Savage Distortion

A VERY CLOSE CALL

I almost had to illegally download music. I had to hear some music - had to. Fortunately I found this cool place, it's called a record store. The fact is, they are everywhere! Who knew? I went to this place called Virgin, gosh do they have a lot of music! Most of what I picked up, I already own on vinyl, so I suppose, according to the new laws created by the people who think they can create new laws, I could have just downloaded the songs. Call me old fashioned, but I like packaging.

Here's what I bought:


AC/DC's first U.S. release, a bit different from their first record of the same name (High Voltage) released in Australia only. My new CD copy is digitally remastered from the original 2-track masters. Song I needed to hear: 'Little Lover'.
Price: 8 bucks.




The Ramones second release, 'Leave Home', expanded and re-mastered. This disc includes a Ramones concert from '77 at the Roxy in L.A. Song I needed to hear: 'Carbona Not Glue'.
Price: 8 bucks.



I have never actually owned this VU record, though I am well versed with it's contents. Song I needed to hear: 'Who Loves The Sun'.
Price: 8 bucks.





Aerosmith's 1975 release - their third - is also their undisputed best record despite what Tony will say in the comments section of this - or any - post. Song I needed to hear: The whole damn thing! There is no weak tune.
Price: 8 bucks.





The first eponymous release by the New York Dolls. It just doesn't get any better. Song I needed to hear: 'Subway Train'.
Price: 8 bucks.




Warren Zevon's 'Sentimental Hygiene', which I blogged recently. Needed to hear the whole thing, but mostly 'Even A Dog Can Shake Hands'.
Price: 14.99



Blogged it extensively, so I had to buy it. I've only heard a bad mp3 of the title track, so I guess, again, I needed - had to - hear the whole thing. I'll let you know.
Price: 14.99





Ween's '12 Golden Country Greats' is a fantastic record that I have often extolled the virtues of, but have never officially owned. Song I needed to hear: Toss up between 'Piss Up A Rope', and 'Help Me Scrape The Mucus Off My Brain'.
Price: 18.99 (shut up - it's my fuckin' money dammit!)





Oh Hells Yeah. A fundamental LP in the development of Jackson. This compilation of three years worth of singles (73-75) shows a band well ahead of the curve. Unfortunately by 78 they were fat and boring. Song Jackson needs to hear: 'The Six-Teens'.
Price: 12.99





I'm not sure where this Starz record ranks with Tony, I am sure we'll know shortly. I chose this one over 'Coliseum Rock' because I love the song 'Subway Terror', which is the song I need to hear.
Price: 12.99

Total cost: $124.58
Average cost per CD: $12.45

OSSO BROOKLYN

After the BIG MOVE that occupied Memorial Day weekend for the Legal Diva and myself, I needed a day of rest - and cooking. I stopped in Whole Foods and perused the produce and meat. While in the produce section I found myself in a root veggie frame of mind - I picked up turnips, parsnips, carrot's, and taters, as well as some leeks. Although I did not know what I was cooking, it seems I knew what I was using.

I approached the meat case, and my eyes locked on the veal shank - Osso Bucco it would be. I also picked up some bangers, and one Thai seasoned sausage for snacking purposes.

I have never attempted Osso Bucco before, but I knew that it involved slow cooking the veal shank in a stock with veggies. For the real deal, read this.





What I did was sear the veal shank on all sides in some olive oil and chopped garlic in a large pot. I then dumped about two cups of red wine in the pot (Yellow Tail Shiraz). I let that simmer for a couple minutes, then I added about two cups of beef stock, just covering the shank.





I plopped in the taters - I used new potatoes, I like the little wee taters, mostly because I don't have to peel 'em - diced turnips, diced parsnips, and sliced carrot's. I let that cook down for a bit. I did all this on the stove-top. Traditionally Osso Bucco is done in the oven, but I was using the oven to cook all the meat (chicken and steak) I had been marinating since the day before. I like a well stocked larder.

After a bit I threw in some chopped cabbage, and after another half hour or so, I added some chopped leeks. We are now well out of bounds as far as traditional Osso Bucco is concerned, but fuck it, who cares? I knew it would be tasty.

I let that simmer for about an hour and a half.



It was tasty. Maybe next time I will use the flour and the oven, but I don't think I did too bad winging it.

ALL THE ROADRUNNING




I finally got around to buying the new Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris record. As Hue informed me, and Fred concured, it is a wonderful record.





It sounds just like I thought a Knopfler-Emmylou record would. No surprise, just damn good. You can read more about it here.

"With that amazing voice, Emmylou, now more than ever, seems to capture a kind of universal female experience, something that speaks to all ages." - M. K.

I'll say.

YOU WANT IT, YOU GOT IT

At least it will be more difficult for the Fred Phelps gang to be assholes in public.

JUST IN CASE

Every now and again I have to remind myself of the genius herein.

Chris likes 'Giant Bee', but I can't find it up there, also 'Gay Bar' doesn't seem to play, though there is a link for it. Anything with Viking Kitties is good, but overall, the Sponge Monkeys rule.

NEW YORK DOLL

I was delighted to find this movie on my in room viewing selections. Parsippany NJ doesn't offer much in the way of entertainment, and this documentary helped keep me from drinking myself into beligerancy.

Arthur "Killer" Kane, bass player for the New York Dolls is the subject of this excellent film about success, failure, redemption, and Rock and Roll.

What is truly great about this story is that unlike most films about dead rock stars, this one is heart warming.

Lost in the shadows of David Johansen and the late Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan, Arthur never managed to get anything together after David left him broke, and in the care of the toxic twins Thunders and Nolan in the parking lot of a Florida Motel in 1974. Johnny and Jerry manged to get The Heartbreakers together, and become punk rock living dead legends, but Arthur's rock dreams never panned out.

After years of alcohol abuse, obscurity, and an attempted suicide (a dive from a 3rd floor room), Arthur found God in the form of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or as they are more commonly known, the Mormons.

That was his first salvation, his second came in the form of Morrissey, who, in 2004, asked the Dolls, or what was left of them (Johnny and Jerry had both died of drug use in the early nineties), to play a festival in England.

Arthur died days after the gig, but although the story is bittersweet, and indeed sad at times, it is, overall, and uplifting tale about redemption.

For me, it has taught me two things. I will no longer mock the Mormons, and I now have some respect for Morrissey.

AROUND THE WAY IS WHERE I'M FROM

CAPTIONS PLEASE

YEAH BUDDY! BEST NEWS EVER!!!







LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Marijuana smoking does not increase a person's risk of developing lung cancer, according to the findings of a new study at the University of California Los Angeles that surprised even the researchers.

Who's got some wraps, it's time to celebrate!

COLD HARD CASH





Better than a shoe box I say. Hey, he's from Louisianna, par for the course methinks......

ANOTHER PERFECT DAY

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (AP) -- A middle school teacher was arrested after police said he showed up at school drunk, asked one of his students to fetch cognac, then fondled a student and made a sexual remark to another.

God I miss school.......good times.....

AUTISM AWARENESS

Sorry Hue, it took me a few days to get to this. Anyway, check out this movie, learn a bit about something that effects millions everyday.

NO PET LEFT BEHIND

Tony hipped us to this on his blog. Learn more here. Call e'm hooties, doodles, zee zee's, or friend, pets are an important part of our lives.

OLMERT

I like Ehud Olmert despite my inclination do dislike him. I'm not ecstatic over his infatuation with Mr. Bush The Current, and as I have stated before, I'm not a big fan of Israel either.

Don't get me wrong, I haven't any anti-semetic ideals, I just don't trust any nation founded upon a single faith. I don't think it was wise for the UN to hand over Palestine to the Zionists back in the 1950's, and I believe that that mistake is the cause of much of our current woes in that region.

That being said, I like Ehud. Ehud reminds me of another Son of Abraham, a man we call both Paul and Saul. Ehud travelled his own road to Damascus, and has come out on the other side a changed man.

When Olmert was Mayor of Jerusalem he was a staunch conservative anti-Palestine hardliner. He was, and is, also married to writer/artist Aliza Olmert who is as leftie as you can get in Israel, and their children take after her. Surrounded by, and in love with the enemy, Omert held fast for many years - until recently. He now favors a Gaza pull-out.

"I voted against Menachem Begin, I told him it was a historic mistake, how dangerous it would be, and so on and so on. Now I am sorry he is not alive for me to be able to publicly recognize his wisdom and my mistake. He was right and I was wrong. Thank God we pulled out of the Sinai."

The story of Ehud Olmert is a story of hope, reconcilliation, and hopefully, Peace.

BUSH TO IRAN: I'M NOT LISTENING

President Ahmadinejad wants to chat. Bush says nope. I don't get it. Why not? What harm can it do to engage in dialog, specially considering there's so much at stake? Is GW afraid of offending Israel? I think diplomatic dialog between the two leaders could only enhance the security of Israel.

This is why I hate our President. He has no sense, and plenty of conviction.

When there's no communication, only dictation, resentment grows.

BLUESDAY

(Excerpted from the Austin American Statesman online obit with added Chan Chandler commentary in bold.)

Blues legend Clifford Antone dies. Founder of legendary club welcomed genre's greats to Austin.

A giant, an institution, a generous soul whose obsessive love of the blues helped make this college town a nationally known hot spot for live music is gone. The news shot through the air Tuesday afternoon like a stinging lead guitar: Clifford Antone is dead. He was 56.

"I feel like the heart of Austin music has been ripped out," said drummer Chris Layton, (Double Trouble, Storyville, Arc Angels) whose former boss Stevie Ray Vaughan honed his craft at Antone's first nightclub, which he opened at Sixth and Brazos streets in 1975, before Sixth Street became an entertainment district.

A native of Port Arthur, Antone opened the club so he could see all his favorites before they passed on. The steady stream of legends included Muddy Waters, Albert King, Albert Collins, Sunnyland Slim and John Lee Hooker. Antone paid the acts well, often out of his own pocket, and earned a reputation around the world as someone who genuinely cared more about the music than the money.

He backed his affinity with an encyclopedic knowledge of the blues...

"Clifford loved to book the big names of the blues," recalled musician Conni Hancock, "but he got just as big a kick booking the great sidemen like Eddie Taylor and Hubert Sumlin and Wayne Bennett. Clifford didn't care if you hadn't heard of them. He knew everything about them and was like an excited kid when they played."

Antone was 25 when he founded the club.

"My friends and I in Port Arthur just wanted to hear the blues," he said last year. "We figured the only way we could hear it is if we bring it to us. It was like that movie 'Field of Dreams.'

The club became what sociologist Ray Oldenburg famously called a "great good place," where fans, local musicians and the legends both worshipped and could mingle.

"Stevie Vaughan and Albert King got to meet," Antone said. "These crucial relationships were built here. You know, Muddy (Waters) gets the Thunderbirds a tour after he plays with them, that sort of thing. I think we changed the course of blues history."

-- sidebar note: Clifford was was larger than life in MANY ways. Even when the club wasn't making ends meet, Clifford was determined not to let it suffer the same fate as the Armadillo World Headquarters which had gone belly up in 1980. One way he kept the club afloat and also kept the old blues legends alive, housed and fed was dealing in a little...okay a LOT of contraband. A true outlaw! Read on...

Antone's criminal escapades sometimes overshadowed his music business accomplishments. In 1984, he was convicted of possessing more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana and served 14 months of a five-year prison sentence in federal prison.

Antone's troubles worsened in 1996 as federal agents investigated a drug ring responsible for smuggling more than 5 tons of marijuana from Mexico to the United States and Canada...Facing a possible life sentence...Antone pleaded guilty in 1999.

-- Even after going to the Pen (twice!), Clifford never lost his passion for keeping the Blues live and alive, and when they let him out in 2002, he was back keeping a watchful eye on the club that still bore his name and spreading the gospel of the Blues. This past summer he gave Pinetop Perkins a red baby grand piano for his 93rd birthday. Nobody asked where the money came from!

Legendary Blues historian & DJ Larry Monroe liked to called Antones "The University of the Blues at Austin". I will always be grateful to "Dean" Clifford for the classroom, professors, and real deal Blues schoolin' he made possible for this kid from Temple, Texas.

As I finish this, Paul Ray is playing Stevie and Double Trouble's "The Sky is Crying". So am I, as is most of Austin tonight.

...adios, Clifford...y vaya con dios!

Chan Chandler
Renaissance Bubba Productions
www.chanchandler.com

ABUNDANCE

It seems I've appointed myself my brother's devil's advocate. Currently the great debate has eveolved into a discussion about what value means, or will mean, in the 'new society', or, the 'audacious new world' based on the demand of the many who apparently feel they can have their cake and consume it in abundance.

I have no doubt that the 'technologists' are earnest in their mindset, in that they believe they are creating a better society, a level playing feild, and all kinds of new gadgets that folks will dig.

My position is best stated in allegory.

A few years back my favorite bar got a digital jukebox. It upset me. Not only were some of my favorite discs gone, but the initial version of the digital jukebox required the user to know what they wanted to hear. You had to search by artist or song. I hated that. When I'm drinking, I am consciously avoiding thinking. It was much easier to just flip through the discs and pick songs; suddenly I was required to know in advance what I wanted - that sucked.

Then they upgraded. Somebody was listening I guess, and a new model was installed that had thumbnails of album covers, and alas I could go back to my passive search methods. Except that not all the songs on the albums were available, and in most cases they were the songs I was sick of, while the deep cuts that I love to play were not available.

Then they upgraded again. At this point you could search for songs not found on the preset pages, but it cost an extra credit to play a song not on the preset pages, and this is where it stands - a rip off.

Five years ago it cost me one credit to play 'Here Comes A Regular' at just the right stage of my alcohol indulgence; one credit to fall into the sublimation that comes with being drunk in a bar and hearing Paul Westerberg sing about being drunk in bar. Today it costs me twice that, and it takes me three times as long to do it.

Is this progress?

I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START
HE DON'T KNOW WHERE IT ENDS

Tommy Franks needs to take a frank assesment of himself. There's just so much wrong with this picture, and so much that makes a sad sort of sense.

"We haven't got any generals here. They're all in front of TV cameras complaining about Don Rumsfeld," Franks deadpanned. "Difference is, I know what I'm talking about."

Do you Tommy. Would you like to tell us, for instance, about your invasion plan that had no exit strategy?

"I don't care about your politics. I don't. Don Rumsfeld is an American patriot."

I think we have different ideas of patriotism Tommy.

'He received warm ovations from the 3,000 NRA members in attendance.'

Naturally.

MORE BISCUPID CASH - TEXAS HOTTIE STYLE





I wish I really dug the Dixie Chicks. I respect their musical roots, their ballsy attitude, and their politics, but the tunes don't really grab me as much as I wish, and man do I wish they did. I'd never shut up about them if that was the case, I mean they got great taste in instrumentation - banjo, mando, Natalie Mains' father is the premier pedal steel player of our day.

They face a marketplace that is very adamant about shunning them, and what do they do? They chose to release as their first single a song which is an out right 'fuck you' to Country Radio.

Oh hells yeah.

UPDATE: The New Dixie Chicks LP, 'Taking the Long Way' is produced by the near ubiquitous Rick Rubin, so it has to at least sound real good.

A LICENSE TO STEAL?

Over at AVC there's a discussion going on about the legitimacy of illegitimate downloads. Some people have deluded themselves into believing that since they've purchased a CD, they have earned a 'license' to download the content of that CD from whatever source they see fit. By that line of reasoning the following scenario would also be true.

I bought the new Chili Peppers CD. I left it at home. Tonight, I'm going to Washington DC. I should be able to walk into any record store in the area and grab a new copy of the record without paying for it, because the first time I paid for it I received a license of ownership that entitles me to the content......forever.

In 1979 I lent two Ted Nugent LPs to a friend. The movers came and packed up his house, my Nugent records included. Could I then have gone to the PX and picked up another copy of 'Double Live Gonzo' and 'Cat Scratch Fever'?

I don't think so.

NEW ORLEANS WRAP UP

Chan made this wonderful movie about his time down in the former Big Easy. Nothing there is easy anymore (except drinking in public and smoking in bars), and it looks like it will be a much smaller town when all is said and done.

I received a few photos from an associate that were taken last week. I'm not sure if they are worth a thousand words, but they certainly speak volumes. Srini Kuruganti is my friend, associate, and photographer. Jackson is wearing the hat and Duce Jersey.

SMOKE AND MIRRORS PODCAST

The Smoke and Mirrors Podcast for May (MayHappening) is up on the Huezine site. We have bailed on Podblaze becuase they suck. Currently we are in negotiations with Hue to host a site for Smoke and Mirrors that will give us plenty of space for podcasts and downloads, as well as e-mail, and other such web based crap that you gotta have to survive in this crazy world.

Stay tuned......

ERA

I grew up in the age of Women's Lib. I'm all for the equal rights of women, and as soon as I stop hearing shit about leaving the toilet seat up I'll be 100% behind an Amendment to the Constitution on that account.

HEAVY METAL IDOL

This week on Heavy Metal Idol we are voting on Iron Maiden Vocalists.

Contestant #1: Paul 'Punky Brewmeister' DiAnno





Contestant #2: Bruce 'Opera Man' Dickinson





I will leave you with one more image, and then let the voting commence - this one's for you Chrispy.....

THE PUBLIC IMAGE



When I got it it was 'Album'. Most PIL fans would probably rate any number of records over this one, but, for me, this album stands spiky hair and sloped shoulders above the rest.

One record was what was required from The Sex Pistols, but John had more to say - or at least more ways to say the same things. I like John. I like PIL. I love this...er....Album.

FFF, Fishing, and, of course, Rise.

I AM HE AS YOU ARE ME AND WE ARE ALL TOGETHER

http://myspace.com/smokeandmirrorsbrooklyn

CASH ON THE BICUSPID



I bought it. Worth every damn penny. There's a lot going on in Frusciante land. I will say this; a mp3 encoded below 198 kbs would seriously compromise the artists intent. This double CD is packed with weird high end activity, and ferocious low end funky ass flea bass. Anyone willing to listen to this record in a sub-standard format won't really be listening to this record at all, which is a shame, because it's a great record.

stand-out tracks so far:

Disc One (Jupiter): Strip My Mind, Warlocks
Disc Two (Mars): 21st Century

It's all good, with some old school Chili's style romps, and plenty of fresh California Groove style Chili's with John Frusciante's harmonies (both vocal and guitar) shining all over the joint.

Gotta get you some......