Recollection: The Best of Concrete Blonde

A few folks reading this might remember a band by that name and if not they might more easily recall the one single they were successful with on the pop charts, namely a song called Joey in the early nineties.

There was much more to Concrete Blonde than that however. If you were around in the late eighties in Maine and were a rock fan it seems likely you listened at times to WBLM. This radio station which I still admit to tuning in on my trips to southern Maine, I could listen online anytime I want but forget to, dominated a segment of the market at that time.

WBLM loved Concrete Blonde. Many of the songs that you will find on this Best of Collection were songs we all heard on WBLM long before this band ever broke nationally. From True, Still in Hollywood, Dance Along the Edge, God is A Bullet, Tomorrow Wendy, to Ghost of a Texas Ladies Man this band was making great, original, music all through the late eighties.

For those who are going down this memory lane with me I wonder how many remember how often the band played at Raoul's Roadside Attraction on Forest Avenue. I remember seeing them a couple of times and I think that I missed them a few times. This was a band, loved and promoted by a radio station in a small market that created a hotspot of fans for them long before and long after their national success.

Hearing Joey on the satellite today made all these memories come flooding back and I listened to this collection on Spotify. One could find much worse way to spend an hour than by spending this hour down memory lane.

Hero by Edward Sharpe and the Magnificent Zeroes

Over the last month or so I have been seeing quite a few references to this band. Rolling Stone raves about them which does not always mean I will like them, but at least it means that it might be worth seeing what all the fuss is about.

Today I gave a full listen to both albums thus far released by Edward Sharpe and The Magnificent Zeroes. They should be given an award for a name hard to forget. Certainly Magnificent Zeroes is one you will not forget easily.

This band makes some very interesting music. Often referenced as a throwback band with a lot of sixties vibe I found, on certain songs, to see that. A female singer is featured prominently on many of the tracks and I found that the songs that featured her most prominently were the ones that would have felt at home with the Woodstock Generation. Much of the time though I heard a lot of the same things that can be found in today's folk revival from the likes of The Avett Brothers and Mumford and Sons.

On their second album Here, Man on Fire is the first song and is a hit in the making. Well, perhaps not a hit, but a popular song on Alt Radio which is the bands home. On One Love to Another we hear the significant influences of Bob Marley and reggae music. Certainly One Love in the title and the accompanying sound makes it clear that the band knows full well who they are being influenced by in this song. Another standout track is a song called Child that is simply one of the best new songs I have heard this year. Sounding like a cross between a southern twang and early acoustic White Stripes this song is one that will get in your head. Also strong is I Don't Wanna Pray which sounds like it belonged on the soundtrack to O Brother Where Art Thou, a hand-clapping beat and one that again will be an earwig in your head. My foot is tapping as I listen to it again as I write this.

When Spotify then played me their first album which was self titled, the first thing I noticed is that the featured song on that album is one that I, that we all most likely , have heard already. Home is a nice, rhythmic song, that is pretty much irresistible, and has been featured on a commercial that we all have heard on NFL Commercials. Another strong song on the album called Janglin' has been used on Ford Fiesta commercials. It used to be that selling out by putting your song in commercials was frowned on, now it has become one of the easiest paths to success. Also strong is the song Jade, which one can again here the White Stripes influence but in this song the most relevant influence I hear is Ray Davies and the Kinks.

Certainly a band that one can hear this many influences from is a band that can be varied and broad in their musical choices. I think this music was interesting, but more than interesting they are actually not just musically, but also lyrically strong. The music is often music that gets your feet tapping and certainly is far and above much that one can hear these days.

Edward Sharpe gets and A plus from me, nothing close to a zero. Strong music, gives one hope that good music is still being made. Of course the influences for the most part going back a generation or two it seems even The Zeroes know that you have to look backward to make good music.

Donna Summer Dies

Today we learned of the death of Donna Summer. If you were alive in the seventies and old enough to know what was going on you know who Donna Summer was. The queen of Disco. Looking back at Disco we all grimace and claim that we were among the few sane folks who never embraced it.

I cannot say that. My excuse is good one. At Donna Summer's peak I was thirteen years old. Certainly not the age to be held responsible for your musical tastes.

Tonight in honor of Donna Summer I played Bad Girls and Hot Stuff on Spotify. Donna Summer recorded a great deal of music after 1979 but for most of us when we think of Donna Summer, this is what we think of.

Here is a memory I have. My eighth grade prom. This was at the height of disco or perhaps it had peaked and as most things do it had come late to coastal Maine. All I know is I have strong memories of wearing my suit from Sears, a shirt with a butterfly collar, pinning a corsage on a girl named Amanda and dancing. It really was not dancing. All the rhythm I carry could be kept in a thimble. But some approximation of moving my legs back and forth passed for dancing, Donna Summer sang to us about Bad Girls and sad girls and later during Greased Lightning the strobe lights made me dizzy.

It was a great night. Donna Summer was clearly a memorable part of it. Rest in peace Disco Queen.

John Prine

John Prine has been making music for a long time. I have heard his name around the fringes of my music knowledge for many years. Usually indicated as an influence of other artists I had never really explored his music.

Christmas in Prison is a song I have heard a couple times at Christmas when a Deejay tired of playing the standard accepted Rock Christmas Songs but that was my only experience.

Until today. Hearing a song called Paradise on Outlaw Country this morning I was struck by what a fine song it was. I love old school country, I like lyrics that tell a story. One cannot listen to Prine and not hear Springsteen and Gram Parsons and scores of other artists that truly have been influenced by John Prine.

Spotify makes it easy to explore new artists or older artists you never gave enough attention to. Tonight I have listened to about a half hour of Prine's music on random on Spotify. Hearing Souveniers, Jesus the Missing Years, In Spite of Oursevles I feel like I have just found a diamond in a spot that I passed every day for years.

Life is busy. I read, write, watch old movies and of course listen to music. New idea for the day, find time to listen to as much of John Prine's catalog as I can. He is amazing.

Spotify , Pandora and Tune In

How to listen to music let me count the ways. Of all the media, be it movies, television, publishing or music it is clearly music that has been most changed.

Television has been changed by Tivo, Hulu, online viewing and On Demand. We now watch what we want when we want and if we like we just run through the commercials. Of course we have had VCR recording for over 25 years but recording on Tivo is now a simple process. When we watch TV has changed as we have more and easier control.

Publishing has changed. The impending departure of Borders and the questionable future of Barnes and Noble has made clear that bricks and mortar book stores are a dinosaur waiting to expire. Magazines can now be seen online, often for free. If one does subscribe they now need not wait for the mail as you can download and read on your Ipad or other tablet. In short Amazon, UPS and the digitalization of books is changing everything.

Movies are still movies but Netflix is changing the way we watch movies once they leave the theatre. Video stores are all but gone. Netflix and Amazon operate on the same principle. Convenience. Netflix now streams much of their programming thus taking the mail cost out of the picture.

In all three cases we can now choose what we watch but even moreso when we watch it. We no longer have to wait for the mail for a book or a movie, though if we do not mind that is better than going to buy it at a store. We watch the shows we want when we want via on demand or Tivo. We control the when by picking when to watch what we want.

Still music has them all beat. First Napster let us all share and get all we wanted free. That was for the consumer a very good service. As a business model it could not work. Apple created the itunes store and the ipod and soon we were off. Now we could carry countless songs, 14000 for my collection at last count, in a handheld device. When one considers vinyl, casettes, and CD's this is not to be overstated.

Now however we have the next wave. We have Itunes which you can buy from but now we also have Pandora whose IPO when it launches soon should create some new gazillionaries. Pandora lets you with a series of likes and dislikes create your own music channel. You do not pick specific songs but can certainly tailor music that you like.

Now comes the U S launch of Spotify. Huge in Europe they singed a deal with the four major American labels and landed about a month ago. What do they do? Simply let you listen to whole songs or albums or your choosing when you want. This is better than Pandora as you can pick the actual song not just the style of music.

Both Pandora and Spotify claim that after ten hours a month you will have to pay and as costs range from three to ten dollars a month that is a consideration. Still if someone told you that you could listen to anything you wanted for ten dollars a month even listening offline you might consider it less expensive than all those $1.29 purchases on Itunes.


Many other mini miracles are out there too. Amazon now sells music often undercutting Itunes price on files that will of course play easily on your Itunes. Tune In Radio is a fantastic Ipad app that lets you listen to any channel that supports them and for me that has been almost any channel I like. The possibilities are endless.


I am not a technology person but as with the other media forms in music we now have much more control over what we listen to. In a sense we could before of course, but cost could be a factor. When free becomes part of the equation even for only ten hours a month the rules are changed forever.

There is no going back.

My Weakness is Strong by Patton Oswalt

I have been enjoying Spotify recently. I will be posting a blog about this new Music Service very soon. Today I listened to Patton Oswalt's comedy album My Weakness is Strong. Oswalt a popular comedian who has found his niche right on the edge of stardom exhibits an everyman persona if your everyman is a chubby, pop cultured obsessed tending to nerd white male.

One can argue the constant language issues in modern stand up comedy which is why I look forward to listening under this same arrangement to Bob Newhart and Bill Cosby but for modern sensibilities there is no doubt that Oswalt is a very funny man.

This album has him riffing on giving up alcohol and drugs, family, marriage and having a child. These are very funny but a few bits are genuine standouts such as Oswalt's take story about Rats in his neighborhood, accidentally walking in on an orgy, airplane travel and a hilarious but about time travel from the days of Obama to the days of Clinton which must is much funnier and thought provoking than the premise might make one think.

If you want to laugh and can deal with the everpresent language this is a funny record.