Obviously on Vacation

Hello, I have no internet. I also have no speakers. Thus, Songbird Stew has fallen silent. I intend to reappear in the future, date undetermined. Till then, continue visiting the people listed to the right, because they have wonderful taste.

The Bangs: Sweet Revenge

Sweet Revenge publicity photo from the Kill Rock Stars website.

Deep down, maybe not so secretly, I possess a riot grrl heart that doesn't beat so much as pogo wildly. When I hear a girl rocking out, I feel relieved.

Sometimes I buy a record solely based on two criteria: 1) it's at least 50% made up of females; and 2) it's on the Kill Rock Stars label. This m.o. has not failed me yet. Case in point: The Bangs.

I've really been enjoying this record a lot lately; it has everything rock'n'roll could ever promise you. Tightly wailing guitar chords, loud and snappy drums, and simply strong vocals that somehow keep reminding me of Joey Ramone in a really nice, non-imitative way. Get bouncy, get flirty, get heartbroken, get angry.

It's all good.



01. Fast Easy Love
02. Train Wreck
03. Undo Everything
04. Telephone Game

Purchase Sweet Revenge on Amazon.

Find more mp3s and videos by the Bangs on the Kill Rock Stars website.

Janis Joplin

June 1968 interview at Hollywood's Landmark Hotel; photo by Lou Mack

The peacock of Haight-Ashbury, the little Texan girl with the big, big voice.

I once briefly dated a boy who said to me, "I really don't like Janis Joplin. She's way too... screamy." Shortly after, we broke up. Coincidence? I'll never know, but I'm inclined to think it's not.

Janis Joplin, as you all know, got started with Big Brother and the Holding Company. She became extremely famous exactly the way Elvis Presley did: a white southerner covering classic blues and soul tunes, not merely doing the song justice, but repossessing the song, imbuing it with a personal style so strong it is unstoppable, untouchable. It is impossible for me to accept anyone else could cover "Piece of My Heart" after Janis; I refuse to talk about it.

Between 1968 and 1970, Joplin recorded three phenomenal records with three separate bands; she was only 25 when she made Cheap Thrills with Big Brother. (If I were my theatre history professor, I would now turn to you with a wicked grin and ask, "And what have you done with your lives?"). She died at the ominous rock'n'roll age of 28 in 1970, from a heroin overdose. Her third album Pearl was released posthumously and became her biggest-selling record. Fun fact: "Mercedes-Benz" was written by Janis with San Francisco beat poet Michael McClure.

01. Piece of My Heart || (from Cheap Thrills)
02. Turtle Blues || (from Cheap Thrills)
03. Ball and Chain || (from Cheap Thrills)
04. Summertime || (live at Woodstock; available on the 1999 CD reissue of I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again, Mama!; another version is also available on Cheap Thrills)
05. Me and Bobby McGee* || (available on Pearl)
06. Mercedes-Benz || (from Pearl)

*I found this acoustic version floating about the internet via Singing Fish. I don't know where or when it was recorded, but it's really fucking good, isn't it?

Ginger Baker

Cream's farewell performance at the Royal Albert Hall, 1968. Photo by Barrie Wentzell.


I think it is fair to say -- and I'm sure my husband-to-be will agree -- that Ginger Baker is one of the greatest rock'n'roll drummers of all time. He might be the mack daddy of them all. You can't say no to the double bass, and you sure as hell can't say no to both bass drums being nailed to the stage floor. Ginger Baker does not fuck around. He turns 67 today and he probably can still kick your ass.

Ginger started on drums at 15 and joined a jazz group shortly after. At 22, he got pissed off and made his own drumkit with plexiglass and a gas stove (does not fuck around, remember). In 1963, Ginger played in the Graham Bond Organisation with Mr. Bond and Jack Bruce. While they were in this band together, Jack busted up Ginger's DIY drumkit; that same year, they formed Cream with Eric Clapton. Good to know you can trash a guy's drums and still be mates with him.

I think "Sunshine of Your Love" is one of the most recognizable and most broadly influential tunes; certainly the opening bass guitar is unmistakable. Besides that, in your right ear is the incessant pounding of a very primal rhythm, the often-called "tribal" rhythm, that continues to be imitated in modern death metal (for example).

I am also willing to place a small amount of money that the Muppet Animal shares direct kinship with Ginger. To wit:




Here's Ginger rocking out on the drum solo from "Toad," the paradiddle heard 'round the world. This is the heart of rock'n'roll: bloody, growling, revolutionary, and probably full of amphetamines.




And here is a rather understated performance from Animal; however, please note the double bass set up. Separated at birth? I think so.


With Cream:
01. Sunshine of Your Love || (from Disraeli Gears)

With the Ginger Baker Trio:
02. Straight No Chaser || (from Going Back Home)
03. When We Go || (from Going Back Home)



postcript:
Because it's so cool I just can't stand it,
Animal duking it out with Buddy Rich.




Fucking drummers, man. God bless 'em.

Fiona Apple

The first CD I ever bought for myself, with my own money, was Fiona Apple's Tidal. I was 16 when I bought it the year after it had come out, and I was just well impressed that a girl only a few years older than myself had the capacity to write such musically and lyrically complex songs, with a vocal maturity that would not seem out of place in a blue-lit smoky jazz bar circa 1948.

Like many other young female Fiona fans, I awaited her second album with bated breath. When the Pawn... arrived in the middle of my disastrous first term at uni and I was not disappointed. This remains, in my opinion, the best breakup album ever made. Really.

Fiona Apple possesses a gift for pulling an emotion out of herself, examining it with stream-of-consciousness ferocity, and following its thread fully to its final, logical conclusion, the latter quality I have always regarded in people as a clear mark of either genius or madness.



01. Sleep to Dream || (from Tidal)
02. Pale September || (from Tidal)

03. Love Ridden || (from When the Pawn...)
04. Paper Bag || (from When the Pawn...)

05. Window || (from Extraordinary Machine)
06. Extraordinary Machine || (from Extraordinary Machine)

Too many Leos!

It's birthday time again! I love a birthday; it means I get free gourmet cake at work. Today, Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers would have turned 66, and Ronnie Spector of the Ronettes turns 63.



You may best recognize Bobby Hatfield (on the right) as that insanely high-pitched boy who goes spastic in "Unchained Melody." (This song always makes me cry.) Singing partner Bill Medley took care of the low end of the Righteous Brothers. Their first big hit was 1964's "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin,'" and (here's where it gets spooky) was produced by Phil Spector, Ronnie Spector's husband. Eight months after the Righteous Brothers were inducted into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame, Bobby Hatfield died of a cocaine-induced heart attack. He was 63 and probably should have known better.



Bobby performing on Shindig.





Ronnie Spector (left) formed the Ronettes with her sister Estelle and cousin Nedra. If you're unfamiliar with the 1960s girl group scene, you probably know Ronnie mainly from Eddie Money's 1980s hit, "Take Me Home Tonight." While the Ronettes never hit #1, in 1963 they did reach #2 in the US with their very first single, "Be My Baby," which is a rather impressive feat in my opinion. "Be My Baby," of course, is also the tune featured on Eddie Money's track.

Additionally, the drum intro to "Be My Baby" seems to be so simple it is in fact ingenious, as it has been copped by numerous artists such as Billy Joel, XTC, Elvis Costello and a thousand more.

01. Be My Baby
02. Do I Love You?



Find The Righteous Brothers and The Ronettes at Amazon.com.
Read more about Phil Spector's Wall of Sound on Wikipedia.



Aaannnd I just realized today is also the birthday of my dear friend Stephen, who happens to be a hell of a songwriter. Check his MySpace profile to hear some old school poetry folk. I highly recommend "Corva Lay Down." Of course.

Dot Allison: Afterglow

I get a bit lost in this record. Pleasantly lost. Don't worry about wandering too far into the pre-industrial Bohemian woods, because there are plenty of cake crumbs on the ground to snack on, and the birds, though strangely plumed and very large, are rather pretty to look at.

Dot Allison has one of those very soothing, and sometimes spooky, voices that never really ventures into harsh extremes. I want her to sit by my bed and tell me a story, one with lots of witches, good and bad, and lots of songs in it. No illustrations necessary.

01. Message Personnel
02. I Wanna Feel the Chill



Purchase Afterglow at Amazon.com.

Air: 10,000 Hz Legend

From tongue-in-cheek twee electropop to dusty troubadour ballads to lethal sexed-up trip hop, Air presents a god damn smorgasboard of musical styles in one record. 2001's 10,000 Hz Legend shifts easily between the lighthearted, the self-effacing, and the sublime, all treated with lush production and large sounds. One minute you're complacent, the next your veins are blown apart by needling melancholy. And would you have it any other way? No, neither would I.

01. How Does It Make You Feel?
02. The Vagabond
03. Sex Born Poison


Purchase 10,000 Hz Legend at Amazon.com.



postscript:
Oh, hey, guess what? Other people also have stellar taste in music (are you ever surprised you're not the only one who isn't listening to utter shit? I know I am.)

01. The BEST "Sleater-Kinney-are-breaking-up" post was made at A Blog Soup a few weeks ago, including not only tracks by Sleater-Kinney, but also bootlegs of Excuse 17 & Heavens to Betsy. This post is apparently proving extremely popular and therefore devouring bandwidth, but the authors are being supernice about it, so hit em up while you can.

02. I just discovered a new favorite band thanks to Heartache with Hard Work going motherfucking hogwild and referencing Phil Spector right off the bat. Before you check his One Hundred and First Post (it deserves capitals, really), prepare yourself for being knocked flat by something stunning and previously unknown to you. I strongly recommend Johnny Boy.

03. Kwaya Na Kisser is always going around posting amazing things, this time with Tori Amos covering the likes of ACDC, Bruce Springsteen, Radiohead, and more. Many more. The bonus is a glimpse of me dorking out in public. Awesome.

Go visit those kids and give them your lunch money.

The Shirelles

Beverly Lee (I believe that's her in the bottom left) of the Shirelles was born today in 1941.

Four high school friends in New Jersey decided to write a song together in 1958; thus, the Shirelles became one of the premier girl groups of early rock'n'roll. (I know this may sound shocking, but the sound was not invented by the Supremes nor Motown.) The Shirelles reached Number 1 on the US Singles charts in 1961 with "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," a rather bold examination of a teenage one night stand. The Shirelles were inducted into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Our birthday gal Beverly is still performing with some friends under the Shirelles moniker. Clearly, the lady is unstoppable.


01. I Met Him on a Sunday
02. Dedicated to the One I Love
03. Will You Love Me Tomorrow

Find the Shirelles at Amazon.com.

History: A Saucerful of Secrets

On July 27, 1968, Pink Floyd's second album was released in the US. A Saucerful of Secrets was the only Pink Floyd album not to chart at all in the US and the last to feature Sid Barrett, who died earlier this month.

Let There Be More Light