Gear Daddies, Billy's Live Bait

I forget where I found this record, but it has a $4 price tag on it. These boys were second-tier contemporaries of the Replacements, Soul Asylum, Jayhawks, and others from the late-eighties Minneapolis scene. Playing understated, competent roots-rock, the Gear Daddies pulled a nice one off with this record. Too bad the band name, and album title for that matter, brings to mind some lunkhead covers bar band who finally got a shot at recording an album.

Two things lift this record from mediocrity. First is the production and mastering. While the band doesn’t go out on any limbs musically, their basic sound crackles and snaps with well-recorded authority, and without heavy-handed (nor overly light) production. On “Where Your Crown” and “Time Heals” the rhythm section in particular snap with a crisp authority that keeps the listener interested.

Songwriter Martin Zellar brings the other real highlight to this record, a great batch of tunes that explore the sunless underside of daily life. This isn’t some mopey stuff a la Mark Eitzel or early Cure, but rather focuses on his own self-deprecating outlook. Take “Where Your Crown” for example:
Open your eyes and look around / Then slowly get up off the ground / First figure where you are / Find your keys, your coat, your car / I don’t want to wear your crown / I’ll only let you down

Maybe it wasn’t meant to be / I’ve got a past keeps haunting me / No matter how hard I try / It’s there, it stares me in the eye / I don’t want to wear your crown / I’ll only let you down / Please don’t make me wear your crown / Don’t you know I was born to let you down? / I don’t want to wear your crown / I’ll only let you down

Doesn’t get any clearer than that, huh? How about “No One Home”:

And the clouds move in / Out of nowhere / Then they’re gone again / My hands are shaking and I’m out of cigarettes / My mind turns over fourteen years of regrets / I lock the doors and unplug the phone / Ain’t no one home

This would all be pretty depressing stuff if it wasn’t delivered with such solid and non-downer music. And that explains why this record stands out so well, that dichotomy between lyrical focus and sharp musicianship presents a pretty ironic package that grabs you, pulls you into the story. Too bad these guys didn’t make it. After breaking up in 1992, Zellar went out on his own, although the GD’s have reformed for a few reunion gigs since.

New Metal

Well it ain't exactly new, but I've had a hankering for some metal sometimes for that long drive home, or sometimes while I'm sitting in the tractor now that I have an MP3 player to drag along. Since I've discovered my 'lost' stash of low-res MP3's from the old days of the early 21st century, and I've had a player to bring them along, I've been able to sample stuff I've owned but didn't listen to because the fidelity was not that great and made them not worth constantly burning cd's for portability's sake. Flash memory is a godsend for portable tunes- dump 'em on, listen, and toss 'em off when done, no waste. It's great that I got a fancy car stereo that let's me play files off a usb drive, and makes tuneage portability that much easier. And since some may say I'm a hypocrite for going MP3, I need to stress that these are for portable use only, and not for 'home listening', or for archiving, for that matter. Who gives a shit anyway, I'm talking about my latest finds in METAL.
Sacred Reich. Jason Goodrich used to listen to these guys in high school, and I may have borrowed a tape once. Anyway, I'd forgotten them, but tossed them on recently while in the tractor cab doing the back-and-forth monotony thing. Wearing earbuds under earmuffs in an air-cooled 73HP German diesel tractor with an airblast sprayer wailing at full speed is not a situation for 'critical listening', so this sort of music fits the bill. These guys play balls-to-the-wall no frills speed/thrash with a decided leftist lyrical bent. Vocals and major songwriting are handled by bassist Phil Rind, with the resulting sound a rhythmic and bottom-heavy speed stew. Heal, their 1996 release, is some pretty solid stuff, and the title track stands out as among the best metal songs out there. What I like most here is that unlike the new breed of metal where bands seem to feel a need to up the 'scary factor', complete with those brillo-throated vocals, Rind's voice is just basic metal shouting.

Mercyful Fate. These guys certainly have the melodrama that Sacred Reich lack, with operatic, wailing, sometimes hushed, somewhat boogity-boo scary lyrics thanks to vocalist King Diamond. The music is tight, full of changes and dynamics, and superbly played. Well worth picking up, since I'm sure you can find it in the used bins by now.

Yours in RAWK,

TB

The piss-poor state of modern music professionals expands...

In a recent blog post the music editor for our local Alternative Newsweekly laments the loss of his hard drive on his MacBook, and the resulting loss of some 60,000 songs collected through. There's a few problems I have with this, and his slight whining about it. First, I thought Macs were indestructible? Actually I knew they weren't, but the hubris exhibited by many Mac owners who feel that their machines are so good that the most basic computer safety procedures can be ignored is amazing. I mean, backup drives are ridiculously cheap, and software will automate it for you. There’s no excuse.
Second, 60,000 songs on a laptop drive? Maybe my math is off a bit, but my 250 GB drive at home is holding 10000 high-res FLAC files and 15000 mid- and low-res MP3’s (most are copies of the FLACS for car listening) and it's approaching full. That many songs on a single drive would require low bitrate files as a default. My problem with this? The city’s (state’s?) arguably highest-profile music editor doesn’t need to be an audiophile (a word he often uses in the completely wrong context), but the music samples he reviews and uses for reference should be of reasonable sound quality, and <160 kbps MP3 simply is not. On that note, it amazes me that this resource, that being the reference music library for the state's preeminent Arts rag, contains no physical media? I mean, what about liner notes, fidelity, and protecting oneself from this hard drive business?
I don't mean to be a dick, but I would expect more from 7D and their music man. But then again this is the guy who steered me towards buying that Tapes n' Tapes garbage...

TB

Greg Calbi on the Loudness Wars...

A good YouTube Explanation of the Loudness Wars...

...and the death of modern recorded sound:

Tapes 'n Tapes, Walk it Off

I picked up this little slab of vinyl based solely on a bit in Seven Days touting their ultra-cool indieness. I don't know why the music press doesn't warn us about absolutely atrocious sound quality when turning us on to a band and convincing us to plop down our $17.
Having never heard these cats I was intrigued when I plopped the platter on the turntable. I thought it funny that a twelve-songer was on two records, and the initial sound told me why, it was pressed at 45 rpm. A flick of the speed switch got things timed right, but I was then immediately assaulted with one of the worst sounding recordings that has ever graced my ears. There's lots of info out there about the problems of modern engineers and mastering techs who over compress music and blast the base volume to give an impression of 'loudness," but this one takes the cake. And not only is this compressed at the mastering end, but the actual recording is so distorted and clipped that the resulting track just plain sounds like shit. THE INTENDED EFFECT IS TO MAKE THE RECORD SEEM LOUD WHEN PLAYED ON A RADIO OR IPOD BUT IT REALLY JUST MAKES IT ANNOYING AS HELL LIKE WRITING LIKE THIS. Funny thing is that vinyl recordings tend to be better in this regard because it's hard to smash all that shit into the groove without making the needle jump. Hence, the 45 rpm speed, which allows for wider groove spacing.
As for the music, I guess the Pavement comparisons make sense, but I have a really hard time listening to it to give it a fair shake. Look for this record on eBay soon. This band either has their heads up their asses or got a raw deal on the production/engineering/mastering end.Here's a screen shot of the waveform, notice that the level is completely maxed out with no room for subtlety or dynamic:

For comparison, here's a shot of a vinyl recording of The Clash, Brand New Cadillac, a song that I consider to have great slam and impact thanks to its use of dynamics:

Another Ray Davies vid

"Days", from that same BBC video:

Ray Davies does "Shangri-La"

HOLY SHIT... I'm a huge kinks fan, and this track literally gave me goosebumps:

A pretty funny (and interesting) thread on cleaning vinyl

Located here

"...So after a good bit of scotch I have concluded that you can probably clean your vinyl with most anything and it will sound better, that vinyl doesn't deteriorate very quickly under full strength of either substance, so I can't imagine you'll do much harm with short cleaning sessions of either. Long term problems? Maybe, and I'm going to hang onto this record and test later, but I doubt it...

OTOH, the much gentler water/alcohol/Dawn combo worked as well and probably has NO negative effect. I'm sure the expensive record cleaner also works and makes the owner feel good. Nothing wrong with that either.

Off to more scotch! Might try carb cleaner and WD-40 next....: