Last CD you bought/ Book you read

[hoochmonkey9]

The Replacements book is an "oral history" and those always leave me cold.

I agree with you in general, but this book is one of my favourites:

maybe because it's put together so well. or perhaps because it covers the whole movement. I dunno.

anyway, Hüsker Dü and The Replacements were pretty important bands for me in high school. The Replacements more so, only because their lps were cheaper and more readily available up here in Canada (pre-internet).

and The Minutemen were a big deal for me. and I think a pretty big influence on many bands that followed.

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and The Smiths and REM and the early U2, but everyone knows them, and probably a strong opinion about them. ;)

 

[mjp]

Hüsker Dü and The Replacements were pretty important bands for me in high school. The Replacements more so, only because their lps were cheaper and more readily available up here in Canada (pre-internet).

The first "tour" Hüsker Dü ever did started in Canada (as I just learned). In the West somewhere. Then they went down through Seattle and San Francisco. They were smart going West, because they made a lot of good connections. We went East at the same time and only connected with some college girls.

I saw Hüsker Dü about 100 times more than the Replacements, but we did do a show with the Replacements once, in Minneapolis...

 

[bospress.net]

is that you second from left?

 

[mjp]

It was me, yes. In 1982 anyway...almost 29 years ago.

What's funny is that was the Replacements show (their first album had already come out), we were just opening. But I printed those flyers, so I made us a bit more, um, prominent than them. Their manager was not amused. I told him he really should have printed his own flyers because I couldn't be trusted in matters like those.

It was exactly the kind of thing they would have done though, so to me it was just funny that it pissed him off. But at the time he wasn't a good guy to piss off in Minneapolis, so there you go. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory once again.

 

[esart]

Last book was 1st ed, signed copy of Last Night of the Earth Poems for MJP's birthday.
Last CD was Led Zeppelin Box Set

 

[Bruno Dante]

double down:

I like the cut of your jib. Big fan of Vonnegut and 'Repo Man' is hilarious. I've actually just started 'The Malteses Falcon' by Hammett as I like Chandler's stuff and I also love the film. I'll check out 'Red Harvest' too if TMF floats my boat.

 

[chicagoburgers]

Hammett is incredible. Worth discovering or rediscovering if you've only read TMF. So much substance, suspense, and humor in his writing. He was an innovator on so many fronts: he virtually invented the modern mystery novel, created plot points and characters that have been infinitely copied, and probably spawned what would become the "minimalist' school followed by moderns like Palahniuk.
Maltese Falcon is great...a deserved classic that delivers on every level. Sam Spade was a great character, but where Hammett really shines are his short stories with his protagonist "The Continental Op'.
A flawed, fat-fortyish, funny man with no-name (which actually inspired Leone's Eastwood character and Kurosawa's classic Yojimbo) who gets into all kinds crazy sh*t , throwing fisticuffs and one-liners with reckless abandon. What I will say, bold as it may sound- Hammett's Continental Op is my second favorite protagonist behind Chinaski and Hammett is my second favorite short writer ever (behind Buk).
Chandler can't and doesn't hold a candle to Hammett...sh*t, he basically lifted Hammett's style to a T, and gained fame for throwing his quirky metaphors in every 20 pages...weak sauce.
Ok -- it's a Pepsi challenge: go ahead and read Hammett's shorts like Nightmare Town or The Big Knockover and tell me it's not hot like blowtorch to the cheek.
Avoid The Thin Man, weakest work in his cannon in my opinion.

lemme know thoughts on TMF when you finish it and give Harvest a crack.

Double Down pt. II

music:
1.) Brigadier Jerry - Jamaica, Jamaica - (hey mjp- as a roots aficionado - do you dig Briggy? criminally under-recorded, but he's got some key stuff...one of my favorites is his "What Kind of World' track off the classic Techniques "Stalag 17-18, 19' compilation that spawned Tenor Saw's "Ring the Alarm'. sickest soundsystem freestyler of them all)
2.) Heptones - 20 Golden Hits- Basically a compilation of their two best albums, the '76 classic Night Food, and the '77 Lee Perry (!) produced Party Time. Leroy Sibble's mellow silk somber shakedown on tracks like Country Boy simply just makes life better. Spark - inhale - exhale - enjoy.
2.5) extra credit: Misfits- Static Age. hell...hybrid moments, attitude, angelf*ck, some kinda hate, etc. C'mon.

movie(s)-
1.) Bubba-Ho-Tep- Bruce Cambell as Elvis, as Ossie Davis as JFK, battling Egyptian mummy...yeah man.
2.) Hard Core Logo- spinal tap-ish mock doc about a punk band. well done.

Book(s):
1.) I posted it in this thread a few years ago, and good tasted chap Stavrogin mentioned it awhile back...A Confederacy of Dunces is one of the best. ever. period. if you haven't read it, what are you waiting for?
2.) The Big Lebowski screenplay. Keep a copy in your car. Best movie ever. Essential Tao of Lebowski can never stear you wrong.
g'nite.

 

[mjp]

1.) Brigadier Jerry - Jamaica, Jamaica - (hey mjp- as a roots aficionado - do you dig Briggy? criminally under-recorded, but he's got some key stuff...one of my favorites is his "What Kind of World' track off the classic Techniques "Stalag 17-18, 19' compilation that spawned Tenor Saw's "Ring the Alarm'. sickest soundsystem freestyler of them all)

Ring the alarm, another sound is dying!

I have both of those songs on a cassette around here somewhere, recorded off Roger Steffens' and Hank Holmes' late, great Sunday afternoon reggae show on KCRW back in the 80s.

Jamaica Jamaica is a catchy tune, but I'm afraid it sort of marks the beginning of the end for reggae for me, when it all went down the toilet and everything became drum machine driven dancehall, and 5,000 records came out on that fucking sleng teng riddim. But then the 80s did all they could to kill every kind of music, so it shouldn't be surprising.

There's nothing wrong with electronic instruments per se - once Bob was making money, the Wailers always had and used the latest gizmos (there's a vocoder on Exodus fer chrissake) - but when you replace the drummer, or the drum and bass, with machines, it's not reggae anymore, because it's not mimicking the human heartbeat. The foundation of reggae is Nyabhingi drumming. All of that machine-made dancehall sounds like teeth-grinding cocaine music to me.

Which is too bad, because a lot of good singers and songwriters got swallowed up in that mess in the 80s and 90s. But you can see some dancehall artists, like Capleton for instance, moving back to roots music with live musicians. Which is nice. But it's really not something I keep up with anymore.

 

[chicagoburgers]

Ring the alarm, another sound is dying!


Jamaica Jamaica is a catchy tune, but I'm afraid it sort of marks the beginning of the end for reggae for me, when it all went down the toilet and everything became drum machine driven dancehall, and 5,000 records came out on that fucking sleng teng riddim. .

haha. yeah, Sleng Teng was out of control. wholeheartedly agree about the 80's degradation as digital / ragga took over. I don't consider Briggy in that school, yeah there's some dub effects on the LP, but full band playing throughout. Strength in is Jerry's songwriting / flow, and not the music.
I get what you mean though...by '85 there was nothing that could hold a candle to the golden 70's output, no-one armed with a warm Barrett Bros-like rhythm section vibe where the one drop and basslines would make your face melt.

 

[mjp]

I don't consider Briggy in that school, yeah there's some dub effects on the LP, but full band playing throughout.

True, I just listened to it and I remembered it wrong. I should have known because I wouldn't have saved the song if it was a drum machine. ;)) The song does pretty much define that dancehall style would be played out so quickly though. But you're right, that's not one of the flood of bad records that came out after it.

It always surprised me that Jamaicans so readily accepted the machine-made music, but I guess at that particular time a new generation was taking hold, one that grew up with the guns and cocaine and general mania that destroyed that island. I mean, if it's possible to destroy a ghetto. Further destroyed, I guess I should say. And the boomerang of hip hop culture returning to the island that created it (well, the music, if not the culture) probably had a lot to do with the changes. Things went crazy very quickly after Bob died. Not because he died, but coincidentally. The "golden age" of reggae was brief - maybe 1968 to 78 or 80 - but what an age.

I remember being in a dancehall in Oakland in 87 or 88, and some of those fuckers were firing their pistols into the ceiling when they wanted to express fondness for a riddim. It seemed pretty apparent by that time that reggae had veered far away from "roots and culture" and into something ugly and uninspirational.

 

[justin grimbol]

last alubum....earl, by earl sweatshirt(easily one of the best rap albums ever)
last book....people of the lie by m scott peck

 

[nervas]

CD - Prince - Rave un2 the joy fantastic (1.99 at the goodwill. I've been buying any cd I don't own from an artist I like anytime I'm in a thrift/vintage store lately. I seem to be in them 4-5 times a week. Anyway buying them because I just can't get over how crappy the quality of music played through my iPod or mp3's are compared to a CD, or vinyl. I have about 800 cd's and I have to say, I couldn't be happier for never selling them. I sold a lot of stuff in my life, that I kick myself everyday for!)

Book - Beloved Disciple (The misunderstood legacy of Mary Magdalene, the woman closest to Jesus) by Robin Griffith - Jones
This book was at the .99 cents store and ever since a professor showed my class Oliver Stone's "Last Temptation of Christ" in 1995, I have always been interested in this subject.

 

[justine]

the darker, 'conspiracy theory' side of historical christianity has gotten a bad rap ever since the da vinci code, but i got really interested in it about 13 years ago - the holy blood and the holy grail is a great, gripping read although their research went off in so many different directions it can be hard to follow at times. the turin shroud by lynn picknett and clive prince is also super interesting - they pretty much figured out how the shroud was hoaxed by experimenting with a primitive form of photography. oh, and anything by barbara thiering (also published as e.b. thiering); she has a good one about jesus and mary magdalene.

 

[zenguru]

its a crime to skip songs in that album im telling ya :cool:

Not skipping any songs. I just like those two the best.

 

[hoochmonkey9]

Recently read Hüsker Dü: The Story of the Noise-Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock and http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/07...mp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0760334943The Replacements: All Over But the Shouting: An Oral History.

I was wandering through the local bookstore today and noticed that Voyageur Press, who published those two books above, also have a book out written by Cheetah Chrome. I almost picked it up, but I paused. I might go back and get it.

 

[mjp]

I might have to wait for the paperback on that one. Ha. Though I'm sure it's full of good stuff. Assuming he can remember any of it.

Those guys were something else though. I met Sonny because of the Dead Boys, in a roundabout way, so they owe me! Wait, I mean, so I love them.

 

[Hosh]

Scott McClanahan - Stories V!

(PS - I did try to find ANY other place to buy this.)

 

[Bruno Dante]

Hey Chicagoburgers, sorry about not getting back to you sooner but I absolutely loved The Maltese Falcon and I'm currently thoroughly enjoying the Continental Op's exploits in Red Harvest.

 

[chicagoburgers]

sweet. if after Harvest you still have the jones dive then into Dain Curse, more great Continental Op. still a lot more 5 star explosives in the Hammett cannon to explore if you're diggin it. if converted, then pick the library of america short story collection...or any of the other short story collections...that's where the best writing lives. Of the novels, don't miss The Glass Key, a non-op novel, but one of his best...check it out!

 

[Hosh]

Indonesia - Joseph Ridgwell

Kilmog Press does gorgeous work...but their website isn't live yet.

 

[Black Swan]

It was me, yes. In 1982 anyway...almost 29 years ago.

What's funny is that was the Replacements show (their first album had already come out), we were just opening. But I printed those flyers, so I made us a bit more, um, prominent than them. Their manager was not amused. I told him he really should have printed his own flyers because I couldn't be trusted in matters like those.

Just found this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQTaXPUBpTs

 

[Bruno Dante]

sweet.
[...]

Thanks again for the heads up. I've already got these on my to read list. And I recently read that the movie version of The Glass Key provided the inspiration for the Kurosawa classic Yojimbo although there are obvious similarities with Red Harvest too.

 

[mjp]

Just found this! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQTaXPUBpTs

That's funny. Talk about some rough footage and sound. Memory is funny, because I could have sworn that my spot in the rehearsal room was where Sonny is standing (in all that dark, super-contrasty footage). He probably had us switch when cameras were around because the light was better in my corner or something. He was always ready for his close up. ;)

 

[nervas]

well just bought the new danger mouse cd "Rome" with Jack White and Norah Jones. It's pretty friggin good, but I really couldn't find it in me not to say that about anything Jack White touches. but, seriously it's good! Also just finished reading Jose Canseco's "Vindicated." Wow, I'm not sure how much he actually wrote, but what a waste of time! Good thing it was .99cents man!

[This video is unavailable.]

 

[whatsayjew]

Picked up a Hot Fives/Sevens collection.

.....

Just finished this:

 

[NedSlanders]

Book- Nabokov Lolita

Cd- Hoodo Man Blues

 

[Short Bus]

CD Eureka The Bears
Book Information James Glieck

 

[Digney in Burnaby]

The top of this page has Please Kill Me. Read that a few years ago. Now reading (very slowly) We Got the Neutron Bomb, oral history of L.A. punk. Remembering Bomp! and Back Door Man magazines. Ron Ashton's New Order.

Finished The Abu Wahab Caper by Ross H. Spencer before that. Read it mostly because of the Pulp thread. Pulp parody by a guy who liked, and made his money at, pulp.

 

[Black Swan]

In the Movie 'Fear and Loathing', in a scene, HST was reading a book titled The Death Ship by B.Traven. Like a peeping Tom I bought the book and received it today. No idea what I am about to read.

 

[Digney in Burnaby]

The only book I've read by B. Traven was The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. At least I think I read it. It's on one of my book shelves. The movie images dominate my recollection. "We don't need no stinking badges."