Vintage Publication Spotlight Number 4: Metro Entertainment Calendar

This was the first publication I ever wrote for, other than school newspapers and literary magazines. It all started in a small office just above the Mother’s rock club on Division and Dearborn in Chicago’s Rush Street area. I was a fresh-faced kid right out of grammar school (college, actually) when I was recruited by its publishers, Larry and Jim McManus. Metro Entertainment Calendar started as a monthly paper that was distributed throughout Illinois. Each issue featured a cover illustration by Chicago Tribune artist Kirt Weed, but that changed when we started coming out once a week. All together, Metro Entertainment Calendar lasted from August of 1977 to May of 1979.

The eight-page issue shown here had an article on WXRT, and that’s Program Director John Platt in a photo taken by our staff photographer Roger Johnson. As I wrote back then, WXRT had grown “from a relatively unknown progressive outlet that was only on the air a few hours a night, to its current status as the number two full-time station in Chicago.” It was one of my favorite pieces I did for Metro Entertainment Calendar. The air personalities I interviewed included Terri Hemmert, Garry Wright, Bob Skafish, Leslie Witt, Shel Lustig, Scott McConnell, Bob Gelms, and General Manager Seth Mason.

In addition to being one of the publishers, Larry McManus had a regular column that covered the local entertainment scene, called What’s Happening. In this issue, he noted that one of the female bartenders at P.O.E.T.S. had been featured recently in Playboy, and that B.B. Spin would be opening for Hurricane at Luigi’s in Chicago Heights. Some of the club ads showed Lovecraft at Mothers; Europe and Pin-Ups at The Rock Garden in Elmhurst, and Horslips at B’Ginnings in Schaumburg. There was an ad for O’Banion’s proclaiming New Wave Sounds 7 Nights A Week, and a full-page ad from Columbia Records for Amii Stewart’s Knock On Wood album.

In addition to Roger Johnson, we had a photographer named Linda Matlow, who would go on to quite a successful career. Our writers included Chris DeSalvo, who was into punk and new wave before most people (including me) in Chicago were; Jeff Kwit, and June Sawyers.

As I mentioned above, I had no interest in punk before joining Metro Entertainment Calendar. It was only when I started visiting clubs like O’Banion’s, The Exit, and Mother’s on it Punk Nights, that I was able to appreciate the full power of punk rock.

CD Review: The Blakes - Souvenir

Note: This review originally appeared in the Illinois Entertainer.

Souvenir, the latest release from The Blakes, is like a pulp fiction paperback filled with tales of two-timing women, dive bars, and dirt-poor rural towns. Reportedly taking their name from the acclaimed English poet William Blake, vocalist-guitarist Garnet Keim, bassist-vocalist Snow Keim, and drummer Bob Husak set their gritty songs to basic garage rock arrangements with an occasional foray into a different genre. At times, the music comes across as derivative, but for the most part, Souvenir is a keeper.

The melodic “Charmed” is an Old West yarn with a hint of sexism in the way a man threatens the girlfriend who keeps cheating on him, before deciding he’d rather just head off to Mexico. “Dog Of Sin” effectively channels The Velvet Underground, while on the raw “Next Time Around,” Garnet Keim slurs his vocals on spooky lines like, “I woke up in a coffin/I’m six feet down and nailed in.” The silly lyrics and playful piano playing on “”Magic” call to mind the way bands like Supergrass and The Kinks have tapped into vaudeville, while the highly charged “Batista” borders on punk rock.

A Simple Man Takes Aim At Rock ‘N’ Roll

Today is Graham Nash’s birthday. In addition to wishing him the best in the coming year and thanking him for all the great music, Broken Hearted Toy offers a preview of an upcoming Graham Nash appearance. Nash’s fans know how much he loves photography. The 2008 deluxe edition of Songs For Beginners includes a DVD in which he talks about his lifelong passion for collecting and taking pictures.

Taking Aim: Unforgettable Rock ‘n’ Roll Photographs Selected By Graham Nash, which runs from February 5th to May 23rd at the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum Hall Of Fame in Seattle, combines his passions for music and photography. The exhibition includes work by photographers like Anton Corbijn, Henry Diltz, Lynn Goldsmith, Annie Leibovitz, Mick Rock, and Francesco Scavullo, who are known for their ability to capture the essence of rock music. Nash’s own photographs will be featured as well. Taking Aim is a multi-media event that encompasses photos of musicians such as Elvis Presley, Sid Vicious, Elton John, and Bob Dylan; ambient music; an audio tour recorded by Nash; a photographer’s studio; and other interactive exhibits.

Nash and Director of Curatorial Affairs Jason Emmons will host a special kickoff in Sky Church at EMP/SFM at 7PM on February 5th, joined by several of the photographers. The Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum Hall Of Fame is located at 325 5th Avenue North, in Seattle.

Hopefully, the exhibit will travel to other cities as well. But if it doesn’t, and you can’t make the trek to Seattle in the coming months, try checking out the pics in book form. Taking Aim: Unforgettable Rock 'n' Roll Photographs Selected By Graham Nash, published last November, includes all of the photos at the exhibition, plus a CD of Nash’s full audio tour. Nash has also published a more extensive book of his photographs (many of which are not music-related) called Eye To Eye.

Happy Birthday, Graham. Cheers!

CD Review: Various Artists - Where The Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets: 1965-1968

Note: this review originally appeared in the Illinois Entertainer.

Rhino continues to mine the 1960s for its Nuggets series, serving up four handfuls on Where The Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets: 1965-1968. The set, which comes packaged in a 50-page book filled with photos, graphics, and band profiles, covers the L.A. music scene during a particularly fertile era. For the most part, producer Andrew Sandoval prefers locally released singles over Top 40 hits. The most familiar songs here are alternate takes by the original artists or intriguing cover versions.

Sandoval states that each of the four discs is devoted to particular theme: the club scene; indie bands from the surrounding area; studio producers; and the emergence of folk rock and psychedelia. Those distinctions probably will be lost on the average listener since each CD jumps from one genre to another. Disc Two kicks off with tracks from Thee Midniters and The Bush that foreshadow hard rock, but also includes The Electric Prunes’ psychedelic “Hideaway.” Disc Three offers the jazz-influenced “Montage Mirror” from the Roger Nichols Trio, along with The Knickerbockers’ guitar-driven “High On Love.”

Some of the selections haven’t stood the test of time. Rick Nelson’s “Marshmallow Skies” comes across as silly, and Lee Hazlewood’s “Rainbow Woman” sounds like a watered down version of his more intriguing “One Velvet Morning.” The set works best when it spotlights songs that should have been hits, or unusual material from famous acts. “Listen, Listen!” by The Merry-G-Round and “All Night Long” by The Palace Guard evoke the original British Invasion and The Chymes update the 1960s girl group sound with “He’s Not There Anymore.” An alternate take on “Heroes And Villains” by The Beach Boys is more adventurous than the version they released as a single. There’s a rocking version of “Last Night I Had A Dream” by Randy Newman that he disowned at the time of its release, and a collaboration between Jackie DeShannon and The Byrds on “Splendor In The Grass.” The previously unreleased “Sit Down I Think I Love You” by Stephen Stills and Richie Furay is an acoustic gem, and Warren Zevon impresses with the melodic “(You Used To) Ride So High,” which he recorded under the name The Motorcycle Abilene. Other big names on Where The Action Is! include The Doors, The Monkees, The Turtles, and Buffalo Springfield.

There'll Always Be A New Dawn

When singer-songwriter Dawn Landes drops by the Beat Kitchen on Chicago’s north side for a show on February 9th, she’ll be promoting her newly released CD, Sweet Heart Rodeo. When I reviewed her last effort, Fireproof, for the Illinois Entertainer in 2008, I didn’t think of Landes as a Country & Western artist. It was hard to pin a label on her eclectic music, and I doubt Sweet Heart Rodeo adheres to any one genre, despite the similarity of its name to a well known C&W record by The Byrds.

In my review of Fireproof, I noted that her poetic observations were set to consistently engaging techno-oriented and acoustic arrangements. The layered vocals and electronic quirks reflected her background as a professional recording engineer.

But I didn’t go into as much detail about the fascinating story behind her song “Bodyguard” as I would have liked. According to the press release, Landes wrote “Bodyguard” within minutes of having discovered that her New York apartment had been broken into. Among the missing items was a laptop commuter that held two years worth of work that was meant to become her next album. Rather than trying to recreate the stolen music, Landes simply started from scratch on another CD. “Bodyguard” was a catchy techno rock tune filled with arresting metaphors about the emotional trauma of being robbed. The best line went, “They stole the subjects of your paintings, but left the canvas on the frame.”

Fireproof showcased Dawn Landes’ penchant of oddball instrumentation and imaginative lyrics, and it’s a safe bet that Sweet Heart Rodeo carries on that tradition. It should be highly entertaining to experience her work in a live setting. Admission is $10.

CD Review: Simon and Garfunkel - Live 1969

Note: This review has previously appeared in the Illinois Entertainer.

As Simon and Garfunkel begin playing “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” there’s no burst of recognition applause from the audience at Carnegie Hall. That’s because Live 1969 was recorded during a national tour that took place months before the album Bridge Over Troubled Water hit the record stores. Finally available decades after its originally intended release, Live 1969 provides an entertaining and historically interesting study of one of America’s best known folk rock acts.

The CD starts quietly with “Homeward Bound” and ends with the introspective “Kathy’s Song.” Back then, as the CD’s liner notes explain, Simon and Garfunkel opened and closed their shows as a duo; playing with the support of a full band in between. “Mrs. Robinson” is given a rollicking performance at a concert in Carbondale, Illinois. “At The Zoo” offers timeless political satire with lyrics like, “Orangutans are skeptical of changes in their cages.” In addition to favorites like “I Am A Rock” and “Sounds Of Silence,” Live 69 includes lesser known album tracks like “Song For The Asking” and a cover of the Everly Brothers’ “That Silver-Haired Daddy Of Mine.”

CD Review: The Bee Gees - Odessa

The Bee Gees are still in the midst of celebrating their 50th Anniversary even though some online bios show them forming as early as 1958. Remember, the Gibbs were mere tykes when they started. Surviving members Barry and Robin have written the liner notes for Mythology The 50th Anniversary Collection, which will be released in March. The four-disc boxed set includes a 60-page book. In the meantime, here’s a review of the deluxe version of Odessa I did for the Illinois Entertainer last year.

Long before they helped make disco a worldwide phenomenon with their Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, the Bee Gees were the original practitioners of baroque pop. Built on fragile but irresistible melodies, lush harmonies, and often accompanied by an orchestra, their music showcased the three Gibb brothers’ passion for innovation. The Bee Gees’ most ambitious effort, Odessa was originally released as a two record set in 1969, when drummer Colin Petersen was considered part of the band, along with Maurice, Barry, and Robin. The new deluxe version three disc box set sports the original red velvet cover and adds 22 bonus tracks.

Although it wasn’t a true concept album in terms of having a continuing story line, Odessa fits well along side The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and The Who’s Tommy. There’s that sense of melancholy that haunted much of the band’s work, and it settles in on the opening track, “Odessa.” Backed by a full orchestra, a marooned sailor longs for the woman he loves and imagines her being wooed by another man. “Lamplight,” “Sound Of Love,” and the single “First Of May” are gorgeous ballads brimming with heartache and a sense of loss.

Typically, a guy in a Bee Gees song not only loses the girl, he suffers worldwide rejection and isolation. “Never Say Never Again,” an artful blend of strings and acoustic guitar, includes the line, “You said goodbye, I declared war on Spain.” The bitterness expressed in “I Laugh In Your Face” is even more bizarre: “I pull out your plug so you’re small./You slide down the drain on the steps of St. Peter’s.”

The extended playing time on Odessa enabled the Bee Gees to tap into their lighter side, as well as explore different musical genres. “Marley Purt Drive,” a whimsical tale of an orphanage, uses an Americana instrumentation that would have fit right in on The Band’s Music From Big Pink. “Give Your Best” is another toe-tapping Country & Western number, while “Whisper Whisper” deliriously combines lilting strings and energetic rock behind bawdy lyrics about sex and drugs. “Seven Seas Symphony” and “With All Nations (International Anthem)” are instrumentals that are given full orchestral arrangements by Bill Shepherd and qualify as bona fide classical music. “Melody Fair,” “Black Diamond,” and “Suddenly” are catchy pop songs, as is the acoustic guitar-driven “You’ll Never See My Face Again,” which adds a darker element that predates R.E.M. The Bee Gees might be the only band that would concoct a tribute to the inventor of electric light bulbs, but the ornate “Edison” actually works.

The Odessa deluxe edition offers an additional CD of demos that give a behind the scenes look at the songwriting process. “Edison,” for example, started out as “Barbara Came To Stay,” and there are alternate takes for just about every song from the original release. The different arrangements of “Melody Fair” and “Black Diamond” in particular, stand on their own as great pop songs. This enhanced version may come with boatload of goodies, but the music itself proves this was a master work from the Bee Gees.