March 2009 Archives

Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South
by Patrick Huber (North Carolina)
A new, canny take on Old, Weird America, this colorful, contrarian book does much to dispel a spate of antediluvian tropes, musical and otherwise. The myth holds that prewar country music was a grassroots phenomenon, made and popularized by pickin'-and-grinnin' farmhands. But Huber, a history professor and co-author of The 1920s: American Popular Culture Through History, argues that it was Piedmont cities and mill towns and their industrial workforce that disseminated the region's rich sounds. Drawing on a wealth of archival sources and recordings, he asserts that country music circa 1922 to 1942 was, "in fact, as thoroughly modern in its origins and evolution as its quintessentially modern counterpart, jazz." Turning a welcome spotlight on talented oddballs such as Charlie Poole, Fiddlin' John Carson, and the Dixon Brothers, he elucidates the experiences, equally civilizing and compromising, of millhands in a rapidly industrializing South. And he contextualizes the give-and-take of the music and its makers--how, exactly, new social identities emerged, regional allegiances congealed, and a proto-countrypolitan sensibility took root and flourished in times both culturally and economically turbulent. (unsigned Atlantic review)

Also: random

COVER OF THE MONTH
Jon Berkeley for the Economist

...It was nearly noon, and since I was nearby, I decided to go to Langer's Delicatessen, renowned for its pastrami sandwich. I was about to turn off my car when a song came on the radio that grabbed me. I recognized the lyrics: "Just a little lovin', early in the morning." I'd heard the famous Dusty Springfield version of the song, "Just a Little Lovin'," written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, many times before and liked it. But this was not Dusty's version. It was smoky and jazzy and extraordinarily uplifting.

So I sat and listened to the whole song, to relish it and find out who was singing. The D.J. came on and said it was Sarah Vaughan. Especially after seeing a man wounded in the street, I felt my spirits raised by the song. I went to Langer's and had a No. 10, pastrami and Swiss with Russian dressing. Then afterward I called the radio station, but the person I talked to said he didn't know what album it was on. Maybe a week later, I went to Tower Records on Sunset. It had several Sarah albums, but none of them had that song. -- MICHAEL KRIKORIAN in the New York Times

Likely source: never enough rhodes
Torrent: http://www.mininova.org/det/2324566

Last night we finished watching Tropic Thunder, which was too brilliant for comment. Made me think of Ben Stiller's Oscar beard, and then I saw Thomson praise Phoenix's "awesomely nasty Commodus in Gladiator, one of the best villains of modern times - creepy, depraved, lethal and smart with it; his Jimmy Emmett in To Die For, the over-medicated, under-motivated high school kid who becomes Nicole Kidman's thug and bedmate of choice - very little of that great role is in the script, so much comes from Phoenix's presence; and don't forget his Johnny Cash in Walk the Line. For that, he watched Reese Witherspoon collect an Oscar for being lovable as Cash's wife - she had the grace to say that Phoenix's example had made the film possible."

Why isn't she a huge star yet? Yo Tina! And from this same podcast, Jeffrey Tambor:

The Sound of Young America

For my birthday, family took me to this show at the Boston ICA, where I marveled at the detail, twists on Warhol and Ono, and all manner of originalities. So where does Schjeldahl get off? Oh right, it's pop not art, that's a pretty clear distinction, no problem there. (Whatever happened to Vandalism Is Art?) This gives Shepard's very prodigious progression from and through appropriation into mammoth, commanding voice the shirk. It makes the New Yorker ring very old school, especially since a lot of Warhol fans thought his inimitability lay in his method and not his effect. Turns out the method can be pretty rad, dude. You want the Supply and Demand book, too, a double whammy: great imagery, beautifully photographed in a lot of random urban settings, where Andre takes on guises both menacing and prophetic. Free Shepard.

You'll come for the camp, you'll stay for the yucks: "What nerds listen to on prom night as they cry themselves to sleep..." (Don't forget the wallpapers.)

Conduit your proctor if your election lasts wronger than four trousers.

(adapted from the hit facebook meme, expanded and enlarged)
BLONDE ON BLONDE, DYLAN
PLASTIC ONO BAND, LENNON
MCCARTNEY, MCCARTNEY
GET HAPPY and/or KING OF AMERICA, COSTELLO
SMALL MIRACLES, DRONGOS
VERY GREASY, DAVID LINDLEY EL RAYO-X
PINKER PROUDER PREVIOUS and/or LABOUR OF LUST, NICK LOWE
LEFTY FRIZZELL
ERNEST TUBB
RARE DEMOS FIRST TO LAST, HANK WILLIAMS
SING ME BACK HOME, MERLE HAGGARD
ELVIS IN MEMPHIS, ELVIS PRESLEY
BIG STAR LIVE, BIG STAR
LIVE AT BBC, FLEETWOOD MAC (W/PETER GREEN)
NEBRASKA, SPRINSTEEN
BUDDY HOLLY COLLECTION, BUDDY HOLLY
I FELL IN LOVE, CARLENE CARTER
OTIS AT MONTEREY, REDDING
LOVELESS, MY BLOODY VALENTINE
BAND OF GYPSIES, HENDRIX
LET IT BE, REPLACEMENTS
EXILE and/or BEGGAR'S BANQUET, STONES
TWO AGAINST NATURE and/or GAUCHO, STEELY DAN
RYTHM AND THE BLUES, SAM COOKE
SUN RECORDINGS, JOHNNY CASH
LIVE AT LEEDS, THE WHO
WHO CAME FIRST, PETE TOWNSHEND
SOMETHING/AYTHING, RUNDGREN
EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE, YOUNG
CRYSTAL BALL, PRINCE
RAY CHARLES AND CLEO LAINE
GREAT 28, CHUCK BERRY
FOR THE ROSES, JONI MITCHELL
MOONDOG MATINEE,THE BAND
BEFORE THE FLOOD, DYLAN-BAND
INTERIORS, ROSANNE CASH
INSTANT EXCITEMENT, CHRIS STAMEY
3-WAY TIE FOR LAST, MINUTEMEN
DAVE HOLLAND BIG BAND LIVE
JACK JOHNS, MILES DAVIS
BENNY GOODMAN SEXTET
MAIDEN VOYAGE, HERBIE HANCOCK
LONDON CALLING, THE CLASH
NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS, SEX PISTOLS
LET'S GET IT ON, MARVIN GAYE
FULFILLINGNESS FIRST FINALE, STEVIE WONDER
LED ZEPPELIN II, LED ZEPPELIN
IF ONLY THERE WAS A WAY, DWIGHT YOAKAM