What's new Pussycat?

Whats new pussycat? woah, woah, woah
Whats new pussycat? woah, woah, woah
Pussycat, pussycat You're delicious And if my wishes Can all come true. I'll soon be kissing your sweet little pussycat lips! -- Tom Jones

In or around sixth grade, I spent many months hanging out with a kid named Nate. Nate was a preacher's kid who I went to school with, and like most kids with an authority figure for a parent, was completely out of control. I remember him leaping from trees, hitting a kid on a bike with a rock during what was supposed to be a friendly game of war and for once rolling down the side of Mt. Southington on purpose... a trick that would have likely killed just about anyone else.

Still, Nate and I had good times. Once, and this is a memory that still sticks with me though it is really of no consequence whatsoever, Nate and I were marching up the road from his Plainville, CT home to get some snacks (Now and Laters were real popular then). He was telling me about a planned roller skating party and about a girl he liked (or maybe it was a girl that our friend Kenney liked... this detail is fuzzy). The thing that made this girl so desirable was her close appearance to a super star of the time.

"This girl looks just like Madonna," I recall Nate saying.

It was a declaration that was supposed to end any discussion. Madonna was a one-of-a-kind sex symbol then. There was no comparison, certainly no gaggle of oversexed and under-talented tarts like we have today. Though she may have been controversial to some, to young, sixth grade boys who were just beginning to really notice girls (though some of us -- like me -- were still years away from caring), it was a given the Madonna might not have been the mother of Jesus, but she was something like a living miracle. Madonna was it.

Some 23 years later, Madonna is still an "it" girl. She's an icon that has been down but never out. The godmother of the pussycat doll set, she is closing in on a 30-year-career as an artist who never seems unable to release a chart-topping dance hit at will. This week, a greatest hits compilation Celebration hit store shelves with some 38 songs and another 30 music videos from the days she absolutely ruled MTV. I read yesterday that the album quickly captured the number 1 spot in the UK.

How did Madonna do this?

Madonna was a convergence of the right person at the right time with the right medium. Her talent is certainly something we could argue about... I've never thought she was a talented singer. She's not a talented song writer that I'm aware of. But, she is an artist whose tastes have always been ahead of the main stream. And she's always had the biggest pair of balls in pop performance. 70s rock sex symbols like Stevie Nicks didn't have an act. They stood there and sang. Madonna brought a burlesque show to the stage (and to video). It was light years into the future.

These assets -- and lets not forget her looks -- helped her take over MTV back when MTV was still a serious vehicle for music (those days ended at least 15 years ago by my guess). As the network changed, so did she. In the Early 80s she was the frilly "Like a Virgin" tease. By the Late 80s she was the concrete blond bombshell and icy "Vogue" queen.

In the 90s, when alt rock threatened the pop business, Madonna upped the ante and released the picture book Sex, just what all those sixth grade boys now entering high school had been waiting for. She also launched a record label, Maverick, that put out pretty daring fare by bands like Bad Brains and The Deftones. She starred in a film version of Evita and seemed larger than ever before.

The act continued. In the late 90s when electronica became the rage (Prodigy's 1997 genre defining The Fat of the Land was released in the US by Maverick, incidentally) Madonna released Ray of Light, an electronica-influenced album made with producer William Orbit. It went triple platinum and won three Grammy awards.

Madonna hasn't had quite that much success since, but her subsequent records have sold plenty (certainly more than most artists in these post-album days). In a time when female pop stars come an go at a completely disposable pace, Madonna is still huge. Her reach and influence is indisputable. From Brittney Spears to Lady Gaga and Foxy Brown to Amy Winehouse, the sex, the bad behavior... all of it belongs to Madonna. What is Lady Gaga's nearly clothes-less act if not the next logical step in the sexed up game of female pop acts that Madonna set in motion?

For better or worse, when we talk about sex in pop music, we're talking about Madonna. I'm sure that in another 30 years, she'll still be with us.. She'll be 81 then, and not in the shape to make sixth grade boys sweat any more, but the next time they do drool for a pop tart, it will be because of Madonna... The tart who started it all.

Sunny Day Real Estate: an appreciation

I owe my exposure to this band to my friend Jeff Root. Jeff was one of a couple fellas I hung out with while working as a book seller at the Top of the Hill Borders. At the time, I was probably preoccupied with Radiohead or in the early stages of what I call my "Jazz Period," during which I listened to virtually nothing but classic Blue Note, Riverside, Prestige and Atlantic records by the masters. This lasted at least five years (more on that some other time).

My interest in indie music was waning... I was burned out on the post-grunge drool (Nirvana's drippings) on the radio and wanted escape. It was as if rock really was about to die.

Root was getting way into Sunny Day and gave me a couple tapes (yup, they still existed) of the band. Can't say I was immediately smitten. Singer Jeremy Enigk's voice can be an acquired taste. But the band was intense, a blend of the guitar rock of the time but with added touches of post-punk hardcore and prog. I liked what I heard. Check out the video for the band's first single below.



Though these guys are credited with (or blamed for) the whole Emo movement, they were and still are a remarkable band. Prompted by the band's reunion (they play the Trocadero. on Oct. 1, I queued up their collected works: the landmark Diary and LP2, which were re-released about a week ago by Sub Pop, and What It Means to be Something On and The Rising Tide. I've been listening to virtually nothing but all week. I find I still favor the much more aggressive Diary and LP2, but I really like the way Enigk's voice developed on What it Means....

All four albums hold up really well, and still sound ahead of their time. They blended a furious two-guitar attack with melodic bass playing and whip-tight drumming. The band avoided hooks like they avoided California (inexplicably, the band had a thing against the Sunshine State and refused to play there for much of its career). Instead they crafted songs that were compelling because of their arrangements. They weren't the first band to use the quiet/loud formula, but they could change tempo and tone like few other bands.

There's not a band that sounds like them. Even as they mellowed out after the first reunion (How it Feels... and Rising Tide), they were exciting. None of the dreck people call Emo sounds like the band either. Sure, Enigk's high-pitch whining has been imitated, but the band's music approach has not been touched by anyone I've heard. They never "caught on" in a really big way. Certainly never like the other Seattle bands that went main street just a few years earlier.

If the group decides to hit the studio again, I'm sure the results would be well worth hearing. These guys just don't get the credit they deserve. They were definitely one of the absolute best bands of the 90s.

Tickets for the band's Philly Show are available on Stub Hub for $44 and up, still. My guess is the price will go up next week. No matter what, the show is sure to be worth the money. There are not many bands like these guys around any more.

Pearl Jam gets happy!

First the personal:

The first song I ever played in a band before a live(and pretty big) audience was Pearl Jam’s “Alive.”

It was at the year-end senior talent show at Bristol Eastern High School and the band was composed of me (on bass) Bill Barnabucci (vocals) Colleen Barry (lead guitar) Stan Dobek (Guitar) and Adam Malic (drums).

The band was a one-off for a group of friends that had been rehearsing for the occasion in Adam’s garage.

I don’t think a tape of the performance exists... maybe it does... But I remember the performance went off well. We killed it. And Pearl Jam was at this time just beginning to become a big band. This was well before “Jeremy” hit the airwaves. Many in our audience, inconceivably, hadn’t heard the song before.

It’s been a long time since that high school show. 17 years. And Pearl Jam has, miraculously, a new album out. But it’s been nearly as long since I, and many other rock fans I know, lost interest. Pearl Jam has always been a band whose ethics I liked -- they decided to stop making music videos at the peak of their popularity, fought Ticketmaster (and lost) and had no reservations about taking political stands. They behaved a lot more like a rock band than most of their contemporaries.

But the band’s music hasn’t been exciting to me since “Ten” arrived with a sea of new, dark rock music that changed things up pretty good from the likes Warrant, Bon Jovi and Ratt that represented rock in those pre-indie days (never mind the steady dose of C&C Music Factory and Bel Biv Devoe-like stuff that dominated pop radio then).

Pearl Jam put out seven albums between that first one and this new one, “Backspacer.” Each contained decent songs, a great rock sound, but by 1995, when Pearl Jam was actively deciding to pursue ground already well-worn by Neal Young, new bands like Sunny Day Real Estate, Weezer and Radiohead (to name only the best known few) were already busy making grunge and its classic rock sound obsolete.

But none of this seemed to matter to Pearl Jam. They sounded like a band that had retreated to a cabin in the Washington woods -- somewhere without access to radio, TV or the Internet -- and continued to crank out somewhat interesting but never exciting albums full of dark and ponderous, brooding rock. They never managed to be more than the sum of their talented parts.

So it is a shock to the system to hear the opening few songs of “Backspacer,” which unlike any Pearl Jam outing before it, is full of palpable joy. “Gonna See My Friend,” the album’s first track, is about the bounciest thing the band has ever recorded.

As the album continues through “Got Some” and the catchy “The Fixer” a weight is audibly lifted from the band that had certainly “rocked” in the past, but never with so much concentrated bliss. The reason for this is still a mystery. Maybe they’re thrilled that Bush -- a frequent target of the band -- is finally gone. Who knows? Whatever the reason, it’s as if they finally figured out, “Hey we’re a rock band. Let’s have some fun.”

Unfortunately, the fun doesn’t last. The album soon coasts into rock mediocrity and by the time track 6, “Amongst the Waves” begins, I’m a little bored. There’s something about the up-tempo numbers that energizes this band. They get back there on track 8, “Supersonic,” but slow it down for the rest of the record.

When you boil it down, Pearl Jam is essentially a band of classicists. Which is fine -- they do it better than almost anyone -- it just feels like you’ve heard it all before.

Overall, “Backspacer” is mostly an enjoyable rock romp. At least half of it is very good. It’s not breaking any new ground, but they’re having fun. Finally.

First it was Sunny Day Real Estate...

... now we get word that Pavement is back together and going on tour. According to published reports, the band isn't planning on anything more than a tour next year, so we shouldn't expect a new album.

Overall, it's been a pretty good year for the old giants of indie rock. Two of the best albums this year have been Dinosaur Jr.'s "Farm" and Sonic Youth's "The Eternal." Would be great to hear new material from Pavement and Sunny Day Real Estate...

Only thing that could really round out the year is news of an Afghan Whigs reunion.

Shut up and play yer guitar!

It’s hard to make any argument whatsoever that Phish ever “mattered.” The band’s best work was the plus-10-minute jam with no real lyrics, just an absurdist refrain.

You gotta run like an antelope out of control!

David Bowie! You be 40!

They were an oddity in those heady days of the early '90s.While alternative music boomed, Phish was a goofy throwback – A forerunner of the '90s jam band blitz that mixed its Grateful Dead with equal doses of Zappa and Weather Report.

The band shied away from song craft. In fact, many early lyrics were contributed by a guy named The Dude of Life (AKA Steve Pollak, now a New York school teacher). But still, those early albums were neat. Junta, Lawn Boy and A Picture of Nectar were great fun. Phish was a group of four musicians that could stretch out as well as the best, electrified jazz quartet you could imagine. They pushed their skills to the limit, and the result was exciting.

The band first poked a big stick in the eye of all that diversion with 1994's Hoist. The cover art for that album was appropriately of a racehorse that had apparently been swiped off its feet in some kind of large, leather sling. The album reduced Phish to playing out of its element in a pastiche of classic rock conventions – there were ballads and up-tempo rockers. It sounded as though Eric Clapton were trying to pace a studio funk band that didn’t believe in the material.

Since then, it has been all downhill for Phish (artistically, anyway. The Hoist gambit paid off with an expanded fan base and an exhausting tour schedule that matched the Dead in nearly every way, especially the way that made its members a lot of money.). When the band broke up about five years ago, it seemed the music-listening public might get a break, but Phish “front man” Trey Anastasio got even more intolerable. He recorded an album of even more middling material, played with David Matthews and was busted for drugs and driving under the influence.

So maybe a Phish reunion wouldn’t be so bad? (It couldn’t be worse!)

Well Joy, Phish’s first studio album since 2004’s Undermind is anything but. Still operating in the self-imposed confines of the pop song structure, and the result is the same stifling soup of mediocrity in which the band has swum since ‘94’s Hoist.

The songs run the same tired courses. There's plenty of great Trey Anastoasio guitar tone (it is a beautiful thing) as he soars through one solo after another. There are piano flourishes, great drumming and lead bass playing. But none of it is exciting. In fact, the song "Ocelot," a limping reggae number is pretty offensive. It doesn't help that Anastasio can not sing.

Why Phish -- though I guess Anastasio is largely to blame here – feel they need to work in the salt mines of pop song craft is a real mystery. Is it that important to have songs that matter? And if so, wouldn’t they be better off sticking to the absurd? Frank Zappa is great, but he’s not known from his great pop song craft.

The structure makes them sound decrepit. Younger indie bands experimenting with the pop form, like Grizzly Bear, make Phish sound 100 years old.

So please, Phish, stop trying to write songs. Jam. Drop acid. Get your mojo back. We don’t need another tired , Gen-X pseudo classic rock act (Wilco’s right behind you and gaining). Leave the lounge act to Billy Joel.

Rock lives on for 56 Men

More than 30 years ago, singer/songwriter Joseph Borelli and guitarist Jon Cline were Philadelphia kids realizing their rock ‘n’ roll dreams as members of the band Uproar. It was 1978, and they had a record deal with East Coast Music and a hit single on the Billboard top 100 called "Driftin' Away."

When Uproar faded, the two put together a band called The Patriots, an American band that did well on the Brit Pop circuit of the early ‘80s.

"It was crazy back then," Borelli recalled during a recent interview at the Chestnut Hill Gallery, which he owns. The art framing business at 8117 Germantown Ave. has long been his "day job.” The Uproar scene is all an old haze to him now, a life he left behind for marriage and children a long time ago. There are no more drugs, just a soothing glass of Chardonnay at the end of the day.

Both Borelli and Cline, who also owns a custom frame shop (in Merchantville, NJ, where he lives), were at a point in their lives when starting a new band would not seem likely. Many old-timers, if they were to start a new band, would be satisfied with the occasional acoustic gigs of Stones and Beatles “covers.” Few would start a new project of original songs.

But Borelli and Cline decided that's exactly what they would do.

“Many of the people who were playing when we came up have stopped (performing and writing music)," Cline noted.

Cline had called Borelli about putting a new project together — something they had not done in a long time. Cline knew a bass guitar player, Ian Mellaby, of Northern Liberties (owner of a publishing house), who he felt would be a good fit for the project he had in mind. So Cline and Borelli started hunting for a drummer and ended up finding Joe Dessereau, a gigging drummer (and paralegal) who just happened to live across the street from Borelli in Wyncote.

The new band started rehearsing — developing much of their material from originals Borelli had penned — and soon hooked up with Stephen Butler, who began recording the group at his Smash Palace studios. Butler, whose bands Quincy and Smash Palace had some international success in the ‘80s, was an inspiration to Borelli and Cline. Butler, a contemporary of Cline and Borelli, had put the band Smash Palace, a ‘60s-sounding power pop outfit — back together and as recently as last year toured with the band in the U.S. and the U.K.

"It was cool to see someone our age doing it and encouraging to see something that wasn't Christina Aguilera having success," Cline said.

In March the new band put out the album "56 Men" (Probability Records), which is also the name of the band. (The name comes from the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence.) The result is a rejuvenated and energized album of pop-inspired rock that fuses the interests and playing styles of Cline and Borelli.

"I'm a much more bluesy type of player," Cline said.

"I'm a rock ‘n’ roll guy," Borelli added.

The album is stuffed with pop rock that recalls everything from mid-‘60s, swinging London Garage rock to ‘70s Americana through the filter of a big ‘70s power pop outfit like Cheap Trick. Borelli's voice and delivery recall earlly '60s Brit rockers, but often reminded me most of Cheap Trick's Robin Zander.

The band's playing is a guitar-driven mix of early Who, the Stones and lots of other early Brit rockers but with a good dose of countryesque slide guitars and acoustic strumming. The band changes sounds often, at times cresting into big Who-like guitar numbers ("Shine Always") and country stomps ("Flame of Love").

Though the comparisons are to bands whose heydays were 30 and 40 years ago, Borelli, Cline and 56 Men don't sound like an antiquated museum piece. In fact, that impression is shared by lots of listeners the band has picked up through airplay on college radio stations around the country.

At the time I interviewed them, Borelli handed me a list of Rutgers University radio station's top 10 list. 56 Men was getting more play than the new single from Sonic Youth. The band is also getting significant airplay on KMSU, the radio station at Minnesota State University. It's been played on other college stations from Princeton to an Americana station in Austin, Texas.

Asked if it was more play than he expected, Borelli laughed.

"We're crazy," he said. "We expected a lot more … We're going to keep going. We kept saying, 'We're going to make five records before we die,' now I think I'd like to do 10."

In the meantime, the band is gigging as much as the band members' schedules allow. They've played Philly rock club The Fire and NYC's Parkside Lounge. They've added Cline's brother Peter as a "utility man" (and computer technician) who can play keyboards and guitar.

"It's been great," Borelli said of the band. "It's like we've never changed."

56 Men are scheduled to play at the upcoming Main Street Fair on the grounds of Chestnut Hill Hospital on Sept. 26. Before the Main Street Fair, the band is playing the Northern Liberties Music Festival at Liberty Lands Park in Northern Liberties, Saturday, Sept. 12, 8 p.m.

The band's album is available for download on iTunes, or it can be purchased through Amazon.com or at Hideaway Record Store in Chestnut Hill. For more information on the band, gig dates and record information, visit www.myspace.com/fiftysixmen, or contact Borelli at 215-248-2549.

Beatlemania takes over Chestnut Hill

Sometimes it seems we’re constantly looking backwards.

Take a look at popular television. There’s the retro-styled hit “Madmen,” a critically acclaimed TV series about cigarette-smoking, martini-swilling advertising men of the early ‘60s. There’s “American Idol,” a TV show dedicated to young would-be stars singing hits recorded before they were born, many of which are best left forgotten.

So it seems appropriate that just as the wave of Woodstock memories fades, the nostalgia machine will stay in high gear with the CD re-release of the entire Beatles catalogue. All of the albums and two box sets of material that have been worked on for four years by sound engineers and audio mix masters are set to hit stores this Wednesday, Sept. 9.

You’ve likely seen the buildup to the release, which is being received as a significant cultural event. The most recent issue of “Rolling Stone” has the Beatles on its cover, as does “Entertainment Weekly,” and the music network VH1 Classic has become a 24-hour network of Beatles film and music.

Despite flagging record sales, the Beatles’ releases figure to be a big hit. The band that defined what the rock album should and could be are pulling off what just may be the last big record release of the album era. Kids these days download singles. Even Radiohead, a band as ahead of the pack on the business of rock as the sound of rock, have said recently that they plan on releasing material in short, downloadable bursts rather than full-length LPs. (The Beatles are the one big band that has yet to put their catalogue up for download.)

Of course the Beatles’ catalogue is not simply empty nostalgia. Whether you like them or not, the Fab Four put out some great art: “Rubber Soul,” “Revolver,” Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and the “White Album” are as great a set of records as any put out by any pop artists of all time. So, aside from some of Paul McCartney’s most heartwarming pabulum, the Beatles’ records may be worth owning again.

Brian Reisman of Chestnut Hill’s Hideaway Music, 8612 Germantown Ave., is planning a big event on Saturday, Sept. 12, to recognize the releases. In addition to a stockpile of Beatles’ albums and memorabilia — vinyl records, original buttons and terrific posters, including one vintage poster worth $15,000 — Hideaway will host radio personality and “Breakfast with the Beatles” host Andre Gardner of MGK 102.9 from 1 to 3 p.m. that day. If you’re a fan of the Beatles, the Hideaway will be the place for you.

Reisman’s event has even managed to instigate a whole Beatlemania Day in Chestnut Hill with many other local businesses, from Campbell’s to the Candle Shop, Cobblestones, Tavern on the Hill, Cuba, etc., hosting events, specials and Happy Hours, too. (See www.chestnuthillpa.com/events/beatlemania/ for a complete list.)

The events promise to be a great diversion for Beatles’ fans, but it’s still the music that counts. Like most, Reisman’s eager to hear what’s been done to the albums. “I always thought the CDs [when first converted from vinyl] had their flaws, “ he said in a recent interview at his shop.

And, though nearly everyone alive already owns Beatles’ albums or CDs, Reisman expects the new masters to be popular. The Beatles’ albums, he said, are not only about those great artistic accomplishments.

“I think it’s the sound,” Reisman said. “When you hear those songs, it immediately recalls that era. They were the sound, the look and style of that time.”

For that reason, he says, the Beatles’ albums have always been a big seller, be it on CD or on vinyl, the latter form of which Reisman has a great supply. Not only can you get a great rock record. You can buy an entire piece of the ‘60s.

“People of all ages come in looking for the Beatles,” Reisman said. “A lot of kids come in looking for them. When they want to get into rock, those Beatles’ albums are the ones they come in looking for.”

Say what you will about the Beatles, but they seem unlikely to fade from popular memory anytime soon. These re-releases may be a last hurrah for the form, but they are likely to endure in popularity with young and old alike. As can be seen by the reception, the Beatles achieved a cultural significance the likes of which have not been duplicated. It appears many people just don’t get tired of the Beatles.

For more information about the Hideaway event, call 215-242-1494.

(appeared in the Chestnut Hill Local, Sept. 10, 2009)