Go Metric

Ten Reasons to Now Revisit Hendrix at Winterland and In the West

by Gary Pig Gold

1. These original live recordings – totaling 47 tracks over five hours plus – have previously been semi-available only on long-out-of-print releases (not counting quite inferior-sounding bootlegs), and in the case of the Winterland performances now features three (!) full discs of additional material.

2. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, celebrating both its second anniversary together and the release of their landmark new Electric Ladyland, filled San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom for three nights running in October of 1968. Understandably, after over a solid year on the road, the trio sound a bit frazzled at points, often struggling to keep both in time and in tune …and not just with one another, either. Still, the passages of sheer magic, power, and true resplendence (e.g.: a downright incendiary "Foxey Lady" on Winterland Disc 1) much more than outnumber the odd lyrical or even musical clam.

3. Meanwhile over with Hendrix In The West, the five additional tracks never heard on its long-ago-killed-by-litigation vinyl edition include a ten-minute "Spanish Castle Magic" which not only interlopes "Sunshine Of Your Love" but even lets the late, extremely great Mitch Mitchell indulge in the kind of tasteful drum solo Ginger Baker only rarely seemed capable of. Plus, of course, original In The West favorites "Red House" (in what many believe to be its definitive reading), a semi-funk afternoon soundcheck "Blue Suede Shoes," and even "God Save The Queen"/"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" from the Isle of Wight remain intact and are still guaranteed to raise a smile.

High Tide and Fazed Cookies

by Gary Pig Gold

The jury – to say nothing of the legal teams – appear to still be out on precisely how much of a bigger bang the Rolling Stones are planning to mark their fiftieth (!) year together as a band during 2012. Will they in fact, even for a concert or two, be able to regain the best bass player they ever had? Can even long-lost Mick Taylor again be convinced to try to fill Brian's musical shoes for maybe a solo or two?? Anything to prevent, or at least delay, the next Jagger so-low album, I can already hear all of you thinking out there!

Lindsey Buckingham: The Small Machine That Could

by Gary Pig Gold

For all intents and purposes, Lindsey Adams Buckingham has lived a charmed life.

Raised in the comfy Bay Area opulence of 1950's Atherton, California, a handsome, athletic golden boy suddenly and forever sidetracked by his elder brother's Elvis and Buddy Holly 45s. He quit the school water polo team, moved with his guitar into a local hotshot band called Fritz, left for L.A. with their singer Stevie, produced with her the magnificently understated Buckingham Nicks album, was soonafter asked to join Fleetwood Mac with whom he helped craft a 40-million-plus-selling album called Rumours and, by 1978 at the age of twenty-nine finally found himself at the very tip-top of his game.

For all intents and purposes, that is.

Are You There, Squirmy Records? It's Me, Mike! (aka the Bright Ideas' Saturdays and the Turning Tide)

Dear Squirmy Records Representative,

I've just returned from post office with a package bearing your address. I'm not familiar with your label, nor do I know anyone in your fair city (Stockton, CA). So I was confused initially. I was elated when I saw that inside said box was a copy of Bright Ideas Saturdays and the Turning Tide. Thank you! As you know, I didn't order the record — I didn't know it existed — and I don't know what good deeds I've done lately to merit such good fortune. I also have no idea how I'll express my gratitude, only that I'll try.

Maybe it'll help to sift through what I know. And here I'm thinking aloud, so to speak, more for my benefit and a reader's than yours (you already know this stuff), so please bear with me. Bright Ideas is Scott Miller, Marie Davenport, and Tim White. Scott and Marie are 2/3 of the Bananas. I interviewed Scott several years ago for Go Metric (issue #19 or #20). Very nice guy. Did he send the record? I haven't heard from him in ages, though, and I doubt he'd move away from Sacramento, where his many bands have been based over the years. Maybe Scott told you about Go Metric. Regardless, the Bananas are one of the best bands to which my generation can lay claim. They've been crafting brilliant punked up pop records for over two decades. The Bananas might seem like a flurry of Tanmanian Devil spazziness but there's ample consideration beneath the surface.Heart, too.

Bright Ideas sound little like the Bananas but any recorded output from that family tree goes straight to my turntable. I have another Bright Ideas record, a 7" from several years ago. I remember it being slower than the Bananas, jangly, yearning. That fits with this new (?) album. I'm now on my third trip through side one of Saturdays and the Turning Tide. It's wonderful. Easy going but not lazy. Mellow but not lifeless. I sound like a wine critic, I know, but that's my shortcoming not Bright Ideas'. I was hoping to come up with a blurb-worthy line right there, you know, should you pull together a press sheet or some such.

I tried to find Squirmy Records online but to no avail. I knew better than to check for a Bright Ideas website. Sacramento bands don't lean that way. According to discogs.com I see that Saturdays originally came out in 2005 on Rocket Alliance Records. And now I notice the "2005" on the lyric sheet. I'm catching on, however slowly. I'm guessing it's a reissue, though. Doesn't strike me as a record that's done seven years of shelf time. Wait, there it is, on the lyric sheet, two lines below "2005": "Previously released on CD by Rocket Science Alliance."

It really is a beautiful record.

Just finished my third spin of side one. Got it on iTunes now. The other day I heard what I believe to be a faint thumping sound in the background of a song I'd recently put on my mp3 player while typing — I think the hunting and pecking vibrated across the desk, up to the turntable, and through the cartridge. So I've clicked on "Recently Added" and it's just segued into Camper Van Beethoven's II and III. Bright Ideas into Camper. Perfect transition. Folk music for punk rock backgrounds.

I may never find out how and/why I came into this record but these things aren't to be questioned. They're to be appreciated and talked about.

Thanks for recirculating this wonderful record. You done right.

On to side two.

Mike

Squirmy Records can be reached at 870 West Euclid Ave., Stockton, CA 95204

Much More of the Monkees

by Gary Pig Gold

Can it really be true that Rolling Stone publisher/magnate Jann S. Wenner has personally conducted a decades-long campaign to bar The Monkees from induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Far-from-dummy Monkee Peter Tork certainly thinks so.

"He doesn't care what the rules are and just operates how he sees fit," Tork told the New York Post in 2007. "It is an abuse of power. I don't know whether The Monkees belong in the Hall of Fame, but it's pretty clear that we're not in there because of a personal whim."

Now sure, the Monkees (along with the Beach Boys, Byrds, even Beatles, most every Motown act, etc. etc. etc.) certainly didn't play every single note on every single record they ever made. Nevertheless, in 1967 Jann and his fledgling zine were riding extremely high on the Monkee-bashing bandwagon, using the television rockstars as the best/worst examples of all that was unhip, uncool, and truth be told un-San Francisco in the world.

Fair enough. I remember it also took Rolling Stone over a decade to figure out the Ramones too.

Learning to Surf: How Much Heart Can You Take?

by Mike Faloon

Here is another slice of my new zine, Learning to Surf. It’s called “How Much Heart Can You Take?”  It’s a 10-day journal that revolves around Western Problems, the last album by Future Virgins. It’s on the Razorcake website.

We Should Talk More – Ten Days with the Black Wine’s Summer of Indifference: Day Ten

By Mike Faloon

Last summer Black Wine released their second album, Summer of Indifference. I listened to it a lot and kept a journal. It’s part of a zine called Learning to Surf. Here is day ten.

Things just came together today. Maggie and Sean were in and around this year's kiddie pool all day. Allie's dad came over. They read the paper, took naps, and watched the kids. Our neighbor's dog ducked into the kitchen a couple of times. Brian came over and we thought up two characters for the book we're working on. (Mr. Book and Mr. End. Less creepy versions of Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint from Diamonds Are Forever.) There were a lot of people moving around. It was a good test for the patio.

We Should Talk More – Ten Days with the Black Wine’s Summer of Indifference: Day Nine

By Mike Faloon

Last summer Black Wine released their second album, Summer of Indifference. I listened to it a lot and kept a journal. It’s part of a zine called Learning to Surf. Here is day nine.

I've had "End of Days" and "Favorites" in my head all day. I love the way Miranda and J trade vocals early in "End of Days," then share vocals the second time they come around to the "Psyche myself up for what might come" part. Compared to the band's first album they're subtler about how they mix girl and guy vocals, though I kind of miss songs like "Strange, Amazing" or "Broken Arm Bear" where the harmonies were more prominent. I also wish there was a song like "We Belong," one of those long album closers that achieves the Neil Young and Crazy Horse effect — a simple, driving song that successfully locks onto a guitar riff and as far as I'm concerned could repeat said riff endlessly.

We Should Talk More – Ten Days with the Black Wine’s Summer of Indifference: Day Eight

By Mike Faloon

Last summer Black Wine released their second album, Summer of Indifference. I listened to it a lot and kept a journal. It’s part of a zine called Learning to Surf. Here is day eight.

I went poking around for Black Wine videos and I found a dozen or so. I also found a number of places where I can buy the record. These are good things. What I really wanted, though, was to read a longer piece about the record. I trust that a lot of other people are spending time with Summer of Indifference and I'm curious to know what they're thinking. It's been out for several weeks and no one's written about it, not at length.

Deep-Catalog Purple

by Gary Pig Gold

"Just what the world needs: Another record company."

And with those typically snide words, on the Seventh day of February, 1968, Bizarre Productions was duly incorporated, and two hundred shares of no par value common stock issued in the State of New York, thereby creating the first of several record companies Frank Zappa would oversee during his most colorful life and career.