Today’s blue skies had me in lockstep with this MX-80 song from their newest, “So Funny.” It is a pretty healthy pace for the woods. We passed a neighbor and she was listening to the Saturday afternoon broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera. We never take sound producing devices in the woods and why would you need it when you can’t get some songs out of your head?
I miss the hard-core drive of Dave Mahoney’s drumming and I wish people would quit dying but Bruce Anderson’s guitar is still stellar and the band sounds more melodic than ever. You can watch the entire lp, cd or whatever it is on YouTube or FB.
We bought a new light, a floor lamp to stand in the corner over our drawing table and pretty much light up the whole room when we need it. I had a homemade rack for cassettes under the table and it just looked ridiculous with the new lamp. And when was the last time anyone but a hipster listened to a cassette? Well, today! We got into it, Playette, a mix tape from ’84, my recording of Talking Heads from the Village Gate as a threesome in ’77. It’s all stuff that doesn’t exist in any other format unless that Roir Stuff eventually went digital. Even Pete LaBonne has gone digital.
I put all the tapes in a box and we’ll probably never listen to them again. I was intrigued by one labeled “10 Commandments” from 1985, the same year as the video above. 10 Commandments opened for Personal Effects at Scorgies. and the band was us, Personal Effects, doing other bands’ material. So I kept that one out for a future listen. Funny thing, Taana Gardner’s “Heartbeat” was not in the set. Now you know this just don’t make no kinda sense.
Here’s the 10 Commandments’ 1985 set list: “Heaven” – Talking Heads “What Goes On” – VU “Connection” – Stones “End Of The World” – Skeeter Davis “Big Bottom” – Spinal Tap “More Than Good” – MX-80 “Sex Machine” – JB “Maggot Brain” – Funkadelics “She Belongs To Me” – Dylan “It Came Out Of The Sky” – CCR “FunTime” – Iggy
Orange cone on golf/ski course at Durand Eastman in Rochester, New York
I don’t have a photos of these two scenes but I will do my best to describe them. The settings for both are the same little room, the computer room, at my mom’s apartment building. Two days ago I walked by and two grey-haired people, one man, one woman, were sitting in front of the two Windows machines. Both were looking intently at the monitors playing Solitare. The next day the same woman was alone in the room playing Solitare. At least it looked like she was playing Solitare before she nodded off.
We ran into a guy on the golf course today. It was too warm for the woods. The packed down, well travelled paths on the golf course are still skiable when the temperature gets in the upper thirties. Anyway we were stopped, just kinda looking around, he stopped and said hi. After some small talk he asked why we looked so familiar. “Did you play in a band?” Peggi said, “We still do. Margaret Explosion.” “No,’ he said, Personal Effects.” Peggi said, “That was like thirty some years ago.”
Personal Effects “It’s Different Out There” on Earring Records 1985 EAR 3
Personal Effects – “Nothing Lasts Forever”1 Comment
The most efficient way to to store stuff is digitally. After that there is flat filing cabinets. I put my father’s old cabinet in my studio and that set off a chain reaction of purging to make space for the new. Out with a pile of paintings and older work, sifting through piles of junk and then into the closets where we found boxes of 4D Advertising samples. All to the trash. Now, what about this box of teeth molds that our former neighbor, Leo, an orthodontist who often worked out of his house, left in his basement when he passed? I took a photo and thought about Leo.
Phil Marshall has a rubber soul. We are friends and have played together but I was not aware of his Beatle affinity. We recently donated to his Indiegogo CD project. Our level entitles us to have Phil as a guest on a podcast. Our promo copy of the cd arrived in two versions, “Scatterbed,” fleshed out tracks with guest musicians, and “Scatterbed Sleeper,” basic tracks of guitar and voice performed simultaneously, described as “the album in its rawest and most immediate form.” Both are produced by Chris Zajkowski and they sound fantastic.
While in hospice my dad occupied a scatterbed at St. John’s. He filled an open bed on the fifth floor next door to long-time nursing home residents, wanderers and people who talk non-stop in non-sequiturs. This is David Greenberger Duplex Planet territory. We intended to engage Phil to play music for my father while he was there, a few Johnny Mercer songs between the madness, but it never happened. Phil is a professional music therapist, what must be a heroic profession. “Scatterbed” arrived two weeks after my dad’s passing and Phil’s self described “reflection on loss, grief, faith and the lack thereof” resonated big time.
Our listening session began with “Sleeper,” the basic tracks. The first song, “Heaven is Waiting,” made me cry. As rich as Gershwin or Nilsson. The rhythm guitar in the next song, “Black Ice,” immediately called to mind Beefheart’s, “Harry Irene.” “In the final instant, Beyond all love and fear, Is there a perfect moment, When everything is clear?” “Faith,” which is inevitably called into play in the final hours meets a worthy opponent. “Faith, I doubt, is true, Faith, in love I do believe.” “Ebb And Flow’s” innocence echoes the Velvet Underground’s “After Hours” as it looks death in the eye. “Surrender it all to ebb and flow.” I’m quoting the lyrics here but, more importantly, Phil’s gorgeous melodies get under your skin and stay there.
Our session was interrupted so we started over the next day. “Sleeper” to “Scatterbed” full blown. I found myself thinking not only of my father but our departed painting teacher who also left a huge hole a few months back. We let a week go by and played the two in reverse order. “Sleeper” speaks more clearly, more directly and I am thankful to have a copy. For me the ideal transition from “Sleeper” to “Scatterbed” would have gone more raw, more fragile and more vulnerable. But then, Stella, our eighteen year old cat is in hospice as I write this.
I brought a short stack of my father’s cds home last night, ripped them and brought them back today. We listened while we ripped. “The Lyrical Stan Getz,” “Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk,” Joe Williams “Having The Blues Under A European Sky,” a live Oscar Peterson Trio cd and another collection, two Duke Ellingtion compilations and three Bill Evans cds, one live, a collection and one with Stan Getz. I know I told my dad that Scott LaFaro used to play with Bill Evans. There was a poster of Scott right near the regular table that my dad’s Kodak buddies sat at for twenty four years. Scott LaFaro was in the owner, Nick Massa’s, high school class. These recordings made for an enjoyable evening.
In our local paper the other day one of the questions to the computer guy was from someone who took advantage of the free three months of Apple streaming and then forgot to cancel so they were being billed ten bucks a month by Apple. They wanted to know how to go about canceling. You wouldn’t think you had to be a computer expert to figure that out but Nick Francesco addressed it. The reason it caught my eye is that I, too, never canceled. I haven’t had time to stream but I do plan to check it out before canceling.
We stopped by Martin’s place on New Year’s Eve and he was streaming some JB for his lady friends. He had the place hopping but he told me it was hard to create a Apple streaming dance playlist without having the albums to look at while you’re choosing.
“So Hard” was the first song on Personal Effects” first record. The song was written by Rich Stim and released on cassette by his band, Playette. I’m quite sure we did a version of this song with the Hi-Techs. The song always went over great live and when we went into the studio as Personal Effects in 1982 we added the middle (reggae) section.
The song, as recorded by Playette, was originally called “So So Hard.” Rich went on to play saxophone and guitar as well as sing with the great MX-80 Sound. There was a Rochester connection to MX-80. Drummer, Dave Mahoney, drove the classic MX lineup until his passing ten years ago.
So Hard was co-produced by Dwight Glodell and Eric DuFaure and released on Cachalot Records in 1983. Thirty three years later, MX Rich has created this video!
I looked for Playette’s version of So So Hard but could only find Roomful of Voices by Playette. Dave Mahoney does the vocals here.
Playette cassette cover art. Release includes So So Hard featuring Dave Mahoney.
Mary Heilmann Table and China at the 303 Gallery in Chelsea
Art, viewing or making, can be easy or difficult. Mary Heilmann makes both look easy. This table and china set is part of an installation in the back room of her current show at the 303 Gallery in Chelsea.
Not sure if it is a good thing or a bad thing, playing on Thanksgiving eve. It used to be a great night when we were in a rock ‘n roll band. Margaret Explosion has been playing at the Little Theater for thirteen years or so and this night can get too loud to hear ourselves play. Ken’s standup bass has no amplification other than from the ingenious design of the instrument itself.
We use a Zoom recorder and it sits between the guitar and the sax. The bass and drums set up in the corner behind those two. If Peggi stands in just the right spot the Zoom recorder gets a nice mix or her natural sax sound the reverb from her amp. Of course the damn drums don’t need any amplification. I work my ass off trying to play quietly. The mic positioning captures a perfect crowd mix. The Little has a row of lights for the performers and one dimmer controls them all. If we keep that thing in the off position the sound pretty much comes together.
Dave Liebman solo performance at the Bop Shop in Rochester, New York
Dave Liebman is an educator as well as a musician so of course he had to do long introductions to each song. Educators like to hear themselves talk and the good ones have a lot of great stuff to say. Liebman fits both of these bills perfectly. He performed solo at the Bop Shop tonight to the biggest house I have ever seen there.
Liebman played saxes and flute with Miles in the heady seventies. He played interpretations of couple of colors on soprano sax, choosing turbulent red and contemplative grey. He soloed on tenor sax and switched to piano to perform a beautiful version of Ornette’s “Lonely Woman.” He let the piano sustain while he soloed on top with a wooden flute. He called Ornette “the most melodic musician ever.” I would agree. Next up was Sydney Bechet’s “Petite Fleur” on soprano sax.
Liebman has played with some of jazz’s best drummers, people like Elvin Jones and Al Foster and guess what, Dave plays drums too. He sat behind the Bop Shop’s kit for a drum solo but not before talking about his favorite scene in the James Brown movie where James informs the horn players that everyone in his band is a drummer.
He finished on tenor with Coltrane’s “Peace On Earth” and then invited Bill Dobbins to join him on piano while he played “Autumn Leaves.”
Tabletop at Pete and Shelley’s place in New York State
Eric and Amy lived in France before settling in the Hudson Valley so we expected Amy Rigby to address the Paris terrorist attacts in her show last night in our neighbors’ living room. She opened with an aptly vulnerable version of Jackie DeShannon’s “Put A Little Love In Your Heart.” Peggi and I had front row seats, reserved for us because earlier in the day I had helped Rick move the fifty some chairs from his basement to their living room. Amy’s guitar pickup went directly to the board and she stood in front of us between the two PA speakers that served as monitors and sound system with only three pedals on the floor in front of her and no amp. We had a bird’s eye view when her foot missed the Sioux distortion pedal.
She had just returned from her hometown of Pittsburgh and did a song dedicated to the dead end possibilities of that place next and then something about growing a pair of balls and then a Nashville-bound gem with the manly lyric, “I hate every bone in her body but mine.” The brilliant “Keep it to Yourself” after that then the anthem, “Do You Remember That?” to close out the first set.
Peggi and I manned the merch booth, a white enamel-topped table in Rick and Monica’s kitchen that reminded me of Pete and Shelley’s table (shown above). We only knew a few people at this house concert. One guy came up to us and said, “Hi, I’m Chris.” Peggi said it reminded her of a church gathering but we managed to sell a few cds.
Amy started the second set with a song where she gives the drummer some but she preceded it with a string of hilarious drummer jokes, most of which I had heard from Brad Fox over the years. And then “Are We Ever Gonna Have Sex Again?” She is lyrical and musical and funny and sweet. A song about her daughter, (You’re Perfect) “Don’t Ever Change,” makes me cry every time I hear it. A singer/songwriter who writes about dancing with Joey Ramone and finishes the night with a Flaming Groovies song. I guess that is why she really gets to me. She has a rock and roll heart.
Steve Piper drawing at Margaret Explosion Little Theater gig
Most Wednesday nights Steve Piper can be seen drawing in one of the front tables for Margaret Explosion’s Little Theater gig. He may have picked this habit up from his bandmate, Scott Regan, who rarely goes anywhere without a sketchbook. Or he may simply be responding to Frank DeBlase’s City Newspaper review of the band. “Their esoteric wonder paints pictures in my head nonstop.”
Steve’s drawings are expressive and border on abstraction. Scott’s are representational and quite incisive. Frank’s observation is especially fluid and inspiring. Certainly that is what an instrumental, improvisational band tries to do.
Amy Rigby poster for upcoming house concert gig in Rochester, New York
Our neighbors, Rick and Monica, have had quite a few house concerts over the years. We’ve been to a few but the singer/songwriter scene is not really our thing. I was playing horseshoes with Rick and he mentioned that there were still some seats left for Saturday’s show with Amy Rigby. She has played Rochester many times with her hubby, Eric, but this one is a solo show. “Still some seats left?” My graphic art instincts took over.
I grabbed a photo of Amy off the web and made a kick-ass poster to get the word out. I fired off a copy to Rick and one to Amy. Not sure if Rick did anything with it but he said he “loved it.” Amy hoped people wouldn’t show up wondering where the woman in the poster was. I am just a fan so I don’t have to be concerned with this nonsense. I’m pretending Saturday’s event is a rock n’ roll show without the racket. Here’s the real Amy.
The title of Philip Glass’s “Hydrogen Jukebox,” came from a verse in Allen Ginsburg’s “Howl.” Glass and Ginsburg picked eighteen of Ginsburg’s poems as the libretto for the 1990 chamber opera and the Eastman Opera Theater performed the piece four times this weekend with two different casts. Ginsburg read his work at the formative performances and Glass is quoted as saying he tried to respect the music that was already in the delivery of the words when he wrote the score for the trained voices. It is remarkable how well the sometimes bombastic verse fits the pulsating music.
With no traditional story the decline of the American empire, war and pacifism served as the theme. The church-like set with sacrificial table, fire pit, flags with corporate logos and roulette wheel centerpiece with stops at all the countries we have declared war on was a comfortable environment for the six actors/singers/dancers. The soft beginning beautiful ending piece eased us in and out of some heady, turbulent times very much like our own.
The empty chairs on our deck await the imminent arrival of Pete and Shelley. Fall has peaked and moved on in the mountains so they will get another crack at it here. Pete LaBonne will be playing the grand piano with Margaret Explosion tonight at the Little Theater Café. We look forward to the chaos that ensues.
Paul with head in sand at Charlotte Beach in Rochester, New York 1950s
My sister, Ann, told us about a box of old photos that she found in my parent’s kitchen cupboard. I borrowed it for a night and scanned some gems like the one above. I’m guessing that’s my brothers Mark, John and Tim gathered around me and we’re probably at Charlotte Beach some time in the 1950s.
Anne Havens stopped by with her fiddle, it’s really a European violin that Colleen Buzzard gave to her, and we played a few songs in our living room. I played my djembe and Peggi played sax and the combination of sax and fiddle sounded to me like an accordion. I really loved the combination. Anne favors major key we go minor. Her repertoire is grounded in a long tradition of American folk but we played with abandon.
When we were finished I took a photo of the set list in her case. Streets of Laredo, Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie, Wayfaring Stranger, Out Of Bondage, Higher Ground, Down In The Valley, Tennessee Waltz and Faded Love. I can see why some bands skip the the whole creative trip. The book has been written.
Record Archive cake by “Cake Me Away” for 40th year celebration
Record Archive has been celebrating their 40th anniversary all year. As well they should be. Just how could a record store stay in business that long? There was some sort of shindig going on there this weekend and we made a point to stop by. Bands were playing in the back room and everything in the store was forty-percent off.
We don’t really buy records anymore but we had a short stack of albums and a bag of CDs left over from our summer garage sale so we traded them in and wound up with forty-five dollars in store credit.
We wandered around for an hour or so looking at the new vinyl and CDs and t-shirts and the mind-numbing amount of tchotchkes. We ran into acquaintances in every isle. Someone was buying every cd in Rolling Stones’ Top 100 of All Time and a woman shopping next to him was asking him why he didn’t just download the music? The checkout lines were a city block long.
Former employees Karen and Doug and Lenay and Chris and Stan were all there. Bands, made up current employees, took turns on the stage. Jason Smay, JD McPherson’s drummer, was playing with his son on guitar. Deb Jones blew everyone away with her stellar version of “I Wanna Be Your Dog.”
We had a beer in the back room and we tried to buy a used designer floor lamp. It was $125 but we couldn’t figure out how to turn it on. We asked the owners, Dick and Alayna, and they couldn’t figure it out either. We shouldn’t have bothered them, it was way too busy.
So we turned our attention to turntables and books and box sets. We picked up some incense and some small pocket pads and cd of Jack Kerouac reading. I ran into my niece, looking at the used clothing, and I told her to pick something out and let us buy it with our credit but we never saw her again.
Somewhere at front end of that forty years Record Archive had a record label as well. Here’s a 1982 45 rpm single from the Archive Records label by the Hi-Techs.
Hi-Techs “Screamin’ You Head,” A side of Archive Records 45 recorded by Dwight Glodell at CSE Audio 1981.
Way blue sky over Fall colors in Durand Eastman Park, Rochester, New York
“Red,”John Logan’s play about Mark Rothko, currently at Geva Theatre, is a particularly meaty discourse about art and art-making. I was totally engrossed but the guy sitting in front of us dozed off. It probably isn’t for everyone. The play as written may even be too good for the two actors but I warmed up to them and was eventually carried away by their performance.
Abstract Expressionism out intellectualized the physicality of Cubism and then the “Barbarians at the Gate” assault of Pop Art, just as Rothko was getting successful, took down the Ab Exers. Architect, Philip Johnson, asked Rothko to create murals for a new restaurant in his Seagrams Building in Midtown Manhattan and this is the time frame for this play. A studio assistant, hired by Rothko, takes on the old man. Not by out painting him but by challenging the master to be true to his own game. Rothko eventually turns down the distasteful commission down and he sets his assistant free to carve out his own life. It is a story for the ages.
Huge pile of dirt for fill-in of the Inner Loop in Rochester, New York
It is certainly possible to correct your mistakes but often it takes forever to realize that you made a mistake. The Inner Loop, circling downtown Rochester, alleviated traffic alright. It choked the life out of the city core. Colorblind James used to lead chants at their gigs of “Fill in the Inner Loop.” Chuck (Colorblind) is gone now and soon one half of the loop will be buried as well. Let’s hope the new development in this area, the former moat between the Park Avenue neighborhood and downtown, will not resemble a freakin’ theme park.
The Brian Wilson movie, is really good. Not because it sheds any new light on the band for lifelong fans (I am one) but because the music comes first including long recreations of the making of “Good Vibrations,” “Pet Sounds” and the “Smile” sessions. I never get tired of the many official and unofficial boots of Brian and the studio musicians tracking and orchestrating snippets of these classic songs and, in fact, appreciate Brian’s genius more and more as the years go by. A funny notion for a surf band.
The movie could never be “great” because the music it is based on is “great.” The movie can only pale. Elizabeth Banks, playing Brian’s second wife, was better than both the young and older Brian actors. Can somebody play “Surf’s Up” at my funeral? Sorry Van Dyke Parks, I have no idea what those words are about but I love Brian’s music and voice.
Which brings me to Ornette’s passing. As the headline in the paper read, he “Rewrote the Language of Jazz.” He rewrote it so I could get it under my skin. My first Ornette lp was “Science Fiction.” Maybe the two hauntingly beautiful vocal songs pulled me in, ‘All My Life” and “What Reason Could I Give?.” They may have been the footing I needed for the music. Ed Blackwell’s drums blew me away. Charlie Haden’s bass playing is god-like. And Ornette’s totally unique, joyous sax had me dancing in my head. From there the rest of the catalog took hold of me. Long live Ornette!!!!
William Parker quartet performing at the Bop Shop in Rochester, New York
The 2015 Jazz Fest is still a few weeks off and we can only hope that we’ll see and hear something as good as the William Parker quartet at the Bop Shop tonight. They had just played in the relatively nearby cities, Pittsburg, Erie, Detroit and Toronto, and were returning to New York via Rochester. Their performance in the store was rather like musical chairs, the drummer, Federico Ughi, excluded. Daniel Carter played three saxes, clarinet, flute, trumpet and piano. Watson Jennison played piano, soprano sax, flute and recorder. He is a painter as well. And Parker played a rather small upright bass, tuba, a deep wooden flute and another small horn. Now close your eyes and imagine them playing all those instruments in one hour-long song.
William Parker quartet performing at the Bop Shop in Rochester, New York
When they came up for air William Parker told a long joke about guy named Skippy who knew everybody, Robert DiNiro, President Obama and the pope. The joke, as he told it, had no real punchline but it sure cleared the air. From there they played a beautiful folk-like melody. Danial Carter played clarinet, Watson a recorder, the drummer played the toms with mallets and Parker played a large wooden flute and sang these lyrics.
“Death has died today
God is in here
And the devil wears a big ol’ grin”
I like the production values on this. Ken Colombo was sitting a few tables back from the band holding his phone in the air. I like the sound too and and it’s not an Apple product. This was our second song last Wednesday. The place was just starting to fill up, Jack was in NYC, and the rest of the band was getting down to business.
We picked our wild ramps responsibly, cut them at their base and left the bulbs in the woods. Made a nice green salad with them and added some grapes, halved, the way they used to do it at Peggi’s mom’s place.
The back room at Tapas 177 was the perfect spot for Maureen Outlaw’s opening last night. Dawn Carmel was pouring wine samples, the kitchen kept the tapas plates full, the conversation was crisp and Maureen’s paintings looked fantastic. The familiar scenes she paints, the bend in the Genesee River, the curve in the road through Durand, look anything but ordinary with Maureen’s luscious paint handling.
When I picked my dad up for his doctor’s appointment this morning he had his knapsack with him so I kind of figured he had something in mind after the appointment. Sure enough we stopped by Edmunds Woods where I took the photo above. As you can see, the trees are all filling in and the bounty of wildflowers below is closing shop.
Margaret Explosion has a bunch of new songs in the slow cooker tonight so stop on out if you’re in the area.
