I think it’s great that The Thromboes are the subject of my 1500th post. They are a perfect example of what this blog has always strived for – interesting music that is easy to listen to over and over with a sense of satisfaction that the world of music is intensely varied.
“Don’t get into my head, girl, there’s no space for you there. Don’t have time for your pain.” Typical macho song, but worth a close look. The narrator is letting on that there’s something going on inside himself that is keeping him from opening up. The next verse says, “Don’t move into my heart, girl. Keep your blues to yourself.” There’s a hint that it’s possible for this movement into his head and heart is possible; but something’s making him beg for that not to happen. So, can we still say ‘typical macho’? Not really. The guy is opening up and admitting he has stuff inside him too.
But what about the music? Ah, pure bliss. Garage punk style guitars and drums, with the vocals sounding as if they are recorded at the same time as the rest of the noise – garage punk. Live as you can get on record. Shoutout for the hilarious Rock And Roll Rant (“look me in the eyes and tell me I can’t”).
This mood track set me on a walk through the hills to explore the undergrowth. The soundtrack enabled me to find living creatures beneath rocks, and I saw an armadillo either sunning himself or praying, or both. The musicians work together in this soundscape to empower the conscious mind to access deep memories and dreams. Simply beautiful. Shoutout for Raindance, which works at the same level, but moves faster. Besides, we truly need rain up here. It’s been over 102 every day for over a month, with no signs of letting up – both the wild animals and the roots are thirsty. This dance will be played often. Trezire is giving digital copies of the entire album, Anatomy, to anyone who requests one. Trezire
Like the band Trezire, Robin works on composing soundscapes. The difference is Robin utilizes computers to fire neurons in my brain. The synthesizer brings in different layers, emoting a path that looks for dreams still to come. Robin Guthrie
“I’m alive!” This wake-up song celebrates simplicity and computer beats with choruses of voices announcing the joy of a new week. This is one of those songs that promise to do nothing else but wake you up long enough to get some cofdfee in your system, and once you’ve had a bit of coffee you put it on repeat and dance around the kitchen getting the toast and butter ready. Then leave the house bopping & holding your hands over your hear swinging and swaying and yelling along, “I’m alive!” The Yes Pleases
An interesting concept. There are 10 CDs here, 5 of which were the original CDs from 1969, and the other 5 are the full performances of the bands at Woodstock. The 5 bands included here are Sly & The Family Stone, Santana, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin & Johnny Winter. The price for the set is fair if you catch it while it’s on sale. I’m one of those who have the original CDs already on CD, and it doesn’t thrill me that these are simply re-packaged. If I were the CEO at Sony I would have pushed harder for including 5 more Woodstock-only CDs. Of course, there’s a very good chance the CEO at Sony wasn’t even born when Woodstock happened, so there’s already a disconnect.
The great thing here is also an aggravating thing. Many of us bought the Santana Legacy CDs – which included the demos of the original CD & the Woodstock performance. Lo and behold, the Woodstock performance here includes one more unreleased song! The good news is these CDs are all available separately, so if you are a Santana completist, you will not have to purchase the whole set.
The Airplane set at Woodstock ran longer than a CD, so that one runs over into their 1969 release, Volunteers. The Janis Joplin set is exactly what’s been available through collectors for many years now. The Johnny Winter set sounds great, and has better sound than the collectors set. The true excellence here is the Sly & The Family Stone set, which has 3 songs that are not on the collectors set.
The collectors set runs 20 CDs. Many of those are just partial shows. Somewhere there’s a vault with the rest in them, and it looks like we’ll have to wait for the 50th anniversary to get more. Some that have been officially released are Jimi Hendrix, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and John Sebastian. They’re often stuck in the midst of something (for example, Sebastian’s set was stuck in a box set). Trying to put together a Woodstock-only collection has been a hobbyist’s nightmare for years. Many were hoping the 40th would see the floodgates open. There’s also the question of how many more will still be here to purchase the sets 10 years from now!
There’re some stories around, for example: “anyone who says they remember Woodstock could not have really been there.” There’re also stories about how poor the music actually was. Well, I wasn’t present at Woodstock for these performances, perhaps that’s in retrospect a good thing. But I’ve heard many performances, the present 5 sets included, and the music was/is fantastic. You will think of Joplin differently after listening to this. Picture Sly & The Family Stone in the wee hours of the morning & all the energy they are unleashing! Johnny Winter – sweet performances here. Santana was captured on film – so multiply the movie performance by several more great songs. Jefferson Airplane – no comment.
I’m thinking like this – if you are a completist, no question – good investment. If you have nothing from Woodstock, this is as good a place as any to start. If you’re simply curious, I’m betting there will be someone like me in your town in the middle of August blasting their speakers loud enough for you to hear. These 5 CDs alone run close to 6 hours. Enjoy!
“I get what I want and I don’t come sneaking back.” Nope, he sure ain’t ‘sneaking’ back, he’s back full force, with some good old fashioned rock and roll keeping a party shouting, dancing, and throwing back the ice cold beer to let it slide down our throats with finesse and superb technique. The best news is he still makes the old songs sound salad-fresh. Shoutouts for an upbeat version of Born Lover, and the diddley beat of Let Me Pass. Note that the second ½ of this CD is previously released. George Thorogood
Any good Friday night party needs humor & Tyrants in Therapy are more than happy to supply that. Sneak this cut in anywhere & you’ll have people roiling on the floor laughing for at least three minutes. Old fashioned margaritaville calypso music added to the book of Revelation. I personally can’t wait to try this one out at my next meeting with the prophecy enthusiasts at the church – this will test their sense of humor. I know Chuck Missler, my favorite end times instructor, will giggle. “When it all came down, it was a sad day indeed for every organism from billionaires to weeds!” LOL!!! “The sky overheated, and the sun got real hot!” STOP!!! You’re hurting my side! “and the earth started smoking like a rastaman’s pot!” ARRGGHHH!!! You guys are killing me HAHAHA!!! I’m laughing too hard to share the rest with you, just know if you love to laugh a lot, you’re going to love blasting this at your next party. To hear the track, select the CD entitled High Class Trash below, and it's the first cut. Enjoy!The Tyrants in Therapy
“I met my sister on the bridge staring from the precipice.” The narrator shares a dream-like sequence through this CD that pulls my interest in with pure melody. There are instruments present, but they are there apparently simply to set tone. On Color Opposition Theory there is a breathing-type accordion harmonica sounding instrument that takes in air and sends it back into our habitat with a solid, steady pace through deep, colorful sleep. Master & Servant has a Lennonesque piano with ambient sounds of cars driving through the street with a harmony child angel protecting the dreamer from danger. “Lately, the Devil’s been talking to me”. The End of the Dream is exactly as described by the title. The narrator reminds me of dreams where, no matter what had happened within the dream I have no earthly intention of leaving it. The voices keep me in the dream, and they repeat even as someone attempts to wake me. The reality of the dream is much more alive and energetic than the world I wake into. I want to stay in the madness of the dream, not move on to the insanity of another day. Lady Lazarus
Spend a minute listening to these guys & you’ll want them to come play at your next BBQ because it’s easy to tell their live show must be great. The good news is a lotta people have heard them, and now they are playing at some really big bbqs, so you may be able to catch them at a party near you this summer. If not, the CD is still great fun to spin at the party. “Drive out to the west son, go watch the river run.” There are many stories about wanderin’ men headin’ down the road in the folk tradition, and the Wiyos shoot for making it fun. Like all macho traditions, when the woman kicks the narrator out, he smiles and pretends “I won’t worry when it’s over”, even while he’s kinda hinting for her to “keep my place set at your table.” Quite simply, he doesn’t believe she’s kicking him out for good. Confidence, expressed with fun. The narrator seems plenty happy with passing corn fields, roosters, barns, and rivers on his round trip. If funky country folk wasn’t a genre, it is now. Shoutout for the harmonizing jug band party of Promenade (we’ll all dance the night away”). The Wiyos
What gives a normal song the oomph it takes to be noticed by the eartaster? It differs on every song, but this one was easy. I was bouncing along with the song thinking about its upbeat lyrics and low key presentation and out of nowhere two words were whispered, “trust me”. The lyrics are simple, yet within that simplicity is much wisdom. “I wanna learn from my mistakes, I wanna give back what I take.” The shout-out tune is Strong Enough. Yep, that one. When Ms Crow sings with her strong blasting voice the message is clearly ‘I’m a strong woman, can you take me on?’ Cathy-Anne has a totally different approach – she’s being extremely honest about all her weaknesses, but isn’t shouting proudly about them. She approaches them as a fact of being a woman – there’s going to be times she’s hard to live with. Knowing these truths, all she wants is consistency in her man. Cathy-Anne takes a powerful song and turns it inwards showing a completely different depth in its poetry. A quiet album, with a tasty back-up band that never overwhelms. Cathy-Anne McClintock
Behind every great album is a group of songs which were experiments, dreams, understandings, life affirming spatial desserts floating through and beyond the goal. Usually those moments are lost in the ether. Practices, trials, mindful strivings are not usually recorded until the spirit is perfected and ready for what the artist feels others are ready to consume. While Larry was recording with the Thromboes this spring, the recorder was left on during the strumming usually heard only by God. I feel blessed to be able to hear these visions, and I’m sure if you’ve read this far that you will too. Contact Larry through his web page and offer him enough cash to buy a meal or some really good beer and I’ll bet you can get a copy of this. Larry Levy
I talked these guys up in April, and just received the word that Eartaste fans can download the song – so hey! Go for it. Right click on the link below & listen in. The plan, of course, is to encourage you to purchase the entire CD. There’s a link for that too. And, if you can’t remember what I wrote the day after my birthday 3 months ago, well – there’s a link for that too!
Lazy Sundays are easy to achieve when the weather stays above 100 degrees for an entire week. The music Putumayo serves up this time out is perfect for a Lazy Sunday, with voices floating over the clouds and instruments swimming through the humidity with pure blissful peace. Many thanks for sharing the talents of Katia B, Ceumar, y Teresa Cristina and Grupo Semente with the neighborhood today. The slower dancing possible with this CD makes for a cooler atmosphere than is possible by just sitting around complaining about the weather. I can feel the waves splashing around as I move through the shade offered by the hackberry trees. Experience pleasure – when you purchase this CD you wil be helping a children’s group in Brazil, as well as receiving a recipe for a 4-layer pleasurable dessert known as coffee pave and finally a recipe for cafezinho. The Brazilian Café is proud to serve up many different flavors for your ears, your soul, and your tongue. Brazilian Café
I already hear the complaining. You wonder why I’m slipping a song about revolution into my Friday night party. Well, there’s many types of revolutions. This one requests that you “go and get your pants on.” These guys have nothing more in mind except to accentuate our fun with slap-happy kink-smiling songs. And along with the excellent melody, these guys enjoy getting me up to dance. My DJ friends will have everyone up and dancing to this cut. Shoutouts for the equally energetic Sweet Spot (“my aim is true”) and the magical mystery kinkesque Meeting Mr Miandad (‘when we break down people tow us”). The Duckworth Lewis Method
“I wanna be there when you wake. I wanna help you start your day. Will you breath or suffocate?” LOL! A dramatic way to say, hey, make a decision! “I’m a stranger inside of you. Someday, be a friend of mine too.” Bordering on humor, I choose to accept the narrator here enjoys her life and is looking to share it. She does a wonderful job communicating her joy of living. The band is having a great time being the canvas that the story is splattered upon. Shoutouts for the light hearted Gather It All (“who wants to stumble over love?”), the heavy depths of Meet You In Produce (“take your medicine, sing your songs to me”), the psychedelic dreamlike nature of Concrete Feet (“I’ve lost my life a dozen times”), and the psychobilly rock of Instructions (“I know what you’re thinking”). The Peekers
Summer bubble pop. “Stargazer, dreammaker, I’m in love with you. Spin the bottle and every time it’s landing right on you.” It’s good to hear the kids still play spin the bottle. I promise – nothing deep here, just fun dance beats. And humor! Silly humor, but what the heck – it’s melodic and keeps the summer happy. Shoutouts for Blackbird and Gin & Money. Marcy Playground
”I don’t count my blessings anymore. I just keep a watchful eye, wonderin’ if God is keeping score.” It’s easy to joke about this song – around here the sun ain’t been doing nothing but shining 107 degrees every day this week. But that wouldn’t be fair to what is going on here. This cool burner is making the humidity even worse with all the sweat coming out of my body from the way the drummer forces my feet up to move. That, plus the electrical storm blazing between the two singers toward the end of this tune. Beautiful. Shoutouts for the faster dance and sweet harmonica of the honest short story of America called Stranger (“that is how a family goes from middle class to hand-out”), the Townes-like picking of Raindance (“the raven in my dream whispers your name”), and the beautiful Hello (“of all of my problems, the least was the liquor”). Drew Nelson
A Monday album that starts right off with a bass rumble to wake you up and start dancing! Complete with poetry! “Written 37 letters, none of which I’ll ever send. But I’ll write them and reread them over and over again. I have 16 that say ‘I love you’, 16 more that wish you dead, drunken Bukowski ramblings in the 5 that I have left.” I won’t go on about whether or not Bukowski wrote while drunk, because he was known to perform while drunk – and anybody trying to reach the world of stardom while roaring about Bukowski is bound to be a soul brother. The instrumentation is spare, and sounds great loud. The narrator sets the mood perfectly with his voice while the band pleasingly plays in pure pop mode. Great summer record! Shoutouts for Brass Ring, and Swingset Assassin. These tasty musical treats will lead you back to their third CD featuring Come Back to Shelby, No Shame, and Now I Know. Two Cow Garage
My ears are very happy tonight. My original thought was the B-52’s 25 years ago, then I remembered they were simply channeling Question Mark and the Mysterians from 20 years before that. Am I saying this group is retro? Only on the surface. There’s some clean 21st century bass lines in here that make my ears extremely pleased, and my feet even happier. I dare you to sit down with the Love Me Nots on your turntable. Perfect party platter. Shoutouts for You're Really Something, Secret Pocket, and Give Em What They Want. The Love Me Nots
Nebelhexë has several CDs that stay near my player, Laguz (2004), and Essensual (2006), so it was exciting to find new sounds to devour by this artist. As I entered into the enhanced dream state produced by the aural landscapes I envisioned a show with other payers from mixed eras but similar visions, so that is the enchanted hour you’ll share if you seek out these artists with me.
Nebelhexë - Against The Wall (“No more frontiers. . .I cannot see ahead. . .The wall is painted black. . . Don't hold me down. . .I still can shout”), Dead Waters (“I won't care. . .Too self aware. . .Look behind my smile. . .Into blackened eyes”) and Beyond The Ninth Wave (“How about the ghost that sleeps with me in the dark?”). Nebelhexë
Yoko & The Plastic Ono Band - Memory Of Footsteps (“welcome to life”), Feel The Sand (“your heart is responding to the birds”) and Higa Noboru (why is this life so beautiful?”). Yoko & The Plastic Ono Band
Filmed live on a cell phone by Suzy Secret:
No words necessary for the gothic beauty of Broken Mirror, A Real Diamond In The Rough, Squid Ink, and Formless Present. Buckethead
Eyes Like Ours (“Do you recall when the world was still young? Just a small town? “) and Outside (“was afraid that you might see me”). Tiny Vipers
Adding visual depth to the earwaves, the special quality of these tunes frame a safe landing strip filled with beauty. Wish You Were Mine, As You Watch Each City Fall (Part 2), Buffalo Blues, and Time And Emotion. Robin Trower
From the first beats of Oyimbi to the final cymbal crash of Inside Religion, this is a party album that will create joy and tears and lots of good spiritual conversation. “All in the name of peace”. The dance flow is just right, a few fast songs, coupled with slow songs to calm the feet and heart. “Day by day by night by night we work and pray for peace to reign.” This CD will have a prominent place by my player for many parties to come. I love making people think while they dance, and Femi provides very thoughtful poetry to deeply consider. Flavors are jazz, rock, reggae, funk, soul and groove, spiced with gospel. Femi Kuti
“We’re all MC’s sharing the mike’s heat.” This is a great hump-day CD, but I’m shouting it out a day early because Kaylah has me loving life too much to hold on to this knowledge till tomorrow. Kaylah manages to pull memories out of the right places “dancing in class to our own beats, raising our hands jumping out of our seats, giving our own I have a dream speech”. I did that, and my students last year did that. It’s universal – the power of music to raise us up and dream. The sooner you order this CD the sooner you’ll be up dancing and loving life right alongside everyone else lucky enough to hear this. “Everyday I’m loving my life.” Kaylah captures the power of joy in her soul and it’s great she’s willing to share this strength with all of us. Shoutouts for the dance-floor ready Everybody, the sweet flavors of Good and Bad, and the anthem sing-a-long, Driving In My Car (“oh yeah, feel so good!”). Go ahead and buy this summer CD that’ll keep you smiling for many years to come. Your ears will thank you, your feet will thank you. Keep dancin’! Kaylah Marin
“Tuesday morning without any coffee, and too many chores to do – along came Sally, backin’ down the alley, to show me her new tattoo.” First, I have to confess that when I lived in a city I never understood language like ‘backin’ down the alley”. Up here in the hills in this small town I now know exactly what’s going on in the song. In fact, I was surprised that the narrator of this song knew Sally. Maybe every town has a Sally. But, back to the real world of music – the music has a jazzy country feel that fits comfortably in my world. The story is fun, the singer sounds like he loves tellin’ the story. They ended up in D’Hanis – you know that place behind the store – “a little speakeasy, down in the shadows, where nobody I know goes.” Well, except Andrew, but that’s to be expected – he kinda makes a living finding these places. Anyway, back to the story, “we got up and danced to an old time record, until I started to fall.” If I didn’t know better, I’d swear Calaveras was there that night, but it sounds like the narrator simply knows how it goes in real time, and these little ‘speakeasies’ must still exist here and there around the world. What’s really scary is that D’Hanis is known mostly for its brick factory – two blocks away from the hidden speakeasy - and the lyricist carefully inserts the line “fall like a brick into the mix of a city and a life and a girl”, followed by a good old fashioned Sabinal fiddle. These folks claim to be from California, but they sure have some good Texas roots showing. And, hey Sabastian, check out the title of the CD – freakout time =:-) Great fun. PS - anyone who clicked on the brick factory link might get a kick outta the link to "old D'Hanis". I challenge anyone to come on out here and find a new D'Hanis - LOL!!! Calaveras
Woodstock defined something special for me – integration. It was a special time in music, and celebrated lavishly. Beautiful young multi-cultural bands like Sweetwater and Santana were playing alongside Jimi Hendrix and Sly and the Family Stone. The best part of those days is we didn’t even have terms like multi-cultural. There were simply great musicians who got together to play music based on the integrity of their ability, not the color of their skin. Don’t get me wrong, this was happening before Woodstock, but it was hidden from view. What Woodstock did, as an enterprise, was to put it in people’s faces – big time – big screen. That did several things – for some of us, it caused celebration. But for society in general it caused many changes. Music, especially radio stations, went back to racially stereotyped music. In 1969 you could hear Otis Redding, Frank Sinatra, Tiny Tim, Sly And The Family Stone, Desmond Dekkar, The Doors, Glen Campbell and Marvin Gaye all played in the same hour on the same station. The only place you can hear such variety today is on the “oldies” stations. In some respects it was because of the visuals presented in Woodstock – the people who ran the media did not ever want that repeated. So far they’ve gotten their wish, but it’s my hope that Sony making a big deal out of this 40th anniversary will start some young people to thinking and asking questions. And hopefully some of the old people – Sony is just as much to blame as everyone else – will start remembering that total, complete spiritual and physical integration of the arts and society is still an ethical possibility that we could strive for as an intellectual reality. Woodstock.com
“I could do the dishes, I could climb your walls”. Bass driven energy wakes this Monday up with a howl. “I could be the motor, you be the gasoline!” Get your motors running, head out for the highway, roll the windows down and shout along! The music calls for moving around, preferably at a fast surf rock speed. The story seems to be about trying to keep up with the daily grind even while succeeding in other life endeavors. Good wake-up to the working week song. Shoutouts for Not Your Boy (“when the voices disappear there’s nothing left inside”), Henry (“Can you hear the sound of your mother calling?”), and Animal Farm (“hold onto my bleeding heart and feed it to your soul”). The Cliks
“Watching you watching me in my shades, could you see my smile hiding underneath? Seems like each moment your eyes find mine, I lose a little less reason to hide.” Sunday is good for a walk in the park, and recalling years gone by when going to the park and holding hands is a perfectly good way to spend an afternoon. I dream away while a dreamy voice sings of love “swinging so sweetly on a swingset so fine.” Even as Aly sings, she recalls that “talk is overrated”. A funny thing for a poet to say, but it’s true. Shoutout for the word-filled short story called Paper Mache (“baby, don’t you let them change you”). Aly’s voice is strong and self-assured causing an instant acceptance and understanding that her voice will be one we’ll be hearing for many years to come. Make contact at Myspace & watch for the release of “Things Worth Keeping”. A huge thanks to Jeff Smith for getting the word out. Aly Tadros
“We moved all summer like separate spirits dancing in the sand, and we moved into another gear never knowing when we’d land.” The story moves along at a steady pace. The poetic trick is to take a word, define it in terms of the relationship the narrator is pursuing, and playing it with a medium dance beat. Very cool. The individual words could become a game – like those email games – define your relationship in terms of temptation, frustration, elation, flirtation, trepidation, and inspiration. The narrator seems confused about the reality of the relationship – on the one hand he’s saying “we fit like yin and yang”, then a line later he’s saying “but I don’t know what you want.” In other words, it sounds real – no easy answers here. Gotta work on it, no matter how good the fit.
I’m shouting out Big Green Jungle for the same reason – no easy answers. We all have to make the decision – chase the mighty dollar, or live from day to day. The narrator here is encouraged to go for the jungle, but he is quite realistic in reciting the fact that “in the big green jungle there’ll always be disparity.” It’s a daily war. The intrigue here is – either choice is a war. Survive from day to day, paycheck to paycheck – daily struggle. Go for the con game of American finance, and it’s still a daily struggle. You can’t let up because the moment you do another will be considered more fit, and in this war only the fittest survive. Sure, while you’re on top you have the nest egg and finances are not your worry; but it’s a constant stress to stay in the game. Nuke The Soup says – no easy answers, but life has some interesting questions =:-) Nuke The Soup
“The stars lay scattered in the open sky and these lights by the bridge shine through the night of my eyes.” The poetry is enhanced by the musicians each walking through the melody in a sparse but meaningful way. A fine composition. The heartfelt desolation is honest. “Flowers bloom in the middle of deserted lawns. When the winter comes these flowers will be dead and gone.” Ed Hale
Starting a new month on a hump day is great fun, especially when a funky dance band takes the stage with a beat that encourages sweating out a hard day’s work. The story is the story of any government – they look at the young as martyrs in a cause to make a few rich people even richer. “Don’t matter who you are, or where you land. No discrimination in their plans. Size you up, ship you out. Move along! Bullet to catch.” Is it coincidence that you can twitter this opening line? Ask a rabbi. In the mean-time, dance. I’ve learned it’s necessary because if we focus on what our governments do to young people we will forever be crying, no matter who is in charge. “For us to change, war must end.” Pama International
I think it’s great that The Thromboes are the subject of my 1500th post. They are a perfect example of what this blog has always strived for – interesting music that is easy to listen to over and over with a sense of satisfaction that the world of music is intensely varied. 
