TUNING

Rosalie Loves Me Yet (In Case You Were Wondering)

Rosalie , (who has something to do with Palm Pictures) sent me a screener and soundtrack CD for Your Gonna Miss Me; A Film About Rocky Erickson . [Click link for film showings and Roky's tour schedule].

"Don't Slander Me."
"You Don't Love Me Yet."
"True Love Cast Out All Evil."
"I Walked with A Zombie."
"Easter Everywhere."

The thing about Roky's body of work is that nearly every song title in the canon would have made for a fitting title for this film.

Those people looking for clinical proof of Roky's madness will come away dissapointed, as the film makers wisely gloss over concrete examples of their subjects' crazyness, and instead focus on his recovery and redemption.

Transcendence and redemption, along with a profound sadness that that hasn't worked out, are at the core of Erikson's music.

Even when he's singing about zombies , aliens and two headed dogs there is a sense that he's just telling it like it is, punching some sort of haunted spiritual clock like any other Joe Lunchpail- only this time the jobsite's in Hell.
Quite naturally , he would prefer not to be walking with zombies last night, nor pulling a nine to five gig in the seat of Soviet political power overseen by a biheaded canine, but he can't help but paint what he sees. And he'd like to get out.

Get out he did for nearly two decades , after being released from Rusk Hospital For the Criminally Insane in the 70's.

Sent up for posession of a joints' worth of marijuana , Roky was advised to cop an insanity plea .

Granted , the extenuating circumstances of his legendary LSD and heroin use could have just as easily been used as an excuse to institutionalize him but they were not, and to this day, a clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia discounts any major drug use as a contributing factor.

The handfull of schizophrenics I know have either overused drugs , or have had signifigant trauma to one or more of the senses at a fairly young age.

The methods of "treating" Roky were either wrong or nonexistant, as born out by the testimony of the retrospectively compassionate good ol' boy officials at Rusk who, in the films' brief interviews with them, manage to apologize enough for my liking at least.

The aftercare, such as it was, consisted of prescribing a fistfull of psychotropics and remanding him to the care of his mother.

I wish there was a feature- length movie on Evelyn Erickson, she's clearly hinting that there should be throughout this film- but one can clearly see the roots of Roky's problems in the strata of unmitigated crap she has in her apartment.

I was cringing every time she Elmer's glued a priceless family photo to an oversized piece of shitty cardboard along with one- of- a -kind letters and lyric sheets.
Hey lady-ever hear of getting a literary agent? That's the way to do it if you want to tell your story.

The DVD extras include two videos Evelyn made that are mind boggling.
The first one , based on Bible stories, features a catatonic Roky being hailed as the supreme leader by a quasi- interested chorus of off camera extras who can't quite belive they're doing this.
The second one , "The Sex Strike" , is a retelling of Lysistrada as performed by Darvon -addled Austin housewives.

The second half of the film is about Roky's brother Sumner's sacrifices to get Rocky healthy again, and he should be applauded for that, but I could have done without the assertions that schizophrenia and mental illness don't really exist and that all you need is some touchy feely New Age Therapy to put things right.

But the important thing, which the film gets to with expediency, is that Roky's back; and Sumner sacrificed damn near everything to get him on a track whereby he could be free to make his own decisions.

Rarely have I wished the subjects of a documentary Mazel Tov with such fervor.
Film:*** 1/2
DVD Extras:****
Soundtrack:*****
Thanks again Rosalie.

Humps Are Inherently Canadian

Alanis Morissette beats the ironists to the punch; and would- be suitors to a pulp, in this cover of " My Humps ".
Morissette parses the inherent sadness of the origional by slowing down to a singer-songwriter dirge. Tee hee.

Panema, Indeed

"To me, it's not rocket surgery. It's very simple to put together. "[About a possible Van Halen reunion]

I think people want balance more than ever. You know, feed an Ethiopian, plant the rain forest, save the ozone layer--you gotta have that, "oh woe is me," as a form of self-dramatization; it's always fun. It shouldn't be replaced, but there should be a balance. Sooner or later, it's Miller time! Sooner or later, there is some hallelujah, watusi-tailgate, light-up-the-goddamn-sky-it's-finally-the-weekend! And I don't care whether you wear a cowboy hat or your hair is purple, I don't care if you have a wedding ring or a clit ring, sooner or later, there's Miller time! That doesn't mean simple belly laughs, and it doesn't mean high-brow. It just means, 'wanna go have a drink?'

"DLR Band means Dave, Lowery, and Ray. I named it that because it sounds more like a band than David Lee Roth, which just sounds like a person. When you hear David Lee Roth - you think of a person. When you hear DLR Band - you think of a band. Just like when you hear Eddie Van Halen you think of a person, and when you hear Van Halen - you think of David Lee Roth!"

David Lee Roth is a fucking genius. And vice versa.
Check out more of his words of wisdom here.

The Dos and Donts of Mp3 blogging

DO A) Include links to purchase Items posted about B) Be a girl. I understand it's great fun if done properly , and your writing will improve by 60%. Why don't more girls do MP3 blogs? I have found that most girls who really like music do so without all that messy irony, postmodern or otherwise. Even this girl C) Narrowcast the hell out of your piece de resistance'. I'd much rather read a blog about Soundtracks or Portuguese Fado (Is there another kind?) D) Get all Proustian about the first time you heard that song and how it made you think of that weird kid in your homeroom, and then go on to describe that kid in detail, and then post the song. I love that shit E) Be Australian. F) Be French. G) Be Brazilian. H) Be an unreconstructed old 60's dude who's been hoarding music since LBJ.

DON'T A) If you are posting an album in it's entirety, please break it up into tracks. I don't mind sub -editing a file labled "Side A" but many music loving folks do not have the means or skills to likewise. B)If you are posting an album in its' entirety, do not refer to the resulting files as "sharity" or "album sharity". This term is too clever by half and will not absolve you of any litigation should such an event occur. Instead, refer to it as "steality" or "Unauthorizedduplicationisaviolationofapplicablelawsity". Love the concept (lots)-hate the name C) Don't use rapidsare. (see footnotes for a great alternative)* D) Don't be a total dick and fink out somebody who uses rapidshare to perform a valuable service to the community** E) Don't post Podcasts. I'm here for the songs and the Expert Commentary and Thoughtful Reconsiderations, not how well you mix them. If you do decide to post a "songlist" or "mixtape" make sure you do it right and allow users to download the songs individually if they so choose. If you are a Dance Music MP3 blog, you can ignore this item. F) Don't post videos. I have been guilty of this ,but just because YouTube has it, and it's 3:00 AM and you should be in bed instead of blogging away, doesn't excuse you from lazy blogging. It's ok to include a link to the video in a career -spanning overview of the artists' innate coolness-just not the whole thing. G) Don't be a semi pro outfit with more ads than free music. H) No matter how well connected you are in the blogosphere or music industry, don't flaunt it. Hit points don't really count if they're from nerds who will stop at nothing to get free music. Dude- it's an MP3 blog- any semblance of hipness, cred, or credulity went out the window tied with twine to your taste and judgement the minute you decided to post your first tune. I) Don't use an MP3 blog to promote your radio show . There are exceptions to this rule, however J) "Please, please, please, capitalize your sentences and proper nouns. Writing in all lower case was kool in, like, 1999. The hippest thing you can do now is write well, check your spelling, and use proper grammar." [Submitted in Comments by Dust] K) Don't name your blog after lyrics or phrases because the make a blogroll look like shit and then they have to be abbrieviated or reworded thus destroying their intrinsic coolness. Song titles three words long are cool though. L) Don't alphabetize blogs in your linkroll using the definate article [A, An, The] . The proper alphabetization is "Wilfull Eclectic, The" , but you can just omit "The". I like to alphabetize blogs that start with def. article "A" using the first letter of the second word, leaving the "A" intact in the listing-and also alphebetize blogs beginning with "An" with the phrase intact, but that's just me.

There you have it- my roundup of peeves and accolades for and about MP3 Blogs. I would hesitate to call them "pet " peeves, one is kind to one's pets . These peeves I would like to stomp into jelly, or perhaps something akin to the thin gray paste produced when you pet your angelfish too hard. If you recognize yourself in the "DO" column-keep on keepin on, my brother/sister. If you shudder at the eerie resemblence to your blog divined from the vague blanket statements spat unto the "DON'T" column, don't angrily defend your right to be a corporate whore or rhetoricly ask who the fuck I think I am making these pronouncements through the clenched teeth/sphincter of the comments section-just quietly correct the problem. Why? because here's a little secret vis this post: [I don't care what you think]. Other times I just might. But not now.
** Once upon a time, an honest, decent , god -fearing blog that just happened to have an utterly filthy name decided that many people would like to download comedy comedy and more comedy. Then some dickehead ratted them out to rapidshare™ who promptly deleted the files without checking the source of the complaint, or whether or not the blog was in fact in violation of international copyright laws, etc. Subsequently, the blog's authors have lost the will to live (at least in terms of the blogosphere) and now spend their days wondering what kind of humorless bastard would attack something good and pure (and funny) just because they could. Comments on the site reveal that immediate deletion of files is par for rapidshare's course should anyone for any reason complain about content that has been uploaded to the service. You don't even have to be the origional owner of the intellectual property. Who the fuck wants to be the person that reminds the teacher they forgot to give homework? Apparently they're out there, and they hate MP3 blogs- just on principle. Fortunately, there is an oh so groovy alternative to these evil Germans.
* Multiply is a free (as of this writing) and nifty solution to hosting mp3s. With free unlimited storage space, no upload size limit (that I could detect) and a number of reasonably attractive templates to choose from, theres no reason why you shouldn't create an annex to your main blog as a way to save server space. Has pre defined catagories for music and pictures. Has an option that lets people play your entire playlist. Cures rickets and river blindness and is kind to dogs and babies. Also has a pleasing pine scent. Need I say more?

The Truth Hurts

Bedroom Dancing's five over-used indie review phrases

It's A Bitch Girl, You've Gone To Far, and You know it don't Matter Anyway....

"To be recognized by your hometown is truly an honor. Daryl and I will always be Philly guys, no matter where we live. The only way that the mayor could top this honor is to give us a lifetime supply of cheese steaks..." -John Oates' response to the Mayor of Philladelphia proclaiming March 18th Hall And Oates Day

From The Somebody's Gotta Do It Department:
Jefitoblog rings in with another evenhanded overview of a group that has long been past the point of consideration:
The Complete Idiot's Guide To Darryl Hall And John Oates
Sadly, (possibly) all the mp3 links are broken because their originating blog violated some kind of content policy by posting them in the first place. This does not diminish his basic arguments though.
Adventures of a University Finalist handily picks up the slack with an extended post that includes some early and atypical MP3s from
The original Philly Cheesesteaks, Twinkletoes and the Littlest Pornstar er, Hall and Oates.
includes an excellent musing on why Oates is so reviled.
Official Site

Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma

Ruined Music is sorry for your loss.
No, not that loss, you miserable , lovesick idiot- the loss of a perfectly good, ne' great song that you can no longer listen to thanks to those extenu-fuckin'ating circumstances.
From their about Page:
"Perhaps the worst thing about the breakup is the fact that music gets caught in the fallout. Everyone has a song, album, artist, or band that’s been ruined by an ex (or, more accurately, by memories of an ex). Ruined Music is the place to talk about the music you’ve lost: the songs you can’t stand to hear ever again, that record she always played when she was over at your house, the band you went to see together a week before he called it quits, That Song that was on That Mix, the record that was playing the night you (fill in the blank), the album you got for a Valentine’s Day gift.

But wait! You’ve got a story about a song that was ruined not by an ex but by a roommate, a bandmate, a former best friend, a neighbor, a teacher, or an ocelot? You’re in luck! We want those stories, too! While Ruined Music was originally intended to focus on post-breakup song ruination, you, our readers, have convinced us to expand the scope of our project. So feel free to interpret “Ruined Music” as you will, as long as some kind of interpersonal (or inter-species) relationship is involved, and a song gets ruined as a result. Query us if you’re unsure, but chances are good that if your story is under 1,000 words and witty and true, we’ll love it as our own."

For me, it's The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society (yeah, the entire album)
and The Incredible String Band's Wee Tam (especially "Ducks on A Pond")
and I won't tell you why.

AMEN ALREADY

Nate Harrison tells you more than you wanted to know about the Amen Break
And, In case you are really , really , really stupid ; Wikipediabreaks (ha ha) it down for you, succinctly and redundantly.

SO WHAT?

Music downloading creates listener apathy [Breitbart.Com]

"The accessibility of music has meant that it is taken for granted and does not require a deep emotional commitment once associated with music appreciation," said music psychologist Adrian North on Tuesday..."


"The academic's assessment follows a warning last week from rock legend Pete Townshend, The Who guitarist, that listening to rock music on an MP3 player through headphones could cause deafness."

NEED IT, GOT IT , NEED IT, GOT IT........

Information Whirlwind
"The prestige of sharing an extensive downloaded music library is wearing so thin that it's becomming almost as transparent as that ever-blowing cyber wind. "
Rob Horning condemns all of us with this astute article on information overload  and online music file sharing. That's
all of us. You reading this blog. Me writing this blog. No heretic is left unstoned, completists scorned completely. I would cry if the writing wasn't so damn good. Maybe I will because it is. You know what to do....and weep.