It's Only Rock-n-Roll

IT’S ABOUT THE MUSIC, STUPID! So CBS FM is back. After 25 months of being held in captivity by Jack, the station that played “the greatest hits of all time,” was set free Thursday, July 12. As Jack got the heave ho, in a mock Sopranos’ takeoff, Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” segued into Frank Sinatra’s “Summer Wind”, an obvious kiss up for the unseemly exit two years ago; and, after a montage of songs and moments going back to 1964, the first official song, the Beach Boys’ “Do It Again” was played at (now get the pun?) 1:01 P.M. From the minions of grateful oldies fans, a gigantic “Thank you, God” could be heard across the tri -state region. Jack had left the building; what was once new was now old again; the enemy had been vanquished and all was right with the world. Perfect! But hold onto your jukeboxes, sock hoppers. This isn ’t your daddy’s CBS FM. For one thing, rock-n-roll seems to have begun in 1964, not 1955. I wonder what Bill Haley and Alan Freed would have to say about tha...

HIT THE ROAD JACK! Faced with ratings that continued to spiral downward and unable to defend a format that more closely resembled an iPod than a radio station, Infinity Broadcasting cries “uncle” and brings back the format that memories were made of. It was Friday, June 3, 2005, 3:57 in the afternoon and long-time DJ Bill Brown was doing his usual sign off for WCBS FM, but something was missing. It was customary for the exiting DJ at CBS to announce the next DJ, in this case Bob Shannon. But Shannon never got a chance to sign on that afternoon. Instead he and the rest of the CBS crew were called into a conference room at 4:00 P.M. and told that they would no longer be employed at the station. WCBS owner Infinity Broadcasting had decided to change formats from oldies to “adult contemporary” and, under the new call letters JACK, would no longer need disc jockeys. At 4:30 that afternoon, while CBS was issuing its pink slips, Frank Sinatra’s “Summer Wind” was winding down. No one at the...

Three Glasses: One half filled, one half empty, the other bone dry. Can anyone get me a drink of water, please?! Patti Smith: Twelve (Sony, 2007). What often gets ignored when talking about Smith’s career is that long before her ground-breaking debut, Horses , she was a rock critic at Creem , working alongside Lester Bangs and Robert Christgau. And, like so many critics, she developed her own biases and partialities – yes, folks we ain’t the altruistic bearers of wisdom and insight we think we are. And those subjective truths would come to permeate her music in the years and later decades to come. So it shouldn’t be a total surprise that in doing an album of purely covers that she would lean towards her contemporaries, like Young, the Stones, Beatles, Dylan, Simon and Hendrix, in her time legends all. What is a surprise, and a pleasant one at that, is how well done the album is. These aren’t just rehashes of some favorite song list she had stashed away. Smith makes each song her own....

TURN UP YOUR STEREO, NOW! The Apples in Stereo: New Magnetic Wonder (Yep Roc, 2007). “Uh oh uh oh, uh oh uh oh, turn up your ster-e-o-o, uh oh uh oh, uh oh uh oh, I feel electric when the meter starts to glow,” Robert Schneider belts out in “Can You Feel It,” the opening track on this, his latest a nd best Beatles-like album. After a five-year layoff he’s finally nailed it. I disagree with the ELO connection though; I’m thinking more Housemartins minus the political overtones. I’ve always suspected Schneider for a Paul Heaton fan anyway. As for the rest of the album, the tone, as in earlier efforts, defies categorization. Not quite indie, but definitely not pop; I’d call them bubble gum punk, which I guess is as close as anyone is likely to come. Whatever your preference, there’s no denying the charm of the lyrics and the vocals, among the best of the year. The one sad note, the departure of Hilarie Sidney, who wrote and sang "Sunndal Song" and “Sunday Sounds,” two of the be...

Get Your Country Comfort Where You Find It! Two entries by two women steeped in country tradition; one very good and one encouraging, sort of. Miranda Lambert: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Sony/BMG Nashville, 2007). My disdain for country music goes back almost twenty-five years, and with good reason. With the exception of Rosanne Cash, John Anderson, Willie Nelson and a couple of Rosie Flores albums, the genre simply hasn’t lived up to its historical traditions. Somewhere, I suspect, Hank Williams is turning over in his grave at what has happened to this once proud and rich music. While this latest entry by this self-proclaimed Garth Brooks fan is unlikely to repair the damage of the last three decades, it does, if nothing else, offer up an olive branch. Lambert is no stranger to success; her debut Kerosene made her the darling of the country charts in 2005. This album builds off of that and with an edge that is very reminiscent of Flores, circa 1992, which means it’s also part Dwight Yoaka...

It Was 40 Years Ago Today: Rocks Seminal and Defining Moment Celebrates Another Anniversary. The date was June 1, 1967 , and it represented for rock fans what the birth of Christ represented for Christians: the demarcation point between what was and what would forever be. In all honesty, however, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was not the first of its kind; nor were the Beatles the first to cross over that threshold of what was to become known as album rock. Two years earlier, Bob Dylan had graced us with Bringin ’ It All Back Home , followed closely by Highway ’61 Revisited . In December of that year the Beatles would release Rubber Soul ; this was the album that Brian Wilson couldn ’t get out of his head for six months. No, the birth of Christ would be an inaccurate analogy to the release of Sgt. Pepper's . A more appropriate comparison would be the Declaration of Independence. Any decent historian would tell you that by July 4, 1776, the Colonies were already at war with...

With The Village Voice having canned Robert Christgau , I thought I’d start my own little Consumer Guide. Each month I’ll do 8 to 10 reviews, split up into two entries. There will also be the odd feature or two as I feel the inspiration come over me. Here goes nothing. Lily Allen: Alright, Still (Capitol, 2007). It would be easy to dismiss this 21-year old child prodigy – she’s the daughter of prominent British actor Keith Allen – as just another privileged brat of excess. But you’d be wrong. In deed it is Allen’s upbringing – attending 13 schools in 12 years and being expelled from many of them, running away from a boarding school when she was 14, and various sundry relationships with folks obviously not of her class, that sets the theme for this album. The girl is pissed, and with a maturity that belies her age, she transcends her rage and rebellious past and comes up with an album that her contemporaries could only pray to deliver. She’s Ani DiFranco with a rhythm section,...

2006 - A Final Look! 1. Bob Dylan: Modern Times (Columbia) 2. Ghostface Killah: Fishscale (Def Jam) 3. The Klezmatics: Wonder Wheel (JMG) 4. Tom Waits: Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards (Anti) 5. Rosanne Cash: Black Cadillac (Capitol) 6. Ornette Coleman: Sound Grammar (Sound Grammar) 7. The Streets: The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living (Vice/Atlantic) 8. Joanna Newsom: Ys (Drag City) 9. Outkast: Idlewild (LeFace) 10. Todd Snider: The Devil You Know (New Door) 11. Maria Muldaur: Heart of Mine: Love Songs of Bob Dylan (Telarc) 12. The Coup: Pick a Bigger Weapon (Epitaph) 13. Dr. John: Right Place, Right Time (Hyenna) 14. Wussy: Funeral Dress (Shake It) 15. Frank London’s Klezmer Brass Allstars: Carnival Conspiracy (Piranha) 16. The Gothic Archies: The Tragic Treasury: Songs From a Series of Unfortunate Events (Nonesuch) 17. Clipse: Hell Hath No Fury (Zomba/Star Trek/Re-Up Gang) 18. Jesus H. Christ and the Four Hornsmen of the Apocalypse ( www.jesushchristrocks.co...

DUMB AND DUMBER: How Corporate America takes out its garbage. “What did you do on your vacation, Peter?” “I went to sunny and warm Florida and got a chance to relax. How about you? “I got a chance to see a radio icon commit suicide.” “That’s the last time I take a vacation during sweeps!” Yes, as hard as it may be to believe, legendary, hall of fame radio personality Don Imus threw himself on his sword as it were, quite possibly ending an otherwise prestigious, if tumultuous, 36 year career over his remarks towards the Rutgers’ women’s basketball team. The now infamous phrase “nappy-headed hos” will join ranks with other illustrious comments, like, “I did not have sex with that woman” and “I’m not a crook.” What strikes me most about this spectacle is not the outlandishness of the remark; anyone paying attention over the last four decades probably had the “pleasure” of hearing worse language from him. Nor is it even the clamor from outraged minority groups, lead particularly by Al S...

A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME! Lucinda Williams: West (Lost Highway, 2007) B+ L IKE most major artists who have something relevant to say, Lucinda Williams has evolved over the years. In 1988, the shy, introspective 35 year old alt-country phenom from Lake Charles, Louisiana, arrived on the music scene and through sheer courage and strength of will propelled her self-titled debut into the best kept secret in pop music since Gram Parsons bumped Roger McGuinn from the Byrds , spawning in the process two of the best country hits never to hit number one in Nashville: "The Night's Too Long" and "Passionate Kisses." Undaunted by the lack of airplay, she toured relentlessly over the next few years, and when she was finally ready, she released the beautiful, if dark, Sweet Old World. Williams’ perfectionism, her unwillingness to allow anything with her name on it to go out until she was completely satisfied, was a refreshing change of pace in an industry that spits out a...

EVERY BASTARD HAS HIS DAY! Tom Waits: Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards (Anti, 2006) A. R EMEMBER when you were in school, there was always that kid who sat in the corner of the room, who never seemed to belong, who never participated in any of the class functions, who seemed aloof – perhaps detached would be a better word. He looked weird, as though someone forget to dress him properly in the morning. His grades were good, his attendance record above average, but there was just something about the guy that prevented you from getting to know him. Even the bullies would keep their distance. Then someone would crack a joke and from the corner of the room you’d hear a snicker – a half-muted laugh - from the guy. He was paying attention after all, he heard every word that was being spoken; he just chose that precise moment to chime in with his own two cents. For 33 years now Tom Waits has been that kid in the corner of the room. The weird outcast who just didn’t seem to belon...