Doom & Gloom Dispatch #9: Happy Lou Year
Baggetta / Keltner / Watt, The Year In Bootlegs, Interviews etc, Lou Reed, John Cale
Mike Baggetta / Jim Keltner / Mike Watt - Everywhen We Go
The super-trio of guitarist Mike Baggetta, drummer Jim Keltner and bassist Mike Watt return for their second LP — and it’s even better than the first one. These guys can do pretty much anything, and pretty much anything is what they do on Everywhen We Go, released recently on Big Ego. Wide-open desert noir, shimmery soundscapes, Beefheart-ian scrawls and beyond. Wherever Mike, Jim and Mike end up, it’s always someplace very good.
Doom & Gloom 2022: The Year In Bootlegs
So many bootlegs! If you need to get caught up, here’s a handy list of these Doom & Gloom exclusives. Some of the old standbys, some new faces. Thanks to all the tapers out there, you are the real heroes.
What will 2023 bring?! I don’t know, but I’ll still be here.
Interviews, etc 2022
More year-end housecleaning! Yeah, yeah. I started 2022 feeling fairly low — nothing major, just that sweet midlife malaise. But having various fun writing projects outside of my day job helped immeasurably, and I was lucky enough to talk with some of my own personal heroes in the music world.
First up, the Feelies! Or rather, the Willies. For Maggot Brain, I wrote what I hope was the definitive account of this mysterious, early 1980s Feelies side-trip, speaking with the band members, who were all very nice. And then, last month I finally made it out to the east coast see the Feelies in person … and the Willies opened the show! Perfect, right? This one is only in print, people. Print lives! Thank you, Jack White.
Sometime this spring, Mike from No Quarter let me know that he’d be reissuing Richard Thompson’s classic Grizzly Man soundtrack … and would I like to interview Richard himself?! If you know what this newsletter is named after, then you know that the answer was yes, yes, a thousand times yes. You can read the results over on Aquarium Drunkard.
Then! I spent a little time grilling Yo La Tengo’s James McNew about each and every song on the band’s sprawling 1997 masterpiece I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One. I took this opportunity to get as nerdy as I could possibly get, coaxing the important answers out of McNew — did they see Big Bully or White Squall?! All is revealed.
And hey, no interview (yet), but I was incredibly honored to write a little essay for Pavement’s 2022 tour program. A million thanks to designer extraordinaire Mark Ohe for bringing me onboard, it was some sort of dream come true. I think all of these things are sold out for the moment!
And then … Robyn Hitchcock! I last interviewed Robyn in 2002, so it seemed like it was time for a follow-up. I’ve listened to endless live tapes of this guy, so his voice is more familiar than my own. I could listen to him read the phone book, I think. But our chat was much more interesting than that, hopefully, featuring Quetzalcoatl, Queen Elizabeth II, Sean Ono Lennon, Martin Carthy and many more.
Finally, I spoke with Crazy Horse’s Billy Talbot about his pre-Neil daze, the new World Record LP and long guitar jams. Will they ever let me talk to Neil? Here’s hoping …
Lou Reed - The Main Point, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, December 31, 1972
No big plans for New Year’s Eve this year … but if I had been in Bryn Mawr 50 years ago, I would’ve happily rung in 1973 with Lou Reed and the Tots. A very solid show, coming right on the heels of the WLIR Ultrasonic show and leading up the the big NYC solo debut at Alice Tully Hall in January.
The Tots sound great here, very confident and grooving, finding their own voice on the Transformer and Velvets numbers. And their fearless leader is getting into the act as a solo star, though he’s notably not very talkative here — the mood overall is a little bit subdued … Maybe Lou wanted to be in Times Square that year for the big countdown? Probably not.
“Get out that leather whip, Lou!” one eager audience member yells towards the end. Lou probably would’ve ripped that dude to shreds in later years. Instead, he just leads to the Tots into a lengthy “Sister Ray.” It’s not “Auld Lang Syne” but it’ll do.
John Cale - CBGB, New York City, December 31, 1978
After a Happy Lou Year in 1972 ... his old buddy John takes us into 1979 at CBGB. A raw night on the Bowery — even rawer than usual! This period is kinda transitional for Cale, finding a new repertoire after the Island Years and leading into the aggressive Sabotage years. There are still some glances back to the balladry of the earlier 1970s here, with the wounded "Only Time Will Tell" and "Don't Know Why She Came" as highlights.
The rowdy crowd seems to dig the wilder stuff a bit more, of course — hey it's a party, right? Why not get down to such snappy numbers as "Jack The Ripper," "Dance of the Seven Veils" (narrated in fine fashion by Judy Nylon) and a harrowing "Your Neighbour's Wife." Cale was hurling himself towards the end of the 1970s, pedal to the metal, taking no prisoners.
From The Doom & Gloom Archives
Television - The Bottom Line, New York City, July 29, 1978
Here’s where Television said goodbye for the first time, in the summer of 1978, just about six months before I was born. There are plenty of great documents of the band during their tour supporting Adventure – The Blow Up, Live at the Old Waldorf, and that insane Portland gig. This one, recorded at the Bottom Line in NYC, is just as good. They certainly don’t sound like a band that has run its course! Check Lloyd’s wild solo on “Ain’t That Nothin,’” or the majestic “Dream’s Dream,” or Verlaine still finding amazing new things to play during his “Marquee Moon” showcase. Television went out on a high note, to say the least.
And a loud note, as well. I interviewed Richard Lloyd a few years back and he said of the 1978 tour: “That’s the chainsaw heavy-metal version of the band. We were playing Ampeg V-4 amplifiers on that tour. They were the size of a fucking house! Keith Richards talked us into using them. The Stones were using those outdoors for stadium shows, and we were playing indoors for 500 people!” The volume must’ve been intense!
[memorabilia courtesy Dave Marin]
Currently Reading: Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen
So happy this newsletter exists. Great way to end 2022!