Gang of Four "Content"

I couldn't believe what I was seeing, a new album by Gang of Four.  I recall their debut album exploding onto the playlists of some of my fellow WPRK DJ's my senior year.  Being the Mad Rocker, famously opposed to punk music, doing on-air commentary battles with several punkers and dueling with Paul Vonder Heide in the Sandspur, I wasn't supposed to like this anti-establishment, political angst.  But there was just something about it I couldn't shake, though I would never own up to it to those guys.  A couple of years later, I embarked on the music retailing career, resuming my exposure to tons of music, and we get a promo album for a film called "Urgh!  A Music War."  Great live tunes from an A-list of bands like OMD, XTC, X, & Oingo Boingo (had to include a complete name).  The label rep had a VHS copy of the film and loaned it to me for a weekend.  That's when I saw what Gang of Four was all about and here's the clip.  Well, I WAS HOOKED!  That rhythm section was simply nasty, and the guitarist didn't play as much as he stabbed the instrument, missing it at times, creating that staccato scratching.  I went backwards and collected everything issued.  The current record at the time was "Songs of the Free", and it signaled a change in the band.  The bassist had left to start Shriekback, which was easily less political and more rhythmic/danceable, but "Songs..." leaned that direction, too, with the track "I Love A Man in Uniform" actually receiving a remix for club play.  By putting funk into punk, it pissed off the purists but helped swell the growing New Wave scene.  The next album was "Hard" in 1983, and it turned out to be the final one for the first stage of Gof4.  Compare the earlier clip to this VH1 Classic, "Is It Love" to hear the difference.  "Hard" was the highest charting record for them and "...Love" was a top 10 Dance/Club track, but of course, to a punk act that's selling out, so they call it quits.  Over the next twenty-something years, some form of the group release three different albums, with two of them eliciting shouts of joy, "the Gang is back!", "Andy Gill is a guitar god", etc., etc., etc..  Pretty amazing to be called "Innovative" twenty-five years later. 

So now we come to "Content" in 2011.  From what I could gather, this was a project fueled and funded by fans, a new generation of fans, that is, the 30 and under crowd.  Gill and singer Jon King are the constants here, and it is certainly a Gang of Four record.  Is it great or groundbreaking?  Nope.  Is it funky and/or danceable like the more commercially successful recordings of above?  Not really.  But it is a good album, like an OREO is a good cookie, the best part is the middle.  Plenty of the scratchy guitar and militaristic rhythm section Go4 is known for.  As a matter of fact, they performed track 5 of the ten on the record for Letterman a couple of months ago.  A short album at 35 minutes, it's still a keeper.

Colin Hay Live at the Plaza, Orlando

That's right, the voice of Men At Work, on a solo tour in pre-support, I guess, of his upcoming album, "Gathering Mercury", due out next week.  Since the breakup of M@W some twenty-five years ago, Hay has been doing solo records every two or three years, touring to support each one since he lives domestically in the Los Angeles area.  I have the very first two, "Looking for Jack" from 1987 and "Wayfaring Sons" from 1990, and I was hoping to hear the title tracks from both, but only the latter fit the solo setup.  If you were a fan of the full catalog of Men At Work and not just the radio hits, you would enjoy "...Jack".  "...Sons" started more of the singer/songwriter bent of his career, which isn't a bad thing.  That voice is unmistakable, and the songs are imminently hummable.  There was an album called "Transcendental Highway" in 1998 that was good and one from 2007 called "Are You Lookin' At Me?" for which I almost went to his stop here in Orlando, but alas, I passed.  He was getting more notice since his inclusion on episodes of Scrubs and Zach Braff's "Garden State" soundtrack, which won a Grammy in 2005.  Then I see him announced on the Plaza's Upcoming Shows tab, and I make mention of it to Rob at WPRK, and then promptly forget about it.  After the Grace Potter show, he mentions he had put me on the guest list for this one.  Surprised, and pleased, I was able to attend (I owe him a bottle of something, which I may just have to deliver to his Morning Marinade show on WPRK).

My neighbor, Frank, and I arrive just in time for a beverage before taking our gratis seats in the next to last row.-------------------- Nope, that's not a dig, because the show was in the small room, housing about three hundred people.  Hay wanders out and immediately jokes that he went to the main room only to find it empty, which prompted a story from years ago when he actually started a show with four people in the venue, including himself!  Then another funny recollection, and another, and then he says he's fifteen minutes into the gig and not played a song yet!  The audience was laughing so much it felt like we were in Bonkerz or the Improv.  So he starts the first tune and it's "Down Under."  I say to Frank, "Never in a million years would I've guessed that to be the opener."  At its end he says there was method to that madness and would relate it to us later.  Several solo selections and humorous interludes later, we get to another classic M@W tune.  Hopefully, you will be able to understand him enough to grasp a bit of the humor of the evening.  Another song later, he tells why he started with arguably his biggest hit earlier.  As the years have passed, he noticed many in the audience leave after playing "Down Under", more reasonably placed in the set list, generally around the timing of the linked video.  So in a nod to his aging demographic, he started opening his shows with it, knowing that soon thereafter, many would quietly slip out, completely satisfied with their paid experience after hearing the one song that brought them there, and be home in bed before the concert had ended.  I'm sorry, folks, but that's funny as hell...  And it's a long show for a solo performance, this one clocking in at approximately 130 minutes.  I was going to say I didn't check my watch once, but I did, but only in order to see just how long he was actually playing.  I was truly amazed at his ability to seize the stage and hold an audience as raptly as he did as a solo performer for that length of time. 

For the three hundred humans in attendance, at $28 per, I'll wager not one was dissatisfied with their investment.

Two Legends and a Fortunate Hitchhiker

OK, do I really have to say who's the thumber?  Leon Russell had his heyday back before I left high school.  A young Elton John was a fan some forty-something years ago, and with good reason.  Leon was a fairly big deal in the 60's, writing songs recorded by Joe Cocker, Cat Stevens, Eric Clapton, etc., and touring with Cocker on the Mad Dogs & Englishmen jaunt and the Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed shows.  A couple of solo hits in the early 70's and then nada.  That is until Elton's charity puts him back in the spotlight with The Union, a decent little record that's heavy on EJ and lite on LR.  Sure, there's good piano and hooks to spare, but don't put Leon out to be seen, please!  He's so stiff next to Elton, looking as if he'd break if he displayed any movement besides his fingers.  God, he makes Willie Nelson look like a gymnast!  Pitiful...wish I had not seen him...probably shaded my take on the album, which for the die-hard EJ fans is quite good.  Russell's voice is OK, and the songs are definitely 80% EJ, and one track includes Neil Young on a verse or two.  But when it's all said and done, I may keep about a third of the sixty-three minutes.

Gregg Allman......if you're from the South, nothing else needs to be said.  When I saw that "Low Country Blues" was scheduled for release, I was expectant of something brilliant.  After all, this would be the first solo record this century, and with producer extraordinaire T-Bone Burnett, no less.  Most of you probably came to know him after his Grammy blitz some ten years ago with the George Clooney movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"  Me?  I was a fan of a few of his solo albums, they coming few and far between due to his production work schedule.  And he has helmed many a legend's record, like Elvis Costello, Roy Orbison, Tony Bennett and John Mellencamp.  Bands you all know and love (mostly), such as Los Lobos, Counting Crows and the Wallflowers.  Oh, yeah, and the previously mentioned duo recording of this post.  So teaming T-Bone and Mr. Allman on a blues recording is a win-win situation, right?  Well, the album has received some wonderful reviews and has sold well enough to be a Billboard Top 5'er, but for me...I was sorely disappointed.  There's too much production, burying GA's voice and organ, and the song's are mostly very obscure covers.  It hurts me to say this, but it was a total dud.  Absolutely zero keepers.  But what the hell do I know?  It didn't need my approval to become a best seller...

Grace Potter & the Nocturnals live at the Plaza, Orlando

Before I get started, let me thank Rob S. for providing me with the opportunity to see this concert. 

Rock and Roll music has a legitimate star in Grace Potter. I haven't felt this way about a female performer since seeing Joan Osborne live in the PGD Zone at a NARM convention in........San Diego, 1995? That would make sense since Relish came out that March, same month as the confab. The PGD Zone was Polygram Music's way of showcasing new artists in a club-like setting with free booze and snacks, with the performers playing on an end stage in the back of the converted conference rooms. The best part about the setup was that most people inside were jaded music biz people who were only in the Zone for the free liquor. Me, I was all about the performers, but Jack n' Coke on the major label's dime didn't hurt either. So there I was standing in front of the stage, close enough to have Ms. Osborne sweat on me, with about twenty-five other people who got it. "One of Us" wouldn't be a hit for months to come, but I had goose bumps all over me during the performance, knowing I was experiencing something truly revelatory.

Nearly sixteen years later, thanks to the Internet and YouTube, I was able to anticipate that same feeling for GP&N, and they did not let me down. You see the set list above (thanks, Greg A.) with "Oasis" as the opening song. Greg sent me the set list from the show he saw in Nashville ten days earlier and they didn't do this selection at all. The studio version is a slinky, seductive little number that could have been a Joan Osborne song back in the day. As the band opened the track, GP slowly weaved her way on stage behind them, moving just like a prime Stevie Nicks. As the song worked through its normal four minutes, one could sense a change a-comin'. That's when Grace, in her micro-mini with those Beyonce-like legs, bounces out from behind the B-3 to front-and-center, and the "rhythmic chank" ensued, fist-pumpin' rock and roll power crankin', with GP dancing her way around the stage. I had read several comparisons to Tina Turner, and now I know they were referring to her stage presence/dancing, but she’s nowhere near Ms. Turner, more along the lines of Christina Amphlett of the Divinyls. The “chank” finally winds down after twelve minutes, and if management had thrown me out of the venue because my jaw on the floor was getting in the way of other patrons, I would have been happy just seeing the one tune.

For the next eighty-eight minutes, the band played a cross-section of their three records, touching on the many styles they are capable of producing. (Disclaimer: The videos linked below are not professional in any way. The Plaza is an old theatre with little lighting but decent acoustics, so the view is dark but the sound is OK. I only want you to get an idea of what to expect and go see them for yourself.) Here is four minutes worth of a blues stunner called 2:22 from the debut GP&N from 2005. On another song I said to myself, “she’s channeling Janis Joplin,” and twenty seconds later hear a guy behind me tell his buddy the same thing. A few minutes later she’s chicken-struttin’ around the microphone stand a la Mick Jagger. Next thing you know, she’s strapped on a white Flying-V guitar, creating a triple axe attack. And let me tell you, the regular six-stringers are outstanding talents themselves. The female bassist, that tall, slender, dark-haired purveyor of sexy rhythms was more than capable of keeping up with everybody, just lose the chewing gum, please! The drummer, a dead-ringer for Lonesome Dave Peverett, was all smiles all night, huddled in the back shadows, enjoying the show in front of him.

Once they launched in “Paris,” most everyone thought they were boogieing to the show’s closer, but au contraire mon frere. Another concert-ready track from the current release, “Medicine”, occupied that nine-minute slot, and here it is. I knew what the encore was going to be, and one of the guitarists grabbed an acoustic and hit the first few chords, switching gears into a Led Zeppelin intro, but then laughing as he swings back into the encore. Here’s all I had left on the vid card, but you will know it well.

So let’s sum the evening up with numbers: 100 minutes of music from a band with a Top 20 Album, a Top 5 Rock Album, for $15 a head, for 1000 people. That, my friends, is a bargain in any economy, and one you had better get out and get if you have the chance. Trust me, she won’t be back in Orlando for that price in that size venue anytime in the near future.

Lee Ritenour's "6 String Theory"

Thank you, Mr. Kilts, for alerting me to this excellent recording a couple of months ago.  My guess is he was trolling for Joe Bonamassa and found him on a track here.  And what a track, but let's save that for a minute.  This album was released last summer with much fanfare in the guitar community.  There was a contest to find new talent, and the winner was a young Canadian who does the classical piece on the record.  Another discovery from Australia is Joe Robinson, also still in his teens, who contributes a two-minute finger pickin' smoker tune.  I found a video of him recorded in Nashville for your enlightenment.  The record's title obviously celebrates the axe, but it also numbers the styles of music contained.  There is the previously mentioned classical and acoustic, the obvious jazz, the foreshadowed blues, and toss in rock and country to round out the six.  Let's look at just a few names of the additional guest slingers:  John Scofield, George Benson, Robert Cray, BB King, Neil Schon, Slash, Steve Lukather, and Vince Gill.  Other contributions come from Keb Mo, Taj Mahal, Joey Defrancesco and Jonny Lang.  Yeah, you want this record already...

The opening track grabbed my attention right off the bat with its "Stratus"-styled jazz/fusion, and there is nothing wrong with borrowing from one of the greatest when you can give it the proper treatment.  Bonamassa and Cray add blues vocals and licks to the best version of Tracy Chapman's "Give Me One Reason" you will ever hear.  It should be on radio play lists worldwide.  There is a finger-snappin' cover of "Moon River", a fine rendition of "Why I Sing the Blues", and a decent effort of Jeff Beck's "Freeway Jam." 

Don't tell me you don't know who Lee Ritenour is.  He's been on hundreds of records since the mid 70's, like Aja/Steely Dan, Endless Flight/Leo Sayer, Sat. Nite Fever/Bee Gees, and a member of probably the most famous jazz group ever, Fourplay.  For my ear, his style isn't so much recognizable as it is compatible with whatever he's playing, and this record is excellent proof.  He doesn't sing, so the guest vocals contained within are welcome.  You know who the singers are from the earlier mentions (and some fine ones, at that), so don't be surprised that about a third of the 15 tracks are vocal.  When Bob sent this to me, I figured I'd cull a track or two, never owning one of LR's twenty + solo records before.  I did not dream of adding a new artist listing to my catalog for someone with a 35-year recording history, but I have for 6 String Theory.