#that I got into Wilco nearly 23 years ago is making me feel really old

[a-disaster-piece]

Wilco // "Hearts Hard To Find," from Cruel Country

Wilco // "Evicted," from Cousin

Can't even get a few notes into most Wilco tracks these days (& for a long while), without bursting into tears (or at least welling up & needing to change the song IMMEDIATELY), to the point where I hadn't even listened to their last three album releases until recently.

But it’s made me recount how much I love having music that is — truly and only — just “mine.” 

Never tainted by any specific memories, timelines, locations, relationships, or hardships. 

Tried and true artists, songs, and albums, that can get you through literally anything, without holding on to difficult associations. 

It reminds me of who I am, and always will be, deep in the core of my soul and being. 

It ensures I recall the simple beauties and joys of life; that there still can be pure enjoyment and appreciation in a sometimes bleak reality otherwise. 

[joementa]

Week of March 27, 2017.  I Fell In Love With The Band At The Rock Show.

As I write this, I’m sitting on my couch with Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall on the turntable.  This is one of my favorite non-summer Saturday night albums, and definitely my favorite MJ album.  Yes, I just said that.  Off The Wall is definitely my favorite MJ album, and it’s not even close.  And yes, I’ve heard them all.  This is one of those albums that’s just perfect for kick-starting your weekend.  Take a look at this FIVE song run that opens the album.  It’s almost hard to believe how good this is.  “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”, “Rock With You”, “Working Day and Night”, “Get On the Floor”, and “Off The Wall”.  These songs deal with Bruce-like issues with a ‘70’s soul vibe that sounds like the good part of disco (i.e. TSOP) and not the lame cheesy part. If that opening run doesn’t put you in a good mood and ready for your weekend, I don’t know what will.  And make sure you check out “It’s The Falling In Love”.  What a song!

On Friday night, I had the pleasure of seeing The Menzingers play a sold-out hometown show in Philly. Oh my lord.  What.  A. Show.  I have not been to a rock ‘n roll show like that in a long, long time. The energy.  The sense of community.  The band totally rocked the show, and the crowd, including me, rocked just as hard.  There was lots of movement throughout the entire set, and it’s shows like this that are my reasons for exercising as intensely as I do.  Sure, I could scale back on my workouts which would mean I would have seen the show from further away.  But when you are in a pit with hundreds of people singing and dancing to some of the best new rock ‘n roll, you realize there’s no other way to enjoy it than being in that pit.  

This show was a real treat, and if you haven’t seen The Menzingers on tour yet, or heard their fantastic new album After The Party, I cannot recommend it enough.  Run, don’t walk, to your local record store right now and buy the album.  Stop reading this, and immediately go to their website and buy tickets to their show.  You won’t regret it.  The band has such a great time on stage.  And the crowd does too.  As I told everyone I would, I went absolutely nuts during “Lookers”.  

This was a special show for me.  It felt like the old TGA days for me.  There were so many of my friends at the show.  It really hasn’t been like that since TGA went on their break.  It was fun to watch my friends in the pit, rocking as hard as possible.  This is one of the things I like most about music.  I love seeing everyone else so happy.

It’s crazy to think that I nearly missed this show.  Let me explain.  In 2012, TGA was touring their great album Handwritten, and I went to a ton of shows on that tour.  The Menzingers were opening at the Philly show on November 27. At that time, I had never heard of them before.  A few of my friends told me that I needed to make sure I saw The Menzingers, so I did. And nothing happened.  I didn’t get it at all.  Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t think they were terrible.  Not by any means.  They just didn’t do anything for me.

Flash forward about seven months, and I was talking to a great friend of mine about music.  We both love TGA, so were talking about them, and then started talking about other bands.  He mentioned The Menzingers, and I told him that I had had trouble getting into them.  He stopped me dead in my tracks and insisted that I buy their third album On The Impossible Past.  I did so.  And I LOVED it.  It hit me so hard, and I was instantly in love with the band’s music.  I’ve followed them ever since.  After the show on Friday, as I was literally out of breath from singing and dancing and fist pumping so hard, and counting down the minutes until I got back to my hotel so I could change out of my sweat-drenched clothes, I felt so lucky that my friend and I had had our conversation almost four years ago.  Imagine if we weren’t talking about TGA on that day.  We may have never discussed The Menzingers, and if that had happened, I might have continued to write them off.  I might have followed their new music.  And worst of all, I could have decided not to go to this show.  That would have been a terrible decision!  I’m glad the opposite happened, and I’m glad I have great friends who are not afraid to be persistent about telling me about truly great music.

The next day after The Menzingers show, we had a few hours to kill in Philly.  Hm.  A few free hours in Center City.  I think I know how to fill those hours….RECORD SHOPPING!  We ended up at Long In The Tooth, one of my favorite stores in Philly. They have a great selection of new vinyl and you can find some real used gems if you spend the time digging. Luckily, we had the time to do some digging and as a result, I found some really great gems, a few of which were on my want-list.

Dave Hause – “Time Will Tell” 7-inch This comes with two non-album songs, including a cover of the Souls’ “Ghosts On the Boardwalk”. Not a bad deal for under $4.

Blood Orange – “Dinner” b/w “Bad Girls” 7-inch I didn’t even know this existed.  I LOVE Blood Orange, and neither of these songs are on any Blood Orange albums.

Miles Davis – Tutu What an album!  This is a great late-night Saturday night album. I was doing some research on this album and I read that this was originally planned to be a collaboration with Prince.  Can you imagine an album with Miles Davis AND Prince?!

Angel Olsen – Burn Your Fire For No Witness

And now the fun begins. Long In The Tooth had a TON of Prince vinyl.  Unless I already had it, or there were visible scratches on the used vinyl, I bought all of it.

Prince - Batman My Dad got me into Prince, and he loves this album.  We listened to this on CD all the time when I was a kid.  Check out “Trust”.

Prince And The Revolution - “Anotherloverholenyohead” b/w “Girls & Boys” 12-inch

Prince - “Letitgo” 12-inch

Prince And The Revolution - “Let’s Go Crazy” b/w “Erotic City (‘Make Love Not War Erotic City Come Alive’)” 12-inch

Here is a list of some of the music I’ve been listening to the past week.  Format: musician – album title, or musician – “song title” (album title).

Bob Dylan – Triplicate

Ryan Adams – Prisoner

Kendrick Lamar – “The Heart Part 4”

Craig Finn – We All Want the Same Things

Laura Marling – Semper Femina

Dave Hause – Bury Me In Philly

Conor Oberst – Salutations

Crystal Fairy – Crystal Fairy

The Shins - Heartworms

The Menzingers – After The Party

The Menzingers – “Lookers” (After The Party)

The Pretenders – Learning to Crawl

Counting Crows – “A Long December” (Recovering The Satellites)

Camp Cope – Camp Cope

The Cure – Three Imaginary Boys

John Mayer Trio – Try!

Wilco – Summerteeth

The Cure – The Head On the Door

Miles Davis – On The Corner

Miles Davis – Tutu

Sam Beam & Jesca Hoop – Love Letter For Fire

Bob Dylan – Fallen Angels

Bob Dylan – Shadows In the Night

Wilco – A.M.

Ryan Adams – “Do You Laugh When You Lie?” b/w “By the Way” and “I’m In Love With You”

Ryan Adams – “Blue Light” b/w “On My Life” and “I Lost My Fucking Mind”

Michael Jackson – Off The Wall

Prince – Batman

Blood Orange – Cupid Deluxe

Lissie – Back To Forever

Nina Simone – Let It All Out

Hootie & The Blowfish – Cracked Rear View

Music is not only fun to listen to.  It’s also fun to read about!  Hear are a few articles that I’ve read recently, which I think are worth your time.

-          JM (John Mayer) has a new album coming out on April 14, called The Search For Everything.  The NYT did a feature article on him on March 26.  The link to that article is below. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/23/arts/music/john-mayer-search-for-everything-interview.html?ref=todayspaper

-          (F)JM (Father John Misty) has a new album coming out the week before JM’s new album.  It’s called Pure Comedy and I can’t wait to listen to it.  The NYT did a feature article on this (F)JM, and the link to that article is below.   https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/14/arts/music/father-john-misty-pure-comedy-interview.html?ref=todayspaper

-          Dave Hause’s new album Bury Me In Philly is one of my favorites so far from this year.  I discovered his music in 2012 when I saw him touring in support of his debut solo album Resolutions.  He recently did an interview with Xtra Mile Recordings about that album.  You can (and should) read that interview by clicking the link below. http://www.1.xtramilerecordings.com/dave-hause-on-resolutions/

-          Last week I mentioned Dylan’s Q&A with Bill Flanagan.  I think it’s so good, and hilarious, that I will mention it again. Carve some time into your schedule to read this.   http://www.bobdylan.com/news/qa-with-bill-flanagan/

-          Jack White is one of those musicians that you just have to love if you’re a music fan. I wish all musicians had his passion and love for music.  The New Yorker did a feature article on him recently, appearing in the March 13, 2017 issue.  The link to the article is below. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/13/jack-whites-infinite-imagination

-          New Miserable Experience by the Gin Blossoms was recently reissued on vinyl.  It is a great summer album (check out the song “29”), filled with catchy choruses and ‘90s guitar riffs (never a bad thing).  A lot of people know some of the Gin Blossoms hits, but not many people know about how they were close to never being popular at all, and yet at the same time had the potential to be one of the world’s biggest bands.  This story explains some of that. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/gin-blossoms-new-miserable-experience-at-25-w473690?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=daily&utm_campaign=032917_12

-          The New York Times Style Magazine recently included a feature article on Tom Waits, Kendrick Lamar, and Beck, discussing their creative process and the urgency and emergency they feel when creating.  That’s quite the group of talented and creative musicians right there. A feature article of each of them discussing their inspirations and creative process is bound to be worth reading. I’ve read it, and it is.  Take some time to read it.  Here is the link. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/t-magazine/beck-tom-waits-kendrick-lamar.html?_r=0

Now I am listening to Dylan’s great new album Triplicate on the turntable.  This is an album that was meant to be listened to on vinyl.  And it’s a great Sunday album.  So after you listen to MJ’s Off The Wall on a Saturday night, you can listen to Dylan’s Triplicate on a Sunday.  You can always find the connection in music!