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Song Of The Day – “This Ain’t No Picnic” by Minutemen

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MinutemenDoubleI’ve been spinning tracks by San Pedro’s Minutemen all day, since it was 27 years ago today (12/22) that lead singer, D. Boon, died in a car wreck. Minutemen were such an important band to me and my cohort back in the early 1980s. They were a band that cut through the image-centered video-centric MTV acts that dominated the music scene, with a healthy dose of punk rock realism.

D. Boon was a visionary poet who regularly tackled the subjects of racism, politics and the plight of the working man, while musically he had a mean streak of funk running through his veins. With super bassist Mike Watt and “the funky drummer” George Hurley by his side, this punk rock political power trio totally changed the way I listened to music.

In action, D. Boon would lumber over and pulverize his guitar in a hyperactive fury of flying sweat, while Mike Watt would anchor the songs totally locked-in with George Hurly like the precision funk machine these two literally were. I saw them several times at the legendary Hoboken, NJ club, Maxwells, and even got to meet D. Boon once when he came out after a show to hang with the fans. First time I saw them was at the now-defunct New York City club, The Peppermint Lounge, which was also a hot spot for dancing during the ‘70s disco era.

Today’s Song Of The Day comes from a Minutemen album, that in my estimation, is one of the most important records of the 1980s. The sprawling 1984 double album, “Double Nickels On The Dime,” is a non-stop festival of jazz, country, folk, funk and punk that is spot-on lyrically, and musically all over the map (in the best way possible). It’s an exhaustive 45 track stew with low-key musings (“History Lesson Pt. 2”), cow-punk guitar rave-ups (“Corona” – better known as the them to the MTV series Jackass),rocking diatribes (“Political Song For Michael Jackson To Sing,”) and low-down funk (“Jesus And Tequila”) – and that’s barely the tip of the iceberg.

If you’ve never heard of Minutemen before, the excellent documentary “We Jam Enono – The Story Of The Minutemen” is essential viewing, featuring hours of rare footage, classic interviews and interviews with the surviving members of the band.

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “The Nights Of Wine And Roses” by Japandroids

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Looking back at the 2012 Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, it was full of outstanding new music mostly performed by artists I had never heard of. Clearly, that is what makes Pitchfork one of the coolest festivals on the planet. One of the standouts was Canada’s Japandroids, a Husker Du-ish duo consisting of Brian King on guitar and David Prowse on drums who steamrollered all over the crowd with their brand of celebratory rock. At the time, their latest record was “Celebration Rock” and it is most definitely one of the best records to come out so far that year. Other highlights from today included another Canadian duo known as Purity Ring who sounded like a chilled out Bjork surrounded by electronic dubstep beats, New Jersey’s Clams Casino, a producer of hip-hop mixtapes who’s hypnotic beats made for some knotty instrumentals and the psychedelic pop of Olivia Tremor Control who released several records in the early 1990s only to reunite a decade later. They are said to be releasing some new music in the future. The day started with Outer Minds whose sound reminded me of 1966 era organ-swirled Grateful Dead. Stay tuned for day-two highlights tomorrow.

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Johnny Carson” by Das Damen

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Das Damen was an alternative band from New Jersey who was originally signed in 1986 by Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth) to his record label. The band consisted of Jim Walters and Alex Totino on vocals and guitar, Phil Leopold von Trapp on bass and vocals and Lyle Hysen on drums. They recorded throughout the late 80s and early 90s mostly for the SST record label which was also the home of Minutemen, Husker Du and Black Flag. While most of their music was considered post punk and hardcore, they were also prone to covering great pop tunes by influences like The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Their “Marshmallow Conspiracy” EP was withdrawn when it was discovered that the song “Song For Michael Jackson To $ell” was an uncredited cover of The Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour.” There was no such controversy with this cover of The Beach Boys’ “Love You” track, “Johnny Carson,” that appeared on the 1990 “Smiles, Vibes and Harmony – A Tribute To Brian Wilson“ CD. The now-out of print CD also featured tracks by Sonic Youth, Peter Stampfel & The Bottlecaps, Handsome Dick Manitoba, Nikki Sudden & The Mermaids and many others.

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “I Felt Like A Gringo” by Minutemen

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From San Pedro, California came this trio that were so ferocious in concert and so spot-on with their message and “econo” motive, they couldn’t help but transform the people they played before. One such transformed audience member was yours truly, who was lucky enough to witness this band do their thing four times. For the uninitiated, the Minutemen were D. Boon on guitar and vocals, Mike Watt on bass and George Hurley on drums. They were one of the most exciting bands ever with a jazz-punk-funk backbone courtesy of Watt and Hurley under Boon’s caterwauling and scrawling guitar work and political lyrics. They recorded for SST records and toured for five or six years until Boon died in a car accident in December 1985. It was indeed a great blow to me personally, and led to the end of the band. This song comes from their sprawling 47-track magnum opus called “Double Nickels On The Dime” released in 1984 as a double album on SST records. Hurley and Watt continued with Minutemen fan Ed “from Ohio” Crawford as fIREHOSE until they disbanded in 1994. While fIREHOSE were a good outfit, they were no match for the Minutemen. Watt went on to record several solo records and session with the likes of Eddie Vedder, J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.), Sonic Youth, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Frank Black (Pixies), Nirvana, Beastie Boys and Jane’s Addiction. He also toured as the bass playing member of Iggy & The Stooges during their first reunion. He occasionally plays bass and drum shows with Hurley performing duet versions of Minutemen songs.

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Plateau” by Meat Puppets

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Psychedelic desert post-punk rock from one of the best bands on the influential SST record label. Brothers Curt Kirkwood (guitar/vocals), Cris Kirkwood (bass) and Derrick Bostrom hailed from Arizona and burst onto the scene in the early ’80s as a hardcore punk band. Indeed their first record was loaded with fast tempos, pounding drums and indecipherable vocals. They then began to slow it down adding psychedelic and country elements to the mix and hit upon a signature sound that was wholly their own featuring the searing guitar playing of Curt. In concert they used to throw in covers by the likes of Marty Robbins and Johnny Cash just to mix it up. We all know that a certain Kurt Cobain was a big fan inviting the band to perform this song with Nirvana on their MTV Unplugged show. Drug problems led to the breakup of the band in 2002 culminating in Cris being shot in the stomach twice during a melee in Phoenix, AZ that landed him in jail. He has since cleaned up enough for the brothers to reform with different drummers, record and tour again.

The 3D RadioActivity One-der Show

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This time on The Award Winning 3D RadioActivity, we are playing one-hit wonders, which is a person or act known mainly for only a single success. The term is most often used to describe music performers with only one hit single.  Some are the result of novelty songs during fads.  More commonly, however, these are serious-minded musicians who struggled to continue their success after their popularity waned.  Because they are popular for only a brief time, their hits often have nostalgic value and are featured on era-centric compilations and soundtracks to period films.  While normal in any era of pop music, most are common during reigns of entire genres that do not last for more than a few years, such as disco, new wave and grunge.  Though the term is sometimes used in a derogatory manner, some fans often have a great passion for these songs and the artists who created them. Some one-hit wonder artists have embraced this following openly, while others distance themselves from their hit in an attempt to craft successful songs with different sounds, or embark on new careers as songwriters.

The 3D RadioActivity One-der Show

The VH One list of the top 100 One Hit Wonders was a good starting point for this show, however more than half of the tunes they listed didn’t meet the 3D standards.  I looked at the Rolling Stone Magazine list and also consulted the Joel Whitburn book to confirm that every song on this show made it into the top 100, and that the artist did not have any others that made it over the century mark, or the bubbling under charts which are songs that did not reach the three digit area.  Some of these are very popular artists had lots of success on those listings while only managing to climb to the hallowed place once.  We did a lot of homework to make sure that this show would be up to temperature.  Sit back and enjoy, With 29 songs and over 102 minutes of music, there is plenty of One-der to go around.

…Uncle Marty

“It’s not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.”
— Marilyn Monroe

 

Imaginary Music in 3D

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Two weeks ago on The Award Winning 3D RadioActivity we featured a musical journey into fantasy, so on this episode we are playing songs about imagination: the ability of forming new images and sensations when they are indirectly perceived through sight, hearing, or other senses.  Imagination helps provide meaning to experience and understanding to knowledge; it is a fundamental faculty through which people make sense of the world.  A basic training is listening to narrative storytelling, in which the exactness of the chosen words is the fundamental factor to “evoke worlds”.

Imaginary Music Show

Psychology Today Magazine states that even for those of us who are more visual in our imaginings, music remains one of the most powerful daydream launchers.  In fact, it’s so strong,  sometimes people avoid listening to it at certain times because it has the power to send thoughts in a very particular direction. Music not only affects your creative musings but also your energy levels.  Think about it.  When you hear a driving, rebellious, in-your-face rock song, don’t you immediately vault to either a scene or an emotion that corresponds to the mood of the music when you let it run away?

Musicians At Work on The 3D RadioActivity

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On this episode of The Award Winning 3D RadioActivity, we are playing songs about Work, various professions and other employees on the jog in honor of the United States Holiday celebrating “Labor Day”.

Musicians @ Work on The Award Winning 3D RadioActivity

We hope you had a pleasant day away from your toils, and have gratitude for all of the people who are on the clock.