3 Albums That Kick Booty

Some new music I been rockin on my stereo, all of it worth a listen.

Social Distortion's Greatest Hits


On Wit's advice, I decided to check out Social D's repertoire, and this album was a great buy. These guy's aren't just good...they rock. Here and there the lyrics are overly simple in a heard-that-a-million-times-before kind of way, but only on occasion. Generally they are sharp, honest and to the point. While not master lyricists, the band's musical prowess is impeccable, and Mike Ness is one killer guitarist.

I see why Springsteen likes him. Their respective guitar playing styles are different, but there is a similar attitude, a similar kind of timing and placement of solos.

I've always liked punk, especially The Clash, and Social D has vaulted their way onto my list of favorite punk musicians...and more. I'll be buying more of these guys.

Gotta hear: Ball and Chain, Bad Luck, Far Behind


Together Through Life


Bobby's new album. What can anyone say about Bobby that hasn't been said before? Except, maybe, that he's on an unparalleled run that quite frankly might be outranking his epic, world-altering turnout in the 60's. These days Dylan isn't changing society with his music, but he's still doing something no one else is capable of doing.

The music he's been making since he took over the reigns of producing in the studio is wholly unique, everything from the single Things Have Changed through Love and Theft, Modern Times and now Together Through Life. It's not that it's necessarily greater than what anyone else is doing (though it probably is) or that it's deeper (though it definitely is) or that it's more complex (almost certainly), but simply that there really isn't anyone in music with Dylan's breadth and depth of knowledge, musically, and thus no one who could possibly blend everything they've ever heard together like this. Except Bobby.

The first time through this album you have to adjust yourself, because it's so unlike anything else you're listening to. The first listen is a jolt, and only about the third and fourth time through, once you've grown accustomed, do you begin to grasp the brilliance.

And it is brilliant. Sublimely brilliant.

Gotta Hear: Jolene, Shake Shake Mama, I Feel a Change Comin On


Untold Truths


Believe it or not, Kevin Costner has been working off and on with this band, his band, for some twenty years. He's always loved rock and roll, been a musician, but all that damn acting kinda got in the way. Who knew?

And, believe it or not, these guys are pretty good. Not spectacular, but Costner's voice is steady and suits the country-rock style he's aiming for. The songs, while not startlingly well-written, are strong enough. And the music gets the feet moving, which is rather the point, now isn't it?

The interesting thing is that if you didn't know it was Costner, you'd never figure it out. You'd just think they were another mid-level Eagles imitation with a fair amount of talent who were obviously enjoying themselves. Probably be a lotta fun to see live.

Gotta Hear: Every Intention, 90 Miles an Hour, Five Minutes From America

Stumping the Band

I realize that lately I've been posting a lot of Bruce, but you'll have to forgive me. When the boys are on tour, my attention is pretty well focused on the band. As well, I'm always so excited by the tour that I feel the need to share what's happening.

It is, of course, my opinion that the E Street Band is the mightiest band on the planet, and the 2007-current touring is heavy proof of such a statement. The Magic tour broke for about two months before flowing into the current Working on a Dream tour, and given that the current set lists resemble the end of the last tour far more than a brand new tour built upon a newly-released album, it is fair game to argue that, in essence, we're looking at one long, long tour.

It's also worth noting that Dream was cut literally on the road of the Magic tour, in-between concert nights.

It's not just that these guys play so well. There are other bands that play at an incredibly high level (mind you, not many, but there are a few). One of the most startling and salient points is that lately it doesn't seem like there is anything they can't play.

For reference: A solid rock band will go on tour with a rotation of songs to play each night, some songs popping in and others falling out throughout a year long tour. The total number of these songs generally ranges around 50 or 60 songs, give or take, depending on the number and differences of venues (you play different songs in a stadium as opposed to a small club).

A damn good band will of course play from a larger set of songs, and a band that's been around a long time will obviously have more to draw on.

A perfect example would be The Rolling Stones, who are the longest lasting rock band in history. On their last tour for the brilliant Bigger Bang album, the Stones played through 78 different songs. To be fair, the Stones tend to play highly structured shows with rigid set lists, with little changing at all in the second half of their shows. However, it's likely only Bob Dylan has more music to draw on, and the Stones certainly are capable of playing any of the songs in their playbook. So they can change it up...if they want to.

By contrast, Springsteen and the E Street Band have played over 160 songs on their recent touring, between the Magic tour and the short beginning of the new Dream tour. Between a quarter and a half of the show is being made up of audience requests, and Springsteen as bandleader is calling audible changes almost every song, sometimes changing even the first song after telling the band what to play before going on stage.

Currently, they're daring audience members to try and fool them, and no one has. In the clip below, you can watch Springsteen take an audience sign for "I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide" and show it to the band. The sign came complete with chord changes and lyrics. Springsteen runs down the chord changes quickly with the band...and they slam into it.

And they knock it outta the park.

Watching this band right now, you have to remember that no one plays like this. No one audibly changes the set lists constantly, never letting the band know what's coming next, and adding new songs to the list every single night. No one plays songs they've never even attempted before, or songs they haven't practiced or rehearsed in over thirty years.

What this band is doing is flexing its muscles. And what a mighty band they are. One can only hope they keep it up, and keep at it for many years to come.

A Little More Soul Soothing

For those hard times, a short lineup

Bad Luck
I'm Going Down
Across the Border

"This Band Was Built For Hard Times"

Bruce and the boys are out on tour right now, swinging through Southern America and the West Coast (minus the Northwest). They've been putting on some incredible shows, of which the clip below from Johnny 99 makes evident.

Johnny 99 is another cut from the Nebraska album, reworked from its original, humble acoustic beginnings into this fiery rock n roll number we see here. The irony of watching songs from that album live in recent years, tracks like 99, Reason to Believe, Atlantic City and the outtake songs that missed the album like Murder Incorporated and Pink Cadillac is that at the time Bruce simply couldn't find a way to make these songs work with the band. Twenty-plus years later, he has.

And they're really something.

In a recent interview, Bruce talked about the tragic economic situation this country is facing, and said that he decided to go back out on tour almost immediately after the end of his last one. "Our band," he said, "was built from the beginning for hard times. That was the music we wrote, that was the way that we played."

For Wit: In Search of Spanish Lit

For Easter Wit and I went out in search of decent used bookstores. The one I’d been told about, Henderson’s Books, was unfortunately closed for the day (this is one of my pillars against religion…that it closes bookstores on arbitrary holidays). However, we still made it to Village Books and eventually found one single open coffee shop (my life has become a constant search for good books and good coffee…neither are easily found).

This post isn’t really about searching for books though, but is for Wit, who shares my interest in Spanish language literature. I pointed out a few books at Village Books, but here is a better list of some of the gems I’ve found.

First, and definitely foremost, is Garcia Marquez. Of all the Spanish language writers, Marquez soars above all others. Winner of the Nobel Prize and worshipped like a God in Mexico and Columbia, he would almost certainly get my vote for greatest writer on the planet. After Marquez wrote One Hundred Years of Solitude an entire generation of writers attempted to follow and recreate the magical realism he achieved in his great novel. It’s never been replicated. Not that folks haven’t stopped trying.

If you like magical realism, there are many writers worth checking out (very few Americans though, where we are stuck with our modernist, realistic streak). Give Kafka a whirl if you like the dark side, and also Jorge Borges, who is truly mind blowing, Donald Barthelme if you like absurd humor…but the truth is the true original is Marquez.

Marquez wrote three genuine masterpieces. Given that most great writers only produce one, that’s a pretty good output. They are One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera, and The Autumn of the Patriarch. This last is my personal favorite, a long, weaving narrative about an undying South American dictator whose godlike control over his people extends to him selling off the very ocean along their coast to foreign governments for money (literally…in the novel, the ocean is sold and gone, leaving only a vast desert).

The Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes, which we looked at, is another great writer. However, we didn’t see his masterpiece at VB. Look for The Death of Artemio Cruz, which he is known for. My favorite Fuentes piece, though, is a novella called Apollo and the Whores, found in the collection The Orange Tree. It is one of the raunchiest and most hilarious pieces of literature I’ve ever read, and was the first thing I read by Fuentes.

One of the best single novels to come out of Mexico in recent years is The Night Buffalo by Guillermo Arriaga, who wrote the screenplay Babel. Arriaga is a fine novelist, and Buffalo is one of the eeriest and subtly creepy novels I’ve found in a long time. Not an out and out horror novel, it is a novel about madness and paranoia and betrayal. It is also quite short, only a few hundred pages.

Julio Cortazar stands out as one of the giants of Spanish language literature. His novel Hopscotch, which I haven’t read, was groundbreaking in its day. The book is structured like those old Choose Your Own Adventure stories, allowing readers to Hop-Scotch around the story (although to be sure, Cortazar’s novel is far more complicated than CYOA). His influence on later Latin American writers is enormous.

If you wanted to look for actual Spanish writers (from Spain), Pio Baroja and Jose Cela stand out (as does, of course, Cervantes). I don’t run into Baroja or Cela much in bookstores, but if you’re in the city you should have a better chance finding them.

Certainly worth checking out is Alberto Manguel, whose non-fiction work The Library at Night, is a fascinating and inspiring meditation on libraries, books and the imagination.

Finally, I’ll again put in two-cents for the non-Spanish writer Jose Saramago (Portuguese ain’t that different from Spanish), another Nobel Prize winner who simply blows me away. He has quickly become one of my favorite writers, and his style is completely, utterly his own. Read Blindness first, and then its quasi-sequel Seeing. Then find a copy of his newest novel Death With Interruptions.

Anyway, hope this leads you to some good books. I’ve got an extra copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude that I can send you.

Oh, and you’ll notice I’m reading Bolano’s new book 2666. It’s good so far.

Put A Meter On Your Bed To Disclose What Everybody Knows

Tomorrow I'll be making a trip to the city to pick up the newly released Leonard Cohen Live in London. Cohen, an American music legend, is 73 at this concert, five decades down the road of rock and roll and still here, still strong.

If you've never heard of Cohen, you've almost certainly heard his work. One of the finest songwriters in history (and what we might call a songwriter's songwriter), Cohen's songs have been covered by nearly everybody. He is worshiped by other artists, in and out of rock and roll, and his influence is heard echoing down the decades.

Likely, you've heard Hallelujah, covered by dozens of artists from John Cale on the Shrek Soundtrack to Bob Dylan, who used to perform it in concert.

I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this: the fourth, the fifth, the minor chord, the major lift
The baffled king composing hallelujah

Or Everybody Knows, popularly covered by Don Henley.

Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you've been faithful
Ah, give or take a night or two
Everybody knows that you've been discreet
But there were just so many people that you had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows

Below you'll find Suzanne, another masterpiece. If you haven't checked out Cohen, this is a good place to begin. This guy is the real deal, and you won't be disappointed.