BigSteve

Interview: Tom Kitts, Ray Davies: Not Like Everybody Else

Posted by BigSteve

May 012008

I first met Tom Kitts at a meeting of the Popular Culture Association. Tom and the late, great Mike Kraus used to host sessions where people presented papers on The Kinks, and I attended five of these sessions over the years, presenting and also listening to papers by Tom, Mike, and a rotating group of Kinks scholars. It’s more fun than it sounds like, and it’s always great to be around other music fanatics.

Tom has now published his magnum opus, a critical biography, Ray Davies: Not Like Everybody Else (Routledge, 2008). Tom is a professor of English at St. John’s University in New York City, and he took time out of his busy schedule for an interview about the book and more generally Ray Davies and the Kinks. If interested, click on this Amazon link to get your copy of the book. I’m sure any Kinks fan will find it a great read.

In general how has the feedback on the book been?

While formal reviews are just now starting to appear, the feedback has been very positive. Kinks fans seem to appreciate the focus on Davies’ work — even if they don’t always agree with me. I have done a series of readings and discussions and I have to say that I have been very pleasantly surprised by the positive response I have heard not only at the readings but also in emails from readers across the country and in Europe.

Any reaction from anyone connected with Ray or the Kinks?

I did hear from Grenville Collins and Peter Quaife, who both liked it very much. Both liked the emphasis on the art, which both were a part of and which both are very proud of. I spoke to Ray briefly after his recent show in New York and he seems pleased by the publication. We joked about how long it took for me to get it out. He has a copy, but he said that he hadn’t had a chance to read it yet.

Critical Upgrade: Pylon

Posted by BigSteve

Apr 072008

Pylon was that other band from Athens, GA – you know, the one that wasn’t the B-52’s or R.E.M. The ones that made a couple of singles and albums, got some love from hipsters, made no money, then disappeared into the mists of rock history. Now the ultra-cool DFA Records (of LCD Soundsystem fame) has re-released their first album, which has long been unavailable on CD. This is a perfect opportunity for a Critical Upgrade.

This isn’t a case where the band has had their critical stock price fall over the years. It’s more like they just kind of fell off of everybody’s radar. Though they came out of the same scene as their more famous Athens contemporaries, they don’t sound much like either one. They have a much more hard-edged post-punk sound, one that at the time was most often compared to the Gang of Four.

The Athens scene was very dance-centered, and this music definitely works on the body, but it’s doesn’t have the party atmosphere of the B-52’s. One reason is the lyrics. Vocalist Vanessa Briscoe wrote cryptic songs that remind me a lot of the early Talking Heads lyrics – topics like reading, driving, gravity, volume, work, all approached elliptically and sung about in a detached but intense style that’s hard to get a fix on. I find the approach mysterious and oddly alluring, but it was not one that drew in large numbers of listeners. The fact that they were on DB Records, not a major label like their peers, did not help their commercial prospects.

Instrumentally they were more direct. When I met them on their first tour, they said soundmen loved them because their set-up was so easy to mix – one trebly guitar, one deep bass, no background vocals, and drummer that hit hard enough that he hardly needed the PA. Neither of the gigs I saw back then was well-attended, and I believe that was sadly typical for them. After a couple of albums they were gone, and a so-so reunion album in 1990 (Chain) did nothing to revive their fortunes. I understand they’ve been playing a few gigs around this re-release but that they’re no longer a going concern.

So as not to compete with DFA, these tracks are vinyl transfers from my collection. You might want to boost the bass on them a bit. The mastering on the new CD is very nice, and the tracks sound even better on Gyrate Plus (so called because it includes their early single “Cool”). Here are a couple of album tracks (“Volume” and “Stop It”), the B-side of that single (the awesome “Dub” with its chant “we eat dub for breakfast”), and a follow-up single not included on the DFA re-issue (“Beep”). Enjoy.

Pylon, “Volume”

Pylon, “Stop It”

Pylon, “Dub”

Pylon, “Beep”

“So I Guess […] Is Your Favorite Band”

Posted by BigSteve

Feb 252008

NOT BigSteve

Geo mentioned the other day that he had more records by Sun Ra than any other artist. That got me thinking – who is the artist with the most pieces in your collection? At one time I might have guessed James Brown, or the combined works of all the P-Funk configurations. I just counted – 54 pieces (that’s counting each disc of a multi-disc set separately).

Who is the artist who takes up the biggest chunk of your record collection? Are you sure, or is that just a guess? And do you know how many items make up this chunk? Is this in fact your favorite artist, or does this artist just have a huge body of work?

Favorite Album by ….

Posted by BigSteve

Sep 242007

The discussion about Meditations vs A Love Supreme reminds me of a facet of record collecting I’ve noticed many times before. The first album you acquire by an artist is the one that will always be your favorite by that artist. [Note the First Album Exclusionary Rule – if you start following an artist with his/her/their first album, said first album is not necessarily going to be your favorite, though it frequently may be.]

For example, I resisted Tom Waits for a long time. Then at some point in the mid-80s, I was in a chain record store in Nashville, and I bought a remaindered cassette of Rain Dogs. I loved it. I have bought pretty much every Tom Waits record since that time (plus the one before it, Swordfishtrombones), and I’m a big fan, but I will never love any Tom Waits CD as much as I love Rain Dogs.

This pattern has been repeated for me many times over. Does your experience match this pattern?

“What a drag it is getting old….”

Posted by BigSteve

Aug 282007

The other day I was reading a review in Mojo of Ian Hunter’s latest album. The review was basically positive, but at the end the reviewer claimed that Hunter hadn’t quite made the record he was capable of, the kind of album that had revived the careers of other “middle-aged rockers.” I did a double-take and looked it up – Ian Hunter is 68 years old.

So have boomers redefined middle-age so that it lasts all the way to 70 now? Or are rockers not subject to the age classifications that the rest of us live with. I remember years ago sending my little brother a birthday card on his 30th birthday saying ‘welcome to middle age,’ and he scoffed at the idea that middle age began at 30. I guess I thought it was 30 until 50. Now that I’m over 50, I definitely do not feel middle aged anymore, but I always felt like an old man even when I was younger. (One of my mother’s nicknames for me was Grandpa.)

I understand that rock & roll is historically a youth-based culture, but can’t we get beyond that now that the boomers are all grown up? I’m embarrassed every time I see an aging rocker with dyed hair. There’s this huge demographic bubble of us out here. Shouldn’t we want music that reflects our experience? Nick Lowe looks and sings like a man who is the age he is, but other musicians in his age range seem to prefer taking nostalgia to the bank, even if it means a trip to the colorist every week.

Are there any signs that Generation X and its successors will do any better at this aging thing?

Untilted

Posted by BigSteve

Jun 032007

Do you think of coming up with good song titles as an important ability for a songwriter? Almost all songs are named after a few words in the song’s lyrics, usually in the chorus or hook. There are some notable exceptions, such as Moby Grape’s “Omaha”.

Today I got in the mail the Rhino Handmade reissue of T-Bone Burnett‘s Proof Through the Night/The Trap Door/Behind the Trap Door. There are a few very clever song titles on there. “Having A Wonderful Time, Wish You Were Her” is my favorite, but “The Law Of Average” and “My Life And The Women Who Lived It (No. 1)” are good too.

This is just kind of a time-waster kind of thread. What are your favorite song titles, irrespective of the value of the song itself? Albums too, I guess, since the name of this thread comes from the title of the most recent Autechre album.

Wondering About Wonder

Posted by BigSteve

May 282007

I’m embarrassed to admit that I don’t really know Stevie Wonder’s music at all, except for the ’60s hits and some exposure to his ’70s heyday. A recent feature in Mojo has reminded me that I should fill in this blind spot.

What would you experts advise? Go straight to Innervisions and wander around back and forth from there? Start with Signed Sealed Delivered and work my way through chronologically till he runs out of steam, or I do? Is there a relatively comprehensive compilation that might suit (and satisfy?) a novice better? (I recently wisely decided to get The Essential Sly & the Family Stone instead of the newly released box set, and that turned out to be exactly what was called for.) Should I get all four of the ’72-’74 acknowledged masterpieces all at once and immerse myself? Any ‘musts to avoid’?

I’m a little apprehensive, because Wonder’s voice is a little problematical for me. His over-melismatized vocal style has been such a bad influence on subsequent artists, I’m concerned about coming to it after the fact and finding it hard to get past. But everyone seems to agree that his early ’70s work is above reproach. Even my man Randy Newman always speaks of that stuff with reverence.

So anyway I’m open to suggestions on what to do about this gaping hole in my musical knowledge.

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