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[musicmedkit-blog]

The May Singles 2022

In addition to albums, I have listened to a lot of singles this month.

I have listened to the very bad.

I have listened to the okay.

And I have listened to the best.

Here are the stand outs:

Best Snoop Dogg: Dog Bite with Alonestar and Fire RakaBest Pop: Gorgeous Gorgeous Girls - LilyisthatyouFunkiest: Poignant Pellican - Liquid Saloon - roi avivi

(Though it's more jazz, it smells of funk.)

Most Throwback Sound: Tempo - Matteo Bocelli

This track also has the distinction of being the best of the month.

[musicmedkit-blog]

May Summary (Albums)

I listened to a lot of Music in May, and now I am going to try and deduce the standouts. I will also include playlists to the music I found interesting but didn't finish, the albums that I listened all the way through to, and even a playlist of albums I hard dropped. I add this last playlist in case anyone would like me to reconsider some of the albums I did not have a preference for.

That said, let's find the best albums of May:

My Favorite: Carry Me Home - Mavis Staples, Levon Helm

How can you not? The great vocalist, the great drummer. Seems to foreshadow where we are now. This version of the last time takes a bog standard Stones number and makes it really low down and blue.

Best Country/Western (Best Live Show): Fire on the Ride - Jenny Don't and the Spurs

I saw them play a show with like twenty people in the audience. It went late, like late late because the sound guy kept trying to perfect sound in a barbecue joint. Here's a tip: if there are twenty people you don't need to mic every drum. We'll hear them. I just like western music, and this was a hard choice because Miranda Lambert's Palomino is up there, as is Brennen Leigh + Asleep at the Wheel's Obsessed with the West. But I got to give it to a band that put on a great show at a late hour.

Best Rap/Hip Hop: Street Profit - Stardom

The big news of course was Kendrick's album, which made my top list, but on reflection I found the concept and play of this one more interesting.

Best Blues/Rock: You Broke Me - Ghost Hounds

How do you play the blues (with a little rock and roll for spice?) This way.

Best Throwback: A Decade of Steely Dan - Steely Dan

Do you all not know a lot about Steely Dan?

[musicmedkit-blog]

What I have Blocked

Here are those few artists or songs that I just can't, in the interest of knowing where my limits are.

[musicmedkit-blog]

What I Listened To May 27 - June 5

I didn't keep as clear track this week, and I don't think I finished any albums, so we'll go interesting vs. dropped this time.

Interesting

Background Songs for Your Boring Life - Revenge Wife - Full Listen

Red in Revenge EP - Sophie Powers - Full Listen

Aja - Steely Dan - Sampled some tracks after reading a 33 1/3 book.

A Decade of Steely Dan - Steely Dan - This might be the best compilation ever.

The Enigma, Boundless - Sadistic Ritual

DDVS (Disco Doll in the Velvet Suit) - Marie Noreger

Carry Me Home - Mavis Staples, Levon Helm - This is a required listen.

Banish the Banshee - Isaac Dunbar

KMT - Jordy

Forest in the City- UMI

Dropped

Railroad Cadences and Melancholic Anthems - Jose Mendeles - Liked the single from this, but the drone and sadness got too much.

Q Side B Side - Quincy

The Shark in Your Water - Flower Face

My Checkered Future - Eichlers - Nigh unlistenable.

Crispy Moon - Warashi

A Room of One's Own - Sarah Alden

Kingo - King of Heck

[musicmedkit-blog]

In Praise of Feedback

2005, first semester of college, with a girlfriend and no driver's license, I went down to Eugene, OR to see Jello Biafra and the Melvins.

Two things around the show:

The local opening band was some kind of new wave thing, and sucked.

After the show, having taken a Greyhound there, there wasn't much to do so what little money I had was spent on a hotel until the morning because I hadn't planned that far ahead.

Relationship wasn't ever going to last, but try telling an 18 year old romantic (read: "sucker").

But what was sublime was the Melvins performance. Especially when they went off and played on their own. I don't know just what they did or what instruments they had, it seemed like some sort of flash-light theremin, but the loud sounds ground into my ears with a wonderful wall of feedback.

Rock and Roll especially, but music in general, has used feedback as part of the palette for years. The Who used it, The Monks used it, Robert Fripp certainly used it, Jimi Hendrix used it... and of course such strange bedfellows as the Melvins and the Grateful Dead used it.

In fact, it is between the Melvins playing around with feedback and the Dead doing the same thing that an interesting comparison can be made. Having seen the Melvins leave their guitars ringing and just letting the loop of sounds overtake whole venues multiple times (including once when the current bassist writhed around on the floor, cutting the laces of people who wore Converse specifically), I can tell you that this is an extension of the same thing The Grateful Dead did.

Sonic exploration can only go so far, I suppose. Speaking of which, Sonic Youth often used the technique to great effect as well, but they never quite transcended this one barrier...

Bands like Boris with their long drones also used feedback to excellent effect, but these studies in sound are more about color than extremes. I have heard grinding bands like Piss Horn that also use the static shock of the sound loop, but these often feel more like attempts to épater les bourgeois than honest attempts to deepen the sonic palette. (Debate over Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music follows a similar suggestion...)

But, just as even Frank Zappa always chickened out before playing that one strange, dissonant note that would explode his solos on beyond zebra, feedback never quite gets to the level of soundscape it could.

I think there is more out there, if someone were to explore in more depth. There's a barrier I wrote about before: and that's the dislike of so many for feedback. Consonance is preferred to dissonance, and feedback is dissonant. There is a wild lack of control in the best feedback, that swells and overtakes.

There is a clashing loudness…

There is a ringing that many people hate.

Not so myself. That's where the good stuff, the unexplored stuff starts. In search of a stranger, harsher sound...

[musicmedkit-blog]

Singles I Listened To 5/23 (Morning)

Good = Track to Listen to Again Okay = Won't Skip Not Bad = Didn't Skip, Wouldn't Seek Out Skipped = Not For Me

Good

Psycho - Satic & Ben El

Poignant Pelican - Liquid Saloon, Roi avivi

Turn Up The Sunshine - Diana Ross, Tame Impala

Nota - Eladio Carrion, NICKI NICOLE

Fvck Off - Bella Shmurda

Okay

X-Rated - Leon Thomas, Benny the Butcher

No Beginning - The Plastic Youth

Whatshisface - OSTON

Stay High - Precious, So Supa

For Me - Lil Maru

Throw a Lil Mo (Do It) - Erica Banks

Plz Don't Tell Your Friends I Cried - Luke Wild

Night Vision - Kiwi Jr

Blutooth -Blue DeTiger, Chromeo

Walkin Lick - FCG Heem

Naked - 2feetBino, Latto

Isabelle - Alba August

Cleopatra - Train, Sophia Reyes

Queen - Bulby York, Malica, Tanya Stephens

Southside - Lil PJ

Be This Way - Luh Kel

If This is Goodbye - Chicago

House and Leisure - M Field

Real Love - Ryan Mcmullan, Niamh Dunne

Understood - Built To Spill

She Is Burning - Boris

Skipped

the only - LeAnn Rimes, Ziggy Marley, Ledisi, Ben Harper

Dance When You Cry - Fiji Blue

splinter - spill tab

Trouble - sophiemarie.b

Sunny Days - Jehkai

Tallon IV - Volcandra

Woman - Omah lay

Bad - Zion Foster

[musicmedkit-blog]

Singles I Listened to 5/20 and 5/21 (Morning)

Good = Track to Listen to Again Okay = Won't Skip Not Bad = Didn't Skip, Wouldn't Seek Out Skipped = Not For Me

Good

Touch Away - Snoop Dogg, October London

Dog Bite - Alonestar, Snoop Dogg

Keep That Funk Alive - Lettuce, Bootsy Collins

Gorgeous Gorgeous Girls - Lilyisthatyou

for the girls - Hayley Kiyoko

Sophie - Myles Newman

Telfar - Ronehi, SGawd

Okay

We Don't Talk Anymore - Fanny

Sunset Over the Empire - Arch Enemy

Classless Act - Classless Act, Vince Neil (Motley Crue)

Faded Out - Asking Alexandria, Within Temptation

Angel of Business - Grace Ives

Come to Life - Shady Baby

FASHION DILLER - Tacihu, Tiago PZK

Skipped

Arrow - Goose

Body - 070 Shake, Christine and the Queens

Feel Something - Magnolia Park, Derek Sanders

It Is Over - Orden Ogan, Dennis Diehl

[musicmedkit-blog]

What I Listened To May 6 - May 13

If I finished them, they are interesting enough to listen to. Stars and out of so much is boring. My non recs are the DNF. That doesn’t make them bad, they just didn’t speak to me.

Albums I Finished

You Broke Me - Ghost Hounds

Open Bar - Pkew Pkew Pkew

Fortune Favors the Bold - 49 Wincehster

Dark Roses - Donna Blue

Adult* - Sasha Alex Sloan (*Single)

Phototroph - Moon Tooth

Mr Morale and the Big Steppers - Kendrick Lamar

I Think You'd Hate It Here - Greta Isaac

Interesting Albums I Didn’t Finish

Belladonna - Mary Halvorson

Nothing But the Truth - Beady Belle

DNF

Some Nights I Dream of Doors - Obongjayar

Hard To Be A God - Whitney K

A Trip to Paris - Paris Bryant

Higher than I - Earl 16

Bonnie Rides with Us - Adam Harding, Thor Harris

[musicmedkit-blog]

Singles I Listened To 5/16 (Morning)

Good = Track to Listen to Again Okay = Won't Skip Not Bad = Didn't Skip, Wouldn't Seek Out Skipped = Not For Me

Findings: most songs are not bad, but the really good are rare (at least this week). Many songs have an interesting sonic idea, but are often too afraid to explore them. Even Frank Zappa chickened out of some solos.

Good:

Welcome to Hell - black midi

Thin Thing - The Smile

Please Send of J.F. - Jose Melendes, Marisa Anderson

Michael - Remi Wolf

Okay:

Sugar - Amethyst Kiah

More - Rachel Bobbits

Hardcore - Allison Ponthier

This is Mongol - The HU

Tell Me Secrets - VIZE, Da Hool, Joker Bra

Butterfly Globe - Aleksi Kinnunen, Aki Himanen

Patria - Daniel Villareal

Dreamt I Talked to Horses - Katie Alice Greer

Not Bad:

Nowhere At All - Young Guv

Coming of Age - mxmtoon

Tired of Taking it Out on You - Wilco

Circus - Hellacopters

Fate - Triptides

Neon Lights - Loreen

Meet the Moonlight - Jack Johnson

Colm's Conquest - Secondhand Sound

Body Music (Edit) - Jennifer Vanilla

Midnight Delivery - Suray Sertin

Stand Over You - TG Kommas

Bring Some More - Lil Eazzy, NLE Choppa

Hold the Line - Bartees Strange

Vertigo - DREAMDVNR

Dying to Miss Out - Kim Tee, Ashlynn Malia

Free and Weightless - Billy Howerdel

Skipped:

Why did some of these even show up on my feed?

Breath - Todd Hall

I Ain't Worried - One Republic

IOU - Five Fingered Death Punch

Slaughterhouse - Motionless in White, Bryan Garris, Knocked Loose

Kong 2.0 - Steve Aoki, Natanael Cano

Triblend! - Dowser

Another Day - Lucinda Chua

Better By Myself - Lara D

Naked Intentions - Model Home

Tracksuits - KILJ

[musicmedkit-blog]

Fireworks, Calliopes and Clowns

Too Many Thoughts About the Dead

Stereotypes Beyond Onkyo

Before even understanding the music, the culture force that is the Grateful Dead is built in common consciousness on a stereotype. Rebecca Adams points out, in here “Stigma and the Inappropriately Stereotyped: The Deadhead Professional” that media generally depicts the followers of the band (known as ‘Deadheads’) “...as lazy, unwashed throwbacks to the 60's…” (1). Depictions in the media were likewise “more negative than positive. As a result, the cultural mainstream stereotyped and stigmatized these fans” (1). Because what we are presented with is taken as the truth, media depictions become reality. We do not need to know a Deadhead ourselves, as the television and other sources show us what we should expect when interacting with one. Roland Barthes explains, in Mythologies, how the myth of wine being the French drink ne plus ultra leads to the adaptation of that myth on a daily basis (59-61). The same is true of ideas seeded through the media: if the media keeps repeating that the followers of the Dead are a negative construction, then that repetition creates the reality in consumers that Deadheads must be just so– just like the repetition of Wine as the drink of France creates the impression that it must be so, making it real. Whether or not this is a case is the great crime that Jean Baudrillard writes about at length:

There is no longer a stage, not even the minimal illusion that makes events capable of adopting the force of reality-no more stage either of mental or political solidarity: what do Chile, Biafra, the boat people, Bologna, or Poland matter? All of that comes to be annihilated on the television screen. We are in the era of events without consequences (and of theories without consequences). (Baudrillard 157).

Baudrillard reminds us that this is “without a doubt a good thing”. The same must be true of the fact that meaning is now constructed in absence of the real. And that absence of a real, stable world is the shining truth that makes the ‘Good Old Grateful Dead’ so interesting. Their music and lyrics are indeed all about the ambiguities of modern life, they are simulacra of a world we could live in.

Consider, for example, “Cumberland Blues”, a song that paints the portrait of a miner that works in a mine known as the Cumberland Mine. The song addresses a paramour, Melinda, while complaining about the material conditions of such a life. This is an American folk song, made new by the careful lyricism of Robert Hunter, matched with the folk-rock of Workingman’s Dead. The title of the album gives clues to the sympathies of the band and the subject matter. But even though the character singing the song claims, “make good money / five dollars a day” he also goes on to reveal that if he “made anymore / might move away”.

Ambiguity in Dead Music

If the character said that he would move away, then the story would be certain. But that very specific word, “might” is what makes all the difference. This is highlighted in the final verse:

I don't know now I just don't know If I'm goin back again I don't know now I just don't know If I'm goin back again

The repetition reinforces the ambiguous themes of the song: “I don’t know” lines up with “I might move away.” The future is unsure, but there are possibilities.

This of course matches with the sonic musicianship that the Dead bring to their performance. While on an album the music is committed to being one singular version of the song, a kind of Ur-text that all other versions draw comparisons to like auditory exemplar of Plato’s Theory of Forms, the fact is that the Dead are really a live act that draws on the American jazz tradition of improvisation.

Here we must decide what type of Band the Dead are. Are they an electric blues band, as formulated by Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, the original piano player and front man? Are they the almost yacht-rocky cosmic country at home with CSNY or Gram Parsons? Are they a jazz band who plays rock instrumentation?

All of these, of course, are versions of the Dead, and many times a live show will feature several variations of the band. Though considered a rock band, the backgrounds of the different musicians blended many types of American music together. According to Britannica, the band were “Remarkably eclectic—their backgrounds ranging from electronic experiments and jazz to bluegrass, blues, and folk” (Santoro “Grateful Dead”).

The Major Players

Jerry Garcia was a banjo player to start (Garcia’s playing is for another time, but it is as virtuosic as it is American: it is all about re-interpretation of the scales), Phil Lesh swapped from horns and a mix of classical and jazz to playing the bass, Bob Weir– a cowboy dropout from Colorado– brought the cowboy aesthetic but also a deep love of jazz (especially learning to vamp from Coltrane’s Piano Player McCoy Tyner) (Slater). On top of that formulation, “Pigpen” brought the earthy, soulful blues that served the band so well in setting up the improvisation jams that they would embark on during their shows. According to Nicole Ronsenthal, in “The Tragic Death of Ron McKernan”, “Pigpen became a founding member of Garcia's jam bands, joining in 1961 in the predecessor groups that would lead to the Grateful Dead. The band's earliest sets centered around blues and R&B covers chosen by McKernan. He started playing blues organ, harmonica, and providing vocals…” going on to inform us that the transition from the early days to the Dead proper was when he “ urged the rest of the Warlocks [a previous name of the band] to switch to electric instruments” (Rosenthal). Without his input, the band would have never taken the older folk-style and put it through the electric blender that created the San Francisco Sound.

Of course, his early death also began one of the important pieces of lore linked with the Dead. The so called “curse of the Grateful Dead keyboardists” is a reference to how the “first four keyboard players for the famed rock group died untimely deaths – three of them before they’d reached their 38th birthdays” (Lehmer “One of Rocks Most Dangerous Jobs…”) Keith Godchaux ded in a car crash, Brent Mydland died from a drug overdose, and Vince Welnick left the band due to depression from the death of Jerry Garcia– leading to his suicide (Lehmer). This so-called curse may have been the inspiration for the death of various drummers in the backstory of the fictional band Spinal Tap.

Not knowing who you are going to play with certainly layers in the ambiguities of the music. You might be working with Bruce Hornsby one night, bringing on Branford Marsalis for a rousing rendition of “Eyes of the World” another night, and on a third night you might have to dial down to one drummer– the final piece of the Dead sound.

Whereas most bands stick to the convention of one drummer providing a steady, backbeat like pulse, mostly staying in the pocket, the Grateful Dead textured their rhythms with not one but two drummers. This was not always the case, it was only when Mickey Hart joined the band that the work of Billy Kruetzman stood out: two different drummers whose work complemented each other. Eventually they would learn to play different count beats over each other (Walker). Even this solid combination of rhythms was not stable: the Dead are all about what we do not know. What the Dead did not know, for example, was that his father, who he convinced the Dead to hire as a manager, embezzled funds of between $70,000 and &150,000 from the group (Walker). According to MusicianGuide.com, “Hart stayed with the band for nine months after the revelation but then resigned out of embarrassment. The Grateful Dead provided him with a stipend, however, and Hart received a three-record advance from Warner Bros. He used the proceeds to build a 16-track studio on the ranch that he rented” (Walker). Even though he was not a member of the band at that time, he was still considered part of the Dead family. This of course brought him back and by 1976 when the band began touring again, he rejoined and has been providing one half of the drumming in the Dead ever since.

So, even the members of the band are ambiguous. Even past the death of Jerry Garcia, the Dead in one form or another has toured. Now the part that the lead guitarist played is interchangeable: Warren Haynes, John Mayer, Jeff Chimenti, and many others have stepped into the role. Even Trey Anastasio of Phish has filled in the part, during the Dead’s Fare Thee Well celebration of their fiftieth anniversary.

The same is true of the lyricists. There are many. The Dead worked mostly with Robert Hunter, but a secondary lyricist in John Perry Barlow (one of the founders of the Electronic Freedom Foundation), and a large dip into the tunes of Dylan provide the core of their work. That’s without mentioning the standards from the American Songbook that are covered, along with various folk songs, blues songs, and classic R&B (an influence brought in original by “Pigpen”). You can’t know which musicians are there on any given Dead assemblage, and when thinking about the lyrics any number of diverse people might have put together the words.

How to Follow the Dead

So, the question remains: how do you understand the Dead? How do you put all of this historical information into context? How do you get into the Dead?

First, if you like the music, or the lyrics, of the themes – love, loss, libertarianism – they might have something for you. But the other way in might be through the culture that the Deadhead’s create. We started with the stereotype of a Deadhead. Let’s return to that idea now.

Adams argues that while tribal stigma usually begins with ascribed characteristics such as race and nationality (1). However, “membership in the Deadhead community is "achieved" or voluntary” (5). You have to choose to follow the Dead. She compares the Dead’s followers with another community, bikers, who are stigmatized despite the truism that only 1% of bikers are engaged in illicit activities associated with the Hell’s Angels (who of course have historical interweaving with the Grateful Dead, due to association with Ken Kesey and San Francisco's zeitgeist during 1960s) (5). The truth is that anyone can become a Deadhead, and the entry points are varied.

This “brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back” not to Howth Castle and environs, but to the question that looms large: what is the best way to get to know the dead (“By a Commodius…”). Surely, exorcism. But when dealing with the Grateful Dead and their oeuvre I suggest starting again with the ambiguity of the lyrics and the music. Think jazz: a musician plays a head figure, and then the soloists open up and play their variations on the theme, often made up on the spot, restating and reinterpreting the theme.

David Dodd provides an analysis of this ambiguity, in his essay on the possibility that this is a core philosophy of the band. Cumberland Blues, already cited, contains the “I don’t know” refrain, but the phrase works its was definitely throughout the ouvre of the band:

"I don't know, but I been told/ If the horse don't pull you got to carry the load"--New Speedway Boogie

"And it's just a box of rain, I don't know who put it there..."--Box of Rain

"I don't know, maybe it was the roses"--It Must Have Been the Roses

"Life may be sweeter for this, I don't know"--Crazy Fingers

"I don't know now, I just don't know/If I'm goin' back again."--Cumberland Blues

"Goes to show, you don't ever know..."--Deal

"I don't know, don't really care..."--Ripple

"Gonna get there, I don't know"--Row Jimmy

"I ain't preachin', cause I don't know..."--Walk in the Sunshine

"Sure don't know what I'm goin' for..." & "Never know now, just don't never know, no..."--Saint of Circumstance (Dodd “Ambiguity Essay…”).

Dodd includes this intriguing list after quoting lyricist Robert Hunter’s response to questions about the symbolism in his work. Hunter states “symbols are evocative, and if there were a more definite way to say things, you'd say them that way” (Dodd “Ambiguity Essay…”). The value, then in symbols and even repeated phrases is not indefiniteness. It is instead precisely because a symbol or phrase is evocative of ambiguity that it is worthwhile in music.

This continual reference to not knowing is exactly the reason to enjoy the Dead. Will they put on a show that is a virtuosic display of their musicianship? Will they spend an ungodly 47 minutes in each of their two sets playing the worst version of “Dark Star'' anyone has ever heard? Because the Dead hit such lows, when they are “on”, they provide such peak experiences.

In Dodd’s essay, he points out that this continual reference to not knowing results in “the band is taking a position in relation to authority” (Dodd “Ambiguity Essay…”). In this way, through repeated use of the “I don’t know” motif, the band highlights their central philosophical concern: freedom for everyone to act in accordance with their own conscience. In a very real way, the best way to get into the Dead is to want everyone to be able to access a resource (music) and do with it what they will.

Consider the tapers section at a Dead show. Because the Dead play so fast and loose with their own music, each concert becomes a unique and non-repeatable experience. Except you might be able to play back audio or video of a show. While you cannot recreate what it is like to attend a Dead show, the next best thing is to play back a show that is considered good. Attendees began using their own audio capture devices to record and then play back the music. Tapers traded the music with each other, building a network at first by mail, then through electronic means, of capturing different Dead shows and different experiences.

In an article in the New York Times, Joe Coscarelli writes “The Dead thrived as a freewheeling live act thanks in part to a word-of-mouth trade network of concert recordings, a system it passed down to its spiritual children such as Phish and Widespread Panic” (1). Beyond even the business sense of this word of mouth, there was a practical reason for encouraging taping. As the band was ambivalent about almost everything with regards to personal freedoms and liberties, they also did not want to tell people how to enjoy their music. Quoting Dennis McNally, Coscarelli writes, “‘To stop it would require security measures so draconian that it would ruin the ambience of the show,’ and the Dead ‘hated being cops,’ he said. Corralling tapers behind the soundboard, where they remain today, allowed the band’s longtime audio engineer, Dan Healy, as well the audience, to see the stage instead of being blocked by microphone stands…” It is this sense of freedom to craft your world around the flow of the music and the culture that is the best entrance to the Dead.

Freedom, of course, comes from such possibility. Just as the band focuses on not knowing anything for certain, they zero in on this American ideal of freedom. Such are the wages of Americana: to walk, in the Dylan sense, as an iconoclast down “so many roads”.

A quick glance at the Sven Bachmann’s Grateful Dead Lyric Concordance tells us that there are several important lyrics dealing with this idea of freedom. The cover of “Me and Bobby McGee”, for example, gives us the classic Kristofferson lyric “Freedom’s just another name for nothing left to lose”, while “Sugar Magnolia” compares the bloom of a rose to “ breathing more freely” (“Me and Bobby McGee”; “Sugar Magnolia”). The star-gazing “Stella Blue” reminds us that “it all rolls into one and nothing comes for free”. In “Throwing Stones” we begin to get the sense that we are all on this spaceship together, when Bob Weir asks us to “picture a bright blue ball, just spinning, spinning free”.

Consider also the refrain from the song “Liberty”, which begins by asking us “Bird, wouldn’t you rather die / Than walk this world when you’re born to fly?” then works that question into the truist reference to the freedom of a bird to fly. The refrain in question:

Ooo, freedom Ooo, liberty Ooo, leave me alone To find my own way home To find my own way home (Hunter “Liberty”)

Once again we are back to a core philosophical idea of the Dead. Namely, that we have the freedom not to know about the world, and we have the freedom to be left alone. We are at liberty only so long as we do not infringe upon the rights of others and they do not infringe upon our own rights. Everyone is free to take their own trip, if it doesn’t bring anyone else down.

In The Midst of the Yang is a Smaller Part of Yin

We end precisely where we start: “comin, comin, comin around / in a circle”, to use the phrase from “The Other One”, a dark epic about the freedom to live a life exactly as you choose. Because there is one other reason to get into the Dead, something that starts even with the symbolism of their albums. While flowers abound, and such things are certainly linked with the popular perception of San Francisco, the Dead have an undercurrent of darkness throughout their work. Consider, for example, the famous “steal your face” symbol:

(Stanley and Thomas Lightning Skull)

The symbol balances red and blue in opposition, like the taijitu symbol (the “yin-yang”). That former symbol, which is discretely referenced here, alludes to the idea that in the darkness there is a little bit of light. In the light there is a little bit of darkness as well. Indeed, the addition of a skull works as a kind of memento mori, a reminder that you will certainly die.

That motif of certain death, inevitable in all things, runs throughout the work. Although they balance it with lightness, the main turn in a Dead lyric is a negative one: “Every silver lining has a touch of grey” (“Touch of Grey”).

“The Other One”, for example, starts with the story of a man condemned to death:

The other day they waited, the sky was dark and faded, Solemnly they stated, "He has to die, you know he has to die."

As you might expect from a band named after the folkloric concept of the Grateful Dead (“the spirit of a deceased person who bestows benefits on the one responsible for his burial”), the focus towards death and dying in the lyrics is incessant. Counterpoint this with improvisational melodies that tend towards a high and sweet key, you get an interesting juxtaposition when a mellifluous voice sweetly sings: “Just want to have a little peace to die” (“Black Peter”).

The Dead, in lyrics and in music, is all about contradiction and counterpoint. It’s a jazz band, an Americana band, a jug band, its own orchestra, a rhythm section filled with devils, a blues band, at times breaking into funk. I haven’t even explained the cosmic voyages of space which are an either or preposition of taking you to some other worlds or time to go get another beer and use the restroom. That’s not to mention the culture of the vendors outside the shows, the people that follow the band, or even the bands that have adopted the same model. (Even Pearl Jam looked to the Dead as an example in their fight with Ticketmaster) (Tschmuck).

Conclusion

By mixing ambiguity in lyrics (a refusal to know anything but to suspect a lot) with an improvisational quality of jazz departures from a static tune, the Dead only reinforce over and over what makes them so interesting. Yes, there is darkness, but you can “light a candle, curse the glare” (“Touch of Grey”). Note that even there, too, there is a negative connotation to brightening up the gloom. All things in balance.

What the Dead really do is give you room, when interacting with their shows, with their fans, with their lyrics, with their art, and with their music– room to be your own self. So we end with an idea that the Dead are about personal choice and that you can only really get into them if you want to. They won’t mind if you don’t. After all, as the Grateful Dead sing (in a song borrowed from Bob Dylan):

Leave your stepping stones behind, something calls for you Forget the dead you’ve left, they will not follow you The vagabond who’s rapping at your door Is standing in the clothes that you once wore Strike another match, go start anew And it’s all over now, Baby Blue (Dylan)

Works Cited

Adams, Rebecca. “Stigma and the Inappropriately Stereotyped: The Deadhead Professional.” Sociation Today, vol. 1, no. 1, 2003. http://www.ncsociology.org/sociationtoday/deadhead.htm.

Bachmann, Sven. “Grateful Dead Lyric Concordance.” The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics, Oct. 1996, http://artsites.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/gdconc.html#d.

Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. Macmillan, 1972.

Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. University of Michigan Press, 1994, p. 157, https://0ducks.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/simulacra-and-simulation-by-jean-baudrillard.pdf. Accessed 12 May 2022.

“By a Commodius Vicus of Recirculation.” FinnegansWiki, 1 July 2020, https://www.finnegansweb.com/wiki/index.php/By_a_commodius_vicus_of_recirculation. Accessed 12 May 2022.

Coscarelli, Joe. “‘Tapers’ at the Grateful Dead Concerts Spread the Audio Sacrament.” New York Times, 5 July 2015, https://teachrock.org/wp-content/uploads/Station-1-Grateful-Dead-Tapers.pdf.

Dead, Grateful, et al. Me and Bobby McGee. Warner Bros., 24 Sept. 1971.

Dodd, David. “Ambiguity Essay for Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics.” The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics, 11 Apr. 1995, http://artsites.ucsc.edu/GDead/AGDL/ambig.html. Accessed 12 May 2022.

---. “The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics, by David Dodd.” The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics, 16 June 2007, http://artsites.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/gdhome.html. Accessed 12 May 2022.

Dylan, Bob. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue. Columbia, 22 Mar. 1965.

Grateful Dead. Black Peter. Bob Matthews - Betty Cantor - Grateful Dead, 14 June 1970.

---. Stella Blue. Grateful Dead, 15 Oct. 1973.

---. Sugar Magnolia. Warner Bros. records, 1 Nov. 1970.

---. That’s It for the Other One. Warner Brothers -Seven Arts, 18 July 1968.

---. Throwing Stones. Jerry Garcia - John Cutler , 6 July 1987.

---. Touch of Grey. Arista, 6 July 1987.

Hunter, Robert and Grateful Dead. Liberty. Relix Records, 1987.

Lehmer, Larry. “One of Rock’s Most Dangerous Jobs: Playing Keyboards for the Grateful Dead.” Before Their Time, 24 Sept. 2012, https://whenwordsmatter.typepad.com/before_their_time/2012/09/its-sometimes-called-the-curse-of-the-grateful-dead-keyboardists-the-first-four-keyboard-players-for-the-famed-rock-group-d.html#:~:text=It’s%20sometimes%20called%20%22the%20curse,not%20have%20happened%20at%20all. Accessed 12 May 2022.

Rosenthal, Nicole. “The Tragic Death of Ron ‘Pigpen’ McKernan.” Grunge, 3 Oct. 2020, https://www.grunge.com/256177/the-tragic-death-of-ron-pigpen-mckernan/. Accessed 12 May 2022.

Santoro, Gene. “Grateful Dead.” Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Grateful-Dead. Accessed 12 May 2022.

---. “Grateful Dead.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 9 Feb. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Grateful-Dead. Accessed 12 May 2022.

Slater, Rob. “Watch: Bob Weir Talks His Musical Role in the Grateful Dead.” Relix, Aug. 2015, https://relix.com/blogs/detail/watch_bob_weir_talks_his_musical_role_in_the_grateful_dead/. Accessed 12 May 2022.

Stanley, Owsley, III, and Bob Thomas. Lightning Skull. 1969.

Tschmuck, Peter. “Ticket Masters – Part 3: The Ticketmaster’s Challenge: The Grateful Dead, Pearl Jam and String Cheese Incident.” Music Business Research, Sept. 2011, https://musicbusinessresearch.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/ticket-masters-part-3-the-ticketmaster%E2%80%99s-challenge-the-grateful-dead-pearl-jam-and-string-cheese-incident/.

van der Vossen, Bas. “Libertarianism.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2019, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/libertarianism/#LeftRight. Accessed 12 May 2022.

Walker, Bruce. “Mickey Hart Biography.” Musician Guide, 2022, https://musicianguide.com/biographies/1608003421/Mickey-Hart.html. Accessed 12 May 2022.

[musicmedkit-blog]

What I Listened To May 6 - May 13

What I Listened to April 29 - May 6 2022

If I finished them, they are interesting enough to listen to. Stars and out of so much is boring. My non recs are the DNF. That doesn’t make them bad, they just didn’t speak to me.

Albums I Finished

Hit & Run - Dog Party

Fire on the Ridge - Jenny Don’t and the Spurs

Love in the Time of Low Expectations - Sahara Hotnights

Street Profit- Stardom

Just as Poor as Before - Lazy Afternoon

Obsessed with the West - Brennen Leigh, Asleep at the Wheel

The Thousand Order - The Thousand Order

Forest City - Maria Chiara Argiro

Interesting Albums I Didn’t Finish

Rashioman - Ibaraki

Grow Up - Chateau Chateau

From Lust Till Dawn - Raheem DeVaughn

Incantation - Emma Rawicz

Black Eye - Black Eye

DNF

Totally... - Stöner

How I’d Like It to Fade - Ea Othilde

Interpret It Well - Chloe Smith

We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong - Sharon Van Eaton

Identity Crisis - Matt Simons

Radiate Like This - Warpaint

Grotto - Wilma Vritra

Pray for Evil 3 - Flee Lord, Mephux

[musicmedkit-blog]

Singles I Listened To 5/9 (Morning)

One-two sentence reviews of singles. DNF where noted as “skipped”.

Calling You - Allysha Joy, Ego Ella May - Low tempo, grooving bass, sultry vocals. Chill out vibe.

I Am Her - Alaska Thunderfuck, Ts Madison - Queer throwback rap. Super positive, but probably throwaway.

Cherry Sorbet - Dixson, Sevyn Street - Skipped.

Final Notice - Willow Kayne - Skipped.

Tend Your Garden - Mapache - Sounds like someone listens to to much CSN and missed the fun parts. The band might be interesting, but this song just... isn’t.

Shawty - Max Chapman, George Smeddles - Danceable house to trance out to.

Western Wind - Carly Rae Jepson - The musicianship is really good her, but the song is destined to be played as a deep cut when you’re in the dentist’s chair.

Venom of Venus )The Monumental Mass) - Silly symphonic metal. Marred by the fact that the last three seconds are clearly a lead in to another track.

777 - Charles Ans, Bcn, Lefty Sm - I don’t know enough Spanish to way in on this.

Peaches & Cream - Noah Davis- Skipped. Lazy.

THEY DON’T KNOW - Dro Kenji - Sounds like every throwaway pop-rap song.

Telly Bag - BAYLI - Fine pop. 

DEEP (feat. Nono) - Example, Bou, Nono - Skipped.

Queen - Meagan de Lima - Skipped.

There’s Nobody There - Velvet Starlings - Pop psychedelic rock feel, like incense and peppermints. Low fi with a hooky motif.

Wavy - Izzy -- By contrast, this is perfectly fine modern reggae. Meaningless dance tune though.

Some People Take Two - Dowser - Skipped.

The Old Style Raiders - Jamie T. - Fine brit pop, worth a listen.

NEVER RIDE - MashBeats, Thato Saul Maglera Doe Boy - Again, not enough Spanish to understand all the words, but pretty hooky.

Tempo - Matteo Bocelli - Has a classic vibe to it, modern production but a crooner kinda feel. The snaps really work for the beat here, as does the instrumentation.

[musicmedkit-blog]

What I Listened to April 29 - May 6 2022

If I finished them, they are interesting enough to listen to. Stars and out of so much is boring. My non recs are the DNF. That doesn’t make them bad, they just didn’t speak to me.

Albums I Finished

Colorful Trauma - WOODZ

Palomino - Miranda Lambert

Blues for the Red Son - Kyuss

The edbl x Kazuki Sessions -  edbl, Kazuki Isogai

Superstar - Mall Girl

Entre Mes Insomnes - Bronswick

Interesting Albums I Didn’t Finish

The Bees - Frog Eyes

Ockham’s Blazer - Ockham’s Blazer

My - Miyeon

Fierce Bliss - Ann Wilson

Happiness, Guaranteed - Mansionair

DNF

Dungeon Master - Gus Englehorn

Forgotten Dreams - The Land Below

Burnout - Ethan Woods

[musicmedkit-blog]

On The Threshold of a Better Love Song -- Blues Moods and Obsessions -- A Draft

Perhaps you’ve heard, through the crackling static of the radio, the almost interminable drawl “nights in white sati-i-i-i-i-n, never reaching the eh-he-eh-end”...  God! That song goes on forever. But, like any song that is overplayed, there is a reason for the popularity. At the core it is a standard pop-rock ballad. More pop than rock, more ballad than anything else. It’s a torch song. Like any other torch song-- all hung up on wanting to be with someone. (It’s always worth it to note that in almost every love song, the object of the affection is just that: an object. Songs about mutual love are few and far between: and I cannot think of any right now.) 

We’ve always loved these stalkerish kind of pop songs all the way from Stuck on You to Despacito. The object of affection is never subject to their own being: they are always defined as an object. It is a telling problem in popular love songs that we often forget to view other people as any more than something to be won. Perhaps there are good songs to come that bear in mind bell hooks’ reminder of Freire’s belief: “We cannot enter the struggle as objects, to later becomes subjects.”

Even intelligent bands with cleverly crafted lyrics and high-minded ideals seem to fall pray to the tropes of love songs. Take “On the Threshold of a Dream,” which has the change to move beyond the ego-directed “I love you/object” of standard rock and roll. Unfortunately, as anything but standard rock/pop mythology (in the Barthes sense) it fails to do anything new[1].

Taking a glance at the first side of “On the Threshold of a Dream”[2], we see a narrative develop even in the titles:

1. “In the Beginning”

2. “Lovely to See You”

3. “Dear Diary”

4. “Send Me No Wine”

5. “To Share Our Love”

6. “So Deep Within You”.

The first song is really a clever poem by drummer Graeme Edge that illustrates how thoughts and dreams begin in a world dominated by technology. Almost prescient, ne? 

From this strange clicking and clacking utopia, where we are told to “keep as cool as we can” by the Inner Man, we move into a welcomingly naive love song. This is not the stalkery love songs that urge on obsession, where the singer repeats the word “love” over and over again as if trying to prove to himself that its true (see, for example, “Nights in White Satin”). This second song is about finding a friend to stand with, a person to speak with, to find companionship. 

“Walk along with me to the next bend,” is the refrain. This song starts in friendship and asks the friend to even the score. This song asks the friend to describe their own thoughts and visions. This is closer to a mutual love.

The side moves on to “Dear Diary”, where some character speaks about what is going on in the world. They write down that other people are different, they write down that each day is the same, they write down that they feel special compared to everyone else. The whole thing is an exercise in saying anything but what is important: much like a middle school student composing an essay on something that happened in their lives. The only truly incendiary information in the song (if you pardon the pun, or if you don’t) is the ending where one event that the character has been writing lightly around is revealed:

“Somebody exploded and H-bomb today / But it wasn’t anyone I knew.”

It is so hard to actually communicate with people, after all. Perhaps that’s why it is easier to make demands in a love song than show mutual understanding. The next song slips back into that mold

“Send Me No Wine” at first seems to be saying that it’s narrator needs to tokens of love. The text of the song says that the narrator needs no token, or even conversation in order to find love. What is telling is that the song demands that the unaddressed other who might send the wine isn’t giving *their* love. “Give me my love,” the song demands. Send me wine, the song argues, and that becomes a substitute for love. Therefore, do not send me any wine, any tokens of affection. Allow me to simply be in love with you.

Now we’re right back to the problem with torch songs: they are as obsessive as Taylor Swift is with whatever diss track she comes up with next. The next song almost arrives at a solution. The title “To Share Our Love” suggests an openness to a mutual admiration and affection. Then we get to the lyrics: suffice it to say that the whole openness to sharing love is all about the narrator discovering this. That is to say, the song is once again about the ego.

“I want to feel the love so deep within you,” should have allowed the objection of affection something more than the same crisis of the adored object of previous songs. Instead, it falls into the romantic pre-Shakespearean mistake of blazon.

There is nothing inherently wrong with a song that sees love from only one point of view. Not every narrator or singer needs to be in a place where they can find a mutual love based on *not* reducing the loved person into an affection object. If we are looking for a new model of love/torch song that allows for more than obsession, “On the Threshold of a Dream” does not work.

However, we have one song that provides a method forward. “Lovely to See You” at least asks what a friend has done, and is interested in their experiences.  the song is from the late sixties. We’re decades past this thought. Shouldn’t we have moved on from this-- already written songs about friendship and healthy romances-- instead of propelling songs to number one with the clear and continuing sexist message that the singer’s objectification is valid?

And it’s not really that much better that of the top 3 Billboard songs (as of 9/29/17), the theme of one is that if a man is not speaking to a woman she has no value, the other glorifies using women as objects instead of considering them real people, the only one close to saying something is a song that as a diss track is weak and meandering.

Actually, if we ignore that Kanye/Katy Perry speculation and look at the song as a response to anyone being turned into an object-- a struggle to free themselves from the definitions and restrictions of others -- (with the caveat that the chorus is weak and overly repeated) the song is lyrically a good response to the objectification that is still too much in vogue in pop music[3].

[1] Except for, as noted below, the second song, At least that allows for platonic, friendly love that is mutual.

[2] Threshold itself has romantic connotations, as in “crossing the threshold”. Of course, there are myth ideas as well-- one could easily consider the whole album on a Campbellian Hero’s Journey model. Marriage itself does seem open to being modeled on the Campbellian model, with the participants entering into a new world.

[3]So I guess I could throw a little less shade at T. Swift. 

[musicmedkit-blog]

The Album Unicorn by Tyrannosaurus Rex.

T. Rex is best known for glam metal, the screaming sound of Marc Bolan's guitars (and, at my most capricious, I imagine his screaming sound as he died in a car crash whilst being driven by the best performer of one of my most favorite northern soul song. How prescient that he called his last album Dandy in the Underworld.). But his roots in English rock and psychedelic music run far deeper than turning on some amps and instructing listeners to thrust a meaty drumstick against a large, loud bronze sound making object and then begin copulating.. This is more than evident in Unicorn, which is my personal favorite of Bolan's output, not least because it features much more mythological and romantic influence than the most successful part of his career would. Somewhere between a falsetto Dylan and an albeit-just-too-literary Donovan is this entry into the word of folk/psych/rock. The album even features the full name of T. Rex before the short form became an entirely new sort of band. Here we have Marc Bolan collaborating with Steven Peregrine Took. The music is acoustic guitar and various types of percussion played by the two men, and it sounds like they were given the keys to the studio because being only two, they could not do much damage. 

And oh, the way they title the tracks! My personal favorites are the title track "She Was Born to Be My Unicorn", which features the trademark reverb heavy vocals that seep throughout this album, and some lyrics that come directly out of an intelligent if awkward high schooler's visions of a pretentious rock opera. This is followed by another favorite, the fadeout to side one, "Like a White Star, Tangled and Far, Tulip That's What You Are". I just like to say the title out loud, but the music follows through, making an awkward verbal construction seem meaningful. This is romantic rock and roll at its most sublime: a man, a guitar, another man, a bongo, and the creation of some tranced-out folk influenced mystical music. The whole album, which feels like an initiation into a strange cult that upholds Blake and Wordsworth above Mick Jagger and/or the old blues men the best rock and roll rips off, is one of my personal favorite entries into the loose association of musical acts called the British Underground. 

See Also:

Arthur Brown

Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band

Gong

Hawkwind

Pink Fairies

And so on. 

[musicmedkit-blog]

From September 1956 - Sellers, Seacombe and Milligan doing what they did best.

Sure, it's been a while, but days don't occur linearly anyways. So this is number 9. Avoiding the Beatles, except that this is clearly an important influence. Let's talk about The Goon Show. And novelty records. After all, rock and roll is pretty much a novelty act, right? It's for mentally disturbed adults and children who haven't grown up and become civilized enough to sit through a performance of Nixon in China or Les Miserables and take it seriously. Because that stuff is high art, not lunatic shit made for sophomoric men-and-women-children.  Since we all know how to appreciate those things, after all, being adults we are expected to, it is important that the one thing we don't do here is actually listen to these sorts of children records (like Free Jazz). Either way, what I mean is that the Goons hold a very special place not just in the culture of comedy-- especially absurdist comedy (influencing people like Monty Python, Firesign Theatre, you get the idea-- but also within rock and roll. And this track just may be the key. If you aren't familiar, The Goons, who are all that is wholly and is yes, were made up of Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, and Harry Secombe. I trust you know who they all are. But if not, now time for you to Wiki-That-Shit. Comedy that makes rude noises, goes off into strange tangents, and generally doesn't care if you don't care. It makes no sense and is proud of it. Just like real life. 

That's what the best Rock and Roll can be-- sure, we can be serious like our Pete Townshend's or even our Billy Joe Armstrongs or all those punk fellows who protest something about Londonium Ringing (they all dressed like... goons... anyways). But when rock and roll reaches absurdity, which is really the entire point of a genre who's name is slang for fucking, it's early comedy acts like The Goons we can look up to. (Besides, even for "scarier" rock like Alice Cooper and more contemporary artists [I guess] like Rob Zombie, I have a theory that starts with their relationship to 70's comedy movies like The Jerk. See if you can work out what that theory is. And if the words cafeteria or lurgi are in it anywhere, you may be right.) So, just take this record for what it is, for what rock and roll is-- not your serious stuff like television themes and pop country -- just a nihilistic assertion of the absurdity of life. 

[musicmedkit-blog]

from the album

Sometimes, I get the pleasure of opening some mail and becoming interested in the cover or title and I'll put it into the CD player and just get blown away. Sometimes it's because it's very different from expectations. I often don't read descriptions before I just listen to music-- mainly because I want to take in the sound. Today, while hanging out at the KBVR music director's office, I opened up St. Lennox and found something beautiful to share: sort of throw back to throwback. Very produced, with a very soulful sound. I'd put this track up there with Toro y Moi or DRGN KING or any of the shinier and poppier 80's feeling soul tracks that are wandering around free right now. I might even slip some Nu Shooz into this imaginary mix.  The interesting part of the story, for me, is not that the singer here is a Juliard trained violinist, or that he went on to higher education. It isn't even that rediscovery of the Great American Songbook-- which is important-- that really intrigues me about this particular work.  "I Still Dream of the 90's", the lead single off the Maxi-Single by St. Lennox engages in just that perfect amount (for me) of soulful delivery, electronic production, and throwback nostalgia. Maybe it's because I'm rewatching the X-Files. I don't know. But it has this sweetness around lyrics that draw from many of the panics and concerns of the decade. The song suggests a knowing long to return to the past. It may not have been great-- but we are already familiar with it, and can handle it. What we can't handle is the unknowable-- we can't handle what the future might bring us. That's why the song looks back. This kind of nostalgia is healthy, when mixed with the cynicism the lyrics bring to the song. The best thing about the past is that it is over-- but we can learn from our mistakes. We can still dream about them, and use that information in building better worlds. 

There are very many people I know that fall into the trap described by this song: having been at their "peak" back then-- or so they would believe-- they'd like to go backwards. The singer here doesn't. He can dream about the time, but he does so with the full knowledge that where he lives is a more important moment. Constructed out of the past, it contains all those memories. We still look back-- we must look back-- but we must look realistically. That way we can continually redefine and rework those same old torch songs. Or perhaps find new ones, like this.