New music this week from The Rolling Stones, Frute, The Lemon Twigs, pinkpool, The Loft, Jon Lampley, Neil Diamond, The Waterboys, Paul McCartney (with Ringo), Fantastic Negrito, kiffie and much more. Enjoy!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Given that the average age of the members of The Rolling Stones is over 80 they still sound pretty damned good. The double-sided single they released this week is one of those songs where you hear a couple of bars and say, "Yes, that's The Rolling Stones all right". Fairly reminiscent of the "Tattoo You" days, in my opinion. That's not a bad thing.
I've added several songs by the band Frute over the past few months and finally they've dropped a full album called "Lot of Letters". It's a solid alt-pop album and given that I've added over half of the songs from it over time should tell you what I think of their work. It's worth your time.
The Lemon Twigs also have a new album, called "Look For Your Mind!" and if you're into jangle-pop then this album is a perfect distillation of it. They would be right at home with the jangle-pop movement of the late 1980's, which itself was reminiscent of the original jangle-pop era of the late 1960's.
Someone I only discovered this past week is pinkpool, a "post punk" band formed in Berlin and starting to rock the English-speaking world. They're release all of 3 songs so far, and I've added all three to the playlist this week.
The last of the three albums Rick Rubin produced for Neil Diamond dropped this week, called "Wild at Heart". As with other artists late in their careers, Rubin has stripped Diamond's songs down to their basic essence, and it's a reminder of just how great a songwriter Neil Daimond still is.
Unwed Sailor is a band I'm really fond of and they don't even have a vocalist. They are a band that does rock instrumentals and their new album "High Remembrance" is full of solid rock tunes. It's not that they replace the vocalist with melodies on other instruments - instead they use the music to set a mood and create a feel, and it's actually refreshing to listen to.
I of course have to call out the fourth collection of covers by "The Professor" Nick Harrison, where he takes alt-rock and alternative songs and tansforms them into R&B/Soul classics. He's astonishingly good at it, transforming songs by Pearl Jam, The Smashing Pumpkins and more into straight-ahead old-fashioned soul music.
How does one explain The Loft? They looked like they were going to be one of the biggest bands on the 1980's, were an indie hit and playing venues that only signed artists got to play in those days when they broke up, in the middle of a live performance in front of 3,000 people. It was ugly. But the band has reformed and last year they finally got around to releasing their debut album. They have now dropped their second called "Badges" and you can hear for yourself why they were going to be the next big thing. Well worth your time.
Finally, I'm going to give a shoutout to The Waterboys and their new single "Don't Even Have to Say His Name", which appears on this list. Bet you can already tell who the song is about, can't you.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
With the passing of Ted Turner I have come to the sudden and stunning realization that my television days are now more than half my life ago. It just might be time to hang up the "Former Television Executive" moniker.
My television days were a whirlwind, which was both very rewarding and the reason I stopped. I got to do some amazing things and meet amazing people, but as I settled down and started a family I realized quickly that I would become the kind of dad that never saw his kids because he was working all the time. That's when I decided to walk away from it all. I was 29 years of age.
I helped start two cable television networks. I was on the cover of a magazine. I met celebrities. I actually got invited to the Playboy Channel's opening party. Yes, I met Hugh Hefner and even gave him a copy of my first album. I spent a sizeable chunk of the night chatting up his oldest daughter Christine, without the slightest clue who she was (I was still single at that point).
I exchanged stories with Michael Palin (his were better). I got invited to conventions. I helped produce a movie that ran on HBO (I'm not in the credits, so I'm not going to name-drop them either). I had a lot of fun, but I worked from 7am to 11pm most days.
Oh, and I met both Donald Trump and Ted Turner during those days. Both times looking for investors for specific projects and failing both times. One of which I was glad for.
I met Trump over a lunch meeting in 1991 in Los Angeles. I was the 5th man at a 4 person meeting, brought along for my technical expertise and possibly for my youth. Also to be an impartial observer. The other three men were all from Chicago and had their own reasons for a built-in mistrust for the man known then only for real estate. But we had been getting backers from New York and we got the introduction so we took the meeting.
I will tell you right now that he wouldn't remember me. He said almost nothing to me. I was part of the furniture as far as he was concerned, at least after him asking me if I golfed and me truthfully replying that I didn't (and still don't). He talked about golf for 15 minutes after that and never looked at me again. The team at the table were trying to get him interested in investing in our little cable television venture, but he mostly talked about himself. After it was over I didn't even get the "handshake". My co-workers all looked at me when it was over and I couldn't help myself. "That man has an answer for everything," I said. "I don't trust people who have answers for everything. Nobody has an answer for everything, so I suspect at least 75% of everything he said were lies."
He didn't invest, and in all fairness to the others at the table I don't think they ever even asked.
I met Ted Turner earlier than that, at a cable television convention in 1990. It was just after the First Gulf War had broken out and he was riding high. He had proved the thirst for a 24-hour news cycle by having people in Iraq just as the war started. He went from industry odd-ball to being the smartest person in the room, and he relished it.
Thing is, he often was the smartest person in the room. He came across to me like Jonah J Jamison of the Spiderman comics - talking faster than his thoughts could form and people were just lapping it up; making certain that this would be what people were talking about the next day. He talked about bringing environmentalism to kids, which he had already started with Captain Planet being in maybe it's third or fourth week on the air. He talked baseball, my knowledge of which was severely lacking at that point. He talked Cigars, of which I know nothing other than that his smelled better than my father's did.
He talked about the future of television, and I (among others) pitched him the ideas of The Sci-Fi Channel and Court TV. Sci-Fi was a hard sell (It worked in movies but so far it really hadn't translated to TV beyond Star Trek at that point), but I was able to throw his own words back at him for Court TV. All I said was, "All it will take is one juicy celebrity trial and everyone will want to watch." Little did any of us know that within 5 years there would be two.
He did invest in Court TV although I'm pretty sure I wasn't the convincing argument. Hell, I wasn't even working for them; I just believed in the cause. I was trying to get Sci-Fi going, and he didn't bite. Other people got the USA network to bite though, and that's how it eventually wound up on the air in its original form.
I am aware of the irony in the fact that Court TV isn't around anymore, while the Sci-Fi channel, somewhat altered, is still here.
I can't tell you how good a man ted Turner was; I don't know. But I feel confident in my assessment that of the two men, he was the better one by a large margin.
Just something on my mind this past week.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Senator Mark Kelly must have said something over the weekend, because Pete Hogsbreath is insinuating that he'll brim the Senator up on charges today. That's the pattern, isn't it?
I want to point out to the people proclaiming that the golden statue of the Criminal in Chief isn't a "Golden Calf" that the "Calf" part of the problem is tied to a mis-translation over 1,000 years ago, back when the Church was trying to stamp out animal worship. It was originally "Golden Caliph". It was just shorted and dumbed down for the majority of the world that had never been under the jurisdiction of a Caliphate.
And any form of idolatry is praying to the Golden Calf, you fucking idiots.
There are 61 people on the ballot officially for Governor of California. Including Barack D. Obama Shaw (no relation), Eric Swalwell (if elected I will not serve), Chad (Proudboy) Bianco and obviously a slew of others. It's not as crazy as when we set in motion the wheels that gave us The Governator, but it's still a whole lot of crazy, none of which changes my vote. I am a bit sad though that the woman currently serving as Lt. Governor isn't running for the job. She is running for Treasurer though.
Did you know that the leader of the Crime Administration, while on the one hand complaining that pregnancy isn't named after him, is apparently raising zombies?
Not much else today - it's all ridiculous.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
And because I love you, have a new version (from a soundcheck) of Cory Wong and his band performing "Lisa Never Wanted to be Famous" (originally by Theo Katzman with Cory).
