Frank & Earthy blog
For those of you who didn’t end up here via my post at LiveMusicBlog.com: I made the first of what will hopefully be occasional guest entries over thar, a rant on the aforementoned.
For those of you who did end up here via that post: hallo!
Either way, Brewster’s post at archive.org restoring access to many Grateful Dead recordings seems to conclude this misfit-brand news cycle, though there’s plenty left to the story, though.
High school in Northport, New York was made oddly bearable by the fact that I ended up hanging out with some truly gifted and committed geeks. In autumn 1993, a year before I transferred in, they staged a mammoth production of “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “Nature Trail To Hell (in 3-D)” as part of the school variety show, replete with note-perfect metal shredding, a choral arrangement, a dude ripping his shirt off, and my friend Evan hacking up Cub Scouts with a plastic machete. Pretty impressive for a bunch of 15 year-olds.
On Thanksgiving, three Al tunes came up on my shuffle; on Friday, Bill (the bassist in the video) heard “Mr. Frump in the Iron Lung” in a bar (“they just went back to normal bar music after that… it’s like I hallucinated it,” he texted me), and now Matt — the keyboardist dude at stage left — finally digitized (and subtitled) the video. As he blogs, “Geeks rejoice! A crowd of rowdy teenagers will cheer for you. Especially if you’ve got a guy on stage with a machete chasing around a bunch of cub scouts.”
Totally lo-fi, totally inspiring. Thanks, Matt.
Here it is, in all its glory: Nature Trail to Hell (in 3-D). (8.5 MB, wmv file).
Besides obvious, everyday web tools — Wikipedia, the All Music Guide, the Internet Movie Database, Flickr, and such — I’ve come across a few other handy useful digital devices and information sources. Some are more utilitarian than others. There’s a lot of bullshit on the web, this blog fully included, and I have a certain fondness for pages that exist with genuine purpose.
o YouSendIt — A simple way to temporarily share files among groups of people without emailing them to everybody. Perfect for mp3s.
o BugMeNot.com — Shared logins for websites that require both free and paid registration, like the New York Times and MediaBistro. BugMeNot doesn’t always work but — when it does — it’s frickin’ sweet.
o PodWorks — This is one of the only pieces of downloaded software I have ever paid for. For a whopping $8, I can now copy music from my iPod back onto my computer, which is awesome, since my harddrive just isn’t big enough to hold all the music on my pod. By allowing me to copy songs, playlists, and albums, it converts my iPod from a play-only memory box into a functional harddrive.
o iWannaSleep — I like to listen to a really long shuffled playlist of quiet, purdy tunes while I’m falling asleep. This cute-as-a-button app is a sleep function for iTunes. Simple.
o Oblique Strategies widget — I have an old HyperCard edition of Brian Eno’s wondrous Oblique Strategies deck, though it clumsily opens OS 9 whenever I fire it up. I haven’t yet upgraded to OS 10.4 but, when I do, this Oblique widget will be my first download.
o Find A Human — If I call a customer support line, it’s generally because I can’t find the information I need online and would really like to speak to a person. I hate, hate, hate the hierarchy of menus I often have to go through to get there. Enter the IVR cheat sheet, which has come through with flying colors both times I’ve used it. Like the washing machine in the basement of my building that secretly only requires one quarter in the middle slot (shhhh!), these are video game codes for real life.
o The Hidden In-n-Out Burger — As a lifelong right-coaster, I admittedly have no practical use for the complete secret menu of In-n-Out Burger (those are good burgers, Walter), but some you westerly weirdoes might.
Perhaps because it’s so stressful, air travel is a mighty reliable source for Zen in the new, weird America.
1. An early morning shoeshine in MacArthur Airport’s imperial new extension.
2. Iconography.
3. In which we achieve levity.
“Alice’s Restaurant” – Arlo Guthrie (File expires on November 30th.)
from Alice’s Restaurant (1967)
It all started 40 Thanksgivings ago — that’s 40 years ago on Thanksgiving — that Arlo Guthrie ran afoul of the law in sleepy Stockbridge, Massachusetts and found himself in jail for littering, an offense that would later free him from the draft, and provide gristle for the above linked-to 18-minute boomer/rockist campfire yarn called “Alice’s Restaurant” (remember Alice?) that doesn’t really have anything to do with Alice or the restaurant. Yeah, you’ve heard the song a million times, so what’s once more for an old friend? On Thanksgiving, no less?
In my last SpamBands.com column, I blathered about whether it was possible for digital files to have auras (1). This lo-fi mp3 of “Alice” demonstrates, to me, that they can. I downloaded this from the O.G. Napster one homesick night during (probably) my junior year of college. It’s followed me through three computers, more than a dozen system crashes, three or four different mp3-playing applications and their attendant playlists (its icon belongs to an app whose name I don’t recall), two iPods, without me ever consciously making a back-up.
To me, the shoddy digital flutter on the acoustic guitar is just as distinct as the post-radiator-flood warble on my parent’s vinyl copy. And while I don’t expect all of that to translate universally to whoever downloads this particular copy of “Alice,” I do think that the idiosyncratically subpar sound quality of the recording will have an emotional effect different from a more standard, ripped version. Through mere survival, it has become unique. Yes, most art these days is the product of mechanical reproduction, but not all copies are equal — they all communicate something unique to their medium.
All of which is to say: it’s Thanksgiving and here’s a copy of “Alice’s Restaurant,” where you can still get anything you want.
Oodles of catching up to do. Here goes, organized for your convenience…
Feature:
Café Curiousity: A Shot of Herbie With That Latté, Sir? – feature interview with Herbie Hancock, published in Paste #18.
DVD review:
Video Overview in Deceleration, 1992-2005 – The Flaming Lips, published in Paste #18.
CD reviews:
Cripple Crow – Devendra Banhart, published in Paste #18.
The Sunset Tree – The Mountain Goats, published in May Hear/Say.
Shine – Trey Anastasio
Sixty Six Steps – Leo Kottke and Mike Gordon, published in Paste #18.
Bootleg Series, vol. 7: No Direction Home – Bob Dylan
The Jerry Garcia Collection, vol. 1: Legion of Mary and Pure Jerry: Warner Theater, March 18, 1978 – Jerry Garcia
Takk – Sigur Ros, published in September Hear/Say.
You’re Only As Pretty As You Feel – Caroleen Beatty and Mushroom
Acoustica: Alarm Will Sounds performs Aphex Twin – Alarm Will Sound
Bande Orignale du Film da OUTRE MER – Garage A Trois
Mehenata: New York Gypsymania – various artists
Live reviews:
Sun Ra Arkestra and the MC5 at Summerstage, 30 July 2005
Trey Anastasio at Jones Beach Amphitheater, 6 August 2005
Sufjan Stevens at the Bowery Ballroom, 19 August 2005
Seu Jorge at the Bowery Ballroom, 12 September 2005
The Disco Biscuits at Spirit, 13 September 2005
The White Stripes and The Shins at Keyspan Park, 24 September 2005
Paul McCartney at Madison Square Garden, 1 October 2005
Mike Gordon and Leo Kottke at Irving Plaza, 29 October 2005
Columns:
BRAIN TUBA: Time Passes Slowly
BRAIN TUBA: An Open Letter to Tapers
BRAIN TUBA: Bobology, fall 2005
BRAIN TUBA: Digital Rights Management and Other Digressions
Only in print:
o Rolling Stone #984 (Evangeline Lilly cover): Hot List item, Hot Attempt at Cataloging Everything (p. 92, next to the half-naked hipster chicks).
o Paste #18 (Cameron Crowe cover): album reviews of North Mississippi Allstars and Brian Eno.
o September/October Relix (Santana cover): Only the Pronoid Remain: John Perry Barlow Rides Again; album review of Phish; DVD reviews of Bernie Worrell and Woody Guthrie.
o November Relix (O.A.R. cover): Smoke. Stacks. Lightning: A Librarian Catalogues the Dead; album reviews of Why?, Seu Jorge and Bob Dylan; combined book/DVD review of current Pink Floyd product.
o August Hear/Say: album reviews of John Vanderslice and Son Volt.
o September Hear/Say: album reviews of Steve Kimock and Blues Traveler, book review of Jerry Garcia: The Collected Artwork.
o October Hear/Say: album reviews of Apollo Sunshine and Iron and Wine/Calexico.
o November Hear/Say: album reviews of Bell Orchestre and the Fiery Furnaces.
“London Calling” (wma) – Bob Dylan (re-upped through January 6th.)
21 November 2005, Brixton Academy, London, UK
Fly-by-night, lo-fi, punk-frickin’-rock recording of Dylan performing a solid minute of The Clash’s “London Calling” yesterday in London. The super-digitized distortion on the Windows media file is the 21st century equivalent of an oversaturated cassette bootleg made with a built-in condenser mic (and, hell, for all I know, this recording was made on an oversaturated cassette with a condenser mic). Dylan’s post-“Love and Theft” gruntfest howl is perfectly suited to the medium, cutting through the shit like a rude, distorted guitar and beamed around the world in a matter of hours by an anonymous head. (Thanks, anonymous head!) (…and to Aaron & Russ for pointing it out.)
Back in the spring, I made four episodes of The Frow Show for the Ropedope Podcast Network. Episode 4 is a late night/headphones-recommended sound collage. Here are the playlists and links.
These editions follow previous stints on WNPT (the fake radio station/closed circuit radio at my high school), WOBC in Oberlin, Ohio (four to six am on Saturday mornings!), and a pirate radio station my friend Jeff set up in his living room (also in Oberlin) whose call letters I can’t recall.
Episode 1: Listen // Playlist
Episode 2: Listen // Playlist
Episode 3: Listen // Playlist
Episode 4: Listen // Playlist
If these don’t work, try here. They seem to have all the Ropeadope podcasts archived.
I’m in the process of putting together some new episodes.
A three segment sound collage, with epilogue. Headphones recommended. Listen here.
1. “Frow Show Theme” – MVB
Segment 1 (containing, in roughly this order)
2. excerpt from “Orange Twin Field Works, vol. 1” – Jeff Mangum (from “Orange Twin Field Works, vol. 1”
3. random tracks from “The Lonesome Executive’s Fantastic Tape Recorder” – The Lonesome Executive (from “The Lonesome Executive’s Fantastic Tape Recorder”)
4. “Dripsody” – Hugh Le Caine (from “OHM: Early Gurus of Electronic Music” compilation
5. “Time Steps” – Walter Carlos (from “Walter Carlos’ Clockwork Orange”)
6. “Arrival in Mas” – recorded by David Baker (from “Pitamaha: Music from Bali”)
7. “Oh My God! Nature! Run!” – Funny Cry Happy (from “Postcards: Atlantic City” EP)
8. “To Inflate…” – Korena Pang (from “AUX” compilation)
9. “Black Firs” – A Hawk and a Hacksaw (from “A Hawk and a Hacksaw”)
Segment 2:
10. “(Tape Composition)/Evening Drones/Dusk At Cubist Castle, etc.” – Black Swan Network (from “Black Swan Network vs. Olivia Tremor Control”)
Segment 3 (containing overlapping excerpts from, roughly in this order):
11. “O Relogio” – Os Mutantes (from “Os Mutantes”)
12. “Karmic Light” – Tetsu Inoue (from “Ambient Otaku”)
13. “1/1” – Brian Eno (from “Music For Airports”)
14. “Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet” – Gavin Bryars (from “Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet”)
15. “Journey Through the Outer Darkness” – Sun Ra (from “Concert For the Comet Kohoutek”)
16. “I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground” – Bascom Lamar Lunsford (from “Anthology of American Folk Music” compilation)
Epilogue:
17. “Sea Song” – Robert Wyatt (from “Rock Bottom”)
Listen here.
1. “Astro Black” – Sun Ra (from “Concert For the Comet Kohoutek”)
2. “Frow Show Theme” – MVB
3. “Wowie Zowie” – Frank Zappa (from “Freak Out!”)
4. “Halifax” – Hampton Grease Band (from “Music To Eat”)
5. “NYC Is Like A Graveyard” – The Moldy Peaches (from “The Moldy Peaches”)
6. “Hot Rocks Polka” – Weird Al Yankovic (from “UHF” soundtrack”)
7. “Ruby Tuesday” – Rolling Stones (from “Between The Buttons”)
8. “She Shot A Hole In My Soul” – Clifford Curry (from “Night Train to Nashville” compilation)
9. “Don’t” – Seu Jorge (from “Cru”)
10. “Drifter in the Dark” – Ween (from “Chocolate and Cheese”)
11. “Death Is Only A Dream” – The Stanley Brothers (from “The Complete Rich-R-Tone Recordings”)
12. “Train Song” – Phish (from “Billy Breathes”)
13. “Strange Fruit” – Robert Wyatt (from “Nothing Can Stop Us”)
14. “Nannou” – Aphex Twin (from “Windowlicker” EP)
