which appears on the Peel Slowly and See box set) and … the topic of discussion: "I'm Not A Young Man Anymore", a track that appears nowhere else in The VU's vast canon! Hot diggity doggety dag! I've jammed that album a number of times in the last few months after downloading it (which you can download here or here) and they are all awesome versions of these songs. But that is the only reason I would know the song "I'm Not A Young Man Anymore".

Imagine my surprise, then, when I'm sitting at Jitters, in Shadyside, just three or four days ago, when this very song comes on over the house speakers, on the barista's playlist! I started humming/singing along, and I really wasn't quite sure why. I knew instantly it was a VU song, but I couldn't even remember that it was from this bootleg. Imagine my even further surprise, then, when I'm at a concert earlier this evening (to see The Black Lips at Mr. Small's) and the opening band, Night Beats, announces, "This one's a cover song …" and launches right into a heady jam of this very song! I never even knew about this song until a few short months ago, then totally forgot about it, then was reminded of it twice within a week. That is coincidental, my friends (not ironic, mind you).

So in any event, behold, below, in static video but impressively plastic audio formats, The Velvet Underground's song, "I'm Not A Young Man Anymore".



Bonus! Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips, as Dean & Britta, covered this song for their album 13 Most Beautiful … Songs For Andy Warhol's Screen Tests, which soundtrack a series of short films made by Andy Warhol consisting of closeup footage of some of the characters that hung around his "factory" back in the day, of which Lou Reed was a prominent member. For Lou's closeup footage, D & B cover this very tune. Check out that version below.



Oh, FWIW, the Night Beats version was all well and good, great for the live setting in which we were in, but for the most part a more "faithful" cover than D & B's version, which made me like it way more at the time, but slightly less now, in just-a-few-hours-even retrospect. So there's that.

Jam of the day: "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere"

Artist: Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Album: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Song: "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere"
Released: May 14, 1969
Label: Reprise

Man, Neil Young is somethin' else. This is hard-driving folk rock at its finest, all the way back from 1969. I found a used copy of this LP at Jerry's a few months ago and picked it up, thinking at the time, "Hey, I haven't really listened to a lot of Neil in my life, maybe I should check this out." I'm really glad I made that decision. There are a few skips on this scratchy copy I have, but who cares, I've played this like every other day since then. It jumps right in with the handclaps and epic riff of "Cinnamon Girl", and when the beautiful "Round & Round" winds to an end and the first quiet guitar strum of "Down By The River" kicks in and I know that this awesome jam is about to run its course, building a 9+ minute folk rock freakout … yeah, definite eargasm.

But the song I want to mention is the title track, another wonderful gem of a folk rock song. The "la la la" falsetto sticks in your head, and I've found myself singing it out loud while walking/riding around town lately. The bass is bouncy and playful, the guitar is as catchy as anything else ever, and the overall mood of the song is perfect for those times when I've just put the album on and stretched out on my couch and stared out the window at the rain clouds, trying to forget about everything else. By chance, the song was also mentioned on an episode of NPR's All Songs Considered that I listened to just the other day, whence the impetus for the post. They were looking for songs that represented "summer" for listeners, and one lady sent in a perfect description of why this song always signals, for her, the return to her small town life in the summer, going back home and seeing the same people that all know each other. Listen to the podcast; this story starts at the 11:15 mark. It is really a perfect story. This is why we like music. Seriously, listen to her story.

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"Everybody seems to wonder what it's like down here / I gotta get away from this day-to-day runnin' around / Everybody knows this is nowhere"

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Buy Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere: Insound / Amazon / iTunes / eMusic

Jam of the day: "Antenna"

Artist: Sonic Youth
Album: The Eternal
Song: "Antenna"
Released: June 9, 2009
Label: Matador Records

Consider this my first entry in an attempt to get back to an actual "jam of the day", as in a daily sharing of a jam. I played The Eternal on my mini-speakers in my bathroom while showering earlier this evening. Usually, I play something upbeat and poppy that I can sing along to (or at least try to, before realizing I can't sing at all) but this time I felt like something more ... I don't know, sprawling, less "sing-songy". I picked Sonic Youth's latest studio LP because I can kinda sing along to some of it, like "Sacred Trixster", but also because it would be fun to blare in a tiny, tiled room. I definitely belted out the verses of the pop-punk speed-ride of "Sacred Trixster" and did my best to mirror Kim Gordon's husky "uh uh uh uh" during "Anti-Orgasm", then struggled with the lyrics to "Leaky Lifeboat" (I haven't quite picked those up yet) but then "Antenna" came on and I pretty much blissed out while rinsing out the conditioner from my lengthy locks. It's not often that a song comes along and stops you in your tracks. In particular, I thought back to watching Sonic Youth play some of these songs for a Pitchfork.tv session a couple years ago when the album came out. I remembered the way that Thurston Moore alternates some foot pedals during the "uh huh -- uh huh" part of "Sacred Trixster" and mimicked that part with my feet. I remembered the overhead view of Steve Shelley's drum parts during "What We Know" and the way Lee Ranaldo leans back during the rising guitar riffs and then leans back into the mic to sing. (Yeah, I really like that song. A lot.) And then I thought of "Antenna" when it came on my iPod. The album version of the song is 6+ minutes, stretching out some noisy guitar effects over a lovely melody, with slow crescendos and plaintive singing all about ... the effect of technology on society? The inevitable singularity? The disconnect between human contact and intercontinental communication? Hard to say. What I can say, though, is that this song is a true jam. It has the ability to steal my thoughts away and wedge my mind into the spaces between the notes and carry me along the undulating sound waves to wherever they're going. And then I'm back where I started, sitting here at my kitchen table with headphones on. And then the journey starts all over again.



Buy The Eternal: Matador Records / SYR Store / Insound / Amazon / iTunes