Now We’re Paying Their Defense Costs …

Fuck them all, each and every AIGer. When my father died, my mother wanted to cash in an annuity they had held for his retirement income. Not only did AIG compassionately first say he wasn’t dead, then they gave her the runaround for FIVE FUCKING MONTHS. As you might expect, a nudge by a friendly attorney got the check there in about a week. (Just one more reason to be a lawyer groupie. You guys do count.)

Die, AIG. Die.

The Navajo Nation by statute restricts the kinds of funds that reservation school boards can use to sue the tribe. You’d think that Congress could have figured that one out by now.

@ragingmonk: Our job is to do justice and take approximately a third (plus costs).

I don’t see this entirely as a bad thing. Let poow widdle Hankie spend all his pwecious money on lawyahs.

At this point, I’d be Fabius the Delayer and play the fucking waiting game with Hankie G. Put forth every stupid motion I could find to push the trial back while sending him pointless depositions and objections on stuff like spelling and grammar that burn up lawyahs fees/retainers. Basically treat him like AIG did its customers. Then just when it looks like things are almost finished send him the bill for all the cost of AIG’s lawyahs.

Let Hankie discover that payback is indeed a motherfucker.

@redmanlaw: Is that kind of a parallel-universe Hippocratic Oath for the lawyers?

Do you think his consience haunts him, late at night, when the grandfather clock ticks and his mortality settles on his bedspread, purring, like a black cat? Or do you think he’s passed out on Romanée Conti 1986 after a 5-diamond blowjob?

I’m betting the latter, the fucker.

@ManchuCandidate: Payback does indeed rock.

An AIG commercial came on CNN a while ago and my Sainted Mother yelled out unprompted, “Burn in hell, you bankrupt bastards!” The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, I guess.

@ragingmonk: That’s for the personal injury/contingent fee (trial lawyers/plaintiff’s bar) guys. General and special counsel guys like me just punch the clock and dig the ditch or make the doughnuts, depending on the day and the client.

@redmanlaw: And my hunch, like in most professions, it’s the men and women who don’t make the headlines or the big bucks that make the difference.

I’ll admit it, if I ran the Hallmark Channel, all the happy romantic Hollywood endings would be the success of lawyers.

@ManchuCandidate:
Channeling Manchu, with apologies to Steve Miller (as soon as I saw Hank’s real name is Maurice, the song popped into my head):

THE FUCKER
Some people call me the insurance cowboy, yeah
Some call me the gangster of Wall Street
Some people call me Maurice
Cause I speak of the pompatous [what is a pompatous?] of greed

People talk about me, baby
Say I’m doin’ you wrong, doin’ taxpayers wrong
Well, don’t you worry baby
Don’t worry
Cause I’m right here, right here, taking all your money

Cause I’m a picker (of your pocket)
I’m a grinner (to the Swiss bank)
I’m a lover (of money)
And I’m a sinner
I horde my money for a house in the sun

I’m a joker
I’m a smoker
I’m a midnight toker
I sure want to hurt everyone

I’m a picker (of your pocket)
I’m a grinner (to the Swiss bank)
I’m a lover (of money)
And I’m a sinner
I horde my money for a house in the sun

I’m a joker
I’m a smoker
I’m a midnight toker
I may need to go on the run
Wooo Wooooo

Your money is the cutest thing
That I ever did see
I really love your peaches
Want to shake your money tree
Lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey all the time
Ooo-eee baby, I’ll sure show you a good time

Cause I’m a picker (of your pocket)
I’m a grinner (to the Swiss bank)
I’m a lover (of money)
And I’m a sinner
I horde my money for a house in the sun

I’m a joker
I’m a smoker
I’m a midnight toker
I may need to go on the run

Cause I’m a picker (of your pocket)
I’m a grinner (to the Swiss bank)
I’m a lover (of money)
And I’m a sinner
I horde my money for a house in the sun

I’m a joker
I’m a smoker
I’m a midnight toker
I sure want to hurt everyone

Wooo Woooo

People keep talking about me baby
They say I’m doin’ you wrong
Well don’t you worry, don’t worry, no don’t worry mama
Cause I’m right here at home

You’re the cutest thing I ever did see
Really love your peaches want to shake your tree
Lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey all the time
Come on baby and I’ll show you a good time

@SanFranLefty:
Heh.

That’s how it works for me. When inspired, it just jumps into play.

@SanFranLefty: You’re on a roll!

@SanFranLefty: *clap clap*

@ragingmonk: Tell her that I burned them for a thousand or so on a claim for auto damage in Seoul after only a month or so of subsidized premiums.

@ManchuCandidate: Securities fraud suits are not like that, no need to run it out, they can be won by the defendant, often on summary judgment. They are absurd, so many of them by straw plaintiffs grabbing hold of some innocuous statement in the quarterly report, then trying to gin it up to securities fraud (just like the federal prosecutor trying to charge Martha Stewart for pleading not guilty and publicly stating she was not guilty of the first charge, they argued that was securities fraud because she inflated the value of her company by stating she was not a criminal).

The lawyers all make some money, its like a tax on the corporation to have to buy off the plaintiffs laywers, its absurd.

Thats why I am in favor of telecomm immunity. Every one of us subscribes to and pays to one of those telecomms, they get sued, they pay out, they charge us more to pay for the lawsuit, and the ones who get rich off this “lawyer surcharge” are of course the class action lawyers, its a pointless exercise to sue them, we will all pay for the lawsuit, just like we are paying for this lawsuit.

@SanFranLefty: Here’s the story of “pompatous,” from “The Straight Dope,” is anyone else a Straight Dope fan?

October 25, 1996
What does “pompatus” mean? There’s a movie out now called The Pompatus of Love, and of course it contains the Steve Miller song as a theme. I can’t find “pompatus” in the dictionary. Any clues?

— Cane95, via America Online

Cecil replies:

Clues? Pfui. We have cracked the freaking case, thanks to some outstanding legwork by Jon Cryer–actor, cowriter, and coproducer of the movie Pompatus of Love–and my new assistant, J.K. Fabian. J.K. has what it takes to make a real impact in this business: pluck, luck, and an outstanding record collection.

“Pompatus” mystified millions when Steve Miller used it in his 1973 hit “The Joker”: “Some people call me the space cowboy. / Yeah! Some call me the gangster of love. / Some people call me Maurice, / Cause I speak of the Pompatus of love.”

“Space cowboy” and “gangster of love” referred to earlier Miller songs. Maurice was from Miller’s 1972 tune “Enter Maurice,” which appeared on the album Recall the Beginning … A Journey From Eden. “Enter Maurice” had this lyric: “My dearest darling, come closer to Maurice so I can whisper sweet words of epismetology in your ear and speak to you of the pompitous of love.”

Great, now there were two mystery words. What’s more, it appeared even Miller himself was uncertain how pompatus was spelled. It appeared as “pompatus” in at least two books of sheet music but as “pompitous” in the lyrics included with “Recall the Beginning.”

Miller has said little about the P-word over the years. In at least one interview, fans say, he claimed “it doesn’t mean anything–it’s just jive talk.”

Not quite.

Some sharp-eared music fan noticed the “Enter Maurice” lyric above bore a marked resemblance to some lines in a rhythm and blues tune called “The Letter” by the Medallions. The song had been a hit in R & B circles in 1954. J.K. found the record. It had the lines, “Oh my darling, let me whisper sweet words of [something like epismetology] and discuss the [something like pompatus] of love.” J.K. tried to find the sheet music for the song, but came up only with the Box Tops hit (“My baby, she wrote me a letter”).

Then came a stroke of luck. Jon Cryer the movie guy had stumbled onto the secret of pompatus. Eager to reveal it to the world, he sent it to–who, Rolling Stone? The New York Times?

Of course not. He sent it to us.

Speculation about “pompatus” was a recurring motif in the script for The Pompatus of Love. While the movie was in postproduction Cryer heard about “The Letter.” During a TV interview he said that the song had been written and sung by a member of the Medallions named Vernon Green. Green, still very much alive, was dozing in front of the tube when the mention of his name caught his attention. He immediately contacted Cryer.

Green had never heard “The Joker.” Cryer says that when he played it for Green “he laughed his ass off.” Green’s story:

“You have to remember, I was a very lonely guy at the time. I was only 14 years old, I had just run away from home, and I walked with crutches,” Green told Cryer. He scraped by singing songs on the streets of Watts.

One song was “The Letter,” Green’s attempt to conjure up his dream woman. The mystery words, J.K. ascertained after talking with Green, were “puppetutes” and “pizmotality.” (Green wasn’t much for writing things down, so the spellings are approximate.)

“Pizmotality described words of such secrecy that they could only be spoken to the one you loved,” Green told Cryer. And puppetutes? “A term I coined to mean a secret paper-doll fantasy figure [thus puppet], who would be my everything and bear my children.” Not real PC, but look, it was 1954.

Green went on to record many other songs and is still writing today. He can be reached at P.O. Box 1394, Perris, CA 92572.

Steve Miller must have loved R & B. Another line from “The Joker” goes “I really love your peaches, wanna shake your tree. / Lovey dovey, lovey dovey, lovey dovey all the time.” A similar line may be found in the Clovers’ 1953 hit “Lovey Dovey”: “I really love your peaches wanna shake your tree / Lovey dovey, lovey dovey all the time.”

When I spoke to Miller’s publicist Jim Welch about these remarkable coincidences, he said Miller’s comment was “artistic license.” Pressed a bit, Welch said Miller acknowledged that he’d been “influenced” by earlier artists. Not perhaps the most forthcoming statement in the world. But at least we now know it didn’t come to him in a dream.

@ragingmonk: Speaking of which, you never answered my question. As for your former employer, are you going to retaliate, or are you going straight to revenge?

@Promnight: I was in the biz when that stupid song came out and made everyone alot of money, and I’ve never heard of “propetus”. I always thought the lyric was “Prophetess” and gave Steve Miller props for giving due credit to the primacy of women in sexual matters.
Now you tell me it’s “propetus”? I call bullshit. Steve prolly has been secretly laughing his ass off for all these years over his poor enunciation.

@blogenfreude: My former employer’s stock is at ~35 cents a share these days. Wasn’t too very long ago it was at 49 bucks. I’m glad I never participated in their stock plan.
As Herod told Claudius: “Trust no one, my friend. No One.”

@Ewalda: Oh now you must tell, the music biz? Performer, agent, record company, radio? Oh, now this is interesting.

Even at 16 I was kinda embarrassed for Steve Miller, I mean, come on, “Fly Like an Eagle?”

I kinda felt he was kinda like Lawrence Welk.

But Boz Scaggs started in Steve Miller’s band, and I always loved Boz Scaggs, the big makeout album of my day, “Lowdown.”

@Ewalda: Just … wow.

@Promnight: Over drinks and blow, we’d laugh at how many copies of “The Joker” and “Silk Degrees” and many other AOR/MOR records were being bought by the masses.
It all got out of hand, of course, and then the world became inundated with Journey and Toto and a zillion other MOR wastes of time and late-70s James Taylor and that whole verkachte easy-listening mess.

@blogenfreude: I have 16 shares, which were given out during one of the “retirement plan reorganizations” from years ago. I keep them so I can exercise my proxies every year by voting for “No One”.
Guess I was bitter even before I was laid off.

@Ewalda: Hair bands. And some of them are still touring. An abomination.

While I was digging out my Partridge Family and Carpenters, I also found my Steve Miller. And Steely Dan, because I know you’re out there.

@Promnight:
If that is the case, oh well. I still want to see Mo’s fortune disappear in a tidal wave.

@Ewalda:
Maurice?

@Ewalda:
Join the club. My employer is in Chapter 11. The value of my shares is like my respect and admiration of my CEO, absolute ZERO.

@ManchuCandidate: Maurice?
I was running with a gay mid-70s crowd. We thought it was a funny and strong endorsement of sexual ambiguity. As you recall, after the line “Some people call me Maurice’” There is a very suggestive wolf whistle. I find that more compelling than any argument that “Prophetess” was originally intended to be “propetus”. Oh, and the inflection on the word “Maurice” is very definitely swishy.

@nojo: I’ll give you this: Elliott Randall’s guitar break on Reelin’ in the Years is one of the great compact guitar solos on record. It has it all.
Fagan and Becker, on the other hand, seemed too frat-boy most of the time.

@nojo: Loved them all thru Aja, wherein Steve Gadd plays like a monster. Skunk Baxter turned into an RW weirdo. They were here not long ago but tix were$70.

@Ewalda: I concur w/”prophetess”

@blogenfreude, rage against the monk: I gnu something was up with “self employed”. Fuckers.

@Ewalda: “Hey Nineteen” is an abomination, the most idiotic song in history, right? Don’t tell me it was ironic.

@redmanlaw: “The Cuervo Gold?” “The fine Columbian?” Arrggghhhh, retch, gag.

@redmanlaw: I mean, Cuervo Gold is heinous.

TJ/ Now, this is hilarious:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090303/ap_on_go_pr_wh/politics_foils

@Promnight: No, it wasn’t ironic. It was two fratboys who were out of ideas, trying to fill up a record.
That guitar solo on reelin in the years, on the other hand, is pure beauty. And it wasn’t either of those two guys who played it.

Was it David Lindley? If I hear any decent guitar from that era of LA rock I look for his name.

Wow, the guy who did play that solo had an amazing career, and who knew fagan and becker started out in Jay and the Americans, doing “This Magic Moment?”

“Randall began taking piano lessons at age five. At nine, in 1956, he switched to guitar. In 1963, as a sixteen-year-old, Randall met Richie Havens in Greenwich Village and began gigging. Randall did some early work behind the Capris and the Ronnettes and by 1964 was recording “small-time” demos. Between 1966 and 1967 he was a music teacher in Ohio. Upon his return to New York, he began working as a staff musician for the Musicor record company. He began recording with some friends around 1968, including Tim Rose and demo recordings with Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, who at the time were with Jay and the Americans. In 1969 he joined the band Seatrain, opting for that band rather than joining Wilson Pickett in Muscle Shoals. In 1970, Randall was signed to the Robert Stigwood Organization, which managed Cream, The Bee Gees, John Mayall, and The Staples Singers. He formed a band called Randall’s Island, who recorded a few albums on Polydor. In 1972 The Stigwood Organization bought the rights to Jesus Christ Superstar and produced the show on Broadway, and hired Randall’s band to perform the music. It was there that Randall met guitarist Vinnie Bell, who was experimenting with various electronic effects. Randall began to dabble in electronics as well, and whenever Bell was unable to make a gig, he recommended Randall.

@Promnight: No, I don’t think he played with the Dan. Played with Jackson Browne a lot. Mrs. DB and I saw el David playing solo recently at a small, local guitar shop back room/performance space. He was unbelievably good.

@Promnight: “Reeling in the Years” is very much a typical Steely Dan recording in that it reflects a perfectionist’s attention to detail, but it also contains some of their finest guitar work ever to appear on one hit single. Creative phrasing, lightning-fast licks, and perfectly executed hooks weave back and forth between Baxter and hired gun Elliott Randall. Baxter supplies the mellifluously repetitive phrase that sets up Randall to launch into the distorted overdrive of his solos. Baxter was probably every bit as creative as Randall, but song sculptors Becker and Fagen were clever enough to know that Randall’s fiery brand of soloing would contrast brilliantly with Baxter’s techno-cool approach, yielding six-string kismet in four-and-a-half minutes.

http://www.superseventies.com/sw_reelingintheyears.html

Lastfm.com: Reelin in the Years

http://www.last.fm/music/Steely+Dan/_/Reelin%27+in+the+Years

@Promnight: Yeah, Fagan and Becker were in Jay and the Americans. But then, Flo and Eddie were in The Turtles. You pays yer money and you takes yer pick.

@redmanlaw: A mild dissent here. I agree that Randall’s solo in Reeling is great, but I’m not a big fan of what sounds to me like a cheesy overdrive pedal on the cut. IMHO, rock guitar tone doesn’t get any better than Clapton on Crossroads, the live version.

@Nabisco: Oh, yeah, that’s a good one! Mom will say, “Serves them right.”

And FWIW, I do not live in my mother’s basement. She lives in mine, and has to be home by midnight.

Well, I am old enough to know better, but I am a punk, through and through, and I think the perfect rock guitar solo is on the Replacements “Alex Chilton.” And coming close, Cheap Trick and “I Want You To Want Me.” And maybe even Bruce in Candy’s Room.

I like to hear kids cut loose with enthusiasm, when I hear a rock guitar solo. Layla, OK, yes. The solo in “I Can’t Stand It” for that matter. For real guitar, I will listen to Django, or Charo, even.

And of course, if there is a guitar solo in it, its not punk.

@blogenfreude: @ragingmonk: Speaking of which, you never answered my question. As for your former employer, are you going to retaliate, or are you going straight to revenge?

Sorry, I forgot, Blogenfreude! Umm, nothing decided yet, open to suggestions. There Will Be Blood, but perhaps they will never know it. (Heh!)

@Promnight: I saw the Replacements at the National Theater in DC in 1994 or thereabouts. Loudest band I’ve ever heard (and excellent).

@Dodgerblue: Hey, I’m just the cut and paste guy on who played on RITY. BTW, a distortion pedal was the first thing I got myself when I got an electric guitar one Father’s Day. Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath captured my head a way long time ago, made me a metalhead for life.

I think we chased the girls away again. They’re probably sipping wine and cocktails on a side channel, live blogging the dog show on animal planet.

@Ewalda: That’s beautiful- Limbaugh making Steele his bitch. Let’s just hope the fat fuck keeps talking…

@redmanlaw: I’ve got a KLON Centaur overdrive pedal. The metal guys think it’s wussy. I think it retains some of the character of your guitar, as opposed to, say, the ProCo Rat, which makes every guitar sound the same.

@blogenfreude: Or maybe it was ’91 or ’92 … it’s all hazy now.

@redmanlaw: @blogenfreude, rage against the monk: I gnu something was up with “self employed”. Fuckers.

Yeah, it sucks. I was senior tech on campus (highest salary and experience, but not as fast and more cranky than the guys in their 20s). I was told that it was a bottom line–p/l thing, nothing personal of course. So now I’m trying to build my own little Free Market Entrepreneur Great American computer service. Maybe I’ll pull the country out of the Great Financial Crisis. Or maybe AIG will float me a loan from the new $30 billion “loan” they received today.

@Promnight: Depends on what you mean by a guitar solo, I guess. Clapton playing as long as he feels like it live is a far cry from Steve Cropper trying to cram some licks into a Stax studio solo.
Genre makes a big difference, also.
If you ever saw Stevie Ray on a “good” night, when he wasn’t just fucking around, maybe that would kick old live Slowhand out of your pantheon.
The thing is, there are a lot of great guitar artists.
There are many guitarists I am just in awe of.

@fupduk: Yeah, innit just fucking precious?

@Dodgerblue: Yeah, the Clapton of Cream really has it going on. To my mind, he’s no slouch on Derek, but it does fall off a little. The sixties are so deep in guitarists. For me, it’s Hendrix, just about anything off of Experienced, Axis, or Ladyland is stellar, and he was such a pioneer in the studio. He really opened people’s eyes…

@Ewalda: Q:

What do Steely Dan and Michael Steele have in common?

Ans: They’re both dildos

@nojo: I loved Steely Dan, I don’t care what the music snobs say. If you cop to some Joni Mitchell, we had the same 70s records.

@redmanlaw: Close. Ru Paul’s Drag Race. I just dropped by on my way to make another shaker of lemon drops.

@Mistress Cynica: I have every Joni Mitchell LP until the early 80′s when she decided she was a jazz singer. Blue/For the Roses/Court and Spark are the three best recordings ever released consecutively by any non-classsical recording artist ever.
I was in the first row (with my swooning queen friends) for one of her “Court and Spark” tour dates. She and the Tom Scott band were great. My friends, on the other hand, were embarrassingly hilarious.

@Mistress Cynica: I cop to Joni Mitchell through the Mingus album. And I frequently invoke Cotton Avenue:

They got all the latest words
They’re dancing to the latest beat

@Ewalda: I am so jealous. Court and Spark is still one of my favorites. Even though her later stuff wasn’t that good, I always admired her for taking a chance and doing something different instead of churning out the same old stuff album after album like some people.

So, shall we fling Supertramp next at the zombies?

Just caught U2 on Letterman. Liked it. They’re there all week. Will start hunting down tour dates and tix. Bet I’ll have to go to Denver to see them at Mile High or something, Going to get the new one tomorrow, and maybe the new Lamb of God if it’s still on sale. Son of RML wants the new one by Apocalyptica, which started out as a cello quartet covering Metallica songs.

Fun fact: I saw U2 on the second leg of their first US America tour in 1981. Cost $4. Now you can’t even get a soda at an arena for that.

All this guitar talk got me to playing my electric for the past hour or 90 minutes or so. Been playing the drums lately, too.

breaking/The head of the federal organization that transports nuclear weapons around the United States has been charged with driving while intoxicated, according to a criminal complaint filed in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court. – Santa Fe New Mexican

Man, we do DWI right!

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Nuke-transport-official-arrested-for-drunken-driving

@redmanlaw: You ever check out Gadd’s work on Spanish Fantasies, one of Chick Coreas fuzak forays?

so it was YOU people that lifted my ipod, and i was about to file a complaint against british air baggage handlers!

also lifted was my super halogen bitty book light. had to read yesterday’s book in glare. i want to recommend “water for elephants” by sara gruen, a lot to learn about joining the circus during a depression era. might just be a survival guide. srsly, great one day read.

LEFTY, standing O…

now that every one’s finished ripping my music apart, can i have my ipod back?

BLOGGIE, this made my morning. the rat and i were laughing our asses off last night about greenberg suing himself!!
my OCD needs to adjust your analogy:
“the definition of chutzpah: the man that seeks mercy from the court for killing his parents because he’s an orphan”

Man, where was I last night when the party got rockin?

For the record: I cop to the Dan, Joni, Supertramp and even Steve Miller. Although “Fly…” made him too popular for my teen tastes. SD were fantastic for their period, and Joni was a jazz poet who had the misfortune of playing in the 70s rather than the 50s so she got lumped in with the chick/James Taylor gang.

But to close the circle: there are certainly guitar solos in punk, if you’ve ever listened to the Minutemen and thrilled to D Boon’s 15 seconds of shred. “Alex Chilton” is a great ‘Mats piece, and Alex Chilton was in the Box Tops as a teen and played on “The Letter” (and may have co-wrote it).

That is all.

@FlyingChainSaw: Is it a “Jazz Odyssey”?

@Nabisco: Hey, Alex Chilton is maybe the first meta-rock song, its a song about falling in love with a song.

Alex Chilton was also in Big Star, which is mentioned in the song, and recorded a couple of good tunes, like September Gurls.

His career is kinda like that dude who recorded Beats so Lonely, Chilton was the Box Tops and had a couple of hits at 17, then became a journeyman, just making a living.

The Romantics are still fantastic, still playing Detroit bars.

@redmanlaw: Talk about getting bombed!

/rimshot

Thanks. I’m here all week. Remember to tip your waitress.

@Nabisco: The Pistols and the Clash had no solos.

Anyone heard Carbon Silicon, speaking of the Clash? I am madly in love with it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUwVT_zX3hM

@Prommie: Steve Smith is actually quite a good rock guitar player, Prom. If you listen to “Never Mind the Bollocks” compared with, say, Minor Threat, you realize that the original punks were really just a great rock band with a new attitude. I finally caught them on the “Filthy Lucre” tour, and was quite impressed.

Similarly, Mick Jones was known to tear off some pretty licks in his prime. I do like “Carbon Silicon” – Mick and a former Buzzcock, correct?

@Prommie: I still have a poster that I got from Trouser Press that shows how all good 80s music could trace its roots back to Chilton. What was the Lemonheads song that aped “September Gurls”, “November…” something?

@Nabisco: I saw the Sex Pistols in 2003, and I was blown away, where were the sloppy punks, who was this amazingly tight, precise band?

Why did FSM take Joe Strummer from us? Thats my great regret, I never saw The Clash.

@Prommie: That was the Filthy Lucre tour, I think. I can’t remember where I caught them, it may have been in New England. My leg was in a cast so they let me work my way up to the stage, it was freakin awesome.

I was fortunate to see the Clash many times; the Capitol in Passaic (three times), Bonds in NYC (yes, one of the extended night shows) and the day after I graduated in the Convention hall on the boardwalk at Asbury Park. Roadtrips with college friends, all.

My laptop is in the shop all week and I feel like I’m missing a body part. Sorry I missed the guitar-geek out last night that was inspired by my song. Prommie, I think your story proves that Steve Miller ripped off the old R&B singer – not the first and not the last white rocker to make millions at the expense of black blues musicians. I concur with Ewalda that Stevie Ray was amazing, and I’m not just saying that because I’m a Texan.

I’m a sucker for acoustic Blues, folk, and bluegrass, also.
Players like Rory Block, for example, make my jaw drop in amazement.

Anyone see the April 2009 Guitar Player cover with Kirk Hammett of Metallica and Adam Jones of Tool? I love the guitar playing in Tool, but of the two Metallica guitarists I like James Hetfield a lot more just because I am a huge fan of the great riffs and rhythm guitar in general. Loud and fast rules.

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.Net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=113626

ADD @Prommie: Sorry dude, but there’s a guitar solo in “Police and Thieves”, and “Brand New Cadillac” as well.

@Prommie: When our mock ensemble was named one of Spin’s Worst Bands in America, they called us “the only band that matters.”

@redmanlaw: Well, sure, there is a “solo” in the Buzzcock’s “Ever Fallen in Love,” too, but the very fact that its noteworthy for a punbk song to have a solo is significant, considering the time.

@Prommie: Ten Essential Punk Rock Guitar Solos

http://www.altpress.com/tenessential/28.htm

@redmanlaw: What the hell happened to Iggy Pop? I mean, to his face?

@redmanlaw:

Reds, would you consider Sonic Youth to be punk?

Cause for me, “Cross the Breeze” from Daydream Nation is the Greates’ Geetar Playin’ of All Time.

(I tried to find a better YouTube clip, but they’re all like cell phone concert recordings and the quality is terrible, sorry.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsS41gEW_qk

And “No. 13 Baby” from the Pixies’ Doolittle!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDt42Vs-teI

Simply marvelous!

@Original Andrew: Gang Of Four (any track, but try out “I Found that Essence Rare”). I did college radio when it was possible to segue into a Go4 cut from the Dixie Dregs and my listeners actually got it. Of course, at only 10 watts and at 2 a.m., my “listeners” were frequently out of their gourds.

Nabisco: 4-year college radio vet from the late 90s reporting here.

I got some favorites that would blow your freaking minds. But the Rickenbacker of one Peter Buck circa 1983 (and also of partner-in-crime Mitch Easter of Let’s Active on one-(very minor)-hit-wonder “Every Word Means No”) comes to mind at the drop of a hat. Not technically proficient, but the jangle-pop vibe coming off the whole thing worked really well.

We have to have a music geek-off around here.

@Original Andrew: That’s cool. Es on my iPod. I’ll listen to it when I get home.

I heard the main riff/solo from the Pixies’ “Bone Machine” on some NCIS-type show in passing on TV the other night.

Don’t forget U2 on Letterman all week.

@chicago bureau: Dude, “Let’s Active” were briefly happening! Peter Buck is slinging the slang with Robyn Hitchcock and the Minus 3 right now, prolly going to see them in early April. And Dino Jr. are coming to Amish country on May 1st!1!111

Bet there ain’t nobody here who has a “Bram Tchaikovsky” disc in the collection.

Maybe noj’ could add a thingy called “what’s on your spypod” or something and we could like link to each other’s tunez and post crazee ….oh wait, that’s MyWaste, isn’t it?

@redmanlaw: Don’t forget U2 on Letterman all week. Try the veal, it’s delicious.

@Nabisco: Yo. “Funland”, on cassette. It was a promo, natch.

@Nabisco:

Oh wow! I thought I was fairly well versed in the Brit punk, and I can’t believe I’ve not heard Gang of Four. I just listened to “I Love a Man in Uniform, Cadillac, and To Hell with Poverty,” which are clearly classics that influenced later artists. Thank you!!

On a whim, I was blown away by the sheer number of videos Crass has on YouTube: “Systematic Death, Punk is Dead, Reality Asylum, Berkertex Bribe,” etc. All bringing back precious youthful memories in gloriously clear audio.

I absolutely adore their Brit accents when they furiously spout:

“Wot if ah terld yew to focke off?!”

I used to have Crass’ “Berkertex Bribe” and Ministry’s “Stigmata” together on a mix tape, so for me, one song always blended into the other. Oh to be 17 again!

@Nabisco: Maybe noj’ could add a thingy called “what’s on your spypod” or something

Soon as I get around to my list of 25 Things You’d Rather Not Know About Me.

@SanFranLefty: Are the Dead skipping San Francisco on their Spring 09 tour? Sure looks like it.

http://www.ticketmaster.com/artist/865713?tm_link=edp_Artist_Name

@Ewalda: The Wham of Bram, awesome!

@Original Andrew: I think we need to have a Stinque meet up just to spin records. I’ve got “To Hell….” blowing out the speakers now and it is soooooo right.

ADD: I was lucky enough to see them live twice, once at the Opera House in Austin (82) and once in Phillipsburg, NJ (83ish).

@nojo: Bowling put us at what, 16?

@Nabisco: 17. I used to wear a hat because of Michael Nesmith.

@redmanlaw: The Dead are down the road at Shoreline on May 10. Show sold out within an hour or two of tickets going on sale. My favorite Deadhead isn’t going because of the price.

@SanFranLefty: I thought the Dead sold out at least by Shakedown Street.

Enjoy the veal!

@chicago bureau: Would need to include the very underrated Michael Bloomfield from your home town.

Spining the new U2 now. Perfect soundtrack for driving home under a grey spring sky.

First track – pure psychedelia. Bust out the paisley Nehru jacket and beads. The beginning is swirly keyboards which is then slyly replaced by the Edge’s guitar. Really nice touch. The track sounds like Eno playing Tomorrow Never Knows (which he’s done before on the 801 Live record).

2. Magnificient – Starts out sounding like the Edge’s guitar took acid. Not the guy but the instrument. Dance beat, poppy with an a Ladytronish-edge.

9. White as Snow – A trad sounding ballad.

Overall, this album is a LOT stronger and more even over all than How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (remember Vertigo and the birth of the iPod?). Unlike Metallica’s Death Magnetic in which the band could be said to be trying too hard to show they can still bring it, this album takes all the best of what U2 has done since the Passengers/Pop days and put it all together is a really strong and beautiful record and makes it sound effortless. I especially like Eno’s role as the Fifth Beatle here. The sound is very warm, full and rich, like the aural equivalent of sitting by the fire with a glass of very fine whiskey. Also, a number of tracks feature Bono’s “young man” voice, sounding almost like the Boy days. I can see why the release date was held back in order to nail this thing down.

Call this a quiet rave in favor of this record.

@Nabisco: Did you say Dinosaur Jr. was gonna play somewhere in PA? I love that band, I love Mascis’s guitar. Thats interesting.

Hey, music lovers, can we talk radio? Is it just me, or did the Bush years destroy music on the radio? If you don’t have a cool University station near you, you are fucked.

We had one, one ‘alternative” station hereabouts, and it was a classic, WHGB, every alternative band knows this station on the Jersey Shore because since the mid-80s its been all alternative, where I heard all the great bands of the 80s and 90s. It lasted from 1985 till about 3 weeks ago, when I woke up to the sounds of the latest Britney Spears hit.

There is shit for radio, “classic rock,” playing the same shit they played in the 80s when that genre was invented. Rap and whatever it is they call Top-40 these days, dreck. Nothing else, here at least.

@Promnight: All I listen to on the radio is ESPN and Air America. There’s a hard alternative station that Son of RML and I listen to in the truck. We once went a month or so in which we heard a Tool song every time were were in the truck together. If I was driving by myself and I heard a Tool song, I’d call him to tell him.

I can’t listen to public radio anymore. I’m still pissed at NPR for selling out to the Bushies, and most local programming is annoying, although we do have some cool Native American music shows here. Once again, being picky, I like the older traditional and religious and social songs, not the new “inspired by” stuff or hip hop or (ick) Indian Country.

I shall refrain from posting a review of the new Lamb of God cd I also got today.

A week without martinis so far due to Lent.

@Promnight: I don’t own a car, but when they figure out a way to stream Pandora into one, well, who knows.

@mellbell: That’s what the iPhone is for (seriously, my gf regularly listens to Pandora in the car).

@redmanlaw: Early in the W years, before things like unjust wars and torture sorta outshone most of the other sins, there was a lot of reporting on the crude, strongarm tactics the W administration brought to bear on NPR, the brutish, cult-like fanatacism of our nazi party, I just can’t blame NPR for trying to survive.

@SanFranLefty: My favorite deadhead has 2 tickets for that show and I might easily be persuaded to let your deadhead have mine. Might as well be someone who enjoys it going. E-mail me, srsly.

@Promnight: I’ve only listened to two radio stations for at least the last 20 tears (except when I’ve been on vacation, etc): KPFA, the Pacifica listener-supported station, and KCSM, the live-DJ, all-Jazz-all-the-time listener supported station. Both stream live on the Web. You might want to check out KCSM online if you ever were a jazz fan. It might just be the last of a breed, and it kicks ass.
Oh, I lied. I also sometimes listen to a couple of the crazed Cal-Mex stations. I just love the horn sections, and the drummers who sound like Animal from Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.

And the accordions.

@Promnight: Gave up on NPR, oh, twenty years ago. No particular reason; over time I realized I didn’t care to consider all things. It’s like the local paper: the A section with some warmed-over wire copy, and then useless lifestyle reporting. And Sport.

(Maybe if local newspapers carried more, um, news, I might care more about their demise.)

With notable exceptions — usually between 88 and 92 — radio stations as we knew and loved them died a generation ago, a labor-intensive enterprise in a thin ad market. I saw the programmers come in, I saw the automation that followed them, and we’ve all seen Clear Channel taking advantage of ownership deregulation to build wholly owned networks of repeaters. None of which matters to the kids, since they’re experts at finding the good shit anyway.

As with Ewalda, one of those exceptions can be found in Sandy Eggo: KSDS, another freak of nature, live/jazz/24/7 with a web stream. I don’t know how the hell they do it, but I throw money at them every year to keep it going.

@redmanlaw: RE: “Wrath” by Lamb of God*. I think this is the record Metallica was trying to make last time out. Holy shit. Thrash fucking metal.

@Ewalda: There are some You Tube videos from fiestas in Zacatecas that feature guys drinking on horseback, big weird bands, crazy ass drumming, y muchas bonitas.

/ back to memo writing

* banned from playing the Holy Roller-owned Staples Center in December with Metallica because the band was once named “Burn the Priest”.

@redmanlaw: Check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXIACeXpjLc&feature=PlayList&p=3D3B3C8B9891794A&playnext=1&index=43

Or this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNtzDijS7xI&feature=PlayList&p=3D3B3C8B9891794A&index=44&playnext=2&playnext_from=PL