"punk" of course refers to the guy in prison that gets butt-effed. Here in the U.S. taking on this tag was the classic inversion of social value, basically saying "the thing you despise us for is the very thing we're proudest of." The early punk scene (let's say '74 - '76 was mainly peopled by geeks, geeks who decided to capitalize on all the things that made them relative pariahs - passion for unpopular music, disdain for mass produced style and public displays of affluence. It's not for nothing that early punks often evoked disdain and wrath from members of mainstream society since this was an open, visually obvious rejection of its values. Of course in the UK it functioned differently because of their economic system, but before you dismiss American punk as a middle class affectation -- this was the beginning of the disintegration of the middle class -- the original punk generation had a lot of folks who had finished college and gotten their degrees AND THEN found out that there was already a dearth of good jobs to be had and wound up working retail, in food service etc...gigs you'd expect that a college education would allow you to do better than - WAKEY WAKEY!

Pun dit pun dat

This is a bit of pure punditry.

As I observe acts like Mumford & Sons and the like being hailed as the vanguard of "Alternative Folk" I must take issue...

10 years ago or so I was working with artists like Devendra Banhart, Vetiver, Akron/Family, Larkin Grimm, Feathers, Fern Knight, Fire On Fire and hung around the Philly psych-folk crowd (Espers, Fern Knight, etc.) a bit. Naturally I became familiar with the past musical histories of the performers I worked with and talked musical likes and dislikes at backyard parties and between sets at local shows. What came up on a regular basis was that most of these people had had backgrounds in the avant garde underground, had played in noise-bands, been skronk-rockers, done performance art, purely experimental music, etc; and most of them continued to follow the work being done in those genres. Then tt some point, they'd collided with the aesthetic corpus that Greil Marcus dubbed "Old Wierd America," a prime example being the music Harry Smith had anthologized on "The Anthology of American Folk Music." This was authentic folk music that was noticeably eccentric in lyric content, musical composition and performance - both instrumental and performance -- just the natural outcome of individuals expressing themselves as best they could with resources (educational, cultural, etc.)at their disposal. The work "The Anthology..." documented was singular and the visionary as the best efforts of someone with Guggenheim grant working for years in state of the art studio. This body of work proved highly seductive and influential to artists who might have felt that they'd exhausted the possibilities of amplified post-rock and would consequently begin examining the possibilities of creating avant-music using acoustic, often arcane, antiquarian instrumentation

The results(avant folk, psych folk, freak folk - whatever bin divider tag you prefer), were pretty marvelous. Subtle, low-key, sophisticated, catchy and consistently off-kilter in the most delightful ways. A decade, later most of it holds up fine and in fact continues to sound fresh and prescient -- and out of joint with the current crop of "Alternative Folk" front-runners.

I'd suggest that's because artists like Mumford and Sons are "Alternative" only in terms of being relatively young and marketed to "alternative" consumers (which I assume means anyone who's not a fan of One Direction, Kate Perry et al). They're "folk" only in terms of using acoustic instrumentation. But the grounding in avant-garde/experimental music and in the actual "folk" canon (the repertoire that people like Bob Dylan were inspired by) just isn't there.

So the point...well, if ya dig things like Mumford and Sons, that's all well and good. Music is divertissment first and foremost. If it eases the stress and strain of living, lifts your spirits, etc. that's what it's for and whatever does that for you...all well and good. But pass this stuff off as new and improved, innovative etc...not so much.

Here's ONE mark of a truly brilliant artist - that you can listen to ANY album they ever made and they're all equally great. To date, there's only one artist I can think of that qualifies -- MICHAEL HURLEY the great, er, what would ya call him? ALSO been acoustic-based. His songwriting and performance always based in a very natural melange Blues, early country and folk vocabulary. Lyrics -- always conversational, apparently narrative and yet slyly allusive, and evincing a gently skewed approach to life and the depiction thereof.

I've only got a handful of his recordings Long Journey Hi Fi Snock Uptown Snockgrass Wolfways Ancestral Swamp Ida Con Snock

these covering a period from the early 70's to the current century -- and listened side by side, there's no discerning which was recorded when - or written when and they're honestly, all equally great in a quiet, understated but thoroughly authoritative way. If only you could say that about the Ramones' output -- leaving out the quiet and understated shiz.

And I take additional pride in Hurley being the product of Bucks County PA where I've resided for the past few decades - and in fact am friends with a niece of his, Ella. Moreover, a few years ago I had the honor of doing publicity for him and having some ongoing dealings with him, finding him to be as singular, strong-willed AND charming as I'd hoped. In his emails he addressed me as "Howland" after the Owl in the "Pogo" comic strip.

After much prevarication I finally popped for a copy of "First Songs" - his first recordings made over 4 decades ago -- and expect to find it as delightful as the rest.

PS I received this a couple weeks ago and it was -- an "interesting" surprise. On one hand, Hurley's songwriting is pretty much fully formed and in fact the album ends with "The Werewolf Song" - one of his most enduring, beloved and puissant compositions; his singing is fairly indistinguishable from what you'll hear on work recorded in the past few years. BUT, his guitar playing is relatively rudimentary. He's mainly strumming to buoy his vocal melody. Only a few years later when he recorded his first proper studio album for the Youngblood's Banana Records label he'd blossomed as a guitarist as well, developing a nimble yet relaxed style of picking and strumming that's served him nicely ever since. I will note that the mix here is kinda unbalanced - vocals are WAY out front. I assume that's coz this was done with one mic that was positioned near his cake hole rather than on the guitar per se. But that's a minor quibble. One thing that did tickle me was hearing the original version of "Blue Mountain" which I'd previously only known from Espers luscious version on the "Weed Tree" EP.

People participate in popular culture as is their wont -- depending on their needs, aspirations, the dreams they're looking to empower. If it makes yr life better it's good. The first record I consciously bought was "Absolutely Free" by the Mothers of Invention, purchased on my one visit to the only "underground" record store in Jersey City in those times; the cover intrigued me. it really stuck out. And i was not disappointed by the content. My favorite art is that which suggests alternatives to the norm, that suggests novel an individualistic modes of thought. Participating in the most massively popular modes of art/performance...is just kinda lost on me, largely because it's highly predictable and most of it's fairly homogenous i.e. a lot of pop songs are relatively interchangeable. And clearly, for a lot of people, that's exactly what pleases them, and that's great. But contemplating things like televised awards shows -- a celebration of that which has succeeded through its mundanity and predictability (by and large)...just a different path.

Hear My Brain a Hummin'

Context - our 22 year old cat, Little Cat, who's been kinda slow and crotchety for a couple years now suddenly took a turn for the worse about 3 weeks ago and every day marked a new, obvious chapter in her decline. Working from a home office, I was her care giver. She finally died in her sleep, at home. Those two weeks were mighty sad and her passing hit hard, though it was also a relief as for 2 weeks her prowling range, and range of activities grew smaller and smaller day by day. That weekend, my son and his wife had driven up from Maryland to help my sister prep her house for sale and were staying wit us. On Sunday, we went to church, had some coffee and then went to our fave locals place for chow and libations - the latter being partaken of quite liberally. On returning home, application of the de-braining fluid continued - moving from the red wine at lunch to Freixenheit (an excellent dry Spanish sparkling wine that ya can grab for about $9 a bottle in NJ). We sat around, yapped and listened to music. Then they headed home. Mrs. W. was having a prolonged ladies-only late luncheon.

Finding myself at loose ends, I grabbed the DVD of "Hear My Train A Comin'" a new documentary on Jimi Hendrix.

Over the years I have seen a number of documentaries devoted to the man and I do own a good amount of performances on VHS and DVD, all fine enough though some have slightly weaker premises than others - one that revolved around dramatic readings of his correspondence (letters he wrote, postcards, diary entries) comes to mind as a kind of a stretch. The basic facts and chronology of his life-story are pretty well established and frankly common knowledge among most fans of rock music, both young and old, and it doesn't appear that there's any especially revelatory material left to uncover -- so the basic criteria for any new documentary on offer would be is: how much footage of the man himself, both on and offstage is there? how much hasn't been shown in previous documentaries? is the basic narrative coherent and effective? are most of the salient points in the narrative touched on. "Hear My Train A Comin'" scores well on all counts. Plenty of Hendrix being Hendrix, making music and just being his diffidently bad-ass self, the major bulk of which seem to be hitting the screen for the first time -- even the scenes from Woodstock, which has been pretty exhaustively documented in the festival film, expanded version of the festival film and then in a 2 DVD set devoted solely to Hendrix's performance, are backstage shots or camera angles not previously seen. The narrative line is handled cleanly and intelligibly, nicely illustrated not only by vintage footage but by the testimonials of various colleagues, friends and lovers -- band members like Buddy Miles, Billy Cox, Mitch Mitchell, Noel Redding; the man who launched his career and produced his first two albums, Chas Chandler; the women who befriended and championed him, Linda Keith (who famously appropriated one of Keith Richards' guitarist she had in safe keeping for Jimi's use) and Fayne Pridgeon who was his Harlem connection. All in all, a good and lively telling of the story, definitely taking a very upbeat slant.

In fact if there's any criticism I'd have of "Hear My Train A Comin'" is that it breezily overlooks many of the problems that beset Hendrix -- the basic conflict he confronted of wanting to record more and perform live less vs. the need to generate sufficient income to maintain his basic lifestyle and his artistic ambitions (composing and experimenting in the recording studio at length, and then building his own custom-designed studio, Electric Lady); the pressure he felt being a Black man performing for predominantly white audiences and initially with white backing musicians; the contradiction between his often outrageous showmanship onstage with his innate shyness, vulnerability, sensitivity and Romanticism. So it's NOT the "definitive" Hendrix documentary biography the back cover copy claims -- but it IS a good un. Utterly enjoyable and utterly truthful as far as it goes. As far as I can remember, coz -- as initially noted,I was four sheets to the wind when I watched it. And it cushioned my comedown quite admirably.

I own a lot of Jimi Hendrix albums, all of them legit releases, all but 4 posthumous and many of them, re-workings of the same repertoire. Frankly, other than the obvious cash-ins i.e. work he'd done as a sideman, are all pretty damned good. Some ARE more essential than others - obviously the albums he completed during his lifetime, the core of the material he'd completed but not released that came out initially as "Cry of Love" and a series of lesser albums, later collated as "Voodoo Soup" initially and then "First Rays of the New Rising Sun." But even the numerous further releases that are primarily alternate takes from all the above are, at worst interesting, primarily to the diehard fan who eagerly pour over the mutliple takes thereby in circulation and wonder at the different guitar solos as well as more subtle differences 'tween said versions. But all have SOMETHING to recommend them.

Likewise the live albums - Woodstock, BBC sessions, Berkeley Community Center, at the Monterey Pop Festival, the four concerts in the "Stages" box, the L.A. Forum show in the "Lifelines" box, Fillmore East. If there's one thing this cat LOVED it was to play live and it shows throughout all these recordings. In many cases, you get the same basic repertoire over and over again -- which is why the Fillmore East concerts are among my best, largely being an airing of then-unreleased material - a lot of these songs being among the best writing of the latter part of his career.

"Miami Pop Festival" is a nice addition to the Hendrix canon. It's a pro recording helmed by his longtime engineer Eddie Kramer from 1968. The song selection is primarily from his debut outing "Are You Experienced" with a cover of "Tax Free," a song by Swedish instrumental duo "Hansson and Carlsson" and the first live recording of "Hear My Train A Coming" - a groove that I'd suggest also is the undercarriage for "Machine Gun." So - the sound is good, the performances spirited. It's a little strange that all the stage patter is at a significantly lower volume than the playing and singing -- but since you're paying for the playing and singing, the point is moo. Also, the bass is a bit low in the mix but that could be down to the circumstances of the original recording of these performances.

The packaging's nice -- all the booklet photos are taken from the occasion the music was recorded, a strategm that the Hendrix family has pursued for the past 3 live releases, which adds thematic cohesion.

Is this the BEST live Hendrix available? The most interesting? The most revelatory? I daresay that judgement is in the ears of the particular beholder and subject to their own historical and aesthetic biases. But this IS an excellent rendering of his and the Experience's post-"Are You Experienced" material plus some neat pointers as to where he was headed next.

GREAT new collection of Professor Longhair's early recording career

I offer my humblest apologies for lack of action here. I've overwhelmed via work commitments. And during the Summer trying to keep the yard and garden looking quasi-reasonable. But I have been piling up the new musical acquisitions - audio, visual and written at a steady rate. Because of continued time constraints future postings could be on the pithy side for a while - but hopefully still of use.

On Saturday got a copy of "Mardi Gras In New Orleans," a new collection of Professor Longhair's work released this year on the Jasmine label.

As anyone who's done even a bit of collecting this inestimable artist's work knows - it's one hot mess! He only recorded a handful of albums during his lifetime, most of them only being released posthumously. Meanwhile, he'd recorded a number of singles for a number of small local labeles. A LOT of the albums you'll find are collections drawing from this relatively small body of material, haphazardly curated, with a lot of overlap between 'em.

One simple solution is to grab the Rhino 2 CD collection "Fess" and forget about the rest. But while Rhino's does touch on all periods of his career from the earliest to the latest and include a track or two from many of the tiny labels he worked with...well there IS a good amount more music to be had. Your main option heretofore would be just buying a wide variety of collections in order to get a couple additional tracks here, a couple there.

NOW w

ith "Mardi Gras In New Orleans" you get ALL his recordings from 1949-1962. This would be material done for Mercury, Star Talent, Atlantic (all the material both sessions they did with him), Federal, Wasco, Ebb, Ron and Rip. These are sequenced chronologically and thus effectively grouped by label as well. So -- this really straightens out your collection of Longhair for the entirety of his initial rock n roll career in one fell swoop and nicely mastered.

Previously, to listen to a batch of this stuff I'd have to throw in the Atlantic "New Orleans Piano," (which seems to only been released on CD years ago - ergo when CD mastering technology was in its infancy) CD1 from the "Gettin' Funky" box set and the Rhino collection - and sound quality an volume would fluctuate wildly and there'd be a lot of duplication. And this music IS all great - but listening under these circumstances was a less than optimal experience. "Mardi Gras in New Orleans" is THE way to hear all this music in readily comprehensible, context with consistent sound quality and volume.

And hearing it in proper context does then raise a lot of interesting issues to ponder. Longhair did have a limited repertoire of originals that he came up with right at the outset of his career and didn't add to significantly in the years that follow. HOWEVER, the arrangements he'd employ, the performance techniques he'd use and lyrics would evolve from one performance to the next, often in fascinating ways. While I'm usually of a mind that "First thought, best thought" Fess' technical prowess and conceptulization of his performing did in fact improve notably with age.

So...if you are a Fess fan and ready to take a step beyond the Rhino collection, I recommend this highly as well as "Rock N Roll Gumbo" album recorded in the mid 70's and "Crawfish Fiesta," which was recorded in 1980 and released shortly after his sudden, premature death that same year. I'm not knocking the various live recordings available or the other latterday sessions. Just saying, this is a fine place to start.