BILLY RANCHER AND THE UNREAL GODS

If you were into punk rock in Portland back in the day, you remember Billy Rancher. He started the Malchicks in the late 70s, and on weekends if you crowded into the cavern under the Long Goodbye with every weirdo and deviant who ever crawled out of Naked Lunch you could see them play. This was PDX punk. After the Malchicks fell apart, Rancher formed the Unreal Gods around 1980. They mixed punk and ska with a little sloppy Stones, and played what they called Boom Chuck Rock. You might have seen them at Louis La Bamba or maybe out at Lung Fung's Dragon Room on 82nd, a huge Chinese hangar where the drinks were strong.

Billy was cool, man. He was funny and charismatic and he really got the crowd rocking. He was all set to "make it big," and it was just a matter of time. The planets were aligned, it seemed. He was opening for a lot of big acts when they came to town. Sadly, in his mid-20s, Billy was diagnosed with lymphoma. He died in 1986 and is still missed.

I was surprised to come across this live clip from a Portland show. It's a souvenir. It reminds me of all those great nights. Try to imagine a time before blogs and YouTube...you're jammed into a small club with all the freaks, and you've had a few drinks, maybe you smoked a joint in the parking lot, and things are going weird, but the Unreal Gods kick into boom chuck rock and you are pulled in and you can't stop dancing. When you hit the streets afterward you're icey with sweat and you can't hear anymore, but it doesn't matter because you saw--experienced--this amazing show, and you'll still be talking about it nearly thirty years later!

Now that's something for the time capsule--another fly trapped in amber. I heard Billy's old Strat turned up a while ago on Craig's List.

So it goes.

Thanks, Billy. And thanks to Jack Bog for reminding me of some of those great shows.

MY MORNING JACKET

My Morning Jacket has a great new album called "Evil Urges." The album is all over the map, a carnival of musical styles ranging from their patented wailing Americana, to basement-tape era Band, to Prince-style funk. Go buy it. The video clip above isn't on the album, but I couldn't resist posting MMJ playing with the Boston Pops on Letterman.

Below is title track from the new album. Please click the button to listen:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BOB DYLAN

Dylan is 67 today. Here's an outtake from DA Pennebaker's reels of film from the 1965 tour.

DAVID RIESMAN ON BEATLEMANIA

David Riesman (1909-2002) Sociologist and Educator

If you've read any sociology at all, you've probably read David Riesman. In his important book The Lonely Crowd, he wrote of 'inner-directed' and 'other-directed' personalities. Riesman made a case that the character of post WWII American society pushed individuals to "other-directedness", the classic example being modern suburbia "where individuals seek their neighbors approval and fear being outcast from their community." Conformity was key, and the individual was being homogenized.


The Beatles in Germany, 1966

As a non-conformist of sorts, I always liked Riesman. Still, I think the good doctor missed the boat on Beatlemania. Riesman himself would admit he's the product of his own cultural time and place, his own social conditioning, his zeitgeist. In this 1964 interview he took the Fab Four for a passing fad. Of course, at the time of the interview the Beatles were a recent phenomenon, and we can't expect Riesman to enjoy our 20-20 hindsight. Still, it makes a fascinating read.

"Compared to the Elvis Presley craze, it is a very minor one. Presley created a definitely 'antiparent' outlook. His music—and he, himself—appeared somewhat insolent, slightly hoodlum."

Read the entire 1964 interview in the US News and World Report by clicking HERE.

FROM THE ANIMATION ARCHIVE

Here is the St. James Infirmary section of Betty Boop's "Snow White" from 1933. Yes, that's Cab Calloway singing! What wonderful animation! Produced by Max Fleischer, directed by Dave Fleischer.

I SHALL BE (UN)RELEASED

Inside Dylan's Head: click to enlarge picture

I shall be (un)released; some wonderful Dylan rarities from Uncle Bob's Vault:

John Brown from the unreleased Town Hall Concert, in 1963. This was supposed to be issued on the "Bob Dylan in Concert" record that was scrapped by the label. Too bad. A young folk Dylan mesmerizes the crowd with an acoustic guitar and his timeless storytelling.


Like a Rolling Stone, take 6, from the unreleased Highway 61 sessions, 1965. This is just a couple takes away from the finished product, one of the greatest songs ever. Like the man said, this is "thin, wild mercury music." Electric Dylan. Shakespeare in the alley with pointed shoes and bells.


Simple Twist of Fate. Rarely performed, this unreleased gem is from the Rolling Thunder Review, a gypsy caravan that traveled the northeastern states in the autumn of 1975. He'd written this song not long before, but he's already rewritten it by now. As even casual fans know, you don't go to a Dylan show expecting it to sound like the records. Or even the same as the previous tour. He moves fast, like a thief.



"People have long wondered what goes on in Bob Dylan’s mind. But if you pay attention to what the recent Pulitzer Prize-winner says and plays on his XM satellite-radio program, Theme Time Radio Hour, you can actually get a pretty good idea. Here, by cataloging the themes has chosen for the episodes, the artists he has favored, and Dylan’s other preferences and quirks, Vanity Fair has constructed a revealing portrait of America’s most enigmatic musician."

Read the Vanity Fair article and find out by clicking HERE.

SOMETHING NEW

Fuzzed-out, sleazy pop from the Raveonettes, recorded live at the Triple Door in Seattle. With a menacing, retro, low-fi vibe, they sound like they just crawled out of a David Lynch movie, but actually they are cool Scandinavians. This is "Aly, Walk with Me," from the album, "Lust, Lust, Lust."

THIS MONKEY'S GONE TO HEAVEN

Play this at my funeral. The Pixies inspired and influenced a million bands, including your beloved Nirvana. Black Francis, or Frank Black, or whatever he's calling himself these days, is a solid rock sumo, a stone Buddha, and Kim Deal is Siva, and who doesn't have a crush on Kim Deal? There was this guy, an underwater guy, who controlled the sea, got killed by ten million pounds of sludge. What more can you say?

SUPERNATURAL SUPERSERIOUS REM

After a string of lackluster albums, REM has released a great one, Accelerate. The band is all fired up, and Peter Buck is playing the hell out of that Rickenbacker. Stipe sings with an urgency missing for decades. Rolling Stone says it's one of the best albums the band has ever made. Yesterday they played Supernatural Superserious on the Today Show. What do you think?

DRINK UP, HONEY!

Remember these guys? A while back, we did a story about a scientific study of Beatles memories (to reread it, click here). Here is a chance to participate in the study, to add your own Beatle memories -- and read the memories of others. It's kind of cool.
http://www.magicalmemorytour.com/

LED ZEPPELIN TAKES OFF

According to John Hodgman, in The McSweeney's Joke Book of Book Jokes, authors and books are funny "because they are sad. They are as sad as zeppelins are -- they wish to soar, but they are using a technology that is old, largely forgotten, highly flammable."
Hodgman triggers a synaptic linkage, bringing a huge, old, largely forgotten, highly flammable rock band to mind. Unlike cartoonist Ellen Forney, who wrote and illustrated the comic "I [heart] Led Zeppelin," my feelings are complicated. I don't [heart] them uncritically. It's more of a love/hate relationship. They are overwrought, lumbering, reactionary, and personify all the rockist wretched excess of stadium groups punk came along to destroy. Zep stocks the "classic rock" stations like rack-jobbers, providing tired old warhorses for button-down nostalgics, and false memories for kids who weren't even there in the first place. Honestly, I could do without hearing "Stairway to Heaven" ever again.

On the other hand, once in a while, the behemoth lifts off. Those moments rattle me with cognitive dissonance; I know I shouldn't like it, but I do. The earth moves, and Led Zep, that improbable wasp trapped in fossilized amber, somehow takes wing. Watch this clip of "Kashmir." You wonder, will this thing ever fly? It does.

GOING UNDERGROUND

Here is another gem from those sharp lads from Woking, The Jam.

What you see is what you get
You've made your bed, you better lie in it
You choose your leaders and place your trust
As their lies wash you down and their promises rust
You'll see kidney machines replaced by rockets and guns

And the public wants what the public gets
But I don't get what this society wants
I'm going underground

HELL'S ANGELS PLOT TO KILL MICK JAGGER

Oh, a storm is threat'ning
My very life today
If I don't get some shelter
Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away

According to a new BBC documentary, the Hells Angels planned to murder Mick Jagger in 1969. The motorcycle gang was furious over the Stones' infamous concert at Altamont, when Jagger hired them as security, resulting in the death of a young fan. The gang went so far as to attempt an attack on Jagger's home on Long Island, New York, by sea. Fortunately, en route, a storm capsized their boat.


"The Hells Angels were so angered by Jagger's treatment of them that they decided to kill him," said Tom Mangold, who is presenting the BBC documentary, in an interview with Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

"They planned the attack from the sea so they could enter his property from the garden and avoid security at the front. The boat was hit by a storm and all of the men were thrown overboard. All survived and there was not said to have been any further attempt on Jagger's life."

Stones at Altamont Speedway, 1969

More story here and here.

KEITH SAYS: LAY OFF THE DOPE

Rolling Stones guitar player Keith Richards advised young people "to lay off dope" in a recent interview in the British music magazine, UNCUT. Richards, famously known for abusing quite a few substances in his time, said "Give it up, it ain't really worth it. I know the fascination but it ain't worth it."

For years, Richards was the Rasputin of the rock world: seemingly unkillable. A former heroin addict, and heavily into booze and various other drugs, Richards bolstered the confidence of users everywhere, most of whom didn't have the wealth and resources of a Rolling Stone to pay for their habits. We're glad to see the old geezer finally straighten up and fly right.

In the interview, Richards also called Mick Jagger a power freak and "a vain bloke." Tell me something I don't know, Keith.

MAHARISHI MAHESH YOGI

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, former guru to the Beatles, has died. The Maharishi is credited with introducing transcendental meditation to the West in 1959. The Maharishi, sometimes known as "the giggling guru," was a controversial figure whom some considered an enlightened holy man, and some a charlatan capitalizing on his Western contacts. At one point, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Donovan, and Mia Farrow were at his ashram in Rishikesh seeking spiritual guidance. When the Beatles left him, amid allegations of impropriety (including an alleged pass at Mia Farrow by the guru) Lennon wrote a song of his disillusionment called "Maharishi" (..."what have you done, you made a fool of everyone"). He eventually changed the title to "Sexy Sadie."

for more, see the article in the New York Times. For even more click here.

THE TIME IS NOW!

People say you never forget your first crush (sure you do). People say lots of things. I interviewed Patti Smith for an underground rag when I was just twenty-two and she was this young punk rocker poet. The backstage area was filled with parasites, and the stage manager was all coked up and cranky, but Patti was sharp and funny and maybe I was a little smitten. Remember, this was before "punk" became such a marketing ploy (Green Day, anyone?) and long before Patti was coronated Queen Grandma of Punk, Emeritus, and the scene was still pretty fresh. At that point, there was still room for experimentation and beat zen poetry as well as Fender guitars, at least in small shitty clubs that stank of beer. Most people didn't get it, and it would be years before they claimed they did. It came as a shocking, healthy reaction to all the overproduced stadium rawk clogging the arteries of America with Fleetwood Mac-and-cheese, and Eagles Easy Listening, at a time when the spark and rebellion of rock and roll had turned into formulaic poses for unadventurous sheep. To appreciate it, you must first wash all that out of your hair, and throw away decades of MTV crap, Ramones T-shirts at the Gap, yuppies with timid gel spikes in their hair playing air guitar in the boardroom. Give it a good toss. Turn back the hands of time, time, time. People say time is on your side. People say lots of things.

Dedicated to my cousin Gerard Rizza, a young New York poet who was crazy about Patti Smith and a great many other things.

PSYCHEDELIC GARAGE KING RETURNS

The high point of Bumbershoot (the music festival in Seattle) was seeing Roky Erickson! Roky was the driving force behind the infamous psychedelic garage band, the 13th Floor Elevators. They scored a hit with "You're Gonna Miss Me" back in 1966. Texas being Texas back then, Roky was busted for possession of one joint and sent to a mental institution where he underwent electro-shock therapy. Between the "treatment," and a struggle with mental illness, Roky was knocked out of commission for quite some time. Rent the movie about his ordeal, "You're Gonna Miss Me." It looked like he was out for good. So it was great to see him back, performing his songs, the big hit, as well as "Creature with the Atom Brain," "I Walked with a Zombie," and -- after I screamed out the title, "Starry Eyes." Go, Roky!