Category: Music

The CD I picked out this morning for my commute was Alice Cooper’s Greatest Hits. Ok, I know you’re probably cringing. But this album (as we called them back in the day) is like comfort food for me. I know almost every note. It was one of about half a dozen that were on constant rotation at the weekly beer bashes I used to frequent back around 1980. Before you mock my mullet-rock roots, we were also spinning stuff like The Cars’ first album and Queen’s A Night at the Opera, though that probably just puts me into another category of bad taste. But I can’t help it. I know I’ve asked this one before, but what are some of your guilty pleasures when it comes to old music?

Sorry to start the year off on a downer, but I just found out that Stuart Adamson, lead singer of Scottish band Big Country, was found dead in a hotel room in Honolulu on December 20. He’d struggled with alcoholism but until recently had been sober for more than a decade. Big Country were always considered a bit of a one hit wonder here in North America, but in reality they had a string of solid albums and Adamson was clearly a gifted songwriter. What is it about the music industry that chews people up so predictably?

Back in July, just after we’d seen Wynton Marsalis, Brooke ordered tickets to see his brother Branford. Last night was the show. Branford plays saxophone, and tours as a quartet. As always, I found myself concentrating most on the drummer. Jeff “Tain” Watts was another amazing performer. My major annoyance with some jazz music is that the musicians get bogged down in endless noodling. Watts was (almost) always the light that kept my ship off the rocks last night. And since our seats were practically over the stage, I could look straight down on him and see all the amazing things he was doing.

When I was younger, I played in a couple of bands. We were completely non-serious and even non-talented, and I ended up playing the drums almost by default, but even now, I find myself picking out the drum parts in music. A good drummer can turn an ordinary song into something great. And drummers can also get in the way, too. For instance, although Ringo is often derided as the least talented Beatle, he never got in the way of the music. By contrast, I’ve always found Police drummer Stewart Copeland to be far too showy. On a lot of their music, he over-drums outrageously. Especially in three-piece bands, the drummer is vital, but he should never draw too much attention to himself.

The Internet is a marvellous thing. As you’re all tired of hearing, my favourite band is Spoon. I’m on a mailing list for fans of the band, and a few people decided to put together a “rarities” CD of stuff that was no longer available. The band’s permission was obtained (and they even provided liner notes) and today I received my copy of the 2-CD set. Now my job is to burn some copies and mail them to other fans on the mailing list. I can’t imagine how any of this could have happened ten years ago. P.S. If you happen to get your hands on these discs, I’ve already gone to the trouble of uploading the tracklists to CDDB.

I went to see the Rheostatics again last night. Contrary to earlier reports, last night was show 10 of 11 (making Sunday’s show the fifth). They played close to three hours, and it might have been the best show I’ve ever seen. They played about 8 songs from Whale Music, an album many consider to be their strongest, and definitely my favourite. If fact, it was my friend Brent (who was with me last night) who turned me on to the band back in 1992 when Whale Music was released. The only thing I don’t like about seeing shows anymore is coming home at 3:00am. Since the subway service stops before then, I had to take the Yonge bus, the infamous “Vomit Comet.” As always, there was one guy who kept yelling out “PARTY!!” on the crowded bus, and threatening to turn us all into fish sticks if we didn’t move back.