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Straight to Video
Rock Art Rock
The Decemberists
September 19, 2009
Terminal 5, New York, NY
By Amanda Hatfield "The Decemberists played a special one night 'lottery show,' where the songs played were picked at random by a master of ceremonies, played by John Wesley Harding..."
Ra Ra Riot
April 4, 2009
Webster Hall, New York City, NY
By Amanda Hatfield "This show was, at the time, the biggest one Ra Ra Riot had sold out as headliners, and it was clear to me after watching it that the band is destined for even bigger and better things..."
Florence and the Machine
October 28, 2009
Bowery Ballroom, New York City, NY
By Amanda Hatfield "Florence Welsh and her backing band delighted and mesmerized a sold-out crowd at Bowery in her first official NY headlining show..."
Dirty Projectors
July 19, 2009
Williamsburg Waterfront (Brooklyn, NY)
By Amanda Hatfield "I was skeptical about how well Dirty Projectors' gorgeous, complex vocal harmonies would carry over outdoors, standing under hot sunshine..."
See more in the Rock Art Rock gallery.
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Pink Floyd: The Final Cut
Pink Floyd
The Final Cut
(Columbia/Capitol, 1983)
And now, it’s time for another edition of Point/Counterpoint, the online rock ‘n’ roll game that invites you, the reader, to play along at home. This week’s installment is brought to you by the good people at Fletcher Memorial Home, who would like to remind you that death—while tragic—is just another fact of life. And so, without any further adieu, Crawdaddy! is proud to present Point/Counterpoint:
Today’s topic: Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut (original US release date: April 2, 1983).
Animals, the Most Unlikely Punk Album of All Time
Some rock historians would have us believe that punk rock rose up in the ’70s, snarling and spitting, as a reaction to the excesses of progressive rock. It’s a truism that may be overstated but which probably contains at least a kernel of truth.
Among the more prominent bands targeted for derision by the safety pin and toothpaste crowd: Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and Pink Floyd. It can hardly be coincidental that Yes released what’s arguably their most excessive work—the ponderous Tales from Topographic Oceans—in late 1973, just a few years before punk really got rolling. The following year, ELP turned out a bombastic three-record live set and three years after that, as punk was getting in full swing, another three LPs worth of Works (Vol. 1 and Vol. 2).
As for Pink Floyd, the most enduring and media-savvy of the Pistols, Johnny Rotten/Lydon, is said to have paraded around during their The Dark Side of the Moon-era heyday, sporting a homemade “I Hate Pink Floyd” t-shirt. In 1996, decades after the Sex Pistols went blooey, and long after Waters had exited Pink Floyd, Lydon was still professing his hatred for the band, though he claimed to get on well with guitarist David Gilmour. As late as 2000, Lydon was still beating this dead horse, dismissing Pink Floyd as “crap” and “a load of old twaddle.”
Ed Pearl: Back to the Ash Grove
“What the Ash Grove did,” says Ed Pearl, “was change the face of popular music.” Of course, Pearl would think that: He is the folk impresario (if that’s not an oxymoron) behind the Ash Grove, a fabled roots music club that stirred it up on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles from 1958-1973. It was the kind of place some folks dream about, a place where legends the likes of Muddy Waters and Doc Watson, as well as Flamenco dancers and street poets, took the stage on the same bill; a community center where everyday people—activists and laborers, millionaires and grifters—all made the scene. So why would anyone want to burn it down, not once, but three times?
The gospel of the Ash Grove, according to Pearl, demonstrates how the traditional music of the American South came to the West Coast, entered the popular culture in the early ’60s, launched the folk revival followed by the creation of folk-rock and its protest-orientated repertoire, and contributed to the transformation of culture. Though what you are about to read may or may not prove that claim, like one of those traditional ballads that gets handed down and slightly rearranged over time, it’s the writer’s hope that the essence of the song is pure, while its mystery remains.
The Step Into Tradition
Rock Art Rock: Issue 2.16
Pink Floyd
The Wall, 1982
Artwork by Gerald Scarfe
The Wall is a rock ‘n’ roll tour de force, a twisted look into the fragile mind of the film’s protagonist, Pink. Conceived by Roger Waters and based on the 1979 Pink Floyd album of the same name, the narrative of the film is interspersed with trippy, mutated imagery as evidenced by this poster by artist Gerald Scarfe, who was also responsible for the film’s animation sequences. The Wall is highly metaphorical, very much addressing social and individual concerns including alienation, drug use, politics, fascism, war… this poster deftly exemplifies the themes, tone, and gripping metaphors of The Wall, and is a perfect visual counterpoint to Pink Floyd’s master opus.
Dark Side of the Death Star (or How I Wasted Eleven Months of My Life)
I think we, the global movie-watching pop culture community at large, can all agree that there is a lot going on in The Wizard of Oz. Deadly tornados, flying monkeys, talking lions, Ray Bolger, regional witches of varying virtue, glittery shoes, singing munchkins—Jesus, there are even birds in the background that look like people trying to kill themselves. It’s really a tour de force of wacky crap, a carnival of Technicolor insanity that’s kept audiences entertained for decades. Few films can match Oz’s density; even the awesome 1978 remake fell flat by comparison (and that one had Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, back when they were still both at the top of their game). Yessir, there’s just no topping some cinematic spectacles.
Of course, in this age of cable television, instant playback, and re-re-re-recordable media, it is possible to desensitize one’s self to such greatness, to make the incredible mundane, the fascinating routine, the amazing boring. Too many TBS/VHS viewings have probably rendered Oz as pedestrian to some people as your average episode of Webster. This (and a heroic amount of pot, I speculate) is probably what led an unknown party sometime in the early ’90s to view The Wizard of Oz while listening to Pink Floyd’s 1973 masterpiece Dark Side of the Moon. Why listen to Judy Garland’s warbling when you have a mute button, right? Throw on some Floyd, spark a doob, and let the colorful Land of Oz jack off your brain.
Sounds like a pretty killer way to burn off a few hours late on a Sunday afternoon. What no one in the world expected, though, was that there would be some kind of interstellar connection between these two seemingly unrelated properties. Indeed, it would turn out that, when started at the correct moment, a good majority of Dark Side of the Moon would mirror the events in Oz. Nearly 60 moments of synchronicity occur, just enough to blow the minds of every burned-out classic rocker and rabid Bert Lahr fan on the planet. Mainstream media first picked up on the “Dark Side of the Rainbow” phenomenon in 1995, thanks to a piece by Charles Savage in Indiana’s Fort Wayne Journal Gazette (those guys are always on the cutting edge).
Various Artists
Various Artists
The Best of Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour, Volume 2
(Chrome Dreams/MVD, 2008)
I took the satellite radio plunge in the spring of 2006, initially signing up with XM primarily to receive Bob Dylan’s radio show, Theme Time Radio Hour, and I haven’t been disappointed. Dylan is one of the musicians on XM who has his own show, like Tom Petty and Graham Nash. The weekly, hour-long show features Dylan playing DJ, and each week’s show centers around a specific theme. Chrome Dreams, in association with ISIS magazine, a Dylan fanzine, has now released its second volume of The Best of Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour.
It’s important to point out right up front that these CDs are not recordings of the actual broadcast. Dylan’s between-track raps (which are what make the shows so special) are not included. For many, this will be a great disappointment and ultimately, for some hardcore Dylan fans, it may result in their having very little interest in the set. A great way to approach these CDs is to use them as a means of gaining insight into the music that has shaped Dylan’s musical vocabulary. For me, they make for a great companion to previously released compilations of pre-rock music such as the Harry Smith-curated Anthology of American Folk Music sets.
Pink Floyd: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Many books come out each year deconstructing rock music: The musicians, their albums, their songs, their showering habits, and their other habits. It’s here where we’ll take an excerpt of a book for you to check out before you make the purchase. As of now these will exclusively feature the venerable 33 1/3 series, which picks apart an album by a band or musician. In the future, we hope to include more rock books of all varieties.
“We didn’t start out trying to get anything new, it just entirely happened. We originally started as an R&B group,” Roger Waters told a reporter from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), around the turn of the year 1966–67. Syd Barrett continued, “Sometimes we just let loose a bit and started hitting the guitar a bit harder and not worrying quite so much about the chords…” Roger: “It stopped being sort of third rate academic rock and started being intuitive groove.” Syd: “It’s free-form.”
Your Handy Guide to the Month in Music
Presumably, you have a job, which you rely on to ensure that you’re able to pay your rent or mortgage every month. Presumably, you have friends and family, with whom you occasionally like to spend time, or with whom you, at the very least, like to keep in touch, through email or instant messenger or even, god help you, the telephone. And presumably, you have hobbies and interests that take up some of your time as well. Maybe you like to cook. Or play golf. Or watch television. Or take pictures or make art.
The point of all of this is that, presumably, you are therefore unable to dedicate every waking moment to keeping up with the increasingly fast-paced world of music fandom. More records are being released than ever before. Young bands are being discovered and discussed long before they even get around to releasing a record. Music critics and bloggers are constantly bickering with one another. Record labels merge and fold and engage in heated legal battles every single day.
It is, frankly, exhausting. And there is no shame in falling behind. That you care enough to even try staying up to date is admirable, and so I’m going to try my best to make things a little easier for you. On the last Wednesday of each month, you’ll find waiting for you this column, in which I’ll provide a thorough recap of the events of the previous month. Record releases, news items, notable happenings in the music media, newly announced tours, label signings and assorted industry stuff. You’ll know everything you need to know, and you won’t even have to lose your job or stop talking to your family. Perfect, right?
Syd Barrett: We Miss Thee
The legacy of Syd Barrett is up in the air. Madman or Acidhead? Trickster or oddball? Of these things, rarely is he remembered as a great songwriter, never mind a guitar hero. He founded Pink Floyd, one of the best art/progressive rock bands in history, yet he remains unexplored by most Pink Floyd fans that wholeheartedly swallow the acid casualty tale. When he died last year, the media super highway lit up with “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” styled remembrances, and that’s unfortunate. I think that Syd would have been bummed that the mass media was harping on this cheesy song he didn’t even write, which he claimed sounded “rather old.”
And for good reason! Those mean bastards in Floyd stole his band, his sound, destroyed his good name, and have withheld releasing some of his best material. This is not a conspiracy theory. This is a fact. So, while remembering the man on the anniversary of his passing, and in the interest of his considerable legacy, buy all of Syd Barrett’s records (that would be The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, The Madcap Laughs, Barrett, and Opel), let the expansiveness of them wash over you, and then get on the internet super highway and find the following recommended choice cuts. By the way, did you know he wrote the Piper songs when he was like 18?! And “Golden Hair” from Madcap Laughs was written at 14. He couldn’t even grow a ‘stache at that point.
Here’s the wishful playlist:
Music Books of the Last Six Months: Summer Edition
by: The C! Team
Well, it’s that time of year again where we all collectively attempt to slow down the pace of our roundabout lives, and for good reason. Shit, we all need to partake in some summertime activity, like some going to the beach or pool, or some eating of some hot dogs and drinking of some beers at a baseball game, or, you know, in some being especially lazy. Let the summer breeze blow through the jasmine of your mind, as it were. Record releases come to a proverbial halt, so we’re following their lead, however inanimate they are. What we’re trying to say is that we aren’t publishing for the next week, due to a twice-a-year necessity to hit the reset button and come back refreshed and ready for more rollickin’ rock journalism. The good news is that we’re keeping up the tradition of our bi-annual book review! This summertime edition features music-related books that have come out in the last six months. You should pick up a few and add them to your summer reading list, and really, really focus on taking things down a notch. Enjoy!
Photographs and text by Lauren Dukoff
(Chronicle Books)
read more
by: The C! Team
published: July 1, 2009 in column: Book Reviews
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