scene but not herd

Today I bought the expanded edition of Jeff Buckley's Grace album. One disk is the original album, the second disk is about an hours worth of extra songs from that time period, and the third disk is a dvd with "making of" footage as well as the videos from the album. Did I really need this? Probably not, but I guess it is nice to have some of this bonus material to pass the time with. I can say that I love this album, though I do not worship at its altar. I'm not not too keen on the deification of Buckley since his death and I suppose this repackaging lends itself to doing just that to a certain extent. I don't want to exalt him out of proportion, but I simply do love his voice. It is one of the most beautiful things you could hear in this world. I will also always remember Jeff Buckley for the great bass line in "Last Goodbye" as well as the lyrics to "Lover, You Should've Come Over." "My kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder," indeed.

For some reason, when I first heard Jeff Buckley I was reminded of Gordon Sharp from the band Cindytalk. He's probably better known for his vocals on the first This Mortal Coil album and that is where I first heard him. They don't sound the same, but yet I still find them similar. I guess that might sound like a contradiction, but I stand by it. Buckley is the better singer technically of the two and it is interesting to compare their versions of Big Star's Kanga Roo. Gordon Sharp's is found on This Mortal Coil's first album and Buckley's is on the second disk of the expanded edition. To be honest I don't think either version holds a candle to Big Star's version, but I think that the This Mortal Coil version wins out over Buckley's. It is just more concise and seems to flow better to my ears and the emotional tone seems to be better maintained. Sharp's vocals on this album are really great, and it's a good album period. It was a real surprise to hear the first Cindytalk album and find out how abrasive the music and vocal approach was compared to This Mortal Coil.

There is also the coincidence of Elizabeth Fraser playing a role in both their lives. She was the singer in Cocteau Twins and she sings some songs off the first This Mortal Coil album, one of which is Tim Buckley's "Song To The Siren." The way she sings is just as amazing as Jeff Buckley. Gordon Sharp sang some back up vocals on some early Cocteau Twins songs as well. I read an article in Mojo magazine where it mentioned that she had a relationship with Buckley and that is something I had never heard about and I wish I could find out more about it. I would have loved to hear them sing together.

This is my friend Alexis and my fat ass celebrating her birthday on Friday night. For the few who read this she is the "sneeze girl" from a previous post. I had a great time, but this led to the first hangover I've had in a very long time on Saturday.

That party was a fun change of pace from Thursday evening when the transmission on my truck went out on me over by LAX. $1500 for repairs. Thanks! Just what I needed. Needless to say, I might not be going out quite as much in the near future.

The Rodney Bingenheimer documentary MAYOR OF THE SUNSET STRIP comes out on Tuesday. I already wrote about this, but once again if you love music you have to check this movie out. I was able to buy a copy today and the DVD extras look pretty good. The cover says there's over two hours of extra footage so I'm looking forward to watching it again and listening to the commentaries by the director and Rodney.

The money I have to spend to repair my truck is probably going to affect my concert going. That is a shame because there seems to be a lot of interesting shows coming up. The main one is going to be Brian Wilson performing the SMILE album at the Disney Hall in downtown LA. I have a feeling this is going to be expensive and possibly a hard ticket to get, but there is no way I can miss this one. I LOVE the Beach Boys and I've been laughed at for doing so. There are still a lot of people who think they are worthless, but they are simply wrong. It is some of the music I can listen to over and over again and still get chills up my spine . If you want to see a grown man cry look for me at the SMILE show.

// posted by Roger @ 6:23 PM (0) comments

I went to see Reigning Sound at the Henry Fonda Theater last night. I thought they were really good although they seem to be down to a three piece right now. Greg Cartwright really can sing. I hope people take some notice of them because they deserve it. They had nice write ups in the last two issues of Mojo magazine. I didn't stick around to see the Hives or Sahara Hotnights. I've seen the Hives twice before and the first time I thought they were great. They opened for International Noise Conspiracy and they really were a breath of fresh air. I had heard their records, but I wasn't really blown away by the songs, but I thought I would check them out live anyway. I was really impressed with the show. I think I had a smile on my face the whole time. About six months later I saw them again, but this time they were headlining and they just didn't do anything for me. I guess I lost interest in their shtick rather quickly. They're a good band, but I don't quite get why they are getting so much attention. It seems like a lot of the mainstream press just focuses on them and lets other quality bands fall by the wayside, in effect making these other bands seem insignificant. That's why I hate that "great men" theory of criticism because it always ends up with "these bands matter and these don't." I like Mojo magazine because they tend to not fall into this category of criticism. The new issue has a pretty big article about the Hives, but it also has three little articles about Reigning Sound, the Ponys, and the Hunches. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the Hives are perfectly fine, but give a band like Reigning Sound a chance. They have three really good records out which I can't help but think that people would like if only they listened to them. Check out a Gories record too while you're at it.

When should ideology be set aside or should it ever? I had lunch with my friend Alexis yesterday and she sneezed a couple of times and I said nothing. No "bless you" or anything else. Is that rude? I suppose this is a rather petty topic to discuss, but there are some larger issues involved. I am not a religious person and neither am I superstitious in any way, so basically you will never hear the words "God bless you" or "bless you" coming out of my mouth. I've never read up on the subject, but I imagine there was a time when sneezing was the sign of bad things to come. A common cold could kill the average person so the whole "bless you" thing began as a way/belief to fend off death. Well much time has passed since then and a sneeze is no longer a sign of doom. I simply don't want to perpetuate this ritual because it seems pointless to me. If I sneeze and no one says anything to me that is perfectly fine. The problem with my point of view on this topic is that quite a number of people view it as a hostile act. I was in an office once and a guy sneezed a few times and as usual I didn't say anything. He started to say "bless me" to himself each time he sneezed. I almost started laughing, but it was obvious that he was offended by my "lack of compassion." I think that I'm basically a nice guy. My not saying "bless you" is based solely on principle. If you're coming down with a cold I hope you feel better, but me saying "bless you" is not going to prevent you from getting sick. I've discussed this with my friend Suze and she understands my point of view. If she sneezes I can say nothing or tell her to shut up and it's all just a good laugh. Perhaps I should see this as less of an ideological issue, but rather one of common courtesy. When you acknowledge someone sneezing with a "bless you" there is a certain amount of civility or niceness involved which I do find pleasing, but the whole underlying issue of "ritual" still bothers me. Perhaps I will compromise and just use the Spanish word for health, "salud." My dad always used a Mayan word when he would hear me sneeze and I just assumed it meant "health" or "bless you," but recently I found out that it basically means "white earth." I don't know how to spell the words, but they sound like he is saying "sauce cop" and I kind of like the idea that he just picked some random words to substitute for "bless you." It's like you're participating in this ludicrous ritual, but you're also acknowledging that it is ludicrous. But anyway, to Alexis or anyone else I may have offended... Salud!