40 Watt Gigolo

from the album Downtown Rockers (2012)

I hate it when an excellent song slips thru the cracks.

Such is the case with Kissin' Antonio by Tom Tom Club.  I just stumbled across this 2012 record yesterday and have been diggin' this tune constantly ever since.

The song features an inspired keyboard track over a great beat and groove by Chris & Tina.  I also dig the vocals.

There are elements of the bass line conjure up Love Shack era B-52s and the vocals give me a glimmer of Robert DeNiro's Waiting and Shy Boy era Bananarama.

How can't I dig this tune?

Click Here for a music video for Kissin' Antonio put together by the folks at RISD.

I am in Kawaii today attending the memorial service for a friend who died far too young.  It will be a small affair on a beach with twenty or so people.  We will be grilling lobster, having cocktails, and then sprinkling her remains in the sea.  Just as she wished.

I have been asked to coordinate the music for the occasion.

Last night, I visited the beach.  It was a magnificent night with a full moon reflecting on the ocean, tropical clouds hanging in the sky as though they were borrowed from a movie set, and waves softly washing onto the shore.  There is a reason many consider this paradise.

I was joined by my friend's father.  He is most sad to lose his daughter.  We sat - not speaking much - staring at - and listening to - the sea.

"The ocean has a heartbeat" he said.  "I first experienced it as a teenager in Wales, but have heard it throughout my life."  We continued sitting there, listening to the heartbeat.

It's tempo is slow.  Slower than your own he…

from the EP The Arrangement (2014)

Upon hearing the song O'Sullivan's Jukebox by David Ford, I became fascinated with the Irish Ballad and rejoiced in having a contemporary singer/songwriter embrace the genre head first.  It also helped me realize that - in part - it is the Irish balladry that endears me to bands like The Pogues and Black 47.

Then I looked up "Music of Ireland" on Wikipedia.  Well I'll be damned if The Pogues are never mentioned.  Oversight of oversights.  When mankind looks back on the music of our times, they will envy us for having walked the earth with The Pogues.  Can you imagine attending one of their early pub shows?  To stand there drenched in sweat, dancing to the rapture of this brilliant band.  It must have been joy like no other.

And Wikipedia doesn't list them under the Music of Ireland.  Damn the internet.

There is something in the music of Ireland that stirs something deep inside me.  This goes far beyond my drunken desire to R…

from the album Out Of The Box (2014)

Let's give it up for The Professor !!!

Roy Bittan has spent the better part of the past 40 years as the pianist for the legendary E Street Band.  He has laid down some of the most memorable tracks in rock & roll.  When I think about Springsteen's Born To Run album, his fingers are all over the record.

Jungleland is always noted for Clarence Clemmon's sax solo, but the piano track underpins everything.  Think of other songs like Backstreets, Meeting Across The River, and legendary introduction to Thunder Road.  All those performances on one album.  Hair raising.

Lesser known - but also stellar - is his hand E work on albums by Dire Straits, Stevie Nicks, and Meat Loaf.  Hell, he even produced Lucinda Williams.

This week - at age 65 - he has released his first solo record, a collection of piano centric instrumentals.

My favorite song is Hammond Eggs.  The Hammond organ is not an instrument he is known to perform on, but man can he pla…

from the album Indian Ocean (2014)

To fully appreciate the splendor of Frazey Ford's latest album, Indian Ocean, you must first be familiar with her backstory.

The Canadian singer/songwriter hit the scene in 1999 as a member of the alternative country trio The Be Good Tanyas.  The band first came together playing at tree planting camps in British Columbia before gaining widespread popularity thru the inclusion of their songs on Showtime series The L Word and Weeds, as well as the AMC series Breaking Bad.

In 2010, she released her solo debut album Obediah.  The album contained songs with a chilling raw beauty.  Firecracker and Hey Little Mama are two of the finest alt-country songs of this decade.  I consider this record to be a minor masterpiece.

Indian Ocean is her second solo album.  Admirably, she has used this record as an opportunity to evolve her sound with an infusion of Memphis soul to her natural country sensibilities.  To accomplish this, she enlisted the Hi Rhythm Sectio…

from the album Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave (2014)

I spend lots of time in transit.  For me, it is most often air travel which I enjoy because it leaves me untethered from my telephone for a few hours.  This allows time to think.  Time to read.  Time to vegetate.

Music is a big part of my travel regiment.  Good tunes and good speakers create an aural cocoon that satisfies my soul.

Over the course of this year, I have found myself listening to mix tapes less and less frequently, instead seeking out longer-form sonic landscapes that can be found in well conceived albums.

The problem, of course, is that I am zigging while most of the music industry is zagging.  In a world measured in followers and downloads, why wouldn't a band focus on knocking the us dead in two minutes fifty-nine seconds rather than laboring to create an hour of substance?

For bands crafting complete albums, my noise-canceling coconut shells await.  One such band is The Twilight Sad.  Their a…

from the album Avonmore (2014)

A couple of days ago, I took a little time out of my preparations for an Asian leg of my never-ending tour to meet my friend, Richie Beans, at a local record store.  I needed something new to chill out to on the 26 hour trip to the Philippines.  I picked up Avonmore, the latest Bryan Ferry album.

Leaving the store, I popped it into my automobile's CD player and was most pleasantly surprised.  To a large extent it has magnificent tones and vibe of his best 1980's recordings.  I made it about 8 tracks in before getting home.

So, I was grooving to the record somewhere over the Aleutian Islands when I got to hear the closing track for the first time.  It was a cover of one of my favorite Robert Palmer tunes, Johnny And Mary.  The song features an bouncing beat and a staccato instrumentation that frames Bryan Ferry's incredible voice in a way I quite dig.

For this track, he collaborates with Scandinavian groove master Todd Terje.  The combination …

from the single Fuckers / Dream Baby Dream (2014)

Don't let the fuckers get you down
Don't let the fuckers get you down
Don't let the fuckers get you down

.. and so goes the central mantra to this ten minute live track from the best new rock and roll band of recent years.  Sage advise to absorb while driving 100 miles per hour down I-85.

I was privileged to see this band last year.  Every band member was stellar in her craft.  This is evident on this track.  The post-punk guitar tones are mind bending.  The driving bass line establishing the magnificent groove that is perfectly complimented by the impassioned drumming.  And then there are the vocals delivered by Jehnny Beth, rocks next superstar.

Yeah, they are that good.

Click Here to watch the video for Fuckers.

from the album Artificial Sweeteners (2014)

I was recently binge watching Season One of Breaking Bad.  Somewhere around mid-season, I heard a song that completely blew me away.  I raced for my phone, opened Shazam, and soon learned that the song was Uh by the British electronic outfit Fujiya & Miyagi.

I digged this tune so much that I paused the marathon and started scouring the web for more.  Songs like Collarbone also blew me away.  Then I started looking for any 2014 releases.  I soon discovered the album Artificial Sweeteners.  The most popular song on the album is Vagaries Of Fashion, which I immediately downloaded.

However, there was one track title that fascinated me:  Acid To My Alkaline.  I had to hear this song.  I was wondering if I would feel neutral about it.  Fortunately, it left me saying "what the pH..."!

This song offers a great electric guitar track that offers a funk reminiscent of Talking Heads or The Bush Tetras.  The song also contains cool retro sy…

from the EP A Bit Of Common Decency (2014)

As a younger gigolo, I used to delight in playing the arcade game Asteroids.  You could usually find in the back of some seedy bar, my right palm on the trackball and my left index finger rapid firing at the ever approaching space rocks.  I was quite good at it.

The thing was that as you shot the larger asteroids, they would splinter into several smaller ones, each capable of destroying you (although you could obliterate the smallest of the ones).  Inevitably, you found yourself doomed.  However, as in all great games, there was an escape hatch: The Hyperspace Button.

Hitting the hyperspace button would instantly relocate you to a different part of the screen.  You may not be safe there, but at least you had a chance.

I wish I had a hyperspace button right now.  There sure is a bunch of stuff hurling my way these days and I wonder if I can keep shooting it down.  If only it were that easy...

However, it is possible to harness the power of mus…

from the EP Bike Rider (2014)

Back in June, I wrote for the first time about the Scottish reggae band Mungo's Hi Fi and their song Serious Time.  Since then, I continue to become captivated by their brand of retro-ska stylings.  The song Mama Was Right is currently in my heavy rotation.

In the true SoundSystem fashion, this record includes vocals by Marina P.  Back in 2008, they collaborated on the tune Divorce a L'italienne, which brings a Deborah Harry-esque spunk to a hard reggae beat.  Also check out her reworking of Nina Simone on Inna Summertime from her excellent 2013 album My Homeys.  These songs are favorites when my funky friends drop in for a visit.

It is interesting to me how much of the best reggae I listen to these days comes form places like Los Angeles and Glasgow.  Cause for some cool meditation.

Click Here to listen to Mama Was Right.

from the album Rock & Roll Time (2014)

I woke up at 2:15am this morning trying to meet a deadline for some folks in Europe.  I've got the espresso machine working double duty and my dog is giving me that "are we going fishing?" look.  At times like these, finding the right tunes is essential.

So I'm listening to the new Jerry Lee Lewis album.  That's right.  The Killer is still releasing great stuff at the age of 79.  It leaves me breathless.

I have been particularly digging the Stepchild, a cover of an obscure Bob Dylan tune.  It is a rockin'-ramblin' song.  The type you would expect to hear in some swampy backwater juke joint.  Jerry Lee sounds great.  I can't stop listening.

Also check out Here Comes That Rainbow Again, a slow ballad sung as a duet with Shelby Lynne.

Click Here to listen to a sample of Stepchild on iTunes.

There are too many great new records that need to be written about.

I have been logging a bunch of windshield time these days listening to two CDs:  Acoustic Classics by Richard Thompson and Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone by Lucinda Williams.

Acoustic Classics has me completely mesmerized.  As you know, I believe that the two essential ingredients for a great record are songwriting and vocals.  When those two elements are present, everything else falls into place.  So, on this record, Richard Thompson records new versions of some of his finest tunes accompanied only by his acoustic guitar.

As I listen to the first few tracks, I become enveloped in the stripped down renditions of classics like Walking On A Wire and Wall Of Death.  They bring me back to nights in Bay Ridge and caution me to "beware of the bearded lady."

But with each track, I get more deeply entranced.  1952 Vincent Black Lightning gives me chills.  When James hands the keys to Red Molly on his death bed,…

from the television show The Brady Bunch (1972)

When I was in early grade school, our teacher assigned us to keep a record of how many hours of television we watched over the course of one week.  Mistaking this for a contest, I set out to be the winner.  After school, I would race home and turn on the tube.  After my mother sent me to bed, I would sneak downstairs and watch TV with the sound turned low until I fell asleep.  I was determined.

The next week, Ms. Gregory went around the room asking each of us to tell the class how many hours we watched.  Most were in the teens.  Maybe one guy broke thirty.  When they got to me I proudly announced triple digits.  My teacher was horrified.  What type of parents would abandon their child in front of the television for 100+ hours a week?  No wonder I grew up to be a media junkie.

Rather than be embarrassed, I am still proud of it.  I applied myself, and learned that success is measured by dedicating yourself to a goal, working hard, and seei…

from the album No Time (2014)

There is an old joke about two bulls standing at the top of a hill, looking down on a meadow of cows.  The younger bull wants to rush down the hill and have sex with one of them.  The older bull suggests a more patient approach.

It is often the same with music.  The punks behaved like young bulls, rushing straight into the song with the lyrics falling right behind.  As Dee Dee Ramone said "1-2-3-4."

As punk transitioned into goth and dark wave, bands like The Cure differentiated themselves with extended introductions.  These arrangements allowed listeners to be swept into the groove and immersed in the moment before Robert Smith's distinct vocal stylings took hold.  It was totally captivating.

Lately, I have found myself enamored with the space between the notes.  I have been thinking of music as "sculpted," starting out with every instrument playing an endless string of 1/16th notes, then having notes removed until the barest esse…

from the album Cold World (2014)

Shortly before Barrack Obama ascended to the presidency, I was hanging out with two buddies in a bar along the Yellowstone River in the badlands of eastern Montana.  This was a rancher bar, that attracted people from a sixty mile radius.  The panelling was lined the heads of massive steer collected over the past hundred years.  It was stark and people drank hard liquor.

I stood out like a sore thumb, outshone only by my two friends, one from Brooklyn, one from Alabama.  Somehow, I wound up wasted and out of my shell.  There was a group of five or six ranch girls hanging out next to us.  I offered to buy drinks for whichever of them could give the best cattle call.  Each let loose in full-throated glory.

The best roar came from this four-foot-nine firecracker.  It even turned the heads mounted on the walls.  My god.

She soon became enthralled with Brooklyn.  She was gonna rope her a New York City buck.  Alabama inquired about her wedding ring.  She repl…

from the single Me Likey (2014)

There are times when nothing is better than a silly song.  Me Likey by 17 year old actor-musician Trevor Jackson is a great example.  Check out these lyrics:

When you touch me here
You touch me there
You give me that stare
Me likey

You wanna go up
Me wanna go down
Well I can go down
Me likey

Me likey this
Me likey that
Me likey this
Me likey that

Over a simple hip hop vibe, these lyrics become very catchy.  And who doesn't want to hear someone singing Me Likey?

Click Here to listen to Me Likey.

from the forthcoming album The Man Upstairs (2014)

Earlier this year, Richie Beans and I grabbed a few dates to take to a Robyn Hitchcock show in a small Atlanta club.  Unfortunately, this was the night of the Snowpocalypse, a slight storm causing that fine city to have a total traffic meltdown and embarrass itself before the world.  It was a Georgia psychobilly freakout.

However, for Richie Beans and myself, this was Robyn Hitchcock and there was no way we were going to miss the show.  I took mass transit which worked like a gem.  Richie got there early.  Way early.  Catch the soundcheck early.

In all, you could count the audience on your fingers and toes.

It was like being in a psychedelic coffeehouse somewhere near Ice Station Zebra.  And standing there - close enough to touch - was Robyn Hitchcock playing a bunch of new and old tunes.  The show included a cover of The Psychedelic Furs "The Ghost In You."  It was mind bending good.

He stripped the tune way down, turning i…

from the album Bless Off (2014)

The Shrine are a band from Los Angeles who crank out one fine rocker after another.  The Duke is a song that channels Ozzy.  I dig that.

Built on a guitar riff, the song rises and falls with great dynamics.  Credit this to the drummer and bassist.  But really, this song is all about the vocals for me.  They sound like Ozzy.

So, dig the fuzz, dig the groove, and dig The Shrine.

Click Here to listen to The Shrine play The Duke on BandCamp.

from the album The Island Of Dr. Electrico (2014)

The Bombay Twist is a Bollywood take on classic '60s party tunes.  Do the mash potato, that kind of stuff.  It is performed by The Bombay Royale, a band from Melbourne, Australia that I am dying to check out.

Sitars, horns, and a beat that just won't quit.  Add to it an MC saying thing like "do the twist, like this" and a cackling woman and you are ready for your next psychedelic experience.  Enjoy.

Click Here to listen to the album version of The Bombay Twist which also appears on the Far Cry 4 video game soundtrack.

from the album Food (2014)

As I listen and write about music, the importance of a good bass player becomes increasingly evident to me.  They establish and maintain the groove, laying the foundation for other instruments to flourish.

Check out the bass line on Hooch by R&B and neo soul diva Kelis.  This is bass playing at its best.  Every note perfectly struck, giving off a round sound, never fretting out.  It allows the listener to enter the music and anticipate where it is heading.  It allows the horns the triumph.  It allows Kelis to croon.  It allows me to get my funk on.

Somewhere along the line, this song picks up the Memphis Stax thing.  The essence of soul...

Click Here to listen to Hooch.

from the forthcoming album The Big Picture (2014)

There is nothing like a rainy day woman.  Someone you can chill out with, laugh, and just enjoy your time on this spinning stone.  Everyone should have one.  Bob Dylan had so many of them that they were numbered.  Over fifty at last count.

There are other great songs, like Rainy Day People by Gordon Lightfoot.  Seems that the idea of that person you can be happy spending downtime with with has a long thread.

Add to that list Rainy Day Woman by Kat Edmonson.  This song is offered from the point of view of the rainy day woman.  She is melancholy, wanting more, but not wanting it to end.  I can dig that.

This song is magnificently arranged and executed.  From the tip of the stick riding the cymbal, this song really has it all.  Violins, saxophones, incredible guitar tone, and a classic R&B groove.  This song could find itself on a James Bond soundtrack or a never-realized Amy Winehouse record.  I can't stop listening.

So, here is …

from the album Vagabond (2014)

Twice in by life, I had a dear friend move to San Francisco.  Both times it left me feeling empty.  These occurrences were over a decade apart and involved people from completely different universes.  Each ultimately left that magnificent city, bouncing around America, before settling far away from where either started or San Francisco.

That today they live in the same city and have become friends is nothing less than cosmic.  What type of forces drive such happenstance?

When I listen to the song San Francisco by Stu Larsen, I can't help but think of these two wonderful people.  I think about their personal journeys and how grateful I am to be a part of their lives.

The tender acoustic guitar, easy melody, and piano accents make reminiscing easy.  Check Stu Larsen out.  He is a gifted songwriter with a beautiful voice.

Click Here to watch Stu Larsen acoustically perform San Francisco for The Between Shows.

Click Here to listen to the album version of …