VINYL SOLUTION

A couple of weeks ago, i was in the trashy elegance of Hollywood, CA. I walked a couple blocks from the theater i was waiting to see a show in that night to my personal Mecca. That legendary iconic spot where everything I love about the world is right before me.

The Hollywood sign?
The Walk Of Fame?
The Rainbow Bar and Grill?
The Capitol Records building?
The Chinese Theater?

No fucking way.


Amoeba Records on Sunset Blvd. is my home away from home. My Disneyland. I would drive the five hours from my house every month if I could afford it.

Some people like the mall. Some people like Starbucks. Some people like bars. I could spend a whole day at Amoeba and still not get enough done out of my visit. The last time I was there as soon as I walked in I was overwhelmed with this adrenaline in my veins. I am surrounded by the entire solo collection of John Lennon in a huge white 200 dollar box, some rare limited edition import Bowie box sets and an out of print GNR Live Like A Suicide on 33 rpm vinyl. Seemingly every CD title from every band imaginable is displayed before me in new or used condition.

It just takes me back to being a kid in the 70s and 80s who was obsessed with not just music, but records. Some people have a leather fetish, mine was vinyl. I know by the start of the 90s I had something like 500 or 600 albums alone, and probably that combined amount in cassettes and CDs also. At least a third of that catalog was Beatles-related alone. Yeah, I was a geek. But, fuckin' A, I knew my bands probably better than they did.

I think the main reason I adore going to Amoeba so much is simply because the record store itself is such an anomaly in the 21st century. Let's face it, nowadays convenience is king. Why drive somewhere to pick up the new Radiohead CD and pay the store's price when i just point and click and it's sent to my inbox to download and enjoy AND I can just pay what I want for it? I don't have to drive to Borders for the new Keith Richards autobiography when i can just download it to my IPAD for a fraction of the hardcover cost? Believe me, I understand the appeal.

But that doesn't mean I gotta go along with it.



I bring up this story to turn you on to yet another exciting rockumentary i watched recently. I NEED THAT RECORD! is a chronicle of the rise and fall and slow death of not just independently-owned record stores but the music industry itself. It interviews a lot of rock stars and journalists as well as those who champion the indie biz and the fans who keep it going. It helps one understand what record stores mean to a small but fiercely passionate percentage of the population; i.e. people like myself. It's an intangible satisfaction we get that puts some kind of emotional connection to this piece of property that we don't get from ITUNES or Rhapsody.



I don't go to Wal Mart or Best Buy to pick up music. I guess i can see why somebody would because they are already there to pick up groceries or a weed whacker or something. Why not check out the new Nickelback or Taylor Swift CD for my truck, right?

At home, I go to ZIA Records. I don't get the rush I get from going to Amoeba in LA but it still fits my aesthetic going there to trade stuff in and walk out with something else to enjoy.

I hope you have time to check this movie out. It will likely reinforce your commitment to music if you already have one.

I will acquiesce to convenience in this parting shot. I watched this film on my TIVO with my instant Netflix viewing option. I'm not above the point-and-click if it brings my satisfaction and music-geek enlightnment from the comfort of my couch.

WILD ABOUT HARRY.

It's been a great year for rockumentaries and my next piece of evidence is a doozy. Recently released on DVD and Netflix Instant Queue, I had the pleasure of seeing "WHO IS HARRY NILSSON AND WHY IS EVERYBODY TALKIN' ABOUT HIM?"

For those reading this who can't answer that question, watch this.



Harry Nilsson was an extremely gifted singer-songwriter who achieved much commercial and critical success in the early Seventies. He had the respect and admiration of The Beatles, Monty Python and Brian Wilson, and with good reason. His talent was on the same level as theirs. He was probably best known, at least for myself, as a hard core LA party monster who figured heavily into John Lennon's "Lost Weekend that lasted 18 months" in his words.

Lennon actually plays a very symbolic role in the story. They were extremely close friends. They had parallel childhoods, unbreakable artistic integrity and a sharp sense of humor about life. After Lennon's murder, Nilsson campaigned for stricter handgun laws and later retired from the music industry and concentrated on raising a family.

Nilsson was a fine example of that long list of geniuses who should have been bigger than they were. For whatever reason, Harry is one of those guys who, it seems, only real music fans are familiar with. Leonard Cohen, Randy Newman, and Tom Waits would be the closest I could compare him to. He's just one of those guys who you may recognize a couple of his songs but you really had to a music lover to understand how far reaching his influence was.

I highly recommend this movie if only because I learned so much about a man who had a long lasting effect on the lives of people, like John and Ringo, who in turn had a major influence on my own life. The movie itself was like the music of Harry Nilsson. It was joyous. It was witty. It was sad. It was deep.

Above all, it was real.

ANOTHER POINTLESS RANT ABOUT THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME

The continuing tragicomedy that is The RnR Hall Of Fame announced its nominees for 2011. These are just nominees. Only six are guaranteed induction in January. Here are this year's contenders:

· Alice Cooper
· Beastie Boys
· Bon Jovi
· Chic
· Neil Diamond
· Donovan
· Dr. John
· J. Geils Band
· LL Cool J
· Darlene Love
· Laura Nyro
· Donna Summer
· Joe Tex
· Tom Waits
· Chuck Willis

Now, imagine you are a sixty year old bald critic/journalist guy who has never played in a band and makes his living off building up the false legend that musicians are all geniuses possessed with magical powers. Or pretend that you are Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner, who is essentially the man behind the curtain of the Hall Of Fame.

You have a summer house in The Hamptons and you hobnob with on Jon Bon Jovi, Russell Simmons and Peter Wolf. Why on earth would you sway votes towards Alice Cooper, KISS, Cheap Trick, Motorhead, New York Dolls or other so-called rock bands when you can just give it to Donna Summer, who never wrote or produced anything she sang?

That's who is running this show. That's why year after year the list gets bleaker and dumber. And that's why they do it. To get dorks like me to keep shouting about the pointlessness of it all.

The Hall Of Fame is still a joke. Always will be. Period.

I'm just gonna go ahead and start my own hall so I can finally validate all those thousands of hours listening to Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force over and over.....

WE HAVE ASSUMED CONTROL

I never dreamed I would ever get to admit this, but this year has made me feel cool as fuck to be a Rush fan.

It wasn't always that way. I can remember the first time I ever heard them. I was 12 or 13. Sometime in 1981, my only friend at the time was crazy into buying 45s. He picked up the single for Tom Sawyer by some band called Rush, whose name I think I recognized from T-shirts I saw older kids wearing while driving cars I wasn't allowed to get into.

I'm sitting in my buddy's bedroom and he puts this single on and CRASH!!! goes that opening chord to Tom Sawyer. I honestly remember thinking "What kind of singing is that? That's a human being playing that stuff? What is with that drummer in the middle part of the song? Why do I have this heavy feeling in my chest?" Some things in your life, seemingly small to others, stay with you till the grave is dug. This was one of mine.

I bought the Moving Pictures LP soon after that and had my mind completely frozen by YYZ and Witch Hunt. I was converted immediately. This was no ordinary band playing around with blues chord changes and Beatleish melodies. These guys were out to decimate every other band in the rock genre by playing harder, tighter and faster than their contemporaries.

It was pretty hard to get excited over The Doobie Brothers or Bob Seger when I heard 2112 for the first time. Somehow, the combination of bombastic playing and VERY deeply intellectual lyrics inspired by Ayn Rand spoke directly to me and a lot of my friends. I have no real explanation why. We were not the cool kids, we were not the ones guaranteed for academic or financial success, we didn't know girls, but somehow this trio of ugly Canadian dudes wearing kimonos made us think we were special.

I followed this band every album since. Every weird synth phase or weird move they made, I was there. I stood in line overnight to get my first RUSH tickets in 1984 and had the worst seats but the best time. (Al's Donuts!!!)

This music speaks to me on a level completely removed from my other favorite bands.

Fast forward thirty years and hundreds of lost brain cells later, the holy triumvirate of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart suddenly are getting mainstream recognition everywhere. Their 2009 appearance on The Colbert Report (their first on US TV since 1976) was the start. Then came their cameo and plot thread through the movie I LOVE YOU, MAN, and now suddenly they are all over VH1 Classic. I seriously have watched so many Rush concerts on that channel I seriously wonder if they've just given up playing anything else.

The piece d' resistance has been twofold this year. The first crown jewel is the fascinating and justifying two hour documentary BEYOND THE LIGHTED STAGE by Sam Dunn and Scot MacFayden, who previously helmed two great metal docs, METAL-A HEADBANGER'S JOURNEY and IRON MAIDEN FLIGHT 666. (Must-see for any heavy metal fan if you haven't checked them out by now). The Rush film goes deep into the history of all three band members covering the fact that they too were outcasts with an uphill battle for acceptance from day one. It covers all the changes in style, sound and hairdos the band encountered and cleverly addresses the topic of why and how Rush fans got to be predominantly male and nerdy for so many years. It's also a reminder of how truly funny these three are when not playing such heavy serious music. Go to the bonus menu on the DVD and watch the footage of the band getting drunk at a hunting lodge for further proof.

After you watch that, watch the newly-released entry from the Classic Albums series 2112-Moving Pictures. For the first time, the series has devoted an hour to two albums by the same band. The producers went deep into the subject with interviews from the band as well as one-on-one live demonstrations with Alex, Geddy and Neil walking you through the creative process of writing and playing the stuff that has inspired generations of air guitarists and air drummers around the world. It makes for a great companion piece and if this doesn't satisfy your inner RUSH geek, you'll just have to wait for the next album and tour.

BLOOD INTO WINE

Love him, hate him, or even if you just don't get him, Maynard James Keenan refuses to fit the mold of rock star.

Maynard is the front man for three highly successful and musically diverse bands, TOOL, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer. He typically and literally shuns the limelight. When you go to see TOOL or APC, Maynard is usually standing behind the drum riser shrouded in shadows or silhouetted in front of a mind-expanding video presentation for two hours. He rarely says more than a couple lines to the crowd and almost never does photo shoots or interviews.



Normally, I would think these actions would simply be due to the fact that he's a prick. Why would people pay to see a band they can't actually SEE? I am here to confess that Maynard gets away with it.

I've seen TOOL three or four times in concert since 1997. They are stunning as a live act, on par with Pink Floyd or Rush. I realized at the most recent show I saw at Planet Hollywood Theater in Vegas that the reason the band stays in the shadows is to let the fans (of which there were thousands that night) get their own fulfillment from the songs. Whether the fans were inebriated, distracted by the visuals, or just working out their frustrations and/or ecstasies from witnessing the music live, it was all about the artist and the audience taking a journey together. At the end of the show, I can honestly say that I felt better than when the show started.

Maynard is definitely out to tackle as much of life as he can, this being obvious in his most recent non-musical adventure, Merkin Vineyards. Yes, he makes his own wine. In Arizona, no less.


The new documentary, Blood And Wine, shows the process and struggles Maynard encountered when deciding how to shape his newfound passion. He wanted to treat wine making like he treats his music, organic, honest and uncompromising. He found a visionary partner in Eric Glomski, whom is essentially the co-star of this movie and has his own infinite passion with wine making and the environmental connection it brings.

The best thing I can say about Blood And Wine is that if you are a fan of Maynard's work, you will be satisfied and surprised. If you know nothing about the music but love wine or even just documentary films, you too will be satisfied and surprised. It's not an ego piece, but rather a surprisingly open look at how one person treats everything they do in life as an artistic expression and as a tool (pardon the pun) for working out their problems and points of view.

TOO TOUGH TO DIE

Johnny Ramone died exactly six years ago today.

The Ramones completely changed my existence and my outlook on the world. This happened on exactly August 5, 1990. I was a casual fan and went with a friend of mine from LA who was really excited a band that didn't sound like Night Ranger was coming to Vegas. They were on the Escape From NY tour with Debbie Harry and Tom Tom Club. They were second on the bill but it was obvious from all the T-shirts in the crowd who the main draw really was.

In those days, most bands I liked were starting to ride the "glam train" into the new decade and their image (in my mind) was suffering for it. I didn't like KISS and Dio wearing bigger brighter colors and grinding themselves into cliched corners with bigger stage shows and longer solos. Needless to say, The Ramones entered my life at just the right time.

The first chord was literally like a lightning bolt into my brain. I had never seen a band with such military precision and intense energy feeding back and forth between the audience and the band. They didn't say hi to the crowd, they didn't switch guitars, they didn't waste time. I got 30 songs in exactly 60 minutes. Even better, every song sounded instantly familiar to me, like a Beatles song cross-pollinated with Motorhead's rhythm section. For the first time at a concert,I was a different person than when I entered the venue.

My intense infatuation with them only grew with every passing year after they retired in 1996. I knew they were gone for good with no sign of a reunion tour ever. One thing about The Ramones, they never bullshitted the fans.

That was Axl Rose's job.


Still is.


Joey died in 2001. Then Dee Dee in 2002. In between those passings, I somehow bumped into Johnny Ramone at Burbank airport. He got off the plane from Vegas I was boarding. I literally stole a pen from a gift shop just to grab his autograph. He could not have been nicer. He actually stopped his day for two minutes just to chat and talk about his legacy and Marilyn Manson with me (he had just been MM's guest in Vegas). We shook hands and parted ways. I've never been starstruck on that level since. I honestly stared at my hand the whole flight home thinking "I just shook hands with the inventor of Punk Rock Guitar!!"

When he died in 2004, I was at a bar when I heard the news. I got really really shitfaced and proceeded to try and get into a fight with anyone I could. I had no luck. I was just another surly drunk in a city that breeds them. As far as I was concerned, Punk Rock was officially dead that night. It kills me to admit that I was right. Name me one great Punk band in the last six years. I'll wait.....

Johnny Ramone helped me realize that it was okay to be weird in a world of squares. It was okay to be tough and stick to your convictions and not kiss anyone's ass to make them like me or my group of friends.

If you have time, rent this movie. You will be amazed at how many other brilliant people share my feelings about him.....

THE BEATLES--1,000 YEARS LATER

http://www.maniacworld.com/beatles-1000-years-later.html