Kim Cooper/ LITG – Page 7 – Lost In The Grooves

Radio Birdman debut US show

Truly great, career-spanning performance from the Birdmen at L.A.’s
Wiltern last night, despite an unsympathetic soundman and some
equipment snaufus. They are entirely as fierce and poetic as a fan
could want, and this is not one of those regrettable reunion shows
that breaks hearts. I’ll post a proper report at LITG once I get back
from SF over the weekend (they’re at Great American Music Hall
tonight)… but if you’re debating seeing them in SF, Seattle or
beyond, the answer is emphatically: “yeah hup!”

Kim

Andy Kim “How’d We Ever Get This Way/ Rainbow Ride” CD (Collectors Choice)

Not the Archies, but the Archies team (Jeff Barry and Andy Kim) at the peak of their musical creativity, with a two-fer reish of dreamboat vocalist/co-writer Kim’s first two albums for their indie Steed Records. After nearly a decade as producer and songwriter for hire for some of the most savvy guys in the business, Jeff Barry found himself with the muscle to bring projects to completion on his own. With these two albums, you’ve got the sound of pop’s finest craftsmen delighting in the formal structures of late sixties pop and forging two dozen lovely little moments. “HWEGTW” is more traditional Brill Building romanticism, with Barry’s trademark eclectic arrangements brimming with handclaps, steel drum and hushed, layered vocals. On “Rainbow Ride,” the pair are mildly psychedelicized, offering frenetic, organ-fueled rockers (“Please Be true”). Love You-era Stonesy rambles (“Nobody’s Ever Going Anywhere”) and with the gorgeous “Foundation of My Soul,” a reminder that, no matter what the hippie critics said, in the magical world of Kim and Barry, love, and pop, are not at all disposable.

Autographed Loud Family CDs when you purchase a retroactive Scram subscription

Thanks to our generous pals at 125 Records, we have a limited number of copies of the brand new and wonderful Loud Family with Anton Barbeau CD What If It Works?, each one cleverly autographed by Anton and LF mainstay Scott Miller, available as a free premium for folks purchasing a retroactive subscription for $23 US, $34 overseas. A retroactive subscription consists of any four recent issues of Scram, sent all at once with your free CD, and represents a weird warpage of time and space through which you can approximate the experience of having been a subscriber all this time.

Interested? Then email me to confirm we still have CDs, and once one is being held for you I will follow up with payment instructions. For more info on the available back issues, read on…

Scram #22: Newest issue! The beatnik/banker issue (which are YOU?). Cover by Derek Yaniger. Features a fascinating chat with folk songstress Vashti Bunyan, Neutral Milk Hotel interviews not printed in editrix Kim’s 33 1/3 book about the band, a candid (and then some!) interview with bluesman Nick Gravenites, Phil Ochs’ collaborator Lincoln Mayorga and many more wild surprises.

Scram #21: The swamp issue. Cover by Lark Pien. Features Blag Dahlia of the Dwarves, Gene Sculatti on when MOR went hip, the Phanton Surfers’ Mike Lucas interviewing Blowfly, Skywald Horror-Mood comics, baroque popsters The New Society, mysterious Kenneth Anger soundtrack artist Andy Arthur, Deke Dickerson on hillbilly eefing records & a High Llamas interview.

Scram #20: featuring Andrice Arp’s aquatic cover art, schoolyard fun with Johnny Thunders and Gene Simmons, a chat with Sloan’s Jay Ferguson, all about Absolute Grey, Devendra Banhart meets his heroine Linda Perhacs, bubblegum songwriter Elliot Chiprut, P.F. Sloan live pics, Lost in the Grooves sneak peak and more.

Scram #19: Bart Johnson’s cover, a leisurely chat with the Zombies’ Colin Blunstone and Paul Atkinson (RIP), part two of the P.F. Sloan interview covers the Grassroots, Byrds, Dylan and Jim Webb, the Lee Hazlewood interview Hustler didn’t want you to see, John Trubee’s campfire tales, Denny Eichhorn shares another comic Wild Man Fischer adventure plus the first interview ever with psychedelic siren Linda Perhacs!

Scram #18: cover art by Tom Neely, Emitt Rhodes, Marty Thau on bubblegum, NY Dolls, Suicide & more, the great lost Ramones interview, preteen popettes Smoosh, Johnny Sea.

Scram #17: Dan Clowes cover, Steve Earle, Plush, Russ Forster on the 8-track underground, proto-punk LA zine "Back Door Man," John Trubee talking with Byrds/Zappa dancer Carl Franzoni, bubblegum awards (including Turtle Howard Kaylan’s acceptance speech).

Scram #16: Robert Crumb / Aleksandar Zograf, Rezillos, Radio Birdman reunion, Every Mother’s Son, Steve Wynn, Van Morrison’s contract-busting Bang! sessions, Gene Sculatti on right wing radio, the Turtles and Strawberry Shortcake, Neil Hamburger, Canned Hamm. Mike Longdo memorial. Cover by Steven "Ribs" Weissman.

If you’ve been seeking P.F. Sloan…

It’s a lovely week to be a fan of mercurial sixties singer-songwriter P.F. Sloan, with his first US album release since 1972’s Raised on Records (my review of Sailover is here), a feature story in the L.A. Times (which I had a small part in, passing contact info for Phil’s one-time songwriting partner and Bubblegum Award recipient Steve Barri along to writer Richard Cromelin) and a terrific electronic press kit over on YouTube, where Phil wanders around London, talks about the record with producer Jon Tiven, leafs through old photo proof sets and lets slip the secret identity of Hallowe’en Mary. It’s great to see Phil looking so happy, and getting the recognition he’s so long deserved.

Aeroplane book hits #5 on the sales chart

I read on my editor David Barker’s 33 1/3 blog this morning that the Neutral Milk Hotel book is the fastest pony in the paddock. One doesn’t like to brag about book sales, but you gotta understand, all my previous publications have been so proudly under the radar that it’s just a hoot to see something I’ve written be so popular. But there are plenty of great books on that list–collect ’em all!

David says:

Not too much movement on the chart over the last couple of months – most of the books are still selling, but at a very similar rate. Notable exceptions being the Forever Changes book in the UK, on the back of Arthur Lee’s sad death, the DJ Shadow book, those on the Pixies and Beastie Boys, and of course the Neutral Milk Hotel book, which keeps going, week after week.

(Note to self: no more books about bands with "Stone" in their name…)

1. The Smiths
2. The Kinks
3. Pink Floyd
4. Joy Division
5. Neutral Milk Hotel
6. Velvet Underground
7. The Beatles
8. Radiohead
9. Love
10. Neil Young
11. Rolling Stones
12. Dusty Springfield
13. Beach Boys
14. DJ Shadow
15. Jimi Hendrix
16. The Band
17. The Replacements
18. Led Zeppelin
19. David Bowie
20. Jeff Buckley
21. Prince
22. Beastie Boys
23. The Ramones
24. Pixies
25. R.E.M.
26. Bruce Springsteen
27. Elvis Costello
28. Abba
29. James Brown
30. Jethro Tull
31. Sly and the Family Stone
32. The MC5
33. The Stone Roses

Radio Birdman – “Zeno Beach” CD (Yep Roc)

In their first release since the desolate and stunning Living Eyes (1981), Radio Birdman incorporates broad swaths of vocalist Rob Younger’s solo sound, that anxious, angry garage rock that used to come stamped with the New Christs logo. Mix that with the natural ebullience of a consortium of musical brothers delighted to have found their shared rhythm anew, and you’ve got an original, enticing return to form. Songwriting duties are now shared, with strong offerings throughout. High points include Deniz Tek’s "Die Like April," a haunted, psychedelic reel, Tek/Younger’s aggressive "We’ve Come So Far" and Pip Hoyle’s self-mythologizing "The Brotherhood of Al Wazah" and canivalesque title track. It sounds nothing like what they’ve done before, and yet it feels absolutely like Radio Birdman, with all the intelligence, passion and faith in the transcendent power of rock and roll that implies. Their debut American tour launches at the end of August in Los Angeles; watch this space for a full report.

The Dave Pell Singers – “Mah-Na-Mah-Na” CD (El)

On this dizzy 1969 release, West Coast jazzbo and his session cats work a breezy adult contemporary vibe, with giddy female vocal choirs manifesting the audio equivalent of a gaggle of happy stewardesses bearing fluffy pillows. The mellow, playful arrangements are applied to an appealing collection of bubblegum and pop-rock standards, including “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” the Sesame Street-popularized title track and “Sugar Sugar.” While the boy/girl singers are utterly out of their depth on the latter, it’s still a hoot to hear a dark narrative like “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town” handled so frothily. Silly, sweet mainstream fluff, presumably originally aimed at foxy grandpas, and still likely to please the comfy chair and fruity drink set. (Kim Cooper)

P.F. Sloan – “Sailover” CD (Hightone)

Sloan’s long-awaited return to recording would be noteworthy whatever the quality, but I’m happy to report Sailover is a fine set of tunes, though perhaps too stylistically diverse to hold together as a unit. Sloan and producer Jon Tiven chose to bring in the stars to revisit several gems from the back catalog, so we get fresh takes on "Sins of the Family" (a duet with a ravaged-sounding Lucinda Williams), "Where Were You When I Needed You" (with Felix Cavaliere), "Hallowe’en Mary" and "Eve of Destruction" (both with Frank Black). Sloan’s singing has never sounded better; the years have mellowed his tone, added a subtle, confident sexiness that’s especially appealing when he indulges his Dylan fixation on the playful space opera "PK and the Evil Dr. Z." Long before he found his guru, Sloan’s songs asked big questions, and "Violence" and "All That Love Allows" show he’s still crafting ambitious verses in the quest for answers. A highlight comes near the close of the disk with the lovely "Cross the Night," so understated and simple but informed by 4+ decades of pop smarts. Sloan has some excellent new songs that didn’t make it onto Sailover, so I’m eagerly awaiting chapter two of his return. Til then, peel an eye for the hilarious live show (he knocked the roof off when he played free for a recent Scram magazine release), on the road this fall.

Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel – DVD (SpotHouse/BBC)

Directed by Gandulf Hennig and co-written by Longryders leader and Parsons biographer Sid Griffin, this feature-length, made-for-British-TV documentary (released to coincide with GP’s complete Reprise sessions box) is a compelling portrait of the artist and the addict, and the folks who loved and helped kill him. Hennig uses rare photos and film footage to strong effect, including long sections of the Flying Burrito Brothers’ surrealistic cross-country train trek “tour” punctuated with Chris Hillman’s exasperated recollections. Parsons was a son of the Gothic South, whose charisma, songwriting smarts and gorgeous cracked voice could not eclipse the deep vein of suffering that had destroyed his moneyed family and followed him west to L.A. There are really two films here: one a musical portrait of a talented genre-crossing weirdo who jockeyed his way into and out of the Byrds, rarely tried hard enough, and still managed to make a few truly fine records before sputtering out at 26, the other a hideous family tragedy of drunkenness and betrayal, stepfathers and mental hospitals, neglect and alternate versions of “the truth.” We’ve all heard Phil Kaufman’s well-honed shtick on how he stole Parsons’ corpse and burned it near Joshua Tree, but Hennig deconstructs the familiar narrative by contrasting Kaufman’s smarminess with the agonized memories of Parsons’ relations, who didn’t just lose Gram, but also any chance to bury him with dignity. I didn’t think there was much to say about GP that hadn’t been said before, but this was a treat. Recommended.

Arthur Lee Has Died

Love leader Arthur Lee died yesterday in Memphis from the leukemia he has been fighting all year. He was 61.

Growing up in Los Angeles, one heard many strange stories about Arthur, who was already pretty far gone by the time I discovered Forever Changes and realized all the astonishing things that this homegrown black psychedelicist had done with the genre. Paired with Bryan MacLean, a beautiful blonde Beverly Hills boy with a jones for Broadway show tunes, this smart, weird, twitchy kid transformed pop with an aggressive ease that made it all look effortless. Black people didn’t look or act or sing like that in the sixties; Arthur Lee was so original, he might as well have been an alien.

And if that was all in the misty past, while the guy who wrote the songs was reported smashing into parked cars in front of the Whiskey while racing away from a gig he’d decided not to play, well, misty pasts sound fine on thick Elektra vinyl from the Goodwill store.

But writing about Love always risks sounding flat and dry (Andrew Hultkrans did good work in his 33 1/3 book, though). They were lyrical and powerful and surprising and exploding with stunning melodies. Arthur’s Love was beautiful, but unreliable. I’ve seen the Baby Lemonade version of Love bring crusty old record collectors to sobs, and I’ve seen Arthur blow his UCLA homecoming gig so resoundingly that you just wanted to grab his shoulders and shake him and yell "don’t you know how much better you are than this?" (Word was, later, he was scared and popped too many valium hoping he’d calm down.)

Well, there won’t be any more stunning returns or frustrating failures, now illness has taken Arthur home.

The first time I saw Arthur play, at the old Raji’s on the south side of Sunset in the early 90s, I talked with him in the parking lot after the show. A grizzled old groupie was trying to drag him home, and it was obvious he’d rather talk with nice people than go off with her, but life and shyness called and I walked away. Immediately regretted it, and still do. What’s the point of loving someone’s music if you don’t give something back when they need it?

So be kind to your heroes when you meet them, even if–especially if–they end up disappointing you as people. Notice their aches and pains, since they might not. Decades of pushing themselves past reasonable limits can leave them unaware of signs of serious illness. Killer Kane’s leukemia crept up and practically ate him before he did anything about it. I don’t know about Arthur’s illness, but it seems to have been quick.

It’s a sad day for psychedelia and for the arts in California. Arthur Lee, Rest in Peace.