Artos over at FP

I occasionally contribute to Forbidden planet's blog over on their website....here's my most recent offering

http://www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2013/reviews-artos-1-and-2/

Enjoy! And check out some of the other guys' work if you're a comics fan! There's some really gifted writers over there!

Small Change

by Tom Waits

It's dark, I'm sitting in a cheap hotel room in an semi-familiar city drinking warm beer out of a can- a city filled with both great memories of life, love and friends as well as heartbreak, loss and missed chances. Guess it's time to whip out the Tom Waits albums...

You'll see me reference my teen-aged years frequently in blog posts about musicians and albums because that's what most of my teen years were- living life vicariously through music. That's not to say my parents kept me locked in a cage, but through everything I did, I had either my tape or CD player (kids, ask your parents) or later, my brick of an mp3 player (teens, ask your twenty something year old older siblings).

I was a teenager when I decided I'd try Tom Waits, my brother Baz had 2 of his albums (1983's Swordfishtrombones and 1987's Frank's Wild years -part of Waits' 'Frank' trilogy that included 85's Rain dogs) and I fell in love with 'em! I listened to the 2 albums who knows how many times, could recite the words to '16 shells from a 30.6' without thinking twice about it and I would tell friends about this artist and these albums- including my other brother Jabba (yeah, I'm gonna do that internet thing of using fake names instead of my close friends/family's real names cause...) and my girlfriend at the time Beetlejuice (there's a story as to where she got that nickname from, it may be for another blog post), who was the type of girl who'd talk to her parents about a lot of things including her boyfriends eclectic taste in music, and as it turned out her dad was a Tom Waits fan too.

This rambling has a point, I swear:

Both Jabba and Beetlejuice kept referring to a song called 'The Piano has been Drinking' and would quote little lines in it- Jabba, in fact, was teaching English as a foreign language in France at the time and would use the song, specifically the 'has been' part to teach the 'past present continuous' a grammar set that isn't seen in many other languages.

But I tangent....

I hadn't heard this song, so I had to find this song and the album that came with it! (I've always been an album fan, I don't think I've actually bought a single since I was 5 years old and one was handed to me for free along with The Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles Official Soundtrack) and it is gorgeous! So grab a bottle of Scotch, a pack of Dunhills and your dustiest jacket!

Track 1 is Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the wind in Copenhagen) and opens with a gorgeous piano melody overlayed with weeping violins- beautifully sombre and sad then Tom croons in with that opening line:

wasted and wounded; it ain't what the moon did

and the whole song of the aftermath of a bad night out fills the room as Waits tinkles the ivories (possibly ones that have, in fact, been tinkled on) the song is downbeat, lonely and is laced with the kind of hardship and heartbreak very few will ever truly feel in their life, and may all the luck in the world be given to anyone who ever has felt the pain that this man sings about.

To pick us up after that is Step Right Up and a powerful upright bass leads us in a song of commerce, bargain savings and that gadget the door to door salesman tells you does everything.

It lengthens, and it strengthens....

and it finds that slipper that's been lodged under your chair lounge for several weeks

the whole beat is toe tapping but using a minimal approach of just the upright bass, snare drum, Tom's voice in a higher register than on the last track and the occasional saxophone line punctuating the beat.

After that interlude, we're back on location of outside the nearby bar with Jitterbug Boy telling that story that we've all been familiar with at one point or another but never really acknowledge- that of the mad drunk just outside the bar

so you ask me what I'm doing here;

holding up this lamp-post;

flipping this quarter

trying to make up my mind

The whole album tells a story backwards (a point I will touch on in a bit), and this is the later stage of drunkenness, maybe just after that last bar you drowned your sorrows in has either kicked you out or called last orders for the night.

The piano tells the story in this, as much as Waits' voice- the drunk man's soliloquy is being matched counter note for counter note by the piano -this drunk man's whole story is being laid out for anyone who'll listen, he's been around- he's got drunk with Louis Armstrong and remembers the old songs but now his audience are the pigeons on the street and anybody who'll stop for a minute to listen as he decides what he does next.

If it's head I'll go to Tennessee

Tails I'll buy a drink

if it lands on the edge, I'll keep talking to you

We then lament again with I wish I was in New Orleans (in the ninth ward) as Tom coughs up the vocal intro before those weeping violins and that tearful piano comes in again, and the lovelorn antagonist of this reverse play laments where he is in life compared to his memories of where he was with:

a bottle and my friends and me

The story in the song is a man dis-placed, he's lost some, if not all, of his whole life and the woman he loved and he's left reminiscing in a bar about his glory days.

The music is much more orchestral here, but still has those classic jazz elements of a light snare and a saxophone punctuating the main beat.

We go back to light hearted bar banter here, with the great tune The Piano has been drinking (not me) as the barstool lothario defends himself by telling you his piano is the drunkard, not him. The piano is the key part of this, leading the melody that Tom sings around the melody telling the tale of the entire room in that night

cause the bouncer is a Sumo wrestler
cream puff casper milk toast
and the owner is a mental midget
with the I.Q. of a fencepost

Though it is meant to be light hearted, it's still quite sad as he tells the story of the tired, weary bar filled with tired, weary tenants and at the end pianissimo as he weeps 'the piano has been drinking ….not me, not me'

The sad man's story continues in Invitation to the Blues again piano led melody that Tom sings around, the whole thing a lament to his world and the situation this heartbroken man finds himself in

and you feel just like Cagney;

She looks like Rita Heyworth

at the counter of the Schwab's drugstore

You wonder if she might be single, she's a loner likes to mingle

we're in a diner now, either as a break from drinking for some lining or as a precursor to the 2nd round feast of booze to come. Saxophone periodically wails again as Tom laments where he is and why he's left alone.

There is a beautifully rendered sax solo in the middle 8 where Tom shows that he can let the instruments carry as much as his words, and there is some crying from that instrument before he begins to sing again with violins tearing at their plucked heart strings behind the piano.

Pasties and a G-string (at the Two O’clock Club) bangs in next, a mostly percussion led piece as Tom trades beats and rhythm with a drum as he tells about a mis-adventure in a strip joint (possibly the one pictured on the cover)- this is upbeat and going as our wayward drunkard is out to just have some fun an forget everything that has gone before. Each smashing cymbal is a declaration of victory

The piano then chimes in for our next track Bad Liver and a Broken Heart (in Lowell) and we are crying into our stout/ales/beers declaring

I don't have a drinking problem;

'cept when I can't get a drink

and we've just lost the love of all of these song, the beautiful lost girl of this whole album, that has caused this night of debauchery and this need to forget!

Tom's vocals tells the piano where to go, as it counters what he's saying with octave melodies and punctuated extra notes around each phrase. It's heavy, sad and it'll see you

at the bottom of a bottle of some bargain scotch

Now it's time to lose the girl, with The One that got away led by a bass and the faint click of fingers, our hero sings of the adventures going on that night each ending with 'the one that got away'

Whoever this girl was, he knows that she may have been the cause of a lot of problems and mental drains but she was still 'the one that got away'

The vocalist rests and the saxophone chimes in for a lament, for a few notes before Tom tells you the next story about the next victim of 'the one that got away'

he's at Ben Franks' every day

waiting on the one that got away

The story is told like a Personal Investigator's case notes of the occupants of his local bar. He knows these guys, and their stories buy he's no exception, cause he's lost his one too.

The eponymous track comes in next Small Change (got rained on by his own .38) that opens with that damn sax setting the mood, with a minor keyed cry before Tom declares

Small Change got rained on by his own .38

completely without backing melody- this track is a spoken poem set over the laments of the saxophone that is practically weeping of loss, death and missing lives. It's simplistic, beautiful and pulls right at the heart strings.

Like a Raymond Chandler story, this piece is a tale set in the 'noir' world about a body, a murder, and a bunch of people who 'didn't see nothing'

After that tale, there is the upbeat, positive and hopeful I can't wait to get off work (and see my baby on Montgomery avenue) and is the song about a man finishing work and having a reason to work and somebody to come home to.

The piano gets to play a positive major chord here as Tom declares

Well I don't mind working

cause I used to be jerking off

most of my time

...in bars

Keeping the melody going is the bass as it assists the piano in keeping that tune going, occasionally letting the piano match Tom's vocal rhythms, the song is sung by a man in love and having something to come home to.

The whole album tells the story of a man's journey from falling in love (I can't wait to get off work), losing himself after he loses her (Small change), lamenting her loss (the one that got away) then trying to forget her in bars (Bad liver through to Tom Traubert's blues -though this is all one night) strip clubs, street lamp-posts and eventually the gutter but backwards. The whole album is a concept album, telling a story of a man's love and loss, life and relationships but in reverse.

This album is for post-breakups, divorces and huge fights with the other half. Listen to it with a beer or a glass of whiskey n the rocks and enjoy!

Sidebar Story: How Tom Waits saved and strengthened my relationship with an ex's father

As I said, Beetlejuice's father was a Tom Waits fan.

He also wanted to kill me, one of the first times I met him, because I left a visible hickey/bite mark right in the middle of his daughter's neck....

I was young, didn't know what to do properly, just knew she liked what I was doing, so I kept doing it and the resulting hickey was seen and a series f dirty looks and looming posing on his part ensued...

But this was early February, and I was still around come December that year when Beetlejuice and Mammy Beetlejuice are doing their Christmas shopping and are blanking on what to get Dad. So Beetlejuice happens to bring it up in conversation whilst talking to me and I tell her about Tom Waits new (at the time) album 'Orphans' which is 3 discs of some really great, diverse material.

Beetlejuice and Mom get him it, and he loved it! Really dug the album and the gesture, and somewhere along the way, it's let slip where the seed for the idea came from.

A couple month's later, (maybe about a year after the hickey incident) I'm over at Beetlejuice's place, and next thing, I hear the familiar throaty croon coming out of the radio, and I casually stroll towards the stereo to hear it clearer, and I'm met with Daddy Beetlejuice giving me a look as he leaves the CD case on the kitchen table.

Nothing said, just an acknowledging look...

It was enough! We then knew we could talk music to one another, amongst other posturing bollocks that a 50+ and a 15-16 year old can relate on, but we definitely had common ground in Tom

Is This it

by The Strokes

Yeah, I know it's an old album, but I'm really enjoying it and want to talk about my love for this band so screw it!

I was actually late coming to The Strokes, didn't get into them until their third album, 'First Impressions of Earth' from 2006 (possibly one of my favourite years for music). That album was their breakaway from the rhythm and tempo that they had been known for, proving that they were technically proficient and gifted musicians and not just one trick ponies...but that's not what this blog post is about, it's about this ponies first trick.....

...but before that, I'm going to wax lyrical about the band itself, cause look at how cool these dudes look:

I idolised this band when I was 15/16, because I was like them in so many ways- I was skinny and no matter how much I ate, I couldn't get to the size of the rugby players in my school (or football players for any Americans reading), I had shaggy, unkempt hair that fell over my eyes (still do), I wasn't exactly Mr. Tall (I just scrape the heels off 5'7”/ 1.7metres) and clothes always looked baggy on me and I emphasised said baagy-ness with a well trained and rehearsed slouch! -so along come this band with 5 guys who all kinda look, act and mumble like me:

See?

So, that was instant recognition! That was like, 'Yeah, it's cool that you're ugly and under-dressed no matter how much you try to look otherwise- we are too, and we make great music!' so I fell in love with the band and now, without much more nonsense, I'll talk about their first album:

The first track is the eponymous track Is this it and sarcastically opens with a mocking tone to old jap-pop style music, petering out to this mellow beat led by drummer Fab Moretti (he's had Drew Barrymore) that's heavy on the bass drum, an instant toe tapper. The guitar chimes in, in conjunction with Julian Caasablancas lyrics and they exchange melodies, before breaking down with a chorus.

What's enjoyable about this (and most) Strokes song is that guitarists Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond jnr. trade rhythm and riffs to make a sound that's bigger than the individual musicians- there is little to no ego in the exchange.

Then, in chimes The Modern Age where all ego gets thrown out in exchange for a full rhythmic wall of sound- something The Strokes are very well known for.

Outstanding point, is Hammond jnr's callback to his dad's day, with a ballsy 60's style Strat solo

Soma comes in on track 3, a song I've always resumed to be an overt reference to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and it's drug use. The pattern n the music here is similar to Is this it but where thee verses exchange melodies, on the chorus and breaks, lyrics and guitars counter each other on melodies, all the while drive by Nikolai Fraiture and Fab Moretti's driving rhythm section.

Barely Legal tells the story of being a frustrated teen in New York, and saving up to take a girl out and ask her out just to be shut down. It's a youthful song, and the upbeat and frantic tunes of the musicians reflect this!

There's beautiful parts where guitars and bass have a conversation over the melodies, driven by Valensi's tight rhythms, while Moretti's drums keep the show on the road!

After that bout of cynicism and disappointment, the next song out is the optimistic Someday, a song of harmonies and driving rhythm, not the most memorable.

More romanticism, in Alone Together wherein Casablancas sings about going out with a girl and then realising she isn't the girl he knew

things they have changed in such a permanent way

Musically, this would be the sound that The Strokes would be recognised for, particularly on their 2^nd album Room on Fire

The popular single then lines up with Last Nite and you can visualise all the indie-hipster princesses running frantically to the dance floor with their Vans and Cons to bop along to Valensi and Fraiture's tight rhythm section, pock marked with aggression on the hi-hats by Fab Moretti, while Hammond leads- hell, he even gets a wailing and beautiful guitar solo.

Then comes my favourite track from this album, the fast paced, upbeat, and panicky Hard to Explain. This song starts with Moretti's drum mixed with processed beats before hitting you with that rhythmic wall of sound I spoke of before, as both guitars play rhythm with the bass.

Overlayed on this is Hammond jr's lead, but it's so tightly mixed in with the rhythm that you'd forget it's a lead riff as well as the top layer of the brick wall. Fully functional and practical but still beautiful!

New York City Cops is their angry anthem on this album, although light hearted in tone, there's still an air of resentment as Casablancas screams out:

New york city cops....they ain't too smart

Whether this song is in deft protest of a particular set of new york cops or just a general angry refrain meant to evoke a reaction I don't know but it's fast, enjoyable and gives you a chance to fist pump in a kind of 'Rage against the machine lite' act of civic protest.

Trying your luck is the 2^nd to last track on the album, and possibly the most grown up. It tells the tale of somebody trying to just get along in the world, and being critiqued by those around him.

Musically, it's about the most different track on this album, going in waves of temperate (cause early Strokes don't do 'slow') to really fast rhythmic playing. Casablancas is lamenting vocally and it is quite beautiful!

Final track is Take it or Leave it and it's The Strokes saying good bye quick and painlessly, this music is fast, tight rhythmically, and gets you to your big finish and you can, as Casablancas calls out, just take it or leave it.

Jack Johnson Sessions Disc 1 & 2

by Miles Davis

This is one of my favourite Miles Davis albums, it has so many layers to it and centres around a boxing meatphor.

This particular version is the 5-disc recordings and out takes version and is dense and beautiful! I'll be talking about the 1^st 2 discs in this post because there are 5 and they're about an hour long each

Recommendations: Put this record on when you've a quiet moment to spare with a good glass of whisky/Scotch (Glenfiddich Royal Oak or Johnnie Walker Double black, for example). A dimly lit room with just a lamp and a good book would also help- if you smoke, it's the kind of album that merits a tobacco pipe.

Note: This was done stream of conscience on facebook, whilst chatting with my bro and a few friends, I think I'll stick to this style of commentary because it adds to the journey. I have edited the mistakes I made for the most part, but I'm sure I made more.

 Disc 1- the Willie Nelson takes, showing that a true lead guitarist doesn't actually lead, he adds extravagance to the already solid base laid down by the rhythm section!

McLoughlin's guitar acts as the younger snappier opponent to the rhythm's firm stanced Jack Johnson- their solid rhythm provides the whole core of the track as McLoughlin & drummer Jack De Johnette trade snaps & blows...the guitar executing more flurry. ..

Then Davis chimes in over this & in minimalistic interjection reminds you this is his baby! He is judges, referee & corner man

Johnny Brattan takes- now Davies is wooing his audience again, reminding them that yes, at it's core they have a jazz album in their hands & there is some sexy interplay but still they've unwittingly signed up for more

Dave Holland leads the romance here & woos McLoughlin into playing along with the rhythm- but like any good freelancer he vibes off the bass & counterpoints

Davis' trumpet is more prevalent as he leads the frays & acts as the icing on top of the middle jam that Shamrock injects with McLoughlin's cream.

The 2nd takes use of distortion is particularly noteworthy for it's blending of what should be clashing sounds- kinda like a Hester Blumenthal recipe

Disc 1's last track is Archie Moore & it screams open with a Blues Lament where McLoughlin leads with a declaration of woe, backed again by Holland's powerful rhythm

DeJohnette beats out a minimalist snare heavy blues beat, knowing that he's not shining here, it's McLoughlin through & through as In 4 minutes he crafts what took Clapton 40 years!

 I'm on disc 2 - the baffling wonderfulness of Go Ahead John is unreal!!

The power behind Davis' trumpet is mystifying & pierces through to you as it's backed by Holland's bass (I can't spout enough gushing sentiments about this rhythm section)

Countering, competing & call-responsing with Davis trumpet is McLoughlin's guitar. Weaving a battle narrative of jazz ecstasy that leaves you craving for the spectacular pay-off but at the same time hoping it never ends

OK, Go ahead John alternate take 2, wherein John reminds us that he is intimately acquainted with the blues!

Even Holland's bass steps back here, all the leg work is McLoughlin as the rhythm section just keeps the beat marching!

But McLoughlin is clever, & almost devoid of ego on this track so he circles, comes back to the rhythm to feed off their groove then flies off with it.

Davis grabs the trademark wails of the blues & lets it out in defined low register notes, giving fuel to McLoughlin's power & intermittently takes point on this track's long march

 & we're onto Duran -instantly the mood changes!

Holland unchains the funky bass beast & plucks out the kinda booty shakin' rhythm that gets your foot thumping, this is his turn on point & all else grooves around him accompanied by Shamrock on an echoplex effect & 70's rhythm guitar.

Davies climbs the rock face of sound to deliver punches & well timed brass while McLoughlin shows he can stay behind the scenes & sculpt the scenery with under stated arpeggio.

This track is a boxing match with breaks & tempo changes, falling & rising at Holland's queue.

At the end of take 4, Davis remarks 'that's some raunchy shit y'all' & you can't help but agree

The last track on Disc 2 is 'Sugar Ray' and it's the afterglow to 'Duran'

De Johnette and Holland lead the fray by bringing the funk while Davis and McLoughlin exchange syncopated rhythms, picking you up and carrying over the ecstasy and delight of Duran.

You are now lying in a sweat of 'Sugar Ray' feeling that amazing feeling post coitus as you roll over, look at the beautiful woman whose company you just enjoyed and smile, laugh-feel delight!

Think of the after sex scene in 500 days of Summer where JGL's character walks to work dancing to Hall and Oates' 'You make my dreams come true' and you've got the feeling of Sugar Ray!

I would listen to all of disc 2 lying down, because by the end you'll be swept off your feet!