Tag Archives: Rock

Weezer: Because Everything Will Be Alright in the End.

Everything Will Be Alright In the End – Cover

It is difficult for me to write about modern albums, I feel like. I try to make sure that if I am going to dedicate the time to learning the new music (by learning I mean a lot of listening) it had better be good. My attention span isn’t what it used to be, and I find little desire to decode the lyrics of complicated songs. And though I support the idea that all musicians should grow in depth as they mature, the fact is, I am a much older man in spirit than body, and am very much a fuddy duddy, even though my last three posts were about modern albums.

Many of the bands singing pop rock when I was a kid had their start in the 70’s before I was born. I found them in the late 80’s and respected them into the 90’s. When it comes to bands that started during my middle to teenage years in the mid to late 90’s I wonder what they are doing now. For some reason I had assumed Weezer had simply stopped making music after Green. Then I realized why I was missing their new albums, when I saw “Everything Will Be Alright In the End,” at the record store.

Everything Will Be Alright In the End – Record

My ascension to Fuddy Duddydum had left me listing to classic rock channels and 90’s grunge and alternative channels (which is considered classic rock in some circles). I forgot that classic Weezer, though very good, was not the only Weezer. I looked over while picking my daughter up from school and heard her singing along to Weezer’s new album and realized that Weezer had gained new status in the world, a band that survived its beginnings and grew into something bigger, something that made them into a new classic. I was just old enough to have been there when they started, but my daughter, learned of them many years after their beginning. Of course it can often be difficult reconnecting older bands, but Weezer’s “Everything Will Be Alright in the End” made it easy. Cuomo’s intent in this album was to look back while moving forward, using their classic sound.

Everything Will Be Alright In the End – Insert

I don’t know what it is about Weezer and Cuomo’s writing that makes me pour over lyrics, regardless of whether I want to, it is compulsive. Sure, I could try to just enjoy this album, bobbing my head as I listen to the catchy tunes, but I feel like I would be treating the writer unjustly. These songs make it hard to just listen to I want to hear them as well. In fact I had to google Foucault before writing this paragraph. I can imagine saying that to Rivers Cuomo and Rivers just walking away shaking his head. When I listen to River’s words and music I cycle through few basic thoughts that progress in this manner.

I’d love to meet this guy for coffee
We could talk about his music and theology
I’d love to hear about his writing process
Shit he went to Harvard
Am I smart enough to talk with Rivers?
Uh oh I’d better prepare how do you pronounce Foucault again?
Can I call him Rivers?
And I’d better bone up on my Greek, where did I leave my old professors email?
I’m tired

Would Someone Please Translate This For Me? My Greek is Terrible.

Weezer produces great and catchy music, which seems extremely unpopular today. Cuomo writes amazing lyrics, in fact he went to college to make himself a better writer, to better delve into the depths of his soul. The songs in this album are broken into three topics, Women, Work, and Father Issues. These three topics show up often in Weezer songs, but that’s not a bad thing, because these three topics show up often in our day to day lives. But Cuomo doesn’t sing about these three things the same way as he did in Pinkerton and Blue, instead, his songs engender growth, and one of the greatest truths, sometimes we have to return to the beginning to really know who we are in the end.

Saying Goodbye While I Turn Blue, My Introduction to the Black Keys

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The Black Keys, Turn Blue Album Cover

If I were to write a review of The Black Key’s new album Turn Blue I would probably have to tell you which studio album they were on, how this album interacts with their past albums, and what new influences obviously lead to their blue turn. I would probably also have to mention 100 other bands or producers before ever talking about the Black Keys themselves, especially British Cartoon Character Danger Mouse who has something to do with this album. And it would be important to mention they are from Akron, because I guess… the Akron Music Scene? I know that would be the case because I made the mistake of reading reviews of Turn Blue before writing this post.

It is astounding. It astounds me because they never really get around to talking about the album itself, and they never give me the sense that they experienced the album. The goal from the beginning of their review is, simply, to tell you whether or not they think the album, from a critical standpoint, is good. Which apparently they can do without ever really talking about The Black Key’s music, and quite possibly listening to the whole thing. I obviously do not understand the business side because their reviews make no sense to me.

I bought this album at a record store in Memphis because I heard them sing on The Colbert Report. I don’t remember the song they sang because that was a long time ago, I just remember it was catchy and the album cover was cool, that was enough for me.

I appreciate this band first, because they include a copy of the CD with the record, and they gave me a poster. That is important because I don’t care to buy CD’s or simply download mp3s, they make it worth spending more money on the analog copy. Without the record there is nothing to touch. Many bands offer a free download, but these guys went the extra mile and gave me a CD.

The Black Keys: Turn Blue Record Sleeve

Secondly, something strange happens when Fever comes on. My disco ball finds a way to entice me into turning it on and I start to dance. Not quite sure why this happens EVERY TIME!!! But it does and that is something I am just going to have to live with it, as will my wife and children. Right away that song grabs me and pulls me from my seat. At that point it doesn’t even matter what the song is about, I’m already in. The whole album goes back and forth from this psychedelic blues to pop, and by then end, I have lost like 45 minutes and I’m covered in sweat.

Of course it starts strong, Weight of Love introduces something delightfully forlorn, and the message continues as I slow dance through the album. The album helps me say goodbye, and who doesn’t need to say goodbye to something? Turn blue makes me confront a certain kind of baggage, baggage that I am ready to let go of. I can’t stay angry long while listening to these guys. Their mellow mix of forlorn sadness and slow drive leaves me with the feeling that everything is going to be ok, even if the process takes a long time, even amidst the bullshit serenade. And quite honestly, sometimes I need that. This album gives me the permission to turn blue without the expectation that I stay there forever.

And Finally, I think I was hypnotized by the artwork.

Turn Blue

And as much as I would love to end this post with that idea I can’t. I have to say that of the reviews I read lack something very important when it comes to this album, a fresh ear. The reviewers spend so much time defining context that they miss something important, that this album creates its own context. Turn Blue made me a Black Keys fan. Not because there is anything wrong with their other albums, I just haven’t heard them. Sure, this may be a their 50^th album, and often I agree that most things don’t exist in a vacuum, but for the first time in my life I might just have found something that did.

And it turned blue.

Summer Trips and Record Stores

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Chess Logo – Friday Vinyl

The summer is a difficult time for writing. I assumed it would be easy but alas with my children home from school, trips all over the country, and family trying to make every moment special who has a time or energy to sit down and write. As weeks of not posting pass more records stack-up that would be perfect for a post.The summer is really a great time for collecting vinyl, as long as we are careful and remember that hot cars can damage our children, animals, and records. Let’s just say that my collection has been growing by leaps and bounds. Three weeks ago my family drove up to Memphis, Tennessee to see a show and while there we visited some of my favorite record stores.

Queen, Bill Withers, Yusuf, Simon and Garfunkel, Pink Floyd

I began collecting used vinyl in Memphis, I never bought reissues. I never had to I was never more than 15 minutes from stores dedicated to vinyl records with hundreds at my disposal. While living in Memphis my proclivity toward old things lead me out Saturday mornings to antique shops and my hobbies lead me out to juke joints at night for dancing. Sometimes if my friends weren’t in the mood for live music we would just gather at my friend Amanda’s house do dance. One night I noticed that the music we were dancing to was being played on a turntable. Watching the record spin while dancing blew my mind. I was just beginning to own a vintage look and nothing said vintage like vinyl.

Vinyl reminded me of my childhood, the smell of records, the sound, and the time spent just sitting and listening, actually listening to the music. I was never nervous about setting the needle down on the record, I never assumed I was holding something special, or at least something that would become special. But that story is for another post, this post is about Memphis. Vinyl in Memphis took on an entirely new meaning, it reminded me of the heart of music.

G-Love and Special Sauce

I was spoiled in my early collecting, I had just assumed that every city has at least one record store. Years later when I walked into Morning Bell, I didn’t realize that it was my only real option in Jackson Mississippi. So the first place I stopped at in Memphis with my family was Goner Records. I had never really been a big shopper at Goner while living there, but the anemia of my Jackson options set me on Vinyl binge. I collected a small stack of vinyl that set me back quite a few dollars, then we stopped at Huey’s Midtown for lunch.

Al Green, Check Berry, Johnny Cash

There are a few very important things that make Huey’s Midtown a great place. First the food, voted best burger in Memphis over and over again makes it a clear choice, second, you shoot toothpicks in the ceiling and finally, there is a record store right across the street called Shangri-La, and it truly is like its namesake. Years earlier I bought my favorite Queen Album there for seven dollars, still my favorite album. But today’s post isn’t about the vinyl I bought there years ago but the vinyl I bought there a few weeks ago.

Between Goner and Shangri-La I left with

On 33 1/3

Bill Withers – Menagerie
Cat Stevens – Greatest Hits
Pink Floyd – Wish you were here
Simon and Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubles Water
Queen – Queen 1 (Self-Titled)

On 45

Johnny Cash –Walk the Line
Check Berry – Maybellene
Al Green –Precious Lord

On New 33 1/3

The Black Keys –Turn Blue

On 33 1/3 10-inch

G-Love and Special Sauce –Blues Music

I decided weeks ago I needed to start buying some 45’s they are generally cheap even though they are often in bad shape. I really just don’t have any. I generally buy based on artist and label. I won’t buy an artist I don’t like but I will buy a song I don’t love if it is an original Sun or Chess record. I have a few 45’s and none in good shape but, still worth owning.

My older child spent plenty of time looking and buying records as well, while the younger one sat on a chair in the corner, bored. I don’t blame her it isn’t her thing, but it was exciting to see another generation want to take the time to enjoy music on vinyl.

Walk the Line

In Search of Lead Balloons Part 2: Air Guitars Unleashed

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Led Zeppelin I Side One

I had planned on letting my new Zeppelin LP sit in its box for the weekend because I was going on a camping trip the next day, the kids were running around, and I had work to finish before I left. Then I told myself I would just open the box and look at the sleeve, admiring the work. Well, after opening the box I decided I would just hold the record and enjoy the touch, then somehow the record ended up on the record player. I figured by this time I would go ”all in” and pull out my old air guitar, moments later I was strutting through the music room playing and singing about the days of my youth when I was told what it means to be a man.

This band was not created but evolved out of the work of many musicians. We can’t actually talk about this evolution without mentioning “The Yardbirds” which involved not just Page but Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, and somehow Keith moon got involved with John Entwistle. And when Page thought it would be great to form a band with these two but one of them said, “That would go over like a lead balloon.” They played a series of shows together and even recorded a song, but in the end this groups never solidified for one reason or another, the chemistry just wasn’t there but it is good to know the family history. It is good to know that all the good musicians played together but didn’t try to force something that wouldn’t work. Two years later when Page with Robert Plant, Jon Bonhom, and John Paul Jones decided to form a band Page remembered the old conversation about lead balloons.

Led Zeppelin I

As a teenager I didn’t know much about the history, I didn’t need to, I just knew how the music felt. The music filled me, when the song started I could see strobe lights and lava lamps, I could hear screaming fans, but more than that I could hear the moan. As a teenager I felt this feeling through all the girls that said no and the masses I was too afraid to ask. As a medical chaplain I heard it in the cries of those who were left behind when a loved one died, and as a Mississippian I heard in the crickets and juke joints. The moan was something more than just rock and roll. It is heartbreak, love, hate, joy and sadness, it’s blue.

This music became a major part of the soundtrack to my youth. It would be playing in the background when I was playing Nintendo, or writing in my journal. It played while my friends and I sat and did nothing on short summer days. And it mattered that it was old, it mattered that it was classic. I never really looked at the song breaks, the changes in the midst of the song would walk me down brand new path so often I thought the albums were made up of 30 different short songs. I appreciate that, during the middle of the song, the band seams to take a break just so they can take their guitars for a walk. There was something fearlessly heartbreaking in the music.

In an earlier post, I said this album was close to impossible to obtain before the reissue. I asked once if the record store clerk had Zeppelin 4 in stock, he laughed. In fact, he told me that when a copy would come in it didn’t last the day. I remember passing on a copy once in Memphis Tennessee 10 years ago I often think back to that day in sadness, and I have no clue what happened to my father’s copy. However, I had never seen any of their other albums. Sure I could get one of the compilations but that just wouldn’t be the same.

This set is the first reissue of the original source material since Atlantic stopped pressing the records. As a child I listened on cassette to Led Zeppelin I and II, but had my father’s copy of IV to listen to. I only know the rest through the compilation albums. I look forward to my new walk through of Led Zeppelin albums on LP. There is something special about holding this record in my hands… Strangely, when I feel the smoothness of the vinyl and the ridges of the grooves I can’t help but hear an echo saying, “They call me the hunter… that’s my name”

Don’t forget to check back for part 3 that will focus on the bonus material of the LP.