Murphy's Earbuds

Transit Odyssey, Morning, Sunday, May 30:

The Beatles, Complete Catalogue IPod shuffle

I still get my car serviced in Jersey, OK?!?! The gas/tolls/transit expense is a lot less than the difference in price between my tried and true mechanic and some guy I don't know in Brooklyn - and as long as my mom is nice enough to cart me around, I will continue to do so, thankyouverymuch.

It may sound silly, but I kinda like the transit odyssey. I get to take this train to that train to that bus to that car to that plane etc. etc. and all the while, I can listen to music, read, take in the sights, or just have some "me" time. As much as I love my home, there are one zillion distractions that keep me from just thinking. When I am bound to another's schedule (i.e. NJTransit, or the MTA) and have nothing but my shoulder bag's worth of distractions, I tend to reflect, self examine, insert cheesey self-help term here, a little bit more. It's nice. Better yet, sometimes I get to invest and inordinate amount of time intently listening to music I am just getting to know or am rediscovering.

So I was taking a shower yesterday morning and listening to Q104.3 and they were doing their "Breakfast with the Beatles" show. It made me remember (because I forget now and again), that I used to be an absolute Beatles fanatic. I have all the CD's, most of the records, used to have a bunch of T-shirts, knew how to play all the songs, wore Beatles vests to my proms, even went to Beatlefest for a few years. I even remember that when I was a senior in HS, my friend and I left all of our notes at home and had to do a full period Beatles presentation completely off the cuff. We got an A. It was all over the top, really. I used to lament the breakup of the band even though it occured seven years before I was even born. So when I headed out for the train, I decided to just set the Beatles playlist to shuffle. While I can't remember every song I listened to (I was actually working on yesterday's post at the time), I do remember thinking to myself: I know every single one of these songs - and every one has SOMETHING of a landmark in it, has at least one interesting bit, or in most cases is just damn incredible.

So far, I have written posts on about half of what I've listened to since the this blog started. I try to leave out the really passive or circumstantial listening. I try to post when something moves me or reminds me of something. For most of yesterday morning's Beatle Mix, it would have been a non-post kind of experience, but then "Help" came on. I have always appreciated this song. I have always loved the way it moves between the strummy, nostalgic sounding verses and the big desperate sounding choruses - punctuated by the shout harmonies and descending guitar and bass lines in perfect octaves. Problem is (or was): I never got it. I guess i never listenened to it at a point in my life when I could understand that John was actually singing something. I wrote this off as a craft song rather than an emotional one. That is: pre-Revolver (yes, even most of Rubber Soul comes off as trite - though not interesing), BOTH John and Paul were writing (for the most part) very composed songs. Not neccessarily about any of their actual experiences, but rather, written as a staff songwriter would write them. As their career moved along and the both grew up, John started writing very very very personal lyrics, whereas Paul (for the most part) further developed his craft but continued to write very "composed" sounding, throw-offy-type numbers. While "Hey Jude" and "Martha, My Dear" are certainly about actual people (or dogs as the case may be) in his life, there are still far more songs ("Honey Pie", "Here, There, and Everywhere", "The Fool on the Hill", and yes, even the great "Yesterday") that, while interesting, rate much higher on the craft/concept scale than on the John dominated emotional/visceral scale. Geez, you could write a book on this crap - I'm sure someone already has. Anyhoo, I guess I still believed that "Help" still fell into the former category of impersonal songs, but listening to it as a twenty seven year old that has finally come to terms with his age (though John was only twenty five when he wrote it) and the small bumps in the road he's had to face, I could bring an entirely new realm of experience to this song. I listened from an entirely new angle and was moved, practically to tears. Big ups to John Lennon.

Lazy Morning, Saturday, May 29:

Carole King, Fantasy
Carole King, Rhymes and Reasons

It's been a busy spring. I can't really remember that last time I have had the opportunity to sit on the couch on a saturday morning, brew coffee, read, dick around online, and mine through my record collection. While I blame the lack of coffee brewing on the lack of grocery shopping as of late, it all points back to the same thing: being so damn busy. With both of my spring concerts behind me, a still-sleeping (I feel terrible that she feels the need to get up when I do) girlfriend, a virtually unread copy of Rolling Stone (thanks to my "christian" friend for giving me a half-year subscription for my b-day cos' it's only half as shitty as I thought this rag was), and the perfect amount of sunlight (or lack thereof) coming through my living room window, i went about my brewing and listening. It makes for hard choosing on mornings like this, because, like a good music supervisor for a film, you want to maintain or enhance the mood, rather than create it. Hmmm... laid back and relaxing, but interesting enough to keep me awake, yet not familiar enough that I'll still really feel like I am doing some hardcore, though, passive listening. One answer: Carole King: One of the most underrated songwriters EVER. Sure, we all know "I Feel the Earth Move", "So Far Away", and "It's Too Late" like the back of our hands (didn't all suburban moms of children born between 1974 and 1979 living in the New York Metro Area listen to 106.7, Lite FM>), did you know that she also wrote a bunch of songs that have been made ridiculously famous by other people. Take for example: "You've Got a Friend". While James Taylor DID play guitar on the Carole King's version (from Tapestry, and absolute neccessity in ALL collections), and made it a hit, it was she who wrote it. She's also repsonsible for "Up on the Roof" (The Drifters), "The Locomotion" (Little Eva), "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" (I forget, you do the research), all co-written with then-husband Gerry Goffin. She's also got a co-write credit on "(You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman", which we all know either a) because we know Aretha Franklin is aweseome, or b) because we've seen those old Chic jeans commercials. Anyhoo, if I only wanted comfort, I would have reached for Tapestry, which I (and my entire family) know inside out and every which way to sunday; but like I said before, I wanted to feel like i was "discovering" something. Over the last year and half, I have been inheriting my girlfriend's uncle's record collection. So far, I have scored the entire Led Zeppelin catalogue, what MUST be the entire Olivia Newton John collection, the SECOND Meat Loaf record Dead Ringer, a Jim Steinman solo record, Blizzard of Ozz, and no less than TWO "Greatest Hits" Dionne Warick compilations. Also included in one of these shipments were all of the Carole King releases (save the one "No Easy Way Down" is on) from the 1970's. I really don't know any of the songs from either of the records I listened to yesterday morning, but I know that they were unmistakably Carole King. Aside from her soulful rasp and uncanny ability to make it sound like you're sitting next to her on the piano bench, you get all the other affectations on a King record: the silky smooth, yet organic sounding, 70's vibe, the earth tone album art, and most importantly and idicatively, mediocre session musicians trying to sound like a great R&B groub - but wait! - at some point in the middle of Fantasy I realized that the backing band actually sounded great. I don't know if she changed players or if they took a crash course with Motown folks (and it was a lazy saturday morn, thus too lazy a time to read liners, let alone compare them), but it sounded like a GOT-DAMN Marviin Gaye record!!! It has all sortsa great pre-disco grooves and, for once, made Carole King sound like what she actually is: the most soulful white woman since Dusty Springfield. Another great surprise: this record (Fantasy and NOT Rhymes and Reasons) had a real flow to it. I wasn't paying enough attention to test my theory (I was really enjoying th RS cover story on D12 at this point), but it seems like the songs melded seemlessly into one another. Between that, the 70's vibe, and the great playing by the backup band, this is definitely an album worth investigating further - even if it does ruin its "unknown" appeal. As per Rhymes and Reasons: I think i started washing dishes or something at that point... and so went my lazy saturday.

Morning Commute, Friday May 28:

Pearl Jam, Live in Las Vegas: 10-22-00.

I could just tell Friday was gonna suck. In retrospect: it sucked more than I could have even imagined. Unfortunately, there's only so much you can predict - and only so much you can do to prepare yourself for said predictions. Most people, like I, like to surround themselves in things familiar and comfortable at moments like these. Figuring on finding solace in those things passed and positive, they can better cope with that impending doom. For some its an old blanket or a certain food, for me its albums - or on this case: bands. See: I have had a funny relationship with Pearl Jam. When I first heard their first record, Ten in the ninth grade I hated it. I think I said it sounded like "Frank Sinatra singing lead for a classic rock band". Less than a year later, I found myself skating to my then girlfriend's house rocking out to said debut disc constantly flipping the tape and playing it from end to end - it was b-sided with Saigon Kick's The Lizard. I was heartily obessesed with Ten for a good two years while waiting for their second disc to come out. When Vs. was finally released (btw, I have one of the early self-titled copies thanks to one of my best friends in the world who went to Compact Disc World at Menlo Park Mall at midnight to buy it. Not only is the most loyal person I have ever met, and a friend to this day, but he is also the gigantic PJ fan responsible for getting me their next disc Vitalogy the minute it cam out AND finally taking me ot my first PJ show last summer), I was very disappointed. I latched onto a few songs, but it just didn't feel as whole or borderline-conceptual like the first disc. It lacked the studio sheen I so enjoyed on their debut as well. Seeing as it was one of the first "grunge" (a silly moniker, seeing as aside from "guitar-rock" there should really be no more specific term that can cover the likes of Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice and Chains, Mudhoney, and any other band that hailed from Seattle between 1989 and 1994) albums, no one really understood the raw aesthetic of Pearl Jam and made this record sound like a hair metal album. Full of "explosion" snare drums and guitars that sounded like they were played inside an airplane hanger, the sound of this record lined up with my tastes in music up to that point near perfectly. Unfotunately, or so I thought at the time, their second album sounded dirtier and less produced. The songs weren't as groove oriented or hooky, to boot, so this album got the requisite number of spins and then just sat there with the other irregulars. When their third album came out and it a) had an experimental track on it, b) was heading even further away from the sound and feel fo Ten, and c) started to show signs of the arty/political bent that would become a big part of the band's personality and career-focus, I all but gave up on Pearl Jam. This was at the height of the early nineties' punk-cum-grunge "I wanna sing to everyone but don't wanna be saddled with the burden of celebrity because it hurts my art and doesn't allow me to hang out and do drugs with my fans becuase there are so many even thought the amount of drugs I do is solely dependent and said large number of fans boo-hoo I am taking my toys and going home" ethic. I was done with the whole modern rock scene and turned to The Beatles - who decided that they would just quit playing shows and catering to millions and sit in the studio and do drugs instead. Somehow this made them even bigger celebrities. Go figgur... Anyhoo... long story short. A few years later, by way and encouragement of the aformentioned friend and PJ fan, I took another chance on PJam. I went out to the mall and bought Yield and took out the copy of No Code, an album I had bought for completist purposes rather than in the interest of actuall listening, and gave them both a spin. Like a cinderblock to the temple, it hit me: the FIRST album was the anamoly. Pearl Jam is actually a rock band hiding under the guises of alternative, grunge, or whatever flavor Rolling Stone declared "hot" over the past several years. This revelation, in combination with the fact that the band had maintained a relatively low profile after their very public battle with ticketmaster, which, for the record: i wholeheartedly agreed with (and continue to) the pinciple of the thing, but really, it just took away from the music for this guy. I quickly became as obsessed with these two records, and more importantly, because earlier it had been the proverbial final nail in their coffin in my music collection, Vitalogy. I actually had to get this disc back from my "hockey fan" friend who had been "borrowing" it from me for five years or so. I had actually forgotten all about it. I missed my first chance to see them live later that summer when my family and I were in the Bahamas, but being such a good friend, my PJam buddy bought me the live CD of the show I would have been at. While this two disc set (as well as all of the discs from their first famous run of live releases of an entire tour) was poorly mixed and even sloppily played at times, I was floored by the energy these guys put out. I knew that to REALLY understand this band, i woule have to see them live. I proceede to buy a disc from their Scotland show on the European Leg of the same tour. When they went on another giant US tour a year later, I made sure to buy the three disc set of the last night on the tour, and their 10th anniversary show in Las Vegas (see, I got to the record this post is actually about eventually). They obviously did their homework this time. While they maintained their cost-effective, music first atttitude with very-plain packaging (which even makes Live at Leeds look like high art), they obviously invested a decent chunk of change in their live recording rig and people. These 2000 tour discs are inredible. It's incredible enough that a band is confident enough to release unedited recordings of every show on their tour, it is even more exciting that these shows (and the recordings) can all sound so energetic and clean. When I need a Pearl Jam fix, I turn to these live discs eight out of ten times. So why this disc on that morning? Well, as I hope you can see, my relationship with the band has been downright familial in the way I have seen ups and downs with them - and this show has some really touching moments as it is their tenth anniversary. Not only do they play and nail a career spanning set, but they take time out to acknowledge the fans, the personal relationships the guys in the band have, and members, past and present, in general. They even pull off a moving version of "Crown of Thorns", the tragic would-have-been hit for the "previous incarnation" of Pearl Jam, Mother Love Bone. I'm not gonna waste any more of your time on why that's so important, but you can find out for yourself. Like I said before, on a day in which you're sure to encounter some unknown doom, all you want is something familiar, warm, and cozy. This disc did the trick quite nicely.

Morning Commute:

Beastie Boys, License to Ill
Kanye West, The College Dropout

I have been friends with my current drummer and musical partner in crime for some twenty years now. That's pretty impressive seeing as we are but a mere twenty seven. While I have literally thousands of musical memories that he is part of (finding backwards messages on Tone Loc recrords, being in no less than ten bands together, a mutual obsession with Appetite for Destruction, lip-syncing with a personified gumball machine a la George Harrison's "(I've Got My Mind) Set on You" video to name a few), one of the least recalled and silliest is our rollerskating around my parents' basement listening to License to Ill. While my mother never DIScouraged me when it came to my intense musical obesession as a child, she did precious little to encourage it; so I didn't really start owning much recorded music (save the 45 of "Jump", "Eat It", and the requisite Thriller LP) until I started buying my own - startng with Run DMC's Raising Hell. Anyhoo, my friend came over and put the casette into my sister's boombox in our pre-finished basement and strapped on our rollerskates for an afternoon of fun. Frankly, the only musical recollection of that day is hearing the actual recording of "Brass Monkey" (I had only heard kids sing it on the playground up to that point) and being transfixed by the backwards kick and snare drum sounds. I tried my best to ignore the Beasties through most of high school as they had been adopted by the nascent indie-rockers and I was still a pretty mainstream kid at that point. At some point in college I found my way back to the group, falling in love with their second LP Paul's Boutique. It was only a month ago that I acquired/re-acquired all of the Beastie Boys albums via MP3 disc from my tacher friend - the same on who gave me the aforementioned Fun House, ZZ Top, etc. MP3 disc.


As per Kanye West: I bought this album during a Princeton Record Exchange spree after only hearing the first two singles and watching some of my students stream the videos for them. It's without question that West is one of the premiere producers in hip-hop, having created the beats for a good deal of Jay-Z's better songs (and a bunch of other people I could mention if I actually did some research). This foray into rhyme, luckily, has been a successful one as well. I quickly took to this disc, much to the chagrin of my girlfriend, but for some heretoforunknown reason abandoned it after about a week. That's one of the shittier side effects of being a member of the itunes universe: getting distracted by having SO many records to listen to that you sometimes don't get the opportunity to invest any REAL time to just one album. Anyhoo, the opening tracks on this disc are not only HI-larious but also really smart and well done. The rest of the disc is choc full o' great samples and fun skits, but it never loses sight of the vaguely serious (yet sarcastic) theme stated within the album's title, The College Dropout. . While his voice isn't captivating like Jay-Z or Tupac's, and his rhymes aren't all rhythmically ambiguous. like Eminem, his concept and syllable play is smart enough to get you throught the whole record. The first track has got some great one-off's i use on my kids at school everyday. Por ejemplo: They ain't got no tuition for those with no ambition and they don't give no loans for sittin' your ass at home. The singles prove to be the best tracks on this one, but the filler is strong enough to get you through.

Yesterday Afternoon, at the Bar:

The Zombies, Odyssey and Oracle

No lie. I needed a beer. It must have been written all over my face. My friend told, not asked me, as we left school that we were going to the bar nearby. He wanted to watch the soccer game, I wanted to forget about the day I had just had. And so we went. Now understand: this was an establishment we use to frequent. Then some people hanging out there got annoying - and really: what's the point of drinking beer with annoying people? - and my fave bartender stopped working friday afternoons. It's rare that you go into a bar and disc after disc hear pieces of your own music collection. This barkeep seemes nearly psychic about my moods. If it was a particularly rough week capped off by a rainy Friday, it would be Rain Dogs (Tom Waits). There were a few fridays when I would just wanna rock and magically i would enter the bar in the middle of Clash fanfare, or order my first drink to "Jumpin' Jack Flash" or "Radio, Radio". Hell: one time, after a few rounds, he just gave me a five dollar bill out of the tip jar and told me to put some "good" music on the juke. So it was a pleasant surprise when we went in on a wednesday, not only was my fave bartender (who i hadn't seen in months) there, AND willing to put on the soccer game for my comrade, but he ALSO was rocking out to the Odyssey and Oracle, a beautiful album recorded during a very ugly time in The Zombies' career. This album was really the band's swan song as they broke up just after its release and it's biggest single, "Time of the Season", was released and became a MAJOR hit after the group had already gone their separate ways. While Rod Argent when on to form Argent (of "Hold Your Head Up" fame), the rest of the band either faded into obscurity or other random musical or music-business-related-type professions I don't really know much about. When this album was initially released, it did't do much. While the music world was rife with more concept based albums post Pet Sounds/Sgt. Pepper's, this very Baroque-sounding (maybe it was heavy use of the harpsichord) just didn't stick until the aforementioned single, "Time of the Season" beacame a hit. I stumbled onto this record on yet another MP3 disc from the guitar player in my old band. It took me a while to get to it, but once I did, I realized it was pretty close to the record Brian Wilson may have wanted to make between Pet Sounds and the mythically non-existent "masterpiece" Smile. Odyssey and Oracle not only has some great Rod Argent keyboard work and incredibly solid songwriting, but manages to capture the free-flowing, arty, textured sound of the late 1960's without falling into the trappings of psychedlic ridiculousness. There are even some great pre-Emo moments on this record. It was a great ditraction from and welcome relief for a shitty, shitty day at school. Hats off to my fave barkeep in Brooklyn for discovering this album for himself and putting it on at just the right time.

Morning Commute:

Snapcase, Designs for Automotion
The Stooges, Fun House

There are days where i just don't get The Stooges. Maybe its the lack of textural subtlety. Maybe its the mix or other production issues. Maybe its my classical training getting the worst of me. Luckily, most days, like today, allow me to put all that bullshit aside and just listen and feel. (jesus, this sounds cheesey so far) There's nothing like unabashed raw power in the morning - not to be confused with unabashed Raw Power.

It was actually Fun House this morning. I finally got my hands on this album (which I admittedly should have gotten years ago) a few months ago through a teacher friend of mine. It was on the same MP3 disc as ZZTop, The Rolling Stones, and Foo Fighters. Go Figgur. It seems to be (and coincidentally: chronologically IS) the perfect bridge between the freak-out vibe of their first record, The Stooges, and the reckless abandon (in both performance and sound quality) of their third LP, the aforementioned Raw Power. They still had the wacky saxophone thing going on, and Iggy sounds a lot more sly than angry or dumb (third and first records resepctively)This is also their last record before Bowie got his hands on them. Hats off to the boys from Ann Arbor for getting me jazzed for a fun day with the kiddies.

The morning actually started with Snapcase's 2000 release, Designs for Automotion. I bought this record, sound unheard, along with their first record, Lookinglassself back in 2001 at a Borders somewhere along Rt. 10 in New Jersey. These guys were reccomended to me by my old drummer. He's a great guy and a HUGE fan, and i always found his enthusiasm for this band and what they stand for downright inspiring. (for the record, he would have actually preferred that I purchase their second LP, Progression Through Unlearning) Maybe it was becuase i miss him, or maybe it was the lack of sleep coupled with the nasty weather, but this hardcore/punk record actually had the ability to make me a little nostalgic and downright wistful this morning. Amidst the roaring guitars and shouted distopian lyrics, I found that i was transported back to the time when I began my love affair with this record. I'd like to believe that a good record, regardless of genre or mood, can capture a certain time in one's life. This one certainly must have. I thought about my old job, my old apartment, my old band... If you know this record (my fave Snapcase album, btw), it may seem confusing that it could inspire anything other than rage or excitement, but i found myself riding the M train and flipping through my mental photo album. Kinda sad really...