The Endorsement: Paste Magazine

I have a few magazine subscriptions, my wife gets them free for taking surveys or something. I don't know, I don't ask, I just enjoy reading Golf Digest, Esquire, and Paste. Paste is a music/movie/game/book review monthly. The best thing about paste is the mix disc they send with each copy. You get brand new music from undiscovered up-and-comers, and established acts, about 17-20 tracks each month.

My March edition just showed up and guess who's on the CD? My #1 Woman of Rock Juliana Hatfield with a new song called Dear Anonymous. How cool is that? I was just talking about her and here she is in my mailbox. So I recommend you check out Paste. What magazines do you get in the mail?

Clever or Stupid?

Well, there it is; my (sort of random) top five Women of Rock. But by making this list am I combating sexism, or giving in to it? Why do Women need their own separate list anyway? That feels like some kind of southern fried segregationist nonsense to me. Indeed, we walk a fine line between clever and stupid.

See also: Bjork, Courtney Love, Heart, Stevie Nicks, Debbie Harry, Janis Joplin, Kim Deal, Kim Gordon, and Yoko Ono.

#1 Juliana

Juliana Hatfield and the Blake Babies only came to my attention about 6 years ago. But this power pop trio disbanded nearly twenty years ago! They had a song called I'm Not Your Mother that I want you hear, I can't find it on YouTube but here it is at Rhapsody. Girl in a Box was a bigger hit for the Babies and then her solo act the Juliana Hatfield Trio made a splash with the song My Sister.

What I like about Juliana, and the reason she climbed to the top of this list, is her dynamic range. Heavy rock songs and also melodic acoustic songs. She has a beautiful voice that even a McCoy could love.

#2 Alanis

Jagged Little Pill was one of the best albums of the 90's. At 30x platinum it remains THE best selling debut album by any female artist. Fun fact: Alanis Morissette was one of the kids on You Can't Do That on Television. She continues to act, and played Nancy's OB/GYN on the last season of Weeds.

Apparently in Canada, they have a different definition of ironic then we have in the states, but it has been corrected here.

#3 Cyndi

Three words; Time. After. Time.

That's really just two words. And only one of many classic songs from this long lasting artist. The EPIC double length music video for the Goonies, her duet with Chuck D, her friendship with Capt Lou, Cyndi Lauper always marches to her own beat. She continually reinvents herself and her songs. She's so unusual.

#4 Chrissie

Chrissie Hynde is best known as the leader of the new wave punk group the Pretenders. They had many hits in the late 70's and into the 90's. Brass in Pocket, Talk of the Town, and I'll Stand by You. When I saw Neil Young in concert, the Pretenders opened, and they played an awesome cover of Neil's "Lotta Love" I wish I could find it on YouTube and share it with you. Chrissie is a brilliant entertainer, and a thrill for the eyes and ears.

#5 Joni

Joni's best known song is likely "Big Yellow Taxi" but my favorite is "My Old Man." Here she is singing to a place - with the kind of love usually reserved for people.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers elicit the same kind of sentimental feelings in "Under the Bridge." Frank Sinatra feels this same way about "New York New York." I don't feel that kind of attachment to any place, so I can't identify. But what Joni sings in "My Old Man" always puts a lump in my throat. "When he's gone...the bed's too big the frying pan's too wide."

Women of Rock #5 Joni Mitchell - the only Woodstock performer on the list.

What's Wrong With Being Sexy?

Not sexy...sexist. See there's a fine line.

Internet talk surrounding a recent episode of LOST includes the theory that only men are on Jacob's list. This made me think about sexism, and looking back at my own lists, I haven't mentioned a whole lot of ladies. So to set things straight (and provide fodder for the next several updates) I'd like to count down my top 5 Women of Rock.

Snap, Crackle, and Pop

I still enjoy listening to records. I am not a know-it-all audiophile who insists that vinyl sounds better then cds. That argument usually has something to do with sample rates; sound is a wave, analog equipment (represented below in grey) perfectly reproduces the wave, but digital audio (red) is only a rapid series of samples and your brain fills in the rest.

I don't care about that, and modern digital equipment uses such high bit rates that anyone who claims to be able to hear the difference is simply lying. No, I like listening to records because my parents listened to records. My grandparents listened to records. There's a sense or nostalgia involved with carefully placing the record on the turntable, inspecting the needle for dust, before gently setting it into the grooves, and listening to the hisses and pops until the music rises above the noise floor.

I haven't taken a head count in a while, but I think I have 40 or 50 albums.

My collection includes:

Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow

rare first pressing found at a local record shop $8

Linda Ronstadt with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra

thrift store $1 cheap

Rob Zombie - Dragula 7" 45 rpm

this was part of a promotional display at a music shop and was not for sale

Billy Joel - 52nd Street

white label promo copy for radio DJs $11 local record store

The Marx Brothers

family heirloom

Neil Young - Decade

3 disc greatest hits of early work $4 garage sale

Along with lots of Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Van Halen, and Jimi Hendrix. I'm currently bidding on Fleetwood Mac - Rumors, and John & Yoko - Plastic Ono Band on Ebay. I like records because they are severely undervalued. Even now with downloading as the most common way to get new music, CDs cost an astonishing $17-$20!!! The most expensive record in my collection was maybe $12 and most were $2-$5.

The pops and crackles that flank the 12 minutes of music are almost as magical as the music itself. It's such a soothing sound. You can't get that from an iPod. But then again, you can't put a turntable in your pocket and jog around the block.

The Endorsement: Let It Be... Naked

Long before he was convicted, Phil Spector was a murderer. He slaughtered hundreds of healthy young pop songs with his "Wall of Sound." I, for one, am relieved that this monster has finally been brought to justice. One victim who finally received reparations is the Beatles album Let It Be. The Fab Four set out to make a simple record, a snap shot of a live performance, without all of the multi-tracked, overdubbed trappings of Sgt Peppers or the White Album. They tried to capture the raw sound of 4 musicians playing together in the same room.

However, by this point in their career they could hardly stand to be in the same room. When the recording was finished, none of them could bear the burden of the final mix. So they turned the miles of tape over to producer Phil Spector. Like an Iron Chef competitor Phil chopped, diced, mixed, mastered, blended in orchestras, and folded in choirs until the original vision for an album whose name means "leave it alone" was completely obstructed.

Finally, just a few years ago Sir Paul could stomach it no more, went back to Abbey Road and remixed to the original intent. "The Long and Winding Road" and "Let It Be" are the most significant changes. Those songs sounds great now. The whole album is alive and breathes, and the new track order flows better. If you haven't heard this yet, check it out. I think you'll find it refreshing.

Just Like Starting Over

In my ongoing effort to improve my guitar playing, I'm trying to learn some new scale patterns. For some time I've felt that I'm in a minor pentatonic rut because the pattern is simple and transposable.

That shape, also called the "blues box" has carried me this far by simply moving the root note to the appropriate key. So this month I'll be drilling major and modal shapes into my repertoire.

Repeating these patterns and committing them to memory is long over due; something I've put off because repetition is boring and learning something new is difficult. But a guitarist who only plays one scale is like a painter who only uses one color. The time has come to expand my palette, the blue period ends. Beautiful work came out of that period, but artists change, and art is change.

Imaginos

While doing some research I stumbled upon this Wikipedia entry about the Blue Oyster Cult band. BOC is best know for the song "Don't Fear the Reaper" which famously, needs more cow bell. But the 1988 album "Imaginos" is a sci fi concept piece which blows the doors off of something I said in an earlier post. You might know one song on this album, "Astronomy" because Metallica covered it in 1998.

Just a few days ago, when blogging about guitar players who are better then John Mayer, I indicated that Coheed & Cambria were a unique entity in prog rock concept music; because the name of the band is taken from the story that unfolds in the music. Lo and behold, the Blue Oyster Cult beat them to the punch by at least seven years!

I, even I, dear reader, can be wrong. Perhaps I am wrong about the number of commas that belong in that sentence. Yes, Perhaps.