Birthday Greetings

A very happy birthday to Rachel Goswell, the sparkle in the charm of two of my longtime favorite groups, Slowdive (see this week's Two for Tuesday) and Mojave 3. When I saw the latter in Nashville several years back, she was sadly unable to attend due to some ear issues that have kept her from playing out like she used to. But I dropped her a line to let her know she was missed (back when My Space was cool) and was thrilled to get a very sweet response back.

So, to celebrate all that she's done to enhance my love of music, here's a number from her lone (but hopefully not last) solo release, Waves are Universal (2004), Coastline.

Two for Tuesday - Creation Pt 2

End of the day (night) but still going to try and get my 2-4-T up before it’s Wednesday. Again, another band from the Creation Records roster, and definitely my favorite of the label and the entire shoegaze genre.

Of course I’m talking about Slowdive. And you all knew this because they were fronted by Neil Halstead, aka “The Greatest Songwriter of Our Generation.”

Slowdive was nearly nothing like his more recent (and by “recent” I mean since 1996) work with Mojave 3 and as a solo artist (though there are some similarities here and there on all sides). Heck, even Slowdive’s last album (the sometimes perplexing, the sometimes brilliant, the ultimately rewarding Pygmalion) wasn’t anything like Slowdive, but that’s neither here nor there. Actually, DG, you would probably love that album. 

Rumor has it that folks used to cry at their shows. I have no idea if that's true, but it likely would have been if I'd seen them (and I'm no less of a man for admitting that). I've only met one person who ever did see them and he seemed grateful. 

Anyway, their first two albums (along with some scattered singles and EPs surrounding them) were the stuff of legends. Just imagine a big blanket of fuzzy sound washing all over you and some wispy, angelic voices lulling you to sleep (not in a boring way), and you’ve got the start of an idea. But despite their mellow approach, there was some intensity brooding beneath the surface, and though Halstead’s lyrics were hard to decipher – and cryptic when you could – he still painted with the broad, warm brush strokes he does these days (you just know what he’s talking about now).

It’s hard to pick just one from each album, but this is “Two for Tuesday,” and who am I to break the rules? So, without further ado, I give you Waves (from Just for a Day) and As the Sun Hits (from Soulvaki).

And also Blue Skied n Clear from Pygmalion, because I do whatever I want.

Two for Tuesday - Creation Pt 1

This month with Two for Tuesday we’re going to give a shout out to some of the bands from the highly influential UK record label, Creation Records, who existed from the early 80s through the late 90s and were responsible for giving us the likes of Teenage Fanclub, the Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and (DG’s favorite) Oasis, among other lesser known though equally important acts.

One of those was a sadly short-lived, and today everything but forgotten, but really shoulda-coulda group from Coventry, England – Adorable. Hook-laden and melodic with sometimes chiming, sometimes crunching guitars, they’re about as close to “emo-gazing” (a term I just made up – and no, I did not check the internet to verify that) as any band arbitrarily lumped into the shoegaze genre. Piotr Fijalkowski’s lyrics were descriptive and personal and he sang them like he meant it. Overall, they were a lot more straightforward rock than many of their label mates, but not retro-oriented like Oasis or Primal Scream or as Ride would become.

Honestly, they were really a sound unto themselves, and folks who do remember them always get excited when they’re brought up, because they really were that great. You can check out a couple of my personal favorites with a song from each of their two albums - Crash Sight (Against Perfection) and Road Movie (Fake).  

Two for Tuesday

Well, if you can believe it, today marks the 80^th birthday of the Red Headed Stranger, aka Willie Nelson. For those of you marveling that the country music icon has made it this long, I was half surprised he wasn’t 80 a good decade or so ago. But all joking aside, Willie really is the stuff of legends, a truly gifted writer and musician whose well-documented off-stage antics have nearly overshadowed, as well as derailed, his impressive career on more than one occasion.

Truth be told, even though culturally speaking he’s been on my radar since my earliest memories, I never really took Willie too seriously until about the past five or six years when I picked up Red Headed Stranger on a whim and never looked back. I mean at the end of the day, this is the guy who penned the seminal country standard Crazy, and while Patsy’s version may be the definitive (at least most well known), to hear the man himself deliver a rendition always garners two enthusiastic thumbs up.

I’m not as well versed in his catalog as many, he’s been highly prolific, and a lot of that early stuff is pretty hard to track down, but I’ve heard enough covering the past five decades to appreciate the fact that even some of his more light weight efforts (the 80s weren’t a good time for many 60s/70s artists, but Willie fared better than others) carry a good sense of musicianship and an enjoyable, hum-along melody that makes albums like Island in the Sea less a guilty pleasure and more an overlooked, lesser gem.

Still, the 70s are recognizably his more critically fertile period (all you Willie scholars feel free to shoot me down), at least to the public eye, with albums like Shotgun Willie and, of course, Red Headed Stranger, and bleeding over into the early 80s with On the Road Again, etc.

Today’s TfT are some lesser-known cuts. Are You Sure?, from the 60s, is one of Karla’s favorite Willie tunes, and very old school country. Meanwhile, Bloody Mary Morning, a reasonably (though now forgotten) successful single from the divorce story album, Phases and Stages.

Make your day a Willie day. 

Two for Tuesday

Today marks what would have been the 53^rd b’day of Steve “Steamin’” Clark, guitarist for Def Leppard. Even during my “too cool” years, I never fully denied Def Leppard’s first three albums, and Steve Clark’s gun slinger presence was always a big reason for that. He was just the ultimate in “guitar god,” from his loose look to the casual way he let his guitar hang basically down to his knees.

While he was technically a co-lead with Phil Collen (and Pete Willis), I saw him as more of a rhythm and riff man, which in DL’s early days was no chug-a-lug side job, but a real work of art. He expressed his nonchalance through his playing, which was both rock n roll chic and raw artistic talent.

Sadly, his excesses caught up with him and he died of a pill and alcohol overdose in 1991, age 30. But he was a major factor in Def Leppard’s best (and biggest) albums, three of which I would hold up against any album of the genre (and the other has Pour Some Sugar on Me).

Here are a couple of personal favorites: Bringin’ on theHeartbreak, just check out that smoldering gaze, and a blistering live take of Wasted from 1983.