Archive 2017

THE BEST AND WORST IN ENTERTAINMENT FOR 2017 (December)

BEST ALBUMS

The Afghan Whigs- In Spades (see review)
U2- Songs of Experience (review coming in January)
Bash and Pop- Anything Could Happen: Not surprising to Replacements fans that Paul Westerberg made sure that the Replacements reunion was temporary.  What was surprising though, was that Tommy Stinson reformed his first post Replacements band, Bash and Pop, for a solid rock album.
Nine Inch Nails- Add Violence
Matthew Sweet- Tomorrow Forever: Matthew Sweet’s last several albums have been hit or miss but this album is the best Sweet has sounded in quite some time.

BEST SONGS

The Afghan Whigs’ “Toy Automatic” is epic.  It is a short song but it packs in a soaring strings and horns arrangement making it one of my all time favorite Afghan Whigs songs.  Nine Inch Nails’ “Less Than” showed that Trent Reznor can still write a classic Nine Inch Nails song that rocks and is danceable and catchy at the same time.

BEST CONCERTS

It was too hard for me to pick one so here is my top three.  First was the Afghan Whigs at Bogarts in Cincinnati.  The Afghan Whigs always put on a great show.  What made this tour special was that the Afghan Whigs offered probably the best VIP package to fans I have seen.  The super fan is paying for the experience when they buy a VIP ticket.  Meals, early entry, etc are nice but not that memorable.  The Afghan Whigs offered an awesome package with exclusive merchandise, entry to sound check, and a meet and greet.  I am so grateful to the band for offering this personal interaction with the fans and making for a truly memorable experience.

Second was U2 for the Joshua Tree 30th Anniversary tour.  I saw the show in Louisville.  U2 is one of the best live bands around.  The Joshua Tree was U2’s most popular album and held up well to play it in its entirety thirty years later.  The show opened with a few pre-Joshua Tree songs and closed with post- Joshua Tree songs showing U2’s striking catalog and longevity.

Lastly, there was Ben Folds paper airplanes tour.  I saw Ben Folds on Halloween in Lexington.  The concept of the tour was that Ben Folds played a set of ten songs, requested by the audience on paper airplanes.  The audience picks at the show I was at weren’t that obscure but there was definitely a  “what will he play next” anticipation throughout the show.  I commend Ben Folds for a truly unique way to interact with the audience.  Bonus, to opener Tall Heights.  They gave a solid performance and their cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Bird on a Wire” was stunning.

BEST REISSUES

R.E.M’s Automatic for the People 25th Anniversary: Automatic for the People was one of R.E.M.’s best albums.  The 25th Anniversary reissue is packed with extras such as a disc of demos, and the first official release of the only show R.E.M. played to promote the album, a 1992 benefit for Greenpeace in Athens, GA.  The demos were great and new to me.  Why did it take fans twenty five years to hear the gem named “Mike’s Pop Song”?  This reissue has the nicest packaging of any of the R.E.M. resissues in boxset format.  The book included with Anton Corbijn’s beautiful promotional photographs is an added bonus.

Again, I include U2 for their 30th Anniversary resissue for The Joshua Tree.  The reissue is packed with extras as well, including demos, b-sides, and a live show.  It is beautifully packaged and like R.E.M.’s reissue, includes some great photograph books, one of Anton Corbijn’s promotional photos from the time.

BEST MOVIES

Lady Bird: I grew up in the golden age of teen movies thanks to John Hughes.  I know I sound old here but the movies made have been made for teenagers since just don’t portray teenagers as they are.  Lady Bird is a throwback to John Hughes’ movies showing all the real scenarios and awkwardness of adolescence as well as the complex relationships between mothers and daughters with a real sincerity. 

The Big Sick: Comedian Kumail Nanjiani and his wife, Emily Gordon wrote the year’s best love story based on their own story.  The film does a great job showing the romance across cultures with the “girlfriend in a coma” twist without being heavy.

BEST TV

Masterpiece on PBS has some of the best shows on TV.  This year brought very solid seasons of Grantchester and Poldark.  Grantchester did an excellent job of adding the personal relationships to the mystery storylines.  Poldark added to several new characters to respark ongoing storylines.  Masterpiece has been looking for their next Downton Abbey.  There is only one Downton but the addition of Victoria gave Masterpiece another lush period piece that stands strong on its own.

IN MEMORY
2017 proved to be another year where we lost too many great artists.  I had three whose passing hit pretty close to home.  I have already paid tribute to them here but as 2017 draws to a close, I would like to remember them again.

 Dave Rosser (1966-2017) 

 Tom Petty (1950-2017) 

 Tommy Keene (1958-2017) 

THE WORST

WHERE IN THE CREATIVE PROCESS WINNER- Imagine Dragons- Thunder- Besides the fact that this song was overplayed, I am wondering where in the creative process did someone decide that the synthetic, cartoonish voice singing “Thunder” in the chorus would be a great addition to this song.  The song would be OK on its own but this pretty much ruined it.

WORST CONCERT

This pains me to write this after praising them in my 2016 year end column but my choice would be the Gin Blossoms show at JD Legends in Franklin, OH.  I want to state up front that this pick is not because the Gin Blossoms musically put on a bad show or for reasons beyond their control like it raining at the end of the show.  When a fan pays four times the value of a general admission ticket for a VIP ticket, we do expect for you deliver an experience worth the extra cost.  Having a guy who works at the venue hand out autograph pictures while you sit on your tour bus is not a “meet and greet” as the venue advertised.  JD Legends, if you are going to sell tickets for the rows in front of the stage at a premium price, have better security for this area and not just the buffet.  A lot of general admission ticket holders were able to walk right in the VIP section.  I have a lot reservations about this venue when I read that at a Puddle of Mudd show, the lead singer didn’t show up but the venue appeared to be hoping that the audience would not notice.  To the Gin Blossoms and JD Legends, see above regarding the Afghan Whigs VIP package if you need a definition of what a VIP experience should be. I am a concert going veteran and I have never been so angry and disappointed as I was this show.

WORST TV

The Keepers on Netflix: In 1969, Cathy Cesnik, a nun in Maryland disappeared and was later found murdered.  The case was never solved.  The Keepers, a seven part documentary on Netflix, tries to shed new light on this case.  The series follows two older women, who were former students of Sister Cesmik, as they play amateur detectives and try to solve this cold case.  The series spends seven hours jumping from one outlandish theory to the next.  First theory is that Sister Cesnik was silenced because she was aware of a sexual abuse scandal from priests in the school.  I believe that the abuse was going on in the school but a lot of time is focused on a very shaky testimony of an abuse victim who keeps remembering things that were suppressed for years, many of which conflict with police evidence.  The priest in question is deceased.  Their next suspect is a man they are looking into because his ex-wife says he did it because he came home with blood on his shirt around the time Sister Cesnik disappeared.  Just overlook that he had no motive and appears to have not known Sister Cesnik.  He appears to have dementia now and that the filmmakers keep harping on interviewing him is disgusting.   Then there is the creepy, former boyfriend of Cesnik, who is a minister now, and claims that the police showed him an intimate body part of Cesnik’s.  This series left me with many more questions than it answered.  It was poor, sensational investigative reporting.

DON’T MESS WITH THE CLASSICS

Classics don’t need to be “reimagined” or remade.  Jeers to The Louisville Ballet for their “reimagination” of the classic ballet, The Firebird.  The ballet was not a commentary about refugees at the time it was written.  This is just forcing a current political commentary into a classic ballet where it does not belong.  Having dancers dance in street clothes with cardboard Amazon boxes is not brilliant, it is pretentious.  Dirty Dancing and A Christmas Story do not need to be remade.  Watch the originals as they were intended.

BASED ON HAPPY TIMES: IN MEMORY OF TOMMY KEENE (1958-2017) (December)

These deaths of musicians are hitting closer than they use to.  I was so saddened to hear of Tommy Keene’s passing the day before Thanksgiving.  It doesn’t make sense to me that someone who was not ill could go to bed and not wake up the next morning.

I discovered Tommy Keene’s music by a complete accident.  In the mid 1990’s, several artists I like were on the independent record label, Alias Records.  In one of my record orders, there was a free compilation of Alias Records artists.  On that free CD, I heard for the first time Tommy Keene’s “Places That Are Gone”.  I wasn’t the same after that.  Tommy had a beautiful voice and a gift for melody.  As someone who is an introvert and has always felt outside of the mainstream, when I heard Tommy Keene sing “Back before you knew me well, I was trapped inside a shell” on “Places That Are Gone”, it resonated with me personally.  It is criminal to me that this song was not a “hit”.  It is still one of my favorite songs today.  I started seeking out Tommy Keene’s music which wasn’t always easy because a lot of his music is out of print.  In one of the first blogs I wrote here in 1999, I wrote that Tommy Keene was one of the most underrated artists from the 1980’s, a sentiment I still very much believe.

One of the things I admired most about Tommy Keene was his love and dedication to being a musician.  He never had a hit record and spent most of music career in obscurity.  However, he loved writing and performing music so much, he never gave up.  It is quite impressive that he released eleven albums and that doesn’t count the live albums, covers album, outtakes album, and several EPs and compilations.  Only two of those albums, 1986’s Songs From the Film and 1989’s Based on Happy Times, were released on a major record label (Geffen).    I know that Geffen Records only viewed success in terms of what albums were selling but it just didn’t seem right that Keene lost his record deal with Geffen after releasing these two gems.  Tommy’s brother, Bobby Keene, wrote a beautiful, loving tribute to Tommy on Tommy Keene’s website that I was smiling through my tears as I read it.  He eloquently relayed Tommy’s love of performing.

“From the earliest of his shows, on stage is where Tommy was most comfortable and most content. He was at   
home there. It always came natural and easy to him. No matter how crummy the dumpy club was or how small the  crowd was or how tired and sick he might have been, he was always the same on stage.  Very serious but in his  own world and doing his own thing, his way. He never phoned in a show or gave anything less than everything  he had. It didn’t matter if  there were only 3 people in Baltimore on a cold rainy Tuesday night or a sold-out show at the Fillmore in San Francisco with Green Day’s Billie Joe watching from the wings. His drive, passion and  command were always there.”

I truly regret that I never saw Tommy perform live.

Tommy was always gracious and humble to those who supported his music.  Over the years I have been writing my blog, I have had a few musicians contact me.  I remember fondly that Tommy Keene sent a friends invite on My Space to me and a note introducing himself (like I didn’t know who he was) and telling me he was going to use My Space to promote his music.  After having an “Oh my God, Tommy Keene contacted me” fan girl moment, I wrote him back stating yes, I knew who he is was and I’m honored.  Since his passing, reading so many fans’ stories showed how much Tommy truly appreciated his fans.  This is why that though many us didn’t know Tommy personally, we still feel a loss.

It seems evitable that I would be a fan of Tommy Keene’s music because he was connected to so many of “my bands”.  He toured with Paul Westerberg.  “Love Untold” is one my favorite Paul Westerberg songs and I loved Tommy Keene’s wonderful backing vocals and guitars when this song was performed live.  The Gin Blossoms sang on his 2002 album, The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down.  He called Guided By Voices front man, Robert Pollard, his music brother and released The Keene Brothers album, Blues and Boogie Shoes, in 2006.  He toured this year with Matthew Sweet.  Since Tommy’s passing, I have been plowing through his catalog trying to come up with the perfect list of his songs that meant so much to me.  It seemed forced to me but these songs (and not limited to)  of his will always mean so much to me: “Back to Zero Now”, “Baby Face”, “Back Again”,  “Listen to Me”, “When Our Vows Break”,  “Long Time Missing”, “Never Really Been Gone”, and “Tomorrow’s Gone Tonight”.  As I remember Tommy Keene, I have been in particular listening to “Places That Are Gone” and “Based on Happy Times”.  Both songs are about memories and remembering fondly the times that are behind us.  Rest in Peace Tommy, your music will forever be in my heart.

IN MEMORY OF TOM PETTY (1950-2017) (October)

I was shocked and saddened to hear of Tom Petty’s passing on October 2.  Tom Petty’s music meant so much to people because he wrote songs for the “every man”.  Petty’s voice wasn’t polished, he didn’t have a slick rock star image.  He drew on his southern roots and wrote universal songs about having dreams, discouragement, having your heart broken, that the average listener could relate to.  When you listen to Petty’s music, you feel like he was one of us.  His musical sound was not that unique; he drew heavily from his influences whether it be the Byrds, the Beatles, or Bob Dylan.  However, he drew from their pop sensibility and he had a gift for taking a sad song and packaging it in a catchy song.  Petty earned the right to be called a legend because he influenced so many bands that came after him.  Few can say that their side project, The Travelling Wilburys, included their influences, George Harrison and Bob Dylan.  These are ten of my favorite Tom Petty songs.  Thanks for the songs, RIP Tom.

American Girl, 1976- The song was the quintessential Petty song.  It was infectiously catchy but had an inner sadness story of a girl waiting for life to begin.  The sense of longing, “she couldn’t help thinkin’ that there was a little more to life somewhere else” paired with the upbeat “oh yeah, all right” showed early in Petty’s career the complexity of his songwriting while having a straight rock sensibility.

Here Comes My Girl, 1979- A straight forward love song, Petty experimented with his vocals by having some of the lyrics spoken word.  The message was simple, when life seems down, “It just seems so useless to have to work so hard, and nothing ever really seems to come from it”, the perfect woman can make it all seem better.  The message was simple but it was executed as a perfect rock song.

Letting You Go, 1981- I first heard this song when Robin Wilson of the Gin Blossoms performed a cover of it.  I loved the song so much I sought out Petty’s original.  It is a fairly straight forward song for the victims of unrequited love.  This song has some of Petty’s best pieces of wisdom “there’s no one as honest as those in pain” and “it’s a restless world, uncertain times.  You said hope was getting hard to find”.  Like “American Girl”, it showed Petty’s gift for putting a sad song in a sunny, catchy musical package.  

The Waiting, 1981- The song’s music drew on 1960’s pop music, like the Byrds.  Petty again wrote a song with a deeper meaning, a song about waiting for dreams to come true when he sang the very profound chorus, “The waiting is the hardest part.  Every day you see one more card.  You take it on faith, you take it to the heart”.  

Runnin Down a Dream, 1989- The song starts out on a bang with that memorable, driving guitar riff.  Lyrically, it continued with Petty’s theme of waiting for dreams to happen when Petty sang “Yeah, running down a dream,  that never would come to me.  Working on a mystery, going wherever it leads”.  The video’s animation made it a stand out during the MTV days.

Free Fallin, 1989- The song featured a memorable, dare you not to sing along chorus.  Petty painted a picture of memorable, average characters whether it be the “good girl” who “loves her mama, Jesus, and America too” and “all the vampires, walking through the valley”.

Into the Great Wide Open, 1991- This song showed Petty’s gift for storytelling.  The song tells the story of Eddie, who goes to Hollywood to become a rock star.  The song served as Petty’s cautionary tale about stardom and the music industry.  Petty went big with the video having Johnny Depp play Eddie.

Learning to Fly, 1991- A simple song with Petty’s wisdom about seeking direction in life where Petty observes “coming down in the hardest part”.  The instrumentation is simple but the jangle, acoustic guitar riffs make the song memorable.

Mary Jane’s Last Dance, 1993- Only Petty could have a song this good be released as an extra track for a greatest hits album.  Petty creates the character of Mary Jane, a girl from an Indiana town, hoping to escape it.  Or maybe it’s a drug reference.  Petty also created the memorable, creepy video where Kim Basinger plays a beautiful corpse. 

The Last DJ, 2002- Throughout Petty’s career, he clashed with the established music industry.  This song was Petty biting commentary on the commercialization of the radio.  He laments for “the last DJ, who plays what he wants to play and says what he wants to say” and takes digs at “as we celebrate mediocrity all the boys upstairs want to see”.  Petty wrote a brilliant commentary on the corruptness of the music industry

IN MEMORY OF DAVE ROSSER (1966-2017) (July)

On the morning of June 28,2017, I heard the news that I had dreaded hearing but sadly knew was coming soon, The Afghan Whigs guitarist, Dave Rosser, had passed away after a battle with cancer.  I felt a loss because I knew a huge hole, both personally and musically, had just been left in my favorite band. 

I have been a fan of Greg Dulli’s music for twenty three years.  It has been one of my longest musical relationships.  I have seen Greg Dulli go from the Afghan Whigs to the Twilight Singers to the Gutter Twins to some solo tours and back to the Afghan Whigs in that time.  Whenever Greg Dulli is playing in the Cincinnati area, regardless of which musical incarnation the tour is, we have a date that night.  I have seen musicians come and go over the years in Greg Dulli’s touring line up.  Dave Rosser was different.  For about the last decade, Dave Rosser was a constant presence.  Dave’s talent as a guitarist was always there to compliment Greg Dulli’s music, no matter what that endeavor was at the time.  Dave’s talent as a musician was integral to what made those live shows so awesome.  I usually was standing in front of him at many of those shows.  It is hard to imagine him not there anymore.

 Dave Rosser (left) with The Twilight Singers, Southgate House, Newport, KY 11/3/06

Dave contributed to the albums in addition to the tours.  These are my favorite Dave Rosser music moments.

“Seven Stories Underground” from The Gutter Twins- Saturnalia, 2008- This song, in particular, shows Dave’s multi-talents as musician.  He is credited with playing bass, lap steel, and organ and singing on this track.  All of this instrumentation together created the moody atmosphere of the song.

“Last Night in Town” from The Twilight Singers- Dynamite Steps, 2011- This track set the tone for Dynamite Steps.  Dave’s guitar work helped created the driving force of this song.

“The Lottery” from The Afghan Whigs- Do to the Beast, 2014- Do to the Beast was the first album for a reunited Afghan Whigs.  Original Whigs guitarist, Rick McCollum, left the band.  Dave became an “official” member of the Afghan Whigs.  “The Lottery” features some of Dave’s best guitar work.

“Number Nine” from Greg Dulli, Live in NYC (official bootleg), 2016- “Number Nine” was a duet between Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan from The Twilight Singers’ album, Blackberry Belle.  Mark Lanegan has a very low, bass voice.  Dave sang Mark Lanegan’s vocal part during Greg Dulli’s solo tour.  He showed his great talent and range as a vocalist, as well as a guitarist.

“Arabian Heights” from The Afghan Whigs- In Spades, 2017- “Arabian Heights” is a straight up rocker.  Dave’s guitar work along with Jon Skibic and Dulli’s guitars, creates a driving, wall of sound.  Sadly, Dave was too ill to perform at any of the live shows to support In Spades but his obituary stated that he was proudest of his work on this album.

Dave was diagnosed with inoperable colon cancer in October of last year.  The music community and fans joined together to help alleviate the financial burden of his illness.  Benefit shows were held in New Orleans and Los Angeles and featured the Afghan Whigs, Mark Lanegan, Ani DiFranco, Duff McKagan from Guns N Roses, Moby, and Eagles of Death Metal.  The Afghan Whigs fan group on Facebook, The Congregation, created t-shirts and buttons that said “Viva La Rosser” to raise money for Dave’s medical fund.  The money raised for Dave’s medical fund greatly exceeded original goals.  In a time where there are so many ugly, mean-spirited things on the internet, these efforts restored my faith in the kindness of others and the power of community.  I know that Dave felt this love and support in his last months and it made a difference.  Viva La Rosser!  You will be missed greatly. 

REVIEW: THE AFGHAN WHIGS- IN SPADES (May)

When the Afghan Whigs returned in 2014 with Do to the Beast, sixteen years after their last album, 1965, it was a moment that fans could only have dreamed of.  Do to the Beast showed that The Whigs  were not the same band they were when 1965 was released but had grown over the years as songwriters and musicians.  While Do to the Beast was a welcomed return, it feels like a warm up for the Afghan Whigs’ latest masterpiece, In Spades.

In Spades will feel familiar to fans in many ways.  Front man Greg Dulli stills uses imageries of darkness, such as demons and witches, and sexiness.  The album’s has beautiful packaging featuring artist, Ramon Rodrigues Melo’s creepy black and white images of the devil and demons.  “Demon in Profile” has a throwback to the “It Kills” piano intro as Dulli purrs “all over your body, this electricity, it was all that I wanted, now it’s killing me”.  “Oriole” is a vampy song that feels like a conjuring with its creepy mellotron and strings arrangement.   “I Got Lost” is a haunting confessional, in the vein of the Gutter Twins’ “I Was in Love with You”, where Dulli sings “all I see is then, now, them, us, end, start” over a lonely piano. 

The album’s best moments are the more innovative ones.  The album opens with “Birdland” which is probably the most unique Whigs song to date.  Dulli improvised the vocals over a mellotron and strings arrangement.  It feels so live and spontaneous you can hear Dulli sniff in the song.  “Arabian Heights” is a total rocker where Dulli purrs “love is a lie, like a hole in the sky, then you die” over a wall of guitars.  “Light as a Feather” has a funky groove, thanks in large part to bassist, John Curley’s bass riff.  It is “Toy Automatic” that is the album’s highest point.  The song clocks in at under three minutes but has a epic sound with a complete strings and horns arrangement.  Dulli has always been known for writing anti-love song with his songs of loss, break ups, and betrayal.  This is the closest Dulli has written to a love song, trading in “baby” for “my love” as he pleads “tell me, is this real?  Everything I feel?”.  It is the perfect song.  The album’s only weak moment is the “The Spell”.  I like the horns arrangement but I just don’t care for how Dulli over emphasizes every word with an “e” sound in it, beeee and freeee, etc., in his vocals.  The album closes with the epic “Into the Floor”, which holds up with big Whigs closers like, “Omerta” and “I Am Fire”.

In Spades does not sound like classic Whigs’ albums like Gentlemen and Black Love.  That is OK.  It shows the band’s growth as musicians and willingness to experiment and take risks.  In Spades is perfectly executed from start to finish and it is pleasure to listen to for the listener.

IN MEMORY OF GEORGE MICHAEL (1963-2016) (January)

I, with many others, was shocked to hear of George Michael’s passing on Christmas Day.  Growing up in the MTV generation, I was a fan of Wham and the Faith album as a child and teenager.  I’ll admit that my love of Michael’s music didn’t really stick with me as an adult but I can see why George Michael was the icon he was.  It saddened me to see one more icon from the MTV days gone too soon.

Michael’s greatest asset was his voice.  It seems trite to use the term “blue eyed soul” but Michael could sing with a soulfulness that most white guys don’t have.  One of the best early examples of this was “Careless Whisper”, a ballad of regret after infidelity where Michael sang it with such sadness and regret.  Wham had some of the most infectiously catchy pop songs of the time, such as “Freedom” and “Everything She Wants”.  “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” is so sugary, happy I get a cavity listening to it.  However, I still listen to fondly “Last Christmas” every Christmas and the several covers of it. 

With 1987’s Faith, George Michael went solo and shed his good boy image.  An MTV icon was born.  He shocked the radio with the release of “I Want Your Sex”.  This song seemed so taboo and controversial at the time but now it still seems brazen but rather tame by today’s standards.  While the “Faith” video remains one of the iconic videos from its time, it was the lesser known songs that really showcased Michael’s talent.  “Kissing a Fool”, a jazz ballad showcased the depth of Michael’s voice.  “Monkey” was very catchy and danceable but had a deeper message about the burden of addiction.

In 1990, George Michael reinvented himself again with the release of Listen Without Prejudice.  With this album, Michael retreated from the spotlight and didn’t appear in any of the music videos.  Not the hit album Faith was, Michael showed some of his strongest songwriting.  “Praying For Time” was a beautiful lament on poverty and world issues.  “Mother’s Pride” told the achingly beautiful story of a mother sending her son to war.  On “Freedom 90”, Michael declared his independence from MTV with a video featuring only super models and the iconic leather jacket from the “Faith” video was burned in it.

Who could forget some of the collaborations Michael did?  Who else would be given the opportunity to duet with a legend like Aretha Franklin on “Knew You Were Waiting”?  Who else could sing Queen’s “Somebody to Love” at a Freddie Mercury tribute to such perfection it gave the surviving members of Queen goose bumps?  Who else could duet with Elton John on “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me”?

George Michael had pretty much dropped out of sight later in his career, especially in the US. However, especially for those of us who grew up in the MTV generation, he was an icon in his time.  We will never forget the guy in the hot pink, long sleeve t-shirt and shorts or the guy in the leather jacket dancing with an acoustic guitar by a jukebox.  We will never forget that voice.  We will never forget those songs.  R.I.P. George Michael.