brainsplotch

I said I was gonna write another "Seattle post" and, as usual, didn't get on that when I should have. So here's part two of this very loosely based on Seattle theme. In this case, it's the band Screaming Trees. I wrote about the Trees a few years ago when bassist Van Conner died. I have been on a Screaming Trees jag recently after finding a cache of their CDs at my favorite local record shop, Flat Back & Circular. The CDs in question ar the 1985-1989 SST Records anthology, and the two Epic Records albums I didn't already have, Uncle Anesthesia and Dust . It reaffirms my opinion that the Trees were among the most under-appreciated, underrated bands of the '90s "grunge" era. I know "underrated" is thrown around too often, but it is wholly appropriate here. If Mudhoney were the most Stooges-inspired garage punk of the Seattle grunge bands, then Screaming Trees were the most '60s psychedelia-inspired (not that all of their songs ca...

As I write this in our room at the Hard Day's Night Hotel (don't laugh--it's actually much classier than the name might imply, though does have a definite Beatle theme), we can hear loud dance music pumping outside. It's Saturday night in Liverpool and this place parties louder and harder than any city I've ever experienced. And I mean the entire city centre. Every pub and restaurant blasts music and people are everywhere drinking, singing karaoke, and in some cases wearing dressy, shiny clothes. Glowering bouncers/doormen stand out these places looking menacing. In my first day ever in Liverpool, I'm trying to get a grasp of the place, but am not successful so far. Not to say that this is a bad place at all, but it operates at a frequency that I am not attuned to yet. I'll have to see if it calms down at all tomorrow, which is a Sunday.  After wandering around the area surrounding the hotel and not finding a restaurant that didn't look crowded, insanely...

I finally got around to firing up Disney+ and watching the recently released Beatles ' 64 documentary. It's always fun to see footage of the Beatles, and there is plenty of this Maysles brothers stuff (which comprises a bulk of this new film) that I had never seen before. I fact, I've never seen the Maysles' 1964 documentary, What's Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A .  This 2024 documentary includes talking heads discussing their Beatles memories and attempts to contextualize the band's arrival in the U.S. Did the Beatles help America heal after the JFK assassination? Perhaps? They certainly created a much needed distraction--for both kids AND many adults. The kids fell in love with the Fab Four while the adults seemed to be--by and large--bemused by the phenomenon. For me, the highlight of the "talking heads" portion of the film was music producer Jack Douglas telling his story of traveling to Liverpool with a buddy during the height of Beatlemani...

Last night, when I was griping about writing in the blog, I was taking a short break from finishing this book, 1964: Eyes of the Storm , by Paul McCartney (with a great introductory essay by Harvard history professor Jill Lepore). The book features a treasure trove of photographs taken by McCartney in late 1963 and early 1964, none of which had been published before, and in fact had been in storage for decades. These candid photos of the Beatles and their entourage (Brian Epstein, George Martin, Mal Evans, Neil Aspinall, Cynthia Lennon, and others) document Beatlemania as it was exploding and taking the world by storm. As I said, Jill Lepore's accompanying essay is excellent, as she places the Beatles in historical context by discussing many of the world events of '63 and '64 (Kennedy assassination, Civil Rights Act, Freedom Summer, Barry Goldwater and the Republican National Convention) and how the Beatles fit in. Of course, the photos are the real selling poin...

Aside from Waterloo Station and Waterloo Bridge, my only other "must do" in London was Abbey Road Studios and the most famous zebra crossing in the world. I need to write this now before I forget important details. On Wednesday morning, August 23, L..and I set off at about 8 AM to the Westminster Underground station to take the tube to the St. John's Wood station, a trip of about 20 minutes (about ten minutes to walk to the station and ten minutes on the train). When we disembarked at St. John's Wood, I was immediately reminded of the Rolling Stones song "Play With Fire," with its heiress who owns a block in St. John's Wood. As it turns out, much of St. John's Wood--or at least Acacia Road--is a rather toney and quiet neighborhood of large (by London standards) houses. We made our way down leafy, quiet Acacia Road until we reached the intersection of Abbey Road, at which point we turned and continued walking for a few blocks into an area ...

It seems the upshot of our first indoor concert since October 2019 was that L. and I both got sick. She tested positive for Covid (but is doing fine), while I somehow have not tested positive, though all the symptoms over the last few days seem like Covid. I have been congested and pretty much lost my ability to taste or smell for about three days. Thankfully, the taste/smell combo seems to be returning today. The congestion isn't as bad, but is now replaced with a nasty, periodic cough. This will not stop us from seeing Sloan at Saint Andrew's Hall in June, though I think I will mask up through the entire show. Perhaps our risk of Covid will be less in a crowd of good-natured Canadians as opposed to wild animal DBT fans? I have no idea. When I wasn't feeling cruddy this weekend, I was watching the NCAA basketball tournament and listening to music. For awhile on Saturday, I got to do what I'd do in my younger bachelor days and mute the sound on the TV with music playing...

I probably shouldn't have waited a full week before writing about The Beatles' Get Back documentary, which began streaming on Disney+ starting on Thanksgiving. So if you are interested in my thoughts, here you go... I'll just start off by saying I loved all eight hours and could have easily watched 18 hours. Many of our preconceived notions of the Beatles were changed or modified. They didn't seem to hate each other. Yes, there was tension at Twickenham Studios culminating in George Harrison leaving the band for a few days, but everyone appeared to get along swimmingly when the venue changed to Apple Studio on Savile Row. Yoko Ono did not break up the Beatles. If anything, she kept John Lennon interested in the band longer than he may have otherwise. I liked the scene at Twickenham in which Yoko and Linda Eastman (McCartney) are seen talking to each other. They appear to be having an enjoyable and intense conversation, which defies what I've read that Yoko and Linda...

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the American release of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. This significant anniversary got me to thinking about my own relationship with this album. Pepper is an album I don't listen to that much anymore, and when I recently wrote a list of my favorite Beatles albums*--a challenge issued by Bill and Brian of  The Great Albums podcast (check it out if you've never heard it, it's a good podcast), I had Pepper at number seven of the 13 Beatles studio albums. This isn't to say that Pepper is a bad album--not at all. (I mean, come on, it's the Beatles for chrissakes!) It's just far from my favorite album by the Fab Four. However, there is a time when it was about the only Beatles album I knew. If you want to put a fine point on it, and if anyone out there really cares, Rubber Soul was the first Beatles album I remember listening to straight through. That's because my older cousin Suzy went thr...

George Harrison's inspiration for a certain Beatles song. If you're a fan of the Fabs, you will know this one right away.

The infamous "butcher cover" In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' 1964 American invasion, and--let's face it--a good excuse to make a few more bucks, EMI/Apple have re-issued the Fab Four's Capitol Records 1964-1966 output. With the exception of the poorly conceived and executed box sets The Capitol Albums (vol. I & II), this is the first time these albums have ever appeared on compact disc. I'm exactly the sucker that EMI/Apple is aiming for when they re-issue these Beatles albums. When I first heard that these albums were about to be re-issued, my immediate response was, "I already have most of these on vinyl, why do I need to get them again?" But then I heard that EMI/Apple had attached a few bells and whistles to these re-issues: with the exception of the 1970 hodge-podge Hey Jude album, all of the releases include both stereo and mono tracks. Anyway, I'll spare you any blow-by-blow background of these releases bec...

I had a particularly long and grueling day at work, it wasn't necessarily bad, it just wore me out and it was such sweet relief to finally get in my car and drive home. My normal habit on the nightly drive home is to listen to NPR, generally WUOM 91.7 out of Ann Arbor, because that NPR station has a nice clear FM signal. However, the night before I'd been listening to the MSU basketball game on the way home, and hadn't bothered to change it to nice, staid, calm, relaxing NPR. Instead of the BBC NewsHour (or whatever is on at 6:00 PM), I was greeted by The Beatles' "The Ballad of John and Yoko." That was a pleasant surprise. I stopped across the street from work for gas, and when I finished it was John Lennon singing "Watching the Wheels," a song I didn't much like when it came out in 1980 but a song I've come to appreciate much more the older I become. I turned up the volume a little on that one. It soon became obvious that this was a L...

Unless you've been living under a large rock, you're probably aware that the Beatles' catalog will be reissued on CD on September 9, and that "The Beatles: Rock Band" video game will be coming out that same day. Perhaps I'm betraying my age, but I'm not that excited about "The Beatles: Rock Band" (although I must admit that the more I read about it, the more fun it sounds), but I am rather excited about the remastered music. I don't think I've mentioned in this blog before, but I am a Beatles nerd--not one of those "uber-nerds" who, say, owns every single Beatles vinyl, cassette, and compact disc release (Capitol and Parlophone, mono and stereo), every single bootleg recording, has read every single Beatles book, and has every wall in the home plastered with Beatles posters and other memorabilia --but I am perhaps the next level below that extreme peak of Fab Four geekdom. I've got about 20 vinyl Beatles LPs (two copies eac...