I'm happy to introduce a new feature here on Shellac and Vinyl. Those of you that know me or enjoy my radio show know that I'm a sucker for odd or interesting cover versions. So, I've added a new column here to expose my readers to some of these covers.
The first feature is on Camper Van Beethoven's cover of Status Quo's "Pictures of Matchstick Men". First, here's the original and the cover.
http://youtu.be/NP6RzRfVlpA
http://youtu.be/ShWNLlz4Ic4
The original version by Status Quo, a psychedelic folk band from the UK, was recorded in 1969 and has the heady and unmistakable vibe of 60s psychedelica, a slow, rolling groove. Under Camper Van Beethoven, the song takes on an urgency and the slick and direct style of 90s with CVB own genre-bending style. The reedy guitar of the Status Quo version is replaced by an actual violin. Camper Van Beethoven's version appears on the landmark album Key Lime Pie in 1989.
CVB and Status Quo are actually still performing today. Status Quo still tour with some of the core group still intact. CVB put out an album a few years ago and singer Dave Lowery also records solo and under his other band, Cracker.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Cancon Round Up for June 23, 2011
Now that I don't have the NHL Playoffs distracting me, let's talk more about music shall we?
Cancon roundup for the Canadian Top 40 Charts: Martin Solveig and Dragonette (Top Canadians at #8), Fefe Dobson, Alyssa Reid, Kristina Maria, Simple Plan, Three Days Grace, Raghav, Karl Wolf, Girlicious (9/40=23%, still lower than the national Cancon mandated law of 35%)
Chart chat: Adele is still on top of both the US and Canadian charts, which is quite amazing. I'm more than a bit worried about over-exposure at this point. Jason Aldean is in the Top 10 in the States, sandwiched between Niki Minaj and Lady Gaga, further cementing that modern country stars are just pop singers with cowboy hats.
Cancon roundup for the Canadian Top 40 Charts: Martin Solveig and Dragonette (Top Canadians at #8), Fefe Dobson, Alyssa Reid, Kristina Maria, Simple Plan, Three Days Grace, Raghav, Karl Wolf, Girlicious (9/40=23%, still lower than the national Cancon mandated law of 35%)
Chart chat: Adele is still on top of both the US and Canadian charts, which is quite amazing. I'm more than a bit worried about over-exposure at this point. Jason Aldean is in the Top 10 in the States, sandwiched between Niki Minaj and Lady Gaga, further cementing that modern country stars are just pop singers with cowboy hats.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
The Good Ol' Cancon Round Up for June 9, 2011
Once again, the Canadian charts have been flaky about updating, so we skipped a couple of weeks...
This week's Cancon Roundup: Martin Solveig and Dragonette (Top Canadian at #9), Alyssa Reid, Kristina Maria, Fefe Dobson, Three Days Grace, Raghav, Shawn Desman, Simple Plan, Girlicious, Sara Evans (10/40=25%, still below the Cancon radio regs).
Chart chat: Adele is still on top of both the US and Canadian charts, which fills me with hope. I was talking to a friend last week and recounting the story I heard about Jann Arden, back when she was trying to break into the US radio market. The US label rep said she had a great voice and she'd do great in the State, that is, if she could drop about 40 pounds.
Last week, there were two American Idol singles on the US charts. This week, they've disappeared. I'm thinking that American Idol has begun to play itself out and that the stars they produce are merely flashes in the pan. Outside of Kelly Clarkson and Daughtry, no one who's come from the show has any staying power. Might be time to hang the whole thing up.
This week's Cancon Roundup: Martin Solveig and Dragonette (Top Canadian at #9), Alyssa Reid, Kristina Maria, Fefe Dobson, Three Days Grace, Raghav, Shawn Desman, Simple Plan, Girlicious, Sara Evans (10/40=25%, still below the Cancon radio regs).
Chart chat: Adele is still on top of both the US and Canadian charts, which fills me with hope. I was talking to a friend last week and recounting the story I heard about Jann Arden, back when she was trying to break into the US radio market. The US label rep said she had a great voice and she'd do great in the State, that is, if she could drop about 40 pounds.
Last week, there were two American Idol singles on the US charts. This week, they've disappeared. I'm thinking that American Idol has begun to play itself out and that the stars they produce are merely flashes in the pan. Outside of Kelly Clarkson and Daughtry, no one who's come from the show has any staying power. Might be time to hang the whole thing up.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
John Lydon - Rotten: No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs
Johnny Rotten's biography is a frustrating read to be sure. He's deliberately confrontational and negative, matter of factly contradictory and he constantly contradicts himself. But, his biography, Rotten: No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs (so named for the sign that used to hang outside English pubs) is pretty fascinating.
One very interesting thing Johnny does is to hand over the narrative to others who were there with him as punk music became relevant. John does most of the talking, but there are whole chapters handed over to his father, plus anecdotes from people like Steve Jones (who was with John in the Sex Pistols), Billy Idol (Generation X), Dave Ruffy (The Ruts), filmmaker Julien Temple and Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders, also sometime cashier at Malcolm McLaren's Sex boutique)., amongst others. Instead of one man's skewed view of music history, we get several different perspectives of the same story, which makes for some fascinating reading.
First off, John's recollection of the history of punk is very different from a lot of other histories I've read. John claims that punk didn't just come from the disaffectedness of urban youth, but that it also grew in the fashion shops and gay bars of working class England. He said that punk was as much a fashion movement as a musical movement. He said that punks would buy (or more often, steal) clothing from shops and then tear it up, stitch it up and mold it into something else. He also claims that he invented the clothespins-holding-clothes-together movement, not Richard Hell, which is the first time I've ever heard that. Another interesting claim is that punk was ultimately British, not influenced by the American proto-punk bands that toured through the area before punk hit (The Ramones, New York Dolls, The Stooges), which is another thing I've only heard from John's mouth. He does say that the British did punk better than most of the American bands that followed, which I agree with. The British understood that punk music was a class and political movement before it was a musical movement.
Johnny's claims often clash with others in the book, and sometimes with himself. His dislike and outright hatred for most humans is difficult to swallow without seeing it as an affectation. John seems deliberately confrontational for the same of conflict, not for some ideological point he's making. He hates Malcolm McLaren and for pretty good reasons (Malc managed the band, mostly into the ground), hated Nancy Spungen (but everyone did), hated The Clash, hated bandmate Glen Matlock and hated pretty much every other band doing punk at the time. His views of Sid Vicious are interesting. He liked Sid as a person, but hated his drug addiction, his obsession with being a rock star, his inability to play his instrument and his relationship with Nancy Spungen. He also says in multiple places that Sid was a passive, calm person, but also says he did wade into bikers while playing on stage and swung around a bicycle chain while dancing in clubs. It's difficult to take John seriously sometimes.
The real meat of this book is understanding the musical output and overall feel of the punk scene at the time. Seeing a band as scummy and vaguely talented as the Sex Pistols climb out of the muck is endlessly entertaining. There's a full chapter on John's trip to Jamaica to scout reggae music for Richard Branson's Virgin record label that's very interesting. He also reprints all the statements from his trial with Malcolm McLaren, who John sued for revenues after the Pistols broke up, which make for some candid looks at the players at the time. The stories from the trip across the American south are wonderfully decadent.
I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in the punk movement or independent music. Just remember to take John's word with a grain of salt.
One very interesting thing Johnny does is to hand over the narrative to others who were there with him as punk music became relevant. John does most of the talking, but there are whole chapters handed over to his father, plus anecdotes from people like Steve Jones (who was with John in the Sex Pistols), Billy Idol (Generation X), Dave Ruffy (The Ruts), filmmaker Julien Temple and Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders, also sometime cashier at Malcolm McLaren's Sex boutique)., amongst others. Instead of one man's skewed view of music history, we get several different perspectives of the same story, which makes for some fascinating reading.
First off, John's recollection of the history of punk is very different from a lot of other histories I've read. John claims that punk didn't just come from the disaffectedness of urban youth, but that it also grew in the fashion shops and gay bars of working class England. He said that punk was as much a fashion movement as a musical movement. He said that punks would buy (or more often, steal) clothing from shops and then tear it up, stitch it up and mold it into something else. He also claims that he invented the clothespins-holding-clothes-together movement, not Richard Hell, which is the first time I've ever heard that. Another interesting claim is that punk was ultimately British, not influenced by the American proto-punk bands that toured through the area before punk hit (The Ramones, New York Dolls, The Stooges), which is another thing I've only heard from John's mouth. He does say that the British did punk better than most of the American bands that followed, which I agree with. The British understood that punk music was a class and political movement before it was a musical movement.
Johnny's claims often clash with others in the book, and sometimes with himself. His dislike and outright hatred for most humans is difficult to swallow without seeing it as an affectation. John seems deliberately confrontational for the same of conflict, not for some ideological point he's making. He hates Malcolm McLaren and for pretty good reasons (Malc managed the band, mostly into the ground), hated Nancy Spungen (but everyone did), hated The Clash, hated bandmate Glen Matlock and hated pretty much every other band doing punk at the time. His views of Sid Vicious are interesting. He liked Sid as a person, but hated his drug addiction, his obsession with being a rock star, his inability to play his instrument and his relationship with Nancy Spungen. He also says in multiple places that Sid was a passive, calm person, but also says he did wade into bikers while playing on stage and swung around a bicycle chain while dancing in clubs. It's difficult to take John seriously sometimes.
The real meat of this book is understanding the musical output and overall feel of the punk scene at the time. Seeing a band as scummy and vaguely talented as the Sex Pistols climb out of the muck is endlessly entertaining. There's a full chapter on John's trip to Jamaica to scout reggae music for Richard Branson's Virgin record label that's very interesting. He also reprints all the statements from his trial with Malcolm McLaren, who John sued for revenues after the Pistols broke up, which make for some candid looks at the players at the time. The stories from the trip across the American south are wonderfully decadent.
I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in the punk movement or independent music. Just remember to take John's word with a grain of salt.
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