Silent Stereo Scribbles

New Video for Carolyn Sills' George Bailey

2009-12-13T11:33:00.000-08:00

Check out the new video created for Carolyn Sills' George Bailey.

Founder of Dungeons and Dragons Dies

2008-03-04T12:07:00.000-08:00

Today marks a sad day for fantasy role players everywhere. Gary Gygax, co-founder of the Dungeons and Dragons game, died today. He was 69. The members of Silent Stereo Records are not ashamed to admit that our formative years were dominated by two things: music and Dungeons and Dragons. In fact, the two often went hand in hand, as we listened to Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath while embarking on our imaginative adventures.
Dungeons and Dragons has changed and evolved from the game we used to play as children. But we are still steadfast fans of the original incarnations of the game. Like analog recordings, the original version of the game still holds a certain beauty and simplicity about it and while later versions added more bells and whistles, it is the first incarnation of the game that we remember most dearly.

Nashville Trip

2008-01-13T14:55:00.001-08:00

We took a little trip to down to Nashville last week. On our way, we stopped by the Carter Family Fold in Hiltons, VA. For any fans of traditional country/bluegrass music, the Fold is a must see. Every Saturday, people gather at the fold to hear some great music, some corny jokes, and dancing, all under the watchful eyes of the spirits of A.P., Mother Maybelle, Sara, June, Anita, Johnny Cash, and many other legends. Honoring the legend of the Carters, the performances have a religious element to them and no profanity or bad behavior is tolerated.
Once in Nashville, we took in all the history. The first floor of the Country Music Hall of Fame is so full of music lore that one could easily spend two or three hours up there. The second floor was less exhilarating for me, as I'm not very interested in the likes of Garth Brooks and Travis Tritt, but entering the rotunda, with plaques bearing the names of Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, and others is a special experience.
So too is entering the Ryman Auditorium. Here is where the Grand Ole Opry used to perform. Just going up on the stage and walking the aisles of the legendary theater is treat enough, but the hall also holds a fair amount of memorabilia.
Unfortunately, the current music scene in Nashville isn't exactly what I expected. I stopped in at Tootsies, the bar behind the Ryman where Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings would go drinking, to hear some local music. Suffice it to say that the band played some Garth Brooks, as well as "Play That Funky Music," and "Another Brick in the Wall." Not exactly the music I was looking for. Fortunately, the drummer only used his double bass pedal a few times.
Either way, the city of Nashville is definitely worth visiting. You can truly feel the presence of all the great artists who passed through the city on their way to music stardom.

Winchester, VA

2007-09-25T08:54:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago we took a little trip to Winchester, VA, birthplace of Patsy Cline. After traveling down Patsy Cline memorial highway, we arrived at a small, nondescript graveyard. Patsy's grave would have been all but anonymous--she's buried under her married name, Virginia Dick,--were it not for the wreath and card someone had left on Patsy's birthday. However, in another part of the graveyard was erected a memorial bell tower with Patsy's name on it.
The town of Winchester itself made little mention of Patsy Cline, although a Patsy Cline museum is slated to open next year and one drug store where she worked had a cardboard cut out of her in the window.

Who Would You Rather Watch?

2007-07-16T18:55:00.001-07:00

This past week, Silent Stereo friends The Dansettes backed up two soul pioneers, the Mighty Hannibal and Young Jesse at a raucous show in Brooklyn. It was amazing to see the effort these two gentlemen, both in their late sixties at the very least, put into performing. When Young Jesse and Hannibal weren't regaling the band with tales of their encounters with Sam Cooke, Wilson Pickett, Ray Charles, and the Beach Boys, these two dynamos told the band in no uncertain terms what live performing was all about. Even though the two men have been friends for more than forty years, each of them saw it as his duty to try to blow the other performer off the stage. The show was an event, with Hannibal and Young Jesse both dressed to the nines, each of them exhorting the crowd to give them more, each of them straining the limits of his vocal cords. All in the name of a good show and bragging rights at the end. Now compare that to your typical, "too cool for school" modern band. Many of these performers act like it's a drag for them to be up there on stage. Who would you rather watch? I'll take Hannibal and Young Jesse any day.

The Birthplace of Rock?

2007-07-11T08:22:00.001-07:00

Check out this interesting article from the New York Times about the dispute between two South Jersey towns--Gloucester City and Silent Stereo fave, Wildwood. Both are claiming standing as the birthplace of rock and roll after hosting early Bill Haley gigs.

Al Jackson, Where Have You Gone?

2007-06-14T12:50:00.000-07:00

I just listened to all of Booker T & the MGs "Soul Men" album, 25 tracks, over an hour of music. Not once--not once--did the great Al Jackson do any cheesy hi-hat garbage. Drummers and other musicians will know what I'm talking about: opening the hi-hat on the upbeats, using two hands on the hi-hat, throwing in 16th notes during the beat. All he did was lay down an amazing, yet simple, groove, around which the whole song builds.
Jackson's drumming was a stark contrast to the performance I witnessed today. Booker T. Jones, Donald "Duck" Dunn, and Steve Cropper played an outdoor show today in Brooklyn backed by that master of soul drumming, Anton Fig (of Late Night with David Letterman fame). Now clearly, Fig is quite technically accomplished as a drummer and I would go so far as to say that he perhaps could emulate Jackson's style if he so desired. But he didn't. Instead of a faithful tribute to the subtlety and soul of Al Jackson, I was subjected instead to tasteless overplaying. It was bad enough that Fig overused the splash and china cymbals; when he started in with the double bass pedal I was apopolectic. The worse thing about is that Fig could have enhanced the music simply by playing less--it took more effort to ruin the songs than it would to just lay back and let the rest of the guys do their thing.
Technical ability is of obvious importance in music, but so is the ability to listen. I'm not sure what Fig listened to in order to prepare to play with Booker T, but it wasn't Al Jackson.

Another good review for The New Rags

2007-05-30T20:29:00.001-07:00

This one is courtesy of Amplifier Magazine.
Check it out here:
http://amplifiermagazine.com/reviews/cds/the_new_rags_cd_ep.php

The Evils of Global Warming--And Drum Machines

2007-05-02T22:25:00.000-07:00

Spinal Tap, the ersatz metal band featured in 1984's spot-on mockumentary "This is Spinal Tap", is reuniting to play a concert at England's Wembley stadium on July 7th as part of Al Gore's Live Earth concert series. While Gore is trying to bring attention to the problem of global climate change, the Spinal Tap teaser video released to the press brings a bigger problem to light: drum machines.
Spinal Tap's drummer mortality problem has been well-documented but the footage of Tap practicing shows that any drummer is better than a drum machine. Check out the video and watch the band rehearse with a guy screwing around with a drum machine program on his computer. We hope the band will be featuring a real live drummer come July 7th. The future of the world might depend on it.

Nice Review

2007-04-19T21:19:00.000-07:00

The New Rags got a nice review from allmusic.com. Here's the text:

"There haven't been too many keyboards-and-drums duos in the history of rock �n' roll (Lee Michaels and Attila come to mind), but it's easy to wonder why after listening to Tom Merrigan and Andy Pierce, a/k/a the New Rags, on their six-song, 16-minute EP Taking (sic)Jennie To Brooklyn. Actually, the sound here is not so much reminiscent of Michaels' classic rock or Attila's
heavy metal as it is like another unadorned rock duo, the White Stripes, with keyboards substituted for electric guitar. "Recorded entirely on Otari MX5050
MKIII-8 to achieve the fullest truth," reads a sleeve note, and the fullest truth entails some degree of distortion, but all in the name of fervent rock 'n' roll. Merrigan sings in a slightly strained tenor while providing lots of electric piano and organ chording, and Pierce pounds away busily as if the two were in a garage somewhere. The music could have been made any time in the last 40 years, from the sound of it, with a likely date closer to 1965 than 2005. But the excitement never lets up, and the listener never
wants it to stop". ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

Silent Stereo Update: Chicks RockFest and the New Rags

2007-04-12T19:01:00.000-07:00

The 7th annual Chicks RockFest took place from April 5-8th at Cinncinnati's Poison Room. Silent Stereo's own Dead Language packed up its gear and made the 11 hour drive out to the Queen City to play. The band played the on the festival's first night on the upstairs stage and impressed the small but passionate crowd. The trip was made worthwhile by the pleasant and accommodating nature of the show's organizers, who made every effort to welcome the band and attend to its needs. The promoter even thanked Dead Language for playing, making the band realize it most definitely was not in New York City anymore.

In other news, the New Rag's single "Your Room," already appearing in Nike commercials throughout Asia and Australia, will be featured on spin.com as one of it's featured "mp3's of the day." The song should up in a few days, but we're sure all you Silent Stereo faithful have already heard it. The New Rags also showed up on VH1's "Best Week Ever" blog. The word's getting out on these guys, but we still need you to tell your friends and family about them.

Finally, pre-production has begun on our next Silent Stereo release. Our studios in Jersey City have just undergone some extensive renovations and we've picked up a vintage 4 track Ampex tape machine. Capitol records used the Ampex 4 track back in 1969 and many classic tracks have been recorded on this model. We hope to begin a new legacy of authentic sounding music on this machine.

Save Coney Island

2007-04-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

Preservation of the glorious aspects of our past, whether they be musical or cultural, is the mission of Silent Stereo Records. A little while back, we posted a blog about the destruction and 'renovation' of Wildwood, New Jersey. Now, thanks to a friend of ours over at Myspace, our attentions have been turned towards another historic link to the past, Coney Island. Coney Island has long been a welcome destination for the working people of New York, who in the 1870's started taking rail, streetcar, and steamship to reach the popular beach. The area grew in renown as the amusement parks and entertainers moved in and Coney Island reached the height of magnificence in the era before World War II with such attractions as the Wonder Wheel, the Cyclone, and the Parachute Jump. As a testament to its place in history, Robert Moses, the patron saint of urban development at all costs, once decried the amusements there as "tawdry" and opposed any further development in the area.
Coney Island, like many of America's urban centers, suffered from a steep decline in the 70's and 80's, but the area began to reemerge in recent years. Now, though, developers have set their sights on Coney Island, envisioning a land of high rent condos and modern amenities. The only cost will the years of history and the homes and neighborhoods of the people that have lived in Coney Island all of their lives. If this cost seems too high to you, as it does to us, please sign the petition available here.

Good News and Bad

2007-03-11T14:47:00.000-07:00

The next few weeks bring much excitement to the Silent Stereo family. Silent Stereo artists Boss Tweed are off to Europe for a whirlwind tour. The band touches down in Belgium on March 15th and then plays dates in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and Poland. Stop by the band's myspace page and wish them well on their journey. Or better yet, download Boss Tweed's newest recordings. The band came down to our Jersey City studios to record a real old fashioned 45 record, but we know that not everyone still has a record player, so we're making the songs available at your favorite digital download service. You can find the tracks at iTunes, Rhapsody, and a number of other distributors.
Meanwhile, our friends the Dansettes and the Black Hollies are heading down to Austin to take part in the annual South by Southwest Music festival. And in a show of the close bonds we share at Silent Stereo, there will be a little member mixing as Andy of the Dansettes drums for the Black Hollies and Justin of the Black Hollies returns the favor by playing bass for the Dansettes. Last year, the Dansettes had a raring good time at the festival, meeting Eddie Bo and Archie Bell. Let's see what this year brings.
Oh, and March 11 was the birthday of silent movie star Dorothy Gish, sister of Lillian Gish and known for her comedic work. The Gish's are a favorite of ours at Silent Stereo and we remember and honor their work.
In sadder news, Brad Delp, original lead singer of the band Boston, was found dead in his home at age 55. While we won't profess to be great fans of Boston, it must be noted that Boston's first album truly encapsulated the Silent Stereo philosophy. Keyboardist, guitarist, and studio maestro Tom Scholz (from the lovely town of Toledo, OH) recorded the first Boston album in his 12-track analog basement studio. After getting a major label deal, the album was released more or less as it was recorded in the basement. And as the three hit singles ("More Than A Feeling," "Long Time," and "Peace of Mind,") can attest quality music has more to do with the talent and passion of the band than any fancy studio production. Of course, this was in era prior to electronic pitch correction (remember Billy Joel at the Super Bowl?) and Delp did all of his own vocal harmonies, which sound quite good.

Some Random Stuff

2007-02-21T13:10:00.000-08:00

There's been some buzz in the blogosphere about Billy Joel's performance of the national anthem at the Super Bowl. Speculators believe that Joel used Autotune on his voice to 'assist' him during the notably difficult piece. For those who haven't heard, Autotune is a computer program that adjusts a singer's pitch to correct fluctuations. When it's used, if you listen closely, you can hear the program 'grab' the note and fix it. Here's a clip of Joel singing the anthem. Listen for yourself, especially when Joel sings "By the dawn's early light..." and "...stripes and bright stars."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYIMmi7JtHc

And in other news, The New Rags, who most assuredly do not use Autotune or any other digital enhancement, are creating quite a stir in the Land of the Rising Sun. They've reached number #2 on iTunes's charts of most downloaded single with their song "Your Room." If you haven't already, pay a visit to the boys at their myspace page or purchase their music at iTunes.

Sneaky Pete Slips Away

2007-01-15T11:46:00.000-08:00

Sneaky Pete Kleinow, one of the most influential pedal steel guitar players, lived up to his namesake by quietly passing away on January 6th, with little media attention. As of this writing (1/15), Kleinow's biography at allmusic.com still lists him as alive.
Sneaky Pete's life was truly lived behind the scenes, both musically and later in the special effects work he did for Hollywood. Born in 1934 in Indiana, Kleinow spent the ten years of his life after graduating high school working for the Michigan State Highway Department and presumably playing lots of pedal steel guitar. He moved to Los Angeles in 1963, landing some gigs on the LA club circuit and paying the bills by writing jingles and surprisingly, the theme music to Gumby. In the City of Angels, Sneaky Pete met Gram Parsons, who at the time was still in the Byrds. Parsons asked Sneaky Pete to join him on a new project he was putting together, The Flying Burrito Brothers. Kleinow played on the Burrito Brothers' first three albums and wisely decided to leave only one album after driving force Gram Parsons departed.
After (temporarily) leaving the Burrito Brothers, Sneaky Pete went on to become a sought after session player. A glance at his resume reveals names such as Joan Baez, the Bee Gees, Booker T and the MG's, Jackson Browne, Leonard Cohen, the Eagles, John Lennon, the Stones, and Stevie Wonder.
Kleinow returned to the Burrito Brothers in 1976 and played with them in their various incarnations until the 1980's. At that time, Kleinow began devoting more time to his other passion--special effects. His work appears in The Empire Strikes Back, The Terminator, and Gremlins, and Dune, among others. In addition, Sneaky Pete did graphic work for video games, commericials and music videos.
A true artist, Sneaky Pete was instrumental to the both the birth of modern country rock and the development of cutting edge visual effects. His contributions will be missed.

Remembering James Brown and Gerald Ford

2007-01-01T20:37:00.000-08:00

Last week, the country-and dare I say the world-lost two very different personalitites, two men who traced disparate paths to the top of their fields, and, as is inevitable, fell from glory. Both Brown and Ford prided themselves on their work ethics, with James Brown christening himself "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business" and Gerald Ford remarking that no matter what else history thought of him, it should remember that he had "worked like hell."
For Ford, the hard work began in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His father abandoned the family when Ford was only two years old, and his mother changed his name from Leslie Lynch King, Jr. to reflect his stepfather's name. Growing up, Ford was steeped in traditional Midwestern values and joined the Eagle Scouts, a group known for it's celebration of loyalty. Ford's first run for office ended in failure when he lost his bid for class president of South High School, but in school he excelled at football and was selected most valuable player by his teammates.
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, James Brown was born into abject poverty in South Carolina. Stories claim that he was a consummate performer even at a young age, singing and dancing on the street corner for pennies. Unfortunately, while Gerald Ford was returning home a hero after serving in the navy during World War II, James Brown was running into trouble with the law, being convicted of armed robbery. And as Ford was being elected to the House of Representatives, Brown was languishing in prison. At the close of the 1940's, the two men's lives appeared headed in entirely different directions.
During the fifties, Gerald Ford settled into his position as US Congressman, an office he would hold for 26 years. His hard work led him to a position on the Appropriations Committee, one of the most influential bodies in the House. James Brown's life got put on the right track with the help of singer Bobby Byrd, who sponsored the future soul brother's parole and gave him a job singing in his band the Flames. With the Flames, James Brown scored a hit with the single "Please, Please, Please," just the opening he needed to expose fans to his singular live performances. Although his next few singles were not nearly as successful as "Please, Please, Please," Brown's legendary work ethic kept him on the road, touring relentlessly and winning over audiences wherever he performed.
Both men reached important career milestones in 1960's. In 1963, Ford, admired for his staunch fiscal conservatism, was elevated to the third highest ranking position in his party. While Ford was garnering his colleagues' respect with his impressive work manner and genuine personality, Brown was redefining r&b music. He released his seminal album Live at the Apollo, which reached number two on the charts and solidified Brown's reputation as one of the most dynamic performers of his time. 1965 was even kinder to both men; Ford ascended to minority leader in the House and Brown released his two most recognizable hits, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," and "I Got You (I Feel Good)." The last half of the sixties saw both men cement their standing in their respective fields; Brown was a constant fixture on the r&b charts, while Ford earned the respect of his rival Democrats and his fellow Republicans as House Minority Leader.
After reaching such heights, the 1970's could only offer a decline. Critics claimed that artistically, James Brown was fading, his albums inconsistent and padded with filler. After twenty years in the House, Ford confided to his allies that his dream was to become House majority leader. But the political winds were not at his back; the Republican party was never closer than 16 seats to upsetting the Democratic majority. Surveying the landscape, Ford declared that he did not want to be a "minority leader in perpetuity" and indicated he would resign from the House by 1976. Both men were stumbling towards the twilight of their careers, with Brown being undercut by the disco explosion and staring down the dark hallway of musical irrelevance.
Ford was granted a reprieve of sorts when on Oct. 10th, 1973, Spiro Agnew resigned the Vice-Presidency. Ford was put forward as the clear choice for the post, a well liked politician who could perhaps take some of the heat of off Nixon's increasingly troubled presidency. A year later, in 1974, Brown was releasing Reality, an effort panned by the critics and revealing an artist seemingly devoid of inspiration, and Ford was being sworn in as president of the United States after Nixon stepped down in disgrace.
Despite engendering early hopes of a return to normalcy in Washington, Ford's legacy was immediately called into question when after one month in office he chose to grant Richard Nixon a full pardon. Ford believed that it would be necessary to "heal" the nation, but many saw it as a political favor to an old friend and an indication that the powerful could flout the law at will. James Brown was having his own troubles with the law, as the IRS began investigating his finances, threatening him with financial ruin. After two years as the nation's only unelected President, Ford was defeated in the 1976, largely because of the perception his pardon of Nixon had on the electorate. Ford retreated home to Michigan and both men limped into the 1980's, their legacies flaming out.
Surprisingly, Brown found himself without a record label for a time in the 80's, but like a true survivor he was able to rebuild some of his star power with hits such as "Unity" and "Living in America." But a conviction and a six year prison sentence (he was paroled after two years) again derailed The Godfather of Soul. There was some talk of Gerald Ford becoming Ronald Reagan's running mate during the 1980 presidential election, but nothing ever came of it and Ford slipped away into relative obscurity, giving speeches and occasionally representing the US at overseas functions.
It seemed as though both men's past achievements would be buried under the weight of their later failings, but both men's records have been vindicated by history. Ford's decision to pardon Nixon, widely criticized at the time, was seen in a new light after the years had past and he was honored by former critic Edward Kennedy with a "Profile in Courage" award. And Brown, long seen as inferior to such soul legends as Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, and Aretha Franklin, enjoyed a critical revival, as his early work was reevaluated and seen for the influential body that it was. The long journeys these two men--one white, one black, born twenty years apart and hundreds of miles away--undertook came to a victorious end in the final week of 2006, as the legacy each man worked so hard to fashion took its final and proper place in history's pages.

The New Rags and Nike

2006-12-19T21:09:00.000-08:00

Nike has launched a new ad campaign featuring the music of none other than Silent Stereo's own, The New Rags!!

The campaign is worldwide and The New Rags' song "Your Room" is featured in the Asian, European, and Australian versions of the commericial (strangely, the Nike CEO decided to go with a different band for the US commercial).

The commercial features not only the music of The New Rags, but prominently displays the band names a number of times. This is a great achievement for the band and we hope you'll drop by their myspace page to say congrats.

Here's a link to the spot.

NaNoWriMo: The Conclusion

2006-12-03T18:28:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of the month I blogged about my foray into the world of Nanowrimo, an organization of individuals with a singular purpose: to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. My reasons for joining were twofold. The first was as a challenge to myself, to see if I could in fact write consistenly enough over the course of a month to churn out a story roughly the length, although not the quality, of The Great Gatsby. The second aspect of my little experiment was of a more social bent. I was interested in exploring the idea of social capital, the measure of 'connectedness' amongst people. Social scientists examining a number of indicators have concluded that the social capital of Americans has been steadily declining since the 1950's. Fewer people are joining clubs and teams, participating in professional or neighborhood groups, volunteering their time, or simply stopping by the neighbor's for a visit. Additionally, and perhaps most troublingly, the percentage of people who respond positively to the question 'in general, do you trust most people' is down to about 32% from a 1960's level of around 60%.
There are a number of possible explanations for these trends and it is probably impossible to point to one thing as the primary cause. But there is little doubt that the rise of technology such as televisions, the personal computer, and the Internet has a damning correlation with the fall in levels of social capital. While the percentage of people who join social clubs falls, the amount of time the average American spends watching television, surfing the Internet, or playing video games is rising. Studies of online 'social' activities, like internet gaming or cards, even show that the participants pay more attention to the game itself and make little use of the chat feature.
Of course, exploring falling levels of social interaction by joining an online writing community doesn't exactly meet the rigorous standards of the scientific method. But what I was interested in was not the actual writing itself but the effect the social bonds had on the participants. One of things that helps keep the Nanowrimo writers going is the reinforcement and support offered by the numerous other people participating and going through the same type of travails. Surely with a dedicated group of your friends in your corner egging you on, writing 50,000 words wouldn't be much of a challenge.
With that mindset, I assembled a group of friends and coworkers and convinced them to join Nanowrimo and take up the challenge (I also relearned the lesson of how reluctant people are to join things--only about half of the people I solicited took up the invite). I reassured all of them at the outset that we'd all be in each other's corner, encouraging each other's writing and pushing each other to finish line. The month got off to a good start, as the seven of us exploited the early excitement of the task to pick the genres of our novels, come up with titles, and get cranking away. Trashtalking ensued, leading to some goodnatured bets on final word counts and promises of evenings spent commiserating at a local watering hole. I finished the first week with 5,932 words, not a bad total but well off the pace (at 1667 words a day, I should have been at 11669 by the end of the first week). And only one member of the group had failed to even write anything.
According to Chris Baty, one of the founders of Nanowrimo, the second week of the competition is the toughest. It is during this week that participants hit that "fabled Week Two Wall---a low-point of energy, enthusiasm, and joie de novel that strikes most NaNoWriMo participants between days 7 and 14." Indeed, my word count remained flat for four straight days. Plans for possible meetings and writing in sessions led to naught. I finished the week at 9,456 words, not even a fifth of a way to the total. Three other participants were so far behind the pace they finished the week with fewer than 5,000 words, virtually dooming them. It was not looking good.
I decided to try to kick things into high gear for the third week. I urged, I cajoled, I begged, I pleaded. Anything to try to get my fellow nanowrimo'ers to work on their floundering word counts. Unfortunately, for the most part my efforts fell on deaf ears. By this point in the month, four of the original seven participants were finished. One never wrote another word after the beginning of the third week. I was still chugging along in second place, trying to stoke the competitive fires to drive me into the lead. By the 21st, I was at 15, 809 words and more than 4,000 words behind the leader. There were nine days left in the month and I still had almost 35,000 words to go. And Thanksgiving was looming, a writing-killer if there ever was one.
Most of the other participants looked at the upcoming four day weekend as a golden opportunity, the chance to put there heads down, type and get back into the game. The optimism was apparent in the renewed chatter amongst the group. "Wait to you see my word count after the holidays" was the popular refrain, even from the members dead last in word count. I, however, was not so sanguine about the possibiliy of a massive holiday word rush. As an amateur student of human nature, I figured that it would be all too easy to look at that great empty expanse of ninety-six hours and keep thinking that I would write right after dinner, right after this nap, right after this football game's over. There was no way I was banking that coming out of that week that I, nor any of my fellow participants, would be anywhere close to being on target for 50,000 words. Lo and behold, I surged into the lead with 30,021 words, about 6,000 words more than my nearest challenger, who wouldn't write another word.
That left me with two days in the month and a moment of truth. I could pack it in, pat myself on the back for at least beating the other six in my cohort, and settle with the knowledge that I gave it my best and fell short, as did roughly 80% of the other Nanowrimo participants. Or I could make good on my promise to myself and my friends to do what I said I would do 28 days ago. Once I considered the situation in those terms, the decision was clear. I was going to finish. To me, it was a symbolic gesture. I told everyone around me that I was going to do something, an action that creates an implicit trust, the cornerstone of social capital. So I would finish. Not coincidently, in my opinion, by this point, not only had everyone pretty much packed it in, but only one of my friends was even offering me any encouragement; the rest had melted away.
Over the course of 36 grueling hours that included only about four hours of sleep, I wrote those 20,000 words. I finished the last words at 11:30pm, a mere 30 minutes before the deadline. And it was a great feeling, worth it to me because I could say that I followed through on the promise I had made and perhaps contributed in a miniscule way to the overall level of trust in the world. On December first, the New York Nanowrimo chapter had a party to celebrate the end of the experience. I extended an invitation to my vanquised comrades to join me to reminisce and rejoice in the efforts we'd made. I guess other things had come up for them, though. Alas, I went to the party alone.

Electronic Voting Machines: The ProTools of Democracy?

2006-11-15T21:22:00.000-08:00

Now that the election is a week behind us, we can step back and take stock of the momunmental change that took place in our culture. But since this isn't really a political blog, you'll have to go elsewhere for an appraisal of the political ramifications (from the right, from the left). What we're concerned with is in some ways a more dramatic change, the shift from "old-fashioned" voting technologies such as paper ballots, punch cards, and mechanical lever machines to modern electronic voting technologies. Why the change? Certainly the "hanging chad" problems in 2004 galvanized the nation to take note of the potential problems involved with the current voting technologies. But more broadly, the shift towards electronic voting machines is as inevitable as the consistent losses of third party candidates in American politics. The inexorable march of progress dictates that newer is better, and we are moving boldly into a fully digital age. But consider:

--In Florida, the home of the hanging chad, electronic voting machines "recorded unusually high percentages of ballots with no votes"

--In Ohio, my home state for better or worse, electronic voting machines were used in all districts, but with various problems reported throughout the state

--In Pennsylvania, another crucial battleground state, there were "reports of machines not going through all of the election screens, machines that were not functioning at all, machines automatically shutting down early due to timing problems"

A quick search of the Internet (one of the "good" technological advances) reveals a host of similar issues. While it may be easy to dismiss these problems as typical of the growing pains all new technologies face, the deeper question may be more revealing. Are these technologies really necessary? Or, to put it another way, are there some non-digital technologies that are actually better suited to certain jobs?
The music industry certainly provides a telling analogy. Simply put, it's clear that analog technology is better suited to making music sound real, provided of course that's what you're looking for in your music. Digital technology may "solve" a number of problems, but in the process, creates myriad new problems, some of which may be worse than the problems the technology was intended to fix. I would make the argument that the issues arising from paper ballots and the other "analog" technologies could be best fixed by updating those technologies (for example, here in New York, many of the voting machines are the same ones used forty years ago) rather than enacting a wholesale shift to a new technology. I believe this not because digital machines cannot or do not address the shortcomings of the current voting technologies, but instead because of the severity of problems introduced by these new digital machines.
It has been fairly well documented that many of these new machines provide no paper trail of the votes cast, which is a serious problem in and of itself. But of even more concern is the potential for fraud in these new voting technologies. When the president of Diebold Inc, a leading manufacturer of voting machines said he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year," it's hard not to see the sinister implications in that statement. Say what you will about those clunky old lever machines, but it's pretty hard to manipulate those paper ballots in one fell swoop, as one could do with networked machines.
Just as digital music technology seems to take something essential out of the creative process, it seems like digital voting takes something crucial out of the democratic process. We're not so naive as to believe that the American democratic process is free from all hints of corruption, but participating in the process has a major symbolic component to it, one that cannot be enjoyed if the integrity of the system is in serious doubt. When I put on a record of my favorite musician, I want to believe that everything I hear on that song is a product of a real live breathing human being. And when I cast a vote, I want to believe that my preference will be accurately recorded and counted by the powers that be. Things just don't work otherwise.

Get Out and Vote!

2006-11-07T06:50:00.000-08:00

Don't forget to vote today. Check back in later during the week for a Silent Stereo take on the election.

My Apologies

2006-11-01T22:41:00.000-08:00

One of my duties as Executive Director of Communications at Silent Stereo Records is to maintain a consistent blog presence. Although as an executive, I should have underlings to do the actual writing, that is not the case in our homey little company. In any case, I noticed that my last posting was way back on September 17th, practically an era ago in these days of 24 hour news cycles and Internet blogs. In my defense, I just started grad school, which severely cut into my free time. Still, there has been a lot of good stuff going on in the Silent Stereo world. The Black Hollies and Boss Tweed both finished recordings at our studio and we're eagerly awaiting the release of those numbers. In a special touch, the Boss Tweed single will be released as an authentic 45, just like in the good old days. We will definitely keep you updated on that release. Furthermore, Silent Stereo friends The Dansettes will be playing the big CMJ Music festival this week in New York City. Word on the street is that some record industry bigwigs are interesting in checking out the retro stylings of the Dansettes, but I'm sure every band at CMJ believes that.
In other news, I'm embarking on a project that is relevant to the theme of this blog (check the masthead if you've forgotten our theme). As it happens, November is officially "National Novel Writing Month." In fact, there's even a website for it at www.nanowrimo.org. While it's not as if I don't have enough excuses for not updating this blog, now I have a new one: I'll be writing a novel. Or more accurately, I'll be attempting to write 50,000 words in the space of a month. And why should you care? This is where the Silent Stereo angle comes in.
In the last forty years, American culture has been plagued by a steady, debiliatating decline in "social capital." Social capital, as the name implies, refers to the value inherent in all sorts of social endeavors, whether they be book clubs, religious groups, knitting circles, and even bands, which as we know from our rock history are just as good as gangs. Although the data is not complete, it appears that after reaching a high point in the sixties and seventies, group participation has plummeted. So apparently good music wasn't the only thing we lost in the eighties. The changes in the music industry that we rail against here are simply one part of a larger metamorphis in the American cultural landscape.
But instead of cursing the darkness, I'm going to light a candle. The Nanowrimo project gives me an opportunity, albeit an electronic one, to investigate social capital. As I torture myself to keep to a daily output of 1667 words a day, I can reassure myself that I'm also gaining valuble insight into the new American culture of the 21st century. I'll let you know how that turns out for me.
And in a final twist, the novel I intend to write will use music, especially sixties soul and rock, as its main metaphorical device. Maybe if it turns out okay I can try to expand the company into publishing.

The Wisdom of Bob Dylan

2006-09-17T20:34:00.000-07:00

This interview happened some time ago, but I'm so out of touch with modern pop culture that I'm just getting to it. Bob Dylan sat down with Rolling Stone magazine to discuss his new album, "Modern Times," and in the interview he laid out some tasty positions that reverberated with the folks here at Silent Stereo Records. To wit:

On music producers: "I didn't feel like I wanted to be overproduced any more," he tells me. "I felt like I've always produced my own records anyway, except I just had someone there in the way. I feel like nobody's gonna know how I should sound except me anyway, nobody knows what they want out of players except me, nobody can tell a player what he's doing wrong, nobody can find a player who can play but he's not playing, like I can."

On modern recordings: "The records I used to listen to and still love, you can't make a record that sounds that way..."

On musical genius: "Brian Wilson, he made all his records with four tracks, but you couldn't make his records if you had a hundred tracks today."

On the digital music revolution: "Everybody's gettin' music for free.' I was like, 'Well, why not? It ain't worth nothing anyway.'"

It's nice to find to a kindred spirit in this vast digital landscape. Check out the rest of the interview here. Then go dust off a copy of of "Bringing It All Back Home," or "John Wesley Harding" and enjoy.

Show Review: Soul Music @ McCarren Park Pool

2006-08-22T10:37:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, August 20th, Brooklyn's fun-loving, sun-loving, soul-shaking populace headed down to McCarren Park Pool in Williamsburg to enjoy burgers, beers, dodgeball, and most importantly, the sizzling soul music provided by local standouts The Dansettes and The Fabulous Soul Shakers and soul legends The Mighty Hannibal and Archie Bell.
The Dansettes got the show off on the right foot with a tight 45 minute set of pop-soul straight from the sixties. The Dansettes feature the vocal talents of not one but three amazing singers- Leah Fishman, Jaime Kozyra, and Jennie Wasserman-and an incredibly accomplished backing band. The Dansette's set allow each of the girls to highlight her particular strengths, with Jaime starting the show off with the heart-tugging plea "No Questions Asked." Like the sirens of yore, Jaime drew the assembled masses up to the stage, where they were treated to Jennie's flirty, bouncy (yet incongruously sinister) romp "Ladykiller," and Leah's signature tune, the simmering "I've Got A Feeling." Even bandleader Jay B. Flatt got into the act, putting his sweet rough voice to good effect on the crowd pleasing "I Say That I Love You." But with the August sun heating things up, The Dansettes were all too soon off the stage. Jaime sent the crowd back to the shaded environs on the edge of the pool with the defiant "Don't You Ever," and the band left the stage to prepare for their biggest challenge yet: backing up soul legends The Mighty Hannibal and Archie Bell.
But before those stalwarts hit the stage, the too cool for school crowd was wined and dined and left behind by Harlem's own doo wop sensations, The Fabulous Soul Shakers. The Soul Shakers one-upped the Dansettes by featuring not three but four tremendous vocalists. The guys whipped the crowd into a frenzy with the old Sharpees song "Do the 45," then continued to stoke the fires by trading off the lead vocals on a number of great soul classics like "Rainbow," "I Want A Love I Can See," and my personal favorite, Smokey Robinson's "Bad Girl." After their set, the crowd was hot, sweaty and hungry for more.
Although the crowd may have been hankering for something cold and icy on such a smoldering day, The Mighty Hannibal made them sweat even more. And it was a good thing. Hannibal looked the part of soul consigliere as he marched out onto the stage in a black suit and hat. The Dansettes and their backing band provided the musical backdrop, digging into Hannibal's feature song "Get In the Groove." Although Hannibal is getting up there in age, his energy and verve are unmatched. He danced, swaggered, and jived his way through upbeat numbers like "Get In The Groove" and "Good Time," then slowed things down to a agonizingly sweet crawl in numbers like "I Just Want Some Love," and "Baby Please Change Your Mind." All the while, the Dansettes provided an angelic counterpoint to Hannibal's gravelly infernal growl. In the middle of the set, Hannibal took a moment to dedicate his stirring "Hymn No. 5" to the soldiers serving in Iraq. The song was originally written during the Vietnam War and beat the hippies to the punch when it came to war protest songs. Forty years later, it's still relevant. Hannibal's set moved the crowd like mercury in a thermometer as he danced off the stage to the sounds of "Fishing Pole." The Dansettes and the boys of the band, Jay, Dennis, Andy, and Tom, had passed their first musical test with flying colors. They gave Hannibal exactly what he wanted, a soundtrack that alternated between raucous and poingant, grievous and triumphant. Now, they left the stage to ready themselves for the smooth grooves of Archie Bell.
Archie Bell knows how to work a crowd. He strutted out onto the stage, his matching red shirt and pants signaling the coming inferno. His first two numbers, "Let's Groove," and "I Can't Stop Dancing," set the tone. Bell was working hard on stage and he expected the crowd to do the same. As the band settled into a wah-wah guitar/disco drum rhythm, Bell bounced around the stage, exhorting the crowd and the band to make him sweat. At one point, Archie noted that he didn't need the Drells when he had the Dansettes in the house. Archie and the band then worked their way through a number of Bell originals as well as such soul classics as "Stand By Me." Still, as the set progressed, everyone was waiting for one thing: Bell's number one single, "The Tighten Up." A true maestro, Bell saved the best for last, first hitting the crowd with "Knock on Wood." The band turned in a spot on performance of Eddie Floyd's classic, so much so that Archie himself said that they sounded just like "Stax." While the crowd was still reeling from that performance, Archie finally got everyone to tighten up. If you read our previous blog posting about the Ponderosa Stomp in Memphis, you'll know that the band had something to prove. At that fest, Bell couldn't even get his band to tighten up, as they obviously didn't even know the intricacies of the song. Not here, though. One by one, Bell got the musicians to tighten up, and Andy, Tom, Den, and Jay hit all the right notes (but not beats: for some reason Andy did not play the correct drum break; maybe he didn't listen to the original recording). After leading the crowd through numerous tighten ups, Bell finally marched off and the massive crowd wilted. It was a long day in the hot sun, but it was the great music by the Dansettes, the Fabulous Soul Shakers, The Mighty Hannibal, and Archie Bell that sent everyone home with heatstroke.

photos courtesy of g. wong (www.thewongway.org)

Technorati Tags: soul, Archie Bell, Brooklyn, music

Interwar Available Online

2006-08-11T22:34:00.000-07:00

Not all of our posts are educational. This one is shameless promoting of our own product. Interwar from Dead Language is now available in all of the major online music stores:

iTunes

Rhapsody

Napster

Even if you don't wish to buy, you can stream the tracks at Rhapsody. Digital is good for some things

Goodbye To The Captain

2006-07-17T11:10:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know that typically we only cover music related topics on this blog, but check out the masthead. It states that we're going to write about "any other aspect of culture that fits into the label's philosophy." And Steve Yzerman, former star center for the Detroit Red Wings hockey club, more than epitomizes what we do here at Silent Stereo Records. Yzerman played the game the right way and was in many ways a throwback to the golden age of hockey. In his 22 year career--all of which he spent with the Red Wings--he never held out, demanded a trade, or griped to the media. He simply went about his business and played the game to the best of his ability. And fortunately for the Wings and hockey fans everywhere, his talents were surpassed by few of his hockey peers.
Steve Yzerman's career got off to a less than auspicious start. He was drafted 4th overall in the 1983 draft, but then Red Wings General Manager Jimmy Devellano made no secret of the fact that he would have preferred to take Pat LaFontaine, who was selected third by the Islanders. All Yzerman did was show up at camp and quickly prove that he was the best player there. He gave the Detroit fans a sign of things to come when he scored his first NHL goal in his first NHL game and went on to register 39 goals and 48 assists in his first campaign. Despite leading his club and all rookies in assists and points, Yzerman finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting. For the next few seasons, Yzerman put up consistent numbers, finishing with 89 points, 42 points (in only 52 games--he broke his collarbone and missed a third of the season), and 90 points. Yzerman's stellar play notwithstanding, the Red Wings as a team were mired in mediocrity.
1987 was a breakout year for both Yzerman and his team. The year before, Yzerman was named the youngest captain in Detroit history and his numbers justified the decision. Steve racked up goals and assists at a prodigious rate, reaching 102 points in only 64 games. Unfortunately, in the very game that he scored his fiftieth goal, Yzerman suffered a terrifying knee injury. Rushing towards the goal, Yzerman lost his footing and plowed into the net, slamming his knee into the goalpost, which in those days was firmly attached to the ice. The Captain suffered severe damage to his right knee, an injury that would haunt him in his later years, and missed the rest of the season. However, the Red Wings, buoyed by the scoring of their new Captain, reached the semi finals of the playoffs for the first time in nearly 20 years. Yzerman was able to return for game three of the Conference finals, but it was too little, too late for the Wings.
The next few seasons cemented Yzerman's status as one of the games brightest stars. In 1988, Yzerman scored 155 points, a total surpassed only by fellow legends Wayne Gretzsky and Mario Lemieux. The Red Wings played better as a team, making the playoffs in 2 out of the next 3 years, but making little headway in the the NHL's second season. During the early nineties, the Wings began acquiring some talent to surround Yzerman with and the team's fortunes took a turn for the better when Hall of Fame manager Scotty Bowman was hired in 1993. In Bowman's second season as coach, the Wings reached the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in 29 years. Unfortunately, they were swept by the New Jersey Devils, who's frustating "trap" style of play totally neutralized the high flying Wings. To Scotty Bowman, an arch tactician, the writing was on the wall. If the Wings were to win a Stanley Cup, they'd have to play better defense. And if the Wings were going to buy into his system, he'd need the Captain on board.
After the 1993 season, Bowman approached Yzerman and told him what he needed to do. The Captain, one of the league's best offensive players, was going to have to change his style of play. Instead of focusing on scoring, Bowman wanted Yzerman to set the defensive tone for the team, a job typically reserved for the lower skilled players on the the third and fourth lines of the team. As Bowman pitched it, Yzerman's personal stats and glory would diminish, but the team's prowess would improve. In an age of mega-agents and lucrative endorsements, Bowman was asking Yzerman to sacrifice a lot. But if the Captain didn't sign on, Bowman's plan had no chance. Without hesitation, Yzerman told Bowman he'd do whatever it takes to win the Cup.
With Bowman's new system in place, Yzerman's scoring totals dropped. Instead of scoring over 100 points a season, he was down in the 80-90 range. But the Wings' fortunes took off and they became the juggernaut of their conference, going 62 and 13 and falling just short of the Stanley Cup finals.
Finally, in 1997, Bowman's strategy and Yzerman's sacrifices paid off. The Wings captured the Stanley Cup, defeating the Philadelphia Flyers in four straight games. Yzerman did his part, tying for second in playoff goals and third in playoff points. It was the Wings first Cup in 42 years, breaking the longest Stanley Cup drought in the NHL at that time. During the celebration, tragedy struck the Wings family when punishing defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov was left incapacitated after a brain injury suffered when his limosuine crashed. The next season, Yzerman and the team vowed to win the Cup for Vladdy and kept good on their promise by sweeping the Washington Capitals. Suddenly, the Motor City, without a championship for 40 plus years, had two in a row. The Captain was the leading playoff scoring and notched the Conn Smythe trophy as Most Valuble Player. At the victory parade, Detroit citizens turned out in droves to shower their Captain was adoration. Steve Yzerman was the working class hero of a working class city.
Yzerman's transformation from high scoring hot-shot to hard nosed defensive stalwart was completed in the 1999-2000 season when Yzerman was award the Selke trophy for best defensive forward. For a player who would go on to finish sixth in scoring in NHL history, winning the Selke trophy was a true honor. It symbolized all the personal sacrifices Yzerman made for the Detroit Red Wings and the city of Detroit.
In 2002, Bowman had his swan song. The Wings, with all-world goalie Dominic Hasek in net, went on to capture their third Stanley Cup in the last six seasons. After the victory, Bowman and Hasek announced their retirements and many thought Yzerman would follow suit. At 37 and with three Stanley Cup championships, ten All-Star game appearances, a Selke Trophy and a Finals MVP, Yzerman had nothing left to prove. Plus, his right knee, shredded in a horrific injury fifteen years ago, was falling apart. But Yzerman's competitive fires still burned. After the season, he underwent a radical surgical procedure on his knee, one that most doctors said would leave him unable to play hockey again.
After the procedure, Yzerman made a valient comeback, but he only managed 8 points in 16 games. The Red Wings were upset in the first round of the playoffs by the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and speculation once again swirled that Yzerman would retire. Instead, he suited up for his 21st season in 2003-2004. The Wings were undergoing changes and younger players were carrying more of the load. Yzerman saw his role changed and his ice time reduced, but the aging Captain never complained. He did whatever the team needed and managed to put up a respectable 51 points in 75 games. The Wings started the playoffs strong, but lost their Captain when he was hit in the face by a puck, shattering his orbital bone. After the loss of their leader, the Wings suffered another early exit from the playoffs and then the league went dark, shut down by a labor dispute between the owners and players. The entire 2005 season was wiped out, giving Yzerman time to reflect on his career and let his battered body heal. At the end of the lockout, Yzerman felt rejuvenated enough, even at the age of 41, to give playing another shot. He returned for the 2006 season in which the Wings revamped roster looked unbeatable. Yzerman put up 34 points in 61 games and girded himself for the playoffs. But it was not to be. The Wings were stunned in the first round by the upstart Edmonton Oilers and were sent home for some serious soul searching.
During the offseason, Yzerman knew it was time to hang up his skates. His heart was willing, but his body could no longer handle the grind of the NHL season. He finished his career 8th all time in goals scored, 7th in assists, and 6th in all time scoring. But Yzerman is perhaps more proud of his other distinction: he played his entire career with the Detroit Red Wings and finished it as the longest serving captain with one team in NHL history. In a few short years, Yzerman will be enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame, but to millions of fans in Detroit and elsewhere, his legacy has already been enshrined in their hearts and minds.
Technorati Tags: Yzerman, Red Wings, hockey, Detroit

Is Your Favorite Music Selected By A Computer?

2006-07-01T22:08:00.000-07:00

When, almost thirty years ago, Glenn Danzig wrote a couple of songs attacking the boob tube ('we're all blue from projection tubes..."), he might have picked the wrong technology to rail against. And while I'm sure the arch-daemon of rock would be smiling in his grave (I know Glenn's not dead, but I like to pretend everything that occurred after How The Gods Kill, including Michael Graves and the "new" Misfits, never happened) to know that while we have become a culture of mindless television watching zombies, he might not be too pleased to find that computers are now determining what music we listen to.
Although we may differ in our individual musical tastes (I love Otis Redding, you can't get enough Will Smith), music is more or less universal, ingrained into our common genetic heritage. Archeologists have uncovered primitive flutes dating back thousands of years that span the very same 8-note octave range that we know and love today. Considering how big of a business music has become, it's no surprise that some enterprising scientists have analyzed the musical features common to the most beloved songs of our species, fed these parameters into a computer, and developed software that helps the major labels decide where to put their money.
By looking at qualities such as cadence, chord progression, timber, and frequency range, "music intelligence" software can predict whether a new song will be more likely to be a hit. As Mike McCready, founder of a music intelligence company, says "Songs conform to a limited number of mathematical equations." Stirring. For evidence, McCready's company, Platinum Blue, has determined that some of U2's hits share a striking sonic similarity with certain Beethoven pieces. The software is not foolproof however; apparently it is unable to account for Bono's popularity.
The major labels are increasingly using music intelligence software to help decide which songs to aggressively market. So far, the program has successfully predicted such hits as "Candy Shop" by 50 cent, "Be The Girl" by Aslyn, and "She Says" by Howie Day (full disclosure: I've never heard any of those songs. Isn't Aslyn the lion in C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe?). Apparently, the program is used by Capitol, Universal, Sony, and EMI, but they don't want their customers to know it. Sometimes the artists themselves don't even know that their otherwise raw and passionate major label release is being fed into a soulless computer to figure out if it's any good.
It might bear mentioning that in George Orwell's dystopia 1984, he made mention of a machine called the versificator that generated soothing tones to satisfy the populace and keep them docile. So the next time you tune to your favorite Clear Channel radio affiliate and bob along to the sweet tones of Howie Day, you may be an unwitting victim of the eventual corporate takeover of the entire world. Think about it.

Source: The Economist, June 10th 2006

Technorati Tags: platinum blue, computers, music, Orwell

Two Great Pianists Pass Away

2006-06-12T21:34:00.000-07:00

This past week, the rock world lost two amazing and influential pianists, Billy Preston and Johnny Grande. Preston was perhaps the more renowned of the pair and for good reason--sometimes referred to as the "fifth Beatle" for his contributions to the Liverpudian lads' music, Preston played with so many artists of note that his credit list reads like a who's who of rock and roll. His soulful organ work can be found on tracks by Sam Cooke, The Beatles, Quincy Jones, The Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, John Lennon, Stephen Stills, Peter Frampton, Martha Reeves, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, even the Monkees.
Preston started playing piano early in his life; at ten he was performing gospel shows and by 15 he was touring Europe as a member of Little Richard's band. It was then that he first met the Beatles, a relationship that would culminate with Preston's appearance on the White Album and Let It Be. While Preston was known for his out-sized personality, he wasn't able to keep the Beatles from imploding. After they broke up, he played with Ringo, George, and John on their respective solo albums.
Preston also had a hand in on some of the great albums by another English band, the Rolling Stones. Preston played on Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street, and in my mind will always be remembered for his grand organ entrance on "I Got The Blues."
In addition to his work with other artists, Preston also had a fairly successful career of his own and co-wrote "You Are So Beautiful" with Joe Cocker (although it must be noted that Dennis Wilson claims to have co-written the song with Preston; Wilson made the song a regular at Beach Boy concerts as a protest for not being given a writing credit.) Preston was active musically right up until his sickness overtook him, playing on albums by contemporary artists such as Jet and Macy Gray.
While Johnny Grande can't match Preston in the sheer volume of material category, Grande gets bonus points in the innovator category. Well before Elvis, Chuck Berry, or Buddy Holly, Bill Haley paved the rock and roll way, with Johnny Grande at his side the whole time. The two of them originally played in an outfit called the Four Aces of Western Swing, but they changed their name to more user friendly Saddlemen before releasing a cover of "Rocket 88" (considered by some to be the first 'rock' song). Although the record didn't do well on the charts--the Saddlemen's version was neither r&b enough for black audiences or country enough for white audiences--the release was a seminal event in rock history. For better or worse, it was the first white band cover of the first rock and roll song.
As Grande and Haley continued to play, their sound wavered between r&b and country. However, the band seemed to hit on something with the single "Rock This Joint," a number that some credit as having inspired Alan Freed to coin the term "rock and roll."
While many historians dispute the who's and what's of the invention of rock and roll, none can dispute that Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock," had a major impact on music history. By now, the Saddlemen name had been discarded and the band took to calling themselves Bill Haley and the Comets. Johnny Grande was an integral piece of the band; he, along with remaining Four Ace Billy Williamson, were formal 'partners' in the band, sharing in royalties and song writing credits, while the remaining members were paid employees.
"Rock Around the Clock" was a major hit, selling a million records and reaching number seven on the charts in 1954--before Elvis had a hit, or Buddy Holly even had a record contract. Unfortuanately for Grande and Haley, their reign was short-lived; by 1956 Elvis was a star and Haley couldn't compete with the raw sexuality and marketability of the King.
In all, Grande lent his boogie woogie piano to over 40 records, including 4 gold discs. Along with the rest of the Comets, he was recognized for playing in one of best rock bands of the early 1950's. Johnny Grande continued to tour and play well into his 70's, often with the surviving members of the Comets.

Technorati Tags: billy preston, johnny grande, music

The First Hipsters

2006-05-22T20:55:00.000-07:00

I don't know about the scene where you are, dear reader, but here in New York we are overrun by hipster bands. They come in all shapes and sizes, but their overarching characteristic is a hyper-developed sense of irony. You can note this virtue most clearly by glancing through some band photos of hipsters. For example, take a look at the photo on the left. Note the colorful scarf, worn not due to chilly weather but for ironic effect. Also ironic is the prominently displayed sundae in the hands of the fellow on the right.

Now look at exhibit two. This hipster outfit features not only an ironic scarf, but no less than five other articles of clothing worn ironically. Try to guess, then check your answers below.

Did you identify the following? Lime green jacket, banana yellow shirt, 70's era leather coat, sunglasses, silver shoes. Ironically, the guitar player is not wearing that red and white leisure ironically.

Here's one more for you.

This photo is classic. The drummer is sporting the tie, while the bassist's shirt is not only ironically open, but he's also striking a heavily ironic pose. Upon further consideration, the bracelet and chuck taylor shoes are also worn solely for ironic effect.

And yet, as the scholars say, history is cyclical. We Americans can be famously myopic at times, our collective memories wiped clean every 30 or 40 years. The truth of the matter is that artists and musicians have been drenching themselves in irony for time immemorial, perhaps even before the word was coined. As evidence, we've unearthed we think to be the first ironic band photo. Check it out below.

These guys, known at the Peerless Quartet, have it all: the ties, the jackets, the ironic smirks, the overly serious guy and even the coup de grace--the band member ironically taking a photograph of the photographer! In 1923!

There you have it ladies and gentlemen, the first hipsters. Of course if you find something from an earlier period, let us know and we'll put our expert hipster sensors on the case.

Technorati Tags: hipsters, irony, nyc

Memphis and the Ponderosa Stomp

2006-05-14T21:16:00.000-07:00

Last week I was down in Memphis to see the Ponderosa Stomp music festival. The festival's purpose is to pay tribute to unsung American R&B, soul, country and roots musicians. On paper it sounded like a dream, but I'm sad to report that the reality was pretty sad. On the whole, the event had a very unpolished feel and a lot of the acts couldn't deliver. The acts themselves were usually OK, but the backing they received was so sub-par. Most of the singers had to shrug off the terrible backing, take the set on their shoulders and trudge through the material. Some high(low)lights were the backing band missing all of the breakdown parts on Archie Bell's Tighten Up, a lame one chord medley of Stax songs by William Bell (did you know that Hard to Handle, Knock on Wood, and Mustang Sally can all be the same song?), and the endless rounds of solos over a 3 chord vamp (guitar, sax, keyboard, 2nd guitar, repeat).

I could go on and on about how the backing bands got so many things wrong about the songs. We had 5 string basses used and slapping and popping on Stax songs. Guitars with no headstocks. And don't get me started about all of the digital pianos used. Not a real piano to be found. It's kind of upsetting to hear a gritty southern soul song with a Doogie Howser keyboard setting.

Now, some may say I'm being a music snob and too nit-picky. "It's the song that matters and times change so don't focus on the band so much." But, I think the details are important. After listening to 3 days of music with no attention to detail, you realize how much all of the songs sound the same. When music loses the fine details and a backing band plows through a song, you start getting fatigued from the sameness of hearing the same C-F-G progression over and over. That's where you see the genius of great backing bands like Booker T and the MGs where each member added nice little touches to make each song unique. When those touches are stripped away, you get bored really quick basically hearing the same song over and over. (eg, William Bell taking a generic soul groove and singing 4 different Stax songs over it)

"Little things" such as a drum beat can make or break a performance. During the day I visited the Stax museum and you hear quotes from people talking about how Al Jackson Jr.(drummer) was the heart and soul of the Stax sound. Then to hear a backing band plow through his drum parts and not play the correct drum grooves on Stax material made me want to get my money back. We're in the town of Stax, and the backing band drummer can't even learn the four on the floor groove for Knock on Wood.

It wasn't all bad. The soul side of things is in pretty bad shape, but on the rockabilly side of things, the acts were good. Sonny Burgess put on a great show. I give some credit to Deke Dickerson for providing a strong and tasteful backing to all of the acts he played with. Here's someone who learned the material and played it correctly. Scotty Moore's English band was also amazing. They had the Sun sound down perfectly. It sounded great without sounding like a parody. Also, Johnny Cash's guitar player and drummer also put on an amazing performance. But if you go to see a soul act and the bass player has a 5 string bass or the guitar has no headstock, I suggest leaving immediately.

Technorati Tags: soul music, memphis, ponderosa stomp

Reflections on the New York Music Scene

2006-04-30T20:52:00.000-07:00

Growing up in Toledo, Ohio, I viewed New York City as I imagined any young artist from similar small cities like Harrisburg or Kansas City or Indianapolis would: in no uncertain terms, New York was the mecca of the art world. Toledo would be my staging ground, the one horse town that would provide some interesting depth in my future biography but would go unmentioned after page eighty or so. There certainly wasn't a music scene in Toledo, in even the most generous sense of the word. A handful of places to play, no geographic center, and a few bands, none of them doing anything horribly interesting. In the early nineties, Toledo had a ton of 'alterna-rock' bands--pale shades of the Pumpkins and Radiohead and lots of unsuccessful channeling of Kurt Cobain--and the white trash kids from the city and the surrounding areas had the eighties thrash/metal thing going. I haven't been to show in Toledo in ten years, but I wouldn't be surprised if not much had changed. A quick search of craigslist turned up the following band.
Although I didn't realize it at the time, I was already displaying signs of my nascent Darwinism during my Toledo years. I figured that given the right environment, I had the skills to flourish musically; in Toledo, I would perish. So while my peers were off to work at the factories and warehouses, I was off to New York, home of CBGB's, the Ramones, the Lower East Side, Lou Reed, etc, etc.
Early impressions of the city were good. Right off the bat the band hooked up with a very talented singer. Every other person I met was a musician or artist of some sort. And we got offered a gig right away. We were practicing at Smash Studios on 36th street. Haven't been there in a while but at the time it was a warren of rehearsal rooms and had a freaky free-roaming parrot. Considering there was nothing remotely like that in Toledo, I was impressed. After rehearsal, we were at the front waiting to pay when the guy behind the desk asked us if we wanted to play a show. He did bookings at Acme Underground and liked what he heard from our rehearsal. Getting a gig in Toledo was always an excruciating process. But here in New York, as I'd known, the gigs fall like manna from heaven. The guy gave us his card and told us we'd be playing Acme at midnight on a Thursday.
This was our first New City Show and we dutifully showed up at 8pm to watch the other bands. Things seemed to be off to an auspicious start. Acme Underground was located in a trendy downtown neighborhood, there were a bunch of bands playing and already a decent crowd present when we arrived. I figured it would only get bigger as the night wore on and more of the regulars showed up. No such luck. I don't remember anything about the bands that played before us. What I do remember, though, was the revolving door 'fan' base. In Toledo, you could expect a small crowd, but to some extent, you could expect a portion of them to stick around. After all, there wasn't much else to do. It goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that New York is not Toledo. Each band played, then packed up and left, taking with them the 10-12 people they'd brought. So much for solidarity among the bands. As the midnight hour approached, I did a quick head count. The place was hemorrhaging people--at one time there may have been upwards of 20 or so people, but no one was sticking around the see the other bands. After the 11 o'clock band finished, we rushed to set up. Perhaps if we could start while the people were still there, they'd stick around. It didn't happen. As we got ready to play, there was two or three people left. The bartender was less than pleased. He wanted to know where our fans were. We tried to explain that we were new to New York and that it was midnight on a weeknight, but he wasn't having it. I wondered where their fans were--wouldn't a happening New York nightspot have a reputation for booking good bands and thus attract a crowd of audiophiles looking to find the next big thing? Sadly, no.
That first gig at Acme Underground set the tone. Shows at the Elbow Room, the Spiral, the Lion's Den, Desmond's, the Baggot Inn, Don Hill's, even the vaunted CBGB's, only reinforced the pattern. A sobering realization set in; promoters were unconcerned with the talent of the bands or their genres. All that mattered was how many people you could bring (Translation: how many friends did you have?) A different form of Darwinian thinking was at play, the cutthroat struggle of capitalism. Knowing that the people were uninterested in sticking around to see other bands that might play a similar style of music, the bookers put together incongruous bills. We played with folk rock bands, rap rock bands, hardcore bands, alternative bands, noise rock bands, r&b bands....it didn't matter that we were a progressive punk pop band. We were booked with anyone and everyone. I began to take a sick fascination in alienating the people who were there to see their friend's acoustic duo play. It made me happy to see them covering their ears and grimacing at our sheer volume. Before each show, our guitar player would implore us to blow the other bands of the stage. It became a point of pride for us.
After a while, it became unbearable and one day the guitar player of the band called it quits. He wanted to play music but didn't want to deal with the garbage anymore. You can only play so many shows on Tuesday nights at 11 for a few die-hard friends, going on an hour later than scheduled, and having to listen to a griping promoter before getting fed up. I realize that it's quite possible that the problem was simply that we weren't a good band, but regardless of our talent level, the patterns were the same for almost every other band I watched. And furthermore, our talent had no bearing on the promoters' booking habits.
So now, after seven years in New York, what have I learned? The last two shows I played did nothing to stir my cynicism. The first show had my rock band booked with a number of r&b acts. We went on an hour late. The band after us never showed up, so we didn't even get the benefit of poaching its fans. After playing, the promoter revealed we had one person show up. Suffice to say the r&b fans in attendance were not won over. At the second show, I backed a country-pop artist. When I arrived at the club, a Long Island metal band was playing (Long Island, the Toledo of New York?) I just shook my head. Why in the world book a metal band to open for a country-pop singer? At least they brought a number of fans. It was great to watch them file out as we set up our equipment.
And yet, in the last few years, some progress has been made in the only way progress occurs--by doing it yourself. Instead of hoping for some mythical New York scene that most likely never existed, I have been working to create my own reality. The whole point of Silent Stereo Records is to create an environment where we are the scene. We've allied ourselves with some good bands and we support each other. It's a model that works and is infinitely more satisfying than what I experienced when I got here. Hopefully other people will catch on.

Technorati Tags: music, toledo, indie rock

Download our new podcast

2006-04-03T13:36:00.000-07:00

A new podcast has been posted and it's got some really great music. The first track is from The Barbary Coasters. I was sifting through the bands on MySpace and 99% are total crap. But these guys jumped out at me. The songwriting, playing and recording are all great. This band captures an early 60s sound better than any I've heard, and they are doing new material so this isn't just a cover band. Next we play a track from Billy Murray. He's a popular singer from the acoustic recording era. He has a pretty unique vocal style, although it will sound a bit strange to modern ears.

Last we play a track off the upcoming Dead Language release Interwar. The tracks are being mastered now, so that should be out in a few weeks. Also, there's a new installment of our serial, Digital Man and Analog Boy.

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Technorati Tags: music, podcast, billy murray

Buck Owens: American Musician

2006-03-26T20:39:00.000-08:00

The mythology of pop music contains a number of familiar conceits. One of the more enduring devices is the "early rejection by the music establishment." For Buck Owens, this moment came in the late 1950's when Ken Nelson, the A&R man at Capitol Records, proclaimed that Owens was neither a capable enough singer nor songwriter to warrant a contract. Fortunately for Nelson, he eventually recanted, ensuring that he wouldn't join Decca records in the annals of really bad music decisions. Owens, of course, went on to record 15 consecutive #1 hits.
The Buck Owens saga properly begins during the Great Depression. His early life was marked by extreme poverty and his family was forced to move from Texas to Arizona in search of a better life. This early destitution led Owens to vow that he'd never be poor again, a vow that almost derailed his music career. While a teenager, Owens learned to play guitar and was soon playing at local honky tonks in the Phoenix area. Heavily influenced by bluegrass and western swing, Owens once remarked that "When I was a little bitty kid, I used to dream about playing the guitar and singing like some of those great people that we had the old, thick records of."
It was not until Buck moved to Bakersfield in 1951 that he began the musical maturation that would culminate in the minting of the sound named after his adopted home. In Bakersfield, Owens first sang lead and played guitar for Bill Woods and the Orange Blossom Playboys. Eventually, Owens formed his own band, the Schoolhouse Playboys, and his work in these outfits led to some session work for Capitol Records in the early fifties, including most notably the Tommy Collins' hit "You Better Not Do That."
Owens' session work and honky tonk gigs soon generated a buzz amongst the powers that be. Johnny Bond and Joe Mapthis, two country artists of some renown, sent along a few Owens' demos to their label Columbia Records. Columbia Records showed some interest in signing Owens, causing a stir at Capitol, which also wanted to sign him. The aforementioned Nelson interceded, stalling the process, but before Owens could join Columbia Nelson changed his mind. At first, it seemed that maybe Nelson was on to something; Buck's early work made little impact on the charts. Unwilling to commit himself to a life of financial uncertainty, Owens moved to Washington state and took a job as a DJ at a radio station. Convinced that his recording career was over before it began, Buck returned to playing honky tonks.
But because Owens was still under contract to Capitol, Nelson called him in to do another session in 1958. Whereas Owens earlier work for Captitol consisted of jejune country pop numbers, the 1958 sessions added in some steel guitar and fiddle. A tune called "Second Fiddle" was released as a single and unexpectedly reached number 24 on the charts. And yet Owens wasn't sold on his potential as a musician. Remembering his earlier vow to never live in poverty, he resigned himself to a life as a radio DJ and sometimes ad salesman.
In one of the interesting coincidences that seem to always pop up in the lives of influential people, Buck Owens featured a talented local singer on his radio program-one Loretta Lynn, who of course would go on to score over 70 honky tonk hits. But it was Buck's fortuitous meeting with another musician that would alter music history. At his radio station, Buck met and forged a close relationship with Don Rich, a young fiddler and guitarist who would become Buck's muse.
In 1959, "Under Your Spell Again" opened the floodgates for Buck Owens. The simple earnest song reached #4 on the country charts and presaged a steady stream of Top Ten hits for Owens.
Now that his recording career had some momentum, Buck returned to Bakersfield and was soon joined by Rich. A string of hits ensued, including "Excuse Me (I Think I've Got a Heartache)" and that timeless ode to marital infidelity, "Fooling Around." Rich and Owens hit the road, playing with whatever local honky tonk band was available and eventually trading in their acoustic guitars for electric ones. The electric guitars appeared to give Owens and Rich a bit of a rock and roll sensibility, as evidenced in their two hits of 1962, "Kicking Our Hearts Around" and "You're For Me." In time, Owens decided he need a proper band and assembled one featuring a drummer, bassist, and pedal steel player. In another one of the those striking intersections of talent, Merle Haggard played bass for Owens and even coined his band's name, the Buckaroos.
With a band in place and a signature sound, one that Owens referred to as the "freight train," evolving, Owens' career reached a new peak with his first number one hit, "Act Naturally." This good natured country romp was of course covered by the Beatles on their 1965 album Help! but it was not as if Owens needed the exposure generated from Ringo's version of his song; "Act Naturally" was merely the first of an amazing 15 consecutive number one singles. From 1963 to 1965, Owens produced hit after hit: "Love's Gonna Live Here," "My Heart Skips A Beat," "Together Again," and "I Don't Care (Just As Long As You Love Me)" among them. By this time, Owens had established the Bakersfield sound, typically defined as honky tonk interpreted through a twangy, rock-influenced lense.
Despite ruling the country charts, Buck Owens had a rather ornery relationship with the Nashville establishment. He made no secret of his disdain for what he felt was Nashville's formulaic approach to country music--at one point calling it "assembly line, robot music." He also made it a point to defend the contribution of the American West to the country sound and took issue with what he saw as Nashville's arrogant stance that it was the be all and end all of country music. It perhaps this iconoclasm that led Buck Owens to proclaim that he was not a country musician but an American musician.
By the late sixties, Buck Owens was truly an American institution. He invaded the airwaves in 1966 with his own music variety show the Buck Owens Ranch Show. And of course, he began hosting CBS's comedy series Hee Haw. His tremendous musical output continued unabated, and his sonic maturation didn't interrupt his string of number one hits. As with many musical innovators, he eventually abandoned the very sound he made famous. He struck gold in 1969 with his hit "Tall Dark Stranger," a song that expanded the Buck Owens musical vocabulary significantly. Ken Nelson surfaced again to opine that Owens was getting "too hip," but the fans thought otherwise. Both "Ruby (Are You Mad)" and "Rollin' In My Sweet Baby's Arms" demonstrated that Owens could reach the top of the charts even with bluegrass numbers.
Unlike many of the greatest artists, Buck Owens seemed to lack a tragic flaw. His early experiences had instilled in him a strong desire to do things the right way, to "(show) up on time, clean and ready to do the job." He avoided the drug and alcohol problems that plagued other musicians and prematurely took the lives of so many of his contemporaries. And yet, in the midst of all his success, fate would still have its say. Tragedy struck in 1974 when Don Rich died in a motorcycle accident at the age of 33. Owens was devastated and found himself musically adrift with the loss of his longtime collaborator. The stress and depression from the loss forced Owens to give up tourning in 1980. His behavior grew erratic and a sobering reality set in; to a whole generation, he was not Buck Owens, founder of the Bakersfield sound. He was Buck Owens, Hee Haw yokel.
But rock and roll mythology is nothing if not circular, and all the greats are fated to rise again. Buck had inspired an impressive roster of musicians, among them Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Marty Stuart, and Dwight Yoakam, and they made no secret of the debt they owed their musical hero. In 1988, Buck Owens reached the top of the charts one last time, performing "Streets of Bakersfield" with Dwight Yoakam. And so the hero emerged triumphant after his arduous journey, long to be remembered as an artist, innovator, inspiration, and most of all, an American musician.

Sources: Rich Kienzle, Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Technorati Tags: Buck Owens, Bakersfield, country music

Thoughts on Pitch Correction

2006-03-22T10:22:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since we last posted. Most of our time has been spent finishing up the recording and mixing of Dead Language's new CD, Interwar. We hope to have the release out around the end of April.

Dead Language is a bit different from our other band The New Rags. Silent Stereo Records' philosophy is about trying to continue styles that have been passed over by time and society. So The New Rags do a great job with that by giving their own twist on ragtime. Dead Language's set-up is still mainstream (guitar based rock). But the difference you'll find with Dead Language's recording is the rejection of a lot of the modern digital tricks used to sweeten up an artist's performance.

Admittedly it's hard to know where to draw the line. You want to have progress and it's good to experiment. Looking at how The Beatles invented new techniques in the studio shows that experimentation and new technologies are not all bad. But one trick I'll say is definitely on the wrong side of the fence is digital pitch correction.

Digital pitch correction is using a computer to "fix" a musician's performance. It can be used on any instrument, but I think it's mostly heard on vocals. Basically you can program into the computer the key and scale you want to use. The computer then monitor's the vocalist's performance and adjust any notes that are not in tune. Or after a vocal has been recorded you can pin-point individual notes and nudge them into the right note after the song is recorded. The software can do a lot of other things too. Most can provide computer backing vocals and change the timbre of your voice if you don't feel like learning how to sing with different styles.

With this technology, we've entered a time when you can give a singing performance without being a real singer. In a lot a cases your success as a singer is based upon looks and charisma. This was true in the past. You could look at Elvis' success compared to Carl Perkins and say Elvis rode his looks and charisma to the top. There's truth to that, but at the same time all of those artists in the past still had real talent. The Supremes were beautiful, but at the same time those harmonies are real. The vocals are theirs.

Today, you can't be totally sure of that. Listen to a modern recording and when a vocalist hits a high note and holds it, is she really hitting the note or getting a little support from a computer? The technology has gotten really powerful and is so prevalant, you never know when it's used. I saw Brian Wilson a while ago, and it was a great show, but there was always a little tinge of doubt in my mind. "Did he really just nail that part or was he getting help from a computer?"

Pitch correction software is a short cut. In the past, a singer who couldn't nail a part would have to work through it. Do another take or change their breathing technique or just quit singing. Not anymore. They can run through a take once, and have the computer adjust performance for them.

A singer who embraces pitch correct is not a musician but more like an actor in a Hollywood blockbuster action flick. When you watch a movie you know that the actors are not doing the stunts. They're not really jumping out of an exploding building or racing that car 150mph. The moviemakers have created a fake world that when you watch the movie you buy into that. You suspend your disbelief; you know that Harrison Ford didn't really just beat up 4 guys half his age, but you enjoy the show anyway. I guess people feel the same way about entertainment personalities who portray singers on recordings. The person was digitally assisted in hitting the high notes, but the listener buys into the myth of singing created by the record producers. Well, I do enjoy a light-hearted Bruce Willis flick, but I would never buy a CD of him singing.

Technorati Tags: music, recording, pro tools

New Podcast Posted

2006-02-12T16:54:00.000-08:00

We're in the middle of finishing up Dead Language's new album, Interwar, but we took some time to do a new podcast. This one is devoted to the Mighty Hannibal. A couple of us here at SSR were fortunate to watch and back-up this soul legend a few weeks ago at the Delancy Bar. This show was a spiritually moving experience. Watching this 70 year-old man scream, sing, and work the audience, you just felt that this was the real deal. This is what real music is about. Something primal and emotional. But wait, on the 2006 Grammy's there were the "bad boys" of rock Aerosmith adding some raunch and power to the show. Well, not really. That was a nice parade of glossy corporate pawns. It's a great injustice in this world that The Mighty Hannibal will never sell as much as Kelly Clarkson, but after being a part of his show, I definitely know which side we are on in the war against plastic music.

So in honor of Hannibal, we've devoted the entire show to his music. After listening to this, go out and pick up his Norton Records compilation, Hannibalism!

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Technorati Tags: music, soul, hannibal

The Future Of Music...And Humanity

2006-01-30T21:35:00.000-08:00

Calling yourself a 'futurist' would seem to invite immediate skepticism; it's almost like calling yourself a mesmerist or an astrologer. But inventor and writer Ray Kurzweil actually has the bona fides to pull it off. Kurzweil, who by the age of twenty had developed a computer program that matched high school students to colleges, has been called the "rightful heir to Thomas Edison" by Inc. magazine. PBS chose him as one of sixteen revolutionaries who made America. So while you might be skeptical of the claims made by a self-styled futurist who happens to consume over 250 pills a day (to keep his body chemistry at optimal levels), his words do have weight.
Kurzweil's newest book, The Singularity is Near, makes a startling prediction: in our lifetimes, humans will transcend biology. According to Kurzweil, this event-the Singularity-will take place by around 2050. He envisions a radically changed world, one where there is no distinction between real and virtual reality and human and machine. Those of us who are enlightened enough to accept the Singularity (Kurzweil acknowledges that there will be subsets of the population that will resist technological augmentation and make due with their Human Bodies v. 1.0) will have millions of nanobots--microscopic robots--patrolling our bloodstreams, delivering oxygen and nutrients to cells, fighting infections, and stimulating our nerves. The stomach, heart, and lungs will be obsolete. We'll have the opportunity to upload our personalities onto the Internet or download the personalities of our friends or, for the ultimate in intimacy, our lovers. Just like the characters in the Matrix movies, we'll be able to learn new skills and languages simply by downloading the information into our computer-enhanced brains.
Kurzweil's predictions are based on two basic ideas: firstly, according to Kurzweil's data, technology growth is not a linear process, but an exponential one. Advances in technology don't gradually increase; technological advances start slowly, experience a rapid growth, then level off. Consider the airplane--Leonardo da Vinci made convincing sketches of flying machines as early as the 1400's. The Wright brothers made their first flight 500 years later, in 1903. In another 55 years, Yuri Gagarin was the first person to orbit the earth. Secondly, Kurzweil preaches the ascendancy of all things digital. Limited forms of artificial intelligence are already available and Kurzweil predicts a fully intelligent computer, complete with emotions, by the 2020's. Throughout his book, Kurzweil asserts that digital computation can "emulate analog processes to any degree of accuracy." We at Silent Stereo Records took immediate note of that statement.
Human immortality and the end of life as we know it are fascinating topics, but we wondered what effects the Singularity will have on music. Our mission is to preserve the true sound of music through the use of analog recording devices. Digital recordings, no matter how good, can never actually reproduce an analog sound wave; the digital points can only approach the curve of a sound wave. Thus, digital recordings will always present less than the true sound of the music recording. Or so we thought. I decided to write Ray Kurzweil an email and see what effect the Singularity would have on our own Silent Stereo Records. Here's what transpired:

Dear Mr. Kurzweil,

I recently finished reading your work and I am greatly intrigued by the
scenario you predict. As I am now only 28, I should hopefully be around
for the advent of the singularity. However, there is one area of your work that has a special interest for me--the "analog vs. digital" debate. I am part of a group of musicians who, despite the advance of digital recording techniques, are diehard fans of the "old" ways. In your
book, you state that "we can emulate analog processes to any desired degree
of accuracy with digital computation"(126), but how does this apply to digital recording? I'm no sound engineer, but my understanding was that a digital recording can never perfectly capture an analog sound wave; it can only approach it. Indeed, digital recordings sometimes have a 'flat'
feel to them not present on analog recordings. Does the technology currently exist for a digital recording to perfectly emulate an analog one? Or is this technology in development and will be achieved by the time of the singularity?
You use the anecdote of the digital piano gradually outstripping the analog piano in sales to demonstrate how one technology gradually supercedes another. At the present time, digital recordings are certainly widespread, mostly due to the relative inexpensiveness of the technology and the high degree of control the engineer has over the sound. But most major label
releases, especially in the rock genre, continue to be recorded with analog devices. Is this trend about to end?
If you have thoughts on this matter (and I presume you've considered it
because of your musical background) I'd be interested in hearing them.

Thanks for your time.

Mr. Kurzweil responds:

Douglas,

Digital methods can emulate analog methods to any desired degree of accuracy. Various analog effects can be emulated with digital sound processors. The piano presents a special challenge because of the ability to use all the several hundred strings (many of the 88 keys strike
multiple strings) to act as a resonant chamber when the pedal is up. This can
be emulated but requires a digital filter with hundreds of poles and that is
challenging. However, it is doable and there are currently reasonable
digital simulations of the full piano that fool musicians.

Best,

Ray Kurzweil

* * * * * * * * * * * *
So there you have it. Apparently, digital processes can fully emulate analog ones. Either way, we at Silent Stereo Records will not be deterred. In fifty years, we may be the sole purveyors of analog recordings, but to our simple, biological brains, that's the only way to go.

Technorati Tags: music, science, singularity,
future

In Memoriam: Wilson Pickett

2006-01-25T15:17:00.000-08:00

When guitarist Duane Allman, then a session musician at the legendary Fame studios in Alabama, approached Wilson Pickett about covering the Beatles "Hey Jude," the soul legend's response was "Skyman, that ain't for me. It's too weird." Considering Pickett's reputation at the time, it might have been natural for the legend to have some doubts about covering Lennon and McCartney's triumphant masterpiece. Wilson "Wicked" Pickett, was the dark side of soul, Hell's very own preacher. Whereas Otis Redding's quavering screams implored his listeners to try a little tenderness, Pickett's throaty growls were pure evil. As Pickett himself recalls, "Early one morning I ran out and hollered. My voice echoed down through the swamps and I thought 'Uh-oh. This is it.'"
Like most of the great soul singers of the sixties, Pickett started out on the gospel circuit. As a teenager, Wilson traveled across the South, adding his ferocious vocals to troupes featuring the likes of the David Sisters, the Soul Stirrers, and the Swan Silvertones. Jamming with Sam Cooke, Little Archie, and his idol, the Rev. Julius Cheeks, young Wilson realized that his voice, and especially, the "Scream," was something special. And when Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin successfully (and more importantly, lucratively) made the switch to secular music, Pickett decided to follow suit. Wilson was born in 1941 in Alabama and worked hard picking cotton --two days in school, three days in the fields. Although he moved with his father to Detroit in 1955 to find a better life, he remained in deep poverty. Secular music presented Wilson with an opportunity to use his amazing gift and provide a living for himself and his family.
Wilson's commerical singing career started when he teamed up with the Falcons in Detroit. The Falcons featured Eddie Floyd, a future soul legend in his own right, and with Wilson on vocals scored a hit with "I Found A Love," a gospel-influenced lament that reached #6 on the R&B charts. While still with the Falcons, Pickett started recording solo sides and sent a demo version of "If You Need Me" to Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records. Wexler loved the song, but decided to give it to Solomon Burke, crushing Pickett's aspirations.
But Wilson Pickett was not going away. "You couldn't fight the power in his voice," said Floyd. "Wilson was so aggressive, he wasn't going to be denied." Wilson's single "It's Too Late," --featuring the kind of spoken word interlude that Joe Tex would later become famous for-- reached #7 on the charts and Wexler took notice, buying out Pickett's contract. After misfiring with the syrupy "Come Home Baby," a duet with Tammi Lynn in which producer Bert Burns stripped all the poison out of Wilson's voice, Wexler sent Pickett down to his hit factory--Memphis's Stax Records.
At that time, almost everything Stax touched turned to gold, and Wilson Pickett was no exception. Reunited with Eddie Floyed, who now worked as the chief songwriter and producer, and introduced to the talents of Stax guitarist Steve Cropper, Pickett crafted some of his best known hits. The three men secreted themselves away in the Lorraine Hotel--the very same hotel where Martin Luther King would be assassinated some three years later--and emerged with "Don't Fight It," "634-5789," and the smash hit "In The Midnight Hour." Pickett was involved in all aspects of the process. "I wasn't just a voice. I had to be in on everything. The songwriting, the arranging, the producing. We did it all. Together. Live. What you hear is what happened when I stepped to the mike. Can't get no soul reading from a sheet of paper."
It would be fun to speculate what other classics might have emerged from the Stax-Pickett collaboration. But unfortunately, Stax owner Jim Stewart decided to ban all outside artists from the studio. So Wexler shipped Wilson off to the next most logical destination--Muscle Shoals, located in Pickett's home state of Alabama. Like Stax, Muscle Shoals was known for teaming up exciting singers with its magnificent house band, mostly composed of hillbilly white musicians. When Wilson arrived at Fame studios in 1966, he reportedly stepped off the plane only to see blacks picking cottons in the fields surrounding the airport. He wanted to turn right around and get on the plane, but fortunately he didn't. The Muscle Shoals sessions led to the grooving "Mustang Sally," and the chart-topping dance dictionary, "Land Of 1000 Dances"--which of course contains the most famous use of the word "na."
But perhaps the biggest surprise from the Muscle Shoals era was Wilson's cover of "Hey Jude." Wilson was criticized in some circles as being a less polished, and some would say, less versatile singer than contemporaries Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin. But with Allman's exhortations, Wilson was able to channel his muscular vocals and make "Hey Jude" his own. His vocal performance was both powerful and tender, in control and explosive, a worthy testament to the man who would begin each morning with a primal scream, a man who's voice, in the words of Stax trumpeter Wayne Jackson, "had that spark of insanity, that ability to transfer a slice of his soul to tape."

sources: Leo Sacks, Peter Guralnick, Richie Unteberger

Technorati Tags: music, soul, wilson pickett,
celebrity

Our Podcasts Resume

2006-01-23T20:51:00.000-08:00

A common annoyance with the web is the promise of updates that never occur. How many times do you see a cool site that dries up. It's always nice to see "Check back soon for updates" on a site last touched in 2004. So it bothered me that we kind of dropped off with our podcasts. Not that there is this great hunger for them, but we committed to doing them twice a month. But things happen and we had to put the podcasts on hiatus due to the holidays and some work commitments.

But now we're back with some great stuff. First up is a great track from Curtis Eller. Curtis plays banjo, and adds in some great yodeling. If that isn't enough, he cites Buster Keaton as an influence. Next we have a lo fi recording of Jaime Pannone playing in the NYC subway. She's been putting in a lot of effort finishing up Dead Language's new LP which we will release here at SSR. Last we play a track from The Mighty Hannibal. The Mighty Hannibal will be playing a live show backed by The Dansettes during the Reaction Weekender. I'm proud to say that yours truly will be playing in the band backing Hannibal.

Enjoy.
- Direct download
- Standard Feed Subscribe
- Our Odeo Channel (odeo/fe17353f32424fd5)
- Send in your questions, comments, and suggestions! doug@silentstereorecords.com

Too much freedom?

2006-01-18T21:03:00.000-08:00

We all read in the media how the music industry is undergoing big changes with the growth of file sharing and alternative methods for artists to distribute their music. In addition to distribution, artists can now afford to produce their music much easier than in the past. They can buy all-in-one digital recorders or use their PC to record music that can meet professional "quality" standards. Additionally, they can use loops, samples, and virtual instruments to layer on tracks where in the past, you'd have to have multiple accomplished musicians playing the parts. All of this takes up less space, costs less, and arguably sounds "better" than studio methods/equipment available to the musician of 30 years ago. In the past, you couldn't create an album in your bedroom. You'd have to book expensive studio time.

So on one hand, it is great that anyone can now produce and distribute music. Here at SSR we're anti-digital production, but we have to admit that everyone buying up digital equipment has allowed us to snag some tape machines at much lower prices because now they're considered "old and noisy".

But at times I wonder if constraints help create better art. Is it bad to have too much freedom? That isn't a very PC question to ask because everyone says "Yeah man, we want to empower everyone to create". But checking out most indie music, you'll see it's pretty much total crap. There's a great site we found from the WFMU blog:

Monsters of Myspace/

He reviews and describes some of the best crap found on myspace. Hopefully none of SSR's acts will wind up on this blog.

myspace is one of the new ways to distribute your music. After creating a free account, you can get your music out to tons of people. But I wonder if in the past with recording and distribution a lot more difficult, if that difficulty provided a nice Darwinian filter for artists. Mediocre artists wouldn't have the drive and talent to see their projects through. The mediocre artists would never have their music released to the public, and probably wouldn't have any music recorded for posterity. If getting into a recording studio to record 1-2 songs was more expensive and difficult, I'd tend to think that a band/artist would really work hard at perfecting their sound and material. Now, someone can boot up their computer, drag and drop a few loops, slop some keyboards down, post it on their band page, and they've released a song. Trolling through myspace, sounds like most songs went down this way.

Technorati Tags: music, art, recording

Another Good Early Music Radio Show

2006-01-13T06:52:00.000-08:00

WBWC in Ohio runs a weekly program called "1900 Yesterday". On it they play music from the early 20th century, stopping around 1930. All of their shows are archived so you check out any of the past programs. I've added a link to them in our right nav. Here's the url http://wbwc.com/viewSpecial.asp?section=6.

Also don't forget to check out WFMU's Antique Phonograph show for more acoustic recording.

Technorati Tags: early music, 1920s, recording

Live On Air Radio Performance By The Dansettes

2006-01-09T14:42:00.000-08:00

The Dansettes, a pop- soul band out of New York City, played a special live on-air set for DJ Terre T of WFMU. Readers of this blog might know WFMU for it's Antique Phonograph Music show, which plays music from the long gone era of acoustic recording. Give the set a listen and if you like what you hear, stop by The Dansettes website and check them out.

Technorati Tags: soul music, music, girl groups

Silent Stereo Reviews #3

2006-01-02T01:12:00.000-08:00

Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs
Marty Robbins
Columbia/Legacy

Although we at Silent Stereo Reviews try to bring you reviews of albums or music you may have missed, we also like to use this space to write about some of our favorite albums, regardless of their popularity, in the hopes of sharing some great music with our readers. And when it comes to popular albums and great music, there may not be a more enduring and influential album than Marty Robbins' Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs.
Appearing in 1959, Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs is a concept album, a collection of songs that captured all the faded romance of the American West at a time when America was on the brink of a fairly significant cultural shift. The 1950's were a tumultous time in American history, as the nation faced the specter of Communism abroad and struggled with the fight for racial integration within. In one short year, President Kennedy would take office, the youngest president ever elected, and usher in the beginnings of the Great Society.
It is perhaps fitting that the man behind this album, Marty Robbins, reflected the widely divergent directions America was heading in. Robbins was born in 1925 in Arizona and as a child was regaled by fanciful tales of life on the range from his grandfather, Texas Bob Heckle, who worked as medicine show man. Robbins life before music was a classic American story: he worked first as a rancher, then lived briefly as a penniless hobo, before joining the Navy in 1943. In the service, he learned how to play guitar and when he returned to civilian life in 1947, he gigged regularly in his hometown of Glendale, AZ. After signing with Columbia in 1951, Robbins released a number of successful country and western singles, but never limited himself to that genre. In 1955, Robbins covered Chuck Berry's "Maybellene," and in 1957 released an album of Hawaiian music, a style he grew to love while in the Navy. Robbins also had some success with straight ahead teen pop when he released the single "A White Sport Coat (And A Pink Carnation)."
Thus, when Robbins arrived at Nashville's Bradley Studios in April of 1959, he brought a uniquely American musical perspective to the sessions. The album was also aided by the playing of guitarists Grady Martin and Jack Pruett, bassist Bob Moore, and the subtly effective back up vocals provided by the Glaser Brothers. The track list for the album consisted of three traditional western songs, "Billy The Kid," "Utah Carol," and "Strawberry Roan," which Robbins played when he auditioned for his first singing job at an Arizona radio station in the late 1940s, four original songs penned by Robbins, one song written by the Glaser Brothers, and four other western favorites.
The songs on the album are haunting and evocative, perfectly capturing the sense of an era fading to sepia tones in the nation's collective memory. The songs are stories unto themselves, telling tells of love gone wrong, as in "They're Hanging Me Tonight," and spiritual redemption in "The Master's Tale." With Marty Robbins masterpiece Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs playing and your eyes closed, you cannot help but imagine yourself lying on the cracked and parched Arizona soil under a sky populated by a million stars, living a lifestyle that only survives in the dreams of a nation.

Christmas Music

2005-12-19T22:22:00.000-08:00

Below are some favorite Christmas songs. If you have Rhapsody, you can click here to automatically load the tracks in. I guess like any music recorded in the analog days, I think these classic Christmas songs have something special to them that I don't find in modern Christmas music. I know this is totally a subjective statement, but nothing of the last 20 years has made it into my list of Christmas classics. There's something about the old recordings--with the real orchestras, the booming reverb, rich choirs, and the reverent lead vocals--that really makes an impact. A modern recording with a glossy, crisp production and some sleigh bells overdubbed just seems so weak compared to these tracks. "Warm" has been overused to describe analog recording, but since it's Christmas, I get to trot out a cliche.

I wonder if in 20 years people will view 1980s-90s Christmas recordings as classics or if we'll keep coming back to these from the 40s,50s, and 60s. I think the recordings from the 40s,50s, and 60s represent the golden age of Christmas music and I don't think it will be equaled. Kind of like the Beatles and rock music.

Related to my posting on acoustic recording, I wonder if there are any vocal Christmas recordings done during the acoustic era. I'll have to check out the Tuesday antique music show to see if they play anything.

Merry Christmas.

1. Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee
2. Santa Claus Is Back In Town - Elvis Presley
3. Silver Bells - Bing Crosby
4. Joy To The World - Nat King Cole
5. O Little Town Of Bethlehem - Frank Sinatra
6. Silent Night - Sister Rosetta Tharpe
7. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Ella Fitzgerald
8. Do You Hear What I Hear? - Do-Re-Mi Childrens Chorus
9. It Came Upon The Midnight Clear - Johnny Mathis
10. Mistletoe And Holly - Frank Sinatra
11. Christmas Will Be Just Another Lonely Day - Brenda Lee
12. What Child Is This? (Greensleeves) - Mahalia Jackson
13. Frosty The Snow Man - Gene Autry
14. O Holy Night - Mahalia Jackson
15. We Three Kings of Orient Are - The Beach Boys
16. I Wonder As I Wander - Joan Baez
17. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Bing Crosby
18. If Every Day Was Like Christmas - Elvis Presley
19. The Christmas Song - Booker T. & The MG's
20. Christmas Time Is Here (Instrumental) - Vince Guaraldi

Technorati Tags: recording, music, christmas

Acoustic Recording

2005-12-09T22:32:00.000-08:00

Whenever you read about the history of popular music, things tend to start around the 30s with Bing Crosby or Louie Armstrong. That's all fine and dandy, but there were around 35 years of the recording industry before that time. Hard to believe but from the late 1800s to the middle of the 1920s there was an entire recording industry built around recording without any electricity. This is the ultimate analog recording experience, and we haven't gone that far at Silent Stereo. For now we're still with magnetic tape.

But the acoustic era was a fascinating time and it's something that is totally forgotten by modern audiences. How many people today ever talk about Billy Murray (not the guy from Ghostbusters), Ada Jones, Vess L. Ossman, or Arthur Collins? These artists are never cited as influences or mentioned in the "Top 100 Artists of the Century". Granted their styles are pretty far removed from modern music. It's the same as a modern actress being influenced by Lillian Gish. Gish's style is too drastically different to fit into the modern artform. Also, a lot of the records are not PC with lots of racist and ethnic humor. But we can't turn a blind eye or ear to our history; and it's interesting to hear how much things have changed in 100 years.

Like silents, acoustic recordings are a great window into the past to see what the public enjoyed. Also, the musicianship is impressive. No edits, no overdubs; just get the orchestra in the room and go for it.

Here's some great places to check out acoustic recordings:
http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/AP - Antique Phonograph Music Show (also check out Thomas Edison's Attic show). This is the show that got me interested in acoustic recording. A great variety of material- comedy bits, vocal numbers, and I've even heard some old exercise recordings.

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/index.php - UCSB just put an archive of cylinder recordings online. After you find some artists you like on the Antique Phonograph show, look them up here for more recordings.

Technorati Tags: recording, music, acoustic

Faded Americana: A SSR Look At Our Changing Culture

2005-12-06T12:57:00.000-08:00

The Fullback Era

On a brisk, windswept day at Chicago's hallowed Wrigley Field, a emblematic figure charged up and down the gridiron. After one run, a hapless defender was carted off with a broken shoulder. An attempted tackle left another out cold. And on one fearsome run, the ballcarrier burst into the end zone with such ferocity that his momentum carried him into the brick wall beyond the end zone. According to legend, the brick wall cracked from the collision with this mighty behemoth. Bronko Nagurski, 6'2'', 228 pounds, was the prototypical, all-American fullback. His responsibilities on the field were many: blocking, running the ball, catching short passes out of the backfield. He even passed the ball, throwing two touchdown passes in the Bears' 1933 Championship
winning victory. On the other side of the ball, he played linebacker, mercilessly driving his opposite numbers into the turf on drive after drive. Nagurski's battles with one such adversary, fellow fullback Clarke Hinkle are the stuff of legend. Although Hinkle gave up at least three inches in height and 25 pounds in weight, he matched Nagurski's savage passion and was nearly as versatile. In one epic clash in 1934, Hinkle pounded the ball upfield, only to come face with face with Nagurski. As he later told the press, his only choice was to "get Nagurski before he got me." Lowering his head and squaring his shoulders, Hinkle pounded into and through Nagurski, shattering the gladiator's nose and fracturing one of his ribs. LikeNagurski, Hinkle also played linebacker on defense, viciously shutting down not only the running game but the passing game as well. On special teams, Hinkle was the Packer's punter and place kicker. Hinkle and Nagurski were both consumnate fullbacks, dynamic players who each helped their teams in a number of ways. But their fullback brethen, while not nearly as celebrated, were equally as important to their teams. The fullback has been called 'the heartbeat of the offense,' and in many ways the position of fullback, which flourished in the 1930's, represented the larger American culture. The fullback's main job was to sacrifice himself for the good of teammates, using his size and exceptional field vision to block for the smaller tailbacks and quarterbacks. However, the fullback was pressed into a number of duties, depending on the situation. In some cases, the fullback was used in crucial short yardage situations, where his larger size allowed him to bull past defenders. The fullback also was asked to catch passes out of the backfield when the offense's play broke down. Oftentimes, the fullback also played linebacker, where his size and vision also served him well. Of course, many Americans in the 1930's could emphathize with the fullback; with the country mired in a deep depression, the population knew sacrifice, knew the value of hard, oftentimes unappreciated work, and knew the need to do whatever task the situation demanded.

The Fullback in Decline

After World War II, American culture began changing dramatically. The Depression was over and a new period of prosperity arrived. Rapid technological advances brought an unprecedented level of comfort to the average American citizen. In some ways these changes were reflected in the fullback position. Although this era produced a number of Hall of Fame caliber fullbacks, such as Frank Gifford, Larry Csonka, and Jim Brown, these fullbacks were more precursors of the modern running back than throwbacks to Nagurski and Hinkle. By this time, increasing specialization in both football and American society stripped the fullback of his myriad roles. No longer did players play on both offense and defense; running duties were increasingly handled by the running backs and fullbacks such as Hall of Famer Joe Perry used more of a slashing, elusive running style than the power running typically associated with the fullback. As the years passed, football teams began employing more of a "hybrid" back; a player with the size and strength of a fullback but the speed of a running back. Similarly, an increased reliance on passing brought more wide receivers and tight ends into the formations and in many cases they were called on to perform the blocking chores normally relegated to the fullback.
Now, the fullback position is a dinosaur, an echo of a bygone era. Many teams do not even have a dedicated fullback on their roster, instead employing tight ends or, ironically, linebackers in the role if need be. On teams with fullbacks, the player's role has been reduced to the bare minimum: block. Lorenzo Neal of the San Diego Chargers, widely regarded as the best fullback in the current league, averages roughly 3 yards per game; in contrast, the running back he clears holes for averages about 4 yards a carry. Neal realizes that he may be the last of a dying breed.
"If the position dies, it dies. But as long as I'm in this league, the fullback won't die. I'm not going to let my position die."

Technorati Tags: football, nfl, sports

Wildwood Condo Progress: Sans Souci R.I.P.

2005-11-28T09:46:00.000-08:00

Talk about not letting the door hit you in the a**. I just found out that motel I stayed at in Wildwood was torn down to make way for condos. The motel was the Sans Souci and it was torn down only a few weeks after we checked out. Our stay there was great and the owners were really nice. The motel seemed to be doing well too. We went in the off-season, but there were still a good number of people in the rooms. I guess that's the scary thing in that even if you try to avoid the corporate mega-chains and support a family run business, that really means nothing to developers who can throw around millions of dollars. So now it's time for the yuppies to move in and snag their 1 million dollar condos.

Here's a great photo album by trishylicious documenting some of the great architecture in Wildwood. Beautiful stuff, and sad to think it's all being torn down.

Technorati Tags: condos, preservation, Wildwood

Condos Killing Key West?

2005-11-18T22:34:00.000-08:00

In kind of a companion piece to the entry we wrote about Wildwood, NJ, the NY Times had an article today on the change occurring in Key West

The article talks about how Key West was once a low-cost vacation area that actively sought out gay tourists. But now with with real estate prices going up, the resort won't be just a place for the fringes of society. The article says that as more condos get built, people are worried about how the character of the city will change.

Read the full article here:
http://travel2.nytimes.com/2005/11/18/travel/escapes/18key.html?emc=eta1

Technorati Tags: condos, preservation, key west

New Podcast posted

2005-11-16T10:15:00.000-08:00

We posted a new podcast with some great music. First we play United Nations by the Drapes. The Drapes no longer exist, but the band contained members of The New Rags and The Dansettes. After that, it's a tribute to Patsy Cline with The Last Picture Show doing Strange. You'll recognize the vocals as Carolyn Sills from the band Boss Tweed. Their debut album is out now, so we highly recommend you pick that up. Last song is one from Mary Jane Hooper. There's not much about her out on the web, so she'd be a good topic for another blog posting. Also, we threw in an interview with Tom Merrigan from The New Rags. Tom has a couple of interesting things to say.

- Get the podcast here
- Podcast archive

Mae Marsh's Birthday

2005-11-08T21:04:00.000-08:00

"I didn't care about the money. I wanted to be a good actress."

Mae Marsh was one of D.W. Griffith's top actresses. Like her co-workers, Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish, she was raised in a fatherless environment. Under the father figure of Griffith, she became one of the first movie stars and had poems and songs composed in her honor. But by the early 20s, her career was winding down and by the time sound came to the industry she was reduced to mostly cameo and bit parts.

Mary Marsh was born in 1895 in the New Mexico territory. Her father died young, and her family moved to San Francisco. Bad luck struck again as her step-father was killed in the 1906 earthquake. According to Mae, she always wanted to be an actress, and she ended up following her sister Marguarite into the movie business. She started out in small parts, but got her big break when she took a part in the movie Man's Genesis. The story goes that the role was offered to Mary Pickford, but she turned it down because the costume required her to show her bare legs. Mae was asked if she would do it and had no problems with exposing her limbs. Now back in that time, women wore dresses down to their ankles. Soon after Griffith changed her name from Mary to Mae because he didn't want two Marys in his film company.

From 1912 to 1916 she worked for Griffith. This period was the birth of the feature length film as the transition was made from shorts to longer movies. She appeared in all of Griffith's groundbreaking feature length movies such as Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, The Avenging Conscience, and Judith of Bethulia. This period was also the birth of movie stars and the movie industry. As Griffith's pictures gained more respect for the movie industry and sold a lot of tickets, the various players were leaving Griffith for more money. In 1917 signed with Goldwyn as the company's first star. She went from $85 a week to $2500. This was the height of her stardom: Mae had a poem composed about her by the poet Vachel Lindsay, a waltz written for her by Sadie Kominsky (a female ragtime composer and maybe the topic of a future blog posting), and strangely had a young Ernest Hemingway writing friends that he was engaged to her (although Mae denies ever meeting him). Her pictures at Goldwyn didn't match her previous successes, and after marrying and having a child she scaled back her acting career. In the early 20s she re-teamed with Griffith for the movie The White Rose, and she also went to England to make a few movies. By 1925 she had retired from the industry. She was forced out of retirement in the 30s after the stock market crash. The Depression wiped out her finances so she needed to return to acting to support her family. In Miriam Cooper's book, she writes how she visited Mae and that she was so broke that there was no food in the house. Miriam was better off, and ended up buying her groceries. Miriam also says that her husband was drinking away the family's money, so maybe it wasn't just the Depression sapping Mae's finances.

Up until the 60s Mae acted in small parts. She lamented the change in the industry from what she saw start as an artform and then turn into a "match factory". She described working with Griffith as being part of a family and staying true to a vision, and admitted that as the industry changed she accepted playing cameo roles because she "didn't care to get up every morning at five o'clock to be at the studio by seven."

As for her legacy, Mae Marsh brings an excting screen presence to any scene she is in. You can see why Griffith took a liking to her because she definitely stands out and catches your eye. Miriam Cooper described her as not attractive in person, with more tiny wrinkles than a 50 year-old man, but someone who photographed beautifully. Mae has a specific way of moving and acting that separates her from other actresses on the screen. Critics may describe it as goofy, but I think of it as a nice contrast to the more elegant styles of Lillian Gish or Blanche Sweet. Where Lillian Gish appears very noble and a little cold, Mae is like the girl you would pal around with. As for recommended viewings, any of Griffith's major works mentioned above offer great examples of Mae's acting. Intolerance is probably her best performance, although the movie's 3+ hour running time can be a little daunting. Best to absorb that movie in chunks. Unknown Video offers Hoodoo Ann, a post-Griffith movie from 1916 that is nice light-hearted romp. It is in the Mary Pickford mold of orphans and rags to riches and is worth checking out. Sadly outside of the major Griffith releases, there aren't many other opportunities to see her work.

Technorati Tags: silent movies, celebrity, movie star

Happy Birthday Miriam Cooper

2005-11-06T21:10:00.000-08:00

Continuing in our series of tributes to Griffith actresses, today is the birthday of Miriam Cooper. Miriam appeared in Griffith's two major epics Birth of a Nation and Intolerance. Like many of the other Griffith actresses, Miriam was brought up in a poor household without a father. Her mother and grandmother raised her in New York City and it was there that she got her start in movies.

In 1911 when she went to the Biograph studios and found work as an extra in a Griffith short. She initially had to hide that fact that she was being paid acting since movie people and actresses were not highly regarded in those days. Her small screen appearance went unnoticed by Griffith so she started working with Kalem Studios. There she appeared in shorts and did all of her own stunts. Her roles were larger, but she received second-billing under Anna Nilsson. When Miriam decided to ask for a raise, she was fired. In 1914, she was back in New York City, and her old screen test was rediscovered by Griffith. After leaving Griffith in 1916, she worked primarily for her husband, the famous director Raoul Walsh. She was a reluctant movie actress and was itching to be out of the business, but her husband prodded her into appearing in his films since he liked directing her. By 1924 she had made her last film and retired from movies. After movies her personal life took some bad turns as she divorced her husband after finding out he was having an affair. Unable to have children, she adopted two boys. As they got older, they both sided with their adopted father and after they reached adulthood, she never spoke to them again. But she did invest her money wisely and was able to live off of her movie earnings.

I've only seen Miriam in Birth of a Nation and Intolerance. Her performance in Birth is a bit too detached. I don't think she brings any emotions to the role and with her sharing screen time with great actors such as Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, and Henry Walthall, she doesn't seem in the same league. Her performance in Intolerance as the friendless one is a lot better. There she plays a jealous woman who kills her lover and then frames an innocent man. In this role she captures the emotions of a person dealing with guilt and debating whether to let an innocent man die for her crime. At the beginning of the 70s there was an interest in silent film as movies became part of academia. Luckily before she passed away, she was able to finish her autobiography, Dark Lady of the Silents. I guess after the 70s interest faded and her book is now out of print. You can find copies on ebay, and it's a good read to see what the film industry was like during its infancy.

Silent Stereo Reviews #2

2005-11-06T20:57:00.000-08:00

Philly Soul Girls, Vol. I
PH-3
Philly Archives

(out of five)

Soul music is typically divided into two camps. Down south, you have the Stax/Volt sound, made famous by such luminaries as Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, and Wilson Pickett. Up north, the Motown vibe dominated, characterized by legends like Smokey Robinson, the Supremes, the Temptations, and the Jackson 5. Of course, though, the soul music scene is more than just those two sounds. Vibrant soul scenes took hold in Chicago (Curtis Mayfield), New York (Ben E. King) and Philadelphia.

The most famous members of the Philly soul scene are perhaps the O'Jays and the Spinners, both of whom ironically are not from Philadelphia and whose success came primarily during the seventies. The O'Jays, from Ohio, scored a definitive hit in 1972 with Back Stabbers, their first release for the new label Philadelphia International, while the Spinners originated in Detroit as a doo wop band, were briefly signed to Motown, and enjoyed their greatest successes from 1972-1977 after hooking up with producer Thom Bell, who is largely credited with developing the Philly soul sound.

Bell's sound, which was to define much of contemporary soul music for the seventies, featured rich vocal harmonies, elaborate arrangements, and lush strings. Bell made his mark on such hits as Jerry Butler's "Only the Strong Survive," Billy Paul's "Me and Mrs. Jones," and "If You Don't Know Me By Now" by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. But before Bell arrived, there was a different ethic at place in Philadelphia soul. Prior to Bell's orchestrations, the Philly sound was heavily influenced by doo wop and to a lesser extent, the girl group sound.

Philly Soul Girls, Vol. I captures that ethic, featuring 25 tracks (and three additional instrumentals) recorded from 1962-1965. All the artists on the disc were part of B & L Productions, which was formed in 1962 by songwriter Frank Bendinelli and arranger Leroy Lovett. Bendinelli and Lovett met on Broad Street in Philly and, discovering that they lived a few blocks from each other, formed the Ben Lee music publishing company. The tracks were recorded primarily at Sound Plus studios in Northeast Philly and highlight a good array of heretofore unknown artists--Patty and the Emblems, the Persianettes, Honey and the Bees, the Swans, the Ladybirds, and Ann Byers, to name a few.

The songs on this compliation are raw and emotional. There are no hints of the lushness or strings which Thom Bell would eventually use to define the Philly soul sound of the seventies. What the songs do feature are powerful lead vocals, omnipresent backup harmonies, and percussive horns, guitar stabs, and hand claps. Ann Byers' "Your Love is a Wonderful Thing" wouldn't sound out of place on a Motown compilation, while "The Hard Way," the sole track by the Butterflies, stands out as one of the discs most passionate tracks.

Overall, Philly Soul Girls Vol. I collects some wonderful songs from some wonderful singers that the music world has largely ignored. As documentation of the nascent Philly soul sound, this disc is a keeper. But perhaps more importantly, Philly Soul Girls Vol I is a reminder of the great number of good music and talented artists who never broke into the mainstream.

Finally... some ragtime from The New Rags

2005-11-03T21:28:00.000-08:00

Those of you who have purchased The New Rag's EP, Take Jennie To Brooklyn, might have noticed there isn't a proper ragtime tune on the recording. We've fixed that by making a recording of Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag available on the Silent Stereo Records myspace page.

In other New Rags news, they received a review on the popmatters.com site.

Happy Halloween!

2005-10-31T22:01:00.000-08:00

Your host Doug is back from the grave for a special Halloween podcast. So good it's scary!

Listen here.

your host Doug

Nice review of The New Rags

2005-10-18T09:35:00.000-07:00

The New Rags received a nice review over at bigstereo. They recently recorded a few Scott Joplin songs, and we'll be posting them on their myspace page. Also, you can hear a bunch of their unreleased songs on the Silent Stereo Records podcast.

Silent Stereo Sounds Returns Triumphant!!

2005-10-17T13:59:00.000-07:00

After taking a week off, your favorite radio host returns with a kinder, gentler show. This week's podcast features an instrumental track from Jay B. Flatt of the The Dansettes as well as some melancholy tunes from the Redvines and Greg Remillard.
Doug also pays a special tribute to fallen soul singer Billy Rand.

Check it all out here.

Happy Birthday Lillian Gish

2005-10-13T21:09:00.000-07:00

''I've never been in style, so I can never go out of style."

In case you don't know who she is, Lillian Gish was one of the leading actresses from the silent movie era, and also had a long post-silent career in movies and stage, appearing in her last movie in 1987. But the bulk of her fame came from the work she did during the silent era. She was born in Springfield, Ohio in 1893. Her father was absent during her childhood, so her mom pushed her and her sister Dorothy into acting at an early age to help support the family. She made her stage debut at age 4. In 1912, an actress friend of theirs named Mary Pickford convinced them to get involved in screen acting (like the Gishes, Mary also had supported her family through acting). They joined up with famed director D.W. Griffith and Lillian became one of his star actresses.

She appeared in a lot of his shorts, and in his two major epics - Birth of a Nation and Intolerance. In the 20s, she signed with MGM and gained creative control over the types of films she worked on. As sound came on the scene, her popularity faded, and she moved back to stage acting. She did start appearing back in films in the 40s and received an Oscar nomination, but she would never regain the starring roles she had in the 10s and 20s. She died in NYC in 1993 and never married.

To those who never watched silent movies or Lillian on screen, I think she brings a lot of elegance and class to any scene she is in. She definitely doesn't have a comedic or silly edge to her like Mary Pickford. Lillian Gish, with her doe-eyes, pouty lips and curled hair is probably the perfect example of a female star from the 1910s. Her look and style is definitely pre-flapper, with lots of innocence and no hint of rowdy behavior. A good introduction to her work would be picking up the Biograph shorts DVD if you don't want to take on a full length silent movie. Mother Heart is probably her best performance in that DVD collection.

- Lillian Gish Official Site
- Gish sisters theatre at Bowling Green State University in Ohio

Brian Wilson: A Tool of the Devil

2005-10-13T14:01:00.000-07:00

Although you may think that the Beach Boys are squeaky clean and wholesome. Their never ending summer was really a journey to the depths of Satan's heart. This informative and honest video talks about how Brian Wilson's supposed mental illness is actually a possession by demons (possibly 5 different ones according to the video).

Check it out here:
mms://66.40.9.62/goodfight.org/wmv/brianwilson.wmv

The rest of the site exposes other popular artists as soldiers of Satan:
http://www.goodfight.org/exposesnames.htm

You thought that in the 60s the Beach Boys and Beatles were trying to out-do each other's recordings, but actually they were working together to turn our hippie youth to Satan.

DISCLAIMER
Just to make sure there are no misunderstandings about this post, we here at Silent Stereo Records are huge fans of Brian Wilson and the above post was sarcastic. It's pretty unbelievable how this group equates mental illness to demonic possession. That attitude definitely harkens back to the treatment of the mentally ill before modern science.

17 thoughts on new songs

2005-10-13T08:25:00.000-07:00

I. You

Waves
Prisons
Ignorance
Heartbreak
Regret
War
Delays

Man is free but is everywhere in chains

And when you're finally free, when all the stops have been removed

Still standing in your way --- is you

II. Old dogs and new tricks

The wrong lyrics

Abuse

Routines

The safety of a prison

What's more difficult to learn something new

Is to unlearn something old

<>III. Hash House Harriers<>

Life is like a Hash House Harriers run...

It's not a race, it's a run

The course of the run is charted before it begins

There are many dead ends in the course to confuse the runners and only one path that leads to the finish line

All the runners, men and women, have to wear the same kind of costume, like a red dress or a toga, and load up on beer and wings before the run

The runners call out a series of commands during the run to direct each other

"Run On!" means "We're going the right way"

After several wrong turns down alley ways and sidestreets the pack finds the right path

The runners approach the finish line in small groups, there are no winners or losers or prizes given out

There's more beer and wings after the run

And the wisdom in knowing when it was time to "Run On!"

~http://www.gthhh.com/ Official HHH website~

IV. Come on, let's face it...

I admit...

Charity

a vacation

Indulgence

a donation

Everything I do

And I think the same goes for you too

Ultimately

Makes me feel good

V. Quote of the day

"It's as if we have an industrial-age presidency, catering to a pre-industrial ideological base, in a post-industrial era."----Thomas L. Friedman

'Bush Disarms Unilaterally', page A19, NYTimes, April 16th, 2005

VI. Officer friendly

Today I was flyering for my band on Ludlow Street when the paddywagon pulled up next to me.

The first officer asked what I was doing, where I lived, and why I was by myself.

I had to show identification.

Then I was written a $25 summons and told that if I didn't pay it in a month there would be a warrant out for my arrest.

I was told flyering is a quality of life issue comparable to urinating in the streets and public drunkenness.

The second officer was very nice.

On the way home I thought about legalism, the Luna Lounge, the state, sterility, the Whole Foods store and high rise that's ready to open on the Bowery, and the 16-year old East Harlem girl from Guinea who was recently arrested in a terrorist raid and is now in a detention center in Pennsylvania.

VII. Proverb

When in New York City,

You're either north

or south

of the Met Life building

VIII. Serendipity

8:07

coffee steam

honest words

paper gifts

a child's trust

subway proverb

fuerza

the L train

4:30

sound in my veins

today was

pure serendipity

I got a good look

IX. You came right in

like the 1/9

when the 2/3 passes by

lonely metal

glass

space

and time

keeps you passing by

X. Words of wisdom from my accountant

Don't let anyone steal your dream

There are two sides to everything

War will make any man crazy

Social Security started during the Great Depression to save us from Wall Street

Franklin Roosevelt saved capitalism

If you were drafted during Vietnam, you went through basic training the day after college graduation

In the army you'll find one of the greatest cross-sections of the minds, people from all walks of life

Of course there will be another draft

Some men just know life and death, life and death

Right to life, what life? Just so you can end up in one of their prisons or on their battlefields? They determine how you live and how you'll die

XI. On my way home

Started at 42nd

south towards Herald Square

the bells sounded at ten o'clock

arresting revolving doors

The April sunset

settled in my lungs

in my toes

the crunch of sand

in my Grand manmade Canyon

No cops

and at times, completely alone

with my eyes closed

down Broadway --- in New York City

There I walked

in the light of illuminated clocks

and the Empire's glow

towards the Flatiron's eternal fork in the road...

XII. Eviction

A man can survive the Holocaust

Emigrate to the United States

Run an honest business for forty years --- on the Upper East Side

And one day

Have his rent double

Overnight

XIII. Today

Today...

when I woke up

played my guitar

listened to Pearl Jam

went running in the rain

saw the dark clouds roll north and breathed in New York City

stood and watched the Hudson rise to the streets with last night's rain

I was thinking of you

XIV. Pick me

They're all up there

Making their bets

Doing their trades

Wagering, negotiating...about me

Sometimes they give

Sometimes they take

Never revealing their plan

Here at the table

As I count up what I've got and what I need

I'm humbled by their legacies

Out of respect, out of my debt

I remain a faithful player

In their game

XV. game day

What was once grass, mud, and sweat

is now

stage, breath, and sound

i love game day

XVI. Who's in prison? The prisoner or the guard?

A city on its way to work

Hurried footsteps pass

An enlightened mindful Darwin breed?

Or a mindless moving mass?

With clocks to lock in time and space

And praise for working hard

Makes me wonder, who's in prison

The prisoner or the guard?

XVII. 1:24AM

The press of a button, a car ride away, a subway stop. I have access to everyone I love. Music on my radio, a guitar on my bed, the world on this screen at 1:00AM. I have access to everything I love. When you heard of this place you dreamed up what life could be, what freedom could mean. And now, back again in New York, across the sky, do you see? All your dreams have awoken in me.

The Many Moods of Murry Wilson

2005-10-13T08:11:00.000-07:00

The legendary recording of the Help Me Ronda Sessions can be found here: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2005/10/im_a_genius_too.html

Murry Wilson (one-time manager of the Beach Boys and father of Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson) lovingly interrupts Brian as he tries to record his classic hit song and tells Al to make Ronda sound sexy. Besides the main attraction of an abusive, drunken, jealous father yelling at his sons other interests include a young Brian Wilson trying to produce a session.
Features both an edited and full version!

2005-10-13T07:19:00.000-07:00

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Destruction along the South Jersey Shore

2005-10-09T22:34:00.000-07:00

During the last few weeks, the news and public has been concerned with all of the destruction to cities in the US due to natural disasters (hurricanes). After returning from a vacation down in Wildwood, NJ, I want to make a note of some terrible destruction taking place by man. To give some context on the situation, here's a brief history lesson on the Wildwoods. They are 3 towns located on an 5 mile island off the southern Jersey Shore (a few minutes north of Cape May). The golden age of the resort was during the 1950s and 60s when many working class people from the Philadelphia area would vacation there during the summer. During this time many motels sprung up and they featured lots of neon, plastic palm trees, and names such as the "Astronaut", "Satellite" and "Bel-Air". The music scene in Wildwood was also strong with the city making a strong claim to early rock and roll with Bill Haley and the Comets debuting Rock Around the Clock there, and Chubby Checker debuting his version of Hank Ballard's The Twist. During the 80s, the area experienced a decline. But 40 years later all of the original 50s and 60s architecture was intact. I had gone to Wildwood during the 80s as a kid, and then stopped for a while.

In 1999, I returned for the first time in 10 years, and I was amazed at how much things had stayed the same. It was an amazing experience to be surrounded with all of the buildings straight out of the 50s and 60s. You'd rent a bike and drive down Surf Avenue in North Wildwood, and just take in all of the great neon signs, and swooshes on the building facades. The boardwalk was also the same, with totally unique mom and pop stores (no Starbucks or Walmarts). Nothing high end here; just lots of cheesesteak places and arcades. Then just a few years later, I guess the wealthy discovered the south Jersey Shore. I guess they had already overdeveloped the other beach areas so why not keep the destruction coming.

Over the next few years we'd see the new condos going up. Horrible pieces of work. They're described as "custom townhouses", but there's nothing custom about them. They are all beige, plastic looking condos with the same layout. Absolutely no character at all, and selling at around a million bucks a piece. The saddest thing is that they are tearing down tons of the original 50s and 60s buildings to make way for these condos. I just returned from vacationing there this summer, and the change is heart-breaking. The condos have wiped out so much of the area's charm. Where you would look down streets with cool architecture, buildings with character, now you see these monstrous ugly condos. And then you'll see a beautiful 60s motel with a sign up that says "New Construction Coming Soon!"

What can be done? Sadly probably nothing. There were efforts to try and declare the area a historic district, but I believe the architecture is too young to qualify. So even though these buildings had lasted for 50 years, that means nothing to a developer who wants to make a buck. I'm not even against new construction, but I think it's how the new condos have no character at all. To me Wildwood means a working class resort "stuck" in the 50s and 60s. They should embrace that and new buildings should reflect that design. But instead they are cranking out these monstrous bland condos that fill the lot and give plenty of space to park your SUV.

Driving down the shore, we'd had seen that condo cancer had hit all of the nearby towns- Sea Isle City, Stone Harbor, Avalon. They all looked the same. Same buildings, same SUVs parked in the driveway. Now the next thing is to start getting rid of those low class mom and pop businesses and replace with the corporate stores so everyone can get their Starbucks for breakfast. To me it seems so short-sighted destroy unique buildings. Why do people enjoy places like Cape May, Society Hill, or brownstone Brooklyn? Because they cared enough to preserve the flavor of the area. I think Wildwood could have been like this, but to me it's just another Yuppie sprawl.

Maybe there is some hope. There is the Doo Wop Preservation League. They are trying to preserve the feel of the Wildwoods, but to be honest after my last vacation there, I'm not sure they can win the war. They do have addresses of public officials so you can write them to see if they will lend an ear.
http://www.doowopusa.org/index.html

Here's an older article on the architecture style in the Wildwoods
http://www.architectureweek.com/2001/1031/culture_2-2.html

Not totally related, but still of interest. A site devoted to Castle Dracula in Wildwood:
http://www.darkinthepark.com/Dracula/cdHome/cdhome.htm
The castle burned down in 2002; some stupid kids burned it down.

So I guess we can all be proud of progress. Make sure you destroy the past and replace it with new material. Get rid of old buildings, get rid of drummers, and make sure to make quick buck.

Some photos

Coming soon! New Construction! Get rid of those plastic palm trees! We want condos!

Ah there we go. Much better! An SUV in every garage.

Unique signage? Cool buildings. Tear it down! (Word is this hotel will be demolished in 2006)

Silent Stereo Reviews

2005-10-01T19:59:00.000-07:00

A new monthly feature that looks at some artists and albums you may have missed.

The Early Jin Singles "Southland Rock 'n' Roll"
Ace Records
CDCHD 878

(out of five)

Maybe all the Hurricane Katrina coverage influenced me. Or perhaps it was the cover photo of some fresh-faced youths posing with drums, guitars, and horns. Most likely it was the teaser on the back of the disc, which trumpeted the music therein as "swamp pop." Either way, when I came across this disc in a used record store on Bleecker Street, I was immediately intrigued. Swamp pop, as it turns out, was a nascent breed of rock music developed in New Orleans and popular throughout Southern Louisiana and East Texas. And the number one purveyor of the swamp pop sound was Floyd Soileau's Jin Record label (named after his wife, Jinver). Soileau was the Cajun incarnation of Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton, the founders of Stax records, and like them, ran a recording studio out of his record shop. And more important, like his brethern up in Memphis, Soileau was committed to capturing the musical stylings of his locality, working to promote and preserve Cajun music. Floyd shrewdly noted that the local youths were trading in their steel guitars and fiddles for saxes and electric guitars as rock music began to take hold, and correctly guessed that there would be a burgeoning market for this new Cajun/Creole rock sound. And his Jin Record Label would be more than happy to meet that demand.
Once Soileau set up shop, artists and producers descended upon his Ville Platte record business to make a record with "Mr. Floyd." These young artists were influenced primarily by local legend Fats Domino, and in their attempts to emulate their idol, they created a unique--and quite commerical--sound. The disc contains tracks by such artists as Phil Bo, Rockin' Sidney, The Del-Chords, Rockin' Dave Allen, and Red Smiley and the Vel-Tones; certainly not a household name among them. And yet many of the tracks are surprisingly strong--high energy rockers with passionate vocals, blaring horn sections, and some nice boogie piano playing.
The compilation features thirty tracks, and while there are some weak numbers, the majority of the disc is worth a listen or two. The Jin sound in many cases is characterized by a very hot vocal track and on some numbers you can just see the needles pushing the red on the mixing board. My personal favorite vocal is Steve Rollins work on "Crying Over You"--he's giving it his all and his voice seems close to the breaking point. Other standouts are Rockin' Dave Allen's "Can't Stand to See You Go" and "She Wears My Ring" by Phil Bo.
When the British invasion struck, swamp pop music was an early casualty. Many of the top artists disbanded or moved to Nashvilled to try their hand at country. In a few short years, the swamp pop scene was no more. This disc offers a fascinating and satisfying glimpse into one of the many early regional rock and roll movements in America.

New Podcast Posted!

2005-09-28T11:30:00.000-07:00

Silent Stereo Sounds is back for the week of September 25th. Your host Doug plays a teaser track from Dead Language's upcoming LP "Interwar," as well as another rare Berries track. The show ends with an unreleased New Rags performance. Don't miss it. Listen here.

It's That Time Again!

2005-09-18T20:35:00.000-07:00

That's right...it's Monday and that can mean only one thing--it's time to check out a new Silent Stereo Podcast.

This week's installment features a great track from Cabinessence, a self-described "psychadelic country" band whose music certainly lives up to the band's Beach Boys influenced moniker. The podcast also features rare tracks from the New Rags and the Berries.

Check out the podcast here

Silent Stereo Sounds

2005-09-12T22:18:00.000-07:00

Don't miss this week's episode of Silent Stereo Sounds. Doug plays tracks from Danielle De Valesco, Boss Tweed, and Dead Language.

Listen to the podcast here: Silent Stereo Sounds

Silent Stereo Sounds, Episode II

2005-09-09T21:42:00.000-07:00

Douglas returns with the second Silent Stereo Sounds podcast and kicks things off with a track off Boss Tweed's debut CD. After that he interviews Silent Stereo Records artist Dead Language and plays a track from their first EP. The show finishes with Surf Seven Seas, the second single off the New Rag's EP.

"Interwar" Inspiration

2005-09-09T21:26:00.000-07:00

"Interwar" Inspiration:
1. Needles And Pins - Jackie DeShannon
2. The Weight - Jackie DeShannon
3. Wildwood Flower - Joan Baez
4. What Goes On - Velvet Underground
5. What's It Gonna Be? - Dusty Springfield
6. Knock On Wood - Eddie Floyd
7. Stay Awhile - Dusty Springfield
8. The House That Jack Built - Aretha Franklin

Here are the songs that Dead Language is listening to in advance of our sessions for our new LP, tentatively titled 'Interwar.'

Doug