Doom & Gloom Dispatch #12: One Amorphous Crowd
Partner Look, Neil Young, Herbie Hancock, The Specials, Lou Reed & The Tots
Someone recommended this one to me … somewhere? For the life of me I can’t remember, but if it was you, thank you! (Edit: It was the mighty Dan Selzer.) Partner Look’s By The Book came out just about a year ago, but I had completely missed it — and it’s terrific! This Melbourne-based band has a great early Talking Heads / early Go-Betweens vibe: bouncy and jangly, groovy basslines, hook-y guitars, fun vocals (which are traded off between the various members). By The Book’s pleasing playfulness is offset by the cleverness and sneaky skill of the songwriting; there are some great choruses here. Above all, Partner Look sounds like a band that really loves being a band. And that’s what it’s all about, right?
Neil Young :: Even More Honey Slides
Another January, another installment of my Honey Slides mixes for Aquarium Drunkard. This one draws primarily from Neil’s “Timeline Concert of the Moment” series on the Archives site. It’s cool stuff, giving us full shows from a wide range of eras. If Neil put me in charge, I’d make the whole thing a bit more organized, add some contextual notes, bring out shows that had particular resonance (like since it’s the 50th anniversary of the Time Fades Away tour this year, why not post one of those gigs?). But guess what — I’m not in charge! Probably a good thing in the long run.
Anyhoo! For the third annual Honey Slides extravaganza, I’ve grabbed a few Timeline Concert highlights (as well as a choice Barn jam) for your enjoyment. Stretching from 1976 to 2010, it’s all electric and leans heavily towards the darker, grittier side of Young’s material. Plenty of Crazy Horse, of course, but also the Stray Gators, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, the International Harvesters and more. Slide on into this one.
Herbie Hancock & The Headhunters - The Jazz Workshop, Boston, Massachusetts, November 13, 1973
Improvised rock! Seems like Columbia Records was trying to avoid the word “jazz” when it came to Herbie Hancock. I think I would’ve gone with “visionary future funk.” But whatever, Herbie and the Headhunters are in a class of their own, and their first record together, the supreme Head Hunters, turns 50 years old later this year. Has there ever been a deluxe edition of this album, with outtakes, alternate mixes, live jams, etc.? I don’t think there has, which is a little surprising — especially since Herbie mentions on this WBCN broadcast that they recorded eight tracks for the LP but there was only room for four of ‘em on a single vinyl record. Hmmm!
While you ponder that mystery, enjoy an excellent hour of the Headhunters at the Jazz Workshop on Boylston, taped right before Head Hunters came out. We listened to Herbie with his Sextant-era band at the same venue a little while back, and the difference is illuminating. The grooves are ridiculous.
“Even though we’d gotten into this whole untethered thing, I noticed that Miles started having records in his house by pop artists and R&B artists like James Brown,” Herbie remembered recently in an Uncut Q&A. “I started listening James Brown and then I started listening to Sly Stone and that was the funkiest stuff I’d ever heard! I got tired of playing this untethered music and wanted to change direction. I wanted something more earthy. That’s when I decided to do Head Hunters.”
PS - During a break in the broadcast, the DJ delivers a promo for an upcoming Genesis gig at Tufts University. Can I help you out with a recording of that one? Yeah, I can.
The Specials - The Great American Music Hall, New Haven, Connecticut, February 28, 1980
2-Tone in New Haven! The untimely passing of Specials lead singer Terry Hall last month sent me back to their Elvis Costello-produced debut for the first time in a while. And it definitely holds up as just a killer record, regardless of whatever genre affiliation you want to toss its way. Undeniable!
I haven’t dug too deep into live Specials, but the Alex Butterfield Archives have come through yet again with a very nice tape of the band in the winter of 1980 on what I assume was their first stateside trip. It sounds like quite a party, with Hall and co. playing rowdy renditions of the early stuff, keeping the crowd engaged throughout. By the end, everyone’s roaring along with them, heating up a cold Connecticut night. Do the Dog!
Billy Bragg says: The Specials were a celebration of how British culture was invigorated by immigration from the Caribbean, but the onstage demeanor of their lead singer was a reminder that they were in the serious business of challenging our perception of who we were in the late 1970s.
Lou Reed & The Tots - Humpin' Hannah's, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, January 20, 1973
We're tracking the Tots during their all-too-brief tenure as Lou Reed's backing band. You can check 'em out in London right before Transformer's release ... you can hear their stateside debut in Cleveland ... you can celebrate New Year's Eve with them in Bryn Mawr. And now ... Humpin' Hannah's in Milwaukee, 50 years ago tonight. This marvelously named Cream City club was a good spot for the former Velvet Underground frontman — it was literally underground. Grab yourself a penny beer and get subterranean.
Reed was about to make his triumphant return to NYC (a show that was recently given official release), so the Humpin' Hannah's show could be seen as an off-off-off-Broadway warm-up. But let's not underestimate the hipness of the Milwaukee crowd.
"I've been out in the Midwest and they're right there," Lou said a little later in '73. "The glitter people, and transsexual people, and pansexual people, and drags, you name it ... and there's straight people, and the heads, and they're all mixed together in this one amorphous crowd that is really heavy to dig from the stage, if you can see past the spotlights."
Lou does seem to be digging the scene from the stage — he gives one of his most animated (vocally at least) performances of the era, sounding very comfortable and vibrant, the Tots grooving groovily behind him. That amorphous crowd eats it all up, cheering the musicians on with glammy enthusiasm. Live your life and make a point of having some fun, people!
Photo: Jeff Albertson
From The Doom & Gloom Archives
Hopefully, you’ve all managed to get your hands on the Van Morrison Catacombs tape that finally surfaced for a minute on iTunes late last year! It is great. But wait, there’s more! These acoustic publishing demos of Van, bassist Tom Kielbania and flute player John Payne (AKA The Van Morrison Controversy) have floated around for a while (I have ‘em on the old bootleg box The Genuine Philosopher’s Stone), but if you haven’t heard them, they’re worth your time. Not quite as revelatory as the Catacombs recording, but still a vital piece of the Astral Weeks puzzle. I especially like the second attempt at “I Need Your Kinda Loving,” which starts to slip into a haunting “Slim Slow Slider” zone. Now, we just need to locate the electric Ace Recordings Studio demos (featuring MOULTY), the WGBH performance from May of ‘68 … perhaps the studio outtake of “Train” … et voila! We’ve got an Astral Weeks deluxe reissue.
Currently Reading: Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg
Didn't see the Headhunters bootleg into a Genesis bootleg coming but I'm glad it did.